Philotic Knight's Guide to Force Field Defenders
By
Assault_Shaker,
Posted on: 2005-12-01 24:58 in Player Guides
Well written. I'm glad you enjoy the FF set. Personally, I stopped playing my FFer at 35 and have no intention of ever taking the set again. Detention Field, Repulsion Bomb, Repulsion Field, and Force Bubble are occasionally useful, as you've indicated, but most of the time all they do is annoy your teammates. It's sad, but since Issue5/ED, I actually prefer to team with any other type of defender over a FFer, because the granted defense is now poor and the other powers are more annoying than helpful. Even Trick Arrow is better - the powers suck, but at least they don't prevent me from hitting stuff or make me chase mobs all over the map.
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I think if you read my combat guide, you might appreciate more the value of positioning and movement, and might see why it might be GOOD to have to 'chase enemies all over the map'. With good communication between teammates, then annoyances should not be a problem. You can find strategies that work, like the strategy with my scrapper friend that keeps him alive longer, and still lets him do just as much damage as he would normally do in combat. Also, it is a poor FF defender that would continuously Detain enemies that you are attacking. A good FF Defender KNOWS where to put those fields. Please don't let a few (or even many) bad FFers turn you off from this great set.
First of all, this is a nice addition, and thanks for writing it.
Two things to note, however.
1. In the "Your Role" section, you may want to re-count the number of enemy positioning powers.
2. Regarding Force Bubble - As of sometime around I6, the endurance cost for this power has been drastically reduced. I've found that my FF defender is able to run this in addition to Dispersion Bubble and Stealth and still attack (note that this is with 3 slotted Stamina and Force Bubble 2 slotted for End Reduction). This has made the power much more useful for soloing, especially in light of the I6 defense reductions. You still don't want to keep it on all the time due to aggro, but it has become much more commonly used for me when soloing certain opponents (DE and Paragon Protectors, specifically).
However, please note that the size of Force Bubble may be problematic for some secondaries (due to the range) assuming there aren't corners to trap the enemy against. I don't know which other secondary sets may have problems... my FF defender is an FF/Psy, and /Psy has very long ranged powers.
Thank you for your input, that information is invaluable. I had actually deleted Philotic Knight about a month ago to free up space, though I still have one copy of him on the Test server. Since my only FF defender is now a level 13, I wasn't able to test Force Bubble post I6 and was working from memory. Also, the reason why I miscounted the number of enemy positioning powers was because in the first draft of the guide, I actually had Force Bubble classified as a 'untouchable' power, but as I was looking at all the uses for it, I saw it as far more than that, so I moved the power into 'enemy positioning'. However I did forget to change the number to 4. Good eye! 
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I think if you read my combat guide, you might appreciate more the value of positioning and movement, and might see why it might be GOOD to have to 'chase enemies all over the map'. With good communication between teammates, then annoyances should not be a problem. You can find strategies that work, like the strategy with my scrapper friend that keeps him alive longer, and still lets him do just as much damage as he would normally do in combat. Also, it is a poor FF defender that would continuously Detain enemies that you are attacking. A good FF Defender KNOWS where to put those fields. Please don't let a few (or even many) bad FFers turn you off from this great set.
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I already said that there are times when the knockback and detain powers are useful. But those times are few and far between.
I can't think of any team I've ever been on post-I5/ED where I'd rather have a FF defender than any other defender type, because those other types can not only mitigate the damage, but they can do it in a way that doesn't annoy me. Even Storm defenders, the kings of knockback, do less of it than a FF defender using the repel powers.
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Well 
to you!
Also check out Starshield's FF Guide , I think it is a good second look at a different way to play FF defenders.
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As for our secondary blasting powers however, our role as stated before is to DEFEND. There are many FF defenders out there that see themselves as a blaster that can buff. I see this as the biggest mistake an FF defender can possibly make, since they only do about 2/3rds of the damage of a blaster with the same damage slotted (estimated). While you are out there adding your minuscule damage to the team's effort, some of your teammates may be dying by your side. Why attack all the time and risk their deaths when you can time your attacks and save them for your team's DEFENSE? Remember, a dead enemy cannot attack, so having a load of attacks ready to smite your ailing ally's foe at a given moment can be invaluable to saving their life. The primary purpose of a defender is to DEFEND, so while you may have offensive powers, these can and should be used in a DEFENSIVE way whenever possible rather than an offensive way.
