The Final and Ultimate Solo Character

[Fan Mail]

I've played this game for over 10,000 hours between Live and HC (maybe more hours than that).  In pursuit of the best character to play solo.  I think I've found it.  Electric Melee/Shield Stalker.  How about you?  Have you found your gold mine?

[Ukase]

I don't think I have only one. 

Ukase, my ice/ice blaster. 

Zombo, my ill/rad controller
Pook, my spines/fire brute

Blister, my fire/rad Sentinel, as well as a cold/ice defender by the same name but on a different server. 
Lagniappe, my water/time corruptor. 

All of them were and are solo machines, capable of all manner of content and difficulty. I couldn't and wouldn't choose just one. 

Currently, bringing up an ice/fire blaster that has great promise. 

[GM Miss]

I really think there are so many options these days with IO's on what can solo well but my Ice/Ice dom / Any brute or tank (I have a ton of both) / and my DP/Atomic Blaster are all some of my favorites! 

[Arcanum]

1 minute ago, CR Miss said:

I really think there are so many options these days with IO's on what can solo well but my Ice/Ice dom / Any brute or tank (I have a ton of both) / and my DP/Atomic Blaster are all some of my favorites! 

 

There really ARE so many options, now! I personally enjoy my Psychic/Mind Blaster! I think my favorite character for soloing at the moment is my Dark/Time Controller. He may not have the highest damage output of my toons, but he does okay, and the control/survivability is excellent. 🙂

[MTeague]

• Plant/Psi dominator just annihilates things.  It's a glorious chaotic scene of carrion creepers, fly trap, roots, pyschic shockwaves and drain pysche. 
• Mind/Kin controller may not clear maps super fast, but it a fun combo, at least for me.  It doesn't matter what he's faced with. Malta, Carnies, Nemesis, Rikti, Arachnos, whatever. Bring it.  Maybe he looks like a feeble old man in a hat and mask, but he'll kick an awful lot of butt.  Or, subcontract it out to his confuse targets, as the case may be. 
• Claws / SR scrapper is not exactly anything new or shiny but Scrapperlock while humming "can't touch this" is kinda fun 🙂
• Fire / Fire Sentinel has been a lot of fun.  He's not the most optimal combo, but is terribly satisfying. Plays like an AE heavy scrapper (fireball, firebreath, burn, inferno is a lot of AE) and still quite durable, without any Fire Sword animations. (all power to you if you like Fire Sword, but it's never been my thing)

 

[Arcanum]

12 minutes ago, MTeague said:

• Plant/Psi dominator just annihilates things.  It's a glorious chaotic scene of carrion creepers, fly trap, roots, pyschic shockwaves and drain pysche. 
• Mind/Kin controller may not clear maps super fast, but it a fun combo, at least for me.  It doesn't matter what he's faced with. Malta, Carnies, Nemesis, Rikti, Arachnos, whatever. Bring it.  Maybe he looks like a feeble old man in a hat and mask, but he'll kick an awful lot of butt.  Or, subcontract it out to his confuse targets, as the case may be. 
• Claws / SR scrapper is not exactly anything new or shiny but Scrapperlock while humming "can't touch this" is kinda fun 🙂
• Fire / Fire Sentinel has been a lot of fun.  He's not the most optimal combo, but is terribly satisfying. Plays like an AE heavy scrapper (fireball, firebreath, burn, inferno is a lot of AE) and still quite durable, without any Fire Sword animations. (all power to you if you like Fire Sword, but it's never been my thing)

 

@MTeague - I've been dabbling in the PvP scene recently and let me tell you - you are right! That Plant/Psi dominator is NOT to be trifled with! *rubs bruises* Oof.

[Snarky]

I think SS/Invul Brute is the sweet spot berween heavy survivability and good damage

 

i am currently soloing all Redside (and first ward and any contacts open) with a Invul/Dark Tank. I weep a little when a kill all pops up. There is no need for stealth. You can just march through the mobs to the end room and kill the boss. Set at +0/x1 no AV yes to EB. Pretty close to the original default game setings i belueve

Edited December 24, 2019 by Snarky

[Lost Ninja]

This week it's Ice/Rad Blaster, last week a claws/dark brute (was meant to be a scrapper but didn't realise it was a brute till I hit 35).

 

Too many combinations that are all as good as each other, what I think is "Best" is normally what I'm enjoying at that point.

[siolfir]

1 hour ago, Lost Ninja said:

last week a claws/dark brute (was meant to be a scrapper but didn't realise it was a brute till I hit 35).

The pinnacle of scrapperlock, folks: when you're rushing to the next group of mobs so quickly that you don't even realize that it's not a scrapper.

