Must be doing something wrong here.... Help a noob will ya?

So, today I made it to the big whoppin' 30! I was filled with excitement...and then I got to the first Solo.

Anyways, I get on in there and the first thing I notice is that every mob was level 40...still, I trucked on through... then I found that this was going to take a good long while. I was barely doing any damage..neither were they but eh... Took me 70 whole minutes to finish the Solo and I felt like a complete dunce when I completed it... Surely I am doing something wrong? Any tips or advice?

Ps. I'm running an Ice Tank with 29CR.

I recommend switching to Dps for Solos, also figuring out how your Advanced Mechanics work will make things much smoother and shorter.

I'm gonna be brief (just woke up) but hopefully someone else will go into detail.

1. Your CR dictates how much damage you take and deal.
2. Tank, Heal and Controller do less damage than Damage role so you're gonna need to change to Damage role if you want to get through solos in good time.
3. Did you get a green gearbox after hitting 30 ? I believe that gear levels you out at 30CR.
4. Check the guides area for a Ice Damage loadout if you're still struggling.

Here is your answer. Press T and use dps mode for your solos and duos. And dont forget you need dps items (not tank) to do more dmg. Also put your skill points in might and critical attack chance to do more dmg. The best option is to buy additional amory so you can switch between tank speced build and dps spec build, but for now you are on very low lvl and all u need is to press T and choose dps items as your rewards Also, u may want to try gear from T1 vendors. You should be able to at least buy 1 or 2 for marks

Your better off dps'ing for solo and duo content man

Isn't that the kind of thread where we all are supposed to point Noobs to the "Skip to CR100"-token so Noobs get used to spending money for easy progression right from the start???

Ok, thank you! Now I know.. switch to DPS!

I took the green gear box and it gave me a bunch of tanking gear. I kept everything out of that except the hat because it seemed like my head piece at the time.

Again, thanks yall.

No, stay true Icey Tank Brother (or Sister)! Don't give in to DPS mental-ity!! Yes, it will take longer, but stick with it, and show these DiPS what a Tank can do!!!

Check the Broker for some extra gear to bring your CR up, Haasts has the Abra Cadabra Chest (plus a couple extra pieces) and has managed to get her CR up to 38, and she hasn't even finished putting Isis back in her coffin, nor done any of the T1 stuff (believe you can check her gear if you click on her surname in signature below, it takes you to WaveDox oh right, it's that other site that let's you see what gear people are wearing)
But definitely check the Broker, get your CR up to at least mid 30's

Things do NOT have to be completed in ten minutes or less!

Well, switching to DPS definitely helped and thats without even switching gear! Cut my time in half.

@DarkVisor: What broker do you speak of here?

Some of us actually value our time and see no point in wasting it when not wasting it is trivially easy. Want to practice tanking mechanics? Knock yourself out. Want the marks before the heat death of the universe? Go DPS.

Oh well, if going DPS helps, then that's great

What do you mean "What broker?" There is only one broker: the place near the banks, where you sell to, and buy from, other players

Ohh...auction house..that broker. Hell, economy is so broken...buy a pair of nail clippers for 300...lol

INVALID CLAIM. People valuing their time spend it useful, with generically excludes video games. Video games are per definition for spare time, which is overhead time, and overhead stuff is not valuable.

Yeah, as a new player, the broker can be of limited use. The best place to get early tier 1 gear is from the vendors in the watchtower that are to the left of the mailbox/broker/bank area. Each piece is level 34 and only 1 mark. Plus you get a 50 point feat (1/2 a skill point!) for completing the whole set. It's good that you attuned your green box to tank because you can only get DPS armor here. Now you will have both, if yyou want to try tanking in some alerts.

As you increase your combat rating (Cr, which is how your level is now measured), you can find the appropriate vendors on the map for tier 1 gear, tier 2 gear, etc. If you have a base, I recommend first using your makes to buy up your mainframe. You'll get plenty of armor drops, but its much better to have everything that your base offers, especially the tactical mods for your armor.

Good luck and enjoy!

To the contrary, I value my downtime more than any other time because it so scarce.

still, even as an under-geared tank, 70 minutes is way too long. and to be a dps and only cut ur time to half is still too long. any of the solo t1 mission should be done in around 5 minutes as a dps give or take, even for a fresh lvl 30. just like someones said before, know how to dps with ur power, how the AM works. yes AM will be gone in the future revamp, but for now it is the ONLY way to dps.

don't worry too much about the enemy's level for now. the cr differential only starts to really matter around t7. any t1-t6 solo/duo is very do-able at min cr. like in t3 solos the enemy's level is at 80 but they don't even provide any challenge to a cr 53 toon if the players play the power correctly.

and its fine if u want to stay as a tank. but im just saying gearing up as a dps is way faster, i mean WAY FASTER. i usually stay dps when i gear my alt in low tier contents, and then change to the role i want near the end content, which only takes a few days anyway. I just find it more efficient, since most of the time u will be carried in low tier alerts/raids anyway, so better stay dps to finish the solos and duos faster. but that is just me. others may think differently.

Yet you sink it in video games Instead of healthy sleep, actually preparing your food so you're sure it's as healthy as possible in those times we live in, spend it with family or friends etc. Sounds like a definition problem at the point of "value"

Point is: your time is gone in video games, any way you put it. What differs, is the fun factor you get in return for that time. Just in our times, complaining about "time" is way more accepted than about "fun", so the video gamers "valuing their time" are actually engineering a #fakeclaim for years now. The moment you want to get done with stuff ingame ASAP that parts of the game are actually NO fun and should be removed from the game again ASAP (or never make their ways into games in the first place). With the #fakeclaim of "time" being the issue, even companies caring about their customers cannot react properly and instead add things like "AM" so people can be done faster with the "no fun"-components in their game - while the way better improvement would be making those boring "let's get over with it so I can spend my time where it's more fun"-parts of their games (in some cases, games in total, not parts) actually fun to play.

I have various videos about what to do when you reach level 30.
Here is one of them.

I'd also say consider grabbing some faction gear to fill in the gaps. Often once you hit 30 you'll have one or two pieces really dragging down your cr. The faction gear is only 1 MoT (assuming you have enough reknown) and get boost your cr pretty quickly. Beyond that hit some of the alerts. Area 51 specifically often has OP group members who can carry you a bit while you get some gear.

Than some people are playing the genre meant to suck up all your time i suggest those people find a nice game like overwatch or CoD where things are like 10 minutes apiece