How different are the characters you play?

Dom - F/F Damage, damage, damage
Stalker - DB/IA Durable, and a nice flow of AoE attacks
Stalker - BS/Reg Interesting single target burst, regen requires being proactive rather than reactive
Corruptor - AR/SON AoE machine that is sturdy
Defender - Traps/Rad - Debuffs galore
Controller - Ill/FF Lots of pets and control tools

I have MANY characters, and I try as hard as I can to avoid reusing the same powerset twice.

That said, there are some times (like when making melee characters) when I still wind up utilizing the same powersets, such as the Defensive/Resistance Auras. I have a lot of love for Willpower.

Other times, it'll be the same powerset, just with different power choices. For instance, I have two Assault Rifle characters. One, my Blaster, doesn't use any of the Fire powers that come with Assault Rifle. It's a character reason decision (as a cop, he doesn't like the idea of regularly setting perpetrators on fire). The OTHER character, however, makes very REGULAR use of the fire powers (a tactic I keep calling "Columbian Barbecue," where he webs the target down and Ignites them).

Frankly, it all comes down to the HOW. If you're just going to follow the min/maxing or the number crunching, your characters are going to wind up being just like the other min/maxed or number crunched characters. If you have a heart with it, though, or tailor the character to match YOUR playstyle, you'll likely find that your various characters wind up VASTLY different from each other, regardless of powers (I play my Stone/Fire Brute WAY different from my Strength/Electric Brute). Experiment! Have fun!

Fire/Cold Corr
Fire/Time Corr
Fire/Kin Corr
Fire/Kin Troller
Mind/Fire Dom
Ss/Fire Brute
Tw/Elec Brute


I'd say there's a general theme >_>

My characters aren't terribly different. I tend to solo most of the time I'm playing, so my focus is on the damage oriented version of whatever AT is available, as those are usually much more capable of standing up to the various villain factions.


I have a lot of Brutes, with some Scrappers and Stalkers for good measure. I like Brute more than Scrappers as they do near equal DPS for much greater survivability and have much better powers available to them through Epic Pools. There are some power sets which are better on Scrappers, however, and I just plain like how Stalkers play.

I have no Tanks. I find them too slow and too similar to Brutes and Scrappers to want to really play them. They trade damage for safety, and safety bores me. That being said, I do like having them on my team, as they allow me to play more mindlessly.


I prefer Corruptors to Defenders for many of the same reasons I prefer Brutes to Tankers. Corruptors generally do more damage than Defenders and have access to their blasty powers much sooner. I don't get hassled as often for wanting to shoot things on a Corruptor either, as a lot of people seem to understand that being something I like to do.

Controllers and Dominators are pretty even, with a slight preference for Dominators. Dominators having a secondary which is devoted to killing stuff makes them really well suited to my style of play, but Controllers primary and secondary really does make them a much different experience from a similar Dominator. Ultimately, the two are unique enough that I don't mind playing either of them.

I don't really like Masterminds, and I think I have a grand total of 2 ever created, one of which I deleted, and one of which remains in constant purgatory. I think a lot of it has to do with my general resentment towards being on a team with a Mastermind. Demons specifically. I hate listening to their constant noises, being unable to see through their girth and graphical fireworks, and being constantly shoved all over the map as they all cluster **** around a target. I think of inflicting that sort of aggravation upon other people and lose any desire to play the archetype.

I'm iffy about Blasters. I feel like they rely too heavily on inspirations, other players, or some specific IO slotting to get much done with them. Unlike Corruptors, Controllers, or Dominators, they really don't have many ways to avoid death other than dealing it first, and outside of expensive IO builds, they don't kill fast enough for me to avoid death. It wasn't until I started playing as more of a Blapper, with my ranged attacks supplementing me rather than being my primary means of attack, that I start to enjoy them. Still, a lot of the time I feel more comfortable rolling a Corruptor or Dominator.


I like all the Epic Archetypes, and have been playing the crap out of my Peacebringer after the last round of buffs they've received. While I still think the Warshade is probably more powerful, the Peacebringer having perma-light form and with it a reliable form of mez protection allows me to just run in and start punching people with cosmic energy, which is something I find much more enjoyable than the constant form shifting that is Warshade.


As for the Soldiers of Arachnos... I think I like everything in there. I have about 3 different SoA characters and neither of them plays exactly the same, but they are all fun to play.


