Skip to CR 290 Guide

Discussion in 'Oracle’s Database (Guides)' started by Captain1Dynamo, Jan 11, 2021.

  1. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    SKIP TO CR 290 GUIDE

    So, you’ve received a Skip to Combat Rating (CR) 290 (or, I suppose you could have bought one from the Marketplace, which is not necessarily a good idea). Before you get started with your Skip there are several important things you should know, such as:

    DON'T SELECT OMEGAHEDRON, OR ONE OF THE BIRDS OF PREY ARTIFACTS FROM THE FREE ARTIFACTS CACHES YOU RECEIVED. (see Artifacts in the Step-by-Step section of this guide)

    This guide explains how the Skip works and the best method for using a Skip. If you are thinking of buying a Skip, go through this guide first, you might change your mind.

    The primary audience for this guide is brand new players, but the best method for using a Skip also applies to long-standing members.

    Note – updates & hotfixes occur on DCUO pretty often, so some things discussed in this guide could change if the devs feel a change is necessary.

    Note for New Players - It might be the case that in order to Skip to CR 290 you have to buy the DLC for CR 290 Episodes; I’m not sure about that. Members get all DLC, so I really don’t know.

    Note – It’s January & you haven’t been given your Skip yet? The DCUO anniversary, 11 January, is when they give out member gifts such as the Skip to CR 290; don’t expect to get it from 1-10 January.

    Video version of this guide is at: DCUO Skip to CR 290 Guide - YouTube
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  2. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    Before anything else, let’s clear up one point. You may have been given a Skip due to the DUCO Anniversary, or maybe during another rare giveaway, but any other time of the year the Skip costs ~$50.00 (exactly how much depends on how you get your Marketplace Cash (see the DCUO Marketplace and Real Money Guide on YouTube & the DCUO Forum). At such a cost you have to look at what you get with the Skip & decide if it is really worth $50.00. The truth is that taking a toon from Level 1 to CR 290 without using a Skip actually only takes a couple weeks. And when you consider that there are a massive, massive amount of things to do in the game (missions to play, things to collect, Feats to accomplish), a couple weeks isn’t much time at all (plus, taking the long way from 1 to 290 gives you a little time to learn how to play the game. $50.00 is almost enough to buy a lot of full games, so when considering the cost of a Skip the most important thing to understand is

    THE SKIP DOES NOT GIVE YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY CR 290 CONTENT

    Yes, you do get some stuff, including gear that will give you a CR of 290, but there are a number of critical items that you don’t get (or don't get enough of like SP), which means you don’t have the stats to play CR 290 instances (not even if you are a skilled player). New Episodes are built based upon the assumption that a toon will have not only a certain minimum CR, but will also have the stats acquired by playing all the content from the base game & all the previous Episodes. However, the Skip doesn’t take into account everything that you would acquire when raising your toon from Level 1 to CR 290. So, with the Skip you don’t have the stats to help the team by playing a support role (Healer, Tank, Controller), and your stats are so low that you won’t be able to put out the amount of Damage (hereafter referred to as DPS – Damage Per Second) necessary to complete Solo or Duo instances. Test this out by playing the BoP Solo - LexCorp Tower. You'll find that it's much more difficult to get through this instance than it should be due to your stats being low, which means that you would be ineffective in the Alert & Raids (so ineffective in fact, that you would be a detriment to the team).

    SO, WHEN YOU TAKE THE SKIP DON’T QUEUE UP FOR CR 290 INSTANCES YET. YOU’LL JUST BE WASTING YOUR TIME (as well as the time of the rest of the team, which they will not appreciate)


    CONTENTS OF THIS GUIDE:

    -SKIP SHORTAGES

    -SKIP OPTIONS

    -OPTION 1: Using the Skip immediately, before going to Level 30

    -OPTION 2: Take your toon to Level / CR 30 before you use the Skip

    -METHOD FOR USING YOUR SKIP, STEP-BY-STEP

    -OPTION 3: Don’t use your Skip on your first toon, use it on an alternate toon

    -FEATS
  3. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    SKIP SHORTAGES
    Here’s what the Skip DOES NOT give you; specifically, things needed in order to play Regular & Elite versions of content at Episode 37 and above (obviously you can get through lower Tier content without all of the following items):

    Note – the best method to deal with these shortages is listed later in this thread

    1. Stats. Stats matter. In fact, they’re crucial to your success. Your stats in DCUO are based on your gear, your SP, Augments, Artifacts & Generator Mods. While the Skip gives you an appropriate set of gear, it does not fully give you what you need in the other categories. Do understand that being high in some areas can make up a little for shortages in other areas, but only to a certain point. For example, if you had max SP, then it would be ok to have Augments or Artifacts that were a little lower in their Ranks. Unfortunately, the Skip gives you only two items at an appropriate level (one set of gear and four Golden Exobytes).

    2. Skill Points (SP). This is the category that really limits your capabilities because the Skip only gives you about 80 SP. 80 SP would be appropriate for a toon around CR 80 (though more is always better). When Birds of Prey was released the max SP in the game was over 500. Certainly, you don’t need that much to get through content, but I think even long-standing players can agree that you need a lot more SP than the ~80 you’re given by the Skip if you want to play content in or near to BOP (maybe something on the order of 175-200 SP?). If you’re a long-time player you can use replay badges to buy SP, but that’s going to cost you real money in addition to the cost of the Skip (if you bought one). Note - you do get an additional 9 SP for all the Feats that are no longer possible to achieve - making equipment and generator mods in Episodes from Amazon Fury III to Deluge. This is triggered when your CR is increased by at least one.

    Every year since the Skip began the CR you are granted has increased, but the SP you are given has not. The unintended consequence of that is that you actually become a little less capable each time the CR Skip is increased since new content presumes you've gotten most of the Feats from previous Episodes. It causes an additional problem for PftT (Play from the Tray) players who use Superpower Focus. Power regeneration is based on your Power pool. But without additional SP to put into Might & Power (and no Power Generator Mods) it is increasingly difficult to not drain your Power bar each time the Skip CR is increased. For the same reason it makes playing a Support Role pretty much impossible. Healers, Trolls & Tanks must have power to do their jobs.

    3. Gear. The Skip gives you one set of gear for your toon. But to play in Alerts (4 player) & Raids (8 player) in or near End-Game Episodes you need to have two sets of gear; one for DPS, one for support role (Heal / Troll / Tank). In multi-player instances the toons who should be DPS-ing should be those who can do the most damage (duh). That will not be you. It will be players who are at or near max on stats, which again you don’t get with the Skip. Unfortunately, since your stats are so low with the Skip due to shortages in the other categories listed here, you won’t be able to play a Support Role either, even if you did get two sets of gear. Players who can’t play both roles with a high degree of proficiency tend to get kicked, and they should if they’re not being a benefit to the team. Spending an hour in a Raid because half the team are DPS who can’t put out damage due to having low stats is the wrong answer. Obviously, this is specifically about Regular & Elite End-Game Raids (and maybe some Alerts). Naturally, this isn’t as important for low Tier content (though there some exceptions – some of the Bosses in T7 Raids do nonsensically high damage for example).

