The City of Heroes MMO Thread

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by Marmel

First, try typing: /respec
That will take you right to your respec if you have one.

Otherwise, you might get a message when you type that that says go see.........Jack Wolff???? I think that is who it is. Either way, it is the guy in City Hall in Galaxy City.

Finally, if you have some vet badges, you might be able to redeem a respec. For those, I think you have to click on the badge and then go see Wolff.

Edited to add: If none of that works, then you don't have one. You can buy one on the market. The prices have come down somewhat, but I think they are still over 100 million. Also, I am not sure, but I thought you could buy one for real money, but don't quote me on that. It could have just been a rumor.

And then there is the most obvious way that I somehow forgot. Do a respec trial. You get a respec plus a bunch of XP.

[Bonegavel]

Thanks. Yep, good 'ole "/respec" did the trick. Stuff is coming back to me slowly-but-surely and there is so much that is new. What isn't new is the grind for characters that aren't strong soloists.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Dinged 50 on my Kat/sr on Virtue that had been sitting at 49 for some time, 47 on my Ill/rad on Freedom, and 48 on my Plant/storm that's on Victory. Both controllers have yet to use their epic pools for any of the Weekly Task Forces(W.T.Fs). Lady Grey TF(level 45-50) is the W.T.F. next week starting Tuesday will change that finally. The Plant/storm should ding 50. I think my Ill/rad will be close. 2 out of my next 3 for being the next to get pushed to 50 have their enhancements done. Just got to update my Ice/ice tank on Virtue and then I'm ready to go.

Dinged 50 on my Plant/storm. I got to 48.9 on my Ill/rad on a speed LGTF.

[Marmel]

Created a SS/Fire/Mu brute and ran firefarms in the AE buildng exclusively. Reached level 50 in 2 weeks of sporatic playing. It can run specific missions at +4 /x8 with bosses. Solo. And that is with a 500million dollar build. Not expensive all things considered. That was a fun change of pace. And now I can powerlevel my toons or others and rake in the AE tickets. Not sure how much of that I'll actually do, but it is fun to play that toon. I took it Rogue so I can visit both sides.

Level 50 content is becoming a bit obsolete due to all the incarnate powers. The level 45-50 task forces are so easy because a bunch of people are running them with all the incarnate powers.

So, I have taken to badging the last couple of weeks on my main. I now have 725 badges. There are some I'll never get (healing badges on a brute, probably the pvp ones) but a goal of getting 1000 badges seems challenging, but doable and forces me to run stuff and do stuff I've never done before. It has been a lot of fun, surprisingly! Although the last 10 or 15 Fake Nemesis last night was getting tedious it was cool to get them all and get the Freedom Phalax accolade. +10% health is sweet!

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Marmel

Created a SS/Fire/Mu brute and ran firefarms in the AE buildng exclusively. Reached level 50 in 2 weeks of sporatic playing. It can run specific missions at +4 /x8 with bosses. Solo. And that is with a 500million dollar build. Not expensive all things considered. That was a fun change of pace. And now I can powerlevel my toons or others and rake in the AE tickets. Not sure how much of that I'll actually do, but it is fun to play that toon. I took it Rogue so I can visit both sides.

Level 50 content is becoming a bit obsolete due to all the incarnate powers. The level 45-50 task forces are so easy because a bunch of people are running them with all the incarnate powers.

People on the forum talked about how easy it was to level a SS/fire brute solo and I seriously questioned what they said being a typo and they informed me it wasn't. I have yet to do it and I may go DB/fire just because I can make the swords look like fire blades, but I'm not sure. It also earns bonus points for not being *that* build. I kind of have no room on my servers as is and I don't feel like having a farmer type character on a different server than everything else.

Agreed on the end game content. Even if the trials get bumped up, the non-incarnate ones will need to be looked at. People were mentioning speed runs can be done around the same time with one character as they use to take teams. Granted, the reactive fix is coming so rain powers will work how they should in terms of once per ten seconds versus once per tick. As it stands, controls and powers with long animations are virtually irrelevant in the end game.

[Matthean]

New info on Issue 20.5

Keyes Island Guide | City of Heroes
Issue 20: Incarnates Ascend Overview | City of Heroes

If nothing else, there are some rather nice QoL issues being dealt with.

[Matthean]

Finally broke down and did my first trial and I ended up doing both. I got a purple IO and VR drop on the second. I'm rather close to being able to get all of the LotG +recharges for the build and then it's down to some procs and Numi's. Everything beyond that is just commons.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Matthean

I got to 48.9 on my Ill/rad on a speed LGTF.

