Haven’t played anything but Brutes and Scrappers for years, what can I do that’s totally different in terms of gameplay?

[leeowensoas]

Title pretty much covers it. I fell in love with my melee toons and haven’t switched play styles in a decade. What’s something totally different that still can solo effectively (AVs, groups up to *8, maybe +2)?

[Six-Six]

Blaster or MM. Totally different play style if that's what you're looking for. No armour to speak of, but once you get used to them, they can definitely hold their own.

[MrAxe]

Controllers. You'll also get more impressive looking powers that way, too.

[roleki]

First thought was a Mastermind, but an Emp Defender would also be a drastic change of pace.

[Blastit]

Controllers would be very unlike what you usually play, yes. You get to use control powers and support. Illusion/Radiation should have you pretty set for soloing, too.

[Marshal_General]

Gravity controllers are a lot of fun. Pick people up, toss them around and then throw a refrigerator at them.

[KaoticKarl]

Or you could mix all three of the above and go for a Dominator. A Dom can get controls, pets, and blasts in a pretty fantastic little package. Once you can achieve perma-domination, you also get full time protection to mezzes/stuns the other three don't have access to until incarnates. It's not the best AT in terms of raw power or min/max, but I think a dom is quite good on the fun factor scale.

Edited January 8, 2022 by KaoticKarl

[Andreah]

1 hour ago, Marshal_General said:

Gravity controllers are a lot of fun. Pick people up, toss them around and then throw a refrigerator at them.

Try a Gravity/Kinetics or Gravity/Time controller, both are very fun, powerful, thematic, and different than a meleer.

[InvaderStych]

6 hours ago, leeowensoas said:

I fell in love with my melee toons and haven’t switched play styles in a decade.

 

***/Martial Combat blaster is the "gateway drug" from melee-only to everything else.  It also has two of the most fun powers in the game (Ki Push and Burst of Speed), tons of style, and Storm Kick/Dragon's Tail will feel familiar while figuring out the difference between scrapperlock and blapping.

 

Coming from a melee-only focus during Retail, I had tried diving head first into "very different" numerous times without success until I discovered /MC.  Now my non-melee experiments go a lot further than they used to before the blaster. 

 

Anyone who's been mostly melee throughout The Cities should try a /MC blaster at least once. 🙂

[Marshal_General]

1 hour ago, InvaderStych said:

 

***/Martial Combat blaster is the "gateway drug" from melee-only to everything else.  It also has two of the most fun powers in the game (Ki Push and Burst of Speed), tons of style, and Storm Kick/Dragon's Tail will feel familiar while figuring out the difference between scrapperlock and blapping.

 

Coming from a melee-only focus during Retail, I had tried diving head first into "very different" numerous times without success until I discovered /MC.  Now my non-melee experiments go a lot further than they used to before the blaster. 

 

Anyone who's been mostly melee throughout The Cities should try a /MC blaster at least once. 🙂

Make it a DP/MC and kick someone through the air in slow motion so you can shoot them in the face before they land. My favorite thing is to send them flying, spin kick them before they get out of range and then shoot them for added insult.

[arcane]

Every powerset combo in this game can solo +4x8, just to clarify 

[catsi563]

3 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

 

***/Martial Combat blaster is the "gateway drug" from melee-only to everything else.  It also has two of the most fun powers in the game (Ki Push and Burst of Speed), tons of style, and Storm Kick/Dragon's Tail will feel familiar while figuring out the difference between scrapperlock and blapping.

 

Coming from a melee-only focus during Retail, I had tried diving head first into "very different" numerous times without success until I discovered /MC.  Now my non-melee experiments go a lot further than they used to before the blaster. 

 

Anyone who's been mostly melee throughout The Cities should try a /MC blaster at least once. 🙂

Ill add to this by saying thtat when i made a DP MC blaster it fundamentally changed my thought process on Blappers as viable, for the longest time i was in the camp of blapper bad

 

then i rolled DP MC and EVERYTHING changed. Suddenly in order to be effective i had to be IN the action swinging with every power i had from melee to ranged and it was FUNNNNNN 

 

so yeah id give a DP MC a try theyre a blast to play

[Without_Pause]

1 hour ago, arcane said:

Every powerset combo in this game can solo +4x8, just to clarify 

* Depending on the mob and mission and at various levels of speed. My Fort cranks through +3/x8, but has had to lower the level at times. 

