# Welcome back to Paragon City - how to play the revived City of Heroes **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** video-games-e-games\ **Created:** [May 21, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264 "2019-05-21T02:48:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 25
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/481 "2019-11-21T03:08:00Z")
Somebody asked the question in the thread for the relevant (October 1) patch notes: > [@](#): > > I love the new missions! However, I have toons that have outleveled them… are they available in Oro?? > [@](#): > > Yes, as long as you are the correct alignment. Alas, they didn’t seem to mention the actual names of the arcs in those patch notes, and I can’t remember now what the one I did was called. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/482 "2019-11-22T15:35:07Z")
I’ve now got two characters on Everlasting that I’m having fun playing- Smartbomb, a rad/rad Brute Rising Dragon (because someone’s apparently camping on the name I really wanted, “Rising Sun”)- a fire/ rad Sentinel. I like 'em both so much that I’m pretty much leveling them at the same rate. Unfortunately, I really only get to play for an hour or so in the morning on weekdays, and a few hours on the weekends. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/483 "2019-11-22T16:56:45Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > I’ve now got two characters on Everlasting that I’m having fun playing- > Smartbomb, a rad/rad Brute > Rising Dragon (because someone’s apparently camping on the name I really wanted, “Rising Sun”)- a fire/ rad Sentinel. > > I like 'em both so much that I’m pretty much leveling them at the same rate. Unfortunately, I really only get to play for an hour or so in the morning on weekdays, and a few hours on the weekends. I love your character names there. 🙂 And I prefer Rising Dragon, sounds more original. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/484 "2019-11-22T21:33:11Z")
Okay, here are all of my characters so far: Flaminatrix Stabby Steffi Mandy Manslapper Roentgen Bull Teardrops White Orchid Goldbar Savior Machine Heer Oranje Bruised Violet “The Extracurriculars”: Dorotea Dagger Beatriz Brasil Betty Beatdown Energy Ellie Kinetic Keisha Mental Miyuki Rayusha Razor Tabitha Target Tonya Toronto and their nemesis, Dahlia Danger “The Solar Angels”: Mother Sun Girl Mercury Venus Lass Erdmadchen Ms. Mars Fille de Jupiter Saturn Signal Princesa Urana Neptune’s Child Notta Planet Haley Komet Lunagetic Triple-N Jinjer Psimonator Angry Mama Bear Stoker Seahawk Alternat Heartbeat of America Midnight Blue Recipe for Disaster Soul Candle Captain Buruma Delcambre Parabella Chill Kill Cybernetic Queen Deepfire Pyrestone Cobalt Claw Nano-Ninja Anja Nilsdotter Ankheza Asa Castrelli Epic Gear Brain Cloud Mendacious D Khan O’Copenhagen Frossen Marti Party Fuseweld Girra DTF Dany Gamma Time Soldier 66 Major Marinara Elektricheskiy Shok Malhela Skorpio Little Longbow Captain Apple Creyzee Ex Hotstepper ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/485 "2019-11-23T15:37:01Z")
I take waaaay too long picking costumes to have created that many characters! 😉 I’ve got : Shadow Samaritan - FF/Psy Def (formerly Shadow Stranger, proactively changed) Doc Salvage - Emp/Elec Def Salary Man - SS/Inv Brute Hellfury - Rad/Fire Brute Don’t Say His Name - Grav/Dark Controller Mirage Arcana - Illusion/Thermal Controller ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/486 "2019-11-23T17:11:48Z")
Huh, I thought you had more than that. I have: Dr. Clockwerk-- Gravity/time controller Peskipiksi-- Electrical/cold blaster Bridgekeeper-- Savage/regen scrapper Colonel Murphy-- Mercs/traps MM Inhuman Cannonball-- Invuln/strength tank Fortunate Daughter-- Widow, eventually fortunata (but she’s not at that level yet) Monopole-- Force/rad defender Laura Ingals Wildest-- Rad/fire brute Rising Angel-- Illusion/force controller Speed Freek-- Street/bio brute tipota-- darkdark stalker Nubermensch-- pistols/devices blaster The first group are all “story characters”-- I’m going through missions, and picking and choosing what seems interesting and appropriate for the character. Monopole does nothing but team content (mostly TFs and raids), and Laura is a pure farmer. Rising Angel is my do-no-damage challenge character. Speed and tipota are eventual story characters that I haven’t gotten around to yet, and am just shuffling through day jobs right now. And Nubermensch is a joke character that I’ll never play again, because I like the idea of him being perpetually a nüb (and because his costume would probably fall afoul of the new terms). ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/487 "2019-11-25T22:22:03Z")
Finally got my T4 alpha slot on Kahbueme, and T3 everything else. Thinking I may concentrate on getting the lore pet to T4 next, unless someone has a better idea… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/488 "2019-11-29T05:22:12Z")
And Laura just dinged 50, but I have no idea what last power to take on her. I think I have as many AoE powers as I possibly could. I could use a buff from a pool, but I don’t have the end for any of the Leadership toggles, much less for Focused Accuracy. I could afford Combat Jumping, but that interferes with Mighty Leap, which gives me a nice everybody-fall-down button in addition to travel. Any other suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/489 "2019-11-30T22:35:31Z")
