What AT do you not play at all

[Ukase]

While I do have one of each AT, for the last year, it's fair to say that I mainly play Corruptors, Blasters, Brutes and tanks. And of those 4, on teams, it's 95% blasters or corruptors. 


Tanks...I'm reluctant to team with tanks because if I go overboard slotting for taunt, and aggro management, I find that when I solo, it's very slow, very tedious. And, if I pursue damage, then often my armor is insufficient to cope with +4/8 in certain situations. So, I just avoid putting myself in a situation where I might let someone down. 

Brutes I tend to just solo because they're self-sufficient and I don't need to wait for a team. But, I haven't played a brute outside the labyrinth in years, really. I can do more damage with a blaster. I can tackle more mobs just as safely with a controller, and clear them about as fast, too. 

Defenders - fine for soloing, but having played both corruptor and defender solo, I can't see a big distinction. And there's scourge for the corruptor. I just don't see any tangible benefit to playing a defender. There's a bit stronger buff/debuffs, sure. But, I don't know that the difference is worth losing scourge. 

Scrappers - Honestly, I'd love to play a scrapper. I have a lot of respect for those that can play a scrapper at a high level. But the idea of looking up the animation time, the arcana time, and determining where to put ATO1, and ATO2 to get the most of out of it - the game is supposed to be fun, not math. While it's true nobody is putting a gun to my head saying I need to be the dps king if I play a scrapper - intellectually I know that a scrapper should outshine everything if it's played properly. So, I tend to settle for second best, the blaster. 

I do have a couple of scrappers in my stable that just have too many badges to delete. But the countless others I've tried have had their enhancements and other loot sold off, and been deleted. 

Sentinel - My first 50 on HC was a Sentinel because it was a new AT. Fire/Rad. That's the only sentinel I have, and probably will ever have. Taking Freeze Ray from ice blast and making it a sleep is just unforgivable, and I will cut off my own nose to spite my face and never play an ice blast sentinel because of that. I'm not saying I'll never play another Sentinel...but if I do, it will be that first one that hasn't been logged in for years. 

Masterminds - I don't see a utility for them. But I'm too lazy to do all the pet management with all those damn macros to bother with playing one well, so I just figured, screw it. I won't play one at all. The pets are due for some love in Brainstorm, and that may be enough to sway me...but maybe not. I have one Beast/Nature MM. I haven't played it in a few years, and probably won't ever play it again. I keep it just in case I might need one. 

Dominators - I made a mistake and played a Mind/psi dominator maybe 5 years ago. I learned that 1) you reach domination quicker with a team. So, since I solo a lot, that's a strike against it. 2)The end usage is nuts. And just getting domination really doesn't help that much. This combo made me swear off them completely. 

There was a player, I forget their name...maybe it was Rial Vestro, maybe someone else that told me I didn't need to sweat domination, and different sets would play a lot different than that combo. They were right. I have a nice couple of dominators in my stable, but I just don't enjoy playing them because of domination. Domination is a set that lends itself to the pursuit of  recharge for perma-dom. So, you'd put that on auto-fire. And I have to manually trigger hasten. Not really a fan of having to do that. I'm getting used to it with other sets that also require hasten to be done manually, like martial assault on a blaster. So, I after having sworn to never play a dom again, I have played some dominators to 50 - but they're just not that much fun. The whole domination mechanic is oversold in my mind. It's just not worth that much to me. 


Veats - I played one widow, and I deleted it. I don't like them. I did like my Soldier of Arachnos that I took into the bane path. It is still kind of fun to play that, teams or otherwise. I plan to make another and go a different route. I also plan to try a Widow out - and I will if they ever fix it so I don't have to do redside content. Redside content is just trash in my opinion. The zones are ugly. Grandville is a hot mess that's annoying to navigate. Nerva is entirely too large. The only decent zones are Cap and Port Oakes. Those are just my subjective opinions. Just not a fan of bugs in real life, or in game. 

PB/WS - They need more slots. The damage they do is unimpressive. The noise they make when shapeshifting is loud. 

