Celestial_Fury

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I'm not a number cruncher, but I have a question on the Tank/Brute debate you guys have going here.

Wouldn't it be better to give the Tanker a version of fury that upped their damage resistance not damage dealing capabilities? Yeah, I know tankers are super hard to kill as is, but that is their job, they TAKE hits, a lot of hits, and in the process of this they get to hit back.

A Brutes job is to GIVE hits, a lot of hits, and in the process of this they get hit back. As such, the more swinging going on around a brute, the harder they hit as that is their job. Melee damage monkey, that because of the needs Red side, needs to be able to take a licking. But ultimately, a brute survives a fight by killing everything around it.

I'm a big fan of not nerfing one to restore balance, but bringing everything to parity. If say Brutes are out performing Scrappers and Tanks. Scrappers and tanks should get a bit of an increase while Brutes get a bit of a decrease. Yes this is a nerf, but a smaller one while also raising the under-performers.

I also though, don't see why a Tanker should be dealing more damage because there are more people on him hitting him. I understand fury was originally supposed to be a Tank thing, but I also agree with the thematic reasons they never gave it to tankers.

However, upping a tankers damage resist or whatever could keep the survivability edge for them beyond a brute being at 44.2% fury or whatever it is.

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The better solution in my eyes would be to simply reduce the Brute +dam cap. So many people that defend Brute balance as it stands are fond of bringing up the fact that it's not all that common to reach it, so it wouldn't noticeably affect them but it would still bring their peak performance to a more equivalent level. The other option (and the one I prefer since I compare them to Scrappers more than Tankers) would be to reduce their damage scalar a tiny bit (to .70 at 50 which is a 10% reduction). This would address the equivalence to Scrapper damage assuming easy Fury capabilities while accounting for the innate survivability advantage (8% simply from higher hit points) just from having more hit points (and a greater hit point cap that can't be reached while solo so +hp buffs are always useful).

Scrappers: 1.125 * 1.1 * 5 = 6.1875
Brute: .75 * 8.5 = 6.375
Brute (750% damage cap): .75 * 7.5 = 5.625
Brute (.675 scalar): .675 *8.5 = 5.95

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Not sure Brutes, Scrappers or Tankers need any kind of fix. They do not play the same so odds are there will always be players willing to play either of them. I doubt that most players are selecting a powerset to play based upon its max performance. The fun factor is certainly a big selling point and i doubt any of these three ATs will be in danger of extinction when Going Rogue will go live.

The numbers are there anyway, Tankers on paper are toughest most of the time, Scrappers have highest burst damage most of the time when starting a fight and Brutes kick [censored] over time but can't count on the luck factor that are Crits.

Oh and i enjoy playing all of these 3 ATs. To me they are all perfect just as they are.

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I'm actually in agreement with the OP somewhat. Relative to the competition, this game doesn't take very long to get to the endgame and the endgame content is not very developed.

Where the OP and I differ is that I LIKE that about CoH. 5-6 years ago I used to have a schedule where I could game for 50-60 hours a week. If I was still doing that, I wouldn't be playing this game. Now i'm playing about 10 hours a week, and yet CoH allows me to still play at the highest possible level of the game.

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What i underlined. Maybe THAT is the problem.

On a sidenote, there is level 50 content as of now and some was added recently ( Dr Khan and Barracuda TF/SF ) but players never can get enough because it simply gets old fast. What more could devs do? Add even more stuff that unlocks more stuff at 50? Gated content and shinies for level 50s? I do not think it would be a good idea. For instance i am very happy they did not gated Cimeroran zone to level 45-50. I think it is best when most content can be run my as many people as possible. Adding even more elite rewards? Another bad idea since players already trivialize most content in the high level as of now. Purples and HOs are way enough elite gear for the game imho and they are Endgame Only content so far.

So what then? Whoever is campaigning for more endgame content, how about giving "specific" exemples of what you would like to see? And how about thinking of something that would have a high replay value for one single character? Thing is, i see none. It all ends getting old and boring ( i am looking at you Hami raid and RWZ raid ). You can only do so much the same thing over and over again with one character.