I hit 49.95 on a Sutter TF so I went and did a mission to ding 50. I'm up to 8 level 50s. I got 5-6 builds I want to get to 50, but beyond that I think I'm mostly playing new builds for pure looks, or trying out new to me sets.

[Marmel]

Congrats on your newest 50.

My latest project is taking my best level 50, a fire/wp brute and making it unstoppable. I have tier 3's in all of the incarnate slots and I've spent about 3.5 billion on IOs with a few more luck of the gamblers to go. I solo'd (the non-lambda trial) Marauder when he conned as a level 51 AV. I'm gonna try and take on more AVs one on one and try some monsters too. I can run +4/x8 farms, but haven't tried those with bosses yet. It hurt to spend all that money, which was a good % of what I have but worth it in the end I think.

[Matthean]

I got Cardiac T3 alpha on my Kat/sr and went and got a A-Merit as well. Mostly doing those during some down time. He's completely IOed out so any extra money he has will be sent elsewhere.

I'm pretty sure I had one, or more of my hardcore guys die since I last posted. I was rather surprised my Inv/dark tank died at 16.9. CoT are hell on an Invul without Invincibility. I rerolled a Elec/dark since Elec gets all of it's main toys early.

Took my Plant/storm on a BAF and got reminded how feeble controllers can be during the escapee phase.

Made a Claws/fire brute and soloed him to the AE building and haven't left. It took some learning the fire farm ropes, but I got up to 25 and I'm doing 2x8 with bosses now.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Took my Plant/storm on a BAF and got reminded how feeble controllers can be during the escapee phase.

See, I still disagree with this, at least depending on the type of controller. My Ill/TA, ok, he's not the best (though at least he has Oil Slick and Glue Arrow in TA to help a bit). My Grav/Storm though? AoE immob, ST holds, Lore Pets, Singularity (keep it right in the path for bouncing fun), Freezing Rain, Tornado, Lightning Storm...pretty much everyone is moving nowhere or moving slowly through obstacles. Lts at least take a decent amount of damage. If I'm not lagging, I can just about shut down a door by myself.

Yesterday I was on a BAF with my Fire Blaster, who can almost do the same. Problem was, I was finding that not only was I having mobs come at me from one side (I was on the far west of the south kill box), they were coming from the *other* side too. I almost never see that. We ended up failing the escapee stage - which I don't think I'd ever experienced either. When I looked at the team makeup after the fact, I noticed we had just one Dominator -- and zero controllers (a lot of scrappers and brutes though).

[Marmel]

Purples anyone? I've had an amazing run of purples. I took my SS/FA/Mu brute into my demon farm and ran it 12 times since Friday in an effort to recoup the money I spent on my other build. 7 purple drops. I'm taking another break from the trials. I get burned out fast on them.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

See, I still disagree with this, at least depending on the type of controller. My Ill/TA, ok, he's not the best (though at least he has Oil Slick and Glue Arrow in TA to help a bit). My Grav/Storm though? AoE immob, ST holds, Lore Pets, Singularity (keep it right in the path for bouncing fun), Freezing Rain, Tornado, Lightning Storm...pretty much everyone is moving nowhere or moving slowly through obstacles. Lts at least take a decent amount of damage. If I'm not lagging, I can just about shut down a door by myself.

Yesterday I was on a BAF with my Fire Blaster, who can almost do the same. Problem was, I was finding that not only was I having mobs come at me from one side (I was on the far west of the south kill box), they were coming from the *other* side too. I almost never see that. We ended up failing the escapee stage - which I don't think I'd ever experienced either. When I looked at the team makeup after the fact, I noticed we had just one Dominator -- and zero controllers (a lot of scrappers and brutes though).

Take away Lore Pets, which I don't have yet, and no Singularity. The current most well known Ill/rad player even started a thread on the forum on how useless he felt playing the build. Ill/rad is one of my other 3 controllers at 50. Yes, the /storm side of things helped a lot, but any controller primary is mostly reduced to spamming their AoE immobilization power for them to be effective. I friend said he did one with a Mind controller and felt useless as well. I think there's becoming a good reason why you don't see so many controllers doing trials, or at least BAFs. I haven't done many, but there's always a low number of them on any trial I have done.

We failed the BAF(a first for me), and the makeup on the team was much like yours. Scrappers, brutes, and blasters I think are three of the top 4 played at 50 ATs. There has to be a reason that maybe the number two AT played at 50 is hardly showing up for BAFs.

