The Strongholds & Legendary Missions Solo Thread

Thrombin : it's hard to say in general I think because the Javelins are so different and even when playing the same Javelin the equipment can vary a lot depending on the chosen abilities and playstyle I think. My Javelin is actually not nearly as close to what I want it to be than it could be if the loot and inscription system wasn't so bad. I don't even mind the low droprates of legendaries that much but more the fact that it's highly likely that you get something that ranges from crap to mediocrity when you get to see the inscriptions on the legendary at the end of the mission. I don't know how many inscriptions I have in total on the abilities, weapons and components that are either just unnecessary or actually completely useless. It's why I really would love to see some changes towards inscriptions being slottable mods that you can put in or out whatever you like, maybe limited slightly in a certain way so you won't be able to put the same stuff into everything. But it would certainly put an end to running around with certain weapons or components just for 1 or 2 inscriptions. I'd love to bring other weapons every now and then for example but I basically have to use the same 2 weapons right now because they have the best mix of inscriptions.

Same is true for 2 of my compontents as I have mentioned earlier somewhere: I'm using Thermal Cooling as well as Rejuvenating Ammo right now even though I basically have no use for their intended purpose (plus they have much worse shield/armor stats due to being universal components). But I've got suit-wide overall damage as well as additional combo damage and melee damage on them and even though I have god knows how many legendaries I still haven't gotten either Emergency Power or Bloodlust as a legendary drop - let alone with the "right" inscriptions that make them more viable to finally switch the 2 components I mentioned before that I have no real use for other than for their inscriptions. It's really frustrating seeing the potential of the Javelin and what I could do to further progress with it and make it stronger and also increase survivability and knowing that there's no way to do that with the way the game currently works. I can only hope to get a better version of what I'm using eventually - but dropping an item with 4 really good to perfect rolls seems very unlikely, especially with all the crap they have floating around in the inscription pool. Even if EVERY item would drop as a legendary each mission I still doubt that you can build your Javelin exactly the way you'd like. On the other hand imagine every available item in the game would only drop once as a legendary but you could then customize it with slottable inscriptions. The same weapon could have different inscriptions slotted depending on what Javelin and playstyle you use it for and you also won't get the same thing over and over again: I think I have over 10 of some legendaries while still missing stuff that I actually want. 

Anyways... to still give you some answers: I think the most important parts I use either increase the overall damage (suit-wide damage), grant additional armor percentages (would like to have some more here) or are otherwise helping with either damage or survivability: additional melee damage, additional resupply droprates and armor drops from enemies defeated by melee (it's the Way of The Bold component that increases the aura-combo pulse strength but also restores 40% armor with each enemy defeated by melee). Usually my approach (in most games) is: be fast and kill it before it can kill you - which usually means trying to increase the DPS output (usually at the cost of survivability, which I try to compensate by being fast and agile and move around a lot). Other than that my Venom Spray has +200% charges which helps a lot with getting the Ultimate recharged fast. But the Venom Spray is also a perfect example of what I mentioned earlier: the +200% charges is basically the only good roll on that particular part of equipment. I have 5 or 6 other legendary versions of this ability, each with 1 or even 2 nice inscriptions. I really wish I could just combine the ones I have and make 1 version with 4 really good inscriptions. The Spark Dash is helpful with the movement sometimes and also the electric damage it does is helping vs. shielded enemies. Before enemy elementalists were changed it was even more useful because I could usually knock them out of the sky with a dash and then beat the crap out of them on the ground. Now I'm even having a hard time with them on GM2 when I'm playing the Heart Of Rage solo and a few of them show up in the first area. But I'm mainly using the Spark Dash because it is a lot of fun for me personally - having played (Drell) Vanguard so much in ME3MP with that lovely Biotic Charge. Would have been nice to have Spark Dash behave the same way as Biotic Charge regarding the recharging of your own shield but I'll take the Spark Dash in Anthem anyways. But to be honest other Interceptor builds are also nice and very viable for GM3 in my opinion.

Other than that I really like the Siege Breaker Sniper Rifle every now and then to freeze stuff. And there's the skill part... how comfortable do you feel with everything you do, how well do you know the levels and how is your situational awareness in it (like: do you know where to retreat for safety and how long it takes you to get there). Then there's a few tricks others might be unaware of. I'm sure I am still unaware of a lot of them. I mean things like this: in the Temple Of Scar stronghold at the part where you restore power to the generator (the area after the first chest) the second wave of enemies including the Legendary Scar Enforcer doesn't spawn until you have picked up the first canister. Or during the fight with The Monitor: shooting and destroying the meteors during the first phase gives your ultimate meter a boost so I usually try to shoot them even if they don't pose any danger to me. 

