Overall generalist solo build?

[ebssgd]

So, in my particular case, I don't have a 50. I just keep trying new things and haven't found something that I really am in love with yet. So many power sets, so many costume options. Anyway, I love to solo, and have in fact never even been in a party. I would love to find something that I can take to 50. When I hit the cap, I know that my main goal will be to see how many AV's I can solo. I like to challenge myself with doing more difficult content solo no matter what game I am playing, and I would love to be able to solo as much of the endgame content as I can. I know that not having a huge amount of inf limits me and I would like to keep a focus on killing big things, but would like to be able to do as much of the end game content solo as possible. So, given my circumstances, what build do you all think gives my the best chances to solo any and all endgame content on a budget.

[Coyote]

Dark/Dark... enough debuffs to neuter even AVs, decent damage output

Earth/Cold... lower damage output, but Stoney can be set up to tank pretty much all AVs you'll meet in solo content, and Cold's debuffs will help kill them.

 

[biostem]

3 hours ago, ebssgd said:

So, in my particular case, I don't have a 50. I just keep trying new things and haven't found something that I really am in love with yet. So many power sets, so many costume options. Anyway, I love to solo, and have in fact never even been in a party. I would love to find something that I can take to 50. When I hit the cap, I know that my main goal will be to see how many AV's I can solo. I like to challenge myself with doing more difficult content solo no matter what game I am playing, and I would love to be able to solo as much of the endgame content as I can. I know that not having a huge amount of inf limits me and I would like to keep a focus on killing big things, but would like to be able to do as much of the end game content solo as possible. So, given my circumstances, what build do you all think gives my the best chances to solo any and all endgame content on a budget.

The big question is what is your preferred playstyle.  If you want to "live by the seat of your pants", then there are some fun and interesting blaster combos that can be highly effective, (beam rifle/tactical arrow is interesting).  If you want a more tactical/methodical approach, then consider a demon/storm or bots/time mastermind.  If you just want to play a high-energy and non-stop character, consider a street justice/radiation or claws/bio armor brute.

[Without_Pause]

Being in the controller forum, Ill/rad is a classic big game killer. I would grab some vet powers to make the early levels a bit easier. 18 is basically the starting point for the build. I also know that farming is frowned upon, BUT if you go into AE and do a search for "bad" you will see I listing of maps which any AT can go through. I prefer the space one. They are maps with just mobs of single bosses and you are set at level one, but access to powers up to level 6. Grab a 2x XP pack and you can hit 18 in fairly short order. If you want to go and do content after that, you can as I would find leveling to 50 that way mind numbing. I honestly just do it to get past the initial crappy levels to where a build seems to actually function and have a legit travel power. I would also look in the general and stalker forums for merit farming as that can be a way to earn merits to buy things since influ will be harder to amass sans a dedicated AE farmer. I would also look into the market forums for ways to generate influ. Ill having a way to stealth means you can do the minimum for missions which allow it. Note, on live I had an Ill/rad in my 40s which was soloing on +4 with just common IOs. I have some builds I like to solo on, but if I want an AV killer, Ill/rad every time.

 

There is an arc for King's Row which has an EB in it in case you want to go through that. I haven't checked to see if it is an option using the ability to do out leveled arcs. Switching between sides enables all the more big bads to take on. I don't know what the arc options are for EB level fights lets say under level 20. Silver Mantis can show up for a bank robbery mission from scanners in your 30s. She is...not nice. I have seen her take out whole teams.

Edited September 7, 2019 by Without_Pause

[Riverdusk]

On 9/6/2019 at 5:20 PM, ebssgd said:

So, in my particular case, I don't have a 50. I just keep trying new things and haven't found something that I really am in love with yet. So many power sets, so many costume options. Anyway, I love to solo, and have in fact never even been in a party. I would love to find something that I can take to 50. When I hit the cap, I know that my main goal will be to see how many AV's I can solo. I like to challenge myself with doing more difficult content solo no matter what game I am playing, and I would love to be able to solo as much of the endgame content as I can. I know that not having a huge amount of inf limits me and I would like to keep a focus on killing big things, but would like to be able to do as much of the end game content solo as possible. So, given my circumstances, what build do you all think gives my the best chances to solo any and all endgame content on a budget.

Sounds like you want an illusion controller to me (once their bugs are fixed, hopefully in the next week or so). 

 

Between the indestructible phantom army, and having a confuse power, they are probably the ones that can do more crazy end game tricks than pretty much anyone.  As @Without_Pause mentioned Illusion/rad is a classic for this and works great., Illusion/dark, illusion/cold, illusion/traps would also work well.  Illusion/time is also amazing, and cheaper to build with its recharge buff, but its -regen debuff is a little weak, so it may struggle a bit if you want to try soloing giant monsters.  The right temp/incarnate powers could probably make it work though.

[Plummtw]

For controllers best soloer are ill/rad and fire/kin, which appear in many articles showing they are really good.

But other than that....some mentioned plant and dark are good soloer too.

[Radiaria]

The strongest Soloists are IMO: fire/kin ill/rad and most/storm

 

Storm IMO does better than all others for solo. This WILL be DAMAGING! Fire/Kin has realistically little mitigation (you can't lockdown a boss instantly and you'll frequently miss 1-2+ targets in a mob) and doesn't scale well versus AV's (1 target) solo.

 

Storm does. 

 

Granted, /storm summoning controllers are NOT ill/rad for soloing everything with ease, but they excel in actual crowd control and ability to actually kill a mob in a decent time. With temp powers like the -regen knives, they win in a lot of cases. Once you use KB -> KD IO's with storm on controller, it is just mass armageddon, and it's all incredibly beautiful. This can easily solo AV's, storm is DAMAGING. Storm offers lots of soft crowd control + damage + damage mitigation. 

