.....................................START..................................... Author - HellsEmbrace Copyright 2004 Bryan Czako Date - July 20th 2004 Version - 1.31 Contact - [email protected] Authorized Websites: www.gamefaqs.com www.gamespot.com www.cheatcc.com www.cheatchannel.com www.cheatbook.de www.gamerstemple.com www.neoseeker.com http://dlh.net www.supercheats.com The most recent will always be on gamefaqs.com, so check there first. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Version History: Version 1.31 - Many grammatical errors and bad jokes removed. No content update forthcoming, unfortunately. Version 1.30 - I no longer can say that all of this information is completely valid. Most of it is, but lots of powersets and stuff has been changed with Issue 3. I may update this eventually, but this is probably my last update for a while. You can still use it for basic reference. Version 1.28 - Issue 2 stuff updated. New ratings on powers pending because a new Hero Planner hasn't came out yet, and I use that when basing my stuff on recharge rates and the like. Version 1.30 will have new ratings/descriptions. Version 1.27 - Quick little thing added to Other Bits and Pieces. Also fixed numerous grammar errors, spelling errors, and added a few sentences/changed a few sentences all around the FAQ. I realized I am pretty retarded with the it's/its thing. Those are fixed now. By the by, I knew the difference before I wrote the FAQ, it's just I typed them wrong. Version 1.25 - Added a new website to the list. Changed Whirlwind a bit. Version 1.24 - Added a new website to the list. Also, for those wondering, I no longer respond on the forums. If you have a specific question that you want answered by me, you'll have to email me. If you'd like to debate a powerset specifically with me, you'll have to email me and then I can get on AIM or something and we can debate there. Or over email, despite how slow that would be, if you have no instant messaging programs. If the question can be answered by the forums, I'd suggest just posting it there. Thanks to all the words of encouragement to keep the FAQ up on GameFAQs. Version 1.23 - Updated a few powersets. Version 1.22 - Added a new question. Updated credits. Version 1.21 - Added a list of authorized websites to use this FAQ. Added a new question. Version 1.20 - Added a few minor things to powers, like making Storm Summoning sound less horrible. Also, changed the credits for someone. Version 1.18 - New question added, thanks to beoatwork for allowing me to steal it. I haven't asked him, so I hope he doesn't mind. Also added a new thing for Katana. Changed some Controller Primary ratings. Version 1.15 - Major redone information on powersets, 5-6 were changed I think. Thanks to all who contributed. Also, a thing on Stamina with Regeneration in Other Bits and Pieces. Version 1.10 - I've forgotten a powerset, namely Invulnerability. I've also changed some ratings around with powers, mainly from info from Whoomp and Myztikgohan. Version 1.07 - Errors fixed, like missing powers and small layout errors. Also some power information changes, specifically Ice Armor and Battle Axe. Also, numerous spelling/grammar errors. Come on, I was tired and I typed this in one run. Forgive me. Version 1.05 - More questions added, a few more things in Other Bits and Pieces. A few other small things added as well, like website links, and the credits section. Version 1.00 - First release. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Table of Contents: 1. Version History 2. Table of Contents 3. Helpful Links 4. Introduction 5. Is This the Game for Me? 6. Creating your Character 7. Your First Day In The World of City of Heroes 8. Other Bits and Pieces 9. Copyright 10. Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Helpful Links: www.cityofheroes.com - The website for the game. http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gentopic.php?board=13436 - The message boards for the game, highly useful. Plenty of knowledgeable people post there. https://boards.cityofheroes.com/ubbthreads.php - The official forums, also has a virtual bevy of information. http://coh.warcry.com/ - Has a lot of information on the specifics of the game, basically everything you could imagine, and MORE! http://coh.coldfront.net/ - Tons of information. http://coh.warcry.com/index.php/content/community/plannertool/heroplanner.php - The hero planner. A very useful tool for, (get this), planning your hero! ****************************************************************************** You must get this if you play City of Heroes. It's much more useful than you would think. http://venares.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ - Has the all-important map patch. Perez Park trails and all the stores, including the tailors. Very, very useful. ftp://ftp.coh.com/CoH_Manual.zip - The City of Heroes Manual. Read it, if you haven't bought the game yet. http://www.irfanview.com/ - A free program that lets you convert the screenshots from .tgas to .jpgs, or any other image file type. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Introduction: I wrote this guide because no guide like it had already been written, basically. The other FAQs, while helpful, don't really help the new player at all. While not considering myself the best player in the game, I do think I have enough knowledge to impart to players. Also, don't expect this guide to answer any questions the manual does. I'm not telling you what "powers" are or how to move forward. Read the manual, or go to www.cityofheroes.com and http://coh.warcry.com/. Post on the forums if you have any questions that aren't answered here. Finally, this is my first FAQ, so bear with me if there's any problems. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Frequently Asked Questions If you haven't bought the game yet, and are interested in knowing some common questions, read here! Q: I've played FFXI/EQ/DAoC, is this anything like that? A: For the most part, no, not really. All of those games have "loot", items that you either buy, get from quests, or get from killing enemies. City of Heroes has something like that, but not really. It enhances your powers, but it doesn't show up on your character, and the only person that knows it's there is you. There is also much more emphasis on soloing, insofar that it is actually possible past level five! Most people consider this game vastly superior to other MMORPGs, but I'm not really going to get into comparisons much further, try reading a review. Q: What are the system specifications? Minimum System Specifications Windows� 98/ME/2000/XP Intel Pentium� III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz 256 MB RAM 4X CD-ROM Drive 2 GB Available HDD Space GeForce 2 Series or ATI Radeon 8500 Series Video Card DirectX 9.0 16-bit Sound Card 56k modem Keyboard and mouse Recommended System Requirements Windows� 2000/XP Intel Pentium� 4 1.7 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 512 MB RAM � 16X CD-ROM Drive 2 GB Available HDD Space GeForce 5600 or ATI Radeon 9600 Series Video Card 16-bit Sound Card Broadband Internet Connection Keyboard and mouse with wheel Q: What is the best character? A: Probably a Fire/Dev or AR/Dev blaster. If you are looking for the most fun character, play anything you want. It's not like other games where only a few builds are viable. You can basically be anything and do well, but there are a few things to stay away from, covered more in Creating your Character. The bottom line is though, play whatever you think is fun. All builds are viable. Q: Can I make Batman/Superman/The Flash/Wonder Woman/Green Lantern?!?! A: No. Well, you can make heroes that look like them, but this is against the Terms of Service, and your character will be deleted. Q: Does this game get boring fast, as the reviews seem to state? A: I don't think it does. I'm having fun re-rolling characters and checking them out over and over. Once the second update comes, even more stuff will be unlocked. I suggest trying it out. Q: I am confused about X. A: Read the manual, read the forums, (both GameFAQs and the official ones), read the websites listed above, and read this FAQ. If your questions aren't answered, ask on one of the forums. Q: Your FAQ is incorrect/should have something added to it. A: Email me. Q: I have another question for you. A: Email me. Q: Do I have to play this online? A: Yes. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Q: Why can't I play offline? A: MMORPGs cost a lot of money to maintain, paying employees for their time and labor. You also get content worthy of expansion packs often in the form of Issues, so don't complain. Q: How much does this game cost? A: It's 15 dollars per month, if you pay month-to-month. 14 dollars if you pay in three month installments. 13 dollars if you pay in six month installments. 12 dollars if you pay in one year installments. Q: Can you give me a list of terminology? A: Alright. AoE: Area of Effect. Effects everything in an area. Specifically, location AoE requires no target, you get a circle-shaped thing and select a location. Targeted AoE requires a target in order to cast. PBAoE: Point-Blank Area of Effect. Effects everything in a sphere around you. Requires no target. Not much range though. AT: Archetype. DoT: Damage over Time. LFT: Looking for Team. Q: What are all these new costume slots? A: To open slot 1) Hit level 20, do a quest. To open slot 2) Hit level 30, do a quest. To open slot 3) Hit level 40, do a quest. Once you have the slot and buy a costume for it, you can change between the slots using the "/cc x" command, where "x" is the number corresponding to the costume slot you want to use. 0 = Default, 1 = Level 20 slot, 2 = level 30, 3 = level 40. The shops are all added in the Map Patch. Q: What are the level limits and enemies you fight in TF's? A: Level Ranges: Positron: 10-16 Synapse: 15-21 Sister Psyche: 20-26 Bastion: 25-31 Manticore: 30-36 Numina: 33-38 Enemies: Positron: Level 15 CoT, Vahzilok, and Clockwork. Synapse: Level 20 Clockwork. Sister Psyche: Level 25 Freakshow. Bastion: Level 30 5th Column. Manticore: Level 35 Crey. Numina: Level 40 CoT and Devouring Earth. