Cold, Thermal, Storm, or Time?

I'd like to make a Defender to get a change of pace, as I mostly play melee toons (and a Peacebringer, but that might as well be melee) and want something that does more for the team than just damage. I've got a concept picked out (wizard, think Doctor Strange) and a secondary (Sonic, seems like the most useful) but just can't select a primary. The four choices I've narrowed it down to (I know, not very narrow) are in the title. The problem is each of them seems to offer something different and I want what they all offer.

Cold - Seems like the obvious choice for handling single hard targets. It clearly offers the most powerful single target debuffs. It also brings some shields for the team which could be useful. However, it doesn't seem to do much to help my own character survive if I were forced to engage a large spawn or while soloing. It also offers no heals, but Frostwork could be a good buff to bring along.

Thermal - Comparable to Cold, imo. Has many of the same strengths and weaknesses on paper, though it offers some healing and the only rez in the group.

Storm - I've always wanted to have a good Storm character. It seems to give good debuffs, has a single target heal, offers a major boost to personal survival in the form of Hurricane, and could fill in the AoE damage gap of Sonic by dealing additional damage through Tornado and Thunderstorm. However, I have read repeatedly that it's a difficult set to learn. It also seems to be a weak set against single hard targets.

Time - This one seems to have most of the strengths of Storm, trading the extra damage for stronger healing potential. My main issue with Time though is it would be strongest in melee range. I'm making a Defender to be out of melee, not to be debuffing in melee.

What are some opinions/experiences people have had with these sets (with or without /Sonic)? IOs and Incarnate powers can also come into consideration. I'm hoping to like this character enough to get it to peak performance. Time is obviously the easiest to softcap, but could I get there with the other sets? Do I need to get there with the other sets? For APP I'll probably go either Soul or Leviathan, depending on the primary I select.

@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian

If your goal is to be out of melee range, I'd let that rule time and storm out. Storm is obviously nowhere near as up close as time is, but you do spend time getting close in to use hurricane, and the PBAoE stun too, I think called Thunder Clap. Both are awesome sets, however, and if you pick them you won't be disappointed, but if you don't take any opportunity you can to rule something out, you might never be able to decide.

Between cold and thermal, I'd go with cold, personally, but if you like the idea of a heal and a very cool rez very much, you could easily flip that.


To set the record strait about storm and single target, though, you're pretty much wrong. It doesn't have any -regen, but other than that, it's VERY ST capable. Stormies tend to be built for a lot of recharge, and thus, if dealing with a single hard target, the strategy is often to keep freezing rain up, and 2 tornadoes. That alone is a lot of -res and damage, depending on slotting. Add in 2 Thunderstorms at once, too, and then your secondary, and you'll be amazed and how much DPS you can push out. With only one single hard target, the T-Storms and Tornadoes all keep picking on the same target. It's a thing of beauty. If it happens to be an AV and thus immune to getting flung about, it's often pretty easy to keep them on the Freezing Rain patch, too.

I would not rule out Time.

The PB AoE debuff, Time's Juncture, is a powerful soloing tool, but that doesn't mean you have to dive into Melee range when teaming. As a Time Defender, you have the potential to grant Super Reflexes to everyone on your team (minus the DDR), and this is before factoring in the -Acc. On large teams, sometimes I hang out on the fringes of a fight and provide a haven for squishier players, sometimes moving in for healing and -Acc debuffing if necessary. Or sometimes, depending on team composition, I may end up tanking.

Time is a beastly set, and affords quite a bit of flexibility.

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

Of the sets you list Time is definitely my favorite, especially on a Defender (I do quite like Thermal for Masterminds though) although you are definitely correct about it working best in melee range.

I agree with the steep learning curve on Storm. I've leveled two stormies to 50 and ended up retiring them both since I just could find a useful playstyle with them.

Cold is an interesting set. The order that powers come in is a bit annoying but it's actually a pretty good set at level 50. Frostworks is a bit meh (since most characters slam into the HP cap before they reach its full potential) but I'm hoping that one day the devs will change it to be at least partly an Absorb power. For Cold I'd strongly recommend taking Dark Mastery or Soul Mastery. People tend to neglect the resistances in Arctic Fog and focus on the Defense but if you slot Arctic Fog for Resistance and take Dark Embrace for your epic shield you can make a Defender with pretty decent resistance to everything except Psionic (about 43% S/L, 31% F/C/E, 23% NE/T) which if you combine with a moderate amount of Ranged defense makes for a reasonably tough defender (although unfortunately one without a self heal).

Thermal is an interesting set. Resistance buffs are much weaker than defense buffs in terms of preventing damage but at high levels there tends to be more Defense buffs flying around than resistance so having Resistance buffs can actually be a lot more useful. That being said I personally don't care for playing Thermal on a Defender but if you can stand it it's a decent set.

All of those are very viable in their own specialties, but cold and thermal have the disadvantage of basically being buffbots until they get their great debuffs later on (sleet and heat exhaustion). You plan on being a defender though, since this isn't as big of an issue as it is for a corruptor.

Ok, looking at Mids and build possibilities I'm leaning towards Cold. Then I have the APP to choose. Conceptually I like Leviathan, but Soul fits. Mechanically Soul seems to come out on top. It allows me to have a wide range of resists, gives Power Boost for Infrigidate and Benumb to become even more powerful, and features the much loved Soul Drain. Leviathan offers less beneficial resists, but brings Hibernate and a pet that I can tolerate using on a hero (Coralax aren't directly tied to Arachnos). What are thoughts there?

Also, Cold seems like it needs a lot of recharge bonuses to be most effective. But it doesn't seem like there is a good way to get enough recharge without giving up defense (unless I take Mace Mastery which is completely out of the concept). If I aim for 32.5% defense to all positions and get a lot of recharge will I still be able to solo AVs and GMs in addition to normal content?

Sorry if my questions seem a little vague/silly. I'm just not sure how to build ranged characters really

@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian