WHY is your favourite toon your favourite?

[Captain Paragon]

I have many but my favourite at the moment...

 

"The Leveller" cause that's what he does. Level things....

 

Em/Bio scrapper!

 

and it's one of my favourite bands! 🤘

[UltraAlt]

On 5/25/2021 at 9:27 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

But when it comes to all of our toons, what I've noticed is that many of us seem to have our favourites

 

I was attacked for saying this on another thread. Not worded the same way, but the same point.

 

On 5/25/2021 at 9:27 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

So the question is "why is X, Y or Z your favourite, not what or who?"

 

I'm not really following the question. At least, I don't think that I'm really following it.

 

My gut reaction is "the character I'm current playing" but that isn't always the case.

Sometimes I feel pigeonholed by my teammates to pick a character that will work best with the others on the team, so I'm picking the best to fit in that situation and not necessarily the one that I had planned on playing or feel like playing.

 

So I guess I would better stated my favorite character would be the one that I wanted to be playing at the time (versus actually playing them). 

Which character/server that is varies constantly.  It seems. And I might not even be playing/be able to play when I get that itch to play a certain character.

 

That being said, looking at the question from another direction ... I tend to team. When I'm teaming, I'm trying to figure out the best way to work with my teammates, so I guess that kind of makes me more of a support player regardless of what archetype that I play. So I guess that is my favorite in that sense.

[TraumaTrain]

My favorite toons are my favorites because of concept. Names, costumes, backgrounds (whether actually typed out or not)... On my favorite characters, they just happened to coalesce into awesomeness.

 

Other favorites are some of the ones that I have remade from back on live.

 

Favorites don't often necessarily get much play, but they're still faves. 

[Tahliah]

What a fascinating topic for discussion!  In the spirit of the question, I'm writing my reply having just read the OP and no other posts (I'm going to go back and read them immediately upon posting this of course!).

 

My favorite toon is my main and badger; she's an ice/ice/ice blaster, and I love her to pieces.  The only game I had ever played for any length of time before COH was Diablo, and in that game, I played a cold sorceress.  So when a friend of mine at work (way back in the day) told me about COH (this was before Villains), I immediately gravitated to what I knew best:  cold/ice blasting.  I was so excited to find a game in which I could play "my" cold sorceress and be able to fly and go where I wanted and do what I wanted (and not have to click on stupid chests for goodies). 

 

It was so amazing, and I still remember what it was like to create my first toon ever in COH, an ice/ice blaster named Tahliah.  It was that feeling of finally having all the pieces and they all fit.  I didn't need to find this perfect piece of armor or weapon or whatever to build my ice queen.  I could ice blast away and explore and kill stuff and eventually (this was back when you couldn't get travel powers until lvl 14) fly!  I ended up re rolling my first ice/ice blaster after she hit 50 (I didn't understand how respecs worked back then!), and the new and improved version I decided to name Ice Ice Baby (in my mind for the primary and secondary powers and, yes, as a nod to that song).  I knew, from playing that first one through the game what I did and did not want for powers, and I did finally figure out that I could respec, so I got to play with her powers, slotting, sets, and etc.).

 

No matter what other ATs I rolled on live or here on HC,  I still love my ice/ice/ice blaster best of all.  She's so freaking fun to play!  I can solo her, run her on teams, play however I like whenever I like.  She's the only toon I have that has every costume slot not only open but filled (I even recreated my first costume I ever created, and it's silly and dumb-looking and basic since you had to unlock capes, various costume pieces, and etc. back then, but I love it still).

 

When COH went dark, I was on Ice Ice Baby in AP with friends I'd met in the game and had been playing with for many years; it was a sad day, and I literally cried.  When I found out that HC was out, that we could do more than fly around an empty Paragon City (which of course I did, and was very very grateful to be able to do even that), I was elated.  And yes, when I first logged in, got the log-in screen (that music!), then the character creator . . . and then actually got into the tutorial and there were people there, other players!  I cried again.  I was so happy, it was so truly like coming home! 

 

There was no doubt, never a question in my mind, that I would remake my ice/ice/ice blaster as my very first toon on this wonderful miracle we got access to after seven long years of missing home and friends and  trying (with many of those same COH friends)  to enjoy any other game (closest I came was Secret World and SWTOR, but both lost their luster very quickly). 

 

I have other favorite toons, but she is my all-time favorite of all-time ever. 

Edited May 27, 2021 by Tahliah

[Spaghetti Betty]

I can't pick a favorite. It's impossible. Instead, I'll do a top 3.