 

Illusion/Storm is a *FANTASTIC* soloer, although fire/storm will be a faster killer for crowds, they're not far off at all.

 

A fire/storm controller will be neck-and-neck if not *faster* than fire/kin - this combo actually SYNERGIZES very well because of the extra disorient in storm being able to ACTUALLY disorient a boss consistently in AOE unlike what Kin offers and it offers the storms AND the AOE tornado with knockdowns and freezing rain (-res, -def, AND knockdowns) which aid the controls to not only hit more enemies, but deal more damage, and also offer soft control if things don't go your way. Although, you will not get the fulcrum shift benefit, you will get freezing rain's -res. 

 

Illusion/Storm is extraordinary. High damage for controller, the phantom army is perfect soft control, you will be left alone from hard fights, you're extremely survivable, great debuffs, great crowd control, absolutely flawless. Immaculate soloer. Get the -regen knives temp power to solo GM's/AV's if you need to/want to, but other wise, you'll have 0 issues. In fact, I saw a pylon thread for this combo that is doing 500+ DPS, that's higher than some of the most damaging blaster builds. Seriously. It REALLY is AMAZING!

 

Ill/Rad just does not do much for crowd damage... yeah you can weaken the out of things... but that doesn't mean you'll actually have any damage to *actually* kill a mob. Yes, you can "ghost" but solo "defeat alls" can be a real slog and pain. 

 

Fire/kin has the opposite problem. It can lay waste to a mob like no other. However, against an AV solo, it has issues. You don't have as many things to fulcrum, and your mitigation is next to none against AV's. You may be able to occasionally hold an AV but without high fulcrum this isn't the best and it's not really a good one to solo GM's with.

Edited September 9, 2019 by 3333053222

[Plummtw]

Storm controller seems good, but which one is easier ? Ill or Fire or maybe others?

What I mean easier is easy to play, and easy to build.

13 hours ago, 3333053222 said:

Storm IMO does better than all others for solo. This WILL be DAMAGING! Fire/Kin has realistically little mitigation (you can't lockdown a boss instantly and you'll frequently miss 1-2+ targets in a mob) and doesn't scale well versus AV's (1 target) solo.

 

Storm does. 

 

[Coyote]

My Ill/Storm has ripped through all content except AVs, which have been problematic on occasion (since it has no Immob). You could do very well with it if you don't care too much about AVs. Fire/Storm would do very well also, and either Dark/Storm or Earth/Storm would be a more defense-focused build (but still good damage for a Controller due to Storm). Gravity/Storm will also solo very well and the pair mixes very well since Wormhole puts mobs into a small area, and that works great with the small-radius AoEs from Tornado and Lightning Storm.

[Without_Pause]

2 hours ago, Plummtw said:

Storm controller seems good, but which one is easier ? Ill or Fire or maybe others?

What I mean easier is easy to play, and easy to build.

 

Ill will be easier since it can survive in range and has their own personal tanks.

[Crowcus Pocus]

My suggestions would be either Fire/Rad or Fire/Dark. The debuffs + heals will make sure your ride pre-Imps goes smoothly. After L32, you'll simply destroy things.

 

Both combos will also allow you to farm INF with relative ease (not as quick as a Fire/Kin or brutes, but still quick enough for you to get your IOs).

 

While I have played over 1,000 hours on Storm characters, I don't think it's a particularly friendly set for players who have never played the game to 50 before. Especially considering they won't have the INF to back up the improved IO builds that turn squishy Stormies into beasts.

 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Falsey

[Radiaria]

There's going to be non-permanent PA options for Ill/Storm and while OF is on the expensive side it's not *unobtainable* if you just do a hami raid and a tf. Really. It's not that bad although, I'd buy a winter-o and then sell that on ah and then use that to buy OF for tornado and then purchase whatever enhancements you'd like for the /stormies.

 

Fire/Rad I think would be almost more expensive... to get perma Accelerated Metabolism while not super difficult, is costly, to really get the use out of most of rads powers (other than the debuffs and heals) you'd really need to dig in with IO's, with stormy you can get a lot more for free for soloing, and it teaches you a lot about the game. People will gladly teach you how to properly play one. 

 

So to answer your question about which is better paired with stormies..

 

This is going to be personal opinion and which you personally like more. Illusion is all about soft controls that work on literally everything but lacks medium and hard controls. Illusion really helps with hard fights and AVs, although this option tends to scatter mobs with stormies. However, the disorient in /storm can stun most things from minion-lei so it'll still prevent things from running away from you quite well :) and give you a harder control that illusion doesn't offer which is great especially when you can now feel inclined to make use out of the mass hold.

 

Fire/Storm is going to be quite amazing. You get immobolizes which prevent mobs from running away which means they get guaranteed synergy with /stormies. Lightning Storm causes fear and so does Tornado, if you immobolize them though, this completely negates that :). You also get the clap which can disorient (stun) along with flashfire, and you can basically disorient entire groups of enemies (including boss-level) all the time once this is IO'd out, again, the synergy between these two sets is pretty amazing. There's really not much better than this. This one is going to be very good with crowd control and AOE damage.

[Mercurias]

There’s are a lot of fun and effective controller power combos that are strong solo.

 

I still enjoy my Gravity/Time controller. I’ve solo’d most content with him. Grav/Time is a pretty potent combination of control, damage, buffing, debuffing, and healing. I struggle soloing AVs, but anything else is well within the realm of possibility.