Gulbasaur

Storm is one of the few sets that's just mathematically stronger on a defender - better -res debuffs and Lightning Storm does more damage. None of the storm pets trigger Scourge, so it's tipped slightly towards defenders. Elec just isn't very hard-hitting, though. If you want to vary it a bit, I found storm/water exceptionally powerful from pretty early on and the two sets have very good synergy. The difference between the two isn't nearly as much as people assume. Storm is a weird set because in higher levels it does more damage on a defender (it's a primary power set so the numbers are higher apart from Tornado, which is the same). Solo, the difference between the two is pretty slim (from Vigilance) and in teams the better -res debuff from storm evens it out pretty much. Defenders also get an endurance discount from teaming.

It only affects how quickly you can summon it (which, you're right, is useless). Recharge isn't passed onto any pets because it messes with the AI attack chains too much, from what I remember. Something about it ending up with them spamming their quickest recharging attack again and again and not using anything else? Damage procs etc do get passed onto pets*, though (or at least all the ones I've used). * under certain conditions - see underfyre's post below.

Several bosses are only really effective in melee - Silver Mantis is one that springs to mind and she does fairly significant defence debuffs as well as hitting very hard. Hover allows you to stay out of range while controlling aggro. On a defence-based tanker, she can wear you down even with high debuff resistance. I had an easier time dealing with her using Hover on my defender than I have using any melee archetype as she spends most of the fight jogging from place to place unable to do anything other than her one ranged attack occasionally. Hover can also be used as a way of dealing with knockback on sets that don't mitigate it - it keeps you locked in place, which is very convenient.

@Croax please don't take it as me being negative - I think this guide is amazing and I've referred back to it a few times and I totally agree that one of the best survival strategies is violence... but I also think you're underselling SR a bit and maybe underselling dark, which is an absurdly sturdy set in practice but sort of middling on paper. I find the scaling resistance quite useful, particularly when soloing difficult targets (as well as synergy with the reactive defences scaling resist IO). There's something very, very nice about watching your damage resistance rise through a battle when you're out of inspirations. With IO bonuses, it pushes it up from the twenty-somethings to the sixty-somethings when you really need it, which is quite respectable and has a tangible impact in-game. Control effects like recharge slow and fear allow you to take on more dangerous situations earlier by lowing the attack rate, which is effectively what defence does (it alters how many go though, fear and slows alter how often they occur). Anyway, thanks for the excellent guide and thanks for your response!

As someone who invites lowbies into incarnate content to give it some challenge... I really don't think we'd see that. The game community is so anti-meta in team composition I don't think it'd be a problem.

Late to the party, but a few minor corrections (to what is otherwise a really great guide): Agile and Dodge both provide scaling damage resistance. The scale is: minmax(60 - source.kHitPoints%, 0, 100) / 60 * 0.25 Res(Smashing, Lethal, Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative) for 0.75s Which means that you get 1% damage resistance for every 4% health you are below 60%. I mean, it's not great but it's not None. Interestingly, Arachnos Widows get a similar mechanic but theirs starts at 75% making them a bit sturdier out of the box. A lot of the Widows' Teamwork power set looks like it was modified directly from Super Reflexes and, frankly, improved a bit in the process. Widows are kind of control-stealth-support-scrappers that can crit from stealth, rather like pre-rework stalkers but with mezzing ability. . Dark Armour provides a bit of defence, although it's not much. It also has a boatload of damage mitigation in its two control toggles - enemies that aren't even trying to hit you aren't rolling to hit. It's a much stronger set in practice than it is on paper. It does hammer your endurance, though. It switches into a control set for two powers and that makes is really, really good - controllers were the backup tanks in the pre-CoV days.

Time is a fairly broad (and pretty strong) debuff set, so as long as you stay in mid range and keep enemies in your aura, you're very tanky... But you'll also suck up aggro like a high end vacuum cleaner. I also found electric control lacks a bit in raw damage. Maybe someone like a brute, tanker or blaster would be a good pairing, but honestly it's such a flexible game that almost any pair will work.

One thing I tried and found worked well was supplementing the melee attacks with the Fighting pool (the two Force Feedback procs are nice). Peacebringers don't quite get the same benefits from being in the middle of combat that Warshades get, but they have a respectable amount of PBAoE so you really can just hang out in the middle of the fight. I'm also inclined to say you don't need to use KB-KD converters as long as you're moderately sensible. Peacebringers do have a lowish baseline damage, which means you get good returns on damage procs. Ignore the haterz. Peacebringers work better in practice than on paper.

It would wipe all your endurance. Nothing a few inspirations couldn't fix.

I was trying to get more Street Fighter references in but, as we can see, I got distracted. Other thoughts included a caltrops-like power where you threw chicken feed onto the ground and that was the only reliable way of moving them around the map. If any game designers are reading this, PM me to discuss my luxurious rates as professional muse.

