Some Questions From a Completely New Player

[Rynjin]

I was never able to play CoH back in the day (I was an Ultima Online kid), so I was surprised when I saw this mentioned  a few days ago. I've made a couple of characters (an Electric/Reflexes Brute and a Ninjas/Pain Mastermind; I've spent more time in charop than game so far, but can't say I regret it) and gotten a feel for the basic mechanics (though using WASD to walk in an MMO feels...wrong), but have an assortment of questions that don't really each deserve their own thread and I didn't see an definitive answer for elsewhere while lurking:

 

1.) What's the difference between the different pet specs for Mastermind? They all seem to get the same set of abilities but reskinned; three 'small' pets, two 'medium' pets, one 'big' pet, a fats attack, a slow attack, and some stuff to permanently buff your pets until they die. Am I missing some nuance that only becomes visible in play?

 

2.) How many people around still play the lower level content? I haven't played too long, but all for LFG is 'DFB' runs, which I've come to understand are quick powerleveling runs? Is everybody at the top end content ATM or racing to get there?

 

3.) What Archetype and Power combinations do really good AoE damage?

 

4.) How do Inspirations work? The game seems to assume you know, but the tutorial never mentions them.

 

5.) How much do I have to worry about slotting Enhancement slots for low level abilities? Are they retrainable at high levels or am I screwed if I upgrade, say, Call Genin at level 3 or whatever.

 

6.) How much do Archetypes matter beyond available powers? I.e. is the difference between Brute and Scrapper really that huge, or is it just a matter of a bit of HP or damage either way?

 

7.) How much does Origin matter? I understand some items give bonuses based on Origin, but how big of a deal is that? Is there some optimal combo of Origin/Archetype/Powers I would be a fool to miss out on for certain combos because there's some Uber-weapon for Dual Blade/Ninjitsu or whatever that only works if you're a Natural Talent character?

 

Thanks any and all for your responses.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Rynjin
Purge the typos, let none survive.

[biostem]

30 minutes ago, Rynjin said:

1.) What's the difference between the different pet specs for Mastermind? They all seem to get the same set of abilities but reskinned; three 'small' pets, two 'medium' pets, one 'big' pet, a fats attack, a slow attack, and some stuff to permanently buff your pets until they die. Am I missing some nuance that only becomes visible in play?

Each mastermind primary set has pets with different powers - ninja use hand-to-hand attacks and some shurikens, robots use lasers, etc.  It's kind of like the difference between you rolling a blaster that uses fire attacks vs one that uses an assault rifle - the attacks deal different damage types, have different recharge times, have different secondary effects, and so on.

 

30 minutes ago, Rynjin said:

3.) What Archetype and Power combinations do really good AoE damage?

This really depends upon the archetype (AT) and power set.  For instance, fire-themed sets tend to be all about the damage, but a fire-using blaster will tend to have more AoE attacks than a fire-using stalker.  During character creation, when picking the powerset you want, click the (i) in the upper right, and you can see details about each power in the set.

 

30 minutes ago, Rynjin said:

4.) How do Inspirations work? The game seems to assume you know, but the tutorial never mentions them.

An inspiration or "insp" is basically a short-duration and instant boost to one of more aspects of your character - red for damage, green for health, blue for endurance, light purple for defense, orange for damage resist, darker purple for temporary status protection, and so on.  You just click the inspiration to use it.

 

30 minutes ago, Rynjin said:

5.) How much do I have to worry about slotting Enhancement slots for low level abilities? Are they retrainable at high levels or am I screwed if I upgrade, say, Call Genin at level 3 or whatever.

You get a free respec every 10 levels, and you can unlock a 2nd build at level 10 as well.  Enhancements (enhs) improve specific aspects of your powers - so slotting more accuracy enhs makes your power more likely to hit, damage makes it deal more damage when it does hit, endurance reduction makes it cost less energy to use, and so on.

 

30 minutes ago, Rynjin said:

6.) How much do Archetypes matter beyond available powers? I.e. is the difference between Brute and Scrapper really that huge, or is it just a matter of a bit of HP or damage either way?

There are some fundamental differences between how each AT works, even between similar ones like brutes and scrappers, (for instance, brutes have a mechanic called fury, which causes you to do more damage as you attack or are attacked, while scrappers simply have a chance to deal double damage with every one of their attacks that they use).  Some ATs excel at healing/buffing their allies, while some are experts at locking down enemies, etc.

