Need a low level solo build please

[Rastenn]

I want to catch up on the story stuff I've missed, so I'm going to create a character to play through allllll of the Praetorian missions. I want to take the "disable XP gain and do it all from contacts" approach, no flashbacks, which means I'll be spending many hours at 9, 14 and 19. What are some options for doing that in the smoothest, least tedious way possible so I don't lose my mind from the slog? Only thing I've done on Homecoming so far is level a Water/Bio Sentinel so I don't want to do any of those three things again just for the sake of variety, otherwise I'm open to any combo and I have plenty of inf for early IOs.

[Lyrium]

Claws/something Scrapper. WP, Bio, EnA, Rad, Shield...

[JJDrakken]

1 hour ago, Rastenn said:

I want to catch up on the story stuff I've missed, so I'm going to create a character to play through allllll of the Praetorian missions. I want to take the "disable XP gain and do it all from contacts" approach, no flashbacks, which means I'll be spending many hours at 9, 14 and 19. What are some options for doing that in the smoothest, least tedious way possible so I don't lose my mind from the slog? Only thing I've done on Homecoming so far is level a Water/Bio Sentinel so I don't want to do any of those three things again just for the sake of variety, otherwise I'm open to any combo and I have plenty of inf for early IOs.

 

I suggest a Tank, Controller, or Mastermind.  Here are 3 builds I think will help you well in Praetoria.

 

 

Tanker - Radiation Armor - Savage Melee.mxdMastermind - Mercenaries - Thermal Radiation.mxdController - Earth Control - Darkness Affinity.mxd

 

[Six-Six]

A mind/savage dom is quite strong minimally slotted pre-20. Not sure if the range secondaries will be your thing, but the pair up offers a wide variety of powers that should keep you entertained. Another suggestion is Pistols Ninja or Martial Blaster. 😃  Enjoy Goldside.

[Sovera]

A Brute for the fat effect of low level Fury. Probably Claws since it gets its super good AoE by level 6. Secondary barely matters for such low levels since no toggles will have a big effect. Maybe Bio since by level 10 you get another damage boost from Adaptation.

[Troo]

Stalker.

 

Pair a primary you like with a secondary that has an early heal like Fiery Aura or Ice Armor. At level 12 you'll have Placate and be in total control of encounters.

 

Otherwise pick a ____ / Dark Corruptor. The big heal + tar patch are very helpful.

 

Stalker example (Energy Melee / Ice Armour)

 

 

Edited June 23, 2022 by Troo

[Redletter]

5 hours ago, Rastenn said:

I want to catch up on the story stuff I've missed, so I'm going to create a character to play through allllll of the Praetorian missions. I want to take the "disable XP gain and do it all from contacts" approach, no flashbacks, which means I'll be spending many hours at 9, 14 and 19. What are some options for doing that in the smoothest, least tedious way possible so I don't lose my mind from the slog? Only thing I've done on Homecoming so far is level a Water/Bio Sentinel so I don't want to do any of those three things again just for the sake of variety, otherwise I'm open to any combo and I have plenty of inf for early IOs.

 

Welcome to the winning team.

 

Praetoria in general is opposed to certain ATs, and highly supportive of others. Just in how it uses it's mechanics and how enemies end up placed.

 

Things to probably not play in praetoria:

 

Stalker - Stalkers are perfectly fine, but, Praetoria's favorite gimmic for missions is ambushes. These ambushes will automatically agro to you no matter where you are, or if your hidden or not. They WILL find you, they WILL break your hide if they damage you. This is ALSO true of certain missions where a fight starts after talking to an NPCS who turn hostile after talking. These NPCS will ALSO be immediately mad at you and ignore your hidden self.

 

Sentinel - Praetoria loves tanks. Sentinels get defense ATs. Sentinels should not solo praetoria. Being tanky isn't enough. The sentinel is just too lacking in defenses AND damage to play the same games Blasters, Brutes, Scrappers, Tankers ect can play.

