Easiest to play build

[Edonidd]

So I played CoH back in the original beta and then at launch for like 1-2 months.  But had a budding career, young babies, and a wife that thought games were for children.  Now the kids are grown and the ex-wife is nagging some other poor soul.  Time to play again.  But over the years I have lost what little gaming sense and coordination I might have ever had.

 

I'm currently trying to play the same original concept I had all those years ago.  A Rad/Dark Defender.  It's not going great, although I'm only like level 11 or something like that.  I'll probably play this to 50 unless things absolutely fall apart, in which case I might play something else first and come back to this?  I also need something to shoot for and maybe an explanation of how I "should" be playing.  Right now I'm just a shitty Ali-Express discount version of a blaster 75% of the time, only putting my debuffs up and popping AM against harder targets or large adds.  I pull with my T3 snipe and then just alternate between my T1 blast and my T2 DoT.

 

But I'm terrible at positioning, hard finding the right range.  I'm terrible timing, I know my stuff pops off CD and I sit there for longer than optimal before using it.  And if anything goes wrong I die real quick.

 

I thought about playing a Brute or Scrapper. I heard they are a lot easier, but melee range would be terrible for me.  I'm just bad at moving/running/positioning.  So I though Blaster, range makes it easier, but I think they die very quick if things go wrong and you don't watch your positioning and get rushed.  I thought Tanker as they should survive those OMG moments and give me time to respond.  But again with melee range and positioning.

 

I'm not looking for an I Win button or anything.  I don't even need the character to be even average on power comparisons.  Doesn't have to be the most cutting edge META end game build.  Just looking for something that is easier/simpler to play and more tolerant of sub optimal player behind the keyboard.  Any good ideas for that?

[InvaderStych]

Welcome Home.

 

5 minutes ago, Edonidd said:

I thought about playing a Brute or Scrapper.

 

My suggestion is to start here. Or with a Sentinel (more on that below).

 

Don't worry about movement, running, positioning.  They'll come back to you as you play. The new-ish pool power Combat Teleport does wonders to elevate the positioning game for melee.  Read around on the forums for more info - there's a decent thread going on in the Stalker section at the moment about the wonders of Bamf Melee.

 

Take Willpower as your secondary, Brute will be slightly more durable, Scrapper will do more damage - but with these ATs no one will have any expectations of you on teams other than bringing big orange damage numbers to the table.  With a Tank you may run into folks who expect you to manage aggro/control battlefield placement, and/or herd adds and runners into the scrum.  Brute is easy mode.

 

Willpower is also easy mode.  A "fire and forget" armor, no clicks to worry about, decent recovery and regen. Lets you get back into the game with a minimal number of powers to activate and lets you concentrate on re-acquainting yourself.

 

Sentinels are basically Ranged with Armor.  They can play in melee (their ranges are shorter than blasters anyway), and might be a good way to get back into the swing of things without worrying so much about placement, mobs with random zoomies, etc.

 

Willpower is also available for Sents.

 

Any primary for either Brute or Sentinel would do the trick nicely.

 

I went Savage/WP for my first 50 upon discovering HC. Worked a treat for a refresher course.

[Shocktacular]

I also recommend Sentinels.  They are very forgiving as a beginner/I-just-got-back AT.  In general it seems hard to make an unplayable character in this game and IMO Sentinels are the hardest to mess up.  You can also build them up really well if you want to get into IOs and set bonuses and all that.  Basically, it's easy to make a good, fun Sentinel with just the basics and there's also a lot of ways to make them even better once you start getting into some of the more complex features of the game.

Also,

WELCOME BACK!!!!! 😄 

Edited January 17, 2023 by Shocktacular

[biostem]

5 hours ago, Edonidd said:

Just looking for something that is easier/simpler to play

I think @Shocktacular has the right idea to go with a Sentinel.  If you want to stick with your theme, go with a dark blast/radiation armor one.  Many of radiation armor's powers mimic the radiation emissions support set, (though mainly focused on buffing you).  If you do go this route, one piece of advice I would make is to *at least* slot particle shielding with 3 recharge enhancements - it provides a good protective barrier, but most importantly, a significant buff to your endurance recovery, so you can keep fighting with reckless abandon!  You'll also be quite tough.

[Six-Six]

I'll go the other direction and say go with your gut. If Fenders attract you, then go with that. Here are a few tips that should help you get your feet wet (again).

