What difficulty you play at (solo)

[Crysis]

Back at OP:

 

You’ll note from many of the responses here that it’s a broad spectrum of players.  People who enjoy the story/dialogue versus min/maxed players who want to level quickly.  As I stated, I have AT’s of every type that can comfortably do +4/x8 solo, many with AV’s turned on.  That said, I find solo AV battles to be a slog and seldom play that way because by that point in the mission its almost always the end of same and I just want to move on to the next.  I’ve also got several AT’s that while they can do +4/x8 they seldom do because the effort to defeat spawns is so much greater than with a similarly-leveled melee or blaster toon.  Not all AT’s nor builds are equal in this game, they never have been and never will be. 

 

So really, don’t compare what you define as fun to the next persons’ definition of same.  If you are comfortable with the notoriety level, you find yourself leveling at an acceptable speed and your risk vs reward is balanced enough to give you a good challenge without becoming obnoxiously easy/hard….then that’s your groove.  Go with it.  

 

That’s the beauty of this game really.  There’s no set “must have” builds to complete missions/game for the most part.  Some AT’s are far easier to play than others, and those often can handle more difficult content.  But that’s why we have so many open character slots.  Some days I wanna run an MM and manage the battlefield, and am OK with taking a bit longer to whittle down most foes.  Other days I just want to Nuke stuff non stop with a high recharge blaster, and live with my health meter in the red for several spawns at a time to feel the adrenaline rush of “almost dying.”  The Notoriety settings can literally be adjusted -per mission- if you’d like, a feature I haven’t found in many other games that require you to set your difficulty rating up front and stick to it throughout the game.  So if you set it too hard for your enjoyment, dial it back…you can even do this in a single mission instance by ducking out of the mission, changing your notoriety, selecting a different mission to “reset” things and then re-selecting the original mission and start it over with the new difficulty settings.  All from the comfort of that little thought bubble icon on your chat bar.

 

Seriously….play how you want.  That’s the beauty of this game.

[Black Talon]

Very much agreed that this is a highly idiosyncratic matter; combination of the AT, power-sets, how they've been slotted out, and, finally, exactly what the player is comfortable with.

 

My 50s - and there are more than a couple on that list - keep it at +4/x1, if Scrapper/Tanker/Brute.  With the Issue 27 bad guy upgrades, what were previously simple keep-your-eyes-open moments have now turned into, on a number of occasions, genuine nail-biters.  My Defenders are at +3/x1, and, indicating the defensive nature of this game's mathematical balance, they haven't seemed to experience a massive uptick in difficulty, even with the bosses.  Yeah, a medium defence insp might be added into the mix, but not much more than that.

 

Although the offensive-driven ATs perhaps could handle things at x2 or higher, I'm not a big fan of turning these missions into solo marathons; I'll leave that for when I'm in full teams.  I'd like to get to the end sometime during this calendar year and not have to ignore Mom's phone calls.

[AboveTheChemist]

I almost exclusively solo, at 0 or +1/x2. That seems to result in a difficulty level that occasionally brings me to the brink of death, and where I have to use inspirations periodically. This is on a character that is sticking to generic IOs for now, and is turning off XP most of the time in order to complete as much content as possible. For my less-restricted characters, I may bump the settings up a little depending on the character and content, but I tend to stick in that same ballpark. 

[Coyotedancer]

It's all over the place for me, depending on the character's AT, power sets, level and how they are (or aren't, as the case may be-) built. A leveling Stalker on SOs only? I go with higher level enemies in lower numbers... +2/x2, say.  I raised my last brute the other way around, Xi had much higher numbers of goons, but only at +1.

 

"Finished" characters also vary a lot. A good 'cruising speed' setting for my Demons/Time Mastermind is +2/x6. My favorite 'boss fight' Brute is one of those +4/x8-or-bust types. It's go all the way or go home with her. I don't have many like that, but it's fun to rampage with the ones I do have. Most of the gang are much lower key.   

[UltraAlt]

On 3/3/2024 at 9:25 AM, Project said:

When leveling, what difficulty do people play on? (Just curious.) Myself, depends on the AT - for brutes usually lvl+0, team size +3, MM it's 0/4 and all ranged it's 0/2, while Stalker it depends a bit on the mission type - but mostly 2/1

 

I try to set it at what my character can bear.

Generally, that puts it at +2/1 or 2 once I'm level 5 or so and have SO's slotted in everything.

 

That being said, most of the time I'm teaming.

