What's the hardest AT combination to play solo?

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, biostem said:

Patently false.

 

EDIT:  To elaborate, Controllers have a damage scale of 0.55, so doubled with containment makes that 1.10, (Blasters have a ranged damage scale of 1.125 for comparison).

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Damage#Damage_Scale

Thats great.  Apply that math to the crap Ice Control Force Field attack powers and you get an overall damage output of (*hold on, calling a Tank to get some DPS in here)

[biostem]

2 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Thats great.  Apply that math to the crap Ice Control Force Field attack powers and you get an overall damage output of (*hold on, calling a Tank to get some DPS in here)

Indeed.  Now cherry pick the most damaging controller combo and get back to me...

[Snarky]

4 minutes ago, biostem said:

Indeed.  Now cherry pick the most damaging controller combo and get back to me...

The dude said he wanted the hardest by AT and combo. I am therefore pointing to this oddball of Ice Control Force Field.   

 

If you want to discuss why Controllers are great soloers... start another thread?  I might learn a trick or two.

[twozerofoxtrot]

I feel like if you combine:

 

9 hours ago, Blastit said:

Empathy have like three powers from their primary that at all work on them specifically

 

With

 

9 hours ago, biostem said:

Petless mastermind.

 

You get your answer.

 

Arrow Solo

They butchered his entire clan.

 

Now all that's left for this Petless Ninja/Emp Mastermind to do is get revenge.

 

The hard way.

[Bionic_Flea]

I'm not sure if this qualifies as hardest . . . or most frustrating . . . or perhaps even most hated.

 

Kin/Energy blast with the following caveats:  Must run repel 24/7 and cannot slot KB to KD anywhere.  Bonus points if you can work in Whirlwind.

 

Let the gnashing of teeth begin!

[Greycat]

12 hours ago, biostem said:

Indeed.  Now cherry pick the most damaging controller combo and get back to me...

 

You see that thing at the top - the title of the thread?

 

Hardest AT COMBINATION TO PLAY SOLO.

 

We're answering the question. You're missing the point while trying to prove you're smarter than everyone else. The thread's not about "Oh, King Biostem, please tell me how I'm playing wrong." You want that thread, make it.

[srmalloy]

18 hours ago, SnowVix said:

controllers are incredibly safe solo.

My Grav/Traps Controller normally goes through her missions with the mobs getting an attack off about every second or third mission. She's not particularly fast soloing, but when a spawn's first awareness of her being there is getting Wormholed onto a pile of Trip Mines, there's not much time for reaction.

[Uun]

18 hours ago, SomeGuy said:

Before CoV I knew a guy that solo-ed a Mind/Rad controller to 50. I remember watching him lock down a mob, run in, and use boxing and brawl.

I had a Mind/Rad on live. Mind has 3 decent ST attacks plus a cone fear that does damage. Rad provides -res and +dmg. It solos fairly well. He was just doing it wrong.

[Snarky]

My two cents.  I keep avoiding the "petless mastermind" option.  But no.  See, in my mind that is not a "valid" pick.  That is like saying play a Stalker with no secondary powers (including hide)  Or do not slot any powers.  

 

I want to give actual regular choices that just happen to be real hard to solo with.  I have not looked deeply but Ice Control Force Field looks hard.  

[biostem]

7 hours ago, Greycat said:

Hardest AT COMBINATION TO PLAY SOLO.

So my 1st answer, then - petless MM.

 

7 hours ago, Greycat said:

We're answering the question.

And I responded to someone's false assertion about controllers doing bad damage.  I even went on to clarify that *some* controllers may indeed do bad damage, if and only if you specifically select for that.  At the same time, you can gimp any AT if you're truly trying to.

 

7 hours ago, Greycat said:

You're missing the point while trying to prove you're smarter than everyone else.

Incorrect.  I responded to someone saying that a particular AT does bad damage.  Provide a specific combination of powersets and don't make blanket assertions.

 

 

7 hours ago, Greycat said:

The thread's not about "Oh, King Biostem, please tell me how I'm playing wrong."

When someone makes blanket assertions, then gets called out on them, it's not the fault of the person that did that.  Nice strawman, though.

 

 

[biostem]

5 hours ago, Snarky said:

See, in my mind that is not a "valid" pick.

If a person creates a character with the intention of gimping themselves, then there really is no "valid" or "invalid" pick.  The question is whether the OP wants to actually put a concerted effort into playing this hypothetical character, or if it's just some sort of lark.  You could roll any AT, and choose not to level them up at all, and wow!  You've got yourself an exceptionally difficult character to solo.  Maybe we could use some better parameters from the OP...

[twozerofoxtrot]

7 hours ago, Snarky said:

Ice Control Force Field looks hard. 

 

Cackles in HC buffs.

[Rigged]

2 hours ago, biostem said:

If a person creates a character with the intention of gimping themselves, then there really is no "valid" or "invalid" pick.  The question is whether the OP wants to actually put a concerted effort into playing this hypothetical character, or if it's just some sort of lark.  You could roll any AT, and choose not to level them up at all, and wow!  You've got yourself an exceptionally difficult character to solo.  Maybe we could use some better parameters from the OP...

