The ones suggesting it are the ones saying that the game uses a hard trinity system that you have to conform to despite that most of my builds don't conform to the norm.
Sometimes a trinity system makes sense; sometimes an encounter needs specialisation and division of labour and those roles work. If people feel they're being weighed down by that pressure in CO that's purely because of the Cosmics - which have to have a quite structured, mechanic-heavy process, and attracts players who do want to specialise and excel at their roles - and the lack of other modern end-game content to play. Personally I would love a new series of Gravitar style Rampages, small team fights against villains with signature power sets where trinity/roles are a bit more in the background, 'cause that's what most of the game is and it's what I like to play... here's hoping.
Overall I do have sympathy with the thread starter. CO is becoming a game with a fairly limited power and combat system, which survives mainly because of its first class character creator and customisation functions. As a superhero game it's actually not all that - there are so many canon characters you can't make because of the contraints on things like cross-set relationships (Superman? Nope), agility in combat (Spidey? Nope); and even characters from CO's own lore (Robert Caliburn, a Munitions Mage? Nope). Some of the best stuff they've done recently has been when they've opened up cross-set options (Quantum Stabiliser, for example) and I'd like to see a little more variety made possible through things like that, both for heroes and villains. The end results may not be Optimal for Cosmics but that's not the only game in town (yet).
Overall I do have sympathy with the thread starter. CO is becoming a game with a fairly limited power and combat system, which survives mainly because of its first class character creator and customisation functions. As a superhero game it's actually not all that - there are so many canon characters you can't make because of the contraints on things like cross-set relationships (Superman? Nope), agility in combat (Spidey? Nope); and even characters from CO's own lore (Robert Caliburn, a Munitions Mage? Nope). Some of the best stuff they've done recently has been when they've opened up cross-set options (Quantum Stabiliser, for example) and I'd like to see a little more variety made possible through things like that, both for heroes and villains. The end results may not be Optimal for Cosmics but that's not the only game in town (yet).
Demonstrably untrue and that's just getting silly. There are people with mixtures and there is no requirement you have to stick one way. If that's all you see, then that is a problem with your thought processes, not the game. The problem is expectations or needs at this point and what people perceive and in most cases think they should be able to solo everything it has little to do with design choices, and anyone leaning on that crutch is really just making excuses based on their own perceptions instead of the reality of the situation.
You can make a Superman melange of powers, but it won't be very good - not in a "it's not good if it can't solo the Q Zone" sort of way, in a "energy problems, low damage, difficulty with getting forms to proc and stick" sort of way. Spidey will swing into action and find his travel powers getting zapped at the first drop of a hat. And those arbitrary limitations are part of what makes combat a bit boring, sometimes.
it has little to do with design choices,
It does, it really, really does. There is so much unimaginative design in CO it's not true. Every darn boss fight involves some big lunk standing in an empty room, doing pretty much the same thing every time. It makes for a lack of variety, makes difficulty levels really binary and generally makes things vulnerable to farming (cause once you can do something, you can do it all the time). A richer, more random, less fearful approach to design would work wonders.
well TSW just give its relaunch news and it's apparently a new game with improved combat. after a year of near inactivity, it means even CO could get some unexpected changes. never believe we know everything that can or will happen.
well TSW just give its relaunch news and it's apparently a new game with improved combat. after a year of near inactivity, it means even CO could get some unexpected changes. never believe we know everything that can or will happen.
I still hold out hope that we'll see relaunch of CO. With the superhero craze still in full swing after nearly a decade, I don't understand why the game is still in the state it's in . That's not to say I'm no very thankful of all the hard work Kaiserin has put in. But an entire game can't be saved by one overworked dev.
At the very least they could try pulling teams from other games like STO and let them work on CO for a month or so. I can imagine some basic improvements could be achieved by then.
You can make a Superman melange of powers, but it won't be very good - not in a "it's not good if it can't solo the Q Zone" sort of way, in a "energy problems, low damage, difficulty with getting forms to proc and stick" sort of way. Spidey will swing into action and find his travel powers getting zapped at the first drop of a hat. And those arbitrary limitations are part of what makes combat a bit boring, sometimes.
