What are the best SO-only characters?

I recently found a very old alt, who hasn't seen the light of day since before IO's.

I liked the costume and the description, so I went straight onto Mids and put together a build using IO's for this Electric/Energy Blaster. I then clicked /respec and realised that he was instead an Energy/Electric Blaster. Ah well, time to replan.

The character has a full set of SO's and only about 300,000 inf so I started to wonder, what is the best combo for each AT using only SO's.

I looked through the forums, and it seems a topic little touched on, but it may be nice for our unsubbed brethren to have some pointers. So can I request each reply just list an AT, the 2 power sets and the reason why it doesn't really need anything more than that?

Since the game is still balanced around SO's, and the great unsubbed can't do incarnate content, where it could be argued that the end game is balanced with IO's in mind, pretty much any combination will do.

All the fotm's from yore will probably fit the bill of what you are asking for.

Best is always relative.

Controllers have a huge range of builds. Some are strong on Control and team support, while others are damage machines. Any and every build in this game can be improved by an IO build, so you can't really say "why it doesn't need anything more than that." The real question is what builds will perform best with an "only SO" build?

Fire/Kins can actually do pretty well on an SO-only build. But you have to be quick on the healing. Fire/Rads in a group are amazingly powerful even on SOs. In a pack, Fire/Rads could destroy anything in the game back in the pre-IO days. And stacking AM 8 times makes up for the lack of IOs easily.

For a Control-oriented, team support character on SOs, I would go for Earth/Rad or maybe Earth/TA. Earth has three main ranged AoE controls, so one of them will be up at all times. Earth provides a variety of control, so even if the Immob won't stop Wolves, the knockdown in Earthquake will. Rad is just a great all-purpose secondary that combines very well with Earth Control. TA is a Control-and-debuff-only secondary, but and Earth/TA has the highest amount of control in the game.

Mind also does pretty well on an SO-only build.

And my favorite, Ill/Rad works great as an SO only build, as long as you play it smart. You have to use Deceive a lot and pick and choose when to use Phantom Army. For smaller groups (2-3) you can use Phantasm's Decoy as your tank.

This might incur the wrath of more than a few high-profile forumites, but I can't help but state my opinion on the matter:

Why would you want to gimp yourself with SOs in the first place?

I can already hear the people screaming "The Devs said IOs were not required!" The Devs also said that five freaking years ago. Can you get by with SOs in end-game content? Sure, you probably could. It would be a struggle, and you would be constantly falling behind your teammates. But why would you ignore the metric ton of IOs pouring into your inventory, except to be some sort of hipster who refuses to accept a core game element? It all reminds me of so many grandmothers refusing to accept that "new-fangled technolojomy and all them video-boxes."

Depends on what you mean by "best." And I wonder if people will argue they can't be.

I run most of my characters on SOs/common IOs for most of their lives. There are very few I felt "needed" IOs - not in a "it'd be nice," even for little things like KB protection (hey, we ran Acro back in the day after all) but *needed* them. Of the ones I can think of... kind of as an un-answer to your question:

Illusion/anything. To me, it feels like it needs too much recharge for an all-SO build, unless you go carefully with PA and don't mind the downtime when it's not up.
VEATs - might be able to get away with a Huntsman build on it, but I ended up feeling like my Widow and Bane both *needed* some help from set bonuses.

More an "IOs really help" list:

Triform Kheldians - not that they need bonuses, and I have some on SO/HOs. Mostly to help with slot crunch. Though you can go through TO/DO/SO early, single or biform in the middle, then - once you get access to HOs - kit those out in the end.
/Storm controllers - just unversally END hungry, it seems, so anything that helps with that is welcome. Can still be done with cautious slotting and play, of course - after all, we did it for years. /Storm on a MM isn't as big of an issue.


As for what *can* work on just SOs? Pretty much anything else, quite honestly. Squishies who want KB protection and Fire or Dark armor characters will find themselves going to the Leaping pool to get Acrobatics, so part of their build is almost preordained.


Edit: OK. One or two specific recommendations come to mind:
Almost any /dark Corruptor. But especially Fire/ or Ice/ (my Ice/Dark is just insanely fun.) Yeah, they tend to be considered FOTMs, but they were even before IOs. And there's reason for it... *they're insanely fun.*

See my Guides and Tutorials

Willpower Brutes come to mind, they are good on just SOs.

Smoothest ride would probably go to Staff/Willpower, though that would require an additional purchase.

As for non-purchased sets, I'd lean on control. Dominators benefit way to much from perma-dom for me to say they would be best, so probably a controller would work better. The best secondaries for all-round play would be /DAff, /Rad, /time and /Cold. Any primary would work, but I'd lean Illusion or Fire for the added offense.

Going back to melee, a SR/MA tank will be very survivable very early, able to soft-cap in the twenties on just SOs. Probably not the most powerful offense, but very tough for the investment.

