City of Heroes

Ah well a scrapper or brute is pretty fun. Great/good offense and good defense, so you can solo pretty easily. I'd go with one of those first, and almost any of the sets can work. Some defenses are better than others. I know Super Reflexes used to have some issues because it's % dodge, and sometimes RNG gets you killed. But most of the other defenses are resistance based and you take X% less damage consistently so that's better.

Blasters/corruptors are the glass cannons, all offense. Defenders, controllers, etc. are more support classes. They can solo but it can be frustrating or just slow. Tankers are all defense, little offense, almost a support class. Certain builds can fight well.

I have 2 main characters, a stone/fire tanker level 36 and a 17 empathy/energy defender (healer). The tanker in granite form has massive defenses, but his attacks are very slow. However, last night we had 3(!) kinetic controllers on the team, and when they buffed him he was whizzing around the place in granite form while rooted, it was hysterical. He's built as a damage sponge for team play, probably couldn't solo a mission in under an hour.
Healing/buffing is pretty fun too.

Updated Hero Planner

Looks like someone ran with the old Mids planner and added new powersets to it. All of my old builds from Mids seem to open in it.

And I forgot there is this new Sentinel archetype. It almost sounds too good to be true, blaster powers with scrapper defenses. Might be the omni-class that needs no help and can solo everything.

I'll have to check into the Sentinel then......after May 16th, lol.

I made a corruptor which seems like a more offensive controller. I like her quite a bit. I went with Earth and Radiation power sets.
I also made another mastermind but it is a nature power set and I absolutely love the summon hawk skill. It acts a lot like WoW's arcane missiles but flings out a hawk that repeatedly attacks the target.

Yeah it used to be more specific. Blasters and corruptors had exclusive powers. Masterminds and controllers had different sets. Tankers, Brutes, Scrappers, Stalkers, all with only certain sets. But now they all have everything. Not sure if the original game would have ever went that route, but it's much better. You can be whatever you want and not forced to be a hero or villain just to play a certain set you want.

Trying this out since I had a lot of fun with CoH back in the day. It's neat and it works, but.... there's a lot of stuff going on and very little way to figure anything out! As soon as you leave the tutorial there's all kinds of prestige power, legacy stuff, and item vendors, an XP booster in my inventory whose description makes no sense, etc. I assume much of it is stuff that was either added late in the original game's life, or newly added by the fan server admins.

Can anyone who groks what's going on type out a quick and dirty guide to, say, the first 10 levels or the second 10 levels? I feel like there are buffs and items and whatnot that someone has scattered around to make the experience smooth, if only I knew where to go and what to do...

fenomas wrote:

Can anyone who groks what's going on type out a quick and dirty guide to, say, the first 10 levels or the second 10 levels? I feel like there are buffs and items and whatnot that someone has scattered around to make the experience smooth, if only I knew where to go and what to do...

The ironically named "P2W Field Agent" has a bunch of helpful stuff for the first 20 levels -- things like extra attack powers (which are really good), some nice IO enhancements, support pets, travel powers, etc. And most of it is free.

There are P2W Field Agents in various places, including inside each tutorial. The one I linked above is the easiest to find if you're out of the tutorial.

As for leveling, most people will start with the Death from Below trial (abbreviated DFB in-game) since it's great XP and gives an SO enhancement on completion. Sewer runs are also popular. People will spam in the LFG channel for these.

I skipped them since I didn't want to level fast -- I just did my contacts' missions to enjoy the story.

My fire blaster I am just doing story with. My sentinel I created last night I did DFB twice as I got in a good group and went from level 2 to 10 on the first one and got to 13 on the second one. Did some story missions this morning and in an hour got to 15. I believe leveling slows down once you hit 25?

Just some hints/tips, sorry for the length.
The more your character is offline, the more bonus exp you build up. So once you are online again, for that section of your exp bar, you will level faster. Depending on where you exit out of the game also determines some other bonuses you can get.

When you can, get a travel power other than the sprint/slide everyone gets, so much quicker to get between missions if you are impatient like me

If you don't know what to do next, open up contact page, and click find a contact if you have none. It will give you a list of contacts to choose from to get more story/missions. Once you reach a certain point in Kings Row, you can also get a police scanner which will give you randomly generated missions.

Some contacts you can call right away from the contacts tab. Others you have to do so many missions with before you can call. After completing a mission, calling the contact saves you having to run all the way back to them to get the next mission.

Didn't know about DFB. I should try that. Can't decide if I'm making an alt tonight or continuing my scrapper.

I have 2 masterminds. My demon/dark is 8. My Nature/Something is 9.
I also have a level 6 corruptor, 5 or 6 illusion controller, 4 blaster, 5 brute, and 5 defender.

There is so much good in this game to overcome the dated sliding and pathfinding, wonky tab targeting, and back and forth mission structure.

They had quite the character customization at launch but as hard as it is to believe, there is more than twice as much more now. I was watching some streamers and have to agree that something was seriously lost in Champions Online that City of Heroes/Villains has in spades.

I've been playing CO for the past year and a half. I really like it, and it does a lot of things better than COH -- the character customization is better, the builds are more flexible and creative, the combat is more fun and challenging, and it has a ton of quality-of-life improvements like non-unique names.

