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Oh level 40s....

secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
edited September 2012 in Champions Online Discussion
Hey Level 40s,

After rushing 2 to 40 during the latest Witchcraft visit, I'm finding myself entirely lost on what to do.

Those I used to run TT Elite with have moved on to Gw2, and I've done it plenty so the interest is gone.

Nemcon runs are find and dandy, but only go so far.

Random NPC farming in an outside zone gets tedious, especially with so few spawn locations in the 40 range.

Few of the cosmics are worth the time investment, then there's the issue of spawn delays.

Pvp is a mixed bag of more bad than good in it's current state, not to mention providing next to no game reward.

Alerts are feeling tedious as I've lost count of how many I've done.

I don't Rp, but am a little jealous of those who do and enjoy it.


So with that all said.... what do you do with your level 40s?

I've turned at least 3 into mules that only come out for selling stuff or special grab bag dailies. I was actually a little excited to have 2 new 40s with customized powers, but finding something for them to do has been a lot more difficult than I thought.
Post edited by secksegai on

Comments

  • nephtnepht Posts: 6,883 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I stalk Hulk clones and call them ugly.
    nepht_siggy_v6_by_nepht-dbbz19n.jpg
    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!
  • mistressphoenixmistressphoenix Posts: 368 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    For me it's always been about the journey, not the destination. So i pretty much do not rush to max level. That said, i do have two 40s. i play them when friends need help that they can provide, or when i'm itching to do NemCon or Gravitar. Sometimes, i'm just feeling like healing and my healer is one of my 40s, so i'll hop on her and heal random alerts. But, for the most part, i play my many characters below 40 and just enjoy them.
  • ashensnowashensnow Posts: 2,048 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    secksegai wrote: »
    ...what do you do with your level 40s?

    Currently I shelve them while playing other games.

    The decision to de-emphasize max level play to an even greater degree than has been the case in the past (note that alerts are, for the most part, specifically designed to discourage play on level 40 characters) makes it clear to me that Cryptic doesnt actually want people to continue playing their level 40 characters.

    'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
  • fudgemonstafudgemonsta Posts: 1,591 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I use them to grind for costume drops and resources, tailor builds for concepts, and RP.

    Not much else to really do...
    @HangingDeath

    Deliciously nutritious!
  • blumoon8blumoon8 Posts: 430 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Leave em alone and level a new toon. ^^ I've actually have yet to even touch Andrith or Megadra--labehdahwpdbwpidb and have only done TT once, and that wasn't from the beginning. Nemcon probably ten times or so and I rarely do Unity. To think I've been playing since January 2010.. I should really do some of those things >.>

    I'm an altaholic so it's pretty easy to move on...

    If I ever get REALLY BORED of Champions (which is normally after a toon has hit 40) I leave it alone for a little bit and come back later. Then everything is as welcoming as it used to be. :D

    I say stuff and I say things, sometimes together but only when I'm feeling adventurous.

    I'm @blu8 in game! :D
  • helbjornhelbjorn Posts: 678 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I still have a lot of fun in the Battlestation and Costume Creator. Creating new characters and builds is my game-within-the-game. Most never make it off the PTS; they get shelved or deleted and I move on to the next idea.
  • crypticbuxomcrypticbuxom Posts: 4,629 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I'm currently playing all the content in the game on one toon, trying to get all the lore perks specifically.
  • nextnametakennextnametaken Posts: 2,212 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I have over twenty.
    About half of them are stuck in 'free form gold' status as I'm now silver.
    The other half I run alerts on until I get my 2000Q and then I log them out,
    maybe also auctioning crap or transfering loot.
    Maybe I make a new costume but I have a bunch with one costume and fifteen available slots.

    Finding something meaningful to do with your highest levels is a challenge.
    I find dancing before/after alerts and maybe getting someone on the other side
    of the internet to chuckle is mildly fulfilling.
    Too bad we didn't get any more dance moves.
  • gandalesgandales Posts: 340 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    It is interesting. By the comments, there are lairs and most people haven't even touch them. Of course, I am not blaming players but I think this shows that getting a group for those needs to be a lot of easier, i.e. having a queue and also getting transported to the lair door.

    I have always suggested that Dr. D factory, teleios tower, and the other sub-40 lairs should have a lvl 40 version, since for good or ill most people tend to skip them on their way to 40.

    About Therakiel Temple, I would split the instance in 2 parts(1st valerian, blackfang and baron and 2nd vlad and Therakiel), so it would need less commitment.
  • xaogarrentxaogarrent Posts: 632 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    ashensnow wrote: »
    Currently I shelve them while playing other games.

    The decision to de-emphasize max level play to an even greater degree than has been the case in the past (note that alerts are, for the most part, specifically designed to discourage play on level 40 characters) makes it clear to me that Cryptic doesnt actually want people to continue playing their level 40 characters.

    This isn't even clearly the case, for that matter. Alerts suck for low level characters too, because they're balanced for high if not max level. Part of the reason On Alert sucks so hard without a premade is because the alerts favor high level characters heavily, but there's very low incentive to do many of the alerts at max level. Most people have even given up on farming the bosses that have rare drops, because they're so rare it becomes frustrating.

    In a lot of ways, On Alert and much of the content that follows was meant to appeal to everyone and ended up appealing to little to no one.

    ...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
  • twg042370twg042370 Posts: 592 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    secksegai wrote: »
    So with that all said.... what do you do with your level 40s?

    Do dailies for a week or so until I get all the goodies I can. Delete when I get bored. Leave the game for a couple of months. Roll up a new one.
    _________________
    Wait? Whaaaa..?
  • polishlightningpolishlightning Posts: 404 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I'm a lifetime member and have started leveling AT to see how they compare with the overall difficulty of the game. Then I take them into Gravitar to see how survivable they are. So far I've done the Tempest and Specialist to level 40 and my results have been positive.
  • secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I'm a lifetime member and have started leveling AT to see how they compare with the overall difficulty of the game. Then I take them into Gravitar to see how survivable they are. So far I've done the Tempest and Specialist to level 40 and my results have been positive.

    I'm wondering how many deaths you consider a positive result. Specialist has LR and some minor self healing, and the tempest has no def passive, no self-healing.

    Of course, team make up plays a role - if you've got solid healing and a decent tank, you're not going to get the same results as if its your typical grav pug.

    Then again, the new dynamic may have eliminated a lot of "undesirables".
  • polishlightningpolishlightning Posts: 404 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    secksegai wrote: »
    I'm wondering how many deaths you consider a positive result. Specialist has LR and some minor self healing, and the tempest has no def passive, no self-healing.

    Of course, team make up plays a role - if you've got solid healing and a decent tank, you're not going to get the same results as if its your typical grav pug.

    Then again, the new dynamic may have eliminated a lot of "undesirables".

    I'm not really basing my results on if I stay alive or not, the mission is to beat Grav. But with the Tempest we won both times and I died once and was rezzed pretty quickly. With the Specialist, we won the time I tried last night and I didn't die. My sample size is small so far because of the time it takes to outfit gear and get to 40. But my characters have been in the upright state for easily 99% of the mission.
    More or less I'm going to try to show that most if not all AT can be made to be survivable if played the right way. Just staying alive helps because if Grav has another target to aim at, you rezzer may be able to help a fallen teammate.
    My apologize if I derailed this thread at all. To be continued in another thread circa 2013/2014.
  • ashensnowashensnow Posts: 2,048 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    xaogarrent wrote: »
    This isn't even clearly the case, for that matter. Alerts suck for low level characters too, because they're balanced for high if not max level. Part of the reason On Alert sucks so hard without a premade is because the alerts favor high level characters heavily, but there's very low incentive to do many of the alerts at max level. Most people have even given up on farming the bosses that have rare drops, because they're so rare it becomes frustrating.

    In a lot of ways, On Alert and much of the content that follows was meant to appeal to everyone and ended up appealing to little to no one.

    High level characters receive little or no reward for many (most) alerts. They are also heavily handicapped. Lower level characters are buffed to outperform their level.

    If alerts sucked so badly for low level toons why would so many people use them as a primary leveling route ?

    Personal experience here, but I have had a much more enjoyable and rewarding experience playing alerts with below cap characters (AT and FF) than with level 40's.