Repeat my mantra over and over again:
My primary powers should be PRIMARY, my secondary powers should be SECONDARY.
If you want to play a blaster, PLAY A BLASTER.
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This is a good guide, despite the above paragraph. 
. Offensive bubblers are a perfectly viable way to play.
That is a great bind. I've never actually seen a bind to do both bubbles with one click before. Very handy, thanks for including it.
I have my disagreements on how to play an FF'er; however, I'm not as confident in my FF techniques as I am in [say] my Broadsword techniques.
So I will say "nifty bind" and leave it at that.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
I disagree with you some, while those guides are good overall. Each are varied and show individual tastes, and different player personalities.
The following is what holds true for me.
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First: As a level 37 FF Defender, my job is to buff my team.
That is my PRIMARY. I wrote in opposition to ED, a little item, that describes my experiences with the Force Field powerset.
Enhancement Diversity
Second: I still enjoy my FF Defender, but since ED hardly play him, unless my SG is on and teaming. Because ED with my build setup prevents my ability to solo.
Third: Any build style doesn't negate the effectiveness of an FF Defender. Except not choosing any of the FF powers, but the first one. One's team dynamics can make a blaster styled FF Defender, effective. If I could, I'd have chosen more buff powers like Grant Invis and TP Ally, instead of some of the attack powers I have. But I only get 4 power pools.
Finally: Now if you read my angry ED write-up. While, I am still unhappy with ED don't let that deter you from making a FF Defender. You can be very effective and useful. I can tell when my FF's have dropped. My team starts taking lots of damage real quick. Otherwise my team only slightly takes damage, unless one guy goes off alone and tries to take on a group of mobs solo. In fact the hardest teammate for me to protect, is our Regen, because he doesn't have his own Def Buffs. So mine aren't as effective on him as on my other teammates.
I still prefer my FF Defender to any of my other alts. Even though I don't enjoy the fact I can't solo, without changing my build. I've made my choice and I'm sticking with it.
My best advice is find out what works for you and the people you play with. If it don't work for you, you won't play it, and if it don't work for those you play with, they may not team with that character.
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My primary powers should be PRIMARY, my secondary powers should be SECONDARY.
If you want to play a blaster, PLAY A BLASTER.
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This is a good guide, despite the above paragraph. . Offensive bubblers are a perfectly viable way to play.
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Not to mention if you want to be an offensive bubbler, you HAVE to rely on the Secondary since you have no offense in your Primary.
Of course, your Primary will keep you alive to use your Secondary. So, Primary and Secondary are EQUALLY important, and neither will keep you alive very long if you play like a Blaster.
BTW, I'm going to start using Philotic Knight's technique of totalling up all my alts. That really makes me feel better, since I don't have any chars over 50.
(I'm... 32... plus about two lvl 10s... and that one... and... level 60! That's close to 63. )
Actually I want to clarify that, it does NOT use both bubbles with 'one click'. Macros and binds are designed so that you CANNOT use the same thing at the same time with one click, like you can't send two messages to the Broadcast channel or use two powers at the same time with one click of a bind or macro. What this bind DOES do however, is to make the G key 'toggle' between the two bubbles, so that you can click your target, press G, then press it a SECOND time and both shields will be applied. Since powers 'queue' up, you can also press G twice really fast, then WAIT for both the shield animations to complete to get the quickest shielding possible. This little trick earned my supergroup nickname of 'The Fastest Bubbler in the West'. 
I was also not denying in my guide that Offenders can be effective, or that they are not a viable way to play, I was merely pointing out that they are by definition not DEFENDERS. I like to play defenders because I enjoy being the 'good guy' that helps other players. I'd much rather save a teammates life with an aggro-attracting attack that I'd been waiting to use, than to use that attack to kill another mob. I just feel 'better' defending than I do taking down enemies. It's a personal thing, which is why my guide is set up to look at a solely DEFENDER FF build, which uses even it's offensive powers to defend.
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I was also not denying in my guide that Offenders can be effective, or that they are not a viable way to play, I was merely pointing out that they are by definition not DEFENDERS. I like to play defenders because I enjoy being the 'good guy' that helps other players. I'd much rather save a teammates life with an aggro-attracting attack that I'd been waiting to use, than to use that attack to kill another mob. I just feel 'better' defending than I do taking down enemies. It's a personal thing, which is why my guide is set up to look at a solely DEFENDER FF build, which uses even it's offensive powers to defend.
