A max level character has never been my goal

[Diantane]

The following is just my opinion and is not the way to play by everyone.

 

The goal for many players is to reach the max level and beyond on a character. This has never been “my” goal. Don’t care to grind raids or even the incarnate system here. There’s just too much waiting to experience by me.

Since I rarely get a character to max level (1 in 200 and never beyond that), there’s little need to build out a set. CoH gives us thousands of combinations to try. My goal is to have fun, but also to look for good synergies. Many players here are altaholics like me. The story arcs are very interesting so that’s where I spend my time. Grinding radio missions and tf’s will never happen.

 

if I like a character, I’ll play them to the low 40’s. If I don’t like them, they get abandoned in the low 30’s. During live I only had three 50’s and only one on Homecoming. Once they got to 50 I stopped playing them because I have already spent too much time with them (don’t care to grind a character). There are too many more to play and too many other games to play as well (have spent over a thousand hours in Satisfactory already as there is no such thing as a max level). 

 

just started a water blasts ice armor sentinel. It’s interesting playing him because I get to experience how all the powers work and work together. At 38 the last main power is trained. There’s little reason for me to go much further because it’s not interesting anymore and there are no more special powers to look forward to.

[Snarky]

For me the ride at 50 is twofold.  Yes, I do get an endorphin rush from blasting more powerful abilities and better defenses.  But, while more subtle, the satisfaction of teaming with great players and running content is remarkable 

 

Enjoy your style of play.  I am not sure if you solo more or team a lot or mix it up.  I currently have a 29 Brute I am soloing every contact in the game on.  Red/Blue/Gold.  25-29 Blue is….. not quick.  I have been at this project since early October.  Granted I work full time and have a lot of SG activities on other characters, so it does not have my full attention.  If you want to explore a playstyle this type of project might be for you

Edited December 12, 2021 by Snarky

[Six-Six]

The main game for me is the character creation screen. The "one" afterwards is just a perk. I do enjoy the content and I'm still experiencing new arcs I haven't done before with over year of playing. I prefer the lower levels when I have no attack chain to speak of. It forces me to think on my feet as to how to overcome hurdles and complete the mission without dying. I tend to get bored with a toon in the late 30s, but push myself to finish until the toon dings 50... for some sort of closure, I suppose. At the higher levels, I find myself playing Pillar missions instead. I only have a handful of incarnates. tried them, didn't really like them. so I stick to lowbies and gimped toons. Each to his own, do what floats your goat as long as you're not trampling someone else's goat. The point of the journey is not merely to arrive.

[Diantane]

Yes I team 100% of my time. The action and colors are fun to watch. Always look for new arcs to experience. Lead teams for several hours a day usually 4-6 hour sessions, 2-3 times every day (age 66 and retired). If the server population is low, I'll play a different game.

[SuperPlyx]

Why do players who do this need to tell everyone they do this?

What is the seeming need to tell everyone with some smugness that they only play low level "pure" toons.

Happy to extol on how they only play half the game. 

 

I just don't understand it ....but there is a lot of these post on the forums.

I am not knocking how people play. But there is a sense of self righteousness in these post.

[Luminara]

32 minutes ago, Diantane said:

if I like a character, I’ll play them to the low 40’s. If I don’t like them, they get abandoned in the low 30’s.

 

In the low 30's, you don't have enough slots to fully enhance all of your critical mitigation powers and attacks.  If you dump all of your slots in your attacks, you're taking significantly more damage, running low on endurance and frequently struggling to stay in the fight.  If you go all out with your defensive powers, you're burning ten times as much endurance using attacks which deal too little damage, and struggling to complete the least taxing content.

 

In the low 40's, you're just beginning to touch on the potential of what a character can do.  Some of your attacks are fully slotted, some of your defensive powers are fully slotted, but you're still not experiencing the full package.  You've still got clicks with longer recharge times, creating gaps in your attack chain and interruptions in your survivability.  You've still got endurance management problems.  You've got one, or two, or potentially several toggles not providing as much benefit as they could and costing more than they will later.  Your T8 and T9 powers are still being held back by lack of enhancements and aren't showing you what they can be when the build is more fleshed out.

 

In both cases, throwing in the towel is the mistake.  Until all of those powers are fully slotted and enhanced, you don't actually know what your character is capable of doing.  You don't know whether a power is good or not until you see how it performs at peak, in concert with your other powers.  And because of that, you're creating your own bad experiences.

