Arcas_NA
11-29-2004, 09:30 AM
Lots of grouping guides out there say pretty much the same thing (I know, I wrote a few): Tanks must have provoke, defenders don't blast only heal, blasters to the back, etc. They preach the 'balanced team' and proper team make-up. After you've played CoH for awhile, you realize that most of this is really beginner knowledge. It's not wrong, but it is really just a form of pick-up group idiot proofing. Pick-up groups don't have the skill and experience with each other to truly excel, so it's sometimes best to throw the one-size-fits all grouping tactics on to them so that everyone doesn't run around totally lost.
Over in the real grouping world, things are a little different. Any type of group, when well played and coordinated, can be successful. No, tanks don't need provoke. Blasters can be successful with melee powers. Yes, defenders can blast. And believe it or not, people actually do slot enhancements other than damage and accuracy. A big part of it is thinking about the other things ATs and power types can do besides what we usually associate with them.
This guide is about those rare teams that approach grouping not as an occasional distraction, but as something they do 100% of the time. These are groups that work together almost all of the time. Alone, each would be considered gimp, but together they form some of the most powerful teams in the game. Thus, I call them SuperTeams.
If you or your supergroup has a SuperTeam, post some of your stories here, we'd like to hear them.
The Supergroup vs. SuperTeams
There's one thing I've noticed about Paragon City. The vast majority of heroes are solo builds. That doesn't mean they aren't group players, but they are solo built heroes that just happen to group. I've met very few true group built characters. Most supergroups (the true organization of group characters) are made up of nothing more than solo builds that just happen to hang out together.
SuperTeams are different. They are made of players that play almost exclusively with each other. They probably have the same costumes/names, just like supergroups. But that's only the beginning.
Collaborative Builds
Solo built heroes of the world think they have to do everything themselves. Not only because of the "super hero-ness" of being able to do big damage, AND tank, AND heal, AND buff, AND control. And thus the tank complains because he can't do big damage when he could just get a scrapper friend. Or the blaster who is angry because enemies run away from his Blizzard when one controller is the easy solution. But it also because a lot of people honestly don't trust anyone else to take care of critical areas for them, especially in a pick-up team.
SuperTeams do exactly that. They defer, what many players consider to be, critical areas to their teammates. Slightly gimping themselves to create a stronger group overall. True group builds are built to group with one specific group. They aren't one-size fits all, ready to fit in to any random pick-up group that the universe spits out.
Buffing and the Rule of Leadership: In most SuperTeams, everyone takes leadership powers. Only new players take leadership powers solo, and then come to the boards to complain about how weak they are. They just don't understand two concepts. First, leadership is a group-based pool. Its effectiveness increases as you add more team members and greatly increases as you add more team members with the same leadership power. Everyone that says leadership is too weak and demands a increase, has to take a moment to think about how even small increases will affect an 8 defender team with shared leadership. Leadership works great, when you get your teammates to take it with you.
The second concept is the rate of damage over time. People are found of mentioning how they only get 1.5 damage or something from assault, and thus it is weak. But how much is that 1.5 over an entire fight? Over an entire mission? Over a few months? That 1.5 grows over time into lots of free damage that you would not have had otherwise. Now think about that rate over yourself and 7 other teammates? What if they ALL had assault as well? I'll take free damage, no matter how small, any day of the week. If you have room in your build, and can manage the near insignificant endurance cost, I don't see why you would not take leadership powers. If your 500 point attack is only boosted by 1, you can now one-shot a 501 HP enemy. :)
All this relates to buffs, and SuperTeams are always looking to be buffed as much as possible and as often as possible (on the flip-side SuperTeams are always looking for buffs but not heals, sorry empaths. SuperTeams just don't take damage all that much).
Say you were in a SuperTeam where a kinetic defender kept the team damaged buffed at all times. You'd probably be close to the damage cap and many people would say adding assault on top of this is a waste. But what's the missing part? What's missing is the fact that the team is near the cap because most heroes slot tons of damage enhancements. If you can get close to caps using mostly outside buffs, then it frees up enhancement slots for other powers, and/or it frees up slots for enhancements other than accuracy, damage, and endurance reduction. The reason this is very important should become clear later.
Single Powers to Rule them All: Most people hear my leadership nonsense, and the first question is quick to arise. "How can you possibly find room in builds for leadership powers?" The answer is the key component of collaborative builds. You build each hero to fill in the gaps of the others. Here are three big examples:
<ul type="square"> Travels: It should be obvious, but if you group with the same teammembers all the time, why does everyone need their own travel powers? One teammember with fly, personal force field, and recall friend can take care of the traveling for the entire team. Not to mention powers like group fly, inertia reduction, speed boost, siphon speed, etc. Leaving the taxi duties to a teammember frees up 1-2 power slots on most builds.
Hasten?: In solo world, players tend to believe that 1 acc, 5 dam is now the "norm" and anything below that is "totally gimp." People could easily load up a few recharge enhancements, but that will take them away from that ideal set-up. So through their own actions they create the need for Hasten, first of the "must-have" powers. Superteams just throw accelerate metabolism and/or speed boost at that problem. Do you really need hasten if you're speed boosted 100% of the time?
Stamina?: The same can be said for stamina. How many people do you know that actually seriously invests in endurance reduction enhancements? Probably, not many (that whole 1 acc, 5 dam mind-set again). So, again, through their own actions, people form this need to get stamina. Those same two powers, acc. meta and speed boost also work great in this area as well. Also key are recovery aura and ad. boost. How much space would you have in your build if you didn't have to touch the fitness pool at all?[/list]
In SuperTeams, one or two members can take "the hit" in power choices in order to make the entire team more efficient and effective. The key is early planning for group choices for the entire team.
