Thoughts on 'DFB'

I love DFB. Just started to play it recently when I found the LFG tab (yeah I'm slow and mostly a soloer...shoot me!)

Run it a couple of times on my new fire blaster and now it's a nice change from the Matthew Hasaby missions. Or for a quick round of kicking some butt and chewing bubblegum. I especially like that part. Just 30 minutes of mostly mindless kicking low level thugs. It's like street sweeping...only more concentrated and more rewarding (and not only in XP)

Can't wait to take The Frying Dutchman and Captain Lowland into the trials...but lately I seem to be playing on slow times for the DFB.

My main problem with DFB is that there ARE people running it all the way to lv22 and beyond, where it really serves no purpose except to be a source of completely risk-free XP.

Had a guy on Defiant's help channel a few weeks back throwing a fit because he tried some regular content and could not defeat a boss. It just kept killing him. We tried to help but he refused to tell us anything about it or himself, just kept throwing a tantrum. As soon as another DFB started advertising he leapt right on it, back into its safe and comfortable arms. He was level 29.

(see also people asking what the "point" of Praetoria is if it doesn't have DFB)

Maybe this guy was just a bad player, maybe he found himself trying to fight Calystix the Shaper which would totally justify repeated failure, but IMO it's just as likely that he was stuck on a Galaxy Archon or Freak Tank. DFB does seem to instil an expectation that everything in this game is incredibly easy. And it simply doesn't teach you how to play your character after level 10.

While it's not as bad as AE was, I do fear that some new players are falling into a trap of doing DFB and nothing else.

My current thoughts on DFB below are not good. New players are quickly joining it and then they quickly assume that trials like that are all there is to the game, multiple times I have seen on the help channel people asking what the next trial is. A lot of the time these players end up knowing very little on how to play the game.

On a more bright side on a fresh ill/rad controller I ran the trial and got to level 8 and met a couple of new players a, brute and blaster, one of which was around level 15. I suggested doing something else and took them to faultline. All the way through they kept saying how much fun they were having compared to the amount of runs in the sewers they had done. Also they asked me for suggestions with their powers and I helped them the best I could which they were quite thankful of as they commented how most experienced players ignored them. I added both to global friends and they are doing quite well without going to the sewers again

I don't mind the sewer trial, but I do think the devs have left it a little too open to abuse. It's good that a lot of people want to run it but it does seem odd that it's the 'only' thing they want to run, or worse when it's the only thing they know to run.

In my mind, the House of Horrors is a much better example of how trials should operate. It operates on about the same principle of Death From Below without the huge XP rush crammed into such a short space. It's still very fun, and even challenging for those that want to try for the different badges or hunt for the easter eggs and you can get a level taking on the end bosses, while getting a unique reward.

Death From Below isn't bad, and if people want to run it good, but I think it sets a bad precedence for future trials because people will expect it to be this easy and good for PL'ing. And if it isn't, well, they won't run it.

I don't really mind that the trial gives such a big jump (initially), it is a nice alternative to everyone having to do Kuzmin/Hasheby for every character, but I kind of think that's about where it should end. Once you get past the opening area bottleneck, there are tons of options available between Atlas, King's Row, Mercy, Port Oakes, and The Hollows as lowbie running grounds. But because it's so easy you're able to skip on through to Talos/Sharkhead and beyond which.. seems very imbalanced for a 2-8 lvl trial.

Oddly, the devs haven't commented one way or the other on this issue, so for now I guess we should take their silence as 'things are operating as expected', but it still does seem off. I'd rather see the trial cap most rewards about level 10, though Ideally I'd like another mid level 10-20 trial (not the SSA) in place before gating it like that. I mean, if we're going to be fine with them skipping content, sure, but if someone is just going to power level via trials, at least let it be more than the exact same trial that really teaches little about the game >>

I kind of wish our contacts continued having more missions for us as per some of the new ones....

like twinshot or the khel contacts

every couple of levels another storyline is unlocked from the old contacts

Some people will fall into the DFB forever mode and so be it. Its no different than any other player repeat behavior from the old street sweeping, PI bridge PLing, Speed KHTF , Speed ITF up to Speed LAMs of today.

People are going to focus in on the section(s) of the game they want to play the most period. Its always been that way and always will be.

I did see someone mention running into people with a very limited experience in the game. I also saw that person say how he took some time to show them some other things in the game he felt they would like. This is something I and others do all the time.

That is what people should be doing. This crying to the devs about other players experiencing the game the way they want therefore nerf this or change that to force them into doing what "I" the complainer wants them to do is lame.

Wait. How are people supposed to stand around spamming LFT if they are forming their own teams and showing people everything else the game has to offer?

DfB is the AE for free players!

I've seen people hit 50, by just running DfB's. Ask them to go to Kings Row, and they ask "What's that?"
Ask them how they like their 'Knockout blow' as a SS Tank, they say "Never used it."
It's a shame that we now have AE Babies, and F2P DfB Babies.

IMO, there should be a cap on this, can't run it past level 10. If you are over level 10, unless u never done the trail your out of luck.

They made Ouroboros available at level 14, yet they don't know what it is, because ALL they do is DfB, DfB, followed by a DfB till they hit 50 in DfB.

I think he was trying to say that he disagrees that it's a 'viable' alternative to doing missions and things.

Frankly though I don't see the team up teleporter ever possessing that level of functionality because it would then have to keep track of everything someone was doing at the time they left, so if they're in the middle of a mission then it means it has to try to 'put it on hold' while you go do your trial. I just don't see it being that feasible, without something like resetting the mission you're on when you pop out.