Here's a handy bind that I didn't see posted in here, (if it was and I missed it, I apologize), one of the most important binds for a defender:
/bind F1 "team_select 1"
/bind F2 "team_select 2"
/bind F3 "team_select 3"
etc
It's so handy to have a button to hit to select a teammate for heals/buffs, instead of trying to click on them, or click on their name in the team list.
Also, I have a key bound to:
/bind h "em point$$say $target is over there"
So that I can point out a big bad boss before someone rushes the minions and aggro's him, so that I can point out glowies to whoever is in charge of clicking them, or hostages, etc.
And, just to reiterate something that's been said a couple times before:
When you run into new baddies you've never fought before, right click on them and read the info. It's usually entertaining, and it gives you a little insight into how they're gonna try to beat you down.
Travel Powers:
Huge debate on this. To me, Super jump and Super Speed are much better than fly, it's faster and funner, again it's my opinion, not fact.
Kills:
If your low on health ( a ml. of red left) don't think you only have one last shot to kill the boss at the end of the mission. Hello hospital and debt!
Needed Powers:
Hasten - Always good in a fight
Health/Stamina - must haves
Always map out stores. They are good place to run to if you have no chance to win a fight and need a place to get away to. but warn those inside the store that something may be waiting outside the door. I was in SC walked out of the store and got whacked by two lvl 32 "The Lost". I was a lvl 12. Basically, door opened...[Censored]....WHACK...hospital.
Also, more game etiquette...If your being chased don't run through another hero's melee. Again in SC this happened to me and I was taking on two yellow outcasts when a tanker ran though unfortunately bringing in 3 purple Tsoo which I mistakenly targeted....boom...arrow...fist...death...hospital .
One last thing...Curiousity is good...curiousity+proximity=quick death. Examples...The latest invasion Standing with mouth agape at the portal site...WOW COOL!...pointy things....flashing lights...hospital.
The same thing on Talos Island. Saw the Devouring Earth for the first time...clicked on one to see what the heck they were...forgot, then continued my melee with the devouring earth still targeted...big mistake. Shot one by mistake...lots of things stabbing me...death...hospital.
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One last thing...Curiousity is good...curiousity+proximity=quick death. Examples...The latest invasion Standing with mouth agape at the portal site...WOW COOL!...pointy things....flashing lights...hospital.
The same thing on Talos Island. Saw the Devouring Earth for the first time...clicked on one to see what the heck they were...forgot, then continued my melee with the devouring earth still targeted...big mistake. Shot one by mistake...lots of things stabbing me...death...hospital.
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So that would make "Be careful what you're targeting" another good suggestion. 
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One last thing...Curiousity is good...curiousity+proximity=quick death. Examples...The latest invasion Standing with mouth agape at the portal site...WOW COOL!...pointy things....flashing lights...hospital.
The same thing on Talos Island. Saw the Devouring Earth for the first time...clicked on one to see what the heck they were...forgot, then continued my melee with the devouring earth still targeted...big mistake. Shot one by mistake...lots of things stabbing me...death...hospital.
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So that would make "Be careful what you're targeting" another good suggestion.
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Ah, yeah, this has happened to me too. =(
Curiousity can be dangerous - let someone else be the cat. =)
"Combustion - I guess if you six slot this bad boy...but honestly I've never seen it deal massive dmg...am I wrong?)"
There is actually one use I get out of combustion *it's not enough, and I'll be ditching it on respec, but it can be useful* Every now and then, some clipping bug pops up, adhering a mob to the wall, or a door, or even *on three irritating occaisons* inside a staircase. Combustion is the only AoE I've encountered that works for all of those situations. You could send a petition, but often if you're doing that, you might as well just restart the mission, you'll get it done sooner.
wow. great thread. and at this time of the morning, good to keep an all-nighter going.
Im not going to try and remember everything that was already posted, but some good things to note..
Using Powerlines and Trees can be helpful when dealing with certain foes. Wolved, DE, many enemies have no effective ranged attacks, and if you're perched on a branch high enough, the will never touch you. Helpful if you have ranged attacks.
I wish Id known there is actually an exit in the train stations. I cant count how many times I would run into the exit thinking I had screwed myself. Pay attention to signs!
just my two cents
TP Foe is very useful for getting bad guys un-stuck from inside walls, floors, etc.
