14 50's

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.

Interesting project! I'm glad you enjoyed it.Your conclusions (and playstyle) vary from my own, but there's a good reason I don't get to set the rules. ( Rule #47: No Mayonnaise. Ever. On anything. )

I have 19 50s on on main account. 5 Defenders, 3 Scrappers, 5 Trollers, 2 Blasters, 2 Tankers, 1 Mastermind, 1 VEAT. I like to try out different powersets to see what I like. My 1st tank (Stone/Stone) I hated and my second (Shield/SS) was one of my favorites. I don't do AE as I find you can level just as fast doing the regular content and there is less frustration involved. I think that most players don't realize how easy it is to level even without AE and you can even learn more about the game. I mostly do Task Forces now unless I solo. I have a few other projects in the works now. I have all 36 slots filled with alts. Once they are all 50 I will probably stop rolling new ones and just do some badge hunting and TFs. Unless of course they release some new powersets that I want to try.

I have 26 lvl 50's on 2 accounts in 4.5 years of playing. Took me 9 months to get the first- an energy/ energy blaster, it wasn't the first blaster I made but it was the one I liked most. The first blaster I made got deleted. The first toon I made was a BS/ INV scrapper that sat for awhile unused but did get to 50 a few years later. First villain ever made is a Ninja/ FF Mastermind, still sitting at lvl 30; it is gonna be one of my projects soon even if just to say I got one to 50.

So my totals: 7 tanks, 5 scrappers, 4 blasters, 3 defenders, 2 trollers, 2 brutes, 1 corr, 1 crab, 1 stalker. I still need the aliens, the other SoA, MM, and a Dom.

I set a goal for myself to have a 50 on each server but so far only got to 4 servers. Of those 4 servers, only 2 of them have 50s on both accounts. I know the server transfer would make this a piece of cake now but: a) I'm too cheap; b) I want the satisfaction of actually leveling and playing on that server; and c) unfortunately most of my ingame friends only play on 1 server-- I have managed to get some of them to make toons on other servers though. My real life friends and I run on different servers fairly often though.

I've achieved something similar to this.

I got 2-6 of each hero archetype at 50 currently, but that's at the cost of villains where I only have 3 level 50 characters. I just somehow cant really get into villain characters...

Nowadays I mostly concentrate on playing duos with an RL friend. Currently have no serious projects underway before i16 lands.

I'm still hovering at 6 50s... I started doing one of each archetype, but my research into the effects of powers as used by various archetypes eventually made the job a chore. But hey, at least I have Elec/Heal on both heroes and villains. (-:

What have I learned?

Blaster - Ranged damage is good damage, and Blaster damage is even better. This character got to 50 back with the old Defiance, so mez was an issue every now and then, but dealing with the mezzers first always made the job pretty easy.

Mastermind - I was one of those crazy people who exploited Bodyguard mode and took all the aggro onto myself while my henchmen just kinda hung close to keep my damage intake at a minimum and dispatch the enemies that I was keeping off of them. It was slow-going at times, but carried with it a feeling of utter invulnerability and a great many slaughtered enemies.

Brute - Back when Willpower was introduced, I knew I had to make a Super Strength Brute. And now it's popular. Oh well. What I found is that while it can just keep smashing and smashing without stopping, it's much more boring that way. I'd rather have some kind of tactical advantage to exploit--or even, dare I say it, a vulnerability to compensate for--than just sit there wondering which attack to use next... Fortunately, my current project of Dark Melee/Electric Armor is proving to be much more interesting.

Peacebringer - The perfect blend of ranged and melee, with a dash of self-buff to boot! I specifically made this thing human-only because I found shapeshifting tiresome, and I took the Leadership pool with it because people were freaking out at the then-new VEATs and their built-in Tactical Training powers. Well, I ended up taking the Medicine pool too and eventually created the universe's only Team Kheld. And it's great. It can solo team missions on Invincible AND help out the rest of the team. A very fun character to play.

Tanker - I managed to pick the two most unorthodox powersets for Tanker: Dark Armor and Ice Melee. Refusing to throw money at a problem to make it go away, I specifically took Acrobatics for knockback protection instead of purchasing one or two knockback IOs from the market. I learned with this character that Tankers are not the punching bags that people make them out to be. Sure, Stone Armor and Invulnerability may be, but my sets prove otherwise. Tankers are aggro magnets. You can do this as a punching bag. You can do this by avoiding damage altogether. But with a combination of Oppressive Gloom, Ice Patch and two holds, you can also be an aggro magnet by completely incapacitating all the enemies around you. THAT was a fun build.

