A possibly-crazy freeform build

[Kaiser Tarantula]

I've been thinking on freeform characters, in anticipation of possibly getting a subscription in the coming month.  Going through the powersets, I've been thinking I might enjoy a hybrid melee/ranged character with a focus on critmonkeying and survivability, loosely inspired by the idea of an Ork Warboss from Warhammer 40k.

Code: [Select]

SUPER STATS: STR, EGO, END

SPECIALIZATIONS:
STRENGTH: Aggression x2, Swole x3, Overpower x3, Brutality x2
VINDICATOR: The Rush of Battle x3, Aggressive Stance x2,
WARDEN: Slaughter x3, Ruthless x2, The Best Defense x3, Tenacious x2
MASTERY: Vindicator Mastery

Lv1: Power Bolts, Laser Sword
Lv6: Invulnerability, Super STRENGTH
Lv8: Gauntlet Chainsaw
Lv10: Super EGO
Lv11: Form of the Tempest
Lv14: Overdrive
Lv15: Super ENDURANCE
Lv17: Field Surge
Lv20: Energy Shield
Lv23: Lock N Load
Lv26: Gatling Gun
Lv29: Conviction
Lv32: Bionic Shielding
Lv35: Palliate
Lv38: Resurrection Serum
The idea is that he starts fights from a distance and gets steadily nastier as the battle closes, until he's ripping apart enemies in melee reach with an energy sword and the giant chainsaw built into one of his gauntlets.

Power Bolts: Nothing!
I'm hoping once you've got Overdrive, you can forget this exists.

Laser Sword: Rank 2, Particle Acceleration (4 points)
The idea here is that you whack an enemy three times with this for the defense debuff, then unload repeated Gauntlet Chainsaws on him.

Invulnerability: Rank 3 (4 points)
It helps you not die.  Scales with your super stats, too!

Gauntlet Chainsaw: Rank 2, Ripsaw, Challenging Strikes (5 points)
Your bread-and-butter.  It's a maintain, so it procs Overdrive to help keep your energy high, and with Ripsaw it gets nastier as enemies lose health.  This lets you finish off enemies weakened by your Laser Sword quickly, as well as making it a good boss-killer.  Stop chainsawing only to replenish the Laser Sword debuff on your victim.

Form of the Tempest: Rank 3 (4 points)
Since Form of the Tempest doesn't ALWAYS grant a stack on a crit, it's important to rank this up, both for the passive stacks and the greater proc chance.

Overdrive: No advantages
Every time a maintain reaches half duration, you get an energy restoring buff that ticks every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.  Gauntlet Chainsaw will be proccing this constantly.

Field Surge: Power Swell (4 points)
It's an active defense.  I would've taken Resurgence, but this character doesn't have CON, and I don't like Unbreakable.  Field Surge gives you a nice thick absorption shield and with the advantage, a 15% boost to damage output.

Energy Shield: Laser Knight (3 points)
Not only is it a nice strong block, but it's also another layer of constant defense.  Laser Knight will be procced constantly by either Laser Sword or Gauntlet Chainsaw - losing out on a little damage is fine for the extra survivability.

Lock N Load: Two Smoking Barrels (2 points)
Sure, you miss out on the melee damage boost with Two Smoking Barrels, but your constant melee attacks will ensure that you never stay held very long, and being able to use Lock N Load constantly will help Overdrive keep your energy consumption in check.  Gauntlet Chainsaw hits 9 times over 4.5 seconds, cutting 18 seconds off Lock N Load's recharge each time you fully maintain it, per opponent caught in the saw.  Muahaha!

Gatling Gun: Rank 3 (4 points), Optionally, Rank 2 w/Listen to Reason for the same cost
The reason this set has Ego as a super stat.  Gatling Gun on a critmonkey build inflicts stupid-ridiculous amounts of damage to a crowd of enemies.  Vindicator Mastery, plus all the crit and crit severity boosts in your specializations, should turn this thing into a real crowd-shredder.  It's a maintain, so it also procs Overdrive, which coupled with Lock N Load, should ease the unforgiving drain this attack puts on your energy.

Conviction: Rank 3 (4 points)
A spammable click self-heal, great for keeping yourself in the fight.  It's not gonna save you from big hits though, since you lack Presence.

Bionic Shielding: None
Automatic heal-support for Conviction.  Between this, Invulnerability, and Conviction, you should be able to keep yourself in good shape.

Palliate: Rank 3 (4 points)
Your "oh crap" button.  If it gets past Invulnerability and Field surge, you hit this and then spam Conviction.

Resurrection Serum: No advantages
Share the fightin' juice with downed buddies in need of a pick-me-up!  Can be easily replaced with just about any other power, this one's mostly here for flavor.


Any suggestions?

