Solo all Blueside Archetype

[Snarky]

I soloed Redside back on live a few times    That means every contact every mission (once for repeatable).   I always did this on a Brute.  I never managed it Blueside.  The stories are not as well written. There is more content and the contacts spiderweb in a confusing manner. (To me). I got a few tries in the mid twenties and I think one in the 35 range. Hard to remember

 

i plan on another run at it.  Just to say I have done it.  So.  What AT?  Brute is the go to.  I love Brutes.  The upcoming Tank changes make this a possibility. The changes do help soloing but they are really built for team play. Even more so with the changes.  

 

A scrapper is a possibility.  After all 90% of the content I will be running is stealth thru a mission and kill 3 guys.  The tanking I will need to do is minimal with an Elite Boss the nastiest thing I will face solo

 

i play this classic style +0/x1 no AV and team for Task Forces at appropriate levels as I go.  

 

I tend toward Brutes because I love Super Strength and Dark Melee. DM runs better o. A Brute and seems awkward on a Scrapper.  I am not a fan of the extra mechanic sets and do not like weapons because of the animations. Tends to bring me back to Brutes.  Outlier.  Could this be done on a Blaster or a Stalker.  I am sure it could but could I do it?  I Brute because after hitting the floor a couple times I just want to charge whatever and get it done lol

 

any thoughts are appreciated.  Huge project.  The merits will finance a sweet build as I go

[Sailboat]

Brutes are better during prolonged contact with multiple enemies.  Seems like overkill to stealth a mission and kill three guys.

 

Stalkers are great at killing small groups and have stealth from the get-go.  I'd use a Stalker for this task.

[siolfir]

1 minute ago, Snarky said:

I soloed Redside back on live a few times    That means every contact every mission (once for repeatable).   I always did this on a Brute.  I never managed it Blueside.  The stories are not as well written. There is more content and the contacts spiderweb in a confusing manner. (To me). I got a few tries in the mid twenties and I think one in the 35 range. Hard to remember

 

i plan on another run at it.  Just to say I have done it.  So.  What AT?  Brute is the go to.  I love Brutes.  The upcoming Tank changes make this a possibility. The changes do help soloing but they are really built for team play. Even more so with the changes.  

 

A scrapper is a possibility.  After all 90% of the content I will be running is stealth thru a mission and kill 3 guys.  The tanking I will need to do is minimal with an Elite Boss the nastiest thing I will face solo

 

i play this classic style +0/x1 no AV and team for Task Forces at appropriate levels as I go.  

 

I tend toward Brutes because I love Super Strength and Dark Melee. DM runs better o. A Brute and seems awkward on a Scrapper.  I am not a fan of the extra mechanic sets and do not like weapons because of the animations. Tends to bring me back to Brutes.  Outlier.  Could this be done on a Blaster or a Stalker.  I am sure it could but could I do it?  I Brute because after hitting the floor a couple times I just want to charge whatever and get it done lol

 

any thoughts are appreciated.  Huge project.  The merits will finance a sweet build as I go

If you want to play a Brute through it, sure - but at that difficulty level with a plan of stealthing everything you can, you should be able to run any AT (just not every build within them). A Brute will survive well, but a Stalker or Scrapper would be a better choice for just clearing a spawn or two.

 

A Mind Control Dominator or Controller could sleep one mob, hold another, Confuse the last one, and then just kill them at leisure - the speed of the killing varying based on which AT you picked.

 

You could also play a MM - it's easy mode most of the time solo, and if you're not turning the difficulty up you will outnumber the mobs you're fighting most of the time.

 

 

[Lost Ninja]

I loved DM on my scrapper who was started before Brutes were even around.... she died when the servers did.

 

A Blaster or Stalker could certainly do the challenge. Not seen the changes to Tankers yet as I seldom even roll one, but that would my suggestion as the only AT that couldn't do this easily (low damage :. Slow). If I were doing it I'd probably go with a */Rad controller.

[Fan Mail]

Yeah, I wouldn't do a Brute since 1 or 2 mobs will not take advantage of Fury.  The Scrappers/Stalkers' criticals win in this scenario.    

[Parabola]

I'm doing exactly this at the moment. I started a couple of different toons for it but at the end of the day stalkers really hold all the cards. I had a good costume for a DB/SR so that's what I went with but any/any should work.

 

It is a slog mind. I've only got as far as level 14, but I have more or less cleared the content there. I've found that there are contacts you simply can't get introduced to no matter what which is irritating (unless I've missed something). Oh speaking of missing things, I very nearly missed the atlas park bank mission (do it at 9 or lower, it'll appear at 10 but can take a few tries).

[GM Sijin]

7 minutes ago, parabola said:

I've found that there are contacts you simply can't get introduced to no matter what which is irritating (unless I've missed something).

