Help LvLing a Fortunata Slowly

[Sou1catcher]

MY SG mates have tasked us to create a build that will Only be played in Team once a week. No XX XP boosters and no $$$ that wasn't earned/traded. No respecs till 50 altho Arachnos get one at 25.

 

The idea is no tricks or gimmicks, just leveling together naturally.

 

I want to try a Fortunata but haven't played one since Live and it was at the very end so I don't remember much BUT I do remember it's difficult to level early.

 

Any suggestions on  leveling a Future Fortunata? Mistakes or Pitfalls that await unknowing innocents? How do I keep from looking like a fool in front of the other Players?

 

A Guide that isn't 8 yrs old would be great if that's all you have time to do.

[Tigress]

In my personal experience, Fortunata are not really for those that are looking for a powerful character while leveling, unless you heavily invest in sets right from the get go. You will probably think of yourself as relatively frail, not having enough endurance for almost anything and not doing a significant amount of damage. I for one was very underwhelmed when leveling my Fortunata with just IO slotting, though your mileage may vary.

 

However, that changed dramatically (for me like almost no other character, with the notable exception of Dominators) with sets and IO's. You will easily be able to reach defense cap, get okayish resistances in addition, practically never run out of endurance, buff your friends, help with crowd control and deal a rather significant amount of damage, be it ranged-psionic or melee-lethal/toxic (or as I prefer, a wicked combo of the two). However, that requires a certain investment, I'd say at the very least around 50-100 million inf that you may not have available if thats how you want to play.

 

My personal pick for this concept would probably be Blaster. With some support and a good tank, they practically don't need sets at all to rock. My other ideas include Defender and Tanker, but from my point of view, Fortunatas tend to shine proportionally to the inf you invest in them.

[Sou1catcher]

1 hour ago, Tigress said:

You will easily be able to reach defense cap, get okayish resistances in addition, practically never run out of endurance, buff your friends, help with crowd control and deal a rather significant amount of damage, be it ranged-psionic or melee-lethal/toxic (or as I prefer, a wicked combo of the two). However, that requires a certain investment, I'd say at the very least around 50-100 million inf that you may not have available if thats how you want to play.

Have an inexpensive set or three that I could slot about LvL 25-35 that will help. Just something to help with END and help me Keep-Up with the other players?

Any power selections that you would find useful while leveling a Team Only Fort?

 

[Nemu]

You don't NEED to take all the toggles as soon as they become available. If you are going slog through the low levels then acc becomes more important than some of the other powers that a conventional level 50 build will favor. You miss, you burn more end, mobs take longer to kill, you rate of survival plummets.

 

This is what a leveling build up to 24 might look like using normal enhancements. I wouldn't even bother turning on Maneuvers unless you have enough teammates that also run it to stack defenses to make it worthwhile. Leadership absolutely because it helps with you and your team's hit rate. Focus on picking off targets at the edges of a group to minimize aggro onto you unless your group has ways to manage and redirect that aggro. And even if they do be mindful of AoE splash damage if you want to get in the thick of it unless you know how to joust attacks which most people don't.

 

Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 49 Natural Arachnos Widow
Primary Power Set: Widow Training
Secondary Power Set: Teamwork
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Poison Dart -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(17), Dmg(19)
Level 1: Combat Training: Defensive -- DefBuff(A)
Level 2: Strike -- Acc(A), Acc(5), EndRdx(5), Dmg(13), Dmg(19)
Level 4: Combat Training: Offensive -- Acc(A)
Level 6: Dart Burst -- Acc(A), Acc(7), EndRdx(7), Dmg(11), Dmg(21)
Level 8: Follow Up -- Acc(A), Acc(9), EndRdx(9), Dmg(11), RechRdx(13), RechRdx(23)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- EndRdx(A)
Level 12: Super Speed -- EndRdx(A)
Level 14: Lunge -- Acc(A), Acc(15), EndRdx(15), Dmg(17), Dmg(23)
Level 16: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A)
Level 18: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- EndRdx(A)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(21)
Level 22: Foresight -- DefBuff(A)
Level 24: [Empty]
Level 26: [Empty]
Level 28: [Empty]
Level 30: [Empty]
Level 32: [Empty]
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(3)
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After the level 24 respec to Fort you options open up and there are plenty of post 24 builds out there that you can draw reference from. But they all need some IO investment to make the fort truly shine.

 

Assuming you continue the SO path, mind link is a game changer, when it's up you can afford to take more risks, when it's down you can stay on the fringe and continue your playstyle of picking off targets at the edge. You can also go pure ranged since the fort tree opens up those options but know that melee attacks from the widow tree do way more damage.

 

One more thing. combine insps. do this during your downtime, anything you don't need into purples. It's that simple. by the time you 3 slot your defense powers with SOs you will be about 1 small purple shy of the melee softcap, ranged and aoe are about 10% lower but still respectable with one small purple.

 

 

[siolfir]

7 minutes ago, Nemu said:

Assuming you continue the SO path, mind link is a game changer, when it's up you can afford to take more risks, when it's down you can stay on the fringe and continue your playstyle of picking off targets at the edge. You can also go pure ranged since the fort tree opens up those options but know that melee attacks from the widow tree do way more damage.

