DrMike2000

Yeah, the two-fold buff is a good idea.

But it does mean that in between fights (on a team that isnt steamrollering, say, due to a scaredy-tank) your scheme makes it of actual benefit to rock the aura. A team leader could quite reasonably ask you to do it at that point, to get the auras back up quicker. Even if its only a 5% or 10% recharge buff, well, people pay good influence to get that kind of buff in set bonuses.

On the plus side it means the Empath would directly benefit from pre-emptive Clear Mind-ing between spawns.
Ditto for SPeed Boost, ID, shields etc.

Potential solution: only targeting powers get the buff, ie PBAoE ones you can fire off under the Atlas statue dont.

Monitor "Last Chance to Hit" in the Base Panel of Combat Attributes next time you go on patrol. Toggle Tactics on and off per group.

You may well be hitting 95% anyway without Tactics for normal enemies, in which case Tactics isnt really worth it.

Nice idea, Milady's Knight.
The Recharge bonus is interesting. It would benefit some sets more than others, particularly Empathy, which has a lot of long recharge buffs.

Force Fields, in contrast, has none, well, Repulsion Bomb would be up more I guess.

The downside is, there would be a benefit from "rocking the aura" to keep up the recharge bonus for Recovery Aura and Regen Aura to come back up as soon as poss.

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Its not like you see a difference between lethal and smashing damage in game.

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*I* do. The way some players confuse lethal and smashing as if they're te same thing is annoying, because there's considerable difference. Just because some powers and IOs offer mitigation against both doesn't mean they're the same. Ask the robots that question.

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Oh yeah, I know they behave differently in terms of the damage numbers against different enemies.

What I meant was, it not like every lethal hit shows blood (or engine oil) coming from the target, and every smashing hit shows a bruise or dent.

You dont literally see the different damage types in action, so a broadsword scrapper swinging a pipewrench would not be visibly doing anything odd.

Like I said though, sound is another matter.

I'd disagree that Defenders fall behind tanks and Controllers for damage.

The average Defender puts out way more AoE damage than the average Tank or Controller, unfortunately, that isnt much use solo, since it allows you to piss off an entire spawn and take them to half health.
It depends on the sets of course. Dark/Dark does ok, you have 2 fast recharging cones and good survivability. Emp/Elec has problems becuase you have to survive at point blank range for 8 seconds till your AoEs Recharge, and thats with slotting.

So Defenders become team dependent on three counts:

1) Ally only powers in primary - varies by set
2) Their inherent only works on teams
3) They sometimes need a team to leverage their AoE damage, depends on primary again

The first point is kind of taken as read when you choose a set. eg Sonic, Empathy and Force Fields wont solo as well as Dark or Storm, and none will solo as well as a Scrapper.

It's also one of the few mechanisms in the game that encourages teaming in a non-artificial way. The XP gain from teaming is just put there by the devs in a table somewhere, but the force multiplication of Defenders is a real emergent behaviour from the game rules.

The second would be the easiest fix to balance. Make Vigilance add a damage bonus that diminishes with team size, or even just add the Defender themselves into the existing scheeme so solo-ers get an End discount when they're in trouble.

3) Can't be balanced. You can't have all Defenders wiping out spawns by themselves in one volley. That's Blaster territory. A little damage boost wouldn't hurt, but you cant exceed Corrupter damage scales out of fairness.

So, yeah, I agree, PeaceMoon. Vigilance could certainly use a boost, preferably one slanted towards small teams or solo-ists.

This was my first MMO.

Mob confused the heck out of me for the first few weeks until I read something here about the "mobile unit" abbreviation.

Then again, I used to think "afk bio" meant taking a break to write your characters origin story, until I had that one explained to me.

There's no technical reason why you couldn't swap a mace model with any of the broadsword or katana models. They're held in exactly the same way in one hand and are really just glorified sticks.

I think it would be a brilliant if they opened up all weapon models to all weapon types. Its not like you see a difference between lethal and smashing damage in game.

The sound effects might sound a bit off though - Broadsword does make ripping tearing noises when you use it that would be kind of odd with a pipewrench or bat.

I have a lot of fun with Dark/Energy Melee. The stuns stack and it looks very cool. I also run Tough, that helps a lot with my resistances and cuts down on the need to spam Dark Regen.

For your End problems, may I suggest sticking a Theft of Essence chance fro +End in Dark Regen? If you're lucky, using this power can actually return you more endurance than you use then! And definitley dont bother slotting it for heal, it pretty mcuh always tops you up to full anyway.

Fantastic! Thats really handy to know!

This is incredible!

Yeah, sticky it so its still there when I get time to mess around with this!