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. Creating your Character: So, you've bought the game, and patched it up, and starting playing it. First, choose a server. I'm on Victory, so that's obviously the one you'd want to go on. But if for some reason you don't want Victory, try any of the others. "The Grammar Patrol", a GameFAQs run supergroup, is on Triumph, so you could start there. As far as I know, Virtue is the "unofficial roleplay server", so if that's your thing then you could try there. Finally on the subject of servers, Justice appears to be the most populated, so if you plan to group a lot, then try there, or if you plan to solo a lot, then maybe stay away. Onto character creation itself. First, choose your Origin and Archetype. As I've said earlier, I'm not going to explain what those are, as you should read the manual before reading this, and it explains it quite well. I will tell you what enemies you will face early on as each Origin, in case you care. Science: Vahzilok. Very hard enemies; they will slaughter most heroes. They have a weakness to lethal damage, so Broadsword/Claws/Spines/Katana Scrappers, or AR blasters can fight them easier than other heroes, but if you aren't one of those, be careful about choosing Science as your first origin. Mutation: Varies. Skulls and Hellions, with a few other groups thrown in, such as Lost. Magic: Circle of Thorns. Pretty difficult to find, because they generally only hang out on rooftops of King's Row. If you aren't taking Combat Jumping or Hover as your level 6 power, you might wish to stay away, as completing the "Defeat 10 Circle of Thorns" missions are somewhat hard. Technology: Clockwork. Weak to Psionics, but aren't that difficult for other characters. Natural: Some 5th Column early, but basically like Mutation, various groups. If you have a story in mind for your character, feel free to pick any origin you want. The only one that will really give you trouble for your first character is Science, so be careful if you choose that one, but if it fits your story, go ahead and take it. Next, choose your Size, Height, and Build. Now, powerset time. Read the manual/forums/websites for more information. However, I will give my opinion of each powerset. It may be wrong, and don't be solely influenced by my opinions, but this is basically what I've gleaned from the forums, websites, and personal play. All ratings are compared to OTHER powersets. If something gets a 1/6, it's not a bad powerset. It's simply the worst one of the choices. Please don't post on the forums and say "You gave my primary a 1/6 you are totally wrong!" This is my opinion, and I'm grading it based on OTHER powersets. If I graded it on a 1-10 scale on it's own, every powerset would get a 10, because all of them are good and viable. I'm simply saying which I think are the best of the choices. If you think one set is more fun than the other, please feel free to take that one. I'm not saying don't take it. I'm simply looking at it from a min/maxer's point of view. Also, I don't claim to always be right. I find myself editing this often based on the forums, and I expect I'll be doing this a lot. Any information would be welcome, because I don't have much experience with all these powersets. I'm basically going off what I read/can see from the Hero Planner, so in-game experience is appreciated. Blaster: Primaries: Assault Rifle - A nice, balanced powerset. Mostly lethal damage, which makes it great for shooting up Vazhilok. Burst and Slug are nice base powers. Buckshot is generally regarded as horrible, as is M30 Grenade. Beanbag is situational, but probably not worth it. Sniper Rifle is great, as far as sniper powers go. Flamethrower is a godsend. Ignite has been weakened, so I'm not really sure of its usefulness, but as you must get close to use it, I'd probably say pass. Full Auto is also a godsend. Rating - 4/5. Upon further research, Fire is better than AR for a few reasons, one standing out in particular. In the late game, after about 40, lots of enemies are resistant to lethal. Resistance to lethal makes Full Auto not as effective as it could be. Fire is better than AR until level 32, and then AR takes the lead until about 40-42, and then Fire pulls ahead again. Both are still viable, but since AR is only better for about 8-10 levels, and Fire can easily hold its own on those levels as well, Fire gets the nod. Electrical Blast - Not, very good. It's not an AoE type as it only has one targeted, and one PBAoE that isn't used for damage, but it's not a single type either because it only has two single target nukes, albeit decent ones. The endurance drain is completely negligable, if you were Energy or Ice, you would have them killed before you could drain them of all their endurance, and if you were Energy, they'd be on the ground, and if you were Ice, they'd be hitting you much less. Short Circuit is good if you slot it right I guess, I've heard some people saying one cast if it's 6-slotted can completely drain mobs of endurance. But why wouldn't you just be Fire, or AR, and kill them, instead of draining them? Rating - 1/5. It just can't hold a candle to any of the other powersets. It's not bad. You'll still be doing more damage than any non-blaster. It's just not as effective as the others. Energy Blast - Ah, a nice powerset. Has very nice animations. It is the king of single-target. Ice is also quite viable, but its slow isn't as good as knockback, and Energy does more damage. Bolt and Blast are both solid. Torrent is nice, but I would think that taking AoE's would be counter-productive, as Energy is basically focusing on knocking the enemy out one at a time. If you want AoE, take AR or Fire. I would skip Torrent. You can, if you want, go for Torrent and Explosive Blast, and you can do some nice damage at later levels with them. Your choice, they are good powers. Power Burst is very nice. Despite the low range, it's damage is immense if used correctly. Sniper Blast is an excellent snipe ability, especially since you can get it at level 8. Aim is good, it adds more damage than you'd think. Push is worthless. There is absolutely no point. You should be Flying/Super Speeding out of their range if them meleeing you is a concern, and your 3 main single target nukes should be quite good enough to keep the enemies grounded/dead. Explosive Blast I've covered within Energy Torrent. Nova is your traditional kill everything around me by taking all my endurance. It's novelty at best. It's massive recharge makes it not too practical, but it's better than Power Push. Rating - 3/5. If you are looking for single-target damage, there is no better. AoE blasters are just more efficient. Fire Blast - Another very viable AoE choice. Don't take Flares, however, especially if you are going Perma-Hasten. With Hasten on, it's more efficient to sit there and cast Fire Blast over and over than use Flares. Fire Blast is useful for picking off occasional runners and bosses, but your main focus is AoE. With Fire Ball and Fire Breath, you can kill masses of units quickly. Rain of Fire isn't good at all, it makes enemies run from where you cast it, and your focus is AoE, right? Aim is covered in Energy Blast. Blaze is useful, you may be thinking "I thought I was an AoE blaster?". You are, but how are you going to kill bosses in missions? Or even bosses when street-hunting? Blaze does mega damage, and helps a lot when needing to kill single high health targets. Blazing Bolt is your standard sniper attack. Inferno is just like Nova. Rating - 5/5. Upon further research, Fire is better than AR for a few reasons, one standing out in particular. In the late game, after about 40, lots of enemies are resistant to lethal. Resistance to lethal makes Full Auto not as effective as it could be. Fire is better than AR until level 32, and then AR takes the lead until about 40-42, and then Fire pulls ahead again. Both are still viable, but since AR is only better for about 8-10 levels, and Fire can easily hold its own on those levels as well, Fire gets the nod. Ice Blast - A nice powerset. Energy's knockback is better than Ice's slow, but both have their uses. Ice gets two holds, however, which makes it very nice when soloing missions, because you usually fight two to three enemies at a time, meaning you can solo them much better than normal. It also helps with fighting bosses. They, unfortunately, lack a sniper ability. Ice also has really low activation times, so you can throw your three main nukes quite fast, and slaughter enemies. Frost Breath is useless, it's your only AoE, and thusly pointless. Aim is covered elsewhere. Freeze Ray and Bitter Freeze Ray are both nice holds, so if you basically solo missions all the time, they can really help out. Ice Storm is rather useless. Even though you aren't AoE like Fire, you still would be better off taking another power. They will attack you as they run from the storm, so it doesn't help that much. I've heard Blizzard is really horrible compared to other drain all endurance and kill everything powers, though I've yet to see it in action. Rating - 2/5. Both Energy and Ice can hold their own in combat, and both have good and bad parts to them in terms of single-target slaughtering. Energy has a snipe, where Ice has two holds. Choose based on concept, or pick whichever you want. Secondaries: Devices - Ah, the most coveted of them all. Oftentimes heralded as the best secondary, it probably is. Web Grenade is standard Immobilization. Caltrops is very useful for stopping enemies from hitting you in melee. Taser is laughable, don't get it. Targeting Drone is a godsend, allowing you to forgo Accuracy enhancements completely. Smoke Grenade is also a godsend. It's probably one of the best powers out there. It makes enemies barely able to hit you at all. Cloaking Device is nice, and stacks well with other Defense powers. Trip Mine can be stacked repeatedly in a place, and thusly can destroy bosses easily. Time Bomb is generally not too useful, because despite its huge damage, it's hard to use effectively. Auto Turrent is bad. It's not good enough to use. It's damage is negligable in a fight. Rating - 5/5. It's not really a contest. Utility is very nice. Targeting Drone combined with Perma-Hasten, you can 6-slot all your attacks with Damage, making you slaughter anything. All of the other powers are excellent as well. Electricity Manipulation - Not, very good. Electric Fence is standard, but it's all downhill from there. Stay away from all Blaster melee's, including Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, and Thunder Strike. Also, stay away from all Blaster PBAoEs, including Lightning Field, Lightning Clap, and Power Sink. Hmm, no powers are left but Build-Up! Yay! Rating - 1/5. I exaggerated a bit, but you see my point. Filled with ONLY close-range powers, where Blasters crumble like paper in melee past 20, Electricity just can't hold up. Power Sink is sort of useful, but too little too late at 35. Shocking Grasp also isn't that bad, but a melee hold at 38? Wow! Energy Manipulation - Generally regarded as the second best Secondary, with good reason. Build Up at level 4 is certainly alluring, but there's too many melee attacks for my liking. Conserve Power is nice, but unreliable. Even with Perma-Hasten and 6-slotted Recharge, it can't be permanent. Stamina will generally work just fine. Power Boost I've never even heard talked about, and frankly it doesn't sound all that useful. Maybe if the Damage over Time from Fire is increased, but that's basically it. Boost Range is also nice, but it's not awe-inducing like Targeting Drone or Smoke Grenade or Caltrops. Rating - 4/5. Early Build Up is basically it, but frankly that's better than the other sets. Fire Manipulation - Way too many PBAoEs and melees for my liking. Ring of Fire is okay, but so is Web Grenade. Then you get Build Up at 16, compared to Energy's 4. Consume is nice, but like Conserve Power, it's not going to replace Stamina. Everything else is basically PBAoE or melee. Consume is nice, but not great, especially at 28. Rating - 2/5. Energy has it beaten everywhere, and at least Ice can slow them. Ice Manipulation - Also way too many melee/PBAoE powers. Chilblain slows recharge, which is nice, but so does Web Grenade. They get Build Up at 16, same as Fire, but way later than Energy. The only thing it has going for it is