Hey everyone, not sure if this is where I should be posting this, but I figure it couldn't hurt to ask. Two days ago, I returned to DCUO, after a several month hiatus (real life stuff), when I stopped playing last the "Lex luthor messes with the future" thing was the newest event available. Still, I've never been able to get a character to a CR above 100, my highest being 98, and that was back when modding your gear jumped your CR. Yesterday I rejoined my characters by picking some of my favorites to do some solo activities, to get a few marks of victory, this to get my head back into the flow and feel of playing the game (it didn't take me long to remember, and get the rhythm for some of my characters back). About ten minuets ago or so, I tried playing through the cape carmine lighthouse, the 2 player CR 50-something event. Grabbed my dual wielding earth guy, figured I'd try playing co-op with someone. My cr 57 earth user seemed to struggle, almost dying twice, while my partner, a fire using hand blaster, just flew through the level like I wasn't even there, blowing things up effortlessly and instakilling many mobs, despite only being 3 CR lower than me (54). At the end of the run, when the stat card appeared, they did well over 100K damage (almost 150K), while I only managed to par at somewhere in the high 30k range (almost 40K). My jaw hit the floor, the apparent power and overall effectiveness of the characters was very clear, painfully so, this person, 3 cr lower than me, practically did 3X damage as me. I don't know what else to say, I don't know how to improve upon this apparent gap, and I'm wondering if I should even bother trying at this point, when apparently there are other players so remarkably capable, that someone like me wouldn't even ever be able to be of any actual use towards helping another individual, let alone a league. I guess the bottom line is. Am I playing DCUO wrong? Thanks for reading ~B.Dragon
The only thing you're doing wrong is letting 1 day back determine you're feelings and future in this game. Lot's of things have changed and it's going to take more than 1 day back to figure out all those changes. Go to the guide section of these forums and find a good loadout then play a week or so then once you get used to that loadout try some others and find one that works for you. It's also possible that the person you ran with was an alt and had bought up all the skill points. He could have been at like 250+ to your <100 skill points. Don't worry about it so much and just play and figure things out before you throw in the towel.
Don't get discouraged, you've only been back a day. There was a revamp to the game a few months ago that completely rebalanced power sets, how much damage they do, how much power they consume, how much power you regen etc. You could look up some basic videos on YouTube on how to spec your skill points, what kinds of loadouts are good etc. But again, you've only been back a day and it will take longer than that to get back into the swing of things. I would even go so far as to recommend you actually just go and create a new character and level up to get a feel for the game again. When you say the "Lex Luthor messes with the future" thing are you referring to the Origin Crisis DLC? If so that came out four and a half years ago, so you've been out of the game for a pretty long time, so you're bound to be exttremely rusty.
It's really hard to explain the intricacies of DC, or any game really. After awhile, just like with anything, you figure out the little shortcuts and tips. Like if you're fighting some adds and your health is going down, clip your next attack with a soda. Or if you're familiar with the weapons enemies use, it's really easy to know when to block or interrupt. Or knowing which powers or combos you can clip with. Knowing which powers have the best burst or knowing which dots you can stack quickly etc. Or knowing damage splits so using a robot sidekick in addition to ice devil for example. Even without jackhammer, earth has a lot of great things. You can have your damage received split by using your pet obviously. Find out which powers do DoTs and which burst. Use a shield before running into adds. Stun or juggle them and do a rotation like a duel wield combo clipped with a burst power for example
If you've been gone for months you might have missed the stat revamp launch and therefore have to learn to retool your character the way "it should be" since that hit. The days of crystal doing all the "true" work for you is gone, now is the time to buckle down and find your power all over again. Don't let a day back discourage you, at least if it's concerned with numbers
Cr doesnt matter much anymore. Yea it can give a guesstimate on where a players stats are but cr differential was removed. As far as using weapons well bow is far and away the best. Bow>smoke bomb actually. Earth is actually pretty strong dps wise. Make sure your sp is spec correctly for the play style u choose in that same tree.
Take your time and practice more with your earth toon. Go to south gotham and practice by killing adds or something, try different loadouts, specs, etc. Eventually you'll find what works for you like the fire guy did. Getting discouraged won't get you anywhere.
