Psylenz

If you still have your second build available, I would strongly suggest you give poison trap and acid mortar a try in an experimental build for you. These are bread and butter powers on many trapsters, even ones that run in and start fighting/shooting. I would suggest a quick recharge on both, I think you might like them. If I am feeling really gung-ho, I set my acid mortar between the current group and the next since it has awesome range, 100 feet per Red Tomax City of Data.

My trapster runs in except for exceptionally difficult groups, but even with forcefield generator defense I can still set off trip mines in a crowd.

My suggestion for taking gang war would be at level 18. I find it invaluable on thugs.

I teamed with a sonic defender that colored the sonic dispersion (big bubble) an extra bright metallic yellow that made my head hurt from how bright it was. Subtlety can be a good thing.

Dr. Mike:

There is an icon on the casters buff/debuff bar.
The behemoth jumps out ready to attack.
I think the range debuff on player attacks would be a good solution to whiffing on the detention field. I think the color emphasis could help with that, too.

Griff Mender: They are invincible but equally harmless for a period of time. It's like half a hold. Electric and ice blast get holds, but waiting for an epic hold is a long haul considering how early sonic cage and detention field arrive on the scene.

I wasn't suggesting these powers to use just to be annoying, dilatory, or for regular use. In a situation you could weigh, rezzing retoggling, restoring health and endurance vs. waiting for a detention field to expire. The power colorization in my opinion makes these detention powers more team friendly with the extra visual cue.

I enjoy playing defenders, and I especially enjoy the Second Build feature available after level 10. So I experiment on Mids and in my mind how powers that are underplayed COULD work.

Current project of mental machinations: Detention Field, Sonic Cage, Black Hole.

What makes a bad power?

1. Players don't know what it does, i.e. the consequences
2. The power doesn't work consistently enough to be useful.
3. Players don't know when it's activated, know how to work along with it.

With these three 'cages', allies know what the cage does, they know how it works and that it works as intended. I feel the greatest irritation has been knowing when it's been activated, which has been tricky even with binds... until NOW with power colorization.

Don't get me wrong. I hate it when an ally or AE NPC has to fire off detention field every group - just as much as I do NOT like hurricane abuse, Target AoE with radial knockback and all the other powers that can make a team pull their hair out.

My question, if you sonic buddy could put a bright red and yellow glowing cage on a bothersome behemoth lord that might be on the verge of defeating an ally like a blaster or controller, couldn't we show some open-mindedness for a debt saving manuver? Binds and power colorization I feel have greatly diminished the stigma attacked to cage powers.

To be honest, it's my opinion that storm and empathy are the two hardest defenders to play. Storm has to balance chaos and order with all the positional powers. Empathy builds twitch playing skills to keep teammates upright.

Forcefields is forgiving for beginners once you get the 4 minute cycle down for buffing teammates. Sonic is fairly straightforward, too. Cold has a few more twists, but it's the same theme; buff the teammates, debuff the bad guys. Traps isn't bad for beginners. It's self-sufficient but a bit on the edge at times. Trick Arrow is nice for beginners, a bit squishy, but definitely a contributor to teams.

Dark defenders I would say are middle of the road. The debuffs are nice but I think there is a learning curve to what the powers actually do and when they can be used for maximum effect. Rad is very effective with a simple heal aura to fall back on, but again, some learning to do what when. The radiation emission build can be tricky because there is such a crush of options prior to level 20.

Five or six slotting Envenom, Paralytic Poison, Weaken, and Neurotoxic gas by the upper levels is how I approached /Poison. A solid endurance reduction in all four is recommended, esp paralytic poison and neurotoxic gas.

edit: and YES, Thugs/poison is a strong build, built for bringing down the toughest single targets. It shines against bosses, less so against full rooms, but Bruiser is always there for you in the big rooms.

I would just as soon see the forcefield primary pick up defense debuff in certain powers like repulsion bomb, repulsion field, force bolt as opposed to tweaking the damage in the secondary. Mostly I think it would be easier to implement. I am a firm believer if you are knocked off your feet you should have at least a wee bit more vulnerability to a follow-up shot.

Ok, looking over your power selections I went along with it until level 22, 24,... 38 what? OP my friend, you simply must work Fearsome Stare into your build somewhere shortly after Stamina. It becomes available at level 20 on the dark miasma secondary. It's a top of the line debuff; it has a fear component, kind of a soft hold, plus a big, big tohit debuff. This power operates in a wide and long cone. When you push back hover, you probably won't keep grant invisibility. At level 38, most dark miasma users boilerplate their Dark Servant into their build. Dark Servant is a reflection of you using dark miasma powers. The big fluffy also has a strong tohit debuff aura called Chill of the Night around him. When times are tough, dark masterminds huddle with the dark servant for maximum tohit debuffing. Finish up with soul tentacles and soul storm.

Slotting preferences: 3 Recharges are overkill on Darkest Night. Toss one Tar Patch's way. It's fine to use fly as your primary power. (I guess you are a veteran with fly at level 6.) Two fly enhancers will maximize your flight speed. You would maximize your potential putting a resistance/end and a defense/end IO in place or a resistance and a defense enhancement to reduce some endurance cost. Having twilight grasp, which is a great power to spam for the debuffs, you don't need 3 health slots. Swift need a FLIGHT enhancement in it.

Lastly I would re-emphasize that fearsome stare and dark servant are six slot powers, too.

Good luck.

Of course I would like to see your build. I assume you slot some endurance for your equipping and upgrading. Some poison powers take more endurance reduction than others. Alkaloid can be a real pig. I usually slot 40% endurance reduction in assault in and 80% in tactics, then toggle off tactics when there is a real endurance crunch. Remember, the click will use more endurance than the toggles.

