New Players Guide to City of Heroes

[TheMultiVitamin]

New Players Guide

 

First off, welcome home! City of Heroes Homecoming is an immense game with a lot of parts to it. With the recent license signing I've noticed a lot of new players that have no clue what anything means, so here's my own guide on what things are, how they work, and what you can do.

 

Some parts of this guide will be short, others considerably longer, that's just the nature of these kinds of things. But I'll do my best to guide you through it all.

 

Server Selection

 

The first steps is selection your server. In City of Heroes Homecoming there's 5 servers you can choose from (as of the time of writing this). Each of these servers is different in terms of player base, but still relatively simple to understand. Those 5 servers in question are:

Excelsior: This is the server with the highest player count, and thus the most popular. It doesn't have any specific kind of mixture of player base, it's used by all equally by all. This server is also where the majority of the PVP community can be found after migrating from Indomitable.

Everlasting: This is the server with the most role-players, considered by many to be the unofficial RP Server. If you want to focus on roleplaying and inter-character activity. Many badge hunters reside here as well, so if you want to get involved with that community, here's your go-to.

Indomitable: This is server used to be considered the unofficial PVP server, but that's changed. Now it's more of just a general server that doesn't cater to any specific kind of player base.

Reunion: This is the UK server, hosted in Germany. It doesn't cater to any kind of specific players, but for those of you across the pond this server is best for connectivity and ping reasons.

Torchbearer: This server also isn't beholden to any kind of specific player base, but it's unique in that it was the first server to pop up.

 

Character Creation
 

Here's one of the biggest parts of the game, which is saying something considering the sheer amount of content for said game, character creation. This will decide your characters base capabilities, so we're going to go through each part step by step.
 

City of Heroes FREEDOM or City of Heroes Going Rogue

 

For most new players, I'd highly recommend going with City of Heroes FREEDOM, which is selected by default. Both FREEDOM and Going Rogue have very different starting points so generally Going Rogue is only recommended once you've gotten used to the game itself.

But for now, here's the differences between them.

City of Heroes FREEDOM

Selected by default, this is the majority played version of the game. Here you begin in a tutorial (there are 3 kinds), and after or during that tutorial is when you would choose to play as a Hero or a Villain (later on you can become a Vigilante or Rogue).
-Most common starting point
-Has a tutorial for those new to the game
-Gives you a decent starting point for new players

City of Heroes Going Rogue

Not selected by default, this one puts you into an alternate timeline of the world you'll be playing in, in which the the biggest superhero in the main timeline went evil and took over the world. Here you don't pick whether you're a hero or a villain right away, instead you have to pick whether you're a rebel or a loyalist to the regime that rules the world. Your character will be considered a praetorian, as the world you're playing in is called Praetoria. There's a Praetoria specific tutorial, and you can't play certain archetypes here (the Arachnos or Kheldian/symbiote archetypes) and you'll be leveling here for a while. Once you reach Level 20, you get the choice to head to the main timeline (you can always come back) which at that point you would choose whether you're a hero or villain.

However, you can also come to Praetoria without making a character for Going Rogue too. It's not required to be a Praetorian in order to go there, it's just a different starting point.
-Uncommon starting point
-Has a Praetoria specific tutorial
-Interesting starting point character lore wise
 

Origin

 

In City of Heroes Homecoming there's 5 origin types, these origins decide 2 things, the first is how your character got their powers in the first place lore wise, the second is what type of enhancements they can slot into their powers (explained later). Those 5 origins in question are:

Science: You got your powers via science, either through an experiment you did or through an accident. To compare to popular superheroes and villains, this would be characters like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four or Dr. Doom.

 

Mutation: You got your powers via your body and DNA mutating or evolutionary alteration. To compare to popular superheroes and villains, this would be characters like the X-Men, Magneto, Morbius or Beast Boy.

 

Magic: You got your powers through magical and/or divine means, either born with it or given it by a higher being. To compare to popular superheroes and villains, this would be characters like Raven, Dr. Strange, Child, Loki or Scarlet Witch.

 

Technology:  Your powers don't come from you, but the technology you wield instead. This can be anything from gadgets and devices you've made, to entire suits of armor and robots. To compare to popular superheroes and villains, this would be characters like Iron-Man, Ultron, Warmachine, Blue Beetle, Dr. Octopus or Cyborg.

Natural: Your powers are something natural to you, either due to your species, your lineage or just because you pushed your body to its absolute limit. To compare to popular superheroes and villains, this would be characters like Superman, Batman, Zod, Omniman, Starfire/Blackfire and Aquaman.

 

Playstyle/Archetype

 

This next part is technically a two-parter. Playstyle and archetype are essentially just the same thing. The only difference is that selecting a playstyle will hide archetypes, aka this games version of classes, not of that playstyle when you go to the next section of character creation, which is archetype.

Archetype determine what powers you can choose and generally how you'll play. When you click on an archetype it'll give you a description of it, alongside it's unique mechanic, and it'll show you sliders on the bottom right to show you how it compares to other archetypes and generally what it's focuses are.

 

One thing to note that most other games normally don't do, critical hits aren't something everyone can do, only certain archetypes can do crits, so be sure to pay attention, as each archetypes unique passive will tell you if it can crit or not, and how.

 

There are 15 archetypes in total, they're all fairly simple in how they work and what they do, but generally each are different from each other. Those classes are:

 

Blaster: The blaster is the ranged DPS class, it's focus is on delivering damage and to keep delivering damage from a ranged standpoint, and even has decent melee capability.

 

The blasters unique passive ability is called Defiance, Defiance allows a blaster to use their Tier 1 and Tier 2 primary powers, and Tier 1 secondary power regardless of if they're in a state that would stop them from doing so, like being Held, Slept or Stunned. Alongside this it also gives a stacking damage buff for the next few seconds whenever they attack with a power from their Primary or Secondary powerset. The amount of damage bonus and duration depends on the power used, with single target abilities giving the biggest bonus.

 

Brute: The Brute is the Blasters opposite, this is your Melee DPS class focused on dishing out damage and surviving hard hits. You're tankier than a blaster would be and your melee damage allows you to be right in the thick of it.

 

The Brutes Unique Passive Ability is called Fury, this takes the form of an orange bar just above your Experience bar, the longer you remain in combat, attacking and being attacked, the more damage you deal. Each time you attack or are attacked, regardless of hit or miss, your Fury will build, the more reckless you are the faster it rises.

 

Brutes also have a minor taunt as well, anything they attack will cause the attacked foe to focus on them, but only the attacked target.

 

Controller: The Controller is your Crowd Control class, focused on putting status affects and AOE's on enemies rather than dealing out damage. Their damage is low, but they are great at weakening enemies and hitting them with all kinds of CC's, they even have pretty good support abilities for buffing and healing allies, and some powersets even give you some pets you can use to help fight.

 

The Controllers Unique Passive Ability is called Containment, this ability means that a Controller deals extra damage to any target that's under the effect of a Hold, Immobilize, Sleep or Disorient effect. It's a fairly simple one but it can be pretty devastating. Alongside this Controller also have a slightly hidden ability in that Controllers have a small chance of getting an extra Magnitude, aka increasing the effect of something, on Side Effects caused by powers from their Primary Powerset. You'll know it happens when you see the word "Overpower" appear above an enemies head.

 

Corruptor: Corruptor is similar to Controller, except this class is much more Damage focused. This class is all about dealing damage in a wide AOE area and small bursts of power, like a mixture of Controller and Blaster. They're mainly a Support class, buffing others and themselves, rather than a CC but their damage is just as equal as their support capabilities.

 

The Corruptors Unique Passive Ability is called Scourge, it's effect is that once an enemy's health reaches 50% or below, their powers begin to deal more damage, up to double damage at maximum. This means that once an enemies health reaches 50% your crit chance on them begins to get higher and higher the lower their health, hitting 100% crit chance when they're at 10% health or lower. Keep in mind though that percentages are based off of base health, so targets with large health boosts from powers can delay the point at which Scourge damage begins to happen.

