One thing you don't mention is your level. Your survivability is going to grow as you level (I know, probably a "duh" statement, but it still needs to be said.) A low level tank can still be very squishy. An upper level tank - may still be squishy, depending on what they're fighting.
I wouldn't worry *quite* so much about enhancements if you're low - training origins aren't, frankly, worth buying. (First 12-15 levels.) Afterward, you get dual (15) and single (25) origins, as well as IOs (common and set.)
Build-advice-wise, ask in the tanker forums. Be sure to mention your sets.
Salvage and recipes... Set recipes, I rarely bother with, other than unique/special ones - again, knowing which you're looking at would help. For instance, Fire and Dark armor tanks don't have knockback protection, so if a KB protection IO recipe drops... make it. If a snipe recipe drops, especially low level, it's vendor fodder. 
Generally, I'd say don't worry about sets. Common IOs... Accuracy, END are the big ones, until you get to SO levels. (again, 22, level 25 IOs.)
For the scrapper question... poke around the scrapper boards. They'll give you a good bit of advice.
Servers -
Servers are shown by load, which can roughly correlate to population. They're shown in the order of your last server at the top, then least to most populated. Typically, the three top ones are Freedom, Virtue, and Infinity - but dont' worry about not finding people on the other ones. Pinnacle and Victory, for instance, tend to be my "main" servers (though I have characters *everywhere,*) and there's never really a shortage of people to team with. All the servers have their own "personality" too... Try a few, or ask down in the server forums.
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First question. I've noticed that when i go into the parties that i have managed to join that my toon (as i believe they are called) doesnt really live up to its role. As a tank i would assume i would survive a long time and take a load of damage. Not the case, as i can't seem to survive the first group of enemies we come to without running through all my health inspirations and still ending up in the red. I don't really focus on Enhancements much. Is this a mistake? do they make that big of a difference at this early in the game? and how can i better distribute them if i should be.
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There are many variables here. You say you are a tanker, but what is your primary? Stone, Invulnerability, Fire, Dark? Some sets a little tougher than the others fresh out of the box. Some really mature in the early twenties. Some become totally uber in the mid 30s.
Have you taken the "toggle" powers from your primary or only the "auto" powers? Toggle powers are always more powerful than auto powers. Taking only the auto powers is a sure way to get your tanker pasted.
What level were the enemies you were facing in relation to you? +0? +1? +5? In general you wont be able to handle anything over +3s in the early levels without tons of support. And those +3s will be really tough for you.
As far as enhancements go, before level 12 you can safely ignore them and sell any that drop into your inventory. At level 12 you can start buying and slotting level 15 DOs (Dual Origin) which are twice as good as the TOs (Training Origin) enhancements that are availble in the early levels.
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Salvage and Recipies. Do i sell them? keep them? use them? honestly i have found them to the point where the box for it was filled up. Luckaly i stumbled across pocket D and discovered the bank they had. but still, since i've been saving them all in case they had some great purpose later on, they build up incredibly quickly. What is the best way to go about using salvage and recipies at early levels in the game?
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Generally speaking it's not worth trying to store up recipes and salvage. If you don't plan on using them then just sell them on the market or to an NPC store (the NPC store will sometimes give you a better price if a particular recipe or salvage isn't selling well on the market). Level 10 through 25 generic (not a named set) IO (Invention Origin) enhancements aren't really worth the cost IMO if you are new and still a little shy on cash. When you reach level 32 however you should definately ignore SOs and get as many IOs as you can since at that level they will offer better bonuses and wont "wear out".
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Creating toons is probably the funnest part for me so far. but i'm always questioning as i level up weather or not i should try and focus on the primary skill set for my class, or to evenly distribute between primary and secondary. I'm sure this question will proove rather difficult to answer due to good character builds being a matter of opinion and experience. Currently I'm wanting to make my main toon a Scrapper with Broad Sword/Shield Defense sets. What would be a good way to distribute Skills and skill slots as i level up?
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Totally personal preference. If you post your build in the forum for your particular AT you can get some suggestions on how to tweak it, but there is no real right or wrong way to build your toon.
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What is one of the more popular servers with alot of people willing to party and hang out?
