Utility Vs. Theme

Every so often, I hit a dilemma between the theme of my toon and what might be in its best interest in terms of survivability or usefulness.

For example, I have a Crab Soldier, and while I really enjoy the heck out of him, I am thinking that he would be much more effective if I were to go ahead and take the Wide Area Web Grenade power ... after all, if you're going for a ranged build why not have another power to keep the enemies away from you?

The thing is, to get Wide Area Web Grenade I'd have to use the rifle ... and I have specifically been avoiding the use of the rifle in my Crab ...

That was one of the things that kept me from trying certain types of armor-- Fire and Dark Armor-- pre IO because I did not want to be locked into taking Acrobatics.

How often does that happen to you when a concept you have for a toon runs smack into the utility issue? Which do you tend to favor?

The only time I really have this issue is with travel powers. I like to make alot of flying characters but it's not always available to me because I also happen to like building chars up to be as good as they can be. Usually I side with utility but one a small handful of chars I stubbornly stick to theme.

Its travel powers for me too. I often want my characters to have fly but super jump is usually better for them.

If you're roleplaying a theme, always choose theme over utility. Maybe you'll pass up some powers that some consider "essential", but that just means your learning curve will be a little steeper. Once you've become very good at using "second choice" powers, you'll be more useful to any team than a newbie who doesn't know how to use his cookie cutter build.

For example: Two of my controllers have skipped "essential" powers (Char, Seeds of Confusion) for thematic purposes: my fire controller is smoke-free, and my plant controller only makes things grow rapidly. That just means I focus my power choices, slotting, and practice on "second choice" powers (Flashfire, Strangler). Besides, I'm not at much of a disadvantage, since a lot of "second choice" powers, like these two, are darn good powers anyway.

Overall, I can tell you that Rigel has it 100% nailed. I have a bajillion horrid builds and they are at least useful to teams. Some are so bad they can't solo. But on all of them, I have fun on a team, and the team does better for having me around at least from time to time. Always go theme and don't sweat the details. Fun trumps power.*


* unless you need the power to have fun, but then I assume you wouldn't be asking this question in the first place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueBattler That was one of the things that kept me from trying certain types of armor-- Fire and Dark Armor-- pre IO because I did not want to be locked into taking Acrobatics.

I don't have acrobatics on any character. Between -kb IOs and the base enhancement station buff, and just putting up with it I'm fine. I have a fire tank, scrapper, dark stalker and a huge stable of squishies with no -kb at all. It really isn't the end of the world, and those -kb IOs are very easy to get if you level from 1-15 in AE and roll bronzes. Even if you don't they're not expensive.

Oh, now that I can buy a Steadfast or a Karma, I do play melee toons whose innate powers don't include kb protection.

Now if there's a recipe for a multiple web grenade I could buy ...

Playing under wacky self-imposed conditions can be a lot of fun, and I always choose fun over being 'good'.


One of my fave characters of the last year or so is my concept 'all natural' stalker- ninja blade/willpower with the visuals turned off, no travel power. Before Ninja Run he just sprinted around with slotted swift and as many GotA +runspeeds as I could stuff in his build. Ninja Run is perfect for him, but I kept all the other speed stuff too- he BOOKS for a dude with no 'real' travel power.


Also, in our amazing modern world you can dual-build, one for concept and one for utility.

Do whatever keeps the game fun for you.

Spider Blue's story has been evolving as I worked on him ... in fact, it wasn't until St. Martial that his personality coalesced for me:

He's Prince Namor with a sense of humor.

What I mean is, he's a quasi heroic character. He regards the Longbow and Freedom Phalanx as invades of his homeland and will do his utmost to repel them. On the other hand, he doesn't kill wantonly, doesn't harm innocents, and will risk his own life to protect the citizens of the Rogue Isles.

He's not taking any Patron Powers because it's not in his nature to serve Arachnos.

His Spider Pack is actually an artificial intelligence that has wound up acting as his conscience ... a sort of Jiminy Cricket if you will.

