Skip to the second post for Costume Tailor information, and Angel Bard "Good guns, learn Martial Arts" build
Hello there, in preparation for Champions being a thing again, I've got a LOT of rambling information. If you have any specific questions, ask me. It's been a while since I've played myself, and I didn't use all the powers. So the "Way it works" for a lot of the sets I'm a bit hazy on but can look into. Ice I never used, but I learned about it's Required For Awesome gimmicks. Supernatural sets I'm still clueless on beyond "Bestial Supernatural deals in bleeds and triggers from bleeds".
First off,
How Do I Make My Chat Box Bigger?
You can stretch it horizontally like you would expect. But it is ass backwards for Vertical. You have to drag the entire chat box up (click and drag on the horizontal bars of the char box, not the tabs. Try the line right above the text entry), then stretch it longer from the bottom.
Default Status Protection.
Another thing unlike City, is that once something is slapped with a Status effect (including things like Knockback), they are usually given at least a few seconds of immunity afterwards, once the effect, and this is the important part, ENDS.
Knock somebody up/down/back, won't be able to repeat it immediatly.
Stun or hold somebody, they will be immune for a bit after.
HOLDS BREAK FASTER FROM DAMAGE TAKEN.
However, if you can KEEP the status on them somehow, that immunity won't kick in until it's too late.
Primary example, Sorcerer's Hold. Hold enemy, blast once, refresh hold right before it wears off.
Blocking: Why is there a giant speech bubble over the enemOHGOD.
Learn to Play, Learn To Block. Fortunately, you only NEED to block for obviously telegraphed charge attacks. When an enemy has a speech balloon with a Batman Fight Sound Effect in it, they are charging up some PAIN, so block. What kind of area it effects (single target, cone, area, etc) is actually based on the word in the speech balloon. But I can't remember what is what, and you would still need to block anyways, so yeah.
Tap, Charge? What?:
Click powers are as usual.
Maintain means you hold the button down and it keeps going until you run out of energy, or it runs the full duration (many maintain powers have a bonus for a full length use, or start weak then ramp up the damage at the end). Energy Builders are labeled as maintain, since they keep going forever, they are your auto attack of this game.
Charge, you charge it up and the more you charge the stronger it is. Some require the full charge to function at all, or get bonuses for a full charge.
Special Mention: "Tap, Charge" powers (and the rare Tap, Maintain like Assault Rifle). These have two options, "tap" where you tap the button to use it like a click power. Or charge where you charge it for a stronger more energy costly version of the power, often with extras, sometimes acting entirely different. Gigabolt is one of the higlight example of a high grade "Tap, Charge" power, where the tap is a very nice attack (54 energy, 242 base damage, tube attack), and a full charge is
1,033 base damage, 177 Energy, but you can't use Gigabolt again for 8 seconds. (Pre Nerf, Gigabolt's charge version also shut down your energy form if you had one, but back then you could just tap it infinitely for a murder+free energy feedback loop).
Assault rifle meanwhile, tap for a single cheap bullet with reasonable damage, Maintain for ramp up single target full auto with better Energy To Damage efficiency, ESPECIALLY if you get the Advantage that makes it ramp up faster.
It said I dodged, so why does it hurt?: Nothing misses. "Dodge" is just a chance for significant damage reduction. "Avoidance" is how MUCH the damage is reduce by, when you dodge.
Lightning Reflexes (Found in martial arts sets) gives some base resistance, DoT damage reduction (yes, you are dodging the poison in your blood and the fire on your pants), and boosts dodge odds against big single hit painful attacks (which you'd want to block anyways for even MORE protection), but not so good against milti strike ones.
Invulnerability (found in Power Armor) meanwhile is wholesale damage reduction. Where low level tommygun fire can end up dealing 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 damage at that peak of a level before diminishing returns and stronger enemies set in, but stronger single big hit attacks sting more by virtue of being a bigger attack duh. (Again though, you probably blocked).
Colossus ignores the gunfire, then gets hit by a wrecking ball.
Bruce Lee sidesteps the wrecking ball while yawning, but has trouble dodging seven Uzis.
