Is there any type of defender I might like?

So, I've never given a ton of play to defenders. I once got a Rad/rad to 33 but deleted it and I've never even really tried before for various reasons. I come to the defender forums to ask the defender gurus if there might be a defender combo I could possibly enjoy given my playstyle.

My playstyle: I like to have the option of soloing efficently.. I don't exclusively solo but I like to be able to know that if I can't find a team, I'll still be able to complete my own stuff and level alone. By efficently I mean being able to do it on base difficulty without dying numerous times to most enemies, and without taking like a half hour for a simple radio mission.

Most of my characters are scrappers, brutes, or tanks and I like to move at a decent pace. I don't like standing around setting things up or praying I won't die every spawn. I don't like having to manage tons of things constantly (mainly anchors in this case. I don't mind watching players status and casting buffs. I dislike having to recast debuffs 7 times a fight because my anchor keeps dying.)

I've tried the following somewhat relevant to this topic character choices.

Rad/rad defender: Tried this and eventually deleted because it just wasn't fun. I was alright solo but it was incredibly slow. I actually felt like my attacks did nothing at all and were like tossing wet noodles at enemies even when they were debuffed to the gills. On teams the constant managing of my anchors for my debuffs made me want to pull my hair out. I just couldn't enjoy the character in any aspect of play.

Cold/Ice defender: I don't remember alot of this character so I can't say why I deleted it.

Fire/storm corruptor: Well defenders don't have fire blast but this character was fun but shelved due to the incredible end suckage of the combo.

Grav/kin controller: I took this one to 50. I disliked being an SBot on teams but I felt useful on teams and not helpless solo. It was one of my best characters and I still enjoy it.

AR/Dark corruptor: I also enjoyed this character but lost some interest. The sets just seemed to mesh well together when I tried.


So yeah. I'm just sick ofplaying brutes, scrappers, and tanks and really want to try an AT like defender. But I don't want to constantly make a character, get to 20, hate it, delete, rinse and repeat. So I come to ask the defender players if they have any idea, given what I've said of my playstyle and preferences, if there are any defender power combos that would be fun to a player like me?

Well my first love is scrappers, but my second is probably defs, although I have a couple tanks, but more to just have one available really than to play a lot.

My first def was a kin/psy, which i made because I so enjoyed having sb on me that I made one. Years later I never play it, but still have it around.

They def that is currently my IO project, 2nd incarnate, and toon I enjoy playin 2nd to my main (ma/sr) is a cold/rad def. Yes, you do have to buff, but it lasts 4 minutes, not 90 sec (or whatever) sb is. sleet is the biggest debuff, and its a patch not a rooted one. Snowstorm is rooted, half the colds do'nt take it i think, I take it, one slot for end, and usually only put it on AVs/GMs.

You might like FF, as its the same duration buffing as cold, and it has mez resist which most defs dont.

My cold/rad leaves plenty of time to blast. Buff up before groups, or during after sleet is down, then can blast and debuff the rest of the time. Benumb and infridigate I only use on AVs, or bosses if fighting +3/4s. On normal ITFs, for example, the bosses die to fast to really debuff in my opionion, other than sleet of course.

Maybe a fire/cold corruptor would be ur style. It would be late blooming I would think, but your end issues will totally disappear (spelling?) when you get Heat loss and some recharge bonuses. Fire blast is a real fun set. Your debuff numbers and def boosts won't be as high on a corr, and your cold powers come later, but maybe thats an option.

Or a cold/elec, as /elec has more melee based powers, or pbaoe. Although /rad has some I just don't take them. My cold/rad can solo 0/1 very easy and fairly quick. I posted his build recently as well, softcapped s/l/e/ranged and fairly close to perma hasten with new very rare alpha is available. Haven't played him too much since pimpin him out, but can definatly notice the added defense, which reminds me of playin a scrapper and not a blaster, in that im not afraid to get a lil aggro, and don't die after a few hits

Dark/Sonic will keep you alive and the debuff of /sonic boosts your damage rather a lot so you don't get bogged down spending an hour grinding a lieutenant down. Once you hit the 20's and pick up aoe controls, easy mode turns on for soloing.