 

30 minutes ago, Rynjin said:

7.) How much does Origin matter? I understand some items give bonuses based on Origin, but how big of a deal is that? Is there some optimal combo of Origin/Archetype/Powers I would be a fool to miss out on for certain combos because there's some Uber-weapon for Dual Blade/Ninjitsu or whatever that only works if you're a Natural Talent character?

Origin doesn't really matter that much - it determines which free starter power you get, (like the taser or apprentice mage's bauble), which specific dual- and single-origin enhs you'll use, and there are some storylines that lean toward one origin or another, (you don't actually get any bonuses when fighting like or different origin enemies to yourself, though).

 

Hope that helps, and apologies in advance if I've missed anything...

Edited October 5, 2019 by biostem

[Rynjin]

It helps a bunch, thanks.

[Doc_Scorpion]

Ah...  I so miss Lake Superior.  But AoS did a number on UO that the game never did really recover from.

Biostem gave some great answers.

 

1 hour ago, Rynjin said:

2.) How many people around still play the lower level content? I haven't played too long, but all for LFG is 'DFB' runs, which I've come to understand are quick powerleveling runs? Is everybody at the top end content ATM or racing to get there?

Not nearly enough people play lower level content, which is an artifact of this game being mostly refugees.  Yes, far too many people are racing for the top, only to get bored once they get there.  CoX is very much about the journey, not the destination.

I don't recommend jumping on the powerleveling train...  CoX is utterly unlike UO (except for maybe a mage) in that your character changes dramatically as you level.  You gain new powers, new slots to enhance those powers, etc... etc...   Powerleveling can dump you off the train with a toon you don't know how to effectively play facing some of the first seriously difficult content the game offers.

I recommend you play at least a few toons Old Skool and learn the basics.  There are several archetypes that can solo well, and if you're patient a group in your level range will pop up.
 

1 hour ago, Rynjin said:

5.) How much do I have to worry about slotting Enhancement slots for low level abilities? Are they retrainable at high levels or am I screwed if I upgrade, say, Call Genin at level 3 or whatever.

You are both screwed and not screwed if you pick the wrong power or put slots in the wrong place.  There's a thing called a 'respec' where you can completely re do powers and slots from scratch, and you do get a few respecs for free...  But they get expensive afterwards.

That being said, I generally don't sweat mis-slotting.  You'll get more slots two levels later, and you can put them in the right place then.  Eventually I'll burn one of the free respecs to fix things, but I'm in no hurry.  (Assuming they need fixing rather than slotting earlier than intended.)  The only really irrevocable step is choosing an AT and powerset.  (Though only technically irrevocable, you can always delete and start over.)

 

1 hour ago, Rynjin said:

6.) How much do Archetypes matter beyond available powers? I.e. is the difference between Brute and Scrapper really that huge, or is it just a matter of a bit of HP or damage either way?

They matter a great deal...  because they're all different to some degree.  Some, like Masterminds, require a great deal of micromangement.  Others, like Scrappers, are basically fire and forget.  Some can solo easily, others only in the hands of an experienced player.

On teams however, we have a saying:  No AT is required, but all AT's can contribute.
 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Doc_Scorpion

[Call Me Awesome]

14 minutes ago, Rynjin said:

I was never able to play CoH back in the day (I was an Ultima Online kid), so I was surprised when I saw this mentioned  a few days ago. I've made a couple of characters (an Electric/Reflexes Brute and a Ninjas/Pain Mastermind; I've spent more time in charop than game so far, but can't say I regret it) and gotten a feel for the basic mechanics (though using WASD to walk in an MMO feels...wrong), but have an assortment of questions that don't really each deserve their own thread and I didn't see an definitive answer for elsewhere while lurking:

 

1.) What's the difference between the different pet specs for Mastermind? They all seem to get the same set of abilities but reskinned; three 'small' pets, two 'medium' pets, one 'big' pet, a fats attack, a slow attack, and some stuff to permanently buff your pets until they die. Am I missing some nuance that only becomes visible in play?

 

2.) How many people around still play the lower level content? I haven't played too long, but all for LFG is 'DFB' runs, which I've come to understand are quick powerleveling runs? Is everybody at the top end content ATM or racing to get there?