The content they get to do...it's interesting enough to do it again. But I don't like shifting forms. The squid is kind of ugly looking, and so is the dwarf. I just can't relate to them. It's tough to immerse myself in any character, let alone one that looks as bad as they do. The forms don't wear costumes, not even if you pay 10 prismatics for it. You want to be in Nova form, you're going to look like you should be on a hook on a fly-fishing rod. No way around it. 

Because of Goddess Laucianne and her crew, I want to like being a WS or a PB, but I just don't. And did I say they need more slots? Like about 15 more slots. Well, really 6 more slots, but 15 would be better. 


So, clearly, my preference is blasters with corruptors being a close 2nd. 
Edited to compile a list. I have already deleted about 80 characters in the past 6 months because I wasn't playing them. There's about 100 in this list that also need to go bye-bye. 

Defender 34
Blaster 76
Controller 27
Tank 18
Corruptor 54
Dominator 5
Brute 28
Stalker 3
MM 1
Scrapper 11
Sentinel 1
Arachnos 1
Peacebringer 1
Warshade 1

Edited yesterday at 01:28 AM by Ukase
Adding the list

[cranebump]

Masterminds. 
 

“Awwwwww just get out the way mates! I’ll do it myself!”

 

(also don’t do the VEATs much)

[KC4800]

<----this guy is the only Brute I ever played, and he is single hard target focused, no the typical farm focused Brute everyone starts with. I never built a Brute on live because I was all about tankers, and still tend to play them. Especially if I have not played in a while and want to jump back in.

 

I play a lot of controllers, masterminds, blasters, stalkers and corruptors

 

Scrappers are boring to me.

 

My current lowbie project is a defender.

[Neiska]

Most of my characters are Masterminds, followed by Tankers, then Brutes, and then SoA's (specifically crabbers, I have 4.)

 

I have played a couple controllers, corruptors, and scrappers, 1-2 stalkers and widows, and one Warshade.

 

The ATs I have never played -

Sentinel

Defender

Peacebringer

 

As far as what kind of classes/ATs I like in games, generally Pet classes (Necromancers, Summoners, etc) are my favorite. If a game doesn't have a pet class, then I generally go Tank. If I had to choose one for my favorite, it would likely be Crabber because they are kind of a mix of both, pet class and can be very Tanky. And they don't get complete overhauls/changes/nerfs every few pages which is a big plus for me.

Edited Friday at 11:40 PM by Neiska

[BasiliskXVIII]

This prompted me to go take a look:

 

Certainly paints a pretty definitive picture of my playstyle preferences. The answer would definitively be Kheldians. Worst AT and it's not close.

[Skyhawke]

Warshade for me as I don't have any in my current roster on Excelsior.

 

My spread on Excelsior is:

Defender 3

Blaster 4

Scrapper 4

Tanker 10

Controller 3

Peacebringer 2

Warshade 0

Sentinel 7

 

Brute 10

Corrupter 2

Stalker 1

Domintator 1

Mastermind 1

Soldier 3

Widow 1

[mechahamham]

Khelds: Very tied to the story and to get any traction at lower levels, it seems like you need to be willing to use the different forms. I DO NOT WANT my characters to look like alien crabs or squids. I've heard of people levelling human-form Khelds, but it seems like a real pain in the tuckus.

 

Spiders: Very tied to the story, even moreso than Khelds. I don't HATE the playstyles, but I do dislike psi blast, which nixes Fortunatas. I'm not super-excited about the Crab animations nor the Bane mace animations. With villains you can either take or leave the 'Toady to Arachnos' story as you want, but with Spiders, it's much harder to leave that behind, and that's unappealing as well.

 

After the shutdown, I promised myself I'd never make an MMO character tied to a particular in-game story again. I've yet to find a character idea that makes me think Spiders or Khelds would be the way to play that idea.

 

Tanks: I hate herding. I've also found that I dislike being responsible for agro.

 

Dominators: I dislike the 'Feast/Famine' playstyle of Domination, and the only alternative to that seems to be Perma-dom. Additionally, if I want sheer DPS, Blasters are right there. I consider myself a career Blaster. If I want control, Controllers are great and come with a ton of debuffs or buffs.