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I'm not trying to pick an argument here, but what "definition" of Defenders are you using?
Let's walk through this. When you "defend" something, what do you do, spit on your enemies and wish to your fairy god mother they will dissappear? No, you use force to protect yourself. The same force the attackers are going to use against you. Hopefully your force is more powerful than the attackers, or you won't be defending for long.
View this from the CoH perspective. Who cares if you are using your attacks proactively versus reactively? The same goal results; you have defended your team. A dead enemy is the surest way of preventing damage.
We are all Defenders, whether we use our attacks proactively to defend our team, or whether we use them reactively to save our team. I'd argue the former is better since in the latter case, you might be too late or not able to get to everyone attacking your teammate. But whatever, different strokes for different folks.
I'm going to stop using the term "Offender" and instead call them "Proactive Defenders". Too many beanheads nitpick the term and construe it to suit their own narrow perspective.
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View this from the CoH perspective. Who cares if you are using your attacks proactively versus reactively? The same goal results; you have defended your team. A dead enemy is the surest way of preventing damage.
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I'd disagree to this...
Scenario: You are the only defender on the team, you've cast your bubbles and everything is fine and dandy, then you face a mob of about 8 reds. You have two choices, and what follows are possible consequences:
a)You go proactive, so you and your team are able to whittle them down to about 3 or 4 reds left within about 20 seconds. However, a blaster on your team has somehow obtained the aggro of those three reds, and since all your powers are recharging because you've been using them proactively taking down enemies, you have no way to help your ailing teammate. (true story, happened in a team I was in a team once)
b)You become reactive, and save your powers until your teammates need aggro taken off of them. The enemies are defeated much slower, and there are still about 6 left after 20 seconds of battle, but all of your teammates are in the green and aggro is spread evenly, because you've used your powers to spread said aggro. (this is my normal playstyle)
I have seen a) happen way too many times. I prefer b) because I feel that my role as a defender means that my purpose is to ensure the livelihood of every member of the team, and aggro management/damage mitigation is what force field defenders do best. The question is not a question of whether to use force or not, the question is whether to use the force as a blaster would, attacking all the enemies you see all the time, or to use your powers 'surgically' as Starshield describes in her guide, striking in just the right places at just the right time to ensure green health bars for all.
As a defender, I see it as my job to NOT look at the health bar of my enemies, but rather to look at the health bar of my allies.
I'll just chime in here that "proactive" does not necessarily mean Offense. I definitely prefer proactive defence to supplement my defensive buffs, but for me that generally means liberal use of Epic Controls and KB to prevent the enemy from attacking in the first place. I may not be a Controller, but most Defenders - even FF - have a wider variety of effects available to them to disrupt enemy offence than they may be aware of. Many secondaries, pool powers, and ancillaries are full of such options.
That said - I do consider Offense one of the many tools in my kit for defending a team. Sometimes the best defensive option really is to blast the remaining life off a straggler, to help take down a tough boss with dangerous powers faster once you've done whatever you can to interfere with his ability to counter-attack, etc. The difference between me and an Offender is that I consider offence just one more tool in the kit rather than any particular end unto itself.
The *team's* focus is ultimately arresting enemies. And there's nothing wrong with an Offender built to pursue that same purpose. *My* focus simply tends more towards "defence" in the purest sense - doing whatever I can to interfere with the enemy's ability to harm my team.
That's what I'm talking about! And 'defence'? Come on SS, you're in Baltimore, you know us Americans spell it defenSe like it ought to be spelt!
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That's what I'm talking about! And 'defence'? Come on SS, you're in Baltimore, you know us Americans spell it defenSe like it ought to be spelt!
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I'm Irish. We've always been "creative spellers". 
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That's what I'm talking about! And 'defence'? Come on SS, you're in Baltimore, you know us Americans spell it defenSe like it ought to be spelt!
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Heh, I've had this argument before with someone in the Defender forums. They got really pissy about it. It was pretty funny.
But actually, the last time I check, Americans speak "English" not "American" and England spells it "defenCe", just like us Canadians.
Weird some of the differences that have arisen in the same language between different countries.
PS. reading my last post, I didn't mean to infer you, PhiloticKnight, are some narrow minded bean head. I was talking in the general sense, so I apologize if it came across wrong.
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As a defender, I see it as my job to NOT look at the health bar of my enemies, but rather to look at the health bar of my allies.
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This is a good quote and a great explanation of your perspective. It's completely opposite of mine, but hey, different strokes for different folks.
