what is your favorite defender build? and why?
I've got many defenders and it's really hard to choose between them. If I've got to choose one, it'll probably end out being either Sonic/Sonic or Trick Arrow/Archery. I enjoy both greatly and I guess it depends on my mood/energy which one I choose.
Sonic/Sonic is a great set and has both good buffs and debuffs. +resists (including some +resist to many mezzes) to your team, -resists to your enemies. Running both your shield and the ally toggle, while renewing your buffs every 4 minutes, means that you'll be spending most of your time having fun blasting on your enemies and you'll feel very useful even if you're not the one providing many green numbers. On the other hand you'll provide some good red ones and due to having Sonic blasts, those numbers will continue to increase the more you blast. Sonic is also the set in which you can slack a bit, since your team should be fine in most situations, as long as your shields and toggles are running, the blasts just add to your usefulness.
Trick Arrow/Archery is a set that is far more active than Sonic. It lacks healing, it has no buffs. But it has great debuffs and some crowd controls. This means that you'll be spending your time in combat using both debuffs and blasting, so you'll not really get a quiet moment. Having archery is very thematic for Trick Arrow, but the set also has great accuracy and a very low endurance cost. Of all the toons I have played, the TA/Arch is one of the only toons where I've considered whether or not I should get Stamina. It also means that you can save some slots in your powers (Endurance Reduction and Accuracy), either using them on other powers or slotting in different enhancements. The fact that the secondary ultimate power doesn't leave you completely drained for endurance (like the other ultimate attacks in most Blasts) makes it a far more useful power for a defender.
I really enjoyed my rad/rad/dark immensely all the time to 50 (though soloing some AVs - even in EB incarnation - was a pain). I know about the awesome-sauce that is rad/sonic, but I'm just not so happy if I can't throw out a bunch of AoE damagey attacks (which /rad and later the dark epic gave me plenty of). While I rarely play my 50's, I've taken that defender to the walls of cimerora, not really to farm, just to have fun decimating over a dozen +0/+1 traitors in the time it takes me to cast my debuffs and AoE chain once (and with very little risk).
Lately, I've been thoroughly enjoying a FF/Sonic I'm leveling up (thankfully, FF helps my hunger for AoE with repulsion bomb).
Playing CoH with Gestures
I tend to favor builds that can deal out or directly heal damage. I also tend to shy away from builds that I feel are overplayed to the point that the game stagnates from the lack of variety.
My favorite defender is my Kin/Archery defender. It can heal, recover endurance, has unrestricted SS and SJ, and can recharge Rain of Arrows in less than 17 seconds when maxed out on Hasten and Siphon Speed. I can't exactly farm EBs, but I can clear out the anything else ridiculously quick, and being able to zip around a mission while tearing away the power of my enemies and shooting them full of arrows makes me feel super! 
There are some defenders that are a lot more fun solo than on teams, and this one definitely qualifies. It doesn't get big boosts from FS that the team-sized mobs can give, but it makes it easier for me to use the other fun powers, like Telekinesis.
Have you ever used Telekinesis on a mob for over 5 minutes just to prove you could? I have. Every time I got low on endurance I'd just use Transference. XD
Then I sniped them all to death, one by one. >
Too many alts to list.
Empathy/Psi because it is an amazing build. Love empathy its my fav set in game.
I'd say trick Arrow followed by Cold Domination for me.
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Dark/Dark ... Dark/Anything, really.
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This is hard to say because I have 1 of every Corruptor Secondary in the game, but not one of every Defender Primary in the game, though I love them both. I'd guess I'd have to say my FF/Psi and my Kin/Elec are my favs. Since respec'ing my Emp/Nrg he's become much more exciting to play. Since my Ice/ Cold corruptor is my favorite Red Side naturally the Cold/ Ice Defender would come in high on the list. I haven't made a Dark/, Sonic/ or /Rad, /Dark Defender yet. I have both Sonic/ Sonic, Dark/Dark, and Rad/Rad Corrs so i guess the best defender combo would be Dark/ Rad, and Sonic/ Dark.
-The Elite-[50's]Va'Leria�X'hian�Stormy Monday�Radical Burn�Mo'Mentum�Heat-Source�Professor Blaze
-World Wide Evil, Inc-[50s]Soulfire�Perma.Frost�Kold Soul�Foxphyre�Pitch-Black�Corrupt Fusion�Cassanova Brown�Tyler Thorn�Iron Siren�Solaura�Fortunauta Wade�Look'Alike�Arctic Engineer
Kinetic / Archer / Psy -- I love the Kinetics fast recharge of my Nuke. I love Kinetics, but the nuke being so quick returning is the reason I chose archery. I also like Psy because the sleep allows me to setup my buffs in freedom.
My Emp/Rad was my first 50 so of course I really enjoy those two sets. I recently rolled a rad/rad and sonic/dark. The sonic/dark was more of a double xp weekend experiment but I quickly fell in love with the combo and it is probably my favorite defender thus far.