 

Defender: Defender is *the* support class, focused on buffing and healing allies rather than debuffing, damaging and CCing enemies. However Defenders do have decent ranged damage capability, their main focus is on helping their team rather than doling out DPS.

 

The Defenders Unique Passive Ability is called Vigilance, which is actually a bit of a seesaw effect. See, when a Defender has Teammates, Vigilance reduces Endurance Cost (the resource used to "cast" your powers) the more teammates you have and the lower the amount of health they have, meaning more teammates equals more Endurance Reduction, letting you spam your abilities more the lower health they get. On the other side, it also has an opposite effect, the less teammates you have, the more damage you deal depending on how many teammates you have and what level you are, if you have 3 Teammates, this damage bonus is gone entirely.

 

Dominator: Dominator is Controllers twin, it's focus is mainly on CC and it's really good at it. However, while the Controller doesn't have much if any damage capability, Dominator does. Dominator deals out damage in equal measure, both Ranged and Melee, and can even sometimes summon pets to deal out damage with them.

 

The Dominators Unique Ability is an Active one (meaning you have to activate it) called Domination, represented similarly to the Brutes Fury via an Orange Bar above your Experience Points Bar. As a Dominator attacks, their Domination grows, it grows faster the more teammates a Dominator has and when it reaches 90% or higher you can activate it like you would normal powers. While active Domination completely restores your Endurance (the resource used to "cast" your powers), increases your control powers durations and doubles the effectiveness of Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Fear and Confuse status effects. Along with this Domination also protects the user from Knockback/Knockup, Repel, Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Fear and Confused effects entirely while active, and can even be activated while you're suffering from these effects to break free of them.

 

Mastermind: Mastermind is the only Pets class as of this moment. It's primary powers are focused on summoning up to 6 pets to fight with you and buffing them to grant them new abilities, support them and make them stronger. It's a great support class for many reasons, as your pets can draw off aggro and whatever secondary powerset you choose determines how exactly you support the team, either be buffing allies, debuffing enemies or healing, or any other combination.

The Masterminds Unique Passive Ability is called Supremacy. While the Masterminds pets (otherwise known as Henchmen in this game) are within range of the Mastermind themselves, they will get a bonus to their Accuracy (this is not to-hit chance, but a small modifier stat that happens after to-hit) and Damage, but only while they're not Phased or otherwise only able to use Self Only powers. Alongside this, if you have your pets set to Defensive or Bodyguard mode, they will share any damage they receive between themselves and the Mastermind.

 

Scrapper: Scrapper is the Melee DPS, their entire focus is dealing damage and tanking damage, they focus on doling out Melee DPS in large hits and combos while at the frontlines of any encounter. While not as tanky as a Tanker, their damage, much like a blasters, typically is enough to kill anything before it can kill them.

 

The Scrappers Unique Passive Ability is called Critical Hit. Every single Scrapper attack has a chance to land a Critical Hit for up to double damage. The higher the rank of the Target, the greater the chance for a critical hit.

 

Sentinel: Sentinel is a bit of an odd class, it's a new one made by the Homecoming team to fill a Ranged Tank kind of role. It's focus is on Ranged DPS and defensive powers in equal measure. To my knowledge, despite how unique it can be and that it can fill many niches' for whatever characters you want to play, not many actually play Sentinels due to it's slightly odd combo.

 

The Sentinels Unique Passive Ability is called Vulnerability, fairly simplistically, it periodically makes an enemy vulnerable to increased damage from their entire time and reduces the enemy's resistance to CC and debuffs.

 

Stalker: Stalkers have immense Melee Damage capability, but this is due to the fact that they are played very differently. Stalkers are a stealth class, every primary powerset for them gives them a way to turn invisible to varying degrees which is where the core amount of their damage comes from. They're made for those stalker sneaky players who like to wipe something out in a single strike.

The Stalkers Unique Passive Ability is called Assassination. When a Stalker is "Hidden", most typically this means Invisible, they have the ability to Critically Strike, and even land an especially power attack called Assassins Strike. Assassins Strikes made while hidden will demoralize foes, giving them a reduced chance to hit and have a chance to inflict the Fear status on them. At base a Stalker has a 10% chance to Critical Hit, increase by another 3% per member of your party, against NPC enemies. Against players the target has to be Held or Slept in order to critically hit. Each of the damaging powers in a Stalkers primary powerset, except Assassins Strike, have a chance to grant a single stack of Assassin's Focus, up to 3 stacks. Every stack of Assassin's Focus increases your chance to Critically hit while not hidden/invisible by 33.3%, with each stack lasting 10 seconds.

 

Tanker: Tankers are your, well, Tank. Their entire kit is about drawing aggro and tanking the damage, either by reducing it or healing through it. They deal decent melee damage and have some forms of CC, mostly in the form of taunts. You'll be in the thick of dealing out damage while tanking every single hit coming your way and shrugging it off.

 

The Tankers Unique Passive Ability is called Gauntlet, every time the Tanker attacks, they draw the aggro of the target and up to 4 other enemies in a wide area, causing all of them to focus on the tanker instead. Alongside this, Gauntlet also increases the AOE's of all attacks from the Tanker, cones become wide, spheres large, and chains reach further away. However the Gauntlet has a reduced chance to affect exceptionally high-rank enemies like Giant Monsters, and even worse in PVP.

 

Epic Archetypes

 

These Archetypes are called Epic Archetypes, or HEATS/VEATS. They're generally more Complex than others, are restricted to their starting alignments (though can change alignment later) and cannot be used in Going Rogue. The VEATS or "Villain Epic Archetypes" are Arachnos Soldier and Arachnos Widow, while the HEATS or "Hero Epic Archetypes" are Peacebringer and Warshade.

 

Arachnos Soldier: You're a grunt soldier of Lord Recluses' Arachnos Army. You're a balanced mix of Melee DPS, Ranged DPS and tanking, with only the Arachnos kits available to you powers wise. However later on you can diversify, once you hit level 24 you can choose to become a Crab Spider, which gives you a powerful spider-limb backpack to deal large amounts of damage in a variety of claw and cone attacks, or a Bane Spider, which is a stealth based Melee attacked similar in style to Stalkers.

 

The Arachnos Soldier Unique Passive Ability is called Conditioning and all it does is simply passively increase their Regeneration (healing during combat and outside of it) and Recovery (endurance recovery) rates by a decent amount.

 

Arachnos Widow: Arachnos Widows are typically the Special Forces of the Arachnos army, possessing an even balance of Melee DPS and Tankiness that can change later depending on what path you choose. Once you hit level 24 you can choose to become a Fortunate, which has stronger ranged DPS and CC abilities, or a Night Widow, which has strong melee DPS and decent ranged DPS abilities.

 

Arachnos Widows Unique Passive Ability is the same as the Arachnos Soldier, Conditioning, which just passively increases their Regeneration (healing during combat and outside of it) and Recovery (endurance recovery) rates by a decent amount.

 

Peacebringer: Peacebringers, also known as Kheldians, are a Symbiote race of Energy Beings that are in tune with the stars. They're unique in that while they only have a single primary and secondary power set, those power sets have many powers in them that you can pick and choose from as you level up, allowing you to make whatever kind of build you'd like, making it a very versatile class.

The Peacebringer Unique Passive Ability is called Cosmic Balance, which increases your Damage for each nearby Tanker, Mastermind, Corruptor or Defender teammate, your Damage Resistance for each nearby Scrapper, Sentinel, Brute, Stalker or Blaster teammate, increased CC protection for each nearby Controller or Dominator teammate, and finally increased Attack Time Slow Resistance for each nearby Peacebringer, Warshade, Arachnos Soldier or Arachnos Widow teammate.

 

Warshade: Warshades, also known as Kheldians like Peacebringers are, are the opposites of Peacebringers. Warshades are not in tune with the start but are instead in tune with dark energy and black holes. While they are the opposite of Peacebringers, it does not mean that they are hostile or actively fighting with each other, in fact both typically have an uneasy truce with each other as they fight off evil Kheldians called Nictus together, as Warshades are redeemed Nictus.