 

The goal isn't to reach 50 for most of us.  50 is just a number.  It's a result, a consequence of what we're doing.  The goal is to fully realize a character's capabilities and develop an understanding of how that character, that build, really performs.  That can't be done at level 33, or level 38, or wherever you decide to quit, because the ability to know what works with what and how well doesn't come until after all of the key powers are fully slotted, the endurance management issues solved, the survivability is there, the attacks feel like they should, the attack chain is fluid...  Your approach, that of gaining access to a power and deciding that the whole thing is no good, that the character isn't fun or worthwhile any more, when you have an under-slotted and under-enhanced build and aren't even taking it far enough to fully enhance the power you just unlocked, doesn't mean the power is bad, or the set is bad, or the archetype is bad, it means you're not giving your characters the time and attention they need to properly develop.

 

Of course you're not having fun with them, not when you decide that you know all there is to know about something by glancing at a picture of a silhouette through a pinhole in a dark room.  You don't even know what to expect, but you accuse the game of failing to meet your expectations.  You make the game less fun for yourself.  That's on you.  Boasting about tormenting teammates, ragging on powers and sets and entire archetypes of which you haven't even scratched the surface, telling everyone how old you are and how much time you spend playing, those aren't addressing the problem.  The problem is you.  Deal with it.

[Snarky]

32 minutes ago, SuperPlyx said:

Why do players who do this need to tell everyone they do this?

What is the seeming need to tell everyone with some smugness that they only play low level "pure" toons.

Happy to extol on how they only play half the game. 

 

I just don't understand it ....but there is a lot of these post on the forums.

I am not knocking how people play. But there is a sense of self righteousness in these post.

I believe a lot of posting on boards is self exploration.  People looking for insight and similar/conflicting outlooks on a topic.

 

It is also interesting to read posts that challenge the "why" of something.  That can say a lot about the topic.  It can also give information on people's attitudes about others posts.

[arcane]

Logically explains why your posts continue to suggest you haven’t got the faintest idea about what any given AT or powerset is ultimately capable of, so actually kind of a useful thread in that regard. Thanks Diantane.

 

Still gotta ding you with a Confused emoji because the way you pretend to have a clue what you’re talking about should be discouraged, but good job.

Edited December 12, 2021 by arcane

[Nyghtmaire]

22 minutes ago, Luminara said:

The goal isn't to reach 50 for most of us.  50 is just a number.  It's a result, a consequence of what we're doing.  The goal is to fully realize a character's capabilities and develop an understanding of how that character, that build, really performs.  That can't be done at level 33, or level 38, or wherever you decide to quit, because the ability to know what works with what and how well doesn't come until after all of the key powers are fully slotted, the endurance management issues solved, the survivability is there, the attacks feel like they should, the attack chain is fluid...  Your approach, that of gaining access to a power and deciding that the whole thing is no good, that the character isn't fun or worthwhile any more, when you have an under-slotted and under-enhanced build and aren't even taking it far enough to fully enhance the power you just unlocked, doesn't mean the power is bad, or the set is bad, or the archetype is bad, it means you're not giving your characters the time and attention they need to properly develop.

Yes a million times. And trying to maximize a character *while* leveling: max efficiency in slotting at every stage, allows for getting to the core of a character.

 

On a separate thought, tinkering with builds/IOs/slotting to turn a whacked out combination into a powerhouse is divinity.

[Haijinx]

Wait, I thought Beam Rifle / Bio Sents were the best thing ever? 

 

 

[Cancrusher]

1 hour ago, SuperPlyx said:

Why do players who do this need to tell everyone they do this?

What is the seeming need to tell everyone with some smugness that they only play low level "pure" toons.

Happy to extol on how they only play half the game. 

 

I just don't understand it ....but there is a lot of these post on the forums.

I am not knocking how people play. But there is a sense of self righteousness in these post.

 

I think for some people, they are looking to connect with like-minded players.  Most of the players in CoH are running lvl 50 characters  (this is not merely my opinion, it's fact.  Use the search function in game at any time of the day or night, then order the list by character level.  You will see it is true).  This makes it harder to find people that want to level slowly via story arcs and such.

 

I would say that the team combat of the game is probably most balanced and satisfying at the 35 to 45 lvls.  However, on PUGs you almost always have at least one (usually several) incarnate, which changes the group dynamic sufficiently to make it unsatisfying to play at those levels.  This is one reason why I started levelling to 50 quickly.  I fit more easily into most groups.

 

I do believe in allowing everyone to enjoy the game in their own way, though.  We are lucky to have a game that accommodates so many different play styles (low and high lvl, single and multi-player, rp and action, even some pvp, if that's what you enjoy).

 

P.S.  @Diantane  Having said all of that, given the tenor of many of your other posts, I think Luminara has some very good points in their post, above.  You complain a great deal about how various AT's and powers function, but many of those don't come into their own until higher levels and judicious slotting make them very useful and fun.

