Safest AoE character to level

After a few years of the game, My only 50 is a pretty heavy single target character (Ice/Kin Corr) and I want to try something different. However, I also don't want to be as fragile as my /kin was while leveling.

I have a Shield/SS Tanker that I've leveled up, but I really don't like Shields that much even though I know it's the flavor of the month. I find it very tedious to level with. I also have a DP/Fire Blaster who just shreds spawns, but the rest of the time he's faceplanted on the ground. I'd like a happy medium.

What would the community recommend (That isn't the generic Elec/SD Scrapper) for a smooth leveling, survivable AoE specialist?

I would suggest an Elec/Regen or Fire/Regen Scrapper (replace Regen with Willpower if you'd like, though I find Regen helps better in the lower levels). If Villainside is more your thing, then I can suggest a Fire/anything Brute, Willpower being the usual choice of flavour, though any other set with a damage aura may be better for the extra AoE damage with Fire Breath and FSC.

Then of course there's the ranged variety, a Fire/Dark Corruptor would work well with the control and debuffs of Dark complimenting Fire's silly amount of damage, both AoE and ST. There is also a /Thorns Dominator (Fire or Plant control complimenting well) or Archery/ Blaster (Fire or Mental Manipulation, again, complimenting the primary).. And of course, a Thugs or Bots Mastermind coupled with Dark or Traps for insane damage and survivability.

Those're what I can think of off the top of my head for reliable AoE damage and survivability.

Claws/WP Brutes make the best margurita's

For non-Melee, fire/ice blaster is pretty good with the mitigation...uh...but nothing is going to save you from the aggro for long.

For melee, and this is based on reading here, Night Widow. And yes, you can be a Guy Widow. That means you need to get some toon on the V side up to 20. Do a ninja blade and you'll rocket to 20.

I love Katana and if you prefer robustness over the AoE, kat/wp is cool and if I didn't already have a kat I'd do a kat/sr which would be something I could leave standing in the middle of 12 enemies, go bio, get a drink and come back and they'd still be standing.

And, yeah, elec/shield, but I don't dig shield because of the look.

Fire/Dark Corruptor
Traps/AR Defender (or Corruptor)

Other Defender primary/Corruptor secondaries that can allow easy AoE damage are Storm, Sonic, Radiation, and probably a few others.

Crabs ftw.

Yep SoA Crabs. For more AOE than you can shake a stick at especially if you go Mako for patron.

I would recommend Claws/WP and Fire/Dark Corr for leveling up. For end game I would recommend some other combinations.

Well both that I suggested will be good at level 50, but won't be the "best" AoE toons. SS/Fire is great, but not that good leveling up since you get your main AoE attack at 32 compared to Claws in which you get Spin at level 6 I think.

Well, one of my goals for this character is to get a little inf Hero side, because I'm relatively poor there. I don't enjoy any of popular farming builds, and I don't mind earning inf a little slower if it means liking the character more. I'm not concerned with top kill speed as much as I am survivability, ease of use and of course, fun factor.

Another choice is a Fire/Storm Controller. /Kin gets all the press, with good reason, but this little combo can put out hellacious AoE damage, and with all your control (including knockdown) and -tohit you'll be pretty safe too. Not the fastest early on, and it does take some getting used to (i.e. knowing Fire Cages + Tornado), but if I can handle it anyone can. My Fire/Storm/Psi is a monster, //Fire would probably be even more absurd.

I have really enjoyed my fire/dark corr lately. Actually, I have ONLY enjoyed my fire/dark corr recently--I don't think I have enjoyed one toon exclusively since my first 50 (an ice/ff troller, ironically enough). When you talk about fun, manageable AoE, with some element of risk still intact, I don't think fire/dark can be beat.

I also have had fun on a db/will scrapper. DB is just so pretty to watch, and it has a nice balance of ST and AoE. By the time you hit 33 (which on a scrapper is pretty quick), you have two high damage combo chains that are pleasant to watch and do a lot of AoE damage.

I've stayed away from DB because I don't like 3s+ animations that root me (and personally I think one thousand cuts looks silly, but the rest of the set is gorgeous). I've been dabbling with a Spines/ Scrapper and I'm not too enamored. The long animation times and lack of a solid single target attack chain is painful.

I think I'm going to try Claws/ next, and then maybe move on to some of the Controller suggestions.


As for the Fire/Dark, I have one of those, and he's pretty ******* delicious. I just wish I could bring myself to enjoy the hero ATs the same way I can enjoy the villain ones

How much work you want to put into it?