But the one big advantage that COH has is that it makes group PVE content accessible, fun, and rewarding from the very start and continues that all the way through the rest of the game. From the moment you exit the tutorial, you can team up for DFB and sewer trials. And from there, you can keep doing door missions and radio missions and trials and so on forever.

The game encourages it, makes it easy, and it's a total blast. COH is designed for a group of people to mow down hordes of enemies, and CO never captures that.

CO's decision to ape WOW's theme park mission structure hurt it badly. CO is the better game in many ways except the one that really matters to many MMO players -- the actual PVE group experience.

Well said Javamancer. That is exactly why I bounced off CO hard when it launched and never went back.

My "main" so far has been my thugs/kinetic mastermind. Just dinged 28 last night and got the uberpet, the bruiser. It's a game changer. On the downside, kinetics seems to be the most common support power set. In most groups there are one or two more /kin players. I do not think those buffs stack.

Also in most groups, there have been far more support and pet archetypes than dps or tanks. Not necessarily a bad thing but odd since in most other MMOs it's the dps types that tilt the demographic.

Once CoH got bought by NCSoft, some of the developers got laid off/left and did CO. I think it is the system they wanted to use for CoH originally, but if I rememeber correctly, at the time they couldn't get the licensing figured out.

Java is right. On their comments above I fired up Champions Online to refresh my feelings on the game. They got a lot right and so much is improved/modern. But the themepark questing is condescending. I think that is the problem with super hero games is the artificial limitations on not just your powers but the ability and frequency of their use. It really is as bad as talk to a guy, run around a corner, go kill 3 enemies, run back around the corner, turn in quest, run for 1-2 minutes to get the next quest giver.

CoX is largely just monster buckets. But that works with the super hero power fantasy. Disabling 5 nebulous consoles does not.

Rainsmercy wrote:

Once CoH got bought by NCSoft, some of the developers got laid off/left and did CO. I think it is the system they wanted to use for CoH originally, but if I rememeber correctly, at the time they couldn't get the licensing figured out.

Correct. I remember following CoH pre-beta when it was just talk on the Cryptic forums. Their vision for the game design was much more like CO. After the buyout they did a 180 on design and created quite a stir with the fans. Turned out all right in the end though.

Heretk wrote:

kinetics seems to be the most common support power set. In most groups there are one or two more /kin players. I do not think those buffs stack.

It's awesome, the best support, and they do stack. We used to run an all kinetic defender group and it was glorious. My old sg would just play them on Sundays together, usually running task forces. I think we stuck with it a few months until 40 or so. So much fun.

/kin is popular for a reason. Glad to know that it stacks! That run speed buff is almost too much, especially in tunnel maps!

From the Homecoming 5/9 patch notes : Salvage Market seeded to keep costs down: 10K for common salvage, 100K for uncommon salvage, 1M for rare salvage, and 50K for a Brainstorm Idea.

Ouch. I guess I lucked out. Sold a rare on the AH two days for 10M.

Made a bots/time mastermind last night named Dr Corneleus, had so much fun making his costume. Bald head, Snidely mustache(long mustache that points way out either side of his face), Baron coat, and red and white striped pants. Wanted to make hima hero, but guess I chose the cov tutorial area instead so I guess he'll be a villain, somehow seems more appropriate

I had 30 minutes to spare today. Jumped into a mission team and had a great time.

Rainsmercy and I joined Stele's supergroup on Torchbearer. It's just the three of us so far. If anyone else wants to join, let us know!

I used to be the architect for my old sg. I'll see if I can shake off the dust and build a base this weekend.

Although travel is already a lot better than I remember. At some point it looks like they connected the two separate tram lines into one, so that helps a ton. I noticed you can choose North or South Steel Canyon now. Much better.

Yeah, and there's a TUNNEL network that connects some or maybe all of the zones that don't have a tram. And once you can teleport to Ouroboros, you can move around even faster since that connects to a lot of the zones and usually puts you next to a tram.

All of this was new to me, since I quit playing in like 2007. I've been really impressed with how much they added and improved after I had left.

I just got sidetracked in the Reddit. Apparently part of the I25 changes was removing base building costs. So I'll definitely get in there soon and recreate my glory days. Jeez I even had Excel sheets with base plans back when. Not sure I saved those but I'll have a look tonight.

Groovy, and thanks for letting us join your SG My Elec/Invul Sentinel has become my main, now at level 20. after Thursday when my statistics class is over I'll have more time to play!

Javamancer wrote:

Rainsmercy and I joined Stele's supergroup on Torchbearer. It's just the three of us so far. If anyone else wants to join, let us know!

I’d like to join. Do I have to be a minimum level?

No, just need to be on torchbearer. Can post a hero name here and we'll get you later or /tell one of us in game

my global is @ Rainsmercy, Javamancer is @ Javamancer. My time is kinda sporatic right now till after thursday.

I just stumbled across the news. THE NEWS. Like a month late. I got choked up. I have more fond memories of CoH than all other MMORPGs combined. I was in on day one, and was lost in flight on the last day.

I so badly need this to work out well. I need to hear the music themes, see the level up fountain animation.

Ah, my heart...

It is still everything it was... I found my old .mxd files. Got a new Mid's Hero Planner.

http://www.cohplanner.com/