First player build

[MagnusChaos]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am looking forward to playing this game I have never played it before and just wondering what powers/ skills builds you would recommend for a totally new player .

 

Cheers,

MagnusChaos

[Abraxus]

That's very hard to nail down for anyone.  It's really a matter of perhaps narrowing things down to an archetype that you identify with, as far as inherent characteristics, and try one of the power sets within.  Don't worry about regretting your decision!  You have 1,000 available character slots, so you can literally try as many different combinations as you like, until you find one that works.  Characters that don't work can have their resources transferred to a global account, for use by a new character if you like.  There are literally no wrong decisions, unless you, yourself decide that a character is just not working for you. 

 

There are no specific things that are inherently "better" in the game.  Just the ones that are better for you!  Folks around here (in the forums, in Discord, and in-game) are very helpful.  There is a link at the top of the forum page for Paragon Wiki, which has a lot of information with which to do some research, and learn more about your choices either before, or after you make them.  The idea is to have fun, and there are dozens, if not hundreds of ways to do that in this game. 

Feel free to do any of the above, and if you are looking for something in particular, feel free to hit me up here, or in-game.  My global handle is @abraxus!

Edited March 1, 2020 by Abraxus

[Snarky]

It always depends on what you bring to the table.  If you have loved range on every game and in every MMORPG you ever played, you will probably want a ranged character. (or as ranged as we get)

 

Having said that Melee types are the most forgiving to newcomers, unshockingly.  They have armor to help mitigate the issues when you walk into a trap we all know has been there for 10 years but it's your first rodeo.

 

I personally love Brutes.  My mains are Brutes, and a Tank badger.  If you want to examine the game without being drawn into micro-examining every build and nuance I would say jump into the game on an Anything Attack / Willpower Armor Brute.  Willpower Armor is something I used to solo all content on back years ago before shutdown.  It is not the "Most this" or "Greatest at that" set.  It is a wonderful armor that does a great job and you can pretty much ignore it and play.

 

Whatever you choose, have fun!  and welcome to Homecoming.

Edited March 1, 2020 by Snarky

[MagnusChaos]

Cheers for the quick responses everyone ,

 

Great advice Deferentially given me some good ideas thank you and see you in there!

[DougGraves]

My recommendation is to make a claws/willpower scrapper.  You do good damage and are pretty tough. 

 

 

[Call Me Awesome]

3 hours ago, DougGraves said:

My recommendation is to make a claws/willpower scrapper.  You do good damage and are pretty tough. 

 

 

Not a bad choice at all for a new player, my advice always used to be to roll a Scrapper since they combine good damage with enough durability to be forgiving while a newbie learns the ropes.  Claws is a good choice for primary since it gives you fast recharging powers to minimize the "stand around and wait for an attack to recharge" that many sets have in the early levels... while I'm not a big fan personally of Willpower it is effective and it's a "set and forget it" set.  Playing that combination will be a no brainer so a new player can instead learn the game without having to manage their powersets.

 

My first character back in 2004 was a Fire/Energy Blaster... it worked fairly well in my noobish hands up to around level 5, then I started faceplanting.  A lot.  Everything killed me with ease and I got frustrated, deleted the character and rolled an Invulnerability/Stone Melee Tanker, who became my namesake and first level 50.  About 7 years later I rolled up another Fire/Energy Blaster and by that time I was a much better player and had loads of fun with him.

 

In any event it's hard to beat a Scrapper for a brand new player.  You get really good damage, albeit in melee, and you get enough durability to live through your mistakes while you're learning.  Later on once you get experience and levels you'll find that Scrappers are capable of some really stupid levels of badassness.  Solo game content meant for a full team of 8?  No problem for a mature Scrapper with a decent build.  Boost the mobs to +4 levels above you?  Now it's starting to get interesting and you'll need to pay attention to what you're doing.  Still well within the capabilities of a mature Scrapper build however.

[Snarky]

so you didn't start face planting the Blaster until level 9?

 

[Call Me Awesome]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

so you didn't start face planting the Blaster until level 9?

