Hmmmm..... that's a tough call. From a damage point of view the Corruptor is a bit better. The Defender damage boost means that the two do have roughly the same base damage although Corruptors do of course get Scourge. For Assault Rifle this makes a larger difference than normal due to the way Ignite was implemented (Defender Ignite does Blaster level damage, Corruptor Ignite does Blaster level damage AND checks for Scourge on every tick).
On the other hand defensively the Defender is slightly better mostly due to the more powerful FFG. Also, while Defenders do not currently get an S/L Epic shield the devs stated that hero ATs that become villains will be able to get PPPs so this could change with GR.
I'd probably lean a bit towards the Defender just because the stronger FFG makes leveling a bit easier, especially solo.
In either case I think you'll enjoy it a lot more than your AR/Dev. I know I did 
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I went with AR/Traps for a Corruptor.I figured the Scourg check would be a equalizer for the lack of FFG's lesser Defense %s.
So far so good.
It sounds like you're planning to solo a lot, so the Corruptor is probably the way to go. I play a Traps/AR Defender, and I find that when I'm alone the FFG and Seeker Drones together are overkill. I can pretty much neuter an Elite Boss, but I can't inflict enough damage to take him down by myself. I had to use a bunch of Inspirations, kill his Minions and knock him down to ½ Health, then run away to rest and come back for Round 2. It took me forever.
I use a team-oriented build, so I chose to delay M30 Grenade and Sniper Rifle, but I can't wait for Flamethrower and Full Auto, which a Corruptor would get sooner. I also imagine a Corruptor would get even more mileage out of all those AOEs with Scourge; a Corruptor could therefore raise the difficulty settings to include more mobs than a Defender could.
p.s. OTOH, if leveling quickly is your goal, I think the Defender is the far superior choice, provided you're willing & able to team up with other people. I've always found it much easier to assemble a decent PUG hero-side than villain-side.
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I skipped 'em entirely. I find Assault Rifle has enough AoE that it doesn't really need M30 Grenade and I find snipes to be pointless on any defender who will open with a debuff. I guess you could try and get the snipe in while they are focusing on the seekers but I much prefer to just run in with a PGT. Ignite on the other hand is a godsend for any Traps/AR defender who wants to kill bosses/EBs quickly (for that matter it's damn important for any AR Blaster who doesn't have strong melee attacks as well).
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Originally Posted by Hundred_Nations
I use a team-oriented build, so I chose to delay M30 Grenade and Sniper Rifle
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or the best of both worlds in about another month - move a corruptor over to the blue side to team |
Originally Posted by Hundred_Nations
p.s. OTOH, if leveling quickly is your goal, I think the Defender is the far superior choice, provided you're willing & able to team up with other people. I've always found it much easier to assemble a decent PUG hero-side than villain-side. |
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I am still a bit up in the air over M30 but definitely plan on skipping the snipe. that's one of the reasons I liked AR, the extra range on burst and slug. I actually like slotting them with at least one range enhancement and you have almost snipe range without all the downside
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Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
I skipped 'em entirely. I find Assault Rifle has enough AoE that it doesn't really need M30 Grenade and I find snipes to be pointless on any defender who will open with a debuff. I guess you could try and get the snipe in while they are focusing on the seekers but I much prefer to just run in with a PGT. Ignite on the other hand is a godsend for any Traps/AR defender who wants to kill bosses/EBs quickly (for that matter it's damn important for any AR Blaster who doesn't have strong melee attacks as well).
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Right, I made it sound as though playing in Paragon City was the key. While I do think it's easier to find a team blue-side, I also find it easier to play a Controller or a Defender and recruit teammates to provide the damage-dealing than to play a damage-dealer and try to find defensive characters to team up with. So I would prefer to play a Defender over a Corruptor in a team, even when GR goes live and I can choose either one. |
Originally Posted by kendo
or the best of both worlds in about another month - move a corruptor over to the blue side to team
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According to Mids' Hero Designer, Acid Mortar is -26.6% to -20%, Assault is 18.8% to 15%, and Tactics is 12.5% to 10%, all in favor of the Defender. That's un-Enhanced, and because Enhancements work as percentages of the base, the Defender's numbers will improve on a steeper curve than the Corruptor's (except for Assault and the Resistance debuff on the Mortar, which can't be enhanced). With 3 SOs, for example, a Corruptor's Acid Mortar is a -32.4% Defense debuff, while the Defender's is -43.1% (although that difference may prove to be overkill against a lot of enemies).
Defensively, a Defender's FFG provides +20.7% Defense buff when slotted with 3 SOs, while the Corrupter's provides 15.6%. OTOH, the Status Effect Resistance, which some might say is more important than the Defense buff, is the same for both.
I haven't done the math, but I feel like the Defender's team bonuses applied to 2-4 damage-dealers surpass the damage inflicted by a Corrupter without the bonuses and defense provided by a well-played defensive character. But it all depends on what you're good at playing and what you enjoy playing, and what kind of teammates you can assemble. My experience has been that fewer people are good at playing Defenders and Controllers than at playing Blasters and Scrappers.
If leveling quickly is your aim, playing in teams is probably at least 3x faster, so whichever character is the better team-player (for you) is the one you want. But if playing solo is more important than teaming, I think the Corrupter would be the hands-down better choice.
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Originally Posted by kendo
I am still a bit up in the air over M30 but definitely plan on skipping the snipe.
