all I can suggest is if you like melee a kin def with a secondary that has a few aoe's built in perhaps rad or electric. that way you will still be in the thick of things grab stealth and a stealth proc for sprint and you should be good to go. ice and fire could be a good option as well as water which is lots of fun to play:-)
If your gonna play follow the leader just make sure the leader is taking you where you want to go.
Traps. Pair it with a set that has a whack of aoe's. Since you don't like repeating sets, try archery or ice.
Infinity loop!
Some of my favorite defenders have been:
Dark/Dark - My absolute favorite, has good crowd control and strong debuffs. Provides a lot of survivability on teams and solo. There are a lot of ways to build a Dark/Dark (heavy control, heavy debuff, etc), but Fearsome Stare is going to be a core power however you go. I built for recharge and went Soul Mastery, so I have a permanent Fortunata Mistress working alongside my Dark Servant to up my damage.
Traps/Dual Pistols - As close as you'll get to a pistols scrapper. The FFG provides good defense and a lot of status protection that most defenders just don't get. I soft-capped mine to positions for normal content. The set also has a good variety of debuffs to go with it. Trip Mine and Time Bomb are still situational to the point of lousy, but the set is great without them. Dual Pistols is a little underwhelming at the moment (too much flash, too little bang), but it does have a hold (with Swap Ammo) and is getting some animation time love in the very near future.
In addition to the usual core powers (FFG, Acid Mortar, Poison Trap, Seeker Drones), right now, I consider Web Grenade almost mandatory because some of your debuffs cause heavy avoidance and you need to keep that AV in your debuff range. Hopefully this gets a fix in the near future.
Rad/Ice - Powerful debuffer that can pretty easily hit Perma Hasten/Accelerate Metabolism and has a good hold to go with it. Not nearly as safe as the Dark/Dark solo, but can churn out more damage and is even better at crippling hard targets. For Rad, you'll need the heal, Accelerate Metabolism and the big 3 debuffs, minimum. The others are personal preference.
Dark/Dark is pretty much a controller and can be easily played like one.
Some of my favorites:
Traps/* works well in the middle of things, lends itself well to high defense with mez protection built in --> hence good solo ability
Cold/Ice, Cold/Fire, Cold/Sonic. Cold is a very strong debuffer. Cold/Sonic can make hard targets whimper
Storm/* steeper learning curve but lots of offense in the primary.
Dark/* as others have said can play very controller like. A traditionally strong solo character.
And while not everyone's cup of tea I love my Empaths. Worth noting that if you can find or have a reliable partner to duo with there's perhaps nothing quite as potent as an Empathy duo ... so good your worst enemy post 32nd will be boredom.
Doomguide (quickly posting before another update eats his post)
I love my Kin defenders. You can cap yer damage and nuke every 90-120 sec.
Traps is surprisingly fun altho the Tier 8 and 9 powers are kinda dumb (imo)
perma jump is ---> /up 1
Traps and Time are the easiest Defenders to softcap. and both are fun to play. I've got a TIme/Elec Defender who almost feels like a Tanker (my defense keeps me alive until my endurance drain has time to do its work).
For a high resistance Defender I recommend Cold Domination (or Storm Summoning but I prefer Cold). If you stack Arctic Fog with Dark Embrace (from Dark Mastery or Soul Mastery) then you get a Defender with decent resistance to everything except Psi.
I'd suggest Time/Sonic.
Sonic Attack is almost a full character in and of itself - you've got good (for a defender) single target damage thanks to stacking resistance debuffs; AoE damage, -res, and soft control in two cones (assuming you've got an overwhelming force proc to put in shockwave); and, for soloing, an AoE sleep that lets you lock down entire spawns to defeat at your leisure.
The only thing Sonic is missing is low-level survivability; as a defender, you don't get Siren's Song until level 28. Which is where Time comes in; it's got survivability in spades.
Skippable powers: Not many of these, really.
You probably don't need both Screech and Time Stop; I'd generally keep Time Stop over Screech, mostly because it's available much earlier.
If you avoid teams like the plague then you can skip Temporal Selection and maybe Howl and Shockwave, but that's a pretty specific and pigeon-hole-ish build decision; I wouldn't suggest going that route.
Amplify might be skippable if you really want to, but I'd probably try to fit it in eventually.
Dreadful Wail is currently skippable, but with upcoming nuke changes, I'd find a place for it in any builds I was considering.
Dark/Dark is also, as others have mentioned, quite effective.
Time/Set with PBAOE/Soul if you want to go with something melee style.
Yeah time was definitely a consideration, i forgot to mention that i already have a beast/time MM and a demon/sonic MM, however, both those sets i think could be used more practically on a defender....whats the thoughts on Elec primary? best aoe set? loving these responses so far guys, i really appreciate it, kind of torn now if i make a traps guy or maybe time, lol.....