Crowd control can also factor in: which enemy is the most dangerous to me right now and can I safely take him down now or do I need to clear out something else first. Or which enemies should I keep around longer for either a quick and rather easy kill to restore some armor or maybe to use them as a "charge up station" for my Ultimate meter with my Venom Spray. Of course this is something that is more important when playing solo and also rather difficult to do when playing with other people without communication. But you can do it in a team as well, usually not with randos but with a squad that actually communicates, maybe in Discord or something. I remember the first week (before the official launch) when I played with the same people all the time and we were hanging out in Discord and decided to try GM2 Legendary Contracts. It was really hard, especially fighting a GM2 Escari which took us like half an hour back then but even with mediocre gear and lower gearscores (even with legendary items because they weren't level 75 back then) we managed to get through it because we focussed on specific enemies and combined our abilities in a way that made it possible to overcome this challenge.

Of course it gets easier with better equipment and it's less tedious but I'm just saying that it's usually a mixture of several things in games like this: good gear can obviously do a lot for you but also good teamplay and/or good individual skill can overcome a lack of high quality items. Best scenario: everything is on a level that you feel comfortable with and just can have fun and enjoy playing. I know GM3 can be tedious but overall I enjoy it for the most part and that's why I'm playing these strongholds even including the boss fight. And while I'd like to get better legendaries (or at least the 2 missing components I want) I'm rather hoping for an overhaul of the whole system instead of expecting a legendary drop with god rolls on the inscription. Playing GM3 is more fun for me right now than just farming GM1 or GM2 fast and efficiently (which I did in the past as well) just to be disappointed whenever the legendary item is revealed and you get something you already have and/or shitty inscriptions on top of that.

Aside from the loot-, inscription- and crafting-system that are not really good (or totally useless after a certain point like the crafting) there's actually a lot more that is kinda broken. I'll agree with you there. Balancing never has been something Bioware did a good job on in the past when I think back to all the changes they made in ME3MP. But even with the changes I'd like to see there would be a lot left to work towards to in my opinion. Of course I could switch some of the things I currently have and make a better build - but I'd still be missing a lot of additional inscriptions that I'd have to pick up first. And to be honest I think there should be additonal difficulties like GM4 and GM5 eventually - the latter still being a challenge for Javelins that are nearly optimally geared. And I don't mean just increasing health and damage numbers with set percentages. They should rebalance the difficulties... some of the grunt enemies go down very easily while some of the legendary ones take like forever to be killed. A more balanced approach would be appreciated (like buffing some of the grunts but nerfing some of the elites and legendaries). Or just think of changing the difficulty in another way like changing the enemy composition for each area or introducing new ones... there are a lot of possibilities and other games have been doing it successfully in the past. An example I'll remember was in Ninja Gaiden when all of a sudden completely new enemies appeared that are not even present on the lower difficulties (altough speaking of lower difficulties in Ninja Gaiden feels really strange because even the lowest setting will kick your ass if you are new to it).

On top of that I still have 3 other Javelins. Of course I'm in love with the Interceptor and would still mainly play as Interceptor. But I'd probably also play the Storm and Ranger a bit more and work towards their progress. And I'd go for different loadouts if it was easier to use equipment I actually like over what seems to be the best because of random inscriptions. Also if the game was really good in regards to the whole loot system and such I guess the team could be working less on fixing things and I would expect more new content, maybe new abilities and other equipment as well as maybe a new Javelin. I surely wouldn't get bored and I think others who are less invested and are even more frustrated with the drops (quantity as well as quality) and have therefore decided to stop playing wouldn't get bored either. Other games have proven successfully that it works very well when players have more flexibility to really build their character the way they like.

