City of Heroes questions, advice sought

EricNoah

Adventurer
Thinking about taking the plunge into CoH and have a couple of questions:

1) what's the best CoH fan site out there? I'm looking for a site with lots of tips/hints, a newbie guide, stuff like that.

2) Any tips for a guy just starting out? What are a couple of things newbies do that really annoy you -- and how can I avoid doing them?

This will be my second MMORPG experience so I *kinda* know what I'm doing overall, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

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CoH Warcry is pretty decent as far as fansites go. They have a few guides on there, as well as some maps.

My advice:

-Actually try to have a costume that looks good. Too many people out there must be blind or just too damn lazy to actually have a good costume.

-Don't make an all black ninja guy. Or a 4 ft. tall "H4wt Chixx0r". I'll find you and kill you.

-Don't blatantly ripoff a "real" superhero.

-Do team up early on so you can get a feel for things. See the Roll Call in my sig, and look some EN Worlders up.

-Know your role! Blasters shouldn't be in the thick of things, Scrappers and Tankers should. Defenders should heal or buff teamates or debuff the baddies. Controllers should provide...crowd control.

-Speaking of role, feel free to actually roleplay rather than gameplay if you want to. Virtue is supposed to be the seat of the roleplaying action, but I've never played on any other server so I can't compare.

-Realize that you don't need every single power in your main power sets. My Martial Arts/Regeneration Scrapper (close combat fighter) only has two powers from the Martial Arts set at level 15. He could have six. (I took Boxing from the Fighting Power Pool for my third attack power.) Pick the ones that look like they'd be a good idea.

-The Fitness Power Pool (Power Pools are groups of powers that anyone can take starting at level 6) is never a bad way to go...just make sure you only pick Swift OR Hurdle, then get Health and Stamina. So, if you don't like your other options when a new power is made available to you, go Fitness.

-Make sure you take one power from a movement Power Pool by level 12, if you want to get the badass movement power at level 14 (earliest possible level for the big movement coolness). I have two main guys, one has Super Leap, the other Flight. Super Leap is significantly faster, but Flight is more fun in my opinion. There's also Super Speed (faster than Super Leap and Flight, but no obstacle clearance) and Teleport (I hear it takes practice, but can eventually be the fastest movement power out there, but it sucks down Endurance fast as well). Oh, Flight isn't so good for the Scrappers and Tankers in my opinion--why be too far up above the villains to actually hit them? Flight (and Hover) is awesome on my Blaster though.

-Don't let anyone else ruin your fun. If you find yourself on a team with complete morons (meleeing Blasters, Tankers who don't draw the hits, guys who run blindly around corners drawing the fire of dozens of baddies your team isn't ready for), it's okay to leave (unless you're on a Task Force mission, which pretty much assumes 4 hours of dedication in one go). If someone's griefing you, leave the area if you can. I find passive resistance is much easier on the nerves than returning verbal fire. This also includes not letting anybody rag on your character just because they think you didn't choose the Uber-Optimized Build 3000(tm). If you like your character, that's all that matters (and having a good costume).

-If you have a mouse with those nifty thumb buttons on the side, like I do, here's a simple bind to help you out: in the chat window, type "/bind button4 target_enemy_near" without the quotes. Your side button will now automatically target the nearest enemy in your field of vision (villains behind you won't be targeted).

-Sell Enhancements at the appropriate stores for maximum sale value. Training Enhancements go to Freedom Corps representatives, they're in the red and white outfits. Later on in the game (level 12) you can buy Dual Origin enhancements (2x as powerful). And even later on are Single Origins (4x Training). Sell the Dual and Singles to stores that sell the same type of Enhancement. If you don't understand this, don't worry, by the time you have a high enough level for this to matter, you'll already understand.

-Soloing: Blasters and especially Scrappers are the way to go. Defenders and Tankers have more difficulties, Controllers are supposed to be the hardest to solo with.

Um, that's all I have for now. If/when you start playing, feel free to send me a PM or email with questions. Or look for Jonathan Powers, The Water Dragon, or Ares-9 on Virtue server.
 
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Just a few things I'd add -

First - Controllers are more tricky (see above) but it's not impossible for a new person to play one solo. You just have to learn to pick your fights.

Second - When you're grouping with people, know your role and how you can best support the team / defeat the baddies. The blaster that shoots every bad guy on sight before the team is ready is nobodys friend. (and usually gets everyone killed) ;)

Third - Costume costume costume...name name name. (see above)

Fourth - You don't really have to worry about gimping your character by choosing the 'wrong' powers. They're ALL cool and they're ALL useful. However, choose ones that fit your style of play. If you always group, then group effecting powers are great...but if you usually solo and pick group powers...well that's just silly ;)

Fifth - Balanced teams (in terms of archetypes) are the most incredible blast to play with..especially if the other people know what they're doing. Everyone's powers will compliment everyone else's.

There ya go! If you're on the Justice server send me a shout out. Mentacles, Many as One, Chad Slambody, and Ohmnipotent.
 

Thanks! I have three friends on Pinnacle so I think that's where I'll start out.

The patches for this thing are huge! It's taken me a long time to get those installed...
 

EricNoah said:
2) Any tips for a guy just starting out? What are a couple of things newbies do that really annoy you -- and how can I avoid doing them?
a) Costume - this makes character creation a time-consuming process but don't skimp on it because you're going to be stuck with it for a while. (There are open slots for costume changes but I'm not sure yet how/when those become available.)
b) NAME!!! I really despise the names some people use. Just watching someone named "StupidGuy2" walk by destroys suspension of disbelief. The downside of this is YOU never have to see your own name floating above your head - everyone else DOES.
c) BACKGROUND. Yeah, not everyone could write for Marvel or Dark Horse or DC, but I at least occasionally stand around where the heroes hang out and read what people have dreamed up for their origins - but only a third of them actually seem to have bothered. A MMORPG still has RPG as an element and if you can't be troubled to put even minimal effort into basic elements like a mere 1 paragraph backstory you're doing it wrong IMO. The really tough part is getting one that DOESN'T sound like every comic book cliche origin you've ever heard of, but if you're going to play a character rather than another mindless "Sok! Kapow! Boff!" toon - then start it off right. The city is full of mindless toons.

If you can get this much right then the rest will generally sort itself out.

I've made 3 characters (all scrappers of some variation) since I bought it 5 days ago. Two I've deleted already after getting them up to level 5 and I may end up deleting my third in looking for a decent solo character that I can live with long-term. But IME that's fairly typical for MMORPG's - and RPG's in general. You tend to go through a couple characters while experimenting with the system until you settle on that one character that finally really clicks for you.

Nightswake, lvl 5 natural scrapper, Infinity
 
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