Praetorian Zone Events, Badges, and Healers

I have an Empath defender, who I am trying to get badges for. I wanted to get the Laureate badge. Went to paragonwiki, and it said the badge is awarded when you, "Complete the "The Great Escape" zone event in Neutropolis." So, I tried to solo the event, with no luck, mainly because Emp Defs are "poor solo characters", "designed to team", etc. This makes sense; half my powers dont work when I'm soloing, since they only target teammates, not self.

So, the next logical step: I get a teammate. Run it again. (Remember, you have to wait an hour between runs.) This time, we complete it. My teammate, he gets the Reward selection of the badge. I get to pick from a DO enhancement, information, or an inspiration. No badge. We run it again. Again, he gets to select an emote, I get enh, inf, or insp.

I petition the GMs for the badge, and I am told that,

"The rewards for zone events are unlocked by players' direct participation level in them. This means that, at the end, any reward tier that becomes available is based on your character's participation throughout the event itself.

In this case it means that you didn't meet the participation requirement for it. The best suggestion I can make is for you to keep running the event, ensuring that you participate fully in all phases of the trial."

My teammate can testify, I participated fully, by buffing, healing, and occasionally blasting my way through the event. Also, it would seem to me, that the Rewards menu would not have presented itself if I had NOT directly participated. Also, I did some research on the forums, and according to Baryonyx,

"Once a player qualifies for a component reward, the final block of choices presented to the player are rolled randomly. If you qualified for a component reward, you reached the level of participation for yourself and your league needed to have a chance at any component type."

(See City of Heroes Forums > Official City of Heroes Freedom Forums > Development > Developers' Corner > Incarnate Rewards. Sorry, I dont know how to tag another thread)

So, I run the event again. This time, I lead the team, I am blasting away, I ask my teammate to let me have some kills, and, again, I get the Reward menu: DO enh, inf, or insp.

Now, it seems to me, that the badge SHOULD be awarded for running the event. If it is awarded via the Rewards Menu, it should be on the first tier, which means, I should have gotten it. I dont know what else I can do, but it is sooo frustrating to not be able to complete this badge run in less than four (SUCCESSFUL) attempts. Empaths always seem to get the short end of the deal. We have to team, that's what our Primary powerset is designed to do, but when we do, we get shorted out of the rewards.

I know some of the event badges there have not been awarding properly for ages. I guess they dont really care since hardly anyone goes there. Which is sad. What I find the most annoying is that is does not actually auto sk you down, yet mobs are as tough as even cones, and still dont give any rewards if you are over..20. I think.

Baryonyx's comment about Incarnate Trials isn't necessarily applicable here.

I know that I once soloed a run of the Syndicate Zone Event with a character in that zone's level range (10-15). As I was fighting the last enemy in the second to last objective, a group of three level 50s showed up, demolished the group I was fighting, and hopped up the stairs. By the time I got upstairs, the boss was already spawned, and before I could target him, the event was over. Like you, I got the short table. I complained in the server's badge channel, and someone piped up saying that they were one of those people, and they all got the badge.

I don't know how "participation" works, and the devs won't say, because they don't want people gaming the system. They claim that buffing is supposed to be just as important as attacking, and that damage and kills are not counted. But in general, far more attacks are used in any fight than buffs. All I can suggest is that the next time you try, use all your buffs every time they come up, while using your attacks as well.

I'd recommend duoing the event with someone in the level range 16-20 and putting yourself in as a sidekick (and losing most of your powers for your troubles) and do a healthy amount of attacking and not just healing/buffing. That ought to give you enough impact as a part of team to get the other rewards (hopefully).

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

You're kidding me!

Don't get me wrong. That makes sense, as an explanation as to why my participation level is considered low, but, OMG! I wouldn't think that the devs would do such a thing! Of course, they DID make it impossible to target one's self with Clear Mind or Fortification, so...

Again, just another way Empaths are shortchanged.

