Is it worth it to start up?

Hey guys and gals,

I've been playing MMO's for years, from WoW, Guildwars, Warhammer and now to Aion and LOTRO. I like the graphics of Aion but absolutely hate the grind of Aion after level 25.

So my question is this.... Is it worthwhile to start playing a game where people have been playing for months or even years. In LOTRO when I started a new account, I realized that there were no players the newbie zones and that meant that there were no players to group with in instances.

If I start playing this game am I going to be running solo until I get to a high level?

Any ideas?

Thanks

As a long-time vet and real-life friend of someone who started up just 2 months ago I'd say YES.

People old and new are constantly rolling new characters, so I don't think you'll have too many problems finding teams (especially in Atlas Park). I'd recommend rolling a character on Freedom or Virtue servers to get the highest population.

The learning curve isn't too steep in this game and the community is quite friendly. With the way the devs have smoothed out the XP curve later in the game it's not such a grind either. And the "loot" portion of this game is totally optional...so that shouldn't be a huge concern in the beginning.

Feel free to PM me and I'll get you my ingame global. I'd be happy to show you around and team up with you on one of my lowbies.

Yes it is. CoH is a game that really encourages having lots and lots of alts, I have 6 which is EXTREMLY low, it's not uncommon to find people who have used all of their slots (36) on one or more servers.

Consequently there tends to be people of all levels on at all times. Additionally the sidekicking system means that teams can cover a pretty wide level range without anyone feeling useless. Once you hit the mid-20s you generally have most of the key powers for your character and can team reasonably effectively with level 50s if you want to.

You can find teams on any server and any side but Freedom and Virtue have the highest populations and Heroside is significantly more populated than Villainside so playing a Hero on Freedom or Virtue will make it easier.

In any case, welcome to the game.

EDIT: Also, unlike several of the other games on this game is about the journey, not the destination. While there is plenty to do at level 50 there isn't the raid progression style gameplay that other MMOs have so don't feel that you have to rush to 50 before you can start playing.

EDIT2: Also, something to keep in mind is that this game does not really follow the "Holy Trinity" style group play that other MMOs do. While this style of play does work it is not the only (or even the best) way to run a group.

Other MMORPGs are to City of Heroes what Kansas was to Oz.

As stated, CoH is an unusual game in that it has active players in all level ranges. The only thing vets have the new players don't is the veteran rewards which you can definitely get by without.

CoH is very alt-focused, so there are constantly people making new characters and levelling up. Since in this game high-level characters can play low-level content and get rewards, there's teaming action across a wide level spread.

If you prefer playing in a high-population environment, of the US servers, Freedom and Virtue are the two most populated, and Justice is the predominant Aussie server, although there's significant populations across all of them. Heroes tend to be more crowded than Villains (heroside, there's a nice chain of high-population lowbie zones from Atlas Park > King's Row > Steel Canyon > Talos island).

Since CoH is highly instanced, chances are even on a high-population server you may not see large crowds of players standing about and it's unusual to see players fighting spawns in zones like you would in a fantasy MMO. Most of the community is centered around supergroups (guilds) and global channels. You can find information on what channels there are for each server in their respective server forums.

Please be cautioned that this community is very touchy about suggestions that the game (or indeed any server) has a low or dwindling population.

Pretty much what everyone has said. The game is full of experienced players with alts at all sorts of levels.

This is not a get to the level cap and grind game (unless you want it to be).

Check the guide to guides for how best to find teams and join an active global channel on your server.

See you in game!

Welcome to City of Heroes, the home of altitis. You will always find newbies here to team with. And even high level groups aren't so bad to join, given the Sidekick system.

I will say that it is probably still best to solo from levels 1 to 10. You can probably do that in a day, though, and I just do it because it's easier. You might be able to find an SG that often starts new characters together and levels them up through the early levels. Or even get a PuG if that's what you enjoy.

Honestly, whether you solo or group, from 1 to 10 your experience and power picks should be pretty much the same. Wait until 10 to 20 to start working on your team role.

(BTW, just to give you an idea of the numbers, I have 17 main alts, all over level 30. Overall the number of characters I actually play, of whatever level, is probably around 30 or more. I have at least 12 characters on both Virtue and Pinnacle)

One thing about CoH that you'll want to know as a new player is that there is no reason to rush to level 50.

I know in a lot of other games, such as WoW, the high-end raids at the level cap are considered to be the meat of the game itself, with the grind to 70 or 80 or wherever they are now being the time you spend learning to play that character class.

In City of Heroes, there is a lot of content from 1 to 50, but there is actually nothing that is specifically "level 50s only" (yet). So take your time and enjoy the ride.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Absolutely it's worth it to start this game right now!

In addition to the fact that there are vets starting new characters all the time, I know I have seen (anecdotally) at least a half dozen threads from new folks with questions and ideas show up in the past week alone.

Personally, I have 60+ alts (I'm still a bit of an amateur at it, ) ranging from level 1 (saving a name where the character hasn't quite jelled yet) up to level 50, with the majority of them between 20-35 or thereabouts.

So come on in, the water's fine

After 2+ years I still play probably 50-60% of my time on toons from lvl 1-10, so yeah there's lots of low level activity in this game.

with my level 50s, at least half the game is "exemplaring" back down to lower levels to do lower level taskforces.

You'll want to learn about and join global channels to help you find groups.

I have no less than 4 toons I'm thinking of creating when Going Rogue hits (for some reason, I'm really stoked for dual pistols).

I'm always coming up with names for "my next toon", only about a fifth of which I ever use.

I have only 2 fifties, four forties, 6 or so thirties, same number of twenties, teens and single digit-level toons.

I play across them all depending on what mood I'm in (altho I rarely ever touch my fifties).

No need to worry about "too many vets".