Poison Defenders

[Crossie]

I RARELY see poison defenders anywhere.  Does anybody know what a good secondary would be to this and maybe even a build that's effective with teams? 

 

I wonder why I never see poison Defenders.  They seem like they could be powerful.  

[Psyonico]

Poison is kind of a weird set.  It's really good against single targets until you get venomous gas, then it is good at AoE too. But venomous gas changes your play style from ranged to melee.  I'd recommend a secondary with fewer cones.  I have a poison/water stuck around 35 because of the weird play style.

 

I'd say water is a good choice for secondary just because of the self heal and only 1 cone.

[Nayeh]

My main is a Poison/Sonic/Psychic Defender - it's my favorite due to thematic choices, play-style, and overall impact on teams. While I wouldn't particularly recommend this combination unless it was for thematic reasons - it definitely works and helps melt content with the additional -Resist debuffs. Also note, Sonic was also previously buffed. The recent changes of allowing you to skip the Secondary Tier1 ability and having access to abilities sooner - my character POPS OFF in much more lower level content than it previously did. Now I can pseudo-tank groups with my Venomous Gas and various debuffs active in a room ontop of CC.

 

If you're looking for synergy, effectiveness, and build-ability - I would recommend either Ice, Dark, or Radiation for the following reasons:

Proc-Friendly

Additional CC utility

Additional Debuff utility

Debuffs are further enhanced as applied with Weaken

Several IO Set options to Build with

Close-Medium ranged Friendly

 

 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Nayeh

[Uun]

I've also got a Poison/Sonic. The cones make it somewhat awkward in melee range, but it positively melts hard targets. You can maintain 85% -res easily and get as high as 125% with stacking of Envenom (you need 2 targets with 8 feet of each other) and Sonic attacks. If you're looking to avoid cones, Ice, Radiation, Water or Electric would be good options.

[SeraphimKensai]

I have 4 poison toons each a different AT. My poison defender is a poison/rad defender.

 

Any poison toons aside of a poison MM should be built to withstand the horrors of melee combat in my opinion. With radiation you have irradiate, neutron bomb, and atomic blast which are effective in melee for aoes that really pair well with poison. Your debuffs will really neuter things around you so there's not much damage coming in and mez prot used to be essential (still kinda is) as venomous gas would get toggle dropped but now with suppression it works out better overall.

 

Poison does use quite a bit of endurance so planning for that is useful.

 

But yes you can build a poison defender to tank AVs, mine has provoke for just such occasion.

[Crossie]

3 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

I have 4 poison toons each a different AT. My poison defender is a poison/rad defender.

 

Any poison toons aside of a poison MM should be built to withstand the horrors of melee combat in my opinion. With radiation you have irradiate, neutron bomb, and atomic blast which are effective in melee for aoes that really pair well with poison. Your debuffs will really neuter things around you so there's not much damage coming in and mez prot used to be essential (still kinda is) as venomous gas would get toggle dropped but now with suppression it works out better overall.

 

Poison does use quite a bit of endurance so planning for that is useful.

 

But yes you can build a poison defender to tank AVs, mine has provoke for just such occasion.

I ended up going Radiation after thinking it would pair well with Poison.  Do you have any build suggestions for this?  

[SeraphimKensai]

1 hour ago, Crossie said:

I ended up going Radiation after thinking it would pair well with Poison.  Do you have any build suggestions for this?  

I'm more willing to help you make your own build then just hand you one, so here's some tips...

 

Depends what you're ultimately looking to do with it. Typically with Poison you need only 3 powers from the primary as mandatory picks, and a potential fourth if you have say 5 or so slots to proc bomb it. Envenom/Weaken/Venomous Gas each work well enough using 2 slots a piece in my opinion of 4 50+3 Lysos and 2 50+3 Enzymes.

 

Irradiate has a base 20 second recharge so it's right around the length of time that you'll see it firing off procs. I'd slot say 4 damage procs, an Achilles proc, and fury gladiator proc.

 

Defenders get insanely high buff/debuff values so you're able to get a significant chunk of defense from maneuvers, weave, and cj/hover. With reasonable IO slotting you'll have m/r/a up to 30-35% defenses fairly easy.

 

Your poison debuffs though will effectively softcap you to at least non-incarnate content by debuffing tohit. Throw power boost and clarion special on top of that and that would be some insane numbers.

 

Good luck.

[Crossie]

22 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

I'm more willing to help you make your own build then just hand you one, so here's some tips...

 

Depends what you're ultimately looking to do with it. Typically with Poison you need only 3 powers from the primary as mandatory picks, and a potential fourth if you have say 5 or so slots to proc bomb it. Envenom/Weaken/Venomous Gas each work well enough using 2 slots a piece in my opinion of 4 50+3 Lysos and 2 50+3 Enzymes.

 

Irradiate has a base 20 second recharge so it's right around the length of time that you'll see it firing off procs. I'd slot say 4 damage procs, an Achilles proc, and fury gladiator proc.

 

Defenders get insanely high buff/debuff values so you're able to get a significant chunk of defense from maneuvers, weave, and cj/hover. With reasonable IO slotting you'll have m/r/a up to 30-35% defenses fairly easy.

 

Your poison debuffs though will effectively softcap you to at least non-incarnate content by debuffing tohit. Throw power boost and clarion special on top of that and that would be some insane numbers.

 

Good luck.

I am going to try and draft a build in mids when I get home and I'll quote it in here.  I'm enjoying the character so far. 

[Gentoo]

Storm Blast goes surprisingly well with Poison. I hightly recommend. Storm blast's frequent knock down makes being in melee safer. There are no cones forcing you out of melee.

[Without_Pause]

For cone attacks, you might want to try jumping up and then attacking.

[Psyonico]

I should point out that storm has Jet Stream, which is a cone.

[Gentoo]

1 hour ago, Psyonico said:

I should point out that storm has Jet Stream, which is a cone.

 

lol i forgot about It. Its ok at the early levels but useless later on. You have plenty of AOE without it, and from within melee.