I have a problem

[Rizzano]

I like either playing solo or with my wife. I like to experience the missions instead of joining up with a leveling team.

 

My problem is I find it extremely hard to play anything but a mastermind with heals. I normally send my pets in to get aggro, then attack and heal.  I tried other archetypes but I find I die too much.  Am I doing something wrong or what? I don't know how to enjoy the other archetypes.

 

PS - I can't stand melee.

[SwitchFade]

I like either playing solo or with my wife. I like to experience the missions instead of joining up with a leveling team.

 

My problem is I find it extremely hard to play anything but a mastermind with heals. I normally send my pets in to get aggro, then attack and heal.  I tried other archetypes but I find I die too much.  Am I doing something wrong or what? I don't know how to enjoy the other archetypes.

 

PS - I can't stand melee.

 

You just eliminated most of the AT's.

 

But, blasters solo very well.

[SwitchFade]

Oh and, if you find that you die rapidly if you're taking aggro or not getting spam healed, you may have to approach this game differently than others. Face tanking things is tough... Unless you're melee.

[Healix]

It all depends on how you build and slot your characters. The main thing to do is have FUN and play the way you want. I solo a lot, and I have a little ice/emp troller (with a Jack Frost pet) that is a tough little cookie. Ice patch makes baddies flop around like fish out of water, Block of Ice/Flash Freeze freezes them so they are helpless (plus great AOE damage) and my pet adds more damage. This, and she heals herself and others. You may want to try that, or perhaps the other end of the spectrum...fire/emp with fire imp pets.

[Rizzano]

It all depends on how you build and slot your characters. The main thing to do is have FUN and play the way you want. I solo a lot, and I have a little ice/emp troller (with a Jack Frost pet) that is a tough little cookie. Ice patch makes baddies flop around like fish out of water, Block of Ice/Flash Freeze freezes them so they are helpless (plus great AOE damage) and my pet adds more damage. This, and she heals herself and others. You may want to try that, or perhaps the other end of the spectrum...fire/emp with fire imp pets.

 

The Ice Emp troller sounds fun, maybe I will try that out.

[Wolf Bonne]

My recommendation is a Controller, they're slow, but solo well enough early levels. Pair any set with Dark Miasma or Radiation and you'll be fine with most primaries. A Blaster is also a good choice, the most important thing is a good secondary, Devices, Martial, Arrows, and especially Time are great, the only primary I'd avoid is Assault Rifle as it's a bit tougher to play.

 

Anyway, here are a few recs: Plant/Dark or Illusion/Radiation for Controller. Energy, Beam Rifle, Dark Blast, or Ice combined with any secondary mentioned above. A Dark/Dark Corrupter or Fire/Dark are also very powerful, but you'll have to deal with solving endurance problems as you go.

 

There are plenty of other combos as well, but I think those are some of the safest off the top of my head.

[Robotech_Master]

Now, Tankers are meant to be tough to kill. They give up a little in the way of damage capability for it, but something like a Fiery Aura/Fiery Melee Tanker offers a good balance between survivability and damage output, with a damage type that tends to be less-often resisted than smashing or lethal. (Except for those stupid Hellions. Damn those Hellions, anyway.) They're a bit squishy at low levels, but so is everything else. Once you level up a bit, you'll find you're a lot harder to kill, plus you can do a lot to increase the survivability of everyone else on your team if you put a little study into proper methods of handling aggro.

 

I got so annoyed at ending up on so many pick-up groups that didn't have a good Tank that I finally went ahead and became a good Tank just so I could be sure I'd never be without one. :)

[gibbonici]

I love a bit of soloing as well as small teams (and big teams for that matter, hell it's ALL good!).

 

IMO, soloing is where you learn how to play your character well. It's where you learn the tricks that will save your life (and maybe even prevent team wipes) throughout the game, so you're definitely not doing that bit wrong.

 

Firstly, don't bother with hero builders like Mids and Pines. You can always respect into fancy builds later on - your main priority is to fill the gaps in your attacks.

 

Secondly, when you're soloing, damage isn't everything. Stun attacks, knockbacks, immobilises, basically anything that stops the enemy from doing something, even for a few seconds, can be more valuable than an extra attack that doesn't take them down at a critical point in the fight.

 

Thirdly, manage your aggro. Open with a light damage attack to start with. If you're lucky you'll only pull one enemy out of a spawn, then you can draw him away and defeat him in isolation. If you're unlucky and pull the whole spawn, switch targets and use one of those KB/immobs/whatever powers to keep at least one of them out of the fight. It's always tricky to do this at low levels, but it's great practice for when you've got a few more powers on quick recharges.

