Archetype that made the worst first impression on you?

[DR_Mechano]

Just curious is there people out there that simply don't play an AT because they, rather unfortunately, happened to pick a terrible combo the first time they played it and have, ever since just been like "hmm no thank you...I'll try everything else before I make another one of those".

 

For me it was AR/Invuln Sentinel. I didn't know but apparently that combo is just kinda trash. Assault Rifle suffers horrendously on Sentinel thanks to the lower target caps and smaller cones (which ignite does NOT make up for) since like 90% of its attacks are cones of some kind and from what I can tell is widely considered THE worst primary on Sentinel. Invuln just felt so incredibly lackluster on Sentinel, even at 38 (which is where I got to). I saw blasters and scrappers doing everything I could do but better...so ever since then I've been incredibly unlikely to ever touch Sentinels again until they get a major rework that is in the works. 

 

I know that there are powerset combos on Sentinel that are awesome but that first impression is really god damn hard to shake especially since I loved the concept I had but it just didn't work out and that kind of annoyed me.

[Fortuneteller]

Peacebringer.

Spoiler

It's just an inferior shiny Warshade. 😄

 

[roleki]

Tanks.  Had an Inv/Battle Axe tank that I slow-crawled up to 32 or so.  At that point the thought of dragging it to 50 actually became depressing, and I abandoned it.

 

Honestly, I don't think I would have liked a 'better tank' because the mechanics were what bored me to tears.  

[Heraclea]

Now the first Sentinel I rolled was Water/WP and I liked that combo quite.

 

On Victory I had a Ninja/Poison mastermind.  This one struggled.  It didn't help that MMs were redside only, making playing though Sharkhead more or less mandatory.  Scrapyarder missions were quite tedious on the character.  I liked the concept - Amir Al-Muminin, spiritual leader of the Shiyitti Sect - but I lost interest and never got them past 30-aomething. 

 

Made one on Torchbearer - this one's beast/time.  Beasts are probably the least annoying of the pets, though they are noisy.  Being able to level blueside was a big plus.  Even so, though I rolled the character back in June I didn't really get interested until recently.  Got this one to 50 a couple days ago. 

[Razia]

First Stalker when Issue 6 hit live. Ninja Blade/Ninjutsu. Felt squishy, of course we did not have IOs. Now I love Stalkers.

Same with Dominators, I thought: "Hey cool, a Controller with Damage". WRONG. Perma Dom changes everything though.

[SaintD]

I tried the Kheldians on Live and found them to be beyond pathetic in every way. Damage, resistance, endurance, everything. Wasted garbage of an AT.

I tried a Peacekeeper again here on Homecoming now that I actively powerlevel toons in AE (which I never did on Live). Getting that thing up to 28 on any-AT xp farms was an exercise in utter agony due to how utterly, disgustingly poor the low level powers are on a Kheldian. But, nonetheless, I got there! A shiny, level 28 Kheldian, ready to go!

.....it was still utter, worthless garbage. It isn't just crap, it's insultingly crap. It's auras are the most beautiful in the game and are a fantastic costume in itself when customized, and they're tied to this rank turd of an AT. My first impression was that Kheldians are an utter failpile, and over a decade later, I confirmed it.

This game is free and I still want compensation for every second spent on that heap of shit AT.

[KC4800]

My first Corruptor on live was Energy Blast/Traps. What a horrible first choice. I never could get synergy with that character. Very hard to play, took leaping instead of Fly. Just ugh!. Couldn't really play a corruptor until on HC I have an Ice Blast/ Bubbler which is easier to play. 

 

I still have never created a dominator. The thought of having to get a power to Perma before it becomes good is just a huge turnoff. 

 

On live I had a Warshade that I play human preferred. She was a struggle but when she was all done was quite a powerhouse.

 

I played WarMace when it was considered the weakest tanker secondary, and still do. My main, namesake used to be Invul/WM on live and now on HC is Rad Armor/WM and I love him. He evolved to be superior mutant incarnate.

 

I find scrappers boring, Brutes a lot of work. Blasters still squishy. Sentinels as awesomely overpowered but so what. MM are challenging but fun. Defenders a necessary evil. Stalkers are melee blasters. I always thought only stalkers could one shot foes in melee until I played my Energy Brute. He one shots everything. 

