Pool Powers Archetype

[Chalkarts]

Quite some time ago, someone on this forum suggested a character that, from 4th level on, had only Pool Powers.

I kinda want to try to get one to 50, just for lols.  

The question is what archetype/3 starter powers to go with.

 

I was considering something with Willpower and Melee because of the pool combat possibilities.

 

Where would you start with this?

[Redlynne]

A strange game.

The only winning move is not to play.

[Peacemoon]

6 minutes ago, Chalkarts said:

Quite some time ago, someone on this forum suggested a character that, from 4th level on, had only Pool Powers.

I kinda want to try to get one to 50, just for lols.  

The question is what archetype/3 starter powers to go with.

 

I was considering something with Willpower and Melee because of the pool combat possibilities.

 

Where would you start with this?

 

Okay here is a concept - natural hero agent character, with some shielding tech and pistols.

 

Picked because FF defender would be a great way to actually make this 'usable'! At least this way you'd get the maximum buffs/debuffs from Pools to sort-of-make-it-work and you could still bring your shields for some quasi-effectiveness (unfortunately with Force Fields, 99% of players won't even notice that you haven't taken anything except the 3 shields..).

 

Taking Deflection, Insulation and Dispersion Bubble - Personal FF if you want to cheat) . For a secondary take whatever you like, but pistols might be fun for this concept. Just take the first 2 powers (Okay so I'm cheating - thats 5 powers from sets! But I like to bend rules...) and it won't look so over the top, and work quite good as an 'agent' character. 

 

Then:

Leadership - with defender level numbers this would be something good you can bring. TAKE ALL 5!

Fighting - With boxing, kick and cross-punch you could get a semi-decent attack chain for when you don't want to shoot stuff with pistols, and by having all 3 they'd be buffed nicely. The base damage won't be too great so make sure you put procs in everything. Take Tough and Weave because you're going to have to be up close and personal, which is not where a Defender always likes to be.  With Disruption bubble your own defences should be decent.

Medicine - FF lacks heals, so bringing Aid Other, Stimulant, Aid Self, and Rescuscitate might give you something else to do in supporting the team. The field medic power will let you heal others under fire.

4th pool? Well there are options.

Teleport would be a handy one for recalling friends and teleporting foes, but you'd have to suffer teleport as a travel power (unless you just used Ninja run). 

Concealment would be pretty fun for your covert operation character. Misdirection would be a great way of avoiding aggro and disappearing should you find yourself in a sticky spot.

Presence mgiht be fun or similar reasons, but more for the placate and fear. I don't know how taunts work with personal force field? Taunt and bubble up?!

 

Are we allowed APPs? Assuming yes, then you have lots of options for flavour. With this concept and theme and powers, I would take Power Mastery. Power Build Up will give your shields incredible numbers. Force of Nature when you want to crazy. Total Focus when you've done so much boxing, kicking and punching that you're ready to finish them off! 

 

To be honest, it sounds pretty fun! 

 

 

[Replacement]

I would actually suggest Dominator or one of the VEATs.  Reason: good base multipliers.  You will still need to make an actual pick for level 2, and you will need to grab at least one other power from primary/secondary/epic.  But It gets a bit better if you at least let yourself take all of your Epics.

 

Presence + Experimentation = a surprising amount of utility and control.

[Peacemoon]

So thanks to this thread, this bad build was just created! 

I did cheat a little, just to make them a little bit more playable and capable of their 'central team role', but otherwise kept to the brief. You could easily drop Executioner's Shot and Dual Wield if you really wanted to though, or move some powers around as required. I tried to keep it playable at low levels.

Two power slots free, but otherwise soft-capped Ranged Defence and capped Smashing/Lethal resists. 

The nice thing about this character is there isn't a huge demand to max out global recharge. Which makes a nice change from my usual Controller/Dom builds! 

 

Criticism would be you could argue its just a really bad FF Defender build and not very interesting - but I guess that comes with the territory of this challenge!

*Edit and if you're wondering where the 5th LotG +recharge is, I had it in stealth, then dropped stealth and left the last slots empty, so people could customise - and forgot to put it back in!

 

