Aggresive Defenders

I've had CoX for over 5 years now and can honestly say I am a true addict and I had tried most ATs with the exception of the Defender. This is because I fell into that oh so familiar trap that Defenders are support class only and cannot solo and should only be there to heal.... blah blah blah.... well you all know that old chestnut!

How wrong I was!!! About six months ago I made my first Defender - she was Storm/Archery and I love playing her. I dont team alot so I like to ramp up the difficulty a bit and just charge in where Angels fear to tread letting off all my storm powers and nothing is more satisfying than Freezing Rain and Rain of Arrows!

So I decided to make another Fender - he is TA/A (I like Archery, what can I say?#. He is only level 8 so far but already decided that he can fit in well with my own play style. I'm already looking forward to Disruptor Arrow + Acid Arrow + Oil Slick + Blazing Arrow #and I may even chuck in RoA in at the end just for the sheer hell of it!)

You've probably gathered that I like to play a defender aggresively! None of this sit at the back and heal and buff the team. I want to kill things! In fact I want to kill lots of things... on my own.... without a tank... without anyone in fact!

So given that I want to play solo alot and given the above two examples, what is the most aggresive, chaotic form of defender out there? It doesnt have to be Archery - I just happen to like that particular set. For example, I was looking at Nrg which could be fun. Especially with Storm - lots of knockback and real chaos cant be bad can it!

By the way I do occasionally team but would like to think I am mature enough to temper my playstyle somewhat so I am not p*****g everyone off

I guess it depends on how squishy you want to be and how much damage you want to deal out. The most ridiculously powerful Defender I have played for damage was a Kin/Energy blast, but I know that a Kin/Ice would be even more destructive while getting a good dose of defense from "holds" and "slows" (like energy gets from KB).

If you are looking for more Defensive, but still crazy fun, I think you have already seen what storm can do, so Dark and Rad are like book-ends to Storm. Dark being less damage but ALOT more defense and control, while Rad is less survivable than Dark, but ALOT faster on the DPS front.

So, lots of choices there, but maybe try:

Kin-Ice
Storm-Ice
Rad-Ice
Dark-Ice

and just for Fun try:

Kin-Energy

Although you can pair Energy Blast with Storm, Rad or Dark, I have not been happy with the synergies for these pairing personally. But every person has different tastes

I'd give a nod to these sets:

Cold/Sonic -- biggest resistance debuffs in the game, things will melt.
Rad/Sonic -- Similar to Cold/Sonic. Blooms earlier, but not as potent in the end. Can be more survivable.
Kin/Archery or Kin/Rad -- straight damage

A nod to Traps also because of how laughably easy it is to softcap defenses.

I'll say it again... Kinetics/Dark. Even with a crappy build, with about 20% positional defense (Maneuvers or Combat Jumping + Hover and a couple IO bonuses), you'll be nigh untouchable by any reasonable enemy, and have two heals, for when the fecal matter interacts with the oscillator. It likely won't do any AV soloing or anything (short of a really good build with all the right IO's, which I have yet to come up with), but it works fairly well for your average radio mission soloing, and can hold it's own against GM's.

Most of my defenders I play thrive in the middle of battle. My first 50 was a Storm/Rad defender.

Other aggressive builds are:

Storm/DP
Dark/DP works well, too. The crashless DP mininuke with 2 other good AoEs is top drawer.
Dark/Ice (Ice storm and blizzard on a tar patch leaves VERY FEW survivors)
Storm/Ice, rain rain rain them away.
Cold/sonic - this guy is super flexible. You have great shields for the team, but the debuffs are staggering.
Traps/Dark - surprisingly deadly. The dark helps debuff what little aspect is not completely dominated by traps.

Storm/en wins most chaotic. Probably any debuff set paired with /sonic, or /ice will let you be the most aggressive.

One weird thing with Storm Defenders -- Hurricane tends to scatter enemies radially away from you, making it tricky to keep a lot of foes debuffed (you can do it but you have to move around a lot unless you have good terrain).

However, one foe goes straight back from Hurricane and there's no one else for him to be forced away from. So Hurricane completely owns any solo enemy who's not an AV. Even a mid- or lowish-level Storm Defender who has trouble with medium-sized spawns will totally dominate lone bosses. As soon as I get Hurricane, I like to go looking for them (Steel Canyon has a lot of solo Outcast bosses running around in the teens, for example). It's great fun to throw a red Lead Scorcher around and have him completely in your power. My Storm defenders are always on the lookout for single powerful enemies.

