Howling Twilight is auto-hit, no risk of it missing..
A no attack "Group-Friendly" Defender is like a "Team Friendly" basketball player who won't dribble, run, or shoot, under any circumstances. "I'm a PASSER."
yeah, oops, I just found that out myself. I really wish they wouldn't limit the time you have to edit a post. I'd really like to change that.
Thanks.
And some of us even only slot it for Disorient 
My thought is if I need it as a rez, someone is not doing their job.
But anyway, awesome guide!
Wow, I really wish there was a guide like this for every AT!!!
Thanks, took a while to type up so I'm glad its appreciated. ;-)
Beautiful... This guide definitely deserves a 5-star rating.
Excellent post, Capt_Neem!
My main is a EMP/RAD defender (only 15th level) and I feel fairly "balanced", thus far. I will admit that my secondary suffers due to the great powers avaliable in my primary. But I see myself catching up here shortly.
I created another defender who is Rad/Dark. I chose these becasue as I was looking at the debuffs, between these two it seems most get taken care of. I just wanted to mention that I think this combination is the most diverse debuffers in this AT, though I could very well be wrong. RAD can debuff DEF, ATT Speed, Movement, and DAM. Dark Blast can debuff ACC with just about every attack.
Just my thoughts on a great compilation!
Excellent post Capt_Neem as I'm sure anybody reading it will get a more clearer understanding of the various Defender ATs.
Stars for you!
The Mentor Project - Because we were all new to the game at one time...
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=212083
Followed the link in your sig to this guide. Excellent job! I too wish there was a guide like this for other ATs, particularly Controllers and Blasters.
By the by, my Defender Dr. Curie is an Empath/Radiation. She solos pretty well, except for bosses or particularly large spawns. This might also be due to my travel power, which is SS; when I get that boss or high-lvl Lieut I tend to fight him for a bit, running(normally) around, then toggle on SS, run down the street/tunnel, set up a snipe, fire more while he's running at me, wash-rinse-repeat. 
Thanks. Sounds like you have a cool strategy for handling solo play. Congrats ;-)
Heh, hadn't noticed but you are right. Dark blast is a great utility set and as such it goes well with a lot of builds.
Excellent post. I think it should be stickied and every potential defender will be well advised to read it 
very well put together. very on point. you wouldn't be a MtG player would you?
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Forcefields works well with any secondary set, Since Forcefields is so straightforward it does not synergize particularly well or poorly with any of them.
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I disagree. Forcefields has quite a poor synenergy with in particular Radation, but to a lesser degree Energy and Dark Blast.
The reason? Range.
While Deflection bubble and Insulation Bubble don't particulary mind you running around since it's basicly Fire&Forget powers the last part of the Holy Trinity of FF defenders, Dispersion Field, definitly does.
And since Dispersion field is, in my own not so humble opinion, a defining power of the forcefield set alot of people (me included) mold their other powers around it.
That means more PBAoE buffs like the Leadership Powerpool.
That means that positioning is all important, and you will have to compromise that positioning if you want to do all that running required for Cones and short range powers.
And if the FF defender chooses to go the disputed Force Bubble route, then they REALLY don't like those short range powers...because you won't even be able to get that close to your enemies!!
So in essence Radiation Blast is right out since Electron Haze, Irradiate, Atomic blast (which isn't really suitable anyway since you're a Toggler) and Cosmic Burst are all powers with short range and much running required.
For the same reason you have a problem with Dark Blast since it's a powerset that just loves its cones, and cones are best when you get a chance to position yourself (which 90% of the time isn't the ideal position for PBAoE team buffing).
And for the same reason you have some problems with energy (although not as much as with Dark&Rad) since Power Burst, Energy Torrent and Nova arn't all that compatible with the FF philosophy of positioning.
On the other hand Forcefields LOVE the Psychic set because all of the bread&butter Psychic powers (Psionic Lance, TK blast and Will Domination) are single target long range powers which require virtually no compromising at all when it comes to positioning.
