Favourite/most hated enemy group

[FenrisWolf44]

Which enemy group (ie Hellions, COT, Malta etc) do you most enjoy having missions against, and which do you most hate having missions against?

[KaizenSoze]

I have a love/hate with Arachnos. They are tough and can wreck you, but it's always a good fight solo. Same thing with Carnival of Shadows.

 

I don't hate, but find very boring. Cimerora Romans, they are just tedious to fight. High defense, lots of -defense, tons of mez protection, not a lot of variety. Fighting them solo is a slog.

 

How about you Fenris?

 

 

[Lazarillo]

In some ways, Nemesis count as both, for me.  I love them for the lore and for Nemesis himself being such a clever, outrageous villain, and for just the fact that when you get down to brass tacks (pun intended?) he and his followers are so downright vile that clobbering them feels so very cathartic.  Unfortunately, they're utterly un-fun to actually fight, due to boring, repetitive power choices and mechanics that provide lots of time-sink but little challenge.  So I love what they are from the story and lore side of things, and hate them for squandering all that on being completely terrible in terms of gameplay.

[Bill Z Bubba]

I love hearing carnies scream. I hate the cystal titan's cheaty autohits.

[The_Warpact]

I love killing Longbow so fun.

 

Malta on the other had I find boring, "oh a sapper oh joy" or teleporting gunslinger boring, boring, boring.

[FenrisWolf44]

4 hours ago, FenrisWolf44 said:

Which enemy group (ie Hellions, COT, Malta etc) do you most enjoy having missions against, and which do you most hate having missions against?

 

Vahzilok hate because my favourite powersets all have toxic weakness's and they invariably wreck me. Love Freakshow, they are fun, they don't spread out too much, and they invariably come back so extra xp 🙂

[cranebump]

Freakshow. Get tired of killing them twice. 

 

Don't really have a favorite, but some I'll pick as a personal nemesis for various characters. One of scrappers had it in for Malta (seemed to fit their story). Another mentioned the Family in the backstory, so naturally...

 

Ironically, one of my tech-based Rider toons has fought so many Freaks that I'm starting to identify them as his personal pest. Now, do I like fighting them? Hell no. 

[Black Talon]

Very interesting topic choice, FenrisWolf44 - I can see a line of argument I can agree with, to some extent, with every poster's submission thus far.  On my part, there are just certain villain groups I tend to avoid overall, such as the Carnies; not for any specific difficulty with the minions or even the lieutenants, but those bosses who do the ghost-shift thing and are summoning up phantasms, fake phantasms, inflicting illusory wounds and so forth.  The more real-world (if I may call it such) Carnie bosses are more manageable, but there's pretty much a fifty-fifty chance of having a boss come up that, for a solo character, is going to be essentially out of reach.  Clockwork - at the early/mid-levels, at least - also tend to be somewhat problematic, and those stupid Gears showing up to inflict what a friend of mine calls "F-you" damage after the boss has been taken out have actually brought down some of my guys who made it through the main boss scrap damaged, but intact.

 

Otherwise, they're pretty much all welcome to line up and come through the BUTT-KICKING HERE door; the backgrounds for the specific alts (the Hero ones, anyway) have origins tied to specific bad guys, and thus those groups tend to end up getting "first-choice" when going through the police-scanner missions.  Nemesis...well, just take out the minions first so that the stupid Vengeance power, when the LT. goes, is ineffective, and with Arachnos I ensure that the boys have got some kind of accuracy-bonus power (Focused Accuracy and the like) to get through the Blinding, Smoke Grenades and so forth with as little difficulty as possible.  Again, though, I do get the gang's point with regard to their own likes/dislikes; I just pass on all thanks to the writers and Devs who have put this game together in a fashion that offers real bad guy variety, but still keeps things on a somewhat manageable keel.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Black Talon

[TungstenShark]

Favorite - Council/5th Column - Who doesn't like whooping Nazi ass?

 

Least - Malta is definitely up there, with Sappers, Engineers summoning adds and Gunslingers teleporting around.

