Best "do everything" character?

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I have less time to play than I used to, so I'm looking for recommendations for a character that can reasonably do everything, into which I can put the bulk of what time I do have. 

 

My goals are to have enough personal defenses to survive groups, enough damage to defeat them, enough buffs and/or debuffs to aid a team, perhaps even the odd control ability. Not necessarily to be the best at any one thing, but adequate at as much as possible. I'm more interested in being able to exemplar well than to excel at incarnate content, but at a bare minimum, I'd like to be able to fill in any gaps while not being a detriment to the team. 

That probably leaves quite a few options available. What would be your go-to for this, and why?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Triumphant]

Kind of depends.  Are you someone who likes to level slowly over time?  Or are you like me, and just prefer to powerlevel to 50, so you can immediately access all the powers and mission content?

 

If the first, I think maybe a Defender or Dominator might be your best bet.  If the latter, I would go for a tough melee AT (Brute or Tank) or a Sentinel and dip into your epic/patron pools for some ranged/buff/control powers.

[Psyonico]

good personal defense paired with good buffs/debuffs? not really all that much of a thing.

 

Maybe Dark Blast/Force Field Corruptor?  you can build for decent self defense and you'll provide good defense for your team.  You also get a self heal.  Dark Pit and Force Bomb will be your control.  Going Corruptor will give you a little better soloability.

 

Alternately, a /Shield Brute would provide good self defense and a tad of team support between Grant Cover and Taunt.  Again, going Brute instead of Tank for better soloability.  Take Darkest Night from epics and you even have a good AoE debuff.

[Gerswin Jr]

Fortunata. Does everything. Sink a few hundred million inf into her and she does everything well.

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5 hours ago, Triumphant said:

Kind of depends.  Are you someone who likes to level slowly over time?  Or are you like me, and just prefer to powerlevel to 50, so you can immediately access all the powers and mission content?

 

If the first, I think maybe a Defender or Dominator might be your best bet.  If the latter, I would go for a tough melee AT (Brute or Tank) or a Sentinel and dip into your epic/patron pools for some ranged/buff/control powers.

 

I usually go through the leveling process, hitting the main task forces on the way up. I don't always make it to 50 and frequently start a new character when/if I do. I'm hoping to stick to a single character a bit more rather than having dozens of mid-level characters that never get played. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Psyonico said:

good personal defense paired with good buffs/debuffs? not really all that much of a thing.

 

Maybe Dark Blast/Force Field Corruptor?  you can build for decent self defense and you'll provide good defense for your team.  You also get a self heal.  Dark Pit and Force Bomb will be your control.  Going Corruptor will give you a little better soloability.

 

Alternately, a /Shield Brute would provide good self defense and a tad of team support between Grant Cover and Taunt.  Again, going Brute instead of Tank for better soloability.  Take Darkest Night from epics and you even have a good AoE debuff.

 

I'm not expecting to find Tanker durability, Blaster damage, and Defender support all in one package, but something that can do enough damage and maybe throw out a decent heal/buff/debuff occasionally while not constantly faceplanting is what I'm hoping for. Dark/FF Corrupter sounds doable, as does a /Shield Brute. I never quite clicked with a Brute, though, but the Corrupter sounds intriguing. 

 

 

17 minutes ago, Gerswin Jr said:

Fortunata. Does everything. Sink a few hundred million inf into her and she does everything well.

 

Truly? I'll have to give one a try. I made a Crabbermind years ago and enjoyed it for a bit, but keeping the pets alive became more chore than challenge so I left it. If Fortunata ticks the same boxes, that may be what I'm looking for. 

 

 

Thanks for your advice, everyone. I have some reading to do. 

[Lunar Ronin]

Mastermind.  Masterminds do a ton of single target damage, and between that and potentially debuffs from your secondary, you'll be an asset against AVs and GMs (even solo AVs depending on power sets and build), and be helpful to your team.  Other than that, I second Gershwin's Fortunata recommendation.  Great buffs, great defense, good damage.  Just lacking on debuffs, but no character can truly do it all.

[Psyonico]

I forgot about Forts.  I've got one at 50 but it never really clicked with me all that much. 

 

 

47 minutes ago, Lunar Ronin said:

Just lacking on debuffs

Don't they get access to Darkest Night in Soul Mastery?  I legit don't remember. 

[Without_Pause]

Ill/dark. I really do like my Fort, but as per description, Ill/dark every time. 

[Uun]

/Marine, /Nature or /Time corruptor. 

[Icono04]

19 hours ago, Gerswin Jr said:

Fortunata. Does everything. Sink a few hundred million inf into her and she does everything well.

Obligatory referral to @Gulbasaur's recipe for a do-everything hybrid fortu-widow: 

 

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15 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

Ill/dark. I really do like my Fort, but as per description, Ill/dark every time. 

 

I've started a Widow for now, but I'm intrigued by this suggestion. Do you have a build you like? From a few minutes of searching it seems there's quite a bit of variety for this. 

 

1 hour ago, Icono04 said:

Obligatory referral to @Gulbasaur's recipe for a do-everything hybrid fortu-widow: 

 

 

Hey, thanks! I'll look that over. I won't start leaning on a build plan until after the 24 respec, but I'm pretty torn at the moment between going Night Widow or Fortunata. At first glance, this looks like a promising compromise. Have there been any significant VEAT changes since this was written, or is this likely to be good as-is?