I am right there with you SS; been here nearly 6 years and have a 50 in almost everything except a corrupter and defender. However, i just recently decided I would break down and get a defender up there. After a lot of research, a nice backstory, and a cool costume I went with my rad/sonic.
In 3 months, playing her off and on I am at level 38 and she is slowly grinding her way to be one of my favorites. Heck, i take her on TF's and the summer event over my other /rad's because she is just that fun. If I didnt have an addiction to alts (especially brutes) she would have been 50 and incarnated out already.
But I will say, I have been enjoying the ride with her and at 38 she is just about capped to S/L, and I can solo just about anything on +2 with her easily so I am enjoying her.
Second vote for Time/Sonic.
Specifically, I would probably go with Time/Sonic/Dark. Sonic is about to get a PBaOE crashless nuke with stun, and dark has that stun aura that drains HP, and Time has a Heal Over Time... and you can resurrect yourself if you die.
You could also go a route with Power Build Up if you wanted.
I will toss a vote in for Time/x, Cold/x, and Rad/x (x = Sonic). Additionally with crashless nukes on the horizon you will get some much desired AoE love with the set. I personally don't use Sirens Song or Shockwave but its not because they are bad. Really there is an arguable reason to use most, if not all, of the powers. Any of these three main sets thought will get you the kind of things you need. I mean, I know you have a /Rad and /Time MM and Controller (respectively) but wait till you see the numbers on a defender!
Just take the case of Farsight in Time/. Really, if you insisted you can practically perma Farsight with just 3 recharge IOs giving it a recharge of 120.6 with the 120 duration! Not to mention its close to 20% defense to all with a 12.5% ToHit buff! Now, imagine if you will slotting it with Three Membrane HO's and one Recharge IO. Thats 19.5% defense to all and to-hit! The difference this power is now truly permable without any help! Now, with snipe changes, that 22% cap for insta-snipe will have players hugging you like a teddy bear if run tactics and maneuvers on of it. To be fair and compare that to your MM with the same slotting your looking at 14.63% defense and only 11.7% tohit T.T.
Now, lets look at base rad compared to your controller. You get fairly higer base on -defense and -tohit in your toggles. This means you can enhance it much better. Now mix that with the ST nature of sonic and your not worried much while soloing!
Now, I would boast the Defenders numbers moar but I am looking at the clock and I really need to hit the hay. However, before I go, I must say something for cold. Not only is it sexy cause you don't have to ST shield everyone anymore but the debuffs man. If you invest to perma them, AVs just crumple at your feet.
Dreaded Wail hits things freakin' hard.. i like to hit things freakin' hard... so.. id go Wail... SAVE THE WAILS!!!! - Solar_Lunata
Two general things to make you love Defenders (over the equivalent Corrupters):
1) Sonic Blast. Each attack does -20% Res. This stacks up to more res debuffing than most support primaries do against a hard target. This more than makes up for the low base damage.
2) Defenders Bastion IO set. Its cheap, and provides a self heal to support sets that typically get their health chipped away due to lack of one. So this pairs very well with Force Field, Cold Domination, Storm and Sonic Resoinance, for example.
I loved FF/Sonic way back, and had a good time recently with a Storm/Sonic Defender with the new ATIO set. The self heal is small, but you're rarely getting hit due to Hurricane and all the knockback of Storm, it works like a charm.
I'd recommens Storm or Cold. Storm if you solo mostly, Cold if you team mostly. Pair either with Sonic Blast.
Thank you everyone for the input...looks like i am leaning towards a time/sonic or a cold/sonic Defender....storm is cool, but not real sure if i wanna go that route... at times i team and at times i solo, so which one would be more middle of the line? Thanks for the input, and should i stay away from Shockwave, or grab it if i grab an Overwhelming Force KB-KD proc? or just not worth it?
I doubt you can go wrong with either, teamed or solo.
I only play Emp/Whatever Defenders. I've had good experiences with Empathy/Mental Defenders.
Cold/Sonic is the king of -res and a great boon to teams. I like defender primaries with AMAZING tier 9s like Fulcrum Shift or Heat Loss since you have them at lvl 27 and up for exemping purposes.
If melee is your game then Kinetics is your friend!
That was the biggest draw to me when I first started to play the game. I could be in melee range (and wanted to be in melee range for the heals!) but still have the ability to attack from range when the mobs ran away (and it was really bad back in the day so much so that I hated playing melee toons).
Kin/Rad Def. ftw! 
I could be biased though...
