Awesome thanks.
I've come to the conclusion I suck at this game. Either that, or everyone else is just amazing at it. I'm playing Wolverine, and did Holo-Sim with a guy playing Thor and he just stomped through waves that I would have failed on without him.
We've had a few discussions about this, and I'm convinced that certain heroes and moreoever, some combinations are just flat out better than others in Holo/x-def. While this should be no real surprise, us veteran gamers tend to believe we can buck the trend a fair bit. We aren't wrong -- but quite often we're not really playing to our fullest potential.
I'm primarily playing Emma Frost, and while doing low level x-defs, if I had a Wolverine in my party I could almost guarantee that we'd hit wave 15 at the minimum. Wolverine's massive single target damage combined with Emma's AoE DoTs -- and most importantly her immortal pet that tanks everything like a champ gives any group with that combination an incredible base to work from.
The second big factor is gear, and by gear I'm talking about R3+ legendaries. If you see a prestiged hero in your 1-40 x-def you'll probably do well, especially if you are also prestiging and have a legendary ranking up.
The third is control, it's important in x-def that you keep damage off the students as much as possible. Meaning that stuns, knockdowns, taunts and displacement/weakness abilities make a huge difference. While raw DPS is important, it's not the only thing you need to succeed and rank higher in the waves. Post 20, those students can die very quickly if you leave mobs beating on them, and you won't have the DPS to plough them fast enough.
Lastly, you can get a pretty big boost from the crafter and maxing out your costume at low levels as well.
If you think your knowledge of a hero is weak, or you think you suck, try looking at the official class forums and finding the Cosmic Kurse timed contest threads specific to that hero. You can pick up gearing information, spec, playstyle and videos. Honestly, the guy that ran that competition is a genius and the final quality of the runs that ended up being done was staggering. Plenty of really good information you can tweak your build/gear and playstyle choices from.
I did a Cosmic MODOK run with Flipmode and embarrassed the shit out of myself by dying over and over and over again during the run. I'd fucked up and charmed a shitty mob, and until I zoned it, would remain without the bonuses that Emma's pets normally get, making it useless for tanking. Normally I could get the pet to tank and never really get hit. I was a tiny error that I didn't really appreciate til I'd gone back, and worked out just how badly I fucked up. Grabbed another decent pet, and solo'd cosmic MODOK without dying like a boss -- pretty sure Flip will never group with me again though =D
As always, say hi to us in game and grab a Super Group invite (Byrr, VorphRR, Sabbat, Arica) if you're loning it up, you'll find a few of us online at any time of day, willing to help out.