Best Endgame Defender for Duo and Group Play

[Mr Endeavor]

What are your favorite defender healing/support power sets for endgame for and why? I'm leveling a Fire/Fire Tanker along side a friend who wants to be a healer/support. I've done some reading on the forums and discord and it sounds like for the first power pool that Storm and Time are king, but what about for the second power pool? What are your favorite defender matchups and why are they good for duoing and group play?

[Psylenz0511]

9 hours ago, Mr Endeavor said:

What are your favorite defender healing/support power sets for endgame for and why? I'm leveling a Fire/Fire Tanker along side a friend who wants to be a healer/support. I've done some reading on the forums and discord and it sounds like for the first power pool that Storm and Time are king, but what about for the second power pool? What are your favorite defender matchups and why are they good for duoing and group play?

It's hard to say which is the best. For support on a group, level 45-50, just pre-incarnate, I would say that forcefield brings capped defense, mez protection and endurance drain protection ( I am looking at you, carnies and sappers). Everybody likes kinetics too if they even go to Null the Gull to tone down the run speed factor.

 

Personally I think water blast and sonic blast are hard to beat for secondaries, ymmv, for grouping, but for sheer proc recharge buffs to the defender: /energy with the KB>KD and the Force Feedback +recharge makes a very strong case for MORE fortitude, MORE storms, MORE heat loss, MORE defender goodness 😉

I saw it in a signaure, what this team needs is MORE defenders.

[Dahkness]

Time and poison. Together makes a world a better place 

 

To be honest. Anything /Time is perfect endgame duo. They both can take dark mastery(souls drain) so no need for a kin unless you just want pure over kill. Calrion+Farsight takes care of the rest. No need to really slot for ACC. You can proc out your attacks. You can fit in fold space super easily on defenders so you can just move mobs and get a constant souls drain buff at its maximum. This is with 50+ in mind. I don’t play anything under that so Bubbles for lower lvl or Ice. Anything that offers DEF I guess. 

Edited June 22, 2021 by Dahkness

[Psyonico]

I'm going to recommend Rad/Sonic, it's an oldie, but a goodie.  Lots of debuffs, AoE heal, endurance management, and if your tanker dies, you've got fallout to boot!

[Doomguide2005]

     Well, *cough* healer says to me Empathy, Pain or Thermal as they have direct, no foe needed healing powers.  Several other primaries also have heal and/or regeneration powers some quite potent but I personally wouldn't say are thought of as healers by the player base at large.  My personal favorite is Empathy but the real advantage of a static pair is you can decide what strengths to beef up and what weaknesses to shore up with via your partner (vs doing it yourself).

     Fiery Aura is a resistance based armor with a self heal, an end recovery power and self rez.  It lacks much in the way of defense and has no kd/kb protection.

     Given the above what holes is your buddies Tanker filling himself and which will you fill.  And likewise what is he going power up and what are you strengthening.

     Where I'd probably say Thermal (for the resist shields) for Tanker primaries based on defense) I'd say you'll want defense on Fiery Aura.  And you want as much recharge as possible to get Burn, Healing Flames, Consume, and Fiery Embrace ready asap again.  Of the above 3 Empathy will provide the most defense especially with Soul epic for Power Boosted Fortitude and Soul Drain to up the Empath's damage output.  But I'd also say with capped or near capped resists plus soft or Incarnate capped defenses and healing flames up every 10 or 15 seconds with high recharge a "healer" is not what you need and something like Cold, Forcefields or Time would work as well or better.  Healing Flames should be all the healing you need on top of passive regeneration.  Keeping your eye out for defense debuffers will be the concern.

 

     Again the greatest strength for a dedicated (aka static) pair is building to maximize your own synergy.  Don't think about it as 2 sets paired with some other 2 sets.   It's 4 sets working together.

 

     Given that I really think Cold/Ice or Cold/Dark are your best bet.  Cold brings strong debuffs, and defense shields for all.  And Ice brings slowed movement, -recharge and holds.  And then there's Dark which has a real winner in a cone AoE immobilize.  No running away from Burn or Sleet or anything.  Both run Tactics, include Kismet and probably no or minimal need of slotting accuracy in anything (not even needing much global accuracy).

Edited June 22, 2021 by Doomguide2005

[nebber]

Endgame, and duoing, a well-built tanker should be very survivable and good at gathering mobs for AOEs and debuffs.  So a complimentary defender would be one that speeds up the killing (...ahem, "arresting") rate by damage/speed buffs and/or resistance debuffs, and who does appreciable amounts of damage themselves. 

Heal sets (like empathy) and def/res sets (like force fields) sadly aren't as valuable for endgame. 

 

My buddy and I ran brute & defender/corruptor duos, which is similar to what you are proposing.  We ran Rad, Time, and Kinetics.  All of these are good in their own way. 

 

Rad is a well-rounder and kinda 'easy mode'.  Fire off accelerate metabolism when it's up, initiate fights with envenerating field for the -res, spend most of your time blasting, mash heal button if anyone is hurt.  It works well from a distance so you can pick a blast set with cones and targeted AOEs - fire and ice pair well, sonic is a classic pairing with more of a single target focus, but you can stack crazy -res on hard targets.   Other bonus of rad is the powerful -regen in lingering radiation, makes AV fights much faster.

