Dps with survivability...

I'm fairly new and am playing a atomic dps/tank guess people call it battletank here. But the more I play and the more I read it seems to be a bad idea and a little underpowered due to sharing skills so to speak. So what I'm wondering is what is the best pure dps that will allow me the most survivability for solo or duo playing? Also is travel method an important decision or just pure preference?

When considering survivability you have to look at a variety of factors such as the following...
Mobility
Power cost
Support role
Artifacts/arguments

For example the combos from celestial in DPS will allow you to heal
Arc lightning for electricity will heal you and nearby allies
Roar in gorilla form for nature Will heal you and nearby allies
Absorb heat and stoke flames will heal you when enemies are on fire
Triage clipped with light barrier will heal you and allow mobility while using hard light

You also have to think about whether or not you want to employ stands or knock downs as a DPS
If you’re a new player on a budget and prefer power conservative abilities and mobility I would recommend starting out as a fire DPS.

Just my opinion but earth "battle tanking" can manage decent dps while maintaining survivability (altho earth doesn't self heal really), can't speak for other powers though. Travel method? Like movement? I prefer flight just for general ease of getting around, acro can be good for getting around faster mid combat I think cus of the grapple, superspeed idk, never really cared for, but is decent for mid combat as well moving around faster.

Nature transformations is probably most fun solo by level 30 you get 5 custom loadouts and can switch to 3 weapon and move type skills with out using any skill points or requiring weapon to use them.
1.Dps default loadout.
2.healer default support loadout.
3.bug enhanced healer support loadout, will change weapon skills to blast hand varient combo and move mode to flight.
4.gorilla hybrid dps healer loadout ,will change weapon type to brawler varient combo and move mode to acrobat.
5.werewolf enhanced dps loadout , will change weapon type to hyper brawler / martialarts combo and move mode to speedster.
And +6th non custom solo heal dps loadout into a stealth pack summoner dog with no weapon type and no move mode.

I use Atomic, I main DPS and save the left over gear or whatever for my tank, but my DPS build/rotation works fine, I'm always one of the last to die, and I pretty much out DPS everyone who has less than 150 SP which seems to be a lot of people since I find myself out DPSing most people way above me in CR

Earth is the easiest to battle-tank.
Equip your DPS gear, and use a mixed loadout.
But don't use it in a raid group where they need a full tank.

As pointed out, a lot of powers have self heals in DPS stance but the main thing is crowd control or CC abilities. While Arc Lightning can heal you it can also stun your enemies.

Earth DPS has great juggles between Unstoppable, Jackhammer and Crystal's Epicenter.

IMO, Munitions has some of the lowest survivability unless you have Empowered Channelling mod but even then, if you are undergeared you may need to keep a shield on your bar. But at the same time, you can't always block attacks because you are stuck in your channels. That was a problem I had with ice too.

All powers have access to a personal shield now so that is helpful to rely on.

Best fun you get for solo role play from base game powers is nature with 4 custom loadouts +3 unique weapon varient types that only nature can use and dog form stealth.
Nature does not have standard ranged burst dmg but rather roots stuns and knock backs while poisoning targets meaning they can control the battle field in pve barely being attacked .
Nature gorilla acrobat brawler varient hybrid build can use both support and dps interactions of each power and able to aoe pull and aoe finisher.
Nature werewolf speedster martial arts varient specialises in dps mode power interactions poison fast melee with knock down.
Nature bug flight hand blast varient specialise support mode power interactions good for completing collector quest missions fast and surviving damage over time areas with constant healing.
Nature dog Street walker barks n bites sneaky stealth alpha of the pack.

2nd powerset would be ice dont let the lack of heal fool you its closest feel to superman with reflective Shield and mainframe mods you can keep this shield runing constantly even possible to run pug alert or raids and having score card say 0 healing received 0 damage recieved fun wise though ice can be a blizzard white out rotation that doesn't require much thought which can be boring in boss battles and fx too bright on screen for eye sight.

3rd gadgets why have 1 battle pet when you can have 2 or 3 , can't decide on fire , ice , electric or poison gass gadgets is one you go for to be true gotham vigilante.

I like Mental, mostly because "extra shields" is a great way to Not Die if you're running Precision Melee.

but "survivable", shrug, probably my Fire, Gallica, in DPS - she has a constant stream of background healing due to some of the Abilities I use.

The Transformation Artifact makes Fire DPS even better because you get both DPS and Healer Criticals at the same time.

