New Player Looking for Advice

[XenonManta]

I played City of Heroes/Villians briefly right when CoV released...

I loved the game, but I had too much going on to play much.

 

Now, I have discovered Homecoming and am happy to come back (I am installing it right now).

However, I am looking for advice. In general, in most MMOs - I gravitate towards either Support classes or Tanks depending on what's needed most, as I really like to run dungeons/raids.

I like a class that is a challenge to play.

 

Is there an archetype that fits this well? I vaguely remember playing a Mastermind Ninja and a Controller with Gravity, but I am pretty open.

I ask in advance, because I like to do a full write up on my character (RP style, background, etc.) and I am brainstorming.

[Lines]

You'll have 1000 character slots, you'll be pleased to know, plenty of room to experiment.

 

And yeah, there are a few support based archetypes (Defenders, Controllers and Corruptors) and Tanky archetypes (Tankers and Brutes). They most obviously fill those roles, but you'd be amazed how much any character can skirt into other roles.

[Seigmoraig]

15 minutes ago, XenonManta said:

However, I am looking for advice. In general, in most MMOs - I gravitate towards either Support classes or Tanks depending on what's needed most, as I really like to run dungeons/raids.

I like a class that is a challenge to play.

City of Heroes doesn't really have a rigid meta that needs to happen to win at Taskforces and such. You can have a run with mostly tanks/dps and everything will blow away so fast that it doesn't matter. Reversely you can have a group with only support and no melee/dps and everyone will be so buffed and the enemies so debuffed that it doesn't matter. When I form a group to do a piece of content, I literally invite the first 7 people that msg me and it works every time. You can play what you want with whatever powersets you want and it's all good as long as you have fun playing them

Edited April 24, 2020 by Seigmoraig

[XenonManta]

Thank you very much! I'll take a look - it will be a struggle to decide until I see how much one is needed over the other.

 

[Seigmoraig]

4 minutes ago, XenonManta said:

Thank you very much! I'll take a look - it will be a struggle to decide until I see how much one is needed over the other.

Seriously just play whatever you want, nothing is strictly needed, I'm not exaggerating when I say that ! You will rarely if ever see someone spamming for a tank or a healer.
Also you have 1000 character slots to play around with, personally I must have made 20 different characters before I got one that stuck to 50

Edited April 24, 2020 by Seigmoraig

[EmmySky]

Welcome home! 

 

Just to cover what hasnt been said:

 

Everlasting is the unofficial RP shard

Indomitable is the unofficial PvP shard

Torchbearer was first

Excelsior is most populated

Reunion is physically in Germany (others are Canada)

 

Unofficial status means that's kinda where those people gather but its not required or necessary.

 

Have fun!

[Greycat]

41 minutes ago, XenonManta said:

Thank you very much! I'll take a look - it will be a struggle to decide until I see how much one is needed over the other.

 

All that's needed is someone who enjoys playing.

 

You like support, you have a lot of options just in AT, *before* getting into powerset selection! Make use of all the slots you're given, don't be afraid to try things out (or shelve them if something's not clicking right away.)

[Saikochoro]

What I like about this game are the unexpected surprises. I never expected to enjoy ranged damage so much. In most other games I’ve played I only played the ranged damage dealers enough to know how they worked and then went back to melee/tank. 
 

I started off the same with this game - gravitating to scrappers and stalkers. Then I branched out and tried blasters only to realize they were 100% more fun to me. And the fact that they can either play in melee or range. 
 

The various powersets in each archetype can wildly change how the character is played. An archery / tactical arrow blaster is very different than a dual pistols / martial combat blaster.  An empathy defender is different than a poison defender.  There is so much variety that I don’t know of anyone who has played each possible combination of archetype, primary, and secondary. Not even getting into pool powers or power picks within the sets. Or IOs.

 

The game can be as shallow or as deep as you want it to be. There are endless possibilities for character themes. And best of all, there is no combination that is deemed useless to the point that nobody wants them on the team. In my experience, most everyone will fill teams on a first come first serve basis without even considering archetype let alone powersets. Every once in a while you will see a “tank preferred” advertisement, but most of the time teams don’t care. 
 

