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I think I'll nominate the humble Tier 1 Zombies. I like they way they are animated and "arresting" your opponents by feeding them to your zombie horde as they call for "Brains!" is just so wrong.

I have a Necro/Storm which I really enojoy and Beast/Storm which never really clicked, not sure why. I guess what really sold me on Necro/Storm was this idea of knocking mobs down and letting zombies pile on to feed. Also zombies are better behaved, they don't run off as much. That said, on paper I think Storm would probably work best with ranged pet like Robots or Mercs. Robots in my view might have the best synergy given that the bots help will the Defence gap. Not really strong thematically, but it should be really effective even with a fairly casual build. I personally enjoy playing Mercs, but their limitations are well documented. Solo Storm works well. Basically you are constantly knocking back/down mobs so that they never even get a chance to shoot back. That is until you meet that mob that resist knock back and then you're toast. Endurance should be OK as long as you use Hurricane tactically ( you can use Gale which is pretty amazing power) and don't go nut with recharge. Of some may argue the whole point of getting Storm is to go nut with recharge and really pile on the damage.

I have a Necro/Sonic. I have a while lot of Necros becasue I like them zombies, but I was keen to try Sonic as I'd heard good things about the combination. In a nutshell, it was no fun to play while levelling (with frequent visits to the hospital), but now at incarnate level it is very strong. The Zombies learn how to heal themselves eventually, and Medicine or Rebirth is enough to top them off. Personally I enjoyed Necro/Force Field more. They are pretty similar but Defence I find is more reliable and you get soft-cap much sooner. Also, this might just be me, things like caltrops are other effects seemed completely wreck my sonic zombies in a way I never never experienced on my other Nerco characters. I suspect it something to do with Sonic being Resistance-based and my other Necros all have Defence-based secondaries, but don't quote me.

Thugs/Traps was my first 50 in CoX back on Live, first max level character in any MMO. I was even more clueless back then and I mostly soloed (the two things probably not unrelated) so I can honestly that my Thugs carried me all the way to 50. It is a very strong combination.

Have a look at this discussion and see what you make of it: I find the extra range of Cyro very useful in certain maps when solo. Likewise all the KB/KD from standard ammo provides helpful damage mitigation, but once I get them Defence soft-capped, less so. As such I generally I go with Fire ammo. I can't say I notice during play mobs going down any quicker, I'm just trusting the people who have done the maths.

I fully agree. Mercs/FF is simple, clean fun. Most things die under the sustained fire of your army men before they even get in range and those that manage to get close are bounced all the way back by Repulsion Field while you drown in a sea of shell casings. It never gets old. But as we're talking about fun while levelling, one thing to bear in mind about Force Fields is that you can pretty much get any pet Defence soft-capped or close by level 20. Considering how the 20s can be tough for most Masterminds, this is a considerable advantage if you are going it solo. Of course the other Defence based Secondaries are a lot more versatile.

If keeping up with the young 'uns and slower reflexes are an issue, I would avoid melee characters. You'll be running around, trying to close in with oppenents only to find they'd got "arrested" by AoE before you even get there. Tanks, as others have mentioned, have the additional issue of team members expecting you to... tank, which is a big resposibility. I echo those who recommended a Sentinel in this instance. You do just fine solo. In a team you are tough enough not be a burden and all you need to do in chaos of combat is use your tab key to select targets. If you focus on single target attacks and avoid powers with knockback you can be pretty confident you won't get yourself or anyone else killed while making a valid contribution to the team. I'd particularly recommend Super Reflex as a Sentinel secondary. It is largely "set and forget" and it will soft-cap all your positional defences without having to do anything fancy or expensive with enhancements. In terms of Primaries, my understanding is that Fire is the most simple and effective option. I am just going on what I heard as I've not used that set, but it should do fine even with just simple IO enhancements. From experience, what I found good for a very relaxed solo experience as a Sentinel was Sonic. It has a lot of sleeps and stuns which allow you to conrol the fight, freezing all your opponents in place so that you pick them off one-by-one, like a Controller. Sonic's single target damage isn't bad by Sentinel standards.

