Heya! OddPodd here, and today the Mentors and community members of the Nintendo Switch Discord Server bring to you a collection of tips and tricks that might just give you a leg-up when the game first drops! These tips might also work well for new players in other consoles! Also, this might been an end-all-be-all top 30, butthey certainly stuck out when we were compiling the list! Special thanks to the Mentors: Kravefun, Sorcerer Helix, and Travis! And yes, please join our Switch community on Discord if you're a new, perspective, or veteran player coming into the Switch release of DCUO! https://discord.gg/a8M6Mw7 Enjoy the game at your own pace: this is a general rule of thumb for all games! DCUO is a marathon, not a sprint, so take it at your own pace, and don’t let the grind to end-game throw you down for the count! It’s a game, enjoy it! Group up! At the time of release, there will likely be quite a number of people doing quests out in the world, you might have to compete with killing the mobs, so why not add each other in a group, and maybe even gain friends along the way! Leagues are friends, not food. Joining a League not only guarantees you’ll make friends, but also gets you more involved with a small community within DCUO; a plus is having instance groups without having to use LFG! Know your terms: DPS (Basically Damage Per Second, or the Damage role), Healer (Self-explanatory), Troll (Controller, power-battery as some might call them), Tank (Self-explanatory), LFG (Looking for Group), CR (Combat Rating, gear-level, or iLvl in some games), SP (Skill Points, earned through Feats), and Feats (Specific in-game challenges pre-set by the developers which, when accumulated, grant Skill Points). There are others, but those are the few that might be helpful! Try to learn your support role! Every power has a DPS and Support role, whether it’s tank, controller or healer. Learning your support role not only gives you a better chance at finding a group for content, but also makes you a well-rounded player! Feats! There are specific feats that are easily done that can help you along the way, such as Exploration ones, and even the Races. Try to knock ‘em off as you go, because the extra Skill Points you get will be important in end-game instances. Speaking of Feats, the next few are suggested Feats you should look into as something to quickly get done before moving onto higher content. One of them is visiting every Police Station (Hero), or Nightclub (Villain). This is easy, fast, and just all-around good for your soul. You’ve encountered Booster Gold’s Tour thing-a-majig? Yeah, complete every single one of those in each city, you’ll get a feat too! 25, 50, and 100 Combo Streak Feat? Suggested by one of our Mentors in the DCUO Switch Discord, you might take a look at the sparring dummies, and start hitting! They’re easy, fast, and will make your thumbs sore if you’re not hardy like me… You know what? Explore Watchtower (Hero) or the Hall of Doom (Villain) while you’re at it! They will give you a feat too! Style are great, especially if you like playing dress-up like me…(tmi), but anyway, aside from Fashion Shows, you can also buy styles from vendors inside the Watchtower or Hall of Doom with cash! Complete a set, BAM! Feat! There are numerous videos out there talking about it, so Youtube is your best friend. Movement mode is really a personal choice, but numerous testimonials have shown that Flying might be good for new players, especially while looking for Collections in the city. At level 9, make sure you use a skill point to increase your speed so it makes your movement mode faster. Speaking of movement modes, Races are thing! Find them within each city, complete them when you have spare time, and get FEATS! Unless you like PvPing, stick to PvE side of DCUO while levelling. It’s better for you in the long-run of levelling up and enjoying the game without a higher-level/geared player harassing you...seriously, this happened to me while I was levelling back in 2011, and it sucked. While most people may not like the idea of doing PVP in open world, don’t be afraid to do PVP with legends characters. You can play as your favorite hero or villain and can unlock some of the pvp feats that otherwise wouldn’t be obtainable. At level 10, you will be given the deed to your very own base. With this you can pick and style your very own batcave or fortress and make it unique to you. Armories are a way for you to imprint everything about your character and save it for future use. With multiple armories, you can freely switch between roles and not have to worry about respecing or changing skills. When doing missions to get to level 30, do not forget to do all of the side missions that are around the area and even inside the instances. They provide valuable experience and even give feats for completing all of them. Each mission or instance in the game has a collection and or briefing that you can collect that gives backstory to that particular mission and can provide experience, feats and in some cases rare styles that are only available through completion. Throughout Gotham and metropolis, there are specific bosses that are lounging around and are available to fight. Most if not all of them can not be taken on by themselves unless you’re overpowered so I would suggest grouping up and trying your luck with them. Recently in DCUO, the developers have made the latest episode available to everyone as an event for level 10 and up. This is a great place to test out the new content, earn some gear and gives players leveling up something to look forward too. Plus any currency and gear you earn will put you one step ahead when you are at the relevant CR. At the time of release for the Switch, DCUO will