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City of Heroes
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==Gameplay== ===Archetypes=== The style of gameplay varies depending on which of the several Archetypes is being played. Each has its own focus, strengths, and weaknesses, and while all are intended to be soloable to some extent, some are more group-focused than others. '''The Blaster''' The Blaster is the king of long-range damage in CoH. Also known as "glass cannons" or "kittens with laser beams on their heads", their damage output comes with a high level of vulnerability; their main defense is to kill (or arrest, depending on your motivations) their opponents before they are defeated themselves. Their primary sets include: Assault Rifle, Ice, Fire, Archery, Sonic, Energy and Electricity. Their secondaries are: Devices, Ice, Fire, Energy and Electricity and Dual Pistols. The primaries are the long-range damage powers, with secondaries usually involving powers to get the blaster out of the trouble they've caused (immobilizations, single-target holds, melee attacks). Their inherent power is 'Defiance', which used to allow them to do more damage as their health dropped, but now allows them to retain the use of basic powers when held or asleep. Comic book examples of Blasters include Cyclops of the X-Men, Human Torch of the Fantastic Four, and Starfire of the Teen Titans/Outsiders. '''The Defender''' Defenders have a focus on group support, with a backup of long-range damage; there is much overlap between their secondaries and blaster primaries. Their blasts do less damage, but they have strong buff and debuff abilities. Primaries include: Force Fields, Empathy, Dark Miasma, Sonic, Trick Arrow, Storm, and Radiation. Secondaries are: Energy, Psychic, Dark, Sonic, Archery, Electricity and Radiation. Their inherent power is 'Vigilance', which causes their powers to cost less endurance as their teammates health drops. Examples would be Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four, Storm of the X-Men, or Green Arrow of the Justice League. '''The Controller''' Controllers have an emphasis on making it easy for their teammates to defeat their opponents, and have very little direct damage ability, especially before unlocking their pets (if their primary set has pets at all). Their primaries focus on 'mez' powers, with: Mind Control, Illusion, Ice, Fire, Earth and Gravity. Their secondaries share overlaps with Defender primaries, with: Empathy, Force Fields, Radiation, Sonics, Trick Arrows, Storm, and Radiation. Their inherent power is 'Containment', which allows them to do double damage to an opponent that has been 'mezzed' (held, slept, confused, immobilized). Examples would be Professor X of the X-Men, Magneto, or Terra of the Teen Titans. '''The Scrapper''' Once, and possibly still, known as the Solo King, the much maligned scrapper has seen the most changes since CoH launched. Once passed over for blasters, they were later seen as virtual gods with more damage than blasters and more defenses than tanks, and have now been reduced to something more in line with other ATs. Scrappers focus on melee attacks, and have strong defenses to make up for being in the thick of combat. Their Primaries are: Katana, Claws, Martial Arts, Broadsword, and Darkness. Their Secondaries are: Regeneration, Super Reflexes, Invincibility, and Dark Armor. Their inherent power allows for a random chance of a critical (2x damage) hit. Examples include Wolverine of the X-Men, Daredevil, or Nightwing. '''The Tanker''' The aggro-managers of CoH, a good tank can face down a dozen opponents or more and laugh in their face - he just can't kill them on his own. Very strong defenses, but weak melee attacks. Primaries are: Stone, Invincibility, Ice and Fire. Secondaries are: Energy, Earth, Ice, Fire, Battle Ax, Mace and Super Strength. Their inherent power is 'Gauntlet', which causes an AoE (area of effect) 'taunt' which draws aggro every time they attack. Examples include The Thing of the Fantastic Four, Juggernaut, or Colossus of the X-Men. '''The Kheldians''' There are 2 unlockable Kheldian ATs, War Shades and Peacebringers. Unlike the other ATs, these 'EAT's have a story specific to the CoH universe. Kheldians are a species of aliens which must merge with a host to survive. Peacebringers merge with willing hosts, while their enemies the Nictus take hosts by force. War Shades are former Nictus who have seen the error of their ways. Each Kheldian has a Human form, which focuses on long-range attacks, melee attacks (PBs), or controller-ish effects (WSs). At level 6 they can unlock a Nova form, "the flying squid", which has a selection of long range attacks and an inherent flight, and is similar to a blaster. At 20 they can unlock their tank-like Dwarf form ("the rhino-lobster" which is actually quite large), with several melee attacks and the ability to teleport. PBs are generally seen as superior thanks to a stronger Human and Dwarf form, although WSs pets at level 32 can be quite effective. Their inherent power allows them to gain bonuses depending on the AT mixture of their team, however this only takes effect in Human