What Combo(s) Surprised You?

[catsi563]

Ninja Poison MM really shocked me as did Ninja Ninja Stalker

the ninja seemed so squishy but it wasn't until I got the MM binds and learned to micro them into ffocused attacks that I found that they hit like trucks, when combined with poisons seriously nasty debuff ability I was able to steamroll my way through incarnate content. 

 

my ninja ninja stalker because my first ever 50 for a villain side on live. the intitial attacks seemed almost lackluster but the ability to restealth almost immediately meant I could basically one shot almost anything including bosses anything I didn't one shot was so badly damaged that a quick attack rotation would finish them off. Or if it didn't I could vanish and assassinate almost immediately to repeat the process as often as needed

[MunkiLord]

I was surprised at how incredibly effective Ice/Fire Blaster turned out to be. All the slows really help make the most out of Burn since Blasters don't have taunt auras. Looking back it seems obvious now, but I wasn't expecting such perfect synergy. In many ways he feels like my most powerful character by a large margin. 

[Marine X]

Grimmwolf, Bio Armor / Savage Melee Tanker ( His bio references a Family Genetic Anomaly, which causes Men of the Graham Family to resemble and fight with the Ferocity of Werewolves ) . He plays and feels more like playing a Scrapper but with really good Resist/Defense. Probably the fastest Toon to 30 I've ever had, doing just regular mission content. Someone told me that this combo doesn't fair so well in the 40s and 50s. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

[Clave Dark 5]

On 3/6/2020 at 7:53 AM, roleki said:

My most recent example of an unexpected success was my Mind/Poison Controller, Dr. Jonas, who is some kind of heroic CIA spook who terrifies and poisons villains for... justice?

 

Alternating between Mass Hypnosis and Terrify to control the bulk of the mobs, the debuffs out of /Poison allow my limited cycle of ST attacks to hit like a freight train; it's not uncommon to unload a Seismic Smash for over 1200 damage on an orange-con boss.  

 

This has really amped up my appreciation for the /Poison secondary, and I look forward to making a few more of that brand in the future.

I have one of those too!  Overall I'm not actually all that chuffed by it, even after someone very knowledgeable about such things basically made a good build for me.  I dunno, somehow I was just hoping she'd be more super awesome somehow (currently having the same experience with a Storm/Rad Blast Defender, although some of her problem was the End usage, now taken care of with the usual Panacea/Miracle/Numina's trinity).  I stuck with her out of sheer cussedness, but I'm ready to move on now.  Glad it's worked out well for you though.

[biostem]

I was happily surprised with the performance of my dm/ea brute.  I was also pleasantly surprised with how things went with my nature/rad defender.  I'm having a hoot with a savage/regen brute that I've been playing, lately... 

[roleki]

On 3/9/2020 at 8:49 PM, Clave Dark 5 said:

I have one of those too!  Overall I'm not actually all that chuffed by it, even after someone very knowledgeable about such things basically made a good build for me.  I dunno, somehow I was just hoping she'd be more super awesome somehow (currently having the same experience with a Storm/Rad Blast Defender, although some of her problem was the End usage, now taken care of with the usual Panacea/Miracle/Numina's trinity).  I stuck with her out of sheer cussedness, but I'm ready to move on now.  Glad it's worked out well for you though.

That's the crazy/good thing about this game... what *I* may think is awesome, you may think is pedestrian, and somehow neither of us is wrong.  

 

But there's also a tipping point on some builds that, for one reason or another can make or break a build, function-wise.  I was so amped over what Mind/Poison did, I rolled a Fire/Poison and... hated every minute of it. 

 

Two endurance-sucking auras and a bunch of self-preservation toggles kept endurance at crash levels, and the lack of ST attacks/mitigation made Melee combat more of an adventure than a controller should endure... but much as your cussed determination willed your Mind/Poison to 50, mine got me to drag that Fire/Poison to VL3 where a T3 Cardiac Alpha and T3 Clarion kicked in. 

