biostem

You also get respecs fairly regularly as you level up, and even as part of the post-50 "Veteran levels", not to mention that you have 3 builds to play around with at 50, which while confined to the same primary & secondary sets, can have different regular or ancillary/patron power pools and enhancement slotting, so don't feel like one wrong pick ruins the character.

I routinely lead and take the alpha on +4/x8 radios for teams that I lead. The catch is to play intelligently and leverage the tools you have at your disposal. For instance, utilize your vulnerability inherent as often as possible to maximize the damage you and your team deals. Pick a primary and secondary that you both enjoy playing and that gel with your playstyle. Know when to employ your AoEs and when to focus on single target attacks. While blasters may possess overall higher damage, a sentinel can basically ignore most attackers in favor of dealing more and more damage...

I use a small preset of commands I use on all my characters. The once I can recall off the top of my head are: /bind numpad6 "ah" [This brings up the auction house] /bind numpad9 "manage" [This brings up my enhancement management screen] /bind z "powexecname ninja run$$powexecname beast run$$powexecname athletic run" [This toggles the special run power you can get from the P2W vendor] /bind r "powexecname jump pack$$powexecname steam jump" [This toggles the special jump power from the P2W vendor] I saved the above into a "basicbinds" file, which I then load on any new characters I create to get them off to a good start...

Maybe make it so you can cast your triage beacon or spirit tree on your shield generator or fly trap, respectively, to allow them to be mobile...

Storm blast may need some help, but I do *not* want every single blast set to have to fall in direct parity with each other; Storm's schtick is laying down your storm cell and taking advantage of the additional damage/effects your other powers produce when cast within it. If you aren't doing that, then you aren't taking full advantage of the set. Been much talked about. My understanding is that the animation work, which takes the most time, is what's left to do on it. The opposite of "dark" in CoH is energy. You have rad and energy blast, to that end. Electricity is the closest to an energy control set. Maybe we need a radiation control set, though. Maybe, somewhere down the line, we could get some customization for beast MMs, and get bears of various varieties as options for the animals summoned.

The WIKI doesn't say, specifically, but from what I could gather, he seemed like a giant-sized person who was similarly super strong and durable...

Give an earth control/pain domination controller a try; You have some excellent support powers and a wide array of other powers to support your teammates. You also get a pretty durable pet later on, which can also benefit from your buffs while solo. It's a fun and infrequently-encountered combo if you're looking for something distinct, to boot!

That's kind of the point, though - some powers deal more direct damage, (so therefore don't need the setup required to trigger containment in the first place). Even AVs, IIRC, have a hole to immobilizes. Yes, a few sets lack an immob, but that is also generally compensated for via some other aspect of said power set. This is a sort of "meta-issue", in that some powers deal damage via a "pseudo-pet", so there really wouldn't be a way to have them trigger containment. I suppose they could try to give said pseudo-pet its own form of containment, but that may cause more problems than it solves... TBH, what I'd like to see is to have containment provide some bonus if an enemy is simply impacted by the debuffing effects of the controller's primary powers, instead of only when they are fully under the effects of a controlling power...

What about something like a street justice/willpower scrapper, then take body mastery for laser beam eyes. Just fully slot it so it's always available, since cyclops is also a trained hand-to-hand fighter...

Try a katana/ninjitsu scrapper, or if you're feeling a bit more adventurous, try a titan weapon or war mace/ninjitsu scrapper. I have tried them all and they're rather fun. Alternatively, give a zombie/cold mastermind a try. Lastly, I've had good results with an earth control/pain domination controller, (though this one only really shines on a team, IMHO).

I'm mainly interested in darkest night, so soul mastery seems like the better choice, since you can get it sooner, but dark mastery has a faster-animating hold and a PBAoE damage attack. From my experience, other than for a bit of flavor or as expendable cannon fodder, the PPP pets are kind of useless. What are your thoughts? Thanks for reading!

Without the double XP buff and just doing some street-sweeping around AP, you can get to 6-7 in about an hour. After reaching 6 or so, one can wander around in AP and do a bit more - picking groups carefully, you can then probably get to 10 via another hour or so. If you want a safer option, going to SC can probably achieve the same result, give or take another 30 mins - 1 hr. It may be quicker to do the early story arcs, but there is also a lot of travel between instances which may take more time, (though the mini-arc and mission completion XP may more than make up for that added downtime).

The only catch would be that they'd have to limit the sleeve portion as there are simply too many options to potentially match it too. Maybe just a generic tights option, and maybe the stone/metallic patterns as well...

Planned? No official word on that, but pet/minion customization has been a highly requested feature...

On the flip side, there's the process of learning from your mistakes. Especially with an unfamiliar game that has multiple classes/archetypes, it should be SOP to try different types of characters to get a general idea of how things function. It's also incumbent on players nowadays to, y'know, ask for help or look stuff up online...

I'm not sure how things like choosing to skip the tutorial or selecting one of the "epic archetypes" as a new player is a knock against the game. Consider, for instance, that you used to need at least 1 level 50 in order to unlock the EATs. The game, AFAIK, does introduce you to the "con system" that talks about targeting and enemy difficulty levels, so not sure how one would confuse an enemy with an NPC. I've tried showing younger folks how to play, and in general it seems to be a combination of unfamiliarity with WASD controls, impatience, and them wanting the game to explicitly point everything out for them...

Welcome aboard! I would suggest telling us about the kind of character you want to play; Mainly, do you want to use a particular element? A weapon? Ranged or melee? Any special considerations?

The problem with PvP, IMO, is that there is really only what the game engine does and does not allow you to do; There is no system in place to enforce "fair play" besides what the game itself permits. I'd much rather participate in PvP with a better sense of weight classes or other such systems - pretty much anything that prevents things from degrading into "whomever has the biggest purse wins".

As a sort of introduction to the controller archetype, consider giving gravity control a try - it's pretty straightforward to pickup and play, and has a more direct-damage component to it. Pair it with kinetics if you also want to be a buffing/debuffing powerhouse. If you plan to team a lot, I've also had great results with earth control/pain domination.

Try a dark blast/super reflexes sentinel.

It's one of those "plan vs reality" scenarios - Blasters have tons of ways to maximize their damage, and many tools with which to deliver it, but if you can't stay alive long enough to deliver it, then that's essentially zero damage dealt. Sentinels have the ranged damage with a wider margin of safety. Of course, they pay for that by having a lower ceiling...

I have a 50 fire/regen sentinel. I just cannot get passed the weird momentary repel of the really powerful ST blast and thought going without it hampered my damage output, so moved on to some other builds. I think my dark/SR and DP/Nin sentinels are my favorites.

I play whatever concept currently has my interest. It's fairly easy to find a tanker/brute/scrapper or other AT that is willing to take the 1st hit - they usually just need to know others have their back. If you don't want to play said "meat-shield", then try someone who can keep them standing and fighting. If you want a good compromise, try either a sentinel or a controller with something like FF or sonic that can provide you with some more protection.

So here's the rub - If playing solo, you want to be able to do a little bit of everything, which includes having some way of dealing with mezzes. Blasters do great damage, but have a narrower margin for survival. I really enjoy playing sentinels, and as @Sovera pointed out, they provide ranged damage and survivability. I've been on a bit of a /ninjitsu kick, since it has stealth, a heal, end recovery, and even protects you from fear & psionics. pair it with a primary like pistols, dark or electricity and you also get a hold. Now add to that some other utility powers from regular or APPs/PPPs and you've got it made...

I could see this helping out, though they may have to change its recharge and/or end cost accordingly...