I usually look up cookie cutter builds, strip them down to the bare bones, then rebuild how I like.

Play the way you want man, if its not fun you're doing something awfully wrong

I certainly intend on having fun. just curious about what people are planning on doing.

Some people will stick to cookie cutter ideas regarding which classes should use which weapons/armor. You'll see a lot of Nightblades in medium armor and dual wielding or using a bow. You'll see a lot of Sorcerers wearing light armor and using a Destro or Resto staff. You'll see a lot of Dragonknights in heavy armor with a 2 hander or sword and board. Templars don't really fit into a single cookie. They'll probably be mostly light armor healers or heavy armor tanks.

The great thing about the game is, you can try anything and if it doesn't meet your expectations, you can change it (apart from your class). So don't be afraid to try something that is unconventional.

There are many options and great diversity available with builds. It all comes down to preferred playstyle, what you want your role to be, and where you want your damage to come from. For example, one of the best potential tanks in this game could be a heavy armor sorcerer that uses the support tree for resistance and armor buffs and 1h/Shield.

It basically works like this. If you want your damage to come from your class skills (any of the three class specific lines) you'll want to focus on Magicka, which would make Light armor a great choice as Light armor buffs and supports Magicka. So if you want to be a DK that does a lot of fire damage wearing light armor makes sense.

If you want your damage to come from Weapon Skills, your focus becomes Stamina in which case wearing Medium armor is your best choice. This is the case no matter your class or weapon selection. So you can be a Sorcerer with Med armor using a 2 hander and the skills associated with it as your primary damage dealers. Your class specific skills then basically become a support.

And whatever role you are looking to fill, if you just want to be more durable and tanky, you wear heavy armor. Its worth noting that there should be enough skill points in this game to EVENTUALLY unlock all skills available to your character. At which point what your role is, where you choose to focus your playstyle (Tank, Healer, Melle, Ranged, Spell Caster) will all be a matter of what type of gear you're wearing, your weapon, and the skills you choose. -Force strategy gaming.

I'm going to try and design a character I can play well within my various limitations. I'm not as young as I was and my reflexes are just average so I'll be looking for range and good survivability. Something brain over brawn. Although I do have a hankering for 2-H swordplay as a backup from L15. I think my first live character will be a heavy armoured Restoration Staff sorcerer.

I'm hoping to see way less self-proclaimed build experts and gear point elitism when it comes to grouping. It's going to be months before we get any real idea what exceptionally works or not.

IMHO the best build for you is the one you have the most fun playing.

Where is the Set the Mold option?

^This I can't vote.....

I started a Templar Build around Nova Ultimate. Wearing a mix of medium and Heavy armour plus using 1h+Shield.

Concentrating on skills which give me more Stamina as well as Skills which supports getting ultimate points and supporting getting multiple enemys cought in Ultimate. As like in beeing Rooted, stunned, slowed etc.

My goal is to Aoe everything on high levels and dishing out enough damage with 1h+shield on single target at the sametime. Trying to get some tanking done too.

The downside of achieving this kind of build is that you'll need to spend tons of skillpoints in passives and weapon/armor skills too.

So this build is slow to begin and just starts to get working at around level 20, which i achieved after those two BETA Events.

If this works out in the end, i do hope to have a very toughnut character which is doing well in pvp too.

But this takes time.

This build will surely not be competitive with pure cookiecutters relying on only very specific skilllines.

So i try to break the mold

But as experienced in 6 years of WoW using Rogue Cookiecutterrbuilds...i wonder if any topguild will take builds like this into their rooster. I bet not.

I'll be breaking the mold, creating the kind of class I want to create and that works best for me to have fun.

The build that kills the fastest and is fun

its unfortunate because id like to play whatever i want. but there is always one or two uber builds that gimps you if you arent using. its a shame really.

and due to arrogant bratty kids in guilds, never get an invite to a dungeon. thank god theres no option to look at someones gear. at least theres that.

Cookie cutter

Assuming you mean a build that is optimized and tested via parsers for the best whatever needed for that role.

Why play something that isn't bleeding edge? I get the being different vibe but why go into a pvp fight with a less than optimized build? That's like taking a knife to fight a tank. You're gonna lose and I much prefer to win.