Arachnos Soldier - I've always liked the Wolf Spider Huntsman, and I was pleased when I was able to make one of my own. Gun melee for the win! I also took the Bane Spider career track, as the Wolf Spider Tac-Ops use the mace. Skipping the Tactical Training powers, I had all sorts of spare Endurance that I converted into offensive power, and I love every minute of it. With both ranged and melee attacks with the gun and mace, I was competing with the Stalkers and Brutes on my team for damage output. Throw in three Arachnobots for additional support firepower and you get a character that puts up quite a fight. Although, in the end, it's just an offensive character and as such, I find it to be a bit boring in the end.

---

I've since shifted my focus from the "one of each archetype" dealie. I left an Empathy/Electric Blast Defender and Electric Blast/Pain Domination Corruptor (to test the differences between the archetypes, which are more extensive than you might think) in their high 30's and haven't gone back. I've also got a Dominator in its mid-20's that I find only mildly interesting because Dominators are almost pure offense.

Instead, I decided to do what I find to be fun. I mean, I'm not paying $15/mo to conduct research on the various archetypes; I may as well enjoy what I'm doing! I transferred the two characters I really enjoyed--the Tanker and the Peacebringer--to Pinnacle and dedicated THAT server as my sort of personal playground. I've got a couple of characters in the works that I simply find a blast to play, and I'm much happier this way.

I have a similar goal (uh, see avatar). I figure it will keep me occupied for a while, especially if I keep getting duplicates (my next could well be another scrapper...). And if GR introduces a new batch of ATs....oy.

It still amazes me that even then, there could be so much left to try - I think of your power sets I've really only played Regen much (and you guys like Dark, don't you? ).

I enjoyed doing this as well and having one in each allows me to do "science" projects on what toons/ATs work best in a certain situation. I tend to gravitate to toons that can do AoE damage, crowd control and survive while doing a few other tricks to keep me interested. Chopping down AV trees has never interested me (based on time vs. reward).

However, I feel like a wealthy businessman with 14 expensive cars in the garage. I'll drive one or two often and bring out another one to impress friends - the rest tend to collect dust.

My overall thoughts:
Epic ATs are Jack of All Trades but masters of none. Even when focusing on one path other ATs seemed to work better at what I was going for.

Brutes over Tanks over Scrappers, but this could change with some proliferated changes over the last year. The issue is AoE damage vs. Survivability. Scrappers rock. My one scrapper is a Katana/Regen and I'm planning two next issue with Electrics.

My main Electrical/Energy Blaster has kept me from making similiar blap toons, but it hasn't stopped me from making many Dominators and Controllers. I solo all 3 ATs well. I tend not to play Dominators on teams.

I struggle with Corruptors past level 30, even though I fall in love with many combos of them early. I've gotten two Defenders to 50 in 52 months, but none in the last 3 years. I just like other ATs, especially ones that can solo with speed, better.

Stalkers and Masterminds are good fun. I play them solo. On teams not so much, even though I made my MM a Thugs/Pain to be good on teams... /shrug.

My next project like this will be to have one every electrical set at 50 (including epics/patrons). Thank goodness for 2nd builds!

I have... 26... or 27 50's. with 2 more in their 40's. So when they are done, i'll either have 30, or be one short... I think i'll have 30... i think i have 28... eh, moving on...

I have one of every "common" at. All 5 hero and all 5 villians. (obviously mulitples of a few) I have one lvl 50 peacebringer. And currently, am lvling a lvl 40ish Crab. I have no real disire to roll a shade or widow atm. IMO, once the Crab is done, i'll have one of every AT. I count the epics as just that, hero and villian epics. They, IMO, are similar enough to be like 2 to 4 different power sets inside an epic AT.

My Fav hero builds are support builds, i tend to favor controllers over defenders, but can go either way. Cause IMO they are the funnest to team with. Which is all i mainly do after lvl 35 or so. Same with Villians. Corr all the way, followed by MM's.

Least Fav is prolly the epic hero AT, and stalkers for villians. Even though ironicly, i may make a new stalker when i can have a BS/*. *shrug* we'll see.