Both are just fine if you want a defensive Slotted Passive, but Dodge is the one where there are lots of effect triggers in various powers
Regeneration (Found in Supernatural) is not a constant. You have a baseline. Getting hurt makes you regen faster. However BLOCKING CANCELS YOUR EXTRA REGEN after a few seconds. This was done to ensure people are not rendered immortal via blocking up to full health in a few safe seconds. You also have a green wireframe sweeping over you forever which is why a lot of people hate it. You may be able to edit power colors on the fly, but there is no "Off" switch for special effects. Many are "combat aura" style activation at least. If you know for a fact you will take Regeneration, consider Constitution as your THIRD (not primary, not secondary) super stat.
Tier 4 Final Powers: What do you mean I can't have three nukes?
The bad news. Archetypes Don't get them, only "Freeform" characters do. You can only have one Tier 4 power.
The good news. You only need to be level 35 (out of 40, Level 35 and 38 being your last power picks). So you can pick which one you like best.
What Kind Of Character Should I Play In Champions?
Things are a bit backwards compared to City. Due to the nature of the controls and combat in Champions,
using a ranged character is much easier than using a melee character (I had to play with a whole pile of options settings to get my melee dude to play to taste).
Ranged person. Shoot enemy, energy builder shoots who you are shooting, repeat. Simple taps, charges, and maintains.
Melee person. Melee enemy, MASH BUTTONS! MASH EM MASH EM MASH EM oh wait you are facing the wrong way because of target locks. Also your fingers have become a pretzel trying to WASD move and rapid melee at the same time. Because there isn't actually any cooldown on most powers, and a LOT of melee powers are "Combo" powers where the third or fourth mash of the button causes the big boy hit alongside relevant status effects, Melee is very busy in this game (Brick style powers are somewhat less hectic, but the Martial Arts style ones that are not Dual Blades can get crazy).
Also, Claws Is Bad. Why? ZERO AoE outside of the "shared across all MA" cone kick that's low damage for it's chunk of energy to use. Along with some not so efficient effects.
I have a Melee guy rigged to work more easily, but that requires a chunk of options tweaking that, honestly, I can't see surviving the transition of "Written explanation of very specific options settings" to "Set options a very specific way".
Exception: Do Not. Touch. Power Armor Attacks. Don't do it. (The laser sword style Melee attacks aside from the Energy builder are fine if you really want a laser sword). You can use any of it's utility powers. Except maybe Reconstruction Circuit, I'm hazy if that one blocks you from attacking while it's on. You can either Trust Me, or I can go on for a large paragraph about Power Armor's Unique Mechanics.
You can make a Tough Blaster in Champions if you want to (heck, Ice is ranged but the game considers it viable for Tanker Territory in the Archetypes using Invulnerability out of power armor). You end up built like a ranged Tank as opposed to a melee one is all. It comes down to which Slotted Toggle you take there for the most part.
The melee oriented power sets DO have more survival extras though, particularly the "Brick" and "Martial Arts" sub-sets.
Bestial Supernatural as well.
At A Glance (At powers I've never used),
Infernal Supernatural is the closest thing to a deliberate Blaster Tank from a wholly internal to it's power set basis, "Regeneration" being a Supernatural power... Well that and Power Armor, but DON'T TOUCH POWER ARMOR, not unless you are willing to let me explain how to use it properly to you.
Not Batman? The Not Batman Nighthawk style powers were added to the Gadgets powerset, making it even more huge than it already was.
Five (or six) Things You Need For A Champions Character (When F2P archetypes are not doing it for you).
Attack Basics.
Aside from your energy builder, you will need (Totally do this for your level 1, respeced as desired, and level 5 powers)...
1: A reasonable single target attack.
2: An AoE attack for Minion Mulching (This is why Claws and Single Blade are kinda lacking, All single target melee with single target stacking gimmicks).
Unexplained Trick For Freeform: Retcon your default non energy builder chargen power, and replace it with any other Tier 1 power from the same power set if you like one of those more. Example. If you are Munitions, get rid of Two Guns Mojo and put in Assault Rifle. Even the F2P Soldier Archetype does that for you. Your starter cash even skipping the tutorial SHOULD be enough to strip out your default level 1 power, and put in your tier 1 of choice if you need or want to (Sparkstorm is totally sweet compared to Arc lightning, Assault Rifle is AMAZING while Two Guns Mojo is eh, Ego Blade's default is good, etc).
