Avalanche_EU

FYI "Pure Empath" is one of two phrases that is likely to send most Defenders into shivers of uncontrollable rage. The other one being "r u a healer".

Cryptic took aeging concepts of D+D clerics that are unfortunately prevalent throughout the genre, turned everything on it's head and created the Defender AT. It's criminal to undermine all their hard work with phrases like Pure Empath.

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While I'm in RV on my PvE controller without break frees (I know, I know... stupid) to take a look around, some stalker tries to AS me during 20s on top on my... quicksand. Finally, he gets it and TF me, then finish me as I am disoriented.


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My one and only foray into RV was identical to this on my storm/elec. I took a spin around the zone to see what it was like but only saw NPCs. Then I headed back to zone out and about one block away from the entrance my health immediately went into the red and was disorientated (through hurricane) and then faceplanted about 1 second later to someone that then disappeared straight away. I'm really glad I had tactics and hurricane there. I could see him coming from.... actually I didn't see him until I was dead.

I take it EM stalkers are t3h winz? No wonder the zone was empty.

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Yeah it is only a small stoppage of KD with the imob, but normally enough for them to hurt me greatly (Keith's a Rad, he doesn't feel pain the way a dom does)

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For reference, the KB protection is 10 seconds.

Are people really getting hurt with frostbite and arctic air? I solo my ice/storm by standing in the middle of 10+ white/yellow minion/lieuts with AA on, dropping freezing rain and frostbite and then summon a tornado. As long as I reapply frostbite within 10 seconds they don't go anywhere and any damage usually occurs because of their alpha strike, which I naturally heal back by the end of the fight. Even that is generally split between me and Jack (I sort of go past them and approach from the side so some of them see him first)

With 3 confuse SO's I can get toggle dropped and still get my AA back up with them confused. Perhaps it is the confuse duration on controllers that makes it safer, or maybe the occasional disorient from tornado, that stops all the damage. I even have thunderclap for a crisis but never need to use it solo.

I just wonder how much -recharge is too much. People are saying AA+CE+Shiver is overkill but is it really? You can't slot for -recharge and I didn't even think that one toon could reach the -recharge cap? I just know that my /cold corruptor can drop recharge like nothing else. I've never seen anything drop recharge like infrigidate does.

On my ice/storm on particularly scary purple gangs of mobs I use the whole shebang. Snow storm, shiver, arctic air, ice slick and freezing rain and all of that doesn't seem to amount to the same -recharge as my cold corruptor doing just snow storm and infrigidate. Of course they are purple mobs so the effect is smaller but then that's one example of how there is no such thing as -recharge overkill.

Seeds is the set defining power imo. Sure creepers looks cool and does funky things but seeds is AOE CONFUSE. Giant cone, long duration, moderate recharge, available for most of your career. It's mind control's ultimate power, given to you at low level with very few drawbacks. 6 slot it asap. Why sleep or hold something when you can hold it, increase your team's dps and get buffed by it at the same time?

Plant Control IS Seeds of Confusion.

Spore Burst is a ranged AoE sleep. Useful for sure because it is your "OMG, where did they come from? We're going to wipe" power.

Dark/sonic is great damage and a lot of it comes from the resist debuffs so the whole team benefits. The AoE damage isn't great and by your 20s you'll really notice howl doing less and less.

The single target damage chain is really fierce but I always look at dark miasma and see a big, fat herding set for people wanting to solo. You just don't have the aoe damage to back that up in sonic blast, which is a shame. Still if you stick to solo missions you'll only get 2s and 3s anyway and dark/sonic will tear through stuff one at a time really fast. Just 6 slot your Tar Patch asap so it is perma from lvl 12 if you plan on soloing a lot and get Shout at 16.

Needs
1) Snow Storm, Freezing Rain, Hurricane, preferably all three as soon as they are available.
2) Two fitness powers of your choice and then Stamina at level 20.

Wants
3) Most of the storm powers. They are all good, although thunderclap is situational and requires heavy slotting to be functional.
4) Teleport if you can fit it in, even if it's not your primary travel power, for relocating your accuracy debuff anchor efficiently

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Got any sources?

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I looked and looked and found several threads on the US boards debating the leadership powers and defence powers and one of the forum's untouchable gurus had decided that 4.66% was gospel and so it seemed widely acknowledged to be so.

