Best Corruptor for Soloing Padded missions?

While I was leveling up my last (and 18th) level 50, I discovered something – something that doubtlessly many of you have been aware of for some time, but was new information to me. Using this character (an Illusion/Kin Controller) I was actually able to solo +2/x4 missions – albeit slowly. (By the way, I probably spent around 2 billion inf on that Controller all told)

So I started thinking. I had heard that it was possible to softcap Defense or Resistance or both on many different Archetypes, so it occurred to me that it might be possible to create a character that could solo +2/x8 – or maybe higher. After poking around on some of the forums around here, that was confirmed.

So while I will be using my next new character to explore Going Rogue, and probably start in Praetoria, I also want to explore the idea of creating a character that is so highly effective. I am calling this attempt The Paragon Project.

However, I have very specific design goals and play limitations. Here are the ones I can think of, more may be added as they are discovered.

First, it is my policy to play each character from 1 to 50, and then upon hitting 50, retire them, permanently. So the idea would be not to build towards achieving this effectiveness late in the game, but to frontload this effectiveness at earlier, as possible. For example, a build candidate that hits its stride at 32 would be preferred over one that hits its stride at 42 – with the former, I get to enjoy it for 18 levels, with the latter I only get 8. Ideally, the character starts really being able to solo and gain quick massive XP in the 20-30 region.

Also, ‘effectiveness’ boils down two metrics really: The speed at which XP can be generated solo, and the risk of death (which obviously cuts into XP in several ways.) Ideally, I would prefer to make death be a rare occurrence, even if that moderately reduces XP – faceplants enrage me. However, within that safety zone, I would like to focus on characters that are able to achieve max XP/minute rates – whether that means running at +0/x4, or +3/x8, or anywhere in between. Again, not locked into any particular mission setup, simply looking for the build that with the right mission level and padding choices results in superior xp/min solo.

Now, because this project (and character) get shelved at 50, that makes buying purples, which can only be slotted at 50, pointless. Therefore, no suggested build should use them.

However, have been playing this game since pre-launch, and across more than two dozen characters (18 of which are 50s) I have countless billions of influence/infamy. So please, in any build you suggest, feel free to load up on the most expensive IOs that make the build work – from LotG’s to Numina to Hamis to *anything*.

I also have several Vet awards, which may or may not affect suggested builds. I have the ability to select my travel power right at level 6, I have the ability to pick up Sand of Mu, Nemesis Staff, and the Blackwand all at the start, I also start every character with 4 or 5 built-in respecs, not counting the alt build faux-respec. Point is, I can (and frequently do) build a character one way until a point, and then another way after. Case in point, on my last character, I built one way pre 20, NOT taking the Fitness pool, respecced at 20 INTO the Fitness Pool and Stamina, then at 36 respecced back out of Stamina when I got Transference.

Other factors to know are that I do not PvP, do not like the form switching that Khelds do, and do not care for characters which take the baddies out by indirect methods – Masterminds and Traps, I’m looking at you! No, *I* want to be the one kicking the baddies butts, not my pets or summoned devices.

By the way, I am not saying that I will *never* team up with folks in playing this character, but that’s not the point of the Project. The point of the Project is to see how fast a build can solo from 1 to 50 by kicking butt in missions even if no teams or friends can be found.

Also, I don’t care ultimately if this is more of a ST or AoE build – whichever gets he better xp/min + safety metrics – which I am guessing may be AoE more than ST, but whatever.

Now, if I am going to be running a character that does good XP/min, it will obviously have to have excellent damage capability, with I would imagine some AoE. Given that and all of the above, I am considering the followings AT have potential strengths and weaknesses:

• Brutes. I have 2 @ 50 – a Fire/Fire that used to be a farmer from CoV’s release, and a SS/Inv from around the same time. Brutes can take a pounding, but unlike Tanks, they can dish out a fair amount of damage as I recall. And if I am soloing, all the attacks are pointed at me – which builds Fury faster, I imagine – plus the faster I rip through the mish, the more my Fury stays high. Maybe Fire/Fire with Softcapped Defense and lots of hasten?
• Corruptors. Not only damage, but a synergistic secondary. Maybe Fire/Fire with the new buffs to /Fire would be the key, or maybe Fire/Kin with the ability to Fulcrum Shift myself would rock. Downside is, unlike Blasters, there’s no BuildUp.
• Blasters. Upside: BuildUp. Downside: It’s a single trick pony of damage. However, maybe a Fire/NRG, for example, with softcapped defenses/resists, could hit high XP/min solo. Maybe.
• Scrappers. Both /SR and /Shield look promising, and their crits seem like a good trick when soloing large groups. Or maybe /Fire with Burn and Fiery Embrace changes?
• VEATS – Soldiers of Arachnos. Haven’t tried one of these yet, but I hear good things that suggest that these are the jack of all trades. But are they also the master of none?

My next character is likely going to be one of the above 5 ATs. And so I am posting this request in each of the 5 AT subforums, to ask the experts in each AT what specific builds you would suggest.