Oh, masterminds then please! All of the minions are just more chickens. Power Level Effect HadouHEN 1 Ranged, Chicken (chicken) Call Chickens 1 Summon 1-3 Chickens Poultry Excuse 2 Ranged, Chicken (but with a knowing look) Roost 6 Ranged, Chickens now summon more chickens Hurricane Cluck 8 PBAoE, A sudden onset of chickens (chicken) Call More Chickens 12 Summon 1-2 More Chickens Clustercluck 18 Summon Other chickens (calls approximately 10 chickens) Call Chicken 26 Summon Chicken Establish Pecking Order 32 Ranged, Chickens cease infighting. Establish Pecking Order is recommended for all builds because without it chickens attack enemies, other players, each other and furniture.

Because of the lower baseline damage, you get good mileage out of damage procs. While Kheldians do get a stacking damage bonus from teammates, peacebringers are never spectacular on the damage front so every little helps. The usual resistance set recommendation choices apply: the two 3% defence bonuses and absolutely all and any recharge you can get to keep Light Form uptime as high as you can if that's the route you want to take. I know it might feel blasphemous, but with Light Form uptime permanent you can drop Dwarf Form more or less completely.

Beast mastery or savage assault, surely

HadouHEN!

I completely agree with this - the only time I put it into Build Up is on a stalker because of the beautiful ATO synergy. On anything else, putting the proc in Tactics gives you very good returns - on a full team it has about a 20% uptime and that increases when you've got pets involved, making it a nice little damage bonus. Then again, Tactics' usefulness varies wildly between ATs. On a defender or a VEAT, it's very decent. On a blaster, it's fairly minor.

Thanks for the absurdly good guide and the discussion that followed. I mained a PB back on live (after getting a defender to 50) and played one on here. I'd like to give a human-form a go, but with a focus on melee (fortunatas have ruined me for non-hybrid builds). How viable is is with the fighting pool to fill out the attack chain? I like the fighting pool; it's a complete proc-magnet and while none of the powers are amazing, they're also perfectly adequate. Anyone done this?

I really disagree - I think the game lost a lot of risk when blast sets lost their crash on the nukes. In a game where it's easy to end up fairly overpowered, we need more powers with a calculated risk. Anyway, I do use the Rad T9, although it's very much more of the same. To be honest, I don't think I really remember to use it a lot of the time. What I really like is Dark Armor and the nonstandard T9 being a rez power that does control and damage - as DA is a very tanky control set, I think that really works. Do I use it? No, DA is bloody indestructible, but I like having the option of something more mechanically interesting than "be a bit more tanky for a bit".

Couldn't agree more - between Temporal Mending and Time's Juncture (~25% to hit debuff with regular enhancements at level three) it's very strong from very low. You've just got to stay in melee or mid range. It doesn't offer much offensive support but it's a giant safety net. Farsight at 18 is, as you say, pretty strong pretty early.

Try one of the trials, like DFB or DiB. Meg Mason has timed missions in the hollows. The Kings Row missions can slot in anywhere. I think Positron 1 starts at level eleven.

You absolutely can. Kick and cross punch also take the force feedback recharge proc, making them very useful as filler attacks that ramp up your recharge enormously.

Equally, I have tanked +4 Mot with lower than 45% and my main issue was teleporting teammates far enough away that they could rez safely because they kept getting chomped by the floor AoE. 45% isn't a magic number. Teammates usually provide quite a lot and you can do fine with lower.

Definitely. Faultline and First Ward are the two best arcs in the game, in my opinion. Night Ward doesn't feel quite as good because it doesn't seem to reach a real conclusion (though it's picked up later in the New Praetorians arc) but it's still good. Glad you're enjoying it! Just a warning when you get to Ward - make sure your difficulty is fairly low for the final mission. Due to where the 'hospital' point is it's possible to respawn with full aggro and die immediately, trapping you in a cycle. It's either fairly easy or legitimately impossible to complete because if you get overwhelmed once you might as well give up.

Time can be built to tank and is a strong set all round. Its focus on debuff and control make it very solo-friendly. Traps is great, although you have to be mindful of positioning a bit. Corners are your friend. Storm solos very well, although it is something of a late-bloomer in terms of being able to deal with bosses. It obliterates minions, especially if paired with an AoE heavy secondary like water blast. Dark does pretty well solo with a strong heal and a lot of debuff. I think the rez can also rez you, but you have to time it exactly. You also get a pet, which is a novelty. Radiation gets the job done very well because it has a bit of everything. That's the traditional "I can solo anything" defender build. Kinetics is probably too late blooming and has little by way of damage mitigation beyond healing and a relatively small damage debuff. In terms of secondaries, I'd recommend dark or water. Both have a heal that you can attach an endurance proc onto. Dark debuffs ToHit and water just has a lot of knowdown, which is very useful.

Oddly, the only thing I could remember about winter events was the hench baby. Skyway's roads don't actually seem to connect once side of the city to the other. I don't think you can follow the roads from tunnel to tunnel - they're two big loops that almost cross over. Have you seen the drivers? They swerve if anyone so much as looks at them funny. Cycling would be more dangerous than walking.

They're decent on smaller teams. The CoH meta seems to be very focused on teams of eight with everyone spamming AoEs. Small team stuff is usually more challenging and requires different tactics.