So, um, yeah, how do you start on Goldside?

[DougGraves]

I can choose no tutorial and then hero or villain.  I can choose 3 tutorials, but those are normal Earth.  Is there still a way to start a character in Praetoria?

[NNDeepdish]

You select Going Rogue at the beginning

[ZekeStenzland]

You missed it already. On the very first screen of char creation, where you pick your origin, there’s two large oval buttons. I think the top one is City of Heroes, the bottom one is Going Rogue. It isn’t obvious that they’re even buttons. But selecting the bottom one will have you go Goldside.
 

There’s an optional tutorial for that, if you want. I recommend it.

 

And, fair warning. Goldside can be surprisingly difficult compared to Red and Blue. Lots more AVs, ambushes that aggro through stealth, more enemies per spawn, and higher levels.

 

But the story is definitely worth it, IMO. 

[DougGraves]

Thanks.  I recall goldside being very tough when I played it years ago.  I might be ready for it again.

[Haijinx]

3 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

Thanks.  I recall goldside being very tough when I played it years ago.  I might be ready for it again.

Fairly easy on a Brute, Scrapper, Stalker though

[DougGraves]

I am going dark melee/ninjitsu scrapper.

[Apogee]

There is only one mission that I can think of that is hard (but loads of fun if you have good AoE). On the Loyalist side Bobcat gives you a mission to hunt down a Syndicate guy. The mission where you find him you get ambushed by a HORDE of Syndicate. It is pretty non-stop spawning, dozens if not hundreds of -def/-res debuffing, stealth immune, go gangers that will follow you through elevators. Turn on your combat stat monitors and watch your defenses plummet!

 

Everything else in Praetoria is pretty standard. I have 15 characters going thru Goldside (level 1 - 20, not flashback), doing all 4 arcs per zone. The story is tied nicely together and doing the whole double agent thing makes it even more interesting. I highly recommend doing it at least once.

[Major_Decoy]

There's the "defeat 100 enemies in two minutes" mission that seems like it'd be difficult (but I didn't try because I was on a Psi Melee tank with two attacks and Praetorian Clockwork are notoriously psi resistant)

[Apogee]

That 2 minute timer is no longer in effect. It counts down but nothing happens when it runs out. Basically just kill all the Clockwork in whatever time and then bask in Metronome's tears.

[Doc_Scorpion]

3 hours ago, DougGraves said:

Thanks.  I recall goldside being very tough when I played it years ago.  I might be ready for it again.

Goldside was why I created my second bots/FF MM...  After learning how well they soloed Redside with my first.

[ZekeStenzland]

I seem to recall at least one mission where you need to fight two elite bosses at once, at level 10 or so. 
 

There’s a lot more psi damage thanks to seers and syndicate, which few folks mitigate well. Especially in the 1-20 range. 
 

Ghouls do a pbaoe heal when they die, making things a lot harder for melee and those with aoe. And you fight those everywhere. 
 

A lot more spawns of 4 than you typically see red or blue side. And it feels like they are +1 level more often as well. 
 

And I find that I do much better on squishy ATs than others, just because the Armor sets at those levels don’t compensate for the lower damage output. Although to be fair, I’ve never tried gold with, say, an MM.

 

And Resistance, as a group, seems to have a ton of knockdown as well as a few bosses who are fairly immune to all CC.

Maybe it’s just that red and blue have the same amount of problematic foes, but they’re spread out across more groups, whereas goldside you’re running into the same ones repeatedly. I’m sure folks would have a very skewed view of blue if all they ever fought was Circle of Thorns. 

[Charistoph]

Before Sunset, my highest Praetorian was a Plant/Fire Dominator.  It did rather well there actually.  I remade his name (but not his outfit) in Homecoming as a Nature/Fire Def.  I think he was more successful as a Dominator...

[Redlynne]

Recommended for anyone playing Goldside ... LINK

[ChzBoi]

6 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

Recommended for anyone playing Goldside ... LINK

And thank you Redlynne - I did this and it was fun! I finally saw all the story lines I missed back before the 'snap'. Well done guide.  

[Redlynne]

We make every pretense of competency around here ...  ^_~

[Shred Monkey]

Don't feel bad.  I decided I wanted to make a gold side toon a few months ago, and it took me quite a while to figure out how.  It's amazingly well hidden by taking up 1/2 the screen on the opening tab.

[Oubliette_Red]

Someone asked the same question in Discord. I provided a visual for finding it, since that can often be easier to follow than directions.

 

[GlaziusF]

On 1/23/2020 at 2:05 PM, ZekeStenzland said:

You missed it already. On the very first screen of char creation, where you pick your origin, there’s two large oval buttons. I think the top one is City of Heroes, the bottom one is Going Rogue. It isn’t obvious that they’re even buttons. But selecting the bottom one will have you go Goldside.
 

There’s an optional tutorial for that, if you want. I recommend it.

I more than recommend it. Goldside has the possibility to make you a "double agent", running missions for one faction while plotting with another. But IIRC the Goldside tutorial wasn't designed skippable and the only way you get the contacts who let you do that is to go through the tutorial.

[Tahliah]

On 1/23/2020 at 1:25 PM, DougGraves said:

Thanks.  I recall goldside being very tough when I played it years ago.  I might be ready for it again.

It is.  I have the best time in Praetoria with MMs, but I'm also finding it very doable on my main (an ice/ice blaster, but she's tricked out. I definitely don't recommend a blaster for Praetoria if you solo and can't find teams).

 

I love the writing Goldside, and thoroughly enjoy all the arcs.  Praetoria itself is simply gorgeous.  It's just a tough slog for most ATs solo and not very populated for teaming.  That said, if you're on Excelsior and want to run Goldside, hit me up!  :)

[MTeague]

I ran an Archery / Tactical Arrow blaster through 1-21, turning of XP for a long time at 9, and 14, and 19, so as not to outlevel any content. 

A blaster DID, admittedly, get dicey at times. Esp at lvl 9-12 range.

 

But I made it through the vast majority of Praetorian missions without dying.  Although I popped a lot of inspirations, including a bunch of Double Inspirations from Superpacks.  And I did trick her out with Attuned everything.  4 ATO's from each blaster ATO set, Regenerative Tissue +25% regen, a couple of Entomb's for Ice Arrow, etc.  This was most decidely NOT a live off the land character.

Edited January 25, 2020 by MTeague

[Apogee]

You can turn off xp at level 10, 15, and 20 for each respective zone if you want to keep from outleveling content. That extra power in Nova can come in handy.

 

I actually saw another player last night in Praetoria, I was surprised!

[Redlynne]

4 of my 9 alts are Praetorians ... plus 2 Villans and 3 Heroes.  It balances out.

[Apogee]

I decided to do the old alternate Earth setup for my main account. Each Blueside character has a Goldside alternate, complete with the requisite Van Dyke beard.

[Redlynne]

[Pixie_Knight]

13 hours ago, Apogee said:

I actually saw another player last night in Praetoria, I was surprised!

 

Was it a Thug mastermind named Father Bone? If so, twas me.