Leveling tricks for support als that do no solo well? DFB, AE, fir farms?

[Mashugana]

There seem to be a handful of ways to level a new alt if you cannot bear doing King's Row or the Hollow's one more time - what are they?  This is not for every character - usually I like to play them through the content - but sometimes I just need to get a new alt over the early game rough patch - especially support characters that do little damage.

 

I think I know a few but I am not sure:

 

1. P2W: Make sure I have the double XP and the free attacks for early levels
2. DFB: quick task force to level 10 - look for teams forming in chat
3. AE solo missions for XP: I think there are some designed for leveling from 1-25 or so - not sure how they work
4. Fire Farm: I think i can kinda beg some nice lv 50 fire farmer to carry me but that feels...strange...I am not sure how to politely do this 🙂
5. TF: running all the TFs seems to be a good way to level too
6. Solo missions: this seems to be the slowest - although I am doing it on several characters because it is the fun way

 

Any others? Any advice on how to use the ideas above?

 

I'd appreciate any advice or tips on how you level when the server is quiet and there are just no teams.  Or I want to get a pure support controller to lv 32 quickly without losing my mind.

 

Thanks all.

Edited August 27, 2020 by Mashugana

[Yomo Kimyata]

Howdy pal!

 

1.  Set up a separate chat tab just for LFG, then periodically check it.  The default tabs usually have a lot of other stuff that clutters it up.  Look for anything advertised in your level range.  People always like adding support.  Your jackpot will be people advertising for a free slot on PI mission teams or AE farms for any level.  Those move quickly.

 

2.  If you do start something on your own, throw out a notification in the LFG channel.  People love to join things, all kinds of things.  If you want to start a TF, don’t wait for someone else, start it yourself.  Worst case is you only get one or two takers in which case you can just run missions for a bit.  You are always better starting something yourself, even if it is random contact missions, than waiting for something specific.

[Six-Six]

Another option is go redside 😃

kidding aside, I've found that a change of pace usually distracts level-metre-watchers. If you're enjoying the content, the level up dings will catch you off guard. While I haven't personally come across an AT that has had real problems soloing stuff (I've played quite a bit, but not all, and certainly not even close on being an expert at all). The small bit of wisdom that I have to offer is, don't be married to your build. Some toons have a diff build levelling up: some powers while awesome, drain too much end to be taken at earlier levels and have to wait until your fitness is ready for it. Some IOs can't be slotted until 17 or 22 or 27, plus you are in desperate need of slots at lower levels. So I have a no-build (no IOs) until about mid-20s. then I start putting in "helpful" IOs until I can start devoting the actual IOs that I want around 35.

Another factor that helps me level up faster is upping the notoriety. I don't have the math, but +1x1 performs similar to +0x2 or x3. So your toon may not be able to handle more opponents, but he may be able to handle harder ones. The sweet spot for me is +2x4. Anything harder and I usually struggle solo, unless it's a really good AT/power set. Not all my toons can handle +2x4 even at 35 and above. but that notoriety can usually chalk me up a level every two or three door missions.

oh, and if you have stealth, stealthing to finish the mission as fast as you can will give a bigger XP dump. Then you can go back and kill everything for even more XP... that and to leave no witnesses... because redside.

TFs, SFs, general teaming is great fun. AE doorsitting isn't bad either. But with toon's that I really like, I prefer to solo quite a bit to understand the powers, find the groove of the attack chain, what works, what doesn't, and what not.

Edited August 27, 2020 by Six Six

[Apogee]

If you like to alt a lot and think you may want to power level more than a couple of characters, you may want to make a second account, level a farmer, then power level yourself without needing to ask to door sit someone else's farm. You can kit out a /fire farmer pretty cheaply too.

[Doomguide2005]

2) I've found that DFB you can run a number of times and it will get you well past 10th, certainly enough to run Posi 1 and 2 and go from there.

 

3) Yes there are AE missions meant to be stories though sifting around to find them ... I believe there are threads about AE in the forums where you can find recommendations.

 

I see Lex Talion must have been typing as I wrote the above.  Now I'll have something to check out once I have a functional computer again.

Edited August 27, 2020 by Doomguide2005

[Lex Talion]

Explicitely designed for effectively self-levelling lowbie toons, without being a farm. Can be handled by all and every ATs and set combo.

 

Quote

 

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by Lex Talion

[fitzsimmons]

1 hour ago, Apogee said:

If you like to alt a lot and think you may want to power level more than a couple of characters, you may want to make a second account, level a farmer, then power level yourself without needing to ask to door sit someone else's farm. You can kit out a /fire farmer pretty cheaply too.

+1

[Jolly Ogre]

I don't understand what AT or set that you are running that you are so set on running that does not play well.

 

If you are having a tough time, perhaps that AT or set is not for you and you should pick something else. Or ask for some help to learn how to run it better there are all kinds of tips and tricks to may any AT or set run well.