Sonic gives you great team buffs and excellent debuffs, coupled with the -acc debuff in the attacks from dark, plus you get an immob, stun and self heal power. I just hit 38 and picked up my nuke last night. Strolling into a mob and firing off Liquefy followed by the nuke is a pretty site, I can't wait to get them both 6 slotted. 
This is also a great "team" defender as you make it much easier for your team to "arrest."
So Sonic/Dark is my current favorite, but my Rad/Rad is also a lot of fun. Both are great "team" defenders and I never have problems finding a team with either which is another reason I like the combo(s).
Coming back out of the woodwork after a couple years away from the game...
Cold/Ice (right now...I am an altaholic after all)
Aim + Sleet + Ice Storm + Blizzard = EPIC FUN!
My only Defender is an Archer, and I like him a lot. It's nice to have holds, and great debuffs.
Rad/Ice
Basically, don't look forward to having that power recharge in pvp 
You can pick just one? *boggle*
I love all my defenders, from the buffing goodness of my empaths and sonics, to the debuffing awesomeness of my rads, darks and the fantastic pace of my storms and kins. I can't pick just one.
Dark/Psi, had a lot of fun lvling him to 50. My FF/Ice is also a lot of fun. Single target devastation.
Dark/Dark is my favorite, hands down - my first 50, my first defender and my all-around go-to girl. My other debuffer, a Rad/Psy, just didn't quite live up to the fun of my dark/dark, but still very enjoyable to take out for various TFs. Overall, I think I prefer the debuffers as they feel more active to me in a fight.
Now, I DO like buffers as well... for my favorite, it is a split between my sonic/elec and my emp/sonic. My sonic would be far and away my favorite as a /sonic, /rad, /psy or /ice - Electric was an unwise choice (just no synergy for me) but by the time I realized it, I didn't want to re-roll... The sonic gives me a consistent play style: Buff in between fights, then mix it up with primary powers (sonic siphon, liquefy and the hula-hoop of DOOOOOM)and secondary blasts. The emp plays a little more unbalanced for me (but FUN), since you can really end up flip flopping between riding your secondary and riding your primary at a moments notice: buff, shoot, shoot, shoot, buff, shoot, shoot, OMG! heal, buff, heal, heal, heal, buff, heal... shoot, shoot, buff, shoot, shoot, buff, shoot, shoot, buff, buff, AHHHH! Heal, heal, heal, buff, heal, shoot... amusing AND fun :-)
My favorite defender is also my only one, so I guess it's a win by default. However, it's also the second character I ever created and still gets regular play.
That being said, I dig Sonic/Sonic because I like turning the enemy into butter and my team into a hot knife.
empathy/does not matter.
Why? Because Empathy is the only way any team ever completes a mission in this game. Anyone that says they did anything in this game without a healer is part of the of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor!
Dark/Rad
Debuffs debuffs debuffs debuffs control control debuffs debuffs debuffs AoE debuffs control AoE debuffs debuffs debuffs!
Oh, come on, Hobo. You know that any-controller-set/empathy is the only REAL way to get through any content in this game. After all, Controllers are so much better than Defenders they might as well just remove Defenders from the game. They fill the exact same role on a team as Controllers, but they do it much worse, so why does anyone even bother playing them?
Edit: Good to see you around again, Hobo.
Bye, everybody!
*Champion*
I do enjoy my fenders!
Emp is very effective as long as you don't ignore your secondary.
Rad/Rad is fantastic.
Storm/Nrg is the awesomesauce, and can easily break the agro cap.
However:
Kin/Elec/Elec is the defender of choice. I've been told that Chuck Norris play a Kin/Elec/Elec!
TA/A defender has to be my favorite defender, but that's mainly because TA isn't available to corruptors. Sonic/Sonic is second.
Cold/Ice.
It's everything i wanted my ice blaster to be and more. It's everything i wanted my FF defender to be and more. All in once nice (but tight) little package. Plus it makes AV's cry.
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Right now, I'm enjoying Kin/NRG way more than I probably should be.
Pewpewpew + 25% permanent damage bonus + permanent travel power and recharge bonus at an early level = win!
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this is one of my favorites (i'm still a sucker for rad/rad though), this combo plays well, with /NRG's KB helping with the lack of mitigation in KIN/, and it works thematically, which i know isn't important to everyone, but it's the meat of the game for me.
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I'm going to have to cast a vote for Kin/Energy as well. Please note, I'm largely biased by the fact that she's my main. 
I like playing her because it's a bit of an underdog combination. Generally, people tend to frown upon the KB aspect of Energy being paired with Kinetics. However, it's a good day for me when I nuke and someone says "We have an Energy Blaster on the team?"
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Probably my favorite defender is my first one: storm/elec. This combo gives kb, debuffs, a heal, a hold, aoe stealth, and pets (voltaic sentinel, tornado, lightning storm). It's also easy to conceive a toon with the combination of electrical and storm powers for rp.