 

 The Warshade Unique Passive Ability is called Dark Sustenance, it works similarly to the Peacebringers' Cosmic Balance Passive Ability, your Damage Resistance increases for each nearby Tanker, Mastermind, Corruptor or Defender teammate, your Damage increases for each nearby Scrapper, Sentinel, Stalker, Brute or Blaster teammate, each nearby Controller or Dominator teammate will give you limited Protection from CC effect, and each nearby Peacebringer, Warshade, Arachnos Soldier or Arachnos Widow teammate will grant you some Resistance to Attack Time Slow effects.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Playing as a Peacebringer OR Warshade, as both are Kheldians, means that there is a chance for Nictus and Void Hunter enemies to appear both in and out of missions. They are very resistant to Kheldian damage and possess special weapons that deal additional damage to Kheldian players. If you're on a team with one, or team up with other players as one, these enemies will begin to spawn, and if the team size is large enough Shadow Cyst Crystals may spawn as well, which are incredibly tanky and pose a good deal of danger to the entire team. You have to disband the entire team once a Kheldian joins a team, even if the Kheldians of the team already left, otherwise the enemies will continue to spawn regardless.

However, this is currently bugged, only the Quantum enemies will spawn.

Power Sets

 

There are many different powersets in this game, to the point where if I tried to detail them all out, this guide would take way longer to finish. Even more so considering that the powersets you see in Character Creation are not all the powersets you can get in game, as there are also the Power Pools (aka Supplementary Powersets), Epic Powersets and Patron Power Sets. So I'll be informing you as to watch to expect and what to make sure to check for power sets instead so that you can make your own builds and character lore as appropriate.

So, to begin with, every Archetype gets to choose a Primary Power Set and Secondary Power Set, these will allow you to choose what powers you take from them as you level up. At the start you can only pick 1 of 2 powers from your Primary Powerset, and only the first power from your Secondary Powerset, however as you level up more and more of the powers from your Powerset will become available for your to choose. This also encourages you to get Supplementary Power Sets as well. Every Primary and Secondary powerset typically has 9 Powers in them with corresponding Tiers. The first power is Tier 1, while the last power at the bottom is Tier 9. This does not reflect how powerful those powers are.

See, the interesting thing about the powers you get is that all of them scale with your level. Meaning the powers you pick at the start of the game, will still be just as effective to use at end-game. Possibly even more so depending on how you slot them with Enhancements (which will be explained later). Tiers for powers only really reflect base effectiveness.

For example, Radiation Blast's Tier 1 power is Neutrino Bolt, which is a quick firing small damage ranged attack that can reduce a targets defense, while Radiation Blast's Tier 9 is literally a Nuke, called Atomic Blast, that does immense amounts of damage but saps near all of your Endurance (the resource used to "cast" your powers) while also greatly reducing enemy defense if they survive.

So the really difference between Tiers is Cost vs Reward. The higher the tier, the more it'll cost to cast it, but the more reward you'll get, while the lower the tier, the less the cost and effectiveness but the more you can cast it. So during gameplay you'll want to play suited to your playstyle.

Powerset Unique Mechanics: The coolest part about powersets is that every single powerset has their own unique mechanic attributed to them. Sometimes it's just following a theme of what the powers do, while other times it's an outright mechanic that you need to pay attention to. For example, the Radiation Blast powerset has powers themed around reducing enemies Defense as their attacks hit, while the Beam Rifle Powerset has an entire Disintegration mechanic that you have to take into account.

Another thing is that just because Powersets have similar naming and style, it doesn't mean they have similar mechanic. For example Electrical Blast is themed around draining enemies Endurance (the resource used to "cast" powers) or even outright stopping Endurance recovery entirely, along with the added possibility of Shocking targets the lower their Endurance is, dealing bonus damage, hindering recovery, and transferring Endurance back to you, but on the other end of the spectrum is the Electrical Affinity Powerset has an entire Static mechanic that, as it builds, increases the number of targets your Circuit powers can chain to.

So it's very important that you read the Powersets description as you mouse over them to see what their powers do overall and what their unique mechanics are. Even more so is that once you click on your starting powers, or even just mouse over any powers in the set, you can read them and get more detailed information.
 

Power Pools AKA Supplementary Powersets: Power Pools, also called Supplementary Powersets, become available to you once you hit Level 4. On the level up menu you'll see a new button on the far right column that says Power Pool Sets and that's where you can choose them. 

Power Pools are important because this is where you get your Movement powers like Flight, Teleportation, Superspeed and Super Jump. And before you ask, no, unfortunately there is not a Swinging movement set, nor a Climbing one unfortunately, this is due to this game being on a much older engine from a much older time. However, if wanted you could still absolutely go on roofs via fire escapes on the sides of buildings, though you cannot run up buildings with Superspeed.

Power Pools also give you other supplementary skills like more stealth powers, more hand-to-hand powers, medicine skills, leadership, utility belts and gadgets, even Sorcery.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You can only have 4 Power Pools selected, note that I said Power Pools and not Powers, this means that you can take up to 4 different Power Pools and take all the powers from those pools if you want, though generally that's not recommended unless you're specifically doing it for RP or Build reasons. These pools are more meant to supplement your playstyle and help increase your capability in whatever role you've chosen to take on, alongside giving you the ability to move around faster and easier.

Keep in mind that when you level up and get the option to unlock more powers, taking powers from Power Pools, does mean you won't be taking a power from your Primary or Secondary powerset. But considering you need to hit certain level milestones to unlock more of your Primary and Secondary powersets as choices, and that you'll be constantly getting new powers, you'll be perfectly fine as you level up, as you'll typically have most if not all of your Primary and Secondary powersets along with whatever Power Pools you've chosen by the time you hit late-to-end game.

I won't be talking about Epic Power Pools or Patron Power Pools, that is late-to-end game content, so by the time you're able to get them you've been playing the game for a long while and generally know what you're doing. If you're still curious about them however, feel free to ask in the comments and we'll freely answer you, everyone on the forums is really friendly and helpful.

 

Character Body, Costume and Power Customization

 

Yep, you heard right, power customization, but before I get to that, there's the other parts first. This section will most likely be pretty short, as it's fairly simple and straightforward, but we'll see where my brain goes.

First up is Body. Body is you generally determining your height, looks and what body type you have. City of Heroes Homecoming has 3 Body Types, Male, Female and Huge. Male and Female are self explanatory, but Huge is when you want to have the likeness of say the Hulk, Abomination or The Thing. The 4 buttons you see under those 3 types are different Presets that will move the sliders around for you to change the overall shape of your body. If you want to fine tune it further, then feel free to move the sliders themselves as you like. Make yourself as tall or as short as you like. On the right side you'll see your general silhouette of your character, with the numbers on the lines representing how tall their are in Feet.

 Next up is Costume. This is one of the biggest parts of the entire game, purely because due to the sheer amount of parts you have available to you is so long that if I tried to list them all I'd never finish this guide. The best part is that if you've selected a Powerset that has a weapon, like Dual Pistols or Shield, this would be where you choose what those pistols and shield look like, you can even have different looks for each pistol.

On the left you'll see all the different parts of your character where you can choose different parts of your costume for different areas. This can get really in depths so be sure to experiment and have fun with it. At the very bottom left you'll see a dice that says Random, clicking that will randomize everything about your characters looks, but only their looks.

In the middle you'll find your character, and below from left to right you'll find the Rotate Right, Darken Background, Zoom to Head, Brighten Background and Rotate Left buttons.

On the far right you'll find your Color Palette where you can choose the colors of your costume. On the top left of that palette you'll see 2 colored squares, that's the Primary and Secondary color for your costume, this means that changing those 2 colors will change it for the whole costume. However if you look down at the bottom of the color palette you'll find something that says Costume Colors Linked, with 2 half circles. Clicking those half circles will unlink your costume colors, allowing you to individually color each different piece of your costume as you like! 

At the the top right of the Color Palette you'll see a tab that says Skin Color, that would, obviously, be where you'd change your skin color to any of the options provided.

