Oh, another point in favor of "different play styles" is that a lot of different teams WORK. You can tank and spank, or whatever the kids are calling it these days. You can run one Force Fielder, one Empath, and six Blasters and see everything melt as it hits the 80' range marker. You can run eight Controllers. It all works differently and it all works well.
... as far as I know, two Emp/Sonic defenders are the best duo in the game. Who saw THAT coming?
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
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This sentence pretty much sums it up. Make yourself rich. Enhance your main to the gills. Use him to supply your alts. Show off your awesomeness in RV. Also, je saist, thank you for a very informative post.
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Originally Posted by EmperorSteele
You can also Purple out your 50, and have an easeir time with raids, late-level TFs, and AE arcs. Go Badging. PvP is also an option.
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*mumbles something about being too nice to negrep people for suggesting freedom as a server to play on*
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Originally Posted by beyeajus74018
jump over to freedom my friend, lots more people there!
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This game makes a lot of effort to avoid the 'raid treadmill' that people complain about in other MMOs. The content is made to be more inclusive, faster (but not necessarily easier) and with more variety than the 'standard' MMO.
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Well, you can create an alt at anytime...|
Originally Posted by Kylazin
I think the question is pretty strait forward. I'm a new-comer to CoX, but I have been playing MMO's since Ultima Online in 1997, I'm familiar with the way many of them operate and how end-game works. Spending time on the CoX forums though, it seems to me the end-game is all about creating a new toon with different powersets and going through it again.
... This isn't a criticism of the content in this game, I do like many aspects of this game, but an actual question as to what end-game is truly like in CoX. Thanks for reading. -KZ |
At 50, you have the ability to create an alt from the unlocked archetypes...
And, you can continue to play your 50. The only real difference between playing your 50 or a character under 50 is that you no longer gain XP, and your powersets are now defined and enhanced.
Except that you can try out a second build for the character. And you can respec. And you can work on adding IO enhancements. And you can try using IO sets. And you can try to complete sets. And you can try to frankenslot IO sets to boost aspects of your powers. And if you must, you can try to accumulate ultra rare, very powerful IO sets.
You can beef up on temp powers from safeguards.
You can explore. Not everyone has seen Faathim the kind, and I stumbled upon him by accident (since I have never done a Shard Task Force...)
You can go through missed content or favorite missions using Ouroboros, and you can use Ouroboros to artificially set your level low, to match a zone.
If you have an dark knight urban avengery type and you want to patrol Kings Row, using Ouro to lower your level so the Skulls can pose a challenge and give you prestige/inf is not a bad option.
Or join up with a lower level team. Thanks to the new SSK, you'll be at the level of the leader of the team, but you'll be extra, since you'll be able to use powers available 5 levels above your effective level.
Since it sounds like you have an RP background, work that angle.
You don't have to roll up an alt (although that's a fine option...), but you might have to work a bit harder to motivate yourself to play your 50.
I have a handful of chars I'm actively playing, with 50 in mind, but I have a larger set of 50s that I cycle through, because I enjoy playing them. The game does not end for your character at 50, unless you choose that.
Good hunting.
Virtue Server-
MA: (All SFMA, all technically long/very long, but all play quickly)
#200411 "Exploding Planet" (I apologize in advance for the final mission, but in all likelihood, the planet will explode.)
#144416 "Shadow of Grime Alley"
#161003 "You Don't Know Beanstalk, Jack"
As some other people have pointed out, just because a character has reached 50 doesn't mean they're dead. You can continue to play different missions. The Imperious Task Force awards costume pieces (Roman armor and weapons) which is either great or totally pointless, depending on your character and/or personal viewpoint. You can save up to "purple out" your character, just to see how insanely powerful you can get. You can issue challenges to yourself, or even use the game to do so. (Running a mission through Ouroboros with various difficulty modifiers, such as no temp powers, no inspirations, a time limit, complete without being defeated.) If you and your girlfriend have a SG base, level 50 characters are good for building up prestige, simply because you can probably handle a mission that throws more critters at you.
Personally, I hate WoW's focus on endgame/raid content. Every time I try to play again, I find it harder and harder to care, about *anything,* because almost all of the "really cool" content is stuff that I'll never see. I'm never going to join one of the massive raiding guilds - even if I didn't totally hate them, it's a game, not a job. I'm not going to be told that I *must* have this build and that I have to be on for six hours on this day every week to be available for raids. I've actually been approached by someone who asked if I needed a guild, and in practically the same breath told me a massive list of required gear and addons and such that I'd *have* to use if I wanted to join.