YOU CAN DO THIS FOR FREE WHEN YOU SPAWN INSIDE THE POWER HOUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME!: There is no reason not to take advantage of this if you want a different starter power. I just checked, but have not edited this entire massive post to reflect that it is free.
http://cloud-2.steampowered.co...1DAC28436B1F0AF2426/
You talk to a Powerhouse Trainer NPC, (not Power Up), and select "Remove Powers" from the conversation list.
Watch out though, sometimes your default T1 while looking lame is a Setup Power. Example, only the Default T1 for lightning, and Sparkstorm (which is awesome) have a chance to add Negative Ions stacks, while almost every other electric power has arc triggers from those stacks instead and Elec's energy passive works off those arcs. For the most part though, anything you want.
Passives.
http://www.champions-online-wi.../wiki/Innate_Passive
http://www.champions-online-wi...wiki/Slotted_Passive
3 and 4, either one first: Get your power set's Inherent Passive (If Any).
Get a Slotted Passive of choice (BIG Decision). Don't put this off past level 14 seriously. Level 8 is the earliest you can get a Slotted Passive from ALL power sets, instead of just the one you started with. Important detail, as not every Power Set even HAS a slotted passive despite how important they are.
Passives are great, they are also important and often the basis of a power set.
INNATE Passives are always on. They feed you energy from a variety of themeatic triggers (Munitions, from causing crits. Fire, from things that are on fire) you need to keep fighting without having to wait for your energy builder to ramp things up again. They have a tendency to only work for the power type they came from.
SLOTTED Passives you can only have one on at a time, but are significant. These are the powers such as Lightning Reflexes, Regeneration, (defense boost). Or Targeting Computer, Lightning Form, Id Mastery (Offensive boosts with token mini defenses). Regenerative Nanites, and various Sorcerer Auras are Support passives. Unlike the Innate passives, Slotted Passives are pick and choose and largely independent.
Roles, Slotted Passive Restrictions.
http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Roles
F2P people are stuck with Default Hybrid forever, so they don't got to worry about this. Non F2P people on the other hand, get to select what Role they use for a statistics shift. If you want a defensive slotted passive, your options are Tanker or Hybrid Default. If you want an Offensive Passive, Support role or Default. Offensive, you get the idea.
More importantly for a non F2P player, Roles they can select beyond Default Hybrid are limited in what kind of Slotted Passive they take. Melee/Ranged Offense can only take Offensive Slotted Passives. Tanker or default hybrid for Defensive, Support or hybrid for support passives.
Forms: Active Ass kicking mode.
http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Form
Disclaimer: Not everything with the word "Form" In it, is a Form Type power. Things like Electric Form are slotted passives, which are also counted as ENERGY Form (CONFUSING AIN'T IT!?).
5: Form powers are toggle buffs that make you kick more ass. Most forms are very specific in what they do. For example, "Mental Discipline" only helps Mentalist sub-group attacks.
Others are Best for their origin but have potential usese for others. For Example, Dual Blades's "Form Of The Tempest' Buffs Melee damage and gives bonuses when you crit. It COULD help other melee power builds so long as the character was built to go after crits, But a Might user would get more use out of their niche "Enrage", and Ego Blade Users would still get more use out of "Mental Dicipline".
A few are more open ended however. "Concentration" is a buff for every kind of ranged damage (and a tiny bit of melee), with bonuses for every time you fully charge or maintain a ranged attack.
Block: Default just won't cut it later.
http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Block
6: Somewhere around or past level 20, pick up a specific Block Power. Stronger late game enemies will mean you will want better damage reduction when they bust out their charge nukes. For "Natrual" Blocking that isn't dodge buffs based, Look in Might for "Retaliation". I am a fan of Retaliation over the martial arts sub-group's "Parry", because it's much more user friendly. (Two seconds duration buff after you start blocking that reflects partial damage, IF you get hit in those two seconds. Vs Block something, and your next attack deals +100% damage")
A Guide To Martial Arts: In order of Complexity.
Claws: Do Not Take Claws. Weak effects, no AoE. (Inexplicable tides, is a shared across all MA cone kick with a poor damage to energy ratio).
