I'm no numbers man, but I found your guide to be well written and a great source for people trying to decide what to play. It can be hard to decide what exactly fits sometimes. Great work.
@ Sfort
Post may sarcasm
Leet speak, and generally difficult to read posts will be not be read.
OAS! AAS! LLS!
Good read for the beginner starting a defender. My 2 cents - love being an offender with my storm/energy blast/electric.
I rush in now with the following attack chain:
Snow Storm
Freezing Rain
Thunderclap
Lightning Storm
Thunderstrike
I am picking up Electric Armor at 44 and Power Sink at 47 so the last attack in the chain will then be Power Sink to siphon endurance off of disoriented minons and fill my blue bar back up.
At 49 will be Nova so that will be interesting working that into a serious attack chain and leave Power Sink for last if there is anything left. Hahaha..
Great Post Orodreth you nailed it.
great explanation
better quotes
Great guide, I have a question though: Since ED which hit Defender dmg hard, I am not sure if certain controllers don't do more damage than a Defender in the later game with containment.
I can solo faster on my 43 Ice/Rad Controller than I can on my 50 Dark/Dark Defender.
Prior to ED you would say: If you like to do damage and blast play a Defender.... not sure if this is still the case though.
Originally Posted by Megajoule
We're being invaded. Again. This time, instead of aliens, zombies, or eyeballs with teeth, it's the marching band.
[ QUOTE ]
Great guide, I have a question though: Since ED which hit Defender dmg hard, I am not sure if certain controllers don't do more damage than a Defender in the later game with containment.
I can solo faster on my 43 Ice/Rad Controller than I can on my 50 Dark/Dark Defender.
Prior to ED you would say: If you like to do damage and blast play a Defender.... not sure if this is still the case though.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, there are certainly some exceptionally lethal controller builds out there who can dish out more damage than most defenders.. *cough* Fire/Kins *cough* That isn't to say that the average defender is necessarily weaker than the average controller damagewise though. If you build a controller to dish out the pain (through taking power pool attacks, a primary with significantly damaging powers (mind, grav, and fire mainly) and slotting them with damage, and taking a secondary with dmg buffs or -resistance debuffs, then it can be a formidable match for a defender damagewise. However, even with ED in place, Defender damage is nothing to scoff at; they can still get several ways to buff their damage in their primary (and are more potent at doing so than controllers) and generally have a much wider range of ways to dish out that damage. I know Storm/Sonics who can give blasters a run for their money in prolonged engagements, much as I know Ice/Storms who barely dish out more hurt than 'pure' empaths.
Rule number six of an empathy defender is NEVER underestimate a blaster's ability to die. I don't care if he has CM, Fort, both RAs, bubbles (both FF and Sonic), and is fighting next to a Storm defender with hurricane on. If there is a way to die in that situation, the blaster will find it.
Watchmen on the Walls: A Guide to the Defender AT
Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey, hardship our garment, and constancy and valor our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible.
-Churchill
The defender is one of two hero ATs (the other is controller) with an emphasis on team support. This makes defenders popular on teams, and our inherent power, vigilance, offers us benefits in a team setting. Defenders are probably the most variegated AT. While all defenders are focused primarily on team support, each primary power set does this differently. A Storm defender, for example, plays very differently from an empathy defender. Some sets are focused on buffing allies, others, on debuffing enemies, and still others on "soft control" (powers that are not full holds but have similar effects) to keep enemies from attacking or harming teammates.
Most of the Defender primary powersets are also controller secondary powersets:
<ul type="square"> [*]Radiation Emission[*]Kinetics[*]Storm Summoning[*]Empathy[*]Force Field[*]Trick Arrow[*]Sonic Resonance[/list]
Some defender secondary sets are blaster primaries:
<ul type="square">[*]Sonic Blast[*]Energy Blast[*]Electrical Blast[*]Archery[/list]Sets that arent shared:
<ul type="square">[*]Dark Miasma (primary)[*]Dark Blast (secondary)[*]Psychic Blast (secondary)[*]Radiation Blast (secondary)[/list]This is a good deal of cross-AT overlap, and can make it hard to decide what you want to play. Defender with a storm primary, or controller with a storm secondary?
