Hit Level 10, and Then...

[The Witchfire]

This is a general problem I had in the original game and it's reoccurring here, otherwise I'd post the thread in the builds section.

 

So, just about any AT can tear up content in the starter zones.  Get to the next one though and things, at least for me, tend to get ugly.  Less so with tanky type characters; my brute is thus far tearing up Kings Row's bad guys 🙂.   Any of the more squishy classes though...

 

What specifically brought me here this time is difficulties with my Widow.  I leveled her up to level 10 before moving on to Port Oakes, she has almost exclusively single origin enhancements at max level.  My difficulty settings are default too.  No cranking things up because lowbies are squishy.

 

ANYWAY...  Every instanced mission I get is full of groups of orange Lieutenants and I'm having to run back from the hospital every other mob.  It's getting real discouraging. 

 

So here's her build thus far at level 10:

Poison Dart: (Will of the Seers START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13)

Strike: (Clockwork Efficiency START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13)

Dart Burst: (Resistance Tactics START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13)

Follow-Up: (Dragon Strike SO Acc - 8 )

 

Combat Training; Defensive: (Dragon Defense SO Def Buff - 13  x2)

Combat Training; Offensive: (Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13  x2)

 

I've also got Sprint, Rest, Health & Stamina single slotted with the appropriate SO enhancement at level 13

 

I'm trying to pull, make liberal use of Sands of Mu, Nemesis Staff (origin bonus), Blackwand, Secondary Mutation, and Pet: Target Drone.

 

 

I know this looks like a "Widow" problem, but I've had similar issues with Blasters and other classes traditionally considered squishy.  Between the maps being nothing but orange and some yellows and larger groups, I'm playing hell soloing up to a level I'd feel comfortable asking to join leveling groups. 

 

 

[macskull]

At least given the info in your post, you're trying, which is more than a lot of people can say. What you're experiencing is just the unfortunate reality of this game's early-level gameplay, especially when solo. It's rough, it's slow, and it isn't particularly fun. Teaming makes the experience a lot smoother.

[Snarky]

One thing to try is to set your mission level to -1.  I am soloing every contact blue red gold for every mission.  I am doing it at -1, no AVs.   
 

Another is to get both P2W buffs and base salvage buffs.  Put in certain salvage, get +rech +end etc.  

 

Getting a P2W pet.  Spendy, but useful. 

[Sovera]

40 minutes ago, The Witchfire said:

This is a general problem I had in the original game and it's reoccurring here, otherwise I'd post the thread in the builds section.

 

So, just about any AT can tear up content in the starter zones.  Get to the next one though and things, at least for me, tend to get ugly.  Less so with tanky type characters; my brute is thus far tearing up Kings Row's bad guys 🙂.   Any of the more squishy classes though...

 

What specifically brought me here this time is difficulties with my Widow.  I leveled her up to level 10 before moving on to Port Oakes, she has almost exclusively single origin enhancements at max level.  My difficulty settings are default too.  No cranking things up because lowbies are squishy.

 

ANYWAY...  Every instanced mission I get is full of groups of orange Lieutenants and I'm having to run back from the hospital every other mob.  It's getting real discouraging. 

 

So here's her build thus far at level 10:

Poison Dart: (Will of the Seers START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13)

Strike: (Clockwork Efficiency START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13)

Dart Burst: (Resistance Tactics START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13)

Follow-Up: (Dragon Strike SO Acc - 8 )

 

Combat Training; Defensive: (Dragon Defense SO Def Buff - 13  x2)

Combat Training; Offensive: (Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13  x2)

 

I've also got Sprint, Rest, Health & Stamina single slotted with the appropriate SO enhancement at level 13

 

I'm trying to pull, make liberal use of Sands of Mu, Nemesis Staff (origin bonus), Blackwand, Secondary Mutation, and Pet: Target Drone.

 

 

I know this looks like a "Widow" problem, but I've had similar issues with Blasters and other classes traditionally considered squishy.  Between the maps being nothing but orange and some yellows and larger groups, I'm playing hell soloing up to a level I'd feel comfortable asking to join leveling groups. 

 

 

 

 

Hmm. I'd have to look at the build in Mids since I'm not that familiar with Widows in particular, but orange lieutenants are +1 which can be a bit much to handle, but at +0x0 it shouldn't be constant trips to the hospital.

 

Squishy classes are squishy though, which is why I gravitated to Tanks early on since I could go +0x6 or even +0x8 by level 10 and truly feel super. In comparison my Sentinel (roughly equivalent of a Widow) was dying a fair bit when I leveled it in the same fashion a couple weeks ago. That said fighting at +0x0 should not be constant trips to the hospital.

