City of Heroes basics

It struck me that I should write down some of the stuff that I said to
Col and Dave rather than keep saying them to everyone. There's a
summary at the end just as a list of things to think of when starting
a new character.


Character creation

Pick Reunion, the EU server.  "Origin" is cosmetic, so pick one that
fits your character concept. Your appearance has no game-mechanical
effect. There are a _lot_ of (often idiosyncratically arranged)
options in the character creator; you may want to allow time to design
a costume.

"Freedom" is the basic universe - heroes and villains; "Going Rogue"
is Praetoria, an alternative universe where everything is shades of
grey (weirdly, it started off as goateed evil opposites, and that got
a bit retconned although it is still full of goateed evil opposites).
Pick "Freedom" to get tutorialised - if it turns out we're Going
Rogue, it is a minute's work to save a new character's costume and
recreate them in the other universe.

Almost everything you pick can be changed. So what can't be changed?
If you make a science-origin broadsword/willpower scrapper, that
character will always be a science-origin broadsword/willpower
scrapper. Everything else - appearance (including height/build/gender),
power picks, even your name - can be changed. (And if you turn out not
to like being a broadsword/willpower scrapper, you've got 999 more
character slots). So don't agonise over choices here; you're not
nailing your colours to the mast.

The basic important choice is "archetype", which is secretly just
character class. Every archetype chooses a primary and a secondary
powerset (so, for example, every scrapper has a primary powerset of
melee attacks, but you might pick katana, broadsword, martial arts,
energy melee...); you get the powers in your primary set earlier, and
usually get better numbers on it than if it was a secondary.

The "playstyle" tab in character creation just arranges the archetypes
in a suggested order. You can skip that tab entirely.

CoH isn't entirely in the tank/healer/DPS trinity, but there are
archetypes that are closer to it - however, almost any team
composition can work.


First, the 5 original City of Heroes archetypes:

Tankers are just tanks, with a shitload of hitpoints and a taunt power
that draws aggro. Their primary powerset is defensive (and they almost
always have a power in there that gives an aura that draws additional
aggro); their secondary powerset is melee attacks of some kind.
Tankers are mostly useful on teams; soloing with them is safe but slow
because your melee attacks don't do all that much damage.

Blasters are more or less DPS, "glass cannons". Their primary
powersets are ranged attacks, and their secondary powersets are a mix
of powerful melee attacks and some enemy control powers. Soloing on a
blaster is exciting and fast but you have to not mind dying. (The
penalty for dying is minimal.)

Defenders aren't just "healers", but their primary powerset stops
their team from dying somehow. Even the sets like empathy that are
long on healing have buffs in (and in the long run these can be more
useful than heals); some sets like force fields or sonic can't heal at
all and this isn't bad. There's a lot of variation in what defender
primaries do. Their secondary is ranged attacks - more or less the
same choices as blasters, but with much worse numbers. Defender
soloing is painful because your attacks are weak and most of your
primary powers need an ally to work on.

Scrappers are not as robust as tankers but do more damage; their
primary sets are melee attacks, and their secondary sets defensive
powers, with much the same choices for both as tankers. They're
excellent at soloing and good on teams that don't have much support -
your average scrapper can take care of themself. They are notorious
for "scrapperlock", a state of mind where you plunge heedlessly from
one enemy to the next and huh, where is the rest of the team, anyway?

Controllers are mostly in charge of shutting down enemies, with a
primary powerset made of holds, stuns, and other powers that interfere
with enemies' ability to attack your team. Their secondary powerset is
a defender primary, but they get worse numbers and can't devote as
much attention to it. At level 32, they get some kind of pet from
their primary powerset; until then their soloing is a bit slow.


Next, the 5 City of Villains archetypes (note that these days you can
create one of these and make it a hero, they just originated on CoV):

Brutes are somewhere between tankers and scrappers. They get a
melee primary, defensive secondary; they're not as hard to kill as
tankers, and their melee damage starts relatively weak but as they
attack or are attacked they build "Fury" which increases their melee
damage (which is very high in a prolonged fight).

Stalkers are sneaky scrappers. They get a very effective stealth
power, when they attack out of stealth it does extra damage, they have
some kind of assassin's strike that does enormous damage when used
like that, and they get a placate power that can re-hide them.
Obviously, when they're not doing that stuff they're not as good in
melee as scrappers, but they get to do this stuff a lot.

