With the advent of Issue 13 for the City of Heroes and City of Villains, there has been some initial testing done on the new rewards system by a few good folks. The details of their findings can be viewed in the official CoH site
forum post.
In case you've been hiding under a rock the whole time, the number of merit rewards are based on the average completion time for the TFs. Of interest are the TFs that award the highest number of merits:
- Positron: 55
- Synapse: 45
- Dr. Quaterfield: 90
- Sara Moore: 50
- Faathim: 55
Since I am a professed power-gaming, min-maxer, I would like to write about ways to earn merits as quickly and efficiently as possible. Please note that I am not looking to exploit the system, but rather, I am looking to maximize efficiency in merit awards with the tools provided.
Because of such, it seems as if the most "easiest" TF to "farm" is the Positron TF because there is no Arch-villain to fight and it only requires 3 people to start. Of course the caveat is while running it, you'll be stripped of much of your powers and you have to fight really annoying enemies like the Vahzihlok and the Circle of Thorn that have mostly "unresisted" damage types at the level you are exemp'ed to (level 15). The CoT in particular has some obnoxious accuracy debuffs as well. Even then, it is still possible to build a team designed specifically to speed through the TF.
Personally, I think such a dream team should consist of:
- Kinetics Defender
- High DPS Scrapper
- High DPS Blaster or Scrapper
That's right. Despite my love for Tankers, having one in the Posi dream team isn't optimal because of its lower damage output relative to a Scrapper. Also, as mentioned, there is no Arch-villain in this task force so having a Tanker around isn't necessary in that aspect.
As for the proposed team build, the Kinetics Defender is the only requirement in terms of Achetype requirements. He/she is there to Speed Boost the other two team members so the endurance doesn't run low and the pace of the game play remains quick. In my opinion, the best secondary power for the Kinetics Defender is Radiation Blast for its defense debuff. But either way, the Kin can get away with just about any secondary since his/her primary role is to buff, buff, and buff!
The Scrapper acts as a tanker of sorts who absorbs the initial alpha strike while also dealing out a great deal of damage. A good primary power choice for the scrapper is Spines or Fire while the Secondary Power choices can be Will Power, Regen. The goal with this particular Scrapper is to be damage heavy, preferably with a good amount of AoEs by level 15, as well as having enough defense/resistance/regeneration to absorb the alpha strike. I do admit that I have little experience in playing Scappers, so I am sure other folks can beg to differ on my opinion as what the ideal Scrapper for the Posi Farm team should look like.
As for the Blaster, he/she serves as the primary damage dealer. The preferred Blaster Primary should most definitely be Fire Blast for its AoEs and overall damage output compared to the other primary power choices. The Secondary Power should be any that gives the Blaster the Build Up power choice by level 15. Build up is a click power that gives him/her a huge accuracy and damage buff for a few seconds.
With the Kinetics Defender feeding the two DPSers Speed Boost, having the endurance heavy, but high damage power sets is possible.
For the DPS players, the power choice for the first 15 levels should be picked with damage maximization in mind. The Kin should obviously choose all possible buffing powers in his/her primary set to help speed along the team. All players should be level 50 and exemp'ed down for the TF run and fully slotted with invention origins enhancements.
Another requirement is for a player to have Stealth/Invisibility along with Recall Friend .This is neccessary for the team to be able to stealth through certain missions to cut down on time. Stealthing requires the stealthed player to go in the mission and locate the boss or clue (depending on the mission requirement), teleport the rest of the team to the objective's location, and complete the mission. If actually dipping into the stealth pool is impossible, an alternative is to have the player with Recall Friend acquire the temporary Invisibility power that can be purchased from the auction house. In addition, that player can also have one of the unique Travel IO enhancement with +stealth to go through the mission. Also of note is that Super Speed does also grant a bit of stealthing as well. The ideal situation would be to have this player have the full invisibility power to avoid detection completely.
Fortunately for me, my character, Sixty, is a Kinetics & Psychic Blast Defender. I am doubly fortunate because I have friends who fit the Archetype criteria for the Positron Farm team and are willing to hold regular runs. We are planning a test run tomorrow to take notes.
From what I see, there is a total of 3 delivery missions and 11 door missions in the Positron TF, 5 of which are 'defeat all enemies' missions.
My personal best time for this Task Force was about 3 hours and 15 minutes. I ran it as Sixty on the 'Heroic' difficulty setting with a Sonic/Electricity Blaster and a Dark/Dark Defender. Given the fact that the team did not have the most optimal Archetypes and Power Sets, that no one had invisibility and TP to stealth the missions, that none of us was even level 50 yet (I believe I was about level 20ish at that time), and that Invention Origin sets were still a few issues away, a 3 hour finish time is pretty darn good! I do remember it being extremely exhausting because of the break neck pace of the team given my Speed Boost spamming, but it was a really satisfying TF given the record time it took us to complete it.
So now, with beefed up IOs and players with powers tailored to running the TF at max efficiency, my goal is to get it within the 2 hour mark.
Unfortunately, I just really hope that the devs don't end up lowering the merit awards once folks get too good at running the TF.
In the meantime, I'll keep you posted on how the test run goes!
