Returning to CoH/V

Hello All,

I have recently reactivated my account after an almost 2 year hiatus from this game, due mainly to starting my own little family and an extended jaunt with WoW. CoH/V has always held a special place in my heart. Of course I have tried out Champions Online, but I find it lacking compared to its predecessor. CO still has a ways to go before I would consider playing it long term.

So now for my questions:

What major changes should I take into consideration?

Is it difficult to form groups with current server populations? I remember that this game is best played in groups for maximum carnage. I was never a big fan of soloing. I did move over to the Freedom server this purpose alone.

Last time I considered returning to the game, I read that the Architect aspect ruined the game as people were farming player made missions all the time. Has this been fixed? And if so, do people still run regular missions for leveling? Where do I go for Architect missions creation/playing?

One of my favorite classes to play is the MM. I have been reading that slotting reduction in my minions is a big no no now? Is this correct?

Thanks in advance for any help. I will be slowly getting back into the grove of things as my play time is slightly limited. Most of the other information I will look for as I research the forums. BTW - I enjoy playing mostly on the red side, but my major goal for now is to get at least 1 toon to level 50. I believe I still have one at 40, so I am almost there.

See you in game!

2 Years?

There have been way too many changes over the past two years to go into detail here.

I would suggest that you visit paragonwiki and read up on issues 10+ as that's what you've missed.

Highlights are:

Issue 10 - Invasion
- revamp of rikti crash site into the rikti war zone
- vanguard

Issue 11 - Stitch in Time
- ouroboros
- weapon customization for weapon-based powersets
- dual blades
- willpower

Issue 12 - Midnight Hour
- midnighter club
- cimeroa zone

Issue 13 - Power and Responsibility
- day jobs
- multiple builds
- merit rewards
- shields
- pain domination

Issue 14 - Architect
- mission architect
- pvp io's

Issue 15 - Anniversary
- 5th column returns
- new tf's
- lots of quality of life stuff

Issue 16 - Power Spectrum
- power color customization (wave 1 more to follow)
- new difficulty controls and settings
- super sidekicking
- ingame email filtering to help stop rmt spam

And tons of other things in each issue: new costumes, costume change emotes, power proliferation, etc

----
To try and specifically answer a few of your questions listed:

Server populations are not drastically different than they've ever been.

If you are the kind of person who teamed easily and well before, then you'll be just fine.

If you're the kind of person who always whines about not finding teams, then you'll be in the same boat you were.

Many/Most of the initial architect exploits have been closed. Yes, people still run AE missions, and there is a ton of great content there. It's not the huge "lets do nothing but run AE farms" anymore (but they do still exist, in non-exploit ways, if that's your thing)

You access the AE stuff in the AE buildings (there's one in pretty much every zone). There's also a (very minor) tutorial you can go through at level 5 ? (not sure exactly when it opens, but early on).

One of the biggest change to MM's that you missed is a change to make the pet upgrade powers AoE's and affect all your pets at once. The endurance cost was drastically increased to compensate, so most MM's switched from recharges to end reducers in the upgrade powers.

And, yes, MM's still rock.

Pets, in general, have had some tweaks done on them and had thier internal power timers limited so that applying things like speed boost to them doesn't make them attack faster (but they also can't get thier attack speeds debuffed either)

Overall, there's just wayyyyyyy too much to go over. The game has evolved quite a bit in the past couple of years, and is set for a major revamp when Going Rogue comes out SOON (tm).

Visit the wiki and read up...or just play and have fun and figure things out as you go.

Welcome Back

www.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Issues

Also, we now have two Co-Op TFs. Lady Gray in the Rikti War Zone (45-50) and the Imperious TF in Cimmerioa (zone requires you do an arc to get in, via Midnighter's clubs at the universities).

That gives you a nice overview.

Freedom, Virute, and Justice & Infinity are the top "3" servers as far as load/population goes, and if you are not afraid to go make your own teams teaming isn't an issue anywhere. There are some good Team-making guides here, actually.

Also, take a peek and see if this group might match your style : www.repeat-offenders.net

Pretty much all the exploits that made AE a headache are gone. They are also getting set to launch the second set of Guest arcs (See the community Digest). Most zones (RWZ for Co-Op, and pretty much every regular city zone) have an AE building (map shows a big Æ symbol). If you are over level five, Heroes have a quick tutorial in Atlas, Villains in Mercy.

