Soldier - how to fight through the first 24?

A long long time ago i made a widow and a soldier. Although i like being ranged, i picked them up recently again to continue lvling them being both stuck around 7ish.

My widow plays very easy, nice damage and by now even a mezz toggle, overall enjoyable. Sort of scrapper, i scrap my way through the missions.

My soldier however i finaly managed to get to 17 but now it really gets tough. All my attacks are 3-5 slotted damage (DO's) but even then the damage remains sooo low. Against a boss i either run out of end or i die because i simply do not enough damage.

But how to get to 24 without going totaly crazy? I have both veteran rewards (nemesis staff,sand of mu) but they dont help that much.

1) Team with other Soldiers.

2) Don't use the VRs, they eat your end and make you redraw. You should be able to make a good attack chain without them.

3) Play as a Corruptor. Venom Grenade is important for your damage. Kite.

Try to get on teams (I know it isn't the easiest thing in the world at the moment). VEATs are *designed* for teaming, pretty much - s'why half your powers are team buffs. I couldn't imagine even trying to solo a soldier pre-24 (and would be pretty leery of doing so after 24, though I guess Banes could maybe manage).

Failing that, if you're hellbent on solo and have some Inf on hand or can transfer from other toons, I'd recommend slotting both Burst and Heavy Burst with the Achilles Heel: Chance for Res Debuff proc (available from level 10), and maybe even slotting Single Shot with it, too. It should help during boss fights as with 2 - 3 chances to land it per attack chain, most bosses you fight will be packing 10-second duration -20% resists pretty quickly.

It doesn't stack (so no -40% or better) but added to the -20% from Venom Grenade, you should find bosses considerably easier to take down.

Well for party is quite hard, i often play in the late hours (midnight) at wich at defiant there are quite few players around in my lvl.

I still have my 2nd option, loading up my second account and go for a dual client mode. But avarage downside is at 17 most toons dont have the 'great stuff' yet (stamina is a huge miss, so maybe WP is an option) and missions are that short i have to swap pc's nonstop.

I dont have the venom nade yet, so that would be the one to pick at 18, 20 reserved for stamina

Villian side i lack infamy bigtime, as i only 2 lvl 50's and the rest still need money for the enhancements.

Aha, I think I can see the problem here.

Use your freespec and get Venom Grenade as soon as it becomes available. Its pretty much the best offensive power Soldiers have until the respec at 24, and makes taking down entire mobs (it has pretty good range and does damage in addition to its hefty 20% resistance debuff) a HELL of a lot easier, especially when followed with Heavy Burst. If you're having problems with deaths, take Wide Area Web Grenade too (you can always drop it at 24).

Soldiers are beastly AoE toons, with a fairly grim single target chain (Single Shot, Pummel & Burst are your only ST attacks). A highly effective Soldier attack chain for even-con groups (and above, tbh) is:

WAWG -> Venom Nade -> Frag Nade* -> Heavy Burst

For bosses, toss in either Pummel (risky, as your defense is Ranged rather than melee based at this stage - you can slot in IOs for Melee later; conversely, Pummel can be stacked for boss stuns pretty easily) or Single Shot and/or Burst.

(*Frag can be a liability without WAWG as it causes Knockback - which WAWG negates. KB is bad news for a toon with Targeted AoE and Cone attacks.)

If you've taken travel powers, get rid of them, you should be fine with just the safeguard travel powers up to level 24 (a lot of VEAT players eschew travel powers completely, taking Mental Training, Swift and *only* Combat Jumping, which is about as fast as unslotted Fly to get around).

(Note that the AoE aspect changes slightly if you choose to respec into a Bane Spider at 24; they have some neat single-target melee attacks and a savage toxic chain with VG - Poison Ray (and later the Mako epic pool). Crabs are just horrific AoE monsters - I specced into FIVE AoEs and two STs for fillers.)

My problem was that I just got really bored of the rifle attacks mid-teens - they just seemed so samey - animations were ok I guess, the sound fx were a bit weak though, and it just didn't feel powerful. Like you I also found the damage really lacking, even with Venom Grenade (which I picked up as soon as it was available).

I've rarely felt that way with other powersets/archetypes. My pre-24 soldier experiences have actually put me off playing the Assault Rifle powerset several times (though I'm considering it again now) and I can't see myself playing a Huntsman build anytime soon (or ever).

That made it feel like a real grind to get my soldier to 24, but once I did (and I went Crab to 50, though I prefer Bane now) the archetype changed completely and became tons of fun. My Bane/Crab is now one of my favourite characters (along with my widow and my archery blaster).

