How do you get to cr120 as a Controller...

Funny stories...I've run across two controllers in the duos hero-side. Both higher CR than me (and Anne's about about 113 or so).

Controller 1 raced ahead, skipping adds...and took on the boss alone. Multiple times.
Controller 2 did nothing. Literally...he followed along at a distance. I had a scratchy baby to attend, so I skimmed to the top of the instance, and let the NPCs take him apart while I checked the baby...then shut my PS down when I realized the scratchy baby needed some attention.

Stupid hero controllers - haven't struck that villain side.

*shakes fist*

Even children can hit more than a single button.

1) The player knew how to both move the character and the camera.
2) They were aware enough to know that something was wrong with their partner.
3) Typically speaking children don't simply press a single button. You give them a game and they're extremely likely to press any combination of buttons.
4) If this were a younger child their parents/sibling would have been nearby and thus would have taken over if the child had problems. Are you seriously going to tell me that a younger child would not complain to the person who allowed them to play? Not any younger child I know of.
5) If chat were indeed disabled then it was either a reasonable old enough player or the player was overseen by someone else. If so see point 4).
6) Even if they spoke a different language they're extremely likely to at least ask why their partner is not moving or helping with the boss fight in their own language. Or ask a question out of confusion.

This would have been a conscious player with enough awareness to know something was wrong with their player. They made a conscious choice to only use ranged attacks and thus contribute basically nothing to the progression of the content. A 8-Man/4-Man random group that encounters this kind of player will immediately kick such player typically with no questions asked. Some 8-Man/4-Man content can indeed be completed without the need of all 8/4 players. Using the logic in this thread why not simply allow such players to stay in larger groups as well?

You should be expected the same behaviour in all content. Ranged attacks alone are hardly enough to contribute to completion of half of any content at tier. If they were everyone would be using them since it would be the fastest way to complete content since you could move 100% of the time.

In a 4-Man/8-Man content you can kick such players. In Duos you cannot. Thus KHALONofOGUN was not operating out of the norm and acceptable practice in random content. If behaviour like this were not acceptable in random groups it would not happen.

Would I have done this? Yes. I have done it many times even asking them if they wanted advice (I usually don't get any response). A player will not learn how to play the game if you enable them to take shortcuts such as this. Even a child is able to do more than a single attack. Any child interested in even playing DCUO would have seen the game played by someone else. Is anyone seriously going to tell me children just out of the blue find DCUO and start playing with 0 background observations from someone else playing?

You can do whatever you wish as a player, of course, in regards to this situation. However letting underperforming players go from a group is not uncommon. You can't kick in Duos so you'll need to either ask them to leave or wait for them to leave if you decide you want them out of the content. Someone wanting to do this is well within their options as a player and like I said is pretty common in other parts of DCUO.

Maybe it was an elderly parent or grandparent that got a hold of the game...
Nah, my mom still can't even turn on the microwave some days.

I was in a similar situation the other day.
League Hall duo, me DPS and a 113/14 Rage tank. The only thing he did was Ragebringer=>Block or Rage-Backdraft(cant remember the name lol)=>Block.
He lost aggro all the time. He use no other power than those two. No weapons combos either.

At one point i was about to "Hell NO!!!" and start running in circles while AFKing. But since those duos are really easy and quick, i just keep burning everything. At the end, we ended up getting the 25pt. feat, because he use his powers just when the adds come out and i burn them fast enough.

I cant remember my damage, but his was around 50k.
Then he use his mic and sais "Thank you", he was just a little kid. Probably using his brother or father toon or maybe new to the power. When you start tanking have no clue, people usually say "Pop a power and BLOCK!" and thats what he was doing.
I tried to send him some tells with some advices, but he was already offline.

So they know enough to precisely move around the content, consciously turn off chat or not know to even experiment with the game? A child sporadically uses controls (of any type). An older person would be more methodical in at least trying more than a single button.

I know it was a joke but this type of reasoning is another example of a pretty far out there description of what happened. Especially since the character is at tier 6. In either extreme descriptions someone else would have introduced them to the game. They should have been taught either way.