Building to Theme, the true power of SuperTeams
Collaborative builds was the beginning, now it continues by working together on powers and enhancement choices. SuperTeams are the minority groups that take advantage of one of the key concepts in City of Heroes: With very few exceptions, everything in the game stacks. To illustrate this, let's have a discussion of teams built around specific enhancement types.
Endurance Reduction: This isn't really a team, but I just wanted to make a quick comment about end. reduction: Use it! Powerleveling is a factor of two things, increasing damage while reducing downtime. Everyone increases damage through enhancements, split teaming, underhunting and tons of other tactics. But hardly anyone gives a thought to reducing downtime. It doesn't matter if you can do big damage if you have to rest after every fight. Just one endurance SO in the big end powers can make a true difference. So seriously think about it... until your teammates get speed boost/transference/acc. meta/recovery aura/etc.
Damage: My damage SuperTeam would focus on damage-over-time (DOT). This means fire. A fire/fire tank, two fire/fire blasters (one melee bias, one ranged bias), one or two fire/kinetic controllers, and round it out with spines/claw scrappers and defenders kinetic or empathy (for recovery aura and adrenaline boost). Everyone takes assault/tactics. Everyone slots tons of damage in the area powers, even the controller (you won't have to hold for long). The blasters are right in there with the tank using their melee aura powers (don't be scared, it's called aggro management, let the tank do his work and pace your attacks). This team will live at the damage cap constantly, but that's ok. They're theme is doing tons of damage before they run out of end and/or the enemy can mount a true counter. In this case, it's better to be at the cap than close. Stick this group in trial zones or split team underhunting in hazard zones. Stacking damage is one of the more basic SuperTeams, but its controlled chaos and pure leveling speed can not be ignored.
End. Drain: Endurance draining in City of Heroes is the classic example of "bring-a-friend." It becomes SOO easy when you have a team working together to do it. The trick to end. drain is to focus your enhancements on the big draining powers to get the best effect. The best end drain powers are Short Circuit, Zapp, Thunderous Blast, and Power Sink. Next in line, but also worthy of heavy enhancement are Transfusion and Transference. My simple end drain team would be two blasters, one elec/elec and one elec/energy (for power boost and others). And two defenders, one kinetic/elec and one force field/elec. Maybe with an Ice Tank thrown in if you have to have one.
Slow: You knew it when that first group of Valzilok ambushed you in Galaxy City, slow is extremely powerful when it is stacked together. Yes, even in this post Caltrop-10% movement-fix world. Team includes Ice/Ice Tankers, Ice/Ice-Devices Blasters, Ice/Storm Controllers, Spine Scrappers, and Storm-Dark/Psychic Blast Defenders. Works in many ways like the damage group. Let everyone stick close together to take max effect of the aura/area powers. And please slot your slow enhancements! Protection? Chilling Embrace, Spine Burst, Quills, multiple Ice Patches, etc.... Perma 90% enemy slow is some strong damage mitagation. Form this group if you want to blow in like a december wind and destroy everything before it can mount a true counter or escape.
Knockback: An enemy can't hurt you while flying through the air! Team includes Assault-Energy/Energy Blasters, Storm-FF-Kinetic/Psychic-Energy Defenders, Gravity-Mind/Storm Controllers and if you have any melees Battleaxe-Stone-SS Tank (with Whirlwind). Make sure the controllers avoid any powers that physically hold an enemy (mind and illusion are ok), they just give a pesky resistance to knockback. Use knockback enhancements if you prefer, but remember your sniper powers and the effects of range on this team. This isn't the most efficient team (no holds/low area effect efficiency) or the easiest to work with. But if you like a challenge, nothing is more fun than a screen full of enemies flying all over the place!
Defense Reduction: Samurai/Ninja and Knight themed supergroups should be ashamed if defense reduction isn't a key part of their diet. The main members of this team are Broadsword/Katana Scrappers and Rad/Rad Defenders. Defense reduction works like accuracy, but with a few differences. It doesn't help your initial attack, you have to hit on your own to score the defense debuff. It is temporary. Each defense debuff attack does its own defense debuff, and they stack with your other attacks, and the attacks done by your teammates (up to a cap of course). In other words, accuracy enhancements help you personally, defense debuffs helps your entire team. You just need that first shot to start it off, then villans are kept in a crippling chain with a dangerously lowered defense. I'm sure you've heard the stories of the 8-man Rad/Rad defender teams and what they can do (even after the nerf). Be afraid! Also, think about the effect of just one d. reduction rad/rad defender thrown in with the Damage team.
To-Hit Debuff: Finally the one team that can trully say that the best defense is a good offense. To-Hit debuff works exactly like defense reduction. Score a strike, and it lowers their accuracy. This is the core domain of dark powers. Key components of the team are Dark/Dark Defenders and Dark Scrappers. Other notable debuff powers: Smoke, and Smoke Grenade (after a recent patch, Intimidate, Invoke panic, and Force bubble do not take to-hit debuff). This team of the night can and needs to unleash a constant offensive fury to keep their enemies near the debuff cap. Also, consider what happens if you combine the defense reduc. team with this team. Maybe a Ninja/Knight team with Dark Mages to help. Now you have one team with the ability to artificially bring tough enemies down a few levels, by combining both debuffs. An Earthquake controller would fit well with this dual team too.
