Zolgar

Do the newbie arcs naturally, which gets you 9 merits and will bring you to about level 5, get the AP exploration badges for another 5 merits, gives each of you 14 merits to play with and follow my guide the same. :) I recommend if you do it that way, getting the Inner Inspiration power from P2W and selling the T2 inspirations to vendors and the T3 ones on the AH to build up a bit of seed money, takes a bit of time but not much. Also plan ahead, put lowball bids out on the stuff you'll need for level 15 IOs before you reach level 12, that way hopefully you have what you need to craft them before you need them, at a lower cost than if you try to craft them when you make it to 12. Also, personally, I say do not bother with enhancers pre level 12 (except the prestige ones from P2W), Training enhancers and level 10 IOs are such small numbers they're not worth the time they take to slot. >.>

Yep, that's the ticket right there. Some of us farm for our inf, some of us marketeer, some of us do a bit of both. You can make hundred of millions pretty easily as a level 50 character, especially if you're specced for one form of farming or another.

For those wondering about IOs vs. SOs, I highly recommend this guide: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,3042.0.html If you want a little more details on converters, I wrote this little crash course: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,2117.0.html Someone followed up the original post with more detail on how precisely to make money with converters as well.

Many new and returning players have been struggling with making money and lament being unable to afford enhancers as they level. I decided to share some knowledge as to a means of making a decent amount of influence. This guide is not by any means meant to be an exhaustive guide to all the ways to make money, nor do I claim it to be the best way to make money. It is simply a reliable way to make money, regardless of level, build, starting influence, etc. It’s also a way that does not require farming or market manipulation. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with these practices, but some prefer to avoid them. Since the main purpose of this is to show how you can make the money to be sure you can keep your character well enhanced, I started a new character (dark/bio sentinel, for the record). 2 hours in: Level 17 22 merits 37000 inf 1 converter 1 piece of rare salvage 1 piece uncommon salvage 5 pieces common salvage 3 rare recipes (level 15/16, all worthless) How did I get there? First, double XP all the way, so the inf was from selling enhancers to the NPCs. Started out with Matthew Habashy’s arc, followed by a couple DFBs, this got me to 15, so I got an Ouro portal and did the remaining 3 contacts in the Newbie atlas missions. After that, I ran around Atlas and Kings Row collecting the exploration badges. For those that don’t recall, if you get all the exploration badges in a zone, you get 5 merits. The Atlas park newbie missions take 10-15 minutes each arc, depending on your build, maybe less with a blaster or scrapper. They net you 3 merits each (for a total of 12 if you do all 4 arcs), and those done through Ouro also net you a Rare recipe drop. There are plenty of means of getting merits, some quicker, depending on your level. I chose these methods because they are available to any level of hero or villain, and should be easy to accomplish solo even if you’re not a very good solo build. (The Posi TFs are another great option for merits at low levels, for example) First thing I did from there was turn all my merits to converters. Well that’s a lie, I accidently clicked on unslotters once because the list shifted, so whatevs, same result. I sold the 2 unslotters and 1 converter, giving me just shy of 500k to work with. At the time of writing this, on Everlasting, converters were going for 100k, unslotters for 150-200k. You don’t need to do this if you have seed money, I like at least 100k, 500k is a more comfortable number to work with. Then I searched uncommon level 30 recipes that were for sale and scrolled down the list until I found one I could buy cheap. I got 6 Undermined Defenses of some piece that doesn’t matter for 1k each. Why level 30? Well, 30 is the largest pool of IOs that has the greatest potential for in-demand pieces while still being inexpensive to craft. At 30 you can get Steadfast Protection +def, Luck of the Gambler +rech, Numina’s +regen/rec, Performance Shifter chance for +end, etc. There are very few in demand pieces you cannot get at level 30. At the time of writing this, salvage was on an upswing and cost me 66k total for them, giving me a total cost of 72k, another 44k per to craft brings my total cost to a little over 300,000 to make these. (this is why I like a decent pool of seed money. Without it you need to craft a few at a time) I could have saved probably 5-8k per if I were patient and waited for the salvage to go on a down swing again, but I didn’t want to delay writing this longer. Craft them all, and convert them all by type to make them rare. Then, start converting by rarity. First rarity conversion gave me an Obliteration proc, instant 3 mil, less AH fees. A couple of lucky conversions and a few more not-so-lucky ones later, I’m sitting just short of 10mil, with another 9 mil worth of enhancers for sale on the AH. At this point I still have 28 converters, so could easily repeat the process if I wanted. But from here, I am basically set for influence at least until I need to convert over to 35 IOs, possibly even then if I’m patient. In total, including the time to actually write this guide, this took me 3 hours to accomplish from the moment I entered Atlas Park (it also includes talking to friends, etc.). Someone focused using something with a better kill speed than a sentinel could likely accomplish it in 2. Yes, you can earn well more than 20m in 2 hours at high levels, but odds are if can do that, you don’t need a guide for how to make money, no?