[Brou]

Though the feedback loop of defense and offense can be quite good, offense bonus after 30% diminishes harshly. These are suggestions, and should be considered as nothing more. You can try them in the powerhouse and get a free refund as long as you don't leave.

Consider Way of the Warrior as a passive. When enemies dodge your attacks, you gain energy back.

Consider replacing Warden or Vindicator with Avenger. Surprise Attack will help you increase the likelihood of a critical attack on targets above 90%. Also, you gain Relentless Assault, which rewards you with offense while maintaining an attack. Round 'Em Up will also grant you additional damage against your targets with AOEs, and chainsaw is a cone, so there.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

My only worry with Way of the Warrior is that taking it forces me to drop Invulnerability, and turns me into a dodgemonkey; I'd have to start gearing for dodge/avoidance, and the rest of my build isn't suited for d/a monkeying.  Still, it's something I'll definitely consider.

Taking Vindicator Mastery was the whole reason why I went STR/EGO on this build.  If I went Avenger instead, I'd drop EGO for either PRE or CON, and drop Chain Gun for a melee AoE or a lasso/lunge.  If I take PRE, I could also drop Palliate and just rely on Bionic Shielding & Conviction.  With those two slots open, I'd probably take Vicious Descent and Vicious Cyclone w/Vortex Technique to help gather up enemies for chainsawing.

Avenger spec would probably be Ruthless x2, Round 'em Up x3, Surprise Attack x2 (for the laser sword) and Relentless Assault x3 (for pretty much everything else.)  Mastery would probably be Warden Mastery, because more strength isn't quite necessary and stacking Grit with my Laser Sword sounds handy.

Suggestions are still welcome.

Thinking out loud here:

Spoiler for Hidden:

Maybe do a little reorganizing, and swap out Form of the Tempest for Enrage and slip in the Uppercut/Haymaker combo for some more single-target goodness?  Might require a lot of organization, would definitely require dropping Chain Gun, Palliate, and Resurrection Serum,  and switching out FotT for Enrage to make it happen.  Probably have to forgo Vicious Cyclone and just take Mighty Leap for a Lunge.  But if I start stacking knocks for Enrage proccing, it kinda defeats the purpose of building as a critmonkey, and the basic idea of relying on maintains for offense to proc Overdrive.

The main thing I want this build to do is to be a technology-oriented, hard-to-kill, possibly mutated brute (his gear is very ramshackle and cobbled-together; think the illegitimate son of Juryrig and the meanest, most vicious daughter of a car mechanic you can imagine).  Since he relies on Overdrive for an Energy Unlock, and is built up as a critmonkey, I want maintains to be the bulk of his attacks, with clicks & combos as support (since they don't take a lot of time away from maintains).

Gauntlet Chainsaw, Iron Cyclone, Vicious Cyclone, Devour Essence are all examples of maintains I'm cool with.  I actually wouldn't mind slipping Devour Essence into the build for some more self-healing, though I'd like to use the Phlebotomist advantage and have some way of sticking bleed/poison onto enemies before snacking.  Vicious Cyclone would be good for that.

Clicks I'm cool with include Laser Sword, Beatdown, Defensive Combo, Cleave, Brute Strike, Shred, Frenzy, and any lunge except telekinesis (since it's based on Ego.)  Laser Sword is nice because it lowers enemy defense, Defensive Combo would provide stack(s) of Defiant, while Cleave provides stacks of Enrage.  Coupled with a means of inflicting Disorient, I could use Defensive Combo/Cleave to maintain an Enraged/Defiant engine despite not having either Enrage or Defiance.

Frenzy is a click AoE that applies enraged on the third hit.  Hmm.

Perhaps a lunge, Vicious Cyclone (to haul enemies in and get Overdrive started), three smacks with the laser sword on the biggest enemy in the bunch, three frenzies to get Enraged, then break out the Chainsaw, followed by Devour Essence on anyone left to heal back up.  Would that be a good attack cyle?

EDIT: Okay, after some rethinking, I've decided to go with something a little more conventional.  Pure melee, but with a nasty combination of powers from multiple sets.

Code: [Select]

SUPER STATS: STR, PRE, REC

SPECIALIZATIONS: Strength, Brawler, Avenger
STRENGTH: Aggression 2, Swole 3, Overpower 3, Brutality 2
BRAWLER: The Glory of Battle 3, Penetrating Strikes 2, Finishing Blow 3, Setup 2
AVENGER: Ruthless 2, Round 'em Up 3, Surprise Attack 2, Relentless Assault 3
MASTERY: Strength Mastery (because I don't have powers that function with the other two masteries)

Lv1: Power Bolts, Shred
Lv6: Invulnerability, Super STRENGTH
Lv8: Energy Shield
Lv10: Super PRESENCE
Lv11: Vicious Cyclone
Lv14: Overdrive
Lv15: Super RECOVERY
Lv17: Enrage
Lv20: Gauntlet Chainsaw
Lv23: Devour Essence
Lv26: Laser Sword
Lv29: Field Surge
Lv32: Bionic Shielding
Lv35: Conviction
Lv38: Resurrection Serum

Power Bolts: Nothing
It's just there.  Hopefully the combination of the Recovery superstat and Overdrive means you'll never have to touch this.