At the bottom of the Color Palette, under the Costume Colors Linked button, you'll find something that says Scales. If you click that you'll find the same sliders from the Body tab that you can adjust as you like to better fit your costume, but you'll also find a new set of sliders for customizing your heads shape and various parts! Be sure to mess around with this if you'd like to more finely tune your character!

Finally at the very bottom right you'll find a Save and Load button, these will allow you to save any costume you like but don't want to use right now, or even just want to generally save just in case, and clicking Load will allow you to load them!

Second to last is one of the cooler parts of character creation, is the Powers Customization, of which just says Custom in the character creator. Here you can customize how your powers look, mainly in color variation but some in style and effects! Don't underestimate the power of this tool, it can allow you to be VERY creative if used right! For example, making all your Radiation powers Orange instead of Green to make it look like Solar Radiation instead! Some powersets that utilize weapons also have alternate animations you can use instead of the normal ones, so be sure to explore this tool!

Finally, the Register tab, the last step of Character Creation. Firstly you'll see your character in their entirety slowly rotating on the right side to give you a preview of what you're bringing to the world of City of Heroes, but on the left side you'll see a layout of your character! At the very top will be your characters Name, if you click the arrow with ellipses you can add a "The" to the beginning of your name if you want. Once you have a name in that field, make *sure* to click the magnifying glass to the right of it, this will tell you if that name is taken by someone else or not. If it's not then it'll be a green checkmark, if it is you'll get a red X and you'll have to choose a new name!

Below you'll see a readout of all of your characters basic status. I don't need to explain what Origin, Archetype and Health are to you, but Endurance is your characters "mana", it's what they use to "cast" their powers at all! Security level is your current Level, while I don't believe I need to explain Total XP and XP Needed to you. Super Group Affiliation will always say none here, as Super Groups are this games version of Clans, this will change if you decide to join any Super Groups as you play! Below that you'll see Known Powers, these are the powers you've chosen to start with from your Primary and Secondary power sets. The next 2 field however are going to be one of the more fun parts for the RPers out there.

Battle Cry will be a very short sentence or word that your characters shouts as they head into combat. You can trigger it by pressing F10 while in game.

Character Description is where you'd give a quick and simple backstory of your character in whatever format you wish. Keep in mind that the amount of words you have is limited so keep it informative but don't make a whole novel, it will outright stop you from typing more! Also don't be in distress if you feel like changing this, you can change it at any time in game by just opening the Menu and clicking I.D.

NOTE: You can read other peoples Backstory and Lore that they've given themselves if you right click on someone and click Info.

 

The Basics of City of Heroes

 

So, there's a lot to this game, and you've just gotten through your tutorial and you're probably thinking "well there's so much I can do, how do I decide? What are Enhancements, what's a DFB or SF? What's a Hamiraid! What are Crafting matts used for, how do I make a base or clan, what do the bars mean in the top right, what are inspirations and AAAAAAAAA"

Well don't worry, I'm here to explain it all to you!

First up! The HUD!

 

The HUD: Explained

 

A neat note is that your Hud will be Red if you're a Villain or Rogue, and Blue if you're a Hero or Vigilante.

 

In the top right you'll find a series of bars and a 1. That 1 is your level, the symbol to the left of those bars is your Alignment. There are 4 Alignments in the game, Hero, Villain, Vigilante, and Rogue. The green bar is your Health, the blue bar is your Endurance (the resource used to "cast" your powers), and the empty bar below that is your Experience Points bar (denoted by the small XP on the left side of that bar.) If there's a 4th empty bar between your Endurance and your XP, that means you're playing an Archetype that has a unique mechanic that uses it, to which I suggest you scroll up to the Archetypes section and read the passive ability for your Archetype.

Now as you play you might notice that once that XP bar fills all the way, it disappears and you get a pink square in the ring surrounding the 1 rather than leveling up. You need to fill the circle all the way with pink squares in order to go up a level, rather than fill the XP bar! Under that HUD element you'll see symbols that will denote any buffs or debuffs that you get. At the top of that HUD element you'll find 5 buttons, Chat, Tray, Target, Nav and Menu.

Clicking the Chat button will add and remove the chat box on the bottom left from the HUD, clicking the Tray button will add and remove your Power tray on the bottom right, clicking Target will add and remove the Targeting Information on the Top Left, and clicking Nav will add and remove the Compass Navigator in the top center of your screen.

Clicking on the Menu will open the main menu, all the ones items in that menu that have a circle next to them are Hud Elements that you can turn on and off by clicking on them. The Arena button opens the PVP menu. I.D. Opens up the character preview screen that will let you change your backstory and battlecry whenever you like. Personal Info opens a small window to show you what it looks like when someone right clicks on you and clicks Info, this is what you'd use if you want to look at your backstory and various statistics if without opening the I.D. Menu. Chat Handle will show you your Global Chat Handle, in case you want to add someone as a Global Friend rather than a character specific friend. Global Friends are shared between all characters instead of normal friends which are just friends on that character alone. I don't think I have to explain the options menu but the Support button opens up the Report menu, allowing to report someone, a bug or a technical issue. Finally the Quit button opens up a menu to let you quit to Login, quit to Character Select, or quit to Desktop.

A fun thing is that you can change the color and text of your chat boxes if you open the Options menu, go to the Windows tab, and scroll all the way to the bottom!

You can move HUD elements where ever you like by click-and-dragging on any empty space of the hub tab that's popping out of it, said empty space looks like this: 

You can also resize Hud Elements by click and dragging on the thick bars of the HUD you wish to resize, that look like this: 

Some hud elements can be attached to their originating HUD element if they have one, which is denoted by something that looks like this:

If this is empty like shown here, it means that that HUD element can be moved around and is not attached to it's originating HUD element, however if it's filled like so:

It will reattach itself to it's originating HUD element and lock in place, attached to it. Moving the originating HUD element will move them together

on the Nav Hud you'll see a compass that denotes which way your character is facing. You can move your camera holding right click, this will move your character with you to keep pointing where you're looking, if you hold middle mouse button however you can rotate the camera around your character, you can reset the camera by pressing Page Down on your keyboard.

Continuing with the Nav Bar, under it you'll find 5 buttons.

Map opens up the map of the Zone or City that you're currently in, I recommend always having this up, you can switch between City and Zone by clicking the relevant tab on it, at the bottom you'll find the name of the map you're on, and the Options dropdown menu to let you show or hide map elements on said map. You can mouse over anything on the map to get it's name, and click on it to begin tracking it, which will show you where to go on your Nav Bar.

Contact opens up your Quest givers, Active are ones you're currently doing and have access to, Inactive are ones you've completed or don't currently have access to, Brokers are special NPC's and quest giving mechanics like Newspapers for Villains or Radio's for Hero's. As you do missions and quests you'll find various tips for both Lore and Quest related reasons which will be in the Tips section.

Mission shows you your current quests and what you need to do for them.

Clues are similar to tips but not quest specific and are mostly lore. Clues are pieces of Lore you've learned by just doing things, anything can give a Clue really. Souvenirs are trophy's you've gotten from completing major pieces of content or long questlines, they give Lore about the the things you've achieved. Architect souvenirs are like regular souvenirs but specifically from Architect Entertainment content.

Badges are a mixed bag of Title, Lore and Achievement. There are many in the game and some players dedicate themselves to collecting them all (termed Badge Hunters). Click on a badge sets it as your title, and you can get badges from pretty much anything. Exploring locations, finding them via going to certain spots (the top of the Atlas statue for example), completing missions, raids, strike forces, etc. Anything can give a badge, and clicking on it sets it as your title!

On the top left is your targeting, showing you the health, endurance, buffs, debuffs and various other things of whatever you've currently clicked.

At the bottom left you'll find the chatbox, the various tabs opens different kinds of chats, and you can right click both the top and bottom boxes to get a bunch of new menus, including making your own custom chats or setting up your own custom tabs to show only what you want it to show. 

The Team button opens up whatever team you're a part of, showing their health and endurance. League is the player searcher allowing you find people to team up with if you don't have anyone specific in mind or aren't recruiting or joining via chat. Friends shows your friends list, letting you see both your character specific (shown as server) and global ones by clicking the dropdown menu at the top. 