Other options would be Tri-Form Kheldians, defensive blaster combos like Sonic/EM, and brutes like SS/WP. Personally, I think Corrupters, Defenders, Dominators, and VEATs benefit too much from IOs to be considered "the-best" SO-only characters, though some combinations from those ATs will be better than others.

Yeah illusion works wonders on just SOs. Stay stealthed, confuse the mob then start zapping away. When you hit the boss, then you drop Phantom Army.

Masterminds seem to work pretty decent with SOs. Given, you lose the unique procs that boost to defense but for most that's an 'icing on the cake' not a make or break deal (and for sets that can't slot most of them, like Beast, a non-issue).

I have an alt-account that's premium, without IO access. And honestly, switching back to SO's? Plays more or less the same.

The initial cost of fully SO-ing a character was a bit of a shock (it had an IO build, so switched to build 2 and remade with SO's in mind), it's been a while, and I forgot how much the darned things cost (Note to self - next time collect SO's from Trial runs on main account). The slotting is a little different; Some powers that only had 5 slots now required 6 to work at the level I wanted them to with SOs, and those slots had to come from somewhere...

Ultimately, any powerset combos will do just fine with single origins, you may have to adjust your play-style a bit, and some power-picks may be a bit different.


As for any comments about gimping yourself made earlier in the thread - What? with that kind of logic we should all be playing the FOTM build, all with the exact same slotting, and maxed out on enhancement boosters. anything less is just pointless. *eyeroll* This isn't that kind of game. Can you min/max to get your Rattata in the top percentage of Rattata? Yes. do you need to in order to beat the elite 4, or nearly anything the game throws at you? no.

Today's lesson is, don't be Youngster Joey. He's an annoying little prat.

My own personal picks for level 1 to 50, based on the idea that performance in this game is determined by how fast do you kill mobs and that safety, given a sane starting point, can relatively easily be obtained as needed through converting every inspiration into purples with the occasional breakfree. You may or may not agree with this particular perspective, different metrics will produce different results. With that in mind, here goes:


Blaster - Fire/Psi

Bit of a no brainer, for the early on one-two punch Fire Breath + Fire Ball as soon as level 8, and Drain Psyche later on.

Runner up: Arch/Psi. Takes a little bit longer to get going, but has quite devastating AoE output once you get to 32. Drawback: redraw.


Controller - Fire/Kin.

This particular combo always got flak for being supposedly only good for farming, but that's mostly because it was so good at that lots of folks hopped on the bandwagon and made terrible builds. Pick Ring of Fire and Char at level 1 and 2, slot these for damage and you can deal very nice damage at low levels (due to containment and AT mods not scaling completely until level 20). At level 20, it starts being slower solo, although you should have Fire Cages, Hot Feet and Flashfire and can do a decent job at taking down groups of minions/lieuts; but regardless, you get SB which is invaluable for teaming. At level 35 you get Transference fixing any endurance woes and level 38 gives you Fulcrum Shift. As for epics you get many options, thanks to Siphon Speed getting Hasten and eventually Indomitable Will on a reasonable recharge is an option (although it won't be perma).

Runner up: Plant/Kin. The AoE immobilize does twice the damage it does in any other primary, meaning it does half of the damage of Fireball. Not so impressive, you say? Once you factor in the 8s recharge, the gigantic 30 feet radius and the fact it sets up containment for itself, it is quite nice. Throw Seeds of Confusion in there, which you get as soon as level 8, and you get a slightly slower but much, much safer character.


Defender - Time/Fire

With defender mods you can reach fairly high numbers of defense combining Farsight, (epic) Powerboost and perhaps some toggles here and there (if nothing else, Combat Jumping is a must - on any character). Think 40 to 45%, so, yep, the fabled defense softcap is attainable even on SOs here. Time also provides ghetto aggro management through powerful movement slows, allowing you to get the most of your Fire AoEs (and Rain of Fire eventually, which as a pseudopet uses fixed, blaster damage rather than defender damage IIRC) without things scattering to the four winds. Endurance will be a concern in some situations but the inherent helps on that front. Still, you'll likely want to pick Conserve Power (and hence go with Power Mastery as to have PBU, which also works like Power Boost and is on the same recharge as Farsight).

Runner up: no real suggestion. Cold/sonic is great for teams with very potent -res debuffing on tough targets and great teammate mitigation as soon as the first levels but lacks significant AoE output for soloing.


Scrapper - Titan/WP

TW is, well, TW. No other scrapper primary can really compete in pure power. You get a cone giving you +11% melee defense as soon as level 1, and spamming this alone using no other powers could carry you through the low level game. Your second AOE comes at level 2 and by level 26 you should already be a damage powerhouse.

The two issues are going to be 1) keeping stuff in range 2) having enough end management to sustain TW. WP gets its aggro aura at level 16, which while not fantastic will do the job against up to +2 mobs and will still work if intermittently beyond that. QR by itself won't sustain TW, but it will help, and at level 35 you can pick Conserve Power from the epic pools. WP has the advantage of being all passive so you can spend all your time attacking.

