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If you've never tried this game before, this game feels overwhelming. There's also several things you can do as a player to make things harder, and end up with a bad experience. This video came up in my recommendations. It's a nearly 3 hour stream so I'll walk you through some highlights. Also, I realize he's not very serious in the stream, and maybe had a drink or two, which probably affected his decision-making. Nonetheless, even if the player was serious, I think these choices are easy to make as a new player. The player considers picking Going Rogue and ending up in Praetoria (3:07) Coincidentally, we had a new player on Discord who was playing a level 12 Titans/Bio Brute and was absolutely getting thrashed by the mobs there. Praetoria has none of the guiding missions that blue side has. The player picks Peacebringer as his starting archetype (4:28 ). Peacebringers are great, but if you are unfamiliar with the AT it is not as straightforward as a scrapper or blaster. And I don't think most people would recommend the EATs, VEATs as a first ever character. The costume creator (which most of us love) is overwhelming (6:34). Tons of choices but things like unlinking colors, not knowing whether a costume piece is a chest detail or a shoulder is not intuitive at all. I can see a new player struggling with trying to get it to look like a superhero instead of some mutated, dog-headed robot (not that I have any biases against mutated, dog-headed robots) The player skips the tutorial and goes in as a level 1 straight to Atlas Park (19:23). I think that's a consequence of being a Peacebringer; however, it's a choice any new player can make especially if they feel they are a veteran in other MMOs, RPGs. So he missed out on a description of the power tray, maps, way points, enhancements and inspirations. In this video, I don't think he used inspirations until level 4. Fortunately, a person who was watching his stream rolled a brand new controller (gravity/force fields) and teamed with him until he started getting it. Note, the player literally died in his first fight in the game against a mob of Vahzilok. (24:40) The player inadvertently zoned into Steel Canyon (28:28), took on a group of deep purple con Fifth Column as a level 1 and was promptly sent to the hospital. It was fortunate in this case he was a Peacebringer but any other AT without a flight power would have caused the character to be stuck at the hospital unless they managed to run to one of the trams or the zone exits (perhaps, a run into Perez Park instead of trying to make the Yellow tram?) Anyways, some other highlights: Thinks the Fifth Column are police NPC, dies immediately (29:10) Zones into the hospital deep in Steel Canyon, dies almost immediately to Outcasts/Tsoo (29:55) Lured in by the fascinating, green glow of a Circle of Thorns ritual and dies immediately (32:32) Flies out of Steel Canyon to safety (34:56) Cotton Candy Cuddles tries to give influence (who does this all the time on Excelsior). Rejected because he thinks he's being scammed (1:51:28) tl;dr, This game is a lot less new player friendly than most of us vets thinks it is.

There are times when I think there are no original ideas. Or rather ideas no one else have ever thought of. Behold your character from another universe (rather an alt I have on Everlasting).

It's always appeared yellow to me. It's green to you?

There's a lot of easy combinations. I think most folks would recommend a melee character - either a scrapper or a brute. Play hero side (avoid Going Rogue) since most people will be on as heroes and can team/assist you. Just about any scrapper or brute will be easy, though I recommend a resistance or a resistance/defense based secondary just because a defensive build (super reflexes, energy aura) tends to take a bit of investment and slots to really see it shine.

So I've been hanging out in Excelsior lately soaking up the vibe of a very crowded server. I'm beginning to see a lot of names that use substitute characters, spaces or other tricks since they weren't able to get the first choice name. Examples (made up to protect the innocent): B L O O D Bl00d B1ood B.l.o.o.d. You get the idea. Probably the only one I might personally go for is B.l.o.o.d. Maybe some sort of android or robot which uses an acronym intentionally? The others are not acceptable to me at all. I'd much rather have a hero named Blood Maven or Blood Baroness than some of the examples. However, there are other folks who are quite content or have higher tolerance for inexact names.

For veteran players, I'd recommend taking off LFG, broadcast, General and Help and putting them into their own tab. This isolates 'Sitter LF FF' spam which honestly is kind of pitiful to see in Excelsior/Everlasting public channels, and immersion breaking.

Not sure. Penelope Yin does the same in IP, but she stays stationary with ranged attacks.

So I wanted to verify I wasn't seeing things, but Ms. Liberty is out of her spot in Atlas Park in Excelsior. On Excelsior: On Indomitable: Hordes of new players around Ms. Liberty is pretty crushing. The screenshot was when the numbers of players was somewhat modest. I really think they should figure out a place where Back Alley Brawler is a bit more accessible to balance this a bit.

