(updated) Guide for New Players from Old MMOs
By
Adam7,
Posted on: 2006-04-10 08:33 in Player Guides
Really nice guide. Plenty interesting and well written to boot.
Thanks RT! 
That means a lot coming from you.
Very good post Adam.
an awesome guide. If this can't convince people (new or with 5 level 50s) to follow the proper path of leveling....go back to EQ! :P
This should be required reading for all new WoW expatriates. Five stars!
probably one of the best posts i've read 
made me giggle like a little girl at times too
thanks guys!
I'm glad some people are finding it useful.
I think I may forward it along with any "free trial" codes I send to my friends from now on. 
Something you might want to add to this -
"Adam, these missions are boring! Fight three guys, rest, fight three guys, rest, what's the point?!
Well, there are two ways you can make it harder. First, check your minimap for a contact icon that says 'Fortunata' or 'Field Analyst'. You can make every mission you run harder there.
Second, team up with people! Unlike the instances you may be used to in other games, these instances automatically scale to your team size. If you bring along a team of eight, every group of three minions is going to have (on average) two bosses, five lieutenants, and about 7 other minions in it. Now _that_'s exciting."
--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)
But... I want a nut of destruction.
Good guide. This is why CoH continues to hold my attention consistently, even with occasional defections to other games every now and then.
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Firstly, the majority of PvP rewards are the ability to purchase level 53 enhancements (to which you can get the same effect by combining 3 level 50 enhancements),
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You get a 52 by combining three level 50's.
Three 52's is some tiny fraction worse than three 53's, though, so the point remains.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
Something like 1%, I think it is.
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Firstly, the majority of PvP rewards are the ability to purchase level 53 enhancements (to which you can get the same effect by combining 3 level 50 enhancements),
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You get a 52 by combining three level 50's.
Three 52's is some tiny fraction worse than three 53's, though, so the point remains.
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good point. I forgot (momentarily) that at level 50 all your enhancements are white and not green. 
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Something you might want to add to this -
"Adam, these missions are boring! Fight three guys, rest, fight three guys, rest, what's the point?!...
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I would but I can't edit the post any more and you phrased it just fine right there .
I will brazenly rip that off whenever this guide gets updated again, though. (and yea GF you'll get your props 
)
As I mentioned before, Adam, I dig your guides.
I think the thing that intrigues me about this game more than EQ or WoW is the player base. Especially when it comes to things like TFs/SFs, Hami and SG's, the players here are more helpful and courteous than most other games. Try playing Guild Wars--getting together a PUG for the Tombs (a high level PVP zone, for those who don't play) is like asking someone to pull their own wisdom teeth out with a jackhammer and a baseball bat. No one will do it. Or FFXI--if you try to get someone to help you do anything, you have to give them something in return, like help with camping or farming something.
Of course, this all disappears in PVP zones. Damned stalkers...
Back after 18 months away!
Just wanna throw in my 2 cents. Excellent post. But the one thing above all else that make me weep with joy after playing WoW ... Travel Powers. I don't care which. After WALKING down the Barrens for the 20th time, I would have killed to get sprint, much less super speed. The design decision to allow players to fly anywhere and to be able to get from point A to point B quickly may seem simple, but is so rare in other MMOs. Getting a horse after 40 levels of game play in WoW seems like a sick joke compare to SuperJump at lvl 14.
just wanted to say thanks for the excellent Guide...
as someone coming from 3+ years in Shadowbane ( THE uber PvP game) as well as DAoC and too many others to get into, both as a regular PLayer and the countless beta tests...
i must agree with so much of what the original Poster discussed...
i've been having a blast casual playing, trying different toons out, getting the feel for the mechanics and tactics..i have totally NOT missed the phat lewt part of most MMOs
quite the opposite in fact...
i am also enjoying the fact that i can completely solo at my own pace and choice rather than being forced to group in order to accomplish certain things....
been here about 5 weeks now, and even with casual solo play i have enjoyed every second of a lvl 29 dark/dark brute, a 14 necro/dark mastermind , a 10 dark dark corrupter and a 10 dark/fire brute
as you can see, i have only begun to scratch the surface of a SINGLE power set...
this makes me very happy in the pants for the thought of longevity in this game
thanks again for the wonderful Guide and confirming much of what i have suspected...i look forward to spending more time with all you Villians on Triumph...
who knows, mebbe i'll even group!
heh
Excelsior!
