Things I wish I knew when I started...

[Unkk]

If you have any suggestions for a new player, please let me know.  Several games I've played had tricks or tips that I didnt find out until almost at the max level, and I'd like to avoid that this time.   Last time I played City of Heroes, CoV wasnt out yet.

 

Thanks in advance.

Unkk

[Yoru-hime]

That's going a LONG way back. Here are a few quick links to get you started, but really, the shorter list would be what hasn't changed.

 

 

Big highlights include:

 

All the new contacts, zones and story arcs

Ouroboros

The Invention System

Architect Entertainment

Going Rogue/Praetoria

Incarnate Abilities and Content

 

Paragon Wiki is also still a useful resource, with the understanding that it's locked at the end of live so changes made by HC since then won't be reflected.

 

Welcome back!

[MTeague]

Converters In a Nutshell: 

• can be bought for merits at a rate of 3 converters per merit.  can only buy 3 for 1 merit, or 30 for 10 merits.  no higher quantities available. though you can just click "Buy" more times.
• if you have piles of influence, often worth buying converters from influence instead of merits. Your milage may vary.
• Converters only work on Enhancements, NOT on Recipes.  Craft, THEN convert.
• There are several types of Conversions.  
• NOTE:  If you are converting a levelled (Non-Attuned) IO, the result will be an IO of the same level.  This means if you're converting a level 15 IO, it can never ever ever ever become a Luck of the Gambler, because LotG has a minimum level of 25.  Know the high / low ranges of your sets. 
• If you have no patience to DO the converting and selling of converted results, you can always post the Converters for sale directly.  Someone will always buy them. 

Conversion Types: 

• IN SET CONVERSIONS:   what it says.  the thing you convert will become a different IO in the same set.  Costs 3 Converters per In Set Conversion, the most expensive mode.  But if you get a Luck of the Gambler Endurance/Recharge, you can use this mode until you get the shiny +7.5% Global Recharge that you really want.  Same with Steadfast Protection Resistance/Endurance to shazam it into the Res/+3% Defense piece.
• OUT-OF-SET CONVERSIONS:  also what it says.  the thing you convert will become an IO from a completely different set.  Exact cost here can vary.  Once you choose the "Out of Set Conversions" radio button, there is a dropdown next to it that gives the sub-type of conversion.  Some methods you can choose, some are locked in. 
  • OUT-OF-SET (BY RARITY):    The result will be an IO of any set of the same rarity.  Rares stay Rares, Uncommons stay Uncommons.  But HIbernation (Uncommon Sleep) could become Steadfast Protection (Uncommon Resistance), and Ghost Widow's Embrace (Rare Hold) could become Kinetic Combat (Rare Melee).   These cost 1 converter per roll.
  • OUT-OF-SET (BY TYPE):   the result will be an IO of the same TYPE, but not necessarily the same rarity.  Defense will stay Defense, but Serendipity (End/Res) could become Reactive Defenses Scaling Damage Resistance.   Immobilize will remain Immobilize but Enfeebled Operations (uncommon) could become Trap of the Hunter (rare).   This costs 2 converters per roll.
    • to the best of my knowledge it is impossible to turn a yellow or an orange into a purple by this conversion type.
    • to the best of my knowledge it is impossible to turn a non-pvp into a pvp by this conversion type.
    • to the best of my knowledge it is impossible to turn a non-ATO into an ATO by this type.
    • to the best of my knowledge it is impossible to turn a non-Winter-O into a Winter-O by this type.
  • PVP:   can convert any PvP IO into another PvP IO.  MUST start with a PvP IO.  But Gladiator's Net could become Panacea, or Javelin Volley could become Gladiator's Armor, etc.
  • ATO:   can convert any ATO into another ATO.   MUST start with an ATO.  Call of the Mastermind could become Critical Strikes.  Will of the Dominator could become Kheldian's Grace.
  • Winter:   can convert atny Winter-O inst another Winter-O. MUST start with a Winter-O.  But Avalanche could become Entomb, etc.
  • Purple:   can convert a Purple to a Purple.  I believe only "classic" purples count for this.  Not "Superior" versions of ATO's, etc.  But Fortunata Hypnosis can become Ragnarok or Hecatomb, etc.

