Project Oddball Melee
By
Alef_infinity,
Posted on: 2012-03-26 06:40 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
A fave of mine is the energy melee/dark armor pairing for brutes. The stuns from EM/ work well with the stun toggle in /dark. With cloak of fear and oppressive gloom, you can take ~10 minions out of the picture every fight via those controls, then the stacking stuns that come from EM control the bosses. I call it a "SMASHtroller." Energy melee takes some flack, but it's still fun for burst damage, just make sure you use your heavy hitters on full health enemies. Otherwise you do a lot of long windup attacks vs. dead bodies, at least on teams.
When it comes to melee control, it's hard to beat a Dark/Ice/Soul Tanker. The damage isn't the best, but the control certainly is.
Whatever doesn't slip and fall on the Ice Patch will be stunned. Whatever isn't stunned is afraid. Whatever isn't afraid has a reduced hit chance. Whatever manages to hit you despite all that won't do as much damage because of the debuff. Also has a ST hold for flavor.
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This sounds fantastic! |
Originally Posted by GuyPerfect
Whatever doesn't slip and fall on the Ice Patch will be stunned. Whatever isn't stunned is afraid. Whatever isn't afraid has a reduced hit chance. Whatever manages to hit you despite all that won't do as much damage because of the debuff. Also has a ST hold for flavor.
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Aside from that, I can vouch for the outstanding survivability of nrg/dark. I have a blaster that runs nrg/nrg/soul. The level of control from Oppressive gloom, stacked with the stun abilities of energy can keep my blaster alive in mobs of yellows-oranges solo. Everything is either stunned or dead from nrg's powerful melee (that's great considering I'm only using punch, total focus, and bone smasher.) That alone is enough to keep my squishy blaster doing what he does best
On a brute, tank, or scrapper....the survivability would increase drastically.
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That actually sound great! To top it off, it seems like it will fill a concept for a toon I have as well. The stuns from stone melee is one of the major reasons I love my stone/regen brute (even though the dps is a little low feeling) nothing felt better than making entire mobs walk around like a bunch of drunks or popping them in the air like popcorn. This idea seems like it would be a big step up in terms of melee control.
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Originally Posted by GuyPerfect
When it comes to melee control, it's hard to beat a Dark/Ice/Soul Tanker. The damage isn't the best, but the control certainly is.
Whatever doesn't slip and fall on the Ice Patch will be stunned. Whatever isn't stunned is afraid. Whatever isn't afraid has a reduced hit chance. Whatever manages to hit you despite all that won't do as much damage because of the debuff. Also has a ST hold for flavor. |
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Originally Posted by Tater Todd
"My Thugs/Pancake can solo Breast Cancer!"
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katana/SR (scrapper) it is an oddball because you don't need DA to get to softcap which is why most people get katana but this lets you use katana/s top attack chain with less interruption GD-GC-SD-GC.
I didn't tried myself but katana WP would be hold its ground even better.
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Actually my main 50 scrapper is a Kat/SR and that is actually how I play that toon. I use her for doing Stupid Scrapper Tricks.
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Originally Posted by Kangstor
katana/SR (scrapper) it is an oddball because you don't need DA to get to softcap which is why most people get katana but this lets you use katana/s top attack chain with less interruption GD-GC-SD-GC.
I didn't tried myself but katana WP would be hold its ground even better. |
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Originally Posted by Tater Todd
"My Thugs/Pancake can solo Breast Cancer!"
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Nothing about the theme of the two powersets suggests Dark Melee and Electrical Armor should fit together, but oh boy do they fit together well. Two sources of endurance recovery, one of which drains their endurance, two sources of healing, one of which has a short recharge time the other of which reduces endurance costs, a 30 second damage buff that combines with a damage aura, and all of it backed by +Recharge autopower.
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Originally Posted by Botzo
So, What MELEE oddball combination would be fun to make next? I'd prefer something that fits well together but isn't obvious.
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Under construction
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Now I'm wondering how Electrical Melee and Dark Armor would look for a Storm theme... time to check the character creator.
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Originally Posted by Erratic
Nothing about the theme of the two powersets suggests Dark Melee and Electrical Armor should fit together, but oh boy do they fit together well.
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'I don't like the look of it at all,' said the King: 'however, it may kiss my hand if it likes.'
'I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked.
'Don't be impertinent,' said the King, 'and don't look at me like that!' He got behind Alice as he spoke.
'A cat may look at a king,' said Alice.
I've got a Spines/Electric stalker at 50. For all the bad press resist sets get on Stalkers, she's pretty damn tough. Can't tank a +4/x8 spawn or anything like that, of course, but I can get her up to +1/x5 on a barely-IO'd build without any defense set bonuses.
@Amarlex in game, on the Virtue server.
Spines/Dark scrapper...talk about an AoE nightmare...mobs wouldn't stand a fair chance at all...
Currently Playing:
Rage King - SS/Regen Brute (50+3)
Soulfire Darkness - Dark/Fire Tank (50+2)
Deaths Final Embrace - Kat/Dark Brute (50+3)
ULTIMATE REGEN GUIDE I22
Speaking of Ice Melee, an interesting combo I saw someone playing was an Fire/Ice tanker. While I don't have any personal experience with this combo and so can't speak for how it plays, I noticed that they would use Ice Patch to hold mobs in their Burn patches. Definitely an interesting tactic, and an unusual combo. Plus, it looked rather pretty with the fire colored the same blue as the ice.
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Exactly, this was a fairly common combination back when Burn caused mobs to run for the hills.|
Originally Posted by Alef_infinity
I noticed that they would use Ice Patch to hold mobs in their Burn patches. Definitely an interesting tactic, and an unusual combo. Plus, it looked rather pretty with the fire colored the same blue as the ice.
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I've always wanted to pair Stone Armor with something like Dual Blades, cannot vouch for the efficiency, but if you want something that is oddball, there you go ;P
Fire/Dark Tanker. Two flavors of Consume (one with a whopping 20' radius) that both do a bit of damage, Sould Drain AND Fiery Embrace for damage buffs and two flavors of heal. Go Redside for a while for the Soul PPP to get Tentacles (to Immob mobs in the Burn), Obliteration (more AoE is good) and Darkest Night (arguably the handiest thing in the Tanker toolbox).
Yeah...talked myself into it lol.
"Comics, you're not a Mastermind...you're an Overlord!"
I had heard a good mitigating combo was Ice Armor/Kinetic Melee on Tanker with the /Soul Mastery epic pool. Chilling Embrace does like -14% dmg, kinetic melee attacks generally have -7% dmg per attack (with Burst doing like -12% dmg in a PBAoE) coupled with Soul Mastery's Darkest Night for -22% dmg in an AoE (so you can debuff in an area for something like -48% dmg).
Alternatively, you could use Shield Defense but AAO only has -7% dmg in a PBAoE. You can go Ice Armor on Stalker for better melee dmg but lose Soul Mastery's DN.
If I had a concept for it, I'd definitely try it.
Recently I've been playing a Stone melee/ Regeneration Brute and so far I've rolled him to 47 and plan on finishing soon. So, What MELEE oddball combination would be fun to make next? I'd prefer something that fits well together but isn't obvious. Right now my idea is to roll with a Stone armor /Electric Melee tanker or even a brute. I'm not looking for a build either, just the basic combo ie fire/ice etc etc...
Any Ideas?