DocPhotonic

You could go old-school, taking a page from the old Green Machine sg, and duo with another empath defender. Believe it or not, this can work very well, especially, if both of you are disciplined in keeping each other buffed up. Also, you two can alternate casting your Regen and Recov Auras so the buffs are perma or nearly perma.

If you add a third empath, everyone can have double-fort buffs and the team will become a true force of nature.

It looks as though I16 will allow us to custimize the graphics for Cold Domination's ice shields.

Well, well, well! I guess I'll be able to play my cold defender again. I loved that toon, but I stopped playing him because I got sick of the constant complaining about the intrusive graphics.

Cool.

Mechamancer
Hexmonger
Invincibelle
Mutant Outlaw
Horrorquin
Sick Twist
Full Tilt Boogie
Supertronic
Buffoon
Ripweed
Cometeer

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<3 DM

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This

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I concur.

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Yes, and DM is sweet for stalkers, too.

Nazareth
Hair of the Dog
"Now you're messing with a son of a [censored]."

White Stripes
Seven Nation Army

Rage Against the Machine
Bulls on Parade

Rage Against the Machine
Killing in the Name of

Led Zeppelin
Immigrant Song

AC/DC
Back in Black

*Edited for added awesomeness

I have a lv 42 Fire/Fire/Force blaster, and I get a lot of mileage out of Force Mastery while soloing (I only have PFF so far, of course).

My soloing technique is as follows: with Hot Feet, Blazing Aura, and PFF running, I'll herd up 1 or 2 spawns (missions set on unyielding). Note: when PFF is running, HF and BA will still be toggled on, but will not affect the mobs.

Once all the mobs are within melee striking distance, I'll pop Aim and Buildup, drop PFF, and use Fireball and FSC. If anything is still alive, I'll finish them off with ST attacks.

So far, I've been amazed how effective this technique is versus non-boss level spawns.

P.S. If you're like me, and can't afford the top-self +recovery unique IOs, I have found that, at a minimum, you'll need to put 3 end reduxes in HF and BA. This was mentioned in Peg's previous guide, but I'm not sure if this advice was included in this one.

For past Double XP weekends, I spent all my time leveling up one character. This time around, though, I'm going to spread the XP bonanza across several of my characters who have stalled in their 30s.

Note: not all defenders are empaths, and not all empaths--at least not the ones who are worth teaming with--are "healers."

Moreover, empath defenders who fancy themselves to be "healers," that is, empaths who focus on their heals and neglect their buffs and blasts are not only gimping themselves and but they're also short-changing their teammates.

For example, I die a little inside whenever I see an empath who doesn't have or doesn't use Fortitude--arguably the best power in the empathy powerset. With a little slotting, you should be able to keep it on at least 2 or 3 teammates at all times.

As you can tell, I hate the term "healer." It just doesn't seem to belong to this game at all. CoX is a different beast than WoW or Everquest. Because our buffs, debuffs, controls are so good, we don't need to observe the old "Holy Trinity" model of play.

As always, YMMV. If my post seems a little cranky, it's because I just got off a team that gave my dark defender a lot of grief because he is a dark defender and not a "healer." I wonder if anyone noticed that my dark defender did far more to keep the team alive and steamrolling than the team's self-described "healer" was ever able to do.

Great guide!

Recently, I rolled up a clown-themed thugs/traps MM myself as a loose homage to the Joker, and have gotten him up to lv 34. I can say that it is indeed a very powerful and fun combo.

I've only played it in PvE though, so I can't speak to its effectiveness in PvP.

I agree completely. I'm more than a little mystified about the advanced IO stuff. The in-game tutorial was woefully inadequate.

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Saying no to FootStomp?! I've got a SS/Fire at 40, and man, did the whole game change when I got FootStomp.

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I agree with this 100%! Foot Stomp is the bomb. Not only does it deliver very nice AoE damage but it also provides very nice soft control via an AoE knockdown.

If AoE attacks is your thing--and it should be as a member of Repeat Offenders--take it and love it.

Recently, my Earth/Storm controller duo'ed with a lv 20 scrapper, in Talos.

He jumped into a spawn of four +4 mobs. With all my controls and debuffs, his health stayed in the green for the entire battle. I never once used my heal, O2 boost. Surprised that he survived the encounter, he turned to me and said, "nice healz."

Go figure.

Yeah, I remember back in the early 80s racing home from elementary school so I could watch the ainme series Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers.

On the weekends, I would go to the local video arcade and play Space Ace, Dragon's Lair, Defender, and Asteroids, for a quarter a game.