Least used power combinations
By
Acemace,
Posted on: 2009-09-09 17:25 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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I have a DM/Inv scrapper that absolutely rocks my socks. |
Originally Posted by Neg_rogue
Honestly, I haven't seen too many /Invuln scrappers. I'm sure there's probably a lot out there I just either have never teamed with them or didn't notice they were /Invuln I guess, or perhaps many just see the set as more of a tanker thing and/or prefer other sets like Regen, SR, SD.
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I have many weird combos somewhere. Ice/Fire blapper, Sonic/Archery defender, MA/EnA stalker, Stone/Rad troller (at the time it was the least used combo in one of the character databases that popped out shortly after release). I have so many fun low level alts I probably have a lot more weird combos I can't recall.
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Psychic Blast/Fire Manipulation blaster.
It is the only combination I can think of I have never seen. EVER. I have seen at least one of every other combination, but I have never laid eyes on a Psychic/Fire blaster of any level, let alone a 50. |
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Originally Posted by Aggelakis
Sounds like an interesting pairing, at least...Psy is extremely single-target, and Fire Manip is fairly AoE-heavy, making them supplementary if not terribly complementary.
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I think TA/anything but archery Defenders are a really rare combo. I can remember seeing about three in the total time I've played, and one of those was my TA/Sonic.
AR/Cold blasters are way up there too, I'd say. As are Ice/anything except /Ice or /Fire tanks, but then, tanks other than Invuln/, Willpower/, and Stone/ seem to be a dying breed these days.
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Aye, my Grav/TA I made after teaming with a PLed one who hadn't taken any of his arrows. When I got thinking about the synergy and combos you could actually do with one I decided I had to roll him. He's deffo a hidden gem.|
Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Odd that you should mention TA and controllers. My only controller of any significant level is Fire/TA.
His backstory is that he is an alchemist and a stage magician. All of his Fire Control powers are sleight of hand using chemicals. On the TA side, he's a really lousy archer, but a bow and arrow is the most efficient way to deliver his chemical concoctions. An arrow goes a lot farther than you can throw anything. MA/Fire scrappers are rare. So are Shield/Ice tanks. Never seen a Sonic/Ice defender. Don't see a whole lot of Electric Armor stalkers. My Gravity/Ice dominator is the only one I've ever seen. A lot of times I will choose powerset combos simply because they're rare. Sometimes I find a hidden gem, other times it's obvious why they're rare. |
Originally he was a generic high-tech Hunter type, but I quickly changed him to an alien cyborg visitor / ambassador sent to Earth by a nanite collective as a sort of go-between & translator between the two cultures (because they're so utterly different to each other). He's got a bow because the collective decided it was a sort of cultural weapon of Earth. Certainly one of the most tactical characters I have.
I haven't seen too many Stone/Fire Brutes (or their Tanker counterparts). My very first character was a Fire/Stone tank who got deleted and then reimagined years later as a Brute.
I like the concept of a Shield/Ice Tank too. Nice bit of control to go with shields and a decent amount of AOE.
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Grav/TA's one I've been considering for a long time. It seems like TA would shore up Grav a bit to make it more control-heavy, plus having an AoE immob with no -KB plus Oil Slick Arrow.
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Originally Posted by Carnifax
Aye, my Grav/TA I made after teaming with a PLed one who hadn't taken any of his arrows. When I got thinking about the synergy and combos you could actually do with one I decided I had to roll him. He's deffo a hidden gem.
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Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
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I have one on Virtue, level 42. I'm the only one I've ever seen, actually don't see much AR at all these days, no idea why.|
Originally Posted by Coldmed
i also have a a.r./elec blaster i dont see hardly any of!
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Originally Posted by Luminara
OH HAI!
 TA/Archery, TA/Dark, TA/Sonic... haven't done TA/Elec yet, but I'll get around to it. |
I have a Bots/TA that's working out pretty well. Safe as can be, actually it's really boring, but she's only 18. I fully expect to be a murder machine with OSA + AssBot.
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
MA/Fire scrappers are rare. So are Shield/Ice tanks. Never seen a Sonic/Ice defender. Don't see a whole lot of Electric Armor stalkers. My Gravity/Ice dominator is the only one I've ever seen.
