Nostromo21

This is a fantastic guide/exposé of the Widow class, thanks guys! I'm trying my hand at one & just hit 20. Very end hungry and squishy so far, but I will power through to 24 & def re-spec as a purely ranged Fortunata, as I mostly solo and love to snipe from above (so Fly/Hover are almost mandatory). So, does anyone have a link to a good, cheap, relatively beginner-friendly Fortunata Mids build please? I have around 100million Inf across all my mains/alts, but really don't want to blow it all if it's going to cost that much (or more!) to get a Fortunata viable! If a low cost Fortunata will be a struggle, I'll prob just go back to my Ill/Dark troller or PB or even Beast/Nature MM, which are all fairly solo/low-cost friendly for levelling to 50, in my experience so far. I have no idea what I want to do at 50 - obviously, I may need to dip my toe in the team waters, although I hate letting others down if I'm crap at playing a particular role/class eh. Perhaps I should just go back to one of my Defender/Blaster builds for a pure ranged sniper hero...? Sorry, I know this is duplicate question/post from another thread, So, any good, cheap, starter build for a Fortunata from 24-50 would be much appreciated, cheers folks, at least until this alt-o-holic finds his niche heh.

Thanks heaps kindly guys - you learn something new every day, even when you achieve grumpy old bastard gamer status he he!

Thanks mate, a Fortunata certainly sounds like it's worth having a good go at, especially as I have a Widow at 16 already! Will power level her into the 20s & see how I go. I made my "FlyGirl" theme widow originally with just super-flight-speed in mind, but since everyone gets that virtually for free now, I'll have a look at re-specing her from someone's build on the forums that suits my 'play style' heh. Just looked at her - I 3-slotted Fly & picked Hover and Evasive Maneuvers already lol! That can't be very good, especially with mostly DOs across the board, as it was meant to be a kind of 'solo self-found' build, live & learn...🙄 (I assume that the forum post "Voltak's Fortunata geared for ITF 4 star - tested and proven." is def not for me, as I'm nowhere near there yet...? 😉 ---- Just quickly dusted off my widow & levelled quickly to 18 (i switched her to hero last time I played as I find the CoV maps depressing & prefer playing the hero power fantasy anyway ;). So, I forgot just how damn squishy she was lol! Just no defense/resist or dmg mitigation at this level. Had to exit a couple missions several times, heal & come back. Daymn. She was a little better at 17 when I switched out all those crappy old DOs to 20 SOs. Hope it all changes when I upgrade to Fortunata and can just stay at range...8-/.

Can you please elaborate on "using your stalker ATOs"...Archetype Origins? What does that mean in this context? Sorry, total terminology newb here! ;).

I have a concept Dominator lass you would like! https://imgur.com/a/KhqDW1n Belladonna Nightshade, Plant/Thorny We should...'get together' some time, Mr Squiggles...😘

Cheers I made mine "Kelvina Tor" - she hits like a super-mule, but I guess I'm just crap at melee - more then 3 or 4 mobs & I struggle to mop up once I de-stealth, eh. Is there a Stalker School you can send this Grumpy Old Bastard (GOB) Gamer to lol...?

Oh course, you can always auto-cast it along with Hasten if you want... 😉

Wow. Didn't expect a simple post/question to spark this much debate! 🙂 I actually watched Voltak's Dark/Dark Dominator wiping the floor with some 54 Incarnates after posting this - the gameplay, along with several points in this thread, is well above my head & experience with the game lol! To elaborate on some follow-up points: I'd love to hover-blast and never let the mobs get close if I could, but I gather that's a cowardly & inefficient way to play even a Blaster he he. For context, I have an Ill/Dark troller at almost 40 (I did get a ice/fire blaster to mid 40s back in the day), and that's my highest. I have never gotten a character to 50 & I guess I could easily power through to 50 with the troller (gotta love range+pets+perma-stealth+debuffs!), if it wasn't for my rampant alt-o-holism...I also have a beast/nature MM at 26 & a PB at 22, Widow at 16, WS at 18, all of which I have enjoyed to various degrees. Have tried a couple Defenders more recently - poison/energy Spider-Woman theme hero & a Storm/Dark, also just started a Dark/TM blaster last night after reading some other posts, which I can't comment about yet being only level 4 heh. I do also love stealth, but having tried a few stalkers, you are pretty much in melee range after the alpha, and quite squishy I found with several primary/2ndary combos I tried - taking on more than 3 or 4 mobs was always a hospital sentence for me, and yes, it's probably just my play style, or lack thereof! 😉 All of my other 20 cosplay heroes are under 10...*blush*. My other criteria is getting around quickly & easily - I mostly prefer Flight so usually grab Hover at some point, although I appreciate Teleport to be quicker after trying it on one of the defenders recently - love that hover-in-place-on-arrival was added in until you do something - I don't recall that on live & remember I kept tele-falling constantly :D. However, I am getting on in years, and my reflexes and reaction time ain't what it used to be, ahem, (although I still play Warframe daily), so just keep that in mind please. So, I'm basically an older, time-limited, wannabe power-gamer, who only plays casually but does love all things spandex & this game (may the Gods bless you Homecoming - I was almost inconsolable after Marvel Heroes got shut down!). Thanks for all your help & lots of food for thought so far.