Game play is designed around the journey not the end. The most fun you'll have is the journey to level 50, not after level 50. Experiment. Try out a number of archetypes and power sets. Some will grab you more than others. Don't really worry about money (influence) because enhancements don't really play much of a factor until level 10+. Team up. This game has one of the absolute best teaming mechanisms among MMOs, and you can get a better understanding as to why some players like to play controllers, defenders, corruptors. Spend time in making up a costume and a bio. This isn't your typical sword and fantasy MMO. You are a hero, and the more you get into it, the more fun it will be. Ask for help. The help channel or most of the public channels will be filled with people who can point you in the right direction, if not give you more direct aid. This game is full of veterans and people who somewhat embody superhero virtues like helping others.

Was on Excelsior an hour ago. No issues here. Depending on your setup, I'd first try to see how things are on other servers. Excelsior is really busy, but the other servers less so. If this is the first time you've connected to Homecoming, changing graphic settings can make a big difference. COH is not a graphic intensive game compared to modern games, but its graphics technology is dated and works best with OGL compatible GPUs. It can run on an integrated GPU (most laptops) but not at high settings.

I feel like you're looking for some sort of Diablo-like character who uses damage auras. The first character type that came to mind were either a Spines/Dark or Spines/Fire brute, but you did mention you don't want to be in your face. The next option is something with damage auras, pets or a lot of pseudo pets. Sets that fit that are: Fire - Hotfeet, Bonfire, Fire Imps Darkness - Haunt, Umbra Beast Plant Control - Spirit Tree, Carrion Creepers, Fly Trap Secondary powers which have mez protection: Traps Force Fields (this one has rather low damage) Sonic Resonance Of the weaknesses you mention, I'd forgo mez protection. I find that with IOs and incarnate powers, mezzes are mitigated that the duration is rather short. Personally, I think a set with a lot pets and soft controls (area slow, knockbacks) are what you're aiming for. Darkness Control/Storm? Darkness Control/Traps? Fire/Traps? But I agree with the others, there doesn't seem to be a combination that fits everything you want.

Don’t be afraid to start a few different characters with different power sets and archetypes. One of the things you’ll notice is that they’ll play quite differently. Some combinations are powerful right out the gate and others require considerable investment. That is not saying those combinations are worse, just longer developing with a payoff later in your character career. You’ll find some combinations will draw you in more than others. The best thing about COH is the range of choices. Many will advise to start with a concept and pick powers sets that match what you have in mind. I find that characters with a strong concept tend to be less throwaway and get played more. There are a lot of concepts that fit a stealthy archer character, including power sets that you may not know have archery based powers such as Illusion/Trick Archery controllers. The Archery blast sets are common to Blasters, Corruptors and I believe Sentinels (not sure about the last because I’ve only rolled one Sentinel character) and Trick Arrow, which is a debuff set, is available to Defenders, Corruptors and Controllers. Finally, welcome to the City of Heroes. If you need any further assistance, let us know here or in-game. I’d be happy to jump on for a few minutes and show you around.

One thing that Rebirth does that may be of interest is that they time gate the acquisition of Incarnate abilities. Heather Townsend and all the other Dark Astoria based contacts are on a 24-hour timer for rewards. The fastest way you can get Incarnate powers is doing the iTrials that are hosted by the Rebirth community once a week. I farmed with my level 50 tank for 2-3 weeks and I have a full T4 Alpha, T1 in Interface and a T1 in Judgment; I also have Lore and Destiny 50% unlocked. Generally, if you are playing solo, it will take you a lot of time to unlock Incarnate powers on Rebirth. Now with that said, Rebirth is a mature community so you have players with T4 in every Incarnate power, but these are characters that have been around for years. What you do notice is that there are a fair amount of level 50s without any Incarnate powers at all or those with just their Alpha unlocked. I'm not suggesting that they implement this sort of thing in Homecoming, but it does strike me as a way to limit Incarnate powers from a freshly PL'ed level 50.

There is farming and PL'ing on Rebirth as well. There's even some on Thunderspy though I haven't personally experienced it. However, on Rebirth it's harder. AE spits out influence and tickets, so a new player would have to do some conversions. So unfortunately, you wouldn't be fully able to escaped the PL'ed noob over on other servers as well too. Most of the TFs and teaming I did on Rebirth were done with characters without any set bonuses, so generic IOs or SOs. The most commonly played ATs on Rebirth are Corruptors, Scrappers, Brutes and MMs. I'd say Dominators, Controllers and Tanks were rare. I mained a Tank. Some of the teams were optimal (tank, damage, buff/debuff) and some were honestly not (me as a tank, and a mixture of damage). I didn't see much difference in team performance. Both types of teams pretty much rolled through the content.

