What is the Most Fun Strike/Task Force? (Late 2022 Edition)

[Astralock]

It's been over a year since the last poll.  The old Task Forces available via Ouroboros Flashback were missing from the last poll, and there's been two new Strike Forces added since.  Well, one and a half. 

 

Let's see what the forums community thinks these days.

[MoonSheep]

posi part 2 is a favourite of mine - it’s low enough level that it retains the classic CoH experience of needing to work with your team mates, but high enough level that you have a good amount of powers to choose from

 

the difficulty can go from easy to team wipe very quickly on the final mish especially, makes for a fun ride

[mrdeeds7]

So many blueside TFs get 0 votes... no huge shock, but yikes. Can we do something about Synapse? 

[KaizenSoze]

At least, but number of runs lead.

 

Yin is my clear favorite, not too punishing if you have a weak team. Fun to run at high difficultly.

 

Definitely, my favorite to run as a kill most.

[Asymptotic]

I find that voting for the best TF is a bit unfair and uninformative, because there are TFs that are not necessarily the best but still are pretty good.  Instead, I would break them down into categories.

 

Here are the categories I would break them down into:

• Great: I would eagerly run or join this TF/SF repeatedly.
• Good: I enjoy doing this TF/SF occasionally.
• Ok: I don't really enjoy doing this TF/SF but I don't hate it either.  I normally only do it if I need a badge or for WST.
• Skip: I don't do this TF.

Here is how I would break down CoH's TFs and SFs as well as some trials.  This is based on weekly runs that I have done with friends and PUGs over the last two years.  I only do kill-most runs at higher difficulties.  I also avoid running trials, TFs, or SFs that require careful team building or a lot of instruction on my part.

 

Great

• Imperious TF (Regular mode, level 35+): Easy to fill, and great XP.  Takes under an hour.
• Market Crash (level 40+): Easy to fill.  Almost as good XP as ITF.  Takes under an hour,
• Penelope Yin TF (level 20+):   Easy to full.  Great way to earn XP for a 20-something char.  Takes well under an hour.  I also like making snarky comments about Clamor poor wardrobe choices.

Good

• Positron I/II TF (Level 8/11+):    Takes under an hour.   I like fighting my shadow self or poking fun of Dr Vahz's meat suit.  Exemplaring down to 15 can be painful, though.
• Summer Blockbuster (Level 15+): Takes well under an hour.  Rewards an Overwhelming Force enhancement.  Although the missions are interesting, I've grown bored of it due to repeated runs.
• Manticore TF (Level 30+): Probably the best of the old-school CoH TFs.  About 1-1.5 hours.   I dislike the MoGs of PPs and branching of tech maps.  I enjoy making snarky comments about Wilson's impending firing.
• Numina TF (Level 35+): Fun except for the kill X of everything part.  About an hour.
• Sutter TF (Level 20+):  Takes about 1-1.5 hours.  Some players get confused with the first and third maps, requiring me to give instructions.
• Moonfire TF (Level 23+): Takes about an hour.  Located in a single zone.  Easy to fill since many people use it for the Slayer and Silver Bullet badges.
• Hess TF (Level 25+): Takes about an hour.  What's more awesome than invading an underground base in an active volcano with a giant robot.  Requires that you run the full arc of Striga missions to unlock.
• Tin Mage/Apex (Level 50): Takes under an hour.  Players can get frustrated fighting Battle Maiden.
• Tarikoss SF (Level 15+): Takes about an hour. Missions are varied.  I enjoy making rotisserie chicken jokes about the final boss.  The last mission is overly long, however.   Exemplaring down to 15 can be painful.
• Silver Mantis SF (Level 20+):  Takes a little over an hour.  Final mission is a bit too long.  Punching guns for 15 minutes isn't very fun.
• Lord Recluse SF (Level 50):  Takes about 1-1.5 hours.  Varied missions.  Easy to fill.  I enjoy poking fun of Manticore.

