What are your top 5 builds of all time, including Live? ... and why do you love it so

[string5]

I'm sure  I'm not the first to write on this topic but please humor me.  It just so happens that my top 5 favorites are all different ATs, but if you wanna pick 5 brute's go for it!

 

I would share the builds, butuinfortunately most of them are on my old...dead, computer :(

 

1. Dominator Fire/Fire/Fire 

Permadom without hasten.  Essentially 2 AOE holds + a perma-knockdown to cycle through locking down everything so there is little that can attack you because you can rapidly cycle through them and they also do adequate AOE damage.  Then AOEs all over the place.  Add in some Mayhem with fire imps (even trough they die a lot) and hot feet!  Can't hold that EB or AV then you still have stronger single target damage than most.  Lots of play options on all mission types.  IMO one of the best blasters is a 3x fire dom :)

 

2. Blaster Fire /Fire/Mu

I hated blasters on live and then on homecoming they fixed the snipe lag and the nuke end drain...I was off to the races.  This is one of the few toons that I use build swapping with.  I either go hover or full on blapper (so fun but not always the best option in higher difficulty TFs).  This toon has been my main since the first week of homecoming when I heard about the changes to blasters.  All kinds of damage any time anywhere.  Lots of good IO options for the two different build types to change up your defensive options!

 

3. Brute Rad/Dark/Mu

I was a Brute guy 90% of the time on Live and this is my favorite brute to date.  I love fire farming, but I do not want to change toons to a fire/rad.  It just ruins immersion for me.  My main brute is my main brute and i don't want to swap out for a fire farm and very few people will team up (I like team farming) if you S/L farm.  Well, IOs have you covered and this toon can hang with the better farmers, not the best but still strong.  With that being said, what I really enjoy is how much the main (non farming build shines).  When built properly you an have very strong resistance without any psi or toxic holds, strong resist across the board.  I couple this with capped or near capped Melee and ranged defines.  If I die, it's usually (always) my fault.  With that being said  I did find a build that worked well for both, but I found that when fire farming I had to be really really really on my toes, and i did not want to sacrifice anymore of the main build, so I just made two builds and swap.  The only issue with this build is that it is so END hungry that I must rune Ageless instead of Barrier and I like barrier for emergencies.  BTW if you go dark/dark/Mu it has a good +End power (forget the name) and then you can run barrier.  As a caveat I have seen some very good all around rad /fire brutes, but I feel this one has better overall def/resist without any holes.  

 

4. Corrupter Ice/Storm Mu

Many of us, myself included, like to watch the chat window and get all of the kill shots,  This build is the king of kill shots IMO.  I first discovered it during an ITF and was blown away by there person running it and I was very jealous of their kills shot.   I know I shouldn't be, its a team game, but I am guilty.  It also has great CC.  Very easy to play, just sit there and spam your CCs and AOEs.  The only downside of this toon is that it also needs to run ageless instead of barrier, due to its  high endurance needs.

 

5. Controller Kin/Fire  from Live before it was nerfed

One of my favorite COH experiences was running missions in PI ,in my early 40-ish levels, when this came on line and it transformed from the classic controller to a bringer of destruction and it was a great farmer.  This toon could do it all.  Sadly it was nerfed.

 

Well thats my opinion and I wouild love to hear yours.

 

[Force Redux]

Halloween Girl. Necro/Dark MM. Peanut butter n jelly , just works so well together. Also fun and thematic.

 

Chiller Frost. Ice/Ice blaster. Great damage, lots of controls for a blaster. Winter themed charters are also fun and have great visuals.

 

Cherenkova. Rad/Rad tanker. Great all-rounder, tough as hell, teams can visually track me on cave missions easily 😃

 

Dr. Orchid. Plant/Nature controller. Super great support toon, can still solo well, easy to play no funky mechanics or restrictions.

 

Mechanista. Robots/FF MM. Toughest character outside my tankers, thematic, effective, can farm missions in AE while I am distracted.

Edited February 15 by Force Redux

[biostem]

On 1/25/2024 at 6:45 PM, string5 said:

my top 5

Tough one, but here goes:

 

1. My dark blast/super reflexes sentinel, "Lithe Spectre".  She's probably the first character I fully kitted-out with IOs and went to T4 Incarnates with.  It's a fun combo and quite effective.

 

2. My "Crabbermind" named "Agent Aurum" - Very powerful and fun to play.

 

3. This one is a tie between my Bio Armor/Savage Melee and Radiation Armor/Savage Melee tanks, both named "Megalo Don", (shark themed, on 2 different server).  Both are very powerful and nigh indestructible, but each have their own quirks and strengths/weaknesses.  I think the look is what really elevates this/these characters.

 

4. A sort of Batman/The Shadow homage named "The Umbral Hawk", a dual pistols/ninjitsu sentinel.  Fun to play and very stylish.

 

5. An earth control/pain domination controller named "Ana L'Gesia" - Neither the most powerful nor the most durable character out there, but fun to play on teams and quite flashy to boot!

