I have a level 28 fire/kin and I've tried to go for a balanced approach. The kinetics side takes up a lot of my time and attention but my attacks are well slotted and I use them as much as I can in a team setting. I only have four powers from my primary and intend to only get a fifth (Inferno), but with my recharge rate that's quite enough and the rest aren't very appealing for a kineticist. I have four powers from my secondary as well, and intend to get two or three more. If I really have to choose I'd say I'm maybe a bit more defenderish than blasterish. I only have two single target attacks so if the team has no aggro control, I fall back to an even more defenderish role to protect myself from excess faceplanting.
However it's really designed to be paired with an aggro holding brute in which case both provide damage and support. That's the way I enjoy playing her the most, and I haven't heard any complaints from the brutes either 
In conclusion, I think a corruptor that focuses too much on either primary or the secondary is really just half a corruptor. Neither set is quite strong enough to make a good toon all by itself.
[ QUOTE ]
I wanted to turn around and say "you're a corrupter you're supposed to be the healer"
[/ QUOTE ]
Have you tried saying this to */Sonic corruptors yet? It will get a memorable response, I guarentee you. 
Anyway, to answer your quuestions my Corruptor is a corruptor. I dont favour either my Primary or my Secondary all important. The character is pretty chameleon like slipping into support or offence roles as the need applies.
I have 5 powers from my Primary (Dark Blast, Gloom, Tenebrous Tentacles, Night Fall and Blackstar) 4 of which are 6 slotted.
I have 6 powers frm my secondary (Transfusion, Siphon Power, Siphon Speed, Speed Boost, Transference, Fulcrum Shift) of which 3 are 6 slotted
On top of this I have 9 pool powers (Combat Jumping, Super Jump, Acrobatics, Swift, Health, Stamina, Hasten, Assault,and Tactics) none of which are 6 slotted - the nearest is 4 slots in Tactics.
I guess if I wanted to be "defendery" I'd probably pick something like Ice/Thermal or Ice/Dark
If I wanted to be "Blastery" I'd probably look at either Rad or Energy / Rad or Kinetics.
The truth is though, if you don't play like a Corruptor (if you try to be a pure blaster or a pure defender) you are missing out on the great synergies within this AT. And anyway, who says we are the support class? Have you seen those Mastermind Guys? They have much better single target heals than we do 
[ QUOTE ]
I wanted to turn around and say "you're a corrupter you're supposed to be the healer" which is too much of a gross over simplification.
[/ QUOTE ]
Indeed it would be.
The group of corruptors I tended to team with were very, very good at both. Excellent buffs/debuffs & very very lethal with damage. They sold me on Corruptors and I'll be rolling up a few for my forthcoming villainy 
.
I wouldn't tell someone to build an AT one way or another. A good player teaming well & getting the job done well is all I need to ask. There's plenty of different ways a good player can build their character & function.
Personally I will build my own Corruptors to utilitise the primaries AND the secondaries as best as possible. Plenty of good stuff on offer .
My ice/cold will be an quite an offensive corrupter, while my fire/thermal will be very much team support, with the occasional blasts when opponents are at low health (for scrouge)
[ QUOTE ]
I wanted to turn around and say "you're a corrupter you're supposed to be the healer" which is too much of a gross over simplification.
[/ QUOTE ]THERE ARE NO HEALERS IN THIS GAME!!!
Thank you for listening 
My Energy/Rad is definitely an all round butt kicker while my AR/Kin is more team orientated (at - this may change when she gets Full Auto).
Neither are Healers and any corrupter who advertises them selfs as such is doing the AT an injustice.
The point I was trying to make was that Twilight Grasp and Transusion are both heals but the two corrupters I teamed with hadn't slotted them up. I do know that healing isn't the be all and end all of being a defender or corrupter. Captain Cathode himself has never had Radiant Aura as I want him to go debuff/buff crazy. We all know Healing = Buffing, Buffing = Debuffing, Debuffing = VICTORY!
I don't run around spamming "HEAL PLZ" during my mishes but I was sort of hoping for some form of team support when I invited two corrupters to join us. Guess I'll have to increase the slotting on Spirit Tree...
