How to avoid dying 90% of the time

[Diantane]

I've been playing computer games since the Apple II was released in 1977. So I have a lot of experience playing RPG games (over 45 years - currently 68). I've practiced not dying in every game I've played.

 

In COH there are several ways:

 

1) if you are a ranged fighter or support, distance is your friend. If a foe tries to get within melee range of you, simply back away from them or move to a different part of the room. Hovering is better if there is room above you. Plus hover adds to your defense.

 

2) If you are a melee fighter, keep an eye on your health. If it gets below 50% and you don't have a heal or resprite, move away from the area to rest.

 

3) If most of the team dies and the rest of the foes are after you, go into an elevator or out the exit. Wait a second and then you can come back in as they will be running back to their spawn point.

 

4) Don't just fight until you die. You can't do any DPS if you are dead, but will do a lot more if you are still alive.

 

5) In combat, I rarely stay in one place. I constantly move so the enemy can't get a fix on me.

 

6) Buy resprites from the nurse for those "Oh crap" moments. When you take them in that emergency, leave the area and fully rest before beginning again

[lemming]

Decent advice for those who use your style of play.  I find flexibility in play style is usually needed, especially with PUGs.  I try to get an idea of the builds of my teammates with a info check.  Different when you play with people you know as well.  Voice chat can help there.

 

And some of those work for some of my characters.

 

Unless it's a run where defeats aren't allowed:

4)  That's why you slot up Rise of the Phoenix.   You're never more dangerous than when you're dead. 😄

 

And there's a lot of learning in getting debt.  Stress testing your builds, though try not to take down a team when you do so.    Also, keep a supply of awakens in email.  I used to email Bounce Backs and Restorations to myself, but wound up collecting too many.  Now I just sell off Bounce Backs and just keep a supply of Restorations.   Helps if you have Teleport Target and can supply those to teammates on occasion.  (Though there are powers available via dayjob & p2w for that, or even actual power sets...)

[ZemX]

1 hour ago, Diantane said:

5) In combat, I rarely stay in one place. I constantly move so the enemy can't get a fix on me.

 

Moving doesn't really prevent or even reduce the chance of an enemy targeting you.  If you manage to make it to the top of their aggro list, they will know your position and try to attack you no matter how you are moving.  You can combat teleport around the battlefield and they will never lose sight of you.  It might help avoid melee attackers a little by, essentially, kiting them around until someone else grabs them... but that's about it.  Your advice about staying away from melee attackers if you are primarily ranged yourself, covers this.

 

I would add that something I see often on teams when I am tanking is people are off away from the main fight with one difficult enemy and they are dying.  It might be all the way down some long hall.  Maybe a Freak who rezzed from the last fight or a runner from the current fight.  Folks... there is no law you gotta fight an enemy where THEY want!  If the team has moved up, bring that rezzer/runner/left-over with you to the team.   Drag it across a buddy's tar patch / Ice slick / Bonfire or near a Tanker's taunt aura.   I sometimes see people complain about being "left behind" to "clean up the mess".   Except nobody is making you stay behind but you.  Move up and bring that stuff with you!  It's not any one person's "job" to clean the map.  That's the team's job.

 

In general, teams should try to stick together.  If nobody designates a point person, it usually falls to whatever the toughest melee toon on the team is.  Assuming the team even needs that.  Not every team does.  Low to mid-level teams it is more common (though never required in all cases).  Higher level teams are rarely challenged in that respect.  But... if you'd like someone else to lead the team along, say so.  Otherwise PuG teams will default to the above.  It's not a bad idea to hash this out before the mission starts or if there are new members.  Takes just a line or two of chat and then you're off to the races.

[Techwright]

"How to avoid dying 90% of the time"

 

Why does no one ever give out the secret for not dying the other 10% of the time?  That's where the real money is.

 

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Techwright
Punctuation matters.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Did somebody say "real money"?