[Cancrusher]

It varies widely, depending on what AT and powersets I'm playing.  Take Praetorians, for example.  The mix of rangers and seers will utterly wreck some of my characters, but other characters cut through them like butter.

 

I don't really hate fighting any specific foe.  Maybe Devouring earth.  Those can get kind of tedious.  What I want out of a mob fight is to be stiffly challenged, but still be able to achieve victory- even if that means taking a dirt nap or two in the process.  I don't want the fight to fell like a pushover.  I don't want the fight to feel impossible or futile.

 

Actually, if there is one mob that I truly loathe, I guess it would have to be Phantoms and their Decoys.  I autotarget with tab key "nearest target" and this invariably locks onto them, forcing me to retarget manually with the cursor.  Also, the Decoys are invulnerable.  Also, they hang around for an unreasonably long time after the death of the mob that summoned them.  I think that is actually what infuriates me the most about them.

 

Okay, yeah.  I changed my mind.  Burning hatred of Phantom Decoys...  🤬

[The_Warpact]

You know honorable mention for a challenge, Vanguard, what a fun challenging group.

[Zewks]

I dislike any group that frequently makes it impossible to hit them.

 

Missing over and over, or not being able to attack at all, is the worst part of the game.

[Frozen Burn]

Love All - every group is unique and provide their own set of challenges that make the game fun.  Given that, I do have some favorites that stand out or are less -favs:

 

REALLY LOVE:

• Nemesis
• Knives of Artemis
• Knives of Vengeance
• Carnival of Shadows
• Syndicate
• Destroyers (Boom, baby!)
• The Awakened
• Rularuu
• Lanaruu

Less fond of:

• Circle of Thorns
• Vanguard
• Rikti
• Clockwork (Primal)

 

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by Frozen Burn
Can't believe I forgot to mention EVIL primal CLOCKWORK! ...ewww!

[KaizenSoze]

25 minutes ago, Frozen Burn said:

Love All - every group is unique and provide their own set of challenges that make the game fun.  Given that, I do have some favorites that stand out or are less -favs:

 

REALLY LOVE:

• The Awakened

I forgot about the Awakened, because there is really only one high level arc that has them.

 

Nasty, nasty, I love em.

[Mezmera]

Carnies and 50+ Knives of Vengeance and the new Relentless Goldbrickers I like fighting since they make you keep on your toes.  

 

As much as I like the ambiance of Cimerora and those Romans I don't find their fights all that intriguing.  Once they break free from control its all out the window which I find pretty cheap.  Whereas the Relentless Goldbrickers these devs did a good job of giving them a way to break free from control but not eliminate any impact of the control AT thereafter because you can still apply another fresh round of control to get them back in order.  Plus then once the Cim's break free you have to keep kiting because if you stop to have a glass of water they'll gang up on you and all that -def in such quick succession really neuters anything that doesn't have high DDR.  

 

As someone that enjoys playing a control AT with high built in defense I find these Cimerorans to be big cheaters.  I do find the ITF to be a grand adventure and these fights a good test of durability for my doms but I much prefer how the devs implemented critters breaking free of control on the Relentless Aeon.

 

All in all I like pretty much every group in the game, I just hate cave maps so any group that makes me trudge through those cramp passages will get extra sauce on my punches.  

Edited May 20, 2022 by Mezmera

[Greldek]

The lost are by far my favorite enemy group. I just thik they are hilarious.

 

But I also agree with the previous poster who hates the enemies who bubble themselves or team mates and make them invulnerable. It's just not a fun mechanic.

[Saikochoro]

Favorite: Freakshow

Hated: Caves

[biostem]

I really like the different Tsoo bosses and their fairly varied powers.  I really hate the Carnies - not because of the end drain or anything, but because of the "artificial difficulty" baked into the phasing illusionists and the invincible decoy phantasms.  Frankly, the phase should have been an actual power that they had to use, (give it a finite duration and recharge), and the phantasms they summon should have never been given the decoy phantasm ability.

[Spaghetti Betty]

After the most recent update, my favorite group to fight is easily Crey.

 

The group I dislike the most is Vahzilok, just because they are present at lvl 1. When most toons might have a little bit of resistance to smashing and lethal at best, these loons show up with fire and toxic damage. And slows. And defense debuffs.

