Review of i28 P2 on Massively

[JasperStone]

Putting my teacher grading glasses to examine his "critical analysis"

 

He critiques the patch by arguing that it promotes a trend favoring fast-paced, damage-centric (“DPS rush”) gameplay. He is concerned that archetypes focused on crowd control and support—especially Controllers—are being devalued due to reductions in target caps and increases in cooldowns. As a result, these archetypes are becoming less viable outside of specific high-end content, such as Hamidon raids. (okay, yes-maybe)

 

He does not provide a comprehensive breakdown of the patch notes. Instead, he chose to critique the philosophical and design trajectory of the game. For an opinion piece sure, but for an outright crtical analysis ...falls short. Very short.

 

Based on his article alone ... WHAT is in the next patch update? No idea.

 

 

I don't see everything that is in here.

I have read through the update.

There are changes and updates that interest me.

One of my mains is an Ice/Ice/Ice tanker ... truly want to test the changes to that set. In a good way.

Adaptive Recharge on several powers ... ok!

Yes, somethings makes me scratch my head ... but I will see how it plays.

 

His opinion article focused on one power as an example to critique the state of the game and the volunteers maintaining it. 

Speed.

I did a 4star All Widow ITF last night. THAT was not slow. Had a blast!

 

Again, it IS an opinion piece, so I am free to share my opinion of his opinion.

He fell short.

 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 01:17 PM by JasperStone

[Blackbird71]

1 hour ago, JasperStone said:

He does not provide a comprehensive breakdown of the patch notes. Instead, he chose to critique the philosophical and design trajectory of the game. For an opinion piece sure, but for an outright crtical analysis ...falls short. Very short.

 

Based on his article alone ... WHAT is in the next patch update? No idea.

 

People keep criticizing the article by saying it failed as a review of the patch contents.  I must have missed where it was ever billed as such a review.  From what I've seen, it is only the title of this forum thread that labels it as such; the actual article title is "Into the Super-Verse: What the heck is going on with balancing in City of Heroes Homecoming?"  There is no implicit or explicit mention there of being a patch review.

 

Yes, it's an opinion piece, and one which expresses concerned opinions shared by many HC players (do not misconstrue "many" as "all" or necessarily even "most"; I'm not speaking for the whole player base, just citing observation).

 

Regardless, critiquing an article for not being something that it never claimed to be is disingenuous and a bit of a strawman.

Edited Monday at 02:47 PM by Blackbird71

[Darmian]

5 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

 

People keep criticizing the article by saying it failed as a review of the patch contents.  I must have missed where it was ever billed as such a review.  From what I've seen, it is only the title of this forum thread that labels it as such; the actual article title is "Into the Super-Verse: What the heck is going on with balancing in City of Heroes Homecoming?"  There is no implicit or explicit mention there of being a patch review.

 

Yes, it's an opinion piece, and one which expresses concerned opinions shared by many HC players (do not misconstrue "many" as "all" or necessarily even "most"; I'm not speaking for the whole player base, just citing observation).

 

Regardless, critiquing an article for not being something that it never claimed to be is disingenuous and a bit of a strawman.

Well I for one probably did misconstrue it.  My train of thought went like this.  Oh, there's an article on Massively dealing with stuff in the new Beta release, It must be a review.  I'll go read it.  Huh. Ok, that's not a review.  Why wouldn't they do a review?  Let's read it anyway.  I don't know a damn thing about meta, it's not why I play. If this isn't coupled with a review then I'm not the audience for this.  I hope they write an actual review later.

 

Does it express concerned opinions that are shared by many HC players?  I dunno.  According to this thread and so on it seems to.  Have I met anyone in game talking about this particular aspect of things?  No, I haven't.  Now that's all anecdotal and subjective to me and my tiny group so your mileage may vary.  Again, I hope they write an actual review. And back to the game.  