Ok

• Synapse (Level 15+):  Takes about 1.5-2.5 hours.  Has too many missions, many of them kill-all missions.
• Citadel (Level 25+):  Takes about 1.5-2.5 hours.  Too long and repetitive.  All the missions are bunker missions, which can be difficult to navigate.  Has a lot of zone hopping between TI and IP.
• Katie Hannon (Level 30+): Takes about an hour.  Requires you to run Croatoa misions to unlock.  First mission can be impossible with PUGs if difficulty is set too high.
• Renault SF (Level 25+): Takes about an hour and a half.  Final mission is fun.  Has a lot of zone hopping.  Could be better if it had fewer missions and less zone hopping.
• Ice Mistral SF (Level 35+):  Final mission is interesting.  Lots of CoT.
• Miss Liberty TF (Level 50+): Lord Recluse can be a challenge at high difficulties and with PUGs.

Skip

• Old Positron TF (Level 10+);  Too long and dull.
• Sister Psyche TF (Level 20+): Too long and dull.
• Shadow shard TFs (Dr Quaterfield, Sara Moore, JustinAugustine, Faathim the Kind) (Level 50):  Too long and repetitive.  Also has a lot of zone hopping.  Also, getting around in shadow shard zones are difficult.  Also requires giving users instructions on how to get to the right shadow shard zone.
• Mortimer Kal SF (Level 20+): Requires that you unlock this SF via a randomly dropped tip mission.  I hsven't been able to unlock it myself.  I did enjoy runs of this TF led by others, however.
• Lady Grey TF (Level 50): Beating this TF can be difficult with PUGs
• Dr Kahn TF and Barracuda SF (level 50)  Beating Reichman can be difficult with PUGs
• Dr Aeon SF (Level 50):  Too long.  Also, I don't have much experience running this.

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Asymptotic

[Riverdusk]

So tempted to vote Dr. Quaterfield just to troll. 😁  I sure do love the merits for it when it is the weekly though.

[Without_Pause]

The lack of SBB makes the list feel incomplete. It is one of the few things which actually feels different.

[Xiddo]

2 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

The lack of SBB makes the list feel incomplete. It is one of the few things which actually feels different.

Similarly the Halloween one is a real treat. Fiddly fun badges too.

[Astralock]

7 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

The lack of SBB makes the list feel incomplete. It is one of the few things which actually feels different.

 

4 hours ago, Xiddo said:

Similarly the Halloween one is a real treat. Fiddly fun badges too.

Those are both trials, not TFs nor SFs.

[Xiddo]

45 minutes ago, Astralock said:

 

Those are both trials, not TFs nor SFs.

Ah I know it is. Just meant it as a "I agree with the sentiment that it feels different" 🙂 

[mrdeeds7]

I would suggest giving Aeon another chance, I would put it in tier 1. It's playable, unique, and has a good pace

[Darkaiser]

I believe that many of the TFs need the 'Posi' treatment. Break them up into shorter bits, scrub the 'kill all' parts completely (ESPECIALLY the ones where you're hunting gray con targets), and try to make them less grindy.

 

The ITF is my all-time go-to ever for several reasons:

1) No blue tunnels. Even underground doesn't feel too cramped.

2) All in one zone.

3) That zone isn't in a city. The scenery outside looks really nice.

4) You can do a 'defeat all' for max Inf and XP or skip most of the mobs for a speed run. Play how you want.

5) With the new Diff settings even jaded players with overtuned builds can find a challenge.

[Lazarillo]

Hero TF has gotta be Moonfire for me. It's got a great level range where you've just got your primary t9 and there's a feeling of having really come into power.  It's all Council, and who doesn't love nazi-bashing?  Plus, it's all that with a Nictus and Striga bent, two bits of the setting that I find particularly neat.  Plus, hey, lotsa badge credit.  Atlas approves.  Hess is probably the second best, for more or less the same reasons, but not quite as good, IMO.

 

For villains, I voted Morty Kal.  It's decently fun and straightforward, although it being relatively short tends to kinda snowball into people heavily speedrunning it, and I think it's one of those that's kinda fun to go slow and savor the destruction.  Oh well.  Tarikoss is probably 2nd-ranked, being generally fun and having a pretty amusing "twist" at the end (not that a lot of people catch it, given TF-style storytelling).  Being lower-level, and particularly, lower-level with a fair amount of CoT can get rough, though.

 

Co-op, gotta be ITF.  It's the perfect example of how to just do fun team content, and even team storytelling, where everything is quite clear simply due to mission objectives, visuals, and very occasional smatterings of generally quite brief dialogue.  Not perfect, but better than you see in any other TF, really.  Haven't tried (and probably won't try, if I'm being honest) the new versions of it, but the original is classic for a reason.

