One lovely thing about FF - it gives you so many free slots, you won't know what to do with them. That and the fact it's one of the "lazy" Defender sets - buff and go, just the way I like it.
@Jay Leon Hart
Kerensky: this has nothing to do with underwear
Zwillinger: I put on my robe and wizard hat...
Synapse: I had to resist starting my last post off with "Yo dawg!"
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One lovely thing about FF - it gives you so many free slots, you won't know what to do with them. That and the fact it's one of the "lazy" Defender sets - buff and go, just the way I like it.
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Kinda why I picked FF. Bubble up and leave for 4 mins and do what you like in the mean time. Was going to take Manooovers, tactics and probs veng, hover and fly (a floating bubble 
) but have no idea if ile need stamina, should I pick up aid other and aid self and go for rezz to? Would make sense I guess with my PFF making me likely to survive most things unless I die to quick to use it.
But also I have limited info on how to play this type of toon, I get it aint a pure buff bot type, I could just really use some advice on this!!
You will need stamina - I made the mistake of forgetting it in a respec. I had to burn a Vet respec to get it back in. My Bubblers (Defender, Controller and MM) all have hover, fly and maneuvers. I play as a buffer once every 4 minutes, then as a blaster for the rest - sure, you're not as powerful as a Blaster, but you have time to do more damage than some other Defenders.
@Jay Leon Hart
Kerensky: this has nothing to do with underwear
Zwillinger: I put on my robe and wizard hat...
Synapse: I had to resist starting my last post off with "Yo dawg!"
Any Builds you can give me?
Out of Dark Blast, I'd take Dark Blast, Gloom, Tenebrous Tentacles, Night Fall and Black Star. Take Moonbeam if you like snipes, not everyone does.
Dark Blast and Gloom cycle very quickly and give you a nice one/two punch. Use Tentacles as an opener or once your friendly tank has gone in, then follow up with Nightfall. TT and NF are both cones so a bunched up mob is a bonus as you can hit whole spawns with stacked debuffs. Both cost a lot of endurance though so don't use them on single targets if you can help it.
You might want Life Drain for a heal but you're far better off with Aid Self. Avoid Torrent, it will annoy people who hate knockback.
If you want a little control, Dark Pit is a Mag1 stun but it has poor accuracy and duration and will need heavy slotting to work well.
Hope that helps a little. 
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
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void Torrent, it will annoy people who hate knockback.
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But isnt half of bubbles about knockback? Should I avoid the bubble knockback powers, or just take one or two for entertainment/shove them all into a corner purposes?
Thanks for the advice on /dark blast though, the 4 attacks you mentioned are what I thougth woudl be about right.
Ok, basic build so far.
1 - PFF
1 - Dark Blast
2 - Deflection shield
4 - Gloom
6 - Insulation Shield
8 - Swift
10 - Hover
12 - Dispersion Bubble
14 - Fly
16 - TT
18 - Health
20 - Stamina
22 - Night Fall
24 - Manooooovers
26 - Tactics
28 - Vengeance
30 - Aid Other
32 - Aid Self
35 - Resucitate
38 - Black Star
Hmm, very heavy on the pool powers, some of which could easily be taken out. But otherwise, any thoughts?
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But also I have limited info on how to play this type of toon, I get it aint a pure buff bot type, I could just really use some advice on this!!
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I'm thinking you should focus mainly on buffing and debuffing. Seeing as Defender damage is pretty bad, it might be an interesting idea to slot your attacks with a Tohit Debuff IO set instead of the standard damage slotting. That way you get much better Tohit debuff to complement your Defense buffs and your team will be more effective when you go up against mobs with +tohit buffs, like Devouring Earth.
Also, try to get something fun in there as well. Something for your own personal amusement, otherwise I think you might find this fairly boring to play. Try Force Bolt. You'll never get tired of being able to perma knockback a boss, while your teammates clean up the mob surrounding him. It's like a semi control and it's fun.
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void Torrent, it will annoy people who hate knockback.
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But isnt half of bubbles about knockback? Should I avoid the bubble knockback powers, or just take one or two for entertainment/shove them all into a corner purposes?
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Oh, I love knockback! With ragdoll physics, knocking mobs around is great fun. However as a Defender (and especially as a FF one) you will be quite team dependent and not many teams like knockback as it tends to annoy melee characters and knocks mobs out of Taunt auras and DeBuff AoEs. But it can be a very powerful damage mitigation tool, so if you do take it, use it wisely. 
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
To be fair, the FF/Dark defender I rolled the other day is meant to be a knockback psycho. There are just too many powers in Force Fields to ignore that aspect of the set. Seriously, the set breaks down like this:
Pure Defense: Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield, Dispersion Bubble
Knockback/Repel powers: Force Bolt, Repulsion Field, Repulsion Bomb, Force Bubble
Other: Detention Field
There are more powers in the set but look at it like this. Less than Half your powers are for pure defense. Most of your powers are all about knocking enemies all over the place. If you're smart about it, people won't complain about your knockbackery. The only time I've been on a team when the issue's come up (with another knockback toon) was when the team was being lead by someone who thinks you can't do a mission if the tank doesn't herd everyone for the entire fight...and would rather people faceplant than have the mob knockbacked. Craziness. This happened once along the way to level 25...and only once. Just don't spam your knockback and you'll be fine.
(The later Knockback powers are more "oh [censored]" buttons, but they look to be pretty good at keeping enemies away from your squishy friends. Just don't Repulse-Bomb the Tank.
As for Dark, just remember that an enemy hit with the -ACC is the equivalent of whoever it is attacking having 2/3rds more Defense provided by your buff shield. It only lasts for 10 seconds, but with DBlast and Gloom cycling, that's a whole extra shield (and then some) being effectively made in regard to one enemy. And more, if you start stacking the 2 or 3 cones you can have by level 28. Classy.
