I got this game as a gift, and figured I may as well try it. I've played it for two weeks now and I'm starting to regret getting it.

Simply put, this game is too hard.

I played WoW for three years, but never got a character past 62. Played CoX for two years, enjoyed it very much and will probably go back to it as the learning curve for CoX is nowhere near as steep for CO. I'm not a hardcore player, I'm very casual, and don't feel that my play experience needs to be filled with as much frustration and anger as this game causes me.

I'm sure there are plenty of people reading this and saying 'Good riddance noob', but you have to understand. I'm an experienced MMO player who dislikes this game. There's probably hundreds of people who, like me, got into this game, got frustrated with the learning curve, and are ditching the game... and Champions Online will end up the same way AutoAssault and Matrix Online went because all the paying customers are leaving.

Let's start with what I did. I created several characters, power armor, telekinesis, dual blades, might, fire, munitions and sorcery. In virtually every case, after getting out of the tutorial I experienced the same cycle of adventure-defeat-respawn-repeat that made me growl in frustration and want to punch the devs in their collective faces for making this @#$% game too @#$% hard. My highest level character is 10th and he generates the same level of frustration.

I can't find teams. I ask, and no one ever wants to add me. I start, and people don't do the same things I do. The whole team thing is so vaguely structured that I'm not sure people really understand what's going on.

I ask for advice on channel and I get nothing. Either the people in the same zone are absorbed in their own worlds. or don't care, or are just as clueless as I am.

I'm finally posting here out of sheer frustration with this game. I've about had it. My only consolation is that it did not cost me money, but it did cost my friend, and I'm sorry for that.

Is there something else I should have done? Should I have read a website that tells how to build a character for this game? Should I have posted in all caps? I saw people as part of super groups, but they never seemed to be recruiting like they do in City of Heroes.

For every person who says the game is to hard there is a person whos ays it is to easy.

No one has ever given you advice in channel? Which channel are you using? /local? /team? I know in /zone I'm always giving advice to people with problems....that is when someone else doesn't beat me to it. I see very few questions go unanswered.

Not every game is for every person. I'd hazard a guess that this game isn't for you. Nothing wrong with that, it doesn't make you a moron, nor does it mean the game sucks. Just means it's not for you. Move on, find a game that you DO enjoy playing, and have fun.

Why don't you ask here? What specific issues are you having?

What quests are giving you problems, are you not understanding how certain powers can interact? how superstats affect your character, passives, blocks, charges, holds, breaks? Specify!

I'm guessing it's the all-too-common problem of hasn't-picked-a-Defensive-Passive. Thankfully the Powerhouse Trainers will soon advise selecting one if you haven't already got one.

OP, try selecting a power such as Personal Force Field, Regeneration, Lightening Reflexes, Invulnerability, etc. You may find that they signifiantly increase your survivability. Also consider taking a block replacement power as they can also prove very useful.

Well I tell ya. Champs has a definite learning curve to it. As far as creating your character you may or may not have made the same mistakes I did when I started. One thing that I completely overlooked was the power stats. When you get to choose that characteristic focus it means something. Little did I know that meant it became the stat for calculating you damage output. Silly me with the level 20 martial artist hitting for 60 points with my main attacks. Second many defensive powers are based on stats and not always con or dex. I'd suggest reading the powers descriptions or ask around as to what you may lack for your defensive abilities.
As far as grouping goes. Well coming from WoW and CoH I was not prepared for the "classless system" that is in place here. Even when I played Champs pen and paper game we built character for certain roles i.e. tank, healer, dps, cc, and the like. Here everyone does everything. It's a little disconcerting to build a tank role character, get a group for a hard mission, move in to get aggro, and have everyone else on the team go bugnuts shooting everything in sight. It is my hope that in the future the game might move towards a more role oriented direction. As far as getting groups well since most of the content is soloable depending on your build. Grouping just isn't all that popular atm.
If you do continue to play and need advice you can always look for me @buddychrist ingame. I don't play during prime playtimes usually but I'm on most everynight around midnight EST.

Hope you give it another try.

May Buddy be your co-pilot.

Yes, if you still have any interest at all in playing the game, post around here for advice. I've never been above level 17, but I've gone through the newbie areas several times with different powers now. :P

bro my best advice would be to go to the powerhouse, click purchase powers, click show unavaiable powers and look through which ever power sets skills you interested and find out what stats your gonna wanna buff/slash use as your base stats

Alot of this game is based on what slotted passive power your build has. If you want never die easy mode, start with constituion and recovery as your skills and choose those as your super stats as well.

get what ever engery builder and basic attack you fancy.

as your 3rd power choice, a hold/stun or aoe attack is always helpfull for crowd control.

with your 4th or fifth power click on the supernatural tree and select regen as your slotted passive,
Regen heals you over time based on your recovery stat. when in combat block, and it will auto heal you.

with the 5th get a block skill, power armor block with laser knight for melee heavy class, ice for pvp(my preferance), ego is a good one cuz the block effect lingers for awhile after you release block, force is your other skills are very energy draining, would not go electric in your case because if dosnt help with physical damage at all, (whatever you can read this yourself)


as you progress spend advantage points in regen and your block skill occasionaly, also lvl your main aoe attack, and learn when entering the battle which targets to stun/hold (cc) and which ones to take out first.

granted your not gonna be doing a ton of damage but you wonlt die very often at all.

also i have found travel powers can effect survivability alot, easiest for pve is tp, if you ever get in real bad shape just tp out of there, if you went acro(tons of fun) bump it to lvl 2, it will help with the aggro while traveling alot,


hope this helps a bit

Might as well get it out of the way, WoW doesn't count as a real MMO, 'Good riddance noob', 3 years (especially from WoW) =/= experienced MMO player, etc etc etc :D

Phew. Okay, now that the formalities are out of the way, i'd suggest going to the Foxbat's Q&A section of the forum and reading/posting there for a bit. Like what the others said, just post specific questions and they'll usually be answered here. As long as you're not coming off as a fanboy or troll, then you'll usually get an answer (but where's the fun in that?).

Also, this. You'll probably decide if the game's right for you by the the end of your trial.

hit me up on @vasagi or follow the SG link in my sig, we can help you out with members who are happy to help with missions and advice.

With respect the game in too easy rather than too hard. Even with the XP curve dropped its easy to level a character to 40 with even a modest amount to play-time, if you dont stop to look at the view and roll from one quest to the next, then have a massive turn-in.. If the game play is too hard for you then its most likely the powers loadout you are using - this is a constant gripe with the community so your not alone on this. At present there are only a handfull of templates, or to put another way, a handfull of 'must have' powers that allow for single-player grinding with ease..

You mentioned WOW, which is also an easy single-player friendly game but to only get to 62 in 3 years means that you only played for about an hour a week or stood in Origmaar chatting all day - no offence, but getting to level 80 is a walk in the park within 3 month, again with limited play-time..

Anyway, back to CO.. You may want to try a different template and choose some defensive and block powers at level 5 to 7 (rather than rush in and get the next offensive power).. Regen is a sold defensive power at the moment with Force block.. Have a troll through the forums on the power section to see if there are any templates you fancy - getting to level 10 can be done easy in a few hours and will give you an indication on if you will like the template by then..


Good luck..