Mastermind pets which have been commanded to Stay or to Go To a location will hold that position and will not chase after targets or move closer to use powers that are out of range. Be aware this also means they will not move out of damage patches on their own.
Mastermind pets in Follow mode will now always stay within a 100' radius of their owner, regardless if they are in Defensive or Aggressive stance. Pets that are primarily ranged attackers will try to stay in the Supremacy radius.
The pet AI now ignores the aggro cap. This should prevent pets from standing around twiddling their thumbs in Incarnate Trials and other situations where many pets are attacking the same target.
Pets now give a strong preference to selecting targets that are within 50' of the pet's owner. This helps melee-oriented Mastermind pets stay in Supremacy range more often, while still allowing them to move and effectively engage targets outside the range.
A number of pets have been classified as "Ranged Only" pets. The AI for these pets will no longer change position in order to use melee powers such as Brawl. They still possess these powers and will use them opportunistically if a target is in range, but will not move in order to do so.
The pets that no longer move in to use melee attacks are:
Mercenaries > Soldiers
Mercenaries > Medic
Mercenaries > Spec Ops
Mercenaries > Commando
Necromancy > Lich
Robotics > Battle Drones
Robotics > Protector Bots
Robotics > Assault Bot
Thugs > Thugs
Thugs > Arsonist
Thugs > Enforcers
Yoooooooo.
+10
RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
Ranged Only is a gigantic upgrade for Thugs and Mercs
It's substantial for bots but they were already good
Oh! I had an idea for a character with abilities similar to Marvel's Karnak - ESP that allows him to see weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and destructive exploits. The character wears very dark goggles because he experiences visual sensory overload due to his ESP
Anyway, I know lethal and rad damage both have -def, so they are mechanically thematic, but I am not sure that's the way I want to go
Any powerset/archetype ideas?
I feel that I should mention that psionic melee has a set mechanic that is literally called Insight and adds bonus psychic damage and better controls to the rest of your melee attacks while it's up.
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
Psionic Melee/Rad Armour could do this, maybe? I think Rad Armour has some -def, though it's pretty late in there.
Psionic Melee/Rad Armour with the Strength of Mind pool for that debuff, maybe. Also their superjump is better than superjump. And they get a +def based mini-tier-9 which would work well with Rad Armour. (Sorcery has the +resistance mini tier 9 which works well with Shield to be UNKILLABLE ALL THE TIME if you cycle it with One with the Shield.)
Added new customisation options for Phantom Army
Mirror (copy of current character costume)
Phantom Mirror (copy of current character costume with Phantom Army VFX)
it seems like a character like that the visual flair is more of what you're going for than the mechanics; karnak is probably a MA or StJ type of fighter as realized in CoX
ed: energy armor might also be kind of interesting to look at; it's got a wavey-lines type of look that can cover a lot of ground conceptually
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I know this is a very choosing beggars style post, but this has been quite a few patches since August, and I've yet to see a bug fix for a bug I reported, had acknowledged and added to The List to Fix, that has yet to be fixed, unless I've missed it in the notes.
I'll have to check today when I get home.
TL;DR if you're running a controller, and you use Cross Punch on a held target, it doesn't get double damage. It instead gets about a 1.75 times increase, instead of a 2x increase.
Apparently this is because someone coded it wrong, and the "second hit" from Cross Punch (1.27 damage scale) on a contained foe doesn't hit them with a second cross cross punch, it hits them with regular Punch (0.76) damage scale.
It's pretty noticeable and made a dumb concept character I wanted to make weaker. Apparently someone else tested it and this bug happens for any passive that does "double" damage, such as stalker's Assasination, Corruptor's Scourge, and Scrapper's Critical Hit
I moved a couple of my guys over to Excelsior but yeah, I play late night so villain population is pretty low so my red-side MM is often there, also I feel bad about being on the RP server with CrippleCommando so I moved him as well lol
0
TraceGNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam WeRegistered Userregular
Who do I bug to get an invite to the supergroup btw?
