New Player

So I am downloading the patch and I'm surfing around looking at all the builds and such and I'm wondering.. as a completely new player (but an MMO Vet if that matters) would it really matter if I start a hero, villain or Praetorian? In some games XYZ area is better if you haven't ever played or ABC area is a "don't miss" type area because of the fun factor or is an area most like to avoid for whatever reasons just wondering if this game has that or if I should just make whatever. I'm an alt-a-holic so I'm sure I'll eventually hit all the Hero/Villain/Praetorian but for my first..

For what it's worth I tend play solo a lot (due to my playing times and usual low populations then not so much because I dislike grouping) if that makes a difference.

Seems Virtue is the server I will be starting on as it's been pointed out on here it's a pretty populated server.

Well if you enjoy soloing and plot Praetoria has the best starting experience. The story is good and you get some interesting choices. The downside is that it can be a bit more challenging than the other two sides. Low level Praetorian mobs are, on average, stronger than the ones in Paragon City/Rogue Isles so be warned.

For Hero/Villain content the low-level content is not particularly thrilling. I prefer the low level Villain content but Hero side has some decent stories, especially if you run the low level hazard zone arcs (Hollows and Faultline)

First off, welcome to the game!

Secondly, it will force you to make your first character in Praetoria. However, every other character you make can start off wherever you want. I think that Praetoria is a nicer place to start, as it is a bit newer. But I'd say that blueside (where the heroes are) is probably the easiest place to start. However, starting in Praetoria (for now) will let you pick any of the basic character archetypes (ATs for short) to start with, which is nice.

hmmm, so I guess I'll start where they make me start then (kind of odd, but sounds like a good place to start anyway so why not). Thanks for the information. Back to checking out the AT's and waiting on the patch.

Hey there and welcome!!
As I type this, I see Aedon Hawkwood has already said the one thing I was going to mention.
Praetoria can be a bit tougher. It does have nicer architecture and some more compelling single-player story elements, but then again, not everyone finds that to be the best thing.
The game will force you to make your first character in Praetoria (they implemented that with the Going Rogue expansion because A) they wanted to show off their new shiny zones and B) Felt like the new Praetorian Tutorial was a better learning experience.

I, personally, would rather start as a Hero or a Villain for my first experiences in this game, but to each their own. (My first taste of this game was as a Villain in the Rogue Isles, for whatever that is worth. I decided pretty quickly that I loved it and converted my free trial into a paid account)

Get in there and knock some enemies around (whatever zone and whatever side) and see if it makes you smile as much as it did others!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoutale (but an MMO Vet if that matters)

"Unlearn what you have learned"
Hehe, not too serious about this, but this game has always been a little less like other mmorpgs. A lot more about showing up and having fun and a lot less about serious business on how things work and what to do vs. what not to do.
There is plenty of complexity involved (and plenty of people enjoy diving into that and working towards efficiency to single percentage points, if that's your thing!), but I just suggest forgetting how things are "supposed" to work and see if you like how things really are with this game.
The greater details are there for reference and for those who want and enjoy it, but it is never necessary (if you don't care or don't enjoy that).

Quote:

Seems Virtue is the server I will be starting on as it's been pointed out on here it's a pretty populated server.

Virtue is also the unofficial role-playing server, in case that means anything to you.
Freedom is slightly more populated, but much more focused (generally speaking) on gaming and not on the role-play or background aspects.

Of course, you find any and all of that on any server.


Best of luck and I hope you enjoy it!!
And yeah, never hesitate to ask around the forums... people are all too happy to answer!

If you mostly solo, you might want to start off with Scrappers or Brutes. They do good damage, have decent enough defenses, and are pretty solo and new-player friendly.

Welcome to the game and the forums

Thanks Chad! I'm having one of those days where I feel like I'm using a lot of words to express things poorly!
Haha... *shuts up before going on and making less sense*

Ohhh, also, INSPIRATIONS.

Inspirations are like potions from other RPGs... they can heal you, recover your "energy" (endurance, in City of Heroes), temporarily increase your damage, defense, resistance or accuracy stats, or give you temporary protection from enemies' mez (control) powers.

They drop from defeated enemies like crazy. Don't feel the need to hoard them.

This was my first real MMORPG--I've been playing for over seven years, and prior to that I only ever played console RPGs, where you often have limited availability to such items, and they tend to be expensive. I STILL have trouble with hoarding inspirations when I play CoH, even though you can buy them from readily-accessible vendors very cheaply.

Quote:

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

If you haven't found it yet, I recommend you bookmark Paragonwiki. A very useful source of game information.

(Un)Official 3rd Party Info site : www.paragonwiki.com; aka wiki.cohtitan.com

Do not go to the wikia site, tends to have virus-injected ads.

Rules in other MMOs that are twisted here :

There is no real "Healer" class. There are four archetypes with access to buff/debuffing sets, of which several have a heal, and three (I think it is) have more than one, but none are mainly about the healing. Preventing damage (through buffs, or debuffs on NPCs) is the preferred route for the most part.

In EQ and a few other games, it was almost a "Three Players to one even con minion" type balancing. Here, in the upper levels, it gets to the point were it's 1 player vs. three +3 minions, for most builds. It doesn't directly penalize soloing.

Everyone has a method of dealing damage.

And the biggest :

No trinity. There is no need for "Tank, DPS, and healer" - with a little skill, most things can be done by teams of any makeup (Pure tanks, pure DPS, pure anything, and mixing it up just helps make it more nuts )

Also, there are Fateweavers (villain), Hero Corps Analysts (Hero), and can't recall what they are praetorian side but they dress as PPD and the first one is behind Praetor Duncan - they allow you to adjust the difficulty of instanced missions you own.

Level will generally raise the level of the mobs - a few instances (AE and Ouro, IIRC) will instead lower your "combat level" and may cause a temporary loss of certain powers.

Player equivalent - artificial team size - missions will spawn to your actual team size or this, whichever is higher. It does not add to team sizes (setting this to 8 on a team of 4 does not cause it to spawn for 12).

The boss setting is main for solo/duo play, tends to be ignored with more players (by design) - regular "Boss" class mobs will spawn as Lieutenants - with less HP, mez resistance, and base damage. Does not affect "Elite Boss" type creatures.

Arch-villains are tough customers, so for soloists, the AV option will downgrade them to "Elite Bosses" - a class of npc stronger than a boss, weaker than an AV. You can differ AVs from natural Elites because they will gain "the purple triangles of Doom" on and off (it's a mez protection buff) - normal elites don't have these.

The community here is helpful, if you haven't seen/been told this, as a whole.

There were not even a quarter those replies when I wrote my above post, and between writing and paying off the pizza girl, well, you see how many posted

Note about the server screen : The first time you log in, it will list from Lowest to Highest Server Load (Load, not population, although they are related) - after that, it will list the last accessed at the top, then from low-to-high.

Hero - more people to play with
Villain - fewer people to play with
Praetorian - no access to early travel powers

Started to play, made a scrapper on a whim and he's working well. I was very frustrated at times (I had like 10 hot key bars and couldn't figure out how to get rid of them). I learned that the inspirations didn't need to be saved till bigger fights and figured out the enhancements and how to combine them. The tutorial isn't wonderful for a new player, but it's enough to get you going. I'm wishing I would have tried this game years ago now.

Also, the community (here and in game) is awesome. Even global chat isn't littered with too much silliness (for an MMO game).

Thanks for all the help!!

-Stoutale
COH Newbie