We will have to agree to disagree. You offer another valid method of playing a FF'er and the more choices people have, the more they will enjoy the set. I for one would love to see some more FF'ers out there.
FFers unite!
Dyslexics of the world, untie!
THAT'S WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. All of you guys have been a huge help in fleshing out my vision for my FF/NRG defender. I have gone the route of Defense Heavy early on. Respeced to an Offender in my late teens (sorry "Proactive Defender" ). Found that to be not what I had hoped it to be once ED hit and have been trying to re-discover a vision for this character ever since. Again, thanks for all of your input and love of the game.
B I O- 50 Spine/Reg/Dark Scrapper
X-horter- 33 Kin/Rad Defender
Photonathor- 20 FF/Energy "Offender" (retired)
Project-ExoFusion- 33 Warshade
Lothniel- 22 Peacebringer
Gizmogrifier- 26 Robotics/Traps MM
*and a heap more alts all over the place.
I went with a bit more offense that works as defense......
Sounds silly don't it?
Check this:
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Exported from Ver: 1.6.8.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: Platinum Beret
Level: 50
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Force Field
Secondary: Dark Blast
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Deflection Shield==> DefBuf(1)DefBuf(5)EndRdx(7)DefBuf(15)
01) --> Dark Blast==> Acc(1)Dmg(3)EndRdx(11)TH_DeBuf(31)Dmg(34)Dmg(37)
02) --> Gloom==> Acc(2)Dmg(3)EndRdx(11)TH_DeBuf(31)Dmg(34)Dmg(36)
04) --> Moonbeam==> Acc(4)Dmg(5)Dmg(9)Dmg(19)TH_DeBuf(31)Range(34)
06) --> Insulation Shield==> DefBuf(6)DefBuf(7)EndRdx(9)DefBuf(15)
08) --> Force Bolt==> Acc(8)KB_Dist(17)
10) --> Hover==> DefBuf(10)Fly(43)Fly(43)
12) --> Dispersion Bubble==> DefBuf(12)DefBuf(13)EndRdx(13)DefBuf(17)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14)EndRdx(19)Fly(37)
16) --> Hurdle==> Jump(16)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18)Heal(37)Heal(43)
20) --> Stamina==> EndRec(20)EndRec(21)EndRec(21)
22) --> Tenebrous Tentacles==> Acc(22)Immob(23)TH_DeBuf(23)TH_DeBuf(25)TH_DeBuf(25)Acc(33)
24) --> Repulsion Field==> Acc(24)EndRdx(27)EndRdx(33)EndRdx(46)
26) --> Night Fall==> Acc(26)Dmg(27)Dmg(46)Dmg(46)
28) --> Torrent==> Acc(28)Range(29)TH_DeBuf(29)
30) --> Personal Force Field==> Rechg(30)
32) --> Force Bubble==> EndRdx(32)EndRdx(33)EndRdx(40)
35) --> Life Drain==> Acc(35)Heal(36)Heal(36)Heal(42)
38) --> Blackstar==> Acc(38)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)
41) --> Dark Consumption==> Acc(41)EndRec(42)EndRec(42)EndRec(45)
44) --> Dark Embrace==> DmgRes(44)DmgRes(45)DmgRes(45)
47) --> Soul Drain==> Acc(47)TH_Buf(48)TH_Buf(48)TH_Buf(48)Dmg(50)
49) --> Detention Field==> Acc(49)Acc(50)Rechg(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Vigilance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
---------------------------------------------
When using the Dark Blast powers to debuff and the Force Field powers to increase the Defense of my team the total effect is my team lives for the entire fight!
No one takes much if any damage at all, only downside is untill stamina it is a endu hog.
So far I enjoy this combo a lot!
Peace!
That's a really interesting concept... I like it. One thing that I would do personally though is this. Tenebrous Tentacles seems like sort of the 'signature' power of this build and strategy, so why wouldn't you get it at level 16 when it first becomes available instead of level 22? To make sure that you get most of the other powers earlier, you can then drop the slower single attack until later and push the other powers up a level sooner. I know that after level 14, you level much slower, and so it would be much faster if you were teaming alot and using those tentacles for your team's success for those extra 8 levels rather than just having one more single target power.
Otherwise I think that's a VERY interesting way to use your secondary offensive power in a defensive way, kind of like how I use electricity to drain endurance. So I took Short Circuit as soon as I could and slotted it fast, and it worked out really well. Nice job man! Keep bringing in the ideas!
