Darke

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From personal experience Fire/Rad controllers aren't that good at soloing archvillains. They don't have any way to manage aggro like Ill/Rad can with Phantom Army and pretty much every archvillain worth a dime can take out a swam of Fire Imps with one AoE.

Terra is doable because she has boss-level magnitude, though you'll have to manage your toggles properly so you don't run out of endurance with RI, EF (and possible others like tactics) and throwing out char whenever it comes up. All she needs is one or two solid hits and you're going down. I didn't solo Terra, but I know I could have if I'd been more patient.

The only archvillains I've soloed are Anti-Matter and Neuron, but those fights were hardly fair considering I was L50 and they were L48. Even then Anti-Matter still got the best of me with a nuke not once but twice. Stupid heal-needing Imps.

Darke, just out of curiosity, was there room (endurance wise) for tactics in such a build? I'd think you could do without a few of those accuracy enhancements and instead slot for 3 damage on PA instead of 2 damage and 1 accuracy.

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There COULD be room for tactics, but when Conserve Power isnt on, I highly recommend turning it off. 6 Membranes in CP would make for a 20 second downtime about if you really wanted Tactics. Not sure the damage increase would be so worth it, but it might make it go a bit faster.

And like the last poster said, Illusion and Radiation are literally made to synergize against an AV. Every power is put to use, and they work together marvelously. No other set does it as well. The build isnt necessarily uber outside of AVs, though it is good. But against AVs, it is THE build.

But because AVs are such a miniscule aspect of the game, I cant see them nerfing just for this.

We'll miss you Vyv. Fly wherever the wind takes you, and don't forget 3 Flight Speed enhancers and some nice coffee cake!

...Boy that was random. Anyway, thanks for helping to make City of Heroes the greatest MMO on the intarweb, and GOOD LUCK!

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Great guide... it has had me dreaming of the day when I could attempt it.

However, with the current decoy bug, do you think I could still manage to battle Terra, my first AV?

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Terra's a weakling by all accounts.


I'm surprised... People using the Guide. =D

And on Lingering Rad... Yeah, 3 slots is fine for it. 1 Acc, 1 End Redux, 1 Rech Redux.

I've since changed my build alot. It has gone through many transformations, and I'm not sure how much more effective it's become at Archvillain soloing (Besides the Hami-O's). I've six-slotted Blind, picked up Superior Invisibility, and learned the extended Magic of PowerBoost. Oh, and Flash was dropped as well...Really, an AOE blind just isnt very effective. Having a heavily slotted Radiation Infection does wonders as well.

Revisions: Use Power Boost in conjunction with EMP and Lingering Radiation throughout the AV fight. They will go down nearly TWICE as quickly with the massive -Regen, and the Power Boost beforehand will heavily boost the -Regen effect. Holding an AV is also very possible, though Deceiving one is effective as well. A friend said he soloed the Infernal portal by deceiving Infernal to do it for him. Very handy. =D (Oh, and Infernal himself is quite soloable as well. He's very manageable as long as you keep him in check).

Really, I'm not so sure if my opinion holds much weight anymore for the below 45 crowd... I've got over 45 Hamidon enhancements now, and AVs are childs play unfortunately. To those who arent 45 yet... stick to my early guide, minus the Lingering Rad thing, atleast. You've got far more tools to work with than I did at that level. The -Regen is priceless in the fight against Archvillains. Use it as much as you can.

Keep soloing. ^^

It probably sounds extremely badass.


Also... NEW AVATAR FOR ME!

Laugh and be amazed and Renji and Byakuya from Bleach.

Well I'll say one thing.

After watching the trailer now 33 times, Foreshadow is growing on me.

But Positron's still the most badass by far. (Though, nice punch, States!)

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And Back Alley Brawler thought his name got made fun of a lot!

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Well I've accidentally called him the Backstreet Brawler more than once. And I HATE the Backstreet Boys.

edit: "hate" not "have" - I have never had any BSB albums, etc.

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Back Alley Brawler was originally the Backstreet Brawler. I believe it says it in the original game manual.

Oh my god. Oh my god.

I think I just ruined these pan-OH GOD, IT'S PLAYING AGAIN. PANTS RUINED TWICE.

