Lunar Ronin

During the first year of Homecoming, I joined a PUG Numina TF with a group of people who had never played City of Heroes on live. When it came time for the hunt missions, they did them all one at a time, with everyone going to each zone together instead of splitting up. It took about a hour and 45 minutes IIRC, and was easily the worst Numina TF I had ever been on. But hey, at least we all stuck together and no one lone wolfed it.

That's how it started, over fifteen years ago. Then it was that stealth auras was causing Rikti not to spawn, period (not just lose aggro), when in fact the lack of Rikti in the bowl was because people were fighting Rikti on the mothership's ramps instead of letting them come to the bowl. Then it somehow spread to invasion mobs.

Yep. Praetorians can join the holiday trials, Incarnate trials, the instanced Rikti mothership raid, and Cathedral of Pain Trial now. They just need to be formed in a zone that Praetorians have access to. Namely, one of the eight gold side zones, Pocket D, or Echo Plaza. That's why whenever I run league content, I form it in Pocket D so as to not exclude Praetorian players. But I know that trying to form league content outside of Ouroboros was like trying to pull teeth on Excelsior years ago. Thankfully, that may have changed a bit if @lemming is accurate. This just gave me an idea of trying to form trials in one of the Praetorian underground zones... Man, if I think trying to get people to go to Pocket D for things is hard. 😅

Brute and two Masterminds. Everything would melt.

Do note that that will exclude you from Incarnate trials and holiday trials on Excelsior and I believe Everlasting. Ironically, the lower populated shards are better about Praetorian inclusion.

Fire/Trick Arrow. Fire Blast combined with Oil Slick and all of Trick Arrow's debuffs = win.

Just play red side... or gold side... or level 50 content... or pretty much anything other than low level blue side content and you will never run into him.

At level 20, you can just go to Underground Imperial and talk with the Door Man, who will then introduce you to First Ward. No need to go red nor blue first.

It's neither. Stealth has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a mob spawns in the MSR nor a zone invasion. It's just an old myth from live that absolutely refuses to die.

That is 110% objectively false. Stealth has nothing to do with spawn size. That's just one of many myths from live that refuse to die. Also, OP, you need to be level 25+ for invading mobs to come to you. Invasions are level-gated.

You get more XP, INF, and drops from soloing a mission at x8 difficulty than you do by joining a team. So, no, that's not it. And for me, it's not wanting an audience. I join teams but split off solo while playing a melee character both because sticking with the team on a melee character adversely impacts melee play to the point of making me feel completely useless on a melee character due to the current meta of nukeballing, and it tends to speed up mission completion time. I only leave to go off on my own if I feel the rest of the team can handle it, so it has no adverse impact on the team, and their play no longer has an adverse impact on mine. No one loses out on XP, INF, badges, nor drops, so it's win-win for everyone. Why join a team in the first place? Because A. I want the banter with other players, which can be done while lone wolfing, B. we're all accomplishing the same goal together, C. while I could solo 99% of the TF/SF at x8 difficulty on my own, having teammates is still advantageous for taking down the AV or Hero at the end which is normally the only time people do need to stick together on a TF/SF.

If I am the only Brute or Tanker on the team, I will stick with the team. However, if I am playing a Stalker (I never play Scrapper but the same applies to them) or the second Brute or Tanker on the team, I will go off on my own if I think that the rest of the team can handle it. Playing melee on teams and sticking with teams is detrimental to both melee players and the team in this day and age of crashless nukes and powers like Fold Space. They don't need me, I don't need them, so it's better for everyone for melee players to go off on their own. Melee play isn't interfered with by teammates, and missions tend to go faster. Everyone gets XP, INF, drops, and badges.

Sounds like that it is their problem then, just like people using Fold Space and Nova badly is mine.

Group Fly can be disabled in a minute and a half at level 1 with no travel powers. You cannot disable someone else's Fold Space nor Nova. They're not really comparable.

The problem is that few Fold Space users do stand in an intelligent position. People just know that Fold Space is "good," but don't know how nor why. They use it willy nilly, either scattering mobs as a result or pull mobs away from melee teammates, or both. As a result, it actually slows down team play instead of speeding it up. Fold Space can be (and often is), just as bad as Energy Blast's Nova in effectively increasing time to defeat mobs.

Negative, Ghost Rider.

Bloody Bay... Temporal Warrior/PvP toon?

Negative, Ghost Rider.

Well, if nothing else, between this thread and one of the Group Fly threads, at least now I know that I am not alone in disliking Fold Space... or rather how it's mostly used.

It wouldn't help in a league setting, but for TFs/SFs and Ouroboros Flashback missions, perhaps it'd be good to add an additional setting of No Black Hole/Dimension Shift/Fold Space/Group Fly/Team Teleport.

I usually lead teams, and I don't want to kick people for using a legitimate power, so on the rare occasion that I do play a melee character and there is someone with Fold Space on the team, I'll generally run a few rooms ahead of the rest of the team and defeat all of the mobs in the room before everyone else gets there. I feel like a bad team leader for running ahead of everyone else, but it's either that or start banning people from using Fold Space on the team.

Personally, I consider Fold Space a troll power, much like Black Hole and Dimension Shift. It can be used well, but most people either don't know how to use it well, don't care to use it well, or both. It's one of the reasons why I don't play melee characters on teams much any more. I'm tired of PUGs Fold Spacing mobs out of my melee range after I've started engaging them. And those PUGs Fold Spacing mobs out of my melee range? Yeah, they tend to be Blasters, Controllers, Corruptors, Defenders...

Force Field Corruptor. Two buffs are AoE and last for four minutes. You get two additional attacks that you work into your rotation. You also get a toggle that provides very good AoE mez protection. Just note that the Achilles' Heel of Force Field is endurance. It is a major endurance hog, so be aware of that and build around it.

It honestly depends a lot if you're just doing normal TFs/SFs at level 50, if you're doing Incarnate trials, or if you're doing advanced modes. Normal TFs/SFs at level 50, yeah, defense isn't as important as lower levels, but I'd argue resistance is important unless you're spamming Barrier Destiny. Endurance isn't nearly as solved an issue as you think it is though - it is solved for some ATs and power sets but not others. Endurance buffs and endurance usage reduction are always helpful. Ageless Destiny solves endurance, but most people (over) rely on Barrier Destiny. AoE mez protection is also helpful. Damage buffs and -resistance and -regen debuffs are very helpful. Incarnate trials, defense is more important so it is a valuable buff, as is resistance. Again, endurance buffs and endurance usage reduction are always helpful. AoE mez protection is also very helpful. Damage buffs, to-hit buffs, and -resistance and -regen debuffs are very helpful. If you're speed running advanced modes, characters are built very differently for that compared to normal and Incarnate content. Defense buffs are very important, and endurance buffs and endurance usage reduction buffs are important. Damage buffs, to-hit buffs, and -resistance and -regen debuffs are super important.

If you want all of the blue side story arc souvenirs, you play a HEAT. If you want all of the red side story arc souvenirs, you play a VEAT. If you want all of the Praetorian badge titles, you play a Praetorian. Non-Praetorian characters with Praetorian badges would go against the lore of the game.