Ringo

For a Fire/Kin, this thread might help:

Could you share your armored offensive empath build? I'd love to see what you did Though looking into it further - it seems that only Fortitude and Clear Mind truly benefit from being on a Defender (at least, I don't think the difference in heal values make a huge difference in play?). The Auras and Adrenaline Boost are equal across ATs. Is the 30% Vigilance damage boost one of the reasons why you chose soloing a Defender instead of a Corruptor?

I don't think I've ever really looked at the Empathy set since 2004. It was just never my cup of tea, looked boring and uneventful. Smash cut to today where I'm finally thinking, "Hey, I've done almost everything in this game - maybe I should finally give Empathy a go!" Only to find out that Recovery Aura and Regeneration Aura are on EIGHT MINUTE TIMERS?!? just... why? and why does anybody play this set?

Earth/Rad would be my first pick. Rad is a great set that can feel a bit unwieldy to play due to the anchor toggles. Earth is a pure control set that has a great slow patch in Quicksand with layered control stuns, holds, and knockdown meaning anything less than an AV is going to stay exactly where you want them. The messiness of /Rad solved! Also as an Earth controller you won't be doing *any* damage so none of those "I just debuffed that group only to kill them, what a waste" working against yourself bad feels! Instead, you lock 'em down, you debuff, and everyone asks if they can up the diffculty because it's too easy. Job well done, controller!

One thing I'm learning with the new Shocked! effect is that even if my character isn't built to completely drain mobs, I am definitely benefiting from partial end drains. So be sure to use Short Circuit to your advantage! Maybe even slip an endmod IO in Ball Lightning and Voltaic Sentinel just to amp yourself with that boost to damage

It's your Buffs/Debuffs that will carry a team forward in Hardmode. /Dark and /Poison are debuff sets (dark gets a better heal and a better rez) that should be welcome on any HM team

Both combos are great on teams! /Dark has a strong toolset that's always helpful while /Poison is a bit more specialized as its strength shows the most against hard single targets. Plant/Dark will be easier to level as you get Seeds of Confusion early and never look back. That combo will be able to engage large groups of minions and lieutenants with little danger and dispatch them quite quickly (for a controller). You'll most likely need to layer your holds on Bosses, and EBs and AVs will be your undoing (solo) as /Dark will provide mitigation but controller damage without Containment just won't cut it. Fire/Poison is a bit trickier. You get your poison debuffs early which is nice, and fire has good controls, but you're going to be aiming each powerset at different enemy types, with fire doing most of the work on regular groups of mobs, and poison for cracking the hard targets that can't be controlled. However at 32 you'll get your imps and they will be a strong contribution against those targets you've debuffed So - smoother leveling with Plant/Dark vs full fire blossom at 32 (34 really for imp slots) with Fire/Poison

Tell me more about that Ice/Stone! @Without_Pause

Maybe stuff each build in its own Spoiler tag? That's a lot of text

Yet in a case of thematic irony, Forcefield bubbles look cooler than Ice shields

Less passive - more selective! Who you target and why is not only very important to staying alive as a Defender, but also important with your Buffs and Debuffs

There's a difference between soloing and on teams. Solo - yeah, you're going to need to get creative. You have no mez toggle like the armor sets. Generally no hard controls. And you cannot shoot through mez like Blasters can with their t1 and t2 powers. Things get a little more exciting! Plus you're using Cold Domination whose shields don't actually protect you. So yeah - get creative out there! Teams in my experience, have controllers that tend to pull aggro (and thus get mezzed) because they're attempting to lock down mobs that have, by definition, not been locked down. On live my Main was an Illusion/Forcefield controller and my dumbest impulse was always to try and save the team from over-aggro by using Flash to lockdown a spawn. All it did was make me faceplant. Controllers, everybody! Defenders mostly shouldn't be doing this. You're on a team. Someone besides you (Melee, Blasters, Trollers, Doms) should be doing enough damage to draw aggro or keeping mobs locked with Mez and Taunt. Keeping those teammates alive means you should be relatively untargeted. If the defender is the one regularly getting pancaked then someone (whether you, teammates, or both) needs to make an adjustment in how they're playing. But yeah - you're not any of those other ATs. Kill it before it kills you? Not likely! Lock it down with soft controls? Only if you work at it! Why not buff the Tank and let him smash for you? That's the ticket! That's the Defender Way! (the opinions expressed here have no connection or endorsement from The Defender Way)

But wait - there's more! I decided to switch out Dark Embrace and Power Boost for Thunder Strike and Charged Armor You gain Energy Resistance, which is good, but lose your Tox resistance and some of your NegEnergy and Psi resistance as well. But you also get that sweet sweet high damage attack for your rotation. It looks like its base is around 90 dmg and Screech is 82 dmg. Unclear how much of that Thunder Strike damage will be spread through the AoE though. Anyway, pretty cool!