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Radiation:
The cons of this set are that it relies on anchors, and that it does not have any way of granting status protection, just resistance. The difference is with resistance the status lasts a shorter time, but it will still effect you if it lands. This means it will drop toggles.
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I was under the impression that status protection powers all worked off of magnitude, which resists the status effect until its magnitude has been reached. For example the scrapper regen toggle integration protect against everything, but you still hit the rare toggle drop, it just takes enough enemies using a status attack on you. Am I mistaken? Or is it perhaps just that the mag on accerlate metabolism is lower?
I can see your point but I suppose that depends strongly on your party configuration. If for instance you usually party with scrappers, tanks, blappers, and close range defenders, then the opposite becomes true.
By your reasoning ONLY psychic blast would be good since every other blast set has a bread and butter power that is close range or cone.
While I can see saying perhaps that psychic is the best, I don't agree that it is by a long shot. I've seen bubbles defenders with dark and rad quite enjoy their choices in secondary sets.
I just didn't believe it made as big of a difference with bubbles as it did with others. YMMV.
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Radiation:
The cons of this set are that it relies on anchors, and that it does not have any way of granting status protection, just resistance. The difference is with resistance the status lasts a shorter time, but it will still effect you if it lands. This means it will drop toggles.
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I was under the impression that status protection powers all worked off of magnitude, which resists the status effect until its magnitude has been reached. For example the scrapper regen toggle integration protect against everything, but you still hit the rare toggle drop, it just takes enough enemies using a status attack on you. Am I mistaken? Or is it perhaps just that the mag on accerlate metabolism is lower?
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AM has 0 effect on magnitude. The powers that effect magnitude of mez are protections. AM gives resistance which only reduces the time affected by mez powers, but grants no change in magnitude. I believe it is the only power like that.
I've played my Rad/Rad up to near 50 now, I can guarantee this to be the case, frequently with AM up your toggles will drop without any noticable explanation, if you check the logs it is because you were slept or held for about a half a second.
This does have the noticable benefit of improving mez protection powers because it makes it significantly harder to stack mez effects on you, but since a rad defender can never get a power that gives then sleep or stun protection, that only really helps with holds (if you take acrobatics) and immobilizes (if you take Combat Jumping) or if another defender uses a power to grant you protections.
This is good to know. I was recently trying to decide between a dark primary or rad and the status protection was a big lean for rad.
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...snip...
While I can see saying perhaps that psychic is the best, I don't agree that it is by a long shot. I've seen bubbles defenders with dark and rad quite enjoy their choices in secondary sets.
I just didn't believe it made as big of a difference with bubbles as it did with others. YMMV.
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Well, Psychic doesn't STOP you at all from working with tankers&scrappers. It's just that with Psychic powers positioning is nearly irrelevant, which means that you can be where the others of your team are. While with radiation with a bunch of Energy blasters you'd be crippled.
Also psychic has a better synenergy with Forcefields because basicly when you're a FF defender you're always less protected than anyone else (No Deflection or Insulation for yourself) and since psychic is very much a single target set you won't attract heaps of aggro (as you would with for example the cones in the dark set).
No. I'll maintain my stance. Dark blast and Rad blast are two sets that are less than ideal when you're FFing. You can be happy with them, but then you can be happy with almost any Defender combo.
The best sets are Electricity and Psychic. Psychic because it has several strong single target attacks (and they all have built in debuffs, TK with its built in knockback and Will domination with Sleep). It doesn't draw alot of aggro, and who ever you hit is less able to hit back.
Electricity may lack the high powered TK&WD, but it does feature Tesla Cage which is VERY nice if someone starts gunning for you.
Energy isn't an FF Offender set, but can work well if you're primarily using your secondary as defense (balanced or supporter strategy) since it features knockback with everything it has.