Defense Buff and Resist Damage: Every once in awhile, someone asks how to form a team to experience all the 'content'. This is the exact team I suggest. A team totally built around defense. Invulnerability Tanks, Inv/SR Scrappers, Blasters with Cloaking Device, Tough, and Weave, Illusion/FF Controllers, and nicely enhanced Emp-FF/Dark defenders. Flashy? Not really. This doesn't have the flair of the damage or knockback teams, but it makes up for it in effectiveness. A defensive focused team can methodically grind through any mission. Task forces, trials, and archvillians are nothing. This would be the one team left standing during invasions while everyone else is getting taxied from the hospital. If you hate debt, hate death, and hate really working hard to avoid both... here you go.
Disorient: Yes, disorient is still buggy. But the extent people avoid disorient, boggles my mind. Here is a list of mag 3 disorient powers: Beanbag, Taser, Stun, Flashfire, Cosmic Burst, Cobra Strike, Eagles Claw, and Knockout Blow. All you have to do is chain two of those to perma-stun any boss. Then there are tons of mag 2 and mag 1 powers that can also come into play if your team works together. Notable team members include Energy Tankers, Assault/Dev Blasters, and Martial Art Scrappers (also useful are FF/Storm Defenders and Earth/Fire/Mind Controllers). Besides the tanker, no one really has to invest that much into the team, since most power groups only have one or two disorient powers to enhance. Just add a few more slots for accuracy and disorient and there you go. Keep bosses out of the fight, disorient entire groups of minions for damage mitigation. And my favorite, alpha strike troublesome enemies (like sorcerors and raider engineers for instance) to take their buffs completely out of the battle equation. Having trouble with enemies sleep, disorient, or holding you... then do it to them first!
Range: Range is arguably the most underrated Power-10 enhancement. A team built around range requires you to flip everything you know about team tactics on its head. To do things in a totally different way. You get the most bang from range by using it with power sets that have a large base range. So it's important to know that the longest range power sets in the game are Psychic Blast, Mind Control, and Assault Rifle. Ranged strategy usually has three steps. One, if defensive heavy melee heroes are present, their job is to hold aggro, disorient, knockdown, or do anything they can to delay the enemy from chasing the ranged heroes. Two, controllers/defenders use their 'location' powers to either lay it down in the middle of an enemy group or to place it in such a way that they have to run through it to get to you (location powers take range too). Even better if the controllers have enough range in their area holds to simply hold the group without getting hit. Third, the range fighters do their best to super jump/fly around to stay out of range, while strategically blasting the enemies. It's not as easy as it sounds, but it's a lot of fun when executed correctly. Think about the effects of range enhancements in powers with high base ranges. The recently fixed Tar Patch has a base range of 120!! It now slows enemies properly and recharges fast enough to lay down a second before the first is gone. The snipes Moonbeam and Psionic Lance start at a base of 175! Have you ever ran experiments on with range on Teleport Foe? Most people label range as useless since they only try to use it in a solo setting. Three blasters in a triangle formation, trading the aggro of a boss, and outranging him 100%, is going to win every night of the week. Think about ways the new AoE "fear" changes are a benefit to this team. Sit down with your team and think about innovative ways to use range.
Pure Teams:
Pure teams are SuperTeams that consist mostly of one AT. They are usually done in one of two ways. First is identical stacking, every teammember is completely identical to the others, down to the enhancements. As an example, I remember a team of blaster robots that said they were all from the same series of robot from a factory, so they were all identical. The second method is to try for team balance, starting with a one AT team, but choosing powers in a way that each member can fill a different role. Let one member take many defensive power pool powers and be the "tank." Others can focus on damage dealing, or travel powers, or buffs/heals from the medicine pool. It's an attempt to get a psuedo-balanced group while maintaining the benefits of everyone being the same AT.
Tankers: If the thought of an all-tanker team makes you cringe... then you have never played an offensive tanker. Including two or three fire tanks will do wonders for offense. Multiple Ice tankers can create their own slow debuff group. Stacked Chilling Embraces/Ice Patches is a nightmare for villians. Multiple Energy/SS tankers can keep entire trial zone sized groups of enemies stunned. An all-tanker team, even if totally offensively focused, will still have the benefits of higher tanker hit points. If you don't want to go full-out, a single kinetic defender will significantly help this team.
Scrappers: The same can be done for scrappers. Stack Invulnerability for a strong defensive team or Dark powers for an offensively defensive team. Multiple Spines scrappers create a higher damaging slow team than the tankers. Multiple claw/regens can run through hazard zones zerging anything in their path. The swords (broad/katana) create a strong defense debuff team. Or a martial arts team for perma-disorients. Again, you can't count out the extreme effect that a single kinetic defender will have on this team.
Defenders: Easily the most famous of the pure teams. All-defender supergroups exist on every server of the game. And for good reason, they are extremely powerful teams. Multiple kinetics are built for fast leveling, potentially outpacing even all-blaster teams. Radiation teams are the kings of debuffing, tough groups of purples are nothing to them. Any team that has more than two force fielders, simply will not die... ever. Dark defender teams can have impressive offensive while placing only second to force fielders in the "tough-to-kill" category. An Empathy team almost sounds redundant, but in later levels, stacking clear minds, fortitudes, and recovery auras, can all come in handy (ever seen a 100% Whirlwind taking no endurance because it's powered by multiple RAs? Fun, fun). A Storm team can go so many different directions: knockbacks, slow, debuffs, etc. All that before we even begin to talk about stacking the highest leadership bonuses for all the ATs.