 

Controllers can be great, but there are more limited if you are looking for something to solo 1-50. Ill is great, but there is that waiting period until PA, and then you still need to get PA downtime minimalized. Fire is also great, but end heavy. I think a Plant/storm would be a great breakaway from melee, but again, end issues will be there even if you are on teams at times depending on the team. Others as a good gateway would be a Fort or Dark/dark and Earth/stone Dom. Beam is lacking in AoE, but is stellar for ST and AV hunting. Have a blaster with some AoE in the secondary and that should work fine. I currently have a Water/temp and a Fire/rad I love. I know Ice/fire has done a solo MofITF at +4/x8.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Without_Pause

[Bill Z Bubba]

1 hour ago, arcane said:

Every powerset combo in this game can solo +4x8, just to clarify 

 

There's a whole lotta data missing from this statement. It's true, while leaving out "but many of them will involve hitting the hospital multiple times per mission to refill insps" or "lean heavily on P2W cheats" or "statement is only valid after 3 lvl shifts and only in DA." Or at the very least "will take 20 times as long to accomplish the same task." I mean... even "can solo at +4/x8 once 50 and fully IOed out" would have been a good thing to add.

 

To the OP, I was always melee-centric as well. And when soloing, I still am. I have very few squishies I found to actually be FUN soloing from 1 to 50 but going ahead and staying stocked up on the defensive amplifier for mez protection will go a loooong way to making whatever you choose more fun.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Bill Z Bubba

[Nyghtmaire]

4 hours ago, Marshal_General said:

Make it a DP/MC and kick someone through the air in slow motion so you can shoot them in the face before they land. My favorite thing is to send them flying, spin kick them before they get out of range and then shoot them for added insult.

My Sonic/Martial does the same but with insulting them terribly (via Scream) as they fly through the air. Vicious Mockery for COH.

[Nyghtmaire]

3 hours ago, arcane said:

Every powerset combo in this game can solo +4x8, just to clarify 

This is a terrible mindset and an unrealistic, unqualified goal for the reasons stated above. It’s perfectly fine as something for a person to strive for if that’s their interest, but hardly a meaningful metric.

[TheOtherTed]

3 hours ago, arcane said:

Every powerset combo in this game can solo +4x8, just to clarify 

Back on live, my Kinetics / Archery defender couldn't solo a bank mission at default settings...  Granted, though, I wasn't IO'ed out to the hilt, either.

 

In general, I am not and never will be the go-to guy for optimized builds, but I can tell you what I find fun and why.

• Archery, in all its forms, matches Robin Hood visual appeal with "Swiss army knife" utility
• Dark anything has built-in damage mitigation in the form -ToHit debuffs (among many, many other things), plus SOUL NOIR spookiness
• Controllers of all types are very nearly untouchable once you get the hang of your controls (doms too, I suppose, but all my doms end up becoming controllers somehow).  That said, controllers require some, shall we say, patience...
• I haven't played Energy Manipulation (a blaster secondary) much since Live, but it's like the aforementioned Martial Combat, with more of a "Hulk SMASH" thing going on.  With either of these sets, knock-back is part of your personal defense - use it wisly

I'll also throw out a couple of my personal rules-of-thumb certain types of builds:

• Blappers:  Take what you want, but eat what you take.
• Controllers with heals:  If you're healing more than controlling, it's time to let people die.  It's the only way to save them.

Current squishy builds that I'm loving:  Archery / Martial Combat blaster, Dark / Dark corruptor, Dark / Nature Affinity controller, and Radiation / Storm corruptor.

[DocRadio]

13 hours ago, leeowensoas said:

Title pretty much covers it. I fell in love with my melee toons and haven’t switched play styles in a decade. What’s something totally different that still can solo effectively (AVs, groups up to *8, maybe +2)?

Stalkers. Sure they're melee... but kind of glass cannony until the upper levels when they can scrap consistently without eating pavement.  And even then, they're more the strategic type than the wade into massive spawns and dominate like scrappers and brutes.

[DoctorDitko]

4 hours ago, arcane said:

Every powerset combo in this game can be an absolute blast to play!

FTFY

[Doomguide2005]

Masterminds, PB and WS, any buff focused support set are to my mind the most different.  

[arcane]

Obviously my statement requires some assumptions like probably IO’s, definitely modest inspiration use, AV’s not guaranteed to be included, and probably some warning labels on carnies or whatever. Now y’all calm down.

 

My mindset may be “terrible”, but at least it allows me to enjoy a powerset regardless of its meta status.

[macskull]

I feel like most of the responses in here missed the "I want to be able to solo AVs and 4x8 content" part of OP's post. Tossing in another vote for the good ol' Blaster.

[Apparition]

53 minutes ago, macskull said:

I feel like most of the responses in here missed the "I want to be able to solo AVs and 4x8 content" part of OP's post. Tossing in another vote for the good ol' Blaster.

 

Yep, or a Radiation Emission Corruptor.  Beam Rifle, Fire Blast, or Ice Blast for primaries.

[cohRock]

While you asked for something "totally different", there is a ranged choice I haven't seen mentioned.  You could try a Sentinel.  This would give you armor and mez protection like you have been playing (but not as strong), and, like blasters, the secondary power sets all include some form of significant endurance boost, which is something you aren't necessarily used to as a melee player.

[arcane]

Defenders, Blasters, and Tankers are my favorite AT’s, probably in that order. I vote Defender.