City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Best debuffing powersets for defenders?

Deacon_NA

By Deacon_NA,
Posted on: 2011-08-10 08:32 in Defenders

 

Posted

Hello,

Since the paragon wiki refuses to provide me with actual number I will have to ask the question to the experienced defenders on this forum:

What combination of powersets for a defender provides the highest total resistance debuffs? (For PvE, that means preferably AOE debuffs that can be maintained 24/7)

What combination provides the best overall debuffs (including other debuffs such as -def -speed and -recharge, in that order)?
Ideally, can you provide some number or provide a link to a site with the actual numbers.
Thank you.

 

Posted

The concensus of posters seems to share that Traps has the most debuff, but Dark, Cold, Storm, and Rad are absolutely no slouches in that department.

Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Psylenz View Post
The concensus of posters seems to share that Traps has the most debuff, but Dark, Cold, Storm, and Rad are absolutely no slouches in that department.
Storm? Really? I am NOT disagreeing, but surprised. I find myself feeling underpowered when I play my storm toons instead of others. And the freezing rain (or whatever it is called, I get confused on power names) seems like it causes so many baddies to run away from the fear component that it is inferior to others. But I am not fond of my storm defender, so I'd love to hear more.

Global Name: Denver Nugget
Playing since i3 on 8 servers

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by shaggy5 View Post
Storm? Really? I am NOT disagreeing, but surprised. I find myself feeling underpowered when I play my storm toons instead of others. And the freezing rain (or whatever it is called, I get confused on power names) seems like it causes so many baddies to run away from the fear component that it is inferior to others. But I am not fond of my storm defender, so I'd love to hear more.
**Points to Guide in Sig**

Enemies should not be able to get very far from your Freezing Rain. With Snow Storm and Freezing Rain movement of enemies should be pretty much floored, and a high end Storm Build should come close to making the rain portion of Freezing Rain permanent. And because Freezing Rain stacks you can get some massive -res and -def debuffing (Assuming you get lucky due to the poofing bug). Only Cold can crank out more -resistance than Storm.

Add to that the massive debuff in Hurricane (slotted, Hurricane is enough to floor the to-hit of enemies on its own) and that's where Storm gets its reputation as one of the best debuffers.

Although in many ways I think Storm is most significant for bringing the most damage to the table of any Defender Powerset. Even though Storm provides no -regen, it can make up for much of that through its damage powers Tornado and Lightning Storm.

That said, storm is challenging to play well, and requires a much more active and aware play style to use effectively. Personally, this is part of the appeal of Storm to me: I get bored when I play many other sets, but this play style does not suit everyone. I would not list Storm as one of the top debuffers (Traps and Cold are at the top in my book) but I would put it on par with rad and dark.

Draggynn on Virtue: lvl 50 Storm/Psi, 1389 badges
Draggynn's Guide to Storm Summoning(Gale-Tornado, updated 6/25/2011)
Avatar by Wassy full reference here

 

Posted

For the toughest fights, bosses, E.B.s, AVs hero/villain, storm packs a lot of debuff punch.

Snowstorm has the big slow, -recharge, but also, don't forget snowstorm grounds fliers. (Pay no attention to the malta sapper, he isn't really flying it's a form of super jump.) Grounding the fliers can be as critical as immobilizing the AVs at times. None of the big 4 mentioned earlier have -fly except for snowstorm.

Freezing rain (sleet in cold) is the best debuff power in the game. It slows, it debuffs resistances AND defense, it knocks foes down, it distracts foes.

Hurricane is like hero sex in the whirling wind. There is only ONE debuff power comparable in to-hit debuff (Chill of the Night). It has repel and knockback. The forgotten aspect of Hurricane is -range. Combined with the repel in hurricane a number of foes cannot even get close enough to activate the desired ranged attack. Hurricane is best used to group mobs together, not scatter the tank's taunt pile.

Tornado is a pet that NEVER is defeated, but has a limited life. Most people know the graphic movements of the knockback, in addition there is modest stun, and more defense debuff.

Lightning storm debuff endurance, but it's so low now, most foes recover faster than the debuff. It can also be used to proc more damage and mezz status on foes.

In summary, storm has strong debuffs, some not as visible as others. Traps and cold have lots of resistance debuffing; heat loss is a beast. It's my opinion the defense debuff in storm like the slows and -range as well, are underrated. Most state that defense debuff is overkill, but it isn't overkill when you really need it against a high defense boss/AV/tough target. Sure defense debuffing is resisted; however, stacking two freezing rains, two tornadoes on someone like Professor Echo enables the TEAM to hit more often in crucial battles.

The other aspect is the knockback, knockdown, tossing around. Sure, melee teammates and pets will have to move, but well positioned and on hard targets with -kb resistance allow storm to shine. The feature I think of is the denying the foe his ability to stand, to set up. Bouncing Freak Tanks on a tornado is rather easy, and not one grenade is launched once in the clutches of my breezy friend. Gale itself is best to use to position to corners and walls, but gale interrupts your target. They don't stop, wait I get this shot off - before I am airborne, they just FLY.

My favorite storm is Robots/Storm for many reasons, but Storm/Ice defenders are fearful creatures.

Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.

 

Posted

I am so frikkin' happy that my threads got linked here. :P

Quote:
Originally Posted by marvalis View Post
What combination of powersets for a defender provides the highest total resistance debuffs? (For PvE, that means preferably AOE debuffs that can be maintained 24/7)
For AoE resistance debuffs that can constantly be maintained, you're looking at storm or trick arrow. Storm's area -res power is 35%, which is higher than any of the others. Trick arrow can hit 40% with two of its powers combined, but it's harder to get that on a full group of enemies because of small areas and target caps.