Dark likes its cones, which are short ranged and require offensive positioning and pulls aggro like there is no tomorrow. Of course it CAN work, if you're mainly using Dark blast, Gloom, Moonbeam and Dark Pit (and not Tenebrous Tentacles and Night Fall). If you go the single fire route you will have ACC debuffing and decently powerful attacks which don't require loads of positioning. But Tenebrous and Nightfall are really the most lovable parts of Dark Blast, so giving them up....well, it would pain my heart.
Rad is a lost cause if you happen to end up with blasters, and a dangerous route even if you don't. It doesn't reduce enemies attack with longer ranged attacks and it has short ranged with all its bread and butter. Rad means DYING alot unless you got expert tankers with you, so rad needs a set which is more self-defensive, like Radiation Emission or Dark Miasma.
Of course ALL of these sets (except Rad, and in this case Electricity) work well if you're going to Solo (because you need to debuff enemy aggression) and don't have to care about covering a team, but FF isn't really Solo friendly since its holy trinity (DS, IS, DB) are highly team oriented.
You make some good points. If I could edit it I probably would incorporate them to some degree.
The way I look at, the cone positioning isn't that big of a deal though. Usually you can get a good cone shot without moving out of dispersion radius. Also your blasters and defenders that you are keeping in it will be using their cones as well and you will need to stick with them.
Dark isn't as big of a problem because it comes with an AOE stun. Just knock out a goodly chunk of the minions and you are set. Psi and elect both have mez that can be used as well but once you mez a goodly portion of the enemies, your AOE effects aren't going to be that debilitating because they they can't attack you.
With Rad, you can focus on using its single target powerhouses if you are on a blaster team. If you are partying with a good tank or even a good scrapper, you can just assist through them and contribute nicely to damage. Cosmic burst does carry with it a good duration mag 2 stun.
While dispersion bubble does set a leash on you, its a very long leash as compared to other pbaoe toggle buffs. Possibly on par with leadership for range of effect. The advice is good in regards to single target and mez effects however, avoiding agro is important for a bubbler.
*quietly grumbles about having a bad reputation because of people who can't control their knockback*
Demmit, I team with Rads frequently, and they don't much care about the knockback!
...mostly because I use it very sparingly, being a /Dark myself :P
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*quietly grumbles about having a bad reputation because of people who can't control their knockback*
Demmit, I team with Rads frequently, and they don't much care about the knockback!
...mostly because I use it very sparingly, being a /Dark myself :P
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I do agree that a well played stormer can work beautifully with scrappers, tanks, and anchor defenders, most are not that well played. However even a relatively poorly played stormer can be a tremendous boon to blasters and non anchor offenders.
You have my sympathies.
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The cons are almost no damage avoidance capabilities and the tendency to attract idiots, just ask an empath and they will tell you how many bad teams they get in.
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There has NEVER been a more true statement
(( Doctor Toxic, lvl 24 Empathy/Radiation Defender ))
There was recently a post asking if there was a guide to choosing your defender. Well I will endeavor to create one.
First off Defender primaries are by far the most diverse of any AT's primaries in the game. Even tank primaries are very similar by comparison. I will go through each one providing pros, cons, grouping strategies, and build concepts. This is not meant to help you throughout the lifetime of your defender, but to help you make an informed decision on what type of defender you might be interested in making.
But first, a couple of explanations on terms.
Anchor : An anchor power is any power that relies on a target staying alive for the debuff to center on. Many defender debuffs rely on the anchor system. The problem with this system is when the anchored enemy dies so does your debuff.
Strategies and contingencies have to be made to deal with this and it takes a good bit of tactics to work with the anchor system and master how to make it work for you. The easiest way is to only play with educated teammates, but frequently you have to rely on random people to party with, in those cases some people will have binds set up to explain how this works to new party members but this often comes off as preachy and demanding, not to mention sometimes demeaning.
