StompyOne

I'm seeking suggestions from the Blaster vets out there. I admit it, I used to have a bias against Blasters on Live. I could never get them where I wanted with regards to soloing. I know things are different now, but when I came Home I still avoided them. I've been playing a lot of melee, along with Sentinels and Corruptors and the like. And while they're durable, I go numb sometimes with all the setup, and slow grind of gumming their food to death. Sometimes I just like to kill things to death and move on to the next customers in line! It's time to play the AT that put the DAM! in damage. However, I know myself well enough that I know I will screw up a glass cannon. I've gotten too comfy with my tanks, sents and CC toons. I will absolutely murder myself trying to play something too far out on the edge. So it needs to be somewhat tanky/forgiving while I get used to the AT. I do mostly soloing because of frequent RL disruptions, so it needs to be self contained. I like to do TFs when time permits, so it needs to Exemplar well. Conceptually, I'm tentatively leaning magical, ice primary, hover blasting. Beyond that, I'm open to anything that works well. If it matters, money and accolade grinding is not a particular concern. Suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Sincere thanks to everyone who had ideas, explanations and suggestions! The return went really well! I had already decided on using Fire primary, and I went ahead with Black_Assassin's SR suggestion. I made it to L8 tonight before packing it in. I picked up some free prestige powers to round out the attack cycle for now. The overall experience was both overwhelming and yet very familiar, and it was still a lot of fun 😁. I lucked up and found Monty Haul doing his gameshow routine in front of city hall, and won 60m influence on a coin flip. It was a pretty awesome Welcome Home kind of prize. So now I can buy enhancements to keep my powers going without micromanaging funds. I chose not to flag for Help, and flew under the radar (aside from my bonkers jackpot prize) while I wandered and re-aquainted myself. But everyone was really friendly and low drama, with only one or two epeen types. Very much like the best of the good 'ol days, actually. LOL Thanks again all - I'll see you in game!

I think you've got me figured out on multiple points. I don't remember enough about the IO Sets to do anything but screw it up for now. And I will definitely look at the more braindead armor sets. Much appreciated!

Thanks JJDraken! I'll check it out ASAP. For reasons I can't quite figure out, Mids is hanging on install. I'm on .NET 9, but it's aborting install saying it can't install on systems with less than NET 6. That's my problem to sort out, but until then I don't suppose I could trouble you for a screenshot? Edit: Got it. It wanted 6.0 as well as my current V9.03 installed. <shrug> Looks cool, thanks!!

Hey there! Another geriatric, looking looking to recapture some of the glory days I found in CoX. I quit playing before the end, so I missed a good bit of the twilight years content. I played heavily from CoH beta, until I stopped some time after CoH and CoV became basically interchangeable. I played a LOT of melee back then and am looking for a change while I get back up to speed on the game and what's new. I'm looking for something mostly or completely ranged, not a total glass cannon (ala OG Blasters), and doesn't require heavy micromanagement skills. I'm way more casual than I was 15ish years ago. 😉 FotM doesn't bother me, and potato builds are fine, so long as they work. It's all fresh and new to me anyway and I'm just looking for something effective to be the vehicle for me to get back up to speed. I'll be almost exclusively solo, since I've got 5 kids now and I spend more time idling from interruptions than playing! LOL Thanks a ton in advance for any suggestions. It's good to be back!