What Kind of Defender(s) is Most Capable of Soloing?

[00Troy00]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy teaming with a good group, but sometimes good groups are hard to come by.

[ZorkNemesis]

Defenders solo pretty slowly with their low damage and general lower defenses.  That isn't to say they can't though and if built properly Defenders can wreck faces on their own.  If you want to solo, my recommendations would be to pick a blast set that has strong debuffs and/or proc potential; Dark, Pistols, Ice, Water and Energy (don't underestimate crowd knockback/knockdown potential) come to mind.  And also pick a Support set that focuses more on debuffs as party buffs aren't the best without party members or NPC helpers; Dark, Time, Cold, Poison, Traps or Trick Arrow would be good in that department.

 

But maybe an actual expert would have better advice?  

[Nemeroff]

1 hour ago, ZorkNemesis said:

...  And also pick a Support set that focuses more on debuffs as party buffs aren't the best without party members or NPC helpers; Dark, Time, Cold, Poison, Traps or Trick Arrow ...

Hi, (I don't claim to be an expert) as mentioned "debuffs," and for solo-ing Poison would work because you don't need that many powers from the Set. This frees up choices for Secondary damage.

Frosticus had a great Poison guide.

here

Edited July 19, 2021 by Nemeroff

[KaizenSoze]

Once, you build out a proc monster Trick Arrow/Dual Pistols.

 

You can solo just fine. Of course, depending on the level and mob types.

 

 

[Ankhammon]

a lot of this depends on what you mean by can solo. Are you talking about by todays fire farm standards or by more of the traditional view that you can deal with maybe +1/+3 or something like that?

 

If you are talking the latter, you can easily do that with many different combo's defenders offer. I might suggest a nice Naff/DP or a Time/Elec that are out of the ordinary but very nice.

More of a power player perspective can be had with TA/Dark, TA/Sonic, Time/Dp, Time/Ice, Dark/Anything, These are several who can do this without the cookie cutter build tendencies like tough/weave, maneuvers, etc.

 

If you can get em, procs make up almost any issue you have with damage, the biggest trouble is knowing when to hit with what power on a defender and managing any vitamins you might need.

Once you find your rhythm, we Defenders can do lots. but finding a fire farmer is gonna be tricky.

[nethod]

traps def

[Doomguide2005]

Traps/Fire was my choice for a hardcore SG run on Live.  Solid defense pre-IO, mez protection in FFG and Fire blast for damage.

 

Late developer but Storm/Sonic was an early AV killer pre-IOs.  A ton of debuff potential combined with Storm's damage output.

 

Storm/Dark, able to stack stuns, proc potential, to hit debuffs.  AoE immobilize plus Hurricane.  In general an abundance of CC options.

 

Many strong options as noted above in the thread.  And many 'weaker' choices when you add in IOs plus p2w options can be quite capable.

[MoonSheep]

poison/fire is well documented, great solo machine and genuinely good damage if you can manage the endurance cost

[oedipus_tex]

I'm going to put money on Trick Arrow/Beam Rifle or Trick Arrow/Water. I haven't played the former, played the latter til the late 30s prior to the recent buffs. These sets fill the holes in the opposing set well, while allowing you to remain fully ranged. 

 

I'd add Trick Arrow/Ice if I didn't happen to think that's probably better played as a Corruptor.

[Ankhammon]

20 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

I'm going to put money on Trick Arrow/Beam Rifle or Trick Arrow/Water. I haven't played the former, played the latter til the late 30s prior to the recent buffs. These sets fill the holes in the opposing set well, while allowing you to remain fully ranged. 

 

I'd add Trick Arrow/Ice if I didn't happen to think that's probably better played as a Corruptor.

Tex,

 

As usual, your choices are good. I do mildly disagree with your view on TA/Ice as it can range tank very nicely (had one on live back in the day). Then again, i get the rain powers on Corrupters being awesome.