form. Although unique to CoH, aliens possessing human hosts is not unusual in comics, such as the Brood or 'Captain Universe' Power Cosmic of Marvel, or the Kherubim and Deamonites of Wildstorm. ===Combat=== CoH follows MMO tradition with the use of level-based combat. There are 50 levels in CoH, and the experience points required to level up increases as you proceed (although the number of minions you need to defeat remains constant starting around level 39). Players have higher damage and accuracy, and longer duration of effects against lower-leveled opponents, and the opposite against those of a higher level. CoH also uses a classification system for different types of PvE opponents: Underlings, Minions, Lieutenants, Bosses, Elite Bosses, Arch-Villains and Giant Monsters. CoH was balanced around one player being roughly the equal of 3 even-level minions, 1.5 lieutenants, or 2/3rds of a boss. This holds up for roughly the first twenty levels, however as players gain access to better enhancements and more powers Heroes may find themselves capable of taking on large numbers of even-level foes, and will need to attack higher levels to find a challenge. Underlings are typically cannon-fodder, while Elite Bosses and Arch-Villains, or EBs and AVs, usually require 2-5 players to defeat. Giant Monsters have no level and are a threat to any level player, and can require from 4-20 players to defeat. Some individual enemies have their own classification, such as Hamidon ('Hamidon' class) or Ruladak ('Field Marshall' class). In PvP, all players are considered to be of an equal level, although those with a true higher level will usually still have an advantage. There are two bars for players to keep track of during combat, their Health and Endurance. Should a player be reduced to zero Health, they are defeated, and must either call on the emergency Mediport system, wait for resurrection by an ally, use a self-resurrection power (if they have one), or a self-resurrection 'Awaken' inspiration. Players receive 'XP Debt' for being defeated, until the debt is paid off they only receive half the normal experience point gains. Since launch, many cutbacks have been made to when you receive debt, currently you do not receive debt until level 10, and only receive half debt while in an instanced mission. The other bar is Endurance, and is the energy required to activate powers. Unlike Health, your total amount of Endurance ('end') does not increase as you level up, so as more powers are gained the player must use Endurance Reduction enhancements or powers like Stamina to keep from running dry during a fight. [[File:Coh2.jpg|thumb|right|220 px|Some CoH characters.]] ===Rewards=== Unlike many MMOs, 'loot' is virtually non-existent in CoH. The rewards that can be gained by defeating enemies or completing missions are: Enhancements, Inspirations, Influence, Salvage, Prestige, and Badges. Enhancments take the place of loot, and are used to improve a character's powers. When leveling up players receive either a new power or a number of Enhancement Slots, a power starts with 1 slot and can have up to six. There are almost thirty kinds of enhancements which do things like increase damage,.accuracy, duration of effects, speed of travel powers, and so on. There are also three basic classes of enhancments: Trainings, Dual Origins and Single Origins. Trainings can be used by any origin character and are generally used from levels 1 to 15. Dual Origins are twice as effective as Trainings, but can only be used by 2 of the 5 origins. Around level 25 players can purchase Single Origins, which are twice as effective as 'DO's but can only be used by a single origin. There are also special, more powerful enhancements which can be gained by completing certain trials or defeating the Hamidon. Inspirations are more commonly dropped, and much, much cheaper to buy. They are short-term powerups that increase damage, return health, break mez effects, and so on. As a player levels up they can hold more, up to a maximum of 20. Influence is the currency of CoH and is a numerical valuation of how much people respect you. Influence is mostly used for purchasing enhancements, or changing a characters costume. Salvage is a new form of loot used for Supergroup bases, and is used to construct certain items, like teleporters or power generators. Although there are dozens of kinds of salvage dropped by the various villain groups, they are refined into a limited number of mystical or technological components, making it easy for a SG to combine them into something useful. Prestige is a new form of currency used only for SG bases and is used to increase the base plot size, or to place items - even items built with salvage still require prestige to place. After level 34 players can either earn influence or prestige, but not both simultaneously. Badges are a mostly decorative item used to show to other players what that player has accomplished, and they are rewarded for a variety of different actions. Accolade badges typically have a gameplay benefit, such as a HP or End percentage increase, or the ability to 'respec' powers.
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