Linea_Alba

I believe BG mode takes your damage and divides it equally among you and your 6 pets. Which with everyone in BG mode the damage you then take is 1/(1+pets) = 1/7 = roughly equivalent to 85% resistance.

When NOT fighting an EB or AV, Normally I only keep 3 pets in BG mode, and use the rest more directed. In this case the damage taken would be 1/(1+pets) = 1/4 = roughly 75% resistance.

NOTE: Your pets are absorbing the rest of that damage, and can as a result be killed. Pet resistance and Pet Defense does not effect this damage when it's applied to the pets.

The problem starts with ...

The limited narrow set of criteria you are using to judge by. There is more to the game than ONLY this narrow viewpoint. Stubborn adherence to "If it doesn't peform like a scrapper soloing this one mission, then it's unbalanced". When someone shows they can do what you can't, you then dismiss that as "oh, I didn't mean THAT defender". Then when they use the same primary and secondary as you, you further dismiss that as "oh, I didn't mean that build, I only meant my own pet concept build". I grant you, given your concept build, it is likely no-one will ever disprove view point, but only because you refuse to allow that it may be the fault of the player and the build, and not the fault of the AT itself.

IF you want solo performance then the problem is ...

The Primary and Secondary YOU picked.
The Powers YOU picked from your primary and secondary.
The concept build YOU picked.
The playstyle YOU have employed.
An apparent, if not factual, lack of understanding of the game in general and lack of understanding of your primary and secondary in specific.

And all this sums up to the problem is YOU, not the AT.

Defenders are very likely the most diverse and adaptable AT in the game, that doesn't mean any ONE specific build will be the end-all be-all of the game, nor does it many ANY defender build will be the end-all be-all. Instead it means, there very likely exists a defender build to fill almost any role in a team almost as well as the AT and build that would fill the role most optimally. Defenders (and corruptors) can do almost anything, they may or may not be the best at anything, but they can accomplish more things in more diverse ways than any other AT in the game. This is their strength.


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Better yet, I invite you to join in one of Smurphy's Fallout-friendly ITFs, the best part about that is that we're available on Freedom, Virtue, or Justice

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You mean like that all defender/corruptor/controller/dominator invincible run with enemies buffed and players debuffed where we killed everything in each mission and still finished in just over an hour ? We really probably shouldn't shock him that badly.

Granted, that's not an everyday occurance, our teams vary significantly. But I'm sure we could setup another all def/con/cor run.

well, since I never use gang war, I'm really not the person to ask. To me they are just paper targets used to distract something, not actually do anything useful. you could 6 slot with some purples in 2-4 slots if you really think Gang War has any offensive use. Then squeeze in the other two uniques somewhere else, *shrug*

It's listed as 8.5% (each) on City of Data. Slotted and combined would list as roughly 24% with both enforcers alive. As I recall I was planning on slotting mine Nucleous, Nucleous, Nucleous, Cyto, Cyto, achilles -res. Then +5% Def, +5% Def, +10% Res, +10% res in Gang War. That ups the pets to 34% defense all on their own. Pool: Maneuvers raises that to 38%. Add in FFG and you'd be beyond the soft-cap easily even unslotted.

My current build is old pre-i9, that was intended to duo with another thugs, the 4 enforcers softcapping the pets even with SO only builds and no other buffs or debuffs.

If I can remember, I'll check the combat attributes in-game tonight. I've never tried to check combat attributes on my pets, so I'm not sure how to do that atm, but I'll see if I can figure it out.

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That is, if we start from the same starting point, all the classes should be the same.

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Another perfect summation of YOUR problem.

Try petselect_name

Assuming a pet named "cupcake" ...
/macro blah "petselect_name Cupcake"
or
/macro blah "+$$Unselect$$petselect_name Cupcake$$powexecname nullify pain"
or
/macro blah "+$$Unselect$$petselect_name Cupcake$$powexecname nullify pain$$targetenemyNear"


Test it on a macro before you try to write it into any complex bind system. I don't recall if they have to be in LoS for that command to work or not.