 

As I recall I didn't start face planting constantly until after around level 5 or so... this was back in 2004 so it's been awhile.  I do know I deleted the character sometime before 20... I remember getting Fly which puts it after level 14.

 

Back then debt was a major deal and frankly at the time I kind of sucked as a player, at least with a blaster.  I do recall that my Tank made it to 50 with only one or two deaths, and I learned a lot along the way.  Remembering the aggravation of constantly face planting on my blaster I made damn sure as a tank that I held the aggro away from the squishies.  I found that tanking appealed to me and I spent most of the next few years playing tankers.

 

At some point I branched out and by now I've played most AT's to 50 at least once... the only one I've never been able to click with is a Mastermind.  I've tried several times with several different combinations but Masterminds just don't seem to be my thing.

 

It's kind of ironic but since Homecoming my main character has been... a Fire/Energy blaster.  It works a lot better in more skilled hands, and it doesn't hurt that the character is soft capped defensively to Ranged damage and built to the massive levels of +to hit that the original fast snipe required.

 

I do still enjoy melee characters though; over the years I've had 6 level 50 scrappers, 3 level 50 stalkers, 1 brute and 5 tankers.  My current list of 50's here includes two scrappers, two stalkers, one tanker and one blaster.  There's two more tankers, 3 defenders, 1 blaster, 1 peacebringer and 1 controller in the 30-45 range who'll get there sometime.

[Snarky]

Yeah. I have always liked the idea of blasting.  Just, between the actual gameplay, the AT design, and my many drawbacks I have struggled with it.  I had 50 Doms and Energy Blasters back on live.  I would run for a week or two, back to Bruting.  Same is holding true here.

 

So far my favorite ranged character is a Dark/Mental Blaster I have at low 30s.  Wow can you hover blast cone carnage!  That thing is a broom in Synapse.  I mitigated the one KB cone with Overwhelming Force.  I am looking at revising the build plan I have as I level.  I tend to build over-tanky.  

[EmmySky]

For durability and damage output, I would suggest scrapper for melee and sentinel for range.  Its a shorter range but other ranged ATs become complex or have learning curves that might turn off new players.  

 

Welcome to the game and have fun!

[Oubliette_Red]

@MagnusChaos Greetings and welcome!

 

I hope you enjoy the game as much as the rest of us have. The majority of us CoH'ers try to be helpful so feel free to ask questions here or in the game. 🙂

 

Also, be sure to check out this thread for Tips and Tricks for New Players, since CoH doesn't play much like other MMOs.

 

 

 

[Oubliette_Red]

Oh and another option if you like to blast at things are Corruptors which offer a combination of blasting and buffing/debuffing.

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by Oubliette_Red

[Dazl]

Welcome to the game. I would suggest Sentinels as a good first character. You can stay at range and have good defense. Once you get more familiar with the game you will likely have a better feel for what you really want to play. Like the rest of us you will probably end up with may alts, so experiment and enjoy. 

[Snarky]

3 minutes ago, Crimsonpyre said:

Welcome to the game. I would suggest Sentinels as a good first character. You can stay at range and have good defense. Once you get more familiar with the game you will likely have a better feel for what you really want to play. Like the rest of us you will probably end up with may alts, so experiment and enjoy. 

I would suggest a new player not jump onto Sentinels.  If I have to explain why it is not worth it.

[biostem]

I would recommend a claws/radiation armor brute at first;  You have quick attacks with some range mixed in, and solid defenses with a good recovery boosting power, so you don't up up running out of endurance.

[Dazl]

5 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I would suggest a new player not jump onto Sentinels.  If I have to explain why it is not worth it.

Well true to your name. I'm not saying this should be their main character to 50, but just one that helps them get familiar with the game.

[Obus Form]

Would suggest sentinel Archetype as the first type to play.  

 

It is tanky ranged damage dealer that is jack of all trades in virtually every category (damage output, survivability, crowd control, availability of AOE damage).

 

Something like fire/will power or fire/regent for first time players

[roleki]

I wonder if anyone ever started with a Mind/TA controller as their first, and, if they ever came back.

