Its so hard to pick a character to fully invest in

[Damoklese]

I dont have the time or dedication to get multiple characters to the pinnacle.  Its so time consuming.  Id like to at least get ONE fully leveled and kitted out though, but every time I think ive found "The One".. i get disappointed by some aspect of them.  So lemme ask the community:

 

Can you think of an Archetype and powerset that has:

 

1) Solid protection from crowd control

2) Clickable defenses that can be perma'd OR some form of sapper protection that keeps them from becoming a wet noodle when sapped

3) Adequate damage that would allow for soloing AVs, or at least duoing effectively.

4) Isnt a mastermind (I just dont enjoy pet management)

5) Durable.  Either through high defense/resist or through healing, or through great crowd control, or whatever.  Just not flimsy.

 

Any suggestions?

 

My experience has been that no combo can meet these 5 requirements.

[Lunar Ronin]

Arachnos Widow.

[Sanguinesun]

1. Various AT's can do this but also how you do your sets and incarnates too factors.

2. Sappers are sappers, there's always going to be issues with them.  Parts of point 1 can help but also chewing insps strats on how you deal with em too are relevant.

3. AV's are not one type fits all.  Some set ups can be really good against some and then cant handle the others. AV fights can be dynamic as well in these regards too.

4. Then also dont consider Controllers or Dominators.

5. While various AT's can meet these, so do one's incarnates and sets too.  Its more how you build a toon.

 

 

So yes, you're basically wanting a do all on its own character.  It doesnt exist.  People will give you contrary responses to this perhaps but  there will be always holes in what they claim and essentially there is no one character that can do everything in every situation.  Game was meant to involve others in playing with others and doing so for a significant amount of time so that they remained paying for a sub.   We've changed some of that on HC but there are caveats, limitations etc that still maintain the premise that nothing does it all.

 

Instead of focusing on 50 fully kitted.  Just focus on leveling 50's in group content where you only give it 30's regular IO's as you level from money the character makes as it levels.  Plenty of methods to do this. Not only does that save you money for a toon you may wish to fully kit out later, it also takes all the pressure you've placed with your current wants on yourself.

 

Then if you dont like it, park it.  If you do, then incarnate and kit it out.   If you're playing on Excelsior in group content, it takes a matter of a days only to hit 50 really.

 

In other words enjoy the hike up the mountain instead of focusing on the time on the summit. 

[Damoklese]

Thanks for the advice.  I figured it was probably not possible.  I dont feel as though im looking for someone who can do everything though.  Id be fine with a tank, for example, if there was one that had an adequate defense to sappers.  Everything else the tank has.. his durability, damage, ability so solo AVs, but if he gets sapped he just crumbles due to his dependence on toggles.  I dont like having such a glaring Achilles heel.  Also controller and dominator werent off the list because they dont have pet management.  They just have pets.  Controllers dont have CC protection though, and dominators dont have durability.  At least not in my experience.

 

I dont really want to enjoy the climb with a dozen different characters.  That doesnt appeal to me.  I want to have one character that I enjoy that I can use for most all of the content.  And then ill have alts for messing around and playing as the mood strikes me.  The inability to have that one main character is an annoyance that ive been trying to solve.  Shame that it isnt gonna happen.

[Snarky]

Sentinel.  not sexy but everything on your list.  the rather weak AoE is made up for by great ST damage.  i have heard a rumor a sentinel just topped the rikti pylon test.  against all archetypes.  i have not researched it.  but, to me, it has that grain of truth to it.  the sentinel ST attacks are very near Blaster damage, then the Sentinel inherent is a dam res debuff

[biostem]

9 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Sentinel.

I think this or SoA's are your best bet.

[UltraAlt]

1 hour ago, Damoklese said:

The inability to have that one main character is an annoyance that ive been trying to solve.  Shame that it isnt gonna happen.

 

If getting sapped is your main concern, just avoid enemies that can sap you. Many players actively do just that.

 

However, you seem to want "God Mode" or "God Mode"-lite at the very least.

And, as far as I'm concerned, there is no shame in THE CITY not having "God Mode" outside of AE arc testing.

 

I really don't understand why some people want to play a game that isn't challenging.

