Returning due to CoH Ending: Help!

halcyonoftexas · September 2012

Hi all,

I played Champions at release, but gave up after getting a toon to (then max level - dunno if that's been upped) as there was really nothing to do.

Now, CoH is dying, so I'm back and looking to see if Champions is my new home.

I have a few questions - some might've been better for another forum, but most look like they belong here. Any help you guys can give, I'd really appreciate! The game seems to have changed massively, there is a lot going on, and it's a lot to take in.

1. Character builds
My main goal is, as much as possible, to recreate my CoH main in feel if not in exact powers. Conceptually, he's a long-lived adventurer who, traveling in the late 1800's and early 1900's, discovered the secrets of several ancient civilizations; these helped him develop principles of fine control over his body, some mild psychic abilities, and most importantly, the ability to modify his own DNA.

In CoH terms, he's a Claws/Invulnerability brute. In terms of his concept, I represented the claws as pure energy and treated them as psy-weapon extensions. The Invulnerability was due to his fine body control and modified DNA (skin changed/hardened).

I don't need to duplicate the exact look or powers, but want to see about attaining the following playstyle attributes:
- Extreme survivability. A kitted out /Invulnterability character in CoH, particularly Brutes or Tanks, are nigh unto impossible to kill. They have one major weakness (Psychic damage) which the Claws primary helped me deal with pretty easily.
- Good single-target damage. Claws in CoH when fully kitted out was really nasty, especially on a Brute.
- Great AoE damage. Same thing - claws provided very strong AoE, having one nice PBAOE, one short-range cone, and one nice longer-range cone that knocked everything it hit down (originally it was knockback, but could be kitted out to convert to knockdown instead)
- Some ranged abilities - both the cone mentioned above, plus a single-target ability that hit hard and knocked down the target
- Character should "feel" very quick and mobile. Claws attacks in CoH animate (for the most part) very quickly.

What can you recommend in Champions to try to do something similar?

2. Second question: end game. I do have a max level character with a free retcon that I would like to leverage. What sorts of things can I look forward to if I dive back into that character?

Thanks!

gerberatetra · September 2012

Just my 2 cents..

But it sounds like you might want an Ego Dex/Rec or Com build for Ego blades, ther'es a few clever ways to be darn near unkillable with that set;

I haven't tried it but this one sprung to mind ..

http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=2100786&postcount=1

agentnx5 · September 2012

Quick question, do you want to min/max to get what you wanted even if it looks like a mutt-build made of random powers, or do you want to make a powerful build that all shares the same theme? To get what you were wanting, you can't have both and expect it to do what you want. You're going to have to choose to some extent.

Theme-build or mutt-build? You choose.

Here's a place to start:
PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: halcyonoftexas's build

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Constitution (Primary)
Level 10: Dexterity (Secondary)
Level 15: Recovery (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Behemoth
Level 6: Quick Recovery
Level 9: Acrobat
Level 12: Impresario
Level 15: Survival Training
Level 18: Paramilitary Training
Level 21: Covert Ops Training

Powers:
Level 1:
Level 1:
Level 6:
Level 8:
Level 11:
Level 14:
Level 17:
Level 20:
Level 23:
Level 26:
Level 29:
Level 32:
Level 35:
Level 38:

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics
Level 35:

Specializations:

Another way of going about this is to focus on EGO rather than STR and go with telekinetic (TK) blades. But you said "claws" and that means STR. Notice that I did not make STR a superstat, this is intentional (I know what I'm doing, there's a soft-cap on STR and other ways to get it).

The key for a build like this one is going to be when you choose the passive. This will also be a very expensive build to gear up ultimately, CON mods aren't cheap (they're the most expensive).

acylion · September 2012

I'm in exactly the same position as you, halcyonoftexas - I'm returning to Champions in a bigger way now that City of Heroes is going dark.

Given that, my knowledge is also out of date...but I've been looking into the same things you have. So that might help.

Basically, I agree with gerberatetra - you probably want to look at Telekinesis, for Ego Blades.

There's a few reasons why. First of all, the claws costume pieces available in CO don't fit the 'psychic blade' concept as well as CoH's Vanguard and Mecha models.

Second, you're interested in both melee and ranged attacks. Telekinesis contains both in the same framework. Originally TK was more melee-oriented, but about a year ago the devs added a lot more ranged attacks, most of which are blade-themed.

Thirdly, and continuing from the above - currently Strength boosts melee damage, and Ego boosts ranged damage. So a melee/ranged hybrid character has two damage stats to worry about...unless you're Telekinesis. The Ego Blade melee attacks are boosted by Ego and not Strength. They're unique in that respect. So it makes things easier to stat.

Visually, we now have a few different Ego Blade models in the costume creator. They're all ghostly energy swords, of course, but they're pretty cool-looking energy swords.