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When you log into the game the servers are listed from least populated to most populated. The server you used last will be at the top however. Freedom is by far the populated server (warning: many people on the forums hate Freedom and will sure soon turn up to bash it) Virtue is the second most popular and is also the unofficial RP server if you're into that.
As for the other servers...meh they aren't important.
I tease, I tease.
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It's a long post i know. I took the time to highlight the actual questions in yellow if you want to skip over my life story 
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This isn't long. You're safe. 
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First question. I've noticed that when i go into the parties that i have managed to join that my toon (as i believe they are called) doesnt really live up to its role. As a tank i would assume i would survive a long time and take a load of damage. Not the case, as i can't seem to survive the first group of enemies we come to without running through all my health inspirations and still ending up in the red. I don't really focus on Enhancements much. Is this a mistake? do they make that big of a difference at this early in the game? and how can i better distribute them if i should be.
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Your powers start out at a base number, be that damage, defense, resistance, accuracy or whatever. That base number is sufficient in the very early part of the game, but as you advance in levels, the game slowly increases enemy attributes (damage and hit points), and enemy abilities (more foes with status effects and debuffs, for example, and a wider range of those status effects and debuffs).
What enhancements do is allow you to "keep up". Some of the attributes of your powers will slowly scale upward, others will remain exactly the same at all levels (defense, resistance and accuracy are good examples). Enhancements are designed to give you the ability to improve those set values, at a "controlled" rate. That "controlled" rate is accomplished by making certain enhancements boost attributes by certain amounts. Training enhancements, or TOs, improve powers by small amounts. Dual origin enhancements, DOs, double the improvement offered by TOs. Single origin enhancements, SOs, are twice as effective as DOs. And each category of enhancements becomes available after you achieve a certain level. TOs are available as soon as you create a character, but you don't get access to DOs until level 12, and access to almost all SOs is restricted to level 22 and up.
There are other categories of enhancements (HOs, IOs and some special ones from certain trials), but we won't get into that now. This is a "starter kit" explanation, and if you are interested in the other types of enhancements, you can read about them at paragonwiki.com.
So why slot enhancements? Well, let's say you have a power which grants 10% Defense. At level 1, 10% Defense is pretty good because the enemies you face are weak. At level 10, 10% Defense starts to feel less effective because the enemies you face are hitting a little harder and doing strange things, like making it impossible for you to move or hit them back. At level 25, using that same 10% Defense can feel downright discouraging because the enemies you're fighting are beating the snot out of you. But if you slot some Defense enhancements in that power, you can increase it up to ~15% at level 25, and it helps a little more. You're getting hit a little less often and that snot they were beating out of you doesn't end up overflowing the sewers (now you know why the water in there is green).
Basically, enhancements make your powers more effective, and more effective powers make you better at whatever it is you're trying to accomplish. Accuracy enhancements help you miss less often, which means you're spending less endurance on missed attacks and defeating enemies sooner, which in turn reduces your incoming damage and down time. Defense enhancements improve your Defense powers, which reduce incoming damage and down time. Damage enhancements make your attacks hit harder, which saves endurance and helps you defeat enemies faster... you get the picture.
One thing to keep in mind is that enhancements have a cut-off point. The closer you are to a certain percentage of enhancement value, the lower the benefit from another enhancement of the same type. For instance, if you have three Defense SOs slotted in that 10% Defense power, the power will grant ~15% Defense, but if you add a fourth Defense SO, it will only increase it to ~16%. If you have an attack that deals 25 base damage and you slot it with three Damage SOs, it will deal ~49 damage, but if you add a fourth Damage SO, it will only increase the damage by 2-3 points. A good rule of thumb is "no more than three of the same type".
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Second question.
Salvage and Recipies. Do i sell them? keep them? use them? honestly i have found them to the point where the box for it was filled up. Luckaly i stumbled across pocket D and discovered the bank they had. but still, since i've been saving them all in case they had some great purpose later on, they build up incredibly quickly. What is the best way to go about using salvage and recipies at early levels in the game?
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Salvage and recipes are part of the Invention system, used to create Invention origin enhancements (referred to as IOs). What do you do with them? Well, that's something everyone decides on a person by person basis. Some players try to keep everything that they think they might use, some sell everything before they reach a certain level, some just ignore salvage and recipes completely.
