Seeking advice on picking the right archtype and powers for a character concept!

[markuswaters]

10 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

hmm, maybe I should roll a savage/fire/mu brute

You got a laugh out of me with this last bit - I love that the idea seems fun to you.
 

 

13 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

You have 1000 character slots per server.

Make one of each and try it out for several levels. Then switch back and forth if you get bored with one of them.

Yeah, I was thinking about that idea, too.  Worst case I just drop the toon.

 

12 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

If none of that really matters to you, then the biggest take away I can give is “if you want to be primarily ranged, go Sentinel. If you want to be primarily melee, go Brute.”  Sentinels can get melee attacks in their Epic pools (available starting at 35) and Brutes get ranged attacks in theirs, but your primary set is going to be where most of your attacks come from.

Yeah, that's the split I was thinking of between the two as well.  I think I'm just gonna go with Ultra's idea and build one of each.
 

 

14 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

if you’re planning on taking Hover and leaving it on, Electric Armor has a disadvantage in that situation.  The power that Elec Armor gets that provides knockback protection (Grounded) only works while you’re on the ground.

Woof, that's definitely an important point!  That reduces the chances of that being the power choice I go with, substantially.  His flight is a big part of the idea...
 

 

17 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

another possible combination you didn’t include is a savage (or electric)/fire/mu brute.  This will be an offensive powerhouse combo and Mu Mastery gives ranged electrical attacks.

Yeah, that's an excellent point - I definitely didn't think of that combo, and will give it a look as well.

SO THE UPDATED LIST - will likely dabble with each:
Brute - Savage Melee/Electric Armor/Fire Mastery | Very low chance of this being chosen, since I want hover and the Aura requires me to be grounded.
Brute - Savage Melee/Fire Armor/Mu Mastery | Haven't looked at the powerset yet, but it shows promise.
Sentinel - Electrical Blast/Fiery Aura/Fire Mastery | If I wanna focus more on ranged damage (Which I originally thought flight was exclusively chosen for, but I've seen a few melee builds with hover now... The More You Know! *shooting star and piano sounds*).

[markuswaters]

Well I definitely don't regret asking/sharing!  Y'all really make a guy feel welcomed. 😁

[Maelwys]

3 hours ago, markuswaters said:

Quote

if you’re planning on taking Hover and leaving it on, Electric Armor has a disadvantage in that situation.  The power that Elec Armor gets that provides knockback protection (Grounded) only works while you’re on the ground.

Woof, that's definitely an important point!  That reduces the chances of that being the power choice I go with, substantially.  His flight is a big part of the idea...

 

Don't worry too much about getting knocked back whilst flying. I know in DnD when most flying creatures get knocked prone they plummet and take falling damage, but here they merely do a quick mid-air flip.

 

Plus, you can start slotting global Knockback Protection IO enhancements from as low as level 7. Plenty of -KB IOs and Set Bonuses exist and realistically unless you're intending to Tank whole maps of Council you'll only ever need about 4-12 points of protection (so 1-4 IOs/Set Bonuses).

 

  

3 hours ago, markuswaters said:

SO THE UPDATED LIST - will likely dabble with each:
Brute - Savage Melee/Electric Armor/Fire Mastery | Very low chance of this being chosen, since I want hover and the Aura requires me to be grounded.
Brute - Savage Melee/Fire Armor/Mu Mastery | Haven't looked at the powerset yet, but it shows promise.
Sentinel - Electrical Blast/Fiery Aura/Fire Mastery | If I wanna focus more on ranged damage (Which I originally thought flight was exclusively chosen for, but I've seen a few melee builds with hover now... The More You Know! *shooting star and piano sounds*).

I'd throw one more in: an Elec Blast/Elec Armor/Elec Mastery Sentinel.