Got my Dual Blades/Super Reflexes scrapper, Stabby Steffi, to 40 last night (well, wee hours of the morning is more like it). She’s officially only the second character I’ve gotten that high (third if you count Flaminatrix doing it twice, on live and HC). On live, my highest character after Flaminatrix got to 35 before the shutdown. Steffi dinged 40 upon turning in the final mission of a rather grueling Nemesis arc she got from a guy in Founder’s Falls. Odd thing on one of the last missions, something I haven’t seen happen before - my difficulty was set to default +0/x1, character at level 39, but the mission was spawning level 41 lieutenants. So +3 to me, conning red. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/490 "2019-12-02T15:43:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And Laura just dinged 50, but I have no idea what last power to take on her. I think I have as many AoE powers as I possibly could. I could use a buff from a pool, but I don’t have the end for any of the Leadership toggles, much less for Focused Accuracy. I could afford Combat Jumping, but that interferes with Mighty Leap, which gives me a nice everybody-fall-down button in addition to travel. Any other suggestions? Hellfury gets most of her accuracy bonuses from sets; plus Rad and Fire both have a build-up style click power for occasional buffs. As far as pools, she’s rocking 2 from Mu (AoEs); 2 or 3 from Leadership - I can’t remember if I took Vengeance or not, to mule another 7.5% global recharge bit from Luck of the Gambler; two from Leaping (CJ and SJ), 3 from fighting (boxing, tough, weave). Of course, I built her to be effective in incarnate general content, not just the farms. In farms, I’m usually running five toggles; in general content, six; two fiery armors, two damage auras, and the leadership damage booster; plus tough for non-farms. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/491 "2019-12-02T16:31:51Z")
I ended up going with Hasten (I’d forgotten that I could pick from pools other than the ones I already had). It doesn’t make much difference to her basic attack chain, since she already had enough AoEs to keep going until most of a pack is dead, but it makes Consume, Fusion, and the fire damage-booster (I don’t remember what it’s called) come up more often. I do have Maneuvers from Leadership. Now that she’s gotten all of her set-piece endurance boosters, I need to check to see if she can afford to use it now. Ideally, I’d like to get to 60% fire defense, as that would cap her vs. level 54 enemies, though realistically, it’s probably not needed, since enough to survive is enough to survive. It’s kind of tough to build for both farming and general content, because outside of farms, fire is actually a pretty rare damage type. Hellions use it (but who cares), about a quarter of Outcasts, a few Sky Raiders have flamethrowers, and… what else? Oh, and Numina’s Convalescence is a great two-piece set to put into an always-on healing power. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/492 "2019-12-02T17:11:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I ended up going with Hasten (I’d forgotten that I could pick from pools other than the ones I already had). It doesn’t make much difference to her basic attack chain, since she already had enough AoEs to keep going until most of a pack is dead, but it makes Consume, Fusion, and the fire damage-booster (I don’t remember what it’s called) come up more often. > > I do have Maneuvers from Leadership. Now that she’s gotten all of her set-piece endurance boosters, I need to check to see if she can afford to use it now. Ideally, I’d like to get to 60% fire defense, as that would cap her vs. level 54 enemies, though realistically, it’s probably not needed, since enough to survive is enough to survive. > > It’s kind of tough to build for both farming and general content, because outside of farms, fire is actually a pretty rare damage type. Hellions use it (but who cares), about a quarter of Outcasts, a few Sky Raiders have flamethrowers, and… what else? > > Oh, and Numina’s Convalescence is a great two-piece set to put into an always-on healing power. Hasten! That’s my other pool power on Hellfury. I dunno, my general build just adds Tough and I get my S/L resists in the 70’s. The only other nod to generalist I really needed to make was slotting some knockback reduction from Blessing of the Zephyr. I am working on an alternate build that will let me cap Fire, Smash, and Lethal resistance, and do a bit better single-target damage, but haven’t put together my IOs yet. Granted, I get my ass kicked sometimes, but that’s what Rise of the Phoenix is for. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/493 "2019-12-02T17:18:00Z")
I haven’t had time to play lately, but will have to get back in. My tanker American Dream has from the pools, Speed: Hasten; Fighting: Boxing, Tough, Weave; Leadership: Maneuvers, Tactics, Assault. She’s got I think 10 toggles in all, and Hasten on auto. Endurance was a problem for a while, but is mostly okay now. She doesn’t have anything maxxed, but is close in a couple. Last time I checked these were her stats: Defenses (soft cap at 45%) Smash/Lethal: 27.67% Fire/Cold: 44.62% Energy/Negative: 38.37% Psionic: 30.23% Resistances (tanker cap at 90%) Smash/Lethal: 85.45% Fire/Cold: 19.72% Energy/Negative: 20.47% Psionic: 46.48% Toxic: 18.22% Base Max HP: 2713.46 Max End: 103.60 Regeneration: 49.13 hp/sec Recovery: 4.35 end/sec To Hit: 97.96% Accuracy: 1.48 Damage: 14.50% Recharge: 127.50% Definitely not farming-oriented with AoEs, or even doing that much damage with single attacks, but generally extremely hard to kill. Fun for me, which was my goal. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/494 "2019-12-02T18:13:16Z")