 

You can skip early slotting of accuracy until roughly level 20 since the game has a hidden accuracy bonus for lowbies.

If you can have a roughly gapless attack rotation then ditch the prestige attacks like Sands of Mu and etc as you're better off with your origin power (should be a Throwing Knives for a Widow, methinks).

If you can afford a base teleportation prestige power then you can refill your inspirations between missions. Lucks, in particular, are very powerful to keep alive just by eating a couple.

If you can afford the defense uniques (more in the guide in my signature if you happen to be new to the game) will help pushing the Widow's defense.

 

Blasters and others are definitely 100% squishy though and survive on overwhelming power rather than fancy armor or fancy IOs. That means taking Build-up soon and opening with it, and then alternating with Aim (with a Gaussian proc slotted in it) for the next group (or using both for the same group) even if having to wait for one or both to recharge before moving to the next spawn.

Definitely don't skimp on buying the Amplifiers, 8 hours of each, at level 1. Total will be 23k or so so a true pittance and the early buffs are truly noticeable.

 

Edited Tuesday at 08:13 PM by Sovera

[Sovera]

Adding to what I said it's not just squishy ATs that survive on overwhelming power. It's pretty much how every AT can make life easier for them. I had my big phase of playing with Fire Armor and I can tell you that I went 0x8 early (except when soloing Posi 1 and 2 because screw Vahziloks and their toxi and -recharge spam, so 0x6 for them) and the difference between melting a spawn and moving on or dying in five seconds... could be those five seconds.

 

Jumping into a group and doing nothing for five seconds could be death against Vhaziloks due to their exotic damage. But, if in those five seconds I did Build-up + Burn + whatever AoE then they melted and I emerged healthy.

 

 

Semi related if you feel like playing something sturdy and still doing good damage there's the old reliable Fire Armor/Ice Melee Tanker. Frost is phenomenal and available at level 4 (which had me going at least +0x4 right there and then), at 18 there's Burn to help it, and at 20 Ice Patch serves as a mini panic button.

 

Even though Brutes are demi-gods under level 20 the Tanker is a plodding steamrolling machine, and unlike other games it doesn't have a leadership onus to it if playing in a team.

 

Edited Tuesday at 08:32 PM by Sovera

[Triumphant]

Don't play VEATS, so I have no useful advice there.  I do play things like Controllers sometimes (very squishy), and it's just part and parcel of playing an AT designed to be part of a team in a game that was concieved as a team-oriented experience.  If you want to play those kind of ATs solo, you suck it up (i.e. die a lot) until you get enough practice and figure out strategies to deal with the handicap.  Eventually, you hit a high enough level and get enough enhancements that you can solo just fine, even with a squishy AT.  

Playing this way requires one essential quality:  Patience.

I don't think there is a way aroud this.  Otherwise, you have to play on teams (which, is as intended).

Again, the caveat here is that I don't play VEATS, so I don't know if any of the above even applies to your situation.

[Ukase]

3 hours ago, The Witchfire said:

but I've had similar issues with Blasters and other classes traditionally considered squishy

So, I want you to know that you're not crazy. Some ATs take a while to come into their own. That brute of yours is going to do great...and then it will taper off a bit. At least, my brutes have, right in the mid to late 20's. 

If you can afford to, the START Buffs make a pretty large difference, at least, anecdotally. And at level 1, they're super cheap. They can't be too bad at level 13. 

The other thing I might suggest is mitigation. While Sands of Mu, Nem Staff and Black Wand are fine, the plasmatic taser is ridiculously good to use when solo. It sends 95% of the mobs flying, buying you a few seconds to take care of what you were working on before the extras disturbed you. It's a quick activation, and the results are nice. 

Another temp you might try is the phase shift one. It only lasts 30 seconds, but that's time enough to vacate the area without getting shot in the back. 

So, here's something else I'll say. Teaming can make things super easy, or super tough. A bad team will leave you shaking your fist at your screen, if not screaming at it sometimes. (Or is that just me?) A good team will make things ridiculously easy. If you're like me and can't always team without having to afk far too often, then going solo will lead you to pick up some skills that most other players just won't. A team hides many of your weaknesses with buffs/debuffs. That said, by and large, the content was designed for teams. Sometimes, the 0/0 setting seems to have no effect on what's actually in the map. <shrug>

Hope you get it sorted out. 



