Difficulty Slider Preference: + or x ?

I love the difficulty slider. The last time I was levelling a high level hero was pre-I16, and the higher settings under the old system just didn't present a challenge... until I discovered Malta at least.

I have a couple of personal rules that I follow for the diff sliders - I won't run at -1, I'll switch on bosses by level 10 at the latest. Other than that it depends on the character.

I prefer to expand outward rather than upward - even on single target oriented characters I like minions to be minions - lots of them and easy to defeat. I just find fighting hordes of foes has more of a superpowered feel to it than fighting small numbers of tough rank and file.

The only problem I've found with this are certain groups have enemies who are no danger on their own, but lethal if there's several of them - I think the technical term is force multipliers. Council Marksmen, for example, are just a minor annoyance individually, but if there's 3 or 4 of them spawn as part of a group at 0/x3 they can easily flatten your recharge leaving you utterly helpless.

So what's your preference? More enemies, or tougher enemies?

i usually focus on the spawn size first, and i usually turn AVs on early too, i dont usually like bosses when solo unless im a melee toon but i like AVs because they are more challenging than EBs and they give helluva lot better xp than EBs which only give boss xp

tldr +spawn then +AV

My Warshade & (Ice) Tank always prefer more mobs to higher level mobs, though they can both deal with higher level ones as long as there are lots of them.

more mobs more drops.

But Technically there is no "Slider" not sure why everyone insists on calling it one.

I prefer more enemies to tougher enemies, myself. However, I also realise that at least for the first few options, every sept in enemy numbers makes things much more difficult than the "corresponding" step in enemy level.

Easy example: if we go off a "base" of -1x2, the possible increases in difficulty are not equivalent. Going up to +0x2 is FAR easier than going to -1x3, and I've tested both enough to know this for a fact. Sure, +0x2 will occasionally give you a nasty spawn here and there, but -1x3 will give you nasty spawns all the time. Too many enemies present too big a pool of hit points and stack both their damage and their debuffs (and their buffs) far too high.

That said, I'll still pick more enemies over harder enemies. Nothing depresses me more than to look at MMO Clone #472046 and see teams of five fighting single enemies, or at most two or three enemies at a time, when I can nose-dive into a spawn of 17 people and have a reasonable chance to survive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I agree it depends on the AT and Power sets, for example my Fire/Fire tank can survive rather well on +0 (+1 with level shift) x8 mobs, while my stalker is better suited for +2 x1 groups

I'm with the OP in that my preference is to "buy in bulk," going for more before going for tougher.

Later on,
Gate

I do +0x1 until level ten when I add Bosses, then at level 20 I go to x2 and so on to a max of +0x4 at level 40. Once I get most of my IO sets in place at level 50 I go +0x5, and if I'm desperate for drops I go x8, though I find even though my characters can handle x8 quality of life can really degrade, especially against certain tough groups (anything Praetorian, really) so the lower settings of +0x4/5 can be a good compromise between having lots of enemies to fight and actually getting through a mission in a timely and non-frustrating manner.

WARNING: I bold names.

I do like fighting large groups more. Those charcters that can handle it get that raised when they can be efective with it. I rarely change the level.

Depends on AT and powerset (and the character itself.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

I get bored fast soloing, so my soloing tends to occur under one of two conditions: 1) it's a high performance IO'd out character and that I get a kick out of feeling powerful with (every now and then, and in short bursts of 2-4 missions); or 2) to get something out of the way (e.g. an old mission/arc, or anything that's an unlock - badge missions, temp powers, tips for alignment, Cimerora arc, etc).

For 1) I far prefer a target rich environment and I'll go to at least x6 before even looking at the level difference. I generally don't like to go above +2, even if the character can handle it, because it slows things down a bit and the big orange numbers are less big and so forth. I do have some characters that are better suited to low numbers of higher level enemies, but I tend not to find them as amusing so don't really solo them for fun.

For 2) I'll run on basic +0/x1, probably with bosses turned off. I don't drop to -1 on principle, unless it's a really weak soloer, but since I'm generally just trying to get things out the way quickly I don't bother with higher difficulties.

In all other scenarios - teams or soloing for xp - I'll aim for something that offers enough challenge that I and any teammates are kept on our toes and having to use the bulk our powers, but low enough that we're getting through spawns at a decent rate. That sweet spot varies from character to character and team to team.