 

3.) What Archetype and Power combinations do really good AoE damage?

 

4.) How do Inspirations work? The game seems to assume you know, but the tutorial never mentions them.

 

5.) How much do I have to worry about slotting Enhancement slots for low level abilities? Are they retrainable at high levels or am I screwed if I upgrade, say, Call Genin at level 3 or whatever.

 

6.) How much do Archetypes matter beyond available powers? I.e. is the difference between Brute and Scrapper really that huge, or is it just a matter of a bit of HP or damage either way?

 

7.) How much does Origin matter? I understand some items give bonuses based on Origin, but how big of a deal is that? Is there some optimal combo of Origin/Archetype/Powers I would be a fool to miss out on for certain combos because there's some Uber-weapon for Dual Blade/Ninjitsu or whatever that only works if you're a Natural Talent character?

 

Thanks any and all for your responses.

Well, here's my $.02.

 

1. I never played MM's but different pets have different abilities and damage, I'll let someone who knows the AT better answer that.  MM's are the only AT I've never played past 20.

 

2. There's a few playing lower level content but the majority of us are long time veterans who've played the low content dozens of times already.  That said there's a pretty good population of veterans who are willing to help a new player learn the ropes and a few who do tend to play lowbies.  You're right that the DFB is mainly to level up and most players will tend to make 3-4 runs on a new character and come out around level 15.  The first standard Task Force is the first Positron in Steel Canyon and it's minimum level is 8; because it's a required TF for an accolade that grants a small buff to your character you'll often see it being run along with Positron 2... frequently teams run both back to back.

 

3. Damage is the forte of Blasters, Scrappers and Stalkers although all AT's do damage and some powerset combinations and AT's can pump out a ton.  As a new player starting out I used to suggest a Scrapper since they have a good balance of damage output and durability.  Brutes are similar and can be tougher and do equal damage but you need to keep Fury up, meaning it's a "go go go" set that you'll be attacking constantly or your damage drops.  Blasters are the typical glass cannon (although you can make them very tough with the right build, but that gets really complicated and expensive) and deal a lot of damage.

 

Different power sets are good at different things, some have good single target damage, some have good AOE damage, some have a nice mix of the two and some suck ass *cough* Energy Melee *cough*.  Decide in general what you want to play, do you want to play melee?  It's hard to go wrong with an Electric/Shield scrapper for AOE and decent ST damage with good durability... the combination also works well on a Brute, Stalker or Tanker.  Spines is a classic AOE damage set that's been a frontrunner the entire history of the game.  Do you want to play ranged?  Archery is good, Fire Blast is as well.  Both give you AOE with hard hitting ST damage.

 

Think about what you want to do, decide how you want to play and then ask for suggestions in the AT forums.  The Scrapper forum is full of min/max players who run numbers, figure out the outliers and come up with the best suggestions for melee.  Most of our numbers people tend to hang out there figuring out what can best do the "Stupid Scrapper Tricks" like soloing AV's and clearing maps spawned for an 8 man team 4 levels higher than themselves.

 

4. Inspirations offer a temporary buff, purple ones give you defense, orange ones increase your resistance to damage, greens heal you, yellows increase your to hit chance, Wakies (Revive, etc) bring you back from the dead, break frees free you from holds, stuns etc and give you resistance to those.  Inspirations come in three sizes offering a small, medium and large effect depending and they last 60 seconds.  Yes, they stack so you can eat several purples and oranges then your blaster too can tank... until the inspirations wear off.  Think of Inspirations as potions if that helps.

 

5. You get a free Respec for your character every 10 levels and can earn more so nothing's set in stone other than your AT selection and Primary/Secondary power sets.  Truthfully until you can start slotting Dual Origin enhancements at level 12 it's not worth worrying about... Training enhancements are nearly worthless.  In the old days the general rule of thumb was to slot whatever dropped until you hit 12 and could slot level 15 DO's, then start slotting Single Origin enhancements at 22.  Invention enhancements have greatly complicated this but that's a subject that could fill pages and pages.  Look in the Guides section of the forums for more information on IO's.

 

6. AT's matter a lot.  Scrappers and Brutes are similar and share many of the same power sets but their mechanics are different.  Scrappers do mainly constant damage with the occasional critical hit for extra damage while Brutes start out doing much less damage, but their damage output grows the longer they fight... kind of "The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets".