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It's not my opinion that Defenders have low offense and low defense. They do. It is a fact.

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... sets like Emp or FF are of little use solo ...

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An Emp/Energy Soloing Invincible Missions is "weak" ?

Emp/ Duoing at levels a scrapper can only dream of, grant that's not solo but Perma-Elude Defenses with Perma-Instant Healing that's a benchmark even the most expensive pair of scrappers would be hard pressed to match.

An FF/Archery tanking AND killing an ITF roof-top with 60+ mobs ?

An FF/Archery passing the RWZ challenge, a challenge that many scrappers can't pass, is low offense and low defense ?

A Rad/Sonic soloing a Giant Monster, a Giant Monster that NO Scrapper has ever soloed nor will ever solo, is low defense and low offense?

A Cold/Ice dishing out the equivalent of 160 to 190 Single Target DPS, a number that surpasses many, if not most, scrappers is low offense ?

A Storm/Ice tanking an ITF roof-top with 60+ mobs at once is low defense ? (I *can* kill them too, but it is slow as when I tank I spend more time endurance on defense and less on offense. It's a trade off until I get a better build. This is as much a limitation of the build and a limitation of player skill, my lack of skill.)

A Fire/Kin (corruptor, but the inverse build works well with Ice, Dark, or Rad) That performs at a level that mirrors a spines/regen scrapper, is low offense and low defense ?

An Dark/Dark out tanking more than half the (non-stone) tanks she's ever met while doing more offense as well ? (this one is more subjective and harder to prove in raw numbers, but none-the less true)

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Further still, Defenders being better at buffing the team does nothing for him when he has no team. It's not a valid comparison.

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This statement sums up YOUR problem.

There are more balance points than solo performance alone.
There are more defenders than FF/EB alone.

Sonic Blast/Rad Em (cor) or Rad Em/Sonic Blast (def) is the proven Giant Monster soloing choice.

Night Widow, Blood Widow, or Fortunata ? What's your build ?

In general you'd want to:

add 1 Endurance reduction in your attacks. This is often more important than anywhere else. A decent attack chain will generate 5 to 6 eps. That means without endurance reduction in your attacks you can be wheezing in 24-25 seconds.

Stamina will make that 31 seconds
1 endrdx in each attack will make that 38 seconds

etc and so on.

About the best you can hope for as any of the 3 widows is about 90 seconds on a ST chain and 60 seconds on an AoE chain. But, ease off the dps and recharge and you can extend the ST chain indefinitely at more than sufficiently high DPS to solo AVs.


add 1 Endurance Reduction to each toggle, or any enormously endurance hungry clicks.

Find 2 different attack chains. One Single Target Chain that is as endurance efficient as possible. Then a second one that's AoE Focus and eats the blue like candy.

Stamina ASAP, and slotted. A +Endurance Proc is very useful as well. Drop the Travel powers (or something) and get stamina. You can use temporary powers to travel. If nothing else, Just purchase a jet-pack in grandville for 10k.

Make sure you turn off the travel toggles (including sprint) when you start fighting. I keybind in commands to make sure I do this, otherwise you'll wheeze even faster.

If you're still having problems ...
add 2 Endurance reduction in your most endurance hungry attacks, this really means it's time to frankenslot.

Probably should page to the last page of that guides section to where it's been last updated.

I would say DB/WP, Fire/WP, Fire/(Dark or Rad), Ice/Cold
I'm really having trouble choosing between dark or rad.

SS/WP - without a Billion Infamy IO build I'm not certain it would be my pick.

Fire/WP - Cheap and effective. You could do this build with the bargain basement yard sales.

DB/WP - It's simply beautiful to watch, who cares how good it is. It also happens to be decent.

Fire/Rad - I love the darks, but Rad is a bit more well rounded Jack of all Trades. It'll ease off the defense/control a tad, but up the offense and endurance. It's also smaller radius than dark, but is also amazing. If you find Fire/Dark Defense/Control overkill, then Fire/Rad would be my next choice. Alternate AM and Heat Loss for nearly perma +endurance.