Super shows your Super Group, managing it, whose in it, whose online, your coalition (supergroups can ally with eachother). You can create a Super Group by going to City Hall in Atlas Park, Freedom Corps Headquarters in Galaxy City, or a registrar in Port Oaks, and talking with the Super Group Registration Desk (or Registrar).

 

Email allows you to send and receive items, messages and Inf (the gold of this game) to eachother.

LFG is the Dungeonseeker for this game. These are the dungeons (called Trials and Incarnate Trials) and raids (called Strike/Task Forces and Story Arcs) of this game.

Note: DFB means Death From Below, a common dungeon you can do right from the start for low level characters that's used to quickly level characters from level 1 to level 5.

Tab opens the right click menu, while the 1, 2, 3, and 4 buttons open custom tabs you've made if you don't want them in the chat box itself.

Finally, on the bottom right is your power bar. The Powers button shows you what powers you currently have, you can click and drag non-grey ones that need to be activated into slots on your power bar to use them whenever you'd like. Combat Attributes will show you your combat related stats, Incarnate Abilities are End-Game and so I won't be explaining them here.

Inspirations opens and closes a small sub window with 3 slots. As you level up more slots will appear and you will get Inspirations just by defeating enemies. Inspirations give you temporary buffs, resurrect you, heal you or give you back some endurance. The inspirations you get are random, and if all your slots are filled you won't get more, so use them as much as you can, you'll never run out.

Enhancements shows you your current unslotted enhancements, while Manage opens the enhancements menu. I'll explain that in a bit.

Salvage shows you all the crafting materials you have on you right now while Vault Reserve shows you how much you've stored away at a Vault, found in various places.

Recipes shows you all the current Crafting Recipes that you know.

The + symbol, when clicked, adds a new power bar that you can move and place as you wish, while the red up arrow creates a new one attached to the main power bar (up to 3).

Pressing the arrows next to the 1 on the far left of the power bar changes what power bar setup you're looking at.

For reference, here's what I generally have my HUD setup look like, keeping in mind that your HUD layout does not carry over to your other characters, so you'll need to adjust it as you like it for every character:


 

The Rest: Explained

 

So, that's pretty much the basics, but there's more to cover that are equally as important! So here's where I'll give brief rundowns of various things.

First up, Contacts!

Contacts: So as I said previously Contacts are your questgivers, HOWEVER they are unique in that not all contacts will contact you. When you start the game you'll generally be guided towards a starting contact which will set you on your journey, but they're not the only contacts available to you! See, one of the cool things about this game is that for some contacts, you have to explore and find them before they'll start giving you missions!

A prime example, is that on Blueside (aka Heroside) each Origin has it's own unique questline in which you encounter missions, dungeons and various other pieces of content unique to your Origin. These are older then the primary contact you get guided to however, so the writing not be up to stuff. But to find them, you merely go to city hall, head down to the basement and you'll find various offices dedicate to each of the Origins! Just go to the one that's for your Origin and talk to the contact inside and boom, you'll begin down a long series of quests and encounters specific to your Origin, in which you'll only fight and encounter enemies that would make sense for that Origin to fight! They'll continue to introduce you to relevant contacts to continue this Origin specific journey all the way to max level!

Alongside this, at certain levels you'll unlock Radio (in Hero's cases) and Newspaper (in Villain's cases) missions! Which are special unique missions that are specific to what city map you're in! Once you complete enough of them you'll unlock a Bank mission, a Protect the Bank if you're a Hero or a Rob the Bank if you're a villain. These missions are unique and can be pretty fun!

Architect Entertainment: As you play you might see mention of something called AE, or Architect Entertainment. Architect Entertainment is a huge building in Atlas Park and other places, some have smaller AE's that you can access in places like Pocket D. AE is the custom dungeon/raid designer given to players that allow you to make your own story lines, missions and raids as you like! The best part is that yes, you do get XP and crafting materials from these as well, so there's ample reward for doing them. Hell, some people level purely by doing AE XP Farms or via peoples custom storylines rather than normal content! The AE Tools are very diverse so if you learn how to use them you can make some really cool things, there's various guide on how to use them and design your own stuff in the Guides section of the forums.

Here's the one I generally follow for AE guides: 

Enhancements: One of the more important parts of the game character builds wise. I mentioned earlier that if you open the Enhancements button on your power bar and click manage, it'll open your Enhancements menu. Inside that menu you'll find your various powers will have slots to them, and as you level up you can add more slots to your powers. 

As you do missions and content, Enhancements will be added to your Enhancements inventory, the one that showed in the Enhancements menu when you opened it on the Power Bar, but also in the Manage screen at the bottom. 

When you mouse over your powers in this menu it'll show you what Enhancements can be slotted there, and when you begin click and dragging an Enhancement the slots it can be inserted into will glow green. However, you can only slot enhancements that are your origin!

As Enhancements drop you'll get ones that when moused over say something similar to "Science/Mutant" for example, these are called Dual Origin Enhancements, or DO's. These are considered the weakest enhancements but they're better then nothing! As long as you're one of the 2 Origins listed, you can slot them. 

After DO's are SO's or Single Origin Enhancements, these Enhancements are much stronger than DO's, but on the downside they only have a single Origin that can slot them, so if you get any that aren't your Origin, it's best to sell them at a vendor, put them up at an auction, or give them away to someone who can use them.

However, DO's and SO's have to be slotted appropriate to your level, meaning you can't slot a Level 2 DO as a Level 10, as there'll be no effect. However you can upgrade enhancements to higher levels by combining them via the Upgrades button in the Enhancement Management menu.

Finally the last kind are Invention Enhancements or IO's. These are ones you can only get via crafting them from Recipes, using Salvage and Inf (the Gold of this game). These are stronger than DO's and SO's, don't have any Origin requirements, and can come in Sets! They also don't have a level requirement and never expire due to leveling like DO's and SO's do.

As mentioned Invention Enhancements can come in Sets, Sets incur unique buffs to your powers the more of that set you have slotted! A regularly end-game grind is getting all of your powers slotted with IO's and IO sets that improve your build.

SO's are one of the most important Enhancements out there because of their power and their ability to be used in sets!

However, there are special Enhancements that you can get that aren't DO's, SO's or IO's. These are done via the Raids of the game, though there's only a few currently. When you complete these raids these special enhancements will drop for you to use, but not all of them will be helpful for your builds so keep that in mind!

These special enhancements are HO's or Hamidon Origin Enhancements, dropped from the Hamidon in The Hive (for heroes) or The Abyss (for villains). Also commonly called Hami-O's. Another is the Crystal Titan Origin Enhancements or CTO's, dropped from the Crystal Titan in the Eden Trial. These rarely get used due to them being level 40-43 however. Hydra Origin Enhancements are dropped from the Hydra in the Abandoned Sewers Trial, however much like CTO's these rarely get used due to being level 40-43. The next are D-Sync Origin Enhancements or DSO's, these are dropped by completing the Dr. Aeon Strike Force and are useable from level 35 to 50, which is the Max Level.

Pocket D : So as you play you might see people reference a place called Pocket D. Pocket D is a club in another dimension that's also considered the main HUB area for many players, it's almost always full of people, and for RPers this is the main place that people gather together for RP.

Pocket D is accessible to both Hero's and Villains, including the Rogue and Vigilante between alignments, allowing people of all alignments to meet and gather together. Pocket D also has it's own AE section Vault as well! Best of all is that inside, on the Redside section of Pocket D, you'll find a Seagull sitting on top of a moving truck, talking to it will give you various options, including changing your alignment to whatever you want without having to do Alignment Missions!

Pocket D has entrances and exits to every major city map both Blueside and Redside as well, allowing you to quickly get to where you want to go once you're done!

 

You can find Pocket D by looking for a green dot on your map, mousing over it you'll see it say Pocket D. Once you get there you'll see an entrance of some kind, the most common being a truck with Pocket D posters on it that looks like this:

 

If you left click on the back doors of that truck, you'll be whisked away to Pocket D! Just traverse the halls, follow the map, and you'll easily make it to the main hub area!

