Dr. Fate/Dr. Strange build?

I know you can't accurately recreate a comic book character in a MMOG and have any kind of game balance, but how would you approximate one of these types of characters in CoH? Dr. Fate has long been one of my favorite characters and I thought it would be fun to play a character something like him. It seems like an expert magic user (but not a Sorcerer Supreme, wouldn't want any copyright infringments) would be a mix of blaster/controller/defender. I was thinking about making a blaster with the Mental secondary for some control but haven't decided on the primary. Any thoughts?

Well, the AT I personally think matches Dr. Strange's powers best is a dominator: controls + blasting + summoning allies. If you want to play a hero your best bet is probably a blaster with a lot of control in their secondary, as you noted, although a controller could work as well.

He's merely a gifted surgeon, and nothing more!

Basically, for any magician character you want to decide if you want to concentrate on offense, defense, or a balance. Dr. Strange kind of covers all of the bases, which you can't really do in CoH for obvious reasons. But you can create someone who does MOST of the things Dr. Strange can, like an apprentice or something.

Controllers can actually be remarkably powerful. Although it's hard going at first, your control powers do pretty good damage with Containment backing them up, and if you don't mind closing to melee you can use Air Superiority or other attacks from the Pool. Not to mention the Vet Reward powers, a combination of Sands of Mu and the Blackwand can make your character look very mage-like.

Defenders fit the balanced sort of mages that aren't so much into enchantment and summoning. Storm Summoning actually makes for a good mage because of both the theme, which seems very magical, and that you actually do have a lot of control. Dark works well too, for much the same reason. And now that you can color your powers, you can make a Dark/Dark or Dark/Psychic Defender with very light, "white magic" looking attacks.

Blasters are pure offense, but won't be able to do anything to help their allies, which you might expect from a Dr. Strange type. You can go to the Pool for Leadership buffs, though, and I would mention Aid Other, except that it uses a gadget, so doesn't fit magic users. (Maybe with Customization...) As you said, though, Mental is a good Secondary for lots of control, so it might if you want to be an elemental wizard throwing around fireballs or something.

Dominators make for good mages with their control and offense combination, although as with Blasters you won't be defending the team. One of my main magical character is a Dominator, though, he is a wizard who took over the body of a dragon back in ancient times. So the "sadistic" nature of playing with your foes to build up Domination really fits his character. I find Mind Control really fits my concept for a mage, he has Levitate for physical attacks, and then all of his charm and enchantment spell on top of that.

Masterminds can be mages too. A Necromancy/Dark MM could be a Necromancer, obviously, while a Thugs or Mercs/Storm MM could be a spell caster that hires warriors to cover him while he backs them up. Either MMs or Corruptors could refer back to my comments on Defenders, with MMs actually being able to be summoners. That will go double once Demon Summoning comes out.

Mind/Electric/Soul Mastery dominator maybe? Or Mind/Kin/Primal controller?

I'd go with Dark/Rad/Psi. Color the Rad something bright or maybe even Red? (just think It would look cool). I'll be leveling a Dark/Ice/Psi myself soon, while he will be magic, he won't be a "dr. strange" type, however maybe could possibly work for one.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.

I would roll a gravity control/kinetic controller if I were going for a Dr. Strange build.

The problem with cloning Dr. Strange is that the character has a tremendous range of powers. While some characters have nuanced changes in their abilities over time, variability is built into who Dr. Strange is.

He has used energy blasts, illusions, mental control, flying, teleportation, various mezes (holds, sleeps, fear, stuns), intangibility, etc. Technically I think you could put martial arts in there too!

While I am a huge Dr. Strange fan (check out "The Oath" for a really good graphic novel) I also tend to play redside. So my Dr. Strange clone is a an evil one. I went with a Mental/energy dominator. I am pleased with the feel of of it. With Going Rogue, you could use a denominator and still play him as a good guy.

I have much more limited knowledge of the AT, but it seems like you could get a pretty good clone using the controller AT as well. You could use a blaster, but he seems a little more "subtle" to me than that.

There is a regular COH player who has a great Dr Strange/Dr. Fate homage toon....Mystic_Fortune. I don't have any have a screenies with him in it...but he posts on the forums regularly. His costumes great but I have no idea what power sets he uses.

If you dont mind being a bit unconventional (and you have unlocked Epics) a Human Form Kheldian could work, especially a Warshade. You have access to a wide variety of buffs, debuffs, holds, teleportation, and damage dealing powers.

a dark/dark defender could work very well. Or a Mind/Rad or Mind/Emp controller.

For Dr. Strange (Im a huge fan) I think Controller Mind, Illusion or grav could all work. Secondary would likely be FF, storm or rad. Epic probably Psi. (Youd be missing mystic bolts of bedevilment but the psi-dart would work) Or you could take primal forces for the bolt.

Liberal use of Pools would be required.

Funny thing is though you could likely build in game a stronger "power wise" character than what Doctor strange has exibited. (Much of his serious powers seem more like mission completion objectives.)

As far as Dr. Fate? I could pick him out of a line up but dont know him nearly as well.

Thanks for the input. Its funny, as I said earlier I'm more of a Dr. Fate fan and I just mentioned Dr. Strange so people would get an idea of what I was going for but most of the replies here reference Dr. Strange. I've always thought the mysterious faceless helmet of Fate was a cool look. hewhorocks, Dr. Fate is basically DC's version of Dr. Strange. I don't know who came first though. Basically depending on the writer, either one can do whatever they want and chalk it all up to 'magic'.

Jade_Dragon, I never considered a Storm/Dark but its is a great idea. Dark/Dark might be good too. In the end, I think I'll go with a blaster. I know they lack the utility of a Defender or Controller, but I think the cooler comic book moments are when Dr. Strange blasting a villan with the Eye of Agomotto versus tying someone up with the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak. Similarly, I think Dr. Fate's best moments are when he teleports into a battle scene and unleashes a massive AoE. Now that I think about it, if you didn't have to shift forms a Peacebringer would be great fit.

I'll probably go with a Fire/Mental or Energy/Mental Blaster. That way I can have lots of damage and a little control too. Energy is generic enough that it can fit any theme (magical, science based, etc). Its hard to explain, but with Fire its easy for me to fit it into different concepts, but something like Storm or Ice seems too attached to an elemental theme for me.

QR:

Actually, Dr. Fate is by far the older of the two characters. Fate first appeared in the 1940s, and was a staple of the wartime JSA; while Dr. Strange didn't make his first appearance until the early/mid 60s.

Actually, I find this thread kinda funny just because both good Drs were the basis for some of my own earliest characters. I personally settled on Grav/FF and Ill/Rad at the time for my personal homage choices (long before proliferation and customization), and have been pretty happy with them overall.

While I'm quite sure you'll be happy with your blaster choices, with GR potentially coming out in the fairly near future I thought I might bring up another possible option: Corruptors. You'd still get the AoE potential, and any number of secondaries would be decent enough fits; /dark and /rad in particular come to mind with the new tintable options (AoE blast em *then* wrap whatevers left up in the crimson bands of Cyttorak!).... best of both worlds; and any number of primaries could probably be made to fit as well.

Just IMO of course. Whatever way you end up going with though- good luck and hope you enjoy it

I have something similar to this but my character is a dark elf from Norse mythology named Svaltalfar. He is a Rad/Dark corr, no where near patrons yet (lvl29). Using colors to make each power look like a different spell is the key but Rad has a nice range of shapes and animations in the attacks that help make things look different. Plus, dark really pairs well for this type of idea. As with most things in this game there are lots of options but those are what I chose. I know you are looking hero but nothing says you can't make him and move him over once GR hits.