Specialized Soloist (Badging character) advice

I'm preparing to make a character that I will be highly invested in, that is, I'm preparing to finally make my badger. To do this would be much easier if I could take in content wherever I want it and whatever pace, so a solo artist is preferable. (I don't intend to just go back and get all my defeats at level 50(+1)) I've already got characters that can do that.

It needs to be both fun and self sufficient... I'm ruling out MM's. They aren't fun, it's like watching the game be played on TV.
As with that, I'm going to go ahead and rule out warshades also, I know they are incredible, especially later on, but the purples and blacks... I just can't get on that train knowing I'll never be allowed the customizability of other AT's to counter that.

I want it to excel at dispatching bosses (bosses give badges, and +(x)bosses are probably the single best source of experience when tackling hazard zones), and be able to have minimal downtime (waiting alone in an empty zone doesn't appeal to me.)

Candidates I've thought of so far...

MA or KM/Regen Scrapper (smashing means robots don't give me lethal trouble) and both provide some KD for regen to work without forcing redraw. Regen is a superb soloist set too, zero down time, a self rez, and I can gauge each of my battles according to recharge as I see fit (no team).

X/Nin Stalker, probably an exotic damage stalker I know would both be capable of stealthing missions, easy to push to soft cap with only 1 purple insp, and stalkers are perfect boss killers... right? Honestly I've never leveled a stalker past 12, I hardly ever see them, and the new buff only works on teams. Is Assassins Strike better for taking down bosses than scrappers with a higher survivability and raised crit chance?

I enjoy blasters and know they can do the damage to kill bosses best, but the rest of the spawn can be troublesome, and dying means waiting and waiting is lame.

I'd like it to kill quickly too, I know ill/rads are some of the best soloists out there, and tanks don't die, but they are SLOW... for the most part, if you know any highly damaging combo of another AT that fits the bill, I'm interested. I hear some good things about doms, and I know nothing of VEAT'S, so. All ears.

Super Strength / Willpower Brute with Fly.

/close thread.

The best character to make your badger is the one you actually want to play.

If that means you base them on background story (like my badgers), then you might end up giving yourself some headaches as you attempt to tackle certain content (like Super Reflexes on a Master TF run... you too can be a Scrapper that gets 1-shotted by a combination Smashing/Energy attack from Black Scorpion, or the DoT hold from Ghost Widow!), but that might just make the payoff even sweeter.

If you just want to bust out a Wolverine and say "I'm the best at what I do," then you need to figure out what job you want to do that you're okay with sticking with for thousands of hours of game time. You also need to realize that picking some ATs or powersets will make attaining certain badges easier or harder than others, like the healing badges.

You've already named a few good AT/powerset combinations above, but it boils down to what you want to play and what you'll stick with for the long haul.

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Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

So, about those candidates you had thought of (do you want to build with invention sets for this character, by the way?):

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Originally Posted by Katten MA or KM/Regen Scrapper (smashing means robots don't give me lethal trouble) and both provide some KD for regen to work without forcing redraw. Regen is a superb soloist set too, zero down time, a self rez, and I can gauge each of my battles according to recharge as I see fit (no team). X/Nin Stalker, probably an exotic damage stalker I know would both be capable of stealthing missions, easy to push to soft cap with only 1 purple insp, and stalkers are perfect boss killers... right? Honestly I've never leveled a stalker past 12, I hardly ever see them, and the new buff only works on teams. Is Assassins Strike better for taking down bosses than scrappers with a higher survivability and raised crit chance? I enjoy blasters and know they can do the damage to kill bosses best, but the rest of the spawn can be troublesome, and dying means waiting and waiting is lame. I'd like it to kill quickly too, I know ill/rads are some of the best soloists out there, and tanks don't die, but they are SLOW... for the most part, if you know any highly damaging combo of another AT that fits the bill, I'm interested. I hear some good things about doms, and I know nothing of VEAT'S, so. All ears.

About the scrappers... I've played a lot with Claws and Spines (both are great and bring lots of AoE and even range, which almost feels unfair in a scrapper, but they can be slooow against robots), DM (great ST exotic damage and a small but constant heal) and FM (no mitigation but nice damage). I've also helped with and watched my brother's MA scrapper and was VERY impressed with it. Crazy ST damage, mitigation in the form of stuns that quickly stack to neuter a boss (he skipped the big KB though), a single AoE that isn't bad damage (and can later be complimented by something like epic fireball) and is great mitigation with KD.

