Good AT/build for a handicapped player?

[sutasafaia]

Tl;DR: Least buttons, lowest apm, sturdy, able to solo as much as possible. Not necessarily on the highest difficulty or anything like that, but want to at least not be missing any content that provides upgrades for my character. Primarily solo so as not to slow other people down (I have had some...overwhelmingly negative experiences in games when I try to group with people...to say the least). Assuming this is even possible of course. Maybe we can get as close as possible?

 

Also I apologize in advance, I tend to write how I think so it may be a tiny bit disjointed...

 

"Slightly" longer version: So I actually posted a topic similar to this a couple years back, but due to real life issues was unable to do all that much gaming. But now I'm free and back to hopefully enjoy one of my favorite childhood games again.

 

Anyway, I have neuropathy. This means my hands don't work properly. I have slow reaction speed in my hands in general, can't move my fingers particularly fast, and all around just cause me pain if I try to force the issue. I would also like to preemptively respond to two things that get recommended a lot, which I genuinely appreciate the thoughts because they are good ideas, but do not work for me. Those being I cannot use a foot pedal for reasons I would honestly prefer not to go into, and a mouse with many thumb buttons do not work as the neuropathy wrecks my thumbs even worse than my fingers.

 

So having said that, any recommendations?

 

I had originally thought to go with something like a mastermind, especially traps, as I remember them being quite easy back in the day. However, I also remember that was only if the MM was being played poorly as the pets actually required a fair amount of micro management in the form of macros. They were one of those builds that were both simple and weirdly button spammy at the same time. That said, I do enjoy me some masterminds, especially bots, and who knows how this server has balanced them since then?

 

The other obvious answer is an AT with a defensive/armor powerset, like tanker, sentinel, brute, scrapper, etc. AT's that allow me to make as many mistakes as I like and have fewer consequences than other setups. The fact that many of the defensive powersets also happen to be 50-90% passive is a huge bonus for me since it means having far less buttons to hit at any given time. I have always been a big fan of being as tanky as humanly possible in basically any game I play, and I know there are quite a few ways to have powersets in this game that cap you to virtually ever defense/resist at once if built properly. WP was always my favorite back on live, to the point that it was almost all I played and I genuinely forgot most status effects even existed and sometimes got caught by surprise if I ever played anything else because I had no idea some enemies even had knockbacks/downs. Oops? Apparently invul can do even better on this server? No idea. I'm reading all sorts of stuff in these forums while I wait for responses.

 

For the record, while I obviously need to do damage, I am far more concerned with my ability to survive. Dead soloer isn't doing much damage outside of maybe staining the floor after all. My leaning is likely going to be towards a tanker but I very much would like to hear what those more experienced tham I am think, especially since I am unfamiliar with the balance changes from this server.

 

Thank you so much ❤️

 

Sorry that was so long.

[Luminara]

2 hours ago, sutasafaia said:

Least buttons, lowest apm, sturdy, able to solo as much as possible.

 

Street Justice/Willpower scrapper.  Street Justice hits hard, so you'll have to attack less frequently, and Willpower's only two click powers are the self rez (which you shouldn't need if you build well) and the T9 (which you can skip if you build well), so you're free to concentrate on punching and kicking.

[High_Beam]

Yeah mate.  Masterminds are very attention hungry, even bad play is a lot of activity and traps is all about maneuver and placement; super clicky.  Building proper kill boxes are . . . are what they are; lay mines, lay poison trap, drop acid mortar, drop triage beacon.  Attack and pull to KB, throw caltrops and web grenade.  All while commanding minions to target and maneuver.  Crazy fun and glorious when its working but frustrating when it isn't.

 

Controllers also require a lot of keyboard and command variation.  Very strategic and you cant just cycle keys because you have to be judicial with some of your long recharge powers, nothing sucks more that dropping your AoE hold on two guys then needing it against a bigger pile.   Add to that the buffing/debuffing and you can gat overwhelmed easy.  Dominators are even more aggressive on the button mashing between a lot of attacks and a lot of others.

 

I play a lot of Blasters and while they aren't easy or simple, their mechanic is more akin to repetitions of key bashing Snipe, 1, 2, 3, 4, repeat.  Your secondaries are often hands off or melee (unless devices or trick arrow).  You can have a reasonably good experience as a blaster with the limitations you have described but might get frustrated with survivability as constant movement and techniques like kiting and jousting are expected tools in the survival toolbox (along with hover blasting and of course killing them first).  Corruptors are harder because your are a blaster for the shooty shoot part but are also clickity click with the buff or debuff, especially on busy powers like Kin or emp.  Defenders too just in reverse.