Ouroboros: Ouroboros is another place that you might see people mention! You might also see people disappearing into golden portals, of which lead directly to Ouroboros! Ouroboros is a unique place that once you enter it, you unlock a portal power to go directly to it. Inside Ouroboro's you can do all the previous content you've missed due to leveling up!

The Ouroboros area is also another fairly popular Hub area, sometimes for costume contests, other times just to hang out or group up!

Strike Forces/Task Forces, Trials, Story Arcs and Raids: As you explore the game you'll see people saying things like LFG DFB or something similar, DFB as mentioned previously means Death From Below, and it's a Trial for level 1 players to quickly level up to 5! Trials are like Dungeons, while Incarnate Trials are End-Game dungeons with end-game rewards! As you level up, discover new contacts or find new contacts by exploring, you'll unlock new Trials and Strike Forces/Task Forces, otherwise known as SF's and TF's. Strike Forces are what they're called for Heroes, Task Forces for Villains. To enter any Trials, SF/TF's or Story Arcs you require to be the minimum level and have the minimum amount of players needed, mousing over the name in the LFG menu will tell you the details for the ones in question including the minimum amount of players and level! If you Queue without the minimum amount of players, or no players at all, it'll put you with other random players.

Strike Forces/Task Forces are considered the Minor Raids for this game, these can be very long and aren't in all one instances. These are very time consuming with a lot of story and lore to them, so only do these if you and the people you're doing them with have a lot of time on your hands.

Story Arcs aren't a Raid or a Dungeon in comparison, though they're very long and they're one of the biggest parts of the game Lore wise. There's not many of them, but that's because of how major they are. Through these you'll be experiencing and going through the major events of the game one by one and getting rewarded for it.

Now there are actual Raids in this game but they are few in number, and by that I mean there's just 2 of them as of right now. They are the Hamidon Raid and the Rikti Mothership Raid. These are massive, generally having up to 50 players, and are done in their own huge instance/map. Players will organize together on huge groups and go through these systemically and they're a major piece of end-game content!

There's actually discords, or at least 1 I know of, for organizing people together for raids, TF/SF's and Trials, aside from recruiting in game. The one for the Everlasting server can be found here: https://discord.gg/85mRNFs

Icon and Costume Slots: Every character has their own Costume Slots that allows you to change their looks however you like, whenever you like. To do this you open the Costume menu via open the main menu from the the HP HUD, then pressing K or clicking Costumes. There you'll see all your costume slots like so:

 

Once you do so, you'll see that your currently equipped one is outline in green, you'll want to switch to a different then. After you do so you'll want to find a Tailor, commonly the Icon building. Once inside you can talk to the vendors to change your costume for your currently equipped slot into whatever you want, provided you have the Inf. for it! Afterwards you can switch between them as you like by opening that same costume window and clicking on the slot you want equipped, you can even have a unique animation play when you switch costumes by clicking the "Select Costume Change Emote:" dropdown menu at the bottom!

Game Difficulty Options: Yes that's right, by default the game is technically set to "Normal" difficulty! If you ever want to edit this then you'll want to look for a Field Analyst on your map, head over to them and talk to them! There you can change your difficulty settings.

If you ever see someone saying they're doing 8/+4 it means they're playing at a higher difficulty that they set from the Field Analyst in which Enemies are +4 levels higher than normal and and that combat is treating you as equivalent to 8 Heroes.

By default the settings have "Prefer fighting bosses when alone" and "prefer to fight Arch-villains" turned off. This means that you won't be fighting Bosses or Arch-Villains unless you have a group of people with you in a team! This can make getting levels harder if you're doing solo-level content, so if you're up for the added challenge then go ahead and fight them at their strongest!

Giant Monsters or GM's (not Game Masters): In this game there exists unique, colossal creatures called Giant Monsters. There are a rare few in Trials and from quests but there are also some out in the open world (like Sally! Though she's a cinnamon role, leave her alone!). These are typically very difficult to do and require a team of friends to encounter and take care of! Some also only pop up around Holidays as well, so keep an eye out!

Invasions: As you play you might notice read text in your chat box that says "Rikti are invading X" or "Zombies have begun to roam y". These are random Invasion events that can happen at any time! If you go to where these invasions are happening you'll find the relevant enemies destroy and attacking everything nearby, it's up to you if you want to deal with that or just leave and do content elsewhere!

Bases: I mentioned Super Groups earlier so now it's time for one of the fun parts of super groups, that being bases! The base creator for this game is *insanely* freeform, allowing you to pretty much make almost anything you want to think of! People have made Cities, Towns, Villages, Sewers, Temples, Spaceships, Alternate Dimension Homes, Apartments, Houses, honestly if you think it, you can make it! Some people even make large Hub bases with teleporters that allow you to teleport anywhere you need to go and them make said Hub bases open to the public!

All you need is the Bases Code and go to one of those dark purple portals you see floating around ((called Base Portals on the map)there's one in Atlas Park next to City Hall by one of the statues), input the code and away you go!

A neat thing is that because Super Groups are character specific and not global, that means you can make a base per character if you make them each their own supergroup! Players do this all the time to make a home for their character and it's pretty fun to do! Some even do commissions for base building! I highly recommend checking out Dacy's guides to base building if you really want to get into it: 

 

Crafting: I mentioned earlier that Invention IO's are created via Salvage and Inf through the crafting system, well here's a quick thing on what crafting is! To do crafting you need a crafting bench of some kind, you can typically find these at libraries and various other places scattered around, all you need is the Recipe (which you can buy from the auctions or just hope that they drop while you do quests and content!), the salvage and the inf. to do it!

Wentworth/Black Market: If you have something you want to auction off to other players, or you want to buy stuff of of other players, you can head to Wentworths (for heroes) or the Black Market (for villains). There you can auction of or buy Enhancements, Inspirations, Recipes and Salvage! It goes off of a bidding system. You click and drag something into the menu, put a default bidding amount, click post! If you want to take it back out or stop having it on the market, click Get, and if you want to find ones similar to it, click Find!


I think that's about it! If this guide helped all the new people coming in than I'm glad it helped you out! If you have any questions about anything feel free to ask or look around, everyone on the forums and in the discords are super helpful and very friendly.

And for the veteran players of you out there that have read this out of curiosity or just because you wanted to, feel free to tell me if I missed anything or if I was incorrect about anything and I'll try to fix it!

Edited January 15 by TheMultiVitamin
added Giant Monster and Invasions cause I forgot, Forgot about Bases too, forgot about Wentworths and crafting.

[TheMultiVitamin]

I'm gonna be refining this over the next few days as a heads up!

[Crystal Dragon]

Amazingly well put together, Multi, thank you! I'll be creating a short list of forum threads to help new folks to the game and to Everlasting with link tree in just a bit. Here we go! https://linktr.ee/CrystalDragon

Edited January 14 by Crystal Dragon
Tossed together a linktree to help guide new players to various guides and hotlinks for the server shards.

[Grouchybeast]

This is great!  Newbies are going to find it really helpful.

 

Just a few things I noticed while I was reading through.

 

- Praetoria is an alternate dimension Earth, not a different timeline.

- There is a Praetorian tutorial (Precinct Five).

- Non-Praetorian characters can visit Praetoria, but only native Praetorians can take missions in the level 1-20 zones.

 

- I'd say that Corruptors are more like a Blaster-Defender combination, rather than Blaster-Controller,.

- The Sentinel section has a typo: 'team' not 'time'.

- Arachnos Widow typo: 'Fortunata' not 'Fortunate'.

 

- Power Sets typo: 'what to expect' not 'watch to expect'.

- You can now choose from either of the first two powers in secondary power sets from level one.

 

- You can also create a Supregroup as a Praetorian in Nova Praetoria.

- It's probably worth noting that the LFG system is pretty broken.

- Might be worth mentioning that you can save your preferred default window layout with /wdw_save and load it for a new character with /wdw_load,  (I don't know if it's worth getting into how to save different named files.) Likewise /chat_save and /bind_save might merit a mention.

