City of Heroes

[Saint George]

First off, sorry if there is another thread for this. I looked and searched beforehand, but I found nothing. So if there is another that I was too dumb to find, just delete this.


So, back in the day I started playing City of Heroes. We are talking pre-cape days. Then, as many players did, I was sucked into WoW. Now I am bored with WoW and I am being slowly pulled back into City of Heroes. I am definately enjoying the more casual nature of the game, the unique costumes, and the tons of different powers. WoW was definately too restricting in the class department.

Now, for the questions I would like to pose to you wise forum-goers.

First, all I have is City of Heroes. Should go ahead and buy City of Villians? (When I buy bioshock on tuesday) It adds more costume pieces right? Like those cool monster shark faces and the backward bending legs? I sort of want those.

Secondly, I am definately thinking I am gonna hang around the Virtue server. It is the only place people appreciate a good background. I love writing backgrounds. Anyways, is there anyone from here that hangs out on the virtue server? And if so, should I be a Hero or a Villian? Is one more fun than the other?

Thirdly, I am pretty sure if I am a hero I am going to be a Controller. I love the idea of making fights about a thousand times easier by just hanging around in the back. If I do make a controller (instead of a dominator) what are the best power sets? I am thinking Illusion/Storm or Illusion/Radation?


That is all I can think of right now.

[Rob Knotts]

Controller's never really intereted me, so I can't help you there. As far as CoV goes, general costume options have expanded a lot, the options CoV offers aren't that much of an addition anymore. On the other hand, if you want to make any use of bases, which have become the central focus for supergroups now, you need to get CoV to access bases.

As for Virtue, you're right in thinking that roleplaying is more important on that server, but in general it really doesn't change gameplay in a significant way. In particular, supergroups on Virtue work much the same as on any other server: Group activities generally only involve the informal inner-circle of founding members. New members are generally seen as nothing more than a source for Prestige, usually being ignored until sometime after level 24, the point at which earning Prestige in SG mode starts to interfere with the Influence earned by the character.

[Bleen]

Virtue's a good server. Don't expect much PvP, but otherwise it's good.

If you don't get Villains, you're missing out. It's got five new Archetypes, which, while fulfilling the same party roles as the Heroes, play entirely differently, the areas are more refined, and the story arcs tend to be a bit funner. Rogue Isles is a lot like a "What-if" of Paragon City, since it's probably what would happen if there were no heroes there.

The Villains "expansion" (it stands alone, for those that didn't know), unlocks some new parts, I think. Since City of X tends to be pretty attractive to an altaholic, you may as well go ahead and make both.

Controller build? Illusion is OK, my main problem with it is that the AoE isn't that great from what I've played of it and it's easier for your party to accidentally free people from your holds. Confusion isn't that great, either, because it makes aggro difficult to manage and gimps your XP gain from kills. However, Psionic damage is nearly impossible to resist (unless your opponents are machinery, in which case it won't work at all), and Illusion has a decent amount of "damage".

Secondaries really, really seem to bank on what kind of support role you want to do. Buffs, heals, debuffs, et cetera.

Of note if you get CoV and like the Controller archetype is the Dominator, who switches out his support secondary for a more offensively-oriented one, and has the Domination inherent, which is a toggle you can use after you "build up" a bit. You're still the crowd-control guy in the back, but you get to do some blasting too.

Villains don't have any epic archetypes(Peacekeepers/Warshades) yet, and have no Hazard Zones or Sewer system. Not that those things are very interesting either, etc.

A lot's been added, so have fun, etc.

AS a last note, keep in mind that a lot of the content is scattered throughout the game. Don't rush to 50 or you'll have nothing to do;there's really no endgame unless you really really like Hamidon raids and Recluse's Victory.

Edit: Rob ninja'd me, but yes, CoV adds bases which are a very important part of the game.

[Saint George]

Hmmm, I guess I need CoV then. The bases seem pretty cool.

So, beware the supergroups that recruit in the lowbie zones? They are just mooching.

Another question to you forum goers.

What is your char, level, powers, and server?

[Bleen]

Supergroups do not just "mooch" off lowbies. With the addition of bases, there are a LOT of conveniences involved in having an active, running SG with a reasonably-geared up base, such as invention worktables, easy portal access, and a free (albeit limited) second color pallette you can add to your costume.. Inactive people are removed from SG's because there is limited space, so filling a slot with someone who has made little contribution and rarely plays anyway is pointless. Moreso, lowbies are needed for prestige gain. They do not lose anything for playing in Supergroup mode, unlike near-endgamers, who will eventually lose every bit of Infamy they could be making while grinding prestige.

SG 'events' are mostly Costume Contests and boring farming, and high-ranked members participate in the latter more often because lowbies need to learn to play the frickin' game on their own and enjoy the content.

[Saint George]

I am not a big PvPer so that is quite alright with me.

So yes, I have decided that I will get around to buying CoV. No big loss.

When I played last time Illusion was absolutely amazing. Complete immobilization is a good thing and it never seemed to break that easy. And very few people complain about confusion. Yes, you lose a very slight amount of EXP for using it, but in doing so you completely take one bad guy out of the battle and damage others. I would say it is worth it. It hardly "gimps" the exp.

As for secondary, Storm is a sort of containment/damage/debuff while Radation is mainly debuff. It is a tough call.

Hmm, I actually sort of liked the Hazard Zones. Fun place to build a group and just cause havoc. Perez Park is just so scary until you get a travel power.

No worries about rushing to the end. I am quite happy playing a slow casual game since WoW raided me out.

Edit: Ah, I am unsure how this whole supergroup thing works nowadays. So what does this prestige get you? Is it like Influence or Infamy for super groups?

[Bleen]

Well, Illusion's got its good points, but I prefer having good AoE control. And my Confused enemies have that annoying habit of running off like retards to fight other enemies, which makes them hard to manage. A lot of other sets had weaker but wider-area powers, from what I saw. Just noting its weak points. Crazy damage, though, aside from the fact that some of it "Wears off".

Prestige is "money" for supergroups. They use it to buy base rooms, components, and even decorations. And unless it's a purely decorative item, it ain't cheap. It also determines your rank in the grand scheme of things. If you fight in Supergroup mode, you gain Prestige for your SG. However, starting at level 24, your Infamy/Influence gained while in SG mode begins to decrease, until (35ish?) when you gain no Infamy/Influence while in SG mode at all.

As I said, bases grant perks for supergroup members. They have mission-giver-things I'm not too familiar with, hospitals if you don't want to ressurect at the current area's hospital, and portals that can take you to any area of the game provided your collective group has gotten the right exploration badges and spent money on teleporters. They also store the currently-defunct Items of Power that could grant the entire SG bonuses to things like XP and Endurance. Most of these things, however, require:

A) Salvage
B) A power source, which costs a lot of Prestige and its own room
C) A room for the object itself to be in, which costs Prestige
D) The object. Which also costs Prestige.

You can schedule base raids with other Supergroups for their Items of Power, except there are currently no Items of Power, so..point moot.

Also: I play a Brute on Freedom server right now. Level..27, I think. Been a few weeks since I last played. I have a few alts, too, on each side of the game.

[Saint George]

Ahhh so that is how that whole thing works. It was a tad mysterious to me.

Any opinions on Storm Vs Radation?