Okay, so I was out leveling my Sonic/Nature Corr and it gave me a bit of a feel for what I'd do with your Defender. So here it is! Pros: 48% Ranged Defense 75% S/L Resistance (without running Tough, which isn't slotted to run), all other resistances over 40% Recovery, Recharge, and Runspeed Debuff resistance Amp Up is only 3 seconds shy of Perma (when Hasten is up) Your 3 Damage Cones and your High powered Single target are all well slotted Screech, Dreadfull Wail, Rejuvenating Circuit, Insulating Circuit all have good Procs in them +200 HP, decent Recovery and Regen +36% Accuracy Cons: Hasten has 20 seconds of down time Shriek and Screech are your only two single target attacks (I think this is fine because ElecAff is a very busy set) No "Cheap" powers beyond Shriek and Screech. Because you're relying on your Cones everything you cast is gonna take 7-10+ end. It's not Storm levels of hungry, but you're gonna want to throw out a lot of energizing circuit to get that blue bar full No damage buffs to speak of (but you're a Defender so) No Leadership buffs besides Maneuvers Anyway - there it is! Let me know what you think!

I'll look at the builds in a bit, but you just inspired me to make an Elec/Nin Blaster and I am thankful for that!

Also watch the comedy Teenage Bounty Hunters on Netflix for drawing some inspiration (mostly from Bowser). It's fantastic. It's just a single season cuz it got Netflix'd a month after it came out.

Psi Melee paired with Dark or Bio Armor? Both sets have visually obscuring armors that could be close quarters shapeshifting. Psi Melee is a fun set with telepathic fists, energy blades, and Mass Levitate which can easily be a mix of both Psi and Shapeshifting powers. Plus Boggle! (I've never used Boggle) Plus with different costumes, mixing and matching armor colors with Min or No FX options can create some very different looks Brute gives you your offensive powers faster but Tanker gets a huge Mass Levitate radius. I feel like a Martian Manhunter Bounty Hunter is more Brute. Get in, get the job done, and get out but perhaps not much more than by the skin of your teeth. If you were more powerful you'd have a better job than bounty hunter. Unlike Lobo who does his job for the fun of it and loves being able to tank a long fight, even though that's the very last thing a working bounty hunter (who gets paid per bounty!) would want to do

I've been looking at this and fiddling with it, but with no Mids updates to the Sonic changes it is slow going

Well that's a new alt costume for my TW tank sorted!

So if you had to pair Elec Affinity with a Secondary that isn't Electric Blast, what would you choose for Hard Mode content?

The build posted does not have a datalink that I see

Broadsword is a heavy hitter, right? So I would probably want to make big numbers with either Scrapper or Stalker crits. As for Secondary, because you have Parry you want anything that's not a pure Defense set, and nothing that's going to make enemies run away from melee (Burn). However, a Defense set would allow you to delete Parry from your rotation or build if you desired. So that gives you Dark, Elec, Shield, Willpower, Regen, Rad, and Bio. Invuln has both Resists and Defenses, but the defenses are Typed so don't stack with Parry. Sword and Board is a fun look and Katana can't take Shield Defense so that would be my first pick.

Okay, I did it! It took me awhile, and I still didn't slot those extra 2 LOTGs, but I've put together the Elec/Elec that I would play: Thanks to @Voltak for their Elec/Elec Defender build in the Defender forums, it gave a better idea of what I wanted/needed. With the except of a few Procs, every slot in the build is working towards Ranged Defense, Recharge, and Resistances, either by actually enhancing a power or giving Set Bonuses. I've also noodled around with when powers are taken. Pros: Increased Max End, End Recovery, Max HP Softcapped Ranged Defense, Increased AoE Defense Increased S/L/E and Psi resistances More Global Recharge Increased Recharge and Runspeed Debuff Resistance You have Short Circuit now, it'll drain just under 50% of your foe's end, and it's Proc'd to give you a heal, knockdown and -res your foes. Cons: 10% less Regen Decreased Melee and Typed Defenses Decreased F/C/N/T resistances Decreased Global Accuracy, +Damage, and +Endredux Decreased KB protection (from 14 to 13 with Faraday Cage) All in all, I'd love to have another 6 slots or so to work with. Otherwise, I think I might have to roll one up! Let me know what you think

Love those defense numbers - but note that Evasive Maneuvers is suppressed whenever you do anything so turn that off when looking at defense totals (and back on when looking at end usage). End Usage vs Recovery is painful, but as an Elec/Elec I'm guessing it plays a bit better than it looks. One thing I see is that you're chasing Recharge with some sets when you still have 2 LOTGs that can be slotted. I'm going to give it a go in Mids and see if there's a way to put this together more to my personal tastes, then I"ll post it! added: actually.. wait. Why don't you have Short Circuit...

I love it, but I rarely pay attention to Insight and I didn't pick up Boggle. So I'm probably playing it poorly. But it's been fun to level, and Shield Charge > Mass Levitate> Psi Blade Sweep is very fun