Defender Debate

On this fine Sunday evening, I’ve found myself with little to do, and so I’ve decided to start this thread.

The idea of this thread is to spark friendly debate on a specific subject. I do not wish to; start a flame war; open up old wounds; support any rivalries between people who happen to dislike each others’ point of view, or to get flamed myself.

I wish to make that perfectly clear – FRIENDLY debate.

Now, with the necessary dull judicial stuff out of the way, on to the topic of debate, which, this time, is to be this: “Are Defenders in general made redundant by character progression, and if so, what improvements could be made to adress this?”

You can take either side you wish. Your post should be clear, concise, and have an obvious point. No sitting on the fence, please.

I shall start us of with this:

Yes, Defenders do become less and less important as characters progress through the game, due to Melee characters gaining greater and greater survivability as they pick up new armours and Blasters gain more mitigation via stuns/KB. Add to this the fact that Controllers can, if played well, limit incoming damage an awful lot just via their Primary and heal/buff the majority of the remainder away with their Secondary, and they seem to be a somewhat sorry AT that is only really required for certain events such as the STF, and even these can be done without them.

With their damage being low, and another AT able to cover their main role in a team, the Defender becomes obsolete.

Can anything be done to address it? In my own opinion, no, not a lot. At least, not without making the Defender into an overpowered AT. You could up the damage, sure, but you couldn't make it too high, becuase then Blasters become obsolete. Of course, you could make the heals/buffs better...but then, if a Controller or two can handle it anyway, still why bother with a Defender?

I feel that the Defender has it rather hard off...but nothing in particular can be done about it.

Responses, agreements, etc...Go!

First thing Defenders need is a new Inherent Power. Their current one only works on teams, and then only if the Defender isn't actually Defending all that well. Then perhaps a boost to their buff/debuff numbers to make Defenders more effective than Controllers at manipulating enemy stats, while still keeping Controllers desirable team-mates for their mez capabilities.

First off, Psi isn't a very high damage set, especially with lots of heavily psi resistant enemies in the late game.

Secondly, this game is dead easy. You don't need any buffs or debuffs to survive even the late game- so by that logic Controllers aren't needed either... which is why I guess no one invites them either?


My point being, trite hypothetical are heavily contradicted by actual play experience in this game: Defenders are still incredibly popular in the late game.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Defenders don't just decrease incoming damage, they increase outgoing damage too. Survivability is not the only thing defenders are good for.

Yes, they do need a new inherent, but only because rewarding you for hurting your teammates is not a good idea.

Defenders make every other AT unecessary, and they get more and more potent the more you force mutliply with them

Not at all. Tankers and scrappers stack in a linear manner. Add a scarpper you have added a scrapper

Blasters are close to linear. Defenders and controllers act in a multiplicative manner. They force multiply the whole team. Add a defender and you have added effectiveness to the whole team.

8 defenders can do anything in this game, usually far safer and faster than any sort of mixed team

Not at all. Adding a defender you have added effectiveness to the whole team (through buff/debuffs and the like)

Add a Scrapper you have added damage, but not mutliplied the other team mates.

Do you actually understand the phrase 'force multiplier' ?