I can't even remember how it was all reached but I'm sure it had something to do with Prima guides using corruptor figures, then working out the base buff value from that figure and then converting the base into the defender value. It came out as 4.66% but take all that info with a pinch of salt of course since the Prima Guide is often wrong about things in the first place.

Remember to use PBU before Aim as it boost the accuracy buff component of Aim.

Repulsion Bomb used to be ok but they changed it and did NOT change the info text. It's a different power to the one described when you pick it up at the trainer and apparently the devs will not grant you a respec either, even though the game just sits there and lies to you when you pick your powers. It's the one customer support issue that really made me angry in the whole time I've played.

I would transfer to the training room and try it first. What it is now is a ranged AoE knockback with an unacceptably long recharge timer, animation and endurance cost for what it does. It also has about a 10% chance to disorient minions only.

Compare and contrast with... Gale (tier 1 power) or Shockwave (tier 3 blast power) and you'll find the low tier stuff is infinitely better than Repulsion Bomb.

Luckily Force Bubble makes any repulsion power look a bit limp in comparison.

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Maneouvres (or however you spell it) really is kinda rubbish now, it gives a pitiful buff to your team, something in the range of 1-2% I believe, although i don't know the exact numbers.

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It's 4.66% for defenders unslotted, so about 7% slotted with 3 SO's, which is about 14% of attacks deflected. Unslotted Dispersion Bubble is 10% in comparison. Maneuvers is great and I'd definately take it on any defender over assault, which is only 18% base damage increase (effectively 9% of total damage on someone with 3 damage SO's)

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As an aside, I'm also seeing a lot of non empath defenders on Defiant right now. I was in an 8 player team last night with my dark/dark and a kin/elec and had a great time.

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That was me you big muppet And it was a great night, as was tonight and I'm sure tomorrow as well

I recently respecced back into maneuvers and tactics and now realise that I'm going to need to start doubling up end reduxes in things like snow storm, leadership powers, steamy mist and possibly hurricane as well. One in each was fine until leadership but 4 toggles is just too much for an endurance heavy set like storm.

I might just let a scrapper die though and use vigilance to get by. I doubt anyone would complain.

I never see any kins, FFs, sonics or TAs. Most of the defender sets I see are empathy, dark, rad or storm and mostly they are on controllers. Most defenders are empathy on Defiant.

I've seen a few storm defenders in the hollows but few make it higher than 20 and the ones you see play them so conservatively, you wouldn't even know it was the defender that was using the storm powers if you didn't info them.

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freezing rain + thunderous blast = pretty damn near dead mob.

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Well let's not go overboard. My 3 damage SO slotted thunderous blast, on top of a freezing rain, couldn't even kill a bunch of green minions. I was really uninsipired by the damage and it also dropped all my toggles and crippled my storm defence for a while after.

I imagine that PBU+AIM+TB would be a lot better but it's still no spawn wiper like a blaster with aim and buildup. That's 3 powers you need to make your nuke semi-respectable, that you might not take on your storm/elec otherwise. Especially if you're wanting elec epic for concept.

Ouch, well I didn't mean a good slapping, like... a good slapping. I was thinking more along the lines of rotating someone to face their secondary powerset and then giving them a patronising thwack on the back of the head to get them moving towards it.... sort of Benny-Hill-Show-bald-man if you know what I mean.

Slaps and nipple twisting *hangs head in shame* what have I started.

I think arctic air is the best power in the set imo, especially paired with frostbite. Just think of it as a pbaoe mass confuse toggle. You just have to have alternatives available for enemies that are immune to confuse, or for those missions where you're SOOOO not going within 10 feet of that mass of purples!

Both sets have really great powers. There are just too many to choose from that are worth taking.

I would give it until at least SO's, preferably longer. I found both my TA's to shine around the high 20s point, once your debuffs become permanent and you have oil slick slotted up a bit.

A TA/A would really bloom in the late 30s once you have enough spare slots to flesh out your blasts and have Aim and Rain.

I don't really understand the concept. It looks at first glance like a solo build because you have no shields, but then you have disruption field and clarity in there.