    Out of many hundreds of Alerts, in which I always check group composition, I have seen a vast majority of characters below level 30.

    'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
  • chuckthestarchuckthestar Posts: 62 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    ashensnow wrote: »
    High level characters receive little or no reward for many (most) alerts.
    True.
    They are also heavily handicapped. Lower level characters are buffed to outperform their level.
    Non sequitur.
    Low levels are buffed to be stronger than they were. But even so, they don't match the dps, heals or tanking ability of a level 40. Not even close.

    Even with the buffs, I tend to think of lvl6-lvl10 DPS as utterly useless. My dedicated healer out-damages them by 3 to 1.
    If alerts sucked so badly for low level toons why would so many people use them as a primary leveling route ?
    Low level toons suck for alerts, but alerts don't suck for them.
    Personal experience here, but I have had a much more enjoyable and rewarding experience playing alerts with below cap characters (AT and FF) than with level 40's.
    True. For the most part, level 40's enter alerts for their dailies, or 'just for the fun of it'.
    Out of many hundreds of Alerts, in which I always check group composition, I have seen a vast majority of characters below level 30.
    True.
    I think the average is somewhat self-regulating. Many high levels in the queue encourage people to play low levels. Many low levels encourage people to play higher levels.


    Back to the topic at hand, I've heard this same complaint ("There is nothing to do at 40") since launch. And there was far less to do at launch than there is now.

    I suspect people will just continue to do what they always do with champions. Play less. Come back later. Maybe level some alts. Work on costumes. Whatever. There's nothing new about this.
  • secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I'm not really basing my results on if I stay alive or not, the mission is to beat Grav. But with the Tempest we won both times and I died once and was rezzed pretty quickly. With the Specialist, we won the time I tried last night and I didn't die. My sample size is small so far because of the time it takes to outfit gear and get to 40. But my characters have been in the upright state for easily 99% of the mission.
    More or less I'm going to try to show that most if not all AT can be made to be survivable if played the right way. Just staying alive helps because if Grav has another target to aim at, you rezzer may be able to help a fallen teammate.
    My apologize if I derailed this thread at all. To be continued in another thread circa 2013/2014.

    Don't worry about going off-topic - Grav was something I have way too many hours of experience with.

    As for hitting 40 and gearing, I'm quite familiar with the time required, I've got 16 40s all in purples.

    But you're failing to mention the dependence on outside healing - take away the healers, you will go down and go down often. I've done grav's with plenty of healers and where they've been non-existent. And also more often than not, most of the group would wipe.

    You'll need to do several hundred to get a more accurate picture, and considering how long the wait can be now, I wouldn't expect anyone to.
  • serendipitynowserendipitynow Posts: 554 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Out of many hundreds of Alerts, in which I always check group composition, I have seen a vast majority of characters below level 30.

    How do you check player levels in alerts? they all show as lvl 30 for me
  • helbjornhelbjorn Posts: 678 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Press "o" during the Alert to see a list of players within it and their true levels.
  • polishlightningpolishlightning Posts: 404 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    secksegai wrote: »
    Don't worry about going off-topic - Grav was something I have way too many hours of experience with.

    But you're failing to mention the dependence on outside healing - take away the healers, you will go down and go down often. I've done grav's with plenty of healers and where they've been non-existent. And also more often than not, most of the group would wipe.

    Having a healer is very important, and if the team isn't balanced, chances are the alert will fail. This also happens in Smash Alerts, not to the extent of Grav with healing, but with lacking DPS to take the boss down before the time requirement is up. So this isn't the only alert not having a proper team can mean almost certain failure.

    Now with my Tempest I loaded him up with Con mods, to the point where he has alternate gear specifically for the Grav alert that gives him 10k HP. This hurt his DPS, but if he's dying less, his DPS is ultimately increased. I also made sure when Grav got down to 1/3 health and was firing off force shots I was blocking, I'd wait until blue or yellow bubbles were being cast and would take my shots then. If I did get low on health and there wasn't a healer around, I'd go run and hide for a few seconds. With my massive HP I was able to take quite a few shots before turning tail.

