Teleiosaurus has a DoT attached to the spine burst which, if you don't block the initial burst, will cause you to lose 20% of health per second for 10 seconds. However, the game decides (for purposes of the DoT) whether or not you're blocking significantly in advance of the actual damage from the attack, so if you're used to just-in-time blocking you're going to get nailed, even if you block the actual damage.
If they follow it up with another attack you have plenty of time to re-engage block.
If you fall from a great height after NttG, you likely won't have the time, particularly with dino and baby together. Also, the lag I and others experience often causes powers to engage late or not at all--requiring the player to press block again. That delay of 1 or 2 seconds is usually enough to mean the second AoE kills you.
I just learned not to fly, or only to fly at the far edge of of the AoEs. This makes the NttG much less dangerous.
I can also confirm what Biff said about the spikes--you still take DoT with a block, just that it is survivable.
If I'm not blocking before, then I normally block as soon as the tell comes up (quick enough that I cancel whatever power I was charging). Generally takes out 50% health all told.
I don't think you can call it a glass cannon if you have that kind of durability. I saw you yesterday regularly standing up to Qwyjibo, taking attacks that one-shot me through a full-health block. I was also there when you spun Teleiosaurus around to the DPS side and she wiped us all with a bite... except you.
Im not laying blame on the spin, it happens, happens to me too. I'm just saying that your cannon is not glass at all. Or maybe they should strap you to the Pope's car or something.
I remember the exact time you're referencing, and that was not my glass cannon, that was my tank, Devura, that has two passives so that she can dps or tank. She is not a glass cannon, and a quick click of her portrait to look at her hit point total would have quickly revealed that - anyone who would think that I was claiming that that character was a glass cannon after taking a moment to check her hit points would be very silly indeed!
The actual glass cannon that I am referencing is Kagami, who has just over 5k hit points thanks to +hp from her secondaries, but continues to operate with 10 constitution. Considering how many times I have mentioned her being a glass cannon over the past couple years I'm kind of surprised you had this misunderstanding about which character I was talking about .-.
Fact is, even Devura was getting dropped on Teliosaurus before I realized exactly what I had to do to stop that DoT - since the damage from it appears to be %-based, that means we're all glass cannons before its might. What did I have to do? Block quickly when the tell for the aoe shows up - ever since I started really paying attention and really making sure to block as fast as I can, I have pretty consistently been surviving that attack. And yes, the speed that you have to block at is demanding - and yes, I think that's just wonderful.
I'm still trying to become consistent about surviving the monkey's AoE, and I'm slowly getting there - and yes I'm complaining like a big babby the whole way, but I'm sticking with it. And oh my god is it wonderful that we have more content that I start out sucking at but can get better at through the application of skill.
The way you make it sound, it's like even an Inferno Archetype should be able to top the chart and not die once, and if they do, the problem is with the player. You're nowhere near the average player like you pretend to be.
I'm flattered Biff, but nobody has ever been able to demonstrate what makes me so "above average" so until somebody can I'm sticking with "average at best" and "anyone can do what I can do and probably better than I do it".
I remember the exact time you're referencing, and that was not my glass cannon, that was my tank, Devura, that has two passives so that she can dps or tank. She is not a glass cannon, and a quick click of her portrait to look at her hit point total would have quickly revealed that - anyone who would think that I was claiming that that character was a glass cannon after taking a moment to check her hit points would be very silly indeed!
The actual glass cannon that I am referencing is Kagami, who has just over 5k hit points thanks to +hp from her secondaries, but continues to operate with 10 constitution. Considering how many times I have mentioned her being a glass cannon over the past couple years I'm kind of surprised you had this misunderstanding about which character I was talking about .-.
D'oh, my bad. That's one I saw was in first place, so I assumed. I stand corrected. But yeah I'm not familiar with your characters at all, other than the names because seeing them in conquer chat and your signatures.
Fact is, even Devura was getting dropped on Teliosaurus before I realized exactly what I had to do to stop that DoT - since the damage from it appears to be %-based, that means we're all glass cannons before its might. What did I have to do? Block quickly when the tell for the aoe shows up - ever since I started really paying attention and really making sure to block as fast as I can, I have pretty consistently been surviving that attack. And yes, the speed that you have to block at is demanding - and yes, I think that's just wonderful.
I'm still trying to become consistent about surviving the monkey's AoE, and I'm slowly getting there - and yes I'm complaining like a big babby the whole way, but I'm sticking with it. And oh my god is it wonderful that we have more content that I start out sucking at but can get better at through the application of skill.
I'm flattered Biff, but nobody has ever been able to demonstrate what makes me so "above average" so until somebody can I'm sticking with "average at best" and "anyone can do what I can do and probably better than I do it".
Well, compare you, your ability to basically solo Red Alert, your constant placing in what, top 10 on Cosmics, being able to carry folks through Teleios Ascendant... these are all things the average player cannot do.
Or, actually, maybe that's the sticking point, it's your characters, not you, that are way above average. You spend lots of time and resources on your characters, and that's something some people can't do as much as you. I'm sure if we handed 20,000g to everyone, they could gear up as well as you do and perform the same way (though I'm guessing you know some building tricks that most people won't know, and resources don't buy you knowledge).
It might sound like I'm being snarky, but I'm not. You have lots of stuff for your characters, gotten by either spending lots of time (I mean, all those TA runs!) and effort or having support of your Supergroup, and I'm sure all that put together helps. At the end of the day, your characters are not on the average.
Or, actually, maybe that's the sticking point, it's your characters, not you, that are way above average. You spend lots of time and resources on your characters, and that's something some people can't do as much as you. I'm sure if we handed 20,000g to everyone, they could gear up as well as you do and perform the same way (though I'm guessing you know some building tricks that most people won't know, and resources don't buy you knowledge).
It might sound like I'm being snarky, but I'm not. You have lots of stuff for your characters, gotten by either spending lots of time (I mean, all those TA runs!) and effort or having support of your Supergroup, and I'm sure all that put together helps. At the end of the day, your characters are not on the average.
I mean... if you handed ME 20,000G you would have just given me over twenty times the amount of G I've ever had at one time. I'm not sure I've ever actually spent G on gearing up my characters... what would I even buy to do that? o.o *gets ready to take notes*
Anyone who has ever come to me for build tips has walked away disappointed, cause I told them what I know... obvious stuff like "putting points into ego and dex will increase your dps" or "Wardicator is probably good". All the knowledge required to build my characters is contained within power descriptions... I really don't know anything that isn't right there. In fact, I purposely do things that people with "good builds" would never do. I mean, what "good builder" do you know who doesn't stat con?