[Without_Pause]

Kat/willpower in either scrapper or brute form. Willpower is a defense set for newbies and Katana has a utility attack which adds to the character's defense.  Broad Sword would also work but is slower.

 

Claws is also awesome. Street Justice might be my favorite, but not as newbie friendly and honestly better as a stalker. Kat/wp is pretty much "I don't want to think too hard." War Mace would also be good.

[Sakai]

If safe combos are what we are looking for then how about an Anything/Super Reflex scrapper. Never die while you explore the City. 

[Ironblade]

When I first downloaded the game (in 2005), my connection was very slow so I had time to read the manual while the game downloaded.

 

I concluded that a scrapper with Regeneration secondary would be good to keep me alive while I learned how to play.  I made a Broadsword/Regen scrapper named Ironblade and he became my favorite character.  The only complaint I sometimes hear about Regen is that's it's a bit 'clicky'.  If you don't want to be clicking powers to stay alive, I would recommend Willpower.  It's a great set for 'cruise control survival'.  I have not played it on a scrapper, but it's fantastic on a tank.

 

I think if you start with a scrapper or brute, you should be satisfied.  You can go with a tank for even better survivability, but significantly reduced damage output.  Not necessarily a bad thing - I took every tank defense set to level 50 (and Invulnerability to 50 three times).

[Call Me Awesome]

On 3/3/2020 at 10:17 PM, Ironblade said:

When I first downloaded the game (in 2005), my connection was very slow so I had time to read the manual while the game downloaded.

 

I concluded that a scrapper with Regeneration secondary would be good to keep me alive while I learned how to play.  I made a Broadsword/Regen scrapper named Ironblade and he became my favorite character.  The only complaint I sometimes hear about Regen is that's it's a bit 'clicky'.  If you don't want to be clicking powers to stay alive, I would recommend Willpower.  It's a great set for 'cruise control survival'.  I have not played it on a scrapper, but it's fantastic on a tank.

 

I think if you start with a scrapper or brute, you should be satisfied.  You can go with a tank for even better survivability, but significantly reduced damage output.  Not necessarily a bad thing - I took every tank defense set to level 50 (and Invulnerability to 50 three times).

I had a similar experience, my first Scrapper was my third character rolled up and was also a BS/Regen.  That was in issue 3 before all the Regen nerfs pretty well gutted the set; although even after all the nerfs the defense of Parry makes Regen MUCH more survivable.  Even without any assistance from the primary it's still adequate although you do need to pay attention to your health and be ready with Reconstruction and Dull Pain.  It's not a set you can ignore like SR or Willpower, it demands much more attention to survive.

 

On the issue of a Tanker vs a Scrapper or Brute I'd say it depends on if you'll be teaming all the time or spending a good amount of time solo.  A tanker is certainly more survivable but they solo considerably slower than the other melee AT's.  Also there's more expectation on your teammates part of your role as a tanker; you'll be expected to take the alpha strike and manage aggro as well as lead the team through the mission.  The Tanker is the first into combat and his job is to keep the mob's attention on him instead of the squishier members of the team... it's a lot of fun but it is a good bit more complicated than a simple "BAD GUY!!! KILL HIM NOW!!!" playstyle that a Scrapper lends itself to.

[Broken_Prey]

On 3/2/2020 at 2:23 PM, roleki said:

I wonder if anyone ever started with a Mind/TA controller as their first, and, if they ever came back.

My brothers first 50 and second alt made was a mind/emp that he soloed up. While emp is a good set it really needs a team doesn't do much for you solo. 

[roleki]

56 minutes ago, Broken_Prey said:

My brothers first 50 and second alt made was a mind/emp that he soloed up. While emp is a good set it really needs a team doesn't do much for you solo. 

Commendable!  He couldn't even buff his Confused victims.

[Rathulfr]

The best thing for a new player is just to pick whatever looks/sounds cool at first and try it out for a few dozen levels.  If you don't like it, then roll another one that's different and try that out, instead.  I learned more about this game and what was good and bad by simple trial and error, and had a blast doing so.