    I'm assuming once I get a pure DPS melee character I'm going to find my technique isn't very plausible, but that's part of the testing.
    secksegai wrote: »

    You'll need to do several hundred to get a more accurate picture, and considering how long the wait can be now, I wouldn't expect anyone to.

    I'm not sure I'll ever finish it, and I'm guessing another rampage alerts will be out before I finish my list of level 40 AT, but for now, it's what I'm doing with my level 40's.
  • nephtnepht Posts: 6,883 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I get some fun helping lowbies do mishes , strange that I play MMO's to met people from far away lands and play some games with them.

    Not always about what you can get, sometimes it s all about the fun :D
    nepht_siggy_v6_by_nepht-dbbz19n.jpg
    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!
  • secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Having a healer is very important, and if the team isn't balanced, chances are the alert will fail. This also happens in Smash Alerts, not to the extent of Grav with healing, but with lacking DPS to take the boss down before the time requirement is up. So this isn't the only alert not having a proper team can mean almost certain failure.

    Now with my Tempest I loaded him up with Con mods, to the point where he has alternate gear specifically for the Grav alert that gives him 10k HP. This hurt his DPS, but if he's dying less, his DPS is ultimately increased. I also made sure when Grav got down to 1/3 health and was firing off force shots I was blocking, I'd wait until blue or yellow bubbles were being cast and would take my shots then. If I did get low on health and there wasn't a healer around, I'd go run and hide for a few seconds. With my massive HP I was able to take quite a few shots before turning tail.

    I'm assuming once I get a pure DPS melee character I'm going to find my technique isn't very plausible, but that's part of the testing.



    I'm not sure I'll ever finish it, and I'm guessing another rampage alerts will be out before I finish my list of level 40 AT, but for now, it's what I'm doing with my level 40's.

    Well balance is only part of it. Skill factor is far more important, and often lacking in the player base. Seeing folks die in 30 seconds or less from the start was funny at first but became so common place it lost its entertainment value. But on the flip side I've also seen Grav go down in under 5 minutes without a hitch, and that was without any noticeable healing around - but that kind of quickness isn't plausible after her latest changes.

    Playing smart is key, and even my low hp soldier marksman have been last one standing, out-surviving free forms and far studier setups (also no longer possible now).

    If a team is performing well, they'll typically be able to carry stragglers unless said stragglers keep getting targeted by Grav and said players continually get teammates held.

    The Grav fight, as pretty much any other CO fight basically boils down to mitigating the opponent's damage while depleting their hp.

    A 10 man team comprised entirely of ATs could complete Grav assuming the players are skilled and capable of filling their roles, whether it be tanking, damage or support. But you'd also want to avoid certain ATs.

    She's very anti-melee, and the constant required blocking deny any respectable damage.
  • polishlightningpolishlightning Posts: 404 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    secksegai wrote: »
    Well balance is only part of it. Skill factor is far more important, and often lacking in the player base. Seeing folks die in 30 seconds or less from the start was funny at first but became so common place it lost its entertainment value.

    This is exactly why I started this little experiment. There were a lot of hate threads about this mission, of course my freeform had no problem standing right in front of her and until the yellow bubbles start popping I wouldn't need to block at all. But I noticed the same people in the alert die, get rezzed and go down again right away, I wanted to know how much of it was the person behind the keyboard and how much was the character pick. So I'm trying to figure out for each AT if they're viable for this mission with a few simple gear changes of not.

    If I take a character and I die every few second but the team still wins I'll consider that a fail, that character obviously wasn't helping the team by needing constant rezzes. I haven't nailed down completely how to mark a success yet, there's the obvious "didn't die and still won" scenario, but I'm sure there's going to be other times where I die and still feel my AT performed well, even in a loss.
  • chalupaoffurychalupaoffury Posts: 2,553 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Grind the unity dailies to get silver recog gear to sell, random other stuff to unlock costumes and rep travel powers. Do the Q dailies, since they take so little time. Help guildmates. Farm a bit to fund costume contests. Lament the high cost of costume changes.

    I've actually started running adventure packs again, I forgot how much fun that was. Plus, they are a good time to bust out for the zone events we keep seeing. I've actually taken to rotating my "main" 40, to keep it fresh.

