Help! Which AT.. and sets?

I want to make something new. I have been pondering this for like a week now, and can't come up with anything. Mostly I think this is due to my lack of experience.

After reading these boards for a while, I think I can answer most of the questions that will be asked of me. Here goes!

1 - I am not married to any AT. If the AT can fit what I'm looking for, great!

2 - I am not a "melee only" or "range only" person. I have both kinds of characters, and like both styles of play. I do not mind sets that combine both.

3 - I solo some. I group some. I do TFs some. I don't do any of these more than the others. So the sky's the limit here.

4 - I prefer to be "durable enough". They need to die before I do. While this is not usually an issue for any AT and most any level, but if I need to stand around and wait for rest to come back up all of the time, I'm too squishy. This can be accomplished with either massive damage (they die before I'm hurt too badly) or solid defenses. Or a mix of both.

5 - I would like something that's fun to level... at all levels (or at least past 10). "Zomg, X/X is SO awesome after 38 when you get Y!!!!" doesn't cut it. If I have to wait forever for a combo to mature, I'd rather not play it. I already play a few sets that are like that. SR namely... and I would prefer to stay away from them.

6 - I like sets that are "interesting". Ice control on a dom is fun for me. Its not entirely what I was looking for, for it is still great fun to have things like AA and IP. Cackling about what I am doing to the enemy is a huge plus!

7 - Anything that "get's really good with IO sets" isn't my idea of fun either - basically you're waiting until 32 or so to start with that, and even then, you'll never experience all of the "joy of the set" until you're closer to 50 and have enough slots to get to that magical IO set fun. (see #5)

8 - I like MMs (this was suggested by a friend) but I have 3 already. They need some love before I make a 4th.

9 - I do not have GR - so no DP or Elec control for me being dirt poor sucks.

10 - I prefer AoE to ST damage. I have an EM/Regen stalker, and while it is definitely fun to smash things to death one after another, I find that ST isn't really "my thing".

11 - Damage is a BIG plus. If I can live forever, but it takes me 5 minutes to kill a group of 3 minions, I'll probably fall asleep at the wheel.

12 - KB doesn't turn me off. It doesn't turn me on so much either... but its not "forbidden". In fact, I have been looking at various Storm/ or /Storm combos. Nothing has caught my eye yet.

13 - Any Power set that revolves solely around a single power is not much fun for me. I need a little variety and spice in my life. Spamming 1 button over and over and over and over is lame. If I want that, I'll go back to playing WoW.

14 - There are over 630 possible combinations of powers in this game. That is not including the EATs or the GR power sets. That' a LOT of sets to look through. I'm looking for your experiences and suggestions about something you thought was a blast to play out of the gate! (PS, I have a WS. He's fun - and gets some love from me when I am feeling ambitious).

Thanks in advance for all of the help!!

Rifle/Rad Corruptor. Good solo, good in teams. Durable because you'll turn your enemies into kittens. AoE more than single target. Some knockback but not ridiculous. Interesting powers: Ignite, Fallout, Mutation.

Nuke them till they glow then shoot them in the dark.

Even if it can't be used in Praetoria, I suggest the VEATs, they're very flexible and have alot of variety, and are always good to team with with Tactical Training.

Plant/Fire Dom, Plant/TA controller, Sonic/Ice blaster all come to mind.

Plant begins to get good at level 8 and improves from there. Fire melee for the Dom gives you a mix of melee and ranged attacks.

Plant/TA control also gets good at level 8 and continues to improve. Don't take any of the TA powers that slow the mobs down or reduce their damage output. Do take all the powers that increase the amount of damage that the mobs do to each other while they are confused. Use Roots to keep the mobs bunched up (and to do AoE damage) so they kill themselves faster. Slot Strangler and Entangle for single target damage. As you level you add more powers that make the mobs damage them selves even faster, Acid Arrow at level 20, Carrion Creepers at level 26, Disruption Arrow at level 28, Oil Slick Arrow at level 35 (remember to make your origin magic or tech so you can light your own Oil Slick with your origin starter power). Going Fire Epic adds even more damage to the mix. My Plant/TA/Fire solo farmss on +2 or +3/8x. When I finish purpling it out I'll be solo farming at +4/8x.

Sonic/Ice/Elec blaster. It's a bit low on AoE Damage at first but you can solo well. It's like having a Dominator with Defiance. It starts out strong at level 18 with Sirens Song (which will allow you to sleep an entire spawn save bosses) and improves from there. At level 38 You'll be able to stack Sirens with Frozen Aura to Sleep the Boss too. You'll also be keeping the entire spawn at the -rech and -move caps. Keep the spawn asleep, Stun a tough lieutenant, take it out with ST damage while Sirens recharges. Once it's recharged Shiver, Torrent, Howl, Sirens, and go back to your single target strategy until Sirens is recharged again. At higher levels with lots of recharge you can chain that AoE so long as you knock the spawn into a corner.

