Defender Choice Advice

Now, before you all go running at yet another post along these lines, I would like to state that in my defense I have spent that last 3 hours reading the forums, trying to get comfy with a Defender build.

Now a little bit about me so you will understand where I am coming from and possibly what my problem is (be polite now!), and perhaps be able to point me in the right direction.

I have previously had a Fire/Dark controller, got her to 50, a large proportion of the time I was solo, but of course most villain ATs are designed for more solo play, and the fire/dark controller even more so.

But because I want a lvl 50 hero (for the warshade etc) I have to decide what to play. Now my background, from all the MMOs Ive played going back, geesh, 15 years I have always played a healer - its hard for me not to have a heal on me to help someone out (except for that time I made a Grav/FF controller - it was my first char when CoV came out, she's 33 bless her, and has been 33 for oooh 3-4 years lol).

I also dislike getting up close and personal, so none of this blapper/flapper/whatever thing for me - I like to work at range, tho I am aware this isn't always possible. Also important is I never EVER EVER plan to pvp (I dislike, detest, bemoan pvp with a vengeance!) so I don't want powerchoices that are great for solo pvp but suck solo pve.

Now comes the contradictory part, due to being on lots of medication (I'm often floaty light then Mrs Sleepyhead) it is not often I feel/am capable of grouping, so I also need a defender that I can solo, especially early hours when not many people on. So it does make having a heal being somewhat pointless, but for when I can group, I want to be useful.

I am also used to group play, and having messed around with lots of ATs in the past, with different powersets, I am fully aware melees really dislike their team members using KBs alot/badly, so I have learnt the hard way when and when not to use them during grouping, so those kind of powersets should not be ruled out, especially if it helps soloing.

Ok think that about covers most things, and I'm sorry that I have waffled on, but I'm in a floaty light stage and I hope the above makes some sense. If you have any questions, please ask away.

I want to thank in advance for any comments in case I forget later. I also want to say that if people think Im better off playing a different hero class, please suggest away - like I say, apart from my grav/ff, I really havent touched hero classes much, so know very little about them - I just know defenders=healers.

Thanks again.

You want a build that you can solo easily, but that has a heal in case you WANT to team? Kinetics/Sonic. The heal is enemy targeted and will benefit you solo as well, and tons of self-buffs to increase your abilities solo and teams will still love you. You don't even have to take a travel power if you don't want to.

Oh, and this:

Ok the first thing I would say is that there are some inaccuracies in your post.
I am sure it is an accident, but you mentioned that you played Fire/Dark Controll on the Villain side. Controllers are only Hero-side, and last I checked Dark Miasma has not been proliferated. If it ever does, I will be rolling an Illusion/Dark controller faster than you can say "Cheese"

As far as finding the right defender for you, I can offer you a couple things to think about.

Radiation, Dark, Empathy and Kinetics can all "self-heal"
Kinetics and Dark both require a "to-hit" check on a villain and Kinetics requires you to be pretty much in melee range to benefit from the heal personally.

So, from the stand point of solo-ability and healing, I would steer you towards Radiation to get an idea of what a Defender is all about.

On the blast side, its really a matter of personal choice. For me there are Blast sets I just "Love" because of the Graphics, like Energy and Electric and others that really bother me for some reason or another, like Sonic, Psychic and Radiation blast.
So, what I am trying to say is I cannot tell you which set will appeal to YOU, and all of them are serviceable with a Healing primary.

The best recommendation I can offer is try a few combinations, take your heal at level 1 and the required blast, then take the second blast at level 2, see what looks like fun and read up on the powers. Oh and read the guides here on the forums, they are very well written and can give you more insight to each combination.

P.S. If all that you are trying to do is to get from 1-50 as fast as possible, and are less interested in actually playing a particular AT, then I think a Scrapper would get you to 50 faster than a Defender. If your looking for the FoTM power-build, I am afraid that I cannot help you there either, since all my characters are hatched with concepts in mind and choose powersets that match the concept (as much as that is possible)

I would highly recommend Radiation Emission/Sonic Attacks.

Great for teams, very soloable, less dependent on melee range than Kinetics, and can handle most content (also includes mez resistance for yourself).

