Opinons on the funnest build to level the old fashion way

[I-Dirty]

Curious,

 

I dont want to PL, rush, any of that. just wondering what people would think would be the funnest?

[Xenosone]

Elec/shield stalker. If you plan to do any teaming macro combat teleport to target so youre not spinning around looking for targets to delete. 

 

[I-Dirty]

8 minutes ago, Xenosone said:

Elec/shield stalker. If you plan to do any teaming macro combat teleport to target so youre not spinning around looking for targets to delete. 

 

 

sounds interesting

[starro]

tank invulnerable super strength and after level 20 set difficulty to x8 and +2.  

[I-Dirty]

9 minutes ago, Xenosone said:

Elec/shield stalker. If you plan to do any teaming macro combat teleport to target so youre not spinning around looking for targets to delete. 

 

 

have to find/trytomake a build for that...seems electrifying 😄 lol

[Xenosone]

1 minute ago, I-Dirty said:

 

have to find/trytomake a build for that...seems electrifying 😄 lol

Its more aoe than a stalker is normally used to so dont be afraid to go up to +2 x4 or x6. Also lr and shield bash dont break hide and sb is pretty fast. Youll see

[DoctorDitko]

A Bots/Time Mastermind is a fun ride to 50.

I'm also partial to Willpower/Super Strength Tanks.

And, not to toot my own horn, but Illusion/Rad controllers are a heck of a lot of fun.

And a Storm/Ice Defender is a chaotic, noisy, blast!  (/Sonic is even noisier, but fun, too!)*

 

Those are all the ones I mostly soloed to 50 (Bots/Time on HC, the rest on Live).

 

Good luck and godspeed!

 

 

* Migraineurs and others with sound/light sensitivities may wish to check these sets out on the Beta server before committing.

[Techwright]

Fire/Ice blaster.   Though I don't remember exactly how bad the end drain was to level 20 doing it the old-fashioned way.   I just remember every character suffering massive end drain until the early 20s.  F/I deals a lot of damage for low levels, and any ice powers help control the melee range.

 

Now if you're soloing only, energy/energy blapper is a heap of a lot of fun, and you can cut loose and send guys flying, but if you're going to team, you'd have to reign in the knockback.

 

I would have said ill/storm controller, they're a blast, but not for soloing until about level 22 or so when he gets all his pets.  If you're teaming the old fashioned way, then yes.

[Zhym]

My Dual Pistols/Martial Combat blaster was a hoot to level though nearly all the content (red, blue, then going back for gold in Oro).  Getting Ki Push as a T1 power means you start with one of the most fun powers of the set: just try not saying, “Pull!” when you realize you can kick someone back and shoot them while they’re still in the air.  The ability to swap ammo means you can choose knockback for crowd control when soloing in earlier levels, then opt for extra damage in teams or at higher levels without respeccing or reslotting.  It’s just tons of fun.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Zhym

[SmalltalkJava]

an */energy stalker,  would be cool.    But I tell ya the leveling build for @Sovera's Fire/Ice Tanker that is referenced in this thread tempts me quite often.  It looks pretty cool. 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by SmalltalkJava

[tidge]

In my experience while leveling: Masterminds offer the most amount of variety while leveling (because you can skip the primary attacks) and at end-game (when you have all the extra slots).

 

After Masterminds, the VEAT have the interesting (or obnoxious, depending on attitude) feature of the forced level 24 respec that lets you choose/tune the character that you have been playing. The respec is IMO at the level where (if you have been playing through normal content) you will likely want to shift around slots and enhancements anyway, so I always see it (at least on the first build of a VEAT, I kinda hate it on builds 2 and 3 for the same character) as an extra reward for VEAT players just playing content.

 

For a smooth play experience, I think Stalkers are very good, until you start getting kidnap/rescue hostage missions. For those, Hide disrupts the mission in ways that can be painful for lower-level characters.

 

In Homecoming (and at the end of Live) the ability to add Prestige/P2W attacks (and boosts) at level 1 addressed one of the biggest problems the game had for players who just want to level up through content. Personally, I hated starting out with certain AT because so much time was burned at low levels waiting to attack enemies.