 

The OP gave examples of what they had in mind, and did not mention deliberately skipping useful powers. I suspect this is not what they are looking for. 

[Neiska]

Petless Ma--- darnit. Beat me to it.

[JasperStone]

On 5/10/2023 at 1:13 PM, Blastit said:

Defenders with Empathy have like three powers from their primary that at all work on them specifically, so that's probably the default hardmode for soloing without getting into additional rules and restrictions.

For sure.

My first character on live was an Empathy/Elec Defender.

For sure challenging solo.

 

My Fire/Kin Troller was another story, formidable for sure. Even pre Containment

[lemming]

Hard to say since some AT combos work pretty well at low level and are meh at higher levels, and the opposite.

 

Also, hard in terms of speed, durability, etc...?

 

Slotting goes a long way in making things easier.

 

Even AT combos that wind up being Eng Hogs have ways around.   Maybe a Dark/Ax Tank since you'll be always out of end, but recovery serum, Perf Shifter, etc... can get around that.

[Doomguide2005]

Stopped reading after the first page but it really depends on how much you allow p2w powers, as well as other options not strictly related to the sets themselves such as using empowerment buffs.  And then there are pool choices.  Air Superiority among other powers can be an enormous help to any low level support character.

 

That said I've leveled up numerous Empaths and they were a piece of cake solo compared to my Ice/Sonic controller.  Now this was many issues ago probably around i13 but they were as near impossible as I've seen.  Don't recall if I tried setting the notoriety to -1 but at +0 3 minions were near impossible to kill without bottoming out my end bar ... repeatedly.  I do think it would be much better these days from various QoL changes.  Proc changes and inherent fitness are the biggest of those changes especially at lower levels.

[Scarlet Shocker]

Mind/TA controller.

 

Quite survivable, you can lock many opponents down and they have little resistance to the powers of your mind and your amazing arsenal of arrows, but actually killing something is a real challenge

[Zect]

On 5/11/2023 at 8:24 AM, biostem said:

Patently false.

 

EDIT:  To elaborate, Controllers have a damage scale of 0.55, so doubled with containment makes that 1.10, (Blasters have a ranged damage scale of 1.125 for comparison).

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Damage#Damage_Scale

 

This is true, and it is one reason why controller damage is often underestimated. Even their epic blasts get containment despite not being control powers, which is why they are so good.

 

But it's also true that they have limited access to good dpa attacks. If you want anything approaching decent damage on a controller, you really have to strategize every step of the way and not all powersets can do it. It's not like a scrapper where I could pick any random powersets, give it to a parakeet to play and it would do 400 dps minimum.

[Captain Fabulous]

On 5/11/2023 at 1:27 PM, Snarky said:

My two cents.  I keep avoiding the "petless mastermind" option.  But no.  See, in my mind that is not a "valid" pick.  That is like saying play a Stalker with no secondary powers (including hide)  Or do not slot any powers.  

 

I want to give actual regular choices that just happen to be real hard to solo with.  I have not looked deeply but Ice Control Force Field looks hard.  

Ice Slick recently got a decent chunk of damage added to it, so Ice isn't quite as bad as it used to be.

[Sanguinesun]

On 5/11/2023 at 2:52 AM, FFFF said:

I'm kind of thinking some variant of defender. Emp defender maybe? Perhaps a sonic defender?

 

I've soloed a FF defender (FF/Sonic) during when the game was live (non private servers) and while it was annoyingly slow, it was decently solo capable. Just about any defender with Sonic attacks had plenty of damage. I'm asking because I'm unsure of the newer (post issue 20) combinations.

 

What is your criteria for defining "hard"?  Knowing those variables may change some answers.

 

If you're set on defender, then my take would be empathy/archery given archery being one of the weaker range sets for defenders and empahty giving nothing much in the way of supplementing that.   

 

Outside of that, as others mentioned, a petless mmo paired with empathy choosing either beast, or demon.  My take would be demon worst with beast next in relation to range limitations/damage output over time.

 

No matter your choices, you'll also need to challenge yourself regarding pool power choices as well as you could make that easier with more attacks so you'll need to do self imposed restrictions there too of course.

[FFFF]

1 hour ago, Sanguinesun said:

 

What is your criteria for defining "hard"?  Knowing those variables may change some answers.

 

 

Probably a combination of being able to overcome challenges solo (elite bosses and troublesome mobs like sappers come to mind) and efficiently level at an adequate speed. I assume that most players at worst expect to take on challenges at their security level equivalent to a single player.

[ChzBoi]

On 5/11/2023 at 1:27 PM, Snarky said:

.....Or do not slot any powers.......

.......the vampire probably doesn't like my "One Slot Only" mastermind either..... 😞

[Force Redux]

Anything Kinetic for me....busy set... It's probably just me though 🤣

[Neiska]

On 5/13/2023 at 4:26 PM, ChzBoi said:

.......the vampire probably doesn't like my "One Slot Only" mastermind either..... 😞