CoV Grind

[Morfiend]

Quick questions for those of you still playing.

1) Any change in the "grind" now that CoV has been out a while? I love CoH, but there was not enough to do, and the nasty grind always killed my will to play around lvl18 or so.

2) How are the CoV classes? I have always been into high melee damage classes, how is the Striker (I think its called).

3) Is PVP fun?

[Llava]

1) Any change in the "grind" now that CoV has been out a while? I love CoH, but there was not enough to do, and the nasty grind always killed my will to play around lvl18 or so.

The grind honestly doesn't bother me.  It really starts to get to me in CoH around level 12-19, then it gets fun again for a bit, then the mid-30s start to get me.  15ish is a bit grindy, but when you're going through it the first time it's not really an issue.  Because missions all follow a structured story it's a lot easier to stay interested, I find myself online frequently thinking "Okay, this will be my last mission, then I'm going to sleep.  Oh.. I'm done.  Okay, NEXT mission will be the last one, then sleep."

Of course, YMMV.

2) How are the CoV classes? I have always been into high melee damage classes, how is the Striker (I think its called).

CoV classes are damn good.  I assume you mean Stalker- the assassin type.  It's rough to solo.  They don't have much trouble getting in groups (then again, none of the ATs do), but soloing can be very frustrating until you get some more toys and better enhancements to speed it up.  Their damage outside of stealth is not great- it's all about the assassin strike.  For a solo, high-damage melee AT, there's no better option than Brute.

3) Is PVP fun?

Yes and no.  It's not amazing PvP, certainly.  But they did a good job with the zones, particularly Siren's Call, to make you want to "contribute to the effort".  Soloing, like in any PvP game, is a risky proposition.  You can do it, certainly (especially as a Stalker), but you may find yourself frustrated when a team of heroes shows up, stuns you, throws you around, and beats you into the ground before you get a chance to do anything.  But that doesn't always happen, and if you can get into a decent team (not that rare, surprisingly) you can have a lot of fun in group fights.

[tazelbain]

1) It sets in a bit later because the low level missions are better.
2) I loved my rad/dark corrupter, good variety.  Had to give it up when I couldn't find groups.  Seems people had their own groups and didn't want to group with strangers.
3) No, travel powers and inspirations suck.

[Llava]

Seems people had their own groups and didn't want to group with strangers.

Really?  That hasn't been my experience at all.  What server?

RE: Travel Powers
Yes, they do make PvP way more irritating than it needs to be.  I'd be fine with it, though, if they included more counters for them. Flight is a good example of a travel power balanced for PvP, because most folks can get a -fly ability in one way or another. Super Jump and Teleport are virtually impossible to stop.  Super Speed, you can at least slow 'em a bit.

[tazelbain]

Really?  That hasn't been my experience at all.  What server?

Virtue.

[Llava]

I'm on the same server.  You really have trouble getting into groups? No matter who I'm playing, I can pretty much always find a decent pickup group.

[tar]

I find the grind much less in CoV, I've gotten 2 villains into the late 20s practically without noticing that I was doing so. But then I've been playing CoH since beta so my tolerance for it's specific kind of grind is probably greater than most. Also I don't always play every week, let alone every day and that helps keep it fresh. I don't think there's enough variety of content to keep someone interested if they play daily.

As to classes, I like the CoV ones more than CoH. They seem to have more 'flavour' and the brute is probably going to be to your liking. If you liked scrappers but they just didn't quite get it right - try a brute.

I don't PvP in CoV/H so no comment on that one.

[Nebu]

I lasted to about 22 on 2 villains and then couldn't take it anymore.  CoV feels like a console game that isn't quite up to console game standards.  By the time a character hits 20 or so you a) stop getting interesting abilities at a rapid enough pace and b) begin to realize that 90% of the missions are of the same ilk with only the mobs changed.

CoV is great for the costume additions and the hectic combat pace, but lacks any depth that draws me to online games.  It's the game I resub to the most and really want to love... I just can't seem to stick with it. 

[waylander]

I've got a 38 stalker, 37 fire/rad corruptor, and 34 mastermind.

If you have a group, the levels fly by. If you don't, then after the mid 20's solo'ing might drive you mad.  As a stalker though you can take newspaper missions where you steal something or kill the boss and guards.  You can run them on relentless difficulty, but you need to ensure you have 4 def, 4 heals, and 4 dmg inspirations to complete it without dying.

PVP was fun at first, but now its just killing the same scrubs over and over again. Sirens has a mini-game built in, but overall PVP has no purpose, goal, or point.  As a result, many of the PVP guilds that came to Freedom have already left and the game's only 90 days old. Less and less of my own friends are playing now because of the lack of a point to PVP.

