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A Newbies Guide to Marvel Heroes: A Beginners Primer
TheVidjaGamer
Member UncommonPosts: 8
So you've decided to play Marvel Heroes, but you're a little confused on what to do. Well, have no fear my friend. I am here to help you along in this somewhat confusing, yet fun, adventure. I am not going to into great detail on every single aspect of the game. This guide is to simply get you antiquated with the essentials and to start you off on the best possible path according to your playstyle. With that said, let's begin!
Choosing Your First Hero
The first thing you'll want to do is decide on who you're going to pick for your starter hero.
When you first log in you will only have the option of choosing from 12 heroes, however, this is not all you are limited to. Once you select an initial hero, you can press 'T' and have access to over 50 heroes. You can try them all up to level 10 and once you've decided on one, you can uncap it and level it up to 60. You can only uncap one hero for free at the start.
If you're the type of player who plays for efficiency, you'll want to take
Cyclops. Cyclops has one of the best hero synergies in the game, giving you an
extra 10% when leveling. This will prove to be extremely beneficial if you plan
on leveling up multiple heroes and want to grind Omega points quickly. However, if you're the type of person who doesn't care about those things,
well...pick your favorite from the list.
Once you've chosen your starting hero you should check out @jujojoh guide here. His guide is a great way to level fast and
efficiently. Again, if you don't care for those sort of things then play
through the story at your own pace. After completing the story you may be a few
levels from being 60. You can finish getting to 60 by grinding out Legendary
Quests in Terminals or Patrol Zones for the most efficiency. In total,
depending on if you used boosts and how efficient you are at completing
content, leveling a new hero to 60 could take anywhere from 2-5 hours for a new
player.
Once you've hit 60, the game really opens up and begins.
I should mention that on your second day you will receive 400 Eternity Splinters (ES). ES is the in-game currency that drops every 7/8min and can be used to buy Heroes and Team-ups from the ES vendor. You can use these to purchase 1 400 ES hero, 2 200 ES hero, or save an additional 200 ES and get a 600 ES hero. Do whichever you feel is best for you.
Leveling Crafter and Enchanter
As you're leveling to 60 and beyond, you'll want to level up both your Crafter and Enchanter. You'll want to get your Crafter to 20 first. Do this by donating any and all items that you are not using and are not uniques to the Crafter. I believe once you've gotten it to lvl15 or 17 you are then able to exchange duplicate uniques for credit chests. Save 5 of the same uniques and then exchange them for a 500k credit chest. Then donate the chest to the Crafter until it's maxed to 20.
Repeat this process for the Enchanter. Leveling the Enchanter should go much quicker seeing how you'll be able to not donate all your trash gear, but also 500k credit chests.
Gearing Your Character and Talent Points
There are several ways to farm gear and to spec into your hero's talent tree. For those who don't want to bother figuring out the best spec and what's best in slot(BiS), you can visit your hero's specific forum at Marvelheroes.com and check out one of several great builds there. You can also use marvelheroes.info for some great hero build guides as well.
Just by playing the game you should be able to get gear up relatively quickly, however if you want to min/max the stats on your gear then the best ways to farm uinques is by doing lvl60 Cow Portals, farming Midtown on Monday during the Midtown Mayhem event for the Midtown boxes that drop from bosses, or by just running through Cosmic Terminals and/or Patrol Zones.You will want to get a legendary that is specific for your hero and build. Again, you can see which is best by checking out any of the builds on the official forms or at marvelheroes.info. You will need 300 Odin Marks to purchase a lvl70 legendary from the vendor in Lower Asgard. I will go into how to get Odin Marks below.
Legendary Quests
Legendary Quests are available to you once you hit lvl20. These quests, upon completion, rewards you with a number of Odin Marks, credits, and XP. This is a great way to level up your heroes and Omegas. It's also one of several ways to farm Odin Marks. I will go into more depth on how to farm Odin Marks in a later guide.
Cybernetic Pets
The Pet slot in MH act as additional buffs to your character. They are purely for visual purpose and do not have any combat skills. Pets can be obtained through the Eternity Splinter vendor, The G shop, or as a daily login reward. You'll want to level your pet only after getting your Crafter and Enchanter both to 20 as they require the items you'll be donating to the vendors to level. Once you've done that, you'll want to go into game options and turn on the auto-vacuum loot option and set it to Cosmic. Doing this will have your pet automatically suck up all junk loot that drops, avoiding you having to drag an drop each item onto your pet.
