Acyl

Let me ask, though - what did you find boring about the claws scrapper? Was it a lack of flashy powers? Claws does get some pretty acrobatic and neat special effects, but those come later on.

If you want flash and bang early, though...yeah, I agree. Try a blaster. You get to throw energy, fire, electricity, whatever around.

Just to clarify - 'knockback' means to send enemies flying through the air. This game has ragdoll mechanics, so you get to see bad guys spin, flail and go WHEEEEEE over the horizon when hit.

Energy Blast does a lot of knockback - if you go with the Energy secondary also, that's a lot of knockback.

It can be very dramatic and cool.

1- how do you combine enhancements again?

Two methods: EITHER click on an enhancement that's already in the power, OR drag-and-drop a compatable enhancement from your inventory onto the already-slotted one you want to combine it with. Both will bring up the combining menu.

The first method is the only way to combine two enhancements that are in the same power. The second is a faster way of combining with stuff in your inventory.

2- there is no auto attack or what so ever in the game? only attacks are with powers?

I assume you're thinking of most fantasy MMOs, where you can set your character to attack normally with equipped weapons - auto-attacks that don't use any mana or whatever, and don't require button presses.

We don't have that. Yes, you understand correctly - in CoH, powers are your only attacks.

3- you can only attack when you stand still and target the enemy? no fighting while you jump for instance?

Essentially yes. If you're moving and activate a power, your character will stop and make the attack.

That said, most attack powers can be triggered in mid-flight or while jumping - but you'll lose control over your movement while the attack animates. A flier will stop in mid-air and attack. If you're jumping upwards while attacking, your upward motion will cease and you'll start to fall as the attack animates.

Basically you can't keep moving while attacking; you always stop somehow. But you can do some clever tricks with jumping if you time it right.

Several powers require you to be on the ground to activate, however, like Foot Stomp and Lightning Rod.

Not all attacks need to target an enemy. Some can target a patch of ground. Some don't need a target at all; they just blow up everything around you.

So, picture this. Level 50 team, full eight players.

One was a stone tank.

A little while into the first mission, we realised something...really strange was going on.

Stone tank in Granite, right? He teleports into the mob. Taunts.

...starts taking damage.

Faceplants.

And asks for rez.

This happened a couple of times. I mean, let's be clear, he didn't die immediately - but he did get whittled down, and he did definitely faceplant. I didn't say anything, hell, nobody said anything really. But I was completely bewildered. This is a Level 50 stone tank. In Granite.

Eventually, the team leader quietly requested that I take the alpha instead. So I started going in first. Even then, the tank managed to die once that way, just by picking up my leftover aggro.

I was on my IO'd brute...but a Stone tank in Granite should still be WAY more durable than me.

What really amazes me...is that nobody on the team challenged the guy about this. We were all very polite. I guess it was too awkward.

When I told a friend about this, he suggested the guy was PL'd, and had probably heard that Granite was zomgawesome - but...didn't, uh, realise that you still need to slot it. I can only assume the tank didn't have any defense or resistance enhancements in Granite at all, even though he was running it all the time.

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There's no technical reason why you couldn't swap a mace model with any of the broadsword or katana models. They're held in exactly the same way in one hand and are really just glorified sticks.

I think it would be a brilliant if they opened up all weapon models to all weapon types. Its not like you see a difference between lethal and smashing damage in game.

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This has been raised before - why can't we have blunt instrument models for Dual Blades, or edged stuff for War Mace, and so on. I really can't remember which dev replied or when it was, but the answer was 'no'. Because slicey slicey damage goes with slicey slicey things, and smashy smashy damage goes with smashy things.

I mean, I know what you're saying, but...ask a simple question, get a simple answer?

1. Soloing and Teaming

This game is designed to allow soloing - theoretically everyone can solo. But of course some characters are better at it than others. All villains can solo quite well, though Brutes are easier to learn. On the hero side, Scrappers are the most solo-inclined.

While trial accounts cannot start teams, you can still join teams. I THINK another player can invite you both to a team, then quit, leaving the two of you teamed up. I'm not sure though; someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You could also ask if someone's willing to show you two around. Explain that you and your friend are on a trial, and would like to see how teams roll. Trial accounts can't speak in zone-wide broadcast, but you could still ask in local chat in crowded spots in Atlas - like near Ms. Liberty or in the Architect building.

