New Defender - help please

Hello Defenders!

I have been playing CoH for about a year now and never made a defender (past level 10 anyways). I tend to work long hours in real life and although I do find time to play a bunch I tend to solo more often because I need to go AFK a bunch (family). So, since defenders are more of a group class I’ve stayed away… until now.

I mostly play scrappers and I have a few. I know a defender will never be in the same damage class, or at least I expect, but I am more after fun than anything else. I do want to be able to survive though.

I am interested in making a defender, but I’m not sure which powers to take. However, I know I want it to be one of these:

Primary: Kinetics, Sonic, Radiation
Secondary: Energy, Radiation, Sonic and maybe Electric

I really like the idea of energy, but I’ve heard that over time energy becomes less effective.

So, any advice? I will be out of town for the week, but the Christmas holiday is coming and I’m looking to enjoy some game time.

Thanks in advance!

I’ll be searching the boards for ideas.

Note: I know I want my guy to fly and shoot blasts of some sort. In fact, I have already build a costume (guy from another plante, looks human and has wings... nothing new... but he looks cool imo

Sonic blast of course is related to the mouth and a lot of attacks look like the guy is upchucking or spitting. Fortunately my point of view is from behind so it doesn't really bother me. For survivability, for power synergy, and for a variety of attack animations I suggest Radiation emission/Rad blast. If you were a min maxer, Rad/sonic has an edge in ability to attack, solo, more difficult foes. A Radiation primary defender is a tried and true, stalwart, defender build. I highly suggest it, especially of the choices for someone new to defendering.

Sonic primary is VERY teambased.
Rad primary is very strong, very versatile, good solo and on teams, etc.
Kinetics is a high-offense/relatively low defense set. It has some ability to heal teammates and slightly debuff enemy damage but mostly it is about making your teammates run faster, hit harder, and never stop for anything. And, to a lesser extent, yourself as well.

Elec is relatively low damage even by defender standards but has a couple of neat tricks. (good hold, Voltaic Sentinel is fun at parties, if there's another Elec on the team you can drain all the enemy endurance immediately, etc.)

Sonic blasts are pretty much the bee's knees, or whatever the youth of today is calling them.

Radiation blast didn't work out for me when I tried it, but that may have just been a bad mesh with Force Fields.

Energy blast is "sort of middle of the road" with lots of knockback, which can cause teammate whining. Sometimes, they whine even when you're using it correctly. It LOOKS mighty mighty, which is important because you have to watch it for 50 levels.

If you want to impress the Scrapper in yourself, Rad/Sonic is a big hitter with good defenses [as long as they don't mez you... curse that caveat.] There's a reason Jock Tamson's Rad/Sonic guide is called "Best at Everything".

But go with something that looks cool, and makes you feel cool. This is the most important thing.

For a first time defender, I would always choose Radiation Emission over your other two choices. You get alot of your core powers early and they help both solo AND on a team.
Get Radiation Infection, put it on a spawn as your opening move, blast, enjoy

For a Blast set, I agree with Fulmens, take what looks cool to your tastes. Cannot go wrong with powers you love looking at.

From your choices, I would avoid taking Energy Blast with either Kinetics or Rad.
Kinetics is best used in melee range and doesnt mesh well with knockback.
Radiation Emission has 2 anchor powers, so you dont want to be knocking mobs all over the place and reducing the effect of these debuffs.

None of the other possible combinations jump out as bad synergy.
The ones that I have played and felt synergized well;

Rad-Rad
Rad-Electric
Kin-Electric
Sonic-Energy
Sonic-Sonic

Hope you enjoy your defender

Kin/Sonic, Rad/Sonic works well solo

i'd go with Rad and the secondary of your choice, probably Sonic or Elec.

I didn't want to pull this out, Rad blast has x-ray beams. You shoot stuff with your eyes! How cool is that for a beginner blast set?

I'd choose Rad/Sonic or Rad/Energy

As already mentioned, Sonic Resonance is team oriented. I think its the worse solo set available to Defenders.

Kinetics is slow at first, picks up later, but is always really dicey seat of the pants play, and really benefits from having a tank or scrapper buddy who can run in first.

Rad Emission on the other hand can positively benefit from being solo, in that no-one but you will kill your Rad Infection anchor. All the best powers are available early on.

For the secondaries:
Rad Blast is cool, but its big hitter and mez come at level 28. Its a long wait till then.

Sonic Blast is hands down most effective because of the stacking -Res to boost your damage. It can be recoloured these days and appear to be psychic blasts of some kind quite easily (either telepathic or telekinetic) if your concept calls for that. Sonic Blast also has some very good damage mitigation - a fast cycling area KB and an area sleep will add a lot of extra safety if you take them.

