[Marcus]

It would take hundreds of karma to reach effectiveness.

Define effectiveness? 
I agree that mys adepts are always karma-hungry but not to the point of unplayability.

It easier to show what is not then what is, but a mysad that has bought only adept powers, has no spells or magic skills, and doesn't have a pool above 13 isn't, for sure.

Further any mysad who doesn't have spells and the skills to use them, is most certainly non-effective.

Well, for an inital investment of 20 extra karma for the quality, and 30 extra karma for the power points, so 50 total, you can create a character built just like a physical adept only (except he gets astral perception for free, worth 5 karma if you were planning on getting it) but with a ton of future potential.  The question is, how long will your campaign last?  If you guys are planning to play for a loooong time, a physical adept might actually become quite boring, whilst a mystic adept has a ton of future potential.  The only downside is that if you initiate as a PhysAd you get more power points, but as a MysAd you cannot receive power points (if I read that right).

And how much karma does it take to get spells, and the skills to use them, let alone initiation? Your buying potential at the cost of initial effectivness. does anything in here strike you as potentially effective so far?

[Whiskeyjack]

Whiskeyjack - when I said non #f weapons I meant the fact that silencers and supressors themselves are #f availability.... 

Largely a non-issue, frankly.

also you said that a Mystic adept that can shoot is hard to pull off and walks a razor edge for optimization but what if part of the concept was a Mystic Adept, but because the person teaching/training him didn't realize that he was a mystic adept, just trained him as a normal adept and the character only recently figured out he had access to more? as in initial optimization for the "that shoots" part and needing to earn karma in game to enhance the counterspelling and spellcasting and such?  also what about initiating into psychometry or apotropaic arts (eventually)

You're going to suck at something. If you're a spell caster, sucking at spells and/or spirits is sucking at the thing you paid the most chargen resources in, at least in priority.

To be honest, I don't approach characters from the angle of "being suboptimal and being kind of middling at the thing I paid a ton to invest in is a cool story." I get no enjoyment from that. I acknowledge how I phrased it is loaded. Not saying you're Doing It Wrong, but I'm not sure how helpful my opinions can be, because that is an alien mindset to me. Which is not to say I hard optimize everything, it's just, I play a MysAd to be good at magic, not to be ok at magic but great at shooting because of my backstory. Because for a MysAd, to me, a gun is great backup and you don't always want to out yourself, but I want to be able to throw max magic when needed.

and though technically locked into nocturna, what metatype/variant would have worked better for this concept? (kind suddenly thinking oni (cold the human looking quality apply to oni))

If you want to be a good-shooting MysAd, Elves do alright, Humans are probably better because their priority is much more forgiving.

The reason I seem stuck on Mystic adept is that of the other three characters, one is apparently a non magical dwarf that surged and grew fur, ears and a tail to look like the cheshire cat, a Troll shaman healer/support type (who is phobic of filre) , and a korean human vampire (i can't remember if that character is full magic or mystic adept)  but neither of the magically actives are starting out the type who would want or be able to facilitate spirit combat other than buffing me and hoping I can get shit done.

SURGE is totally overpriced this edition. Totally overpriced. A SURGEd Dwarf is going to be pretty far behind the math game.

Ditto with Trolls. I love Trolls. Trolls are painful in anything less than Sum-to-12, because of their metatype priority requirement. I like Trolls a lot, but so much STR is just not worth that. BOD is great, but it's just too expensive. A Troll MysAd is either going to be sorely lacking in stats and skills, terrible at magic, or have zero Edge. In all cases, they will likely be broke. It's very frustrating to me. I cannot see a good reason to play a Troll over an Ork, as they get very close to the Troll boosts but have greater priority freedoms.

Again, I say all this as a person who would just plain not enjoy being so potentially far behind the math game as everyone else. YMMV.

Vampire may not work with all groups. It can be dangerous and problematic. 

If i were to go with knucks or blades as a weapon focus, what force rating would I Ideally want for the focus?

At least one, otherwise as high as you can at chargen. 3?

[Strange]

And how much karma does it take to get spells, and the skills to use them, let alone initiation? Your buying potential at the cost of initial effectivness. does anything in here strike you as potentially effective so far?

It would be an extremely effective character with lots of future potentials.  He would be a bit narrow at the beginning, but still effective.  Again, my major concern is having the Attributes to support the build.  Am I saying he would be as good as an adept at the start?  Yes, he would be.  50 karma won't break your major build, mostly it will be more money or skills that you don't really need that would suffer, so a tight build will definitely work.  But more important, if that is the type of character that you want to play, then play it.  Again, as I said already, it also depends on how long the campaign intends to go.  These factors may not make you think it is viable, but that is just your opinion.

[Marcus]

And how much karma does it take to get spells, and the skills to use them, let alone initiation? Your buying potential at the cost of initial effectivness. does anything in here strike you as potentially effective so far?

It would be an extremely effective character with lots of future potentials.  He would be a bit narrow at the beginning, but still effective.  Again, my major concern is having the Attributes to support the build.  Am I saying he would be as good as an adept at the start?  Yes, he would be.  50 karma won't break your major build, mostly it will be more money or skills that you don't really need that would suffer, so a tight build will definitely work.  But more important, if that is the type of character that you want to play, then play it.  Again, as I said already, it also depends on how long the campaign intends to go.  These factors may not make you think it is viable, but that is just your opinion.