[biostem]

4 minutes ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

After the most recent update, my favorite group to fight is easily Crey.

I wish they varied the PPs' powers a bit more, and changed their MoG to be more like the player version.  Still, I do like all the different power armor units and scientists.  I'd love it if we got access to some of those costume pieces!

[oedipus_tex]

I really, really dislike any low level enemy that has endurance drain. It just slows things down so much at that level. So, Clockwork.

 

Favorite enemy group is the witches that show up in the Katie Hannon Task Force. They also have endurance drain, but at that level range there are more strategies to deal with it, and it makes for some fun team content.

[Techwright]

Used to hate Tsoo  very early in the original game.  That was back when one could run into a large room heavily populated with sorcerers.  I've mentioned it elsewhere but it once took a pug my best friend and I were on nearly 3 hours to clear a large room that was mostly sorcs, with a LOT of hospital transports along the way.  I don't recall when it happened, but they seem to have been toned down a lot.

 

Hated Crey for the Protectors and their ridiculous 1 minute invulnerability to everything.  I always felt it should have been changed to something like 90% resistance, so we could chip them down those last few points.  I think they got changed recently, though I don't remember reading patch notes on that.

 

Love the Freaks, always have, but I don't remember the super sappers from my time in the original game, and I hate how easily they recharge.  Perhaps its just the swiss cheese that is my memory, but I seem to recall the rez could happen to any Freak, without the leeching, and I found that so much more fun, than one type dominant in the rez, and all others recessive.  Still like the group though.

 

I've grown fond of Skulls (or is that Skuls?)  with the addition of the female characters, including leadership roles, they feel more fleshed out (no pun intended) and the Eagle Eye arc that was added is really a lot of fun.

 

I suppose what makes me hate or like a group is to how well balanced they are between member types.  If the group clearly relies heavily on 1 or 2 types, then that is a turn off.  But the closer groups come to feeling like every member type can give me a notable challenge, especially if they coordinate attacks better than other groups, those are the groups that would appeal to me.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Techwright
Grammar clarification.

[Luminara]

If I have a Confuse, I love fighting Rikti so I can steal seventeen million AMs from Guardians.  Right up to the "MISS!  MISS!  MISS!" crap when I'm trying to hit drones, then I hate fighting Rikti.

 

I love fighting Knives, unless they're hammering me with -Recharge and making me drop out of Domination, or delaying my perfectly created attack chain so I have to listen to that fucking "WAAAAAAA NOT RECHARGED DOOFUS" sound.  That's just an insult on top of the damage I'm taking.  Bitches.

 

I hate fighting Nemesis with melee characters, because most PBAoEs and cones aren't properly flagged as AoE, so it's a constant whiff festival.  The not fun kind of festival, where you're strapped into a dunking booth and sitting over a pool of urine and feces, while people throw things and laugh at you.  Not as bad with ranged characters, as their AoEs and cones are usually properly flagged, but still not in my list of delightful ways to spend the evening.

 

I hate fighting Longbow because there's always that one asshole who flies away and doesn't come back until you've been sitting in front of the computer for three days.

 

I hate fighting Crey because the tanks all do the same damn thing, run to the furthest point of the map and just stay there forever.

 

And those Assholecendents who phase me FIRST THING, I'd die happy if I never ran into them again.

 

AVs and GMs are just bullet sponges, no real challenge, just long, tedious fights.  I don't like that.

 

I love fighting late game CoT.  I hate fighting early game CoT.

[PeregrineFalcon]

Hate: Clockwork and Vahzilok at low levels. I think we all know why.

 

Love: Carnies (I love to hear the screams of my victims) and PPD (It's just cathartic).

[biostem]

1 minute ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

PPD (It's just cathartic)

They're one of the cooler groups, IMHO.  With the shells/hardsuit units,psi-cops, ones merged with Kheldians, and their various robots, they offer a lot of different enemy types - it would be cool if there was a group of "Rogue PPD" units that heroes could fight - maybe just have them draw a red slash through the PPD logo/badge and employ darker colors to differentiate them...