Personally i keep thinking that devs were geniuses when they decided that the best replayability for their game was to be playing alternate characters.

The AE is another form of more 50 endgame content where players can find crazy challenges devised by other players but know what? Seems like fighting 54 bosses with baseball bats is more popular so what then? I am not sure what players really are expecting and looking for to do at 50 but whatever devs could come with, it seems it would not be what players want. So what players want? Hell if i know. I just don't get it.

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I understand where your coming from with the "Why play @ 50?". We can either go PvP, do farm missions, or do TF/SF's. TF/SF's are pretty much just more critters, on more maps, which we've been doing for 50 levels. This game doesn't have any real endgame content. Hami Raid? Pretty boring imho, and a rikti raid. How many times are you gonna want to run the 2 raids this game has lol. Pretty much the point of the OP was that this game is severly lacking in end game content, and the point of this game is the "journey", not the ending. Which sucks.

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On the contrary, it certainly does not sucks. Best to have a good time and fun while playing the 1-50 levels than only start playing once you are 50.

And once you get to 50 for the first time and realize there is nothing so special about it, maybe people should take their time and enjoy the ride with their next alts? No! They rush to AE to get PLed to 50 once more! Go figure...

Problem is not the game. Problem is the players. It's all in their head.

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Can I mention Pets from Redside patron pool? Aside from the Mu gaurdian in the Scirocco Dom version the rest flat out suck no matter which AT it is.

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Set IOs have changed that somewhat. While the pets might still not be very great, creative players have found out that many of these pets could be slotted with nice set IOs that can provide good enough bonuses to be worth picking them as a power ( especially when there are no powers that you really are interested in at 47 or 49 ).

For instance, my Dominator has picked the Coralax pet even if she does not really have a use for it. 6 slotted it with Kinetic Crash for 3pts KB protection and 7.5% recharge bonus and an extra 2.5% smash resistance thats adding over my Shark armor. I see the ability to actually being able to summon the pet every 8 minutes as the icing on the cake. I was really only aiming for the set bonuses

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Big Red Ball.

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Seconded.

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So say we all

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I think the ability to set 8 man spawns in the new difficulty system will be the saving grace of Tankers. If you can set 8 man spawns, all the sudden Tankers look like a good soloing Archetype. I wouldn't mind seeing Tankers get Defiance 1.0, or perhaps some kind of damage boost based on how many enemies are aggroed on them though. And Brutes shouldn't be nerfed. There's simply no need. The times when they are buffed into overperformance are really pretty rare in game.

The real problem as I see it with GR is redside population. People will largely leave redside not because it is an inferior gaming experience (it's better designed mechanics-wise than blueside as we all know) but because:

-it's more fun for them to be a Hero
-system requirements on blue side are slightly lower (and therefore system performance is somewhat better)
-blueside is where they started. It's their "home".
-more zones (quantity over quality, but that's slowly changing with revamps)
-more TFs.
-better market.
-blue aesthetics preferred over red aesthetics.

Right now it's about 2:1 to 3:1 Hero:Villain. Post GR (a year or so after its launch), you'll probably be looking at 4:1 to 5:1. Or worse.

And PvP is a bit less fun (IMHO) when both sides are bringing exactly the same Archetypes.

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All i have to say is "So be it". Let players play the chars they want and where they want. Things will get sorted out and we will see if there are really any issues with that outcome.

Let's wait and see what happens. Cross the bridge when we see it or something like that. Some people are overreacting right now in this thread i think.

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Ok this is cool, but if we 'go rogue' does it mean we loose all the progress of our original side? I assume it does, but for instance, My main blaster is SG Leader with top prestige, if I switch sides will I loose those points and get kicked from my group? Has no one thought of that yet? Or did I just miss it?

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You know, we do not know enough yet but maybe this will not be an issue. Maybe everything will become unified in a sense. Maybe original villains will be able to join hero SGs and vice versa. Maybe we will not have to see heroes and villains as two separate games anymore. So switching side could ( i say could ) have you remaining in your hero SG even while you are playing in the Rogue Isles.

In the end, maybe we are seeing issues and problems where there are none. We will see soon enough what's the dev plan for all that.

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I'm gonna state this again, in clearer terms.


