What do you like?

I've been thinking about just what sort of characters I enjoy for a long time now. I kind of have altitis, but it's always seemed to be a strain peculiar to me: It's hard for me to find a character that clicks with my personal criteria, but when I do, I'll play them to 50 in a matter of weeks. If I don't find one, I'll level several characters per month to the 20s and then abandon them.

Then this thread got me thinking about it my list of character requirements bit more concretely, especially Lord Mayhem's post.

My requirements, approximately from most to least important:

• Graphics/sound. At the end of the day, I can't play a set whose graphics or sounds I don't like (Sonic blast!) and I'll stick with a set whose appearance I love (Stalker Claws!) through thick and thin.
• A full ST attack chain, with at least one high burst damage type power. I pretty much can't play AR because of its lack of a real tier 3 blast. I also must have a mostly-full attack chain by 20 or so or I get bored.
• If I'm soloing: Hiiiiiigh ST damage. Highhighhigh, and it has to come early, too. I basically can't stand soloing anything but scrappers, blasters, and brutes. Most dominators, and some corruptors, stalkers, and masterminds can qualify, depending on build.
• At least one AoE. Usually two. The more the better, and melee range cones barely count.
• Unless the build has a lot going for it, all of the above has to come early. The old /psi dom thing of 'oh, well, it really gets better past 38!' does nothing for me for the first 37 levels.

And things that I just really like. Again, from most to least important:

• Self-defense through debuffs or mezzes, particularly the former. As far as preference, knockdown > ToHit debuffs > stun > fear > holds > end drains > self-heal > slows > self resistance/defense passives and toggles.
• To go with the above: Combination attack/damage powers (Cosmic Burst, Tenebrous Tentacles) are far superior to straight-up mezzes.
• Rain of Arrows style mini-nukes >>>>>>>>>>> nukes.
• Enemy-targeted self-buffs are the exception to my general aversion to self-defense. Probably just because I like cackling when I see Soul Drain or Sunless Mire hit the full target cap.
• Mobile characters. I like a mix of cones, PBAoEs, and melee attacks that make me need to constantly stay on my feet to get the best effects from my powers.
• Damage auras are also awesome.

And my dislikes, from most disliked to least:

• Short duration ally buffs. I hate them so much. I can't stand casting, say, Speed Boost on an entire team. This goes doubly if they don't have an easy-to-spot distinctive graphic.
• Characters that are too effective. Odd, probably, but I like knowing that if I don't play smart and mezz enemies in the wrong order or don't notice a single guy in the corner, I'll die horribly. Conversely, I also like knowing that if I do everything right, I'm practically invincible.
• Passive defenses. If I'm being kept alive by a bunch of toggles that I can fire and forget, I probably dislike the set. (see: Willpower, Super Reflexes) This, oddly enough, doesn't apply if the passives are mostly ineffective and I have to rely on debuffs to stay alive. (See Stone/EA below)
• Attack pools on Brutes that don't look like they're based on brute force. (Dual Blades, Claws) I just can't get into the SMASH mindset when my character is dancing like a fairy princess.
• Snipes.

Specific characters I have who I think exemplify my style well:
Stone/EA/Dark Brute: Lots of SMASH, two AoE attacks (even if Tremor is considered a joke), and about the only thing that keeps me alive is debuffing and mezzing the enemies... but I can live through almost anything that's not immune to knockdowns.
Earth/Fire/Mace Dominator: Self-defense through mezzes and explosions.
Rad/Rad/Power Defender: I only really enjoy this one on teams (see the thing about Defenders not doing enough damage solo), but there, she probably fits my criteria best. Nothing but debuffs and mezzes for self-defense, but they are hardcore debuffs and mezzes. Lots of AoEs, lots of jumping in and out of melee range to use powers, two nukes, and zero short duration buffs.

So, now, I'm just curious. What sort of things do you like in your characters?

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Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.

In general, I'm a support person. I played right after release with controllers and defenders mostly. I loved being that guy that got on the team and suddenly everyone else felt more powerful.

My favorite blueside was a kinetics/energy defender. I had six slotted perma hasten and a full attack chain of buffs. Then I got nova and went to town.

My second favorite blueside was an illusion/radiation controller. Again, six slotted hasten makes for good times, with perma PA and three phantasms running around. Debuff the enemies and even a team full of blasters (before IO's mind you) could kill anything without worry.

Then CoV was released and I rejoiced. This was the single best thing that could have happened for my playstyle. Now it was possible to be the defender, supporting a huge team of now invincible players, except with a mighty twist: The team had to listen to me!

For those of you who can't see where this is going, I took to masterminds very quickly. Here I could be the support role for a team all the time. And if I got the bonus pets of real teammates, then cool, but it wasn't necessary anymore.

I did bots/FF first, followed by thugs/poison. The first was unkillable, the second was a steamroller that took a little more in the line of tactics.

After that, I took a break from the game and came back shortly before i15 went live.

