Melee AT for me?

I've been rocking my Grav/Storm a little hard lately. It's fun. It's kind of nice to just let off some steam creating total chaos in missions solo. But well, it is not a combo that I really feel "godly" with. I certainly could not solo a GM or tank AV's like in TwoHeaded's thread about all the amazing things a single toon could do.

Heck, I can't even march some lowbies through a 54/+8 Council mission and let them bask in the awesomeness of what's to come for them. I can barely handle a +0/+6 depending on the enemies.

But I want to play that guy.

When I first returned to the game a cool SS/Shields brute reintroduced me to the awesomeness of PI radio missions and proceeded to smash the faces of the then +4/+8 missions. I gained some awesome xp and loot to help me get back on my feet.

I want that.

I want to play that tank or whatever that when I show up in DA (or anywhere) and ask for a team people want me there because they know I can handle the best. I get a lot of compliments when in normal teams as "someone who can actually play storm and not be stupid".

So I need that guidance as to which melee AT I should take. I'm kind of leaning toward elec armor, unless convinced otherwise, but I haven't settled on an attack set yet.

I don't have to do everything in Twoheaded's thread, but I'd like to be the guy that can pull Siege or the Emissary of Mot and know that I don't really need a whole lot of help from my support and that aggro isn't going to go running off.

Assume I am a VIP.

Thanks much all.

Anything/Anything if you have the inf for it.

If you are set on Electric Armour, Super Strength synergises quite well with that (faster recharge in the armour, endurance recovery tools in the armour) and brings a lot of AOE damage and mitigation. The key weakness of SS is the Rage crash which may or may not bother you.

RE: the Anything/Anything comment. Stack defence through IOs. Stack +recharge through IOs. Get Tough & Weave and you'll be nigh indestructible.

As for what is "most welcome", I'd always prefer a support class on my teams but perhaps that's just me.

For top Damage and survivability go brute...

Top 3 Damage sets (ST and AOE)...in this order...
(1) Titan Weapons
(2) Super Strength
(3) Electric or Fire

Top 3 Survivability choices (opinions will vary here quite a bit)
(1) Dark Armor
(2) Invulnerability
(3) Super Reflexes/Shield/Regen/Willpower/Electric/Stone could all go here

If you want a damage aura to add to your chaos, then these will get you a damage aura:
Fiery Aura
Dark Armor
Electric Armor

Depends on what you want the build to do...
I have several toons that are complete bad boys on their own:
DARK MELEE/INVULN
KATANA/DARK
CLAWS/REGEN
SUPER STRENGTH/REGEN
TITAN WEAPONS/DARK
STONE/ELEC
FIRE MELEE/DARK
ELEC/SHIELD
SUPER STRENGTH/FIRE AURA

What do you want this toon to do? All of them have strengths and weaknesses, however, some are better at more than others...for example, my Elec/Shield scrapper is an AoE powerhouse, but so/so at hard targets compared to say...Super Strength/Regen Brute...The most survivable is easily my Dark Armor/Fire Melee Tank, but he doesn't do as much damage as my brutes and scrappers...Dark Melee/Invulnerable is a very good combo to do most things...kind of a jack of all trades master of only one(because invuln is king of Smashing/Lethal...hands down, good at everything else...but). Super Strength/Invuln is also a popular combo...you may like it.

In short, what are you looking for out of this toon?

You mention pulling Siege, so scrapper is out really. Not because they can't, but because your team would have a fit when you say you will try.

That leaves brutes and tanks (I know stalkers are good now but I still don't count them as they are 1v1 specialists and you don't seem to be after that). Tanks don't do a great deal of damage and only certain combo's are going to let you get through +4/x8 quickly, so a brute is probably your best best.

The tricky part is deciding what sets to play, and a lot of it depends on your preference because with enough investment most combo's are capable of anything. SS/Fire is the goto choice for farming, but has surprisingly awesome single target damage and is actually under-rated in the rest of the game, but Rage crashes and some people hate that.

