How Many Different Kinds of Early/Midgame Builds Are There? (Level 0-79)

Writing this while on break, won't be the most detailed or well-thought-out. Sorry!

I'm specifically banning 80 and above because that's when the lategame starts, and I'm honestly not equipped to talk about those. To help out, I'll define what my weird definitions

What I'd define as a Different PLAYSTYLE is, naturally: "A way of playing which has different goals it can achieve - or [different starting condition(s) and mechanic(s)] to try and achieve standard goals with - than the default option(s), and is equally or more potent than those options."

The "default goal(s)" of the normal playstyles are: Have DPS, and don't die.

An example of "a different starting condition and mechanic to try and achieve standard goals" would be Tachypsychia. It's Major ID makes Shaman have to play around half-duration Totems which do Totem effects twice as fast. And even ignoring the Major ID, it would fulfill example of "a different start" because of it's heavy STR/DEX requirements forcing you to run those skills for a total of 100 SP, which makes you inherently play differently when you go for standard goals. Not to mention it has Negative Mana Regen, which makes halved-Totem duration hurt more if you don't invest in an Uproot that keeps it alive.

TL;DR: Tachy is a good example because it wibbly-wobbly-whacks Shaman's "standard options" around because you're dealing damage way faster, losing your Totems and Mana faster, etc.

TLDR Again: I think the traits which set apart a playstyle/build from one another are:

• Where does your SP go? (STR/DEX favor damage, INT favors barrages of Spells, DEF/AGI favor facetanking or ignoring stray hits taken)
• What do your Abilities/Major IDs change about your moveset? (Abilities on the Tree can let you play multiple different ways - most of them less potent than others. Major IDs come with Items and have their own pros and cons.)
• What's your Win/Loss Condition? (How does it win the average DPS/Heal scenario differently than default options? Example: Shaman with or without Regeneration Totems)

I could keep going but I'll leave it there.

The default options, in my own head, are running purely Archetypes, and using the effects of the Red Nodes to play in a way that I can guess was intended by the developers based on my understanding of them and their basic descriptions. (Which could be wrong, but it's a narrow chance.)

The two classes I currently have most leveled and the most familiarity with are Shaman (high 70s) and Archer (low 60s). The playstyles I've personally found are,

• Flying Archer (run a "pure" Sharpshooter Ability Tree which actually focuses on spamming Crepescular Ray and floating as much as it can instead of Twain's Arc or using Focus)
• (Oops I forgot there's like a lot more to add here, I'll edit it in later.)

And here's ones I've thought of but haven't tried yet (either because they sound boring or really impractical/hard to master compared to standard options):

• Lunatic Acolyte - Apparently this is meta to some extent.
• Lunatic Summoner - This is definitely meta. I just feel a bit anxious about damage resistance dropping and like using my AP on quality of life or interesting things, is kinda why I haven't played it yet. And at the end of the day, it's Summoner, again.
• Double Eldritch Acolyte (Your Health is gone, your Blood is gone, but the damage that can be output in a burst is completely unfair...Except the totems can't move.)
  
• FirstSpellular Ray - Who needs Twain's Arc or the ultimate move of the class when you can full-send laser upgrades and re-enact the Shoop Da Whoop? (Me apparently, this seems kind of dumb but possible. Maybe I'll try it, thinking about how the 24 block range and "hit once in the duration = doesn't count as a miss" means it's more forgiving, in addition to the Ability Tree giving the Arrow Laser decent stat scaling.)
• LunaHeretic Acolyte - Because what I clearly want to do is play Boltslinger and Trapper at the same time, but on Shaman, right? (Close Range + Speed Mode + Damage Up + Tentacle Traps sounds solid, but I'm just thinking of the cons of playing it...)
• Reboundless Acolyte - Would require the Fanatic and Lunatic Masks, but theoretically does good work because you can heal better/faster (outside losing a lot of AP to getting around Rebound). Unfortunately has to deal with the fact that Aura isn't an easy Spell to spam (or even cast more rapidly) this "early" into the game, from the builds I've played.
• Aura Nuke - The idea is stacking an ungodly amount of Damage Up from Lunatic, Vengeful Spirit, a Spell Damage Build, and upgrades to Aura so that a single Aura kills everything, then the enemies which die launch their own half-Auras which kill even more things. Or maybe even ditching the chain-reaction idea and just going for Double Totem, so casting Aura once hits even harder. I haven't theorycrafted a good enough Ability Tree for this yet, much less the right Spell build for it, though, and this is HIGHLY impractical against Bosses or anything high-HP which would survive / spawn after an Aura (...most of the relevant content in the game, such as Raids.)
• Heretic Summoner - Stack all the move speed in the Tree and yeet across the ground with Mirror's Edge and an AGI build. Unfortunately, too little damage for me to

Here's the Archetypes I haven't played much on each of my two Classes.

• Just Boltslinger - Yeah it's probably strong but past fundamental Archer skills, it's very one-note and spammy. Saving it as a last resort for if I decide I just wanna run Morph, meta and win, tbh
• Just Trapper - Also spammy, but this time you (hypothetically) send out a bunch of animals and prepare Traps in the meantime for when their damage scaling makes a big difference. Seems VERY easy for mobs to just...over-run or set off the Traps too early, though? And the Mana costs for Bomb Arrow + kinda lackluster Mana Regen from the Traps don't give me a good impression from testing. Bryophyte Roots Arrow Storm is always good though, I just don't run it on any other builds.
• Just Ritualist - this is a standard option that has so much to learn muscle-memory-wise it loops back to being too messy to rate next to Acolyte and Summoner. Probably at least viable, because I think there's always been a bias towards making sure Archetypes are well-statted since 2.1, but has a skill floor on the moon.
• Just Acolyte - because I have an issue with risking my own HP, the fear of losing Soul Points (and now, just bad Respawn locations) is gonna haunt me for awhile...

I've spent too long typing this, I'm just gonna click Create Thread now and

 

Don't know how feasible this is on low level but I think tierstack counts as a separate playstyle for both archer and shaman
There's also poison iguess? :P
And some movement focused builds!