To Offend

I was helping a friend get from 35 to 40 the other day on my Empathy/Electrical Blast Defender and was playing as I always do: using my powers to their fullest effect according to my character's limits. I tend to play aggressively and take alpha onto myself quite frequently since I'm well capable of surviving it, and I never thought anything of it. I generally play Villains, so my exposure to normal Defender playing is virtually non-existent.

To get more XP rolling in, we invited some random passersby to the team. One of them was an Empathy/Ice Blast Defender. Granted, that build gives you absolutely no reason to be in melee range, but seeing the other Defender hanging out in the back row casting heals and long-range attacks got me thinking... Am I... abnormal?

The way I see it, I can take a hit or two (and then run like a sissy behind a corner to recover HP when the going gets rough), and I never miss a heal when a teammate is taking fire. Short Circuit, Thunder Strike and Power Sink all require me to be in the middle of the action, so I'm always running up in enemy faces to pound them into the ground... Again, though, I remember my heals and buffs are the primary powerset for a reason, and quickly switch out of combat mode to replenish some green or cast a buff on someone/thing.

After the teammate got to 40, we had this discussion and he placed me squarely in the Offender category. "But I defend a lot too!" I objected, "Someone has to save you from all that aggro I pull!"

Now, I've never been a number-crunching DPS min/maxer, but I know a good attack when I see one and Electrical Blast is... well, a blast. And with the incredible heal/buff support that is Defender Empathy, I can afford to be aggressive and dish out my fair share of damage in a team.

I am not primarily slotted for damage; I'm primarily slotted for heals/buffs. But my playstyle is primarily aggressive: go for the enemy first, patch up the team as needed. So I gotta ask, what constitutes an Offender? Am I one? Or am I just a Defender who likes to make a mess out of enemy HP?

Well, you're certainly not an OPTIMIZED "offender". Your Primary has no tools that enhance your damage (just your survivability, though recovery aura with hasten is awesome), and it's generally agreed that electric is a weak set for damage and proper mitigation. Especially compared to, say, a Kin/Sonic (lots of self-buffs, plus the secondary blasts debuff enemy resistance, which = moar damage)

However, if you can dive into a group and kick butt and come out on top, then yeah, I'd say you've earned the title. Whatever way you like to play that's fun, do it, and don't care about how others conduct themselves!

I think you're asking the wrong people.

If YOU think you're an Offender, then you are one. If you acknowledge that your damage matters and consider using your secondary as an important part of your job, you're an Offender.

If you can manage your responsibilities to the team, and Empathy has a lot of them, while adding to team DPS then you should proudly call yourself an offender.

Furthermore I'd rather have an offender Empath on a team over a self righteous single blast "pure healer" type. What happens when the team tank and/or controller start mitigating the majority of the damage the team takes? A "pure healer" would have less primary work to do and no secondary to fall back on while a balanced DPSing defender would still be contributing their fair share.

Plus, it's just plain fun to run in with a squishy defender and mix it up!

I agree with everyone that has responded so far.

Anyone who plays a defender and does not utilize their blasts is seriously missing out on acheiving their full potential as a defender. If you accept both of your powersets and use them to help your team, then you are a "complete" defender in my book.

Also, when you mentioned the difference between yourself and an Emp/Ice, who tended to stay back in combat, you touched on a subtle fact of Emp/Electric as a combination.
Due to short circuit being a PBAoE and how important it becomes to an Emp/Elec's overall stratgey, you are best suited to "be" in melee range. Other Empathy combinations can operate outside of melee range more easily, but even those combinations often have very powerful "melee-range" abilities that can be capitalized on. "Timid" defenders can very easily be spotted this way.

Glad to have you on board !

Offenders are complete defenders. They make sure every single fight isn't fair. Whether it's through buffing your team, or debuffing the crims, or both, every defender's job is to make sure your side's got the (unfair) advantage. Offenders complete the package by bringing on the pain!

That said, they're very different from an lolender, which I was a prime example of late last night. Team's all buffed, we pop off inspirations, and get ready to arrest some freaks. I play my traps/pistols defender like a scrapper, and so boldly goes and jumps in the middle of the pack!

Oops... forgot seekers... splat... lol... facepalm...

As far as fighting at range, as people have said, it depends on the set. On my Traps/Dark or Rad/Rad Defenders, I spend most fights constantly jumping in and out of melee range. On my Cold/Ice, there's almost nothing for me to do in melee, and my personal damage mitigation is low enough that I'm usually quite happy if I can avoid all the AoEs going off around the tank. Somebody standing at range isn't necessarily being too squeamish if they're blasting back there. A lot of the sets don't have many very good reasons at all to enter melee range.

For damage, well, you have an entire set of nothing but damage for a reason, and none of the primaries require so much attention that you shouldn't have time to throw out an attack or nineteen now and then. If a Defender isn't using those, something has gone wrong at some point.

What consitutes an offender. Anyone who wants to make themselves feel special for simply playing the defender AT to its fullest.

Don't get too caught up in semantics: the "hide behind the corner" comment was for artistic flair. It rarely happens.

I'm also aware, and even stated, that Ice Blast gives you no reason to be in melee range, so I wasn't bashing on the other Defender in any way.

It was just an odd sight for me, a Defender, always in melee range and them, a Defender, always at range. That's what got me thinking about this in the first place.

With short circuit and powersink then you should be in the thick of things at some point. I would Range/AoE def such a character. I see real offenders, they don't do much in the way of defending. To defend and do offensive things in between is still defending.

You're playing the combination of sets you chose just fine. Personally, I never would have chosen that particular combination, but it's your choice to play and you should be at least standing a little taller knowing that you're not a LOLempath. You'll hopefully never run into one of these, although you may have already -- the fact that you've taken empathy probably lowers your chances. They're the ones with every single primary skill, their first blast, EVERY first aid power pool skill, all tactics, and perpetually scream "LOL I PLAYED HEALER IN WOW!"

Have you played storm? You should play storm

The emp/ice was probably using his fancy Ice Sword and Sands of Mu, or maybe just rockin' the Aura.

I think you're in melee often cause of your experience and knowledge of your limits. PvE is pretty easy and its no fun if "there's never a threat from dying".

or maybe you're just a adrenaline junkie looking for a fix.