why aren't you playing a defender?

Why?
Boring.
Painful to solo.
Damage buff was barely noticeable.
"needs" a team to feel powerful.
Boring.
Strengths available in better ATs thus redundant leading to re-reading the above list.

I have played Defenders occasionally. I always ask myself "Why aren't I a Corrupter or Controller instead" and tend to roll one of them instead.

Your thread title is flawed, OP! I do play defenders

What do I love about defenders?

• Knowing that any team I join on my defender will be a great team because it has at least one well-played defender on it.
• Ggetting tells when I log in asking if I want to log in on one of my fenders and join a mish team in progress.
• Taking a team that is struggling and making things easy.
• Taking a good team and making it great.
• Taking a great team and making it into the stuff legends are made of.

The low hitpoints and slower pace are somethings I just can't get into anymore in my old(er) age. If it was 5 years ago I'd be playing them.

I . . . just can't get into them.

Them and MMs are the two I don't have a 50 of. One 46 one 49. Just find both classes BORING to play . . . for different reasons.

What would make defenders and corruptors really different (and probably make defenders overpowered) would be to to make their single target buffs also affect them.

an empathy getting their own fortitude would totally change the set
likewise a storm getting 02 Boost
FF getting their own bubbles

80% or so of my characters are defenders. Samuel Tow gives me endless grief about it, but I like playing a support character. Even if I end up mostly soloing.

--NT

Back in the days, it was nice to have a defender or 2 on a team. I could never get into playing one though. I find Cors to be more fun.

My forum name, first main, first 50, etc etc is the defender shown to the left. I'll admit she doesn't get as much play lately, and not just because I've had her for so long; these days, it seems like most characters are already at or near the softcap (she's FF/Energy Blast), and while bubbling a team is easier than ever, I do wonder how much I'm really contributing. In-character, she's been away for most of the last few years, battling evil in another dimension - and by "evil" I mean "Nemesis", so I'm sure she'll be back in the fray this week(end).

My second defender is even more a victim of the game moving on, though not in a mechanical sense: he's a rad/rad, which still works just fine. He is, however, a Taxibot - created in the era when the Hollows ate lowbies and crossing it to your mission door meant taking your life in your hands, and a rescue 'port back to the Atlas gate was always welcome; before Ninja Run, or full travel powers at level 6, or jetpacks from Safeguards. Back when changing stations in Steel Canyon meant hoofing it, and changing your costume meant getting someone to 'port you to iCon and back to the safety of the Atlas tunnel. He's still fun to play on a team, and I'm proud to have him on my roster, but I must admit that the need for Taxibots has been greatly reduced over time.

My latest defender, a dark/pistols, was actually getting the hell played out of him only a month ago - he was the first character I ran through the new Dark Astoria (mostly solo). Right now he's on hold for a little bit while I work on a different alt, but he'll be back.

I play everything.

Well... except any more MMs. Got one to 50, that was enough.

But for someone who is a scrapper at heart... I have an awful lot of defenders, at least five level 50 defenders I think. Even though I prefer a good corr.

I like playing Defenders because they are slightly different than Corruptors. Definitely a subtle, but different flavor which keeps the game fresh. I can't imagine only playing a Corruptor to be honest.

Edit: When it comes to dishing out damage, flip a coin as it doesn't matter if you choose a Defender or a Corruptor.

Solo or on teams, a well built Defender rocks and rocks hard. They may not murder things quite as fast as a Corruptor, but they'll be far safer while they do it and will have equivalent base damage thanks to superior Assault bonuses and Vigilance solo damage bonuses. I played a Traps / Dual Pistols and could solo very, very effectively thanks to lots of point-blank AOE attacks and debuffs and such, for instance.

Now, that said, some powerset combos do not do a great job of keeping the Defender alive when solo -- they're far more focused on team support. You need to choose wisely and build well to make it work, whereas Corruptors can be played like slightly watery Blasters regardless of their supporting role.

It's all about different taste, I suppose. But get on a team with 3-4 Defenders and it's like tossing field mice into a adamantium wheat thresher...

For me, I think it boils down to a matter of time and how my power selections have shaken out. I like playing controllers, so whenever a new controller set is rolled out I'll make one, and I'll try to pick a secondary that I've not tried before. So I've covered kin, sonic, storm, time, TA on controllers. I'll probably level the troller version of Dark, too. Blast sets I'll usually try on a corr (Beam, energy), or a blaster (fire, ice, elec, AR). And even then, I'm not really big on corrs (mez mitigation). At least with blasters I can keep firing my Tier 1/2.

I do have an Emp/Psi at level 50, but I don't play here much - only when I'm definitely in a teaming mood. Which is...not often.

I'm trying to level a Sonic/Sonic def, but I keep getting distracted with DA. In the 20s, she's my second-highest defender. I have OLD rad/rad, FF/NRG, TA/archery characters out there, but they get lapped by new concepts from other ATs every time.

Ask why I'm not playing a Corruptor: Because they feel like a Blaster that does a lot less damage and more likely to faceplant.

A Defender feels like a Blaster that does a lot less damage but will likely survive.

On teams, a my Corruptors make things die faster, but my Defender makes them more likely to survive.


Funny thing is that, on Virtue, I'm seeing as many calls for a Dark Defender as for a 'healer.' After 8 years, they're finally learning...

I don't play Defenders because their modifiers don't affect the places I actually need them to.

I need better knockback chances. I get higher knockback magnitude (yay for the "advantage" of having Assault Rifle and Dual Pistols that still knockback against +level enemies! And my Energy Blasts can not only be just as likely to scatter, they can throw enemies even further apart!)

I need faster recharging Resurrection, Power of the Phoenix, and dozens of other powers. I get marginally better values of questionable strength.

I need a version of Sleet that's not the same as what Controllers and Corruptors get (such a pet exists--it's used by Storm Summoning). I need coveted +Recharge bonuses to respect AT boundaries.

I need to not have lower HP than a Corruptor. I need to not also have a lower Damage cap. I need there to be some justification for Defenders to receive a "10" on the Support scale metric when Controllers add significantly more safety, and in some cases, more damage as well, but are somehow rated a "7."

I need, during discussions of crashing Nukes and Snipes, people to say "Oh yeah, we should remember these powers will need to have a use for Defenders too."

Basically outside of the small edge they get when IOing themselves and Sonic Attack, the Defender AT has little reason to exist. Buffing their damage and giving the same PPPs as Corruptors (and thus sharing their APPs with Corruptors) IMO only reinforced that Corruptors are the same AT but better. A couple of defense points that only factor in if you IO the character are not enough to warrant an entire AT that is almost exactly identical to another AT.

Overall, it's astonishingly clear that the Corruptor AT was created for City of Villains to be superior to both Blasters and Defenders on the assumption that the ATs would never share significant play-space.

Because fewer of my characters are defined more by the way they provide support than the way they attack.

Seth is a Defender because his power of sacrifice defines his character.

Naomi is a Corruptor because her aura of healing is more of a footnote.