 

As another comparison while Tankers also share many sets with Brutes and Scrappers the powers themselves are scaled differently.  Tankers defenses are higher than Scrappers or Brutes but their damage is lower.  Additionally Tankers have considerably higher HP than other AT's and they generate more aggro than other AT's as well since their purpose is to be a meat shield.  Brutes and Scrappers can be capable of tanking but they aren't as good at it since they don't have the same level of tools a Tanker has.

 

Comparing other AT's you'll notice that generally Defenders and Corruptors are mirror images of each other.  Corruptors have more damage (it's their primary) while Defenders have better buffs and debuffs since that's their primary.  Oh, something that causes confusion for a lot of players coming from other MMO's is that there's no "holy trinity" of Tank/Heal/DPS.  The controls, buffs and debuffs in this game are very strong so healing isn't anywhere near as important.  No, you really don't very often need a "Healer" and there's some veteran players who dislike that label.  Yes, an Empath can heal.  They can also buff the party and add damage which is more useful most of the time.  Personally I prefer seeing a Kinetic or Radiation Emission character on the team than an Empath most of the time.

 

7. Origin affects the kind of DO or SO enhancements you can slot and the near worthless origin attack power you get at level 1 like Tranq dart, trowing knives and the like.  Origin has no real effect other than possibly role-play.  Oh, in this game there's no Gear or Weapons, it's all just cosmetic and chosen in the costume creator.  You get stronger by slotting enhancements and none are tied to a particular kind of character.  As an aside, from what I've seen Dual Blades is one of the weaker sets.

 

I hope I've given you some food for thought, and welcome to the game.  Feel free to ask questions in game, most of us don't bite and will be glad to help.  One thing you'll want to do is grab Mid's Hero Builder, there's a link in the "Tools and utilities" section of the forums.  It lets you plan out your build and shows you all the numbers and effects of your powers... when you get around to asking specific build questions most people will give you a Mid's exported build in the forums, you can import that and look at it in your copy of Mid's.  The interaction of various powers gets really complex in a hurry so being able to work it all out before you start shelling out inf in game helps a lot.

[Call Me Awesome]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention, almost all buffs and debuffs STACK in the game... a team made up of characters with buffs and debuffs can steamroll anything in the game by either buffing themselves into godlike status or debuffing the mobs into fuzzy kittens.  One Fire/Rad controller is really good, two together are superior, 8 of them will smash the hardest content almost as fast as they can move through the map.

 

That's something to keep in mind if you have friends who play together frequently, super teams can be monsters.

[Hyperstrike]

First off.  PAGAGONWIKI!  HUGE resource for the game.  Just about any general game mechanics question you might question can be answered there.

https://paragonwiki.com/


Usually the difference is type of damage (smashing, lethal, fire, cold, etc) and the types of mitigation they have.
Bots are big on Defense.
Demons are big on Resist.
The others tend towards hybrid.

There are people who run through low level content.  The hard part is finding them.
A bit of PL here and there never hurt anyone.  But nought-but PL can stunt character development.

Blasters are generally the masters of AoE
Controllers and Corruptors put out decent AoE.
Oddly enough various tanks output respectable AoE.

You see low damage from damage auras, but if you track it over time, it winds up being a respectable percentage of your overall damage.

Inspirations bump Accuracy, Damage offer you a healing/endurance recovery bump, help de-mesmerize you, resurrect you, etc.
There's four sizes of each.
There's also double-aspect inspirations.   Three sizes there.
There's also inspies that provide bonuses (albeit smaller ones) to your entire team.

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Inspirations

 

As for slotting:  Up to about Level 10, it's not terrible if you don't.
Also, DO THE TUTORIALS!  You get 2 large Inspies out of them.  Street sweep for a bit of stray Inf and then put them on the market.  That'll get you going.
Once you're at level 10, attacks should be Double Acc, then and EndRedux.  Then Damage enhancements after that.
For armors, just put an EndRedux in to start.  Once you got 3-4 actual picked attacks (not Brawl, don't slot Brawl).
Individual powers don't eat up much power on their own.  But over time it all adds up.

