A character meant to exemp down.....

Hi all,

I am looking at planning my next project, a character that I will use to run TFs and exemp down to play with lower level players in the SG.

Any suggestions on AT's or powersets?

I was maybe thinking a corr or controller. I doubt it will ever solo but I still like to be pumping out big orange numbers =) But I do want some kinda of support (buffs/debuffs/control, not a fan of healers though...) I guess something early blooming like rad emission or dark would be good.

Any thoughts / opinions?

Fire/Dark corr.

Very early blooming, nice orange numbers, debuffs, and a huge team heal on a short timer.

You could also go Sonic/dark for more single target AV killing efficiency.

For that purpose, some kind of stealth ability and recall friend really helps.

A tri-form Warshade. You'll have more versatility and more attacks than anything else at low levels since you'll have both forms at level 15 and up. I say Warshade instead of Peacebringer because with shadow cloak+super speed you can stealth missions. You also have inherent recall friend.

I made an Ice/FF for this purpose. It can't solo -- at all. This controller has the taxibot powers: Superspeed and recall friend.

id recommed fire/dark as well. You are an AoE god at like...lvl 6

If you were to pick a melee AT, I'd go with Willpower. It's (in my opinion) the smoothest ride from 1 to 50, with no serious highs or lows.

For the ATs you mentioned, I'll repeat the Fire/Dark corruptor, and add that an Ice/Dark is almost as good - it has less damage, but more debuff, and even a hold or two, depending on the level you exemplar to.

For a controller (or dominator), Plant Control would be my go-to set. I'm not sure which secondary I'd choose, but I suspect Plant/Rad would work well.

Fire/Rad or Fire/Dark Corruptor.

I like widows, melee ones, for that purpose. You've got all the powers needed for a good attack chain by level 12, as well as a decent AOE. By level 25 or so you're softcapped and can provide roughly ~20% defense to your team.

It lacks any aggro control as well as the ability to increase team damage output (beyond TT:A), but in my experience enemies don't last that long at these levels.

For SFs I like to use the stealth IO and X. X being another source of stealth.

If you take a powerset with an inherent stealth at an early enough level of some sort that ALSO provides another useful reason to take that power anyway, you can beneficially skip Super Speed. Freeing up a power choice is nice.


How low do you go?
Redside the lowest SF is 15-20 but I think that blue-side is even lower.
It's easier to build toon to be mostly full powered @ >= lvl21 than @ <= lvl20.

Thanks for all the responses.

Fire/Dark was in my mind, but not sure if I want to do fire blast again. Hadn't thought of warshade, but would make sense. I do have one already @ 50, but was fun could go again. (Wanting to level up a char not just change an old one). As a pref I would prefer a ranged char, done a few melee toons recently and always seem to enjoy ranged ones more anyway.

Plan is to rogue/vigi so I can do pretty much anything that gets offered, so I guess that means down to lvl 15 for posi (obviously that means power pics up to 20 right?)

Best plan for set bonuses would be purps everywhere right?

A rad/ defender can get RA, RI, AM, EF, and LR by lvl 12. It doesn't get much better than that. If you take /sonic as secondary you can do not too shabby damage as well.

Rad would be a good option, But i think I would prefer a corr to def. I worry about the use of anchors tho, most of my teams will prob be SG/glonal friends based, but there will be PUGS to I would have thought.

Any thoughts on Rad Vs Dark on a corr?

My suggestion would be to wait till i21 and play a SR/MA tanker. You'll be able to soft-cap earlier than anyone with the new +10% to positionals in MA. You'll be able to put a lot of recharge in when you put purples and quickness together (140% with that and hasten), and should be able to steamroll in safety through all lowbie content. For even more money, add in PvP IOs (which I believe work at all levels, though I could be wrong). If they do work at all levels, adding in a few heal sets could get your recharge up to nearly perma-hasten levels. This set may be able to play at higher difficulties at lower levels than virtually any other set. Others may out-damage it though, even with the recharge bonuses.

Gonna say dark/psi defender. Dark Miasma for obvious reasons. Psi to deal with fricking ghosts. Defender for lower level access to the game breakers.

And it ain't bad at level 50, either.

It depends, because depending on the Taskforce and times and such, if you get super damage heavy of a team, you'd want some uber support like plant/rad controller. Very early holds, buffs, heals, and debuffs. You'd be a positron's GOD. And you'd only get better the further along you went.

Orrr, you could be on a team with 7 plant/rad controllers. So you'd need tanky damage kind of thing. So you'd want a tank or scrap of some form.

So in my opinion, you can either get two separate characters, or if you want to save time, I'd agree with the warshade, focusing on your 2 forms. Squishy squid for damage, and Dwarf for tanky. You'd be able to tank as a dwarf pretty much every TF except Posi part 1 I believe. Warshades inherently get team teleporting and there's a great stealth power in the secondary. So Warshade would be great middle of the road of a single character. But, you also don't have too many holds or debuffs. So you either count for a tank or blaster essentially. BUT, being able to switch between those two seamlessly counts for a lot for a single character as well.

Some things I would keep in mind for this project:

1.) What's my budget? Is the sky the limit, or are you trying to get biggest bang for buck?

2.) How low do I want to go? The lowest level TF is Positron, you'll be exemped to level 15 (which means you'll have access to powers at level +5 [20] and set bonuses +3 [18].