Note that 45 is only the defense soft-cap for equal-level enemies. For every level an enemy is higher than you, it goes up by 5 (rank doesn’t matter, so an equal-level minion or elite boss is the same chance to hit, if they don’t have any powers that modify it further). ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/495 "2019-12-03T18:37:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Note that 45 is only the defense soft-cap for equal-level enemies. For every level an enemy is higher than you, it goes up by 5 (rank doesn’t matter, so an equal-level minion or elite boss is the same chance to hit, if they don’t have any powers that modify it further). I don’t think that’s true. The softcap is 45 (outside of Incarnate content, where it is supposedly 59) ecause at 45% defense, no further increase in defense changes how often you are hit (by enemies within the [Purple Patch](https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Purple_Patch) level requirements - up to +4). +3 enemies will hit you more often than +1 enemies, but adding defense above 45 won’t change how often +3s hit you. Also, bosses and lieutenants will hit more often than minions, because they have an accuracy modifier. In the case of bosses, it’s 1.5, I think? They’re still floored, but their floor is higher. At the softcap, an even-level minion will you hit 5% of the time, but a boss something like 7.5% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/496 "2019-12-03T20:57:42Z")
Hm, OK, apparently I [misread that before](https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics): I didn’t notice that the scaling defense with level didn’t start until player’s level +5. And really, if you’re fighting something six levels higher than you, you’re just asking for trouble. And a +4 archvillain (which is pretty much the cap of what you should ever expect) would have a 10.5% chance of hitting a softcapped defense (assuming no powers that modify to-hit or defense). ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/497 "2019-12-05T13:39:15Z")
I’ve been playing a Kin/Rad Defender named Quantum Crusader, and I’ve been relying on the free enhancements that give a proc chance of extra damage to increase my DPS- otherwise, fights take _forever_. However, in about four levels, those will stop proccing. Is there any way to get more “percent chance to do extra damage” enhancements that will continue to work as I level? ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/498 "2019-12-05T13:58:10Z")
There are a number of IO Set enhancements that are ‘Chance for X Damage’. There are also sets that will give you across-the-board damage boosts as a set bonus. Have you claimed the bonus powers from the P2W vendor? My Defenders love Sands of Mu and the Blackwand or Nemesis Staff. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/499 "2019-12-05T14:15:42Z")
My defender has huge DPS. He just keeps it on other people. And a kineticist stores even more damage on other people than a forcefielder does. Soloing with a defender is inherently going to be tough. It can be done, if you’re patient (Hi, **Balance**!), but they’re really designed to work with a team. Oh, and note that, not only can you take three of the four prestige attacks for free, you can also relinquish them to take something else. So if you’re doing a story arc with lots of undead, you can trade in one of them for the Ghost-Slaying Axe, then go back to the other three powers after the arc is done. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264/500 "2019-12-05T16:12:47Z")
Yes, defenders usually fare best with a team. Solo defenders require more patience and good tactics than most archetypes, although Kins are among the quicker ones. (Using Transfusion even when you don’t need the healing debuffs enemy regen, Siphon Power buffs damage, and Siphon Speed helps maintain your attack chain.) Procs are not a sustainable way to boost your damage, unfortunately, especially in the mid-levels. There just aren’t enough damage procs, they don’t trigger often enough, and they tend to be expensive. As **CandidGamera** and **Chronos** have suggested, the prestige powers are a good way to boost DPS (and deal with problem enemies) for Defenders and Controllers in the early- and mid-game. They drop off in usefulness because they’re unenhanceable, but they’ll carry you a long way. Tactically, leading with a snipe can also speed things up; snipes have been improved tremendously recently. Overall, the best thing you can do is stay on top of your bread-and-butter enhancements. Accuracy is king for Kins, as things are going to start getting harder to hit, but regular damage enhancements are important, too. When the procs stop firing, you’ll only be a couple of levels away from SOs; they’re expensive, but transformative. (There are also enhancement bins in our base, and I’ve started dumping IOs in them as I randomly work on invention badges. You might find things you can use in there.) On my empath, I didn’t start pushing enhancement sets until the 40s, and I mostly built for set bonuses, not procs. All that said, soloing as a Defender is a slog. It’s CoH on hard mode, something you do if you’re looking for a challenge or want to prove a point. It’s really satisfying when you make it work, though. There’s a reason I flex with the “Lone Wolf” badge on Bal. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welcome-back-to-paragon-city-how-to-play-the-revived-city-of-heroes/834264.md?page=26)