newbie defender with some questions

So I've been playing this game for quite awhile (just got my 54 month reward a couple weeks ago) but I've primarily focused on playing scrappers with abit of blasters thrown in.

With the release of DP and the DXP weekend, I decided to give defenders a try and roll a Traps/DP defender. Thanks to the DXP weekend and a few TFs since then, I was able to get him up to lvl 33 fairly quickly. My power selection and slotting has been fairly straight forward, sticking with just SOs.

Now that I slot lvl 35 enhancements, I'm planning on a full respec with an eye towards getting a bunch of lvl 35 IO sets as well.

My problem is I don't even know where to begin with what powers I should take and focus on, especially when it comes from pool powers. Like would Maneuvers from the Assault be a good pick to go along with the defense from FFG? I want this build to be a team-orientated build.

For Traps you core bread and butter, must have powers are Acid Mortar, Force Field Generator, Seeker Drones and Poison Trap. The other five powers are all useful and you should definitely take some of them but depending on your style they are all skippable to some degree. Since you say a team oriented build, I'd definitely pick up Triage Beacon. In general Caltrops is better than Web 'Nade. Trip Mine is fun, but not essential on teams. Time Bomb sucks.

In terms of pool powers Stealth can be useful for toe bombing (and if you take Stealth then Recall Friend is worth a pick). Leadership is always worthwhile on a Defender, just keep in mind the endurance cost. My Traps/AR runs two leadership toggles but I'd be hard pressed to run a third (admittedly I'm not IO'd at the moment so I only have stamina for recovery). Maneuvers does stack with FFG if you slot them both you get about 25% defense to all which is very nice. Some Traps Defenders pick up the Fighting pool. Weave makes it much easier to soft cap your Defender which some people like. Personally I'm going to settle for soft capping range and save the power choices for more team oriented powers (like say Leadership).

From Dual Pistols I'd say definitely take the AoEs and Piercing Rounds. Hail of Bullets get a bad rep, but Traps Defenders are pretty tough so you can probably handle it.

In terms of Ancillary Power pool once you hit the 40s, my top picks would be Dark and Electricity. I went with Electricity for concept reasons and it worked out pretty well, Thunder Strike is a nice "get out of my face" power and Shocking Bolt is nice to have if you want a more reliable mez than the Traps ones (plus it stacks with Suppressive Fire if you use one of the special ammo types). Dark is a more damage oriented Ancillary. Traps is a good set for getting in your enemies face and most of the Dark powers support that. Psychic Mastery and Power Mastery are ok although I'd say they have less synergy with Traps than the other two.

Manouvers is good, yeah. Your FFG is outputting enough base Defence to make it worthwhile.

For IO sets, some personal defence bonuses can be nice to add to this. For a team build, I'd go for +Recharge bonuses, to get all those longer recharge powers up as often as possible.

Doctored Wounds in Triage Beacon, Cloud Senses in Seeker Drones and Basilisk's Gaze in Poison Trap is a good start.

If you expect to do toe bombing, you should really consider getting Grant Invis so you can hide the FFG or it'll give you away when you approach your enemies. Then while you're at the Concealment pool, you may want to consider picking up Stealth for another couple of points or so of +def (remember half of it goes away after you are aggroed).

I also recommend getting Leadership for the extra +def from Maneuvers. And, of course, Tactics is great to have too.

I'm very aggressive, so I needed Stamina from Fitness.

So that's 3 pools. I leave the fourth up to you for your perferred method of travel. You can go Speed to get Hasten and Superspeed for stealth, or Combat Jump for more +def. I went with Fly because I like Fly.

In regards to Caltrops, I really like Caltrops. It provides a nice area denial space for you to stand in the middle of while you do your shooting. Plus, you don't have to allocate any additional slots to it if you don't want to and it'll still work great.

traps is going to be really easy to soft cap all 3 positions and does some pretty crazy debuff(so take maneuvers, cj, slot for defense) and with a quick attack chain (which is hard for DP) you'll be able to stack -37ish damage buff on whatever you're attacking(so get some rech but with DP it's only good up to a point since the animations are so damn long).