Oh man. That was SOOOOOOO awesome. They ****ing took down Synapse? what the... Oh... cant... cant even coherent form... thoughts...

Positron... so... awesome... Jet Li... lame....

...Captain Mako... also lame... But Lord Recluse.. so awesome...

Still...in awe over Synapse... getting sucker punched through SS...


*calmed down*

Dude, Posi. Why didn't you put that Widow down with a nice powerful Proton Volley? She would've been TOAST! I'm disappointed in you...

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So I was on with my SG on Champion a while ago, and we were doing the Positron TF. At one point, we were ambush right in front of Positron and Valkyrie. So here's all these guys shooting at us, trying to kill us, and Mr. Bigshot "I got my armor upgraded" and Ms. "I have this fancy spear that none of you can get!" are just kinda standing there watching.

THANKS A LOT, LEGENDARY HEROES!

Seriously, though, it would be cool if the trainers got some sort of automated power similar to the police drones. There's just something wrong about the eight most famous heroes in all of Paragon city standing there watching you get pounded on.

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All that crap is grey to me, no XP.

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Positron, you are now officially "Teh Greatest".

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You guys with this "skilled" arguement are killing me here, have you played PvP in other MMOs?

Yes skill DOES have a good deal to do with it BUT so do the "behind the scenes" numbers. Also people making the "skilled" arguement seem to forget that some skilled PvPers are going to ALSO be the ones who have fully-slotted HOs. Hell the skileld PvPers are going to be MORE LIKELY to put in the time it takes to get all those HOs because they are competitive.

Not to mention, in an MMO where numbers play a big part in fighting mechanics, if one guy has especially more powerful "equipment" than the other he has to suck pretty bad to lose to someone with much crapper "equipment."

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EXACTLY! You are correct. Those who spent the time to figure out how to beat Hamidon legitimately, or who have the prowess to lead or organize a raid are often the most skilled players in the game. Combine that with the equipment advantage, and you've got a very tough opponent, even if you DO have Hamihancers.

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I'd much prefer it if Hamidon Origin Enhancements just didn't exist...

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Makes two of us.

PvP aside, the game's not balanced for Hami-O's -- and, since they're supposed to be rare, it can't be. Except that they're not rare for some people anymore.

It doesn't look like the designers envisioned people having more than a couple HOs at any one time. Unfortunately, that's not how it turned out.

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They do fit the bill of making you feel "super powerful" though, that some people had been complaining about.

I wonder if a Tank or Scrapper with full Hami's can solo AVs now?

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There are MANY scrapper builds that could solo AVs long before Hamihancers became common.

Just reactivated my account... Been itching to post...

All I have to say is... YES! ROCK ON, STATESMAN!

Bump for info's sake. ^_^'

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Dmg/Acc, Dmg/Rng, Dmg/Mez, and Acc/Mez are the most common.

Rarer ones are Tohit+Defensebuff/ReduceEnd and Tohit+defensebuff/atk rate. The rarest one I've seen is the Dmg Resist/Reduce End

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Funny. Membranes are what's rarest at our raids. We're lucky if 2 or 3 drop every Hami raid. And they're highly in-demand. Anybody with a power that cant be made perma but which would be devastating if it were is scrambling for them to reduce downtime. Stuff like Unstoppable, Conserve Power, Elude, Power Build Up/Build Up...

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Origins - definitely.
Comic Con - definitely.
Wizard Worlds - definitely.
Gen Con - definitely.

Our great OCR team is going to post a convention calendar so that you can see when we'll be in your neck of the woods. Don't worry - I'll be going to cons in the Northeast, West, MidWest and Texas...

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What? No Anime Expo? CURSES!

*chuckle*

Well, just got done soloing Post-I3 Requiem. He was easy, even with his new Warshade powers. Unfortunately, it was not a fair fight. My Phantasm had 2 Dam/Acc and 1 Dam/Range Hamihancers, and my Power blast the same. He just couldnt stand up to all that damage. :P

Very fun though. Requiem is probably my favorite Archvillain in the game.

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Perma-MoG works, but at the same time you've reall gotta be careful.

I didn't solo Anti-Matter, used a friend with a Grav/FF Controller. Combined we took him down.

P.S. I was a Fire/Kin.

P.S.S. Hi Darke, Told ya I'd post in your topic.

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Hehe.