No, only Empaths with one attack are shortchanged. I had absolutely no issue on my Emp I ran through there, but I am not expecting other people to pick up my part of the killing. I actually took my attacks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

So the arguement is, "my build is wrong, yours is right"?

That makes no sense. First, my build should not be the issue here. How I make my character is not the point. If it were, then the devs should REQUIRE you to take more than one offensive power. Otherwise, why require you to take any offensive powers at all? Second, the issue should not be my build at all. I, and my team, have COMPLETED the event. That should award the badge. Third, the issue should not be how I play my character. If I did nothing but heal and buff another character all the way through, then I have done just as much as that character to accomplish the mission.

Im not going to take the bait on this comment, as I dont mind being a "buffbot". I know that I am one of the best healers on my server (#2, in fact, according to COHTitan). So many times, I have heard, "I'll take on Lord Recluse, but only if the healer's healing me," or, "I'll taunt the Hami, if the healer will keep heals and buffs on me," or "Don't bother attacking, just spam your heals," or even, "Keep CM (or AB, or Fort) on me while I tank him." That's what I do, and I dont mind it. I have 8 different ways to heal somebody, 4 different ways to rez them, and three different ways to buff their endurance. I can make a level 1 defender into a tank. I don't need an offensive power, I have teammates, and I make sure that they have the power to do it for me. It's what I do.

You may be one of those "I can take on anything" tankers (I have one of those, too), but every once in a while, I see even the strongest of tanks get beat by a Envoy of Pain, or a Lord Recluse, or even a Tyrant. It happens. But it happens a LOT less when I am on the team. Best way to prove this: every once in a while, not too often, but occasionally to prove my point, if my empath falls in battle, I'll shout out, "Healer down!," and wait for the team wipe.

The /SR scrapper IS wrong, I agree. A lack of defense puts you at a disadvantage. If you're not living, you can't take out anybody. But a lack of offense is not the same. As long as you're living, a small ping can eventually, theoretically, take down the mightyest of foes. Even so, the /SR scrapper with only the mandatory secondary power can still solo. None of his powers, especially his primary powers, go away if he is soloing.
Not so with the healer.

In fact, FIVE of the Healer's primary powers go away if the Healer is not teaming. So, of course, he is going to team. So yes, I can say that the healer's offense comes from his team. Which means, I can either say, "I am being shortchanged, because my teammates offenses aren't counting for me," or I can say, "I am being shortchanged, because my primary powers are going away." Either way, the comparison to the scrapper is wrong.

The comparison to the Forcefield/? def is a little better, but even there, What I see is you complaining that the defender doesn't have enough to do: he's not pushing enough buttons. And this is where I say the devs have a problem. It could take a tanker or a scrapper, on average, six or seven keyclicks to bring down a single enemy, whereas, I can buff a teammate for six or seven enemies with a single keyclick. It is also better for that teammate that I have the endurance to buff and heal him than to spend that endurance on my little ping-blasting. Yes, I could select higher damaged offensive weapons while building, but then I would have to give up something else. Hmmm. CM, maybe?

Now, the devs see fit to say that I need at least ONE offensive power. They give it to me when I start. But they give me the OPTION to not choose any more, and that, is not a bad thing. I'll say it again: my offense comes from my teammates. But then, when they choose to NOT award me the same awards that my teammate gets from benefiting from my choices, THAT, my friend, is where the empath gets shortchanged.

"One of the best healers on my server"? How can you possibly know this? And how exactly does CoHTitan rank your healing as "#2"?

Hi,

a bit confused about a single attack chain here.

Every shiny new alt I roll immediately has a 4 attack chain, no sorry I mean 5.

The first attack power I have to take, followed by Sands of Mu or Ghost Slaying Axe, followed by Nemi Staff, followed by Blackwand, followed by Brawl, followed by Throwing Knives.

Oh sorry again, that makes a chain of 6!

Same as I use all the time during DfB runs.

Wow, I am a killing machine and I never knew it

Cheers