[Art Vandelay]

I think the scripted structure and AV mechanics of some story missions make a huge difference to how settings can change experienced difficulty.  Yesterday I tried the finale of Number Six's arc at +1 x3.  The big showdown was like being trapped in an elevator with mama bear and her cubs.  Radio and tip missions feel pretty much the same regardless of settings, especially since any AVs which make a guest appearance are auto set to EB quality.

 

[Sovera]

Brutes/Tankers will depend on when they have an AoE that opens. Sometimes it's at 18, and then there's no point in doing more than 0x1 until then since I have to kill everything one at a time anyway.

 

There's the stuff that gets early AoE like Ice Melee or Claws, or Fire Melee (on a Tanker) and I usually crank it to 0x6 by level 10 when the ATOs open though if I have early AoE I have it at 0x4 at what ever time the AoE is obtained since 5 slotted with the prestige enhancements makes it a killer.

 

For example most my runs on a Fire Armor Tankers start at 0x6 (if the AoE rule of thumb applies) to solo Posi 1 (which depending on the armor sets can be fine to a pain at the end with the 6 boss shadow clones.

 

It continues being 0x6 for Posi 2 and then moves to 1x8 from Synapse onwards and doesn't move. High difficulties just make killing things slower which is not the fastest on a Tanker as it is.

 

My last Stone Armor/Fire Melee was doing the same but it felt like on easy mode compared to my Fire Armor runs.

 

I find Brutes/Scrappers too squishy for this early life style and one of the reasons I gravitate to Tankers since I lack the early bloom. But by level 40-ish the Tanker damage starts falling off while the Scrappers/Brutes get their slotting in place and their damage is now better so they can handle bigger spawns.

 

I don't solo on other ATs since the bad mechanic of mobs running away is too much of a pain, but the few times I tried soloing with my Sentinel I found it too squishy same as the Brutes/Scrappers and mostly stuck to 1x4 mostly until the nuke opened which made me go back to 1x8.

[WumpusRat]

Depending on the archetype I'm playing, I'll do anything from 0x2 to +1x4, while leveling. Anything beyond that becomes a bit too much of a slog, since I'm generally running story arcs for badges and merits, rather than just raw exp, so I want to get to the end and get my rewards.

If it's a story arc I haven't done before, I'll usually stick to minimum to run it the first time, so I can focus more on the story, maps, etc, rather than grinding for exp.

[sbloyd]

My Warshade main, I generally play solo at +4x8; Warshades are largely considered 'suboptimal' but the large groups help with the self-buffs.  As noted in another thread though, I've gotten to where if I'm in a Council tussle I just move on to the next group if one of the last bosses pops a puppo.  I've got places to go and mobs to drain.

 

[Doomguide2005]

     It varies quite a bit but AT, sets and level all play into it.  I have one "outlier", my main a Claws/SR scrapper, who runs basically across the spectrum depending on goal and mood.  About the only thing she won't do is turn it down so much threads and shards can't drop.  Probably hits +3/×8 mostly for content with a level shift effectively dropping that to +2/×8.  I'll tear through tip missions at +1/×1, then turn around crank it to max and try an 800.1 series, incarnate mission arcs or most recently a crack at the new 1☆ Lady Gray solo.  Managed to take down the CWK in the first mission though I'm fairly certain Penny met a rapid demise while I was busy with the AV and waves of clockwork.  Generally her upper end is dealing with AVs ... I generally find it too tedious solo so I generally avoid fighting them unless teamed which is why I dropped the TF at that point.  Had my share of silly scrapper tricks solo vs AVs on Live no real desire to do it more.  I was more curious about ☆ Rikti mob abilities than actually soloing the whole thing ... fascinating 'nuff said

[Mr. Apocalypse]

I run content in 0/+1 until I get my incarnates done and build completed, then I crank up the dial to 4/+8 and adjust accordingly to balance for an approximate equal challenge when compared to my toons that roll 4/+8 with Little to no difficulty. 

 

Obviously this is only for toons that are built to be mostly solo. I do have a few squishies that only run at lowest settings unless on a team running at higher settings.  Mainly those toons built with support in mind.

[Sovera]

Currently leveling a Stone/EM Tanker and it was a slog to 16 when the first AoE opens. Here I go with only Mud Pots! So 0x2 until 16, slog. At 16 I got Whirling Hands, cranked it to 0x6 and three levels in one mission. Dats the way to go.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

on average is run 2x8

anything higher takes too long imo

 

on pre-50s 0x2 or 0x3 depending on the AT