Don't ever let them go Red.  But you don't need to get them to corresponding levels at every level up.  They're usually available at every 5 levels. 
So buy at L7 buy L10 Training Origins. 
Let them go to L12.  Then buy 15 Dual Origins if you can afford them.
At L22, start looking at Single Origin enhancements.

Remember, you have Training Origins.  Low level boosts.
Then Dual Origins mid-level boosts, but you have to make sure you're one of the two origin types they're built for.
With Single Origins, you buy the type specifically tailored exactly to your origin type.

Once you near L30, you can start replacing SOs with L30 IOs that you can either buy or craft for yourself.
These will last you as long as you want.  You simply slot higher level ones into newer slots.

Then, as part of the end-game, you start experimenting with invention sets.  These give you more balanced boosts to your basic stats, PLUS they provide bonuses for having X number of pieces of each set.

Origin only really matters for your DO and SO enhancement selections.  The Origin attack power is only really useful for around the first 5-10 levels.  After you've got a few regular attacks, it's not worth it.

Brutes are tougher than Scrappers.
Scrappers, in the long run, do more damage.
Tanks are the toughest by default.

But, as my sig says.
If you wanna be godlike, PICK SOMETHING.  It's ALL good.

Once you get a build twinked out with sets, you're overkill for 95% of the game.

And indeed, there are some builds, like Fire/Rad controllers, where you get a team-full of them, get trained working together, and you can kill ANYTHING in the game.

 

 

[Hyperstrike]

2 minutes ago, Call Me Awesome said:

One Fire/Rad controller is really good, two together are superior, 8 of them will smash the hardest content almost as fast as they can move through the map.

 

Flaming Roomba of Doom(ba)!!!

[gameboy1234]

1 hour ago, Rynjin said:

1.) What's the difference between the different pet specs for Mastermind? They all seem to get the same set of abilities but reskinned; three 'small' pets, two 'medium' pets, one 'big' pet, a fats attack, a slow attack, and some stuff to permanently buff your pets until they die. Am I missing some nuance that only becomes visible in play?

Bots and Demons rock, most other things are kinda average.  YMMV.  Most people play MMs for the style and because they're fun.  Scrappers and Brutes are better if you just want raw power.

 

1 hour ago, Rynjin said:

5.) How much do I have to worry about slotting Enhancement slots for low level abilities? Are they retrainable at high levels or am I screwed if I upgrade, say, Call Genin at level 3 or whatever.

 

If you put the wrong enhancement in a slot, you just replace it with another one at any time.  If you place a slot that's a bad idea, then you have to respec.  But respecs are relatively easy to get, and I usually just do whatever until I hit 50, and then I do one big respec to fix everything.  You should get a pretty good idea as you level what powers work well and what needs more oomf, so you'll know what powers need more slots. At least, if you don't powerlevel.

 

[Doc_Scorpion]

47 minutes ago, Call Me Awesome said:

Think about what you want to do, decide how you want to play and then ask for suggestions in the AT forums.

The only down side to the AT forums is that they often tend to think in terms of endgame builds (often loaded with expensive IO's) and less about leveling builds.

[Oubliette_Red]

2 hours ago, Rynjin said:

I was never able to play CoH back in the day (I was an Ultima Online kid), so I was surprised when I saw this mentioned  a few days ago. I've made a couple of characters (an Electric/Reflexes Brute and a Ninjas/Pain Mastermind; I've spent more time in charop than game so far, but can't say I regret it) and gotten a feel for the basic mechanics (though using WASD to walk in an MMO feels...wrong), but have an assortment of questions that don't really each deserve their own thread and I didn't see an definitive answer for elsewhere while lurking:

Since everyone else has provided an array of answers for your questions, I have to ask... what form of movement do you normally use?

Pretty much any any MMO I've played, it's been WASD, so curious as to what you use.

 

You do have an option in Setting to change it to point-click to move, I never cared for it myself.

[Oubliette_Red]

Oh, and Welcome!

[merrypessimist]

For a new player, I'd suggest going and making a new character and doing the old tutorials, Outbreak (hero) or Breakout (villain).  They actually explain what all those bars and things on your screens mean, what inspirations do, how you recover from a defeat, etc. MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better than the Galaxy City tutorial.  The old tutorials assumed that CoH was your first MMO and that you didn't know a damn thing.  The new tutorial assumes you're rolling your 27th alt and just want a more engaging fight to start its career, and barely explains anything.