"Bodyguard mode? Oh this is SWEET! Wait, what are these shiny IO things?"

Bots/traps is now my favorite ever. Bots are softcapped. I'm softcapped, and with effective 75% resist to top it off. Teamport hopping from spawn to spawn, achilles heel in acid mortar, no stamina needed... I am unstoppable.

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Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.

In general my likes are:
* Damage (especially AoEs and even more especially cone based AoEs)
* Debuffs
* Toggle or passive self buffs
* Weapon based sets (this isn't a requirement but I find the characters easier to conceptualize)
* Technology/Science origin (one of these days I'll give in and make a character with the battlecry "For Science")

My dislikes:
* Ally buffs (especially single target ones, aura are ok)
* Click buffs with long recharge/short duration (I'm not a big fan of build up for example)
* Natural/Mutant origin (I just have a lot of trouble with these conceptually)

My characters:
AR/Devices/Munitions Blaster
Warshade
Trick Arrow/Archery/Dark Defender (my only non-Science/Tech origin character, and to be honest he still looks a bit like a tech origin character)
Broadsword/Shield/Body Scrapper

Characters I plan to make eventually (I don't like having more than one non-level 50 at a time):
Traps/AR/Electricity Defender (my Blaster in his spare suit of power armor )
Dark/Dark/Dark Defender
Storm/Something Defender

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I like chaining AoE attacks.
I like standing toe to toe with large numbers of foes.
I like kiting really tough foes with SS CJ Swift and Hurdle across the rooftops of PI.
I like dive bombing into a horde of badguys and setting off instagank powers.
I like watching Mass Confuse at the AoE cap.
I like fights that end with me winning at 1 health and 1 endurance.

I dislike long drawn out ST fighting and most AV fights.
I dislike low damage AT's.
I don't like using pets.
I don't like using immobs.
I don't like low duration team only buffs.
I don't like steamroll teams.
I don't like chasing teammates around a map.

I mostly play blasters, offenders, and AoE scrappers. I have a couple of non-fire non-illusion controllers. I have 1 tank. No doms, brutes, stawkerz, MM's.

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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

I like:

A preemptive way to keep the team and myself alive (+defense, +resistance)
mez protection
high single target damage
one good targeted aoe (or pbaoe)

I dislike:

cones
not being super useful against AVs
long animations
secondary effects on attacks (prefer just raw damage)




This explains my two favorite characters: a fortunata and a cold/sonic defender

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For a character to be interesting to me, it has to fall into the category of 'tactically interesting'.

The way my mind works, I think in tactics. No matter what character I'm playing, combat is an endless internal litany of "Which enemy first? Which debuffs/controls/(self)buffs/(self)heals where/when? Where should I be standing? Who needs help the most? What is the most important/effective place to make my contribution at the moment?" I often get so caught up in this that I forget to actually pay attention to my own character, which occasionally leads to embarrassing faceplants.

So, to keep my interest, there's got to be *something* going on to present opportunities for interesting tactical choices to influence the combat. Just spreading out the SMASH can be cathartic once in a while, but it won't satisfy me for long. Something like fire/willpower, for example, would bore me quickly - but fire/regen (or stone melee/fire armor) on the other hand, is fun.

Thus, I tend to gravitate to ATs with control and buff/debuff sets. If I play one of the more straightforward damage ATs, I tend to pick just about the *least* straightforward powersets - ones with clicky mitigation, controlling attacks, etc. The aggro management mini-game of tanks is also interesting to me.

The other major requirement for a character is that I can come up with a build I am satisfied with. For me, playing around with character builds is another aspect of the 'tactical thinking' minigame, and I cannot make myself play a character without planning out a full 1-50 build first. I am not an IO set power user as I have no interest in putting forth the effort to become rich. Thus, while I make extensive use of frankenslotting and cheap sets (which becomes another part of the minigame), the meat of the build challenge is in the choosing of powers. If I cannot find a good way to fit in the powers I desire, the character will not get made. I have abandoned characters in the past simply because I could not come up with an acceptable build, and certain powersets (and even entire ATs - see stalkers) end up largely off-limits for the same reason.

Concept and aesthetic concerns are also somewhat important, though definitely a tertiary concern compared to the above. I do need to be able to come up with at least a minimal concept for a character (and coming up with good names is a &%@*#!) to enjoy it. And while power aesthetics won't make or break a character, I will definitely enjoy it more if the abilities feel nicely superpowered (stone melee/assault/control and storm summoning are the best sets evar in my opinion )

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@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.

This is what it means to be a tank!

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Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.

The more I play the more I am starting to like everything from character point of view

At first I liked only tanks, then fell in love with controllers, then blasters, then defenders and back to tanks.

The only things I haven't been able to get into are Scrappers, Stalkers and the Empathy powerset. Everything else is good for me

Although my scrapper problem may change come I16 and I can finally have a decent looking Spines Scrapper

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I pretty much just play Brutes, I just like the play style of the AT. I have taken 6 to 50 and have many other low level ones.