Demonstrate what? That I can make any character I want? There are ways to do it and not suffer any penalties, but that requires people using the system to their advantage. And I've learned when I actually do demonstrate such things to people unwilling to go beyond their current perceptions, you will just make excuses of why that isn't what you mean. So why bother? In this case it isn't that you want a character that can have certain power combinations, you just want to be characters X, and in those cases you might want to look into playing Marvel Heroes or DCUO, where you can basically be those characters.
it has little to do with design choices,
It does, it really, really does. There is so much unimaginative design in CO it's not true. Every darn boss fight involves some big lunk standing in an empty room, doing pretty much the same thing every time. It makes for a lack of variety, makes difficulty levels really binary and generally makes things vulnerable to farming (cause once you can do something, you can do it all the time). A richer, more random, less fearful approach to design would work wonders.
This definitely falls under false statement. The old bosses in the game certainly weren't difficult, that's true, but the new ones that have been getting added, they have. To say that it is just a boss in a lone room is kind of laughable, since that's exactly what many big boss showdowns in comics are. At points I wonder if you actually read comics. I mean it boils down to it, a face off against Trigon, Darkseid, Mr. Sinister, Dr. Doom and so on, it is almost always one of them versus many heroes. The boss battles have also been becoming more intricate but it's only a matter of time before people learn them. And it isn't fear of randomness that prevents it, it just a matter that random battles just suck in games. That's just a matter of recourse. Even bullet hell games have patterns to follow.
well TSW just give its relaunch news and it's apparently a new game with improved combat. after a year of near inactivity, it means even CO could get some unexpected changes. never believe we know everything that can or will happen.
So far I am not exactly impressed by what is shown. While I loved TSW for the fact it had a far superior story to anything BioWare put out, IMO, their combat was so bland and basic, and their legends video doesn't exactly inspire me that it is actually much changed. It's a wait and see situation, but this is FunCom. Again they had a wonderful story (albeit the darkity dark atmosphere got oppressive at times and caused burnout) but I don't see them 100% changing the games system as they stand now and alienating their core players in a vain attempt to get new players. If they are changing it so much, this has such huge potential to backfire in their faces *see Star Wars Galaxy patches*
Alluding to how I don't know what I'm talking about by mentioning random games I said nothing about doesn't prove I'm wrong. Congratulations! There are a ton of games that do use roles! This is a surprise to no one! And still doesn't mean I'm wrong. You're going nuts over two sentences that are basically impossible to disprove considering the many thousands of games with team content in them. It's far harder to believe that out of so many games, every single one of them is role based.
If you've ever played Rift, you would know that their build function is NOTHING like what CO has. It's far superior in what you can do. I personally loved being able to have several builds using completely different spells for different things all on one character. It certainly didn't stop me from making alts.
"Every darn boss fight involves some big lunk standing in an empty room, doing pretty much the same thing every time. It makes for a lack of variety, makes difficulty levels really binary and generally makes things vulnerable to farming (cause once you can do something, you can do it all the time). A richer, more random, less fearful approach to design would work wonders."
This is why I hate classic raids and never wanted to see it shoved into CO. They are heavily scripted and never change.
Comparing a one time cinematic event where the director shows you how it unfolds to a repeating encounter where the players experience the action doesn't work very well. You don't get to dictate how the fight unfolds nor are you participating in what is happening when you read a comic. With a game, you are there, experiencing and participating in what happens.
Plus, I doubt every boss stands in one spot and only attacks that one person kinda being a douche in comics.
To say that it is just a boss in a lone room is kind of laughable, since that's exactly what many big boss showdowns in comics are. At points I wonder if you actually read comics. I mean it boils down to it, a face off against Trigon, Darkseid, Mr. Sinister, Dr. Doom and so on, it is almost always one of them versus many heroes.
Sort of. Everyone brings something new to those types of face off. There's always a twist, a new move, a new powe or ally, some nemesis effect... CO actively excludes those types of thing. If they wrote Batman comics he'd have died years ago, the Utility belt would have been nerfed.....
The boss battles have also been becoming more intricate but it's only a matter of time before people learn them. And it isn't fear of randomness that prevents it, it just a matter that random battles just suck in games.