My strategy for dealing with this has always been to target a lou that is furthest away from the scrapper but still within the radius of the majority of the enemy group. Scrappers often go into whats known as scrapper lock. They just keep killing until nothing is moving anymore. When they do this they won't notice they are pounding on the anchor until it is too late, best to keep the anchor as far from them as possible. Also scrappers tend to target the boss first and blasters tend to eliminate minions quickly so a lou is your best bet.
Single Target vs. AOE buff/heal : Not so much a term as a concept. If something is single targeting it usually recharges much faster but can never effect you. Let me repeat that, can never effect you. This is a major disadvantage. Also with single target buffs/heals you have to put a lot more effort into getting the buff on everyone than with an AOE. Generally it takes more time and endurance.
There are many VERY powerful buffs in this game that are single targeting, I don't mean to say that single targeting buffs are bad, but it is a very powerful balancing factor. Something to keep in mind as I go over the buffs/heals of each set.
Offender: An offender is a defender who is optimized for damage. Usually an offender will only sparingly take primary powers focusing more on secondaries, but in some cases (rad and kin specifically) the primaries will largely help the damage dealing effort and aid greatly in offendering.
Most offenders solo due to the fact that if the party is asking for a defender they want a support or balanced defender, if they wanted damage capacity they would have chosen a blaster or scrapper. That doesn't mean an offender is not useful in a party, but usually it is not the role the party is looking for.
Balanced Defender: A balanced defender is one that relies on defense and offense more evenly. They will take a good representation of both the primary and secondary with a decent spread of pool powers. This is the most common defender build type and can allow for some soloing but is best oriented toward team play.
Supporter: This surprisingly rare defender build focuses on primaries and pools almost completely ignoring the secondary set. This allows the Supporter to GREATLY buff their team. Generally a party with a supporter in it does not need a second defender or controller, but would still benefit from them. The downside of being a supporter is of course low damage output and the practical inability to solo. The upside is that any party you get in will likely praise you for being so helpful and so thoroughly fulfilling the role they needed. This is a rare play/build style but in my opinion a lot of fun and very rewarding.
Siphon Powers: A siphon power is any power that takes away from an enemy and gives to you and/or your team. There are two components to a siphon power. The hit and the effect. There are some that are a single target hit with an AOE effect, a single target hit with a self effect, or an AOE hit with a self effect. There is as far as I know only one that is an AOE hit with an AOE effect (Fulcrum Shift). These powers rely on a to hit roll to have an effect. Generally they will cost less and do more than other powers that have a similar effect but if you have to rely on that to hit roll it can be costly sometimes.
NOW ON TO THE SETS!
Radiation:
Radiation is my personal favorite, It is a jack of all trades master of most. With this set you have the best debuffs in the game, the best hold in the game, the best slow power in the game and the best rez in the game. It also comes with a very nice AOE heal and one of the best AOE buffs.
The cons of this set are that it relies on anchors, and that it does not have any way of granting status protection, just resistance. The difference is with resistance the status lasts a shorter time, but it will still effect you if it lands. This means it will drop toggles.
The pros are that it does a bit of everything and it does it exceptionally well. Almost every power in the set can benefit you, the defender, personally. You can heal yourself and buff yourself, which is very very nice. This is one of the three most offensive buffing sets in the AT.
This type of defender can truly party with just about anyone. There are however certain builds you should avoid partying with for your own sanity. Storm defenders and energy blasters in specific. They will knock your enemies around making keeping them in your debuff auras a pain. Not really their fault but it is your problem. Sometimes you will happen across a good one and it will work but usually they will provide hell for you.
If you are in a ranged only group it is recommended that you act as "tank" and stand in the middle of the enemies keeping them in the auras. If you don't do this then they will likely scatter greatly reducing the effectiveness of your debuffs.
Rad is excellent as an offender set. Enervating field and accelerate metabolism allow you to amplify your damage considerably while Lingering Radiation and Radiation Infection allow you to tank with the best of them. Throw in an AOE heal and you are ready to inflict some carnage.
