Dear God, Help Me, I'm trying this again

[Morat20]

Allright, here goes -- I have City of Heroes. I tend to play for a month, get bored, and quit. I have like 8 characters between level 5 and 15. I have not played City of Villians, all on Infinity. (I think).

I am considering ordering the Light versus Dark pack off the City of Heroes website (I think that's what it's called -- CoH + CoV for 30 bucks, they give me the key and I can download the CoV client with it) mostly for the nifty bonuses, and so I don't have to track down CoV.

I'm pretty sure I can just attach it to my current (if inactive) account.

So here's the question -- how many of you guys play, on what servers, and what sides? What should I know as someone who hasn't touched the game in about two years? I'm happy to make new characters on another server.

My primary problem was having no friends to play with -- I'm not hugely social, but I like having a nice chat channel and a few people I know. CoH was always pretty good with PuGs, and I'm not looking for a giant Supergroup or anything.

Any advice? Suggestions? Servers to roll on?

[Nevermore]

I thought they opened both City of Villains and City of Heroes up not too long ago to anyone who bought either one.

[hal]

Poisen/Thugs mastermind. Jack the difficulty up. Its stupid but kinda fun. I know how you feel.

[Lantyssa]

Nevermore is right.  They opened the game up to all existing subscribers.  Check to make sure you can make a villain before buying anything.  (I don't think you had to log in then, but as I had both I can't really say if it worked or not.)

All my characters are on Pinnacle in a range of levels up to 33-ish.  (I have a 44, but she's part of a duo and I won't play her otherwise.)  I mostly solo, but I'm willing to try grouping if anyone shows up there.  Currently my villain is my main focus since those storylines are new.  if the global chat channel Signe mentioned in the other thread works I'll at least be in it.

[Trippy]

I thought they opened both City of Villains and City of Heroes up not too long ago to anyone who bought either one.

I think that was a one time bonus thing.

[Morat20]

I'll certainly check if I can make Villians -- I have to patch up to the latest version, which should be LOTS of fun. If not, I don't mind dropping 30 bucks for a key plus the goodies that come with it (some jet pack or something).

I'm still annoyed that every time I find a group of CoH players, they're NEVER on Infinity. I must have rolled the freakin' ghetto server when I started.

I'm happy enough to roll a toon on Virtue or something. As I said, I don't necessarily want to GROUP (PuGs are -- or at least were -- generally pretty good at the low levels I was playing) so much as it's nice just to have someone I know to ask stupid questions of...

Like "How can I send tells? What's up with this ridiculous bloody system? Why isn't it working? ARRGH" (something about commas? I don't remember -- just remember it taking me five minutes to work out).

[Lantyssa]

/tell Latency, This is for people on your server.

/tell @Latency, This is for global chat!

I've joined the Batnet channel, so when I'm on you can chat to me there.  You can add channels through the "Tab" tab.

If you are unable to make villains and if you want to save yourself a few dollars, pop by your nearby Fry's or another game store.  I've seen CoH editions sold for $20 or so a lot of places.

[Hutch]

Something else you can do now is rename your characters, and transfer them between servers (for a fee of course).

Although honestly, if none of your characters are higher than level 15, then rolling up a new one on a different server won't cost you that much time, if your intent is to play with people you know.

[Morat20]

Something else you can do now is rename your characters, and transfer them between servers (for a fee of course).

Although honestly, if none of your characters are higher than level 15, then rolling up a new one on a different server won't cost you that much time, if your intent is to play with people you know.

I'll probably reroll on Virtue and annoy Lantyssa in chat. Much like here, but I'll be in spandex.

[Xanthippe]

Any new toons I make will be on Virtue.

I currently have a 32 on Guardian and a 32 on Victory.  I might transfer them to Virtue.

I'm trying some new things too.  Mostly things that kill s-l-o-w-l-y.  I don't know if I really have the patience for that rad/rad defender.  Or if it's worth making.

Anyway, add me to your global chat list. (Zero, not an o at the end).

@Xanthippe0

[Morat20]

Any new toons I make will be on Virtue.

I currently have a 32 on Guardian and a 32 on Victory.  I might transfer them to Virtue.

I'm trying some new things too.  Mostly things that kill s-l-o-w-l-y.  I don't know if I really have the patience for that rad/rad defender.  Or if it's worth making.

Anyway, add me to your global chat list. (Zero, not an o at the end).

