City of Heroes (solo newbie)

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (More info?)

"Gandalf Parker" <gandalf@most.of.my.favorite.sites> wrote in message
news:Xns96C976E7F818Dgandalfparker@208.201.224.154...
> OK let me see if I can get an answer here before trying the CoH boards
> (Im still trying to learn how to read all that jargon and acronym junk)
>
> Im not interested in what would be a good character. Im not interested in
> what would group well. Or be a "slow starter but you can kick ass after
> level 35". I want to try out the game and see what its like.
>
> SO I want a build that is:
> good for solo play
> good against what I will run into in the first.. 20 levels?
> I also tend to prefer not doing face-2-face melee
> I like "pets"
> and I tend to dislike being the same thing everyone else has

Hmmm... Pets aren't an issue for the first 32 levels, except in a few rare
and short-lived cases with temporary powers, so don't worry about that.
If you really want to get pets, you'll need a controller... but you want to
solo well, and you're interested in the lower 20 levels or so (through the
first three tiers of zones), so probably best not to consider them.
They can do a reasonable job of soloing, but not quickly.

Tanks aren't all that great for solo play. I played one up to level 50,
my first character and my only 50; it takes a long time. Plus it's all
going to be in-your-face combat. Scrappers are good for soloing,
probably the best solo class. But, in-your-face combat again.
That leaves blasters and defenders. I would probably suggest
a defender, because you can do other useful things than just damage,
but I would avoid Empathy, Force Fields, and Sonic Resonance if your
focus is solo play. The powers in those sets are heavily slanted towards
assisting others. You can solo with them, but most of those powers are
only usable on others.

> So maybe one of you guys had a character that seemed to do really well at
> first then bogged down later so you dropped it? That might work for me.
>
> Or maybe you have some hints for things that nobody seems to pick? I tend
> to love putting extra effort into making such things into surprising
> tactics. (ask anyone who has played with me in any game, dominions? space
> empires? a mud?)

There was a fan site that had a database of heroes; strictly voluntary,
but it had a reasonable sampling and you could get distributions of
powersets for the archetypes. I don't really keep it all in my head,
though; it isn't usually important to me how popular a powerset is.

I know, not very detailed. Hope it's helpful, though.

--
Carl Burke
cburke@mitre.org

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (More info?)

Gandalf Parker wrote:
> OK let me see if I can get an answer here before trying the CoH boards
> (Im still trying to learn how to read all that jargon and acronym junk)
>
> Im not interested in what would be a good character. Im not interested in
> what would group well. Or be a "slow starter but you can kick ass after
> level 35". I want to try out the game and see what its like.
>
> SO I want a build that is:
> good for solo play
> good against what I will run into in the first.. 20 levels?
> I also tend to prefer not doing face-2-face melee
> I like "pets"
> and I tend to dislike being the same thing everyone else has
>
> So maybe one of you guys had a character that seemed to do really well at
> first then bogged down later so you dropped it? That might work for me.
>
> Or maybe you have some hints for things that nobody seems to pick? I tend
> to love putting extra effort into making such things into surprising
> tactics. (ask anyone who has played with me in any game, dominions? space
> empires? a mud?)
>
> Gandalf Parker
>
>
>

Keep in mind, haven't been playin' long so don't know what 20+ is like
at all yet myself. I'm fairly new to the game, so take it for what its
worth.

As far as having something unexpected, not what other people have, you
can right click anyone in the game and choose 'info' to see exactly what
powers they have. Don't even have to ask 'em, so you can get an idea
rather quick about what people have/don't_have, once you actually have a
character in the game. And I don't just mean as to the class or
powerset they picked, but the particular powers they pick as they level
up, be it from their main power sets or the pool powers that become
available later.

So far, I've played a scrapper to 17 (spines, reflexes) - he's soloed
better than anything I've played so far. But its all face to face which
you don't like, so I'll move on to the next character.

