Casual Server?

[Unclemarty]

11 hours ago, Uun said:

My SG on Torch has a static leveling team one night per week. We go from lvl 1 to 50 with the same 8 toons, then start again with new toons.

This sounds really interesting and fun. 
 

I usually place all my characters in a single SG for ease of sharing salvage, enhancements and such but I’m wondering if I’m missing out on engaging with the community on a deeper level by not joining up through a SG with other players. I wish there was a solution like being able to join multiple SG.

[Ukase]

8 minutes ago, Unclemarty said:

This sounds really interesting and fun. 
 

I usually place all my characters in a single SG for ease of sharing salvage, enhancements and such but I’m wondering if I’m missing out on engaging with the community on a deeper level by not joining up through a SG with other players. I wish there was a solution like being able to join multiple SG.

You can join multiple SGs, just not with the same character. 

No rule against (that I know of) joining one sg with one character, and joining another SG with a different character. 

Anecdotally, I can tell you - it can really suck popping in a new sg and see their base is super extravagant - so much so - you lag when you enter it. The leaders of Cosmic - they'd rather build a base with all the bells and whistles than play the game, it seems to me. Such useless fluff, and the teleporters and workshop are a country mile from the portal. But - some folks genuinely love and appreciate that glitz. And it brings them joy, so why not? 

But, with any SG, you're only going to get out of it what you put into it. If you invest in your in-game relationships, it's bound to be worthwhile. Unless you're a jerk, lol. Then, maybe not. 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Ukase

[Bill Z Bubba]

4 hours ago, carroto said:

But be prepared.  It seems like whenever anyone brings this up there is a lot of vigorous pushback from the "You'll pry my overpoweredness and ability to render my teammates superfluous from my cold, dead hands" crowd.

 

It is fun.

 

Soloing a PB at very low diff right now through content.

 

It's fun. I like being reminded that something else in this game can feel good even if it's not optimized to slaughter +4 AVs.

 

My Khels will never be able to pull off what some of my melee characters are capable of. But they can still be fun as hell to play.

 

Only question I have at that point is why I have to play at half the diff of my melee characters to look cool.

 

I don't consider that balanced. Guess I'm in the nerf 'em all to hell group.

[Redletter]

21 hours ago, Greycat said:

And this is part of why I like my RP groups and teams. It's not about "melty superfast raaaagh." You joke around, BS your way through a mission and next thing you know it's three hours later and you've had fun without worrying about who did how much damage or whatnot.

 

As GC said, I'd try Roleplaying over on Everlasting. It's mostly populated by roleplayers, and while Veracor makes his home there, most people arent Vet Level 12billion. Mind you, vet level 80 gajillion isnt what makes these things go fast, its builds, and on Everlasting most people are trying to make characters with power sets that fit the idea they had in mind, and many arent going out of their way to fullstack purples and io sets and all that stuff.

 

Excel. is a great place, dont get me wrong, but like... they're the big numbers gang.

23 hours ago, The_Warpact said:

Try these people.

 

 

These guys are ALSO like, RIGHT up your alley. I saw the post a while back, and was like "I hate grinding but good for them". They're big into it and I think that's totally cool, like, Ive been tempted to join up JUST to have a character and group who can painstakingly scrape the content of the game so I can experience the story, alongside a group of people looking to do the same.

 

Personally, Im NEVER kitted out, I hate feeling like a leech. And the only time I ever DO feel like a leech is on AE Farms, which I partake in because I hate grinding more than I hate feeling like im a leech.

 

I digress though. My point is that I get you, and those would be my solutions.

[SeraphimKensai]

There's an option when forming a TF that disables invention origin bonuses. If you pick that there will be no blaster tanking a map.

 

Just make sure though to advertise that your running with that option on, otherwise you'll have people quiting as soon as they notice their multimillion influence build does nothing.

[MTeague]

This is why I took an 8 month break from the game. 

 

Exclesior was definitely the most populated, but my controller (Mind/Kin) consistently felt useless after the mid-30's. I'm fine with Control not being necessary, but it wasn't even remotely helpful to any team I joined. And I didn't want to only be useful for my secondary. So I solo'd him. From 34, all the way to 50, with only the occasional group. Then I did a ton of flashbacking on him. It was lonely. But it made the maps far more challenging, and made me use every power wisely, going up against a wide variety of enemies. 

