Force Redux

Thugs/Poison conceptually comes to mind. But IMO Poison is best for big game hunting, not necessarily for grouping in trials and TFs. It can work, but that's not its strong point. It lacks protection for you and the minions, which is the weakness of MMs, and relies on debuffs. Its heal is...okay. I'd probably recommend Thugs/Pain to sort of keep up with the concept - the drugs dealt nullify pain and trauma and heal up the minions, and also weaken foes. Pain is better for MM pets and overall gaming than Poison due to some buffing and AOE healing. Its not going to be Thugs/Time but its a solid combo.

by air, i imagine you mean AoE? Yes, Staff does have better AOE, its one of the best sets for it, and does benefit from the recent buffs. However, MA's Dragon's Tail also benefits from the AoE improvements (with its singular aoe), and you can now get Dragon's Tail IIRC by level 16, which is much better. So MA isn't entirely bereft. I personally like the +Defense vs All Positions and All Elements (no Psi or Toxic) that Dragon's Tail offers. vs. Guarded Staff's 15% vs lethal / melee, but its really just apples and oranges, since they are well balanced vs. each other. If you do NOT have any form of DDR (ie, Electric Armor) from your Primary, I would go with Staff. The extra +5 defense vs. Melee is what you want to help buffer debuffs and Melee is where the most danger will come from. However, if you do have DDR from your Primary, I would lean toward Martial Arts, because you get a whole lot more Defense to spread across types/positions and you're more likely to keep it and not have it debuffed. Of course, the most important thing is, which visuals do you enjoy looking at over and over? Which sound effects do you prefer? That's really important. Other considerations: Staff has no 'No Redraw" option. Staff unfortunately has (IMO) a rather limited selection of models, most of which I find ugly. They need an elemental staff (fire, electrictiy, cold and darkness). And a Rularuu staff. 🙂 Staff has a little bit of range. Staff has its builder mini-game with its forms. Newer power set, so a bit more polish numerically. MA can be tweaked to be either mostly kicks, or more punches. I like the kicks better, personally, because the Street Justice moves are more punchy to me. MA allows you to do some control via KD, KB and Stun. You can actually do some serious stun stacking if you build for it. Its a bit random, but it is an option. MA lets you CHUN LEE kick Hellions into outer space. Honestly, this has more value than can be put on paper. And older power set that shows a little bit of age (in that the stuns are mostly % random and could use some increased reliability). There are also a lot of Single Target powers, so you won't need them all, just pick the three that work for you. There's no bad choice, I personally would decide how much AOE you can live with , think about how you enjoy the visuals/sounds, and what fits your concept best. These are both solid secondaries for Tanks.

Shield/Martial Arts. Looks stylin', decent (if not great) AoE, solid ST, and the bets thing about Tanker MA is the Storm Kick +Defense, which makes iCapping Defense super easy. Plus add in +damage, resists, and +ally Defense aura from Shield. Only thing I wish was different is the clicky mezz protection. Got enough regen to not worry about needing Aid Self, either. Even on farm maps. Solid all-rounder.

Obviously a feature toward your debt badges!

/em hold torch

Cutter, please immediately reroll to Brute to save the universe. Thank you.

Demons/Dark master race checking in 😀😀

This was mine but FF/Sonic as a Defender. Effective, especially for teams. A bit slow for solo. And you have to like cones. I enjoy mine for MSRs

Getting destroyed in a custom AE map, but it's helping me figure out my build. Now 49...

The ability to stow pets was present in EverQuest 2. Very handy. Would solve a lot of problems here.

Duly noted, and in retrospect I agree with you. I like your suggestion.

I find Repulsion Field is more fun to use, and with it's smaller size, generally more useful. If I had to choose... I'd go Repulsion Field. That said, I grabbed both. But I only have a proc'd out Force Bolt for personal attacks.

It's mostly a matter of building up funds again. I was down to 20 million at the time i created the character. Have to swap to play alts to earn some Inf.

