What are your tips for new players?

HAVE FUN! What's the point of being here if you're miserable.

Don't be afraid to let people know you're new. You'll find quite a few veterans ready to help with the basics if they know you're still adjusting to the game.

Capes and Auras can be obtained by the City Representative in City Hall, Atlas Park, or by Kalinda or Burke (whoever you started with) in Mercy Island at levels 20 (for Capes) and 30 (for Auras).

Right clicking (default option, i think) on any Inspiration you have 3 of, you can create 1 different one.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Main_Page THIS PAGE IS A GODSEND! It gives information on everything from what an AT is, to how to form and run a Hamidon Raid.

Mid's Hero Designer will allow you to build your character all the way to 50, and slot it so you can see the numbers, and how well it may work.

Most of the mobs in CoH/CoV/GR do Smashing/Lethal damage (Or so I'm told )

Ask questions. That's the best advice I can give to new players. We have a great, helpful community here, and asking questions will always net you an answer. Don't be afraid to ask for help in game or on the boards if you don't know something; there's no stigma in not knowing all of the mechanics right off the bat.

Download and install the vidiotmaps.com map pack.

Log off in the Auction House to earn a Day Job badge and a rechargeable temp power that can teleport you to any Auction House. It's a great way to get to Steel Canyon and the university crafting tables in a hurry.

There is no XP debt before level 10, so you can use the Hospital teleporter to quickly cross zones by just being defeated.

Using an Awaken to resurrect does not prevent XP debt.

3 or 4 Luck (purple shield) inspirations will put you close to the defense cap and make you nearly untouchable until they wear off. It's a good idea to have 3 ready before fighting most bosses solo.

There is a Difficulty Slider contact in almost every zone, you do NOT have to go to Kings Row every time to adjust your settings.

You can craft most inventions in a non-combat, player created AE Arc (#487283, "The Crafter's Cafe") instead of visiting a University or having a Base crafting table.

You can also craft inventions in the Rikti War Zone base which is connected to Atlas Park.

You can change your costume in the Rikti War Zone base connected to Atlas Park.

You can save your Options, Window Settings, and Chat Settings in the options menu and simply load them up from the options menu when you make a new character.

Options -> Controls -> Mouse Control -> Invert

Gives you the basic mouse control.

Also -> Disable Popup Help and Automatic Help if you are doing more than one toon and you are used to the things that show up in those help windows.

The first two Bank/Mayhem missions grant you each a travel power that lasts for two hours of USE time. Very useful for lowlevel areas (Yes, i am looking at you, Hollows!). Get them.

Alternate builds are available at level 10! You can have your newb build and when you are ready, you can have your 'Oh now I get it' build

COT are found on the rooftops in Kings Row.

Second or Third the advice to roll something soloable. That way you still feel like you are advancing while you are building up your friends list. Not just standing around waiting for a team.

Random SG invites = Bad. Play with some folks in the SG before you ask to join or accept the invite.

-If you receive a yellow-colored message, it is a tell, or private message, from a specific player. To reply to this, press the "Backspace" (or on Mac keyboards, "Delete") key. It will automatically pull up the necessary prefix script in the chat box to reply to the last player who sent you a tell.

(I was playing nearly a full month before I learned what that was and how to respond to it, haha)

-I highly recommend a Blaster or Dominator (depending on where you start) as a first character. You will learn how to stay alive without relying on defensive powers (using line-of-sight, inspirations, hard/soft control, etc.), and you will still put out enough damage to make you feel "super" from level 1.

-Enhancements will make your powers better. Slot up the powers you use the most first. If you are playing any archetype marked for "High Damage," favor Damage and Accuracy enhancements for the first few levels.

-Build the character you want, and ignore people who criticize you. If a power sounds fun you are unsure about it, worry not, there are multiple ways to get a respec (a way to go back and change your characters powers and enhancements).

First off... HAVE FUN.

Don't worry too much about getting The One True Build. Experiment a bit, ask questions, and don't obsess too much about optimizing or getting the maximum performance build. CoH is a surprisingly forgiving game and the vast bulk of the content quite accessible to anyone even if they're not interested in IO set bonuses and just stick to generic IOs or even Single Origin Enhancements.

There's no real "bad" combination of ATs or powersets. Some get better synergy than others, true, but just about any combination of powers can perform well. Choose what sounds fun and fits your concept. That said, not every AT or powerset may have a playstyle that fits your own, and this is fine. Experiment a bit.

Healing is, for the most part, less important in teaming and big fights than buffing and debuffing. Support classes are more about force multiplication than keeping up the green bar. For example, while Empathy is about half healing powers, it is not a healing exclusive set. It's also got some of the most powerful defensive buffs in the game.

Trick Arrow is a good support set. There is no such thing as "Healing Arrow."

Take advice, heck, anything from the forums with a grain of salt and feel free to do your own thing. People like to complain, and everything causes wails of DOOOOOM. Ignore the Doom and don't feed it.

Ask for help, suggestions, whatever. People are for the most part quite willing to help out with advice or giving you a hand with something, so long as you're polite and literate. If you're looking for an SG that fits your style, ask around. Being a n00b is not a crime. Being a jackass, however, will make you few friends.

Just because a channel is private and you need permission to post, doesn't mean they don't want you. Sometimes that's where all the conversation is at.

Even if you don't want to post on the forums, go to the Player Help section and read the Player Guides. Although a lot are out of date, they can give you background on how to play, make money/influence, etc.