 

Corruptor - Corruptors are in a weird spot. I say "Dont" because, if you're solo, a DEFENDER is probably a better option.  There's obvious exceptions, I'd say a Fire/* corruptor could probably turn praetoria into a graveyard. But! I hold that a defender is going to probably be more fun.

 

Things to maybe play in praetoria:

 

Blaster - Blasters got the BIG damage. Praetoria has pretty big mob packs, so, big damage to clear those packs ASAP is really nice! Being able to do BOTH ranged AND melee is real nice too, so you don't need to worry about trying to kite Ghouls around for 6 seconds. The problem with Blaster is that blasters are blasters and the mean streets of praetoria taste as good as any other. It's not an insurmountable problem, you can solve it the same way all blasters solve this problem, but, it's worth mentioning.

 

Dominator - Dominator is by far my favorite class (besides stalkers). I love dominator, and, praetoria's tight mob packs make them REALLY fucking susceptible to crowd control, which the dominator LOVES to see. As with blasters, they get ranged and melee too. Not bad. But... The lack of HEALING is a bit of a problem though. Liberal use of Domination solves most of these problems so, and as I said, with tight mob packs you can build that meter up nice and fast. Most missions I get to pop it off 2-3 times per mission. JUST try to make sure you have Domination ready for end of dungeon bosses (which Praetoria also really loves).

 

Scapper - Scrappers got big numbers that occaisonally get much bigger. I find their crits to be a very unreliable gimmic that you trade far too much survivability to gamble on, in general. Now, some ATs get around this. Faster attack ats (like Claw or Savage) and very strong armor ats (like bio, shield, EnA) all do very well on their own to mitigate this opinion i have -- regardless, if you want to play melee in Praetoria, there ARE better ways...

 

Things to ABSOLUTELY play in praetoria:

 

Brute - Praetoria likes small, tight mob packs interspersed JUST far enough that you could, carefully, pull them one by one if you want.. but more often than not pull one or two groups onto you at once. That is why the Brute takes the very top spot on my list of classes to play in praetoria - you LIVE in this EXACT kind of mob grouping, and it will keep you knee deep in Rage. I went through with a Psi Melee/Dark Armor brute and crushed it at +2x2 and that was without ios. The BIG problem with this was the End drain, so to remedy this, I suggest Energy Aura, Electric Armor, or Bio Armor (in no particular order). You will want for nothing, you will destroy everything.

 

You want a "Praetoria solo" guy? Psi Melee/Bio Armor brute. Elec Armor if you don't really wanna mess around with Bio Armor again (though, Sentinel's Bio Armor is very different than most other classes, so, ya know, take that for what you will).

 

Tanker - Same story with brutes, just with more survivability and less damage. I've played through with a Shield Defense/Super Strength tanker from 1-50* through gold side content nearly exclusively (I hopped on a farm at around lvl 42 which got me the 8 i needed to reach 50). This was a very End hungry character since SD seems to fucking suck down Endurance and I don't know why. Regardless, I loved this toon from level 1 to level 50. It's fucking great, give it a try (just ya know).

 

Mastermind - Honestly? I've never played content so well designed for masterminds. The mob groups are small enough that your minions dont feel overwhelmed usually (Ghouls get around this by being VERY FUCKING TOUGH) but I genuinely think goldside is the best side for masterminds. Go in with Robots/Rad, or (paradoxically) Robots/Nature and you'll fuckin crush it. The ONLY problem is that, due to how you'll be leveling, you won't be seeing your upgraded pets for a while. I personally thinks that's fine and gives a sense of In-Character character growth, but Im a roleplay idiot, and there's an argument to be made my mentality is stupid.

 

I still stand by Robots/Nature though. Nature is SUCH a powerful, frontloaded set that the fact you'll be absolutely fine by level 4 at the LATEST. If robots arent your thing though, DEMONS will wreck shop. Like, good lord, will they wreck shop (I guess that makes sense though, since Demons were apparently released alongside Going Rogue...)

