City of Ambushes . . .

Semi-Rant here. Also, this is the closest forum I could find for this topic, but it's still a stretch.

I started playing again a few months ago after having been away for maybe 1-2 years.

I've noticed a trend with newer content (Praetorian, mainly) where not only are there seemingly ambushes around every corner, but they tend to have 5-7 waves as opposed to the usual 1-2.

I understand this can be exciting, but I think it is overboard, mainly because it's happening in the 10-20 range. If I'm not playing a DPS type archetype, I'm guaranteed to run out of health/endurance within the first couple of waves, even if I burn through my entire inspiration tray.

Similarly, the missions where you are swarmed by tons of no-XP, 'reduced' minions are often tiresome, particularly since you're not likely to have a lot of AoE powers in the early levels. Or, in the case of my Earth/Thermal Controller, not a lot of damage at all.

As it relates to poorer experiences for lower-level non-DPS AT's, I guess all I wanted to say was, to the Content Designers, "Please think of the low level defenders and controllers, et. al. when creating these missions."



------SEMI-SPOILER ALERT------------






In the Blood Coral arc on villains (fighting waves of scrapyarders), my SS/WP brute was painful to play due to no AoE. It was supposed to make me feel powerful. Instead, it went on for WAY too long and wasted my time. I got the point on the first giant wave. I didn't need three more to stretch out the tedium.

For one of Babcat's missions in Praetoria against the Syndicate, my aforementioned controller was overwhelmed by endless no-XP reduced minions. I eventually conscripted a brute to my cause and followed him around while he soloed. He remarked, "How were you ever going to get through this on your own?"

Indeed.

It's become my pre-emptive Auto-Complete mission of choice when running in Praetoria. I can only assume that's not exactly what the mission designer had been going for.

Tonight, while running the new Signature Arc, I have to ask "Ambushes every 30 seconds?" Really? While you run through regular spawns trying to deactivate three glowies?

It's possible I make crappy builds or play poorly, but level my 22, freshly SOed characters usually take about 20 seconds to wipe a standard spawn. So roughly 8 ambushes back-to-back with little to no rest in between is pretty much no contest. (Except for my SR brute who popped a purple and managed to deactivate the glowies once I realized he would otherwise be ground down by the ambushes.)

I died the first time, then sat at the door until the timer ran out, seeing no point for my blaster to continue faceplanting. As a matter of fact, it's probably done by now. Once again, I'm betting not the response the mission designer was shooting for.

Liking the Signature Arc idea, but I'd like all of my characters to be able to play without any more frustration than usual when on standard difficulty settings. If it's intended to be a team effort, then at least state as much when I sign on. In that case, it's my own fault for sticking my hand on the stove.

I've done both Signature arcs now (red and blue), and I've taken at least one brute through level 20 in Praetoria.

With the signature arcs, I found one person on the global channel to team with, right away. I'm happy to have the company, and first time through I don't mind having someone else to point out any details I might miss.

We did both arcs without problems. The first mish I think I did with a controller (or maybe defender?), while I was on my Fort. Redside I took my Fire/Dark corr, and teamed up with a second Fire/Dark, quite by accident. I'm not sure why you had issues. It wasn't much different than, say, some of the newer level 20-30 content, or tip mishes.

Obviously, a low level blaster will have a tough time with many things, but "bring a friend" is a pretty obvious solution in an MMORPG. Otherwise, it'd just be an RPG. It weirds me out a bit that some folks seem to equate teaming with failure, as if we were supposed to be solo capable for all ATs.

Very easy way to do this, go in mission, pop 4 purples, hit ninja run, run past all mobs to first glowie, click it, nothing at this level can hit you with 4 lucks on at +0, repeat then run to boss, pop whatever inspirations you have left kill boss, even with a very squishie character you can finnish this easy as the ambushes will still be Slowly making their way toward you by the time the boss is down and the mission complete.

I won't tell you how to feel about game content, but from the other side of the fence, I like having missions more dynamic than old static kill mcboss and buds.

