AR/TRAPS - Defender Vs Corruptor

As the title says, I've been wanting to try the legendary AR/Traps combo for myself. What would the smart folk out there suggest between the two archetypes to do it with?

I'd suggest Corrupter. But then I'd always suggest Corrupter.

Assault Rifle is going to favor the Corruptor unless you're really planning to take advantage of the Defenders' higher knockback modifier. >_>

For Traps, Defenders get a longer immobilize and higher -Speed/-Recharge from Web Grenade, higher -Resistance and -Defense from Acid Mortar, higher +Defense from FFG, and then higher -Damage and -ToHit from Seeker Drones. Corruptors get more damaging Trip Mine and Time Bomb.

So for the most part, unless you really value the damage from Trip Mine and Time Bomb, they're fairly close in performance, with the Defender of course getting a few slightly higher buff/debuff values (with a couple that pull farther ahead if you can get them to stack).

It's worth noting that a Traps Defender with Mace Mastery can get 44.15% Defense to Smashing and Lethal and 36.35% Defense to Energy on just SOs and with no extra power pool choices needed.

Trickshooter's Characters | @Trickshooter @Brightside

Basic rule of thumb is for survivability go Defender and for damage go corrupter.

Defender damage solo isn't that far off corrupter, but is less. Particularly on teams due to the way vigilance works. But you will get better end usage on teams and that can help you do better dps than otherwise.

Corrupters can get the defense necessary for soft cap, but it will be a more expensive build.

Corrupter will get more damage overall due to scourge, mostly. Personally, I've never been all that impressed with scourge because it usually fires off for overkill instead of kill. But I see why many ppl like it.

It's so close that mostly, the people that prefer Corruptors are going to recommend Corruptors, and the people that prefer Defenders are going to recommend Defenders.

If you have a specific playstyle, or if you have a specific goal in mind and plan a very high end build to meet that outlier goal, then that may influence which is a better choice.

Also, it matters most during the leveling up process. If you plan to get PLed to 50 and start working on your final build, it's going to matter a lot less.

What are you looking to do exactly?

Solo AVs/GMs? If a Corr can do it, a Defender can do it.

Scourge doesn't start untill the enemy is at the 50% life or less remaining mark. Untill that point, they're not that far off.

I love my Traps/AR Defender, currently in his mid-30s, and not even IO'd yet. I imagine that once I start to IO him, all of the different Procs that I'll be able to use will make him a very interesting character to play.

Having several Traps Corruptors and Defenders. I can tell you that with Corruptors you will need something like Power Sink because for Corruptors Traps is very endurance heavy.

You can obtain positional defense cap with both which is good, with Defenders it is much easier because of the bonuses they get to buffs and debuffs. Though Corruptors do more damage it is not much and solo on a Defender you get that 30% bonus.

Personally I feel the AR Defender runs much smoother then the Corruptor because of the endurance situation. Further with the Defender you have more wiggle room to pick other powers after your defense capped. With The Corruptor your sort of pigeon holed into picking certain powers to obtain the defense cap.

I'm a bit curious to what is it about AR that makes it work well with traps?