Free to Play Friday: Issue #1: The Rolling

A new series of articles is coming to My City of Heroes Blog Freedom, focusing on the entirely free-to-play experience City of Heroes Freedom offers. During the week I'll get whatever play time I can get on a brand new free-to-play account and on Fridays relate any interesting experiences. I may skip a week if I don't have enough play time that week. This should prove very interesting, so let's get started with Issue #1: The Rolling wherein I take on the difficult decision of just what to roll as a free player, and try to assemble as good a look as I can with the available free costume options.

So what to roll? Join me after the break to find out!


Masterminds and Controllers, as well as all EATs are right out as not available to free players. I'd like a good balance of solo-ability and comfortable teaming, even though I plan to team much more than I normally would. I'm going to keep my "Looking for Any" tag up and accept any invites sent my way.

Dominators are, on paper, my favorite Archetype. Luckily for me, they're the one crowd control play style available to free players. I'm concerned about the upward mobility of Doms though as the post-40 game tends to be pretty rough for them (especially on the SOs I'll be limited to!), and any little mistake usually means defeat. But when you're in the zone with Doms they are amazingly fun and capable of doing things they have no business doing.

Tankers bring the ability to take on the biggest challenges of any Archetype, especially when limited to SOs. Slower to take through missions than Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers at all levels, but much safer. This one's a strong contender as I like pushing the spawn sizes, but as a free player acting as main Tank, especially in range of Incarnate abilities (45-50) I'm sure the Tanker would also disappoint in the high levels. Also, I just don't like the defined role a Tanker would have on any given team. Tanking for a team just isn't my thing. Also, I'm already running a Tanker on my main account and I'd prefer something different.

Scrappers, Stalkers and Brutes all occupy the same approximate niche. The Stalker is out since I'm leveling one on my main account already. This leaves Scrappers and Brutes. Brutes have better survivability and I enjoy the Fury mini-game, but Scrapper damage is always great. Both go from solo to team seamlessly, too. Both very strong contenders.

Defenders are right out since Corruptors transition to and from solo play much more comfortably and they share more-or-less the same powerset options. Problem with Corruptors is I've never gotten one past the mid-30s, and their solo play is constrained compared to the Scrapper, Brute and Tanker, even if they are much more welcome on teams.

Blasters just don't sit well with me. I love them in the low levels, then in the mid-20s I lose all interest, so they're an easy skip.

So what to pick? There are two concepts that I want to play soon. A Trick Arrow Corruptor and an Energy Aura Brute or Scrapper. Thinking of the costume for the Corruptor, it actually uses the skull goggles that aren't available to free players so that leaves the Brute/Scrapper. I'm wanting to try out the revamped Energy Aura, and it's a sports-villain theme so Mace as the primary would let her (yep, it's going to be a girl) swing around a baseball bat. Yep, I think I'll go with that!

So Brute or Scrapper? The Brute brings better survivability (I'm not 100% confident in the new Energy Aura) and I like the Fury mini-game quite a bit. Fury and the +Recharge in EA have good synergy, too. But a critting baseball bat, especially on the bigger attacks, would be some amazing fun. I can't think of what the Scrapper brings other than that, though. Of course, War Mace and Energy Aura are both brand new sets for Scrappers, and I don't have any Villain Scrappers yet. Decisions, decisions!

Power ordering on War Mace is identical. There's a curious difference in Energy Aura, however. At level 28 the Brute gets the +END + DEF power (Energy Drain) and the Scrapper gets the Heal +REGEN Endurance discount power (Energize). Hmm. Regeneration works better on Brutes due to more Hit Points, so that's another point to the Brute. The Scrapper getting the Heal seven levels sooner is pretty big though, but is an advantage that is out-leveled, where the Regeneration stays useful for the Brute. Overload with its +HPs is going to work out better for the Brute, too. It boils down to the Brute getting a better deal out of Energy Aura and the Scrapper getting a more satisfying "CRUNCH!" with the baseball bat.

A critting baseball bat and the novelty of a Villain War Mace/Energy Aura Scrapper are going to outweigh the survivability and Fury mini-game of the Brute. I can play the Fury mini-game any time and survival isn't everything. Batter's up! Meet Ms. Sports!

Ms. Sports begins!

Brand new character on a brand new account. I chose Justice server to help limit any queuing and to get away form my usual stomping grounds of Freedom and Virtue. I've not written her bio yet, but she's a Mutant who can infuse objects she comes into contact with with energy, turning them into devastating weapons. She can do the same to the air immediately surrounding her to form a shield to deflect blows. She's in the tutorial as there was no option to skip it. I took Pulverize as her first attack pick as it has the best DPA of the two available options.

What struck me most when creating her was just how many options you have for free character creation in the game. There are tons of play options available to the free player.

The one Reward Token you get as a default was already spent (of course). For it you get a few inspirations, a mission teleporter and an XP booster. Not bad for free!

Tune in next time for an account of her initial playtime!