 

[baster]

7 hours ago, The Witchfire said:

This is a general problem I had in the original game and it's reoccurring here, otherwise I'd post the thread in the builds section.

 

So, just about any AT can tear up content in the starter zones.  Get to the next one though and things, at least for me, tend to get ugly.  Less so with tanky type characters; my brute is thus far tearing up Kings Row's bad guys 🙂.   Any of the more squishy classes though...

 

What specifically brought me here this time is difficulties with my Widow.  I leveled her up to level 10 before moving on to Port Oakes, she has almost exclusively single origin enhancements at max level.  My difficulty settings are default too.  No cranking things up because lowbies are squishy.

 

ANYWAY...  Every instanced mission I get is full of groups of orange Lieutenants and I'm having to run back from the hospital every other mob.  It's getting real discouraging. 

 

So here's her build thus far at level 10:

Poison Dart: (Will of the Seers START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13)

Strike: (Clockwork Efficiency START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13)

Dart Burst: (Resistance Tactics START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13)

Follow-Up: (Dragon Strike SO Acc - 8 )

 

Combat Training; Defensive: (Dragon Defense SO Def Buff - 13  x2)

Combat Training; Offensive: (Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13  x2)

 

I've also got Sprint, Rest, Health & Stamina single slotted with the appropriate SO enhancement at level 13

 

I'm trying to pull, make liberal use of Sands of Mu, Nemesis Staff (origin bonus), Blackwand, Secondary Mutation, and Pet: Target Drone.

 

 

I know this looks like a "Widow" problem, but I've had similar issues with Blasters and other classes traditionally considered squishy.  Between the maps being nothing but orange and some yellows and larger groups, I'm playing hell soloing up to a level I'd feel comfortable asking to join leveling groups. 

 

 

Played my widow and it was horrid experience untill lvl 24. Felt very underwhelming and I nearly dropped him. Once I spent Fortunata holy bologna a totally different experience, suddenly it became my favorite AT.

 

Suggestion stick with it, dont solo. Tras are very easy to find for just about any content of ant level. People advertise in broadcast and LFG channels constantly in peak hours. 

 

 

[RCU7115]

Get the free damage/recharge proc enhancements from the P2W.  There are 5 total that you can use. Will make that widow be a bit more survivable. What helps immensely is the Pancea Proc to heal and help with end. I have around 7 or 8 Widows across most of the servers.

[Erratic1]

I have levelled up a few widows, and my memory is not of being deliriously happy with their damage output at lower levels.

 

No so much of a problem if you go the double xp, DFB, Posi 1, Posi 2 route as that gets you to 20+ pretty quickly and to the doorstep of slotting generic IOs. But solo...more painful and involved.

[Go0gleplex]

When I play squishies then Hover is an absolute must by level 8. Even in buildings and tunnels there are areas that you can be out of reach of the melee based mobs...which increases survival immensely.  After all...what can't hit you hard can't kill you quick. Usually. 😉 

[Biff Pow]

There's definitely a big challenge gap between sets with some early control powers and sets that are just weak debuffs or extra damage. Even the torrent powers in some Blaster sets make a big difference. Anything that gives a break from incoming damage is helpful.

 

It could help to give some pool powers a look- Wall of Force, Misdirection, Invoke Panic. Maybe we could make powers like these a little more useful, and maybe unlock earlier to help low level players? (Like maybe switch power pools to two tiers, but that's a whole other discussion.)

[UltraAlt]

14 hours ago, The Witchfire said:

This is a general problem I had in the original game and it's reoccurring here

 

If I'm understanding what is going on correctly, you are soloing. Is that correct?

 

Soloing is more doable than it once was, but CoH was designed intentionally for teaming.

 

If you are stuck soloing for whatever reason, there are things that can help while soloing with pretty much every archetype  ... and you seem to be trying some of them, but there things that you can do to tweak that.

 

As far as pulling,

When you pull, pull minions. If you pull LTs or bosses that tends to agro the whole group.

When you pull, make sure that all LTs or Boss are out of the LoS (line of sight).

Once you pull, run back behind a corner or two.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Teleportation#Teleport_Target can be very useful as you can pull from around corners and even through walls (which can make the mobs much further away). Alway pull minions that are away from any LT or bosses. Best to slot 1 or 2 acc in the power to insure a good pull to at least teleport that target to your location before the rest of the group gets to you.