I don't really like to run TA with too many of the "leet" members of Conquer in the group cause it makes it kinda boring - I primarily run it on my healer nowadays and I actually like to have something to heal. That's the secret reason I'm always looking for new players to drag through there - new players are more fun to heal! (sometimes... some of these zone randoms are op as fudge ).
While you're making the claim that my characters are not average, somewhere the "build gurus" are rofling at that claim because they agree... but while you're using the word "above", they're using the word "below" and "noob mistakes".
There really is nothing that separates me from the average player. Feel free to keep complimenting me though, this is the first time anyone in any game community has actively accused me of being above average and then stubbornly tried to argue the point. You keep going and some day I might actually get an ego about it
Okay so let's say you just stumbled goofily into being able to top the damage charts and stay alive on a "glass cannon". Maybe you could share with us your build, your gear, your devices, your stats, so we can see what exactly makes such an average build with an average player behind it so dang cool. You'd be doing all the people playing cosmics a real big favor!
Also, c'mon, the 20,000g thing is there for people to bypass the whole "spending time" part that a lot of them don't have, so they can buy gear and mods and devices.
Any one who's a forum regular is probably not the "average player".
PVP is starving without rewards
1. Please give us Daily PVP missions that reward Questionite.
2. Please give us an exchange rate between Acclaim and Recognition so that PVP has access to all "On Alert" PVE rewards.
Having run with Spinny... not an average player, but also not doing anything that's beyond what most players would be able to do if they were willing to spend the effort. Spinny plays a lot, learns the fights, makes solid builds, and generally refuses to decide that things are impossible. All of those things matter.
On the topic of glass cannons, step one is being willing to except "eh, I died, time to run back from the respawn again". Other than that, learn the fights; there isn't that much random damage that you can't avoid by positioning (for example, Qwyjibo's only attack that is likely to one-shot through block is his melee attack, which hits up to three targets, generally the tank and his two closest allies).
His fireball throws hit really damn hard too, I'm not sure I ever survive those.
Through block? Not that it's possible to block the fireballs, since there's no way to tell who they're actually aimed at, but it's pretty easy to go an entire fight and never get hit by one.
Heh that hasn't been my experience, but it could just be dumb luck. Today was the first day that I survived a Qwyjibo fight because I didn't get hit by one of them things, and also the first day I ever got Frost Tombed. And that happened twice in the same fight.
No, and the recent price hike to the recog vendors won't be helping anything. There are very few bosses in this game whose damage will bypass block. (I've died plenty of times through block, even though standing where I'm suppose to be standing).
Though I also suspect some of the problem is from underperforming powers. There are still a few defensive and offensive powers that could stand to either be fixed (if bugged) or had balancing done to them.
Also, c'mon, the 20,000g thing is there for people to bypass the whole "spending time" part that a lot of them don't have, so they can buy gear and mods and devices.
Again, which gear and devices are there that I could buy? *ready to take notes* If there's something I can do with the G I have other than retcons, I'd like to know about it!
As far as build goes:
Kagami uses Rocochet throw, torrent of arrows, and storm of arrows for attacks.
She has bolas for teh stunz.
Her heals are Conviction and Empathic Healing.
She has rebirth, and Redemption (rez), as well as Evasive Manuevers. Her form is Concentration, her passive is Night Warrior, and her energy unlock is MSA.
Her stats are 288 Dexterity, 113 Intelligence, 483 Ego, and 30 Recovery, everything else at 10, in Justice Gear and TA secondaries, 3955 hit points, 308 Defense. 31% dodge, 51% avoidance.
She is Ego primary, Guardicator.
Now sure the Justice Gear might take you a bit to get, but even in Heroic/Merc you can come pretty close to the actual numbers I do as far as damage mitigation and dps ( I'm sure someone can do the calculations and point out that I probably get maybe 5% more damage mitigation, if that, due to my justice gear ).
So there you go, my amazing build that you too can use to be an invincible killing machine. Ha, all those people and their Constitution - you really wanna face tank content, 10 Con is the secret owo
Now let's be honest Biff, now that you've seen my build.. you really think people are going to be rushing to retcon to this as the answer to their issues?
Again, which gear and devices are there that I could buy? *ready to take notes* If there's something I can do with the G I have other than retcons, I'd like to know about it!
^ | | | | | | V Now sure the Justice Gear might take you a bit to get, but even in Heroic/Merc you can come pretty close to the actual numbers I do as far as damage mitigation and dps ( I'm sure someone can do the calculations and point out that I probably get maybe 5% more damage mitigation, if that, due to my justice gear ).
See the big arrow? That shows the correlation between money and time spent. With the money, people can buy the gear that they don't have the money/time to spend for it. It's not saying that you used that kind of money, it's a hypothetical thing to give to people to make up for not having the time and money to spend.
So there you go, my amazing build that you too can use to be an invincible killing machine. Ha, all those people and their Constitution - you really wanna face tank content, 10 Con is the secret owo
Now let's be honest Biff, now that you've seen my build.. you really think people are going to be rushing to retcon to this as the answer to their issues?
I retconned into Empathic Healing from that one-shot, one-minute-cooldown heal from Celestial because you mentioned that's what you used in chat today. The result: I'm not dying as much. Sometimes not at all!
If you don't think this helps, that's cool, but it has helped me.
See the big arrow? That shows the correlation between money and time spent. With the money, people can buy the gear that they don't have the money/time to spend for it. It's not saying that you used that kind of money, it's a hypothetical thing to give to people to make up for not having the time and money to spend.
So then your 20,000g was a wild exaggeration wasn't it? I mean, how much does level 40 gear cost on the exchange nowadays? How poor is the average player exactly? Since you can't buy Heroic or Justice, and the gains of having that have been shown to be pretty minor... what exactly is the point that's being made here about something I can do/have done that anybody else can't? I mean sure, I bought some lvl 40 blues on the exchange when my characters hit level 40, but they weren't really expensive. Even if you were to buy mods to catch up with what I have, you'd be buying rank 6 mods, not exactly a huge expense. I think if you gave the average player 20,000g to "fill the gap" of what I've been able to do over time... they'd be sitting there with about 19,800g wondering wtf they're supposed to do with the rest. I sure as heck couldn't tell them what they're supposed to buy.