 

Defenders: Seem so middle of the road to me. If I want to buff or debuff, Controllers are there and come with control powers. If I want to blast, Blasters all the way. If I want to play with pets, I don't loathe masterminds. So no real dislike, it's just there are always better options for me.

 

Corrupters: Same issue as with defenders. I have a few more corrupters than my 1 defender on Excelsior and have even levelled two of them to 50.

 

 

[Clave Dark 5]

Not at all?  VEATs and Squiddy types.  I have one near-50 Widow that I just can't bring myself to finally top off, partly because I lost the intended build, and because respeccing them is a nightmare I can't find my way through, I tried once. 

 

Close second, Masterminds, I'll like them with the new changes, they just break down too easily, only AT that lose effectiveness as they get more and more wounded.

[knightowl - Pinnacle serve]

Kheldians are the only AT that I haven't played at all, and have little or zero interest in playing.

[Riverdusk]

17 hours ago, Triumphant said:

I don't play:

 

 

Dominator:  Mostly, like @Snarky, I hate that incredibly stupid-looking sparkle effect.  I like the AT, though, so I may work on overcoming this revulsion (or trying to come up with costume/auras that can somewhat disguise the effect.

 

 

Definitely agree with both you and @Snarky. I really wish they'd let us color customize the domination effect.  I can make it work well enough/ignore it on my plant/psi, but I did try a dark/dark dom once and it did feel really weird to constantly be breaking out in rainbows as a dark dom.

[High_Beam]

Below are my characters.  I play /like Kheldins the least, the PB was made on a dare.The Arachnos VEATS are one trick ponies to me so there will never be any more made.  Scrappers bore me as do Stalkers followed by Defenders and Corruptors (Both just Blasters having an identity crisis).  Sentinels used to be a single one but I have found use for them.   It took Homecoming to make me even want to play Melee types beyond one of each AT.

 

Blaster     14
Brute         6
Controller     8
Corruptor     3
Defender     3
Dominator     5
Mastermind     7
Peacebringer     1
Scrapper     2
Sentinel     4
Soldier     1
Stalker     2
Tanker        3
Warshade     0
Widow         1

[Snarky]

2 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

 

Definitely agree with both you and @Snarky. I really wish they'd let us color customize the domination effect.  I can make it work well enough/ignore it on my plant/psi, but I did try a dark/dark dom once and it did feel really weird to constantly be breaking out in rainbows as a dark dom.

Whatever LSD tripping Dev decided rainbow bright was the perfect effect for the new Villain Dominator Archetype should be banned from ever working in gaming again.  Really banned from working anywhere.  

[Flitze]

Stalker. This AT was invented with PVP and except of the Barracuda TF I don't see much use in PVE for a toon with single target attacks only, especially in teams. I've got a level 50 incarnate stalker, so at least I've played it for some time but since then it's parked in one of the last character slots.

Edited yesterday at 04:02 PM by Flitze

[Flitze]

14 hours ago, BasiliskXVIII said:

This prompted me to go take a look:

 

Certainly paints a pretty definitive picture of my playstyle preferences. The answer would definitively be Kheldians. Worst AT and it's not close.

It's the Sentinel. It's completely missing in your list. Strongly looks like you've played that even less than Kheldians.

[gameboy1234]

Stalkers I just don't get.  I don't think I've played one past level 12 or so, and I think I've only tried one.

 

Keldians are hard.  I have a couple but I don't play them as much.

 

Likewise not a fan of Defenders, I prefer Controllers or Corruptors for support as these have a more beneficial second power set. Again I think I have maybe one or two defenders.

 

The other classes are OK, I play them a fair bit, but those three I seem to avoid.

 

 

 

[BasiliskXVIII]

2 hours ago, Flitze said:

It's the Sentinel. It's completely missing in your list. Strongly looks like you've played that even less than Kheldians.

Oh, jeez. I do have 2 Sentinels, no 50s. They're in the main list, but totally forgot they existed when doing my calculations at the end. 

 

I guess it comes down to a question of whether you think apathy or antipathy is worse...

