How do you go about selecting your character powers?

What I mean is, what's your selection criteria? Why choose a certain powerset before another?

In my case, I go for whatever fits the character I'm creating. Before even clicking the blank slot, I have an idea of what I want, who the guy is, and what's gonna be his specialty and focus.

So, oddly enough, I still don't have a flying character, because it hasn't fit with whatever ideas I've had. And why I went with, what's it called, devices? with my pulp-fiction shotgun-toting guy instead of some energy melee power, simply because it didn't fit the idea.

So I might not have the best character to zoom through levels and missions (I hate Skyway City), but I play the character to its fullest.

So, how do you go about choosing powers?

Oh! I totally misread the intent there...

I choose them either for a theme for the character or something I might need in pvp. Sometimes I just roll something that might annoy my teammates, like a Storm/Energy Blast Defender...

I picked MA, because I practice kung fu in RL, and I picked Regen, becuase it sounded useful, and I didn't know how frequent teams would be
I took Fly and SS because they're like the clasic superhero travel powers, and FA seemed the most useful epic pool power to go with MA.
And for the individual MA powers, I just picked the ones that looked he coolest

If I'm trying out a new set then I try to take every power from the set as I level and then respec after I figure out what meshes with my playstyle.

If it's a set I've played before...see above.

To me, whatever fits the character gets top spot, and if more than one power set qualifies equally well I tend to pick whichever one is more powerful (though "looks awesome" is sometimes a consideration).

Selection is either:
A - Concept. "This person does XYZ, what fits best?" Or, more often:
B - "Hey, that looks like fun, let's try that."

Edit:
Or C, friends say "Let's try a team of XYZ" and roll with that. F'rinstance, we have a supergroup of characters who... well, we couldn't pick our own AT or powers. Everyone *else* came up with them, and you had to run with it. (Mine wasn't bad - Fire/Kin Corrupter.)

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First and foremost concept. Whatever fits right to the idea in my head.

That applies both to powersets, and within set choices.

For me, it's a combination of a concept in my head and picking a power set that I haven't used before. Once I get both a concept and a power set, I am ready to go.

Firstly, whatever powerset I haven't tried before, and which I know can be soloed easily. I usually come up with the concept from there. Last time it was concept first, but after a string of characters I quickly got bored with, I found I did better when I made up silly puns and injokes for characters.

For individual powers, apart from the Absolute Essentials, whatever I think I'll need later. I've noticed that when I try to ask for advice, the power I end up picking based on that doesn't fit my playstyle. However, picking what I think I'll need later is not a spur-of-the-moment thing either; often I have to wait five to ten levels before I can actually choose that power, since there are so many others I wanted to pick first.

For me it's a combination of concept and what I haven't played before. I also tend not to play anything except Controllers and Dominators because, well, I like it when they can't move.

For powersets I select tend to decide what set combo I want to play and then build the character from there.


For powers I tend to divide powers into five categories:

1. Powers I need: these are the powers that I consider required to make the set play effectively, this also includes stamina for most characters since even though it isn't absolutely required it makes everything a whole lot easier and means I have to spend less effort worrying about my blue bar. Super Jump also falls into this category, I prefer it to the other travel powers due to the combination of flexibility, speed and the enjoyment of jumping from rooftops.

2. Powers I want: these are powers that aren't absolutely essential but either I consider them useful or just plain fun, things like nukes, single target mezzes for Blasters and Defenders. I could manage without them but they come in handy.

3. Powers that fit the concept: these are other powers that I don't need or care about but I want for concept reasons. These tend to be few if any

4. Powers I will never take: pretty obvious. Some powers just annoy me enough that I'm not going to bother using them ever.

5. Everything else: these are the odd powers. The one I'll use a bit but don't get excited about. I take these to fill in the spare spaces in my power choices.

I've been selecting archetype/primary/secondary often lately based on sets I haven't played much before. I try to pair primary/secondary together in an interesting fashion, and make an interesting character.

Examples like Karkinos (fire/Shield scrapper), a glitchy battlesuit built in the 1970s for the US army by a drug addicted contractor. I used to have the Self-Destruct power on Auto to emphasize the weird power fluctuations of the suit. I shut it off when it got more annoying that amusing.

Or Blade Fairy ( dual blades/electric armour) ninja-girl enamoured of pink glittery things utilizing family-taught magics of swords and chi manipulation.

Maslow, Crab Spider, cold, calculating, defying the will of the Fates, and Lord Recluse, because, after all, the ones following the rules rarely make history.

Dreamwise, Widow, Erratic, time-perception displaced, overall nutbar following the agenda to create a ideal past from the future, or at least that's the best she can explain it.

Then, once rolling, I tend to only take powers mostly from pri/sec because, after all, I'm exploring the sets. I may respec at 20 into Stamina if endurance issues are very annoying.

I also will take a travel power if I'm finding the travel freebies, like Ninja run, and the Safeguard/Mayhem temps are not quick enough.

Utility vs. "Cool" vs. Exploration are being juggled as I select powers for 'em.

