Assistance picking an AT (and powersets)

I keep coming back to CoX after long absences and, as usual, am currently struggling to choose a character to play. I'm going to just go into a list of things without real order that I'd love to see from the choice and hopefully spark some feedback. I'll note that kheldians are pretty much the only ATs that I'm not interested in (primarily because I significantly prefer redside).

- I prefer to group when possible and intend to spend as much time as possible once I finally hit 50 doing things like ITrials

- When grouping I like to feel as though I'm contributing something other than just more damage numbers. This can be tanking, control, debuff, buff, really anything other than just smashing the other guy (which has so far kept me away from blasters)

- In practice, while leveling, I do a lot of soloing so something that is at least tolerable solo would be great. I prefer safe or interesting (control, debuffs, etc.) soloing to fast soloing though so I doubt this will be an issue

- I have basically no funding for enhancements. I'm happy to work my way up to a high end kind of build so would love something that performs well in that area, but I'm going to have to start small and work towards it so I'm hoping for something that isn't terrible on a low budget and only gets better as more inf is added

Thanks in advance, the forums here are usually quite awesomely helpful

Some suggestions:

Plant/Rad Controller
Dark/Fire Dominator
Fire/Time Corruptor
Fortunata

Hey Mordheim, I'm in this awesome "returning to CoX" scenario as well.
Lets break your requests up a bit

- I prefer to group when possible and intend to spend as much time as possible once I finally hit 50 doing things like ITrials
so..good in groups. Fortuna's get a buff that's analagous to AM in terms of "now we're cooking with charcoal", and an improved version of the leadership pool

- When grouping I like to feel as though I'm contributing something other than just more damage numbers. This can be tanking, control, debuff, buff, really anything other than just smashing the other guy (which has so far kept me away from blasters)
Fortunas,like earlier mentioned, have a super-leadership-pool. Also, the majority of their attacks toss out holds of one magnitude or another.

- In practice, while leveling, I do a lot of soloing so something that is at least tolerable solo would be great. I prefer safe or interesting (control, debuffs, etc.) soloing to fast soloing though so I doubt this will be an issue

Fortunas are invisible, have the defense of a drunken brute, the damage of a blaster that's missing it's pinkies, and the CC of a defender.

If you wanna play a character that isn't so much "jack of all trades" as "Didn't get the gold medal in any one olympic event, so s/he melted all the silvers down into stilletto's, then stabbed all the gold medal winners, and then melted THOSE medals down to motivate the team...through stabbykinetic terror?"

that's a fortuna you're lookin for

Since all ATs except EATs can start on any side now, I'd say the following list is a good place to start.

1) Almost any VEAT, not just the aforementioned Fortunatas. Maybe not so much Banes, but any Widow build, and any Huntsman or Crab build.

2) Most any Corr/Def that has debuff and buffs, but leans more towards debuffs. TA has nada for Buffs so can be tough early on, but can get super mean later... But while leveling up, especially if poor, can get frustrating. The support sets that are mostly buffs also mostly won't affect you, so are much more challenging solo, too. Note: I'm not say they are bad, just probably not ideal in your situation and for your desire.. Dark Miasma, Time, Rad Emission, Cold Dom, Traps, and Kinetics are all stellar choices. Def/Corrs is sorta a pick 'em scenario now. Some folks prefer one, some the other. Defs get a bonus to damage now when solo or on small teams, so the experience while solo is pretty similar. In general, tho, defs give up some damage for bigger buffs/debuffs. The biggest difference, in my mind, is do you want the attack powers sooner, or the defense/buffage/debuffage sooner? The nice part about both is that the solo well, and get better and more powerful the more people join the team. If those extra people are other defs/corrs, it gets stupid awesome powerful dang quick.

3) Doms and trollers. Controllers seem to take a lot longer before they really start to feel like real game changers, but that may just be me. IT may also have a lot to do with sets and pairings. Plant starts fast early, and stays awesome, tho, I can tell ya from firsthand experience. This is true on both Doms and Trollers. I play these sets the least, so don't feel I'm the best to suggest pairings tho.

Hope that helps some.

Oh, and welcome back.

I'll second the VEATs are a good option. Crab Spiders in particular are very strong providing very good damage with a nice selection of Team Buffs and some Debuffs. They solo well and are excellent companions on teams. The other nice bit is that they don't need IOs but do benefit from them so it's easy to make an incremental IO build.

Controllers are potentially strong at the high end (at least with the right combo) but they don't solo that great while leveling (if you do want to solo one at low level take Jump Kick, the animation is ugly but it recharges fast and combined with Containment is actually decent damage).