2. Mission Difficulty and Contacts

The 'challenge level' thing you see in the upper right corner of your mission window is difficulty setting. Higher difficulty means a) more enemies, b) higher level enemies, or both.

Unless you changed something, you should be on Challenge Level 1: Heroic, and Challenge Level 1: Villainous. This only affects your indoor missions, similar to instanced dungeons in WoW. It has no bearing on the enemy spawns you can find outdoors. I take it you're running into red and purple enemies on the street - well, you will. You should also be able to find some even-cons if you look around.

Contacts in this game will introduce you to other contacts as you finish their missions. Ms. Liberty will never offer you missions - she is a trainer, not a contact.

If you are Level 5 and above, you can visit Kings Row and talk to a Detective. He will appear in your contacts window, under the Detectives tab. And also on your mini-map, like all contacts. He will give you a Police Radio. The Police Radio appears in your contact window. Clicking on it will give you access to randomly generated missions. After you do a few Radio missions, you must speak to the Detective (in person) for a Safeguard mission.

Completing the Safeguard mission will give you a temporary power, and after you return to the detective, he will introduce you to a new contact. This is an alternative way of earning contacts. The temp powers are also quite worth it - the first couple of Safeguards give you jetpacks, which is a very cool thing to have on a trial.

Please note - there are also some areas of the game that have special storylines tied to that geographic region. The first is the Hollows. At level 5 you can enter the Hollows (from Atlas Park) and talk to the first Hollows contact, David Wincott.

I'm obviously talking about the heroside game here. For villains, you'd want to speak to your Broker (in Port Oakes) for a Newspaper, and earn contacts through Mayhem missions. Pretty much the same idea, different flavour.

3. Game Manual and Info Websites

You can download a pdf of the Official City of Heroes Manual from the game website.

I also highly recommend the player-run wiki site, Paragonwiki.com

The good folks in this forum have raised some pretty damn good points, so...well, this is just my personal two cents. I used to play World of Warcraft, and I think City of Heroes/Villains is better. But there's a few things I liked in WoW that we don't have here.

[u]PROS[u]

- Sidekick System: CoH is a lot better for casual gaming. Levels aren't a barrier to teaming. I can grab my Level 50 main and group with a Level 11 friend who's just started the game. That's huge. In terms of regular gameplay, it makes forming teams a lot easier.

- Costume System: The costume system is AMAZING. You can change your character's height, body shape, facial features. You can make a robot, a mutant, a werewolf, anything you can imagine.

- Better 'Gear' System: Most folks say CoH has no gear. That's true. But we DO have enhancements and crafting. 'Inventions'. They don't change your physical appearance, but they do affect your powers.

Now... if you like that sorta thing, you CAN invest a lot of cash in your characters to fit 'em out with epic bonuses and whatnot. You can turn your character into a small god if you spend enough on your build.

BUT. Here's the thing. If you DON'T like to do that, if you DON'T like constantly spending and crafting upgrades - you don't have to. You can just grab standard enhancements, make a simple build, and boogie. That's perfectly acceptable, and other players won't criticise you or anything. Regular builds are totally cool.

Bottom line. In WoW, upgrading your gear all the time is mandatory. In CoH, it's optional.

[u]CONS[u]

- Variety of Gameplay: CoH is basically a combat game. Well, yeah, so's WoW. But there's non-combat quests in WoW. Crafting and recipes can be pretty fun. I loved to craft in WoW. CoH...enh, no. Gameplay in CoH is just about beating stuff up. CoH does have some unique and interesting encounters, some really awesome special boss fights - but most of it is the same.

- PvP: While PvP isn't really my thing, I do acknowledge that WoW PvP is a lot better than CoH's. WoW has more kinds of PvP, it's got battlegrounds with objectives and stuff. PvP in CoH has never really been that great.

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However, I think a venue to share in builds in a visual manner IS something that I haven't seen here. I see the builds in a text format but that is different than seeing it in a gui.

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Uh...no. Mids DOES let you share builds in GUI format. Go check out recent posts that have builds using a newer version of Mids. They have 'datalinks' or 'data chunks'.