A blaster to 10 (electric/electric), he probably died the most of any
I've played, but he soloed fine if in a bit more of a challenging
manner. By 'fine' I mean he could solo the same instances as the other
characters, just took a bit more work to keep him from dying on a couple
of the 'big' missions. He's finding it more and more easy to solo
though now as he levels up, as he gets powers that are more and more
complimentary. When he got to the point that he had enough attack
abilities that he wasn't waiting for cooldowns anymore, that's when he
became much more easy to solo w/.

A controller - I've used it in groups a lot, but also soloed w/him a
lot (probably 50/50) - and he goes solo fine too despite what most
people seem to think. He's only lvl 12 I think though, so he might be
much less soloable later, as people say. He's the one I switch to when
friends are on to play w/in a group. And he's the only char I play
w/for which I accept invites from strangers. I find myself playin' him
solo a lot now though too, just because he's fun.

Controllers seem very different though depending on what powersets you
pick. This one is illusion/kinetics. Takes him longer to solo an
instance than any of the others I have, as he only has one real attack
power. Basically, he can't just lay waste to a room of baddies like
some other characters can. He can take on the same room of baddies mind
you, but his approach is very diferent and takes more time. Very useful
and fun, and in fact I don't know if he's ever died while solo even once
yet. My scrapper couldn't even say that. This controller has died
while in some overzealous groups though. In normal groups he does
great, and can be key to keepin' the group alive, as well as cause some
decent damage when he has the opportunity. In crazy teams that like to
charge into giant groups of purples, oranges, and reds, however, he dies
like everyone else. hehe. Probably the character of mine that requires
the most thinking in the use of his abilities. Havent' had him long,
but I keep goin' back to him.

And the latest is a defender (radiation/dark?), which isn't very much
of a healer the way I picked the powers, but rather just a more
versatile blaster. Fun so far, but I only just made it, so its only lvl
7. More fun than my actual blaster I think.

Haven't tried a tanker yet.

I'm just havin' fun trying a bunch of characters out rather than
stickin' w/one. They level up so fast at first, its real easy to just
experiment and try a bunch of things out, see how they jive w/ya, you
might wanna just do it that way 'till ya find what clicks =>.

Leo

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (More info?)

"Gandalf Parker" <gandalf@most.of.my.favorite.sites> wrote in message
news:Xns96C976E7F818Dgandalfparker@208.201.224.154...
> OK let me see if I can get an answer here before trying the CoH boards
> (Im still trying to learn how to read all that jargon and acronym junk)
>
> Im not interested in what would be a good character. Im not interested in
> what would group well. Or be a "slow starter but you can kick ass after
> level 35". I want to try out the game and see what its like.
>
> SO I want a build that is:
> good for solo play
> good against what I will run into in the first.. 20 levels?

You'll have to define what you mean by "good" here. I like my mind
controller for the lower levels. Soloing is not fast, nor is street hunting
fast. But missions are generally safe with the dual holds of a hold and
sleeps. Scrappers are pretty good as well, but they end up risking getting
swarmed because they have to get up close and personal with enemies, and the
enemies seem to have stronger melee than ranged attacks at low levels. I've
had little luck with blasters and tankers, but that's just me.

> I also tend to prefer not doing face-2-face melee

That would leave out scrappers and tankers, since that's what they do
exclusively.

> I like "pets"

The only class that can ever get pets are controllers, and they don't get
them until the 30's, except for illusion controllers. Mind controllers get
to confuse enemies and make them fight for them for a while.

> and I tend to dislike being the same thing everyone else has

This isn't that big a deal in CoH unless you choose one of the flavours of
the month, since the combinations of powersets are pretty varied and all of
them are pretty much valid. So I suggest that you choose a class/set of
powers that you like instead of worrying about this.

>
> So maybe one of you guys had a character that seemed to do really well at
> first then bogged down later so you dropped it? That might work for me.
>
> Or maybe you have some hints for things that nobody seems to pick? I tend
> to love putting extra effort into making such things into surprising
> tactics. (ask anyone who has played with me in any game, dominions? space
> empires? a mud?)