How did you go matey? Mine is almost 40 & virtually indestructible with all my pets, superior invis, all the debuffs & whatnot - very enjoyable solo play style indeed! 🙂

Just started a Dark/Temp blaster as a sort of thematic hero, just for fun, doubt I'll get her to 50, with my rampant alt-o-holism he he. Which led me to thinking...what is in fact the best solo AT/build for killing at range consistently? Is it in fact a blaster, or a defender perhaps, or a sentinel, Kheldian, Dominator, Corruptor,, or even some MM build perhaps...? Obviously, extreme glass canon builds are out of the running, as it has to be playable solo to 50 & have a decent TTK/TTL overall, so it doesn't become overly squishy & frustrating at any particular levels or content. What does everyone think is the CoH #1 Top Gun, if there is such a thing?

I'm a bit late to the party, but I just made one of these on Excelsior ("Entropia") & looking forward to blasting away with this theme build. As I intend to almost exclusively solo, I can skip 2 or 3 powers from both pools, correct...? I've gone with a tech time lord kinda build - just grabbed Fly at 4th (can't live without it!) & may take Stealth & Hasten soon after & Hover a bit later. Might take Leadership towards the end & your Epic Force Mastery looks the go too! Any other pool powers might be best saved for global CD IO slots for the likes of Luck of the Gambler, which seems to be the meta for most builds.

I made a Spider-Woman defender too a while back & being recently inspired to try some defenders (being a mostly solo carebear) I've tried some out. Storm/Dark most recently was very controlly & a little squishy, especially when I ran out of End, which I was constantly. So, my Jessica Drew is thematically Poison/Energy, as I thought that fit best. Even at low levels, she is head & shoulders above Luna Tempest (the other defender). She also flies, so can Envenom from the get-go, snipe a lot of damage with Power Bolt/Blast & seems to never run out of End, make of that what you will. The next couple def & to-hit debuff powers virtually make her untouchable. Shame poison has 3 powers that only work on allies, which means I'll hardly ever use them & therefore most likely skip them, eh. I'll play her through to 20, see how she tracks, but so far, I am preferring the Blastender approach of "the best defense is a strong offense" 🙂. If anyone has a good levelling/power guide for a Poison/Energy defender, would be much obliged folks.

My current main is Pen Umbra, my Ill/Dark troller. She flies faster than Supes, hides better than The Invisible Woman, and has some super-nasty debuffs & pets that just chew up the bad guys! 🙂 Ok, I'm only just hitting 39 and also have severe alt-o-holism, but she is my best and easiest toon to solo bar none so far. I also love(d) my PB Elektra Luxx, must play more of her as she's 22 and just got her Dwarf form recently. Must get proper IOs for her to see how she can really perform. Also, I did get my Beast/Nature MM Felicity Fenris to mid 20s - must play her some more as I do love them puppies & kitties he he. I usually love stealth gameplay & tried a Rad/Rad Stalker "Roentgen" is her name - a little underwhelming, so I've rolled another Elec/Energy one called "Elektralight", so sue me :). Any suggestions on easiest to solo stalkers much appreciated, although I might miss the safety of flying+ranged+stealth+pets with my Pen eh.

Firstly, I feel like the game should allow respecs for free, up to level 20-30 or so say (in safe zones only of course). That aside, why not partner with Mids & allow that to be the respec client, given how well that UI has generally been designed specifically for that purpose...? Just export to an encrypted (using your unique account IDs) mxd file, respec/re-arrange to your heart's desire, save & re-import back into the game. Yes, security, security, security, I'm aware of all the risks and potential arsehattery with this, but what else would be a better solution...the devs to re-engineer something like the Mids UI natively into the game? As you mentioned, that would be a very significant undertaking & perhaps not the best place for the team to spend their precious time. I'd much rather be surprised with a major patch including a brand new AT, or new primaries/secondaries, even a web slinging travel power! <EG> - NO! Don't do that or Di$ney will def come after us lol! 😉

