Going to make my first Defender

Along with what Malk said, there is also a huge stigma with advertising yourself as a 'healer'. A good amount of players (myself included) will automatically assume that you're going to put your heal on auto-fire, pass out a couple of buffs here and there, and in general be nothing but a leech. Regardless as to whether the person plays like that or not, I've given up on 'h3al0r roulette'.

Empathy has the most heals if that's what you are hell bent on. If DPS doesn't matter, than a Ill/emp controller is going to be your ideal. Red side could use more Phant anyway.

Honestly my favorite defender to play is my Dark/Rad/Psi with the full set of leaderships.

buffs: Healing, +defense, +resistance, +stealth, +to-hit, +perception, +damage

debuffs: -regeneration, -to-hit, -defense, -damage, -resistance, -speed, -fly, -recharge

Mez: stun/disorient, confuse, hold, fear, sleep

and I have one of the best resurrection powers in the game which also happens to be one of my favorite debuff powers in the game! (howling twilight is a massive debuff to the opponent, and can rez any teammate within a certain radius of your character). Actually, if one went Dark/*/Dark, then one could also have a self rez! Team wipe? no problem. Stand back up stunning the enemies around you, then use one to rez the rest of your team.

Thanks for all the input. I went Controller since it was what I was describing. So far I have 2 now one is 22 the other is 32.

I still may roll a defender...maybe. Just cant figure out what kind. Corrupters I have plenty of...so defender doesn't seem to be something worth rolling ...

Am i wrong to think a defender is the Corrupter with a flip in primary/secondary ..? Doesn't sound like much to use to me if I already have a corrupter (about 4 of them to be honest)

It doesn't get much better than the /Dark corruptor you already have for good DPS without compromising support. Dark Miasma is really just that good.

I plan on rolling a Dark/Psi defender soon. Slightly longer fear durations than the corruptor version, slightly better slows and debuffs overall, and best of all, the CoH launch version of Psi Blast except faster animation times. Nothing like that rubbish blaster primary.

If you still can't decide, try approaching defenders from the other side. Pick one of the following secondary sets you like: Sonic, Psi, Dark, or Ice. Defenders bring nastier debuffs, slower slows, and longer lasting mezzes, compared to other archetypes with these sets. Pair it with a primary that synergizes well, and you're good to go.

Why are people on defender board suggesting people to make controllers or corruptors?

I love playing support, and have so far 7 defenders, 6 controllers and 5 corruptors. But if someone is asking which defender to make on defender board, give him/her advice about defender. Same goes for corruptor or controllers.

Reason to play defender over corruptor (or controller) is that you get your buffs/debuffs much earlier in the game. If you are not planing to skip first 38 levels you can see how useful is that.

My newest projects for Praetoria is Traps/Dp. I have chosen defender because, even if I am loosing some damage, I get FFG on level 8 (+defense and mez protection), Poison Trap on level 12 and Seeker Drones on 18. On corruptor I would get Poison Trap on level 22, when I already leave Praetoria (I always get stamina on 20). Also slotted with level 15 IO's I can already have AM and PT ready for every group of enemies.

On higher levels it is easier to softcap defense to all but Psi on traps defender then on corruptor, since defender get higher defense numbers (and now we can also get scorpion shield ).

Also even if you can't rely on endurance discount, you will still get it in teams. There is always someone who is not paying attention, or trying to solo or some unlucky hit that went through defense, someone goes AFK in mission with ambush - and no mater how good you are doing your job, you will get endurance discount.

Oh, almost forgot, I'm suggesting you to try Traps/? (the most people say that sonic is best as secondary since slotted it can solo AV's and GM's).