This is exactly what i was looking for, thanks so much!
Tactics and Assault: Teamed it's Great. However, It's not worth it solo. If you're in a group of 8, it's well worth it. If there's a second defender with it, it's entirely worth it. Even a single copy multiplied by 8 increases the speed of the group. It might not be a "noticable" increase, but if you pull up herostats and have a group that doesn't dilly dally about, it is a measureable increase. Two copies or more, it can become noticeable. 2 assaults in an 8 man team is like having a 9 man team offensively. 2 tactics is like (better than) everyone having an extra accuracy SO. The key is to hunt things you wouldn't normally hunt. With 3-4 copies of tactics and Assualt you can easily hunt the +4 and +5 that you might otherwise shy away from. Hunt the harder targets and reap the rewards of leadership.
Maneuvers is the only questionable leadership skill, needing closer to 3-4 copies for the "pay off". Well defended teams don't really "need" the pay off from maneuvers. So maneuvers is something of a catch 22: when you need it - it's not enough, when you have enough of it - you don't really need it.
Vengeance: is great. Vengeance is the fulcrum shift of defense. I say let a few of the less inteligent aggro mongers in the group die just so you can get vengeance on the rest of the group. Yeah, it's that addictive!
Teleportation: I Strongly reccomend Teleport and Recall Freind. You can use RF to help place DS as well as moving corpses around for mass res. Also, Teleport negates immobilize.
Stimulant: If somehow you can't find anything more useful to do with your powers and power pools. This can be a really nice perk. However, I think you'll find better things to do with your powers. Personally I chose Hasten instead.
also I would just like to say in my opinion life drain is underrated. The intangibility from blackhole lasts 6 seconds in PvP, so it sucks.
I am PL in RL.
Freedom- Magnet Man, Hott Sauce, Stand-Up Comic
How do you recommend replacing flight with leaping?
personally i wouldnt replace anything with flight or anything in that pool for a defender. however i do run flight up until my 30's and then i respec it out for more useful pools like hasten and super speed
I really like Torrent, and I think it's underrated in this guide. You see, someone clued me in on an element of the game: mobs which are resistant to immobilizes are weak to knockback (and vice-versa!) So basically, top-heavy mobs that can't be immobilized easily like Warwolves are completely at the mercy of this power. One blast of Torrent and red Totems go flying. I love it, it's a great way to juggle those big, pesky mobs that Tentacles don't work well on. It's absolutely true you don't want to use it all the time but judiciously used it's great for compacting foes into the area of effect of more of your powers.
I just noticed a mistake in the main guide: Darkest Night is referred to as an accuracy debuff valued in the mid 30s. Actually, it's a ToHit Debuff with a base value of about 18%. With 3 SOs it'll be a 30% ToHitDebuff.
It's not a mistake so much as a lack of update.
Darkest Night (and all tohit/defense buffs and debuffs) were changed and overhauled in i6/i7 when defense was normalized for +/- 5 levels. The worth, benefit, and effect of the skill is unchanged, the only change was in the number and the game wide defense mechanic.
Is it true dark/dark defenders aren't very squishy? Because the only defender I have is emp/psi and I rarely die unless the rest of the damage dealers on the team fail to do their part.
My dark/dark can tank.
'nuff said.
You don't quite have the durability of a tank, particularly a well-supported tank, but if you're doing things right, you're plenty sturdy enough in most situations. Some foes may be tougher than others (see: Rularuu Overseers), but in small teams, I usually go in first on my Dark Defender.
Ok why 3 for dark-blast and 1 for life-drain? slot it a lil and it can do pretty fair damge, and heals, more powerful then dark blast. id at least give it a 4, and were u leaving stamina out of all those? i have leader-ship, and i can use all those powers continusly... and unless u fully slot black star with IOs, its about as usful as moon-beaming (snipe) every1 and wasteing all ur endurence, basicly a crappy nuke, kill some minions yay! thats it. 
(and a tip: with manuvers, Hover, and Shadow fall all sloted nicely, can Tank whites and yellows easy)
Toon: Dark Lizerd, THE Dark/Dark/Dark Def
thanks for this!! i wrote tons down and im gonna add better enchantments! thanks again for this!!
[ QUOTE ]
You don't quite have the durability of a tank, particularly a well-supported tank, but if you're doing things right, you're plenty sturdy enough in most situations. Some foes may be tougher than others (see: Rularuu Overseers), but in small teams, I usually go in first on my Dark Defender.
[/ QUOTE ]
On this note, I wanted to point out the fact that Howling Twilight is an awesome way to start a battle. You kill alpha strikes with it since all the minions will be dazed and wandering around.
Follow with tentacles to root them, darkest night on the tough boss that's resisted the rest, tar patch to lower defense and speed, then take them apart. Yes, Darkies can tank 
Except in the shadow shard. You can't hit worth crap and none of your debuffs seem to work either. I abandond the SS until I can get my tank up some levels on my alt account to accompany me there.
Very nice guide. Don't have a D3 currently but I believe you have sold me.
Note on Teleport: can be used while Immobilized.