@Xanthippe0

One of favorite toons was a rad/rad defender. Of course, he was fun because I grouped with 7 other rad/rad defenders in a supergroup (The Three Mile Island Boy's School for Boys) and exploited the fun stacking of debuffs. Only got him to about level 13, because while he's a blast in a group (especially when grouped with two or more other rad/rad defenders) he is insanely slow to level solo.

I think my favorite toon of all was a simple fire/ice blaster. I remember checking the game out right after they added things like defiance (is that what it's called for blasters? Where damage scales as your health goes down?) and turning into a mega-nuker when I was darn near dead. Was really fun.

[Numtini]

I play a rad/rad defender, the debuffs are incredible. I don't think I get much out of the secondary though.

[Morat20]

I play a rad/rad defender, the debuffs are incredible. I don't think I get much out of the secondary though.

Well, no. Really you just tell everyone "Don't kill my anchor", drop every debuff on god's green earth on them, giggle as it effects all the other mobs, and hover serenly above the fray.

If you're board, you can use X-ray or something and irritate something.

[Numtini]

They always kill the anchor, I don't even bother in PUGs anymore. I just pick a purple towards the back.

[Trippy]

I'll certainly check if I can make Villians -- I have to patch up to the latest version, which should be LOTS of fun. If not, I don't mind dropping 30 bucks for a key plus the goodies that come with it (some jet pack or something).

I'm still annoyed that every time I find a group of CoH players, they're NEVER on Infinity. I must have rolled the freakin' ghetto server when I started.

I'm happy enough to roll a toon on Virtue or something. As I said, I don't necessarily want to GROUP (PuGs are -- or at least were -- generally pretty good at the low levels I was playing) so much as it's nice just to have someone I know to ask stupid questions of...

Like "How can I send tells? What's up with this ridiculous bloody system? Why isn't it working? ARRGH" (something about commas? I don't remember -- just remember it taking me five minutes to work out).

The comma is there cause names can have spaces in there.

If you want people to talk to but not necessarily group with them, search through the global channels and find the most popular ones for your server and join them. Except for Virtue -- on there you want to join VU2008. Freedom and Virtue are the two most active servers. Freedom has the nickname of "Freedumb" and Virtue is the unofficial RP server which means lots of furries, catgirls (as a subspecies of furries), schoolgirls, and "ERP" (Erotic Role Playing aka cybering). If you stay away from Pocket D except as an occassion travel mechanism you can avoid a lot of that, however.

[Signe]

I use Pocket D to travel and there's never anyone in there, unless there's an event and the entrance is there.  I knew it was the RP home, but I didn't know about the furries!   

[Trippy]

I play a rad/rad defender, the debuffs are incredible. I don't think I get much out of the secondary though.

The sound effect for Proton Volley makes up for it though (it's the photon torpedo sound from Star Trek).

[Lantyssa]

I prefer Dark/Dark, but I'm a wannabe goth.

[Xanthippe]

I played my 32 controller today.  Good god, what a lot of fun.  Illusion/force fields - I have this army of mobs - phantasm, phantom army, and a thing that aoe fears. 

I feel like I'm cheating.

By the way, I vaguely recall something about a change so that there's a maximum number of the same slots?  Like 3 or something?

What are the restrictions on slotting?  I have Hasten slotted with 5 somethings.

I wish I could change my fire/fire blaster to a fire/ice blaster.

[stray]

Some rl friends of mine picked this up, so I might resub myself. It's a rare opportunity that I get to play an mmo with people I know.

..

I'll probably quit pretty quickly though, I bet. 

Unless my grav controller is as fun as Xanth makes her Illusion out to be. What's the deal with that anyways? Did they patch in the fun again?

[Trippy]

I played my 32 controller today.  Good god, what a lot of fun.  Illusion/force fields - I have this army of mobs - phantasm, phantom army, and a thing that aoe fears. 

In the good old days you used to be able to have 3 phants and *12* phantom army decoys out at once.

By the way, I vaguely recall something about a change so that there's a maximum number of the same slots?  Like 3 or something?

What are the restrictions on slotting?  I have Hasten slotted with 5 somethings.

I wish I could change my fire/fire blaster to a fire/ice blaster.

ED aka Enhancement Diversification aka "3 minions = 1 hero" aka the largest global nerf in MMORPG history.

The rule of thumb is that you should not slot anything with more than 3 SO equivalents as there's a huge drop off once you get to that point (it actually starts slightly before that but it's not that noticable).