Mids doesn't just output in text. Using the clickable links or importable chunks, you can view the build visually, locally.

But I agree - that's not the same as viewing the build in visual terms online.

I admit, I am interested in the notion of a site that offers a searchable database of builds - someone mentioned, in this thread, that builds could be tagged - 'AoE', 'Single Target', 'PvP', 'PvE' - that could be useful. Something like PvX (the Guild Wars build wiki), perhaps.

That would be cool. Suckerpunch's build planner does have an online database of searchable builds, but given that the planner itself is horribly out of date and the search perimeters were never very robust to begin with, that's a niche that can be filled.

It's counterproductive to reinvent the wheel, but if you can find something to offer that nobody else does, something that can coexist with the existing player-run projects...that is something the community will get behind.

Post deleted by _Acyl_

It should be said that the 124,939 unique access figure Father Xmas cites from 3rd Quarter 2008 is also a historically low figure for City of Heroes and shouldn't be relied upon, if indeed the number means anything at all. Even when they published that figure, it went up and down a lot.

I think the question is not whether the game will run well - we know it won't be very good, even if it works. The question is whether the game will run at all.

Annnnd...it might, insofar as the 6-series is supposedly supported. But yeah, I'm pretty sure that the 6150 SE is a motherboard integrated chip thingy rather than a proper stand-alone card. So yeah...

Yeah - RAM is the real issue in improving performance. But you do need to clear that minimum graphics hurdle to get it to go in the first place.

Like I said, the GeForce 6-series is explicitly on the list of supported video cards/chipsets, so I figure it's worth a shot at least.

Short Answer: You might be able to run it, but it's a very low-end graphics chip. You may wanna check with tech support.

Long Answer: The 6150 SE is not a proper graphics card at all, it's really a motherboard with an integrated graphics chip. That is your problem.

Now. Strictly speaking, City of Heroes/Villains does support the GeForce 6-series, and it can run on integrated graphics machines - it supports some Intel chipsets, for example.

All the same, a GeForce 6150 SE may be pushing it. I'd recommend checking with tech support, or simply installing the client to give it a shot.

Personally? My guess is that you might be able to run the game, but your friend might need to turn a lot of graphics settings down - especially if he doesn't have a lot of RAM in there either. But I really can't say for sure, because I have zero experience with the card in question.

I will say that you don't need an X6XX+ card for this game - I strongly disagree with Renardine there. I'm playing on max graphics settings with GeForce 9500 right now, and the other machines I've installed CoH on generally have had worse. Really, how much RAM you have matters more.

(QR) While Vista isn't officially supported, the devs have made some tweaks in the past specifically for Vista users... they've done some work with cursors and such, f'instance. There's things that used to be problems, but now aren't.

But yeah - really, if you're having issues with running CoH on Vista, check out the tech forums. I've been playing CoH on a Vista machine for about a year now. I sorted out all my problems in a couple hours, just by browsing the tech section of the boards. Quick and easy.

To be entirely fair, however...I do know a couple of folks who've never been able to get CoH working right in Vista. So I'll echo what another poster here said - CoH runs fine in Vista for most people. But there are exceptions. Good luck.

There's two main reasons to play DM/SD: 1) Damage - Soul Drain + Against All Odds, and 2) Durability - ToHit Debuff + Defense.

As you already know, the Brute will be tougher simply by virtue of more HP.

Bear in mind, though, that because the Scrapper has higher base damage than the Brute... Soul Drain and Against All Odds will give a bigger increase in damage for a Scrapper. A Brute doesn't benefit as much.

Will the DM/SD Scrapper do more damage than the Brute? Depends on the situation. If the Brute's got both damage buff powers saturated and full Fury...ennh, I suspect it'd do more damage still. I don't know for sure, though; haven't looked at the numbers myself.

But that does assume you're getting the most from your powers and Fury...that ain't always the case. It's hard to keep a full head of Fury on some teams, particularly if there's other brutes (or tanks) grabbing aggro. Or controllers/doms locking stuff down. In that respect the Scrapper has an edge, because your performance is more reliable.

