Without_Pause

This is the way. Level 25 Commons either crafted or bought via the market as the market for them is bad and thus they can be had for cheap. You can also work on the IO crafting memorization badges so you can skip on needing the recipe and the crafting cost is lower. My default until recently was just slotting level 25 commons until level 50. I've use those common builds for level 50 content and felt fine. Now, I certainly would add in some one off IOs and such as needed since it allows me to do things like 2-slot Stamina, give great bang for buck return with Def/Resist, or add in a proc to an attack. D/R is less desired in a slot as you pimp out a build so yay damage procs.

Do note, I feel like soloing +4/x8 has a bit of an asterisk with it. Yes, I have a brute who can do it, and even pre level 50, BUT, there are certain maps which are all sorts of "Hell no." This says nothing about can it be done at a tolerable rate as well. Sure, you could if you wanted to do that setting with a Ice/ff controller, but dear lord why?

Is something which can solo at +4/x8 obsolete? Asking for a friend.

IIRC, it is a bit bugged in how well it interacts with procs. Some people 6 slot it with procs.

ST Hold and ST Immob with Arcane Bolt. There's no need to dip that heavily in pool attacks.

I don't see there being an advantage to a farming server. There would be no real perk for farming there as one could simply transfer elsewhere once they were done being farmed or farming themselves. Plus, I dual box farms. Why do I need to be encouraged to move to a separate server so I can still farm by myself?

The shields from Sonic will still make Jack tougher as well. Now add in the -res, and I would much rather have that. Sonic Siphon adds 22.5% -res to a single target for a controller. No, not really sexy at all, but it is at least something. Toss in Arcane Bolt and you at least can have a fairly early attack chain.

Ice/ff would be worse since there is no -res.

I question the usage of "every time." Last I checked the population was only trending downward. With fewer players, players are seeking more and solo solo options. Have you even tried to find consistent teams on the lower pop servers? I have and can spend hours on said server and get maybe one instance of a non-50 team being announced in the LFT channel. This isn't to say their are that many level 50 teams running either.

I was down around the 12 minute mark on my Rad/fire depending on how on top of my game I was trying to be. I know I can be faster, but I just haven't put in the effort to do so, and taking a break from the game anyway.

If you have a level 50 build, then it isn't a blank slate.

What do you have right now?

Will it get better? Yes. WP outside of debuffs is quite good. It might help to open up Mid's and put your build into it and post it. I'm not saying you can't get to 50 on SOs because you absolutely can, and the build will be decent enough. However, the usage of SOs in CoH has essentially past, IMO. Adding in a few select IOs can be rather beneficial even if you need to be cheap since you lack funds or know how to slot IOs. Once you hit level 22, you keep opening up better options for IOs. Level 27 is the best range until you can slot level 50s. I can't recall what diff setting I had at level 23. Some builds just bloom early enough to where +0/x3 is fairly easy to take on where others would still be at +0/x2. Getting CU at 32 will help simply because that thing cranks.

I don't sell converters for 70K. I use them to convert other things and make even more than the 70K. If I'm not making a million/converter as an example, that's a bad deal on my end.

And a dedicated graphics card. I don't how much percent wise one wants to avoid Intel, but any time I have asked in support about whatever computer I am using to run the game, I am reminded that CoH isn't kind to Intel. However, I can have issues with the game running smooth with a SSD drive and 16 GB RAM, but using an integrated graphics card on my work laptop. Less than my non-SSD and 8 GB RAM personal laptop mind you, but yeah. I even put the settings on minimum for the crappier one and can still have issues depending on what map and what is going on. I eagerly await the day my personal laptop finally decides it die just not too eagerly as I prefer not spending the money.

Once the both players get some mezzes going things will smooth out. You basically mezz the annoying stuff, then debuff and slow anything else, and drop AoEs on them. Redside is fine if mobs sizes are sane. At least in terms of soloing, x8 can be a genuine pain in the butt higher up due to end drain and the sheer mass of Psy.

Four of the 6 TFC TFs and the Shard TFs all could use a revamp. Even some of the better ones still make me go, "But why?"

Yeah, I do the big mob map which is in a tunnel and no stragglers. A single pass gets me to 22. If nothing else that's an easy and nice thing to do for just about any character although hitting 27 would be the ideal in terms of IO slotting options for level 30 sets. TA has been a nice find. I'm still hellbent against longer animations so when I get back around to things I'm curious about Dark/kin controller. The only long animation is really a before battle cast anyway.

I had accidently clicked on it one time and was trying to figure out how I had the salvage listed for a recipe. A couple weeks later I noticed the text and clicked on it. One of those "oh holy s*** moments." I never felt more like a newb as a vet.

I only self PL via dual boxing. I'm not sure when I would do it again. For a variety of reasons(burnout, real life), I haven't logged in some time. I'm not sure when I get back into the game how I will approach my characters. It might be straight PL or level them as normal. I think there are a few I would like to level normally. At this point I think it will take making a character with power sets which I haven't played before to be interested in rolling anything. I had been getting more tempted to go the Bill Z route before my break and just use test to see how much I would like a build and then go from there. The pro/con of being a 10+ year CoH vet is you know what you like and don't. There just aren't that many builds worth playing. I got borderline to the point of just wanting to log onto my badger outside of some new projects and call it good.

I had a blast running the later arcs in The Hollows during my time in HC. Doing them solo can be a challenge. Atta is just a long haul which I don't recommend to do solo. It is another XP dump similar to FF. The last mission can be rather annoying and hard for lowbies and more so depending on what version of the map you get. I did get a couple people to stick around after FF and we plowed through at least one arc if not close to the final two. The Hollows was the zone I hung out with players during my first weekend playing the game around i4-i5 time frame. It will forever have a special place in my heart because that was the time where I just feel in love with the game.

Make a character and go through the tutorial. Keep the inspirs they give you. Once you have 5 influ, you can list one of them on the market for 5 influ. Sell the other after you sell the first one. Starting buying common/white salvage at like 100 influ. Sell what you get to a vendor for 250. Do this with stacks of ten at a time. Eventually you can go on the market and start buying level 50 common IO recipes. Same thing. Eventually do it with stacks of ten. Around 2 mill or so( I haven't been on in a while), start grabbing level 41 Red Fortune recipes. Craft and use converters on them. Just convert within the same defense type so the cost is 2 converters. Sell at a profit. Rinse and repeat.

To the question in the title, no.

/bio isn't allowed when talking about worst.

Poison/beam defender would give him fits with all that -regen. WP in short hates debuffs so load up on those.