TheOtherTed

I don't know if I'd recommend this for a first character, but there are also "Blapper" builds that might work for your concept. Blappers (a mash-up of Blaster and Scrapper) are Blasters who focus on melee attacks in their secondary powerset. Martial Combat is pretty much made for exactly this, and gets a self-regen and a self-heal a bit later on. I haven't really given it a fair shot myself, but it seems to be popular, and might work for a "street samurai" type of cyborg. Energy Manipulation is still my favorite Blapper set - so many melee attacks heavy on stuns and knockbacks - and I made it work thematically on a "natural" martial artist (with an Archery primary). I don't have much familiarity with the other Blaster secondaries, but it looks like almost anything but Devices or Tactical Arrow could be used to blap. A little imagination (as Philotic Knight and Oubliette_Red pointed out) and a little quality time with power color customization could make anything cyborg-appropriate. But, again, blapping might be a bit rough on a first run. Scrapper and Brute are safe "CoH 101" bets; blapping is for full-on, no-holds-barred, skin-of-your-teeth offense. Edit: stray parentheses

Disclaimer: I'm not the guy to go to for optimized builds. That said, I tried DP/MA, and I got bored very quickly. Part of that, I think, is because I couldn't find much interesting synergy there - with every power pick, I felt like I had to decide if the character was ranged DPS or a Scrapper with a glass jaw. It felt like the two sets were competing with each other rather than acting together. DP/EM (energy manipulation), on the other hand - now that's a fun Blapper! It may be my imagination, but it felt like the melee attacks in EM were much better at keeping the baddies at bay than MA. Or, if you're smarter than me, EM can instead provide strong ranged support with Conserve Power, Boost Range, and, of course, Build Up. Edit: Just in case, by "MA" you meant "Martial Combat," yeah? Apologies if not.

The only reason I'd play classic WoW would be roll a shaman, take a hit of something trippy, and groove with the invisible spirits that are, like, all around us, man. Even then, I'd probably have flashbacks to leveling lockpicking in Azshara.

I doubt I can say anything that other people haven't, but figured I was overdue for saying "thanks." So - thanks! CoH was my first subscription MMO. I picked it up as a lark - I was no fan of superhero comics or movies, but it stood out amongst the sea of fantasy games on the market, so I figured, why not? Had no idea that this would become the MMO against which I'd measure all other MMOs. And looking back, no other MMO has yielded anywhere near as many "war stories" as CoH has (with apologies and respect to any reader who has actual war stories...). So glad to be able to play this again.

Is there a music sharing thread on this forum? If so, I missed it. If not...

1. I just wanted to thank you for saying "boy howdy." 😄 2. Where I live, it's been too hot to play any game that was released in this millenium. Weather seems to have turned, though, so I'm itching to play more.

Ugh - I completely missed Tactical Arrow until I saw this thread. I'm currently running a TA/Arch def and was planning to invest heavily in Leadership, but now I'm thinking the only reason to stick with it is the defender Leadership bonuses. Wondering if it's worth it...

I'm currently playing a dual pistols / poisons corruptor, and I'm really digging the melee potential of the build. Even at early levels, the combo of Envenom (AoE -Res - Def) and Weaken (AoE -ToHit -Dam) can reduce a mid-size spawn to puppy dogs nipping at your heels. There are probably better options than dual pistols, though - unless style is a priority. In live, I also played a dark / archery defender who would "tank" when actual tanks wouldn't tank. Fearsome Stare + Darkest Night + Tar Patch = who needs a tank? Not necessarily a "melee" build, but capable of controller levels of safety.

The trophy is not the default option. I have to mouse over four whole icons to get to the trophy - who's got time for that?

Silly as it sounds, the only thing that keeps me personally from hitting it is that the default icon is a heart. To this old gamer, that means something other than "like."

I honestly don't recall single snipers being all that deadly. My pre-sunset kin/arch defender, the squishiest of my characters, could leap through FF without too much trouble - in fact, she used to "snipe hunt" on a pretty regular basis, risking an extra shot or two to triangulate the sniper. I was only ever shot out of the sky when I was focused by multiple snipers and didn't find cover, either because I was still new to the zone, or because I was in a hurry to get somewhere. That said, I haven't seen HC FF yet, so I don't know if it's been changed.

Thanks Darkir! I may prioritize the fighting pool over Leadership then. I see this character more as an "enforcer" cop than a squad leader, and even if Boxing and Kick are sub-optimal, they're more in theme. Tactics is very tempting though - weird as it sounds, that was one of my favorite powers "live."

I'm new-ish to Corruptors and Dual Pistols, and brand new to Poisons. I just rolled a Corruptor with this combo, and I'm sitting at level 8. I have to admit, I'm really impressed by Poisons - not sure why I avoided it on live. Envenom + Weaken seems to allow for some crazy toe-to-toe action that I wouldn't have expected for a Corruptor. That said, I'm considering dipping into the Fighting and Leadership pools with this character, and I'd like some feedback. Fighting is mainly for RP reasons (the character is a cop from another dimension who is taking part in an exchange program with the PPD) but with Weaken, it might be actually fun to have some melee attacks for the inevitable in-your-face action. Does Weaken reduce the importance of Tough and Weave, or would those have synergy that's too good to pass up? For Leadership, I'm considering Assault and Tactics at least for the low- to mid-levels, in order to play to the almost "offender" like nature of Envenom. Seems like that would be a powerful combination, but I might be off base. I'm sure the Pistols / Poisons combo has other tricks, traps, synergies, and... whatever the opposite of "synergies" is (anergies? fall-on-your-face-ergies?). Any tips and feedback would be most welcome.

Because Pocket D is not directly accessible via AP or Mercy, while AE is. Many (if not most) people who use AE do so because it's very convenient - asking them to go out of their way will likely be ignored. As for the OP, think it's a good idea to double up on the Mission Computer functionality. However, I don't see it reducing the Liberty problem, not only for the convenience issue mentioned, but also because not everyone has access to a base, or interest in getting it. Might be better just to drop a trainer in the AE buildings (and a vendor also, if there isn't one already).

Click the Mission button under the compass at the top of the screen, click on any other mission, then click "Select task." That will reset the previously active mission. If you don't have any other missions, then get one. ;) A radio (or television) mission will do the trick just as well as a contact mission. Added: But, yeah, first do what justicebeliever says below :)