So, in general, I prefer AT's that can kill efficiently to AT's that are very team buff oriented or require an annoying amount of micro-managing to do something that I think should be simple. If I were to assign a value I'd say I'm something like:

40% Brutes
20% Scrappers/Stalkers
20% Corrupters
10% Dominator/Controller
5% Peacebringer/SoA
4% Blaster
1% Mastermind
0% Tanker/Defender/Warshade

My sig shows the variety of characters I play currently. I'd have to say if I favor anything it's defenders and controllers simply due to their versatility and variety in power combinations. Blasters feel to me like they only have 1 powerset. The manipulation sets just don't feel to me like they add much to the AT with devices mental being possible exceptions (though that's a stretch for me). Compared to say a defender who has a blast set an a whole other powerset that can actually do useful things both for myself and/or my group. I'm sorry I just never got why Blasters, a ranged and squishy AT, has melee attacks. There's also the controller that's a bit light on the offense but has a level of safety and utility that really feels like I have an ample toolbox (and when built right can do some nice damage to boot).

I play everything. Can't really narrow it down, just because I get burned out on playing the same character every time (or same type of character - I tried leveling 2 scrappers on 2 different servers at the same time, and didn't want to touch a scrapper for months after that. They haven't hit 50 yet.)

Terminal case of Altitis has led me to many many creations over the past 6 years.

I play all AT's except Tanks. (Most likely as I'm a Blaster at heart and can't stand the anemic damage)

I have yet to roll a SOA past level 12 though...
Still haven't nailed a concept for that AT.

Like Stormbird, I get burned out easily if I only play one AT.

I generally switch up week from week with Blasters and Scrappers being the usual mix/match.

Other AT I mix in with frequency would be Controllers. Unless I'm trying my best to buckle down and get one specific toon levels, even this proves difficult though.

Oh, you were asking about ATs and not concepts. Uh. I have probably been on Virtue too long.

I seem to have a strong preference for support ATs... got two controllers, a defender, and a fortunata that I play with any regularity. I play the fort like a scrapper though.

I don't really play a lot of alts. I have several, but most are level 10 or lower. That said, most of the ones I do have are melee range characters (scrappers, stalkers, brutes, etc). The next character I have in mind will also be in that same vein; just waiting for staff fighting to come out. Dark'Falcon is the only departure from that that I actually play, but every day since his creation I've thought about re-rolling him as a stalker.

Seems to be a common theme across all MMOs I play that my characters are tanks/dps-tanks.

I have at least one 50 of each AT, but when solo all of my characters are either "Stalkers" or "Brutes".

By "Stalker" I mean the characters that care what order things die and prioritize and incapacitate or eliminate those targets before all others. Most of my Corruptors fit in this category almost all of the time, along with the Mind/Energy Dominator, most of the Stalkers, and the MA Scrapper.

By "Brute" I mean the characters that rush in, target something nearby, and unload. My Kinetic characters fall in here, as does DP/MM Blaster... or really anyone that has a lot of AoEs.

On teams the rare and capricious "Buffer" may show up, depending on powerset, but more often than not the "Stalkers" change into "Brutes". >.>

Quote:

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.

I love a variety of AT's and switch playing several times a day. The only commonality would be they must do decent enough damage to make it solo all the way. On any given day I might pull out a Brute, Mastermind or Dominator. The next day it may be a Scrapper. Controller or Corrupter. It all depends on my mood and which one hasn't played in the past few days.

As for 50's, I have:
1 DM/WP Brute (Incarnate)
1 DM/Regen Scrapper
1 Sword/Regen Scrap
1 Spines/Regen Scrap
1 Thugs/Stormy MM (Incarnate)
1 Ninja/Stormy MM
1 Merc/FF MM
1 Bots/Traps MM

In the 40's coming up thru the system are:
1 DM/WP Brute (different character concept)
1 Bots/Stormy MM

In the 30's are:
1 Fire/Elec Brute
1 Spines/WP Scrapper
1 Mind/Psi Dominator
1 Mind/Energy Dominator

A ton of variety for sure and all quite capable solo builds.

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I play all archetypes, but I play them with DPS in mind. I play solo, and I want to be able to progress at a good pace. My characters all need some for of damage protection and mez avoidance, wich can include having control powers to mez enemies before they get mezzed.

I'm fond of Blasters, although they can be a bit squishy. My Ice/Ice/Cold Blaster in particular fits my play style perfectly. Defenders and Corruptors are a bit trickier for me to work with. I haven't created any new Defenders in years, although I did get one of my old ones to 50.

Scrappers work great for me, and Brutes are better for me these days thanks to power set proliferation. I tend to prefer range, but the good combination of offense and defense is nice for soloing. My Tankers are well built for damage output, but it took a long time for them to get there, and I haven't created any new Tankers in years. It just takes too long to get Tankers where I want them.

