Who Am I?
CyberWoLfman's Web Asylum
CoH tips AKA City of Heroes tips AKA New Player Tips for CoH for playing on Homecoming Server
➢ New! Created a video tour of the base created for new players on the Excelsior shard with base passcode RADICAL-7910! Only about five minutes in duration and features a flying werewolf!
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➢ Created by a player who has been playing the City of Heroes game since (at least) ⌚ For those interested, here's a short list of other things I've done to help others and the world like telling them of Drinking Water Safety, warming them of Climate Change AKA Climate Breakdown, Sea Level Rise, Global Warming and Fossil Fuels. Also made some pages that're probably only of interest to other nerds like the Colour Codes and Colour Names page. Maybe, someday, I can return to doing the other things I used to do to help others, including giving cash prizes to the top trivia scorers in my 3D world's (This Is It) trivia game like I did every month for years using my own money to encourage people to learn, even though I was (and have been most of my adult life) living under the FPL AKA Federal Poverty Level. Why? Because I thought it was important to help others).
While I'd like to do more to help than simply making more help and tip pages (or doing it other ways and any other way I can think of), I'm an elderly disabled veteran with severe Hmm . . . Have they (or the trolls in-game, in City of Heroes) seen my Life Rules page? Well, someone's certainly in for a surprise, eh? 🤣 Mea culpa, just needed to vent . . . But, if you're curious, read more of my ranting on the Front Door of this site. If you're not, continue to scroll down.
Okay, some of the new things I've come up with, including the differently-coloured mouse-over words (
That, and something I did just for laughs after making a YouTube channel under my real name and posting my very first 'short' video (which is kind of low-quality, as it's my first) on YouTube, It's Raining Men! MC Escher inspired video of scrapyarders in the City of Heroes game, after learning more about Here's my CyberWoLfman channel on YouTube, if you're inclined to subscribe! |
| City of Heroes is back!
No, seriously! It's official, now! 👍 After word got out that City of Heroes Homecoming Server was now officially licensed by NCSoft, there was a massive climb in server population! The Server Status page showed that there were thousands of players logged in! Click on the image to see it full-sized (449kB file size). Picture taken shortly before 6:00 P.M. Eastern, Stateside. The person floating just below the centre of the picture is one of my mastermind characters named Eldritch |
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* ⌚ Latest update on November 1st, 2024:
The Homecoming Server's City of Heroes name release starts today! If you have a name you want to keep on a character that's not level 50 (and isn't a PvP-only character called a temporal warrior), you need to log in and do something about it.
Or, if you want a name that you like that was probably released because a player stopped playing the game, you can log in and either change the name of one of your characters to it or make a new character with that name.
💡 Just so you know, this might be the last time I update this page for a while, except in the case of something major being changed in the game. In which case, I might let you know about it if I catch news of it. But, you should keep up-to-date with what's going on with the game, yourself, by checking the Homecoming Server's City of Heroes Forums, which should be updated far more often than this page.
And, in my case, I'm frequently making changes to Web pages like this one and then getting distracted with something else (their name is Legion, these distractions!) and it doesn't get put on the Web server until I'm looking through directories, see the modified date on files and . . . 🤦♂️
I have a lot of real world stuff going on right now and also trying to learn more and do more, such as making more videos for my TheREALCyberWoLfman channel on YouTube. However, the majority of things I want to do aren't possible to do there and there's multiple bugs I've found just trying to create a Short, so . . . It's slow going and I'm constantly using trial and error to get things to work that should work, but don't. Which, essentially, has been the case with most things, especially human technology, which is why I usually end up making a lot of my own stuff .
Maybe, someday, humans will start making things that work the way they're supposed to and are built to last? Heh. I made a funny!!🤣
* ⌚ Previous update on September 5th, 2024:
〽️ Finally finished coding and then I uploaded a newer version of this Web page with the left-side navigation bar AKA navbar, so people can find things they want as quickly as possible! Then, I made its background a little darker so it'd better contrast with the white text, so those with poorer vision can read it better.
👈 That thing, over there!
Tried to make a work-around for those using mobile devices so they can put their finger over the differently-coloured mouse-over words and phrases to get the tooltip to come up (example ) because for some reason, nobody who makes the Web browsers for the smart phones and other mobile devices has figured out that they don't work for them and fixed it!
But . . . That didn't work!
There's so many things that need fixing in this world. Not the least of which is human intolerance, hate, greed, cruelty and sadism, but sometimes, I wonder how humans ever got out of the Bronze Age ! Although, this is the species that's destroying their own habitat (Earth) for coloured pieces of paper which have no real value (fiat currencies ), so, I probably shouldn't be too surprised . . .
It's just . . . Well, all the things I do to help others and have done for decades (like giving cash prizes to the top trivia scorers in my 3D world for at least six years, despite the fact that I was living under the poverty level because I thought that encouraging people to learn might make the world a better place), is done because I feel it's the right thing to do.
I get no recognition, no appreciation, I don't make any money from it, and to be honest, I'm getting older, I have to fight to get even basic healthcare or the prescriptions I need and I've been waiting for a copy of my medical records since 2012. The American healthcare system is a joke known world-wide! Inflation keeps going up but what many of us are getting isn't matching that. It's frustrating as Hell and it seems like things are never going to get better. 😣
But . . . I'm going to keep trying, even though most days, I feel nothing but pain and frustration! And, the nightmares? Let's not go there! But, I've had physical and emotional trauma most of my life and just tried to get through it without retaliating, burying the intense pain and the soul-ripping emotions I felt as well as I could, struggling to get through it, sometimes barely holding on second by second. Yet, I'm certain others have had similar experiences and maybe even worse ones. If the few of us who are trying to make a difference give up all hope and stop trying . . . All that will remain are the monsters, tearing the world apart and trying to make everyone's life a living Hell.
My traumatic life events? Most of them aren't very pleasant . . . One of the minor examples was being hit by a driver while riding a bicycle and almost getting killed and after I lied to the cop, saying the driver didn't hit me (I had insurance and I never got the whole greed thing), she was overjoyed because her insurance wouldn't go up.
What I've learned when I was much younger is that human kindness is an oxymoron. They prey upon those who are different, who are weak, who don't fit in and believe anything they do to someone like that is a-okay and their actions are justified. Don't believe me? Just ask anyone who's been seen as being different since the day they were born and were treated as such. History books don't tell the whole story and they're written by the winners and the atrocities they've committed are either not mentioned at all or are barely mentioned and they cite excuses for why they did such things, even claiming, in many cases, that they were 'just following orders ', as if that was a legitimate reason to do something wrong to others.
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(For those who want to get a quick start and don't have time to read the full Web page. Yes, I know, I'm a wordy fellow, but, I'm not as bad as a certain red side AKA villain side giant monster by the name of
💡 Play ☺nice☺ with others and don't be an 😡a-hole!😡 If you're frequently rude, insulting, Want to find the 🧌 🪳 trolls 🪳 🧌 on a shard fast to add them to your Ignore list? Simply copy and paste the URL to this page and paste it into that shard's General channel or Help channel during prime time in the Unted States. You'll be quickly rewarded with complaints from that shard's trolling arsworms and can easily click on each name and choose to ignore each of them. It's like fishing with a bait that never fails! LOL
💡 If you want to see how well your character's build might work in the upper levels before you spend a lot of time levelling it up, activate the
Many new players frequently get their characters levelled up via things like fire farm teams in the
My advice? Either way you do it (on the main shards or on Open Beta), play your build solo every few levels (on the Open Beta, you can simply click the speech bubble icon named Using a /respec on a higher-level character after you decide you need to make some serious changes is not only time-consuming but also annoying, as you have to clear and re-arrange all the icons on your Power Trays. So, for those who aren't certain of the character they want to make and take the time to get to level 50, the Open Beta is the best place to try it out, first, and, you can get that character to level 50 with a click on the Freebies Menu! Or, you can try one of my suggestions for the easiest characters to play.
💡 Pick the game shard(s) to play on that best suits you. For example: if your primary time in the game is during the
Unfortunately, many new players go to the If you're short on patience, it might be better for you to play your characters on a less-busy shard for a little while as the new players are becoming familiar (or remembering how to play for those who are returning to the game after being away from it for years, with some not having played it for possibly over a decade) with the game and everything in it.
