Is there a leveling guide out there?

[TheTBeast]

It seems like there aren't many guides in general for COH even in the old forums. Most guides stopped being made around Issue 17. Leveling guides are super rare too. Do you guys have any good leveling guides or is it just run 8 man teams until 50?

[Adeon Hawkwood]

There isn't really a leveling guide because leveling is so flexible, a lot of it depends on what you want. If your goal is to level quickly then yeah 8-man teams are the way to go unless you have someone to power-level you. I tend to try and mix a few task forces in there as well, partly for badges, partly for merits and partly because it makes a change to just running radio missions.

[_NOPE_]

Leveling guides are rare because powerlevelllers are rare. Most people play the game to enjoy the entire journey, from 1-50. This game is a LOT more about the experience, the stories, and the role playing than most other MMOs.

[SwitchFade]

Honestly, if you team and play, you will level more quickly in this game than most. Over the years, the game was enhanced in ways that made leveling ridiculously easy, doing anything. Back in issue 3-8, it was brutal to get from 14-22, speed up again from 23-30, and then hit a crawl at 36ish.

 

Just have fun. Missions give great exp, tf's dump loads. Join groups, or hit contacts and finish arcs for massive dumps of completion xp.

 

Hit the p2w vendor for a doubling of your XP and street sweep. I could probably hit 50 in a weekend of just door missions and tf's, really.

 

Have some fun!

[Mikazuki]

Most general guides will just tell you to run AE 1-50.

 

Or if you want to solo, get a fire aura brute to lv6 then run AE from 6-50

 

That is probably the fastest way to level even with halved EXP, but the most boring way as well.

 

But well: the way i find most enjoyable to level is to do all accolade-relevant content plus a few additional task forces to level, Task Force commander TFs, Moonfire for silver bullet/slayer(atlas medallion) Ernesto Hess for fun, Katie Hannon for geas, etc. Then at 40+ just focus on Tina and then on Maria for portal hopper.

 

But well, just one of the many ways to level.

[subbacultchas]

Leveling guides are rare because powerlevelllers are rare. Most people play the game to enjoy the entire journey, from 1-50. This game is a LOT more about the experience, the stories, and the role playing than most other MMOs.

 

I'm not sure I believe this to be true. There's a lot of powerlevelers out there, always has been. In initial days it more resembled the masses parked at PI begging to join Fire Tank teams, then it shifted toward hazard zones and farming, and later into AE. There was never a shortage of it, there were always consistent complaints about the PI begging and AE usage, enough to influence the devs toward changing that. And there were a lot of guides, from where to best farm, the different ways of farming (who remembers box farming), strategies for tanks to keep aggro (BLOS yo!), and best builds geared toward farming. Heck, I may have done a guide back then on hazard zones and leveling.

 

So I think it's our relative experience with the game and the people we played with that probably informs your opinion on this. And it's true for me as well, we are both speaking purely anecdotally. But I still believe it's utterly true that there was never a time that powerleveling wasn't a significant portion of the game, and people's distaste of it frequenting the forums.

 

I don't know of any current guides, as per the OP. But hit me up if you have questions, we still use hazard zones a fair bit for alts and I can suggest such for your level.

 

** Or I could list them here. General flow is Atlas or sewers until 5-6, then Perez Park or Hollows from 6-10/11 (Perez outside of walls is best), then Boomtown from 10/11 to 20/21 (Faultine is possible but worse), and Striga Isle for the 21-30 range. It works best if you have AOE oriented characters, and runs much smoother with a group than solo, although solo the xp is flat out better. Use inspirations as needed (heavy on purps/blues), and focus on the bigger groups of enemies, wiping out a group them moving on. If you run into endurance issues every fight, I suggest finding groups at -1 level until you get your endurance settled. You can do the same via missions by setting your notoriety team size larger, but I don't think it's as efficient as hazard zone leveling. We commonly run Dom/Troller/Blaster, or Troller/Brute/Corr trios, but the more folks you get the higher level you can fight so the xp flows. Enjoy.

[subbacultchas]

For those not in the know, BLOS was an old acronym for Break Line of Sight, which is kind of the central tenet of keeping enemies in tight bunches if you wanted to pull a whole room to one mass group. I know I'm not the only oldie that remembers this.

[ed_anger]

in the looking for group channel you’ll see many people saying DFB, which is people powerleveling by running the same mission (easier task force?) over and over.

 

but the first couple characters you have, play through the content. it’s good stuff.

