Shoo, back to General Discussion with ye Andhaira!
EDIT: Anyway guys, some more seriously retarded design decisions lift their heads:
The Stryker's Island Penitentiary and Watchtower Containment alert missions. Both include a mid-dungeon boss fight that is made so that it doesn't matter if you use proper tactics and teamwork with a solid, it's all about either having overpowering equipment or just plain luck: The symptoms of a shitty attempt at a challenging fight. In both cases the AI is given an "I win" button, in the case of the Watchtower a ridiculously high damage attack, knocks galore and constant supply of high-damage Brainiac mobs. But the Stryker's fight against the Rogues is worse. You literally cannot beat it at T0-T1 equipment without being lucky, and the fight highlights stupid decisions elsewhere in the game (and why your average MMO gamer is a retard who thinks requiring overwhelming gearing is a challenge):
1) The thing that breaks the fight is Captain Cold having a Freeze Hold that cannot be prevented with any power or broken out of with any means and the hold lasts 10+ seconds, and it can cover the whole team at worst. The only way to avoid this is to get to Heatwave on the other end of the map, but the problem is that due to the PCs being really fucking slow in combat it is impossible to reach from Captain Cold to Heatwave, and even a Ranged character can reach Heatwave just barely if they notice the countdown from the moment it starts (they won't). Not to mention Heatwave doesn't always cancel the countdown to the freeze, so you end up frozen anyway.
It highlights several huge problems with the game: a) You have almost no mobility in a fight, b) the UI tells you nothing and you can't see what effects you have on you, and c) Picking up small visual cues is impossible in the FX chaos the game is during large fights.
2) You can be infinitely knocked during the fight, which can lead to multiple seconds without being able to do anything but take a hit. This is due to Weather Wizard just roaming around the fight with his tornado. This wouldn't be a problem if you had any way of preventing it, and if you had a cooldown between knocks like normal. Due to how the game works, you also don't have to time to look around you to avoid him, and he can keep melee characters completely away from the current target by parking his ass next to him. This means Weather Wizard is completely untouchable by melee characters, as their ranged attacks are so worthless.
3) The fight is more than anything a question of luck, the luck being the frequency at which the AI decides to use Cold's freeze hold. This is a classic example of bad design in a misguided attempt at creating a challenge. Challenge is something you overcome with preparation and tactics, not with grinding and luck. It's about having to think, not about having to repeat until you get lucky.
Similarly, I'll take back any good things I might have said about this game having a decent character build flexibility. Because it doesn't, there's no balance between builds and it's always clear there's only one loadout above all for each role. Archetypes in CO can have more creative freedom than the DCUO power sets ffs!
I'll also note that there are powers that are literally broken and do nothing, like Ice Bash, which only activates a Chill effect and the role effect, but does nothing else despite claiming otherwise. Similarly, many damage powers are inferior to just spamming your weapon style, unless you have a massive amount of Might, and even then it's preferable to use your instantly activated low-tier powers to your expensive high-tier powers with a casting time.