[0th Power]

Energy/Energy blaster. Next topic.

[Snarky]

I always had a rollicking time with SS/Will Brutes.  At 50 SS/Invul can be built stronger.  But for a tourist run through 1-50 I would recommend that.  Or with the recent changes Energy/Will Brute

 

I recently dud the same with a Dark/Dark Blaster.  It is faster but harder.  Driving a stripped down stock muscle car instead of a fully loaded touring sedan

[InvaderStych]

As this is how I've leveled all of my post-50 toons, here's the list of the ones I found fun enough to take all the way:

 

Savage/Willpower Brute - Super Easy Mode.  "Toggle and Forget" secondary with a fast/active and effective primary.

 

Katana/Rad Armor Scrapper - Solid combo.  Self-Sufficient yet still contributes big on teams.

 

Psi Melee/Shield Scrapper - Don't believe the Anti-Hype around Psi Melee.  Got to stick it through to 32 to, as PM doesn't make sense until GPB and ML.

 

Fire/Martial Combat Blaster - Mother of Gawd, Martial Combat is fun.  Pair it with just about anything. Seriously. For pure "fun factor" during the leveling experience, this was my winner.

 

Honorable Mentions & Works In Progress:

 

Electric/Shield Stalker - I'll circle back to this one eventually.  Needed to step away from it after running the entirety of Goldside using the "Switch Sides Every Time" Guide.

 

Beam Rifle/Devices Blaster - Lower levels weren't terribly satisfying with this one, but I'm coming around now that I've fleshed it out a bit and learned to play it better.

 

Most of my other toons are too "experimental" (usually built around some quirk I want to fiddle with) to be considered for the list.

 

Example: I'm working on a Savage/Invuln scrapper because I want to shuttle Gaussian's BU to Invincibility, letting me use Blood Thirst solely for managing stacks of Frenzy rather than wasting it as a traditional, pre-emptive build up.  Doing this on a Scrapper because the proc rate on Savage Leap means nearly on-demand crits by placing the +50% ATO in there.

 

Is that an optimal approach, or one that would be super fun to level the slow way?  IDK, but I like to fiddle with stuff like that.

[Grouchybeast]

16 hours ago, Zhym said:

My Dual Pistols/Martial Combat blaster was a hoot to level though nearly all the content (red, blue, then going back for gold in Oro).  Getting Ki Push as a T1 power means you start with one of the most fun powers of the set: just try not saying, “Pull!” when you realize you can kick someone back and shoot them while they’re still in the air.  The ability to swap ammo means you can choose knockback for crowd control when soloing in earlier levels, then opt for extra damage in teams or at higher levels without respeccing or reslotting.  It’s just tons of fun.

 

+1  This would be my suggestion, too.  They start out with fun powers, and pretty much every power you get on the way to 50 just adds more fun.  There's not really any flat spots.

 

(But you should always shout "Pull!" when you Ki Push a mob and shoot them mid air.  I swear it actually adds more damage.)

[Sakai]

19 hours ago, Xenosone said:

Elec/shield stalker. If you plan to do any teaming macro combat teleport to target so youre not spinning around looking for targets to delete. 

 

How would I do that?

[Hyperstrike]

21 hours ago, I-Dirty said:

Curious,

 

I dont want to PL, rush, any of that. just wondering what people would think would be the funnest?

Shut off XP.

Do as many different contact lines.  Then level up to the next tier.  Shut off XP again and do all the contact lines again.

Will take a while.  But you get to experience a huge chunk of the content.

Pick whatever AT and combo you want.

[Without_Pause]

Stalker: StJ/ea. A bit early on my Elec/sd, but I like /ea better.

 

Scrapper: Rad/sd. I was doing this instead of Dark/sd even though that build has a strong fan base. Having gotten them to 39-40, I lean towards Rad. Against All Odds fueling a damage aura and more AoEs. Season with -res procs.

