<p>Since powder selection for in situ synthesis by laser cladding is rarely studied at present. To remedy this deficiency, a powder selection method was proposed. TiC/TiB₂ composite coatings were synthesized by laser cladding Fe-based, Ni-based, and Co-based powders with added Ti/B₄C on D2 die steel. The properties of the coatings after laser cladding of the three schemes were analyzed and evaluated. The average microhardness of Fe-based composite coatings was the largest at 708.3 HV_1.0, while the average microhardness of Ni-based composite coatings was the lowest. Meanwhile, the Fe-based composite coating had the best wear resistance with only 9.8&#xa0;mg of wear, but the Fe-based composite coating had the worst toughness with a elongation of only 2.61%. The microhardness, wear resistance, tensile, and impact toughness of the Co-based coating were in between. Finally, the three coatings were scored by entropy weight method combined with technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution, and the Co-based composite coatings had the highest score of 0.625, which proved that it had the best comprehensive performance and was more suitable for in situ synthesis of composite coatings with TiC/TiB₂ particles.</p>