I retconned into Empathic Healing from that one-shot, one-minute-cooldown heal from Celestial because you mentioned that's what you used in chat today. The result: I'm not dying as much. Sometimes not at all!
If you don't think this helps, that's cool, but it has helped me.
Okay... was that the first time you ever considered that a heal power could be a thing you could use to heal yourself? I mean... the fact that it does that, and how much, is right there in the description. Is this really your shining example of the secret build tricks I know that make my characters overpowered beyond the means of the general population?
PS - I'm glad you're finding success with it... unfortunately for your case, it looks like it keeps you alive way better than it does me, so in the end you're the one with the better build and people still aren't going to want to touch my build with a ten foot pole
I think it's partly a matter of knowing what all the options are, how they work in practice, and having the ability to compare them. Grimoire has a choice between two heal powers.... but reading the descriptions doesn't really tell me which is better.
I personally don't know what most of the skills in game do since I've never tried using them.
Her stats are 288 Dexterity, 113 Intelligence, 483 Ego, and 30 Recovery, everything else at 10, in Justice Gear and TA secondaries, 3955 hit points, 308 Defense. 31% dodge, 51% avoidance.
She is Ego primary, Guardicator.
Everything that I've highlighted in red is very far from "Average" VERY FAR.... the average player barely even has 300 in their primary stat let alone almost 500 and nearly 300 in a secondary... the average player doesn't have justice & TA gear.... and your "Glass Cannon" has quite a solid defense there...
1 question... How the hell do you have 3955HP? My actual glass cannon with 10Con and NO +HP gear/specs is sitting at exactly 5kHP...
So then your 20,000g was a wild exaggeration wasn't it?
Ohmygod yes. It's not as if I'm proposing a new feature where everyone gets 20,000g. Don't have time to get Heroic gear? Fine here's free money to get yourself set up with Legion.
Why is this a point of contention with you? It was a made-up number to trade off not having the time to do other stuff. Totally hypothetical. Look up the word if you still have questions.
I mean... the fact that it does that, and how much, is right there in the description. Is this really your shining example of the secret build tricks I know that make my characters overpowered beyond the means of the general population?
I'm not a good build maker. I don't spend time looking at all the powers. To this day I haven't looked more than once at anything that's sorcery or unarmed martial arts. It's like I don't know what the word "synergy" means.
PS - I'm glad you're finding success with it... unfortunately for your case, it looks like it keeps you alive way better than it does me, so in the end you're the one with the better build and people still aren't going to want to touch my build with a ten foot pole
Okay, you've convinced me that you're bad at everything and you top the charts with dumb luck. Discussion over, I guess.
By way of comparison (as to the powers of normal toons), here's my best character (was probably better pre-2GM nerf, but there you go)
INT (Primary) - 217, Dex (Sec) - 205, Ego (Sec) - 141, Con - 90, Rec - 90, rest 20. Defense 282, Offence 500, Dodge 20%, Avoidance 20%, Guardicator and Int Mastery. Gear is a mix of Heroic/Legion Primaries and Armadillo/Samurai Secondaries (depending on whether I need attack or defence boost). And I get creamed in TA and the Cosmics.
Now... In the interests of full disclosure, I'm trying to play this on a 15" laptop screen. So the GUI is small, and the "you should be able to see that incoming hold" icon is about the size of half a postage stamp, if that. So half the time I don't - can't, not having super vision - see it. And that means - kaboom! - instadeath. But even if I play on a bigger screen, it's still an awful mess of "why didn't you block five seconds ago" and "woo, you need to grind for that Onslaught gear to do this" which I honestly, in all truth, can't be bothered to do.
Okay, you've convinced me that you're bad at everything and you top the charts with dumb luck. Discussion over, I guess.
It's a classic internet troll double-swank. Heads I'm brilliant, Tails you're rubbish. Use that as a subtitle to their postings, it helps.
that I've highlighted in red is very far from "Average" VERY FAR.... the average player barely even has 300 in their primary stat let alone almost 500 and nearly 300 in a secondary...
A low-end equivalent setup to this, using Armadillo secondaries, Mercenary primaries, and r5 mods, would be something like 390 ego, 205 dex, 95 int. Overall durability would be somewhat lower, mostly because of less dodge and avoidance (lower Defense will largely be made up for by the Armadillo bonus), but the big real difference would be in dps, not survivability.
I'm not a good build maker. I don't spend time looking at all the powers. To this day I haven't looked more than once at anything that's sorcery or unarmed martial arts. It's like I don't know what the word "synergy" means.
So... are you claiming that you're the benchmark for the average player? Because if that's the case.. then the average player is doing better than I am.
So... are you claiming that you're the benchmark for the average player? Because if that's the case.. then the average player is doing better than I am.
A low-end equivalent setup to this, using Armadillo secondaries, Mercenary primaries, and r5 mods, would be something like 390 ego, 205 dex, 95 int.
That would, in most cases, be barely playable due to the low HP and low energy generation. You'd either need to pick REC/END as a secondary or gear those stats up, reducing everything else down to around 280/300.
That would, in most cases, be barely playable due to the low HP and low energy generation. You'd either need to pick REC/END as a secondary or gear those stats up, reducing everything else down to around 280/300.
Which won't really matter in terms of survivability, it's just more lost dps.
More like "constantly running out of energy with all the attendant issues", which clearly does affect survivability....
It's rare to run out of energy in content that requires lots of blocking, just because blocking gives you energy and you are also spending energy slower.
Well chubby bunny, while you were thinking up that clever response I spent some time running some actual numbers about what the difference between Mercenary Gear and Justice gear actually is. People like to throw the whole "you have justice that makes you godly!" argument around, but when it comes down to it the results actually lean more towards what others have been saying... Justice doesn't actually make a huge difference. It certainly isn't responsible for my ability to survive Teliosaur's poison spike attack, or anything else it does.
I believe your numbers, but I'm not a numbers guy.
Could it be that it's not worth upgrading to expensive gear because the increases are tiny? I dunno. The big picture here is that you're compartmentalizing several different parts of one point that was made, and trying to knock each one down as if the other didn't exist. Did I ever say it was just your gear that makes you amazing? No I don't think so.
Anyway, the discussion is over, there was a big misconception that you were good, you've proven that you're not, so give your fingers a break. So sorry you had to write that whole article about numbers just to prove me wrong when A) it missed the point, and we already concluded that nothing you're doing is good.
