Whats a good combo to solo with ??

[Frostbiter]

15 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

I don't think you know what gatekeeping means.

 

I don't care what you think you think I know. As far as I'm concerned there are no bad combos in this game. Although why everyone doesn't play Ice/Ice Blasters exclusively is beyond my understanding.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Frostbiter

[Ignatz the Insane]

On 10/2/2023 at 11:45 AM, Go0gleplex said:

More challenging still are Scrappers and Stalkers. Opinions of course will differ. 😉  T

My opinion definitely differs.  Scrappers and Stalkers are terrific solo characters.  The best IMHO.  I'd add that Sentinels, Tanks, and Brutes are also easy mode for solo play.  Especially at min difficulty.  All of them have mez protection.  All of them do sufficient damage to roll through anything up to EBs.  

 

Edit:  Anything can solo at minimum difficulty.   Just make sure you have Breakfrees handy if you don't have inherent mez protection.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Ignatz the Insane

[cranebump]

On 10/2/2023 at 2:48 PM, Snarky said:

A Blaster is faster than a Stalker for me solo.  It can kill the Boss Lt minion groups faster and it can mow down any large spawns. 

Good advice. There are a great many clear mishes when you solo story content. I’m thinking of the Striga content I did a couple weeks ago, and it seemed that Stephanie Peebles had my Sentinel doing defeat alls nearly every mission. All for her silly little, Uber powerful, temp ring (that I really, really wanted so I could easily kick the shit out of Calvin Scott* later on [god, how I hate him]).

 

*mission accomplished:-)

[Snarky]

4 hours ago, cranebump said:

Good advice. There are a great many clear mishes when you solo story content. I’m thinking of the Striga content I did a couple weeks ago, and it seemed that Stephanie Peebles had my Sentinel doing defeat alls nearly every mission. All for her silly little, Uber powerful, temp ring (that I really, really wanted so I could easily kick the shit out of Calvin Scott* later on [god, how I hate him]).

 

*mission accomplished:-)

this way exactly why i shifted a solo story arc toon from Stalker to Blaster.

[archgemini24]

On 10/2/2023 at 1:24 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

I'd suggest running a Kheldian as a solo character. Given some of the posts I've seen from the OP I'd suggest a Peacebringer as that's easier to play than a Warshade.

 

See this helpful guide if you are scratching your head wondering what's a Kheldian:

 

I thoroughly enjoy both of these ATs despite the fact that they aren't the meta, they have an awesome design to them despite needing to work out a few issues.

 

If the OP has any intention on trying to learn a Kheld, it is hard to do better than this guide. If the plan is simply to go -1/x0, I would highly suggest the Peacebringer, though. It is a smoother ride, can get some Mez protection that carries over to its damage form (Lightform), and does not require enemies around to buff against.

 

Shameless plug for Kheldians out of the way, I am going to echo most of the previous advice. At -1/x0, play what sounds interesting. At worst, the climb to power might be slow, but that just means more opportunities to play story arcs as they arise rather than through flashbacks. My suggestion would be a Stalker: good damage, mezz protection, best stealth capacity for missions that suck. Pick a combo with some recovery/sustain or really good damage (you do not need both) and you are good to go. If stealth is not needed, I am partial to Scrappers for where they sit on the damage/survivability spectrum, but Sentinels, Brutes, Tanks, and Blasters will all get the job done in fine fashion.

Edited October 6, 2023 by archgemini24

[ZekeStenzland]

Some follow up thoughts if you choose to solo a mastermind. While all the primary and secondary sets are just fine, they may not play well together. 
 

In particular, whether the pets prefer melee or range can matter a lot on how useful your support powers are. (On a team, it doesn’t matter so much because you’ll almost always have a mix of ranged and melee teammates in addition to your pets)

 

For one thing, if you have pbaoe buffs, you’ll want to be near the pets — ie, in melee range for the melee pets.  Similarly, if you have enemy debuffs that are centered on pets (like the sonic -damres debuff), it is not as useful on ranged pets. 
 

Another thing is using knockback/repel (force field has several of these) is really useful for keeping range pets safe. But not as useful with melee pets. 
 

Finally, consider picking a set with a self heal of some sort. You will get aggro at some point, green inspirations don’t always cut it. 
 

My experiences would suggest nature and thermal are good for any pet set, force field is good with ranged pets, sonic with melee pets. Can’t speak for the other support sets. 