    *for the rest of the shortages keep in mind what I mentioned before about how new Episodes are developed; that they’re based on having most of the stuff from the previous Episodes. Also remember that the Skip should simulate / substitute raising a toon from Level 1 to CR 290 (for $50 it certainly should). As such you should get all the stuff you would from levelling up the regular way.

    4. Origin Augments. For CR 290 content and above the toon should have eight Origin Augments at the max from the previous Episode Metal II (since the Skip should simulate raising a Toon from Level 1 to CR 290), which was Rank 257. With the Skip you receive only four Golden Exobytes. When you open & use them they will bring four Augments up to Rank 257, exactly where they should be. This is a welcome change from the past, where Goldens did not Rank OA’s up appropriately. However you should be getting eight (8 = 4 for DPS role, 4 for Support Role). So it would seem like you would be able to play at least one role, but shortages in SP, generator mods, etc, prevent you from immediately being successful in Birds of Prey instances.

    5. Adaptive Augments. If the player is just starting Birds of Prey, then he should have 4 Adaptive Augments (2 DPS, 2 Support Role) at Rank 23 each from the previous episode – Metal II. You don’t get any AA’s from any previous Episode, nor for Birds of Prey. As of this moment (Jan 21) you get a Granted Item Long Live the Legion AA Cache – but there’s a problem. If you open it below CR 310, the you get Refurbished AAs which have stats so low that they’re really worthless. A player who had ranked up a Toon from 1 - 290 would also have AA’s from all the previous Episodes, each of which has Feats for ranking up, all of which the player does not receive.

    6. Artifacts. As a player goes from Level 1 to CR 290 he acquires a bunch of Artifacts (most likely at least 6) and with each new Episode gains at least 1 more. Each toon has 3 slots for Artifacts on their gear inventory and should have 3 Artifacts for their DPS role & 3 Artifacts for their support role (very few Artifacts are built to be used in both roles – for example; Tetrahedron of Urgrund is for Damage, Dilustel Refractor is for Tank. But the Omegahedron – which provides extra Power – could be used for every role). But with the Skip, instead of 6 Artifacts the player gets 1 from the Artifact Starter Pack, and 1 Artifact by doing the Artifact mission in the Journal. That’s all you get from the Skip itself. If you happen to take the Skip in January, Members (only) get a Member Appreciation Gift which includes an Artifact Giveway Pack (obviously those won’t be available if you get a Skip any other time of the year). Artifact Caches have a selection of every Artifact available up to Episode 39. (In the Method section of this thread I discuss some other Artifacts you may be able to get fairly quickly) The Skip’s Artifact Pack includes the items needed to raise 1 Artifact to the Rank of 80, while the Journal mission only raises one Artifact to Rank 20. The special Member Gift includes XP to rank an Artifact up to Rank 127, but you are only given catalysts to rank the Artifact up to 80. I find that ranking up Artifacts takes a lot longer than ranking up Augments, especially at Artifact Rank 120 & higher. Still, going the long way from Level 1 to CR 290 should have netted the player enough Nth metal to rank up 6 Artifacts to 80+ (which is the critical milestone; Rank 80 unlocks an Artifact’s first special bonus), but instead you only get 1 at Rank 80 and 1 at Rank 20. FYI – The Anti-versary Anti-Monitor Event used to provide an Artifact, but in 2021 the Event was changed, and the player no longer receives an Artifact from the Event.

    7. Generator Mods. If a player is just starting CR 290 Content (which is Episode 38 – Birds of Prey), then he should have 12 Generator Mods from the previous episode – Metal II. You get no Generator Mods at all from the Skip.

    8. Base Dispenser. By the time a player reaches CR 290 he’s earned enough Source Marks to have Tactical Mods, Orbital Strike, Supply Drop and Back-Up / Sidekick. The Skip gives the player ZERO Source Marks. You get 27 SM from doing the Artifacts Journal Mission, 1 regular Vault & after using seven Vault Tickets (you are given three with the Skip, one from the Artifact Mission, three you get in the Mail). That would allow you to buy only the first stage of either Equipment Mods, Supply Drop or Orbital Strike (Back-Up / Sidekick are the least important of Base Dispenser items). FYI for new players: you have to have bought the Lair System (which you get automatically with a Membership) to use the Base Dispenser. Note - if you are a Member & receive the 10th Anniversary Gifts you get a Paradox Gazer Trinket - which is a better pet than Sidekick or Back-up, and requires no spending on the Base Dispenser).

    9. Experience. To my understanding a brand new player who has just reached Level 4 can use a Skip. While stats count for a lot, there is some skill needed on the part of the player in order to effectively deal damage (and additional skill / knowledge necessary for playing a Support Role – Healer / Controller / Tank). The Skip does not substitute for a lack of knowledge – another primary reason why a brand new player cannot take a Skip & be immediately successful in CR 290 & above content.

    10. A Character. To use a Skip you have to have a Toon that’s below CR 290. Let’s say you’ve already used all your character slots and have raised each of those Toons to CR 290+. In that case you would have to buy a new character slot from the Marketplace in order to use the Skip you’ve been given (or delete a character and create a new one).

    But even with all the shortages, there is a method for effectively using the Skip to CR 290. And you should use the Skip you are given on the DCUO anniversary; after all, it normally costs $50.00. The Skip also gives you some Feats that are annoying or take a long time if you don’t already have them on your account, like doing 500 Challenges (Solos). But is it worth it to buy a Skip? Eh…
  4. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    SKIP OPTIONS

    The best option for using a Skip depends on whether you are:
    1. A new player who just started playing DCUO
    2. An experienced player (who has played long enough to have at least one toon above CR 290)
    The rest of this guide will explain exactly how a player should use the Skip with a walkthrough oriented toward new players. However, the basic concept applies to both new & long-standing players, which is: don’t play content in Tier 7 and above yet. After you take the Skip, start playing at Tier 1 (and even lower for some things in Gotham & Metropolis) & work your way up, gaining as many Feats, Exobytes, Nth Metal & Source Marks as possible in order to make up for the things DCUO did not give you in the Skip. And as was mentioned earlier, this applies to senior players too. No matter how much experience you have, the tremendously weak stats of the Skip will not allow your toon to be effective in On Duty instances of End Game Episodes. Players who have already raised some Toons to high CR’s will have a number of Feats on their account, which they could unlock on the Skip Toon by using Replay Badges (which is gonna cost real $$$). But the best (and most economical method) is to get as many Feats as possible in low-CR content instead of wasting a bunch of money.

    I specified Tier 7 for a reason. At CR 290 your stats are so high that you can basically solo every instance up to Tier 6, including Raids (though some have mechanics that require more than one player). But Tier 7 is a little tricky. Solos, Duos & Alerts should pose little problem to a CR 290 (even if the player is new). But some of the T7 Raid bosses are massively overpowered; specifically, some have special attacks that will one-shot a CR 290 even though those Raids are supposed to be for Toons at half of your CR & with far, far, far less Health than you. Which makes these T7 Raids more difficult to get through than those in Amazon Fury III & above. How did this happen? During Stats Revamp these Raids either weren’t tested at all, or they were tested using Toons that were in T8 and had CR’s above the Relevancy Window for T7 Raids, which provided a false impression of the T7 Raids’ difficulty. Having complained about this many times (as have other players), I don’t see the devs ever fixing this mistake.

