What are your top 5, all time, most memorable, primaries?

[KelvinKole]

I'm not talking about the metrics here. What primaries do you just love to play? Which ones just feel right, like home, to you, and why? 

[psycho_notepad]

dark melee - has both a heal and a end siphon. also soul noir appeals to my ascetic. 

dual weld - whats better than one sword? TWO SWORDS! also great tool kit, multiple combos that do a range of buffs/debuffs

 

beyond that i've just always had a thing for kick boxers (i blame Tifa), so street justice, martial arts, and savage melee.

[Fire Chief]

Fire fire fire fire fire...blaster 😛 

[oOStaticOo]

Katana - Fast and deadly

Electric Melee - I love Electric powers plus good AoE

Titan Weapons - I can swing a big sword!

Staff Fighting - It looks really cool and I like hitting people with a cue stick

Street Justice - It's like Super Strength, but better

 

[Obus Form]

My top 5 favourites are are Super Strength: 5-second FootStomps.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Obus Form

[Jaxman100]

Claws - all the time. Love the simple singe and AoE chains. Exemplars well. 

SS - Rage and Foot Stomp....

Dark melee - Love it with my shield when I can't use Claws

Radiation melee - if a heroes gonna farm, farm the best you can

Electric melee - Lighting Rod is pure fun

 

Pretty much covers all my melee Alts that get dusted off constantly or did on Live.

[Camel]

1. Energy Melee (pre-nerf)- This set is so nostalgiac to me. Total Focus and Energy Transfer were my first experience with “extreme” heavy hitter attacks when I first started playing this game and I never lost that feeling.

 

2. Super Strength - Rage, Knockout Blow, Foot Stomp... self explanatory if you’ve played it. If not? You punch things REALLY hard.

 

3. Dark Melee - Like my ex-wife, this set draws power from your enemies to make you more powerful! Very effective! (Just kidding, I don’t have an ex-wife)

 

4. Titan Weapons - It’s the best Melee set in the game. Need I say more? 
 

5. Radiation Melee - New set, utility, damage aura... GREAT for farming. Very fun and creative set!
 

 

[biostem]

On 3/16/2020 at 6:43 PM, KelvinKole said:

What primaries do you just love to play?

1. Overall, I just love playing claws - fast attacks, a great tohit and dmg buff from follow up, and some ranged attacks mixed in.

 

2. Savage melee - this is a newer one for me.  I've come to really appreciate the recharge and end discount buffs from blood frenzy.  The powers recharge relatively quickly, and the set has a distinctive feel to it.

 

3. War mace - this is another I hadn't traditionally used all that often, but the attacks just feel powerful and deliberate.

 

4. Energy melee - I'll always think of this set as "the pom poms of doom", but it just feels powerful.  I know it has its problems, but I just find the set satisfying to use.

 

5. Psionic melee - oh how I want this set to perform better.  I love the look of the psi blades, and the various 'big fist' attacks are cool.  I just wish they split the two concepts into separate sets - a psi blade set and a psi fist/projection set.  Still, it's quite cool looking.

 

Notable mentions:

-Dark melee - one of the earliest sets I ever tried, and the primary of ym namesake back around the game's launch.

- Kinetic melee - has some very cool animations, only I wish it was more of a mid-range set, (it reminds me a lot of a DBZ or SF2 type of character).

 

Cheers!

Edited March 17, 2020 by biostem

[Tahliah]

This one is easy: ice blaster primary, hands down.

 

Waaay back in the day I used to play Diablo/II, and I loved the sorceress with her icy blasty goodness, so when a work acquaintance was talking about COH (this was way before Going Rogue and all the other stuff), I thought it sounded fun and of course made an ice blaster as my very first toon.  She was so much fun to me, the whole game was like a revelation, really.  I fell completely in love with COH and have never fallen out of love.  That original ice blaster was my test run, and my next ice blaster (Ice Ice Baby) became my main.  

 

The first toon I rerolled on HC was Ice, and she's better than ever!  I'm not a melee player, and I like the challenge of having a squishy alt and then having to make her survive through her build (on which I've spend many many hours and many many millions) and on continuously being challenged to kite, use her secondary powers, and work with my teams to ensure she does her best damage and doesn't face plant.  Heh.  She still does, but she is by far my favorite alt even after all these years (maybe especially after all these years since I didn't get to play her for so long).

 

I also love to play plant/ trolls,, emp/ defenders, dark/ anything range (troll, def, mm, whatever), demons/ mm.

 

Plant/ trolls are just a complete blast to play, emp keeps me busy especially on larger teams (so I may not always be in the mood to run one), and dark is just deadly good fun.  Of all the mm pets, I love the demons the best (though beast/ is my close second favorite).  They are more hardy than other mm pets, look amazing, do lots of range damage (which I love), seem easier to buff/protect no matter my secondary, and are just genuinely good fun.  

[KelvinKole]

Not a lot of love so far for Fire Melee, Spines, battle axe, broad sword, or stone. 

 

I'm not a fan of battle axe or broad sword either. Numerically they do well, but are just not much fun to me. 

 

I'm surprised about fire, stone, and spines. Fire isn't the best numerically, but I always found the blazing havoc it produces to be fun, even though theres no special mechanics. Stone I've always liked the feel of; screen shaking, lots of kd/ku, seismic smash is a beast. And Spines has a nice mix of range, st, and Aoe damage, a very good set but maybe people don't like the look?

