Wavicle's Guide To What Really Matters

[Wavicle]

Someone was asking if there was a list anywhere of the things that should be done on every toon, and I didn't know where to point them, so I wrote this up.

 

This is certainly not everything, but it's a list of what I do on every toon, in roughly the order I do them, or most everything I could remember. I will speak mostly from the perspective of Hero side, but all the same stuff can be done Villain side if I don't specifically mention it. Also, this isn't written for someone making their First toon, necessarily. Following this guide is easier if you know your way around the game somewhat, and if you have a Super Group base and plenty of influence, but that doesn't mean it's useless for new players.

 

Anyway, here we go:

 

Wavicle's Guide To What Really Matters

 

 

1. Get whatever you want from the P2W vendor. I'd rather not go into much detail here, but there are definitely some things that most or all toons will want, especially in the Teleport section.

 

2. Unlock all Long Range Teleporter destinations. (First get all the exploration badges in Atlas Park, Mercy, or any other zone with a Base Portal. I don't do this until I'm at least level 2 so I get XP for the badges. Then get at least 1 exploration badge from all other zones with Base Portals. I do this gradually as I level on new toons. I spent a day or so unlocking them all on my existing toons when the system was put in place.)

 

3. Get the portal to Ouroboros. (This can be done solo at level 1 without access to a supergroup base: from Atlas Park take the TUNNEL portal to Night Ward, enter the Midnight Mansion there, then go back to Atlas and take the train to Steel Canyon and walk carefully to the University, enter the Midnight Club there and go to Cimerora. You will be awarded the Ouro portal for learning about time travel. There are other soloable methods, but this is the earliest available way.)

 

4. Speaking of which: Get access to Cimerora. In addition to the above method, it can be fun to do Montague Castanella's story arc to access the Midnighter's and Cim, but that's not available until level 10.

 

5. I usually have Null the Gull turn me into a Vigilante and turn off my travel power tray, and sometimes other options as well.

 

6. Unlock the Police Radio by speaking with a Detective.

 

7. Unlock Vanguard Merits by doing at least the first part of Levantera's first arc, which becomes available at 35. The badge is called Member of Vanguard. I usually complete the arc at that point.

 

8. Unlock the Patron Power Pools either by doing a Patron arc in Grandville yourself or by joining a team doing one of the arcs. Start with Arbiter Rein. I don't do this on every toon, but certainly on Many toons.

 

9. Do the Market Crash Task Force, which gives you a Purple Enhancement the first time you do it. This unlocks at level 40.

 

10. Get to 50, in whatever way you find the most fun (or least onerous, depending on your perspective). I personally love levelling and spend most of my time in game between level 1 and 49. I enjoy my 50s too, but I like making and levelling new toons. I play all the different content the game has to offer, including sometimes missions in the AE.

 

11. Unlock the four Passive Accolades. Each of them can be done in a different way on the Hero side and the Villain side. I typically get Atlas Medallion and Portal Jockey on the Hero side. I then run the arc from Dakota Berg (Signature Story Arc in Brickstown) in order to get the Bloody Hands badge which, when I switch to Villain side, unlocks a contact who gives access to all the Mayhem Missions. With this access I then quickly get the Invader badge (rather than running all the original Hero side TFs for Task Force Commander) and while I am Villain side I also get the High Pain Threshold accolade (typically by 50 I have the necessary Debt badge, and I find this less of a hassle than Freedom Phalanx Reserve). I think some of the Active accolades can be useful as well, but I haven't been doing them in Homecoming.

 

12. Develop an IO build, simple or complex. Typically, by 27 or so I have slotted a bunch of special IOs on most characters including pieces that grant +Def, +Res, possibly Chance for Build Up, Chance for +Endurance, +Max HP, +Recovery and Regen, and more. The rest of my slots at that point are probably filled with Generic IOs, which are slightly better than SOs starting with the lvl 30s. Some of my 50s have more expensive builds with sets or pieces of sets in all of their powers. You absolutely do NOT have to have all the best enhancements in the game to do ANY encounter (the exceptions being Homecoming's new Advanced Difficulty Content and some AE content). They definitely help though. You CAN play the whole game with just SOs, or no enhancements at all if you really want, but IOs (and Incarnate Powers) make you truly super.