Not sure about Regen though... My Claws/Regen hit 50 without any headaches, all right, but she was probably my melee character that died the most on the way there, when I wasn't quick enough with strategic use of her KD/KB powers and regen clicks. Willpower also has extra endurance and is much more survivable (at least if you're not at the top of your game, or if there's network or server lag), to the point it might feel TOO easy. SR has no extra end, but is very survivable as well, easy to softcap even with minimal investment and has that tasty +rech/+speed (it's also much less tight a build now, with inherent fitness). Pairing that with DM for the heal (the to hit debuff is overkill in this case, but helps in the lower levels) is great, too. Elec has end stuff AND +rech/+speed, but can feel squishier without much investment... Fire is squishier but does insane damage nowadays and also comes with a handy (no longer crappy) end recovery tool. I like the other armors too, but they do tend to hog end...

Stalkers are indeed great at stealthing and assasinating bosses, and nin is one of the best armors for them (plus it's fun: unique and full of utility). DM adds survivability and does mad ST damage, most of it NE and some smashing (MA theoretically does more damage, but it's all smashing, so I get the feeling DM ends up ahead - midnight grasp alone is a beauty, a critical from it almost feels like a much quicker and only slightly less powerful AS, especially right after an AS and placate, poor bosses). DM and MA suck at AoE damage though. Apparently, an Elec stalker does ok ST damage (thanks to AS) and very good AoE, and it's energy... Because of the Stalker's burst damage style, you don't feel the end going away as much, unless you start to scrap a lot.

Blasters are pretty easy to softcap to ranged nowadays if you go for IOs and it's not even expensive (not like, say, a Permadom or other mad recharge builds). That makes them really tough and you can go for the no mitigation, crazy ST and AoE fire damage. If you don't want IO sets though, Energy/ Blasters do a ton of mitigation with KB, are fast and have a nice mix of ST and AoE, and Ice/ comes with decent control. Pair that with hover and something like /Mental or /devices (which is not bad at all solo) or maybe /ice, avoid too much melee and you really shouldn't die much. Purples are your friends against EBs, but I never really had to use them against bosses with my blasters (even mezing bosses, after the change that let me keep hovering and the new defiance letting me attack and knock them on their behinds even while I was mezed).

Doms (especially Perma) look real good to me, too, but I don't have much experience with them, sadly. And my VEAT is great, but being a Crab, she's more of an AoE death machine (and very team/pet friendly) than a ST specialist for taking down bosses fast. Widows and Banes, aside from their great team buffs, won't really pull ahead of scrappers or stalkers solo... Fortunatas I got no idea, honestly, they look dominator-ish to me, but that's it.

As for Tankers doing low damage... That depends. If I decide to use both BU and FE, my Fire/Fire can take a boss down about as fast as any of my scrappers or stalkers (actually faster against certain enemies). Using only one of those, he's only a bit slower, but he ALSO does very good AoE damage (New Burn is a thing of beauty). Things melt FAST and he feels pretty tough - and when he doesn't, he has a great self-heal, and even a self-rez (that I don't think I have ever used yet). Shields/ and /DM have good tools to increase a tanker's damage, as does /SS if you don't hate the crash like I do (despite having the vet attacks to use during it).

And Ill/Rads don't kill that slowly (guess it depends on what you call slow), with PA and Phantasm beating on a poor guy debuffed to the gills, plus containment for your attacks (which are not so puny once you get to the epic pools). Fire Control and Kinetics are other decent sources of damage for controllers... That said, I don't think I'd pick a controller for a badger unless I really loved them, and since you said you get bored with MMs, you probably won't love controllers all that much...

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Super Strength / Willpower Brute with Fly.

