Simple guide to fast AE-leveling & wealth building

[biostem]

Now I'm not a pro by any stretch of the imagination, and having dealt with a severe case of "altitis" since CoH's original launch, I've looked for ways on how to try out a build and see if I like it.  When the game was live, character slots were in much shorter supply, so having so many available to us here is both a blessing and a curse.  I'm not going to say that my approach is best, and I've definitely drawn from other guides posted to these forums.  Anyway, here is a simple breakdown of what I've found to work *for me* with regard to quickly leveling up a character and building a lot of wealth with them:

 

1. Create any character you want.  One important caveat is to look at what level various powers become available.  Keep "level 6" in the back of your mind, (it'll come into play later).  For controllers, I lean toward taking their single target immobilize and arcane bolt from the sorcery pool, if they don't have any other good ways of dealing damage against a contained target.  Most other ATs don't have this issue, so just take whatever you like.

 

2. Talk to the respective "P2W" vendor in your starting zone.  Get all of the prestige attack powers, one of ninja/beast run, and one of jump pack/steam jump.  Also take the double XP buffs.  You can also get the prestige starting enhancements, (just be aware that while you can claim multiple of the same type, you can only actually slot 1 of each).  I suggest getting the "Inner Inspiration" prestige power, as it grants you 3 medium or large inspirations every 30 minutes, and selling at least 1 of these will give you some easy seed money for the auction house.

 

2a. Optional:  Use the "Inner Inspiration" power (make sure you have room for 3 insps (inspirations)), then sell 1 to the nearby vendor and post the other 2 on the AH (Auction House).  I find that lucks sell for the most, and insights/second wind type sell for less.    Any tier 3 insps sell for a good amount.  Just list them for 1 on the AH, as you'll still get "market value" for them.

 

3. Defeat a few low level enemies until you get to level 2.  Go and train up, and I suggest grabbing another attack power if one is available.

 

3a. Optional: Defeat a few more until you hit level 4.  You can immediately head to the AE building after step 3, but sometimes getting another power before you do so is quite helpful.

 

4. Head to the nearest AE building, (check your map).  I recommend using the run and jump pack powers you selected from the P2W vendor to get up to the balcony on the upper floor, as it'll save you some time having to go into the lobby, then using the elevator.

 

5. Use one of the AE terminals and search for "tunnel".  The current popular one is a Witch Tunnel mission.  Select it, choose "Architect Rewards", talk to the contact, then enter the mission via the big portal in the middle of the room.  If you've left your difficulty settings on their default levels, then you should just encounter individual witch bosses.  Take your time, and initiate combat with the first one you see.  They should yield good rewards, and a decent amount of AE tickets every so often.

 

6. After you complete a run, (during which you should have gained a good number of levels), go back to the trainer and level up.  Now, here's where things get a bit tricky - the mission will auto-exemplar/malefactor you down to about level 1, but you'll retain access to all your powers up until level 6.  In other words, powers you've selected AFTER level 6 will not be made available to you, while in the witch tunnel AE mission.  Keep in mind that around level 10, you'll gain access to an entire new build, so keep your focus on a set of powers available to you from level 6 and under, for the time being.  You can always create your "true" build later on.

 

7. Keep repeating the tunnel mission until you have over 540 AE tickets, (you can check them in your salvage menu).  Go talk to the AE rewards vendor, who is up the spiral staircase above the teleporter you entered the mission from.  Buy any piece of rare/orange invention salvage and sell it on the AH for 1 influence/infamy.  You can list it higher if you're concerned about being undercut or losing money, but that will require about a 10% listing fee.  You should be able to get 300-500K per piece of rare salvage.  You'll also gain several levels as you progress.  Keep in mind that while you won't gain access to powers above level 6, you will still be able to utilize enhancement slots for those early powers.  If you keep that in mind, and intend to keep farming, then slot up those early powers to maximize your effectiveness.

 

8. After you've reached an amount of wealth that you feel comfortable with, and assuming you've reached level 12, (and later 22), then buy yourself some DOs (dual-origin enhancements), using AE tickets.  Important note about buying DO or SO enh's from the Architect vendor - make sure to select the origin that matches your character, or you won't be able to slot said enhancements.  Also be aware that said vendor doesn't have the full selection of DO enhs, (for instance, they don't sell endurance modification DOs).  I also recommend buying a mix of the common tech and arcane salvage items from the AE reward vendor, as you'll need them eventually.  The level 10-25 ones should be good for your initial foray into inventions down the line.  You'll need about 2-3 million inf to fully outfit yourself with level 25 IOs, (invention-origin enhancements), but that doesn't include all the salvage you'll need, hence my earlier instruction to buy those too.