So what should you do with them? Look at your powers (in the Enhancement Management screen) and see what kinds of enhancements can be slotted in them. If you see that you have a recipe that you think will be worth using, and you have the salvage or can afford to buy it at the market (Wentworths for heroes, Black Market for villains, just check your map), then go ahead and craft it. If a recipe doesn't seem useful to you, check the sales history at the market. If it's something that sells well, list it and see if you can make some inf*. If it doesn't sell well, take it to any contact or store and sell it there, and you can use the inf* you accumulate from recipe/salvage sales to buy other enhancements or recipes that will be more useful to you.
A handy tool to use for determining things like what powers will accept which enhancements or how to best slot different powers is Mids' Hero/Villain Designer. It's very popular among those of us who read the forums and will allow you to plan out builds and slotting tactics, and share them with others or ask for detailed advice and/or pointers on improvements.
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Question 3
Creating toons is probably the funnest part for me so far. but i'm always questioning as i level up weather or not i should try and focus on the primary skill set for my class, or to evenly distribute between primary and secondary. I'm sure this question will proove rather difficult to answer due to good character builds being a matter of opinion and experience. Currently I'm wanting to make my main toon a Scrapper with Broad Sword/Shield Defense sets. What would be a good way to distribute Skills and skill slots as i level up?
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Play it by ear. As you level up, pay attention to what you're experiencing and feeling. If you think you're taking too much damage, pick a power from your secondary set. If you feel safe, but you're not defeating enemies quickly enough, pick a power from your primary. If you're happy with your progress in both of those aspects, go poke around in the power pools and see if there's something that looks fun or useful there.
Honestly, it's very difficult to make a character that won't perform well in this game. There are all kinds of safeguards and preventative measures in place to ensure that even if you make all kinds of mistakes, you aren't so bad that it becomes impossible to level up or make progress through most of the content.
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Question 4
What is one of the more popular servers with alot of people willing to party and hang out?
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Freedom and Virtue have the highest populations, but a better approach might be to scroll down on the main forum page and browse the different server forums at the bottom. Get a feel for the players posting there, see which servers have communities which you feel you'd fit in with well and introduce yourself.
Welcome to City of Heroes/Villains.
1) Tanking and Staying Alive
In my opinion, most tankers only get really good once you have all your key defensive toggle powers, and have Single Origin enhancements in them. So around level 22+. It's possible to be quite tough before then, but that's my general rule of thumb.
As a lowbie tank, it's not that hard to get aggro - but it can be difficult to survive it. As for Enhancements as a lowbie, I wouldn't bother with Training Origin Enhancements, but Dual Origin Enhancements are definitely worth slotting. Or possibly IOs from the 10-20 range.
2) Salvage and Recipes
Because of limited storage space, you should sell most of what you find. Regular IO (non-set) recipes should probably be sold to NPC vendors at the low levels. Currently it's often worthwhile to sell at least your common salvage at Wentsworth and the Black Market.
Note that even at low levels you can get some drops that sell for a lot on the market, like Celerity +Stealth and Steadfast Protection Res/Def 3%.
All zones that have a market also have a Vault Reserve, the same as in Pocket D. It's one common storage inventory, no matter where you access it from.
You can also store stacks of recipes or stacks of salvage (up to 10) in your market slots. So long as you don't list a price, they won't be sold - thus this can act as a form of storage.
3) Scrapper: BS/SD
As other folks have suggested, check out the Scrapper forums. Try looking at the stickied thread listing Scrapper guides written by players. BS/SD is a popular combination and I think there's at least one or two good guides written for it.
Personally, I think your greatest challenge as a BS/SD is endurance management. Broadsword takes huge chunks out of an enemy's health, but huge chunks out of your endurance bar. Shield Defense has relatively heavy endurance consumption for a Scrapper secondary. Not as bad as Dark Armor can be, but not great.
This means you'll need to consider endurance cost reduction slotting in your powers. If you can get around that hurdle, however, BS/SD is a very effective combination.
4) Popular Servers
The two most popular servers are Freedom and Virtue.
Freedom is a general gamer server. It is THE biggest server. It has a bad reputation in some circles. Personally I don't think it's got a higher proportion of idiots and bad players. It's just that the server is so large, there's more of them by default.
