Returning player...

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Cyclonic, Jan 19, 2021.

  1. Cyclonic Dedicated Player

    I'd really appreciate it if someone could summarize all the important gameplay changes in the last 4 years. Exobytes appear worthless... Artifacts... Augments... Just kind of overwhelmed with questions and need a basic briefing of how it all works now. Thanks.
  2. TheLorax 15000 Post Club

    R&D got a massive overhaul, a lot of components like exobits became obsolete, R&D recipes were either dumbed down or removed altogether. Any R&D feats tied to obsolete items are autogranted to your character when you reach certain CR requirements.

    There are two main types of Exobytes. The first drop from salvaged gear, the higher the item level determines the rank of Exobyte that drops (currently MK 1- MK 15). They flavor (basic, Might, Precision, Dominance, Restoration, Vitalization) is random. These Exobytes are specifically for your Origin Augments, Origina Augments are what replaced colored gear mods. You get bonus experience when feeding Exobytes of one flavor to their corresponding augment, for example Might Exobytes into Might Augments.

    The second type of Exobyte are episode specific reward drops and give bonus experience to their corresponding Adaptive Augment. Adaptive Augments are an additional set that give you episode specific bonuses at certain ranks. Certain ranks require successful breakthroughs which require catalysts (episode specific reagents) and Seals (purchased from marketplace). A successful breakthrough allows you to reach the next rank in exchange for the required catalysts. A failed breakthrough will destroy your catalysts and not allow you reach the next rank. Seals of Preservation protect your catalysts from being destroyed in case of a failed breakthrough, it will destroy the seal instead of your catalysts. A Seal of Completion will make your breakthrough 100% successful.

    Nth Metal which drops everywhere is used to rank your Artifacts. Artifacts are an additional set of stats and bonuses as well as used to adjust or fortify your playstyle. Most Artifacts are role specific, some are useful and some are not useful at all. Artifacts also require catalysts (specifically purchased from John Constantine in your HQ) and seals. Some Artifacts are not worth ranking past 160, some are not worth ranking at all. I can point you in a couple good directions depending on what type of characters you have.
    • Like x 2
  3. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    You are asking quite a lot there. But here's a few
    Gathered exobytes (and bits...and FEs, Simple and complex materials and anything else that was previously used for gear mods) are not 100% worthless, but yeah, mainly. You can feed them to your leg augments(origin augments) for XP. Each piece is worth 20 XP (not a lot) so don't combine bits into bytes (not even sure that's possible anymore) and just stack them and feed them to your leg augments. They won't add up to a lot, but will be better than deleting or selling to the vendors for a buck apiece...if anything. They have no value in the broker.

    Those were replaced with 'Exo Material' which does hold some value. You still gather them from nodes in the cities, and can use them to improve your salvaged exobytes. You can use 5 exo materials to take a flawed exobyte to solid and a solid to a pristine. You can also sell them in the broker for ok sums if you are looking to farm some cash. Salvaged exos come in multiple flavors like Might, Vit, Precision...etc...which cannot be upgraded, but they also come in generic flavors that can. RnD will show you how many you can upgrade. Lower gear salvages for lower rank Exobits...I think the top right now is MK15. Word to the wise, I would not upgrade any that are NOT Mk 13 or better. There is very little yield in doing so...save the exo materials for when you are salvaging better gear. They stack to 999, so they won't eat up a lot of space.

    Another thing about salvage and applying to your augments, try to use the corresponding color to feed your augments. If you are using might augments, use your might exos on that toon. If you have a healer or troll, send the green or blue exos to them and send the might ones from them to your main. Dual role toons will use both, but while playing catch up you should probably focus on one role per toon.

    As far as augments themselves, you have 4 Origin 'leg' augments which will stay with you permanently. You can level those up with salvage exos, and some certain episodic exos (up till Wonderverse came out). Each DLC they get another 10 levels tacked onto them...currently they max out at 287. Personally i'd work on your 4 primary ones first equally. Try to get all 4 to 100, then 150, then 200, etc....vs dumping everything into 1 augment and neglecting the other 3. Adaptive or 'head' Augments change every DLC. For Legion you should have been granted 2, for older DLCs you'd need to buy them from the vendors. Each set per DLC has base atributes, but they also provide buffs or bonuses when used in that content. For now you probably don't need to work on any of those, or maybe work on one. Each DLC augments has a feat for equiping and for getting them to 'top' rank of 23. A few like Wonderverse also give other rewards (WV gave a few auras at level 11). WV and LLL augments can only be leveled up with that specific episode's drop exobytes...you will get some out of every loot box on daily/weekly missions. Older DLC augments can be leveled up with salvage or episodic exobytes...except for WV and LLL)