If an enemy gets into melee range, fall back to the next corner.

if you get pushed back to the door and it looks like you are going to fall, go out the door or down the elevator. Generally, by the time you rest up the mob will have started to retreat. If you go in and you see this happening, wait until those in front go around a corner and hit the one at the back of the line (hopefully, they aren't an LT or boss).

 

As far as enhancements go, people play differently. I don't like missing, so I tend to slot all powers that need accuracy in order to hit with 2 accuracies before anything else. Why? If my character misses, they still use the endurance and consume time waiting for the power to recharge again before having the chance to do damage (which might miss again).

 

As far as level of foes, when you go to a new zone, the enemies are going to tend to be higher than you might think that they should be. That is intentional. It is to force you to respect your enemy and, as you level up, have a sense of accomplishment when you can easily whoop-up on enemies that seem to be invincible.

One way to deal with this is to take a detour off of that contact (check the wiki to see what their level range is if you don't want to outlevel the contact - you can turn off XP temporarily if need be to avoid outleveling a contact) and run other missions.

From the villian-side, your best best would be newspaper missions; run some until you level up once and then go back to the mission and they will be one level lower. If you are running without your notoriety turned up, by the time you get to mid-level for the contact you should be able to handle most of the missions without falling in battle (as long as you are careful and not trying to steam-roll it). So you might want to just go ahead and run newspaper missions until you are mid-level for that contact and then see how the enemy difficulty looks.

 

I do suggest trying to call out on /LFG for back up if you need it. A good amount of the time, there are people out there that are willing to help (team up) ... honestly, more likely if you are a hero, but that is the price of villainy.  

[tidge]

Widows *are* slightly hard to play at low levels, especially without slotting. I recall soloing the Hollows arcs and they were pretty gruesome. Redside Widows were similar, but I guess I didn't notice as much drag, but I was enjoying Lore and arcs more there so I didn't feel as held back. Perhaps the enemy damage resistance was more favorable to my damage typing at those levels.

 

A couple of simple notes: The toggles aren't providing much benefit at low levels, but they still cost Endurance (as does Sprint). My recollection is that low-level Widows take several attacks to be able to clear even a typical x1 spawn. Eventually the scales of enhancements begin to help, and with respectable slotting in attacks this becomes less noticeable.

[Maagic]

I run a DFB a couple times and get the ACC and Recovery buffs that last until lvl 22. Try eating a couple purples before a big fight too, that'll help. 

[ForeverLaxx]

I might be a bad example because I play every new character until 22 without any slotting beyond those free P2W enhancements that slowly scale down as you level up and don't generally have an issue, so if you're having problems it might be a few things:

 

• Make sure you're not keeping Sprint on while fighting. It's a huge endurance drain, even if you have an Endurance Mod in it.
• Try and make use of Sands of Mu's cone effect. The more targets you can hit with it at once, the more efficient it becomes.
• When pulling, avoid using the Nemesis Staff. Knockback will trigger the entire group to come running, whereas the Blackwand can potentially lure only the guy you hit.
• Do not be afraid to use Inspirations, especially if you're facing Orange-tier enemies. You will hit less often, deal less damage, and get hit more (and for harder) against higher ranked foes. Inspirations are you equalizer (Defense is generally better than Resist Inspirations, if you can only keep one type).
• If you're facing Oranges frequently, consider checking your difficulty settings and lowering them.
• You may also want to work on a different contact as your current contact could be approaching the end of their level range and you're getting missions meant to be tackled after you gain a level or two.
• Pick up basic "jousting" techniques if you need additional breathing room: jump away from your intended target and fire the attack at the peak of your jump -- momentum will carry you out of their return fire range (or around a corner) and force them to run towards you, giving you time to recharge powers or set up area effects easier.

 

Some other things to consider:

 

• If these are Snakes... that's just how they are. They're brutal for lowbies and Redside making you fight them early should be a crime.
• Arachnos are in the same boat, generally. They hit hard, have -Defense in some attacks, and the higher ranked foes can throw Web Grenades on you. They're a pain at all levels, even at this point when they're at their "weakest."

 

There's not much you can do about those last two other than liberally use inspirations or play very cautiously, unfortunatley.

Edited 22 hours ago by ForeverLaxx

[RCU7115]

Even with difficulty set at 0/0 you will still get an occasional OJ Lt/bond.

Also as some above mentioned slot your attacks first til around lvl 10. 

There are a few IO's that you could slot at level 7 but you need either money or reward merits to make life a bit easier.

