Flowergnome

@Psylenz: the odd thing is that, unless I was completely asleep, during char gen there is no way to alter the look of the shield for KM/SD. BS/SD e.g however gets several different base shields, some of which even have options. Even with a different shield, KM/SD suffers a lot from the altered animations IMHO. Thanks anyway for the tip.

@Amy_AMP: a complete shame how KM is changed by SD, agreed. Such a nice synergy.

@Sailboat: BS? Hm, one of those primaries I never took a closer look at. One thing's for sure: tech sword with a large tech shield at least looks amazing! Thanks for the tip :-)

@Necroton_RO: indeed, Praetoria is a nice place and a fresh start. I don't think I could right now endure another round of hunting down those Circle guys hiding on the Kings Row rooftops at night ;-)

@StrykerX: Never tried a MM before, never even read about them. Pets are about the furthest from my usual preference you can get. OTOH, why not. Gonny try something new every day :-) One of the beauties of CoX - so many options. Blasters I've had a few in the past, Fire/Fire one of them. Pretty intense. An archer/something extradimensional dinosaur was another one (at least IIRC) - um, yeah, I know, I promise I didn't call him Robinosaurus Hood :-)

Thanks everybody for the input, helps me a lot!

Thanks both of you for your input. Good to know that my old chars are still viable :-)

I did some running around in Praetoria the last two days:

/SD: very nice on paper, very solid numbers - but OMG is that shield ugly, and it messes with animations like from KM in a bad, bad way :-( If I could hide that shield, yes, sold, but like this? Gah... I guess other primaries will have their animations messed up, too?

KM: really cool animations, sound is bearable (for now), but somehow if feels odd/off. Perhaps I'm just no longer used to CoX's pace. I should take my other scrappers for a spin to compare.

Plant/Fire: interesting playstyle. Never had a dom before, but I think I could actually come to like it, moreso when the synergies start to kick in (only lvl 6 so far). Guess I'll play this one for a while and see where it goes. Not that I don't already have found half a dozen other interesting build ideas browsing the forum - damn altitis ;-0

@Amy_Amp: "Please note, above all else play what is fun. My Claws/regen is my most sentimental character I have and that includes my namesake."

No worries, I will :-) And guess what my first char was? Claws/regen - she'll be in my lineup until the servers are switched off, no matter if I ever take her beyond 35.

Greetings,

somehow, I ended back at CoX after about 3 year's absence :-O Naturally, I have no idea what's going on :-) Thus, a few quick questions. Thanks in advance for any answers.

1) My three 'mains', each in their 30s, are scrappers: claws/regen, katana/SR, dual blade/WP. Are those still more or less regarded as sensible pairings or did changes in the past years totally ruin any of these?

2) I've thought about starting a new char to experience Preatoria and reacquaint myself with the game. Given that I will (by choice and time constraints) mostly be out and about solo, what would be useful pairings for that (perhaps even to take a char from 1-50)? I generally prefer dmg dealing to tanking and power sets with less micromanaging. Self healing is (was?) always nice. Due to limited time, something that does not require the very best augmentations to work would be nice. I realise this is awfully broad, but some general pointers would be very much appreciated - I already have a lot of reading to do to catch up.

2.a) More specifically. Could the new powersets (kinetic melee, dual pistol...) be something to look at? Some early research led me to a plants/fire dominator as an interesting concept; and apparently quite playable.

3) Anything I should definitely learn about before making my choice? Hero/villain 'attunement' - any definite pro/con for one or the other?

Well, gotta go back to reading. Thanks for your time.
- Flowergnome