 

One more to add for TA/ combo's:

TA/Dark does a really fine job as well. lovely immob with no kb protection in it for your osa is extremely good. the extra -tohits fill in well with the massive up front -tohit of Flash arrow leaving you not needing a lot of defenses to get you hardly ever hit, and even a self heal (like water). Only issue is lighting the osa on fire and that is easily fixed through several different ways.

Edited July 24, 2021 by Ankhammon

[plainguy]

Don't defenders get a 25% damage bonus while solo ?

[Doomguide2005]

5 hours ago, plainguy said:

Don't defenders get a 25% damage bonus while solo ?

It scales, maxing out at +30% with 0 teammates and losing 10% for each teammate to a minimum buff of +0%.

[Force Redux]

9 hours ago, Ankhammon said:

Tex,

 

As usual, your choices are good. I do mildly disagree with your view on TA/Ice as it can range tank very nicely (had one on live back in the day). Then again, i get the rain powers on Corrupters being awesome.

 

One more to add for TA/ combo's:

TA/Dark does a really find job as well. lovely immob with no kb protection in it for your osa is extremely good. the extra -tohits fill in well with the massive up front -tohit of Flash arrow leaving you not needing a lot of defenses to get you hardly ever hit, and even a self heal (like water). Only issue is lighting the osa on fire and that is easily fixed through several different ways.

 

Seconding TA/Dark as very capable soloing. Right up there with the tried and true Dark/Dark. 

[EmperorSteele]

On 7/23/2021 at 6:53 PM, plainguy said:

Don't defenders get a 25% damage bonus while solo ?

 

Yeah but 25% of 0 is still 0 =P

 

I kid, of course, but I think the basic point still holds merit. 

[Troyusrex]

My Storm/ice/ice defender is a monster. Not as good as my fire/fire/pyre blaster, but not too far off. I solo +4/+8 content without trouble (I do have amplifiers running to help with being mezzed). 
 

it’s been so long that I don’t remember how it was to level him, but now he solos very well. 

[Vulpoid]

Way back when on live, I took both a Dark/Dark and Rad/Rad to 50.
I was solo at least 80% of the time and found them both very enjoyable. Great Fun.

[Teirusu]

Having just leveled up a Time/Rad/Soul Defender; I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the combination.

 

Power Boosted Farsight that doesn't drop during the few times you might get mezzed?  Yes please!  Stacking the +Def uniques plus one or two +DEF (all) powers to hit that sweet sweet soft-cap against.. everything?!  Ohhhhh yessss... pleeeeease and thank you!

 

Heal yourself with Temporal Mending and an awesome recharge and recovery boost from Chrono Shift?  I'll take that too!

 

Time's Juncture that doesn't push people out of the debuff field like Hurricane?  In-fact, it tries to keep them in there with slows?  That's great too!  Of course, it can be argued, that's a great thing about Hurricane... just depends on how you feel about it.

 

 

It's only main drawbacks is the lack of some mez protection which can be dealt with in various ways, not that you get mezzed much though.  And, of course, that it doesn't bring any additional direct damage to the table.  Although, since you'll get a pretty great ToHit buff from Farsight and you'll want to build for +Recharge in-mind, you can somewhat make up for that depending on how you build.

[Force Redux]

@Teirusu coincidentally,  my heroine Chronicity, also a Time/Rad/Soul, invoked the same thoughts as well. Character is tanky, and an AoE beast, solos well, but brings a lot to a team, too. I have most of my attacks slotted with two procs... Helps up the damage. 😀

 

[Doomguide2005]

53 minutes ago, Force Redux said:

@Teirusu coincidentally,  my heroine Chronicity, also a Time/Rad/Soul, invoked the same thoughts as well. Character is tanky, and an AoE beast, solos well, but brings a lot to a team, too. I have most of my attacks slotted with two procs... Helps up the damage. 😀

 

In general since procs aren't effected by AT mods Defenders benefit the most from procs.  But procs are something I was just starting to look at when my computer died so I'm definitely no expert on them currently.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I'm a firm believer that any build is soloable, but that said, I'd probably focus on the primaries that don't have team buffs.  