 

Tanks and Brutes may be the key for you.  Some armors (willpower was mentioned and I will add Invulnerability) allow you a good deal of hands off on the survivability side and some attack sets are honestly slow as balls, I mean I nave an INV/EM tank so slow attacks for sure.  Like @Luminara, I have a SJ/Will (though a Brute) and yeah, its a pretty good one that will give you most of what you are asking for (solo friendly, survivable, fun and not super clicky).  Please keep in mind that doesn't mean they are easy win characters to play, you still need to play.  Plenty of tanks and brutes die (sometimes for baffling and humorous reasons), sometimes due to bad build but more often than not due to bad play.

 

My 2 cents at least.

 

 

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Dark melee gives you all the tools you need (healing, endurance recovery, to hit and damage bonus) and it doesn't have particularly fast animations other than for the T1 and T2 powers. It can be paired with a fair number of armor sets and do well at keeping your character alive.

 

Super reflexes is probably a particularly good match for dark melee because it has no click powers outside the T9, it has scaling resists that passively increase when your character loses health, which adds toughness to your character, and it also has a recharge bonus in it. Dark melee loves recharge, especially for soul drain and dark consumption. 

Edited January 8 by EnjoyTheJourney

[EnjoyTheJourney]

To the OP ...

Couldn't help being curious about how to build a dark melee / super reflexes character to do decent damage and to have excellent survivability for soloing. What's here isn't a cheap build. But, it doesn't feature any of the most expensive IOs, though, such as D-Synch provocations and the like. 

The keys to the build are siphon life, soul drain, dark consumption, and vigor alpha (once 50 is reached). They collectively provide the healing, endurance management, to hit bonus, and damage bonus that makes the build both survivable and fairly damaging. The build is also 0.9 seconds away from perma-hasten, which is often not treated as an important goal for scrappers. But, in this case higher end global recharge brings back key powers quite soon. That means healing for almost 200 health up to every 3.7 seconds or thereabouts, with siphon life. Soul drain comes back in about 34.4 seconds and lasts 30 seconds, for a high uptime percentage. Dark consumption comes back in slightly under 50 seconds to help top up endurance when needed. And so on. 

 

Regarding damage, look at damage with the file as it loads into Mids, and then push the buttons not currently lit for smite, shadow punch, and soul drain. With crits available and damage boosted by soul drain the damage picture looks noticeably better than if it is assumed that none of those things are happening or engaged. 

As a caveat, I'm not an experienced or particularly skilled builder for scrappers. So, what's here probably doesn't maximize damage even for the IOs that are placed into the build. How to place the scrapper AT IOs, for example, isn't something that I understand very well. So any suggestions offered by others to improve this build should probably be taken into careful consideration if you decide to use what's here as a template for your build. 

 

 

Scrapper - DM - SR - BM.pdf Scrapper (Dark Melee - Super Reflexes - Body Mastery).mbd

Edited January 9 by EnjoyTheJourney

[sutasafaia]

Thanks for the advice so far. After hunting around the forums and reading the responses here it's definitely narrowed down to invulnerability or willpower in some form. I have no idea if it will be good but was thinking claws since they have a really nice looking cosmetic that have me a character idea, although an energy bladed sword cosmetic could also work if that power set is just flat out better than claw. Just need to figure out the class... tanker with claws aoe might be interesting? Not sure. 

 

Pretty sure I've spent way too much time in this forum and mids the last couple days. Not that I really have any idea how to properly build sets or anything. 

Edited January 9 by sutasafaia

[High_Beam]

10 hours ago, sutasafaia said:

Pretty sure I've spent way too much time in this forum and mids the last couple days. Not that I really have any idea how to properly build sets or anything. 

No such thing as too much time spent trying to make a character that makes you happy; less fun occurs with hate in your heart for your own hero.

 

Unless you are Regen, then its a infinite black pool of self-hate 🙂

[sutasafaia]

I've been fighting with myself about inv vs wp all night lol. WP was my favorite set on live but from what I can see you really want inv over wp if you're going to stick it out for the long haul, especially on a set like claws that doesn't hog endurance. 

Edited January 9 by sutasafaia

[Timeshadow]

Claws is a great set across the board. Overall DPS is very high (Top of the charts in some cases), and it's got soft control in the form of Knockdown from Focus and Shockwave. On the aesthetic side, you've got weapon customization so you can change up the vibe of your character whenever you want.

Regarding the secondary, I don't have much experience with Invuln or WP but what I'd tell you is go with fun over performance. End of the day, CoH does a great job of making all the sets viable. The disparities between them really only show when you get into the high end challenges, things that aren't necessarily intended as content (i.e. Soloing AVs and/or GMs, running solo +4x8 missions, etc.). If you're interested in taking on that level of minmax, then your choice of a set really makes a difference. But if you're not, there's nothing to lose by going with what you prefer.

[Captain Fabulous]

A Sentinel might be a good choice, one with a "set it and forget it" secondary like Willpower, Super Reflexes, Ninjitsu, or Invulnerability. You could go with a melee AT but they are very positional and that could wind up being a bit too much stress on your hands (my right shoulder definitely starts to act up after playing a melee character for too long).

