ok....where do i start?

ok my friend got me to try this game a few days ago and im a bit overloaded with info right now.

I have no idea were to start, i desided i wanted a scrapper and narrowed it down to MA/WP but as far as what skills to take where to put these slots etc i have no clue,

I know i want superflight if that matter cause well flying is cool lol

so yea a few questions, do you learn all your skills, what powers should get how many slots. what powers for MA/WP are worth it and what are duds.

i know im asking a lot but please help this newbie be a little less fail any advise will be loved.

The only power you should skip is Confront - it isn't terribly useful, and if you want a bad guy to pay attention to you, kick it in the face.

I wouldn't suggest worrying too much about slotting and the like until you get into your mid-twenties. Until then, you can just use what drops for you.

The premiere attacks in Martial Arts are Storm Kick, Cobra Strike, Crane Kick and Crippling Axe Kick. Take at least three of them, don't neglect your defenses, and arrest some bad guys.

Once you have a better feel for the game, we can start to hone your character. For now, you picked a scrapper, and it's really hard to make a bad scrapper unless you go out of your way to make deliberately bad choices.

Just remember to slot accuracy and damage in your attacks, put in some endurance reducers if your blue bar is going down too quickly, and you should be just fine. Join a couple of teams, gain some levels, have fun.

Welcome! I'm going to second Smesh.

You can definitely skip Confront, and I like to go for 4-5 slots in an attack power (1 each of accuracy, recharge, endurance reduction, and damage, with the 5th either being damage or endurance reduction), and 2-3 in a defense power (1 defense or resistance, as fits, and the remainder being endurance reduction).
But until you get to level 12 at the earliest, you can get by with just whatever drops. And it's not until the early 20s that you can use the enhancements worth using, anyway.

Have fun, and feel free to ask questions (although you seem to have that part down already!)

Welcome to the game!

As far as Martial Arts is concerned I can't help you there. Never played the set myself.

WP I can offer some advice on. You're gonna wanna take every power in that set up until the last two. Every power is extremely useful.

All normal enhancements have levels and are only good for +/- 3 of their posted level. For example, a level 25 enhancement can be slotted at level 22. It will last you all the way until level 28, at which point it becomes no good and needs to be replaced. Just remember that you need to be within 3 levels above or below a normal enhancement in order to use it. There's a little bit more to it than that, but that's pretty much all you need to know right now.

Enhancements come in 3 tiers (I'm ignoring Invented Enhancements at the moment for simplicity) Training, Dual Origin, and Single Origin.

Enhancement tiers:

Training: Useful for characters from level 1-11. They continue to exist all the way to level 50, but by then much better enhancements are available. They produce about 8% enhancement value.

Dual Origin: These first become available to use at level 12 (they start at level 15, but because of the 3 level swing I talked about up there, you can actually start slotting them at level 12). These are "dual" origin, and as such, provide double the bonus of a training enhancement. This is where your origin choice comes into play (technology, science, mutant, etc) basically you need to use enhancements that share an origin with you. An example would be a Magic/Mutant DO. You must be either magic or mutant origin to slot these. The stores are located on your map and are easy enough to find.

Single Origin: These start at level 25, meaning you can start to slot them at level 22. They are the best normal enhancements you can get. They provide a 33% boost to the given attribute. You must buy the origin that matches your character. For example, a Magic origin character can only slot Magic origin SOs. Thanks to a balance mechanic called "Enhancement Diversification" all enhancements are subject to diminishing returns. Basically you can slot a power for about "3 SOs worth" of enhancement value. Lets say you're slotting for damage. Once you get to 3 damage enhancements you "hit the wall" and any extra damage enhancements added at that point will be reduced to the point of uselessness. To put it simply, don't put more than 3 SOs of the same enhancement in any power.


A general rule of thumb for attack sets is to slot your attacks with a mix of accuracy and recharge enhancements until you get to SOs. Endurance is useful in your attacks early on as well, but a recent update kind of eased that strain a little bit. Since your primary is attacking stuff, you should focus on getting your attacks slotted up over your secondary powers. Some people go by the 2/1 rule. 2 slots in your primary powers for every 1 that you slot in your secondary. I tend to just go with whatever feels best at the time. As long as you get enough to put at least 2 accuracy Training enhancements in your attacks, you should be ok. The enhancement values are so low at this point that it kind of doesn't matter.

Not missing is the most important thing in this level range. Until you get into DO range you should just slot any toggle power with endurance reduction. Once you get DOs you can start to mix and match to your preference. For Willpower I'll give you the general SO slotting advice to get you by.

