What's your favorite builder?

[Uncle Yuan]

I didn't realize that there were multiple options!  :wacko: What have you used and which is the easiest to use?

[Alaric]

Never used any, never plan to.

[captainspud]

Sheet of paper + pen.

Left side, I write out all my current powers and the slots in each. Right side, I enumerate each power level (1, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc) and when to take each power. I usually have a slot left on the bottom, so I list which tray slots all the powers are in.

Faster and easier than using a builder.

[Uncle Yuan]

Sheet of paper + pen.

Left side, I write out all my current powers and the slots in each. Right side, I enumerate each power level (1, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc) and when to take each power. I usually have a slot left on the bottom, so I list which tray slots all the powers are in.

Faster and easier than using a builder.

Yeah, I guess.  But I'm looking at respeccing UY, and at level 44 I have no idea when I took various powers and slots.  And with three power pools and an epic pool, there's a lot of fiddling there.  I suppose it doesn't make that much difference if I don't do a lot of exemping.

[El Condor]

This is just a quote from a post by Raptor in the "Binds, Tips & Tricks" thread, but since you did ask for a recommendation:

While sitting bored at work at 3am, I was perusing the net for a CoH hero planner that wasn't blocked by my company's firewall and ran across this little gem.  The info here is up to date (the offline planner I had been using hasn't been updated since I6) and has a great layout. 

Suckerpunch's Online Hero Planner

Again, I think it's a really well-made planner, so I'd say give it a shot.

EC

[captainspud]

It usually doesn't take more than five minutes for me to sort out when to take what powers. Start with the easy ones as a frame-- Stamina at 20, Travel at 14-- then add in the essentials you want right when they're available--pets, shields, what have you--  and at that point, I've usually got over half the slots filled. The rest is generally pretty easy to fill in-- prereqs for pools, attacks, whatever.

Using a planner which forces you to pick in order can be very frustrating. If you get to 20 and realize you only have one prereq for Stamina, it's annoying to have to back up and fix it. By hand, you just erase.

[B A D]

Ive planned a head in me noggin, but never actually used an online planner. i think its more fun that way. Any more accounting and this game becomes work.

[GhostMachine]

I generally use SherkSilver's. I used to use Joe Chott's back when I first started playing, but it is woefully out of date (hasn't been updated since before Thugs Masterminds were added). SherkSilver's is good, but I believe he turned over the updating to someone else and its okay unless you're building a Thugs MM, because the descriptions for the Thugs powerset's henchmen need to be updated; you need to know offhand what extra abilities the henchmen get when building a Thugs MM using it. Otherwise, its great.

(I don't really use the builder to actually build a character in the conventional sense; I use it to decide if I want to try a particular character set up (like my Assault Rifle\Energy Manipulation Blaster and my Trick Arrow\Archery Defender - I almost made a Gravity\Trick Arrow Controller instead of the Defender, until I played around in the builder) or to check out a power I'm considering taking on a character when they're close to getting a new one)

[ThePrelate]

I have never used a builder as anything but a tool to recruit friends to play COH.

I typically know what I want on a character when I create them. I have only respecced Prelate once to change his powers around, and that was because I needed to drop "Gale" because it was pissing off the people I was playing with, at the time :)