Most commonly, I buy lots of uncommon recipes, craft them, convert by Type into rare, then convert by rarity to valuable rares, then post the rares for sale.  I spend a fair amount of up-front influence for this... I have to get the recipes, get the salvage, pay the crafting cost, buy the converters, etc....  but I typically earn far more than I spend when all is said and done.  Just keep in mind it's not instant money. You may post your converted results and maybe they'll sell instantly, or maybe they'll take 4 days to sell.  Depends how much you price to move and how much you say "there's not many for sale, SOMEONE will pay large for this...".

 

I find this works best if you bounce around on lots of alts.  If I post things for sale on my scrapper, but then spend the next three days on different alts, it's fire-and-forget sales and I just collect the proceeds next time I log the character that posted them.

[Rathulfr]

37 minutes ago, Unkk said:

If you have any suggestions for a new player, please let me know.  Several games I've played had tricks or tips that I didnt find out until almost at the max level, and I'd like to avoid that this time.   Last time I played City of Heroes, CoV wasnt out yet.

 

Thanks in advance.

Unkk

Short-list:

1. There is no "best" or "meta" build -- lots of different builds are good and meta, and there are almost no "bad" or "gimped" builds.  Sure, some are more effective in some aspects, but every build can be made to work in most situations, either solo or teamed.  People who come from other MMOs often discover optimal builds on sites like IcyVeins or Noxxic, because the build options in other MMOs are often so limited.  But the sheer number and variety of builds and IO sets in CoH mean that's not a problem here.  So play you want, whatever you like, whatever seems interesting, because it'll probably work.
2. Buy 8 hours of amplifiers at one time from the P2W vendor when you're level 1 (assuming you have the 24K Inf required to do so).  8 hours of in-game time is a long time: often well into your 20s-30s.  The amplifiers (there are 3 of them) get significantly more expensive every with every level (e.g., level 2 = 4K per hour per amplifier).  So front-loading those at level 1 is the best value.
3. When you create a new char, run DFB four times to get four buff powers.  These stack with the amplifiers you got at level 1, and they last until level 22.  There's another set of buff powers that last until 30 for running DiB; however, by that time I'm interested in running other stuff, so DiB is kinda dull.  YMMV.
4. Don't be afraid to lead teams.  It's not hard to do: you don't need any special knowledge or skills.  Usually folks are just happy to hang out with others and play, so you don't need to stress about it.
5. Don't buy enhancements until level 22 -- they're not worth the expense: just use whatever drops you get along the way.  And when you do decide to buy enhancements, buy level 25 or 30 common IOs, instead of single-origins (SOs).  They never expire, and you can use them all the way up to max level, when you're ready to invest in IO sets.
6. Sell yellow and orange salvage on the AH: you'll get a lot more for it there than vendoring it.
7. Always craft orange (rare) recipes, whenever possible.  You can usually sell it on the AH for more than it cost to craft, in most cases.  When you can't, use Converters to convert a Rare enhancement into another Rare enhancement that will sell well.
8. Buy attuned enhancements (when you start buying IO set enhancements) so you can use them earlier and enjoy their set bonuses when exemplared to lower levels.  This does not apply to purples, which can't be equipped until 50 anyway.

 

[DougGraves]

1. Contacts are optional.  When a contact introduces you to a new contact the new contact is optional.  You may still have missions from the old contact.

 

2. The game is very different between teaming and soloing.  Teaming levels you up much faster.  Your contribution in a team is very different than when soloing.  You can do both, but certain AT's and powersets are geared towards teaming and others towards soloing.

[biostem]

2 hours ago, Unkk said:

If you have any suggestions for a new player, please let me know.  Several games I've played had tricks or tips that I didnt find out until almost at the max level, and I'd like to avoid that this time.   Last time I played City of Heroes, CoV wasnt out yet.

 

Thanks in advance.

