Mopery

Wonky religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good Blaster at your side, kid.

Making builds is time consuming, time better spent actually playing the game. It takes a metric buttload of experience to understand what powers to choose, what sets to slot where, and why you slot those powers the way you do. After making many dozens of builds, and playing most of them, I have developed certain idiosyncrasies in my builds. Sometimes I can't fit everything I want into a build, and it may be difficult to explain to anyone else why I have built the way I do, but to me it makes perfect sense. I would never have learned how to make a build at all if I had not been able to look at various builds posted in the forums, back on Live and here on HC. The ability to read what others have to say about their builds and why they built them that way is important if you want to be able to apply their knowledge and acquire some of your own. I enjoy looking at builds made by other players because I often find myself doing the same basic thing over and over. It's tough to break old habits, which is where observing what others are doing comes in. Sometimes the build another player has made will reveal some mechanics or tricks I've never thought to add to a build, and I'm inspired to rebuild an old character from the ground up. On rarer occasions I can't understand why they have built they way they do, because I haven't actually played the powersets only farmed them up. For instance, I do not understand how to build a Bio armor character at all. I have tried my best and failed miserably, while I have seen others turn Bio armor into godmode. There's just not enough time in this life to master every possible powerset combination... tl;dr - Looking at other people's builds can reveal useful ideas for your own builds.

Wut? Y I got 2 lrn stuff 'n things?!?! 🤪

Apologies per my lack of specificity, I meant up to 5 full sets of each. My hoverblaster has 4 full sets of each, it would be difficult to actually get 5.

Fit as many Thunderstrike and Artillery sets into your build as possible(up to 5 each). Look for any other sets that also give Ranged Defense, get that over 45% and you're golden. My hoverblaster is AR/MM/Force. Not the damage King, but has an assortment of damage types(Lethal, Smashing, Fire, Psi) and 5 or 6 cone attacks. The cost was extremely reasonable(only 1 purple set used, Contagious Confusion for 5% Ranged Defense), don't even think I put ATO's into the build so it's sub-200 mil influence.

At the moment it's my Fire/Earth Dom(Popocatepetl). So much smashy fun, plays like a scrapper but, pardon the pun, dominates. Also love my Thugs/Kin MM(Godfather), Gang War + Burnout + Gang War + Speed Boost + Fulcrum Shift and fuhgeddaboudit...

Yes! Free up those names I want so that someone else can grab them again before I can...

Dark/Plant is a helluva lotta fun!

What if they're away in the military for the next 20 years until they retire and then they want to play the game again on their hypnoflavotronic quantum fantabulator?

The most effective "cheap" build I've made is an AR/MM/Force Mastery, Ranged Defense soft-capped, Hover-Blaster. Thunderstrike and Artillery sets give huge bonuses to Ranged Defense and can be picked up for less than 1mil inf each. I slotted 4 full sets of each set(8 * 6 * 1mil <= 48mil inf). Also a set of Stupefy in Beanbag which are dirt cheap(<4mil for the whole set iirc). Using a set of Contagious Confusion(WoC), a set of Overwhelming force(M30) for even more Ranged Defense gives ~57% Ranged and ~53% Energy Defense (with an AH value around 200mil for both sets). Without these it wouldn't have near-incarnate cap Defense, but would be much cheaper and nearly as effective in most situations. This build is a Cone King, lays waste to groups from a distance(Full Auto, Psi Scream, Flamethrower, Buckshot) and is safe from all but flying melee enemies. I would bet these sets could used to make a similar build using say, Fire instead of AR, and/or a different Secondary for less than 100mil.

That's a whole lotta Dan!

"You have waaaaay too many hours played." - Maria from Steel Canyon

Mids stopped working and now when I go to the site to download it Firefox tells me there's a Trojan Virus and to beware. I try reloading an old copy and Bitdefender shuts it down. WTH Mids, you were working earlier today?! I just erased 50+ builds trying to get you to work again....

Sucks?

I have quite a few top of the line, "money is no limit" built characters. One of each AT and then some. I don't have a ton of Inf, perhaps 300 million on hand on my whole account. Probably enough with merits to make 1 more build, which as an altaholic is generally the goal. Having these things does not interest me enough to play the game on a regular basis. I play for the comradery and the joy of teaming with this awesome community! I don't feel like I absolutely must have the best build, or be the most productive member of the team. I don't mind when the team wipes because we bit off more than we can chew, it's fun giving it our all even if we fail! Sometimes I like doing easy repetitive TFs, sometimes I like doing hardcore "die and we lose" TFs. Never since this game began back in 2004 have I felt like I "need" a certain amount of Inf to make it worth my time to play CoH/CoV/GR. I play games to have fun. If I'm not having fun, then I stop playing and find something else to do with my time. In all this time, I have never played CoH/CoV/GR and not had fun. I've played other games, and when they became a grind, and it became like work... there was always(ok, except 2012-2019) Paragon City to return home to. Like many others, there is no way to explain the feeling of loss I had when I couldn't log in and just fly around my beloved city. Some players will understand exactly how I feel, others will not, and that's okay! We all play this game for our own reasons, I enjoy making characters and can't play any character for long if I don't like the concept/costume/bio. Some players want their characters to be maxed out to the nth degree or they can't stand them, even if their costume is generic and their name is xX LEGENDMAN Xx or w/e. As long as they enjoy it, then good for them. Long story short, I don't know why anyone plays this game, only they know the answer to that question. P.S. - If there is a character named xX LEGENDMAN Xx out there, no offense was meant, you do you, buddy!

I want [A Peeling], where your clown MM throws banana peels over an aoe and everything slides on it with no inertia(think icy pond effect) with a high chance of falling(and sliding more). And of course [Cream Pie Toss] and [Flower Squirt].

My post was a shallow attempt at humor regarding the verbose and pedantic OP, if only to say that it's really all just a matter of opinion.

Here I was thinking I saw it in the pillar directly ahead of "TheZag-seven" with the diagonal shadow, making a Z-7 shape all merged together... Oh well. That's pareidolia for you!

Some people think cucumbers taste better pickled.

One of these days I'll get around to making an AE arc utilizing all of my Abraham Lincoln characters, using the storyline I imagined to explain why I have 20+ of the damned things. I shall call it, "A Lincoln Time", and it will be the glorious story of our Heroes(and/or Villains) aiding Future Lincoln in his task of stopping all the other Lincolns(from parallel and perpendicular universes) from creating a series of paradoxes which would inevitably lead to the annihilation of all existence! But I digress... Bios are totally worth making, and the real challenge is making a compelling story in less than 1024 characters. I love seeing characters with great names, bios, and costumes. Powersets are usually secondary to concepts, for me.

Now I want to make a boxer named Joey Chicago...

That's no serpent... It's an island!

My Fire/Storm/Earth controller(Elemental Mage) lays down aoe control like nobody's business. He also destroys a blue bar faster than just about any other build I've ever played.