So,you think you are a Task Force God -- the Manticore Challenge awaits!

[excessionoz]

Tonight 9my time, I am in Australia), my character (Radiation/Ninjitsu Blaster) hit L31 after completing the Citadel TF. 

I was above minimum level for the Manticore TF (L30+), but I was a bit bored, so I went on LEG and advertised a Challenge Manticore run.

Challenge Manticore, L30+, running at L30, doing +4/x8, who wants some?

 

Lawks a lordy SIX players wanted in.  I explained that since I was going ot be TF star holder at L31, the TF content would be L35, and since I was doing +4, the critters would be L39.

Thats right, +8 critters!

The people all acknowledged the challenge, I set the TF to 2 hours/5 deaths, and we were off.

Sure enough, the very first group of Crey were deepest purple, L39s.  They were mean!  The brutes and tanks flailed hopelessly, the dominator and controller were unable to hold them, and my puny L31 blasteryness was ineffective.

Within 30 seconds we had exceeded the allowable death count, and after 10 more seconds a team wipe was achieved -- zero critters were taken down.

 

It was remarkably funny.

 

We did not even try again, instead we did a +3 Manticore with a L50 leading (so the critters were 38 and we were 35), it was EASY MODE and we cruised through in 41 minutes.

So next time some uber-tank claims to be able to solo Manticore, offer up the challenge of doing the TF at +4 with a L30 leader.  That will wipe the smile from their dial.

(please excuse typos, I have no feeling in my fingertips and hit multiple keys, typing is hard)

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

Yea.... past +5 the purple patch gets insane.

 

I attempted to solo the 10 times the victor badge with my uber-awesome tank and realized that Mary at +3 was going to obliterate me with end suckage and tohit debuffs from hurricane.

 

I *might* be able to pull off +3 but +4 or higher, she would beat me down like I was nothing.

[Glacier Peak]

Like Bill said, the scaling that happens at +5, or +8 in your case, whoa. Did anything even land?

[Snarky]

Thats as much of a challenge as flying a level 10 villain into the Grandville Web and trying to kill anything...are you up to it?  No!  The Challenge Awaits!....  Seriously got better things to do with my time, like relax lol.

 

Been talking to someone in game that wanted to see how my Dark/Dark handled combat.  I said sure.  They picked an AE arc.  I dialed up +4/x8 no AV, bosses okay.  Standard for me.  Can do any group (some are tougher than others)  A couple minutes in I was getting mezzed and had a Death!  WTF?  That NEVER happens.  I used Darks insanely good rez and really started to pay attention.  There was Ghost Widow!  as EB...but still, her and her arachnos groupies were stacking stuns on me!  I started using insp and Rune of Prot/Melee Hybrid with a lot more care and took them down.  Then the other 3 EB versions of Recluses Posse in the next room.  sigh.  Then my friend grabbed their main scrapper and we duo'd the thing 4/8 with AVs.  I dont remember dying in there.  Maybe I did once.  It was a long fight.  The Scrapper hit the ground a couple times (mace/rad i think)  But we did it, we killed them. 

 

I seriously hate challenges lol.  that is why I run a Dark/Dark Brute.  Vampires are SUPPOSED to kill everything.

[Sovera]

2 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Yea.... past +5 the purple patch gets insane.

 

I attempted to solo the 10 times the victor badge with my uber-awesome tank and realized that Mary at +3 was going to obliterate me with end suckage and tohit debuffs from hurricane.

 

I *might* be able to pull off +3 but +4 or higher, she would beat me down like I was nothing.

 

That's why the god devs invented Focused Accuracy and Recovery Serum. I'd almost try the challenge but the thought of soloing ten AVs is a bit... Maybe her resistances aren't out of the whazoo though.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Every once in a while, I dust off the +4/x8 challenge.  Where you complete the tutorial, ding 2, and set all missions at +4/x8.  (Doing it from level 1 without Rest is a little too masochistic even for me.)  No street sweeping, no teaming.

 

I haven't given this a shot since i27, but now that we can easily buy SOs right off the bat, it should be much, much easier.  Still tedious, true.

[Bill Z Bubba]

2 hours ago, Sovera said:

That's why the god devs invented Focused Accuracy and Recovery Serum. I'd almost try the challenge but the thought of soloing ten AVs is a bit... Maybe her resistances aren't out of the whazoo though.

 

Recovery serum? Pffft. Ya cheater,

[siolfir]

My personal favorite case for anyone who complains about Stalkers being squishy is that it took until I was finally 2-shot by a two "lucky" hits in a row to notice that I had been tanking a level 54(+3) AV for over 4 minutes on my level 50 Psi/Bio Stalker - who had just hit 50 during the arc and so had no level shifts or incarnate powers. I hadn't ever run the arc before and thought that it was just another one of those cases where the psi resistance was off the charts when my attacks weren't doing anything and the Dominator (who was 50+3 since it was incarnate content) was whittling them down. Once I actually saw that I was -7 I swapped to my Brute (50+3) and the fight was suddenly a lot easier.

 

Because yes, the purple patch gets ugly past +5.

Edited March 18, 2021 by siolfir

[Sakai]

Saw this forming up and my first thought was "Hell No".  My second thought was pretty much the same lol. 

 

I stumbled into a Frostfire in progress that was +3 or 4 earlier in the day. Not sure what they were thinking (perhaps it was you 🤔) and that was horrible (for me anyways).  Stayed for one mob, saw how long that was taking and did the math. I politely backed out, wished them luck and went back to putting a stop to the Devouring Earth.  I haven't actually succeeded yet but I have high hopes. 

 

Cause no lol

 

I am glad that you got some brave souls to join you and I'm glad you had fun. 

