Most fun while leveling?

[soulerflare]

I love the concept of masterminds but have never really been able to stick with one all the way up. I see another interesting build and switch when the one I’m playing feels incredibly slow to start. 
 

Wondering what everyone has found the most fun throughout the leveling process? I tend to solo cause my playtime is erratic with a little one.
 

I really want to see one through to the end! 

[Meknomancer]

Thugs/dark, using darkest night to herd mobs into tar patch while enforcers gun them down and the bruiser goes to work and the arsonist spits fire on everything. Doesnt hurt having a heal that instantly tops up everyones hp, a massive - regen debuff in howling that also happens to rez team mates or just to throw at the mob to stun it and Fluffy to add more - to hit. And you have gang war. And your practically invis thanks to shadowfall, totally invis if your running superspeed on top. I ended up levelling 3of them between live and HC. Bots/dark comes pretty close too when assault bot gets its upgrades and everything in the tar patch finds itself standing in a burn patch. Those 2 combos were definitely my favourites levelling with Mercs/bubs coming 3rd and one of the very few i enjoyed levelling in praetoria, just got better when i got repulsion bubble and anything trying to melee just got bounced away...easily my laziest toon just bubble the pets and watch them go to work with the ranged attacks and kb meaning you dont have to do much at all.

[pblue]

4 hours ago, Meknomancer said:

 with Mercs/bubs coming 3rd and one of the very few i enjoyed levelling in praetoria, just got better when i got repulsion bubble and anything trying to melee just got bounced away...easily my laziest toon just bubble the pets and watch them go to work with the ranged attacks and kb meaning you dont have to do much at all.

 

I fully agree. Mercs/FF is simple, clean fun. Most things die under the sustained fire of your army men before they even get in range and those that manage to get close are bounced all the way back by Repulsion Field while you drown in a sea of shell casings. It never gets old.

 

But as we're talking about fun while levelling, one thing to bear in mind about Force Fields is that you can pretty much get any pet Defence soft-capped or close by level 20. Considering how the 20s can be tough for most Masterminds, this is a considerable advantage if you are going it solo.  Of course the other Defence based Secondaries are a lot more versatile.

Edited March 20, 2022 by pblue

[plainguy]

Anything Trick Arrow because I think it really has some cool stuff with it.. 
Oil Slick is pretty dam good it really is good at wiping out low end mobs.. 

I am not crazy on Undead but it does have a heal attack. 
Thugs with an AOE attack with a fire proc to light up ignite. 
Demons would be good as their fire would also ignite Oil Slick and the whip attacks is pretty cool. 

Robots is also good.. 

I have a Robot Trick Arrow it's pretty fun. 
It started out as a last pet only build as I like to mess around with Petless and Semi Petless builds for a challenge. But I had to go full pets because I can see the potential with just the last pet. 

 

[The_Warpact]

I like zombies they are just goofy fun, I have a /Dark, /Poison, and/Electrical. Puking on people, KU knights, and the Lich locking everything down. 

[Crysis]

Thugs/ or Demons/ pretty much paired with anything other than Empathy or Kinetics are fun all the way up.  With Thugs, one of the more enjoyable builds I have is far from the most powerful, but I took Cross Punch and Leviathan’s Knockout Blow.  Follow the Bruiser and help him do the beatdowns, the rest of the Thugs just provide supporting fire.  With Burnout and lots of +FF Procs in your attacks you routinely can get out Double Gangwar which while they do piddling levels of damage really is a fun sight to behold..  

 

Very enjoyable “gimmick” build.  

 

Also had a lot of fun with Demon/ or Thugs/ Storm.  Chaos, but requires a lot of Endurance Management which can often take away from fun factor.

[soulerflare]

Thanks everyone! I’ve tried a couple of your recommendations. 
 

I love the theme of Bots but it’s a slog to 32. Demons feels a lot more instant gratification that’s for sure! I’ll keep plugging away til one grabs. 
 

I randomly tried beasts/nature and that feels amazing lower levels. But I worry about survivability long term. 
 

This game is rough for altitis. When I settle on a primary I find a secondary I wanna pair it with then I think about the synergy it would have with a different primary and suddenly I’m level 1 and clueless again. Hahaha. 

 

 

[tjknight]

Necro/Thermal =  Flaming Zombies. 

 

Seriously never gets old to watch - and you can get Zombie's resist pretty high with pet resist IO's + Thermal Shields. 

[PLVRIZR]

On 3/20/2022 at 12:25 PM, Meknomancer said:

Thugs/dark

 

This, for sure.  Here's mine:  Leveling, Incarnate, S/L farming, you name it.