It helps to think of it in these terms: Defenders are a hybrid AT. We are primarily team support with a side of direct damage. If you are the kind of person who wants to do team support but also wants to be able to mix it up a bit, this is the AT for you.
Defender primary set powers tend to have one or more of the following types of effects:
<ul type="square">[*]Healing: Most, but not all, defender primaries have a power that heals damage. Defenders have a love/hate relationship with their healing powers.
[*]Buffing: The power increases or improves some aspect of one target or the entire team. It might improve the recharge rate, increase defense, or improve accuracy or damage resistance versus one or more types of damage.
[*]Debuffing: These powers are more aggressive and degrade some aspect of your enemies abilities. It might lower their regeneration rate, accuracy, defence, or damage resistance.
[*]Mez attacks: While defenders are not controllers, many defender powers can hold, disorient, knockback/up, slow, or fear enemies.
[*]Resurrection: Some, not all, sets have a power that can resurrect fallen allies. Some just bring them back from the dead, others have some sort of secondary effect.
[*]Damage: Very few primary set powers do direct damage, but they do exist. [/list]
Defenders Vs Controllers Vs Blasters
Comparisons are odious
-John Fortescu
With so much overlap between defenders/blasters/controllers, it's logical to ask, what is the difference between a particular powerset used by a defender versus a controller or blaster?
As a general rule, Powers that buff, debuff, or heal are numerically stronger in the hands of a defender than they are in the hands of a controller, but not by a large margin (12%-25%, depending on the power and the situation). However, the "soft control" effects of defender powers, such as disorients, will function better/longer in the hands of a controller than they will in the hands of a defender. This leads to situations where some defender sets are arguably superior for controllers, like Storm Summoning, which has lots of soft control but very little buffing/debuffing/healing. A fuller discussion of the statistical differences between controller secondaries and defender primaries can be found here, and is recommended reading.
Generally, those looking for a "pure" team support role are better served by playing controllers, especially if they have no interest in direct damage. Controller secondaries are very close to defender primaries in terms of effectiveness, and actually better in some cases. Plus, controllers can also use their primary to support their teams by holding/mezzing enemies and providing pets. Those who don't want to be corralled into a pure team support role and want their own toys for smacking bad guys around will like defenders.
Blasters and Defenders also share powersets. For the blast powersets that are shared, defenders do about 65% of blaster damage. However, if the blast set has a secondary effect, such as endurance drain or accuracy debuffing, the secondary effect will generally, but not always, be stronger in the hands of a defender.
Blueeyed says:
[ QUOTE ]
Blast Sets :
# Damage : Defenders do 65% of Blaster.
# Endurance Drain : Defenders do 125% of Blaster
# Knockback : Defenders do 100% of Blaster.
# Damage buff (melee, so only Aim) : Defenders do 80% of Blaster.
# ToHit buff (melee, so only Aim) : Defenders do 133% of Blaster.
# Resistance debuffs : Defenders do 154% of Blaster.
# Mezzes : Defender mezzes last 125% of the duration of a Blaster mez.
[/ QUOTE ]
If you want to do appreciable damage, blaster is the AT for you. If you want to be able to blast but you also want a bag of tricks for helping teams out, defender is for you.
Your Role as a Defender
But who is to guard the guards themselves?
-Juvenal
Your role on a team is to use your powers, mostly your primary powerset, to support the team. Your focus should be on buffing/debuffing/using soft control to help your allies and hinder your enemies. Buffers should be making sure their buffs are operating at all times and are affecting as many members of the team as possible, debuffers should be looking for groups of enemies or particularly tough foes to weaken or hold. That being said, often, you'll find yourself with all your primary powers used or placed-this is when it's time for you to blast. Don't get too distracted doing this-your primary is generally what the team wants you for in the first place. There are also times when the team is trying to out out as much damage as possible-when this happens you can shift into almost 100% damage mode, but that's rare.