Aim to take the Fighting, Speed, Leaping and Flight pools for Tough, Hasten, Hover, Combat Jumping and Fly.
When starting out prior to level 35; you'll have Electrical Blasts available plus Ball Lightning (which you could treat as a 'minor damage' breath attack) and the option of picking up Cross Punch from the Fighting Pool as a melee attack (and you could potentially reflavour Elec Blast's Short Circuit PBAoE as another one).
At level 26, you'll gain access to Thunderous Blast (which you could treat as a 'high damage' Breath Attack).
At level 35, you'll gain access to Havoc Punch which is a very hard hitting melee attack (Claws?).
At level 41; you'll gain access to Shocking Field which is an Electrical damage aura.
At level 44, you'll gain access to Rehabilitating Circuit which is an Allied AoE 'Chain' Heal.
At level 50; you'll get access to incarnate abilities. Choose Reactive Interface (additional Fire damage on most of your attacks) and Mighty Judgement (a big stompy melee AoE- perhaps a Tail/Wing Swipe?) and whatever Lore Pets you like the look of - see here - Banished Pantheon might work.

Whilst the effects of Electric Armor's "Grounded" ability is partially negated whilst in the air; that can be easily remedied. Combat Jumping provides decent Immobilise Protection (and also drastically increases your fine movement control whilst flying/jumping; reducing your "inertia" and stopping distance); and even a single IO (for example: a Blessing of the Zephyr in Fly) provides reasonable levels of Knockback Protection.

Also; don't forget that the test server is there to let you build a character in minutes + try builds out.

Edited May 15 by Maelwys

[markuswaters]

Oh, wow!  More layers to dig through, cool!
There's a lot more to this game than I realized...  I already through it was cool before, haha!  Man there are lots of ways to do what I wanna do with this - that's awesome!

Now I think I'm leaning into the brute even more, because my main reason for resisting the idea of Savage melee in my head was the lack of element to it.  If I can grab something later on that adds the fire damage and so on, then that changes things!  Or is that specifically a Sentinel thing?

[Psyonico]

3 hours ago, markuswaters said:

If I can grab something later on that adds the fire damage and so on, then that changes things!  Or is that specifically a Sentinel thing?

 Nope, all Archetypes get access to the exact same Incarnate options.

 

i will note, though that incarnate powers do take a little while after level 50 to actually unlock.  You need to unlock the “slot” by gaining experience and you need to get the materials via gaining veteran levels (just gaining levels after you hit 50) or by running incarnate content.

[markuswaters]

41 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

 Nope, all Archetypes get access to the exact same Incarnate options.

 

i will note, though that incarnate powers do take a little while after level 50 to actually unlock.  You need to unlock the “slot” by gaining experience and you need to get the materials via gaining veteran levels (just gaining levels after you hit 50) or by running incarnate content.

Translation in my head: stuff you'll potentially do if you love your character and want to add more to it.  😁

[Psyonico]

18 minutes ago, markuswaters said:

Translation in my head: stuff you'll potentially do if you love your character and want to add more to it.  😁

Exactly, but I just wanted to make sure you knew that it is something “down the road” in case that mattered.

[AlwaysAPrice]

May have already been mentioned but I'll just point out that Tanks, Brutes, and Sentinels (also Blasters, MMs, and VEATs from my quick check through Mids, but those don't sound on the table) get access to a power called Static Discharge in the Mu Mastery patron pool, which is an electricity cone with a pretty nice range and width that deals respectable damage. I think outside of epics it's only available to /elec Dominators. I use it for Palpatine fingers on a Sith-inspired character but if you don't mind the animation not quite fitting (I'd say it's close enough when you're viewing your character from behind) it could make for a very nice lightning breath.

[markuswaters]

49 minutes ago, AlwaysAPrice said:

May have already been mentioned but I'll just point out that Tanks, Brutes, and Sentinels (also Blasters, MMs, and VEATs from my quick check through Mids, but those don't sound on the table) get access to a power called Static Discharge in the Mu Mastery patron pool, which is an electricity cone with a pretty nice range and width that deals respectable damage. I think outside of epics it's only available to /elec Dominators. I use it for Palpatine fingers on a Sith-inspired character but if you don't mind the animation not quite fitting (I'd say it's close enough when you're viewing your character from behind) it could make for a very nice lightning breath.

Good callout - thank you!