1) Go to the Defenders sub-forum both here and the Discord channel. Just lurking around will help you pick up nice tips and tricks. You can ask suggestions to specific problems with your particular power combinations as well. The overall community is incredibly friendly, helpful and generous and general a nice bunch of lads (and lasses).

2) Soldier through the lower levels. Yes, you'll probably suck the first time around (who doesn't), but playing through will let you get a handle on how to best use your powers. There is a learning curve, but it's not that steep. once you get the terminologies down and basic knowledge of game culture, you'll find your sweet spot. 

3) Don't get tied down to your first toon. There's a reason why the game gave you so many slots for alternative characters. Personally, I had a dream character I was gunning for, but my skill level wouldn't allow me to make it... yet. After going through several toons, I "may" have found it. In fact, I went through three or four iterations of the same character (AT + Power sets) including several runs of the character on different ATs and slightly different power sets.

4) Just have fun. You don't need to min-max or go meta or anything. Any AT or power you pick will have its strengths and weaknesses, and they all pretty much even out. Sooner or later, you'll bump in to like-minded people who will either enjoy your particular play style or not mind how much you suck. 

[Snarky]

A Willpower Sentinel is easy to build and easy to run.  Pair it with a Power set that is Fully Ranged and F-ing play lazy as heck.  Now my opinion: Sentinels SUCK at 50.  But I ran a Beam Rifle Willpower Sentinel to 50 and laughed my butt off the whole time...

[nihilii]

Going to hop on the bandwagon to say it's hard to go wrong with a Sentinel, for ease-of-use. Not only they're ranged blast + armor powerset, their powers are reworked so that they generally have more recovery early on.

Dark/Rad Sentinel as mentioned is a great combo.

Dark/ gives you a hold that's also a high damage attack at level 6. Your main AoE, Dark Obliteration, is a Fireball clone; this requires much less positioning than the original Dark Blast cones on defenders.

/Rad gives you tons of recovery to the point you likely won't feel a worry in that department. Same with healing. It's a well-rounded set with resistances, lacking only defenses. Which, coincidentally, Blackstar from the primary will provide in bursts.

There is decent synergy there and overall it should be a good combo to sit back and relax.

[Snarky]

once you learn the game and find a blast set you like on a Sentinel the transition to Blaster is much easier.  For instance i have a Beam/Temporal Blaster that is my go to toon for helping on incarnate badge runs.  just fly around the edge of the fight giving supporting fire.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Snarky

[Shred Monkey]

On 1/17/2023 at 11:57 AM, Edonidd said:

So I played CoH back in the original beta and then at launch for like 1-2 months.  But had a budding career, young babies, and a wife that thought games were for children.  Now the kids are grown and the ex-wife is nagging some other poor soul.  Time to play again.

 

This may be the best opening to a forum post topic I've ever read.  

[roleki]

I wouldn't give up completely on that Defender; unlike most other support sets, Dark Miasma never goes out of style, and Rad Blast is just a fun set EVEN THOUGH IT'S RIDICULOUS THAT YOU CAN MISS WITH X-RAY BEAM HOW THE HELL DO I MISS SOMETHING I AM LOOKING DIRECTLY AT WHEN XRAYS MOVE AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT IT'S A DAMN TRAVESTY IS WHAT IT IS AND WHY THE HELL ANY FURTHER DEVELOPMENT ON THIS GAME CONTINUED WITHOUT MAKING X-RAY BEAM AN AUTOHIT I'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND BUT SOMEBODY NEEDS TO LOOK AT THIS WITHOUT MISSING I MIGHT ADD.

 

But yeah, just set that Defender aside for a bit until you've regained your sea legs on a more-forgiving AT like Sentinel or Scrapper. 

 

Myself, if I'm in my cups or what have you. I run a Claws/Willpower Scrapper.  Functionally speaking, it's three buttons, very hard to go wrong there, and it actually becomes more effective if you accidentally keep running headfirst into giant mob spawns.

 

Also would suggest getting on more teams, and paying attention to what the other drivers are doing with them.  Not everything you see will necessarily adhere to Best Practices, but you'll get a sense for who they tend to target first, from where, and whether they chose wisely in doing so.  Chances are, if you join a team, at least one of those people is going to be extremely experienced with the game and very helpful.  

