Scientist

Back in the original game the markets weren't mixed, so I had a bots/traps MM without a lot of Inf. The redside story arcs involve fighting a lot more AVs than the blueside ones. I soloed over a dozen AVs on SO enhancements on the way to 50, when I actually started investing in IO sets. I don't know many other ATs that can solo AVs on SOs, without more skill than I have. :) As others have said, though, Traps is not for the ADD. You need to be willing to set them up and tinker with them to get the best results. It does have one of the most powerful -regen debuffs in the game, though, which is relevant to soloing AVs and GMs. I suspect Cold would work well too, it has great -resist debuffs, but it may need even more global recharge than Traps, which is expensive. I only ran a cold/sonic defender, not a MM. Rad and Dark also have good AV tools, but a lot of AVs are mezz heavy, which is a problem for them.

I know on my bots/traps MM I was soloing most AVs in the various villianside arcs by the mid 30s with SOs and common IOs, not even sets yet, maybe a bit of frankenslotting. You can do a lot of prep work with /traps, though, and Poison Trap floors their regen pretty well, so if you are careful eventually you can win.

There are no, and never have been, assurances that NCSoft won't shut this down. What this setup of a LLC means is that if NCSoft comes in and sues them, the most money they can get is whatever is in their LLC account to pay for servers, as you mention above. They can't go after the individual assets of the people running it. That is how the "corporate veil" works, providing they are careful and don't co-mingle funds. So this provides a lot more protection for the people running it. I think that is all we can get for now, unless NCSoft comes to some kind of license agreement with them. I don't think there is a downside regarding NCSoft coming after them, either way it is pretty clear they are not trying to profit from NCSoft's intellectual property, so it still depends on (1) if NCSoft finds out, and (2) if they care.

For anyone who wants more detail about the different support sets defenders get, which powers are "signature powers" of the set, which ones to skip, I found this guide by Silas again. https://guidescroll.com/2011/07/city-of-heroes-support-guide/ It is written in a tongue in cheek enough way that it will make entertaining reading even if you never plan to play support. :)

That is a downside to the Traps powerset as well, it is great if your team allows you to prepare a battlefield and fight in it, or the fight is hard enough that your powers will recharge anyway between spawns, but much less useful in highly mobile situations. The FF generator follows you around, but some other things are ground placed and sit there. Playing a Mastermind with a defender secondary can be a nice change of pace after being a defender trying to support a team that keeps having TPKs because they Won't Do What You Tell Them, dang it! :) Regarding Gameboy1234's post about healing, he is correct that some healing is certainly useful in many situations. I typically take Aid Other with a Traps powerset for spot healing, and it is enough, same thing with a FF defender. I do recall running into a Rad defender once, though, who took Radiation because with Hasten and Accelerate Metabolism he could have the fastest possible cycle time on his Healing Aura, he didn't have either of the toggle debuffs. I did try to explain to him that he was missing the point of Rad. . . Also, prepare yourself for getting "nice heals" on your defender after supporting a team through a tough mission even if you didn't throw any heals. They may not know exactly what you did, but at least they know you did something. :)

I agree that the Dark set is very potent, enough so that IMHO it works well on a Corruptor, paired with Fire, for example. The Dark placeable slow, Tar Patch, works nicely to pull mobs into, then drop Rain of Fire to melt them as they slowly try to run out of it. Try that with a Fire/Kin corruptor and prepare to die a lot, as Overclock can testify. :) Tar Patch's only downside in some AV fights is that the AV may not stay in the patch, whereas the Radiation toggle follows them. Potentially into other groups, aggroing them, which could be bad, always tradeoffs. Also if the defender is mezzed, Tar Patch doesn't drop, Enervating Field does. I would add two other points to the original post by Overclock. First is where do the really useful powers come as you gain levels. Radiation, Storm and Dark, for example, get their signature, AV-debuffing powers quite early. Radiation, in particular, has its main tools by about level 10. The upside is that you have them even exemplared down to low levels, and you have a long time to enjoy them. The downside is that the play style doesn't change a huge amount getting to 50. Later designed powers like Cold, Time, Traps and Trick Arrow tend to get their big debuffs significantly later in leveling. Second, later designed powers like the above mentioned Cold, Time, Traps and Trick Arrow tend to have their big debuffs on long timers, so you may need Invention Origin set bonuses on top of things like Hasten to make them operate full time in a tough AV fight. In particular pay attention to which powers in which sets get -Resistance debuffs, since that is the only debuff AVs don't resist. Archvillain class foes have, as mentioned above in another post, something like 85% resistance to debuffs like -regen, -accuracy, -defense, slow, and so on. A -Resistance debuff just reduces their resistance and increases the damage the whole team does to them.