Returning player, need some advice
Returning after a long time (2007 i think). Ive mostly played melee and MM, i think i wanna make a dom or a crab, i cant decide. I dont have a large budget, so im looking for something thatll be decent out of the box and while i enjoy team content, i will be soloing or duoing with my wife's widow alot. Ive been reading alot of forum posts so i know about the great synergy of two VEATS.
Basically im looking at these options. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Crab or huntsman ice/ice dom fire/fire dom earth/fire dom plant/fire dom I dont know much about the post 40 game as it wasnt around last i played. |
ice/ice dom - Okay
fire/fire dom - Okay
earth/fire dom - Better
plant/fire dom - Nooooooooo..........
Ice/Ice- unconventional control, slowing secondary. Not an offensive juggernaut, but does okay. Ice/ has more soft control than hard lockdown, so it's a tricky set to start on. Do not combine your immobilize with your ice patch.
Fire/Fire Dominator: fun to play, but lets you taste the dirt around the world. This is a blaster that happens to have a couple controls- do yourself a favor and do not take your immobilizes until later. I cannot think of anything alse in-game that can spread as much fire around as a fire/fire/fire dom. Excellent for your inner pyro, but the combo of short controls+damage means you'll be fighting the tank for aggro without trying. Excellent with a good team to back you up, squishy to the end. Late to mature, but once it's there it's a damage machine with some decent tricks.
Earth/Fire- one of the safest, best "just SO" primaries with the highest offense secondary. This would be an excellent starter, in my opinion. It doesn't need billions to become gold, but extra investment when you can won't be lost, either, as it does have space to grow.
Plant/Fire- another excellent starter- more damaging, but still safe, with good damage on the side. Only negative is that plant lumps much of its controls into a few primary powers that you live and die on, but they're good enough to let you live on 'em. This one starts fast, but doesn't grab as many game-changers later because of it.
As for spiders, that's another forum. Crabs are kings of ranged AoE tankage, huntsman are a bit squishier but more rounded.
I'd agree on the synergies between VEATs - but those come along pretty late, and frankly, the first 24 levels of gruntdom needed to turn your toon into a REAL epic tend to bore me to tears. However, crabs are absolute powerhouses and if you can get to that magical forced respec without giving up, you'll be well-rewarded.
Earth is a very beginner-friendly primary, and the -def secondary effect makes you REAL popular at low levels when slotting Acc can never be done enough. Quicksand is a gem, as are Stalagmite. Volcanic Gases can be tricky to master though. The golem is maybe the second most resilient pet (I'd put Singy up there) but won't help much damage-wise. Careful of some long animation times though.
Plant is a VERY visual set, with a lot of useful powers that tend to do repectable damage too. Seeds of Confusion and Creepers are absolute wonders, while Spirit tree and Spores are far more situational. The Venus pet is perhaps the stupidest I ever saw, use with caution.
Ice is an exotic flavour - most controls are soft ones, and Artic Air and Sleet are more about chaos and keeping the enemy busy than locking it down. Still, it can be VERY efficient, but it also tends to be VERY end-expensive to use.
Fire can be very effective if played aggressively - unlike Artic Air, you can't afford to sit in the middle of a spawn waiting for them to run away. Smoke is next to useless, but Flashfire and Hot feet can be devastating if used well. if paired with Fiery Assault, Fiery Embrace lets you underslot damage and focus on control in your powers since all of them benefit from its damage boost. The imps will pump up your damage like you wouldn't believe and are very good at keeping minions busy while you cremate the Lieutenants and Bosses.
Ice assault is a very vanilla assault set, nothing outstanding except for Power Boost - but Earth and Ice control doesn't benefit that much from it, unlike, say, Mind control (too many drop powers). It tend to be End-costly. But it gets the job done nicely, and has a nice ST/AoE balance.
Fiery Assault is a damage powerhouse, owning mainly to its special boost in Fiery Embrace - it pretty much doubles your Fire damage for a whooping 30 seconds. Consume is very useful when you use a lot of assault powers and need an End fix without wasting your Domination refill.
As said earlier, Fire/fire is a blaster on acid with some additional controls (think ice/ice blaster with fire damage and some perks.) I personally love mine, but it's a very squishy, very aggressive character - you need to be on top of things ALL THE TIME.
I could go on and on, but I'd get wordy. Feel free to ask questions though, always a pleasure to help !
Thanks for the feedback guys. I've decided to go with both. I'm leveling a Crab up with a friend, since i don't think id make it to 24 alone. Also got a plant/fire im working. After playing my fire/kin a little, figured I'd hold off on the fire/fire dom til a lil later. As far as playstyle for the plant/fire, am i looking at melee range, possibly with a stealth and seeds opener?
/fire can easily be eaither ranged or close. firebreath, flares, fireblast, blaze give you solid range, while putting in incinerate and combustion is your close range. (Both of the close are DoT, so they do a good amount of damage but not in a burst.)
Since you are Plant, it also matters less. Opening with seeds, most foes fight amongst themselves, and your roots (an immobilize with pretty good damage) is targeted, so you can jump in without worry, or hang back if you wish.
Stealth is easy to grab, and is nice to get close for seeds. That way the instant they see you, they stop caring. That said, it's hardly necessary.
Returning after a long time (2007 i think). Ive mostly played melee and MM, i think i wanna make a dom or a crab, i cant decide. I dont have a large budget, so im looking for something thatll be decent out of the box and while i enjoy team content, i will be soloing or duoing with my wife's widow alot. Ive been reading alot of forum posts so i know about the great synergy of two VEATS.
Basically im looking at these options. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Crab or huntsman
ice/ice dom
fire/fire dom
earth/fire dom
plant/fire dom
I dont know much about the post 40 game as it wasnt around last i played.