Great posts, a couple of my own, sorry if there are repeats:
Height matters differently for different heroes. I am now making controllers and defenders tall and scrappers and tankers short, because when in first person view (which I prefer in many situations) I can easily see over the other PCs, or they can easily see over me.
The missions where they tell you to kill "x" villains and then suggest where you night go to find that villain don't always REQUIRE that you go to that zone. If the mission says "Keep the peace in Perez Park" then you have to kill them in Perez Park, but if it says something like "Discover the secret formula: Kill "X" Vahzilok" and the contact says that you might look in King's Row or Perez Park for these baddies, you don't necessarily have to kill the villains in the suggested zone. Instead, turn around and whack the nearest Vahz near the contact. If it decriments the count, you're golden. The fastest mission I ever finished was one of these where there were 10 Vahz standing right next to the contact.
Click on a teammate and you will automatically target their target. (Think this was said already, but I keep running into people in teams that seem to always be getting in trouble because they are off soloing mobs in the group when we could all be combining efforts, maybe in 2-3 subteams, but at least not all individually.)
When you pick up hovering or flying and you are sniping at a Lt or Boss, look down before you take your first shot. Some can knock you from the sky (some minions too I think). I find it good to hover above power lines or train tracks when I snipe so that if they knock me down, I'm still not in easy melee range. I'd rather not fall all the way down to the ground where a couple of them are waiting to pummel me.
I've remapped my num keypad for most movement, and put "next target" and "closest target" on numpad + and numpad "enter." As I approach clusters of villains or areas of poor visibility, I cycle through by tapping + with my pinkie. You can do this from a safe distance, size up the group, and where visibility is poor you can actually detect enemies before you can see them. When you are ready to pick a target, click the numpad enter to go back to the closest, then cycle through to the one you want. You can drive and position yourself with the numpad steering keys while targeting without reaching over to the mouse or taking your fingers off the power keys bound to the numbers on the QWERTY keyboard.
I've also bound "look up" to numpad 9 and "look down" to numpad 3. Again, saves you from shifting your hands from mouse to keyboard for most steering, but admittedly this is a matter of style, and not an improvement for everyone.
I have yet to see the fact that you can "tree-jump" over the wall in Perez Park, so I'll mention it. Anyone without a travel power (or if they choose superspeed) can clear the wall if they turn on sprint, run directly at the wall (and a tree) and jump so that you would land on a treetop. If you keep holding down jump (and get the distance right) you will launch off the top of the tree and continue over the wall.
It takes a little practice, but it can save loads of time. That said, you can jump off many things that you can't actually land upon, but using the trees to get into PP are the most useful that I've encountered.
Ok.. a few.
1. If you're going for the Fitness pool (and mostly everyone does), take Hurdle or Swift at lvl 6. It makes getting around much faster. I'd reccomend Hurdle as you can jump over obstacles and save time.
2. Remap autorun from R to something out of the way ASAP. This is the first thing I do when making a new character.. I use the ~ key personally. You can change it under the options menu - controls
3. The best time to form a new character is an off-time. You won't have to fight will all the other lowbies for the limited spawns. I like Saturday mornings personally, I can level up to 6 very very quickly if I'm not competing against others.
4. Enter a hazard zone 2 levels higher than the minimum. It will make things go more quickly.
5. At lower levels hunting purples is mostly a waste of time. You miss too often and people tend to die easily.
6. Unless someone shows me some mathematical proof, I'll state that at lower levels fighting blues and yellows is mostly the way to go.. go through them quickly.
7. Occasionally you can superspeed through the trees in Perez. STand next to a wall of trees leading into the park, face parallel to the trees, and superspeed strafe, you should pop through the trees. It takes a little practice but it's a nifty trick.
8. You really DON'T NEED a "healer". Defense > resistance > mitigation. Healers compensate for incoming damage as best they can (miitagion). Other types of defenders and controllers stop you from taking the damage in the first place.
9. Don't neglect your defensive powers, even if they are only pools.
If you're hunting in AP, GC, KR, SC, or Skyway, and you need to go away from the keyboard or take a knee for a minute, head towards the water in city zones. Mobs do not spawn in water, and few heroes travel through the lakes, so you can rest relatively un-noticed while swimming in the middle of any of the city's lakes.
PLEASE NOTE: This will not work in hazard zones. Enter the water at your own risk in those areas.
Beanbag has saved my butt several times. being able to stun one mob and concentrate on another is very useful when soloing.