Balanced defenders also enjoy this set as it provides damage buffing and damage mitigation in equal and copious portions.
Supporters will also find this set appealing as while you are providing all you can for your allies you are not making yourself vulnerable in the process.
The best secondaries for this set are dark and rad. Dark for the immobilize which keeps the enemies from running around and in your debuffs. Rad for further reducing the target's defense if you need it and rapid fire high damage output.
Kinetics:
Kineticists are extremely valuable defenders because of their ability to increase damage output for the entire party. Speed Boost is considered by most to be the second best buff in the game and you can throw it on everyone (except yourself) before a fight. This set comes with a lot of ranged siphon powers.
One of the nicest things about this set but one that generally gets respecced out at 24 is Siphon Speed. It is a single target self effect siphon power that removes the targets running speed and grants you superspeed level running for a period of time. You can get this power at level 6 making a kineticist the fastest thing early in the game. Unfortunately once you get a travel power this power is almost completely useless.
The cons of this set are to hit rolls, tons of to hit rolls. Your heal is a siphon AOE effect power, your primary early buff/debuff is a single target AOE effect siphon power, your top level power is an AOE target, AOE effect siphon power, You get a single target AOE effect siphon power for endurance restoration. If you don't take tactics you will be feeling it.
A kin defender will also notice that they are not the best at "defending" their party. They have an extremely short duration buff that slightly increases smashing and energy resistance and the ability (until they get fulcrum shift at 32) to reduce one target's damage output by 25% per siphon power attack. That isn't much damage mitigation, couple this with the fact that while their heal is powerful and AOE it is a siphon power and can miss at crucial moments. A string of two to three misses can be devastating. A kins job is to shorten battles rather than keep people alive. They do this exceptionally well. Speed boost increases running speed, end recovery, and recharge speed on all the target's powers. This coupled with the damage output increases of siphon power and fulcrum shift make for a very nice boost to damage dealing capacity. Transference allows you to replenish what end does get drained while speed boost is up making the need for downtime a thing of the past.
A kineticist can increase the XP per hour of any party notably, but if you are fighting particularly difficult enemies it is recommended you get a second defender or controller to augment the survivability.
Kineticists work best with scrappers and tanks. Their targeted siphon AOE effect heal works well with a heavy front line.
Kinetics is one of the most common Offender build sets. The sheer damage ramping potential of this set helps greatly with pouring out the pain. Transfusion and Transference also help with keeping yourself going through long fights.
Kinetics works well as a balanced defender set. A kineticist will constantly be busy during a fight and if there is a lull in the need for siphon power, transfusion, transference, speed boost, increase density, and fulcrum shift you are going to want to be attacking things in that time so you dont lose your rhythm. This is not a sit back and watch kind of set.
Kinetics is a very very poor Supporter set for the reasons stated previously.
The best secondaries for kinetics are dark, psi, rad, and electricity.
Dark and psi are nice for the mez in them and can help with survival in an otherwise damage mitigation weak set.
Rad is nice for the defense debuff in irradiate, this is nice with all the siphon powers you rely on.
Electricity is nice for the end drain and end lock. Transference and Transfusion both take enemy endurance away from them and with the help of electricity can end lock bosses easily.
Storm Summoning:
A Stormer is very good at keeping enemies too busy to actually do damage. They largely do this through the use of an anchor slow debuff power and liberal amounts of knock back/down. This set does AOE with a lot of its powers except for its heal/mez resist buff. Stormers are fairly offensively minded and interact heavily with the enemies.
Storm summoning is considered one of the better sets for being a tank defender. Hurricane allows them to effectively control the agro of all the enemies in the area.
This set takes a while to pick up steam (pardon the pun) as the defining power is Hurricane and doesnt come until halfway through the set.
The pros of this set are that it is very good for damage output and damage avoidance. Definitely a strong set with a lot of advantages.
The cons are a weak heal/mez protection power, It relies a lot on knock back which is generally hated by scrappers and anchor defenders.