[Shinobu]

powerlevelllers are rare.

 

Still laughing at this joke more than 24 hours later.  Good one!

 

  ;D

[Heraclea]

Blueside, I'd take a character through the Death from Below a couple times.  That should easily get you to 9 or 10-ish.  Then do task forces, repeatedly if needed, starting with Positron 1 and 2, which will probably get you to 15 and Synapse, then to 20 and Penelope Yin, then to 25 and Citadel.  After Citadel it slows in that one run through will not get you to the next tiers, which are Manticore at 30 and Numina at 35.  But once you hit 35 you can unlock Cimerora and run ITFs repeatedly all the way to 50.  Throw in stuff like Maria Augustine story arcs in Peregrine or Eden trials for variety. 

 

If you run this many task forces, you will do more than level your character at a pleasant clip.  You will also furnish yourself with many reward merits, which means that any recipe in the game is yours to command.  You will also be reasonably supplied with the inf needed to craft them, and many salable drops.  In short, your character will not only be levelled, she will be more than adequately powerful and prepared to take on any challenge with the ease that makes it fun.

[Primantis]

Blueside, I'd take a character through the Death from Below a couple times.  That should easily get you to 9 or 10-ish.  Then do task forces, repeatedly if needed, starting with Positron 1 and 2, which will probably get you to 15 and Synapse, then to 20 and Penelope Yin, then to 25 and Citadel.  After Citadel it slows in that one run through will not get you to the next tiers, which are Manticore at 30 and Numina at 35.  But once you hit 35 you can unlock Cimerora and run ITFs repeatedly all the way to 50.  Throw in stuff like Maria Augustine story arcs in Peregrine or Eden trials for variety. 

 

If you run this many task forces, you will do more than level your character at a pleasant clip.  You will also furnish yourself with many reward merits, which means that any recipe in the game is yours to command.  You will also be reasonably supplied with the inf needed to craft them, and many salable drops.  In short, your character will not only be levelled, she will be more than adequately powerful and prepared to take on any challenge with the ease that makes it fun.

 

This is my general suggestion as well. If you don't want to mess around with Recipe IOs just yet, you can use reward merits to cash out on stuff to sell on the AH, like Enhancement Converters. Doing so will generate all the cash you'll ever need for SOs or basic IOs.

 

Although I recommend hanging onto them for later.

 

You can technically ride DFB all the way to 50, but doing so is going to be hella boring, grindy, and (especially if you are new) you'll have zero idea whats going on or how the play. As DFB is very easy and teaches you nothing outside of "Dodge the Bad"

[Zolgar]

The reason there are not really leveling guides is two fold:

 

One) The game is only recently resurrected. A lot of old information was lost or has gone out of date.

Two) Unlike many other MMOs out there, there really isn't a "you need to go from this area to this area" or "you need to do this quest line, then this quest line." type progression. There are quest lines and leveled areas yes, but... you can disregard them all you want.

 

In City of Heroes, level guides would be based on what your goal is in leveling. Example, the people saying to run all the old TFs? That's great if your goal is to be well stocked on merits, but it's not good if your goal is speed, because some of those old TFs are painfully slow slogs.

 

If your goal is speed, and no door sitting in a farm? I would say a couple DFBs, Posi 1 and 2, Yin, deck yourself out in 25 basic IOs, and find a team running higher level content willing to take you on until you hit 35 (which won't take long if you're running double XP), then do the ITF and high level mission teams.

 

If your goal is to do it all solo? Just follow your contacts. If they stop giving you missions, find new contacts or do tips.

 

If speed is your ONLY concern? Befriend a farmer, ask them to let you sit in on whatever their favorite farm is.

 

Yes, some of these could be written in to extended guides, but it would still basically be "team with people." or "follow your contacts." >.>

[THEDarkTyger]

I mean...I'm not sure what you'd need a guide for. Just run missions. That's all you need. Crank up the notoriety if you're finding the missions easy, gets you more xp and more challenge.

[Myrmidon]

I mean...I'm not sure what you'd need a guide for. Just run missions. That's all you need. Crank up the notoriety if you're finding the missions easy, gets you more xp and more challenge.

 

 

This.

 

Also, join random teams. It can make the game more enjoyable and you’re likely to find some new friends.

[THEDarkTyger]

This.

 

Also, join random teams. It can make the game more enjoyable and you’re likely to find some new friends.

 

That really depends on the player. Some people enjoy soloing more. Or just playing with an established group of friends. Not everyone is all that social.