[Lost Ninja]

33 minutes ago, siolfir said:

The pinnacle of scrapperlock, folks: when you're rushing to the next group of mobs so quickly that you don't even realize that it's not a scrapper.

When I made it I was uncertain whether or not to make a scrapper or brute. Planned it out as a scrapper (in Mids), nearly posted a bug report that I couldn't pick the scrapper epics... glad I checked TBH. 😄

[VV]

Ran Baby New Year solo last night on +4/x8 with my BR/TA Blaster (with no Incarnates) without much trouble. Also ran it on my Grav/Storm Controller. Also ran it on my Fire/Fire Tanker. All of them pretty much steamrolled it. I guess what I'm saying is that there is no single right answer here.

[Arcanum]

4 minutes ago, VV said:

Ran Baby New Year solo last night on +4/x8 with my BR/TA Blaster (with no Incarnates) without much trouble. Also ran it on my Grav/Storm Controller. Also ran it on my Fire/Fire Tanker. All of them pretty much steamrolled it. I guess what I'm saying is that there is no single right answer here.

That's true! Never underestimate what a good build can do - regardless of what archetype you're playing! Really the best quality in a 'solo' character is making sure its a play style/power-set you enjoy! Whenever I've tried to play a power set that was the 'best'  - if it wasn't my play style - I often found wouldn't matter as I'd end up abandoning the character, anyways.

[Haijinx]

Mine is also a stalker.  But for completing arcs not doing AOE.

 

So STJ / EA 

 

Same AOE as a STJ scrapper with more build ups.

[Heraclea]

Right now I'm soloing missions with Malta, Carnies, and other enemy groups I traditionally avoided on a Radiation Melee/Electric Armor brute.  This is also the character I chose to unlock Katie Hannon with, because she laughs at endurance drain.  On her Malta missions, she has moved past taking the Sapper out first, and instead tries to disrupt the Operation Engineers to keep them from summoning pets.  Looking for ways to leverage the -def in her attacks as she nears 50. 

[KelvinKole]

The easiest, but still super fun, for me has been my ice/rad stalker. Strong single target, strong Aoe, soft and hard control, and good survivabulity. 

 

I also have an elec/energy Dom that I 50'd before the energy assault buffs. He was tough to solo with; safe, but slow. Fully built out, he's a monster now though 

[Call Me Awesome]

Here's characters I've had great success with solo:

Elec/Shield/Pyre Stalker

BS/Shield/Pyre Scrapper

Both of them are extremely capable solo at up to +4 x8.  Typically I run them at +2 x8 for kill speed to rewards.

 

Second Tier solo:

Spine/Regen Scrapper (Old School pre-GDN and ED)

Ill/Rad Controller (Perma-PA)

Fire/Energy Blaster (Ranged defense FTW)

 

Tankers are quite capable solo, but lower damage makes them slower and generally less suited to the role.

 

Do NOT try this one solo:

Earth/Rad Controller (Safe, but where's the damage?)

 

 

[nihilii]

Ludicrous power: TW/bio scrapper. Nothing else comes close in my roster, even other TW scrappers. I find it necessary to limit my playtime with this character, lest my standards are thrown out of whack and I can't enjoy anything else.

Most enjoyable: fire/rad sentinel. My very first character on HC, it was quite a journey to learn this new AT. She went from a beloved underperformer to a death machine taking on any solo feat I could think of. There is something really fun in living your very own zero to hero progression on a single character.

[Nemu]

Fire/Elec/Mace Blaster. She shoots stuff, she punches stuff, she nukes stuff, she takes alphas, she chain juggles mobs. Most of her attacks have 1 second animation times. Everything she does has snap and crunch and nothing else has the damage, the speed, the survival and the versatility that this combo offers.

[Sovera]

I can't stick to a character for more than a few days before making a new one. I have no interest in being level 50 without a goal. But my Claws/Bio is my favorite to the point I did not even strip her of the IOs as I usually do and just left her perfectly slotted so I can slip back into her when ever I'd like, and I'm just re-earning the earning the inf to slot my next alt(s).

[Coyotedancer]

I once-upon-a-time went through and did every single Ouro arc... on both sides... with my own favorite soloist.

Her name was Grey Kestrel, and she was a Dual Blade/Willpower/Mu Mastery "recharge monster" Stalker with a perma-summoned Adept companion.

 

I'm not sure if the number-crunchers and serious power-gamers would have considered Kestrel the "optimal" soloing choice or not, exactly, given DB's much-resisted Lethal damage type and a Stalker in general's lack of AoE (even with a blasty companion like Cardinal in the mix for the higher level content-), but she was the one who felt most capable of it to me. Very little in the game ever gave her serious trouble. 

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by Coyotedancer