Blasters: Yes, all-blaster teams do exist and they work just fine. Some make use of range. Some simply quickly demolish their foes with an awesome initial strike. Others stack bonuses for max-effect. Ice slow teams, Energy knockback teams, Assault range teams, Fire DoT teams, Elec End Drain teams... these are all examples. In the end, whether identical teams or a balanced blaster team, this team will always have the base-blaster advantage of being able to outdamage most other teams. In general, those heroes in all-blaster teams that I've watched and talked too are all experts at killing and killing fast... because they know what happens if they don't.
Controllers: The rarest of the pure teams, pure controller teams follow the exact progression as controllers themselves. After the slow start, you can't deny the pure power of this team once they reach the 30s. Once they cross that barrier, the team reaches that magical point where they not only have holds, defender powers, and strong leadership bonuses. But also a large army of pets completely at their disposal. I have never personally seen a pure-controller SuperTeam, but I'm in awe at the possibilities.
A simple idea for an early contoller team is to work a few members around confuse. A couple Mind controllers with an Illusion and a Ice Controller. With so many confusions going around, it greatly reduces the amount of total damage you need to do for the same experience.
Buffing: The Balance of Powers and Enhancements
The Defense group is my favorite example of balanced buffing. For a solo example: I have a energy tanker on Infinity with 'three' invulnerability powers total. All three only have one enhancement slot. The powers are Resist Physical Damage, Dull Pain, and Invincibility, the only one that matters. Invincibility gives you a defense boost for each enemy at melee range. So when the tank is in the middle of a huge trial zone group, he tends not to get hit at all. The outside buff provided by invincibility totally dwarfs the fact that he has hardly any defensive enhancement.
Going back to the defense group, if you are a tanker that is buffed 100% of the time with force fields, then you don't need to collect the tons of defense enhancements like most tanks. And it works both ways, a force fielder in a team where everyone has a decent amount of personal defense, does not have to six slot every bubble.
So that's the paradox, the defensive team has so many outside group defense powers and buffs that is frees them up to give heavy slotting to their offensive powers. And it works the same way for many other SuperTeams.
Beyond Communication: Experience
Communication is the key component of a good team, always. Communicating to plan tactics, talking about what went wrong, etc. Good leaders even know how to throw out casual bits to keep everyone interested, or to completely change the bad mood after a group wipe-out so that no one leaves in disgust.
Pick-up groups have to have communication. You don't know your team members' experience with the game, or experience with different power sets. So you have to literally tell them to wait for the controller holds before they unleash the Fire Rain or why the unyielding or invincibility tank needs lots of enemies around them. Most importantly, team members don't know each other. Good communication gives everyone a little more confidence in each other, making everyone more likely to stay calm and do their job as opposed to running for the door at the first yellow HP bar.
In SuperTeams, experience replaces communication. That's not to say that they don't talk, but they rarely talk about tactics/strategy. You'll rarely hear a superteam say, "Ok, snipe the boss first while the rad/rad defender debuffs the lieutenant." They don't say it because everyone already knows it. This blaster might usually start a battle by sniping the boss, so everyone automatically clicks on him to see what he is targeting. They have worked with the defender enough to know what the radiation anchors look like and as such they know how to avoid them. The moment the controllers begin the holds, the blasters are right behind with the area attacks. Ranged focused blasters are constantly 'glued' to Repel or Hurricane defenders. Confused and mezzed enemies are immediately identified and left alone.
These are all traits of teams that have such a high level of experience with each other, that once the battle begins they already know the next five things that will happen. Because they've done it thousands of times before.
Another aspect is trust. In SuperTeams, heroes fully know and expect their teammates to jump in and save their hide, constantly. There's no need to worry, once the tank hits red... BOOM! ... there goes the absorb pain. Automatic. If things are going bad for the scrapper, he knows to not run because a kinetics transfusion will be coming soon.
Members of pick-up teams spend so much time wondering if they can trust their teammates that it hurts efficiency and the group overall. I can speak from experience since I lead a lot of pick-up teams. Half my time is spent leading the group and contributing with battles. But in a newly formed pick-up team, almost an equal part of my attention is also spent watching everyone else. Noticing their fighting styles, offering tactics suggestions, checking the map to see if everyone is keeping up, keeping an eye out for leechers and people not pulling their weight, and sometimes even managing the team seek window and sending tells to other potential teammembers. Once I have a little more experience with the team, the middle of a task force for instance, I can stop worrying about most of that stuff and become a better contributor.
I know this is all fairly obvious, but it's one of the most crucial components of the SuperTeam. Lots of players have completely given up on pick-up teams after having a few bad experiences (I hope you give them another try). They already know the value of teaming with someone that knows your playstyle very well. Many times it's the difference between success and a group hospital trip.
Not interested in SuperTeams, you will be
Most people that work in groups always want to manage the weaknesses. The cliche phrase of this is "We need a healer!"
SuperTeams aren't about weaknesses, they are about the strengths. And making those strengths so powerful that the weaknesses just don't matter that much. Do you think the slow team or the to-hit debuff team cares about needing more defense heroes? Having enemies slowed by 90%, is defense. Six slotted attacks that all debuff accuracy, is defense.
That's the SuperTeam: picking one theme and focusing on that theme to such an extent, that little else matters.
You might not have a SuperTeam now, or want to form one, but think about this: Do you want to face a SuperTeam in battle?
