Character Guide

Editorial Note: After you have read the Whys of building a character below, try the Character Planner

Foreword:
This guide is going to go through the steps on how to build a good character, and have many modular cookiecutter builds as examples, but the idea is more to show how to build a good character build, than to list viable builds.

A Word to the newbies
You're probably wondering what order to raise stuff, so I'll add my bit on that too here: Max out your attack skill first, then the attributes for it, then INT+PER if you're going crafter, then endurance, then armor use, then coordination, then other skills. You'll get more and more AP freed up as you get to higher levels to flesh out your build with. Work on your dodge before going to S2, and I suggest doing so no sooner than level 18 and preferably waiting until 20+. Dodge can however wait until you're at least level 13 or so.

Step 1:Combat or crafter?
Simple step: if you go crafter, you max out INT and PER, otherwise you ignore INT and only max PER if you go ranged.

Cost for crafter: 280 AP

Sidenote: a main mutation build may only wish to take an attack skill to 120 or so, more on that under mutation builds in the advanced builds section.

Step 2: Pick a weapon choice.
In most cases this means melee, pistol or rifle, though you may pick more than one, as a hybrid build, in general you pick one, and at most raise melee as a backup to one of the ranged choices(particularly rifles).

For ranged you'll want max dex and per, for melee max str and coo.
This means a total cost of 363 AP(2x140+83)

Step 3: Defense
Next step, how much defense do you intend to get, generally it is a good idea to max them out, but for some builds a lesser amount of defense is acceptable, to fit all you need/want into them(especially for crafter builds).

Max defense: Max coordination, endurance, dodge, armor use; caveat: you only need 164 armor use, so it will cost two less than a normal maxed skill, total here is 444/437 AP (2x140+83/76+81)(second number after dash is max dodge for melee build with no PER)
Good defense: Here, the sweet spot for having a little less defense, but still quite high, is to reduce your max-level coordination and endurance by 8, leaving you with a max dodge of 154 and armor use of 150, I recommend this for ranged crafter builds. Total cost of 352 AP.
Decent defense, poor health: Max coordination, normally maxed perception from a previous choice, gives 166 dodge, 135 armor use, poor hp, and costs a total of 290 AP. Suggested as a decent choice if you are maxing cha/social, and pick up telepathy to match that(has maxhealth buff).
Good health, shoddy defense: Max endurance, armor use to 135, dodge to 110 or 124 depending on PER. Total cost of 272/279 AP(depending on PER).
Minimal: No points in defensive stats, max dodge(124, with max PER, since this is NOT recommended for melee), armor use to at least 90, but will probably want to keep it maxed until end levels to wear better armor sooner. Total 107 to 127 AP.

Step 4: Support skills and Mutations
This is where it gets a bit tricky, and even more modular.

Charisma builds
These are only really suggested if you want to have max social, perhaps to be your clan's shopping guy for expensive and rare mats.
Typically you'll have CHA+PER maxed, and 1-3 of the following skills, in rough order of importance:
Social - 83 AP to max, buy stuff cheaper, minor buff/debuff abilities.
Telepathy - 75 AP to max with no willpower spending, healing skill with maxhealth buff and a 10m range damage+stun attack.
Group Tactics: minor buffing/debuffing and minor healing

Mutation builds
These builds have maxed WIL, and will want to max PER, INT and possibly END, as you might imagine, they get very AP heavy and thus tend to pick one of the cheaper defense choices.
You'll want at minimum: Max telekinesis, max thermal, max sonic, and either max nano-manipulation or empathic(or telepathy, if you also max CHA).
Patho-manipulation is also quite nice for it, after that it gets a bit blurry.

Medic builds
Buffer subclass: Maxed first aid, usually combined with crafter since first aid is primarily INT.
Combat medic subclass: Maxed empathic and Telepathy, of course any old class can have these, but probably not as dedicated as having both.

Just your average mutant:
Brief listing of what the mutations do, and their primary stat(all have willpower as secondary), shamelessly stolen from darksilver:
Nano(INT): self-heal; hp/sta/gamma regen; targetable gamma->hp transfer; rez; self DoT remover; hp/sta->gamma siphon
Thermal(PER): DoT; DD+DoT; melee dmg shield; fire resist debuff;snare+coo. debuff; self DoT remover+heal
Enhancement(INT): armor buff; team armor buff; elemental buff; hp&sta regen; bod&ref.&min saves buff
Suppression(PER): gamma siphon; attr. debuff; stamina siphon;DoT remover; AoE dmg; self convert gamma into hp&sta
Sonic(PER): DoT; AoE dmg+stun; snare+coo&per debuff; DD; AoE armor debuff, armor buff
Telepathy(CHA): targetable HoT; group HoT aura; targetable maxhp buff; team AoE DoT remover; rez; DD+stun
Patho-Transmission(END): sta drain+end debuff; AoE DoT; DoT; snare+dex&coo debuff; str+end debuff; disease+radiation+chemical+poison resist buff
Primal(STR): coo&per buff; run speed buff; str&end buff; dex&per buff; str+coo buff; self sta regen
Empathic(END): rez; targetable DoT remover; dmg shield; self heal; targetable heal; team hp&sta heal
Telekinesis(INT): armor buff; AoE knockdown+DD; run speed buff; team armor buff; self gamma regen; root+dex debuff