 

- There's no AE building in Atlas Park (or Mercy Island) any more.

- Might be worth mentioning that Common IOs are only better than SOs after mid-level.

- The section on IOs is a bit misleading, because you say that they don't have level requirements, which is only (partly) true if you're using Attuned IOs.  It's probably worth at least being clear on the difference between Common IOs and Set IOs.

- Typo: 'SO's are one of the most important Enhancements out there because of their power and their ability to be used in sets!'

- Pocket D is also accessible to Praetorians.

- Might be worth mentioning how to unlock the Ouro portal once you're in Ouro.

- Typo: 'Strike Forces are what they're called for Heroes, Task Forces for Villains.'

- Only Trials have minimum party sizes now, IIRC.  There's aren't any TF/SF or Story Arcs with a minimum party size (other than suggested sizes).

- I'm not sure what you mean by there being not many Story Arcs?  There are dozens of them

- You might want to mention that you can also change your costume at Trainers.

- The menu option to change difficulty is more useful that Field Analysts.

- the /ah command is probably worth a mention.

 

 

Whew!  I hope that's helpful.  (I didn't make a note of minor typos like missing apostrophes, it's/its, or other stuff like that, but if you'd like me to I could proofread it.)

Edited January 14 by Grouchybeast

[Shocktacular]

I admit I'm not much into Marvel lore, but it seems to me like Doc Ock would be a tech hero since his powers come from the mechanical arms attached to his body.  I'm curious why you put him in the "science" category.

Also, the Sentinel's Vulnerability power is not passive anymore. You have a bar above the xp bar similar to dominators and brutes, and you can use "vulnerability" on a target when this bar is 50% full or higher. Doing so depletes the bar by 50%. Only one application of Vulnerability is allowed per target, so multiple Sentinels cannot stack their Vulnerabilities.

Edited January 14 by Shocktacular

[TheMultiVitamin]

Thanks for all the feedback! 

 

1 hour ago, Shocktacular said:

I admit I'm not much into Marvel lore, but it seems to me like Doc Ock would be a tech hero since his powers come from the mechanical arms attached to his body.  I'm curious why you put him in the "science" category.

Also, the Sentinel's Vulnerability power is not passive anymore. You have a bar above the xp bar similar to dominators and brutes, and you can use "vulnerability" on a target when this bar is 50% full or higher. Doing so depletes the bar by 50%. Only one application of Vulnerability is allowed per target, so multiple Sentinels cannot stack their Vulnerabilities.

I'll be honest, he was the first that came to made when I thought "science" but you're absolutely right that he's a Tech hero instead! And thanks for the update on the Sentinel passive, I was grabbing the mechanics for the Archetype passives from the homecoming wiki and it didn't say that, either that or I misread it.

 

 

2 hours ago, Grouchybeast said:

This is great!  Newbies are going to find it really helpful.

 

Just a few things I noticed while I was reading through.

 

- Praetoria is an alternate dimension Earth, not a different timeline.

- There is a Praetorian tutorial (Precinct Five).

- Non-Praetorian characters can visit Praetoria, but only native Praetorians can take missions in the level 1-20 zones.

 

- I'd say that Corruptors are more like a Blaster-Defender combination, rather than Blaster-Controller,.

- The Sentinel section has a typo: 'team' not 'time'.

- Arachnos Widow typo: 'Fortunata' not 'Fortunate'.

 

- Power Sets typo: 'what to expect' not 'watch to expect'.

- You can now choose from either of the first two powers in secondary power sets from level one.

 

- You can also create a Supregroup as a Praetorian in Nova Praetoria.

- It's probably worth noting that the LFG system is pretty broken.

- Might be worth mentioning that you can save your preferred default window layout with /wdw_save and load it for a new character with /wdw_load,  (I don't know if it's worth getting into how to save different named files.) Likewise /chat_save and /bind_save might merit a mention.

 

- There's no AE building in Atlas Park (or Mercy Island) any more.

- Might be worth mentioning that Common IOs are only better than SOs after mid-level.

- The section on IOs is a bit misleading, because you say that they don't have level requirements, which is only (partly) true if you're using Attuned IOs.  It's probably worth at least being clear on the difference between Common IOs and Set IOs.

- Typo: 'SO's are one of the most important Enhancements out there because of their power and their ability to be used in sets!'

- Pocket D is also accessible to Praetorians.

- Might be worth mentioning how to unlock the Ouro portal once you're in Ouro.

- Typo: 'Strike Forces are what they're called for Heroes, Task Forces for Villains.'

- Only Trials have minimum party sizes now, IIRC.  There's aren't any TF/SF or Story Arcs with a minimum party size (other than suggested sizes).

- I'm not sure what you mean by there being not many Story Arcs?  There are dozens of them

- You might want to mention that you can also change your costume at Trainers.

- The menu option to change difficulty is more useful that Field Analysts.

- the /ah command is probably worth a mention.

 

 

Whew!  I hope that's helpful.  (I didn't make a note of minor typos like missing apostrophes, it's/its, or other stuff like that, but if you'd like me to I could proofread it.)

I adore all this feedback, thank you a ton for it! Admittedly I did all this in one sitting over the course of 4-5 hours till midnight, so it's not the best I could've made it, so I really appreciate it. Someone on the Discord has informed me that I've done a ton of typos, along with too much capitalization, so I'm trying to fix that slowly as I go first since it's the simplest to fix! But if you want to proofread feel free!

[Glacier Peak]

21 hours ago, TheMultiVitamin said:

Indomitable: This is the server with the most PVPer's, considered by many to be the Unofficial PVP Server. If you want to focus on fighting other players, testing your mettle against heroes, villains and everything in between, here's your go-to.

Small edit I would recommend you make - this section is not accurate (the labeling it as the 'Unofficial PvP Server'). It hasn't been in over three years now. As someone who has played on Indomitable since 2019 (and PvPed there until the diaspora of fellow PvPers to Excelsior), I have advocated for changing the unofficial descriptor for Indomitable to reflect this so that this false labeling does not continue to reflect inaccurately and potentially keep away players.

 

 

 

[TheMultiVitamin]

1 hour ago, Glacier Peak said:

Small edit I would recommend you make - this section is not accurate (the labeling it as the 'Unofficial PvP Server'). It hasn't been in over three years now. As someone who has played on Indomitable since 2019 (and PvPed there until the diaspora of fellow PvPers to Excelsior), I have advocated for changing the unofficial descriptor for Indomitable to reflect this so that this false labeling does not continue to reflect inaccurately and potentially keep away players.

 

 

 

I'll absolutely adjust it to fix that, you're not the only one that's informed me so I'm thankful to you and the others who let me know! I was unaware that the PVP had migrated to Excelsior instead.

[SnackHappy]

I would really like some help with understanding all the acronyms.

 

[Crystal Dragon]

The quick and dirty guide for MMO acronyms:
LFG: Looking for group
LFT: Looking for team

MLT: Miss Liberty taskforce

ITF: Incarnate taskforce

RP: Roleplay/Roleplaying, players are acting out their characters in team, or in locations for the scene and setting.

Plvl: Power leveling, or level boosting/farming.

SF: Strikeforce

Posi: Positron taskforce or mission arc.

DFB: Death from below, one of the very first missions to do at level 1.

Incarn: Incarnate / lvl 50+ basically.

Lettme know if there's any others you would like to know about bro.

 

[Oubliette_Red]

3 hours ago, SnackHappy said:

I would really like some help with understanding all the acronyms.

 

 

Along with @Crystal Dragon's list below I would include:

 

ah: Auction House, which can be accessed on the go with the /ah command from pretty much anywhere but SG's and instanced maps.
SG: Super Group

Instanced maps are pretty much every mission you enter a door/shuttle/ferry/helicopter to enter.

 

2 hours ago, Crystal Dragon said:

The quick and dirty guide for MMO acronyms:
LFG: Looking for group
LFT: Looking for team

MLT: Miss Liberty taskforce

ITF: Incarnate taskforce

RP: Roleplay/Roleplaying, players are acting out their characters in team, or in locations for the scene and setting.