He, he, not my idea! : Yes, the most money comes from using the convertors which go from 70-100K Inf to buy the base/cheap melee dmg IO recipes, then convert the cheap IOs you make to the more lucrative rare or set IOs with the other Convertors, which then actually sell for 1-4Million Inf each! 🙂 Yeah, I know, it's a drag & as a solo carebear I would prefer to have a more 'legit' way to make Inf fast & then perhaps buy the set IOs for a reasonable price from special shops, rather than rely on fluctuating prices and availability on the AH. But, it is what it is, imagine if you had to grind for 100s of millions of Inf the old fashioned way...? 8-/

No love for Rad/Rad, which I went with for a theme build on my stalker miss Roentgen...seems to go alright. Should I not level her further (I parked her at 14 a while back), if it's going to be a horrible solo experience, or severely underpowered or missing some key defense at higher levels perhaps...? All her toggles sure do look rainbow puuuurrrttttyyy though! 😉

Looks good! I'm a lifelong gaming necrophile & mostly played MMs back in the CoX days. But, I recently discovered my Illusion/Dark troller is a lot more fun & the pets much more powerful. Once you get enough recharge reduction, they're effectively perma anyway - 6 pets is more than enough I find ;).

Same here. I was there in beta, played through to the bitter end. As a mostly solo carebear, I think the pace on Homecoming is good, slowing as I approach 40 with my Ill/Dark troller (been away a few months). And I've never maxed out a hero, prob due to my chronic alt-o-holism he he! I think I got my ice & fire blaster Kelvin Ator back in the day to 42, which was my highest. Unlike you, I loved SWTOR, but again mostly as a solo experience. Same with LOTRO, TSW/SWL, GW2, etc. Btw, there are some very simple and legit 'tricks' to getting millions & millions of Inf very quickly, just look up the utoob vids ;). Just doing the exploration achievement with a new toon in Atlas, and then delete, rinse, repeat, will net you 3-5mill inf easily on AH. Certainly takes a lot of the grind out of getting very expensive (set) IOs on the AH. You def don't want to hit a power wall when levelling as I know how much that can kill the fun, especially if you are forced to group with others just for basic progression, bleh. After all, hell is other people, never more so than in a mmo! 😉

Yeah you just PM & refer to other players with their @global handle like email now (which you could see quite easily if you click on them and inspect them say, or in a group finder list). If you had 6 "JoeBloggs" in a party, I guess the global handle would display after the character name, or if too long, just suffix a temporary -1, -2, etc. I still think it's far preferable to the current method, across all mmos in fact. I get really pee'd of when I have to be online at launch day/hour/minute, just to secure my preferred character names, instead of just being able to roleplay the names I want to (and my names are not copies of known superheroes or other characters, rather obscure in fact). And then someone with less lag beats you to it, or you have to deal with server lag, crashes, etc, bleh.

There is a much simpler solution to all this silliness - just make all character names non-exclusive. Problem solved. Your welcome! 😉

Know exactly how you felt! My wife doesn't play CoH, but in similar fashion mourns the loss of Marvel Heroes (she can't do 3D, only iso due to her eyesight). Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Homecoming guys for keeping this dream/fantasy alive!

Thanks guys, you're the best! Yeah I read up more about it, so all clear now...I think a pet like the Seer from SM would fit the char theme best, but I'll start with fire & see how I go. As mentioned, would really like more aoe direct dmg, build is so safe now with the pets + debuffs, I can take on most packs of purples and some reds, eh.

Just hit 35, yay me, went to level up & instead of seeing these options to pick a EPP: Fire Mastery Ice Mastery Primal Forces Mastery Psionic Mastery Stone Mastery Leviathan Mastery Mace Mastery Mu Mastery Soul Mastery I only get these: Stone Fire Ice Primal Psionic Anyone know why...? Or is this a Homecoming custom limitation...? Or will I have more pools to pick from & respec into later perhaps? Sorry if this is obvious, CoH newb here, first time I'm levelling to 50 since EPPs have existed probably. On that note, what do you recommend for this build as the best EPP/powers? I don't have any direct damage AOE skills, which I guess Fire would be good for? If I want another uber-pet, Soul Mastery maybe (if I can get it)? All the Mids build files I've looked at use Mace Mastery, not sure why, again, assuming I can even pick it, eh. Much TIA! 😉 ------------- Nm, as I said, newb alert - this page explains the extra mission I need to do DOH!: https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Ancillary_power_pool#Controller_and_dominator Although would still appreciate any advice the best choice for Ill/Dark troller...

EXCELSIOR! 🤖

Same here on Excelsior! 8-/