Which Defender power sets are most focused on enemies?

[Heraclea]

Probably ought to make a Defender since I have one of everything now except for EATs.  Even managed to like a mastermind. 

 

Which defender power sets have very few expected or key powers targeted at teammates and most targeted on enemies?   Had to shelve the Kin on old live.  I'm thinking Dark or Rad.

[Luminus]

I dont remember Dark having any clicky teammate specific powers.  Even the rez power doesnt require you to target the dead ally, just be standing near him.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Luminus

[Frosticus]

dark, rad (except AM), poison, storm, ta

 

no one expects you to buff others when you have those.

[Coyote]

1 hour ago, Frosticus said:

dark, rad (except AM), poison, storm, ta

 

no one expects you to buff others when you have those.

 

I absolutely expect  a TA defender to be buffing my tank, and healing, too. Or else they're not playing a Defender correctly.

[Knottewe]

1 hour ago, Frosticus said:

dark, rad (except AM), poison, storm, ta

 

no one expects you to buff others when you have those.

You can add Traps to that list. Other than Triage Beacon, which is entirely skippable, and FFG, which you want to take for selfish reasons, it's all damage and debuffs.

[Peacemoon]

2 hours ago, Frosticus said:

dark, rad (except AM), poison, storm, ta

 

no one expects you to buff others when you have those.

Frosticus is right here.

 

Just to add that AM from Rad is a PBAoE buff on a long recharge, so you wont have to target any allies specifically. It also helps yourself and you're not really expected to get the whole team with it.

 

Poison and Storm both have single target heals which require you to target an ally to fire. Rad and Dark heals are PBAoE around the caster.

 

[Call Me Awesome]

Dark and Rad are both top choices.  While AM is a great buff for the team it's ALSO a great buff for YOU so the fact that the team also benefits is just gravy.

 

Choosing between them is a tough decision... they both offer significant debuffs and they're both able to fill the role.  If you're thinking Dark/Dark you'll be able to absolutely neuter an entire spawn's ability to hit the team, my Dark/Dark back on Live was capable of maintaining over -100% tohit on a single mob and over -50% to an entire spawn.  It also offered a helping of +resist & +defense to you and the team along with -damage/resistance/regeneration.  

 

Rad/Sonic is another excellent debuffer, it won't nuke tohit like the Dark/Dark but it'll gut their resistance, drop their defense/tohit/regeneration while raising the team's damage, recharge, recovery and movement speed.

 

I don't think you'll be disappointed with either Dark or Rad; both can get the job done.  Dark may be a bit more fiddly with Tar Patch to manage but Rad has the two anchor debuffs that you'll likely only use later on against AV/s and other hard targets... teams kill off spawns fast enough that the mobs are dead by the time you get the debuffs out.  I tend to toss out Enervating Field at the start and then start blasting... it's a short animation and it deals -res and -damage.  Rad infection takes over 3 seconds to animate and it's a considerable -def/tohit so I use it on hard targets.  There's a reason both sets are considered top tier.

[Darkir]

My vote goes to a Dark/X defender, the only buff you have is a toggle. You will need to heal though, but there isn't really a set that doesn't have click buffs and no heals. Tar patch is also a wonderful power and it really helps to make everything die quickly. 

 

You could also try Cold/ and not take any of the shield buffs, but I don't think that's really in the spirit of the question.

[Redlynne]

Time Manipulation has ONE power that targets only allies ... Temporal Selection ... which is a +Damage, +Recharge, +Regeneration buff that has a 120s recharge and a 120s duration.  Not something you'll be casting a whole lot (although every teammate will want it).  Everything else is either PBAoE or Target AoE or Ranged.

 

Trick Arrow is nothing but "attacks that debuff" whatever you're shooting at, and NOTHING that you can do will buff an ally.

[Heraclea]

Thank you for these suggestions, they've been quite helpful.  Made a poison/dark blast defender because I had a concept that worked.  The long Jester nose mask makes a fairly good Plague-Doctor costume.

[r0y]

You probably have figured out by now that there are, essentially, two types of defenders:  buffers and debuffers.  Of course, there are a few that try to do both.  It sounds like you want a debuffer, and everyone and their mama has answered it, so I will as well, but I'll also rank them:

 

Defender Debuffers (from best to "less best"):

 

1) Trick Arrow — best debuff, pure defender set in the game, recommended only as defender primary.  Does not allow for too much blasting/other stuff.

• PRO:  has every debuff in the game, FAST recharge (always doing something) - some LOVE doing that, very low endurance use, get's Oil Slick / giant burn patch
• CON:  the -regen power is not perma, FAST recharge (always doing something) - some DON'T like that, has ZERO (nothing) for the team.  ZERO. ZILCH. NADA.  Not a SINGLE HEALING ARROW!!

2) Poison — great as a pure defender, good as corrupter/controller secondary, weak as MM secondary.  Allows for a lot of blasting/other stuff to do.

• PRO:  has strong -RES / -DMG debuffs with quick recharges, majority of it's power is in just two powers (Envemon & Weaken), poison trap as Nuke w/ procs, some team buffs (heal, anti-cc, rez with puke)
• CON: -regen is pitiful (-50%), poison trap ONLY good for proc nuke, PBAoE toggle is expensive, not as many debuffs as TA

3) Storm Summoning — strong controller or corrupter secondary, good defender primary (especially paired with sonic blast).  Best set to deal damage.