Regarding operation of technology at older ages I can relate to your statements but even the eldest member of my family was able to at the very least be taught by my youngest brother how to operate a PS2 (this was a long time ago). She was in her 70's and he was barely 10. He was having trouble in-game and I eventually came in to solve the problem. This would be an example of the user having instructions given to them by someone else and able to at least follow them. I don't see any reason this would not be true for any other player learning on a tier 6+ Duo (to give some wiggle room to the thread). You simply don't buy a PS3/PS4/PC, find DCUO and start playing one of those Duos without instructions or at the very least asking the question "What do I do?"

From my experience, one possibility for that person's behavior could be that maybe it was someone's child playing on their parents toon. I have some leaguemates that let their kids play and do not respond to the chats because they have no idea how to. When I see high cr toons who behave the way you described, I just chalk it up to that. It's probably someones kid. This may not always be the case though, but usually is.

OP you are not going to get anywhere with posters with this mentality. These are the same people that will complain that veterans aren't willing to help noobies but then respond like this when others don't seek or admit they need help. You can't win either way.

To a certain extent I was that Troll.

The Controller option becomes available at level 10, but there is no guidance or explanation and so not knowing what it was I didn't enter anything in Controller stance...... Until one occasion at CR40+ when I entered an alert.

I had no idea, didn't know what my role was, what I was supposed to be doing or how to do it if I had known. Suddenly I had an irate and very rude teenager (assumed), telling me to stop playing the game amongst other abuse.

I don't communicate much as I don't have voice and despite being on PC play on the sofa with a Xbox 360 controller. Thus I didn't communicate back. I mostly solo and so I even have voice turned off as it irritates.

As I'd recently paid for all access for a year I wasn't going to stop playing the game, so I went onto the internet and learnt what I needed to do, what the role entailed and what loadouts I needed to do it. I reset all my powers and skills and tuned them to what I needed. I stick to dual pistols as it's the easiest weapon to Troll with. Now I'm still not the best player in the world, but at least I don't get abuse in instances!

I like playing as a Controller as it suits my play style and I feel I contribute more in a group this way than as a mediocre player playing DPS. That said I still like to solo the most, so maybe I need to learn about armoury builds and set up a damage build.

If they let their kid play in t7 without any experience they deserve what happens. If you want your kid to play let them make their own toon from scratch so they aren't a burden. Yes I said burden.

I had a similar thing happen to me couple of times, in earth duos * may they burn in a special circle of hell, amen*. I usually wait for them to become more active its obvious if they are having a quick conversation with someone. If that fails I ask them to actually play. Then if that failed, I just left the instance and played with my styles until deserter ended.

I'm all for helping people but I'm not a mule for you to ride me. And if someone gives you advice say thanks instead of getting pissy.

Absolutely loved that...and completely agree!

could have been an out of work disgruntled controller.

It's happening to me more and more.

Last time, I entered a T6 duo and a CR 119 "controller" only contribution was to shoot with his bow. Only ranged tap the whole time. Never used a power. This guy spoke English so I asked him why he was playing as a controller and his answer was 'No DpS armory". Then I told him to play as a controller, with debuffs and CC effects (I didn't ask for power because I was running with my Munitions character and i didn't need it) he wrote "OK". Every 30 or 40 shots he would cast Gravity Well. XD lol

Thanks God I was able to solo the duo.

I expect this silliness on a T2 duo, but on T6 I wonder how where you able to get there in the first place. I just put those players on ignore so that I will never have to play with them again.

Ok...i'm going to take a little bit of all of the responses and do this from now on:

If I encounter a player that is not trying to hold up his end in a duo I will politely ask him/her if they're having an issue, or if there's any way I can assist them. If they do not reply on chat, the mic or at least by playing better, I will proceed to solo the instance with my duo partner as a useless sidekick and when it's done, proceed to put them on my ignore list.

^^
This coming from a guy who quits an instance mid way because someone was not doing his/her part well. I don't think you care anymore than any other person queued with a random person yet you have an opinion against others who do exactly what you would do if you were in his position.

pr

Probably the best way to handle it. Certainly in no way could u ever then be blamed for being anything but helpful. Cost you nothing either other then may a min or two extra in the instance.

Hello New Member.

Thing is, I kinda feel your initial actions were appropriate.

If peoples in game behaviour wouldn't get them off the brainiac ship, is it right to then carry them through T7 without any communication or social justification.

Obviously if they are already CR120, it's a bit late to rationalise that they shouldn't be helped to progres if all they are capable of is tapping melee attack, not communicating and not performing any aspect of their role.