Do you want to fight a team that can drain your endurance moments into the fight? Or a team that slows you so severly that you can't even escape? Or a team that you can't even get in range to fight? Or an entire team of mezzing, stunning, holding, enemies? Or a team that debuffs your accuracy so much that hitting them is near impossible?
You might not want to deal with this now. But I can guarantee that the people over on the City of Villians board have long since taken notice and begun preparing...
Over in the real grouping world, things are a little different. Any type of group, when well played and coordinated, can be successful. No, tanks don't need provoke. Blasters can be successful with melee powers. Yes, defenders can blast. And believe it or not, people actually do slot enhancements other than damage and accuracy. A big part of it is thinking about the other things ATs and power types can do besides what we usually associate with them.
This guide is about those rare teams that approach grouping not as an occasional distraction, but as something they do 100% of the time. These are groups that work together almost all of the time. Alone, each would be considered gimp, but together they form some of the most powerful teams in the game. Thus, I call them SuperTeams.
If you or your supergroup has a SuperTeam, post some of your stories here, we'd like to hear them.
The Supergroup vs. SuperTeams
There's one thing I've noticed about Paragon City. The vast majority of heroes are solo builds. That doesn't mean they aren't group players, but they are solo built heroes that just happen to group. I've met very few true group built characters. Most supergroups (the true organization of group characters) are made up of nothing more than solo builds that just happen to hang out together.
SuperTeams are different. They are made of players that play almost exclusively with each other. They probably have the same costumes/names, just like supergroups. But that's only the beginning.
Collaborative Builds
Solo built heroes of the world think they have to do everything themselves. Not only because of the "super hero-ness" of being able to do big damage, AND tank, AND heal, AND buff, AND control. And thus the tank complains because he can't do big damage when he could just get a scrapper friend. Or the blaster who is angry because enemies run away from his Blizzard when one controller is the easy solution. But it also because a lot of people honestly don't trust anyone else to take care of critical areas for them, especially in a pick-up team.
SuperTeams do exactly that. They defer, what many players consider to be, critical areas to their teammates. Slightly gimping themselves to create a stronger group overall. True group builds are built to group with one specific group. They aren't one-size fits all, ready to fit in to any random pick-up group that the universe spits out.
Buffing and the Rule of Leadership: In most SuperTeams, everyone takes leadership powers. Only new players take leadership powers solo, and then come to the boards to complain about how weak they are. They just don't understand two concepts. First, leadership is a group-based pool. Its effectiveness increases as you add more team members and greatly increases as you add more team members with the same leadership power. Everyone that says leadership is too weak and demands a increase, has to take a moment to think about how even small increases will affect an 8 defender team with shared leadership. Leadership works great, when you get your teammates to take it with you.
The second concept is the rate of damage over time. People are found of mentioning how they only get 1.5 damage or something from assault, and thus it is weak. But how much is that 1.5 over an entire fight? Over an entire mission? Over a few months? That 1.5 grows over time into lots of free damage that you would not have had otherwise. Now think about that rate over yourself and 7 other teammates? What if they ALL had assault as well? I'll take free damage, no matter how small, any day of the week. If you have room in your build, and can manage the near insignificant endurance cost, I don't see why you would not take leadership powers. If your 500 point attack is only boosted by 1, you can now one-shot a 501 HP enemy. :)
All this relates to buffs, and SuperTeams are always looking to be buffed as much as possible and as often as possible (on the flip-side SuperTeams are always looking for buffs but not heals, sorry empaths. SuperTeams just don't take damage all that much).
Say you were in a SuperTeam where a kinetic defender kept the team damaged buffed at all times. You'd probably be close to the damage cap and many people would say adding assault on top of this is a waste. But what's the missing part? What's missing is the fact that the team is near the cap because most heroes slot tons of damage enhancements. If you can get close to caps using mostly outside buffs, then it frees up enhancement slots for other powers, and/or it frees up slots for enhancements other than accuracy, damage, and endurance reduction. The reason this is very important should become clear later.
Single Powers to Rule them All: Most people hear my leadership nonsense, and the first question is quick to arise. "How can you possibly find room in builds for leadership powers?" The answer is the key component of collaborative builds. You build each hero to fill in the gaps of the others. Here are three big examples:
<ul type="square"> Travels: It should be obvious, but if you group with the same teammembers all the time, why does everyone need their own travel powers? One teammember with fly, personal force field, and recall friend can take care of the traveling for the entire team. Not to mention powers like group fly, inertia reduction, speed boost, siphon speed, etc. Leaving the taxi duties to a teammember frees up 1-2 power slots on most builds.
Hasten?: In solo world, players tend to believe that 1 acc, 5 dam is now the "norm" and anything below that is "totally gimp." People could easily load up a few recharge enhancements, but that will take them away from that ideal set-up. So through their own actions they create the need for Hasten, first of the "must-have" powers. Superteams just throw accelerate metabolism and/or speed boost at that problem. Do you really need hasten if you're speed boosted 100% of the time?
Stamina?: The same can be said for stamina. How many people do you know that actually seriously invests in endurance reduction enhancements? Probably, not many (that whole 1 acc, 5 dam mind-set again). So, again, through their own actions, people form this need to get stamina. Those same two powers, acc. meta and speed boost also work great in this area as well. Also key are recovery aura and ad. boost. How much space would you have in your build if you didn't have to touch the fitness pool at all?[/list]
In SuperTeams, one or two members can take "the hit" in power choices in order to make the entire team more efficient and effective. The key is early planning for group choices for the entire team.