I love empathy its my fav set but i think that for your case a rad/energy or a rad/sonic would be nice cause radiation primary has some nice extras plus it has an aura heal for you and allies and choking cloud is always nice.

To Luminara and Biospark - yup you're both right, I did mean corrupter, not controller - I stand by my "I was having a floaty light moment" excuse on all my errors LOL

For Westley and Luminara - as to my comment that defenders=healers, I meant no disrespect to any defender, and I know they are far more than "just a healer", they offer far more when allowed (having played a /dark corrupter to 50, I know my role was more than just heals, I had so much more to do, it kept me on my toes and was great fun). What I meant by it was that if I wanted to have heals, then I would need to play a defender (unless of course I went for Medicine pool).

Thanks again to those of you who have replied, most of you I have read many posts (and guides) by, and have always been impressed by your comments on other threads, so I do take seriously what you say.

And Luminara, I may just take you up on that offer because you are right, even from reading the forums and all the posts, does not mean I know what a TA can do, it just means I see what other people whinge about a TA LOL, it takes seeing it in action to fully understand.

I will admit when I was newer to the game I used to think that defenders=heals and that put me off playing them. But having seen them play and having played /FF on a controller I am happily corrected and have been playing around with a few defenders recently.

My fav and highest level so far is my Kin/Arch. I can easily solo him, although he is a bit slow but part of that is because I have pushed back taking attacks in favour of support powers and I could easily fix that by creating a solo build.

I am just slightly blown away with how I could get such a high recharge and damage bonus at a low level and how the heal (although requires a ToHit check) is so effective. And now that I have hit Transference I don't even need Stamina. However, it kind of goes against what you have said about not wanting to be in melee range.

I think what everyone else has said about Rad/ for a primary as it has a bit of everything in there!

Edit - I've played a Mind/Trick Arrow controller and found TA to be a very impressive set, but found it a bit slow to begin with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger Quote: 16. Has Paragon Studios redefined "player" to require your mouse to subscribe separately from your keyboard? If your mouse has greater processing power than your gfx card, the answer is yes.

Thanks New Dawn, and for what its worth, I didnt have the red dot when I initially posted, but pretty sure I had it when I made my second post. I just didnt know why I had a red dot - so thanks for the explanation. I can only assume someone took a dislike to my OP, probably my comment about defenders=healers.

IMO it does seem a kind of petty thing to do, when ala Luminara any dislike for my comment could have been addressed, discussed, advice provided any in my case greatfully received, but I guess everyone reacts to comments in their own way.

Unfortunately it does put me off posting further for advice, in case my lack of knowledge on TAs and/or bad wording creates another bad reaction.

So I leave it here and thank everyone for their advice and constructive comments.

Being the person that negative repped you for your defenders = healers comments (and I did comment on as to why I negged you), I do not apologize for it, because that was an ignorant thing to say, especially around these parts.

However, listen to these words well:

Quote:

If all your posts are as complete and polite as those in this thread, any negative rep you get in the future will just be lost in the sea of positive comments.

Truth lies here, and I'm living proof. As idiotic and stupid as half of my posts are, apparently the other half are worth enough to balance it out, because well over half of my rep votes are negative, yet I still sit high on the pony.

I suspect that the rep system is designed intentionally so that positive rep has more effect on your rep score than negative rep. Either way, you take the punches as they come in.... just try to make less silly comments like that in the future and you'll do fine.

I can't speak quite as eloquently as the others in this thread about the joys of playing a defender. I've only started the game 6 mos ago, and this is my first MMO. However, that being said, my first toon to 50 is an emp/archer and that will be my last toon. I've rolled every AT and deleted most except the defenders. Despite their challenges, I just can't stop playing them. My latest dark/dark defender just leveled past my energy blaster, stone tank, fire scrapper, and peacebringer (all rolled long before). And my last 50 is a rad/rad I love to play.

I like to buff and play range more also, so emp/archer was a good fit for me. Had a bear of a time soloing, but that's what makes you a better player. You work with what u got and work to compensate for your weaknesses.

Count me in the crowd that focused primarily on defending, and blasting only when the team was doing well.

Earth/Empathy Controller: Best Healer Evar.. plus you get a poop monster to fight for you.