Need AT suggestions for my style of play

[Mashugana]

I'd like to have a strong, super fun to play level 50 as my 'main' to go do fun stuff whenever I do not feel like leveling.  My playstyle is:

 

• Chill: I play super casual and chill - I'm usually medicated to my groovy place - I do not need to min/max on this character - no stress please
• Mostly Solo: I usually solo so I'd like this to be a solo build - able to take anything but the end game PvE content with ease
• Some Team: I do like to team occasionally though so I do not want it gimped for teams
• Stories: I want a character that can easily go and do any of the stories i missed easily
• Street Sweep: I want an AT that can run through DA and other zones and just wreck stuff - again, does not have to be the best, just survivable and able to dps and move along at a good clip
• Cash: I have a few hundred million so I can IO a bit but I am not looking for a billion INF build
• Fun Fun Fun: I want an AT that is just plain fun to play - cool animations, feeling of power - I'd take an A level build that is fun over an S+ level build that is boring to play

 

I know a lot of this is subjective - I also think almost any AT can do what I ask with IO sets - but I still could use some direction.

 

Scrapper, Brute, and Tank all seem like obvious ATs for me - but which is the most flashy fun? Are there controller or MM builds that might be overlooked but are hella fun? Controllers like fir/kin?

 

My ADHD brain is freaking overwhelmed with choices. And do not even get me started on trying to settle on a costume with a billion awesome options...

 

😉

 

Thank you.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Mashugana

[arcane]

Scrapper or Stalker seem like the sweet spot for your criteria. If you’re going to IO up, more mitigation than that will often be wasted in solo play unless you want to survive afk for easy vet levels. Scrapper will be a tiny bit more intuitive and simple to play than Stalker.

[Cancrusher]

Possibly less good at wrecking stuff, but Tankers are always a safe bet.  Survivable for most any content and generally welcome in PUG's for drawing aggro and anchoring the team.

 

I would stay away from controllers, blasters, and sentinels, given your requirements.  Controllers and Blasters can be trickier to solo and Sentinels are often not greatly desired on teams (although I have never been denied a spot on a team while playing mine- so far as I know, anyway).

[Bionic_Flea]

I think Brute hits the sweet spot for those requirements. 

 

I'd recommend Mace/Shield or Rad as sturdy yet easy and both add extra damage.  Mace can be customized to all sorts of looks and may not be as flashy as some of the new sets, but it also doesn't have gimmicks like combos or stack builders.  Just bang people upside the head.

[Frozen Burn]

I would say, in no particular order:  Scrapper, Brute, Sentinel, Tank, Widow, Operative.  These, you really don't have to worry about TOO much to keep them alive and can just focus on "wrecking stuff" like you want. 

• Stalker could be an option, but they have fewer AOEs compared to the above so that's why I left them out.  
• Sentinels do lower damage out the above, but they're good for chill playing and survivability, if you want to shoot stuff as opposed to punch stuff.
• If you are leveling up and doing story content, Tankers may FEEL like they're going slow given their offense powers are secondary.  

As for "Fun" builds.... There are Blaster, Controller, and MM builds that I think are fun, but I don't think they would meet your "chill" requirement as these ATs tend to take a little more work to stay alive compared to the above listed.  ...but that's the "fun," for me at least - in addition to story content and wrecking havoc. 

• Blasters - I'd ALWAYS rather be playing a blaster over any AT and I build them to survive and play them as the offensive juggernauts they are (I hate Sentinels - even though I have an incarnate one - but again, they do provide a "chill" blasting experience, but you trade off damage output for that).  Blasters are MY goto when I want to just do random stuff, street sweep, solo content... well, do all the stuff you listed.  But not everyone is like me. 🙂 
• Most (not all) Controllers would be difficult to solo until you get higher level and even then, some will just take forever to kill anything. 
• MMs can be fun and there are many great builds out there, but again, you may have to do some work to keep them and your pets alive.

 

[Gobbledigook]

Maybe a Bio Tanker with Savage melee might be a fun animalistic way to play.

I like Rad /SS but Rad with anything is good. Ice melee could be a bit different.

Or a elec melee/shield Stalker/scrapper could be fun.

