“Powerless” Characters

I'm thinking of re-stating my character, and I'm considering not using a powerset much at all. Using movement mode abilities predominantly. I occasionally see people doing that, usual doing it as a theme sort of thing. You can kind of model a Kryptonian, Amazon, Tamaranian and a lot of other things, so I'm kinda looking for two things:



1 - Theme ideas.

2 - Advice on how to stat for 'powerlessness' (like powersets for minimal power usage).

You wanna be a civilian?

Well, I can only speak from personal experience as I've tried a handful of weapons and powers but only a couple have I completely mastered, and I would have to say from what I've tried, Hand Blasters can be really good for a precision based build.

I'm sure it's to each his own and others will disagree, but my main toon is a Fire Precision-based DPS with Hand Blasters and I think I do pretty well for myself with her. I barely used power as it is, so this entire time I've never concerned myself with how much power I have - I just load up on precision/DPS and might is great but precision takes precedence.

Once you start leveling Hand Blasters, it has 2 attacks that are my primary DPS attacks - Pulse Beam (which I see players use a lot - great attack for stacking up damage on a single target) and Scissor Kick (Which I barely ever see people use. This is a one shot that does close to the amount of damage gradually inflicted with pulse beam, but it hits all nearby targets and knocks them down.) Then, you have a variation of your strong melee attack that works as basically an AoE version of holding square. Granted, the AoE is smaller than most AOE powers, but if you want to go no powers, it's good to have an aoe in the mix. It has lots of other multiple target dmg/knockdown attacks, but those are the ones that stand out to me.

The question I have for you is, will you be using powers rarely or not at all, and more importantly, will you be restricting yourself to the movement powers only, or can you use Iconic Powers? Also, what movement type are you? From what I've seen from Acrobatics and Flight, those moves seem to suck.

If you can use Iconics, that gives you more possibilities, but for me - as I said, I run a primary Precision build and I don't even use all my power slots. I have 1 quick burning DoT attack for bosses and pvp, 1 quick multi-target dmg/knockdown (for when I don't have time to execute a combo,) 1 quick AoE attack that damages and sometimes knocks down everything near me, and 1 25% Supercharge attack that looks the same as #3 but it's an AoE/dmg/DoT/knockdown/self-heal good for getting out of pickles. Then on the R2 I use the Iconic Neo Venom power for a quick attack & defense boost. If you've noticed the pattern, none of my powers are for damage. buff, dot, aoe, heal, knockdown. If you can have those options handy and focus everything on precision, I think you'll be fine. Plus, Blasters has an aoe and several multi-target knockdowns with high damage so worst case scenario you could just seek out a heal and maybe buff or DoT.

Sorry for the long comment, but I hope this gives you something to think about. I'm sure there are PvP players reading this shaking their heads, but this is a PvE build and its fun and actually when PvPing someone close to my level I do pretty well. Plus obviously blasters give you the option to maintain distance with triangle, or kick *** up close with square. If you do incorporate a self heal and/or buff, it will give you more room to go all out on precision and not be worrying about being too low on health.

I think each movement mode only has five abilities, two of them being supercharges. If you're looking to make a minimalistic character you can grab some Iconics too but you probably shouldn't run content with other people. "Fun" loadouts are best used in open world or solo content.

This is more of a pve leveling build than a pve T1-T7 build. Like, you wouldn't want to bring that into content with other people.

^^Also you'd want to spec precision op.

It won't be competitive or useful in end game content and people will exclude you from their groups but if you wish to play solo content, it should be fine.

My speedster is Flash-themed so it really worked out well spec'ing in the entire movement tree. That's the closest I came to recreating an iconic character. I even PUG'd into Lockdown and ran it just with the movement powers.

I got kicked after the first Boss

@Dogico,

Actually, the toon I was talking about is T3 right now and I run alerts, duos, ect all the time and as long as my teammates aren't 20+ levels above me I usually come in first slot for Dmg output, KOs, ect. But I'm not sure if you were referring to my build and how I play, or the minimalistic version I was referring to him. The way I was suggesting, using Fist slam as an AoE, ect. - Yeah I totally agree - It's a "for fun" build with the best survivability I could come up with, but on my build I was using for a baseline, when I play it I'm not going for minimalistic/powerless it just so happens that I use Blasters and have a precision DPS build on it. I do use powers, but they're not for damage output, more for survival, buffs and CC. I do have precision built really OP on that build and it seems to stack up fine in group content and even in duels/1v1 pvp. There's more to it too of course, but my point is that from the weapons I've tried, I'm liking blasters for what he's going for... if its a DPS build anyway. But if you're tryna recreate an iconic then that limits things more.

There's some of us who'd be willing to run content with a themed character even if we couldn't complete it.

Out of curiosity who would you make a Tameranian I've got one on my roster and I've given her blasters, suerstrength, super Fortitude and flight (sorcery for end game content as she also got Zatanas powers).

If your only going for iconics a Kryptonian is fairly easy to do brawling, suerstrength, super Fortitude, heat vision, frost Breath, X-ray vision.

Again, your build is fine for having fun but it's not something you'd bring into endgame content. For instance, you mention you have powers on your loadout for cc; dps can't cc in alerts or raids so that isn't something to focus on. A dps shouldn't spec for survivability, they should spec for damage and a Fire dps not going full might will never achieve his full potential. There's a reason none of the best dps in the game heavily rely on movement mode abilities or iconics.

Just to chime in, I tried a flight movement only toon once. She was gadgets, because I had to choose something. I found it a little weak, a little frustrating, so I added the power that brings down an airstrike (can't remember the name) and I found it so much stronger that I realized the futility of what I was doing, and was very glad to have realized it at level 10 or 12, rather than later.

