So is Redside really harder than Blueside?

Now that side switching has been in place for a while I'm wondering what the consensus is on the age old question of whether Redside is harder than Blueside, seeing as we can now run hero ATs through villain content and vice versa.

Personally I've always felt Redside was, generally, harder than Blueside - more EBs, and some very tough enemy groups like Arachnos, Longbow, and the PPD. Seeing my would-be vigilante lvl 21 scrapper taking a wholly unexpected beating from PPD SWAT has done nothing to change that view.

(Of course that might be more to do with the decidely challenging design of the Tip mission I was running. The devs surely do love their ambushes, don't they?)

So what's your experience been?

Fricking Scrapyarders for one thing and more ambushes.

And ambushes of Scrapyarders.

Yeah red side is harder than blue.

Edit:

And Paragon Police Glue Guns! Hate those!

Wasn't there some loud clamoring about how hard the Rogue PPD are when the heroes finally got to face the PPD? I could have sworn that was when it was proven fact that redside is tougher than blue.

Some of my characters

There's "clamoring" about everything.

I don't think you can just say flat out "X side is harder than Y" overall. Part of it's going to depend on AT - or even powerset - and part of it's going to deal with level. Plus, of course, heroside deals with Arachnos a fair bit and Longbow from time to time (yes, even pre-RWZ.)

Scrapyarders are rough... depending on what you're fighting them with. Mastermind? Royal PITA. Brute? Dom? Not so much.

Now, if you want to talk individual encounters, well, I'd say yes the Villain respec trial is harder than the Hero one, for instance. But a low level arc full of Vahz is a bigger pain (to me) than an arc full of Snakes.

So, IMHO, neither side is "harder" than the other as a general rule.

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Depends on what you mean by harder. Redside doesn't have the Praetorian arcs where you have to do about 10 or so missions with a bunch of AVs/EBs in them or have a bunch of defeat 50 Carnies in PI or travel from Crey's Folly to Perez Park to Dark Astoria for a story arc. Having big story arcs, street hunt missions, uninteresting story arcs, and traveling across the city to get to a mission makes blueside harder IMO or at least far more annoying.

Theres a few.
Only one I can recall off the top of my head though would be Dmitri Krylov's arc.

I wouldn't say harder. More painful, sure. Like in order to get certain accolades one has to get the Take Damage badge, or the Debt badge, both at ridiculous levels.

I find hoofing it about pre travel power outside to be harder than the original CoH zones but easier than the original Hollows in terms of group size and level disparity. I find that in CoV it's so much easier to turn a corner and be way over your head than in CoH.

As for unique critter groups, they're just different and new so I hadn't had the experience to know how to tackle them with minimal effort. Which critter in that mob should I attack first? Which critter is the "sapper" or "sorcerer" or "engineer" and should be singled out? With alts over the years I've learned how to fight the mobs found from level 1-30 in CoH without even thinking about it.

1. Villain ATs were built to solo better than Hero ATs.

2. Most Blue side teams work more for balanced teams and have the mindset we need a tank, a healer, etc, where as Redside is built more on the premise of kill it before it can hurt you. Doms and Brutes benefit from a faster pace, which is not always the case Blue side. An MM can actually make up for the lack of an AT, with buff, debuffs, pets to take aggro, and BG Mode.

3. Most Heroes don't know how to do a Mayhem mission. The run strait to the Bank like a Safeguard. THis triggers ambushes, and the ambushes will follow you to the bank. If you fly or jump too high near the banks in higher level missions, you will also trigger longbow eagles to swarm in on you. A Mayhem mission, walk from mob to mob and do side missions for extra time, also you get extra time for each PPD mob, and destructable enviornment.

4. Yes there are more EB/AV encounters redside, but as mentioned above, the red toons are built better for solo play.

5. IMO Archanos is tougher than Longbow with varied resistances and varied damage. Not saying those annoying Nullfiers and Spec Ops. The one thing I hate is all the -jump and -fly from these.

But yes the Redside is a little tougher and requires different tactics than blue sde. But Redside has better written storys, shorter arcs and less zoning.

Yes redside is much harder then hero side...but at the same time..it is farrrrrrrr more fun and interesting to level in then heroside...its only boring cos theres nothing atm in the 30-40 range but missions and less people there...less people becuase they moved cos there was less people...get the idea people..you moving..made things worse. i think you should all come to villain side and enjou one mass orgasmic leveling boom

There is only one side and it's a sort of purplish-gold colour

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Longbow minions above level 10 or so are resistant to L/S damage - the most common sort dealt by many player characters (particularly melee ones). They also consistently debuff defense with their rifles. They start including their stealthed, end-sapping mobs in the 30s. Wardens have dangerous versions of player character powersets, such as Illusion, Mind Control and Rad Emission. Longbow are everywhere in CoV.

Arachnos mobs contain Mu from extremely early levels; being end sapped before inherent Stamina and before level 20 was just rude. Due to wide array of debuffs and exotic damage types (pure energy, psi, toxic), high burst damage, and mez potential from a wide array of mob types, Arachnos are an NPC faction I always think carefully about diving into on any character. Arachnos are everwhere in CoV.

Paragon Police, in the 20s and 40+. 'Nuff said, in my opinion.

Level 25-ish PPD are comparable to Malta in terms of annoyance, against player characters who are not at all as well equipped as those facing Malta normally are. Glue arrows, Acid Mortars, ranged (though lower damage) assassin strikes, and defense debuffing bullets makes these mobs a nightmare. Combine them with the fact that they can appear as stacking ambushes in Mayhem missions and they are something that, IMO, transcends challenge and goes off into annoyance, because they're so overwhelming that you can't do much about it unless you happen to have lots of AoE mez - unlikely at level 25.

Level 40+ PPD are mostly dangerous because they deal lots of energy damage and, in any significant numbers, will debuff your defense into the sub, sub, sub basement - at range. It's common for my defense to hit the hard floor in mayhem missions with PPD in them. The only other mobs that do that to me are Cimerorans.

Tsoo extend into the 30s in CoV. Level 30+ Ancestor Spirits use Knock Out Blow. If it connects, it applies a hold, and it does enough damage that one more hit will take out a "squishy" AT. (This was a nasty surprise to me the first time it happened, a long time ago.)

For some reason, only Villain-side CoT get Succubi. These add a lot more danger to CoT spawns in that level range, because they apply more direct mez and one of those mezzes is a confuse, which is otherwise extremely rare. Therefore many players - especially of melee characters are unprepared for it).

AV/EB foes start appearing very commonly in normal CoV story arcs in the 25+ game. In CoH they are extremely rare at such low levels in original, pre-CoV content, only really appearing in level 40+ content. The fact that they were so pervasive was one of the reasons given for the AV->EB downgrade feature, though originally it was tied to your notoriety, and not selectable as a distinct option.

As mentioned already, CoV versions of AVs that heroes ostensibly faced were often significantly more powerful. Back Alley Brawler makes original Marauder look like a complete chump. He gets his own chapter in my book of Mary Sue critter design - he's got all the serious attacks from both Super Strength and Energy Melee, and all of them are 15' AoEs - even the ones that are single target attacks for players. His Hand Clap also does damage comparable to Foot Stomp (at AV damage scales).

In terms of NPC faction design, placement of EBs and AVs, and giving more NPCs versions of player powerset powers not previously seen in the hands of common NPCs (things like Knockout Blow, Total Focus, etc.) CoV definitely was harder at release than CoH was. This has been watered down to some extent by reuse of CoV critters in CoH missions. Still, some of the critters are still unique to CoV content, and you don't see things quite like them as a hero without switching sides or going into the AE.