Not random battles. Random elements, like the ones they just added to Eidolon. More departures from the pattern, not no pattern at all. Just more stuff like multi-level environments, terrain to use, things to watch out for (F&I living fire/ice spawning further away so that you have to hunt it down....), just more invention.
Living fire and ice spawning in non obvious locations would be ok if it didnt wipe the entire team when it went off. that's just adding another layer of cheap onto cheap
The consequences are fine; you just need a tell for the spawn and for the item not to be too OP, so that one or two players can detatch from the main group and sort it out. It should be a communication/delegation issue, not a build or power based one. And the non-obvious locations don't have to be clever-clever, hidden behind a lamp-post or under a Rock (of whatever colour)... just not directly in the firing arc of every DPS in the instance would do fine.
But that's the current Meta, isn't it? Want to do Cosmic content... suddenly you have to go from Hybrid (Specific roles optional/adaptational) to KNOW THE ROLES AND BEST BUILD (and don't get outside of it).
Not true. Pick a role? Yes. Best builds? Absolutely not.
My question would be: why are some people so married to using the Hybrid role in team content... no seriously, why are you so in love with it that you need to use it all the time? Embrace true hybridosity and be willing to switch roles as needed.
PS - really really wanna play in hybrid? go TA, I've had people in hybrid main tank and off tank in there... hell I've had people in dps role main tank and healers off tank lol
How about some lateral thinking. Instead of make big number bigger or big number baaaad. How about some thoughts around mechanics that might cause you or your team to have to shift tactics.
I remember one of the Halo games made a big deal about its AI and how different units could have different behaviors.
Maybe a mob gets scared when you do more than a certain amount of damage and tries to get away. But you need that mob dead so forget all these other guys, get THAT guy.
Maybe a mob will enrage under the same circumstance gaining a knock that makes melee sad. Gonna need to run him around or range him down or maybe knock him.
Maybe a mob has a chance to call in more mobs with a timed effect, dog pile on that guy!
How about a mob that calls focus on a party member with an non-attack self-immobilizing effect. All the other mobs swarm that character. Dunk the spotter!
Not certain mobs but any(ish) mobs. You don't really know what to expect. You have to go into combat and see what happens. You and your team have to be able to adapt and react.
All that is just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are tons of behaviors that can be created with just a few simple effects. A few simple effects that can make mobs seem smarter and fights more dynamic. Suddenly controllers have a real duty and can clutch save the day. Healers might have to wake up and move around a bit. Off tank might end up as a vital role.
It doesn't have to be all about the numbers. The play really can be the thing.
My question would be: why are some people so married to using the Hybrid role in team content... no seriously, why are you so in love with it that you need to use it all the time? Embrace true hybridosity and be willing to switch roles as needed.
I do, but I understand some people don't understand Roles, or suffer from builds with Energy issues and don't want to run in support mode...
My question would be: why are some people so married to using the Hybrid role in team content... no seriously, why are you so in love with it that you need to use it all the time? Embrace true hybridosity and be willing to switch roles as needed.
I do, but I understand some people don't understand Roles, or suffer from builds with Energy issues and don't want to run in support mode...
Hybrid has zero energy advantages; it just has better damage than support or tank and better healing than dps or tank, and can use passives of all types. It's pretty rare that this is actually a useful combination in team content.
Yes, but whatevs, the point I was making wasn't a technical one, or a recommendation to use Hybrid mode. It was that in the normal game, you don't have to think about this stuff at all. You can happily run the game in Hybrid mode and pick powers what you like, and play how you like. Then you get to endgame, esp. Cosmics, and find that you do have to think about it, and that people get cross about auras and AoE and pets, and that people do shout at you if you turn up in Hybrid mode (check the threads on this forum for evidence of that).
Yes, but whatevs, the point I was making wasn't a technical one, or a recommendation to use Hybrid mode. It was that in the normal game, you don't have to think about this stuff at all. You can happily run the game in Hybrid mode and pick powers what you like, and play how you like. Then you get to endgame, esp. Cosmics, and find that you do have to think about it, and that people get cross about auras and AoE and pets, and that people do shout at you if you turn up in Hybrid mode (check the threads on this forum for evidence of that).