Building to Theme, the true power of SuperTeams
Collaborative builds was the beginning, now it continues by working together on powers and enhancement choices. SuperTeams are the minority groups that take advantage of one of the key concepts in City of Heroes: With very few exceptions, everything in the game stacks. To illustrate this, let's have a discussion of teams built around specific enhancement types.
Endurance Reduction: This isn't really a team, but I just wanted to make a quick comment about end. reduction: Use it! Powerleveling is a factor of two things, increasing damage while reducing downtime. Everyone increases damage through enhancements, split teaming, underhunting and tons of other tactics. But hardly anyone gives a thought to reducing downtime. It doesn't matter if you can do big damage if you have to rest after every fight. Just one endurance SO in the big end powers can make a true difference. So seriously think about it... until your teammates get speed boost/transference/acc. meta/recovery aura/etc.
Damage: My damage SuperTeam would focus on damage-over-time (DOT). This means fire. A fire/fire tank, two fire/fire blasters (one melee bias, one ranged bias), one or two fire/kinetic controllers, and round it out with spines/claw scrappers and defenders kinetic or empathy (for recovery aura and adrenaline boost). Everyone takes assault/tactics. Everyone slots tons of damage in the area powers, even the controller (you won't have to hold for long). The blasters are right in there with the tank using their melee aura powers (don't be scared, it's called aggro management, let the tank do his work and pace your attacks). This team will live at the damage cap constantly, but that's ok. They're theme is doing tons of damage before they run out of end and/or the enemy can mount a true counter. In this case, it's better to be at the cap than close. Stick this group in trial zones or split team underhunting in hazard zones. Stacking damage is one of the more basic SuperTeams, but its controlled chaos and pure leveling speed can not be ignored.
End. Drain: Endurance draining in City of Heroes is the classic example of "bring-a-friend." It becomes SOO easy when you have a team working together to do it. The trick to end. drain is to focus your enhancements on the big draining powers to get the best effect. The best end drain powers are Short Circuit, Zapp, Thunderous Blast, and Power Sink. Next in line, but also worthy of heavy enhancement are Transfusion and Transference. My simple end drain team would be two blasters, one elec/elec and one elec/energy (for power boost and others). And two defenders, one kinetic/elec and one force field/elec. Maybe with an Ice Tank thrown in if you have to have one.
Slow: You knew it when that first group of Valzilok ambushed you in Galaxy City, slow is extremely powerful when it is stacked together. Yes, even in this post Caltrop-10% movement-fix world. Team includes Ice/Ice Tankers, Ice/Ice-Devices Blasters, Ice/Storm Controllers, Spine Scrappers, and Storm-Dark/Psychic Blast Defenders. Works in many ways like the damage group. Let everyone stick close together to take max effect of the aura/area powers. And please slot your slow enhancements! Protection? Chilling Embrace, Spine Burst, Quills, multiple Ice Patches, etc.... Perma 90% enemy slow is some strong damage mitagation. Form this group if you want to blow in like a december wind and destroy everything before it can mount a true counter or escape.
Knockback: An enemy can't hurt you while flying through the air! Team includes Assault-Energy/Energy Blasters, Storm-FF-Kinetic/Psychic-Energy Defenders, Gravity-Mind/Storm Controllers and if you have any melees Battleaxe-Stone-SS Tank (with Whirlwind). Make sure the controllers avoid any powers that physically hold an enemy (mind and illusion are ok), they just give a pesky resistance to knockback. Use knockback enhancements if you prefer, but remember your sniper powers and the effects of range on this team. This isn't the most efficient team (no holds/low area effect efficiency) or the easiest to work with. But if you like a challenge, nothing is more fun than a screen full of enemies flying all over the place!
Defense Reduction: Samurai/Ninja and Knight themed supergroups should be ashamed if defense reduction isn't a key part of their diet. The main members of this team are Broadsword/Katana Scrappers and Rad/Rad Defenders. Defense reduction works like accuracy, but with a few differences. It doesn't help your initial attack, you have to hit on your own to score the defense debuff. It is temporary. Each defense debuff attack does its own defense debuff, and they stack with your other attacks, and the attacks done by your teammates (up to a cap of course). In other words, accuracy enhancements help you personally, defense debuffs helps your entire team. You just need that first shot to start it off, then villans are kept in a crippling chain with a dangerously lowered defense. I'm sure you've heard the stories of the 8-man Rad/Rad defender teams and what they can do (even after the nerf). Be afraid! Also, think about the effect of just one d. reduction rad/rad defender thrown in with the Damage team.
To-Hit Debuff: Finally the one team that can trully say that the best defense is a good offense. To-Hit debuff works exactly like defense reduction. Score a strike, and it lowers their accuracy. This is the core domain of dark powers. Key components of the team are Dark/Dark Defenders and Dark Scrappers. Other notable debuff powers: Smoke, and Smoke Grenade (after a recent patch, Intimidate, Invoke panic, and Force bubble do not take to-hit debuff). This team of the night can and needs to unleash a constant offensive fury to keep their enemies near the debuff cap. Also, consider what happens if you combine the defense reduc. team with this team. Maybe a Ninja/Knight team with Dark Mages to help. Now you have one team with the ability to artificially bring tough enemies down a few levels, by combining both debuffs. An Earthquake controller would fit well with this dual team too.