Again, the design criteria are:
• Designed to be effective as early as possible, knowing that this character will be shelved @ 50
• Therefore, no purples
• However, as far as IOs, the sky’s the limit, price is no object. Usually I slot for sets as soon as I can, say around 22 or 28.
• No PvP use
• Goal: most xp/min in a solo padded mission of +A/xB where A and B can be any numbers that work
• Little or no dying, possible ways to ditch and restart without dying or riding the death line too closely
• Probably taking advantage of softcapped Defense and/or Resistance
• Not a pet or device character, but a kicking-a$$ character.

So, what do you guys in the Corruptors Forum think the best answer to this puzzle is using a Corruptor?

PS. Whatever AT and build I wind up going with, I am almost certainly going to be doing so in Paragon City, *not* the Rogue Isles. After Praetoria, that is.

fire/dark if you want a corr.

Don't get me wrong fire/kin is a monster, but if you take /dark you are a swissarmy knife of utility.

You have an awesome heal, you have alot of -tohit debuffs which adds to your survivability, you have a pet that heals, holds, does damage, and debuffs. The pet can take alphas and is up extremely quickly after you get some global recharge in there with IOs. Fearsome stare can be used as an apha. Tar patch + Fire breath + fire ball + RoF = dead spawn. Fire kin could run +2/x8 if it could take the alpha.

My fire/dark is a beast, 163% global recharge, 34% S/L def. And you do not really need to softcap since you have so much -tohit. I am sure most people will tell you the same. Not to mention, /dark blooms alot earlier than /kin. Kin you will have a hard time soloing (it can be done but not as well as /dark can) in the early levels basically until you get fulcrum shift. Even then, the alpha is still going to be a struggle.

Playing around with mids with slotting just the powers you need to get your defenses high enough you are looking around level 39. You might be able to get it a few levels lowers by slotting your attacks a bit less.

You will need Dark as a secondary simply because of Darkest Night. You will need to keep that up at ALL TIMES.. You will notice instantly if Darkest Night is off or if the anchor is not near other mobs to affect them. Of course Dark also has the other powers you will need to make this effective.. Radiation does have a - to hit toggle, but you have nothing like tar patch to help keep the mobs in place.. So you will have something equivalent to Darkest Night but nothing like Tar Patch.

Here is what I have, again you can frankenslot the DPS powers and get this possibly a few levels lower then 39

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 39 Science Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Fire Blast
Secondary Power Set: Dark Miasma
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Fire Blast -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- Empty(A), Empty(3), Empty(3), Empty(5), Empty(5)
Level 2: Tar Patch -- Empty(A), Empty(7), Empty(7)
Level 4: Fire Ball -- Empty(A), Empty(9), Empty(9), Empty(11), Empty(11)
Level 6: Darkest Night -- DisWord-ToHitDeb(A), DisWord-ToHitDeb/Rchg(13), DisWord-ToHitDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(13)
Level 8: Rain of Fire -- Empty(A), Empty(15), Empty(15), Empty(17), Empty(17)
Level 10: Fire Breath -- Empty(A), Empty(19), Empty(19), Empty(21), Empty(21)
Level 12: Howling Twilight -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Shadow Fall -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(23), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(23), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(25), RedFtn-Def(25), RedFtn-EndRdx(27)
Level 18: Health -- Empty(A), Empty(27)
Level 20: Stamina -- Empty(A), Empty(29)
Level 22: Kick -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(29), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(31), RctvArm-EndRdx/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31)
Level 26: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(33), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(33), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(33), RedFtn-Def(34), RedFtn-EndRdx(39)
Level 28: Combat Jumping -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(34), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(34), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36), RedFtn-Def(36), RedFtn-EndRdx(39)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(36), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(37), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(37), RedFtn-Def(37), RedFtn-EndRdx(39)
Level 32: [Empty]
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge
Level 4: Ninja Run

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I personally dont think manuevers nor the fighting pool are necessary. You are an AoE machine. Just kill stuff, you will be plenty tough with out the extra toggles. Darkets night is very nice, but fearsome stare also has some good -tohit in there. So if your anchor dies you will be fine if you keep applying fearsome strare, but like he said, try to keep it up.

Fire/Rad/Mace.

Scorpion Shield + Radiation Infection = effectively softcapped S/L defense
Web Envelope + Enervating Field + Aim + Rain of Fire + Fireball = <3

for soloing effectiveness, as the others have said, fire/dark all the way. i have both fire/dark and fire/kin at 50, and from my experience with both, /dark is the best at soloing effectively.

general stratagy is to darkest night a foe, kite it so it pulls 3-4(more if you're comfortable with it) groups of enemies around a corner and into a tar patch. fearsome stare -> rain of fire -> fireball -> firebreath look for the next pull. you'll be slaughtering everything.

OK, been overwhelmed by all the possibilities for this project - not only was I looking at 5 ATs (Brute, Blaster, Corruptor, Scrapper, SoA) but I am look at 3-6 different builds in each.

So I have decided to simplify things a little. I am going to break this project into 5 separate parts, and one at a time, do the 0-50 journey with *each* of the 5 ATs. That way I only have to focus on optimizing for kick-assery one AT at a time.