 

Suddenly, Fire/Poison became very awesome in it's own right.  I still prefer the Mind/Poison 'workflow' but my Fire/Poison is a viable solo'er at 50 now, which was the goal.

[Dreamboat]

I can't really speak to it's pure effectiveness in terms of numbers and synergy and so on (I don't have a clue about that stuff), but I ran a Darkness/Storm Summoning Controller as one of my earliest redside characters on Homecoming having never tried either the powersets or the archetype before, and before I was halfway through the tutorial I was going "this is awesome!" every time I used Gale.

[Carnifax]

Necro / Nature / Mako mastermind with procs everywhere. She was just a spur of the moment character based off a pun that popped into my head (Mombie : A little old lady who likes gardening...). 

 

Natures Big Three AOE buffs just makes here tanky as heck and with Life Drain, Shark Jaws and Knockout Blow all stuffed with procs and two single target -res powers (Natures and the Pool power one which also has procs) she can flatten bosses. 

 

 

[Clave Dark 5]

16 hours ago, roleki said:

That's the crazy/good thing about this game... what *I* may think is awesome, you may think is pedestrian, and somehow neither of us is wrong.  

 

But there's also a tipping point on some builds that, for one reason or another can make or break a build, function-wise.  I was so amped over what Mind/Poison did, I rolled a Fire/Poison and... hated every minute of it. 

 

Two endurance-sucking auras and a bunch of self-preservation toggles kept endurance at crash levels, and the lack of ST attacks/mitigation made Melee combat more of an adventure than a controller should endure... but much as your cussed determination willed your Mind/Poison to 50, mine got me to drag that Fire/Poison to VL3 where a T3 Cardiac Alpha and T3 Clarion kicked in. 

 

Suddenly, Fire/Poison became very awesome in it's own right.  I still prefer the Mind/Poison 'workflow' but my Fire/Poison is a viable solo'er at 50 now, which was the goal.

That's what my experience with my Troller was: a long sort of dullish climb, then suddenly boom, "oh, ok, now this plays decently" once I started investing in the Stone Mastery powers.  I mean, any Troller can invest in Stone Mastery though, so that would seem to speak ill of the initial combo.  I probably shouldn't grouse, she can easily wade into melee range with little risk and pull off some great stuff thanks to a reall kickin' build (courtesy of these boards), and I'm not going to delete her or anything, but...

[roleki]

9 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

That's what my experience with my Troller was: a long sort of dullish climb, then suddenly boom, "oh, ok, now this plays decently" once I started investing in the Stone Mastery powers.  I mean, any Troller can invest in Stone Mastery though, so that would seem to speak ill of the initial combo.  I probably shouldn't grouse, she can easily wade into melee range with little risk and pull off some great stuff thanks to a reall kickin' build (courtesy of these boards), and I'm not going to delete her or anything, but...

Eh, some Controllers are more of a slog than others, but to my mind, that just makes it that much more rewarding when they finally DO turn the corner. 

 

If that takes the form of Stone Mastery/Seismic Smash, so be it.  Myself, anything that has significant -Res debuffs leans straight into Seismic Smash because seriously, why not leverage such a devastating ST attack?  That said, I have plenty of working controller builds that barely touch an EPP. 

 

99 ways and all that.

[subbacultchas]

21 hours ago, roleki said:

Eh, some Controllers are more of a slog than others, but to my mind, that just makes it that much more rewarding when they finally DO turn the corner. 

 

If that takes the form of Stone Mastery/Seismic Smash, so be it.  Myself, anything that has significant -Res debuffs leans straight into Seismic Smash because seriously, why not leverage such a devastating ST attack?  That said, I have plenty of working controller builds that barely touch an EPP. 

 

99 ways and all that.

Stone is my favorite of all the controller epics, even though I really like Leviathan too. You get a solid aoe with a little mez, that can be slotted FF +recharge and procs to be beastly. The armor is good for toons not already def capped, and Seismic Smash is an amazing damage/mez itself. Not to mention the heal/hp buff, or even throwing rocks if that's your thing. 

