This is targeted towards those that play the game laid back. By laid back i mean those that are playing the game frequently and try to get as much stuff as they can but dont go out of their way too much if its too inconvenient or annoying. For example: Hard feats, Elite+, grind feats etc. Do you enjoy the current difficulty of elite? Do you play more elite raids now than before elite+ or stages 1-5 had been implemented? If you dont play it more often now, would interesting rewards change that? If you dont play it more often, whats stopping you besides the higher difficulty perhaps? (Anything from group building to too complex mechanics can be named here)
It sounds like you're describing players like me. But I don't play Elite at all (well, except for the SoBA solo, which I've done a couple of times). Mainly because it sounds like it requires a level of skill I really don't have.
1. Need to be more specific. Elite difficulty ranges all over the place. 2. Yes. It was difficult tying to find a player in a wider range 1-5 without having to replay a lower level to catch them up.
1. Yes. 2. Yes, because typical elite is much easier than elite used to be. 4. This is kind of a mixed bag because while I do enjoy Elite Plus... the extreme sensitivity that goes with it means that it requires a great deal of time to get down. Even if I could muster up the patience and time to sit there for hours mastering every possible threat... the chances of finding 7 other people willing to do the same without wanting to end eachother's lives and disbanding aren't very good. It just seems more trouble than it's worth to me now that I have a family and time is limited. I'm glad it exists though for something to do when everything else is completed.
The current difficulty of elite is fine The current difficulty of elite+ is fine (TSWE was ridiculous, the newer ones less so) but it does have to be careful to not be too over the top, spending hours and hours in one raid attempt dosen't typically float my boat. Elite+ does not need extra reward, the extra challenge and incremental additional feats are plenty reward I play more elite when it is better balanced like it, any content ramped up to far over the top so as to only appeal to a small minority of players with tracksuits on sweating on a treadmill while eating cheese is disengaging. Having stages 1-5 in difficulty was ridiculous it should never return in that format. I didn't mind the current raid, but as with anything the moment the content starts playing RNG mechanic overlap it just becomes disengaging and I can no longer be bothered. I also think the elite+ feats should be additional unique challenges not copies of prior ones. That is all.
1. For the most part. Most Elite duos are laughably easy, especially STU ones, to the point where I can and do solo them with feats on my better toons and have no problems completing them daily, by blindly queuing on my Nature DPS with 100SP, CR barely above 400, rank 80 arts, no armories and no allies. Alerts vary in difficulty, but most are easy with a semi-competent tank. Raids can get messy if one or 2 people don't observe mechanics, but they're not too hard for decent group, including most feats. 2. Yes. Because I wasn't playing the game back then... 3. Better rewards would be nice, but I don't really care. I'd rather buy them on broker than keep grinding the same instance hoping for a lucky drop. 4. The main problem for a villain on EU server is getting a good group, especially for older Elite raids, that are not spammed for rare drops. I'll happily join a league run and sometimes an LFG group, if I know people in it are reasonably competent. I'm not going to spend hours LFGing myself, because I have better ways of spending my time.
For the longest time I sat between the chairs, as in Regular was too boring and Elite was too hard. Then when Long Live the Legion dropped, I dipped my toes into Elite content with my then new League and some friends. It was rough at first, and for quite a while thereafter, especially when I switched to tank for the first time and had my baptism in Inner Sanctum Elite during the first StU; but I guess over time I got used to it enough that today I only run Elite~ I'll always give Elite+ a try, but most of the time I don't care to optimize for it, RTE3E+ and GPE+ were the exceptions; alerts just hit different haha. But generally yes; it is too hard for me, timings too tight, too little room for mistakes and/or damage too high etc. But that's fine, I don't need to conquer everything there is. I keep the completionism to my singleplayer games. So for me and players like me, I think the expanded difficulty range of Reg/E/E+ is awesome.
Do you enjoy the current difficulty of elite? The difficulty if fine, it is working with players that only play elite as a scoreboard challenge, feat hunting and toxic criticizers, because you won't play elite with their style of play (fast, using exploits, and with the loadouts they require). To me this is a negative and no fun style of play and is what I often find on Xbox. Do you play more elite raids now than before elite+ or stages 1-5 had been implemented? See answer 1 above. I rarely play elite now, except for solo. Sometimes I help players (known to me) that are, in my opinion, legitimately looking for help to complete an elite mission. These types of elite missions are fun, even if we don't always win. This however is a very rare occurrence. If you dont play it more often now, would interesting rewards change that? No. I love challenge. When I did competitive team sports and D&D gaming it was fun especially the time, I spent with my teammates. Rewards are very nice, but having competitive fun is better to me. Elite on DCUO Xbox is rarely fun (see why in answer 1 above). If you dont play it more often, whats stopping you besides the higher difficulty perhaps? (Anything from group building to too complex mechanics can be named here) See answer 1 above. I don't know if there is anything you can do to make playing elite or + fun enough to make people want to team-up with others, because it is just too much fun to miss out on. On a different topic and not to offend anyone. I have no problem with players that use their ingenuity to find ways to make their characters more powerful. I use exploiting the system as the term to describe this, but if the Devs allow this, then I have no problem with players that are smart enough to find ways to make their characters better. If the Devs state an exploit it is not allowed but have not found the time to fix the exploit, then I do have a problem with it. Peace and DCUO Forever
The cost/benefit of running anything besides solo content, especially elite, just isn't worth it for me. Its an already excruciating waiting for content to finally pop, and then when you do get in, it takes a certain amount of luck for the team to not wipe at the first boss. No thanks. I used to run old content before the clamp to avoid this issue. Can't even do that now.
