Yeah, starting at level 21, it has become more drudgery and frustration in the missions than fun (solo and with one friend.) I’m still enjoying roaming DC and exploring and jumping into battles, but I now dread having to do a main or side mission. At levels 19 and below I really enjoyed solo, I would be patient, use my skills, force the bad guys into kill zones, etc. But now it just seems to be (mainly in the later parts of a mission) being overrun with mass hordes from all sides.
I prefer solo or just with my one co-op for a lot of reasons. If what you’re saying is that this mission is not playable (and I assume the campaign is not playable) in solo past a certain point then time to find a new game, which is a shame because I really enjoyed it up until about level 21.
Are you on PC, I am sure there are enough of us that would be willing to join and help, time permitting.
No, on PS4. My play is of the style that at times I may be able to play 3 hours at a time, then other times I can get called away and have to leave the game immediately, which is one reason I prefer solo or with my brother (we constantly seek good coop games to play together, it’s a way for us to visit with each other even though we’re 15 hours away from each other.)
If the answer is that they designed the game such that it’s not playable solo or with one co-op partner at level 21 or so and up, I’d just as soon know now and find something else to play. Which would be a real shame, because outside the missions (which were fine up to now) I really enjoy the game.
Are you geared out properly? For story stuff I believe you could over level yourself a good 2 or 3 levels, and then do a story mission where enemies were weaker than you.
Also I assume you are using the healing hive and chem launcher, the 2 best gadgets in game. :)
2 people should be able to complete the story stuff if properly geared and a bit over leveled.
I’ve tried a lot of load outs. Still looking for ideal.
I’m at level 22, I have a marksman rifle with 11.5K DAM, so I like to use that to take as many out from distance as I can. Reds are pretty much one head-shot kills.
I’m experimenting with my Gun 2. I’ve been using an assault gun with pretty high damage and rate, but I do run out of ammo quickly when I’m being rushed. I have a high damage shotgun (plus a sawed off in my pistol slot) but the need to reload so much gets me killed when being rushed.
I’m thinking of maybe trying a LMG for my secondary for the larger magazine and less need to reload.
Skills. I started with the assault turret and striker drone, and I like how they harass, but they don’t seem to level up with their damage as I level up. The sniper turret is good for hard hitting a big guy at distance but man, it takes two days to cool down. I love the cluster mine, I love the way it hits several bad guys at once and does decent damage and cool down is pretty good (and the sound when it goes off is great. ;) )
I’ve not tried the healing hive - how do you use that? I tried the chem launcher with the foam trying to slow down a huge yellow monster with a flame thrower but it only holds him for a few seconds and seems challenging to aim.
I’m open to hearing opinions on the “ideal” solo loadout!
Chem launcher with the purple armor eating cloud and the healing hive are still my 2 fav’s.
Healing hive just gets tossed at your feet and it repairs your lost armor over time.
Be on the lookout for any armor with the Patience talent on it.
The talent gives you automatic healing anytime you are in cover for more than three seconds (I think). This makes surviving solo much easier.
It’s all doable solo, I’m at WT5, without ever teaming up with anyone using a similar build to you except I’ve got an assault turret.
So how do you handle these missions with floods of rushing bad guys and huge monsters rushing you also? Especially in area where there’s nowhere to hide?
Also what weapon and skills did you load out as you were moving up through the main and side missions (especially at levels 20 to 30?)
Well specifically for Lincoln memorial and the flamethower dude, I’d setup my turret on a box then let the turret agro him and the goons. Pick off the goons, then keep a pillar between me the the boss and throw out the seeker mine, let that hit him, pop out from behind the pillar (circling to keep the pillar between me and him) do some damage with a LMG, pop back behind the pillar to regen health when required.
Then rinse and repeat. Turret will regen during this so you can put it back on a box to aggro the boss and then be able to do rear damage.
i’ll try and find my build once I get back on the ps4.
