Welcome to the game!
One the best aspects of playing City of, is that you'll have ample opportunity to try any mix of powers (or Archetypes) that you want so over time, don't worry there.
As for your current selections, /rad is a solo and team friendly secondary so if it fits your theme then you should be fine there.
Fire/ is going to give you the best raw damage of the choices you listed. I like Dark/ myself, but it has less dmg than others due to its debuff component. Assault Rifle/ looks cool, but I've never been jazzed about it in play.
My 0.02 inf: I'd suggest fire/rad, given your post.
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Welcome to the game!
I like corruptors too and have 4 currently at 50:
ice/cold
fire/rad
son/kin
dark/therm
Overall in my experience, only my dark/therm was hard to solo since therm is primarily a buffing set and that dark/ didn't have the damage output like the other sets.
Of the other 3, I still consider, again in my experience, my ice/cold the most powerful since she has more ways to control mobs (holds/KD/slows).
But the other two are very powerful and synergize greatly for very nice damage output. The only issue I had with my fire/rad was late game with the greater amount of mezzers and that rad was offensive toggles. So unless I prepared correctly, my toggles would drop. My ice/cold would hold the mezzer and didn't have to worry about them as much.
Anyhow, I have fun with all my corruptors. If I may make a suggestion and you are going /rad, you may want to consider ice/ and use some coloring to match them up. The ice/ provides some options for control and you can stop some of the mobs from putting status effect on you and keep your rad toggles up.
While Rad Blast does not do a lot of damage, it pairs well with either Rad or Kin. Cosmic Burst is a really nice power, and the unique way Proton Volley fires four shots in succession is pretty neat, too. I would really only be concerned about pairing it with the buff only Secondaries, or the ones with little damage boost capability.
Really, any debuff oriented Secondary is great for soloing. Rad, Dark, Storm, Traps, even Trick Arrow, those can be pretty good solo. Kin's also a good choice despite being more about buffs, (and the effects can be pretty subtle if you're trying to pair with AR) and I believe the jury's still out on Pain Domination, no one seems to really hate it.
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Welcome to the game! |
Originally Posted by Sivitry
I just started playing this game a few days ago so far it's fun, but I'm wondering if I could get some help with choosing my build.
I don't know anyone in this game really, so while I want to be useful to a group I'm looking for something that I can solo successfully with. I don't really want to melee. I want to be ranged dps. I know ranged dps is mostly squishy and there for harder to solo with, but I'm good with squishy ranged characters I've played them in all the MMOs that I've played. If anyone could give me some feed back on these build ideas or other good solo builds it'd be much appreciated!  Thank you! |
For a good solo character, I'd agree that Fire/Dark is a nice combination. That combo has a lot of powers that are fun, look cool, and are very effective. Using Tar Pit with Fireball and Rain of Fire is a good way to hurt a lot of enemies fast. You'll also have a heal, powers that will stop enemies from hitting you, the only power in the game that can bring back more than one team mate from death, and a pet you can summon at level 38 who can do more things to tangle up enemies and distract them from hitting you.
Another good solo character is an Ice/Radiation Corrupter. You'll be mostly throwing ice blasts at individual enemies while using your radiation powers to weaken them so that they take more damage, can't dodge as well, and have trouble hitting you. Your ice attacks also slow down the enemies you hit them with, and a couple of your ice powers freeze them in their tracks for a while.
Both of those combos will be able to heal themselves and their team mates, as well as bring team mates back from the dead.
Most of the combos you suggest seem fine, but AR/Rad is probably not where I'd go for a first corrupter. You'll need a solid understanding of the game to be able to play the character well, and the combination of cone attacks, knockback, and really slow debuffs can be frustrating. Really comes into its own around 35, but the first 18 levels are painful.
Radiation's not poor damage, for that matter. It's one of the better AOE powersets, with a PBAOE, spherical TAOE, and cone TAOE. It's pure energy damage, so while the damage numbers are slightly lower than other sets, it's less likely to be resisted than sets that have a smashing component - which is most sets. Just.. don't take the radiation snipe on a corrupter.
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Assault Rifle is kind of not the best power set out there in terms of damage or, uh, anything. The attacks never seemed worth the wait to me when there were others which did more damage and came in earlier. |
Originally Posted by Hart
Most of the combos you suggest seem fine, but AR/Rad is probably not where I'd go for a first corrupter. You'll need a solid understanding of the game to be able to play the character well, and the combination of cone attacks, knockback, and really slow debuffs can be frustrating. Really comes into its own around 35, but the first 18 levels are painful.