Shiver, which is quite nice. It's like a ranged Caltrops, but with recharge too. That's basically it though. Rating - 3/5. Shiver places it ahead of Fire, slightly behind Energy, and miles behind Devices. Controller: Primaries: Earth Control - Generally regarded as not very good. Stone Prison, Fossilize, and Stone Cages are standard Controller fare. Skipping the immobilize is probably a good idea, just get the AoE version. Quicksand is quite bad. You have an AoE immobilize, and then you get an AoE slow? Useless. Salt Crystals is also rather bad. Sleep is generally a bad thing. Stalagmites is much nicer. Targeted disorient is very good. Earthquake isn't very good. The -ACC and -DEF leave quite a bit to be desired, though it's probably worth taking. Volcanic Gasses is standard AoE hold Controller fare, though note you get it 8 levels after other Controllers, which hurts a lot. Animate Stone is, as far as Controller summons go, pretty bad. It's just not that great. Rating - 2/6. Not very great. It works, but it's just not comparable to the other ones. The late AoE hold is bad, and the other powers leave something to be desired. Fire Control - Ah, a nice powerset. Ring of Fire, Char, and Fire Cages are standard Controller fare. A tip, however, is not to take the single target Immobilize spell. Just get the hold, and then either something from your secondary, or the AoE immobilize. Smoke is a godsend. Remove the Grenade from the Devices ability and you have this. Definitely get it and use it. Hot Feet is horrible. I had heard it was good, but I'm wrong. -SPD when I have Fire Cages and soon Flashfire and Cinders? I don't see why it's helpful. Flashfire and Cinders are both great AoE disorients/holds. Cinders is PBAoE, which hurts, but isn't that bad. Slot it with Accuracy and you should be ok. Or use Flashfire before going in. Bonfire sounds horrible. Knockback is not as good as disorient or holds, especially since you already have AoE versions of both disorient and holds before you get this. Fire Imps is the ultimate in summons. Fast and powerful, it allows you to destroy anything in your path. The best summon. Rating - 6/6. AoE immobilize, hold, and disorient, and the best pet in the game. What more do you want? Gravity Control - Visually, one of the best. Effectively, not good. Crush is standard immobilize. Lift is just damage, and despite looking good, Controllers aren't there to do damage, unless you are Illusion. Gravity Distortion is a normal hold. Propel, despite looking awesome, has a very long activation time for some decent damage and knockback. Again, pure damage is bad. Crushing Field is standard AoE hold, albeit at 8 instead of 2. Dimension Shift is really bad. It makes your AoE hold not as good, because there is less enemies to hold. And oftentimes you will phase none of them, or all of them. Its only use it to cast it and run, where Gravity Distortion Field is much better in that respect. Gravity Distortion Field is standard AoE hold, though note it is location, rather than targeted on an enemy, which can have it uses, but is hardly powerset-defining. Wormhole is a glorified Teleport Foe, which is also useless. Not worth a slot, especially so late. Singularity is basically another Gravity Controller, throwing holds and immobilizes around. It's nice, but it's not Fire Imps. Rating - 4/6. Singularity is excellent. It's the best holding pet. Some powers are really worthless, but Singularity and the Location AoE hold put it above Ice and Earth. It's better at holding. Ice Control - Chilblain, Block of Ice, and Frostbite are standard Controller fare. Skipping the immobilize is probably a good idea, just take the AoE version. Arctic Air's fear is useless, especially PBAoE. Shiver is nice, but your job is to hold them, not slow them. Still is useful though. Ice Slick isn't good. Knockdown is pointless, why not just hold them instead? Flash Freeze is sleep, which is covered elsewhere. Glacier is standard PBAoE hold. Jack Frost is supposedly horrible, but I've never seen it. Rating - 3/6. It's not bad. It's not as good at controlling as Fire, so there isn't much a point. Illusion Control - Ah, Illusion. Unique. Spectral Wounds is a single target damage, a very nice one. 1/3 of it heals, but only its base damage, not its Damage Enhancement enhanced damage, so it quickly becomes negligable. Blind is a single-target hold with an AoE sleep thrown in. It's nice, better than other holds, even though sleep is bad. It helps out when soloing more than you would think. Deceive is largely a specific use power. Some love it and some hate it. The lack of exp isn't as big as one would think, and used on lone enemies, it's a hold. It's a situational power, so I would try it and see if you like it. Flash is a very early PBAoE hold, so definitely get it. Superior Invisibility is good, if you are soloing 100%. Otherwise skip it and get Group Invisibility. With Perma-Hasten, you can have Group Invisibility permanent, so it's good in groups. Though if you are Illusion, you probably aren't grouping much. Phantom Army is great. Excellent once slotted, they can kill masses of enemies quite nicely. Spectral Terror is bad. Fear is not good. Phantasm is also very nice. Phantom Army and Phantasm aren't as good as Fire Imps, but they are quite close. Rating - 5/6. It's the best for soloing, and the early summons help a lot. For groups it's not great. Solo with it, or take another set. Mind Control - Filled with sleeps. Also, a power that just does damage. Mesmerize is bad, because of sleep. Levitate is a damage power, which is bad. Dominate is good, but everyone gets a single target hold. Confuse is Decieve, see above for that. Mass Hypnosis is AoE sleep, which is also bad. Telekinesis is supposedly good, but I'd hardly think it makes up for the rest of the powerset. Total Domination is a standard AoE hold. Terrify is fear, which is very bad, as covered elsewhere. Mass Confusion isn't very useful, as it will basically destroy your experience. Confuse/Decieve can at least be used tactically to take out tough spawns. Mass Confusion just destroys them all. Rating - 1/6. Sleeps are bad. This has lots of sleeps. It also has a damage only power, and a fear power. Stay away. Secondaries: Empathy - Your standard healing set. Healing Aura and Heal Other are both nice. Absorb Pain isn't too great, I would imagine. I think Healing Aura and Heal Other will get the job done in most cases. I can see some people forgoing Heal Other in favor of Absorb Pain. I don't know the health drain of Absorb Pain, so use at risk. Resurrect is horrible. No one should be dying. You are an empathy Defender/Controller, after all. Heal them before they die, and you should have no need for this. Especially since everyone should always carry at least one Awaken on them. Clear Mind is useful, I would think, though most heroes have their own method of "disable" prevention. Fortitude is a godsend, it helps immensely. Cast it on your tankers/scrappers and watch them be much more effective. Recovery Aura is very, very good. It's better than Stamina. It's almost impossible to run out of endurance with this on. Make sure to get it. Regeneration Aura I have no experience with. I've no idea on how much of a benefit it provides. If I had to guess I would say that Healing Aura and Heal Other would be good enough, though I really don't know. Adrenalin Boost I wouldn't think is very good. Recovery Aura should provide them with plenty of endurance, and self-disorient doesn't sound very good. I've no experience with it, so I could be wrong. Rating - 3/5. It's quite nice, especially the auras and Fortitude, but Radiation has way more utility, and Force Field is just better at reducing damage. Force Field - An alternate to Empathy. Instead of healing damage as it's taken, you are stopping the damage in the first place. Personal Force Field is nice, if you turn it on you basically can't die unless you are fighting enemies much higher than you. Good for escaping. Deflection Shield and its brother Insulation Shield are very nice. Cast them both on a hero and he will be hit much less by anything, which is your job. Force Bolt is bad. If you are a Controller, you shouldn't need knockback to do your job. If you are a Defender, you shouldn't need knockback to do your job. If a mob is a threat to you, turn on Personal Force Field instead of throwing a Force Bolt. Detention Field isn't as bad as I had originally thought. You can use it to hold off a boss or lieutenant whilst killing his minions, which can be very useful, especially at lower levels combined with a Controller's single target holds. They can completely take a boss or lieutenant out of the fight, and by the time the boss comes back in, your entire team can just gang up on him. Dispersion Bubble is a godsend. +DEF to all attacks, stacking with Deflection and Insulation Shield, and also resistances to "disable" powers. Your best power, use it constantly. Repulsion Field and Bomb aren't good. Knockback is generally bad, especially in groups. You will knock away the mobs from the Scrappers and Tankers. Force Bubble seems basically like an AoE Personal Force Field. I don't think it's worth the cost, but I've no experience with it. Rating - 5/5. It edges out Empathy because Dispersion Bubble, Deflection Shield, and Insulation Shield combined are completely unstoppable. Empathy is still great, however. The massive defense provided also edges out Radiation, but very barely. Kinetics - An interesting set. Transfusion isn't bad. Siphon Power is excellent. A very, very good ability, use this constantly. Repel isn't too great, but it can control decently until you get better controlling abilities, if you are a controller. Siphon Speed is good only for kiting, I guess. It can't really double as a travel power, because it's not nearly fast enough. I don't recommend it. Increase Density is a very, weird power. Resistance to status effects, and some Smashing and Energy resistance too. The movement speed penalty is probably negligable. Seems like standard resistance to "disables" to me. Speed Boost is very nice. +REC and +RCH are both very nice, and its recharge is low enough to cast on all allies easily. Definitely a worthwhile power. Inertial Reduction can double as a travel power, I guess, but wouldn't it be better to just, get a travel power? Transference is basically Consume, which is nice, but it's gotten quite late. Still useful however. Not ultimate like Recovery Aura though. Fulcrum Shift is AoE Siphon Power. Used in conjuction with Siphon Power, it's excellent. Definitely worth getting. Rating - 2/5. Definitely has great powers, but the two "I wanna be a travel power!" powers, and the need to have a target for every power really bring down the usefulness. It's still a great set. After finding out that Transfusion is one of the stronger heals, and Repel is more worthwhile than I thought, I have to keep my rating. The Buff/Debuff powersets are very hard to rank, as all of them are really useful. Don't be discouraged by Kinetics low rating, all except for Storm Summoning are all excellent choices, and even Storm Summoning can be quite effective. Radiation Emission - A very nice set, with the most utility. Radiant Aura is standard PBAoE healing. Radiation Infection makes them easier