I am new, and I am stuck!

Hey there! I just began trying City of Heroes after trying my first MMO (Star Trek Online) a few weeks ago. I love the CoH genre and am really looking forward to getting into the game. But I am stuck, big time!

I'm a scrapper with an emphasis on science and my first mission is to clear the sewers of Zombies to locate a character. I get killed constantly. It's extremely frustrating.

My question is do I need to do these levels with more than one person, or do I just not yet get the hang of combat? I've been killed so many times without much progress that I'm almost ready to throw in the towel. Considering how badly I wanted to play this game, that notion is such a let down. (I did a lot of research and reading on CoH vs. Champions and this one is wildly more popular and successful)

Any help or guidance anyone can offer me is greatly appreciated.

Congratulations on making your very first character choose the origin with the very hardest low-level dudes!

I recommend trying another origin (natural is nice, Council and such, pretty easy dudes) to learn the tricks of the game. The Vahzilok and their zombies just...well...they suck when you don't have the resources to deal with them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Welcome to the game Zonk!! I had many of the same experiences when I first started. I remember standing in the train station trying to figure out how to get to Kings Row. My first hero was a Martial Arts/Super Reflexes Scrapper. Alot of people told me that I could have picked stronger sets, but I found some great guides in the forums, and decided to stick it out. Being a scrapper means you have to be quick and smart, and in the middle of every battle. It also means you will probably faceplant ALOT. But that's why I play mainly scrappers. We love running into a huge mob and pounding away. In the early levels you have to be quick on your feet, stick and move. Learn your powers and push them to the limit. Being a great scrapper is hard work, but well worth it. Above all have fun! It's a game. You can learn alot from teaming with more experienced heroes. Good luck!

Welcome to CoX!!! Not going to repeat everything that's just been said, just wanted to extend a welcome

Oh, and also to suggest redside, we have cookies!

Zombies hit hard but they may be the stupidest enemy in the game. If you don't see any actual humans around (reapers, mortificators) then it should be easy to pull one zombie away from the others, beat it to a pulp, and then pull one more.

The mortificators can resurrect the zombies. There's no point in killing a lot of zombies if a mort is still alive. Kill the mort first.

The embalmed cadavers go boom. That hurts. You can interrupt their self destruct sequence if you hit them, but that's risky. If you miss, especially with a scrapper, then you'll get a face full of boom. It might be better to walk up to them, say hello, wait for them to start their trembly countdown, then run away. They'll blow up, saving you the trouble of punching them.

You can also drop a mission once every three days by talking to the contact who gave you the mission.

Inspirations can also be helpful, though you can't carry many at low levels.

Good luck!

An don't forget the Eidolons - they're rough

Thirding the offer to help. If you're on the Freedom server (or you can transfer there, it's free) post your character name and we'll have you up and running in no time.

And don't forget, you can go back to the contact and drop the mission but get credit for it [but only once every three days.]

If I were you, I'd make a team. But I do this all the time, and really, in Atlas, making a team of lowbies is super easy.

I'd get a controller. Plant would be my most desired, followed by fire. Sometimes there'll be a higher level toon who'll babysit, healing your team. I've done this once and felt it was thankless, actually.

At low lev, I always hop on a sewer team. You'll fight the valshlock [or whatever] then Lost. I've gone in as a 1 and come out as a 10 before, but we had a team that really responded to each other.

And, if you're having trouble low, I'm guessing your broadsword, and definately not claw or katana.

Good to have you here.

Another thing you might want to do, get to Pocket-D and do some Ganymede missions to get the toga and sandals. It's only at Valentines.

Oh, and you can still pull even if you aren't a blaster by using your Apprentice Charm or other temp power. I always go Magic because AC is a dinky power that does big stuff. Lowers their def and dam by 20% for 10 seconds. As a scrapper, 10 seconds is a long time.

OH, and only slot accuracy at this point.

I'd be happy to help also. Just send a tell to my global or gfriend me and i'll come over to where you are

@mintmiki

Just to expand on basic tactics versus Vahzilok: When solo each group of Vahzilok you encounter will usually be some mix of 0-3 zombies and 0-3 human Vahzilok. Total group is usually 2-5. The humans are faster, coordinate with the rest of their spawn and more perceptive, but the zombies are stone stupid and move fairly slowly.

If the zombies have no human handler you can generally pick them off one at a time and the rest won't notice you or what's happening to their buddies unless you're close enough to tap them on the shoulder. Best approach is to get each one's attention with your ranged attack and back away to destroy it where you won't accidentally bump into the other zombies.

In a mixed group the best approach is to take down the human handlers as fast as possible and back off until the zombies lose interest and start shambling back to their spawn point. Once the handlers are gone the zombies revert to being utterly oblivious and stupid and you can pick them off at your leisure.

If your health and endurance are running low there's no harm in running back to the entrance and exiting. As soon as you leave the mission the enemies lose interest and slowly start shambling back to their spawn point. There's no danger of the mission resetting unless you log off, select a different mission or join a team, so you can rest up, go buy inspirations and even go hunt enemies outside the mission until you're ready to go back in and finish them.

Vahzilok can be quite nasty at the lower levels, but with caution and patience they can usually be handled without too much trouble. They are definitely one of toughest enemy groups in the early game with their toxic damage and poison darts that slow you down..

As Schismatrix said, the trick to dealing the Vahz it to understand that the humans are the priority targets. Without the Reapers and Morticians, the Abmoninations are stupid and near sighted. In particular, take out the Morticians at once. They can resurrect defeated Abmoninations. The Reapers shoot a crossbow dart that applies a slow debuff on you. Most of the time, a group of Abmoninations by themselves won't even notice you jogging right by them. Just don't stand still in front of them.

Another thing to consider, you can lower your difficulty setting. Open your mini-map (m) and look for a Hero Corps Analyst (expand the map window and zoom in if you need to). You can set the enemies in missions to -1 combat level relative to you until you level up a few times and get some more attacks and armors. Note, if you already have a mission active (ie you've gone into it already), you may need to reset the mission. You can reset the mission by choosing a different mission and clicking yes when the pop up asks if you want to abandon the current mission, then re-select the previous mission.

Hit and run attacks are the key.

The cadavers and abominations generally have a very short attention span and chase you for only a short distance before forgetting what they were doing. Also it's a lot easier pulling one of them.

Their human masters on the other hand, the Reapers, will run you down and aggroing them with pull their cadaver and abomination minions as well. The upside is they are slow so you may be able to defeat the Reaper before their buddies get within projectile vomit range.

Next are the Mortificators. They will rez cadavers and abominations. If you can keep them away from a fallen one for 10-15 seconds or so, by aggroing them, then they won't be able to bring them back.

Last are the Eidolons, they are bosses and hence annoying as all get out. Again the tactic is to separate them from their cadaver/abonmination minions so you will have the time to defeat them.

And they aren't zombies. Not technically. They are closer to Frankenstein in origin, they are not True Undead.

Looks like all your questions have been answered, so welcome to CoX!