Dont know. I'd like to know as well. I don't think you can change the name once it's been registered. If I recall right it is something GMs have the capacity to do, but I do not know if they will offer such service on this server. Supergroups are cross faction now, so not a damn thing happens. :)

Yeah, trench coats, bolero, and other pieces with a flowy back bit like a cape lock out most back options including capes and wings.

My experience the only time you really need to be sure you've got a well rounded and versatile team is in certain Incarnate Trials, and MO*TF runs. However, I will also agree I've seen teams that should not have been running +4 wanting it at +4 and wiping constantly because the team they had was not capable of handling it. I'm not sure how much that is about AT choices though, or just the characters in the party not being strong enough yet. Yeeaaah. While I mostly agree with the spirit of the original post, some of the assertions are not really on point. DPS doesn't just refer to damage, it refers to characters that excel at putting out large amounts of damage in short amounts of time, such that you can overcome the regeneration or phases of especially tough enemies. DPS is not really required for a lot of content, but when it is, it is. What makes City of Heroes unique from most other MMOs isn't that 'everyone is DPS' because everyone is most certainly not even close to being that, but that if content is too hard you can turn down the difficulty. This works for a lot of content (radio and regular missions, not always task forces or trials). Some of this stuff also just only applies to characters with full IO sets. Try taking a full team of 8 scrappers into the ITF +2 at level 35-50 with only basic IOs or SOs and they're almost certainly going to get floored by -def and spike damage from hard hitting enemies where even 75% resist isn't going to be enough. Likewise, take a team of 8 tanks or 8 controllers in and you'll get through 99% of the Task Force but it will take _so_ much longer, and both are going to have (different) issues with the AVs (not insurmountable ones, but a huge pain in the ass nonetheless). The holy trinity is not so very holy in CoH, and for plenty of content you can turn the diff down and get by with suboptimal groupings, but anybody who says they haven't seen teams struggle with content where it wasn't pretty obvious that you needed a scrapper/blaster/etc for more damage or some support with +end for all the people struggling with endurance issues vs Freakshow, instead of whatever you have instead, is either lying to themselves or not paying very close attention. You don't need to min-max your teams, but for the love of god consider the content you're facing when you're throwing out invites. If you're going to be fighting two AVs at once, at +2 or higher, and there are zero support sets on your team, shrugging it off because 'any team is viable' is almost certainly a disservice to your teammates and frustrating to boot. There's really no need to lean so heavily against the trinity idea, just like there's no need to lean so heavily into it. Also, please stop pushing this idea that Empathy isn't Healer. It has 9 powers, and more than half of them are directly involved in increasing your health from wherever it is towards full, whether it's by direct heal, resurrection, or super regeneration. Adrenaline Boost has more +end than +regen, but even if you don't count it as 6 of 9 there's 5 that are straight up heal/regen powers, 1 that's a mix, and all of 3 that aren't HP related. It's a healer set, full stop. People shouldn't skip those three powers, but it's absolutely a healer set. :p The point of calling everyone DPS was to say that "you absolutely do not need a dedicated DPS character in the team" - yes, some ATs are better damage dealers than others. You have 7 people on a team, none of them excel at damage... you don't need to bring a damage dealer in, sure it would help, but so would another defender or more crowd control. Also, if you're setting your missions to +2 or higher when you have a rando mishmash team that isn't synergized and individual characters aren't decked out in IOs... you're an idiot. That's not about the team makeup, that's about the leader. The game is balanced around even level mission teams with SOs. Some teams on just SOs can handle more, yes. Give me a Rad and an Empath on the team and we can take higher difficulties fine. Give me a stone tanker (and no psi enemies) and we can take higher difficulties fine. Give me a random disjointed mishmash of SO'd characters? I'm leaving it at +0 until I see what we can do. Regarding empaths, they're not healers, they're empaths. :p