At level 2 you are automatically granted a power called Stamina. This isn't a super high priority, but try to add 2 slots to this power before level 22. You only need a maximum of 3 slots in this power. It already comes with 1 by default.

High Pain Threshold should get 3 slots, max. 3 Heal SOs will do you well.

Get 4 slots into Mind Over Body by level 22. 1 end reduction SO and 3 Resist Damage SOs.

Indomitable Will would be ok with 1 endurance reduction SO.

Rise to the Challenge is Willpower's trademark power. It makes the set what it is. For this power you'll want 3 heal IOs and 1 endurance reduction SO. You should prioritize slotting this power as soon as it becomes available. This power gives you a really good hit point regeneration for every enemy that engages you in melee range. This boosts your survivability by A LOT.

Quick Recovery should be taken as soon as it becomes available, which is level 20. This power benefits from 2 additional slots but it's not a very high priority, especially if you've put slots into Stamina. Typically you want to get this 3 slotted and filled with Endurance modification enhancements (not "reduction") by the 30s.

Quick recovery and Stamina both increase the rate in which you recover endurance. That mechanic is referred to as "endurance recovery" in the game, or just "recovery" for short. This is not to be confused with "regeneration" which refers to Hit Points recovered over time. Quick Recovery and Stamina together will ensure that you'll pretty much never run out of endurance.

The last 2 powers in the set are more of a personal opinion. Resurgence is good if you feel like you die all the time and want a self-rez power. Strength of Will is a good "oh crap" button when you feel like you're in over your head. It basically increases your damage resistance and endurance recovery by a great deal, letting you survive things you may not have been able to survive. The problem is when this power wears off it "crashes" and drains a ton of your endurance. WP is usually survivable enough to where it's not really needed all that often.

Hope that helps!

I agree with the previous poster, the only Martial Arts ability you should skip is Confront.

In the Willpower set the only power you should probably skip is Revive (I think that's what the self rez is called).

Attacks can benefit quite well from 5-6 slots.

Most Defensive abilities only need a total of 3 slots.

Be ABSOLUTELY certain that you take the powers Indomitable Will and Rise to the Challenge very early. They will make your life a lot easier.

Welcome to CoX!

Willpower is a fun secondary and it should see you through just fine.

Just take everything but the last two powers in it and you will do great.

first off thank you all for all the advise learned a lot from it

but im still reallly confused right now im more worried about what skills to take and how many slots to dump into each than what to put in said slots i dont wanna have to start over cause i screwed up ya know?

As was said, you really can't screw up in this game.

And you don't have to reroll characters to fix anything you want to change later, you can get respecs by either doing the Terra Volta trial, veteran rewards, sometimes the devs give us free ones, or you can find or buy recipes to earn respecs.

The respec allows you to completely change your power selection and slotting. It won't allow you to change your Archetype (Scrapper) or your Primary or Secondary powers (Martial Arts, Willpower)

Here's my basic power selection for Willpower:


Level 1: High Pain Tolerance
Level 4: Fast Healing
Level 10: Indomitable Will
Level 16: Rise to the Challenge
Level 20: Quick Recovery
Level 22: Mind Over Body
Level 24: Build Up
Level 28: Heightened Senses

I'm trying to avoid telling you how to slot your powers because any build I give you will be directed toward a high cost build, completely slotted out with Invention Origin sets and designed to solo AVs, Task Forces and other Stupid Scrapper Tricks.

That won't do you much good as a leveling build however.

http://www.cohplanner.com/download.php will link you to MiDs which is what we use to design and examine builds. You can tinker around in it and see which powers you want to put where, and when, and what Enhancements you would like.

Cripes. I can't even remember the last time I took Confront. Five, maybe six years ago? Most likely when Katana got its new animations, because I thought the animation looked badass.

Welcome to the game!

Just enjoy the game. Leave the number-crunching for later on.

Longish post, but hopefully some useful info for you

Some 101...

This game is overall very casual and easy to learn. There aren't any real penalties for failing a mission or being defeated other than a mild xp penalty and even that is canceled out if you just leave a character unlogged overnight or for a few days depending on how much debt you accrue. It's really just a formality at this point. It wasn't always like that...my year 1 characters lost entire levels worth of xp to debt, but they scaled it waaaaaay back and now the game is basically penalty free.