[MoonSheep]

if you’re not dying, you’re not living

[cranebump]

56 minutes ago, ZemX said:

I would add that something I see often on teams when I am tanking is people are off away from the main fight with one difficult enemy and they are dying.  It might be all the way down some long hall.  Maybe a Freak who rezzed from the last fight or a runner from the current fight.  Folks... there is no law you gotta fight an enemy where THEY want!  If the team has moved up, bring that rezzer/runner/left-over with you to the team.   Drag it across a buddy's tar patch / Ice slick / Bonfire or near a Tanker's taunt aura.   I sometimes see people complain about being "left behind" to "clean up the mess".   Except nobody is making you stay behind but you.  Move up and bring that stuff with you! 

If you're down to 1 or 2 leftover bad guys, sure. But if you're the tank, and you're the only tank, and you're on a TF with us squishy-ass blasters, it really IS your job to control aggro until the threat damage is mitigated. All that hopping in and running off that some folks do results in what I saw yesterday, while running in a Yin. Our tank did that thing where they gather a mob, stick around a short bit, then just run away, leaving behind not 1 or 2 stragglers, but significant numbers of foes (some of which chased the tank, thus scattering the leftover mob across our path). This constantly caused the team to split, thereby making it take more time to clear the mobs. If our tank had stayed even a little bit longer, we could've focused fire on them. Instead, they turned us all into free safeties. It should come as no surprise that we had a rolling wipe in the finale, because you couldn't depend on Mr. Combat ADD to contain anything.  

 

Just to be clear, I usually just ignore this shit, because people running in groups while acting like soloists isn't unusual these days. But this was just poor play. Poor, clueless, selfish play.

 

(By the way, I did a lot of that retreating when 6 of our tribe went down--kept backing up and firing at the freak mob...backing up and firing...damnit, they're still coming! I- [fwump]...gdit...)

Edited June 5, 2023 by cranebump

[Captain Fabulous]

Best way to avoid dying 90% of the time is to play a Regen. You'll die 100% of the time.

[Clave Dark 5]

2 hours ago, Diantane said:

2) If you are a melee fighter, keep an eye on your health. If it gets below 50% and you don't have a heal or resprite, move away from the area to rest.

You're no true scrapper. 

Or stalker. 

Or any other toon, at least going by how I play.   Scrapperlock is real and doesn't discriminate amongst ATs, my friend!  (serious answer: for a tank, I don't think about that until I hit 10%... maybe...)

[SeraphimKensai]

Okay I wasn't supposed to let people know, so this may get me kicked out of the club, but the extra 10% not covered is: killing your target before they kill you.

 

Results may vary.

[TheZag]

1 hour ago, Techwright said:

Why does no one ever give out the secret for not dying the other 10% of the time.  That's where the real money is.

 

Play a tank to survive that last 10%.

 

[ZemX]

1 hour ago, cranebump said:

If you're down to 1 or 2 leftover bad guys, sure. But if you're the tank, and you're the only tank, and you're on a TF with us squishy-ass blasters, it really IS your job to control aggro until the threat damage is mitigated.

 

Frankly people will bitch at you even if it IS just 1 or 2 leftovers.  Nevermind it's the whole team who left those same couple half dead bosses to kill a lone blaster.  It'll still be the tanker's (unpaid) job to have fully wiped their ass for them.

 

Best thing to do here is adjust.  If the team can't be trusted to finish off a couple half dead bosses then don't trust them.  If they wanna go slow.  Go slow.  It would be better if you could tee up the next spawn a few seconds early, but if the team isn't cooperating, you can't make them.  And talking it over never goes well because people get all into their "you can't tell me what to do!" feels about it.

[cranebump]

26 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

Frankly people will bitch at you even if it IS just 1 or 2 leftovers.  Nevermind it's the whole team who left those same couple half dead bosses to kill a lone blaster.

 

And talking it over never goes well because people get all into their "you can't tell me what to do!" feels about it.

I can’t say it was the whole team, since the tank often vacated before we gathered, after the first map mob anyway. Then you’d have some race off to follow because, well, they’re the tank, right? It all started with them. It was just a sloppy job, honestly. 

 

You’re dead on about the second point, though. For sure.

Edited June 5, 2023 by cranebump

[SwitchFade]

Really?! No one?!

 

You guys are seriously failing here, I can't believe no one rode in and said it....

 

GIT GUD.