Fly is indeed nice for badging, but jet packs are so plentiful and cheap nowadays that if you'd rather have another travel power, you can still easily reach any of the badges hiding high up there. Brutes are indeed dependant on Fury (without it they do less damage than tanks), and on being attacked by a bunch of things to get it, not just attacking like a... brute. It's a bit easier to get decent fury nowadays and it goes down slower, but it's harder than before to get and keep the fury bar full. SS/ shines on Brutes with the high damage cap and reduces the need for fury a bit (but it still has the annoying crash). Willpower is, indeed, Willpower. (The only thing it's not great at is keeping aggro, or single really hard hitters with certain types of damage, I guess).

So... Huge post and I didn't really help you pick anything... But I guess the lesson here is you can pretty much pick something you like and that feels fun and there are powersets and builds in every AT that can make your badging easier. Maybe there is a difference in performance between a softcapped hovering Fire, Ice or Energy blaster, a Fire or DM/WP or Regen Scrapper, a /Fire Tanker or a /Nin stalker, but I doubt they're significant enough to make that much of a difference, even when you're hunting hundreds of specific things. The Stalker's stealth is an advantage in this case I guess (and I -love- how they play, even if they are squishy early on), but it's easily mimicked with a +Stealth IO and some other stealth power (like Super Speed, Cloaking Device or good ole Stealth)... As Chad said, go with what you will want to play.

Anyway... I hope this helps more than it confuses... Gah. Must be less verbose.

If you want as many badges as possible solo, I'd go with an Ill/Rad Controller, a Rad/Sonic Defender (or maybe a Sonic/Rad Corruptor, though I like the Defender's higher debuff values), or a Bots/Traps Mastermind. The reason is simple... giant monsters give badges, and all three of those can solo most giant monsters with the right build. They also rock against AVs and can handle large spawns, in the event you feel like soloing TFs. Of course only the Bots/Traps can do it without an insanely expensive build, but perma-PA Ill/Rads are effectively unkillable and softcapped high recharge Rad/Sonics are almost as tough and deal a lot of damage (plus they debuff pretty much everything that can be debuffed).

If you don't mind asking for help on GMs and TFs, a Katana/Regen Scrapper is nice. You have to deal with redraw and robots can be annoying, but regen + softcapped melee (thanks to Divine Avalanche) = virtual immortality. And of course SS/Shield Brutes are massive damage monsters, especially with high recharge... having to build Fury is no big deal solo since jumping into a decent sized mob pretty much gives you half a bar just from their attacks.

I have a 41 elec/elec stalker. I very much enjoy him. If you have a presence on infinity and want to do a few miss with me to get the feel send me a pm.

I do good satrong single target damage. I do awesome AOE damage. Without any extra resists from power pools etc I have capped energy 75% and 41% or so in most everything else. This is with only a couple set bonuses, being 41 I am a mix of SO's basic IO's and a little franken slotting to hold me to 50. With power surge up, Toxic is at 53%% Psi at 38% everything else is 75%

I have a self heal that is up fairly often.

I can stealth to the end or fight my way though rather quickly. If I am farming mob type X for a badge or whatever I can set the mission diff up and do just fine. I can solo and add real effective damage to a team.

I know there are many many workable classes for what your asking, I am putting in my vote for elec/elec or whatever defense set you like stalker.

Before the heal was added to electric armor I had to rely on call of the sandman procs in three of my attacks for healing. Now I have both.

Of course whatever fits your play style and you enjoy likely works best.

DM/Nin is good, but I'd go FM/Regen or FM/WP. Quick Recovery is hard to beat when it comes to being self sufficient. I prefer the way Regen plays, but WP is nice and easy to deal with (and will be a bit better vs. Carnie bosses than /Regen).

My blue-side main, Palrah, is my dedicated badge-monkey, and I've had pretty good luck with him... He's a WP/DB/Pyre tank with a solid, though not quite top-of-the-line, IO set build.

He does decent damage for a tank, and is still tough enough to handle most things on his own.

Stalkers also make excellent solo toons, though some EB/AV fights are tough with them. (Shivans and other temp powers usually solve that-)

As others have said upthread, though... Fly is your friend for exploration badges, and some form of stealth is also handy. (Pally has Invis, but even a stealth IO can be helpful.)

Just going by personal experience, my vote goes to Illu/Cold Controller with Fly for some of those pesky explorations.

Stealth to speed through story arcs you missed while leveling? Check.
Ability to solo GMs, AVs and such when a team isn't available? Check.
Easy to get in teams for Master of badges and the like? Check.