[OverkillEngine]

On 7/29/2025 at 3:08 PM, Snarky said:

One thing to try is to set your mission level to -1.  I am soloing every contact blue red gold for every mission.  I am doing it at -1, no AVs.   
 

Another is to get both P2W buffs and base salvage buffs.  Put in certain salvage, get +rech +end etc.  

 

Getting a P2W pet.  Spendy, but useful. 

I just wanted to echo again the advice of setting reputation difficulty to -1, especially on squishier AT's that take a while to come online when it comes to soloing.

Experience and mobs are not a finite resource. You are not obligated in any way shape or form to fight yellow and orange con mobs if your build has a hard time with those. You are not required to fight bosses when solo.

The most important metric is xp/time, not xp/kill. The latter would only be the most important if you were only issued so many mobs that you were allowed to defeat, ever, per character. Luckily, that is not the case and you can always go hunt more Skuls.

Fighting the mobs that your build can handle at a good clip is how you maximize xp/time.

 

Edit: now one thing to take into account is some enemy groups are harder than others on a 1:1 basis, but they tend to award more xp/kill in exchange. You see this crop up fairly often in villain/praetorian content. You may want to pick your missions more wisely if those groups are too much.

Edited 15 hours ago by OverkillEngine

[The Witchfire]

Alot of good advice in the replies here.  Thanks all.

 

For those who suggested sticking with teams...  Fair point, BUT, i'm having a total blast rediscovering everything since I just came back.  Teams just want to clear a map and move on.  More importantly, I tend to solo any new build for a while so that I can get a deeper understanding of it's mechanics, strengths and weaknesses.  That way when i get on teams, I can fill my role better. 🙂

 

I think my two biggest issues have been not wanting to turn the difficulty down to -1, feeling like that means I'm bad at the game.  0/0 is based on having at least a small team though.  Forgetting that just because contacts are in a specific zone doesn't mean their missions are all the same level was the other problem.  In the case of the Widow, I jumped straight into Graves' missions since that's where I left off in Mercy.  He's one of the last contacts you can get on Mercy though, so I should have figured his Port Oakes missions would be meant to be run later in the zone

 

PS: Rocketmen and their sonic cannons suck.  😁

Edited 5 hours ago by The Witchfire

[GM Crumpet]

I find the VEATs harder at low levels and beasts at high levels. And villains somewhat harder than heroes. As people have said, get the starter enhancements from the START vendor, they are good up to a decent level. The free powers can help while you are low on attacks, and the boosts are cheap at your level and really helpful. If you are new and struggling a polite shout out on general will often net you some free inf. We like to pay it forward so get inf when we start then give it to new players when we have a lot ourselves.

 

[MTeague]

As it turns out, my Widow is at lvl 10 exactly.  My current build is: 

 

 

items of note: 

• this is a sugar-daddied alt.  I have one +3% global defense proc in Indomitable Will, and I have a Panacea proc in health.  I would not have these on a bootstrap-yerself alt.
• I did not take Combat Training: Offensive. Maybe I will later. But early game, a single Acc SO in my powers means I very rarely miss. 
• Taking both defensive powers gives me decent defense in melee.  Pop a single Luck inspiration and she becomes Quite durable.  Although the passive heals from the Panacea proc help considerably, too. 
• playstyle, at this level I treat the widow like a baby Claws/SR scrapper with mild range in dart burst.  I pull mobs with dart burst, and run around corners to force things into melee range, because I *want* them to use their melee attacks. It's my best defense.  Also, 3 of 4 of my attacks, are melee attacks, soo... yea, they better be in melee range!!
• After every mission I fill my inspiration tray with Lucks.
• Currently I run her at +0x2.  Worked well when soloing Mr. Bocor's missions, and the Atlas Park mayhem.

[Lusiphur Malache]

I've made a lot of veats, can't recall ever taking combat: offensive. You will struggle until level 24, but things will get better. I don't like King's Row, try to avoid it as long as I can. Do a Positive 1&2 that should get you close to Yin tf.

[tidge]

I feel obligated to toss in: I think Conditioning is one of the worst Inherent abilities. Maybe it would make more of difference if we didn't already have the Fitness pool on every character, On paper it looks good "who doesn't want more Recovery or Regeneration?" but in practice those boosts don't mean much for those ATs. I'd much rather it was simply a +5% MaxEnd rather than be just another contributor to an already asymptotic boost.

 

My Widows are the only characters I feel like I have to rely on Incarnate Alpha abilities to keep going at high-level content... without Hasten being used... and it isn't as if I'm ignorant of how to address Endurance issues.