Need a rewarding challenge. Tell me what to play

[KelvinKole]

This might sound odd, but I’m looking for suggestions for a character that rides that thin line between crushing it and about to face plant with one wrong move. I’m not looking for something easy, but rather something challenging to play that will perform very well at its best, or rather poorly If I build it wrong, time something wrong, or sequence things out of order. Making any sense? Maybe a blaster or dominator? 

 

Goals would be to solo some AVs and solo some +4/8 content. 
 

What say you?

[fitzsimmons]

A glass cannon blaster.  No investment in defenses or resists.  All recharge, damage and procs.  This way you'll have a heavy reliance on inspirations, strategy/pulling or outside buffs.

 

My favorite version of this is my ice/plant blaster but you can make a glass cannon out of any toon.

 

Aside from that, checkout some of Myshkin's mad king builds.  He has a really good one for an ss/rad brute who does extremely high damage but if he/she is in a mob for too long a time, they'll get cut down.

[siolfir]

A */Kinetic Corruptor is a very active playstyle that greatly rewards melee range risky behavior (Fulcrum Shift, Transfusion, and Transference), but some primaries offer more mitigation than others. Without building to softcap, winning or faceplanting is usually a matter of whether or you're in an animation and/or if Transfusion misses because when you need to heal, you need it now and if not the whole spawn vanishes a few clicks after Fulcrum Shift. When building to the softcap, it's a question of which attack coming at you hits (and does it carry a mez).

 

You could go with a Defender also for earlier access to Fulcrum Shift, but I prefer the higher damage cap (and scalar) for Corruptors and mostly complain about being out of endurance all the time to people who expect me to exemp below level 30 (the lowest level you can exemp to without losing Transference).

 

Blasters feel much the same way but IMO are a bit more consistent (higher hp, more base damage, can boost damage without being surrounded and aren't completely shut down from a stray mez) and I treat playing Kinetics as a fun minigame where I try to see how long I can stay at the damage cap while stacking Siphon Speeds for recharge.

 

Edited May 17, 2021 by siolfir
rewording, rearranging

[ZorkNemesis]

Perhaps a little out of left field, but maybe try a /Regen Scrapper or Stalker.  Regen doesn't offer too much in the way of defense or resistance (Moment of Glory aside), instead giving you faster passive healing and click heals.  You often need to keep an eye on your health and be ready to pop Reconstruction, Dull Pain or Instant Healing at a moment's notice and even then you aren't invincible if the foes are hitting hard enough (or debuffing your regen, damn Praetorian Clockwork...).  Slipping up on your heals can easily get you killed as you lack strong defenses to be able to take the attacks.  Building one out may also require some planning to help fill in the lack of defense and resistance to be able to stand up to the big alpha strikes.

 

In terms of Scrapper vs Stalker, Stalker might be a bit more challenging.  /Regen on Stalker trades Quick Recovery for Hide and Stalkers also tend to have lower amounts of AoE for dealing with large groups as well as lower base health.  Big criticals and the smidgen of defense from Hide might be worth the tradeoff though.

[Koopak]

Ill note /regen when well built spends most of its time asleep. But once ya bump up to actually dangerous stuff or if yer trying to tank when there's no Brute or Tanker around, then it becomes a very active set that can survive almost anything if you manage your powers right, but you collapse fast on a mistake.

Personally I find Tri-form Warshade to be great for this, good management of powers and enemy counts allows you to be a little god, unkillable and slapping out big damage AoEs, but if you goof you keel over fast.

[KelvinKole]

Interesting suggestions so far, thanks and keep em coming. 

 

I mained a fire/Kim corr on live for a long time, so probably not gonna go that route, but it does fall into the niche that I’m searching for. 
 

I didn’t think about /regen. That’s probably in the lead for me as I’ve never played it and feels like it could have that magic good but not easy feeling. 
 

@Koopak thanks for the warshade suggestion. I’ve seen a couple of these guys around and they do look fun. I’ve also never played one. Would this be a tri-form or human form?

[Koopak]

1 hour ago, KelvinKole said:

Interesting suggestions so far, thanks and keep em coming. 

 

I mained a fire/Kim corr on live for a long time, so probably not gonna go that route, but it does fall into the niche that I’m searching for. 
 

I didn’t think about /regen. That’s probably in the lead for me as I’ve never played it and feels like it could have that magic good but not easy feeling. 
 

@Koopak thanks for the warshade suggestion. I’ve seen a couple of these guys around and they do look fun. I’ve also never played one. Would this be a tri-form or human form?