 

13. And so we come to Incarnate Powers. Unlock these either by continuing to level after 50 or by doing Mender Ramiel's arc in Ouroboros. Then continue to unlock them by levelling more and by running Incarnate Content including the various Incarnate Trials, the Dark Astoria arcs (unlock Dark Astoria beginning with Captain Nolan in Peregrine Island or go directly to Heather Townsend in DA; after completing Heather's arc further contacts will become available), and the arcs of Number Six and Belladonna Vetrano. The Hamidon raids are also a source of Incarnate components, as is running the Weekly Strike Target TFs.

 

 

 

I'm SURE I will have forgotten something important. Other folks, please help me add to this list! Thanks everyone, now: Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls!

Edited December 17, 2021 by Wavicle

[EyeLuvBooks]

Because Redside (the Villain side) came after Blueside, the developers had more experience under their belts so many of the missions are organized better, written better, or both. Becoming a Vigilante enables you to get the best of both worlds. In particular, the missions you get from Ghost Widow (earlier in your career and then later as a Patron) are interesting.

 

Thanks to the Going Rogue system, you can now do Tip missions to alter your alignment. The best part is that you can do the missions and keep your alignment if you so choose. I say this because some of the Tip missions are really good.

[Wavicle]

7 hours ago, EyeLuvBooks said:

I say this because some of the Tip missions are really good.

 

That is so true! Tip missions can be very fun and challenging!

 

[Greycat]

I don't think 8-12 honestly particularly matter, and certainly don't need doing on every character. Nope, not even getting to 50. I have characters I tend to keep in certain ranges because that fits where I see them. (I'm ignoring "Peacebringers as base builders because inherent fly" when talking about that.)

 

Personally, the only thing that matters to me is playing the character the way you want, true to that character. Everything else is fluff.

[Wavicle]

12 minutes ago, Greycat said:

I don't think 8-12 honestly particularly matter, and certainly don't need doing on every character. Nope, not even getting to 50. I have characters I tend to keep in certain ranges because that fits where I see them. (I'm ignoring "Peacebringers as base builders because inherent fly" when talking about that.)

 

Personally, the only thing that matters to me is playing the character the way you want, true to that character. Everything else is fluff.

Yea, “every” character is not necessary literal, for sure.

[Matsiyan]

Just a thank you for sharing the experience.

[Syn-Jin]

Thank you to everyone that worked on this update! And thanks for continuing to do the holy work on keeping CoH alive and well! We appreciate you all so very much!!!

[Bananiac]

On 9/20/2021 at 5:03 AM, Wavicle said:

...

You absolutely do NOT have to have all the best enhancements in the game to do ANY encounter (the exceptions being Homecoming's new Advanced Difficulty Content and some AE content). They definitely help though. You CAN play the whole game with just SOs, or no enhancements at all if you really want, but IOs (and Incarnate Powers) make you truly super.

...

 

 

I'd just like to expand a bit on that. I think at some point during your progression you absolutely HAVE TO make yourself comfortable with the enhancement system.

And that can be anything from just slotting DOs or SOs to standard IOs or set IOs. But somewhere around the mid 20ies I usually notice a sharp drop-off in performance on every toon, even if you are part of a well-buffed team. I get absolutely crazy when I start to notice that I miss more than I hit anything, or continuosly run out of endurance... you all know what I am talking about. And this is where enhancements help with keeping up.

DOs and SOs are the easiest way to mitigate that, just using drops or bying them from the respective vendors. +ACC, +END, +RECH, +DMG, +RES... so VERY VERY usefull. The thing with those is, of course, that you gotta maintain them and upgrade every 5 lvls or so (which is an easy click of a button in the Enhancement screen if you got the INF that is needed). And this is where standard IOs come in, which don't wear out and can keep you upright until endgame once you get into them. Which in my case is usually somewhere around lvl25... maybe lvl30 if I can drag it out a bit with some temp buffs, see below.