Honestly, one of the reasons I enjoy CoH is that none of that is ever likely to happen here. I have my own SGs, with bases that I can design and use however I see fit. I've accepted Coalition invitations from friends with much larger, better bases than mine so that I have access to the things that I can't afford yet (like more than three teleporters at a time.) I also really enjoy playing with the character creator, and trying out different powers. WoW seems to be built from the ground up to punish people who like to experiment. The only way WoW is "meant" to be played is with one main character and no others. Or at minimum, one main character who acts as the Sugar Daddy for your useless alts.
*Edited to correct some fairly grievous typos.*
Oh, one other thing to point out. In WoW, once you out-level a given quest, you can still complete it, but you get almost nothing unless you're at the level cap. A little money, some reputation, and a random piece of gear that would have been junk *before* you were twenty levels too high. If you join a team of lower-level characters, no one gets xp at all, because you can kill stuff just by looking at it.
In this game, you can join a team of lower-level characters and actually adventure with them, because the game will change your character to match their level. (You'll still be potentially far stronger, since you'll have access to extra slots and up to five levels of extra powers - especially usefull for Masterminds, since you can call your Tier 3 pet as low as level 21.) Using an Exemplared, high-level character is a great way to show a new player/friend/character around. If you aren't level 50, you even earn XP while teamed up with a lower level character. If you are level 50, you still get Inf and prestige and whatever recipes or salvage are appropriate.
*Also edited for typos. Bah.*
Hey,
Pinnacle is a little light redside.
Try Infinity, Freedom, Virtue for beefier redside play.
That said, at 50 (redside) you can:
LRSF (I have a Rad/Therm that needs this, global me @Neuronia if you run one).
ITF
Barracuda
Respecs (doable in 15-20 minutes with a coordinated team)
Unlock various contacts
PvP (This may not be your cup of tea...)
Rikti War Zone arcs
ALso, hitting 50 unlocks Villain Epic Archetypes, these can be downright crazy when well built. You can innate team-oriented buffs, debuffs, range or melee attacks...very very powerful stuff and they have their own storyline too, that unlocks you a second costume slot around level 10!
The game is really alt-friendly though. All the powerset combinations and archetypes mean you can probably roll four to five heroes and villains before you start feeling 'grindy'. I don't alt much anymore but I've been playing close to give years. I used to start new alts like candy; the invention system has lowered this urge a lot since I like to IO out my alts extensively.
Questions about the game, either side? /t @Neuronia or @Neuronium, with your queries!
168760: A Death in the Gish. 3 missions, 1-14. Easy to solo.
Infinity Villains
Champion, Pinnacle, Virtue Heroes
My 50, my first and only after five years, still has a half a dozen contacts with available missions, a ton of stuff I missed but can do via Ouroboros, most of the task forces, roaming the shadow shard zone and I'm not even talking about badging or working toward elite loot. And he was leveled before the multiple times of XP smoothing, Patrol XP, reduced debt, etc. I would imagine 50s leveled today would have even more skipped content they could revisit and do "for the first time".
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
I'm probably one of the few who don't suffer from 'altitis'. After nine months of play, I have just seven characters, two at 50, three in the upper 30's or mid 40's and two in the mid-20's.
I don't really consider any of them as the main character or an alt character, but I don't ignore any of them. They are all separate 'projects', if you might want to look at it that way. The two 50's are ready for a respec now that they've built up considerable influence (hero-side) while the others are still evolving.
These characters have enough to do on their own that I don't feel the need to roll up a new one just yet. I started with one, then three, then five, then seven. It took some time to learn how to just manage multiple characters and I'm careful not to overdo it. Maybe I'll roll an eighth or ninth in the meantime, just to try out a new archetype and power set combination, but for now, the seven characters I have, the two 50's included, have a lot yet to develop and play out.
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That's how I started. Now I have twelve.
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Originally Posted by perwira
I'm probably one of the few who don't suffer from 'altitis'. After nine months of play, I have just seven characters, two at 50, three in the upper 30's or mid 40's and two in the mid-20's.