I did take mental notes and figure my next time doing it should go smoother.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Marmel

I'm taking another break from the trials. I get burned out fast on them.

Having done them enough to see where they are going, I have little desire to do them outside of getting a T3 in my alpha.

[cuervo72]

Yeah, I think I saw a thread on Local_Man's woes somewhere. It does depend on the combo, but those that do have AoE immobs are valuable just for that, IMO. Which yeah, doesn't include my Mind/Kin. Looking forward to it on my Elec/Sonic though.

[Matthean]

And I even just went and unlocked my alpha slot on my Ill/rad. My Mind controller is a Mind/kin although at this point it's been sitting at 30-32 for so long I'll likely just see it sitting at 50 and not really going Incarnate. There's no way I'm going to Incarnate everything that hits 50.

[Bonegavel]

Getting back into the grove and feeling fairly comfortable with most things except the auction house. It's a bit cumbersome IMHO. I have a lot of recipes and, of course, I don't have all the salvage. Guess I need to spend more time figuring out how to buy it vs. finding it via a drop.

I seem to be able to find great groups every 3rd or 4th session I log into. Other than that I find myself trying to solo and it is painful with most of my builds. I make sure I Broadcast LFT often enough and I switch my status to Looking For Team (which seems almost useless)... any other advice on finding teams? A place that teams gather, etc?

[Matthean]

Server channels help. Which server are you on? For salvage, I get the commons via tickets from AE. The uncommons and rares you can tend to get at decent prices on the market, but commons can be horribly overpriced.

[Marmel]

Not free to play, but Freedom:

Announcing City of Heroes Freedom and Issue 21: Convergence! - City of Heroes Forums

I hate the elitism shown in that thread. Anything to increase the population of the game is fine by me.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Marmel

Not free to play, but Freedom:

Announcing City of Heroes Freedom and Issue 21: Convergence! - City of Heroes Forums

I hate the elitism shown in that thread. Anything to increase the population of the game is fine by me.

It's F2P with the sub option, which is what most of the successful F2P MMOs are doing these days. The F2P option is way too restricted for me to go with it. I would simply unsub, play something else, and then sub when I came back. If I was new to the game, then sure, F2P and then go from there.

I see no use for the VIP server although I could have the most outside chance of moving one SG over there with the easy chance of getting all of the names I would want and it would hopefully be easier to get on teams. The SG is hardly built so it would be easy to get it back to what it it now. I could make a /fire brute and farm the prestige for it.

[Thomkal]

Very happy to see CoH go the F2P (or whatever they are calling it) route, I think they were dragged into by the success of the F2P model, and had no choice when Champions went that route, no matter what the producer said about it being in the works since the game was created basically. And given the limits on free players and even premium players for those of us who used to play, you can tell they really don't want to do this. I mean c'mon a total of 2 character slots (and no more purchasable?) for free and premium players (unless the premiums unlocked some extra slots while they were a subscriber) in one of the most heavily "altitis" MMO's out there. That's just a slap in the face.

For free players, no mail, can't write on message boards, limited chat, limited support, etc they are making it clear they are going to be treated like third class citizens. And premium players don't get it too much better it looks like.

If I was new to COH, I'd certainly play not knowing about all the good stuff they will not get to experience, but having been there since day 1 of the game till I had to quit for financial reasons, its going to be tough to be so limited. I had been thinking about coming back for a while now, as its still my favorite MMO, so it may be worth it to reactivate my account and check to see if I any extra character slots to activate then go back to premium when Freedom goes live.

[Matthean]

I had zero faith Paragon Studios/NCSoft in making a F2P player getting decent options based on their trial version they ran. I actually like how DDO and LotR do theirs. I probably like LotR best just because DDO with their pop up window can be kind of annoying. Premium is actually a nice middle ground though.

[Marmel]

Ping bonegavel: you need to turn on the option to receive tells from heroes/villains when u are playing the other side, that's why you weren't getting my responses.

[Marmel]

I'll try to type up a short fa brute guide for you soon

[Marmel]

OK, quick and dirty guide:

Start around level 6, make sure you took the damage aura (burning aura its called, i think).

Try AE mission arc #482818 (then you can also play: 459239, 493497, 472577, or just search for fire farms, there are a ton of them. Any map with ambushes, fire damage enemies - because fire armor is highly resistant to their damage - and auto rez enemies will be fine)

Start with even level enemies, times 8 (as if you were on a team of 8) and turn bosses off.

