Wanted: PVP guide for Defender
By
Dark_Blasphemy_EU,
Posted on: 2007-11-23 13:22 in Everything about PvP
In team PvP, defenders should keep their team buffed and the enemy debuffed and be able to escape quickly.
Empaths need to be good at healing and they are slightly different, Kinetics main powers are speed boost, increase density, siphon speed, fulcrum Shift and power siphon. Knowing who to use the powers on as usually you can't keep everyone on is important.
Siphon Speed the main target, power siphon and fulcrum shift the enemy blasters/scrappers.
In smaller team games you might get a chance to do some attacking, just watch what the rest of the team are doing and shoot the target when buffs are applied.
I tried to load that build into Mids, but for the life of me can't find the clipboard. I'm clearly missing the obvious. 
I notice lots of you are focussing on the Kin element but I've always found the rad side to be very effective too - damage is ok but debuffs are mad! Within a team my Rad element has been more valuable I reckon (aside from the normal cries of "SB plx")
Thelonious Monk
You wont be valued for rad blast at all only your kinetcs powers, mainly speed boost.
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You wont be valued for rad blast at all only your kinetcs powers, mainly speed boost.
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I get on fine in pvp with my rad/rad defender solo.....
Yeah, the debuffs are good in PVE, but in PVP not many people will be relying on Defense powers, due to the fact that defense has so many "Kryptonite's". Basically Defense powers have 2 weaknesses, defense debuffs and tohit buffs, both of which are abundantly available(anyone has access to Tactics for example). This is the main reason why people prefer Resistance over Defense. Resistance only has Resistance Debuffs to deal with and even then there's less powers that do -res debuff than there are powers that do -defense debuff.
Rad Blast is basically 1 big Kryptonite to any Defense based players, but unfortunately not many people are dumb enough to rely that much on defense. Still you'll be able to floor anyone's defense with just your tier 1 and tier 2 powers.
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I notice lots of you are focussing on the Kin element but I've always found the rad side to be very effective too - damage is ok but debuffs are mad! Within a team my Rad element has been more valuable I reckon (aside from the normal cries of "SB plx")
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As most have already pointed out, Rad powers simply aren't that good at dealing lots of damage quickly. They work wonders at debuffing defense though, so if you're up against an Ice Tanker or a SR scrapper then you'll hit them more often. Unfortunately in most high level Team PvP you'll be ally-buffed up the whazoo anyway (CM/Clarity/PB'ed Fort/Bubbles) and your debuffs won't really make much difference to a toon with much defence debuff resistance. If you really, really, need to hit something in PvP it makes more sense to just hit "Aim" (slotted for ToHit) than try to get in close enough for a pre-emptive X-Ray Beam/Cosmic Burst.
The most viable general tactic is probably to focus on your Kin powers.
Increase Density, Speed Boost, Inertial Reduction. These buffs are what you want to spam, spam, spam.
ID gives Smashing/Energy resistance (yay!), Mez + KB Protection (Yay!!) and TP-Foe protection (YAY!!!).
Speed Boost is the best form of Crack available legally, and IR grants unsupressed movement.
Transference. This can be very, very nasty in small teams or even one-on-one as a toggle-dropper. Especially if you take "Power Build Up" from the epic pool which allows you to nearly completely drain a foe in one shot.
Transfusion. Usually I'd say "don't bother", but /rad debuffs will make this hit most of the time and it does a good bit of -regen. Use as-needed but it won't be very useful much of the time.
Fulcrum Shift. Unless you're fighting a Mastermind, I wouldn't bother using this much in PvP.
Siphon Speed. Your primary "Slow" tool. Useful if someone else on the team has a -jump/-fly power. You can also use this as a ghetto replacement for Super-Speed if you're short on power pool picks.
Siphon Power. Generally just as useful as Fulcrum Shift in PvP since most fights you'll be focussing on only one target. The damage debuff gets very noticable if you can stack this a few times.
If you're focussing on buffs, slot ranges in them. "Stealth" from the concealment pool combined with a Stealth IO will make you invisible while buffing (suppresses when you actually attack something). In most higher level arena fights your foes will have +perception, but villains in the zones tend not to have any... 
Ok lots to think about guys.
One other question: Why does everyone hate Repel? I've found it to be good in PVE - and surely it's good vs Stalkers?
Thelonious Monk
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Ok lots to think about guys.
One other question: Why does everyone hate Repel? I've found it to be good in PVE - and surely it's good vs Stalkers?
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Won't interrupt AS.
Won't ping anyone with KB Resistance.
Repel the power does KB, KB is not that good.
Repel as a game effect is better (Force Bubble) but is a bit broken right now.
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Yeah, the debuffs are good in PVE, but in PVP not many people will be relying on Defense powers, due to the fact that defense has so many "Kryptonite's". Basically Defense powers have 2 weaknesses, defense debuffs and tohit buffs, both of which are abundantly available(anyone has access to Tactics for example). This is the main reason why people prefer Resistance over Defense. Resistance only has Resistance Debuffs to deal with and even then there's less powers that do -res debuff than there are powers that do -defense debuff.
Rad Blast is basically 1 big Kryptonite to any Defense based players, but unfortunately not many people are dumb enough to rely that much on defense. Still you'll be able to floor anyone's defense with just your tier 1 and tier 2 powers.
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Then I guess the next question is, would I be better making a toon with a different secondary? (and if so, what?)
Thelonious Monk
a kinetics will always be wanted for kinetics nothing else.
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a kinetics will always be wanted for kinetics nothing else.
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*In large teams.
In smaller fights (2v2, 3v3) Kin can be played very aggresively at times and a secondary like Psi (or Sonic maybe) would probably give a better edge than Rad Blast.
However as the blast side of the toon isn't as usefull for team fights support wise as the Kin side it's more down to what you'd enjoy playing/levelling.
Elec is good as well. Short Circuit + Transference. Very annoying, but highly situational.
My advice, stick to your character as is to get a bit of feel for playing in PVP. Once you get some experience, you can always choose to roll something else.
Or else, challenge mes to a fight... it's great way to get some selfconfidence too
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Or else, challenge mes to a fight... it's great way to get some selfconfidence too
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I hear his FF/Psi Defender has the awesome damage.
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Or else, challenge mes to a fight... it's great way to get some selfconfidence too
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I hear his FF/Psi Defender has the awesome damage.
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that's because it's slotted with enhancements. Those things really help
Well thus far my PVP experience has been pretty limited, primarily to Friday Night Fight Club (well I did invent it, after all) but I always get pwnd in the zones. Maybe that's the best advice, just go into the zones and see what happens
Thelonious Monk
I you want to be offensive with kinetics make a corruptor
thePhilosopher Martial Arts/Regen/Fire Scrapper
theRegulator Empathy/Energy/Soul Defender
Total Inertia Ice Blast/Kinetics/Psy Corruptor
Total Inferno Ice Blast/Thermal/Leviathan Corruptor
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I you want to be offensive with kinetics be Phil
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@Rooks
"You should come inside the box... Then you'll know what I mean."
Sheesh! I wish I had my own cheerleader like Phil does :'(
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Sheesh! I wish I had my own cheerleader like Phil does :'(
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Your just not uber enough 
you need strength in numbers 
to be ubah
I don't like Phase Shift, I think the unsuppressed movement should be more than enough to keep you alive.
You could probably slot another Karma on Grant Invis though. Should give you 20 points of knockback protection. Hopefully the devs don't [censored] them up again and make them not stack.