Unkk

When you are creating a character, pick your AT then whatever primary and secondary catch your eye.  Before you get too involved in creating your costume, go over to the customization tab and see how the powers animate/look, to see if those are powers you'd like to stick with throughout that character's entire career. You can easily go back to the AT and powers tab to change things up, as you aren't yet locked into things.  Try different color options and power combinations until you get a look or flow that you like.  Also be aware of the various drop-down options you have under customization, such as the "No Redraw" option many weapon-based sets have.  Going back to the powers tab, you can click the 'i' icon in the upper right to see the numeric details regarding those powers, if you want to calculate things a bit more.  This window also tells you about the damage type, recharge rate, and other specifics of all the powers, (though it can be tough to make sense of the terms used).  Not only do these steps give you a better idea of how your character will behave, but they can help you tailor your costume better, (such as how some traps powers have you appear to press some buttons on your left forearm), as well as what kind of color scheme you want to use.  

[Replacement]

• You have 5000 character slots.  5000.  No reason to hold back.
• /ah brings up the auction house from anywhere that's not a mission, pvp zone, or supergroup base
• at level 22, take a look in the auction house under Crafted Enhancements > Other.  You'll see a bunch that start with "Invention:" that's what you want until you feel comfortable diving into other stuff.
• Email tab allows you to send influence to yourself.  You'll put an @ sign in front of your global handle.
• Under the main menu ( \ key on standard keyboard) there is a Global Handle option.  You can use this to change your global handle once and then this option disappears.

Edited April 30, 2020 by Replacement

[Sovera]

My signature's link.

[Rathulfr]

Ooh, I just thought of one.  When you create a character, create 6 costumes and save them.  When you enter the game at level 1, go to the trainer and/or tailor and change the other 5 costume slots to the other 5 costumes you saved.  It won't cost you anything, because costume changes are free until level 10.

 

[ArchVileTerror]

You can change the gender and height of your character only by going to a Surgeon NPC (Trina in the Tiki Lounge of Pocket D counts).  Otherwise, Tailors/Facemakers/Trainers can only tweak the facial and body scales.

[siolfir]

While we're going over changing costumes, power customization can also be saved and loaded, and you can customize every power in a pool after you pick them up by selecting the "All Powers" option at the bottom left. The same is true for epics, patron pools, and incarnate powers.

 

Here's what it looks like in the character creator (extended size to show the location relative to the arrows):

 

And it will look like this when it's selected:

[Crysis]

Never, ever sell a Purple recipe.  They drop too rarely and although worth ten million or higher you can get so much more by crafting and converting it into one of the higher value damage Purples.

 

Or better yet....craft and save it in Email to yourself or base for use when you hit 50.  At 18-25 mm purchase price, it’s better to craft and save rather than sell now but pay high price later.

[gameboy1234]

6 hours ago, MTeague said:

Converters In a Nutshell: 

• can be bought for merits at a rate of 3 converters [...etc.]

This is good info but probably WAY more detailed and advanced than someone who is new needs to know.  Not sure what the take-away is here.  Maybe: There are new Enhancements in the game, that are better (but also much more expensive) than the regular Dual Origin or Single Origin that are now the old enhancements.  Go to a university around level 15 and you'll get the tutorial, it's worth it to get a free Enhancement.

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by gameboy1234

[gameboy1234]

4 hours ago, biostem said:

Before you get too involved in creating your costume,

This reminds me: at level 1, you now have access to 5 new costume slots.  These are FREE to change until level 10.  Your first job  should probably be to customize these costumes so you can look totally cool while you team with people.

 

Run one DFB (the quick way to level up mentioned above) if you like, but get quickly to the Icon store (tailor) or Facemaker (? redside tailor, I forget what they're called) or you'll have to pay for your new costumes.  Also capes are available at level 1, and check out the new wings, back items like quivers and backpacks, and auras and path auras.

 

[gameboy1234]

6 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

Buy 8 hours of amplifiers at one time from the P2W vendor when you're level 1 (assuming you have the 24K Inf required to do so).  8 hours of in-game time

Maybe, but on a first toon, it might be better to take things more slowly.  These are XP modifiers, yes?  They'll shut off money and other drops, might not be the best idea for someone who doesn't have a rich level 50 alt to fund them.

 

[gameboy1234]

6 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

Don't buy enhancements until level 22 -- they're not worth the expense: just use whatever drops you get along the way.  And when you do decide to buy enhancements, buy level 25 or 30 common IO

Before level 22, you can look on the auction house for cheap IOs.  Try to pay less than 1000 inf for IOs, but for low level IOs people will craft them for badges and then dump them at a loss on the auction house, so you can check out prices there and see if there's anything you might want (and can afford).  The lowest crafted enhancement is level 10, so you can start looking around then.