Pop a bunch of purple and reds before you enter the mission. There is an inspiration vendor right in the AE building, right next to the door for the hospital. Continue using reds and purples and then green and blues as needed. They drop as fast as you can use them, plus every time you level you get a full set of extra large inspirations. This is key to success. Combine 3 similar ones into reds and purples as you go along. There is actually a bind that will do this for you automatically, but i dont have it.

Increase the level of the enemies you face and add bosses when you think you can handle it. Eventually you want to be x4/x8 w/bosses.

The concept here is that Fire Armor does such incredible damage (I know...it is supposed to be your armor, but I guess a great offense is your best defense with this set) you just want to pop purples to keep you alive and pop reds to keep you at the damage cap so you can kill as fast as possible. You want to build the toon with a single focus: recharge.

Once in the 40's, run a patron arc (remember to lower your settings down to x0/x1, no bosses for this arc) to unlock the epic powers and take Mu (lighting fences and ball lightning).

At that point you'll have the following AOE's: Burning Aura, Burn, Footstomp, Fences and Ball Lightning. I can help you with slotting later.

After you unlock the villain epic pools, you can run 10 tips and an alignment mission to go rogue and then you can play both sides of the game. I would recommend going all the way hero at first and then getting the demon farm from Harvey Maylor, this way you can farm tickets and XP in the ae building and also farm purples from the demon mission.

If you want to play regular content and trials when you are 50 then I would recommend having 2 builds. (see a trainer to switch builds). On your regular content build, don't take MU, but take the Dark power pool instead. But some people just like to have the ss/fire/mu to earn enough money to IO out their other favorite toons.

I'll run some with you if you are having trouble getting it going.

Don't forget the ticket cap is 9,999 so cash them in every so often. You'll make a ton of money with a few lucky drops. A lot of people recommend rolling silver or bronze rolls, but i like to roll gold just because it is quicker and easier - some gold recipes can sell for over 100mil each and more if you take the few minutes to craft them Try to time your rolls when you are level 20-25-30-etc. those seem to sell quicker and for a bit more than an off level, like 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, etc. If you roll gold roll the highest level you can, but once you are level 40, only roll gold in the 35-39 range (because the Miracle set caps at 40 and the Kinetic Combat set caps at 35 and these sets have 2 of the 5 big jackpot rolls: Miracle + Recovery; Numina Unique; Luck of the Gambler + Recharge; Kinetic Combat Triple; Obliteration Quad ). Silver and bronze rolls are best in the 10-14 and lower stuff like that.


On another topic:
Also, I know you enjoy regen, but you should try willpower. I put a lot of money into mine but it can solo AV's, which I can't imagine a regen doing. I always tell people to play what is fun, and regen is fun, but willpower just seems to be a better, non-clicky version of regen.

[Matthean]

Nitpicks, and clarifications.

- It's Blazing Aura.

- You can start at level 2 with low level maps since that's when BA opens up. I would start at level 3 since you get more inspir slots so it makes it a little easier.

- #460877, #482818, #423253. Cyborg is popular, but it's actually one of the worst ambush style farms. The short version is it's a clunky map to deal with and actually slows you down. Plus, it's only one mission so you get bogged down in getting it over and over again.

- Lowbie Farming Maps - City of Heroes Forums Here's the thread for lower level based farms and they can be better than the above farms depending on certain things, ie DB, or Claws with /fire will beat SS/fire since you are looking at having two AoEs and low enemy HP.

- Very Best Farmer? - City of Heroes Forums The infamous SS/fa thread that's long, but can be scanned for build's. I grabbed ultrawatt's 80/20 build. 80% of the performance for 20% of the cost. City of Heroes Forums - View Single Post - Very Best Farmer?

- 'Best' PvE Generalist SS/FA Build - City of Heroes Forums Here's a small thread with a couple generalist builds.

- The "Dark" patron is called Soul.

- Ticket cap per mission is 1.5K. You can hit it by doing at least +2x8 if not lower. If you are trying to do +4x8 with bosses, it's only really useful for PLing others, or if you are looking to farm prestige.

- City of Heroes Forums - View Single Post - Very Best Farmer? Here's a post on the inspir bind info.

- /regen can solo AVs, but you are really only looking at BS, Kat, or Dark as being ideal to try with /regen.

[Matthean]

I also dinged level 32 on my Hardcore blaster. At one point there were a number of times I thought we were going to be stuck with 3-4 people playing on Thursdays. We are up to needing to start with two teams and being close to having those get full.