This is the build I'm now using, for a Champions version of one of my CoH characters. This is a tank spec and I don't have any ranged attacks in this, so you will want to do something different if you're not interested in tanking per-se. But it might help in terms of giving you some ideas as to survivability builds. Explanation below.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Intelligence (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Void
Level 6: Field Ops Training
Level 9: Acrobat
Level 12: Coordinated
Level 15: Shooter
Level 18: Healthy Mind
Level 21: Ascetic

Powers:
Level 1: Ego Blade
Level 1: Ego Weaponry (Rank 2, Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Ego Blade Frenzy (Rank 2, Rank 3, Challenging Strikes)
Level 8: Lightning Reflexes (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Ego Blade Dash
Level 14: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Rank 2, Resurgent Reiki)
Level 17: Form of the Master (Storm's Eye Prana)
Level 20: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 23: Energy Shield (Rank 2, Laser Knight)
Level 26: Ego Blade Breach
Level 29: Masterful Dodge
Level 32: Resurgence (Rank 2, Evanescent Emergence)
Level 35: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 38: Conviction (Rank 2)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Acrobatics (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Teleportation

Specializations:
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (3/3)
Dexterity: Brush It Off (2/2)
Dexterity: Evasion (2/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Protector: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Protector: Unrelenting (2/2)
Protector: Bulwark (2/2)
Protector: Defensive Expertise (3/3)
Brawler: The Glory of Battle (2/3)
Brawler: Penetrating Strikes (2/2)
Brawler: Ruthless (2/2)
Brawler: Setup (2/2)
Brawler: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

This is a dodge build based on Lightning Reflexes, with healing from Bountiful Chi Resurgence - the advantage on Bountiful Chi gives extra ticks of healing when you dodge. Masterful Dodge boosts dodge chance; due to diminishing returns, I haven't ranked it significantly, though. Resurgence is an extra heal and mezbreaker. Form of the Master and its advantage reduce cooldowns on healing powers. Conviction is a lousy base heal, but it can critical hit - this build is relatively crit heavy - and also helps fuel Molecular Self-Assembly, the energy unlock, which gives energy back every time a power comes off cooldown.

I've chosen MSA as my energy unlock because I like having an Int superstat (which reduces cooldowns and energy cost). If you superstat Ego, you will probably want Ego Reverberation, the innate energy unlock meant to be used with Ego Blade attacks.

Energy Shield with Laser Knight is and always has been excellent additional survivability. You can also take Parry and Elusive Monk, but that adds dodge rather than resistance. It's doable, but again, diminishing returns. I like Energy Shield on this build, because the Laser Knight effect gives you an interlinked hexagon-field translucent energy shield on your off-hand whenever you use your Ego Blade attacks.

You have a translucent sword and a translucent shield. If that's not perfect for concept, I don't know what is.

Finally, this is a very crit-based build because crits are now extremely effective in the current state of Champions, and everyone tells me it's worth building for.

Some disclaimers: I'm just returning to the game myself, so my knowledge IS OUT OF DATE. This build was put together from experimenting in the Powerhouse, reading the forums, asking people for advice, and so on. But there may still be massive flaws in it. So take EVERYTHING I say with a grain of salt, okay?

Now. I've picked up tank advantages like Crippling Challenge and Challenging Strikes to draw aggro. If you aren't tanking, you wouldn't want these.

On a similar token, I haven't ranked up Ego Blade Breach, because I'm just tapping it for the resistance debuff on targets. I also don't have enough advantage points to go round. A more balanced damage-oriented build should definitely look at putting ranks into Ego Blade Breach, because it's a hell of a heavy hitter if you can tap it thrice and then full charge.

There's a ton of stuff that will help Telekinesis from within the tree that I haven't picked in the interests of space. Consider those.

This build is based on Lightning Reflexes, because I like the power effects of Bountiful Chi Resurgence and the cooldown reduction ticks from Form of the Master. You may wish to look at other defensive passives such as Invulnerability, Defiance, and Regeneration, all of which are low-key in terms of visual effect and should fit your concept.

If using Lightning Reflexes, there's a few tricks I left out. Evasive Maneuvers is a backward lunge that gives a dodge boost. Dragon Kick will give extra avoidance, and convert your Focus stacks from the Form of the Master in to Rush, for endurance - at least I assume those powers still do that, as I said, I'm out of date.

Good luck, fellow City of Heroes refugee!

konru2 · September 2012

Claws is spectacular for single target damage. Dragon's claws is one of the best out there for single target damage, if not the best. However the set doesn't have anything for AoE. If you are investing in Freeform, you will very likely have to borrow a power from another set for mass minion shredding. Dual Blade is good at that.

Tacking on Invulnerability is no problem. In fact, although I don't see claws all that often, people who choose one of the melee sets (single blade, dual blades, and heavy weapons are most common) often pick Invulnerability as their slotted passive for protection. Taken to rank 3, it works remarkably well even by itself. A little bit more of a challenge is deciding whether to be full tank or try to hybrid some more DPS in somehow. Even with the same powers, stats, roles, and specializations can make a big difference.

bellesorciere · September 2012

I'm in a similar position, although I have eight characters that I made around launch three years ago. I've tried to come back twice in the past couple of years but found the choices overwhelming.

Mostly I'm just reading as much as I can until I can make sense of what I need.

Returning due to CoH Ending: Help!

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