Also, if you make bad character build decisions, the game offers a plethora of ways to rebuild your character. The easiest way is, if you keep your account paid up you'll earn Veteran's Rewards which periodically give you respecs for _all_ of your characters...even retroactively. So, if I were to make a new character today they would have more than enough respec's available to them for me to change their builds multiple times. Also, whenever the devs make a serious tweak or add things to the game they issue a global 'freespec' which allows you to repsec your characters just by typing /respec in the chat window. Note that unlike other respecs, freespec's are use it or lose it however as you can only have one per character.


You don't need to take all the powers in your primary or secondary set. This isn't clearly stated anywhere, and some new players don't realize it. Your power selection are just options. Having said that, in each set there is at least one or two powers that you are foolish not to take because they are awesome. Knowing which powers those are isn't always obvious, but with time and experience you'll find out.


For attacks you only need enough attacks to put together a seamless attack chain..which is to say you always have an attack to use and don't have to wait for something to cool off. Once you have a solid attack chain, more attacks are superfluous...er...wasted. When you get to the top levels and have access to all you attacks, you'll probably want to respec (which means re-pick your powers and slots) and keep the optimal selection of attacks to put together a maximum DPS (damage per second) chain, but when you are leveling up just take whatever works for you.


As a scrapper, you should avoid taking attacks from Pool powers unnecessarily. Things like Boxing, Kick, Air Superiority, and especially Flurry, etc. Your Martial Arts attacks are pretty much just better. The exception is you will probably have to take one as a prereq for something, most commonly Boxing or Kick to unlock Toughness and Weave in the Fighting Pool. Toughness and Weave will help any character's survivability out, and in your case using Willpower you will almost certainly want at least Tough by the mid to late 20's.


In the early game it really doesn't matter too much how you slot your powers; your personal preference will dictate what is important to you. When you get to the mid game the enhancements get better and start bumping into caps which limit their effectiveness; this is called ED or Enhancement Diversification, which is just double-speak for imposed ceilings that make it pointless to over-slot a particular boost. Back in the old days we used to 6 slot of damage or recharge and push really extreme builds around with lots of skew which made it very difficult to balance the game. There's a complex tree of percentages backing the numbers now, but the rule of thumb is it is never beneficial to slot more than 3 of the same kind of enhancement in anything, and you are going to get most bang for your buck with 2.

My default slotting is: (Note that everyone has an opinion on this subject)

6 in all primary attacks with Acc x 1, Dam x3, End x1, Rech x1, and I tweak from there as suits a particular power. Once you get to Invention Origin sets this goes out the window, but when using standard enhancements it's a good starting place.

Toggle defenses get 3 or possibly 4 slots total (including the free slot), depending on what it is, and I typically go End x1 DEF or RES x 2 or 3.

Toggle auras (Rise to the Challenge for you) generally get 6 slots just like an attack. The slotting will vary as each taunt aura is different, but for RttC I go for Heal 3, Taunt 1, -ToHit 2. However, there are exceptions; for example Oppressive Gloom from Dark Armor (DA) doesn't need any extra slots beyond its freebie.

Auto Defenses will get either 2, 3, or 4 depending on what it is. If its single purpose (only DEF, only RES, etc), it gets 2. If it's dual purpose (RES and +HP, for example) it will get 2, 3, or 4 as slots are available but as a low priority...unless the base numbers are large in which case I might load it up to take advantage of the numbers.

Click powers are one offs and get anything from just the freebie if its a low-usage / situational power, to 3 for Recharge x 3, or 6 to really maximize whatever it is that the clickie does. Willpower's only click's are Unstoppable and Resurgence which are a) optional (ie you don't need either) and b) don't require any additional slots to be useful. Martial Arts click power is Focus Chi which you are going to want and probably should put 2 or 3 Recharge into.


Pool Powers are important as they give you utility options, but don't go overboard. If you have more Pool Powers than primary / secondary Powers you are going to be underpowered. You don't need more than one travel power. If you are taking powers that let you mimic some other archetype you are going to be much less good at it than the real archetype, though it might be good enough for your purposes. If you are trying to be too toolboxy you are missing out on what your archetype does best. So...I recommend you use Pool Powers to supplement and fill gaps.


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Martial Arts is a solid single target set, with a mix of secondary status effects and some of the cooler animations in the game (the last part is subjective, of course). Check out both the default kicking animations and the variant punching animations in the Powers tab of the character designer and pick the ones you like best. There's a drop down under "Martial Arts" in the character designer that lets you pick unilaterally for the entire set, or you can go to each power and select each one individually.