As for toggles, just put them on the most dangerous target and don't worry if the anchor goes down. By the time it does, the mob is usually all but wiped out and the debuffs don't vanish instantly. I tend to use them more to blunt alpha strikes. When solo it's even easier since you can tag a minion and proceed to ignore them until it's time to move on or even just drag them on into the next fight to debuff anything that gets into melee range.

Try either dark or traps as your primary and pair either with dark blast. A traps/dark is hilarious good fun to play and has ridiculous survivability for a support class. You mentioned you don't like sitting around setting things up, so just be more aggressive with how you set your traps. Summon the FFG, hop in, set PGT, hop out, trap 'em with tenebrous tentacles, lay down your 'trops and acid mortar, and start blasting away. It's good times. I run mine on 0/7 currently and I have no problems.

Traps supports a very aggressive playstyle quite well. It works best when you have something along to absorb the initial agro, be it pets or a scrapper but basically set up the mortar on the edge of a group, jump in to toe bomb with a poison gas trap and go to town. It isn't like /devices where summons have animations several seconds long. As a defender you'll have most of the fun toys by the time you hit SO levels so it shouldn't be difficult to see if you like it or not before you put serious resources into it.

Well, I'm not recommending a defender because the damage modifier (even of /Sonic) will not fit your bill. Soloing a defender feels slow and is slow even with the new solo modifier.

If you had trouble with end suckage on a Corr, you will dislike the end suckage on a defender. Defender DPE is pretty bad.

From your described play style a Dominator maybe more suitable. It has a nice mix of controls, melee, and ranged attacks. End management can be a problem in the early to mid levels and you will always be starved for enhancement slots. Most non-plant/ doms tend to start out a bit slow but really make up for it in the late 30s early 40s.

Plant/ or Mind/ are good doms to start out on.

I don't think I've ever had end issues on a def while teaming, and solo on my cold you get heat loss, and some primaries have similiar effects. Defenders are the most end friendly toons out there.

I second Traps.

Traps plus AOE Attack powers. I have Traps AR and its pretty great. Defense Cap Alpha slotted for Damage, the rare alpha works well with the other powers and effects Traps offers. Solo with Vigilance working your really pumping out some numbers. Pick up Power sink and now your defense capped dealing some nice aoe damage, lockdown proc in poison trap holds whatever poison missed, so you can have 6 or 7 mobs held and on top when your running low on endurance hit power sink and drain the remaining mobs to fill your endurance bar. So the only inspirations you need might be reds to even increase your DPS even higher.

Without a doubt its one of my coolest Traps builds I have. I have a Traps Robot MM, Traps Demon MM, and a Sonic Traps corruptor. But Traps AR Defender is great for any mission any time.

I might consider also Archery because ROA and Explosive arrow can be done on PBAOE where as Full auto and flamethrower need some range for the cone to give some dps and ignite causes mobs to run away. I can see you dropping trip mine, ROA, Explosive Arrow let mobs rush in on you get blown up and then fire off Explosive arrow on the rest of the mobs on top of you.

Matter of fact I might make a Corruptor this way.

i would strongly recommend dark/ice or dark/dark. dark miasma alone is amazing and those 2 secondaries give some extra mitigation and do respectable damage for a defender. rad blast is also not a bad option

here's the biggest reasons why dark is nice..
-1 anchored toggle, and its amazing
-built in stealth via shadow fall
-can heal itself
-fluffy is one of the best pets in the game imo
-howling twilight is the games only aoe rez for teams..AND its a massive debuff(great opening power for soloing)
-basically every power(except black hole) is great for teams and still very useful for soloing


i like dark blast b/c its not commonly resisted and the extra -tohit adds up. plus stack dark pit on top of HT to neuter any retaliation from mobs while you set up tar patch and darkest night..then keep them there with tentacles

ice is just awesome ST damage and you can effectively handle most anything thrown your way b/c you have access to 3 holds total. also tar patch + ice storm = awesome

Another shout out for traps / dark -- the ToHit debuff in dark blast stacks with the +def of Force Field Generator. And you get decent hold / stun / immob protection in FFG as a bonus.

You can pad your damage with some cheap damage procs thrown into Caltrop and Poison Gas Trap.

It's not a particularly end-intensive set, so it's easy enough to run Tactics + Assault, bumping up your offensive output. And Assault stacks with the inherent damage bonus while soloing.