If you are using how much Damage is done by Fire Control as your baseline for what a control set should be capable of, you are misunderstanding the purpose of Controllers on teams.

If you think that Mind Control is Weak at *controlling* things, then you really just haven't examined what the powers in the set are actually capable of, or you are ignoring some aspect of those powers.

If you think that Fire is better at *control* than Mind, you again have some critical misunderstanding of what Mind is capable of.



Just what is Fire gonna do when a second group shows up and you've already used Flashfires and Cinders (if you even took Cinders)?

Meanwhile Mind has FOUR AoE mezzes. To argue that the sleep and fear are somehow weak, when compared directly to Flashfires (itself out of context), out of the context of the set as a whole, just strikes me as silly.

Maybe these arguments are true IN THE FARM MISSIONS WHERE FIRE/KINS SHINE SO WELL. Go try some REAL missions and come back and tell me how great Fire is at controlling mobs.

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This. Big time! Wavicle hit the nail just right. Again.

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Mass Hypnosis Hello??

L2P your Mind Controller/Dominator.

What does the Fire Controller use to AoE mez WITHOUT DRAWING AGGRO???

Oh, that's right, HE CAN'T, ONLY MIND CAN DO THAT.

What IOs are you gonna slot to make Flashfire not alert the mobs?

What IOs are you gonna slot to mez Hold resistant mobs?

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Uh, who cares? Serious question: if it's stunned who cares if it's aggroed?

Especially because an endgame fire controller with much of a brain (regardless of secondary) will follow that flashfire up with a sizable helping of hot death and burning monkey violation. Which the mind controller has few ways of replicating.

In fact... the mind controller has no reliable AOE containment method. If you use mass hypnosis for containment, throwing your fireball or psinado... wakes everything up and aggros them If you use total dom for AOE containment, it's only up once in a blue moon. And mind has nothing else that will set up AOE containment.

It definitely belongs in the underperforming category. Unless your measure of performance is "not killing things effectively" - in which case Mind's great, sleep your enemies for hours, they'll be well-rested when the fire controller comes by and kicks their butts.

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Ive seen lot of fire controllers being badly beaten by Arachnos, Malta and Crey troops while Mind troller could pick them all apart one by one while remaining 100% safe.

Thing is, are you playing your troller/dominator with a team? If that is the case then Mind is not underperforming at all. Doing damage is not the controller's job anyway. Other players on the team will do the killing. If your fire controller can kill stuff fast by himself then good for him but i would bet alot money that he has to cherrypick his enemy groups before he can enjoy fireballing and imping them to death. Like i said earlyer, does not work so well when bane executionners, toxic tarantulas, malta titans, sappers and gunslingers suddenly show up for the fight. You get left with Char as a solid hold while mind has alot more tools to deal with bosses. Flashfire+Firecage+Fireball is great for farming but that's all.

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Stone Armor for Tanks: Survivability is thrown around like confetti hero side, and Stoners basically take crippling buff in exchange guaranteed survivability. Considering how frequently the extra survivability is overkill, I feel sorry for the non-irl stoners.

Mind Control: The lack of an AoE immobolize/stun means it's pain to set domination for AoE attacks. Furthermore when purple out your mind troll, you can stop groups every minute with Total Domination and Mass Confusion. Fire Control on the other hand can stop groups nearly as well with Flashfire and cages about every 45 seconds using just SO's. Mind Control really just seems to suffer in the post-io world.

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Again, depends of the situation. I get lot more mileage from Mind Control than Fire Control when i am doing LRSF, ITF and LGTF. If you are not into farms all the time, Mind Control shines alot more than Fire Control IMHO. And i feel lot more safe with confusion and rarely resisted sleep powers that last very long than with only having Char as a fast spamming hold ( others are mostly aoes and on long recharge ). With Mind you get Dominate and Sleep and Confuse which are like up and ready fire all the time.

And creative players can make the so-called underperforming powers performing better by slotting set IOs.