If you enjoy coming up with a backstory or concept. I’d suggest to just let your imagination run wild. Then when you have a solid idea I am 99.9% sure you will be able to find an archetype and powerset combination that fits the bill well. 
 

Welcome Home and Have Fun!

Edited April 25, 2020 by Saikochoro

[Doomguide2005]

And a big PS.  That 1000 characters is, afaik, per server.  And you get several free transfers a week to move characters between servers.

[Without_Pause]

I currently have 29 characters. I have likely deleted that many since I started playing on Homecoming, and that's with a 7-8 year history with the game to know what I like. Oddly enough it is much different this time around. Experiment and have fun.

[Gremlin]

19 hours ago, XenonManta said:

I like a class that is a challenge to play.

Welcome back!

 

You can change your "Notoriety" whenever you like. (https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Notoriety) This determines how many enemies you face in a mission and what their level is compared to you. Increasing the difficulty tends to increase the challenge especially if you're soloing. (Teams make everything easier really.) Note that you don't have to visit an NPC to change notoriety any more. You can do it with the menu in the chat bar.

 

The melee archetypes usually have higher armor and more varied protection. This allows them to ignore a lot of attacks making them more robust and more straight forward to play in my experience. Archetypes with a lot of control, use their powers to stop enemies from attacking them in the first place. This is brilliant when it works and rather exciting when it goes wrong. 🙂

 

Some power sets require more clicking and dancing about to work well. Sets with a lot of toggles and always on powers require less micromanagement.

 

As others have said, the power sets you choose have a huge effect though and can overturn these rules of thumb. There are forums dedicated to each archetype. They'll happily make more specific suggestions if you tell them what your general likes and dislikes are.

[Bastille Boy]

If you enjoy playing tanks and support, Tanker, Defender, and Corruptor are all great classes for a new player who wants a manageable challenge. (They also happen to be the easiest supers to have as a roommate.)

 

Playing a tanker okay is easy. Playing a tanker really well is difficult. There is subtlety in managing aggro well to keep the team both safe and efficient. Tankers are expected to manage aggro in a way that other melee classes aren't. Brutes can also taunt, but they're not expected to, and they don't do it as well.

 

Defenders and corruptors play differently in CoX than in most other MMOs. They are less about healing and more about buffing and debuffing. The differences between defenders and corruptors are subtle. The differences among the support sets are not subtle. Some solo very well; some don't solo well at all. Some support sets are very busy; you will be spending all your time buffing and healing teammates and very little time attacking. Others give you lots of time to use your attacks. If you want the option of soloing, take a set that includes some form of self protection.

 

I would steer clear of masterminds for your first character. The controls are complex and fiddly. There are statistics about the percentage of toons of each class played to level 50. Less than 5% of masterminds make it to level 50, and there's a big gap between masterminds and the second lowest ranked AT on that chart (sentinels, at 7%). More than 10% of tankers, defenders, and corruptors make it to level 50.

 

I would also steer clear of Energy Blast and any other powerset that relies heavily on knockback. It's possible to use knockback well on a team, but using it without understanding your teammates' tactics can cause unwanted chaos. Knockdown is fine. Super Strength is fine; most of the "knockback" powers actually do knockdown.

Edited April 25, 2020 by ejworthing

[Twisted Toon]

On 4/24/2020 at 9:45 AM, Lines said:

You'll have 1000 character slots, you'll be pleased to know, plenty of room to experiment.

 

And yeah, there are a few support based archetypes (Defenders, Controllers and Corruptors) and Tanky archetypes (Tankers and Brutes). They most obviously fill those roles, but you'd be amazed how much any character can skirt into other roles.

Back on live, I had an Illusion/Force Field Controller that could Tank and Scrap as well as manage crowd control. I dubbed him a Conscranker.

[XenonManta]

Thank you, everyone for the advice. I've been playing a Rad/Rad Stalker on Everlasting (Experiment G4-XII) and having a blast in task forces. I'm still a nooby, but working with a team to pick assassination targets and spreading contagion is fun.

 

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