[rutherkip]

On 10/3/2023 at 7:07 AM, GM Crumpet said:

You really don't need to run at -1 most of the time. I play a lot of solo and once I get some slots and SO's I run at +1 without much difficulty. I'll -1 if there is a really hard boss like Veles, but apart from that it's pretty much anything goes. If you seem to slicing through mobs with ease it's easy enough to go up a notch, if you struggle then down a notch. Early game especially you can do default with little difficulty

 

That's a great point! Adjusting the difficulty level to match your gameplay experience is an excellent way to keep things challenging without making it overly difficult. Flexibility is key in making the gaming experience enjoyable. Thanks for sharing your insights!

[Doomguide2005]

On 10/4/2023 at 12:44 AM, Ignatz the Insane said:

My opinion definitely differs.  Scrappers and Stalkers are terrific solo characters.  The best IMHO.  I'd add that Sentinels, Tanks, and Brutes are also easy mode for solo play.  Especially at min difficulty.  All of them have mez protection.  All of them do sufficient damage to roll through anything up to EBs.  

 

Edit:  Anything can solo at minimum difficulty.   Just make sure you have Breakfrees handy if you don't have inherent mez protection.

Just reached 50 with my Empathy/Rad/Dark and she ran a lot solo interspersed with TF (Through Yin wrt to TFC).  No mez protection outside of breakfree.  And mostly at lower end difficulty with slightly upped team size once i picked up Cosmic Burst.  The only time mez really started to get annoying wasn't until 40ish or so when Malta and DE foes got annoying mostly because of the duration meant getting trapped in perma mezzed state.  At lower levels it was mostly 'sigh' and wait out any mez that did happen as usually it was generally short(er) duration with breakfree used when health started to become overwhelmed.  The only significant qualifiers is she was gaining full sets (rather than SOs, generic IOs and a few specials such as Miracle for end support) for her powers asap which meant higher recharge and more than a couple "useless" mez resistance bonuses along the way compared to how most of mine level to 50.

[MoonSheep]

On 10/3/2023 at 8:12 AM, MoonSheep said:

 

i’m happy to add some data to the conversation this weekend through testing a few tank and brute builds, i’m curious to see what the difference is at x1

 

haven’t forgot about this and keen to contribute some data to this discussion. hopefully have some time over the next few days

[Perfidy]

On 10/2/2023 at 11:34 AM, MoonSheep said:

 

this is outdated advice - tankers now outpace brutes in gameplay due to the wider AoEs their inherent provides

Not necessarily true. It depends on how the build is slotted. Anecdotally, my brutes outshine my tanks - but that's partly because my tanks are built to absorb damage, not dish it out. 

[Without_Pause]

A tangent people don't really think about in this case. You don't need to soft cap your defense. I've been playing around with /sr builds and even in the level 10-20 range I can easily take on a +1 boss with what I have on hand for inspirs. My Def numbers are mid 20s at best, and I still have no AoE defense. I'm not even fully slotted out in the slots I have added in either so I know the build could be better, and I could find some sort of happy medium in terms of upping the diff setting. Hell, the Kat/sr has hardly any enhancements at all. End wasn't even an issue before level 17 anyway. So yes, even a late blooming set like /sr is perfectly fine to do something like this. 

[Scarlet Shocker]

I would like to offer a toon that has not so far been mentioned:

 

A Huntsman

 

SoA, but when you get your mandatory respec, take the centre path. Don't go for either SoA or Crab, just stick with the bloke with the gun. It is devatasting. The only weak point is a lack of hold. If you can get past that you can solo LGSF, you get some great pets and you're constantly delivering a sea of orange numbers.

 

They are tough, survivable, and deal excellent damage with good crowd control. It's not fancy, it's not pretty, but it just bloody works!

[cranebump]

23 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

I would like to offer a toon that has not so far been mentioned:

 

A Huntsman

 

SoA, but when you get your mandatory respec, take the centre path. Don't go for either SoA or Crab, just stick with the bloke with the gun. It is devatasting. The only weak point is a lack of hold. If you can get past that you can solo LGSF, you get some great pets and you're constantly delivering a sea of orange numbers.

 

They are tough, survivable, and deal excellent damage with good crowd control. It's not fancy, it's not pretty, but it just bloody works!