I read your other guide and followed the link to this update. I must agree with most of the posts here, it is a great guide, although you don't QUITE succeed at not being condenscending. 
But you do get your point across, while making it clear what sets CoH apart from WoW and the other MMORPGs like it.
I think you miss a very important point, however, that I hope you'll include in your next update. Because CoH has something else that exemplifies this paradigm shift in the MMORPG. That is, Sidekicking, which has been in this game since the day it was first designed. Exemplaring (and of course the villain counterparts of Lackeying and Malafactoring) provide essentially the same function, but the whole concept really started with Sidekicking. And it made the game what it is today.
Sidekicking says that you, with your level 50, and me, with my level 1, can actually TEAM UP! I don't have to wait until I am level 50 to go on missions and participate in the game as a teammate with you, I can do it right now, even though I may be somewhat weak. As I gain in levels, though, the gulf between us will close, and in fact players with 10 or even 5 levels between them can team up, when in most MMORPGs a gap of 5 levels between teammates will often get them killed.
IMHO, this is the reason why most MMORPGs follow the "grind" to get to the "endgame", and then everyone starts playing the game. You can't TEAM with anyone until you get to the endgame. Everyone's a different level than you, and even the people coming up the ranks are likely to be more than 5 levels separated from you. You may be able to start a group of characters with some friends and then work together to "grind up" to the end, but if you miss a few days and start to fall behind, you have no choice but to give up. You are forced to "keep up", just to keep grouping with the teammates that you have managed to find.
Once everyone gets to 50, though, the playing field is level, you cannot progress any further, and everyone can team. You can go on raids and get the "uber loot" that progress your character further, but as you say, that is even MORE of a grind and takes even LONGER than getting to 50. And the advantages become less, instead of being ten times more powerful at level 50 than you were at level 45, and taking on with ease MOBs that would have slaughtered you before, you are not just a LITTLE BIT more powerful than the other PvP opponent who has the suit of armor that is just one step lower than yours.
CoH avoids this issue neatly by allowing anyone to group with anyone at any time, regardless of level. There are still level differences to keep solo players and groups separated, but grouping at the lower levels, and being able to stay with the SAME group for long periods of time at the lower levels is much, much easier. So there's no reason to try and even out levels.
Of course, that's an oversimplification, and there are still advantages to grouping within your level, but really, "levelling" is what CoH is all about. Really, that's all your doing in the end game, you are developing your character, but in a way that doesn't include levels. And to be honest, this is all pen and paper RPGing's fault. No one in an pen and paper RPG "grinds" to level 50 so they can start the "endgame" because typically in a pen and paper game you all start playing at the same time, and you can "tweak" a fellow player's stats if he misses a few games and falls behind. Sidekicking is just CoH's way of doing that in the computer gaming world.
great point! /em smacks head I can't believe I forgot sidekicking...
I'll include sidekicking into the next update of this guide (with proper credit given, of course)
(I can't really help the tone though... thats just pretty much who I am )
Content and style, an excellent guide. Thank you for writing it!
Might want to add an addendum concerning the crafting bit.
What with the Invention system coming out, and apparently an Auction House-type thing as well. Although, we don't really know how all that is going to work.
Otherwise quite nice, though I have to disagree with your stance on ED, but that's neither here nor there.
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Might want to add an addendum concerning the crafting bit.
What with the Invention system coming out, and apparently an Auction House-type thing as well. Although, we don't really know how all that is going to work.
Otherwise quite nice, though I have to disagree with your stance on ED, but that's neither here nor there.
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trust me.. I am waiting on inventions/auctions with bated breath and a lot of worry.
and I do mean *a*lot* of worry. My views on player economy should be obvious by now 
...
Adam,
Thanks for taking the time to write this and contribute. Although the rest of the post is longer, this first line is the most important one
I understand, but don't necessarily agree with, some of your points.
The main one is why people complain about the lack of content compared to other games. While CoH has interesting story lines, once you've played through them, you've seen them all. The best you can hope for is that you accidentally outlevel a contact so you can try and not outlevel them on your alt's way up to 50.
