Solo is this slow?

It has been quite a while since I've really played CoH so my perspective may be a little skewed, but it takes me about 25-30 minutes to complete a mission map (lvl 29 Psy/Mental blaster) and I get about one bubble per mission. So that is 5 hours (at least that with travel times even it mission time averages out) to get one level? I remember it being slow, but not this slow. Is this the result of all the leveling exploits or has it always been this bad and I just don't remember it?

The requirements increase at a faster rate than the rewards per foe the higher you go, so at level 29 it'll generally take longer to get to level 30 than it did to get to (for example) 20 from 19. But no, it hasn't always been this bad. For a lot of the game's history it was much, much worse.

Could also be what you happen to be fighting. Not many resist psi damage, but those that do tend to resist it a lot.

You're playing one of the slowest solo AT (due to debt accumulation) and it takes more and more XP as you raise in level. But still, even with that, what you describe doesn't sound particularly slow in MMO terms.

My guess is you are soloing on +0x1. At level 29 that is going to be rather slow in terms of leveling speed. You'll want something more like +1x1, or even +1x2. You just need to figure out what you can handle and go from there. There are other factors here as well for diff setting. If you are doing generic old school story arcs then those will be the easiest. Radio missions can likely be easier since you get to pick the mob type, but if you do a bank mission you will fight an EB at some point. Tip missions are definitely the hardest to pull off. AE missions you just kind of have to roll the dice in terms of difficulty.

Another thing to consider, log out in police stations and work on getting the day job badge for doing so. You get an exp bonus for completing missions for a period of time and that bonus goes up once you have the badge. Pretty much any character I have logs out at a place where I work towards that day job until I hit level 50.

1 bubble per mission - so if you did 10 missions you'd level... i would say thats reasonable ....

bottom line though - are you having fun doing it?

you could PL much faster... but one would argue that you'd be missing all of the great game content.

its all about the journey, not the destination and all that....

unless you are really eager to do incarnate trials :P

It could just be the combo. and the mobs he's fighting a lot. Council seem to pack a TON of robots in that level range (mech men, hover thingys, etc) and Psi damage does about 50% less to robotic types. Try going after say Crey.. i don't think they have any psi resistance at all..

That's accurate for a toon with good AoE potential and defenses, Blasters need to be careful about enemy types though when setting higher than base.
That said, as a Psy/Mental I think I would adjust the settings to be -1x2 or even 3 myself, hoping Drain Psyche can beef me up enough to mow them down in time.

Remember, the point of the game is to play the character. You're already leveling at a pace that takes you up a level every 10 missions, which means you're rapidly moving through content.

You'll go much faster if you team. You'll go faster still if you park the character for a while, let patrol experience accumulate, and play an alt. You'll even go a little faster than that if you park in a Police Station and get the day job that gives a small bonus to mission completion xp.

They have recently added a lot of things to do at 50...but the pre-50 content still dwarfs all that. Plus, if you like leveling, remember you won't do ANY leveling at 50.

Unless one plays a serious solo-oriented AT and power-set, and can manage to play at a very high difficulty, solo work is horrendously slow. Personally, I don't solo. At all.

There's times when I'd like to go solo, but I know from experience that running with an 8-man team is quite literally going to mean a 1000% increase in XP/hour. Going solo feels like shooting myself in the foot, repeatedly, and the terrible XP/hour I've been able to get just takes all the fun out of it. All I think while soloing is "if I had been teaming, I'd be level X by now."

My personal opinion is that the XP payouts for solo work and smaller teams needs to be revised to match what you can do on an 8-man team better. I really like small teams, but the low XP payouts just make it... painful.

I'm with Sailboat. It seems like a good pace to me.

You could get power levels if you're that eager to get to 50, then roll another toon to experience the "Normal Game Content". Normal arcs will be a lot more fun once freedom launches.


However 8 man teams on normal missions are a blast, and great exp! Try running the WTF/WSF too. About 1-2 mil. exp per run for the last mission alone.

I solo on -1 x4 or 0 x4 in the 20s on my squishies. Remember that AE attacks are your friend when trying to level fast while solo. In my thirties I crank it up to X6 if the character can handle it. In the forties I turn it back down if I don't have mez protection. Otherwise all the CC will slow you down. Someone mentioned it earlier and I want to agree that you are better off defeating lots of things fast than spending a lot of time on single high value targets (OK stalkers can be an exception to that).

Leveling is susposed to be a challenge and there is a lot of fun content to see so don't get in too big of a hurry. However, AE is the way to go if you just want to power up to a certain level fast.

Blasters will most likely level faster on a team where they're buffed and able to just open up and deal damage while getting the most from their AoE ability. Solo, they can do ok because they are a damage based AT.

30 minutes/mission does sound a little long to me. I think 10-15 minutes is normal if you push yourself, utilize insperations, and have good endurance management. Obviously some missions take a lot longer then others.

I'm going to ask obvious questions:
1. Are you slotted for [at least] 90% damage and 30% accuracy on your main attacks?
2. Do you have both Build Up and Aim, or the similarly-named powers? [Concentration and... something. Psychic Focus?] Do you use them?
3. Are you dying so much that you're constantly in debt?

Thanks everyone for the advice. I didn't even think about the difficulty and I didn't know about the police day job bonus. I have two level 50's and while I have found a few new missions for the most part it has been more of the same. Though that is as much likely because I have 5 in the twenty something range (I tend to not focus and instead play everything).

She only has two AoE's and I think that is all she will have access to. She has tough and weave when she needs which has been enough so that she doesn't die and get debt. I have one of her versions of aim, but not the other as yet.