In search of a new project, what would YOU do?

Lately, I've been feeling (for lack of a better term) "burned out" on CoH. All of my current characters (12 50's, another 15 characters between 1-40, all on Virtue, the only REAL server. ) have been boring me, for one reason or another, and all of the lowbies are... Well... Boring, for various reasons. Now, part of this is probably my fault for refusing to roll "Flavor of the Month" characters (The few characters that I already had well on their way to 50 before they became FotM don't count), and also thriving on finding ways to make AT/Powerset combinations other people seem to think "suck" work. And work very well.

<I had a really long, rambling post here, but put this in instead>
Long story short... I have a tendency to roll supposedly "sub-par" builds, and (obviously) avoid the "FotM" builds (TW/Elec Brutes, Claws/Elec Brutes, Fire/Kin Controllers, etc). I refuse to buy KinCombats, Hami-O's (except Centrioles for a certain Blaster), and a few others, for no logical reason. Call it OCD, I dunno. Most of my builds are what I would term "semi-high-end" (between 2-6B, buying crafted IO's off the market because I'm lazy like that), but I'm looking to go all out (stopping just short of the 2B inf PvP procs and the like) and "purple out" this project. The problem with this idea is... I can't come up with a single build in my "comfort zone" of melee types that would give me a significant return on my investment that I couldn't do nearly as well in my normal budget.

So... Somewhat hesitantly, I'm looking mainly towards Controllers and Dominators, but anything other than Masterminds are a possibility (I'm rolling a MM whenever Beast Mastery shows up, and that will be my token MM. I hate them.). However, I've hit a snag. Apparently, I totally suck at building anything in Mids that isn't a Tank/Scrapper/Stalker, so I come to you, friendly forum-goers, for suggestions/assistance. So far, the best candidate I've come up with... Is something I already have:


Ice/Earth Dominator - I already have one in it's 30's, and it would benefit significantly from the increased recovery/recharge of using several (specifically, 5) purple sets. However, despite building entirely for recovery/recharge (I ended up with something like 12% defense across the board from what basically amount to LotG mules in reality), I just barely hit perma-Hasten, and perma-dom only with Hasten up. I can only come up with one explanation. I'm Doing It Wrong(TM). With T3 Cardiac Core, recovery would be... Manageable? An alternate build took Mu Mastery for Power Sink, but I'd really like to avoid going back to full Villain just for the epic pools, since I literally *just* got it full Hero (I totally forgot to run the arc before switching).

Also considering a Mind/Dark Dominator when i22 hits (a look at a test build using Mind/Psi in Mids looked plausible), but... I'm not sure on that one.

<wow, that really ended up being just as rambling. Oh well>

All that said... Anyone have any suggestions (within the mentioned criteria) to cure my urge to spend way too much inf on something for way too little return? lol

Suggest. Criticize. Outright make fun of me. I really don't care.

So, not FotM, but powerful in it's own right.

Some ideas:
Katana/Regen Brute - Somewhat rare, and can be quite strong and survivable with IOs (+Def, +Recharge)

Illusion/Cold (or any secondary really) - Really unique set and worth playing at some point.

/Mental Blaster - Blasters aren't survivable, right? Let the Tank/Brute/Scrap build a quick huddled pack and then dive in and Drain Psyche. Achieve +1400% regen. Add PFF + Aid Self for flavor. Simmer. Done!

Want to be Tankermind? - Make good use of your PFF and grab Provoke on your controller. Taunt the mob and immediately huddle into your PFF. Let the team and your pets destroy the mob.

Psy/Dark Corruptor - No really special synergies, but you get a ton of cool/fun powers and lots of hard/soft control and debuffs.

Battle Axe is available for Scrappers!

Also, playing Empathy will earn you a Rainbow Dash pony for free with every playthrough!

Wow, that *was* a ramble. I don't really know what you want, exactly. Did you want FOTM? Or do you still want to avoid FOTM? I do see that you want a Controller or a Dominator.

I do have to say that Ice/Earth is not one that I would play. This is mainly because I think Ice Control is one of the more awkward primaries for a Dominator. It is less awkward as a Controller primary to me. I've played Ice/Fire to 39 or so, Ice/Psy to 40, and Ice/Energy to 35 or so. And in each case, I just deleted them. But that could be ME. I just did not like the playstyle.

Even if I liked Ice Control as a Dominator primary, I wouldn't go /Earth either. While I do like my Fire/Earth Dominator (level 50), overall I just dont like it. Sure, it is a melee range set, so it seems a natural fit with Electric, Ice, Fire and Plant Control, for different reasons, and I guess it is. But, its just .... super underwhelming.

So by all means, stick with Ice/Earth if you must. But for my tastes, I would flip that and do an Earth Control / Ice Assault Dominator.

In a totally different direction/style, I also think a Gravity/Psi dom would be pretty fun. You will get the Gravity improvements that are coming soon, and I just like the idea of a psychic that uses his mind to control gravity and inflict the hurt. Just a random concept character, not necessarily the most efficient.

For a wacky but interesting Controller, how about Electric/Poison? Or for something more normal, Fire/Time?

Anyway, good luck on your quest!

Lewis

Also, I just updated the link in my signature for random AT generation. It had been updated for a while, but now it has everything up through what is on Beta.

So feel free to go there, click randomize, and force yourself to play one of the 3 random Dominator builds it will generate for you.

Lewis

try a Kheld. Be the weakest AT and try to be good at it!

-When I'm looking for a new project I turn to Mid's. This helps me decide how interesting/fun a build will be.

-Elec Control, Poison, and Time Manip all seem interesting to me.

-Your Ice Dom could make use of alot of purple's...so if yer looking for a build to spend some money on..
I've got a Ice dom that I always wanted to put 5 proc's in Artic Air.

-If you've never tried a "kin-nuker" that's always fun (Def or Corr). Kin/Fire or Kin/Arch would be good. Kin/Arch doesn't have a big boom, but it's prolly the best. I'm currently lvl'ing a Kin/Ice..the "rain" power's seem like they'd be better suited for BAF/LAM's. The idea is to nuke every 90 sec's (capped damage of course).

gl on your search.

FF/Energy defender, slotted for knockback, not damage. And have fun wrecking chaos to 50

Alternatively, go Storm instead of FF

(You could do this as Corruptor too, but not sure if they get the same knockback values?)

You want to play The MFing Warshade. Trust me, you'll never get bored again.

Always get a good laugh when I see someone say Kheldians are weak. It's like those people who think Dark Armor isn't good or that the servers should be merged.

You know, pure, concentrated wrong.




But at any rate, on to the matter at hand. While a Kheldian, particularly a Warshade, would certainly benefit from the souping-up treatment described, it does sound like you're leaning more towards a control bent. Gravity is getting tweaked very soon and might be worth a look (I've always liked the set and it feels unique among the control sets, at least to me), or you might try Electric Control which has some interesting tricks to play with. Mind Control is a lot of fun and very handy in certain niche situations as well has having great ST damage - I'd recommend any of the above.