Finally joined the game - newbie needs advice

[PopZeCherry]

So I'm entirely new to City Of Heroes and I've wanted to try this out since I very first saw it years ago.

I was wondering if there was a certain server I could join where people here are playing and could show me the ropes? Maybe even find a group or guild to join if those are features? (Haven't read much about it)
Any help is appreciated, maybe even a suggestion on beginner class to learn the game? 

[Abraxus]

Welcome to CoH on Homecoming!

 

The most populated server right now is Excelsior.  The rest run a bit lower, but all of them have plenty of folks who are willing to lend a hand if you put a question in the "Help" channel in-game.  Out here, this forum has a lot of guides, and archetype-specific threads to browse through, to get a better idea of what to do.  Also, there is a link right at the top of the page for "Paragon Wiki".  Lot's of good information there too.

 

But, if you have specific questions, or don't know where to go.  Hit me up.  I'll be glad to help, or at least let you know where you can find it if I don't know.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Abraxus

[PopZeCherry]

1 minute ago, Abraxus said:

Welcome to CoH on Homecoming!

 

The most populated server right now is Excelsior.  The rest run a bit lower, but all of them have plenty of folks who are willing to lend a hand if you put a question in the "Help" channel in-game.  Out here, this forum has a lot of guides, and archetype-specific threads to browse through, to get a better idea of what to do.  Also, there is a link right at the top of the page for "Paragon Wiki".  Lot's of good information there too.

 

But, if you have specific questions, or don't know where to go.  Hit me up.  I'll be glad to help, or at least let you know where you can find it if I don't know.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I've heard the community on this game is supposed to be one of the best there is or ever has been, so I hopefully get to see that as that's a big reason why I chose this game as well as the character creator and being able to make a hero of my own design. Thanks for the information provided and I shall definitely check out all your suggestions.

[Abraxus]

There is also a Discord server for Homecoming.  There should be a link to it somewhere here in the forum, but if you're interested, and can't find it, I can post it here.

[PopZeCherry]

1 minute ago, Abraxus said:

There is also a Discord server for Homecoming.  There should be a link to it somewhere here in the forum, but if you're interested, and can't find it, I can post it here.

I'll definitely see if I can find the discord server. I downloaded the game earlier today but have spent hours messing around with the character creator and haven't quite figured out what I want to do yet haha
It really is so extensive!

[Abraxus]

It took me three hours to create my first character, and that was 2 weeks after the game went live, when the choices weren't as expansive as they are today!  So, I completely understand.  I played that character off, and on for the 8 years that the game was around in it's first life, and I recreated him here when Homecoming sprang into existence.  I just recently got him to L50 again, and am now working towards getting his Incarnate, and I/O enhancement, and set bonus configuration planned, purchased, and built.  I guess the thought there is, your first one is always special.  They will probably go through changes over time, but that's part of the fun of it.  Likely, that character will always be your favorite, and an active part of your collection.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Abraxus

[PopZeCherry]

4 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

It took me three hours to create my first character, and that was 2 weeks after the game went live, when the choices weren't as expansive as they are today!  So, I completely understand.  I played that character off, and on for the 8 years that the game was around in it's first life, and I recreated him here when Homecoming sprang into existence.  I just recently got him to L50 again, and am now working towards getting his Incarnate, and I/O enhancement, and set bonus configuration planned, purchased, and built.  I guess the thought there is, your first one is always special.  They will probably go through changes over time, but that's part of the fun of it.  Likely, that character will always be your favorite, and an active part of your collection.

I didn't understand a little about what you just said about the incarnate and that but I guess that will come with playing it but yes the character creation is so amazing and i agree first characters always do seem to be the most special. I love my first ever character on guild wars 1 and Lord of the rings online! Always went back to them no matter how much time had passed.

[Seigmoraig]

For your first character I would recommend a melee type character because they are the most robust so you will be able to absorb more mistakes you would make compared to if you played a ranged squishy type (If you want to play ranged though, there is a robust ranged type called the Sentinel). Tankers, Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers are somewhat more forgiving archtypes to play ( I personally find playing melee more enjoyable than playing ranged )

Only thing I would advice you to stay away from at least to start, not that they aren't viable in any sense just more complicated, are Masterminds, Peacebringers and Warshades.

 

As for what to choose in your powers, it really doesn't matter, everything is playable and can do well in a team. If you are looking to solo, once again everything is doable because you can change the difficulty on the fly with some options in the interface menu. Honestly, just choose what you thing is coolest ! Once you have a grasp on the game mechanics and builds, what does what you can start looking at more specialized characters and such.

