Great Builds - 5 years as an Altaholic

After playing every Archetype and about 200+ toons later,
some only to level 20, others past 40, I would like to share
some observations and perhaps save someone else the
time it took me to learn some of these interesting builds.

I'm not going into great detail. There is lots of information
on most of the archetypes in the forums. I'm just going
to mention a few types I found to work real well and why,
and a pointer or two in the build.

All primary and secondary powers in the hands of a good
player can work well, BUT there are some power combinations
that work better. It is usually because the primary and secondaries
work better together, they have a certain synergy. A good example
would be the power RAIN OF FIRE combined with TAR PATCH.
Tar patch not only slows down the enemies but also has a damage
resistance debuff, increasing the fires damage. This game has many
such synergies and I have spent years experimenting with them.
All Archetypes have them and they are there to discover.
Here are some of the best:

BLASTERS

Fire/Ice Blaster (Damage, Synergy and Defense)
This is my all-time favourite. It's a good balance of damage and damage
mitigation. Rain of fire works beautifully with the ice slowing powers such
as shiver. Build up works well with the 3 other AoE (Area of Effect) powers.
This build works great solo or on team. Typical attack sequence: Hit a group with
SHIVER, then BUILD UP, use FIRE BREATH, FIRE BALL, and RAIN OF FIRE.
If you're on a team with a controller that holds the enemies go with rain of fire
first.

Ice/Devices (A sneakier blaster)
Arguably the most powerful single target blaster with some good AoE as well.
This one is great for keeping the enemy at arms length. I have played
blappers (blaster-scrapper) in the past, but I find killing your enemies at
range is preferable and with less dying. This one can be played like the Fire/Ice
blaster going toe-to-toe out in the open with the enemy, but you can also
kill enemies without even seeing them - If you are inside somewhere, place
a trip mine or 2 near a door opening or corner, place some CALTROPS behind
these, now pull or better yet teleport an enemy (see power pool). If more enemies come they will hit
the mines. Now throw some more CALTROPS (if recharged. need to slot for recharge)
under them and hit them with ICE STORM. Of course later you can also use BLIZZARD
and GUN DRONE as well.

Ice/Ice (Blaster/Controller)
Here is a blaster that has some control powers. Similar to the Fire/Ice blaster,
what you gain in added control, you lose somewhat in damage.

Ice/Energy (Blapper)
OK, for those that just want to melee with enemies, here ya go.
The ice has 2 holds that can stack to even hold a boss.
The energy secondary has more than 2 stun attacks that can stack
(stun, total focus, bone smasher). POWER BOOST will increase
the duration of your holds making you more effective.
TIP: Try to hold an enemy with a range hold before coming up
to it to hit it with melee attack if possible. BONE SMASHER has
only a 60% chance of working so use STUN or TOTAL FOCUS
first if possible if holding with melee. POWER THRUST is great for
knocking back an enemy that gets to close. Follow this with FREEZE
RAY.


CONTROLLERS

Earth/Storm Controller (Controller on steroids)
This is a controller on steroids. You get a lot of control here and
some even stack such as earthquake and freezing rain - you
can never have too much knock-up. If all you want to do on a team
is lock down the crap out of the enemy, these are the primary/secondary.
Also, an added bonus is that most earth powers have a defense debuff
making it easier for you and all your team to hit the enemy. Think Circle
of Thorns.

Fire/Rad or Fire/Kinetic (Damage)
Both are great for damage, solo or on a team.
Fire/Rad is more defensive so if played right, you won't die as often.
Fire/Kinetic won't outdo Fire/Rads damage until you get FULCRUM SHIFT
at level 38. FLASHFIRE would be a good first attack to mez the enemies.
If playing a Fire/Rad, your next power should be RADIATION INFECTION,
followed by ENERVATING FIELD. If Kinetic, use FULCRUM SHIFT.
Now let the killing begin. If enemy comes around, use CINDERS to
mezzo them some more, especially if you are kinetic. Not so necessary
if Rad if most enemies are in your debuff AoEs.

Illusion/Rad (Master Mind for Heroes)
I find Rad my favourite secondary for illusion especially if you like to solo.
Other powers work well too but Radiation has the balance I like.
It has debuff AoEs which increase the damage of your Phantom Army.
It also has a recharge increase built into Accelerate Metabolism which
increases the recharge of all your powers, and most importantly, the
Phantom Army power, so you can call them more often. Kinetics has this
ability too and Storm summoning and Trick Arrow has an AoE debuff but
non have both. So my decision for Radiation. Get HASTEN from power pool.

Mind/Rad or Mind/Kinetics (multiple single target mezzes, stackable mezzes)
Both of these secondaries work well with Mind.
My personal preference is Radiation for similar reasons
as the Fire/Rad Controller choice. I've noticed a lot of players not
picking MESMERIZE (sleep) as one of their powers. In my opinion,
this is one of the most amazing Controller powers in the game.
When soloing, this power will mez an enemy for a long time right
out of the box. Slot it with 2 accuracy, 3 damage and 1 recharge
and you have a very nice mez/damage power - Mez or kill - your
choice. Very versatile. If you slot it for sleep, you can keep an
enemy out of a fight for more than a minute! For the most part,
the strength of this controller are the multiple single target mezzes,
damage, and each single mez will stack with an AoE mez of
the same power, making it possible to lock down a boss or bosses
with multiple power combinations. No other Controller has so
many stackable powers.