 

 

[JasperStone]

45 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

 

People keep criticizing the article by saying it failed as a review of the patch contents.  I must have missed where it was ever billed as such a review.  From what I've seen, it is only the title of this forum thread that labels it as such; the actual article title is "Into the Super-Verse: What the heck is going on with balancing in City of Heroes Homecoming?"  There is no implicit or explicit mention there of being a patch review.

 

Yes, it's an opinion piece, and one which expresses concerned opinions shared by many HC players (do not misconstrue "many" as "all" or necessarily even "most"; I'm not speaking for the whole player base, just citing observation).

 

Regardless, critiquing an article for not being something that it never claimed to be is disingenuous and a bit of a strawman.

Sure.

It is also labeled as a preview, but it previews nothing in the game.

 

 

[tidge]

2 minutes ago, JasperStone said:

Sure.

It is also labeled as a preview, but it previews nothing in the game.

 

IIRC, the article casually mentions "Kallisti Wharf" in the context of "missions"... but that is it (aside from them "OMZG, Controller Nerfs incoming!"), but *shrug*.

[Blackbird71]

20 minutes ago, JasperStone said:

Sure.

It is also labeled as a preview, but it previews nothing in the game.

 

 

 

The only place it is labeled as a "preview" is in the tags, after it is labeled as an "opinion" in the same manner.  Hinging your whole critique that "it should have been a detailed review" on that tag, while simultaneously criticizing it for actually being what one of the other tags labels it as, is still disingenuous and a misrepresentation.

 

Yes, it's an opinion piece.  It clearly labels itself as an opinion piece. It doesn't represent itself as being anything other than an opinion piece. So why are you demanding it be a "a comprehensive breakdown of the patch notes"?  Your expectations are unrealistic and not founded in anything presented as part of the article.

Edited Monday at 04:05 PM by Blackbird71

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, Darmian said:

Oh, there's an article on Massively dealing with stuff in the new Beta release, It must be a review.  I'll go read it.  Huh. Ok, that's not a review.  Why wouldn't they do a review?

Why wouldn't they do a review? The patch just dropped in open beta; let's post a review of all the changes before we have an opportunity to try them out. You can have an opinion on the changes as described in the patch notes without having tried them out; if you're going to do a review, you should be going through the changes and seeing what effects they have before posting a review -- and since it has been stated a number of times that the game is balanced around SOs, play the changes with just SOs, instead of three-billion-inf min-maxed builds; you need to see how the changes will affect players who don't go in for maximally tricked-out characters, or just want a playstyle more reminiscent of the pre-Invention days.

[Darmian]

1 minute ago, srmalloy said:

Why wouldn't they do a review? The patch just dropped in open beta; let's post a review of all the changes before we have an opportunity to try them out. You can have an opinion on the changes as described in the patch notes without having tried them out; if you're going to do a review, you should be going through the changes and seeing what effects they have before posting a review -- and since it has been stated a number of times that the game is balanced around SOs, play the changes with just SOs, instead of three-billion-inf min-maxed builds; you need to see how the changes will affect players who don't go in for maximally tricked-out characters, or just want a playstyle more reminiscent of the pre-Invention days.

And I'm hoping that they do publish an actual review.  That would be nice.  I stated earlier that I approached the article under the impression it was a review, and then I found out it wasn't. So I asked why wouldn't they do a review?  Maybe they have one in the pipeline and it's going to come soon.  I can only speak for myself when I say I'd have liked a full review of the patch, which included all the article, that covered all the items.  As someone who has no interest in the so-called meta this article wasn't for me. And you know, at the end of the day that's fine too. 

[JasperStone]

18 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

 

The only place it is labeled as a "preview" is in the tags, after it is labeled as an "opinion" in the same manner.  Hinging your whole critique that "it should have been a detailed review" on that tag, while simultaneously criticizing it for actually being what one of the other tags labels it as, is still disingenuous and a misrepresentation.

