Solo Task Forces

[Snarky]

So I saw the message about Task Forces now allowing you to start with less than eight and even solo them. Is this feature just for  the truly amazing (because I am not one of those lol).  For instance if I start a Synapse solo is it still set for 8 with an AV at the end?  (And Babbage wandering around because I am not soloing that)

[MetaVileTerror]

Normal mission difficulty settings work.  So if you set it to -1/x1, that's what you get.  WITH the caveat that you still have an Archvillain as an Archvillain, and often capped at the highest level for the Task/Strike Force.

So, say you did Positron 2 as a level 12, solo.  You'd be facing appropriately sized mobs at the appropriate level, until you made it to Dr. Vahzilok.  He'd be Level 15 regardless.  But at least his guards would be your level.

Mercifully, Positron 0 (the original flavour) is available in Ouroboros, and it doesn't have any Archvillains, just Cortex.  I actually run it every few days/weeks.  It's pretty good Merits for the amount of effort I have to invest.  Travel time can be a pain in the butt, since the mission doors are quite random for the most part.  Then again, Powers like the Mission Teleporter and Base Telepads help immensely.

[Shred Monkey]

AV's (and monster Jurassik) is still there, but the spawns are scaled to team size.

 

I've done several of my TF commander requirements solo.  If you have a really good build, this is a viable option.  Low level AV's are IMHO easier to solo then level 50 AVs if you exemplar well.  But it would really stink to go through a whole Synapse TF only to discover you can't handle the Clockwork King.

[Snarky]

This is very good.  With the community dealing with no corporate support and the bloom off the rose of tech reporting it is probable that contraction of population will continue.  But that also means the 4 people I team with on a Synapse will know the entire run and a good chance they will be exemplared or I/o d. (I ran a Synapse 8 person on a PUG this weekend on my beast 50, just for merits when I saw it in broadcast). 1:36. Good team

[Rathulfr]

I just solo'ed Numina yesterday with my level 48-49 Blaster.  It was long and tedious, especially the Kill X in all the zones bits, but pretty easy.  The only AV that I faced was Jurassik at the end, and I was able to take him by hovering above out of melee range.

[Fan Mail]

When I saw that other thread about solo'ing TFs, I got excited and tried Positron 1 and 2.  Was able to complete Posi 1 with my Fire/EM blaster.  Positron 2?  Not so much.  I couldn't get Dr. Vahz past about half health before I ran out of inspirations and he would finish me off.  I think I was level 18 at the time so it's not like I was level 50 and all decked out.  

 

I never finished the Posi 2.  Now, I didn't try and get creative with summoning Shivans to tank and/or tactics like that.  Maybe if I was more prepared, I could have finished but I just carved it up as a loss and moved on.   Some day I'll go back and complete it.  

Edited November 18, 2019 by tafilr

[Six-Six]

Tried Ruladak the Strong solo. He is strong. didn't make a dent on him even with a longbow cataphract and vanguard heavy with me. I'll try again some time. 😃

Also tried the 4 Rikti Riders. Couldn't beat all four of them either. 

I'm such a noob.

Edited November 18, 2019 by Six Six

[Snarky]

I think it is good the content cannot be easily soloed. It indicates a depth to the system.  This was written for a good sized team and one toon, even blinged out and hauling pets with tricks up their sleeve should struggle and or fail.  Of course there are the CoX players who not only build well but really understand the mechanics of each AV and can take a toon and do a can opener on stuff the rest of us think is impossible.  Hats off.  I am just glad there is an opportunity to use small teams to complete this content.  Might bring back the Holy Trinity???

[Voltor]

Soloing the TF's is great but the trick is to be able to withstand the AV or AVs in it.

 

To wit: being able to debuff their regeneration.  Purchasing some venomous daggers from the VIP Vendor can help with that, also having your shivan shard temp power from Bloody bay.

 

However if you are attempting to solo any of the high level TF's on Master Badge settings (no defeats and no temp powers) then the daggers and shivans won't be available.  For them, I would suggest Longbow T3 or T4 core pets and diamagnetic T4 radial for the regen debuffage.

 

Another important thing: whether it is a high or low level TF, how is your defense cap?   45% Smash/Lethal is key, if you can get to 45% in those 2 and also 45% in melee or range, or aoe, or energy, or fire/cold or some combination thereof, you are doing well.

 

Remember that we can have up to 3 builds per character and /selectbuild 1, /selectbuild 2 and /selectbuild 3 are the switch commands.

I try to design at least 2 builds, with build #2 being the low/mid level build that is defense capped to switch over to when I need to exemp down. Build #1 is the overamped, min/maxed, defense capped, regen/recovery/recharge capped with T4 in all incarnate powers which adds up to

 

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!!!!!!!!!!

[Twisted Toon]

7 hours ago, Voltor said:

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!!!!!!!!!!

In an itty bitty living space.