 

This is CoH/CoV... all AT's and sets are welcome and one is not any "better" than the next. It's just a matter of personal flavor.

[Ura Hero]

3 minutes ago, Jolly Ogre said:

I don't understand what AT or set that you are running that you are so set on running that does not play well.

 

If you are having a tough time, perhaps that AT or set is not for you and you should pick something else. Or ask for some help to learn how to run it better there are all kinds of tips and tricks to may any AT or set run well.

 

This is CoH/CoV... all AT's and sets are welcome and one is not any "better" than the next. It's just a matter of personal flavor.

 

Illusion sucks at low levels.  You have two inherent attacks.  That's it.  If you want more you have to get P2W attacks.  All the way up to level 16, then you get a Phantom Army that takes forever and a day to recharge.  It is a serious grind to do low levels on this powerset.  Once you get your Phantasm and get enough recharge slotted that you can keep PA up, it is a wonderfully fun set to play.  But the lower level slog?  No thanks.

 

Yes, I main a Ill/Rad Controller.  It is just not for everyone at low levels.

[Jolly Ogre]

1 minute ago, Ura Hero said:

 

Illusion sucks at low levels.  You have two inherent attacks.  That's it.  If you want more you have to get P2W attacks.  All the way up to level 16, then you get a Phantom Army that takes forever and a day to recharge.  It is a serious grind to do low levels on this powerset.  Once you get your Phantasm and get enough recharge slotted that you can keep PA up, it is a wonderfully fun set to play.  But the lower level slog?  No thanks.

 

Yes, I main a Ill/Rad Controller.  It is just not for everyone at low levels.

yeah but 4 runs on DFB should get you to 20 so you can have PA with some slots for recharge. Then its TF commander time. Run the TF's back to back and you will be lvl 40 by the end of the week easy just playing 2-3 hrs a day with enough merits to fund you.

[TygerDarkstorm]

2 minutes ago, Jolly Ogre said:

yeah but 4 runs on DFB should get you to 20 so you can have PA with some slots for recharge. Then its TF commander time. Run the TF's back to back and you will be lvl 40 by the end of the week easy just playing 2-3 hrs a day with enough merits to fund you.

How do you get to 20 in 4 runs? XP in there diminishes the higher in level you get, and even with a double xp boost and starting at level 1, I've only managed to get to level 10 in 3 runs. I imagine that 4 runs would only manage to get to about level 12. But the point of this is also to talk about alternative methods to getting through the low levels. Not everyone likes to endlessly spam DFB into the 20's.

 

@Mashugana one method not mentioned in your OP is MSR raids; at least on Everlasting. Chaos United runs them almost nightly and you can practically take a toon from 1-20 in a single raid.

[Jolly Ogre]

7 minutes ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

How do you get to 20 in 4 runs? XP in there diminishes the higher in level you get, and even with a double xp boost and starting at level 1, I've only managed to get to level 10 in 3 runs. I imagine that 4 runs would only manage to get to about level 12. But the point of this is also to talk about alternative methods to getting through the low levels. Not everyone likes to endlessly spam DFB into the 20's.

 

@Mashugana one method not mentioned in your OP is MSR raids; at least on Everlasting. Chaos United runs them almost nightly and you can practically take a toon from 1-20 in a single raid.

opps yes i meant 4 runs of DFB of course making sure you get the badges more if people don't listen... then DIB for the badges.

[The Pyn]

ae #17656 takes a safely-parked-at-the-entrance level 1 to level 28 in about half an hour using a 50+1 fire tanker with generic io's at +1/8 in a single run-through.  not as much xp as the patrol version but safer for an afk alt on another account (or a few.)

 

the map is the one from talshak's atta mission that no one does anymore so there's a bit of nostalgia.

[Mashugana]

3 hours ago, Lex Talion said:

Explicitely designed for effectively self-levelling lowbie toons, without being a farm. Can be handled by all and every ATs and set combo.

 

 

Thank you!

[roleki]

1 hour ago, The Pyn said:

ae #17656 takes a safely-parked-at-the-entrance level 1 to level 28 in about half an hour using a 50+1 fire tanker with generic io's at +1/8 in a single run-through.  not as much xp as the patrol version but safer for an afk alt on another account (or a few.)

 

the map is the one from talshak's atta mission that no one does anymore so there's a bit of nostalgia.

AE arc #9620 (Cave Jam) uses Atta's caves as well, and is geared for S/L.  A 50+1 can take a doorsitter from 0 to 32 in about 30 minutes running at 2/8.  The arc is geared to take a character from 0-50+ in five missions, though I usually do it in four.