Energy Blast gives you knockback for extra damage mitigation and a good attack chain very early on. Your biggets problem for soloing is a lack of mez of any kind - you can't reliably stop a Tsoo Sorceror teleporting away or a Paragon Protector from activating its godmode power with just knockback. It looks and feels great otherwise, so if concept calls for it, go for it.

I'm with DoctorMike. Rad/Sonic or Rad/NRG.

Rad is by far the friendliest primary of the three for a first time defender that may need to play solo for any lengths of time.

Sonic is my favorite blast set. -res is always useful and sirens call is a great tool for crowd control while soloing.

Energy is just a fun set. Most people will tell you to steer clear because of KB but learn to use the KB's and they'll become a very effective mitigation tool. Having already decided to take flight will make managing KB much easier.

My suggestion...RAD/Sonic or RAD.

Being a scrapper player myself, what I find useful for soloing on a defender is the -tohit. THen you blast away.

If you can grab some IOs, build for ranged defense as well.

This is what works for me on my Dark/Sonic. And the first I actually thought did okay at leveling out of all the defenders I've made.

I would highly suggest NOT making a kin if u plan on solo'n. I did, and its tedious at best.
With no real mitigation in your primary it is an edge of your seat, knife edge set. Of course with sonix blasts u get a AoE sleep soo maybe that'll work for ya.

Id roll kinetics as a controller secondary.
Same with Sonix, with 3 powers that can only be used on team mates id suggest that as a controller secondary as well.

Listen to the masses. Go rad/xxx and have fun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

rad/rad is a fun build, it was my first defender to 50.

rad/* is much sought after by teams and alwasy useful in big events. Not too shabby solo either.


I have just started the journey over again with a brand new rad/sonic myself. So can't give specific advice on that yet, but I know rad/ and I know /sonic (I have a son/son at 50), and ist just going to be a hoot.

Sonic primary really isn't that good a set for a predominatly solo defender.

Well ya, sonix has -resistance. you made it seem like kinetics has -res. And it doesnt.

If your talkin about a kin/sonic, the aoe sleep would be even more mitigation. I made that point already.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

Of the 3 primaries you listed, I'd suggest Radiation. There is only one buff, Accelerate Metabolism, that you'll be obligated to give out on teams. A Sonic defender has to rebuff every 3 minutes or so and stick near the melee groups in order for them to get the most of your PBAoE shield, and a Kinetics Defender's Speed Boost is in high demand, and it only lasts 90 seconds before you have to reapply! Not only that, but people tend to be LESS inclined to wait for you to buff them when they're running on SB time. ;_;

So yeah, I'd pick Radiation for your primary.

Now for the secondary:

Energy, in my opinion, is much better for a blaster. For a defender, you have knockback that you need to worry about when attacking, as well as reduced damage. There are some people who like it for Defenders, but I'm not one of them.

Radiation: A Rad/Rad defender is a classic defender. You'll be spending more time in melee than you would with Energy or Sonic due to Irradiate, but Radiation's ToHit Debuffs, damage debuff, and healing aura make that easier than you'd think. Radiation Blast also lowers defense, which the Primary does as well. It's a solid choice, and probably has the most overall AoE of the secondaries you picked.

Sonic Blast: This is what I'd go for. You'll be more at range, and you can throw -Res debuffs, which are also in the Primary, all over the place while you're attacking (which I think does more, in the long run, than adding more -defense). It also gives you a very nice Cone Sleep, which is useful for soloing big groups of enemies. Just use the sleep and hit one enemy at a time with Single Target attacks while it's in your debuff area.

Electricity - This will give you some sapping potential, since every Electric Blast power drains a bit of endurance from the enemy. Ball Lightning gives you some AoE, and you have a ST Hold and a pet (just a ball of lightning that shoots a blast every now and again), and has a massive, very cool looking nuke that does less damage than other nukes, but saps a big hunk of enemy endurance away. I'd suggest you pick either the electrical Mastery or Psychic mastery epics with this one, to boost either AoE damage or your ability to control enemies.

Personally, my favorite defender is my Kinetics/Archery. I mostly solo it, using the damage buffs and Rain of Arrows to mess up mobs while constantly refilling my health and energy. I picked Psychic Mastery, and also picked up Tough on top of Mind Over Body, giving me 60-something percent smashing/lethal resistance and mezzes to hold enemies at bay while I use the kinetics powers to buff myself safely.

Thanks for all of the advice folks, I did go rad/son. I got back from a confference last night and I look forward to planing the toon.

If all goes well I'll be looking for a good template later.

Enjoy!