 

 

[Ankhammon]

Quick Time/Ice story that might help some understand just how good  a defender can be.

 

I'm on a full team pug doing mid 20s missions and we pull an escort. everyone but me an the tank start to leave with the person we were saving when an ambush (+1s and +2s during the fight) comes out at me an the tank. Tank says I got this and i think to myself "maybe but i gotta stay to keep him active". Fight ensues for about 3 or 4 minutes and he runs to other side of the room cuz next wave hits outside of my protection and tank faw down.

He starts screaming bloody murder cuz there comes a third wave. I'm tanking them at this point while the rest of the team runs back to me.

They show up disjointed and all fall down.

Now i'm the only one standing while everyone (except the tank) goes to hosp and runs back. By the time they get back I'm still standing and have half the baddies down (one more ambush showed while they were gone).

Everyone jumps in as a group and we finish off the last of the mobs to complete the mish.

Tank sends tell to me saying how he never knew a defender could do that. I never let on that his faceplanted self allowed me the end discount to keep going.

 

This was all with SOs only and vitamins.

 

All defenders rock and can solo. The only question is what kind of procs you will need to up your damage to a sufficient level so you can do more than just neuter the bad guys.

[Teirusu]

Yeah, I actually have a very similar story to Ankhammon's.  Just the other day, I was running TFs with a stream and a few of their friends.  The last one we ended up running was a Synapse.

 

Fortunately, I had grabbed some P2W amplifiers because 'Ugh, synapse..'.  Anyway, as a challenge, we started it on +3, oh boy..!   The Tanker was a Willpower/ whom was in their high 40's and, as far as I could see, was either on SOs or Generic IOs, from what I could recall looking at their info.  Fortunately, they were a really smart tank and learned quickly just to corner pull and dump mobs onto me.

 

Soon, we had gotten into a nice pace of him training the mobs onto me half-way across the map as we sat at the near start of the map happily chewing them away.  Once most of the spawn was dead, they just went off and grabbed more.  It was interesting, fun, and different!  Clearly showed off the power of Time's ability to tank with a good build.

 

Definitely not something I'd be able to do on my Thermal/ Corruptor (Or Defender, if I had one) anytime... ever.

 

Here is my build, in-case anyone was curious.

 