0
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
Gimme a name and get online? I got 5 minutes before I need to run to work, @Trace
Once you're in, you can invite your alts with /sginvite
(The group is not very active)
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
0
TraceGNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam WeRegistered Userregular
Is anyone able to tell me about the current balance between roles? I haven't played in years, but I find I have time to kill while coursework code runs in the background. I'm thinking Brute or Scrapper, I had MA/SR and DM/DA back in the day, thinking to try either a SS/Rad Brute or a DM/SR scrapper but not sure how viable they are, or if they have made changes to the classes in the new version.
ooooo, that could be fun. They were.... less than ideal when I played them before. I was also considering the Widow, but I tend to solo a fair amount and I think they are team based
ooooo, that could be fun. They were.... less than ideal when I played them before. I was also considering the Widow, but I tend to solo a fair amount and I think they are team based
VEATs, both Widows and Spiders, are quite capable of soloing.
They're appreciated on teams for their leadership powers, but they're nowhere near as team dependent as a low level Controller or Defender.
Not as soloable as scrapper or brute, but not helpless either.
see317 on
0
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
My stalkers:
Savage/Energy Aura - great aoe, great single target, Energy Aura has a heal, an endurance recovery power, strong defenses to everything but Psionic...
Kinetic/Ninjitsu - Kinetic's interesting, Ninjitsu has... lots of skippables? It's much better as a Scrapper secondary. (Titan Weapons/Ninjitsu Scrappers are hilarious)
DM/SR - Big heal, good animations, no AOE beyond CROSS PUNCH. Practically unkillable.
Staff/Fire - This is a stalker with Burn. It's HILARIOUS.
For what it's worth, my Widow is one of my favorite characters to play in terms of abilities.
Actually so is my Spider, even though I still can't make up my mind how to build her. I keep bouncing between crabbermind with the ranged attacks, melee-based crabmind, or mace smash with fewer summons
Unfortunately they're also 50, which means everyone is already capping their own defenses and worthwhile bonuses on their own via sets and Incarnate abilities, which makes a buffer redundant, but hey, if the Homecoming team ever make endgame not pointless, this crabby is ready!
0
TraceGNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam WeRegistered Userregular
I'm gonna be on for the next few hours if anyone sees this and wants to shoot me an invite.
Hmm. I haven't played city of heroes since christmas, and now whenever I try to play the game it keeps crashing on me. Whenever I try to do a mission it crashes a few minutes into the mission. Tried two different missions, although they both contain praetoria clockwork.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I assume you've tried to re-validate the files? Though a buddy of mine was also having stability issues, though in his case it was connected to an iffy internet connection (his Discord would also drop or cut out).
I assume you've tried to re-validate the files? Though a buddy of mine was also having stability issues, though in his case it was connected to an iffy internet connection (his Discord would also drop or cut out).
Re-validating was the first thing I tried.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
No difference between 32bit, 64bit and safe mode? If safe mode runs fine, but not the others, you'll want to report it here.
No difference between modes. No difference after a reinstall.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I played this game off and on with an old friend who was really into it (multiple max level characters of all different types. He's also a huge Marvel guy.
I never really liked it other than the fly ability which was BALLER in uh...something Canyon? The map with all the skyscrapers.
Anyway, just wanted to say I'm still reading this thread just to enjoy all of you enjoying this game you love so much and I hope you all keep enjoying it.
I am very much enjoying this still. My main has reached end game with all the incarnates and trials, but the recent tanker improvements has been thinking about switching from a brute.
Also the Roleplayer community on Everlasting is pretty good, and I'm having a lot of fun there too.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
So I know everyone says MMs are OP. But when I'm soloing content, it seems like occasionally my minions just stand there and the enemies ignore them and aggro me and there's nothing I can do except die. The damage share doesn't seem to work at all, even if I don't give them any commands besides go defensive when we load in to the map.
If you've not yet, you'll want to turn on advanced commands (it's hidden behind some tiny arrow on the pet window I believe?) to start with.
