VoltageAvenger

Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess one of the great things about this game is being able to respec so i'm probably going to forgo my head and go with my gut and take Mutation and Fallout. I'm by no means a roleplayer but i like to consider this character to be a representation of myself in the game. And i think it would be cool to be able to do these things. Choking Cloud would be useful at my job for instance... on the minions at least. The bosses would obviously need a little more. And my choice of Fire Mastery is along the same lines of character concept... although you are right Local Man as I would really like some mez protection. It is VERY annoying to have everything up and working nicely, people burning all around you, and to suddenly have everything just stop.

I've also noticed with CC i don't really use Cinders all that often. I like having it but I rarely use it so it might be respecced out for a utility power like Recall Friend. Bonfire however has made me find ways to use it, like in corners or in low level zones where i can go to a roof top and blast people off. That always gets a good laugh.

My main character, a fire/rad is approaching 30 and he finds himself at a developmental crossroads.

Here is my current build, disregarding slots and some misremembering the order in taking them:

1 - Char
1 - RA
2 - Fire Cages
4 - RI
6 - AM
8 - Hot Feet
10 - Combat Jumping
12 - Flash Fire
14 - Super Jump
16 - Assault
18 - Enervating Field
20 - Hasten
22 - Lingering Radiation
24 - Cinders
26 - Bonfire
28 - Choking Cloud

And here is the plan for the future:

30 - ???
32 - Fire Pimps
35 - ???
38 - EM Pulse
41 - Fire Ball
44 - Fire Shield
47 - Consume
50 - ???

You can see a couple of holes where i'm not sure what direction i'd like to go in. Here is the first.

30 - Acrobatics
35 - Tactics

I suppose this is the "safe" way. Two useful powers that will help me in a number of ways and be available all the time whether solo or teaming. This choice feels prudent and boring... As opposed to my other option...

30 - Mutation
35 - Fallout

...which seems more fun. And it also goes along with the Bonfire, Fire Ball, big explosions, burning alive-feel i enjoy about playing a Fire/Rad. But it would only be useful on teams... and even then only on teams where people are dying and with my playstyle I am usually one of the first to die as I am in the mix with the scrappers and tanks.

Local Man, i've read your comments about Fallout and in them one of the more alarming things i see is that you sometimes never get to use it because you forget it exists. This leads me to believe that A) the power isn't as cool as I think it is and B) It is really that rare to find situations to use it. I also see your other advice that this power is too situational to justify sacrificing other, more useful powers. I understand... but Fallout sounds sooo cool!

So, veterans, your thoughts? Will the Fallout/Mutation combo really be used enough to justify taking them? Is there a happy medium? If I take Fallout, is Mutation required? By going with the explodey option, will my character be badly borked without Acrobatics and Tactics? Should i just take Fallout at 50 as like a retirement present to myself?

Well i wouldn;t consider myself a Controller Professional, but i might be able to offer some unique insight. I too mostly played melee characters... actually exclusively scrappers. I love the playstyle where you hop into a group of baddies without any regard to your own safety or care and just start betaing people up. Some controllers play this way as well and i'd like to suggest the Fire/Rad.

I took a break from CoH for a few years and when i came back i rolled up another scrapper. I wanted to try a different type and i read the two Splatroller guides on here and the Fire/Rad looked like a good choice... And boy was it ever. The going is a bit slow at first because you don't really do alot of damage until the Fire Imps arrive. But once you hit 10 or so, not only can you effectively solo but people love you on teams as well. Accelerate Metabolism is a great AoE buff and the heal for a rad lets you help people out with a heal but its AoE too so you never feel like a healer or a buffbot. Oh and don't insult yourself by calling yourself a healer.

On teams, i would jump right in with the scrappers... and this character might be the only one ive played on CoH that truly made me feel "super." Just crank up the Superman theme and go arrest people. The only thing i miss from scrapping is that feeling when you're fighting someone and you hit them really hard with a critical and they go down. That was always an awesome feeling... And you are pretty squishy so you will die, and often. But with my Fire Rad, i leap in, grab 'em, debuff 'em, and basically keep them that way until they die a slow burning death.

Werner, above and beyond. Thank you. This was exactly what I was looking for.

The advice to take additional defense is one i'm certainly going to follow. I grab Combat jumping for pretty much any character and i'll follow with boxing at 22 and tough at 30 since i don't really want to delay getting cool killing powers like focus and eviscerate. You know, the more i play regen, the more i feel as if I should have taken it back in the day. I was always the kind of scrapper that would pick out the biggest enemy, jump right in his face and shove the claws in his gut. Invuln, while a good powerset, just wasn't a logical fit.

I know, i know... Trust me i know what you all thought when you read that.

I'm a returning player and about 4 years ago, when i last played CoH, my main was a claws/invuln scrapper. I got him to about 40 and he was great to play but i always had the feeling I should have taken /regen as /invuln was a bit... boring to my taste. I always envied that seat of your pants style of play that seemingly comes with /regen.

So i'm back and although my main now is a Fire/Rad controller (that i play like a scrapper) i rolled up a claws/regen to recapture that glory and spent a delightful few hours hacking people to bits in the Hollows last night. I died alot, mostly because i took on groups of oranges and reds, and reached lvl 8 when i realized i'm really unfamiliar with regen as a powerset and was hoping for some advice from you veterans on here as to how to play a regen scrapper, what powers are good in the set and maybe some slotting advice... basically your overall feelings about it. I can't find any recent guides about regen so im not entirely sure if any of the more recent issues have affected how the powerset works.

I should mention that i'm set on this character so if your thoughts include something along the lines of "you SHOULD have rolled a ___ " thanks for the advice but I don't care, save yourself the keystrokes.

And yes, when i was much younger and telephones were things that were connected by a cord to a wall, i collected and read Wolverine/X-Men comics and i thought they were awesome.