3.) How far *up* do I want to extend my build? This is kind of a weird concept, but if you have a build that you will *only* use for exemping then power picks above your max target level will be used only for set bonuses.

While exemplared, powers that are greyed out *still give set bonuses* if you are within 3 levels of the IOs in that set. So if you took Vengence at level 49 and put in a level 25 LOTG+recharge, you'd have that 7.5% bonus down to level 22. Or if you took a PPP pet power and put in 4 level 18 Call To Arms, you'd have the set bonuses on Positron.

4.) Do I want to chase set bonuses, max the enhancement value of each power, or some combination of the two?

The way exemplaring affects enhancements can be tricky, and you want to make sure you understand how each piece fits together. Some IOs act like set bonuses (LOTG +7.5% recharge) where you don't need access to the power but the level of the IO is important; others act like procs (Miracle +recovery) and the level doesn't matter so long as the power its in is active.

Putting it altogether, Rad has a couple of advantages going for it that others haven't mentioned. To start, you've got 2 holds post-20 (on a corruptor, Choking Cloud at 28 and EMP at 38). You could use those as places to mule level 18 Basilisk's Gaze 4-slotted (and you could use the cheapest ones you could find since the powers wouldn't matter) for very nice bonuses. Fallout is another power that many people find situational, but it can take a bunch of different sets! The accurate to-hit debuff and accurate def debuff sets have some nice bonuses @ level 18.

Dark doesn't offer as many options for chasing lower level set bonuses, but still has some good ones. It has 1 hold, a stun, a fear, a pet, and lots of to-hit debuff powers. Depending on your playstyle, it might be a little more well rounded than Rad, particularly when it comes to having a lot of different tools in the toolbox. If you were looking to get +recharge set bonuses, Rad probably has the nod because you get a hand from AM; Dark has shadows fall for extra stealth.

With Fire, I'd expect the gameplan to be abusing ROF and Fireball. There aren't a lot of secondary effects or control in fire, its a straight damage set. The only things to consider would be that there aren't many ranged or TAOE sets with good bonuses under level 20. Some other sets might give you more options for chasing set bonuses (ice has 2 holds and also has a rain power, etc).

There are a lot of ways to think about exemping!

Illusion/Rad is pretty good for low end stuff and just in general.

Blaster... Elec/Fire reason.. pretty much out damages people in low level play. At level 10 you have the short circuit, ball lightning, fire sword circle and combust attack chain. Also its just an easy set to play and in low level play it is very good all around for damaging foes.

Defender... Sonic, FF, Ice, or Thermal mix it with Elec, Fire, duel pistols. The shields are a HUGE boon in the low levels and it also allows for you to do double duty as a damage dealer as well. I would personally lean towards FF or Sonic as they are more fire and forget then Ice or Thermal. Elec as a ranged set caps out really early on and it offers two aoes, and 2 single target attacks. Duel Pistols offers on demand damage changes as well as debuffing.. Fire when ti comes out simply because its fire. heh

Controller... Earth Control, or Mind Control.. both sets are very good in the low levels of play. I would go more offensively focused buff/debuff sets though like Rad, Kinetics.. and the like. If you want to focus more on your secondary and play a more buff oriented character... Ill/emp or Grav/Emp.

Tanker.. Pretty much any tanker is good.

Scrapper.. pretty much any scrapper is good.

Kheldians.. I would go Warshade if nothing more then the stealth/TP aspect that is inherient in the set, a PB would do just as well though.

Thinking about it some more, Dark and Rad have several advantages especially considering your exemping goal is to be a "mentor" type to fellow SG members. Both have a really solid toolkit of versitile powers available when exemped down to 15 (level 20 for a secondary). I'm not going to discuss post level 20 powers as they would not be available if the set was taken as a secondary while exemped down to the lowest level TFs.

1.) Heals. Dark has a beefy pbaoe heal that requires a to-hit check, Rad has an adequate pbaoe heal. Both require you to stand near whoever you heal. At higher levels when people are more developed, direct healing might not be a big deal, but on lower level teams its nice to have.

2.) -res, -dam, and -regen. Both Dark and Rad can debuff resistance, damage, and regeneration. This is particularly useful against AVs (which are featured on many TFs and Trials). Many folks don't use their -regen debuffs, which is *insane*. Spam Lingering Radiation, Twilight Grasp, and Howling Twilight against AVs! Rad's -res power is a toggle, Darks is a patch.

3.) -to-hit. Both Rad and Dark have accuracy debuff powers. Both have toggles that debuff acc, and Dark has that as a secondary effect of some of its other powers. This helps keep your teammates from getting hit.

4.) Defense: Rad doesn't have any native way to boost team defense. Dark has Shadow's Fall which gives +DEF to all, and additional resistance to energy, psionic, and dark. Plus Stealth. Its nice.

5.) Recovery/Recharge: Dark doesn't do anything for you here. Rad has Accellerated Metabolism, which gives +recovery and +recharge, as well as +damage and +movement speed.

6.) Soft control: Rad has Lingering Radiation, a slow. Dark has an AOE slow, an AOE disorient, *and* a cone fear.

7.) Rez: both sets have a rez.

I'm a big fan of Rad, but I think unless you are trying to chase a ton of recharge Dark just gives you more opportunity to "mother hen" lowbies. You've got ways of debuffing damage and to-hit that aren't dependent on toggles, and you have also have better soft control. You can stack some small but meaningful defense and resistance (slot for defense though) and get a *group* stealth power for free.