Hope you enjoyed it, and welcome to HTS (Soon HDS! )

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Greetings heroes!

Yes, the cape mission has been adjusted in Issue 3. We wanted this particular mission to be enjoyed by all, but we found that in its previous iteration, it was much too difficult for the casual players and solo’ers. We want everyone to get a chance at the cape, and we want it to be fun. For more of a challenge, try grouping up with a large group, or contact your local Hero Corp Field Agent.

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AH! RAVENSTORM!

Thou hast eluded me for some time, but now I KNOW you exist. Give us background on your in-game trainer character! I NEED STORY!

Yowch. If you think a boss should be worth 2.5 heroes, you'd HATE to see what I did whenever I entered the Crash Site.

Those poor groups of all Rikti Lieuts and Bosses never saw me coming. v_v

But then, I should take States' opening post in this topic as a complement. By his standards, I'm... (rough estimate) 9 and 1/3 heroes all in one nice little nifty package!

Yep. This is true. However, I didnt have any slots to spare, otherwise I would've slotted RI out most likely. Plus, relying on a toggled anchor debuff for all your accuracy is iffy. Not every mob will be in the toggle area, and you wont always have it on due to pets killing the anchor. That's why I dont rely on it solely.

But you are right. Against JUST an AV, slotting up RI and taking out Acc in favor of damage is a viable strategy. One that is worthy of recognition :P

I'd even venture to say it would allow you to solo even more AVs since damage is the one thing that can keep us from doing it. Defense never stops us...PA is invincible. But when we just dont have the offense like me against Nightstar even con, we sometimes fail.

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The mass healing didnt matter to me, since it basically consisted of a Dark Regeneration. Since the only enemies I had within his range for that were Decoys and Decoy Phantasms, he basically recovered no health. Nah, my problem was definately his damage. I bet perma-PA would've made the battle FAR more viable.


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Well, his damage was only part of it... every time he hits you, you have to run and heal and mess up your rhythm. You can whittle him down easily enough, but anytime you stop, he can regenerate quite quickly. Just the short time it takes to reposition yourself when he hops over to visit you can mean considerable lost damage and potentially the loss of a Phantasm. Nosferatu also has a massive self heal (that gives him around 8k health a pop every couple of minutes in Issue 3) in addition to his draining heals. I don't think you'd have the damage to beat him with perma-PA unless he was -1 or -2 to you, or if you fought him at a high enough level to have both Power Blast and Conserve Energy.

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That's a good assumption. Power Blast makes me FAR more able to solo AVs now. The energy damage is higher than Spectral wounds at a six slot, and it doesnt heal back. I'm loving it. I'm way better at AV soloing in I3 than I was in I2.

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The mission in which I soloed them was the story arc one in a warehouse when you face them both together, not the ones in which they spawn outdoors, so the running wasn't a huge problem. Their ranged attacks aren't super strong, so I was just slowly whittling away at them. Given all the bad things I'd heard about them, I was expecting the battle to be much harder than it was, but it turned out to simply be... well... long.

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Well, an even level Siege I DID whittle down to 1/3, but like I said, he went all wacky and flew around gathering minions to [censored] over an hour of hard work...

Nightstar was a bit different. With most AVs, since they're mostly humans, I can supplement spectral wounds to add in extra damage. But since Nightstar resisted this damage, I couldn't beat her regen without being +1 to her.


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Nosferatu's basic regen isn't that bad, and I didn't have RI that heavily slotted when I faced him on live (Issue 2). The problem with him (besides his quirky AI) is that every few minutes he goes through his mass healing routine and eliminates minutes of hard work. If you don't consistently load up the damage, the battle basically starts over again.

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The mass healing didnt matter to me, since it basically consisted of a Dark Regeneration. Since the only enemies I had within his range for that were Decoys and Decoy Phantasms, he basically recovered no health. Nah, my problem was definately his damage. I bet perma-PA would've made the battle FAR more viable.


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Hehe. You brought up many points I missed. Sounds like you were even more deadset on soloing all the AVs than me! Just yesterday I fought Baphomet (Poor guy was conning white to me)... Asked the mission owner if I could solo him just for fun, but the darn scrapper jumped right in... Grrr...

