My problem isn't with the time limit, though with some bosses with damage resistance like Viper X or evasion like Kevin Poe, it's an insurmountable obstacle, my real problem is with the goons. I tried a couple of the recruiting drives today and was defeated by the goons on the outskirts. I was playing a tank, blocking, and I'd just activated my Unbreakable, but they tore through me like I was made of tissue paper. On my own I'd have pounded them but because this was an Alert mission, and because things are scaled, they did more damage combined then the villain could ever have hoped to have dealt. So why are goons so incredibly tough on Smash missions laughably easy on Burst missions but seemingly normal on grab missions? Actually, why are they even included in Smash missions at all? Do the developers really think that Rakshasa needs nine or twelve goons to go with his six or so psychic snakes? I get that they want to make things challenging, and I'm sure a nice balanced experienced team would probably have an easier time with these missions but I'm at the point now where I'm not even going to try these Smash missions unless it's the dockside dust up one.

I know how you feel, most of the time I forget that my lvl 40's get nerfed in Alerts. As a silver player I worked hard to bring my lvl 40's up to scratch and both my tanks get destroyed. My healer usually gets one shotted by goons.

I think Smash Alerts should follow the same rule as Burst Alerts and give a damage boost, maybe not as powerful as Burst Alerts but significant enough that heroes do HEROIC damage by themselves and dont have to use a full maintain Lightning Arc to take down a single bar henchmen... -_-....

Infact all alerts should have a boost of some kind during the alert, for grabs it could be extra resources or XP on kill or increased damage.

Timed Alerts like Smashes should have a damage boost once alert bubble lifts so heroes can do what they do best...take down the villain, instead of cautiously approaching a group of goons and falling back to make sure they dont die. I realise some groups are very lucky and have decent damage dealers who tear through henchmen and eat the villain but those in my experience are quite rare...so maybe the damage buff should be increased slighly for those who are in alert made teams OR only given to Alert made teams.

I was quite suprised about Viper X's damage resistance and his damage output...I mean he's not THAT strong in SL...and his Force Cascade...boy would my Impulse love that...it ripped through my 7.4 k PFF + IDF + Protection Field + Energy Refraction and block and killed me (6.6k hp).

I hate vsing Rakshasa in Alerts due to is Psychic Worms like you said. I hate the fact that they somehow make you focus on them rather than him and they are so difficult to kill some times...and then you spend pointless time trying to click or cycle through to find him to beat him up...

Maybe as time goes on we will get more powerful?! Pfft I doubt it..the only Alerts worth doing IMO are Burst Alerts or Grabs, or an Alert with a premade team. It shouldnt be this way but it is..right now I am off for some revision :p

That's your problem right there. Recruiting drive doesn't require you to beat all the henchmen. Clear the stairway, and then pull the boss down the stairway. Don't hit anything else if you can help it.

Many Viper goons can cut right through shields and blocking. The only thing you can do is just not pull too much aggro from too many of them.

What he said. If you're trying to clear all baddies you're going to fail the mission most times.

The goons I was trying to clear WERE the ones on the stairway! Mind you my team mates flew right over them and then agroed the villain and the four or so goons behind her, but that's besides the point, my toon should have been able to take out the three goons alone. If I hadn't been in an alert mission I could have.

Also, I will remind you, most of these villains in recruiting drive like to move around or have serious knock back. The Goons on the sides and back do come into play fairly regularly even if it's not intended.

I actually came to the forums for this very topic. I did five SMASH missions this morning, and we wiped three of those. It's like the goons' damage has been drastically increased or something- I'm not exactly specced for tanking, but the minions' attacks now tear through me even though I'm blocking and putting up force bubbles. A week ago I wasn't having any problem, so I'm thinking something's recently changed.

As someone else mentioned, a big part of the problem is when people don't catch on to what the actual objectives are for an alert. In the case of a recruiting drive, the surest way to victory is to clear the 1st 3 enemies by the stairs, then have someone w/ a 100' attack pull the boss back near the starting area. Avoid the other enemies and things will go smoothly. If someone aggroes the side groups or (in the case of High Pan) knocks him into another group, then things can get complicated.

I strongly believe that a big detriment to victory in Alerts is that there is no time to discuss strategy or tactics - you grab a random group of 5 players then just throw them into an Alert. Sometimes, you get 5 people who just *know* what they need to do and things work out well. Other times - you're not so lucky.


This is also why the Dockside Dust-ups and 2-minute drills are a a bit better - there's less ambiguity in what the goal is. It's also why I tend to avoid trainstoppings - nothing like having everyone stop after killing the boss but forgetting that one group that's behind him...

Even worse in Trainstopping, when someone pulls and kills one or more mobs before the alert starts. Anything killed before the alert starts will not count towards the 20 you need to kill and there are exactly 20 mobs in the alert (including the boss).

Trainstopping should be avoided just due to the number of goons the designers expect you to take out in that limited time span. Also the game starts you in the middle of two groups of goons and usually one of those goons has knockback and smashes one of the group into a third group of goon. I've done more then one mission where my group couldn't even get past the first wave of goons. Here I am, level 40, playing down to 30, unable to even reach the villain. Terrible, terrible design. I suspect that most of these Alerts should be graded somehow: easy, normal, hard. Make the dockside dust ups easy, the recruiting drives normal, and the trainstopping hard. At least then novice players might be able to tell what they're getting into before a fight.