If it's solo only then I would ditch disruption, get a fitness power instead and get shout at 16. If it's team then I would rethink the whole thing because I'd be a little amazed at that character teaming with me as our defender and not having shields.

Either way I would definately try and work shout in at 16 somehow if you're going for an early offender. It's huge damage after a scream and a shriek.

It would help if you could describe the concept you had in mind to us.

Gale is awesome. It's gigantic compared to all the other knockbacks in the game. You can relocate entire spawns with it into the nearest corner/wall where things become storm puppets.

You just need to devote slots to it like any other power. At least two accuracy SO's and possibly three if you are planning on reliably moving large, higher level spawns around without breaking them up. It has a hefty accuracy penalty.

With sonic blasts, once you have siren's song and screech, I would put sonic primary ahead of forcefield for soloing because you can survive with your secondary alone just fine against large spawns. I would then want sonic siphon to boost damage.

FF would have a slight edge vs tough bosses due to force bolt but for grinding solo missions you would be looking at minions, lieuts and XP/min. Sonic wins there.

I have a 36 FF/sonic and played a sonic/sonic to 14 before deleting her, even though her pink and white, patent leather costume... owned.

How does Water Spout differ from Tornado? If it's the same power then how does the damage differ from a defender's tornado damage?

I've heard tornado is a great PvP power although don't really PvP much myself. For an AT with aoe immob and pets that spam AoE immobs I would imagine water spout would be fantastic in PvE as well.

I would get 3 damage in creepers. The numbers may seem small as they float up but if you have 10 creepers out all lashing away and doing AoE immobs when something dies then the damage really adds up.

I stopped playing my plant/thorn at 33 because I was convinced that seeds would get nerfed and I didn't want to get too attached. (That and I don't like CoV much)

It's simply the best control power in the game imo. Giant cone, good recharge speed, hits bosses with domination. As soon as you have access to Aim and have 3 recharge SO's in that then switch your seeds to 3 confuse, 3 recharge.

Aim -> Seeds -> Fling Thorns = ridiculous. You are guaranteed 1/3 of the XP of every mob. Set your sights high and go for giant spawns of reds/purples. Let them kill each other off, you only have to do 10% damage.

Rikti guardians are my favourite mobs. If you make sure that you get in close right after seeds then they give you AM.

If they add plant control to CoH then I'll be all over it in a heartbeat.

Definately get stamina at 20 because you'll be mainly blasting during a fight with a bubbler. Every two fights you're going to have to rebubble the whole team. People don't stand around for bubblage or your endurance bar (and they shouldn't have to) so you'll need to bubble on the move ready for the next fight and then have endurance yourself for blasting.

Maneuvers will help you cap defence on squishies and most FFers would tell you to get it. If you're getting one leadership power then you may as well get tactics as well.

I went with combat jumping/acrobatics to stack with dispersion bubble and up the MAG on my immob/hold protection and to stop knockback.

Which leaves one power pool if you really need. Some people take medicine but I didn't. I wanted more blasts because that's what I spend 90% of my time doing on my bubbler.

EDIT: *sigh* I really should have read the entire post. Forcefield is the absolute worst defender primary to solo with.

I ended up ditching sentinel and thunderous blast. I just don't solo enough to warrant the sentinel and its single target damage just pales when you have 10 mobs in a corner all getting torn up by a lightning storm and a tornado.

Thunderous Blast is just... a nuke on an endurance and toggle heavy defender. It just didn't work for me at all.

Thunderclap is minions only and point blank. I had it for a little while but forgot it was even on my hotbar in the end.

I'd ditch the two endredux in flight and put three flight SO's in hover.

I'd follow Psygon's slotting advice for the three powers she mentioned and go with the 3dam 2rech 1end lightning storm. You might want to try freezing rain with no defence debuffs first and see how it goes. I don't have any and never have problems hitting things with the default debuff.

You can probably drop an accuracy from each attack. I only have one in each on my stormie because freezing rain's debuff persists even after the rain finishes. Rarely do I ever blast anything that hasn't been rained on already.

I'd put 3 slows SO's in snow storm because if you plan on herdicaning anything then you want it at the slow cap or it will struggle too much. Unless you're fighting +0s and +1s all the time and nothing harder then you'll want to max out the slow.

I'd slot gale up a bit mo.... WHA?? no gale? *falls over*