In the larger sense, try to watch out for the team as a whole. Other members of the team can get caught up in fulfilling their own roles and can forget how the rest of the team is doing. Even if your healing power is lousy, watch out for people's health and try to fire one off if they get badly hurt. Warn the team if it's getting overextended. Call for breaks if someone needs one and seems too shy to say something. Most of us want to be defenders because we like to help and support others-remember that your powersets aren't the only way of doing that.
Vigilance: The Defender Inherent power
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
-the first epistle of Peter
Like all ATs, defenders get an inherent power. Our particular power is vigilance, and is entirely team-oriented. In a team situation, as your teammates loose health, you will gain a reduction in the endurance cost of your powers. A chart showing the ratios is here.[/b]
As you can see, having only one ally at 50% hit points grants you almost a 40% reduction in the end costs of all your powers, which is nothing to sneeze at! The drawbacks: you must be teamed for this effect to work-it does nothing for the solo defender, and your allies must be taking damage. Powersets that work to stop damage before allies sustain it, like dark miasma or force fields, will have a hard time benefiting from this power.
For most defenders, this ability is most useful in the early levels of the game, before stamina. Most of us still get and slot stamina as well as endurance reduction enhancements, since we can't control when this power operates.
Geko has posted some of the reasoning behind this power here.
Defenders and Healing
We are healed of suffering only by experiencing it to the full.
-Proust
Most, but not all, defender primary sets offer defenders some form of healing power, usually early in their career. These healing powers vary greatly in how they function. Some will heal single targets only, some are AoE centered on the defender. Some require that enemies be nearby and will make a to-hit roll, some do not. Some sets don't even get any sort of healing power...force field and trick arrow, for example.
Unfortunately, a lot of the people outside of the AT (and, sadly, a few inside of it) do not understand all this. People tend to import assumptions from other games, where "support" is usually synonymous with "healing." In CoX, there are all kinds of ways to support a team that *don't* involve healing, like debuffing enemy accuracy so that enemies can't hit or hurt team members in the first place!
Despite this, a lot, perhaps even the majority, of players continue to think of healing as the only valid team support. Some groups will even kick defenders whose sets have no heal, or who did not take their healing power, but have plenty of other group support powers.
There is little that can be done. Some defenders will try to gently educate others on the benefits of the other primary powers and the drawbacks of their healing ability, but if a group expects a defender to be a heal-bot, then often the best solution is to gracefully exit the team.
The Offender
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
-Shakespeare
Many people think of defenders as the guys who sit behind the line of battle, using buffs, debuffs and blasts from a distance. But there exists a class of defender, commonly called the "Offender" that likes to use their abilities more aggressively. Offenders are not afraid to go toe-to toe with bad guys, and tend to use their primary much more aggressively than other defenders.
Offenders often take the same powers and even slot them the same as other defenders-it's as much a mindset as a build. That said, some sets make better offender sets than others. Because defenders lack physical damage mitigation and mez protection, aggressive defenders need ways to destroy or neutralize enemies quickly. Accordingly, popular primary powerset choices are Radiation Emission, Dark Miasma, Storm summoning, and Kinetics. These sets contain aggressive powers that can render enemies dead or helpless.
Making Your First Defender
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
-Oscar Wilde
Many newbie defenders fall into the trap of making an empathy defender because theyve bought into the healer stereotype. Empathy is a great set, but this is the wrong reason to take it. Healing becomes less important as the game progresses and other ATs develop their own defenses. At that point, teams are looking for ways to kill faster and more efficiently, and are more interested in buffs/debuffs.
The single most valuable thing you can do is read the different guides on the defender powersets. Learn what powers are in each set and what they do. Consider what sort of role you want to take on are you more reactive, and want to use powers that strengthen the team? Primaries like empathy might be for you. Do you want to knock bad guys on their keisters? Force field or storm summoning might be your cup of tea. Do you want to aggressively weaken enemies so that they are helpless? Sonic, Radiation, or Dark Miasma might be your thing. Read the boards, ask questions, and dont be afraid to junk a defender you arent enjoying and try a different primary-again, they all play differently, so you may find a particular powerset doesnt mesh with your playstyle.