Alright, I've been doing high level city raids for years. I decided recently that to help low level members in my org I'd roll a 60MA and lead lowbie city raids for some fun.
Here is the team we TRIED it with.
60MA (I have four 220 toons and I have played a lowbie MA before)
58Doc (who has two 220 toons, one 220 is a doc, he is a casual player)
60Crat (has a 220 toon, casual player)
59Keeper (has a 150 toon and other alts, serious player)
So we got a main healer, a support healing, decent Damage Dealing all around and a calmer. NONE are twinked, two are casual players.
We managed the first wave, then the second wave came and as we were finishing the last 2 aliens the next wave came, then as we were trying to finish that wave the next came. It appeared to be non stop action, and I realized why it seemed that way.
We were all getting seriously nano drained. Without nano, healers... can't heal, MA specials which require nano, can't be used so it took longer to kill aliens which in the end meant having to deal with wave after wave and there was more aliens that we could handle. We tried a few times but after a while my orgmates got frustrated and did not want to go back.
What was meant to be a fun time, became a frustrating experience. Now when you hear your orgmates on teamspeak tell you how they feel... it gets you to think harder. Should this be happening?
As one of the oldest vets in the game, I'd say the answer is no, it shouldn't.
City Raids are one of the things an org does together, and that should include casual players who are not twinked.
I have a plan to twink my lvl 60 MA however I can't ask or expect casual players in my org to go that extra step to enjoy a part of the game that other players at higher levels take part in.
All the years of running lvl 220 city raids, and I had no idea this aspect of the AI expansion was unbalanced.
I'm unsure if the amount of nano draining was a bug, or if it was "as intended" for low levels to face a challenge. Let me tell you I can solo a City Raid on any of my 220 characters, and I think most vets looking for Leadbots do this just as easily. So how is it that a group of 4 players which are familiar with high level city raids got slaughtered on their lowbies?
Now imagine how NEW players who decide they like the game enough to pay a monthly subscription would feel if they went through the same experience?
We four have been around a while, and because we have higher level toons we can just switch and do other stuff. However that doesn't take away from the fact that we now are less likely to be able to enjoy city raids with orgmates who are low level.
Oh and as a sidenote, we had been doing Lost Eden missions in APF this week with the same characters listed above and that was fun, yet the same (well at least visually) aliens demolished us at our own city.
This may not be a priority fix, but I feel this needs to be rebalanced since it's something that I think affects low level (daily missions, boss loot drops, axp, etc), regular and casual players alike.
I would appreciate any feedback from the Community regarding this as well. Is this something that happens often?
Sincerely
Windguaerd