Most normal contacts no longer require an introduction, in that you can just walk up to them and they will give you their missions. This is not exclusively true, but if you're trying to get a specific contact you might try just going to talk to them, assuming you haven't already.

[HelenCarnate]

For speed and ease I would say stalker. Can easily stealth those missions that allow it and enough damage and durability to handle the few missions to take out EBs.  

[Call Me Awesome]

12 minutes ago, HelenCarnate said:

For speed and ease I would say stalker. Can easily stealth those missions that allow it and enough damage and durability to handle the few missions to take out EBs.  

I'd agree with this, and I've found that Stalkers don't really sacrifice a lot to Scrappers for the extra punch and the stealth capabilities.  My Elec/SD stalker is as tough as any Scrapper I've played and the damage is at least comparable if not superior.  The only drawback is that it's harder to gather up a bunch of mobs since the Stalker version of SD doesn't have any taunt effect like the Scrapper does.  Elec/SD is about the fastest spawn killer I've ever played, of any AT.

[Snarky]

3 hours ago, parabola said:

I'm doing exactly this at the moment. I started a couple of different toons for it but at the end of the day stalkers really hold all the cards. I had a good costume for a DB/SR so that's what I went with but any/any should work.

 

It is a slog mind. I've only got as far as level 14, but I have more or less cleared the content there. I've found that there are contacts you simply can't get introduced to no matter what which is irritating (unless I've missed something). Oh speaking of missing things, I very nearly missed the atlas park bank mission (do it at 9 or lower, it'll appear at 10 but can take a few tries).

One of the difficulties in soloing all content is that CoX had a habit of offering the exact same story arc through multiple contacts.  This threw me off the first few attempts I made at Blueside where the problem is much worse than redside

 

in consolidation and rewriting this problem has both been simplified (less of it happening now) and worsened (there was some minor documentation on paragon wiki but that does not cover all of the changes to the changes). I find that stopping experience at levels 4,9,14,19,24,29,34,39,44 and going through all contacts is my only happy place for OCD.  Good luck

[EmmySky]

Doing blueside I would stick with a blue AT although there really is no such thing anymore.  I would go scrapper but I love scrappers 😁

[Ironblade]

7 hours ago, Snarky said:

any thoughts are appreciated.  Huge project.  The merits will finance a sweet build as I go

Well, my main thought is that there are a lot of AT's that can do this.

I did everything on a BS/regen scrapper.  Back in the day, I read the game manual (yes, there was a PDF manual) while the game downloaded.  Broadsword sounded like it hit pretty hard and regeneration sounded like it would keep a newb alive while I learned the game.  That first character became my main, to the extent that I played (and still play) him about as much as all my other characters combined.

 

If your goal is to be efficient (i.e. fast) in most content, I'd go with scrapper, brute or stalker.  Other AT's may be faster or tougher, but I think those three strike the best balance of DPS and survivability for soloing.  I've taken every AT to 50 and my favorites for soloing are scrapper for 'efficiency' and tank for being relaxed about it.

[Parabola]

16 hours ago, GM Sijin said:

Most normal contacts no longer require an introduction, in that you can just walk up to them and they will give you their missions. This is not exclusively true, but if you're trying to get a specific contact you might try just going to talk to them, assuming you haven't already.

I'm not sure this works as you say. I've now got a bunch of the level 9-14 contacts who aren't interested in talking to me at all. I've done pretty much everything else so I need to move on if I can't get them to give me missions (although if there is a way of interacting with them it will mean that I've missed stuff in the level 5-9 range and that would leave me with a 'do I start over' dilemma).

[Snarky]

55 minutes ago, parabola said:

I'm not sure this works as you say. I've now got a bunch of the level 9-14 contacts who aren't interested in talking to me at all. I've done pretty much everything else so I need to move on if I can't get them to give me missions (although if there is a way of interacting with them it will mean that I've missed stuff in the level 5-9 range and that would leave me with a 'do I start over' dilemma).

I would recommend paragon wiki and investigating if these contacts give the exact same storylines as ones you have completed.  That was extremely common in original CoH, especially in the lower levels. I believe some of that still is baked in even though it has been semi rewritten a couple times

[Snarky]

For myself I have chosen a Brute for this task.  I almost went Stalker.  I would LOVE to do this on a Sentinel.  My reasoning was pretty grounded in reality.  I have only accomplished this Redside on Brutes. I have attempted this on Blueside and never finished.  Tanks. Brutes. A random Scrapper I think.  While this probably has more to do with the sheer amount of Blueside content I decided to go with an AT I really run a lot

 

for powersets I chose Dark/Invul.  My main is a SS/Invul and I have had a thing for Dark/Invul since I copied a really sharp build on live and was floored by how strong it was. Heavy recharge build, taking advantage of the synergy of Dark/Invul with buffs/heals/end replenishment all cycling fast.  The build used Unstoppable and was so strong it survived the crash multiple times in one fight vs AV and waves of minions while team came back from the hospital. 

 

I will I’ll probably use Unstoppable in the build then respec out of it while I Incarnate.  

 

A favorite tactic of mine is to use Fly with a +stealth proc in it for semi stealthing missions.  With a Invul Brute anything but a Malta Sapper is just saying hi to you as you fly by if they notice you. That’s my version of Stalker

 

The nice thing about a Brute is the kill all’s. Sure 90% of content is get to the end  and click a clique and smack three people down.  Then you have a clean. For me Brutes clean better than anything.  They will polish the floors lol. 

 

Thank you you all for your suggestions. I may try that Stalker on Redside where I have succeeded before.  Or maybe that Sentinel...

[Parabola]

36 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I would recommend paragon wiki and investigating if these contacts give the exact same storylines as ones you have completed.  That was extremely common in original CoH, especially in the lower levels. I believe some of that still is baked in even though it has been semi rewritten a couple times

Yes I'm sure the story arcs are shared but I thought each contact had their own batch of fluff missions to do ... perhaps not?

 

23 minutes ago, Snarky said:

For myself I have chosen a Brute for this task.  I almost went Stalker.  I would LOVE to do this on a Sentinel.  My reasoning was pretty grounded in reality.  I have only accomplished this Redside on Brutes. I have attempted this on Blueside and never finished.  Tanks. Brutes. A random Scrapper I think.  While this probably has more to do with the sheer amount of Blueside content I decided to go with an AT I really run a lot

I gave a Sentinel a go for this as I have a good concept for a ranged stalker type and /nin gives the stealth and even a small bonus to sneak attacks but in the end Sentinels just aren't quite there yet. Not enough damage and the inherent is clunky to the point of being mainly useless.

 

25 minutes ago, Snarky said:

The nice thing about a Brute is the kill all’s. Sure 90% of content is get to the end  and click a clique and smack three people down.  Then you have a clean. For me Brutes clean better than anything.  They will polish the floors lol. 

It does of course depend on settings and the powersets involved but stalkers are no slouches themselves in the cleaning department. The ability to control crits and their ridiculously good ATO procs allow stalkers to do big damage on demand and importantly keep doing it. I have done a bit of story arc running as fast as possible for merits on a couple of different AT's and recorded the results (to keep a track of what to run for the greatest efficiency). The results between a brute and a stalker are always pretty close I find - I'm not entirely sure that the biggest difference doesn't come down to travel times and getting lucky or unlucky with how many times you have to shlep the length of IP.

[Coyotedancer]

On 11/19/2019 at 9:28 AM, Sailboat said:

Stalkers are great at killing small groups and have stealth from the get-go.  I'd use a Stalker for this task.

 

This. Back in the day, I did an "Ouro Project" with Grey Kestrel, my favorite Rogue DB/WP Stalker... Every entry on the Ouro arc list red-side. Then I moved her to Vigilante, and did the same thing for every arc on the blue-side list.

 

'Took for-flippin'-EVER to finish, since I was soloing them. But she handled the missions just fine.

[Snarky]

I have a dark/Inv stalker set up I will give a go at Redside.  Once I finish Blueside.  Looks up mountain.  In a while

[GM Sijin]

6 hours ago, parabola said:

I'm not sure this works as you say. I've now got a bunch of the level 9-14 contacts who aren't interested in talking to me at all. I've done pretty much everything else so I need to move on if I can't get them to give me missions (although if there is a way of interacting with them it will mean that I've missed stuff in the level 5-9 range and that would leave me with a 'do I start over' dilemma).

What a contact says will tell you why they aren't giving you missions. Check paragon wiki against what the contact says when you talk to them. It could be possible their missions are from a pool and you've already done them all. I believe all contacts have a unique message for outleveled vs all missions completed. And honestly almost all the old fluff missions are about the same as radio missions. So if you feel guilty about them not having those missions for you, you could just run a few radio missions. 😉

Edited November 20, 2019 by GM Sijin

[Snarky]

It’s not about guilt.  It’s about completeness. 

 

“I been sandpapering this car all night and this one spot is starting to vex me.”  - extra special bonus points if you know the quote.

