Green_Viper

For a Solo Defender I recommend a Kinetic. Yes, you have some single target buffs that are useless solo, but you have Transference (never ending supply of endurance and decent single target "control" with the end drain) and Fulcrum Shift/ Siphon Power to boost your hitting power to a greater extent than any other Defender. Add to that stacked Siphon Speed and a few decent blasts and you have the ultimate solo Offender.

Dedicated debuffing sets such as Radiation, Dark, Storm, are also effective, but have much more downtime than Kinetics due to the problem of running toggles and Blasting.

Nice one Prox.

Here since day one, still thinking up nice powerset combos I want to try out.

Singularity is a high point of this build, in my opinion its the most suitable pet for a Dominator (very tough, great for taking alpha strikes, its slightly lower damage output not a big deal with a Secondary full of attacks).

Fire/Energy, as others have said. Due to the close range of many of the attacks in these sets (Breath of Fire, Blaze, Inferno, Bonesmasher, Total Focus etc.), a good tip is to seek out a Kinetics user. Fire/Energy Blasters naturally gravitate to melee range and a nice Fulcrum Shift can be a real eye opener with such devastating attacks.

Imo debuffing secondaries work better on Controllers than the buffing ones. You can stay focused on the enemy the whole time and at the same time reduce the incoming damage your team is taking. Rad and Storm's defence debuff helps you hit with your AoE control also.

Personally I second what Xanthus said, with Primal Forces Epic I can activate Conserve Power then EM Pulse without worrying about the loss of end recovery, and Power Boost on any Controller, especially a /Rad Controller is simply amazing. The recharge/end recovery on a Power Boosted AM seems to be around Speed Boost levels in my experience.

Don't have a Kinetics Secondary if you want to duo with an Energy/* Blaster, trust me it will drive you mad.

Standing on my Fire Controller's Bonfire seems to work, but its a pain to continuously recast.

For an always busy Defender, make a Kinetics Defender. They aren't so much about keeping the team alive as some Defender sets, they can always be doing something to make the team own the mobs that little bit more.

If you are doing that Mother Mayhem mission, PLEASE give it to the Tank if you have one. Its pretty terrifying facing the aggro of whole mobs you have no damage resistance or defence (in the case of non-Stone Tanks)against. In my experience, as a Blaster I did way more damage with Adrenalin Boost on than I did with Fort, my best attacks including my nuke available more often. I often see Empaths give the Tank the AB and the damage dealer Fort however. Having played a Tank and a Blaster to 50, I would suggest the reverse.

I don't think I could pass up Primal Forces with Power Boost. That power is jaw-dropping in the hands of a Controller.

Yay Anath!

Grats Rose

Some great times my friend, will be sorry to see you leave.

I would say yes, Hasten is very important. Mainly for the AoE control powers. I have 3 on my Fire/Rad (Cinders, Flashfire with Fire cages, EM Pulse), and even with Hasten and Accelerate Metabolism I only just manage to have one of these ready for each battle.

Don't have a Stormie myself, but I've heard Tenebrous Tentacles from Dark Blast is a good compliment to some of the powers in Storm, as it roots them in place and prevents them scattering all over the place (like they do with freezing rain). I would get Snowstorm, Freezing Rain, Hurricane (those blasted Tsoo Sorcerers convinced me this is a good power to have), Steamy Mist, O2 Boost from the primary, the other stuff a bit more optional.

From Dark Blast definitely get Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall, these two cones together damage, immobilse and debuff a nice sized group and recharge fast. Dark Pit gives you a decent low mag aoe stun (will stun all minions it hits, maybe lts too), and has a better range than the Storm stun, Thunderclap. Needs a lot of slotting to be worth it though. Its acc and recharge much lower than tentacles, which it works well with. You could also look at Drain Life; the base heal is low and it only affects you, but its the only self heal you get outside of pools.

Thats my advice, I've not made a Stormie but I've teamed with many.