    This one is important. CR climb is different now too. As of AF3 DLC the drop gear is no longer fixed CR. It will adjust to an appropraite level depending on your gear's CR average. So the box might say it is a CR 10-270 gear, but if your gear's cr average is 150, the gear will open at 150+1 for green pieces...150+2 for bloe pieces and 150+3 for purple pieces. This means if your head piece is already 152, and you apply a green head piece, it will NOT go up any....it will be 151 and a wasted. Best practice is to ONLY open the piece of gear that will replace your lowest piece....that means sitting on several pieces of unopened gear (yes...I know...it will drive you nuts) while you run stuff to try and get that missing part. However once you get it and replace your lowest piece, you'll have lots of saved gear to start replacing the NEXT lowest piece rapidly. Using this method will allow you to net out a higher CR quicker than just opening whatever piece drops. Most people don't open purple gear until they know it will 'max' out at it's highest level, but green/blue pieces apply as they are appropriate.

    The vendor gear is still fixed CR, and you can buy that to power level...skipping the adjustable CR boxes. However up until BOP/WV/LLL Episodes, all the other gear costs Source. Source that you will not be able to farm at low levels once you are at a higher CR. Source you will NEED when leveling your artifacts, as you use those to buy Catalysts from Constantine. Personally I always tell my returning friends to fight the urge to buy vendor gear just for the climb. Maybe buy 1 piece to get that one piece that just won't drop for days. But drops are plentiful as the LLL Event OW bosses drop each time and do not need a reset for gear loot. Also, at lower CR you have more options for content to get source in. Most notibly at 260 or so, where you can get gear from Titans, Atlantis, JLD, Doomsday, LLL (Event) and for a few more weeks the Anti Monitor event. I'd guess you are on a 290 skip token toon, so that narrows it a bit, but as you go past 296, and 308, you'll phase out Metal 1 and 2 as sources as well....try to stock up while you can. Even if you don't have time to run everything, each DLC has an open world zone with 2, 3 or 4 weekly missions that pay 8 marks and can be done with a small group or solo. Most can be done pretty quick, especially if you can find some others doing them. You can make more off those than a raid in 1/4 the time normally.

    Artifacts...not going to make any suggestions on these as there are a wide variety of choices. The only one I will suggest is the Bottled City Soder. You get it from opening Kryptionian TCs (15?) and can buy it off the quarks vendor or even broker if it's listed. That Artifact replaces your soder and will mean never having to swap stacks in your armory again. It also gives a buff to the group when at higher levels and is the least amount of XP that any artifacts require to 'max' out, so it's usable way sooner than many of the DPS or role artis. Other than that Artifact, do your research to see what will fit your play style...there are tons of videos out there and lots of forum threads. Gather the info and make your decision.

    Another note on Artifacts is they use Nth Metal. Nth metal drops at timed intervals (5 and 10 minutes). You have to do something to get the Nth though...like kill an add or pick up an exo. So if you are decorating or brokering or just shooting the breeze, make sure to stop at least every 10 min or so and go outside or queue a solo and kill something...anything...so you collect that Nth you'll need TONS of. Then I'd also suggest sitting on it for now....even on the bottle city soder. We'll likely have a double XP week before the next DLC (should be a month or so...maybe 6 weeks...from now), as has been the patteren the last few DLCs. The goal is to drain our XP stores before a new set of artifacts are launched...not so we'll be forced to buy more XP from the MP....it's because they are......um, concerned over our inventory space...yeah, that's the ticket!

    Powers, weapons, movement advantages, again...very subjective. I'd say hit Youtube and look at some builds out there.

    For TL;DR....Check youtube or get into a league where you can also gather most or all of this info...it seems overwhelming, but it's all pretty simple. Final word to the wise, especially if you are on a skip toon...stay at your around your CR now. Farm source and gather Nth. Don't rush to get to engame where you will be woefully behind or be forced into spending a ton of money to catch up. That's fun for almost no-one.

    BTW....if you were last on 4 years ago, check your bank/inventory. If you have any old Booster bundle or old TC items, DO NOT go right to the broker to sell. You might be sitting on billions of dollars...do your research.
    • Like x 3
  4. Eve YouTuber

    I want to add to the above :)

    If you are looking for specific builds & artifacts that match, I really suggest taking a look at Obsidian Chill's YouTube channel.
    You'll find in depth guides for almost if not everything.

    You can read the early official articles about Augments & Artifacts here:
    https://www.dcuniverseonline.com/guides/guide-artifacts-dcuo
    https://www.dcuniverseonline.com/guides/dcuo-augments-guide-2018

    This is just for starter knowledge. But again I really suggest checking Chill's content.

    Yeah I understand this is overwhelming, I was too at the beginning. But fear not - you will learn it quickly :p
    • Like x 1
  5. BRITTENY Dedicated Player

    Hi Cyclonic :)