Depends on the current team makeup.
In all seriousness, I would prefer a Force Fielder because they dont obscure everyone's costume.
The two occasions I've played with a Cold Domination ally (1 Corrupter and 1 Defender) I found the graphics for Cold strong enough to actually cause me some degree of tactical confusion.
I dont run task forces or fight AVs much though. I suspect that's where Cold comes into its strengths - it has mighty debuffs which aren't up for every group.
For rolling through PvE Invincible missions either in small or full teams, I don't miss the debuffs. Plus I'm usually bringing my own anyway.
FF is better at defence, Cold offers more utility. Like Philo... sorry, The_Player said, depends on team makeup.
Guardian...just an FYI, your Force Field/NRG Defenders link shows "Forum not found".
The team will be 2 scrappers and 2 blasters. I'm thinking FF would be more useful,though I'm sure they would love teh Heat Loss.
A bunch of 50s and too many alts...
Neo's Guide To Thugs/Storm (need to update it)
www.facebook.com/bbirgephotos
Questions about Fire/Rad? Just ask!
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Guardian...just an FYI, your Force Field/NRG Defenders link shows "Forum not found".
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He's known about that for some time, and I even REPOSTED his guide and GAVE HIM THE LINK.
He either doesn't care, or thinks it's funny now. I suspect the latter.
Perhaps lazy? lol
A bunch of 50s and too many alts...
Neo's Guide To Thugs/Storm (need to update it)
www.facebook.com/bbirgephotos
Questions about Fire/Rad? Just ask!
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Guardian...just an FYI, your Force Field/NRG Defenders link shows "Forum not found".
The team will be 2 scrappers and 2 blasters. I'm thinking FF would be more useful,though I'm sure they would love teh Heat Loss.
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Heat loss is fun. It doesn't recharge fast enough for every encounter, but with hasten and full recharge slotting, it is often enough for bosses and hard targets. That said, the best debuff of the cold set would have to be sleet. Debuff the resistance, debuff the defense and knock down all in a wonderful package, it's too bad it comes so much later in the Cold's career than the Storm cousin's Freezing Rain.
Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.
Cold > FF unless you are the only defender/controller on the team offering up +Def/-Tohit abilities. FF really doesn't bring much to the table if the +Def/-Tohit is already soft capped or near it, Cold however still brings +Resist/-Dmg, +End/+Recov, Slow Resist, -Resist/-Def, -regen/-special and -recharge/-spd.
It's the same reason Rad is considered better than Dark, sets that offer a variety stack better in teams than sets that specialize in one effect too much.
Force Fields beats cold up one side and down the other if you have a large number of non-mezprotected squishies on the team.
Force Fields is a pure buff set, Cold like Thermal (controller/corruptor) is a combination buff/debuff set. It really depends on what you need for the team which primary you prefer. I've teamed with quite a few more FF players than Colds though most teams only have a single defender if there are any at all.
All that said I can't stand teaming with a Cold. I dislike both the graphics and the audio that Cold has.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
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Force Fields beats cold up one side and down the other if you have a large number of non-mezprotected squishies on the team.
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Meh, when high amounts of +Def is involved mez protection is quite minor since they'll rarely hit anyway.
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Cold like Thermal (controller/corruptor) is a combination buff/debuff set.
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Actually Thermal is Buff/Heal set with 2 debuffs being more of just minor fill-ins to the rest of the set. At it's core, Thermal is about the synergy between Healls and +Res and creating a more aggressive version of Empathy's buffs. The debuffs however overly minor in the grand design and experience of that set.
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All that said I can't stand teaming with a Cold. I dislike both the graphics and the audio that Cold has.
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Some people find FF's over use of knockback powers absolutely annoying and its sounds as well.
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Some people find FF's over use of knockback powers absolutely annoying and its sounds as well.
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People who can't use KB are a problem with the player, not the set, though that does affect perception of the set, which can affect your teaming options. (Unfair as that is.)
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Force Fields beats cold up one side and down the other if you have a large number of non-mezprotected squishies on the team.
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Meh, when high amounts of +Def is involved mez protection is quite minor since they'll rarely hit anyway.
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Cold like Thermal (controller/corruptor) is a combination buff/debuff set.
[/ QUOTE ]
Actually Thermal is Buff/Heal set with 2 debuffs being more of just minor fill-ins to the rest of the set. At it's core, Thermal is about the synergy between Healls and +Res and creating a more aggressive version of Empathy's buffs. The debuffs however overly minor in the grand design and experience of that set.
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All that said I can't stand teaming with a Cold. I dislike both the graphics and the audio that Cold has.
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Some people find FF's over use of knockback powers absolutely annoying and its sounds as well.
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There are some non-sleep mezzes that have no positional component and 5% of all mezzes will still get through even hard capped defenses. On an 8 man team it's not uncommon to have 4 or more mezzers (especially in the case of rikti) in a single spawn. A finite number of mezzes will still get through capped defenses FF gives protection in this case where Cold does not.
The annoying parts of Knockback can be eliminated on FF by skill with the set or for those lacking in skill by omitting the KB powers from their selection.
I prefer a power set that does 1 thing very very well. I can always choose what else I wish to excell at by selecting a complimentary or balancing secondary. I don't really care for power sets that do 2 or more things average or less. That's one reason I like TA for controllers and don't much care for it for defenders and it's the reason I have problems with the way shield defense is set up.
