Hmm.. Have you ever tried to solo a Defender???

[smnolimits41]

I have a rad/rad defender and i would like to solo him.  I was thinking of changing it to Rad/Energy since energy has more single target attacks.  I realize that defenders are more team friendly.  The reason i went with rad/rad is that the first attack recharges quickly, which means i only have that one attack.  This is turning into a rant.  What would you guys suggest ??

[Erratic1]

I soloed on my Defender back when Live was first released, which was before they got the solo damage buff they currently enjoy.

 

So I would say go for it.

[biostem]

39 minutes ago, smnolimits41 said:

I have a rad/rad defender and i would like to solo him.  I was thinking of changing it to Rad/Energy since energy has more single target attacks.  I realize that defenders are more team friendly.  The reason i went with rad/rad is that the first attack recharges quickly, which means i only have that one attack.  This is turning into a rant.  What would you guys suggest ??

So there are a few ways to approach this, IMHO:  I dislike "anchor" powers while solo, as it is infrequent that enemies would live long enough.  I also generally want either status protection or multiple mezzes to lock down enemies so they don't mez me.  Powerful enough debuffs could compensate for this, but then you really have to be on your toes.  I'm also rather fond of -res effects.  To that end, may I suggest Poison/Ice or Nature/Sonic...

Edited August 25, 2022 by biostem

[smnolimits41]

Sonic is out, i just hate the graphics.  I have both a Symphony/Sonic Troller, and a Symphony/Sonic Dominator.  Now poison i haven't really tried, its hard to roleplay poison as a hero powerset.

[FUBARczar]

4 hours ago, smnolimits41 said:

Sonic is out, i just hate the graphics.  I have both a Symphony/Sonic Troller, and a Symphony/Sonic Dominator.  Now poison i haven't really tried, its hard to roleplay poison as a hero powerset.

Poison isn't the most solo friendly as it lacks a self heal.

 

The question is do you want to solo +4? AVs? Etc.  Because that may impact your choices.

 

For status protection and defense you can go FF or Traps.  Like FF/Dark or FF/Water.

 

speaking of water, a Water/Storm is a fun and powerful combo.

 

I think Dark Miasma is a solid solo set.  I personally have a Dark/Fire that solos extremely well.  

 

Pain does well too IMO, speaking from experience with a Pain/Psi.

 

Other sets that I would consider are Time, Nature and Rad.

 

 

[Voltak]

6 hours ago, FUBARczar said:

Poison isn't the most solo friendly as it lacks a self heal.

 

The question is do you want to solo +4? AVs? Etc.  Because that may impact your choices.

 

For status protection and defense you can go FF or Traps.  Like FF/Dark or FF/Water.

 

speaking of water, a Water/Storm is a fun and powerful combo.

 

I think Dark Miasma is a solid solo set.  I personally have a Dark/Fire that solos extremely well.  

 

Pain does well too IMO, speaking from experience with a Pain/Psi.

 

Other sets that I would consider are Time, Nature and Rad.

 

 

Rad / Sonic
Rad / Dark blast  (two self heals, dark blast is very fast cast times and rarely resisted dmg) 
Dark / Sonic
Kin / Sonic

All solo well. 

BTW, I grinned my Kin/Sonic from 1 - 50 , easy, no farm at all. 

Dark and Rad primaries could be tanker 
Dark miasma is very very tanky 

Edited August 25, 2022 by Voltak

[Uun]

13 hours ago, smnolimits41 said:

The reason i went with rad/rad is that the first attack recharges quickly, which means i only have that one attack. 

You can absolutely solo Rad/Rad, but not with just Neutrino Bolt. It's absurdly low damage. At the least, you will want Proton Volley and Cosmic Burst.

[High_Beam]

Back on live I went through this "I have had it with teams" phase then apparently had a stroke because I rolled an Empathy/Psychic Defender named ParaMedic.  I played her, slowly, painfully to level 50 solo; no Task Forces, no teams and to be blunt, no fun even though psionic was so not resisted.  I mean the primary is so team oriented even when you do get to the RA/RA level.  I did not take the same patch when I found HC, I love to team.  I think now it is quite doable with all of the P2W powers and buffs you can activate from your base.

[Linea]

Go for it.  I solo a +4x8 ITF with all my characters (except the petless mm).