The only badges you might have a harder time getting than some builds are damage taken and healing done, but those aren't exactly easy badges with any AT/powerset setup.

Still, just liking a certain character trumps any other "criteria". There isn't any point in badging other than enjoyment, and if you don't enjoy the character you're badging with I'd call it a waste of time.

I would cast my vote for Elec/Fire/Fire scrapper. Lots of AoE for those grindy kill X badges, with decent ST damage for bosses. Fire is pretty tough, especially if you can cap to melee and/or S/L. Given that you may want to stealth and be sneaky and all, that's why I say go scrapper. Brutes may get better damage in the long run, but you have to keep fighting to keep that up, so downtime hurts your damage more, while a scrapper can just go in there and kill stuff.

My badger has close to 850, he's a DM/SD scrapper.

I would actually suggest a VEAT, a Soldier. A Bane build is very good at soloing, has some built-in stealth, and has no trouble handling bosses (assuming a bit of investment in IOs). I've seen people say that "its what a stalker should have been".

Then you can switch to a Crab build for when you need a lot of AoEs (monkey badge), or want to join teams, since some badges are are hard if not impossible to get without a team (task force badges, etc.). A Crab is always welcome on a team.

The down side to a stalker for a badge character is that, fairly or unfairly, you may have to beg your way onto teams at points.

The down side to a Soldier is that levels 1-24 can be a bit tricky solo, its sort of like playing a lower damage blaster with a few defenses. Definitely consider the AoE Immob.

Have you considered anything Traps.

1. All the Traps powers are fire and forget, so there is no worry of endurance drain toggles cause.
2. Traps will allow you to obtain full Soft defense cap which is nothing to complain about. My Traps AR at T4 incarnate damage can handle 4/8 with no issues. Not that you will be encountering such situations badge hunting. But good to know it's possible if the situation arises.
3. Super Speed and a Stealth Proc will give you stealth against everything except high perception mobs like Rikti Drones and Sniper NPC. Add a jet pack and you can fly with stealth on as well. All you need a purple inspiration to boost up your defenses during stealth runs because you cannot use FFG as it will give you away or it will get destroyed. Though it is a good distraction also since it has decent hit points. So its a good second use as Seeker Drones for distraction Or even placing into mobs to run into so it gets the aggro while your firing off an AOE attack. The recharge is fast on FFG So once its almost gone resummon as you will have aggro and your at Defense Cap.
4. Your debuffs along with your DPS are enough to take out an AV let alone a EB. Many cannot do that because they lack the debuffs even if they have the DPS.
5. I would consider anything with large number of AOE attacks. DP Traps corruptor seems interesting. DP has short range AOE attacks that go well with Traps and also have the choice of more debuffs when needed with swap ammo.

Hahaha, Dechs Kaison got a great laugh out of that one. And officially, though I've already begun my badger, Kin/DA just sounds tasty when you put it down like that, and I've never tried /DA out (nor did I know about the dull pain base damage thing) so that will have to be my next project. The colors would be great to play with too.

We'll see who takes over when it comes to straight up fun. (I've already reset my badging character once, at this point I am getting a very intimate sense of the location of all the exploration badges hero side.) Amazing what time THAT saves.

My DM/SR scrapper is defense capped too all positions and has permahasten. I also soloed every mission from every contact I got up the hero side of the tree and all the villain stuff available in Oroboros. While I had defeats here and there, I had absolutely no fear of EBs at any point of my toon's career and fought almost every signature character post-35 as an AV, though I did have to drop Malaise down to an EB. I couldn't dent the GM version of the Kronos Titan from Crimson's arc, but it couldn't kill me, either.

I made that toon to take a grand tour of the CoX content, but badges are shockingly easy to come by.

My badger is a mastermind, but seeing as you don't want that, how about a Widow?

You can easily make a Fortunata with both near-blaster psy damage (plus reliable single target holds) and claws into one build. If you run up against psy resistant enemies, you can have a second Night Widow build with the higher claw and burst damage.

Both builds should function nearly as well as a /SR scrapper (lower hit points though) and if you happen to team with someone well you have great buffs too.

Both have a near Stalker level of stealth in their secondary, no need to dip into a pool power for stealthing a mish.