Behind the Mask: Fighting crime at minimum wage

Champions Online is a difficult and complex game to understand. With around two dozen frameworks and hundreds of powers, it's easy to get lost in the shuffle. When I talk to friends who are new to the game, it's difficult to convey how exactly to select powers.

I think people get the wrong idea about Champions. I've said it in a number of columns before, but it bears repeating here. CO is a game about experimentation. In most cases, you can't just stick with one framework for the majority of your hero time. The game has very open power selection and it's meant to be used.

Unfortunately, most people don't have a clue where to begin. I've talked a lot about tanking, energy mechanics, role-playing, and squeezing the most out of your stats. I haven't really gone over how to actually build a character, though. Hit the jump and we'll start with the basic, entry-level stuff you can use to make your hero really super.
Beat the bad guys, save the girl

Offensive powers are the most important part of CO. It's vitally important that your hero have good ways of taking out the bad guys. I've written about techniques for DPS, but that's not really what I'm getting at here. I've given a long list of powers that are available from each powerset at the end of this guide.

What is really important is that when you decide on an offensive power, you need to rank it up with advantage points as a top priority. Many players rank up defensive powers first, but this is a mistake. Offensive powers are the most important part of a good build. Once your early and final offensive powers are ranked up, then you can rank up your other powers such as heals or defensive abilities.

There is one special note to this rule: some defensive powers have advantages that are essential, such as the Laser Knight advantage for Energy Shield. These advantages are the reason you're selecting the power at all, so you definitely want to pick them up ASAP, even if you have to rank up your attack powers a little later.

Boom but I didn't fall down

I've already talked about defensive passives, so you should look at that article first.

Once you've swallowed all of that info, you should pick a passive and it should probably be from that list. Passive defense is generally better and easier to play than offense. If you feel comfortable without a passive defense, you can make another pick. I don't recommend it though for a PvE character. There are a few exceptions that need clarification, which I'll detail below.

• Lightning Reflexes: It's not a bad pick, but you should be aware that LR itself is kind of weak. Coupling it with Form of the Unfettered Master (with advantage), Bionic Shielding, and Bountiful Chi Resurgence (with advantage) brings it to a top-class defense. Make sure to rank up your heals when you have the advantage points, especially BS.
• Way of the Enlightened Warrior: Like Lightning Reflexes, you'll want the powers that benefit dodging. WoEW can benefit from offensive forms too, but Unfettered Master's advantage is extremely strong in dodge builds.
• Aura of Radiant Protection: It's not quite as strong as other defenses but it gives a big defense buff to your team. It works great with Fire, Telepathy, or healing builds, which require high PRE. I recommend having some self-healing with this power. Bountiful Chi Resurgence scales to PRE, which can help survival quite a bit.
• Unstoppable: Like WoEW this power gives a huge benefit to offense, while keeping some defense too. I recommend getting Bionic Shielding to help with survival. Other defenses like Laser Knight are also outstanding with Unstoppable.

Once you've selected a passive, then you should tailor your Champion's stats around that passive. In most cases this will mean some kind of respec. Don't be afraid of respeccing; it's relatively cheap to respec at low levels. If you can't afford to respec, you should ask people for money. A lot of people in Millenium City's zone chat are exceptionally wealthy level 40 characters with money pouring out of their ears. If you ask in the Massively chat channel (named Massively), I'm sure that I or a fellow reader would be more than happy to help you out.

It's like Mad Libs with superpowers

Once you've got your core offense and core defense picked out, you can start adding flavor. Your best bets are powers with strong synergies to your offensive and defensive powers. If you've got a lot of powers that inflict Fear such as Howl or Havoc Stomp (with advantage), you may want to check out Spirit Reverberation.

Backup offense powers are nice, but be careful not to go overboard. If you've got a ranged AoE power and a strong single target power, you don't need much else. If your main powers are melee, you may want to invest in some ranged attacks or lunges to help offset your weakness. Don't over-invest in offensive powers, though. You really don't need more than one to three good attacks.