Yep. 5, and you cannot use them on the likes of Frozen Blast and Avalanche. Until they pull the plug on the server, or the heat-death of the universe, whichever comes first. By true level do you mean the highest level you have trained to, or the highest level you have achieved? AFAIK, there is no way when teaming and exemplared/SK'd to see your current un-trained level, however if you click on "personal info" it will show you your trained level. You might be able to see your current untrained level in the SG window if you're part of a SG, but I haven't checked that Dark/emp? I'd probably skip the heal that hurts you, if you're doing your job as a controller well there won't be a lot of damage going around. Otherwise these are both pretty solid sets that you want a lot of the powers from. My pool choices would probably be: Speed for Hasten (get the auras back as fast as possible), fighting for tough/weave, Flight or Leaping for CJ or Hover, and probably Leadership for Maneuvers. Epic I would go villain to get a patron pool and take either Mace for Scorpion Shield (if I were really tight on power picks), or Soul for basically the entire pool except the summon. YMMV

I don't understand how anyone could look at that, and fail to realize how bad it would be to leave that situation unaddressed. I can't understand the desire to govern how others play In a living game, especially an MMORPG, they need to maintain some level of balance and ceiling for the power of players. Ideally they will also ensure a viability for players to play outside of one style. The pre-ED days, it was basically "If you don't do it this way you're of no value to the team." and in some archetypes, there were also very clear cut "best" options that if you weren't playing, no one wanted to team with you. It's not about governing how others play, it's about making sure the game stays viable. ... OK, so for Jack it was probably ALSO about governing how people play, but that's because he had his "vision" and crap... >.> No one could see anyone else's slotting and I don't recall anyone pouring over the combat logs to know if someone wasn't pulling their weight through damage slotting Naw, but you can easily see from just watching combat how effective their attacks are, how good their defenses are, how good their heals are. Ever teamed with someone completely unslotted? Unless you have some really good support on the team, you can tell.

I can second this. I had a claws/sr that I used to hunt AVs with. Used to hunt GMs with a titan... something scrapper. Titan may be super high damage, but it's all smashing/lethal.

I don't understand how anyone could look at that, and fail to realize how bad it would be to leave that situation unaddressed. I can't understand the desire to govern how others play In a living game, especially an MMORPG, they need to maintain some level of balance and ceiling for the power of players. Ideally they will also ensure a viability for players to play outside of one style. The pre-ED days, it was basically "If you don't do it this way you're of no value to the team." and in some archetypes, there were also very clear cut "best" options that if you weren't playing, no one wanted to team with you. It's not about governing how others play, it's about making sure the game stays viable. ... OK, so for Jack it was probably ALSO about governing how people play, but that's because he had his "vision" and crap... >.>

It's also a useful power on a stone tank/brute. It's teleport.. WITH DAMAGE! :)

I find SJ works well for winged characters too, the idea being their wings aren't enough for sustained flight, but can provide a burst of extra lift and a controlled descent. :)

Peregrine - requires you to take a ferry. Striga - requires you to take a boat.

You say you're looking to heal and buff? Empathy- a lot of good heal powers, and some great buffs. I do find some of the buffs to be a little hit or miss depending on the team make, but still, an Empath is always a good choice. Pain- a lot of good heal powers, some great buffs and some nice debuffs. I personally prefer Pain over Empathy for the heal/buff role, as their buffs are a little more versatile. Thermal- Only a couple heals but still enough, some good buffs, and my favorite rez in the game, as I recall a couple debuffs too but I haven't played a thermal recently. Thermal provides +resist shields for your team, which many appreciate, even those with resist based sets before they get their builds finished and resits capped. While there are many other great options, these three are the ones that most fit the bill of "heal and buff".

My experience the only time you really need to be sure you've got a well rounded and versatile team is in certain Incarnate Trials, and MO*TF runs. However, I will also agree I've seen teams that should not have been running +4 wanting it at +4 and wiping constantly because the team they had was not capable of handling it. I'm not sure how much that is about AT choices though, or just the characters in the party not being strong enough yet.

Ninja Run + Sprint + Prestige Jump Pack (not the jet pack mind you) Unless there is a long, uninterrupted straightaway, I usually beat Speeders to the mission door. Unless terrain is very complicated and requires me to not travel in a straight line, I usually beat flyers to the door (unless they have Afterburner) Unless it is a LONG run, I usually beat teleporters. And I basically always beat leapers. Know your zones, know when to hit the jump pack, and you will never miss a travel power mechanically speaking. Now, these may not mesh well with your concept either, and if that's the case... if you're wanting to exist as a MM purely off of Sprint? ... you can do it, but at that point you WILL always get left behind by teams.