 

Controller - Controller edges out Dominator in this field. Dominators go in HARD on the damage. This is fine, but, if enemies are all locked down, then, do don't really NEED to care about your DPS. So, I give it to controllers. For this, I would recommend Plant/Kinetics or Illusion/Traps.

 

Or, you can do Plant/Nature, and name your character (fittingly) "Moral Fiber"...

 

Defender - Defender needs an asterisk by its name, as it's the LAST thing I would recommend you play solo in Praetoria, but, it edges out Corruptors in my opinion SIMPLY because Vigilance is a very good passive and more reliable than Scourge in solo play, and, Defenders get better numbers on their support powers. Namely healing.

 

I've run through gold side 3 times now with defenders. Kinetics/Water Blast was the most fun. Followed VERY closely by TA/DP which was my FIRST defender i played Goldside. The final one (who im still messing with) is Time/Seismic Blast and theyre doing very well so far. Since you said you wanted to avoid something similar to your Water/Bio sent, I wouldn't reccomend Kin/Water. However, TA/DP was a GREAT time, even if it was MUCH harder than I'd like to admit. TA is a great primary, and DP is a great secondary, BUT I was basically GLUED to the Acid Ammo to keep enemy damage numbers low enough that I could heal it with inspirations and the Defender Class IO that grants a PbAoE heal.

 

Anyhow, that's my two cents. If you should change your mind about going solo, shoot me a message. I adore gold side, and have a number of toons who could run it along with you, if that's something you were interested in.

[Rastenn]

Thanks for all the responses so far, ya'll have given me a lot to think about already. A Claws Brute does seem like an easy choice, but there's just something about Claws I've never liked. Maybe it's just not my thing, maybe I just saw too many Wolverines when the game launched. No idea.

 

A Controller or Dominator is a thought. Never played one of either. I feel like they wouldn't have very much damage at such low levels though, especially the Controller. I know slow and steady wins the race, but I'm already running an ultra-marathon.

 

Mastermind sounds appealing. I think I played with a Bots/FF briefly on live but don't remember much about it. Seen a few people running around with Demons though and they looked pretty cool.

 

I'll keep mulling it over. If anyone else has more thoughts, please feel free!

[Errants]

I recently did exactly this, following 

this guide for maximum shenanigans.

I used an Ice/Regen Stalker - As long as you're back in Hide by the time the ambush arrives, it's comical. They follow you, hug you, but won't attack until you're out of Hidden. Additionally, AS and Placate for aggro management make soloing a BREEZE for most of the mobs.

Yes, there's one or two tricky spots with ambushes/fights from cut scenes... That's what enhancements are for.

I leveled her all the way on Gold XP only, and by the end of it was fighting +1x4 even through Ward's arc and finale. I was with a set build at that point, but most of the ride was SO's with the two key Stalker ATO's.

[Troo]

2 hours ago, Redletter said:

Praetoria's favorite gimmic for missions is ambushes.

 

Great tips.

I hear you, placate now being an aoe.. thats what put it over the top for me.

[JJDrakken]

Sadly, I can never get anyone to play over on Praetoria, so I gave up over there had someone PL the 1 guy I had left there to 20, so I could out(PD AE).

 

Shame, was on my fav places, wish it was expanded for 1-50(liked planned). But oh well.

[huang3721]

7 hours ago, Rastenn said:

What are some options for doing that in the smoothest, least tedious way possible so I don't lose my mind from the slog?

There are several, pick whichever suits you:

• Bring friends, like-minded friends are better. 
• Set difficulty level to -1. Don't reset it until you figure out how to handle the ambushes.
• Bring friends.
• Use AT or build that you are already familiar with.
• Use inspiration liberally, especially when you are being ambushed.
• Also, last but not least, bring friends.

 

Hope that helps!

[lemming]

I've played Stalkers thru Praetoria a few times (including one that was doing the Iron Challenge with no deaths)

The ambushes can be annoying, but around 1/2 the ambushes wind up not agroing on you.  They go right to you, but don't attack if you are stealthed or hidden.