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Got a questions about enhancments...
Is it better to slot a dual enhancement that has a 15 or a generic 20??
I wish there was some indication of which is more beneficial! And whats better - a 15++ or a 16 (both generic)?
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Any DO that you can slot is better than any training you can slot. Enhancements more than three levels below you stop helping. More than 3 levels above you you cant slot it. Same with SO. Vs DO. 15++ is equal to a 17 (15 plus one plus one)
This one is scrapper specific
the "f" key "auto-follow" is your friend... just has much as the tab key.
especially for those non-gamers who may be intimidated all the movement involved in melee combat. I am one of those with dumby fingers and my beloved auto-follow has made me a kick [censored] scrapper.
accuracy in brawl, run speed in sprint, recharge reduction in rest. And don't bother slotting any of them.
Moth Twiceborn, Slan, Mr. Long
Jane Droid, 43 Earth/Emp, Alix Frost, 43 Ice/Eng
Warlock Krelleth, Level 50 Zombie Mastermind
Virtue Server
"Some people find fault as if it were buried treasure"
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7. Occasionally you can superspeed through the trees in Perez. STand next to a wall of trees leading into the park, face parallel to the trees, and superspeed strafe, you should pop through the trees. It takes a little practice but it's a nifty trick.
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"Inside the trees" is less confining than "outside the trees but inside the maze". You can head for your target in a straight line, but there'll be some juking to get out of the other side. The "stand of trees" image filler is like one-way glass. Not sure whether it actually blocks targeting.
Just be careful. Sometimes when outside you have different slopes and gradations, inside you have two stretches of differently-leveled ground and a gap.
If you enter the gap, you will fall, and fall, and fall, and fall, and then wake up by the boathouse in Everett Lake in a cold sweat - it was all just a dream!
--GF
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
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It may be self-evident, but you cannot move while you are mid-conversation. So if you see someone speaking to you and you see, "Hey, it's high level Clockwork WWWWWEEEEEQQWWWSSSSS", it's not because they can't spell... :
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BWAHAHAHAHA!!! wooooo! 
There is a /stuck command for when you're stuck on the geometry.
At higher level, consider slotting an interrupt reduction SO in Rest instead of a recharge reduction if you find you don't use rest that often. Reducing the time it takes to start healing can help in some situations.
I haven't finished reading this really long thread yet...so I'm not sure if what I put up here is...plus half of them are odd and for fun.
One tip to use with assisting a teammate is be careful with ranged attacks. Half the time the one you're assisting takes out the enemy before you. If you're at the end of a single mob, hold off as you both get closed to killing the last bad guy. A few times I had a power slotted up as they defeated the villian. Sometimes you shoot off at the already defeated...sometimes you don't. Problem is they may start cycling through a new mob to see how many lts and bosses there are etc, while your attack is still selected from the last fight. Of course if they're within range your attack goes off...they come straight for you when no one is ready for it.
Assisting is a great way to get rid of mobs faster 
I know this works with the assault rifle...if you have it out and you do the "bow" emote, you act like you're shooting an arrow.
If you're like me and you have fun dancing on coh, do the bind- /bind (key) "$$ em dance"
Press it really fast and you cycle through the dances and it looks really odd. Add some more binds by replacing dance up there with other emotes. cycle through a bunch of them and it looks really cool. If you want to do leg movements bind kneel and yoga (each one you start going to position with either your right or your left leg).
Some people don't know this but you can tp yourself in really weird places for fun. In the city hall, the reflection on the ground is just an upside down city hall which you can tp yourself into. you can also tp under overpasses (though they might have changed this)
For awhile I didn't realize you can throw caltrops underwater...(stupid murky sewer waters...)
I may think of more eventually...heheheh
Awesome thread.
my tip for now: Remember the name of this thread to give to new players in game.
Thoughts in general...I think most have been said but are worth repeating...
Please out of respect for Defenders, not all are empaths!!! Don't invite them to your team and complain when they don't heal so much.
As a blaster or controller, BE CAREFUL when you throw down an AoE power right off the bat. You draw all the aggro.
If you are not sure on a power to choose, consult the forums. It will save you a lot of heartache.