If you're allowing the use of veteran powers like Sands of Mu and the Nemesis Staff, may I suggest Earth Control for both a hold and the -Def that it provides?
Controller holds would provide safety and do OK damage with Containment (comparable to tier 1 blasts).

For a secondary, nothing looks great. Sonic Siphon is the best offensive alternative, others are all heal auras, PFF or Transfusion.

Forget it - having one attack on an 8 second recharge and a debuff on 16 seconds would drive you nuts!

I dont know why, but I've found that Rad Blast can feel very ineffectual despite doing the same kind of damage values as other Defender sets.

Its got a 1.5 sec, 4 sec and 10 sec single target blast instead of a 4 sec, 8 sec and 10 sec like Energy Blast, so its going to take more attacks on average to down a target.

Energy Blast also feels powerful because you're physically hurling your enemies around the room as you use it.

I agree that the -Def secondary is pretty worthless later on, except for the IOs it allows you to use.
All attacks can hold the Achilles' Heel -Res proc, so that will up your damage a bit. Its no Sonic Blast, but it helps.

You also can slot the Lady Grey and Shield Breaker damage procs into your attacks. Neutrino Bolt particularly loves these, since its such low base damage and hits so often. Each damage proc is statistically equivalent to 2 damage SOs here.
This also adds a bit of Negative energy damage for those energy resistant, negative weak enemies like Rikti.

For Neutrino Bolt I'd recommend:
- Lady Grey Damage proc
- Achilles Heel -Res proc
- Shield Breaker Lethal proc
- 2 Acc/Dam from any set
- one Damage IO

Now THAT's a laser pointer of doom!!

Finally, use Sands of Mu temporary power if you have the 12 month vet badge. All that -Def in your attacks allows it to hit reliably, and it does awesome damage for a Defender. Negative damage too. So come to think of it, that -Def is pretty cool actually.

You'll never be a Blaster (with this character) but you can get a bit closer.

Thanks

One more thing that occurred to me in regards to Empaths, is that you're sacrificing the use of Hasten here.

Fighting, Leadership, Hover or CJ and Stamina (which you'll need to run all that) makes 4 pools.

So, you could drop Combat Jumping or Hover if you like, in exchange for Hasten and Superspeed, which will bring back all those long recharge buffs faster and make you a better buffer.

Any Defender can get around 19% Defence just from:

Tough w SteadFast Res/Def IO (3%)
Weave, slotted (8%)
Hover or Combat Jumping (2.5%)
Maneuvers, slotted (5.6%)

Add 3 full sets of Thunderstrike for an extra 11.25% Ranged Defence. (and +6% Recovery and +21% Accuracy)

Slot Maneuvers and Weave with Red Fortune for +5% vs Ranged. (and +10% Recharge)

If youve got the money, put all 3 Blessing of the Zephyr into Combat Jumping or Hover for 3.125% vs Aoe and ranged, and get Knockback protection to boot.

You're now at 19% vs Melee, 38.5% vs Ranged and 22% vs AoE.

From there you can:

Six slot tough and add Aegis in for a further 4.6% vs AoE.
Stupefy in Stunning Shot for an extra 3.125% vs ranged
or Razzle Dazzle in Stunning Shot for +2.5% vs Melee and AoE
Gaussian's full set in tactics for +2.5% vs all positions.
Extreme Measures in Ranged Shot for +2.5% vs Melee and AoE (WARNING: This lives up to its name by adding only +80% or so Damage!)
Executioners Contract in Ranged Shot +3.125% vs Ranged (and proper damage slotting)
Red Fortune in Fortitude for +2.5% vs Ranged. You don't fully slot for Recharge doing this though, so its a trade off.

It helps a lot to have a powerset power like Dispersion Bubble or Arctic Fog to help beef up these numbers, but any Defender can get a meaningful overall defence if they take the Fighting pool.

It costs you 3 powers, one pool, and a few slots, and it starts to come together in the late 20s. (ie 27 when you can finally slot those Thunderstrikes) so its not for everyone.

My guide has a few more details and links to the comprehensive Paragonwiki IO pages.

On the other hand, Aid Other can break a sleep, which Dispersion Bubble can't cover.

You're also in a better position than most to fire it off uninterrupted, since you have some Defence bonus.

And it leads to Aid Self, which works very well with Personal Force Field if you get into trouble.

I'd advise against taking Shout. Its long activation time means you could fire off another Shriek and Scream in that time, and once youve got a bit of recharge in them they pretty much form an attack chain on their own.

You get 18 powers by level 32. I'd take:

Personal Force Field
Deflection Shield
Insulation Shield
Dispersion Bubble

Shriek
Scream
Amplify
Howl
Sirens Song

Swift/Hurdle
Health
Stamina

Travel Precursor
Travel Power

Maneuvers

And then any three of the following to taste:

Aid Other+Aid Self
Assault
Tactics
Repulsion Bomb
Force Bolt
Grant Invisibility
Shockwave
Repulsion Field

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Would it be better to do FF/Sonic or Sonic/Sonic? Thoughts?

