Archery or DP in a all rad team?

Hey All,

So I'm teaming with 2 Plant/Rads and I want to be a defender (for more Rad buffs/debuffs) so I'm trying to decide between a DP or Archer.

If you had to pick, which is "better" and why?

This team is all about range, and we're trying to get to 50.

archery has more damage in it, and has aim where as dual pistols doesnt.

Archery also has a fast recharging mini nuke with rain of arrows, where as dual pistols gets a melee range dance move with crappy damage lol plus your biggest hitter, executioners shot is melee range too, plus it has no snipe power. If range is what your after you shouldnt be anywhere near Dual Pistols.

Archery is better for what you want everytime.

Defenders suck for damage, they always have, and always will unless your kinetics using fulcrum shift on some big mobs and hitting damage cap, even then a blaster is still going to hit more damage than you just by hitting build up and aim.

If its any form of damage you want, stay away from defender since even if with the new buff in i17, its still hardly any different. Plus it also removes itself when in a team anyway.

The biggest advantage of playing Archery on any AT though is the fact that Rain Of Arrows recharges so quickly. When slotted you can get the attack once every mob and on a blaster that does significant damage, on defender its minor so you will still take a long time to kill even with radiation since you will find a lot of the time the target you debuff either gets killed first, or runs outside of the mob.

I myself raised a kin/Archery and a rad/ice before to 50 so i know both sets inside out on defender. Defender is always one of those classes you want to be good, but never actually gets there.

If you plan on teaming with just plant/rad controllers, then i suggest you either look into a scrapper or a tanker, or a blaster. Controllers are squishy but they can stop people moving, doing so however gives them crappy damage. To make an effective team you should work on filling these holes with your charecter, either tanking wise with a tank orientated scrapper or a full tanker to take some of the damage away from them or a blaster to get them killed before they die.

If you play a scrapper tanking, you will probably die a lot leveling and unless set out right, will lose agro a lot anyway but you will deal damage and still be able to tank a bit. Blaster you will find that you will be the first one the mobs run at because you will get the most hate so you should practice running

Its up to you what you play but defender really wouldnt be needed in a team of controllers as a rad.

Dual Pistols...

Hail of Bullets is getting buffed in i17 (60% chance for the ticks to go off vs the current 50%, as well as +Defense for 5 seconds), and it's just more fun

Given the company you plan to keep, I'd go Assault Rifle: Blast and Burn.

Given that you have 2 controllers for Immobilize, I would look into Assault Rifle. IF and ONLY IF, you can immobilize foes, Assault Rifle is the highest damage defender blast set for both AoE and ST. IF and ONLY IF, you can immobilize your foes. That should not be a problem on a team with two controllers. It also gets a crashless nuke. However, I prefer the Archery crashless nuke, if the crashless nuke is the only consideration.

If you had multiple DP on the team, you could stack -damage to useful levels, creating the equivalent of resist shields. (-damage = +resist). This is something you could do even on an all blaster team, and is a somewhat unique niche for a blast set.

Archery and rolling nukes: Aim + APP:Power Build Up + RoA = Impressive Fun. Also, given the way this power is setup, you can hit more than the damage cap number of targets. Each wave of the power is limited to the damage cap, but there are multiple waves of damage.

For the most impressive nuke, I'd go Ice Blast. The Ice Blast nuke pet can be thrown around corners and has some very impressive damage. Ice is also a very strong set for ST damage, and Moderately strong for AoE. It's somewhat the best average of both worlds, but not the very best of either. IE: A Cold Domination/Ice Blast defender Blizzard Nuke (2200) can surpass Blaster Blizzard Nuke (1800) damage when combining all their powers properly.

ice because it out damages archery DP and AR.

Dual Pistols fills the unique role of being a blast set that can provide -damage debuffing. 3x Enervating Field is pretty potent already, shaving around 2/3 of the target's damage away... but -dam, like +resist and +def, is a boost that gets exponentially better results the closer you come to the cap. With chem rounds being spammed on a defender, you can come pretty darn close to permanently flooring an AV's damage. Although Hail of Bullets is getting buffed in I17, Archery would still provide a bit more damage thanks to Rain of Arrows recharging in under 20 seconds thanks to 3x AM + Hasten + slotting, and has better range. If boosting the team's damage output is your sole priority then go Archery, but Archery or Dual Pistols will both be able to fill things with holes quite effectively.

If you are open to other possibilities, AR and Ice are unique on a permateam with controllers, in that even on defenders, Ignite, Ice Storm, and Blizzard all use Blaster damage numbers. Ignite (and the others, but they have large AoEs and slows) benefit greatly from immobilizes - if you have a crowd under heavy Plant immob-spam, Ignite is the strongest single-target damage a defender could possibly dish out. AR has more AoE attacks than Ice but Ice Storm and Blizzard (far and away the strongest nuke you could have) balance it out.

Also, if you weren't going to already, your trio should run 3x Assault with the 3x AM. You'll have more than enough endurance, and more dmg = more better.

As someone who has never gotten a Defender past level 20 (I gravitate towards blasters and controllers and my only 50 is a Tank), decided to do a Dark/DP and I love it. It's very controllery and I really enjoy the elemental diversity of DP. I think this'll be the Defender that I take all the way (eventually, damned alt-itis).