(Fire or Ice)/Cold - You can't go wrong with either.

Fire/Dark - An amazing build. simply amazing. One of my top picks. But chances are it will be defense/control overkill, and you may well be better served by the additional offense/recharge/endurance provided by /Rad.

Fire/Thermal - Meh solo, but would be nice for the team to add some resists and spot healing. I'd prefer the dark myself, but I'm a bit biased toward the dark playstyle.

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The Holy Trinity of purely specialized Healer, Blaster, Tanker is not always the optimal path.

Neither of the below are optimal, just what I could throw together quickly. Neither are offensive enough for me, personally. However, since less offense was specified as desired, less offense was provided. The offensive variant is only double procced, I didn't have time to figure out optimal slotting for triple procs. However, optimal triple procs are viable and are more effective than double procs, but also likely require a very mature purple build. I'm sure things can be improved and powers and slots could be swapped around. Either could be done with SO's or Commons and still be acceptable.

Low Damage Variant
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Moderate Damage Variant
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Bot/Traps, Thugs/FF, Fire/Dark, Plant/Psy

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... I knew I should have added Sonic Cage to my 2nd Assault Build... ugh....

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It's not as easy as it sounds.

First: You MUST have HAMI-Os to enhance the cage. 1 to 3 depending on Controller vs Defender vs Corruptor vs the level of targets. I've never messed around with it enough to determine the exact number needed. I went overkill with 3 L52 Hamis and 3 L50 IO Recharge along with a perma-hasten build.

Second: Without a heavy IO build you can only cage 1 and sleep 1 (barely). It's the IOs that make it possible to double that.

Third: *IF* you miss, and there's always that 5% chance, it all goes to hades in a handbag rather quickly.

Crabs, or Huntsman. The Veats can hold their own in the AoE department while having significant self-armor as well as moderate team buffing.

Thugs/. MM's get pretty much the second best of all worlds. Team buffs, Team damage, as well as very sturdy soloing.

(Fire Blast or Ice Blast) with (Dark, Rad, Kin, Cold, Storm). Pick your poison, they are all good.

I no longer recommend traps for AoE destruction builds or any general teaming or utility, but only for specialty niche AV soloer builds.

PS: AR has discrete burst/nuke capability, but overall sustained AoE is lower than fire. If the level of things you regularly hunt don't survive more than 10 seconds, then advantage AR. If they tend to survive closer to 30 seconds, then advantage fire. The difference however, is in the 20% range and depending on the playstyle you prefer, well within acceptable limits of each other for you to simply go with the playstyle preference.

Fire has the AoE edge while Ice has a control and ST edge, but second best AoE. Depending on how much you play 8 man vs 1 man, you may find an advantage in one or the other. I tend to prefer ice more often for it's more general applicability, while I only chose fire for a "team-only, Coalition-only, AoE Destruction" build.

I have since gone Veat for general most flexible teaming. The Fire/ are retired, but I have retained the /Ice Blast mirrors on heroside since veats are not available there, yet.

Based on a pair of actual builds:

A Fire/Dark AoE Corruptor will run 1000 dps AoE Damage and buffed with Forge will run 1200. This does NOT require a multi-billion IO build.

An AoE focused SS Brute with Foot Stomp and AoE-Patrons with perma-hasten double rage 80 fury will run 1000 dps AoE Damage and buffed with Forge will run 1100 AoE DPS. However, this is likely a multi-billion infamy build.

The difference is in the base numbers. Buff the corruptor first, unless they have the worst SO build possible while the brute has the best multi-billion IO build possible, most likely you'll get more damage out of buffing the corruptor.