Well I considerer my Ice/Rad corrupter a controller/blaster hybrid
To add a bit more, I too have experienced teaming with so called 'blaster' corrupter. Once was teamed up with a */thermal corrupter with 3 powers in secondary and rest in offensive etc. lvl 40 I might add
It's sometimes hard when making teams as you do expect some type of support when you invite a corrupter to a team but that is not always the case as I've experienced myself a few times
Corrupter heavy team rule
Was on one the other night, 6 corrupters 1 stalker and a Brute.
Steam rollered everything until we got split up and mullered
Nukella is built as a "pure" Corruptor, with her entire primary and everything but Fulcrim Shift from her secondary (she's currently 37), and obviously that will be picked up ASAP.
Dead Calm's Defender Manifesto
[ QUOTE ]
I guess if I wanted to be "defendery" I'd probably pick something like Ice/Thermal or Ice/Dark
If I wanted to be "Blastery" I'd probably look at either Rad or Energy / Rad or Kinetics.
[/ QUOTE ]
Just wondering what your thinking is on the primaries there. Ice is a much higher-damage set than Radiation, and I'm pretty sure it works out better than Energy for single-target damage, too.
My Ice/Dark is pretty balanced, but generally plays quite offensively - the three main Ice blasts mean I can churn out a fair amount of single-target damage, and I've acted as the main damage dealer for teams before, even against AVs. Tar Patch helps, as does having a Kineticist next to me. That doesn't mean I don't use my secondary though, far from it - I use it constantly, but my playstyle remains quite offensive, and I'm more focused on damage and control rather than directly defending and healing the team.
My Rad/Thermal spends more time using her secondary, and does feel closer to playing a Defender, especially in PvP. She can still do some damage, especially with Cosmic Burst, but I get kept busy keeping people healed and buffed. I tend to just throw her attacks in when I can, depending on the rest of the team to finish things off, unlike on my Ice/Dark, who'll often enough focus on taking out a big threat first thing.
I've created a fire/kin who I consider to act like a blaster with a self buffing secondary, sure you get buffed as well if you happen to be in the vicinity but that's not the point really.
I have a lvl 40 Energy/Kinetics. I have 8 powers from my primary, and 8 from my secondary. I am not a blaster. I am not a defender. I am death incarnate
Alright, seriously this time, being a /kin lets you skip a travelpower (for PvE purposes anyways) and lets you focus on your own sets. I have stupidly high damage (fulcrum shift+...well anything really, but nova REALLY does the job right :P) and since I have every /kin power but repel, I am great for buffing and healing too. It can be tricky to heal the ranged types that don't realise my heal is mob-based, but in general my team has no health issues, certainly doesn't have end issues, and the dmg is great too :P
I must add tho, that by taking just about all your primary and secondary powers, you can really get a headache from all the multi-tasking you'll be doing :P
I play my corruptors almost like my defenders...
...but I've always played balanced defenders, instead of the "pure" primary kind.
Honestly, I'd rather have a "blaster" than a "puresecondary" in my team. I'm not so bad that I need a babysitter watching my health bar or defending me... so those guys end up being XP leeches, unless they can debuff RES or increase massively my damage output. I'm all for people playing like they want, but I like doing more than one mission every 2 hours.
Me I'm more blastery, I do so adore laying the hurt.
I have a Ice/Kin and I mostly blast to my heart's content with a SB to the right players before each fight (usualy the brutes and corruptors, but the doms as well, any character I see who could use a faster recharge or is sucking air) as well as a ID for the alpha taker. That done I blast away with a few heals here and there.
As some pople mentioned, some fights (some teams even) we can blast happily and some times we have our hands filled trying to heal and buff/debuff. Which is why I loved Cors more than Defenders. With Defenders I'm mostly stuck with. .well.. defending, since 'offending' is going to be mediocre.
Just like when I rolled an empath and felt really useful (Hollow PuGs FTW!) until I teamed with a good controller and then I'd be twiddling my thumbs and taking pea shots at enemies.
With my new AR/Rad I'vebeen neglecting my attacks (waiting on flamethrower + ignite + full Auto) in favor of my debuffs. That worked well so far, even with TOs and DOs the debuffing is noticable.
Nothing quite like debuffing a boss and then plum ignoring it until the end of the fight to kill all minions and him just flaying at the air ^^
my ice/cold corruptor plays like a blaster/controller/defender
well, like a corruptor I guess.
lol @ "corruptors should heal"
I play my Sonic/Dark kind of like a defender, ie if I made a defender with the same powers I would play him exactly the same and pick pretty much the same powers, although in a different order.