[Mashugana]

10 minutes ago, Frozen Burn said:

I would say, in no particular order:  Scrapper, Brute, Sentinel, Tank, Widow, Operative.  These, you really don't have to worry about TOO much to keep them alive and can just focus on "wrecking stuff" like you want. 

• Stalker could be an option, but they have fewer AOEs compared to the above so that's why I left them out.  
• Sentinels do lower damage out the above, but they're good for chill playing and survivability, if you want to shoot stuff as opposed to punch stuff.
• If you are leveling up and doing story content, Tankers may FEEL like they're going slow given their offense powers are secondary.  

As for "Fun" builds.... There are Blaster, Controller, and MM builds that I think are fun, but I don't think they would meet your "chill" requirement as these ATs tend to take a little more work to stay alive compared to the above listed.  ...but that's the "fun," for me at least - in addition to story content and wrecking havoc. 

• Blasters - I'd ALWAYS rather be playing a blaster over any AT and I build them to survive and play them as the offensive juggernauts they are (I hate Sentinels - even though I have an incarnate one - but again, they do provide a "chill" blasting experience, but you trade off damage output for that).  Blasters are MY goto when I want to just do random stuff, street sweep, solo content... well, do all the stuff you listed.  But not everyone is like me. 🙂 
• Most (not all) Controllers would be difficult to solo until you get higher level and even then, some will just take forever to kill anything. 
• MMs can be fun and there are many great builds out there, but again, you may have to do some work to keep them and your pets alive.

 

 

Thank you! I love blasters! do you have tricks to make them survivable? I understand IO sets a bit but I am still learning - not sure if you use Combat Jumping or Tough and Weave - love to know

[ZorkNemesis]

3 hours ago, Mashugana said:

 

Thank you! I love blasters! do you have tricks to make them survivable?

 

It generally boils down to "kill everything before they can kill you" but I've found that slotting sets for ranged defense helps a lot too.  Staying mobile and out of range help a lot; hovering away from melee or rapid repositioning with combat jumping will keep you up and shooting longer.  Also take advantage of whatvever controls you might have access to, helpless targets aren't fighting back.

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by ZorkNemesis

[Frozen Burn]

9 hours ago, Mashugana said:

 

Thank you! I love blasters! do you have tricks to make them survivable? I understand IO sets a bit but I am still learning - not sure if you use Combat Jumping or Tough and Weave - love to know

 

 

5 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

 

It generally boils down to "kill everything before they can kill you" but I've found that slotting sets for ranged defense helps a lot too.  Staying mobile and out of range help a lot; hovering away from melee or rapid repositioning with combat jumping will keep you up and shooting longer.  Also take advantage of whatvever controls you might have access to, helpless targets aren't fighting back.

 

 

Happy to give some advice.  @ZorkNemesis has some good advice too, but slotting for ranged defense only is only good for those blasters that stay at range.  However, even a ranged blaster gets overwhelmed by melee mobs and some secondaries lean towards being in melee range anyway where a more robust build is required and you'll need to also focus on melee and AOE defenses and/or typed defenses -- primarily smashing, lethal and energy (and others, if you can). 

 

Yes, CJ, Tough, Weave, Maneuvers, Scorpion Shield, Hover, ...anything you can use to get more defense is good... but I also do not believe in sacrificing key primary and secondary powers just to take a ton of pool powers, either.  (Only you can decide which powers are key to you and your playstyle.)  Some builds, I slot for resistance over defense -- sounds, crazy, I know! --and use a resistance shield from the epics.  But this is generally due to themes, but you can be just as survivable with a resistance build and lower to moderate defense.

 

Don't feel like you HAVE to be soft capped on defenses -- if you can, great!  If not, get as close as you can.  Don't feel bad about using inspirations! 1 or 2 (depending) small purple insps generally will fill in defense gaps.  Same with oranges for resistances, especially to survive defense debuffing.

 

A big thing that most people ignore in their builds is +HPs.  I cannot tell you enough how getting max or close to max (1847 HPs) is.  It can allow you take a couple extra hits when your defenses fail (and they will -- thank you 5% rule! 🙂); it also gives you more time to eat some inspirations; gives another chance for your Preventative Medicine +Absorb proc to fire; or give you a chance to click one of those "OH SH*T" powers like Rune of Protection, Hibernation, Force of Nature, or etc.  Generally, after a battle and I see my fallen brothers' and sisters' empty HP bars and I'm still standing... I see they're at max 1400-1500 HPs, while I'm generally at 1750-cap (1847).  

