City of Heroes Thread I - Take me down to the Paragon City.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Okay, first off: Yes, I'm quite aware that numerous threads have been made about City of Heroes/Villians before, and that they've all died out, and that thread I make usually die horrible, crash-and-burn related deaths, usually after the insertion of cake and live snakes.
I'm doing this, anyway.

I've recently downloaded the 14-day free trial for CoX off their website and have actually found myself quite enjoying the game and leaning towards "Yeah, I'll probably upgrade to a pay account shortly after aforementioned free trial ends".
I spend alot of time mucking around on the Justice server (Mostly because people are up when I am, theres alot of Aussies and kiwis present there), and make occasional forays into Virtue - because

A) Its the roleplaying server, and
B) Thats the one a certain lawfully chaotic and totally awesome playgrounder plays on and he teaches me things. Like auto-attack and through-targetting. Plus, hes totally awesome.

Anyway - I was wondering what collective input could be pulled from the collective wisdom of the plaground.
What servers do you all play on? Do you even play the game? If not, come join the insanity which is thanatos and possibly aforementioned other, older, wiser playgrounder who shall go un-named unless he shows himself here.

To make a feeble attempt at kicking this thing off:
My "Main", which exists on Justice is an Assault Rifle/Electric Blaster (Mostly Assault rifle) wo just level enough to finally pick up his travel power. Being the predictable sot I am, I chose flight. I'm finding the whole thing rather enjoyable, thank you. Besides, it fits his flavour better. Being a wierd cyborg with a rifle and electric-controlling microchips and a pair of powered gauntlents and boots to you name (Because total power armour is cheesy) just BEGs to fly around the city and pop off sniper rounds from well above anybody's reach.
Hes also started a supergroup (Mostly to see if I could) which currently consist of all his white costume parts turning gold and one little base room that does nothing but stand there because I can't afford a power/generator room yet, much less teleporters.

My other main - on Virtue is heavily based off the Tiefling Mage I'm playing in a PbP here, down to appearance and power selection (Ice/Ice Blaster). He also flies, mostly because his build plans for the PbP involve flight.

And so, with hopefulyl appropriate verbiage out - Discuss!
Or belittle, insult and otherwise slam my choice of MMOs. That works, too.

So lonely...

[Mando Knight]

...I'm mostly waiting for its successor, Champions Online, to come out...

CO claims that the player has almost total control over character customization options...

That said, I might decide to try the free trial for CoX, just to see if I want to play a Supers MMO...

[Thanatos 51-50]

Well, part useless balthering, part hoping to bump this thread back up to the top and hoping to get more participants in the conversation:

I was playing on Justice yesterday, and got invited into a PUG during which I noted that I wasn't gaining any XP at all.
And so, lo and behold, I upraded to the full version! Yay for thanatos!

In the process, I left my little supergroup-of-one joined another for a few short moments, and then, with two other players from the pug (One Santa-Claus-esque controller in a purple suit we called "Tubby" and another blaster in a trencoat and fedora called Dhol, we decided to from yet another group, with all of us as its leaders ("Head Seers" - the group name is The Omniscients. We're classy like that.)

In other news - Reckless blasting makes my sniper cry.
Aim.......
Target dies.
Invalid target.

[TheCheshireHat]

I used to play, but I quit about 6 months ago. It was not at all good for my studies. A real shame too, because its a very fun MMO, and the only one I have ever had a max level character on.


In other news - Reckless blasting makes my sniper cry.
Aim.......
Target dies.
Invalid target.

yeah, that happens. Sniping isn´t really that practical when grouped as things tend to die before they get shot. Try shooting bosses, as they live a little longer. On the other hand, I found that Assault Rifle (I had a AR/Devices blaster) works best at short range, spamming flame thrower, buckshot and at later levels full auto. Just gotta watch where you knock people back to with the buckshot. :smallamused:

[Thanatos 51-50]

I'm well aware, and usually only snipe while I'm waiting for my other three attack powers to recharge.
I don't have flamethrower yet, being only level fourteen.

It is, however, hilarious to be the one guy in the group who spends the entire time either in Fly or Hover mode.
Especially in large battles where somebody inevitably asks where I am.
"Wheres Cyberphage?"
"I'm at ur Ceiling, shootin' ur bosses"

I find the AR set gives me some pretty excellent damage output, even compared to other blasters. Its not uncommon for me to see little orange numbers between seventy and 100 floating above heads. This usually occurs right after using Slug or Sniper Rifle.