Character names: For those returning to the game who might have found out that a character name they wanted to use is already taken (which is more likely to be the case on Of course, if you've tried out the character you want to play on the Open Beta, you've probably become familiar with it enough to think of at least a few unique names for that character. If you have a few to many choices you want to use and they're in order by which you like best to the least, you can save yourself some frustration upon character creation when you make it on one of the main shards. If the name you wanted most is already taken, you simply choose the next one instead of having to come up with another while you're staring at the screen for a while before deciding to just go with something you made up quickly as a temporary solution until you think of something better later on. 💡 You can get around inside the game a lot faster than relying solely on the Monorail or Ferry! Check out the TP Hubs for community use that I made for you and the list of other ways to get around faster!
💡 Vidiotmaps not only show you badge locations on individual maps, but, also, spawn sites for the Giant Monsters AKA GMs (not including special-instance GMs such as the 💡 Exploration badges are required for some stat-enhancing and power-giving accolade badges.
⚠ 🕵 Player anonymity: 🕵 ⚠ Don't believe that you're anonymous if you're using a VPN or relying only on using a different IP address, One of the things most people seem to forget is that, while they're doing the most basic things like using a VPN and changing their MAC address, all the devices hooked up to their router can be accessed through it. Even Google does this, as anyone who's logged in via a mobile device in their home and gotten the message that there's a number displayed on their flatscreen so they can link it to your account can tell you.
Some governments, corporations and . . . others link your real life information to everything that you do on-line, including building Ask yourself this: When is the best time to gather such information? The answer, of course, is when people don't realise that it's being done and believe that they are anonymous when they most definitely aren't. It's also how you can discover someone's true nature. See what they do, especially when money and/or power is involved and they believe there's little chance of there being any consequences for their actions. You'll quickly learn that many people have never matured past being grade-school bullies! In time, however, even your memories won't be private, even after you're dead, and all that you've thought, done or said will become known. Anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't really been paying attention to the fast-growing trend in technology or thought about where it could go and what it could be used for. The track record of history with new technologies has proven overwhelmingly that the very first uses of new technology is usually for the military and/or surveillance.
Your privacy? Do you really think you have any rights to privacy in this modern era, where
How do I know these things? I pre-date people like Edward Snowden by decades (but, I try to keep a lower profile in the interest of If you're curious about me, read the (probably very out-of-date) Who Am I Web page, which I haven't updated in years! LOL
Few people are laughing at those who want privacy, now, after public disclosures of bulk data collection, ECHELON, PRISM, Pegasus, XKeyscore, MUSCULAR, MYSTIC, IMSI-catchers, BULLRUN, FinSpy, Tempora, RAMPART-A, |
Page Links AKA Page Sections:
➢ Page introduction. Reasons this New Player Tips for CoH page was created, game server status link and a note on gaming addiction.
➢ TP Hubs for Community Use. Each TP hub has portals inside you can click on to go to most of the zones in the game and they're all sorted!
➢ Other Ways to Get Around Faster, including the LFG queueing trick. Possibly seen as cheating (by a few players, primarily those who never had to badge-hunt in zones like the Shadow Shard!), in some cases, these will allow you to get from one place or another faster than going to a Base Portal. You can also earn some travel powers for free just by visiting a zone and getting a badge such as the Ouroboros Portal summoning power at level 1!
➢ Game shards. The game shards are like individual communities where multiple people play the game together, forming teams or playing in solo mode.
➢ Easiest Characters to Play! Although some might think otherwise, having summonable combat pets doing all the hard work for you means that on many of the easier missions, you can just walk through the mission maps, letting them defeat all your enemies for you.
➢ Free Powers and the S.T.A.R.T. Store.
➢ Giant Monsters AKA GMs. (GMs in this case are giant monsters and not to be confused with the game masters, who are the official helpers for the game.) Earn some fast reward merits, XP and badges, some of which are required for accolade powers! They're announced in the Event channels and people form teams for them in the Looking For Group channel so you can get in on them!
➢ How to Level Up Faster! Team up for
➢ Enhancement Procs. These are enhancements that you can slot, which will give you things like more recovery, more regeneration, better chance to hit, status resistance, more defence, more damage resistance and so on.
➢ Linux issues. Tips for playing the City of Heroes game on Linux!
➢ More Information and Tips. Stuff that didn't fit in anywhere else, but, it includes useful things to know!
➢ City of Heroes Homecoming Server's Official and Unofficial pages. You can try the links on the Homecoming Server's Wiki site or do a search for what you're trying to find if you know what it is.
➢ Other Pages on This Site. For those who are bored enough to see the rest of this Web site, although the other pages might be older and not mobile-friendly, either.
Other City of Hero Type Pages on This Site:
➢ Some of my characters in the City of Heroes game page! :-) Only has a few pictures on it, so far, but, I'll try to put more up, later.
➢ The City of Heroes Easter Eggs page.
This page is primarily designed to help the new players for the game. ☺
Doing my best to do what's right and try to make the world a better place for all even if, this time, it's just in a video game! ☺ Yes, I know, I'm a dreamer . . .
You can give this Web page out in chat using the TinyURL: https://tinyurl.com/coh-homecoming-tips :-)
One of the things I like to do is to help people in the resurrected City of Heroes game, that people can play for free on City of Heroes Homecoming.
The good news for some of us is that you can now play City of Heroes on Linux, although virtualization is also an option.
This could be a way to get another member of your family to play the game with you, if you have an older computer that doesn't meet the minimum system requirements of the latest version of microsoft windows! The minimum system requirements to play the game are (according to the following link that I last checked on October 4th, 2023):
1 GHz Dual Core processor (AMD/Intel 32 or 64 bit).
2 GB of RAM.
A video card capable of OpenGL 2.0/3/0.
6-12GB free drive space (the page said hard drive space, but, newer systems use SSDs, and, let's face it, programs installed on SSDs boot up a lot faster than those installed on HDDs).
What works for many is following the simple instructions on the Homecoming Wiki page about how to get the City of Heroes running on Linux, and, if you want to make switching windows easier, choose to run it windowed in Options, Graphics and Audio tab, Graphics section, with the clickable drop-down menu option. You might need to change your user interface for each character after doing so, but, I suppose it's a choice of which is least annoying to you.
Basically, you just install WINE (which can be found in your system's Software Manager or whatever your operating system calls it), and, after downloading the Homecoming installer, right-click on it and choose to open it with WINE (which you might have to type in the box if it's not listed). No need for Lutris, et cetera.
But, to be safe, you should make back-ups of the important stuff before doing anything and possibly make back-ups of your back-ups. Some of us simply store our files on a different drive than what our operating system and programs are on and make back-ups of that once in a while. Because, let's face it, sometimes drives fail. While you're about it, you can also download the latest .iso file of your preferred Linux distribution and make a bootable disc and a bootable USB stick, if possible (you can choose to boot into whichever you have in your motherboard's BIOS).
💡 One of the most important tips of all for new players in the City of Heroes game is to ignore all 🧌 🪳 trolls 🪳 🧌 (AKA cyberabusers or cyberbullies) and griefers! This will make your gaming experience far more enjoyable! You simply click on their name and choose Ignore. You can also add a note as for why you did it and rate them one star, so you can instantly see if they're nearby! Are they saying something bad about you or someone else? There's likely a reason for that! Certain personality types, such as those considered anti-social (which include psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists), use tactics such as triangulation to deflect your attention away from something bad that they're doing onto someone else. The person could be there with them in the chat or could be elsewhere and un-aware of what's being said about them. You're told something about someone that probably isn't true and they believe you'll accept their word for it, allowing them to control what you think. If you find out that it's a lie, they'll laugh it off, claiming it was 'just a joke' or somesuch or try some other form of deflection. The best way to stop this kind of abuse and from being controlled by their lies is to simply put them on ignore. Problem solved! :-) Besides, what kind of value do you place on someone who's simply trying to hurt other people's reputation or feelings? Your answer to that should be zero. Their words, opinion and very existence is meaningless to you.
Realize, also, what a cyberabuser AKA cyberbully and/or griefer is. Many of them are people who're so miserable in the real world that they have to hurt or screw over others on-line in order to make themselves feel better or try to look better in someone else's eyes. Only the most gullible listen to them and, for all you know, they could be a 40-year-old, 400-pound guy with a bed-wetting problem and three STDs living in his parents' basement. Hate isn't the emotion you should be feeling for them. It's pity. Ignore them and move on. It's likely that many others have already done the same.
Cyberbullies AKA cyberabusers display sadistic and psychopathic behaviours. They're parasites, have low affective empathy, are manipulative, callous, deceitful, impulsive and cruel. Web search the words psychopath and troll for more information.
