Battle of the map zones #8 : Croatoa vs Hollows

[Paragon Avenger]

Here you go, this is going to be epic:

Croatoa vs The Hollows
Fight!

[Solitaire]

The Hollows, always liked the zone, it was my second zone to experience when I first started playing, and the first zone I came across a LvL50 toon can still remember it's name "The Wall" Tanker.

[Brighellac]

The Hollows always had more activity

[Floride]

I loved them both equally. I refuse to choose!
Croatoa was kinda like the Hollows for your late 20's.  I had just as much fun in both and regularly leveled all my heroes in both.

[Steelhelm]

The Hollows. It was a popular place for my low levels to go to before the Death From Below trial came out.

[Eoraptor]

I'd like to say "The Hollows" Really I would.... but I have far too many traumatic memories of toons stranded there in the bad old days, told to go kill 20 of a type of thug, and running into mobs of ten or more orange, red, and purple foes, an then hauling ass back from the far end of Atlas Park to get back.

[Relitner]

Got to go with The Hollows again. Croatoa was a fun little zone. But the Hollows defined the early game for most of my characters. I would often go back with Defenders or Controllers and buff the lowbies as they battled in the streets. Good times

[Inc42]

While I spent more time in the Hollows, and it taught me a lot, most of that time was very frustrating.

Gotta give it to Croatoa, still one of my favorite zones as of the shut down.

[Paragon Avenger]

I started playing about Issue 10.
The game forced us into the Hollows.
There was no stores.
There was no hospital.
There was no trainer.
There was no fly power until level 14, earlist.

I learned to hate the Hollows.
Sure, it is much improved.
But those lessons of the earlier days are seered into my characters minds.
Crotoa has:
Hospital
University
Train Station
Stores
Trainer
Unified mission arc

Croatoa for the win.

[houtex]

Hollows no question.  Loved that zone.  Level one defender running around, going to the bottom, then the top, then the southwest corner, then to skyway.. and not deadened.

And Frostfire, of course.

[SerialBeggar]

The Hollows.

I especially liked the Hollows during the early period just after launch.  This was when whole spawn groups of Trolls or Outcasts would periodically rush the area around the Atlas gate.  It was a very exciting time.  I was really disappointed when that got turned off. 

The Hollows was where I took my Empathy/Energy Defender out of retirement.  He was my second "main" character, but I had to put him on the shelf some months prior when I realized that I really sucked at being an Emp.  I had gotten him to lvl 30 or 31 during a few weeks of heavy teaming.  I was still pretty newbish, so I didn't notice how much the team had carried me along.  Then I joined a PUG Manticore TF and it was a disaster!  I couldn't keep up with all the damage and the team completely fell apart during the first mission, ie just about everyone bailed.  Looking back at it, I think the problem was that most of the team were lowbies for the TF, so everything was red to deep purple (back when the enemies of a TF were always at the high end of the TF's range) and I was using mostly DOs still. 

So anyway, one day while hanging out at The Hollows (probably its first week) with a new character, I saw an Emp player had positioned himself in the middle of the parking lot in front of the Atlas gate where the Trolls and Outcast would run through to get at the NPC defending the gate.  The guy had set his Healing Aura on auto and went afk.  He was basically a healing station.  I made use of him.  I was able to practice pulling from a large spawn group with the safety of running back to him to fight them all off if necessary.  This guy's afk healing was cheesy, but it still impressed me and inspired me to bring out my own Emp to help too.

I started just healing the lowbies around the gate during times when I was bored and didn't feel like playing my other characters.  Then I ventured out further to cover those on the Cherry Hills.  During this time, my brother told me about the option setting to Show Health Bars and it was an epiphany!  All this time I was statusing player health by mousing over their characters.  With Show Health Bars = Always, every player character on my screen had health bars over their heads.  I could monitor dozens of people simultaneously.  It was amazing. 

My Emp spent (truly) a year and a half training in The Hollows, using 2 respec as I rethought my build and play style.  I got to the point where I could cover 3-4 separate teams spread out across a 6-8 block diameter fairly well using mostly Heal Other, Fortitude, and Clear Mind while Flying and the occasional Superspeed along with remembering and anticipating where they were each heading.  I had also been tweaking my own combat capability and was able to gain a couple of levels soloing my missions, something I hadn't been able to do since the low teens.  After a 3rd respec to refine things, I officially took my Emp "out of The Hollows" to join teams and really did know what I was doing.

[hurple]

Croatoa

[Inc42]

The Hollows.

I especially liked the Hollows during the early period just after launch.  This was when whole spawn groups of Trolls or Outcasts would periodically rush the area around the Atlas gate.  It was a very exciting time.  I was really disappointed when that got turned off. 

The Hollows was where I took my Empathy/Energy Defender out of retirement.  He was my second "main" character, but I had to put him on the shelf some months prior when I realized that I really sucked at being an Emp.  I had gotten him to lvl 30 or 31 during a few weeks of heavy teaming.  I was still pretty newbish, so I didn't notice how much the team had carried me along.  Then I joined a PUG Manticore TF and it was a disaster!  I couldn't keep up with all the damage and the team completely fell apart during the first mission, ie just about everyone bailed.  Looking back at it, I think the problem was that most of the team were lowbies for the TF, so everything was red to deep purple (back when the enemies of a TF were always at the high end of the TF's range) and I was using mostly DOs still. 