If I'm going to make a defense based defender it's going to be FF. If I'm going to make an Offender its going to be a Storm/, Rad/, or Dark/ and it's going to be a /dark or /sonic.
I have 4 force fielders. 2 defenders, 2 controllers, 2 at 50 and 2 in the high 30s. I haven't been able to stand a Cold long enough to get one past 30 with out deleting and rerolling something else.
YMMV of course.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Should I?
....Nah.
*grabs some nachos*
Nah. Allow me. 
I reckon pretty much every set has something annoying about it. Rad and Dark Defenders (and Storm and Cold) complain about teammates killing their anchors - this can get old for the teammates.
Force Field and Storm have knockback issues if played badly.
Kinetics' Speed Boost can cause problems for players on low end machines, or with poor reflexes or medical conditions.
Sonic Resonance used to give people migraines. I think its OK now, although Sonic Dispersion can suddenly fill your screen with ornage spots at just the right distance.
And Cold Domination obscures the costume of the recipient of its buffs.
Now, go and find any review of City of Heroes, and what's the first thing they always seem to mention? "The costume creator alone is worth the price of the game" "I could play in the costume creator all night without getting bored" and so on.
This isn't the game with the most stuff to do, or the one with the best combat mechanics, or the slickest graphics, but it is the MMO with the best character customisation system.
Having a powerset that obscures everyone's costume seems kind of wrong in light of that.
Would anyone here really object if the Ice Shield and Glacial Shield graphics were swapped for something less obtrusive, like a light frosting with sparkles? I'd be all over the set like a rash if they did that.
PS - Arctic Fog is a lovely looking power, and puts Steamy Mist and Shadowfall to shame IMHO.
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Cold > FF unless you are the only defender/controller on the team offering up +Def/-Tohit abilities. FF really doesn't bring much to the table if the +Def/-Tohit is already soft capped or near it, Cold however still brings +Resist/-Dmg, +End/+Recov, Slow Resist, -Resist/-Def, -regen/-special and -recharge/-spd.
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This.
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Guardian...just an FYI, your Force Field/NRG Defenders link shows "Forum not found".
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He's known about that for some time, and I even REPOSTED his guide and GAVE HIM THE LINK.
He either doesn't care, or thinks it's funny now. I suspect the latter.
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Pretty much the latter. The missing guide is now part of my sig. Just for you though, Player, I'll fix it for old time's sake.
My guide is linked to up in the guides section if anyone wants a gander. It's a little dated now, since I made just before the changes to Repulsion Bomb were made, and I've never tweaked it for IO's, but the build still complies with ED.
Cold. Given a choice between the two, I would take the balance of mitigation and making things die faster offered by cold over the pure mitigation of FF.
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Which do *you* think is better? Which would you rather have on a team?
With 1 FF Defender, he can softcap the entire team's Defense.
However, Cold can provide very nice buffs,with slew of debuffs...
Hmmm...decisions decisions...
What are your thoughts?
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In general, I think cold has more useful utilities that you want to keep on spamming whenever they are recharged. So, I think cold is "better" in this sense. The main "issue" is the ice shield graphics.
FF has utilities that are situational, like detention field and force bubble. When they meet the right situation, they are really valuable. I find that I can soft cap my FF defender's defense without too much effort, and with nearly full status protection, FF defender is probably tougher. Compared to ice shield graphics, bubbles are very clean, I never have anyone yell at me for the graphics, and everybody loves the buff and be my hamster in a sphere.
Finally, if you have a concept in your mind for a themed toon, the choice between cold and FF should be more obvious.
QR
I have a 50 Ill/FF controller and a 50 Cold/Ice Defender. While the Controller is awesome for teams, the Defender adds a lot more value in more situations than the FF Controller.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
I always went FF because if I'm going to do the dance every 3.5 minutes, I want my team to be INDESTRUCTIBLE.
I realize this is a personal choice and not necessarily the most efficient one.
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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In all seriousness, I would prefer a Force Fielder because they dont obscure everyone's costume.
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I very rarely see Cold Defenders. I agree with a lot of people that the issue may be the graphics. I think if the shields were greatly lowered in opacity it would look really neat; more of a kind of clear reflective shell than the block of frozen Tropical Punch Koolaid we have now. I wish this would happen to Thermal too.
I like the utility of cold moreso than FF. It has more mitigational tools in my opinion, and offers more bang for the buck in my opinion. The only thing I prefer in FF more is the look as it doesn't obstruct/cause issues with graphics.
I have played a /ff troller to 50 and a cold dom corr to lvl36 or so, and find that cold buffer seems to pack more punch and utility at nearly any given level.
Words to the wise aren't necessary- it's the stupid ones that need them.
"You're right...I forgot...being constantly at or the near the damage cap is a big turn off. Definitely not worth it."
- Vitality
Having both, I prefer using the FF.
I just don't like how cold plays.
As a teammate I'll take either. As long as there's two blasters, it doesn't matter which one's there
Which do *you* think is better? Which would you rather have on a team?
With 1 FF Defender, he can softcap the entire team's Defense.
However, Cold can provide very nice buffs,with slew of debuffs...
Hmmm...decisions decisions...
What are your thoughts?
A bunch of 50s and too many alts...
Neo's Guide To Thugs/Storm (need to update it)
www.facebook.com/bbirgephotos
Questions about Fire/Rad? Just ask!