    There are three options for using your Skip:
    1. Use the Skip immediately, before going to Level 30
    2. Take your toon to Level / CR 30 (or higher) before you use the Skip (Skips that are given out by DCUO must be CLAIMED within a certain time limit, but can then be used a later date. So, there is no rush to get a toon to CR 30)
    3. Don’t use your Skip on your first toon, use it on an alternate toon
    Note for New Players - It might be the case that in order to Skip to CR 290 you have to buy the DLC for CR 290 Episodes. I’m not sure about that. Members get all DLC, so I really don’t know.
  5. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    Option 1. Using the Skip immediately, before going to Level 30

    If you are a long-standing member who really knows how to play DCUO, then you could do this (but it’s not a good idea if you’re a new player). Once you’ve Skipped you’d have to either use Replay Badges for Feats to build your SP, or get as many as possible on the new toon from playing at lower Tiers as described the Method section below. But what you’d really be missing out on are all the Source Marks that you can get through the 1-30 missions. The Skip gives you ~27 Source Marks, which means you won’t be able to buy your Base Dispenser items.

    For a new player on their first Toon, skipping immediately is a bad idea. Lack of experience will make playing any On Duty instances difficult. That said, although the Level 1-30 missions are supposed to teach you how to play, they don’t – not fully anyway. You are prevented from getting good experience in fighting due to the way the Leveling works. The primary problem is that you don’t get all the abilities in your Power Set until you reach Level 30. So, for almost the whole time you do the 1-30 missions, you won’t be fighting like you will when you are above CR 30. Still, the 1-30 missions do give you a feel for the game. Content above Level 30 is actually quite a bit like the 1-30 missions. So, if you find you don’t like those missions, then this might not be the game for you. And if you haven’t spent anything yet, then you haven’t lost any money. I don’t know why some players don’t like the 1-30 missions. I redid them for the new toon I made for this guide, and was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed going through them again. And as for the time it takes, I went from 1-30 in 3 days (playing all day), so it’s not like it takes a huge amount of time. One thing to understand about DCUO: it’s a massive game. If you wanted to do everything – play all the content, collect everything, get all the Feats, etc., it will take months (probably more than a year at this point), plus new Episodes are added about every four months. As they say, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

    Note – When you take the Skip, all the Level 1-30 Missions (and Side Missions) are removed for that toon. So, you won’t be able to do them, or get Source Marks for them, after taking the Skip

    Note for new players – Levels in the game go 1-30. Once you reach Level 30, Combat Rating (CR) becomes the system by which you increase capabilities / play higher content
  6. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    Option 2. Take your toon to Level / CR 30 (or higher) before you use the Skip

    The primary reason to do the Level 1-30 missions is Source Marks. The Skip gives you 27 Source Marks. But as a new toon there are tons of things you need to buy with Source Marks. First and foremost, Base Dispenser items (Orbital Strike, Tactical Mods, Supply Drop & maybe Back-Up - though there are trinkets in the game now that are better). Those are critical for your fighting / support capabilities. Second most important: Styles. There are more Feats in Styles than any other category, most of which are bought from vendors with Source Marks (with the exception of the newest three Episodes which require Episode Currencies, and there are also PVP Styles, which take Marks of Valor).

    By playing the 1-30 Missions, Side Missions (found in Journal Mission areas – look for NPC’s with ! above their heads), all the General On Duty instances as they become available, and new Episode Events you can get quite a few Source Marks (SM). For example, with the new Toon I made for this guide I got 163 SM in the three days I took to go from Level 1-30 (and could have gotten more if I’d played the Episode Event each of those 3 days).

    163 SM is pretty good for a start, allows you to buy most of your Base Dispenser items, but there are still tons of gear / Styles for which you will need thousands of SM. So, at Level / CR 30 you’ve got to make a decision about whether you want to use the Skip now or not. Understand that if you skip to CR 290 now it will take A LOT longer get all the SM you need to buy all the Styles & get all those Feats. It’s much easier to get SM at lower CR’s than higher CR’s. Each On Duty instance has a Relevancy Window (a range of CR). If you’re in the Window then you get 1 SM for Solos, 2 for Duos, 5 for Alerts (4 Player) & 10 for Raids (8 Player). But if your Toon’s CR is above the Relevancy Window then you get no SM automatically upon completing the instance. You may have noticed that when you beat a boss and are offered a loot choice, you sometimes have the option of taking a Source Mark instead of gear (but not every time). That applies to Toons of all CRs. So, a Toon above the Relevancy Window could get SM for an instance, but only a few. For example, if a Raid has two bosses, then a Toon above the Relevancy Window might be able to get two SM for that instance. But a Toon IN the Relevancy Window will get 10 for completing the mission (and could also take two SM instead of gear for boss loot). If you ran through each Solo, Duo, Alert and Raid from Tier 1 to Tier 10 (BoP Episode) just once while in the Relevancy Window for each instance, you would have over 800 SM. And if you know what you are doing, you can stay in each Relevancy Window as long as you like (by not accepting gear that will raise your CR above the Relevancy Window). And, bottom line, you will need as many Feats as possible from things you have to buy with Source Marks to play at CR 290 (in addition to Feats from performing special tasks in instances).

    One note - most (but not all) of the Feats that you can accomplish while going from Level 1-30 are given to you in the Skip. You might be able to get additional Feats while Leveling up from Styles, Events, Races, Legends, PVP, etc, but as mentioned, the most important thing about 1-30 is getting Source Marks. Any Feat you can get while at Level 1-30 can be accomplished no matter how high your CR is. At any rate, if you plan to take the Skip, then you don’t have to worry too much about getting all the Base Game Feats on that Toon, but you should concentrate on those DLC Feats which won’t be given to you.
  7. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    OPTION 2 continued: taking a toon to Level 30.

    So, for this option, follow your Journal (Main Missions). It will tell you what to do & where to go through Levels 1-30. FYI – Make sure you have the Journal mission selected when you go through the hideouts. If you don’t, then in some cases you won’t get credit for completing the mission after you beat the boss, and will have to redo it. Additional things to do every day, even while you’re going through the 1-30 missions: The Vault, Stabilizer Fragmentation, General Alerts, Investigations & Briefings, Seasonal Events, and Episode Events. All of these give you stuff you need (Feats / SM / Exobytes / Nth), plus they give you XP which will help you Level up even quicker.

    At about Level 20 you’ll get the Instructional Mission called ‘Artifacts’. Artifacts go into your equipped gear (3 slots on the bottom right), and give you increased stats & special bonuses to your DPS or support capabilities. There are a ton of Artifacts now. To determine which would be best for you will require doing some research online. Plenty of guides regarding each Artifact are on YouTube, the DCUO Forum & wikis.