• PRO:  it's storm - played right, it's incredible; debuffs mob HEALTH better than any defender powerset, Freezing Rain, KB-to-KD procs make it very desirable now, strongest -ToHit in the game, gets a stealth AoE (steamy mist), a ST/Ally heal that really is -END resistance (stack it and laugh at Freaks/Clocks)
• CON:  it's storm - played wrong, you get kicked / people leave the team, must use KB-to-KD procs in 2-3 powers, it's the only real ATTACK Primary defenders get.

4) Traps — best as MM secondary for solo play, just OK for Corrupter, Controller and Defender.  Good for micro-managers (esp. with MM pets).

• PRO:  everything is a drop, so it keeps working while mezzed, etc., Poison Trap (not like Poison's, ironically) is -1000% regen, best in game; set is best soloing or in slow teams.
• CON: some drops can be attacked/destroyed, Force Field Generator goes away after 4min (why?) and needs resummon (or gets destroyed a lot); Acid Mortar is mediocre, lot of throw-away powers, takes a LOT of time to setup/get going, bad set for fast teams (iTrials)

5) Dark Miasma (hybrid buff/debuff) — better as controller or MM secondary.  Smart teams love TA and they love Dark.

• PRO:  best AoE heal in the game, but requires living target; best defender stun in the game (Howling Twilight) - n00bs take it as a rez; lots of utility and exotic stuff.  One of my favorite sets (that's a "pro" right?)
• CON: endurance and slot intensive, not for inexperienced character builders, not good for cheap (regular SO/IO) builds.  Really, not many cons for me...

6) Radiation Emission (hybrid buff/debuff) — better as controller, corrupter or MM secondary.  Pairs well with Sonic Blast (defender)

• PRO:  Very strong 1-2-3 punch (two toggles and an targeted AoE ) debuff opening.  Slow recharge, not much to do between lingering rad and AM, except aoe heal and blasting (many like that), Fallout is a nuke, EM Pulse is a nuke (for robots), Accelerate Metabolism is really good.  Heal is PBAoE. has a rez
• CON: Fallout requires you to fail (team mate defeated) to use, and hope they dropped in the middle of a mob.  Kind of boring to play (IMHO) on a pure defender, VERY endurance intensive, not for beginner builders nor for cheap IO/set building (need lots of end discounts and +recovery).

Now each of the sets and their descriptions can be threads (and probably are) in their own right, these are just my quick summary of them, with respect to "DEBUFF DEFENDER" with a couple hybrids thrown in (Rad & Dark).

 

My bias:  I would love to have a TA/Dark Miasma defender.  Or a Storm/TA.  Oh man.  I think I'll start a thread for that...

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by r0y
corrected envenom -regen (from 25% to 50%). Still pitiful.

[Uun]

56 minutes ago, r0y said:

2) Poison — great as a pure defender, good as corrupter/controller secondary, weak as MM secondary.  Allows for a lot of blasting/other stuff to do.

• PRO:  has strong -RES / -DMG debuffs with quick recharges, majority of it's power is in just two powers (Envemon & Weaken), poison trap as Nuke w/ procs, some team buffs (heal, anti-cc, rez with puke)
• CON: -regen is pitiful (-25%), poison trap ONLY good for proc nuke, PBAoE toggle is expensive, not as many debuffs as TA

Envenom has 50% -regen. May actually stack (not flagged on City of Data), but I haven't tested it.

[Frosticus]

28 minutes ago, Uun said:

Envenom has 50% -regen. May actually stack (not flagged on City of Data), but I haven't tested it.

it stacks. whether that is worthwhile in most cases is debatable. Definitely helpful vs gms.

[Peacemoon]

Great reply from r0y. I’m not sure about his ordering in terms of power though. Dark, storm and rad are definitely my favourites.

[Bopper]

3 hours ago, r0y said:

TA/Dark Miasma defender.  Or a Storm/TA.

By TA, do you mean Archery? I'd love to have double support sets 🙂

[r0y]

3 hours ago, Peacemoon said:

Great reply from r0y. I’m not sure about his ordering in terms of power though. Dark, storm and rad are definitely my favourites.

Ordered based on purest "debuff" defender.  I agree, I love dark and storm (rad is so-so with me), but those are definitely hybrid, from heals and aoe defense/res toggle stuff.  So I put them near the end of the "most debuff" list.

 

3 hours ago, Bopper said:

By TA, do you mean Archery? I'd love to have double support sets 🙂

TA = Trick Arrow.  I started a separate thread on Fantasy primary pairings...

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by r0y

[Psyonico]

Technically TA is the most focused on enemies, as every single power is targeted at enemies.  I personally love the set (have like 5 of them) but I'll be the first to admit it isn't the strongest set, at least until you get Oil Slick and EMP arrow slotted.

[Luminara]

On 3/21/2020 at 2:34 PM, Coyote said:

 

I absolutely expect  a TA defender to be buffing my tank, and healing, too. Or else they're not playing a Defender correctly.

 

*prepares Tetanus arrow*

 

Bend over, buff incoming!

[r0y]

On 3/23/2020 at 9:35 AM, Uun said:

Envenom has 50% -regen. May actually stack (not flagged on City of Data), but I haven't tested it.

Thanks for catching that; it is -50% Regen for the main target, -25% for the AoE targets around main.  I'm pretty certain I read somewhere that is does stack.  Even still, compared to other sets' -1000%, I'm pretty sure doing -50% every 8s or so will only net you a mathematically ideal amount of -250%.  I do spam it, but in the 30s it lasts, I'm probably only applying it 2-3 times before something dies (unless it's an AV or such); then I'm likely averaging -100% regen via stacked envenom.  That would be my rough guess, anyway.  And the benefit is, the constant -40% res debuff (I'm positive that does not stack, as -res never seems to in any single power).