• I really enjoy IO's and set bonuses. 
• I deliberately level slowly, and have been known to disable XP first thing on joining a group, if it's a character I dont' WANT to level yet. 
• I use a ton of Attuned IO's as I level, because it can take me 5 months to ding 50.  I level sllllllllooooooowwwwly.  I enjoy doing a great deal of content "at level". Not all of it, there's always lots more to flashback later, but i like experiencing my characters at different levels of power as they mature. 
• To an extent the IO usage makes me complicit in my own problem, because yea, I do build my characters to be pretty durable through those bonuses. 
• I do not enjoy incarnates, and I wish they weren't activated in all content 45+, but I also wish I'd win powerball one of these days. And it's about as likely. I have no illusions there. I can't say people are wrong to use incarnates. I just.... rarely team after lvl 44 because of them, except on Goldside. 
• I hate speedruns. Always have. 
• I hate when a "team" is 5 soloists racing around a team while a controller and a defender are trying to figure out how to catch up without dying.
• I actually enjoy travelling around the city oldschool style. I don't care if it takes me 6 minutes to get to the next door. 

The bottom line is, how I want to play, isn't how most people play. 

And I'm reluctant to join a "regular team" because I can't guarantee I'll want to team "every wednesday and thursday" or something like that. 

So, to some degree, it's a single-player game with some chat windows for me. 

 

So, every once in awhile I take a long break. Fiddle with Darkest Dungeon, or Skyrim, or Civilization. 

I don't have a better answer.

[Bionic_Flea]

It takes effort and time, but you can find people that like to play like you do.  My suggestion would be to put story arc teams together in Striga and Croatoa.  If you can get folks to all start an arc at the beginning, everyone can get the story arc completion bonuses.  Even if you don't, you get to unlock two great TFs (Hess in Striga and Katie Hannon in Croatoa) and work towards badges and accolades.  At level 35 you can do the same in Rikti War Zone.

 

Good luck!

[Shadow Raven]

I'm on Excelsior, and I'll team up with you.

 

Look for Grimm Raven. I'm only level 23, but I want to level fast, but still enjoy the missions, if that makes sense?

 

I've found some decent groups, so far.

 

I'm enjoying CoH redux more than the first in many ways.

 

[Loc]

I find this a really interesting topic and very important for the future growth of the game.  Personally I am exactly the opposite in that I prefer speeding and am the person who'll solo the mission objectives in a pug manti if nobody else is speeding. However if it's not specifically advertised as a speed I will ask if the leader is okay with speeding and won't do it if he says no. The issue comes when the objectives of the run are improvised on the fly. I've had times where I say I'll join if it's a badge run and then the leader just ignores it completely or the opposite where it suddenly becomes a badge run. Like people said before in this thread, the most important thing is advertising what you want in the LFG message or at least before starting the TF say the intended goal in team chat so people have the option to opt out.

 

There is a deeper discussion here though and that is the general difference in the mentality of speeding versus the casual style referred to in the OP. When I started speeding I did not intent to be a speedrunner; speedies are simply the vast majority of what you find in LFG and I took what I could get. When I did my first few MLTFs I had no idea what was going on. When people were killing the vines  around the Thorn tree I was killing monsters cause I had no idea what I was doing. However, when you run it for like the 10th time you start seeing the patterns and slowly get what you're supposed to do. Then you start asking people some stuff and you quickly start to know exactly what's going on.

 

This is where the main reason speedies are popular comes in. Once you know what to do, how to do it best and you know how to build your toon the game suddenly becomes very easy. Sure, there's plenty of people who are way better than me and when I play with them the difference to me is really obvious but we aren't talking about wiping 10 times versus 1 time here. We're talking about finishing the task force 2 minutes faster or reaching the end of the map 5 seconds faster. The general content remains really easy and speeding makes it more fun again.

 

Stuff like let's disable incarnates or set bonuses do mitigate this and that can be fun for a 1 off experience but this is not a solution. Handicapping people by taking away the awesome variety of options in slotting your build and using your incarnates is dumb as this is something that sets this game apart from so many MMOs and is why I like it in the first place. So many customization options. Just boosting enemy stats or debuffing your own is also subpar. For starters if you put an MLTF or RSF at +4 experienced speeders will still be able to finish it anyway just a little slower maybe. (although for a full team of speedsters it honestly doesn't matter it's more of a benchmark to see if your build is up to par)

 

What do I think the answer is? Exactly what the developers are doing. Aeon is a perfect step in the right direction. Adding new challenging mechanics in combination with enemy stat increases creates an interesting challenge that is more than "okay the monsters are so strong that I guess I just have to go a bit slower". CC was mentioned to be mostly useless which I don't entirely agree with but it certainly isn't mandatory or a great addition to the team. Now you can suddenly confuse brickers in Aeon to negate their explosion. It's a small thing but a good start if you ask me. Same with the beam that drags you to it and then you die because there's like 5 -res debuffs stacked on you with a bunch of enemies around you. Having tp here is suddenly very useful in combat. (Not CC I know but is in the same ballpark of different solutions to problems thrown at you) And the good thing is that in both of these situations you aren't required to have those powers, but they're nice to have and make it a lot easier. That's good game design if you ask me.

