Wavicle

Someone was asking if there was a list anywhere of the things that should be done on every toon, and I didn't know where to point them, so I wrote this up. This is certainly not everything, but it's a list of what I do on every toon, in roughly the order I do them, or most everything I could remember. I will speak mostly from the perspective of Hero side, but all the same stuff can be done Villain side if I don't specifically mention it. Also, this isn't written for someone making their First toon, necessarily. Following this guide is easier if you know your way around the game somewhat, and if you have a Super Group base and plenty of influence, but that doesn't mean it's useless for new players. Anyway, here we go: Wavicle's Guide To What Really Matters 1. Get whatever you want from the P2W vendor. I'd rather not go into much detail here, but there are definitely some things that most or all toons will want, especially in the Teleport section. 2. Unlock all Long Range Teleporter destinations. (First get all the exploration badges in Atlas Park, Mercy, or any other zone with a Base Portal. I don't do this until I'm at least level 2 so I get XP for the badges. Then get at least 1 exploration badge from all other zones with Base Portals. I do this gradually as I level on new toons. I spent a day or so unlocking them all on my existing toons when the system was put in place.) 3. Get the portal to Ouroboros. (This can be done solo at level 1 without access to a supergroup base: from Atlas Park take the TUNNEL portal to Night Ward, enter the Midnight Mansion there, then go back to Atlas and take the train to Steel Canyon and walk carefully to the University, enter the Midnight Club there and go to Cimerora. You will be awarded the Ouro portal for learning about time travel. There are other soloable methods, but this is the earliest available way.) 4. Speaking of which: Get access to Cimerora. In addition to the above method, it can be fun to do Montague Castanella's story arc to access the Midnighter's and Cim, but that's not available until level 10. 5. I usually have Null the Gull turn me into a Vigilante and turn off my travel power tray, and sometimes other options as well. 6. Unlock the Police Radio by speaking with a Detective. 7. Unlock Vanguard Merits by doing at least the first part of Levantera's first arc, which becomes available at 35. The badge is called Member of Vanguard. I usually complete the arc at that point. 8. Unlock the Patron Power Pools either by doing a Patron arc in Grandville yourself or by joining a team doing one of the arcs. Start with Arbiter Rein. I don't do this on every toon, but certainly on Many toons. 9. Do the Market Crash Task Force, which gives you a Purple Enhancement the first time you do it. This unlocks at level 40. 10. Get to 50, in whatever way you find the most fun (or least onerous, depending on your perspective). I personally love levelling and spend most of my time in game between level 1 and 49. I enjoy my 50s too, but I like making and levelling new toons. I play all the different content the game has to offer, including sometimes missions in the AE. 11. Unlock the four Passive Accolades. Each of them can be done in a different way on the Hero side and the Villain side. I typically get Atlas Medallion and Portal Jockey on the Hero side. I then run the arc from Dakota Berg (Signature Story Arc in Brickstown) in order to get the Bloody Hands badge which, when I switch to Villain side, unlocks a contact who gives access to all the Mayhem Missions. With this access I then quickly get the Invader badge (rather than running all the original Hero side TFs for Task Force Commander) and while I am Villain side I also get the High Pain Threshold accolade (typically by 50 I have the necessary Debt badge, and I find this less of a hassle than Freedom Phalanx Reserve). I think some of the Active accolades can be useful as well, but I haven't been doing them in Homecoming. 12. Develop an IO build, simple or complex. Typically, by 27 or so I have slotted a bunch of special IOs on most characters including pieces that grant +Def, +Res, possibly Chance for Build Up, Chance for +Endurance, +Max HP, +Recovery and Regen, and more. The rest of my slots at that point are probably filled with Generic IOs, which are slightly better than SOs starting with the lvl 30s. Some of my 50s have more expensive builds with sets or pieces of sets in all of their powers. You absolutely do NOT have to have all the best enhancements in the game to do ANY encounter (the exceptions being Homecoming's new Advanced Difficulty Content and some AE content). They definitely help though. You CAN play the whole game with just SOs, or no enhancements at all if you really want, but IOs (and Incarnate Powers) make you truly super. 13. And so we come to Incarnate Powers. Unlock these either by continuing to level after 50 or by doing Mender Ramiel's arc in Ouroboros. Then continue to unlock them by levelling more and by running Incarnate Content including the various Incarnate Trials, the Dark Astoria arcs (unlock Dark Astoria beginning with Captain Nolan in Peregrine Island or go directly to Heather Townsend in DA; after completing Heather's arc further contacts will become available), and the arcs of Number Six and Belladonna Vetrano. The Hamidon raids are also a source of Incarnate components, as is running the Weekly Strike Target TFs. I'm SURE I will have forgotten something important. Other folks, please help me add to this list! Thanks everyone, now: Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls!