Just hit 40, ran a Numina, Mortimer Kal and a some Tina McIntyre, felt really useful. With slots things are finally starting to come together, both in terms of recharge and durability. I'm very familiar with Time's teaming yumminess, but also pleasantly surprised by how well Rad meshes with the up close melee range of Time. I grabbed Soul Patron Pool, of course. Appreciate all the guidance both here and in game. 🙂 Becoming my favorite Defender! Damage is still a bit low, but I haven't done more with the attacks yet other than basic crafted IOs, no sets. So lots of room for improvement. That said, I was able to solo GWs arc at +1 just fine.

Of those listed, Thermal/Sonic would be my recommendation. Thermal has heals, rez, buffs and debuffs. Good ones. Sonic has stacking -resists, one of the best team secondaries you can take as Defender.

I like the idea of one less clicky. I would sign up for all of this. Like, right now. Nice suggestions.

I stopped just at the beginning of Capaldi's run. He just didn't grab me. Never made it to Jodie. As a fellow Gen X, let me tell you, it wasn't easy to nudge Tom over for David. Tom still has a special place. I grew up on 1970s BBC imports. I agree about Eccleston, I would have enjoyed another season from him if he had been willing to give it.

Pretty much this. Except on Illusion Controllers (for PA) or Dominators (for perma-Dom), I'm generally satisfied if I get Hasten down to 2 min 30 seconds recharge or less.

I was of the firm belief, until David Tennant. Now Tom is rank # 1.5, a hair behind. Heresy, I know, but hey...its DAVID F'N TENNANT!! 😛

TELEPORTATION POOL Suffers from being clunky. Let's try to change that. Recall Friend - functions just fine, and is useful and often requested on speed runs. Or for group wipe purposes. Leave as-is. Teleport - honestly, one of the few ways that Champions Online actually beat out CoH was in the implementation of their Teleport. The CoH version is clunky, difficult to use in small or confined maps, where you can't click, and it is anything but Nightcrawler-esque, with no finessse. The power should be overhauled: Teleport Cast 1.0 seconds Recharge: 12. 0 seconds Duration: 6.0 seconds Endurance: 13 seconds Effects: Grant Flight 6.0 seconds with high flight control., followed by 4 more seconds of no-control flight (when you reappear). Grant Phase Shift 6.0 seconds. Grant Invisibility 6.0 seconds. Affect Only Self 6.0 seconds. Invulnerability 6.0 seconds. What happens? You click and get six seconds to fly/move wherever you want, unseen, unaffected (because this simulates you being 'in between'), then you reappear and have another 4 more seconds of hover-ish flight so you can decide where to go next if in mid-air. Unlike current Teleport, you are not clicking every 3 seconds or so, so it reduces click fatigue on long distance map travel. You also can maneuver in tight spaces to without mouse clicking on targets, and thus can navigate things like Council caves. Teleport Foe - improve accuracy to 1.2 from 1.0; Reduce the cast time from 5.56 to 3.26 seconds. Team Teleport - this should function more like Assemble the Team. No one in all my years in CoH has ever asked to be teleported along as a travel power for regular travel purposes. Long Range Teleport - Teleporters should be masters of getting around. The cast time should be reduced to 3.0 seconds. In an age of many types of zone teleports (base teleports, wentworth's teleports, Pocket D teleports, Oro portals, etc), this power should be quicker and offer more versatility: Continue to allow porting to all existing zones. Add in ability to port to hazard zones. Add in ability to port to the current zone map's teleport location. If in a mission map, allow to teleport to the mission entrance. Perhaps allow for a second teleport location in each map only accessible to Long Range Teleport, although this may make the menu a bit larger, but with the reduced cast time, that should be okay).

