Gamer Rant, Volume I

I know, it's been quite awhile since I had a post. No, the lol-cats don't count. And, no, it's not because I haven't had time. I've had plenty of free time. I've just chosen to spend most of my available time playing the game. That's the problem I have with some of the people on the forums, by the way. If you look at their post counts, it makes you wonder: if they spend all that time on the forums, when do they actually play the game?

I've been playing the game for about two and a half years now (30 month Veteran Reward on the 26th. Yes, I had to check). And, as I never spent time hanging out in Galaxy or the Paragon Dance Party, or Pocket D, or anywhere else (until recently) RPing, I was actually playing the game. Let's say, then, I've picked up some stuff.

There was a comment made in team a couple of weeks ago, where someone was shocked that I had gamer-urges. That really kind of surprised me. Let me say, I am NOT a gamer. Video games, MMOs, I've never been into them. Sure, Super Mario, other early Nintendo and Sega games, some of those pop-culture type games, but nothing ever complex and nothing intensely. And even with CoH/V, I'll never be getting into complex mathematical formulas. But, I've played a lot of sets, and I've played with even more sets. I know what the powers do, and how they work. I know tactics that work, tactics that don't work, tactics that should work but don't, and tactics that shouldn't work but do. Am I an expert? Hardly. But I pay attention, and I have a good amount of common sense, both things that I see lacking from a certain amount of players in the game.

Now, before I go further, my comments here are not directed toward our core group that play together, or even any individual person that I've played with before. My level 41 Corrupter, the level 34 Warshade that I deleted were exclusively PuG leveled. A considerable bit of Blaze, and bits and pieces of almost all my other characters were parts of PuGs at one time or another. Fyre's been on a LOT of PuGs lately. PuGs (Pick-up Groups, in case you're new or have forgotten) are wonderful things. Honest. You learn all kinds of things in them. Often, what not to do, but also new tactics and things you didn't know before. These days, it's mostly what not to do, true. But, compared to the general game population, I'm entering the "Get off my lawn!" phase of gaming. Been there, done that. Really.

(Minor rant: Another problem I have with the forums: The forums do NOT represent the general game population. If those people would get off the freakin' forums, and play the game outside of their little elitist boxes, they'd get a taste of the general population, and maybe how the MMO part of the game actually works.)

So, what are my sticking points? Lately, I've noticed some things that people can't seem to get, as I've been PuGing more than usual.

Ever hear the phrase, "know your role?" It fits this game pretty well. This one, though, that applies more in bigger teams, or teams that don't play together enough to have general tactics, like PuGs. If you're a defender, your role is "healing" or buffing, or debuffing. I don't care about the forum healer-hate. If you have a heal, and you're playing on a team, you are obligated to use that heal, if and when those little green bars go down. If you've got a heal, and you're too busy attacking or filling in the map or trying to figure out what the shape of the blood splatters in Infernal's ritual room make, you're doing something wrong. If you're a scrapper who's picked up Aid Self, Aid Other, and Stimulant (for whatever unknown reason), and you're busy using Stimulant on a Council map while the empath is being batted around by a Warwolf, you're doing something wrong. Similarly, if you're an empath who isn't using Clear Mind, or a kin who's not using Speed Boost, or a rad who isn't using debuffs, you're doing something wrong. General rule? If you can do, or should be able to do, something that other ATs or players on the team can't do, you ought to be doing that thing. Other stuff is secondary.

Are there exceptions? Of course. I'll use Mo as an example. Is she perfect? Not even close. Nor am I. That's not what I'm saying.

But, this is how it works, for me and her. I'm actually pretty hard on myself as an empath. Clear Mind is on the squishies (ie, anyone who doesn't have status protection) almost constantly. Stuns and disorients happen from almost anything you fight, not just enemies with sleeps and other mezzes. If there's time, or if it's an enemy known for mezzes, Clear Mind is usually double-stacked. I like to use combat-buffs. That is, I'll wait 'til a fight starts and the group is tightly packed before using the RAs (or AM on my rads). Otherwise, people tend to stand around while the buffs tick down. Wasted buffs is one of my pet peeves. If it's a group that doesn't seem to get close enough together, or a group that moves quickly, then I'll do a "Gather for RA (Or AM, or Invisibility)!" Especially with the Empath, but also with my /thermals, I'll keep someone targeted, usually the person who seems to need healed the most. I target my attacks through them to reduce aggro on my own poor little squishy (who may be the least buffed and who I'm unable to spot-heal), and also have them targeted for easy healing (On Snow, this is most often Provo. On Crystal, even though it's only o2 Boost, it's Khryo). If there's time in between the healing and buffing, I'll throw out an attack. Yes, it's true, at level 28, Mo only has 2 attacks from her defender secondary, Sonic. I chose Sonic as a secondary for it's debuffs. I knew Mo's primary function wouldn't be damage, so I wanted her attacks to have some type of helpful effect.

Little side-track, but sort of on the point: If you want ranged damage, play a blaster, not a defender. If you want a "Nova" at level 32, play a blaster. Oh, the ways in which I hate defenders "novas." Especially the defender version of Nova. Knock everything way back, piss everything off-- because you're a defender; you're a defender, not a blaster, so you're not going to kill it off, AND use all your endurance so you can't heal/buff yourself or your teammates while you're fending off half dead pissed-off enemies. Up your team-wipe potential with the press of one button! Brilliant.

Anyway...

I can keep Fortitude on two people, one-hundred percent of the time, and add a third off and on. I usually try to keep it on the person with the most damage potential and/or the person with the best target potential (something like a side-kicked scrapper, or someone who keeps getting beat up-- unless they deserve to get beat up. Like my first emp's bio said, "I can heal your hit points, but I can't help you with stupid.")

I have been known to put Healing Aura on auto ("rocking the aura," as I've seen it called). And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. IF. If it's done during fights, and not standing around the mission. If you're also doing other things: spot healing, fort'ing, cm'ing, buffing, attacking. If you're just "rocking the aura" with the tank on auto-follow, you're doing something wrong.

My tactics with Mo vary when she's paired with just Hero-Will, or even to some degree with Hero-Will and Penitincy. She uses her attacks much more often, and even uses the Sands of Mu. Often. Mo, unfortunately, still will probably never be a solo-er. Empathy isn't built for it.

Why did I spend so much time talking about the empath? There are levels to the game. Which may vary from player to player. Some people play all on one level. But, let's call it levels that the player needs to rise to, to play a class correctly. For example, I love my blasters, but they're pretty much "easy" mode. Point and shoot. No, not at that... right, that. Good blaster. Some defenders are just slightly above that. Rad defenders, maybe. Scrappers aren't hard, but they're work-intensive. Tanks can be pretty tough, especially on a non-cooperative team. Empaths, played correctly, are definitely in the "advanced" setting. It's work, also.

I know I didn't just write a guide for "how to play," but after all the PuGs lately, where I stand there and wonder how in the world someone with more than three veteran badges can be such an idiot, I had to do something before I started using lol-cats in team chat, "WTF r u doin, N00b? u ded agin, lolz! u suk!"

(edit: Interesting that I wrote the first couple of paragraphs Saturday, but actually published 11/22, and I still got the 11/17 date.)