I know everyone and their sister has a Stone Tanker, but I am very much in favour of my Stone/Ice Melee...the low-level cone is nice, the ice patch gives great control and the swords do unremarkable damage.

I'm not noticing the slows so much now, but it is fun when I'm not "Rooted" walking around. Sprint/Rooted toggle whee!

It could be argued that a Fire/Rad Corruptor is the best PvE toon, while a Mind/Fire Dominator is capable of pulling some pretty crazy stunts

Fire/Dark Corruptor, Dark/Sonic Defender - both are great. Dark miasma has tons of tools: debuffs, slows, a heal, a rez, controls and a pet. Sonic blast adds great debuffs as a defender and has adequate AoE. While fire blast doesn't add debuffs for a corruptor, it more than makes up for it with lots (and I mean lots) of AoE. Both are solid for teams and solo. Both are very durable - Darkest Night means that you can essentially tank. And neither cost that much to outfit - they're effective with the base SO enhancements.

Thanks everyone for the great ideas! Keep them coming please!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight Plant/TA control also gets good at level 8 and continues to improve. Don't take any of the TA powers that slow the mobs down or reduce their damage output. Do take all the powers that increase the amount of damage that the mobs do to each other while they are confused. Use Roots to keep the mobs bunched up (and to do AoE damage) so they kill themselves faster. Slot Strangler and Entangle for single target damage. As you level you add more powers that make the mobs damage them selves even faster, Acid Arrow at level 20, Carrion Creepers at level 26, Disruption Arrow at level 28, Oil Slick Arrow at level 35 (remember to make your origin magic or tech so you can light your own Oil Slick with your origin starter power). Going Fire Epic adds even more damage to the mix. My Plant/TA/Fire solo farmss on +2 or +3/8x. When I finish purpling it out I'll be solo farming at +4/8x.

This looks interesting - does the xp loss from confused enemies balance out with the fact that you can kill more of them in an hour? (for example)

Quote:

Dark/ ... /Dark

My bad here, I should have mentioned it... 2 of my MMs are dark, and I have a rad/dark corr that I rolled up 100% as a support toon for TFs. Kinda darked out right now lol. Though I will agree that its a fantastic set!

Please please please keep the ideas coming!

I'll echo the plant control suggestions, it's a fun set from early on, great control, and at end game you can easily solo 8 man spawns. I got a plant/rad to 50 and got her slotted exactly how I wanted (and you can fit in a lot of purples in that build!) and was still enjoying plant enough that I made a plant/fire dom, and got that to 50 (still havn't got her fully slotted with purps, but I've got her well into perma dom)

Other builds I've really enjoyed:

Dual pistols/devices blaster: cloaking device + smoke grenade + toe bombed trip mine + let off all those lovely AoEs = great fun. Hard hitting, works well solo or on teams, plenty of variety.

Demon/pain MM: a good solid build for solo, bring a lot of resilience and damage boost to a team, a lot of variety amongst the pets

Ice/energy tank: a build that doesn't have to wait ages to be a good main tank, takes some good play to keep your defenses at full whack with energy absorption but I found that a lot more fun that waiting for a god mode power, energy does good enough damage to solo at a good enough pace especialy with icicles slowly melting mobs

Fire/WP scrapper: good defenses, great damage, both ST and AoE

Dark/dark brute: if you enjoy the challenge of a tight build and a very active defense then this is the build for you, played well it's amazing, but slip up and you faceplant quickly.

Illusion/sonic troller: I nice variety of control, buff, and debuff, good from the outset, gets it's stand out power quite early, fast enough solo and a real assest to teams, this is the character I've got most of my master of XXXX TF on, even though she's never been a badging toon

dark/dark defender: a great toon for support and debuff, the damage is low-ish solo (though I haven't soloed her since the damage increase when solo for defs) but good enough that your not going to be fighting a war of attrition having to heal yourself till you run out of end

Other builds I've tried and are fun: spines/regen scrapper, necro/dark MM, thugs/poison MM, nrg/nrg blaster, nin/nin stalker, grav/emp troller

Edit: missed the point about no GR so disregard the first 2

I didn't read all the points you listed out but the only AT that comes to mind is SoA.

You've got a good mix of ST/AoE, melee/range, team buffs, very soloable with mez protection.

I'm going to suggest playing a Dominator. Yes, you're limited to redside untill you get GR, however, I do find Dominators to be one of the most balanced ATs around (imo anyways) in terms of Offense and Defense.

Dominations gives you limited mez protection (or perma mez protection if you build for it), with defense being your controls! If you can stack actual defense and resist onto your Dominator even better!

With all that said, I might suggest Plant/Fire or Plant/Earth.

Now me suggesting Plant/ is from very limited play (I've gotten to level 20), but lots of teaming with them. I just find their confuse VERY VERY team friendly. I want to cry when I see a Plant/ (troller or dom) not take Seeds of Confusion.