 

Alpha strikes are key, kill as many as you can quickly with AOEs, use control powers (including KB) to keep things off you and control pesky bosses and LTs.  Cycle between targets keeping 1 boss mezzed while you work on another.  

 

Many will also skip either a T1 or T2 attack in their primary to get a more efficient attack chain, higher DPS, or for slotting a pool power, or etc.  I always take both T1 and T2 attacks because when I do get mezzed and I'm out of break frees, that extra attack can be the difference between life and death -- and it has saved me over other blasters at times.  

 

To make a Blaster survivable, it is not just about the build and capping a defense area... Again, you don't have to be capped at anything... A well-rounded blaster (Def/Res/+HPs) and using techniques like kiting, controlling, and ambushing -- and a few insps here and there -- will make you extremely survivable.

 

....To each their own.  There are other philosophies out there.  But these are some of mine and they haven't let me down yet.  

 

Hope this helps some!

Edited January 19, 2022 by Frozen Burn

[Six-Six]

 

• Mostly Solo: The only advice I have for going solo is take your time to think about your actions... have a plan B or C in case your plan A doesn't work so well.
   
• Some Team: If you really like the toon and prefer a different play style (diff powers, etc.) when you're on a team, you have access to another build which you can switch to on the fly (with a keybind or macro shortcut).
   
• Stories: you can easily do all the story arcs solo with any AT. Of course, don't go Leroy Jenkins and use some strategy and you'll be fine. When I solo, I've found my sweet spot for most toons to be either +2x4 or +4x2 depending on the AT. Anything less seems a bit boring, anything more seems too tedious.
   
• Street Sweep: once you reach 45+ DA won't be much of a problem. You have to set your sights on harder foes like GMs and AVs, which you can also solo.
   
• Cash: You don't really need that much to have fun. Some Uncommon and Rares have very good set bonuses and are quite cheap compared to (IMHO overrated) purples. Also, there's a trick to getting expensive IOs like LotG and HP procs for a whole lot cheaper.
   
• Fun Fun Fun vs Chill: Only you can determine this. What is fun for you? button mashing? sniping, nuking, etc. This will also determine the AT you'll want to play.
  
  I personally prefer Blasters, Doms, Corrs and Spiders... plus the occasional MM. You can set them up to have range and melee attacks with a bit of CC here and there. The fact that they don't have Armour like the melee toons and Sentinels is also attractive to me (Spiders have crazy Armour btw). you do have access to some mitigation through tertiary power pools and set bonuses, but I've found that the fear of death is the major fun factor for me as I play all of my toons perma death.
  
  I usually start with a concept... like a ninja with supernatural powers, for example. Then i choose which AT will fit the concept. Then comes the most important part: the costume. I don't worry so much about build and powers, instead how close I can get to the concept in my head. 

[arcane]

22 hours ago, arcane said:

Scrapper or Stalker seem like the sweet spot for your criteria. If you’re going to IO up, more mitigation than that will often be wasted in solo play unless you want to survive afk for easy vet levels. Scrapper will be a tiny bit more intuitive and simple to play than Stalker.

I want to add that this response was to address your criteria, but obviously the best thing to do is just make everything. 🙂 I can count all the powersets I don’t have at level 50 with just my two hands.

[Without_Pause]

I chill out the most on my Stalker. You can do as much content as you like since you can stealth as needed. I would say StJ, Ice, Elec, or EM paired with EA, Stone, or Shield. Elec and Ice are super friendly to Stalkers. Ice is better overall and on the defensive side as where Elec is the AoE king. Shield can take some time to get going since it offers no end recovery aid.

[Novacat]

One that hasn't been mentioned yet: A soldier of Arachnos. The animations aren't always the flashiest (but an audibly satisfying amount of quick BRRTTT and plenty of grenades), feels like a Bane Spider has most of those boxes checked. 