That's a good point, I think maybe I should reevaluate a little bit. Maybe rather than making it a Ranged set, maybe take a little emphasis off Range. It was really the -Fly effect I was going for, I wanted a set that anyone could slot that would let them add -Fly.

Actually, the Defiant Barrage ATO proc is much more effective placed in a long recharge/use it on cooldown ability like your Sniper attack. I also originally thought "I'll put it in my t1 so I can use it when mezzed to break out of mez" but in fact it works much better if you have it up in advance to prevent getting mezzed in the first place. Putting it in, for example, Sniper Blast will make it so that you often have 2 or 3 stacks of the buff, whereas putting it in your t1 or t2 will make it so you rarely see the buff, if ever.

With a Blaster the way to do it is a combination of Defense from Pool Powers and IOs and Mezzing the Mezzer before he Mezzes you. Those are your tools, use them and you shouldn't have nearly as much trouble. But also, you can carry some Break Free inspirations and use them when necessary. Then in the Incarnate powers at level 50 you can get the Clarion Destiny power which gives you full permanent Mez Protection at tier 4.

An idea for a new Universal Damage set: Paragon's Reach This would be a Universal Damage set that includes Range on some enhancements and a Range Bonus in the set bonuses. The special on the 6th piece would be Damage/Adds a -Fly Effect to the slotted attack.

Yea, that isn't true at all. But whatever makes you feel superior I guess.

Oh yea? What is it telling? Because, yet again, I have not suggested making any changes and I've repeatedly said I don't think there's a problem with the economy. So please, what have you been told because I noted that people seem to get very defensive of their efficient rewards even when no one is trying to taking them away but merely talking about reward rates?

Because you're incapable of having a civil discussion with someone with whom you disagree? I guess so. Lock it down.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what time gating is for. And I hate it too, so, AGAIN, I am NOT suggesting changing ANY rewards in this game. Just talking about what I think a good design would be. Why are you triggered?

But *I* did not ever suggest nerfing farms. In fact it was the devs that nerfed AE rewards already. So why do you keep coming at me like I am threatening your plaything?

This is called reductio ad absurdum fallacy. Nice try though.

No, that's no what it means, and I think it's pretty obvious. I mean rewards over time, so harder missions should get rewarded more than easy missions. It's just the mountains of minions that I think reward too much, and yet I am not suggesting changing it. It's just a discussion.

It IS how most MMOs are set up these days. Heck even most of CoH is set up this way. Most activities have Merit Rewards which are set based on the expected time the activity takes. FFXIV is set up the same way. But you are putting words in my mouth. At NO POINT did I suggest penalizing anyone. I haven't suggested making any changes at all. Stop saying that I did.

That is not what I said, but it makes a great strawman.

That's fine, you can be a jerk while making your point, though it doesn't make your point stronger. Meanwhile, in most modern MMOs, my approach is the way things mostly go. I'm not suggesting rewards be changed much if at all from where they currently are, but there's no question that in the larger game design community my approach is being widely adopted and yours is being left behind.

I honestly do think rewards based more on tasks completed and less on enemy defeats is a better model.

I addressed this earlier, but I will do so again. This attitude is saying that I MUST play a certain way to get those rewards. I am saying all playstyles should be rewarded roughly equally, to the extent it is possible.

I am not telling anyone to quit having fun, that's a total strawman. All I'm saying really is that if I was designing the game from the ground up I would put rewards far less behind defeating enemies and more behind completing tasks.

Yeah, ok. Personally, I don't like the idea of multiboxing, but that is another conversation. I only said that after seeing the Dev post that said exactly that, farming is the most efficient way of getting rewards. I object to that.

Perhaps so.

This is exactly my point. ALL playstyles being rewarded roughly equally is NOT the same thing as "anybody can do it". Your suggestion is basically precisely saying "you want these particular rewards, you have to do this particular activity" which is generally not how CoH works, thankfully. That's fair, you may be right about that.

Afterburner seems not to blink to alert me it is going to end soon. Conversely, Double Jump starts blinking the moment you turn it on. The Jump Pack displays the correct behavior, blinking only during the last 10 seconds.

What I'm saying is I think it would actually be better for the game if All playstyles, even such as you just described, were rewarded Roughly the same over time. That is purely an opinion based on intuition though, not something that can be datamined nor a perspective I am really trying to persuade people to share.

What is arbitrary about it is that game balance is such that only some toons can be built to do that with, here's that word again, efficiency. So, you pick an AT or combo that is best at running on teams...you're SOL.

That would be sufficient, I think. The reason I thought of Nictus instead of Resistance is because, correct me if I'm wrong, they already gave the Family resistance weapons and I wanted to come up with a different solution.