Stalkers. I'd love to love Stalkers. I like being sneaky in the game. My Energy/Regen Stalker is one of my favorite characters. For some reason, though, I can't get any other Stalker powerset combination to work well for me. It doesn't help that the game keeps getting more ambushes targeted on the character, which is a big problem for Stalkers.

I love Dominators. They work perfectly for my playstyle, unless I'm facing elite bosses with those Purple Triangles of DOOM. I just try to avoid the PToD EBs by auto-completing missions and such. I can only work with very specific Controller builds, but my Ill/Rad has been one of my most powerful characters. Most Controller builds are just too slow for me.

I enjoy my Masterminds. They can plow through just about anything, although I'm generally not good with pets. The trend in the game to more and more ambushes targeted on characters makes me appreciate my Masterminds more and more.

My Arachnos Widow is a death machine, my Arachnos Soldier not so much. The Soldier just don't seem to have the solo firepower and damage/mez protection that my Widow has.

Kheldians don't work well for me at all, especially Warshades. I may never get my Kheldians to 50, although my Peacebringer has improved in soloability quite a bit (which isn't saying much).

Overall, I enjoy the variety that different archetypes and power sets offer, but I do tend to aim them all for damage output, with some decent damage/mez mitigation. I don't design them for different team roles, such as healing or tanking. Even my Tankers are designed to be scrappers.

I will only ever play an AT that can solo well regardless of powerset combination. That means an AT which can do enough damage to defeat the foes I meet solo, that has enough survivability to survive long enough to deal that damage, that isn't going to get perma-held and killed, and that levels up fast enough by itself to where I don't feel cheated for playing.

What that means is Scrappers, Brutes, Stalkers and Masterminds. Stalkers are just barely on the border, because they do sort of lack survivability by AT design and end up lacking damage, too, because their balance is too cautious. I'm looking forward to I22 to fix that. The changes to Assassin's Strike look to fix that big.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

For a long time I only played Defenders. My Blasters died on the vine and my one non-Defender was a Fire Tank. Thing is, I played my Defenders very offensively, likely due to my first character being a Storm Defender. When Corruptors debuted, I started making those. Better damage and similar support capabilities worked out well for me. In most other MMOs I play classes that can tank or heal in preference to DPS classes. I enjoy being hard to kill, but I also have a hard time dealing anemic damage, so Corruptors have supplanted Defenders as my favorite general AT.

I play one Scrapper and one Blaster and neither of them are over 30 yet. I have one Controller worth mentioning (though I must admit to loving her). I have a Brute but no Stalkers and my MMs always disappoint me and end up deleted. I have not yet tried any of the EATs, blue or red.

Oddly enough, my favorite character now is a Dominator (Earth/Earth/Ice, L35 as of this post). I like the combination of control and damage and the incongruity of being in melee when I probably shouldn't be (I fall down a lot).

I went from Dom, to Tank, to a No pets MM atm.

Pretty dang wide I guess.

I have some of all of the non-epic classes with the exception of the corruptor and I play and enjoy all of them. It keeps the game fresh to be able to play different roles all the time depending on my mood.

I probably play my melee types more often and have more of them but that has more to do with what my friends like to play than me. I have some that prefer melee (mostly for the survivability), some that dislike melee, and the rest have at least some variety. I just seem to hook up with the non-melee friends more often.

I've played everything except Soldiers of Arachnos. I've played everything else to at least 45 except several attempts at Masterminds and Khelds, all of which I've deleted or abandoned by level 20. I don't like the locked-in concepts of Khelds, Stone armor, and SoA, and have eschewed them.

Not only do different ATs have different playstyles, but different powersets within an AT can have different playstyles, and therefore completely different build philosophies.

Most of my squishies play at range and therefore get ranged defense builds, but several (Kinetics corruptors and defenders, mainly) need to be in melee to benefit from their own buffs, so I've had good luck getting high S/L/E/N defense for them. My Time/ defender plays the same way.

Stalkers present a unique problem: Hide tempts you to constantly run away and becoming Hidden again to get big damage with AS. But I'm much happier playing stalkers like scrappers who get a honkin' big alpha attack, and then duke it out with the mob, finally using Placate/AS to finish off the boss. I've had good luck with defense-based stalkers (/Energy and /Ninja) playing this way, but haven't tried resistance-based stalkers yet (they would seem to be at a disadvantage because AS would likely be interrupted).

My characters, regardless of AT, powersets and build, are all identical. They all have the same role, which is to fight and win whatever the circumstances.