 

Get used to switching targets. Prioritise your targets based on how much of a threat they are at any given moment. It's often best to finish off minions first so you can concentrate on lieutenants without taking hits from them, but it's always a good idea to keep the lieutenant knocked down, knocked back, held, immobed or otherwise engaged while you do. Again, pick powers that give you this utility.

 

If you get out of your depth, run. Try to keep an enemy targeted so you can see when they stop chasing. When they stop, rest, then go back to finish them off. Don't be too proud to leave the mission if that's what it takes. Retreating through lifts can work too, but sometimes you'll be chased through them so be careful.

 

Sell any enhancements you find that aren't going to last for long (which is most of them at early levels). The boost they give is negligible and you'll need to inf for DOs at level 12.

 

Don't get a travel power at level 4 unless you feel you absolutely have to. That power slot is probably better used on another attack to get your rotation working. The Ninja Run you can get from the P2W vendor is pretty serviceable as a travel power at low levels, but it looks cheesy as hell. Depending on your character concept, that might be a good enough reason not to get it ;)

 

Even though you hate melee, it never, ever hurts to have a melee attack on hand for emergencies. You don't necessarily have to slot it, but it can be really useful for finishing off an enemy before retreating.

 

Also, pick your contacts and missions carefully - you will be vulnerable to some enemy types and strong against others. Play to your strengths. Circle of Thorns are my particular bugbear, but your mileage will vary.

 

There are loads of little tricks you'll pick up as you play, and they'll vary from AT to AT and powerset to powerset. You'll also develop a feel for you character's powers, how they synergise and how the timings fit together.

 

You will die, but you'll die less often as you get that instinctive feel working for you.

 

When you do die, restock your inspirations. Heals are always good as are defence insps. In the high teens, don't forget to keep a few accuracy insps on hand - there's a low-level accuracy bonus that drops off as you approach level 20, so they'll be useful if you haven't managed to slot for accuracy.

 

Slotting varies from power to power (and you'll find your own preferred slotting as you go), but early on it's good to slot for recharge so you've got attacks available more often. As you get to higher levels endurance can become an issue, but you can probably fix that as it starts to happen. Mid- to late-teens, don't forget to slot that accuracy.

 

These are some of the tricks I've learnt from hundreds of levels of soloing and small teaming with all kinds of ATs, so hopefully they'll help.

 

One last thing - be patient. Pick your targets, don't be afraid to run when you need to, and don't be perturbed by dying early on. Once you've got the feel for you hero, you'll die a lot less. You'll figure it out.

 

 

[justicebeliever]

I love a bit of soloing as well as small teams (and big teams for that matter, hell it's ALL good!).

 

...

 

These are some of the tricks I've learnt from hundreds of levels of soloing and small teaming with all kinds of ATs, so hopefully they'll help.

 

One last thing - be patient. Pick your targets, don't be afraid to run when you need to, and don't be perturbed by dying early on. Once you've got the feel for you hero, you'll die a lot less. You'll figure it out.

 

This is a great first post.  As someone who does mostly solo/small teams I use all of these tricks.  Welcome to Homecoming Gibbonici.  +1 inf

[rochrist]

You should be able to solo easily as a Scrapper. Brutes as well.

[Roughtrade]

I  don't know how to enjoy the other archetypes.

I don’t understand.  What is your problem?  Play the AT you like to play.  No one says you have to have one of each.  If you are having fun then you are playing the game right. 

[justicebeliever]

I  don't know how to enjoy the other archetypes.

I don’t understand.  What is your problem?  Play the AT you like to play.  No one says you have to have one of each.  If you are having fun then you are playing the game right.

 

I think the OP is wanting to try new AT's beyond MM, and wants to avoid Melee-AT's, and is asking for advice on what's good to solo/small team with...

 

 

[Roughtrade]

I think the OP is wanting to try new AT's beyond MM, and wants to avoid Melee-AT's, and is asking for advice on what's good to solo/small team with...

I think the OP has been misguided by others into thinking he has to play other ATs instead of staying with the MMs he clearly enjoys.  He tried other ATs and didn’t like them.  He likes MMS.  He should continue to have fun and not listen to people who say he should play other ATs. 

 

If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right.  Nothing else matters.

[Roughtrade]

On the Gripping Hand

 

If the OP wants advice on how to successfully play the ATs, the forums have individual sections for each AT and he can find build suggestions and tactical support there.

[justicebeliever]

On the Gripping Hand

 

If the OP wants advice on how to successfully play the ATs, the forums have individual sections for each AT and he can find build suggestions and tactical support there.