The thing to note about MM pets is that, while the default commands obfuscate it by setting them both at the same time, there are actually two tiers of orders you issue:
- mode (aggressive, defensive, passive), which determines how they behave
- command (attack, follow, goto), which determines what you want them to do
Bodyguard, your share health feature, only works when you have Supremacy (your pets are in range) and they are set both Defensive and ordered to Follow. This depends on your pets and secondary powerset, but usually the way you want to engage groups is by having them set to that and opening up at range- the moment enemies aggro on you, even before they can actually attack you if you're out of range, your minions will engage them, and then you basically want to stand in the middle of them (to keep Supremacy and Bodyguard active) and support them.
If you want more control you'll want to bind those 6 commands, that way you can quickly issue commands without relying on the limited repertoire the game provides (you want them back next to you? Passive+Follow, then back to Defensive. You want them at a specific spot? Passive+Goto, followed by Defensive so they engage. Are they standing in an AoE? For the love of god, Passive+Goto them out before you do anything else, etc. If it's not obvious, while potentially dangerous, using Passive is the only way to guarantee a bot will will obey a command regardless of circumstance, use with care)
For example, on my Bots/Dark MM I bound everything around my WSAD hand. So
Alt + Z/X/C will select my Battle/Protector/Assault bots (Alt+\ will select them all)
Alt+Q/W/E will issue the mode (aggressive/defensive/passive)
Alt+A/S/D will issue the command (attack/follow/goto).
Oh, is there an AoE under my Assault bot? Alt+C,E,D (Assault, Passive, Goto), click to make them move, then Alt+E,S (Defensive, Follow) so they switch back to Bodyguard mode. It's kind of a lot to take in at first, but it gets very natural when you get used to it.
Also, this depends on your powersets, but on my Bots/ mastermind I always opened up the fight by using a ranged attack with some sort of control to it- /Dark's Fearsome Stare, Bots/ plasma rifle's AoE with a chance to stun, etc. That way I reduced the incoming alpha.
[edit] Also, try to keep them in Bodyguard whenever possible. If you get mezzed you can no longer issue orders, so if they're not in Bodyguard you're screwed until the mez wears off.
This game went through all heroes, then villains but separate, then cross interaction, then fuck it everyone can more or less do anything at any time right?
The exemplar / sidekick system is still unmatched in MMOs as far as I'm concerned.
This game went through all heroes, then villains but separate, then cross interaction, then fuck it everyone can more or less do anything at any time right?
The exemplar / sidekick system is still unmatched in MMOs as far as I'm concerned.
Basically, yeah. Pocket D was the hero/villain best friend hangout, then they did cooperative missions in there as part of an event, then they introduced other cooperative zones like the Rikti War Zone and Cimerora, then there was alignments where heroes could go vigilante and run around redside, and villains could go rogue and run around blueside, then there was the incarnates which are 100% coop-ready.
Sidekicking similarly evolved, from just sidekicks to the exemplar option - both of which were just one to one - and then the current form, where everyone sidekicks or exemps to the team leader.
Kicking someone who doesn't have DOs/SOs to someone who does is still going to be a little flaky, but otherwise it's a pretty good tool for getting people at various power levels to play nice together.
Also, in the spirit of "game initially canceled before some people joined the forums", here's a little talk about that unmatched sidekick/exemplar system.
Advancement in City of Heroes is pretty unconventional. There's only two parameters that increase as your level increases - your total hitpoints, and your raw health affectors: damage and healing. Everything else is a fixed percentage, modified by the difference in levels between you and your target, if any. As you level up you get access to more powers but you tend to go wide rather than deep - at level 2 a blaster will have access to the first two blasts in their primary power set, single-target range attacks that can almost but not quite be cycled into one another. At level 32, with the ninth and final power, they get a potent area attack they can fire off every other minute or so. There's a time to use pretty much all of your powers. You get a new power every two levels, or every 3 levels after 32.
