Is Pain Domination viable as Solo Only? DP or BR?

[qwdfer]

Hey all,

 

I've finally finished creating a backstory/costume for a new character and, after much deliberation, can only really see my character concept working as a /Pain Corruptor.

 

The thing is, I very much enjoy playing almost exclusively solo. After reviewing some of the Pain Domination powers, I'm wondering if it's really possible to do this?

 

In addition, I'm torn between Dual Pistols and Beam Rifle as my primary power. Does anyone have any advice they can offer regarding this?

 

Any observations people can provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks!

[Zepp]

Anything is possible. Taking four powers from Pain Domination (Nullify Pain, Soothing Aura, World of Pain, and Anguishing Cry) gives you a good baseline, that can help a team if you decide to use one every once in a while.

I would choose Dual Pistols, better AoE and faster animations, but Beam Rifle might outdamage it a bit, especially for single target damage.

[Doomguide2005]

Absolutely.  If an Emp/Fire can solo a +4/x8 ITF pretty sure anything can be made to solo.  Although my Ice/Sonic controller was just about as impossibly slow and painful as it gets for solo work.

[qwdfer]

Thanks for your responses so far @Doomguide2005 and @Zepp - both are very reassuring. I'll go ahead and make my character as a Dual Pistols/Pain Domination Corruptor, I think!

[Yomo Kimyata]

Yes.  I'm in exactly the same boat as you and I made an archery/pain corruptor and went Red side solo.  I will not claim that it's the easiest character I ever played, but I'm in my mid-30s solo +1/x3, bosses, EBs.  Totally doable!  Happy hunting!

[Hjarki]

I think 'viable' the wrong word. You can do a lot with set IOs/pools, so even if you never use any of your secondary powers you can still come up with a somewhat 'viable' build.

 

The proper term should really be 'optimal'. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find such an optimal build for Pain Domination. It really doesn't do anything particularly well and it doesn't have any standout features to it. So almost any time you look at a Pain Domination build's key features, you end up asking "wouldn't this be better as...?"

[Coyote]

10 hours ago, Hjarki said:

I think 'viable' the wrong word. You can do a lot with set IOs/pools, so even if you never use any of your secondary powers you can still come up with a somewhat 'viable' build.

 

The proper term should really be 'optimal'. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find such an optimal build for Pain Domination. It really doesn't do anything particularly well and it doesn't have any standout features to it. So almost any time you look at a Pain Domination build's key features, you end up asking "wouldn't this be better as...?"

 

Yeah, this is pretty accurate. PD works, but not very well solo, and with a good build and play, anything can be made successful solo.

I only like it on a MM or Controller, who can use the buffs on henchmen/pets. Bruiser with Painbringer really brings the pain, heh, and Animate Stone becomes even more tanky, and so on. But that's stacking the Resist buffs on top of base pet resists and pet resist IOs, where now the pets are 40% to everything and over 60% to some types of damage. More if you're a MM so you have one more resist IO available. Then add Regen on top of that, and PD becomes really useful.

But soloing on an AT without much available in the way of base Resists and no use for Painbringer, it's kinda meh.

[Peacemoon]

If you were to go this combo I’d be inclined to go dual pistol. Unless I’m mistaken Pain’s -res is PBAE, which would would work with DP’s Hail of Bullets.