[Matthean]

Dev Chat Highlights, July 20: Paragon Rewards - City of Heroes Forums

Thread on the dev chat talking about the rewards system. I think I'll be tier 8 when it hits. Kind of annoying to be a VIP and not tier 9, but I'll get there shortly enough.

2x Exp Weekend at the end of the month.

[Matthean]

Open beta for i21 hits today at 7pm eastern. Not sure why they would do it the week of 2x exp weekend, but there it is.

[Bonegavel]

Thanks for all the tips guys and thanks Marmel for all the in-game help. My brute is now 47 and I'll probably ding 50 today unless something drags me away from my PC.

Matthean, I tried sending a friend request to @amy_amp and I can't enter an underscore so hopefully you get my request.

It will be hard going back to my other characters and having to rely on others to level. Sigh.

[Matthean]

I got your global friend request. It is written wrong here so I changed it. Your global name sounded familiar enough to where I accepted it. It took me seeing this thread before I connected the dots though.

2x exp results

Freedom

Dark/stone tank: 41-44. I was stupid stupid stupid in how I did this. I ran radio missions in PI and cranked diff to as high as the team could stand it. The problem? Radios suck for exp. Those three levels took forever to get. I'm still kicking myself for this. Bonus, I finally got Physical Perfection on the guy and end issues are starting to go away. The IOed out version is going to be running 8 toggles.

Virtue

DB/elec scrapper: 32-35. All that needs to be said is Power Sink. I still have a love/hate relationship with DB and it's combos.

Spines/elec scrapper: 32. Started to do some street sweeping, but got bored of it so I switched. It's a build I wanted to play more, but just didn't. This problem is when you are on far too many servers with far too many characters. I'm partly ok with skipping on the guy just because I know he'll be played other times. One of the fun "stupid scrapper tricks" builds.

Ice/ice tank: 41-45. I think I'm finally becoming ok with /ice, but boy does it develop late. I have now tanked an ITF twice and only recall one death. It's still a basic SO/common IO build, so it's only going to get better.

Dark/shield scrapper: 8-27. Via runs on a S/L farm. Glad I got to 27 so I got Soul Drain and can slot level 30s. It's a reroll from a Dark/sr, but I have a level 50 Kat/sr and I just wasn't seeing the advantage of /sr in this case.

Inifinity

SS/elec: 12/14-20. If you want to solo 1-20 during 2x exp, do it in Praet. It's incredibly fast. SS is becoming one of those sets where I go, "Why didn't you people tell me it was this awesome?" and yet the love of SS is all over the forum. I'll likely farm him on some level so I can get to patrons asap and then switch to hero side.

Justice - Hardcore server

En/En blaster: 35-38. As comfortable as I am with the build, the mobs are only getting more and more annoying.

D3: 18-22. Died due to me being on the phone. I'll forever kick myself for the death. As soon as the phone rang I went, "Oh no." It also in part chained together with what ended up causing the team level drop bug happening and thus causing a mass near team wipe. Only one character got out and one person lost their level 46/47 tank. Considering at that time only one IE SG character had ever made 50, yeah....

Traps/dark: 1-16. What the D3 got rerolled into. Traps in my head seems to fit really well with a team that isn't about speed rushing things.

Plant/fire: 11-20. Also out of Praet. Seeds + Roots + Fire Breath backed my FE is really amazing. At 20 I picked up Combustion for even more AoE.

Liberty

MA/shield: 19-24. I'm really hoping MA comes together once I get the final two powers. Right now it's just kind of "meh" to me.

And now back to my SS/fire to abuse the post 2x exp weekend market surge.

[cuervo72]

I did not have nearly that success with 2XP weekend. It didn't help that my kids had the computer for some rather long stretches (including my son checking out the Beta). Nor did it help that I decided to do my son's AE arc on my lvl 33 PB to get some tickets. This consisted of fighting a mess of soldiers...all equipped with web grenade. And two kill all missions.

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by Bonegavel

Thanks for all the tips guys and thanks Marmel for all the in-game help. My brute is now 47 and I'll probably ding 50 today unless something drags me away from my PC.

Matthean, I tried sending a friend request to @amy_amp and I can't enter an underscore so hopefully you get my request.

It will be hard going back to my other characters and having to rely on others to level. Sigh.

Congratz Bonegavel. Now you can farm purples to earn money to properly equip your other toons, which will allow you to level them solo and continue the vicious cycle.