 

Yes, it's an opinion piece.  It clearly labels itself as an opinion piece. It doesn't represent itself as being anything other than an opinion piece. So why are you demanding it be a "a comprehensive breakdown of the patch notes"?  Your expectations are unrealistic and not founded in anything presented as part of the article.

No demands.

 

My expectations are valid, and I am free to criticize an opinion that omits a significant amount of information.

 

He talks little at all about what is in the update.

It doesn't have to be detailed.

 

From this article,  do we know that we are getting two new power sets. Nope

What else are we getting? No idea.

He mentions nothing.

What other changes?

Again nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

[Seed22]

5 hours ago, Octogoat said:

You've got a very good point I tend to create characters in my head while taking care of my mom all day or working at the pet shelter. But it's a coping mechanism and destresser. People do the same for Warhammer, DND, or any number of other hobbies. I'm also absolutely bonkers about crochet, I even crochet while playing coh. But is it sad? No more so than any other hobby fan.

 

But I think we do need to take a step back and see the warts otherwise they just get more abrasive.

I fully understand that and thats honestly pretty much what CoH is in a normal context; a healthy tool to deal with life situations, as are games in general. 

 

My only issue is when I see stuff like in this thread. I see so many just tearing at a person in the comments, being no better than CoH subreddit, and getting offended over a video game. That is never, and will never to a socially functional adult, be ok.

[Excraft]

3 hours ago, Blackbird71 said:

The only place it is labeled as a "preview" is in the tags, after it is labeled as an "opinion" in the same manner.

 

Most, if not all reviews are subjective and based on opinion.  

[Digirium]

Is Page 2 ready yet? Just send it, send it tomorrow.

 

Then we can all get used to the NWO including that MOP journo.

[Sakura Tenshi]

To be as constructive as an emotional neanderthal like myself can be, I do sort of understand what they're getting at, though as someone who didn't really test out the Controller changes or even really play controller at all, I speak purely from an armchair developer point of view.

 

I can recall faintly of some of my experiences playing control focused ATs and I'll start by saying what I do remember of them was anticlimactic and unrewarding. Solo or in teams, I rarely felt like my lockdowns meant anything against crowds or most AVs, the only times I enjoyed being a controller is using illusion or gravity control, which many might notice feels more direct damage oriented and sort of contrary to the typical controller playstyle. Especially solo, even with a pet, combat feels dragged out on about any difficulty, and I respecially recall frustrating playing redside where Arachnos and some other enemies, have hold resist on lieutenants and minions, which feels like a Jack Emmert balancing method to have extremely discouraging solo experience to encourage teaming (where you just become a mediocore damage dealer). This is sadly natural for any game focused around combat as the objectives tend to always boil down to 'defeat x enemy' not 'mez x enemy for y duration', so I will also add I do not see this as an issue necessarily with this update or even unique to City of Heroes. Where Controllers do, at least hypothetically, excel would be in the same place as stalkers in priority target elimination, namely when that target has an HP threshold power, so specifically Fake Nemesis, Paragon Protectors, Council Ascendants, Master Illusionists, and various ghost enemies.

 

So, if I were to make my own proposal, it'd be one that wouldn't really be easy to implement, but part of rewarding control-focused characters should look into that last example of being able to effectively cancel out things you normally can't easily DPS around. This might mean certain otherwise passive abilities in enemies could be made into something that control powers suppress, an example could be the Ghoul AoE heal on death so you can block their ability to heal their comrades and let damage do what it does best/not set back a solo player. This could even apply to portions of an enemy's survival powers like defense (I mean there's really no reason someone encased in stone should still be able to dodge anyway) and even resistances. On a more extreme end, I've also had a suggestion that being able to stack up a certain duration of control on enemies should qualify for an instant defeat of said enemy. The logic being that in media, and honestly real life, when someone is knocked out in the way control powers do, it tends to be game-over. They're helpless and dragged off with even big heroes like Batman end up susceptible to knock-out gas or fear toxins* and awakened elsewhere in some death trap or another. So similarly, it could be made that enemies of certain ranks are just fully 'defeated' if they're locked down for a certain duration, whether it's from stacking an effect or just overpowering. To give kind of an example in my head:

• Minions and Underlings are auto-defeated if they are held, confused, or afraid and one of those effects would last for over 30 seconds, and similarly are defeated if they are put under stun or sleep or sleep effects which would last 1 minute on them.
• And from here, further ranks would need longer durations to be stacked before the game would effectively say "yeah, they're defeated" until maybe EBs but definitely AVs where things work as they do now.