Radiation's not poor damage, for that matter. It's one of the better AOE powersets, with a PBAOE, spherical TAOE, and cone TAOE. It's pure energy damage, so while the damage numbers are slightly lower than other sets, it's less likely to be resisted than sets that have a smashing component - which is most sets. Just.. don't take the radiation snipe on a corrupter. |
As for radiation, it has decent damage and a nice effect, with defense dropping every time you land a hit. It's also just about the easiest set in the game to use.
I think you might enjoy Fire/Dark.
That's pretty much the ultimate combo of ranged/buff/debuff/control/heal.
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@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
Fire/Dark is probably my favourite Corruptor to solo so far. Good coverage for the debuffs, nice damage, and a lot of strong powers early on.
I've only played /Rad with Ice Blast, so my experience isn't that extensive. He was good at soloing with AM+Hasten slotted out, but he couldn't handle larger groups as easily as my Fire/Dark. He had some great tools for teaming though. Can't beat /Rad debuffs for fighting AVs. 
Fire/dark for sure for a newbie comin into the game. It might spoil him/her though with the awesomeness that fire/dark is. Nothing will ever compare.
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Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf
My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary
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Originally Posted by Dispari
Yeah, I like Blasters too.
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Here is my usual plug for Fire/Dark. You get a single target blast, a self heal, an AoE slow/debuff, and a targetted AoE attack by level 4. That is the basic core, and you don't look back from there and ask if you could do better. Level six you can take another rain, targetted AoE to synergize with your tarpatch. You are golden. After that you have so many good powers to choose from you literally plan to your mid 20s before getting 'set' on your own customized build.
One approach I would suggest for the dark secondary is to take your 'clicks' before getting stamina, and lean more to the toggles after stamina. I also strongly suggest taking blaze ASAP at level 18 for that extra damage kick. Hasten is your friend, too.
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Another vote for Fire/Dark. Great solo and teams will love you.
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So what did you decide on making?
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I second this. My first corruptor was a Rad/Kinetics, and it was kind of hard to solo. My Fire/Dark easily solos x5 mobs. Haven't tried a bigger team size, but don't anticipate any problems doing it.|
Originally Posted by Wavicle
I think you might enjoy Fire/Dark.
That's pretty much the ultimate combo of ranged/buff/debuff/control/heal. |
The Fire/Dark is an excellent choice for avoiding aggro due to the pet, Darkest Night and Fearsome Stare (fear cone), and Tar Patch multiplies your already significant damage as well as helping to keep melee enemies away from you.
Fire/Rad would also be a good choice, but there your mitigation depends almost completely on your toggles. If you're stunned or held, you become extremely vulnerable. Fire/Dark's Darkest Night is similar to Radiation Infection in that sense, but that's where the pet and Fearsome Stare come in: the pet has its own accuracy debuff toggle, as well as heals, holds and immobilizes that debuff acc, and it is a great aggro magnet. Dropping the pet in the middle of a spawn is a great tactic. Fearsome Stare is a targeted AoE click with a wide and long cone, with a -15% acc debuff.
Both Fire/Rad and Fire/Dark are good for fighting AVs and Giant Monsters for the big -regen debuff on Lingering Radiation and Howling Twilight. You can't go wrong with either of them, but I'd give the edge in survivability to Fire/Dark.
I just started playing this game a few days ago so far it's fun, but I'm wondering if I could get some help with choosing my build.
Thank you!
I don't know anyone in this game really, so while I want to be useful to a group I'm looking for something that I can solo successfully with. I don't really want to melee. I want to be ranged dps. I know ranged dps is mostly squishy and there for harder to solo with, but I'm good with squishy ranged characters I've played them in all the MMOs that I've played.
That said keeping in mind that I'm looking for the best solo-ability
I was thinking Fire/Rad(or Dark) Sonic/Dark(or Rad) or Dark/Rad or Assault Rifle/Rad. Radiation as a secondary (or primary...but I hear it's not great dmg) goes well with my character's theme so I'd like to either have Radiation or Thermal Radiation or Dark (seems cool too) as a secondary. If anyone could give me some feed back on these build ideas or other good solo builds it'd be much appreciated!