The 1st level normally gives you even-level and +1 mobs. The second level adds a few more spawns into the mix.
Any bosses under the first 2 levels are supposed to be downgraded to lieutenants so that any mission can be soloed unless it explicitly requires a team (to disarm multiple bombs simultaneously, for instance).
Level 3 increases the effective level of the mission by 1, so you’ll be facing +1’s and +2’s, but you’re back to the normal number of spawns. Level 4, like level 2, adds additional spawns. The last level increases the mission’s level by 2.
Increasing the mission’s level also increases the completion bonus. Also, it controls the level (and size) of all mobs created by the mission, including ambushes.
Yes. Whether you create a new character or have one that existed pre-slider, you should get a “mission” from one of your contacts to visit the Hero Corps rep in Kings Row. The rep explains how the slider works, although not the particulars of what happens at each setting.
Forum wisdom seems to be:
Heroic (default): Even and +1 villains, regular sized groups
Tenacious: Even and +1 villains, larger groups
Rugged: +1 and +2 villains, regular-sized groups
Unyielding: +1 and +2 villains, larger groups
Invincible: +2 and +3 villains, regular-sized groups
My own testing confirms this, although villains will occasionally be a little lower or higher in level for no apparent reason.
Default Heroic setting will never spawn bosses in missions that are being run solo.
No, not expressly - as Marcin indicated, at some point your contacts will direct you to one of the hero corp analysts who can change the difficulty level, but it’s handled pretty ambiguously – Mehrunes posted the differences though.
I’ve only had a problems with a couple of endbosses (who are generally red, but occasionally purple) soloing on rugged with a blaster, and advancement is pretty fast (made it from level 10-14 in a couple of days - yay, flight!).
Marcin - what do you mean by look for the gauge - is that the location of the Hero corps guys who set the levels? Uh, also what do any of the following terms mean:
nfortunately there’s a lot of factors that will affect it. DOs, SOs, what AT you play,
DO = Dual Origin enhancement
SO = Single Origin enhancement
AT = archetype (blaster, tanker, etc.)
Basically, if you bump up the difficulty, you can mitigate how hard it plays out by having better damage and defense (SOs instead of DOs in your enhancement slots) or by playing an AT that can stand up to more damage (like a tanker or scrapper).
Playing a blaster at a higher level, for example, is pretty rough because you miss a lot and can’t take the abuse being handed back to you.
After I was face down, I saw the glowing red waypoint on the map.
I think it is a great way to end the TF.
Had a great time (I think everyone did) and defeats were minimal.
This is a splendid TF with a lot of action. We finished the whole thing in under 3 hours and that included several breaks that totaled at least 15 minutes.
I picked up Instant Healing when I turned 28 in the middle of the TF, then never had to turn it on. We had two tanks and they did a great job of occupying everything. Heck, everybody did a fine job.
