The full quote is: While never as effective in straight combat as a Blaster or Scrapper, a well built and planned Defender can certainly hold their own in combat, and can be a very easy hero to play solo
While it may be interpreted in more than one way, it is not completely off and it is also stressing the "not effective" aspect... i think that "well built and planned" here is not referring to a pimped IO high level toon, but instead to something like "given a proper choice of primary/secondary with a good mix of control/debuff/attacks"
And yes, "easy" and "effective" are indeed different... for example i got a TA/A in his 30s, still light on IO slots, which is actually quite easy to solo, meaning he is extremely safe, yet not really effective because he is a slow killer (rain of arrows still a couple of level ahead... 
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That's what I read, "can". Same could be said for all other ATs then, so what a m00t point it made without more being said.
What about this:
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"Tankers are there to absorb as much damage as possible, so will almost always be left standing when the Scrappers and Blasters have fallen"
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This makes me sad, it paints me a picture of a Tankers healthbar barely moving - because everybody elses does.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
It's like that card i got with the game that said stalkers have high dps, well 2-3 can be made into dps machines but not that close to scrappers except dm/sr/soul.
Oops i'm rambling now, carry on.
Things have changed quite a bit since those were published tanks were almost unbreakable back in the day blasters and scrappers monsters in their own right but never played a defender back then so couldn't honestly say how they performed.
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Well, in a large team, with their scaling critical rate, I wonder if Stalkers really do deal less DPS than Scrappers these days... I haven't really examined the numbers in detail, mind you.
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their are some def combination which makes solo play very easy and some others make you cry because of the low damage on low speed (savety but slow).
stalkers are still better solo chars, then team players...
BANG BANG!!!
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Well, in a large team, with their scaling critical rate, I wonder if Stalkers really do deal less DPS than Scrappers these days... I haven't really examined the numbers in detail, mind you.
[/ QUOTE ]Theoretically, their dps is better as their critical chance is much higher. In practice a Stalker is still a bit fragile compared to a Scrapper so for the most part they can't maintain that higher dps rate for long without support.
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In practice a Stalker is still a bit fragile compared to a Scrapper so for the most part they can't maintain that higher dps rate for long without support.
[/ QUOTE ]Which there should be plenty of in a large balanced team. 
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Well, in a large team, with their scaling critical rate, I wonder if Stalkers really do deal less DPS than Scrappers these days... I haven't really examined the numbers in detail, mind you.
[/ QUOTE ]Theoretically, their dps is better as their critical chance is much higher. In practice a Stalker is still a bit fragile compared to a Scrapper so for the most part they can't maintain that higher dps rate for long without support.
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Support what's that? It's wrong to remind/expect a bubbler to bubble these days.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
I too have a TA/A def almost at 30 - teaming she is great fun with debuffs aplenty (and of course Oil Slick & Burning Arrow). Solo she is still great to play but I wouldnt consider it 'easy' by any means - it seems kind of 'Moderate' in that minions and Lts g down easily but bosses almost always end up with my health being a sliver at the end of the bar. I suspect once I get RoA and complete some slotting then 'Easy' is a distinct possibility but getting there if I can't find a team is slow going.
Saying that though I have set her rep to 'Rugged' and perhaps I am being over-ambitious being more used to tanking than defending!
Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
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On my solo build I can do unyielding but its a pain in the bum for speed so just think sod it. Hard control and Soft control and Aid self help tonnes. RoA has never been essential really. Too long a cast times for teams and solo well I may not have that many targets together or the cast time will be too long. I do have it on the solo build but I dont use it that much surprisingly.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
To be honest I think they lied the most about Controllers. Their description made me think they would be unable to kill anything without a team...oh how wrong I was. On topic, Defenders aren't that hard to solo, I guess it just requires a bit more planning/understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.
Defiant EUQuaver: Kinetics/Sonic Defender
Semiquaver: Sonic/Kinetics Corruptor
Alrighty, so I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before (my search-fu being somewhat weak), but in the AT guides on the main site ( CoX EU site linkage ) , it notes that Defenders can be "very easy to solo." I mean, compared to a Scrapper, for example, or a Tank? Really? Sure, it adds the caveat of "well-built", but considering that a properly tricked-out build needs to be around level 50 to access most of the top-end sets, and the average newbie is unlikely to create a high-performance min/max'd build on the first try... surely, for a newbie-friendly intro guide, any mention of a Defender as a "good class for soloing" should be excised at once!
Or am I missing something? Perhaps "easy soloing" and "effective (ie: fast, low-risk AND non-frustrating) soloing" are two different things...
Defenders are awesome, and some builds can solo awesomely... but c'mon.
Anyway, just thought I'd see if it's just me, since Defenders are probably my second-favourite AT to play (after my PB on a full team), but I'm not as experienced with them as many.