Arch-Villians and Solo Play

Not sure if this has been covered recently, if so, feel free to re-direct me to the appropriate thread link.

I was thinking of rolling a new character and changing my settings with the Hero Corps Field Analyst to always have Bosses and AV's appear in missions even while playing solo.

Obviously, Bosses are soloable, but what about AV's?

Are there any Archetype/Power Set combinations which realistically allow you to solo AV's?

Any and all advice and insight is appreciated.

Quite a few combinations can solo AVs. It's quite common to hear about Controllers, Defenders, Scrappers, Brutes, Corruptors, Masterminds and occasionally others.

If you want something that can fairly cheaply solo AVs, I'd take a look at Rad/Sonic Defenders. With a bit more investment, Illusion/Radiation and Bots/Traps Masterminds should be able to handle most all.

Edit: Oops, my bad. I originally said Sonic/Rad, getting the order swapped.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Most scrappers can, at various levels of expense, be built to solo AVs. Almost all tanks can survive AVs, but it's difficult to impossible for a tank to generate enough damage to defeat one. Illusion/Rad controllers are noted for being able to defeat AVs (and giant monsters, and almost any other single target in the game), but the build for doing so is extremely expensive. Other controller and defender builds should be able to, so long as they've got a significant source of regen debuffs. I don't know about blasters, and given the team-oriented nature of Kheldians, I doubt they can.

Villain-side, Bots/Traps masterminds are the cheapest option for soloing AVs (you can do it on SO or common IO enhancements), but any /Traps mastermind should be able to. I don't know about other villain-side options.

If you want to do it on the cheap I'd roll a bots/traps. With a bit more investment they also scale to be one of the best AV solo'ers possible. There is little a well built and played bots/traps can't handle whether AV, GM, or full sized team spawns. With no investment it can still kill a bunch of them pretty easily. Very powerful toon.

If you like to punch things in the face and still don't want to spend a ton of inf I'd suggest a dm/sr scrapper. Not in the same realm as the MM, but hey you get to punch things in the face.

If you have a lot of money and want to punch things in the face I suggest a dm/shield. These bad boys can rip through stuff crazy fast.

If you have a lot of money and don't care how the job gets done just as long as it gets done extremely fast and safe I'd suggest an ill/cold. I don't think there is anything that holds a candle to the combination of speed and safety it has.

There are a lot of different builds in between and just so that you know when I say a lot of money I mean practically unlimited funds.

My overall recommendation though would be bots/traps, they can do it on the cheap and also happen to be quite fast and safe if you invest in them. You can also get a ridiculously powerful build for a fraction of the cost of say an ill/cold.

Hmm... Didn't OP meant that they wanted to solo AVs while leveling?

Okay, Bots and Traps seems to be the choice on the Villain's side. But what about Heroes? I don't have 20 million influence to invest (I'm basically starting from the ground up) and would prefer to play Hero side. I've been told that Radiation/Sonic is probably the cheapest build to go with Hero side. Yea? Nay?

Again, thanks.

I've soloed a couple of the easier AV's leveling up (Doc Vahz and Maestro) on my BS/Regen scrapper with standard enhancements... this was in issue 5 so DO/SO's were all I had to work with. I also soloed a couple of high level AV's with that same character, also on SO enhancements (Bobcat, one or two others). All of this was back in issue 5-6 so IO's weren't even thought of yet.

My Ill/Rad has soloed a few AV's as well, on SO's in the mid-30's and with a Perma-PA IO build at 50. I have a Rad/Sonic in the mid-30's and he's effective... I haven't played him much solo though so I can't comment on the AV handling ability. I'd think it would be tough since AV's resist debuffs heavily and a Rad/Sonic defender doesn't have much protection apart from the debuffs.

Go Rad/Sonic Def or Fire/Rad Controller.

Recovery Serum, a Shivan and/or a Backup Radio summon, some purple insps and you're good to go.

You don't need envenomed daggers as a rad

I took the advice that many offered on this thread and made a Radiation/Sonic Defender. Thus far, the build has done really well (I'm only level 9 as of this writing). The only times that I have died is/are in zones such as Perez where I have gotten swarmed by multiples. Other than that, I'm doing well, so thanks for the input.

I'm getting ready to do the Frostfire mission, and although he is not an Archvillian, I feel that this is my first, real challenge. I do have Assault from the Leadership pool, and along with Accelerate Metabolism and my Vigilance inherent ability, I can gain a 57.25% damage bonus for 2 minutes. Which leads me to this question.

Should I pop a whole bunch of reds and hope to take him down quick? Or should I pop a whole bunch of purples along with Radiation Infection and hope that he and his pets never touch me?

Offense or Defense. Any suggestions?

Thanks again.

No, you should pop a whole bunch of purples so you won't get turned into a block of ice and ripped apart by his fire imps. But that's just me.