to hit, and makes them hit you less. Quite useful. Accelerate Metabolism is one of the best powers in the game. It's Hasten, Siphon Power, Recovery Aura, Integration, and Siphon Speed all in one, albeit all weakened. Used in combination with Hasten, it can make all your powers recharge so fast you wouldn't believe it, because I'm under the impression it stacks well with Hasten. It's powerset-defining. Definitely take this. Enervating Field is quite useful. They deal less damage, while taking more. Noticing a pattern in the toggles? Mutation is basically Resurrect. Again, don't let them die and you won't be needing this, and they should also have an awaken. Lingering Radiation is nice, but note that it's not a toggle, it's a click, so be ready to re-cast it. It's recharge is low, so re-casting shouldn't be a big problem. Choking Cloud looks useless. Very, very high endurance cost, and it's PBAoE. Fallout is horrible. It has very little range; the enemy must be nearly on top of the corpse for it to work. Also, not to mention the fact that they shouldn't be dying in the first place. EM Pulse is kind of nice, but is very situational. I guess if your team is getting totally destroyed, you can pop this as a run away spell, but I don't think that would be worth a power slot. Rating - 4/5. It has tons of debuffs, and one of the best powers in the game. Force Field edges out over it, but barely. Storm Summoning - An interesting powerset. Gale is generally considered worthless. Knockback is bad. O2 Boost is also generally regarded as bad. It's just too little to be really effective. Snow Storm is one of your best abilities. Very nice AoE Shiver, it works wonders. Steamy Mist is okay, it's not set-defining, but it's alright. Freezing Rain is quite nice. It's Enervating Field plus Snow Storm. It's quite effective. One of the best Storm powers, it does its job well. Hurricane is the only Knockback power really worth it. It's PBAoE, and a toggle, so in the off chance an enemy runs up to you from the front lines, you can knock him down and run. Thunder Clap is a nice PBAoE disorient. Combines well with your other powers if you are a Controller, but Defenders may not get as much use, especially since it will only stun minions, which doesn't have much use later. Tornado has fear, but I've never seen it used nor talked about. I've no real info. Sounds like it's probably not worth it, mainly from the fear. Lightning Storm also has fear, and it's really horrible. It's a "can only be used for one battle" power, has a decently long recharge, and does poor damage for it's near half of your endurance cost. Pass on this one. Rating - 1/5. Its powers leave something to be desired, making other sets a better choice for Defenders or Controllers. Snow Storm and Freezing Rain are good, but that's all that they really have. Storm Summoning can work relatively well if you use it correctly, but other sets are just more effective, overall. Defenders: Primaries: Dark Miasma - The only original Defender Primary. Unfortunately, also the worst. Twilight Grasp isn't that great. Lowers a single target's ACC and DAM, while healing you and your allies. Other primaries do it better. Tar Patch is horrible. A -SPD only? Other powersets do it better. Darkest Night reduces DAM and ACC. Other powersets do it better, (Henceforth known as OPDIB). Howling Twilight is a resurrect? Those are useless. Shadow Fall adds defense and slight resistances? OPDIB. Fearsome Stare is a fear spell? Those are very useless, as we've established. Petrifying Gaze is a hold, which is useful, but it's not very good. Black Hole makes everyone in an AoE impossible to hit. That's the most useless ability ever. What's the point? Short of use and run away, I don't see it. Dark Servant isn't great either. It has a long recharge to be a one-battle per use spell. Aside from that, it seems like it's decent. Rating - 1/6. It's simply a case of OPDIB. Whatever it can do, one of the other 5 primaries can do it much better, and also can do things that Dark Miasma can't. It's just not good at all. Empathy - Your standard healing set. Healing Aura and Heal Other are both nice. Absorb Pain isn't too great, I would imagine. I think Healing Aura and Heal Other will get the job done in most cases. I can see some people foregoing Heal Other in favor of Absorb Pain. I don't know the health drain of Absorb Pain, so use at risk. Resurrect is horrible. No one should be dying. You are an empathy Defender/Controller, after all. Heal them before they die, and you should have no need for this. Especially since everyone should always carry at least one awaken on them. Clear Mind is useful, I would think, though most heroes have their own method of "disable" prevention. Fortitude is a godsend, it helps immensely. Cast it on your tankers/scrappers and watch them be much more effective. Recovery Aura is very, very good. It's better than Stamina. It's almost impossible to run out of endurance with this on. Make sure to get it. Regeneration Aura I have no experience with. I've no idea on how much of a benefit it provides. If I had to guess I would say that Healing Aura and Heal Other would be good enough, though I really don't know. Adrenalin Boost I wouldn't think is very good. Recovery Aura should provide them with plenty of endurance, and self-disorient doesn't sound very good. I've no experience with it, so I could be wrong. Rating - 4/6. It's quite nice, especially the auras and Fortitude, but Radiation has way more utility, and Force Field is just better at reducing damage. Force Field - An alternate to Empathy. Instead of healing damage as it's taken, you are stopping the damage in the first place. Personal Force Field is nice, if you turn it on you basically can't die unless you are fighting enemies much higher than you. Good for escaping. Deflection Shield and it's brother Insulation Shield are very nice. Cast them both on a hero and he will be hit much less by anything, which is your job. Force Bolt is bad. If you are a Controller, you shouldn't need knockback to do your job. If you are a Defender, you shouldn't need knockback to do your job. If a mob is a threat to you, turn on Personal Force Field instead of throwing a Force Bolt. Detention Field is rather worthless. I guess it could be useful for disabling a boss while you kill his minions, but Controllers should just use holds, and Defenders should let the Controllers use their holds. Dispersion Bubble is a godsend. +DEF to all attacks, stacking with Deflection and Insulation Shield, and also resistances to "disable" powers. Your best power, use it constantly. Repulsion Field and Bomb aren't good. Knockback is generally bad, especially in groups. You will knock away the mobs from the scrappers and tankers. Force Bubble seems basically like an AoE Personal Force Field. I don't think it's worth the cost, but I've no experience with it. Rating - 6/6. It edges out Empathy because Dispersion Bubble, Deflection Shield, and Insulation Shield combined are completely unstoppable. Empathy is still great, however. The massive defense provided also edges out Radiation, but very barely. Kinetics - An interesting set. Transfusion isn't bad. It's not as good as Radiant Aura or Healing Aura, because it requires a target. Siphon Power is excellent. A very, very good ability, use this constantly. Repel is useless. Knockback is horrible in groups. Siphon Speed is good only for kiting, I guess. It can't really double as a travel power, because it's not nearly fast enough. I don't recommend it. Increase Density is a very, weird power. Resistance to status effects, and some Smashing and Energy resistance too. The movement speed penalty is probably negligable. Seems like standard resistance to "disables" to me. Speed Boost is very nice. +REC and +RCH are both very nice, and it's recharge is low enough to cast on all allies easily. Definitely a worthwhile power. Inertial Reduction can double as a travel power, I guess, but wouldn't it be better to just, get a travel power? Transferance is basically Consume, which is nice, but it's gotten quite late. Still useful however. Not ultimate like Recovery Aura though. Fulcrum Shift is AoE Siphon Power. Used in conjuction with Siphon Power, it's excellent. Definitely worth getting. Rating - 3/6. Definitely has great powers, but the two "I wanna be a travel power!" powers, and the need to have a target for every power really bring down the usefulness. It's still a great set. Radiation Emission - A very nice set, with the most utility. Radiant Aura is standard PBAoE healing. Radiation Infection makes them easier to hit, and makes them hit you less. Quite useful. Accelerate Metabolism is one of the best powers in the game. It's Hasten, Siphon Power, Recovery Aura, Integration, and Siphon Speed all in one, albeit all weakened. Used in combination with Hasten, it can make all your powers recharge so fast you wouldn't believe it, because I'm under the impression it stacks well with Hasten. It's powerset-defining. Definitely take this. Enervating Field is quite useful. They deal less damage, while taking more. Noticing a pattern in the toggles? Mutation is basically Resurrect. Again, don't let them die and you won't be needing this, and they should also have an awaken. Lingering Radiation is nice, but note that it's not a toggle, it's a click, so be ready to re-cast it. It's recharge is low, so re-casting shouldn't be a big problem. Choking Cloud looks useless. Very, very high endurance cost, and it's PBAoE. Fallout is horrible. It has very little range; the enemy must be nearly on top of the corpse for it to work. EM Pulse is kind of nice, but very situational. I guess if your team is getting totally destroyed, you can pop this as a run away spell, but I don't think that would be worth a power slot. Rating - 5/6. It has tons of debuffs, and one of the best powers in the game. Force Field edges out over it, but barely. Storm Summoning - An interesting powerset. Gale is generally considered worthless. Knockback is bad. O2 Boost is also generally regarded as bad. It's just too little to be really effective. Snow Storm is one of your best abilities. Very nice AoE Shiver, it works wonders. Steamy Mist is okay, it's not set-defining, but it's alright. Freezing Rain is quite nice. It's Enervating Field plus Snow Storm. It's quite effective. One of the best Storm powers, it does its job well. Hurricane is the only Knockback power really worth it. It's PBAoE, and a toggle, so in the off chance an enemy runs up to you from the front lines, you can knock him down and run. Thunder Clap is a nice PBAoE disorient. Combines well with your other powers if you are a Controller, but Defenders may not get as much use, especially since it will only stun minions, which doesn't have much use later. Tornado has fear, but I've never seen it used nor talked about. I've no real info. Sounds like it's probably not worth it, mainly from the fear. Lightning Storm also has fear, and it's really horrible. It's a "can only be cast in one battle", has a decently long recharge, and does poor damage for it taking nearly half of your endurance. Pass on this one. Rating - 2/6. Its offensive powers leave something to be desired, making other sets a better choice for Defenders or Controllers. Snow Storm and