Traps
Traps
Traps
Traps

I would say it's the best overall Defender for soloing. You get a combination of strong defenses, some limited control, the ability to take the alpha strike with no health loss and a very nice resistance debuff.

Trick arrow/Dual pistols! DO IT NAO!

After seeing other responses, I have to add my vote in there for a Kin/Sonic or a Rad/Sonic as a ridiculously powerful combination. I have not played Sonic blast very much, so had a brain-fade on it.

Hmmm, May have to try one of these two msyelf

Dark/dark defender
Nothings better than running up to a spawn and hitting fearsome stare, they all quiver in fear.
Its a totally aggressive playstyle.
With solid enough AoE to defeat large spawns rapidily enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

Sonic is always the best choice of Secondary when going for pure, in your face damage. I'm going to damage you! And then I'm going to make it so when I damage you again I will do even MORE damage!"

Rad, Storm, TA and Traps are all good, strong debuffing soloable sets. TA is really nothing but debuffs, you don't do anything to teammates, it's all indirect because of what you're doing to the bad guys. Traps is excellent for sneaking around and laying down psuedo-pets that you can draw your foes into, but personally I prefer it for Masterminds, because of the synergy of laying down traps while your henchmen do all the work. There's just something about luring foes into a minefield that never gets old, though.

Rad's strength is in its balance. It isn't as active or aggressive as TA or Storm (nothing beats Storm for pure knockback chaos) but it gives you very strong offense while still building up your defense with a combination of both buffs and debuffs. It has a little bit of everything, which is what makes it so good. It can be somewhat irritating get used to choosing the right anchors for a given spawn, though, particularly when your teammates keep killing them. TA's somewhat better for that as its debuffs are fire and forget.

I love my Rad/rad defender, and my rad/dark blast defender, too. I play very aggressive with Rad defender's six slotting choking cloud with lockdown proc, dmg procs from other hold sets. If it's ready EM Pulse is a terrific tool to soften up a spawn, along with the choking cloud follow-up, so very many targets are held. Then it's toggle time and whittle them down as endurance allows. Maximum recharge on accelerated metabolism is coupled with this strategy and having a back up source of end recovery in conserve power or power sink are very helpful.

It's a mezz or be mezzed world, so pouncing with combat tp or superspeed or alternative corner pulls so that choking cloud is a factor ASAP are much to be desired.

Sonic Blast is the best set overall, due to the stacking -Res debuffs. It boosts damage in this way more than most primaries do.

Its an even better solo set due to Siren's Song - a perma-out-of-the box AOE Sleep.

For a primary, pair it with Kinetics for most damage. You can also use Siphon Power/Speed, Fulcrum, Transfusion and Transference on slept enemies without waking them up.

Finally, the -Res amplifies the damage debuffs of Kinetics. Its win all round with this combo.

A lot depends on what you want to do.

For a primary Storm is nice, but really only shines with an AoE immob to allow you to herdcane. That means either going with a Dark Secondary or waiting until 41 and going with Scorpion's patron pool for its AoE immob.

I recently ran both an Traps/Ice and a Traps/Sonic up to 50. The Ice is the best overall big mob killer I've run (that's not a scrapper or brute built for it). Currently I'm running him on +2/8 with absolutely no issues. I've teamed with scrappers who are amazed at the damage I put out.

The Traps/Sonic does better with lower numbers of heavy targets and can solo AVs, something I have trouble doing with my Ice. However, it is definitely not as good as my Ice with groups. The combo of slows in Ice Storm and Caltrops (preceeded by a Soul Drain) keeps mobs from scattering long enough for you to drop Acid Mortar, PGT, and a Trip Mine, which typically, along with ample damage procs in Acid Mortar and Caltrops, finishes the job.

I've run a Storm/Dark up and it doesn't nearly move as quickly as my Traps/Ice. I'm currenty leveling a Storm/AR that I think may get close after I get to 41 for an AoE immob. The thought of herdcaning into a corner and opening up with Ignite, Full Auto and Flame Thrower gets me going

It's funny. I have only played COX for 6 months now so I don't have nearly the experience as many here but when I first started, after trying a few different styles of play, I always fell back to my Storm/Dark Defender. It still is my favorite combination because I disliked being in the background and worried about a team since I solo quite a bit and wanted to be both slightly chaotic, aggressive but be able to control the mob placement when I needed to. I also prefer hover during combat so I can see what I am working.

The great thing about Storm Dark is the opening move, properly IO'ed, can devastate by throwing down Freezing rain, Holding them in with Tentacles while staying on the outside herding with hurricane and shooting randomly within the group. Dark compliments storm surprisingly well overall.