 

3 thoughts

1.) I'll let the OP defend his motivations for asking, since I don't know

2.) If your question crosses multiple AT's, wouldn't this is right section?

3.) What does "On the Gripping Hand" mean/refer to?

[Robotech_Master]

"On the gripping hand" refers to Larry Niven's novel The Mote in God's Eye, which involves an alien species called the Moties, who have three hands--a left hand, a right hand, and a middle hand, called the "gripping hand."

 

In the book, the expression "on the gripping hand" is used to extend the "on the one hand...on the other hand..." construction to cover three possibilities instead of two ("...but, on the gripping hand..."). It is sometimes used by SF fen in the same manner.

[justicebeliever]

Thank you for clearing that up...learn something new everyday...

[wmtyrance]

As a new player and a MM, I can agree with going to the AT MM board. The biggest problem for new players or old players that forgot how to play is knowing where to put your slots. I was told I should have 6 slots for all my pets at lvl 36. That didn't make sense to me until you realize in this game your pets are the damage dealers. I was slotting everything evenly. I couldn't solo an elite boss in a mission and got help to kill her. But when I did the respec and followed the advice I got it changed. So far I have soloed two elite bosses and it felt great.

[Rathulfr]

My wife and I used to duo Blaster + Defender: I killed, she healed.  It worked out quite nicely, until she started teaming with other folks, who soon started demanding her time as soon as she logged on. :'( LOL!  ;D

[justicebeliever]

The price of celebrity I guess

[Without_Pause]

It all depends on how you build and slot your characters. The main thing to do is have FUN and play the way you want. I solo a lot, and I have a little ice/emp troller (with a Jack Frost pet) that is a tough little cookie. Ice patch makes baddies flop around like fish out of water, Block of Ice/Flash Freeze freezes them so they are helpless (plus great AOE damage) and my pet adds more damage. This, and she heals herself and others. You may want to try that, or perhaps the other end of the spectrum...fire/emp with fire imp pets.

 

The Ice Emp troller sounds fun, maybe I will try that out.

 

Note Ice has low damage so soloing or on smaller teams speed can be slow(er) until later on. Most fun I had playing Emp was Ill/emp. It could give a MM like vibe. Dark/dark with its number of pets could be another gateway into a different AT.

 

This isn't too say Ice is a bad primary. Far from it. I would just go with something else if I was doing smaller teams/duos.

[MunkiLord]

My suggestion is you and your wife both making a Cold Defender or Corruptor with whatever blasting set you want. The buffing to each other and debuffing of the enemies is disgustingly potent. It's fun.

[GamerKate]

My NP and I duo, she has a Dark/Fire scrapper and I have a Plant/Pain controller. I kind of loiter around healing her and Holding the mobs while she piles on.

 

With a defender or controller you can treat your wife as a pet, if she plays a melee class or a blaster.

 

Also, you should try not to play a new AT like you played your MM. Each AT and powerset combo has its own style. Learn about corner pulling and start to use the environment (hide behind pillars to break LoS etc) and run away more.

 

Another tip is ALWAYS do the Outbreak tutorial with a new toon. It will give you an immediate easy feel for how your attack powers work and how long they take to recharge etc.

 

Kin/rad Defender is great fun btw imo.

 

MCM

[WanderingAries]

Head hurts to much to read the rest, BUT if you use (and people bother to read) the team options, then you can actually set yourself to a certain type of LFG as well as add a note to it.

[Kaliselia]

I like either playing solo or with my wife. I like to experience the missions instead of joining up with a leveling team.

 

My problem is I find it extremely hard to play anything but a mastermind with heals. I normally send my pets in to get aggro, then attack and heal.  I tried other archetypes but I find I die too much.  Am I doing something wrong or what? I don't know how to enjoy the other archetypes.

 

PS - I can't stand melee.

 

Okay not sure what other archtypes you have tried but if you are finding out that you are dying all the time then either:

 

You are going after mobs that are Orange/Red or Purple

 

or

 

You are trying to take on too many mobs at once

 

Plus you are not running away when you need to.

 

I have played nearly all archtypes and yes there will come the time where you will be taking a dirt nap but that will happen.

 

I main a Blapper (Electric/Energy) so a Blaster that spends more time in melee than she probably should but she has the ability to drop most Bosses along with everything else.

 

Oh I do solo most of the time as well and will go after any mob that will provide exp as I travel between missions of heading somewhere.

 

Now pure healers can have issues since they do tend to lack in damage output but every other archtype should be able to solo fairly well.