Shared Powers: Martial Arts has an array of "shared" powers that all four kinds of MA sets use, and count towards their prerequisites for unlocking their signature powers faster. Various buffs and such like Intensity click buff, Lightning Reflexes/Way of the warrior Slotted Passive, Masterful dodge, are shared. Each type has it's own Form however, that fits their signatures best.
The Shared attacks have a tendency to be more like utilities, not efficient in damage but with some form of trick.
Shuriken throw: Duh, causes knockdown.
Thunderbolt lunge: 60 foot leaping towards target kick.
Inexplicable tides: Cone kick with knock up.
Rising Knee: TIGER KNEE! Knocks down, not that bad actually. However the set Specific Tier 2 attacks are always either better, or NEEDED like Single Blade's "Dragon's Bite" Case.
Forms: Always take your signature form. Dual Blades? Get Form Of The Tempest. Unarmed? Get Form Of The Master. Single Blade? Get Form Of The Swordsman.
Block: Do NOT take Parry from the Martial arts sets. Take Might's "Retribution" instead. Counterintuitive as hell, but Parry is terrible while Retribution is wonderful.
Why? Retribution causes 100% damage buff to your next attack if you block an enemy one. Parry gives you TWO SECONDS of 5% damage reflection once you start blocking, and you will usually be blocking incoming charge attacks which will fire after those 2 seconds. Also if you wanted to throw your advantage points around like candy, Retribution has a "chance to knockback everyone" option... right, away from your melee character.
Slotted Passives: Choice of Lightning Reflexes (Defensive, dodge rating and resistance buffs), or Way Of the Warrior (melee damage buffs and tiny superstat based dodge/resist buffs). Dual Blades can take either or without much thought. Same for Single Blades. Unarmed having more Dodge Triggers means LR is a "better" choice for Unarmed.
Dual Blades: You are an AoE blender, go nuts. Your gimmick is "Am I causing crits?" which is handled by merely existing and taking Dexterity as your primary super stat, and Strength as your secondary super stat. Maintains and Tap/Charge powers aplenty for having mercy on your button pressing. The most simple of the Martial Arts sets.
Unarmed: Dodge triggers are your gimmick. Your attacks, AND your signature form have effects that trigger when you dodge/have dodged recently. So you practically NEED Lightning reflexes for Unarmed, where it was a matter of taste for the Sword users.
However,
So Much Button mashing! Your later in Tier 3 attacks are hefty Tap/Charge face slammers however. Plus you get a Tier 1 Mantain machinegun punch (that's new, wasn't around when I last played) for a more finger sparing minion clearing attack, if you don't take the leaping spinkick that is (the hard to aim at multiple targets) Dragon kick. Dragon Kick is Cool looking but super inefficient at actually hitting more than one person.
Of interesting note, Unarmed has the most unshared attack powers out of all the MA sets. It has a whopping three signature Tier 3 attacks, all Tap/Charge megafists.
Single Blade: You are about the Bleeds. KEEP REAPER'S CARESS, TAKE SCYTHING BLADE AT LEVEL 5!.
Lv 1 Default, Reaper's Caress; guaranteed bleed stack on third hit, with 15% chance on the first two. (DANGER: The "Cleaving Strikes" Turn-Into-Cone-Attack Advantage sounds good, but renders it almost unusable due to the energy cost increase).
Lv 5 Better Get It, Scything Blade; Your ONLY AoE power for Single Blade. Tap/Charge. Tap adds bleed to primary target if they are not bleeding yet. Charge adds bleed to everything hit if they are not bleeding yet. Open with Scything blade to get the most out of it. (DANGER: Swallow tail cut "percentage of below boss health instead of flat rate" sounds okay. But since it doesnt work on important enemies, it can feel like a waste of points. Not detrimental, but not great either).
Dragon's Bite; Tier 2 goodness. Partially refreshes bleed durations of ALL stacks (COOL: Cull the Weak advantage: Actually works on bosses and players for bonus damage if they are 25% health or lower. Instantly kills minions and lieutenants at 25% health or lower).
