AWRocketman

I've got a Traps/Ice that I ran to 50, soloing much of the way. I solo on +1/8 and can go to +2/8 against some enemies. My standard sequence is:

- Seekers to grab aggro
- Jump in and set Acid Mortar
- Fire off Dark epic Soul Drain
- Set Poison Gas Trap

At this point, usually much of the spawn is held by either the PGT, the +2 Mag proc in PGT or the Devastation Chance for Hold in Acid Mortar

- Throw out Caltrops
- Fire off Ice Storm

At this point, anything that isn't still held is running (very slowly).

- Drop down a Trip Mine

Now all minions are down and I work on Bosses. Most Lts are way down on health and die quickly.

I agree with Spider. You probably want both Caltrops and RoF. Either by itself is not so useful. Together they do great.

I've never been a fan of nukes. I'd rather have a series of powers that I can use to great effect over and over than a single power that I can only use once every few fights that also drains my endurance.

I have a stamina-less DM/FA brute that is fun to play. With some focus on +recovery IOs (easy to get with just two IOs in many sets), you can easily skip stamina which allows you some interesting combos.

See subject. I don't believe I've ever seen a /Invuln brute online. If someone has played one, how does it do?

See subject.

I just rolled mine and will be leveling him up as soon as I hit 50 with my Traps/Ice defender. I used to play mind controllers a lot. The set is a great solo'er and you can safely handle two bosses at once from a very low level with the combination of Mesmerize, Levitate and Dominate. Add in Confuse and you can lock down three. I've been able to take down multiple +2 bosses at level 12, which ain't shabby.

However, I've stopped playing Mind controllers due to the fact that mass containment, and thus real mass damage, can't easily be accomplished by Mind controller on a regular basis. TK is an option for that, but the endurance costs are prohibitive.

Enter /Cold. I'm thinking that when you get slotted Heat Loss you'll be able to run TK quite a bit to keep containment on multiple enemies, allowing Mind controllers to have the ability to get multiple contained AoE attacks off in a fight. Combined with Sleet, an APP AoE and Terrify it means some fairly significant AoE damage going out.

My FF/Rad loves all the procs I've got in Irradiate.

Personally I don't like the Earth APP/Storm pairing. Storm tends to be a ranged secondary, especially if you herdcane and the Earth APP is all about being up close and personnal.

Additionallly, I like Hover with /Storm. It can be fast enough to Herdcane with, allows you to throw out Lightning Storm above a fight to do more Knockdown than Knockback. It also applies to Gale, though I tend not to use it much. Same goes with Grav and Wormhole. It makes it a far less situational power in teams as you can float over a fight and force the knockback down. Lastly, I also like it for the additional defense (I took both Hover and CJ to cap my ranged defense).

So if not Earth, then what?

- Fire gets you Fireball which is nice for damage, but not much else.

- Primal is nice because Conserve Power helps out with the MOST ENDURANCE HUNGRY COMBO THERE IS. Power Boost is always handy with a Controller and Energy Torrent is useful when you've herdcaned stuff into a nice tight bunch. It also is a perfect spot for the +rech proc. Lastly the S/L resist in the shield offers the best numbers of any shield at the expense of another type resist. Since you've got a significant amount of resistance from Steamy Mist for other types, I consider this a bonus.

- The single most deadly thing to my Grav/Storm is the fact that it has no mez protection. It is for this reason that I have seriously considered switching to Psionic. The shield also gives you a full suite of resistances (except for negative). The AoE isn't horrid either.

- I played my Grav/Storm to 50 with the Ice APP. Hibernate is a defacto heal and endurance recharger, which is quite nice and has saved my butt many times. The S/L defense shield allows you to cap those two types if you so desire. Then, of course, there is the joy that is the combo of Freezing Rain and Ice Storm.

I'm just getting ready to start playing a new duo with my duo-buddy. He is playing a Traps/Sonic defender so naturally I MUST take Grav for all the fun Wormhole possibilities. The question is what to do for a secondary?

I've already got a Grav/Storm to 50 so don't want to play another. The next on the list are:

Grav/Traps
This is what I'm leaning toward right now. I'm thinking that with a number of arrows (most notably Oil Slick) you could add to a nice Wormhole trap cluster with the Trip Mines setting off Oil Slick. Disruption Arrow could be used in this manner as well. Flash Arrow would help cap effective defense. The -res stacking would be insane with the /Sonic on the defender. I also like the fact that if I go the Primal epic route that I would be able to stack insane amounts of hold mag.

