Thought Experiment: The Best Multi-Build

I think that's a little more literal in terms of testing for different capabilities than I was thinking.

I was thinking more along the lines of testing against things that are "representative samples" of what actually exists in the game: a Malta mission (an "average" level 50 critter group), a Longbow mission (a group that tends to get increasingly dangerous as it becomes denser), a mission that tests against various AVs and Giant Monsters, stuff like that.

Of course, the limitations of the AE make certain things, like testing against Giant Monsters, not possible, but that's sort of the challenge of what you can engineer in the AE.

But there's also the question of testing sustainability. No matter how powerful the critter group, I can always find a way to defeat *one* spawn of it. Being able to sustain that, and defeat six in a row is harder. So given the limitations of the AE, I'm wondering what is the best way to throw the most variety, while balancing that against also testing sustainability. If I were to make an AE mission with Malta as the background critter type, then added a boatload of Carnies as patrols, I could make the Malta almost moot, because they would be very few of them scattered around to make room for the patrols. On the other hand, a mission full of Malta with a Boss at the end surrounded by Carnies and Carnie ambushes could validly test the player against both Malta and Carnies. If the Boss at the end was an AV, you could also test the ability to take down an AV.

A mission full of Cims would also be interesting because of all the stacking effects and defense debuffs, but also because that situation actually exists in the ITF. Actually, a "mini-ITF" was high on my list of things to implement, with Cims, Khelds, and a tough AV at the end.

I suppose in a sense I would be picking situations that represent some of the things you mentioned above, but the idea would be to look for the best examples of those things "in nature" so to speak, and then roughly replicate them, rather than creating situations that test for them explicitly.

The question is how do you take all these situations and first create them and second shove them into a single AE arc (or two, if it came to that). And which ones are the most interesting. I think a baseline is interesting with a critter type not too lethal. I think Carnies are interesting because they throw a rather interesting mix at players: end drain, debuffs, and a lot of psionic damage. I like the idea of testing against both single hard targets (AVs and the like) and large numbers.

Even with I22 having just launched, I will likely spend some significant amount of time on this, because I think its an interesting idea if nothing else. A challenge mission that doesn't directly try to kill you, but tries to see how well you do instead.

Just so you know, you can put Giant Monsters in AE missions. Try an outdoor map...

It'd be +4x8 with Incarnate Abilities.


There can be one build for strong single-target damage (AVs) and another for high multi-target damage (farms), just as long as they're on the same character.

Also, don't assume that not having a power set dedicated to survival means those archetypes are excluded by any means.


The idea is to construct a character that can excel at any role typically delegated to specific archetypes, though obviously it can't be done all on the same build. Melee damage and crowd control were put on the list of things to think about because they are very much core mechanics and we should address them if possible.

If it's just about doing damage, then sure, ranged can do everything melee can. But you can't cherry-pick attributes until you're left with something you like. If that was the case, I'd have titled the thread "Though Experiment: My Favorite Character."

I wasn't even assuming with Incarnate Abilities, but that said, I repeat:

SS/Fire/Soul Brute

You don't even need to use three builds, just one good IO build and everything is covered. I got bored on mine once while waiting for an iTrial to start and solo'd three Pylons, I think it took less than 10 minutes(without using Lore or Judgement). Want to sacrifice ST damage for more AoE? Fine, go /Mu instead of /Soul.

GM's? Say hello to my Lore Pets. Good bye!

Everything else? Fuhgedaboutit.