Going to the Dark Side advise please.

[Jacktar]

Hello, well been playing since just after Live till sunset and then from our rebirth till now.

So like most of us have done a bunch of stuff and ready for a new venture.

I have done all the content on blue and red and yellow sides but only on my main badge char (4 badges to 100%) and mostly using flashback.

I also have a number of pages of alts which I just realised are all originally blue or yellow starters.

I appears I have never in all that time rolled a shiny new redside character.

Therefore I intend to do so and then level it exclusively doing red content except for the coop stuff as and when that is available to it.

I expect to be mostly solo but will join whatever is starting when I am ingame and would want to be a contributing member of the team when I do.

I absolutely want nothing to do with the Soldier or Widow AT’s, I just find all the respec stuff at lvl 24 far to much of a chore at my level of knowledge of them with too many already parked up in the failed/stalled page of my alts.

I would aim to have a fully twinked out and Incarnate character at the end of the journey. Resources and Inf are not a problem at any stage.
So given the above I would really appreciate suggestions re AT and Primary and Secondary power sets for the project.

What will allow me to experience redside and all it offers including badges.

Sorry for the ramble, please help, thanks muchly 🧛🏻‍♂️🧛🏻‍♂️

[Doc Spectre]

Well Redside is a lot quieter than Blue. So I think you probably want to look at more solo capable archetypes like brutes, scrappers, masterminds. Though since you said there is no budget limit you can’t probably make do with just about anything just some will be faster than others.
Be prepared for ambushes and some rather nasty Elite Bosses in later level story arcs. Having some debuff and/or very decent damage will help a lot.

A Dark melee/invulnerability brute is an extremely tough nut to crack.

Necromancy/Dark miasma and Robot/Traps masterminds are some other good options to consider.

[BurtHutt]

As noted above, Red side is not that populated. However, if you form teams, they will come. It isn't too tough to get a team rolling and there is a new accolade associated with completing certain SFs so that is another draw.

 

Homecoming has a high quality product and they've added content. I'll admit I do not like what they've added but there is some new stuff via HC.

 

Now, which AT....hmmmm...what do you like playing now? It's a tough question without more info. For me, I like a sturdy character and don't want to make hospital runs all the time. So, I often go Brute and also Tank (the tanker improvements make them far more viable for all types of play). With IOs and a solid build, any AT works. It's all about preference.

[Without_Pause]

Red side is a bit similar to Gold side from a damage type standpoint. You definitely want something which can deal with En and Psi damage. End drain will be an issue due to the sheer number of Mu. I haven't done it yet, but I would lean on the idea of using an /elec Brute. I recently created one for Gold side though. If fully kilted out is the end goal, Ill/dark Controller is as close to an 'any' map build you are going to get from a non-melee. 

[Clave Dark 5]

I first played redside as a Stalker and appreciated how that freed me to wander about sight-seeing without getting attacked at every street corner, so that's my AT suggestion.

[Octogoat]

Why not play a mastermind or tanker and cut a swathe through legions of foes?

[Maelwys]

First toon I ever played redside was a Bot/Dark MM.
I was not disappointed.

[Octogoat]

Just now, Maelwys said:

First toon I ever played redside was a Bot/Dark MM.
I was not disappointed.

 

I'm using your bots/time build right now and having an absolute blast!

[Maelwys]

Time is fantastic, although it needs Perma Powerboosted+Clarion'ed Farsight to really shine and it's been overtaken as the "S Tier" MM secondary by Marine.

I think these days if I was to recommend a "do anything" MM it'd probably be /Marine. Primary largely doesn't matter with a good /Marine setup; but Ranged pets like Mercs and Bots tend to be much better behaved (Bots will be more survivable until you get Perma Serum; but Mercs will be better at anything other than AoE farming when twinked out at Lv50). However Demons/Marine is fantastic when twinked also if you can cope with the whole "herding overcaffinated kittens" thing...

(might as well throw a few example builds up for the OP's benefit since I have them handy...)
zMastermind - Mercs - Marine.mbd
zMastermind - Demons - Marine.mbd
 

Edited November 11 by Maelwys