This thread got me curious to finally try a solo +4x/8 mission on my Merc/FF. I'd always shied from x8. It always seemed like a whole lot of mobs, hard to control the flow of battle with that much action going on. It was from the Sister Solaris arc, facing Banished Pantheon in Cimerora, so I don't think I totally softballed it. Anyway, much to my surprise, it wasn't bad at all. It was a little hard on Endurance (Repulsion Field doesn't like that many mobs), but not really the slower than +4/x2 which is more my normal speed for incarnate characters. I had concerns going in given that Merc/FF is not exactly a hot combination (I am sure some people would say it's a "hot" something) and mine's a pretty cheap build made mostly of simple IO and a few tactical uniques. And I still think +4/x2 is more enjoyable; at least I can see what is happening. I am pretty sure I would not be able to take AV solo though, just don't have the damage. But I am OK with that.

I get that 16 seconds recharge is the magic number for single target damage in terms of best chance of getting the proc to fire. But how does that compare to say 4 second recharge attack over the course of 16 seconds? In other words would 4 attempts at firing off the proc (albeit at a lower probability ) within the 16 second timeframe not match the 1 almost certain attempt triggering the proc? Not to mention that each of the faster attacks, even if it does not trigger the proc will still do it's regular damage (assuming you have the Endurance to sustain it).

Oh my, and to think my best characters are all Sentinels and Masterminds, including a Mercs/FF Mastermind (over 100 Vet levels and still going). I really ought to learn how to play City of Heroes one of these days.

Maybe Cloud Senses on the Lich in place of Glimpse for proc damage? Demon/Storm is going a more aggressive build. Necro/Electric safer and more control orientated.

Oh My, really? I guess I'll just have to use then on my Sentinels then! 🙂

One of my favourite characters is a Merc/Force FIeld Mastermind. Neither primary or secondary are well regarded for perfectly valid reasons, but somehow that combination works well for me and has taken me passed Vet level 100 without even trying, all the way solo (+4 level. x1 or x2 team size, no AV). I find this character performs as well if not better as my other Incarnate level characters, Mastermind and other ATs under the exact same conditions. Which leads me to conclude I must screwed up badly the build for these other characters. Or maybe it's only with AVs that you can tell the difference?

This was more of a general fishing expedition "I collected have a bunch Very Rare recipes, is it worth using them and which character should I give them to?" sort of question. As an aside, for a laugh a created an alternate build for one of my Masterminds (Necro/Sonic), six slotted brawl and loaded it with Proc including Hecatomb (as well got all the attacks from the Fighting pool). This is not an entirely original idea; I'd head about this before but I'd never tried it. It was surprisingly good, especially when you consider its recharge speed and Mastermind endurance costs for personal attacks.

Which Very Rare class (Purple) IOs provide the best bang for the buck for Masterminds. I have a lot Masterminds but still limited resource. I collected a handful of Purple recepies along the way, but overall my resources are still limited. I am thinking going for the Proc rather than trying to get full sets might be more efficient, or is that not the way to go? Any particular Very Rare I should look out for or particular Mastermind powers that really benefit from Very Rare enchancements? The Soulbound Change for Build Up sounds worthwile, but I am not sure which pet benefit the most from it (possibly the Tier 1 because there are more of them?. I'm also against put a Very Rare Proc in a personal attack, I tend to use them on the less busy secondaries.

These should do the trick: /macro XXX petcom_name Demonling Follow Aggressive /macro YYY petcom_name Demonling Attack

These two threads will give you a good rundown of all the primaries and two of the strongest secondaries (Time and Dark). Taken together, they are a execellent introduction. Beyond that, it's a matter of playstyle preferences. Demons are among the strongest pets, but the way they block the entire screen annoys me. Some people dislike zombies because they are so slow, but they are among my favourite pets. (I have five different Necro combinations at level 50). And, despite all the bad press they get, I enjoy playing my Mercs/Force Field so much I've taken that character passed Vet level 100 without even trying. I undestand why people might the combination underwhelming, but it works for me.

If you want a mule for the auras on Bots, you can combine them with Storm. It's a bit of an upside down combination as you'd get the extra defence from the Primary and the extra from the Secondary. and my not work thematically, but I suspect it would not be boring.

Masterminds work well solo, even on a budget. A Thugs/Cold Mastermind will get you Defence soft-capped pets even without auras, strong pets and some impressive debuffs. Robots/Traps gets you there too I think. And of course if you only have SO, Force Field start looking pretty decent again.

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Have a look at this thread The posts by Oldskool are particularly insightful. It's a really fun combination.

For Nature, have a look at this thread:

Yes, it does.

If you mean Trap's Force Field Generator, then I think the answer is no because the FFG is a pet, not a buff.

I did pick Entangling Aura in the end. It is as effective as advertised solo. Graphically it is pretty horrible though. I am using a gray-tint colour scheme on Nature so it looks more like a heavy, metal chain.