When it comes to such people, what you should ask yourself is, based upon what they do to others on-line, what do they do in the real world when they think they can get away with it and have no empathy, remorse, guilt or morality. Do the math.
Read Constructing the Cyber-Troll: Psychopathy, Sadism and Empathy if you seek further details and many have cited it when writing on the subject.
As for their belief that they're anonymous on-line, they're really not. Even doing the most basic thing such as using a VPN to get a different IP address doesn't guarantee your anonymity. Your WPS, your vocabulary, even the MAC address of your NIC can be used to identify you (and is used as a very low-level type of access control for a network, but, it's easily bypassed). Although some operating systems have implemented MAC address randomization, the BSSID of what you're connecting with is frequently kept track of. The latter, along with what I wrote on one of the walls of the workshop room of the SG base I made on
The funniest thing about 🧌 🪳 trolls 🪳 🧌, however, is they all-too-frequently say things about others which are true about themselves. Some examples are the trolls who claim others are trying to take over a team by offering to help with a summonable combat pet such as a tanker (you can buy these and more at the S.T.A.R.T. vendor, although, they're very expensive), while they themselves are dictating how the team does a TF by their very actions, such as leaving enemy behind for others to defeat while they move forward, or those who cuss at people or call them names trying to make them sound like the bad guy, when, by their very actions and word choices, show that they themselves are the ones who are being bad. As many have pointed out, already, if you curse, you're displaying a weakness of mind as well as of character, not to mention the fact that you cannot convey your meaning in any other way, showing others that you failed even grade-school level English. LOL The trolls should be pitied, not hated. If anything, you should be thanking them for providing you with the insight into their true selves! Remember that line, 'I know you are, but what am I?' Ever hear of the Law of Mirrors? ;-)
💡 Also, please note that if you cannot connect, it may be because their server isn't running. Check the Homecoming Server Status page if needed.
Does this New Player Tips for CoH page look old and odd-looking as compared to newer Web sites? This entire Web site is unique and likely seen as old-school (but, it includes newer elements which some might notice, the more obvious being the header styles and those who don't notice these things and casually dismiss it as being old in its entirety are either ignorant (not to be confused with stupid) or didn't look very well). It's considered by some to be a Web 1.0 site (Web version 1?), is coded using nothing but a text editor (so there's variety and all the pages don't look the same and I can put in whatever I want as opposed to the sites which are limited by a CMS), there's not a single ad or anything for sale here, it's practically littered with help pages and this is one of the few remaining examples of what the Web used to look like.
Just hope somebody out there appreciates the work I put into these things. ☺
Also tried to make this page more mobile-friendly than many of my other pages, using coding tricks for the headings for variety and with smaller pictures. All done with a text editor. So, don't ask how long it took. LOL
#CoHTips #CoHHomecomingTips #CoHGameTips #CoHNewPlayers #CoHNewPlayerGuide #CoHBasics
⚠ A word of caution and a kind of PSA: ⚠
Just remember to keep in mind the possibility of becoming addicted to something such as a game (even shopping can be addictive) because of dopamine released into your body when you expect a reward.
Thankfully, they don't accept microtransactions (where you pay real world money for virtual goods), which could lead to a more serious danger like many experience from other games, where people spend more than they should, most notably on the gambling apps, even though there is no real world money they can win.
If the latter are considered video games, that allows those who make them to avoid regulations on gambling in places like the United States. ☹
Perhaps set a timer, only play for an hour or two at a time or per day and note if you are neglecting things you should be doing such as household chores or taking care of your family.
Or studying! There are plenty of free studying and testing resources online (maybe learn some memory training techniques first and study with different formats such as text as well as videos and take notes, all of which help you remember because it's using different parts your brain), although certification and diplomas cost money, at least you'll learn new things. :-)
While we're talking about bad habits . . . another one to be avoided is eating while doing other things such as watching movies or television shows as this might lead to you gaining weight!
Apologies! Two of my 'bad habits' are wanting to help people and to share knowledge with others! LOL Getting back to the game . . .
👍 TP Hubs for Community Use: 👍
The part which I spent a lot of time on was creating TP hubs for community use, which people can use to get around, make things, train up (you don't get logged out inside a base (unless there's a connection error or they shut the server down), which are accessible via a Base Portal on many of the zone maps), et cetera.
* While I'm certain they're not the best-looking TP hubs in the game or even on the shards they're on (I've seen many and been very impressed with some players' base-building skills!), they'll do for those who're simply wanting to get from one place to another quickly without having to look around a base for the portal to the zone they want to get to.
💡 Tip: You can tour SG bases if you have multiple SG base macros, and each SG base macro will take you to another SG base if you're inside one. This is also useful if you get lost in a SG base and want to return to its entrance or have decided you've seen enough of that base and want to move on to the next without having to exit the base, return to the outside where the Base Portal is and use another SG base macro!
Details on the TP hubs I created:
* Note: If you're of full hero or villain alignment, you won't be able to travel to the other side's zones and possibly might not even see a list of them in a portal! Many players use Null the Gull in Pocket D to instantly (and temporarily) change their alignment to vigilante or rogue so they have access to all the zones.
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* There's also some interesting things in this base, some of which are easier to find than others, such as the writing on the walls in the workshop room. Other things are slightly less obvious but none are extremely well-hidden, although some might only be seen from a certain angle and height above ground. The meanings are sometimes clear. Other times, not so clear . . . A few of them are beside the beacon pictures to some of the zones above the portals, giving you hints as to what's in the zone or to be funny. Consider it a kind of Easter egg hunt and you can brag to others about how many you've found! 😜 Three more hints to find a couple of the easiest secret places: Reading helps. Follow the heart. Greed kills. And, no, I won't give any more hints than that, because it'll spoil the fun and sense of accomplishment of those trying to find them! LOL
Reunion TP hub:
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Indomitable TP hub:
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Torchbearer TP hub:
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🚀 Other Ways to Get Around Faster: 🚀
* While I'm certain there's other places on the Web with far more detailed information, I've added coloured markers so some people can find the zones they want faster. :-)
➢ Paragon City Monorail (AKA the tram): This is a hero side AKA blue side only (with the exception of Kallisti Wharf, which both sides can access, but, those of pure villain alignment won't be able to use it for the hero zones) transportation system which has stops in Atlas Park, Kings Row, Steel Canyon South, Steel Canyon North, Skyway City North, Skyway City South, Talos Island, Independence Port North, Independence Port South, Croatoa, Brickstown, Founders' Falls and Kallisti Wharf.
The LRTP AKA [Long Range Teleporter]: If you want to save time, you can buy the Long Range Teleporter power (called the LRTP in-game) at the S.T.A.R.T. vendor or you can simply un-lock it by visiting 10 exploration badge locations or by hanging out in Pocket D for an hour (use the time to buy and sell on the Auction House with the
The Ouroboros Portal: If you're of hero or vigilante alignment and in Atlas Park, you can go into the City Hall building (or, if you're of villain or rogue alignment, go into the big tower in Grandville) and enter Recluse's Victory, a PvP zone. You can do this safely without being attacked as all you need to do is enter the zone, get credit for 'time traveling' and you'll earn the Entrused with the Secret badge and have the Ouroboros Portal summoning power. You can then use that every so often to travel to some of the zones in the game! An extra zone-changing power that you don't have to pay for! :-)
| Ouroboros Portal at level 1!
Picture taken in the Recluse's Victory PvP zone with my level 1 character, HELP BOT, to show you it can be done! Click on the image to see it full-sized (1000x652 and 334kB file size). |
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Once you get the Ouroboros Portal summoning power (which, oddly, can be found in the Temporary Powers section of your powers window), you can use it once every five minutes to take you to Ouroboros, where you can click on the portal there to go to the zones (provided you're not either full hero or villain alignment, in which case, you can only go to your own side's zones), listed in order by their level ranges, from low level to high level, ➢ Atlas Park, Talos Island, Independence Port, Founders' Falls and Peregrine Island on hero side AKA blue side and, the villain side AKA red zones ➢ Cap Au Diable, Sharkhead Isle, Nerva Archipelago, St. Martial and Grandville. You can also access the dual heros and villains zone where both sides can work together peacefully to do collaborative missions in, ➢ ➢ Cimerora!