The thing is: we can't even farm specific spots, enemies or bosses to get a higher chance of receiving a particular item. Something that is very common in most other games like this. It doesn't make any difference which stronghold or missions you play. You just have a set chance to drop ANY legendary item. So if I want to increase the chance of getting legendary components instead of yet another weapon I can't do that. Or like in your case... if you want a particular weapon like the Truth Of Tarsis you don't have a particular spot to go looking for it (or at least a location/enemy that only drops weapons). It's just totally random and frustrating and the thing you want might actually never drop - while you can get 50x something you will most likely never use. But when the item you want does finally drop, the chances are low that it has good inscriptions. Or maybe they are okay but just for one particular Javelin or even one particular build/playstyle. It's especially a problem with weapons in my opinion. Now compare that to most other games of this genre: you know this or that enemy or boss can only drop some particular items. You can then farm him and have a high chance that you actually get what you are looking for - at least in terms of the item, not the stats. But if the stats suck you can continue and maybe get another one. Of course the game would have to have enough content to actually be able to have different loot tables and such but it's not rocket science and pretty much basic 1x1 of any loot-oriented game since the early Diablo days.

That legendary contract is GM3, but you take down the armored enforcers down as if they're nothing. Is this some sort of interceptor trick I know nothing about?

Ah ok I get it then.

Also, 'building' for anything is kind of a joke as you literally have no control over any build whatsoever

Well, for enforcers, I mainly rapidly chain fire/ice combo's. But that still isn't always fast, (especially with legendary enforcers...) and additionally if other players target the same enforcer, this usually messes up my cycles reducing my TTK significantly. So usually, I'll go kill something else if an enemy is already being attacked. Another problem is that lightning damage is severaly reduced on scar enforcers due to their armor... all in all, I usually just ultimate them. 

The absolute best method of destroying enforcers is getting them in group, and combo-ing them simultaneously with other enemies, so your lightnign proc area damage hits them multiple times. But this is highly situational.

But then again, if storm was ALSO good at killing single targets as well as groups, there'd be little in the way of balance, I guess.

For similar reasons, titans are also a storm's weakness... Oh, and also those dominion armored/shielded elemental resistant monsters.

Make more mass combos (eg glacial spear + lightning strike). It grows pretty fast.

Well, a couple of things.

First off, while SOTOM and PI is a nice thunderlord build and feels awesome to use, it is certainly not the most effective way of dispatching enemies. Especially once armored enemies enter the fray. This build is situationally good, if there are swarms of enemies and you can spread lightning status around in close-knit enemy groups while hovering for the lightning bonus. But this doesn't happen TOO often...

If you want to play to the storm's possible strength, there is only one way of really doing it that I've discovered, and that is combining:
- the MW component which adds area lightning damage on combo, 
- Ponder infinity's lightning hover bonus,
together with:
- glacial spear's MW area primer
- ponder infinity's area detonator
And lastly:
- ranier's blaze single target primer
- glacial spear's single target detonator + re-primer (--> can be performed continuously on loop [ranier, glacial spear, glacial spear, repeat] and really rapidly if you have a glacial spear with at least 2 charges, I can NOT emphasize enough how much damage potential you're missing out on if you're not abusing the storm's fire/ice instant rempriming abilities)
As a bonus: this way of fighting will build tons of ultimate, to deal with any armored fellows you encounter. 

Also, I want to point out, that sometimes a good masterwork (eg a glacial spear with 2 charges) is better than the only type of legendary you have for that slot (SOTOM sucks bruh, get over it Now if SOTOM would bounce off enemies and multi-prime, now THAT would change things up...).

What I'd really like to improve about this build is 4 things:
1) some sort of healing ability, but this should be solved by the upcoming lightning melee which restores shields. Fantastic! Also, this'll allow me to prime in all 3 elements, booya.
2) while ranier's is fine and dandy and does the job, I'm more of a fast-firing multiple shot kind of guy, rather than a slow firing assault rifle. Also, it is annoyingly unaccurate for me. So another fire weapon primer would be nice. But... this is nitpicking.
3) A better way to deal with armored enemies. Well, I can dream, right? That'd probably make the storm OP compared to other javelins... But, I'm kind of hoping that the volt casters in combination with Ponder infinity's bonus can help with this.
4) a good support ability. But the MW wind wall will probably solve that (free group combo damage? Yes please)
5) Yes, I know, I said 4, but personally I thing they should buff the hover shield bonus a bit. But that's me.