    I do wish we'd finally get that lair pass, though. Endgame's a bit more robust than it was, because of the varied things they keep throwing at us that our 40s haven't done yet.

    Have you tried taking one of em and just maxing the living hell out of its stats?
    In game, I am @EvilTaco. Happily killing purple gang members since May 2008.
    dbnzfo.png
    RIP Caine
  • secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    This is exactly why I started this little experiment. [..].

    Note also you're running a completely different set of gear for one alert, loading heavily on con. And while that's plausible for some people, it can be beyond the limit for some, particularly those with limited time to invest or people with lots of alts.


    From all my experience, of all the ranged options plausible, the one that would struggle the most of the ATs would be the inferno. Con isn't a superstat, and the AT's real damage all revolves around 50 ft range. All the other range types have more flexibility, and even the cursed/scourge have the option of solid damage with their defile even if epidemic is its primary attack.

    Melee wise, it's far worse. Melee has to spend more time blocking automatically, severely reducing their damage output in comparison to most ranged. The offensive ones are automatically heavily reliant on outside healing, but even a behemoth needs to be backed by a healer.

    Minds are a bit limited, and the lack of any inherent rezzing puts them behind. My rad can work wonders, but she requires plenty of "cover" so the more teammates that are down, her chance to face plant increases dramatically.

    But all that aside, A well-played AT can outperform a mediocre FF.
  • secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Grind the unity dailies to get silver recog gear to sell, random other stuff to unlock costumes and rep travel powers. Do the Q dailies, since they take so little time. Help guildmates. Farm a bit to fund costume contests. Lament the high cost of costume changes.

    I've actually started running adventure packs again, I forgot how much fun that was. Plus, they are a good time to bust out for the zone events we keep seeing. I've actually taken to rotating my "main" 40, to keep it fresh.

    I do wish we'd finally get that lair pass, though. Endgame's a bit more robust than it was, because of the varied things they keep throwing at us that our 40s haven't done yet.

    Have you tried taking one of em and just maxing the living hell out of its stats?

    Yeah, APs and comics are pretty much what's left for me, though I may make something for grinding Vik.

    My main gets less play time as I've used her so often nothing feels fresh on her, aside from the fact she's done pretty much everything more than once. So I guess you could say I rotate her out.

    FF wise, all of em are optimized for a purpose, and as of late all prioritizing damage over survival. While I think my main FF pvp setup could probably get by Vik, not having a def passive means a lot of work for a small chance of a drop.
  • beldinbeldin Posts: 1,708 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I simply collected the Smash Alert Daily with all my 40 characters when it was on and
    did Black Fang as he still droped Q-Boxes, or Nemesis. After the Black Fang nerf i only
    did him on sub 40s and only did Nemesis with my 40s.

    Else .. Unity runs .. first to equip all my chars, later to earn money by selling Silver Champs Gear.

    Haven't played however since the last patch of Doom :wink:
    R607qMf.jpg
  • wimpazoidwimpazoid Posts: 456 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I don't farm for stuff anymore so that means no questionite for me, and I was never a fan of grinding for stuff like costume drops. What do I do with my 40s? I rotate through my favorite ones when I'm on and join friends for some team play.

    Otherwise I move on, I love designing and making fun characters, explains why I have many halfway-leveled toons. Only the characters I really like make it to 40 nowadays.
  • mashuganamashugana Posts: 87 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    My 40 is a healer so I usually spam and see if anyone wants to do Comic series or Adventure Packs because they are fun - to be honest I stopped looking at rewards a while ago so I have no idea if I get gear or money - I just like healing teams :)

    I think I need to learn:
    - what are the 40 dailies
    - how to the Until and Unity unlocks work
    - what is Therakiel Temple and how do I team for it
    - how do I grind for Questionite

    Does that seem like a good list for a new 40?

    Thanks all.
  • wesleytansgwesleytansg Posts: 863 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I spend my time grinding Q in order to get rank up catalysts so I can fully deck out my toon with r9 mods. Too bad avoidance core does not have R9 nor is it fusable even with the catalyst.
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