 

Twisted Samsara (Dark/Rad Scrapper) - Far from the first character I made, but quickly became one of my favorites. I made him after the buffs made to Dark Melee. I had never really tried either Dark Melee or Radiation Armor. My first thought was, why don't I make a character that completely thrives on being surrounded by enemies? Fold Space was also just introduced. Needless to say, a couple of costume reworks, a bio, and some levelling quickly made this guy one of my fastest clearers. I've been told having Fold Space is overkill, but it just looks so cool. Porting everyone in, popping Soul Drain, Ground Zero as a mini nuke, then mauling down whatever is left is so satisfying. He's a great AV soloer, too.

 

Avallach's Golem (Stone/Regen Brute) - This was my first foray into Stone Melee. I had been turned off to the set for so long because of its long recharge and heavy end cost. Pairing it with Regeneration seemed like a no brainer. Despite that, building it was confusing as hell. @Hyperstrike helped with that. This toon hits so hard it's ridiculous. There's a reason Stone Melee hasn't been ported to Scrappers, and it's because of Seismic Smash. At full Fury, it'll do about 500 damage easy. Before Build Up. And since I already needed tons of Global Recharge, I can use Stone Mallet -> Heavy Mallet -> Seismic Smash in a pretty solid loop. Brute Max HP cap makes Regeneration one of the more durable armors they can pick. Easily takes +4x8 content.

 

Spicy Red Pepper (Fire/MA Tanker) - My favorite tank by a mile. An in-game friend actually got me onto this combo (I discovered the Brunker way later). Way too much fun. It doesn't even feel like I'm tanking half the time when I'm in a team. Resistances aren't too hard to cap since I'm a Tanker, which is refreshing for Fire Armor. Between Burn and the fast recharging kicks in MA, I'm dishing out just as much DPS as the next Brute, and there's never a dull moment in gameplay. I don't even mind getting knocked around a bit. It's kinda funny.

[Solarverse]

Theme, pure and simple. Enegy Blast is a pretty lacking set when compared to some of the other sets, plus I have to waste a lot of slots with -Knock Back Enhancements instead of grabbing enhancements that add proc damage, which even further hurts the set. Energy has always been lack luster in this game from the first day...yet I still play it and it still remains my main. Because the visuals and sound and theme behind Energy is just....beautiful. And since Solarverse manipulates energy, even in my comic, it fits him perfectly.

[Marshal_General]

On 5/25/2021 at 12:52 PM, Luminara said:

 

Legionette, my Staff/Willpower brute, is my favorite because everything coalesced.  The powers, the look, the bio, it all came together perfectly in a way none of my other characters did.

 

I like Staff Melee because it has two cones and a PBAoE, and I can chain them without relying on Hasten.  There's no target juggling with her.  She also has a fully functional single-target attack chain, so she's not sacrificing anything to gain a complete AoE chain.  I also like the animations, the subtleties of little things like the way her ankles flex when she's leaning back to hammer something with Sky Splitter, or how her body repositions itself when she's transitioning from Guarded Spin to Innocuous Strikes, and the sounds have a satisfying solidity to them.

I like Willpower because there's no unnecessary key mashing.  I don't have to frantically search for a heal, I don't have to watch a timer, the set just does what it needs to do and allows me to do what I want to do, that being AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH with Staff Melee attacks.  It somehow feels more effective than other toggle-based mitigation that I've used for other characters, like Invulnerability and Energy Aura.

 

The look is small, slender, not powerful or indicative of strength.  Roman armor, Roman sandals, very Amazonian, but sharply contrasted by her slight frame.  Simple hair, simple adornments, nothing fancy or flashy... she's plain, but it's a plainness that works well.  This ties in with...

 

The bio portrays her as being under-developed in respect to others like her, and, consequently, thought to be incapable of doing what she does.  But she's stubborn, determined and, even though she's frightened by many things and realizes that she might be humiliating herself, she's brave enough to face her fears, and she's confident enough in her abilities to put herself to the hazard.  She believes in herself, and to me, that's the greatest power anyone has.

 

Legionette is my Wonder Woman (i said that in another thread...).

My problem with staff is the sudden need to start break dancing in the muddle if your AoE chain.

[siolfir]

On 5/26/2021 at 6:22 PM, kikyoku said:

Plus, every good stalker is Too Cool For School. They have cool edgy names like Crisis Limit or mysterious ones like Day Dream. My inner edgelord teenager is alive and well.

My Stalker is named Worst Healer Ever (50+++ Psi/Bio). Does that count as a cool edgy name? 😄 She does get a lot of blind invites, though. Maybe it's because the name is so edgy... I didn't think of that.

 

As for a favorite - I can't say that I have one since what I want to play at any given point varies. So there's no why to it, beyond "am I having fun playing this right now?"