 

Sorry for this really rambling post. But it kind of exemplifies why this game is so great and still is. So many options.

[Ukase]

Dominator. 
What a woeful waste of time. It's been so long since I logged on to it, I've forgotten the secondary. The primary was mind, or psy. Whichever one has confuse. 

I made more than a few mistakes with it that were my fault. I did a couple of DFBs, spelunker...setting it up like I do all my characters, for the Atlas medallion. 

I tend to keep playing a character from 1-50, t-4 it, then start another. 

At level 47, it deals almost no damage. The only thing this character does well is confuse. There are no meaningful AoE attacks. There is literally no reason to think that this character will ever get over 47, unless I put it in a fire farm, or an MSR. (At least I'd get some merits that way) 

 

So, I figured I'd read on the forums, maybe get some insight as to why it was so painful to solo. Turns out, that dominators can get perma-dom more easily when teamed. I never knew that before. I get to level 47, and learn I'd been doing it the hard way! 

 

It made me think immediately of Jack Emmert, whose philosophy about CoH was to encourage teaming as "people will have more fun" - when often times, it's the opposite effect. I really wish I were in the mood to team more often, because things are more productive and can be more efficient when teaming. But, I often have real life distractions and can't always contribute my fair share, and other times, I want to only do mission objectives, which often is frowned upon by all except kitted out level 50s. (I love that story arc completion bonus!) You don't get those when teaming, unless it's your arc. Which means I have to wait for other people to be interested. But I've already digressed. This is another reason why I still haven't bothered with the Kheldians. That, and they have nowhere near enough slots for all the powers they get. You need to do a respec every 10 levels or so because some powers just aren't worth keeping as you level up. Cool to watch them in action when played by a competent player, but at this point, I'm not there yet. 

Because of this teaming issue, it remains at 47 until I finally decide to revisit it. Got perma-dom at level 38, too. It's just not fun to play because holds simply don't deal enough damage. If I were a criminal and came across a dominator trying to stop me, I'd laugh. They might be able to hug me, but they can't hurt me. They're weak. Pitiful. 

Or maybe that's just my lack of creativity trying to play it like a controller and it needs another approach. I dunno. But until it can compete with a defender on damage, or a controller, I see no reason to ever play it again. Just awful. 

I should at least try a different primary...but nah. 

[Lines]

Tanks.

 

I just didn't get them at first. I'm one of nature's scrappers. I want big hits, debt be damned.

 

Now I love my tanks more than my scrappers. Nature versus nurture at work.

[Trickshooter]

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

It's just not fun to play because holds simply don't deal enough damage. If I were a criminal and came across a dominator trying to stop me, I'd laugh. They might be able to hug me, but they can't hurt me. They're weak. Pitiful. 

Or maybe that's just my lack of creativity trying to play it like a controller and it needs another approach. I dunno. But until it can compete with a defender on damage, or a controller, I see no reason to ever play it again. Just awful. 

I think you may be right that you're trying to play it too much like a Controller, and not focusing on your damage dealing capability from your secondary. Dominator's melee damage modifier is second only to Scrappers, and their ranged damage modifier is third highest, behind Blasters and Soldiers/Widows.

 

But that is kind of what makes my answer to the OP also Dominators. Not because of their damage or being frustrated with Domination, but because they have two powersets that kind of need investment and active usage to be successful. It makes it difficult to know which one to focus on, especially while leveling up.

 

Similarly, my second answer would be Kheldians just because, wow, so many options and without knowing what you want to focus on, it's just overwhelming.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Trickshooter

[Coyote]

Kheldians. I liked my Warshade, she was fun to play with all of the options. But not fun to build, and pretty weak... lots of options, and all of them are either WEAK or LIMITED (need live bodies... need dead bodies... need tri-colored bodies :p)

 

Sentinels. Probably not because they're bad, but because I can soft-cap Blasters with good Regeneration, a ranged lifetap, and great damage... over better defenses that are not necessary unless I'm leading and taking the alpha, and much worse damage and much worse control. Sentinels aren't bad per se, but I couldn't see playing them over Blasters.

[NNDeepdish]

TA/Archery defender before they got buffed. That was a beatdown to play but I loved the powerset so much I stuck with it.