PvP? Ennh. DM/SD isn't that good in PvP. It's not bad, but it ain't great. There's a couple things to consider. Doing negative damage isn't the great advantage it once was, now that resistances are a bit more across-the-board than they used to be.

You're not gonna be getting as much from Soul Drain and Against All Odds in PvP; there just ain't gonna be large clusters of targets for you to buff off.

Finally, for the Brute - it can be quite difficult to sustain Fury in PvP, because folks don't sit still to let you pound on 'em.

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And you're not that awesome outside of Granite. 'course in Granite, you are the God of Tankers, so it's all relative.

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I'd say "in Granite, you're the God of not dying." Not dying is the sine qua non of tanking, but it's not everything. I've found my own Stone Tanker sometimes has trouble doing enough to keep the team safe unless they wait around for him. I wound up taking Provoke for the times Taunt is slowly recharging and it would take too long to maneuver over minor obstacles, for example. The team has to slow down so much to work with a Tanker in Granite that I don't entirely blame the team for not always deferring to the Tanker, and thus occasionally getting into trouble.

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That's a very good point, and I concede the argument - you're quite correct. The recharge and movement debuffs of Granite do seriously affect ability to hold aggro.

It's probably worth mentioning that while a Stone tank in Granite is the toughest thing around, there's few situations in-game where you really need to be that tough. And with the right build and IOs, there's quite a few other tanker types that can approach Granite levels of survivability without the downsides.

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That would be costume piece recipes. They can drop off of anything in the game after level 10, as long as it is at least green to you. The way that works is: If you get a recipe and have the salvage you need to craft it, the character that crafted it gets access to that particular set of wings or boots at the tailor. And they actually aren't that expensive anymore, comparatively speaking.

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Yeah. Most of the wings in the game are craftable recipes, like that. There are two Veteran Reward wings and the Valkyrie (Mac Pack) wings, but the rest need to be crafted.

The recipes are normal drops. You can of course buy 'em off the player market if you want 'em. Honestly, they're really not that expensive anymore, and the crafting cost itself is very low.

The price for the more popular wings might seem high if you're still low-level, but trust me - it ain't a lot in the long run. Money is easy to get in this game.

(QR) I don't have either type of character, but I have friends who do. TA/Archery takes a bit to hit its stride, but once you've got enough stuff, it really is one of the better solo Defs. You'll be safe, and you'll kill things quite fast.

On a team, a good TA/Archery is pretty awesome. But it suffers a bit from lots of folks not really understanding the wide range of debuffs a TA brings to the table. Most people know what Emps, Rads, and Kins do, even Forcefields. TA is less understood.

Note that while TA does a bit of -regen, it can't really consistently lock down the regen rate of an AV. TA is strongest against large groups of enemies. 'course, large groups of enemies are what you'll be fighting most of the time, but you're slightly less useful when it comes to AV fights...compared to, say, the other debuff sets like Dark and Rad.

The benefits of Stone tanking are obvious - everyone knows how tough Granite is. On the other hand, it's a long road to 32 without it. And once you get it...not everyone can play with Granite. The slowdown and debuffs really are quite bad. Sure, a kin can speedboost you, and yes, you can slot enough runspeed and recharge IO bonuses to mitigate Granite's worst effects. But can you count on having that? The first assumes a particular team composition. The second assumes lots of influence. Otherwise you need to suffer.

And you're not that awesome outside of Granite. 'course in Granite, you are the God of Tankers, so it's all relative.

Solo? Well, a Stone/Stone tank will be very safe solo - I mean, you're not gonna get hurt, here...but you won't be killing things fast. Things will take a while - longer than for the TA/Archery. The TA/Archery has debuffs - including resistance debuffs. It will kill things faster than the tank.

So it comes down to what your priorities are.

The Ghost Widow patron hold leaves you in the spooky hovering position for a bit after use, I believe - I'm not sure, though, never taken the power myself, merely seen others use it.

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Be sure to include plenty of weapon users!

...hmm, are there Vanguard Pistols?

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Sadly enough there aren't even Vanguard shields

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I could have sworn that there is a Talsorian Shield...

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There is indeed a Talsorian Shield.

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At heart, all of you agree with me. A one time fee would be far better. You may be ridiculing it, there's nothing wrong with the idea. The continuous fee is more ridiculous than the idea to replace it with a one-time fee.