    However, you might want to hold off on doing the Artifact mission (just don’t queue up for the mission) until after you reach Level 30. At the end of the mission you choose between a Might Artifact (Tetrahedron of Urgrund), a Precision Artifact (Cog of Maggedon), and a Support Role Artifact, depending on your Power type (Starheart for Healer Power Sets, Rings of Azar for Controllers, Dilustel for Tanks). Which to pick? Well, you want to be able to do as much damage as possible at all times throughout the game. So, I wouldn’t take one of the Support Role Artifacts. That leaves you with the two DPS Artifacts; Tetrahedron & Cog. Which of those DPS Artifacts you choose depends on what your fighting style will be; whether you fight more with weapons, or more with Power Set abilities. You might think you know the answer to that now, but you won’t really know until you reach Level 30, you have all of your Power Set’s abilities, and you’ve spent some time trying different styles / different loadouts (loadouts = which Power Set abilities you keep in your tray & can use in combat – six total for most Powers; Gadgets & Mental being exceptions). Or you could do research online & follow someone’s recommendation (if you think you can trust them).

    If you really want to know, in my case, I play from the tray (PftT) with Superpower Focus using Power Set abilities to do 99% of my fighting for every Power Set in the game. For that setup the Tetrahedron is an Artifact I still use for every toon, every Power Set, even though numerous other Artifacts have been released (I’ve been playing for six years, longer than Artifacts have been in the game). (FYI – damage is based on your Might for Powers attacks, while damage is based on your Precision for Weapon attacks) Other players might use a Weapons Focus, in which case they’d want the Cog. Or in Hybrid Focus you use some of both Weapons & Powers, in which case you’d want a mix of Might & Precision.

    At any rate, you can replace the Artifacts you use at any time. You just have to acquire the one you want & swap it out. The only problem is that you have to feed your Artifacts to increase their Rank / unlock their special abilities. So, you don’t want to waste resources Ranking up an Artifact that you won’t end up using.

    FYI – some Artifacts are given to you in Episodes, some for completing Feats, all are on the Vendor for sale for Source Marks.

    I know – it’s complicated. As I said before, there’s A LOT to know in this game.
  8. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    OPTION 2 continued: taking a toon to Level 30.

    Also, you should know that at Level 25 you get Augments. Like Artifacts, Augments increase your stats in certain categories, making you more powerful. You’re given four each of Might, Precision, Dominance, Restoration & Vitalization. There’s a special tab in your inventory to equip up to four of these Origin Augments (OA) at a time, plus two slots for Adaptive Augments (AA) which you get in new Episodes (this started with Judas Contract).

    When a new Episode is released you’ll get two AA’s by going through the Journal Mission. But a complication has occurred with Long Live the Legion. If you are below the minimum CR for the Episode & you accept the AA’s, then you won’t get the full Episode version of the Augments; you’ll get a weak version with very, very low stats. What should happen is that everyone gets the same AA’s and that they auto-level based on your CR. I brought this up in the Episode feedback on the Forum, hopefully they’ll make a change. Until they do, it’s best to not open / accept these AA’s until you reach the minimum Relevancy Window CR for the Episode. But if you can't stand seeing that gift box on your screen, then go ahead & accept them; you can still buy full version AA’s on the Episode Vendor when you finally do reach the Episode's required CR.

    Like Artifacts you need to know what your fighting style will be to know which Augments (Might or Precision, or a mix if you use Hybrid Focus) will benefit you. But for your Support Role you should only rank up & equip Dominating if your Power Set is a Tank, Vital for Controllers, or Restoring for Healers. You might find some players advising to mix Augments. If you do, you’ll only be decreasing your ability to Heal, replenish Power, or pull / taunt the enemy & take damage.

    To increase the Rank of Augments you need Exobytes. Scrap your spare gear at a R&D station. From that you get Exobytes. Select those to fortify the Augments in the same Inventory tab where you fortify Artifacts. If you use the same kind of Exobyte as the Augment, you get a 50% XP increase (i.e. Might Exobyte into Mighty Augment = 150% XP). Don’t use Nth Metal to fortify Augments; Exobytes have a lot more XP, and Artifacts only take Nth Metal.
  9. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    OPTION 2 continued: taking a toon to Level 30.

    While you are Level 1-30 the daily Vault gives you Style pieces (style only, not armor) that unlock Feats when you collect all the parts. All these styles can be found elsewhere in the game, but getting them from the Vault helps you finish the style set quicker. Between the Vault & the 1-30 missions you’ll probably complete a couple sets before you hit Level 30. After CR 30 the Vault gives you one Source Mark and one piece of Armor every day, plus a little Nth Metal. The first time you go into the Vault each week you’ll get a much larger Nth Metal piece than usual (Augmented Nth Metal 3000 XP), so be sure to run every Toon on your account through the Vault at least once a week.

    As you fight Time Capsules will randomly drop. To open them you need a Stabilizer. The daily Stabilizer Fragmentation mission is the only way you can get a Stabilizer without spending real money. As a member you get six Stabilizer fragments from the mission. In three days that’s enough to make one Stabilizer. But whatever you do, DON’T USE REPLAY BADGES TO RESET THE STABILIZER FRAGMENTATION MISSION. That’s the actual worst deal on DCUO. It costs 87 Replay Badges to reset the mission (as much as it costs to reset a Raid), but you don’t even get a Stabilizer; you only get fragments. So, you’d have to reset more than once to get a full Stabilizer.
  10. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    OPTION 2 continued: taking a toon to Level 30.

    As your Level increases you will be given access to General Alerts (On Duty instances in the 4 Player tab). A Journal entry will pop up for each of them. The thing to understand is that although you might be the right Level, your CR probably isn’t. For example, you get the Area 51 mission in your Journal at Level 10. But the missions you’ve done so far have given you gear that probably only puts you at about CR 5. So, you don’t have the stats to beat enemies (or to take damage) in Area 51 yet. So, wait until your CR is at least as high as what is required for each Alert before you queue up. You may be in the queue a while for General Alerts, since not many people play them, so once you queue up, don’t wait. Continue on with your 1-30 missions until you get into the Alert. And if you are unable to get to the General Alerts before you get to Level 30, no big deal. You can do them at any CR. The Skip gives you the Feats for them with the exception of doing the Investigations, Briefings & Collections. There are higher Tier versions than General for three of these (so you never actually have to go into the General version), but you must do Gorilla Island & Bludhaven for the Investigations, Briefings & Collections (eventually).

    Note – before you go into any On Duty multiplayer instance for the first time, go to YouTube and watch someone else go through it. Many instances have special tasks / mechanics you must follow, and other players will expect you to know how to do the mission without being told.

    There are seven Seasonal Events that DCUO runs throughout the year, such as Season’s Greedings (the Xmas Event). Each of these Events has Feats, so many now that there’s no way that you could get all of an Event’s Feats in the month while it’s active (without spending real money). But you should be able to get some. Playing the event missions & instances gives you special currency that you use at the Seasonal vendor to buy Seasonal Styles or Base Items, most of which have associated Feats.