[Parabola]

13 hours ago, GM Sijin said:

What a contact says will tell you why they aren't giving you missions. Check paragon wiki against what the contact says when you talk to them. It could be possible their missions are from a pool and you've already done them all. I believe all contacts have a unique message for outleveled vs all missions completed. And honestly almost all the old fluff missions are about the same as radio missions. So if you feel guilty about them not having those missions for you, you could just run a few radio missions. 😉

Well they seem to be giving the 'we haven't been introduced' text rather than the 'I don't have any more missions for you' one. However checking the lists of missions for these contacts they are indeed the same missions that I've done for others so that must be it. I had no idea the contacts worked like that, it seems odd - why have all these different contacts pulling missions from the same pool? I'll move on to the next level range with a reasonably clear conscience :).

 

I'm finding this a fun experience so far (despite having described it as a slog earlier). I've started collecting badges as I go which I've never really bothered with before and there is a real satisfaction to picking up things like the unique mission badges at the appropriate time rather than having to use Ouroboros. Something which is helping is turning the hunt missions into an opportunity to work on the defeat badges - whatever I'm hunting I try to only assassinate things that count toward these (mainly bosses). Speaking of which, does anyone know the lowest mission setting that will start to spawn bosses in the regular groups?

[Snarky]

4 hours ago, parabola said:

Well they seem to be giving the 'we haven't been introduced' text rather than the 'I don't have any more missions for you' one. However checking the lists of missions for these contacts they are indeed the same missions that I've done for others so that must be it. I had no idea the contacts worked like that, it seems odd - why have all these different contacts pulling missions from the same pool? I'll move on to the next level range with a reasonably clear conscience :).

 

I'm finding this a fun experience so far (despite having described it as a slog earlier). I've started collecting badges as I go which I've never really bothered with before and there is a real satisfaction to picking up things like the unique mission badges at the appropriate time rather than having to use Ouroboros. Something which is helping is turning the hunt missions into an opportunity to work on the defeat badges - whatever I'm hunting I try to only assassinate things that count toward these (mainly bosses). Speaking of which, does anyone know the lowest mission setting that will start to spawn bosses in the regular groups?

Yeah this ruined my first run at Blueside years ago on live. I had done Redside which was written after and does not have this issue.  So Blue was not only much larger but way more confusing. By the time I sorted it out my mental energy for the project was gone.  Now that is even more muddied with the rewrites but being aware of it and talking to everyone before you leave the level range accomplishes the task

 

for myself I am still working on Atlas Park. Weeknights i only game a couple hours. I did buy a bunch of the good procs and uniques for the project. I have a few sets and partial sets laying around as well.  I did four DFB for the badges and 4 powers as well. Will do DiB as well.  When you spend this much time at low level every buff helps 😝 

[Nafsmar]

I myself am trying to solo everything blue side. Although I’m only interested in soloing the story arcs and teaming up for the TFs. I think since there are a few of us doing this we should all collaborate and study guide to help each other out and for future people that want to do this as well. I was not aware that you can just go up to a contact and talk to them for missions as I thought I had a wait for them to pop up in my contact window. That is a lot of help. 

[GM Sijin]

9 hours ago, parabola said:

Well they seem to be giving the 'we haven't been introduced' text rather than the 'I don't have any more missions for you' one. However checking the lists of missions for these contacts they are indeed the same missions that I've done for others so that must be it. I had no idea the contacts worked like that, it seems odd - why have all these different contacts pulling missions from the same pool? I'll move on to the next level range with a reasonably clear conscience :).

The original game design (as in alpha stages) was much, much more Origin heavy. Some of that old system lingered, as with the original blueside contacts. The older contacts have one of the five origins and gives you missions (mostly) related to that origin. This starts quite obviously in the original starting contacts, and muddles a bit as you get introduced to more contacts. Real story-arc contacts like the ones that are far more common today didn't really exist in the early game. It was a learning step for the studio, a method of doing things that they moved away from gradually until you really didn't see it anymore by the time redside hit where every actual contact is basically a, or part of a story arc and all the fluff missions were found in the newspaper/radio system instead.

[Ankhammon]

The way the game has evolved, you could make this run on anything really. Well, maybe not a petless MM. 🙂

 

I'd say if you wanna do it pick a more challenging set.

As a self described defenderphile I can tell you lots of Defender possibilities will work for this.

Time/Dark/TA/Traps/Cold/Poison/Storm/Rad will all work for primaries for this kind of challenge. Secondaries that will work quite well include /any if you proc well or /Sonic/Beam/Arch/DP/Ice

 

Only things that can be tricky are EB and above and those can be had with a few vitamins or other tricks up your sleeve (Rune of Protection).

I'd prolly look at Traps/Beam, TA/Sonic, Time/DP, but any combo listed above would work easily.

 

You will never be as fast as a brute or Scrapper or Stalker against most things but you might be surprised with the right procs/build what one can do.

 

Plus you can be the first defender on your server to do this. I tend to solo mostly but do team out of boredom so I've never actually accomplished the feat