AGREED! I totally forgot about this path. Did it before, some time ago. Fun and very effective. (Now I have to do one again, damn you).:-)

[Without_Pause]

On 10/19/2023 at 3:35 PM, Without_Pause said:

A tangent people don't really think about in this case. You don't need to soft cap your defense. I've been playing around with /sr builds and even in the level 10-20 range I can easily take on a +1 boss with what I have on hand for inspirs. My Def numbers are mid 20s at best, and I still have no AoE defense. I'm not even fully slotted out in the slots I have added in either so I know the build could be better, and I could find some sort of happy medium in terms of upping the diff setting. Hell, the Kat/sr has hardly any enhancements at all. End wasn't even an issue before level 17 anyway. So yes, even a late blooming set like /sr is perfectly fine to do something like this. 

Completed the Faultline story arc deathless. Since it has a number of fights with EBs, that's further proof its good to go without soft capping Defense. That was done on a Claws/sr so it isn't like Claws is offering that much mitigation at that point. I'm working on upping the diff setting from here on out. 

[ZeroSaint]

My solo project is an AR/Dev Blaster.   I've actually had to up my difficulty to +2 level just to keep from getting bored.  Mainly running missions and TF's here and there.   I have to say I also like the built in stealth power with Dev so that I can speed through some missions when I'm just in the mood to get them done.

Edited October 20, 2023 by ZeroSaint

[Akisan]

On 10/19/2023 at 1:35 PM, Without_Pause said:

A tangent people don't really think about in this case. You don't need to soft cap your defense. I've been playing around with /sr builds and even in the level 10-20 range I can easily take on a +1 boss with what I have on hand for inspirs. My Def numbers are mid 20s at best, and I still have no AoE defense. I'm not even fully slotted out in the slots I have added in either so I know the build could be better, and I could find some sort of happy medium in terms of upping the diff setting. Hell, the Kat/sr has hardly any enhancements at all. End wasn't even an issue before level 17 anyway. So yes, even a late blooming set like /sr is perfectly fine to do something like this. 

 

Can agree - softcapped defense isn't required, at any level.  Running at level 50 (blaster though, so not fully equivalent), I'm only at 20-25% defense/all, and I've started solo hunting AVs and GMs (without Envenomed Dagger).  Positioning & CC take a larger role, since I can't stand long in melee range (again, squishy blaster), but it's definitely doable.  (As for difficulty, I'm usually on an easy +1x5, but can run up to +4x8 if I'm paying attention & playing well)

[Riverdusk]

At that difficulty level you could probably make due with brawl alone all the way to 50 (Supposedly some crazy people have actually done that just to prove it could be done).  Or  a "power pool" hero that only uses power pool attacks is a definite option.

 

Have fun with your fire/fire sent though. 

[Snarky]

14 minutes ago, Riverdusk said:

At that difficulty level you could probably make due with brawl alone all the way to 50 (Supposedly some crazy people have actually done that just to prove it could be done).  Or  a "power pool" hero that only uses power pool attacks is a definite option.

 

Have fun with your fire/fire sent though. 

Keep talking like that and Toggle Man will show up...

[Without_Pause]

12 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

At that difficulty level you could probably make due with brawl alone all the way to 50 (Supposedly some crazy people have actually done that just to prove it could be done).  Or  a "power pool" hero that only uses power pool attacks is a definite option.

 

[the mauler]

On 10/2/2023 at 10:41 PM, Without_Pause said:

Says a person who confidently offered up min/max options for soloing on the min diff setting the game has. I just find it hilarious to offer up things like a procced out build as something to use for soloing at the minimal diff setting or a Shield/dark or SR/dark Tanker. Again, there is zero advantage to the AoE size of Tankers when you are facing all of 3-4 targets. You would have to waste time herding up multiple mobs for it to matter and a Scrapper/Stalker/Blaster would have simply destroyed the mobs as they encountered them and moved on.

 

Do note, if Tankers simply outdo Brutes regardless of the size of their AoEs, then that's just begging for Tankers to get nerfed. There's zero reason for a Tanker to out damage a Brute limited to the range of what a Brute can reach.

 

Other things which would have worked well, any build which offers up two holds or some sort of stacked mezz. I have enjoyed soloing my TA/ice defender. I can't recall where I left off soloing it in terms of diff setting, but even +0/x1 would be a cake walk. I also have a few /ta Controllers who I like. 

 

(Who has deleted multiple tanks which I was soloing due to boredom)

Great name for a stalker WP! I have Sneakers 50 StJ/Ea stalker on Everlasting! 🙂