Reaper's Embrace; What you came here for. tap,Charge? ALWAYS CHARGE. Not only is it good base damage, it makes those bleed stacks EXPLODE for MORE damage! Geyser of bloooooood! (More BLOOD?: No Mercy Advantage. 5% changce to cause 2 stacks of bleed on tap, 50% chance on charge. If you want to gamble for more blood explosions, take this and rank 2. If you want better flat damage, rank 2 and rank 3).
Power Set Gimmicks: A lot of power sets have a gimmick. Some are simpler than others. However, you need to make sure you get the right powers to even USE them. Munitions's gimmick is simple, you want to crit often for more energy to keep shooting. This requires you to pick up the Energy Unlock Killer instinct, and that's it.
Similarly, Electricity and fire. Electricity you take the energy unlock for returns for causing Ions stacks. Ions stacks cause many powers to arc some extra damage, and your default powers tend to cause ions, no thought needed really (Your energy builder, Default lv 1 power, and Sparkstorm which is BETTER than default lv 1 power can add stacks).
Fire. Everything you do might set people on fire. Your Energy unlock gives you returns for being near people who are on fire. The End. (The strangest part is all the powers say that some of your powers will take advantage of people with the On Fire "Clinging Flames" status... But no, only your Energy Unlock returns passive does that).
Ice meanwhile, is more complex. The "Gimmick" of Ice is the power "Shatter", which causes painful ice explosions and energy returns to any enemy with a Chill Stack (Advantaged Frost Breath guarantees chill stacks), and any Ice Objects (Wall of Ice is awesome for this). NOTHING TELLS YOU THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Part of why I keep gushing over Munitions (Fire is pretty nifty too, but got hit with more nerfbats early on), is due to how simple it is on top of being effective.
Travel Power Selection:
http://www.champions-online-wi...m/wiki/Travel_Powers
You get one travel power at level 5 (fresh from skipped tutorial), and another at level 35.
Take a flight type power (Or Teleportation if you are willing to re-teleport over long long distances. But the travel speed of Teleport tank 1 is faster than rank 3 flight). Seriously. TAKE A FLIGHT POWER. Not Ice Slide. At least you can play around with the other travel powers for a while in the Power House before you leave and have it confirmed though.
Differences in flight types:
Flight: Default.
Fire/Rainbow/wing flight: Default with an aura or effect.
Earth/Disk flight: Default speed, but more floaty and you have a surface to Emote on in the air.
Jet pack/Boots flight: Can not activate by charging it up to third gear. Faster top speed by 10/15/20 per rank however so better for those long zone flights, if you are willing to put up with the visuals and sounds (If you do not have a jetpack costume part for Jetpack Flight, then it will only make the sounds and fly with no jet fires anywhere).
Teleport: Pros; Faster thank level 40 max rank Jet Flight, at level 5. Can't be seen or attacked mid teleport, feather fall. Can use at least once during battle as an Emergency Teleport Escape before it's combat locked. Cons; You are a flying energy blob phased out instead of blinking from point A to point B instantly. Must tap T every few seconds instead of just pointing in a direction and pressing R or Follow.
Ice Slide? (Not a F2P option anyways): Terrible. It looks nifty, but in practice is very slow and steers like a drunken steamroller. It goes slightly faster than Default Fly when going downhill, and MUCH slower than default flight when going up, plus you can't stop (I may be missremembering that last one).
Tornado flight: ??? Either Default or Disk type.
Super Stats
Kind of a big deal. Your first Super Stat is your primary one, and it determines what buffs your
Everything, as well as what your first skill tree selections are. Your super stats also go up some on their own every level, your secondary and third ones less so.
If you are a ranged character, Dex primary, Ego Secondary, and Whatever You Like/Recovery Third works for most for being a murder beast, AND protecting yourself (Dex primary unlocks the option to allow Dex to give you defense flat out, and for secondary stats to boost crit damage).
Melee is a bit more to taste. Dex Primary, Strength secondary works. Your secondary stat being the "what directly raises you damage" one is often just fine due to diminishing returns and other MMO Math. But there is nothing wrong with making Strength your Primary Super Stat if you want to be able to throw mac trucks that much sooner. As long as you don't pick completely irrelevant stats you won't go wrong. (You went Presense/Int/Endurance what why would you do that?). Dexterity tends to be pretty sweet though, and a good chunk of the Martial Arts sub-group powers scale off it still, even though they (thankfully) made most powers now scale off your selected Super Stats instead of specific stats. (Electric form used to scale off Recovery and Endurance. So I based off that... It DID have the side effect of a huge energy pool, but Electricity runs through that pool FAST).