Questiions I have: Are you running noxious gas on the Bruiser? Are you running hasten? Are you spreading your envenom and weaken around? How do you approach groups? What is your strategy for resummoning minions?

Vultrun - Robots/Dark Miasma - Victory

Assault Bot - Coruscant
Protector Bots - Alderaan, Endor
Drones - Dagobah, Naboo, Tatooine

Of the below Task Forces, which Defender would you be inclined to use or invite to your Task Force team, and why:


Imperious Task Force
8 Rad/rads . Whatever, take a LOT of defenders. EMP Pulse with Howling Twilight first strikes help a lot.

Katie Hannon Task Force
Storm! Fight fire with fire. Really Snowstorm grounds the witches and gets them in melee range of your scrappers.

Lady Grey Task Force
Pure defense - you need a FF/* If you want to feed your need for total chaos, take a stormer. Plenty of opportunity to cut loose.


Dr. Khan Task Force

I was on a team with only a FF/psy Son/son and Storm/? We ruled that TF. I highly endorse shielders/ringers for this TF.

Have you totally ruled out a mastermind?

Consider repulsion bomb: nice AoE knockDOWN and damage power.

Dump gloom
Dump TP Foe (You have six AoE minded minions, what are they doing with one target?)
If you made it to level 30 w/o hover on top of TP you might not need hover, but I would probably fit it in, too.
Pick up Tactics. Your minions crave enhancing for features besides extra accuracy/damage (heal, tohitdebuff, defense debuff.)
You definitely need heat exhaustion and melt armor instead of team teleport. If you really fancy using team teleport, you can probably fit it in before level 32.

Good luck and I have had good luck on my Necro/thermal myself.

Thugs/dark is very strong. Thugs/poison used to be the uber pvp build and is a boss/AV/GM killer. With gangwar you can absorb the deadliest of first hits with your posse. Thugs also have built in leadership from the enforcers. Thugs have 3 primary sources of damage types, lethal, fire, and smashing. Dark secondary gives you an additional debuffing/healing pet. Poison gives you minion based click debuff that neuters most targets. Even Statesman pukes in the aoe of noxious gas. The bruiser makes a perfect synergistic fit for bearing the noxious gas debuffs.

I have not played thugs/traps, but I am easily convinced it could carry the fight to the AVs as well.

1. Tough target defeat specialist (vs. boss, EB,AV,even GM) -solo
Can defeat a single tough target most quickly, alone (admittedly requires a high level of survivability as well.)

Bots Poison has the ability to take out a wide range of the toughest targets. Interestingly enough, a consigliere is probably the toughest challenge.

2. Team tough target defeat specialist (vs boss, AV/even GM) -assisting/enabling
This teammate would help the team defeat a tough target most quickly (defensive capability not necessarily important, offense may be)

Rad/sonic or cold/sonic defender, I agree with this.

3. Large group defeat specialist -solo
Can defeat a large group most consistently and quickly, alone

Thugs/Dark or Robots/Dark

4. Team large group defeat specialist -assisting/enabling
This teammate can make defeating large groups fastest most consistently (defensive abilities not important, offense may be)

Kin/sonic defender or Cold/sonic. The heat loss in cold is formidable.

5. Tough target survivability specialist (vs. boss, EB,AV,even GM)- solo
Can stand against a tough target the longest, without help (offense capability not considered, assuming never ending enemy attack)

Obviously a stone/dark tank.

6. Team tough target survivability specialist (vs. boss, EB,AV,even GM) -assisting/enabling
This teammate would make surviving tough targets for a long period easier (offense capability not considered, assuming never ending enemy attack)

Cold/sonic sounds very nice here, a full team of ice tanks.

7. Large group survivability specialist -solo
This combo can withstand a large group attacking them the longest (offense capability not considered, assuming never ending enemy attack)

I vote for a Willpower tank here, more foes is more regeneration.

8. Team large group survivability specialist -assisting/enabling
This teammate can help the team stand against a large group the longest (offense capability not considered, assuming never ending enemy attack)

I am going for a Forcefield defender here.

9. Tough target control specialist (vs. boss, EB,AV,even GM)
Power combo that can most consistently stop a single tough target from dealing damage (offense not considered)

Cold/sonic defender, and a Robots/Poison comes to mind, too with the Noxious gas debuff.

10. Large group control specialist
This combo can stop a large group of enemies from dealing damage most consistently (offense not considered)

Dark/dark/dark defender. Fearsome stare hits the big cone, darkest night for an AoE around the toughest target, and Dark Servant for some up close and personal tohit debuff.

11. Tough target stacking specialist (vs. boss, EB,AV,even GM)
While often diversity on a team often preferred, the more of this specific archetype primary and secondary, the better when fighting a single strong foe

Rad/sonic defender. Rads have been stacking for a long time successfully. Thugs/Storm stack, too.

12. Large group stacking specialist
While often diversity on a team often preferred, the more of this specific archetype primary and secondary, the better when fighting a large group

Rad/sonic and Thugs/storm


Admittedly I cookbooked my answer.
__________________

Today we finished a Synapse Task Force we were forced to interrupt due to time constraints yesterday. We had started with 6, but 2 dropped out. The last two thirds was completed by the following foursome:

Kitana/Dark Armor scrapper
Empathy/Electric defender
Fire/Cold controller
Traps/Dark defender

I am still amazed how effective we were, very safe, and yet potent damage. Honestly, how did that work? It was like mystical synergy.

Let me know about your other mystical groupings that just worked like how bumblebees fly.

After they took the pulsing out of sonic resonance that induced migraines, I can't think of any reason to not want a sonic on your team +res and -res is a fun game. Howl is an awesome power for a defender secondary.