Corrupters are somewhere between blasters and defenders; they get a
ranged attack primary like a blaster, but their secondary is a
defender primary. They're respectable soloists because their attacks
do good damage and the defender powers will have some kind of
self-defence, and they're good on teams because they do damage and
provide support.

Dominators are "evil controllers"; their primary powersets are like
controllers, but their secondary is an "assault" powerset which tends
to be a bit like a blaster secondary. They're not as good at
controlling as controllers, but they do much more damage.

Masterminds are the "pet class"; their primary powersets summon pets,
buff pets, and provide one or two attacks which you probably don't
want because pets are much better attacks. Their secondary sets are
like defender primary sets, to help them support their pets.
Masterminds have actual control of their pets - other classes with
pets just summon them and watch them do whatever they like.

(You'll notice none of the CoV archetypes really fits the trinity, and
all of them can solo pretty well.)


The oddball 11th archetype, created post-shutdown, is the "Sentinel";
ranged attack primary, scrapper defense secondary, so a bit like a
ranged scrapper. They're OK if that's what you want to do, but they
don't have a blaster's damage, any team support powers, or even the
scrapper's ability to mix it up in melee and keep enemies off their
squishier friends.

Finally there are the "epic" archetypes (so-called because you used to
have to get to level 50 to unlock them).

The heroic EATs are Warshades and Peacebringers. They get bonuses
based on team composition and can shapeshift into a flying squid form
that's got a bunch of attacks or a "dwarf" form that's a bit like a
tank. I wouldn't recommend them; they're a bit fiddly.

The villainous EATs are Arachnos Widows and Arachnos Soldiers. Widows
start out a bit like fragile scrappers, with melee attacks and
defensive powers, but unlike scrappers they get access to powers to
boost their team's defenses, to-hit, and damage. At level 24 they can
choose between two paths; "Night Widow" (even more stabby) and
"Fortunata" (a bit controllery, a bit blastery, and still a bit
stabby). Both paths get a stealth power. The multiple builds system
means you can easily try out both. Widows get a special costume which
is absolutely to die for.

Arachnos Soldiers likewise get team support powers; they have a mix of
defensive powers and melee and ranged attacks. At level 24 they also
choose between two paths; "Crab Spider" (emphasising ranged) or "Bane
Spider" (emphasising melee and stealth). They get some pets at high
levels.

There's a slight difficulty with starting a VEAT in that you don't get
a tutorial and have to start as a villain. The latter is easily
changed, but maybe don't make your first character a VEAT. Also, when
you start a VEAT your first costume doesn't offer a lot of choices,
but don't worry - you get nine more costume slots.


When you are just starting out - some people get on with melee (like
me) and some don't (like Clare). If you do get on with melee, any of
Tanker/Brute/Scrapper/Stalker/Widow will be fine.

Some people (like Clare) get on very well with Masterminds. Stand
back and point imperiously! A big distinction here is whether your
minions favour melee (like beasts or zombies) and charge in ahead of
you, or favour ranged attacks (like robots) and hang back.

Anything with a defender primary set (defender, corruptor, mastermind,
controller) means a certain amount of either watching teammates health
bars or dropping buffs on teammates, or both. You may or may not like
this idea. For these characters it is especially handy to know that if
you have a friendly targetted and use an enemy-affecting power, it
targets the friendly's enemy target (if any) - and vice versa, you can
cast a friendly-affecting power at "whoever this enemy is targetting".


All powersets are viable, there are no _awful_ choices - but some are
fiddlier than others (I can advise), and Pain Domination is kind of
Empathy 2.0, Willpower kind of Regeneration 2.0, so unless concept
demands it I would probably not pick Empathy or Regeneration.


At the end of character creation (and that wall of text) you can pick
a tutorial: "Outbreak", "Galaxy City", or "Breakout". "Outbreak" is
the old tutorial and makes you a hero; "Breakout" the old villain
tutorial (and makes you a villain); "Galaxy City" a new tutorial which
lets you pick hero or villain but, in my view, isn't actually as good
a tutorial. (Going Rogue has its own tutorial and you always want to
do it.)


If you Control-click on a power, it'll get a green ring around it, and
fire automatically when your current target is in range. This is
pretty useful on a melee attack. It's less useful on a ranged attack
because you keep randomly aggroing things.


