Thank you. I played this same toon on live, but never made it out of the 20s I don't think, because I didn't want to team with any melee characters and drive them nuts.
Another thank you for the pointers. I had thought to use Gale to just keep things knocked down, but with Tornado and Lightning Storm up so often, it probably won't matter. I was just using the explosive strike set for the ranged def, but it was a weird fit. I was slot starved, so dropping one of the 2 initial powers and not slotting so much will help. I wasn't sure on Irradiate since I don't want things close to me, so thanks for clearing up its benefits. Back to Mids now to make adjustments. Maybe with the differences I can figure out what Epic to take.