Ouroboros Echo Trasporter: Located behind the big tower in Ouroboros, is a special portal where people can visit the older versions of zones, which are called Echo zones in the game. These include ECHO: Atlas Park, ECHO: Galaxy City, ECHO: Faultline, ECHO: Dark Astoria and the ECHO: Rikti Crash Site. These are places where people can find some of the badges and plaques they need for accolade powers and stat-enhancers as well as a giant monster named Adamastor (in ECHO: Dark Astoria)!
LFG queueing trick: Zone-changing within seconds via the LFG queue! Want a faster way of getting from zone to zone without having to use the tram (AKA monorail AKA train), a Base Portal or flying, running, jumping or teleporting to one or an exit in a zone to another zone on the map? If you know the zone that a Task Force (or Strike Force for redside AKA villainside) contact is in and you're of high enough level (and some, which are grayed out, have an extra requirement which you can learn by putting your mouse over them), you can click on the LFG word at the top of your chat box, select a TF or SF, select "Lock the event for your group" and push the Queue button and in a matter of seconds, you're in that other zone!
* Keep in mind, however, that if you use the LFG queue to go to another zone and appear in front of a TF or SF contact while someone's trying to form a team to do their TF or SF, they might think you're there to join them! LOL
A few examples:
➢ Steel Canyon: Positron's The Rule of Three TF, level 8 minimum. This puts you right on the other side of a statue from a Base Portal and, if they're laid out like mine, you can get to almost any other zone in a matter of seconds!
➢ Cap Au Diable: Virgil Tarikoss' The Beast Beneath the Mountain SF, level 15 minimum. This takes you to the far-right side of Cap Au Diable, the opposite side of the map from where the Base Portal is, but, if you need Arachnos wolf spiders for the Spider Smasher badge (you need to defeat 200 of them and it's required for the
➢ Skyway City: Synapse's The Fall of the Clockwork King TF (this is the one that spawns the Babbage GM in Skyway City after a mission is completed on that TF), level 15 minimum.
➢ Sharkhead Isle: Silver Mantis' Pirates of the Sky SF, level 20 minimum. This puts you by Silver Mantis, who is 76 yards from the Ferry.
➢ Independence Port: Penelope Yin's A Clamor for the People, level 20 minimum.
➢ Striga Isle: Moonfire's The Kheldian War, level 23 minimum. You'll show up a little south of the middle of the map. The Base Portal is just northwest of her and Ravenstorm (a trainer) is just northeast of her. In either case, just walk off the edge of the rock you're standing on and you're at either of them. If you go a little further past the Base Portal, you'll be in the part of The Bog neighbourhood where there's usually groups of council warwolves and maybe council vampires, good for The Silver Bullet and The Slayer badge progress, both of which are needed for The Atlas Medallion stat-enhancer accolade.
➢ Sharkhead Isle: Op. Renault's The Temple of the Waters SF, level 25 minimum.
➢ Talos Island: Citadel's Citadel's Children TF, level 25 minimum.
➢ Brickstown: Manticore's Following Countess Crey TF, level 30 minimum. This puts you by Manticore, who is in the NW part of the map, close to Swan, a trainer, about 40 yards from the exit to Independence Port (you'll arrive at the southeast corner of the map, there, which is around 75 yards from the Magic Store and 266 yards from the Monorail AKA tram or train) and about 500 yards from the Base Portal.
➢ Nerva Archipelago: Trepsarciel's Tree of Thorns Respec Trial, level 34 minimum. This is the one you'll want to use if you want to get in on taking down the demon Caleb, a GM that spawns on Thorn Isle, in Nerva's northeast corner. It's also not very far from the Primal Instinct exploration badge.
➢ Nerva Archipelago: Ractespriel's Tree of Thorns Respec Trial, level 44 minimum. Drops you off in the starter area of Nerva, about 212 yards from a Swashbuckler history plaque and 560 yards from the Rogue Isles Ferry.
➢ Founders' Falls: Numina's Soul of the Woodsman TF, level 35 minimum. You'll arrive by Numina, who is in the northwest part of the map, next to Infernal, who is a trainer and you'll be about 250 yards away from a Base Portal, the University and the Midnighter Club.
➢ Founders' Falls: Dr. Kahn's The Return of the Reichsman TF, level 45 minimum. This drops you by him, near the middle of the zone, right across the street from the Vanguard DPO and about 245 yards from the Monorail and the TUNNEL Connection.
➢ ➢ Eden: ➢ Woodsman's Eden's Spiral Trial, level 39 minimum. This is sometimes used to get to ➢ ➢ the Hive (a co-operative level 45 and up zone, where they sometimes have Hamidon raids on some shards) faster than going to a Base Portal, zoning into the base, going to the portal that takes you to Eden and clicking on it and then zone in to it and travel to The Hive exit near the wall.
➢ The Chantry: Faathim the Kind's The Saga of Lanaru TF, level 44 minimum. This takes you into the middle of The Chantry zone.
➢ Grandville: Barracuda's Thus Spoke the Reichsman's Strike Force, level 45 minimum. 232 yards south of the Base Portal and not far from the large Arachnos tower.
And, so on. ;-) But, by now, you should have a good idea of where the contacts are located if you hear about them often enough in the LFG channel or you can simply use the LFG queue to go there and find out.
Pocket D: Inside Pocket D are portals to various zones! These include:
The blue AKA hero zones: ➢ Atlas Park, Kings Row, Faultline, Talos Island and Founders' Falls;
The red AKA villain zones: ➢ Mercy Island, Port Oakes, Sharkhead Isle and St. Martial;
The gold AKA Praetorian zones: ➢ Imperial City and Nova Praetoria;
The all-access zone: ➢ ➢ ➢ Echo Plaza;
The PvP zones (via the Free Fire Zone Transport): ➢ ➢ Bloody Bay, Siren's Call, Warburg and Recluse's Victory;
The TUNNEL System: The Trans-Universal Networking Nexus and Extradimensional Link system allows you to go to not only the hero and villain zones, but, also, the gold zones AKA Praetorian zones. These include:
The blue AKA hero zones: ➢ Atlas Park, Talos Island, Founders' Falls and Peregrine Island;
The red AKA villain zones: ➢ Mercy Island, Cap Au Diable, Nerva Archipelago and Grandville;
The gold AKA Praetorian zones: ➢ Imperial City, Underground Imperial, First Ward and Night Ward;
And the co-operative AKA co-op mission zone (where characters who've un-locked the incarnate system can get missions from contacts) zone: ➢ Dark Astoria.
➢ The Rogue Isles Ferry: This is a red side AKA villain side only transportation system that takes you to Mercy Island, Port Oakes East, Port Oakes West, Cap Au Diable South, Cap Au Diable North, Sharkhead Isle, Nerva, St. Martial and Grandville. For some, the two stops in Port Oakes and Cap Au Diable might come in handy if they're close to one and their mission is close to the other stop, or, they zone in and see that the mission entrance is closer to the other stop and can simply go back into the Ferry and get out there.
➢ The Black Helicopter Line: This is a red side AKA villain side only transportation system that takes you to Mercy Island, Port Oakes, Cap Au Diable, Sharkhead Isle, Nerva Archipelago, St. Martial and Grandville. Nerva and Grandville have both North and South stops in each zone.
➢ ➢ The Smuggler's Submarine: This has exits to the hero zones ➢ Independence Port and Peregrine Island, the red AKA villain zones ➢ Sharkhead Isle, Grandville and the villain hazard zone Monster Island as well as the co-operative zone ➢ ➢ The Abyss, where there's sometimes Hamidon raids on the busiest shards.
➢ The Free Fire Zone Transport (hero AKA blue side): This has exits to the hero zones ➢ Kings Row, Skyway City and Peregrine Island as well as the PvP zones ➢ ➢ Bloody Bay, Siren's Call and Warburg.
➢ The Free Fire Zone Transport (villain AKA red side): This has exits to the villain zones ➢ Cap Au Diable, Sharkhead Isle and St. Martial as well as the PvP zones ➢ ➢ Bloody Bay, Siren's Call and Warburg.
💎 Homecoming Server's City of Heroes game shards (not to be confused with servers)
How many shards are there? At the time I'm writing this, there are five shards on Homecoming Server's list of Live shards (which doesn't include multiple other shards, such as the testing shards like those on Open Beta and Prerelease). These are (in no special order) Reunion, Torchbearer,
Homecoming shards details:
➢
➢
➢ Reunion shard. Reunion shard seems to have the ☺nicest people☺ on it and is where many from the European countries log into. It's also one of the quietest shards on Homecoming.