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I recall a fair number of people posting about how they were going to roll a MA/Fire, but I've seen people post a whole lot of things that didn't actually translate into reality. I've never seen any of them actually in the game. (Geez, just where is everybody? This is becoming a theme.)Quote:
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Originally Posted by Kelenar
Grav/TA's one I've been considering for a long time. It seems like TA would shore up Grav a bit to make it more control-heavy, plus having an AoE immob with no -KB plus Oil Slick Arrow.
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Ice/Anything tanks. I've only seen a handful in all my years, and fewer still that performed well.
I did see one Ice tank the other night that was really aptly named- "Icy Debt Peeple".
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I think Ice might be considered rare because people either don't like how the armors cover their costume and/or they don't like relying totally on defense for their protection, but that's just my guess.|
Originally Posted by MaHaBone23
Ice/Anything tanks. I've only seen a handful in all my years, and fewer still that performed well.
I did see one Ice tank the other night that was really aptly named- "Icy Debt Peeple". |
I do remember on the very first TF I ever ran (Synapse) we had a lvl 50 Ice tank who exemped down..and she was awesome! Every mission we would all hang back while she'd run in and pull/herd a couple spawns back and then we'd AoE the crap out of them.
It was really fun...until a Rikti raid made the part where we were suppose to fight Babbage bug out and we didn't get to fight him
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That's always been my opinion. Dual Blades involves a lot of fancy dancing, which just does not mesh with any image of a Brute I've ever had. Brute no twirl around with skinny swords! Brute SMASH!|
Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5
I do feel it may very well be some of that "common knowledge" that keeps people from taking it as a primary though - you know, that sort of "common knowledge" that still tells us that stalkers are useless, 'we need a healer!' and so on.
Or for all I know people don't feel their brute is "brute-y" enough if he's not pounding people with their fists. I will be the first to admit that I find the mind of a brute sort of murky and remote from my own. |
As an aside, ditto for Tankers. I could never take a lumbering bulwark "big guy" archetype seriously using the Dual Blades set. At least, not unless you max out his size and pick the smallest weapon skins available, to say "I'm so big, this is how small my weapons are in my hands!"
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I have an MA/Fire scrapper; she's pretty fun, but relatively squishy.
DB/anything but WP seems pretty rare. I think I've seen two, one of which was mine.
DB/Shields are pretty rare!
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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I have a level 50 EM/EA brute, and I'd say you don't see them often because they play like scrappers more than most other brutes, and thus don't meet the expectations of people on teams who want a brute to tank.| Villain-side I'm amazed whenever I see a */Energy Aura Brute, so I'd venture that as a rare secondary, but for all I know there are tons of them and they hide from me. |
Typed Defenses were really hard to improve on before the Halo changes were made to IO bonuses, and that helps a lot though. So does Darkest Night in the Ghost Widow pool. My EA brute went from minor annoyance to zomg fun pretty quickly once I paid him some attention after those changes.
Though I still wouldn't mind getting Energize instead of CP, like Elec did.
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My first Scrapper was an MA/DA. |
Originally Posted by BrokenPrey
Well for Scrapper the least play build that we came up with on the Scrapper forums was a MA/DA Scrapper. We don't know why it is the least played but it seems to be. It would be a good set to play really with the Stuns of MA would go well with Oppressive Gloom.
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You need more practice thinking outside the box. |
Originally Posted by Duck Dim Sum
That's always been my opinion. Dual Blades involves a lot of fancy dancing, which just does not mesh with any image of a Brute I've ever had. Brute no twirl around with skinny swords! Brute SMASH!
As an aside, ditto for Tankers. I could never take a lumbering bulwark "big guy" archetype seriously using the Dual Blades set. At least, not unless you max out his size and pick the smallest weapon skins available, to say "I'm so big, this is how small my weapons are in my hands!" |
A dual blades brute can fit the idea just as easily as an SS.
As the fight goes on the brute's adrenaline increases, causing him to get more aggressive with his swords, swinging them faster and putting more power behind the strikes.
And who says a brute has to be dumb? There's Archtypes, and then there's stereotypes.
And why is it that brutes and tanks are the only ATs viewed this way?
I
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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I've got a 50 WP/DB tank that I absolutely love. He can handle pretty much everything I throw at him, except for STF Recluse, and I've been meaning to try that fight again now that I've got much better enhancements on him.