There is another option. There is a combat parser in the game. If you generate a additional tab, you are able to track your damage over time. Every 10 sec, 30 sec. 1 min, after combat. Also you can generate a tab for your damage. You can evaluate the damage of each skill. If you use training puppets it is absolutely easy to check new loadouts and the rotation.
Are you having fun without topping the board? Yes, Then no you are not playing it wrong. No, Then yes you are playing it wrong.
At least you're looking to learn. For all this board likes to bash on DPS, I've found it's usually support players in-game who play primadonna. Got kicked from LoA after I pointed out the healer was *barely* matching the healing output by everyone else's soders and supply drops.
Well if your literally looking for how to do more damage... without knowing your load out and how your skill points are spent... I'll try to be generally helpfull. First off SP.. you said DW is you weapon so unlock DW into Bow combo.. Tap triangle to hold triangle combo is a great. Then you'll want to go hybrid playstyle 1 sp Max Crit chance 20 sp Max Crit damage 40 sp The rest on might/power Second load out Close range- jackhammer- debris field - reinforce - Entomb (super charge) - Crystal - fortify Range- switch jackhammer for upheaval. <note both are combos so hit square 3 times after you activate them. Ads- use debris field to set up pi (crush) for jackhammer or upheaval. Boss- clip debris field into reinforce and use you DW combo while feeding crystal with fortify. Repeat Make sure you have your base/lair mainframe perks unlocked supply drop - orbital strike - backup and tactical mods max level . From you base vendor... Equipped the mods that best describe your role.. Blast adapter .. max damage .. core strength... Equip the supply drop.. orbital strike and back up along with the highest stat trinket you have into a trinket belt. Getting the most from you trinkets.. Supply drops give you a temporary damage buff so do this quick 1 Drop your supply drop (buffs all damage) 2 use orbital strike (big damage) 3 activate you stat buff trinket (buffs stats to make your supercharge hit even harder) 4 use your supercharge 5 activate back up You can usually do that 2 to 3 times throughout an instance on large groups of ads or bosses and it makes a HUGE difference on your score. Well hope that helps.. Good luck.
Earth is one of the strongest power sets in the game right now.. however that doesn't matter.. play how you want... but if u feel the scoreboard is important, then to answer your question, yes you are playing wrong.. if you don't care about the scoreboard, then don't worry and play..
I don't care if I top the scoreboards, for those who inquired earlier. When I tank, I don't look at damage out, I look at damage in (how much heat I took off my team), when I heal, I look for healing out (how much my healing has helped out the team I'm in), when I control, it's all about power out and maintain efforts to stun/knockdown incoming mobs. When I DPS, I like to try to land at least in the top three, but "being top all the time" isn't really what gets me. What gets me, and why I asked, is because the difference in "score out" I've been seeing from other people who are of similar CR than me. Example, yesterday I was running my electric healer, and putting all my effort into keeping my party alive against brainiac enemies, using soders not for the life boost, but for the power boost (lack of a controller in the party), so I could keep more fluid life restoration to my team. I'm trying my damndest to heal up my team, with a lower CR celestial healer assisting me: whose getting killed left and right, making me feel like I'm not doing a good job keeping them alive. After the raid was over, turns out they generated almost twice as much healing out as I did. In this case, it isn't about "topping the scoreboard", so much as trying to be a good team player, doing my best, and someone else coming along who just outright does it better- hands down. It makes me feel like I don't have a good understanding of the game and power set I am using, when a person of lower CR, who clearly needs the help staying alive, can't keep themselves alive, can't count on me to keep them alive, and is clearly the one pulling the health for the party. I don't want to be "the best of the best" where I'm competitively healing against others (wouldn't that be nice to have in a raid though?), I just want to be useful, so that my presence on any team I'm in, leans towards having helped out. This instead of having such a pathetically low performance on the scoreboard (whatever my task may be), that I didn't really contribute to my team, so much as just having been there to come along. I think I may need to respec a few of my people. I guess all I'm trying to say is, I'm frustrated, and want to do better than what I currently am, especially in the field of healing and tanking, as those are the two main classes I tend to play as (I gracefully accept this award for worst controller of the year, and tip my hat to all the controllers out there, who seem to actually know what they are doing: because I'll tell ya this, it certainly isn't me, I have never been, nor understood how to be a good controller). 2018 goals for DC: Be a better healer, and don't die like a wet paper bag when tanking.