The stats you'd want for green/blue/purple tend to be the same across all heroes/builds. Those would be %base health for green, +mana for blue, 10% brut for purple. The Cosmic stat will vary depending on your build/hero. For the unique stat you generally want +3 fighting universally, though again this can vary. Check an appropriate build and go from there.
Genosha Daily and Weekly Quests
You will want to make sure to visit Hammer Bay and complete your weekly and daily Genosha quests to level up your Genosha Reputation. By doing so you unlock several key things you will need at end game such as level 80 legendaries, and recipes to upgrade the item level of your insignias and medallions
To get to Hammer Bay, visit Beast in Xavier's School. After unlocking the waypoint, you'll find it under the HUBS section.
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Cube Shards
You farm cube shards by running Green and Red terminals. After each boss kill you will find 1 cube shard on the ground to be looted. Each day you can get a total of 24 cube shards. They are on a 20hr timer to prevent you from amassing a giant collection.
The key things to pickup with your cube shards would be the 'Unbind a Medallion' and 'Create Unstable Molecule' recipe which cost 200 cube shards each. You can also get Fortune Card Mark 1 for 10 cube shard each, which contain xp buffs, costumes, and more.
If you want to prestige, you're going to need 10 cube shards to purchase the Ancient Gourde of Prestige.
You purchase all these from Clea in Avengers Tower.
Eternity Splinters
Eternity Splinters are the game's in-game currency. These drop after killing mobs. They are on a timer, so you should expect to have ES drop every 6-8min. You can use ES to purchase an array of things from the ES vendor in all of the hubs. As a new player, you should focus on using your ES to purchase new heroes, and the one-time purchasable stash tab. You ma also want to pick-up one of the team-ups, but this is not necessary when starting out.
Unless there is a specific hero you must have, you'll want to focus buying the Random Hero Box for 175 ES. It's most efficient to purchase this box, as opposed to specific hero tokens, when starting out. You should keep purchasing this box (again assuming there isn't a hero you absolutely have to have) until you have a little over half of the roster.
Once you've been playing the game for a while and have settled on a main, you can then purchase 'Upgrade Tokens' for 200 ES to level up your heroes ult.
Do not use your ES to purchase Cosmic chests or bovin portals. It's not worth it unless you have every hero, team-up, and all ults upgraded to 20. And even then you'd never would want to buy the Cosmic Chest.
Terminals
Terminals are similar to boss farming in D2. There are three difficulty levels: Green, Red, and Cosmic. You can do these solo or in a group.
· Green Terminals - This is the easiest of the three difficulty levels. This should be doable for any and all heroes/players
· Red Terminals -This is the second most difficult terminal level. You'll want to have gear appropriate for your level as being under-geared may prove to be challenging. If you find yourself dying a lot in Red Terminals, focus on improving your gear with better uniques.
· Cosmic Terminals - Cosmic Terminals do not unlock until you're level 60. This is considered end game content. You will need to have ilvl60 uniques and a decent build. You'll also want to have appropriate artifacts, medallion, relics, and insignias. It would also help if you had an appropriate lvl70 Legendary. Some of these items may not sound familiar, but we will cover them later in the guide.
One-Shot Stories
One-Shots are smaller story arc's set in the MH's. They are similar to boss terminals, except larger in scale and have a story separate from the rest of the game. One-shots can be played solo or with a group, but they are not available until level 60. There are currently three one-shot's: Bronx Zoo, March to Axis, and Vibranium Mines.
Patrol Zones
Unlike the previous modes we've discussed, Patrol Zones cannot be spawned as a solo encounter. Patrol Zones can have up to 10 players in a single instance. You can group with other players in the same zone or play alongside solo.
There are currently two patrol zones in the game: Midtown Patrol/Midtown Manhattan (MM) and Industry City Patrol (ICP). MM is available at level 1, while ICP does not become available until lvl10. Both of these modes have two difficulties, normal and cosmic. Cosmic Midtown Manhattan (CMM) and Cosmic Industry City Patrol (CICP) are only available after passing a Cosmic Gate Trial which you can only enter once you've reached level 60. You can find the gate to the trial in MM in the bottom right side of the map.
However, I must warn you the Cosmic Gate Trial is no joke. If you can't clear a Cosmic Terminal without dying, you're not ready. Even after you're able to clear Cosmic Terminals with minimal ease, you may still not pass. Passing the trial requires you to really know how to play your hero well, as well as having best in slot gear and a certain number of Omega Points. Basically it all comes down to the player. But let's not worry about the gate for now. We'll cover that in another guide that I will link back to at a future date.