Other games have different paths you can take, hidden contacts, and a variety of mission types to include riddles, puzzles, exploration, collection, and 'thinking' missions to get around the "punch to the end" CoH paradigm.
I think you know I'm not a rush to 50 guy and I'm a certified altaholic with 24 toons on Champion alone, but the people who 'cry' for content aren't doing so because they PLed to the end and don't know what to do now. It's because there's a straight line path to the end and you're done. Roll an alt and follow the same straight line path to the end with the exception of the first few levels based on origin.
The addition of the Kheldians and their storyline is great. They are improving with the addition of the Hollows, Striga, and Croatoa. Faultline will be a good addition if it has it's own storylines, too. But they need to get out of the mindset where contact A sends you to contact B who sends you to contact C and all three contacts tell you to go to a door, punch everything inside, and then come back.
In all honesty, I see that EQ was lumped into the "worse than CoH on content" games. However, EQ II (realizing it's not EQ) has over 3000+ quests each with its own special aspects and almost impossible to find them all. Perhaps EQ has already implemented lessons CoH should seriously consider (like friggin player apartments). On top of that, you can go back and finish a lot of the lower level quests just to read the storylines! If someone's rushing to the end of EQ II and skipping the incredibly rich tapestry of fiction and background, they're doing themselves a great disservice.
Where EQ II (continuing to use the example) has immersive, exhaustive content on the way up, it also has things to do when you get there. CoH just has the ride up. And with games like EQ II acknowledging the success CoH had with altaholics and expanding their character slots per server, CoH has got to bring their game more in-line with games offering a complex array of things to do.
CoH did a LOT of things right. Content isn't one of them.
Oh yeah....???
Well you smell.
How do you like THAT one?
(going to have to come up with something better than that, I suppose)
You are right Mighty. There are straight line paths in CoH. Though they do need to continue to make more and more zones with their own stories (as you said: hollows, striga, croatoa, Faultine) and the movement of gamewide story (apparently i9-i12?). They need to do more... That much is true. And I will never argue for less content.
My points were geared in part to the don't PL your first character and then cry for content crowd, and also for people coming from games where the rush for loot mentality was prevalent.
We've both been playing long enough to recognize this game's faults... I just wasn't writing a guide about 'em
That being said, I've posted suggestions in the forums for newer ways to do AV encounters and Hamidon raids . I've also posted suggestions on branching contact story lines, permanent story repercussions for mission failures and reworking how the contacts work. (that suggestion got purged ages ago- maybe its time to re-post it?) I've tried to contribute to the game in a way to make it more interesting and provide not just more content, but DYNAMIC content (which is of course, the only way to keep things fresh). This guide was more for the understanding of the basic mechanics and philosophies that drive the game.
Your commentaries are always appreciated, O Mighty one, even when we don't see eye to eye. That's what friends are for.
This explains a lot... specifically, why I stopped playing a week after buying the game back in 2004 when it just came out... and why after doing a trial for COV a few days ago (to test physX effect, i didn't expect much from an "MMO") I enjoyed myself so much that I reactivated the account and played it since. I am actually feeling like I am playing a GAME instead of having a competitive job as you. I am reading the texts and enjoying the great stories and missions that are just fun to play, rather then a PL tool to get to the meat of the game (in a few months, if I am diligent). Frankly, it is nice to finally have an MMO for an adult with a job and a social life, rather then a highschool with no friends or social life who spends 99% of his free time on the MMO grinding.
-or-
ADAM-7s guide to the heart of CoH.
(revised to be i7 & CoV compliant)
Whats new? Sections on ED/Multi Target Nerf, and PvP.
This guide is geared toward players from other MMOs coming here and wondering why the things they are used to arent present. Why the style and feel of play from other games are not mirrored here. Why there is no traditional MMO end game content? Why cant my max level character advance further? Additionally, this will also touch on the oft controversial topic of power leveling and rushing to the finish (in a non inflammatory way). And if any of you follow my posts, you will see things I have said before here, just in a complied format.
Anyway, let us begin.
Adam, what makes City of Heroes different, and what is this paradigm shift of which you speak?
Unlike any other MMO out there, City of Heroes is NOT about the end game. Its a paradigm shift that a lot of people have trouble swallowing, but its the way the game was made.
