TA/Something

Howdy. I've been in a defender mood lately and when I finish lvling my storm/dark and storm/sonic, I'm considering giving TA another shot.

I like the debuff numbers and I like the concept possibilities but I just never got into it. Anyway, I was hoping you lot could help me decide which secondary to go for. So far I'm leaning towards /AR, mainly because I've never played one (I intended to roll a AR/En blaster, but someone stole the nick I had reserved to it :P).

So, what says you?

I'll just list up the experiences that I've rolled with:

TA/Ice - I like this one pretty well, I call it my blastroller - it's got a couple blaster level damage powers with the two rain/pet powers, and it's got extra holds to pair with Ice Arrow (although it's kind of disappointing when you realize that the /Ice hold is around twice as good as the TA/ hold)

TA/Psi - This one is pretty nice too, though my experience is with a superteam full of Trick Arrow teammates. It was my first experience with Psi and I had a lot of fun with it. I did have a bit of trouble everytime I took her out solo though.

If you're going TA/ rather than AR how about Archery? It's fun to just shoot loads of arrows into your enemies, wouldn't be nearly as frusterating as pulling out a new weapon every attack.

What Katten said. TA/AR is probably the worst combination possible in terms of redraw.

TA/A is of course the most popular since it means no redraw (plus it just looks cool). It's also probably the best option in terms of damage output since it has a crashless nuke (AR does as well, but the redraw will be a killer). Sonic is also up there for edamage due to the -Res debuffs.

On the other hand, TA is generally lacking in passive mitigation so you may want a blast set that helps there. For that I'd actually recommend Dark Blast. Dark adds two more AoE controls for when EMP arrow is recharging and and you can stack the To Hit debuffs with Flash Arrow for decent mitigation.

The only two sets I'd really avoid with TA are AR and Energy. AR because of the redraw and Energy because several TA powers are dependent on enemies remaining in the area so having knockback on all of your attacks will make them harder to use (an attack or two with knockback does come in handy though just not on all your attacks). TA/Energy is not impossible, but i don't see it as being a friendly combination.

My TA/AR is only level 9, so I can only speak from a hypothetical standpoint.

TA/AR, although perhaps redraw intensive, is a strong AoE combination, OSA, Flame Thrower, Buckshot, M30, Ignite, Full Auto, Disruption Arrow... yeah... Anyway, the way to deal with it is the same as any TA/non-Arch combination, fire your debuffs, then your attacks so you aren't continually redrawing.

The big issue with TA/AR that I see is lack of solid mitigation. my TA/Ice has eaten quite a bit of dirt thanks to Ice Storm and Frost Breath, it would just get worse when you stack on more AoEs.

TA/Dark is a very popular combo for playing well, the extra To-hit debuffs really add to survivability and getting Life Drain is also a plus. On top of that, with Dark Pit you can go for Dark Mastery and Oppressive Gloom to get a lot of AoE damage mitigation in the higher levels.

TA/A is popular, but it lacks synergy. my TA/A felt pretty lackluster before Rain of Arrows, which made everything better, but honestly, if you're in it for RoA, you're better off going Kin for Fulcrum Shift, or Rad for, well, being rad, or storm for the stronger debuffs, etc.

I went for TA / Rad...

Rad attacks accept 2 procs, from ranged dmg + def debuff... means dmg procs can make up the dmg that defenders lack.

Works well in PvP, same should apply for PvE

Otherwise go with /Archery and eliminate the redraw.

Of special note in the Defender secondary damage debate is the fact that Ignite and Ice Storm (and Blizzard) use blaster damage numbers instead of the much lower defender standards. A defender with an immobilize in their primary (or epic) pool can reliably use Ignite to deal well over 500 damage per shot. While Ignite's damage on a blaster is awesome but possibly not awesome enough to justify needing the setup, it is WAY above and beyond the ST damage potential of the average defender (with sonic blast on teams being a special exception due to -res). Ice blast can similarly butcher large spawns if it has a means to prevent them from fleeing. Archery is awesome because of RoA, but outside of RoA it is fairly average.

Damage procs can also make a dramatic difference for a defender since they add a fixed amount of damage for any AT, and therefore add a larger percentile improvement for those with low base numbers. Radiation would make an excellent candidate for mass-proc attacks, with two damage procs + an Achilles Heel slottable in any power from -def sets, along with any KB/AoE/Snipe/PvP/Purple damage procs where applicable. Neutrino Blast can become an absolute meatgrinder with four or five procs in it. Something like Irradiate could theoretically have six damage procs across 5 damage types, though it would probably not be very efficient. Dark (Cloud Senses proc everywhere + a Trap of the Hunter in Tenebrous Tentacles), Energy (Explosive Strike everywhere) and Ice (Impeded Swiftness everywhere) get honorable mentions in that regard.

With TA, it will be very important to have either an origin-temp attack that can light your Oil Slick, or better yet, have a secondary that deals energy (or fire) damage anyway. Something like Howl is beautiful, since it both hurts the spawn initially, lights your slick, and softens them all up for the fire. Energy blast can light slicks and has decent proc potential, but is probably not the best pairing for TA because of the random KB knocking things out of your debuffs (or back into the patches if you're good at aiming it, but unreliably).

Quick update, BaB's has just announced that redraw issues have finally found solution.

Assault Rifle isn't going to be included in the first round of weapons without redraw issues, but TA/ Is and the others are definitely around the corner.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...9&postcount=74 (BaBs original post)

Enjoy your future TA/AR.

You could give TA/sonic a try. Sonic blast lights the Oil Slick. "Light, Dang it LIGHT!"

I have a level 50 TA/A Defender, but if I were to do it over, I'd probably go with TA/Ice. With your TA debuffs, a killer nuke like Blizzard, and 3 ST holds at your disposal (2 from Ice Blast, and Ice Arrow), you've got a nice mix of damage, debuffs and control.

Another tempting combination would be TA/Sonic due to the sheer debuffing ability. However, I've done Sonic Blast before and I simply don't find it very exciting, despite it's debuffing capacity.

Good luck with your TA!

You might want to try TA/Dark. That gives you a very nice mix of powers and secondary effects.

My takes on the 3 I've played.

TA/arch. Great for concept and having either rain of arrows or OSA up every fight is just awesome for consistant high damage aoe's. The only hangup I have with the pairing is archery doesn't offer anything as a secondary effect which is important to me as a defender.

TA/AR. Once again great aoe damage available and very easy to light slicks. For those that can't handle archery because of its lethal damage AR is a nice alternative. Once again the pairing lacks a good secondary effect in return for it's strong aoe's. REDRAW IS NOT A FACTOR!111!!!!! I see this comment time and time again and it's generally from people that have not played the sets together. The bow is drawn at the start of the fight to debuff and the gun is usually brought out afterwards for damage. Occasionally you'll want to or need to switch during a fight but it's hardly the juggling act people make it out to be.

TA/Son. My favorite by far. OSA->Disrupion->Howl is mmm mmm good! The -res from the two sets make it a great force multiplier. Sonic attack is a little weak on aoe but OSA is up quite often and helps make up for any aoe orange number envy you may have.