The tutorial will tell you a load of stuff about enhancements but
here's what you need to know. They improve your powers. You can put
more than one of the same thing in a power - two damage enhancements
or whatever. You can use one that's up to 3 levels above your level.
As you gain levels they get weaker, and one 4 levels below your level
stops working. You can smoosh two enhancements together to try and
make a higher level one, but at low levels enhancements come and go so
quickly and are so cheap it is not worth spending any significant time
puzzling over what drops from enemies - if you don't have an obvious
use for it, sell it.

The shops on the map sell them; they don't show you ones you can't
use. The better ones are "single origins", which have a single border
design; the weaker "dual origins" have a half-and-half border. I'll
give you money for them. Later you can use "invention" enhancements
which don't burn out and offer additional bonuses. Our supergroup has
a large supply of these.


Besides setting up your keys to suit yourself (if you have any kind of
defender powers you'll want to pay attention to the keys for selecting
teammates - and if you like you can just start with my standard
keybinds, not the defaults), you'll want to go into the Options item
(under Menu) and change:

General:
    Team Options:
        Auto-accept level changes: push both to the right, to 50.
    Miscellaneous:
        Classic Team UI: Enabled
Graphics and Audio:
    Graphics:
        Advanced Graphics Settings: Enabled
	Automatic Field of View: try both options, see what looks best
    Advanced Graphics Settings:
        Particle Physics Quality: Very High
Windows:
    Reticle:
        Player Health Bars: Show always
	(This shows your health bar above your head which helps with
	not dying.)
    Chat:
        Filter Profanity: Disabled
    Status Window Buff Display:
        Hide Auto Powers: Enabled
	Icon Stacking: Numeric
    Group Window Buff Display:
    	make the same changes as for Status Windows Buff Display.
    Pet Window Buff Display:
    	make the same changes as for Status Windows Buff Display except
    	Hide Auto Powers: Disabled
    Power Recharge Indicators: something that isn't Off

You probably also want to move the map/contact/mission/compass window
(top centre) to the top right, because it keeps expanding and if it's
in the centre you can't see what's going on when it does (if it's on
the left, it covers up the team's health bars). Once you're on a team,
click the arrow to the right of everyone's health and endurance bars
until it faces left. You can get the "map pack" to improve the map
(I'll give details when wanted).


Once you leave the tutorial (and some of this stuff won't make much
sense until you do) you'll want to visit the "P2W Vendor". There's a
lot of potentially useful stuff here, but get a jetpack (Temporary
Powers, Travel), the "damage/recharge/chance for <something>" Prestige
Enhancements (these are the best you can get until level 20),
"Athletic Run" (Prestige Powers, Travel), and the "Inner Inspiration"
power (Prestige Powers, Utility). I'll give you some money for the
jetpack.


If you open "Powers" (above your power tray) then "Combat Attributes",
you can monitor certain aspects of your character. I usually monitor
Current Hit Points, Current Endurance, Last Hit Chance, Recharge Time
Bonus (things debuff it and it's handy to know when they do),
Influence/Infamy/Information (which is money), and (from Movement)
Running Speed. I also monitor "Inherent" on Brutes, Dominators, and
Sentinels, for reasons which will become clear if you are one.


When you start to get enhancement slots to put in your powers, it's a
good idea to have five slots (ie, 4 additional ones) in attacks, a
defender's support powers, controller control powers; four slots in
defensive powers like a scrapper's defences; and four slots in Stamina
when you start to have endurance problems & two slots in Health when
you can. There aren't enough slots; you get more later. I am
relatively space-rich and generally have just been doling out
enhancements to people as needed.


At level 4 you get access to "power pools". The big thing here is
"travel powers" which let you travel much more quickly. However, you
probably want to hold off on a travel power until level 6 or even
later, because there's not far to move in the early levels and lacking
that extra attack is painful. There's a bit of a gotcha with pool
powers in that you have to click next twice, once to select the pool,
once to select the power. This catches people out and then they don't
actually get the power, pick another power, and wonder where their
travel power went.

(Re even later, Clare has a character in their mid-30s with no travel
power. It's sometimes a bit painful waiting for them to jetpack
around, but there are other ways a team can help you travel and it's
not the end of the world...)

Each travel power's got another power in the pool it's kind of
conventional or useful to take as well. You can only pick four pools
total (and this can matter) so you might be guided by the auxiliary
power.


Flight gives the best vertical mobility, obviously; it's the least
fast of the travel powers, but there's not much in it, and it's also
easy to get places with Flight which makes up for the speed). The
usual companion power is "Hover" which offers good in-mission vertical
mobility, particularly handy if you're a ranged character who can just
hover above melee enemies.

