MMORPG.com Champions Online Correspondent C.A. Thomas writes this look at teaming and the roles that are required to do it effectively in Cryptic's new superhero MMO.

One of the biggest complaints among players of Champions Online is the strong focus on the solo element of the gameplay, along with the difficulty--or lack thereof. These concerns aren't unfounded, as the majority of the game's main content can be completed pretty easily without the aid of a team. That said, the social and teaming aspects of the game are there for people who wish to take advantage of them and like a bit of a challenge; it's just a matter of taking the initiative and using those features.

The core of effective team play in CO are the Builds and Roles system. With this, you can customize your role in a team and tailor your hero to your immediate needs.

Read A Guide to Teaming.

 Yeah I love the game, but i feel kinda lost coming from CoX and doing non-stop grouping to Champions and doing non-stop solo content. That being said i'm the kinda guy who loves to group up at all times, i only solo if i know i wont be on long or cant get a group. I would love to see more group based content come to this game, thats really what this game needs above all else is more group based content. Very nice article by the way, lets hope it works or atleast goes a little way in getting the ball rolling for more people to group and let cryptic know we aren't all soloists!

When all is said and done, if there are no rewards, above that for soloing, for taking the effort to gather a team and do the content then it is not worth doing.

It takes time to get together a team and do something and if there is no significant reward for it then why do it? For fun yeah but that is not the mentality of the majority of MMORPG players.

Originally posted by Yamota

When all is said and done, if there are no rewards, above that for soloing, for taking the effort to gather a team and do the content then it is not worth doing.

It takes time to get together a team and do something and if there is no significant reward for it then why do it? For fun yeah but that is not the mentality of the majority of MMORPG players.

to me the reward is being to talk with people and see other peoples power sets in action.  But i guess in this modern day and age all we ever want are rewards....

CO is considerably more fun in groups, as IMVPO every MMO. But CO makes grouping more difficult than in any other MMo. First, because of said build and role idea, which many are unaware of. The game does not explain it well, just in longwinded text. They need a much revamped tutorial which really explains those things in more detail and with examples.

Second, with the classless system people mostly have no idea what powers the others have, what they can do and what their weaknesses are. Something that is ony a bit remedied by the roles and builds.

Finally, the game is a 3-d world, not a flat surface world. Some people can fly, others can only run. Try to have acrobatics in Millenium City in a group where everyone else has Flight is QUITE a hassle to get along.

The primary reason people do not group in CoH is grouping is irrelevant in 90% of the content. The rest of the content that requires more than one person(IE lairs) can for the most part be done with 2 or 3 people. Thus once you become part of a guild the majority of socializing happens in voice chat and not in groups per se. There is no reason beyond that to remember any particular person from day to day because there is so little content that is geared towards having a group. In fact you are punished in most cases for even trying to get a full group together because everyone is usually going in so many directions it becomes like trying to herd cats.

This is the major flaw in games whose content is oriented around casual friendly quick quest content. This game is designed to be consumed in 10 minute chunks so the vast majority of the playerbase communicates with each other in 10 minute chunks. This leads to no lasting community outside of a few guild buddies that chat over guild channels or voice chat regardless of what they are actually doing in game our even out of game. This is a perfect setup for a free to play game but not for a sub based game.

Originally posted by Maelkor

The primary reason people do not group in CoH is grouping is irrelevant in 90% of the content. The rest of the content that requires more than one person(IE lairs) can for the most part be done with 2 or 3 people. Thus once you become part of a guild the majority of socializing happens in voice chat and not in groups per se. There is no reason beyond that to remember any particular person from day to day because there is so little content that is geared towards having a group. In fact you are punished in most cases for even trying to get a full group together because everyone is usually going in so many directions it becomes like trying to herd cats.

This is the major flaw in games whose content is oriented around casual friendly quick quest content. This game is designed to be consumed in 10 minute chunks so the vast majority of the playerbase communicates with each other in 10 minute chunks. This leads to no lasting community outside of a few guild buddies that chat over guild channels or voice chat regardless of what they are actually doing in game our even out of game. This is a perfect setup for a free to play game but not for a sub based game.

I see that the same. Alas. I would not mind, if the solo experience would not be so... limited due to the nerfs. They really need to add new interior mishs for group, stuff with big, cool lairs or somesuch.

I think there is a direct correlation between the complexity of character building, and the low percentage of teaming in the game. If they can some how remove the complexity, and keep the flexability of character building. I think you would see more people teaming out sheer confidence in their ability to make a decent hero.

There really should be a easy button for builds. Choose a class that you are interested in making your character like; Tank, healer, Blaster...etc, and the interface adjusts your role/build to fit that class. Stats that benefit your choosen class should be highlighted to help you build towards that class. It would act like a teaching tool, that you would eventually no longer need, but initialy help you learn their system of building characters in CO.

Originally posted by AngelBurst

I think there is a direct correlation between the complexity of character building, and the low percentage of teaming in the game. If they can some how remove the complexity, and keep the flexability of character building. I think you would see more people teaming out sheer confidence in their ability to make a decent hero.

There really should be a easy button for builds. Choose a class that you are interested in making your character like; Tank, healer, Blaster...etc, and the interface adjusts your role/build to fit that class. Stats that benefit your choosen class should be highlighted to help you build towards that class. It would act like a teaching tool, that you would eventually no longer need, but initialy help you learn their system of building characters in CO.