 

[Without_Pause]

You'll need the heavier attacks to function with /rad. Since it hasn't been mentioned, I would offer up Rad/ice. /ice is defensive enough to help out a defender and the slows will keep things in range of the toggles.

[Ceejer]

RadE/RadB can be soloed. The problems I had with mine solo was the debuff gave the mobs a good chance of shooting me before they all set in or the anchor teleporting away and coming back with friends. There are three powers in RadE that you'd only use on teams. That gives you a chance to pick up good pool powers solo though.

The RadB gives lots of -def and needs more active defense to keep the mobs at bay. Take Neutrino Bolt and X-Ray Beam early solo and then Electron Haze at 10 to knockback the targets for control.

 

The key to the slotting is IO's that give +rech and +def.

 

I'd recommend RadE/EnB as the knockback helps solo.

 

If I was going to solo a Defender again I'd go with Force Field/Dark Blast. Personal Force Field makes you very had to kill out of the gate. Force Bolt with it's mag 18 knockback means that if you hit it, it's going to spend time getting up. I've used it to knock elite bosses around. The mez protection is great, keep a breakfree handy for the sleeps. Dark Blast's -tohit with the +def helps the survivability. Torrent add more knockback and Life Drain add the needed heal.

 

Add in Leadership (Maneuvers), Concealment (Stealth), Fighting (Boxing, Tough, Weave) and Sorcery (Arcane Bolt, Mystic Flight, Rune of Protection) to round the build out. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Linea]

Here is a very old, armored build.   It's armored, end-game, non-proc, standard offense.  Intended to be more of a tank than a blaster.

You'll have to adjust it for leveling, I just do that kind of thing on the fly.  swapping sets around and using catalyzed beginner sets, and temp powers or even swapping powers too.

I'd say pickup Kinetic Dampeners they are cheap-ish, and the Status Protection Amps if you can afford them but amps are expensive.

 

 

Rad Rad Scorpion Defender - Alpha 1 - [i25].mxd

Edited August 25, 2022 by Linea

[WanderingAries]

Eh, more often than not, most my builds (variety of most kinds available) are solo'd unless I need help in a mission or someone finds me to play together.

[Psyonico]

Some defender primaries (storm, traps, etc) solo better than others ( Force field for example)

 

That being said, I've soloed just about every character I have, including FF defenders.

[Without_Pause]

21 hours ago, Ceejer said:

If I was going to solo a Defender again I'd go with Force Field/Dark Blast. Personal Force Field makes you very had to kill out of the gate. Force Bolt with it's mag 18 knockback means that if you hit it, it's going to spend time getting up. I've used it to knock elite bosses around. The mez protection is great, keep a breakfree handy for the sleeps. Dark Blast's -tohit with the +def helps the survivability. Torrent add more knockback and Life Drain add the needed heal.

 

Add in Leadership (Maneuvers), Concealment (Stealth), Fighting (Boxing, Tough, Weave) and Sorcery (Arcane Bolt, Mystic Flight, Rune of Protection) to round the build out. 

The problem with this recommendation is how slow it would solo. I prefer using a debuff based primary if I am going to solo a Defender.

[Bionic_Flea]

I've mainly soloed just about every defender primary and secondary between live and now, just not every possible combination of the two.  I say mainly because I do team up to do the occasional TF or trial.  It is definitely possible to do and some combinations are easier than others.  I like rad emission a lot.  Although it may not be as shiny or fancy as some of the newer favorites, it has a solid toolkit for whatever you need.  Rad blast, however, is not one of my favorites.  But it is VERY procable, which works very well with defenders due to their lower base damage.

Edited August 26, 2022 by Bionic_Flea

[Doomguide2005]

     Similar to Psyonico and Bionic Flea I've spent a lot of time solo on Defenders.   Don't think I've ever gone creation to 50+ on any but some have gained a lot of levels while running solo.  Never run a Force Field as a primary but a couple of Empathy builds did spend many levels running solo between teaming for Task Forces and missions as well as more offensive/debuffing sets like Storm and Dark Miasma. 

[Six-Six]

Elec/Elec is one of my strongest toons ever.