    Only one Seasonal gives you actual armor – the Anti-versary Event, which runs in January. You can get gear from the Solo walk-in mission in the Open-World area, from the weekly Open-World missions, and from the Event Raids.

    As you do Journal missions, get the Investigations (green ‘?’) & Briefings (blue ‘?’) in the area. They all add to your XP, helping you level faster, and completing them all is a Feat that the Skip does not give you. Investigations & Briefings are at fixed locations and you can look online to find out where every one of them is located. Collections (yellow ‘?’) are not fixed; they disappear when found & appear at other locations.
  11. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    OPTION 2 continued: taking a toon to Level 30.

    Whenever a new end-game Episode is released, DCUO provides Event versions of the new content that lower CRs can play. New Episodes have an Open-World area, a Solo or Duo, an Alert & a Raid or two. A new mission for the Episode should pop up in your Journal when you are around Level 10 or so.

    Even though your stats get buffed up when you play this content, you still have only a few of your Power Set’s abilities, an incomplete Weapons tree, and almost no SP. So, while you are Leveling up from 1-30, I recommend doing the Open-World parts of the Episode Event at first. Wait till you are maybe Level 20 or so & have more of your Power Set’s abilities before queueing up for the On Duty multiplayer instances (go online & watch someone else run through them before you queue up). Or you could wait till you reach CR 30 and have your full Power Set which should only take you a few days anyway.

    In the Open-World areas you should find a few daily missions and a couple weekly missions (meaning the loot lockout resets Daily or Weekly as the case may be). Each Daily will give you one Source Mark & one Episode Currency, while the Weeklies give you eight of each. An NPC in the area should also give you one of each just for visiting daily (a mission in your Journal should tell you who).

    Episode Currencies can only be used at the Episode vendor. There you’ll find armor, style items, trinkets, etc. Until you reach the actual CR for the Episode, you’ll only be able to see armor on one vendor, which is the auto-leveling kind (when you open it, the Item Level of the gear is determined by your current CR). Once above the minimum CR for the Episode you’ll be able to see the best-on-vendor Gear.

    If possible don’t open gear boxes you get from these Episode Events (as long as you’ve got enough inventory space to store them). After you use your Skip you will need a second set of gear for your Support Role. So, hold onto all these gear boxes in your bank for now and open after taking the Skip (as a new non-Member your inventory is very, very small & you may not have space to store the boxes, so if you have to open them & scrap the gear, no big deal; you’ll just get more gear after the Skip).

    New Episodes will contain new Feats, Investigations, Briefings and Artifacts (which may or may not be better than Artifacts you already have). One other good thing about Episode Events is that the missions are worth a lot more in-game cash than Leveling missions. The Event content will quickly give you enough cash to power up your base battery, which you need for the Lair System / Base Dispenser.
  12. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    OPTION 2 continued: taking a toon to Level 30.

    Early in the Levels you get access to Legends and Player vs. Player (PVP). I recommend not doing either of these until you’re long past Level 30. Both of those categories have a very different playstyle than Player vs. Environment (PVE – what all your missions & instances are). Learn all about your own Powers & how to DPS, and how to perform your Support Role in PVE before you try to learn different weapons, Powers & fighting styles for PVP / Legends.

    While I’m on the subject of things you shouldn’t do, DON’T GO INTO YOUR SUPPORT ROLE. You are given the ability to switch between DPS & Support at Level 10. But DCUO doesn’t explain what that means at all, nor how to play a Support Role. And more importantly, being in Support Role:

    1. Decreases the damage you can put out (you have a +10% damage buff when you are in damage role),
    and
    2. Changes many of the abilities in your Power Set (for example, the damage put out by Fire’s Absorb Heat ability is decreased when in Tank Role. Every Power Set has abilities that are affected by Role change)

    The fire icon in the upper left corner of your screen means you’re in DPS Role. Shield for Tank, cross for Healer, rings (or whatever they’re supposed to be) for Controller.

    One other thing you can do is Races (for their Feats, some of which aren’t given to you by the Skip). Those can be done while you’re Level 1-30 or when you’re above Level 30, so no rush.
  13. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    OPTION 2 continued: taking a toon to Level 30.

    Most likely you’ll reach Level 30 before you finish the 1-30 Journal missions. Don’t take the Skip until you complete all those mission, all the Side Missions and three additional Missions you get after all Journal Missions are complete. As soon as you take the Skip all those missions disappear & you won’t be able to get their Source Marks. When you finish your last Journal mission you’ll get the mission, ‘Complete 8th Precinct Solo’. Doing that gives you an extra five Source Marks in addition to the standard one you get for a Solo. When that’s done you get a mission for Gotham University Duo (an extra eight SM), then a mission for Area 51 Alert (an extra 13 SM). Don’t skip till you’ve done those three missions & gotten the extra 26 SM. FYI – you don’t get any extra SM for doing the rest of the Tier 1 Solos, Duos or Alerts.

    Once you reach Level 30, take a little time to learn how to best DPS for your Power Set. There are PLENTY of guides on YouTube and in the DCUO Forum that will tell you everything you need to know about Damage (as well as Healing, Controlling and Tanking, for that matter) for every Power Set in the game.

    Also, at 30 you’ve got to decide if you want to take the Skip now, or to continue to raise your CR & learn more about the game before you take the Skip. Either way, continue to do Events, Vault, Stabilizer Fragmentation, etc, as mentioned earlier. You still need Source Marks, and now you need to build a Support Role gear set. The Episode Event will help a lot with that, and you get a little help from a new area that has opened up...

    After you complete the levelling Journal missions you’re given access to Doomed Metropolis. There are a number of Feats to be accomplished there. Like Episode Events, there are Daily & Weekly missions. While these give you Source Marks & a special currency (Tributes), they don’t give you gear. Only the On Duty Solo (The Last Son of Krypton) & the Doomsday Raid (8 Player) give you one piece of gear each. That gear auto-levels, but maxes out at Item Level 199. One important thing you do get from this content is the Omegahedron (Artifact). Depending on which Power Set you have, this Artifact can be crucial to having enough power to use your Power Set’s abilities effectively.

    Note – if you didn’t get a four-slot utility belt while levelling, get one as soon as possible. That way during a fight you can use Orbital Strike, Supply Drop, Back-Up, a buff trinket, or some other trinket. Eventually a utility belt will be a loot choice. There’s a three-slot available from a vendor on the Watchtower / Hall of Doom for Source Marks. Or, if you have Episode Currency, you could buy a four-slot there. (You must have bought Utility Belt from the Marketplace to use – which you’re automatically given with Membership)
  14. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    THE METHOD FOR USING A SKIP, STEP-BY-STEP

    O.k., so whatever Level or CR you got to before you take the Skip, here’s what happens:

    If you’re looking for your free Skip, you first have to log in. Open the Granted Items Menu & claim your Skip to CR 290. Then Switch Character. From the Character Selection screen choose Advance Character Level, then Skip to CR 290. The system logs you in & your Toon teleports to the Watchtower / Hall of Doom. You get a call from Oracle / Calculator. Some new missions pop up in your Journal. You’re given a few things to open.

