Homecoming Statistics: March 2020

[Troo]

6 hours ago, summers said:

How about there's still no 50s!

That's exactly what I was asking for. Ice/Battle Ax was one I remembered off the top of my head. It had no 50s last list I saw and now there are 5.

Where did you find a list?

[roleki]

@Veracor Out of curiosity, how many Shards/Threads do you have on your VL2273?

[roleki]

I SEE EVERYTHING TWICE!

Edited March 3, 2020 by roleki

[Infinitum]

Its weird That Shield/Street justice tanks are unicorns.

[Without_Pause]

3 hours ago, Obus Form said:

I'm wondering if there are any ways to advertise the existence of COH homecoming on more mainstream outlets such as MMO gaming news feeds, etc.

 

If people paid, and COH was willing, would the dev team ever consider putting a YouTube add?

You are asking for something which would only happen if the game was official.

[Apparition]

5 hours ago, Crysis said:

The total population drop that happened in Aug/Sep was noticeable.  Let’s hope end of school year coming brings back some summer players but I’m doubtful.

 

 

They're not coming back.  The vast majority of players back in April through July were WoW and/or WoW clone MMOG players looking for another WoW clone MMOG to play.  When they saw that CoH isn't it, they moved on.

[Bombastus]

Okay, so now my goal is to make one of each archetype combining the two lowest-frequency powersets, and level them all to 50.

 

Time to learn to love Ice, Rifles, Arrows, and Traps.

[Gulbasaur]

16 minutes ago, Bombastus said:

Okay, so now my goal is to make one of each archetype combining the two lowest-frequency powersets, and level them all to 50.

Seeing Arachnos Widows at the bottom of the list last time they did FOTM stats made me give it a second chance and it turns out that a fortunata build is the most fun I've had in the game  

Edited March 3, 2020 by Gulbasaur
Wrote something bordering on incoherent because I'm tired.

[oldskool]

44 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

Seeing Arachnos Widows at the bottom of the list last time they did FOTM stats made me give it a second chance and it turns out that a fortunata build is the most fun I've had in the game  

You're a player of refined tastes.

[Gulbasaur]

11 minutes ago, oldskool said:

You're a player of refined tastes

I know ❤️

[CienFuegos]

18 hours ago, Veracor said:

 

Hello there.

 

 

 

and he finally has two alts !

[Crysis]

2 hours ago, Apparition said:

 

 

They're not coming back.  The vast majority of players back in April through July were WoW and/or WoW clone MMOG players looking for another WoW clone MMOG to play.  When they saw that CoH isn't it, they moved on.

Well if true, and I suspect you are right....

 

Paragon City is dying again.

[skoryy]

2 minutes ago, Crysis said:

Well if true, and I suspect you are right....

 

Paragon City is dying again.

The pop numbers have been trending up since New Year's, but don't let that get in the way of hijacking this into a doom thread.

 

Back on topic, no Kin/Fire scraps?  Huh.

[Apparition]

1 minute ago, Crysis said:

Well if true, and I suspect you are right....

 

Paragon City is dying again.

 

Nah.  As long as the source code is out there (and it is, and always will be), City of Heroes will live on in some form.  Whether it be Homecoming, CoXG, Rebirth, or a thousand small private servers.

 

Let's face it.  City of Heroes is a sixteen year-old video game using 21 year-old code and tools.  Many of the people that played the game in 2004 through 2008 are either gone, or have moved on.  Quite a few people I know back in 2010 thought that City of Heroes looked and felt dated and refused to play it because of that.  In 2020?  Forget it.

 

The game will always have its die hard fans, but to expect it to be as popular as it was back in 2004 or even 2009 is naïve.

[Shred Monkey]

The stalker numbers are very different than I would have expected. 

 

Is Psi/Energy a PvP thing?

Edited March 3, 2020 by Shred Monkey

[Abraxus]

30 minutes ago, Crysis said:

Well if true, and I suspect you are right....

 

Paragon City is dying again.

