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Alerts - who gets matched up?
Plasmicredx
Member Posts: 629
Alright I just went back to playing dcuo after trying out rift beta 5. I ran into a huuuuge problem that I didn't have before I took a break. So I'm really confused.
This problem made me really frustrated because I just went to the moon alert and I died 17 times. Because for some reason the tank never taunted anything and was in Damage mode the whole time. When I asked him if he was in tank mode, and if he would kindly press T, there was no response. I swear people used to talk in this game even though tons of people are playing on controllers. It was late though so I guess he was just too tired to reach over and use his keyboard.
So my question is in the title. I always do alerts with my brother who is a healer and I'm a melee dps. I *always* choose damage role when we do alerts to ensure that we get a tank, but does the game even do matching?
I love this game still but I need to figure out how I'm going to do alerts without dieing 100 times per run. I could go into tank mode myself but all my gear is dps focused.
So how does alerts match people? Does it even make sure that there is a tank and healer or does it just say forget that let's just throw 4 dps in there like I don't give a care! I guess I should just try to queue by myself and see for myself.
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Maybe I need to just learn to play. If I'm getting attacked should I just run and block and stuff? I haven't done any of the harder higher up alerts until now. I mostly only have done the first two really easy alerts.
If someone could let me know how they play alerts that would help me out alot because any advice would probably help me not die so much.
The second round of the moon hive base is pretty much wipe city unless you're running with a really good group. Alot of it is wipe run back out, wipe run back out....until you are able to kill 10 of those badboys.
That point is the hardest part of the whole alert imo.
I found getting a few levels higher than what is recommended for the alert (and hence better gear) does wonders for survivability. Also blocking and dogding help. Look for health barrels around and crack one open in the middle of a bunch of mobs before you attack them.
There are a lot of people who just have low player skill around thou. I've beaten alerts with 2 or 3 people yet failed miserably with full groups.
You're really not alone. I too found many alerts VERY difficult. They are designed for people who play on a professional level and people who are used to play together. With DCU's not so social design, that's going to be difficult. So yes, I too found myself way too often teamed up with people who had no clue what to do, sometimes myself included. Those alerts are essentially only for expert gamers experienced to team. Not for the casual.
It's a simple philosophy. They don't have much content, so they make it difficult so you bleed out of your eyes trying it 200 times. Or sumwhat.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
That's not true at all. There are many casual gamers that understand how to play in groups. The alerts are not all that difficult. They are challenging, yes, but very doable by most people. The problem is that you get a bunch of people that play group missions as if they were soloing, and that doesn't work out well.
To answer the OP's question, the queues are matched by role, but everyone can select their specialty role and a damage role. Many wil select both just so they can get in faster, but never switch to their specialty role. That is common in the lower levels like the hive base. Fortunately, you don't really need a tank for that. You can easily do it with a healer and three DPS. A controller is a nice bonus. As a healer, you have to keep yourself alive first. You can't stand in the middle of things and wait for a tank to taunt it off you. Keep moving and stay out of the middle. For what it's worth, more people play their roles on the level 30 missions.
I'm finding people playing their group role isn't an issue on PS3, at least my server there. Tanks go tank role, healers spam heals, deeps deep and controllers CC/regen power.
There's also a lot of pre-form groups. It's hard to read the chat at times, but the instances can get made out over time, and people use shout consistently to try and find pre-made groups for the lvl 30 content.
Granted, I've had a few bad groups, specifically for Ooolong Island, but I don't find its really with the people playing or how the group gets filled, but more with the most glarring fault of the Alert queue system.
There is no "First New Instance Available" option.
Worst thing about DCUO is almost 70% of the instances I get matched to are partially completed, bugged, or empty. I'd rather wait longer for fresh instances than have fast queues.
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When I do hard alerts it always matches me up w/ one of each role.
It always has each role. It's just that in hard alerts people actually play the specialty role more often. In the lower level alerts you get more people sticking to DPS.
Yea this is a problem. We always run with people we know so I've never got the "Crappy joiner"... although once or twice we did seek a Tank cause we didn't have any friend tanks on and then went BADLY.
Problem with pick up tanks for the Hard mode Alerts is most of the time if they're PUgging they've never done them before which means they've never really TANKED before. REAL tanking doesn't get neccesary till the Hardmodes/Raids. Alot of the tanks don't know which of their abilities produce aggro and which trigger their tank ability (Ice 200% def boost per chill effect max of 5, fire 80% hp and healing recieved each immolation power used). Which is not a big deal and EASILY explained and once it's explained they usually make a tank spec and BAM another friend on the friendslist.
Alot of people are right it's not a social EASY game but if you make like 10 good friends of differing roles end game is ALOT more manageble.
BTW I'm a healer on Virtue "Martyrs Message" if anyone needs me over 1200 Restoration!
I see now. I'm willing to bet that this is the case. That tanks just don't know how to tank yet because we only just started the harder alerts. I am also willing to bet they didn't know T changes their stance and loadout.
Thanks for you guy's responses.
Yea it's not bad if you just explain to the tank what's going on usually they go "OH I NEVER KNEW" and make a build since it takes 3 seconds and no money hardly to respec.
Only once did someone argue with us... needless to say we wiped a bunch and we quit on him.
basically you need 1 of each role in hard modes. it's ESSENTIAL to have an actual healer. Not someone who CAN heal but someone who WANTS to and is specced for it. You need a controller with a decent amount of vitilization (not ALOT but at least some) to refill the healer during those endurance fights. And a tank who is tanking not just in tank mode dpsing.
Tanking is the tough one cause it's abstract. There isn't really a TAUNT.
Fire tanks when they use immolation they increase emnity gained and get an 80%hp boost and 80% increase to healing recieved so if my Circle of protect is down they're getting approx 240hp a tick healed. So a fire tank not using the immolation tree is not tanking just dpsing.
Ice tanks get chill effects which up their defense by 200% to a max of 5 shill effects and they're cryogenics powers have alot of stuns knocks and high single target damage things to draw aggro.
Both are good but ice tanks are easier IMO cause they rely less on a good healer. Alot of it has to do with knowing what your party is doing though if a tank keeps running out of my circle of protection instead of drawing enemies into it the party will wipe in a hectic add filled boss fight.
Hopefully this helps find a problem in a party usually once you wipe once people will be open to suggestions as this game is new, there aren't alot of "Guides". Everyones learning together. Rarely have I met the "I'll do it how I want" people... only once... and Ice tank who joined our "Looking for tank" group and refused to tank spouting the words "Dpsing is better" needless to say he died 17 times and we fully wiped 8... He just couldn't keep aggro and everytime the adds came the boss would just go for someone else kill them almost immediatly and move to the next.