My Invul/SS tanker has 3 Acc/Dmg/Rch ( mixed sets ) and 1 Touch of Death Negative Dmg, 1 Perfect Zinger Psi Dmg and 1 Mako Lethal slotted into Jab ,Punch and Haymaker. With Rage going on, Accuracy is less relevant and they do hit consistently and apply mixed types of dmg. These are fast recharging attacks, i just leave jab on Autofire and can cycle it with Punch and Haymaker like forever. I throw a KO bLow here and there when its available and Footstomp weakens everything that is around me.

SS definetely can get the job done. Maybe it cant compare to scrappers but it sure isnt in any worst shape than other tanker secondaries. Is Rage necessary to leverage the whole thing? Maybe so but again, i rarely even hit Rage when im just soloing. I do not really need it unless fighting very tough enemies or ones with high defenses like Rikti Drones.

YMMV i guess but i am very happy with my character and he is a blast to play.

Edit: To be more clear, all my three attacks have 3 procs in them, so its 9 procs that are cycling kinda fast since Jab and Punch are up very quick ( I have Hasten also which make the whole even faster when needed ).

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The devs said (when power proliferation was first being talked about and around the time that they announced which sets) that heroes wouldn't get Poison and villains wouldn't get Empathy.

Traps, on the other hand, wasn't ever mentioned.

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I think that with Going Rogue coming soon, all our misconceptions of what is "good" and what is "evil" will need alot reviewing.

Are there tools that are inherently evil by the way? I always thought that behavior made people good, or evil.

It makes me laugh alot when people say it is City of "Insert AT".

Are there players that are exclusively only playing one single character all the time in this game? Furthermore, are players that have alts only and ONLY play scrappers and nothing else?

If there are more scrappers online at one time, i call that a coincidence.

That is all.

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Super Strength, Stone Armor and Kinetics are your honorable mentions?! None of these should even be mentioned in an "underperforming" conversation. I am mad at myself for bringing them up again.

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All of them have the "Overpowered Tier 9 propping up an otherwise kind of crappy set" feel to me... the same feel that Psionic Assault just gave up with the nerf of PSW and buff of practically everything else.

Some players like having one really spectacular trick to rely on almost exclusively, and others like having a mix of good powers available from the very beginning. To that second set of players, yeah, there's no question that SS and Stone Armor suck. Kin, to a lesser degree. I can imagine playing a Kin without Fulcrum Shift a lot easier than a SS without Foot Stomp or Stoner without Granite...

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Sorry but saying that you would not like to play SuperStrenght without FootStomp does not mean that the 8 other powers in the set suck and are underperforming!

Holy mother Batman! Are you trying to tell us that KO Blow, a high dmg attack with knockup and a mag 3 hold sucks?

Are you telling us that Rage sucks?

Are you telling us that Hurl, a decent damage with -fly component sucks?

Seriously, there are like no powers that really are plain bad in SS. They all can be serviceable and the Set IO slot opportunities make them even more interesting.

Let's just agree to disagree i guess because i like SS very much and do not feel underpowered or gimped one notch. And Footstomp is great but i still liked playing SS pre-38 with my tanker. Its just icing on the cake.

Other players will explain to you why Kinetics overall is great... Im tired typing.

Here's my idea! Id pay my monthly fee only to see public executions of Hami Pled characters! Cant wait to see them all hanged in Grandville! The televisions there also should show them and write "You had been warned!" and then its shows Recluse laughing.

Man, id pay 30$ to see that. Lot of villain player characters hanged in Grandville main plaza under Recluse statue. That would be great ambiance and within the spirit of the game me thinks

The problem has to do with Cloaking Device and other Stealth / Invisibility powers. The issue is very easy to reproduce on current live servers since it pretty much happens all the time.

For exemple: My blaster ( Archery / Device ) is running Cloaking Device and engage battle against a Malta Sapper. I am standing in the Sapper's back at about 40 feet and i click my Stun Arrow icon. Before i even could fire my arrow, the Sapper suddenly turns against me and fire is gun that drains my endurance. So much for my stealthy pre-emptive strike. Sapper actually is the one pre-empting all my actions even if i was hidden.

The same problem happens to my stalkers while under Hide power. Enemies pre-empt and tend to land a hit even upon falling dead!

Personnaly i think that is a major issue and game bug. Can anyone confirm that it will get fixed or is it working as intended?