This set is ideal for squishy squads. Teams of all blasters, defenders, and controllers work very well with this set. In fact this set works best when there are no front liners.
This set works well for an offender but not as well as kin and rad. It is very toggle heavy and usually doesnt have the end for an out and out offense. This set does however augment damage output nicely with damage resist debuff and damage inflicting powers.
Good balanced defender set. You can focus on taking a lot of the primary powers and still be able to do respectable damage, Secondaries help in many ways as well.
This is a fairly poor supporter set. It requires a lot of interaction with the enemies and is a moderately damage focused set overall.
The best secondaries for this set are electrical and dark.
The voltaic sentinel helps with damage output considerably and there are several powers in electrical which just look cool with the storm powers.
Dark blast helps out by providing an immobilize to keep enemies in the freezing rain and snowstorm.
Dark Miasma:
Dark Defenders are the kings and queens of accuracy removal. Dark defenders are half rad defender half controller for all intents and purposes. They throw out considerable debuffs and have a nice mixed bag of tricks, but lack the ability to ramp up damage output. In exchange they get very controllery powers and a pet.
Dark Defenders can contribute a lot to a party, tanks in particular love them because they are the only set in the game that can grant psi damage resistance. Coupled with their ability to hold the enemies around the tank so that the agro is easy to manage this set becomes an ideal partner. Invulnerability scrappers appreciate them a lot as well.
The Dark Defender pet, commonly known as Mr. Fuzzy, is possibly the best pet in the game. They do a lot of control, decent damage, and whenever you use your siphon based AOE effect heal power, all of your pets get the aura around them as well. This makes for some awesome coverage even if you dont hit reliably.
Dark also gets the only AOE rez in the game, unfortunately it is also a siphon power. This makes it unreliable and requires an enemy to be nearby to work but the ability to bring half the party back in the middle of a battle can sometimes turn the tide.
This set is ideal for anyone who wants to play a controller, but also wants the ability to have decent direct damage attacks.
The pros of this set are that with its anchor based debuff you can make your party avoid the vast majority of damage, and you can personally keep things in that field. You get a pet, and a very nice (if unreliable) heal.
The cons are that the heal is unreliable, it relies on an anchor, and it does nothing to help damage output of your party members.
This set works well with pretty much any party that does not have a lot of knock back.
Offenders would be well advised to avoid this set. It is too team and control oriented and does nothing to help damage output, though it is not impossible to make a good offender out of it.
This is a good balanced defender set as it provides a lot of support in the primary but the primary does not use all of your endurance and/or attention allowing you to blast away.
This is one of the very best supporter sets. If you focus on providing support for your team with this set you can keep everyone going even when faced with much purple opposition. The support oriented nature of this set is very valuable to a team.
The best secondaries for this set are electricity, dark and rad.
Electricity is nice for providing a second pet type and augmenting damage output. Also being able to drain some endurance from enemies can be useful. The numerous AOEs also work well with the control and anchor aspects of the set.
Dark just synergizes very well with itself and with the additional immobilize and stuns you can really harness the controller in this set.
Rad is good if you want to make a balanced build with some damage output. Rads fast cheap damage is a great way to work it into a build.
Empathy:
Empathy is the switch hitter in the defender world. Half of your life you will be a heal-bot, the other half you will focus almost exclusively on buffs. This set does those two things better than anyone else. It has the best buff in the game, several other buffs that are in contention for that title and in high demand, the most powerful heals available to anyone, and the second best rez in the game.
Empathy doesnt help much with damage resistance or defense (fortitude works wonders but can only be put on a limited number of party members). Instead Empathy goes the route of making sure you dont die by making you a powerhouse and healing any damage that comes your way. If you cant be one shotted, a good empathy defender can make sure you dont get killed, unless you are in a large team or get overrun.