 

Time brings a fairly good ally damage buff, good speed buffs (so you & your teams' big attacks are back sooner), an okay res debuff (fairly long recharge on it), good defense boost (this would be complimentary to the fire tanks resistance-based shields).  It's slightly more clicky/busy with the primary relative to rad, but you can still spend a lot of time blasting.  Like rad, works well with ice and fire.  Dual pistols is another popular / good option.  

 

Kinetics is, like, extreme mode.  Running around speed boosted and damage capped from fulcrum = bringing the pain, i'd say kin brought the fastest clear times of all the duos we ran.  It is very busy as a primary, less time to blast when you are fulcruming, siphoning speed, hitting transference because your blue bar keeps emptying, and mashing the heal because the set offers little def/res buffs.  I prefer corruptors over def for kin - you get more damage output.  Kinetics likes being close to the mobs so having sets with PBAOEs/targeted AOEs is preferable over cones.  Rad blast is a very good pairing - easy to use in melee, def helps your kin powers hit, fair damage, good -res/ dmg proc options.  Fire is another classic pairing,

 

I'd say -- If you want to be able to duo AVs easily, I'd lean torwards rad.  If you want to blow through large mobs quickly, kinetics.  If you want to be kinda balanced between the two and also provide a bit more protection for your tank/team, then time. 

[RageusQuitus2]

On 6/22/2021 at 2:25 PM, Doomguide2005 said:

Given that I really think Cold/Ice

Really well thought out.  Good advice to the op.  That duo should melt stuff.

[rockroom]

well i typed out a whole page.... detailing like 7(8 if you count kin but lol we all know that one) sets... then power outtage FML...

 

k ill do a quick summery... 

i duno if you plan full set builds so this is off IOs but you can build your tank friend for dam as you cover def..

everything is saying you are using maneuver.

all is 3 slotted with level 50 IOs in def

and your fire/fire tank has 3 slotted def IOs in weave, maneuver and 1 in combat jump. = 15.22% def [ 3 in combat jump not worth it takes to up to only 16.05%) (steady and the PVP IO adds 6% more but I'm going of you guys self funding no help from mains) 

 

1)cold (good def 37.24(with stealth so is a little lower), - 500%  regen - recharge +hp for your tank(fire has nice self heal)

2)dark (- to hit pending aim bosses with 3 -to hit IOs  you will have like - 35 to 45%[ pop darkest night before tank goes in. FYI] -500% regen[put into one hell of a rez if your tank ever falls can be used for more the rez] no heal but fire tanks got that covered)

3)storm ( hurricane is your lover.. io you need to buy is the  sudden knock back to knock down.. it also with no IOs has a -37.5% to hit.. just one io and your at -47%... some + def but stealth so yeah. nice - recharge - fly - speed - res - def  and you add some dam with tornado and thunder storm {add knock back to knock down in both if you can afford})

4)rad.. we all know rad.. does everything down side no + def for your tank but a nice -31% hit from radiation infection. so makes up for it.

5) time.. time is amazing. far sight is perma(3 recharge reduce) with well times chrono shift and haste rotations { don't set them both off at once. rotate so one is half way off cool down then hit the other} has - to hit has a ally dam, recov and that booster.. all around good but rotating haste and chrono will take practice

6)trap.. good - regen nice + regen(though crap recharge and only heal but fire has its own) decent + def(just remember wear that bot is) - res and def. just remember wear the bots are..

7) poison not much in the buff your tanks def area. nice - to hit ( -44.57% with 3 IOs easily casted on each group) a lot of debuffs to enemy's and a really good heal(single target though but with 3 heal 2 recharge 1 end. every 2.18 sec heal him for 45.33% hp for 9 end.) you dousing so one target heal is all you need

8)kin.. do I really need to explain this one.. crap tone of dam boost ,regen ,recove ,recharge ,movement speed. but if no enemy's you got nothing past one skill.

 

got my brain and fingers hurt now.. wish you saw the huge post i made. were i had gone into full detail... arg

 

if you want more details on a few of them let me know ill do a basic IO build of your fire/fire tank friend and you( ill need your 2ndary you plan on). ill explain the totals and how the pair would work

Edited July 7, 2021 by rockroom

[rockroom]

so i got bored lol.. 

im not the best mids builder but this what i came up for as a team player..

 

use magic carpet or the disk till 50 when you get group fly as the fender..

 

ok so below build gives 35.2% def to your tank. you are over caped on def. you have perma hasten and perma benumb for AVS

 

https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1444&c=671&a=1342&f=HEX&dc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

 

now here is how you should have your friend do his tank. you make up for lack of def on him. allowing max S/L res among other stuff..

 

 

 

https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1394&c=650&a=1300&f=HEX&dc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

 

 

im sure someone can make a much better build for each other set up. but im happy with how they turned out.

 

you both end up with 50+% S/L def. he has 90% res to S/L/fire. both have End for days a really good self heal on him (50% every 10 secs)  sonic blast helps make up tanks soso dam. should be a solid end game team up

Edited July 7, 2021 by rockroom