Plvl: Power leveling, or level boosting/farming.

SF: Strikeforce

Posi: Positron taskforce or mission arc.

DFB: Death from below, one of the very first missions to do at level 1.

Incarn: Incarnate / lvl 50+ basically.

Lettme know if there's any others you would like to know about bro.

 

 

You can find the majority of them here:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Definition

 

[Shocktacular]

ITF is for "Imperious Task Force" which is the one in Cimerora.  I've seen MLTF for "Ms. Liberty Task Force" more than just MLT.

 

Was replying while Red posted. That's a great link! I didn't know that existed!

[Oubliette_Red]

On 1/14/2024 at 5:08 PM, Grouchybeast said:

<snip>

- Typo: 'Strike Forces are what they're called for Heroes, Task Forces for Villains.'

<snip>

 

 

Not necessarily a typo, but it is backwards. Task Forces for Heroes, Strike Force for Villains

 

[Qardo12]

I should point out. Batman is not "Natural" he is a Tech guy. Batman is what a peak human can be and due. Yet, he cannot tango with Superman 1-on-1 without his Bat Power Armored Suit. Also, a lot of Kryptonite. 

[Wavicle]

On 1/13/2024 at 8:46 PM, TheMultiVitamin said:

Sentinel: Sentinel is a bit of an odd class, it's a new one made by the Homecoming team to fill a Ranged Tank kind of role. It's focus is on Ranged DPS and defensive powers in equal measure. To my knowledge, despite how unique it can be and that it can fill many niches' for whatever characters you want to play, not many actually play Sentinels due to it's slightly odd combo.

 

The Sentinels Unique Passive Ability is called Vulnerability, fairly simplistically, it periodically makes an enemy vulnerable to increased damage from their entire time and reduces the enemy's resistance to CC and debuffs.

 

This is wrong in several ways.

First, Sentinels are not Ranged Tanks, they are Ranged Scrappers. They do less single target damage than Scrappers, but tend to do slightly more AoE.

Second, telling new players in a new player guide "nobody plays this" is not good guidance. If you don't play them, that's fine, ask someone who does what is fun about them.

Third, Vulnerability is NOT passive. Sentinels passive ability is called Opportunity, and gives them slightly increased Perception, an increased Perception Base and Cap, a little Perception and Tohit Resistance, and fills their power meter passively over the course of a minute.

They can spend half of the meter to ACTIVELY cast Vulnerability, which is an autohit, no endurance cost, almost no animation time ability that debuffs Stealth, Defense, and Resistance to almost everything, and that is not reduced in strength by enemy level.

[TheMultiVitamin]

21 hours ago, Wavicle said:

 

This is wrong in several ways.

First, Sentinels are not Ranged Tanks, they are Ranged Scrappers. They do less single target damage than Scrappers, but tend to do slightly more AoE.

Second, telling new players in a new player guide "nobody plays this" is not good guidance. If you don't play them, that's fine, ask someone who does what is fun about them.

Third, Vulnerability is NOT passive. Sentinels passive ability is called Opportunity, and gives them slightly increased Perception, an increased Perception Base and Cap, a little Perception and Tohit Resistance, and fills their power meter passively over the course of a minute.

They can spend half of the meter to ACTIVELY cast Vulnerability, which is an autohit, no endurance cost, almost no animation time ability that debuffs Stealth, Defense, and Resistance to almost everything, and that is not reduced in strength by enemy level.

Thanks for the corrections! I didn't say "nobody plays this" just that not many do, I tried asking around but barely got any answers for info on Sentinel. So all the info I've posted for it is paraphrased from the wiki, including the passive! On the wiki the passive for Sentinels is listed as Vulnerability with a simple description. Same with me describing it as a "Ranged tank", as I mentioned I tried asking around but nobody really answered, so I just went off of what I saw from the in game description.

I'll be sure to adjust and fix once I'm next free!

Edited January 18 by TheMultiVitamin

[Renatos1023]

I was actually debating putting a new player guide together since there has been an influx since the licensing announcement, but you beat me to it! I think this is very useful to newer players

 

On 1/13/2024 at 11:46 PM, TheMultiVitamin said:

Game Difficulty Options: Yes that's right, by default the game is technically set to "Normal" difficulty! If you ever want to edit this then you'll want to look for a Field Analyst on your map, head over to them and talk to them! There you can change your difficulty settings.

Just wanted to point out that you don't need to visit the FA's anymore to change the level or team number settings. You can now do that from the chat bar.

 

One thing I might add (and forgive me if it is already there, I did a quick read through and may have missed it), is the P2W vendor. When I came to Homecoming, I didn't realize for a few weeks why people were leveling so much faster than me, and then someone told me about the P2W Vendor in AP. I think mentioning the XP boosts and extra attack powers (definitely useful at those painful lower levels) could be useful.

 

[golstat2003]

Oh snap! This is a really good guide. Nice job sir (or ma'am)!

[Shenanigunner]

On 1/16/2024 at 9:52 PM, Qardo12 said:

I should point out. Batman is not "Natural" he is a Tech guy. Batman is what a peak human can be and due. Yet, he cannot tango with Superman 1-on-1 without his Bat Power Armored Suit. Also, a lot of Kryptonite. 

 

Eh. I'd argue that. His extraordinary physical skills and senses are more key than what's in his utility belt; tech goes more to his travel and detective powers. But wrong topic for all that. 🙂

[Shenanigunner]

20 hours ago, Renatos1023 said:

One thing I might add (and forgive me if it is already there, I did a quick read through and may have missed it), is the P2W vendor. When I came to Homecoming, I didn't realize for a few weeks why people were leveling so much faster than me, and then someone told me about the P2W Vendor in AP. I think mentioning the XP boosts and extra attack powers (definitely useful at those painful lower levels) could be useful.

 

Loading up on the free powers definitely takes the grind out of 1-10 or so. And once a few alts are rolled, running on 2XP means you can make one long sweep of Atlas and come back to level up to 5 or so.

 

But echoing the comments here: GREAT newbie guide, one of the best I've seen (that isn't badly outdated).

[Shenanigunner]

On  a rather specific, technical level — I would strongly advise new players to start, right off the bat, by installing the GABB bindfile to replace the creaky, old-old-old-school original key mapping, Start with a fresh take instead of accommodating to the old and never quite having the will to change over. 🙂

 

It only takes a minute or two, there's a complete guide to go with it, it's far more intuitive and draws from both 15 years of WASD game refinement and experience of someone focused on efficient UIs... and can be reverted in seconds if you decide you really like 2005's idea of key assignments.

 

Remap file and guide here. Review the guide for the changed mapping and see if you don't agree it's a huge improvement.

[ZemX]

1 hour ago, Shenanigunner said:

Eh. I'd argue that. His extraordinary physical skills and senses are more key than what's in his utility belt; tech goes more to his travel and detective powers. But wrong topic for all that. 🙂

 

If you want to add something to this guide, it can be pointed out that Origins are basically only useful for arguing about Origins on the Forums. 😛

[Shenanigunner]

5 minutes ago, ZemX said:

If you want to add something to this guide, it can be pointed out that Origins are basically only useful for arguing about Origins on the Forums. 😛

 

Well, Originally, yes. (To the newbs: the colors you choose for your costume are probably of more significance than your alt's 'origin.' It's an aspect that long ago lost much of its purpose. There are one or two bonus powers that change according to Origin, and you have to select enhancements that match your Origin as well, but even then, it's just a matter of selecting one power or the other — such as Nemesis Staff vs. Blackwand Staff — and the stores only offer you compatible enhancements now.)

 

So choose whatever fits your fancy and concept... it matters very little in actual game/alt progress.

[BazookaTwo]

Calling Corruptors "like controllers with more damage" is a huge mistake. 

[Wavicle]

2 hours ago, BazookaTwo said:

Calling Corruptors "like controllers with more damage" is a huge mistake. 

maybe it was supposed to say like defenders with more damage?