Hi, I'm new to defenders.


Adeon Hawkwood

 

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I rolled a Kin/DP because it seemed like a good idea at the time. I've never really played a defender before. Could I get some tips on what to expect in the long run?


 

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SB Plz, SB Plz, SB Plz, r u healer?


Ok, on a slightly more serious note Defenders are a good AT to play. You can't solo as well as a lot of the other ATs but you can manage well enough and you get the satisfaction of knowing that you're making a difference to your team.

In regards to your particular combination it's not something I'd play for a few reasons but it's a workable enough combination. One thing I will warn you about however is that Dual Pistols has one of the longest redraw animations in the game. Unfortunately kinetics has several powers that you'll potentially want to use multiple times during a combat so as you get higher in level you might start to find this very annoying.

As for the sets themselves, Kinetics is a very nice set that combines the ability to boost your personal and team damage along with a little bit of damage mitigation though healing and a few single target debuffs. However there is one power that ensures that I personally will never play Kinetics (or at least never team on a kinetics character) and that is Speed Boost. It's a very powerful buff but you have to cast it on every teammate every 2 minutes. If you are happy doing this then all well and good. If you aren't happy doing it then be aware you will meet idiots who will whine about the fact. The other upside to kin is that Kinetics provides you with pretty decent travel powers allowing you to skip those if you want. You can potentially also skip Stamina and use Transference for end recovery.

Dual Pistols is a decent enough blast set. The animations are rather long (especially for the AoEs) so it's a bit slow compared to the other sets but it's functional enough and the ability to change between doing slow, knockback and -damage is surprisingly useful for a defender (especially since you can stack the -dam and -slow with powers from Kinetics, at least against a single target).


 

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Kinetics is the most powerful offensive buff/debuff set in the game, but pays for it by requiring you to constantly click a whole lot of powers. This can potentially cause problems with pistols and assault rifle since it makes you have to keep redrawing the weapon. If you don't have a problem with this though, then the sets can be plenty effective together.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Garent View Post
Kinetics is the most powerful offensive buff/debuff set in the game, but pays for it by requiring you to constantly click a whole lot of powers. This can potentially cause problems with pistols and assault rifle since it makes you have to keep redrawing the weapon. If you don't have a problem with this though, then the sets can be plenty effective together.
I personally have a Kin/AR Defender that I was actually soloing last night. Yes, the redraw can be annoying; however, I was still trashing most mobs. Went against Freakshow, Arachnos, and my double in the first blue side arc of i17. I'd imagine DP can do quite a bit of the same, it'd just take a bit difference in play style.

Funnest thing ever: Buckshot, Slug, or M30, run up (with Siphon Speed), Transference/Transfusion (depending on what you need), run backwards, and poof, you managed the melee heal or end without having to worry about getting melee'd. Yes, I was running and jumping around while tossing them everywhere with knockback. It was probably something funny to watch from an outsider perspective.


50s: Bla- Arch/Mental Cont- Mind/FF, Earth/Cold, Ill/Therm, Earth/Rad Dominator- Plant/Psi, Elec/Earth Corr- Fire/Storm, Arch/Sonic, Rad/Kin, Beam/Sonic, Psi/Time Stalker- Elec/SR Def- Storm/Dark, Emp/Psi, Dark/Elec, FF/Arch, TA/Ice, TA/Elec, Kin/AR, Cold/DP, Traps/Psi Scrap- Fire/Shield Tanker- Dark/Mace, Ice/Kin Brute- Claws/WP, SS/Energy, BS/Elec

 

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The benefit of DP on a kinetic is a variety of AoE attacks that maximize the buffs.


Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.

 

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Originally Posted by Psylenz View Post
The benefit of DP on a kinetic is a variety of AoE attacks that maximize the buffs.
Actually I'd rate DP as a very middle of the road Blast set in terms of AoE. It's got two 0.9 damage scale AoEs (same as quite a few other sets) but they have very long animations on par with the much higher damage scale "breath" AoEs. Similarly Hail of Bullets is ok but it's worse than the other crashless nukes. Personally I see DP more as a single target damage dealer with ok AoE than an AoE set. I'd rate Kin/Arch or Kin/AR quite a bit above Kin/DP in terms of AoE goodness.


 

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One of the nice things about the combo you've chosen is the possibility of nerfing the damage for you and your team by a considerable amount if you take swap ammo (using chem rounds I believe) and your Fulcrum Shift and Siphon Power.

Personally, the worst part of that combo is remembering to pack all of the Break Frees you will need. Lots of fenders have to use those, but I suspect you will become an addict.


 

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I've been playing weapons/regen scrappers a lot, so the redraw isn't too big a deal. Also, The plan, I think, was to use Chemical rounds and the AoEs in DP to debuff the resistance of the enemies and make my team do even more crazy damage.


 

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Charge in fulcrum shift-->Hail of bullets-->Rain of bullets-->mop up anything that may be left while refilling your end/hp bars and reapplying siphon speed so you can continue to the next mob with the same chain.