This isn't an attack. It is just puzzling to me.

 

Some people want to treat THE CITY like a virtual novel or something. I can't really understand that either.

 

I can more understand people that just want to make a superhero and fly around the city and look at buildings look at building or bases -or- simply stand around role-playing in the Pocket D or some other location.

[AlwaysAPrice]

3 hours ago, Damoklese said:

Id be fine with a tank, for example, if there was one that had an adequate defense to sappers. 

Give Electric Armor a whirl, it's a very strong resist-based set and endurance is its main gimmick. It has capped Endurance Drain resistance, the heal provides endurance discount, and in the rare event you still get sapped or just bottom out from going too hard, you have Power Sink to quickly refill with. Between Sink and Lightning Field you can also sap everything around you to empty yourself. It gives you a chunk of extra global recharge in Lightning Reflexes, which adds to tightening up your attack chain to contribute to your AV-dropping damage output wishlist point. The two weak points to keep in mind: elec offers nothing in the way of Toxic resist unless you pop Power Surge, and Grounded, which provides your KB and Immob protection, requires you to stay near the ground for that protection to be in effect.

[Fire Chief]

My elec/dm Tank is lvl 45 right now and its all about the end drain/protection. The power transfer enhancements were made for this build 😉

[Doomguide2005]

I'll agree with pretty much everyone else and say nothing fits that bill in every possible scenario in every possible content in the game.  I also know that a well built SR Scrapper is incredibly sturdy, has click perma mez protection, can solo all sorts of stuff including AVs and can take on Malta and their bloody sappers and watch them miss their sap attacks repeatedly.  Hell I had to get a Regen scrapper to those levels back in the SO days to fully comprehend why everyone kept talking about them as so dangerous because my Claws/SR rarely got hit by them.  When the rare hit occurred she'd just pop a blue and keep going.

[twozerofoxtrot]

8 hours ago, Damoklese said:

Id be fine with a tank, for example, if there was one that had an adequate defense to sappers.

 

The best defense against Sappers is to target and destroy them immediately. 

 

Clockwork cease to be an issue after Synapse TF.

 

Freak bosses can be annoying but they're usually not the preponderance of a spawn.

 

Malta Sappers, the absolute worst, are minion class enemies that can be two-shot by even a bad Tanker build. 

 

Sapper defense isn't a build issue, it's a player skill issue.

 

3 hours ago, AlwaysAPrice said:

Give Electric Armor a whirl

 

This is an excellent suggestion, but it does bear worth noting that both Rad and Bio armor offer a significant 86.5% always on End Drain resist as part of their kit, and are widely considered the best armors for Tankers due to how much over protection they provide, allowing Tankers to build for offense.

 

Offense. To kill sappers with.

[SeraphimKensai]

Given the stipulations, Elec Armor and melee sounds like a good choice. As a resistance based armor, build it as a Tanker or Brute to have a higher resistance cap (90% as opposed to 75% that scrappers/stalkers get). I have elec armor paired with ice melee, rad melee, and titan weapons personally.

 

Pairing wise for others, I'd consider:

1. Fire Melee (if going to tanker, it gets an extra AoE over Brute).
2. Ice Melee - added mitigation with ice patch and slow effects from attacks.
3. Super Strength - if rage timers don't bother you this set is great.
4. Titan Weapons - you get Energize with Elec Armor, and when slotting at least 2 Unbreakables in your res shield you can get further end discount, which helps the set. Adding in some recharge slotting which you likely would be doing anyways a nice fluid attack chain. Mine also takes whirlwind for flavor and is a spinning electric dredel of destruction.
5. Stone Melee - some nice crunch to it, fault is a real hero here as long as it's slotted for accuracy and a FF proc. The KD adds some nice mitigation and with FF procs helps turbo charge your recharge for things like Energize/Power Sink.
6. Radiation Melee* - this set used to be really good, but after the IG "fix" and given the longer animations it seems clunky.

Slotting wise: I'd aim to make sure your resistances hit cap, which is easier on a tank with MotT procs. Otherwise I like to cycle Rune, Demonic, Melee Core to give me some slotting freedom for a few procs. You also want slow resistance to cap and decent recharge for Energize.