➢ Torchbearer shard. Possibly the 3rd or 4th busiest shard, depending on the day and time, Torchbearer shard has many players on it who played the game when it was on the official server, called the Live Server in the game, or, the First Live Server, since Homecoming Server is now an official Live Server for the City of Heroes game!
➢ Indomitable shard. The un-official pvp shard, Indomitable shard doesn't have as high a population as some of the busier shards, but, if you're into pvp, you should be able to find some players to fight here.
Origins:
The origin for your character is primarily for theme and what contacts and some missions you'll get in the game.
Best origin to pick for a new player? ☢ Mutation. ☢ Why? The names of the (upper level SOs AKA Single Origin) enhancements are easy to figure out and the colours are easier to make out so you can see at a glance what the enhancement is for.
🌝 Easiest Characters to Play (for solo play) 🌝
⚠ Disclaimer: ⚠
These are characters (or, builds, if you prefer) that I found the easiest to play and which can overcome almost any regular PVE opponents in the game. Your opinion may vary and others prefer a certain playstyle such as a melee character, but, for me, these get me through missions faster.
If you want to try them out, you can do it on the Open Beta shard, trying them at different levels (which you can set your character to be at instantly, via the Freebies Menu).
🤩 Controller wih Illusion Control and Radiation Emission: If you make this controller, slot up your summonable pets (the first thing I slotted them for is accuracy) and your heal first. After that, slot up the Accelerate Metabolism power for faster recharge and get the Hasten power and slot it up for faster recharge, too.
* Most people use only a maximum of two Recharge enhancements in each power that they slot for recharge (powers that have a very fast recharge of, say, five seconds or less, probably aren't worth slotting for recharge) to save slots.
** If you want faster recharge for most of your powers (some aren't affected by global recharge buffs), you can buy the Luck of the Gambler Global Recharge IOs (but, you may save money by buying the recipe and crafting it for yourself) in the game and slot them in a few powers such as 🥷 Superior Invisibility 🥷 (the best stealth power you can get in the game), Group Invisibility and Combat Jumping. That'll give you around 21 percent faster recharge on all the powers that can be affected by it.
🤩 Controller wih Plant Control and Darkness Affinity: A little slow in the earlier levels, but, by the time you get your two summonable combat pets, things start getting a lot easier and you move through the missions faster, especially if you picked the power Seeds of Confusion.
🤩 A Robotics and Dark Miasma mastermind. As with the controller, slot up your minions (they'll be doing most of the fighting for you), heal and summonable pet first. And, again, slotting for accuracy first might help, just like in attacks.
* One of the things mastermind summonable combat pets are good for are destroying objects in mayhem missions, many of which are required for the [Force of Nature] accolade power! The other required badges for the accolade power, which aren't connected with destroying objects in a mayhem mission are Hero Slayer (for defeating 25 NPC heroes), Outlaw (for defeating 1,000 Paragon Police), Firebug (completing arson side missions) and Villain (for defeating 1,000 Longbow, called candy canes by some villains because of their red and white uniforms)
** What did I name my robotic minions? On one of my robotics masterminds, they were named Gort, Nikola Tesla, Isaac Asimov, Johnny 5, Questor and R Daneel Olivaw. And, yes, I'm a science and science-fiction nerd. ;-)
♥ 💥 Free powers and the S.T.A.R.T. store: 💥 ♥
In the first zone you get to (after completing the tutorial, for those who did it), you'll find on the map a 'store' (which, in some cases, such as this one, is a NPC you can click on for a menu) you can go to called (in Atlas Park, Mercy Island and Pocket D) the S.T.A.R.T. (the vendor previously known as P2W). P2W was meant to be a joke, since you don't really need to buy anything or pay to win AKA pay-to-win. And, yes, many coders have a sense of humour. Trust me on this! ;-)
In the S.T.A.R.T. vendor's AKA store's menu in the first city zone you get to (Atlas Park (heroes AKA blue side) or Mercy Island (villains AKA red side) and don't pick Praetoria (AKA gold side), or you'll be stuck there until level 20) and grab the free powers Sands of Mu (a short-range melee power), Blackwand (a ranged power that temporarily decreases an enemy's ability to hit you) and Nemesis Staff (a ranged power that you can use to knock back an enemy away from you).
* For the latter two choices, you can also pick the one that gives you extra damage based on your character's origin.
The combat-buff pets are skippable. Enemy seem to go after them first, killing them almost instantly.
Other useful powers at the S.T.A.R.T. vendor?
Return to Battle, Secondary Mutation (or Mystic Fortune if you team a lot), Inner Inspiration, Atheletic Run or Ninja Run, and, if you can afford it, Void Skiff, Rocket Board or Flying Carpet, as you can probably get to where you're going to faster if you can fly above everything that's trying to kill you! LOL
* You can buy more than one of some of the free powers for a little Inf (Influence AKA Infamy AKA Information, for, repectively, blue, red and gold (Praetorian) sides) if you want to both buff yourself up a little with the Secondary Mutation power as well as giving your teammates a little buff, also, with the Mystic Fortune power.
⚠ 🚨 Giant Monsters AKA GMs: 🚨 ⚠
☺
Easier to do with a team! ☺
While some players using certain builds can defeat a giant monster solo, many players can't, especially those who are lower in level.
🐍 💩 ☹ 🪳 Griefers 🪳 ☹ 💩 🐍
*
➢ Some of the players who defeat giant monsters solo do it for bragging rights, but, there are a few who do it to cheat players out of the rewards, defeating the giant monsters before someone can form a team for them and if you show up just before they defeat the giant monster and hit it once or twice so you can get the rewards, they get upset that you spoiled their griefing you and call you names just like bullies in the real world who never matured past being 🐍🍼grade school bullies !🍼🐍 LOL And, seriously, I've heard more well thought-out taunts from classmates in the third grade, so, their intelligence isn't that high, either . . . 💤
💡 If you want, you can click on a player name, choose Edit Note and 1-star them and add a note why you don't like them. You can also put them on ❎ 🖕 🔇 ignore 🔇 🖕 ❎ ⇦ by clicking on them or their name in a chat and choosing that option so you never see anything they type ever again (including all the characters they have under that account name). The one star can also be seen if you choose to always show player rating in your options so you can instantly recognize them in person.
Giant Monsters or GMs (not to be confused with game masters, who help out players in the game) can be found in many zones both hero side and villain side.
If you want access to both sides' zones, you can change your alignment with Null the Gull in Pocket D to rogue or vigilante. But, changing from one to the other side will remove the events channel that you have for the side you were previously on, so, you'll have to re-enter it in whichever tab(s) you had it in. Something that I, myself, sometimes forget, when I temporarily change my alignment to get an accolade . . . Only after realizing I haven't seen any notices for a giant monster on the other side (of the law?) does my brain make the connection. D'oh!
To be nice and to make defeating the giant monster easier and faster, tell others you found it, giving the zone name (which appears on your map) and location (use the dollar sign and the letters loc right after it with no space, which will show the co-ordinates where you are in that zone) and ask them if they'd like to join you in fighting it. :-)
If you're forming a team and getting tells AKA tels (in-game private messages) asking for invitations and you're a low level character, you don't nomrally have to give the star to a higher-level teammate (which might confuse others sending you a tel for an invitation if you have to tell each and every one of them who might want an invitation to the team the name of the new team leader) can select a higher-level teammate's un-completed mission (if they have one) to temporarily make it so you're fighting at or near their level (so the team will have access to more of their powers, and, in the higher-level zones, means you (and your summonable minions and pets) will be less likely to be defeated by the regular enemy in that zone which may be much higher level than you).
Have a full team but even more people want to join you in fighting the giant monster? Click on their name in their tel AKA private message (which is usually yellow-coloured text) or chat and choose to invite them to the league. You can have multiple teams on a league. But, before attacking the giant monster, you'll want to move those who are the only person in a team to another team until it's filled up, too. If there's still more, repeat this process making a third team, fourth team and so on. Hopefully, they'll be nice enough to let you get it sorted if you ask them to. If they complain or start anyway even after you ask them to wait a minute, you can say in league chat (or Broadcast channel after the giant monster's defeated) that if anyone didn't get the badge (because the team they were on didn't do enough damage), they can blame the impatient players.
