I rolled one up to see what the AT was about, AR/Electricity, and although only lvl 12, he really surprised me.
Compared to the Kin/Rad Scrapper I'd just played through those levels he was more survivable -- mainly due to attacking at range and being able to pull at will. He also seemed to hit just as hard, and with a little bit of cone mixed in as well. Really at those levels it is more about damage output and good early attack chain, but Kinetic melee gives a very early 3 single target attacks, same as the Sentinel. The inherent is actually quite excellent for boss killing, and I took out a couple of early Elite Bosses entirely by saving the buff, then unloading every attack I had to drop about half of the hit points of the boss(es). Defensive opportunity I was happy to see triggers for every target hit, so buckshot was sometimes able to restore a visible amount of health. Offensive Opportunity is clearly better though. This is also not a big deal now that I have a regen power, but it was a nice gimmick to keep on rolling in the very early game.
Endurance has been an issue already (and with only 1 of 3 toggles running, ugh), but a big factor in that is the mad spam nature of the build, with every chance to build up the Opportunity bar or quickly cycle through attacks during an "Opportunity", the attack spam was never ending. I still use Taser, which is worth the endurance to either do a sliver of remaining damage, or during any offensive opportunity.
The numbers for AR Burst power are listed as -7% defense for 8.00s on target, and -20.00% resistance to all damage for 15.00s on target. Disorienting Shot has only -20.00% resistance to all damage for 15.00s on target (and the 3 Mag stun for 2.22s) on target. Since I always lead with Burst, that is likely why I couldn't ever see the "lower" damage of the AT. On a team I certainly would, and it seems worth testing out, especially at higher levels. Update -- nope, after actually testing the actual numbers are just 5% difference. I can't explain the "feeling" of doing just as much or more damage. /shrug
Other than those first impressions, I have to say that I've been enjoying him much more than I expected, and have put two scrappers aside for the moment. I'm looking forward to more time on CoH (of course), but this guy is going to dominate my play time, I'm very sure.