 

C'mon people, you can do better than this!

[Nyghtmaire]

19 minutes ago, SwitchFade said:

GIT GUD

I thought the only winning move is not to play…?

[ZemX]

34 minutes ago, cranebump said:

I can’t say it was the whole team, since the tank often vacated before we gathered

 

I am not defending the tank in your specific example.  I am saying even when a tanker is doing it right, the team can still screw it up by following the tanker before finishing the fight.  

 

As a tanker you have two competing goals (1) Keep the team safe, (2) Run point and thus, lead the team quickly and efficiently through the mission.  That means not standing there drooling over the corpse of a Freak Tank wondering if it will stand up.  Because while you're doing that, the DPS squirrels are already nuking the next spawn and potentially making a mess there.   So mess here or mess there.  You pick.  What SHOULD work, if everyone plays along nicely, is the tanker can leave the last fight a handful of seconds early just to get enough time to put one or two good AoEs or toss a Taunt to make sure everything at the next fight is good and mad at them before the bombs start dropping.

 

But the team has to play along.  If they blindly follow the tanker for a reason as stupid as "durr... he's the tanker tho!" then you have to slow it all down.  And if they want to die in front of me rather than behind me... that's at least more easily blamed on them than on me.

 

Stilll, I wouldn't trade it for a 54 Incarnate team running normal content where it literally doesn't matter how anyone plays because it might as well be eight people soloing together.  Dealing with the way each team wants to operate in the middle levels is at least interesting, even when it goes a little (or a lot) wrong.

[Diantane]

9 hours ago, lemming said:

Decent advice for those who use your style of play.  I find flexibility in play style is usually needed, especially with PUGs.  I try to get an idea of the builds of my teammates with a info check.  Different when you play with people you know as well.  Voice chat can help there.

 

And some of those work for some of my characters.

 

Unless it's a run where defeats aren't allowed:

4)  That's why you slot up Rise of the Phoenix.   You're never more dangerous than when you're dead. 😄

 

And there's a lot of learning in getting debt.  Stress testing your builds, though try not to take down a team when you do so.    Also, keep a supply of awakens in email.  I used to email Bounce Backs and Restorations to myself, but wound up collecting too many.  Now I just sell off Bounce Backs and just keep a supply of Restorations.   Helps if you have Teleport Target and can supply those to teammates on occasion.  (Though there are powers available via dayjob & p2w for that, or even actual power sets...)

 

I always check my teammates info

[Diantane]

7 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

Best way to avoid dying 90% of the time is to play a Regen. You'll die 100% of the time.

 

LOL. I've play a regen sentinel several times. The have a revive power. Coupled with the always on and quickly healing absorption, you can rez and go directly into combat like nothing happened.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Diantane

[biostem]

Fight gray-con enemies.

[Glacier Peak]

I'm noticing a trend. 

[DougGraves]

10 hours ago, Diantane said:

2) If you are a melee fighter, keep an eye on your health. If it gets below 50% and you don't have a heal or resprite, move away from the area to rest.

 

No  matter my AT, most of the time I die I wasn't paying attention to my health and suddenly notice I am nearly dead.

 

This is almost every time I die on the rare occasions that I solo.  I notice the enemies dropping but don't pay attention to my health.

[MyriVerse]

Moving around helps my hit percentage.

[Captain Fabulous]

2 hours ago, Diantane said:

 

LOL. I've play a regen sentinel several times. The have a revive power. Coupled with the always on and quickly healing absorption, you can rez and go directly into combat like nothing happened.

The reason they have a revive power is because they're always dead. 🤣

[Skyhawke]

13 hours ago, Diantane said:

 

 

3) If most of the team dies and the rest of the foes are after you, go into an elevator or out the exit. Wait a second and then you can come back in as they will be running back to their spawn point.

 

Literally one of the loading screen tips tells you enemies may chase you through elevators. 🤣

[Go0gleplex]

11 hours ago, Techwright said:

"How to avoid dying 90% of the time"

 

Why does no one ever give out the secret for not dying the other 10% of the time.  That's where the real money is.

It's not really a secret though. Stay home. Eat ice cream! 😄 lol