Erratic1

So I keep fiddling with the latest's Brute's costume and spiraled into the following two: Really like the gold on the left one but like the color dynamic on the one on the right. Probably I will end up slotting both. But then it came to me to go another direction, and rename the character too to what I think will be his final name: Ikaros

Each of the Defender primaries comes with ways to support yourself and your team and each Defender secondary comes with ranged damage capability. There is a lot of variety in what the primary sets do so I am not sure there is a specific, "Take X, Y, and Z" approach to making a good Defender. A lot comes down to what you want to get done with your Defender. I played in Beta and came into Live with my first character being a Defender (Radiation Emission/Electrical Blast). I was one of the early advocates of Defenders using their Blast sets and not just staring relentlessly at health displays ala, "You are not fully playing the class if you do not use all of its tools". But that is me. In the last two weeks I have been on TFs with two different Defenders and at a certain point I realized with each of them, "They are not buffing anyone in the party despite having buff powers." I knew that because I pulled up the team display and checked. I had to wonder why they had powers they were not using at all, did not think their withholding use of those powers helped the teams they were on, but also did not say anything as I also do not believe a person's play has to fit mine or anyone else's notions. Had I not been on TFs, I probably wouldn't have even wondered or noticed in the first place, just on a TF I really kind of expect everyone to be on page about supporting each other and it would be rude of me to drop, like I might in other situations. So take this a personal view: Fully use your primary and secondary sets, adjusting as the moment calls for it.

As Dr Strange is not known in the Marvel universe for his damage dealing capability, I have to say it is a pretty good fit. 😛

I have a resistance-based character with a -To-Hit Aura (Rad armor) who took an epic power which also had -To-Hit for somewhere around -30% To-Hit when both were in effect (subject to whatever resistance foes have to being debuffed that way). It did seem effective, but the second power was something you had to hang on a target and did not apply to things outside the radius of the power shooting in at you.

Just because you have no added defense does not mean you have a 95% chance to be hit. At even level you have a 50% chance to be hit. So the res cap character above takes 0 damage half the time as he is not hit, and half the time he takes 10 damage for 100 total. Level difference between foe and player modify the hit chance.

Agree completely with the above. Cap F/C/E/N Def, cap S/L Resist. I use a slightly different approach: Did you just surround yourself by six or more foes? If yes, pop Parasitic Aura. If no, neither (2) nor (3) below likely apply (outside of AVs or giant monsters). Is your health down by 25-50%? Pop Ablative Carapace. Is your health down by more than 50% and Ablative Carapace on cooldown? Pop DNA Siphon. My Bio is SS, so Offensive is not really adding a lot to things (probably under a 10% damage boost to what you're doing if you are at 85% Fury with Rage up). I built him to operate in Efficient stance and rarely depart from it. I expect to go in, start swinging and not stop until everything is down...group after group...repeated unto infinity. Very much agreed.

It was back on Live and well before I ever used set IOs. It was a hidden gem. I wondered at the time, "Why aren't more people playing this combo?" I would even ask that of the few other DM/Elec Brutes I came across and they would shrug and mostly say, " It is our little secret." No, Foot Stomp does not get the area boost. It is still pretty awesome though. But hey, I run an SS/Bio Brute so....

I have run it on both a Brute (DM/Elec) and a Tank (Elec/Rad). Really it comes down to what you want to do and Elec provides nice support either way. I will note that as fantastic as Elec is, Rad Melee was hungry...so very hungy and I do not think that would change regardless of AT. If you are going Savage I would say Brute so Fury can boost both your damage field and bleed damage. Super Strength could go either way.

In the subway tunnel you break line of sight and things will come to you. I am not saying Fold Space has no use, not at all. But the times when locking everything down immediately is beneficial is usually much less than waiting a bit. I do not play control often, but when I do I try to keep that in mind.

One of the most annoying things about playing with stasis-loving controllers--they lock enemies down the moment they see them. "Did something dare move? I say thee NO!!!"