It was never a issue for MMs (slotting recharge, at least) actually, but one of the pet AI errors was traced to issues with recharge - at this point, all pets (and it was controller/Dom pets that had this a lot) are immune to recharge changes. You can no longer buff their attack rate, but it cannot be debuffed either.

EDIT : To clarify, the Dom and Controller pets had the AI recharge quirk manifest the most, but ALL in-game pets are now immune to recharge changes.

Thanks a bunch folks. I'll be sifting through the game and forums for several weeks to get myself reoriented.

@Rajani: I like the website. I will post in there sometime in the near future.

Welcome back! Like you, I tried Champions a bit, but it just didn't float my boat.

Getting around Paragon City is much better now. There are several options for types of Teleport powers, like the Teleport-to-Wentworths power you can get from Day Jobs -- logging your characters off in Wentworths. You can also get a Teleport-to-base power from Day Jobs, and even a free Raptor Pack from logging off in the Shard (blue side) or Grandville (red side). All the level restrictions for Hazzard Zones have been removed, so if you can make it to the Shard, you can buy a Raptor Pack for 10,000 Infl at level 1. Getting to Grandville red side is easier with a base teleporter, where you can also buy a Raptor Pack.

Consider purchasing the Martial Arts Booster pack to get Ninja Run. This one bonus (which you have to pay extra for) has made a large quality-of-life improvement for low level characters, and opens some options as you level up. You get a mini-travel power starting at level 4, that substantially boosts your run speed and jumping rate. With Hurdle, Ninja Run is actually faster than Fly. Many people are choosing to skip a travel power and get by with Ninja Run. If you also purchase the Good-vs-Evil edition, you get a permanent jump jet that can over obstacles and a teleport-to-Pocket-D's Tiki Room. (There is a costume tailor in the Tiki Room, too.)

At level 25, you will want some nice person to drop an Ourobourus Portal for you. Click on that, then go to the top of the peak to get a badge and you get your own O-Portal. This is one of the best improvements to travel in the game, allowing you an easy way to travel to Atlas, Talos, IP, Founders and Peregrine Isle from whereever you happen to be. Plus, there are a few nice things in the zone and it looks cool, too.

By level 35, you will want to run the Midnighter arc to give access to Cimeroa, a fun new zone. The contact is in the University in Steel Canyon. Also, use the Vangard base to start the Rikti War Zone missions, allowing you to earn Vangard Merits for defeating Rikti -- a new kind of currency for limited items.

There's an even more ridiculous amount of inf floating around Wents' and the Black Market now. And you can still Frankenslot a character for the cost of one good IO. Not even a spectacular IO.

Also - For $20 bucks, you can buy the AE edition and get your choice of SuperBooster : Cyborg or Superbooster : Magic applied to your account ($10 by themselves, individually) plus the free month.

Thanks for the replies. After messing around on some of my toons last night, I realize I left myself in a good position. I do have the Ourobos Ports and Pocket D ports, probably from a previous booster pack or something. I was checking out the day jobs, and I will have to get into a bit more. I currently have a 42 MM, a 33 Rad/Kin Corr, a 28 Fire/Therm Corr, and a 35 Earth/Storm Con. It would seem I decked out my Rad/Kin Corr in some set IOs, of which I will have to explore fully, because I am not even sure I am putting the right IOs in the right powers.

Probably one of the newest features that I am really enjoying at the moment is the ability to change the color of my powers as that is what was one of the highlights I enjoyed with CO. But I digress.

I have a few more questions based on the above replies.

What does it mean to Frankenslot?

Do I have to buy the AE edition or do I get normal access to the AE content with the Issues? I would rather spend the 20 bucks on 2 booster packs.

Welcome back!

You don't have to buy the AE edition, but it's a waste of money not to do so, seriously.

For $20, you get 30 days of game play ($15) and a $10 booster pack.

The O-portal isn't a booster pack - upon doing something related to time travel (One or more of the faultline arcs count, the Marshal Brass arc with Echo counts, or any explore badge in RV. Also, on the top of the Gnomon in Ouroborus itself is a badge - you can ask someone to drop a portal and enter and grab that to get your own) you get the portal, which you can enter at 25+.

All normal accounts have access to run and make AE arcs. AE edition is not required.