Villain side is total bunk.

I dont know the statistics, but I think blue side highly outnumbers red side. My style of playing is missions. I used to play a while back (taking breaks throughout the years), and missions were the only real way to play the game or just level in general. I know theres a couple other ways, but it was always the main. Now, its all about AE. Mission teams hardly exist anymore. On blue side this isnt a problem, because SO many people play it you can keep a full mission team up for as long as you need anytime of the day with ease. On red side this is very very rare. No one is ever online. If your lucky youll find 2 or 3 at the most (even if u had been looking FOREVER) and maybe 1 other person willing to go out of their way to help you with missions. But as in an actual full team, people doing missions for the exp, fun, and whatnot..this just cannot exist on red side.

I didnt come here just to rant though. How should I play on the red side since mission teams are out of the question?

You may find this shocking but you don't actually need to be on a full team at all times in order to play this game.

Have you tried looking into server channels for the server you are on?

The last stats I saw about a year ago from Paragon Studio was that the ratio was roughly 2:1 overall.

I mainly (90% of the time) play villain with no trouble teaming on any server. RMT'ers keep me away from blue side.

i play villainside about 90% of the time too just because i like the atmosphere and the content, to me heroes zones are too freaking huge, too bright, and the content sucks so i pretty much never go there except on a few rogue toons to GM hunt or occasional STF

I gots me heroes, I gots me villains, and I have a few dedicated rogues and one vigilante (a PB no less)... Each side has its merits and flaws. I have to say I prefer the story arcs red side, but like with anything else, the more practice they get, the better the next generation usually is...

Redside only Cap and Grandville have a broadcast that's viable for forming groups, and even then only occasionally. On some servers sharkhead works too.

Pretty much everywhere else you need to use global chat channels to get teams going.

Also, if you're asking to join a team, that rarely works on any server. Forming them though, that's easy. This is doubly true on redside.

Last, as mentioned, you don't need full teams and you don't necessarily benefit from them significantly. Most villains can handle their own aggro and do substantial damage. Thus you can run against larger groups of enemies than just the number of people on your team. a team of 5 fighting at +0x8 will earn substantially more experience and drops than a team of 8 running at 0x8.

You want to get into several of the dedicated channels for your server choice(s). This will give you access to a wider group to pull from than just whoever happens to be in-zone at the time.

Additionally, when you find people you enjoy playing with, ask if you can friend or global friend them.

Finally, accept that villain-side population IS lower than hero-side. So there are times you're not going to be able to fill a team.

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

Tuesday.

WARNING: I bold names.