Speaking as a Fire/Bio Sentinel player, there is something to be said for popping Ablative Carapace, popping Aim as you run in, and then letting lose with Inferno + Fireball once you arrive (throw in whatever aoe you might have grabbed from an Epic if you want).

Theft of Essence in Dark Regeneration may help a powerset combo whose individual powersets are endurance hungry, but I would seriously suggest building this on the test server and taking it for a spin. It can be quite annoying to have to break up attacking to use an endurance recovery power and the gap between your resting endurance recovery and expenditure is a very low value of 1.4, suggesting your attacks are going to chew through that with ease. If you activate Focused Accuracy the gap drops to 0.8. If you are satisfied with the rate of Dark Regeneration use, no problem.

A potential strike against Energy Melee would be Power Crash not being affected by arc changes (according to City of Data). Of course a lot of people skip Power Crash (madness if you ask me...it cannot be that hard to take a step back) so perhaps the strike was already there.

I refer to it as, "Putting my foot down."

Depends on what you think the purpose of a damage aura is. For me, it is generally a tool for keeping things interested in me without me hitting them directly. YMMV. As goes the comparison of Blazing Aura and Dragon's Tail... I do not think a passive, toggle ability from a defensive set should really compete with an active ability from a damage set in terms of dps. 5.8 dps is 46% of 12.48, delivered far more endurance efficiently. The character making use of Blazing Aura + Dragon's Tail will finish off their group of opponents in under 70% of the time it takes the person who just has Dragon's Tail (and that assuming they have gotten it down to firing every 5 seconds). As such they will have been exposed to fewer attacks. (Of course, nobody is going to actually fight a spawn using just those two attacks.)

The biggest downside with Shield, as goes damage, is that when you are not fighting a pack, the damage boost from Against All Odds is minimal. As goes the lack of damage aura...you could pair it with Radiation Melee and get one there. Between the damage aura, splash damage via the Contamination mechanism, and the fact you squeeze a heal out of consuming contamination it might not be a bad pairing, even if a bit endurance intensive.

I got this far and pretty much stopped. I seriously hope you reported this message and encourage you to do so if not. I disagree, vehemently in cases, with other posters here, but the above is not disagreement, it is personal attack and harassment.

StJ's mechanic involves building combo points--not something I would say is low maintenance. I would look at a powerset where there is either no or a minimal mechanic to keep track of. As goes low maintenance with (some) benefit from FF, go Invulnerability. It has one click-to-activate power--a heal. In theory you should not be using it much.

People fondly misremember "the old days", actually forgetting all the warts, pain, and time spent doing things which were minimally fun, if fun at all. Routinely when an opportunity to relive those days is provided (think other games) there is a splash, a bunch of people flock to relive those days...then population plummets as reality hits. I remember street grinding in Atlas and Brickstown, the annoyance and deadlines of snipers in Founders Falls as you tried to get to missions while also not getting too close to Devoured Earth encampments. Nothing I really need, though more power to those who presently think they do (until they find out otherwise).

I used to get thanks for making use of intangible powers in desperate and appropriate situations on my Gravity characters, but I have to say the uses were not frequent. I shudder thinking about the one team I was on where the person used their intangible power on every pull. EVERY PULL! They seemed to think they were making life better for ranged characters, but I could not see why I would want to get close to targets to be able to impact them and so excused myself from that group.

That is what I have done, 😁

I am playing him exclusively with friends whose ability to play varies, so he is only level 26. Still, Seismic brings a nice chunk of control (which I knew going in from having a Seismic/Time Blaster) with its knock ups and knockdowns. Throw in Fear and Tar Patch and at times it feels borderline abusive with all the ways you have to keep things in a tar patch, particularly when you can sneak up on most things via Shadow Fall. But that is facing the things you face in the 20s (redside) and there are plenty of opponents with nasty tricks of their own which will likely be more unpleasant. Hopefully it holds up at higher levels.

I made the Seismic effects as dark as possible to suggest solidified darkness. (Yeah, I know its not a recent post.)

Energy Melee

You would be far more correct than the acronym. Metagaming - Wikipedia