Finally, consider backup functionality. Being a healer means having healing powers, for instance. You might want to invest in some crowd control or knockback powers, taunting powers, energy forms, energy management powers and so on. These are secondary functions! Remember that the main focus of a hero is always going to be defeating baddies and not dying while doing it. Other stuff is nice, but make sure you've planned out your main attacks and defenses first!

The huge list

Here is a quick list of solid, newbie-friendly stuff. This isn't a full comprehensive list. Make sure to try before you buy. These powers are all good, but I have no idea what you'll find fun. Experimentation is the name of the game!

• Electricity: Gigabolt with Ionic Reverberation is one of the best power combos in the game. Sparkstorm (with advantage) is decent at the lower levels, but Gigabolt is pure win in a can.
• Fire: Pyre at tier two is very strong. No fire build is complete without Thermal Reverberation, and Flashfire helps later on by giving a constant supply of fire to feed on.
• Force: Force Shield and its advantage are the most valuable block skills in the game. Force Cascade is a powerful attack, but is too costly for most characters to use.
• Ice: Snow Storm is a surprisingly effective AoE attack, and its advantage is quite good.
• Gadgeteering: Gauntlet Chainsaw and Orbital Cannon are strong attacks, but neither is a great "main attack". Sonic Device and Toxic Nanites are great supplementary powers in most builds.
• Munitions: Gatling Gun does truckloads of damage and is great when paired with Killer Instinct. Other powers are decent, but not incredible.
• Power Armor: Concussor Beam, Chest Beam, and Mini Gun (with advantage) are the best. PA is a tricky to use set. I recommend messing with it on the PTS before you make any final decisions. Energy Shield (with advantage) is the best blocking skill for melee characters.
• Martial Arts: A martial artist character should be expected to take some sort of Focus form to help with energy. AoE powers like Dragon Kick and Sword Cyclone are incredible but the single target attacks in Single Blade and Claws are also very good. Martial Arts in general is a very strong framework!
• Telepathy: Ego Storm (with advantage) combined with Telepathic Reverberation is very devastating. Mindful Reinforcement is one of the best heal/protection powers in the game.
• Telekinesis: This set is not suitable for beginners. Ego Form is basically mandatory for TK. Ego Blade Breach is incredibly deadly, but the lack of defenses make soloing troublesome.
• Might: There are many good powers in Might. Demolish, Aggressor, Haymaker, Uppercut, Thunderclap, Havoc Stomp and Shockwave are all very strong. Enrage, along with other powers that build enrage stacks, make any STR character fearsome.
• Celestial: This set is a trap for "healers." Celestial Conduit with Illumination make one of the strongest healing combos in the game. As I've suggested before, making a main healer is kind of a mistake in CO. If you decide on Celestial healing, make sure you have backup powers. Vengeance is a pretty solid attack. For all characters, Imbue is one of the best self-buffs in the game. Conviction is also one of the best self-heals in the game.
• Darkness: With the exception of Shadow Embrace (which is pretty good), most of Darkness is tricky to use. If you're planning on Lifedrain, make sure you have good PRE.
• Sorcery: Skarn's Bane is awesome. Sigils of the Primal Storm do very good damage, but they have short range and a long cooldown. Circle of Arcane Power is great for energy if you don't mind being stationary.
• Supernatural: Bestial has some great tricks with Massacre and Howl. Infernal has Condemn, which is great for AoE damage, and Defile, the new single target damage king. Both powersets have aspects, which can be useful. Resurgence is the single strongest heal in the game and is useful for all characters, regardless of build.

It's vitally important that you test everything in the powerhouse battle station. Some powers just won't feel right. Others may just click for you. Most builds should be able to handle a 3-person spawn effectively, and well-geared, fine-tuned builds can easily deal with a 5-person spawn.

Hopefully next week I will get to really dig deep and take a look at the pet rebalance on PTS. I'm a big fan of pet masterminds, so I have a lot of interest in what the devs have in store for us!