Virtue is the unofficial roleplay server. Not everyone on Virtue is a roleplayer, but the RP community is big enough that it makes a significant difference for the community's personality.
However, here's the thing. Freedom and Virtue are so highly populated that during periods of high activity - like reactivation weekends, new issue launches, and special events... you may have problems getting into the server. The system does stop people from logging in after server activity hits a certain point.
If you choose Freedom or Virtue as your main server, be prepared to take your chances, and don't complain if that happens to you. =)
Infinity is the third most popular server, but I've never seen it get locked out. You could always make characters on more than one server, though.
@Acyl
VIRTUE
Blue: Realpolitik, Leading Lady, Glass Lass, Superball, Alec Kazam
Red: Battery Acid, Obsolete, Bugfix
Most of what I have to say has already been said... but here I go anyway.
TANKING: I think of the first 18 or so levels of Tanking as the "Die for your team" levels. You're paying your dues. After a certain point you just sort of... stop dying, unless something really exotic comes along. (around level 38, probably.)
SALVAGE AND RECIPES: Your first time through the game, you will probably be working on your basic ("don't run sprint in combat") and advanced ("jump over the badguys so that their cone effects don't hit your teammates") skills, and you may not want one more level of complexity. You can think of salvage and recipes, in this case, as "the stuff that makes you rich." If you sell them all for 1 inf at Wentworth's, you will have a lot more money than you need for your dual-origin and single-origin enhancements. NOTE: This will give a lot of people great bargains. But that's OK because you will have more money than you need FOR SO'S ONLY.
If you decide to go with Invention Origin shinies, you do NOT want to sell everything for 1 inf at Wentworth's. You will have to learn what things are worth and how to make money, most likely. Fortunately it's really easy- the Market forum has a bunch of guides on the topic. Influence flows like water in this game if you put like two hours into learning about it.
SERVERS: "The question behind the question" as a guy I worked with used to say, is "how can I get good teams and lots of them?" Using /search to find people helps. Going to high-population servers helps. Using your "LFT" flag helps. Joining a supergroup helps (but unlike other games, it's not absolutely necessary to be in a SG.) But the thing that helps me the most is: join a lot of bad teams. Form a lot of bad teams. And when you find good people on bad teams, people who are helpful and skilled, right click on them and add them to your friends list. You can ask them to be "global friends"- you can keep track of them no matter what character they're playing- but they may say no, for any number of reasons possibly having nothing to do with you.
Welcome to Paragon City! Have fun, and keep asking questions ! I love to hear myself talk.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
Since you're a MMO veteran, it might help to point out that your preconceptions might not be a good thing. We do things very differently here. Teams are incredibly flexible, and tanks, while handy, are not necessarily required. Healing, while handy at lower levels, is the weakest form of damage mitigation, with buffs and debuffs becoming very powerful as the levels get higher.
Most of your questions have been answered, but I feel I ought to weigh in on Question 3: Your primary and secondary powersets are designed to complement each other. Your Scrapper has his sword to do damage, and his shield to prevent being hurt, and other melee archetype (class) primaries and secondaries work the same way. (for tankers it's the other way around, of course) Defenders have buffs and debuffs to help their team, and blasts to deal damage, while Corruptors have it the other way around. Masterminds have pets, and powers to support their pets/teammates.
Of course, the details vary heavily between ATs, and even powersets. You're best asking for specific details in each AT forum (there are guides, but they're rarely updated these days for some reason).
Overall, don't worry. This game is crazy easy and forgiving, and you can pretty much never screw up a character so bad that they can't be fixed. Some builds are a bit better than others, but everything is viable at the very least. The main goal of this game is to have fun.
I don't really focus on Enhancements much. Is this a mistake? do they make that big of a difference at this early in the game? and how can i better distribute them if i should be.
How early? Your 'training' enhancements suck horribly to about level 11, then are relatively shabby from 12 to 21 (dual origin enhancements), then you suddenly become more powerful at level 22 when you can use single origin enhancements.
What is the best way to go about using salvage and recipies at early levels in the game?
Sell. Invention enhancements do not 'wear out' like the other kinds, but they are 'scaled' to your level. So, the ones you can make and slot at early levels are relatively shabby. I would not even consider using invention enhancements before level 25 and, generally, I really get into them in the 30-35 range.