Plant/Storm (Control and Damage)
This is my all-time favourite Controller.
It is also the one toon in all my 5 years that I had the most fun playing.
I've slotted many of the powers for damage and even though they are
weak in comparison to a blaster's, they do amazing damage once
stacked on an enemy. Typical attack sequence: SEEDS OF CONFUSION,
ROOTS, FREEZING RAIN, CARRION CREEPERS, TORNADO,
then keep hitting ROOTS till all dead. Also use ENTANGLE to focus more damage
on bosses etc.
The damage debuff of FREEZING RAIN (30%) is great and will make all your
attacks work better including CARRION CREEPERS. The defense debuff is
a bonus and the bit of extra damage is even more of a bonus.
Also note that TORNADO will rarely blow the enemies away when held
by ROOTS so the power will do far more damage than initially expected.
Powers you don't need to take: SPORE BURST, VINES, SNOW STORM,
STEAMY MIST, HURRICANE, THUNDER CLAP. These can be fun but
for a solo damage build, you won't really need them.


DEFENDERS

Traps/Dark (A dark powered battle tank)
I always liked the Dark/Traps corruptor but it works much better
as a Traps/Dark defender.
This Archetype plays like a battle tank - You plop yourself down,
put up your shield, healing AoE, mines, caltrops, etc. and start
blasting the enemy at range. The synergy between your shield
defence and dark defense debuffs works well, making it hard for
the enemy to hit you. You have 2 healing types to keep you heal up
if they do. A very survivable defender. You'll go looking for overrun
situations just to test your survivability.

Dark/Rad (A well balanced Defender)
Good damage resistance and defense. A great AoE heal.
A rez that can rez the entire team if need be. And on top
of all that, a slow power, a damage debuff (tar patch) and defense
debuff in your blast powers. So in a nut shell, this defender will
reduce incoming damage, heal the team, rez the team, make the
enemy easier to kill and hit. Bonus - you get some soft control as well -
Fearsome stare, etc. You even get a pet!


SCRAPPERS

Broad Sword/Regen or Broad Sword/Will Power (Damage and tough)
For single target damage, there is no equal. Make sure to pick up
PARRY and TOUGH (power pool) to make this scrapper one of the
hardest to kill, almost to tank-like levels. PARRY and TOUGH make your regen powers fly.
Both powers are good to get for your Will power secondary as well
but will not be as dramatically noticeable as with regen due to the
fact that a regen has very little defence to begin with so every little
bit really helps. Don't pick up SLASH, use SLICE and PARRY as your
fill-in attacks instead. PARRY is not as damaging as SLICE but it isn't
bad and adds 15% to your melee defence each time it hits. It stacks too.
Use PARRY in your attack chain especially if taking on some damage.
I've amazed teams with this builds ability to live in the face of incredible odds.

Spines/Electric Armor (AOE Monster)
This one is the most fun scrapper I have ever played.
Lots of AoE attacks, slightly better damage resistance than other
armours (26% in stead of 22%). Two endurance buffs (Power Sink, Energize).
And on top of all this - LIGHTNING REFLEXES, making all of your powers recharge
faster (including your heal - ENERGIZE). In essence, a 20% faster attack means 20%
more damage over time. Other secondary powers could be FIRE or DARK Armor but
both of these have weaknesses that Electric doesn't have - DARK has no endurance
buffs. FIRE, although has an endurance reclaiming power, is a weaker armour in general.
I've played both these secondaries with Spines and find the Electric armor to be the best -
The damage is equal to FIRE, better than DARK. The defence is better than both, The
endurance reclaiming is better than FIRE and far better than DARK (which has none).


TANKER

Will Power/ Dark (Well balanced, tough tank).
A very well balanced tank - the best health regeneration,
a balance of some damage resistance, and some defence.
TIP: Slot SIPHON LIFE with 3 accuracy and 3 recharge.
This gives you the maximum benefit of this power for heals vs damage.
The damage is so good for this power it is a shame to slot for just
heal. TIP2: Pick up SOUL DRAIN and 3 slot for accuracy and 3 slot
with recharge to keep your damage level up when soloing.
TIP3: You won't have a problem with endurance if you take quick
recovery, so you won't really need DARK CONSUMPTION.
However if you need an AoE damage power, you can take DC for this
purpose - 2 slot for accuracy, 3 slot for damage, and 1 slot for
recharge. SOUL DRAIN first then follow with DARK CONSUMPTION.
SOUL DRAIN will increase your damage and accuracy so DC will
be far more effective. Great for those situations that you are outnumbered
and need to kill those around you faster. SOUL DRAIN lasts for quite a while
(30 seconds), so your single attacks will take down your enemies faster
as well.

My appologies for this post.
I will post more tactfully and minimully in future.

Don't sweat it. I won't be posting any time soon.