[Haijinx]

9 hours ago, tafilr said:

When I saw that other thread about solo'ing TFs, I got excited and tried Positron 1 and 2.  Was able to complete Posi 1 with my Fire/EM blaster.  Positron 2?  Not so much.  I couldn't get Dr. Vahz past about half health before I ran out of inspirations and he would finish me off.  I think I was level 18 at the time so it's not like I was level 50 and all decked out.  

 

I never finished the Posi 2.  Now, I didn't try and get creative with summoning Shivans to tank and/or tactics like that.  Maybe if I was more prepared, I could have finished but I just carved it up as a loss and moved on.   Some day I'll go back and complete it.  

Dr Vahz is pretty tough in that TF solo.  Bring lots of reds.

[Haijinx]

19 hours ago, Snarky said:

So I saw the message about Task Forces now allowing you to start with less than eight and even solo them. Is this feature just for  the truly amazing (because I am not one of those lol).  For instance if I start a Synapse solo is it still set for 8 with an AV at the end?  (And Babbage wandering around because I am not soloing that)

Synapse works exactly as described as far as Babbage is concerned. 

 

The spawns are just your normal mission setting spawns.  

 

I recomend doing them being the upper level range though since the signature status TFs will often throw stuff at you based on that level.

[nihilii]

Great advice from Voltor!

 

Personally, I'd lean for Degen Interface rather than Diamagnetic. AVs have huge regen resistance and Diamagnetic unfortunately does very low -regen. On the other hand, Degen -maxHP also works as effective regen debufing, as regeneration works in ticks of your current HP.

(The reason Envenomed Daggers are still worth using is because their -regen debuff is HUGE. -250% per dagger, I think? And it is stackable. Same goes for the Longbow Cataphract, which does -500% regen with its double laser beam attack.)

[Ukase]

I can tell you, depending on your AT and build, soloing the Task Force Commander TFs (Posi 1,2, Synapse, etc) are very simple to solo. You don't really even need the uber builds, although it certainly helps. What I do suggest - along with the envenomed daggers (get multiples) are the summon pets - The ranged damage for heroes is Positron, who dishes out some pretty serious debuffs as well as more than respectable damage. 

My brutes solo them without the pets - but my defender and tanks will take the summon pets for the dps. 

Imagine - doing Posi 2 - with a stealth buff from your sg buff station, or perhaps your stealth IO if you have one - and zipping through the tf faster than if you had a solid team of 8! You're stealthed, you've got your jetpack, and you go under the bridge where the bombs are, click them, and proceed inside. Inside -when you're set to 0/1, there are two goons at each bomb, and none of them are looking at the bomb. You click, lose your stealth, but it doesn't matter because they aren't looking at you. 

Wipe out Rollister and his two goons, wait 10 seconds for your stealth to kick back in, and zip outside, click all 4 chem barrels without having to clobber anyone. Take on Dr. Vahz and as long as you've got some decent Luck inspirations, and a few tier 3 rages and your envenomed dagger, depending on your AT, you're golden. 20 minutes, and you're done. 

Synapse will always be faster with a large decent team. Solo, however, will take about as long as a casual group that goes afk to train and tend to kids and such. About 2 hours. Sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on if you have the mission tp and team teleport and how wisely you use them. (The SG base macro is invaluable and a real time saver!)

Yin is certainly faster solo. Maybe 15 minutes. 20 if you take your time and skip the freaks that rez. When you go into the ppd station, you head directly upstairs. Ez pz. 
Citadel - about the same as a team. Same with Manticore. Manticore is a bit tougher because you have two avs to contend with. Only my brute has been able to handle that without a pet. (As much inf went into that build, it should be able to!)
Numina is so much faster solo - mainly because I know where to go to do the hunts quickly. A lot of folks just have no idea where to find certain npcs in the various zones and it slows things down. 

That said - teaming will almost always be a bit more fun with the right folks. But if you can't find the right folks, solo is a great option!

[eknudson]

16 hours ago, Haijinx said:

Dr Vahz is pretty tough in that TF solo.  Bring lots of reds.

Alternately, my tank did Posi 2 solo with a lot of purples. And a backup radio. And a warwolf. And envenomed daggers.

 

If you decide to do this, be sure to clear the spawns around the base of the towers below Dr. Vahz' bridge. He does some heavy knockback powers occasionally, and will knock your allies off the bridge. If there are too many abominations still alive, it takes too long for them to make it back-- if they make it back at all. 

[Call Me Awesome]

My recollection is that all of the Signature TF's will always spawn based on their max level... so Synapse for example will always spawn level 20 mobs (modified by difficulty settings).  I ran into that a few months ago when I was on a group of level 15-17 players and we ALWAYS faced purple mobs.  With the difficulty set to -1 we faced level 19 spawns... a bit of a challenge for minimum level teams.

 

For that reason I always make sure the team leader is at max level for the TF... and if you're soloing one don't try it until you outlevel it.

[Voltor]

On 11/18/2019 at 8:03 PM, Twisted Toon said:

In an itty bitty living space.

Only because I have not hyper expanded my SG base yet 🙂