 

Whats generally most important to people when they pick a set? Look/esthetics, theme, dps performance? I'm curious because I generally prioritize dps performance, but the game is so out of hand anyway that I might try something that's just straight up fun to play. 

Edited March 18, 2020 by KelvinKole

[ninja surprise]

I love Stone Melee and wish it were available to Scrappers. Like KelvinKole says - (but I have screen shake disabled) the smashing, chunks of dirt flying, knocking critters around, throwing a boulder at a flying enemy and knocking them to the ground... loads of fun.

 

Fire blasting is my favorite blasting.  I think I've tried all the others and just didn't like them as much based mostly on sound effects. The whooshes of the fire blasts just work for me.  BUT I can't stand Fire Melee, especially one attack that makes a loud shrieking sound.

 

I like Dark Melee to pair with a secondary that doesn't have a self-heal or endurance recovery. DM/SR was my first 50 and I also love it with Ice Armor, even though it has a heal and endurance.

 

The last two favorites would be tied between Electric Melee, Staff, and Dual Blades.

 

I have an incarnate Titan/Ninjitsu Scrapper that I thought would be my main but then I keep playing my tanks in SR/Elec and Shield/Earth.  So may fun combos!

Edited March 18, 2020 by ninja surprise

[crkohl]

I’ll echo a few other people here and say Claws is my favorite set.

 

The fact that you get Spin at lvl 6, one of the best PBAoEs in the game, makes leveling a blast. The sound effects are some of my favorites.

 

I have 6 lvl 50s and two of them are Claws (Claws/Bio Scrapper & Claws/DA Brute) which I think says a lot. The Claws/Bio in particular was the fastest character I’ve ever leveled as it was just too much fun.

 

Dark Melee is second for me simply due to badass-ness. Love the soul noir style. My “main” is DM/SD. Very excited for Shadow Maul changes.

[Carnifax]

War Mace. Nice and chunky and the tier 9 with its 180 cone and knockdown just feels great.

 

Staff Fighting. AoE > AoE > Quick slap > Breakdancing PbAoe which debuffs and procs and back to the start. Tier 9 feels great as a finisher too. Yes its silly but I like it. It seems to have longer ranges on everything too (??). Hayete the redraw. Why doesnt it have a redrawless version???

 

Claws, although I havent played it much in Homecoming. The knockback cone would be much nicer thanks to Kb2Kd.

 

Didnt like Rad at all. Seems really Slow and the contaminated mechanism is hard to predict.

 

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Carnifax

[Without_Pause]

1 hour ago, Carnifax said:

Didnt like Rad at all. Seems really Slow and the contaminated mechanism is hard to predict.

 

 

Damage aura and the T9 makes it on the easier side for me.

 

1. Claws.

2. Rad.

3. StJ.

 

Rad might move up. Other primaries honestly need some play. Kat I did on a scrapper so I know I will like it. I just haven't officially done it as a brute. Rankings are also as a brute. StJ moves up if we add in other melee ATs, see stalker.

[Zuta]

 

SS/Fire ...bang n burn

 

DM/ Unvuln (beastly tough)....never got hit, when he did...it was a scratch.....that would get healed by drain.  PvP with an energy/stone brute was a stalemate.  

 

Stone/Electric - beast..fault kept most mobs perma disoriented and on their backs.  Tested extensively.  These two compliment each other well.  Skip tremor, it would actually slow you down due to animation time.....just the fast recharge with fault and hammers was amazing.  

 

[Heraclea]

Dark Melee - The Swiss Army Knife of melee sets.  Strengthens defense sets.  Adds a layer to resist sets.  Self heal is powerful and fast if slotted for healing,

 

Radiation Melee - another interesting toolbox of strange tools you don't quite recognize but find quite handy,

 

Kinetic Melee - solid debuffs, entertaining animations.

 

Fire Melee - you get a sword, and it's on fire! 

 

Spines - If you're patient, Quills is all you need. 

[CaptTastic]

Fire Blast: The speed of the animations more so than the damage just makes it feel fast and frantic. 

 

Super Reflexes: Click and go, easy soft-capped defence, recharge buff. What’s not to love? 
 

Stone Melee: BANG, screen shake, bigger BANG, wallop! Most underrated and underused set on whole game imo. Just lacking in an AoE chain really, so I get why many aren’t keen. 
 

Trick Arrow: It’s not the most powerful set, but it’s far better than it’s given credit for. It’s also tremendous fun will quick recharges with Oil Slick particularly brilliant. 
 

Electrical Armour: A set with a huge ceiling in terms of survivability. Quick recharge heal, great resists, PBAoE -end, recharge buff, just brilliant if paired with the correct set. 
 

 

[Troo]

JUST FIVE!?

 

Ranged

• Radiation Blast - Irradiate at an early level + Cosmic Burst (big stun and -40% def)
• Fire Blast - Blazing Bolt is a favorite animation and sfx & Rain of Fire
• Ice Blast - The king of pew pew pew fast attacks & a monster T9

oops Brute forum

 

Melee

• Stone Melee - but I don't take the hammers
• Energy Melee - no need for a diatribe here
• Super Strength
• Dark Melee
• Battle Ax

Honorable mention

Ice Melee

Savage Melee

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Troo