After returning after a years absents from CoH (in which my highest level character was a lvl 14 brute..) I've finally returned and gotten into my true love, blowing things up from a distance!
I tend to be extremely uninterested in teams (and I play during the late morning/early afternoon so there aren't a lot of them anyhow. My highest level character made so far now is a lvl 12 Ice/Devices blaster. I must say I am very satisfied with the Ice/ part of the character, having so many controlling elements (freeze, slow down etc) in a mainly damage dealing character is a lot of fun. I am not however very happy with the /Devices side of things. Web grenade has proved alright, but not long range enough. I skipped taking both caltrops and taser at first (caltrops because I wanted to fill out my attacks first, and taser because it seems a ineffective control option in comparison with my others). Targeting drone -is- however very nice. Being able to not have worry about accuracy in any of my attacks is quite nice.
Upon hitting lvl 12, I initially took caltrops over the ice-storm power (i'm new, forgive me for not knowing the right name). I almost immediately used my second build option to take ice instead though. Caltrops seems..bad. Little slow down, bad damage. the ice storm power just seems to blow it out of the water in all ways.
I am thus conflicted. Should I remake and take a different secondary? if so, which one fits best for someone who will more or less be purely solo (except when playing with friends..of which the team will likely be just 2 poeple). I've no experience with the later /device powers but I've read conflicting reports of them. The two set to blow up when enemies come close powers are either 'awesome damage!' or 'slow and weak, not worth it at all' And the gun drone is just bad, right? Weak, slow, not good backup at all. Or its really good/not that at all.
So I'm wondering, what is everyone else's observations on this? Am I just so far too low a level to see the power of /devices or the weakness of Ice/ for soloing purposes? Given my highest level character ever is 14, I've no experience with higher level content to base my own opinions on as of yet. Worse, given its taken me a week to get to lvl 12, I am loath to play him much further without being -sure- things will get better. Its early enough I can remake without losing too much work, but if so, into what?
With so many choices I'm finding it hard to settle on a character. I'd -like- to get a travel power on a hero one of these days..but by the time I do I want it to be on a character I plan to take to lvl 50. Its hard to be sure what sort of blaster to play though with only experience with multiple sets from 1-8th level or so. Worse it seems some builds only shine late in the game (and thus might be worth slugging through but don't seem to be at first) and others seem to shine in the early but suffer in the late) (thus seeming attractive but ultimately unsatisfying.
I want to primarily solo, so having control elements is fun. I also want something that will level up fairly quickly/straight forwardly however (given I will take so long to do so). Ice/ Seems a good choice then, but what other primaries also offer a fairly on par controlish element to them if any? /Devices seems a fun secondary, but better for someone who is looking for a 'new experience' after getting tired of the straight-forward level grind.
So, what does everyone think? What have your experiences shown you? What advice might you give me?
Thanks!
