part one can be found here
In this section I want to cover crafting, questing/leveling, specing your character.
Crafting –
CO offers an interesting crafting system that from what I understand is directly related to how you intend to play your character. This is because certain professions cannot create items with certain stats. I have only done one profession past 150 but all the professions have the same concept. That concept is progression through research and development.
Research is basically the way to create raw materials from objects.
Development is the creation of items by using materials from your research or items you find while exploring maps.
The system itself is very easy and has a small learning curve. The only aspect I do not fully grasp is at around 100 you have to obtain recipes via research that allows you to change old items into new crafting materials (conversion). As far as I can tell these discoveries are random and until you hit this random proc your advancement in crafting slows to a crawl.
One thing to note is that items created via development can be turned around and broken down by research, this is a fairly simple way to make complete use of the materials you have. Just always remember when crafting if possible make sure your Research is a full 5/5 for maximum level and materials gained.
Questing –
Questing feels a lot like WoW and games of that nature. You get the “go kill X number of widgets, then come back”, or “go get X number of widgets off these bad guys”. The questing at times becomes very boring and a number of times you will have to compete with other players to get the kills or items you need.
Occasionally you will get a quest that requires other people to accomplish. Sometimes the game tells you this other times you end up getting your heroic hind-end served to you on a platter. Running into these non-marked difficult quests can be annoying at times as you battle your way up to the boss and he smacks you around like a sissy little boy. This beat down forces you to exit your current mission and spam chat for help. The group quests are fun as you typically get to fight a powerful super villain (top of the line bad guys) at the end. At the lower levels these bosses do hit hard but since the majority of people are leveling characters to do the best DPS they can these bosses drop fairly quickly.
CO does have door missions similar to CoX but they are mainly given to you by wandering NPS that saw something and reported to their nearest super hero. These missions are timed and are generally fairly easy to solo through.
As stated in my first post leveling can be done solo for the most part minus the few group quests that are out there. CO generally keeps you moving from area to area in attempts to keep the quest grind fairly fresh. If you knock out a few quests each day it is very easy to get a level each day you play if even for an hour each day.
Specing your character –
CO lets you build a hero anyway you want. If you want a super hero that can fly with jet boots and uses spells and magic for offense and martial arts training for defense you can. I don’t know how effective your character will be but it’s still your very own character.
From my own experience plus reading general chat I have found a few tips that assist with leveling. At the start of the game you will have very limited options on how to play your character. After you leave the tutorial zones you start to have more and more options of play style.
Builds-
Build are a bit different then you would expect. CO has four build sets to choose from. Avenger (offensive), Guardian (balanced), Sentinel (healer/buffer), and Protector (tank). You start off with the balanced build and all of the other builds are unlocked from dealing damage (offensive), taking damage (tank), and healing (healing/buffing).
I am still testing what build is best for leveling each type of play style. I typically play ranged dps and I have been using the balanced build. I plan to play a bit today in the offensive mode to see if it is a better move for me to burn through mobs at the risk of having less hp and defensive stats.
Tips -
Passive defensive skills – these skills are essential to playing regardless of the class or build you take. I personally like regeneration from the supernatural power set. Although I have seen a lot of people take lighting reflexes from the martial arts tree. Once again it’s a personal choice that should reflect how you play your character.
If you have an enhancement to your block ability pick it up early. Blocking is a pretty essential part of the game as it can mean life or death against some mobs. By taking the enhanced block early it is done and out of the way as the early levels fly by.
Talents / advancements –
This part can be tricky and it is always a good idea to note what stats improve your powers. I am a fire ranged dps so I need presence and recovery as my primary stats. My secondary but also very important is ego and dex. So when advancing your character make sure to check the stats that best benefit your character.
Advancements can be a bit tricky but luckily it is very easy to test these upgrades in the powerhouse for free before returning. Since many of the mobs are grouped it is important to take powers that maximize your AoE. This might just be for my class but I found AoE effects to work the best. For instance my fireball has a 100% proc that increases the amount of burn damage that a mob takes. These kinds of advancements are great and make leveling easier. I have yet to take a rank up in my skills as I find it is too hard to pass up the power enhancements.
Once again how you play your character is completely up to you and I am sure there are a number of ways to play correctly. For my class it is all about AoE and burning mobs (literally). I do not consider myself a master of this game… in fact far from it. So if anyone notices some wrong information or has some insights into things I am unclear about please say something.