Currently I'm wanting to make my main toon a Scrapper with Broad Sword/Shield Defense sets. What would be a good way to distribute Skills and skill slots as i level up?
Generally speaking, across *ALL* character types and powersets, you should focus on the primary set. Your primary set will be operating at maximum power (i.e. a blaster set is much more powerful for a blaster - primary, then for a defender - secondary).
Personally, I usually take 7-9 powers in the primary and 4-6 in the secondary.
What is one of the more popular servers with alot of people willing to party and hang out?
Please note, popular = crowded, which *CAN* sometimes be a bad thing (during some special events). Most popular are:
Freedom
Virtue
Infinity & Justice battle for 3rd place
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
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What is the best way to go about using salvage and recipies at early levels in the game?
Sell. Invention enhancements do not 'wear out' like the other kinds, but they are 'scaled' to your level. So, the ones you can make and slot at early levels are relatively shabby. I would not even consider using invention enhancements before level 25 and, generally, I really get into them in the 30-35 range.
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There are a some exceptions to this rule though. There's a small number of enhancements that always provide the same amount of bonus regardless of the level of the enhancement.
But...if you're interested in learning more about that I suggest you located a good resource on the invention origin enhancements. The system can get a bit complicated once you start delving into IO sets and procs.
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What is the best way to go about using salvage and recipies at early levels in the game?
Sell. Invention enhancements do not 'wear out' like the other kinds, but they are 'scaled' to your level. So, the ones you can make and slot at early levels are relatively shabby. I would not even consider using invention enhancements before level 25 and, generally, I really get into them in the 30-35 range.
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Tons of good advice in this thread but I thought I'd elaborate on the selling. As you play, you'll get drops of enhancements, inspirations, recipes and salvage. These can be a tremendous source of income. Let's break it down:
1. Enhancements
For those you can't use, sell them. It pays to sell them at a store of the right origin. If you have a Tech ehancement, the Tech store will pay you significantly more for it than a Magic or Natural store. Once you get access to Ouroboros at level 25, that's a handy place to sell enhancements because the store there (Mender Roebuck) buys all enhancements at the most favorable prices.
2. Inspirations
Don't sell these. Use them steadily as they drop. If you get 3 of a type you rarely use, right click on one and you can convert the 3 into a single inspiration of your choosing.
3. Recipes
Here is your biggest opportunity to make money. You can sell recipes to any store and they will pay you a modest sum. Or you can try to sell them at Wentworths. Some recipes are essentially worthless and it's better not to tie up your Wentworth slots on them, just sell them to a store (known as "vendoring them") and be done with it. Others can be worth millions. You simply have to spend time and learn which is which by checking out the sales history at Wentworths. If you have a little extra time, a great way to make even more money on a recipe that is in high demand is to craft it at a University or your super group base. Because many players don't want to spend the time it takes to craft, it's common to see a recipe that would sell for 100K and that requires another 100K in crafting fees and salvage sell for 1 million once it's crafted. Yes, it's that easy to make money in this game.
4. Salvage
Before the mission architect was released, common salvage was cheap. Now it is often worth big money. That salvage you got on your mission, the one that a vendor will give you 250 inf for, will often sell for 50K or more at Wentworths. So the same rule applies: before selling salvage to a store, check out what it's going for at Wentworths.
Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.
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If you choose Freedom or Virtue as your main server, be prepared to take your chances, and don't complain if that happens to you. =)
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This is plainly false. In the old days, if Freedom or Virtue filled up to a "maximum" capacity they would lock it until a certain number of people left. Until they did, no one else could get in. That stopped a long time ago.
Now, when the server population reaches a threshhold level they begin locking it for a few seconds, then unlocking it on a cycle. The longest I've had to wait to get in during the last two Double XP Weekends or the Anniversary Week was two minutes. That's it. If you log in and you see Freedom or Virtue greyed out (locked), just click back and log a second time. Odds are it will be unlocked the next time.
Also, some people mentioned Mids Hero Designer. It's a fan-made powerbuild utility that will show you exactly what your powers are capable of doing. Should you decide to get involved with named Set IOs (an entirely optional thing in the game) Mids will help you get your head around them and what they can do for your character.