I've never used Mids, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't with these explorers.

I don't role play my characters. None of them have backgrounds. I just play them. As such, I will start with picking powerset I haven't played yet. Then I will try to pick a powerset to pair it with that can compensate for any weaknesses it might have that I'm aware of. My goal is survivability with decent damage.

I pick powersets mainly for soloability and variety. Thanks to altitis, that's given me more than 40 characters. There are a few powersets I stay away from for aesthetic reasons, but most of the powersets I avoid are just not solo friendly for me.

I normally build my character concepts around the powersets rather than trying to adapt powersets to character concepts.

And all of my characters can fly.

When I'm creating a new character, the most important factor in picking powers is the concept I've come up with for that character. If I don't have a concept ahead of time, I look for a powerset I haven't played with before.

I once tried to randomly pick an archetype and powersets, but it didn't turn out that well.

This one's easy. I pick whatever powersets would fit the concept, with little to no regard for how the powersets actually play. I say "little," because I'll often need, say, "a set that hits hard," but that has less to do with build and more to do with the fact that the character is intended to be a tough guy.

Now... Concept for character doesn't always precede concept for powers. Sometimes I'll see a particular powerset combo and thing... You know, this would be ideal for this amorphous, vague idea I've had for the past six years. Yeah, let's go with that! This is what gave rise to my Psi/Psi Blaster, for instance. Other times I'll have a vague concept with a personality and appearance set, but no skillset decided, so I'll be lamenting how much nothing fits when BOOM! Woah, this set would work great, and I haven't played it before! This is what gave rise to my panda girl, and I wouldn't have her any other way.

Basically, I pick powers based on what inspires me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Concept...

A arabian toon called Desert Princess automatically became Illusion/thermal/fly
A vampire witch called Erzsebet Bathory became Necro/dark/fly
A time traveller called Tom Orrow became Gravity/Kinetic/teleport/hover

etc.

It is the most fun to have a toon that speaks to you... And the powers are a big issue with that.

Either I:

1) Think 'Hey, that combination of powersets would be pretty awesome!', for example Elec/Shield for the double teleport goodness. Mostly these toons get played to a lowish level then I can't be arsed grinding up to the level where things get good
or
2) At some point while I'm pottering around in my life I'll come up with a really cool idea for a character. So then I think about it all day until I can get to CoH and make it, using the powersets which seem most suitable

Mostly, I come up with a name or idea and try to find powers that fit it.

Sometimes I play around in the character editor until I find a look that I like, and try to find a background and power that fits with it.

Case study: Bleeding Sun.
While reading DC's "Trinity" maxiseries (the most recent one), I was inspired by the character "Sun Chained In Ink", who used magic to imprison a sun in the tattoos on his body.
I decided to make a magical character with sun-based powers. After a while I came up with a name that stuck in my mind: Bleeding Sun. It sounded colourful and dangerous, without being evil, like someone who "bled" (siphoned) the Sun's powers for her own use.
I could have made the primary power heat-based, but that would have been too obvious. No, the Sun has another power that is just as great: it's enormous gravitational field, which keeps the entire solar system in place. So the primary power was going to be gravity-based, and the secondary heat-based. The only thing that fit was a Gravity/Thermal Controller.

Then I started thinking... if you can base a character on the properties of the Sun, why not on the planets of the Solar System? Thus, the Ecliptic Order was born, an ancient school of magic whose adepts specialise in drawing power from different heavenly bodies.

Now, you have all heard of an animated series that names it's characters after different bodies in the solar system: Sailor Moon. Of course, I couldn't resist putting an evil twist to that theme, and tried to create a male character in a sailor's outfit named Sailor Uranus.
Unfortunately, Sailor Uranus was not available, so I had to settle for First Mate. But at least I could put a small Uranus symbol on his chest.

Cool that everyone is pointing to concept and not sqrt(max/(min)+DPS^2=ftw)

I too usually pick powers based on a concept. Sometimes this is a problem, especially in the case of fire powers. Just because my character can generate massive internal temperatures doesn't mean he or she can breathe fire or form swords out of fire. I am hoping one day we will get even more power customization so that we can better make the look of our powers fit our character concepts.

Usually I come up with an idea ("Hey, I need a giant robot character!") and then choose power sets to go with it. Sometimes though I decide I want to try a new power set before I come up with a concept, but usually it's the other way around.

Travel powers and other pool powers I usually base on concept too. Most of my psychic or power armor characters can fly through the use of telekinesis or antigravity technology respectively. If the character is to be super strong, they usually get super leap. If they are a time manipulator, they get teleport. If they have no reason for having a super travel power, they just stick with sprint and Ninja Run.

Oh and another thing - sometimes I pick powers based on how much teaming I expect to do. For example, I have a toon with mind control who I recently respeced out of Mass Hypnosis because I only run the toon with a static team, and the power was virtually worthless since someone's AoE power would wake all the sleepers as soon as I cast it. If I ran the toon solo, that power would be invaluable.