Freezing Rain put it ahead of Dark Miasma, but that's all that they really have. They work relatively well if you use them correctly, but other sets are just more effective. Secondaries: Dark Blast - Its secondary effect isn't bad, and stacks well with Force Field. Dark Blast is decent. Gloom is also decent. Dark Blast and Gloom should be used for their -ACC. Moonbeam is a nice early snipe. Dark Pit is an early AoE Disorient, and not even a PBAoE one. Very nice, definitely worth it. Tenebrous Tentacles seems alright, but a cone seems rather risky, especially since it's just immobilize. Same thing with Nightfall, and you don't even get immobilize. Use only for the cone-style -ACC. Torrent; what's with all these cones, argh. Also, just use for cone-style -ACC. Life Drain is probably not worth it. It has -ACC, but you probably have plenty of that by now. The heal is probably not good enough to be worth it, but I've never seen it used. I would guess that if you have to rely on that to stay alive, you are going to die. Blackstar is a commonplace kill everything around me and drain me of endurance. The -ACC is nice, but draining of all your endurance is not. Rating - 5/5. The -ACC is good, better than Radiation's -DEF. The -ACC stays useful the entire game, with -DEF becoming less useful as you go up in levels. Electrical Blast - Not, very good. This is just a horrible, horrible Secondary. Defender Secondaries are used for their effects, so why in the world is -END given to us? It's completely useless. Rating - 1/5. Why is this a Defender powerset? The -END is the only thing going for it, as Defenders can't deal damage with any Blast set. And the -END is horrible, barring 6-slotted Short Circuit. The most worthless powerset out there, at least for Defenders. Energy Blast - Also, not that great. It's good with Blasters because it deals nice damage, but you can't do much damage as a Defender, so it's main point is lost. Knockback is okay, but it's certainly not as good as the other powersets. Rating - 2/5. As knockback is more useful than -END, it edges out Electricity Blast, but don't bother taking either of these. Psychic Blast - A very varied powerset. Boasting basically every "disable" except hold, it's quite, um, varied. Mental Blast is a nice -RCH attack. Subdue is a standard immobilize. Psionic Lance is standard sniper attack. Psionic Scream is a nice cone with -RCH in it. Telekinetic Blast is knockback, which isn't great. Will Domination is, sleep. I think you know my thoughts. Psionic Tornado is an AoE knockback, which isn't too great. Scramble Thoughts is a single target disorient, which is okay. Psychic Wail is your standard AoE kill everything but drain me of endurance, except it has -RCH too, and can disorient anyone left alive. Rating - 3/5. It's just not that great. Varied and standard all the way. Better than Electricity and Energy. Radiation Blast - Ah, what a powerset. Neutrino Bolt and X-Ray Beam both -DEF very well, so basically once you hit them once you keep hitting them. Irradiate, rather than reducing biological units' health by 3 per second, is a very nice close-range AoE that really reduces defense. Throwing this in the middle of a group will make them be hit almost every time. Electron Haze is a cone -DEF. Use accordingly. Proton Volley is a normal sniper attack, but isn't too useful in Radiation Blast. You'll already have 4 -DEF attacks, 2 single target, 1 very good AoE, and 1 cone, so you'll hardly be needing another sniper single target. Aim is pretty useless. You don't need +ACC with Radiaton and you don't need +DAM ever. Cosmic Burst seems pretty useless, but Hero Planner is telling me Extreme Damage, which is the highest in the game. I've no info, and even though Defenders don't deal damage, Extreme sounds alluring. Try at your own risk I guess. Neutron Bomb is excellent. A targeted AoE -DEF, it's probably your best. Atomic Blast is your standard AoE kill everything and drain me of endurance, but it has a -DEF and a hold on it too. Nice. Rating - 4/5. The -DEF is very nice, and it has a targeted AoE version. Very nice, if one-dimensional. Unfortunately, late game, everyone will either have enough Accuracy that the -DEF won't help, have Targeting Drone, or someone (maybe you!) will be running Tactics. This is still a great powerset, just not as good as Dark Blast, as -ACC is always useful. Scrapper: Primaries: Broad Sword - A nice powerset, albeit very one-dimensional. Every power is basically the same. Kill what you have targeted. Either get both or neither AoEs. Aside from that, get whatever powers you'd like. The most damaging up front of the primaries. Rating - 5/6. Does quite a bit of damage, but the large number of attack abilities makes it very, very one-dimensional. Claws - A powerset with low damage and low recharges. It has very long animation times, however. Swipe does very little damage and has a very long animation time. I'd advise against it. Strike and Slash are much better. They also have long animation times, but much better damage. Spin is situational. It's your only PBAoE, but slotted right, it can be useful. Try it and see if you like it, or ask elsewhere. Follow Up is your version of Build Up, but you have to hit with it before it will work, which isn't good. It has a much lower recharge time, however. Focus is a nice ranged attack, and good for starting off a fight, or catching runners. Eviscerate and Shockwave are both nice cone powers. Rating - 3/6. Its long animation times just don't work very well, especially with its low damage. It's still viable, just not great. Dark Melee - Shadow Punch isn't worth it. With Perma-Hasten, it's more efficient to sit there and Smite over and over than it is to Shadow Punch. Smite and Shadow Maul are your one-two punch until level 32. Luckily, your one-two punch is incredibly strong. Smite/Shadow Maul will kill just about anything, and once you get to SO's, you can one-hit even cons with Shadow Maul. Lining up for Shadow Maul is like second nature once you get used to it, and it's quite effective. Touch of Fear is useless. Yay, make enemies run from you when all you have is melee attacks! Siphon Life is bad. It heals too little to be worth it, and it takes way too much endurance. Dark Consumption is basically Consume. You should be getting Stamina at 20 or have Quick Recovery, so it's probably not worth it. If you have Quick Recovery and Stamina, you probably don't need it. Soul Drain is a godsend. Build Up adds 100% damage and 66% accuracy. Soul Drain is 33% damage and 20% accuracy PER ENEMY. Use it in a group of 6-10 enemies and watch yourself never miss, and slaughter all enemies quite easily. Its damage isn't worth it unless you slot it, I suppose. But you aren't supposed to do AoE damage. I've heard of some people 6-slotting Dark Consumption and Soul Drain with damage, and killing masses of enemies, though I don't know if I believe them; it sounds quite a bit farfetched to me. Midnight Grasp is a nice addition to your Smite and Shadow Maul. It's just another attack, about as much damage dealing as Shadow Maul. Good against bosses. Rating - 6/6. I see Dark Melee as the best. Despite the fact that you only have four worthwhile abilities, it frees up plenty of room for taking your secondary powers, and pool powers. The four attacks it does have are really, really excellent. Soul Drain is the best build-up type ability, and Smite/Maul/Grasp are 3 really, really damaging abilities. Broadsword and Katana are close though. Katana - Take broadsword, make it do less damage, reduce the endurance cost, and make the recharge times lower. Done. Rating - 4/6. Damage up front is more important than damage over time. Broadsword is just more efficient. Katana is still effective though. Not to mention the fact that Hasten gets rid of the recharge times, and Stamina gets rid of the endurance problems of Broadsword. It's just less efficient. Martial Arts - Not, very good. Thunder Kick is average. Storm Kick is one of the worst abilities in the game. Horrible damage, and very long animation times. At least Shadow Maul does excellent damage. Cobra Strike is rather worthless. The activation time is quite long, and if you miss or the disorient doesn't go off, you'll be quite hurt. Crane Kick is quite good, but it also has a very large activation time. Good damage though. Crippling Axe Kick is rather worthless. Immobilize is pretty useless on a melee only scrapper. Dragon's Tail is Martial Arts' only AoE, and pretty useless. Eagle's Claw does very good damage, but its activation is the longest in the game, barring sniper powers. Rating - 1/6. Some nice damage, but the activation times are killer. 5 seconds for its last power? Come on now. Spines - An interesting powerset. Mainly focused on AoE. Barb Swipe is weak. With Perma-Hasten, it's more efficient to Lunge over and over. Spine Burst is your standard AoE. Impale is good ranged, and the immobilize can help against runners. Quills is also quite nice, combined with Spine Burst. Ripper and Throw Spines are more of the same, quite nice. Combining your 4 AoE attacks together allows you to slaughter massive groups, but why not just be a Blaster, who can do it better, and much earlier as well? Rating - 2/6. It's a wannabe Fire/AR Blaster. Fun to use, but just not very efficient. Secondaries: Dark Armor - Not, very good. Dark Embrace is standard Lethal/Negative/Smashing resistance, but it has its caveat; it cannot be used with Murky Cloud (your elemental resistances), or Obsidian Shield (your "disable" resistances). This means you must either use Obsidian to not be disoriented/held and die, or use Dark Embrace/Murky Cloud to not die very easily from attacks. Nice, huh? Death Shroud could combine nicely with Spines' AoE, but it's hardly going to be noticeable. Dark Regeneration is horrible. Despite healing you a bit, it drains HALF of your endurance. 