I don't really consider any of them as the main character or an alt character, but I don't ignore any of them. They are all separate 'projects', if you might want to look at it that way. The two 50's are ready for a respec now that they've built up considerable influence (hero-side) while the others are still evolving. These characters have enough to do on their own that I don't feel the need to roll up a new one just yet. I started with one, then three, then five, then seven. It took some time to learn how to just manage multiple characters and I'm careful not to overdo it. Maybe I'll roll an eighth or ninth in the meantime, just to try out a new archetype and power set combination, but for now, the seven characters I have, the two 50's included, have a lot yet to develop and play out. |
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Why wait to level 50 to make a new character?|
Originally Posted by Kylazin
Okay that's fair, but without end game, you level up to 50 and then just start a new character and do it all over again? That seems kind of silly especially for an MMO, where the goal is to get your character to the level cap to become more powerful.
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I made 2 characters on every server within the first week that I started playing.
I probably had 30 or 40 characters before I dinged my first level 50.
I have 4 level 50's at this point; a katana/super-reflexes scrapper, a ice/empathy controller, an energy/energy blaster and a empathy/electric defender. I didn't just level them up to 50 one after the other.
I'm not just talking about making GenericScrapper2. I'm talking about making distinct characters (thought I do have several characters that are on different servers with tweaks with power and origins) with origin stories/backgrounds and, therefore, different reasoning as to why they are doing what they are doing.
Also, the different servers have different flavors to them. It really can be a different kind of play experience from one to the other - and that goes from the population size, player attitudes, player skill, player helpfulness, and general level ranges.
I tend to like playing below level 30 or so more than higher than that. At some points at level 30 plus, it can turn into a huge light show and that's no fun to me. I can't see what's going on and it's just flashing lights.
Meh. Don't listen to me. I'd make more characters if I had more character slots.
Some MMO's it seems to be about accomplishing getting to the end of the game. That is the whole game is a grind until you get to that last level and then suddenly stuff opens up that you can do with the character you worked up to that end.
CoH isn't like that.
CoH is an MMORPG. Even if you aren't actively "RP"ing in chat, you can still very well be RP'ing your character by action. I know I try to do so. Many MMO's seem to confine you into dressing in an approved manner based on what gear does. CoH isn't like that at all - your clothes/look don't effect your powers - so you are really RP'ing simply by making a costume.
I don't know many people that go to comicbook stores and just buy one comic - and that same one comic every time they go to the comicbook store. Most people like several different comicbooks and, therefore, superheroes.
You know how comicbooks work. They tend to never end. The story just goes on. So maybe it is hard to understand because you aren't a comicbook fan.
To me the goal isn't to get to 50. The goal is to have a fun time playing the character. So it's about the journey and not the destination. That is to say, it's about experiencing it and not defeating it.
To be honest, I think it is kind of odd to want to role-play and then limit yourself to one role. Part of the point is to experience what playing other roles is like.
How many slots do you have free that you could make a character for that you just might fight out that you really like?
A whole bunch of them.
Check out something else for a level or two if you start to get bored with the character you are playing.
I don't get bored in the City. I just change character/server/sides.
I love this game.
If you can play a bunch of different MMO's and don't think about it as "starting all over again", then I'm kind of confused as to why doing that in CoH would be issue. You can take completely different power sets and then take completely different paths to get to 50 - if that is your goal.
My goal is to have fun. And having fun to me is being able to say - hmmm...what kind of character do I feel like playing today!
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You certainly live up to your name!|
Originally Posted by The_Alt_oholic
Why wait to level 50 to make a new character?
I made 2 characters on every server within the first week that I started playing. I probably had 30 or 40 characters before I dinged my first level 50. |
Altitude, indeed.
The biggest/toughest thing for me was trying to get through those lower levels without enough influence to buy the best enhancements. To my surprise, it's working wonderfully. My level 12 Blaster now has over 500K to play with and THIS is why I keep playing this game. There is always new things to learn, new techniques to try and as others have said, go outside the box and try different contacts and/or different zones. As you can see from my signature below, I do have a few 50 toons. My first toon was my level 50 Blaster whom I was lucky enough to recreate her name again from 2004. Now, I am playing the market with her and learning so much and also kicking myself for not participating in the market sooner when I started back up in Jan. 09'.
If you also look at my signature below, you can see that I have tried various Alts as this is what makes the game so much fun. I thought that my Night Widow was the funnest toon I've played with until I started up my Stalker. Now, that was fun. I did try my hand at being a tanker but ended up converting my toon to a Controller which I also thought was fun.
So, you see. You need to develop your play style for this game and not compare it to other MMO's out there such as WoW or others that have a different leveling system. As it has been said in these posts, it's the journey not end goal that makes this game different and so much fun. Enjoy!