/Fire will give you lots of damage, while /Earth is just wicked fun. Not to mention Plant/'s single target hold, combined with /Earth's single target hold for when Domination isn't up (or for when Domination is up and you're fighting AVs )

All of these great suggestions! Thank you all!

So... from what I have read, I am thinking of:

SoA

and

Plant/(something)


Now, for more specific questions:

Best pairing for a plant/* controller? I like the idea of TA debuffing the enemy so they can kill each other faster. Plant/Storm seems.. interesting. Possibly a close second if not tied with /TA for helping the baddies kill each other faster. Any other suggestions?

Plant/* doms. I always feel like I should be struggling for perma-dom with any dom. Its nice to feel all-powerful when domination is up, then to have it drop and be all

Is Plant/* different from that with the confuse aspect? Is domination nice, but not a deal breaker like it is in some sets?


SoA's:

Man... where do I begin. I've had the ability to make one for about 3 months (still new to the game). I have yet to make one. They seem... daunting when trying to figure out what I want to do with them. Above we had votes for a dual spec Soldier AND a dual spec Widow. That's 5 possible builds and I'm back to square one wondering what one is best for me. I suppose either could be great, and they probably are... but where to start?! ACK!

If someone would be willing to post a level 30-ish build for either one with no slotting (just powers, I can figure out slotting), that would be spectacular! It would give me an idea of what I will be shooting for. And yes, I am aware that they cannot get the specialized powers until 24 and at that point you must respec.

Also, any other sets that haven't been mentioned that might be a good fit?

Thanks again!

I love my Plant/Psi Dom...she's a killing machine at higher levels between Seeds, Creepers, PsyWave, Drain Psyche and the epic blasts.

I don't know how game-breaking not being perma is anymore; I want all my Doms to be perma, but I also want 4-5 LOTG 7.5s and purples on any toon I like so...grain of salt.

My current low level Elec/Psy Dominator does fine, I mostly use Domination as an end-refill and extra control valve.
I do like perma-dom on my Plant Psy though, if only for the recharge boost that it provides...in an ancillary fashion, of course.

Well, I rolled up a Plant/TA controller after all. Its fun! But slooooooooooow. I'm currently at 18, and finally doing enough damage that the confused NPCs aren't stealing all of my xp. Its great fun on a team, and very safe, but like I said, up until this point, its been horribly slow.

I don't have the vet powers that a lot of people use to get by at the early levels, so I am stuck with the basic attacks. I could have went with 2 pool power attacks, but opted to go for SS and stealth so I could more easily line up the SoC off the bat. This leaves me with a ST immob, a ST hold, and an AoE immob as my attack chain... yay? In 8 more levels I will get the creepers and that should help out some, though not a bunch. Also, by that point IOs tend to have nearly the same bonuses as "end game", so I should be hitting harder with my few attacks.

I had asked earlier about the XP loss from confuse. Thank you for the link showing the bell curve on damage. However, that tends to be a double edged sword. I now know that for the majority of my levels that I have been doing only a very tiny amount of the overall damage (often as low as 10% of the total) to 2 out of 3 of the bad guys. I altered my play style a bit and saw some better returns, but it still wasn't fantastic. I am now finally to the point where confuse doesn't wear off during every fight. That was irritating...

On a side note, since the Plant/ attacks are in general very low on damage (in relation to other ATs for example), I found that I had horrible End problems. I would often run myself dry (with no toggles running at all) trying to kill a lone Lt or Boss. Eating blues because you don't have the end to kill an even level Lt. ftl (see #11 on my list).

All in all, I do wish I had gone Plant/Fire dom or at least Plant/(something) dom as the damage output from lower level Plant Controllers comes mostly from the NPCs killing each other. Adding in the debuffs from TA will definitely increase their ability to kill each other faster, but that starts to become detrimental to XP gain once again.

I will most likely roll a plant/* dom some time in the near future. I think that may fit my bill for what I am looking for a bit more closely than this controller does. Not having domination up 100% of the time won't be as much of an issue, as it will be immensely faster than this controller, and I won't feel I "need" domination to get by.

Thanks once again for the all of the input!

I'd recommend a Fire/* Blaster. Fire/Ice sounds really fun at the moment, because the controls of the */Ice set appeal to me. Blasters never seem to have the levelling issues of other ATs, either. Good fun from 1-50.

I'd also recommend a */Shield Brute or Scrapper. You'll send Tankers into fits stripping away aggro, you'll be able to handle that aggro, and your progression through your primary will keep you rolling in useful attacks from day one. For a good AOE-heavy primary, try Electrical Melee. You'd have the potential for three damaging PBAOEs and one cone for plenty of crowd-crushing action.

I agree with the VEAT suggestions, but would also add Kheldians. You want to be tough? Switch to dwarf form. You want to be blasty? Nova. You want a little of both? Human. All sorts of set possibilities and fun to be had.