 

Frankly, I'm a little jealous of people just coming back to the game and stumbling upon HC as it stands in Page 5.  Almost all of the unnecessary garbage that hampered character development has been removed, and you can just... go.  Kill Skuls. 

[Nyghtmaire]

On 1/17/2023 at 6:51 PM, Six-Six said:

If Fenders attract you, then go with that.

More of a Les Paul guy, but whatever floats the boat. Except a Jaguar. Those are sweet…

[Heatstroke]

Easiest to play..  IMO Tanks and Sentinels. 

 

Tanks easy to max out defenses and resistance. 

 

Sentinel think of it as a ranged scrapper. Has some defense or resistance built in depending on power selection, and cannot be mezzed. 

[SeraphimKensai]

Welcome back. You can play an easy toon sure, but hell now's the time to light the fires and hone in that rad defender.

 

Radiation Emission works well enough with Dark Blast in that literally everything you do to an enemy is debuffing them in some way or another.

 

What difficulty are you playing on? +0*1, or something upwards to +4*8? Are you solo or on a team?

 

On a Rad defender I would build for a blend of range and recharge if you're going to IO it. Reasoning dark blast has 3 cones, all rads heavy debuffs are targeted aoes, choking cloud and emp pulse work in melee but you can adjust where you are to avoid being in melee (as you want range to maximize your dark blast cones potential).

 

If not IOd yet I'd suggest 2 EndRdx SOs in rad infection and Enervating Field. You want plenty of recharge and accuracy in lingering rad, and often recharge is enough for now in AM so you can slot out some other powers.

 

Control the engagement, you could take stealth or use superspeed and it's phasing ability, or teleporting around to maximize your range (when your ready for binds and macros let us know).

 

Gloom and moonbeam are your single target heavy hitters. Life Drain and Radiant Aura should keep you topped off.

 

As you get slotted things will hit you less and less as that tohitdebuff adds up.

 

Tldr: tough it out it gets better.

[Clave Dark 5]

On 1/19/2023 at 9:15 AM, Heatstroke said:

Easiest to play..  IMO Tanks and Sentinels. 

 

Tanks easy to max out defenses and resistance. 

 

Sentinel think of it as a ranged scrapper. Has some defense or resistance built in depending on power selection, and cannot be mezzed. 

Seconded for Sentinel.

 

I have so far only one Sentinel (Beam Rifle/Rad Armor) , made after they recently revamped the AT, just to give it a try  I recently joined a team set up by some poor soloist calling out HALP! in chat.  My Sent is near 50 and pretty IOed out, but apparently was just amazing to the guy watching me drop crowds and not in turn getting dropped myself.  He's the safest long distance fighter I've ever had in the game.

[Heatstroke]

On 1/23/2023 at 1:30 AM, Clave Dark 5 said:

Seconded for Sentinel.

 

I have so far only one Sentinel (Beam Rifle/Rad Armor) , made after they recently revamped the AT, just to give it a try  I recently joined a team set up by some poor soloist calling out HALP! in chat.  My Sent is near 50 and pretty IOed out, but apparently was just amazing to the guy watching me drop crowds and not in turn getting dropped myself.  He's the safest long distance fighter I've ever had in the game.

 

 

Same thing.. Fire/Rad Sentinel last night on a team.. lotta blasters and two scrappers fight 54's...  Carnies and Arachnos no less.. Team is getting slaughtered. My Sentinel... just cruising along.. took some damage.. hit my heal.. just kept cruising along...

Edited January 24, 2023 by Heatstroke

[Force Redux]

Lots of great advice in this topic, I just want to poke my head in and say welcome back to City of Heroes 🙂👋🏻

 

(Also... Sentinels... !)

[Doomguide2005]

Welcome back to City of Heroes.

A Rad/Dark has tons of potential.  But then just about all characters have tons of potential at 11th level.  I would say just about all players at that level after not playing for 2 decades are going to find it challenging through the early levels.  I think us vets tend to forget just how much a stocked away in our brains.  And CoX compared to i2 or i3 is essentially a whole different game.  So create several characters and start leveling up.  You'll learn which fits your style by experiencing all the possibilities.  Just don't worry overmuch about leveling.  Kick back and enjoy the moment on whatever you're playing.

Edited February 12, 2023 by Doomguide2005