Thanks for the advice so far.

What would be a good set for Acid Mortar? Should I just go with Entropic Chaos for the recharge bonus or get one of Defense Debuff sets to try and improve the debuff?

Ok, here's my build so far. Probably gonna cost an arm and a leg to build but I've got a fair amount of inf/merits/tickets stockpiled on my lvl 50 scrapper.

I'm basically slotting for rechage. Not sure about Empty clips. Might just take web grenade at lvl 4 instead, move those slots somewhere else. The short range of empty clips always throws me off when i try using it.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

BombSight: Level 34 Technology Defender
Primary Power Set: Traps
Secondary Power Set: Dual Pistols
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Caltrops -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Pistols -- Entrpc-Acc/Dmg(A), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Entrpc-Dmg/Rchg(3), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Entrpc-Heal%(34)
Level 2: Triage Beacon -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(5), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Dct'dW-Heal(15)
Level 4: Empty Clips -- Empty(A), Empty(11), Empty(11)
Level 6: Acid Mortar -- Entrpc-Acc/Dmg(A), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Entrpc-Dmg/Rchg(7), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Entrpc-Heal%(21)
Level 8: Force Field Generator -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(9), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(9), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(25), RedFtn-Def(25)
Level 10: Swap Ammo
Level 12: Poison Trap -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(13), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(13), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(23), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(27)
Level 14: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Bullet Rain -- KinCrsh-Dmg/KB(A), KinCrsh-Acc/KB(17), KinCrsh-Rchg/KB(17), KinCrsh-Acc/Dmg/KB(29), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx(33), KinCrsh-Dmg/EndRdx/KB(33)
Level 18: Seeker Drones -- Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Cloud-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Cloud-Acc/Rchg(19), Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb(27)
Level 20: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(33)
Level 22: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(23)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(29), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(31), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), RedFtn-Def(31)
Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 32: Trip Mine -- FrcFbk-Rechg%(A)
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 2: Ninja Run
Level 10: Chemical Ammunition
Level 10: Cryo Ammunition
Level 10: Incendiary Ammunition

Here are some general thoughts on traps from me, looking at your build:

1) I prefer web grenade over caltrops. Traps debuffs tend to scatter enemies, and caltrops make the problem worse. Web grenade is on a very fast recharge, so you can spam it and maybe put a Trap of the Hunter proc in it.

2) Slot acid mortar for accuracy and max recharge for best mileage. Its -def is already pretty potent, so you can get by without slotting that, and with tougher enemies, having two acid mortars out will help more. I frankenslotted acc/end/rech myself. Some people put a devastation hold proc, which is worth trying if you have the slots. Entropic Chaos proc in acid mortar will only heal the trap, not you.

3) Poison trap only needs 2-3 rechargers. Its hold is autohit, and it spawns a cloud/patch effect. Its hold duration is negligible.

4) Try to slot seeker drones for accuracy and max recharge; they're your other primary damage mitigator alongside FFG.

5) Trip mine is a pseudopet, so Force Feedback proc will unfortunately have zero effect.

6) Traps is not very demanding on endurance, as you recover plenty while animations are running. I have no experience with dual pistols, but with its relatively slow animation times and redraw, you probably won't need a Miracle unique. I'd still keep the Numina's for its regen to stack with triage beacon, funds permitting.

I haven't played a Traps Defender but I do have a /Traps Mastermind at 50 so I can give some advice.

