Last night, my son and I finally got our last 14th toon to level 50. Just curious about other people who have done this and any general impressions from having playing fourteen different archtypes to level 50. Some initial thoughts - we did this as two people on two accounts, so the accomplishment isn't quite "pure". Still - it was a lot of playing time, and most of it we did together. Also, grand total, we probably got about a dozen levels from AE. Yeah, we indulged, but not excessively. Turns out AE just isn't fun. In order of their reaching 50, we have the following toons, with power sets:
Tedj, Dark/Regen Scrapper - back in the day, Tedj could solo giant monsters. Once got 100K xp for a single +2 giant monster. He also soloed Dr. Vasilak, although we did use superspeed to run and refresh a full load of damage inspirations - Dr V's regen wasn't up to the pounding. We chose these power sets because all my previous characters kept running out of endurance. Tedj never runs of out endurance.
Nedj, Ill/Rad Scrapper - the original AV killah back when the little munchkins were perma. Chose these power sets for the AV's, although Nedj is pretty awesome on a team, too. We actually slotted her with IO's for recharge and the pets are nearly perma again - she still has it!
Guul, Dark/Thugs MM - discovered that Dark's rez is actually an insane debuff. Chose these power sets because we wanted to have the maximum number of pets. With thug posse and dark servant, Guul has almost 20 friends. Spam those heals! Thought Guul might be able to take AV's but only ever got one.
Dr. Zorion, Ice/Rad Corruptor - Dr. Zorion is half of a team we designed to work together; we had a great experience with radiation (AM is the best power in the game ;-) and we took cold because of the holds; with patron powers, Dr. Z has three single target holds.
Mr. Lowenzahn, Dark/Fire Brute - the other half of the Dr. Z pair - Mr. L would do the herding (with Dr. Z following along healing) and when the mobs got big enough, they would both start dropping AoE's. Much fun - especially with the Fury meter nearly full.
Doxeto, Energy/Regen Stalker - Doxeto was our second stalker. Tried Dual Blades and Willpower, but didn't really like it. We went with single target damage - Doxeto vs. Freaks was really fun. Four clicks of the mouse and three orange minions go down.
Julo, Archery/Devices Blaster - this power set (and archtype) was actually chosen by one of the four-year-olds - it was alphabetical, but turned out to be pretty good - the archery "nuke" doesn't exhaust you, and the devices had good support. With auxiliary power pools, Julo ended up with three stuns. A blaster with control. ;-)
Makalu, Ice/Cold Dominator - this one was tough - low level dominators just die a lot. We eventually tried and fell in love with Aid Self - go figure. Turns out that Makalu usually had plenty of time for the interruptible part, and the heal is pretty strong. After that, he was fun, and domination is just totally crazy.
Father Sticks, Dark/Dark Defender - we saw a dark/dark corruptor go crazy with cones, so we decided to try it with a defender. He turned out pretty well, although (no surprise) a defender goes slowly by himself. Got about 8 levels (and 500+ candy canes) taking out
Snaptooth. Boring, but effective. Debuffs really impressive.
Agent Egypt, Night Widow - we weren't crazy about the VEAT's when we first saw them, but we played Egypt and the other together, and the dual toggles were really insane. Eventually focused almost entirely on defense. (Used sets to get Mind Link recharge, even though it won't take straight recharge.)
Agent Rome, Crab Spider - worked really well with Agent Egypt; even alone, with immob and hover, could handle things pretty well. The names weren't brilliant, but we did get a smile or two from teammates who figured it out.
Dorivore, Dual Blades/Stone Tanker - if you're gonna tank, you might as well be Stone. Loved the dancing pile of rocks with Dual Blades; also, Dual Blades gives you lots of straight attacks, so even with the recharge debuff of Granite Armor, Dorivore almost always had an attack available.
Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz, Warshade - apologies to Dr. Suess fans everywhere. Probably the most frustrating of all the characters. Actually paid for two respec recipes, in addition to a couple free ones and all the veteran badges. Also took advantage of the dual builds. We still couldn't find a build that we really liked. Of all the 50's, Zuzz is still "incomplete".
Fiffer Feffer Feff, Peacebringer - apologies again. Feff and Zuzz were supposed to be a pair, although, in practice, they rarely teamed. Feff was a bit easier to build than Zuzz, but less fun. Most of Feff's high level came from TF's; on a big team, he could be pretty amazing.
What did we learn? Well, you learn a lot about a character by playing it - slotting, good powers, synergies. You also learn a lot by watching the players around you. Some constants across characters - 1) self heals are good; Julo and Eqypt are the only toons we have without self heals; and it's always a problem, at least the way we play. 2) Endurance is also pretty good. ;-) Maybe not so much that I needed to design Tedj around it, but I was new to the game and hated running out. Having a character who can go full speed without running out of end is plain fun. 3) mez protection really makes a difference. It wasn't until we started playing Nedj that we even realized that the Lost could hold - Tedj always had integration on and never had a problem. ;-) Julo became fun to play when the devs fixed blasters to be able to shoot even while held. And Zuzz was always a problem in human form because of the lack of mez protection. 4) control can be a good substitution for mez protection, but you need to be able to hold that boss. 5) Knockback generally sucks; knockdown is amazing. Protection from knockback is amazing. Herding with Dr. Z and Mr. L went so much better when Mr. L didn't spend all his time on his back.
Although we did end up doubling up on power sets we liked (Rad debuff, Dark attack and Dark debuff, Regen) we did sample pretty widely from available powersets. We also focused mostly on solo characters - our teaming was generally just the two of us. Always fun when we did team with a big group, but with young twins boys in the house, we often didn't have long stretches of time that we could devote to a team or task force.
We had a great time; over almost 5 years we dinged 14 toons; defeated AV's and giant monsters with single characters; participated in a Hami raid; and played on some incredible teams. Will we keep playing? Hard to know - the son is finally off to college, and his younger brothers don't seem as interested in the game. There are some non-50's still on the rolls, but they don't have the same urgency...
Thanks to all who read this far - we'd love to hear from others who have done this, or from anyone else who has something to say.
