Cognito

Crush + Lift + Propel

Thats one minion out of the way

Ah fair point

Congrats on going for concept 1st BTW. I always do to, but for some reason i like to choose "different" sets (no fire/fire, ice/ice, rad/rad etc) because i like to stretch myself conceptually, and also i like to play unusiual characters

Dont quite understand - elec has a "zapp" snipe just like radiation. Not that im a big fan of snoipes anyhow

Well, ANY defender is always a valued member of a team. My point is this:

On bad / inexperienced teams, empaths are head and shoulders above anyone else.

On good teams, empaths are a little less desirable than other teams.

Only my opinion. After 30lvls playing a tank, i certainly loved empaths, but felt a whole lot safer basking in green radiation or dark debuffed enemies.

I play lvl 35 rad/elec: more on that below.

IMO Ennervating Field (3x end red), Irradiate (3 x def debuff, 3 x acc debuff), and Lingering radiation (6 slotted up to you) are unmissable, and the very essence of the rad defender. I strongly advice these powers are got and slotted asap. Getting hit by all three of these reduces anything to a wreck. Ive had some (sometimes overconfident) scrappers duelling with me suddenly feeling pretty useless with these three on them (Yes, i win defender vs scrapper duels)

Fallout never appealed to me. In PvE it means something has gone wrong and anyway Mutate (with its buffs) can normally swing things back. PvP might have its uses.


You may wish to consider an alternatice to */rad (NB always concept first) my logic was:

a) With irradiate, defence is pretty low on enemies anyway, so the secondary -def debuff of rad attacks is not as attractive.

b) The end drain of elec attacks is a nice little control in itself, but more importantly can supply you with more end, allowing you to fire of blasts more liberally. If you fancy being offendery, then this is a bonus, because the rad toggles can sap you a bit.

c) Short circuit on a defender. I have 3 SO end modifiers on mine. 2 shots of this, and all minions have zero End. Even Lt's and bosses will dry up fast. This provides an excellent means of control, and is a royal pain in PvP.


And good luck!

I will play withany one who is polite, a bit chatty, and fun.

But, at lvls 30+ i find empaths a bit redudant to be honest. Much rather have kinetics, rad, dark, or to be honest any other defender (exception - TA... that really needs a sort out).

IMHO empaths are highly valuable to bad teams as back up, they are highly valued by low lvls who dont know better and get hypnotised by green flashing lights, but experienced and good teams, at higher lvls? they dont want to have to NEED heals at all.

I play a lvl 35 rad defender, and in a tight team I dont need to bother firing of heals at all. In a bad team, i am spamming heals constantly and the team would be far better off with an empath.

Fairs fair though, the haul to lvl 20 was tough, and the only defender people wanted was an empath... now i have my revenge!

Oh and if you think 8 empaths together is a nice team... think of the other combinations (8 FF or sonic would be unhittable and unholdable, 8 kinetists would blast through anything, 8 radation has to be seen to be beleived, even 8 TA would floor all mobs accuracy, damage, and damage resistance).

It seems as if post I7, Ice Tanks are going to be the uber. Always were unequivically best at getting aggro (I used to play one, I was dissapointed if I couldnt grab 90% of all hits), and now, finally can take it (with defence changes and the already tasty -14% damage debuff of CE).

I just hope that they arent nerfed. C'mon devs, they have had so long being absolutely rubbish, let the poor things have a couple of months absolutely laughing at other tanks, and having groups scream out for an ice tank (Yay! instead of *kick*). By all means, nerf them in issue 8, but please please let them have their day after years of being the least popular.

State has just posted that Defence is being reworked to scale for bosses and higher lvl minions.

Ice Tanks are back in the game big time if this happens. Combined with the CE buff, they may well be next after stone in survivability, and given they can herd better than anyone, may become preferred for teams after lvl 32.

About time

Agree with that

I have a TA and a Rad defender. There is simply no comparison between the two. If I lockdown Mobs with Rad I can pretty much stand in the middle reading a newspaper. I recently did Maestro mission with 3 others, have screen shot of us all standing next to him reading newspapers. The trick Archer version would be us all dead.

THe only problem with debuffs is traininng your team mates. I now tend to team only with freinds and we have become very skilled at getting 90% of enemies in the green and thus plowing through them, rarely require heals.

TA? Well i guess you dont need the skill in herding/clustering - you fire and forget. Quite literally, you forget you ever fired because it makes no perceptible difference.

Lift i find very usefull IMO. Can keep a target almost locked down.

Propel is cool, fun, and rubbish. Therefore you must take it.

Sonic Siphon from sonic set is a subtle but very useful power for taking down the big kills. People dont notice it but it really is a nifty lvl 1 power.