So, that's kind of my thoughts and it largely just covers controls since I feel that's probably the biggest issue in my opinion. I can't say how well I explained this but hopefully it provides some insight and ideas.

 

*Purely a tangent, but when three of Batman's biggest enemies (Scarecrow, Joker, Poison Ivy) all make use of inhaled toxins as a mainstay of their arsenal, you'd really think Batman would think to make a gas mask standard part of his costume.

[Americas Angel]

Each new update bringing heaps of power tweaks/changes and changes to classic enemy groups has slowly eroded my interest in the PvE side of CoH, sadly. The changes being good or bad doesn't come into it. It's more that the ground beneath my feet feels ever-changing, which is not the vibe I want in a game I'm playing for nostalgia reasons. Having a damocles sword hovering over the stuff I like makes it feel like a lot of the stuff I enjoy in game is living on borrowed time. Which makes investing time in the game feel pointless.

 

I don't think the dev team are doing a bad job. It's just not hitting for me, personally. I find myself dreading new updates more than looking forward to them. Which is a pretty clear sign that I'm not the target audience for this stuff.

 

It's still a great creative sandbox for creating characters, creating bases, and roleplaying.

[Blackbird71]

19 hours ago, JasperStone said:

No demands.

 

 

  

22 hours ago, JasperStone said:

He does not provide a comprehensive breakdown of the patch notes. Instead, he chose to critique the philosophical and design trajectory of the game. For an opinion piece sure, but for an outright crtical analysis ...falls short. Very short.

 

Based on his article alone ... WHAT is in the next patch update? No idea.

 

 

You set your standard for what you thought the article should be, and then judged it according to that standard, rather than what it actually is.  You demanded that it be a critical analysis of the patch, and that it be informative of the contents of the patch.  It never once claimed to be any such thing.  It is an opinion piece on the overall direction of balance in the game, as indicated by the article title. 

 

19 hours ago, JasperStone said:

My expectations are valid, and I am free to criticize an opinion that omits a significant amount of information.

 

 

 

22 hours ago, JasperStone said:

Putting my teacher grading glasses to examine his "critical analysis"

 

 

You attempted to present yourself as some sort of expert or authority in a position to "grade" his work, and labeled it a "critical analysis" of the patch which it never claimed to be.  That characterization is not valid, and it is misrepresentation of the contents and intent of the article which perpetuates the deception started by this incorrect thread title.

 

19 hours ago, JasperStone said:

He talks little at all about what is in the update.

It doesn't have to be detailed.

 

22 hours ago, JasperStone said:

He does not provide a comprehensive breakdown of the patch notes.

 

 

You contradict yourself with these two statements.  You literally declared that the article needed to include a "comprehensive breakdown of the patch notes."  If that is not expecting "detailed," then what is it?  

 

22 hours ago, JasperStone said:

For an opinion piece sure, but for an outright crtical analysis ...falls short. Very short.

 

Based on his article alone ... WHAT is in the next patch update? No idea.

...

He fell short.

 

 

It only "fell short" of your expectation for some imaginary article that you wanted to read, not for the purpose of the article as advertised and written and what it was actually intended to be.  This is like criticizing a cat for not being a dog.  It's as if a sports reporter wrote a general piece on the current state of teams in a basketball league, and you're criticizing him for not giving you a play-by-play description of what happened in a single game last week.  The article isn't what you wanted it to be, but the author never claimed that's what he was writing.