What gun were you pairing with the LMG? Again, at level 22, i use a marksman rifle with 11.5K because I like picking off as many reds with one shot head kills from distance as I can to make things easier, but I am thinking my assault rifle is just not the right second gun. I just picked up an LMG that is Superior that’s 2.1K/500 but the key I think is the 100 magazine.
BTW - looking at the stats for that LMG, it has under talents something about weapon damage is increased by 3% for every blah blah blah (Optimist) but it says REQUIRES something with a red circle “5 or Less” and it shows me with 7/5 so that’s redded out - what is that talking about?
Im confident that I was using an assault rifle of some description.
I’ll let someone smarter than me tell you about the talent stuff because its opaque to me as well so I just ignored it.
Your gear has too many offensive bonuses. (red circles)
Gear has red, blue or yellow bonuses that get tallied up and shown under your character portrait. Some talents have requirements like “5 or more red” or “4 or fewer yellow.”
I’m WT3 about to hit 4 and I’ve soloed throughout. My main loadout during campaign up to 30 was a marksman rifle for sniping and an LMG for short/medium range. My usual skills are healing chem launcher and regular turret. Use the turret to draw aggro and deal damage and drop the heal chem with a double tap.
Also, learn to move around a lot. Sometimes you can funnel people through specific choke points, but outside of those, staying in one place is usually a bad idea. Most mission skirmishes are in big environments for a reason. Run to a new cover point, throw grenades, shoot red things, etc.
And if you’re playing co-op, then one of you should have the purple chem launcher. As @lordkosc said, the purple gas quite literally chews through enemy armor. A direct hit on a yellow Elite will peel through his armor really fast and let you lay into him with either marksman shots in weak points or with the LMG.
Solo, I prefer the healing chem because it has three instant drops with a low cooldown compared to healing drone or hive. I can also see purple chem and revive hive as a solo build.
If you’re determined to solo everything, then you need gadgets for survivability, and crowd control. Flame turret is only useful for choke points. I’d recommend a regular assault turret for most solo play, as it can suppress enemies, and essentially gives them a second attack vector to account for, so you can flank enemies. You’re not using the turret for it’s actual damage output - you’re using it to draw attention.
The heal chem launcher is a must for solo play - double tap the shoulder button it’s equipped to, to drop yourself a heal over time. The revive hive is also good for solo play, as it automatically deploys on you if you get downed. The Firefly, Shield, Drone, Pulse and Seeker Mine, are all pretty bad right now, in terms of relative usefulness compared to the chem launcher and turret. Virtually every end game player runs some combination of Heal Chem/Revive Hive/Flame Turret right now for a reason.
Lastly, a marksman rifle should NOT be your primary weapon if you’re solo. Especially one with an actual scope on it. You’re just asking for enemies to run up on you, which is probably why you’re finding it difficult. An SMG, AR, or LMG should be your primary gun - SMGs are good for short range, LMGs are good for spraying lots of bullets with less accuracy, and ARs are good for just about everything, which is why most people use them. Marksman rifles should just be for picking off the guys your primary weapon can’t efficiently dispatch.
If you like semi-auto weapons with range, consider trying a regular rifle too, although I hate them.
Find defensible positions and beeline for them, then prioritize flankers so you don’t get surrounded. Always manually destroy your turret after an encounter is over if it still has time left (hold the shoulder button down for a few seconds), as it will greatly reduce to cooldown to redeploy it. Prioritize attack stats on gear over virtually anything else.
And I know someone already asked you about this, but - matchmake. Having other people present to draw fire will allow you to snipe to your hearts content, and 99% of the groups I’ve been in never say a word over comms. The four of you just silently shoot stuff, then go your separate ways.
Jeff what does your gear look like? at 20 you should be in just about all purple with a couple blue pieces to round stuff out.