 

The new difficulties are also great in that they up the mechanics and enemy stats forcing even good teams to really start planning stuff out if they want to speed this (or just complete it even). And then you have lower difficulties for when you just wanna pug with strangers where both the enemies and their mechanics are weaker. I know that in Aeon the mechanics are still relatively basic but if you put that next to most other stuff in the game I can only say great job to everyone involved in making that content.

[ZemX]

On 1/17/2022 at 3:28 AM, Maestro Mavius said:

I'm racing to keep up with the Vet level 400 Blaster on a Moonfire that is tanking the whole map, by the time I get done casting Lightning Storm the mob is dead and we're moving on.

 

As one of those pesky "vet level" folks who likes to join lower level PuG contact/radio teams, the whole reason I do it is that this typically DOESN'T happen.   Not that you can't get on a steamroller team with the right makeup, but it's a whole lot less common in the mid-levels precisely because people usually do pick an appropriate level of difficulty.

 

The thing is, you mention Moonfire but also that you made sure not to be on a speed run team.  Was that Moonfire advertised as a Kill Most or something?  Was it being run at high difficulty or at +0?  Because in my experience damned near every TF/Trial that isn't a Kill Most ITF (or now the Aeon with the higher difficulty levels) people run for speed/merits at +0 even when they don't SAY they are doing that.  It's like the default for TFs.

 

They're less common, but look for (or run your own) "contact mission" teams.  These are less popular with the level-up-fast set because you tend to have to do some zone travel and some talk-to missions rather than just processing batches of +4/x8 radio missions.  You'll also want to get on a team that's at or below your own level (another benefit of being the one leading the mission) so that you don't end up trying to hit +5 and +6 purples because you're side-kicked.

[Greycat]

7 hours ago, Redletter said:

 

As GC said, I'd try Roleplaying over on Everlasting. It's mostly populated by roleplayers, and while Veracor makes his home there, most people arent Vet Level 12billion. Mind you, vet level 80 gajillion isnt what makes these things go fast, its builds, and on Everlasting most people are trying to make characters with power sets that fit the idea they had in mind, and many arent going out of their way to fullstack purples and io sets and all that stuff.

 

You didn't read my signature, did you. 😉 (I'm primarily, almost exclusively, on Everlasting.)

[Ironblade]

2 hours ago, Greycat said:

You didn't read my signature, did you. 😉 (I'm primarily, almost exclusively, on Everlasting.)

Keep in mind, if they're reading on their phone, they don't see the signatures.

[Coyotedancer]

So, I may as well just ditch this collection of support characters I have, shouldn't I? 

It really seems like they're no longer useful or welcomed anywhere in the game anymore. (Outside of Aeon, at least. Which I'm not a huge fan of. 😝 )

 

They've been well-nigh-useless on high level teams from day one on Homecoming.... And, knowing that, I didn't build them for end game play. Even though they're all "finished" 50+ characters with full set-builds and (*gasp* *horror*) VET LEVELS, I built them specifically to run exemplar with mid- and lower level teams. Because that's where support still felt at least marginally useful and desirable on an average, random PUG. 

 

And then posts like this one started showing up. <_< 

 

"OMG! Exemplar characters are ruining the game! You're making it terrible for The Real Lowbies! Get thee back, foul Power Gamers!"

 

So... yeah. I guess I'm a Bad Person and I should feel bad for ever bringing that Dark Defender or Rad Corruptor along on a 30-something team.

 

The gang have just been sitting there, gathering proverbial dust for most of the last year. HIgh-level doesn't need them. Low-level doesn't want them. 

 

Maybe I'll respec them all to run solo-only.

At least until that also, somehow, becomes a BadWrong practice that's killing people's love for the game... 