Philotic Knight's Guide to Force Field Defenders
As a level 63 Force Field defender (I have a level 50 and a level 13) I feel that I have enough experience to provide some tips to other FF defenders out there. Also, if you are CONSIDERING making an FF defender, please read this guide to learn how to avoid what I see as some common mistakes. This guide may help out controllers with a Force Field secondary, but it is primarily designed to help Defenders be the best that they can be.
First I would recommend that everyone read A Comprehensive Guide to Force Fields v3.0 by Bionexus BEFORE reading this guide. His guide is a mostly good guide to the general principles of the bubbling profession, and I will be referencing him substantially. However, I do disagree with him on some points, and this guide is meant to be an addendum/complement or possibly a second opinion on this much-overlooked set. This set will only cover PvE, since I do not PvP much. You should also read my Combat Handbook for more tips from me on how to handle yourself in general combat. Please ignore the e-argument that occurred in the thread sometime after the guide. Someone ticked me off. =P
Powers Summary
This will be a quick refresher, since the details of the powers are listed in Bionexus' guide. The only note that I will make is that post-Issue 6 I believe the numbers he had for the power's defense bonus have been reduced by half. I could be wrong.
<ul type="square">[*]Personal Force Field - Protects the user from almost all attacks, makes him almost invincible while also preventing him from using powers outside of the bubble. [*]Deflection Shield - Protects an ally from 'normal' (smashing/lethal/melee) damage.[*]Force Bolt - Single target knockback attack with minor damage.[*]Insulation Shield - Protects an ally from 'weird' (Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative/Toxic/Ranged) attacks/damage.[*]Detention Field - Single target bubble that stops an enemy from using powers outside the bubble and keeps him immobile, but also stops him from being attacked/debuffed.[*]Dispersion Bubble - Area of Effect Defense over a pretty large area that defends against almost all types of damage.[*]Repulsion Field - Point Blank Area of Effect Field that knocks back foes who come within melee range of you.[*]Repulsion Bomb - Target your ally and knock back all the enemies around him towards the direction you're facing.[*]Force Bubble - Point blank Area of Effect Field that prevents ANY enemy from entering a large area around the user. Can be resisted by some enemies.[/list]
Your Role
Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of an FF defender is NOT to be a buff-bot for other heroes. Look at the powers in the set. Only 3 of the powers (known appropriately as the "Power 3") are defense providing powers. That leaves 6 (!) powers that do NOT buff your allies, but do other things instead. Let's give a quick rundown of what all these powers do, and maybe we can see why the majority of Force Field defenders are sadly gimping themselves by not making good use of half of their powers.
We have 3 defense raising powers - Deflection and Insulation Fields, and Dispersion Bubble
We have 3 enemy positioning powers - Force Bolt, Repulsion Field, Repulsion Bomb, Force Bubble
We have 2 'untouchable' powers - Personal Force Field (keep away from ME!), Detention Field (keep everyone away from HIM!)
Most people see this set as a defense buff set and nothing more. However, looking at what these powers do, they do something far more valuable. The intended role of a Force Field defender is to defend his allies on the battlefield, using all 3 main groups of powers. We have defense to make all of our allies and ourself less squishy, we have knockback powers and a keepaway power to control the position of enemies, and we have 'untouchable' powers to protect either ourselves or our allies from danger. This is our role, to Protect and Server our teammates. Other defenders may be able to heal, or debuff, or buff in other ways, but no other type of defender is designed to be as much of a team player as the Force Field Defender. You can solo if you wish, but your home is in a team, and you can see that this is true because a large portion of our powers cannot be used on ourselves!
Strategies
Since any 'bubble-head' can tell you how to use the defense powers in the set, I will only talk briefly on them and move on to the more under-used and under-appreciated powers. It is important to note that as a defender, your primary position as stated when you INSTALLED the game is near the back of the team. You should be close enough to the action that your Dispersion Bubble can help your teammates, but you should be far enough back to not get yourself killed. If you are using a traditional combat structure, with toughies (tankers, scrappers) in the front and squishies in the back, you should be sitting right along with the blasters and controllers, or possibly between the toughies and the squishies if you want to give the toughies a bit of extra defense. It is under RARE circumstances that you should ever be back-to-back with a toughie.
