Still looking for suggestions

I liked gravity, but some consider it a bad set due to a lack of early control. It might very well be better for concept, but now that you can color the powers, i can see using mind and be able to imagine that you are casting controls from energy and not dominating the mind. But for more of a challenge, ya grav/psi could work. I guess a dark dark defender or corruptor could also.

Possibly the first valid negative rep I've recieved as it does have a point, I'll remind whoever posted it that this is MY OWN thread. I'll also point out that I keep trying to return to the topic of the thread, but keep having to respond to negative rep comments that have nothing to do with the thread because someone is trying to get his jollies at my expense. When he stops it, so will I.

FF/Dark Defender might work.

You can form protective barriers for your team mates and yourself as well as caging individuals(Detention Field), hurling balls of Force (Repulsion Bomb) Pushing mobs around Force bolt and Force Bubble.

Dark Blast gives you quite a bit of control in Tenebrous Tenacles (mass immob), Dark Pit (Stun). the whole feel of Dark Blast is very wispy so less blasterish than other sets.

With the right colouring this combo could work quite well; the -to hit of /Dark is nice with the defence of bubbles too.

Hm, yes. Very true!

Keep in mind that while you can get some pretty nice color effects with Dark Blast they will still be fairly dark looking. Tenebrous Tentacles is always mostly blackish with colored accents and tints, and the other powers are always deeply tinted versions of the selected colors. Still, it's very nice, and a very effective set; just a bit darkity-dark dark dark looking.

FF/Dark is a very effective combo, but FF's lack of damage boosting powers, and Dark's lack of Aim do make it a bit slower for soloing than most other sets. On the other hand Rad/Dark soloes very, very well in my experience.

Rad, Dark, Storm, Traps and Cold Defenders can solo very well in my experience. So far my preferred secondaries are Dark, Ice and Archery. i may possibly add AR to that list once a play a Defender with it. Of the primaries i listed Rad, Dark and Traps are currently my favorites in nearly equal amounts.

(From the latest negative rep)

If you're going to try to infantilize me, at least learn to spell. The word you want is "whining" and I definitely was not whining about anything.

*sigh* That's nice and all (not really*), but i actually find Defenders easier to solo in the lower levels where their debuffs are often more effective out of the box than melee armors and most AT's still have similar levels of durability and damage.

Now i can see where buffing focused sets are harder to solo at lower levels, but to me debuffers tend to solo easier. (TA is a whole different kettle of fish as far as soloing goes, but that's already ongoing in another thread.) Then again i i've never found any AT or powerset combo hard to solo at the lower levels, it's generally in the late teens or on that some become difficult.

i'd suggest Traps as one of the easiest all around soloing sets that's easily on par with Rad, a set which is pretty easy to solo with from 1 to 50. This is assuming that you don't mind using inspirations occasionally. Not by constantly buying them, but just using the ones that drop. Actually, FFG can allow Traps to excel against mez-heavy enemies that can be very annoying on a Rad Defender.

So, which Defender debuffing combos have you tried to soloing on, and what was it that made them difficult?






*Yeah, i know it's your thread to derail if you want, but aren't you already fighting the battle against the rep system in two other threads?

Ah, finally, the discussion moves to the actual thread. THIS is why I fight the rep system here, "derailing" the thread.

I've actually not used a debuffing set to any great extent, though I have a Rad/Rad that's around L20.

The thing I see with Defenders is that they have rather poor offensive ability which is exacerbated by the fact that they use the same amount of endurance for that lesser ability. This leads to poor offensive performance.

Defensively, there's a kind of mixed bag. Debuffers fare better comparitively as their debuffs are universally useful. That is, debuffing a foe is as helpful to the Defender as it is to his team. Buffing Defenders fare rather poorly, as they can't buff themselves. The result is poor offense AND poor defense. Add to this the lower health, and they are often hamstrung.

This is somewhat general, but you get the idea.

See, this is another example of why the rep system is worthless. Show you have a pair (sorry, ladies) and criticize me in a public place. You can still hide behind the anonymity of the forum, but everyone will see what a fool you're being. THAT is how REAL reputations are made.

Debuffing focused Defenders do have the advantage of soloing far better, but buffing-focused defenders can do more in general to assist their teammates, since there are situations where debuffs are less effective than buffs. Buffing-focused powersets are by nature more reliant on teams since most buffs only affect allies.

As for why Defender damage is so low: The thing is, many debuffers can use some of their debuffs to enhance their own damage. For example, using -res debuffs from their primary and the -res debuffs in Sonic Blast many Defenders can approach Blaster base damage. This has been the reasoning behind not boosting Defender damage for some time. The only flaw i see in it is that Blaster base damage has been increased since then, and the Blaster inherent boosts their damage even more, and any Blaster teamed with a Defender who is debuffing resistance benefits just as much from the debuffs, and therefore still does far more damage. Currently i don't think that raising Defender base damage some would put them in any danger of outperforming Blasters solo or on teams, and even less so for buffing sets, but there you have it.

Regardless, Solo Defenders are nowhere near as fast as Scrappers, Brutes or Masterminds, but played well a debuffing Defender can solo very safely and effectively. Seriously, read some of the guides for debuffing sets and think about it. i frequently solo on most of my Defenders since i play quite a few of them and usually like to solo a bit before getting a team, and haven't found a debuffing set (TA aside) that didn't solo fairly easily.

I agree that generally Defenders don't solo as well as some other AT's but they can still solo pretty well.
In the mid 20's I was able to solo mobs of 8 -10 even con warriors etc on FF/Dark, Dark/Rad and Rad/Sonic which I would say is acceptable.

In regards to the self buffs that isn't strictly true for example:

FF - Dispersion bubble - mez protection and defence to all. Stack this with Tough and weave and you can have a decent defence even without IO's. Add IO's and you can cap melee and ranged.

Kinetics - Siphon Speed - +recharge and speed. Sipon Power - +damage. Fulcram Shift - massive +damage. Transfusion - massive heal. Transfurance - +Endurance.

As I said these are just examples, other sets also offer good self buffs.

I'm pretty sure there are some scrappers who would have trouble soloing 8 - 10 even-con Warriors in the mid-20's. Warriors hit very very hard.

If it's so worthless, ignore it instead of talking about it all the time.

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

That would make way too much sense!

Not ALL Defenders are so weak that they can't solo. In fact, some solo very well. I don't know what your concept is beyond "Versatile Dr. Strange-esque Wizard", but there are a lot of options in defenders for soloing.

A Rad/Sonic can put enemies to sleep, and use its toggle debuffs to severely weaken a boss's defense, resistance, damage, and tohit before cutting loose with Sonic attacks, which further reduce resistance with each shot, making each consecutive hit deal more damage. If you take a little damage, you can heal yourself. Eventually, you'll be a large asset on teams hunting AVs with your debuffs and support abilities. If you want, you can pick up Fallout, teleport a friend into the middle of a mob, make his dead body explode, and then bring him back to life. Psychic Mastery Epic powers will give you some extra resistance, a single target hold, Telekinesis, and maybe World of Confusion, if you want it.