Rad/Rad sounds like it has promise. I haven't run a Rad Fender, but I did have a /Rad Corruptor. I still haven't figured out his build since his secondary (Fender's Primary) tend to be end guzzlers. But at least most of it's powers are not ally-dependent, so very soloable. Rad blast had me at Eye Beams. Overall a decent set.

[Ankhammon]

Couple things to let you know that solo on a defender is easily do-able.

 

First, they have worked on toggle anchor powers and now they will last up to like 60 seconds after you've downed the baddie it was placed on.

You will be able to get a lot of mileage with those powers if you get pretty aggressive and use them to herd with. RI alone can get you very safe as long as it's on. You will want to be aware of it's 3 second cast time which sux on teams.

 

Second, you can get any combo to work if you just take what it's good at and figure out how to leverage it. Basically look at what your effects are... even the blast sets secondary effects cuz they add up quite a bit.

For instance, some say that Poison isn't very solo friendly. However, if you get a stealth proc (or stealth power) then you will be much more viable. You can use Neurotoxic B reath to cause the enemy to be able to hit you only once (suggest you throw that and duck behind a corner). the baddies will come to you and bunch together. once a volley has fired they have a large -recharge applied and you just wait till they bunch up and hit em with envenom and weaken. Then go to town.

 

Third, Pool sets give a lot to Defenders in particular. Leverage those into your build also. For instance, you can get almost 8% Defense across the board with weave (other sets get less of a bump). Now that's ok, but add it to, say Flash Arrow from the TA set and you are now getting the equivalent of 37% defense for yourself (it will change depending on what you are fighting and at what level but that's the base). Tanks don't get 37% defense across the board that easily.

 

Final analysis, Defenders are awesome and solo well, but don't get a lot of play simply because they don't usually get damage up there till as late as level 40. That and they usually have a setup time before they engage the enemy.

[MistressOhm]

I solo'd a Kinetics/Energy defender to 50 on Live.

 

Yeah.  Kinetics is so much of a "team with me" set it's silly... but I didn't team.   

 

Here's a few things I learned:

 

1. Think like a scrapper.  Close range is where your heal (and later your end drain/refill) does you the most good.  Long range gets you hit with counterbattery fire, and since your heal needs something close to anchor off of, if you think like a blaster you faceplant.  Often.  
2. Don't bother with Repel.  Its only use is to keep things away from you, and things flying away from you aren't as useful. 
3. Debuff first, THEN blast.  This isn't as true with other attack sets that don't send things flying as much as Energy, but it still works.  When you get to Fulcrum Shift, this adage really becomes your mantra.  You want to leap right into the spawn, debuff them and buff yourself, and only when you're done with the debuff chain, then you start picking them off.
4. Snipe Is Not An Opening Salvo.  It's For Shooting Runners In The Back.  Seriously.  Remember Rule 1 - if you aggro from long range, the spawn will break into multiple groups, one to lob things at you, the others to run at you and feed you a knuckle sandwich.  Instead, use your long-range blasts to finish off things that either ran away or got tossed away, and you've no use for them as debuff targets anymore.
5. When fighting something tough, get into its Personal Space.  You'd think that right next to an EB or AV would be the last place a 'squishy' would want to be.  But with Kinetics, most of your powers benefit you the most when you're right there - not only are you debuffing something's Recovery, but you're healing yourself and refilling your Endurance.  (This is the ONLY use I've found for Repel - not to bounce the AV, but to enforce a "just you and me bub" zone where you can hammer on something without all the minions causing you trouble.  Even so, it doesn't do anything against ranged attacks, so it's only useful to keep melee adds off your ass while you top off your tanks and make the Big Bad a little less of both.)
6. Spawns are like pool balls - shoot them in the directions YOU want them to go, not just anywhere.  You're constantly repositioning yourself so that IF you get a KB proc on a blast, it'll send your target someplace useful, like up against a nearby wall.  This is where Speed Siphon really helps - you can zip around the battle space to get the angles right.  Knockdown is good - mobs that are knocked down aren't attacking until they get back up, and sometimes you'll get a ragdoll glitch that has them dangling from the scenery for a long time, and during that time they're a target dummy.  Just beware of knocking things through the geometry - nothing sucks so much as a mob who YOU can't target because their hitbox is behind a wall, but they can target you just fine.  I usually had to exit and re-enter instances when that happened.

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by MistressOhm
speed siphon update