Diabolique I didn't try to solo either. At that point, I was vying for Portal Jockey for a friend (He posted earlier in the topic :P) and he got to come along on most of the dual-AV mishes with me.

Not sure HOW you soloed Siege and Nightstar... With Power Blast and Conserve Power I'm sure they'd be a piece of cake now, but Pre-Issue 3, they were just unbelievably tedious... Especially since their main means of running (Flight) isn't hampered AT ALL by Lingering Radiation.

Nemesis... I bet I could've beaten him with a fully slotted Rad Infection. If it had eaten through his PFF, he wouldnt have been able to heal for anything. But unfortunately, my Rad Infection wasnt enough, and so my slow whittling turned into a slow whittling then him going PFF and healing back a bit chain of events which just pissed me off. Lingering Radiation didnt help much there... PFF's recharge isnt that slow... But maybe if I'd spammed it. Again, something I would've required COnserve Power for.

Nosferatu wasn't that bad on the Regen side. On the contrary. He was actually the weakest AV I'd yet seen on the resistance and regen side. But when my PA dropped, he immediately targeted me and my phants... And one shot of Gloom (Even with a Radiant Aura healing for 300-something in the middle) took my phantasm down to 1/3 life. Again, probably something Rad Infect could've helped with... :/

Madame of Mystery was laughable on the damage side. She was weaker than the MINIONS in that mission. But, her resistances were the same as Hamidon, and due to the Rock bug, my Psychic Cleaver disappeared after I used it (Looked like me throwing a rock...). Otherwise I might've soloed her too.

Kronos killed me on my ambush, and I had to bring a team along since friends wanted the badge. On the ambush, I rezzed and ALMOST had Eye of the Magus activated before he came back and re-slaughtered me. ;_;

Man, Infernal just pissed me off the first time since he was +3. I had to bring in two friends to beat that one of him. I guess I was so initimidated by his first incarnation that I didnt even bother with the second. Now I wish I had.

Thanks for your commentary, you helped bring alot of stuff I couldn't really put into words to light.

Hehe, yep true. I needed your help for Nosferatu among others.

Giovanna I havent faced yet. I'll do her arc after I fight Requiem (Whom I hope to solo, even though he now uses Warshade abilities).

And yes, you're right about us not having headsplitter-like damage. We have a lot of single target DPS, but our real strength is just being able to survive more easily against an AV we never come into melee contact with. The damaging process takes a looooooooong time. I should've demo'd my fight with Dominatrix. It was probably the slowest thing ever. EVER!

First off, I'd like to say that I have soloed most of the archvillains IN THE GAME. VERY few of them were "easy", and NONE of them went down quickly. Archvillain soloing is an art that takes a loooooong time, a specialized build, and for the harder AV's, skill. I'd also like to say that I just soloed the new Tyrant on live in about 30 minutes, and he DID go down, so Archvillain soloing can still be done.

I'd also like to state that I have alot of experience with my Controller. He is level 50, and with around 870 hours of time logged in, he took AWHILE to get there.

So without further ado...


The Build

The preferred build for soloing the Archvillain is an Illusion/Radiation controller. It is undeniably the best build to do it with, since it has a lot of damage, and a much reduced risk factor due to the Phantom Army. Taking into account the type of damage the Illusionist does is also very important. Dealing primarily Psionic and Energy damage, the Illusionist can solo most archvillains without fail -with a few exceptions, but I'll get to that later.

Here is my build for soloing Archvillains. It includes only the basic needs. Anything unincluded can be considered optional or unimportant. Be sure to read in the parentheses. I put footnotes in there that are important)

Illusion Control

Spectral Wounds - 1 Accuracy, 5 Damage
Group Invisibility - 1 Recharge Redux, Atleast 1 Defense Buff
Phantom Army - 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage, 2 Recharge Redux
Phantasm - 1 Accuracy, 2 Damage, 3 Recharge Redux