Shred: Rank 2, Penetrating Strikes (4 points)
A combo, for use with Setup, Surprise Attack, and Finishing Blow.  Penetrating Strikes gives additional defense reduction, and it procs bleeding, which helps with Devour Essence.  Three of these, three whacks with the laser sword, then Devour Essence.

Invulnerability: Rank 3 (4 points)
Helps you not die and is the core of your defensive abilities.

Energy Shield: Laser Knight (3 points)
A block replacement this early?  Yes, but Laser Knight is handy to have.  The small loss of melee damage is worth the additional constant defense.

Vicious Cyclone: Rank 2. Vortex Technique (4 points)
Not very damaging, but it repeatedly knocks enemies towards you, gathering them up for your chainsaw and proccing Enrage stacks.  Also stacks poison on your enemy, adding some additional DoT damage and leveraging poison to improve Devour Essence.

Overdrive: Nothing
All of your maintains proc this, so it's important to use them as much as possible.  Vicious Cyclone/Gauntlet Chainsaw on groups, Devour Essence on single targets.

Enrage: Nothing, optional Giant Growth
Vicious Cyclone can provide up to 5 stacks of Enrage from a single target.  You can proc your way from empty to full Enrage in a single Cyclone if you have multiple foes present.  No need for ranks here.

Gauntlet Chainsaw: Rank 2, Ripsaw (4 points)
Just like the previous build, this is your bread-and-butter.  It's there mostly to proc Overdrive in melee, but adding Ripsaw makes it a good boss-killer.

Devour Essence: Rank 2, Phlebotomist (4 points)
Om nom nom, villains!  This gives you some on-demand healing and procs Overdrive.  The poison from your Vicious Cyclone and bleeding from Shred will help you make use of Phlebotomist.  The final part of your single-target combo.

Laser Sword: Rank 2, Particle Acceleration (4 points)
A combo attack with some defense reduction.  Against a single target, three of these should follow three Shreds for maximum damage and debuffage.

Field Surge: Power Swell (2 points)
An active defense.  Mostly for emergencies and getting that sweet additional damage boost.  Does Presence buff shielding?  'Cuz this could be pretty potent if it does.

Bionic Shielding: Rank 3 (4 points)
Automatic healing.  Scales with Presence for additional self-healing goodness.

Conviction: Rank 3 (4 points)
More self-healing with Presence-scaling goodness, this of the spammy click kind.

Resurrection Serum: Nothing
(Fightin' juice for your buddies.  Can be easily swapped out with whatever suits your fancy.)


Thoughts on this revision:

Spoiler for Hidden:

Vicious Cyclone's poison DoTs might be a little redundant with Shred's bleed, but there's nothing stopping both poison and bleed froms stacking together on one enemy for great DoT justice.  Shred's bleed is also more reliable for getting the heal boost from Phlebotomist on Devour Essence.  I can't drop Vicious Cyclone (I need it for Enrage proccing), but I can replace Shred with any Starter attack or a T1 Power Armor ability.

Gauntlet Chainsaw's starting to look a bit superfluous in the face of Devour Essence's existence, although it is a cone melee, and thus procs Glorious Battle.  Vicious Cyclone does that too though, and arguably does it better due to the larger reach.

I don't have a Lunge on this build.  That might be a weakness, on enemies immune to knockto, unless I take Super Speed and use the free advantage point to rank it up once.  Not having a Lunge means I can't use Brawler Mastery, and not having a Blast means I can't make good use of Avenger Mastery.

No Active Offense.  That might be a weakness, especially when it comes to breaking holds.  Should I sacrifice a power to take Lock N Load or some other active?

I have a feeling I have too many offensive powers.  Really, you don't need all that many to be effective.  Should I stick to critmonkeying and drop Enrage for Form of the Tempest, and drop any powers related to proccing Enrage?

[General Idiot]

Form of the Tempest: Rank 3 (4 points)
Since Form of the Tempest doesn't ALWAYS grant a stack on a crit, it's important to rank this up, both for the passive stacks and the greater proc chance.

A bit late on this but just something to note: Form of the Tempest DOES always grant a stack on crit, even at rank one. There's an internal cooldown on it like with all form toggles, something like 2-3 seconds between stacks minimum but aside from that it'll always give you one stack. The chances mentioned in the description for ranking it up are actually a chance for it to give you a second stack - that is to say, one crit gets you two stacks at once if you're lucky.

Reread the description, it does say that. But I'll admit I misread it too at first.