Questions for Soloing and Personal Experiences with Powers

[Rahimus]

Despite the title, I don't intend to solo *everything* this game has to offer. Only content such as Story Arcs and Contact quests, not, say, a Task Force, which I honestly believe to be intended for a party of 8 or so.

 

With that in mind I have a few questions I wanna ask over both personal preference and general guidelines to follow.

 

(Also won't really be touching Enchantment builds that much, I want to save my mental space for that at Level 50, when I have access to everything.)

 

1. Out of the 6 playstyles (Tank, Melee, Ranged, CC, Support, and Pets) what would you guys recommend?

While I would appreciate people telling me what Primaries and Secondaries would be good, I'd rather know what to outright avoid so that I still get to choose the Primaries and Secondaries I want to mess around with without being bottlenecked into following the meta.

 

1.5. I call this 1.5 because it can be answered simultaneously with 1, what would you recommend for my Archetype with that role?

 

2. I was thinking of playing a character that makes me feel beeg and powerful. Not necessarily in the damage-department, but rather in the animations and the raw force of punching a boulder to shotgun enemies with the debris.

 

With that being said, what would you say are powers that make you feel "Powerful"? Even if it's not necessarily that good at doing damage. My example up above was from Seismic Blast, since I played around with that for a little bit, and I do know of Titan Weapons, but I wanted to see what else made y'all feel this way of being able to complement your origin powers of Magic and Technology with the Natural power of F I S T . xd

 

 

I know these questions are a bit unorthodox but it'd be nice to get some info and feedback here and there, mainly because I only messed around with War Mace, Titan Weapon, and Seismic Blast, so I wanted to further expand my horizons by looking at the other powersets, and this was simply asking for a good place to start. Thanks ahead of time if you do respond. 😄

 

-Rahimus

Edited January 8 by Rahimus
Changed the title to better reflect the 3 questions I was asking.

[Marine X]

If you intend on solo play through most content survivability is a huge factor. In that way, Tanks have the highest "toughness" levels in the game, and they make solo play more practical.

You should be able to deal with most, if not all content, on your own. Other Archetypes such as Brutes, Scrappers, and Stalkers can also solo effectively, Tanks can do so with less time spent getting an optimal build.

As Tanks are Melee based, their Offensive Sets offer powerful animations in most sets especially Super Strength, Battle Axe, War Mace and Radiation Melee. Almost all the sets are about the same damage wise but I would look for ones with multiple "Area of Effect" powers as these give you an edge when fighting groups and add to the feeling of power when fighting. 

 

With all that said, I have seen effective Solo Characters from all Archetypes and Most Sets, I just believe Tanks are Easier to build to that end. Play what you find enjoyable and try as many as you wish till you find the best one for you.

[The Other Guy]

I'm a diehard altoholic, and I tend to jump from one to another multiple times throughout the day. Its not unusual to play a dozen toons in a day. The downside of this is I didn't get anywhere near all of them to 50, and those I did were part of dedicated teams that ran together once a week. So, I can't speak much to soloing the end game. I also only started dabbling in sets before the lights went out back in 2012. So, keep that in mind. Other people will have wildly different views.

 

My take on soloing each build is as follows:

Blasters - Can solo effectively but you have to put thought into your attack chain and don't neglect the controls in your secondary set. You'll die often, usually spectacularly, but you'll take a lot more of them out each time you go. My main Blaster was Ice/Fire. 

Controllers - Cannot safely for most of the game. Can't solo quickly until they get the pet. It's possible to solo mission and take very little damage because mobs are all locked down. The trade off is you're basically stabbing bears with toothpicks for 30 levels. There are a few exception to this. Gravity and Illusion can deal more damage. Kinetic makes everything better. My main controller was Fire/Rad.

Corruptors - I never really got the hang of these. They deal less damage than blasters and have the same secondaries as controllers. They can be effective, but my experience was they really shined with a partner or two. What I say below about the Defender primary applies to the primary here as well. My main Corruptor was a Sonic/Kinetic.

Defenders - Being able to solo means choosing your primary set wisely. You want powers that affect the mobs, or yourself. Force Field, Sonic, Empathy, Pain Manip, Cold, Thermal are all bad options for solo because they are mainly for buffing teammates, especially at the lower levels. On a team, they rock, but solo, there's just not much of use. Radiation, Poison, Dark all debuff the enemy and that means you get a benefit. Kinetic buffs the WHOLE team, even if that's only you. I didn't have a main Defender. I had several. Dark Archery, Rad, Dark, Empathy Dark,

Dominators - I never could play them. Nothing I say about them would be of value.

Masterminds - Soloing a Mastermind can be done a few ways. You can be active, controlling which pet attacks each target, buffing and debuffing as you would any other team, or you can set them on aggressive and just walk while you watch a movie on the other screen. If you want to play one of the non-solo friendly defender primaries, do it on a Mastermind, because you'll always have a team. Again, I had several. Necro Poison, Mercs Traps, Robot Dark.

Sentinels - These didn't exist back then but from what I've seen on the ones I have so far, the early game is a snap. You have corruptor level damage output and nearly scrapper level armor/defense. What you don't have are soft controls, so you'll need that armor.

Stalkers - Another AT I never got the hang of. They are kind of like the melee version of blasters. They deal a lot of damage very quickly, but the longer the fight went on (at low levels) the less change I had to survive it.

Scrappers - Lots of melee damage, and pretty tough. It can take a while to get them slotted, because you want to flesh out the attacks and the defense, and there just aren't enough slots available. Highly solo playable. Main was a Dark Regen, but I also had a Dark Dark that I really liked.

Brutes - Better mitigation than scrappers, but not quite the same damage output on average. Brutes give you the option to work up your mitigation slotting first, and let Fury be your damage slotting until you're durable enough. Main was Fire Dark

Tanks - Safest AT you can play for solo. Damage output is low, and that can make combat feel like it's dragging on. Defenses come fast, and that makes slot distribution easier. Main was a Invlun Axe.

 

 

 

Edited January 9 by The Other Guy