In all seriousness, you should be able to adequately solo any toon in this game. Some are much quicker than others obviously. For instance I can't stomach solo'ing a defender and the early levels of a controller are just horrible, but otherwise....is it just too slow for you? Are can you not actually do it?


Double XP weekend was spent entirely on my claws/super reflex brute. I went from 35-46 and spent about a billion dollars and a few hero merit purchases (LOTG +recharges) to soft cap all defense types. I wish it would kill Lt's and bosses just a bit quicker, but it can stand in a horde of vanguards (running +2x4) and survive. I don't really have many other toons that can do that. I find them the toughest foes in the game for melee classes and a good test of anyone's survivability.

[Matthean]

I also got my Dark/elec brute on Freedom from 30 to 32. Time to switch over to a post i19 build and add in common IOs to the build. There will be some dual IOs tossed in as well, but that's just in a couple of powers worth frankenslotting.

I also went from 20-22 on my Hardcore Elec/dark tank. This my first Hardcore tank to make it to 22. The others died at 16 and 21.

Since my Dark/shield scrapper got PLed to 27, I went and tested it out tonight. Still needs work, but I can see the potential there.

[Matthean]

CoH is going to be priced at $1.99 August 17th-29th for any new player.

Announcing the Declaration of Freedom Sale in the NCsoft Store! - City of Heroes Forums

[Bonegavel]

I had almost forgotten about my Fire Tank on Victory. At AE I've already gone from 30 to 41 in a few days. I remembered when they nerfed the Fire tank years ago and everyone stopped playing them. Seems they are useful again. I'll have a 50 farmer on Red and Blue after a day or so more.

Matthean, I really enjoyed the Hardcore group as it adds a good dimension with the dead and done at level 10. Now, the only thing about this rule is that I'm guessing it promotes setting the missions at a safe +0 x0?

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Bonegavel

Matthean, I really enjoyed the Hardcore group as it adds a good dimension with the dead and done at level 10. Now, the only thing about this rule is that I'm guessing it promotes setting the missions at a safe +0 x0?

We do go above it, but we tend to have to be careful with it since lowbies start to have issues once they started fighting +2/+3 mobs. It's one thing to do it if you are in your 22 and above, but another if you are below SO, or even DO slotting and you are facing Nemesis, Arachos, CoT, Malta, etc...

Some players, and certainly ones with tanks have been known to go above the base diff setting when soloing. I know Top Doc did it with his Dark/sr that made it to 50. Dark Angel II is a tank that made it to 50 and he ran at rather high diff setting. Top Doc took a Fire/fire tank up to the 40s at +1x6. Granted, he didn't make it to 50.

Another thing about the diff setting is squishies will always be squishy. If a tank is moving along and then stops for whatever reason and a squishy continues on, there's a good chance of that squishy falling. A perfect example of this is when going around corners.

Melee characters I think are harder to get to 22 just because they take the brunt of the alpha. They are great once they do hit 22 though. We did have a /fire brute fall at 30 two weeks ago. The level 46 Elec tank that fell due to the team level drop bug was IOed on some level and I even think this was happening at +0, but Nemesis at times completely kicked it's butt even if the tank never fell. Scrappers, for whatever reason, don't seem to do well, but I think people play tanks more versus scrappers. There use to be the highest blaster at 26. I kept mentioning this as I leveled my blaster. I think people caught onto this. Last I knew there were 5 blasters at 25+. Controllers before a recent wave weren't high up either even though defender were about even with high up tanks. I think in part because people play controllers and then use the AoE immobilization power improperly and it draws extra aggro.

[Vince, Pt. II]

So since I'm taking a break from WoW and CoH was only $1.99, this and the Video Games thread got me to break down and check it out. I'm starting to get my feet wet, but still am a little lost with all the differences between the two games. Currently running a level 6 Scrapper, and I've only done some street sweeping and the missions they spoon feed you at the start. My chief complaint to this point is that it seems like there is no elegant way to keep the map open so you know where you are. It's been nice in the way that it's making me pay attention to the actual game world more, since I need to learn my surroundings, but still slow going getting my bearings.

Any tips as to things to make sure I do or avoid while I build my character? It sounds like the game is far less forgiving on respecs than World of Warcraft became. Also, how quickly does the leveling process slow down? I've really only put in about two hours or so and I'm already level 6...I feel like if I knew what I was doing, I'd be much further than that even.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Oh yeah, my Scrapper is @Ironthumb on Victory. Sort of nice how I randomly picked that server, actually.