 

My process is to roll an alt, go through Cave 1,  park it for a week at 32, go play other stuff, dust off the alt and take it to 42 in Cave 2, park it, repeat until 50.  That generally gives me a new 50 in about 2 hours of farming.  If I'm impatient, I can drag it to 50 in about 2:45ish real time; that's on a Rad/Fire Brute that I slapped together haphazardly... someone with a tuned build could probably breeze through it a lot faster.

 

Bottom line, it doesn't take much of a machine to run two instances of CoH on the same box, and there are numerous arcs out there that you can run to bring a 0 up to a playable level.  You don't even have to take the alt all the way to 50 - if you just want to skip the slog to 18 on an Ill, you can get there in about 15 minutes.  If you're not interested in Grav/ without Wormhole, you're about 24 minutes out from having it fully slotted.  

 

I mean, if you enjoy DFB/DIB for the camaraderie, by all means, go that route; you're still accelerating past the real tedious parts of the game.  But if you're in a real hurry, AE is where it's at.

[MTeague]

Earth/Poison was not exactly the fastest killing controller I've ever run in the 1-20 range. 

Fantastic at kittenizing the baddies. Not so much at actually defeating them. 

Slotting several damage procs helped, but in the 1-20 range you have only just so many slots to go around, and you still need accuracy too.

I relied a LOT on Sands of Mu, and the Def Debuffs meaning that I wouldn't miss with it.  But I think I still had to stop and rest after every group of mobs. On +1x1 with bosses.

 

The one that I sometimes try and rage at each time is still my Peacebringer. 

The Quantums. The Void Hunters. They enrage me so.

I will acknowledge it doesn't help that I am entirely irrational on his build and would sooner delete the character than use either shapeshift form. No matter what he's up against. No matter how much functionally better certain powers may be. He is human only, period, anything else is OFF. THE. TABLE.

 

Also it doesn't help that I refuse to level up via DFB, and when I join a team before lvl 20, I disable XP.

The lvl 1-20 range is important to me, and I feel like my character has to EARN his stripes on his own, has to be able to defeat baddies on their own, or they don't merit the title of Hero. No powerlevelling and then being a god later. They have to earn their way up. 

 

"It is not logical. But is often true."

-Spock

Edited August 27, 2020 by MTeague

[Without_Pause]

8 hours ago, Jolly Ogre said:

opps yes i meant 4 runs of DFB of course making sure you get the badges more if people don't listen... then DIB for the badges.

I would rather get to 8 or so and run Posi. Whenever I could add in a real travel would be when I dumped DFB. Granted, these days I dual box. Outside of that, I might farm the "Bad" maps in AE for as much as I can tolerate.

[Clave Dark 5]

Assuming you have people on your server and see the same sorts of "Level 50 PI missions, any level welcome PST" messages that I do, just play the game.  I've leveled a number of "start off slow" support toons by just playing, well teaming. 

 

Look for teams you will find them or they you, and you'll level.  I almost never farm nor use the XP multipliers from the P2W vendor.  Easy peasey.

[Saikochoro]

A good way is to set up an alternate account. Use your main account to power level a tanker or brute (spines or radiation melee with fiery aura). There are plenty of builds out their for a fire farmer. Some are expensive, but some are fairly budget friendly. Get it built out. Then use that to power level new toons on your main account. 
 

I don’t like asking to join people’s farms. There are plenty of free farm runs that are advertised often, but I would rather do it on my own. By power leveling yourself it is also much more efficient. You get all the xp and can start and stop whenever you want. 
 

I sometimes power level myself to 50. Sometimes to 32. Sometimes to 20. You get all the freedom and power you need by setting up a farm account. 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Saikochoro

[Shred Monkey]

Posi 1 and 2.  If you ride DFB up to level 16-17 then do both posi's you'll be  really close to level 22.  22 being the magic level where you can get decent IOs.

 

Also, Air Superiority.  It works on any AT.  Give it 2-4 of those Patron IOs from the P2W vendor so you can perma-knock a single target.  This should make it easy to solo missions on any low level toon.

[CaptainLupis]

Another option, if you are struggling to get a team due to being on at odd hours, or the like, is dual boxing (as long as the server isn't at high load). I'm not talking about PLing from a second accounrt, although that is certainly an option, but actually creating something on the other account that will help out running missions at lower levels, something like a thugs/FF MM. They don't require micro managing and the extra damage and def at low levels will help speed up levelling.

[Bionic_Flea]

1.  Start new hero

2.  Get all the P2W freebies ( I also have inf in email to by all the transports and other goodies)

3.  Start Matthew Habashy - Stay in the first area beyond the required completion and get to level 4 or 5, then train and finish arc ASAP.  Should be between level 7-10 now

4.  Go to King's Row and talk to Detective and run radios until you get to the Safeguard to earn a free travel power.

5.  Option play:  You could start the newer Skull's Arcs with Shauna Stockwell and Eagle Eye, Find a low level TF Team, or go to Striga if 20+.