I have been trying to branch out more lately and have managed to get a MM up to 40.

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My likes... whew, I've enjoyed playing every AT blueside so I have pretty wide ranging tastes. Maybe I'd do best to say what I like in a particular AT:

For Blasters I like a lot of damage output, preferably AOE, and decent survivability. My 50 blaster is Archery/EM and I have a mid-20's Fire/EM and Fire/Electric. I really get frustrated with a blaster with low durability so I tend to build them to survive, possibly at some expense in damage output.

For Tankers I like anything that can hold aggro really well and survive that aggro. Damage is nice, but it's a secondary consideration. My 50's are Invuln/Stone, Stone/Fire and Stone/EM... I've a mid-30's Fire/Fire and a 23 Shield/Fire.

For Controllers I like control, damage and utility. My 50's are Mind/Kin and Fire/Rad. I've a number of lower levels, including a 43 Plant/Storm, 39 Ill/Rad, 39 Ill/Emp and a few others in the teens and below.

For Scrappers I like damage, and lots of it coupled with good durability. My 50's are BS/Regen, Spine/Regen and BS/Shield. I have several in the 20's and below of various sets.

For Defenders it's support and utility first with damage a distant second. My 50's are Rad/Rad and Dark/Dark; I've a mid-30's Kin/Rad and Rad/Sonic as well as several in the 20's.

Kelds are a bit of an odd duck requiring a lot of mental flexibility to play well; my 50 PB is a tri-form built as a Scrapper/Blaster/Tanker hybrid. My highest WS is in the low 20's and is also building as a tri.

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COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes

1. Appearance, both in costume and powers.
There are a couple of powers I refuse to take solely due to disliking the accompanying animation - I respec'd my claws/ scrapper just to drop Eviscerate, and my MA/ stalker stopped dead at level 6 after I saw the Assassin's Blow animation.

She'll be back in business once I16 goes live though. I love the alternative animation

2. Soloing Capability.
I solo a lot. Even when teaming I feel like a freeloader if I'm not on a character that can solo. One day I'll set up the solo-friendly dual build for the Fire/Thermal corruptor who's been in limbo for the last 6 months. I do try all of the ATs, but MMs, Scrappers and Brutes make up the majority at the moment, since I've found them to be the best soloists.

3. Fun vs Power.
I'd sooner have some decent action with the risk of dying if I get careless than sleepwalk through missions where I wreck everything at little risk to myself. The barely controlled chaos of my Thugs/Poison MM (I actually miss the KB from the Bruiser's handclap) is much more fun than the unkillable monotony of my Bots/FF. Likewise my Claws/SR Scrapper became so effective she frequently bored me in the second half of the game, because there was basically zero chance of anything killing her except if I got really careless or feel asleep at the keyboard, whereas the frenetic fury fuelled rampages of my SS/Inv Brute are always entertaining.

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For me the ultimate in character evolution was the Robots/Storm mastermind. Fear my gale, for you shall receive many energy blasts in places that standing foes do not.

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Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.

I like...

Enough damage to kill enemies fast enough that I don't get bored.

Enough mitigation that I don't have to make trips to the hospital unless I'm taking down an AV/Hero.

Enough endurance to never need to hit rest.

Enough tohit/accuracy to only miss 5% of the time.

Enough speed to get from A to B without feeling like I'm wasting time.

Brutes, scrappers, corruptors, a warshade, blasters and maybe dominators.

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Be well, people of CoH.

It's probably easier to state things I don't like:

Short duration buffs - It's just tedious having to rebuff the entire team every 2-4 minutes. SB is the worst - I love everything else about Kinetics' playstyle, but having to rebuff everyone so frequently is not remotely fun. Why can't they make them either long duration, or a single buff that affects the whole group at once?

Inactive characters - I've got a Ice/Storm controller in the late 30s. I love the concept of the character, but it's just boring to play. I put down Ice Slick and Freezing Rain on the enemies and...well, I don't need to do anything else - the entire group is falling over and has their defense and resitance crippled. If I want to I can throw out one or both of my AE slows to be sure of the mitigation, but once I've done that, there's nothing left to do in a normal fight. I dread to think what a Bot/FF MM would be like...

Running out of endurance - AKA soloing low level tankers. AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH

Concept - I hate it. Why? Because I can't play a character which doesn't have a good one Unless I can come up with a good reason why my character has their powers, and why they're using them for good/evil, I can't play them. There's plenty of builds out there that I'd love to play, but I can't come up with a non-contrived reason for my character to have those particular powersets.

Cool powersets that my current character doesn't have - The reason that I've been playing for 3 years and only have two 50s

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I like claws.

And swords.

Fire. Sound. Darkness. Agility. Healing myself.

I like being an engine of destruction and chaos.

I like scrappers, blasters, stalkers/brutes, defenders, corruptors, controllers, and dominators, in that order.

I don't like masterminds, slowing down, being on teams with idiots, and being told I can't accomplish something.

That pretty much sums it up.

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