At levels where you don't get powers, you get enhancement slots. Every power begins with one slot and you can add up to 5 more, for a total of 6. You get slots at every level where you don't get a power - 2 per level up to 30, 3 per level after that. Each of those slots can be used to enhance some parameter of the power - its base accuracy, its total damage, its cost in endurance, its recharge time, secondary effects, etc. You can get up to +100% of almost anything (+100% cost and recharge time makes each point of endurance and passing second twice as effective, so -50% cost and -50% recharge time) except a few more potent bits like hitbuff and damage resist, which enhance for less per slot and cap out at +60%.
What enhancements you can get also varies based on level. To start you can get training enhancements, which work for everybody. They boost most attributes by +1/12, or +5% for the less potent bits. At level 12 you become able to equip dual-origin enhancements from stores - they're sold at level 15 and you can hop on 3 levels early. They boost most attributes by +1/6, or +10% for the lessers. Each of them can be used by 2 of the 5 power origins. At level 22 you can equip the level 25 single-origin enhancements you buy from stores; each of them only works for one power origin. They boost most attributes by +1/3, or +20% for the lessers.
I told you that story so I could tell you this one.
When you sidekick to a higher-level hero, you're treated as one level lower than them for most purposes. You have that many hit points and do that much damage, and your powers drop off in effectiveness relative to what enemies are to your boosted level. You get experience as if you were your actual level, fighting enemies relative to yourself.
So: you're a level 5 hero, sidekicked up to a level 50. You have the hit points and basic damage of a level 49, though you have many fewer powers and haven't enhanced the ones you have as much. If you fight level 50 villains, your powers drop off as though they were one level higher than you, and you receive experience as though you were a level 5 fighting level 6 villains, one level higher than you.
When you examplar to a lower-level hero, you're treated as their level for the purposes of hit points and damage. You lose access to all powers you picked more than 5 levels away from where you are, and your enhancement bonus for each power is scaled down, most notably if you're going from having SOs or DOs to not having them. You receive double cash rewards as though you were fighting enemies relative to yourself. (Homecoming lets you earn 1x experience and 1x cash, not sure if that's new or not.)
So: the reverse happens, you're a level 50 hero serving as exemplar to a level 5 hero. You have the base hit points and damage of a level 5 hero, and if you fight level 6 villains they reward cash as though you were fighting level 51s. However, you lose access to all the powers you picked after level 10 (5 + 5) and while you have more slots in the powers you retain, if you put SOs in them they're only about as powerful as training enhancements right now.
And in the current state of the game, or as it was when it was canceled, everyone in a team was sidekicked or exemplared to the team lead as appropriate. Everyone could stand up to opposition at any level and not get utterly pasted or completely trivialize it.
So you can, for example, have a weekly rotating schedule that just sticks endgame rewards on the task forces available to level 10s now and again, and max-level heroes can show up and participate and not just invalidate everyone else's contribution.
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
...And then there's Invention Origin enhancements.
They can get complex. But the 'generic' Invention Enhancements (at level 25, more on that later) are basically Single Origin enhancements that anyone can use, that never lose effectiveness. Glazius mentioned that you can slot level 25 SO enhancements at level 22, but what they didn't tell you is if you keep those enhancements slotted and continue levelling, they lose effectiveness. They give a little more when you're 22 and they're 25, they give the baseline 'SO' level when you match their level (so +33% for most, +20% for others), but when you go past 25, they drop off. If you still have level 25 SO enhancements slotted and you hit 29, they suddenly stop giving any bonus AT ALL.
As mentioned, Generic Invention Origin Enhancements give a bonus that increases with their level, but they keep that bonus forever. Level 25 IOs give just a little less than SOs, so common convention is to slot IOs at 22 if you can. Luckily, the Pax Arcadia supergroup base has storage full of level 25 IOs that I try to keep stocked up for new characters that want to be effective and not replace their enhancements every 6-7 levels.
ALSO, there are non-generic Invention Origin enhancements. Rather than boosting a single aspect of a power, they can boost multiple aspects (at a lower level, though). These all have funky names and give you bonuses if you have multiple IOs from the same set slotted in the same power, and are the main reason that high level characters can be super untouchable in PVE content.
