Ideas for a new Solo alt please!

Hi all,

I’m trying to decide on an AT for my next 1-50 solo project – so far I have managed to get the following to lvl 50 by playing solo:

Scrapper – Claws/Regen
Tanker – Shield/Fire
Controller – Ill/Rad

Brute – DM/SR
MM – Bots/Traps
Corruptor – Fire/Dark

So, the choice is limited to Blaster, Defender, Stalker and Dominator – all of which I have a very limited experience with (never got any of these ATs past lvl 25, except my lvl 50 empath). I am most tempted by Blasters, as I have more inf on blueside to invest in a new alt, although the Stalker AT seems to be very solo friendly.

My first idea for a solo Blaster would be Sonic/Ice, and for a Stalker I was thinking Energy/Nin – but I would like to know what people with more experience with these ATs think before I make something new. I don’t normally ask for advice on new alts, I’m just getting a bit bored of playing an alt to the late teens/early 20s only to find out I don’t like it! I’m not looking for an AV/GM soloer, just something I can play when my SG friends aren’t online without too much faceplantiness.

Thanks in advance!

Hey, Kylie,
I'm generally a soloer, as well. I often get weird responses to that, but I just like playing the game my own way, at my own pace. I've soloed every AT up to 50 (except Kheldians-just couldn't get into them). My general comments on the three you mentioned are as follows:

1. Defenders. Probably the hardest overall to solo, just because it gets frustrating. They just don't do a lot of damage. Sure, you've got lots of buffs/debuffs to help mitigate incoming damage. But then you have to plink-plink-plink away at the critters. If you go this route, I recommend you plan on doing two things. The first is to do whatever it takes to increase your damage. This could be effective IO set slotting/Assault, or it could be picking a primary that is heavy on -res debuffs (which essentially act like +dam). Mobility will also be key-you've gotta stay out of melee, unless you pick a set with some soft control.

2. Blasters. Lots of fun, but again, be wary! They are the definitive glass-cannons. You need to plan ahead here as well. Not so much to increase damage-the whole 'mini-fury' thing they've got going with Defiance 2.0 is great for damage, and being able to still fire off your first two powers while mezzed also helps greatly. However, you're fragile as hell. Range is your friend-use it (and don't forget HEIGHT in that category, too-moving up out of melee can be a lifesaver). And slot generously with sets for any defense boosts you can. Resist boosts are kind of a waste, since you don't have that many HP's anyways. But avoid getting hit as often as you can, and you can survive longer to blast away and outblast the critters. Again, any soft control you can get will always be a big help.

3. Stalkers. Oh, stalkers. The soloers AT. Seriously. You have to be careful, and they're a bit of a one-trick wonder. You Build Up, AS, Placate, 'Big Hit', run away to get back into Hide, return, repeat. You'll be squishy until your Tier 9 (or some really good IO set slotting), and you'll run away a lot. But the ability to stealth through just about anything you want (barring Rikti) is AWESOME for soloing. The only problem is that you tend to buzz through the content so quickly that you end up short on xp once you hit the late 20's-early 30's. And teams are hard to come by as a stalker (if you decide to team to fill the gap). They just don't fit a team dynamic well. But if you're a content junkie, a stalker is a way to see EVERYTHING in the game. It's a hoot. In terms of playing, I recommend taking Hasten and your Tier 9. They will help you get Placate/BU/AS/Tier 9 back up as quickly as possible, yet also still help your overall survivability.

And there's my thoughts on them. Hope it helped somewhat. Have fun!

I have an Energy/Ninjitsu Stalker at 50 and I love her. You will be wanting to soft cap your defense so a couple things to remember:

Touch of Death leaves you a little short in accuracy (43.4%) so use 4 Luck of the Gambler for the 9% Accuracy bonus in your toggles. A Kismet +6% Accuracy in Hide helps also.
Kuji-In Sha takes Resistance sets so put a Steadfast +3% Defense IO in there.
Universal Travel sets are your friend!
Blinding Powder is AWESOME and a perfect place for a cheap purple set.
The defense in Hide suppresses when you attack, it actually only gives you 1.88% defense (unenhanced) when suppressed (same as Combat Jumping).
You have 3 attacks that hit like a Mack truck but they take forever to animate and they are all single target attacks.

Defenders: Traps/Sonic could be fun and effective. It will give you a lot of tools to play with, arguably the best Def Blast set, and mez protection. Also could be pretty easily softcapped.

Blasters: Sonic/Energy or Electric Melee would be awesome solo. Siren's song the mob, then blap them one by one with your very powerful blasts.

Stalkers: I have very little experience but I've heard Electric/Nin is very good.

Dom: Maybe a Mind or Plant/Elec. I think an argument for Plant/Stone could be made as it could be thematic and fun.

Both the Def and the Blaster I know to be very fun and soloable. I have less experience redside.

I missed the fact that you had rolled a traps mm, but I do notice one glaring omission, Storm. How about a storm/ice or sonic defender? Solo, you can knock stuff wherever you want them, and both ice and sonic have very potent debuffs and damage.

