Generally my defenders prioritize:
Recharge and Ranged Defense
Which takes priority depends upon the exact Defender.
This is entirely for PVE.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
Levelling my 50's I went for:
FF/Sonic: Ranged, AoE, Psi and Melee Defence in that order. (Thunderstrike, Red Fortune, Devastation, Scirocco's Dervish)
Kin/Elec: Accuracy Bonuses (I used Sands of Mu a lot for superspeed concept, and Kin powers need to hit), most other stuff is redundant with Kinetics.
Sonic/Energy: Ranged and AoE Defence, Recovery (Thunderstrike and Aegis, Blessing of the Zephyr)
Storm/Ice: Recharge (Positrons Blast, Decimation) and some Ranged Defence. Recovery too.
Dark/Rad: no real focus that I recall, a bit of everything really.
In general, I usually go for Thunderstrike and Positrons Blast with any blast set, unless Im chasing something exotic, like using Devastation to cap Psi Defence on my Force Fielder.
Quote:
Most of my Defenders have these as priorities, along with several of the following at a lower rank|
Originally Posted by Catwhoorg
Generally my defenders prioritize:
Recharge and Ranged Defense Which takes priority depends upon the exact Defender. This is entirely for PVE. |
- +Recovery. Not so much as a set bonus, but the various +recovery uniques and the Performance Shifter proc can be transformative in how you play.
- +HP. This is very useful in PvE and is a high priority for every PvP player I know who plays a "squishy" in that environment.
- +Damage. This may seem like a strange thing to prioritize on a Defender with their low base damage, but I look at all my bonuses in terms of improvement over baseline, not compared to other ATs. All my Defenders are intended to be able to solo effectively. Including Assault, most of my Defenders have around +30% to +35% damage bonus at level 50, which is a very noticeable increase that definitely benefits solo capability.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Recharge and/or defense are the important things to go for in just about any build. Everything else tends to come on its own if you go for those.
For me its usually either +recharge or +def (ranged in particular). The only time so far that focus has really changed is on my Sonic/Dark who is chasing every +recovery, +endurance bonus he can get. Also tend to grab at least minimal -kb protection and a stealth IO somewhere in the build.
On my toggle heavy 'fenders (dark - with leadership, sonic) I went for recovery/end. Dark also got recharge, sonic got defense. Rad and emp got recharge, and 'other nice things' with no focus. Cold/ice corruptor got defense and recovery/end (Ice blast is so fast that I kept end draining myself). So for me the top 3 are recharge, recover/end and defense.
However, if I notice that during slotting for my primary focus that I am getting a bunch of acc or regen or whatever, I might try for a little more if it doesn't negatively impact my primary focus OR negatively impact the power usage itself. My dark defender has some wicked extra acc, and my sonic rad ended up with +HP/regen I seem to remember. It has been a while since I looked at their builds on Mids... maybe they all need a 'check-up' :-)
I'm pretty much going to rehash what everyone else said, but in general defense and recharge are the bonuses most likely to benefit a defender. Accuracy and Recovery are also useful, but I find that I pick up enough of them incidentally.
However, different primaries will benefit from these in different amounts. Traps and FF for example have a high base defense so building on that makes a lot of sense. Conversely while Empathy (like most defenders) does benefit from a moderate amount of ranged defense it has some VERY powerful long recharge buffs so a focus on more recharge helps a lot (possibly going to the point of perma hasten).
I was thinking for storm maybe...defense, recharge with some end recovery. I think...
Quote:
Makes sense to me. For defense I'd say focus on Ranged since you've got plenty of KB to keep enemies away (and ranged is generally the most useful for a defender anyway).
|
Originally Posted by Amir
I was thinking for storm maybe...defense, recharge with some end recovery. I think...
|
Quote:
I would say for defenders that play close in but no quite melee (kin/, /elec, etc) you might be more interested in AoE defense. Just an idea... :-)
|
Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
Makes sense to me. For defense I'd say focus on Ranged since you've got plenty of KB to keep enemies away (and ranged is generally the most useful for a defender anyway).
|
Quote:
There are some exceptions (Malta for example) but in general NPCs have a lot more Ranged attacks than AoEs so solo Ranged is generally superior. You can make a good argument for doing S/L defense instead of positional although the good sets for those are generally for powers that defenders don't have much access to in quantity.|
Originally Posted by Rhynwa
I would say for defenders that play close in but no quite melee (kin/, /elec, etc) you might be more interested in AoE defense. Just an idea... :-)
|
In team play you might have a point, but I personally prefer to IO my character for solo play since that's where IOs have the largest impact (for example if you team with an FF defender, it doesn't really matter whether you have ranged or AoE defense)
I run no fitness builds on my kin and emp defenders which is easily doable with those two as long as you've got some solid recharge (way past perma hasten with mine) to throw into your RAs/Conserve Power.