Well let's be more specific about what people are getting cross about.
People get cross with you if you are in hybrid and...
1) Turn up at dino/eido and the parser shows you're not doing enough damage to help with the checks. 2) pull aggro on the boss and don't reposition quickly and/or don't have a threat wipe and get a bunch of people killed 3) have an aura active, hence putting your inferior hybrid aura on people, making them unable to get the better support aura
which are all valid complaints because you are actively either making the run more difficult, or actively causing it to fail, and an easy conclusion to draw is that these things wouldn't be happening if you weren't in hybrid role because the numbers support that conclusion.
This is why, like I said, hybrid players should be heading to TA because hybrid can function very well in there. Of course, that's assuming that we're not talking about one of these people who is in hybrid at cosmics because they don't care about contributing to success and just wants to hide in the crowd - those hybrids won't do well in TA at all since with only 5 people there's an increased focus on each player's performance. However, hybrids who do give a darn will do very well.
TA is closer to "the normal game"...well that's an odd word choice isn't it? Let's be more accurate there as well: TA is closer to pre-endgame content than cosmics are. Pre-endgame there aren't really any giant events where people have to specialize, but there are plenty of 5-man bits of content where a bit of role-based teamwork is rewarded without being too strict, which is basically what TA is. TA is basically a pumped up version of a Grab alert.
Yes, but whatevs, the point I was making wasn't a technical one, or a recommendation to use Hybrid mode. It was that in the normal game, you don't have to think about this stuff at all. You can happily run the game in Hybrid mode and pick powers what you like, and play how you like. Then you get to endgame, esp. Cosmics, and find that you do have to think about it, and that people get cross about auras and AoE and pets, and that people do shout at you if you turn up in Hybrid mode (check the threads on this forum for evidence of that).
Well let's be more specific about what people are getting cross about.
People get cross with you if you are in hybrid and...
1) Turn up at dino/eido and the parser shows you're not doing enough damage to help with the checks. 2) pull aggro on the boss and don't reposition quickly and/or don't have a threat wipe and get a bunch of people killed 3) have an aura active, hence putting your inferior hybrid aura on people, making them unable to get the better support aura
which are all valid complaints because you are actively either making the run more difficult, or actively causing it to fail, and an easy conclusion to draw is that these things wouldn't be happening if you weren't in hybrid role because the numbers support that conclusion.
This is why, like I said, hybrid players should be heading to TA because hybrid can function very well in there. Of course, that's assuming that we're not talking about one of these people who is in hybrid at cosmics because they don't care about contributing to success and just wants to hide in the crowd - those hybrids won't do well in TA at all since with only 5 people there's an increased focus on each player's performance. However, hybrids who do give a darn will do very well.
TA is closer to "the normal game"...well that's an odd word choice isn't it? Let's be more accurate there as well: TA is closer to pre-endgame content than cosmics are. Pre-endgame there aren't really any giant events where people have to specialize, but there are plenty of 5-man bits of content where a bit of role-based teamwork is rewarded without being too strict, which is basically what TA is. TA is basically a pumped up version of a Grab alert.
I don't think I've ever been on a Grab alert where the actual role of anyone mattered.
I'd argue TA and the Cosmics are in classes of there own, where the rules of 90% of the game don't apply. Of Course no one is trained for this prior to TA and the Cosmics, which I think is problematic.
Solution, no clue. Maybe better in game notification about what's best to bring prior to folks trying to get into TA or Cosmics? Who knows.
just not directly in the firing arc of every DPS in the instance would do fine.
Eh, even in the firing arc would be okay, but as is you can deal with living fire/ice by just having someone stand still and spam lead tempest. Most of the time, hurricane or epidemic will also work, depending how spread out people are.
I don't think I've ever been on a Grab alert where the actual role of anyone mattered.
I have. People properly playing their roles makes Grabs even faster, and you should see the praise I get when I bring a tank and tank everything, or bring a healer and heal people. They love it.