Edited February 15 by biostem

[queequeg77]

1. Fortunata. Just made another post about this, but I love the jack-of-all-trades-ness of Forts. Like a dom, stalker and sentinel all rolled into one.

 

2. Energy/Energy stalker. Just absurd single-target damage.

 

3. Fire/Ice blaster. Great all-around damage and nice utility from /Ice to keep you safe (for a blaster.)

 

4. Super Strength/Invuln brute. Fury + Rage + Knockout Blow + Foot Stomp, 'nuff said.

 

5. Grav/Time controller. This is a cheat, since I'm just now leveling one for the first time. But Propel and Wormhole are both a ton of fun.

 

[bustacap]

1. Claws/bio scrapper - just excels at everything, Spin spin baby.

 

2. Stone/Stone blaster - Very meaty. A Myshkin build. 

 

3. TA/DP defender - what damage. 

 

4. Storm/water defender - Also a Rediculous Myshkin build

 

5. Fire/Dark controller - very very tanky. 

[serxiom]

1. Fire/Psy/fire Dominator - Shuts down an entire group and start the massacre
2. Plant/Traps Controller/ Mace - GM / AV Killer
3. Elec/Elec/Ice Blaster - Drains , AoE/PBaoe damage
4. StJ/Energy/Soul Stalker - Got all the tools you need, ST/AoE dps, heal, end drain etc
5. Illusion/Storm/Mu Controller - GM / AV killer

[JJDrakken]

Both Live & H.C.

 

1. Melee Spider Tank: More then Soft Capped Defense, High 70s for majority of his Resistances, took Taunt from Power Pool.  Great Dmg Bonus, Great Recharge.

 

2. Dark/Dark Controllers

 

3. Merc/Anything Masterminds

 

4. Spiders in general(Soldier & Widows. Though my Cone Widow with Mako is stupid scary)

 

5. Rad Armor anything.

[Lusiphur Malache]

My 5 are going to be all over the place.

 

1 Kiasma - dark/martial blaster come for the Ki Push, leave cause you must, but Snipe still gonna get you.  Ranged, melee all you see is orange numbers.

2 Mayday Widow - A Fortunata that likes to get up close.

3 Zap of Time - elec/time controller keeps you right where you are and pummels you into submission with time as you stand there and take it because you have no endurance.

4 A Cut Below - katana/elec brute chaos personified

5 Da Solution - dual blade/nin stalker only died because teammates were too busy watching me work, so much style.

Edited February 17 by Lusiphur Malache

[Onlyasandwich]

1. Plant/Fire Dom. An aggressive, spawn smashing powerhouse that lives and dies on their controls.

2. Grav/Energy Dom. TP other with a flaming singularity is pure joy, and popping the next spawn into that flaming pile with wormhole is even better. Energy is thematic here - secondary could be anything 😄
3. Rad/WM Tanker. Infinite endurance, nearly unkillable, outstanding aoe, and crunch for days. 

4. Fire/Storm controller. Infinitely negative endurance (it's part of the fun!), and an absurd amount of damage for a controller. Visually chaotic, but controllable with the right approach.

5. Seismic/Earth blaster. Timing the meteor to wipe a spawn without worrying about the scatter is very satisfying. Every power is crunch smunch, and I can cram loads of wonderful FFback throughout.

 

This is a hard list! I have at least 5 other characters that I still revisit just because they are such fun to play. The other 50 or so 50's do sit there gathering dust, and were fun to level and finalize, but don't give me the itch.

[Carnifax]

The ones I keep going back to : 

 

1. Illusion / Dark / Mace Controller. Namesake. Can handle most things, has delusions of being a Mastermind without needing to worry too much about keeping them alive. Happily solos AVs. 

2. DP / Kin Corruptor. Just fun. Melds really well into fast moving teams (making them even faster), if you're not in melee range 0.5 seconds after the tank (or just before) you're doing something wrong. My ITF specialist (only because they make it stupidly fun). 

3. Fire / Claws Tank. AoE whirly death and is a giant chicken. Still very tough. How could you not like this. 2nd most fun ITF character (after the DP / Kin). Basically a Tank with perma Scrapperlock. 

4. Rad / Martial Tank. Pretty unkillable with Storm Kick adding both Defense + stacking Resists via Might of the Tanker. Two stacks and you're resist capped to everything bar Cold, with s/l/melee def capped too. Immune to most debuffs bar Defense Debuff. If that gets too much an Ageless Radial lets you reset. Happily soloed +4x8 Manticore AV on Mender Silos's arc during the week (with incarnate powers obvs) even soaking up the 1400 unresistable damage spikes from Mantis Teleport Arrow without panicking. 

5. Ice / Stone Stalker. New entry and the last char I've levelled but excellent. Tough as hell, excellent damage and the cycle of Crits and Build-Ups is very addictive. Deletes bosses.  

 

Edited February 22 by Carnifax

[victusfate]

On 1/25/2024 at 6:45 PM, string5 said:

I'm sure  I'm not the first to write on this topic but please humor me.  It just so happens that my top 5 favorites are all different ATs, but if you wanna pick 5 brute's go for it!

 

I would share the builds, butuinfortunately most of them are on my old...dead, computer :(

 

1. Dominator Fire/Fire/Fire 

Permadom without hasten.  Essentially 2 AOE holds + a perma-knockdown to cycle through locking down everything so there is little that can attack you because you can rapidly cycle through them and they also do adequate AOE damage.  Then AOEs all over the place.  Add in some Mayhem with fire imps (even trough they die a lot) and hot feet!  Can't hold that EB or AV then you still have stronger single target damage than most.  Lots of play options on all mission types.  IMO one of the best blasters is a 3x fire dom :)

 

2. Blaster Fire /Fire/Mu

I hated blasters on live and then on homecoming they fixed the snipe lag and the nuke end drain...I was off to the races.  This is one of the few toons that I use build swapping with.  I either go hover or full on blapper (so fun but not always the best option in higher difficulty TFs).  This toon has been my main since the first week of homecoming when I heard about the changes to blasters.  All kinds of damage any time anywhere.  Lots of good IO options for the two different build types to change up your defensive options!

 

3. Brute Rad/Dark/Mu

I was a Brute guy 90% of the time on Live and this is my favorite brute to date.  I love fire farming, but I do not want to change toons to a fire/rad.  It just ruins immersion for me.  My main brute is my main brute and i don't want to swap out for a fire farm and very few people will team up (I like team farming) if you S/L farm.  Well, IOs have you covered and this toon can hang with the better farmers, not the best but still strong.  With that being said, what I really enjoy is how much the main (non farming build shines).  When built properly you an have very strong resistance without any psi or toxic holds, strong resist across the board.  I couple this with capped or near capped Melee and ranged defines.  If I die, it's usually (always) my fault.  With that being said  I did find a build that worked well for both, but I found that when fire farming I had to be really really really on my toes, and i did not want to sacrifice anymore of the main build, so I just made two builds and swap.  The only issue with this build is that it is so END hungry that I must rune Ageless instead of Barrier and I like barrier for emergencies.  BTW if you go dark/dark/Mu it has a good +End power (forget the name) and then you can run barrier.  As a caveat I have seen some very good all around rad /fire brutes, but I feel this one has better overall def/resist without any holes.  

 

4. Corrupter Ice/Storm Mu

Many of us, myself included, like to watch the chat window and get all of the kill shots,  This build is the king of kill shots IMO.  I first discovered it during an ITF and was blown away by there person running it and I was very jealous of their kills shot.   I know I shouldn't be, its a team game, but I am guilty.  It also has great CC.  Very easy to play, just sit there and spam your CCs and AOEs.  The only downside of this toon is that it also needs to run ageless instead of barrier, due to its  high endurance needs.

 

5. Controller Kin/Fire  from Live before it was nerfed

One of my favorite COH experiences was running missions in PI ,in my early 40-ish levels, when this came on line and it transformed from the classic controller to a bringer of destruction and it was a great farmer.  This toon could do it all.  Sadly it was nerfed.

 

Well thats my opinion and I wouild love to hear yours.

 

For your rad/dark/mu add a theft of essence +end proc to your dark regen. Fixed my /dark end issues nicely.

Edited February 28 by victusfate

[skoryy]

In no particular order:

• Phantom Lass, Staff/Dark/Energy brute - my best blend of damage and durability, and also the best exemplar-able build thanks to fury and staff forms
• Relativity Rabbit, Elec/Time/Energy controller - another durable build, though with an eye towards team support while still doing respectable damage, hella fun both team and solo
• Nightlight, Elec/Elec/Mu stalker - built for resist, defense, heals, and end drain, so he's surprisingly durable, might need to rework a bit to improve his AoE though
• Agent Trinity, Rad/StJ tanker - slightly behind my WP/MA tanker for survivability but can handle +4/x8 these faster
• Actionette, Rad/Atom/Mace blaster - when you absolutely positively want it arrested right now, accept no substitutes

[FlammeFatale]

Human/Dwarf Bi-form Warshade

Rare build, rarest AT. I guess I am an elitist.

 

Plant/Poison Controller

Confusion profusion (seeds of confusion + word of confusion + cognitive interface).

 

Trick Arrow/Archery defender

Oil Slick Arrow is so pleasant to watch.

 

Elec/Elec Corruptor

Great sapper. Better control than my controllers and dominator.

 

Spine/Regen Scrapper

Old school cool.

[FlammeFatale]

I am sorry to commit a second answer, but I realized my first list was based on how much fun the characters are to play.

Now I will post a second list based on power. Previously mentioned characters are not weak, mind you. They can all solo at max difficulty. 

But most require some finesse and basic knowledge of game mechanics. The following ones can just leroy any spawn without checking stuff like boss types and worrying about tactics.

 

Energy/Energy blaster

Survived many group wipes. Generally last one standing.

 

Crabbermind

Immortal.

 

Ranged Fortunata

See above.

 

Elec/Shield Stalker

Almost Unkillable. Good damage.

 

Ice/Ice Tanker

Slow but Immortal.