Bow drawing is a right royal pain if you ask me...
Anyhoo...
Depends on what you are gonna be playing... solo, group, PvE, PvP... etc...
Fancy doing more damage or more debuff/protecting?
e.g
Sonic will give you absolutely silly -res powers. Given TA already has two good -res powers, this will stack pretty well and make you a real damage booster to the entire team. This should allow you to ignite your oil slick (very important) as Sonic does energy damage.
Dark would give you the -acc debuff that is the one thing TA isnt to good at. However, you wont be able to ignite your oil slick (so make sure you have Tech Origin for taser dart or that other one i cant remember that does energy damage).
Elec is always fun as gives you another way to subdue your enemies with short circuit. When you come to your EMP arrow, there is a little synergy there. Will ignite your oil slick nicely.
Rad has some attractions. TA isnt a good AoE -def power, although has a powerful -def debuffer in acid arrow. Not great, but fills a slight area of weakness (although the -acc weakness is much more of a gap and filled by dark). Will ignite your oil slick nicely.
Energy - pfft. Dont want to knock them out of your oil slick / disruption arrow / glue effect etc etc. Thats just wrong. With a lot of skill can be used to knock them back in but it will probably to more harm than good. It does ignite your oil slick pretty well but Id say this is one to avoid.
Archery and psionics - well you said you didnt want it!.
I think that about covers it. So my suggestions would be:
Going for all out damage (in team or solo): TA/Sonic
Going for all out protection (in a team): TA/Dark (but get the right origin)
Going for a team build and want something different: TA/Elec
AVOID TA/ENERGY!
Just some thoughts.
Anything but energy. I have a 31 TA/Sonic that's all about buffing team damage and a 23 TA/A that will probably not shine until 38 when I can add a rain of arrows to my oil slick in every fight.
Both good choices I think but TA/A blooms later than TA/Sonic.
Psiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!
That is all 
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TA isnt a good AoE -def power, although has a powerful -def debuffer in acid arrow.
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Is it just me or do other defenders feel that the team shouldn't be looking at them as a crutch to hit +3/+4s reliably?
You can already give them tactics and it's not like blasters/scrappers have to carefully deliberate about what to slot their powers with. Since ED it's not a big drama for them to slot 2acc 3dam in each damage power. If your -Def was liberating their slots for damage SO's then I can see a point but if they're not hitting things then that's their fault since ED.
Blaster the other day, "I'm barely hitting these things"
Me, "Hit the ones with -1s floating up, they are -Def debuffed"
Me, "How many accuracy SO's do you have in your blasts anyway? The mobs are only +2s"
Blaster, "What's a SO?"
You should play an illusion/TA controller instead
I really should do something about this signature.
But if it's on a controller, then I get all the cool TA stuff later. Plus, I already have an illusion controller
I'm thinking of going with elec. No clue as to why.
Because watching things judder in pain inside a tesla cage = fab?
If I was going to remake my TA/Archery Defender, he'd be TA/Electric. It has nice AoE powers, a hold and a sort of 'pet'. Which would go well with the Glue, Oil Slick, Disruption Arrow and Acid Arrow. Throw in Ice Arrow for another hold. 
/dark has an AoE immob, so that the enemies wont be able to run away from your debuffs.
/elec has a hold - add this to the holds you get in TA and Psi Mastery, and you can have five holds, conceivably locking down AVs all by yourself. Also, energy damage for igniting oil slick.
"I know 653 ways to kill a man. Fist to the face is #56."
I have a TA/Dark (tech origin for igniting my oil slick once I get that far) and it's unbelievably fun
Lay down all the debuffs then trap all the enemies with my Tentacles... as long as I keep cycling the targets then the accuracy debuff from dark keeps me pretty safe.
If you want a background other than magic or tech you will want a secondary that does fire or energy damage to ignite oil slick.
So not Dark or Psi.
I really should do something about this signature.
Here's my TA/Elec ideas. Comments?
Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Trick Arrow
Secondary Powers - Support : Electrical Blast
01 : Charged Bolts acc(01) dam(3) dam(5) dam(9) recred(21)
01 : Flash Arrow recred(01)
02 : Glue Arrow recred(02) recred(3)
04 : Ball Lightning acc(04) dam(5) dam(7) dam(9) recred(17) endred(25)
06 : Hasten recred(06) recred(7) recred(40)
08 : Poison Gas Arrow recred(08)
10 : Short CIrcuit acc(10) enddrn(11) enddrn(11) dam(13) dam(15) recred(17)
12 : Acid Arrow recred(12) recred(13) acc(15) recred(43)
14 : Super Speed endred(14)
16 : Hurdle jmp(16)
18 : Disruption Arrow recred(18) recred(19) recred(19) acc(21)
20 : Health hel(20) hel(46) hel(42)
22 : Stamina endrec(22) endrec(23) endrec(23)
24 : Aim recred(24) recred(25)
26 : Oil Slick Arrow recred(26) recred(27) recred(27) Empty(29) Empty(31) Empty(31)
28 : Tesla Cage acc(28) hlddur(29) recred(34) hlddur(43) recred(43)
30 : Zapp acc(30) dam(31) dam(33) dam(34) inttim(34)
32 : EMP Arrow recred(32) recred(33) hlddur(33) recred(37)
35 : Voltaic Sentinel recred(35) recred(36) acc(36) dam(36) dam(37) dam(37)
38 : Thunderous Blast acc(38) dam(39) dam(39) dam(39) enddrn(40) recred(40)
41 : Oppressive Gloom disdur(41) acc(42) endred(42) endred(50) endred(46)
44 : Dark Embrace damres(44) endred(45) damres(45) damres(45) endred(46)
47 : Soul Drain recred(47) recred(48) recred(48) acc(48) endred(50)
49 : Dark Consumption recred(49) acc(50)
Looks good.