You mentioned slotting enhancements. Other people have already told you about the diminishing returns that appear around 3 SOs of the same type. But short of that limit how much of, say Accuracy, is enough? Here's a trick: Click open the Powers tab on top of your power tray. Then click Combat Attributes at the very top of that tab. Now click open Base and scroll down to Last Hit Chance. Right click on that and select Monitor Last Hit Chance.
That will put up a tiny window for the Last Hit Chance stat. The Last Hit Chance is your total, after all modifiers, probability of striking the last thing you swung at. This number is bounded at 5% as a floor and 95% as a ceiling. It's entirely reasonable for your character to be swinging at 95% consistently. If you are regularly getting less than that, slot some more Accuracy. Also, if you go up against a Boss and that window suddenly says 30%, you know that discretion is probably the better course of action than staying.
As someone playing melee characters, here's something that will make your life a lot easier. Move all of your powers down one spot so that the "1" space is open in your tray. Then type:
/macro Kill "target_enemy_near$$follow"
That will put a grey button in the "1" spot marked "Kill" that, when clicked, will autotarget the closest enemy in camera view and automatically run you into melee range with them. If the target moves away, you will move with them. Why is it marked "Kill"? Because "sic 'em" is too big to fit on the button.
Finally, you mentioned using all your "healing inspirations". The buffs and debuffs in this game are extremely powerful. "Healing" is more a reactive mechanism of survival here; a Green Insp will keep you on your feet for a few more seconds but it's not going to change the circumstances that got you so hurt in the first place. Purple and Orange (Defense and Damage Resistance) inspirations will give you more mileage as a Tank. They cut in-coming damage and last for 60 seconds each.
Welcome to the Game .
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If you choose Freedom or Virtue as your main server, be prepared to take your chances, and don't complain if that happens to you. =)
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This is plainly false. In the old days, if Freedom or Virtue filled up to a "maximum" capacity they would lock it until a certain number of people left. Until they did, no one else could get in. That stopped a long time ago.
Now, when the server population reaches a threshhold level they begin locking it for a few seconds, then unlocking it on a cycle. The longest I've had to wait to get in during the last two Double XP Weekends or the Anniversary Week was two minutes. That's it. If you log in and you see Freedom or Virtue greyed out (locked), just click back and log a second time. Odds are it will be unlocked the next time.
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This is true. I still suggest, though, not putting all your eggs in one basket - if you go on Freedom, find a West coast server as well, as there are (rare) network issues either in a data center or elsewhere on the 'net that can prevent you from reaching half the servers, as well as giving you an alternate if you feel Freedom is too busy.
From a little cut-paste I have dealing with starting on another server -
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What you want to consider is a west coast server. Those are:
Champion
Guardian
Justice
Protector
Virtue
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Short answer: take all your salvage and recipes and sell them on the market for 90% of the average of the last 5 prices. Use that money to buy DO's if you are level 12-22 or SO's if you are level 22+. For each power, pick the 1 or 2 most important aspects and put in 3 enhancements for each aspect.
The longer answer are better, if you bother to read them, but if you don't then this will suffice.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
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Short answer: take all your salvage and recipes and sell them on the market for 90% of the average of the last 5 prices. Use that money to buy DO's if you are level 12-22 or SO's if you are level 22+. For each power, pick the 1 or 2 most important aspects and put in 3 enhancements for each aspect.
The longer answer are better, if you bother to read them, but if you don't then this will suffice.
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Eh, I'd argue the last part of that.
Then again, I tend (in SGs I have a 50 in) to make level 15 common IOs for lowbies quite often, just so nobody feels they have to buy DOs. Save the money.
Generally, Acc and END do best for most attacks, given peoples worries about endurance at low levels.
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If you choose Freedom or Virtue as your main server, be prepared to take your chances, and don't complain if that happens to you. =)
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This is plainly false. In the old days, if Freedom or Virtue filled up to a "maximum" capacity they would lock it until a certain number of people left. Until they did, no one else could get in. That stopped a long time ago.
Now, when the server population reaches a threshhold level they begin locking it for a few seconds, then unlocking it on a cycle. The longest I've had to wait to get in during the last two Double XP Weekends or the Anniversary Week was two minutes. That's it. If you log in and you see Freedom or Virtue greyed out (locked), just click back and log a second time. Odds are it will be unlocked the next time.