Radiation Emission

Radiant Aura - 6 Heals
Radiation Infection - 1 Endurance Redux -OR- 1 To-Hit Debuff -OR- 1 Defense Debuff (This power needs no more than it's initial slot for Archvillain soloing purposes. The enhancement doesnt matter either)
Accelerate Metabolism - Atleast 4 Recharge, and 1 or 2 Endurance Recovery (I had mine set at 4 and 2 for the duration of my soloing career, but that was before I got Conserve Power. Conserve Power allows me an extra recharge for permanent AM)
Enervating Field - 1 Endurance Redux (Again, no more than the initial slot is needed.)
Lingering Radiation - 2 Accuracy, 4 Slow (This is what I have it at now. But for the duration of my career, I didnt even HAVE this power. Without it, AV soloing is much more difficult, but still possible. Be aware, it has a significant endurance cost, so unless you have Conserve Power, you will constantly need to micromanage your endurance if you plan to take this power)

Speed

Hasten - 6 Recharge Redux (This is undoubtedly the most important part of the build. Without it, everything falls apart. In other words, you NEED this if you want to solo archvillains.)

Anything else is up to you. I had Combat Jumping on, but that's very little extra defense, and it was unslotted. Consider any other powers unneeded, or optional for the fight, but know that you will be so endurance heavy you probably wont have much room to use anything else.

For those with Epic Pools...

Primal Forces Mastery

Conserve Power - 6 Recharge Redux (Absolutely awesome. You become god with it on.)
Temp Invulnerability - 6 Resistance Buff
Power Blast (In lieu of Spectral Wounds) - 1 Accuracy, 5 Damage
Power Boost - 2 Recharge Redux

The Strategy

This part is fairly simple in MOST cases. But again, some Archvillains (Namely, most of the Praetorians) require a bit more micromanagement of your actions to take them down.

Step 1: Summon 3 Phantasms while Accelerating Metabolism every time it comes up.
Step 2: Immediately after all three are out, cast Group Invisibility, and if you have Concealment, Grant Invisibility on each Phantasm. If you have Epic Pool PFM, cast Power Boost, THEN do Group Invisibility (Again, Grant Invis. if you have Concealment pool).
Step 3: Summon the Phantom Army right next to the Archvillain. These guys will draw his aggro all the time while they are out.
Step 4: Run in to where the Phantasms will all be in range of, and attacking the Archvillain, and cast your debuffs (Enervating Field, Radiation Infection).
Step 5: Every 15-20 seconds, use Lingering Radiation if you have it. If not, occasionally attack with Spectral Wounds or Power Blast when your endurance bar allows it. Do NOT use Blind. It has too low damage, can only hold for a tiny amount of time, and has a larger endurance cost than Spectral Wounds.
Step 6: When the Phantom Army drops, you will be the Archvillain's primary target. Get ready to blast Radiant Aura right after He/She does it.
Step 7: When the Phantasm Decoys draw his/her attention after he/she attacks you once, keep them healed if she attacks them.
Step 8: When Phantom Army cycles back up, Repeat Steps 3-7 while recasting buffs occasionally when needed, as well as keeping three Phantasms out until the archvillain is dead.
Step 9: Brag to your friends and Supergroup about soloing an AV.


Step 9 is *ahem* optional. ^_^' Anyway, that's my BASIC (keyword: Basic) strategy for most archvillains. That strategy will work against most of the Archvillains you will be soloing. Some require extra strategy, which I will address in the next section.


The Archvillains

This is where I will list the Archvillains that are possible to solo, with footnotes for each one, as well as a level of difficulty (Level 1 Threat meaning weakest Archvillains, Level 5 Threat meaning Archvillains that are EXTREMELY difficult to solo)

Envoy Of Shadows - Basic strategy works against this guy. He's a pushover, and he is the first Archvillain possible to solo to my knowledge. Some say they've taken down Doc Vahzilok back in the day, but that requires a different build. Hopkins might be soloable as well. Not sure.
-Level 2 Security Threat (You need +3 Green enhancements to solo him, but he isn't special in any way, and requires no extra strategy)

Terra - Now, I didn't actually solo Terra, but I've heard other Illusionists and even FIRE controllers have done it, so I can only assume she is weak. Try my normal strategy against her, should work fine.
-Level 1? Security Threat (Sounds like a pushover, NOT SURE though)

Psychic Clockwork King - Eh. I didn't bother soloing this guy. From what I'm told, it's possible with several different builds. Mine too, most likely.
-Level 1? Security Threat (Give it a shot, have fun.)