I recommend Storm Kick over Thunder Kick when starting, but either are serviceable.

Cobra Strike is decent choice, but I really don't like the default animation. The variant animation is passable however.

Crippling Axe Kick is an important power for you. Very good damage (2nd in the set behind Eagle's Claw), and it has good side effects. Note that it has the capacity to ground a flier which can be handy. I'm not a fan of the kicking animation, though they have sped it up a bit, however the punching animation is pretty butch.

Crane Kick is good, but don't slot it for knockback; kb is bad for most scrappers as you have no range and thus either have to chase or wait for them to come back. There isn't a punch animation for CK.

Dragon's Tail is your only area of effect, and also it has very reliable knockdown, which is an important form of mitigation as bad guys can't hit you while they are knocked down and getting up. Again, don't slot it for knockback as that will convert it from knockdown to knockback. What's the difference? Tangent: Knockback sends opponents flying away from you, Knockdown drops them where they stand so no chasing or waiting. From a scrappers perspective, Knockdown == good, Knockback == bad. For future reference, there is also knockup which is just like knockdown but with hang time, but you don't have any powers in MA that do knockup. Back on topic, definitely take Dragon's Tail as soon as you can get it and slot it for Acc x1 Damage x 2 Recharge x2 End x1.

Eagle's Claw is an awesome attack, but it has a longish animation. It does a lot of damage, stuns, and gives you a short-duration buff to your chance to critical greatly increasing the chance of the attack that follows it to crit (by +33%). It also, in my opinion, looks cool though opinions vary on this. Both the punch and the kick animation are nice.

Focus Chi is your "build up", which grants a big damage boost for a short period of time. You don't need it when it first becomes available, and can easily leave it until mid to late 20's to pursue other aspects of your character. However, when you have a solid base adding Focus Chi will give you burst damage capability and if you can remember to use it consistently it will give you a solid increase in total damage output.

Never bother to take Confront on any Scrapper. It's a silly power. If you want a bad guy to pay attention to you, just hit them.
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Willpower is a solid "toggle and go" set. It provides ample END with Quick Recovery. It starts off good and stays pretty good. It's top end isn't as tough as some of the more focused defenses, but it's across the board very strong. Second (or third) best at everything is still very solid. It's psi protection in particular is top notch.

Some key notes:
You can't take an alpha strike as well as most other sets...in other words, the big slam of damage when you first engage a mob and they all unload their attacks on you. However, you will heal very fast so if they can't take you down quickly you will outpace them and survive. Your health bar will go up and down, unlike say an Invul based character, but it's ok.

You need Rise to the Challenge. It's the biggest part of your regeneration and thus your survivability. Get it and slot it. The power description is not helpful and doesn't really speak to how important this power is. The real story is, your Regen goes up significantly based on how many bad guys are around you.

Quick Recovery and Fast Healing are key, but you also want to slot Stamina and Health. The combination of QR + Stam, and FH + Health is a big base for your recovery and regen to build on. I recommend you 3 slot all 4 powers for End Mod x 3 and Heal x 3 respectively for the recovery boosters and regen boosters. You might also later consider going into the Body Mastery epic for Physical Perfection, though you arguably wont need it if you've build your character correctly and invested in IOs.

Heightened Senses may seem like a meh power at first, but you do want to take it. It's also an important power if you get into IO's later as it will let you slot Luck of the Gambler. The rule of thumb is, every 1% of DEF is roughly equivalent to 2% of RES; however due to an artificial ceiling incorporated in the to-hit check algorithm 45% DEF is as unhittable as you can get vs standard opponents and is very uber...this is referred to as "soft capping". If you stick with the game and get into IO sets, you can potentially soft cap Willpower at least vs some damage types and HS will give you the base to build on.

You will want to seriously consider getting Tough and maybe Weave from the Fighting Pool. Willpower has mediocre resistance, and Tough will be a creditable supplement. Your main survivability is from regeneration, but you need to brake the incoming damage so that you are healing more than you are taking. Also, one-shot big hits from bosses hurt. Tough helps to ameliorate this for you. Note that the power text on Tough lies; it's not really +RES all, its just +RES Smashing / Lethal. However, S/L is the most common damage in the game, and even a lot of putatively "energy" attacks have a smashing or lethal component. I have Tough on both my WP characters, and it makes a major difference.


Hope there's something of use in that wall of text...good luck and welcome to the game!

Might as well polish that up a bit, and post it in the guide forums KillerShrike. Good work.