[biostem]

5 minutes ago, gameboy1234 said:

This reminds me: at level 1, you now have access to 5 new costume slots.  These are FREE to change until level 10.  Your first job  should probably be to customize these costumes so you can look totally cool while you team with people.

You're probably better off just creating the costumes during the initial character creation, saving them, then loading them in at the tailor later...

[gameboy1234]

17 minutes ago, biostem said:

You're probably better off just creating the costumes during the initial character creation, saving them, then loading them in at the tailor later...

I tend to want to think it over, and I also want to see how my character looks actually in game and while using powers.  These will affect my decisions how exactly to adjust the costume.  So I like to wait and do it in game.

 

Typically what I do is create a few alts, then just kinda fart around with them until I feel happy with them, then I decide which one to start leveling more seriously.

 

[Sakai]

When you get off the train in skyway when you meant to click Steel you need to run around to the front to hop on a train. Turning around  and clicking will yield you nothing. 

 

If you are standing on the exact spot where the mission lead you and there is no entrance it is underground somewhere. 

 

You can combine three of the same inspiration by right clicking on one then selecting the type you want. 

 

If someone sends you a Tell you can hit the  Backspace key to respond to rhem. 

 

If you click on a baddie and he is pink that means he is much tougher than you. 

 

 

[gameboy1234]

There are Help and LFG (Looking For Group) channels in game, and people are generally helpful.  You can type /help or /lfg to send messages to those channels.

 

Just above the chat box where you type (but below the two default windows where the chat appears) are some tiny buttons.  You click on these to set your default channel.  The last button in that group is "A" and will set your chat default to whatever window you clicked on last.  This is handy when having multiple conversations.

 

Those chat windows are editable.  You can right click on a window and pick "Edit Tab" and add and remove channels.  I like to remove Help and LFG from the first tab (Global) and leave them on the second one ("Help").  This way I leave that first tab for team and league chat, and the second tab gets devoted to the more social stuff.  The numbers 1 through 4 at the top of that window allow you to make totally custom chat windows.  The button in the upper left allows you to detach them and move them anywhere on your screen.

 

You can click on peoples' names in chat (left click, not right click) and get a pop up menu, where you can send someone a private message (useful when LFG says "we want more players, pst" (=please send tell)) so you don't have to try to spell their name correctly.  You can also get their global name, add them as friend, add them to your team or league, or add a note about them.  The notes are stored permanently and tied to their global name, so if they are playing a different character you'll still see that there's a note about them when you mouse over their character (to see this easily you should give the person 1 to 5 stars, which will appear when you mouse over their character).

 

And finally bases used to be expensive and hard to get, but now they're totally free.  You can set up a base anytime you like (I think, there might be a restriction on characters that are very very low level), and play around and set any of the teleporters or special characters that act like contacts.  Most servers have public bases that anyone can use.  Click on the base portal and pick "Enter Code".  For the Everlasting server Zone-8888 is well known and a pretty good one.

 

 

[GastlyGibus]

Seeing as you haven't played since City of Villains, and seeing all the advice at marketeering, I'll just give this piece of info for you. 

 

Learning the ins and outs of the Auction House/Market is really the only reliable way of making money in this game. It's something that I wish would be fixed, but the influence rates from just playing the game are abysmal, and if you want to get even just regular Single-Origin enhancements, it's absolutely crucial to learn how buying and selling works and how to get the most bang for your buck.

 

It might seem intimidating at first, but you don't have to be a super savvy investor to make decent cash in this game. Go check out the market section here on the forums and you'll find some incredibly helpful stuff.

Also, I'll add this little tidbit that can be helpful. If you click on the "powers" button right on the top of your power tray, at the top of that menu is a button called "combat attributes." You can click on that and it'll bring up a menu that has all of your characters statistics, and shows which powers or effects are increasing or decreasing those values. You can even use it to monitor things like your total amount of influence, your current level, how much experience until you level up, etc. In addition, if you right-click on any of the options on this menu, you can bring up a permanent little window that'll stay on your screen so you can see that attribute all the time. It's incredibly helpful, even if you just want to keep an eye on how much money you have or how much EXP you need to level up.