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Originally Posted by Black Orchid II
I have an MA/Fire scrapper; she's pretty fun, but relatively squishy.
DB/anything but WP seems pretty rare. I think I've seen two, one of which was mine. |
Rare Combos I have (eg I've not run into more than 1 or two others on Infinity):
Earth/Sonic Troller
Claws/DA Scrap
DA/Stone Tank
Ice/Fiery Dom
Fire/Icy Dom
Plant/Elec Dom
Elec/Fire Brute
AR/Storm Corr
DM/EA Brute (leveled that ******* afore the buffs to BOTH sets and IO +Def)
Grav/Psi Dom (Know why I don't see this one, they are PAINFUL to level, mine's stalled at 20, and just holding the name)
Also not seen many MA/FA Scraps, or DM/FA Brutes. Both seem to be delicious though.
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For me, it's more that brutes generally rely on, well, brute force. Angry Ballerina With Swords Melee doesn't project much of a feeling of that, beyond that one cone with the nice solid CRUNCH! sound. To me, most other Brute primaries feel like brutes. DB/ feels like a scrapper who just happens to have Fury.
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
You need more practice thinking outside the box.
A dual blades brute can fit the idea just as easily as an SS. As the fight goes on the brute's adrenaline increases, causing him to get more aggressive with his swords, swinging them faster and putting more power behind the strikes. And who says a brute has to be dumb? There's Archtypes, and then there's stereotypes. And why is it that brutes and tanks are the only ATs viewed this way? I |
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
We get these threads periodically, and it's interesting to see what waxes and wanes in popularity, as well as people's individual experiences. Some things have repeated over and over; Ice tanks have never been common in my experience, and Electric Armor for stalkers has been pretty rare since its inception, but most things have shifted their positions in the popularity race over the years. War Mace, for example, used to come up in every single thread like this as the rarest tanker secondary, but with its recent buffs, I'm seeing it a lot.
Combinations I rarely or never see myself include:
-Controllers with Trick Arrow
-Controllers with Thermal Radiation (except for Plant/thermal, which seems common)
-Fiery Aura Scrappers with primaries other than Spines or Fire. I've NEVER seen MA/Fire, and I've only seen DB/fire once.
-Battle Axe brutes
-Cold Domination paired with anything other than Dark Blast or Ice Blast (both Defenders and Corruptors). I actually see more Trick Arrow/Not Archery defenders than Cold/Not Ice or Dark types.
-Electric Armor stalkers
-Stone Melee paired with Dark Armor (tank or brute)
-Ice Melee paired with anything other than Ice Armor.
Some things are uncommon, but I wouldn't call them "rare." /Storm corruptors, DB brutes and tanks, Ice Armor tanks, /devices blasters, Energy Aura brutes, and Assault Rifle paired with anything other than one of the gadget sets fall into this category for me.
A few things that were once common that I don't see much any more:
-Invulnerability paired with anything other than Superstrength
-Spines/Regeneration scrappers. They're still relatively common, but they aren't everywhere, the way they were a couple of years ago.
Most interesting of all, I was hearing a lot of chatter last year about how lousy Electric Blast is for blasters. Surprisingly, over the past six months or so, I've seen far more (about twice as many) Electric blasters as any other type. Maybe this is a Liberty thing.
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A shame, because DB/Fire is awesome if you like AoEs. Mine's currently shelved at level 40 until i16, when the new difficulty settings will finally let me get enough enemies to make her worth running.
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Originally Posted by Olantern
-Fiery Aura Scrappers with primaries other than Spines or Fire. I've NEVER seen MA/Fire, and I've only seen DB/fire once.
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Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
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I have one! She's only lvl 24 though |
Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Psychic Blast/Fire Manipulation blaster.
It is the only combination I can think of I have never seen. EVER. I have seen at least one of every other combination, but I have never laid eyes on a Psychic/Fire blaster of any level, let alone a 50. |
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We tried to run a random hero team once. I have a little script that randomly rolls a valid primary and secondary for each AT and makes a column. I'm not sure if it has the absolute latest proliferations, but it did at the time. We all agreed we'd take whatever we got on the column, with the only choice being who got what AT. It was a cool concept, but we rolled particularly badly (at least for the taste of the people involved) so we didnt make it past a couple of evenings. |
Originally Posted by Rodoan
Oh, and has anyone ever deliberately tried to build teams of these weakest links to see what can or cannot be achieved?