However, double check if the power set of choice you want heavily invests in specific stat scaling for many powers. Though you will easily manage most cases
What About Things like Presence for a Sorcerer/Telepathic? Or Constitution if you take Regeneration?: Well, sure? Honestly you CAN manage with any Superstat setup so long as it is a setup that CONTRUBITES to what you are doing. Dex Primary is just the most wholesale efficient Primary superstat for the average ranged or Melee character because CRITS and Dex=Defense! Unlocks. Your Priamry Superstat determines your initial skill tree options.
Ego is the "Ranged Damage" Stat (It used to be Crit damage stat, not anymore without unlocks from DEX "Secondary superstats boost Crit severity", or EGO as your primary unlocks). STR is Melee and lift trucks. It's generally acceptable to put these as your SECONDARY, with Dex primary for the average simple Melee/Ranged smasher person. Particularly because your Superstats boost damage already. If you wanted Regeneration as your slotted passive, I'd personal opinion wise make CON your third superstat. To me, Third superstat is the "whatever I want that will help" one.
I can't claim it's all fun and no optimization for Hazatron even though I made him Ego primary. Because He's still Dex Secondary and Ego Blades scales with Ego instead of STR. So I just made a "Crit Hard over Crit frequent" standard selection.
Still, if you want some gigabolt spam? Going End primary, Recovery secondary if you are a lightning blaster can work out okay too (Electricity is, ironically, very energy hungry).
Advantages: Your customization of the powers you choose.
You get 36 Advantage points total by the time you reach max level 40.
You can put a max of 5 points into a single power. Flat Rank ups (rank 2, rank 3) are 2 points each. Unique advantages cost varying amounts.
Ranking up your Slotted Passive is kind of a big deal, though you can put off upgrading it to rank 3 if you want to boost other things first (high rank shotgun is a monster). Also, if there is a Maintain Attack with the advantage along the lines of "Makes damage ramp up faster ", like Assault Rifle, TOTALLY get it. Once you have the energy to handle it's full duration regularly it's freakin INSANE.
Also, breath powers. If you are Ice, take the breath power and get the "guaranteed status stack" advantage. Kind of a big deal. ESPECIALLY for Ice, as you have powers that work off those stacks. (Fire is just... More things to set people on fire, which you already have).
Supernatural's Venomous breath has it backwards, as instead it has advantages to take, well, advantage of the fact other Supernatural powers cause things Venom Breath can work off of.
Since points come slowly and are limited in the end, don't go nuts. But Slotted Passive, Early spam forever AoE attack, and your go to consistent Single Target power (like say, Assault Rifle) all deserve at least two points (one rank up, or the average unique advantage) given to them early on.
DO NOT PUT POINTS INTO YOUR ENERGY BUILDER. Seriously. It won't help no matter how cool it sounds.
Travel Powers Advantages: The good news, Straight Ranking up your travel powers only cost 1 point per rank. The bad news, you are not allowed to rank them up until level 20, and level 40. That's right, Halfway through for one upgrade, and LAST LEVEL for the next. Any travel powers that have unique advantages to spend on (Acrobatics is the only one worth it, it makes you go FASTER in combat instead of slower) you can get whenever.
Free To Play Archetypes:
http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Archetype
Only the Base ones are fully Free. Unfortunately, all I really know is "Soldier is Good".
For F2P Sword users, "The Unleashed" is a better choice than "The Blade". The former being Dual blade simplicity with some AoE, and the latter being a single target gimmick based build... That forgot to include the damage gimmicks.
Character Planer
http://powerhouse.nullware.com/
Wiki.
http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Main_Page
The one linked from the Wiki is ancient and outdated. The wiki also seems to have various holes in it (though most of it's good). For example... I can't find the example, perhaps they updated that hole after the big Not Batman update. Basically what I was GOING to say was "If you search for the power specifically it is there, but it is not listed in the 'List Of Powers In This Power Set'".
This message was last edited by the player at 05:41, Tue 04 Dec 2012.