Considering the lack of compassion expressed on these forums elsewhere regarding recent changes that make the game harder for people with difficulties playing to a high standard; I'm surprised you were shown such hostility for effectively doing nothing more than watching them fail at the game after already demonstrating their own lack of willingness to cooperate with you.

Depending how far through a duo I am, I'm not sure if I'd just go solo it anyway to avoid having to repeat the zone, or leave and start over with someone capable of communication and/or willingness to cooperate.


That said I've seen behaviour that looks a lot like a bot/macro from players. Players suddenly having handblasters equipped and doing nothing but pulse beam for whole zones, doing little else than following and attacking randomly. So it could be botting, it also could just be parents being lazy and getting their kids to run zones for them when they can't be bothered, I'm not sure either behaviour warrants being rewarded if that's what's taking place.

I believe you did what you could. One of the most important aspects of a team game is communication. If someone is unsure of how to use their role, or doesn't speak your language, you can't ever really know unless they're willing to reach out to you in some way. It is not far-fetched to expect a player in top tier content to understand their role. The onus is not on you to drag players through content. I understand that some may feel that so long as he was doing anything, then he was fine, but it seems like what irritated you the most was the lack of communication, not necessarily the lack of PoTs. It's like how if someone cuts you off while driving, but gives you the wave after, then all is forgiven.

If your partner rushed a boss multiple times and then left, all while failing to even type out the universal "???," then there's not much you can do. We can spit out hypotheticals until we're blue in the face, but when up against no responses, you can either grumble and carry on or grumble and get rid of them. Just because the content has less players doesn't mean said players shouldn't be held accountable for their actions. Or rather, inaction.

However, to answer your original question, the answer is "quite easily." It's not that tough to climb CR these days; you can get gear high enough to push you through for quite some time. I remember having to purchase a significant number of armor pieces in the past to go up, but now the only armor piece I've picked up was a single tier 1 chest. You don't have to do raids to ascend either, so some players aren't exposed to the tougher content, or tried it, did horribly, and decided it wasn't for them. Or they get paired up with 100+ CR players who breeze through content, with the players in question receiving maximal reward for minimal effort. It might also be that, for controllers specifically, they've seemed to be less and less useful in early content (sometimes I prefer the roleless buff to a poor player), and so aspiring trolls see less examples of proper play at their level. Players above their level will just play like DPS, which sets an even worse precedent for these players. Some people also just play...to play, I suppose, and don't read the descriptions of their abilities. They just use what they think is cool, and that's it. And even with those descriptions, the game is known for not really providing an environment in which support roles can properly learn the nuances of their role.

As to what you can do in the future, well, you can either do as you did or make an effort to explain what you mean to them. If they still don't respond, then you can play on, remove yourself from the situation, or remove them from the situation. You don't really have much room to do much else, sadly.

That's what I would do.

You never know who is behind the controls. Someone could have set their controller down or something and their kid picked it up...Or their special needs cousin or something.....Point is, sometimes people take the game a little too seriously. Yeah it can be annoying when you run into situations like what you ran into...However, at the end of the day the game is just for fun.

That is classic. Similar to what others here have commented, I experienced this but I usually just finish the run with the person even if I'm carrying him/her with that person just following me and doing nothing. When done, I just tell them YOUR WELCOME and leave. I have had similar situations in alerts / raids where Tanks don't block, pull or pull the ads right on top of us which is always fun, Trolls not providing POT or debuffs, Healers not healing or attacking bosses thinking they're tanks and fail. The greatest moment was in a duo where we both were in dps stance but he was a lower CR than me and his burn was weak and using WM but he was quantum which left me wondering. So I offered some suggestions to him with his loadout but he responded he was OP, he was good....facepalm. Going through the run, he would fly straight ahead and get mobbed with his health lowering fast. So I switched to healer stance and kept him alive with my heals and we finished the run no problem. Then he had the gall to tell me he couldn't believe that a higher cr player would need a lower cr to carry them. WTF, I was simply watching his back, sure I could have let him die and soloed the run as a dps but it's a duo for a reason. I jokingly told him, yeah your too OP, your a player that isn't fully modded (I checked his gear) and your a quantum that uses WM than clipping AM, good luck with that burn of yours