So then that's that. In the end it's true, the average player can do anything I can do, and there's nothing standing in their way. And yes, this fight was worth it to me, even if it was just an excuse to be snarky for you.
By way of comparison (as to the powers of normal toons), here's my best character (was probably better pre-2GM nerf, but there you go)
INT (Primary) - 217, Dex (Sec) - 205, Ego (Sec) - 141, Con - 90, Rec - 90, rest 20. Defense 282, Offence 500, Dodge 20%, Avoidance 20%, Guardicator and Int Mastery. Gear is a mix of Heroic/Legion Primaries and Armadillo/Samurai Secondaries (depending on whether I need attack or defence boost). And I get creamed in TA and the Cosmics.
I've been intentionally playing my Silver Radiant AT in cosmic encounters. He has Merc & exchange secondaries. I'm not too bad with building and figuring out mods and talents. So I've buffed his Dex,CON, and crit chance.
An AT with a random mix of gear is about as average as you can get. His stats are below:
Results.
Teliosaur is 100% unplayable for him. He's only received the reward circle once and that was on a super-buffed team. He cannot survive long enough to sustain healing or dps. So he never hits the scoreboard. Since he's an AT he can't change his specs or powers. He's stuck with them.
Qwijybo and Kigatilik are great for him. He can easily score in the top 20 to 30 players on the board. Most of this is due to AOE heal spam. I took Seraphim's balance advantage, Radiant Sanctuary Sigils, and Sentinel Aura. Planar Fracture is fully ranked so it can be dropped on GM's for dps ticks. I mostly block and spam heal into the largest clump of players I can find. Works like a charm, people get sweet heals, I get a reward. Win-Win.
So can the average player do well? Of course they can. But they really need to learn the ropes about builds first. And that usually doesn't happen until after 40.
As far as MERC gear goes, it's ok. I personally don't think Heroics are that much better. But J-gear and Legion's? They are in a league of their own. Very few players will have those, and will have a hard time getting them. Which is probably as it should be. But to say having J-gear doesn't help you out immensely is crazy talk.
I see there's a debate about stats going on at the moment - while I'm a bit too tired to really read through all of that, the point about high stats and/or distribution of stuff to optimize survival and other factors of gameplay inside a rampage/cosmic fight/epic lair serves as a good basis for my opinion on all of this:
Alerts are designed (especially getting to Grabs) to be played as a unitary team. They work most intuitively with each player choosing a role and running through it as a whole, each player providing backup DPS, tanking, and healing to the team. Now this is the intent. In most cases, it more or less plays out like this with average alert players. But while the players might play in unison while doing an alert, it's not exactly common to see the character loadout have a balanced spread of different classes. Most of it instead is hybrids or DPS, with tanks being barely less common and support being a big heap less abundant. The big takeaway of this, however, especially once you become skilled at building and playing characters, is that it's teaching you to be independent, not a team player.
You have the choice, when running an alert, or any of the content in this game, to either build for a role and run the majority of the game focusing on teams, and while this is a good habit, this playstyle really wasn't really rewarded at all up until about Fire and Ice came out. Inversely, a player could also just create a hybrid build that focuses entirely on utilizing their power choices and stats to their fullest in a balanced spread, and be capable of mowing down entire mobs inside Grabs and Smashes, and in general provide more flexibility in whether it's most effective to go along with the rest of the team or divide and conquer if the rest of the group doesn't need the help/you fight faster when enemies all charge into your range. I'd posit, with all this, the independent and 'balanced' building style is a lot more enticing than the role-based one.
In other words, the game teaches you to do two things: First is how to 'build' in this game; how to make the absolute most of stats, what gear and powersets will get you the furthest in terms of survival and DPS. While the game doesn't directly teach players how to do this, there is a ton of incentive on their part to do so. Everyone wants to be able to set up their hero to become the best they can be - whether it's to fill a certain role, or to just be so immeasurably badass compared to the norm. Mastery of stats and powers is a very appealing factor of the game, but it's never something that's directly taught to players and usually must be learnt through experience. That's why people feel obligated to detail guides and data on all these powers, after all. The other half is how to actually 'play' the game; how to block, how to move out of attacks, how to play as a team. To this end, I say that, in terms of design and intent, Cryptic has done plenty to teach players how to adhere to this sort of mentality and provide for allies, and the rampages and custom alerts also serve to inform players about the mentality of avoiding. But does it actually succeed at that? Outside of rampages, how necessary is it truly to block each attack? To weave out of range of that PSI Agent Ground Slam, or to redirect Ripper's Shockwave away from teammates? There's tactics behind all these enemies, but once people know about powers and building, the incentive for really getting into these specifics begins to fade - you can just take whatever those enemies deal out and bounce back from it with your own powers of healing or defense.
So no. While the game gives incentive to learn about build mechanics, and provides plenty of content to use blocking, maneuvering, and team play, there really isn't any content outside of the newest pieces (and Fire and Ice) that really flat-out "prepares" average players for this sort of experience. I think the plus side of the whole situation though is that there's so much potential to correct this, simply by applying some of the same logic seen in TA and the Cosmics to more standard enemies - make it more efficient and necessary to apply your blocking and *especially* movement to the Alert Legendaries. Don't make it so that failing to do this would result in team wipes or anything like that, but make it clearly more efficient to use that sort of pattern recognition and reaction in a battle, versus just blindly attacking and piling on. Make their single-target attacks powerful enough to be threatening to non-tanks. Make it so that support is highly-valued on teams to that players don't have to fight so defensively. Very specifically for alerts and other, older team content, adding a sort of 'TA-Lite' flavor to the setup I think would do wonders for prepping the player base for this sort of experience.
As far as MERC gear goes, it's ok. I personally don't think Heroics are that much better. But J-gear and Legion's? They are in a league of their own. Very few players will have those, and will have a hard time getting them. Which is probably as it should be. But to say having J-gear doesn't help you out immensely is crazy talk.
Let's be honest, there could be a lot of reasons why you performed the way you did in your attempts. I get the feeling that being an AT had a much larger effect on you than gear did ( And for the record I think ATs should be removed and you should get a FF slot for free! ), and is there anything to say that the "average player" is playing an archetype? After a FF slot giveaway and so many FF slot sales, I think the number of FFs walking around in the "average population" is probably not so low anymore that we can say that all "average players" are walking around with ATs. We certainly can't say that all FF players are "the elite".