I actually disagree with kin as a solo set. It has very little mitigation and with an already squishy defender HP base, you will find yourself kiting quite a bit. It also lends itself far better to large teams as in a small group your fulcrum shift will have very few to buff yourself with. It REALLY shines on a large team, but I have found it lacking solo on my 50 kin/psy and 50 ar/kin. With sonic and siren's song, you can sleep them, fs, then blast away, but it is still going to have problems with bosses. Just my 2 cents as I'm sure some will disagree.

For a Blaster - look at these:

Ice/Ice - almost overkill for "safety" (at least for a Blaster), with Slows and Holds. I actually found it a bit boring, so mine is only in the teens.

Fire/Ice - I found this more fun because you get the big flashy Fire Blasts with the controls from Ice Manipulation. I have one in the high 30s right now.

Sonic/Energy - Sonic debuffs, Energy has an early Build-up and some handy KB to keep them out of your face. I also have one of these in the high 30s.

Fire/Energy - Big flashy blasts with KB for soft controls. This combo I have in the upper 20s.

For a Defender - Either Rad or Dark as the Primary, for some self-buffs & enemy debuffs. For the Secondary, either match Rad to Rad or Dark to Dark - or mix them up with one of each. I have also matched Ice Blast up with the Dark Primary for a fun character.

I have fewer characters redside, so I'm not much help there, sorry.

I may not be the person to ask... most of my Blaster soloing is on things like Fire/Elec. (death is a 100% debuff. Attention spans are overrated.)

If you're planning on soloing a blaster with some sort of protection, Fire/Ice is pretty good. Shiver is a huge, self-stackable recharge-killer, so you can drop them to the recharge FLOOR and effectively live four times as long. You can also drag 'em to corners and let the Ice Patch keep them bouncing. And of course, Firebreath/Fireball will drop even con minions withOUT build up and aim. With BU or Aim, I think you can drop +1s and with both you can drop +2s. Yes, by the 10-pack.

Sonic/Elec or Sonic/Energy would also be good from a solo point of view. You can throw out Siren's Song and then beat individual badguys like they owe you money, repeat Siren's Song if it looks like anyone's going to wake up.

Fire/Mental has lots of -Recharge tools (although not -movement to go with it) and three AOE's. The body count can be quite spectacular. Fair warning: I have three or four high level fire blasters. I like fire a LOT.

For defenders: There's a reason the Rad/Sonic guide is called "Best at everything." Dark is a good primary but I like Rad even better.

For Stalkers: I have a couple that are pretty beastly. I put some money into an "AV soloing" nin/nin (so far I've only soloed Countess Crey, but this is before level 50. So no purples, and still some slots to go.) Stalkers are quite solid in this day and age- the days of them poking someone in the eye and running off are mostly behind them. Energy primary is also fun- higher damage, and you get to do two or three one-shots at the start of the fight. For secondaries ... I like the defense-based ones. My wife has a energy/regen that she plays like a blaster. I'm not as expert with Stalkers as Blasters or Defenders, though.

I seocnd the suggestion of a Storm Defender. Sonic Blast is easily the most effectiove secondary due to the stacking -Res debuffs, and has some conceptual synergy as Thunder powers.
Second best would be Ice Blast with its Blaster level Ice Storm and Blizzard to stack with Freezing Rain, and the two holds dont hurt either. I went Storm/Ice and was not dissapointed.

Thankyou all for your great suggestions!

Just to let you know, i made a Sonic/Energy blaster tonight. The sad thing is, I ended up spending my whole evening doing the following:

a) Deciding between /Energy and /Ice (i'm still not sure!),

b) Creating a costume with an element of theme involved,

c) Individually colouring all of my powers in complimentary shades and

d) Trying to find a half decent name that nobody has taken yet!

And yes, i am awful at making decisions in RL too!

I'm one of the few people on the boards who comes out and says "I don't really like Storm Defense." (it may be the default in game...) I tried to help a friend tune up her Storm Defender and ran a mission with her to see how the powers work in practice. Finding out that Lightning Storm knocks badguys back OUT OF ITS OWN RANGE was ... well, unexpected. There were a couple other negative surprises in there as well, where the in game performance didn't live up to the numbers.

Enjoy your new blaster but when you do get around to making a stalker electricity/ninjitsu is an incredible combo. I was all about teaming on the blue side until I made a toon with these powers and I have been soloing on the red side ever since. I have a serious case of Altaholism but soon forgot all my other team-dependant toons

I have to disagree with Energy/Ninjitsu for a stalker.

DM/Nin is much better through the levels before you manage to get to softcap. Owing to the heal that is part of your attack chain, and the to-hit debuffs shoring up your defense numbers a little bit.

The other night I was playing my DM/Nin stalker on a team going after Eochai. I jumpes in and started wailing on him....and did so for several minutes before I realized I was the only one attacking him.

Energy hits really hard. REALLY hard. But I like the synergy of DM better with Ninjitsu.

I have no complaint with anything relating to Sonic Attack. It's awesome no matter what AT it is. My favorite blast set by a wide margin, and the only one I have more than one of.