It also seems PUGs aren't very condussive to pulling. I have a keybind set up to warn everyone to stand by, because I'm pulling a target - which then immediatly Snipers the guy I have targetted.
And... everyone charges into the mob, anyway.

I have saved the PUGs many times before. Usually whilst floating about and looking extremely badass.

[Green Bean]

Been on CoX for a few months now; it's been quite a ride. I'm usually found on Defiant (Euro Server). I'm only really good with melee types; I managed to get my Fire/WP and Claw/WP scrappers to 50, along with a SS/WP Brute redside. I'm trying out an Ice/Kinetics Corruptor now, any advice?

[Thanatos 51-50]

Been on CoX for a few months now; it's been quite a ride. I'm usually found on Defiant (Euro Server). I'm only really good with melee types; I managed to get my Fire/WP and Claw/WP scrappers to 50, along with a SS/WP Brute redside. I'm trying out an Ice/Kinetics Corruptor now, any advice?

I found it useful to put any short-range "Hold and DoT" powers I have on auto-cast. I don't know off the top of my head if Kinetics boasts any, but -/Electric and -/Ice (the only two I've played with), both automatically get one at level one.
And I like focusing my Blaster on what he does best, instead of shoring up the weak points.
Neeeeeever mind. I forgot how TOTALLY DIFFERENT Corruptor secondary powers were.

With that in mind, my favourite Enhancments are:
Damage
Range
Endurance Reduction
Accuracy
Recharge Reduction

In approximatly that order.

If you're ever mucking about on Justice or Virtue (Both American servers - I don't know if its possible), send @Cyberphage a quick hello on Global, and I'll happily group with you!

[MisterSaturnine]

Oh, stop. Now you're making it seem fun again.

I started playing CoX shortly before Issue 2 came out, took a long break right before Issue 9 came out (or was it 8? I think it was 8), came back for Issue 11, and then left again. In my wake, I left a level 50 Ice/Energy Tank (back when it was gimpy!), a level 30 Illusion/Kinetics Controller, a level 38 Necromancy/Dark Mastermind, and a level 46 Dual Blades/Willpower Scrapper.

[Green Bean]

With that in mind, my favourite Enhancments are:
Damage
Range
Endurance Reduction
Accuracy
Recharge Reduction

Is Range really that important? Kinetics tends to keep me pretty close to the front lines. And I've prioritized Accuracy higher; my heals and buffs depend on it.

[Thanatos 51-50]

No, its not. Some part of me knows I should be prioritzing Accuracy, but I keep buffing up Range, instead.

That, and squishy cyborg riflemen stays in the back (read: Stratosphere) with the other squishies (read: Alone, because nobody else seems to want to fly like I do.).

If kinetics keeps you up front, sod range.

[Green Bean]

No, its not. Some part of me knows I should be prioritzing Accuracy, but I keep buffing up Range, instead.

Well, with Assault Rifle you don't need as much ACC slotting as other sets because of the Defence Debuff.


That, and squishy cyborg riflemen stays in the back (read: Stratosphere) with the other squishies (read: Alone, because nobody else seems to want to fly like I do.).

If kinetics keeps you up front, sod range.


Luckily for me, Ice is an excellent Single Target powerset, so what limited aggro I draw I can just Hold. And, of course, when I get my high level buffs, my teammates are going through mobs like a buzzsaw through Styrofoam, so they're too dead to hurt me. :smallbiggrin:

[Shades of Gray]

I used to play as a level 23 Illusion/Kinetic troller. I mostly chose that cause I like to solo, and tanks bore me. I can buff myself, and superior invisibility my way to the end, kill X lieutenant, and then grab the shiny.

If I ever play again, look out for Soulshrive. (with the dot) on pinnacle Server.

I'm guessing you named your ice master either Equilibrium or 'Quill? I was thinking of starting again on your server with Aedrus.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Well, with Assault Rifle you don't need as much ACC slotting as other sets because of the Defence Debuff.
That, and my bad luck with pulling rolls makes itself up with amazing luck on to hit rolls.

Luckily for me, Ice is an excellent Single Target powerset, so what limited aggro I draw I can just Hold. And, of course, when I get my high level buffs, my teammates are going through mobs like a buzzsaw through Styrofoam, so they're too dead to hurt me. :smallbiggrin:

HEY! They're not dead, they're defeated.to the point where they're dead.
Oh, wait... villian. Nevermind.

[Green Bean]

I'm guessing you named your ice master either Equilibrium or 'Quill?

Nope. Torpor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpor) She slows you down, then drops your body temperature.

Edit:

That, and my bad luck with pulling rolls makes itself up with amazing luck on to hit rolls.