Considering the mish mash groups I've gone into TA with, I'd say that roles in TA matter only slightly more than they do in Grabs. It's basically the same thing: you put 5 new players into a Grab who don't really know what they're doing, yeah they're probably gonna do much much better if they have a tank and a healer present... but once you're good at the game you can do whatever. 5 new players to TA are going to need a fairly standard group, but 5 vets can cobble together quite the nonsense collaboration. Sure, it's easier and faster with a standard group - just like in Grabs.
I don't think I've ever been on a Grab alert where the actual role of anyone mattered.
I have. People properly playing their roles makes Grabs even faster, and you should see the praise I get when I bring a tank and tank everything, or bring a healer and heal people. They love it.
Considering the mish mash groups I've gone into TA with, I'd say that roles in TA matter only slightly more than they do in Grabs. It's basically the same thing: you put 5 new players into a Grab who don't really know what they're doing, yeah they're probably gonna do much much better if they have a tank and a healer present... but once you're good at the game you can do whatever. 5 new players to TA are going to need a fairly standard group, but 5 vets can cobble together quite the nonsense collaboration. Sure, it's easier and faster with a standard group - just like in Grabs.
Interesting. Varying experiences in gameplay. That's why mmos are what they are.
Yeah agreed, I would NEVER wish to run TA with just grabbing whatever. That seems terrifying. Grabs, I don't give hoot who is there. You die, come back and pew pew again. Couldn't see myself doing that with TA.
Tanks have completely nonsensical energy max and equilibrium penalties which means crappier energy returns from any percent-of-max-based sources and less energy to work with overall. They do get a bonus to energy from blocking, but it feels more like something to offset the penalties. Plus, it doesn't do much for a tank who isn't actively able to tank (lost aggro, one of several tanks, etc for example)
Both damage roles suffer a rather large penalty to energy from blocking, but in terms of gameplay, it seems less significant than the penalties imposed on tanks. They also get actual bonuses to energy builder strength, but since so many plan around not really ever needing to use the energy builder, that's also not really as significant as it seems.
I stand by what I said back in my early days: Those penalties have literally no reason to exist and should just go away.
PS: Hybrid sort of has a damage-related advantage over the two damage roles, as it lets a player choose to be "melee and ranged" rather than forcing the player into choosing "melee or ranged." Then again, melee or ranged is still being enforced at the form level, so...yeah. There's that.
(Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
A lot of the discussion around Hybrids, Trinity, etc...in endgame is very "nuts and bolts" and kind of misses the bigger point. Which is that the endgame expects you to to be reasonably good at *something*.
So when you show up to a Cosmic...how do you intend to contribute? Assuming you know the fight, hopefully you have some kind of idea of what job you'd like to do well during the encounter. When nobody shows up that understand this, then the encounter either wipes in hilarious fashion or just doesn't happen.
If you don't think you can do a good job at anything that's relevant to the fight....then don't be surprised if others share your viewpoint on your capability.
Yeah basically. I mean if a hybrid shows up and does a slammin' job as a tank, dps, or healer - or some meaningful combination, then nobody's gonna get out the torches and pitchforks because in the end we're all basically evil corporate suits - you help us get the gold, we'll accept whatever you are. On the other hand if you prevent us from getting the gold, then we'll run a smear campaign against whatever you are. Corporation Online!
Comments
Sometimes a trinity system makes sense; sometimes an encounter needs specialisation and division of labour and those roles work. If people feel they're being weighed down by that pressure in CO that's purely because of the Cosmics - which have to have a quite structured, mechanic-heavy process, and attracts players who do want to specialise and excel at their roles - and the lack of other modern end-game content to play. Personally I would love a new series of Gravitar style Rampages, small team fights against villains with signature power sets where trinity/roles are a bit more in the background, 'cause that's what most of the game is and it's what I like to play... here's hoping.
Overall I do have sympathy with the thread starter. CO is becoming a game with a fairly limited power and combat system, which survives mainly because of its first class character creator and customisation functions. As a superhero game it's actually not all that - there are so many canon characters you can't make because of the contraints on things like cross-set relationships (Superman? Nope), agility in combat (Spidey? Nope); and even characters from CO's own lore (Robert Caliburn, a Munitions Mage? Nope). Some of the best stuff they've done recently has been when they've opened up cross-set options (Quantum Stabiliser, for example) and I'd like to see a little more variety made possible through things like that, both for heroes and villains. The end results may not be Optimal for Cosmics but that's not the only game in town (yet).