So I've taken a break from Homecoming. My last login reflects that it's been 66 days since I've logged onto a Homecoming character. Mostly, I've been spending some time on other servers and experiencing firsthand the differences in implementation of an old MMO. I think Homecoming succeeds greatly in what it attempts to do. It's probably the best sandbox experience among all the servers. Take a concept, figure out the power sets you want to play and then quickly level up what you imagine. Influence/infamy isn't an issue due to the Converter-based economy. And there's very little need to farm. Progression is fast with double xp boosts easily available. An experienced player can reach 50 within a day and be a fully T4 incarnate within a week. If this is the game play experience you seek, Homecoming does it pretty well. It even makes the journey to 50 a lot smoother since the market is abundant with trinkets to twink your character to your heart's content. This really hits a sweet spot as a nostalgia machine since you can enjoy the fun aspects of the game with very little of the struggle. I contrast this with the experience on other servers. Thunderspy has the most radical departure and has largely stubbed out the market and to some extent the invention system from the game. It's focus is on the wide variety of costumes/customization and a story-based leveling process since you never outlevel your contacts. I will admit not worrying about kitting out my characters (the enhancements you buy never expire) is refreshing, but I did miss having a few goodies while leveling up. I'm actually surprised that Thunderspy isn't more popular. I think it unfortunately suffers from a low population which is a self-fulfilling prophecy - players go to high population areas more frequently, keeping low population servers low. Rebirth has tried to keep things truer to what the original live devs intended. There's a market, but it's bleak and the supply of IOs and recipes are scarce/non-existent until your character is largely finished with leveling to 50. There is no twinking in Rebirth, and generally, you are leveling up with SOs, generic IOs and any self-found recipes you get from drops. I found the lack of influence rather annoying and ran out a couple of times as I leveled up my first 50. The self-fund mechanism most commonly used in Rebirth is farming AE tickets to purchase rare salvage, which typically sells for 2M influence apiece. Rebirth offers more challenge for a solo player but it's mostly due to scarcity. Due to market scarcity (and maybe influence if self-funding), the vast majority of the sub-level 50 characters you encounter use SOs or generic IOs; you will rarely see a set bonus. I thought the net effect of this would be to make content harder. However, that didn't turn out to be true at all. Experienced players with a lot in-game knowledge trivialize any of the old content. Every low level TF I joined was a cake walk (really no different from Homecoming) and the weekly Incarnate Trials they host while tougher were done quickly, typically back-to-back. So what did I take away from all of this? I didn't enjoy the older style of progression offered by Rebirth. I think the brokenness of the low level market has an outsized, negative effect on the leveling experience there. Given that I leveled up multiple characters to 50 both live and on private servers, I didn't have the expected sense of accomplishment that I thought I would have with my first 50 on Rebirth. Mostly, I came away with the feeling that Rebirth could use some changes. I think the solution offered by Thunderspy works a lot better on a low population server. I also came away with the conclusion that IOs and even incarnate powers are not the root of why the current game seems so easy. I think for veteran players, the game offers little in the way of surprises, and honestly an inadequate level of challenge. COH when live wasn't a hard game, but content was new and there was a larger range of experience among the player base. The lack of challenge works well in the context of a sandbox, but I think if falls short if someone is looking for challenge progression that they'd find in other MMOs or even RPGs. Oh, one note. The COH communities on Thunderspy and Rebirth were just like what you'd expect - positive and helpful. I asked a lot of questions on General chat on both servers and the responses were overwhelmingly positive. There is something to be said about people who play a superhero MMO in general - that seems to carry over to their general helpfulness in game.

This is absolutely the easiest COH environment to make influence. HC simply rewards you with merits just for completing all the exploration badges in a zone. Convert that into converters and list them at 10 and you have almost a million inf just for Atlas Park. This can be completed for every zone and you get even more merits for every story arc completed. This is by no means the best way to even use converters to make influence, but it’s brain dead simple and requires zero knowledge of market trends. I understand complaints for inf in other COH interations but not here.