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Coyotedancer

[Without_Pause]

I have yet to play a build which felt needed on high enough level teams. Not sure why a support build would need to feel any lesser. IOs and Incarnates make so much of the game irrelevant. Odds are if I'm on a team I am more and more likely to be playing a support character. I really only play non-support ones on teams if it is for a TF/badge.

[Coyotedancer]

7 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

I have yet to play a build which felt needed on high enough level teams. Not sure why a support build would need to feel any lesser. IOs and Incarnates make so much of the game irrelevant. Odds are if I'm on a team I am more and more likely to be playing a support character. I really only play non-support ones on teams if it is for a TF/badge.

 

You can only hear the friends putting together the teams say, "We probably won't need your [Defender X] with this group. Bring [DPS Chatacter Y] instead? It'll make things go faster" so many times before you realize just how unwanted those support types are. I mean, my blaster or scrap probably wasn't exactly needed either, but it was still more valued taking up that spot on the team. 

[Bill Z Bubba]

35 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

Maybe I'll respec them all to run solo-only.

At least until that also, somehow, becomes a BadWrong practice that's killing people's love for the game... 

 

I'm pretty sure that you're well aware that soloing has ALWAYS been BadWrong, a blight upon this fine MMO and the primary cause of everything wrong in the world.

[Coyotedancer]

1 minute ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

I'm pretty sure that you're well aware that soloing has ALWAYS been BadWrong, a blight upon this fine MMO and the primary cause of everything wrong in the world.

 

It's true. 

 

I may have also heard that "Why are you soloing in an MMO?!?"-thing a few times. 😆

[MHertz]

On 1/17/2022 at 1:28 AM, Maestro Mavius said:

Past that however I feel like a sidekick continually rushing to keep up when I might as well be door sitting. ... I'm racing to keep up with the Vet level 400 Blaster on a Moonfire that is tanking the whole map, by the time I get done casting Lightning Storm the mob is dead and we're moving on. 90% of my powers are useless, I have no chance to try them out to see what works because none of it is needed anyways.

The problem isn't you. The problem is — and forgive me for saying this, because playing styles differ from person to person — I don't think those people who rush ahead are very good team players.

 

They may be very good at playing their character. They might have an outstanding build. They might have spent a lot of money on IO sets. They might have dozens of level 50s and know every Task Force by heart. But that particular playstyle is often the cause (in my opinion) when there are team wipeouts. The Brute (or Tanker or Scrapper or whoever) is two mobs ahead, racing forward to use their big alpha strike on a bunch of puny minions. The Controllers and Blasters are left behind to mop up the more durable enemies, like COT Death Mages or War Wolves, which take a lot longer. Now the team is split up. The Defender can't keep the Tanker buffed in the other room and still keep the squishies safe; there's nobody to hold aggro in the back because the "best" players way out in front don't even pay attention to anyone else's health bar. The Stalker is suddenly getting pounded because he doesn't realize he's no longer got those tasty team buffs. People have to keep checking the map to see where the team's supposed to be. And some teams allow this to happen because some people are terrible leaders.

 

Don't get me wrong. This is my perspective. I generally like it when the team is safe and there are no hiccups. But there are moments when the game is truly exhilarating because a couple of people almost get defeated. Maybe two or three do and have to be rezzed, and the ambushes are coming thick and fast, and you have to use every power in your arsenal (including Brawl) because you got nothin' else. That's fun. Some people like to play like that all the time. Because there's danger. That's just not me, at least not all of the time. And those players might find my preferred playstyle boring, where everything runs smoothly and people are generally not in grave danger every moment and the Blaster isn't racing to accumulate debt badges.

 

My solution to this: I run my own groups. I usually don't try to run with someone else's team. If I run into somebody who's awful at running a team, who insults players or their builds, or who insists on a team full of solo artists, I put them on ignore.

 

When I run my own team, I keep people informed about my decisions and I emphasize team play. "Can the Scrapper please take point? Both of our Brutes are lowbies and they don't have full armor yet." "I'm turning this next mission down because it's Carnival of Shadows." "Defender, my heals aren't very good, so if you can handle the team, I'll watch your back." "Controllers, if I see a Quantum in the crowd, I'll call it out, and you can target through me."

 

It usually works.

 

Nevertheless, there are still times when the team is rolling so well, you only get to use a handful of your powers. Sometimes on my ice/cold corruptor, I only have the chance to use Ice Storm, Sleet, Blizzard, Snowstorm, my shield powers, and a couple of blasts before the spawn is defeated and we're on to the next.

 

That's fine.