[Scarlet Shocker]

On 5/27/2021 at 3:44 AM, UltraAlt said:

 

I was attacked for saying this on another thread. Not worded the same way, but the same point.

 

 

I'm not really following the question. At least, I don't think that I'm really following it.

 

My gut reaction is "the character I'm current playing" but that isn't always the case.

Sometimes I feel pigeonholed by my teammates to pick a character that will work best with the others on the team, so I'm picking the best to fit in that situation and not necessarily the one that I had planned on playing or feel like playing.

 

So I guess I would better stated my favorite character would be the one that I wanted to be playing at the time (versus actually playing them). 

Which character/server that is varies constantly.  It seems. And I might not even be playing/be able to play when I get that itch to play a certain character.

 

That being said, looking at the question from another direction ... I tend to team. When I'm teaming, I'm trying to figure out the best way to work with my teammates, so I guess that kind of makes me more of a support player regardless of what archetype that I play. So I guess that is my favorite in that sense.

 

I don't know why it's a difficult question to follow, but to ask it a different way, what attributes of a character make it more interesting and fun for you to play than others? Those could be anything from power sets, to back story to play style or anything else.

[UltraAlt]

7 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

I don't know why it's a difficult question to follow

 

This is the part the kind of threw me off... (but I guess I did answer it already anyway, so...)

 

On 5/25/2021 at 9:27 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

not what or who?"

[Xeres]

My MA/WP scrapper.  First is the concept which is similar to Wonder Woman.  She's my fav hero.  But, I also like the powersets.  I just really like MA with it's pretty quick and good looking animations save for Eagle's Claw, but I can deal with that.  WP is a very low maintenance secondary.  I rarely run out of stamina unless it was drained, and if my health is low, I just find a few S/L mobs to stand next to as she's S/L capped and her regen increases the more mobs that are in melee range.

 

That's all of the on paper reasons.  The real reason is more subjective.  I just enjoy playing her the most.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Xeres

[ninja surprise]

On 5/25/2021 at 11:52 AM, Luminara said:

Legionette, my Staff/Willpower brute, is my favorite because everything coalesced.  The powers, the look, the bio, it all came together perfectly in a way none of my other characters did.

 

 

Ditto, except that Miraculass is a Staff/SR Brute.  Name, powers, bio, and costume all came together quite serendipitously. I thoroughly enjoy both powerset, their visual effects and sound effects.

 

I think my other favorite character is Lumpy Puncher, a Bio/Dark Melee Tank. Love all the sound effects, powers, self-buffs, and being able to manage a lot of aggro.

 

I have a lot of nearly favorites: Fire/Time Blaster is a royal hoot to lay waste with; loads of Scrappers, a couple Controllers... Never got far with Defenders, MMs, Corrupters, or the other ATs. I have a Warshade I love but it's so much work doing the tri-form dance. But I totally love the visual and sound effects on the Warshade!

Edited May 29, 2021 by ninja surprise

[Greycat]

On 5/25/2021 at 8:27 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

So the question is "why is X, Y or Z your favourite, not what or who?"

 

Well... there's not really an "a" or even "a couple." There are ... levels. Or categories, perhaps, since there's a lot of overlap in them.

 

There are some with no connection, of course - generally utility characters, like base builders. No story in my head for them, no personality, they're there to be a wrench or hammer (so to speak.)

 

There are some that are a concept or powerset I might find interesting. Even a name I might explore because it clicks with a concept or powerset to make me think about it a different way. Not always *fun* to play, though, sometimes frustrating - but they're up a step from the utility sorts, at the very least.

 

There are "legacy" characters. I have some with absolutely massive backstories. They're all over the place on the "favourite" scale. Some are remakes, some just aren't the same without certain people or groups or whatnot, some are *right there* played constantly.

 

Anything I'm actively RPing tends to be high on the favourite scale. (And their backstory keeps growing. And playing tends to be in and out of game.)

 

(This also tends to be why I don't follow "builds." I end up playing someone else's character, as far as I see it, so there's a lack of connection there. )

[Tahliah]

21 hours ago, Greycat said:

(This also tends to be why I don't follow "builds." I end up playing someone else's character, as far as I see it, so there's a lack of connection there. )

I feel the same way, but i had never really been able to articulate why I don't follow anyone else's builds.  This is it exactly.

 

And it's one of the reasons that my ice/ice/ice blaster is my favorite.  She's the product of a LOT of time and energy and respecs.  Trying out this iO set or that, trying out this Frankenslotting combo, trying out ALL the available powers before settling on the ones I think work best , trying out  . . . well, you get the picture.  She is a labor of love, and she's all mine, my "creation."  That definitely adds to my enjoyment playing her.