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This is true. I still suggest, though, not putting all your eggs in one basket - if you go on Freedom, find a West coast server as well, as there are (rare) network issues either in a data center or elsewhere on the 'net that can prevent you from reaching half the servers, as well as giving you an alternate if you feel Freedom is too busy.
From a little cut-paste I have dealing with starting on another server -
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What you want to consider is a west coast server. Those are:
Champion
Guardian
Justice
Protector
Virtue
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One way to cheat if you ever need to remember, is on the server status page, it alternates East Coast/West Coast.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
When you mentioned that you would go red while fighting, you didn't mention what you were fighting. What damage the mobs tend to do depends on what you are fighting.
If you are fighting Vazhilok Zombies, they do toxic damage and usually a low level tank will have no defense against toxic damage. Then you become as squishy as a blaster.
Survivability comes from teamwork. Controllers to hold mobs in place and debuff, Defenders to buff and heal, Scrappers and Blasters to do megadamage. Tanks keep the mobs away from everyone else so they can do their job.
If you are getting hurt fast, someone else on the team may not be doing their job.
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When you mentioned that you would go red while fighting, you didn't mention what you were fighting. What damage the mobs tend to do depends on what you are fighting.
If you are fighting Vazhilok Zombies, they do toxic damage and usually a low level tank will have no defense against toxic damage. Then you become as squishy as a blaster.
Survivability comes from teamwork. Controllers to hold mobs in place and debuff, Defenders to buff and heal, Scrappers and Blasters to do megadamage. Tanks keep the mobs away from everyone else so they can do their job.
If you are getting hurt fast, someone else on the team may not be doing their job.
[/ QUOTE ]Nobody has defense against toxic
For toxic damage, you either defend against it's delivery type (AoE, Ranged, or Melee) or you resist it. Only one with low-level resists easy for toxic that I recall are WP (High-pain tolerance) and Dark Armor (toxic resist in their first armor toggle). Most other sets with a self heal have toxic resist in the self heal... but it's not up like it is for WP or DA.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
I seem to recall Fire's self heal being up pretty often - have to double check one of my lowbie fire tanks, though. Too used to my high level ones.
Human_Being said
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Purple and Orange (Defense and Damage Resistance) inspirations will give you more mileage as a Tank. They cut in-coming damage and last for 60 seconds each.
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Two things:
1) I think they last 30 seconds each. I could be wrong.
2) You get much better results taking them in pairs- two purples work considerably better than one. [Larger inspirations drop from enemies and you can do the math on those if you like.] Four purples works considerably better than two, but anything more than that is wasted. The tohit/accuracy/defense math in this game is very complex, so I'm not going to explain more than that.
EDITED: I thunk wrong. 60 seconds, just tested it.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
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Welcome to the game, the forums, and Paragon City
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1) I think they last 30 seconds each. I could be wrong.
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It's 60 seconds. Only thing that lasts 30 seconds is a small Breakfree. (Mediums lasting 60 sec and large Breakfrees lasting 90.)
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but i'm always questioning as i level up weather or not i should try and focus on the primary skill set for my class, or to evenly distribute between primary and secondary.
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The way I develop my characters:
- Get 2-3 attacks right away or anything that can be used as an attack (hold, immobolize), so that you can reasonably defeat whatever you fight. Initial slotting are accuracy because nothing else matters if you can't hit, and endurance reduction so you can stay in the fight until the end.
- If the powersets you're playing has armor, pick them up as soon as they become available. Get them all, especially the one that provides mez (hold, immobolize, disorient/stun, knockback) protection. Slot them up. Allocate slots to your armors before your attacks, attacks mean nothing if you're dead.
- Decide on which travel power you want, get the prerequiste power for it. Note: if you choose Flight, you can pick up Air Superiority which is a very nice attack and can be one of the 2-3 attacks I mentioned. Flurry and Jump Kick are 'eh in my opinion, but you might like them.
- Some people swear by having Stamina from the Fitness power pool (I do), so get the prerequisites to it. Each of them are very good to have anyway.
- Start picking up your AOEs whether they be controls, buff, debuffs or attacks. Note: controller AOEs have an inherent accuracy penalty, have a long recharge, and cost more endurance than single targets, so slot accordingly.