 

https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1529&c=749&a=1498&f=HEX&dc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

[Six-Six]

I have a Bots/Dark/Soul that's a solo GM killer. Starts out a little slow, but steady. Things pick up drastically with Soul tools. Oh, and Group Flight on Bots is da bomb.

Other than that, I do enjoy doggies and demons. I only have project toons for them: one only has the 3 demonlings and the rest are power pools (pool boy challenge), the other only trained until 10 (currently level 25) with just the three little doggies and the first two kin powers... which is pretty much a testament to how strong they are. I also have one with just the Assault Bot (Appleseed concept).

My Ninja's are so hyperactive that they run all over the place and are always out of end, so they just stand there waiting for an attack to be possible.
My Mercs are also shelved, but that's more of a personal gimped project that doesn't allow IO sets.
And my Bots/FF seems a bit redundant and lackluster--although he was my first, so he probably just needs a respec with all the things I've learned so far.
I've honestly haven't levelled up my Zombies, Demons, and Thugs to their full glory (full six-man army), but I'm sure they'll be just as fun... though Zombies run as fast as NPC hostages =(.

On a different note, I have a Tankermind Crab that plays really close to an MM, though the recharge prevents me from having all my pets out at the same time.

And everybody's got petless or two, right?

[Clave Dark 5]

On 3/21/2022 at 3:25 PM, soulerflare said:

I love the theme of Bots but it’s a slog to 32.

I have never found Bots a slog, maybe you needed to turn them off and then back on again?  Maybe the secondary wasn't working well there.  I've done FF, Emp, and Dark, and never had a bad time of it.

[Carnifax]

Thugs / Traps is quite fun solo. Especially if you aim for Burnout and Fold Space. 

 

"Behold. My stuff"

-FoldSpace noise-

-Explosions-

 

 

 

[soulerflare]

3 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

I have never found Bots a slog, maybe you needed to turn them off and then back on again?  Maybe the secondary wasn't working well there.  I've done FF, Emp, and Dark, and never had a bad time of it.

I’ve only gotten a Bots character to 25. I’m sure if I pushed through to get the assault bot it would get better but I just struggle with the low single target. Very survivable though. 
 

I have a Bot/Time that I like and is close to that last pet that I’ll push through. But I’m working on Demons/Nature right now that is immensely enjoyable the whole way through.

 

[pblue]

6 hours ago, Carnifax said:

Thugs / Traps is quite fun solo.

 

Thugs/Traps was my first 50 in CoX back on Live, first max level character in any MMO. I was even more clueless back then and I mostly soloed (the two things probably not unrelated) so I can honestly that my Thugs carried me all the way to 50. It is a very strong combination. 

[soulerflare]

2 hours ago, pblue said:

 

Thugs/Traps was my first 50 in CoX back on Live, first max level character in any MMO. I was even more clueless back then and I mostly soloed (the two things probably not unrelated) so I can honestly that my Thugs carried me all the way to 50. It is a very strong combination. 

I have officially rolled a thugs/traps with all these suggestions. Hahaha. I’ll get the three I’m working on to 32 and see who I love the most! 😄

[Force Redux]

I'll add in that Beasts is a pretty even leveling experience, and the pets are fun.

[soulerflare]

On 3/23/2022 at 6:35 PM, Force Redux said:

I'll add in that Beasts is a pretty even leveling experience, and the pets are fun.

I kinda wanna make a beast/Kin just for something different. 
 

currently have:

-thugs/dark

-thugs/trap

-bot/time

-demon/nature

 

Have a fun concept for Demon/Storm that I’m tempted to level up too. Really liked my Plant/Storm troller a LOT. 
 

One of those is bound to hook me I think. They’re all mid 20s right now. Just working on one an evening as I have time. 

[Mr. Apocalypse]

Bots/Dark/Soul. Like said above it can feel slow to lvl 32. However, I would like to add that, you never feel weak.  Below is my current live build.

 

https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1598&c=737&a=1474&f=HEX&dc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

 

 

 

[TygerDarkstorm]

Bots are a bit of a slog until 32, lol. But Bots/Nature has been a pleasant and fun leveling experience. I am also fond of my beasts/dark, demons/storm, mercs/traps... I have a bit of an MM obsession, lol. In regards to your comment about beasts/kin, it's a ton of fun! It's also super fast and can be a super chaotic experience if you don't keep a tight control over the beasts; they're fast naturally, adding speed boost to them just makes them insane, and they're melee pets which can also get them in trouble in missions and the like.