[@Tankabelle]

Not wanting to thread hijack, but as a new player, I've seen some characters have these little boxes pop up above their names.  Things saying "Typing a response" or "Pontificating" before they "speak". I've no idea how they're doing them, or if its just something I've not clicked in the Options tab to allow myself to do it as well?

[Gulbasaur]

5 hours ago, Rynjin said:

1.) What's the difference between the different pet specs for Mastermind? They all seem to get the same set of abilities but reskinned; three 'small' pets, two 'medium' pets, one 'big' pet, a fats attack, a slow attack, and some stuff to permanently buff your pets until they die. Am I missing some nuance that only becomes visible in play?

 

It's more than cosmetic, they do different kinds of damage (which normally has a different secondary effect like reducing damage resistance or defence) and have different skills. For example, robotics has a robot that gives you all a force field so is a good defensive set, whereas beasts are very focussed on melee damage. 

 

5 hours ago, Rynjin said:

2.) How many people around still play the lower level content? I haven't played too long, but all for LFG is 'DFB' runs, which I've come to understand are quick powerleveling runs? Is everybody at the top end content ATM or racing to get there?

 

The game scales you down for lower level stuff, so I'd say that if things aren't populated it's because they're boring, rather than low. DFB is good for people who want to skip the first ten levels or so, which can feel very slow if you've done it before. 

5 hours ago, Rynjin said:

3.) What Archetype and Power combinations do really good AoE damage?

 

It depends on the powerset more than archetype, really. Some sets are quite single-target focused whereas others are more AoE. Radiation melee, for example, has a feature that turns all single target attacks into AoE attacks when it triggers. I think one of the arachnos spider sets is technically the leader for AoE damage. 

5 hours ago, Rynjin said:

4.) How do Inspirations work? The game seems to assume you know, but the tutorial never mentions them.

 

They're quick use buffs - the healing ones heal you, the defence ones give you a bit of defence for a short time, the endurance ones give you a bit of endurange and the break free ones break you free out of control effects. Use them, love them. If you have three of the same kind, you can combine them to make one of another kind, which is useful if you have lots of one variety. They drop so often I wouldn't worry about saving them. 

5 hours ago, Rynjin said:

5.) How much do I have to worry about slotting Enhancement slots for low level abilities? Are they retrainable at high levels or am I screwed if I upgrade, say, Call Genin at level 3 or whatever.

 

Levels 1-12, slot whatever drops. Levels 12-22 maybe buys some ones that make sense. Level 22+, try to use Invention Origin enhancements, crafted at the university (Steel Canyon South is one of the easiest ones to get to). These scale with your level so you don't outlevel them ever. I think level 22 is the point at which they become mathematically worthwhile. Note that enhancements lose their effectiveness if you have more than one in the same power - three seems to be the sweet spot, so you might want to put 3 damage, 1 accuracy in an attack power. Recharge reduction is useful as well, and it is sometimes better to put an endurance reduction enhancement in an attack you use a lot than in a toggle power. 

 

There are also named Invention Origin sets that give you bonuses if you have more than one of the same set slotted in a power, like a bit more defence or a small damage boost. End-game builds make really good use of these to plug holes in power sets, like adding more defence, resistance or recharge. 

 

The shining star of these are Archetype Origin enhancements and each set of those has one that does something unique - these vary between god-tier (stalkers) to mediocre boost (defenders). Most are worth getting when you can afford them, though, even if you leave the rest of the set for much later.

 

5 hours ago, Rynjin said:

6.) How much do Archetypes matter beyond available powers? I.e. is the difference between Brute and Scrapper really that huge, or is it just a matter of a bit of HP or damage either way?

 

Hugely. I'd argue that some are similar, but they all play differently. Tankers, brutes, scrappers and stalkers can all take very similar sets of powers, but they have a different playstyle. Tankers are slow and steady and unkillable, brutes need to keep a quick pace up or they start losing damage, scrappers favour "I just want to stab things and watch them fall down" play and stalkers can set up absurd damage spikes by playing in a structured and methodical way. 