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Sonic gives you additional 30% mass Res debuff on top of Howl's 20%, and an extra 30% again on top of the single target Res debuffs from Shriek and Scream. So it boosts team damage here by about 25% or so. (1.5/1.2 = 1.25)

Sonic mitigates about 60% of incoming damage. Force Fields mitigates 90%+. Force Fields also covers Psi damage and End Drain, which makes a big difference in the late game vs Malta, Carnies, Rularruu and Rikti to name a few.

So FF/Sonic is more defensive in both breadth and depth, but Sonic/Sonic gives you a better damage boost.

I love both playing sets.

I'd say Sonic/Sonic provides eneough mitigation for all but a team full of blasters.

I totally agree with you here, Samuel.

Upping the damage on snipes at the cost of recharge would be great. As they stand, they dont even drop a even-con lieutenant with Aim and Build Up. That's just wrong.

I dual-box a lot, as if playing two active characters (ie not just a buffbot second character) and some of my favourite combos have been:

Empathy/Energy Defender duo, really any Emp/* duo. Emp/Sonic would be the best.

Fire/Energy Blaster + Dark/Rad Defender. Safety, a big -Res patch, and heaps of AoE damage.

Sonic/Energy Defender + Peacebringer. Lots of AoE knockback, and 85% Resistances to all but Psi for the PB in Human form. The PB can also heal both parties regularly Makes for a wonderful tankmage duo if the PB gets aggro first.

FF/Sonic Defender and Kin/Electric Defender - Kinetics and Force Fields really shore up each other's deficiencies. Pick your secondaries as you wish, but Sonic Blast is probably optimal once again for any two Defenders.

All of these duos have regularly taken on AVs without any problem.

I've suggested before creating a IO that turns knockback into knockdown.

I suspect many powers are balanced around the fact they do knockback. Repulsion Field in Force Fields or Repel in Kinetics, for example, become insanely powerful if they do Knockdown - stand next to a +5 boss and keep him permanently disabled.

Bonfire in Fire Control or the Blaster epic would be ridiculous as a knockdown damage patch.

The milder examples like Handclap and Energy Torrent become more useful when they do knockdown. This would be worth sacrificing a slot for if you wanted it.

And this puts control in the hands of the player. I'd hate to get on a team and have the leader dictate how my powers behaved.

If you 3 slot them both with Blessing of the Zephyr:

a) You're 30-40 million poorer
b) You get +6.25% Def vs Aoe And Ranged on top of the 3.6% base from both powers.
c) You get Knockback protection.

So it's kind of worth it if you're rich.

In any supergroup where I've climbed the Prestige ranks and earned a lot for the group, Ive always felt like it was totally unappreciated.

From running my own personal group, you dont need huge amounts to build a decent base, so I'd say its overrated from both sides.

I found myself contemplating a Dark/Sonic Corrupter the other day, and it seemed like a good combo.

Sonic is lacking a bit in self-damage mitigation, and the To Hit from Dark Blast would work rather well.

I take it that AoE defence comes from Aegis sets? They're very nice in Sonic, I've found.

Surely whatever animation node calculations are done when you create a character could be re-done when you leave the tailor screen?

I understand that the current engine may not do this, and that the original coder who worked on this may not still be around, but it doesn't sound like an insurmountable coding problem.

I'd always figured that the reason we can't change height was due to UI layout - the height slider isnt accessible even on the Scales Tab - and you do it on a different screen in the creation process.

For the record, Megrim, it did used to work pretty much as you described, way back in I5 or I6 maybe?
I think bosses used to have a base 75% chance to hit instead of 50%, which lead to underperformance by defence based characters like Ice Tanks and SR scrappers.
This then got fixed to the current system and the idea of a soft cap was introduced.

And this board exists for the purpose of asking questions about Defenders. Don't be put off.

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DrMike: Build Up, Aim, Zapp may take out a +2 minion. Watch out for energy resistance (Rikti, I think some Malta, some armored Crey) throwing off your results. Blasters have two alpha damage boosts for a reason.

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Good point, Fulmens.

I've always alternated Build Up and Aim rather than stacked them, because otherwise its somewhere between 30 and 45 seconds (depending on Hasten) for them both to recharge.

Waiting between groups sort of negates the advantage of the high damage output that allows you to put each group down so quickly.

That said, I am experimenting with a "burst damage" blaster at the moment who specialises in nobbling bosses as quickly as possible, and have been stacking Aim and Build Up. Its very satisfying.

And yeah, I'm all too aware of who has Energy resistance and to what extent. Sappers have 50%!