By the same token, there are threads from folks who only JUST found out that CoH is alive again.  I see a few of those a week.  Imagine if Homecoming was able to actually advertise that fact, rather than letting word of mouth alone dictate the pace of new player influx.  I suspect there would be a dramatic rise in overall player numbers for a few months, and then when the shine wore off for the new crowd, the numbers would decrease again.  But, probably would still be elevated above today's numbers, having left behind another wave of die-hard CoH lovers, who will play as long as it's available to do so.  I look forward to the day we can find out if I'm right, or not.

[Fo]

20 hours ago, Veracor said:

 

Hello there.

 

 

Do you have any alts??

 

 

[Conviction]

20 hours ago, Veracor said:

 

Hello there.

 

 

 

 

With 2,273 Vet levels, I'm not sure it is much of a secret. 🤷‍♂️

[Veracor]

4 hours ago, roleki said:

@Veracor Out of curiosity, how many Shards/Threads do you have on your VL2273?

 

I am constantly hitting the limit of 10k Threads have to burn them.  I think I've led almost 600 iTrials on Homecoming?  I'd have to go back and count.

 

The 3.5k Shards are probably a better indicator of drop rate vs vet levels, since those aren't awarded anywhere.  And no, I never pay attention to what the WST is. >.>

[Mister Mass]

Ah, data!  So many ways to parse it! 🙂

 

I was interested to see what ATs players tended to take to 50 (all numbers based on data excluding FA Brutes):

 

 

Controller	12.18%
Arachnos Widow	10.80%
Arachnos Soldier	10.43%
Corruptor	10.25%
Tanker	10.09%
Defender	10.04%
Blaster	8.67%
Brute	8.17%
Stalker	8.12%
Scrapper	7.99%
Dominator	7.76%
Warshade	7.72%
Peacebringer	7.33%
Sentinel	7.09%
Mastermind	4.67%

 

So players who run Controllers are usually in for the long haul, along with those that play VEATs, Corruptors, Tankers, & Defenders.  Interesting that support ATs are so well-represented here - but not surprising if you consider that players who opt to play support may be less inclined to be motivated by short term goals.  But it appears that a lot of players that roll up a Mastermind quickly discover that the play style is not their cup of tea & don't complete the run to 50.

 

I was also interested in the Playing Time per Character for the Level 50s:

 

Brute	230.52
Tanker	229.73
Scrapper	174.42
Warshade	164.35
Peacebringer	151.12
Controller	139.67
Blaster	138.48
Sentinel	138.20
Mastermind	136.62
Arachnos Soldier	125.67
Defender	120.17
Dominator	118.29
Stalker	117.17
Arachnos Widow	113.34
Corruptor	111.50

 

Brutes at #1 is no surprise.  Even excluding Fiery Aura Brutes, it is a good bet that a lot of Brute level 50 playing time is in farms.  But let's face it - playing Brutes is just fun!  Broot smash! 😎  On almost any TF/SF/Trial that I recruit or join, Brutes are well represented.

 

But Tankers as the clear #2 by a big margin is surprising.  It would seem that a lot of player base is like me & has a Tanker main that they enjoy pulling out on a regular basis for the rough stuff. 👍  Or it could be that, before the recent Tanker damage increase, it just took Tankers that long to complete anything. 😛

 

Scrappers at #3?  More proof that everyone wants to be a Scrapper I guess. 😉

 

Warshades & Peacebringers at #4 & #5 is unexpected, given their relatively low rates of completing the run to 50.  It would appear that the few players who do like the HEATS enough to level them to 50 like them just fine thank you. 🙂  The same seems to be true of those who play Masterminds as well, who check in at #10 here, well above their dead last place on the level 50 list.

 

I am surprised that Corruptors bring up the rear here.  As someone who played redside quite a bit on Live in the latter years when the Rogue Isles were a ghost town, & ran the iTrials regularly on multiple characters including my own Corruptor, I recall the AT being very well-represented at end game.  It is odd to me that players who have leveled their Corruptors to 50 apparently aren't playing them as much as I would have thought.  Hmmm.  I wonder if the direct competition with Defenders (who have better buff/debuff values) & Blasters (who do MOAR DAMAGE!) leaves Corruptors feeling a bit wanting. 🤨

Edited March 3, 2020 by Mister Mass

[Crysis]

58 minutes ago, Veracor said:

 

I am constantly hitting the limit of 10k Threads have to burn them.  I think I've led almost 600 iTrials on Homecoming?  I'd have to go back and count.