From what you said, an illusion + something else controller might soothe
your need for pets, even if it was, at one point, a very popular type of
controller (it was regarded at one point as being the best). Other than
that, you might aim for the "offender" or "blastroller" type of builds for
something a bit different than normal. Ice/ice blasters are good
blastrollers, with blaster power added to decent controller powers in the
secondary.

I'd suggest that you not insist on sticking with only one character -- half
the fun is in playing different powersets -- and also that you try to come
up with a character that you'd like to play as and derive your powersets
from that, instead of looking for rare combinations and the like.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (More info?)

"Leo" <Anonymous@Anonymous.com> wrote in message
news:jBpTe.14302$B34.13020@trnddc09...
> Gandalf Parker wrote:
> A blaster to 10 (electric/electric), he probably died the most of any
> I've played, but he soloed fine if in a bit more of a challenging
> manner.

Blasters are known as debt magnets, and most people who enjoy playing
blasters end up enjoying debt [grin].

>
> A controller - I've used it in groups a lot, but also soloed w/him a
> lot (probably 50/50) - and he goes solo fine too despite what most
> people seem to think. He's only lvl 12 I think though, so he might be
> much less soloable later, as people say.

I have a level 20ish mind controller who solos most of the time ... and is
great at it. Add in confusion powers and she's mostly unstoppable (if
slow).

> Controllers seem very different though depending on what powersets you
> pick. This one is illusion/kinetics. Takes him longer to solo an
> instance than any of the others I have, as he only has one real attack
> power.

Illusion/kinetics is regarded as one of the better soloing controllers,
although I like mind better.

Have you soloed him with containment yet?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (More info?)

"Allan C Cybulskie" <allan.c.cybulskie@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:aoqTe.11396$I02.587035@news20.bellglobal.com...
> "Carl Burke" <cburke@mitre.org> wrote in message
> newsfl0o2$qld$1@newslocal.mitre.org...
....
>> Hmmm... Pets aren't an issue for the first 32 levels, except in a few
>> rare
>> and short-lived cases with temporary powers, so don't worry about that.
>
> Illusion controllers still get pets early, don't they?

You're right, I had forgotten about that. Phantom Army at the least.
My only illusion 'troller is level 10, so I don't have personal experience
with the pet powers yet.

--
Carl Burke
cburke@mitre.org

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (More info?)

Allan C Cybulskie wrote:
> "Leo" <Anonymous@Anonymous.com> wrote in message
> news:KSFTe.2$3B2.1@trnddc02...
>
>>Allan C Cybulskie wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Have you soloed him with containment yet?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Yes. Doesn't change the style of play for the controller too much, but
>>now you have to decide - whack one of the guys you held, while others
>>pound on you, so that you get the benefit of that extra damage, or whack
>>the guys that are still moving so you can quickly get to the point that
>>you are controlling *all* the baddies and none of htem are hitting on
>>you. Wasn't a tough choice before, but now you have decide how much
>>that extra damage is worth in any given situation.
>
>
> Obviously, you aren't a mind controller [grin]. Slap on a Mass Hypnosis,
> which will hold them asleep long enough to kill one of them, at least.
>

No, not mind. Illusion/kinetics. He does have an aoe blind ability,
but it has such a tremendously long cooldown on it, I tend to 'save it'
for when I need it. If i just use it in any old battle, I won't be able
to use it again for many battles later, and I might need it *more* w/the
upcoming mobs than I do w/the ones in front of me. So if there's only
one or two extra guys than I can keep controlled,I'll tend to avoid
using it. It has saved my neck a few times though when there were
unexpected adds (wandering mobs, careless group members, etc..).

How fast does mass hypnosis cool down?

>
>
>>But yeah, that added damage is very noticeable, makes for some hard
>>choices some times. But that's all part of the fun of a controller. =>
>
>
> If the power changes make for choices, in my opinion that's a good thing.
>
>

I think so too, one of the reasons I keep going back to the controller
over my higher level scrapper.

Leo