Both considered to be weak sets. Until some positive balancing takes place, I would only take for concept. Sonic probably stronger; a lot of high lvl enemies resist smash/lethal and reducing resistance effect of secondary is attractive (and more attractive for teams).

I like the look of the higher level powers, but sadly a rarely see a high level sonic user, as many give up.

I debated putting this on the suggestions board as a comedy suggestion.

A new Inherent: ANTI-BOOT.

Once on a team a toon cannot get booted. He could offer boot as part of a trading arrangement (heres some influence, now.. **** off)

THis inherent is made available to Trick Archers, Ice Tanks, (any other suggestions?)

Perhaps they could have another Inherent, the ability to set their Hero rating as UNDER heroic... maybe "Coward" rating, all mobs at -1?

Excellent Info guys... Rez is not on the cards then!

LMAO at that.

Your lucky, its normally...

"Are you a Healer?"

*Twaing*

*Boot*

Are you sure? In the text descriptions it specifically says minions cant be raised for EVERY set except mercs.

I would run all 3 tactics pools if you can, as a MM. Cant go wrong with any of them.

One question i am grappling with is ?revive from medical pool. Merc's are the only minions that can be Rez'd.

The unknown quantity is: If you rez a minion who was equipped/upgraded; does he spring back with the upgrade? If so, revive would become highly desirable given the v.long recharge of final upgrade power.

Anyone know?

Have a Merc/FF myself

I dont play with ANY attacks (such as burst), I dont do much damage, it drains end, and given I am buffer, If I dont attack, I hardly get any aggro. This fits with concept, but its a good way to play in IMO (DIed so few times, I am infamy broke all the time!)

Other notes:

May want to consider Manuevers power, as the defence will stack with all your FF. I slot my minions with acc, so am not sure I really need tactics but I will pick it up anyway. Combination of FF buffs, dispersion FF and manuevers all stacking makes for very high defence.

Serum I have, and I am not sure about it. It certainlyu gives big buffs, but lasts a short period of time at which point ENd is gone. I use it for end of mission bosses and hope I can Catch of Breath its target once it has worn off.

I would slot the spec ops with 2xacc, 2xdam, 2xdisorientate, as they do a lot of disorientation effects

Otherwise, all looks good.

Whatever you do - never roll a Rad / Energy...

Ooh look at all those nice clustered, herded goons, all basking in radation and next to impotent.

Bam... energy blast.... knockback...

Oh.

Just having fun with a tric arrow defender lvl 9 so far.

Appalling set! slow recharge, mediocre effects, where on earth do you enhance? acc checks on most debuffs, even end isnt attractive. Absolutely unequivically the worst primary for a defender EVER.

I love it. Will have a lot of fun.

Very interesting. If they ever hand out a respec,I might dust of my lvl 30 ice/ice tank. Slot aid self with 2 x heal, 2 x recharge, 2 x interrupt, might be interesring. COmbination of high defence and ice patch would make it viable

Absolutely true!

Personally i'd take radation 1st, electricity 2nd, energy 3rd, but it depends on style of play. If planning on doing a LOT of attacking, electricity best as you wont be sucking wind

Er... yeah... Maybe i wasnt clear... I was just saying that when it comes to resistance, electricity is no worse off than rad or "energy" attacks.

Anyway, as defenders, the secondary effects are boosted in comparison to blasters, as i understand, so it is on this principle thats its prob best to decide on secondary. I hated knockback (as a rad defender, last thing i want is to spread em), and radiation defence debuff didnt seem to attractive when I could already lower enemies defence to the point of 90% hit rate with my primary set.

If you like playing a close quaters defender, Short Circuit from electricity is a killer - I have one with NO slotted end modifiers (just got it) and it seems to drain over 50% of even level minions end on one shot. Recharge isnt to long, so in about 15 secs, all minions are at 0 end.

Is this true? I thought heals were flat HP

Just a thopught - consider electric. I have a rad/electric defender. Little point in radiation 2ndary I thought, cos' enemies defence will be pretty low anyway. Grabbed electric.

The advantage? Electricity is relatively poorly resisted like energy and rad. You may be aware that electricity has now had a minor buff - it not only drains END from the target (which can be very useful as a control - those teleporting Tsoo sorceres are less of pain now), but also means you can let loose your attacks without worrying to much about them draiing your END to much (and leaving you huffing and puffing when you should be healing). To me, this latter ability is the attractive one: As a defender, we have to be cautious about END drain and let loose 2ndary attacks carefully

For a laugh, I am rolling an all-archery defender. Heard they were a bit rubbish. However, they would absolutely rock in a team of the same with stacked tactics.

Would anyone be interested in an occassional knockabout group of archery defenders?