 

[JasperStone]

39 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

You contradict yourself with these two statements.  You literally declared that the article needed to include a "comprehensive breakdown of the patch notes."  If that is not expecting "detailed," then what is it?  

The point is, he bases his article on one power change that he dislikes, using it as a point to criticize the devs.

Sure.

He easily could have mentioned things that are included in this patch, but chose to focus on one thing. Two new powersets for one. One powerset  I think has been asked for.

 

You are also overthinking what a comprehesive breakdown is. 

"Kallisti Wharf has been revamped into a fully-fledged level 40–50 co-op zone. Two new powersets have been introduced. The sleep mechanic has been overhauled. Adjustments have been made to archetypes and powersets. New story arcs and missions have been added. AND bugs fixed."

 

Doing something with Kallista has been asked for. He does mention it, but there is a lot with this addition.

The Psionic armor, I think, has been suggested at some point.

 

 

39 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

You attempted to present yourself as some sort of expert or authority in a position to "grade" his work, and labeled it a "critical analysis" of the patch which it never claimed to be.  That characterization is not valid, and it is misrepresentation of the contents and intent of the article which perpetuates the deception started by this incorrect thread title.

Not understanding what "critical analysis" is was used earlier in the thread.

You may have missed it.

And my post was based on that, having a more humorous perspective than you are choosing to take.

 

39 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

This is like criticizing a cat for not being a dog. 

... yes, people criticize cats for not being dogs.

 

39 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

It's as if a sports reporter wrote a general piece on the current state of teams in a basketball league, and you're criticizing him for not giving you a play-by-play description of what happened in a single game last week.

 ... they do reference games as evidence to support their perspective of the state of the game.

Edited yesterday at 12:46 PM by JasperStone

[Ukase]

I read that article. I thought their perspective was not aligned with mine very much. I like "speed". I just wish I were better at it! I still have issues moving through a map as fast as folks like Raze and Bloodom, and so many other folks who are in my opinion some of the more competent players. I'm probably a 3rd tier speeder at best - mainly because most of my characters are generally self-sustaining and not relying on team buffs - so I tend to leave a lot of dps  on the table. 

I have an earth/natty controller. It needs an Aeon SF to get the Sheer Will accolade. I see a lot of "speed" runs being recruited for, but just don't feel confident trying to speed with a character that has a dumb pet that spends more time tackling psionic crystals than the AV. (I know, that's not Aeon, that's another SF). I think most team leads for these speed runs are okay carrying a few slower folks, just not too many. I don't think most players give a crap whether it's 10 minutes or 20 minutes. They just don't want it to be an hour when it doesn't have to be. 

I have been hanging out with the Justice Superteamers on Friday nights. (shameless plug for them) They have this odd bloodlust thing where they like to kill all or most. 90 minutes to do a Renault. It's what I signed up for, so not complaining. But I tell you, you go broke quick doing kill most. Your merit intake is lower, everything is lower. And the xp gains aren't that much better, really. Is it more fun? For some folks who are just getting off work and don't want to sit on the edge of their keyboard and push their character to the limits - yeah, it is more fun. And that's great. They're not forcing you to join them, nor are the speeders forcing the kill all/most crowd to join them. 

There's room for all of us here. Now, I think the game has plenty of incentives to speed, but even though the pay is reduced by kill all/most, it's still enough to keep playing. And really, that's what marketing is for, to eke out a little extra to fund your alt-itis. 

Lord only know how deep the pockets are of people who play one solitary character. I am continuing to try and liquidate my many characters that are 50 that I haven't played in over a year. It's damned tedious getting those enhancements out. And selling them cheaply is killing my soul. 5M for a pvp IO? Heresy. But that's another topic. 

The people who are making changes to the game are doing what they think is best. I don't think they want to play in a ghost town anymore than the rest of us. They'll figure things out. Or they won't. It's that simple. No use getting upset about things beyond our control. Just try things out, keep an open mind, take notes, and report back. That's all we can really do. 