Space reserved for a super awesome Signature, someday...
Quote:
Cool. So whats a good % of ranged? I have CJ, steamy mist, with set bonuses its only at like 21% ranged right now. :/
|
Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
Makes sense to me. For defense I'd say focus on Ranged since you've got plenty of KB to keep enemies away (and ranged is generally the most useful for a defender anyway).
|
Quote:
I think I worked out a build with about 35% for my TA/A (although I never got around to finalizing it enough for a respec). In general I find that most blasters and defenders can get in the 26%-35% range without needing to use mule powers so that tends to be my target (obviously FF and Traps defenders can get higher than this quite easily). The one thing I generally advocate for any Defender doing a ranged defense build is to pick up Maneuvers. It's a nice way to get an extra 3.5% defense assuming that you can afford to run it (I know storm is a toggle heavy set so you may find it's not practical).|
Originally Posted by Amir
Cool. So whats a good % of ranged? I have CJ, steamy mist, with set bonuses its only at like 21% ranged right now. :/
|
If you don't want Maneuvers, take Recall Friend (heck, you may want it anyway). Blessing of the Zephyr is a very easy way to boost ranged defense since two-slotting the set gives 3.13% ranged defense which is normally a 6-slot bonus.
Quote:
Just double the number, and thats the percentage of attacks that bounce of you. So with 25% you're taking half damage, debuffs and mezzes from any ranged volley of attacks, Malta Sappers miss you half the time etc. It caps at 45% where 90% of attacks bounce off.|
Originally Posted by Amir
Cool. So whats a good % of ranged? I have CJ, steamy mist, with set bonuses its only at like 21% ranged right now. :/
|
I'd aim for 25% as a kind of side order of defence, for a character who's a bit tough or agile without actually being explicitly invulnerable. From there, 37.5 will mean you eliminate half the incoming again, we're ggetting into actual superpower territory here.
This should be doable on a Stormy with Steamy Mist as a good start.
Like Aedon, I'd recommend Manouvers. Not only does it proved 5.6% defence when slotted, but it takes a Red Fortune Set. So thats 8.1% vs Ranged if you six slot it.
Furthermore, it opens up Tactics, which gives you +2.5% vs all if you six-slot with Gaussian's set, and you dont need to leave Tactics running all the time to get this.
So a slot-heavy Leadership pool can give you a good 10.6% bonus to Ranged Defence, in addition to all the team benefits its provides.
That would put you at 32.7% - ie about 2/3 of Ranged Attacks bounce off.
With my Storm/Energy I aim for
1 - ranged defense
2 - regen/hp (no self heal)
3 - recharge and recovery
In my current build I have 46.3% ranged defense (and 29.4% to melee and AoE which is enough if you add Hurricane); 426% global regen / 150% HP; 3.68s recovery and 45% global recharge.
I included two sample builds in my Storm/Energy guide. Both are slotted for extreme defense values. Check them out. Maybe it helps to give you some new ideas.
You do know about the 45% softcap, Myriad?
In the absence of to hit buffs or defence debuffs, any defence over 45% is wasted.
Defence debuffs are kind of common, so you could make an argument for building for over 45% defence, but there's probably some more you could get out of your build if you're prepared to lower your Ranged Defence a bit.
You are quite correct, DrMike2000.
Seems I have too many old builds in my Mids folder as I picked the wrong (=not final) one.
I should have noticed immediately, that something was amiss. That I didn't is a bit embarrassing. 
Edited my former post to include the correct values.
Quote:
Not exactly true. At 25% defense an even level malta sapper will miss you 25% of the time (you meant half of his attacks that would have hit will miss instead, so I'm nitpicking really). At 45% defense you'll be dodging 95% of the attacks that come your way.
|
Originally Posted by DrMike2000
Just double the number, and thats the percentage of attacks that bounce of you. So with 25% you're taking half damage, debuffs and mezzes from any ranged volley of attacks, Malta Sappers miss you half the time etc. It caps at 45% where 90% of attacks bounce off.
|
Hello Defenders!!
I like to play around with Mid's a lot and currently a lot on my storm/ice & today messing with a cold/psi.
I wanted to know from pvp & pve players what set bonuses you guys put in your builds:
regeneration?
recovery?
recharge?
status protection?
more defense/resistance?
acc?
Which do guys find effective for your pve & pvp game play. I know all defenders are different so just tell me what you do with YOURS. You can choose 1, 2, or 3. I just wanted to get an idea of what the majority does.
Thank you!