Edited April 30, 2020 by GastlyGibus
Added some more advice.

[Coin]

Counter-point to some of the market players in here 😉

 

You don't need a huge amount of Inf to get to 50. You can get to 50 perfectly fine with just the normal in-game items you get from salvage and recipe drops if you sell them on the Auction House or to a vendor. I rarely buy anything more than just normal DO's and SO' until I get to 50, I always get more than enough Inf just by playing the game. Don't feel you have to min-max you character to be able to level up, just playing the game normally, you'll level up fast enough anyway

 

However, when you get to 50, if you want to kit yourself out with all purple sets, become all uber-powerful, then yes, you need a metric ton of Inf and that's when you need to know how to play the markets, converters etc. There are numerous guides in the forum for this so have fun getting there!

 

[GastlyGibus]

12 minutes ago, Coin said:

Counter-point to some of the market players in here 😉

 

You don't need a huge amount of Inf to get to 50. You can get to 50 perfectly fine with just the normal in-game items you get from salvage and recipe drops if you sell them on the Auction House or to a vendor. I rarely buy anything more than just normal DO's and SO' until I get to 50, I always get more than enough Inf just by playing the game. Don't feel you have to min-max you character to be able to level up, just playing the game normally, you'll level up fast enough anyway

 

However, when you get to 50, if you want to kit yourself out with all purple sets, become all uber-powerful, then yes, you need a metric ton of Inf and that's when you need to know how to play the markets, converters etc. There are numerous guides in the forum for this so have fun getting there!

 

I understand that, and I do mostly the same with DO's/SO's until 50. My advice was basically "learn how to sell stuff" because I figured, having played before even City of Villains, they wouldn't know about the Auction House at all, since that wasn't added until Issue 10.

Even if you're just going with SO's, if you don't use the market at all, you simply cannot afford to buy anything. I just rolled a new tanker, for example, and I've been pretty much teaming up exclusively with him. He's at level 28 now, and not counting money made from selling on the market, I've only made about 500,000 total over that time. Considering most SO's from vendors run about 20,000-30,000 a piece, you'd probably only be able to buy like a dozen or so enhancements before all that cash is gone.

[Gremlin]

Paragon Wiki is still the main reference for the game. It's mostly correct. The mains differences are that all content is available to all players on Homecoming and the HC team have tuned a few mechanics and added a few powersets etc.

 

The pay to win vendor gives away lots of buffs and powers etc that are handy at low levels. You have to pay for some things with inf but a lot of stuff is free.

 

Don't worry about making mistakes with your build. You can change almost everything except your archetype and powersets. You can change your powers and slotting by doing a respec. I usually do this once per character after level 35.  You can also prise an enhancement out of a slot. Mid's Reborn is an invaluable tool for planning builds and exploring powersets. The archetype specific forums are happy to give advice about your build.

 

You receive Reward Merits for completing story arcs etc. These are surprisingly valuable especially at low level.

 

You don't have to be a particular level to join a team. The game automatically adjusts your powers to fit the team leaders level. You might not want to join a level 50 team with a level 1 character though. 🙂

 

The biggest contribution you can make to a team is to turn up and use your powers. Your build really doesn't matter much, so feel free to pick whichever powers you fancy and slot them how you like.

 

You can change the difficulty of your own missions at any time. You don't need to visit an NPC to do it. The change is applied when you enter the mission. If you bite off more than you can chew you can always ask for help. You can often find people to team with you just to fight a tough boss etc.

[Rathulfr]

9 hours ago, gameboy1234 said:

Maybe, but on a first toon, it might be better to take things more slowly.  These are XP modifiers, yes?  They'll shut off money and other drops, might not be the best idea for someone who doesn't have a rich level 50 alt to fund them.

 

No, I didn't mention the XP boosters, which are different than the amplifiers.  Amplifiers are temp powers that grant stat buffs for 1 hour, which can be stacked up to 8 hours, of in-game time (which means they persist/pause on logoff).  This is extremely helpful for new players/characters.