Do you make 'abnormal' builds?

[TheZag]

A healer blaster,  a ranged only scrapper,  a tanking sentinel,  pool powers only....  do you ever make characters that dont adhere to what would be considered a traditional build?

 

I ask because i realized i could get alot more damage out of my ranged only scrapper with one of the patron pools instead of darkness mastery.  And i do mean ranged only - his only melee attacks are the lvl 1 required melee attack and boxing.  I call him a scrapinel and it really is pretty much a sentinel with crits.

 

I find it fun to play some characters outside of their intended primary role.  Does anyone else ever make unusual builds that they find to be quite enjoyable?

 

[Ironblade]

Unusual builds?  Oooo, I love when someone starts a thread like this because then I can post about Toggle Man.

This is from the old forums and I actually made this character on Homecoming.  He is now level 50 and fully tier 4 incarnate.

Despite what the piece says, Toggle Man doesn't actually run out of END.  With set bonuses and every possible +END or +recovery proc, the build is perfectly viable.

 

 

Toggle Man

 

I would like to tell you about a friend of mine. His name is Toggle Man, and he has come to town to show you how things are done.

Toggle Man is a Spines/Dark Armor Scrapper. But not a wuss about it, like all those other Spines/Dark Armor Scrappers.  He took Lunge, because he had to. And he took Quills, because it's a Toggle, and he's Toggle Man. But as far as he's concerned, you can take the rest of those powers to the DUMP where they BELONG.

 

Oh, that's right. Toggle Man went there.  He went there, came back, and brought you a T-Shirt.  It says "I'm with Toggle Man, so you'd better Toggle On some RESPECT!"

 

Toggle Man took seven of the nine powers in Dark Armor. Can you guess which ones? Toggle Man does not need to rez.  Toggle man thinks self-heals are for little girls and communists. Toggle Man does not hurt. Toggle Man does not die.  Toggle Man runs Toggles. Eight of them, so far.  Nine. Sprint. Toggle Man is not such a connoisseur of toggles that he'd forget the granddaddy of 'em all.

Toggle Man runs Sprint all the time. Because Toggle Man knows what's up. Toggle Man wishes he could run all four Veteran sprints too, at the same time. But we try not to remind him of it... Toggle Man dies a little inside every time he thinks about a Toggle he can't run...

 

Don't cry for Toggle Man. He needs you to be strong. He needs you to Toggle On your Brave Face for him, ok? Ok.  Toggle Man likes the Leadership Pool. But not Vengeance. Even though Toggle Man's weak and puny allies are constantly kissing the floorboards around him, Toggle Man will not lower himself to use a Click power on their greasy carcasses. Because he's Toggle Man, and his job is to run Toggles, in case you hadn't heard.

 

Toggle Man likes the Leaping Pool. He likes it so much, he compromised and took Jump Kick! Mostly because Combat Jumping and Super Jumping wouldn't work together, and Toggle Man is unhappy when he has to choose between two toggles. Toggle Man took Acrobatics, because NOBODY pushes Toggle Man around.

 

Are you looking at Toggle Man funny? I didn't think so. Punk. You'd best run home to your Mommy and Toggle On a pair of dry underpants. Oh, Snap!

 

Toggle Man also likes the Speed pool. But not Hasten. Toggle Man's Toggles are always on, and that ain't changing.  So who cares when they recover? Not Toggle Man, that's for sure! Toggle Man loves Super Speed and Whirlwind, and he runs them all the time. Sometimes Toggle Man's friends get frustrated, and say, "Toggle Man, could you stop super speeding around, knocking all the guys all over the place?" and Toggle Man, he says "Sure, as soon as you stop BREATHING!" Toggle Man is not gonna keep quiet while suckas be dissin' on his Toggles.

 

Toggle Man likes Tough and Weave! Enough to take Boxing, even! Oh my gosh, Toggle Man has an "Attack Chain" now! But he doesn't use it, because he's not a wuss. He's Toggle Man, and his Toggles are good enough, thank you very much. Toggle Man likes Focused Accuracy. Take that, Stalkers! Toggle Man is watching! Toggle Man isn't going to take any crap from you!  Toggle Man also took Conserve Power, which isn't a Toggle, but he sets it on auto and pretends that it is. Awwww yeeeaah. Toggle Man is all about conservation. Toggle Man wishes he could Toggle the Ozone Layer back on, but he can't. Because of the restraining order.