No. When you change alignments you lose your existing alignment power and start a timer to unlock the one for your new alignment.

most of those points are nothing to do with the AT (aside from aggro) but more to do with the powersets that AT has, for example an electric melee scrapper will be great for AOE. Brutes inherently do not have better survival, they just have higher res caps, which generally require outside buffs to reach Brutes have higher health and higher caps, therefor better survival. The way fury and critical hits work, all other factors being equal, a brute does better in a target rich environment while a scrapper does better in a single target situation. Power sets aren't factored in to this, because yes, there are scrapper sets that do really good AoE damage, but if you put the same build on a brute you'll still see consistently better damage. Yes, there are brute sets that favor single target attacks, but fighting a single target makes brutes build fury slower, pair that with scrappers having a higher crit chance on tougher foes and if you give a scrapper the same power set they will do consistently better damage than the brute. There is a reason that for melee, people usually use brutes to farm and scrappers to kill GMs. :p

Jack not name. Jack job.

It depends on what you want to do. While there are exceptions, you will generally find: Scrappers will do better single target and burst damage. Brutes will do better sustained AoE damage. Scrappers draw less agro. Brutes have better survival. Scrappers excel in single-combat, but suffer in swarms. Brutes suffer in single-combat, but excel in swarms. In a team, a scrapper is never expected to be anything but a damage dealer. In a team, a brute is often expected to be a tank. Scrappers solo faster than brutes. Brutes solo more reliably than scrappers. This is where people will come in with their anecdotal "My scrapper..." or "my brute..." commentary. As I said, there are exceptions. These "standards" are what you will generally find to be true, especially if built without IO sets/Incarnate powers, both of which you can use to shore up whatever weaknesses get in your way.

The same can be said of any rebalancing. The point was to redefine what was optimal. You can't be "forced to choose suboptimal slotting" if the previously optimal slotting no longer actually exists. They didn't decree that they would ban anyone who put more than three damage enhancements in an attack, they made doing so mechanically unrewarding. And in so doing, made experimenting with things other than the presently most "optimized" option more viable.

Aye, completely. My point on writing this was not to be an exhaustive, but basically as something that people coming in from Holy Trinity focused MMOs could understand the different "trinity" that exists within CoH and (some) of the ways you can fill those roles. :)

Because if it had been anything less, pretty much everyone would basically still just .. well maybe now they would 5 slot damage, and use that 1 last slot for accuracy, or save it for some other power. OR, it would have been such a harsh progression that using more than 2 25 IOs/yellow SOs would be a significant reduction that it wouldn't be worth it, and 1 50 IO would cap you. The way they set it up, you can actually diversify your build, as opposed to everyone doing the exact same thing as everyone else. (using SOs as an example, since IOs didn't exist at the time) I can 6 slot my attacks, 3/3 acc/dam I lose some at that point (assuming +3 SOs), but I still get a significant damage boost over 2 +3 SOs, but if I decide to go 2/4 the damage output I gain is greatly diminished. On the other hand, if I slot say 2/2/1/1 acc/dam/end/rech, each hit will do about 20% less damage than the above build, but I'll swing a little more often and run out of endurance less. I can slot 2/2/1 acc/dam/end or rech, and save a slot for another power.. or I can use that 6th slot to improve my secondary effect in my attacks, like Stun for example. I could even 2/2/2 acc/dam/secondary if I wanted focus that way. Or 2/3/1.. There's a lot of OPTIONS, all of which are viable depending on exactly what I want to do, and I am not actively castrating my build by stepping away from the optimized "this is what you do." that it was Pre-ED I will agree that when it came, it came as a shock to the system. It was a massive, across the board nerf to like 90% of players. It made many of us go from powerhouse to squish over night. I remember it well, I was playing a bloody fire tank when it happened. I HATED it when it happened, and I, too, quit for a time. Looking back at it, even if we had never gotten IOs/IO sets, and Incarnates... ED still would have been a net positive for the game. The only real reason it was a problem when we got it, as someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, is that it wasn't in from the start.

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Harvey_Maylor#Defeat_all_villains_in_area Always make sure you leave an anchor mob so you don't complete the mission on accident.