have a lot of content available and to most people it may seem like a lot to take in. Do not try to complete it all in one go or rush to the endgame; everyone is on the same level and have to go through the same content. Take your time and enjoy the game and everything that it has to offer. Augments are DCUO’s new way of giving players a way to increase your stats. Returning players would remember farming or buying exobytes and setting them to your gear. You can level up your augments through exobytes that you find through gotham and metropolis but also thorough playing missions. There are six augments for each toon and leveling them up can give you that edge in battle. In the Watchtower or Hall of Doom there is a respec station that you can use if you ever make a mistake with your weapon combo choices or your skill point allocation. This is important if you wanna mess around with any particular combos or skill sets. Once you hit level 30, the real game begins! Players will start at Tier 1 and will have to buy relevant gear and weapons to increase their CR and get to the next tier. The main currency you will use to buy this gear is source marks, which you should already have been earning doing all the missions and side missions. As you start progressing through the tiers, you will notice that there are more than one style to choose from when purchasing gear. There is no advantage to picking one over the other just purely for looks. However, once you complete one of the styles, the other two styles will be available in a specific vendor bot in the watchtower or hall of doom at a discount. This is the same case for further tiers as your progress. Oh yes, those tier-based gear styles? They also give you feats as you collect all of them! This may be an unpopular opinion, but it’s okay to just sit around the Watchtower, or Hall of Doom, and hang out! A lot of people will tell you to always find something to do, but maybe sometimes it’s good to just unwind! PvP might suck when you’re not geared, but a good way to get acquainted with PvP mechanics is Legends PvP! They give you a free one to start, and you can buy other characters with Marks you can earn, or in the cash shop. Personally, my favourite is Harley but there are a diverse cast right now available to obtain! And yeah, the Legends PvP? There are feats with that too! Some are easy so don’t miss out on them! As we move forward, we hope to continue strengthening the community aspect of the game, with no dramas, and all fun! It's a game, why so serious, right?
Master dps role first before going support role. Learn to listen/read. Apply some basic common sense when playing. Have a thick skin and not be so sensitive when people comment, but not to the point that you always have to turn the other cheek. And never ever queue into stabilizer, duos, seasonal events in support role.
Countless times I've carried MUCH higher CR toons while in Healer / Tank role... not sure about this one. Because of the poor skill of most DPS you can either keep them alive while they stand in one spot and pew pew, or you can keep everything away from them so they can pew pew more efficiently. It's usually faster unless both DPS actually know what they are doing. Trolls (my used to be favorite role before Stats Revamp) is pretty much useless in most content except survival mode. Don't ever troll unless you have to... Unless you want to hit the power dump button over and over and then drink a soda, rinse and repeat, spare yourself the boredom and just dps... most of the content never requires a troll sadly.
In duos, you can carry people just as easily while in DPS role. There is zero requirement/need for a support role in a duo. Poor skill of DPS? Poor skill overall in current DCUO player base. I queued into JLD duo event version, and the partner was doing nothing but MA shuriken combos. Not a single power thrown. Could the duo be soloed? Yes. Can I solo it? Yes. Do I want to carry people who don't even bother putting in some kind of effort? No. As for support roles in seasonals, its irritating if someone queues in as Healer and then afks. Cos the group then has no healing in. Which can be a problem if you stand out as the major damage dealer and get all the incoming damage. No risk of dying still, just need to soda or supply drop. As far as damage goes, it looks like people just want damage period. Even for support roles, people want battle support now, using precision WM combos for supplementary boss damage.
Um... you're saying you could go into the Wayne Manor duo and carry at the CR that just let's you in? In DPS stance / gear? Maybe... I've never seen it. Could be possible though, I just don't think it's as easy. Two overpowered DPS vs an OP DPS and an OP Tank... I could see your point that way maybe. The way the content is now.. two people getting rag dolled by every add that breathes on you vs 1 DPS going pew pew pew uninterrupted due to nonstop healer shields or tanking I question whether that is easier or even faster. I do agree with the last statement .. all people care about in this game is damage. It's sad, but it's not their fault, the content is designed that way.
+ Learn to move your camera angle back. + At level 30, make sure you have a keyboard. At CR 70, make sure you have a microphone. + Breaking a barrel can damage you. Unless it's orange. (I didn't learn that until I went against Manheim.) Most importantly...Make a spreadsheet. This is what I did after deciding to commit to the game. I made a listing of all the styles and where you could get them. Which feats needed, etc.. This way I could could make sure that I had everything you could get out of a solo, duo, etc.. And then knowing for sure I'd never have to run that content ever again.