One of the giant monsters you'll hear about most often is Adamastor, who can be summoned every hour in ECHO: Dark Astoria, which is accessible in the Ouroboros zone, via the ECHO portal behind the citadel tower. Rewards for defeating him (depending on how long it's been since you last defeated him) include 6-10 Reward Merits, 1-3 Monstrous Aether and the Keeper of Secrets badge.
Another of the giant monsters you'll hear about is Kraken, who appears in Perez Park. Rewards for defeating him include 6 Reward Merits and the Unleasher badge.
*
➢ villain AKA red side giant monsters:
A redside/villainside giant monster you'll want to defeat is Ghost of Scrapyard, who appears in Sharkhead Isle after 100 scrapyarders are defeated there. If you're a high-level mastermind (or you can ask one to help you) with summonable combat minions, it doesn't take long to defeat that many and you can find many of them near or inside Potter's Field or around the area near the Vault and Quartermaster. Forming a team to defeat 100 scrapyarders is also an option. Rewards for defeating him include 6 Reward Merits, 1 - 3 Monstrous Particles (you can turn in 3 for 1 Aether Particle or 10 for a random mini giant monster pet invention recipe at a BenevoLabs Hologram vendor (such as the one in Pocket D)), and the Hammer Down badge, which is one of the requirements for the
The Ghost of Scrapyard giant monster can usually be defeated with just a few higher-level characters, although it's faster with a full team or even a league.
💡 Tip: If you don't want to get spammed with a lot of NPC chatter from the Ghost of Scrapyard GM (giant monster) and his followers, you can take the NPC chat out of whatever tab you have open, such as your Global tab. But, be certain to re-add it afterwards as you might need to know when an NPC says something in a mission or to alert you to an ambush!
However, the Ghost of Scrapyard giant monster can no longer be farmed for Reward Merits and Monstrous Particles by the same player character, as there's an 18 hour timer on those rewards for him.
Another redside/villainside giant monster you'll want to defeat is Deathsurge, who appears in Cap au Diable after 100
💡 Tip: You can get one side's accolade power if it's easier than the other's and then change alignment via Null the Gull in Pocket D to get the other side's version, also. :-)
🤩 ⚡ How to level up faster: ⚡ 🤩
✔ Team up!
For a better overall build: If you're new and are on teams often, every few levels, you should play a mission or three solo, against different enemy types. This will better inform you of the things you need to slot up more or the kind of powers that might be more helpful to get soon.
If you're not a well-slotted up and higher-level tanker, brute or scrapper, you might want to hang back if on a higher-level team and let them go in first to take the 'alpha,' which is usually where the enemy sees someone and attacks. If those who went in before you can taunt the enemy with their taunt power, attacks or auras, you should take a lot less damage.
For best results, if you're under level 30, try to get on a team close to your level range. The higher-level teams (such as those running at level 50) are fighting enemy with stronger attacks, many of which also 'mez' you in some way, preventing you from using any powers to control them, knock them down or to even heal yourself or your teammates. So, you'll probably be defeated very often, not be of much use to the team, not gain much XP because you'll be paying off a lot of XP debt from being ☠defeated☠ so often and might end up being laughingly referred to as veng bait.
If you're on a low-level character in
The list of temporary powers you can get which lasts you until level 22 or for one week of in-game time: [
If you're level 15 and up, you can ask in the LFG channel for a DIB team. Along with leveling up faster with a team, upon completing a DIB trial, you'll have the option to choose one of four temporary powers which last you until level 30 or for one week of in-game time. Again, you can sometimes find a DIB team forming on redside, but, that's more rare.
The list of temporary powers you can get which lasts you until level 30 or for one week of in-game time: [Shivan Exposure Accuracy Enhancer], [Shivan Exposure Damage Enhancer], [Shivan Exposure Recovery Enhancer] and [Shivan Exposure Defense Enhancer].
Do a task force or
The Mortimer Kal SF is un-locked by those with a rogue or villain alignment level 20 and up, by doing a very short tip mission, Wizard's Weakness. Completing the SF (which, on an experienced team, is usually done in under 15 minutes) will also give you the [Flames of Prometheus] buff that'll increase your maximum HP, your regeneration and your damage until you reach level 50, at which time, you can find it listed under Badges and choose to turn it in for a Notice of the Well, that's used by those who have entered the Incarnate system.
The Incarnate system gives you more powers and buffs after level 50 by crafting things for the Alpha Slot, Judgement Slot, Interface Slot (a popular choice for this slot is Reactive), Lore Slot (summonable pets, which include combat pets and most people seem to go with the Banished Pantheon option), Destiny Slot (many people who start up the Aeon SF want teammates to have the tier 4 Barrier, Core Epiphany, slotted) and Hybrid Slot.
AE farms: Although these seem to be high in demand in the game (and many of them form in Pocket D), in a farm, as a 'sitter,' you'll be spending a lot of time by the mission entrance doing nothing. Some might like that, but, for me, it's not something I can do for very long. Also, you won't be very experienced in how to play your character and you won't be getting badge progress on your defeat badges, some of which you'll need for accolade powers or permanent stat-enhancers. But, yes, probably something some are okay with. To each their own. Play the game how you like (provided you don't do anything like grief or troll others, which usually gets you ignored and might get your account suspended or deleted). :-)
Regular teams:
You can find teams at almost any level range!
If there's not a team running that you want to join or is filled, you can always start your own! Many people don't want to start a team, have to deal with recruiting people or even announcing they're looking for more teammates in the LFG channel.
To be helpful, tell them what level you're doing missions at, what zone you're doing them in and, maybe, if you know it, the enemy groups you'll be facing and the mission settings. If you don't want to do contact missions, you can do Radio missions (after you talk to a detective in a hero side AKA blue side city zone, starting with Kings Row) or Newspaper missions (the Newspaper is the red side's AKA villain side's version of the Radio, that's available in almost any of their city zones after you've first made contact with a broker, starting in Port Oakes). Keep in mind that some people don't like fighting Malta (drop difficulty one or two?), doing cave missions or even the Circle of Thorns' Oranbegan maps.
My biggest grief with the Circle of Thorns' Oranbegan maps is getting stuck on the torches or trying to ghost AKA stealth through a mission map in order to teleport teammates to the end and encountering a red crystal which causes you damage and gets you noticed by nearby enemy.
💡 You might earn XP faster if you keep the difficulty level low enough (during the lower levels or while fighting extremely difficult enemy groups) to defeat the enemy groups fairly quickly but not too quickly. If you're spending more than a minute or so on each group, you're probably not making XP at a very fast rate and you could also be getting debt you need to work off if you get defeated often. Also, try to clear the maps, or, at least, any enemy in your team's way en route to the mission objective(s), as travel time between missions is time you're not earning XP. If you're already in a mission with more enemy to make that XP off of, why not stay for another minute or two to get more of it? Just my two bits. LOL
Although not always needed, some team leaders try for a good team balance, choosing:
A couple of tough characters such as tankers (the Stone Armor powerset's Granite Armor is one of the most survivable powers to have, but, it comes with slower movement and recharge rate and you do less damage with it on), brutes and scrappers who can taunt and take the damage other players can't. What works best (for some teams) is a tanker that's buffed up who goes in and gets the alpha hit with a brute or scrapper coming in after;
One or two crowd control types such as controllers (the Phantom Army power from the Illusion Control powerset also helps take some of the enemy damage and some of the workload off the tougher guys who may have a limit on how many they can taunt) or dominators (who seem better at 'locking down' the enemy, especially with holds and stuns). An AoE (Area of Effect) or cone confusion power may keep enemy from attacking you or others but any enemy defeated by a confused enemy won't give you XP, so, it's best to only use that if you can be certain the team can defeat all or at least most of the enemy before they defeat each other. For those with single-target confuse powers, you can use them on sappers, surgeons and sorcerers to make fights faster (and far less annoying in the case of the sappers and sorcerers!);
A buffer type or two (such as those who can give 'bubbles' (force fields to better protect teammates) or team buffs that increase their resistance, defence, tohit, damage, recharge, endurance modification or a combination thereof and so on). Besides the Force Field powerset, Kinetics and Radiation Emission also seem to be popular choices, with Kinetics' Speed Boost power often desired by those who have the Granite Armor power;
A healer type or two that can also buff and maybe also help with crowd control. Some powersets have an AoE heal as well as single-target heals of various strengths (one that I sometimes play is an Elecric Control and Electrical Affinity controller, but, it should be noted that the damage-dealing capability of this character leaves a lot to be desired);
A couple of higher damage-dealing types such as blasters, who often have a very high damage-dealing single-target attack as well as cone and AoE damage-dealing attacks. Although I don't play them as often, two of my favourite blaster builds are an Ice Blast and Sonic Manipulation blaster and an Assault Rifle and Devices blaster. They're also good for solo play and you can frequently finish Radio or Newspaper missions quickly if you have a good stealth capability (a Celerity: Stealth in Sprint along with a powerset's stealth power works okay for most enemy except for the more notable exceptions like Knives of Artemis and Nemesis snipers).