A Corruptor or Defender is a good choice. Most of the debuff heavy set (especially Traps, Time, Rad & Dark) can solo well especially if combined with a higher damage blast set. Archery, Fire and Sonic are popular here but other sets can also work well depending on what you like. I had a lot of fun leveling a Time/Elec Defender and he definitely works out well on teams.

I'll also put a vote in for Controllers: the solo okay, they team greatly, and they contribute much more than "more orange numbers" to teams.

As for primaries, I'd say Psychic, Dark, or Plant Control. For Plant, the extra damage (for soloing) comes from Seeds of Confusion, for the others, you can grab Air Superiority for extra control and damage early on. Confuse makes the three of them solo very easily, safely, and quickly (if the third option wasn't there, I'd also suggest Illusion Control)

For secondaries, I'd say dark, time, rad, poison, or storm... basically, any set that's more debuff/attack than buff.

Welcome back!
I'm going to offer a bit of different feedback that I hope is helpful and not unwelcome (even if it does miss the mark).

For me (and I understand this may not be true for you), having some sort of concept for the character, that I can then realize through the game's options, makes a world of difference for my enjoyment. I find this game to be remarkable at achieving a wide variety of concepts we can imagine, both in looks and in personal powers.

So, I always try and suggest thinking about who/what you think you'd enjoying pretending to be.

I am not talking about requiring role-playing and/or going any deeper with it than any individual may be comfortable with.
It's not necessarily about anything like that. To me, playing a character that has those elements of interest (whether it is a deep background and persona, or just a thematic look and set of powers from some general idea of an origin) is the difference between watching a movie that I have zero interest in and watching a movie that I'm totally into and going on the ups and downs of the movie's ride.

I only say all this as I've found it can truly be the difference of having fun or not and I've witnessed a few people not fully realizing this. Again, it may not be true for everyone, and the actual AT and powersets can absolutely be just as important... But I just thought I'd add this bit of feedback in and let other, more qualified, people handle the specifics of the ATs and powersets!

Best of luck!! I hope you find your big time fun!

Thanks for all of the input!

Due to the quickness of Death From Below and the large number of Experienced temp powers I have sitting around, I was able to give a few things a try. Started with the Fortunata and for whatever reason it just didn't "click" for me. I think, in part, that I wasn't a big fan of the widow claws and mixing weapon attacks with the mental ones. Having redraw within my own primary was kind of meh and I felt really gimped just taking the non-weapon powers (specifically missing dart burst and follow up felt painful). I did really like having controls to solo with though and that part of it was quite fun.

Second, I dusted off an old arachnos soldier, got him over the tiny hump to 24, and went crab. So far, enjoying that more than the Fort, but missing the lack of control. It is a ton of fun crouching and spraying packs with laser fire and arm-fired grenades though. Even if this doesn't end up my favorite, I think I'm definitely enjoying it.

Honorable mentions (but not played high enough to really sink my teeth into) go to Sonic Attack on a Defender. The suggestions about Corrs/Defenders made me look through them and even at the low levels, screaming at stuff and debuffing its resistance felt awesome. I went with Defender for that because the -Res was higher and it just felt "right". Now I just need to pick a primary I like and that may be the favorite... Also made an Ill/Rad Controller given the comments about Controllers and the things I liked about a Fort. That is pretty darn awesome so far. Other than having to fight Arachnos robots, confusing and blinding stuff solo is tons of fun and I was really, really enjoying debuffing stuff. While I enjoyed buffing on the Fort, the rad debuffs definitely felt like they had more oomph and I noticed a much bigger shift in the performance of a team.

Regarding the concept thing, I actually do like to RP in this game. That said, I am someone that has to like the play experience first and THEN find an interesting concept to work with a play experience I enjoy. I can probably come up with a good story for any combination though, especially given the amount of time I blow tweaking the costume and the look of every individual power. So yeah, totally get into the concept, but the play experience has to be worth it or I'll just stick a similar concept onto a better play experience =P

Thanks again and feel free to offer more suggestions. So far they've definitely guided me to a way more awesome time in CoX.

I don't play end game, but I like to team but need to be able to solo and require control. I play tankers, doms, and controllers generally.

Fire/Rad Controller - solos quickly even at lowish levels. Amazingly good on teams. One of the best builds available.

sonic/dark Corruptor (or dark/sonic Defender) - says Corruptor but plays like a blaster/controller/corruptor. Sonic debuffs enemy resistance - great solo and on teams. Sonic gives you a cone sleep you can use every fight (great soloing), a single target disoriet, and a pbaoe disorient. Dark gives you an aoe disorient, a cone fear you can use every fight, and a single target hold. Truly useful in any group doing anything.