That's why I decided that rather than relying on anecdotal evidence, which in this case can be very misleading, I made that thread you posted in where I showed that J-gear improves you numerically by ~10%, which shows just how small the "gear disparity" in this game is.
There's tactics behind all these enemies, but once people know about powers and building, the incentive for really getting into these specifics begins to fade - you can just take whatever those enemies deal out and bounce back from it with your own powers of healing or defense.
Which is why the conversation so quickly turns to "You can only do it because of gear!", because as you said people have gotten so used to the idea that your numbers will carry you through whatever 'challenges' you face that they can't conceive of the idea that something else might be the deciding factor now. They think that that is still the case, and that the number required have just gone up a notch and that their gear doesn't give them the numbers needed. Hopefully with time, and more of this kind of content, they'll get used to the idea that it's not all about numbers anymore. Someone showing the actual scope of the numbers should help at least a bit, for those willing to actually look at them
As for the game teaching you about this stuff... well, it taught you all the components, but it never really taught you to use them at this level of intensity. But hey, it's definitely starting to do it now
I think the plus side of the whole situation though is that there's so much potential to correct this, simply by applying some of the same logic seen in TA and the Cosmics to more standard enemies - make it more efficient and necessary to apply your blocking and *especially* movement to the Alert Legendaries. Don't make it so that failing to do this would result in team wipes or anything like that, but make it clearly more efficient to use that sort of pattern recognition and reaction in a battle, versus just blindly attacking and piling on. Make their single-target attacks powerful enough to be threatening to non-tanks. Make it so that support is highly-valued on teams to that players don't have to fight so defensively. Very specifically for alerts and other, older team content, adding a sort of 'TA-Lite' flavor to the setup I think would do wonders for prepping the player base for this sort of experience.
I agree with this 100%. Let's apply some of that "TA challenge" to other parts of the game like alerts, and even the various missions that folks do while leveling up. If they did this I'd be the first one rolling a new character to experience it.
I couldn't choose because my answer is "It Depends"
What matters is how the player got to a level high enough to attempt to take on these challenges.
If they went through the mission chains and soloed 99% of the content and learned to be self reliant, learning the strengths and weaknesses of their character and how to work with what they have to survive then they'll do fine in these challenges.
However if they leveled by doing things such as alerts where the learned to rely on the other "classes" to draw aggro from them or heal them etc. then they'll fall flat.
Not that teamwork isn't a bad thing in these scenarios, It's a very good thing but if you learn to survive on your own it makes those times when you do need support just that much more rare.
I chose "no", because server population has demonstrated that the game primarily teaches that high DPS stand and spam is how you complete missions and alerts. Most characters showing up to open missions, TA, Alerts, Special Alerts, etc., are DPS, and use such tactics.
I think the plus side of the whole situation though is that there's so much potential to correct this, simply by applying some of the same logic seen in TA and the Cosmics to more standard enemies - make it more efficient and necessary to apply your blocking and *especially* movement to the Alert Legendaries. Don't make it so that failing to do this would result in team wipes or anything like that, but make it clearly more efficient to use that sort of pattern recognition and reaction in a battle, versus just blindly attacking and piling on. Make their single-target attacks powerful enough to be threatening to non-tanks. Make it so that support is highly-valued on teams to that players don't have to fight so defensively. Very specifically for alerts and other, older team content, adding a sort of 'TA-Lite' flavor to the setup I think would do wonders for prepping the player base for this sort of experience.
This would be great. More folks would make and play something besides builds optimized for high DPS, and also players would expect to block, move, heal others, etc., in boss fights.
I couldn't choose because my answer is "It Depends"
What matters is how the player got to a level high enough to attempt to take on these challenges.
If they went through the mission chains and soloed 99% of the content and learned to be self reliant, learning the strengths and weaknesses of their character and how to work with what they have to survive then they'll do fine in these challenges.
However if they leveled by doing things such as alerts where the learned to rely on the other "classes" to draw aggro from them or heal them etc. then they'll fall flat.
Not that teamwork isn't a bad thing in these scenarios, It's a very good thing but if you learn to survive on your own it makes those times when you do need support just that much more rare.
I did something yesterday I'd never done before. I met the Hanging Judge. Nobody else was around so I had to kill him solo. And yeah, properly timed block did wonders for my survivability.
(No this wasn't Tsin'xing, this was a level 26 character)
Honestly, I left FFIV for CO because it was full of headache mechanics like TA is. I don't think TA should be made easier or anything, I just hope the devs don't make more at that level of difficulty soon. It's full of really good battles for people that like that sort of thing, but I think the player base just wants to dress up funny and beat up bad guys, not trade debuffs at a certain number of stacks while trying to play their holy trinity role efficiently. For what TA is it is great, but I think most of the game is comparatively easy.
I'm kinda reminded of an article I read about Wow where the dev was like, "the playerbase is a group of minorities that all want different stuff." Onslaught was good for PvP. TA was good for hardcore players. Comics was good for midcore to hardcore players. Devs are doing good making stuff for everybody in time.
I couldn't choose because my answer is "It Depends"
What matters is how the player got to a level high enough to attempt to take on these challenges.
If they went through the mission chains and soloed 99% of the content and learned to be self reliant, learning the strengths and weaknesses of their character and how to work with what they have to survive then they'll do fine in these challenges.
However if they leveled by doing things such as alerts where the learned to rely on the other "classes" to draw aggro from them or heal them etc. then they'll fall flat.
Not that teamwork isn't a bad thing in these scenarios, It's a very good thing but if you learn to survive on your own it makes those times when you do need support just that much more rare.
Strange but for me it would be the opposite, though that's likely just because of how I played grab alerts while leveling. I always found that missions ( post on-alert ) were simply too easy to teach my anything about my characters. They never really challenged my ability to keep myself alive, it was literally just run up to stuff, kill it, and move on.
On the other hand, in Grab alerts my abilities were challenged. I had to build my characters to both be able to put out good damage to drop things in less time, and tough enough to survive long enough for the time needed. I also had to learn when I needed to block things, and had to block them quick enough - often needing to observe multiple NPCs at a time to see their tells, more relevant with some factions than others. Of course, that's because I'm usually the first one charging into a group of NPCs, and seeing how many groups I can pull at once and still make it through ( added motivation is that I don't want to drop after pulling multiple teams, because I know that all that hell is then going to go after my team ) - all this with a tendency to not stat Con on characters while leveling because I value other stats more.