- Go online and locate yourself a reliable map of investigation/briefing spots in the overworld and in the instances. Digging out these little nuggets of info not only gives you an extra way to get into the game, there are also rewards- a bit of extra gear that you can either use, add to your style tab and then sell, or even auction/trade as needed. - Don't be afraid to rerun old content- if you get bored or stuck with the main story, do some instances for cash, gear, XP, and other things. - Don't blow source marks right away. Farm those things, store them up, and you ought to be able to pull a great new suit of equipment right when you hit 30 to knock heads with. - Don't blow $ buying all the expansions right away; most of the episodes and things won't even affect you until after you finish the main story quest. - Cruise the auction broker every few days and grab cheap Soder Colas, collection stuff, and anything else you might need. If base-decorating isn't really your thing, store and sell them. People will pay through the nose for some of this stuff. - Store your Nth Metal. If you're going to craft, store craft materials- otherwise accumulate and sell them, especially the rare stuff. (Either you can get lots off the AH for them, or you can sell to a vendor and get a bit of $ and some marks back for them.)
Don’t ever buy open bar from a midget in a pimpsuit in front of the strip club. Jus sayin. Take advantage of double whatever weekends.
Wayne Manor duo? I am referring to the latest episode, JLD (Justice League Dark). The duo is called JLD: Pub Crawl. Plus, I am talking about the Event version, which is easier than Normal version. But whether its Event, or Normal, there is still no reason imo for support roles in duos. As far as adds in duos are concerned, you can CC them in duos even in dps role. And if queuing into any duo for the first time at the minimum CR, just place a shield power in the DPS loadout first until you are aware of the damage you can take. Then replace the shield power when its not needed. I have encountered Tanks in duos/alerts using pure DPS loadout. Controllers in duos/alerts using pure DPS loadout eg Gadgets running Stealth for the big boom. Healers not healing. And thats cos there is poor explanation of supports roles in the game. But still, like its not hard to have 2 dps in duos at all. I mean, people can use a shield power for safety. They can soda. They can use supply drop. They can Orbital Strike the bosses in duos. And DPS role is the easiest, EASIEST role to learn. If someone can't DPS at a sufficient level, then they probably aren't going to be able to heal, troll or tank properly either.
Sorry, misunderstood "never ever" to mean all duos. My bad. As far as DPS being the easiest to learn, depends on the power... of course I'm assuming even if you are completely new you know how to use YouTube to look up a loadout. Water healing and Ice tanking are pretty easy.
- Your character has two main sources of damage, your superpowers and your weapons. As you begin to level up your character, you will be short on superpowers (they are unlocked at set levels) you will need to use you weapon. You can learn combos with skill points. Combos can be countered and also can counter, melee combos are countered by blocking, and counter ranged combos; ranged combos counter blocking. Learn this as one of the most important things in this game. - Learn to block. When an enemy, especialy a boss, performs a deadly attack, them will show a skull icon over them. Holding block usually means the difference between life and death. - This is a game with very dinamic fights. You can roll by moving when blocking, you can jump to move even when performing most superpowers animations (casted superpowers and combos can be canceled by jumping). Master it. - You can cancel combos and superpowers animations without losing their effect by using beneficial superpowers and trinkets. We call it "clipping". Master it. Disclaimer: English is not my first language, so excusse any grammar/spelling mistake. Also posted from smartphone with predictive keyboard
Do not listen to this individual. Learning both your roles from the beginning will be to your advantage. Furthermore, you may discover that while you did not enjoy Damage in a given powerset, you actually do find their Support role quite enjoyable. If you insist on finding a powerset where you enjoy the playstyle for damage dealing, and then leveling it up to a point of mastering it, before you ever dabble into your support power, you can quite easily put yourself into a situation where the power you settle on is one for a role that you actually do not enjoy. If you truly must only play one half of your character's potential, then play their support role. It will be easier to find groups if you play as part of a needed-minority, instead of falling in with the most densely populated role. I started in the closed Beta, and I have never once seen a player say "I'm sorry, guys. We should disband this raid. There are just no DPS players online right now." Learning both roles is ideal, but if you choose to restrict yourself to only being one, then be your Support role. As for queuing into Stabilizers, Duos, and Seasonals in the support role, do whatever you want. Things like Stabilizers and Seasonals are over so fast that the difference it makes amounts to less than 30 seconds. Anyone who wants to argue the point will waste more time than what would have been saved.
I totally agree. HOWEVER the roles are learned while doing Solo content and in Solo instances better than in the heat of a Multiplayer instance. For beginners those are easily overwhelming and thus very frustrating if they are dying all the time and don't know why. To prevent early quitting of new players I concur with loupblanc's advice to master DPS role first . Oh and I miss a #31 (should be in the first 5 of tips...): Do NOT buy a "Skip to CR210" unless you already leveled at least one character thus far...