Countess Crey - Ooh. Big bad Vanessa Van Dorn gonna take me down... Psh. Yeah frickin' right. She was a pushover. Just not capable of enough damage to beat me and my Phantasms. She went down fairly quick for a woman who controls the most prominent villain group in the city...
-Level 2 Security Threat (No big deal, watch your health bar, keep your Phantasms healed, you'll do fine)

Bobcat - Purrrr. She killed me the first time I faced her, but I reworked my strategy to beat her. Surprisingly tough little kitty.
-Level 3 Security Threat (Went down slow, but still soloable with my little *chuckle* "revised" strategy)
-Strategy: Everything is basically the same as my basic strategy, except when the Phantom Army drops, you need to be up above her, with her view of you blocked by the ledge you're standing on. This way, she wont start attacking you that much when PA drops. Also, when she gets really low, she loses it and goes straight for you once or twice. When she's at 1/5 health, I'd seriously advise you to only be near enough to where your phantasms will still attack her, and only go back in range to cast Lingering Rad.

Shadowhunter - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *breath* AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Man, the Woodsman of our world must be the weakest member Freedom Phalanx has, because this guy was pitiful.
-Level 2 Security Threat (Goes down somewhat slow, but after that initial "Heals all his life back with Earth's Embrace", he'll never do it again. Be sure to keep your Phantasms with Accelerated Metabolism, since he will use effects on them occasionally. Otherwise, basic strategy will take him down)

Anti-Matter - ... ... ... This guy ****S ME UP BAD. I only beat him the second time I saw him, and even then, it was so close I BARELY won at all. The first time I faced him, I didnt solo him. The second time, I had souped-up Green Enhancements, and he still killed me halfway through the fight. I quickly ran back to him though, and finished him off. Took a solid hour, and it wasn't easy at all.
-Level 5 Security Threat (He is BY FAR the hardest of the Archvillains possible to solo, since his radiation powers slice through any defense you may have. Keep him debuffed, and keep your phantasms healed, and you might pull this one out of the bag. But just as a warning, don't expect to be able to do this guy at all. Give it your best, but don't be annoyed if you cant beat him alone. Try it once you're a level above him, and see how it goes.)

Neuron - Eh. Still haven't soloed this guy. I bet I COULD'VE, but I was pretty apathetic the last time I faced him, and the time before that, I was on a team, so had no chance to try. Based on his damage output, he's nothing to be afraid of, but his Tesla Cage presents a problem if he ever hits you with it.
-Level 3 Security Threat (Heavy resistance, but probably soloable)

Portal Adamastor - Laffo. This guy is almost as pitiful as the Adamastor of our world. Technically not an archvillain, but still fun to solo.
-Level 1 Security Threat (Fun and easy)

Bile the Technophile - You don't HAVE to face Bile in the mission he appears in, but I did because I wanted to solo him. Psh. What a pushover.
-Level 1 Security Threat (He's like a watered-down Anti-Matter in teenage-form with an angst problem, and a thing for GREEN. Normal strategy works on him)

Dreck - Leader of the Freakshow. Oh god, I almost pissed my pants on this one... ... LAUGHING! AHAHAHAHAHA! He was fun and easy and generally laughable in every way. Basically just a smash form of Bile. Have fun in the Zig with Upstart, Dreck. I'm sure he'll be QUITE happy to see you...
-Level 1 Security Threat (See Bile)

Dominatrix - OH GOD, DOMINATE ME BABY! Too bad she sucked at it. It was like constant bondage, but instead of a mistress whipping you hard, you get a little girl giggling while she tries tickling you to death. Go back to S&M school, hun.
-Level 2 Security Threat (The only reason she warranted more than level 1 was because she has Hamidon-like resistance and healing. I fought her for a solid hour and 45 minutes SLOWLY whittling her down to nothing, while she kept spamming gravity holds and immobilizes and whatnot. I think she did overall like 100 damage to me. *snore* Normal strategy works, but try to stay BEHIND her so her hold doesnt hit, and keep her lingering rad'd, since she'll occasionally try to run.)

