"More"
by Stephen Sondheim
As before, I went through Praetoria on default x1/+0 difficulty with bosses enabled, but I was feeling confident when I hit Sharkhead and decided to up that a bit. Initially, given that all of my attacks are single target, I went with x1/+1 – so the same number of enemies, just slightly higher level.
But I wasn't really feeling it. There's a particular rhythm to combat in City of Heroes and when every mob is +1 or +2 to you, at this level at least, that rhythm is subtly off because each mob takes just that moment too long to take down, so after one mission I went with my usual preference of x2/+0 – more mobs, same level.
It's
gone surprisingly well. Yes, all my attacks are single target, but in
just about every fight I can take out one mob before the fight even
starts with Assassin's Claw, which evens up the odds nicely – and
all the more so since I can usually pick which enemy goes down first
– Circle of Thorns Spectrals, Sky Raider Engineers and other
potential problems are usually top of the hit list.
I
also have two AoE abilities – not attacks, but powers with an AoE
effect. One is the Fear AoE which accompanies a successful Assassin's
Claw, and while it's not terribly accurate it'll usually affect at
least one of a group, taking them out of the action for a few useful
seconds allowing me to focus on the rest before they get back into the fight.
The other is Placate, which used to be single-target, but is now an PBAoE. I have to confess that way back in my early days in CoH I didn't initially get the point of Placate, and to be fair it was only useful in certain circumstances – specifically in one on one fights where it allowed a second use, mid fight, of Assassin's Claw back when that power was always interruptible. This was superb for boss fights, but not much good against groups. AoE Placate, on the other hand, is a spectacular panic button, since it causes every opponent to drop aggro until it either wears off or I hit them again.
(Unless I mess up the timing, or there are active enemies outside of its limited range. It's not infallible.)
None of this would work nearly as well without Hide, but with it I've got unrivalled control of encounters, further enhanced by CoH's amazingly good aggro mechanics, whereby if I attack a group from behind I can often take down a mob or two – if they're spread out enough and have their back to me – before the others even know I'm there. Any character can make use of this, but none more than a Stalker.
Comments
Post a Comment