Good options for a solo corrupter?

I am interested in trying out a Corrupter. I have Fire/Kin and Ill/Rad controllers, but I’ve gotten tired of hiding behind pets and confusing my enemies. I’d like to get into battle and do some direct damage myself for a change.

In descending importance, I would like to be able to:

1) Do good to excellent AoE damage and decent ST damage. I tend to play at -1/ X 2 or higher even at low levels.
2) Eventually be able to take on X8 maps.
3) Not die much, either by buffing myself or debuffing my foes
4) Solo AVs

I know that emphasizing AoE over ST damage goes against the goal of soloing AVs.

I have around 500 million in the bank and plan on getting lots of hero merits, so I can get LotG recharge and other “middle-class” enhancements. I might be able to afford purples someday.

After reading a number of posts I decided to go with fire/rad. I considered running a defender since they now get a 30% damage buff when solo, but since they don’t have fire a corrupter seemed to be the better choice. I started this fire/rad last week and so far I have enjoyed him A LOT. Fireball and RoF for the good times! The –to hit from radiation is effectively doing the same things as giving me +30 defense, so with just two purples I can nearly soft cap myself as long as I am careful with how I manage my anchors.

I was hoping this character might be my AV soloer, but I checked the math and learned that AVs have strong resistance to debuffs. As in, a level 50 AV will ignore 85% of the -to hit debuff, so that 30% debuff gets reduced to 4.5%. That suggests to me that staying alive while taking down an AV might be a real challenge.

I am considering rerolling him as fire/traps since traps has good –regen, +def that can be soft-capped, and mez protection. Would a fire/traps fit my goals? Are there other builds that would do better?

I should mention that for some reason fire/dark is not very appealing to me. Maybe it’s the flavor-of-the-month aspect. If it really stands above other builds I would consider it.

I wish that dual pistols had more damage oomph and AoE effects at earlier levels because I like the way it looks and it fits with traps, but oh well.

What do people think? If fire/rad is an otherwise strong build I might get over my desire to solo AV and GMs, but there’s something appealing about taking on the biggest challenges in the game single-handed.

Can't comment too much since I don't have a Fire/Rad, but you can softcap using IO's to Ranged and probably do just fine with some good tactics. Holding the AV in place using an epic power choice will be key.

Rad has all the tools you need to make this work.

Traps will effectively neuter anything you're going up against, you just have to make sure that you're not leaving your traps vulnerable to what you're fighting. This isn't a problem with traps like tripmine and poison gas trap because you want your enemies to impale their health and end bars on those two trapsy delicacies, but your acid mortar should be out for as long as possible. If it's mangled after two hits, you're not getting the most out of it. With a fire/traps character, you shouldn't have problems with either AVs or larger spawns because you've got a good combination of single target and AoE powers. Taking the presence pool for AV shenanigans would probably be a good idea, though, as you'll be able to effectively keep 'em away from the traps that you need to have out.

Fire/Traps, DP/Traps, Ice/Cold, Fire/Cold, Archery/Traps, Archery/Dark. You can Solo with /Rad as well but I would get a bud to PL you to 32 to be honest. Out my list the one that can put the hurt on mobs AND AV's the most is Dp/Traps and Ice/Cold...but I haven't seen much of what Ice/Cold can't do.

Thanks for the comments. The fire/traps is going very well and looks like what I want right now. Unfortunately since I play almost exclusively solo I don't have anyone to pl me to 32. However, I am finding that a fire/anything corrupter is able to use the methods from MA farming even at a low level in Praetoria. You can buy medium purples, and with two of those you are at the def cap. If the mish is set to -1 / X8 you can farm the first few rooms and then reset. It’s a little tedious, but more reliable than the PUGs I’ve been in recently.

Well, anything at X8 is not really “tedious” but it does get repetitive.

I find it interesting that there are very few guides to traps corrupters or defenders. The MM guides are written from a very different perspective than we have.

There were quite a few guides out there...for everything...but a lot was lost when the forums switch to new setups...which has happened several time since I started playing COH. So some guides get lost in the fold .

I don't know if you plan to use Envenomed Daggers to help reduce AV regeneration, but I find that they help a great deal in soloing AVs with any archetype.

I had to solo two EBs in a row today on my lv 26 Ill/Rad troller at the end of a particular arc, so I know where you're going with the desire to take out big enemies without having to beg for teams. I'd suggest a Sonic/Traps Corr.

A Sonic/Traps is a safe leveling and soloing toon capable of taking out AVs (Someone here in the forums has some lovely photos of their Sonic/Traps corr taking out numerous different AVs, actually). It isn't the FASTEST wide area mob killer, but Siren's Song makes killing groups much easier (Sleep a group and kill them one at a time), and Force Field Generator is an incredibly good buff. Add in /Traps' excellent debuffs to regeneration, resistance, defense, and ToHit, plus the stacking Resistance debuffs for every single Sonic Blast power you use. It's MADE for wearing out big targets, and can handle large groups of weaker enemies quite well.

Hmm, I will take a look at sonic/rad. I suspect that it would be better for the AV soloing and more safe than fire overall.

So far I am enjoying fire because of its high AoE damage. In large groups the xp gain rate of fire is so high that even though I die more occasionally the debt is not a problem.

This shows me that my goal of “not dying much” is not as high a priority as I thought. “Mowing through foes like death incarnate” is more like it.

Fire/Dark and you can run at 0 x 8 at level 10-12.

Yes, they ARE that good.

Powers you need first:

Fireblast
Fireball
Rain of Fire
Tarpit - so they are slow and your powers do 30% MORE damage
Darkest Night - so they don't hit you and they will follow you around corners onto the Tarpit. Slot with at least one range.
Howling Twilight - because it is a clever power it is an amzing stun + a powerful debuff/slow that can even rez people! Slot it with RECHARGE!

Those 6 powers alone will do wonders.

Now later you add the Fear, single target damage and healing and that heal is also a debuff!

There are many builds for fire/dark out there and some are even strange (like mine I have taunt - because I tank and the taunt helps me pull them off my squishies). Most of them are VERY affective and a fire/dark is a game changer on every team you join.

It's Tarpatch not Tarpit

Yeah, a fire/dark corr is awesome! I went from 1 to 50 (with altitis and one double exp weekend) in 29 days.

Anything TRAPS.

Cost around 200 million

You can obtain defense cap

Assuming endurance is good you can slot for damage incarnate for extra dps.

Either way before incarnate you can solo 0/8 or 1/8 with no issues. You could run 2/8 but you would have to be very careful and not get sloppy or fall asleep. Once your incarnate slotted you can run 4/8 with no issues, that is pretty much the highest setting in the game and your solo. It's like having speakers on 11 ( Spinal Tap reference )