Step 5: Final check
This step is basically figuring out if you can afford what you're planning. What the AP costs will be. It is technically possible to get over 1100AP without doing AP runs around the faction wheel or repeating missions btw, but it'll take quite a while to do them all anyway. I'm guessing the grand-total AP available is somewhere around 1150-1180AP, but to squeeze out those last few AP will take you months extra, so for the purpose of this guide, I'm going to count 1100 AP as more or less the max, but don't despair if your build goes slightly over. Base AP without missions is 880 AP.

Costs
Attributes cost 140 AP to max.
Skills with both attributes maxed costs 83 AP to max.
Skills with primary attribute maxed costs 75 AP to max and takes it to 152.
Skills with secondary attribute maxed costs 62 AP to max and takes it to 124.
Skills with both attributes at minimum cost 55 AP to max and takes it to 110.
Skills with attributes left at 75(8 under max) take 75 to max, taking them to 150.
Skills with primary taken to 75 and secondary maxed costs 77 to max and takes them to 154.
Armor use, with either attribute maxed and the other at minimum takes 67 AP to take to 135(no reason to pay 68 to max it).

Sample build, my current pistol combat build(which I've taken to 45) has currently:
Max DEX, PER, COO, END = 560 AP
Max Pistol, dodge = 166 AP
Armor use 164: 81 AP
Empathic, Sonic, Thermal taken to their no-WIL maxes of 152: 228 AP
Telepathy taken from 55 to 70: 15 AP
Telekinesis taken from 55 to 88: 33 AP
Total: 1083 AP

I have 1088 AP, with 5 unused, I'm not done with all AP missions yet, and haven't even started doing the archive missions for the three sectors(24 AP there alone).

So what does it all mean, really?
Well, to condense down the previous post into fewest possible words: you pick wether to be a crafter, then the attack skill you want, and the level of defense you want, this gives you the 4-5 stats you'll be raising, and how high you'll need them for your goals, do the math for what it'll cost, then you add on as many support/mutation skills as you can afford, and voila you have a build.

Basic crafter build examples
You know you want to be a crafter, so you will max INT and PER.

Melee sub-build
Melee is up close, so you'll want to be fairly sturdy, probably max defense, or at least close to it, this leaves little room for extra goodies, but you could shave off about 8 max endurance if you really need the AP for something else.
For my example, I'll use max defense, for simplicity:
Max INT+PER+STR+COO+END = 700 AP(pricy!)
Max Dodge, Melee, and 164 Armor use = 247 AP
=947 AP
And you'll probably want some healing, so adding empathic: 75 AP
And you'll probably want a ranged attack mutation, so adding either Sonic or Thermal manipulation - 75 AP
=1097 AP

You'll probably want to wait with maxing both mutations until endgame, adding bits at a time as you get more mission AP, it's going to take you a while after reaching level 45 to finish up all AP missions.

Ranged sub-build
A bit less defense required, for this example I'll use the "Good defense" outlined in above post.
Max INT+PER+DEX = 420 AP
75 each in END+COO = 200 AP
Max Pistol/Rifle(choice) = 83 AP
Armor use 150 = 75 AP
Dodge 154 = 77 AP
=855

Again, you'll probably want a healing mutation and an attack mutation
Nano-manipulation(since your INT is maxed, but END isn't, for empathic) = 75 AP
Thermal(because its debuff clearer doubles as an extra self-heal, and you're not going empathic) = 75
=1007

Still room for more! Ok, I'll add a double choice here:
A: Sonic - more attack mutation power, 75 AP. Total AP = 1083
B: First aid - you too can be a support medic/buffer, 83 AP. Total AP = 1090

Basic combat build examples
Ok, since you're going combat spec, it's a given that you'll max defense. You'll also max out at least one weapon style, and perhaps dabble in another.