First, the absolute best powers in Traps are Force Field Generator, Acid Mortar, and Poison Trap. Force Field Generator needs three defense SOs or generic IOs, or enough from a defense set to ED cap defense. It recharges plenty fast enough and doesn't cost that much endurance, so it's a good place to save slots if your build gets too tight. Acid Mortar needs a lot of recharge, enough accuracy to hit things (how much depends on your global accuracy and what you like to fight), and an Achilles' Heel -resist proc. Other procs can also be useful, but more -resist is always a good thing. The damage is negligible, so don't use a damage set... either frankenslot it or use an Accurate Defense Debuff set. Poison Trap needs recharge... anything else is just gravy. You can add procs or hold enhancement (slot some accuracy if you actually care about the hold), but the real reason to take this power is the massive autohit -regen debuff. Even AVs take a major regen hit from it, so if you have enough recharge to keep the gas cloud going full time you'll speed up an AV fight considerably. I'd slot the four pieces of Basilisk's Gaze that have recharge in them and add a proc or two if you have free slots.

Another Traps power a lot of people swear by is Seeker Drones. If you plan to solo a lot I'd recommend taking it and dropping in a bit of +range plus whatever else you want (don't worry about damage though). The main use for Seekers is to summon them right on top of an enemy group so the Seekers take the alpha strike and blow up in the enemies' faces. Their actual effect is secondary... the fact that they get shot instead of you is what counts. The debuffs are handy against AVs, but not vital... on teams you probably won't ever use the Drones unless you are having trouble surviving an AV's attacks for some reason, so if you don't plan to solo much you can skip them.

As far as the Caltrops vs Web Grenade debate, I like keeping tough enemies stationary so I'd go Web Grenade if you don't take both. A full set of Trap of the Hunter provides nice set bonuses and good endurance reduction for spamming them on AVs to keep them standing where you want them (away from you and preferably in a burn patch). If you solo a lot, Caltrops may be a better choice for a Defender since they tend to slow down enemies and you don't have an Assault Bot you need to keep bosses and higher immobilized for.

Trip Mine is great fun solo, but another power you'll rarely use on teams. If you have high defense (which you probably will) you can "toe bomb" enemies by dropping mines at their feet, but if it's not at least an elite boss the team will probably kill it before the mine can go off.

Triage Beacon is quite handy for EB / AV / Monster fights, and pretty much worthless for anything else. It does come in handy at times on an ITF, but in general it's pretty skippable if your build is tight. If you want to solo AVs, take it and slot it up since softcapped defense + Triage Beacon makes you quite survivable.

Time Bomb is useless. Seriously, it's complete garbage. It's a piece of junk on Blasters who can actually kill things with it if by some miracle it hits them, so a half-strength Defender version is even junkier. But hey, at least that's a power you can skip without any thought... (If you want it for RP reasons, do yourself a favor and take it on your second build.) Seriously... nine seconds to plant, then something has to be standing near it once it blows, and all that for less damage than two stacked Trip Mines?

As far as Dual Pistols goes, it's pretty much Energy Blast with no Aim, much cooler animations, a ranged damage attack instead of Power Push, a "nuke" that gets you killed, and lower overall performance. But hey, it's pretty. On the bright side, all that defense from Traps means you can use Hail of Bullets and not faceplant, and your secondary effects are almost strong enough to care about (unlike the Blaster version). I'd say pick whatever powers you want based on looks, because from a performance standpoint you're better off with pretty much any other set.

(Sorry to be so down on Pistols, but the numbers don't lie. It's subpar... only by about 5-10% or so, but still subpar and if you're a performance oriented player you will notice. On the other hand, it's very, very cool looking so if you care more about that than min/maxing it's fine, and it's not like other Defender blast sets are that great either.)

I prefer combat teleport on my defenders that have to have mobility. Stormies and trappers both fit this bill. If you really need to tp out of the foes' AoEs, tp to a safer place. TP gets around various statuses.

In my humble opinion, because of the secondary effects of the dual pistols with swap ammo, I like dual pistols even better on a defenders. Spot a big behemoth? Swap ammo to cryo and blast away with greater effect. Trouble with heavy hitters? Swap ammo to toxic and dull their aggression. Lighting up the zombies with fire ammo is always a good time.

I have seen in the sewer runs what a pack of empty clips does to a tight tunnel with overlapping AoEs. It could be another case where you just need more defenders .