 

Of the ranged ATs, defenders get higher bonuses for support powers and corruptors get higher bonuses for damage but otherwise they're pretty similar. You can feel the difference between them in teams, though, as a good defender can make a team godike but can't put out the same damage output. Controllers get crowd control and support stuff and do double-damage against controlled enemies and tend to be either really good at soloing or absolutely terrible and can carry a weak team to glory because their skills can entirely change the flow of combat. Dominators have more damage output than controllers from the get-go, and can magnify the strength of their control powers, so they're better at control than a controller but don't have the support skills so are more DPS-with-control. Blasters are the extreme in that they (mostly) are all about damage with no defence but the damage they do is colossal. Sentinels are sort of like scrappers, but with range (I just want to blast things and watch them fall down). Masterminds are unique in their very pet-based playstyle and have useful support skills and, like controllers or blasters, tend to be either winning or dead already.  

 

Of the "epic" archetypes, they're all a hybrids in that they all have high defence or resistance (or both) and a mixture of control, range and melee options. I think, in a weird way, the epic archetypes are actually the most balanced but they also often don't have a clear role in a team, which some people prefer. PB and WS favour tank-mage playstyles and SoAs are kind of high damage support with good defence. 

5 hours ago, Rynjin said:

7.) How much does Origin matter? I understand some items give bonuses based on Origin, but how big of a deal is that? Is there some optimal combo of Origin/Archetype/Powers I would be a fool to miss out on for certain combos because there's some Uber-weapon for Dual Blade/Ninjitsu or whatever that only works if you're a Natural Talent character?

 

It doesn't really matter at all. You get a low-level power that's meant to help you and a few flavour differences here and there, but that's it. 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Gulbasaur

[boggo2300]

3 hours ago, @Tankabelle said:

Not wanting to thread hijack, but as a new player, I've seen some characters have these little boxes pop up above their names.  Things saying "Typing a response" or "Pontificating" before they "speak". I've no idea how they're doing them, or if its just something I've not clicked in the Options tab to allow myself to do it as well?

those are emotes

 

if you use the slash command /em whatever you type here will come up in a thought bubble above your toons head, unless it's one of the emote animations command word

 

so /em Typing a response  will do what you have seen (I can't remember if you need " around the text, it's been awhile since I've done it)

 

A lot of the people you see doing that (probably all of them will have a keybind of /em Typing a response$$say  

which will do the thought bubble and liven your chat window

[Lines]

23 minutes ago, boggo2300 said:

those are emotes

 

if you use the slash command /em whatever you type here will come up in a thought bubble above your toons head, unless it's one of the emote animations command word

 

so /em Typing a response  will do what you have seen (I can't remember if you need " around the text, it's been awhile since I've done it)

 

A lot of the people you see doing that (probably all of them will have a keybind of /em Typing a response$$say  

which will do the thought bubble and liven your chat window

Actually, it's a bit different to this. The typing bubble is actually hijacking the afk flag. Usually that little bubble would read 'afk' when a player is stood still for a certain length of time or you can force it with the /afk command.

 

You can give the little bubble custom text with /afk <custom text here>, and the bubble will read whatever you've written.

 

So what you're seeing is people using it in a macro bind in conjuction with the startchat command when they hit the enter key to start typing. The bind might be something like:

/bind enter "afk typing$$startchat"

where 'enter' is the keyboard key being bound, 'typing' is the custom text in the afk bubble, $$ separates the two commands and startchat places the cursor in the chat box.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Lines

[Oubliette_Red]

For any new players that are used to playing other MMOs, I recommend reading this 'New to CoH' post:

 

It provides details on how CoH differs.

[Rynjin]

Thanks for the responses guys; wasn't expecting this many honestly.

19 hours ago, Oubliette_Red said:

Since everyone else has provided an array of answers for your questions, I have to ask... what form of movement do you normally use?

Pretty much any any MMO I've played, it's been WASD, so curious as to what you use.

 

You do have an option in Setting to change it to point-click to move, I never cared for it myself.

Every MMO I've ever played tends to assume click move or hold mouse to move as the default, so you can rest your left hand on number keys for abilities.

 

I guess CoH assumes you WASD move, Numpad for abilities, and always TAB target?

[Doc_Scorpion]

6 hours ago, Rynjin said:

Thanks for the responses guys; wasn't expecting this many honestly.

 

Though we're a fractious bunch who'll debate anything and everything- the community here is one of the friendliest and most helpful I've ever seen.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Doc_Scorpion
Spelling

[Snakebit]

1 hour ago, Rynjin said:

I guess CoH assumes you WASD move, Numpad for abilities, and always TAB target?