And at level 50 the Invention set bonuses can give you crazy boosts, depending on which you get. There are even what some refer to as 'purples' which are your equivalent of epic loot, because they bonuses of the set are so good. And because the recipe text is purple.
They're how high level players boost their stats really high, like how my brute has 90% resist in almost everything.
They are, however, also super expensive for the more desirable ones and fully kitting out a min/max build will cost you upwards of 500 million.
And then you have the IOs which are a part of sets, but have a UNIQUE tag. These you can only equip one of, but the bonus for that one item is super good. Like 3% defense in everything, or a random chance to just get healed for no reason. Often people won't even bother using the whole set, instead just that one peice.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
Posts
Yoooooooo.
It's substantial for bots but they were already good
I feel that I should mention that psionic melee has a set mechanic that is literally called Insight and adds bonus psychic damage and better controls to the rest of your melee attacks while it's up.
Psionic Melee/Rad Armour with the Strength of Mind pool for that debuff, maybe. Also their superjump is better than superjump. And they get a +def based mini-tier-9 which would work well with Rad Armour. (Sorcery has the +resistance mini tier 9 which works well with Shield to be UNKILLABLE ALL THE TIME if you cycle it with One with the Shield.)
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
ed: energy armor might also be kind of interesting to look at; it's got a wavey-lines type of look that can cover a lot of ground conceptually
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I'll have to check today when I get home.
TL;DR if you're running a controller, and you use Cross Punch on a held target, it doesn't get double damage. It instead gets about a 1.75 times increase, instead of a 2x increase.
Apparently this is because someone coded it wrong, and the "second hit" from Cross Punch (1.27 damage scale) on a contained foe doesn't hit them with a second cross cross punch, it hits them with regular Punch (0.76) damage scale.
It's pretty noticeable and made a dumb concept character I wanted to make weaker. Apparently someone else tested it and this bug happens for any passive that does "double" damage, such as stalker's Assasination, Corruptor's Scourge, and Scrapper's Critical Hit
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
Once you're in, you can invite your alts with /sginvite
(The group is not very active)
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
No chance of me getting online at this moment.
Assassin in Black is the toon's name. You can add him when you get back/whenever cause chances are I'll be on later.
Anyone in the group can invite though, so. Keep trying!
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
VEATs, both Widows and Spiders, are quite capable of soloing.
They're appreciated on teams for their leadership powers, but they're nowhere near as team dependent as a low level Controller or Defender.
Not as soloable as scrapper or brute, but not helpless either.
Savage/Energy Aura - great aoe, great single target, Energy Aura has a heal, an endurance recovery power, strong defenses to everything but Psionic...
Kinetic/Ninjitsu - Kinetic's interesting, Ninjitsu has... lots of skippables? It's much better as a Scrapper secondary. (Titan Weapons/Ninjitsu Scrappers are hilarious)
DM/SR - Big heal, good animations, no AOE beyond CROSS PUNCH. Practically unkillable.
Staff/Fire - This is a stalker with Burn. It's HILARIOUS.
Claws is bad on Stalkers. Don't take Claws.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
Stalkers are my favorite AT that I never play because I want to see my pretty garish costume!
Actually so is my Spider, even though I still can't make up my mind how to build her. I keep bouncing between crabbermind with the ranged attacks, melee-based crabmind, or mace smash with fewer summons
Very hard to decide
Unfortunately they're also 50, which means everyone is already capping their own defenses and worthwhile bonuses on their own via sets and Incarnate abilities, which makes a buffer redundant, but hey, if the Homecoming team ever make endgame not pointless, this crabby is ready!
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Re-validating was the first thing I tried.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
No difference between modes. No difference after a reinstall.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I never really liked it other than the fly ability which was BALLER in uh...something Canyon? The map with all the skyscrapers.
Anyway, just wanted to say I'm still reading this thread just to enjoy all of you enjoying this game you love so much and I hope you all keep enjoying it.
I am very much enjoying this still. My main has reached end game with all the incarnates and trials, but the recent tanker improvements has been thinking about switching from a brute.
Also the Roleplayer community on Everlasting is pretty good, and I'm having a lot of fun there too.