I don't know how many 50's I got but I have 10 that matter: one of each of the main 10 ATs. Each one of them can solo nearly every Archvillain/Hero ingame without temps or inspirations, and 6 out of the 10 ATs can solo GMs

Rad/Sonic Defender
Fire/Rad Controller
Fire/Ment Blaster
Dark/Shield Scrapper
Stone/Fire Tank (for STF's and farming)
Fire/Traps Corruptor
Bots/Traps Mastermind
Fire/Psi Dominator
Dark/Nin Stalker
SS/WP Brute (for RSF's and farming)

I'm somewhat on that same sort of project - though I've already got multiples of some ATs at 50 (blaster, defender, controller, Peacebringer.) Only ones missing right now are Corruptors and a Bane - not sure if I want to go through it yet again with a Fort and Crab, since I'm just not finding VEATs fun.

Of course, that's over several years - so the experience of my elec/elec blaster (13/14) and PB (I4-I5) are quite a bit different from my fire/fire (recent, but pre IE) - and that's not even getting into the "most of the way pure-humanform" second PB.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Heheh, I seem to be doing quite the opposite. I only have two fifties:

Dark/Rad/Dark Defender
Rad/Dark/Soul Corruptor


>_>

I have every 9 tier powerset in game, some quadruplicated, on G knows how many toons but only a 6th of them I would say are lvl 50.

I learned enough, enough to answer "any" when people ask "what toon shall I bring?"

You know what... maybe I should do the same. I mean I've played this game enough to have more than 15 50's if I want to but I don't see the point of making it to 50 if I get bored with them. I end up having so many lvl 40+ toons.


I still need a lvl 50 Brute on villain side. I have two 50 Doms, two 50 Stalkers, two 50 Corrs, two 50 MMs (both are Merc) and 50 Crab and Widow. Some of my older toons are like 45-47.


With AE, you can lvl to 50 so easily.

Currently at 18 50's
Scrap (main and 1st), Tank, Blast, Def (X3), Contr, WS, Bru, Stalk, Corr (X4), MM (X2), Dom, and Widow

I had a PB up to 24 but deleted way back when we didn't have the expanded slots - sad I did that now. So she has been recently restarted as a project. And I got a lvl10 Crab to complete the "every AT" bit.
Not sure when I would get to those two since currently on a 32 scrapper and reliving the "good old scrapper-y days" when I first started.

I know I have over 20, just too lazy to try and remember them all. I have really run out of combos to try that seem totally fresh. Hopefully GR will inject something more worthwhile than villians in Atlas park.

I too, have 14 50's and I would have more if altitis would stop getting in my way.

So far I have a Stone/Stone Brute, Fire/Fire Brute, Dark/Kin Corr, Fire/Elec Dom, Fire/Fire Dom, Widow, Spines/Ea Stalker, Arch/Mental Blaster, Ice/Em Blaster, Shield/Dm Tank, Ma/Regen Scrap, Spines/Dark Scrap, Rad/Sonic Def and one more but I can't remember what. I do have a DB/Inv Brute, Dark/Fire Brute, Rad/Rad Corr and a Ice/Kin Corr almost at 50 but haven't taken the time to get them the last few levels they need.

I do enjoy playing almost all my 50's. For the most part I'd rather play my 50's than any of my lowbies but I keep thinking of new projects and thus more alts are made and prevent me from playing my 50's.

I currently have eight fifties in the 60 months I've played. I think the order I got them in is...

BS/Regen Scrapper
Elec/Elec Blaster
Stone/Dark Brute
Fire/Fire Brute
Plant/Rad Controller
Crab Spider
Night Widow
Ice/Ice Tanker
and
Mace/Shield Brute (48, but will be 50 this weekend)

The Longest was the first, at like 8 months, but the game was way different then. The fastest was the Crab Spider (All Veat teams were rampant when they first came out and the xp was sick)

To try and get one of each AT would take me FOREVER. Some AT's just bore me to tears. But to have a more Brutes using all the powers, now that I may try.

