Just a quick little guide based on the fact that I have seen lots of posts and players having trouble grinding out the early game.
Feeling like a powerhouse levels 1 through 15
The levels of CoX are considered by most to be rather a chore. Constant missing of foes, too few attacks in-effective defences and getting hospitalised by a street force of level 7 thugs while you just try and get to your dang mission without super movement.
True they go by fairly quickly, but for many players, especially with the inclusion of Lieutenants spawning in solo missions. They simply feel too weak and not super at all.
Reading over the boards I have seen more and more frustrations about these levels, and decided I would try and offer some assistance from my point of view.
I recently played the first 15 levels with every archetype on both the Rogue islands and in Paragon city, quickly and with a lot of fun, picking up a few things along the way. In addition so many build guides and advice that one will read are often geared at a final picture of ones hero/villain which can be daunting and leave you wondering just what to do in these early levels.
Disclaimer: I would wager I have much less experience then most players that post on the message boards, and less mathematical analysis of the hard data. What I offer here is my experience and the learning curve of breaking those early levels that being a big fan of Alternates I have endured a lot of. Nonetheless take all advice as neither gospel nor the only way I simply hope to help.
Step 1
Archetype and Powerset selection
Ok, there is plenty of advice, and plenty of questions about which one solos fastest and is the toughest and what not. The plain clear reality in Player vs. Enemy, almost all builds can function just fine. In these formative levels most builds seem fairly similar, they will either have a few attacks and defences of a few attacks and some other tricks.
It isnt till later levels that obvious differences and special roles that they began to fill. My advice here is simply pick what you want and learn to play as you go, much advice on the boards will mirror this play to your style is common advice, and it is good advice indeed.
Then there is all that pretty stuff, costumes, names, history and such and such
just go and do that.
Step 2
The Tutorial
Its not a bad place to grab a level fairly safely, though admittedly, I am sick of it and didnt run it that many times. Its not too difficult to grab that first level in either the tutorial or grinding out on the streets in your first zone.
Step 3
Kicking butt and taking names
Levels 1-5
Formative Powers and slots
This is the selection that will form the basics of your fighting for quite some time. The fast recharge common attacks which do all your work. Its worth noting at this point that virtually the entire game does, at the core, revolve around defeating enemies, so whatever role you end up filling, these levels should still provide you with the basic tools to
defeat stuff
At level five you will have 4 powers, preferably at least two should give you offensive capacity, even if not directly. And these two should get both the slots respectively at level 3 and 5, irrespective of Archetype (ok there are a few exceptions). Slotting other powers will generally be a waste of time; most other types of effects cant really start being enhanced until level twelve and the availability of Dual Origin enhancements.
Economically, trying a variety of different things during these levels the best result seemed to be just selling everything you get from drops. Dont buy any enhancers, sure you may be missing a lot but the progress here is generally so rapid, its not really a great chore.
In those hiccup spots, thats where you need to count on inspirations to cover the gaps the character has. Try not to let inspirations store up un-necessarily. And simply blow off inspirations you wont. When you end up with 4 stamina/catch a breath/blues inspirations just blow them off to make room for the Accuracy/Insight/Yellows you will need for that odd orange Lieutenant.
Finally get into the habit of realising some conflicts are a lost cause. Some fights will require you to take a quick tactical retreat that is not a fault, its just clever play. Sure you dont get debt but there is no need to fight to the death for no gain. A small retreat will save you time, and mean that the damaged minions will still be heavily damaged. They regenerate health very slowly remember its often easier to deal them death or significant damage, flee, come back finish them and get to work on the bigger enemies.
This process going from 1 to 5 generally takes only about an hour or two at maximum, even on the less combat based Archetypes.
Level 6 Power selections
Its now with the opening of a power pool that you may have some slightly trickier choices to make, start opening fitness? Get ready for travel? Tidy up that attack chain? You should however start to have a feel for what the character needs at this point. My corrupter was taking far to much melee damage at this time, so Hover was a great choice to keep the plebeians off my case. I was using brawl more than I would like for my Brute so decided to start opening up the fighting pool and cleaning up my attack chain. My defender was dealing perfectly fine damage at that point so I decided to get a leg up on the fitness pool. You should be starting to feel the character out; its also a good time to re-think whether you like the character or its not playing the way you want. You havent lost that much time and if you arent happy here maybe scrap him and try to rebuild him.
Still using the same combat tactics here guys and you should be fine, you have more inspiration slots now, and you should still be selling all your enhancements pooling up some tidy little influence/infamy.
Level 7 Training Enhancements
I hear you; I hear you all Training enhancements are useless? I am not wasting money on them!!
Well, they arent a lot of use true, but they are all you have right now and while most people slot their drops, I tried something different. And it work so neatly I just stuck with it the whole way.
Hitting 7 gives you a few more slots to beef those attacks up, you likely have at least three here, or at the very least three weapons in your arsenal that have a to hit check even if they dont really do damage. Those three are what you should have 3 slotted, go to the store spend 9 grand, and get 9 Accuracy training enhancements.
In the grand scheme, its only on Double origin you have cost yourself, and you have effectively brought yourself to, or close to, the accuracy cap against even level and plus one enemies.
Life gets much easier, you are not going to have to sit and watch you attacks whiff over and over and over and over and over anymore. You should hit more often then you miss, and hence will be a lot safer a lot tougher and be having a lot more fun.
It also means you can continue to just sell all your drops, and start saving for those Double origins, you shouldnt need or really even find much use for more enhancements until then. Gaps in your character are better fixed at this point with new powers. For example I am not doing enough damage? take new attack rather then the minor changes in damage Training will provide. I am dying to much look for attacks and powers that offer some self heal, early travel powers, stealth, or targeted damage mitigation (fear, immobilize etc.)
In the Rogue Isles you will also have a chance to take a Mayhem mission about now, and it should be a breeze, it was for EVERY villain I used in this test. Allowing me access to my jetpack and flight to get around making those constant store runs very easy.
Levels 8 - 15
Cleaning up the gaps and preparing for Double Origins and Travel
The strategy should be pretty set by now, you are taking powers to fill you gaps, and slotting accuracy when possible for any of your powers that require an accuracy check. Its during these levels that most characters will be preparing for travel. Meaning one of your power choices prior to 14 will need to be opening the travel power pool, and your power at 14 will be the full travel.
This should mean you have quite a few slots to a lot to old powers, which should generally go into 5 slotting your core attacks. Preparing them for the 2 accuracy 3 damage Double Origin enhancements. This may vary more than any other per archetype, defenders may be looking at enhancing their other abilities and Tanks starting to think about bolstering their defences.
Even so, Double Origins still wont have a grand effect on this kind of powers, at least not as noticeable effect as they will have on the combat powers. So keep that in mind.
At level twelve if you had purchased a large set of Training enhancers at 7 and sold all your drops until this point. You should have around 50k influence/infamy this is a tidy amount to get you started, and should at least see your accuracy mostly replaced with DOs.
Working your way to 15 should give you the rest of the cash you need. So when you get your first title, you will feel like its damn appropriate and your ready start preparing for Stamina, SOs and all the fun stuff down the line
HAVE FUN!