Once again though, everything is playable, everything can do well, there is no meta, there is no gear you need to farm. You can do a Task Force with 8 defenders and it will work fine. You can do a taskforce with no heals and it will do fine. You can do a task force with no tank and it will do fine. This is the beauty of CoH: Everything goes, just play what you like

Edited January 29, 2020 by Seigmoraig

[Abraxus]

I always start to form an image of my characters in my mind while creating them, of approximately what I want them to look like.  Then, it is a matter of finding the costume pieces, and effects that bring that closest to fruition. Then, selecting the powers that complete that image.  Once those are done, the image before me usually helps me find a name.  That's my process in a nutshell, though when doing it, things don't go quite as quick as it might seem. 😎

[PopZeCherry]

10 minutes ago, Seigmoraig said:

For your first character I would recommend a melee type character because they are the most robust so you will be able to absorb more mistakes you would make compared to if you played a ranged squishy type (If you want to play ranged though, there is a robust ranged type called the Sentinel). Tankers, Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers are somewhat more forgiving archtypes to play ( I personally find playing melee more enjoyable than playing ranged )

Only thing I would advice you to stay away from at least to start, not that they aren't viable in any sense just more complicated, are Masterminds, Peacebringers and Warshades.

 

As for what to choose in your powers, it really doesn't matter, everything is playable and can do well in a team. If you are looking to solo, once again everything is doable because you can change the difficulty on the fly with some options in the interface menu. Honestly, just choose what you thing is coolest ! Once you have a grasp on the game mechanics and builds, what does what you can start looking at more specialized characters and such.

Once again though, everything is playable, everything can do well, there is no meta, there is no gear you need to farm. You can do a Task Force with 8 defenders and it will work fine. You can do a taskforce with no heals and it will do fine. You can do a task force with no tank and it will do fine. This is the beauty of CoH: Everything goes, just play what you like

Really appreciate the reply. I'm basically modelling my character around the incredible hulk it seems at the moment. But I'm thinking to switch it up a bit haha
 

[PopZeCherry]

9 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

I always start to form an image of my characters in my mind while creating them, of approximately what I want them to look like.  Then, it is a matter of finding the costume pieces, and effects that bring that closest to fruition. Then, selecting the powers that complete that image.  Once those are done, the image before me usually helps me find a name.  That's my process in a nutshell, though when doing it, things don't go quite as quick as it might seem. 😎

Same, I tend to think about my favourite comic book characters or movie characters and base my characters off of them.

[Abraxus]

Sometimes, when the concept is really strong, I even have something of a backstory established, which is great when it happens.  Makes the rest much easier.  The character you see in my avatar is my main (the one I've been going on about), and it was that way with him.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Abraxus

[ThreeEyeBlack]

I agree with all the above posts, and more importantly, welcome to COH!  The one thing I would add is this - Don't be afraid to restart with a new character if you seem to be running into a wall on your first character.  They are almost as much fun to create as they are to play.  As mentioned above, melee tend to be easier to start with (IMHO), but there are some folks that can make a support character just rock the whole world.  Part of the fun is determining your favorite play style.  If you choose Everlasting as the server, feel free to find "JustMikeOne" if you have any questions or thoughts.

[Bopin]

Can't wait till' I get to creation of my character, halfway through the download. I always spend too much time on it but dang I love it when I see it finished! I'll try to make my character as close to my drawing if possible. (ref. image)

 

[PopZeCherry]

12 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

Sometimes, when the concept is really strong, I even have something of a backstory established, which is great when it happens.  Makes the rest much easier.  The character you see in my avatar is my main (the one I've been going on about), and it was that way with him.

Backstory’s always add that extra depth for sure. I even saw there’s a mutant option. It’s got me wondering whether I could make a similar character to night crawler who can teleport haha 

[Snarky]

13 minutes ago, PopZeCherry said:

Really appreciate the reply. I'm basically modelling my character around the incredible hulk it seems at the moment. But I'm thinking to switch it up a bit haha
 

I highly recommend super strength willpower brute for this conceptually and functionally.  At high level builds invulnerability armor is better than willpower but we are talking about just starting out

 

i have run a ton of super strength, invulnerability and willpower on mostly Brutes. I soloed all redside on ss/will brutes twice. All solo content  it is a very solid build and tons of fun

 

whatever you choose good luckand welcome to Homecoming. I play on Everlasting as Snarky Snarkrot Snarkanum Snarkbot Snarkthis Snarkthat. Danged. Now i want to create two new alts. Kitten. Laser pointer leap!! 