 

Toggle Man loves Toggles so much, he didn't even take a power at 49, because he couldn't find any more Toggles. He is thinking about Confront, though, because he's sick of all these pansies seeing him coming and saying "Oh, crap! It's Toggle Man! We'd best run!" Well not any more, punk! Toggle Man is comin' to get'cha!

 

Toggle Man goes through endurance 8 times faster than he recovers it. Toggle Man can only actually finish turning all his Toggles on before his blue bar empties out, if he turns on Rest first, and that makes Toggle Man uncomfortable even if Rest is a Toggle too. Toggle Man wants to know if he can mooch a couple blues? No? That's cool. Toggle Man doesn't trust inspirations anyway. Since they're not, you know, Toggles. What's up with that? Why all the inspirations got to be Clicks, yo? That is whack.

 

Toggle Man. Coming soon to a Test Server near you.

[Luminara]

Electron Girl's guide to Kinetics scrappers. - City of Heroes Forums

[Skyhawke]

Human Only, jack of all trades Peacebringer. Had one on live and loved it. Just got him to 50 today. Solo is roooough til I get some sets slotted in, but on a team I can blast, nuke, scrap, tank for a couple minutes, heal in a pinch and even throw out a pbaoe hold. Am i great at anything? Nooooooo. Is it still fun to play. Yep.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Skyhawke

[Captain Fabulous]

Yes, sometimes. I have an AR/MC Blaster that only uses M30 Grenade and relies nearly totally upon MC's and Fighting's melee attacks. Obviously not optimal for a Blaster, but hella fun to play.

 

8 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

Human Only, jack of all trades Peacebringer. Had one on live and loved it. Just got him to 50 today. Solo is roooough til I get some sets slotted in, but on a team I can blast, nuke, scrap, tank for a couple minutes, heal in a pinch and even throw out a pbaoe hold. Am i great at anything? Nooooooo. Is it still run to play. Yep.

Also have one, and same.

[ChzBoi]

....does this count as abby normal?  My "One Slot Only" test. 🙂

[dtjunkie]

1 hour ago, Ironblade said:

Unusual builds?  Oooo, I love when someone starts a thread like this because then I can post about Toggle Man.

This is from the old forums and I actually made this character on Homecoming.  He is now level 50 and fully tier 4 incarnate.

Despite what the piece says, Toggle Man doesn't actually run out of END.  With set bonuses and every possible +END or +recovery proc, the build is perfectly viable.

 

 

Toggle Man

 

I would like to tell you about a friend of mine. His name is Toggle Man, and he has come to town to show you how things are done.

Toggle Man is a Spines/Dark Armor Scrapper. But not a wuss about it, like all those other Spines/Dark Armor Scrappers.  He took Lunge, because he had to. And he took Quills, because it's a Toggle, and he's Toggle Man. But as far as he's concerned, you can take the rest of those powers to the DUMP where they BELONG.

 

Oh, that's right. Toggle Man went there.  He went there, came back, and brought you a T-Shirt.  It says "I'm with Toggle Man, so you'd better Toggle On some RESPECT!"

 

Toggle Man took seven of the nine powers in Dark Armor. Can you guess which ones? Toggle Man does not need to rez.  Toggle man thinks self-heals are for little girls and communists. Toggle Man does not hurt. Toggle Man does not die.  Toggle Man runs Toggles. Eight of them, so far.  Nine. Sprint. Toggle Man is not such a connoisseur of toggles that he'd forget the granddaddy of 'em all.

Toggle Man runs Sprint all the time. Because Toggle Man knows what's up. Toggle Man wishes he could run all four Veteran sprints too, at the same time. But we try not to remind him of it... Toggle Man dies a little inside every time he thinks about a Toggle he can't run...