I'm also curious how the new gears 'steam pipe' and 'eternal squall' will affect this build. Will they be able to make it more efficient? Or not really? Will they give me more tactical options? From what I've gathered by videos, probably not... I doubt eternal squall's area repriming weighs up against the massive lightning bonus from ponder infinity, and if 'steam pipe' doesn't reprime after detonating, well, you can't use the fire-ice cycle anymore so that's a big drop in tactical abilities.


Okay, I do also want to touch on other builds:
1) Another build cited by many is ice storm + burning orb. While this is great for crowd control, and a fantastic support build for other team members, for solo this is not that eficient, as burning orb only detonates a single target, and takes ages to charge up (only a fully charged orb detonates). Good in theory, not good enough for me in practice.
2) another build I like (somewhat) is ice blast + arc burst + a radiant fortress and the acid component. This is meant to be played as a close-range scrapper. Use melee to detonate. Acid primer. Aim your gear at weak points for maximum damage. Radiant fortress and ice blast together makes you near-invincible at close range. This build requires knowing very well how storm movement works, otherwise you're constantly going to be stuck behind rocks etc.

Lastly, storm movement. Now, before I say anythign about this, the main disclaimer is: "if you are used to playing as interceptor, no matter what I say here, nothing will come close to that with a storm, and it's not supposed to, otherwise there wouldn't be classes".
If you like interceptor movement, I understand also lieking ranger. He's a great middle ground between all javelings. I also appreciate the ranger. I care little for collossus (too restrictive), and interceptor is too melee this, melee that, one trick pony kind of guy to me.
Anyway, storm movement is not meant to be zip-zooping around everywhere. He's supposed to take a tactical position on the battlefield, survey, and attack/support where needed. It is absolutely the antithesis of interceptor. He's movement is purposeful, methodical, and planned out. Try thinking of storm in that manner, plan your movement in advance and not at a split second, and you'll be less frustrated with it.
The storm's dodge also has a frustratingly long cooldown after using, but it does travel a good length. So again, make the one dodge count and don't mash it. Always be aware of your surroundings and stay within dodge-reach of cover.
Also, you know that you can hold the jump button to gain more height right? This way the storm's one jump is actually about equally high as the ranger's double jump. 
Another also, you know that you have 2 types of hover?
- One is the hover that other javelins have (but for a  way longer time). Counter-intuitive to interceptors, hovering should be your natural state. Your components and gear usually give big bonuses when hovering, so even when there's no reason, hover! You can hover way longer than other javelins so no need to worry about overheat. Also, this lets you see the battlefield way more clearly and let's you see dangers in advance of other javelins. Yes, this DOES make you more of a target, but that's where tactical positioning comes in, and also, never EVER hover still at one point. Alway be moving slightly (so gunfire misses you).
- the other hover is that, after jumping, you can press jump again to glide. Hold to glide further. It is criminal that this is not pointed out in the game, because the glide moves faster than a regular hover, and makes you feel a lot more mobile. Abuse this move a lot, and the storm will feel much more mobile.




Voila, that's about it. Tips and tricks from a storm main. Hope they help

Ranger has really been balanced very well movement wise. He is indeed very reactive, and does just exactly what you want him to do.
For me it's the inverse. I'm so used to storm it's second nature, and wouldn't want it any other way. It's supposed to be floaty.
Interceptor on the other hand, I feel like the javelin is taking ME for a ride, instead of the other way around... I also constantly have to swing the camera around, which on pc isn't that bad probably but I play on xbox, and it becomes annoying if you have to adjust the camera constantly.
And let's not even start about the flying fridge.

But, this is just a kudos to the animation team, in my book. They made everything feel like it's own javelin. Not that this would happen in the near future, but if they ever design another javelin, I hope that they really get the feeling right again, and that it is once again different.

PB and X … it is a pleasure to read your discussions on the Javelin classes … I certainly learn a lot … but also, it's just a fun read.

I have deleted some of the older videos and removed them in this thread as well if possible . I also gave up on the Storm today and salvaged a lot of the items because I just had to make room. That 250 slot limit is really annoying if you want to keep some legendaries in high hopes that eventually we might be able to extract inscriptions, do re-rolls or something like that. So I focus on my Interceptor again and play with the Ranger every now and then. I never really got into liking the Storm that much even though I tried and the advice PillarBiter gave was definitely helpful and made him at least somewhat entertaining - just not as much that I'll keep playing him 

So... new patch, new solo attempts. I'm gonna play all the legendary missions on GM3 with my Interceptor as well as with my Ranger and record them.