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.0.5.6
https://github.com/Reborn-Team/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Time Manipulation
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Power Pool: Sorcery
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temporal Mending -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(3), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(3), Prv-Heal/Rchg(5), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(5), Prv-Absorb%(7)
Level 1: Neutrino Bolt -- SprVglAss-Dmg/Rchg(A), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), SprVglAss-Rchg/+Absorb(9)
Level 2: Time's Juncture -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(13)
Level 4: Irradiate -- SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg(A), SprDfnBst-Dmg/Rchg(15), SprDfnBst-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), SprDfnBst-Rchg/Heal%(19)
Level 6: Temporal Selection -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg(19), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(21)
Level 8: Mystic Flight -- WntGif-ResSlow(A), WntGif-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng/EndRdx(36)
Level 10: Distortion Field -- UnbCns-Hold/Rchg(A), UnbCns-Acc/Hold/Rchg(21), UnbCns-EndRdx/Hold(23)
Level 12: Time Stop -- SprEnt-Acc/Hold/End(A), SprEnt-Acc/Hold/End/Rchg(23), UnbCns-Dam%(25), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(25), NrnSht-Dam%(27), GldNet-Dam%(27)
Level 14: Hover -- BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(A), BlsoftheZ-ResKB(29), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(29), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(31), Ksm-ToHit+(31)
Level 16: Proton Volley -- SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg(A), SprVglAss-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), Apc-Dam%(33), TchofLadG-%Dam(33), AchHee-ResDeb%(34)
Level 18: Farsight -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), HO:Membr(34), HO:Membr(34)
Level 20: Time Crawl -- PcnoftheT-Acc/Slow(A), PcnoftheT-Acc/EndRdx(36), ImpSwf-Dam%(36)
Level 22: Spirit Ward -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(37), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(37)
Level 24: Rune of Protection -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(37), Ags-ResDam(39), Ags-Psi/Status(39)
Level 26: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(39), Rct-ResDam%(40)
Level 28: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 30: Aim -- GssSynFr--Build%(A)
Level 32: Chrono Shift -- Prv-Heal/Rchg(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(40), PreOptmz-EndMod/Rech(42), PreOptmz-EndMod/End/Rech(42)
Level 35: Neutron Bomb -- Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(43), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Rgn-Knock%(43)
Level 38: Atomic Blast -- Arm-Dmg/Rchg(A), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Arm-Acc/Rchg(45), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Arm-Dam%(46), Erd-%Dam(46)
Level 41: Dark Embrace -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(46), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(48), UnbGrd-Max HP%(48)
Level 44: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 47: Slowed Response -- ShlBrk-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(A), ShlBrk-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(48), ShlBrk-%Dam(50), AchHee-ResDeb%(50)
Level 49: Soul Drain -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 1: Vigilance 
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clr-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 1: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 1: Health -- NmnCnv-Heal(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(9), Mrc-Rcvry+(11), Pnc-Heal/+End(11)
Level 1: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-End%(13)
Level 49: Quick Form 
Level 50: Intuition Radial Paragon 
Level 50: Freedom Phalanx Reserve 
Level 50: Portal Jockey 
Level 50: Task Force Commander 
Level 50: The Atlas Medallion 
Level 50: Degenerative Radial Flawless Interface 
------------

[Ankhammon]

15 hours ago, Teirusu said:

Yeah, I actually have a very similar story to Ankhammon's.  Just the other day, I was running TFs with a stream and a few of their friends.  The last one we ended up running was a Synapse.

 

Fortunately, I had grabbed some P2W amplifiers because 'Ugh, synapse..'.  Anyway, as a challenge, we started it on +3, oh boy..!   The Tanker was a Willpower/ whom was in their high 40's and, as far as I could see, was either on SOs or Generic IOs, from what I could recall looking at their info.  Fortunately, they were a really smart tank and learned quickly just to corner pull and dump mobs onto me.

 

Soon, we had gotten into a nice pace of him training the mobs onto me half-way across the map as we sat at the near start of the map happily chewing them away.  Once most of the spawn was dead, they just went off and grabbed more.  It was interesting, fun, and different!  Clearly showed off the power of Time's ability to tank with a good build.

 

Definitely not something I'd be able to do on my Thermal/ Corruptor (Or Defender, if I had one) anytime... ever.

Cool story. And nice build too.

 

You got Atomic Blast down to 37 second recharge? That gives me ideas.

Might Have to try out that  Poison/Rad I've never thought about.

Or maybe a Naff/Rad/Psi with damage/hold/confuse toggles. 🙂

 

[Sir Myshkin]

All Defender builds are capable of traversing the City-Verse solo, but there isn't necessarily a "top" performer because each will have small pot holes that take experience to fill.

 

However, some are better suited to solo work or have abilities centralized to benefit the caster, which (in no specific order) would be: Storm, Dark Miasma, Nature Affinity, Poison, Time Manipulation, Traps, Trick Arrow.

 

Storm is the most aggressive option, and if I had to blanket pick just one Defender, period, it would be a Storm/Energy. I can also get NAff/Energy setup to play similarly which ends up making it a contending second.

 

More considerable analysis on these topics can be founds in my signature!

[Android Nim]

Trick arrow/fire is a ranged beast. Good solo...great on teams.