Beta Rikti invasion - 22 Apr 04
"I'm not normally a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman!" - Homer Simpson
on Freedom
Rummble 50-BS/SR
Beta Green 28-Rad/Rad
Mental Majesty 21-Mind/Kin
Blue Shadach 23-PB
Muata 9 TA/Arch
Minister Sinister 11-Mind/Psy
You can only have two story arcs going at once. Check the clues window. If you have some old ones you are stuck on an old arc. I just figured this out and took out Dr. Vahz with my 41 Tank just to clear it off.
EveryNighters:
Tar Heel Lvl 50 Inv/SS Tank
Knight of Purgatory Lvl 50 Fire/Ax Tank
Kilmainham Wall Lvl 50 Stone/Stone Tank
Re-Fridgerator Lvl 50 Ice/Ice Tank
Yankee Doodle Dandy Lvl 50 Will/Eng Tank
Teen Tar Heel Lvl 50 MA/SR Scrapper
EvilNighters:
Tar Heel Dead Lvl 50 DD Brute
OMG, I actually read all the posts! 
A great thread. I had already found out most of the things via mentors or by experimenting, so I felt rather pleased with myself
One thing I've just learned in game (the hard way), and now got confirmed in the thread:
Low health! But the boss also has low health! I can take him!
almost always leads to:
*whack whack whack* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! ... hospital.
The one thing I saw only mentioned was that in missions the mobs get harder the more people you are. According to my understanding it has to do with the following number of people in the team (I have this only from a mentor and haven't checked official numbers, so I dont guarantee the validity of it):
5 = more mobs
6 = they go up a level
7 = bosses are more frequent
8 = all of the above
So if you're going on a mission, and want it to be a quick one, dont go in a big group (unless, of course, you have a kick [censored] team )
- You can see the amount of hp a mob has by targeting it and hovering with your pointer over his hp bar, in the target window. The same you can do with other heroes.
- If you hover over the heroes bars in the team window you get the % of their hp/end.
- If you, like I, slot your powers with much dmg and wait for lvl 27 or 32, to buy the next set of SOs, you wont finish off same conned mobs as fast as you did before, after you level (duh!). As a blaster I learned this the hard way. Oh! Orange 5ths! I take out a group of those easily with Build Up, Aim, Fireball and Firebreath, and they'll all just nicely say 'Hueagh, hueaaah' and fall down! *wooup* *wooup* *hurl* *breath* What the heck!? They still stand!? And many of them! *blam blam blam blam blam blam blam* AAAAAAAAAAAH! ... hospital.
- You can use the tabs to keep record of specific messages you receive. Just klick on the numbers (1-4) on the upper right hand corner of your chat window and you have 4 different tab areas to configure (just press Add tab). You can change the tabs by mright clicking in the tab and selecting 'Edit tab'). I've configured them so that I save NPC chat in one (can be fun to read), private tells in another (they get so easily lost in all the other messages), one for the supergroup (very handy to have when you communicate often with the others) and one for team (useful in combat, if you still have a lot of text messages in the default tab scrolling away team tells). And if you got much screen space you can detach each one of the four tabs.
That's all, for now!
I have too and thought I'd add a few.
You can also change keys under the options menu, but binds are great.
If you are not comfortable with doing binds, you can reassign keys like tab to target nearest by doing the above.
You can also assign a key to get your position, great when trying to find badges.
Also you can assign a key to quit game with one button or just type /quit.
great thread. seeing a lotta things that amazed me when i discovered them and some new things as well
my 0.02 influence:
- as mentioned before target_enemy_near is your friend, esp if you're a tanker or scrapper. hit whatever key or bind you may use, then select follow (hit "F"). yes, runners will come back, but knocked back foes are great to hit when they're down or waiting to find your next target wastes time when your hasten is already beginning to fade. throw in a quick burst of superspeed and you'll be all over your foes like white on rice.
- your SKed character is fighting at lvl 30, but they are not lvl 30. you may get some stat boosts and can take on those purples you once feared, but in some cases -- especially involving lower levels -- you cannot compare with a true lvl 30. less useful enhancements, but more importantly less useful powers. still using brawl because you don't have a better attack to cycle? were you holding off on hasten or have you not hit stamina yet? chances are your teammates will have this and you'll feel like the odd man out hiding in the corner resting. just be aware of this and be aware of how much you're really contributing (or taking away from the group if you require too many heals due to your naivete) before you get too cocky.
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-"Cool...one more shot and that Fifth LT is going down...OMG WHAT IS THAT!!! <thwack>"
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The first time that happened to me I almost levitated out of my chair. No one warned me about those things!!!