The thing to note about MM pets is that, while the default commands obfuscate it by setting them both at the same time, there are actually two tiers of orders you issue:
- mode (aggressive, defensive, passive), which determines how they behave
- command (attack, follow, goto), which determines what you want them to do
Bodyguard, your share health feature, only works when you have Supremacy (your pets are in range) and they are set both Defensive and ordered to Follow. This depends on your pets and secondary powerset, but usually the way you want to engage groups is by having them set to that and opening up at range- the moment enemies aggro on you, even before they can actually attack you if you're out of range, your minions will engage them, and then you basically want to stand in the middle of them (to keep Supremacy and Bodyguard active) and support them.
If you want more control you'll want to bind those 6 commands, that way you can quickly issue commands without relying on the limited repertoire the game provides (you want them back next to you? Passive+Follow, then back to Defensive. You want them at a specific spot? Passive+Goto, followed by Defensive so they engage. Are they standing in an AoE? For the love of god, Passive+Goto them out before you do anything else, etc. If it's not obvious, while potentially dangerous, using Passive is the only way to guarantee a bot will will obey a command regardless of circumstance, use with care)
For example, on my Bots/Dark MM I bound everything around my WSAD hand. So
Alt + Z/X/C will select my Battle/Protector/Assault bots (Alt+\ will select them all)
Alt+Q/W/E will issue the mode (aggressive/defensive/passive)
Alt+A/S/D will issue the command (attack/follow/goto).
Oh, is there an AoE under my Assault bot? Alt+C,E,D (Assault, Passive, Goto), click to make them move, then Alt+E,S (Defensive, Follow) so they switch back to Bodyguard mode. It's kind of a lot to take in at first, but it gets very natural when you get used to it.
Also, this depends on your powersets, but on my Bots/ mastermind I always opened up the fight by using a ranged attack with some sort of control to it- /Dark's Fearsome Stare, Bots/ plasma rifle's AoE with a chance to stun, etc. That way I reduced the incoming alpha.
[edit] Also, try to keep them in Bodyguard whenever possible. If you get mezzed you can no longer issue orders, so if they're not in Bodyguard you're screwed until the mez wears off.
The exemplar / sidekick system is still unmatched in MMOs as far as I'm concerned.
Basically, yeah. Pocket D was the hero/villain best friend hangout, then they did cooperative missions in there as part of an event, then they introduced other cooperative zones like the Rikti War Zone and Cimerora, then there was alignments where heroes could go vigilante and run around redside, and villains could go rogue and run around blueside, then there was the incarnates which are 100% coop-ready.
Sidekicking similarly evolved, from just sidekicks to the exemplar option - both of which were just one to one - and then the current form, where everyone sidekicks or exemps to the team leader.
Kicking someone who doesn't have DOs/SOs to someone who does is still going to be a little flaky, but otherwise it's a pretty good tool for getting people at various power levels to play nice together.
Advancement in City of Heroes is pretty unconventional. There's only two parameters that increase as your level increases - your total hitpoints, and your raw health affectors: damage and healing. Everything else is a fixed percentage, modified by the difference in levels between you and your target, if any. As you level up you get access to more powers but you tend to go wide rather than deep - at level 2 a blaster will have access to the first two blasts in their primary power set, single-target range attacks that can almost but not quite be cycled into one another. At level 32, with the ninth and final power, they get a potent area attack they can fire off every other minute or so. There's a time to use pretty much all of your powers. You get a new power every two levels, or every 3 levels after 32.
At levels where you don't get powers, you get enhancement slots. Every power begins with one slot and you can add up to 5 more, for a total of 6. You get slots at every level where you don't get a power - 2 per level up to 30, 3 per level after that. Each of those slots can be used to enhance some parameter of the power - its base accuracy, its total damage, its cost in endurance, its recharge time, secondary effects, etc. You can get up to +100% of almost anything (+100% cost and recharge time makes each point of endurance and passing second twice as effective, so -50% cost and -50% recharge time) except a few more potent bits like hitbuff and damage resist, which enhance for less per slot and cap out at +60%.