I find that problem to be very frsutrating. All my ranged attackers are unable to fire a disorient/hold/sleep attack as a furtive strike. Some enemies even managed to land a stun/hold on me before i even finished activating my attack.

Funny enough, if i turn Cloaking Device Off, i am free to stun an enemy at 5 feet range without having him turning his back to face me. Something is wrong, really.

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Nope, you just don't know how to play your SR. ALL scrappers have weak defense in the low levels.

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If you say so.

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Gotta agree here Dispari. In the lowlevels ( 1-22 ), all scrappers ( exception for those who use DA and Parry ) are not much tough. They are poorly slotted, resists are low, heals recharge slowly and defenses are low as well.

A level 10 SR is not doing really worst than a Regen scrapper. Besides, a SR get lot more mileage when he eats a little purple which only cost 50 inf and drop commonly. It helps surviving the very tough fights.

Not saying you dont know how to play but i think you are overexagerating the other scrappers secondary performance in lowlevels. Invul is a pain even for tankers before they slots and SOs. WP is solid but not so much ahead than the others. DA has same problems as Invul. Weak until it is slotted.

Thats all opinions, of course.

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I'll add a few power sets to the list I all around don't much care for or find underperforming as well.

First and top of the list are Peacebringers. Before the Kheld enthusiasts come out in arms, I want to state that PBs (human and tri) are capable of doing quite a few things, but are often completely overshadowed by Warshades and most other ATs in the game. They suffer a horrid case of the explosive knockbacks and their damage can be replicated, if not completely trounced, by anything not a defender or tanker (and both of those are arguable). A fully purpled out PB can nuke every other spawn or toss out some good nova damage, but they're just all around lack luster to a degree of "meh."

Next on the list comes the Bane Spider. In both the short term and the long term, the one advantage they arguably have over their siblings is surveillance, which is completely overshadowed by the fact that both crabs and widows obliterate their aoe and single target damage respectively, and fortunata outcontrol the snot out of them. They're as fragile as a blapper and do nowhere near the damage (and blasters get surveillance and power boost to boot). While they do possess killing power, it tends to pale in the face of, again, anything else that can do substantial amounts of damage. The only exception is a heavily purpled out bane that will still underperform when compared to a heavily purpled crab that's a monstrous killing machine or a heavily purpled widow that runs around soft cap and tossing out crazy damage anyways.

Shield Defense is the next on the list and this one's a bit iffy. Tanker Shield Defense is actually a pretty decent, if not good, set because their numbers are fairly high and the damage values and shield charge really do give a boost for the low damage AT. Scrappers get some serious love from Against All Odds and Shield Charge makes the mans fall down. Brutes, however, get the worst of both worlds (horrid defense numbers, low AAO) and their shield charge is capped at tanker values. This means that not only is the set difficult to cap when compared to SR, Shield Charge doesn't actually mature past 300% as far as I remember. Add on the crippling end usage for a brute which already suffers from endurance dysfunction and you have a much worse copy of Super Reflexes and even Energy Aura (which now has a good energy absorption and a much, much, much better tier 9) and it's arguably the worst brute secondary around. Sure you can purple it out, but expect to spend ridiculous amounts compared to anything short of EA.

Pain Domination is another doozy that's just all around a disappointing version of Empathy. There is very little to the set I feel that actually contributes fully to a group and can't be replicated elsewhere. Gone are three of empathy's most useful tools (the Auras and Fortitude) replaced with an aura that replicates Thermal Shields except PBAoE. Gone is Adrenalin Boost instead replaced by a more tame Painbringer that trades the 100 recharge (why?!) with damage. Anguishing Cry gets notable mention for being a near direct copy of Melt Armor except PBAoE and lasts less time. So Pain is a mix of Thermal and Empathy without much of the sets awesome abilities (Forge, Fortitude, the Auras, Heat Exhaustion) that will be easily outperformed by both in any and all situations. The one exception to this statement is the awesome that is Suppress Pain on a Mastermind, which is a suitable replacement to Regeneration Aura. Corruptors get left out in the cold, of course.