[Scarlet Shocker]

You can meet those requirements pretty easily all ways round - but I think what I want to know before suggesting anything is what is your regular playstyle? What do you enjoy most?

 

If you want to be in the thick of things, then you probably want a tank/brute. If you want something flexible and mobile a Widow or SoA is a very good option (when going SoA just continue the centre path ignoring the Crab/Bane)

 

If you want to be mobile, useful on teams and quite handy solo a controller is a good option (yes most have pets but they are largely fire and forget) and I would recommend Plant or Ice as primaries, secondaries depending on your taste.

 

Sentinels... well I've heard they are pretty close to what you want but my experience of them has been they are pretty boring but you may think differently.

 

As others have pointed out there are always going to be weaknesses to any AT - that's part of the beauty of this game - so you will always have to compromise and mitigate.

 

The real question is how do you want to play?

[Laucianna]

10 hours ago, Damoklese said:

I dont have the time or dedication to get multiple characters to the pinnacle.  Its so time consuming.  Id like to at least get ONE fully leveled and kitted out though, but every time I think ive found "The One".. i get disappointed by some aspect of them.  So lemme ask the community:

 

Can you think of an Archetype and powerset that has:

 

1) Solid protection from crowd control

2) Clickable defenses that can be perma'd OR some form of sapper protection that keeps them from becoming a wet noodle when sapped

3) Adequate damage that would allow for soloing AVs, or at least duoing effectively.

4) Isnt a mastermind (I just dont enjoy pet management)

5) Durable.  Either through high defense/resist or through healing, or through great crowd control, or whatever.  Just not flimsy.

 

Any suggestions?

 

My experience has been that no combo can meet these 5 requirements.

Peacebringer, they are an absolute experience to play and tick every box and more, I have been playing mine for 2 years straight now without ever alting and doing all the content in the game on her ❤️
 

Rough Stats
Resists - capped in all but Psi

Defense - 12.7% in all
Max HP - 1910.29
DPS - 1,137
 

Other pros:
Fold Space
A mini nuke every 6 seconds
Phase shift on a 30 second cooldown
2 actual nukes
 

Content ran with build (Both tanking and DPSing):
All of the 4* content
All Incarnate Trials
Hamidon/MotherShip Raids
Solo Fire farming
Solo +4/x8 missions
 

Cons:
Arachnos are the only mob type that cause issues due to their psi damage, -end, holds and blinds. So when encountering them take it a bit slower and nuke em faster then they can recover ❤️ 

I can safely say a lot of people who have put time into learning their kheldian enjoy them 😄

 

[JasperStone]

34 minutes ago, Laucianna said:

I can safely say a lot of people who have put time into learning their kheldian enjoy them 😄

I was going to make this same suggestion.

All the Epic Archetypes are pretty amazing

To add:

A Peacebringer is self-reliant - self-heals, etc.

A Warshade relies on the foes around

Both have pros and cons

...

The Peacebringer

But wait there is more!

• 2 self heals in the secondary - 3 when you go dwarf
• self rez - secondary
• endurance discount - secondary
• ally heal - primary

Wait! still more!

• fly covered - one form and also in the secondary
• group fly - ok, I'll be honest that I never take this ... but it is there
• Stealth
• Teleport - Dwarf form 🙂

 

...still more!

• In TriForm,... 6 AoE to cycle through ... gasp ... and cycle through quickly. On a team ... some kind of wonderful
• You get your first form early, Nova—basically a Flying Ranged Blasting Platform. I have a Human/Nova form that I use for low-level content. still around good
• The dwarf form comes at level 20. It is a solid tank and highly mez-resistant. There is no taunt aura, just a single target plus those around him, but that is okay. A Human/Dwarf is so nice for midlevel content. 
• LightForm ...unstoppable. Nice. Can become perma depending on the build

...

and a pet ...kinda

 

As with ALL epic archetypes, there are a ton of options, so that takes a time investment, which is what you are looking for.

 

I spent about a year on mine. It's the only character I have that is fully kitted out in all available build options. The only version I don't have is all human.

 

To access powers and forms .... you can build macros.