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

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Agent Shields: Level 50 Natural Defender
Primary Power Set: Force Field
Secondary Power Set: Dual Pistols
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Power Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Deflection Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(3), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(3), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg(5), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(5), LucoftheG-Def(7)
Level 1: Pistols -- AchHee-ResDeb%(A), GldJvl-Acc/Dmg(40), GldJvl-Dam%(42), TchofLadG-%Dam(42)
Level 2: Dual Wield -- SprVglAss-Rchg/+Absorb(A), ExpStr-Dam%(42), Apc-Dam%(43), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43)
Level 4: Boxing -- TchofDth-Dam%(A), Mk'Bit-Dam%(43), GldStr-%Dam(45), GldStr-Acc/Dmg(45)
Level 6: Insulation Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(7), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(9), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg(9), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(11), LucoftheG-Def(11)
Level 8: Kick -- TchofDth-Dam%(A), Mk'Bit-Dam%(45), GldStr-%Dam(46), GldStr-Acc/Dmg(46)
Level 10: Aid Other -- NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(A), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(33), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(33), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(33), NmnCnv-Heal(34), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(34)
Level 12: Dispersion Bubble -- RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(13), RedFrt-EndRdx/Rchg(13), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(15), RedFrt-Def(15), RedFrt-EndRdx(17)
Level 14: Cross Punch -- Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Arm-Dam%(46), Obl-%Dam(48), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(48)
Level 16: Aid Self -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(17), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(19), Prv-Heal/Rchg(19), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(36), Prv-Absorb%(37)
Level 18: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(23), StdPrt-ResKB(23), ImpArm-ResPsi(29)
Level 20: Maneuvers -- RedFrt-Def(A), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(34), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(36), RedFrt-EndRdx/Rchg(36), RedFrt-EndRdx(21), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(21)
Level 22: Field Medic -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 24: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(25), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(25), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg(27), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(27), LucoftheG-Def(29)
Level 26: Tactics -- GssSynFr--ToHit(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg(39), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(39), GssSynFr--Rchg/EndRdx(39), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(40), GssSynFr--Build%(40)
Level 28: Executioner's Shot -- SprDfnBst-Rchg/Heal%(A), ExpStr-Dam%(48), AchHee-ResDeb%(50), Apc-Dmg(50)
Level 30: Vengeance -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(31), Rct-ResDam%(31)
Level 32: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Power Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 38: Resuscitate -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 41: Temp Invulnerability -- UnbGrd-Max HP%(A)
Level 44: Victory Rush -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 47: [Empty] -- Empty(A)
Level 49: [Empty] -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Quick Form 
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: Vigilance 
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run 
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(31), EndMod-I(37)
------------
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 6.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)
• 6.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)
• 6.5% DamageBuff(Fire)
• 6.5% DamageBuff(Cold)
• 6.5% DamageBuff(Energy)
• 6.5% DamageBuff(Negative)
• 6.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)
• 6.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)
• 8.5% Defense(Melee)
• 7.25% Defense(Smashing)
• 7.25% Defense(Lethal)
• 7.25% Defense(Fire)
• 7.25% Defense(Cold)
• 11.63% Defense(Energy)
• 11.63% Defense(Negative)
• 6% Defense(Psionic)
• 17.25% Defense(Ranged)
• 8.5% Defense(AoE)
• 27% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 6% Enhancement(Heal)
• 3.75% Enhancement(Max EnduranceDiscount)
• 48.75% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 15% SpeedFlying
• GrantPower Preventive Medicine (10% chance, if Scourge)
• 167.9 HP (16.51%) HitPoints
• 15% JumpHeight
• 15% SpeedJumping
• Knockback (Mag -4)
• Knockup (Mag -4)
• MezResist(Confused) 66.25%
• MezResist(Held) 66.25%
• MezResist(Immobilized) 66.25%
• MezResist(Sleep) 66.25%
• MezResist(Stunned) 66.25%
• MezResist(Terrorized) 66.25%
• MezResist(Teleport) 100% (20% chance)
• 15.5% (0.26 End/sec) Recovery
• 58% (2.46 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 28.25% Resistance(Smashing)
• 28.25% Resistance(Lethal)
• 14% Resistance(Fire)
• 14% Resistance(Cold)
• 8% Resistance(Energy)
• 8% Resistance(Negative)
• 21.5% Resistance(Toxic)
• 27.5% Resistance(Psionic)
• 15% SpeedRunning

Edited April 14, 2020 by Peacemoon

[SeraphimKensai]

I have Mediocre Man on Everlasting. It's a natural DP/Willpower Sentinel at lvl 9 currently. It uses temporary powers, and the plan is to work in a bunch of pool powers as it levels up. I've been wanting to get a toon where Jump Kick works, but the animation looks anything but mediocre despite the power itself actually being quite mediocre..

 

So I'm thinking experimentation, medicine, fighting, and likely presence but I still haven't finalized the plan.

 

Despite my usual push to 50, and instant final build over the course of an afternoon, I'm taking my time on this one as it's meant to be mediocre and a sidekick of sorts to actual superheroes.

[Burnt Toast]

My SG had a team of Pool Power heroes. You get your level 1 powers.. a power from primary/secondary at level 2 and the rest are pool/epic powers. 

Mine is a Water/Nin Sentinel ... who still has capped defense to all positional damage. It's fun to make them and see how effective they can be 🙂

[CaptainHit-Guy]

I have a Pool Power  MA/SR Scrap on Excelsior at L30, The Uncertainty. I took Storm Kick and the melee and ranged Defense toggles. So far I have completed the Leaping and Fighting pools plus starting in on Stealth and Leadership. He plays like a Stalker without an AS 😁. He almost never gets hit but does mediocre damage and gets winded realllly fast if I run all my toggles (Stealth toggles are for emergencies and scouting only).

I can only play him in short bursts because he levels sooo slowly but I am hoping that will improve when I get my EPP.