Garent

So it does. Both its recharge debuff and defense debuff resistance are granted to teammates in the area.

I'm not sure what you mean by check twice before an escape. If you mean "if a target is held by choking cloud, will choking cloud have two chances to reapply the hold if its hold duration is 10 seconds" then the answer is yes. You're not going to have 1 in 400 enemies being unheld though.

I can't be sure of course, but I think it's by design that defense debuff resistance is only available in self only powers.

Minor changes. Changed slots around to get Gaussian's juicy 2.5% defense boost. I changed irradiate over to pure obliteration, since the achilles' heel proc is only noticably more effective than a damage proc if you're up against a boss or higher, and you already have neutrino bolt to put the debuff on those. If it were me, I'd take a knockback protection piece out to get a spare slot, but you seem to have gone for 8 points on purpose so I left it as it was.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.81
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Accelerator Ray: Level 50 Science Defender
Primary Power Set: Kinetics
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Psychic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Siphon Power -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 1: Neutrino Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Achilles-ResDeb%(11), Dev'n-Hold%(13), LdyGrey-%Dam(19)
Level 2: Transfusion -- Nictus-Acc/Heal(A), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(5), Numna-Heal/Rchg(5), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(15)
Level 4: Irradiate -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(7), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(7), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Oblit-%Dam(15)
Level 6: Siphon Speed -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(9)
Level 8: Increase Density -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(21)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 12: Speed Boost -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Winter-ResSlow(A)
Level 16: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(21), LkGmblr-Rchg+(25), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(27)
Level 18: Inertial Reduction -- Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(A), Zephyr-ResKB(19)
Level 20: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 22: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(23), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(23), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(27), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(33), GSFC-Build%(42)
Level 24: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-Psi/Status(25), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Aegis-ResDam(46), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(46)
Level 26: Transference -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(37), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(40), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(40), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(43)
Level 28: Cosmic Burst -- Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(A), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(29), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(29), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(31), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(31)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(34), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34), LkGmblr-Def(37)
Level 32: Fulcrum Shift -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(33), RechRdx-I(33)
Level 35: Neutron Bomb -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(36), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), Posi-Dam%(37)
Level 38: Atomic Blast -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(40), Oblit-%Dam(43)
Level 41: Dominate -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(42), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(42), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(43)
Level 44: Mass Hypnosis -- FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg(A), FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(45), FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg(45), FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx(45), FtnHyp-Plct%(46)
Level 47: World of Confusion -- CoPers-Conf/Rchg(A), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(48), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(48), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(48), CoPers-Conf%(50)
Level 49: Mind Over Body -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(50), TtmC'tng-ResDam(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 4: Ninja Run

The personal shields on defenders are very powerful, and a controller's shields aren't bad at all, so you should easily be able to give up a little defense.

I agree with you on forge and resurrections. Power of the phoenix actually costs almost twice as much as other rezzes do and recharges in almost twice the time. Power of the phoenix is definitely much better than most other rezzes, but 49 endurance is pretty serious (it costs even more for masterminds). It always seemed to me like thermal had purposefully nerfed later powers, under the rationale that resistance buffs + healing was a really good combo and the rest of the set's buffs/debuffs would need to be weaker to compensate.

Going for the 45% damage boost on my storm/sonic. My endurance is fine, my accuracy is okay since I have ridiculous defense debuffs, recharge would be kind of useful, but since it's a pvp character the damage will end up being more useful. Getting a defense debuff boost along with it makes it the obvious choice.

Dark blast isn't a set that works extremely well on corruptors, since it's a set with DoTs where each tic does not individually check for scourge. So it's a matter of 10% damage+scourge vs. 25-33% stronger buff/debuffs

On the storm side of things, the defender is definitely better with stronger defenses and a freezing rain that lowers resistance more than the corruptor version does. And if mids is accurate, both defenders and corruptors have tornadoes that do the same amount of damage, but the defender's lightning storm does more damage.

I'd say go with defender.

It's definitely not true that the worst solo primaries are the best team primaries. Moving on from that and on to specific suggestions...

On healing aura: "You can literally take damage in excess of the amount healed DURING the activation time."
This is how the game works. Preventing damage intelligently is better than trying to heal through it with brute force. If you're taking damage, take measures to stop it from incoming, and THEN heal yourself. Better yet, do both at the same time. The power doesn't root you, so dash behind a wall and heal yourself at the same time.
Your fortitude change as suggested is actually a gigantic nerf to the set. Only a few people on teams will be taking the brunt of abuse. The empath's biggest strength is being able to specifically buff those people who need it with one of the most powerful buffs in the game instead of spreading it out among everyone.
Clear mind: Go for a click PBAOE instead of a toggle.

Forge is fine as it is. If you really want to buff thermal and pain domination, rebalance their resistance debuffs so that they are in line with the drop resistance debuffs in other sets. In order for this to happen, anguishing cry needs to drop to a 60 second recharge, and melt armor needs to be 80 seconds. This gives them a 50% up time without enhancements, the same that tar patch has (and freezing rain sort of has).

Pain domination is already a pretty survivable set, and a mag 2 stun in anguishing cry would do very little to improve what they have.

Everything else are things I either emphatically agree with or don't care too much about.

Ice and archery are both good choices.

Desert Owl is pretty cool.

Acrobatics and integration work this way too. It's a little unintuitive, but like others said, there might be some powers that would benefit from this type of thing.

Agree with life drain. Disagree with torrent. Lich's version was changed to knockdown because pets can't strategically use knockback. Players can. It may be hard to use, and it may not always be possible, but that's how some powers are.

If you ONLY care about the shield, then electric's armor is the best.

You aren't given the contact. You just walk up to Arbiter Rein and he helps you out. He's the guy standing right outside the grandville tower. He won't show up on your contact list until you talk to him.