EDIT: And apparently he's only level 4, maybe my quick leveling concerns are moot

[Matthean]

What kind of scrapper? I can probably kick out a build that goes to level 22 if not 50 rather quickly for anything. If you go on the forum and at least post a basic build you can get feedback on it. You are given an alternate build so even if you screw up, you can switch to the alternate build without having to use a respec. There are three respec trials, level 24, 34, 44, so you have plenty of chances to fix things. Free respecs tend to come when new issues come out. You can gain them as you go up in vet status and you can get repsec recipes via the drops, market, and merits.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

My chief complaint to this point is that it seems like there is no elegant way to keep the map open so you know where you are. It's been nice in the way that it's making me pay attention to the actual game world more, since I need to learn my surroundings, but still slow going getting my bearings.

Vince - it's not immediately apparent, but you can undock the map from the compass. I think there's a little blue dot in the bottom left corner. Uncheck it, and you can move the map out of the middle of your display.

I didn't realize this until I'd played for a looooong time, so I've just gotten used to opening and closing the map, and navigating my arrow on the map at times rather than my character (doesn't work so well in the Lambda trial...).

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Vince - it's not immediately apparent, but you can undock the map from the compass. I think there's a little blue dot in the bottom left corner. Uncheck it, and you can move the map out of the middle of your display.

I didn't realize this until I'd played for a looooong time, so I've just gotten used to opening and closing the map, and navigating my arrow on the map at times rather than my character (doesn't work so well in the Lambda trial...).

Thanks cuervo, that will help a lot. My scrapper is Dual Blades. Started up a Fire Tank as well, and will probably give a Blaster a try in the near future. Still sort of getting the hang of things, but it's starting to come more quickly as I go.

[Vince, Pt. II]

So far my biggest challenge has been picking a character to stick with. Thus far I have:

Dual Blades Scrapper
Fire Tanker
Assault Rifle Blaster
Dark Corruptor
Ice Blaster
Ninja Stalker

I've had more fun with the two Villain toons, but again I don't have anyone past 6 I don't think. Are Controllers/Defenders too difficult to solo with? I wouldn't mind trying one, but the Tanker does pretty low damage and if the other two are the same, it'd be frustrating to solo with them.

[Neon_Chaos]

Any news on when Freedom is coming out?

[Matthean]

First of all...

City of Heroes Forums - View Single Post - Iron Eagles II - Defeat is Permanent SG J/H

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

So far my biggest challenge has been picking a character to stick with. Thus far I have:

Dual Blades Scrapper
Fire Tanker
Assault Rifle Blaster
Dark Corruptor
Ice Blaster
Ninja Stalker

I've had more fun with the two Villain toons, but again I don't have anyone past 6 I don't think. Are Controllers/Defenders too difficult to solo with? I wouldn't mind trying one, but the Tanker does pretty low damage and if the other two are the same, it'd be frustrating to solo with them.

As always, it depends. Tanks default attacks now uses a mechanic called bruising. This means when it hits it gives a -res debuff to the target and thus your other attacks will do more damage for a period of time. Some builds will be easier to solo. Fire tanks are offensive so they can be rather easy to solo, but you need to get the powers that help in that regard. Tanks do have a low damage modifier so when using the same sets as scrappers, or brutes they will do less damage, but they are the meat shield class.

Any debuff set matched with /sonic is going to solo rather well for a defender. Defenders get a +30% damage boost while solo and it goes down as they get on bigger teams. Defenders and controllers do suffer from the issue of having no mezz protection so that's an issue they will have to deal with. Ill, Plant, and Fire controllers will be the easiest to solo. Just like a defender, you want a debuff secondary for more ease in soloing.

Generally speaking, hero ATs are built primarily for one thing and they are the best at it. Villain ATs are a bit more balanced and because of it tend to solo easier. Red side content does tend to be harder unless the hero side content is on the newer side.

Since you are missing a dom, a brute, and a MM, you'll likely play these next. Doms are control with ranged and melee damage. The more they attack, the more their domination bar gets filled. Once it's filled you can click on a button to go into domination mode, which increases your controls by a rather nice amount. Brutes are scrapper/tank hybrids. The more attacking they do and attacks they take on, the more fury they get. The more fury, the more damage. Think of Hulk. That's a brute. MMs are trickier to play but often called the PvE gods. They can mow through stuff as easy as anyone, unless they run into certain stuff that will give them fits. I personally don't like the luggage aspect of the AT since you get 6 pets.