49 out of 100. It's not going to save you, and it will probably destroy all your toggles. Cloak of Darkness is your Cloaking Device/Stealth ability, and it's good. Cloak of Fear is the worst power in the game. Toggle AoE Fear. On a Scrapper. Great idea developers! Oppressive Gloom sounds good. Toggle AoE Disorient for some health sounds fine to me. I've never heard it talked about, so use at your own risk. Soul Transfer is useless. All Resurrects are useless. Carry an awaken. Rating - 1/4. Hmm, do I either die in 2-3 hits from the enemies or get held, lose my Dark Embrace, and die in 2-3 hits from the enemies. Wait, I'll just cast Cloak of Fear, then they'll run from me! That's the way to win! Invulnerability - A nice powerset. Resist Physical Damage is pretty good. Temporary Invulnerability is very good, fully slotted you'll hit the 90% resistance cap I believe. Dull Pain is nice. Increasing your max health is nice. Resist Elements and its brother, Resist Energies are both pretty worthless. Neither of those attacks are used very often, and when they are the negligible bonus provided by these isn't worth a slot. Unyielding Stance is quite good. It's your resistance to "disables" and resistance to all damages. If you are a Tanker, you can try skipping Temporary Invulnerability and just taking Unyielding Stance. If you slot it enough it should be quite worthy. You could take Teleport if you do this, because then you never have to turn it off. Invincibility is your best power. It's powerset defining. Turn it on, and watch how you never miss, and how the enemies always do. 6-slot it as soon as you can. Tough Hide isn't really worth it. Enemies will rarely get past Invincibility, though it's more helpful than Resist Elements or Energies. Unstoppable sounds good if you are looking to take down a really hard group of enemies and then just back off and Rest once they are dead. I haven't heard much about it, but it sounds quite good on paper. Use at your own risk, I suppose. Rating - 3/4. Invincibility is excellent, and so is Unyielding Stance, but Regeneration has them beat. Regeneration - Ah, such a good powerset. Fast Healing is decent. You won't really notice it. It's NOT worth slotting. Once you get Instant Healing it's pointless. Reconstruction is loved by most, though I didn't take it. Once you get Instant Healing, it's not going to be used. Dull Pain, however, can still be used to increase your max health, which will help a lot with Instant Healing. Quick Recovery is an upgraded Stamina, definitely worth 6-slotting. Integration is a godsend, one of your best powers. Definitely take it and use it constantly. Resilience is decent. It won't help much, but it's useful. Instant Healing is one of the best powers in the game, and if you get Stamina and Quick Recovery 6-slotted, then you can afford to 6-slot Instant Healing with 6 Heal Enhancers, healing you faster than Rest does. It's quite nice. Revive, however, is worthless. Carry an awaken and your problems are solved. Moment of Glory seems highly situational. I would think that if you can't win the fight with Instant Healing going, using Moment of Glory isn't going to help you. I'm not sure. Use at your own risk, or ask elsewhere. Rating 4/4. Instant Healing is probably the second or third best power next to Hasten and Accelerate Metabolism. It's amazing, and jaw-dropping. I cannot praise it enough. Quick Recovery and Integration are also excellent. Super Reflexes - After having been patched, it's much nicer. With careful slotting and a few power pools, you can basically never be hit, ever. This isn't as good as it sounds, though. Focused Fighting and Focused Senses are two halves to one whole. Both are rather useful. Agile and Dodge are the same thing. Both useful. I believe the numbers are 20% on the toggles, and 10% on the auto powers, for defenses. Don't quote me on that, because I'm not sure. Practiced Brawler is nice, especially since it's a click, rather than a toggle. You can cast it before battle that way, and recharge your endurance beforehand. It would be bad if it runs out mid-battle though. Quickness is quite nice as well, because unless Hero Planner is lying, it reduces recharge rates by 20%, which is very good. Combined with Hasten, it should be quite, quite nice. Lucky and Evasion are the same as the other two halves powers. Cone/AoE seem rather rare, at least I don't see them often. Maybe at even higher levels. Elude is a very nice get away very fast spell, and I can imagine that it would be fairly good for helping out with travel as well. Rating - 2/4. Despite being good for dodging, and if all powers are 6-slotted with SO's, giving you a 66% defense, against an even con enemies 75% chance to hit, not including power pools like stealth or manuevers, it just can't compare to Regeneration or Invulnerability. Still nice though, and quite unique. Tanker: Primaries: Fiery Aura - With Fiery Aura, you are really more of a Scrapper with spunk than a Tanker. Your defense suffers, with Fire Shield and Plasma Shield only giving you something like a 66% resistance fully slotted, but it has advantages. Fire Shield and Plasma Shield can be run at the same time, giving you mobility and resistance to all damages except Psionics. Blazing Aura is horrible, don't take it. Healing Flames is basically Reconstruction, which is good. Temperature Protection is worthless. Don't bother. Consume is very nice until you get Stamina. Burn is regarded as very good. It's mainly only useful for people with Provoke, as mobs tend to run away once you cast it on them. Fiery Embrace is nice when stacked with Fiery Melee, as it lasts 30 seconds for fire attacks, and about as long as Build Up for others. Rise of the Phoenix is a Resurrect. You know my thoughts. Rating - 3/4. Invulnerability has it beat, but it's not totally horrible like Ice or Stone. Ice Armor - Ice Armor isn't great. Frozen Armor isn't wonderful, since it increases defense over resistance. Hoarfrost is Dull Pain. Chilling Embrace is much more useful than I first thought. Definitely get this power if you are going for Ice Armor. Wet Ice is mobile Unyielding Stance, but it's defense instead of resistance. Not good. Permafrost is useless. Icicles costs way too much for its minimal damage. Glacial Armor can't be used at the same time as Frozen Armor or Wet Ice, so it's probably useless. Energy Absorption is its only saving grace. It basically makes you unhittable if you use it and slot it right. Still, one power can't save a set. Hibernate seems rather useless in combat, as long as the enemies won't attack you. It's probably good for healing outside of combat, but for healing outside of combat, it's probably not worth a slot. Rating - 2/4. Energy Absorption doesn't save the set, but it still is quite good. Everything else is quite bad though, save Chilling Embrace. Invulnerability - A nice powerset. Resist Physical Damage is pretty good. Temporary Invulnerability is very good, fully slotted you'll hit the 90% resistance cap I believe. Dull Pain is nice. Increasing your max health is nice. Resist Elements and it's brother, Resist Energies are both pretty worthless. Neither of those attacks are used very often, and when they are the negligible bonus provided by these isn't worth a slot. Unyielding Stance is quite good. It's your resistance to "disables" and resistance to all damages. If you are a Tanker, you can try skipping Temporary Invulnerability and just taking Unyielding Stance. If you slot it enough it should be quite worthy. You could take teleport if you do this, because then you never have to turn it off. Invincibility is your best power. It's powerset defining. Turn it on, and watch how you never miss, and how the enemies always do. 6-slot it as soon as you can. Tough Hide isn't really worth it. Enemies will rarely get past Invincibility, though it's more helpful than Resist Elements or Energies. Unstoppable sounds good if you are looking to take down a really hard group of enemies and then just back off and Rest once they are dead. I haven't heard much about it, but it sounds quite good on paper. Use at your own risk, I suppose. Rating - 4/4. Nothing else comes close, save well-built Burn Tankers. Stone Armor - Rock Armor is basically the same as Frozen Armor. That is, not great. Stone Skin is Resist Physical Damage, but as Stone Armor has no Temp Invulnerability or Unyielding Stance, it's not as useful. What I mean by this is that a small +RES when all of your other powers are +DEF isn't very effective. Earth's Embrace is Dull Pain. Mud Pots seems useless. PBAoE immobilize? Aren't they already next to you? Rooted sounds nice, but I think I heard somewhere that it was horrible. Sounds okay, though the regeneration would have to be really high in order to put it on par with Unyielding Stance. Brimstone Armor is useless. Cold and fire are rare. Crystal Armor is also rather bad. Defense is bad, and Energy and Negative aren't used all that much. Mineral Armor is also not good. Defense against Psionics is very situational, and Psionics aren't common. I've heard very bad things about Granite Armor, and they look true. -ACC and -RCH is bad. +RES to all is covered by Unyielding Stance. It's just not good. Rating - 1/4. It's just, bad. Horribly, horribly bad. Secondaries: Battle Axe - Attacks galore. Very high damaging attacks. Basically, take what you want, kind of like Broadsword. At a forumer's request, I'll talk about its high recharge rates and endurance costs. It has high recharge rates and high endurance costs. It also does amazingly good damage, so much so that you don't have to worry about the costs much unless you fight large groups over and over without resting, and Hasten gets rid of one of those issues, and Stamina gets rid of another. It's knockback, however, is a bit of a detriment, but careful provoking should be able to cover the aggro loss. Rating - 7/7, if solo. 2/7, if grouped. The massive damage is really nice. Its advantages weigh out the disadvantages, in my opinion. Note: Because of the knockback, and its uncompatibility with Burn, Axe should not be used for Fire Tankers. Instead, try Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, or Ice Melee. This is mainly for a soloing build, rather than a group one. If you are interested in grouping mostly, you should probably check out Ice Melee. Energy Melee - Disorients galore. Take what you want, as most powers have different means to the same end. Total Focus and Energy Transfer stand out as being excellent, though. Rating - 5/7. Disorient is nice, for support. Fiery Melee - A nice damaging powerset. Not in the Battle Axe damage range, but doesn't cost as much endurance either. Scorch and Fire Sword are basic single target attacks. Combustion, Breath of Fire, and Fire Sword Circle are all nice AoE/Cone attacks. Either take them all or none. Incinerate and Greater Fire Sword are excellent single target melee attacks. Fiery Melee can be built as either an AoE user or single target user, which is nice. Rating - 3/7. Not too great. Only 4 worthwhile attacks, and 2 are gained really late. Works well with Fiery Embrace though. Unless you are going AoE, but why not be a blaster? Ice Melee - The slows help. Frozen Fists and Ice Sword are less damaging, but slowing versions of the Fiery Melee counterparts. Frost is quite effective. Ice Patch is rather worthless. Just a knockdown location AoE. It can definitely be helpful in controlling large groups, however. Freezing Touch is a hold, which can help when needing to keep the enemies dealing the least amount of damage possible. Greater Ice Sword is nice. Frozen Aura is terrible. This powerset will make the enemies deal less damage, and allow you and your team to survive much longer. The damage is nearly worthless, but teams will love you. The bottom line is, you aren't going to do any damage with this. You will make the enemies not as much do damage to you, or anyone else, because of the shortened recharge times. Effective, if that's what you want your tanker to do. Rating - 2/7, if soloing. 