Blockbuster - Return of the Defender

Periodically I see threads about the relative value of the Defender vs the Corruptor, Controller and even Mastermind ATs for end game. I have no intention of getting into that now, rather I just want to testify for the primacy of the Defender in the Blockbuster event. I've done dozens of these holiday trials since it was released. The best runs (where "best" is defined by speed and safety) invariably involved one of my Defenders. Many of the buff/debuff sets have game changing powers at T8 and/or T9 that the other ATs don't have access to. From my own stable of characters, for a couple of comparisons, I've got a fire/kin corr and kin/sonic def; the corr has the better (that is, more expensive) build and I'd expect that on a small team the corr would perform better but Fulcrum Shift and Transference make a world of difference. Even a Kin/Rad of mine that has about 3 set bonuses total was more of a force than the well purpled Corr. Similarly I've got an Earth/Cold troller that has a better build than my Cold/Ice def but the fender can throw out Sleet and Heat Loss, giving it a significant edge.

Sure, Rad and Force Field don't have T8/T9s that are game changers, but I'd say everyone else does, even Traps can make good use of Trip Mine with the brief lulls between fights.

So bring your fenders out to Blockbuster and be a star!

Love it when anyone has a lightbulb moment on behalf of defenders.

Now convert all you "feelings" regarding this into numbers for the world to see and the forums to erupt.

Testify Deacon! Testify!

After the first dozen runs of the Blockbuster event I decided to only do it on a few of my debuffing characters. It just goes so much more smoothly, and tends to even out any issues from lower level characters with few powers/attacks and lower damage output.

So now I only run it on my Fire/Dark Controller and my two Traps characters, a Beam/Traps Corruptor and a Traps/Sonic Defender.

One of the defender's advantages is getting their buff powers earlier, and the tier 8/9 powers are usually much better in buff/debuff sets than they are in blast sets. It makes perfect sense to me that defenders would do well in a level 30 event.

The big difference I see in corruptors and defenders on the tier 8, tier 9 is starkly demonstrated in Cold.

Getting a fluffy at level 32 is also a big darn deal.

The big burst of -regen in EM Pulse is also noticeable.

I don't see many thermal defenders, but heat exhaustion and melt armor are two big defender bonuses.

TA and Empathy have terrific tier 8 and 9s.

Considering it limits you to lvl 29, an Ice/Cold Corr will not have sleet or heat loss and a Cold/Ice defender won't have BFR or Blizzard. Only major difference is who gets what powers early, and for some support sets that tips heavily in defenders favor. Rad/Rad corr vs Rad/Rad def will most likely have very little difference in performance because of how frontload Rad is on it's core powers.

Corruptors IMO are still a better AT for endgame content as you have higher damage caps and scrouge crits while still having more than decent support to stack on top of Destiny/Hybrid/Interface powers. It should also be noted that one of the only ways people have found to get the badge The Really Hard Way was to use a league of mostly damage capped corruptors for the scourge criticals to bypass the regen of Tyrant at the 40% phase change.

I think it can work both ways..depends on the power sets. As someone said..a cold fender will bring a HUGE amount more to this than a cold corr.

Looking back at my runs (over 50) I could group them into some rough types.
Runs with no buffs/debuffs or healing. So basically just 4 damage at.
As above, but with NO meat shield type.

Then ones with buffs but no debuffs.
Debuffs but no buffs.

Obviously theres more combos but you get the idea.

So far..for me..any run with some form of -res, will go faster. Even if the team if dying a bit..-res beats the perfectly safe one..but with no debuffing. Especially Vs Sylivia.
For meat shields..brutes are much better I think. Given how popular SS is as melee set, brutes just blow tanks out of the water at 30 (generally). Granted, the tank might be able to survive better..but there is really only one situation with more the one Av/Eb at a time anyway. Ok maybe more to be picky.

The event seems to balance well for nearly all teams though. For instance, one of mine ended up with my dark dom, a blaster and a stalker. And we got through it with hardly any deaths.

Another run that I 'thought' was gonna be sloooow, was my grav/time troller (no -res) 2 StJ stalkers and..a blaster I think. Both the stalkers were 50 and had the ATO proc kicking, and the avs went down in seconds.

Just going back to the Kin fender example. I think they were the most helpful vs the ninja monkies. Most of the avs are alone and dont provide a massive amount of FS. SOnic fender though..mine really speeds things up.

Also think MMs are very good on this, with all the upgrades naturally. Just finished my faster run EVER. Demons/dark, demons storm, fire kin corr and ill rad. We killed 88 ninjas, then 76 monkies..woulda been more if te gas didnt make pets run. We actually thought we missed teh Invictus badge..because the Champ went to 30% hp THAT fast, then his boss pets basically vanished.

I've had a renewed interest to play Defenders lately, and so the debate between Defender and Corruptor is going on in my head constantly when making new Defenders, and later on when I reach 50 and begin to wonder if I would have been happier rolling a Corruptor.

First I have to consider the fact that Defenders get the buff & debuff goods early on, which (as this thread points out) is pretty valuable for pre-35 content.

Then I begin to weigh the value of better buffs, debuffs, and healing vs. Scourge, and the general damage advantage that Corruptors retain while teamed (which falls off when solo). Invariably, I end up looking at something like this:

A Time Defender, with a Power-Boosted Far Sight and running Maneuvers, will reach about 43% Defense vs All. With a Steadfast and Gladiator unique, the Defender soars past the normal soft-cap, and sits at a healthy 49%. Add -Acc debuffing, and the Defender is effectively Incarnate-capped to everything within spitting distance.

Meanwhile the Corruptor, with the same powers and slotting, stalls out at roughly 38%. Still shy of the normal soft cap by a non-trivial amount before adding in debuffs.

The significance of this becomes more tangible when the Corruptor has to spend slots to accommodate specific +Defense bonuses, or take extra Power Pool powers that offer +Defense.

So that's usually how my analysis goes, and for that reason every Corruptor I've ever made ends up being re-rolled as a Defender.

"There's villainy ... and then there's supervillainy. The difference is performance."
-Doc_Reverend

I can't explain this very well at this hour. This post is editted to simply say:

Playing certain ATs bring certain mentalities. Defenders and Corruptors have different mentalities and thus it's not as easy to say which is better at any particular role.

The level 29 cap definitely does provide something of a boost to defenders. Not only do they get their buffs/debuffs sooner, buffs/debuffs are more important because players are impacted by SKing down. Depending on how they design their builds, a number of players might loose IO bonuses, plus basic enhancement values take a hit. So buffs and debuffs from defenders/corrupters are more important.

However defender vs corrupter is something of a tradeoff. It just depends on what powersets your using. Dark and Rad both get their best powers early, yes fluffy is good too, but the main parts of Dark ate still available to a corrupter at level 29. Other ones that are good at 29 are storm and traps. Really most sets only lose a bit at 29. The only sets there are really hit by losing access to their t8 and t9 are time, kin, trick arrow, and maybe cold.