Ok- I want to try a shifter. I've read much of the forum material about them, and the wiki...but could use a more personal perspective on the subject. I want to be self reliant (at least for having a look around) so utility comes to mind, but I've heard that Utility forms are also fairly good at both offense and defense. Is this a myth?

Defense forms look nice, my concern is that whichever form I select for my minor focus may just be a sideshow and not entirely effective. My estimates based on available information lead me to think that Utility/Air, Utility/Offense, or Offense/Utility would be good for an overall good time, but Defense/Utility if I want to do explore areas later on. Any personal insight is greatly appreciated based upon your subjective experience, not on "what's on paper". The game and RP are all about perception and fun for me so that is infinitely more important.

on a side note...has anyone ever done Air/air? Or Offense/offense? I saw someone util/util and cannot imagine why.