As for the Deflection and Insulation Shields, there is only one way to use these, and the way to use them is obvious. I will provide you however with a tool that I consider to be very valuable, a macro! Using this macro is simply the FASTEST way to buff up your team with both shields, period. Create a directory to place the macro files in, I place mine in a directory called c:\CoH. Then create the two text files shown below:
File name: shield1.txt
g "powexec_name deflection shield$$bind_load_file c:\coh\shield2.txt"
File name: shield2.txt
g "powexec_name insulation shield$$bind_load_file c:\coh\shield1.txt"
Now go into the game and type the following line: /bind_load_file c:\coh\shield1.txt
What these files will do is make the letter G on your keyboard an insta-shielder, so that every time you press it, it will place a shield on your selected ally. Then the next time you press it, it will place the OTHER shield on the ally. The order doesn't matter, since it loops back anyways. So all you have to do to buff your team really quick is to select a teammate on the list, hit G two times in a row, wait to hear both shields apply, then click on the next teammate. You can also click the blue arrow on the right hand side of the team window to see all your teammates buffs and make sure that both shields took effect. If you wish to, you can of course edit this macro to point to a different letter, and you can put the files in any directory that you wish, as long as you change the directory listed in the macros to where you put them. Each shield lasts about 4 minutes, and you can either time this yourself, or get the great program HeroStats running to remind you of when these will wear out. You should have these on all of your allies at all times, no questions asked.
Now onto some powers that require a bit more thought.
Personal Force Field
Ah, the very first power in the Force Field set, and what I consider to be the signature power. What do force fields do? Provide defense. And what does PFF do? Provide ultimate defense. It makes you NEARLY invulnerable to almost all types of attacks (about 95%, the defense cap), and the attacks that do get through have their damage reduced by about 50%. Note that this is just a guess, and these numbers could be wrong. The point is that you are virtually invincible to even-con enemies. Higher level enemies may still be a danger, especially if they are more than 4 levels above you. As stated in Bionexus' guide, this is a great 'emergency' power, as well as a great power to use while traveling to ensure your safety. However, I do not think that these are the only uses for this power.
The DEFENDER Plan
PFF has a pretty decent recharge speed, so while it doesn't come back fast, it does come back quick enough if you want to use it to 'sit out' a bit of a battle. A good strategy here would be to have your Dispersion Field up along with the PFF, after you've buffed your teammates with Deflection/Insulation shields. Then, when you enter the battle, the tougher members of the team can handle and absorb the primary attack, while you stand ready to assist. If an ally or your entire team looks like they are in trouble, then you can instantly drop the PFF and give the team/ally the bonus that they provide. A benefit of this tactic is that since you have NOT been attacking any other mobs, all of your attacks are READY and can be fired off in a chain to hopefully destroy any dangers that an ally might be facing.
The Defender Tank
PFF has another great use that I found quite interesting, note that the power makes you invincible but not INVISIBLE. What does this mean to you? It means that while the enemy cannot hurt you, they CAN see you. This is fun for alto of laughs once in awhile, as you sit in the middle of a frustrated mob trying to defeat you. However, for combat, this quirk can be a unique asset. What it means is that you can provide, an alpha strike and hold aggro for a few seconds while your allies blast away. You can do this one of two ways. You can either turn on PFF first and run or teleport into the middle of a mob, angering them to no end, or you can use an attack power on the boss of the mob (preferably an AoE) and then instantly turn on your PFF to absorb the retaliating attack. This works especially well if you stand far back, activate your attack power when you are OUT of range, then run into range. The attack will finally activate and you can have your mouse over the PFF to turn it on instantly (assuming you move with the keyboard). Now you can't be a TRUE tank with this trick, since you can't hold aggro, but you can hold SOME of the aggro while dispersing the rest of it to the rest of your team evenly. And dispersed aggro on teammates is always better than concentrated aggro on one teammate (except tanks), because it can be handled easier. Do not attempt this trick if any of your buddies like to use alto of AoE attacks, because then THEY will most like draw the concentrated aggro right away.
Force Bolt
Read Bionexus' section on this power first. The only thing that I would add is that I disagree that you should not use this on a toughie. I would specify that you should not use this on a toughie's TARGET, so click your buddy quick and see who he is targeting, then target another enemy near him and knock him back. Remember, melee damage is USUALLY three times ranged damage, so keeping enemies away from your friends and yourself will increase your chance for survival. Also while an enemy is doing something else, like being knocked back or recovering from it, he CANNOT do anything else, like attack. See this as another form of defense! Even if it doesn't knock the enemy back, it will at least knock him DOWN, and that is almost as good.