Tri-form, need it for the nova damage scale and the double mire, i recommend the MFing Warshade guide, changed my goddamn life. https://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011/01/mfing-warshade.html

My only regret is my only active warshade is redside which means "active" is a relative term. As for regen theres a few people around that can really help you learn and master the set. I consider myself pretty good? I've put ALOT of effort in but I havent had a good chance to compare notes with my fellow regen mains.

[Arbegla]

I'll put my hat in for /regen as well.

 

Its a very active playstyle, especially with a weapon primary (like Katana, or Broadsword) as you can get decent defense, but you need to be active with it, using Parry/Divine Avalanche as often as possible.

[Onlyasandwich]

If you want a challenge as well as a very powerful character, I recommend any controller with the storm secondary, but building without defense bonuses in mind.

 

You could of course go for softcap, but relying instead on your many powerful controls and positioning abilities is interactive and fun. I recommend storm secondary because it has outstanding damage and lots of extra tools to pull out proactively and tame the situation.

 

For AV soloing ability, illusion may be most ideal, but lacks the immobilize that helps you better leverage aoes. Other primaries will excel in other content, but will be more restricted in what AVs they can solo.

 

My personal favorite is fire/storm.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Onlyasandwich

[Gulbasaur]

1 hour ago, Onlyasandwich said:

I recommend storm secondary because it has outstanding damage and lots of extra tools to pull out proactively and tame the situation.

I'll back this up - storm solos very well. It applies constant pressure in an area and suits a sort of hover-blaster style of play really well. Once you get Lightning Storm and Tornado you move from safely chipping away at enemy health to just wrecking things. It scales really well with knockback as you can game that for recharge, which has the downside of nuking your endurance bar.

[JJDrakken]

Petless Mastermind, your basically lowest DPS in game....  If you want a challenge.

[plainguy]

On 6/1/2021 at 12:37 PM, JJDrakken said:

Petless Mastermind, your basically lowest DPS in game....  If you want a challenge.

Was gonna post the exact same thing. 

[SmalltalkJava]

A /kin petless MM.  Bend it by putting some proc's in the attacks. 

[SomeGuy]

x/bio scrapper. You're either killing everything (including the AVs/monsters) or you're in the hospital. If this isn't the case for a x/bio scrapper/stalker then they aren't pushing it. I can't attest to the ranged recommendations. But I can for sure attest for x/bio. It's the melee definition of glass cannon. As squishy as regen with more damage.

Edited August 10, 2021 by SomeGuy

[DreadShinobi]

Regen may be an active armor set but imo doesn't have that rewarding pay off. Inherently any melee archetype is going to be a safe thing to play and the only way to truly appreciate the uniqueness of each enemy faction is to do so without mez protection or an armor set. For this reason I am very fond of playing blasters in particular, as well as most support archetypes.

 

I like the blaster and stormie suggestions above. Storm summoning offers many ways to mold a battlefield to your liking. Storm/sonic is my favorite as a force multiplier for teams. Sonic is a fun minigame where the timing of your attacks really matters, hitting critters with your blasts before your ally attacks land their heavy hitters, and not too preemptively that your debuff will wear off before they do. Storm/sonic is also an exceptional choice to have fun with Burnout, which can instantly recharge your freezing rain, tornado, lightning storm, and dreadful wail - a very high impact long cooldown performance power spike. Stormie also needs to be careful about how it plays, you dont have a self heal and you can generate a ton of aggro.

 

Not mentioned yet is playing a poison defender. Similar reasoning as the above it is a high risk high reward power set with minimal self protection but some massive force multipliers. Other than shooting off envenom, you get alot of flexibility to focus on your blasting. Maximizing venomous gas potential adds an extra layer of risk. I personally dont use neurotoxic breath, but it could be a power you enjoy with your intended playstyle goals as it guts your foes recharge and movement speed and lets you kite effectively when needed. Poison trap has a pretty good cooldown, but you will need different strategies to approach a spawn depending on whether it is available or not

 

 

[SmalltalkJava]

8 hours ago, DreadShinobi said:

is playing a poison defender.

Poison is a pretty unique play set.  It definitely can lead to some edge of your seat game play.

Edited August 10, 2021 by SmalltalkJava

[Snarky]

Fire/Elec Blaster I believe is one of the most extreme damage dealers.  It works in near melee range constant. You depend on killing as armor.  You are going to ride the lightning there.