In nearly every other MMO out there, the levels leading up to the max level end game are just gravy. They are meant to make you put in the effort or grind to reach the fun: max level raiding, equipment, crafting and PvP rewards. Essentially, the meat of the game occurs after your level is maxed out and you are fine tuning your stuff (whether be it powers or equipment or robotic rabid chipmunk pet of DRAMA-D000MZXORS). That is NOT CoH. (this is why many people who rush to reach the end become unsatisfied very quickly; they are missing the point of this game)
People rushing to the end game at the expense of the other content just don't "get" this game. There is no end game content that extends ones enjoyment. Unlike WoW or EQ or DAoC, you don't have high level raid content or PvP uber rewards. When you hit 50, the Devs expect you to roll an alt, and bring your 50 out for 50 content (when its made), PvP, Arena, PvP base raids (and crossover CoV content), and playing with your friends. They have expanded what your 50 can do with the exemplar, auto exemplar for TF features and PvP Zones.
Other than that though, your character has essentially retired. Sorry, no way for you to spend another 1000 man hours raiding the depressing elemental plane of sadness where Lord EMO god of whining and mediocre music reigns supreme, just to beat him and hope you are the one person out of your 50 player raid group to get the hat of Xanax (+35 save against confusion and fear) to further tweak your stats. Thats not this game. Its part of the reason why our characters stats are not typically available for view and why they implemented their Enhancement Diversification system (whereby adding more than 3 Single Origin enhancements of the same type to any one power provides negligible benefit). The Devs would rather you not worry about putting in 35 more hours of raiding, crafting, and PvP reputation farming to get your resistance rating up from 85% or 86%. By scaling down the benefits one can get by obsessing over their stats vs. the benefits that most casual players figure out on their own they have evened out the playing field AND made it even less of a disparity between fully Hamidon Enhanced characters vs. non Hamidon enhanced characters. (for further reference see my points on enhancement diversification below).
And heres the kicker- When they finally DO make end game content, people will exhaust it and cry out for more within weeks. Why? Because no matter WHAT endgame content CoH adds, it will not be the kind of end game content these people want.
But Adam, why NOT? I want my content!
Most (gross generalization) people who are currently crying over lack of end game content are looking for the kind of content that EQ or DAoC or WoW has. When your character hits the highest level the can get, there are still uber items out there to increase their power. They can still finish their cursed midnight armor of the pre-dawn exorcism or what have you.
These items require hours and hours and hours of raiding to acquire, and you aren't even guaranteed the item at the end of that time. Heck, in some cases these armors or weapons are only available to one person at a time per server, and you have to zealously guard your position in the games ranking system lest someone else out farm you and take your loot. Having to be vigilant in your progress and a regular basis and worry about others trying to snake you out of your hard earned position thats sounds more like a competitive job than a game to me. But what do I know?
So what happens? In an obsessive race to optimize their character to the max, people who have already hit max level are still willing to spend 50+ hours to get all the min/max'ed equipment. And in many cases, they dont even GET the equipment they need from the drop, but rather the raw materials they need in order to spend yet MORE hours crafting the equipment they need, with no guarantee of success! And thats not even getting into PvP uber rewards, where your rewards a given out based on PvP experience. So you have players who have more time on their hands than other players cornering the market on the PvP special rewards.
Yep: because Junior over there gets out of High School early, and devotes every second of his spare time to keeping his PvP ranking, he gets the towering shield of the divine holy hell demons wings. And there is nothing you can do about it. That kind of end game content allows a person to feel like their character (who can no longer get experience) is still advancing. Even if it takes them hundreds of hours and the exclusion of the rest of their lives to do so. They are still getting stronger as a result of all the time spent. They feel like their character doesn't need to be shelved because there is still room to grow.
And ONCE they have optimized themselves to have only the best, there is still PvP raids to keep them busy, because PvP provides rewards in both PvP AND PvE. And those rewards are good! And though many people like this, there remains a problem with that in reference to CoH.