7/7, if grouped. It's not good. Not good at all. Unless, of course, you are grouping. Then it's excellent, and most certainly top tier. Stone Melee - Stone Fist, Stone Mallet, and Heavy Mallet are all great single target damage dealers. Fault is a nice AoE disorient. Hurl Boulder is a nice ranged attack, good for runners. Tremor can be useful, but as it's your only damage dealing AoE, it's probably not worth it, unless you want it for the knockback. Seismic Smash is really excellent. It does tons of damage. Definitely worth it. Rating - 4/7. It's a combination of Battle Axe's power and Super Strength's utility. Unfortunately, it can't do both. Because of the knockback, and it's uncompatibility with Burn, Stone should not be used for Fire Tankers. Instead, try Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, or Ice Melee. Super Strength - A common powerset. Jab and Punch are both low damage, low recharge, low endurance powers. Haymaker is slower to act and to recharge, but much more damaging. Hand Clap is a nice PBAoE disorient and knockback, and does its job well. Knockout Blow isn't very good. Rage is much nicer. It's a prolonged Build Up with a disorient at the end. Make sure everything is dead before it wears off, and there's no problems. Hurl sounds like it would look very cool, though I've never seen it. Looks like a nice ranged. Foot Stomp looks like it would work nicely, and with Hand Clap and Foot Stomp, along with Hasten, you could probably keep the enemies on their backs most of the time. Rating - 6/7. A good powerset, albeit way too common. It has plenty of utility, though the knockbacks may get annoying. Because of the knockback, and it's uncompatibility with Burn, Super Strength should not be used for Fire Tankers. Instead, try Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, or Ice Melee. War Mace - Take all of the Battle Axe powers, make them much weaker, rename them, (to much cooler names, I must admit), and change the knockback to disorient. That's it. Rating - 1/7. Totally horrible. Inferior to Battle Axe completely. Power Pools: I will rate each individual power, not the whole set. It's out of 10, not compared to each other. Concealment: Stealth - A very nice power. Combined with another -AGRRO power, you will have complete invisibility. The 7.5% defense is quite noticeable. The movement speed penalty is hardly noticeable. Rating - 9/10. It's not a godsend like other powers, but it's very solid, and useful when you don't want to die when traveling. Grant Invisibility - Also a nice ability. Adds a 7.5% defense bonus as well. Useful when needing to sneak past enemies. I don't really think it's worth a power slot, however. It's probably better than Invisibility if you are going for Phase Shift, since Invisibility is pointless with Phase Shift. Rating - 4/10. It's useful, but not really worth getting. Invisibility - Complete invisibility is nice. If you have another -AGGRO power like Stealth, it's not really needed. It's still useful though. Rating - 6/10. Useful, but not really worth a slot. Phase Shift - An excellent power. It's a complete get out of jail free card. Turn it on and you're saved. No matter what, if you get this off, you will live, unless you run out of endurance or something. The only power that lets you explore around sniper infested areas without dying. Rating - 10/10. It's excellent. Cast it and you're alive. It's great for exploration. The only problem is working it into your build. Probably good for those 40+ levels where you already have everything you want. Fighting: Boxing - Not a bad attack. On Scrappers, at least, it's double the damage of Brawl. That's more useful than it sounds. Better than Kick, at least. Rating - 6/10. Not great, but better than Kick. Kick - Horrible. Absolutely horrible. Oftentimes the enemy will hit you as you try to get up. Don't take this, take Boxing. Rating - 1/10. Really bad. Tough - Finally, a nice power. Adds a hefty 16.5% resistance, at least on Scrappers. Fully slotted, it's really, really good. If you get this on a Fire tanker, you can hit the 90% resistance cap if you slot Fire Shield and this fully. Rating - 9/10. Very helpful as lethal and smashing are so common. Fully slotted, taking 1/3 less damage from most attacks is nice. Weave - Ah, a very nice power, especially combined with Super Reflexes, or other +DEF powers. +10% defense is very, very good. Rating - 9.5/10. Excellent for stopping damage, especially combined with Stealth or any other +DEF power. Fitness: Swift - Most of the time, you will be taking this and Hurdle. Health is really negligable. It's not going to save your life. Swift allows you to 1-slot Swift, Sprint, and Super Speed with SO's and hit the cap, or be very close to it, and if you dont have Super Speed, Fly, Teleport, and Super Jump don't help much in door missions, so Swift will let you move around much quicker. Rating - 5/10. It's not that effective, but you have to take it. Hurdle - Hurdle is quite nice. Though negligable for Super Jumpers, Flyers, and Teleporters, it's still better than Health. Rating - 5/10. It's not that effective, but you have to take it. Health - Not useful at all. It won't save your life, and it won't reduce your downtime enough to be really noticeable. Get Swift and Hurdle instead. Rating - 1/10. Don't get it. Worthless. Stamina - Ah, one of the godsends. Almost every hero has to have this power. It's really, really useful. Definitely pick it up. Check Other Bits and Pieces for information if you are a Regen scrapper. Rating - 10/10. One of the best in the game. Flight: Hover - Pretty good. The +5% defense isn't bad. Most will probably take this on the way to Fly. Rating - 7/10. The defense bonus is nothing special. Not a bad power though. Unlimited vertical movement is nice. Air Superiority - Doesn't seem very good. Seems like a subpar attack, though I haven't seen it in action. I rarely see flying foes. I would assume Scrappers/Tankers that really want to Fly would take this instead of Hover. Rating - 6/10. Doesn't seem great. Fly - The slowest travel power, but the one with the most control. Rating - X/10. Read in Other Bits and Pieces for travel power debates. Group Fly - Totally worthless. Everyone gets a travel power at level 14, so short of rescuing a Super Speeding teammate from Faultline, it's worthless. Rating - 0.0/10. Worthless. Don't go near it. Leadership: Manuevers - Increases your, your summons, and your allies' defense by 6.25%. Stacks well with Weave/Stealth. A nice power. Rating - 7/10. Nothing game-breaking, but nice and decent. Assault - Currently, not great. Defenders give 12.5%, Controllers give 10.0%, and others give 7%. It may seem like a lot, but Defenders give HALF an enrage. Use one enrage and notice how much more damage you do. Then halve that. Is it really going to matter? Once you can slot enhancements in it to increase the damage given, it will be much better. If you can ever do that. Rating - 4/10. If it ever gets enhancements able to be placed in it, probably 8/10. Currently it's just kind of negligable. Tactics - This can be slotted, and is much better than Assualt. It's not Targeting Drone great, but it helps a lot. With a few slots, you won't be missing nearly as much. Same bonuses as Assault; Defenders give 12.5%, Controllers give 10.0%, and others give 7%. Rating - 8/10. Gives a nice bonus. Vengeance - Another power that relies on death to work. No thanks. I like my teammates alive please. Rating - 0.0/10. You should never have an occasion to use this. Leaping: Jump Kick - Wow. Horrible. Probably one of the worst powers in the game. Completely useless. You will be attacked as you try to stand back up. Never get this. Rating - 0.5/10. Horrid. Don't even think of it. Combat Jumping - A much nicer alternative. Adds quite a lot of jumping height. Allows you to scale buildings easily. The 5% defense bonus is nice. Rating - 7/10. Nothing jaw-dropping, but the defense and height bonuses are solid. Super Jump - A nice, middle of the road travel power. Doesn't have as much pure speed as Super Speed, but isn't vertically limited. Rating - X/10. Travel power debates in Other Bits and Pieces. Acrobatics - The resistance to holds is quite important for characters that can't resist them naturally. A nice power, if you need it. Rating - 7.5/10. Pretty good if you are getting held and dying a lot. Burn Tankers often go for this as they have no natural power to resist holds. Medicine: Aid Other - All of the Medicine Powers are interruptible, and have 3 second activation times, so be careful. Aid Other, I have no idea about. It doesn't sound all that useful. A Force Field Defender could grab this if he wants to. Then, when the occasional attack gets through, he could heal it. Otherwise, it seems limited. Rating - 5/10. Seems rather, unimportant. Who's taken this? I don't know anyone. Stimulant - You probably have ways of healing this if you are even considering taking it. Why bother? I suppose Storm or Dark Miasma Defenders could want this, but that's it. Rating - 3/10. It doesn't seem useful. Generally you have a power that resists these things, either to cast on allies or to self-cast. Aid Self - It can't be used in battle because it's interruptible, so I'm spending a power to reduce downtime? No thanks, again. Rating - 2/10. Seems useless since it's just a downtime reducer. Resuscitate - Another Resurrect power. Rating - 0/10. Presence: Challenge - Rather bad. Only Scrappers or Tankers would want Taunt, and they already have Taunt. Challenge is worthless. Rating - 2/10. No real use to this, unless you want to chain Challenge and Taunt over and over. Provoke - Most defensive Tankers grab this, and so do Burn Tankers. Quite useful, even after the nerf. Rating - 8.5/10. A basic need for Tankers. Keeps the aggro on you. Intimidate - Yes, a fear power! I love these! Please let me take it! Rating - 0.0/10. Invoke Panic - PBAoE Fear! Almost as good as my PBAoE fear toggle! I'll chain Cloak of Fear and Invoke Panic over and over! I'll never be hit, ever! Rating - -10/10. Speed: Flurry - Why does everyone new to the game take this? Every single first character I've seen has taken this. I don't know why. It's horrible. Please don't take this. It does bad damage, and takes way too long to cast. Take Hasten instead. Please! Rating - 2.5/10. Bad. Bad bad bad. Not good at all. Don't take it. Hasten - Ah, the best power in the game. 6-slot it with Recharge Reducer SO's to have it on permanently. Very needed. Almost every character should get it. Rating - 10/10. The best power in the game. Super Speed - The fastest, and dare I say most challenging travel power. You have the most pure speed, but you must memorize the routes. I prefer this power because when you are flying, teleporting, or jumping around, you don't learn the zones as well as you could. It doesn't take long to memorize where you need to run to get places, and as long as you have, you can beat anyone else in a straight race except in a few certain zones, like Faultline and The Hollows. Rating - X/10. Travel power debates in Other Bits and Pieces. Whirlwind - You look totally stupid while doing this. However... Rating - 3/10. Upon further research, it does have some practical use. You can turn it on for half a second during battle if you are getting pounded on for a temporary respite. It's still not a great power, and probably not one worth taking short of novelty factor, but it's not as worthless as I originally had thought. Teleportation: Recall Friend - A good power. Helps a lot when someone is slow, or something. Also good if you have SKed someone below level 14. Not great, but alright. Rating - 6/10. Not the best, but okay. Teleport Foe - Horrible. Rarely hits, and even when it does it brings the whole group to you. Don't take this. Rating - 3/10. The only reason why it is so high is because it can be used to free foes from ceilings/walls, from what I understand. This happens enough for it to be worth it. Teleport - The power that requires the most customization, and my least favorite. 