Edited December 12, 2021 by Cancrusher

[Frozen Burn]

2 hours ago, Diantane said:

The following is just my opinion and is not the way to play by everyone.

 

The goal for many players is to reach the max level and beyond on a character. This has never been “my” goal. Don’t care to grind raids or even the incarnate system here. There’s just too much waiting to experience by me.

Since I rarely get a character to max level (1 in 200 and never beyond that), there’s little need to build out a set. CoH gives us thousands of combinations to try. My goal is to have fun, but also to look for good synergies. Many players here are altaholics like me. The story arcs are very interesting so that’s where I spend my time. Grinding radio missions and tf’s will never happen.

 

if I like a character, I’ll play them to the low 40’s. If I don’t like them, they get abandoned in the low 30’s. During live I only had three 50’s and only one on Homecoming. Once they got to 50 I stopped playing them because I have already spent too much time with them (don’t care to grind a character). There are too many more to play and too many other games to play as well (have spent over a thousand hours in Satisfactory already as there is no such thing as a max level). 

 

just started a water blasts ice armor sentinel. It’s interesting playing him because I get to experience how all the powers work and work together. At 38 the last main power is trained. There’s little reason for me to go much further because it’s not interesting anymore and there are no more special powers to look forward to.

 

Well, this explains all the nay-saying and ridiculous comments you make in other posts about ATs and powersets.  You never fully experience what an AT, powers, or your characters can do because you don't fully develop them.  As pointed out above by @Luminara, mid-30s you're still fighting to get enough slots to get your powers workable and the 40's you're just coming into your own and still developing.  

 

But I will agree with you about the content and the journey your character takes.  I also am not a fan of grinding or farming - it's just not my thing.  I love the content of this game and I like taking characters through different paths of the content from lvl 1 up through lvl 50 and the incarnate.  And as for content - there is a LOT of great storying telling at 50 and post-50 with the incarnates that you are COMPLETELY missing out on.  My goal is not to get to 50, but rather to fully develop my character and their potential by using the story content.  It is very possible to fully develop your character into a post-lvl 50 incarnate on story content alone without grinding. 

 

You tout yourself as an "expert" on the forums about powers and ATs you have little knowledge of - and are failing at that.  Now you are touting yourself as being solely concerned about content and not the end goal - well, you're failing at that too since you've not experienced half the content in the game because you refuse to get to lvl 50? 

 

How about stop posting and just experience the game.  You continue to do things only halfway - COMMIT to fully developing your characters, COMMIT to all the powers and AT you choose, and COMMIT to doing all the content before speaking up and down-talking things.  

Edited December 12, 2021 by Frozen Burn

[Greycat]

So... yay you, I guess? I'm not sure what your goal in posting any of this is.

 

I'm an altoholic. I'm well over 100 characters on one server on one account.  Being an altaholic and wanting to play all these different combinations isn't an excuse to not hit 50. Nor, frankly, does giving up in 30-40 mean you "know" a powerset or power combination... you don't. You're not fully slotted. You're not seeing how it performs, either solo or in teams, against the toughest enemies and content. Granted, we're getting harder things at lower levels, but they're still generally designed to deal with "incomplete' characters.

 

And no, 50 - and the Incarnate system - isn't, and doesn't have to be, a "grind." Know how you get there? Playing a character. Yes, I've got characters I primarily use for raids - not because I "have to grind," but because I like them on (generally mothership) raids.  Others? Hell, I'm on an RP server. I probably have gotten there *even slower* hours-wise, but they're T4'd and incarnated out... because I'm just playing them. Sometimes exemplared down, sometimes in custom AE content we write up for our SGs, or just running missions  Suddenly I look and "Heym everything's unlocked, and I've got a ton of shards, threads and Empyrians, I should use those."

 

What I find really funny in your post is that you contradict yourself. You say you don't want to experience content (40+ and incarnate,) because ... you want to play the content.

 

Do yourself a favor. Get one character maxed out. That doesn't mean "ignore all the others." I don't - I character hop a good bit (too many stories to tell.) But pick one or two you like and try out some of the content you're skipping - the stuff you're labeling as a "grind" despite never having played it, at least by your own description. You'll find those sets you "know" have more in store with how they interact with APPs/Patron powers, maybe more Pool powers and fuller slotting against enemies you've never touched. There's a good bit more growth there you haven't experienced.

 

[Aurora_Girl]

What do we all think the odds are that he actually reads these well-crafted and thoughtful replies? Honestly?

[InvaderStych]

I should probably not post in this thread, but I find @Diantane's assertion that people who play a toon past level 50 are simply "Grinding a Toon" to be beyond insulting, and I am not longer giving them the benefit of the doubt; when taken in aggregate with all of their other threads - this is obvious trolling.