Many of us came to CoH to break out of that grind. We got tired of having to spend hundreds of hours to get enough lvl 265 spectral wombat pelts to make the phasing wombat boots of doom which allow us to finally cross the phased rainbow bridge of despair into the shadowed castle of shadows, only to fight the twilight squirrel (with 400 other players) in hopes of being the one person to get the fabled nut of destruction. (Because, as you know, if you DON'T have the nut of destruction, you are teh noobxzors in PvP and no one will invite you to their l337 gank squad)
End game content in CoH will most likely just be more missions. Perhaps requiring multiple teams (in the vein of hamidon, but in smaller scale). They may require whole supergroups. But regardless, the will not give loot, and the will not give continued and extended character advancement. (Key word is extended, they may provide some limited further advancement, but not to the end of 100+ hours to get your full set of death badger armor).
Okay Adam, Im starting to follow you, so are you implying I shouldnt PL or Rush through my first character?
Well, most people rush in the other games because to EQ or DAoC, the meat of the game is at the end. In other words, to EQ players, the fun isnt in getting to max level, but rather, once you get there. They prize the destination, not the journey (if you dont mind the cliché) *a funny aside, new players in EQ sometimes get turned off immediately as its tremendously difficult to find lower level teams, as everyone is being PLd to join the fun in the end game*
This being the case, the solution to powerleveling should become kind of obvious, but lets sum up what we know now, first:
1. CoH has no ph4t l3wt. There are no items of power to increase your characters stats.
2. CoH has no extended play end game. You hit 50 and retire. Kthxbye.
3. CoH has no crafting. You cannot spend hours and hours refining your vampire bunny teeth to make your singing vorpral sword of slaying.
4. There will be no steep rewards for PvP victories. Our items of power that our SGs (will) hold do not open up a super dungeon where even uber-er items can be found, or give us +100,000,000 hp & unlimited endurance as well as a staples that was easy button solution to any encounter.
These things all tie in together and they also form the crux of end game content, and the goal of powerlevelers in the other games. People PL for these reasons (in other MMOs). People want to get to the meat of the game immediately (2) because that is where the most fun is had in the game. However, to get to this fun they must be outfitted with the best equipment (1). To get this equipment they must raid and get the raw materials and (3) craft em or get em from a drop. All in the hopes to even further optimize their characters (4).
So what, then, is the meat of City of Heroes if its not extended advancement?
As shown above, CoH has NONE of these things. CoH is unique in the fact that the focus of the game isnt max level pvp raiding. Nor is it max level dragon (or hamidon) slaying. This game is about bringing your hero up from an outbreak stopping scrub at lvl 1, to a dimension saving portal jockey at 50. All the content they need to accomplish this isnt there yet, but if the khelds are any indication they are certainly trying. They are attempting to put in so much content that each character can take a different path through the game with different experiences.
They are succeeding somewhat when you consider you can now take a character though the hollows, then to striga, then to croatoa, then to the shadow shard. Thats a lot of contacts and content ( 5 35, 40-50) if I recall correctly) that is different from what you are used to. You can also spend a lot of time doing missions in the PvP zones and advance in that fashion (though there is limited storyline advancement there). They have expanded missions to change the things you have done already. They have adjusted tile sets, enemy mob powers, and AVs to make things different from your first time through.
They WILL eventually have level 50 only content, but its not going to be the crafting, stat tweaking, 500 hour obsessive compulsive gotta catch it all tedium that other MMOs bill as end game content. The devs want you to enjoy each level, not rush through them to join all the fun raiding the dark shadowed fortress of darkness which can only be reached if you get the key of night content flag by killing Shad-or, the black dragon of inky blackness inside his den of eternal evening.
OK Adam, but what about Enhancement Diversification! Those Devs ruined my Favorite Character! -or- What the heck IS this Enhancement Diversification I hear people complaining about?
1st- for those of you new to this game, Enhancement Diversification was implemented around issue 5/6. It essentially neutered the bonus provided by adding more than 3 of the same type of single origin enhancements to a power. Prior to ED, one could (for example) 6 slot a power for damage and a massive boost. That boost is limited to the first 3 enhancements now. Additionally it went hand in hand with the multiple target nerf, which placed a hard cap on how many enemies could be hit with a single AoE attack. Many long time players had problems with this, since it came out over a year after the game was released and hampered or outright crippled certain styles of play.