 

Don't cry for Toggle Man. He needs you to be strong. He needs you to Toggle On your Brave Face for him, ok? Ok.  Toggle Man likes the Leadership Pool. But not Vengeance. Even though Toggle Man's weak and puny allies are constantly kissing the floorboards around him, Toggle Man will not lower himself to use a Click power on their greasy carcasses. Because he's Toggle Man, and his job is to run Toggles, in case you hadn't heard.

 

Toggle Man likes the Leaping Pool. He likes it so much, he compromised and took Jump Kick! Mostly because Combat Jumping and Super Jumping wouldn't work together, and Toggle Man is unhappy when he has to choose between two toggles. Toggle Man took Acrobatics, because NOBODY pushes Toggle Man around.

 

Are you looking at Toggle Man funny? I didn't think so. Punk. You'd best run home to your Mommy and Toggle On a pair of dry underpants. Oh, Snap!

 

Toggle Man also likes the Speed pool. But not Hasten. Toggle Man's Toggles are always on, and that ain't changing.  So who cares when they recover? Not Toggle Man, that's for sure! Toggle Man loves Super Speed and Whirlwind, and he runs them all the time. Sometimes Toggle Man's friends get frustrated, and say, "Toggle Man, could you stop super speeding around, knocking all the guys all over the place?" and Toggle Man, he says "Sure, as soon as you stop BREATHING!" Toggle Man is not gonna keep quiet while suckas be dissin' on his Toggles.

 

Toggle Man likes Tough and Weave! Enough to take Boxing, even! Oh my gosh, Toggle Man has an "Attack Chain" now! But he doesn't use it, because he's not a wuss. He's Toggle Man, and his Toggles are good enough, thank you very much. Toggle Man likes Focused Accuracy. Take that, Stalkers! Toggle Man is watching! Toggle Man isn't going to take any crap from you!  Toggle Man also took Conserve Power, which isn't a Toggle, but he sets it on auto and pretends that it is. Awwww yeeeaah. Toggle Man is all about conservation. Toggle Man wishes he could Toggle the Ozone Layer back on, but he can't. Because of the restraining order.

 

Toggle Man loves Toggles so much, he didn't even take a power at 49, because he couldn't find any more Toggles. He is thinking about Confront, though, because he's sick of all these pansies seeing him coming and saying "Oh, crap! It's Toggle Man! We'd best run!" Well not any more, punk! Toggle Man is comin' to get'cha!

 

Toggle Man goes through endurance 8 times faster than he recovers it. Toggle Man can only actually finish turning all his Toggles on before his blue bar empties out, if he turns on Rest first, and that makes Toggle Man uncomfortable even if Rest is a Toggle too. Toggle Man wants to know if he can mooch a couple blues? No? That's cool. Toggle Man doesn't trust inspirations anyway. Since they're not, you know, Toggles. What's up with that? Why all the inspirations got to be Clicks, yo? That is whack.

 

Toggle Man. Coming soon to a Test Server near you.

 

This is the hardest I've ever laughed at something posted on this forum. BRAVO TOGGLE MAN!

[Snarky]

I go edge case a LOT.  My current main, a Dark Dark Tank...has no defense, does not build for it.  none.  But the focus of the build works, high resists, including energy, and pumping +tohit and +acc so the stun and fear auras regularly screw with minions.  pumping recharge so that massive heal is always available.

 

I have done many Blasters that are range only.  Elec is a poor Blaster and nearly unkillable built this way.  But a nearly unkillable mediocre Blaster can get a LOT of work done.

 

My strangest case is probably the Invul/Kinetic Melee I made with ranged attacks.  A "Tank Mage" in concept and play.  It worked.  No awards, but the damned thing worked.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Yes

[Sir Myshkin]

That is all the Mad King does!

[TheZag]

More specifically,  my ranged scrapper is spines/stone armor.  The extra DoT from brimstone is pretty good.  He can almost alternate impale and throw spines for an attack rotation but having an extra filler attack eliminates any down time.

 

I have a mastermind set up for tanking with provoke but he cant hold any agro if there are any melee characters on the team.  I also have a water blast/invulnerability sentinel for tanking with the same problem as the mastermind.

 

[tidge]

I've had surprisingly few on Homecoming as opposed to Live.