[Lantyssa]

CoV is great for the costume additions and the hectic combat pace, but lacks any depth that draws me to online games.  It's the game I resub to the most and really want to love... I just can't seem to stick with it. 

That sounds similar to how I feel about it.  It is a good game, but it does not have the depth to play it with the same frequency as other MMORPGs.  It is too easy to burn yourself out if you do not have other things to distract you.

[Llava]

PvP in CoH/V is too binary.  There are rarely heart-pounding fights.  Mostly, you know pretty accurately if you're going to win or lose wtihin the first few seconds of the fight.  This is especially the case with any fight involving a Stalker or Blaster.

PvP fights ARE fun with Tankers and Controllers, and some Defenders.  Sometimes it can be too binary (You're a Controller? Paralytic Poison, now you're held, and now my pets are ripping you apart) still, but Tankers especially offer the fighting pace that should be more prevalent in PvP.  When they hit, it hurts, and you can see you're damaging them, but the fight isn't going to be over in 10 seconds.

[waylander]

PvP in CoH/V is too binary.  There are rarely heart-pounding fights.  Mostly, you know pretty accurately if you're going to win or lose wtihin the first few seconds of the fight.  This is especially the case with any fight involving a Stalker or Blaster.

PvP fights ARE fun with Tankers and Controllers, and some Defenders.  Sometimes it can be too binary (You're a Controller? Paralytic Poison, now you're held, and now my pets are ripping you apart) still, but Tankers especially offer the fighting pace that should be more prevalent in PvP.  When they hit, it hurts, and you can see you're damaging them, but the fight isn't going to be over in 10 seconds.

If you are running a balanced group with stacked buffs, damage shields, and good healing you can last a long time.  We charge into hordes of heroes quite frequently and chop through them.

Run with 3 good stalkers, 2 Thermal corruptors, 1 kinetics corruptor, 1 sonic corruptor, and for the last slot you can put in whatever you want.  We try to toss in another corruptor for support because three stalkers (without using AS) can spike out the group target 99% of the time.

[Nebu]

Run with 3 good stalkers, 2 Thermal corruptors, 1 kinetics corruptor, 1 sonic corruptor, and for the last slot you can put in whatever you want.  We try to toss in another corruptor for support because three stalkers (without using AS) can spike out the group target 99% of the time.

I love games with optimized group builds... don't you?

[waylander]

Run with 3 good stalkers, 2 Thermal corruptors, 1 kinetics corruptor, 1 sonic corruptor, and for the last slot you can put in whatever you want.  We try to toss in another corruptor for support because three stalkers (without using AS) can spike out the group target 99% of the time.

I love games with optimized group builds... don't you?

We have a group based on what I said, an all corruptor group, and we're trying pretty hard to figure out a good workable build for a PVP brute.  But yeh, I like games where you can build a good team.

[Nebu]

I should have used green text... I was being sarcastic. 

Games that have optimized group builds are often penal to players that enjoy playing atypical builds.  (i.e. You're not a thermal corrupter?  Sorry... no group for you!).  They are also a sign that the dev team did a lousy job balancing power sets. 

Just saying...

[Llava]

PvP in CoH/V is too binary.  There are rarely heart-pounding fights.  Mostly, you know pretty accurately if you're going to win or lose wtihin the first few seconds of the fight.  This is especially the case with any fight involving a Stalker or Blaster.

PvP fights ARE fun with Tankers and Controllers, and some Defenders.  Sometimes it can be too binary (You're a Controller? Paralytic Poison, now you're held, and now my pets are ripping you apart) still, but Tankers especially offer the fighting pace that should be more prevalent in PvP.  When they hit, it hurts, and you can see you're damaging them, but the fight isn't going to be over in 10 seconds.

If you are running a balanced group with stacked buffs, damage shields, and good healing you can last a long time.  We charge into hordes of heroes quite frequently and chop through them.

Run with 3 good stalkers, 2 Thermal corruptors, 1 kinetics corruptor, 1 sonic corruptor, and for the last slot you can put in whatever you want.  We try to toss in another corruptor for support because three stalkers (without using AS) can spike out the group target 99% of the time.

I was speaking of small fights- 1v1 or 2v2.

[waylander]

I should have used green text... I was being sarcastic. 

Games that have optimized group builds are often penal to players that enjoy playing atypical builds.  (i.e. You're not a thermal corrupter?  Sorry... no group for you!).  They are also a sign that the dev team did a lousy job balancing power sets. 

Just saying...

Yeah I see your point. Even though we have spec builds, we usually have 1-2 spots that we reserve for anybody. We've worked in doms, brutes, etc.  I see the point about the time it takes to level up and experiment though, and I wish there was an easier way to test things out.