[Senbonbanana]

I think the article makes some good points, though I don't agree with 100% of it. I stopped playing CoH as much because I despise the "rush DPS" or "GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO" mentality that has pervaded CoH: HC (not sure if other servers have this problem or not, HC is my home, I have no desire to start over on another server). I don't necessarily want to move at a snail's pace stopping to smell the roses with every pack, but I do want to stick together as a team, slowing down if a member needs to rest... leave no one behind is how I like to approach most teams.

It's one thing to be on a team that advertises itself as a speed run team. I don't mind those at all, as I can set my expectations accordingly! What I truly despise is being on a team of 8 that consists of 1-7 soloers that all go in different directions. There is no sticking together as a team. Why bother playing a support class at that point? Why bother being on a team at all? And ultimately.... why play a game where teaming up to defeat harder enemies is a "selling point" I very much want to experience, but in reality teams largely consist of soloers going their own way team be damned? It does not make me feel good to be so useless on a team I might as well stand at the door AFK, my presence (or absence) at a fight makes 0 difference... and in the case of soloers zooming off to different mobs apart from the other team members, trying to keep up with them may slow things down.

I don't know if the patch in beta will speed up or slow down things much. Maybe the game has simply changed into something I don't like. Maybe I'm just getting old. I don't know. All I know is, as much as I like the new powersets and other changes the HC team has brought us, I do not like the speed meta and the new norm of someone (or multiple someones) zooming off in different directions from the primary team in order to speed things up. There's no faster way to make me feel useless than to prove that my presence on a team is meaningless.

Edited yesterday at 01:24 PM by Senbonbanana

[tidge]

Just some personal comments, based on a few recent posts:

 

13 hours ago, Sakura Tenshi said:

I can recall faintly of some of my experiences playing control focused ATs and I'll start by saying what I do remember of them was anticlimactic and unrewarding. Solo or in teams, I rarely felt like my lockdowns meant anything against crowds or most AVs, 

 

I used to feel the same, and how I mitigated this feeling of drudgery (on solo) was:

• At low levels, I use START attacks. They still have terrible damage scales, but they are damage.
• At medium+ levels, I add %damage. The damage procs are pretty much the only thing that keeps Controllers having solo times within an order of magnitude as other ATs.

For teams... usually it is the case that a couple of powers offer the same type of control (e.g. Holds) as a ST and AOE. I usually try to make sure I can stack those (on single targets)

 

26 minutes ago, Senbonbanana said:

It's one thing to be on a team that advertises itself as a speed run team. I don't mind those at all, as I can set my expectations accordingly! What I truly despise is being on a team of 8 that consists of 1-7 soloers that all go in different directions. There is no sticking together as a team. Why bother playing a support class at that point? 

 

I try to stay with the players that aren't rushing off... and if everyone else is, I tend to stay with the 'slowest'. Controllers have to be careful, because in my experience they can accidentally grab 'too much' aggro and are far more subject to controls and damage than something like a Blaster.

[Senbonbanana]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

I try to stay with the players that aren't rushing off... and if everyone else is, I tend to stay with the 'slowest'. Controllers have to be careful, because in my experience they can accidentally grab 'too much' aggro and are far more subject to controls and damage than something like a Blaster.

 

If someone is hanging back for the sole purpose of "babysitting" me because I'm too slow for the other 6 speeders, then what's the point of me even leaving the door? I'm not wanted (shown by most everyone zooming off, save for my babysitter). I'm not needed (shown by them not struggling mowing down a pack in a timely manor alone). At that point, I might as well join a farm if my time on a team amounts to being completely and utterly useless. I don't like feeling useless on a team, I like feeling like I'm contributing...even if only a little bit. Teaming is one of, if not THE most, fun aspect of this game for me. Why bother joining a team if it's all soloers going off doing their own thing? And ultimately...why bother playing a game that isn't fun to me anymore?