Next up on the list is Dark Blast. Having absolutely no tier 3 blast, the set is very plainly cone/aoetastic. What's worse is that most of those cones tend to be overshadowed by anything that has actual aoe damage, leading to a situation where Dark Blast possess one or two useful cones, a self heal, and gloom/dark blast. Toss in a really bad looking tier nine (I just can't get over how terrible it looks, it's like a thunderous fart) and you come out with a vanilla set that does terrible damage and is only worthwhile in the hands of a defender. Yes, obliterating the tohit of a spawn is good and useful, but you may as well have two secondaries. Also, kiss your personal damage goodbye.

This one's going to be confusing, but I also feel Broadsword is a giant underperforming pile of garbage compared to every other weapon set (excluding claws). Yes, it does a large amount of damage, but this is completely overshadowed by the fact that battle axe does more numerically and has more aoe to boot. What's worse is that with IOs and slotting, or even without, Katana puts Broadsword to shame in the damage, end efficiency, and all around use categories. Parry, its only saving grace, is replicated in Divine Avalanche which just further rubs Broadsword's nose in the dirt. There's better sets for doing damage (especially ludicrously high amounts of damage) and better sets for survivability that don't make you suck down end like it's going out of style. Meh.

Honorable mention goes out to Super Strength, as was mentioned earlier, and Stone Armor. Both of these sets suffer from a horribly crippling crutch (Rage and Granite) that, if taken away or balanced will leave each set a floundering and bad shadow of virtually everything else in existence. Kinetics gets a pass because while Speed Boost and Fulcrum Shift are indeed pieces of awesome, Transference, Transfusion, Siphon Speed, and Increase Density are all lovable and huggable pieces of awesome too.

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From reading all this, i come to the conclusion that you only do not like the "flavor" of these powersets. Because other than that i find nothing wrong with all the powersets you talked above. They are all working powersets and not underperforming. They may not be the best powersets for any given situations but they also all have their quirks and their advantages.

Broadsword underperforming? Come on... Who here will seriously claim that broadsword is not getting the job done? You prefer katana? Well good for you but you can't use katana with a shield like i do. And when Headsplitter does a critical hit, it hits harder than Golden Dragonfly critical. Both are great powersets btw. But theyre slightly different and that is why i like them both.

If the devs were ever to raise the base defence of SR toggles in order to make them readily better out of the box, in counterpart i would not mind if they were putting a hard cap of 35% defence in order that IOed and buffed SR cant softcap and trivialize so much of the game content.

Who's with me?!!!

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I don't think it's underperforming for anyone, some people just don't like playing straight Defense sets. It's not Supposed to be for everyone. All three ATs that get SR can get Dark Melee. All 3 can IO for soft capped Def. All 3 get Elude. You don't need Parry to get good results out of SR.

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It's not that it underperforms on any specific AT. It's that it underperforms:

1) Without IOs
2) At lower levels

Playing a low level SR was one of the most frustrating things I've ever done. It was basically like playing a Brute with no secondary, but still using up endurance anyway. Every enemy was still capable of reducing me to negative defense, and I had no RES, regen, or HP to fall back on. I just simply died to everything. Eventually, somewhere around 35+, SR starts to do better, and can eventually soft-cap fairly easily with IOs, However, the ride and the non-IO path isn't very fun.

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I agree with your "number 2", but "number 1" I disagree with. I have an MA/SR who doesn't have anything beyond basic IOs slotted in his powers and he doesn't underperform. 33ish% Defense isn't exactly bad defenses. There's too much emphasis on minimizing your chances to be hit that any numbers that don't reach that point are seen as underperforming.

Of course, that's not to say I'm not going to eventually soft-cap him, because I plan to, but he doesn't underperform at all.

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I found my fire/sr scrapper was lame until I got SOs. Then it was just blazing through missions. IO's just make it go kablooey with powerfulness.

I think SR is fine, it's just that since IO's people have internally raised their baseline of performance. An IO'd SR is worlds apart from a SO'd version, but a SO'd version makes a fine scrapper (haven't played it on a brute or stalker, so I can't speak to them).

