Defender pride: All Defender ITF


Adeon Hawkwood

 

Posted

It was in the wee hours of the morning (in my timezone!) and myself and another defender, Altered-States, had just been rejected in a call to an ITF on Virtue. So we thought: let's start our own!

And then, we thought: let's make it defenders only! Ha!

The call went out, and response was swift. We had an eight member team in less than five minutes. None of us had been on an all-defender TF team before, and none of us knew what to expect. Of course, what we should have expected was utter ownage.

Participants:
Synchrony: Kinetics/Psychic Blast/Psychic Mastery. (that's me!)
Force Gray: Force Field/Ice Blast
Winterglow: Cold Domination/Ice Blast
Altered-States: Empathy/Electrical Blast
Zippy the WonderGirl: Empathy/Radiation Blast/Electricity Mastery
Guenivere: Empathy/Energy Blast/Dark Mastery
Mishii: Empathy/Radiation Blast/Power Mastery
Freya the Huntress: Empathy/Archery/Electricity Mastery

Being cautious, we took it slowly and thoroughly. We cleaned up all our ambushes, waltzed up the hill, and generally took no prisoners. From the first encounter though, we knew that nothing was going to cause us any trouble, except perhaps for Romsie. There were mutterings about DPS and pinning him down, and other vaguely anxious murmurs.

When it came time to retake the city, we were of course a team of nine. With eight defenders, it seemed callous not to let Imperious also enjoy the fun. Of course, Imperious with force fields and a speed boost really does have a lot of fun, and again we defeated all before us (and then some.)

We accidentally aggravated Romulus before we were ready. It didn't matter. He spent most of his four lives sniveling with no endurance, when he wasn't being held outright. It was almost pitiful.

Total time? One hour 39 minutes. We could have gone a lot faster. I think we had a total of three individual defeats, mostly due to overeagerness!

Remember: Defender Pride! If no one will take you on a team because of their short-sighted prejudices, form your own! With other defenders! And be awesome.


 

Posted

I played Guenivere, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The defense, damage and to hit numbers because of so much leadership and fortitude made it a breeze.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I play mostly defenders anyway.


 

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I had a lot of fun! ^.~ Look forward to doing this again! And the Youtube video!

Our special guest will be blogging about it and writing in a special morning paper, but for now here's the link to the blog for any who want it

(he said he'll be adding the video/blog asap)
http://heroeslounge.net/blog/

More links to come!

Look forward to playing with everyone again!


Soon�

 

Posted

Oooh! How I wish I could have been there! Next time you run one of these, I would very much like to join you on my radiation emission/psychic blast defender, Warden Cancer.


Talen_Lee: Taking absorb pain is like branding 'H' on your forehead. Which stands for 'Failure'

Scarf_Girl: ever since I six slotted my Rp with cyber/emo Hami-O enhancements they haven't been able to touch me

 

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Yeah all-defender TFs are a lot of fun. I was on an all-defender ITF with three trappers and a force fielder, between that and various other defense buffs I actually ended up hitting the hard cap for Defense (175%).


 

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Hey folks!

Sorry it has taken an entire day to get this video done but thanks to the COH record gremlins, I had a much tougher time getting this all together than I originally thought I would.

In any event -- the write up about our ALL DEFENDER task force is complete and so is the highlights video. If you care to view either, they are posted here:

http://heroeslounge.net/blog/defender-pride/

Enjoy!

--- Doom Diva
aka: (Altered-States)




Global Name � @Doom Diva

 

Posted

Try all defender STF next. Easiest STF I have ever done.


"If you want to win you must not lose."
"Easiest way to turn defeat into a victory is to put on the enemy's uniform"
"Better strategic retreat than dishonorable defeat"
- Il Numero Uno (The Number One)

 

Posted

What in god's name is that song in the video? Initially irritating as sin but sooooo catchy.


Talen_Lee: Taking absorb pain is like branding 'H' on your forehead. Which stands for 'Failure'

Scarf_Girl: ever since I six slotted my Rp with cyber/emo Hami-O enhancements they haven't been able to touch me

 

Posted

Great video, Doom_Diva! WOW! You nailed it beautifully!

I propose we get together and try another TF next Thursday afternoon. Just imagine how efficiently we could do it if we weren't laughing our behinds off! Oh, wait... that was best part.

Eeek (aka Zippy the WonderGirl - the one in the red hat)

PS Can I be the tank again? I will work harder at not losing runners in trees, honest! (Er...referring to Requiem, the big chicken!)


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by _Malk_ View Post
What in god's name is that song in the video? Initially irritating as sin but sooooo catchy.
LOL, the song is called "Calypso" and has been in my audio loop library for the better part of 5 years. Since the Defender ITF victory had me all bubbly inside (I just couldn't sit still after we finished it) -- I figured this bouncy music was a good fit.

It does seem to go rather well with the "action" depicted in our run scenes, doesn't it?

Sorry it was annoying to you.




Global Name � @Doom Diva

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doom_Diva View Post
LOL, the song is called "Calypso" and has been in my audio loop library for the better part of 5 years. Since the Defender ITF victory had me all bubbly inside (I just couldn't sit still after we finished it) -- I figured this bouncy music was a good fit.

It does seem to go rather well with the "action" depicted in our run scenes, doesn't it?

Sorry it was annoying to you.
Don't apologize. It's GLORIOUS.


Talen_Lee: Taking absorb pain is like branding 'H' on your forehead. Which stands for 'Failure'

Scarf_Girl: ever since I six slotted my Rp with cyber/emo Hami-O enhancements they haven't been able to touch me

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by _eeek_ View Post
Great video, Doom_Diva! WOW! You nailed it beautifully!