I agree with Mind Link being a huge benefit when you're low on set bonuses. Plus, don't forget: you are forced to respec at level 24, which is the level you can pick up Mind Link. Since you pick powers and then place slots in a respec, that means you can drop as many slots into it as you want at level 24. I did 3 (4 slots total) and frankenslotted attuned defense/recharge and def/end/recharge (LotG and Red Fortune set) IOs, but I also had a lot of the IOs already purchased before I ever made the character.

Edited January 8, 2020 by siolfir

[tidge]

4 hours ago, Sou1catcher said:

MY SG mates have tasked us to create a build that will Only be played in Team once a week. No XX XP boosters and no $$$ that wasn't earned/traded. No respecs till 50 altho Arachnos get one at 25.

 

The idea is no tricks or gimmicks, just leveling together naturally.

 

As you will be starting with essentially minimal access to (attuned) IOs, and until the free respec you only have the two initial pools This is interesting. If you attack too quickly while running toggles, Endurance will be problematic.

 

I would recommend starting like this:

 

lvl 1: Widow Training - Poison Dart (probably a safer bet than Swipe, and this will be the only ranged attack for a while)

lvl 1: Teamwork - Combat Training Defensive

lvl 2: Widow Training - Swipe

lvl 4: Teamwork - Tactical Training Maneuvers

lvl 6: Sorcery - Mystic Flight (not always my preferred travel power, but it is relatively low endurance and offers Teleportation as well.)

lvl 8: Widow Training - Follow Up

lvl 10: Teamwork - Indomitable Will

lvl 12: Widow Training - Spin

 

Here is where I evangelize for the Presence Pool. The build so far has an attack chain that will deplete you of Endurance. You will find that you are probably not going to be running both toggles all the time. The Presence pool offers a good amount of control options which you will not otherwise have until your respec. The Presence Pool controls are relative light on Endurance, IIRC.

 

lvl 14: Presence - Provoke (If your team has a 'working' Tank, or a Scrapper/Brute that wants to have Taunt maybe you can choose Pacify...but Pacify is only good to get you out of trouble)

lvl 16: Presence - Intimidate (Your first control power! It is single target, but it is something that your team may find valuable)

lvl 18: Presence - Invoke Panic (A PBAoE control! That you can use while in Melee!)

 

lvl 20: Teamwork - Tactical Training Leadership

 

The team-imposed limits on buying/crafting IOs will make going slow for everyone on the team. Fear IOs are very inexpensive however! I would slot your drops as soon as you get them, keeping in mind that the dropped enhancements will wear out quickly.

[Erydanus]

Having leveled mine fairly recently here are my suggestions to make your path easier:

 

1. Primarily regard the widow as a Claws/Leadership scrapper. I am very serious here. At 24 when you get access to the night widow and fortunata branches if you convert fully to a fortunata and focus on the psi powers, the play experience shifts wildly and is actually quite bad. Those powers need a lot of slotting to come up in effectiveness. Instead, if you maintain the core of a blood widow build and just selectively add a couple psi powers for range/aoe if you go fortunate it's a smoother experience; of course if you prefer to go Night Widow path the changes are less drastic anyway.

 

2. Make your lower level picks focus on the good bread and butter moves as if you were doing a claws scrapper but you can add in some dart attacks if you want range. After all if you were playing an actual claws scrapper you'd get focus anyway. Keep in mind the dart cone is weird, it's a narrow cone yes, but the vertex is basically behind your shoulder blades so it's almost like a shoulder-wide narrow column right in front of you.

 

3. At 25ish most sets are not that great. The values of sets at that level will not be kind to you as they're formulated to add up to a nice assortment of parameters at 50. However if in the first couple slots you have you focus on the highest value pieces of each set that will give you good results, or you can go into Frankenslotting. I very frequently use maybe 2-3 pieces of one set with 2 of another; sometimes when the sets allow it I will simply put 3 of the same sort of piece in like 3 Acc/Dmg/Rech if they're available.

 

The SoA ATOs have procs which are worth it even if trying to collect the whole set at a low level isn't feasible. Special pieces like Miracle will also be really helpful. I'm going to link to a recent post I did on Frankenslotting too for general info on some of the tricks:

 

 

4. Here's a sample build very similar to what I did at 24 on my Fortunata. The focus is on Claws; from the Forutnata pool Telekinetic Blast is used basically to finish runners or to knock away a problem mob. It's not converted from knockback to knockdown yet but will later; Psychic Scream is used basically point blank in melee range after Spin, it's a good following move and also debuffs recharge. Psionic Tornado is similarly useful but it's too expensive to spam. It is a knockdown power so it's a good opener before jumping in and using follow-up and spin. In my own case I actually took pool leadership to stack on widow leadership at low levels because it was easier to run 2 toggles than to find slots and enhancements to enhance them well in the teens; since you're trying to stay close to your original build and do a no respect build I didn't put that in. It was actually not a problem to run the toggles because I had a lot of end reduction in the build already and 4 slotted stamina with DOs (no ED for four DOs, it's just like 2 SOs). 