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True that. Low level SR is in no worst shape than any Resistance based sets that are still lacking slots and SOs to reach their cap. People should just accept the fact that it is normal to be weaker in the lower levels. So are the enemies ( most of the time nayway ).

Now that he has tasted the PLing and the addictive Dinging that comes every 10 minutes in AE PL farms, how long you give this guy before he gets bored in the streets with his new char and come back ASAP to get another PL in AE?

AE is so broken. That's sad. It does not bode well.

I dont see why people complain about Devices. Devices are awesome for a tactician player!

Sure you trade up Build Up but you gain SO MUCH more!

Devices is the only secondary ( for blasters ) that let you "set up" a battlefield beforehand with land mines and caltrops! You can take your time and prepare a REAL ambush.

Targeting Drone: A great power that boosts your accuracy AND perception. All good stuff for blasters.

Taser is a solid Stun that stacks very well with Beanbags or Stunning Arrow.

Web Grenade: Great immob. good vs AVs, great before using location aoes like Ignite!

Sure, the set has some duds or powers that are useful in only a few situations, like Time Bomb. Ive been toying with this one and still cant come up with great uses for it. If only they were giving us a REMOTE Detonator haha. Now thta would rock!

Cloaking Device: A very decent Stealth power that stacks greatly with SS or a stealth IO. No need to waste a power choice in a power pool. It comes with your secondary powerset!

Auto Turret: Decent DPS added to your attacks and it is now mobile! Too bad it doesnt last longer and is so slow to cast...

Overall, Devices is very useful for creative players. And thank god it feels different for a change. So bored of playing powersets that are all looking alike with different colors. Devices are UNIQUE just like Traps are UNIQUE!

Woot!

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Mind, Plant and Illusion can even engage battles with enemies scrappers of the same level wouldnt dare attack

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Methinks the scrappers you have seen are wusses. I have seen nothing in the game a real scrapper wouldn't attack.

Silly domesticated scrappers keep forgetting how to kill things

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LOL true enough

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Scrappers and Brutes tend to be the best soloists in the game.

After that, Blasters, Tankers, Masterminds and Stalkers are good for soloing.

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Tankers? A mere fourth place? Criminal!

If you like knockback, Sartol my friend, there's nothing like a super strength Tanker! Also, the "Levitate" of a mental Controller is quite fun as well... after a hard day at the office, it can be quite satisfying smashing bad guys up and down like rag dolls.

And while I'm on mind control... I highly recommend trying out "Confuse"... VERY fun to watch a boss beating up his minions whilst you stand on the sidelines munching popcorn (not a lot of experience in that, though )

But, as everyone has mentioned, you can have a lot of success and fun with any AT... except blasters (just kidding).

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IMHO, Tankers make rather poor soloers in the very early levels ( 5-20 ) because of their endurance issues and lack of heavy armor to survive extended battles. Many players get frsutrated with Tankers and stop playing them in the lowlevels. They are mostly late-bloomers.

Controllers are good soloers depending of your primary/secondary. Mind, Plant and Illusion can even engage battles with enemies scrappers of the same level wouldnt dare attack ( thanks to Deceive, Seeds and Confuse ). Containment really was a boon for controllers and they do decent single target dmg in the low levels.

Masterminds are great soloers but it requires practice and more micromanaging ( especially with ninjas and zombies ). They can be frustrating at times. You cant go wrong with Robotics thought ( i see them as the MM Easy mode ).

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If you play smart and use good tactics (e.g. learn how to pull and how to use your powers' secondary effects to maximum advantage), blasters can solo well and relatively safely well into their 20s (and maybe beyond, but the highest I can say I've soloed a blaster is like 28-30).

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Blasters are definitely great soloers with Defiance 2.0

Blasters used to get in big trouble in the high levels because of the perma-mezzing enemies. But now that they can blast away at anytime and since blasters have decently high HPs and very damaging attacks, they can outlasts normal solo spawns even when going all-out in melee.

And over that, blasters that have hard control powers like Ice Blast and/or most secondaries are very well tooled to solo at the same pace than most scrappers while remaining very safe.

So, for soloing fast at any level i suggest Scrappers, Brutes, Blasters and Stalkers. Really hard to go wrong with these and they kick [censored] at any level.