Detention Field
Imagine that the battlefield is like a chess board. Wouldn't you like to be able to take the Queen out of the game until there are no other enemy pieces left? This is essentially what Detention Field can do for you. You can use it on an enemy to take that enemy out of the fight for a short while. I have found three general uses for this power. When solo-ing you can use it as an alpha strike to make one less enemy that you have to fight at the same time. You can also use it on a dangerous boss or Archvillain (or SAPPER!!!) to take him out of the picture as Bionexus suggested. The third use I've found for this power is to take out enemy 'buffers' from the battle, such as Devouring Earth eminators that they drop on the ground, Malta auto-turrets and Sky Raider's Force Field Generators. After all the other enemies are gone, the Detention Field should have lifted, and you can easily take out the helpless buffer. A very versatile and useful ability. I also recommend a seperaseparate macro to warn allies that the target cannot be harmed, something like this:
/macro Det "team Don't attack the $target! It is Detained and cannot be harmed! Wait for the bubble on it to wear off!"
And use that macro AFTER you've successfully trapped the target. I tried to bind it along with the power, but when the power did fail once in awhile, it just made me look dumb and confused my allies.
Repulsion Field
This power acts to keep melee enemies away from you by knocking them back. As stated by Bionexus, it does cost ALOT of endurance when you are surrounded by a mob, but if you are on the outside edge of combat as I feel you SHOULD be, this should not be an issue. The field itself doesn't use much endurance when no enemies are near you, and it can save you from sneak attacks from the back. Also if you wish, you could keep it off until you see someone coming towards you, then turn the power on, target them and blast away. The field will keep them away from you or on the ground until you can destroy them. It, along with the PFF are the two primary powers to defend YOURSELF from attack. Note that with PFF on, this power is useless, so you would use this power when you still want to be able to attack enemies rather than hide from them.
Bowling!
Another use I found for this power is to save a teammate in trouble, if you have the extra endurance to sacrifice for their life. Simply turn the power on and run to them, knocking the enemies away from them. If melee attackers are killing your ally, you can go towards THEM and keep them off their feet for a while. If you get into trouble from this, you can always turn on your PFF to protect yourself and to disperse the aggro you've obtained. Again another way to use a power to DEFEND your teammates.
Repulsion Bomb
This power works like Force Bolt, but with an Area of Effect knockback and you target an ally instead of an enemy WITH a disorient bonus. Good to save teammates with. Bionexus has a few good tricks with this power, even though I disagree with him that there is very little use for the power. I think you can use this all of the time along with Force Bolt to keep enemies away from your squishy friends, and even your squishier (post-Issue 6) scrapper buddy, with their consent of course. All the scrapper has to do is pick one target and auto-follow them while attacking, so that when you shake all of the enemies off him, he can run right to the one he wants. I also have a couple other strategies I'd like to add. I call this the Big Bang and Crunch. Basically you have an ally hold aggro, either a tank or another hero with taunt. Then you use repulsion bomb on him and knock all the enemies back or onto the ground. They then have to get up, shake off disorientation and/or run back to the hero. This is plenty of time for yourself and other blaster types to go nuts on the enemies, hitting them as much as you want. The enemies then come back to the taunter, and you rinse and repeat. On the off chance that one of them might not come after the taunter, then the entire team can switch to that one and take out the offender. You can also use this like Force Bolt while working with a teammate to position enemies together, or against a wall, for grouping for Area of Effect attacks. You can then use Force Bolt along with it to tuck in any that get out of the area.
Force Bubble
Finally we come to, well, the final power of the set, the Force Bubble. It keeps enemies away from you, and pretty FAR away from you. As stated by Bionexus, this power is really NOT made for the solo player, however since you chose to play a force field defender, more than likely you're not interested in solo-ing anyway. This is a power that should not be used all the time, as it is noted for it's high endurance cost, I recommend that anyone that wishes to use this power extensively take Stamina and 3-slot both that and this power. With both of those 3-slotted (post Issue 6) the Force Bubble can stay up almost indefinitely, as long as you do nothing else and have no more toggles on. This is mostly a click-and-use, then turn off when you don't need it kind of power, unlike Dispersion Bubble. Bionexus states that he found it to be of limited use, yet also includes in his guide several uses for it..... hmmmm... interesting. Anyways, Yes you can stand in the far back and use it to keep your squishy friends safer, and yes you can even use it to 'pin' enemies against walls and corners to keep them immobile. However, I feel that while Dispersion Bubble is a nice bonus (last I heard 10-12.5%), it is not nearly as nice of a bonus as the bonus you get from keeping enemies out of melee range. Since toughies can take a few hits without worries, and you should ALWAYS have Deflection/Insulation fields on your teammates at all times, I see no problems in using it to protect our squishy buddies. This will also help remind the squishies that they really should stay as far back as their offensive powers allow them to.