 

The 3.5k Shards are probably a better indicator of drop rate vs vet levels, since those aren't awarded anywhere.  And no, I never pay attention to what the WST is. >.>

Whatcha gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside yo (salvage) trunk?

[Without_Pause]

3 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

The stalker numbers are very different than I would have expected. 

 

Is Psi/Energy a PvP thing?

One of the factors in certain sets being popular is for PvP so that is my guess as well. Farming and theme are the two biggest. Elec/shield for how well those two work together. I haven't looked at some sets to see if they had gone up or down, but I did see Rad/shield scrappers go down 15+ spots in popularity despite how well that build has worked for me. 

[Without_Pause]

In terms of builds I got to 50 and more so the ones I care enough to play afterwards.

 

Water/temp blaster - 14

Claws/wp brute - 71

Plant/storm controller - 13

Dark/dark controller - 3

Rad/shield scrapper - 64

StJ/ea stalker - 7

 

Sonic/sonic defenders being 14 is surprising to me. 

[Bastille Boy]

21 hours ago, ShinMagmus said:

You have failed me for the last time: Empathy spammers.  Seriously though, how is a buff set that bad/outclassed so popular on Defenders when it's so much less (understandably) played across the other 3 ATs with access to the buff sets?  Meanwhile sets that can easily scratch that Empathy itch like Thermal (my Therm easily has a gapless heal-chain of Warmth+Cauterize) and which also provide actual debuffs and some sort of worthwhile kill-time-reduction to the team languish in obscurity?  Empathy's lead is worse than Fiery Aura's on Brutes because those farmers don't actually do regular content: the mass Healers do.  It's not hyperbole to say that they'd bring more to most teams with any set other than Force Field or TA.  Actually no, TA would indeed bring more to Incarnated God teams than Empathy does.

 

It's not just WoW players thinking "Oh, a healer!" There are at least two other big reasons people create empathy defenders:

 

Roleplaying: When superhuman empathy is a superpower, almost any story can be an origin story. Ordinary suffering can make someone a superhero. "He was always picked last for kickball" is a totally valid explanation for the ability to fortify the underdog.

 

The only power with comparably flexible potential for origin stories is Willpower.

 

PVP: Healers are essential in team PVP.  The two healing sets that are widely considered viable in PVP are Empathy and Pain Domination. (Thermal is also considered a viable set in PVP, but not for the "emp" role--at least, not according to the guides posted in the forums.) The tier list posted on Reddit lists Empathy as the top power for defenders and does not identify Pain Domination as one of the viable options. When I was choosing powersets for my first PVP defender (still in development), I consulted this tier list. I doubt I'm the only one.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cityofheroes/comments/cfgpzq/pvp_tier_list_recluses_victory_ioincarnate_meta/

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/15386-pvp-resources/

 

2 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

The stalker numbers are very different than I would have expected. 

 

Is Psi/Energy a PvP thing?

Yes. Psi and Energy are both top-tier PVP powers. My first toon with full accolades is a Psi/Energy stalker. When I go into Recluse's Victory, he dies a lot, but not as fast or as often as the other toons I've attempted to bring there.

[Apparition]

2 hours ago, Mister Mass said:

I am surprised that Corruptors bring up the rear here.  As someone who played redside quite a bit on Live in the latter years when the Rogue Isles were a ghost town, & ran the iTrials regularly on multiple characters including my own Corruptor, I recall the AT being very well-represented at end game.  It is odd to me that players who have leveled their Corruptors to 50 apparently aren't playing them as much as I would have thought.  Hmmm.  I wonder if the direct competition with Defenders (who have better buff/debuff values) & Blasters (who do MOAR DAMAGE!) leaves Corruptors feeling a bit wanting. 🤨

 

It's due to procs.  Most Defenders procced to the gills do more damage than most Corruptors.  Once procs are nerfed, you'll see more Corruptors around.