Returning to CoH - looking for basic advice.

My girlfriend and I haven't played CoH in about 5 years, but after trying and being greatly disappointed with Champions Online and DCUO we've found our way back.

Its far too confusing on our old characters, so we were gonna start over. I imagine Praetorian is the preferred route to take? Are there any builds that are recommended?

What servers won't be entirely ghost towns and may be better for new people to join and level up and so forth in.

Any other good advice?

Hello and welcome back.
Freedom and Virtue have the highest populations but the best advise I can give you is to join some global chat channels on whatever server you decide on. They are great places to find TFs, Trials or just regular teams. Other than that just playing the game will reveal most of the games secrets. Use the help channel or one of those global channels to ask questions if you get stuck.

Good Luck

P.S. I'm not a fan of Praetoria, all my heroes still start out in Atlas Its a preference thing, no real advantage/disadvantage but you should probably experience it at some point. It certainly looks cool!

First off, welcome back!
Secondly, forget EVERYTHING you knew about CoH, it's all changed. Seriously.

Praetoria would definitely be a good place to start over, it's got really great content. Most of the servers have fairly good population, but Freedom and Virtue are both at the top population-wise.

For builds... you can really go with anything. I'd be very hard pressed to come up with 2 characters that'd simply flat out suck anymore. Maybe one of you playing a support-oriented character (troller, defender, corruptor, or VEAT (well, 'tank mage' is closer to the description for VEAT )), while the other a damage centric character (Scrappers, Stalkers, Brutes, VEATs... or really any of the other formerly-redside ATs)- that'd provide you with good duo-ing goodness as well as be good for any team.

Also, whatever server you join, join some of the global channels for that server! Like on Freedom, RF2009 is a great channel to be in, since people form & announce stuff there all the time. Virtue United, I believe, is still popular on Virtue.

You have a CRAP TON of new stuff, from AE to ZZ-top! Definitely keep a link to ParagonWiki handy! And Mid's Hero Designer is good for planning out your characters.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

1) Welcome back!

2) I like the Praetorian content for it's flow and storylines. However, the enemies are a little bit harder, but not overly so. If you're running a duo, a Scrapper or Brute paired with a support character is tough to beat.

3) All of the servers have decent populations. However, that being said, Freedom and Virtue are the two servers with the highest population. The servers will be listed in order when you sign in, with the top server being the last one you were on, then the server with the lowest activity, with the bottom server being the one with the highest activity on it.

However, keep in mind that this game is heavily instanced. Just because you don't see a lot of people running around doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of people on the server.

When you decide on a server, go down to the server's board and look up the global chat channels they use. Global chat channels are server wide, so they're the best way to keep an ear out for team recruitment. Most servers have several popular ones, join them 2-3 of them.

By the way, you can send stuff to yourself or others via the in-game email now. So you may want to scavenge your old characters to get some starter Inf. There's a Auction/Market system now, so if you want, you can make extra Inf there. Go to the Market board for tips to get started.

Just a warning - some/most of the mobs in Praetoria are a little more rugged than other low-level npcs. So it might be a little more difficult there than you remember, but on the flip side most of the ATs have been improved since you last played (Scrappers and Mastermind are the only two I can think of without significant change).

Thanks for all the posts!

Fitness I see was removed from the game, that's a curious change.

Another tidbit of info, recently the Incarnate system has many folk's LEvel 50s empowering themselves. As such, quite a significant amount of players are Incarnating their 50s a lot more than creating new characters or running low level characters.

Don't be discouraged by low amounts of players seen in the zones; aside from heavy instancing, the level 50s incarnating, and the breadth of players across 11 servers conducting the relatively-new Weekly Strike Tasks (WSTs), use the global chat channels to find teams/TFs and others to run with.

If you need a home (SG/VG base) to start off with, hero or villain side, by all means, contact me at @Major Deej, or check out the SGs and VGs on each of the servers I help run via the website link below.

Welcome back!

Paragonwiki.com is a great source for info on the game, and reading the issue updates on the OCH updates page. I highly reccomend Mids Hero Designer as well. It is a great way to plan out your characters, and set up the most powerful, efficient combinations and enhancements.

It is true that global channels are a great way to find teams. But there is an elite niche on every server and channels. They are usually kinda snobby to people who arent really good. So don't be discouraged by it. There are still lots of nice players who are helpful, I play on Triumph a lot because of their community of helpful players.

I also know a lot of people who prefer to talk on Skype or Ventrillo, rather than type in the chat dialog window. So if you don't have one of those programs, they are nice to use, it makes it easier to communicate, and more fun to play.

There are some really fun, and popular builds. Certain things really go great with others so you will see a lot of one combination. Heres some of them:

Scrappers:

Dark Melee/Shield Defense - this is great for killing AVs and just rockin out the damage.