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You can make a Superman melange of powers, but it won't be very good - not in a "it's not good if it can't solo the Q Zone" sort of way, in a "energy problems, low damage, difficulty with getting forms to proc and stick" sort of way. Spidey will swing into action and find his travel powers getting zapped at the first drop of a hat.
And those arbitrary limitations are part of what makes combat a bit boring, sometimes.
it has little to do with design choices,
It does, it really, really does. There is so much unimaginative design in CO it's not true. Every darn boss fight involves some big lunk standing in an empty room, doing pretty much the same thing every time. It makes for a lack of variety, makes difficulty levels really binary and generally makes things vulnerable to farming (cause once you can do something, you can do it all the time). A richer, more random, less fearful approach to design would work wonders.
At the very least they could try pulling teams from other games like STO and let them work on CO for a month or so. I can imagine some basic improvements could be achieved by then.
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If you've ever played Rift, you would know that their build function is NOTHING like what CO has. It's far superior in what you can do. I personally loved being able to have several builds using completely different spells for different things all on one character. It certainly didn't stop me from making alts.
"Every darn boss fight involves some big lunk standing in an empty room, doing pretty much the same thing every time. It makes for a lack of variety, makes difficulty levels really binary and generally makes things vulnerable to farming (cause once you can do something, you can do it all the time). A richer, more random, less fearful approach to design would work wonders."
This is why I hate classic raids and never wanted to see it shoved into CO. They are heavily scripted and never change.
Comparing a one time cinematic event where the director shows you how it unfolds to a repeating encounter where the players experience the action doesn't work very well. You don't get to dictate how the fight unfolds nor are you participating in what is happening when you read a comic. With a game, you are there, experiencing and participating in what happens.
Plus, I doubt every boss stands in one spot and only attacks that one person kinda being a douche in comics.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
He does have a fetish for me. He just won't wear heels or put on lipstick though.
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Wait.. I thought you were both ladies who liked ladies?
I learn something new every day.
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Sort of. Everyone brings something new to those types of face off. There's always a twist, a new move, a new powe or ally, some nemesis effect... CO actively excludes those types of thing. If they wrote Batman comics he'd have died years ago, the Utility belt would have been nerfed.....
The boss battles have also been becoming more intricate but it's only a matter of time before people learn them. And it isn't fear of randomness that prevents it, it just a matter that random battles just suck in games.
Not random battles. Random elements, like the ones they just added to Eidolon. More departures from the pattern, not no pattern at all. Just more stuff like multi-level environments, terrain to use, things to watch out for (F&I living fire/ice spawning further away so that you have to hunt it down....), just more invention.
Now go, both of you! Make us some cute little dogmen. Or humandogs.
The consequences are fine; you just need a tell for the spawn and for the item not to be too OP, so that one or two players can detatch from the main group and sort it out. It should be a communication/delegation issue, not a build or power based one. And the non-obvious locations don't have to be clever-clever, hidden behind a lamp-post or under a Rock (of whatever colour)... just not directly in the firing arc of every DPS in the instance would do fine.
My question would be: why are some people so married to using the Hybrid role in team content... no seriously, why are you so in love with it that you need to use it all the time? Embrace true hybridosity and be willing to switch roles as needed.
PS - really really wanna play in hybrid? go TA, I've had people in hybrid main tank and off tank in there... hell I've had people in dps role main tank and healers off tank lol
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I remember one of the Halo games made a big deal about its AI and how different units could have different behaviors.
Maybe a mob gets scared when you do more than a certain amount of damage and tries to get away. But you need that mob dead so forget all these other guys, get THAT guy.
Maybe a mob will enrage under the same circumstance gaining a knock that makes melee sad. Gonna need to run him around or range him down or maybe knock him.
Maybe a mob has a chance to call in more mobs with a timed effect, dog pile on that guy!
How about a mob that calls focus on a party member with an non-attack self-immobilizing effect. All the other mobs swarm that character. Dunk the spotter!
Not certain mobs but any(ish) mobs. You don't really know what to expect. You have to go into combat and see what happens. You and your team have to be able to adapt and react.
