Old School Power Set Question

[caradoc1979]

I was thinking of trying an Old School type challenge where I play a character as if it were the early days of Live for nostalgic purposes - pre-Issue 6 to be specific. Will go through the original contacts and missions, use DOs/SOs etc. What would be a good AT and primary/secondary that would have existed back when it was just COH, before IOs and all that? I can figure out the build from there, I am just looking for advice on a solo-friendly power set that would have existed back then that won't cause me to tear my last remaining hair out trying to solo stuff. Thanks!  

[mechahamham]

This page may be helpful. It's a 'what happened with each issue release': https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Issues

[Uun]

Most of the combinations that existed at Issue 0 are still viable. Gravity/Storm controller, Claws/SR scrapper, Dark/Dark defender. Do you have a particular AT in mind? If you click on any of the power sets listed below and scroll to the bottom of the page, it will tell you when it was introduced and for which ATs.

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Power_Sets

[legendaryjman]

Inv/SS tanker, but once you get Unyielding you are not allow to move while it is active. You have to toggle it on and off to move until you get to level 14 where you then are allowed to take teleport to finally move yourself around.

[Doomguide2005]

Well I'd say an Empath.  Has anything ever changed :P.  But solo, yep report back next year and let us know if you have Stamina yet.

[MonteCarla]

I'd go Scrapper for this.

A lot of other classes are able to shore up their weaknesses using IOs, but Scrappers had that sweet spot between dealing damage and survivability back then.
My MA/SR Scrapper did really well in this era, and both sets are pretty much unchanged. There are probably even better combinations, but I'm no expert on Scrappers.

[Doomguide2005]

9 minutes ago, MonteCarla said:

I'd go Scrapper for this.

A lot of other classes are able to shore up their weaknesses using IOs, but Scrappers had that sweet spot between dealing damage and survivability back then.
My MA/SR Scrapper did really well in this era, and both sets are pretty much unchanged. There are probably even better combinations, but I'm no expert on Scrappers.

This totally, an old school scrapper.  Tankers would be good except a whole lot of changes to put it mildly have occurred to the AT. 

[MonteCarla]

4 minutes ago, Doomguide2005 said:

This totally, an old school scrapper.  Tankers would be good except a whole lot of changes to put it mildly have occurred to the AT. 

 

Oh yeah!
You can't really play an I8 Tanker any more, between the low damage, lack of Stamina and everything else they had to put up with.

I do remember a friend playing his Inv/SS Tanker getting a little bit pissy at how effective I was compared to him - he was playing a Shazam-style superman and I didn't have any powers. 🙂

Edited Sunday at 10:22 PM by MonteCarla

[Scarlet Shocker]

I guess it depends most on what AT you like to play and how your playstyle affects the game. 

 

But you've now made me nostalgic for a Pre-Sunset shard where the game is exactly as it was then. That's not to denigrate anything our current devs have done but when we compare and contrast we're mostly remembering through 10+ years of distance which with faulty human memory and stuff

[OmegaOne]

Old school eh? Don't forget to restrict yourself from selecting a Travel Power till level 14 and no capes till level 20!

[Techwright]

9 minutes ago, OmegaOne said:

Old school eh? Don't forget to restrict yourself from selecting a Travel Power till level 14 and no capes till level 20!

 

And you'd have to take the lesser travel power first, such as hover before taking flight.  You'd also be unable to take the Homecoming travel power sets like Sorcery or Force of Will. 

 

I can't recall the exact layout, but I think that some of the things in the START vendor you'd have had to earn in the original game. Certainly many of them were not available in the earliest versions of the game.

 

My first two original game characters in 2005 were deleted experiments.  One, I recall, was an ice/invulnerable tanker, so that was at the beginning.  The third creation (and the first one I stuck with) was a martial arts/super reflexes scrapper.  I took that character all the way.   I've been able to completely recreate him in Homecoming, though I can't speak to the what changes were made by the OG development team along the way.  The current version uses column 3's Weapons Mastery.  I cannot recall whether that was available in 2005 or not, though I believe I had the shurikens from it by 2011.

[Zhym]

On 8/17/2025 at 1:22 PM, legendaryjman said:

Inv/SS tanker, but once you get Unyielding you are not allow to move while it is active. You have to toggle it on and off to move until you get to level 14 where you then are allowed to take teleport to finally move yourself around.

Boy, those were the days.

 

They weren't necessarily good days.  But they were days.

[Uun]

12 hours ago, Techwright said:

The current version uses column 3's Weapons Mastery.  I cannot recall whether that was available in 2005 or not, though I believe I had the shurikens from it by 2011.

The Epic Power Pools were added in Issue 3 (January 2005). Weapon Mastery was one of them but didn't have Targeting Drone yet.

 

This is also when Unyielding stopped making you immobile and wasn't mutually exclusive with Temp Invulnerability. 

[catsi563]

13 hours ago, Zhym said:

Boy, those were the days.

 

They weren't necessarily good days.  But they were days.

ahh the good ole immobile provoke monkey

 

i remember them well

[Techwright]

Tanks back then could taunt every opponent on a floor and still stay alive to herd them all back to the team for mass slaugh arrest.