help a noob day!

I'm a newb. I come from WoW, CO, and some other stuff. CO has horrible customer service and ripped me off for a 3 months of gaming. I'm back to the original and must say I love it. There are a couple things I'm looking for and hope someone can help me. I'm looking for a tool that lets you test your build and power scheme. I see one exists I just don't know what it is or where to find it. But a thottbot-esque website would be nice. Also, what is AT? I see this in alot of thread but I have no ide what it means. I've revived a fire/fire toon I made a long time ago...any suggestions would be great. I know I miss ALOT of the time but my aoe rocks. Any advice would be great...thanks!!

www.cohplanner.com is a build planner site. Both offline and Online - don't think either have dual pistols yet, however.

www.paragonwiki.com (alias wiki.cohtitan.com) is what you are looking for, I believe. It's the best for this game. CAUTION : DO NOT USE Wikia's version, virus/RMT'ers/Incorrect Info.

AT stands for Archetype - Defender, Blaster, Corruptor, Stalker, etc.

If you are looking for help on a character, try it's archetype-specific forum.

Something else that changed while you were gone: Money.

IO's vary in price from "about the same as SO's" to "more money than you can imagine". The really expensive IO's are a bad thing [if you are buying them] or a good thing [if you're selling them] or a little of both.

The good news is, level 50's make ridiculous money and the market spreads it around with great efficiency. So you can sell your salvage and recipes and a few of them will sell for prices like 100,000 inf each (that's three SO's for one piece of salvage, yes.) Most of them will sell for trivial money, but regardless, you should never be short on cash for your basic enhancements.

Actually, tell me what server you're on and when you play. I'll swing by and drop off 5 or 10 million to get you started in life.

While you are a returning player, it has been a long time since you've been in the game and there have been a great many changes since you were here last.

Along with what the others have said, might I recommend the Mentor Project if you would like face-to-face, in-game answers.

And welcome back.

http://www.cohtitan.com is a good hub for sites with information.

Build planners, there's an online version that I haven't used recently, but its fairly dated. There's an offline planner called MIDS that was just updated this week with Dual Pistols and new information.

There are links to them on the COH Titan homepage at the top I believe, as well as a link into the correct wiki.

IOs = Invention Origin Enhancements. A different type of enhancement. The main difference between them is if buying from the crafting tables instead of the market they are more expensive that the older 'normal' enhancements (TOs, DOs, SOs). However while the older enhancements 'expire' when you outlevel them by more than their level, IOs stay the enhancement value. A level 30 IO will be just as powerful when you're at level 50 as at level 30, while a level 30 SO will be worth nothing at level 34. Also a level 50 IO is more powerful than a level 50 SO.

Some special types, usually called Set IOs, offer enhancements to more than one aspect at a time while the Common IOs are just one. Set IOs also add an additional global boost to your character if you get more than one in a set. There is lots and lots of information and details I'm skimming past here that all can be found on the wiki if you have the time to research it.

ED = Enhancement Diversification came around about when City of Villains came into play. Basically it adds some diminishing returns if you slot enough enhancements for one aspect of a power. Its intention was to encourage players to get away from putting 6 of one type of enhancement into a power and diversify the enhanced aspects. A good rule of thumb is more than 3 SOs for one aspect into a power, and you're hitting the diminished returns and 'wasting' the slot, but again the wiki has more detailed information.

AT = Archetype. I'm not a WOW player, but I believe they are similar to classes. Blaster, Defender, Tank, Brute, Mastermind, etc.

I'm going to go ahead and anticipate a "But I can't find a team" post here, in hopes of crafting a useful copy/paste reply I've already wished I had, like a dozen times. So here goes. Please offer suggestions and corrections for my final copy-pasta version:

There's only one sure-fire way to guarantee you're always playing on a fun team...

And it doesn't look like you've ever posted here before, and you've had experiences with MMOs not known for friendly forums, so I'll let you know: here in Player Questions, every day is 'help a newb day'.

I'm going to second the advice that someone above gave, and suggest that you find out your server's global chat channels. I set up 2 task forces and joined in a third last night simply by sending out a message that the TFs were forming, and that I needed additional support. The groups were filled in less than 10 minutes.

There are a lot of people out there looking to get in on large team action, but most dont seem to want to form their own groups, and not all are in the same level range. By being able to access a large pool of players, regardless of where in the world they are (and this includes crossing the red side/blue side divide), you can easily get groups up and running.

Hey Beguile! Welcome to Paragon City, where EVERY day is "help a newbie" day... as you've probably noticed.

Welcome!

I just wanted to point out a couple more AT related terms:

HEAT: Hero Epic Archetype (Kheldians)

VEAT: Villain Epic Archetype (Soldiers of Arachnos)