[PopZeCherry]

13 minutes ago, ThreeEyeBlack said:

I agree with all the above posts, and more importantly, welcome to COH!  The one thing I would add is this - Don't be afraid to restart with a new character if you seem to be running into a wall on your first character.  They are almost as much fun to create as they are to play.  As mentioned above, melee tend to be easier to start with (IMHO), but there are some folks that can make a support character just rock the whole world.  Part of the fun is determining your favorite play style.  If you choose Everlasting as the server, feel free to find "JustMikeOne" if you have any questions or thoughts.

Thank you for the warm welcome and yeah I’m thinking of trying out a melee tank, how do I get my character to fly from level one or get an easy way to travel sorted? Is there a certain option I have to pick? 
 

and I will do 

[Coyote]

My suggestion is two parts:

 

First, in general, all characters are viable in CoH, it's not a hard game. Some situations may be hard, but overall it's pretty easy. So go with the concept of a character that most interests you.

 

Second, if you have time before you make the character, ask on the appropriate AT (ArcheType) Forum, "I want to play kind of like this, is this character design good for that?". As long as you don't get warned off, it should be fine... it may not be the very best combination, but it will be fine at what you want.

 

One additional point, as you're learning the character creator: sometimes it's hard to figure out what you were doing when you found some interesting look, and you can't go back to it... you can save costume designs and reload them. So you can make one character, but design 5 different looks, and not lose the first that you end up liking the most, just because you're working on the 5th option.

[SwitchFade]

Welcome!

 

Excelsior is always busy.

 

Some great tips:

 

Explore the forums

Do the tutorial

Try out many different powers and types

Do contact story arcs!

Try out task forces

Enjoy the costume creator

 

Explore the options menu and set up you HUD and powers trays the way you want

 

Customize your chat tabs

Read about the P2W vendor before you use the items, be aware of how it makes the game different 

 

Avoid AE

Avoid dfb spam and dib spam

 

Honestly, what most of the vets take for granted is what we fell in love with before all the shortcuts were added. Slow down a bit, start off with contact story missions. Don't be afraid to start a team when you feel ready. Avoid joining farms and hyper fast exp teams. Try out a bunch of different toons.

 

My in game handle is the same as here. I'll team mad help you out anytime!

[PopZeCherry]

3 minutes ago, Bopin said:

Can't wait till' I get to creation of my character, halfway through the download. I always spend too much time on it but dang I love it when I see it finished! I'll try to make my character as close to my drawing if possible. (ref. image)

 

That picture reminds me of a character from Killer Instinct on the SNES forgot his name. 

[Coyote]

1 minute ago, PopZeCherry said:

how do I get my character to fly from level one or get an easy way to travel sorted? Is there a certain option I have to pick? 

 

Travel powers open up at Level 4, but you can get a Ninja Run for free from the Pay 2 Win vendor (in the starting area for both villains and heroes) that moves pretty fast.

[Abraxus]

2 minutes ago, PopZeCherry said:

Thank you for the warm welcome and yeah I’m thinking of trying out a melee tank, how do I get my character to fly from level one or get an easy way to travel sorted? Is there a certain option I have to pick? 
 

and I will do 

Travel powers become available at level 4, via Power Pool selection.  Until then, you are just running/jumping to get where you need to go.

[tremor3258]

Okay - first, welcome to the game!

 

Second - Homecoming isn't quite the same in all areas as the version of the game referenced, but paragonwiki.com (from the last version of the live game) is a good starting point especially for getting basics of classes, or reading through what task force contacts are saying to the leader for issues like WHY you are beating up the Clockwork King.

 

There's an in-game help channel that can seem like it's just global chat but questions to it are usually answered pretty quickly and accurately.

 

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by tremor3258

[Hardship]

 

1 hour ago, Abraxus said:

I always start to form an image of my characters in my mind while creating them, of approximately what I want them to look like.  Then, it is a matter of finding the costume pieces, and effects that bring that closest to fruition. Then, selecting the powers that complete that image.  Once those are done, the image before me usually helps me find a name.  That's my process in a nutshell, though when doing it, things don't go quite as quick as it might seem. 😎

That is almost the exact opposite of my approach. A name will come to me and with it, usually an idea for a  rough power type -- maybe fire, or dark or something.  Then I'll see if it or a variant of it is available and build my character around that seed.  I seldom ever create a character and then try to figure out a name.

[PopZeCherry]

55 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

Travel powers become available at level 4, via Power Pool selection.  Until then, you are just running/jumping to get where you need to go.

ahh no worries i shall eagerly await them haha