[Xiddo]

On 9/25/2022 at 5:34 PM, Lazarillo said:

Tarikoss is probably 2nd-ranked, being generally fun and having a pretty amusing "twist" at the end (not that a lot of people catch it, given TF-style storytelling).  Being lower-level, and particularly, lower-level with a fair amount of CoT can get rough, though.

I have played this game for years, I’ve done that SF countless times, and this is the first time anyones mentioned this. His story could do with an ending…

[kelika2]

Synapes is just pure unfiltered City of Heroes in its prime.

Wading through seas of Minions to get to a goal

Cannot skip most of it and playing with others

No sitting around with one hand on the keyboard and the other hand on your genitals thinking about Reward Merits while your head is doing the calculations of time:merits ratios

Few IO set bonuses unless you have a super tricked out ATO/epic build

And having a decent build at that level required some thought while doing your previous respec.  Most people who outright complain are the types that have two travel powers AND Weave toggled on through the whole thing. (level 24)

 

I leave a paper group mid map just for a chance to get on a Synapes

I drop a farm mission even if all bars of patrol exp will be uneven to rip apart clockwork

And judging by at how high ITF scored, people love just killing, rolling and so on

[Lazarillo]

2 hours ago, Xiddo said:

I have played this game for years, I’ve done that SF countless times, and this is the first time anyones mentioned this. His story could do with an ending…

It does more or less have one, it's just not really fully explained except in the final clue (which disappears quickly 'cause you have to read it between the last AV, and the final mission getting turned in), and a little bit in the final mission turn-in (which only the leader can see).  As mentioned, it kinda suffers from the way story interacts with SFs, but it's kind of an amusing turn of events.

 

Throughout the SF, Tarikoss makes it clear he is, like, super, puppy-kicking evil and he only wants to do business with people who share his decidedly negative take on morality, but that if you can get on board with a guy like him, he'll share the power you can all gain by helping him bind the demon.  It's made pretty obvious that you shouldn't trust a guy like him and even the "heroic" NPCs warn you that you shouldn't let him take you for a ride.  So it's pretty obvious that he's planning to use you to tap all that demonic power for himself.  And then at the end...

Spoiler

...it turns out he was actually a hero (or more accurately a vigilante, I guess) all along, and the whole evil thing was an act.  He figured the only way to stop Batz was with a human sacrifice, so he acted so irredeemably evil so that he could basically assuage his conscience that anyone who would willingly go along with him wasn't worth saving anyway.  The Heroes were not trying to stop you, per se, but rather, stop him from getting your team sacrificed to the demon, as your fate if he'd succeeded would've been too horrific to allow, even to villains.  Batz, however, realizes he can either accept you as a sacrifice and be bound again, or willingly bind himself while setting you free, and that if he's stuck either way, inflicting a bunch of badass villains back on the world is reasonable revenge, so he gives you a kind of backhanded demonic thumbs up and sends you on your merry way.

 

For his own part, Tarikoss admits to it all in the end, but also notes that if you were to kill him now, you'd basically be admitting a hero duped you, and since you got a little bit of demonic power even if you didn't one-up him, and he got the beast re-bound, even if he couldn't get your team of super-evil puppy-kickers killed, both sides take the half-victory and go their separate ways.

 

[TalynDerre]

So, Redside, I just love the Barracuda one.  It's not too long, and then beating up all four of Recluse's top Archvillains, and then the MASSIVE fight with Reichsman and just wave after wave of 5th Column mooks rushing into the room just feels epic.  And even with the massive power creep, Reichsman is tough enough that you feel like a stone-cold badass for taking him down.

 

Blueside was a lot harder for me.  I ended up picking the Katie Hannon task force, because I like the Croatoa setting and the 10 Times the Victor fight is pretty fun and dynamic.

 

Co-op, I can't believe how few people are picking Apex.  The final fight against War Maiden is THE best setpiece fight in the game, bar none.

[Lightwitch]

Poll requires you to choose all three sections, so people who stick to one red/blue side, or don't have a favorite co-op TF, are forced to fake one in order to even see the results.