If you like playing at a casual pace without ambushes, you've still got 90-95% of the game content available, which I think is a fair amount. Me, I prefer the newest stuff and generally stick to it.

The Blood Coral is a bit too much though, that's true. They should have added a temp AoE power in that mission. I see it in one specific case of poor design rather than the rule.

I was actually able to do the horde-of-underlings missions in Praetoria with a Stalker but only because I'd taken Caltrops at a early level (which I had done because of the excessive ambushes elsewhere).

Ambushes are overdone. I'm not saying get rid of them, but TEN ambushes in a row? That's not even an exaggeration. That actually happens in some of the Praetorian missions. Even if you can easily handle all ten, it is not even a question just of difficulty, but of TEDIUM.

Seriously. Knock it off already. Ten ambushes are NOT twice as much fun as five ambushes. 3-5 ambush waves are enough to get the point across and make the static mission less static. More than that for any one trigger event just aren't necessary.

My 22 stone/stone tank couldn't kill the ambushes on the signature fast enough and I ended up having to purple it and rely on luck to get through a glowie with 4-8 things pounding on me, so I learned pretty early that these aren't missions for anything squishier than that or with low damage.

Those are missions designed for level 50s that they subtracted 30 from for no good reason.

I am against any and ALL design techniques that are overused to the point of ridiculous, and ambushes in this game are getting as cliche' as defeat-alls and kill the bosses.

Not that they're hard for me. Most characters I play can chew through them like boards through a chipper.

But they are BORING when I see them used ad nauseum. There are other ways to design missions - I find doppelgangers very fun and challenging (although they are being used a little often lately), for example. To use the example of the signature arc, having to fight around the lava with the enemies' penchant for knockback was something that added a great deal of fun for me.

And I didn't have any particular heartburn with the ambushes in that mission either. In fact, I liked that you could turn them off, and I liked that they have a timer.

I'd just like to see more variety in the surprises than just waves of ambushes.

SPOILER ALERT****








like the collapsing cavern in the same arc. FANTASTIC TWIST!! In fact, even with the waves of ambushes, the new arc was probably one of the most fun arcs I've played in a LOOOONG while! I look forward to doing that one again on every character.

Ad nauseum, even.

I too feel Praetoria is boring and irritating.

I'd rather be in a blue cave than run anything in Praetoria again. [that's not true, actually.]

I just did that final Blood Coral mission. I asked on my global "How long is this supposed to take!?" but I was satisfied with the completion XP. I am glad you get the oro port before this mission so it is optional.

I'm with Nihilii on this one. I'll add that if you look at the game without the context of MMORPG tropes, it is laughable that enemies just stand there gawping at you when you're thirty feet away from them. It's ridiculous that you can kick down the door to their HQ and start throwing hand grenades at them and the only ones who respond are the ones who are currently being converted into wallpaper. It makes no sense whatsoever even as video game AI behaviors go, and the bar is not very high in that realm.

Obviously realism isn't the top concern for something like city of heroes, but anything they can do to improve such glaring flaws is something I personally welcome. The fact that it makes the game more challenging is the main thing but that it makes the game less stupid looking is a great bonus.

Whats actually funny is its only hard if you actually do the mission

If you superspeed through everything loaded to earlobes on lucks, nothing ever touches you and the ambushes are stuck in the entrance and never move, dont die, because you wont be able to pass the 300 mobs stuck at the door waiting to blow you to smithereens before you finnish loading, but hey....

You have difficulty a setting to make the game MORE challenging for YOU! People need to stop acting like if someone isn't as L337 as they are then you should lrn2ply and stop crying about the game being too hard.

I've run into these myself. Every time my Pistols/Mental Blaster runs out of End, it's made me wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Though I generally don't have trouble asking for help, sometimes there just isn't anyone willing to team up with me.

I must be some kind of freaking prodigy because I've beaten all of this content on blasters. You know, that AT that you all agree is crap? That one. That is the one I've used to beat all of this stuff that is impossible to beat solo. What's my secret? Three goblets of Ovaltine a day, obviously