I'm like you; I want to see what all the powers do. I hate the idea of playing City of the Same Four Power Pools (Boxing, Tough, Weave, Maneuvers, Assault, Tactics, Hasten, blah blah blah). That's boring as hell to me. Why bother playing alts at all, if you're going to make them functionally the same?

 

But you can look at this scenario as an opportunity. If you're only using certain powers when you're on teams like that, make a second build for those team situations. Take the very best powers you'll always want, and skip some others. Fill up on power pools. Make yourself a beast so you can keep up. And use your first build to see what powers you like, when you're on teams that allow for a more varied experience.

Edited January 18, 2022 by MHertz

[Without_Pause]

21 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

You can only hear the friends putting together the teams say, "We probably won't need your [Defender X] with this group. Bring [DPS Chatacter Y] instead? It'll make things go faster" so many times before you realize just how unwanted those support types are. I mean, my blaster or scrap probably wasn't exactly needed either, but it was still more valued taking up that spot on the team. 

Those aren't friends. Friends will let you bring whatever and not care how fast things are run.

 

Also, I find it rather laughable that a Scrapper is going to be THAT valued over a Defender when it comes to team speed.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Without_Pause

[Loc]

39 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

You can only hear the friends putting together the teams say, "We probably won't need your [Defender X] with this group. Bring [DPS Chatacter Y] instead? It'll make things go faster" so many times before you realize just how unwanted those support types are. I mean, my blaster or scrap probably wasn't exactly needed either, but it was still more valued taking up that spot on the team. 

 

Buffers and debuffers especially are almost always wanted on speedies I don't know what you guys are on about...

[Coyotedancer]

2 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

Those aren't friends. Friends will let you bring whatever and not care how fast things are run.

 

Also, I find it rather laughable that a Scrapper is going to be THAT valued over a Defender when it comes to team speed.

 

 

In fairness, they wanted that Scrap for RP purposes, and for her toughness more than the added damage...

(It was a Liberty and we were planning on leap-frogging the sidekick AVs. I off-tank with Tess and our regular "back-up Brutester" wasn't around. ) It was more typical of the gang to ask for one of the scarier Stalkers, so I could both spike problematic mobs and run the maps and Assemble to particular points. 

 

That's all pretty off-topic for this thread, though. 

[coggy]

im a casual player too and ihave raised similar issues , i find it hard to get teams full stop and when i have tried to set up them it seems people want uber xp progression or they leave.Just managed to get my 1st 50 and i had less than 10 teams altogether, the rest of the time it was a solo slog which i found exgatterated by the lack of funds compared to everyone else who seem to be slotted with io sets from the outset.

On those few teams i would feel the same,almost superfluous as pretty much everyone was steaming along and i was sidekicked the mobs were all plus 5 so i was barely hitting the mob let alone doing anything useful, this was ill/rad troller and even my debuffs seemed pointless.

Dropped out tbh and been on zwift instead lately

[Erratic1]

1 hour ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

You can only hear the friends putting together the teams say, "We probably won't need your [Defender X] with this group. Bring [DPS Chatacter Y] instead? It'll make things go faster" so many times before you realize just how unwanted those support types are. I mean, my blaster or scrap probably wasn't exactly needed either, but it was still more valued taking up that spot on the team. 

 

I am confused how increased Recovery/To-Hit/Accuracy/Recharge/Damage/Speed are things a group turns down, even if they do not strictly need them especially when you consider the buffs are going to be on 7 other people versus adding one more DPS.

[Loc]

3 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

 

I am confused how increased Recovery/To-Hit/Accuracy/Recharge/Damage/Speed are things a group turns down, even if they do not strictly need them especially when you consider the buffs are going to be on 7 other people versus adding one more DPS.

 

That's the thing. Almost 0 speeders would turn that down. It's just wrong

[Erratic1]

1 hour ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

I'm pretty sure that you're well aware that soloing has ALWAYS been BadWrong, a blight upon this fine MMO and the primary cause of everything wrong in the world.

 

 

While I admit some frustration at logging on, offering whichever character I've logged on to any group/TF which is forming/running, hearing chirps, starting the process to form a TF, spending 45m to recruit three other people (if I even get a second) despite seeing there are a ton of people on, I would -=NEVER=- suggest soloing is bad or wrong--you know what you need to do, what you have time to do, and what situation you are looking for.

 

Happily I have learned to put less time and effort into getting/forming teams and after 10 minutes or so of trying will logoff and go play some other game.