Raids
There are two different raids: Muspelheim and Axis.
- Axis - This is the second
raid that was introduced to the game. Currently it only has a Green
difficulty, though Red is scheduled for some time later. Green Axis is
much harder than Red Muspelheim. As a new player you should not concern
yourself with the Axis raid.
Killing bosses in raids will get you raid commendations. You can use the commendations to craft raid boss uniques, as well as purchase recipes to increase the item level of your items from to ilvl66 and then again to ilvl69.Omega System
Once you're 60 you will begin to earn XP for Omega Points will can be used in the Omega trees. This is MH's alternative advancement skills. Currently the cap is 7500. Earning all 7500 is quite the feet and is not something that can be completed overnight. Omega points drop as blue orbs. Again, Omega XP is earned the same way as regular xp. You will also receive Omega points from time to time as a Daily Login Reward.Daily Login Rewards
Just like it sounds, MH rewards you for logging in each day. The rewards range anywhere from buffs, Omega points, Odin Marks, Eternity Splinters, costumes, pets, team-ups, and much more. At the very least, you should log in each day to get your reward. However, if you can't log in, don't worry. You won't be missing out on anything as the rewards are static. What this means is that the rewards are the same for that "day" no matter when you log in. You'll receive the same 50th day login reward as someone who received their 50th day login reward last year.
Age of Ultron Game Mode
This is a pretty unique game mode. If you haven't guessed it....it's only available at lvl60. This mode consists of 3 waves of objectives. Depending on how fast you finish each wave you will either receive a Gold, Silver, or Fail completion. Again, you'll want to be geared to really enjoy this mode. Once you've completed the first three waves you will then face off against Ultron. After killing Ultron you'll be rewarded with up to four chests depending on the rating of completion prior. Obviously completing all waves in Gold will net you better loot, while failing any wave will result in getting no box.
While you can join Ultron solo, you do not want to as you will fail each wave. You'll want to go with a group. The best way is to obviously go with friends, but if your pals haven't caught onto how great this game is you'll want to join a Super Group(SG) or use the Looking For Group(LFG) channel.
Other Games Modes
The last two game modes are Holo-Sim and X-Defense. These two modes most do not play any more, unless going for achievements or completing a daily achievement from an event. Gaz intends on reworking these zones sometime in the future. Again, unless you need to complete an achievement or a daily mission for an event, you may want to steer clear of these two until Gaz gives them a bit of love.
Super Groups
Super Groups are just like guilds/clans in any other game. They're great for those who like the social aspect of online gaming, as well as being great sources of information. The greatest thing about Marvel Heroes, besides the game, is its community. People in this game love helping. While you do not need to be in a Super Group to get advice or help, you really can't go wrong in joining one. If you're able to find a fun and active SG, you'll always have people to play with and chat with in-game or through voice coms.
Having an SG will greatly improve the rate at which you gear your hero as you can tag along on terminals, one-shots, and even Green Muspelheim as veteran players can easily carry you. You may even get lucky and someone may take pity and toss you some rare artifacts to get you going on gearing your hero out. I know I've done that, and if my black heart can get in the giving spirit then I'm sure most of the other players are just as likely. However, don't beg for items and/or help. This should be common knowledge, but some people lack social skills so I feel it's worth mentioning.
When you first join an SG, focus on getting to know the other players and let them offer to help you with gear. There's no harm in asking for help in a terminal, or if you can join them, but there's a line between asking and begging. Know it, and avoid crossing it.
Using Looking for Group Channel
This is the best way to find groups to complete your daily shared quests, raids(if you don't have an SG or if you missed your SGs raid), terminal farming, ultron farming....basically any group content.
Learn the nuances of LFG and use it as you desire.
Midtown Madness
This is the only weekly event and it occurs every Monday and takes place in Midtown/Cosmic Midtown. After killing a boss they will drop a Midtown box that is full of loot and xp. This is a great way to level up your legendaries, level up your heroes, farm Omega points, level up your pets, and farm uniques.
Conclusion
There may be things I might have skipped over or completely missed. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here and I'll add them to the guide.Also, continue to check back here as I do plan on updating it when necessary.
I purposefully did not cover the monthly events as I really feel that the official site does a good enough job giving a general overview. I do, however, plan on putting together an in depth guide to the events at a later date.
Thanks for reading.