Why does everyone seem to run +4/8 or nothing?

[Shred Monkey]

On 6/14/2020 at 5:00 AM, Sovera said:

Lets be honest here that under 50s joining 50 teams are not there to do pew pew but to collect XP. I hate it but I force myself to do it once in a while. There is nothing more miserable than to be using my strongest attack and see it plink for 40 damage against a +5.

I often find myself making the level 40-50 run by exemplaring down to TFs and teams in their 20s and 30s rather than side-kicking up.  It's more fun.

[seresibyl3]

I don't look for groups until I at least have my alpha for my self-made AE leveled characters. 

[Coyotedancer]

2 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

I often find myself making the level 40-50 run by exemplaring down to TFs and teams in their 20s and 30s rather than side-kicking up.  It's more fun.

That's pretty much what all of my support characters are for these days... My Time/Dark Defender is about the only one of them who ever runs at 50. The rest? It's much more fun to drop them in with a crew of 30-somethings. XD

[Patti]

As someone who is low level and going to be for a long time I want to say thank you to people like shred and dancer.

Thank you people like shred and dancer!  The game needs more people willing to play rather than grind 50 perpetually.

[Zombie Hustler]

I guess I'm a wimp. I have always run at default levels (+0/1 I think?), and when I get to 30+ mission contact on Redside, adjust to -1/1 on my squishier characters (dominators, corruptors). There are only a few times when I've adjusted upwards, on some particularly strong characters.

 

I mostly solo, though.

[Patti]

Thanks for speaking up zombie.  There's such a vocal push for HARDER HARDER that it's really scary to say "please no."

[tidge]

23 hours ago, Zombie Hustler said:

I guess I'm a wimp. I have always run at default levels (+0/1 I think?), and when I get to 30+ mission contact on Redside, adjust to -1/1 on my squishier characters (dominators, corruptors). There are only a few times when I've adjusted upwards, on some particularly strong characters.

 

I mostly solo, though.

Nothing wrong or unusual here. I'm not entirely convinced that most solo players are running lvl 30 (and below) content at +4/x8.

[FrauleinMental]

On 6/19/2020 at 5:48 PM, Zombie Hustler said:

I guess I'm a wimp. I have always run at default levels (+0/1 I think?), and when I get to 30+ mission contact on Redside, adjust to -1/1 on my squishier characters (dominators, corruptors). There are only a few times when I've adjusted upwards, on some particularly strong characters.

 

I mostly solo, though.

I run my own content (solo) at +0/x1 on my main, but as a controller I'm capable of supporting a +4 team most of the time.  My WP/SS tanker solos at +0/x8 because they're quicker to grind through.

[Coyote]

8 hours ago, tidge said:

Nothing wrong or unusual here. I'm not entirely convinced that most solo players are running lvl 30 (and below) content at +4/x8.

 

Heh, no way. +4/8 is for 50+, usually for highly Incarnate characters. It's doable in the 40s for a few builds, but... in the 30, I think you'd have to cherry pick opponents. I mean, try the First Ward/Night Ward stories, or Mr G's or Provost Marchand's stories at that difficulty level in the 30s and I doubt more than a handful of builds can do it.

 

You don't even have to go that exotic, though... blueside is easier, but redside you face Longbow and Arachnos, and I wouldn't try those at +4/x8 without a level shift except maybe on 2-3 builds.

[Bill Z Bubba]

8 hours ago, tidge said:

Nothing wrong or unusual here. I'm not entirely convinced that most solo players are running lvl 30 (and below) content at +4/x8.

I sure don't. Max diff is for max builds. (And usually only melee.) Anything less than that and it goes everywhere between +0/x1 and max completely depending on a massive array of variables.

[Coyotedancer]

Word. I don't crank up the difficulty all that much when I'm soloing, either.

 

Soloing at +4 with piles of goons is for the characters who have their set-builds complete, or nearly so. Or for the ones who have that done, plus their iToys on top of it. Generally, it's not for the lowbies and mid-levels I'm running on common IOs or "whatever DO/SO drops the game gave me".

 

I usually tend to start at  even-level or +1 with a new solo character, depending on the AT, and then switch to +2 once they have SOs or common IOs. Some of the tougher ones who can handle it eventually end up at +3, but that's usually not until later in the game, when they have more of their powers and at least the beginnings of their "real" build... 

 

Number of goons varies A LOT from character to character and AT to AT over here. For a Tank or a Brute, I'm likely to go with a lower (+) and higher (x). My Stalkers do it the other way around; harder targets in smaller batches. My support types rarely solo, so it's not really a concern for them either way.

 

But, yeah... Soloing +4/x8 is for the grown-ups in my gang.

[Troo]

If folks are playing hardcore mode (defeat = delete), they likely aren't soloing or teaming all content at +4/8.

[Coyotedancer]

Yikes! XD

 

A solo Iron Eagle run at +4/x8 would be harrowing...

With THAT many goons? Somebody's eventually going to get lucky, no matter how careful you are or how solid your leveling build is. The numbers would just be against you all the way through.

 

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by Coyotedancer