All that is just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are tons of behaviors that can be created with just a few simple effects. A few simple effects that can make mobs seem smarter and fights more dynamic. Suddenly controllers have a real duty and can clutch save the day. Healers might have to wake up and move around a bit. Off tank might end up as a vital role.
It doesn't have to be all about the numbers. The play really can be the thing.
I do, but I understand some people don't understand Roles, or suffer from builds with Energy issues and don't want to run in support mode...
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
People get cross with you if you are in hybrid and...
1) Turn up at dino/eido and the parser shows you're not doing enough damage to help with the checks.
2) pull aggro on the boss and don't reposition quickly and/or don't have a threat wipe and get a bunch of people killed
3) have an aura active, hence putting your inferior hybrid aura on people, making them unable to get the better support aura
which are all valid complaints because you are actively either making the run more difficult, or actively causing it to fail, and an easy conclusion to draw is that these things wouldn't be happening if you weren't in hybrid role because the numbers support that conclusion.
This is why, like I said, hybrid players should be heading to TA because hybrid can function very well in there. Of course, that's assuming that we're not talking about one of these people who is in hybrid at cosmics because they don't care about contributing to success and just wants to hide in the crowd - those hybrids won't do well in TA at all since with only 5 people there's an increased focus on each player's performance. However, hybrids who do give a darn will do very well.
TA is closer to "the normal game"...well that's an odd word choice isn't it? Let's be more accurate there as well: TA is closer to pre-endgame content than cosmics are. Pre-endgame there aren't really any giant events where people have to specialize, but there are plenty of 5-man bits of content where a bit of role-based teamwork is rewarded without being too strict, which is basically what TA is. TA is basically a pumped up version of a Grab alert.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I'd argue TA and the Cosmics are in classes of there own, where the rules of 90% of the game don't apply. Of Course no one is trained for this prior to TA and the Cosmics, which I think is problematic.
Solution, no clue. Maybe better in game notification about what's best to bring prior to folks trying to get into TA or Cosmics? Who knows.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Considering the mish mash groups I've gone into TA with, I'd say that roles in TA matter only slightly more than they do in Grabs. It's basically the same thing: you put 5 new players into a Grab who don't really know what they're doing, yeah they're probably gonna do much much better if they have a tank and a healer present... but once you're good at the game you can do whatever. 5 new players to TA are going to need a fairly standard group, but 5 vets can cobble together quite the nonsense collaboration. Sure, it's easier and faster with a standard group - just like in Grabs.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Yeah agreed, I would NEVER wish to run TA with just grabbing whatever. That seems terrifying. Grabs, I don't give hoot who is there. You die, come back and pew pew again. Couldn't see myself doing that with TA.
I see your point though.
Tanks have completely nonsensical energy max and equilibrium penalties which means crappier energy returns from any percent-of-max-based sources and less energy to work with overall. They do get a bonus to energy from blocking, but it feels more like something to offset the penalties. Plus, it doesn't do much for a tank who isn't actively able to tank (lost aggro, one of several tanks, etc for example)
Both damage roles suffer a rather large penalty to energy from blocking, but in terms of gameplay, it seems less significant than the penalties imposed on tanks. They also get actual bonuses to energy builder strength, but since so many plan around not really ever needing to use the energy builder, that's also not really as significant as it seems.
I stand by what I said back in my early days: Those penalties have literally no reason to exist and should just go away.
PS: Hybrid sort of has a damage-related advantage over the two damage roles, as it lets a player choose to be "melee and ranged" rather than forcing the player into choosing "melee or ranged." Then again, melee or ranged is still being enforced at the form level, so...yeah. There's that.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
So when you show up to a Cosmic...how do you intend to contribute? Assuming you know the fight, hopefully you have some kind of idea of what job you'd like to do well during the encounter. When nobody shows up that understand this, then the encounter either wipes in hilarious fashion or just doesn't happen.
If you don't think you can do a good job at anything that's relevant to the fight....then don't be surprised if others share your viewpoint on your capability.
PARSER USAGE GUIDE: click here for an easy how-to ٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶
Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
My super cool CC build and how to use it.