 

That's basically all there is to it.  Keep in mind that this doesn't give you a genuine experience regarding how your character will operate with their full suite of powers, and you're really only going to be fighting weak single bosses in the tunnel mission.  You'll also be missing some very good story arc missions if you do this, (though there are ways of revisiting them later on via flashback).  Regardless, for those that have played through all those story arcs or just want to quickly test out a build at low-mid levels, then this method is very good.  The IOs that I mentioned will also never degrade, so you can use them until you get to 50, then respec to free them for sale or auction.  I also want to be very clear that I do not think this is "the best" or the "the correct" way to level and outfit your character.

 

Cheers!

Edited August 10, 2019 by biostem

[chigiabelo]

I think once you've been around the block a few times, it's acceptable to find shortcuts past the early levels. Gaming AE is one of them. In my case, once I got to 50 and Incarnated my Mastermind, I created two other accounts, a brute in each one, and began using the MM in AE to PL them. The first one I would leave at the mission door and run one of the S/L Comic Con farms. I realized that depending on your difficulty settings, you could take a character from 1 to anywhere from 14 to almost 20, I think it was, in your first pass of the outdoor mission, if you had XP rewards set to double (P2W).

 

Once the first brute, a Spines/Bio, was old enough to earn his keep, I slotted him up for defense and resistance and let him follow along the MM while the second brute, a Fire/Fire, waited at the door. The brute was excellent at keeping aggro off the MM and pets and allowed me to play at higher difficulty while all I had to do was spam a heal his way every now and then. The first brute hit 50 within 10 days of casual play but at some point before that, was already able to farm a bit while AFK, so I pretty much let him level himself in the space missions. The second brute followed shortly after and is currently leveling AFK as I type this and will hit 50 tonight. When both are incarnated, they'll be used mostly for farming influence.

[biostem]

42 minutes ago, chigiabelo said:

I think once you've been around the block a few times, it's acceptable to find shortcuts past the early levels. Gaming AE is one of them. In my case, once I got to 50 and Incarnated my Mastermind, I created two other accounts, a brute in each one, and began using the MM in AE to PL them. The first one I would leave at the mission door and run one of the S/L Comic Con farms. I realized that depending on your difficulty settings, you could take a character from 1 to anywhere from 14 to almost 20, I think it was, in your first pass of the outdoor mission, if you had XP rewards set to double (P2W).

 

Once the first brute, a Spines/Bio, was old enough to earn his keep, I slotted him up for defense and resistance and let him follow along the MM while the second brute, a Fire/Fire, waited at the door. The brute was excellent at keeping aggro off the MM and pets and allowed me to play at higher difficulty while all I had to do was spam a heal his way every now and then. The first brute hit 50 within 10 days of casual play but at some point before that, was already able to farm a bit while AFK, so I pretty much let him level himself in the space missions. The second brute followed shortly after and is currently leveling AFK as I type this and will hit 50 tonight. When both are incarnated, they'll be used mostly for farming influence.

While I have no issues with people choosing to level up their alts or other accounts in any way they see fit, (short of exploiting others to do so, of course), one area of focus for my method is that you're doing the work on each and every one of your characters that you level up in the way I described;  You don't need to dual-box and you don't need to have another character already kitted out for the task;  Just roll any character you want and go to it...

[Justisaur]

Don't buy DOs or SOs or common salvage for tickets.  Buy Rare salvage, it costs 540 tickets sell it on the /ah for 500k.  After 2-3 runs you'll have all the money you'll need for all DOs or SOs you could want, after about 5 you could make IOs instead.  Personally I don't use any but the prestige enhancements until level 22.  

 

I also suggest buying all the gabriel's hammer temp attack from the p2w you can at 5k

 

Also you need to turn bosses on solo to get bosses.

[biostem]

4 hours ago, Justisaur said:

Don't buy DOs or SOs or common salvage for tickets.  Buy Rare salvage, it costs 540 tickets sell it on the /ah for 500k.  After 2-3 runs you'll have all the money you'll need for all DOs or SOs you could want, after about 5 you could make IOs instead.  Personally I don't use any but the prestige enhancements until level 22.  

 

I also suggest buying all the gabriel's hammer temp attack from the p2w you can at 5k

 

Also you need to turn bosses on solo to get bosses.

I mentioned buying the rare salvage in step 7 of my original post.  The "Witch Tunnel" mission I mentioned has elite bosses, which are downgraded to regular bosses if you remain at the default notoriety level.  Your tip regarding the temp attacks is well taken, thanks!