    1. First, open your gear (Combat Rating 290 Box). You only get one set. Make it all Damage. You’ll need a Support Role set too, but the Damage set is more important because you’ll need to DPS much more for the time being than you would need to play your Support Role. If you’ve been playing the Episode Event, the Vault & maybe Doomsday, then you should have several pieces to help make your Support Role gear. More on that later. At any rate, you’ll get through lower Tier content faster & easier with a full DPS CR 290 set.

    2. Open the Exobyte Cache. From this you receive four Golden Exobytes to use in your Origin Augments (OA). The XP is 2264881 for each Golden Exobyte. Use the four Goldens one each in the four Origin Augments (Fortify tab of your Inventory) you use for DPS: Might, or Precision, or a mix, depending on your playstyle. It’s pretty important to pick the right OA’s so you don’t waste all that XP on the wrong thing. Once you hit Fortify there is no way to transfer XP from one Augment to another, which means you've got no room for experimentation. So, how do you know what your playstyle will be if you’re a new player and don’t have any real experience in fighting yet? Well, this is a spot where the Skip can do you a disservice since nothing in the game explains what you should really do. Best option; do some research online. Search for ‘DCUO damage loadout Earth’ or whatever your Power set happens to be (Gadgets, Electricity, etc). When you figure out which type of Augments you should focus on, put one Golden Exobyte in each of the Origin Augments (don’t put all of them into one Augment). That will Rank each Augment up to 257 (at least. A little higher if they crit). Go to the next tab in your Inventory (Augments) and equip the four OA's into the bottom four slots. Later when you set up your Support Role, replace your DPS Augments with Dominating Augments for Tanks, or Restoration for Healers, or Vital for Controllers. DON’T mix and match Augments, it just makes you weaker. There’s one exception to that rule; if you decide to use Hybrid focus for DPS, then you’ll need a mix of Might & Precision. Again, the info you find in your research should give you a good idea about that. It's going to take quite a while to make up for getting nothing to rank up your Support Role Origin Augments, which is o.k. because at first you should only concentrate on lower Tier content anyway (more on that in a minute).

    On your display you’ll see a gift box for Long Live the Legion Adaptive Augments, but as mentioned previously, there’s a problem with these. If you are below the minimum CR for the Episode & you accept the AA’s, then you won’t get the full Episode version of the Augments; you’ll get a weak ‘Refurbished’ version with very, very low stats, so low in fact that they’re hardly worth slotting. The best thing you could do is wait till you get to CR 310 before opening the box, but it’s really hard to do that when the box is just sitting there on your screen. Even if you do accept them now you can buy the full version AA’s you need from the vendor in each Episode (once you have reached the Episode's minimum CR & have enough Episode Currency). Just like OA’s, use Damage AA’s for your DPS, & Support types for your Support Role. Current Episode AA’s will only take Exobytes from the associated Episode (or you can feed them AA’s from previous Episodes). As you get AA’s from previous Episodes (Judas Contract, Atlantis, etc.), remember that you’ve got to rank up one of each of those AA’s to max in order to get the Feats associated with those AA’s before you feed them to your higher Episode AA’s. At any rate, don’t worry much about these Adaptive Augments, just slot them for now. Even without Rank they carry a slight stats increase.

    FYI - Origin Augments require no catalysts & there are no breakthroughs. But Adaptive Augments do have breakthroughs & require special catalysts you get from playing the associated Episode's content. Like Artifacts, always use a Seal when trying to breakthrough.

    One recommendation: never buy Exobytes from the Marketplace, it’s just a waste of money. Eventually you’ll get the Exobytes you need just by playing the game.
  15. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    THE METHOD FOR USING A SKIP, STEP-BY-STEP continued.

    3. The Artifact Starter Pack gives you an Artifact and all the stuff you need to Rank it up to 80, which is o.k., though if you had levelled this Toon up from Level 1 to CR 290 you would most likely have six Artifacts at Rank 80 each (probably higher). Anyway, you also get one Artifact from Constantine’s levelling Artifact mission (in your Journal). Through the mission you are given what you need to rank the Artifact to only Rank 20. If you happen to take the Skip in January you’ve got the opportunity to get an Artifact from the Anniversary gift given to Members (if you are one). This gift includes the Nth Metal to take the Artifact to Rank 127, but you are only given the Catalysts to take the Artifact to 80. Artifact Caches give you a choice of every Artifact in the game up to Episode 39. However, there are several Artifacts you can get easily, so before you choose, understand this:

    -The Artifact Journal Mission will give you one of these:
    Tetrahedron of Urgrund
    Cog of Maggedon
    Dilustel Refractor (Tanks)
    Starheart (Healers)
    Rings of Azar (Controllers)
    (be sure to assign your SP & set up your loadout before doing the Journal Artifacts Mission, since you do have to fight a little. So, go through Step 6 below before queueing up)

    -Doomed Metropolis gives you the Omegahedron for free for power regeneration (which can be more important for some Power Sets & playstyles than others). Just follow the Journal Mission - you have to go through the daily Missions in the area, then you can get Supergirl's Gift (the Omegahedron) near Lois Lane.

    -Birds of Prey gives you one of these Artifacts (follow the Journal Mission):
    Source Shard (for Pet users)
    B.O.P. Comlink (for Controllers)
    Everyman Prototype (for Tanks)

    -When you reach CR 299 Wonderverse gives you one of these Artifacts (follow the Journal Mission):
    Lernaea's Amulet (DPS)
    Lasso of Truth (Tank)
    Purple Healing Ray (Healer)

    And the newest Episode will give you an Artifact (just follow the Journal Mission to get one). For Long Live the Legion that’s:
    -Grimbor’s Chains (for Controllers)
    -Quislet (DPS)
    -Computo’s Redistributor HUD (for DPS)

    Again, do some research to determine which Artifacts would be best for your Role & Power Set. One thing I can say for certain; newer Artifacts that have been put into the game are not necessarily any better than previously released Artifacts (and some might be worse). Also (obviously), you'll have nothing with which to Rank up these Artifacts till you play content enough to get Nth Metal & Source Marks (to buy Catalysts).

    One other thing to understand about Artifacts is that Rank 80 is the critical milestone. Rank 80 unlocks an Artifact’s first special bonus. So, raise all six of your Artifacts to 80 before taking any of them to a higher Rank.

    ALWAYS, ALWAYS USE A SEAL OF PRESERVATION BEFORE YOU TRY TO BREAKTHROUGH. I've had failures at 95% chance of success, and if you don't use a Seal, then you lose Catalysts. Not saying you have to follow this guideline, but I use Seals of Preservation up to Rank 120, Seals of Completion for Rank 140 & higher; obviously the choice is yours. Unfortunately, outside of Artifact Gifts & the Artifact Journal mission, the only way to get Seals is to buy them from the Marketplace. So, you've got to evaluate (do some research) to determine how high you really need to Rank up your Artifacts. Also, Toggle Important on you Artifacts in your inventory so you don't accidentally feed one Artifact into another.

