I've been playing CO and LOTRO since the shutdown. I played both of these games in beta, so I decided to go back and see if they had improved.
CO: once you get past the fact that it does not behave like you want it to (like Coh, the best game in the 'verse), it is quite enjoyable. Keep that energy builder going, and spam those self-heals, and your toon can grind away in MC. The primary downer is the lack of teaming. Hopefully, the influx of us CoX refugees will improve the situation.
What are these things of which you speak? The absolute lack of help in any way there is keeping me from getting anywhere.
Let me see if I can help as well. Hyperstrike and others are hitting parts of this, but let me come at it from my POV as well.
Let's take care of the easiest one first:
MC in local lingo is
Millennium City formerly (in the timeline) known as Detroit, Michigan. AKA the main "Hub" zone of the game.
(Not to be confused with
MI. If someone uses MI - they are likely referring to
Monster Island. Don't worry about that one yet - you'll need to be in your high 20s (at least 27) before you consider going there. Officially it's a level 30 zone. What is Monster Island? Exactly what it says on the tin. There's even a Mecha Godzilla stomping around out there in the jungle!)
Energy Builder: This is one of two powers you get at the start of the game.
The game does not let you build a character without an energy builder. It also will not allow you more than one. See the Green and Blue bars next to your character portrait? Same deal as in COH. Green is health and Blue is Endurance. All the rest of your powers drain that blue bar. It replenishes on it's own slowly. Too slowly to be of use in combat.
Your energy builder power does the opposite - it ADDS to the blue bar - VERY fast.
As Eliot Lefebvre of Massively's "Mild Mannered Reporter" puts it:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/12/26/a-mild-mannered-reporter-tips-for-city-of-heroes-refugees-in-ch/Your energy builder is not an attack
CoH had a brilliant system in which your earliest attacks were not your weakest, simply your most reliable and consistent. As a result, your first power chosen was your bread-and-butter default attack most of the time, with the only exception coming for archetypes with unusual layouts. And there's a temptation to think the same way with CO, that you select your first two powers as a freeform character in a manner reminiscent of CoH.
This is an incorrect assumption. Your first power, your energy builder, is not an attack.
If you want to be pedantic, you can argue that it is, since you're using it to do damage. But the damage it does is negligible at best. An energy builder's real role is to do just what it says: build up your energy when it falls too low for you to do anything else. Your real powers start with your second choice, and the limitation on only one energy builder is to prevent you from really screwing up your build.
This might seem a bit restrictive, but in many ways it's actually a benefit. You turn on your auto-attack and let your builder go to work and just manage your actual powers when you've got energy. It's similar in some ways to the usual flow of Endurance in CoH except that it bottoms out and you fill it back up. There's a bit more thought involved than with three-slotted Stamina, but not much.
Within the blue bar is a vertical hash mark. If you're just sitting there doing nothing, the blue bar will move up to that hash mark and stop. That's your
Equilibrium marker. Your energy builder power when spammed will add Endurance PAST that mark until it fills the entire bar. When you stop spamming it, the blue bar slowly drains back to the Equilibrium marker. If you use other powers, the blue bar drains as normal.
The Equilibrium Marker is based on your
Recovery Stat. The higher your Recovery, the higher (further to the right) the hashmark is placed. That means you initially start with more Endurance in a fight.
(Yes - it is possible to have that E-Point ALL the way over to the right. Generally you see that with Freeform builds of experienced players who have decided to build a character using Recovery as the Primary stat and then have spent talents and gear to boost it further. A couple of Silver ATs also have Recovery as a primary stat, but you have fewer opportunities to boost it in that fashion on a Silver. For most builds and toons it's not necessary. If you've got the E-point generally in the middle of the bar or a little to the right, you're doing fine.)
If you have the E-point too far to the left (Not enough recovery) then you'll spend a lot more time spamming the energy builder. If you don't want to do that, then you might consider a respec or to find gear that has Recovery stat boosts.
Obviously more Recovery is a good thing. If Recovery is not one of your primary or secondary stats, then applying "Talents" as the game makes them available and using at least some of them to boost Recovery would be a good idea.
Speaking of which -
Talents - You are given Talent points during the game. You get a total of 6 total by the time you reach level 25.
These are separate from Power Points or Advantage points. Each talent point can buy a stat boost. They boost 1 stat for +8, 2 stats for +5 apiece, or multiple stats for varying amounts (which are easy to read.)
If a Talent is boosting one of your Primary or Secondary Stats then that stat will be highlighted.
A personal tip on talents: I have always found it it more efficient to take as many of the +5 Dual Stat Talents as possible Rather than using the +8 Stat Talents.
Take for example Cyberman 8. Look at his innate characteristic - "The Fist"
Notice that the inherent boosts to three of his stats are for Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. I chose Dexterity as his primary and STR and INT as his secondarys.
His first 3 Talents are:
Martial Focus: +5 STR, +5 DEX
Coordinated: +5 DEX, +5 INT
Body and Mind: +5 STR, +5 INT
Notice that that gives me +10 on each Primary and Secondary Stat, where I would only have +8 if I'd bought the single stat boost.
The last three talent points I bought are as follows:
Acrobat: +5 CON, +5 DEX
Impresario: +5 DEX, +5 REC
Covert Ops Training: +3 CON, +3 STR, +3 DEX, +3 INT
That gives me a total of +8 Constitution that boosts my health. A bit of boost on Recovery (I keep an eye out for + Recovery Gear often) and a Further +3 Boost across my Primary and secondary stats.
Totals: +23 DEX, +13 STR, +13 INT, +8 CON, +5 REC
This is just one example of course, but I hope it illustrates how things work.
Self Heals: There are specific powers in the game that you can select (if you are a freeform) or are part of silver Archetypes that a character can activate to heal themselves. A couple of power sets - most notably Celestial, are geared toward healing others.
Silver ATs - particularly melee and ranged classes like Fire and Force blasters don't have any of those powers. A character built on silver ATs appears not to have any self heal options.
Which is not to say your only option for self healing is to have a heal boost in your devices tray.
I want to point out that there are certain Advantages that some powers have which can boost or heal hit points. And Skills in the Specialization trees can also provide self heals on a situational basis. Take for example the following:
Ego weaponry is your bread and butter attack from the Ego Blades set. The Disciple AT uses it. Take note what it says up there - it swaps EXTRA DAMAGE for HEALING on Critical hits!
Generally speaking, if you're using the Ego Weaponry set of powers, you're going for increased crit chance as much as possible anyway. Even a 25% Crit chance on a character is enough to get a substantial heal from the above combination in a pinch. Even if you're a Disciple AT and have -nothing- else as a self heal, you can take that.
Advantage and specialization points are still under your control even as a Silver player. Again - this is one example. There are other options for self-healing.
One of the specialization skills gives you Health points back whenever you defeat an enemy. If you're being mobbed by a bunch of scrub mooks, just turn on an AOE Damage power and as they fall, you get back health. In a situation like that, you almost CAN'T DIE. (BTW Just as an aside - that Specialiation Skill is one that anyone trying to simulate a Warshade should take a close look at. )
If you do have the option - as a freeform character or an AT with self-healing powers - TAKE IT. Take it as early as you can.
So - briefly again on self-heals - take them if you can. If you can't, look at your options in the advantages for your powers or in the specialization tree.
I hope this helps. Feel free to ask anything else.
(Edit: Photobucket is now a PAY SITE. DO NOT USE!)