(The original Blue Battler is an Ar/Fire Blaster, so I wanted a thematic reason to avoid using the rifle as I didn't want to feel like I was repeating AR.)

I took Spider into Cimerora and tried to do one of the timed missions and had to crank it down in order to be able to complete it ... it occurred to me at that point that the Wide Area Web Grenade might have worked pretty well in such circumstances. Rather than take the other melee Crab attack I'm considering-- it might actually be more effective for Spider to have Wide Area Web Grenade.

Really with they had given Crabs the ability to throw webs from the backpack as they would be perfect for Spider ... 8-(

I balance out the two. I generally don't make it very far on a character that doesn't have much concept behind it, as that's what keeps me interested in them. However, they're not so fun if I can't play them well... thankfully, CoX allows for quite a few different approaches to work.

Almost always utility. I can find ways to hand-wave my ninja using Shockwave or a Mind/ dom whose powers are mostly limited to telepathy having telekinesis. Making the character fun to play absolutely trumps concept for me. In a lot of cases where I have a concept I love that only works with sets that I don't enjoy, I'll just shelve it or rejigger it to work with a better set. But my own concepts of utility and what's fun to play seem to be so far off from the norm that I'm probably not much of a reference.

I'm in the middle on this one.

My Fire/Regen scrapper doesn't have either of the single target Fire Sword powers, because it doesn't mesh with his concept (his blood is combustible on contact with air, making a sword out of it isn't feasible, yes he cuts himself and fights using his burning blood, the regen is artificial to keep him from passing out from blood lo0ss in a fight. ), but I did take Fire Sword Circle because I wasn't going to pass up the only PBAoE the set has to offer. I explain it as an optical illusion, centrifugal force shapes the gout of flame into a vaguely sword shaped form.

For me, it's a gave and take. It helps to know the sets and powers available...and the power customization has greatly increased the possibilities for cohesive concepts. As far as knowing the sets, you'll know if your character's idea will be realizable. If it's too far from the abilities you are giving them, it's time to revise.

Case in point: I had a AR/devises blaster who's supposed to be a psycho nurse that got fed up with what crooks were doing to her city, and used all her money to buy the highest tech rifle she could to fight crime. She's still capable of practicing medicine, but her main objective is to shoot stuff.

So, the concept has 3 elements:
High-tech assault-rifle based
Medical side ability
No super-powers

At first, I was AR/devices/medicine/flight...but it didn't work, even with jetboots. She skipped her gadgets, as she was more a gunner, less a gadgeteer, the flight made no sense. (even with jetboots) So, I remaid her: AR/EM/medicine/tp. This has worked better. She skips all energy manipulation melee, so she just has the gun boost powers, and has powerboost for better medicine. The teleport works, as her work in paragon's medical system involved teleporting, and she retains access.

The power customization was a big one as well...I made a blaster who uses mental spells to create darkness that burns away at reality, specifically the enemies and areas he focuses his mind on. To feed this power, he must absorb thoughts and desires for destruction from his foes before releasing them back at them. The best fit was a fire/mental blaster...but without colors, it made no sense. A dude sucks up minds with pink rings then shoots stuff with fire. Huh? But with all tweaked to a similar dark tone, it looks and feels right.

On the other hand, I had an idea for a pacifist widow: she was forced into/through training due to the need for recruits, but she had only team buff/medical powers/control powers. In the end, it didn't work. ...And it sure wasn't fun. As such, the concept went bye-bye, the character remade into a new one that used the actual abilities of the powers.

You can make a concept character, but I've found you concept has to gell well with the game. If it doesn't it's a square peg in a round hole. On the other hand, if your character is just a consortium of abilities that are chosen to make stuff die and the team succeed without regard to what the thing IS, I have to scratch my head. The interaction of the powers are pretty straightforward. The costume editor, bio, and customization all alows you to make a character all your own...why wouldn't you? About every game has its protaganists, here yours looks and acts just as you please. ...And you skip past that to become the biggest, best, faceless generic orange number generator? Generating it the same way as the other super damage generators?

Boooring.