How do you folks build? Do you make a 50++ build in mids as a starting point or some variation of a leveling build?

[Frunobulax]

I frontload the character with everything they're ever going to use, and build as I level because mucking around with my vaults/obtaining sets I've run out of slows down my alt creation to a few a week.

 

Also I like to level in missions and tf's and pretty much every group has io'd 50's absolutely overpowering everything with gear that the mobs were not designed for, and if I'm coated in cheese myself then I'm not at the mercy of our lack of tactics, nor do I have to stand around watching them kill stuff if I don't feel like it. And I like being capable of being able to help a newbie with a roomful of mobs that they've been abandoned to by the rest of the group, on any setting or combo.

 

I build to level (or to check things out that I've never tried before), and then I usually respec at 50 at least once. I don't use mids or anybody else''s builds or whatever. I really like just doing my own thing and then ruminating about it and making adjustments.

 

I also make a secondary build that's just standard enhancements, to swap to in the rare group I find where everybody else is only in the gear that existed when the content that we're playing was created.

 

 

As for my actual strategy for creating a character, I usually make some stupid pun or concept that is almost never serious, and then I consider what at/powers would best embody the stupid pun, or add to whatever theme or joke. And then I slather it with influence and make it work. Some characters are anti-synergy, some are (probably, I don't pay any attention but math is math) on meta, some probably become the meta down the road after changes on this living server.

 

I don't even care about performance/viability on paper, just what I can actually squeeze out of the character myself in real time. Today's third stringer could become tomorrow's all-star anyways, these devs make some great changes and have raised the viability of lots of my characters over the years here on HC.

[kelika2]

Only a few alts that I really really like get purples/atos/pvps.

 

Most of the time its:

Melee: slot for melee damage.  If said melee set has +melee def ability like Parry I slot for ranged defense.  shield and sr get mixed bags of sets to get to all caps

Ranged: permahasten most of the time, ranged defense sometimes.  if a character has "too many attacks" i slot for ranged defense

Support: Permahasten

Kheld: Permahasten

Sentinel: ranged defense most of the time.  Defense sets get mixed bags of sets to get to all caps

 

SoAs are weird.

Crabs are permahasten

Wolves are permahasten

Banes are mixed bags to get to all def caps

And I am not proud of my widows to even say.

[Scarlet Shocker]

Play first, build later.

 

If the toon doesn't grab me it gets dumped. No point in building something I don't like. So I'll wait until I'm sure I'll be keeping it before building something in Mids.

 

I've recently started building "adequate" stuff because that's good enough and not too expensive. If I share builds on line they are never good enough and people dump on them when the reality is they are ok to play in most scenarios.

 

I'm not one of those who has billions of inf oozing from every orifice as some seem to do here so I have to ration my spend a bit too. But it mostly works for me and I've yet to find a character fails having built it to a reasonable standard. Then again I'm not soloing all the things on +27x53 so good enough works well enough

 

[Spaghetti Betty]

I will have a maxed out build ready to go before I ever hit the creation screen!

If I decide to play a toon through progression, I usually have a pretty good idea of what to pick and slot on the way to 50 in order to have as smooth of an experience as possible. Any holes are usually covered up by all of the goodies provided by the START Vendor!

 

Some of my toons have quite a few holes in their arms from Recovery Serum abuse

[Crysis]

2 minutes ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Some of my toons have quite a few holes in their arms from Recovery Serum abuse

a Stormies drug of choice!

[Lunar Ronin]

I absolutely hate respeccing in City of Heroes.  So I have a full level 50 character build made in Mids' Reborn before I make a character.  If it's a character with power sets that I've never played before, I'll take it for a spin on Brainstorm for a few to several hours to get a feel for it, and either make adjustments in Mids' Reborn as needed or scrap the idea of the character all together if the power set(s) don't jive with me.

 

For non-Praetorian characters that aren't on a static team, I'll just make the character and power level it to level 50 as there's no real reason not to do so unfortunately, and I already know the character from either playing the power sets before or from having taken it for a long spin on Brainstorm.  For Praetorian characters, I'll just go with the build I have but use SOs while leveling, and then start slotting IO enhancements at level 32.

 

The one exception was a Storm Blast/Sonic Blaster character I played on a semi-static team which I used SOs with to level 50, as I wanted to see what that was like with a team.  I hadn't used SOs past level 32 since around 2009.

Edited July 21 by Lunar Ronin

[WumpusRat]

Generally the way I build a character is about as follows:

 

1) Come up with a concept for the character, theme, and powersets

2) Doodle around with the build in mids, initially just throwing together a build and seeing where the numbers pan out, then trying to hit certain benchmarks 

3) Get the build to the point that I'm happy with it on paper, then go to the test server and put it together to try out

4) Fight random mobs in the portal corps parking lot, then do a 0/8 mission against Council, Carnies, and Malta to see how it fares before activating any incarnate abilities, then try it out at +2 or +3 using incarnate stuff

5) Take the build to DA and do a couple of Heather's missions (particularly the second one, since the first spawn in that mission has a tendency to be a 'double spawn' and has upwards of 20 mobs packed into a single fight)

6) Adjust as needed

7) If I'm happy with it, take it to live and start leveling up. Doesn't matter if it doesn't play as well at low/mid-levels as I know it's going to pan out in the late-game

 

But #1 is the most important. Without a concept that I think will be fun, I just won't make the character, even if gameplay wise it would be statistically really powerful. And some mathematically weaker concepts are some of my favorite characters just because of how fun they are to play, and the personality I created for them.

Edited July 22 by WumpusRat