Runner up: TW/EA. Much like WP, EA alleviates many TW issues. However, its aggro aura is even worse at 2.25s duration and 2s activation, meaning it might (I'll confess I haven't tested this particular combo myself yet) start losing aggro, or at least having mobs doing the out-and-in dance, as soon as they are +2. The +recharge in EA's aggro aura may not be as useful as it would on IOed out characters as even without recharge you are going to have to watch that end bar, and it is more click intensive if slightly so. There are positives though, the aggro aura is available as soon as level 10, and the end management is trickier to use but also more potent.


Tanker - FA/SS

FA is reasonably sturdy as long as you're willing to use purple insps to complete your resistances and fast-recharging heal, but what it more importantly brings is extremely endurance efficient damage. Blazing Aura is the most efficient damage aura as it deals the most damage, Burn has a ridiculously low endurance cost - it's low even as a singletarget attack, but it can actually hit up to 5 mobs. You also get Consume to refill your end.

SS helps on that front too, with the damage boost brought by Rage being worth much more DPE than its cost, crash included and all. Even better is the tohit, which is IMHO very underappreciated even on IOed out builds, and is even more critical on SOs where you don't have the luxury to build for godlike accuracy and decent tohit. Foot Stomp and KO blow complete your toolbox nicely, for some extra damage but also some extra mitigation.

You could easily run out of end if you spam everything you have on that character. I'd say go crazy while your end bar is at 20% or above (or if you have consume recharged), and only start using Burn (and eventually Taunt, if you have it) after that. You'd be surprised how fast things still die.

Runner up: for a completely different character, Ice/Fire. Ice Armor is good enough on SOs, and between Energy Absorption and Fire Melee's overall efficiency in DPE due to its DoTs being essentially "free" damage, endurance is taken care of.


Brute - Titan/EA

TW for the same reason as on the scrapper. EA instead of WP as the aggro aura is much more potent on the brute version (on scrappers EA actually has a weaker aggro aura than WP, which already isn't fantastic), and brutes can make slightly better use of the T9 thanks to their higher HP cap.

Runner up: Titan/Elec. Gets a damage aura, immune to endurance drain, same endurance management tools as EA, and being resistance based can stack purples easily to reach very impressive survivability. The flipside is, of course, it lacks any form of defense or DDR, so better watch those defense debuffs preemptively. It also can't manage its T9 as well as EA, as it is a health *and* endurance crash at once.


Corruptor - Fire/Cold

Admittedly takes a while to get going on the secondary side, but once you get there, you'll be glad. Snow Storm keeps things in your Rain of Fire early on, Sleet does the same later. Heat Loss will be a tremendous help for your endurance.

Runner up: Fire/Dark. No big reward at the end of the road like Fire/Cold, but with Twilight Grasp, Tar Patch, Darkest Night, Fire Ball, Fire Breath and Rain of Fire by level 10, you're free to AOE your way to 50 with minimal concern for your survivability.


Dominator - Earth/Fire

Earth provides controls in loads and in all forms. AoE stun, AoE slow, AoE sleep, KD patch, hold patch and a taunting pet, you have to try really hard to die on an earth dom.

Having survivability covered, all is left to do is look at damage, and fiery assault provides. As soon as level 2 Incinerate is on par with a mid-to-high tier scrapper attack, Fire Breath and Combustion makes for some decent AoE output, and eventually with Blaze and Fire Blast you will deal very good ST damage as well. Add Consume and Domination to refill your endurance, (epic) Sleet to boost your damage further, and it's quite a powerful character on SOs.

Runner up: Fire/Psi. Much maligned since the rebalancing/nerf (depending which side you sit on), it still retains decent AoE damage and average ST damage, but more importantly a fantastic +regen and +recovery tool in Drain Psyche, arguably better than on a blaster as with the superior survivability a dominator gets through controls you can make use of it more reliably.


Masterminds - I really don't know enough about the new powersets to have an educated opinion. MM performance isn't too defined by IOs though, and I would guess a Bots/Time would still rank pretty high on the list, with pets reaching high defense fairly easily and spamming those burn patches coupled with Time's slows.


Stalkers - Street Justice/Ice Armor

Every stalker primary is perfectly fine thanks to the AS revamp, which gives you a ridiculously powerful attack as soon as level 6. StJ pushes this even further eventually, with controlled crits on Crushing Uppercut, which is the second highest ST damage move a stalker can get (the first being ET, which can't crit and saps your health).

On the Ice side you get a slow aura helping to keep things in range, or at least running away not as fast, complete slow immunity, decent defense and DDR, great endurance management in Energy Absorption, and Icy Bastion is just the cream on top giving you high resistances, regen and recovery when you truly need it and without a crash.

Runner up: KM/Ice. Kinetic Melee lets you do 100% criticals with a PBAoE (unless that's been changed, not sure), and your T9 instantly recharges BU.