Other great choices which can go with any secondary* (My opinions) are fire melee (Great compromise of st and aoe), electric melee (Great aoe, poor st but gloom can help a lot), dual blades (Fun and good st + aoe which works on low recharge), claws (again nice aoe and st) and war mace.

If you plan on picking a resistance based secondary like electric then you can get extra help from certain primaries, katana, broadsword, staff and titan weapons have powers that increase your melee defence, which can help you survive greater odds, but personally I find katana and broadsword light on aoe. Titan Weapons has pretty much everything, but I had endurance issues on a tw/elec scrapper so it doesn't work for me personally, and I don't know about staff other than it looks stupid.

For secondaries you can't really go wrong with any of them, though regen takes a certain playstyle and fire gives up a lot of survivability to cause more damage and relies on its heal. As mentioned the resist sets work great with a primary that gives +def (As does willpower) and the defence sets go great with anything.

From what I think you want I would suggest one of:

SS/Fire
SS/Elec
SS/Shield
DB/Elec
DB/Energy
SS/Energy
TW/Energy (Possibly the combo that has the most overall potential)

I should mention I have no idea what Street Justice is capable of.

*DB and claws cannot be paired with Shield.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

Pretty much any tank could pull Siege and the Emissary of Mott at the same time.

It's just a matter of having the patence to cope with the low damage.

As for Titan Weapons, it may be uber, but it's high end cost and long animations make it a ***** to level. Needs to be taken into consideration when deciding what to pair it with. Oh, and nothing makes you look stupid more than spending 3 seconds swinging at a dead mob.

Good input guys thanks!

Basically, I want to be able to focus on surviving the hard targets, but it sounds like everyone leans towards brutes. I can tell I've really only focused on support types in this game because I guess I always perceived brutes as being paper tigers, awesome damage output but not so great defenses.

Why does anyone even play a tank or scrapper anymore if brutes are kings of damage and defense in melee?

And yeah I probably should've mentioned that stalkers are not in consideration, they just look too gimmicky to me.

To answer the question: I want this toon to melt faces and actually give me that feeling as if (once incarnated out) there's not much that he can't go face to face with and well . . . melt it's face.



Thanks much.

Tankers can take more of a beating than brutes, in some cases quite a bit more because they have higher starting values. Brutes can reach the same levels as tankers, but they need outside buffs. However - most brutes are 'survivable enough' that it doesn't matter to most people.

Scrappers do slightly more damage than brutes (Outside of saturated Fulcrum Shift), and are in turn slightly less survivable. Again I think scrappers are 'survivable enough' and aside from HP they start on the same numbers as brutes (Brutes get higher caps though, so take more advantage from being in a buff heavy team).

Brutes also get a taunt aura though, which makes them better at holding and keeping aggro, only some scrapper sets get taunt auras. It is probably this that makes some people panic when a scrapper tries to do anything 'tanky' rather than a lack of ability (Plus sods law saying that if you try to show off on a scrapper you will get 1 shotted in front of everyone).

There are outliers in all sets, but that is the gist of it.

I should also mention that brutes have to build fury to get their damage, which means they start off doing quite low damage. Fury builds quickly enough, but I personally can't stand it and love the playstyle of scrappers.

Oh also brutes get superstrength, the most overpowered set in the game, which helps their popularity over scrapper.

The idea is that tankers win in survivability but lose in damage, scrappers win in damage but lose in survivability and brutes are in the middle on both fronts, but sadly the missed the mark and gave brutes a bit much damage, and the ability to get too much survivability as well. If you hadn't said that you want to do this stuff while on a team though I would have pointed you at a scrapper, it is only the higher caps that brutes have where I think they really win out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

You might try choosing your powersets before your AT. Some work better on certain ATs than others.

Typically I'm more inclined to run resist sets on brutes and defense on scrappers so the cap difference isn't that noticeable. Which isn't to say that there's an enormous noticeable difference that supports that thought. That said...

Electric brute- energy cap and makes the t9 more useful and damage auras are typically a bit better on brutes.

Shield- scrapper, higher base dam for aao and better shield charges due to damage cap on pseudo.