I'm working on a heavily proc-invested Plant/Time right now, and I'll be taking Stone even if I don't need the armor. WIth existing -res powers and procs, enough +recharge from powers to not need enhancements, I think it will complement and be complemented by Stone far better than most others.  Really wish the armor had a bit of res or something else with it though.

Edited March 13, 2020 by subbacultchas

[subbacultchas]

To note, I had originally planned for Power Mastery, because of PB + Farsight. However I I suspect that PB we will soon not be affecting Farsight's or Fade's defense, I think one of the admins commenting them leaning toward that. Which would leave me eventually scrapping to find that extra defense I'd lose if it went live. 

[roleki]

2 hours ago, subbacultchas said:

To note, I had originally planned for Power Mastery, because of PB + Farsight. However I I suspect that PB we will soon not be affecting Farsight's or Fade's defense, I think one of the admins commenting them leaning toward that. Which would leave me eventually scrapping to find that extra defense I'd lose if it went live. 

I know everyone NEEDS +Def, but I have to imagine Plant/Time will have enough controls/buffs to make +Def more of a "comes in handy every so often" kind of thing, rather than being the difference between the build being playable or not.  With Hybrid Control?  Forget about it.  While I am completely underwhelmed by the workflow of my Plant/Nature, I sometimes forget to use any of the secondary while I am soloing because the primary is already so survivable out of the box.

 

ETA:  my Plant/Nature is where I discovered how devastating Seismic Smash could be when you stuff procs into it... I was "arresting" Fake Nemesis (Nemesii?) faster on this guy than even my Rad/Fire brute.

 

ETA2:  I meant to say, my Plant/Nature.  I don't have a Plant/Time.

 

ETA3: Yet.

Edited March 13, 2020 by roleki

[subbacultchas]

1 hour ago, roleki said:

I know everyone NEEDS +Def, but I have to imagine Plant/Time will have enough controls/buffs to make +Def more of a "comes in handy every so often" kind of thing, rather than being the difference between the build being playable or not.  With Hybrid Control?  Forget about it.  While I am completely underwhelmed by the workflow of my Plant/Nature, I sometimes forget to use any of the secondary while I am soloing because the primary is already so survivable out of the box.

 

ETA:  my Plant/Time is where I discovered how devastating Seismic Smash could be when you stuff procs into it... I was "arresting" Fake Nemesis (Nemesii?) faster on this guy than even my Rad/Fire brute.

For sure, I'm not sure I'll need it per se. But being ~40 would make me feel a bit more comfortable. 

[Sarrate]

Kin / Sonic / Psi Defender

 

I knew leveraging -Res and +Dmg would do stupid things for a team, but what I hadn't fully considered is what it would do to hard targets. Consider that resistance resists resistance and damage buffs/debuffs. Sonic's blasts have -Res, which not only makes them get hit harder... it also reduces their ability to resist damage debuffs. Between Siphon Power and Fulcrum Shift, Kin can stack copious -dmg. Since AVs don't (and can't) have special resistance to -dmg debuffs, it's more effective at making AVs less dangerous than other debuffs.

 

He was a total glass cannon, but man could he kick a team into ludicrous speed.

[kelika2]

I rolled a fire/staff tank in hopes that stacking dots is fun with a break dancing slutubus thing.

and then like 4 months later the tank patch happened

[Sovera]

Sonic/Bio Sentinel. Amazing fun. Only tarnished because cones really -need- to work without targets and where the camera is faced. 2.6 second animations need to be throw to an open fire as well.

 

 

Currently a Dark Melee/Fire Brute. DM has the buzzsaw aspect with each attack having two damage procs, on top of Fury, on top of Fiery Embrace, on top of Soul Drain. Fire Armor fixes Dark Melee's lack of AoE with a Fury + Soul Drain + Fiery Embrace empowered Burn, Shadow Maul taken and slotted but not used until the changes to DM come in.