My Fire/Sheild Scrapper, has 40%/37%/40% Def to M/R/Aoe defences(it was all 40's then they go and nerf Botz...) , 45% S/L resists, and EPIC aoe potentual. (SC, FSC, and flamebreath with range.) She's a little mechine. But it cost me alot...and i'm still not softcapped...(i could be i guess if i trimed my build more and picked up manuvers... but... i like my build as is so far... she's strong enough AND i already have 2 softcapped SR's... so..)

If you want to spend alittle less... try maybe a Fire/SR, Spine/SR, or Elec/SR. (I prefure spines and fire to lighting cause, LR is impressive, but take a while to recharge, where as spines and fire up much more often, and minions die faster. IMO)

I WOULD recommend Spine/Elec, as i have one and the aoe is SICK with 2 dmg aures... but they mobs keep running away from it.. i can't keep them on me to save my life... freaking stupid AI..(or, overly intellegent AI...)

So it brakes down, IMO, like this.

You want AoE? Spines/Fire/Elec. Pick one of them.

Defence, the BEST, IMO you can get is softcapped SD. Soft cap D, solid S/L resists, and over the top damage buff and an extra AoE.(an epic one at that.) The down side is, it'll cost a mint to build and spines is OUT.

Second best is prolly an Invlun that's softcapped to S/L/E/N. It can be done, but it's expensive. You'll end up with better defence, then even the Shields guy, but no damage buff or extra aoe.

The cheapest option is SR. Softcapped defence. And that's about it. You get scaleing resistences when your almost dead, and some from Tough which you'd want to train to stick a steadfast in... a recharge buff, but no damage buff, no extra aoe, no real resistences to speak off, but dirt cheap and still impressive defence.

I'd recommend a Spine/Sr if your on a budget. Or a Fire/Shield if you have the coin to spaire. (or an Elec/Shield if you have the bucks and don't mind herding up and nuking every... 20 to 30 seconds. i prefure to wittle the spawn down, instead of waiting on 2 long recharges, but that's me.)

Well I've ended up with a FM/DA Scrapper who seems to be fun so far. A little squishy, but that should change once I get and slot dark regen.

However, I have a friend who recently joined the game, and her main is a blaster. She plays very kamikaze style. I like to duo with her, but all of my heroes aren't very good at supporting her. What do you think would be better, an Emp/ or FF/ defender to buff her out the wazoo, or some kind of tank to absorb alphas and keep aggro while she goes all crazytrain with the AoE?

Either approach works, the other thing you can do, which would fit with your moneymaking desires is to roll an fire or arch/mental blaster and set the mishs to -1x4 or similar at lowish level and just have both of you AoE mow them down for max drops.

If you want to spend absolutely nothing on the build so it's all profit, but the toon is still fun at all levels, I'd suggest a PB. Not sure if you can still do this, but you certainly used to be able to respec and from level 1 start putting slots in the forms. Slot up the forms until they're basically full and frankenslot around level 30, adding a few procs (the KB set one is often fairly cheap). Take human form powers that carry over into the forms like hasten and the buildup, plus stuff you can use between fights (I have the medicine pool for example, superspeed, stealth etc). Then set up macros to shift to a form and move your trays so that the powers relevant to that form appear. I use mine as (on a large team) just about the best tank exemped to 20 or 25. In a duo, essentially you're a blaster with mez protection (you can hit dwarf while mezzed), and with "oh ****" tanking capabilities that will help with EBs and voids.

My fm/wp scrapper, claws/wp brute, spines/fire scrapper, bs/sd scrapper and db/sr scrapper all wish they were my EM/SD scrapper. There is a reason it's the FoTM as you call it, it's the best, and it's a ton of fun. Throw in Pyre epic and you've got Lightning Rod, Shield Charge and Fireball all ready to go and nothing is more fun to drop on +2/X8 missions. Some will say its expensive to softcap a shielder or there are too many levels of squishieness, they're wrong, it can be done quick and cheap.

I'm currently leveling up a fm/sd scrapper, level 31 so far, and while I'm feeling pretty rugged and dropping FSC alot, I'm feeling like I'm gonna really miss Lightning Rod.

Another voice here recommending anything with Willpower. It has the specific advantage of Quick Recovery at level 20 - it covers the same ground as Stamina, but has no prerequisites, which means you can spend some teen levels getting powers you'd like to have (and that may help you do more damage!) than what you have to have to get Stamina.

You'll still want it later on, but you can fold it in at some point in the 20s or 30s, no biggie.

By the way, though I'd never claim she's the queen of AOE or anything like that, my broadsword/willpower scrapper does have some nice AOEs, and Willpower provides good support in the form of Rise to the Challenge for throwing her into the biggest mobs I can find and beating them down.