 

I've never had a Mastermind with no henchmen, but I have run a "one-T3-only" build.

 

I have a VEAT Crab that is mostly debuffs, for the lulz I suppose.

 

I wanted to make a character that was making enemies fall down, or otherwise keeping composure, but avoiding Energy Blast, Ice and Fire.  The resulting Mind/Poison Controller turned out to be very effective and it is probably hard to tell from the outside he is supposed to be a silly, ineffective character.

[Biff Pow]

My builds tend to be so normal (entire Primary/Secondary, very few Pool Powers) that I think they might count as abnormal.

[Greycat]

Well, I know Pool Man was an occasional challenge on live - nothing but pool powers picked whenever possible. Never did that myself.

 

As far as mine? *shrug* Just that I don't tend to do Mids or want to perma anything seems to make my characters weird to people... Though I used to do reverse-FOTMs (or "wrong" FOTMs.) Flipping sets around, wrong AT, that sort of thing. Sure, I have a fire/kin... fire/kinetic melee tank. Ice/elec blaster's a big thing? Elec/ice. That sort of thing.  (or was it the other way...)

[Lazarillo]

I don't know that I make too many deliberately odd overall build choices, but poppa don't play the procs game.  One in a power, when I've already got others from the same set in that power, and/or if it's especially concept-friendly?  Then sometimes.  Sometimes.  But mathing out max proc efficiency with Hasten or whatever else the git guds are on about?  Never.

[wjrasmussen]

12 hours ago, Ironblade said:

Unusual builds?  Oooo, I love when someone starts a thread like this because then I can post about Toggle Man.

This is from the old forums and I actually made this character on Homecoming.  He is now level 50 and fully tier 4 incarnate.

Despite what the piece says, Toggle Man doesn't actually run out of END.  With set bonuses and every possible +END or +recovery proc, the build is perfectly viable.

 

 

Toggle Man

 

I would like to tell you about a friend of mine. His name is Toggle Man, and he has come to town to show you how things are done.

Toggle Man is a Spines/Dark Armor Scrapper. But not a wuss about it, like all those other Spines/Dark Armor Scrappers.  He took Lunge, because he had to. And he took Quills, because it's a Toggle, and he's Toggle Man. But as far as he's concerned, you can take the rest of those powers to the DUMP where they BELONG.

 

Oh, that's right. Toggle Man went there.  He went there, came back, and brought you a T-Shirt.  It says "I'm with Toggle Man, so you'd better Toggle On some RESPECT!"

 

Toggle Man took seven of the nine powers in Dark Armor. Can you guess which ones? Toggle Man does not need to rez.  Toggle man thinks self-heals are for little girls and communists. Toggle Man does not hurt. Toggle Man does not die.  Toggle Man runs Toggles. Eight of them, so far.  Nine. Sprint. Toggle Man is not such a connoisseur of toggles that he'd forget the granddaddy of 'em all.

Toggle Man runs Sprint all the time. Because Toggle Man knows what's up. Toggle Man wishes he could run all four Veteran sprints too, at the same time. But we try not to remind him of it... Toggle Man dies a little inside every time he thinks about a Toggle he can't run...

 

Don't cry for Toggle Man. He needs you to be strong. He needs you to Toggle On your Brave Face for him, ok? Ok.  Toggle Man likes the Leadership Pool. But not Vengeance. Even though Toggle Man's weak and puny allies are constantly kissing the floorboards around him, Toggle Man will not lower himself to use a Click power on their greasy carcasses. Because he's Toggle Man, and his job is to run Toggles, in case you hadn't heard.

 

Toggle Man likes the Leaping Pool. He likes it so much, he compromised and took Jump Kick! Mostly because Combat Jumping and Super Jumping wouldn't work together, and Toggle Man is unhappy when he has to choose between two toggles. Toggle Man took Acrobatics, because NOBODY pushes Toggle Man around.

 

Are you looking at Toggle Man funny? I didn't think so. Punk. You'd best run home to your Mommy and Toggle On a pair of dry underpants. Oh, Snap!