Melee Tank example
Max STR+COO+END = 420 AP
Max Melee, Armor use(164), Athletics(runspeed and good debuff remover) = 247 AP
Dodge 152(no PER...) = 76 AP
=743

Lots and lots of room left over eh?
So what are we to do with all this extra AP?
For starters:
Max Primal (short duration runspeed buff and long duration stat buffs) = 75 AP
Max Empathic (yeah we want heals) = 75 AP
Max Patho-manipulation (DoTs and AoE DoT, yummy) = 75 AP
10 points in telekinesis, telepathy and sonic, to access their stuns earlier = 30 AP
=258 AP, total 1001

Hey that's less than the first crafter build before mutations... more room!
Ok so maxing out telekinesis, and sonic then(to a piddly 110)... = another 90 AP
=1091

Rifle with minor melee hybrid
Max DEX+PER+COO+END = 560 AP
Max Rifle, Dodge, Armor use 164 = 247 AP
Melee maxed to 124 = 62 AP
=869 AP

Max sonic, thermal, empathic = 228 AP
=Total 1097 AP

Capstones:

For capstones, I'd like to refer to this thread:

But I will explain some choices in some of these builds by explaining that it gives a capstone, and if so, a summation of what it does.

Sample Advanced/Odd builds

Heavy Mutant Example
Max: Int+Per+Wil+End (560 AP)
Pistol 124(62 AP)
Dodge 124(62 AP)
Notice lack of armor use, it will be covered by buffs.

Not always listing all abilities, just reason for taking them.

Max Telekinesis: AoE KD, armor buff, speed buff, but most importantly: GAMMA REGEN buff. (83 AP)
Max Sonic: AoE stun, armor buff, DoT, DD(primary reason for pick), etc (83 AP)
Max Thermal: DoT remover+heal, DoT, DD+DoT(primary reason for pick) (83 AP)
Max Empathic: Heal, targetable heal, team heal (83 AP)
Max Patho: DoT, resistance buff, AoE DoT(primary reason for pick) (83 AP)

Alternate choice: replace end+empathic+patho with cha+telepathy+enhancement, however only for the micromanager... the maxhp buff only lasts 10 mins, so needs constant replacement.

=1099 AP
Capstone: Tech 80k - Ballistics+Thermal, AoE 200 DD+3s Stun

Chota Melee Example
Max Str+Coo+End (420 AP)
Max Melee+Athletics (166 AP)
AU 164 (81 AP)
Dodge 152 (76 AP)
=743

152 Empathic: Heals (75 AP)
152 Patho-manipulation: AoE DoT and resistance buff will be the only ones gracing hotbar due to lack of room. (75 AP)
152 Primal: Runspeed buff, Coo+Per(higher dodge/melee def) or str+end(HP) after taste. (75 AP)
110 Telekinesis: AoE KD, armor buff, root, and gamma regen (55 AP)
110 Sonic: AoE stun, armor buff, DD (55 AP)
60 Telepathy: Armor buff, DD+stun (5 AP)

= 1086 AP

Capstones:
Vista 80k - Dodge+Primal: 135 DD+20/s DoT
CHOTA 80k - Melee+Patho: 175 DD+24/s DoT (replaced melee swing)
Traveler 80k - Melee+Athletics: 100 DD+5s Stun

Melee Tank/Crafter/Medic
Max Int+Per+Str+Coo+End (700 AP)
Max Melee+Dodge+First Aid (249 AP)
164 AU (81 AP)
152 Empathic: Heal, Targetable heal, Team heal (75)

For you who love helping out.

=1106 AP

Support Monkey
Max Dex+Per+Cha (420 AP)
75 End+Coo (200 AP)
Max Pistol (83 AP)
150 AU (75 AP)
154 Dodge (77 AP)
=855 AP

Support section:
152 Group Tactics (76 AP)
124 First Aid (62 AP)
152 Telepathy (75 AP)

= 1069 AP
Add as much Empathic as you get AP for (Caps at 140, would total 1139 AP)

For you who love helping your team out. Bit of Jack of all trades toolboxy supporter.

Vista Rifleman
Max Dex+Per+Coo+End (560 AP)
Max Rifle+Dodge (166 AP)
164 AU (81 AP)
= 807 AP

152 Sonic: Armor buff, DoT, AoE stun+DD, speed debuff, DD (75 AP)
152 Primal: Speed buff, Coo+Per buff, Str+End buff, etc (75 AP)
152 Empathic: Heals, heals and more heals (75 AP)
110 Telekinesis: Armor buff, AoE KD+DD, gamma regen

= 1090 AP

Capstones:
Vista 80k Dodge+Primal = 135 DD+20/s DoT
Vista 80k Rifle+Sonic = AoE DD+Stun (replaces rifle shot)

**Info Posted From GlobalAtlas**