Sure.

But since LIVE I have used in-game keymapping and it works great

 

 

[Monty Haull]

8 hours ago, biostem said:

I think this or SoA's are your best bet.

Just avoid the pet options.  

 

With that, there is something to said about non-mastermind pets.  If you want a basic fire and forget pet then consider an SOA Crabbermind.  You get the benefit of pets but virtually no headache of management.  

 

With double leadership pools you can be almost a tanker.

[tidge]

I suspect the problem isn't primarily "picking a character".

 

11 hours ago, Damoklese said:

I dont have the time or dedication to get multiple characters to the pinnacle.  Its so time consuming.

 

As others have replied, I see some things in the OP that raise my eyebrows. Specifically:

 

11 hours ago, Damoklese said:

2) Clickable defenses that can be perma'd OR some form of sapper protection that keeps them from becoming a wet noodle when sapped

3) Adequate damage that would allow for soloing AVs, or at least duoing effectively.

 

Investing some time in the game, using some common content (i.e. blue side 40+ tips, blue side arcs, a handful of red side arcs) should get every player familiar with the ways to handle Malta Sappers. I would not consider a player that struggles against sappers to be ready to consider solo AV fights. "One easy trick" for starting to deal with Sappers (or any particularly problematic enemy) is to invest 5 minutes into learning about targeting binds.

 

Something else that ought to be done with the time investment is to learn how to monitor certain (personal) character attributes. Some things (such as endurance spend) can be monitored via the health bar, but many important game effects are trivially able to be monitored using the Powers > Combat Attributes > +Base > right-click method. I commonly only monitor 5 attributes: Base ToHit, Last Hit Chance, and each of the Positional Defenses. Those stats, plus the green/blue bar, give me an excellent idea of what enemies might be doing to my character that are making me suffer. There are other important game effects, but even on characters that have better typed defenses than positionals, once I know what the relative values are, and I am paying attention to what enemies are doing, I find this is all I need for a character I understand.

 

Finally, it is important to do a variety of content to learn how resistant certain enemies are to your damage type(s), as well as what other tricks they will play on you. You have to learn how to address each of those issues.

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

11 hours ago, Damoklese said:

2) Clickable defenses that can be perma'd OR some form of sapper protection that keeps them from becoming a wet noodle when sapped

 

Sappers are pretty specific enemies, and usually easy to deal with as long as you know that they are around.

 

You can make a macro to search them out (I use /macro T targetname sapper).  There is only ever one sapper in any mob, which makes it easy to target and remove them first and mop up the rest of the spawn at your leisure.  Three caveats:  Malta missions like ambushes; adjacent spawns can have two sappers in relatively close proximity; Murphy's Law tells us that if you cannot see the sapper in the mob, assume that it is hiding behind the pillar because that little S.O.B. is gonna getcha!

[Seldom]

Control protection:
All melee archetypes, Sentinels, Arachnos widows/soldiers, Traps/Force field/Sonic resonance Corruptors/Defenders/Controllers, and Dominators with enough +recharge to keep domination up, 'Light form' peacebringers, and 'dwarf form' peacebringers/warshades. (The latter can use the dwark forms as a 'break free' but don't have permanent status protection outside of this & peacebringer light form.)

Sap protections:
Arachnos Fortunatas have a long duration click defense, Washades have an easily permanent almost capped resistance via eclipse, and light form is also a click that lasts a while for peacebringers. Warshades also have unparalleled endurance recovery when fighting groups, as they can heal/gain endurance for every dead enemy. Electric armor (tanks, brutes, scrappers, stalkers, sentinels) is the premier endurance protection set, as not only does it protect from -end/-recovery, it also gives reliable +endurance powers for whatever minor drain still sneaks through. Dark armor (again tanks, brutes, scrappers, stalkers, sentinels) also gives good sap protections via 'murky cloud' which was recently proliferated to dark mastery for dominators/controllers/blasters. Trap Corruptors/Defenders/Controllers get both their control protection and defense from an external pet, which can't be turned off via a sap.
Alternative: high burst damage (via a snipe/or assassin strike) or good ranged control can both deal with sappers handily. (Stalkers/Banes/Night widows being best bets for one-shotting sappers, dominators/fortunatas being the best at control)