 

Currently playing a corrupter thru it.  Just at level 7 right now.

 

You want to follow this guide:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Apparition's_Complete_Guide_to_Praetoria

[Rastenn]

2 hours ago, lemming said:

I've played Stalkers thru Praetoria a few times (including one that was doing the Iron Challenge with no deaths)

The ambushes can be annoying, but around 1/2 the ambushes wind up not agroing on you.  They go right to you, but don't attack if you are stealthed or hidden.

 

Currently playing a corrupter thru it.  Just at level 7 right now.

 

You want to follow this guide:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Apparition's_Complete_Guide_to_Praetoria

 

Interesting. I was planning on following one of the guides here on the forums. That guide seems to just have a different order for things, but it also recommends holding at levels 7, 14, 18, 28 while the forum guides say 9, 14, 19, 29. Do you know why? Is it just an abundance of caution?

[Marshal_General]

If you want to do everything and get all the badges by constantly switching sides, then there are contacts that are easy to out level unless you stop xp gain at the right levels.

[Redletter]

3 hours ago, Troo said:

 

Great tips.

I hear you, placate now being an aoe.. thats what put it over the top for me.

 

Thank you. I havent run through gold with a stalker since the placate changes -- they don't really matter TOO much to me, since Stalkers are, to my mind, more reliable scrappers anyhow so the fact ambushes appear more frequently than hami does on hamikaze night didn't exactly make them a NO sell for me (Stalkers have more than enough damage and defense, alongside scrappers, to pull their weight in Praetoria). Even without placate, Stalkers get hide, which means missions that are BASICALLY just "find the clicky in this HUGE sewer system then run to the end and kill a boss" missions become an absolute BREEZE for them since you're not stuck slugging it out with ever pack of ghouls between you and these things.

 

But. Praetoria also like escorts, which coincidentally DONT like stealth also. So for Stalkers, it's a lot of ups and downs.

 

Great class, I may revise my recomendation once i give stalkers another go through gold.

[lemming]

9 hours ago, Rastenn said:

 

Interesting. I was planning on following one of the guides here on the forums. That guide seems to just have a different order for things, but it also recommends holding at levels 7, 14, 18, 28 while the forum guides say 9, 14, 19, 29. Do you know why? Is it just an abundance of caution?

iirc, a couple of the contacts won't let you just walk up to them at level 8,9,19,29.  

 

The hardest thing about doing the full Praetoria are the contacts that get taken out by choices during other arcs.   I did find one trick that works for those missions that have you talk to a dead contact is that you use the Oro portal to start the missing contact's arc, port to them, then quit the arc.  They'll stick around letting you talk to them.   Of course, that once works once you hit level 14

[lemming]

3 hours ago, Redletter said:

 

But. Praetoria also like escorts, which coincidentally DONT like stealth also. So for Stalkers, it's a lot of ups and downs.

 

It's slow, but if you use Walk, you can escort while hidden.   (Those stupid stairs still can screw things up)

[Redletter]

6 hours ago, lemming said:

It's slow, but if you use Walk, you can escort while hidden.   (Those stupid stairs still can screw things up)

Wahlku? What is this... Wahluk of which you speak?

 

Whatever it is, you'll need to explain it much more LOUDLY and SWIFTLY, I can not HEAR you when you're moving so SLOOOOOOW.

[Errants]

14 hours ago, Redletter said:

 

Thank you. I havent run through gold with a stalker since the placate changes -- they don't really matter TOO much to me, since Stalkers are, to my mind, more reliable scrappers anyhow so the fact ambushes appear more frequently than hami does on hamikaze night didn't exactly make them a NO sell for me (Stalkers have more than enough damage and defense, alongside scrappers, to pull their weight in Praetoria). Even without placate, Stalkers get hide, which means missions that are BASICALLY just "find the clicky in this HUGE sewer system then run to the end and kill a boss" missions become an absolute BREEZE for them since you're not stuck slugging it out with ever pack of ghouls between you and these things.

