This article is continued from "Starting a Life of Villainy."

So, we’ve looked at the awesome character creator and now it’s time to get stuck into some villainy. The tutorial will cover a lot of ground but after that you’ve got the responsibility of building your character. You will be picking two things: Powers and Enhancements.

Powers:
Every second level you will get to choose a new power from either your Primary or Secondary power-sets or a Pool Power (see below). These are not all available right away you will have to wait for some required levels to unlock the higher-level ones. (Have a look at your manual there is a table in the showing when each one is available. You will notice that the Primary powers are unlocked earlier than the Secondary.)

Keep in mind that though it looks like you have plenty of powers to freely choose right now that later on every one matters. Think about it and think ahead. For example, you might pick a lot of direct-damage Primary powers for a Brute and not leave room for defensive powers to keep them alive.

In addition to your Primary and Secondary power sets there are “Pool Powers” that are available to every character. These include powers like “Fly” or “Super-Speed” or others. In order to take the higher-level selections from these you need to already have one of the lower-level ones. The lower-level ones are available at level 6 and the higher-level ones at level 14. If you take two in the set you have access to the top power in the set when you hit level 20.

One very important Pool Power set is the “Fitness” set. This set’s level 20 power is called “Stamina” – this power makes your character recover endurance more quickly and as your character gains newer abilities you might find that they use a lot of endurance. It is usually a good idea to plan ahead and take the earlier powers in the fitness set so that you can take this one at level 20. Many characters will need Stamina so you will want to keep it in mind when you start losing endurance faster than you can keep up with. It works extremely well especially if you slot two Endurance Modification enhancements on it (see below.)

For your average attack power it is usually worth ending up with two “Accuracy” and three damage enhancements. A defensive or damage reduction power can use three “Defense Buff” or “Damage Reduction” enhancements for the appropriate one. At higher-levels there is a limit to how many enhancements you can slot onto a power before they start losing their effectiveness and it is about three of one type. So, more than three means they are better off going somewhere else.

RESPECs:
This is important! You WILL eventually in your career have the option to earn or receive a respec. This will let you re-select all your powers and enhancement slots. Before doing this plan out well what you would like to change. It makes sense to hold off doing this until you have tried enough powers to know which ones you want to keep or lose.

Party Dynamics

In a team there are different roles that need to be filled in order for it to work successfully. In CoV teams can contain up to 8 players (often with at least one Mastermind bringing a group of pets.) This can get confusing and crowded. It’s important to know your job and not lose focus on what you need to do.

Tanking:
City of Heroes has a character Archetype called the “Tanker”. City of Villains doesn’t. A lot of people expect a Brute to be the tank but a Brute is not as defensive as a Tanker. A Tanker’s protection powers are much tougher and they have more health. This is where we need Masterminds. A MM has at their disposal some expendable cannon-fodder and can soak up a lot of enemy attacks. (A Master-Mind needs to be prepared to see their pets die.)
The Brute, however, has an important ability available to them: “Taunt”. Taunting a mob of enemies will make them all turn their focus on the Taunting Brute and away from the more fragile members of the group. Many Brutes don’t take the Taunt power seeing it as unnecessary, but in a group it makes you worth taking along. Yes, using this power can be suicide but if you have a well-structured team you can count on being healed or buffed enough to stay alive. In addition a Brute who knows how to Taunt well will have a lot of enemy attacks focused on them and will build more Fury for that.

Another support role is filled almost entirely by the Dominator. Dominators can hold, stun, sleep, immobilise, or otherwise incapacitate their enemies. They might stop a boss from fighting back or perhaps sleep an entire room of foes. With absolutely no defensive or healing powers a Dominator can be very difficult to play without a team but in a group they certainly can contribute a lot.

Damage Dealing:
All of the City of Villains archetypes are capable of dealing damage if built to do so. This means that to fulfil a needed role in a team you might want to have at least some focus on your character’s specific strengths (ie taking “Taunt” as a Brute or healing powers as a Corruptor.) Still, it is important to do large amounts of damage and each of the character Archetypes can bring a lot to a team in different ways to achieve this.
At the front of the team are the Brutes and the Masterminds’ pets. As the fight goes on the Brute will do more and more damage with each hit as their Fury builds. This makes Brutes prone to charging too far head when the rest of the team isn’t ready to keep up so keep an eye on this. The Mastermind’s pets will help the Brute stay alive but will also provide a steady source of mid-range damage.

Dominators don’t have the Area-of-Effect strength of the Corruptor but are capable of holding their own while still supplying their support powers; once a Dominator has an enemy held or a whole mob put to sleep they are quite capable of finishing off their own kills.

Stalkers are perhaps the deadliest Archetype in the game. Their single-target attacks will usually tear through even the strongest of enemies but they need to be careful to let the Brutes and MM pets take the majority of the hits. Weaving in and out of the melee will keep the Stalker alive. The challenge of the Stalker is to take their foes down with continued, focused efficiency – they need to steadily assess which target is the greatest threat, take them out, and then move on to the next.

Conclusion

So we have covered a few aspects of creating and learning to play a powerful Super-Villain. This should help you figure out what you would like to do for a first character or two. Don’t be afraid of trying different things until you eventually discover something that’s enjoyable enough to play to the higher-levels. City of Villains is extremely re-playable as there is just so much to try.

Have fun, and make sure to grab as much ill-gotten loot as you can on your next heist!