Paragonwiki.com is more detailed than Wikia.

Choose your server based on your playstyle and people you want to interact with. Low pop = low lag, lots of soloing. High = high lag, more teaming, more drama.

When making a costume, try the random button a while to give you an idea of what is possible.

Architect Entertainment has some wonderful story arcs, entirely player generated. Many of them, however, are based on in-game content, so are more fun if you have played the regular content.

My advice would be...

Choose another game! Yes this is a fricking awesome game and I love it to bits and played for the entire UK release but that release was over 6 years ago... you are a little late to the party.

The enhancement system is the only part of City of Heroes that is at all complex and that is significantly different from whatever other games you've played. Here are the most important new-player rules of thumb, dealing with enhancements, that I've learned:

Slot most damage-oriented attacks for at least +50% accuracy. These should be the first enhancements you drop into any power that requires a to-hit check. (Yes, there are exceptions to this rule. If you need to care about them, you're not a new player.)

Slot all attacks with one endurance reduction enhancement, as soon as you get them up to that accuracy number. This, not your toggles or your lack of slotting in Stamina, is why you're constantly out of endurance and other people aren't; your attack chain consumes 3/4ths or more of your endurance per minute, and the classic beginner's mistake is to assume the opposite.

As a general rule of thumb, put your earliest slots into your primary powers. By definition, your secondary powers are "things you don't do very well," things where your base stats for those powers already stink. You get more bang for the buck adding +20% (or whatever) to a large number than to a small number.

If you sell all of your level 4 to 19 common salvage on the auction house, priced at 1 inf minimum bid, and vendor the level 4 to 19 uncommon and rare, you'll never lack for enough inf to buy store-bought enhancements. High level players, grinding crafted enhancements to earn badges, pay way more for that salvage than it's worth, to you, to use it to craft things you'll use. Craft on-the-fly, while very low level, and you'll constantly be out of inf until you're well into your 30s. Ditto if you vendor everything. Other than accepting a donation from a higher-level friend, the single most reliable way to afford to fully-enhance your character is to use the auction house to vend low-level common salvage.

I also think that a new player should start with a Blaster. That's what I did (he became my first 50), and I learned a LOT about aggro management, pulling, retreating and other strategery that has helped immensely on every character I've had since.


If/when you start a melee character - Brute, Scrapper, Stalker or Tanker - DO NOT skip the Mez/Status Protection power for the defensive powerset. I did this on my first melee character, a Broadsword Regeneration scrapper. I was so used to being mezzed (i.e., held, disoriented, knocked back, slept, immobilized) on my blaster that I thought it was normal. I was such a newb that when I read the description of the Regeneration mez/status protection power (Integration) I didn't think it sounded all that useful. Finally a friend with more experience clued me in. The power will say something like this (taken from Unyielding in the Invulnerability powerset): "When you toggle on this power, you become Unyielding. You are resistant to all damage except Psionics, as well as Knockback, Slow, Sleep, Hold, Immobilize, and Disorient effects."

Immersion can be fun. This game has rich, deep and vibrant lore that has been expanding for 7 years. It's worth taking the time to explore the back stories of signature characters, enemy and ally groups, as well as the zones themselves. The vast majority can be found at Paragonwiki. It can often help when coming up with character concepts. At the very least it'll provide an entertaining read.

----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059

As others have said, have fun, ask if you don't know. Don't be afraid to tell others that you are new.
If you find yourself in a high level zone as low level character, run down the center of the streets, cars and trucks don't hurt you, mobs can hurt. Mobs on the street tend to stay on the sidewalks, and only ambushs and aggroed mobs jaywalk.
Mobs have three states, calm, alerted and aggroed, calm they will walk back and fouth or just stand there emoting. Alerted they will stop what they are doing an look at you, Aggroed they will start attacking you. If they become alerted you can back off before they attack you, but if you approach or even stand there to long they will attack.
If you have to go to the hospital remember to talk to the nurse, she will sell you insp.
That all I have for this time.
Good hunting.

If you run past some enemies, they will take a shot at you. If you keep running and don't attack them back, they will lose interest pretty quickly.

Stay out of farms until you get your first 50, and play your character as much as you can.

But at the same time, don't rush it... make as many alts as you want.

Experiment with slotting and new powers on your own before you start asking people to make builds for you. (The people who make and rate builds are generally only interested in maximizing peformance, and may frown upon certain power choices that you feel are worth taking.)

Don't be afraid to ask questions, make mistakes, or admit that you're new to the game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Stamina should get 3 slots for endurance modification on nearly every single character you will build.

When the game was new, the power didn't sound so great from the description. Oh how wrong I was. Everyone will agree with the first sentence when it comes to first starting the game. Yes there are exceptions, but they are few.

Skip training enhancements and sell them as often as possible. Dual Origin enhancements, or DOs can be bought at 12 (level 15 enhancements) and you will need to save up money as much as you can in the beginning.

Standard slotting for attacks - 2 accuracy, 3 damage, and the final slot can be recharge or endurance cost. Slot accuracy first always.

Do the tutorial - this will get you two large inspirations that you can sell on the market for some early money.

Keep your map open - you can detach it and resize it.

Learn about enemy aggro - don't make a blaster and run into enemies before an armored teammate does. You will catch on after awhile.

ASK QUESTIONS. Please ask. We are here to help.