1. That would certainly be more useful.

2. I can see that being equally useful.

3. This would compeletely destroy my only reason for being a sonic. The character was created explicitly to leverage caging and find as many uses and tactics for it as possible. She was built exclusively for caging on the STF where she can perma-cage 2 Patrons and AoE-Perma-sleep a 3'd (or more) patron. Then once the yellow is down perma-cage LR until the team is ready to deal with him. You could translate this to the LRSF as sleeping as many as you can cone/aoe and perma-caging 2 others.

4. This hole has always been here, sure I won't complain if it gets plugged, but I won't hold my breath either.

5. I'd love to see liquefy on a shorter timer, making it considerably more useful. As-is the timer is entirely too long.

Oh, My! VERY NICE. I'm glad I noticed this post, if belatedly.

In the second mission of the ITF ... Smurphy has a habit of:
"Everyone Gatther for Buffs! AM and RA in 5 seconds"
*team teleport onto the platform with both AVs*

I tend to prefer to send the team after the computer while I pop up and nuke-pull(tm) the platform, raining it's contents down on our heads. We have a few times (more or less) simultaneously killed the computer and both AVs. The computer as the main target and the AoE splash taking out the pair of immobilized AVs. However, normally, they fall in a more sequential order.

Nuke-Pull: If you're gonna pull, you might as well and do it right and use an AoE. The bigger the AoE, the better. Rain em, and Nuke Em! If that doesn't pull them, nothing will. Some teams may however translate this as "Dear Diety, What ever you do, don't ask Linea to pull."

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Here are 4 reference builds, gathered from various sections of the forums, each of which is very good in its own way.

Reference A
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
The open slot is for a PvP IO
Remember 1/2 of cloak's defense suppresses during combat.
Immobilize can be slotted either Enfeebeled for Melee Defense or Positrons for damage at the expense of dropping during combat melee defense to 42 ish.


Reference B
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]


Reference C
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]


Reference D
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

I've done the 8mm ITF 3 times now, it's "Interesting". I can't recall if I was on the one Smurphy posted.

Kins healing capabilities, along with -damage, -speed, put it roughly on par with /regen stalkers (somewhat weaker than regen scrappers) but with a weakness to mez. Add in some IOs to cover KB and moderate defense levels and you become a very solid soloer. You can then pick your primary or ancillary/patron with an eye to dealing with mez preemptively. Lastly top it all off with some Vengeance and you can become a demi-god anyone on the team gets themselves killed by capping defense, pre-emptive mez tactics, and healing almost equal to a regen at it's peak. A few wakies or strength of will (pvp inspiration assuming they are still available.) and you'll be a real force to be reckoned with.

Reference Build (This one was stolen from a reputable source):
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Some of the newer IOs could update this build if you were so inclined.

Crabs have the greatest AoE potential, but at the expense of both defense and ST potential. Easily remedied by duo-ing with another crab. Crabs that softcap themselves tend to give up too much in some other area, loosing most of their advantage over the the huntsman. On the upside, that type of build is likely less expensive in infamy.

Huntsman (hybrid Bane/Wolf) have the next highest AoE Potential, and can just barely softcap, or just barely not softcap, or add in even more AoE at the expense of defense. However, crabs have the stronger AoE skew.

Personally, I prefer the huntsman with near-softcapped defenses, Aid Self, while maintaining pylon soloing ST damage, the second best AoE damage, and stronger force multiplication thru both buffs and debuffs. I give up a little defense, but I keep the second best of of all worlds.

If the crab legs were less fugly, and I knew I would always have a crab partner, then given a duo of crabs mitigates the defensive weakness as well as the ST weakness I would then always duo with crabs for the greater AoE destruction.

Bane (Bane Melee with minimal Wolf Attacks) are next, but both forts and widows can be built to equal the same level of AoE. Forts and NWs are not normally built that way, but can be.

Rad Emission/Sonic Blast for ST Focus (Example: AV and GM Specialist or Soloing)
Radiation Emission/Ice Blast for Mixed ST and AoE Focus (Example: General Teaming)
Radiation Emission/Dark Blast for AoE Focus (Example: Large Team AoE Steam Rolling)