Defense in DP/Hail of Bullets

You are correct. It is only positional defense.

The powers that were modified were either ally buffs or pool powers. These powers were modified to make them useful to anyone and everyone. Hail of Bullets isn't an ally buff or a pool power so there is no reason for it to be a general defense buff. The reason why it got positional rather than typed defense is because positional defense represents dodging while typed defense represents deflection. Hail of Bullets causes you to flail around like crazy which means that you're dodging attacks rather than deflecting them.

But ally buffs were always useful just were different in usefulness depending on what the target already had available. In this case the only real defense a blaster has available is coming from the Epic Pools and are either Frozen Armor or Scorpion Shield both of which have no positional component. Doesn't seem to be desirable for the defense in Hail of bullets to have zero effect on a large number of incoming attacks (smashing/lethal) for players with those pools compared to players with any of the other pools. Straight porting might be too much because of how stacking works but something like 5% typed defense doesn't seem unreasonable.

Not really. Consider how useful the FF buffs would be to an SR or Shield Scrapper if they were typed. Because only the highest of typed or positional is used, FF would be virtually useless to a positional defense user so the defense is generalized to make it useful to anyone and everyone.

Those are APP powers. Just because you can get APP defense buffs that are typed does not mean that any thematic +def efffect that you get (and, yes, the HoB buff is thematic) should provide some modicum of typed defense as well.

You're also ignoring the fact that there is a thematic definition to typed and positional defense. Typed defense is reserved for effects that are intended to represent an incoming blow bouncing off of you harmlessly while positional defense is intended to represent dodging an incoming blow. The Hail of Bullets dance isn't going to have attacks bouncing off of you harmlessly just like SR isn't going to suddenly manifest typed defense either.

You can try to argue "but it wouldn't hurt" all you want, but the devs have been pretty steadfast with their position on native defense buffs compared to external defense buffs: native defense buffs are specific because they're your baseline while external defense buffs are general because they're expected to modify the baseline regardless of what that baseline operates off of.

I remember that - it sucked. Certain combinations were virtually useless which is exactly what happens if a DP player chooses a defensive armor that is available to him.

While this 'might' have been the original intent I believe that this is definitively not set in stone:
* To address the ally-buff issue avoidance type buffs now include deflection type defense and vice versa
* Devices/Cloaking Device which is thematically an avoidance power provides Def(All) - presumably for balance reasons

Now I agree that thematically the 'dance' would be avoidance but I do believe that is not at all why the power got +Def added. Checking through the beta boards it is pretty clear that the power was problematic due to being a long animating PBAoE 'nuke'. This wasn't an 'oh that is cool' option, it seems that the power needed buffing. The avoidance buff fitted the bill but I'm pretty convinced that it was an oversight that this effectively provides zero benefit to players who chose defensive APPs.

As I said, I believe this issue to be an oversight since no AT has defensive options inherently available to the AT that don't mesh.

I can tell you right now that it wasn't an oversight by the devs because Castle explicitly stated that it was given only positional defense for the exact reasons I've given you. What I've told you has been paraphrased versions of exactly what Castle said on the subject when it was brought up.

And yet it's not even close to the same thing. The FF bubbles are external buffs that another player applies to you. The APP armors are powers that you apply to yourself. The external buff has to apply to everything to make it useful. The internal buff assumes that it will be useful because you have control over what you will have. The only powers that apply to yourself that are intended to be generally applicable are those powers that can be taken by anyone (CJ, Stealth, etc). Just because you can take it doesn't mean that it's supposed to be able to stack with anything you could possibly take.

Cloaking Device provides typed and positional defense because all stealth powers provide both typed and positional defense. If you pay attention, you'll also notice that it's largely a token amount of +def (the same as CJ, if you're curious). 1.75% +def is hardly the same as 9.75%.

Actually, it doesn't provide "zero benefit". Frozen Armor and Scorpion Shield provide +def(s/l) (Scorpion Shield provides a small amount of energy as well). Unless you never plan on being attacked by attacks that aren't smash/lethal (of which there are plenty), you're going to get some benefit from HoB's +def because you're getting the full positional suite while you're only getting 2 of the 7 powers for the typed suite.

You can only get away with saying that because the only ATs that get APP shields are those sets that don't already have an existing defense structure within the confines of their AT. Do you honestly believe that if Scrappers ever got Scorpion Shield in Mace Mastery that it would somehow magically become more than just +def(s/l/e)? Just because you can get one specific variety of defense from a power in an APP does not mean that a power that provides some amount of defense should be made general to accommodate.

It is not an oversight. It was a choice. Castle is well aware that it does not stack with the APP armors in its current form.

It would be more appropriate (although not entirely appropriate) to argue that the APPs should not be designed in a way that cannot stack.

Pool powers and team and ally buffs should be useful to everyone, no matter the primary/secondary of the target, which is why they are made to stack with everything. Powers inside primaries and secondaries are designed to do what they do and do not need to cover everything (thus why HoB does not need to have defense all).

In the APPs Shadow Meld was made to stack with everything. Frozen Armor and Scorpion Shield (and maybe Rock armor someday) were not. Until HoB got defense, that discrepancy did not matter. I think the devs pretty much decided that in this case just using whichever is better rather than needing to worry about it stacking was the way to go.

The precedent now is that APP powers are like primary and secondary powers, they do what they do, irregardless of stacking. Was Shadow Meld made to be Defense to all with stacking in mind or just because the concept of the power or maybe both were considered?

The interesting question is how will they handle the balance concern if they ever decide to give the ATs with Blast sets an APP with a shield that does grant range, aoe, and/or melee defense (I am betting they handle it by never making that APP, which is a shame, because a MA secondary for blasters and a SR type APP would be pretty cool)?