In
the game City of Heroes,
players can team up for special missions known as Task
Force, where 4-8 players run through an elaborate storyline / series
of missions all the way up a Villains chain of command to the Archvillain of
that dastardly group.
The advantages of a Task Force are that you rack up incredible amounts of experience and influence: Experience to getting the next Level, Influence needed to buy enhancements and inspirations. You also win enhancements along the way, and if you defeat the Archvillain, you win a Single Origin enhancement (very expensive!) well above the average level of the villains you've faced.
The
disadvantages are that the TF can take about four to six hours, maybe half a
day; and that people can drop out of a Task Force but cannot be brought in once
it starts. A poorly built team could have troubles even getting past the first
mission. While early on, very few Task Forces had been successful, as players'
abilities improved, Task Force survival and success improved.
I began writing these diaries to document the Task Forces I've run, to provide a gauge for people to see which ones are fun and which ones take some effort, and to offer others tips and suggestions on how to survive... Images provided by Photobucket!
This is late May 2008, has it been now 4 years? Yes it has, 'cause I just earned the 48 Month Vet Bonus. Issue 12 is now online, with some major changes to the game:
1) Hollows has been revamped
to make it easier to travel acros for lowbie heroes. They also added a new special
contact that provides an ongoing supply of timed door missions for those people
who hate running between the Hollows and Kings Row between Levels 5 to 10
2) Major new powersets for the established ATs. For example, Blasters now have
a Mental Attack set. Storm Summoning is now available for Villains (Corruptors
and MMs), oh and one more thing...
3) Villain Epic builds. Soldiers and Widows! There were a lot of evildoers struggling
to Level 50 this past month of May
(myself included).
4) New in-game group called the Midnight Club, which provides access to a new
zone called Cimerora. Cimerora is an island in the far past, of the days of
the Roman Empire, when men were virile (literally) and women were feminine (sorta)
and small furry creatures from... dammit I forgot my Latin regarding small furries
from Alpha Centauri!
Naturally,
I wondered about the new zone. Does it come with its own Task Force contact?
Yes it does. Meet Imperious. He's the last of Final Five Cylons hiding from the other seven... hold on, I don't even really watch that show. Why am I referring to it now...? Anyway, he's got a few missions to run, for both Heroes and Villains to team up on and earn up some wicked XP so you can level that slow-ass Mastermind you've been running for 2 years... cough. Yeah. I needed to get Evil Dewey Decimal to 50. It's either this or the Lady Grey TF. Which is also good for XP, but still I wanted to see this one. There was a lot of talk online about how tough this was. I wanted to see if it was Stateman TF tough (ick) or if it was Katie Hannon TF tough (harsh first door mish but otherwise doable).
For
the Imperious TF, the rules are simple. Find 5 other people with time to spend
to join you so you can form a 6-player team to start. Given the shared nature
of the Cimerora map, all players HAVE to be in-zone to receive the team invite.
Just to note, the 6-player minimum is just a suggestion: it may work better
to have a full 8-team lineup, especially since you're going to need all the
help you can get. Another reminder: once you start
teaming heroes and villains, you CANNOT exit the Warzone map in any way. Any
player who leaves to another zone on either side gets kicked. You can't invite
people from off-map zones as well: everyone's got to meet in the Rikti Warzone
before starting up, just to ensure a smooth start.
Finding a team for a new Task Force is easy: everyone's showing up to see how it runs. A quick pickup team formed around Evil Dewey Decimal (Mastermind Bots) with Vandemere, Axem Red, Mystic Ramses, Sir L. Warton, Witch Hrist, and Borgis Khan. With seven we could start. By the end of the first door mission we lost Warton, and by the start of the second door mission (which I'll get into later) fell apart big time due to 1) insane mob ambushes and 2) lack of team healers. Borgis suggested we start over, and Hrist offered to switch to another character with healing powers at her command. So we quit and re-formed.
The second team brought back Evil Dewey, Vandemere, and Axem, with Synneve Witch the replacement witch. The rest were not interested after failing to respond to 3 tells asking if they wanted back in. So we called out for more victims, uh teammates, and snagged Dread Shinobi, Usagi-Aisu, Lady of Merit (ReDorthy!), and this new guy Longfang. You could tell he was new because he was a Soldier epic build (!!!).
