And so far the combat's deeply unsatisfying. Run up to someone, my first attack spams itself, and I spam my second attack. Every now and then I am called upon to press the Shift key...
How is that different from CoH? If I recall, CoH also has about 2-3 attack powers at level 6. If you are a vet, you can add Sands of Mu, Nemi staff or Black wand to your tray. Just like any other game, CO takes some getting used to.
As for teams, you're not going to see a lot of folks lft in the Zone channel. It was that way in 2009, and it has remained about the same except for alerts and certain events. Also, you're not going to see lvl 1s tagging along with lvl 40s. This is because lvl 1s get more xp solo. To get the same xp/rewards as the team leader, you need to:
- have the same mission as the team leader
- be +/-3 to team leader's level
If you are not, then you will:
- get as much as 50% less xp than the leader
- if the leader didn't share the quest, you get 0 quest complete bonus. Quest complete bonus can be as high as 20,000 xp, and imagine spending 30 mins with a team and not getting any of that.
As you can see, from an xp standpoint, there are a lot of disadvantages to teaming in CO, except for alerts. Tagging along with a lvl 40 for the kills won't help much, since each minion gives around 50-100 xp and each boss around 75-200 xp. Even worse if you are not +/-3 from the leader, you will get 25-50 xp for minions and 40-100 xp for bosses. This means you get most of your xp from quest completion bonus, so a lot of players solo to get 100% of the kills and the quest complete bonus.
To get an idea if teaming works out for you, create a new tab for rewards and xp. Do a solo quest and then do one in a team. Compare the rewards and xp and then decide whether to solo or team.
And yes, Canada is where all the bad things are happening. :p
FYI, Lemuria Crisis is broken. Even if you get it, there's a chance the 2nd mission will split the team and the contact sometimes won't give the next mission.