Quick rundown on some of the changes I would implement. These are not complete, nor exhaustive. Most of my proposed changes are not radical, aiming for modest tweaks that are geared for QoL and/or making the powers a bit more attractive. MEDICINE POOL Alternate animations for either magical runes and/or self-empowerment (such as regen/willpower). Right now the tricorder appearance is ruined for any of my magical characters. Aid Other - Reduce cast time by 0.5 seconds to 2.43 seconds, improve the range to 40'. Aid Self - Reduce cast time by 0.5 second to 2.83 seconds. Injection - Reduce End cost from 13 to 10. Reduce cast time by 1 second from 2.93 to 1.93. Resuscitate - Reduce cast time by 3.0 seconds to 4.33 seconds. Improve the range to 40'. Field Medic - Make this a passive power. Removes interrupt from Aid Other and Aid Self. Keep the 25% Endurance Recovery to Aid Self. Add 25% Endurance heal to Resuscitate. Reviving without Endurance is nearly worthless. Keep the 25% healing debuff resistance. FLIGHT POOL Air Superiority - actually a fairly decent power pool attack, but could use a small bump in damage. Its about 31 on controllers and 62 on scrappers. So perhaps 10% boost. Hover - for the Endurance cost of 0.2 vs Combat Jumping's 0.07 (thus, three times more expensive), it should have a slight boost to base speed. Otherwise, I consider this power to be a baseline good power for what it does. Some small defense, plus the number one combat mobility power. Flight - the safest travel power. Improve its base speed, so as one person suggested, +flight enhancers placed in it actually can do something. Group Fly - right now, I only find utility for this with my Masterminds, as some maps are terrible for pet AI and pathing (layer cake room, some large Oranbega rooms, anything with a lot of Z axis). To prevent minion aggro, I need them to fly. This is another tax on Masterminds, really. This power should have the following effect: Inherit Flight: pets of any sort (minions, controller pets, patron pets, incarnate pets) inherit any Hover or Flight speed (no defense) that the owner has. Same speed. Thus, pets can follow the owner without issues or lagging behind. Same as when they run. I can't recall outside of perhaps a Hamidon raid that ANYONE ever asked for Group Fly. This power needs to be useful for pet owners, not team mates. Perhaps Null the Gull could allow people to flag themselves as a 'pet' for purposes of receiving this buff. That way, you don't have to OPT OUT, you have to choose to OPT IN. Which is QoL for those who just don't want the buff. Afterburner - This should be a passive that buffs Flight (above). Reduce the Defense to 3.0% across all ATs, but now it is available at all times. No more only affect self. This also would make the -Fly resistance and additional air control available at all times (for those folks who did NOT take Hover, and perhaps went the Air Superiority/Flight route). You are in pretty deep into the flight pool, so you would have some protection to keep it instead of being easily grounded. The power would lose the ability to be turned on in-combat, but would also gain a QoL that avoids one more button to toggle on/off. I can't count the number of times I've entered a mission and forgot to turn this off and buffed everyone, only to realize I only just buffed myself. LEADERSHIP POOL All the toggles need their Endurance cost reduced to 0.23. They are great powers, but they are a bit END intensive.

Oh dear. Thanks for reminding me of my favorite former Doctor! #LemonInWounds 😄

That's a nifty idea. I like it.

I'll add that Electrical Affinity is a very busy/clicky set and IMO I think it works best on masterminds, since their primary needs very little attention overall, compared to say a Blast or Control set.

My first MM ever was Mercs/Traps. Traps definitely can fill a lot of the holes that Mercs have (extra AoE, some control, defense, etc). I took that character to 50. There were no incarnates at the time. I would still recommend Aid Other/Self, as Combat Medic is not reliable unless you set him to Passive/Follow (then he'll stim and heal). Because Mercs is all about the DAKKA, might as well grab one personal attack just for the hell of it - you did want bullet casings with your bullet casings, right? So add some more. Go Mace Mastery for the Scorpion Shield (you should be able to easily softcap S/L/E, which are the three most prevalent damage types you'll encounter end-game), and you can grab Web Envelope for the extra AoE immob. It has a long casting time, but it will help keep things in the narrow Merc cones and in the Acid Mortar death zone. Thankfully, with the new AI changes, at least Mercs will stay where they are supposed to in your fortified area and in FFG range. That was not an option when i played back on Live, the Mercs were just all over the place.