Here's my build. Notice I did NOT get deflection shield early on. My toon is a range monkey and the team I have it build for is also mostly range...it's a concept thing. Snagging Deflection Shield early on is probably the smart thing to do. Lord knows I haven't had much use for PFF...though when I have needed it it's been awesome.
1. Personal Force Field, Dark Blast
2. Gloom
4. Force Bolt
6 Insulation Field
8. Hover
10. Sprint
12. Dispersion Bubble
14. Health
16. Tentacles of Hentai Darkness
(Remember, this Immobilization does not give the enemy knockback protection, unlike most varieties)
18. Repulse-Aura
20. Stamina
22.Manuevers
24. Deflection Shield
26. Repulse Bomb
28 Torrent (low damage, but more -ACC and Knockback fun)
30. Flight (I can get temp travel power to last about this long. If you can't, snag your travel when I snagged Manuevers.)
32. Force Bubble.
35+ Meh. No clue...neither of the upper Dark Powers speak to me. Maybe Detention for Sappers which I'll have to be dealing with at about this point? Then again, getting that Dark Cone I missed might be good for stacking -ACC. No clue. This is in the far future, so I can only guess.
Hope that helps. I'm sure I'll tweak that as I level it, but that was the plan going in.
-Jared
By the by, I found this guide to be super helpful in convincing me I wanted to play a FF Defender.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...Number=4222659
Thanks for all the replies. Played him for a wee while last night, got him to about lvl 4 while teaming with another defender and one or two others. It was pretty slow going with 2 defenders, but was good fun. My lil bubble made quite a difference and stacking the -acc seemed to help too. I like the idea of slotting my attacks with tohitdebuff, if I am not going to do amazing damage, I might as well make the boss etc useless. I think I will have to find room for forcebolt somewhere, looks like fun. I think ile play it till about 22, and then decide how I like to play it and respec it accordingly (vet reward respec, finally!).
I had quite a bit of fun running at the mobs in my PFF, then when they got bored of me turning it off and attacking. I saw a thread from a while back about using the aoe taunt along with PFF, could be a laugh Was quite fun standing by a group of purple Vaz and seeing how long it took them to kill me, which was quite a long time. Lots of fun. I think I will like this toon.
I think ile take the knockback powers as panic button type things, ile figure the build out soon.
First off lovely combo, works very well together.
IMO you want everything from FF apart repulsion field and bomb.
The two must have AoEs (Which will become your main debuffing) are ten tenacles and night fall, both only have 10s recharge and do a nice -15% tohit 3 slotted
Combine -15% tohit mobs with nearly 24% def to most attacks to all your teammate, makes you a very valuabled player
Hope that helps
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IMO you want everything from FF apart repulsion field and bomb.
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For PvE I'd also skip detention field and force bubble
Oh, one last thing about Dark Blast:
It's mainly Negative Energy damage which is not resisted that much by most of the foes you'll face. However, most undead things ghosts, zombies and the like are highly resistant to it and your damage will suffer. Avoid Banished Pantheon like the plague if you can. At times when my Dark/Dark defender has to fight the undead, I am grateful for my Ghost Slaying Axe.
Good luck.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
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IMO you want everything from FF apart repulsion field and bomb.
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For PvE I'd also skip detention field and force bubble
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/unpvpmode
Yeah I agree
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For PvE I'd also skip detention field and force bubble
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I have to disagree - Detention Field has saved my [censored] (and more importantly, my teams) so many times it's silly. Force Bubble is a great "squishy haven" for maps that aren't cave-like. I also have a soft spot for Repulsion Bomb - Neutron Bomb followed by Repulsion Bomb is just giggle tastic.
@Jay Leon Hart
Kerensky: this has nothing to do with underwear
Zwillinger: I put on my robe and wizard hat...
Synapse: I had to resist starting my last post off with "Yo dawg!"
Dante - Having played a Dark melee toon to 50, I am all to aware of the evilness that is trying to slay ghosties with it, though I love smacking them around on my /dark miasma/armour toons.
It looks like bubble can be played in many different ways, as a pure support, buff/debuff type, a squishy protector, several panic button powers and ones that are entertaining. Guess I will just have to see what appeals, and change it around. At least there is lots of room to play around with the build unlike most of my other toons.
Guess I will just have to play the toon now. Thanks for all the advice and help though.
Agreed on taking Detention Field. It only needs a couple of acc slotting and it's good to go. Out of the box it will hold bosses in one hit too.
It works very well as a precision control, taking the toughest enemy (or simply the most annooying, such as FFGs, DE eminators or Tsoo Sorcerors) completely out of the fight for 45 seconds. As such it's a real boon to squshy teams when used creatively.
Just ensure you make a bind to tell your temamates which badguy is intangible! That saves a lot of headaches for those not used to the power.
In a moment of madness, mostly fueled by the new Jester set and me coming up with a concept I liked, I did something I thought I would never do. I rolled a defender! I chose FF/Dark mostly for concept reasons, but also cos the defence of the bubbles would go nice with the -acc from dark.
My problem now though is, I know next to nothing about playing a defender, force field as a set, or even dark blast (I have a dark melee, dark armour and 2 dark miasma's, but not dark blast).
So if anyone can help me with a decent build for PvE teaming, or just tell me what powers to get ASAP and which ones can be left till later or all together, I would greatly appreciate it. I could find little info on bubbles for defenders, and less on dark blast for them, though my search-fu is weak, ile admit.
Thanks all, and I look forward to playing my first defender!