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alt title(s): City Of Villains 
City of Heroes is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game based on comic-book style superheroes. Set in and around Paragon City, a fictional Rhode Island metropolis still recovering after a thwarted but still disastrous Alien Invasion, it superbly reproduces the flavor and feel of the superheroic genre.
City of Heroes is complemented and paralleled by a villainous counterpart, City of Villains. The two overlap in select areas, including PvP zones and a no-conflict nightclub in another dimension called "Pocket D". There's another expansion announced, Going Rogue, which will allow characters to change alignment and introduces a mirror universe as a third location.
Some of CoH/CoV's most innovative features are related to character/avatar design. The games provides a truly astounding variety of appearance combinations, which grow with each new version. The power combinations are similarly impressive.
The game is also the first major MMO to include user created content, in the form of its Mission Architect system and player-created story arcs.
Hero archetypes include:
- Tanker (high defense, low-damage melee)
- Scrapper (lower defense, higher-damage melee)
- Controller (specializing in powers that hold or disorient opponents)
- Defender (specializing in powers that aid allies or "debuff" foes)
- Blaster (high-damage ranged and Melee attacks, but no defenses)
There are also two "epic" archeypes, unlocked once one of your heroes reaches level 50; Peacebringers and Warshades. These have unique abilities, such as intrinsic travel powers and shapeshifting. Their powersets are fairly similar, but Warshades tend to play to the strengths of your teammates, while Peacebringers tend to make up for their weaknesses.
Villain archetypes include:
- Brute (medium-defense, medium-damage melee)
- Corruptor (ranged attack with buff/debuff)
- Dominator (control plus damage)
- Stalker (stealth-based "critical-hit" melee)
- Mastermind (commanding and buffing minions)
Just like the heroes, there are two epic archetypes for the villains. Starting out as a member of the Arachnos faction, you take the role of a Wolf Spider (Arachnos Soldier) or Blood Widow (Arachnos Widow), then each have two branches that one can take in powers. The former represent the rank and file soldiers, starting with guns while then adding cybernetic attachments or specialized tech-maces, while the latter start out as pseudo-ninjas and can either stay as such or become a combat psychic. However, regardless of branch, you ultimately play as a damage type with some quirks (and a cool costume).
Going Rogue introduces the ability to change alignment via Face Heel Turn or Heel Face Turn, allowing a hero to become a villain or vice versa as well as opening up the in-between alignments of Vigilante and Rogue.
Heroes and villains both choose an origin. Outside of Peacebringer (Natural), Warshade (Science), and the Arachnos archetypes (Natural), there are no limits placed on which origin can be used with what archetype/powers.
- Science — Characters that get their powers via scientific means. Super serums, radiation, experiments gone wrong, etc. Examples include Spider-Man, Marvel's Sandman and the Fantastic Four.
- Mutation — Characters born with their powers that eventually unlock them as they grow older. Generally refers to humans inexplicably born with these features. Most of the characters in X-Men qualify.
- Magic — Characters that get their powers through mystic training or artifacts. Can also refer to characters that get their powers from a patron deity or are a magical creature. Examples include Ghost Rider, Hellboy and Doctor Strange.
- Technology — Characters that get their powers from technology. Where Science characters have been transformed in some way to gain their powers, Technology characters gain theirs through use of power armour, alien weapons, cybernetics, et al. Examples include Iron Man, Doctor Octopus and Robotman.
- Natural — Characters that got where they are through natural training. Can also refer to characters whose species naturally have the abilities. Examples include Superman, Batman, the Punisher and Kingpin.
Heroes defeat NPC villains and foil the plans of various archvillains and nefarious groups out to destroy Paragon/The World/Humanity. Villains carry out missions against NPC heroes or other villain groups to please various factions and power brokers and thereby improve their standing in the underworld. Player-vs-Player combat is limited to restricted areas and is not necessary for game or level progress, although certain bonuses can be gathered by risking yourself in these areas.
There have been two novels based on it, Web of Arachnos and The Freedom Phalanx, as well as two comic book series, one published by Blue King and the other by Dark Horse Comics. A movie and T.V. series based on the game are currently in Development Hell.
This game provides examples of:
The powers the game offers to players provide examples of:
- An Axe To Grind (The Battle Axe powerset.)
- Awesome But Impractical (The high level "nuke" powers for some. Extremely powerful blast, but leaves you unabled to attack again for a goodly while.)
- Though YMMV. Others turn it into a bread-and-butter power.
- Back Stab (Stalkers can land critical hits with any attack, whether in or out of Hidden Status, but using their Assassin's Strike from Hidden status grants a massive critical hit far beyond any other crit in the game.)
- Barrier Warrior (The Force Field powerset.)
