New Player - Soloing

So, I'm new - due to login for the first time tonight. I have two questions really, is CoX still pretty well populated and what's a good build for soloing?

Welcome.

COH is estimated to have around 100-120,000 subs, give or take. (Haven't had solid numbers for anything from NCSoft for a while.) Most people are going to be in instanced missions, which can be a bit of a shock for those coming from other MMOs where everyone's doing pretty much everything outside and in full view.

When you pick a server, wander down to the server boards and say hi.

A "good build for soloing" - there's no one good build You have ten Archetypes (classes) to choose from, with the epic (story-based) ATs unlocking at lvl 20 (each side) for a total of 14. Each AT plays differently, and can play wildly differently between powersets *inside* the AT.

That said, most times you'll find the Scrapper (heroside) or Brute (villainside) suggested for a first time player. (Me, I ended up with a blaster for my first level 50. No mez protection, but ranged and fun.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

CoX is heavily instanced so population is deceptive. Good solo'ing toons are plentiful, but I'd recommend a scrapper, brute, or mastermind to get the ball rolling.

Thanks for responding! I'll be sure to pop into the server forums and take a peek, as you've both said Scrapper - I'll give that a go as my first.

Is it right to assume that Archetypes to a degree follow the traditional MMO typeset of tank, dps, healer etc, or is that not the case in CoX?

** Edit **
In the time I typed this, someone answered my question. Thank you.

To some degree they follow the traditional MMO typeset, but pure "healers" are usually not looked at with good eyes. Buffs and Debuffs are a lot more powerful in COH, and damage mitigation kicks the <bleep!> of straight healing. There are plenty of "pure healer" characters floating around, but a defender or controller that can attack / lock down mobs while buffing the team is much more valuable.

Server recommendation if you want big population: Freedom or Virtue. Virtue is the unofficial RP server, Freedom is the "anything goes" server.

It's rare for a team leader in COH to discriminate against an AT or powerset. We have our share of elitist morons, but usually all you have to do is go into a global channel, say you're looking for a team, and someone will pick you up.

Best advice I can give you is to make a lot of characters based on what you think you'd like, and play them. When I first started the game, I skimmed over controllers because they seemed "meh", and they ended up being my favorite AT.

If you are going to be playing in Freedom, shoot me a tell (type /t @Leandro, Hi) and I can show you around. Free jetpack included.

For soloing a melee type, there's a few tips likely to make your life much easier.

First, visit the forums devoted to the archetype you'll play, read through a general thread or two, perhaps a guide for your secondary and your primary, and your character will perform much better.

Second, take your "mez protection" power(s) as soon as you can, so that your characters spend much less time held and unable to move, stunned and walking around like a drunk, asleep and unable to fight, and in other ways incapable of defending themselves.

Third, as a melee character it really helps to hit the "f" key (which means "follow') when you'd like to get or stay in melee range with a mob. You end up fiddling with moving your character around much less that way, although you still need to manually move from time to time.

Welcome aboard, good luck, and have fun.

I'd recommend a Blaster as a first character.

Blasters are fun right out of the box. They peak early and start to have problems much later on, like in the 30s and 40s, as mezzing enemies become more common. But they're great to play while you're figuring out the basics of the game in the lower levels. You don't need to chase enemies around and get some flashy special effects to boot.

Scrappers can feel a bit weak at first in comparison, but really hit their stride in the early 20s, and become killing machines both solo and on teams.

Tankers and Controllers can both be a real drag to solo in the early levels because they output less damage for the same endurance. You're safe, but run out of steam easily.

Defenders are a mixed bag - their primaries have much more diverse effects than any other archetype.

I played Blasters first. When I switched to a scrappers I really appreciated the extra toughness and surviability, whereas a Scrapper to Blaster switch would be a lot rougher.
I then branched out to Controllers and Defenders, and by then I'd got the hang of the game to the extent that it didn't take forever to get to level 20.

And whoever you play, turn off Sprint while you're fighting, to save endurance.

I suggest going with a Scrapper as your first character. You have all the fun of killing stuff as you do with a Brute, but without any expectations to lead the charge into enemy mobs and take the brunt of the enemy attacks when you do play on teams. The Brute is the Villian "Tank" and is expected to act in that capacity. So, go with a Scrapper; all the fun and very durable, but none of the responsibliity.

About population - I notice you listed UK as your location, so if you play at EU hours, most servers are very quiet until late evenings ; in my experience during the few last weeks, less than 150 people on either side showing up on /search, and that's over 50 levels with a fair share of them being either very low levels or level 50s, with not much in between.

This doesn't mean you can't get a team going, especially if you go out of your way and start doing stuff like global channels or forums, but for quick and painless PuGing I enjoy Freedom and Virtue more (these two servers have the highest population numbers by far during EU hours, usually 2 to 3x as much people as on any other server).

Another bit of advice: Don't fear death or the hospital. Some games have severe penalties for dying; CoH doesn't. Some games have penalties for resurrecting at a hospital; CoH doesn't.
Below level 10, there is no penalty for dying other than the time it takes to walk back from the hospital. Above level 10, a death will inflict "Debt" on you. This does not affect game play, it just briefly halves the rate at which you earn experience. There's a limit on how much debt you can earn, and the limit is fairly low. So you can't get much debt even if you tried.
Death does not cost any gear, salvage, or money. There is no looting of corpses. You don't have to go find your "dead body".

For anyone interested - I rolled a Blaster in the end. The class felt more interesting for me.

And that's what matters.