I propose we get together and try another TF next Thursday afternoon. Just imagine how efficiently we could do it if we weren't laughing our behinds off! Oh, wait... that was best part.

Eeek (aka Zippy the WonderGirl - the one in the red hat)

PS Can I be the tank again? I will work harder at not losing runners in trees, honest! (Er...referring to Requiem, the big chicken!)
Thank you for your kind words regarding the video. I am glad you enjoyed it!

As for your proposal to get together for another TF -- sign me up! I had such fun with this last run... I look forward to doing it again.

YES, you can be tank again. I'll even give you fortitude too! [ROFL]




Global Name � @Doom Diva

 

Posted

Great work, Doom_Diva!
I think the music captures the spirit of the event most successfully

While I'd love to be part of the next one, in all likelihood I will be in bed pending work, as opposed to up at weird hours getting over an illness. I'll be there in spirit


 

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That sounds like a lot of fun. I joined up with a short lived all defender TF group that met weekly for a few weeks and it was awesome. I love endeavors like that. I would be willing to join you if you ever needed another.


 

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I have run into people who dont want defenders (other then one token empath) and controllers on the team.

As a rule I dont want to play with them either.


 

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Try for the 30 minute gold time.

I don't think you can do it with 5 empaths though. If you swapped out the 5 empaths with something like another kinetic, and 4 dark/rad/cold/storm I'd think you could do it.


 

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I ADORED the few times we did all-defender stuff. Our ITF included one fire blaster, but we were nice and fed her and gave her water, and in return she would nova on command.

All-Defender STFs are Very Easy mode. We just plowed through everything, and when we got to Recluse, well. It was really sort of embarassing. He couldn't even FIND us, and when he did connect with a hit, he was so debuffed and there was so much healing available that it didn't matter, even through the towers.

Good times.


I'm not the droid I'm looking for.

MA Arc ID 8121: Rapp'Mas'Ta's War. The Rikti are trying to incorporate sonic effects into their weapons? THAT can't be good. Maybe we should ask them to stop.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Savos View Post
Try for the 30 minute gold time.

I don't think you can do it with 5 empaths though. If you swapped out the 5 empaths with something like another kinetic, and 4 dark/rad/cold/storm I'd think you could do it.

We can't do it?

(Cause empaths are only tokens, or for really terrible teams?)

We CAN'T DO IT?!

(Cause we need some REAL defenders? Well, not real defenders, but, you know.... the useful ones?)

Oh, it's ON! It is SO ON!

(But um, it's not on at Thurs. afternoon since Halfflat can't make it, of course

-Zippy (the empathy/tank with the big, huge HARUMPH to go with red hat)


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Savos View Post
Try for the 30 minute gold time.

I don't think you can do it with 5 empaths though. If you swapped out the 5 empaths with something like another kinetic, and 4 dark/rad/cold/storm I'd think you could do it.
Empathy is an interesting set. It has what are probably the most powerful buffs in the game but to compensate they have a limited usage (either limited uptime or single target with long recharge). The net effect of this is that while Empathy does tend to lag behind other sets when comparing a single Empath to a single Whatever it has a network effect that other sets do not.

Stacking Empaths is actually an extremely good tactic since it allows them to increase the usage of their buffs. If a single Empath can keep Fortitude on 3 or 4 people (and the good ones can) 5 Empaths can keep 2 copies of Fortitude on an entire 8 man team as well as keeping the Auras up all the time (and double stacked most of the time). And that's before you factor in Adrenalin Boost.

At that point the only other set that really matters is the Kinetic to cap everyone's damage. Everyone is pretty much invincible anyway which limits the utility of the extra shields (they are handy since Romans have Defense debuffs, but probably not essential) and spawns will be melting so fast that debuffs can't keep up.

If I was going to trade anyone on that team it would probably be the Force Fielder. Of all the Defender sets FF is probably the one least useful on an all-defender team. Most other sets provide at least some mitigation and when you stack all of that it renders FF pretty much obsolete. If I were min-maxing I'd probably replace it with a Sonic for better layered defenses and more -res against the AV.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Savos View Post
Try for the 30 minute gold time.

I don't think you can do it with 5 empaths though. If you swapped out the 5 empaths with something like another kinetic, and 4 dark/rad/cold/storm I'd think you could do it.
This statement sounds like "fighting words".... LOL

Need I remind you what happened after the last "team leader" rejected the Empaths up for ahem.... more "DAMAGE DEALERS?"

I'll tell ya what happened -- we formed an all defender ITF where we kicked Mr. Royal Romulus and his petunias!

Seriously, we didn't have a primary dark or primary rad on the ITF team to kick some AV behind + 3 nictus in our final battle -- what makes you think we need them for Lord Recluse?

Ok Zippy, he's drawing a line in the sand. ROFL

--- Doom Diva
P.S. You're a defender -- how DARE you think you're worthy! :P




Global Name � @Doom Diva

 

Posted

I'd be happy to take my Storm/Electric defender, lvl 39, or if you are up for an honorary defender, fire/storm controller (lvl 50).

Let me know.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by _eeek_ View Post

Oh, it's ON! It is SO ON!

(But um, it's not on at Thurs. afternoon since Halfflat can't make it, of course
I agree, wait for the entire group. We had great synergy and I believe we could do the STF as well. In fact, I'm game for a 24-person all defender "Cathedral of Pain". LOL

Now THAT would be FUN!

--- Doom Diva
(The shaking sand from her feet, Empathy Defender)




Global Name � @Doom Diva

 

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speaking as the empathy/archery defender and having a need to prove that this build is a good one, to quote the honorable judge mills:


<signature fistpump> LET'S GET IT ON!