6-slotted, it can beat Super Speed, but none of the other travel powers really require any slots at all. Get it for concept, or novelty, but I don't recommend it. Rating - X/10. Travel power debates in Other Bits and Pieces. Team Teleport - Hmm, an AoE version of an already subpar travel power? Sign me up please! Rating - 0.5/10. Just like Group Fly, even if you get this at level 20, everyone already has a travel power. Now, choose your costume and your name. Hit Enter Outbreak, and follow the directions. It's very clearly explained. If you need additional help on how to complete Outbreak, make sure to spam "PLEASE HELP ME WHAT DO I DO?!?!" in the Broadcast channel over and over. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Your First Day In The World of City of Heroes: Fresh out of Outbreak? Good. You are ready. First, choose whether you want to go to Atlas Park or Galaxy City. I prefer Atlas Park, as I found it was easier to learn and navigate. It doesn't really matter much though. First, walk up to Ms. Liberty or Back Street Brawler and train. Then talk to your first contact. This should be easy enough to do if you got through the tutorial. Now then, start doing your missions. Remember, don't steal other people's kills. If it's attacking someone else, don't attack it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Other Bits and Pieces: If you are having trouble finding enemies and hostages in door missions, try typing /vis_scale -1. This will remove all of the walls, and allow you to find enemies much easier. To turn the walls back on, type /vis_scale 1. Don't buy Training Enhancements. It's not worth it. Save for DO's. Perma-Hasten is achieved by 6-slotted Hasten with SO Recharge Reducers. It's definitely worth it. 5-slotting will give you about 5-20 seconds of downtime depending on the level of your SOs. I highly recommend getting it 6-slotted, as it will inevitably go off during important battles, and cause you to die. Stamina is basically needed on almost all characters. I highly suggest it. Take Swift and Hurdle instead of Health. Health won't help you. The bonus it adds will almost NEVER make the difference between you dying and you not dying. Swift, however, allows you to reach the cap, or very close to it, with no slots added to travel powers. 1 SO in Swift, Sprint, and Super Speed allows you to get to the cap, or very close. Then you don't waste slots in Super Speed, but still go really quickly. Always remember to sell Training Enhancements at Special Freedom Corps stores, and to sell DOs and SOs at their proper stores. You make a LOT more influence this way. The only powers that cap with enhancements are travel powers. Anything else will stack up to and beyond 6 SO's. What this means is that you can't hit some sort of cap with damage or anything solely through enhancements. No need to worry about 6-slotting a power with damage, if some of it will go to waste. It won't. If you have Regen as your secondary, and are 6-slotting Quick Recovery, do you need Stamina? It depends. I have taken it, because I plan on running many toggles. Unless you slot Integration and Instant Healing with endurance reducers, and only run those toggles, you will probably want to take Stamina, if you are going to run 5-6 toggles at once like me. The Travel Power Debate: Wondering which travel power to take? Well, you've come to the right place! I'll list some pros and cons. Fly: Pros: Melee attacks can't touch you, and most of the time, ranged attacks are far weaker compared to melee attacks for most mobs. You can snipe enemies on the ground with minimum trouble, providing you have range. Cons: You are very slow. You have an accuracy debuff, though switching to hover via binds eliminates this. Super Jump: Pros: Very cool to look at, and has nice vertical movement. Fast. Cons: Not as fast as Super Speed, an equal level Super Speeder will always beat you in a race, as long as he knows the right paths to take, which aren't that difficult to remember. You can land in a group of enemies, which will all get one shot off. It has no -AGGRO that Super Speed does, leading to the problem above. Teleport: Pros: Teleport, if slotted, has the potential to be the best travel power. Cons: Has to be slotted to be effective. The general consensus is 4 End Reducers and 2 Range Increasers if you are looking to 6-slot it. Some say you need Hover in order to use effectively. Costs way more endurance than any other travel power. Super Speed: Pros: The fastest. It can't beat Teleport in a straight race if Teleport is 6-slotted, but 6-slotting Teleport is horribly inefficient. Cons: No vertical movement. If you get Hurdle it's not that big of a deal, however. As long as you watch where you are going, and you are not in Dark Astoria, running into enemies isn't a big problem. And if you have Stealth/Cloaking Device/any other -AGGRO power, you have complete invisibility with Super Speed on. Looking at this, we can eliminate Teleport from the running. It's novelty at best, a novelty joke at worst. Regardless, it requires slotting to be effective, and as this guide is based around making the most efficient choices, Teleport isn't really an option. Now, it's a fight between Fly, Super Jump, and Super Speed. Fly is simply too slow. A travel power is supposed to make you travel. This does not. It makes you move quicker, it does not make you travel. Flyers counter with "You can just set it on automove and go get a soda!". Well, with Super Jump/Speed, I don't need to go get a soda, because I'm there five times faster than you. I can get there, get a soda and be back before you are halfway there. Fly is out. Now, the fight comes down to Super Jump and Super Speed. Both have redeeming qualities. Super Jump has vertical movement, and Super Speed is faster. Which is the better choice? In my opinion, Super Speed. Why? Almost every character, if you want to be at maximum efficiency, has to take Hasten. Thus, to at maximum power slot efficiency, you need to take Super Speed as well. The lack of vertical movement doesn't hurt. Faultline rarely has to be entered. Skyway City isn't a big deal if you learn the routes, or just stick to the actual roads. Even then, you'll still beat everyone else. Independence Port isn't bad, save the occasional "dock walls are too high" thing, but it's not a big deal to find a dock and climb up. Terra Volta is a slight problem, but as long as you stay out of the Trench, it's not hard to find your way. Super Speed is the way to go. Still, I'd suggest copying your character over to the Test Center to try out Fly and Super Jump at least once, as they are quite fun, just not as efficient. There is, however, a very few rare builds who do not require Hasten. Perhaps an Invuln Tanker who only really uses his toggles. Still, Dull Pain recharging faster is always nice, and using your secondary abilities gives you something to do while playing. An FF defender is really the only character who doesn't require Hasten to be effective, as the cooldown on the bubbles is definitely low enough already. In these situations, you could take another power. Why Not To Take Reconstruction, and Instead Take Dull Pain. Most people take Reconstruction. They like the heal. It saves their life lots of times. I don't suggest it. The reason being, once you get Instant Healing, Reconstruction isn't going to matter. At all. If you need to use Reconstruction in a battle then, you are already dead. Dull Pain, on the other hand, will actually help a LOT more. When the enemies are killing you in 3 hits, Reconstruction isn't going to help. With Instant Healing, you might survive and you might not. But with Dull Pain, you will be able to survive 5-6 hits before going down. And if you can take 2 or 3 hits, Instant Healing will be able to patch you back up before you die. Dull Pain has excellent late game usage, where Reconstruction has none. Some people say "Level 28 is far away, what do I do until then?". It's, not very far away though. The late game is much longer than the early game. You will spend much more time with Instant Healing than you will without. The late game is also much harder than the early game. Really, do you have any trouble fighting Skulls and the Lost in King's Row? Aside from the occasional Abberant, it's quite difficult to die, unless you go into something unprepared. Even later, in Talos, as long as you have Integration on, and maybe use some Respites, you should be fine. On my Scrapper, currently level 26.5, every one of my 15 inspiration slots are Respites. I don't even use them constantly. I've never bought a single one. I maybe use one a door mission, often for taking down the boss. For street hunting, I just sit there and wait for my health to recharge, which doesn't take long, as I mistakenly took Health over Swift, which I regret now. But even without Health, you will still recharge fast enough for it to be easy enough to survive. On whether to take Reconstruction, think about this. Do you want to plan for the short, easy, early game, or the long, hard, late game? I chose late, and I'm happy with my choice. Dull Pain can also be slotted with 4 Recharge SOs, and along with Perma-Hasten, you can have it on all the time. I highly recommend this if you have openings in your build. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Copyright: This FAQ was solely intended for the public use on the www. It cannot be reproduced, retransmitted, or re-written in any other form except by the notice of the author. Any violation of this code will result in strict penalty and high fines susceptible by law. If this legal document is portrayed in any commercial use, you are therefore stricten under the code of law and will be punished. In full contrast, this document portrayed in the website found (www.gamefaqs.com) is to be used and only used by the public itself and cannot be sold. This FAQ is in no way possible to be plagerized, doing so not only damages the person you had intentionally forged, but it also damages yourself in terms of self guilt or in terms of law, whether the punishment be civil or criminal law. To put it at best, DON'T DO ANYTHING WITH THIS OR ANYTHING INVOLVING THIS FAQ WITHOUT MY PERMISSION! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Credits: SA Forums. Whoomp, for being the most knowledgeable person about City of Heroes that I know, and helping me out with accuracy in the FAQ. TheArtOfScience, for also having quite a lot of information. the Jaguarundi, for adding a new question to the questions. Toastmonkey for posting the /vis_scale thing. Koneko, for influencing my Controller Primary ratings. The users at the official forums, for being a nice source of info. Lil Pips/Gunsmoke for creating the excellent Hero Planner. Venares for creating the excellent Map Patch. DJellybean, because he let me use his Copyright information. I also stole a few layout-type things from him. NCsoft and Cryptic, for developing/publishing City of Heroes. Whoever came up with Cloak of Fear and Invoke Panic, here's to you. ......................................END......................................
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