- Determinator (The Willpower defense set. Created to represent comic book characters who don't have special defensive abilities; they can take massive amounts of damage because they have enough willpower to keep fighting. Ironically, it's commonly considered one of the strongest defense sets overall.)
- Drop The Hammer (One of the possible looks of the War Mace powerset is a big hammer. Also, Stone Mallet and Heavy Stone Mallet from Stone Melee.)
- Dual Wielding (The Dual Blades powerset.)
- Elemental Powers (Comic book staple)
- Blow You Away (Storm Summoning, especially the trademark powers of Gale and Hurricane)
- Dishing Out Dirt (Between Stone Melee, Stone Armor, Earth Control, and Earthen Assault, runs the gamut of uses of this one)
- An Ice Person (Ice Melee, Ice Blast, Icy Assault, Ice Control, Ice Armor, Cold Domination...)
- Playing With Fire (Fire Melee, Fire Blast, Fiery Assault, Fire Control, Fire Aura, Thermal Radiation — seeing a theme here?)
- Eye Beams (Including those used by giant eyeballs.)
- Finishing Move (The Dual Blade powerset combo system utilizes these.)
- Flash Step (Shield Rush from the Shield Defense powerset is the rare "attack while stepping" variety)
- Some roleplayers with the teleport power play it off as this.
- Gatling Good (Miniguns used by the Council, Crey, Nemesis, Longbow and... your everyday ordinary bank security.)
- Gotta Get Your Head Together (Standard pose for characters Held psionically.)
- Guns Akimbo (Part of the Thugs powerset for Masterminds, also combined to great effect with Abnormal Ammo and a bit of Improbable Aiming Skills by Malta Gunslingers; one of the most requested powersets is a dedicated Guns Akimbo set, and as of Issue 16 it's being added to the game.)
- Healing Factor (The Regeneration powerset)
- Heal It With Fire (Thermal Radiation)
- In A Single Bound (With the Leaping power pool.)
- Instant Runes (Mystic Fortune, Vanguard Sigil
 .)
- Katanas Are Just Better (Averted. The Katana powerset is a slightly faster and less fatiguing clone of Broadsword, with lowered damage. Even the attacks are the same, just the names and animations are different.)
- In fact, at launch, it was an exact clone, down to the animations.
- Kung Fu Sonic Boom (Every. Single. Super Strength power.)
- Limit Break (Domination for Dominators; some NPC enemies also have special powers that trigger upon reaching a certain HP threshold.)
- Make Me Wanna Shout (Sonic Blast and Sonic Resonance)
- Martial Arts Do Not Work That Way (Eagle Claw, the rest of the Martial Arts powerset to a lesser degree)
- Mana Drain (Damn you, Malta Sappers!)
- Megaton Punch (Several attacks qualify, but none can match Super Strength's Knockout Blow, a powerful windup and uppercut which sends the target a dozen feet or so into the air)
- Meteor Move (Air Superiority from the Flight power pool is a Type A if used against a flying target)
- Midair Bobbing
- More Dakka (Gun Drone — Pet Flying Dakka. /Device Blasters and Malta Enigineers get access to these)
- Ninja Run (From the fourth Super Booster pack, Martial Arts)
- Not Quite Flight (Temporary, buyable or stealable jetpacks)
- Punched Across The Room (Once very prolific, many complaints from the players resulted in much of the knockback melee attacks being turned to knockdown. Still, there are still many examples: Energy Manipulation's Power Thrust, Luminous Blast's Radiant Strike, Battle Axe's Pendulum...)
- Rain Of Arrows (...happens to be the name of the final power in the Archery powerset.)
- Rapid Fire Fisticuffs (Available both in Speed Echoes and darkness flavor, with Flurry from Super Speed and Shadow Maul from Dark Melee)
- Screen Shake (Side effect of various hard-hitting powers. The developers attempted to ramp it up for the Super Strength powerset, but dialed it back after players complained of motion sickness.)
- Self Destruct Mechanism (Used in one of the taskforces, also powers available to some NP Cs and players.)
- Stone Wall (Fittingly, Granite Armor from the Stone Armor powerset turns the player nigh unkillable and nigh harmless)
- Super Speed (a power pool)
- Super Strength (a power set)
- Swiss Army Weapon (The Assault Rifle powerset)
- Sword Beam (Focus and Shockwave from the Claws powerset)
- Tarot Motifs (The "Fortune" power lets players draw a tarot card to buff another player. Only a few of the Major Arcana are represented, however, and none of the Minor Arcana.)
- Video Game Flight (Superheroes.)
- Wolverine Claws (The Claws powerset. This actually got NCSoft into some legal trouble with Marvel.)
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