Solo Friendly

So I'm looking to create something that's truly solo friendly.

I levelled a Claws/SR Brute to 50 and, whilst I do enjoy the character, the reliance upon Aid Self and its massive activation time (followed by claws redraw) means that, even at soft-cap, he spends a lot of his time slowly healing with no damage output.

I'm looking for a set that's very survivable on a wide range of content with no backup whatsoever on either +4 or x8 difficulty settings or some variation thereof (essentially, non-normal difficulties). It doesn't have to be able to solo AVs (although that's a bonus, I'm really just looking to breeze around feeling tough on this toon), but it has to be able to take on the majority of mobs it meets without getting destroyed.

I've been considering a DM/Nin Stalker since it gets all the benefits of SR's soft cap, plus a lot of self heal (minus the aggravating activation times and redraw of Claws/SR's Aid Self), but I'm open to all suggestions. This is a solo-only character, I don't care if it's considered worse than useless on teams.

The floor's open to you guys!

I suggest a Kinetics/Regeneration/Soul scrapper. Two god-modes on short recharge, and each set reduces damage taken regardless of what said damage is. And Power Siphon on a low enough recharge is amaaaazing. I regularly solo X8 on mine, and I could do better.
If you want something more substantial, you'll have to be specific about what you like to solo with. Like; Ranged? Debuffing? Unbeatable defenses? Scrappers? Brutes? Stalkers? Masterminds? Do you IO? Do you Incarnate?
So forth.

Shield/Dark/Fire Tank. That is all.

Melt Armor>Soul Drain>Shield Charge>Fire Ball>Dark Consumption will pretty much wipe out everything in sight, which when solo should be at least double the aggro cap, plus you have Siphon Life to help in the healing department.

Any Brute or Scrapper should be able to solo on the default difficulty with no issues. They should all be able to push the difficulty up a few notches too, and most of them should be able to go to x8 with an IOed build.

My current project is a Dark/Dark brute. By four-slotting his attacks with Kinetic Combat and his resists with Reactive Armor, plus Combat Jumping, a Steadfast Unique and Weave, I've got his S/L defense up over 30%, and it'll only get higher as I level and slot more. Endurance is pretty heavy, but when I get my Numina and Miracle slotted, and take the Energy Mastery pool, End problems should disappear.

Anything with a Shield is good too, especially if you softcap it. I personally like Shields best on scrappers though.

With all the new content trivializing defense lately, I find myself trying to create hybrids, with a mix of survivability tools (hence the high-defense dark brute). The easiest to get a mix of survival tools on are probably Invulnerability and Willpower, but there's lots of other options too.

DM/Nin Stalker probably is up your alley more, since you're a fan of melee.. but..

Robots/Traps MM.

FFG+Support bots get you and all your bots very close to the soft cap. Your pets heal each other, you have every debuff there is, seekers take alpha strike damage, and between poison gas trap and the -regen in your t3 bots plasma blasts AV's are no problem (I've taken a few down on SO's only pre-50).

There is no content that character couldn't do alone, some just took more trap preparation than others.

Also, the assbot (so lovingly called) is freaking godly when you get your last upgrade, the missiles are Amazing.

A high end Bots/Traps MM with an experienced player at the controls can solo pretty much anything that can be soloed. They aren't quite as good as they used to be due to the pet AI changes but they're still quite good... +4/x8 should still be possible with the right build. After all, this is a combo that has soloed Giant Monsters using only SOs so even with the pets liking to run in and melee (even the ones with no melee attacks) they can still be quite solid. You just have to spam Goto more often and resummon the occasional robotic lemming that decides to go run up and smack a +4 AV in the face even though he doesn't actually have the ability to melee. The important thing if you want to really tear up tough spawns is to softcap your own defense (pretty easy with FFG, the Protector Bot bubble, and Maneuvers plus IOs) and use Provoke. Even though all the bots but the Protectors will probably be softcapped (and the Protectors won't be far off) they can drop fast from lucky hits, especially the Drones. With Bodyguard and softcapped defense you are basically a Granite Tank... effectively 75% resist all from Bodyguard, some resistance from your patron shield if you take one, and capped defense make you harder to kill than many tanks. You even have mez protection.

The two main drawbacks to Bots (/Traps really has no drawbacks ) are that they are rather slow until you get to level 32 since that's when you get your AoEs, and the fact that they tend to get torn to pieces on the new Incarnate TFs so you'll have to resummon a lot.

In before Dechs recommends a MFing Warshade.

A Controller. Illusion/Anything

Add in the following

Boxing, Kick, Weave, Tough
Flurry
Combat Jumping, Super Jump Accrobatics
Air Superiority

Ignore half of your secondary sets abilities
Focus on illusion mainly
Slot up the dinky melee attack you took and watch the double damage sore
Make the Scrapper Feel bad about them selves
Confuse the tank because now he just thinks you have mental issues
Solo Everything with your never ending supply of illusion pets

Stand invisability while pets do their thing, make a sandwich, wash rince repeat. Add personal FF if you choose this and make sandwiches with impunity.

Thats a solo toon, and sandwiches.

{Edit} because I am seriously not joking

DM/Nin stalker might not be the best choice if you're planning on playing at x8.

You'll survive just fine, but it's almost completely single target, with only Shadow Maul for AoE. It will take you forever to get through a mission on x8.

If you want to increase the level of your enemies without upping the number of them too much, it will probably work for that.

While my undying love for Ill/Rad compels me to pimp my AT, and it can Solo extremely well and looks good doing it, I'm gonna have to (sigh) recommend Mind/Fire Perma Dom. If you have the inf, and it sounds like you do, then these lil buggers can solo the ITF, LRSF, etc. They can solo anything. At any lvl. It's just sick. I honestly can't think of anything these lil guys can do that isnt on par or better than anything another AT can do.

As much as recommending something other than Ill/Rad makes me wanna wash my mouth out with bleach, it's sadly a fact.

So there ya go. Give it a whirl.

(Oh. And don't go for Warshade. They look like Grimace and you don't want to do that to yourself. You have your self respect to think of.)

/SR is very solo friendly at higher levels, once you soft cap the defenses so that you no longer need Elude. I don't have Aid Self on my MA/SR scrapper, green insp and his IO set regen bonuses are more than enough to keep him going non-stop.

But probably the best solo character out of my personal stable of characters is my DM/SD brute (even more so than my DM/Stone Brute). DM gives you multiple AoE attacks, self heals, endurance recovery, and self buffs built into the attacks, and Shield Defense gives you excellent defenses and decent resists, plus Shield Charge for another high damage attack in your arsenal.