And yeah, you'll have folks who kind of hang back and let others do the work during Grabs ( if they're lucky enough to end up in the alert with someone else there who can do that for them ) but these folks would have no trouble running missions because you don't need someone to draw aggro or heal you during missions. If anything, these are smart dps players who have learned how it works - let the tank have the aggro, make sure the healer can get heals to you, and you can stand back and dps ( the need for the tank to keep aggro becomes even more prudent when there is no healer present )... and let me tell you, if you do this during TA or a fight with the cosmics, you are going to be... well very successful in fact. On the other hand if you spent all your time running missions and never learned the concept of "letting someone else do some of the work" and instead have been completely self-sufficient this entire time and never needed anyone else to do any of these things, you might be one of these guys who thinks they can handle anything, pulls aggro on the dino, and spins it towards the dps, and is then surprised that it is putting out significantly more damage than those quest mobs you were fighting.
That's why I think bluh is right on the money when he said that missions need to be improved and why I think you're a bit off when saying that currently missioners are better prepared for the cosmics than alerters.
Honestly, I left FFIV for CO because it was full of headache mechanics like TA is. I don't think TA should be made easier or anything, I just hope the devs don't make more at that level of difficulty soon. It's full of really good battles for people that like that sort of thing, but I think the player base just wants to dress up funny and beat up bad guys, not trade debuffs at a certain number of stacks while trying to play their holy trinity role efficiently. For what TA is it is great, but I think most of the game is comparatively easy.
I'm kinda reminded of an article I read about Wow where the dev was like, "the playerbase is a group of minorities that all want different stuff." Onslaught was good for PvP. TA was good for hardcore players. Comics was good for midcore to hardcore players. Devs are doing good making stuff for everybody in time.
I agree with this. But then let's remember that currently the vast, vast majority of the game still caters to those players who just want to dress up funny and beat up bad guys that don't pose much of a challenge. There is still quite a void to fill, so don't expect the epic content to slow down much anytime soon.
Honestly, I left FFIV for CO because it was full of headache mechanics like TA is. I don't think TA should be made easier or anything, I just hope the devs don't make more at that level of difficulty soon. It's full of really good battles for people that like that sort of thing, but I think the player base just wants to dress up funny and beat up bad guys, not trade debuffs at a certain number of stacks while trying to play their holy trinity role efficiently. For what TA is it is great, but I think most of the game is comparatively easy.
.
I agree with the sentiment here.
Don't forget that each seasonal event (Christmas, Foxbatcon, etc.) is designed at the casual/easy level. The new Qliphthothic event is going for this level of play, too.
Comments
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
I just learned not to fly, or only to fly at the far edge of of the AoEs. This makes the NttG much less dangerous.
I can also confirm what Biff said about the spikes--you still take DoT with a block, just that it is survivable.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
The actual glass cannon that I am referencing is Kagami, who has just over 5k hit points thanks to +hp from her secondaries, but continues to operate with 10 constitution. Considering how many times I have mentioned her being a glass cannon over the past couple years I'm kind of surprised you had this misunderstanding about which character I was talking about .-.
Fact is, even Devura was getting dropped on Teliosaurus before I realized exactly what I had to do to stop that DoT - since the damage from it appears to be %-based, that means we're all glass cannons before its might. What did I have to do? Block quickly when the tell for the aoe shows up - ever since I started really paying attention and really making sure to block as fast as I can, I have pretty consistently been surviving that attack. And yes, the speed that you have to block at is demanding - and yes, I think that's just wonderful.
I'm still trying to become consistent about surviving the monkey's AoE, and I'm slowly getting there - and yes I'm complaining like a big babby the whole way, but I'm sticking with it. And oh my god is it wonderful that we have more content that I start out sucking at but can get better at through the application of skill. I'm flattered Biff, but nobody has ever been able to demonstrate what makes me so "above average" so until somebody can I'm sticking with "average at best" and "anyone can do what I can do and probably better than I do it".
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Well, compare you, your ability to basically solo Red Alert, your constant placing in what, top 10 on Cosmics, being able to carry folks through Teleios Ascendant... these are all things the average player cannot do.
Or, actually, maybe that's the sticking point, it's your characters, not you, that are way above average. You spend lots of time and resources on your characters, and that's something some people can't do as much as you. I'm sure if we handed 20,000g to everyone, they could gear up as well as you do and perform the same way (though I'm guessing you know some building tricks that most people won't know, and resources don't buy you knowledge).
It might sound like I'm being snarky, but I'm not. You have lots of stuff for your characters, gotten by either spending lots of time (I mean, all those TA runs!) and effort or having support of your Supergroup, and I'm sure all that put together helps. At the end of the day, your characters are not on the average.
Anyone who has ever come to me for build tips has walked away disappointed, cause I told them what I know... obvious stuff like "putting points into ego and dex will increase your dps" or "Wardicator is probably good". All the knowledge required to build my characters is contained within power descriptions... I really don't know anything that isn't right there. In fact, I purposely do things that people with "good builds" would never do. I mean, what "good builder" do you know who doesn't stat con?
I don't really like to run TA with too many of the "leet" members of Conquer in the group cause it makes it kinda boring - I primarily run it on my healer nowadays and I actually like to have something to heal. That's the secret reason I'm always looking for new players to drag through there - new players are more fun to heal! (sometimes... some of these zone randoms are op as fudge ).
While you're making the claim that my characters are not average, somewhere the "build gurus" are rofling at that claim because they agree... but while you're using the word "above", they're using the word "below" and "noob mistakes".
There really is nothing that separates me from the average player. Feel free to keep complimenting me though, this is the first time anyone in any game community has actively accused me of being above average and then stubbornly tried to argue the point. You keep going and some day I might actually get an ego about it
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
PVP is starving without rewards
1. Please give us Daily PVP missions that reward Questionite.
2. Please give us an exchange rate between Acclaim and Recognition so that PVP has access to all "On Alert" PVE rewards.
On the topic of glass cannons, step one is being willing to except "eh, I died, time to run back from the respawn again". Other than that, learn the fights; there isn't that much random damage that you can't avoid by positioning (for example, Qwyjibo's only attack that is likely to one-shot through block is his melee attack, which hits up to three targets, generally the tank and his two closest allies).
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Though I also suspect some of the problem is from underperforming powers. There are still a few defensive and offensive powers that could stand to either be fixed (if bugged) or had balancing done to them.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
As far as build goes:
Kagami uses Rocochet throw, torrent of arrows, and storm of arrows for attacks.
She has bolas for teh stunz.