Grav/Cold
Another -res extravaganza plus the Cold shields and Arctic Fog help cap defense. And I haven't played a /Cold controller yet.

Any input? Advice?

I've never personally tried it, but I believe that since Earthquake is a summoned entity not only would you not get it every 10 sec, but you wouldn't get the AoE effect (e.g. each affected mob has a chance for it to fire). I think you'd get one chance for it to fire.

I've got a FF/Rad at 47 right now. Really fun, but I couldn't see playing him solo or on small teams without the vet powers to take down bosses. I probably should have called my guy Proc Man because he is loaded with procs in NB, Irradiate, Neutron Bomb with a Force Feedback +rech in Repulsion Bomb. Lots of fun, but lacking on damage.

Elec isn't a bad pairing with Traps. The long activation in Short Circuit looks like a flash compared to the Traps powers

Going this route, if you take the Power epic pool then you can:

- Fire Seekers to take alpha
- Jump in and drop a Mortar (mortar takes aggro)
- Fire off Power Build Up
- Fire off PGT
- Fire off Short Circuit

Everything is now held or drained of endurance

- Fire off Ball Lightning
- Now drop the Trip Mine

At this point everything but Lts and bosses is dead. Lts and bosses are drained and heavily damaged.

The key to doing this is getting very high (e.g. capped) defense in the positional categories. If you're going to throw in Caltrops, it will help keeping sapped mobs from running (which they do as soon as they're sapped), but you need to make sure you:

a) Max out its slow
b) Don't drop it before PGT

Why you don't see it:

Psi is a relatively low damage set that is highly resisted later in the game. It tends to be one of the lesser played sets.

Would it be good?

The answer is probably yes due to one power: Psionic Tornado. Mobs don't shoot at you when they're on their butts so you can fire this power off and have a nice amount of time to drop a trip mine.

I still believe that Ice is the best pairing (next to Fire for corrupters).

See subject...

For all you solo 'fenders, what difficulty settings do you run at while solo?

I'm currently running my 40 (just hit) Traps/Ice at +1/6 and will likely be trying to +1/8 since I just capped my AoE defense and got a couple percent melee with the last three slots (six-slotted Siphon Insight). I haven't tried +2s yet.

I am in the process of writing an Ice/Traps guide - really heavily traps, but focusing on the Ice primary as I believe it's arguably the best pairing.

Keys:

- As others have mentioned, soft capping defense is key and not hard to do. Work in Weave and some sets and you'll get it easily.

- Triage beacon is basically worthless except for AV fights. The fights are over too soon.

- Someone mentioned not taking Freeze Ray and that was responded to by someone else saying that its pairing with the momentary hold in PGT could have merit. The latter is true. Much of the time you can hold a pesky boss right off the bat and that is useful. This is especially true when paired with:

- Put a Devastation Chance to Hold proc in Acid Mortar. This is the single most useful application of this proc with only Lightning Storm in the Storm set coming in close. This is extremely useful and hits a lot of targets.

- I find Frost Breath getting more seldom used as I move up in levels. It's slow to activate and doesn't do extraordinary damage. You basically have a choice between this and Triage Beacon at level 4. You have to take one, taking both is a waste.

- You will want Ice Storm as soon as you can get it. This is a cornerstone power of this combo. My standard opening is to toss out seekers into the spawn, they draw aggro and tend to bunch up opponents. I then jump into the fight and drop Acid Mortar followed immediately by PGT. The out come the caltops and Ice Storm. Now things are either held, running or, the few that aren't, bouncing attacks off my defense. This is when Trip Mine comes out and everything short of a Lt tends to die. The Lts are made short work of by blasts. Bosses take a little longer, but they fall without much effort.

To do the above you need the components listed, obviously, but also need very high defense. Without it you won't get Trip Mine off as often.

- I have not needed a self heal. Use the power slots to get to Weave.

- You really want Hasten so you can get Mortars out more quickly. Not absolutely required, but lets you move along much more quickly. It is also nice to get Ice Storm up a second time in long fights or to get more trip mines out quickly when setting up a pull-ambush.

- For an epic pool I don't know if Electric is the best. I like Dark for Soul Drain and Psy for Mass Hypno and World of Confusion. The latter may raise some eyebrows from those who discount this power, but it does provide nice mitigation from all those bunched up mobs in addition to damage procs and Contagious Confusion, which is nice in this power. I also want to play with Telekinesis and pushing mobs into a pile of mines, but I haven't attempted this yet