The second team survived. This is their story (insert Law & Order ping-ping noise here).
The
first mission - Consult the Oracle - requires your team to hop onto a
boat and set sail for a hidden cove, where a mysterious lady named the Sybil
awaits you. Click on her to unlock the door she's standing at, and you enter
a revamped cave map. It has the basic setup as the Troll tunnel, but with Roman
touches: arches, pillars, vomitoriums, the works. Your mission, since you chose
to accept it, is to rescue 10 Sybils before we can locate the Oracle for our
main objective. Our first team lineup had a little difficulty on the map. The
new bad guys, Cimeroran Traitors, are hard-hitting hard-to-mezz Roman troops.
They're like Malta but with spears (ow!). We had a team wipe against the first
large mob that was holding hostages, but we recovered, played a little smarter
(pull them to us rather than charge in blindly), and got around to rescuing
all ten Sybils.
As
a side note, to the Game Devs, I want to point out a certain level of hypocrisy
here. You've got as a bunch of hostages on this map a handful of nubile young
hotties dressed up like Hammer Horror vamps, but you still are afraid to create
a Mastermind powerset with women on it because you're worried about players
becoming 'pimps.' Just look at how you've got these Sybils dressed up, and then
come talk to me about the merits of creating a fully-clothed Knives of Artemis
MM powerset. Kthanks.
After rescuing the 10 hotties
uh hostages, locate another Sybil standing guard at a door (north tunnel), click
on her and pass through to the other side. You'll enter an open air map (nice
scenery! Who does the xeriscaping?) with a few more mobs, but you can bypass
those and fly/hop straight up the hill until you reach the temple at the top.
Big mobs here as well, but so is the Oracle being held hostage as well as your
first run-in with a special Elite Boss that the Roman bads have: the Minotaur!
An
axe-wielding venom-spewing monster, the Minotaur can make quick work of any
squishy, and even a few Scrappers or three. Both teams had some difficulty stomping
this stomper, but we distracted him with a red cape (ack! MINE! NOOOO!) and
we rescued the Oracle.
The
teams had to escort her to an altar, where she stands, delivers her prophecy
(the winning lotto numbers are 8, 15, *cough* what?), and from that her final
prediction that the door mission will end (MISSION
COMPLETE flashes on screen) damn she's good.
The
next mission was what killed my first team: Destroy the Shadow Cysts.
Yes, those same cysts that the 5th Column work with, and that the game makes spawn
with any team that brings with them a Kheld (Peacebringer or Warshade) build.
On this map, again a Roman tunnel, we had to find 10 of them and destroy both
the crystals but also the mobs guarding them.
Easier said than done. For one thing, the Cysts still spawn a large set of Unbounds, floating negative-energy blaster pets that make a havoc of mob fighting. Their guardians are also a handful of enemy Dwarf and Nova builds, with their own debuffing abilities that cause some heartache. And don't forget, Cysts explode when you destroy them, meaning instant debt for any squishies in PbAoE range. The biggest worry, as we new TF'ers quickly found out, were the ambush mobs that spawn when each (EACH!) cyst gets destroyed.
Each mob is led by an Elite Boss, sometimes Minotaurs, other times another EB monster that ought to be familiar to anyone who watched those Greek Myth fantasy films with Ray Harryhausen's monster FX: The CYCLOPS! With far better depth perception than you'd expect, because he looks right at you and smashes your team into Death Mode.
The
first team I ran with quickly fell apart. The biggest problem, as I mentioned
earlier, was that we didn't have anyone to provide heals and rezzes to keep
the team fighting fit. We were dealing with bigger mobs than expected, and mobs
with better attacks than we've seen before. The second team came back into this
mission with Lady of Merit and Synneve Witch helping out with the Heals. And
the second team survived. Key lesson here. There will be a quiz on this.
The second TF team worked the map, found each Cyst, dealt with all 10 ambushes that each Cyst's destruction brought up. Basically, when you destroy the tenth Cyst, you get the Mission Complete flash and you don't need to bother with the last ambush. But if you want the XP, you get the XP. So we did. :)
Yes,
I studied Latin. Unfortunately, I forgot tons of it, especially with word tense.
