Duo/Team Based FF/Rad Defender

I just created what I thought would be an interesting combo, FF/Rad. I plan on using this toon to mainly duo with a RL buddy. However, we often create PUGs for things such as TFs and story arcs that we run with our SG. My friend will no doubt be running all sorts of toons often switching between Melee and Ranged attacks even to one of his several controllers. My question is this. Should I slot my Rad attacks for damage or defense debuffing. With defense debuffing I can softcap both melee and s/l defense for myself while still focusing on making my bubbles at potent as possible. Of course sapping the defense of others is a big bonus(though as I type this I wonder if Sapping resistance might be more useful hmmm....) Should I slot for damage, I believe I can softcap range defense and pump out damage myself instead of just relying on my team to do it for me. I am completely new to the world of defenders and I hardly ever pay attention to them when I team.(I appreciate the heals/buffs/debuffs but hey when I am unleashing the fury of my fire blaster I cant stop to notice little things like someone keeping me alive when I go crazy....)

So to recap, should I slot my Rad attacks for damage or Defense debuffs?

thank you all,
Sirken

Personally, I'd slot for damage. Outside of buffing your teammates every three to four minutes, all you're going to do is blast, so might as well make it count. Well, for as much as Defenders' attacks can count. :P

Definitely damage. The defense debuff is plenty powerful as it is, and slotting it will make little difference.

Excellent. So damage it is. Follow up questions:

1. Is reaching the Softcap for Ranged defense all that important on this type of toon?

2. How important would it be to take the Medicine pool on a FF defender?

3.Before I level this toon to much, would a resist debuff of Sonic be more effective to mowing through mobs than the Defense debuff of Rad?

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I appreciate the help.

Sirken

1. Reaching ranged softcap is very nice, but not essential. If your buddy plans to soak up most of the aggro, let them do it, you'll be making them indestructible after all. Dispersion and Manouvers (slotted) and Hover give you 25% defence of so, which is good for handling stray shots, and 3 Thunderstrikes will put you at 37%. I wouldn't sweat the other 8% unless you're soloing.

2. Medicine is Ok. FF provides plenty m,itigation by itself, and you'll find the green pills rack up in everyones trays pretty quickly. Aid Other isn't bad as a patch up, and also as a sleep breaker if your Controller buddy gets slept. Aid Self and PFF work very nicely together, but do be mindful that PFF will kill Dispersion Bubble, and thus stuin or hold teammates without mez protection.

3. Sonic Blast will be WAY more effective than Radiation. Do it!
For much of the game, you're able to hit enemies with 95% certainty, at which point Defense debuff contributes absolutely nothing. If you're planning on going light on acc slotting or not using Ios for set bonuses, just take Tactics after Manouvers.

Defense debuff is nice when you face say a Paragon Protector who's activated their god mode, or a bunch of Rikti drones, but there are other ways to deal with these situations, pre-emptive holds for PP's, use of AoE's on drones, yellow pills, and so on.

Sonic Blast on the other hand will increase the damage your team do for every single encounter where you fire off an attack.

So I decided to check into converting to a FF/Sonic. This did seem more thematic as well as being more in line with my original purpose of weaking foes and dealing damage. This is a rough mock-up of what I am thinking about. If this does not translate to effective gameplay please let me know.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

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Level 50 Mutation Defender
Primary Power Set: Force Field
Secondary Power Set: Sonic Attack
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Power Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Personal Force Field

• (A) Kismet - Accuracy +6%

• (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
• (21) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
• (23) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (23) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

• (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
• (19) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
• (19) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (21) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (5) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge
• (5) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Recharge
• (9) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (7) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge
• (7) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Recharge
• (9) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance

• (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (11) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (11) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (13) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
• (13) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (31) Soaring - FlySpeed
• (31) Soaring - Endurance/FlySpeed

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (15) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (15) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance
• (17) Gift of the Ancients - Defense

• (A) Soaring - Endurance/FlySpeed

• (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
• (17) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
• (27) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
• (29) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (29) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

• (A) Flight Speed IO

• (A) Miracle - +Recovery
• (46) Miracle - Heal
• (46) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery

• (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod
• (25) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge
• (25) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy
• (27) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (31) Recharge Reduction IO
• (33) Recharge Reduction IO

• (A) Stupefy - Accuracy/Recharge
• (33) Stupefy - Endurance/Stun
• (33) Stupefy - Stun/Range
• (34) Stupefy - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge
• (36) Stupefy - Accuracy/Endurance

• (A) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep
• (34) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Recharge
• (34) Fortunata Hypnosis - Accuracy/Sleep/Recharge
• (36) Fortunata Hypnosis - Accuracy/Recharge
• (36) Fortunata Hypnosis - Chance for Placate

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (37) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (37) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance
• (37) Gift of the Ancients - Defense

• (A) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff
• (39) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge
• (39) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Adjusted Targeting - Recharge
• (42) Adjusted Targeting - Endurance/Recharge

• (A) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff
• (39) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge
• (40) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Adjusted Targeting - Recharge
• (42) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (42) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (43) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (43) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (43) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge

• (A) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff
• (45) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge
• (45) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge
• (45) Adjusted Targeting - Endurance/Recharge
• (46) Adjusted Targeting - Recharge

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
• (50) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/Endurance

• (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage
• (48) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance
• (48) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge
• (48) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (50) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO
• (50) Endurance Reduction IO

• (A) Empty

• (A) Empty

• (A) Empty

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I think you're building a lot of recharge into a build that doesn't really benefit from it too much.
It'll make Amplify, PBU and your nuke come up quicker, but thats about it in terms of long recharge powers. I'd scraped together every scrap of +Rech for an Empath, but not for a FF-er.

I think your ally sheilds and Dispersion are fully slotted for maximum defence ehnacement there, aren't they? But if not, make sure that they are. Maybe 4 LotG's would give better set bonuses (+Acc and +Health instead of +Runspeed from 2 GotA's)

Repulsion Bomb's stun only goes off 40% of the time, so I'd prefer to slot it for damage. Positron's Blast would be better than Stupefy if you're chasing set bonuses.

Its really easy to get some Ranged Defence using either Thunderstrike or Red Fortune into this build. Since you're starting from a pretty high base I'd aim for some of this. Thunderstrike in 3 single target blasts, Red Fortune in Dispersion and Manouvers, 6 each. That needs 7 extra slots. I'd take the 4 from Siren's Song and slot it one Acc, its perma out of the box. Take the Heal from health, and just slot Amplify 3 Recharge.

Red Fortunes will give you back 10% Recharge, and Thunderstrikes give you some +Rec and +Acc. Between the 5 sets you also gain +16.25% Ranged defence, taking you from around 27% to close to the 45% softcap.

That's the route I'd go.

Personally, I'd skip the nuke. A Force Field Defender without any endurance isn't very useful.

Also, like DrMike suggests, Positron's Blast is the way to go for Repulsion Bomb. It's basically an attack in your primary.

As long as the little bubbles are in place, I think the Forcefield defender is an excellent candidate for nuking with the sonic nuke being one of the best.