They do... when you first start the game and you choose a power set they recommend starting stats to you. That being said, their recommendations are one of the few things in the game I think is shit...

The problem with what you are suggesting in terms of stats is that most stats can benefit your chosen "class" in some way, and with very few exceptions, the only thing to recommend one over another is play style. That is one of the nice things about this game...

And tank, blaster, and healer are all pigeon-holes which are no longer apropos. For example, I have a character who does all 3 of those well... What would you call him?

Doing the blood moon event my blaster had to drop back and start healing the person I was teamed with, because I died too quickly, and without heals so was she... whereas with me healing and her tanking, we did well... That is what the builds are all about. 

Builds are not "here is how to choose your powers", Builds are about changing the focus of your powers and your play style. Stats are based entirely on play style. Power choice is based on concept and play style... Its a brave new world... Now all they have to do is fix crafting for me, and add some more end-game content, and we will all be happy.

Originally posted by Mors-Subita

Originally posted by AngelBurst

I think there is a direct correlation between the complexity of character building, and the low percentage of teaming in the game. If they can some how remove the complexity, and keep the flexability of character building. I think you would see more people teaming out sheer confidence in their ability to make a decent hero.

There really should be a easy button for builds. Choose a class that you are interested in making your character like; Tank, healer, Blaster...etc, and the interface adjusts your role/build to fit that class. Stats that benefit your choosen class should be highlighted to help you build towards that class. It would act like a teaching tool, that you would eventually no longer need, but initialy help you learn their system of building characters in CO.

 

They do... when you first start the game and you choose a power set they recommend starting stats to you. That being said, their recommendations are one of the few things in the game I think is shit...

 

The problem with what you are suggesting in terms of stats is that most stats can benefit your chosen "class" in some way, and with very few exceptions, the only thing to recommend one over another is play style. That is one of the nice things about this game...

And tank, blaster, and healer are all pigeon-holes which are no longer apropos. For example, I have a character who does all 3 of those well... What would you call him?

Doing the blood moon event my blaster had to drop back and start healing the person I was teamed with, because I died too quickly, and without heals so was she... whereas with me healing and her tanking, we did well... That is what the builds are all about. 

Builds are not "here is how to choose your powers", Builds are about changing the focus of your powers and your play style. Stats are based entirely on play style. Power choice is based on concept and play style... Its a brave new world... Now all they have to do is fix crafting for me, and add some more end-game content, and we will all b

If you read the article, it's talking about roles, and how it can be fun to load yourself out like a certain classic build and make a balanced team, instead of focusing on a blanaced character for solo play. We already know how  to solo and make balanced builds for that.

We all know the power of CO character builder is that it is capable of changing on the fly to fit situations. That is all understood and common knowledge at this point.

My suggestion was for new people. A guideline to help them understand roles, enhancemets, builds, and how you  can combine them to make classic type classes. All relating to the topic of the article mind you. Which was basically about playing classic roles to build a balanced team. No one is saying that is what you should do all the time, or have to do it at all. It's just a suggestion the writer was making to inspire teaming. My comments where targeted at the fact that people don't even know how to build a classic type build because the tools are not that intuitive. A guideline would help them understand how to make the classic classes, and then they can use what the learn from that to customize on the fly when needed.

My suggestion does not label your character any certain class. You just choose tank, and it advises you on how to make your character more tank like by choosing the best role for you, and suggesting stats that help make you tougher.

This is nothing to do with people that already understand how to make character, and changes nothing functionally. It's just guidlines for new people to help them should they want to make classic like build for balanced teamling like in the article.

If you're new and you want to team you can figure out how to make a blaster type if that is what is needed for the team.

Right now new people are complete lost about builds when they first start the game.

Originally posted by AngelBurst

If you read the article, it's talking about roles, and how it can be fun to load yourself out like a certain classic build and make a balanced team, instead of focusing on a blanaced character for solo play. We already know how  to solo and make balanced builds for that.

We all know the power of CO character builder is that it is capable of changing on the fly to fit situations. That is all understood and common knowledge at this point.

My suggestion was for new people. A guideline to help them understand roles, enhancemets, builds, and how you  can combine them to make classic type classes. All relating to the topic of the article mind you. Which was basically about playing classic roles to build a balanced team. No one is saying that is what you should do all the time, or have to do it at all. It's just a suggestion the writer was making to inspire teaming. My comments where targeted at the fact that people don't even know how to build a classic type build because the tools are not that intuitive. A guideline would help them understand how to make the classic classes, and then they can use what the learn from that to customize on the fly when needed.

 

My suggestion does not label your character any certain class. You just choose tank, and it advises you on how to make your character more tank like by choosing the best role for you, and suggesting stats that help make you tougher.

This is nothing to do with people that already understand how to make character, and changes nothing functionally. It's just guidlines for new people to help them should they want to make classic like build for balanced teamling like in the article.

If you're new and you want to team you can figure out how to make a blaster type if that is what is needed for the team.

Right now new people are complete lost about builds when they first start the game.

That would be a good thing to put into the game. Although I have given up on the game myself due to the fact I ran out of interesting content to do. I would also through in a couple of free complete respecs a couple of times during the leveling process, say one at lvl 20 and one at lvl 40. This way a person can really design a character the way they want it to be after they know how to play the game and what everything does. Of course you can buy a respec now in the store or farm a bunch of money in game but both of those methods are offputting to people new to the game.