He doesn't have the rez, I felt there were better powers to pick, but has pretty much every other secondary.
However I have Aim and 4 blasts, including an AoE, which make a reasonable attack chain.
So he would be in no way a pure defender, but would certainly be a boon to any team he is on, and is capable of the most scary -dmg and -res debuffs ever. But he also is capabale of quite nasty damage output.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
When i am soloing, my corruptor is a killing machine. I'd dare to say it does kill stuff as fast as my Brute, thanks to hasten and stacked siphon speed.
In a team however, i have to keep everyone speedboosted, tossing transfusion and transference here and there a lot, not counting fulcrumshit, siphon power and the rest. Transfusion needs a lot of attention aswell, so in the end i don't attack that often.
With a couple brutes speedboosted anyway they don't really need you to add in the damage department, i usually there to finish off low health npc with scourge.
My Dark/Kin is both really, I've a good balance between primary and secondary and blast with him a lot more than my Kin/Elec defender.
I'm extremely used to playing in a 'support' role. 2ndary heavy controllers, primary heavy tankers, the like.
For my Fire/Dark corrupter, I'm doing my best to be a damage beast. I am in a supergroup that is mostly /Dark corrupters, and so far we are usually in a team of 3 or more of us. Lots of healing, lots of tar patches (other people), Darkest Night (me), and loads of damage. I think we're currently mostly at level 14, so plenty of time to pick up the other powers that we really want.
I do believe almost everyone will be picking up Shadow Fall at 16 . Then the stamina run to 22, then back on the interesting powers again. Grr I don't like the stamina 6-levels, bah. One has picked up Howling Twilight, but I don't think she's had a chance to use it yet
Shrug.
Use it as a stunner if its "going cold" on you.
Of course Sods Law will dictate that once you do someone is bound to faceplant
I've got a lvl 36 ice/ice and a lvl 40 fire/therm. I've tried both of them out in a variety of ways going pure offense, defence and balance and have come to a simple conclusion... If you're Corruptor is going to team or PvP, the secondary is where it's at.
For my fire/thermal, shielding a brute and forging him then slapping melt armour and heat exhaustion on the mobs while keeping him healed is going to be a LOT more effective than me having a few extra attacks with my much lower damage potential and the fact it's a lot more likely I'll die before the brute if I go offensive.
Same goes with the ice, I can pump out reasonable damage but it's the debuffs that are going to be of most benefit to my team.
That said, you can pretty much take and slot all your required secondary powers by lvl 40 so the chance to add to my offence with lvl 40+ is going to be a welcome addition.
Ive got a lv 40 thermal/energy corruptor. I would say he is hybrid of both defender and blaster. He can be quite offensive but he also has most of his secondary's such as shields and heals.
How I play ultimately depends on who I am facing and the team I am teaming with - my role with thus change on these factors. I try sit back at the beginning of the fight, thus free from aggro to go about my business (defending side). As the battle goes on I normally start to get more offensive taking advantage of scourge. I love it when teamed with another thermal as it allows me to be even more offensive - kamikaze runs into the heart of big mobs are very common when I know I have backup behind me - NOVA TIME!
I suppose thats one of the great perks (and why I have enjoyed this toon so much) of a corruptor - its adaptability.
Heros
Max Powerz: Lv 50 Tanker
Villains
Max Khaos: Lv 50
Overlord of E.V.I.L.
My Brute - http://maxy-khaos.mybrute.com/
LF SG! Arc ID# 193083
There seem to be two schools of Corrupting.
School One seem to be the "Defender" class corrupter - those who take their secondary powers more than their primary
School Two is the "Blaster" school where the primary powesr take priority.
I keep bumping into "blaster" type corrupters who basically can't help other team mates with any form of beff/debuff/heal. Yesterday I was teaming with 2 Corrupters (A Dark/Dark and an NRG/Kin) and the second one complained that we needed a healer. We had both Twilight Grasp and Transfusion but neither of the corrupters had slotted them. I wanted to turn around and say "you're a corrupter you're supposed to be the healer" which is too much of a gross over simplification.
So which is better "Blaster" type or "Defender" type corrupters?
My Dark/Dark is definitely more a "Defender"