Gacha games Fell into a group that played Monster Super League, which is mostly a standard turn based game with a capture mechanic like Pokemon. Anyway from there, Fire Emblem Heroes, Azure Lane, and probably dozens of titles I've forgotten. With most of them, I was able to have a pretty good time even being a very small spender (about $10 month). I did end up splurging on a few of them, and before it got real bad, I dropped them cold turkey.

The game feels like it’s from a different era. Where a character wearing patriotic color represents the best of American values not the sometimes very different view that it evokes today. I like the lack of cynicism. That despite wielding a huge axe, I’m merely arresting the bad guys for proper rehabilitation. That a character can be committed to self-sacrifice without the modern day lens that wonders how such activities can be monetized for views. Like the phone booths you see in game, City of Heroes epitomizes a very, arguably a more optimistic outlook that has few sources anywhere else. I treasure such sources. The world today can definitely use a few heroes.

Back in the day, your character's origin sort of mattered. Enhancements you can slot would drop from certain enemies, and if you had a preference, you picked certain origins. Same with the location of enhancement stores. With some stores being strategically close to the tram, a low-level character, often without a travel power, could reach them safely. A few issues later, an origin specific temp power was given to make the low-level experience not as painful. With Homecoming, these anachronisms rarely apply anymore. Origin is basically flavor text at this point. I find that specific origins are generally easier to craft as backgrounds. Mutants - uh, something spontaneously happened to my body or I was born that way. Easy peasy. Technology - I am super smart or knows someone who's super smart and I use a lot of unique toys Magic - You're a wizard, Harry! Or some variation of the same. Science - Kind of tougher than the previously three because I think you have to either intentionally play around with exotic chemicals or be put into a Frankenstein monster situation, where you're experimented on. Science characters aren't really as spontaneous, and you could argue are more intentionally made. Natural - the origin is relatively easy - because of training or natural gifts, you are faster/stronger/tougher than your normal human. The problem becomes justifying scaling. Easy to believe you can bust your local Skulls drug den, and maybe take on the Tsoo with their magic tattoos. However, take on the Rikti or the dwellers of the Shadow Shard? Not quite as believable. Looking at my characters, I find I have the most Mutant origin characters. Their backgrounds are easy, arguably the laziest from a creativity standpoint. They were simply born that way or became that way during adolescence. In some darker-themed backgrounds, a nefarious organization created harsh conditions to trigger a latent mutation (you can somewhat argue this is a science origin instead). Technology origin and Magic origin characters generally look most like what you'd expect. Tech characters sport techy augments (power themed gauntlets, rocket boots, etc.) while magic characters either look like a witch or like a fae who just walked out of the mystic woods. Natural characters either look a lot like normal civilians or are given a clean, spandex treatment akin to athletic wear. I think the average forum goer here probably spends more time on their background than your average Homecoming player. I know that I construct a simple one even for my throwaway characters. They don't seem complete without one.

Anybody else do this? I find myself often creating discordant characters. Huge characters who hang back at max range buffing the team and bloodthirsty, tiny gal toons who race to the frontlines. Since there's no in-game banana for scale, here's a pic of Mo'Hawk during his tutorial.

There are a number of auras that slow or applies a debuff of some sort, and many can take damage procs. Not sure if this was what you had in mind, but just adding for the sake of completeness.

It's Hasten. Even post-ED. It's probably the most common ability among just about every power build created. By itself it's pedestrian, but being able to attack faster, use abilities faster and speed up getting your T9s, etc. Even if it was the last power in the speed pool, just about every power build player would probably get it. Is it mandatory for a power build? Absolutely not. Do I think it makes every build better? Yes.

Hmm... I guess I went a bit of different direction. Mesmermaid, I took more literally as a mind control, fighting maid. Mind control/martial assault dominator? Intimidate foes with your fearsome mind powers and if that doesn't work, kick em by the short hairs? Sort of a riff of this character: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/56505/maid-to-kill

I hadn't been paying attention to all the stuff about the Well, and I had a lore-obsessed SG mate who extolled that everything came from the Well of the Furries. Took 2 seconds from another SG mate to exclaim we would be entering into a new Golden Age of the City of Catgirls. But yeah, I don't like the whole super powered McGuffin is responsible for all powers thing either. Bleh.

No, that would be too easy. You'll have to retrieve a magical McGuffin from an entire different dimension, talk to some rando reporter who has a lead to turn it into some sort of bomb, and then fight the Praetorian version of the Council (who are good guys) to set the trigger. No common sense stuff like flooding tunnels, cutting power or just nuking from orbit allowed!