I think Requiem Para Bellum translates to Rest For War, but I'm not sure about
the right tense for Bellum. And if Para is the right word for 'For.' Anyone
else studying Latin at the moment...?
I digress. This mission is another boatride to an open map. It's a beachside isle, with rock-paved pathways circling around and up through the mountains and hills leading you up to UTTER DOOM! Cough. Basically, fight your way to the top, defeat 100 plus Traitors (easy to do, there's so many), defeat 6 Generals (harder to do, 5 of them are on the path, one at the top), defeat the Phalanx (wait for it), and then Stop Romulus (that's with the sixth general btw, and again wait for it). Greeting you at the boat is Daedalus, Imperious' artisan, who provides a little tanking support to your fight. But like most NPCs in-game, he's not bound to follow and he's more than likely to get killed along the way. Try to keep him alive if you can, but don't be surprised if he over-aggros and gets himself killed.
The biggest difficulty the second team had, as well as other teams I've played
since this one being discussed, is that at the point the beach curves upwards
into the mountain pass (complete with Roman bridge spanning the gap) is where
your team starts suffering massive lag. Either there's something to the graphics
or with the large number of Traitor mobs standing about, but something suddenly
makes each teammate play slower and affecting our fighting and healing. That
bridge location, by the by, is a gauntlet chokepoint of sorts: ambush mobs spawn
at the two doors at that gap. Stay alert.
You'll
find each of the first five Generals along that path from the beach to the pass.
Once you get that fifth General, regroup your team and see if anyone can fly/teleport
up to the top of the mountain. You'll find there's a 5th Column base (!) there,
complete with Mechbots and various 5th Column troops. This is the plotline revealed:
The 5th Column have a time travel crystal of their own, and they're sneaking back
into history to rewrite it using future technology to do it. What's worse, now
the Game Devs are displaying TWO MegaMechs for us to express AWE at! Dammit,
guys! Make them playable!!!
At
the Megamech's feet, you'll find a platform of Robots in Sleep mode. In the
middle of the platform is a control device. This is the Phalanx you have to
defeat, and that Control Panel needs to be destroyed ASAP. Problem is, attacking
the panel wakens the Bots. And they hit hard. The best move is to have your
ranged attackers stand some distance from the platform, keep the aggro takers
(Tankers if you got 'em) in the middle absorbing the Bots' damages, and finish
off that Panel. When the Panel is destroyed, the Bots fall.
Now
you've got a great spot to stand while someone goes up to the top of the 5th Column
base to find and pull the TWO AV's down: Romulus Augustus, and Requiem (!!!).
Big tip: Try pulling one at a time, okay? :) You pretty much fight them like
any other AV: when they both fall, MISSION COMPLETE,
and the next door is yours...
But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? - Life of Brian, duh
Welcome to your last door mission of the Task Force where you need to Retake the City. My name is Claudius, and I'll be your... what's the name for a waiter working in the vomitorium? You know, the guy with the feather. Damn, I need more research...
Anyway,
the last mission takes you to that big fancy door at the end of the bridge rising
above the hills of Cimerora. Passing through you enter Romulus' fortress, a
Roman military base swarming with mobs. You have more than one objective: you
need to defeat 300 Traitors as well as defeating Romulus and his guards. On
the plus side, you do have someone joining you with this fight: Imperious
himself meets you at the doorway and is ready to run down the ramps to fight
the bad guys. But like Daedalus, and in fact about as bad as Doc Delilah, Imp
can go crazy chasing after bad guys and will most likely get himself killed
before you know it. Try to keep him alive, but it's not a high priority...and
if you recall how Imp's later incarnation Statesman as a Game Dev nerfed us
all with Issues 5 and 6, go ahead and let the bastid die!
It's a good-sized map, and you have three ways to approach this: you can go left and fight some mobs that way, you can go right and fight some mobs that way, or you can skip ahead to Romulus' courtyard and deal with him first, finishing off the 300 Traitors for later. It kinda helps to fight your way there, making sure your team stays sharp and ready for war. Do be aware that each mob you face with a General amongst them will spawn an ambush, so do stay alert. Once you get to the courtyard, you meet 5th Column troops, and a phalanx of Traitors bearing witness to Romulus' pleadings with his dark mentor...