💡 Although not needed, an added bonus to a team trying to do a speed run on a task force or strike force is someone who can ghost or run through a mission to the objective and teleport everyone to them. preferably warning them first, so they're not running into a large group of enemy after they're teleported, which could lead to an instant and un-intentional Leeroy Jenkins scene . . .
♥ 💥 Enhancement procs: 💥 ♥
➢ My personal favourites, which are the bare minimum I'll get (at least on my newer builds), are the Kismet: +ToHit and Preventive Medicine: Absorb Proc, the latter being very helpful when I'm not watching my Health bar! Some builds might have an auto power or toggle power that gives you a good recovery and/or regeneration boost, which makes some of the following procs not as important.
The following are some of the most popular enhancement IOs in the game which give you a benefit of some kind:
💡 Important tip! In some cases, the crafted IO might be far cheaper than the recipe, with Miracle: +Recovery being one of the more obvious examples, so, check the prices of both, and, if you have the patience, put in a bid lower than what they've been selling for and check back on it in a day or so.
💡 Also: These are listed in order that you can slot them, not when you should, as it's probably far more important for you to slot up things like your attacks, first! A good time to get and slot procs might be when your character is in their mid-30s (or higher!), as you'll be getting more slots, then.
💡 Not certain if they're worth the expense? Try them out with a new build on the Open Beta, first!
💡 Don't have the Inf to buy them or the recipes? If you've got a lot of
💡 You don't have to slot them into the auto powers like Health or Stamina that're always on. I just find it's easier and those are powers we all get as early as level 2.
💡 And, finally, check each power to be absolutely certain that you can slot these before you buy them! Does the power say it accepts defense sets or resist damage sets or whatever the case may be? Check to be sure!
Kismet: +ToHit. +6% ToHit. Can be slotted into a defense power (Stealth or Combat Jumping are two options) as early as level 7.
Impervious Skin: Status Resistance/Regeneration. The status resistance is 7.5 percent and the regeneration is said to be unique, whatever that means. Can be slotted into a resist damage power as early as level 7.
Gladiator's Armor: Teleportation Protection, +Def(All) (+3%). Can be slotted into a resist damage power as early as level 7.
Shield Wall: +Res (Teleporation), +3% AKA +5% (title text versus mouseover text) Res (All). Can be slotted into a defense power as early as level 7.
Panacea: Chance for +Hit Points/Endurance. Can be slotted into Health as early as level 7.
Preventive Medicine: Absorb Proc. Can be slotted into Health as early as level 17.
Miracle: +Recovery. +15% Recovery. Can be slotted into Health as early as level 17. And, be absolutely certain to check if the already-crafted enhancement IO is cheaper than the recipe, because, in this case, it usually is, many times over! Why that is is one of the great mysteries of the Auction House!
Reactive Defenses: Scaling Damage Resistance 0%-10%. Can be slotted into a defense power as early as level 17.
Performance Shifter: Chance for Endurance. Can be slotted into a power as early as level 18. This is one of the most-recommended IOs for those who need a passive endurance boost. But, slotting endurance reduction IOs in your more endurance-hungry powers helps, too!
Power Transfer: Chance to Heal Self. Can be slotted into an endurance modification power such as Stamina as early as level 18.
Aegis: Psionic/Status Res. Gives 20% status resistance and 5% psi resistance. Can be slotted into a resist damage power as early as level 22.
Numina's Convalesence: Regeneration/Recovery. Gives +10% Recovery and +20% Regeneration. Can be slotted into a power such as Health as early as level 27.
There's also the ATOs AKA archetype enhancements that you can buy with Inf via /ah or for merits at a Merit ATM or (if you want to take a chance) buy a Super Pack and hope there's one in there. Some are worth buying. Others, not so much . . .
🐧 Linux Issues: 🐧
Is your Numpad not responding as you play the game, particularly in respect to your binds? How to get your Numpad working again in Linux with the City of Heroes game:
If you're running on a Linux distribution and are un-able to get your numpad binds to work, go to Accessibility then Mouse and enable then disable Control the Pointer using keypad. Toggle it if it still doesn't work. You'll likely need to do this for each game session.
Do the graphics look really bad, especially for night scenes in the game? You might've installed it in a way someone else recommended, possibly on an older forum post. The installation procedure that seems to work the best is by following the instructions on the Homecoming Wiki page about how to get the City of Heroes game running on Linux. While I can't help you because I don't know your system and what all you have installed on it, you can likely ask someone on the City of Heroes Homecoming forum. If you can, tell them your operating system (Ubuntu is probably the best Linux distribution for those new to Linux and it has many users), your CPU, RAM, graphics card, drive space (check your System Info for most of the information you'll need) and what you remembered doing to try to get the game working. It's quite possible someone did the exact same thing you did and found a way to fix the problem. :-)
✔ 😎 More information and tips: 😎 ✔
If your computer's having problems running the game, one of the first things you can try is lowering the quality in the Graphics tab. Another thing that seems to help is decreasing the number of particles. Temporarily dropping it down to 100 during an event where there's a lot of players might help the most, but, every person's computer is different. Experiment to see what works best for you. If you want to turn particles completely off during an event where there's lots of people all using their powers, use the slash command /noparticles 1 and, after the event's over, you can turn them back on again with the slash command /noparticles 0.
Are the enemy in your mission too difficult for you? You can change the level at which they spawn by clicking the little icon in the lower right-hand corner of your chat window and choosing a lower level and/or number of players.
(Alternately, you might be able to simply exit the mission, re-contact the contact and choose to complete the mission, although this can only be done once every three days and some players reserve that option for very difficult missions or long-duration ones.)
There are two ways to do this:
The first way:
1st: Exit the mission.
2nd: Select a different mission, if you have one. If you don't have one, you can ask a different contact or the Radio or Newspaper for one.
3rd: Confirm that you want to abandon progress on the mission you exited.
4th: Use the little icon in the lower right hand corner of your chat window to choose a lower level and/or number of players with the pop-up menu.
The second way:
1st: Exit the mission.
2nd: Re-contact the contact (or Newspaper or Radio) you got the mission from.
3rd: Select abandon the mission if you're allowed to. But, with some missions, you can't. If that's the case, ask in LFG channel or the Help channel (the capital H Help channel is for the shard you're on and the lower-case h help channel goes to all shards, although not many people use the latter) to ask for help with your mission. You can also tell them who or what you're fighting and if there's a badge awarded for completing the mission or if they'll get progress on a defeat badge for defeating the enemy in it.
4th: Lower the level of the enemy spawns and/or the number of players using the pop-up menu in the lower right hand corner of your chat window.
5th: Re-contact the contact (or Radio or Newspaper) and get the mission, again.
6th: Select the mission and enter it.
If it's still not low enough, repeat the steps in whichever way you did it.
Event channels and alignments:
There's four different event channels in the City of Heroes game. Events, Hero, Villain and Praetorian.
If you change your alignment (either the fast way by visiting Null the Gull in Pocket D or by doing tips missions) from hero to villain or even from rogue to vigilante (or the other way), you'll lose the events channels for your previous alignment in whatever tab(s) you had them in and they'll need to be re-added if you'll want to stay notified of what's going on in the side you just left (but, might still have access to if you're a rogue or vigilante).
You can make a tab just for the event channels from all sides, which, if you play that character for more than an hour, could make it easier finding out if giant monsters such as Adamastor (in ECHO: Dark Astoria) or the Council's Goliath (in Boomtown) can be summoned, as they have a cool-down timer of one hour each.
You can also make a floating channel box with just the event channels in it, although it's a bit tricky for some. To do that, simply make a new tab, then, choose the event channels you want in it. After that, click and drag it to above the chat window. It might or might not work right away, but, when it does, it'll say that it needs a tab. Move the tab you've been dragging around into it and drop it in. Then, you can simply re-size it and move it where you want it so you can see when an event is announced. This way, you only have one tab's contents to change if you change your alignment and event messages are more easily spotted even when you're on a team and there's a lot of activity announcing the defeats of various enemy. It also means there's less spam in your tabs, which gets bad during holiday events and you have multiple sides' event channels in your tabs, as some events happen in multiple zones at the same time.