Something interesting I picked up on the Corruptor forums; sniper attacks aren't great for pulling. The more damage the attack does, the bigger the aggro radius. It's doubly worse if it uses a mez like Knockback.

[Thanatos 51-50]

I'm guessing you named your ice master either Equilibrium or 'Quill? I was thinking of starting again on your server with Aedrus.

Equilibrium was taken. I chose the second one. Apostraphe and all.

[Green Bean]

Ugh. Just got back from a pick up group on my Ice/Kin Corruptor. It was painful. It was a higher level Circle mission, so I had to be Lackey'd. It was one of those maps with the crystal jails that trap you when you go to the hospital. My mentor faceplanted, teleported into jail, making me faceplant because I suddenly dropped five levels. Even better, there was at least four enemy spawns outside the crystal doors, so breaking out wasn't even an option. Cue the rest of the party losing because they're missing two members, and then dying again when we try to collectively break out because the jail cells are far enough apart that we aggro the whole room.

Cue an absolutely insane little sequence where we haphazardly try to escape an obscene number of Circle spectres and then die repeatedly. I ended up tasting the floor at least six times before we finally completed the mission.

On the plus side, I hit level 20, which means it's Speed Boost time! :smallbiggrin:

[Thanatos 51-50]

Funny. I just did a PUG through the sewers with one of my alts and went from level 4 to level 8, almost nine.
Almost made all the way to King's Row, too.

[Green Bean]

Funny. I just did a PUG through the sewers with one of my alts and went from level 4 to level 8, almost nine.
Almost made all the way to King's Row, too.

Well, PUGs tend to be hit or miss. I've had my share of awesome teams where I level up three or four times, and teams that I couldn't leave fast enough. This one wasn't bad, per se, just disorganized. Of course, try telling that to a bunch of genocidal demonic ghost wizards. :smallamused:

[PirateMonk]

I started playing several years ago, starting on Champion, then expanding to Guardian and Justice due to altoholism.

[PhallicWarrior]

I find myself in the same position as the OP. The only difference is that my comp bombed out during the free trial, so I didn't get nearly as much time with it as I would have liked. Still, it was fun while it lasted, and my dad's having it upgraded while it's in the shop so it'll run better. If all goes according to plan, I'll finally be able to play in a group, on a count of it won't take me 20 minutes to load the dungeon. Huzzah Supergroups!

[Ebonsword]

I find the AR set gives me some pretty excellent damage output, even compared to other blasters. Its not uncommon for me to see little orange numbers between seventy and 100 floating above heads. This usually occurs right after using Slug or Sniper Rifle.

Oh, you say that now, but just you wait until the enemies that are 50% resistant to Smashing and Lethal damage show up. Then you'll be cursing the day your AR blaster was born. :smallfrown:

[Green Bean]

Oh, you say that now, but just you wait until the enemies that are 50% resistant to Smashing and Lethal damage show up. Then you'll be cursing the day your AR blaster was born. :smallfrown:

Yeah, I remember my Claws/WP Scrapper gradually getting less and less powerful as the levels got higher. For some reason this never happened with my SS/WP Brute. :smallbiggrin:

[Thanatos 51-50]

Oh, you say that now, but just you wait until the enemies that are 50% resistant to Smashing and Lethal damage show up. Then you'll be cursing the day your AR blaster was born. :smallfrown:

Like the Clockwork? I already avoid those guys like the plague.

[Green Bean]

So, Issue 13 is out. What do you guys think? Personally, I'm liking the Merit system. Prices on the really expensive stuff has gone down to a reasonable level, and I'm only a couple Task Forces away from that Recovery boost I wanted.

[RPGuru1331]

Oh, you say that now, but just you wait until the enemies that are 50% resistant to Smashing and Lethal damage show up. Then you'll be cursing the day your AR blaster was born. :smallfrown:

Far be it from me to judge your habits, but shouldn't your AR blaster go shoot at folks iwth low S/L Res? Like, you know, most of those Arcane folks who's Salvage (was) is worth a bootload?

[TheCheshireHat]

Ah, the infamous bashing/lethal resist affair. It can indeed be quite a problem, if one chooses to see it that way. Back when I played my DB/SR scrapper (a nice combo, if somewhat... tight in power selection) I took the view that against anything with aroung 50% resist I was doing normal damage. When I fought enemies without said resists I thought of it as bonus damage. Needless to say, beating up Carnies was one of my favourite passtimes. Endurance drain, what endurance drain? Ooooh, you mean that funny thing they do when they die! Never hits me :smallbiggrin:

[RPGuru1331]

Besides, it's carnies. Who's going to bitch about End Drain when your other option is the Malta?