Defense Buff and Resist Damage: Every once in awhile, someone asks how to form a team to experience all the 'content'. This is the exact team I suggest. A team totally built around defense. Invulnerability Tanks, Inv/SR Scrappers, Blasters with Cloaking Device, Tough, and Weave, Illusion/FF Controllers, and nicely enhanced Emp-FF/Dark defenders. Flashy? Not really. This doesn't have the flair of the damage or knockback teams, but it makes up for it in effectiveness. A defensive focused team can methodically grind through any mission. Task forces, trials, and archvillians are nothing. This would be the one team left standing during invasions while everyone else is getting taxied from the hospital. If you hate debt, hate death, and hate really working hard to avoid both... here you go.
Disorient: Yes, disorient is still buggy. But the extent people avoid disorient, boggles my mind. Here is a list of mag 3 disorient powers: Beanbag, Taser, Stun, Flashfire, Cosmic Burst, Cobra Strike, Eagles Claw, and Knockout Blow. All you have to do is chain two of those to perma-stun any boss. Then there are tons of mag 2 and mag 1 powers that can also come into play if your team works together. Notable team members include Energy Tankers, Assault/Dev Blasters, and Martial Art Scrappers (also useful are FF/Storm Defenders and Earth/Fire/Mind Controllers). Besides the tanker, no one really has to invest that much into the team, since most power groups only have one or two disorient powers to enhance. Just add a few more slots for accuracy and disorient and there you go. Keep bosses out of the fight, disorient entire groups of minions for damage mitigation. And my favorite, alpha strike troublesome enemies (like sorcerors and raider engineers for instance) to take their buffs completely out of the battle equation. Having trouble with enemies sleep, disorient, or holding you... then do it to them first!
Range: Range is arguably the most underrated Power-10 enhancement. A team built around range requires you to flip everything you know about team tactics on its head. To do things in a totally different way. You get the most bang from range by using it with power sets that have a large base range. So it's important to know that the longest range power sets in the game are Psychic Blast, Mind Control, and Assault Rifle. Ranged strategy usually has three steps. One, if defensive heavy melee heroes are present, their job is to hold aggro, disorient, knockdown, or do anything they can to delay the enemy from chasing the ranged heroes. Two, controllers/defenders use their 'location' powers to either lay it down in the middle of an enemy group or to place it in such a way that they have to run through it to get to you (location powers take range too). Even better if the controllers have enough range in their area holds to simply hold the group without getting hit. Third, the range fighters do their best to super jump/fly around to stay out of range, while strategically blasting the enemies. It's not as easy as it sounds, but it's a lot of fun when executed correctly. Think about the effects of range enhancements in powers with high base ranges. The recently fixed Tar Patch has a base range of 120!! It now slows enemies properly and recharges fast enough to lay down a second before the first is gone. The snipes Moonbeam and Psionic Lance start at a base of 175! Have you ever ran experiments on with range on Teleport Foe? Most people label range as useless since they only try to use it in a solo setting. Three blasters in a triangle formation, trading the aggro of a boss, and outranging him 100%, is going to win every night of the week. Think about ways the new AoE "fear" changes are a benefit to this team. Sit down with your team and think about innovative ways to use range.
Pure Teams:
Pure teams are SuperTeams that consist mostly of one AT. They are usually done in one of two ways. First is identical stacking, every teammember is completely identical to the others, down to the enhancements. As an example, I remember a team of blaster robots that said they were all from the same series of robot from a factory, so they were all identical. The second method is to try for team balance, starting with a one AT team, but choosing powers in a way that each member can fill a different role. Let one member take many defensive power pool powers and be the "tank." Others can focus on damage dealing, or travel powers, or buffs/heals from the medicine pool. It's an attempt to get a psuedo-balanced group while maintaining the benefits of everyone being the same AT.
Tankers: If the thought of an all-tanker team makes you cringe... then you have never played an offensive tanker. Including two or three fire tanks will do wonders for offense. Multiple Ice tankers can create their own slow debuff group. Stacked Chilling Embraces/Ice Patches is a nightmare for villians. Multiple Energy/SS tankers can keep entire trial zone sized groups of enemies stunned. An all-tanker team, even if totally offensively focused, will still have the benefits of higher tanker hit points. If you don't want to go full-out, a single kinetic defender will significantly help this team.
Scrappers: The same can be done for scrappers. Stack Invulnerability for a strong defensive team or Dark powers for an offensively defensive team. Multiple Spines scrappers create a higher damaging slow team than the tankers. Multiple claw/regens can run through hazard zones zerging anything in their path. The swords (broad/katana) create a strong defense debuff team. Or a martial arts team for perma-disorients. Again, you can't count out the extreme effect that a single kinetic defender will have on this team.
Defenders: Easily the most famous of the pure teams. All-defender supergroups exist on every server of the game. And for good reason, they are extremely powerful teams. Multiple kinetics are built for fast leveling, potentially outpacing even all-blaster teams. Radiation teams are the kings of debuffing, tough groups of purples are nothing to them. Any team that has more than two force fielders, simply will not die... ever. Dark defender teams can have impressive offensive while placing only second to force fielders in the "tough-to-kill" category. An Empathy team almost sounds redundant, but in later levels, stacking clear minds, fortitudes, and recovery auras, can all come in handy (ever seen a 100% Whirlwind taking no endurance because it's powered by multiple RAs? Fun, fun). A Storm team can go so many different directions: knockbacks, slow, debuffs, etc. All that before we even begin to talk about stacking the highest leadership bonuses for all the ATs.
Blasters: Yes, all-blaster teams do exist and they work just fine. Some make use of range. Some simply quickly demolish their foes with an awesome initial strike. Others stack bonuses for max-effect. Ice slow teams, Energy knockback teams, Assault range teams, Fire DoT teams, Elec End Drain teams... these are all examples. In the end, whether identical teams or a balanced blaster team, this team will always have the base-blaster advantage of being able to outdamage most other teams. In general, those heroes in all-blaster teams that I've watched and talked too are all experts at killing and killing fast... because they know what happens if they don't.
Controllers: The rarest of the pure teams, pure controller teams follow the exact progression as controllers themselves. After the slow start, you can't deny the pure power of this team once they reach the 30s. Once they cross that barrier, the team reaches that magical point where they not only have holds, defender powers, and strong leadership bonuses. But also a large army of pets completely at their disposal. I have never personally seen a pure-controller SuperTeam, but I'm in awe at the possibilities.
A simple idea for an early contoller team is to work a few members around confuse. A couple Mind controllers with an Illusion and a Ice Controller. With so many confusions going around, it greatly reduces the amount of total damage you need to do for the same experience.
Buffing: The Balance of Powers and Enhancements
The Defense group is my favorite example of balanced buffing. For a solo example: I have a energy tanker on Infinity with 'three' invulnerability powers total. All three only have one enhancement slot. The powers are Resist Physical Damage, Dull Pain, and Invincibility, the only one that matters. Invincibility gives you a defense boost for each enemy at melee range. So when the tank is in the middle of a huge trial zone group, he tends not to get hit at all. The outside buff provided by invincibility totally dwarfs the fact that he has hardly any defensive enhancement.
Going back to the defense group, if you are a tanker that is buffed 100% of the time with force fields, then you don't need to collect the tons of defense enhancements like most tanks. And it works both ways, a force fielder in a team where everyone has a decent amount of personal defense, does not have to six slot every bubble.
So that's the paradox, the defensive team has so many outside group defense powers and buffs that is frees them up to give heavy slotting to their offensive powers. And it works the same way for many other SuperTeams.
Beyond Communication: Experience
Communication is the key component of a good team, always. Communicating to plan tactics, talking about what went wrong, etc. Good leaders even know how to throw out casual bits to keep everyone interested, or to completely change the bad mood after a group wipe-out so that no one leaves in disgust.
Pick-up groups have to have communication. You don't know your team members' experience with the game, or experience with different power sets. So you have to literally tell them to wait for the controller holds before they unleash the Fire Rain or why the unyielding or invincibility tank needs lots of enemies around them. Most importantly, team members don't know each other. Good communication gives everyone a little more confidence in each other, making everyone more likely to stay calm and do their job as opposed to running for the door at the first yellow HP bar.
In SuperTeams, experience replaces communication. That's not to say that they don't talk, but they rarely talk about tactics/strategy. You'll rarely hear a superteam say, "Ok, snipe the boss first while the rad/rad defender debuffs the lieutenant." They don't say it because everyone already knows it. This blaster might usually start a battle by sniping the boss, so everyone automatically clicks on him to see what he is targeting. They have worked with the defender enough to know what the radiation anchors look like and as such they know how to avoid them. The moment the controllers begin the holds, the blasters are right behind with the area attacks. Ranged focused blasters are constantly 'glued' to Repel or Hurricane defenders. Confused and mezzed enemies are immediately identified and left alone.
These are all traits of teams that have such a high level of experience with each other, that once the battle begins they already know the next five things that will happen. Because they've done it thousands of times before.
Another aspect is trust. In SuperTeams, heroes fully know and expect their teammates to jump in and save their hide, constantly. There's no need to worry, once the tank hits red... BOOM! ... there goes the absorb pain. Automatic. If things are going bad for the scrapper, he knows to not run because a kinetics transfusion will be coming soon.
Members of pick-up teams spend so much time wondering if they can trust their teammates that it hurts efficiency and the group overall. I can speak from experience since I lead a lot of pick-up teams. Half my time is spent leading the group and contributing with battles. But in a newly formed pick-up team, almost an equal part of my attention is also spent watching everyone else. Noticing their fighting styles, offering tactics suggestions, checking the map to see if everyone is keeping up, keeping an eye out for leechers and people not pulling their weight, and sometimes even managing the team seek window and sending tells to other potential teammembers. Once I have a little more experience with the team, the middle of a task force for instance, I can stop worrying about most of that stuff and become a better contributor.
I know this is all fairly obvious, but it's one of the most crucial components of the SuperTeam. Lots of players have completely given up on pick-up teams after having a few bad experiences (I hope you give them another try). They already know the value of teaming with someone that knows your playstyle very well. Many times it's the difference between success and a group hospital trip.
Not interested in SuperTeams, you will be
Most people that work in groups always want to manage the weaknesses. The cliche phrase of this is "We need a healer!"
SuperTeams aren't about weaknesses, they are about the strengths. And making those strengths so powerful that the weaknesses just don't matter that much. Do you think the slow team or the to-hit debuff team cares about needing more defense heroes? Having enemies slowed by 90%, is defense. Six slotted attacks that all debuff accuracy, is defense.
That's the SuperTeam: picking one theme and focusing on that theme to such an extent, that little else matters.
You might not have a SuperTeam now, or want to form one, but think about this: Do you want to face a SuperTeam in battle?
Do you want to fight a team that can drain your endurance moments into the fight? Or a team that slows you so severly that you can't even escape? Or a team that you can't even get in range to fight? Or an entire team of mezzing, stunning, holding, enemies? Or a team that debuffs your accuracy so much that hitting them is near impossible?
You might not want to deal with this now. But I can guarantee that the people over on the City of Villians board have long since taken notice and begun preparing...