New, have a few questions

Hi, obviously by the thread title I'm new to the game...not really... I played alllll the way back when the game was still in beta, but...I haven't played the game since.

I've just recently fled from the well...um, Elitism that is World of Warcraft and I was wondering how this game stacks up.

Here are my questions:
1. Is there an End-game? (For instance, at least on a PVE standpoint are there places in the game where groups of people can take on colossal tasks, like raids in WoW-terms)
2. Is the community as Elitist or as immature as WoW's?
3. It is an old game, so...how large is the player-base?
4. How in-depth is the game?
5. Finally, how much "stuff" is there to do when you hit the level cap?

Sorry for the wall of text, any help would be appreciated

(Really, I am trying to go cold turkey on World of Warcrack so....I'm just looking for a game to play for my MMO fix so I don't go back to my addiction...)

Thanks again!

1) Not exactly. There are some high-level only TFs, but the point of the game isn't to rush to the cap and then start playing.
2) In my opinion, we have a very friendly, intelligent and mature community for the most part.
3) 130k or so? Not aberrant-big, a very respectable number for any MMO.
4) Without knowing exactly what you mean by "in-depth", I'm going to say "very". There's a lot to do, and a lot of different ways to do it. One of CoH's strengths is that there isn't just one right way to do things.
5) Most of the stuff is there all the way to the level cap. Once you hit it, you can still play it all, but there's comparitively little benefit to getting to 50 for 50's sake. There are players, missions, arcs and task forces all the way up...in this game, it's about the journey, not the destination.

Welcome back!

Hi there welcome back. Lets take these on a little out of order.

We're nowhere near as "elitist" as the WoW boards in general. You'll find a few folks that are, but we're a pretty casual bunch. Honest questions will usually get an honest answer.

There really isn't an "end game" like in WoW. Content is good across all levels. This isn't really a "gear" based game so obtaining "stuff" isn't important to having a useful character.


Last estimate of player base is somewhere around 100K. Don't quote me on that though, my info may be a bit outdated there.

The game is as in-depth as you want to make it. It's good for solo and team play, you can find a fair sized RP community, PvP is easy to find if you want it (although many feel it's broken), You can change your difficulty easily, and there's a good amount of "side" features such as AE, market, badge hunting, ect. ect. You can do as much as you like.

At lv 50 there is still quite a bit to do in the game, multiple story arcs, high LV task forces, the AE feature which actually lets you create missions at your level. Again, you can do as much or as little as you like.


I think you'll findthis a much more comfortable place to play. Welcome home.

Edit: fixed a few spelling errors. I was in a hurry. not sure why.

Ah, I see thank you

From what I've seen the game appears to have gotten better from the beta and it does appear to have a wealth of things to do, with the Architect...well, let's just say I'm super-excited to come back into an MMO where users can generate their own content.

Thanks again
(To be honest, COH was my first MMO, so I feel like I am coming home)

Just don't get hung up on AE at first Raid. We've had a few people get a bit lost in there. Take your time, try out the mainstream content, don't be afraid to look like a complete nOOb while you get your feet under you.

There is no "best way" to play. If you're having fun without ruining someone elses fun, you're doing it right.

Yeah, AE is nice, but I was planning on doing the other content first

Yeah...I really haven't done any AE, just coming from the perspective from one who's been around the MMO community awhile, (I played COH beta then moved on, sadly), user-generated content is at a premium and COH/COV stands out in that it does offer AE.

Don't worry, I promise I won't turn into an AE baby.

Edit: Spelling

let us know what servers you are planning on playing on, and maybe your global, there are a ton of helpful vets who will catch you online and help you out getting reacclimated. they did it for me when i was new, and now i try to help as many newbies as i can. having someone show you the little things is wayyyyy helpful, that way you don't spend half an hour trying to go in the out door of the train ahem; not that i would know or anything.....

and, now that you are here, and have been informed that the game is going from 1 to 50, not hitting 50, let me add that one of the GREAT aspects of this game is the ability to have 8 gazillion alts (i counted, there is 8 gazillion), so make a ton of characters, play at least one of each AT, fill up a couple of servers, whatever floates your boat. but if your approach to this game is to make 1 toon and race it to 50, you will be dissapointed. so, go create superheroes, supervillains, and soon the super ambiguous

Hey there - bit late to the thread here, but I'll try to throw in a few bits of information that might not have been covered yet.


1} The endgame - yes and no. The vast majority of content is evenly spaced across the level range, which means there's little to no reason to rush to the top. Once you're there, some of the things you can do are;

• Make a different character and do it all over again. Different powersets {or even same powersets} can have profoundly different playstyles, giving you a wholly new gameplay experience.
• Run any task forces you might have missed or want to re-run.
• Run any story arcs you might have missed or want to re-run via the Ouroboros system.
• Explore the Architect Entertainment system. Despite some who use it exclusively for farming, it does have quite a few quality stories, with more being constantly created.
• Badges!
• Explore the city. *coughshadowshardcough*
• Bullet points are sexy.
• Exemplar and team with players running their content - there's enough of it that, unless you've been running with the XP handbrake on most of the time, you've missed most of it.
• Hamidon and Muthaship raids.

An open letter to NCsoft

To expand on the "Do a new character" - there are four "epic" ATs - these have some in-game story attached to them. Two heroside, two villainside. These are unlocked by getting a fifty of the same side - so level fifty hero unlocks the Hero Epic Archetypes (aka Hero EATS or HEATS) and a level fifty villain Villain Epic Archetypes (aka VEATS). These have some... learning curves I guess you could say, so that is part of the reason for the unlock.