 

Toggle Man also likes the Speed pool. But not Hasten. Toggle Man's Toggles are always on, and that ain't changing.  So who cares when they recover? Not Toggle Man, that's for sure! Toggle Man loves Super Speed and Whirlwind, and he runs them all the time. Sometimes Toggle Man's friends get frustrated, and say, "Toggle Man, could you stop super speeding around, knocking all the guys all over the place?" and Toggle Man, he says "Sure, as soon as you stop BREATHING!" Toggle Man is not gonna keep quiet while suckas be dissin' on his Toggles.

 

Toggle Man likes Tough and Weave! Enough to take Boxing, even! Oh my gosh, Toggle Man has an "Attack Chain" now! But he doesn't use it, because he's not a wuss. He's Toggle Man, and his Toggles are good enough, thank you very much. Toggle Man likes Focused Accuracy. Take that, Stalkers! Toggle Man is watching! Toggle Man isn't going to take any crap from you!  Toggle Man also took Conserve Power, which isn't a Toggle, but he sets it on auto and pretends that it is. Awwww yeeeaah. Toggle Man is all about conservation. Toggle Man wishes he could Toggle the Ozone Layer back on, but he can't. Because of the restraining order.

 

Toggle Man loves Toggles so much, he didn't even take a power at 49, because he couldn't find any more Toggles. He is thinking about Confront, though, because he's sick of all these pansies seeing him coming and saying "Oh, crap! It's Toggle Man! We'd best run!" Well not any more, punk! Toggle Man is comin' to get'cha!

 

Toggle Man goes through endurance 8 times faster than he recovers it. Toggle Man can only actually finish turning all his Toggles on before his blue bar empties out, if he turns on Rest first, and that makes Toggle Man uncomfortable even if Rest is a Toggle too. Toggle Man wants to know if he can mooch a couple blues? No? That's cool. Toggle Man doesn't trust inspirations anyway. Since they're not, you know, Toggles. What's up with that? Why all the inspirations got to be Clicks, yo? That is whack.

 

Toggle Man. Coming soon to a Test Server near you.

Love Toggleman!

[Clave Dark 5]

I have my Savage/Shield stalker who took the jump attack powers in both, Spring Attack and Combat TP just for something to do when the others are on cool down, so he can get closer to hit someone.  I was getting tired of having to run down various shifting targets, so why not just BAMPF over to where they are?

 

I also as a matter of course mostly avoid taking Boxing/Tough/Weave as I hate toggles I can't afford to run at first and completely wasting a power slot.  Cookie cutter builds are just dull.

[twozerofoxtrot]

Only two I can speak of are both Blasters.

 

Hitscan is a Rad/MC blaster with just X-Ray Beam from the primary and the rest melee attacks. Still does okay but obviously gimped.

 

Downplay is a Energy/Sonic blaster designed with max knockback in mind. Actual knockback sets slotted in attacks. I haven't been brave enough to group with this character yet.

 

Edit: 

 

My SD/MA Tanker Meddlesome might count. She sacrifices a lot of resists to pick up Leadership and Teleport pool powers. The end result is a great team tanker with a high degree of battlefield movement and team carry.  But I would think twice before putting her in a hard mode team.

Edited April 21, 2023 by twozerofoxtrot

[MrAxe]

I was going to make a Tankroller with my psi melee. It would have used the set's contols, along with the presence pool, earth epic and the vigilante alignment power. However I now need that slot for a hard mode build. If we ever got a 4th build, I'd make one.

[PyroNugget]

there was a post in the tanker forums recently about making a "melee defender"-- as i have melee controllers, i thought this was a great build concept.

 

right ,so a healer/debuffer tank..rad/kinetic with soul epic.....oops i allready have one at lvl 41

 

ok..try again...shield tanker with maneuvers ,21% DEF to everyone within 15' of me...erm..already got one of those at 39.

 

so it would seem i make abnormal builds AND i have rabid altitis :)

[0th Power]

I have "Out of Network"  An empathy defender with only heal other and the two auras

 

also have storm/energy defender slotted for knockback

 

I got a "man" build to 12-15ish

 

I have a travel power guy

 

probably some other dumb interesting stuff too