If you want the gory details you can read the Wiki:

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Enhancement_Diversification

[Trippy]

I'll probably quit pretty quickly though, I bet. 

Unless my grav controller is as fun as Xanth makes her Illusion out to be.

No it's not, though I might be somewhat biased since my main is Illusion and I have two more Illusion alts.

Grav has Propel which might be the single most fun attack power in the game. Unfortunately it's incredibly gimped when grouped since much of the time the mob you are trying to hit with it will die while the power is animating. The Grav pet is very cool but of course you have to get to 32 to get it. Wormhole is unique and very powerful but requires coordination with your team if you are grouped which in PUGs is close to impossible.

What's your secondary?

Edit: have

[stray]

Kinetics. I have two grav/kin actually, one is 31, one in his teens (but on a better server, with a cooler name...so I prefer to play that one).

In addition to propel, I recall that I started depending upon some kind of punching power in the flight tree instead. It was decent dmg (for a grav controller) and not as slow. Still was a bitch to take things down though.

[Trippy]

Air Superiority -- the best pool power attack in the game and better than many power set attacks as well.

Grav/Kin is okay. Kin is a great team power set and people will invite you just for that if they know you have it. Unfortunately that means they also expect you to be constantly buffing them with Speed Boost which is a fricking pain in the ass (my main mentioned above is Ill/Kin).

Unfortunately there's not a whole bunch of synergy with Grav. Grav can do a lot of damage against single targets but since you don't have an AoE attack (your AoE immobilize doesn't really count as an attack) Fulcrum Shift isn't as effective a combo as it is with some other power sets (like Fire/Kin *cough*). Singy doesn't do much damage (it's a control-type pet) so Speed Boost/Siphon Power/Fulcrum Shift on it doesn't really help you kill much faster. You can't heal it with Transfusion either, not that you really need to.

[stray]

Yeah, air superiority... That's it.

I'll be playing with two other people for the most part, so that might make it tolerable enough.

Seems like grav is just where it always was though. And fire is still superior, just like it was years ago. That blows.  I thought there was some unwritten rule that every mmo class gets it's day in the sun eventually? 

Oh well, I still like the idea behind the gravity powers, and couldn't reroll him to something else even if I wanted to, simply because the name wouldn't work for anything else.

[Ragnoros]

Bug me @Ragnoros

I play on Virtue, anything I can do to help.

You can get the Good vs Evil edition of CoX for like 12 bucks SHIPPED on Amazon.

If your wanting to find something out try The Guide to Guides on the CoX official forums. Or just ask me, if I could turn my knowledge of stupid MMORPG data into a job I would be set.

[stray]

By the way, is anyone here on Freedom?

[edit] Fucking cocksuckers of the highest order. They deleted my name.  

Guess I'm not playing. Should have bought a gumjob instead.

[Tebonas]

I have a midlevel Ice/Healwhatitsname Controller from back in the day. Does solo levelling still hurt like stabbing yourself in the eye with a rusty fork repeatedly?

[Trippy]

Well Empathy isn't going to help you soloing except for a minor heal but Controllers got an "inherent" called Containment which makes your attacks do double damage against targets that are held, immobilized, slept or disoriented. That helps a lot when soloing. Also exp gain is faster now.

Edit: you have some aura buffs too but those are on long timers.

[Typhon]

[edit] Fucking cocksuckers of the highest order. They deleted my name.  

Guess I'm not playing. Should have bought a gumjob instead.

This is what is making me reluctant to re-sub.  I managed to score a number of (what I think are) good names and it would be very disheartening to login to find that, not only do I no longer have my name, but some jackass actually has my name.

[stray]

I had the perfect name for a grav controller. Grip. 

RIP Grip.

[tazelbain]

And people who wanted to play the game couldn't find any good names because they were all taken by inactive accounts.

[stray]

So what. I payed for a box and about 12 months subbing overall. At the very least, let me keep my fucking name.

..

Sigh. Oh well, it's done now.

[tazelbain]

It is interesting that a purely comedic change is stopping you from playing.  Like Angy Bob and his medal for not dying in LoTRO.

[stray]

Perhaps if it was WoW, I wouldn't care. But this game encourages personalization more than other mmo's. You're encouraged to be creative, "roleplay", and get thematic right from the get go. The biggest strength of CoH is how it allows you to put your own stamp on the character. And now I've been screwed out of that too. So I'm not sure what's so comedic about it. I no longer have the same character that I made anymore. That sucks.