Throw in Acid Mortar's resistance debuff (you can also add a -resistance proc to AM), and you're looking at very solid damage.

FWIW, my Traps / Dark was soloing 8 person spawns from the high 20s or low 30s. And even some nasty groups, like Malta, Carnies, and Arachnos aren't all that bad on her.

Cold/Sonic is very solo-friendly to me. Yes, I mostly do single-target damage - but I do it pretty much safely.

I used to use Siren's Song to put a mob to sleep, then stun one and kill it, rinse and repeat. Now I just run in, Sleet, and toast each mob in succession. It's only slightly less safe, but much faster.


Traps/* is fairly solo-friendly. I have a Traps/DP at 40 now, going villain for the patron when I hit 41 I think. It's not terribly fast but that's because I didn't slot my attacks as much as I probably should have. It's really fun on teams, especially on respecs where I just wipe entire waves of enemies with trip mines on the doors

If being able to solo effectively is your goal, I think you might like a Sonic/Radiation Defender for the following reasons:

-Siren's Song is the single most solo-friendly power of any blast set. It's wide cone allows you to almost always put all of the lieutenants and minions in a mob to sleep. Since you can set your difficulty to prevent bosses from spawning when solo, you're essentially able to put anything short of an EB to sleep on your map, and then take each enemy down at your leisure.
-Sonic Blast's resistance debuffs are very impressive for a defender. A power like Howl has a noticeable effect on a group of enemies.
-Radiation Emission's anchor debuffs, which can be such a pain to keep up on teams, is very simple to use solo. Not only that, but practice in using it solo will dramatically increase your survivability and damage.
-EMPulse. 'Nuff said.
-Accelerated Metabolism, Ditto.
-You have your own heal, which is nice for the few times when you -do- take damage.

Now I don't have any video or forum confirmation, but I think this is a confirmed AV killing build, also.

Now I admit to having a HUGE preference towards /Sonic Defenders because of Siren's Song and its -Resistance debuffs, plus the unique look of Sonic Blasts. This is why I'm also suggesting a Traps/Sonic Defender.

Traps/Sonic is chock full of solo friendly powers, and it just LOOKS cool. Siren's Song is a great compliment to the traps set, putting enemies out like a light while you throw down Poison Trap, one of your two mine powers, or an acid mortar. All the while, you're solidly protected by Force Field Generator. Solo becomes a twisted game of "how much can I torture the enemies before they drop?"

Currently mine is at level 36. My personal favorite cruelty to inflict is to throw down several Trip Mines in one place, a few feet away from a group of enemies who have been put to sleep by Siren's Song. Immediately after doing so, I move over and use Shockwave on the group, knocking them ONTO the mines, which then detonate in fiery, enemy-consuming explosion. Rubbing your hands and cackling is optional.

All of these are fun options. All you ave to remeber with a soloing defender is.

Can I manage a boss while solo?

Folks will say that this blast or that blast type has better AoE... blah blah blah. On a defender it's not the minions that will be your pitb (pain in the butt). It's hard targets. On a cor it doesn't hurt as much cause of Scourge. On a Defender you want -damage resistance somewhere and - regen if you can. Also being able to Mez the boss is nice. It's absolutely needed if you lack enough of the other two debuffs I just mentioned to have the boss melt. The only excetion to this being fulcrum shift and even so the set that has that is debuffing the heck outa that boss anyway. Pretty sure it applies a healthy... or rather unhealthy dose of -regen.

to that end.

Be sure you have

-damage resist
and or -regen

Single target (multi even nicer) stacking mez of some sort... even if it's self stacking with 2 applications.

Traps is excellent if you think you want a force field theme but since it lacks a mez or mez stacking component I'd say pick your blast carefuly. Mind you any such hole can be fixed when you hit 41 (when the bosses that really need that kind of treatment start showing up).

If you want force field set though and want to solo withought going insane... speedwise Sonic blast. Any other blast and you better hope you picked one that can mez "the boss" while you whittle it slowly to death.

Dark Miasma has the advantage of being very debuffy (has both solo friendly damage increasing debuffs) and a host of soft controls and one hard one, potent enough that it even keeps a fire blasting corruptor safe and Masterminds were romping about not too long ago, at least decently with it with and a mere 3 pistol attacks, with zero pets... before we got Dual Pistols of course. Now I presume those people might feel rather silly.

