Az005

Oh really? My Dom eats Malta alive and giggles.

KoA with their difficult detection are far tougher for him.

My Scrapper has no real issues with them or Malta for that matter, but as far as things go I think we can all agree they are tougher then most groups out there.

It was so much fun reading the stories submitted by other players both in th backgrounder and in the thread, it makes the gameworld seem that much more alive to see hero names you recognise there.

Sorry for the double post.

Just wanted to comment on some of the other back stories.

I was very fond of Empress' Riving, if you don't mind me asking what are the Powersets for that one?

The Rock demons were great too, excellent character sense conveyance.

Kasosh's Lares and Gold Wolf gave me a big smile also.

Doctor Crom's is excellent, chilling with so few words.

EMCTrap.... classic... blogging *giggles*

I really get a kick out of trying to compress a snapshot of the character into a small space. All of my in game bios a written in first person as if someone has asked them about themself.

I'd rather not swamp the thread, especially seeing as I don't normally post in this part of the CoX forum world, but these are a couple of them...

Stormin' Glow (Ill/Storm)

Yeah the smile is meant to throw ya, misdirection about the last trick I have.

I can tell you this though; I’m dead, dead as a doornail. Not that I didn’t deserve it, hell I deserved worse… but I guess got worse didn’t I…

You see I spent my life a glorified murderer. “Meta-Human and Magical target risk assessor”, I worked out where to put the bullet, to put things simply. I couldn’t even count how many people have died because of me, and I can count pretty high, I took advanced calculus.

Though those dead souls, some of them weren’t well lets just say… humourless.

They brought me back, and they haunt my every step. They call it penance, I call it annoying, at any rate… let’s get to it.


Guardian Ballos (Fire/BA)

I have always been pretty good at cutting deals, tactical negotiations. When you have lost everything dear to you, it’s just that much easier. I have bartered my soul to scores of insane shamans and gods of the underworld, the trick was to give them just enough so they spend as much time as possible arguing amongst themselves as to who gets what.

What I got for my troubles was the power, skill and magic to avenge my family. Sure I turn into a giant, demon, axe wielding, fire wolf now; but your average executive can’t just go turn crime-fighter because some sickos kill his family. You need an angle, mine cost me my soul, and I just hope I have given myself enough time.


My favorite is that of my "handle" character Azazel005, but I don't have it here, I shall try and pop it in another time.

That's me! Or rather Mem, who is superhero me...

I haven't even replied to Poision yet since getting the final version of the piece, I have been too giggly excited to form proper sentences about it.

I am utterly thrilled with the picture, both the eyes and the smirk are so brilliantly captured and the cracks in the skin were so perfect. Poison managed to mesh a very superheroey look with very human qualities, that is he's a guy, not a chislled Jaw should be an actor guy, but a guy (albeit with damn fine abs).

You see what I mean about the not forming sentences so good.

Its really a total thrill to have a character I have spent so much time with and thought into, and indeed, in a way "become" a version of me, drawn up so brilliantly, Poison has my most sincere gratitude there, which when I get the power of sentences back I will no doubt say again, via e-mail.

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You know what amazes me most about reading all this? The fact a thread like this is needed. That people have the hide to behave in a rude fashion to someone doing them a favour, particularlily such as art which is an impressive and entirely marketable skill.

I am one who as much as any loves my characters, and cannot draw at all. Yet while I frquent this area of the boards to see some of the work, which in most cases is simply a joy too look at, I cannot concieve of asking someone to draw my characters out of the blue. I do hope anyone that has made such a request reads this thread and realises that courtesy and a willingness to remunterate an artist in some fashion are necessary to any such requests.

I have had a commission done once, and been so very pleased with the results, and I hope I was always positive and helpful to the artist I was paying.

Art is not a basic skill, especially art of someone elses vision. Any artist willing to take on your vision, be it due to a paid commission or shear kindness deserves the utmost courtesy.

People really try that "you can use it for practice" crap? Really the hide of some people amaze me.

Finally another reason I posted if you have helped someone out here with art and they haven't been able to trade anything back, and you happen to be on Liberty, or have toons that need influence, send a tell to my Global. Kindness shouldn't ever go entirely un-rewarded. (plus it gives me an excuse to play my fifty more just for fun)

Never forget that message boards are an autocratic societies and you will seldom be worried.

That's a damn nice breakdown. So many people seem to not have Mayhem missions down, and it's a shame because they are missing some of the most pure FUN you can have villian side.

One point I would like to add regarding the timer, quoting Spoon "Don't let it get you down".

Anything clocked makes you feel like you have to rush, rushing aggro's more mobs and spawns more ambushes.

Take your time a bit, get a kick out of smashing things, killing PPD and tracking down some side missions.

and just to stress Silvarspars point once more STAY TOGETHER! The spawns are designed to be fought by your team, you split up you are going to find yourselves out of depth.

I use to hate Mayhem, now I think they are the most fun of all the missions I play, robbing, kidnapping most of the time I trash the police station just for the hell of it.

I wanna go smash something right now...

Hehehe, even or you are not interested in Doms it's hilariously written.

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 solo’s 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 isn’t 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 didn’t run it that many times. It’s 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. It’s 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 can’t 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. Don’t buy any enhancers, sure you may be missing a lot but the progress here is generally so rapid, it’s not really a great chore.

In those hiccup spots, that’s 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 don’t 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 it’s 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

It’s 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; it’s also a good time to re-think whether you like the character or its not playing the way you want. You haven’t lost that much time and if you aren’t 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 aren’t 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 don’t 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, it’s 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 shouldn’t 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. It’s 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 DO’s.

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, SO’s and all the fun stuff down the line…

HAVE FUN!

I too have been heartened by the level of assitance and acceptance all over the Server. I can't remember anyone specifically and I apologise for that, but Heroes have zipped by more than once and saved me after I have bitten off more than I can chew.

It's one of the elements that make this game such a fun one to play...