I suppose you and I have had some dramatically different experiences then. I feel as though it would be far, far more challenging to learn how to be a good Controller, for example, in a solo environment where there is nobody else to be using power. And if you focused on the other side of being a Controller, meaning crowd control, you could theoretically get good at locking down mobs, but without other players there to actually kill them, you're not going to get very far with perpetual encasements and juggles. That Controller role, far easier to learn in a real group. As a Healer, it would be incredibly challenging to learn how to heal people, if there is nobody else to heal. Sure, you could focus on just healing yourself, but in a solo situation you only have to cast your priority heal. There is never a good reason to use a group heal in a solo situation, which makes it harder to learn when to use which abilities and you to manage your mana (which is really the bulk of what you have to learn to be a good healer). As for being a Tank, well, a Tank can typically solo quite effectively (albeit slower). There's just one problem with learning how to Tank in a solo environment. Agro. In a solo, you will always have 100% of agro from every enemy. It is not until you are in a group that the Tank ever has to worry about actually keeping agro, gathering enemies up, using their pulls effectively. In a solo, the enemies will come to you regardless; in a group encounter, if you tunnel vision on what's in front of you, you will find your healer getting killed by unchecked adds on the edge of the room. Trying to learn any of the support roles in a solo run is ineffective at best. It doesn't provide any of the actual experience you need in order to learn the role. I thoroughly suggest that support roles are best learned in group content. Specifically, learn to heal and troll in raids that are running double healers or double controllers, where you have the safety net of somebody else helping out, but you can start to get a portion of the experience needed until you feel comfortable. Tanking, on the other hand, I feel is best learned in 4-man Alerts. There's smaller, more manageable rooms, fewer players to look out for, and generally less going on. Learning any support role well is going to be impossible solo. Even if you did solo in the role for an extended period, the first time you do it in a group, you're going to have an experience that no amount of solo'ing prepared you for.
Again, I agree. But what is "challenging" for an experienced gamer (even coming from other similar MMO's) might be overwhelming for a total beginner. Whoever feels underwhelmed in any way should of course try and handle his control, healer or tank skills and honing them in a group. A good frustration tolerance is not what everyone has got at hands however and so the advice to refrain from it during levelling to 30 still is valid.
Not queuing into Stabilizers, Duos, and Seasonals in the support role has nothing to do with mastering only half of a character's potential. Its about not inconveniencing others. Being in support role in Stabilizers, Duos, and Seasonals is inconveniencing others because it increases the time taken to do those things. For people who run multiple characters, all that little increase in time taken adds up quickly and becomes significant. For people who run just 1 or 2 characters, the time increase is still significant if they are running content regularly (daily or every other day). If people wanna learn, they can do so at their own convenience by finding a leaguemate to learn from. That's how it was done back in the day. If people wanna learn support role at the beginning, do so in group content. Not Stabilizers, Duos, and Seasonals! And dps is the simplest role to master, or at least, be adequate in. If someone does not even pick up basic dps skills, then their support skills will be lacking or non-existent. People don't have to like being in dps role, but they should still be able to dps competently enough. Lets not forget also that the troller role has been dumbed down (Maintaining Pot, double/triple tick etc) to the point that pure trollers are looked down upon and battle trollers are preferred. There is nothing to learn by being in support role in Stabilizer event. Learning to be support role in duo is stupid. You pick up support skills by seeing how people perform as healers/tanks/trollers in group content (alerts,raids) and then adopting their techniques/strategies/basics and then adjusting, based on your own skillset, and then finally, making new techniques/strategies that work for you. Being in healer in Seasonals was kind of a thing. The group shield was useful in Summer event, so people could hit the cog without being interrupted by adds. Halloween event could be overwhelming for complete newbies, if they did not use the event mechanic to clear the adds. Tank in Spring event was helpful in pulling Swamp Thing close. Such things are of no concern now because seasonals have been tuned down.
I can out DPS 1/4 of DPS in Healer stance consistently and 1/2 in Tank Stance and 3/4 in Troll Stance... yes there are times sheilds don't help with switches and when adds can not be controlled but... given that I have 20 toons on 3 accounts (over 60 in total) I really don't want to waste time arguing with people over which stance they are in, how many SP they have etc. It takes more time and is more disruptive typing while playing than just getting on with it. I think people are really not reading the scorecard and thinking about what they are typing here... it's not that big a deal. Stabilizers, there are more people afk than playing in a role stance and the adds melt in one rotation either way, it literally makes no difference. Duos, if the DPS I'm playing with is dying in the hallways it's faster to switch to healer or tank before the Boss than to wipe, and seasonals often have switches that are just faster if I have a group shield super built up before queuing. This is much to do about nothing...
When I was leveling up my Rage hero I ran the JLD duo at minimum CR multiple times with other minimum CR people. As 2 dps we could get through the duo fine until the Shazam fight. I switched to tank multiple times for that fight and we were able to beat it every time. I was able to pick up my partner using my shield, and some times I finished off Shazam myself after my partner died. In the past I have also seen duos where they were much easier when I healed certain boss fights (someone mentioned Wayne Manor above). I agree it's slower, but for 2 low or minimum CR players in a duo, 1 support role usually helps.