Targetting is important to me, and Tab isn't really a great solution by itself. I recommend that you bind a key to Target Nearest Enemy. I use might 3rd mouse button. It's natively bound to Ctrl-Tab but that's too clunky for me, I hit the windows key way to much. 

 

Something that gets missed a lot:

 

Assist. Select a teammate and you will see their target, and you will attack their target if you are in range. If you watch, for instance, how a blaster scans a room and a tanker scans a room you'll see that they are often looking at different things. Blasters will probably be targeting the biggest threat to them, the tank will be targeting the biggest threat to the team (not always the same thing) and the supports will in assist or setting up target locations for their buffs and debuffs. You can figure out a lot and sort of glide your way through the spawns by help teammates with their targets. 

 

Don't be afraid to mention that you are a new player and you'll get lots of help (maybe even more than you want). 

 

You'll find that most of the players in the game have a lot of experience in the game, even on new characters. Anything you're doing has been done hundreds or thousands of times and /help is mostly there for you.  There are a few trolls from time to time but mostly /help is good to go. 

 

You're in for a hell of a ride, I kind of envy being in a place to play this for the first time in this environment. You can play through content as quickly as you want or lock your xp gains and do everything available on one toon. There's no long term penalties for defeat and almost every player you'll team with is competent. It's a much better sandbox than it ever was on Live.  

[SlimPickens]

Welcome to the game, while you learn the basics, I highly recommend playing a character that is more straightforward than the mastermind AT. That is what I would consider an advanced AT which requires additional controls not normally used so you are not only controlling your own abilities, but also trying to direct your pets so it can be more difficult to control combat. The pets do act on their own and go through their own attack chains, but the art of using the bodyguard mode and attack my target aggressive mode can be challenging and a mastermind without well controlled pets is very very squishy.

 

Something forgiving like a tank or scrapper is usually much easier to start with to build your familiarity with the combat system, and requires much less build knowledge than something that starts off very defensively weak and can die much more easily.

 

Sentinel is a fun choice if you prefer ranged, but still wish to have good resist or defense options.

 

Your more specific questions have already been answered above, but I just wanted to point out that starting off with a character like a mastermind might be a steeper learning curve.

 

have fun.

[boggo2300]

17 hours ago, Lines said:

Actually, it's a bit different to this. The typing bubble is actually hijacking the afk flag. Usually that little bubble would read 'afk' when a player is stood still for a certain length of time or you can force it with the /afk command.

 

You can give the little bubble custom text with /afk <custom text here>, and the bubble will read whatever you've written.

 

So what you're seeing is people using it in a macro bind in conjuction with the startchat command when they hit the enter key to start typing. The bind might be something like:

/bind enter "afk typing$$startchat"

where 'enter' is the keyboard key being bound, 'typing' is the custom text in the afk bubble, $$ separates the two commands and startchat places the cursor in the chat box.

Oh yeah true, I did say it'd been awhile, using /em will just put it in the chat window as white text, sorry!!

 

[THEDarkTyger]

22 hours ago, gameboy1234 said:

Bots and Demons rock, most other things are kinda average. 

Mercs are garbage...

[gameboy1234]

17 minutes ago, THEDarkTyger said:

Mercs are garbage...

I played a Merc/ MM on live I think, maybe as a challenge?  I didn't find them that bad.  I seem to recall they have some problems with their AI mainly, but also maybe some questionable power choices by the devs.  They were doable.  I don't remember exactly what I played, might have been Mercs/Traps (and /Traps would probably make anything serviceable).

 

Ninjas I found to be squirrelly as heck and almost unplayable.  One could tough it out but I didn't see the need.  Thugs were fun.  Zombies were kinda like Mercs, the power choices didn't seem to quite jell.  Bots were my first 50, ever.  I think the newer MM sets (Demons and Beasts) were made with more experience under the dev's belts and they play a bit better overall.

 

Oh, and /Poison sucked.  That set was super slow to get good, assuming it ever did.  Zombie/Poison sounds good but it was too hard to get to any decent sort of level.  With new leveling tools this might not be a thing but live, yech, trudging through mud while dragging your minions and your powers behind you.

 

Edited October 6, 2019 by gameboy1234