Her heals are Conviction and Empathic Healing.
She has rebirth, and Redemption (rez), as well as Evasive Manuevers. Her form is Concentration, her passive is Night Warrior, and her energy unlock is MSA.
Her stats are 288 Dexterity, 113 Intelligence, 483 Ego, and 30 Recovery, everything else at 10, in Justice Gear and TA secondaries, 3955 hit points, 308 Defense. 31% dodge, 51% avoidance.
She is Ego primary, Guardicator.
Now sure the Justice Gear might take you a bit to get, but even in Heroic/Merc you can come pretty close to the actual numbers I do as far as damage mitigation and dps ( I'm sure someone can do the calculations and point out that I probably get maybe 5% more damage mitigation, if that, due to my justice gear ).
So there you go, my amazing build that you too can use to be an invincible killing machine. Ha, all those people and their Constitution - you really wanna face tank content, 10 Con is the secret owo
Now let's be honest Biff, now that you've seen my build.. you really think people are going to be rushing to retcon to this as the answer to their issues?
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
If you don't think this helps, that's cool, but it has helped me.
PS - I'm glad you're finding success with it... unfortunately for your case, it looks like it keeps you alive way better than it does me, so in the end you're the one with the better build and people still aren't going to want to touch my build with a ten foot pole
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I personally don't know what most of the skills in game do since I've never tried using them.
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My characters
Everything that I've highlighted in red is very far from "Average" VERY FAR.... the average player barely even has 300 in their primary stat let alone almost 500 and nearly 300 in a secondary... the average player doesn't have justice & TA gear.... and your "Glass Cannon" has quite a solid defense there...
1 question... How the hell do you have 3955HP? My actual glass cannon with 10Con and NO +HP gear/specs is sitting at exactly 5kHP...
Why is this a point of contention with you? It was a made-up number to trade off not having the time to do other stuff. Totally hypothetical. Look up the word if you still have questions. You're not even reading at this point. I traded out one heal for another. I'm not a good build maker. I don't spend time looking at all the powers. To this day I haven't looked more than once at anything that's sorcery or unarmed martial arts. It's like I don't know what the word "synergy" means. Okay, you've convinced me that you're bad at everything and you top the charts with dumb luck. Discussion over, I guess.
INT (Primary) - 217, Dex (Sec) - 205, Ego (Sec) - 141, Con - 90, Rec - 90, rest 20. Defense 282, Offence 500, Dodge 20%, Avoidance 20%, Guardicator and Int Mastery. Gear is a mix of Heroic/Legion Primaries and Armadillo/Samurai Secondaries (depending on whether I need attack or defence boost). And I get creamed in TA and the Cosmics.
Now... In the interests of full disclosure, I'm trying to play this on a 15" laptop screen. So the GUI is small, and the "you should be able to see that incoming hold" icon is about the size of half a postage stamp, if that. So half the time I don't - can't, not having super vision - see it. And that means - kaboom! - instadeath. But even if I play on a bigger screen, it's still an awful mess of "why didn't you block five seconds ago" and "woo, you need to grind for that Onslaught gear to do this" which I honestly, in all truth, can't be bothered to do.
Okay, you've convinced me that you're bad at everything and you top the charts with dumb luck. Discussion over, I guess.
It's a classic internet troll double-swank. Heads I'm brilliant, Tails you're rubbish. Use that as a subtitle to their postings, it helps.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
So... are you claiming that you're the benchmark for the average player? Because if that's the case.. then the average player is doing better than I am.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
CHUBBY BUNNY. See?
That would, in most cases, be barely playable due to the low HP and low energy generation. You'd either need to pick REC/END as a secondary or gear those stats up, reducing everything else down to around 280/300.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Have a read: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline/#/discussion/1205267/merc-to-justice-what-do-you-get
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Regarding your link: AAAHHH NUMBERS.
I believe your numbers, but I'm not a numbers guy.
Could it be that it's not worth upgrading to expensive gear because the increases are tiny? I dunno. The big picture here is that you're compartmentalizing several different parts of one point that was made, and trying to knock each one down as if the other didn't exist. Did I ever say it was just your gear that makes you amazing? No I don't think so.
Anyway, the discussion is over, there was a big misconception that you were good, you've proven that you're not, so give your fingers a break. So sorry you had to write that whole article about numbers just to prove me wrong when A) it missed the point, and
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Tsin'Xing: 10003 HP, 148/238 EP, 84 str, 84 dex, 215 con, 307 int, 178 ego, 191 pre, 124 rec, 91 end, Off 242.7, CritC 28.6, CritS 73.3, Def 149.2, dodgeC 10, Avoid 20
The best stuff I have is Heroics.
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My characters
An AT with a random mix of gear is about as average as you can get. His stats are below:
Results.
Teliosaur is 100% unplayable for him. He's only received the reward circle once and that was on a super-buffed team. He cannot survive long enough to sustain healing or dps. So he never hits the scoreboard. Since he's an AT he can't change his specs or powers. He's stuck with them.
Qwijybo and Kigatilik are great for him. He can easily score in the top 20 to 30 players on the board. Most of this is due to AOE heal spam. I took Seraphim's balance advantage, Radiant Sanctuary Sigils, and Sentinel Aura. Planar Fracture is fully ranked so it can be dropped on GM's for dps ticks. I mostly block and spam heal into the largest clump of players I can find. Works like a charm, people get sweet heals, I get a reward. Win-Win.
So can the average player do well? Of course they can. But they really need to learn the ropes about builds first. And that usually doesn't happen until after 40.
As far as MERC gear goes, it's ok. I personally don't think Heroics are that much better. But J-gear and Legion's? They are in a league of their own. Very few players will have those, and will have a hard time getting them. Which is probably as it should be. But to say having J-gear doesn't help you out immensely is crazy talk.
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My characters
Alerts are designed (especially getting to Grabs) to be played as a unitary team. They work most intuitively with each player choosing a role and running through it as a whole, each player providing backup DPS, tanking, and healing to the team. Now this is the intent. In most cases, it more or less plays out like this with average alert players. But while the players might play in unison while doing an alert, it's not exactly common to see the character loadout have a balanced spread of different classes. Most of it instead is hybrids or DPS, with tanks being barely less common and support being a big heap less abundant. The big takeaway of this, however, especially once you become skilled at building and playing characters, is that it's teaching you to be independent, not a team player.