Rad and cold debuff foes well enough that they kinda melt anyway.... Pick whatever peashooter you want. I would still advise safety of something that can mez a boss... but whatever you like.

Side note... Both Rad and Cold can hurt a target's defence badly enough that even in early levels you can happily craft a bunch of temp powers like the stun nades and extra damage stuff, and vet temp your heart out and be fairly certain those blows will land consistently. Rad can do this to a whole pack though, so it wins in that department.

A dubuffin Defender plays much like a cor that doesn't have scourge but now has a higher base damage (when solo) and better debuff's. Is it enough that that I would make a Dark/Whatever vs a Whatever/Dark? I don't realy know. I have lots of both and the Dark/Fire is the most insane soloer despite lesser heal/debuff... I find it's enough. I think with something like Traps where the differences might be more noticeable...

I am tinkering with a theme Traps/Archer that I made just for the 2X exp weekend (got it to 22 and still did his 3 early banks and 2 real contacts... hehe) and his debuffs are sweet and even with just SO's hes got 20% ish defence to all. His blasts are really stinkeroo though, except fistful and fire arrow thingy. So it's "tactics" running to hit stuff with crafted temps and vet-temps seeing it through. Would a cor have been better and at least scourge with those first two blasts? I wager not by much... Would this Defender version suck leveling 1-22 withought leadership pool and massive.. I mean MASSIVE use of vet temps and crafted temps? An absolutely and resounding yes to that.

Anyway, I've blathered too long.

Enjoy! They can be fun. Just make sure you can handle those late game bosses one way or another... preferably all three. Debuff/Mez/Damage.

Another AT that might fit the bill that hasn't been mentioned is a Fortunata:
Mez protection
Good defence
Good damage
Single target blasts
AoE blasts
Single target control
AoE control
Single target melee attacks
AoE melee attacks

Certainly worth considering.

Try Sonic/Sonic

Sonic Resonance is one of the funnest sets to play, due to its passive support giving you more time to blast.

Sonic Blast is arguably the most efficient blast set available to defenders, but some are put off by its animations and sounds. It fits thematically with Sonic Resonance however.

Cold/Ice and Ice/Cold is also very nice. Cold requires a fair bit of active debuffing(Sleet in particular), but it's not that bad compared with Rad Emission in that regard. Ice Blast is very solo friendly, and you have the benefit of Ice Storm and Blizzard having blaster values, with Corr Scourge working well with them as well. Also, once you Blizzard you can use Heat Loss to recover.

I've never been much of the 'defender' type. Could never get into it (and I've been playing since CoH opening day). There is ONE combo that I could get into though and thats traps\sonic.

Traps goes well with just about anything really, but as others have said, sonic gives a defender a good solid damage output and can increase the teams output as well with its -RES and traps well...it's traps, its got ALL kinds of goodies for a solo and teaming defender.

I really liked my Trick Arrow/Archery defender for both soloing and teaming. No teammate focused powers, so you can take full advantage of TA while solo, and while teamed you can focus on debuffs, not some panicky blaster screaming for heals. Not exactly uber, or overstated though, so you will get no recognition for your contribution to the team. Just the way I like it.

I've been considering trying my hand at an Archery/Trick Arrow corruptor, but I've been enjoying a Ninja/Trick Arrow mm lately.

You also might like to try a Fire/Traps corruptor. Fire/Traps has almost the same durability out-of-the-box as a Traps/* defender but with the blasty goodness of Fire coupled with Scourge. There's a picture somewhere of someone soloing the ITF with their Fire/Traps.

I roll scrappers primarily with an occasional blaster or brute. Basically, damage.

My two defenders are a cold/sonic and rad/psi

Take that for what you will.

TA/Archery is flat out fun and feels, I don't know, "heroic" when soloing.

Corruptors really are what I wanted Defenders to be. This is not a knock on what defenders are. This is not a knock on what defenders are. This is not a knock on what defenders are. Repeated to remove any doubt.

However, blaster attacks (not their damage, of course) and controller level holds and debuffs and such is what I was really looking for when I rolled a number of defenders.

I got every type of defender. I could never solo a defender. Just too slow. If there is a team I'd take it and if not I'll play somit else. For me defenders are designed with teams in mind.