[lemming]

2 minutes ago, BasiliskXVIII said:

Oh, jeez. I do have 2 Sentinels, no 50s. They're in the main list, but totally forgot they existed when doing my calculations at the end. 

 

I guess it comes down to a question of whether you think apathy or antipathy is worse...

Yea, I looked at my list and realized, I have more controllers at 50 than Sentinels, but I play a couple of my sentinels much more than any of my controllers.   And I only have one of each Kheld or Veat, but I do play my Widow.   Hmm, a better chart would show playhours on each character, but that may be beyond my data entry needs. 😉 

[dtjunkie]

 

I solo probably 95% of the time and I enjoy the run up to 50 more than the beyond 50 experience (I never take double XP). Which I think is why I have so many brutes 🤣. I keep rolling Doms and then after I get squishied I start thinking about how a brute would just be rolling and that leads to MOAR BRUTES. But once I get to 50 the brutes tend to get parked. For the 50+ I mainly tank or play either my main hero (electric/electric Sentinel) or my main villain (war mace / shield scrapper). 

 

[Apogee]

Added a poll by request

[MoonSheep]

5 hours ago, Apogee said:

Added a poll by request

 

woo, thank you!

[Bill Z Bubba]

It's very strange to me to see scrappers so low on both lists.

[Psi-bolt]

23 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

It's very strange to me to see scrappers so low on both lists.

I was much more into Scrappers on live, but the changes to Tankers here on Homecoming pushed me more towards that AT.   I still think Scrappers are neat but they feel more like soloist and I mostly play in teams these days.

[knightowl - Pinnacle serve]

Back on live, I had at least one of everything except the Villain-types.  On HC, I don't have any Kheldians.

[Psi-bolt]

Seeing everyone's distribution made me want to see where I stood.  I have 54, level 50s.   I made it a goal to get one of every AT, but I found that since then I have never even contemplated playing a Dominator, Kheldian or Mastermind.   I find myself a bit surprised that Sentinels came out on top even though I like the AT.  

 

Archetype	50s
Tanker	7
Defender	3
Controller	4
Scrapper	6
Blaster	5
Peacebringer	1
Warshade	1
Brutes	3
Corruptors	3
Masterminds	1
Dominators	1
Stalkers	6
Soldier of Arachnos	5
Sentinels	8

[tidge]

I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, especially if they are right... yet I want to comment on one well-written, detailed post

 

On 11/14/2025 at 9:31 PM, Ukase said:

Dominators - I made a mistake and played a Mind/psi dominator maybe 5 years ago. I learned that 1) you reach domination quicker with a team. So, since I solo a lot, that's a strike against it. 2)The end usage is nuts. And just getting domination really doesn't help that much. This combo made me swear off them completely. 

There was a player, I forget their name...maybe it was Rial Vestro, maybe someone else that told me I didn't need to sweat domination, and different sets would play a lot different than that combo. They were right. I have a nice couple of dominators in my stable, but I just don't enjoy playing them because of domination. Domination is a set that lends itself to the pursuit of  recharge for perma-dom. So, you'd put that on auto-fire. And I have to manually trigger hasten. Not really a fan of having to do that. I'm getting used to it with other sets that also require hasten to be done manually, like martial assault on a blaster. So, I after having sworn to never play a dom again, I have played some dominators to 50 - but they're just not that much fun. The whole domination mechanic is oversold in my mind. It's just not worth that much to me. 

 

My Dominators have avoided having Hasten to guarantee permaDom, but I agree that building to achieve permaDom limits my build approaches such that I feel like that the end result (character) is narrowly: really good at certain controls and really hard to be controlled... which feels niche to me. I do like that Domination refills the blue bar... one more thing to micro-manage via build/play choices. I sometimes love living on that knife's edge... but it is otherwise not that enjoyable for me.

 

I feel like my personal distaste for "narrow build choices to achieve permaDom" was a large contribution to why I almost universally avoid including Hasten on Homecoming builds. To me it represents a narrow approach to both play and character design.... especially when "permaHasten" becomes a goal in and of itself. I turned off autoHasten on a character I felt really needed it... and I noticed no significant experience in game play, and I haven't really looked backwards.