Force Field Guide
Pretty much everything you need to know is contained in the above guide.
Flippin' LOVE that guide.
First:
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im just starting to learn how to play the defender architype.
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Defenders aren't really "an archetype" the same way Blasters or Scrappers are... there's almost no common playstyle between an Empath, a Storm, a Dark and a Force Fielder.
I describe Force Fields as "boring if you do it right- your team just steamrolls stuff and doesn't get hurt. "
The Philotic Knight guide is something I've disagreed with him on for, like, four or five years.
You can be a good Force Field defender by keeping the two small fields on everyone, keeping Dispersion Bubble up, and not doing a lot of zigging and zagging around. (Dispersion Bubble works best if people can find it.) Those three things will do more for your group than everything else you can do with the set.
"Keeping the bubbles on the group" is not challenging, but it's hard. If you screw up, everyone tends to get dramatically hurt and if you don't screw up, nobody notices. So you need reliability. They just think they're that good or something. I use a digital kitchen timer and start reshielding (and reset the timer) at the 3 minute mark. Yes, that's 20 times an hour, or several thousand times over your Defender's career. Shift-1 will choose the first person on the team, shift 2 will chose the second, etc.
Secondaries are what you do as a hobby in between rounds of reshielding the group. I like Sonic, Ice, Electric; don't really like Dark, Rad.
Heal Other: I personally don't like the medicine pool, because whiners blame you for their own stupidity, but if you're looking for something to do with your spare time after reshielding the group, go for it. A much better choice is actually Maneuvers; because of how Defense works in this game, the last 5% is worth as much as the previous 40%. Force Fields gives you 40%, and Maneuvers gives you 5%.
FF Powers:
Deflection Field, Insulation Field, and Dispersion Bubble are the set-defining powers.
Force Bolt is precise, reliable singletarget knockback. Very handy for problematic single targets.
Personal Force Field is a "Get out of death" card. When you're in Personal Force Field you're very hard to kill but the rest of the team is much easier to kill, because none of your toggles affect them. If you're dead, none of your toggles affect them EITHER. Use freely if it looks like things are going bad. Don't be stupidly macho.
Repulsion Bomb is a nifty-but slow ranged damage power. Knocks everyone down and hits them about as hard as a typical ranged AOE attack from your secondary.
Those are the six I highly recommend.
Detention Field is a very-long-duration "notouchie" power- nobody on your team can hurt the enemy, and vice versa. I'm not a fan.
Repulsion Field does area knockback and annoys enemies, greatly, with you personally. I am not a fan.
Force Bubble does repel- NOT knockback- so very few badguys resist it. I've seen one or two times I wished I had it, but normally, I'm not a fan. Gently shoving people around doesn't actually harm them that much.
So there's my take on the set.
Go forth, play in a relaxed fashion, and beat the enemies flat!
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
Fulmens' take on FF is a good one. If I were ever to haul my bubbler out again, I /might/ swap Force Bolt for Repulsion Field, but that's about the only difference I have with his summation.
And, to reinforce what Fulmens said: once you have a heal, you're a healer. For a small, but noticeable, group of players, if you aren't constantly spamming that one power, you are a bad player and they will constantly call you on how lousy a healer you are. Don't give them the that entree.
Further, if they start grousing that you don't have a heal (a scrapper* called me out recently for not having a /rez/ on my bubbler), stop bubbling him. And then point out that it's generally better to not take damage in the first place. Players like this need educating, and experience (or, in this case, debt) is an awfully good teacher..
* What kind of idjit scrapper manages to get killed ... while bubbled?
I need to put together a series of mini-guides for all the stuff I repeat over and over.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
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I need to put together a series of mini-guides for all the stuff I repeat over and over.
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I'd write a guide, but I think ones of people have ever read my posts.
True story: I wrote an MA arc a couple days after release I14's release. I published it, hoped to get some feedback ... and then no one's played it 
Granted, it is, IME, worth 2 stars at most, but still.
But, yes, you should write a guide.
I agree with everyone in this thread. 
I'm assuming you plan to support a team with your FF. If you do plan to solo, I would recommend Detention Field, while it is annoying on a team, while solo it will save your bacon. It might be a choice to consider for your second build.
And I'll second the motion to pick up Repulsion Bomb, maybe and Force Bolt too. They're really quite different, Force Bolt is for knocking foes away from allies in danger, while Repulsion Bomb is for protecting the tank. You knock everyone around him off their feet, not away, and stun some of them. The damage is icing on the cake, nice icing that makes the End and cast time expense worth it, but the main thing is knowing you can drop it on the tank any time you want and he won't yell at you. Unless you slot it for knockback, but don't do that.
My 2c on Repulsion Field.
It has a much smaller radius than I thought it would. So its not like you walk into a group of enemies and send them all flying, more like you touch them to repel them. It will kick in on anyone who tries to melee you too, maybe after they get a hit in, maybe before. But its a lot easier to control than I thought it would be.
Its also autohit. Force Fields, being a purely buffin set (rather than debuffing) allows you to run with a group of allies two levels or so above you quite easily without diminishing your main contribution of +Defence.
If you do end up in this situation (and sucking up the sweet XP that it brings) Repulsion Field will still work, and can allow you to easily keep a single troublesomeboss off their feet while the rest of the team engage the rest of the group.
I'd recommend either Force Bolt or Repulsion Field rather than both. This is the big upside of Repulsion Field - the autohit
I would pick Force Bolt over Repulsion Field, if they're that close... do a quick PFF toggle.
For my FF/Elec, I only picked the shields and used the saved power slots for Speed, Leadership, Medicine, and Super Jump. Really if you're going FF defender, your secondary choice of attack powers will have a bigger impact on how much fun/effective the toon will be Its not hard keeping up the bubbles on team members, since they got a long duration. And while you wait to re-bubble, you play mini-blaster. I actually play my bubbler more like my fire blaster then my other defenders.
As to how often you have to use your bubbles on teammates, I re-bubble on every second mob, if the team is rocking... every third. Or you can use the poor man's way, keep a eye on team health and wait till you see someone dropping quicker then normal.
/Empaths can turn three people into Jesus, one person into God, and everyone else into the twelve apostles.~Angry_Citizen
Don't you know that discussion of power selection/slotting can ONLY be based on hearsay, rumor, idle speculation, and bald-faced lies??!? ~Elf_Sniper
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As to how often you have to use your bubbles on teammates, I re-bubble on every second mob, if the team is rocking... every third. Or you can use the poor man's way, keep a eye on team health and wait till you see someone dropping quicker then normal.
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My strategy for bubbling is simply to start at the top of the list and work down. I have a keybind for it. I usually bind the first person a few seconds before the rest. Then I watch him, and when his buff icon starts flashing, I know it's time to refresh everybody.
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My strategy for bubbling is simply to start at the top of the list and work down. I have a keybind for it. I usually bind the first person a few seconds before the rest. Then I watch him, and when his buff icon starts flashing, I know it's time to refresh everybody.
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Get! Out! Of! My! Head!
That is, word for word, how I've played my bubbler since the flashing icons thing was added.
Except for the bit about keybinds. I'm too thick to make them.
OK, Force Field Defenders got mini-guide #1.
tadaaa.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
I just created a FF defender. im just starting to learn how to play the defender architype. My qustion is what powers would be best to take and which ones to skip. Also what secondarys work well with is. lastly is it worth taking heal other from medicen pool? thank you for your comments and suggestions.