Got wife to try game. Suggestions for complimentary char?

I got my wife to try playing CoH on a freedom account, and I'm wondering if anyone would care to suggest an AT to match what she chose to try to play. She chose a Kin/Energy defender, purely because it sounded fun to her, so that's cool. Keep in mind, she has never played a game in first or third person, so just walking around is a challenge for her LOL.

I was thinking a scrapper might work well, like spines or something, as I'd like to try to keep mobs off her, but since she will have trouble doing much damage, I figured a tank would make leveling a bit slow. But, I'm totally open to suggestions for anything. If you have power set suggestions, that would be great too.

Thanks all.

The Suck-up! The Sycophant! The Brown Noser! The... wait... complimentary characters or complementary?



If she's willing to buff you constantly, then a Stone Brute. You'll have fury damage plus her damage buffs; you'll have the speed buff to offset Stone slowness; and you'll be able to taunt things and survive because of Stone defense.

Yikes.

A Kinetics/Energy defender?

I concur with melee of some kind being the best choice here, but I'll add something to that: Make sure it has a STRONG taunt aura. Otherwise the KB from her Energy Blast powers will cause the things she knocks away from you to get up and kill her instead. You want to make sure that when they go flying, they get up and come running back at you instead of her.

I'd never play Kin/Energy because Kin thrives in melee and Energy is adept at keeping things away from you, but if that's what sounded like fun to her, that's cool.

You're going to spend a lot of time playing fetch though

My wife started playing a couple months ago, and I was asking very similar questions. She started with a blaster, I took a tank. Then she made a couple Scrappers, and the last she made is a Tank. I do not think she has decided what fits her best. She has real connection to both the Blaster and the Tank and plans to 50 them both. She thinks the Blaster is too squishy. the Tank is perfect, except does not do enough damage. So, i just play whatever works best in the team that i have lying around. And we have fun, and thats the most important element to the duo. GL.

Wow! Thanks for all the replies.... and fast!

Yeah, I was a little concerned with her set choices, but I didn't want to make her use something she didn't think would be fun. I don't so much mind the knockback from energy, but mixing it with kinetics made me a little doubtful, as she would need to stay near me for both of us to get the heals and power buffs. Maybe I'll try to explain that to her and see if she'll switch to something else.

What I meant by her not doing damage very effectively was just that she has a hard time moving+selecting mob+activating power ATM. Boy, that really makes me worry about kinetics again.....

Can you make a brute start off as a hero now? I didn't know that if so. My every-night game play was back in CoH beta to like a couple months after CoV. I've been back since last... Sept. I think, so I've picked up on some of the new stuff (and seen a few old chars have lost their OP glory lol.) Perhaps I'll try the SS brute with inv or stone. My dude is a hockey player, so that kinda works beating on people.

Anybody tried street justice or titan weapons? I had the points, so I bought them. Street justice sounds like a WoW rogue with the combo points. Titan sounds kinda funny to play.

If you are planning to team in larger PuGs, I would be concerned about her getting a hard time from other players since she's new and her powers have a lot of KB.

Maybe you should consider something like an Earth/Rad controller instead? Something that can lock down mobs so her pew-pew powers do damage and not KB.

Well, we probably won't do much more than our 2 person team for a while, but I still agree with you all that kin/nrg might really frustrate her.

I was thinking about that, dominator or corrupter. Besides that, brute and stalker are the only ATs available to her on that side. Controller is also not included. Yeah, I'll be talking to her. After all your suggestions, I think the kin/nrg defender is asking for frustration for her. I mean, I got her the Harry Potter game some years ago, which was just walking, jumping, and clicking on stuff. She had to have me move the guy around while she told me what to do. LOL.

He said she was using a Free account, so no Controllers.

Personally, I would suggest that as a new player, she should go with a Blaster. You really can't go with a more simple role than a Blaster. Just hang back from the mess and shoot. Run if you need to. Other Archetypes have more responsibilities like aggro management or buffing and debuffing which may be too much to think about for the uninitiated.

Blasting is also easier for those with poor targeting skills. Because they're further back from the battle, they have a better view of the scene along with more time to pick and choose their targets. Still, remember that Ctrl-Tab is the default for target nearest enemy. It's very helpful if she needs a reference point for retargeting when Tabbing.

For you, a brute of whatever type you prefer. You'll do more damage than a tanker, yet still have a taunt aura to help in keeping mobs off of her.

For her, a blaster (though probably not energy since managing knockback might be a problem) would probably be the easiest to get into with you duoing. Note to blasters fans: I'm not saying blasters are easy, but as long as someone is keeping the mobs off of them they can dish out damage with relative safety. A defender would also be a good choice, but one of the less active primaries would probably be better than kinetics. I would recommend sonic, cold, or thermal as ones that are mostly buffs and/or heals early on but with enough debuff powers to keep them from being boring. As far as secondaries anything would be fine though, again, energy might be tricky.

Sorry. I thought the OP said his wife was using the free account for her kin/nrg def.
Is the OP also using a free account?

I'm also pretty uncoordinated, so I feel your wife's pain :-) It took me a long time before I felt comfortable teaming with anyone other than Archie.

My first character was a Rad Defender, and Rad is a nice starter set if she likes the idea of a support character. The debuffs are toggles or AoE, so they don't require a lot of fast clicking because you can take your time to select the right mob before starting the fight. Plus it has a Heal, which feels nice and useful because you can see the green numbers going up, and Accelerate Metabolism is an AoE buff on a long timer, so again not complicated to use.

If pairs up well with pretty much anything, but if you're playing on a Brute or a Tank to gather the aggro, then Fire is great because spamming flashy AoEs on bunched up enemies is very satisfying, especially when you're just starting out.

So, maybe Rad/Fire Defender or Fire/Rad Corr?

I have a fire/rad corrupter from the word *go* when villains came out. She is still my most favorite toon to play. Good attacks and easy to apply debuffs plus that heal that is available from the start.

My wife is struggling with targeting, movement, etc. We still laugh about how she used a jet pack to cram herself so far into a statues crotch it took her minutes to get out. I mean, I still struggle with movement on some maps. To someone who is new it can be very daunting.

Tactics, not even something a new player is worried about. My wife has little patience for pulling, is developing a respect for herding, and anything else she don't care. Although she has developed a understanding of FF gens lol. They just want to engage the enemy, hit buttons, and see cool stuff.

Strategy (team synergy, powerset synergy) even less important than tactics.

At least this is my experience with my wife. But, we have fun, kill stuff, make jokes. To give you an idea i 50 about 0nce every 2 weeks on my own. it would be once a week, but I get distracted with alts. With my wife I am earning exp at a very very glacial pace. But again, it's the journey, not the destination.

Going to say "Brute" too. What type? Well, that's up to you. I'd go with something that has a damage aura, probably, just because Fulcrum Shift will turn that up to 11. Heck, you'll have very little problem with endurance due to Speed Boost and Transference so I'd say.... Claws/Dark Brute. Roll with it.