During this, you also bear witness as the Nictus force seizes Romulus and converts him into... RALPH THE WONDER LLAMA! No, wait, it transforms him into a Nictus Romulus, a high-powered AV protected by THREE clouds of Nictus Essences, each one also AV rank. Welcome to the party, guys!
It helps to clear out the courtyard first, making sure there's few minions to distract you from the AV fight. Once you clear everyone down to just Romulus, make sure you've got your gameplan (also make sure your team leader gets his note from someone special).
After
various other TF runs, I've learned that the best way to deal with Romulus is
to separate him from his Nictuses / Nicti. With them, Romulus gets rebuffed
and rehealed to nigh-unstoppable status, even with Radiation debuffs stacked
on him. The Nictus are impossible to hurt as long as Romulus is near, so focus
on killing Romulus first. Put some distance between him and the Nicti, and the
best way for that is to get someone with Mezz protects on top of the Nicti and
keep them rooted to one spot. The rest of the team can then pull Romulus away
and once he's far enough out of range the team can whack on him like a regular
AV. He's a hard hitter but he can fall pretty fast. WARNING:
Traitor mobs will spawn and ambush you during the fight, so do watch out for
it. Once Romulus falls, get everyone without Mezz protects away
from him. Romulus will respawn by absorbing one of his Nictus Essences, and
during the respawn he will Stun everyone within PbAoE range (like a Nictus version
of Rise of the Phoenix). And then, repeat! When Romulus absorbs the last Nictus,
the whole team can gather and finish him off. Once he falls, you're left with
mop-up duties and finish off the remaining 300.
There is a chance that you can finish off Romulus and he won't be able to absorb a Nictus because he's too far away. If that happens, you need to attack the Nictus (hopefully there'll be just one left). The Nictus Essence can heal itself through absorbing power from anyone in melee range, so this is where having ranged attackers come in handy. Throw down a debuff effect as best you can, and then blast away at the Nictus until it dies.
With that, 
Mission
Completed. Win yourself a shiny new Roman helmet hat thingee! And
a Rare Recipe (Pace of the Turtle?! AGAIN?!?!). Repeat 4 or 5 times to level
up to 50 on your evildoer, and go make yourself a Crab Spider or Blood Widow.
Bwhahahahahaha!!
--
Suggestions to run this TF:
1) The mixing of heroes and villains may be fun, but get everyone in the Zone
before inviting a team together.
2) You don't need balance so much for this TF as you need the ability to endure
it. You're going to get swamped with bad guys no matter what you do, and they'll
be ambushing you nearly every step of the way. Defenders and Controllers with
Healing and Rezz powers are the real key to survival.
2a) To be honest, a team can go in without a Tanker or like build to handle
aggro. Just as long as you have a few Scrappers or Brutes that have Mezz protects
and self-healing. Damage dealing and healing from damage are your two highest
needs.
3) You will always need someone with a DeBuff attack or four to help with all
the Elite Boss monsters and Nictus AVs you will end up fighting. Hello, Radiation-based
Defenders and Corruptors! :-)
4) FIGHTING the Final AV requires you to knock out Romulus no matter what, while
holding back the three Nictus Essences that are near him. The Essences are nigh-invulnerable,
but you'll note that as long as you are holding them especially some distance
away from the AV, Romulus gets weaker and can get killed. Use someone with Mezz
protect to aggro the Nicti while the rest of the team debuffs and flattens Romulus.
When Romulus goes down, he'll Rezz by absorbing an Essence, then repeat as needed.
The last one, you finish him like a regular AV. Please do note ambushes will
continue to swamp your team. Also note each Rezz by Romulus causes a Stun effect
to all nearby squishy builds. Bring BreakFree inspirs!
4a) There is a chance Romulus will die without absorbing any additional Nictus
(this happens if they are too far apart). In that case, you handle the Nictus
like you would the AV Arakhn: stay out of melee range and shoot/debuff the Nictus
from a distance. The Nictus heals by pulling power from surrounding players,
the more the quicker it heals up. So range attacks work best. It'll be slow
but they do go down.
Well, that's that. Now, to get the Game Devs to FIX POSITRON! (We're up to Issue 12, and it's still screwy wrong!)
--
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