Darth Hater

I am currently out of the country and am unable to play. So I set my wife up to play around on my account while I am gone hoping that she will take enough interest to make her own account so we can play together when I get back, like we used to do with CoH. The deal is though, she is not much of a gamer and the learning curve is tough for her. She is pretty set on the smuggler, so my question is, what is the easiest smuggler AC and general build to learn and play with? I know generally the question would be dependant on playstyle etc etc, but all I really need to get her interested is something that is not going to frustrate or be overly confusing. Any advice on enjoyable yet productive companions for that build would be nice as well. I appreciate any help you guys can give.

Scoundrel eschews the cover mechanic... go Scrapper and shoot things in the face.

The easiest for a newbie would probably be gunslinger.   Get into cover at the start of the fight, pew pew.   Personally I lke scoundrel better than gunslinger, but the scoundrel requires a bit more finesse to play.  You've got positionals and movement in combat with the scoundrel.

As far as companions go, you will only have one for your first couple planets so choice isn't an issue.

Scoundrel has the ease of stealth and healing, but it also goes against the initially intuitive habit of sticking to cover. You don't want people to mention playstyle, but it will depend on which style of play she prefers for smuggler. If you plan to come back and play with her, she could go Scoundrel while you pick a tanking AC, for a good pairing of Tank+Heal that I see a lot of couples in MMOs do.

Thanks for the advise. I think I will recommend gunslinger to her now and depending on how she likes it when I get back perhaps she will go scoundral once she re-rolls on her own account.

Gunslinger is a lot of fun.  Being able to take cover and unload never gets old.  And your survivability in PvE is better that I thought it would be when in cover.