I decided to start with Blasters first, so I am going to pause the discussion into the AT from *this* forum, until I get to it - but thank you ll and I will return to this topic when this AT get's it turn.

By the time I am done I should have played the best each AT has to offer or the goal. Then I will know which is king.

So when I do come back, I will probably take a hard look at Fire/Dark, among others.

Thanks again.

I realize you said your Corruptor project was on hold but I just want to add my 2 cents. I have to fully agree with a Fire/Dark build. I recently came back to the game just before going rouge and was hard pressed to decide between Fire/kin and Fire/dark. I wanted to be an all out damage dealer this round.

I played a 50 Fire/Kin controller pretty heavily before I quit many months ago, and also have a 50 Kin/Electric Defender, and a 50 Earth/Kinetics controller. I love kinetics and know what it brings to the table in terms of sheer awesomeness.

In the end though I chose Fire/Dark and am really glad I did. It just has so many tools for destruction its not even funny.

By level 15ish I was already pulling big trains and using Line of sight to my advantage by hiding behind a corner and dropping tar patch and rain of fire and rarely getting hit. By level 33 I was already soloing +0/8x loaded missions. I'm currently about halfway to level 48 soloing +2/8x COT missions and its just seriously too easy. I probably could have been soloing +2's sooner, but never really occurred to me to start trying until today.

Tar patch and darkest night are an amazing combo for a fire primary. Just lets you set up the Aoes, and the debuff from Tar patch makes them eat it badly. Get enough recharge and double stacked tar patch makes them hurt.

It was mentioned before that taking Mu for a patron/epic was a good choice, and while I agree, I believe the new APP pool choice of Dark Mastery available since i18 released is a much much better choice.

Oppressive Gloom is amazing for survivability. On paper it looks pretty weak, but the mag2 stun is enough to basically take just about any and all minions out of the fight if they break loose from tar or darkest night. Before taking this I was having serious issues with Carnie strongmen and Council wolves that tar patch can't slow, and who run around like psychos when rain of fire is falling.

Now if they get close to me, they are stunned pretty quick, if they do manage to get an attack off, it is usually a miss thanks to my def from shadowfall and combat jumping along with the tohit debuff on fearsome stare, or its damage that is easily replenished using our heal.

Also the other benefit to this, is if you take the Howling Twilight res skill, you can abuse its stun component which is also a mag2. Alone it isn't that great, but its an auto hit, so fire it off first, then run into melee range with Oppressive gloom running and you have stunned minions and LTs, sometimes even bosses. Great synergy makes even trivial skills great.

The end drain Dark Consumption skill is really nice. Fire/Dark can be end heavy, and while this power has double the recharge of the mu mastery version, it does decent damage if it scourges and 5 slotted with the efficiency adapter set I'm getting 50-70% end back from 1 mob. Considering its a PBAOE, 2 mobs and your back to full end. Haven't had end problems since taking this.

Soul Drain though, is the awesomesauce that makes the Dark Mastery all worth taking. Its a PBAOE skill that buffs your damage and tohit while doing damage to the mobs comparible to Fire Ball. Its basically a slightly less impressive self-fulcrum shift. For not taking Kinetics, I feel this is the best subsitute you can get. I'm constantly running anywhere between 80-150% damage boost and 150%ish tohit from this combined with aim. Add inspirations which drop like candy when solo aoeing and you can constantly push 240%+ in damage bonus with no trouble at all.

A typical pull is darkest night into tarpatch, fearsome stare, possibly howling twilight for the stun, then run into the middle of the mobs, fire off soul drain, drop rain, pop aim, back out and find a target for fire ball in the center. Usually by this time, most minions are dead, so finding a target for fireball and fire breath quick enough is a challenge, so I'll usually just target the closest mob to me and let the rest of the aoes rip. At that point its just clean up anyways.

Dark Mastery app also has a damage resist shield I plan to take at 49. Haven't needed it till now cause I'm just demolishing everything in front of me, while taking little damage anyways. Between my own heal, my pet debuffing and healing, most times I don't have any issues. If I do, its nothing 2-3 purple insp can't fix.

Last night I even soloed a +2 elite boss version of Lord Recluse on the Scirocco story arc. I'm not sure how many classes can do that with the numerous Boss adds he spawns. But I impressed myself. I also fought a Hero class version of Malaise. He's annoying due to the pets he summons and constant confuses he throws, but wasn't much of an issue for me.

The only issues I have on this character are end draining mobs that can detoggle darkest night, or stuns. Stuns is the big killer, but played well it isn't a huge issue at all.


For anyone curious, this is my current in-game build, 100% accurate down to slotting and enhancement levels:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Korem: Level 48 Mutation Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Fire Blast
Secondary Power Set: Dark Miasma
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Dark Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Fire Blast

• (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage: Level 30
• (3) Decimation - Damage/Endurance: Level 37
• (15) Decimation - Damage/Recharge: Level 32
• (33) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 40
• (36) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 31
• (46) Empty