I am sorry to tell you but munitions has an unbelievably great survivability. With rocket attack and rocket retreat the immunity shields are great plus it does some fair damage.

Honestly, if you go precision DPS and flurry shot it will allow some flexibility in your loadout bar. As ice, it allows me to run two shields in my loadout (Winter Ward and Reflection) ... both shields last 12 seconds with a relatively short cooldown, meaning I have an active shield 100% of the time. Obviously, that is super useful for getting pickups, getting objectives, staying alive, etc.

The top priority, in my opinion, if you want to be a DPS with survivability then you need to be ranged. Melee DPS, or even short and medium range DPS, keep themselves in the thick of things and are going to take a lot more damage. Damage Avoided > Damage Survived.

Long Range.

After that, my go-to would probably be Electricity. One of Electricity's bread-and-butter attacks, Arc Lightning, deals damage AND heals. Literally, every 3rd power cast you are doing is going to heal you. There are plenty of other powersets that can be turned into Hybrids, like Battletanks and whatnot, where they trade increased survivability for decreased damage. With Electricity, you just get an increase in personal and group healing, and it does not reduce your damage at all, because it happens while you're just doing what you're doing.

Check out an Electric DPS on the scoreboards at the end of a raid, and while they aren't going to be anywhere near what the Healer heals, they will have a significantly larger margin than what any of the other DPS got.

Gadgets seems to be a good one to go with from what I see from this person's videos.


Granted she is playing as a troll but seems to do as much damage as a dps would. Just switch roles and use the same powers. That channel is full of things you can do with this survival.

Other than that, from what hasn't been said yet, I think nature dps while in healer stance with Eye of Gemini could do the job, or a celestial battle healer. An Eye of Gemini together with a Soul Cloak at rank 160 can greatly increase your survival if you spam Pheromone Bloom or one of those movement mode shield SCs (Dash Attack, Perfect Poise and the flight one), of course this is if you can proc the Gemini's green field to regen that supercharge, orange won't do much.

Yes, I advised the player they may need to keep a shield on their bar. But damage is not done if you are interrupted because you don't have EC mode equipped.

If DPS role for solos and duos.

Shields, sodas and supply drops.

Pets / sidekicks / henchmen can yake some of the aggro.

If struggling can swap in one of the SC that is heal/shield based.

In a duo, stand behind your partner, let him/her be the meat shield.


"When confronting a bear in real life, slowly walk back and gently push your friend forward"

I'm personally shocked that no one mentioned Rage. Best DPS with survivability hands down (unless you crash) but that's what makes it fun. Using Remorseless Recovery with Severe Punishment and attacking enemies pretty much makes you unkillable unless you are one shotted by a boss.

Battletanking has it's place, particularly in open world bounties and alerts. I have a battletank loadout for my atomic alt and am able to solo all open world bounties using it.

There is more to survival than which power is chosen, although some do seem to make it more difficult. Some I've seen dps-tank well, usually Fire or Atomic; but I've never been comfortable with trying to do solos, duos, or open world, in Tank mode. At higher levels, you simply must have over 150 SP. Base Gen mod selection will matter. Salvage old gear and fortify to suit your needs. Heal options in your loadout are good. However other than a shield, my preference is a loadout that keeps things from doing damage while I kill them. Control options. Holds, levitates, knockdown, knockback, etc. Whichever power you use, know it well. Rely on your own research. Read the power descriptions carefully! Read up on loadouts but EXPERIMENT to suit your playstyle.

Minolta has an interesting mix for all their stuff and of course varies their loadout depending on the bosses they're soloing. Controller gear with DPS Augments & Artifacts, Controller Stance. Artifacts are usually Scrap of the Soul Cloak for supercharging/recharging the heal, which is on the stealth bar, Grimorium for more damage and setting up any pre-req for other attacks and Tetrahedron for more damage or sometimes Amulet of Rao according to an earlier post of theirs.

I think the fact they get 2 bars for skills is Huge in their setup. Lets them have 10 skills total going as the robot has to be duplicated on both bars or it kills itself. This also lets them drop mines and debuff along with decoy + shields and taser pulls for KD. Controller mode for the extra dominance/vitality so debuffs stick and no real power issues. I tried their basic setup without the leveled artifacts and it made a big difference on my controller whom I just felt lost playing.

I really wonder if you went with a setup like that in other Archtypes if it could even work. Role gear+stance (for those that do damage) + might arts/augments. Or if going all role gear + dps stance might help for those heals/shields to actually be effective for tough solos?