 

 

[excessionoz]

53 minutes ago, Sakai said:

Saw this forming up and my first thought was "Hell No"

I am glad that you got some brave souls to join you and I'm glad you had fun. 

It was an exercise in masochism.  Genuinely surprised that people signed up for the event.

Personally, I detest being on those PI +4 missions when I am NOT on an incarnate character, it's just facing large sacks of hitpoints when all you have is a dodgy peashooter ... when not io'd to the gills, a good ol' +1 fight against hard enemies is really rewarding.

There is a lot of machismo in CoH pick-up-groups.  It is silly and pointless, yet it persists.

What makes me happy about CoH is that I am rarely forced to play in a way I don't find comfortable.  I can always piss off and do something else in game that is more 'my speed'.

 

53 minutes ago, Sakai said:

 

 

[Doomguide2005]

+8's ... 

 

LOL it doesn't even list a base to hit vs +8's in the Attack Mechanics entry in the wiki's.  It stops at +7's where your base to hit starts at 8%.  Now I've been on teams that would shred that and have a 95% final hit chance.  8 stacked Defender Tactics and 2+ Fortitude per character will do that.  The problem is the 200+ hits it'll take to drop a minion 😜

[Snarky]

i go through periods where i run a LOT of alts.  my standard practice is 4 DFBs for buffs the posi1, posi2, synapse etc.  pretty much all TF in order.  (including reedside, I run a lot of rogues)  I get so irritated when we get into a Task Force and the leader has it cranked up, never told anyone or mentioned it in advertising.  Grrrrr  

 

Badges, merits, quick experience until you hit places like ITF and there are some 50s on the team.  Common sense, it is not common.

[Heraclea]

On a Manticore, I suspect that since you probably aren't going to be controlling or bursting down the Paragon Protectors at those settings, waiting for their Moment of Glory to wear off would get quite dull. 

[Outrider_01]

Try running the Outbreak tutorial on +4/8.  You can get the exp buff, ding lvl 2 untrained by the second cop, and by the time you get to Coyote to zone int...its +6 (from level 2 but you are still level 1) and more baddies then a mosh pit in a phone booth with the small zone map.

[Ghost]

18 hours ago, Sakai said:

Saw this forming up and my first thought was "Hell No".  My second thought was pretty much the same lol. 

 

I stumbled into a Frostfire in progress that was +3 or 4 earlier in the day. Not sure what they were thinking (perhaps it was you 🤔) and that was horrible (for me anyways).  Stayed for one mob, saw how long that was taking and did the math. I politely backed out, wished them luck and went back to putting a stop to the Devouring Earth.  I haven't actually succeeded yet but I have high hopes. 

 

Cause no lol

 

I am glad that you got some brave souls to join you and I'm glad you had fun. 

 

 

I joined a +3 frostfire the other day - and yes, the first fight or two took a while.

Once everyone realized they couldnt run in, and took their time, we actually had fun.  

[Sakai]

1 hour ago, Ghost said:

I joined a +3 frostfire the other day - and yes, the first fight or two took a while.

Once everyone realized they couldnt run in, and took their time, we actually had fun.  

I'm glad it turned out to be fun. Mine was advertised without the level increase and I really wasn't in the mood for it. Another time perhaps. 

[Ghost]

11 hours ago, Sakai said:

I'm glad it turned out to be fun. Mine was advertised without the level increase and I really wasn't in the mood for it. Another time perhaps. 

funny thing is, the one I joined wasnt either.

We went in, and surprise !!

 

During the the first fight, someone even said it should be lowered - but 3-4 people said "nah", so we went with it.

Think I was sitting on 49, and was just trying to get that last ding for 50 - so I didnt care what we did 🙂

  

[Doomguide2005]

On 3/19/2021 at 10:01 AM, Heraclea said:

On a Manticore, I suspect that since you probably aren't going to be controlling or bursting down the Paragon Protectors at those settings, waiting for their Moment of Glory to wear off would get quite dull. 

Lol but I suspect the vast majority of teams would never notice ... I mean it would go from 'whiff, whiff, whiff ...' to 'whiff', whiff, whiff ...'.  The only thing changing would be the pretty graphics on the Crey.  (Not even sure 'streakbreaker' would notice 🤪)

[tidge]

On 3/19/2021 at 10:01 AM, Heraclea said:

On a Manticore, I suspect that since you probably aren't going to be controlling or bursting down the Paragon Protectors at those settings, waiting for their Moment of Glory to wear off would get quite dull. 

 

1 hour ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Lol but I suspect the vast majority of teams would never notice ... I mean it would go from 'whiff, whiff, whiff ...' to 'whiff', whiff, whiff ...'.  The only thing changing would be the pretty graphics on the Crey.  (Not even sure 'streakbreaker' would notice 🤪)

 

It's the "Moment of Glory" combined with the "Defeat All" missions that keep me from running Manticore TF at +4. Not that I wouldn't join such a TF, but I would have to set up a second screen to watch something like the Snyder cut of Justice League to help pass the time.

[Doomguide2005]

6 hours ago, tidge said:

 

 

It's the "Moment of Glory" combined with the "Defeat All" missions that keep me from running Manticore TF at +4. Not that I wouldn't join such a TF, but I would have to set up a second screen to watch something like the Snyder cut of Justice League to help pass the time.

Heh, I usually brought my Cold/Ice/Power.  Didn't help the damage side much but PBU+Aim+Tactics did silly good things to his To Hit (as in turn it blue in his attributes).  Followed by Benumb, Freezing Rain etc., and I least got the satisfaction of hitting the buggers and doing some damage.  Occasionally it would even drop them, Huzzah!