 

 

Level 1:    Swipe                Acc-I:25(A), BrsBlo-Dmg/EndRdx:25(3), SmsHym-Dmg/EndRdx:25(7), SpdBit-Rchg/Global Toxic:25(21)
Level 1:    Combat Training: Defensive        Rct-ResDam%:25(A), Rct-Def:25(5)
Level 2:    Strike                Bns-Acc/Rchg:25(A), Bns-Dmg/EndRdx:25(3), BrsBlo-Acc/Dmg:25(11), BrsBlo-Dmg/EndRdx:25(23)
Level 4:    Tactical Training: Maneuvers        DefBuff-I:25(A), DefBuff-I:25(5)
Level 6:    Telekinetic Blast        Acc-I:25(A), FrcFdb-Rechg%:25(7)
Level 8:    Follow Up            FcsSmt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:25(A), FcsSmt-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:25(9), FcsSmt-Dmg/EndRdx:25(9), GssSynFr--Build%:25(21)
Level 10:    Indomitable Will        StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:25(A)
Level 12:    Spin                DmnofArc-Rchg/-DmgFear:25(A), Mlt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:25(13), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:25(13), ClvBlo-Acc/Rchg:25(23)
Level 14:    Lunge                FcsSmt-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:25(A), FcsSmt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:25(15), FcsSmt-Dmg/EndRdx:25(15)
Level 16:    Psychic Scream            Dtn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:25(A), AirBrs-Acc/Dmg:25(17), Dtn-Dmg/EndRdx:25(17)
Level 18:    Psionic Tornado            Dtn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:25(A), AirBrs-Acc/Dmg:25(19), Dtn-Dmg/EndRdx:25(19)
Level 20:    Tactical Training: Leadership        EndRdx-I:25(A)
Level 22:    Mask Presence            DefBuff-I:25(A)
Level 24:    Mind Link            DefBuff-I:25(A)

Also stamina is 2 slotted (2nd slot at level 11) so you can run with 2 generic Endmods or stick in a performance shifter; Miracle:Recovery in health if you can afford it.
------------

 

 

[Sou1catcher]

6 hours ago, Erydanus said:

Having leveled mine fairly recently here are my suggestions to make your path easier:

 

 

4. Here's a sample build very similar to what I did at 24 on my Fortunata.
------------

 

I followed what you did but noticed you had no travel powers so slid in SS and Combat jumping while leaving out TT leadership & Mind Link

 

 

[siolfir]

1 hour ago, Sou1catcher said:

I followed what you did but noticed you had no travel powers so slid in SS and Combat jumping while leaving out TT leadership & Mind Link

My build has Combat Jumping fairly early, but I just use Ninja Run for travel. It's good enough, and doesn't take an extra power pick. That said, I ended up taking a couple of powers in the 40s that I normally wouldn't bother with, but by that point I figured if I made it that long without a travel power, there wasn't any point in picking one up that late.

[Haijinx]

The Night Widow leveling is really smooth.  You could just level as a NW and respec.

[Erydanus]

For me, I just bought flying packs from P2W and also used Ninja Run + Sprint at the same time for a lot while getting to 24. I usually don't take a travel power until late 20s myself. I'm glad it was a helpful starter for you though!! I think you will find going melee and then dropping some nasty psi surprises on mobs to work pretty well and I think the end situation will be manageable. You're teaming too, so your team buffs will be appreciated and really be worth the end. 

[Sou1catcher]

OK I have a melee attack Rotation I think is working well. Follow Up, Lunge, Strike, Swipe, Repeat.  I find this works well for me. I have Spin in there as well but I don't use it as much as I thought I would.

Ranged attacks I am still feeling out. I go thru my Combat #s from time to time and I don't see where it makes a difference in What order I use them. I may be incorrect however.

Am running around with a Huge amount of Blue Insp and a coupla others. This thing is Tough on End but it is manageable.

[tidge]

8 hours ago, Sou1catcher said:

OK I have a melee attack Rotation I think is working well. Follow Up, Lunge, Strike, Swipe, Repeat.  I find this works well for me. I have Spin in there as well but I don't use it as much as I thought I would.

That was my initial leveling attack chain even as well. If you are committed to staying the same level as teammates who don't play as often, I recommend using Ouroboros (if you have access to a pillar) to do some low level arcs for 2xInf and merits, so that you can play the market. Things will be easiest if you can craft recipes as well. All builds benefit from IOs, and as soon as you can help yourself with the Endurance recovery the more fun the build will be.

[Sou1catcher]

3 hours ago, tidge said:

That was my initial leveling attack chain even as well. If you are committed to staying the same level as teammates who don't play as often, I recommend using Ouroboros (if you have access to a pillar) to do some low level arcs for 2xInf and merits, so that you can play the market. Things will be easiest if you can craft recipes as well. All builds benefit from IOs, and as soon as you can help yourself with the Endurance recovery the more fun the build will be.

Good idea

I have gotten lucky with some recipes and bought some Detonations so putting out Nice Damage

Edited January 10, 2020 by Sou1catcher