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http://www.lwb.org/compgeek/coh/random_at.php
I distinctly remember someone got "stuck" with Martial Arts / Invulnerability. His whining pretty much ended the whole thing.
What ARE the most recent proliferations, anyway?
As far as least used that I've personally seen:
Blaster: AR/Mental. Energy/Fire.
Controller: Gravity/Trick Arrow.
Defender: Trick Arrow/Psychic. Cold/Psychic.
Scrapper: Martial Arts/Invuln
Tanker: Invuln/Ice.
Brute: Dual Blades / Energy Aura ... aka "I want to look cool but not be able to tell".
Corruptor: Dark/Thermal.
Dominator: Ice/Thorns.
Mastermind: Robot/TA.
Stalker: I never even look at what other stalkers are doing. Sorry.
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I slogged a Grav/Psi Dominator to level 50. It was painful, yes, though it got better with PSW at level 38. I haven't played him since the change to Doms...I'm not sure he would work as well, anymore.|
Originally Posted by Errant
Grav/Psi Dom (Know why I don't see this one, they are PAINFUL to level, mine's stalled at 20, and just holding the name)
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Some of the rarer combinations that I have played are:
Plant/TA controller (good combo)
DA/Ice tank (great synergy, but DA makes for a poor main tank in general.)
Ice/Axe tank (two solid sets that do nothing for each other, but it works.)
DB/Elec brute (I know why there are so few DB brutes. DB sucks too much endurance, and getting combos off screws up the smashiness of being a brute. This character is level 29 and I hate him. I'll see if Energize makes him better in i16, if not he's gone.)
Cold/Sonic defender (fun in the early levels; not sure about the higher game yet.)
Some powersets that I never see are:
*/Poison MM (I have a Merc/Poison that's 'meh'. Never seen another */Poison.)
*/Electric corruptor (never seen one.)
Anything but stone/Stone Melee tank (people just don't want to play primary/secondary combinations that don't have a common theme, I guess.)
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Hmmm
I've never seen Earth melee, ice melee or ice melee as tanker secondaries paired with anything other than their respective armours.
I see /poison MM relatively regularly, actually seems to be one of the more common secondaries.
/axe and /mace seems to be quite rare, too, although they do show up.
I actually see Invuln scrappers fairly often. Not the most popular choice but I see them (play on Virtue) I even have a few myself (BS/Inv, Kat/Inv)
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Hey, you can build any character with any AT and powerset combo you want. But I'm not going to make any DB Brutes or Tankers anytime soon, and you can't make me.
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
You need more practice thinking outside the box.
A dual blades brute can fit the idea just as easily as an SS. As the fight goes on the brute's adrenaline increases, causing him to get more aggressive with his swords, swinging them faster and putting more power behind the strikes. And who says a brute has to be dumb? There's Archtypes, and then there's stereotypes. And why is it that brutes and tanks are the only ATs viewed this way? I |
Storm Summoning is great because it makes you better than everyone else in the game. - Camma
Knockback is mitigation. It won't be removed just because meleers ***** and moan. - Chaos Creator
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Originally Posted by Aggelakis
Sounds like an interesting pairing, at least...Psy is extremely single-target, and Fire Manip is fairly AoE-heavy, making them supplementary if not terribly complementary.
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I was intrigued enough by the Psy/Fire discussion that I went and created one on Virtue. He's only level 6, before I took a meal break, and it was all solo. I'm waiting for the problems to begin, the other shoe to drop. So far, I've been amazed at how powerful he is, tearing through mobs like a hot knife through butter. Of course, the teen levels and end drain will soon be upon him, but for the moment, I'm liking what I'm seeing.
Regarding the discussion of electrical blasters/defenders. I did electrical once with a buddy. We build both ours for full team action, meaning we ramped up their end drain abilities, to some extent at the expense of their damage. Having two on the team was crazy good. We were draining large mobs and letting the others mop up. The NPC opponents were often running because they literally had no fight left in them.
and one power set combo i can think of thats the least played is a arch/ta corr XD since they dont exist yet :P
on a serious side about it, i would probly say a fire/ice tanker... i think they died after the aggro cap nerf *uno, whole map into only 16*