Electric Melee/Shield Defense - This is my favorite because you get Lightning Rod, and Shield Charge. Two PBAoE powers that are great for taking out mobs.


Tanks:

Stone Defense is still the ideal defensive set. Different secondaries can really make them awesome to play.

Fire Defense is the popular PLing tank. because of Burn and fire resistance it is great against anything that deals fire damage.


Controllers:

I think Fire/Kins are still the most popular flavor. They can be set up to deal pretty sweet damage with the Imps. The kin powers buff the imps nicely.

Illusion/Rad is also very nice, because Phantom Army cannot be killed by anything other than unresistable damage from things like Hami, so it doesnt really need buffs. And Rad is a good debuff set to help your army kill things quicker.


Defenders:

There are a few good buffing sets, but I really enjoy Cold Domination cuz the Ice Shields are awesome!

Empathy is still the popular healing set.

For debuffing I like Trick Arrow a lot, but it is missing a regen debuff, so I pick up a temp power called Envenomed Dagger.

Also for defender Mastery powers, it is nice to get Power Mastery for some sets because Power Buildup is a great way to super power your buffs. "Your power effects like heals, defense buffs, endurance drains, disorients, holds, immobilizes, knockbacks and more, are all improved."


Blasters:

Fire Blast is my favorite, I just love that extra damage over time.

Archery is very nice if you have really high recharge. You can set this up so that you can use Rain of Arrows so often. And it works well because you shoot it so often the damage is good, and there is no endurance crash unlike the other tier 9 PBAoE powers.


I don't know as much about the villain combinations, but I hear good things about:

Masterminds:

Robotics/Force Field

Demon Summoning/Thermal Radiation - I have one of these it is a lot of fun.


Dominators:

Mind/Psionic

Mind/Thorny

Doms are the best when you get the recharge high enough that you can get perma Domination. The above sets are espescially good because they have damage types that a lot of enemies do not have resistance or defense against.


I hope these help, there are lots of other good sets out there, but usually the most popular combinations are the most popular for good reasons.

See ya around,
@Red Addiction

Be sure to drink your

Welcome back!

I'd suggest Virtue as a server, the population is very friendly. In fact, I can almost guarantee you'll have an SG invite before you finish loading into Atlas. Don't accept it. Trust me.

I play on virtue, but you might want a slightly less populated server for one reason:

The main grouping channels are full. I kept trying again a couple times a day for a week or so and got in, but it's not guaranteed you'll get in. If you get in an overflow channel, where there's 500 people instead of 2500 and half of them are also in the full channel, it doesn't work so well.

Praetoria is great from the standpoint that you can make all of the standard ATs. The story is more engaging and the technology behind the zones better. The downside is certain established methods of quickly bypassing the early levels that are found in Paragon or the Rogue Isles aren't available. Also certain rewards at low levels such as a jet pack and zero-g pack that you get from radio/newspaper missions in CoH/CoV aren't there. And you will need to use the Flashback system at Ouroboros to access some of the better sub level 20 stories from CoH and CoV. Note that access to Praetoria is limited to only those who got the Going Rogue expansion.

There is a lot that has changed in five years. There's now crafting better enhancements as well as a market. A feature in Paragon and Rogue Isles that allow you to create your own missions. The new Level 50 endgame system is just starting to come out (requires Going Rogue). Epic ATs now unlock at level 20. Heroes can now become Villains and vice versa (requires Going Rogue). And those are just off the top of my head.

A good source for game information is ParagonWiki. This will take you to the page with links with info on all of the Issues that have been released so you can see all that you missed.

Remember the game is heavily instanced and with added ways to bypass travel between zones quickly you tend not to find many players hanging around at the trams or around trainers anymore. You will find them around the market areas but they are usually to busy buying and selling to bother. It does make the zones appear rather empty. Also a round of annoying "gold sellers" a few years back when the market and crafting was first introduced induced a number of players to hide from global searches.

I'd suggest avoiding the hardier AT's at first - scrappers/tanks/VEATs make the game seem too 'easy'; then when you move to a blaster or a controller, it suddenly seems like the game got harder. Squishier AT's also train you in 'active defense' - using cover/geography, training the enemies toward the tanker, and the Ever Popular RUN AWAYYYY! maneuver.

I like Victory server, but that's just me,

Welcome Back!!!

To counter the 'globals always full' on Freedom and Virtue argument - on these servers you don't need the global channels nearly as much because they are so populated. Yes, they are still *very* helpful, but if you're in a level-appropriate zone then chances are you can get a team together regardless.

A small warning: right now there's tons of activity at the end of the game, at level 50 as the devs are currently adding in a ton of new material there. When you start your new toons, whether that be in Praetoria or Atlas or even Mercy, you might not see too many players around to team with.

Don't let that get you down, just hunker down, go, and play solo if you have to, it's best to relearn the game from the bottom up after all.