Corruptors and Defenders are broken mirror images of each other. They are the closest Red side to Blue side ATs in terms of abilities and play style. If you know how to play a Defender, you've got a good heads up on Corruptors.
That said, they are not identical. But it's still a good starting point.
Now... like Defenders, Corruptors were not designed to be solo players. As such, it's going to be a slow crawl up the levels until you can achieve the kind of mitigation vs. Damage output ratio you need to survive - you certainly aren't going to hit it until at least level 22, when you can start slotting SOs. Until then... go slowly, avoid battles you don't need to fight, and be prepared to run at any point. Oh, and get used to seeing the hospital.
For solo play, the best secondaries are, without a doubt, /Dark Miasma, /Radiation Emissions, and /Storm Summoning. /Cold Domination and /Kinetics rank high for that, as well, and /Traps isn't awful... it's just very slow and has some pretty lackluster power choices.
As for primaries, Dark Blast, Ice Blast, and Sonic Attack are probably the best primaries for Solo play - these sets have built in mitigation abilities, and powerful secondary effects.
Radiation Blast, Electrical Blast, and Assault Rifle are also okay, but not really spectacular, for a solo player. Fire Blast can be dangerous when Solo - it provides no additional mitigation in any of its powers. It just does additional damage. Killing things faster IS the ultimate mitigation, but you can quickly bite off more than you can chew with this set.
Energy Blast... can be quite good, or self defeating, depending on your secondary. It's THE middle-of-the-road set for blasts, but its secondary effect is Knockback. That can be bad if you knock an enemy out of a area debuff, or knock and anchor close enough to another group to aggro it. If you know what you are doing, though - Energy can be very effective, and provide excellent mitigation.
If you want to solo EBs or AVs, I'd suggest either /Rad or /Dark, above all others.
Good luck with your new toon!
-This Space Intentionally Left Blank.-
Great post above, I concur with all of it.
I've played Corrs more than the other Villain ATs, they are very flexible hybrids. In hero terms, you get a blaster-style primary with a defender-style secondary, and although neither set operates at the same level of power as the hero sets (maybe 80%, just an informal guess), the synergy between the two lets you solo safely, if slowly, and provide great team benefits at the same time.
Fire/Kin is a powerful combination for both solo and team. You're not really as glass as you might think you are. The solitary source of my Fire/Kins problems solo were from stuns. Specifically LB Nullifiers. Bastards.
Rad/Rad would be a good solo'er. It's got decent damage, great survivability, and about a million proc options in almost all of your powers. Plus with all of those defense debuffs you don't have to worry as much about accuracy slotting.
Traps is a decent solo'er but it's slow. You do get Mez protection in FFG, though, which is golden. It would definitely be a good choice for the AV solo'ing man if you plan to soft cap your defense.
Sonic and Thermal provide poor solo'ing options.
/Dark is a monster solo'er but I'm not sure if it's robust enough to solo AVs. Anything else would be a cake walk, though.
You basically can't go wrong with a Corr combo, though. For solo purposes though I'd say just avoid /cold /therm and /sonic.
Can't go wrong being a /Kin really. You get a heal, damage capped all the time once you have Fulcrum shift. Siphon Speed is great and once you get Transference your endurance problems vanish (infact sometimes i forget that i even have endurance)
Whining about everything since 2006.
Ammo switching for Dual Pistols was my idea:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=135484
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Can't go wrong being a /Kin really. You get a heal, damage capped all the time once you have Fulcrum shift. Siphon Speed is great and once you get Transference your endurance problems vanish (infact sometimes i forget that i even have endurance)
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The problem is everything up to Fulcrum Shift.
It took me 4 years to get my first level 50 character. I level so slow, so I usually prefer characters that shine at lower-levels.
That aside, thanks for the tips guys! Running a couple Corrs right now to get a feel for them, but I do feel a lot stronger than my Defender characters
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Running a couple Corrs right now to get a feel for them, but I do feel a lot stronger than my Defender characters
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Just getting the attacks so much earlier helps with that I find.
Arc #40529 : The Furies of the Earth
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Now... like Defenders, Corruptors were not designed to be solo players.
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Very much in disagreement here. All villain sets were designed to be able to solo and Corruptors can be extremely potent soloists. While they have less strength on their de/buffs, they make up for it with higher damage and an inherent that helps them a lot on harder targets.
Not every combo is going to be able to solo as well as the others, but I've never had a problem soloing any Corruptor I made. In my experience, they *certainly* out solo Defender (Offender) builds due to the higher damage output. Faster something dies, the less end you use on keeping yourself alive. And their secondary sets afford them utility and survivability that Blasters don't tend to enjoy.
On the whole, villains were designed from the ground up to be solo-capable. Whereas heroes were designed to be team players, aside from the Scrapper.
http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Massacre_Melanie -the original Fire/Dark Corruptor -
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115217
The Guide to BURN
I just got my ice/storm corruptor to 26. The 12-20 range for this particular toon was the most difficult I've played to date. Once I got the second rain, things got a lot easier, and then SO's took me from that cheesy defenderish play to wow, kinda blastery now goodness. When I team with anyone, I bring plenty of damage and mob debuffs, and solo is no trouble at all.
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Thomas Jefferson
Compared to other ATs, I don't think his statement was wrong at all. It is more difficult to solo with corruptors than it is with MMs, brutes, stalkers, and possibly dominators.
Lrn2Play argument has no bearing on this. If there ever was an AT that was designed to group, it would be corruptors.
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In short, a Corruptor will start out with a little more damage than a Defender, making soloing a bit easier. Their attacks are also a little more End efficient. (Due to both higher base damage and Scourge) You'll find they play much more like a Defender than a Blaster, though. And a well built offensive Defender can match a Corruptor over time. It's just ALL Corruptors act that way, not just the few that have good offensive buffs.
In general, though, you will want to take your time and build up your damage and defenses. You can't just run in and blast like a Blaster, unless you know your foes are going to be easy and you want to conserve some End. You do have that option, though, and I've found at times I just get impatient with all the debuffs and single out a target when I can.
When you're taking on a large group of foes, though, you are a lot safer than a Blaster. It may take you longer to kill them, and you may have to use a lot of debuffs on them, but you won't have that sense of having to run at a moment's notice. Maybe at two moment's notices. 
This also depends on your Secondary somewhat, some Secondaries aren't as good at soloing as others. Each should offer you something, even (for instance) Thermal and Sonic, but in some cases you might be better off looking for a team.
Hey folks, long-time blue-side player here, making a switch to red-side.
I used to play red-side for the longest time back when it first came out. Hell, my first 50 was a MM! But, with blue-side being kinda boring (trying to get every badge possible on 4 separate toons can kinda burn you out) I've decided to switch to red-side, specifically Corruptors.
Now, I have never made a corruptor past level 10. And as such, have no clue what kind of mind-set I should have when choosing one. Should I be expecting an AT similar to a Defender? Or Blaster? As in, should I be clicking every button like mad (blaster), or taking a more conservative approach?
Now as for powersets, I've been looking at Fire/Kin. The whole glass-cannon approach is something I enjoy. I've also been looking at Ice/Dark, for a sort of solo-team mixed playstyle.
For the most part though, I'd prefer a solo-style powerset, specifically one that can solo EB's/AV's. (*/Rad?)
At any rate, if anyone has any tips or advice for a first-time Corruptor, they'd be gladly appreciated