 

@Diantane

 

I don't "grind" anything.  I have 2 50s that I play with any regularity and only 5 or 6 in total have made the full run to 50.  I play those two toons because I fucking love playing them and they are, if even only in my head, fully imagined individuals with backstories and personalities of their own.  I don't really have the time/dedication to RP here, but I totally respect it and I always end up making toons from an RP'ers mindset.  I've never understood the use of the term "grind." If it feels like a "grind," go do something fun, ffs.

 

So this will be my final reply in your threads.  I have been trying to help you out for nearly 15 months of this, and I'm done.  If all the thanks I'm going to get is to be insulted and spoken down to, then I'm out.

 

 

[Erratic1]

3 hours ago, Diantane said:

if I like a character, I’ll play them to the low 40’s.

 

If I like a character, I'll play them. 50 will occur eventually simply through playing the game.

 

Quote

Don’t care to grind raids or even the incarnate system here.

 

For the most part neither do I. And yet I still have level 50 characters because playing them is fun and that is what I do.

 

Not seeing what setting an arbitrary cap on where I stop playing a character does for me. And its not like I do not make plenty of characters and play them.

[Erratic1]

10 minutes ago, Aurora_Girl said:

What do we all think the odds are that he actually reads these well-crafted and thoughtful replies? Honestly?

 

I wager 50,000 quatloos against.

[Aurora_Girl]

3 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

 

I wager 50,000 quatloos against.

 

I'll take that action. 

[Erratic1]

2 minutes ago, Aurora_Girl said:

 

I'll take that action. 

 

 You're betting he reads the replies?!?

 

 

[Luminara]

28 minutes ago, Aurora_Girl said:

What do we all think the odds are that he actually reads these well-crafted and thoughtful replies? Honestly?

 

[arcane]

27 minutes ago, InvaderStych said:

when taken in aggregate with all of their other threads - this is obvious trolling.

Ofc it is.

 

Diantane: “this AT sucks and I knows it”

Also Diantane: “well i never finish any AT cuz i just play the low levels and give up”

 

To the next GM that comes through telling us to be polite and helpful, trying the same strategy hundreds of times with no evidence of success is insanity 😉 perhaps you should instead join us in suggesting the OP learn to integrate feedback.

Edited December 12, 2021 by arcane

[Aurora_Girl]

10 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

 

 You're betting he reads the replies?!?

 

 

 

At those odds I'd bet he posts an optimized permaDom Fire/Psi build in the next three hours. 😆

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Nyghtmaire said:

Yes a million times. And trying to maximize a character *while* leveling: max efficiency in slotting at every stage, allows for getting to the core of a character.

 

On a separate thought, tinkering with builds/IOs/slotting to turn a whacked out combination into a powerhouse is divinity.

This is generally more of a thing after 30.  There are some things you can do for a build before 30 with I/Os but SOs are more powerful slot for slot until after 30 and set bonuses are difficult to maximize

[A Cat]

4 hours ago, Diantane said:

just started a water blasts ice armor sentinel. It’s interesting playing him because I get to experience how all the powers work and work together. At 38 the last main power is trained. There’s little reason for me to go much further because it’s not interesting anymore and there are no more special powers to look forward to.

Dunno about Sents since I have only a lowbie one ever that I don't currently play, but at least for others, the Patron Power Pools/Epic Power Pools really are game changer. The Patron snipe for Scrappers and Stalkers really add to your DPS, and are often one of the trio or so of powers that you use in your single target rotation. Shields for blasters really transforms them into the death dealing juggernaut in the current meta. You can procc out to the max the single target holds too for excellent damage. They often add another AoE that can really complete an AoE rotation too. Looking through Mids, Sents get, holy shit, KO Blow if you get the Shark Patron Power Pool. KO Blow is one of the sikkest single target attacks ever. It is totally awesome. You should keep going if for no other reason then to get this power. 

[DougGraves]

3 hours ago, SuperPlyx said:

Why do players who do this need to tell everyone they do this?

What is the seeming need to tell everyone with some smugness that they only play low level "pure" toons.

Happy to extol on how they only play half the game. 

 

I just don't understand it ....but there is a lot of these post on the forums.

I am not knocking how people play. But there is a sense of self righteousness in these post.

 

Because these forums (and most online game forums) are generally an echo chamber of min/max powergamers that do raids or pvp and who consequently think that everyone plays the game the way they do. 

 

And the big concern is that the developers will think that everyone plays the game that way and change the game to suit that playstyle.

 

There are multiple subforums dedicated to people trying to be as powerful as possible.  A thread every few days about  not wanting to be as powerful as possible seems a minor counterbalance to trigger such a reaction.