heh i do this often enough with my SG, most of times our toons only lvl with TFs rather than the normal content. I wouldnt wanna go in specific sets as those aint really needed. The trick I found however is to load up on aoe damage with 1 or 2 heavy single target hitters (like scrappers). But there are loads of combos available that can own TFs with ease.
Currently we're lvling some i12 toons with SG and got a regular team of 4 and then normally got 4 from a mix of SG and PuG to do TFs with, and thusfar its easy. The regular 4 we got are:
dark/fire tank - nice aoe control and damage, needs proper slotting though so you wont run out of end
bs/fire scrapper - nice overall damage, heavy single target hits and with whirling sword + burn he can dish out some aoe as well.
plant/rad troller - again nice aoe capability and good at crippling the mobs so the tank wont have much probs with em.
psi/mental blaster - AoE once more
with those 4 we already managed to do TFs where half the team dropped and us 4 were fighting +4/5s with no problems at all.
I dont wanna go into AT combos as there are too many that will work. You can go for the balanced option (1-2 of each AT), but teams that also work for instance is a tank and 7 trollers. Just make sure you got the core components:
Tank (CAN be replaced by illusionists with decoys, but the earlier TFs will be harder)
AoE debuffs (dark, rad, cold, therm, TA)
Buffs (emp, kin)
AoE damage (for instance blasters, but anything will do if you got enough debuff)
ST damage maybe for AVs and tough bosses. Less important at later TFs, but nice for the earlier ones.
I would put the focus on debuffs rather than buffs. Dont be lulled into the "needing an emp" thing either, most teams dont wanna do a TF without an emp. This is utter [censored]. (Though I suppose STF will be alot easier with an emp, but I done it without an emp as well)
Hope this is any help
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
Thanks for the reply mate. Yep you have very good points. I don't believe in needing an empath lie too. We completed Synapse with a Thermal controller the other day, yeah empaths make things easier but as some empaths ignore their secondary/primary for trollers you can always find someone more usefull to do healing.
Only thing i love in TF's is a ghoster. Someone with Invisibility and recall friend. If that indivudal has PFF too that means awesomeness for a ghoster. (Even if you are invisibile when you clicked on a glowie mobs tend to attack you, PFF makes your chance to get hit a lot more less). As we are talking about beating the challanges in TFs that ghosting possibly will come really handy.
One last addition to your AoE debuffers from me, Storm Defenders/trollers.
ah yes, forgot bout stormies, they of course are handy as well.. and you make a good point bout ghosters, forgot bout that. However I can vouch that (with my main being ill/ff) ill/ff is a good addition to teams. Indeed ghosting with PFF makes things dead easy and even still if it goes wrong (for instance glowies that take ages to complete) you can use decoys to take aggro away at quite an early lvl. Not to mention at later lvls powerboosted shields make every TF a breeze (requires a pro-active approach of FF though, not for the lazy buffers 
).
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
Im in Knighty, you know the drill of who and what I've got
I was more thinking about starting a new team with new heroes from level 1 to 50. After some thinking i realized after a certain level this thing will be too boring, possibly after 30.
But if there are another ones (as you are the only one replied about it there ain't another one 
)we can try it at least.
For regular Knightly's Weekend Action Hour i will start a new thread.
[ QUOTE ]
I don't believe in needing an empath lie too. We completed Synapse with a Thermal controller the other day, yeah empaths make things easier but as some empaths ignore their secondary/primary for trollers you can always find someone more usefull to do healing.
[/ QUOTE ]You're speaking about dedicated empaths I presume.
It's not easy not to take it personally, as I have one, so can you please clarify what exactly you mean while comparing dedicated empaths vs "all-around" fenders, you prefer the later?
You're persuming right my friend. What an Empathy defender with no attacks suppose to do when there ain't no wounds to heal.
An empath or a cleric (for other games) ain't a must, it is just a good addition to the team.
On the other hand there's "I'm no healer" debate. If you can heal it won't hurt you to hit a button.
So in short i prefer any other defender over empath/nothing defender. I didn't go into empath scene much but even on my tries i always try to think about doing something usefull for the team other than healing. For example my latest try which is deleted at level 8, i tried to pick some useful attacks from Electric Blast secondary like Short Circuit, Zapp, Voltaic Sentinel etc. Less attack then my normal defender setups but still all those powers are too useful to pass in my opinion.
I hope i can make my point clear.
A dead defender is good as no-defender.
An empath fender that doesn't get aggro and only keep healing/buffing teammates is considered a viable tactic in many teams (and mine proved that many times).
Expecting defender's blasting to balance team's damage-dealing, is just plain wrong in my book.
I don't mean damage dealing mate, i am talking about more control powers. There are many powers provide that in defender secondaries.
In my book control=less wounds to heal and less dead team mates. For example Tesla Cage is a good hold to keep nasties away from blasters nose. Likewise Freezing beam, TK Blast, Stunning shot and many other attacks with hold, disorient, knockback. With those attacks you will get aggro but the blaster you saved will kill that mob in a blink of an eye.
I believe in over-all heroes than specialized ones; there's no need to hang on solely one set and ignore other. After all we plan our heroes in our own ways, for our own taste.
And there are no dead defenders any more, thanks to insp convert.
Well, I believe in specialized than over-all heroes, that's why I reacted and that's why I hate soloing:
Each teammate is good to what it does best.
I believe that:
Defender =/= Controller
Scrapper =/= Tanker
Blaster =/= Scrapper
etc...
and I have their inherents to back me up:
Defenders' Vigilance allows them to take some toggles like leadership (please note that leadership at defenders is much stronger than in any other archetype) without worrying about endurance
Controllers' Containment allow them to do critical damage to mezzed foes but more importantly they have the ability to do overpowered mezzing 20% of times.
Tanker's Gauntlet: Who else can maintain aggro away from squshies better than a tanker and live to tell the tale?
Ok, you get my point, so I stop there...
Okay here is the thing guys and gals. On our legendary Synapse TF we talked about perfect TF team with Jay. That gave me an idea.
I am thinking about starting a team which will only do TFs and Trials. Other than these only radio missions/ PvP zone missions to get temp. powers.
As we only do TF or Trials on weekends we can choose a day and do TFs or Trials on that day. Keep in mind that on many occasions means doing same TF a couple of times and some TF and Trials will be left out. Also we can try to unlock trials or TFs if you want by doing mission arcs. (Hollows for Caverns, Striga for Ernesto, Croatoa for Katie and Midnight for Imperious)
Our goal will be meeting hardest challanges on TFs and own them.
So ideas about team builds, if this a great idea or one of my stupids stunts?
Let's talk about TFs and Trials team.
As my sub re-newed it self automatically i am around for another month at least so this will be our try out time.