AV-level damage:
All melee can sort of do this, though tanks will struggle and take a while. Sentinels are excellent at this due to having both focused damage and a constant, unresisted debuff. Night widows/bane spiders are great for boss killing, fortunatas a little less, crabs struggle. (They're best against crowds.) Peacebringers are good vs. bosses, warshades struggle as they need many foes to buff up from. Traps/Sonic resonance corruptors/defenders/controllers not only have damage, but have great debuffs to make their damage go further. Corruptors EXCEL versus bosses, the higher the health pool, the higher their damage. (They 'scourge' against foes at half health, and the chances for scourge go up as health goes down) Dominators can struggle as though they have high damage, they don't have a lot of attacks and need to split time damaging with controls.

 

Durable:

All melee/sentinels/arachnos/kheldians are sturdy to varying levels. Sentinels  are the worst of the above, as many of their armor sets have survival tools removed in favor of utility and auto powers, but still have more inherent tools than the support sets. At level 35 when patron/epic pools become usable, Corruptors/Defenders/Controllers get access to armors which make them hardier, and with the fighting pool and set bonuses they can even outclass sentinels, but you'll have to build for it.

Tanks and Brutes are the top here, Peacebringers can be up there with perma-lightform, which is also perma status protection.

 

 

 

Edited May 8 by Seldom

[Triumphant]

What Tidge says about creating Targeting binds (I use Macros, myself) is important for  dealing with Malta Sappers.  They can be incredibly frustrating.  They seem to have a massive attack bonus that allows them to reliably hit even very high positional defense (SR, etc.) a surprising amount of the time.  The trick it to target them outside of their aggro range and then use something like combat teleport or jaunt to swiftly close and ambush them.  If you can hit them with a combination high damage attack that has stun or disorient, this is very helpful.

 

They're always going to be something of a pain though, frankly.  It only takes one unlucky RNG miss on an ambush (and a corresponding hit by the Sapper) to trigger cascade failure and put you in the mud.

[Dungeoness Eloora]

/macro SAP target_custom_next enemy alive sapper

OR

/bind C "target_custom_next enemy alive sapper" - make C any key or combination of keys you like

 

Slap macro when fighting Malta.

 

Hit Sapper really, really hard.

 

Problem solved!

[Seldom]

1 minute ago, Triumphant said:

What Tidge says about creating Targeting binds (I use Macros, myself) is important for  dealing with Malta Sappers.  They can be incredibly frustrating.  They seem to have a massive attack bonus that allows them to reliably hit even very high positional defense (SR, etc.) a surprising amount of the time.  The trick it to target them outside of their aggro range and then use something like combat teleport or jaunt to swiftly close and ambush them.  If you can hit them with a combination high damage attack that has stun or disorient, this is very helpful.

 

They're always going to be something of a pain though, frankly.  It only takes one unlucky RNG miss on an ambush (and a corresponding hit by the Sapper) to trigger cascade failure and put you in the mud.

This is actually why the fortunata/mind control confuse is a favorite of mine..it takes sappers from being one of the most annoying mobs in the game to being a handy sapping buddy, and if it misses it doesn't aggro, so you can just wait for it to work before going in.

[tidge]

I use the same bind for targeting Sappers, DE Cairns (because of the resist protection they grant) and (Cimeroran, primarily) Surgeons.

 

The other thing that will be learned through game play is which Inspirations to gobble, and when.

[Ukase]

10 hours ago, Laucianna said:

I can safely say a lot of people who have put time into learning their kheldian enjoy them

This is key. Playing a kheld is pretty simple. Playing one well takes a lot of practice. (I'm not there yet)

[zenijos10]

I say go for Super Reflexes Tank.  They are hard to hit and hard to debuff their ability to not be hit.   Sappers can be a problem for any and everyone, but they are less so for my SR Tanker. I love my savage/ SR, but nearly all the Tanker Melee options go well with Super reflexes.  

 

A well built tank can solo tons of different AV.  They have great mezz protection.  They also get layered protection on top of their best-in-class defense.  As their HP drops their Damage resistance raises.