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Well, if I understand correctly, there's been two arguments so far:

Not all players want a lifetime sub: Plenty of people wouldn't want this model. The lifetime subs that LoTRO and other games offer...are very expensive.

It's a LOT of money at once. If you're not sure you'll be sticking with a game, why pay that kinda cash? And since MMOs go bust all the time, it's a bit of an iffy investment even if you love the game. Better to pay a little one month at a time, and see how things go.

Of course, we're assuming lifetime subscriptions will be expensive. Maybe they don't have to be. The game could be something like Guild Wars, where the price of the box gives you indefinite access. But then we get to the problem of...

A workable business model for the company: If the developers can't get enough cash, there's no game for any of us to play. We may not like their prices. We may wish that it were free - but it ain't gonna happen.

Guild Wars sold frequent expansions. That's how they earned cash. Most 'free to play' MMOs make money by selling items.

City of Heroes? Historically, 'expansion' content has been free. 'course, the devs have recently started selling us little perks and costumes for cash, as well as character slots and so on. We've got a paid expansion coming soon.

Can that replace subscriptions as an income stream? Probably not. And besides, a lot of CoH players are upset about some of the new cash perks and even the upcoming expansion. They don't WANT to pay additional cash for stuff. Just a monthly fee...

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Like several reside 'The Unlucky Artifact' is actually not quite where you would expect it.

It is in the 35-39 tier and autoexemps you to 35.

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...oh. Ick. Thanks for the correction, I didn't know that.

(and couldn't hop in-game to check when I posted.)

To the OP: Ouroboros has several contacts that give new story content, but the crystals inside the hall at the back of the zone allow you to access all the old stuff.

But I assume you've already figured it out. Good luck!

Origin of the contact doesn't matter. That just determines what kind of enhancements he'll sell you, and what enemies he'll usually send you to fight.

If you're still level 30-35, do radio missions in St. Martial until you get the Mayhem - then select Hard Luck as a contact.

If you're level 36 and above, you've outlevelled him. Congratulations, things are easier. Just hit Ouroboros for flashback mode. If your VG base has an Ouro crystal, you can use that as well.

Hard Luck's badge mission should be available in the level 30-35 range.

If you're not familiar with Ouroboros - it allows you to go back and do story arcs or badge missions that you missed.

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Though Crabs/Banes cannot be helmetless, IIRC, because they have a non-standard skeleton.

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Banes are most certainly humanoid. There's nothing non-standard about them. As are crabs, just with an odd backpack. After all, that backpack comes across no matter what outfit you use.

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Try this - look at /em crouch

On a regular character, the head visibly moves as the character looks left and right.

When you do it on a male Crab/Bane VEAT, the helmet doesn't move at all. I don't know what that indicates, but it must mean something.

They use standard animations, yes...but the female and huge player skeletons use the male animations for most things. Where things differ, they're overriding the male animations with unique ones.

Yeah, thank you - I couldn't for the life of me remember the full syntax for AT/Powerset/Power when I replied just now.

Annnd yeah, that is the fun part - the datalinks work on all things that are in the game, including NPC powers and gag developer stuff.

Sadly, 'The I Win Button' apparently doesn't actually exist on the live servers. Only on test.

(It's a developer tool that kills everything on the map, or so we're told. Used to test reward drop rates.)

Uh... there's two ways to make a link. One, you can drag and drop stuff - like recipes, salvage, and I think power buttons - into the chat input area (where you'd normally type)...and it'll generate a link.

Which is fine when you're dealing with stuff that you have on your current character - but what if you wanna look up things you DON'T have access to?

Well, you can simply type stuff in square brackets and have it show up. The trick is though...you got to get the name and syntax exactly right. That's why you're better off dragging to make your links if you can. But yeah, you can just type it. Just make sure you don't flub the name.

A power example:- [Invincibility] will work. [Invincible] will not. [Bone Smasher], not [Bonesmasher]. Most of the time when links don't work..well, you probably just typed it wrong. =P

Note where there are different versions of a power that share the same name (say for different ATs/powersets), you can specify which version you mean by adding a period and the AT name...or which powerset it's from, and so on. I forget the fuller syntax though.