In a little bit of a quandary...(Traps/?)

I have played a few Traps/ defenders and a couple /Traps Corrs. Then I switched servers from Freedom to Virtue, and rolled up a Traps/Dark Blast defender with the thought, "Hey, I could heal myself with that ranged attack!" and totally forgot the lethargic damage output.

To put it bluntly: I love the Traps/ half of the character. Love it to little, tiny pieces. I am very unhappy with the /Dark Blast half of the equation.

I know that Defenders have offensive attacks as a secondary for a reason, I don't expect blaster-level damage output from them. But I would like to be better able to solo mobs without spending a longish amount of time setting up trip mines or a couple mortars before every pull.

I've played a Traps/Archery defender and an Archery/Traps corruptor - loved'm both, but want something new. I would prefer not to have redraw, as well, but I can live with it. I want a set that has decent mitigation, some form of control (hold or stun), and decent damage.

I've come up with builds for /DP, /Ice, /Sonic, /Rad... just not sure what I'm looking for, exactly. I'm leaning towards DP just because I never played a heck of a lot on my Cold/DP and I like the attacks and variety of secondary effects.... I've thought about AR too but I have an AR/Dev blaster from the beta and... well, she's still level 40 or so.

I'll have to delete my level 41 Traps/Dark to make something new, so here's my question for you guys: What secondaries do you use with your Traps defenders, and why? Maybe I'll get some good ideas from your personal experiences.

My Traps defender has Assault Rifle for concept. It's decent, with the safety of traps you can mow down +1x8 with no bosses to keep some momentum. No trip mines, just toss in Seekers and start planting traps before slinging cones around.

Actually, Dark blast should work very well with traps. Tenebrous tentacles to keep everything locked in your traps area, and make sure to proc everything up. I like two damage procs in Acid mortar, two in Poison gas trap, at least one in both Tenebrous Tentacles and Night Fall aside from the standard damage slotting. With Tenebrous you could even toss a couple damage procs into Caltrops and chuckle as free damage ticks in every 10 seconds without stuff being able to try to run out of the patch.

I've procced up my Traps and it's quite noticable since every proc that triggers does the damage of a well-slotted tier 1 defender blast. As I find it for Defenders, Chance for x Damage actually gives you a chance to deal damage together with the Vigilance change that helped somewhat.

To add to what Evilmeister said -- you can put 2 damage procs in Caltrops ... and have stacked patches. Traps / dark can chug out a holy crapton of proc damage because you can nail mobs in place with Tentacles.

FWIW, Dark's AoE damage with a few global recharge bonuses is close to the top of what defenders can achieve. It's dark's limited ST damage that cheeses me -- it trades off a third, heavy-hitting ST attack (like Cosmic Burst) for some extra utility.

Also ...

The -ToHit of /dark stacks with FFG.

It's a powerful combination, but needs, IME, some IO abuse to really shine.

And, uhhh, you can solo some 8 person maps (*cough*BM*cough*) with a Traps / Dark.

I have a Bots/Traps MM, don't really play it because in every game I've ever played I have hated managing pets. Heck, on my Controllers & Doms I barely ever summon the t9 pets because even though I don't have to manage them they tend to run off and aggro completely different mobs.

I can solo 0/8 regular missions on traps/rad defender. It does go slow, but mine is there to speed things up.

I have a Traps/AR and a Thugs/Traps so I think I can add a little input.

I would go with DP it's great for PbaoE dmg and great for AOE dmg. You'll get them before they can run away from your traps.

Sonic would be great for mowing down mobs...also I would think it would be super safe with it's sleep. Also Sonic for defenders is the most damage you can get no?

Unfortunately, Sonic blast has pretty poor AoE damage and Traps will easily break the sleep with both Acid mortar and Caltrops being DoT's. While the Sonic blast set does elevate single target damage readily and AoE damage for teams, I personally wouldn't consider it the go-to set for soloing large groups. Anything with *two* decent damage AoE's will do it better; Dark blast has the advantage of being able to immobilize spawns in the Traps area with one of the two cones the set brings. However, both Sonic blast and Dark blast can only fit 10 targets within their cones.

Dual pistols is also nice, since you can go for 5x Positron's blast (including proc) together with another proc in both Empty Clips and Bullet Rain, together with Obliteration (including proc) and Scirocco's dervish proc in a fast-recharging no-crash nuke. Still, your staple attacks up for every spawn includes a 10-target cone and the better 16-target Bullet Rain.

To get more targets in the fast-recharging AoE powers I'd go Electrical blast, 5x Positron's blast (including proc) together with Javelin volley proc and Short circuit with 5x Armageddon (again including proc) together with either Scirocco's dervish proc or Gladiator's Fury, if you want to add a chance for -Resistance. That's two 16-target AoE's ready to go very often in a recharge-intensive build that would benefit your primary as well.

Basically, it boils down to how you like to play. I can only say that during my time going with Traps/Assault Rifle to 50 and still *at* 50, I've often wanted to have Dark Blast instead. Much less resisted damage type, a great damage/immobilize power and two cones with a low base recharge that can take two or more procs each.

I'd say stick with the character, try to get some proc's and don't pull the enemies - that can potentially waste precious proc's on just a couple of enemies of a full x8 spawn just because they happened to get close first. Just toss in seekers in the middle of a spawn and follow shortly after yourself with a proc'ed Acid mortar, drop the proc'ed Poison gas trap directly and jump out for proc'ed out tenebrous/caltrops/night fall/tenebrous - the enemies should just melt away before you.

Def the sleep will be broken with Mortar but that's ok. The sleep is good for going in there and toe-bombing or throwing down poison trap safely. The cone isn't bad if you can get them to stay in one spot...that's when caltrops comes in handy. Also I have Mortar and Poison Trap slotted for extra hold so most of the time stuff stays put!

Also it's nice to see the dmg increase as the sonic attacks stack.

I have an insanely fun traps/dp fender, soft capped def, good amount of rech, damage is fair even if some of the animations are a bit long, can solo quite easily

I just started up a Traps/Sonic at 24 now and in love with it. Haven't played him solo but been running on teams and mowing down mobs. Its great to run in drop traps hop back out and blast. I have the cone attack recharging fast to help beef up the damage on the team.

I don't have to worry about mobs running away due to my holds and theres usually a troller on the team keep them in place. The single targets are nice to help debuff boss's, the damage output isn't a big deal to me since I'm on a defender anyway, I just know that I can survive and keep the team alive and can whittle down mobs if I need too.

Well, I made the Traps/DP but decided against deleting the Traps/Dark for now... my WP tank bit the big one instead. So far the Traps/DP is level 30 or 31 and it is pretty fun. I can't wait for my t9 in Dual Pistols.

I think Sonic Deals nice dmg. Esp on Corrs and Blasters.

Has anyone tried traps/psychic blast? Could be a hoot...

I guess you could always roll a traps/archery defender. It'd be like having all (well, most...no Oil Slick Arrow )) the fun of trick arrow, but with better debuff values.

I've made a Archery/Traps before. It was a hoot.

Set your traps. Unleash RoA wait for them to come to you and get pwnd...then hit RoA again along with your other Attacks.

Move on. So fun.