- Pick up team oriented powers.
- Look forward to the 30s when you get more slots than powers at level ups.
Teams are the number one killer of soloists.
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I seem to recall Fire's self heal being up pretty often - have to double check one of my lowbie fire tanks, though. Too used to my high level ones.
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That would be the one exceptions - as most of the self heals that give the +RES(Toxic) are dull pain clones... which fire's is not.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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1) I think they last 30 seconds each. I could be wrong.
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It's 60 seconds. Only thing that lasts 30 seconds is a small Breakfree. (Mediums lasting 60 sec and large Breakfrees lasting 90.)
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*side note*
The other one having variable effects being the Awaken family -
Resurrection Inspirations
Awaken: Self Minor Resurrection, Disorient, -Recovery, +Experience Point Debt Protection
If you are defeated, you can wake up with 1/4 of your hit points. You will, however, be disoriented, have no endurance, and unable to recover endurance for 20 seconds, but you will be protected from experience point debt for 10 seconds.
Bounce Back: Self Minor Resurrection, Disorient, -Recovery, +Experience Point Debt Protection
If you are defeated, you can wake up with 1/2 of your hit points. You will, however, be disoriented, have no endurance, and unable to recover endurance for 10 seconds, but you will be protected from experience point debt for 15 seconds.
Restoration: Self Minor Resurrection, -Recovery, +Experience Point Debt Protection
If you are defeated, you can wake up with 3/4 of your hit points. You will, however, have no endurance and unable to recover endurance for 10 seconds, but will not be disoriented, and you will be protected from experience point debt for 20 seconds.
... from da wiki.
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Short answer: take all your salvage and recipes and sell them on the market for 90% of the average of the last 5 prices. Use that money to buy DO's if you are level 12-22 or SO's if you are level 22+. For each power, pick the 1 or 2 most important aspects and put in 3 enhancements for each aspect.
The longer answer are better, if you bother to read them, but if you don't then this will suffice.
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Eh, I'd argue the last part of that.
Then again, I tend (in SGs I have a 50 in) to make level 15 common IOs for lowbies quite often, just so nobody feels they have to buy DOs. Save the money.
Generally, Acc and END do best for most attacks, given peoples worries about endurance at low levels.
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Well, sure. I'd argue against it too. I just noticed that the first answers in this thread were very very long. I thought a very very short answer might turn out to be helpful. If the OP is currently not using enhancements at all, then putting 3 damage and 3 acc in every attack would be a big improvement. It's not optimal, but optimal isn't always an option.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
It's a long post i know. I took the time to highlight the actual questions in yellow if you want to skip over my life story
Ok i just recently started playing this game and i've really been enjoying it. I haven't really had a chance to interact with the community to much so i am not sure if i'm looking at FFXI community or runescape community. Mostly i just want to start partying and having fun with everyone but i need to figure some things out before i do.
First question. I've noticed that when i go into the parties that i have managed to join that my toon (as i believe they are called) doesnt really live up to its role. As a tank i would assume i would survive a long time and take a load of damage. Not the case, as i can't seem to survive the first group of enemies we come to without running through all my health inspirations and still ending up in the red. I don't really focus on Enhancements much. Is this a mistake? do they make that big of a difference at this early in the game? and how can i better distribute them if i should be.
Second question.
Salvage and Recipies. Do i sell them? keep them? use them? honestly i have found them to the point where the box for it was filled up. Luckaly i stumbled across pocket D and discovered the bank they had. but still, since i've been saving them all in case they had some great purpose later on, they build up incredibly quickly. What is the best way to go about using salvage and recipies at early levels in the game?
Question 3
Creating toons is probably the funnest part for me so far. but i'm always questioning as i level up weather or not i should try and focus on the primary skill set for my class, or to evenly distribute between primary and secondary. I'm sure this question will proove rather difficult to answer due to good character builds being a matter of opinion and experience. Currently I'm wanting to make my main toon a Scrapper with Broad Sword/Shield Defense sets. What would be a good way to distribute Skills and skill slots as i level up?
I have too many questions so ill wrap it up with this one.
Question 4
What is one of the more popular servers with alot of people willing to party and hang out?
Sorry for such a long post.