Aggro Bomb
However, there are other uses for this power. You can make USE of the fact that the Force Bubble draws aggro towards you, one of Bionexus' complaints. Again, spread aggro is almost always better than aggro concentrated on a squishy, so you can use Force Bubble to push against the enemies and draw aggro to yourself. Then if you start to get low on health due to their ranged attacks, you can quickly turn on PFF and turn off Force Bubble. You now should have most of the aggro still on you, but you're almost invulnerable. When the enemies are aggroed by other heroes, the aggro will be more spread out, and will be less dangerous to any individual hero. You can rinse and repeat if another hero for some reason draws most of their fury.
The Wall
Another neat trick only works in certain circumstances. Basically when you are in a room which goes INTO a short-in-width hallway, you can stand right around the corner of the hallway and turn the power on. Then whenever any mobs are aggroed, this acts as a barrier which they cannot pass. You can use this either just to keep the enemies away from your teammates, who are in the room and can blast at a safe distance, OR as a great way to give your allies a safe retreat. Since you are around the corner and out of the enemies' line of sight, they cannot see you to attack you, but they ARE stopped from moving into the room, thanks to your Force Bubble.
Confusing the Ranks
Finally, the enemies in the game have two 'modes', melee mode (when you can see a melee weapon in their hand) and ranged mode. It usually takes a few seconds for them to switch modes, and when they are in melee mode, they many times prefer to STAY in melee mode. You can take advantage of this with the Force Bubble. You can either wait until the enemies are engaged in melee battle with another hero, or engage them yourself up close and personal, and then instantly activate the power. For many of the enemies, they will still remain in melee mode for a while and will keep trying to run at you rather than attack. If you continually back up and move forward again, moving the bubble and pushing against them in the process, you should be able to keep this up for a good while.
Secondaries - Our offensive powers
I will not go into too much detail about this subject, since there are so many possibilities to test here and I don't have the time or patience to test every build. The only note that I will make is that the Philotic Knight is actually an electrical blast secondary, and that the secondary effect of electrical blast (endurance drain) is a Godsend. There is nothing more beautiful in the world than using a Short Circuit or two (using PFF between uses to protect yourself) and watching the the mob of enemies sits helpless staring at you, devoid of any will to do ANYTHING. Defenders got all of their secondary effects boosted in Issue 5 I think (might have been 4) so take full advantage of this! And with Issue 6, these powers also have the ability to sometimes return endurance, which can help to keep your endurance bar full.
As for our secondary blasting powers however, our role as stated before is to DEFEND. There are many FF defenders out there that see themselves as a blaster that can buff. I see this as the biggest mistake an FF defender can possibly make, since they only do about 2/3rds of the damage of a blaster with the same damage slotted (estimated). While you are out there adding your minuscule damage to the team's effort, some of your teammates may be dying by your side. Why attack all the time and risk their deaths when you can time your attacks and save them for your team's DEFENSE? Remember, a dead enemy cannot attack, so having a load of attacks ready to smite your ailing ally's foe at a given moment can be invaluable to saving their life. The primary purpose of a defender is to DEFEND, so while you may have offensive powers, these can and should be used in a DEFENSIVE way whenever possible rather than an offensive way.
Repeat my mantra over and over again:
My primary powers should be PRIMARY, my secondary powers should be SECONDARY.
If you want to play a blaster, PLAY A BLASTER.
Conclusion
I hope that this guide has been enlightening and educational to the new and old Force Field defenders out there, feel free to add to this thread any new tricks or strategies that you may have knowledge of. And to all you old-timers out there that are set in your ways and see yourself only as a buff-bot, I truly do feel great sympathy for you, for you are missing out on the strengths of 2/3rds of your own powerset, and you are gimping your ability to DEFEND your teammates substantially. In the end, you need to remember one thing: you are a Defender. This is your name, this is your role, and this is your destiny. Embrace it!