 

You have decent melee, decent range, can do a LOT of AoE, you can cloak, placate and critical-beatstick. Your bane spider armor is an excellent single-power package that offers some mez resistance, bonus hp, and some protection to all damage types. You have the Leadership auras built into your secondary set and they're less end-intensive to boot. You can even go for some summons. I like using the soul mastery epic to go with it; Dark Obliteration is nice, fast and negative damage, Gloom is a strong single target addition to your ST ranged lineup... 

 

You have a relatively resilient character with alright support (and plenty of opportunities for -res, from procs to venom grenade and surveillance), that has little difficulty handling streets and story missions whether solo or supporting teams.

 

Indeed, their lack of a revamp in the past few years leaves them lagging in the highest endgame stuff, and they do need a bit of love in that department (a stronger inherent would be a good start), but they're quite comfy and enjoyable at the casual work.

[Tahliah]

So apparently, you have already narrowed your choices to melee.  Can't help you there since my main is an ice/ice/ice blaster . . . but meets all of your listed criteria. One thing that seems a constant in this (and, really, every) game is that melee players can't do range and vice versa.  I certainly run the world's worst scrapper and once ran a tank that saw a purse-snatcher in AP and ran away.  Heh.  But I love my trolls, blasters, defenders, and MMs, and not one of them ever runs away from a purse snatcher (or anything else!).

[Clave Dark 5]

I was going to mention an MM that I recently made, Bots/Emp that I found very chill, but if you want melee , then that won't help.  Since HC came back I've found melee to be too much often, always having to run and juggle my targeting from one guy to the next.  I find it very chill to hover around followed by Bots who'll look very askance at anyone who dares take a pot shot at me, and do all my support from range.  But if I had to go melee it would be a stalker, being able to walk around in Hide it great.

[Mashugana]

Thank you all - so many options 🙂

[Mashugana]

On 1/19/2022 at 9:17 PM, Tahliah said:

So apparently, you have already narrowed your choices to melee.  Can't help you there since my main is an ice/ice/ice blaster . . . but meets all of your listed criteria. One thing that seems a constant in this (and, really, every) game is that melee players can't do range and vice versa.  I certainly run the world's worst scrapper and once ran a tank that saw a purse-snatcher in AP and ran away.  Heh.  But I love my trolls, blasters, defenders, and MMs, and not one of them ever runs away from a purse snatcher (or anything else!).

 

I actually prefer ranged - i did not know I could make blasters tough enough to meet my criteria

[Mashugana]

On 1/19/2022 at 1:36 AM, Six-Six said:

 

 

On 1/19/2022 at 1:36 AM, Six-Six said:

 

• Street Sweep: once you reach 45+ DA won't be much of a problem. You have to set your sights on harder foes like GMs and AVs, which you can also solo.

 

You can solo AVs? Cool! At lv 50 how do I find the AVs or TFs to solo? Through Oroboros? Is there a list of where the AVs are?

 

I had no idea - great fun - thank you!

[Gobbledigook]

8 minutes ago, Mashugana said:

 

I actually prefer ranged - i did not know I could make blasters tough enough to meet my criteria

I would say a Widow Fortunata then. Team buffs, nukes and good defences. One of my most laid back and potent characters.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Gobbledegook

[Mashugana]

On 1/19/2022 at 1:30 AM, Frozen Burn said:

 

 

 

Don't feel like you HAVE to be soft capped on defenses -- if you can, great!  If not, get as close as you can.  Don't feel bad about using inspirations! 1 or 2 (depending) small purple insps generally will fill in defense gaps.  Same with oranges for resistances, especially to survive defense debuffing.

 

 

 

Thank you! When I play in Mids what are the softcap goal numbers? is there a list somewhere?

[Without_Pause]

5 minutes ago, Mashugana said:

 

 

You can solo AVs? Cool! At lv 50 how do I find the AVs or TFs to solo? Through Oroboros? Is there a list of where the AVs are?

 

I had no idea - great fun - thank you!

Maria Jenkins has an whole arc of them.

 

Blasters can be made to be tough, but it is a question of how you define tough and how soon? Any squishy is in a similar boat. I don't think of soloing them as laid back though.

[Without_Pause]

4 minutes ago, Mashugana said:

 

Thank you! When I play in Mids what are the softcap goal numbers? is there a list somewhere?