Sorry to vent... I've been struggling with these feelings of the game I loved leaving me behind, and this article (and subsequent thread here) dredged them all up again. I guess you could say I'm coming to terms with the fact the game I loved is gone. Despite my feelings on the matter, the meta is what it is, and speed is the name of the game today. Perhaps I'm just a dinosaur from a by-gone era that is facing the inevitable and inescapable feelings of being left behind in a world forever moving forward.

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, Senbonbanana said:

 

If someone is hanging back for the sole purpose of "babysitting" me because I'm too slow for the other 6 speeders, then what's the point of me even leaving the door? I'm not wanted (shown by most everyone zooming off, save for my babysitter). I'm not needed (shown by them not struggling mowing down a pack in a timely manor alone). At that point, I might as well join a farm if my time on a team amounts to being completely and utterly useless. I don't like feeling useless on a team, I like feeling like I'm contributing...even if only a little bit. Teaming is one of, if not THE most, fun aspect of this game for me. Why bother joining a team if it's all soloers going off doing their own thing? And ultimately...why bother playing a game that isn't fun to me anymore?

Sorry to vent... I've been struggling with these feelings of the game I loved leaving me behind, and this article (and subsequent thread here) dredged them all up again. I guess you could say I'm coming to terms with the fact the game I loved is gone. Despite my feelings on the matter, the meta is what it is, and speed is the name of the game today. Perhaps I'm just a dinosaur from a by-gone era that is facing the inevitable and inescapable feelings of being left behind in a world forever moving forward.

Since when does playing with teammates mean you’re useless?

[Senbonbanana]

5 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

Since when does playing with teammates mean you’re useless?

When my presence on a team isn't contributing to the overall effectiveness of the team, then I feel useless.

If I'm DPS, and I'm not helping kill stuff faster than it could be killed while alone, then I'm not contributing.
If I'm a healer/buffer, and my heals/buffs aren't helping the team stay on their feet in the action more than it would while they played solo, then I'm not contributing.
If I'm a controller, and my controls aren't helping keep things locked down, and thus teammates safer than they would be alone, then I'm not contributing.
If I'm a tank and can't hold agro and/or survive long enough to do my job, or if stuff is melting before agro enters the discussion, then I'm not contributing.

In all 4 above cases, I see no difference between pushing buttons uselessly at a fight, or sitting at the door pushing no buttons. My presence isn't wanted, nor needed, for the team to survive. I am a leach, and might as well be on a farm where me leaching is expected.

Please note, this isn't a problem on teams that stick together. When we're rolling as a ball of death, it's hard for me to tell if I'm making an impact or not. I assume I am helping, even if only a tiny bit. Those good feelings go out the window when half (or more) of the team zooms off in different directions, leaving me behind wondering what I'm here for.

[Wavicle]

43 minutes ago, Senbonbanana said:

When my presence on a team isn't contributing to the overall effectiveness of the team, then I feel useless.

If I'm DPS, and I'm not helping kill stuff faster than it could be killed while alone, then I'm not contributing.
If I'm a healer/buffer, and my heals/buffs aren't helping the team stay on their feet in the action more than it would while they played solo, then I'm not contributing.
If I'm a controller, and my controls aren't helping keep things locked down, and thus teammates safer than they would be alone, then I'm not contributing.
If I'm a tank and can't hold agro and/or survive long enough to do my job, or if stuff is melting before agro enters the discussion, then I'm not contributing.

In all 4 above cases, I see no difference between pushing buttons uselessly at a fight, or sitting at the door pushing no buttons. My presence isn't wanted, nor needed, for the team to survive. I am a leach, and might as well be on a farm where me leaching is expected.

Please note, this isn't a problem on teams that stick together. When we're rolling as a ball of death, it's hard for me to tell if I'm making an impact or not. I assume I am helping, even if only a tiny bit. Those good feelings go out the window when half (or more) of the team zooms off in different directions, leaving me behind wondering what I'm here for.

Okay I understand what you mean now.