[Green Bean]

Besides, it's carnies. Who's going to bitch about End Drain when your other option is the Malta?

Oh, I adore Malta. Moment of Glory: "Sappers? What Sappers?"

(Although, I think their Titans have pretty good lethal resistance)

[TheCheshireHat]

Yeah, Malta have some hefty resistances there. But SR doesn´t mind sappers much. The gunslingers can be annoying as they have higher than average to-hit though.

Besides, there are other things. Nemesis are quite curb-stompable as long as they don´t pile up and stack Vengeance. CoT are generally a joke at higher levels, and the Cimerorans are VERY fun to smack around, as they like to pile up around you. Perfect for all the meelee AoEs DB can throw around. Just kill the centurions quick. I levelled from 48 to 49 and a half (I wanted to get 50 on the Imperious TF) just clearing up the walls of the fortress of level 50-52 romans. Fun times.

Rikti and Ruularu are not very fun to fight though, fairly high resists and hit like freight trains.

[Ebonsword]

Oh, come on. You guys are talking about playing Scrappers. Of course you don't notice the Smashing/Lethal resistance that much. When Scrappers see purple-ranked enemies they just think "Oooh, more XP!". :smallwink:

Now, Blasters, on the other hand, have to be a lot more aware of what they're fighting, or they die in about three seconds.

[RPGuru1331]

Now, Blasters, on the other hand, have to be a lot more aware of what they're fighting, or they die in about three seconds.

I know. That's why I question why you're fighting Tech based S/L res folks when you've got juicy folks like CoT (Not the Demons, the men in dresses).It would seem like maximizing damage is to your advantage.. :smallyuk:

[TheCheshireHat]

Oh right, not everyone plays scrappers all the time. Silly me :smalltongue:

I agree on blasters, poor squishy glass cannons that they are, they do need to pay a little more attention to who they shoot to bits.

I played a AR/Dev blaster to the low 30s, but I couldn´t bring myself to do any solo work with her at those levels. Teams where good fun though, as I could really go nuts with flamethrower, buckshot and ignite. Ignite is quite simply eeevil against an immob´d target.

I was rather more succesful with two other combos though. An Ice/Elec (by name of Texas Hold´em, cowboy themed) and a Sonic/Energy (Prima Donna), as those two combos offer quite respectable amounts of control in the form of stacked holds in the former, and stacked stuns and a cone sleep in the latter. Both worked quite nicely.


Damn, now I wanna get back to playing... I miss my Thugs/traps MM. Her name was Suzie Uzi and I had loads of macros which I could press to make her abuse her underlings... *sigh*

[Ebonsword]

I know. That's why I question why you're fighting Tech based S/L res folks when you've got juicy folks like CoT (Not the Demons, the men in dresses).It would seem like maximizing damage is to your advantage.. :smallyuk:

The problem with COT at the higher levels is that even the minions get S/L resistance/defense. Those Earth Thorn Casters and Ice Thorn Casters have those armors which they toggle on. PLUS, they can stack multiple slows on you which really and truly sucks if you're a Blaster.

[TheCheshireHat]

My advice is this: go to Cimerora, shoot the Traitors to bits with your superior 20th century technology. Not much S/L resistance and pretty sucky outside meelee. If you can keep them at a distance they wont be able to stack up their +def aura thingy and are not that hard to take out. This is solo play, mind. In large groups the romans are quite deadly.

At least that was my experience a year-ish ago. Might be different now, or maybe my meory plays tricks on me :smalltongue:

[Green Bean]

My advice is this: go to Cimerora, shoot the Traitors to bits with your superior 20th century technology. Not much S/L resistance and pretty sucky outside meelee. If you can keep them at a distance they wont be able to stack up their +def aura thingy and are not that hard to take out. This is solo play, mind. In large groups the romans are quite deadly.

At least that was my experience a year-ish ago. Might be different now, or maybe my meory plays tricks on me :smalltongue:

It might be a little premature to go hunting in Cimerora; at her level, she'll be spending more time looking for spawns in her level range than actually fighting them. Honestly, the fastest way to level is to bite the bullet (no pun intended) and join a few teams. Obviously, people you know would be best, but if you're lucky enough to find a decent pickup group, you're golden.


On a totally unrelated and self-aggrandizing note, I finally solo'd the Council Gauntlet. (http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Viridian#.27Invite.27_the_Center) Admittedly, they were only EBs, but the first time I tried it, Vandal crushed me. Not this time, though. *sniff* My little Terraton is all grown up. :smallredface: