The Officially Unofficial Weekly Challenge #5: Play a Widow Fortunata

[Hedgefund]

I may do a modified version of this.  I've got a Fort I really like, but it was an early HC character and I tend to "love 'em and leave 'em" after getting all T4s.  I do want to see what Fate Sealed offers though and I was hoping to make a 1-1 swap with a 1-slot wonder (like Assault) and keep everything else as is for the respec.  I don't have Subdue or Scramble Thoughts so hopefully I won't be missing out on what Fate Sealed shines with.

[ZorkNemesis]

3 hours ago, ZekeStenzland said:

I’m pretty sure all the NPC VEATs come in female, male and huge varieties now, although the soldiers are more commonly male/huge and the widows are more commonly female. 
 

 

Fortuna Mistresses are still 100% female.  But all others can appear genderswapped.

[ZekeStenzland]

29 minutes ago, ZorkNemesis said:

Fortuna Mistresses are still 100% female.  But all others can appear genderswapped

La la la, I can’t hear you. The Fortuna Mistresses are all female, but the Fortuna Beta Dudes are all male and the Fortuna Alpha Dudebros are all HUGE!

 

You cannot sway my opinion with mere facts!

[Scarlet Shocker]

VEATS can be a lot of fun, and my SoA is one of the most potent characters I've ever rolled, running straight up the central path, despite the forced respecs.

 

However Alain Dessoc's arc is dogshit. It's a cheap nasty clip show of somebody else's greatest hits and makes me want to hurl.

[DougGraves]

6 hours ago, Snarky said:

Okay.  I thought about it.  I could make a floating skull that was a Fortunata.  at a 100o years old, as a skull, gender sort of ceases to matter.

 

So, I open up MiDs and looked at Fortunata.  And, without spending 40 hours 50ing and running this thing it looks to suffer the same issues as Crab.  In effect, I could make my genderless skull a Mind/Psi Dom and run circles around the Fortunata.  Because VEATs and HEATs are shot in the foot from the starting line.

 

The important thing is you tried and quit.  Does that make my challenge a PUG?

[Reiyichi]

I would have to check again, but I think I have one already, I quite like the EATs. My main Hero is a WAR, and my main Vill turned Hero is a Crab. I am sure back in live I made both a Fort and a Night. I will need to check again, but that just shows how much I played them or the many alts I have or how often I play CoH now, or all of the above.

 

I now have a 36 Fort. I had a Night before but swapped her to Fort, does that count?

Edited March 19 by Reiyichi
Just checked my alts and yes, I had a Night, that is now a Fort.

[Clave Dark 5]

10 hours ago, Snarky said:

So, I open up MiDs and looked at Fortunata.  And, without spending 40 hours 50ing and running this thing it looks to suffer the same issues as Crab.  In effect, I could make my genderless skull a Mind/Psi Dom and run circles around the Fortunata.  Because VEATs and HEATs are shot in the foot from the starting line.

I dunno... I've borrowed a few forum-builds over the years that were pretty OP, and out of all of them, my Fort was the OP-est.  And that was years ago, I bet they're even more OP now.  But I do team, solo I suppose might be different.

[Troo]

Level 24 is the game changer widow level for me.

 

Mind Link

24

PBAoE, Team +To-Hit, +DEF(All), +RES(Psionic)

 

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

I dunno... I've borrowed a few forum-builds over the years that were pretty OP, and out of all of them, my Fort was the OP-est.  And that was years ago, I bet they're even more OP now.  But I do team, solo I suppose might be different.

I am running a mediocre fire fire blaster mostly lately.  It just devours spawns …

[FlammeFatale]

I agree too that fortunatas are OP:

 

- incarnate softcap to all positionnal defenses

- strong scaling resist damage

- native mezz protection

- one of the best nukes in the game

- a decent amount of controls

- spammable ST confuse

 

They also add value to teams without much effort: maneuvers/assault/tactic/perma mind-link.

 

Frankly, it is difficult to find a better AT/powerset.

[Major_Decoy]

8 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

 

Fortuna Mistresses are still 100% female.  But all others can appear genderswapped.

I think the Arbiters are still all male.

[KaizenSoze]

1 hour ago, FlammeFatale said:

I agree too that fortunatas are OP:

 

- incarnate softcap to all positionnal defenses

- strong scaling resist damage

- native mezz protection

- one of the best nukes in the game

- a decent amount of controls

- spammable ST confuse

 

They also add value to teams without much effort: maneuvers/assault/tactic/perma mind-link.

 

Frankly, it is difficult to find a better AT/powerset.

There was a poll on the live forum about which AT were the best designed. Forts where number 2 behind blasters.

 

You forgot a spamming ST hold, that procs really well. And now a decent cast time mag 4 stun.

 

Forts do have some weaknesses, low HP w/o outside buffs, no more than 1300. This really can hurt in hard modes as Forts are really vulnerable to getting 2 shot. I have flying ranged builds for hard modes.

 

Low DDR, which can be mitigated, but it's an issue against some mobs like new CoT and Arachnos.

 

Most of the damage is psi/lethal which can be a pain against robots, which there are plenty of at 50. 

[tidge]

On 3/18/2024 at 7:48 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

I have one I like that uses a select build macro in missions to alternate between three different IO'd builds. It's fun. Kinda crazy, but fun. Veats can be powerful.

 

I do the same, but I dislike that it resets all my timed powers... including the fast transport options. I use different bodies and costumes for the different builds!

 

I have multiple VEAT builds that really ought to have been respec at least once... but I liked how much they played that even after the power choices became available sooner I didn't respec them.

[Bopper]

On 3/17/2024 at 6:37 PM, DougGraves said:

VEATs are rarely played.

Funny enough, I don't have many alts...and I rarely have two characters of the same AT that are level 50. But for the two pairs that are, they are amongst the lowest in AT popularity: Stalkers and Widows. The stalker pair was mostly to satisfy my desire to play certain powerset pairings (Energy/Energy and SJ/Stone), but with the Widow pair it was because 3 builds were not enough for one character.

 

That's the best thing about VEATs, because of their branching system you can truly play a different character by switching builds. With any other AT, your additional builds are mostly slight flavor changes: for example, an AoE build, ST build, Team Build, etc. But they're just dial turns on what is effectively the same character. With VEATs, those dial turns are to the extremes. Instead of flavor adjustments, it's full on role adjustments. Your branches can lead you to play as Melee, Range, Armor, Support, and Control. Your builds will give you any combinations you like, so many that 3 builds will not satisfy. But in a pinch, I can go from my melee-centric tanky Night Widow into my assault-centric control/support Fortunata. Join a team, see what is needed, and switch to my build of choice, as opposed to switching to another character.

[DougGraves]

On 3/19/2024 at 9:50 PM, Bopper said:

But in a pinch, I can go from my melee-centric tanky Night Widow into my assault-centric control/support Fortunata. Join a team, see what is needed, and switch to my build of choice, as opposed to switching to another character.

 

That seems really useful.  I have used builds to be able to switch a tanker from more defense to more damage, but as you say it isn't a big change in role.

[Player2]

On 3/18/2024 at 7:53 PM, High_Beam said:

Love my Widow.  A whole lotta fun.

I love my Night Widow (level 50), so I could give Fortunata a try.

[Player2]

Miss Behaving, so far so good but just a standard Widow at level 13.