So how do you define effective?

[Strange]

And how much karma does it take to get spells, and the skills to use them, let alone initiation? Your buying potential at the cost of initial effectivness. does anything in here strike you as potentially effective so far?

It would be an extremely effective character with lots of future potentials.  He would be a bit narrow at the beginning, but still effective.  Again, my major concern is having the Attributes to support the build.  Am I saying he would be as good as an adept at the start?  Yes, he would be.  50 karma won't break your major build, mostly it will be more money or skills that you don't really need that would suffer, so a tight build will definitely work.  But more important, if that is the type of character that you want to play, then play it.  Again, as I said already, it also depends on how long the campaign intends to go.  These factors may not make you think it is viable, but that is just your opinion.

So how do you define effective?

It would take hundreds of karma to reach effectiveness.

Define effectiveness? 
I agree that mys adepts are always karma-hungry but not to the point of unplayability.

You first 

[Aethelwulf1972]

and what do I want to prioritize for stats on a weapon that is to be a weapon focus?  ACC? AP? Damage?

[Whiskeyjack]

I would say all of those, just like with a gun.

A sword is good because then you can take Wudang Sword as a martial art to get Ballestra (bonus reach) and Iaijutsu (improves your action economy to activate the focus and use something like Elemental Weapon before attacking).

Katana + personalized grip is damn good for a reason. I like clay mores but those are much less socially acceptable.

[Jack_Spade]

There is a reason why the monofilament weapon focus has become (in)famous.

If you have Hard Targets you could get that nice memory metal spear. It's an iconic weapon for a hunter, it can be concealed and it has great reach.
Rapid draw works as well as Iaijutsu by the way.

[Whiskeyjack]

Can't believe I forgot about the whip. I love it but you definitely need a concealable Biofiber pocket if it's a focus.

[Aethelwulf1972]

oh I forgot to ask, what if anything do I need to add to audio devices and visual devices (earbuds, contacts, glasses, etc) in order to be able to record what I see and hear?

[ZeldaBravo]

A micro camera with a microphone.

[Whiskeyjack]

I thought just image link covered it.

[Marcus]

And how much karma does it take to get spells, and the skills to use them, let alone initiation? Your buying potential at the cost of initial effectivness. does anything in here strike you as potentially effective so far?

It would be an extremely effective character with lots of future potentials.  He would be a bit narrow at the beginning, but still effective.  Again, my major concern is having the Attributes to support the build.  Am I saying he would be as good as an adept at the start?  Yes, he would be.  50 karma won't break your major build, mostly it will be more money or skills that you don't really need that would suffer, so a tight build will definitely work.  But more important, if that is the type of character that you want to play, then play it.  Again, as I said already, it also depends on how long the campaign intends to go.  These factors may not make you think it is viable, but that is just your opinion.

So how do you define effective?

It would take hundreds of karma to reach effectiveness.

Define effectiveness? 
I agree that mys adepts are always karma-hungry but not to the point of unplayability.

You first 

It would take hundreds of karma to reach effectiveness.

Define effectiveness? 
I agree that mys adepts are always karma-hungry but not to the point of unplayability.

It easier to show what is not then what is, but a mysad that has bought only adept powers, has no spells or magic skills, and doesn't have a pool above 13 isn't, for sure.

Further any mysad who doesn't have spells and the skills to use them, is most certainly non-effective.

Oh but I already did. So carry on. Clearly we disagree on what it means so where am I wrong?

[Halinn]

I thought just image link covered it.

Image link: A standard upgrade, this lets you display visual information (text, pictures, movies, the current time, etc.) in your field of vision. This is usually AROs, but you can display pretty much whatever you want on it. You and your team can use it to share tactical and sit- uational info in real time. An image link is what you need to truly “see” AR and participate in the modern world.

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

Image link covers video, audio link is for sound (but is commonly handwaved).
Edit: Apparently audio link is something I made up.

Weapon foci wise, best you can start with. ACC, DV, AP, and Reach are all important. Personally I would want either a WF katana, claymore (hard to hide/justify), Horizon-Flynn Rapier (similar to katana, but cheaper and slightly less DV), or combat knife are all solid options. Personalized Grip on the katana or HF Rapier has ACC of ~8 which should be more than enough. Problem with all melee characters is you want strength to be at least 5 majority of the time. My reason to skip knuckles is because killing hands covers the damage reduction and 'ware will get you the raw damage (for 1 point of magic and essence). Only thing you will lose is the bonus dice (which is nice). With STR of 4, unarmed is not that advisable 4-6 DV is not that impressive if you want to kill stuff with your fist verse 9 DV (no Crit Strike) with the claymore (and -5 AP).

As for MyAd without spells, why? You would be better served as a pure adept or mage. You might have more options in the long run, and potentially really powerful, but at a ridiculous karma cost, At the same karma level a pure adept will out pass you in there focused job (this case killing "monsters"). Why, because the delima between focused builds and generalists. Currently one could consider the mage the best generalist depending on spell selection (outside of drone and matrix stuff).