I never felt the same way with widow and, in spite of dreadful end issues, I enjoyed playing my night widow non-stop from 1-50.

So really you just need to persist through the dull/weak rifle levels - teaming is the way forward - my duo partner dragged me through the late teens and early 20s, otherwise I might have given up on my soldier.

And with a double xp weekend coming at the end of the month it might be an idea to put your soldier on the shelf until then. There is always lots of teaming on dxp weekends - you could probably get to 24 inside a few hours.

Wide area web grenade slows movement and recharge by 50%, it makes kiteing a piece of cake, also immobilizes most mobs.
Use venom grenade to add some damage and -Res. Single shot, burst and heavy burst to finish them off.
Web grenade also helps mitigate the knockback from frag grenade.

Dont bother with travel power, combat jump + hurdle gets you around the smallish CoV early zones just fine.

Pick up the ranged def passive and soldier manuvers for maximizeing ranged def. With web grenade you should not need to melee at all.

I took Single Shot and Wolf armour at lvl 1, 2: Burst, 4: CT Def, 6: Web grenade, 8: Combat jump, 10: TT manuvers, 12: Venom grenade, 14: Hurdle, 16: Heavy burst, 18: Frag grenade, 20: TT Assault, 22: Mental training

Also difficulty setting 2 is your friend as a pre SOs soldier, afer SOs its diff 4

A week later, i'm 20 now. I never been more annoyed by any AT or set, then this stuff. Due to limited ammount of slots and the DO story, even fully recharge slotted it still takes ages for the 'magic 3' to recharge.

I'm now just mindless wacking minions (hellions) in MA, at least this way i dont spend my whole stamina-bar on 1 mob.

I serious hope at 24 they will drasticly change, so it wasnt a waste of time

You need to get over thinking of the Soldier as a damage AT: it isn't. It's best powers are the buffs and debuffs. Play like a dfender or a corrupter is win, play like a blaster is loose.

Hmm, defender?

I just leave him in the fridge then, never liked corr or defender. Oh well, back to the widow then.

Well, you know how lowbie Kheldians can be pretty tough to slot and play? Same applies to the Villain epics, I'm afraid. You WILL see a change at 24 — however, don't expect an immediate "I WIN" button —*VEATs are simply one of the archetypes that takes a while to get to truly awesome power, but rest assured, when you hit the 30+ levels, you'll look back at your post and giggle.

I still recommend teaming with other VEATs wherever possible, if you can find some. I'm half-tempted to start a soldier superteam just to prove that epic power from level 10 onwards is no mere pipe dream: 8 soldiers running TT: Maneuvers is 80% defense to positionals AT LEVEL 10. If it weren't for the crazy amount of yellows you'd need to hit stuff, you could (and I have) quite easily run on max difficulty ftom that point onwards. Who needs MA farming?

Teaming on defiant is already hard, let alone finding more VEAT's. I've been in a all defender team, all with manuevres and bunch of shields, very fun to be 'immortal' but thats about it.

A kheldian squid is big fun to play, slotting aint a hard job if you stick to the forms and leave human alone.

Besides, i got another 6 characters waiting for exp, they get higher priority

Trust me on this; get the guy to 24.

My first soldier and my one and only Widow were hell to get to 24, my widow more so (So...broken!) My second soldier, however, cakewalked it to 24, and is still on only rifle attacks after the respec.

The best way to go is to treat the pre-24 soldier like just that. Not a Super villain, a soldier. If you can't win a fight, web nade them if you can and get the heck outta Dodge. Or bring some support.
Patience and a more tactical sense of things is required pre-24, maybe why I like them more than just 'Run in swinging'. Use the terrain, narrow alleys and tunnels are your friend for hot AoE death. Slot for damage and accuracy, cos your attacks are worth nothing if they miss.
Please, lord, tell me you have Pummel. Pummel is the single most awesome lvl 1 attack in the world ever. It does the same damage as Single Shot with an ungodly high mag stun. You smack and LT in the face with that thing, and they're rolling round for a good 20+ seconds, while you apply all sorts of firepower to them.

Reccomended to 24;

Pummel
Wolf armour
Burst
Defensive/Offensive training (both are useful)
WA Web nade
Heavy Burst
Maneuvers
Venom nade
Swift
Health
Frag nade
Stamina
Mental Training

Thats lvl's 1 - 22. That that little arsenal you should be able to gun down anyone in your way.

And then comes either silent smashing death in the form of a Commando, or massive AoE mauling with the Crab Spider. Take ya pick

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.