You have the choice, when running an alert, or any of the content in this game, to either build for a role and run the majority of the game focusing on teams, and while this is a good habit, this playstyle really wasn't really rewarded at all up until about Fire and Ice came out. Inversely, a player could also just create a hybrid build that focuses entirely on utilizing their power choices and stats to their fullest in a balanced spread, and be capable of mowing down entire mobs inside Grabs and Smashes, and in general provide more flexibility in whether it's most effective to go along with the rest of the team or divide and conquer if the rest of the group doesn't need the help/you fight faster when enemies all charge into your range. I'd posit, with all this, the independent and 'balanced' building style is a lot more enticing than the role-based one.
In other words, the game teaches you to do two things: First is how to 'build' in this game; how to make the absolute most of stats, what gear and powersets will get you the furthest in terms of survival and DPS. While the game doesn't directly teach players how to do this, there is a ton of incentive on their part to do so. Everyone wants to be able to set up their hero to become the best they can be - whether it's to fill a certain role, or to just be so immeasurably badass compared to the norm. Mastery of stats and powers is a very appealing factor of the game, but it's never something that's directly taught to players and usually must be learnt through experience. That's why people feel obligated to detail guides and data on all these powers, after all.
The other half is how to actually 'play' the game; how to block, how to move out of attacks, how to play as a team. To this end, I say that, in terms of design and intent, Cryptic has done plenty to teach players how to adhere to this sort of mentality and provide for allies, and the rampages and custom alerts also serve to inform players about the mentality of avoiding. But does it actually succeed at that? Outside of rampages, how necessary is it truly to block each attack? To weave out of range of that PSI Agent Ground Slam, or to redirect Ripper's Shockwave away from teammates? There's tactics behind all these enemies, but once people know about powers and building, the incentive for really getting into these specifics begins to fade - you can just take whatever those enemies deal out and bounce back from it with your own powers of healing or defense.
So no. While the game gives incentive to learn about build mechanics, and provides plenty of content to use blocking, maneuvering, and team play, there really isn't any content outside of the newest pieces (and Fire and Ice) that really flat-out "prepares" average players for this sort of experience. I think the plus side of the whole situation though is that there's so much potential to correct this, simply by applying some of the same logic seen in TA and the Cosmics to more standard enemies - make it more efficient and necessary to apply your blocking and *especially* movement to the Alert Legendaries. Don't make it so that failing to do this would result in team wipes or anything like that, but make it clearly more efficient to use that sort of pattern recognition and reaction in a battle, versus just blindly attacking and piling on. Make their single-target attacks powerful enough to be threatening to non-tanks. Make it so that support is highly-valued on teams to that players don't have to fight so defensively. Very specifically for alerts and other, older team content, adding a sort of 'TA-Lite' flavor to the setup I think would do wonders for prepping the player base for this sort of experience.
(as well as making the base HP higher hint hint)
i wish someone would do that to me...so many wonderful devices i could buy with that many resources
That's why I decided that rather than relying on anecdotal evidence, which in this case can be very misleading, I made that thread you posted in where I showed that J-gear improves you numerically by ~10%, which shows just how small the "gear disparity" in this game is.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
As for the game teaching you about this stuff... well, it taught you all the components, but it never really taught you to use them at this level of intensity. But hey, it's definitely starting to do it now
I agree with this 100%. Let's apply some of that "TA challenge" to other parts of the game like alerts, and even the various missions that folks do while leveling up. If they did this I'd be the first one rolling a new character to experience it.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
What matters is how the player got to a level high enough to attempt to take on these challenges.
If they went through the mission chains and soloed 99% of the content and learned to be self reliant, learning the strengths and weaknesses of their character and how to work with what they have to survive then they'll do fine in these challenges.
However if they leveled by doing things such as alerts where the learned to rely on the other "classes" to draw aggro from them or heal them etc. then they'll fall flat.
Not that teamwork isn't a bad thing in these scenarios, It's a very good thing but if you learn to survive on your own it makes those times when you do need support just that much more rare.
This would be great. More folks would make and play something besides builds optimized for high DPS, and also players would expect to block, move, heal others, etc., in boss fights.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
(No this wasn't Tsin'xing, this was a level 26 character)
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My characters
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
I'm kinda reminded of an article I read about Wow where the dev was like, "the playerbase is a group of minorities that all want different stuff." Onslaught was good for PvP. TA was good for hardcore players. Comics was good for midcore to hardcore players. Devs are doing good making stuff for everybody in time.
On the other hand, in Grab alerts my abilities were challenged. I had to build my characters to both be able to put out good damage to drop things in less time, and tough enough to survive long enough for the time needed. I also had to learn when I needed to block things, and had to block them quick enough - often needing to observe multiple NPCs at a time to see their tells, more relevant with some factions than others. Of course, that's because I'm usually the first one charging into a group of NPCs, and seeing how many groups I can pull at once and still make it through ( added motivation is that I don't want to drop after pulling multiple teams, because I know that all that hell is then going to go after my team ) - all this with a tendency to not stat Con on characters while leveling because I value other stats more.
And yeah, you'll have folks who kind of hang back and let others do the work during Grabs ( if they're lucky enough to end up in the alert with someone else there who can do that for them ) but these folks would have no trouble running missions because you don't need someone to draw aggro or heal you during missions. If anything, these are smart dps players who have learned how it works - let the tank have the aggro, make sure the healer can get heals to you, and you can stand back and dps ( the need for the tank to keep aggro becomes even more prudent when there is no healer present )... and let me tell you, if you do this during TA or a fight with the cosmics, you are going to be... well very successful in fact. On the other hand if you spent all your time running missions and never learned the concept of "letting someone else do some of the work" and instead have been completely self-sufficient this entire time and never needed anyone else to do any of these things, you might be one of these guys who thinks they can handle anything, pulls aggro on the dino, and spins it towards the dps, and is then surprised that it is putting out significantly more damage than those quest mobs you were fighting.
That's why I think bluh is right on the money when he said that missions need to be improved and why I think you're a bit off when saying that currently missioners are better prepared for the cosmics than alerters. I agree with this. But then let's remember that currently the vast, vast majority of the game still caters to those players who just want to dress up funny and beat up bad guys that don't pose much of a challenge. There is still quite a void to fill, so don't expect the epic content to slow down much anytime soon.
PS - we dress up pretty funny in TA
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Don't forget that each seasonal event (Christmas, Foxbatcon, etc.) is designed at the casual/easy level. The new Qliphthothic event is going for this level of play, too.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.