Why did nobody tell me ...

[RikOz]

I made an interesting discovery yesterday: Positron hands out a level-15 story arc called "The New Recruits" that ends up awarding 60+ merits.

 

I only discovered this because I was on my main running down the list of arcs in Ouroboros. I currently have 90 alts, at least 80 of which are heroes, and most of those are level 15 or higher.

 

And I have never once been introduced, in-game, to talk to Positron as a "contact". Sure, I get sent to speak with him as part of the "Origin of Power" arc, but aside from that all I knew about him was that he had a taskforce. Since I don't really enjoy group content (I know, weird in an MMO), I'd never seen any reason to go talk to Posi. Toward the end of the arc, Posi clued me in to the fact Numina (I think) also has something for me.

 

So, did the original devs just assume that everybody was going to flock to the TF as soon as they were at the appropriate level, and spot Posi's arc that way? Because otherwise, the natural flow of leveling via contacts is just gonna level you right past ever seeing his arc.

[Frostbiter]

The reason why that Taskforce is in Oruboros is because it's the old version of the Positron TF. There are no introductions to the original 6 Taskforces. You just walk up to Positron to get the new version, which is split into two parts.

[RikOz]

4 minutes ago, Frostbiter said:

The reason why that Taskforce is in Oruboros is because it's the old version of the Positron TF. There are no introductions to the original 6 Taskforces. You just walk up to Positron to get the new version, which is split into two parts.

Ah, okay, that makes a lot more sense. That was a TF I played through, not a "story arc".

[Snarky]

3 hours ago, RikOz said:

Ah, okay, that makes a lot more sense. That was a TF I played through, not a "story arc".

Yes, and it was horrid back in the day, taking 2 hours or more and almost a cringeworthy recipe for failure on PUG teams

[sbloyd]

2 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Yes, and it was horrid back in the day, taking 2 hours or more and almost a cringeworthy recipe for failure on PUG teams

And since it was often players' first TF, many would drop after a couple missions, leaving your team too crippled to continue and unable to replace the losses.

[Sakai]

11 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Yes, and it was horrid back in the day, taking 2 hours or more and almost a cringeworthy recipe for failure on PUG teams

2 hours if you were lucky 😞

[Vanden]

Really, it wasn't that bad, it was just long. There's basically nothing noteworthy about it, which is why OP was able to run the whole thing without even realizing it was supposed to be a task force.

 

If your team quit, you could just solo it. Back in the day I ended up just duoing it with one other guy after everyone quit.

[Snarky]

I remember evrryone slowly dropping in ine ans i was on a Blaster. I tried so hard to finish it and couldnt get the EB at the end. So glad they changed it

 

i recently soloed posi 1 on a Sentinel

[Dreamboat]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

Yes, and it was horrid back in the day, taking 2 hours or more and almost a cringeworthy recipe for failure on PUG teams

Posi was the only TF I ever attempted back on live. Went in with a PUG team, we wiped in the first mission, never went near another. Good times!

 

[ZorkNemesis]

I remember pugging a Posi 1 back in the day, back when you could outlevel a TF and be locked out of it.  8-hour trainwreck that was and while we finished it, I can assure you my parents were pissed I was on the family computer all day slogging through it.

[RikOz]

4 hours ago, Vanden said:

If your team quit, you could just solo it. Back in the day I ended up just duoing it with one other guy after everyone quit.

LOL, you've reminded me of the most epic moment I personally experienced in WoW. Back in 2009, during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, I was playing my fire mage and joined a random group to run one of the newish 5-man dungeons, "Forge of Souls". I can't recall the classes of the tank and healer, but the DPS were my fire mage, a balance druid (both ranged DPS), and a rogue (melee DPS).

 

As I said, this dungeon had opened fairly recently, so none of us outgeared it yet, and it was a challenge. We struggled through to the end, and then the final boss gave us the smackdown. When the boss was at about 25% health, the healer got killed, and without the healer, down went the rogue, followed quickly by the tank. The druid and I, being ranged, were still standing, but I knew that wouldn't last long. The usual protocol in that kind of situation was to just take the wipe and try again.

 

Well, not this time. For those who haven't played WoW, druids can fill any of the three roles (actually four - in addition to tanking and healing, they can do both ranged and melee DPS), though of course, each role requires different gearing and usually a different spec, and this druid was geared and specced for ranged DPS. But that didn't stop him. As soon as he saw the tank was dead, he shapeshifted into Bear Form, taunted the boss, and proceeded to tank (wearing, as I said, ranged spellcasting gear). And while he tanked, he simultaneously kept casting healing spells on my mage. So I just poured it on with my fire spells, and before much longer the boss was down.

 

The credit goes to that druid - he went above and beyond.

[Psyonico]

I always liked the original Posi TF.  Posi 1 and 2 are certainly easier/faster, but something about it made me smile.

[catsi563]

yeah I remember that monster of a tf well and not so fondly

 

my personal records were 1hour56 minute finish thanks to a team that just steamrolled the missions 

24 hour finish thanks to a team that had to bail but shocked everyone by logging back in to finish around the same time next night

one solo finish after team bailed or was dcd for various reasons

 

[Mister Mass]

Ah, Original Posi, I knew you well!  Way back in the dark old days of Live, long before Merit Rewards made running TFs a remotely efficient use of gametime, some friends & I ran OPosi a lot, usually on Sundays.  There were always SG/Coalitionmates that wanted to run it for the badge/accolade & lowbies who wanted to run it for XP, so we vets would organize an OPosi run.  I typically used my level 50 Inv/SS tanker main because, even exemped, having well-slotted powers & a full tray of big inspirations made the job less of a chore.  At my side in most of these runs was a Coalitionmate's Claws/Regen scrapper, & the 2 of us usually could drag any group of under-leveled & poorly-slotted lowbies to the end, as long as they were willing to stick it out & learn.

 

The acid test was usually the Rollister CoT mission.  If a team couldn't handle the ambushes of CoT while escorting the NPC to the door, it was a good bet that the TF was going to end in failure.  But if the team could get through the mission (even if only after rallying from a total or near total team wipe) then it was likely to complete the TF successfully.  The lessons learned in that mission would serve the team well through the rest of the TF - & really, throughout their careers as heroes.

 

For my main, the Rollister mission was less of a challenge than trying to tank a full 8 member team spawn of Vazhilok.  Taking the alpha of Toxic puke was no picnic, I can tell you sonny boy!  I learned to value my 6-slotted Dull Pain, supplemented by a full inspiration tray -  & whatever buffs/debuffs/controls that the team could provide as support.  I want to thank all of those lowbie support teammates for their contributions in those runs. 👍

 

The day that will always live in my memory is the Sunday that we ended up running 3 OPosis back to back to back.  Now that felt like an Ironman competition!  But Mystic Titania & Mister Mass got the job done & lived to tell the tale.  To the end of our days, we will remind one another of the time we ran 3 OPosis in a row.  And these young whippersnappers will roll their eyes & say: "not that story again!" 😉