What are the best solo builds?

[Tinlaar]

I've leveled every single skill to at least level 50, including the animal forms, and I'm still not sure which ones I like. I can definitely see a lot of you itching to type something along the lines of "just mash any 2 skills together and it'll turn out fine", but I need more direction than that. I need something that could tank even the worst of DoTs, and dish out damage high enough to take down the tankiest of elites. I need to build towards some sort of end goal.

[Mikhaila]

Pick an End Goal:
(I know you said solo, including other things anyway.)
-Tank for group Cow/unarmed, Staff/Shield, Ice/Staff, Ice/Shield
-DPS for group Many
-Healing for group Bard/Druid/priest/mentalism

If running solo, you have to worry about many things so you can't focus just on one. You also have to add speed into the mix.
Fire/staff, fire/archery, hammer/archery: You need to pair a couple of skills for DPS and either movement or survival.

Along with this:
Max Alchemy for the potions. Resistances can be huge.
Get some alcohol with an effect you like. I prefer beer that gives me +50 health per swig.
Raise gourmet and eat the best meals you can. I prefer the high end cheese. Huge health and mana buff.
Learn about Words of Power, and start making them. Lots of good effects.
Speed. Horses are changing things, but having 3 points of sprint can turn a losing battle with too many mobs into a hasty retreat.
Max the basics: first aid, dig deep, armor patch. Get in the habit of using them.

I play animals all the time. Some very good combos.
-Fox has great synergy with fire and darkness. Fox/Necro, Fox/Priest can both turn out a ton of DPS.
-Bat can do amazing things. The way of the bat also takes some hard to find skills.
-Cow/Druid is a nice combo for all around. Cow/Unarmed is a hell of a tank.
-Warden makes everything better. Spring Fairy makes warden do terrible things. Warden/Fox i have a lot of fun with, and high DPS
-Bunny is fun as hell. My current build is Bunny/Unarmed and I'm kicking shit to death all over and fairly tanky.

Learn/Max all the augmentation skills, Shamanic Infusion, and Trans. A GREAT BUILD NEEDS GREAT GEAR.
Can't over emphasize this. If I have 7 mods on my gear and you have 3, we aren't even close in anything. I've got more options, more dps, more movement, higher armor etc.

Finally: Git Good

Not just a saying. Get your combo, make the gear. Throw yourself at stuff that kills you and start experimenting. Get your timing down. I've watched people like Sims and Zeiss do amazing shit...and yet they have access to the same stuff I do, and I can't match them.

Sausage Javelins is insane with knife.

Space throws himself at bosses he shouldn't be able to take down. I was proud I killed Old Fruitless in Povus. Space does bosses in FR.

Project Gorgon has a lot of layers that add up to making a tough character. Make use of all the layers.

[Baddad]

Pig/Warden.

Good damage and AOE. Heals, crowd control, speed bursts.

I nodded my gear for max stun traps, strong damage shields (including affecting ranged attackers), and some power cost reduction.

I can solo in all out door zones, am good to strong dps add to groups: and can power level characters from 1-60 in about an hour.

It's also fun.

Baddad