The reasoning behind ED was to level the playing field between people who were excessively well informed of the game mechanics, and casual players who were not. That way, in PvP, there was not a caste of l337 characters who had perfectly min/maxed builds who could win by virtue of slotting choice. It was also intended, and succeeded, at bridging the tremendous gulf between Hamidon Enhancement Haves and Hamidon Enhancement Have-Nots. (a Hamidon enhancement is the reward for the End Game raid in City of Heroes, and it is an enhancement that can effect 2 or even 3 aspects of a single power). Hammi-Os are still very good to have, but they are not the super I win button they once were.
It was also an attempt by the developers to make our characters, as a whole, less effective while not actually nerfing anyone in particular. To this end, they have succeeded. There are few out there who can argue that their characters have become more effective post ED than Pre ED. However, by making us less survivable, they were able to ratchet up the difficulty of the game a bit without making any other change to the engine. Suffice it to say, the game you play today is more difficult (in a good way) than the one previously. There was a time when certain scrappers could solo monsters and arch villains, when tankers could round up every mob on a level and keep their attention, when blasters could rain destruction on dozens of mobs with a single attack were we powerful? Yes. Was the game fun? Yes. Was it challenging? Not so much. And a game without challenge is one that wears thin. When a controller could pop his AoE hold every minute and be able to hit 30 enemies with it, there was not much concern with tactics or strategy people would rush in and leave the tanks and controllers to keep aggro managed. Which was accomplished fairly easily.
In my opinion, Enhancement Diversification & The AoE targeting nerf have made this a better game. Others may disagree, and they have every right to. The one thing that cannot be taken away from those nerfs though, is that they have crippled the most common ways to PL, and severely reduced the effectiveness for those ways that have not been removed completely. You new players out there have nothing to worry about, as all this was done before you got here. CoV showed us all 1 thing: when the game starts out with the ED & Target nerf built in, there are no problems, since thats the way the rules were laid out. CoH on the other hand, had those rules tacked on a year late, so many people still have the image of how their character USED to play, rather than focusing on how he or she DOES play.
And PvP Adam, What about that? There are rewards, right? And Items of power?! And crafting??!! LET ME DO MY RAIDING DAMNIT!
Yes, with PvP Zones, and the (soon to be implemented Items of Power base raiding system) there are rewards for PvP. There is also a minor crafting system based on salvage. This is NOT your prototypical forced PvP keeping up with the Joneses raiding system. Firstly, the majority of PvP rewards are the ability to purchase level 53 enhancements (to which you can get the same effect by combining 3 level 50 enhancements), and purchase large inspirations, which would otherwise be found completely at random. Nothing game breaking or worthy of an excessive time sink.
You, as a player who does not devote his every waking hour to PvP will not be worse off than Junior over there who does. PvPing truly is a choice here, not a necessity.
Salvage is dropped while playing in SG mode and can be crafted into items for your base. Your base is what will house items of power- SG wide minor bonuses granted by an artifact stolen from Rularuu the ravager in a raid only accessible by your SG. Your SG leadership will assign a particular window of opportunity where your base can be raided each day. A base raid is limited to a small number of people on the attacking and defending sides (15?). These bonuses are nice to have, and are a pleasant reward to the groups who claim them, but their effects are not so noticeable as to, once again, skew the balance between haves and have nots. As with PvP rewards, base raiding is a choice and not a necessity to continue to have fun playing and not feel inferior to those who DO have those bonuses.
OK, got it. Thanks Adam!
Once you understand this kind of paradigm shift, you may find yourself not only looking at City of Heroes in a different light, but enjoying it more. I have never played a MMO before where it is a perfectly acceptable practice to take a few months off, and come back for the new issue to see what content was added. Nor have I ever played a MMO that is so accommodating for that (the fact that no characters have been forcefully deleted yet speaks volumes about Cryptics view of their fans. Once you understand the idea that the fun of this game is in the playing, not the end game stat tweak PvP castle elemental dragon raid II: super ultra mega champion edition, you will also understand why I dont give suggestions on how to dissuade PLing from the populace at large: There is no reason to. Rampant PLers will play this game a bit, and either max out, get bored and move on or not be able to find anyone who knows HOW to PL, get bored and move on. Those of us who enjoy the game for what is IS, rather than what we want it to be, will most likely still be here bringing another alt up from 1-50.