I think the DCUO crew need create new powers 4 no members.
I power was very cool is radiation

I don't think you'll be able to DPS in end game. You might be able to tank though.

Now is it a strict, no powers, or could you take self buffs from your powerset and use those?

I was thinking some iconics and perhaps other powers if they fit a theme or at least don't seem to clash too much.

Currently the character is a T3 Ice tank, acrobat. I don't mind changing the powers of movement mode.

Amazon might be the theme I go with. The character is already female, and if I look through the iconics I can see analogs to a lot of the powers I am already using with ice. Super Strength, Invulnerability, and Lasso are both thematic and appro to a tank. Hard light shield makes sense mechanically, but doesn't seem to make sense thematically. I tried Amazonian Deflection a while back, and wasn't real impressed. Does anyone use it?

Is it just wonder woman that flies or can all Amazons do that in the New 52?

"I think the DCUO crew need create new powers 4 no members."
What?

mine would not totally powerless but at least you should include in your loadout some self-heals. if your toon has a powerset for healers use a least 2, 1 for instant heal and 1 for healing over time. you got the other 4 for damage.

also get as much SP as you can as you have to load from your movement abilities.

if you get to play Legends characters you will have a general idea of what you want to get.
for Kryptonians you will have to use 2 iconic power such as freeze breath and heat vision.
for Amazonians you got Mesmerizing Lasso and Amazonium Deflection.
Tamaranian? I don't know much Iconic powers unless you use the innate ones like nanoweave armor for defense, weapons specialist for critical attacks and for those healing.

you'll be DPS and will have only up 40% AM (advance mechanic) damage. unless you have heals that has 50% AM damage on DPS stance. Alternately for the 3 that you gave as an example can explore the possibilities of going Tank mode using 2 iconic powers, 2 from your powersets and 2 from you movement mode.

also don't expect to be competitive with other toons and survive during missions. maybe you can find a suitable combo so that you can enjoy playing while thriving on missions, not just surviving.

I can not give less power usage.

Okay, I still don't think you're understanding me. I do not use movement abilities in my build. I do not recreate an iconic in my build. When I say CC, I mean attacks that knock down and heavily damage multiple ads at a time. Not attacks that just stun or control. You can tell me that a dps shouldn't focus care about surviving all day but I will gladly agree to disagree there. You can't do damage if you're dead. Bottom line, as I said before. I'm running T3 content daily right now, expert raids, alerts, duos, ect. & I've come in 1st place for dps almost every time even with people 20 levels above me dps-ing beside me. Yes, it is a fire, precision based build, but I the attacks I can do with handblasters yield a higher DPS than I can with the powers with the exception of factoring them in for precision buffs and DoT. There is a reason the game makes weapons for precision & might DPS and Fire is considered a DEFENSE power which yields you the Tank role, so yeah, I think I'm doing okay precision-wise. Also, I'm not trying to compare myself to the best DPS players in the game, I'm comparing myself to the best possible DPS for the abilities I have available to me right now.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm always interested in getting better so I'm asking people for their input all the time when I see them put out killer DPS #s, but given my track record, I just don't believe it is correct to say "A Precision DPS w/ Fire is doing it wrong." The only people I've seen out-DPS me within 15 or so levels, I've spoken to after the group and they said their pets are really OP. I've never been out DPS'd by a Fire player anywhere near my level. So I can appreciate your opinion, but I feel the proof is in the pudding. I don't doubt you can make a killer might-based Fire DPS. But I can make a Precision one. And the time I save staying alive & doing damage is more damager per second. All my heals, buffs and CC do hefty damage simultaneously. So I also disagree with your insinuation that a DPS should do nothing but attack until they die.

Playing with all T7 players who pride themselves on knowing what they are doing in a group, and within a group constructed of specific roles to stick to - I can see what you're saying being the best bet, but if you're going to point to such a small target demographic to make your argument then I really feel it's a moot point here because we're talking about powerless builds and I think the last thing on his mind is how he's gonna stack up next to a T7 might-based DPS at CR 140.

A precision DPS with Fire is doing it wrong. That's not an opinion; it's a fact you could easily confirm yourself by learning how to use fire's AM, then measuring the two options with the combat parser and damage summaries against sparring targets.

You can't tell anything useful from playing T3 instances. It's rare you'll run into any good players there. Using the sparring targets and the combat parser isn't perfect, but it's way better than measuring yourself against random people in trivial content.

I'd choose nature as my powerset for this one, because of the lack of visible animations added to your person. Carnage will buff your weapon and crits, and just looks like you're throwing a trinket. Metabolism doesn't add any animation to your person, either, and can clip any other power you use. Same with Blossom. You can even be a full fledged healer, and not see any animation at all other than you moving around.

Not really; I tinker with it in PvP sometimes. It doesn't quite work the same way as the other shields in the game and those differences are bad for a tank. There used to be people who liked to pop it just before a big boss attack came in. I never found any success trying that.

You can operate a tank using only iconic powers and do the basic job, but you'll never get any real efficiency out of it. Fire and Ice tanks get their primary buff (Defense, HP) out of using any power. You can use the Lasso to pull someone, heat vision to keep aggro on them, that's all fine. And that is good enough to tank a lot of things, probably all the way up to Tier 5 content really.

The problem is that the second level of tank powers only kick in by using the tank powers that trigger them. There's nothing in the iconic trees that competes numerically against Ice's Reflection (massive shielding) or Fire's Stoke Flames (major healing). And in the Rage and Earth cases, you won't trigger much of anything useful just with the iconics.

He could with Earth...Select Crystal and Fortiy golem. Make those the only powers he selects from that tree. Than take boxing glove for the Daze effect. After that pick whatever powers you want for fun.