As for "slider", eh, in many games (including at least one pre-CoH MMO) difficulty is a slider, enough of them that it has become a common term even if the UI doesn't involve an actual slider. Just the way language works I'm afraid.

Depends entirely on the character, for me...

My favorite stalker is usually run at +3/x1 as her "standard difficulty" (Now that she's finally got her VR Alpha and a level shift, I'm seriously considering making it +4), because she's very good at taking out one or two harder targets but can be beaten down pretty quickly by larger groups of individually less-impressive goons.

My favorite scrap is just the opposite. I run him on +1/x6. Ash (level-shifted DB/WP) absolutely thrives on huge mobs that are close to his own level. He would have a tougher time with the high level single targets that Kestrel goes after. For him, having big numbers to fight trumps level.

Usually, I set my difficulty to spawn bosses when solo as one of the first things I do as part of my "new character routine" (which also includes stuff like loading settings, claiming vet rewards, arranging power trays, etc.), but other than that, I just leave it at the default +0/x1 when soloing.

On the rare occasions when I'm on a non-TF team that I'm providing the missions for, I'll run the first mission at that setting, then adjust the level upward on each mission after that until the missions become challenging, but not overwhelming, and as Biowraith mentioned, what level that is will vary from team to team.

Size over difficulty, almost always. Half the reason I stuck with this game for so long is that I enjoy fighting large groups of enemies, and most other MMOs make you duel sick wolves one-on-one. The only exception is my hugely ST-oriented characters (which I have very few of, because I pretty much have to have AoE or I go crazy) where I'll do a balance of + and x.

On most of my lowbie squishies, I'm running +1x2. It makes the fights take a bit longer and I occasionally faceplant (like the damn ambushes in the Lady Jane mission of the Midnighter arc, or the T-intersection of the office-to-caves maps).

On my tanks, brutes and scrappers, I go higher.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

I have no preference. It depends.

DP/Fire blaster: Likes lots of weaker foes. No mez to stack so don't bother with bosses. It's all about killing fast and bosses slow things down. +0/x4; no bosses

DM/WP Stalker: Works great on strong foes and can still throw out a Shadow Maul + Sand of Mu for multi-target. I've been tweeking his build so he can take out AVs but he runs out of endurance before getting them past a third of health. +3/x3; bosses; no AVs (yet)

Claws/EA Brute: I like him to feel like a predatory, picking off foes before their friends notice. He's survivable and can take on stronger challenge, but I honestly don't want to see him struggle as he scratches on resistant foes...that just ruins the feel. +1/x6; bosses

Fire/SD Brute: I'm still working on his build and he's got a crazy amount of AoE but rather anemic ST. He's also not that survivable yet but working on it. +0/x4

Elec/Regen Stalker: Another predator character but taking on lots of foes, while he can, is dangerous (one string of burst attacks while animating Thunder Strike might do him in). Varies: sometimes +1/x4 other times +3/x2

Kat/SR Scrapper: My main, is the only one that can actually take down AVs if they're not resistant. There are only a few types of foes that will completely bypass his defenses. +3/x8; AVs

I don't build all my characters to uphold some baseline standard, I just build them to do what they do. If I eventually improve them, I'll adjust their difficulty to compensate. So, I don't feel discouraged when I build a character that sucks at defeating bosses, or can't take down AVs or can't run well at over x2 and I won't force their build to. My characters have enough style to make all their settings a fun experience.

I prefer tougher to more, and I prefer both to just tougher.

When leveling, I increase my foe levels, not my foe numbers. Once I'm 50 and I am expanding what a character can fight, I prefer +2 and x(as much as I can survive). Most of my characters run on +2/x6, a few run on +2/x8 and a my one single-target-only characters runs on +2/x4. With Incarnate level shifts, I increased this to +3 so that my foes were still +2 combat levels above me. +3 foes are OK, and you get plenty of those in regular missions set to +2, but +4 are too slow to defeat for my tastes.

I always play with bosses enabled, even at level 1. I usually level up with AVs enabled and try soloing them for giggles (though I may use temp powers and the like), but if they're a real pain or for more mundane stuff like Safeguard missions I turn them down to EBs.

Most of my characters play at -1 x0.

The one character I prefer to run higher than that is my WP/SS Tanker, and for him I turn up the number of enemies rather than the level. I like to be dogpiled by enemies, and I miss the days when there was no aggro cap - particularly the Perez Park Parades that used to ensue.