45% to whatever you are building for. Some are based on the position(melee, ranged, AoE) and some are based on type(smashing, lethal, fire, etc.). Resist is based on the ATs I believe the range is 70%-90% depending on the AT.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Without_Pause

[Six-Six]

Have a look at this thread. forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/34050-where-to-find-avs

Edited January 27, 2022 by Six-Six

[Saikochoro]

Based on what you described I’d probably stick to the ATs that have built in mez protection, so basically the melees and sentinels. 
 

I’d probably go either scrapper or sentinel. I’d also pick energy aura as the armor for both as it basically has an answer for everything, except for heavy pure psi damage. You can build it to not need energy drain though it can be taken as a “just in case” power. Only click you will want to use often is energize for the end discount + it is also a nice heal. 
 

I also really enjoy shield defense. I actually prefer shield defense over energy aura, but shield likes set bonuses a bit more than energy aura and doesn’t have native healing or recovery. So if you choose shield I would go dark melee as the attack set (on a scrapper). Dark melee covers healing and end management and this is very synergistic with shield. 

 

For an energy aura scrapper, there are plenty of attack sets that work great. Dual blades is my favorite, but claws is also great. You could also go MA as that is just plain fun and stylistic. War mace is also a great performer. 
 

Sentinels don’t get shield so I still recommend energy aura. Pair it with fire blast or electrical blast and you are golden. It will do plenty damage and no you won’t be black listed from teams for playing a sentinel. You do however have the ease of play playing an armored character allows and also don’t have to chase mobs because you are ranged. 
 

All that said, there is absolutely nothing wrong in going tanker, brute, or stalker either. I just find scrappers to be the best generalist and sentinels have the benefit of being an armored ranged damage dealer. 
 

So my top recommendations are:

- Dual Blades or Claws /energy aura scrapper

- Dark melee / shield defense scrapper

- Electric blast / energy aura sentinel

 

For tankers, brutes, stalkers

- Willpower / claws tanker (super smooth and low maintenance)

- Street justice or energy melee / energy aura stalker

- Savage Melee / Bio armor brute

 

 

[StriderIV]

3 hours ago, Saikochoro said:

Based on what you described I’d probably stick to the ATs that have built in mez protection, so basically the melees and sentinels. 
 

I’d probably go either scrapper or sentinel. I’d also pick energy aura as the armor for both as it basically has an answer for everything, except for heavy pure psi damage. You can build it to not need energy drain though it can be taken as a “just in case” power. Only click you will want to use often is energize for the end discount + it is also a nice heal. 
 

I also really enjoy shield defense. I actually prefer shield defense over energy aura, but shield likes set bonuses a bit more than energy aura and doesn’t have native healing or recovery. So if you choose shield I would go dark melee as the attack set (on a scrapper). Dark melee covers healing and end management and this is very synergistic with shield. 

 

For an energy aura scrapper, there are plenty of attack sets that work great. Dual blades is my favorite, but claws is also great. You could also go MA as that is just plain fun and stylistic. War mace is also a great performer. 
 

Sentinels don’t get shield so I still recommend energy aura. Pair it with fire blast or electrical blast and you are golden. It will do plenty damage and no you won’t be black listed from teams for playing a sentinel. You do however have the ease of play playing an armored character allows and also don’t have to chase mobs because you are ranged. 
 

All that said, there is absolutely nothing wrong in going tanker, brute, or stalker either. I just find scrappers to be the best generalist and sentinels have the benefit of being an armored ranged damage dealer. 
 

So my top recommendations are:

- Dual Blades or Claws /energy aura scrapper

- Dark melee / shield defense scrapper

- Electric blast / energy aura sentinel

 

For tankers, brutes, stalkers

- Willpower / claws tanker (super smooth and low maintenance)

- Street justice or energy melee / energy aura stalker

- Savage Melee / Bio armor brute

 

 

All of these suggestions are absolutely golden, can't go wrong with any of them.

 

I've rolled Sai's DM/Shield Scrapper and (as he says) the synergy is amazing.

 

I'm itching to do another Scrapper myself, and I'm torn between DB/EnA and Claws)EnA.