You could also go with a Force Field AT, like Controller, Corruptor, or MM (MMs are ok as long as you don't crank up the difficulty, and Bots + FF is a great combo for keeping the pets alive). FF is super low maintenance, a nice chunk of defense, and some good controls and debuffs now.

I would also consider taking Phase Shift as an "oh sh*t" power in case you get in over your head so you don't have to frantically start clicking and maneuvering in an attempt to survive.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Come to think of it, a sentinel might indeed be an excellent choice. Both willpower and invulnerability are good for sentinels. You can also hoverblast if you'd like. Hoverblasting improves safety in most situations. Hoverblasting also usually allows for better visibility and easier camera management, which tends to decrease the number of hand and finger movements needed to see what's happening so you can react in a timely and functional way. 

[sutasafaia]

I looked at sentinel but didn't really give it much thought since I assumed it would be far squishier than a tank even with defensive powers. I wouldn't even know where to start for them as far as primary goes, although the mentioned inv and wp would likely still be my secondary of choice. 

[Psiphon]

I was going to suggest a Sentinel but seen that I’ve been beaten to it. I would go with Water blast / Will power. Will power hasn’t got any colicky powers, it just works and Water blast has very good AOE range including the nuke.

Rather than playing a melee character and have to chase critters you’ll be able to tab target and dish out a lot of ranged damage.

If you take flight/hover and cap ranged defence, you’ll be very survivable, staying out of melee and also avoiding debuffs.

A well built Hover Sentinel is very hard to take down.

[HelenCarnate]

Rad/WP Brute or WP/Rad Tank.  Tank would be easier but would obviously take longer to kill things.

 

Slow but hard hitting attacks so you are hitting buttons less often.  Self heal built into one of the attacks for even more durability.  Damage aura at your feet so you can still do damage even if you are sitting there.  Set it and forget it for WP

[sutasafaia]

How is beam rifle on sentinel? I could just as easily fit it into my concept as i could the energy blade claws. Assuming, of course, i like how they look 😛

Edited January 9 by sutasafaia

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Sentinel has one of the best versions of beam rifle, perhaps even the best. 

Beam rifle's single target damage is very good for sentinels, as it is for other ATs. But, refractor beam is a sentinel-only beam rifle power that provides an extra AOE compared to beam rifle for other ATs. Refractor beam is easy to use, in addition to being effective as an AOE. 

If you like electric blast / electric melee on other ATs, but perhaps found it a bit lacking in damage, then you would be pleasantly surprised by how effective electric blast is on sentinels. 

You couldn't go wrong with either beam rifle or electric blast on a sentinel. There are multiple other good picks, as well, in case you were interested in other sets as well. 

[biostem]

I would say go with a sentinel - something sturdy like invulnerability, or more flexible like bio armor.  You should be sturdy enough to withstand moderate to heavy attacks and have the freedom to target and attack from range.  You'd basically only need the basic cardinal directions for movement, some method of selecting targets, (like tab or a targetcustomnext bind), and perhaps a key for a self heal or other buff power.

[Psiphon]

On 1/9/2024 at 10:47 PM, sutasafaia said:

How is beam rifle on sentinel? I could just as easily fit it into my concept as i could the energy blade claws. Assuming, of course, i like how they look 😛

Hi, out of interest, what did you go with and how have you found it?

Edited January 13 by Psiphon

[sutasafaia]

At the moment I'm playing an inv/claw tanker. only level 9 so i couldn't say for sure but it's entertaining so far. I also tried beam/inv sentinel but really not sure how i feel about it.  Funny enough the sentinel feels tankier because of the modified defense ability but that would change later on obviously. 

 

It feels like, long term, I'm going to want a tanker for easiest, safest soloing. certainly not the fastest though, of course.

Edited January 13 by sutasafaia

[FFFF]

Inv/claws tanker is a great choice. Tankers on Homecoming do very respectable damage. That character will solo well.
 

Come back when you’ve leveled it a bit. There are all sorts of things you can do to trick it out with IOs.

[Breidr]

Getting back into this game, I was just about to ask a similar question.  Great thread!  Going to give Sentinel a try.  It seems to be a counterintuitive mix of power sets, but at least it will be harder to die!

[Gobbledigook]

Fortunata.

[Troo]

On 1/8/2024 at 9:46 PM, sutasafaia said:

but was thinking claws since they have a really nice looking cosmetic that have me a character idea, although an energy bladed sword cosmetic could also work if that power set is just flat out better than claw. Just need to figure out the class... tanker with claws aoe might be interesting? Not sure. 

 

Tanker Super Reflexes/Claw is really straight forward.

 

But don't sleep on Shield Defense and say War Mace (shown below)