I personally really like Smoke. In those big team missions where the mobs spawn very close to one another an application of this power pretty much removes their unwanted attention unless they are actually attacked or someone literally walks into melee range with them. Sometimes when a few members of the mob get aggroed others will just stand around ignorant of the Scrapper's presence mere feet away from them. Quite handy in my opinion.

Regarding the acc debuff, yes it is relatively negligible, about 15% of the target's acc with 3 SOs as far as I know, but if you have acc debuffs or def buffs in your secondary, it can sometimes be enough to push mobs' acc to that magic 5% chance to hit. So its a skippable power, but I'd certainly miss it from my build.

The most important use it has in pvp is interrupting a Stalker's Assassin Strike. AFAIK it hits automatically, stopping the AS from hitting you at all.

Stone is the toughest at high levels, but you have a long time to wait till it gets that status (Granite in the mid 30s). As others have said, Granite doesnt really suit a damage dealing class with all those nasty penalties. I found the Fire Secondary was perfectly adequate at damage mitigation. I added Tough from the Fighting Pool as the s/l res isn't the best, but due to the nice Fire/Dark Energy resist I was lasting longer than Brutes with some other secondaries in the very common Circle of Thorns missions. One thing I did miss, an max HP point increase from the heal like with Dull Pain/Earth's Embrace, even though Healing Flames does recharge faster than these powers.

Another reason fire is worth looking at: blazing aura. Get a nice fury going and this power will be doing half your damage on those big mobs.

Samus one option is Hurl Boulder from your Primary, it will bring down any flyer it hits.

For PVP the most important powers are the Debuffs (same as PVE tbh). Most important is Radiation Infection. Put lots of -acc in that puppy. In PVP secondary effects like stuns, holds, end drain etc. are the things that mess up your day, so I'd say you should open with RI rather than Enervating Field, then the attacks that carry these effects won't land on you as much. Slot up Lingering Radiation too, slows are very nasty, especially against melee archetypes. These three powers are the main reason Rad characters are so devastating in PVP.

Personally I would'nt skip Dark Pit, teamed with Tenebrous Tentacles you have the closest thing to an aoe hold a non-Radiation Emission Defender can get. Its not quite up there with similar Controller aoe Disorients but with a bit of slotting its well worth it. Mine has 2 acc, 2 disorient duration and 2 recharge.

With Personal Force Field on you can only use powers that affect yourself, so no buffs on your teammates, or attacks on your enemies. Even toggle buffs like Dispersion Bubble and the Leadership Power Pool will only affect you while PFF is running. However, with PFF on you will be insanely difficult to kill. Put 3 defence SOs in this power and you will have a defence far exceeeding 100%, as well as very respectable damage resistance against all damage types.

Using this power I have taken the alpha strike from large +2 Nemesis mobs, taking less damage than my Invuln Tank would. PFF basically fills the role Phase Shift used to, before that power was given a timer with Issue 5. With my lvl 50 FF Defender, I can honsetly say I can only recall dying two or three times with PFF running, the greatest risk being from mobs that get a hold or stun through, dropping the toggle. Straight up damage will almost never kill you though, provided you're not fighting +8s or something.

Also providing you get both the targetted defence buffs (you really have to get these, people expect damage mitigation from a Defender), you are going to be much more squishy than the rest of the team, with less than half the defence that you have provided them with, seeing as you just have Dispersion Bubble and maybe some pool powers providing some protection. Against an enemy that throws around a lot of AoE damage, your health bar will go down much faster than the rest of the team, even if you're not drawing aggro. This is one time when PFF could be used, in addition to its common use as a panic button or while travelling.

Dark blast is a excellent choice for a Force Field Defender, as the -acc debuff in the blasts can further reduce the attacks landing on your team.

[ QUOTE ]

I have another Kinetics question. Sipho power slotted 2x Acc 3x Recharge and 1x End all TO's at present, how many times could I stack the buff? I think I could be onto a winner here!

[/ QUOTE ]

Three times is the max.