Id take Ice Arrow - use this with Telsa Cage to lock down boss and make controllers look silly 
Personally, Id loose the Nova for this - I never like Nova's on Defenders but hey ho.
Short Circuit. Id play to its strengths - End drainage. Only needs 1 accuracy, but id go 3xEnd mod, 2xRecharge. Spam it. In big groups it will cost you next to no endurance (you may even gain some).
Well, the /elec nova is ranged Will take the advise on SC though.
And could I respec flash arrow sometime for the other ST attack? Would that be good?
Flash Arrow is not the strongest TA power... thats for sure.
Additional thought... TA/Elec might be a possible stamina-less build. I have TA on my mastermind - even running two leadership toggles and having 1 end rec in all TA powers I do absolutely fine. TA is a low end cost set.
And elec, with its end drainage and posiblle end gaining effect may be lowish cost.
Combine with vigilance? Might be an option.
Hmm, might. Will consider that as a respec build though, reach a decent level and fiddle on test. Or could I dare try it first time? :O
You don't need recreds in acid arrow, it doen't stack with itself.
Disruption arrow doesn't take accuracies: it is an auto hit power.
EMP arrow would benefit from 1 accuracy, its base accuracy is high, but a miss against +3/+4 mobs could be nasty. Note that it stops your end recovery for a few secs, if you don't have stamina it could be a problem.
Glue Arrow might like a few more slots, maybe 3 recreds and 2 slows.
I really should do something about this signature.
Anyway, I'm up to level 7 now doing fine without stam (Probs won't last) But I do leave most fights with full end. Seeing as there's no toggles till epics, I think I can make it. There's just so much to take!
Okay, done a stamina-less build here, how do you think this'll do for leveling?
Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Trick Arrow
Secondary Powers - Support : Electrical Blast
01 : Charged Bolts acc(01) dam(3) dam(7) dam(15)
01 : Flash Arrow rng(01)
02 : Glue Arrow recred(02) recred(3) recred(9)
04 : Ball Lightning acc(04) dam(5) dam(5) dam(7) recred(9)
06 : Hasten recred(06) recred(17) recred(46)
08 : Poison Gas Arrow recred(08)
10 : Short CIrcuit acc(10) enddrn(11) enddrn(11) enddrn(13) recred(13) recred(15)
12 : Acid Arrow acc(12)
14 : Super Speed endred(14)
16 : Aim recred(16) recred(17) recred(46)
18 : Disruption Arrow recred(18) recred(19) recred(19)
20 : Zapp acc(20) dam(21) dam(21) dam(25) inttim(40)
22 : Ice Arrow acc(22) hlddur(23) hlddur(23) recred(25) recred(43)
24 : Combat Jumping jmp(24)
26 : Oil Slick Arrow recred(26) recred(27) recred(27) Empty(29) Empty(33) Empty(34)
28 : Tesla Cage acc(28) hlddur(29) recred(31) hlddur(43)
30 : Lightning Bolt acc(30) dam(31) dam(31) dam(34) recred(34)
32 : EMP Arrow hlddur(32) acc(33) recred(33) recred(37)
35 : Voltaic Sentinel recred(35) recred(36) dam(36) acc(36) recred(37) endred(37)
38 : Thunderous Blast acc(38) recred(39) dam(39) dam(39) dam(40) recred(40)
41 : Oppressive Gloom acc(41) disdur(42) endred(42) endred(42) endred(43)
44 : Dark Embrace damres(44) damres(45) damres(45) endred(45) endred(46)
47 : Soul Drain acc(47) recred(48) recred(48) recred(48) endred(50)
49 : Dark Consumption acc(49) endrec(50) recred(50)
From what I recall with my Kin / Elec you can only regain End from the Single Target attacks, not the AOEs I'm afraid.
So Short Circuit isn't going to act like a Consume-lite as far as I'm aware.
I found my End starting to falter in the mid-teens with my Kin/Elec. But TA is supposed to be very End-lite so you might get away with slotting some End Red in your attacks. Without them I could see you having a few issues in the 20s onwards, especially in fast moving teams without a End buffer.
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Personally, Id loose the Nova for this - I never like Nova's on Defenders but hey ho.
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I can kinda see why novas and defenders don't match that well but I would have thought TA/Electric would be one of those sets where taking the nova is never really going to harm how you play... given that the nova is ranged and a TA defender doesnt have to maintain their endurance to keep any toggles running... just means they have to swallow a few blues after setting it off.
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From what I recall with my Kin / Elec you can only regain End from the Single Target attacks, not the AOEs I'm afraid.
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Thunderous Blast is an exception. You do get endurance back from it, although it's not much and doesn't last long.
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From what I recall with my Kin / Elec you can only regain End from the Single Target attacks, not the AOEs I'm afraid.
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Thunderous Blast is an exception. You do get endurance back from it, although it's not much and doesn't last long.
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But as a Nova it also empties your entire End bar and makes you unable to recover End normally doesn't it? Doesn't sound like its the best End Recovery power there is really : Empties your bar, but theres a chance you'll get a wee bity back from your enemies.
Yeah exactly. It drains you to zero and gives you back 10-15% vs about 10 mobs but with no end recharge it doesn't last long. It's enough for another ball lightning or emergency power though I guess, or for transference for a kin/elec, without having to pop a blue.
Hey, I really have a strong urge for a TA/ defender, as most of the powers look great, except I have a problem. What secondary to take?
Having already taken and loved /archery on my blaster, I'd like to have a change. Not /psi to carry on MaX's FoTM, but I was thinking maybe elec. I'm okay with bow drawing times, and was wondering if this'd be a good set to go with, or any other reccomendations?