    Just like Exobytes, never buy Nth Metal from the Marketplace, it’s just a waste of money. Eventually you’ll get the Nth Metal you need just by playing the game.
  16. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    THE METHOD FOR USING A SKIP, STEP-BY-STEP continued.

    4. Check your mail. You should have received a few emails, including one with three Vault Tickets. You were given three with the skip, one with the Artifacts mission, and you have one daily Vault you can use (One Player On-Duty). That will give you a few more SM, but also some gear boxes. Open gear boxes until you raise your CR by at least 1. That should trigger achievement of all the Feats that are no longer possible to accomplish for making equipment and generator mods for Amazon Fury III to Deluge. That gives you an additional 9 SP.

    5. Complete the Journal Mission 'Home is Where Your Base Is'. That will give you your first Armory. Place the Armory in your base. You should have 27 or so Source Marks; enough to buy the first stage of one of your base dispenser items (on your Base Mainframe). Which should you buy? The bottom three are most important: Orbital Strike, Supply Drop & Tactical Mods. It’s a toss-up about which is best. Plus, at level I none of the three are very strong, so just pick one. Get the item from your Base Dispenser & put it in your inventory.

    6. Add in your SP. Even if you went through Level 1-30, the Skip will give you some Feats, including some that are an annoyance / take a long time to do such as ‘Complete 500 Alerts’ and ‘Gather 5000 Times’. Slot your SP based on the research you did on your Power Set Loadout. Set up your ability tray with the Power Set abilities you need to DPS, then save your DPS setup to your Armory.

    Step 6 ½ ish. This part isn’t really critical at the moment, but at this point you can start building that Support Role. That’s not crucial now because in this Method you won’t start playing high Tier content for a little while. In this second Role you need a full set of gear including the correct Artifacts & Augments, you need to change your SP assignments, & you’ll use different abilities from your Power Set. So how do you quickly switch from DPS to Support Role? You need a second Armory. You’re given one through the Journal Mission regarding your Base. That should have your DPS set. Unfortunately, the only way to get another Armory is to buy one from the Marketplace. That sucks, but there’s no other choice, and a second Armory is the one single crucial thing on the Marketplace that every player needs in order to successfully get through the newest Episodes’ regular & elite content. The only other thing you could do is to play only DPS forever, but if you can’t do more damage than other players on your team (which you won’t be able to do until you get close to max SP, max CR, max Augments, max Artifacts, max Generator Mods), then you really need to be prepared to play Support. As I said, that really applies to say the newest 3 Episodes. If you can’t pull your weight by putting out the most damage, and can’t support the team by being a Healer, Controller or Tank, then you will most likely get kicked (and you should). Again, I’m speaking specifically about the top three or so Episodes’ Raids (and maybe some Alerts). Obviously that’s not as important for lower Tier content (though there are some exceptions). Once you’ve got another Armory, open all the gear boxes you’ve been saving, selecting the Support Role version (Tank / Healer / Controller depending on your Power Set) for each piece. Equip the gear. Equip the correct Artifacts & Augments. Switch your Role. Go to a Respec station (on the Watchtower in Aquacultural area, or Hall of Doom down in the basement. See ‘Re-Spec Chamber’ on your Map) & Respec your SP. Put your SP into what you need for your Support Role (Dominance / Restoration / Vitalization). Change your Loadout to the abilities you’ll need to perform the Role. Again you’ll need to do a little online research based on your Power Set & Role to determine what to select. Save everything to your second Armory. When you get a chance, do some research on how to play the Support Role in content & practice at the mid-Tiers before trying at end-game Tiers. Not critical at the moment, since you’ll be concentrating on DPS for a while.

    The Feats section at the end of this guide identifies what Feats are given by the Skip.
  17. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    THE METHOD FOR USING A SKIP, STEP-BY-STEP continued.

    7. With all of this done it’s time to start building up your SP, Augments & Artifacts. Play all the lower Tiers’ content & work your way up, accomplishing as many Feats as possible. The Skip gives Feats for content that was included in the base game, but not DLC Feats (well, just a few DLC Feats, but not many). But you can’t just entirely skip that base game content because there are still a number of base game Feats that the Skip does not give you, including; Style Feats, Feats for Investigations & Briefings, Races, etc, etc. Until you have a good understanding of how the game works & how to fight (and until you build up your stats some), stay at Tier 6 and below. One note – some instances have very specific mechanics you must follow / tasks that must be performed (for example Labyrinth of Lost Souls or Throne of the Dead), so until you know what to do in each instance you should either watch a clip on YouTube before you go in, or team up with someone who knows what they’re doing. Or if you blind queue & there’s an end-game player in the group (CR 320 or so), then just follow that person; they probably (but not always) know what they’re doing.

    Specifically for those Amazon Fury II Raids (a quick synopsis; it's easier to understand if you watch a clip):
    Labyrinth of Lost Souls: Do not kill the ads in the poison gas room. You have to bring them to the side, turn them to stone & use the stones to block the poison gas vents. Brute force & ignorance should get you through the rest of the rooms.

    Halls of Hades: in the Forge, DON'T HIT THE FORGE SPIRIT. It's best to stay in the far side of the room & have a tank pull the ads to the group. At the end someone in the group must have the weapon & hit Cerberus with it, or he will take no damage.

    Throne of the Dead: To fight Ares you need two tanks. One tanks Ares + all the ads on one side of the room, while the other tank (alone) kills the Essence. Ares cannot be harmed till the Essence is gone. If the Essence is close to Ares or the ads, it will keep going back to full health. Also, players & their pets return the the Essence to full health (which is why only a single tank can fight him). I'm pretty sure that Artifact pets can also heal the Essence.

    After doing steps 1-6 I had an hour to play, so I queued up for every Raid from Tier 2 to Tier 6. I got through Prime Battleground, Sunstone Matrix, Gates of Tartarus, Halls of Hades, Labyrinth of Lost Souls & Throne of the Dead. For each loot I took a Source Mark instead of the other choices. That gave me 18 SM which took me to 27 SM, allowing me to buy another Base Dispenser item. I also ended up getting 5 SP (without trying. You end up getting many Feats the first time you go through instances just by blind queueing). Part of that SP came from Feats I got by using Victory Tokens (which you get for many lower Tier instances). Plus I got some Prestige to add to my league.

    Depending on your skill, you may be able to play the Open-World areas of Tier 8-10 Episodes (but the ~80 SP you get from the Skip is super-weak, so maybe not). Anyway, in addition to Tier 1-6 content you should do the Event & Open-World versions of the newest Episode daily & weekly (and use the gear you get to build your Support Role set of gear). Along the way as you do the old content, Rank up your Artifacts and Augments with Nth Metal and Exobytes you collect. Get Source Marks & Styles that you need for Feats.