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well i am definiitely going to pick either time/sonic or cold/sonic, my next question is, how may sonic attacks do i take/need? I read in another thread that you only need the first 3.....i played with both builds on mids so far, and they both look great, but do you guys usually take fighting pool with defenders? i assume softcap def would be best....but that could be the melee in me..... so....any powers in sonic to stay away from? take em all or just a few core ones..thanks again, i think i am going to be very happy with this defender experience!
Quote:
Shriek, Scream and Howl are indeed your key attacks in Sonic although some of the other attacks are borderline. Shockwave offers an additional AOE attack if you slot it with the KB3KD IO, it's not great damage-wise but it does have a large area and if you use it after Howl it'll benefit from the resistance debuff (as well as giving enemies another stack of it). Shout is nice as a strong attack but the cast time is stupidly long which is why a lot of people skip it.|
Originally Posted by StupidlySmart
well i am definiitely going to pick either time/sonic or cold/sonic, my next question is, how may sonic attacks do i take/need? I read in another thread that you only need the first 3.....
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Siren's Song is a great power for soloing but isn't much use on a team, so whether you take it will depend on your preferences.
Amplify and Dreadful Wail aren't that great now but I would definitely pick them up in I24. In the case of Amplify the change to PPM mechanics for procs means that if you slot it with a Gaussian: Chance for Build Up IO it'll have a 90% change of giving you a 130% damage boost instead of 50%. Combine that with the crashless Dreadful Wail and you've got a strong combo.
Quote:
| i played with both builds on mids so far, and they both look great, but do you guys usually take fighting pool with defenders? |
The nice thing about Time though is that if you pick up a Power Boost effect (either Power Build Up, Power Boost or Radial Clarion) and use that right before casting Farsight you can pretty easily soft cap without Fighting.
For example PBU has a 98.34% power boost effect so for Farsight you'd get: 12.5% * (1 + 0.95 + 0.9834) = 36.66% Defense. Add in Maneuvers (5% Slotted), Combat Jumping (2.5% unlsotted) and one of the 3% IOs and you can hit the softcap easily.
Alternatively it's pretty easy to build a Time for the softcap without Power Boost and then use the Power Boost to get you closer to the Incarnate Softcap.
Personally I'd go with Dark/Sonic, especially if this is a levelling build. If it's more for high level play then they are both great.
I can't comment on Cold but:
Dark matures earlier than Time
Is more End friendly
From a play perspective Dark would work better with Sonic. Sonic has lots of cones which would work well with Fearsome Stare.
L50s: Tanks: Cryofission - Ice/EM - Dr Celsius - Fire/Ice - Saint George - SD/SS | Controllers: Psichosis - Ill/Kin - Major Chaos - Ill/Stm | Scrappers - Neutron Crusader - DM/SR
Currently Levelling: Angelic Blade - BS/WP Scrapper | Seeds of Destruction - Plant/Kin Controller
The primaries you've selected are both good, so you can't go wrong with either. I will say though that I would get Shockwave before Shout or Siren's Song now. With the OF Proc it becomes a very nice 1-2 combo with Howl that provides very nice mitigation.
Having now had a bit more chance to play around with it, I'd say Siren's Song is eminently skippable if you have Shockwave (with overwhelming force proc); it's not quite as solid a control, but it's team-friendly and still good enough for solo play.
I wouldn't skip Shout if you plan on soloing, though; it may be slow, but it's still your strongest (non-nuke) attack. For teams, using Howl on single targets may be a decent substitute - it'll provide the same -res - but the extra damage makes a difference if you're on your own.
I can't really comment on choice of primary, though; I don't have enough experience with Cold to give you any meaningful comparison.
Hey all....so i have been on my quest to get one of every AT to 50 and its going well, however, my one hiccup over time has been a Defender...i cant seem to get into one or find a fascinating enough combo... So here i am asking the Defender experts on recommendations, a quick background
Been playing the game since day 1.....and have been very much a melee orientated guy, i got a ton of brutes, scrappers, stalkers and tanks.. last few years i have expanded my horizons finally and moved on to a fire/fire blaster, water/mental blaster, ill/dark troller, fire/rad troller, warshade, elec/fire dom, dark/dark dom, fire/kin corr and many many more....those are just my most recent ones....
So here is what i ask, i am looking for a combo that can keep my attention, as well if any power in those combos is NOT worth getting or a MUST get, please let me know....as well, any past successes you have had if you softcap Def or get high resist or whatever, thats not really important, intent is a combo....enough rambling...... So please help me love defenders....some of you may recognize me doing this on the troller forum and thats what led me to having 2 trollers that i just LOVE....so i wanna keep the success going.....and i try not to repeat powersets if possibly as well, hence my listing above.....THANKS!!