Nightstar - The only one of the AVs I had to level before facing. The only reason for this was because she's a robot. She resisted my supplemental damage from Spectral Wounds, so I couldn't dent her. She also resisted Phantom Army, so THEY couldnt dent her. Plus, to top it all off, she FLEW. God DAMN that was annoying. And my Lingering Radiation didnt slow down her flight speed AT ALL. Unless you're insistent on soloing every AV you can (In which case, level up after you get her mission), I'd just quickly clear her with a team.
-Level 4 Security Threat (GAH! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! Also, she does heavy damage, so watch out.)
-By the same token, Siege is unsoloable as well for us, unless you raise yourself a level. I whittled him down to 1/3 life at even level, and he just kept kiting me with his flight. Eventually he aggroed half the map, and killed me, and I got pissed off and called in a team.

Marauder - This guy rocks. Back Alley Brawler kicks [censored], and this guy lives up to his name. Soloable, with a bit of strategy...
-Level 3 Security Threat (Keep him Lingering Rad'd. This is ESSENTIAL.)
-Revised Strategy: The map I fought him on was one where you maneuver around some stacked crates and then come to a small little kitchen-esque room. You'll know it when you see it. Anyway, this guy CAN one shot you, so you'll need to pull off some tricks to make sure he doesnt.
The steps are all the same, but when you fight him, you need to judge when PA is about to drop. Keep him lingering radiated so he cant run fast, and then before PA drops, jump behind a crate just slightly back from the room. This will make it so he doesnt immediately one-shot you with his boulder throw after PA drops. Let your Phantasm decoys grab aggro, then when PA is up, cast it, and perform just like on any other AV until PA drops again. Takes micromanagement, but it worked, and he went down.

Battle Maiden - Gah. She was just lame. I kinda expected her to be though. She has very little backstory in Paragon, and her powers are technology-based, with little uniqueness to them.
-Level 2 Security Threat (Normal strategy works against her, just don't let her hit you very much)

Chimera - Well, Batman always wins when he has time to plan, and this PROVES that Chimera is a cheap knockoff. He had PLENTY of time to plan before I showed up, and he still got his butt kicked.
-Level 2 Security Threat (Normal strategy works, but he aggros you a BIT more than the other AVs. I suggest hiding behind something whenever PA is down (It's a graveyard, I suggest the walkway you come in on him at), otherwise he might just surprise you with a 2/3 of your life draining bow shot)

Psychic Babbage - He's the last easy Monster/AV you fight, and he is sorta nostalgic. Easy, but nostalgic.
-Level 1 Security Threat (Regular strategy works, have fun with it)

Tyrant - This guy CANT be the Statesman. He just cant be. Statesman would WHOOP HIS MONKEY [censored]. I soloed this guy just a few hours ago, and I KNOW he isnt that big or bad.
Level 3 Security Threat (He has laser eye beams... Wooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeooooooo... Anyway, normal strategy works for this, but I might suggest putting one extra Recharge Redux into PA in lieu of a Damage. You want them drawing his aggro a bit more. Also, I HIGHLY recommend having the Epic Power pool Primal Forces Mastery by this point, otherwise, you just may not have enough endurance or attack power to finish him off, since he drains VERY slowly. Almost Dominatrix-level slowly)


Anyway, those are the Archvillains I've come into contact with, and all of them are beatable solo (and unless otherwise noted) at even level. To answer a question right off the bat, NO, Infernal is not soloable to my knowledge. He just has too much raw firepower (Pun intended) even for us. Nemesis may be soloable, but at even level he went down to about 1/4 before he casted personal force field and then ran off and healed a bit. After that, I could never get him any lower. Barely won on a team. Might be possible with a 6-slotted Rad Infection with all Defense Debuffs. Not sure. You can try.

Hmmm... Trying to think of anything else you might need to know... Ah! Having all the accolades helps a bit. I start off every AV battle with a Vanguard + Crey Pistol combo (After PA drop of course! ), and the extra life and end are just good to have. Eye of the Magus can help you too. I suggest bringing along health or endurance inspirations (defense too if you want) just in case, but other than that, you should be fine. Have fun soloing archvillains, and to all those out there who think we are overpowered, know that it takes a long time, and a lot of work to solo an archvillain, and that it doesn't come easily or without effort.

Also know that this worked in Issue 2. I fought Tyrant in Issue 3 and did just fine, and I have no reason to believe any of the other archvillains would be any different than him.

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Positron, for unwraveling the mysteries of the Mysterious Malta Group, can we take a Sapper End-Drain Gun and keep it for our own personal use?

PLEASE?