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Any news on when Freedom is coming out?

Officially unknown, but the $1.99 deal is off on Aug. 29th. Just about everything else in the NCSoft store for CoH is going away on said date as well. We known boosters are going away and they have a end date of Aug. 29th. It's in open beta so it's Soon(tm).

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

So far my biggest challenge has been picking a character to stick with. Thus far I have:

Dual Blades Scrapper
Fire Tanker
Assault Rifle Blaster
Dark Corruptor
Ice Blaster
Ninja Stalker

I've had more fun with the two Villain toons, but again I don't have anyone past 6 I don't think. Are Controllers/Defenders too difficult to solo with? I wouldn't mind trying one, but the Tanker does pretty low damage and if the other two are the same, it'd be frustrating to solo with them.

You've been given some good advice already in this thread so let me just say welcome to the City! And get on Virtue Server!

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Any debuff set matched with /sonic is going to solo rather well for a defender. Defenders get a +30% damage boost while solo and it goes down as they get on bigger teams. Defenders and controllers do suffer from the issue of having no mezz protection so that's an issue they will have to deal with. Ill, Plant, and Fire controllers will be the easiest to solo. Just like a defender, you want a debuff secondary for more ease in soloing.

/likes to take partial credit for planting the seed on the defender damage boost

//has soloed Ill, Grav, Mind and (soon) Elec controllers to 50

[Vince, Pt. II]

I'm actually on the Virtue server, mostly by happenstance. I think my global chat handle is @Ironthumb, but I don't know if that changes based on which toon I'm playing. Lately I've been giving my Stalker (Amber Assassin) and Corruptor (Obsidian Obfuscator - I'm very proud of the complete and utter absurdity of that name, by the way) lots of play-time.

Did my first Heist on the Ninja Blade Stalker yesterday. Was a blast to go in and rob a bank, then defeat a hero on the way out. My skillset didn't really help me though - I was able to sneak all the way in to the vault, but then when I blew it up everyone on the planet knew where I was and I burned the rest of the time running away. Next time I'm going to kill everyone on the way in.

I think what I'm finally going to do is pick a character that is pretty easy to level with (probably a heavily damage favored class that is good at AoE) and push through the content pretty quickly, just to see it all and give myself a good taste of the game at each level. Then I'll go back and level my other toons. I've gotten a good grasp on how to build a character now, and how the primary and secondary skill sets interact. I've also got the hang of slotting my abilities, and am looking forward to starting a serious toon. For my solo character, I'm thinking perhaps Assault Rifle/Ice for just massive AoE with good control. I've heard Masterminds are really easy to solo with, but I've never been big on pet classes, so I'm leaning away from this initially.

Anyone want to chime in on character builds they've really enjoyed playing? I'm still very open to trying new things before I get serious with one character.

[cuervo72]

Words of advice on the Mayhem missions.

Basically, take your time and destroy as much as you can of groups of items before you make your way to the bank. Don't sprint there, or you will have scads of Longbow on your tail all at once. Take out:

* bus stops
* boxes
* dumpsters
* crates
* pay phones
* mailboxes
* newspaper stands
* parking meters
* cars
* ppd vehicles

There are surely some that I am missing. But basically, enough of anything destructible will give you a time bonus for that group of items. On the lowest level mayhems, some of the larger items may take longer than they're worth, but there should be enough other things to destroy to safely pad your clock...I think I've gotten mine up in the 30:00 range. Definitely at least up well into the 20s - which should be plenty enough time.

Once you get a feel for the basics of character building, take a look at Mids' Hero Designer. Fantastic planning tool.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

For my solo character, I'm thinking perhaps Assault Rifle/Ice for just massive AoE with good control. I've heard Masterminds are really easy to solo with, but I've never been big on pet classes, so I'm leaning away from this initially.

I'm trying to play an Assault Rifle, but have been underwhelmed (it is AR/Devices, which doesn't help). If you're looking for damage, Fire/ is hard to beat. And I've not played the /Ice secondary on a blaster, but Ice/ primary does provide decent control (I have an Ice/MM).

Masterminds are a different breed. My son plays one sometimes, but plays it very hands off. Basically lets his bots do their thing, keeping them bubbled. I have a Merc/Poison that I play very differently - I am constantly doing things to keep the aggro on ME ("tankerminding") - taunting, debuffing, attacking - while I stay in bodyguard mode. Good for taking down single, dangerous foes.