 

I've gone ham on endurance recovery tools (Physical Perfection, Consume, Superior Conditioning) and I feel I should drop them since the build has.... Dark Consumption and Consume... which, incidentally, do noice AoE damage even slotted just for endurance and recharge once empowered by Fury + Soul Drain. I'll test some more.

 

I've just replaced Shadow Punch for Midnight Grasp and will be testing if the loss of buzzsaw will be annoying or not but it is difficult to argue replacing a 50 damage attack for a 186 one.

[carroto]

I often combine a primary and secondary not because of special synergy, but because one makes up for weaknesses in another.  The surprise has often been how much fun those combos are to play.  Often much more so than synergistic sets that on paper "should" be great together.

 

I like Dark Melee but don't like the lack of AoE in it, so I paired it with Firey Aura on a Brute.  Not as squishy as I expected, and more fun than most other combos I've tried.

 

I wanted to play Energy Assault on a Dominator, but again didn't like the weak AoE, so I paired it with Fire Control to pick up the slack.  Not an obvious combo at all, but a blast to play.

[Heraclea]

20 hours ago, carroto said:

I like Dark Melee but don't like the lack of AoE in it, so I paired it with Firey Aura on a Brute.  Not as squishy as I expected, and more fun than most other combos I've tried.

 

I can see that working quite well.  Fiery Aura relies a lot on its self heal, so adding another adds value.  And being resistance based, all the -tohit you are doing is the moral equivalent of defense, so you are also adding layers. 

[carroto]

4 hours ago, Heraclea said:

I can see that working quite well.  Fiery Aura relies a lot on its self heal, so adding another adds value.  And being resistance based, all the -tohit you are doing is the moral equivalent of defense, so you are also adding layers. 

Yeah it's a build that really goes up in survivability with +recharge, so I was able to build mostly for offense (with as much +res as I could get though) and end up with a pretty tough Brute.  Plus Soul Drain -> Burn is really fun.  Doesn't do great in the face of heavy recharge debuffs though.

[KC4800]

A Dark/Martial Assault Dominator is suprisingly good as a Batman themed character. Glad I picked it as my first dominator ever. 

[Sovera]

9 hours ago, Heraclea said:

I can see that working quite well.  Fiery Aura relies a lot on its self heal, so adding another adds value.  And being resistance based, all the -tohit you are doing is the moral equivalent of defense, so you are also adding layers. 

I was leveling one of those but eventually got bored in the late thirties. DM starts strong and fun but paradoxically gets stronger and less fun as I leveled. The buzzsaw aspect diminishes as Soul Drain and it's 4.3 animation is introduced, and then Midnight's Grasp's 2.3 was kind of the death knell for me. Now I'm doing 4.3, 2.3, 1, 2.1, 1, animations and it stopped being fun. But, paradoxically, mein gott, the damage! Talk about tearing chunks out of enemies between Fury up, Soul Drain, and then two damage procs in each attack. I could see a boss' HP simply jumping down.

 

...but it wasn't fun anymore. It just went from being fast greased lightning to Super Strength levels of ponderousness. Trying to wrangle a decent number of enemies for Soul Drain but the team rolling the enemies over also wasn't rewarding.

 

The Fire Armor Brute was also pretty squishy though Burn patched the AoE hole nicely. Too many plates to juggle and no OP Tanker proc to prop things up meant I had something like 65% resistances. I'm sure it would have worked out fine in the end with softcapped melee and S/L and about 70% resistances to S/L and such, but it would not have handled debuffs at all.

[Tiger Shadow]

4 hours ago, KC4800 said:

A Dark/Martial Assault Dominator is suprisingly good as a Batman themed character. Glad I picked it as my first dominator ever. 

T9: Summon Ace the Bat-Hound.

[KC4800]

1 hour ago, Tiger Shadow said:

T9: Summon Ace the Bat-Hound.

I call him Cooj. (Short for Cujo)

 

[Hedgefund]

Back in the before time, to meet a goal to grind all the MM primaries and secondaries to 50, I made a Bots/TA to check TA off the list.  I was surprised at how effective it was at mass aoe spawn clearing and not just when OSA was used.