What enhancements you can get also varies based on level. To start you can get training enhancements, which work for everybody. They boost most attributes by +1/12, or +5% for the less potent bits. At level 12 you become able to equip dual-origin enhancements from stores - they're sold at level 15 and you can hop on 3 levels early. They boost most attributes by +1/6, or +10% for the lessers. Each of them can be used by 2 of the 5 power origins. At level 22 you can equip the level 25 single-origin enhancements you buy from stores; each of them only works for one power origin. They boost most attributes by +1/3, or +20% for the lessers.
I told you that story so I could tell you this one.
When you sidekick to a higher-level hero, you're treated as one level lower than them for most purposes. You have that many hit points and do that much damage, and your powers drop off in effectiveness relative to what enemies are to your boosted level. You get experience as if you were your actual level, fighting enemies relative to yourself.
So: you're a level 5 hero, sidekicked up to a level 50. You have the hit points and basic damage of a level 49, though you have many fewer powers and haven't enhanced the ones you have as much. If you fight level 50 villains, your powers drop off as though they were one level higher than you, and you receive experience as though you were a level 5 fighting level 6 villains, one level higher than you.
When you examplar to a lower-level hero, you're treated as their level for the purposes of hit points and damage. You lose access to all powers you picked more than 5 levels away from where you are, and your enhancement bonus for each power is scaled down, most notably if you're going from having SOs or DOs to not having them. You receive double cash rewards as though you were fighting enemies relative to yourself. (Homecoming lets you earn 1x experience and 1x cash, not sure if that's new or not.)
So: the reverse happens, you're a level 50 hero serving as exemplar to a level 5 hero. You have the base hit points and damage of a level 5 hero, and if you fight level 6 villains they reward cash as though you were fighting level 51s. However, you lose access to all the powers you picked after level 10 (5 + 5) and while you have more slots in the powers you retain, if you put SOs in them they're only about as powerful as training enhancements right now.
And in the current state of the game, or as it was when it was canceled, everyone in a team was sidekicked or exemplared to the team lead as appropriate. Everyone could stand up to opposition at any level and not get utterly pasted or completely trivialize it.
So you can, for example, have a weekly rotating schedule that just sticks endgame rewards on the task forces available to level 10s now and again, and max-level heroes can show up and participate and not just invalidate everyone else's contribution.
They can get complex. But the 'generic' Invention Enhancements (at level 25, more on that later) are basically Single Origin enhancements that anyone can use, that never lose effectiveness. Glazius mentioned that you can slot level 25 SO enhancements at level 22, but what they didn't tell you is if you keep those enhancements slotted and continue levelling, they lose effectiveness. They give a little more when you're 22 and they're 25, they give the baseline 'SO' level when you match their level (so +33% for most, +20% for others), but when you go past 25, they drop off. If you still have level 25 SO enhancements slotted and you hit 29, they suddenly stop giving any bonus AT ALL.
As mentioned, Generic Invention Origin Enhancements give a bonus that increases with their level, but they keep that bonus forever. Level 25 IOs give just a little less than SOs, so common convention is to slot IOs at 22 if you can. Luckily, the Pax Arcadia supergroup base has storage full of level 25 IOs that I try to keep stocked up for new characters that want to be effective and not replace their enhancements every 6-7 levels.
ALSO, there are non-generic Invention Origin enhancements. Rather than boosting a single aspect of a power, they can boost multiple aspects (at a lower level, though). These all have funky names and give you bonuses if you have multiple IOs from the same set slotted in the same power, and are the main reason that high level characters can be super untouchable in PVE content.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
They're how high level players boost their stats really high, like how my brute has 90% resist in almost everything.
They are, however, also super expensive for the more desirable ones and fully kitting out a min/max build will cost you upwards of 500 million.
And then you have the IOs which are a part of sets, but have a UNIQUE tag. These you can only equip one of, but the bonus for that one item is super good. Like 3% defense in everything, or a random chance to just get healed for no reason. Often people won't even bother using the whole set, instead just that one peice.