PvP and Grouping

Enebo

Could someone provide a little input on the types of PvP and Grouping in CoX?

I am curious if the PvP (zones) are like WoW BG's or are they different?  Is this something you can log and spend 15 mins before class etc...?

Also, I think I read where there is no endgame raids, etc... if this is corret are there bosses/instances (5-10) where you can group up to complete a quest/acheivement?

Thanks!

Amarsir

Sure. (I don't get to the forums that often, but this certainly deserves a response even if a week late.) I'll do grouping first:

Grouping
99% of the content in City of Heroes/Villains is instanced. The game world is large, and there are enemies to fight and citizens to rescue out in it. However, missions will send you to a building/sewer/cave/ship/etc entrance. As soon as you enter that, the mission will scale to however many members are on your team.

Every mission does this, throughout the game. Even outside instances, some zones will span larger groups if the the person who triggered the spawn is on a team. (Which isn't even necessary, because the few missions that call for hunts share defeated enemy counts between team members.)

The result is that teaming is never something you have to do, but always something you can choose to do. You can do that starting at level 1. (Though I usually avoid teams until 5, personal preference.) Additionally, the difficulty options are pretty detailed so if you need a harder or easier mission, you can arrange that.

The minor exception to this is that some content does exist to create special challenges. TaskForces are groups of missions that require multiple players and must be done start-to-finish with the same team. The first one is available at 10 but mostly these are more of an end-game thing (and even early ones if skipped can be done later).

"Quest/Achievement" is known as "badges" and CoH was doing it before anyone. Those Taskforces give badges, certain special missions you get on your own give badges, events give badges, defeating special giant monsters out in the non-instanced world gives badges, defeating X of a certain enemy type gives badges ... There are entire chat channels dedicated to people grouping up for, or discussing techniques on, acquiring as many badges as possible.

PvP
PvP is, ot be honest, not huge in this game. Maybe it will pick up in early 2010 when the Going Rogue expansion is released. But it's incidental and most players don't do it. Because of this, much (perhaps most?) PvP takes place on the Test server, because people can copy their characters there from whichever server is their main.

Freedom, Guardian, and Liberty are reasonable servers for PvP though, so I'll just assume you find people. Here's how it plays:

PvP zones exist for levels 15-25, 20-30, 30-40, and 40-50. Here's what that means: if you enter the first zone at level 15, you'll be scaled to the power of a 25. If you come back to that zone at 50, you'll also be scaled to 25.

Each of the PvP zones have normal door missions that you can do, quick little "rescue/kidnap the a hostage" things. There's nothing PvP about them, except that they exist to lure people to the zones. On top of that, each zone has special bonus challenges.

15-25 you collect pieces from fallen meteors, analyze them in a computer, and are awarded with a special limited-use pet power. PvPers can ambush each other at any point and steal collected fragments.

20-30 there are massive groups of NPC heroes and villains fighting a war against each other, in different "hotspots" that move around the zone. You can jump in and tip the balance, and by doing so your side gets to control the zone.

30-40 you rescue scientists who are trapped by mutant spider-people. Escort them home, and they give you part of a launch code. Get 3, and you can launch a nuclear warhead into space, and have the power to call it down at any time. PvPers can ambush each other and steal the launch codes. (This zone is also everyone-for-themselves, faction vs faction.)

40-50 is a remake of the hero starter zone, only villains have invaded and there are defense turrets scattered about. You fight to simultaneously control 5-6 of the turrets (I forget the number) and if you do your side wins control. Then you get credit toward a very powerful limited-use pet power and the zone resets.

(The second zone is my favorite, because the scale just seems so massive. Nowhere else can you see a hundred guys from each faction charge each other, and yet feel how much difference you're making.)

So yes, you can jump in and out at any time, 15 minutes is sufficient in most cases. (Maybe not for the missiles, that can be slow.) Again I can't speak to the number of people you'll find there, but the design is very friendly for short playtimes.

The other way people PvP is not in a zone, but in the Arena. These are planned matches between groups from 1 to 8. It's the most "pure" PvP, and team buffs can really matter. It's the main reason people transfer to the test server. But the main way to get into it is to join a PvP Supergroup.

Jenadara

I want to add something about his question about raids.

CoX is unique in that the "raids" which are called "task-forces" can be done at any level as long as you meet the minimum requirement.  So if you are level 50, you can do every single raid in the whole game if you like.