Defender that can solo quickly?

This statement assumes the journey to 50 is a weighty issue. It isn't. Certainly not compared to years past.

But if you are looking for a toon that solo's quickly why you'd pick something that is a dog for 60% of the levels and probably upwards of 35-40% of the time it takes the toon to reach 50* is beyond me.

*No the typical toon does not take 40% of their time to reach 30, but it very likely does on one as slow as pre BiB iceblast.

I dunno, but if you recall the devs said that the average player doesn't even surpass lvl 30 (or something like that) and a person asks for a good solo'ing combo from an AT that isn't generally considered to be a strong solo'er. I figure if you want someone to stick with something when the deck is stacked against it why make it an even bigger hurdle? Play a set that is good from out of the gate imo.

OP can do w/e they like, but ice blast is a bad choice for a defender if they aren't extremely patient (for solo play), just like I suggest people stay away from cold domination on corruptors if they aren't extremely patient. Cold dom, just like iceblast turns out to be one of the better sets if you wait it out and spend some sizable inf on it.

*My brute is lvl 39 in 46 hrs. I too have spent a lot of time on the market as the toon is fully frankenslotted and has just shy of 200M. I have solo'd the toon the entire time. Actually the one night I forgot the game was running and the toon sat at the mission entrance overnight. I'd say it is probably level'd at about 1 lvl per 30 mins. So ya about twice as fast. Not bad for almost no aoe damage. when I roll up a toon to "solo quickly" I do so with the intention of it not being slow. I don't expect my toons to go the speed of a brute, but I also don't expect it to go the speed of an ice controller, which is about what pre BiB ice blast does for defenders.

ymmv.

Im not arguing the merits of /ice blast for defenders in solo speed.
I will argue that the time spent gettin to lvl 30 is trivial compared to the 30 to 50 game.

If the average ingame time to lvl a toon to 50 is approx 150-200 hours (my guestimation though I believe I read somewhere the devs stated that was the avg time to 50. But i could be wrong), a player with any knowledge of how this game plays could get a toon to 30 in probably 25-30 hours. Faster still if you team a little, ie sewer runs to lvl 10 in 2 hours.

And as to ingame time that a character has, I have a mind/ice dom that is lvl 44ish with probably 2500 hours of playtime. What does that mean? That mind/ice sux and cant lvl? Hardly.
More like, I used to pvp alot and didnt care about getting to 50.

But ya, its the journey and not the destination in this game and YMMV.

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

The AoEs are working as intended.

Your definition of soloing quickly is rather different than mine.

Dark only has one toggle and it doesn't have to be used due to the sheer amount of tohit debuffs Dark has. All the more so after one gets Fluffy.

I agree, but you'd be foolish to attempt that journey seeking something that "solo's quickly" and mate it to a set that does less damage than any other blast set until lvl 30+. That is the antithesis of solo'ing quickly.

I'll just repeat it again cause people seem to be missing my point.

If you want to solo quickly ice blast is a great choice, just make sure you get PL'd to lvl 30 because it is tied for the worst choice prior to that.

The value assigned to levels 1-30 is going to vary by person, but if you never reach lvls 30+ (like most players) then it accounts for 100% of the time spent on the toon. You increase the likelyhood of never seeing the 30+ game by selecting something that doesn't meet your expectations.

Here's my full answer for the OP; if you are looking for something that solo's quickly at:
lvl 50, ice is a top 4 choice
lvl 30+ ice is a top 4 choice
1-30 ice is one of the worst choices.
1-50 based on total time spent, ice is probably a top 6 choice.

The settings you choose to solo on will determine where it ranks within each subdivision.

1. He's an on again off again player
2. He's only reached 50 once (and it was a toon that hits its stride very early and just gets stronger and stronger)
3. He's going to be evaluating it against the scrapper (decent solo from the start, amazing later on) and a tanker (generally solid from the get go (every set other than /em, /ice, and /elec has decent damage from lvl 10 on).
4. He eventually wants to be powerful and clear mass spawns

Based on that criteria ice is going to be total fail unless he magically appears in late game with a fully built toon.

Id say any defender combo is gonna be fail. None in my experience solo quickly enough compared to a scrapper that will keep an on again/off again player content.

Play a defender for what they are, team support!

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

Actually Amy, I wasnt the one that said the Ice AoEs were bugged. My statement was more of a reply to the person that did say that, and I apologize if it seemed I was showing tacit agreement. To my knowledge, no Dev has come out and said they were not working as intended.

As far as the toggles of Dark and Rad, I used the plural to indicate all three toggles. I was not indicating that Dark had more than one. Also, I believe in one of my posts, I mentioned that Dark had it easier than Rad due to all the other control powers.