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]. The cone powers with KB can at least be directed, and knock the mobs in the same direction. The 360-degree knockback on powers like M30 Grenade and Explosive Blast is, at best, an annoyance while teaming. I actually think Knockback should be considered a drawback to most powers that have it, rather than an advantage, and those powers should do more damage rather than less. While soloing, the AoE damage from the grenade would be nice, and the AoE Knockback would be a defensive benefit.
i stick on this thread to see if i could get an answer without creating another one.
i don't understand how scourge can be taken in the picture while comparing both at's.
for exemple:
for a arch/rad emision defender, even if there is no scourge, with the better buff %, the damage are way betters on RoA than for a corruptor (and that without putting PBU in the equation)
i assume then that defenders debuff being more strong than the corr version, the impact on the damage are the same when we compare the Two ATs
scourge is nice ok, but, it only kicks in when mobs are about to dies.
it means not all the time.
i fail to understand how we can say that scourge means "better overhall damage"
i'm very confused
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Assuming you put down your buffs, yes, you will have higher damage. However the increase is not so great.|
Originally Posted by Nny_the_mad
i stick on this thread to see if i could get an answer without creating another one.
i don't understand how scourge can be taken in the picture while comparing both at's. for exemple: for a arch/rad emision defender, even if there is no scourge, with the better buff %, the damage are way betters on RoA than for a corruptor (and that without putting PBU in the equation) i assume then that defenders debuff being more strong than the corr version, the impact on the damage are the same when we compare the Two ATs scourge is nice ok, but, it only kicks in when mobs are about to dies. it means not all the time. i fail to understand how we can say that scourge means "better overhall damage" i'm very confused |
Enervating field reduces resistance by 30% on a Defender and 22.5% on a Corrupter. Damage resistance debuffs aren't improved by any kind of enhancements so it remains pretty much a 7% increase in damage.
The 30% damage bonus that Corrupters get does not apply in any reasonably sized teams. Further the 30% is not an actual, literal 30% when soloing anyway. It will be a 15% increase because you will already have ~100% increase from enhancements.
Scourge begins to tick at 50%. It is rather unreliable at that stage.
Scourge becomes near guaranteed at low amounts. My experience is that at 25% you can consistently rely up onit.
Scourge is exceptionally effective with 'Rain' type effects, and Ignite is one of those. It checks for Scourge on every tick and applies a x3 multiplier instead of x2 like you would normally expect.
Scourge is naturally most noticeable against tough bosses, EB and Heroes, because they have a huge amount of health and you will quite literally melt them away with Scourge.
Scourge can also be leveraged in teams by just attacking weak targets first. With a bit of attention you can pretty much be double damage all the time. Admittedly as a solo player you do not have this luxury.
Vigilance is to me considerably less useful. The 30% damage buff is almost nothing when solo with their base damage being so low and the debuff benefit is not much over what a corrupter does anyway. A good team won't feel any difference in the buff/debuff. Some of the boosts (defence debuffs especially, I am looking at you) are really unnecessary to be improved because you don't really need them (proper slotting gets you by, and a fractional increase to the debuff won't make any difference). Vigilance is also unnecessary when you just properly slot for endurance reduction (cheap frankenslotting gets you through it).
You seem to be pointing out all the benefits of a defender and then just disregarding Scourge. Scourge really is very, very good. Double damage... and "real" double damage too (not just 100% increase in base damage) is really hard to go past.
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make both if you have time, or just wait till the GR patch notes, theyre supposed to be opening up the PPPs & APPs for ATs after you switch sides. i was planning to make a traps corr or def depending on what they say about that alone. neither with assault rifle though, horrible set.
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Originally Posted by kendo
playing with some builds in Mids, the only real difference I see is that it will currently be easier to cap the corruptor for S/L defense and the defender for ranged positional defense
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way back in the day - long before ED, IOs, COV or powerset proliferation, one of my first characters was an AR/Devices blaster. and it was a fun and rather unique character set. with perma-hasten (through its own slotting), a well slotted targeting drone and attacks 6-slotted for damage (with no ED reduction), he could output damage with the best of the other sets. and could sneak around in stealth without the need of a power pool and a reduction in movement speed. ah, the good old days
while the advent of ED and IOs have helped other sets a great deal, they really didn't do as much for an AR/Device blaster. but they did tweak my interest in recreating him as a traps/ar defender or ar/traps corruptor.
I had been holding off building one though because defender damage just seemed too weak, especially when solo, which is a good share of my playing time due to family and work constraints. and though I have some characters on the villain side, I was tired of the much greater difficulty of equipping a new character with the status of the Black Market, merit rewards on story arcs, etc.
but with GR, pretty much all of those excuses are gone. defenders got a boost to damage when solo, a corrupter can move over to the blue side for WW or story arcs or I can just email whatever I want back and forth.
so now my only hang up is which one to make. and that's why I am posting this request for feedback on both forums, asking for your thoughts on why you prefer one or the other.
does one or the other level up way easier? better to have more damage sooner with the corrupter and add in your debuffs and buffs later in life? or way safer to level with the debuffs and buffs coming sooner with the defender? having all the veteran attacks available would help with the latter option.
at higher levels, the levels the powers became available won't matter much. I don't usually exempt down much below level 34 and all the primary and secondary powers would be available.
playing with some builds in Mids, the only real difference I see is that it will currently be easier to cap the corruptor for S/L defense and the defender for ranged positional defense and the defender would have better resists than the corruptor. on the other hand, the corruptor damage output would be a bit better than the defender.
feedback, opinions, thoughts on which way to go would be appreciated.