Are you familiar with Mids Hero builder.. http://www.cohplanner.com/
Helps you plan out your builds.. Also it allows you to look at builds others have posted on the forums.
Personally I would go with Archery Traps. Archery has less Knock backs then Assault Rifle. You could eventually go into a group if you get defense capped and drop Rain of Arrow followed by Trip mine Basically massive AOE damage killing a bunch of mobs at once. Not saying that you cannot do this with Assault Rifle I just feel that Archery is better suited. Further a personal feeling only, but I believe Archery is a much newer set compared to Assault Rifle and I believe at least in my mind that they somewhat fixed the issues with Assault Rifle with Archery. I look at it as they looked at all the Knock back Assault Rifle has and heard the complaints others had with teaming with such issues and decided to make the Archery a bit more group friendly.
Plus as much as the supersoaker gun looks silly sometimes, I think it's much cooler looking then the other guns you can pick. At least thematically you can see where to flamerthrower comes from on the soaker gun, where as on a machine gun it pretty much comes out the same barrel the bullets do. Suspension of disbelief I guess, but I like the original supersoaker better in that department. You get to see the labels and such on the gun.
Mids Hero builder has a power comparison option also so you can compare Archery vs Assault Rifle in different aspects. Damage, recharge, etc.
If I further could suggest to make maybe a Kinetics/ ? character first.. Simply Picking up the appropriate Kinetics powers will get you teams. Pretty much everyone likes speed boost and other powers that Kinetics offers. At level 20 assuming you have speed boost people will ask or invite you to farms which will help you get game money or Tickets. ( all you need to know is both are good, hehe )
This will allow you a character to have as your finance toon and help you build up other characters.
1. Why Soft Cap is Important : http://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011...important.html
2. Limits: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Limits
3. Attack Mechanics: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics
4. Rule of Five: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Rule_o...e_Law_of_Fives
Thanks, that'll help a lot. I guess what I'm looking for is a pro's and con's list or AR vs Arch to help determine which would be best. It would take me a while to playtest them both to 20 or so (limited playtime), but I guess that is one way to know for sure.
I am fairly new to the game and like the idea of both of these potential Defender builds. I'm guessing I will spend a significant amount of my playtime solo since I am a noob and don't know anyone on my server yet. Any veterans out there who can lend some guidance as to which of these builds would be best?