    Some players seem to think it’s really hard to get into low Tier content. I guess they just don’t understand what LFG or Shout is. Or maybe they’re trying to do these instances during low population times (school & business hours in the U.S.). Any time I’ve tried to run through all the instances I end up completing every instance within a week (Raids have a weekly loot lockout anyway, so there isn’t much point in doing more than once a week unless you want to waste real money on Replay Badges. That said, you can complete Feats even if you are loot locked; you just won't get loot for the instance - but you will get Nth metal). Just queue up for everything. When you get to the point where you’re not immediately going into the next instance, then go onto LFG and build a group. Or Shout in the chat (someplace where a lot of players congregate like Watchtower / Hall of Doom). If you can’t get many players during work / school hours, then use those times to do Solos, Duos & maybe Alerts. Evenings & weekends will always have a higher population where you can build 8 player teams pretty easily (yes, even for Tier 1-6). It’s really just not that hard. The only thing in the game that IS difficult to get done is old bounties. Getting a group to spam Starro? Nearly impossible. So, new players, if you ever see someone building a group for old bounties get in on it. That all said, it is more difficult to make a group if you are a Villain (there are only half as many people playing Villain toons are there are playing Heroes). Frankly I don't see why they haven't allowed Heroes & Villains to form groups. Recently chat was changed so that both Factions can talk to each other, so maybe grouping will happen eventually. It's not like the game's any different for each side. 99% of missions and instances give Heroes & Villains exactly the same tasks to complete in the same way.
  18. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    THE METHOD FOR USING A SKIP, STEP-BY-STEP continued.

    7. continued. The Skip doesn’t give you any Feats from PVP or Legends. There are a bunch in both those categories. It’s most important at first to concentrate on PVE. But if you ever see a special bonus week for Legends, then do that content as much as possible during that week. DCUO does a different special bonus of some type almost every week. So far they’ve only done Legends once (in which each run counted as 10), hopefully they’ll do it again in the future. You see, Legends Feats go up to 1000 runs in numerous categories, so doing them one at a time would take forever. Plus, Legends sucks quite a bit because your stats are locked & you don’t get to use your regular Power Set, which makes each run slow & annoying.

    PVP just plain sucks, but like I said there’s Feats in there you’ll probably want sooner or later. There’s plenty of guides online about how to PVP (and discussion of why it sucks).

    Regarding Generator Mods; this is one reason why you want to keep doing the newest Episode Event versions. You’ll be able to buy Generator Mods on the vendor of the newest Episode when your CR is high enough. Don’t be in any rush to get there now. Generator Mods do help some, but SP, Augments & Artifacts are more important (in that order). Which Generator Mods you want will depend on that research you did earlier on your Power Set Loadouts. When you do raise your CR, you can get mods pretty quickly from Wonderverse Open World bounties, and that's something you can do (as part of a group) that's quite easy to get through (unlike the Raids). Do a few rounds of that & you'll come close to filling your generator. Legion bounties drop generator mods MUCH less frequently. Naturally you'll want to get the highest mods you can eventually, but at first use whatever you can get.

    8. Join a League. Not crucial, but the last thing you can do to help yourself is join a League. There are numerous Leagues out there with members who will help get you through content / hunt Feats / give advice. And if the League has Proficiencies it can bump up your stats a little. For example Might & Precision League Proficiency increases the League's Might & Precision by 3%.
  19. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    Option 3. Don’t use your Skip on your first toon, use it on an alternate toon

    That’s pretty self-explanatory. Levelling up your first toon the long way will gain you experience on how to play the game, which will benefit you when you use your Skip on an Alt. And if you know what you’re doing (or can look it up on-line), levelling a toon from Level 1 to CR 290 goes much quicker than you might think. I recently tested how fast I could increase a toon’s CR without any Marketplace purchases, & without using any Quark or TC gear. To go up I used gear from instances (mostly Raids), bought just a couple pieces from each Tier’s vendor for Source Marks, and used auto-item levelling gear from the Vault or new Episode Event content. (for the sake of speed I didn’t worry about gathering SP / Exobytes / Nth Metal – just so you know) In less than 5 days I went from CR 30 to 166, then hit a wall because I ran out of Source Marks (I also didn’t use any instance resets). I’m absolutely certain that in 2 weeks I could get to end-game CR (without using resets, in less than 2 weeks if I did). As a member you get 16 Toons (which seems like a crazy number to me – years ago a Member only got six or eight, I forget which). 16’s enough for one per Power Set (there are 15 in the game) plus one extra. Again, when you do use the Skip on an Alt, you should probably still go from Level 1-30 with that Alt in order to at least get enough Source Marks to buy your Base Dispenser items. After that, use the method described in Option 2.

    Hope this guide helps!
  20. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    FEATS

    The Skip gives you 80 SP by auto-completing Feats in many categories, and by equipping and Ranking up Artifacts & Augments. These come primarily from Base Game Content, plus a few from some of the DLC Episodes. The first time you increase your CR (to CR 291 or higher) you automatically gain an additional nine SP for crafting Feats that can no longer be accomplished in Episodes from Amazon Fury III to Deluge. Base Game content still needs to be played for the Skip toon because there are several Feats from the Base Game which the Skip does not provide like Styles, (some) Races, Base Items, etc. Note – obviously your priority in achieving Feats in any category should be for the 50 Point (3 Star) Feats (you’ll find some are surprisingly easy to accomplish). Following is a list of which Feats are granted through the Skip by category:

    Legends PVE – Legends should be a low priority for the new player (since fighting in Legends is quite different than regular PVE, and PVE has a lot more Feats to get). Better to work on all the regular Feats & get comfortable with DPS & Support Role in regular instances before doing Legends (unless it just happens to be a Legends Bonus Week).

    Bases – None

    General – All Feats Granted except any Feat that is achieved by opening Time Capsules
    Artifacts – Feats for Ranking an Artifact to 80 are accomplished as soon as you successfully Breakthrough after using materials in the Artifact Caches you receive. Feats for Augments are accomplished when you equip & rank up Augments to 200.
    Collectibles – None. The Investigations, Briefings & Collections listed here are from the Base Game. To accomplish them the new toon needs to play through Tier 1-3 Instances + travel around Metropolis & Gotham.
    Tokens of Merit – For some reason you’re given the Feat for adding one Token of Merit, but none of the rest. Running through every instance one time will provide the Toon with quite a few Victory Tokens, which will go a long way toward completing these Feats.
    Races – You get every Feat from the Base Game except four. Even though you get the Feats for doing all the Introductory, Rookie and Adept Races, you don’t get the Feats for doing all the Master or Expert Races for some reason. There’s also one Feat from a DLC (Atlantis) which you also do not receive.
    Renown – You get all the Feats for Renown here, however, you don’t get the Feat for acquiring the Emblems for each organization. To get those emblems you would still have to build your Renown to max by getting Commendations from Tier 1-3 Challenges aka Solos (or if you had lots of Source Marks you could buy Commendations from the Vendors in the Meta, Magic & Tech wings of the Watchtower & Hall of Doom). HOWEVER, that’s only a 10 point Feat & not really worth your time. I’d say that getting that Feat should be about your very last priority.

    Exploration – You get all the Feats for Exploration, including all four sub-categories. That includes non-DLC instances from Tier 1 & Tier 2, and open-world areas of Metropolis & Gotham. However, you have to go through all those places & instances anyway to get the 50 Point Investigations, Briefings & Collections Feats.