Need some
The SBB teams are probably the fastest filling teams in the game for that reason as well as the fact that you only need four people to start an SBB. Did you get four people? Then, at the top of your chat window, click LFG, then Holiday tab, and, finally, click the SBB and hit the Queue button. If you didn't lock it in before hitting the Queue button, it might be a minute before it starts.
If you get to the lobby and the clickable signs with the roles aren't flashing off and on in the left side of the lobby, get some purple inspirations and red inspirations, because you'll be fighting in the coliseum! If someone ran in before you got a chance to and you're defeated, you'll be put back in the lobby where you can stock up on inspirations! If the temporary power button comes up to incite the crowd, click it! :-)
Slotting for endurance: In the early levels, you won't need to do this for most things (especially those who did the
Persistent temporary powers: These are powers which are temporary that you can get from doing contact missions and go away after you use them up or after a certain amount of time, but, you can get more of them by re-doing the missions via the Flashback system, accessed via the
Want to know about even more? Check out the Temporary Powers page! Another temporary power you might like just for the heck of it is the
💡 Extra tip: Be certain to do one of the villain AKA red side patron badge missions (they're usually advertised in the LFG channel), because after getting that badge, you un-lock the ability to get more power choices at level 35, but, if you do it solo, you won't be able to pick any of those powers until after level 38, because you won't even be introduced to a patron until you've trained up to level 35!
💡 For those who aren't
Inspirations table (the one you have on your character, not a SG base thing where you can store them) and saving space in it: It seems no matter how many rows and columns you have in your inspirations table, it just doesn't seem like it's enough, does it? Well, here's a way to help you clear some of that space out! Send awakens (or whatever inspirations you think you'll use most often) to your global in-game e-mail address, so all the characters on your account can access them, even if they're in a mission! :-)
Send your favourite SG base macros to your global in-game e-mail address so you can have access to them on all your characters! For this, it's best to state the shard name and base name in the e-mail subject field, as SG base macros won't work on every shard. Just the shard it's on. You can also make a .txt file to store them in (provided you don't 'space out' and forget what you named it or what folder you put it in, like some of us) along with what you liked or didn't like about them.
Clickable co-ordinates link to show on map in a chat: You've probably seen them in the game, a [ followed by a string of numbers with dots in them and ending with a ]! But, what the heck is it?? Those can be clicked on in the chat to make a kind of thumbnail icon with a X in it on a map (others you tell about it have to be in the zone where it is to see it correctly when they click on the co-ordinates). To do this, yourself, simply name what you're talking about then type in $loc. This helps to tell others the location of GMs (Giant Monsters), et cetera.
For example: Sighted! Erwin Schrodinger's phase-shifting kitten named Pixel found at $loc!
* Disclaimer: Pixel (who was a kitten in Robert A. Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls) isn't an in-game NPC (at least not at the time of this writing) and isn't really there (don't get me started on the duality of existance in thought experiments) and locking kittens into steel boxes containing a radioactive substance and a flask of hydrocyanic acid isn't right, m'kay?
Day Job powers are
Here's the full list of Day Job Accolade Badges and to make checking to see if you've earned a particular Day Job badge faster, here's the full list of Day Job Badges as they appear in your characters' Badge List (under the Day Job tab).
Get the Midnight Squad badge so you can get into Cimerora without having to do a story arc! All you have to do is travel to
💡 If you're currently solo, you can use the LFG queueing trick I mentioned above to get there in a few seconds (you can send them a tel (before you hit the Queue button) to let them know you're en route via LFG queueing), which is faster than going to the
Some accolade powers (which include [Elusive Mind], [Eye of the Magus]/[Demonic Aura], [Geas of the Kind Ones]/[Force of Nature], [Vanguard]/[Megalomaniac] and [Crey CBX-9 Pistol]/[Stolen Immobilizer Ray]) or permanent accolade stat-enhancers (these include
💡 Those who want to compare requirements for the villain side AKA red side accolade badges versus the hero side AKA blue side equivalents can do so on the Villain Accolade Badges and Hero Accolade Badges pages, and the stat-enhancing badges are listed first, so they're easy to find and click on for more information!
💡 Just remember the fact I mentioned earlier, about event channels from the side you just left being removed in whatever tab(s) you may've had them in and re-add them, unless you're planning to be a full hero or villain, in which case, you'll be severely limited in the number of zones you can go to (so, you won't be able to get to all the zones that giant monsters are in, which means your Reward Merit earning potential is limited) and the events, SFs or TFs and trials you can join in on.
💡
Get the
* The Mortimer Kall Strike Force (doable by players with villain, rogue or even vigilante alignment and with no worry (for the vigilantes) of being disconnected for going to another zone (the game sometimes drops people from strike forces or task forces if they're of a different alignment from the contact's side (red or blue) if they go to another zone such as Ouroboros to get to the next mission), as all the mission entrances are in Sharkhead Isle, either by clicking on the contact (for the first mission) or going into the Ferry which is fairly close by) is probably also one of the fastest and easiest strike forces or task forces in the entire game and it can be completed with a good team in 10 to 15 minutes! It also awards you the Promethean badge, which gives you the Flames of Prometheus temporary power, that I mentioned above.
Want to know when's a good time to start buying regular IO enhancements instead of SO AKA Single Origin enhancements? Check out the City of Heroes and City of Villains Enhancement Comparison Guide (made when the game was live, so, not too 'mobile-friendly').
Want to open all the relevant windows to do crafting and sell? Use this
Looking for a more inspirational setting (and quieter than in an SG base or the Icon store or Tailor, which may have many people coming and going) in which to edit your outfit? Visit the Icon store in the startingly beautiful Echo Plaza, via Pocket D! :-)
Bored with the grind or can't find a team? Check out the interesting sites in the game such as Crey's un-ethical testing facility behind the Crey building (found by selecting the Science Store on the map) in Nerva (red/villain side)! *Disclaimer: Not a petting zoo for the kids!
If you need more merits (which can be used in the Merit Vendors to buy things which might be too expensive in the Auction House or Black Market) set your alignment as rogue or vigilante via Null the Gull in Pocket D and have both sides' events in whichever tab you have them in and get on those giant monster teams!
There are also tutorials all over the Web for the various things in the game, including advice on what powers to pick (do a search in your favourite search engine for "city of heroes" homecoming along with the keywords you're looking for), so, I only covered the basics to get you started.
💡 Play ☺nice☺ with others, don't be an 😡a-hole😡 and maybe you'll level up fast, make friends and get invited to teams more often. :-)
CoH Homecoming Server's official and unofficial sites:
The official FAQ page for City of Heroes Homecoming.
The Event Calendar.
The announcement of the agreement of Homecoming Server being licensed by NCSoft on January 4th, 2024. Basic things people want to know are, your accounts, characters and information are safe (provided you don't violate the Terms of Service and Code of Conduct), they'll continue development (new patches might come faster, now that the devs know that there's a good chance the game could stay up and running for a while), there's no plans on charging a subscription fee and, instead, they'll continue to try to get by on player donations.
City of Heroes hasn't had an official server since November 30th, 2012, when NCSoft shut it down!
The The (un-official) City of Heroes Homecoming Server Wiki.
Contacting me in-game:
Send a global in-game e-mail to @CyberWoLfman (and an in-game tel, if you want, using "/t @CyberWolfman What you want to say here" (without the quotes) although there's no guarantee I'll see the latter, but, it's a fast way to see if I'm on). Be warned, though, if you're a jerk, I'll put you on ignore (if I haven't, already), which means that none of the characters you created or will create on that account can ever contact me again.
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That page also has links where you can help feed starving people just by clicking. :-)
Other pages on this site:
Pictures pages:
CyberWoLfman's Pix #3. Pictures taken in the ActiveWorlds 3D chat program.
CyberWoLfman's Pix #4. Back to the real world. Includes Halloween pictures, party pictures, more pictures of Bloomington-Normal Illinois including events, people, theatres and bars.
CyberWoLfman's Pix #5. Mostly pictures taken in bars, but also other places.
CyberWoLfman's Pix #6. Not mobile-friendly (I was in an odd mood when I made it) and only a few pictures of Bloomington-Normal Illinois, including a nearly-abandoned mall, so, probably skippable.