 

Temp buffs can significantly help to ease things up through the early levels. Running a Death From Below at least once or twice early on can get +ACC and +END buffs. Those last until lvl20. At lvl15 you can run or join a Drowning in Blood trial, which provides the same, but those will last until lvl30. This one is also really fast, so it is easy to run it 2x or 3x... 

DFB and DIB buffs are cumulative, so you can actually go quite crazy if you collect them all.

I usually slot the 5 prestige enhancements from the P2W/S.T.A.R.T vendor, and with a few of the temp buffs from above I am good to go until I start slotting IOs.

 

Some additional thoughts on stuff I do with most of my toons:

 

14. Unlock Costume Slots:

At lvl20/30/40 you can visit the Tailor in Steel/IP/Founders to get a mission which unlocks costume slots 7/8/9. And be honest: Who doesn't like new costume slots? More costumes are more better!

With 1 each of the Halloween Salvages you can also buy a 10th slot from the little witch vendor next to the train station in Croatoa. If you don't have any from the event, they can be bought at around 10k or so in the Auction House.

I make generous use of costume variations on basically all of my toons, just for sake of variety. And who knows how long the 1000 character slots will last, at the rate at which I am making new toons... so it's good to know that you can have up to 10 costumes on each toon, right? 😇

 

15. Mortimer Kal (red side):

At lvl20 you can unlock Mortimer Kal as a contact. Need to hunt a few mobs in Sharkhead for the Tips mission "Wizards Weakness", which takes you briefly to the University in Cap to kidnap Morti's kidnapped (yes!) daughter. With that mission completed, you now get access to the Strike Force. It is pretty fast and can be done usually in 30-40 mins, but has some amazing reward: The Flames of Prometheus accolade, which gives you a buff of +Max HP +Regen +DMG until lvl50! And when you unlock your Alpha slot, this can be converted into a Notice of the Well, just like that! 

Also, make sure that you don't quit the team at the end of the SF until the leader has talked to Morti twice. There will be another XP drop after the 2nd interaction that will likely be enough for one more lvlup at the level range this is played usually.

Best value for money, in my opinion!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Herotu]

On 9/20/2021 at 4:03 AM, Wavicle said:

2. Unlock all Long Range Teleporter destinations. (First get all the exploration badges in Atlas Park, Mercy, or any other zone with a Base Portal. I don't do this until I'm at least level 2 so I get XP for the badges. Then get at least 1 exploration badge from all other zones with Base Portals. I do this gradually as I level on new toons. I spent a day or so unlocking them all on my existing toons when the system was put in place.)

I only read up to here, but omg, I never knew that's how to unlock those.

 

Is that information in the game, and I just missed it?

[Wavicle]

On 2/21/2024 at 5:08 AM, Syn-Jin said:

Thank you to everyone that worked on this update! And thanks for continuing to do the holy work on keeping CoH alive and well! We appreciate you all so very much!!!

I think you might have posted this in the wrong place by mistake, friend!

 

But it's a good reminder I need to update the guide soon! Some things are out of date for sure.

Edited February 29 by Wavicle

[Wavicle]

8 hours ago, Herotu said:

I only read up to here, but omg, I never knew that's how to unlock those.

 

Is that information in the game, and I just missed it?

 

The information IS in the game...BUT as of the latest release this has changed and that's not quite how it works anymore.

Now, rather than having to get all the explores from 1 zone, you have to get a total of 10 explores from ANY zones. You can ALSO get it by spending an hour in Pocket D, or by purchasing it directly from the START vendor.

[Bananiac]

It seems like the exploration badges also don't yield any XP anymore.... 😥

[Wavicle]

1 hour ago, Bananiac said:

It seems like the exploration badges also don't yield any XP anymore.... 😥

They now grant Patrol XP instead, and quite a lot of it! Out of patrol XP? LITERALLY go on patrol, collect a couple badges, then go do your mission!

[Bananiac]

Ah, never noticed. Just saw that there isn't an XP drop described in the chat window anymore. Good to know.