 

But. Praetoria also like escorts, which coincidentally DONT like stealth also. So for Stalkers, it's a lot of ups and downs.

 

Great class, I may revise my recomendation once i give stalkers another go through gold.

The convenience of speeding through objective missions (especially when set to No Exp) is infinitely worth the PITA of escorts.

[Redletter]

3 hours ago, Errants said:

The convenience of speeding through objective missions (especially when set to No Exp) is infinitely worth the PITA of escorts.

I don't disagree.

 

But, like... concealment exists. I slapped that on my Beam/Dev blaster and loved every minute.

[Apparition]

21 hours ago, Rastenn said:

 

Interesting. I was planning on following one of the guides here on the forums. That guide seems to just have a different order for things, but it also recommends holding at levels 7, 14, 18, 28 while the forum guides say 9, 14, 19, 29. Do you know why? Is it just an abundance of caution?

 
 

Redlynne’s guide on the forums is great.  I used it as the foundation of my guide on the wiki.  However, the levels in Redlynne’s guide are wrong.

 

At level 8, some of the Nova Praetoria contacts will not talk with you if you haven’t started their story arcs already.  Level 15 for Imperial City.  Provost Marchand is bugged and will not talk with you when you are level 19, so if you haven’t at least already started both IVy’s and Dr. Hetzfeld’s story arcs by level 18, you will not be able to get the breadcrumb missions for either.  So I put the cap for Neutropolis at level 18 to be on the safe side.

[Magnificus]

Or make a normal hero/villain and do the praetorian arcs in Oro. It might be easier to recruit a pug, everyone knows how to get there. I am pretty certain that most of the arcs are there. It's not like any moral choice that you make means anything. The only one that matters is the one you take before heading to primal.

[Apparition]

I really don’t recommend Stalkers for gold side.  My gold side experience and intuition, not to mention many complaints back on the old blue boards, made me think that Stalker would be a poor choice of AT for gold side.  However, I have read many posts here over the past three years proclaiming Stalker as the best AT for gold side.  So I made a Staff/Stone Armor Stalker gold side two weeks ago.

 

I was right.  Many of the gold side ambushes completely ignore your hidden status and will start attacking you as soon as they are in range.  Plus, gold side has many escort missions where you need to disable the Hide power.  You’re essentially a slightly more squishy Scrapper with fewer AoE attacks.

 

From my years of experience playing gold side, the best ATs for it are Brute, Corruptor, and Scrapper IMO.

[Rastenn]

1 hour ago, Krimson said:

Something melee is the way to go. My first Praetorian was a Ninja/WP Stalker, a remake of the one I had on Live though that one was a villain. My second and forever Praetorian, is a Kinetic Melee/Elec Armor Brute who is level 50 and still Gold Side. I have a Pillar of Ice and Flame (Ouro Crystal) in my base so I can do Praetorian content as flashbacks. 

 

42 minutes ago, Apparition said:

I really don’t recommend Stalkers for gold side.  My gold side experience and intuition, not to mention many complaints back on the old blue boards, made me think that Stalker would be a poor choice of AT for gold side.  However, I have read many posts here over the past three years proclaiming Stalker as the best AT for gold side.  So I made a Staff/Stone Armor Stalker gold side two weeks ago.

 

I was right.  Many of the gold side ambushes completely ignore your hidden status and will start attacking you as soon as they are in range.  Plus, gold side has many escort missions where you need to disable the Hide power.  You’re essentially a slightly more squishy Scrapper with fewer AoE attacks.

 

From my years of experience playing gold side, the best ATs for it are Brute, Corruptor, and Scrapper IMO.

 

The Stalker issue is fascinating. This little thread is split pretty 50/50 on whether they're awesome or awful for Prae. I may have to make one someday to see for myself, but for now I've gone with a Demons/Nature MM. It's going very well so far but then I'm only 11 so how badly could it go by that level?