Invul- kind of like electric, it's plausible to benefit from high brute cap especially sl and when or if you use t9, brute

Energy - Either way

Claws is quite good on brutes when io'd out. Kinetic melee - scrapper due to how power siphon and cs works.

DB/Staff/Katana I think are a wash between at's only going to point out that you can't use with shield. War mace is better than axe and both can be used with shield.

Shield and to some extent Energy Armor are 'better' on Scrappers. Both have taunt auras for scrappers and scrappers tend to get the most benefit out of the armors buffs (+DAM and +RECH respectively). Shield Charge is also better on Scrappers because it's a pseudopet power.

Electric and Invulnerabilty are 'better' on Brutes(and to some extent Tankers, but typically Tanks don't have the melt faces feeling). Brutes can take fulll advantage of the over 75% resistance these sets achieve to their respective strong resists and damage auras are 'better' on Brutes.

But 'better' does not mean that they are unplayable on any other AT, or even that they aren't really good on each AT with access to them. It's just that certain sets play the the strength of certain ATs a little better.

Honestly, I never feel more powerful than when I play my Electric Melee/Invulnerability/Soul Brute. Plentiful AoE, Gloom helps fill in my ST, my resists are near capped to S/L and Invincibilty + set bonuses Softcaps my S/L/E/N def with Darkest Night taking some of their ot hit and damage from them. I can hit Unstoppable and for 2 minutes I am that, with full capped resists (though a lot of people hate the crash, and you have to be prepared to deal with it or faceplant). Just can't be quite as in your face when fighting Psi enemies.

Then again, my Spines/Electric Scrapper is pretty nasty and when he's finished up Soul Mastery and picked up Shadowmeld he'll be be a beast. And I can't forget about how survivable my Dark Armor/Kinetic Melee Tank is...

Yeah, assuming you're a VIP, make a few alts and play em a bit. If you don't like them lvling up, banish them to another server until you decide to give em another try.

of course if you really want to be overpowered you would play an ill/rad controller or a bots/dark MM

If you want an 'epic' combo, then you're going to have to spend for it..


But, if you're willing, I've got a fav.


Recently got done with a 3 person Mothership Raid.. When we hit the bowl, the 2 defs died. Lots of crap flying about at that point. I was able to tank everything in the bowl, GM included, with a Shield/Ax brute..

I was still standing and chopping away when they got back.. and then we got on to spankin the crap outta them...

Sure, there may be better combos out there, but it's hard to get more epic than that..

What to pair with Electric Armor? Dark Melee, on a Brute.

Really.

Your survivability will be covered by Siphon Life being up every 3 seconds combined with the high resists Electric Armor brings. Lightning Field being backed by Fury and Soul Drain will be happily grinding down anything that is standing close. Energize will be your tool for handling alpha strikes with the bonus that it lowers your endurance consumption for 30 seconds. Dark Consumption will be used regularly because Lightning Reflexes invites you to grab Hasten and the combination of the two means you'll be cycling your attacks quickly enough to otherwise drain you.

The only downside is the relative lack of AoEs, but you have Lightning Field running and Shadow Maul in the middle of a group is an easy tool to make hit multiple targets (choose target, take a half step back, activate).

Icing are little things like being mostly resistant to energy attacks, endurance drains, and slows. When you get to your Epic pool choices you can either go Soul or Mu Mastery. I went with Soul Mastery to pick up Gloom, Darkest Night, and Dark Obliteration but if you are inclined for more AoE damage Mu may suit your tastes better.

I have played the combo up to 50 on SOs and it feels every bit as powerful as pre-ED DM/Inv ever did on a Scrapper with the bonus you are harder to kill and don't run out of endurance. Indeed, you'll find yourself coming close to struggling only when there aren't enough enemies around.

What is the Assault hybrid doing for Tankers? Is it giving a boost to dps or no?

Well, of course it would boost DPS, the question is with Tankers having a lower base damage multiplier, how much does it benefit? I would think, that like brutes, they would tend to benefit more from the double hit radial side than they would from Core.

Sorry I didnt specify but yeah I meant the radial.