(Why not just use Flight all the time in-mission? It costs more
endurance, and Hover gives a bit of defense. Why not just use a
jetpack? Hover you can just turn on and forget. Hover also can be used
as a convenient spot for an anti-knockback enhancement, which is
something you'll want on defenders, controllers, blasters, corrupters,
dominators, and masterminds).


Super Jump is the most fun. Boing! It offers good vertical
mobility. The usual companion power is Combat Jumping which is handy
for jumping up onto things in-mission, offers some defence (like
Hover), and can be used to block knockback (like Hover). I take Super
Jump if I don't have a reason to take anything else, because it's the
most fun.


Teleport is fiddly to use, but is the fastest over medium-long
distances. (Over short distances, the Super Jumper will be there while
the teleporter is still fiddling). It can drain endurance which is
annoying on a long journey because you want to turn off all your
toggle powers to save endurance, then turn them back on when you
arrive. The usual companion power is Teleport Target which lets you
teleport allies and enemies to you. This is very useful if you have a
stealth power, so it's on stealthy characters I take Teleport.
Teleport also includes Combat Teleport (teleport to a target, very
amusing on melee) and Fold Space (attempt to teleport all nearby foes
to you, handy if you have some kind of massive area effect attack).


Super Speed is faster than Fly or Super Jump, but less convenient to
use; there's no vertical mobility (less of a problem now that
jetpacks are cheap and readily available) but also there's more stuff
to run into on the ground than up in the sky. However, its companion
power is Hasten which (temporarily) boosts the recharge of all your
powers. This is extremely useful if you have medium-long recharge
powers that are very effective, making them come around more often.


Sorcery has Mystic Flight. It's slower than Fly, but you can teleport
when using it, but the teleport isn't as good as Teleportation's
teleport. However, Sorcery offers an excellent selection of auxiliary
powers, especially if you are otherwise lacking attacks.


Experimentation and Force of Will also contain travel powers but I
find it hard to recommend them. Kinetics, the defender primary,
contains a de facto travel power.


Vendoring stuff:

You'll get four main kinds of drop; inspirations, enhancements,
salvage, and recipes. For everything but inspos, you've got a huge
inventory so there's no hurry to deal with them.


Use inspirations. I've got a special keybinds file that makes it easy
to use them up to always keep a free space in your insp tray. This is
well worth it - they drop regularly, so any time you've got a full
tray you're missing out on bonus damage, accuracy, HP, defences...

Inspos are worth chump change, don't even think about vendoring extra
ones.


Enhancements you don't want to use right now are vendor trash. Don't
keep one you think you might need later. They're dirt cheap from the
store.


Vendor white (common) recipes. I suggest you give me your crafting
crap and I buy or craft you whatever you need, because I know what's
wanted and I'm space-rich so I can give you stuff you couldn't
otherwise afford. Normally this is done by meeting my character
Thunderforce in the supergroup base.


Salvage comes in two kinds; invention salvage (there's a tab in
Salvage marked "Invention") and, well, everything else. In the base,
there's storage racks for salvage.

For white salvage, Thunderforce will tell you what she needs for her
recipes. Once that's done, sell the rest. There is an Arachnos
Quartermaster in the base to sell stuff to.

For yellow salvage, stick it in the relevant rack (they're clearly
labelled); if the rack is full, take away whatever there's most
of. There's room for at least 10 of each salvage. Put excess yellow
salvage in the rack marked EXCESS (if you really want you can dump all
your salvage in here and I'll deal with it).

For orange salvage, put it in the racks marked ORANGE (with no
maximum); there's a lot of space. If one rack is full, move stacks
along the line of racks to make more space. Keep it in alphabetical
order.

In "everything else", the important thing is Reward Merits. You get
these for most things you do in-game - completing story arcs or task
forces, defeating giant monsters, etc. When you have 100 you can turn
them into a big pile of money. I'll tell you how at the time. If you
think you want to spend your merits on something from the "merit
vendor", you probably don't.


New character summary:

Normally pick Freedom, not Going Rogue.

Origin is cosmetic.

Do the "Outbreak" or "Breakout" tutorial if you want a
tutorial. Always do the Going Rogue tutorial.

Options menu: see above

Swap target window and compass window.

P2W Vendor: jetpack, Prestige damage/recharge enhancements, Inner
Inspiration power.

5-slot attacks, 4-slot defences, 4-slot Stamina, 2-slot Health.

Probably take a travel power at level 6.