Budget AV/GM Killer (Merit Farming)

[Sanix]

Hi all, I've followed the farming build from FourSpeed's excellent low budget farming guide. So now I have a functional farming character for inf... and now I want one for merits. I'm thinking running Oro arcs seems like a good way to do it, so I want a functional solo AV/GM killer and mission runner that can be had on a budget. For reference, FourSpeed's farming build uses level 30 set IOs and costs somewhere around 37mil. I was also hoping for something that isn't too difficult to use - Illusion/Ice for instance seems from what I've read to be a late bloomer with a steep learning curve.

 

Am I asking too much? Can this be done?

 

I'm not necessarily asking for a complete build - that's a lot to ask - just some advice on the practicality of this, and maybe some powerset/AT recommendations.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Sanix
Title change

[Peacemoon]

There’s quite a few ATs that can solo AVs/GMs, do you have any preference or just performance?

If we’re talking missions and Ouro arcs, there aren’t that many AVs/GMs found within them. And the one you find could easily be made into an EB, especially if your aim is speed runs for merits. Just a thought. So whatever you’re farming with could probably do this as well?

[Grouchybeast]

If you want to run Ouro arcs purely for merits, then you really don't need an expensive build.  Anything that can solo okay will do it, and the only things I'd say was important was building in decent +stealth because that will make it much faster and easier.  The trick is mainly in picking arcs that can be run quickly and have a good return.  For example, Twilight's Son's arc rewards 12 merits, but you can comfortably run it in under ten minutes, partly because it has no travel between missions.  Run the arcs at 0x1 if you like, the merit rewards are the same.

 

Merit rewards for story arcs are buffed on HC compared to live.  There a spreadsheet of the new values in this thread, so you can browse and see what takes your fancy in terms of enemy groups etc.

 

 

[Sanix]

Those are good points I hadn't thought of. I guess I was overthinking it. Would a stalker work well or would it be better to use a different class with stealth pool powers? I was thinking of using a scrapper or brute for simplicity's sake.

 

And, do mission arcs have diminishing returns like TFs do? And if so, when do they reset?

[Peacemoon]

16 minutes ago, Sanix said:

Those are good points I hadn't thought of. I guess I was overthinking it. Would a stalker work well or would it be better to use a different class with stealth pool powers? I was thinking of using a scrapper or brute for simplicity's sake.

 

And, do mission arcs have diminishing returns like TFs do? And if so, when do they reset?

You don’t need to be a stalker to wiz to the end. You could easily speed through with super speed (literally!), as that provides stealth as well, even if stationary which can feel odd. You can also slot celerity-stealth into sprint and toggle that on for even more stealth. 
Otherwise you just want a character than can kill at a reasonably pace with little downtime. A blaster, corrupter, sentinel or scrapper or yes, stalker would be perfect. It really comes down to style. But really almost any AT would work for this, but some are a bit more solo friendly.
 

Just for fun I’d personally make some sort of ‘solo agent/infiltrator’ type character, who purposefully keeps combat to a minimum unless necessary.  

As for merit diminishing returns. I think the story arcs can be ran once per day for full merits, but not entirely sure how it works. 

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Peacemoon

[DSorrow]

For a really cheap and effective story arc soloer you should go with a Super Reflexes Tanker. It can get soft capped Defenses with no IO investment at all and with the smallest bit of investment you'll have a lot of freedom with your build. SR/Rad in particular should be very solid, because Rad gives you a small bit of sustain on top of good ST and AoE damage. A couple of IOs into Endurance management and you should be good to go.

 

I have absolutely no doubts that a SR/Rad could also solo AVs, but for GMs you might want to roll something else.

[Seigmoraig]

The problem with farming merits is that you only do it for the funzies because everything you could get from merits, you can get with inf and you can farm inf a lot faster than you could farm merits.

A full Winter IO set will rack you up 600 merits or about 120mill inf. You can probably get that inf in an hour or 2 depending on your clear speed. Best case scenario for merits you are getting like 100 per hour

Edited April 22, 2020 by Seigmoraig

[Grouchybeast]

59 minutes ago, Sanix said:

And, do mission arcs have diminishing returns like TFs do? And if so, when do they reset?

Regular story arcs run through Ouro don't have diminishing returns.

[Coyote]

A good AV/GM soloer on a budget is Earth/Cold, although it's only usable for that after 32 (27 for exemplaring). However, it won't go through story arcs that fast unless you're keeping the difficulty at x1, since it can only get AoE damage in the 40s.