Gun wise you should keep the marksman as a 3rd backup weapon and really switch to assault rifle/ lmg combo or assault /smg. You really want to be putting rounds down range because even if you miss most of your shots you can suppress the enemy from running around.
To get better gear you should be doing the control points on all the maps you’re done with and at least once a day fast travel to each of them and open all the loot boxes, The control points don’t reset until after you finish the main story. Also go underground into the sewers for gear and keys. You can look for specific talents on your gear but it doesn’t matter as much because you should be switching to better stuff all the time. definitely hold on to anything with damage to elites
Also make sure all your guns are modded and you have all the SHD points you can have at 20. The white house map has 4 hidden ones and the campus map has a computer in the back that will unlock the shade stashes. Your perks should be close to maxed out except for the 30 perks
skill wise the revive hive and healing gun are best for solo play and duos, that way your not running out to try and revive someone while everyone is shooting at you.
All good advice and much more helpful than what I’ve found on the game sites, thanks.
First question: Last night my brother and I did the Federal Bunker together. He’s lvl 23 now and I’m up to 24. I got rid of my assault rifle (he and I love assault rifles) and I used my marksman rifle with a clip of 8 and damage of 15K. I replaced my assault rifle with an LMG with a clip of 120, don’t remember the damage but pretty decent (Purple and level 23 or 24.) It saved my butt several times when I was getting rushed because with that clip I could just point and hold the trigger down and it would take out two or three pretty easily without the pause to reload that was killing me with the assault rifle.
So on the weapons loadout: I’ve used the 15K (level 24) sniper rifle because I can pick everyone off with one or two shots, I’ve gotten good at headshotting even if they’re running, so I take out the reds pretty quickly. I’m trying to stay at range. My thought is if I can kill with a shot or two, that saves ammo and is quick. I am using the LMG for when anyone closes on me. Is an Assault Rifle/LMG really a better combo?
Skills: I’ve got all the skills unlocked, the categories, at level 24. Together last night I was using the sniper turret and the healing drone while my brother was using the assault turret and the attack drone, and we were saving them for later waves when we needed them. My dilemma on the turrets: The sniper turret can target and hit the big guys HARD, while the assault turret seems more like harassment at this level, the damage is so low (I hate that you can’t find higher level Skill equipment.) Is the chemical gun or the healing hive better than the healing drone? I also LOVE the cluster mines, but I know I’ll have to give up a slot I use for them for the healing.The Flame Turret seems to have pretty short range?
Great point on the control points, never thought of that. My 15k marksman rifle was acquired via the crafting table. It seems like every time I open a gun case, excited to have found it, I end up with another shotgun or LMG lower stats than what I have (while I frequently find better armor, not sure why they’re so stingy with weapons.)
The MM rifle is fine as a secondary weapon, but shouldn’t be your primary if you’re playing solo. Even if you can one-shot red bars, it still takes too long, and is terrible for crowd control.
The damage numbers on the weapons at your level, doesn’t matter THAT much, and is misleading anyway, as it doesn’t take into account rate of fire or clip size in determining DPS. It’s literally just “each bullet does this much damage”.
All of the healing options in the game work fine, but the heal chem launcher recharges way faster, and allows you to deploy it only in the moments you need it (as opposed to a drone, which’ll heal you up, then just floats around keeping you topped up for a little while, then goes away for a long time). With the chem launcher, you’ll just about always have a heal available when you need it, and depending on mods, you could have 3-4 of them available.
LMG with a MM secondary is a fine loadout, though virtually everyone in the end-game is using an AR right now as their primary, because of how good they are when spec’d out properly, and coupled with good gear traits. Before end-game, pretty much any weapon is fine, because enemies are a lot easier to take down.
Ammo conservation is overrated at lower difficulties, unless you’re constantly spraying bullets inaccurately, or in futility at enemies behind cover. Ammo boxes are all over the plate, as are drops from enemies. Honestly, except for Heroic difficulty, ammo is still almost never an issue for me.