 

Brute: Claws, StJ or Kat with WP. Savage/rad is early, but Savage fuels /rad. Fury adds to Savage's damage. Savage could use a rework on Hemo though. I will die on the hill Savage is what Claws should have been. TBD, SS/elec. It feels like it has potential in my head. I need to tweak the leveling build, and then go from there.

 

Tank: No official good answer as it is an AT I don't play much at all. I think my highest was my hardcore one, Elec/dark, which I actually did like. If not for me playing the brute version, Bio/rad might be my pick. Tanker AoE cap with two damage auras and more AoEs and the ability to switch to an offensive mode. 

 

Corr: Fire/dark. A Swiss Army knife of awesome. A nod to Fire/kin through.

 

MM: I got one to 50(Bots/traps), but I don't find the AT fun. I liked that build though.

 

Dom: Earth/earth. One of those, "How is this legal?" kind of fun builds. Plant/fire is great. My hardcore one on live died, and I rerolled it here, but axed it for some reason. I likely need to go back to it.

 

Controller: Earth/storm for sheer fun factor. Teams knew they could play stupid when I had that build. Ill/dark might win for feeling the most powerful overall(includes soloing).

 

Defender: Kin, Rad or pretty much anything with /sonic. Dark/dark. I think controllers got the better /dark port, but on fast moving teams, I felt like I was better off using the defender version as blasting away felt more useful.

 

Blaster: Water/temp since it was my first blaster to get to 50. Ice/ice is close. I even had a Water/ice before switching to /temp. Fire/*.

 

There's a handful of powersets I'm still waiting to get more experience with or at least get them high enough.

[Hew]

2 hours ago, 0th Power said:

Energy/Energy blaster. Next topic.

Slot for generic io kb enhs,

[InvaderStych]

21 minutes ago, Sakai said:

How would I do that?

 

My personal take on Combat Teleport:

 

 

I've since cleaned up my act a bit.  Mouse4 is still my default for CT to Target.  On toons with a tele-nuke (Burst of Speed, Savage Leap), that goes onto Mouse5.   I'll have to adjust that if I end up with CT on the Elec/SD stalker, which has 2 tele-nukes.  Hmm...

 

There are also much better suggestions in that thread than my own. Probably best to start from the beginning.

 

I highly recommend disabling default Field of View and adjusting the slider to suit your monitor size, aspect ratio, and resolution.  Doing so completely changed the Combat Teleport game for me, personally.

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by InvaderStych

[Coyotedancer]

Stalkers are my favorite AT to go Old School soloing with, but I also had a lot of fun doing that with a Street/Shield Scrapper awhile back. I also did it with a DP/Energy Sentinel last year, and that had its moments, too.

[Shred Monkey]

18 hours ago, Zhym said:

My Dual Pistols/Martial Combat blaster was a hoot to level though nearly all the content (red, blue, then going back for gold in Oro).  Getting Ki Push as a T1 power means you start with one of the most fun powers of the set: just try not saying, “Pull!” when you realize you can kick someone back and shoot them while they’re still in the air.  The ability to swap ammo means you can choose knockback for crowd control when soloing in earlier levels, then opt for extra damage in teams or at higher levels without respeccing or reslotting.  It’s just tons of fun.

 

I was going to say DP/Martial as well.  That PBAoE slow and Ki Push do a lot for keeping things out of melee ...and I love the animations.  It's a little slower solo then most of my toons, but it's still a lot of fun on teams.

 

 

[A Cat]

I had a lot of fun with my claws/electric brute. You get a very good pbaoe very early compared to some other melee sets, and I think electric armor looks cool. 

[Grouchybeast]

4 hours ago, Hew said:

Slot for generic io kb enhs,

 

Why go with generics, when six-slotting Kinetic Crash hits the ED cap for knockback and gives you a 7.5% recharge bonus on top?

[Sattymike]

I always enjoyed Stone / brutes.  Once they get going they just felt like they hit like a ton of bricks.  Earth control on teams was cool too.

 

I just started back up and my now teen daughter and I are running a villain duo - she’s an axe scrapper and I’m running a plant / dark troller.  Plant is pretty entertaining set with its creepers, seeds, fly trap.  Will let you all know how we fare.  Love that this is back..