Having 3 accounts gives me the flexibility to PL toons to try out for pvp, or if their main goal is to assists on TF's at 50. While my lvl 50 count is in the high 20's low 30's, I really see no point of counting it, as either many have been transfered to a server I do not wish to play on, or are occasionaly logged for TF's, or simply deleted if I didn't like them while leveling, or at 50. So all in all, I only mainly play 13 lvl 50s :

Jasmine Bliss(US) lvl 50 fire/kin Controller
Liqour (EU) lvl 50 fire/kin Controller
Dior (EU) lvl 50 ice/ice blaster
Light Within (EU) lvl 50 Ill/Rad troller
Arctic Liq (EU) lvl 50 Ice/Kin Troller
Blazin Sprite (EU) lvl 50 Fire/EM tanker
Dior Star (EU) lvl 50 Fire/EM blaster
Soul Touch (US) lvl 50 Fire/Ment Blaser
Migraine Skank (US) lvl 50 Spines/Fire scrapper
Ketemin (US) lvl 50 Ice/Fire Tanker
Light Within (US) lvl 50 Dark/Dark Defender
Blazin Ecstasy (EU) lvl 50 Elec/Fire Brute
Liqourice (EU) lvl 50 Spines/Regen Scrapper

I once had a goal to get one of each AT to 50, but then I realized that there are certain ATs that I just don't enjoy that much (Arachnos Soldiers, Peacebringers) and ones that I only really like in teams, which I don't get much nowadays (Tankers, Warshades, Controllers, Corruptors). So then I decided to just get every Defender primary to 50, but there are some of those that I don't enjoy, either (Empathy and Kinetics. Booooo for 90-second buffs.) ... so now my goal is 'play stuff and beat up enemies.'

50s in order, though:
Kelenar, Storm/Elec Defender
Kaelinia, Katana/Dark Scrapper
Kai-Lian, Dark/Elec Defender
Aisha A., Stone/EA Brute
Qiao Huang, Ice/Cold Defender
Hail Striker, Storm/Archery Defender
Jessica Reid, Thugs/Poison Mastermind
Shatterware, Rad/Rad Defender
Liora Kate, Earth/Fire Dominator
Sorrow-Weave, Dark/Elec Brute

What I've learned is, uh... that I like debuffing, damage, and mezzing, in that order, and don't much care for anything else. I also only like characters who do absurd levels of damage when soloing. Anything else, I get bored solo and prefer to team.

One thing I noticed in your list -- no Controllers.

I'm up to 12 50's on my main account, all heroes. 7 of them are Controllers, three of which are the Illusion primary and three of which are Radiation secondary. (Until recently, one of our regular guys didn't like the idea of Villains, so we never played Red-side. I finally have a Thugs/Dark MM up to 38 who has mostly soloed, and an Elec/Elec Brute in the late 20's.) My second account is formerly my wife's -- it has only 2 50s on it, both Defenders. So, yeah, I have 14.

7 Controllers, 3 Defenders, 2 Scrappers, 1 Tank, 1 Blaster. Another Tank and another Blaster are on their way to join the ranks.

You should try a controller. They have a widely varied playstyle depending upon the primary, secondary and how you choose to play. They seem weak but actually turn out to be amazingly strong. Take a look at my Ill/Rad and Earth/Rad guides, and also at Enant's new "choose your controller" guide. (I have a few minor disagreements with it, but it is overall pretty good.) If you have any questions about any Controller combo, let me know and I'll be happy to give you my opinions.

I have 13/14 AT wise (Warshade is 42) but 53 50s overall. In fairness a few of those where PL'd (A dozen or so have only every been played in PvP. My first villian 50 was a stalker, when I wanted more, I wanted them at 50 since they're kinda lolz in PvE. Other builds I wanted for PvP only where similarly farm raised). Turns out I like MMs and my crab way more than I thought I would. I started out with scrappers as my favorite AT, now it's tanks, but DM/shield scrappers are pulling me back into that camp.

I also have the goal of getting a 50 for each archetype; heroes only, do not care for the villain side much (though working on getting a brute to 50 just so I can try VEATs).

I am only missing a level 50 warshade (currently lvl 22) and defender (highest is lvl 44) but have do have 8 level 50's spread out of the other AT's. Also have a goal (loosely) to get a level 50 of every blaster primary (just 2 so far), every tank primary (just 1 so far with Inv at 49 and couple in the 30's), and every scrapper primary (just 3 so far and fire at level 41). With I16 going live I will mostly likely stop worrying about leveling for awhile while my main plays with the new content and i make more.....more.....alts.

Many people say its not the end that is fun but the adventure towards the goal; I perfer both. While I like playing a powerset I want to experience new powers/abilities on ALL AT's. And with getting level 50 I feel a bit of satisfaction.