Kin works great with DP since your best buff/debuff fulcrum shift and your nuke are PBAoE. Being in the middle of the pack is also going to benefit you for your heal/end heal. I played mine to 50 and it was a very effective combo and a blast to play recharge didn't bother me the slightest bit.

EDIT: The Chem rounds will not lower enemy resists they lower enemy damage which does come in handy from time to time because you can pretty much blast a spawn with Fulcrum shift/Hail/Rain/Empty clips and cut their damage significantly.


 

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Anyone have the numbers for chem rounds? How much do they cut incomming damage?


 

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Originally Posted by Shadey_NA View Post
Anyone have the numbers for chem rounds? How much do they cut incomming damage?
Mids numbers:

DMG debuffing
Pistols: 0%
Dual Wield: 12.5% for 6 seconds
Empty Clips: 12.5% for 6 seconds
Bullet Rain: 12.5% for 8 seconds
Suppressive Fire: 0%
Executioner's Shot: 12.5% for 8 seconds
Piercing Rounds: 12.5% for 6 seconds
Hail of Bullets: 25% for 8 seconds

I didn't check in game numbers (nor do I know if just [Typing the power here] works with the different ammo's) so, my current (not up to date) Mids is saying.

Edit: Take the powers listed above and change them for Cryo Ammo: 12.5% -> 18.75%, 6 sec -> 8 sec, 8 sec -> 10 sec. The Recharge debuff of Hail is the same as the damage debuff. Just for those interested in Cryo's numbers.


50s: Bla- Arch/Mental Cont- Mind/FF, Earth/Cold, Ill/Therm, Earth/Rad Dominator- Plant/Psi, Elec/Earth Corr- Fire/Storm, Arch/Sonic, Rad/Kin, Beam/Sonic, Psi/Time Stalker- Elec/SR Def- Storm/Dark, Emp/Psi, Dark/Elec, FF/Arch, TA/Ice, TA/Elec, Kin/AR, Cold/DP, Traps/Psi Scrap- Fire/Shield Tanker- Dark/Mace, Ice/Kin Brute- Claws/WP, SS/Energy, BS/Elec

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by StormyDarkness View Post
I didn't check in game numbers (nor do I know if just [Typing the power here] works with the different ammo's) so, my current (not up to date) Mids is saying.
It used to work but at some point the real numbers for dual pistols got broken or changed so it now only shows the effects of lethal bullets.


 

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It's a wonderfully fun combo! I love soloing with it on my Corr (DP/Kin)--though I'm feeling the desire for Stamina, since I haven't End slotted well enough before Transference.

Executioner's Shot is my secret love. Wonderful finisher, and the echoing finality of shooting a runner feels like being in a Tarantino movie.


My pet peeve is people who refuse to acknowledge it when I tell them my character has unlimited power. If I rp attack them they are of course disintegrated beyond the ability of any hospital or magic to restore. Yet despite this they refuse to delete their characters and still keep playing them as if nothing happened. ~Mandu, 07-16-2010

 

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I feel another alt commin on.


 

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Oh, I totally misread that. I thought it lowered damage resistance. So what would be the most usefull ammo? Maybe cold, since it lasts longer?


 

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They can all have their uses depending on the situation. Duration of the effects shouldn't matter much in the grand scheme of things especially after you get fulcrum shift since most encounters generally wont be lasting too long anyway.

You could use regular ammo and slot achilles procs in the attacks but I personally didn't like the scatter it causes while playing a kin. While in standard ammo mode the piercing rounds also naturally give a -20%? resist to a target. Downsides are the achilles procs will only fire off if you're in standard mode, knockback, and your attacks are generally less damaging unless your procs activate. I usually only switch to standard against hard targets (bosses/AV's) with high defense that my team may be whiffing on. I had hopes to proc out all of my -def attacks like a /rad defender but the headache wasn't worth it for me.

The chem rounds are a great way to go if the tank or whomever is taking the agro isn't able to keep up with the damage being dealt. Between fulcrum shift and your aoe's and cone you can cut damage almost in half. I like chems against a lot of Psi attacks.

I don't use ice rounds very often but I've heard quite a few DP defenders swear by them. The only time I really use ice rounds is against Nems to slow there attacks once the spawn has stacked vengeance and that's only if it's needed. My blaster uses ice rounds sometimes to help him keep some distance but I like to be in the middle of things on my defenders.

Fire rounds are my favorite. I never ran into a situation where more damage wasn't a good thing. I'm addicted to seeing a large cloud of orange numbers.

The cool thing with swap ammo is it will allow you to be a little bit flexible. I'm sure you'll find a favorite ammo type and stick with it 90% of the time not sure what type that will be for you though.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by War_Hero_NA View Post
Oh, I totally misread that. I thought it lowered damage resistance. So what would be the most usefull ammo? Maybe cold, since it lasts longer?
Fire is best for damage (obviously), standard is best for defense against mobs of normal enemies since bullet rain is fairly reliable knockback, and toxic is best for defense against single targets like AVs. Cold is best for looking pretty.


 

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I'm a fan of normal ammo on low level pugs. You'll be putting out some nasty defense debuffs that'll fix even the newbiest team's accuracy problems.