Best thing to do - go to YouTube. Hundreds of videos on every power in every role have been posted for Stats Revamp. Tips here on the Forum are great; I need a visual when I'm looking for improvement.
It is not your fault at all. The game does not really explain things. Here are a few things that you should know. All things I learned the hard way. 1. There is an option to "Switch Role". This actually changes how certain powers work. I used to have the same loadout of powers on both roles, and I assumed that when I accidentally hit this feature that nothing was different. Exactly why I was expected to generate power for people as a Troll when I had no clue of what I was expected to do. 2. As far as advancing your CR this is one of the best times to do so. Under the "Events" tab of the "On Duty" menu there are event versions of the newest DLC content. Aside from a couple of the 1st bosses these missions will hand you a new piece of gear off every run. What I always do is stockpile the gear I receive, and I will replace my lowest level items one by one. Between the daily free piece of gear from "The Vault" and this event, you should be able to jump up a ton. The last time there was an event released I went from 40 CR to 191 (192 was the max) before the event ended. 3. Also related to CR and the Events tab. There is an event called the Stabilizers event. Run that. Every so many days you will get a stabilizer. You'll either get an emblem (easy feats), a collection (easy money), or a piece of gear. Obviously the gear is what you want but the rest cant hurt things either. 4. You listed Earth as the example of the power you are using. If you are concerned with doing damage then I would recommend going "super powered" under the skill points menu. You want to spend 10 in critical attack chance so that it unlocks critical attack damage and spend 10 in critical attack damage to unlock Might/Power. Inside your inventory there is a stats tab. Clicking X or whatever selects things on what you play on, on top of a stat will explain what it does. In your case Might is what you want to do more damage with powers. Power is also a priority so that you can throw as many powers as possible. With Earth here is how I play. Keep in mind that I do not use this character too often and because he is weak statistically I have tried to counter that. - Each power will have a "Power interaction". This will say "Crushes enemies, puts bad Karma on enemies, etc". In the case of Earth you will crush them. - Other powers will say "Deals extra damage when the enemy is "Crushed" (or whatever they are for that power). So these are the powers you want to use to deal damage because they are amplified. - DoT powers. These deal damage over time. They are small ticks of damage but I always like having them. Especially when they also apply the PI. So I have 2 moves on my Earth character that will apply the "Crushed" power interaction. One is "earthen grip" or something like that. The main one I use is "Debree Field". If it is not off cooldown then I use the grip. I use Totem (or something like that) as a DoT. Most DPS players will use the Crystal pet but I use Brick. The totem also heals my pet. Earth has a shield power of its own but I use the iconic "Hard light shield" since you have to tap melee with the Earth shield to get the full strength from it. Especially on lower level characters, I ALWAYS pack a shield. Thus far it seems that every power (Not yet tested Mental/Fire) has one move that will deal heavy damage. For Earth that move is Jackhammer. You can tap melee to keep your character punching the ground literally until you run out of power or get interrupted. Most players who use Earth just spam the life out of this. It also deals extra damage to crushed enemies. Some players prefer supercharge moves. They usually are supposed to deal heavy damage. The way I use them is to build them up entirely, and I will find a cutscene or small moment to put it on my rotation. I use it up and reactivate my build to get back the shield. It sounds like a hassle. Do it enough and it will take a split second for you to get it going. If you insist on being a "Weapons expert" or "Hybrid" I cannot really give any advice. I did not like either of these playstyles as you can almost entirely kiss your superpowers goodbye. There is probably definitely someone here that can give advice with those styles, but in my experience they will always be outperformed by a superpowered player who knows what they are doing.
Two things. First, are you aware of how to spec, put skill points, onto your toons now? It's no where near how it was. For your earth toon, check some threads here or YouTube. Anything in the last 30days should be current. For your healer, if your struggling with power, it's not because of the lack of a troll. Healers and trollers benefit more by specing all into power, or heavy into it. Vit and resto don't do as much as they used to. You still want to grab some resto, but power is more important. Same goes for trolling. Also, use shields. Years back, people looked down on shields. Things changed and they are awesome now. My water healer works as a damage preventer, not a healer trying to catch up on low heal bars. Low healing numbers is what I strive for. There are some good threads for both healing and earth dpsing.
How's it going now? How much SP do you have, and how have you allocated it? Are you using all dps gear when dpsing? Fully modded, both Home Turf and exobyte mod sockets?