As far as the community - be careful and do not venture further if you have a heart condition. We've had WoW transplants almost get a heart attack from how accepting/welcoming our online community is (there are few downers, but the bad ones can't post anymore).

That isn't a wall of text.

There is no "DPS/Healer/Tank" holy trinity like in most fantasy MMOs - often, you will find the one thing that can make "us" on the forums into rabid savages out for blood is to call defenders "healers" But that's because healing is only the focus of one set of theirs - they do many tricks, and most of the damage mitigation comes from non-healing forms (buffs/debuffs).

If you play on Virtue, Freedom, or Justice - and don't mind a crash course from the group that is why villains can't have nice things (supposedly!) - try Repeat Offenders - we are always willing to help.

Everyone else covered your questions pretty well.

Just wanted to say welcome back!

Welcome back - you might notice a few changes since you were last here - with even more on the way

EDIT: And drop WoW for good - spandex is way more comfortable than chainmail

Welcome back! Have a lot of fun, try a lot of characters, and look me up if you're ever on Victory.

'Elitism' is pretty much non-existent in this game. You have to be more or less terminally retarded for the average decent player to consider themselves better than you. It's anything but expected to have a load of top-rate gear, and most of the time other people won't even be able to tell anyway. Immaturity isn't too much of a problem- in fact, I'm 19 and feel like one of the youngest people on the board! Everyone's old and crotchety instead.

First and foremost, the game is about fun. You can create any kind of character you want (as long as it's not a copyright infringement, we don't need another lawsuit), put together a team out of any combination of ATs and powersets (and coming next issue, any level), and basically do whatever you want (within reasonable limits, like don't be a jerkface).

As for 'raids', this game doesn't really do those. There's the Hamidon Raid, which these days is done mostly for novelty value, and the Mothership Raid, which has mostly costume piece rewards (the best rewards) and has all the strategy of a Zerg rush.

1. There are Hamidon raid and Rikti raid. There are high-level taskforces, for example Imperious taskforce in Cimerora, Lady Grey taskforce in Rikti War Zone and various taskforces in the Shadow Shard.

In my opinion, the so-called endgame in other games is basically farming for equipments. This is the same in CoH, the endgame is to equip your character with better IO.

2. People here are quite friendly, not elitist. It might be problematic if you say that certain power sets are gimped, or go to the market forum and say that the market is bad and make people poor, then somebody will reply that you don't know how to play. Otherwise, people are pretty helpful in general.

4. For people coming from other mmo, they usually complain that CoH has "no depth." Usually, the "depth" boils down to the fact that there are no armors and weapons in CoH, and no complicated attributes and abilities for players to min/max their characters. CoH is like picking a power, then you're nearly done. For this aspect, CoH now has the invention system or IO, and you can spend months improving your characters.

If you consider the "depth" as gameplay content, I think CoH has a lot of story arcs that explain the history, and the stories are inter-connected sometimes. This is a lot more depth than other games where the game lore have nothing to do with the real gameplay.

5. See #1. There are also a lot of missions, taskforces and trials in this game, which I really doubt that you can do them all in a short period of time with 1 character.

You can also min/max your character with IO, collect badges and accolades for various bonus, pvp. Actually, we all create a lot of alternates to try out different power sets.

Since no one has linked to it: Guide for what to do at level 50 (as a hero)

@SpaceNut - My 50s, AE arcs and current projects at ParagonWiki

Welcome back!

I play mainly on Triumph with 3 accounts at once. Usually late at night. Been playing since just after launch so if you happent to be on triumph and need a hand, I'm @P Y R O N I T E (all caps with the spaces) ...or @Pulsebolt or @Adam Alpha.

I'm glad to pay forward the help that has been given to me back in the day. Even if you just need to team up for some help getting through your archs... that gose for anyone, really.

1. Is there an End-game? (For instance, at least on a PVE standpoint are there places in the game where groups of people can take on colossal tasks, like raids in WoW-terms)
Not exactly. There is a deal great of content that imposes a minimum level to participate, but the highest such minimum is 45 (max level in the game is 50). So you have five levels where you can do any and all end-game stuff. There is a significant amount of content that is restricted to 45-50.

There are various 'mass raid' activities but none are restricted to level 50. The Hamidon Raid is 45+. The Rikti Mothership Raid is 35+ (you can be 'sidekicked' by a higher level hero to survive and be effective). There are also Zombie and Alien invasions that can hit ANY zone and have absolutely no level restrictions.


2. Is the community as Elitist or as immature as WoW's?
Yes, go away. Just kidding.


3. It is an old game, so...how large is the player-base?
Oh, I think the active accounts number around 140K. This is obviously tiny compared to WoW (everything is tiny in comparison), but it's a good number for any other game and is not declining. (I hear it's gone up lately, but don't any reliable information about that.)


4. How in-depth is the game?
Really not sure what you mean by this. It can be pretty involved. People organize into 'supergroups' (like guilds) and have events for their groups. Other people organize public events. There are various 'side games' like collecting badges for various accomplishments, playing the in-game market, role-playing, etc, etc.


5. Finally, how much "stuff" is there to do when you hit the level cap?
All of it. Anything that you did 'on the way up' or missed, you can go back and do once you hit 50. Since there are so many different types of powers available, many people retire a character once it hits 50 to play something different. On the other hand, many people primarily play their 50's because they've become their favorite character(s).

Also, the new boxed expansion, Going Rogue, will allow you to switch sides, as well as adding some sort of new end game stuff where you can make a 50 more powerful - so it's almost like a 60, but with no level cap rise.

Kry, the team is sidekicked to the mission owner if a mission is set, and team leader if no mission is set - so missionless sidekicking is a go.

An open letter to NCsoft