So anyway, one day while hanging out at The Hollows (probably its first week) with a new character, I saw an Emp player had positioned himself in the middle of the parking lot in front of the Atlas gate where the Trolls and Outcast would run through to get at the NPC defending the gate.  The guy had set his Healing Aura on auto and went afk.  He was basically a healing station.  I made use of him.  I was able to practice pulling from a large spawn group with the safety of running back to him to fight them all off if necessary.  This guy's afk healing was cheesy, but it still impressed me and inspired me to bring out my own Emp to help too.

I started just healing the lowbies around the gate during times when I was bored and didn't feel like playing my other characters.  Then I ventured out further to cover those on the Cherry Hills.  During this time, my brother told me about the option setting to Show Health Bars and it was an epiphany!  All this time I was statusing player health by mousing over their characters.  With Show Health Bars = Always, every player character on my screen had health bars over their heads.  I could monitor dozens of people simultaneously.  It was amazing. 

My Emp spent (truly) a year and a half training in The Hollows, using 2 respec as I rethought my build and play style.  I got to the point where I could cover 3-4 separate teams spread out across a 6-8 block diameter fairly well using mostly Heal Other, Fortitude, and Clear Mind while Flying and the occasional Superspeed along with remembering and anticipating where they were each heading.  I had also been tweaking my own combat capability and was able to gain a couple of levels soloing my missions, something I hadn't been able to do since the low teens.  After a 3rd respec to refine things, I officially took my Emp "out of The Hollows" to join teams and really did know what I was doing.

I like that story a lot. I went through similar things to break myself out of the DPS role, though not quite as epic sounding or the amount of effort that you put into it.

My learning to tank story was fun. I had played for around 4 years before I really learned how to tank, I had even had tanks that I played as damage dealers because something just didnt click for me. Finally I went to join some friends who had switched servers and had already gotten pretty high level before I decided to join them. I rolled a tank, and frankly did not expect it to level up very high. Our group got split on the map, so staring at a group of enemies meant for 8 people were me at level 1 side kicked up, and a level 32 blaster itching to use his new Rain of Arrows power. He told me to run in and distract them. I responded with a polite informative comment regarding the state of his sanity. He told me to do it anyway. I shrugged, I dont get debt yet, and ran in swinging my ax at every target I could desperately trying to get attention. My health bar drops fast, and right before it bottoms out I realize everything is dead. That was the first time I ever enjoyed playing a tank. That character proceeded to go on to hit level 50, have a full set build with a few purples, and lead several incarnate trials, and that new server, Victory, became my new home.

[Relitner]

...that new server, Victory, became my new home.

YEAH! Victory!

[Castegyre]

I'm pretty much going to pick Croatoa over just about any zone in the game. Too bad I mostly played red side.

[Paragon Avenger]

The Hollows.

I especially liked the Hollows during the early period just after launch.  This was when whole spawn groups of Trolls or Outcasts would periodically rush the area around the Atlas gate.  It was a very exciting time.  I was really disappointed when that got turned off. 

The Hollows was where I took my Empathy/Energy Defender out of retirement.  He was my second "main" character, but I had to put him on the shelf some months prior when I realized that I really sucked at being an Emp.  I had gotten him to lvl 30 or 31 during a few weeks of heavy teaming.  I was still pretty newbish, so I didn't notice how much the team had carried me along.  Then I joined a PUG Manticore TF and it was a disaster!  I couldn't keep up with all the damage and the team completely fell apart during the first mission, ie just about everyone bailed.  Looking back at it, I think the problem was that most of the team were lowbies for the TF, so everything was red to deep purple (back when the enemies of a TF were always at the high end of the TF's range) and I was using mostly DOs still. 

So anyway, one day while hanging out at The Hollows (probably its first week) with a new character, I saw an Emp player had positioned himself in the middle of the parking lot in front of the Atlas gate where the Trolls and Outcast would run through to get at the NPC defending the gate.  The guy had set his Healing Aura on auto and went afk.  He was basically a healing station.  I made use of him.  I was able to practice pulling from a large spawn group with the safety of running back to him to fight them all off if necessary.  This guy's afk healing was cheesy, but it still impressed me and inspired me to bring out my own Emp to help too.

I started just healing the lowbies around the gate during times when I was bored and didn't feel like playing my other characters.  Then I ventured out further to cover those on the Cherry Hills.  During this time, my brother told me about the option setting to Show Health Bars and it was an epiphany!  All this time I was statusing player health by mousing over their characters.  With Show Health Bars = Always, every player character on my screen had health bars over their heads.  I could monitor dozens of people simultaneously.  It was amazing. 

My Emp spent (truly) a year and a half training in The Hollows, using 2 respec as I rethought my build and play style.  I got to the point where I could cover 3-4 separate teams spread out across a 6-8 block diameter fairly well using mostly Heal Other, Fortitude, and Clear Mind while Flying and the occasional Superspeed along with remembering and anticipating where they were each heading.  I had also been tweaking my own combat capability and was able to gain a couple of levels soloing my missions, something I hadn't been able to do since the low teens.  After a 3rd respec to refine things, I officially took my Emp "out of The Hollows" to join teams and really did know what I was doing.

This might be one of the reasons that I don't like farming very much.
One, has to play to learn how to play well.

Every zone can teach a player something, the Hollows had a few hard lessons to teach.

[LadyShin]

Hollows. I actually got sick of the Tuatha de Danaan. 

[Paragon Avenger]

Yeah, I'm going with Croatoa.  I think people farmed Death From Below to avoid the Hollows.