Empathy gets a lot of love from the other ATs since it is one of the first to get powerful defendery powers and its effects are extremely noticeable. If someones hitpoints go red green red green red green a lot they know you are doing something. Also Empathy is one of the more idiot proof sets a defender can get. If someone does something stupid you can still probably keep them alive, furthermore you dont have any siphon or anchor based powers so it doesnt matter what they kill or where they stand on the battlefield.
The pros of this set are ease of teaming and immediate recognition for your contributions, as well as several powerful buffs that benefit you as well as the team since they are AOEs and an AOE heal. Adrenaline boost is also a definite plus for this set as it turns any one party member into a small god.
The cons are almost no damage avoidance capabilities and the tendency to attract idiots, just ask an empath and they will tell you how many bad teams they get in. Also the best buff an empath gets is single targeted and cannot benefit you directly, but its better to put on a party member anyway.
Empathy works with anyone of any AT and any skill level, however it doesnt work well in large groups because you have a very limited number of party members you can keep fortitude on and when things get hairy it is extremely difficult to keep up the hp of 7 other characters.
Empathy is not the best choice for an offender, but it can definitely work. Between Recovery Aura, Regeneration Aura, and Healing Aura you can do quite well for yourself, but you will be yelled at a lot in a team because they expect an empath to heal them.
Balanced defenders will do well with this but still get some ire from teammates, most parties expect an empath to heal and if an empath is blasting then they obviously are not paying enough attention to the team window and healing people will be delayed in the opinions of most players, as a result a balanced build will frequently have to be played in a supporter play style.
This set is ideal for a Supporter, it allows you to focus on healing and buffing and keeps you busy with those tasks. It is regrettable that a set with so much offensive capability is often relegated to nothing but a support role but that is the way it frequently ends up. If you enjoy an active pure support role this is probably the set for you.
The best secondaries for this set are dark, psi, and energy.
Dark and psi are good because mezing enemies means less healing for you to have to keep track of.
Energy is nice because it allows you to knock back any enemies that get too close to the squishy line.
Forcefields:
Forcefields is the ultimate in fire and forget technology. This set allows you to put two buffs on each party member once every two battles and keep a single toggle up and your job is done. At that point you can either focus on blasting or take medicine and try to keep everyone healed in the off chance they actually get hit. Some Forcefielders however have been known to just stand back and throw witty banter at the enemies once they have completed their task. All of these approaches add something to the combat, be it damage, survivability, or humor.
Forcefields is a set with very few important powers. In fact it has frequently been argued that there are only 4 or 5 powers in the primary that are ever worth getting. Dispersion bubble is a very nice status protection power that actually benefits you but it does not have blanket coverage and you will feel it when sleepers appear. While many view this as a major detriment, others view it as a benefit. Not only does it mean they get almost every worthwhile power really early in their characters career but it allows them to focus more on their secondaries and pool powers.
Like Empathy, Forcefields works well with any party dynamic with any skill level and any AT. This is likely the easiest AT set to play in the game and frees up your time and attention for whatever other tasks you want to do and even if all you add to the party after bubbling everyone is witty banter, you will still be a valued member of the party. Also unlike Empathy, a Forcefielder can function perfectly fine in an 8 person party.
It is frequently recommended that a Forcefielder gets Medicine to help cover the needs of the party when a hit does land and to have a more complete status protection to offer.
Forcefields is probably the worst set to be a solo offender, but is very nice for a party offender, though if you decide to go the party offender route you will need a tank or good agro control in the party as you will not benefit from your primary bubbles.
Forcefields is ideal for a balanced defender build. Even though you will be likely going light on your primary regardless of build type you can focus on support based pools and add your own damage to the mix.
Supporters can get some good mileage out of this set as they can take support based pool powers and still have plenty of powers and slots for their secondary set.
Forcefields works well with any secondary set, Since Forcefields is so straightforward it does not synergize particularly well or poorly with any of them. Supporters will actually get more mileage out of the more offensive sets and offenders will do better with the mezing ones since those will allow them to protect themselves some, but any secondary will do nicely.