[Lazarillo]

For me, it was definitely Defenders.  Especially when I was starting out and mostly solo (heck, even as time went on...I swear, the teaming on HC is better than it ever was on the original servers, for whatever reason, it's great), as well as just being in my early days of CoH, when I progressed characters very slowly, the low damage and often middling effects of the low tier support powers meant the AT just started way too behind the curve for me to every be able to appreciate playing them.

 

I think I finally started to appreciate playing one more when Time Manipulation rolled and I was able to run a Time/Rad who played more like a Tank (and ended up being my "main" for most of the original game's last year or so).  I've also developed a real love for a Pain/Sonic Defender that I was able to make on HC thanks to some proliferation, who is pretty freakin' amazing.

[SeraphimKensai]

After all these years playing, I can damn near play any AT with the best of them, save Masterminds. I know they can be absurdly strong, and when I do play them I run numpad bindings, but I just never got into the playstyle of them to enjoy them.

 

That said, until CoH came back to these private servers, I never even bothered to level one for myself pass something like 32. Now I have a fully IO'd Robotics/Empathy MM and a lvl 41 Demon/TA MM, but I'm still not interested really in playing the AT.

 

That said, I don't hate the AT, they are welcome on my teams as long as the player is competent, which is the case with any other AT as well.

[Fan Mail]

Controllers and Defenders.  The anti-solo ATs.  

[MunkiLord]

Tankers

[jubakumbi]

Blasters

[Solarverse]

Sentinels. Their damage is sub par and some of the powers are exactly the same as others in the set, while some toggles have no animation at all, they also have no snipe which I frown upon. They are an unfinished class missing a snipe and low DPS. No thanks.

[ShardWarrior]

Toss up between Controllers and Masterminds. 

[Scientist]

First controller, a Grav/FF.  Based on a rpg character I loved, so I got him to 50, but he was slow to solo, which I did a lot of back in the day.  "Slow" is saying something given that my main was a Defender who I felt soloed ok.  I even incarnated him out, but I could just never find any content, with the exception of MSRs using Dispersion Bubble to block mezzes, that he was better for than some other character I had.  That was a pretty narrow niche, given I rarely play evenings when MSRs happen. . .  Not only did it convince me not to make any more controllers, I also never made a Dominator until recently on HC.  Still not convinced the Dominator is amazing, but to be fair, she is only at level 12.  

 

I remade the controller on HC as a Grav/Time, which also fit the rpg character concept, and with the buffs to Grav plus actually helping teams kill things with Time, I no longer feel like a waste of a team slot. 🙂 Still not planning to make a bunch more controllers, though, one seems like enough.  

 

 

[Snarky]

Masterminds. I half love and half hate the concept just from the ground up. Then there is the matter of non customizable pets never been brought up before i know.  If you could make the Monarch from Venture Bros or a Necromancer who had ONLY zombies it would help. I do like Robots. 
 

oh and finally. I really really no really suck at playing an MM. i seem to vaguely recall desperately trying ti get my pets to help me outside Fort Darwin. In my memory they were attacking a manhole cover and i was getting beat down by snakes. Probably just a bad dream. But enough to keep me from going back for more

Edited January 21, 2020 by Snarky

[EmmySky]

Way back when there was only CoH, I rolled a tank.  She was fun to play but people expected me to do things that, honestly, my MA/regen scrapper did a lot better.  Never played another tank on live.

 

When CoV came out, doms and corrs were just meh versions of hero ATs so I never got into them.

 

Now, I have two wonderful doms and two outstanding corrs, one of my tanks is fully incarnate and the second tank, actually I am working on her alpha right now (well, smoke/forum break).

 

I always like to give things a second chance and even ATs I thought I hated are fun for me now.

[Kinestron]

Defender. I was new to the game and was just impressed by the graphics and gameplay but it was soooo slow to level when soloing missions. I hadn't yet realized I needed to be on more teams and there was also the Smoke Grenade bug that made any extra defense useless, such as my Bubble Defender. I still rarely play Defenders and with Incarnates, they fall back into the hardly needed category for me.

[Wavicle]

Corruptors and even moreso Sentinels.

[The_Warpact]

Tanker/Warshade/Peacebringer so much suck that they tie.

Sentinel just seems so bland the middle of the road blah.