Is Forcefield worth running on a defender or should I run Corr/Controller??

[Vadmac]

I cant decide on what to make

[roleki]

Defenders get higher base numbers on the +Def bubbles (15% vs. 11.25% on Controllers/Corruptors) and better -Res in Repulsion Bolt (20 vs. 15) and Force Bomb (15 vs. 11.25), so there's that.

 

However... FF Defenders and Corruptors just turn into half-assed Blasters after laying out their bubbles, whereas Controllers can lock down hard targets or otherwise do stuff to neutralize troublesome gits after buffing their teammates.  

 

Which is a lot of words to say "Clearly, you want a Fire/FF/Primal Controller because you have good taste and are both spiritually and visually appealing to members of all species."

[SeraphimKensai]

I have a concept toon that's a FF/dark/soul defender with power boost and clarion radial. Let's just say the toon excels at flooring the enemy's chance to hit the player or team.

 

That said though it's probably overkill in that regard.

[Ambidexter]

Between the individual shields and Dispersion Bubble, I think the total (enhanced) defense difference between +28% (for corrupters) and 40% (for defenders) is significant.  Of course, it's true that this question really comes down to what you want to play, from from a "is it worth it to lose the damage output" perspective, my Rad Tank would say "yes yes!"

 

It's also worth plugging The Force Fielder's Bible, to remind everyone that FF can do more than just bubble, and all of those powers are also more impactful when being run by a defender.

 

[Astralock]

Corruptor.  My Force Field Corruptor combined with Power Boost from Soul Mastery gives out +44% defense before the Support Radial Hybrid.  Even on a 4* ASF, any more defense than that is overkill as you’ll typically have at least one Cold Dom on the team, with Barrier Destiny flying left and right.

 

More importantly, Force Field Corruptor has higher magnitude AoE mez protection, which is more rare than defense buffs.  You will also deal significantly more damage on teams.

 

20 minutes ago, Ambidexter said:

Between the individual shields and Dispersion Bubble, I think the total (enhanced) defense difference between +28% (for corrupters) and 40% (for defenders) is significant.  Of course, it's true that this question really comes down to what you want to play, from from a "is it worth it to lose the damage output" perspective, my Rad Tank would say "yes yes!"

 

It's also worth plugging The Force Fielder's Bible, to remind everyone that FF can do more than just bubble, and all of those powers are also more impactful when being run by a defender.

 

 

With all due respect to PK, that bible was written thirteen years ago and is no longer relevant to the game as it is due to substantial power changes and changed game strategies.

[Hedgefund]

No offense to the author, but the FF Bible is now the FF Apocrypha, way out of date with respect to recent changes.

 

I too ran a /FF Corruptor after the changes and I was very pleased.  I also went Soul for PB and though yes, a Defender can also potentially boost shields the question then becomes "soft cap team with Corruptor offense or (potentially exceed) soft cap team with Defender offense?".   I don't regret choosing the former.

[Zect]

There are many ways to make up for the lower +def numbers on a corr (notably +special, such as from power boost/clarion). There are fewer ways to make up for lower base damage and lack of scourge. I still prefer fenders for certain combos, though - like an ff/sonic that stacks huge amounts of -res on enemies.

 

If you are going for the powerboost option, trollers have the usual problem that their power boost is only available through primal mastery, while corrs and fenders can get it through soul mastery, which comes with soul drain (= better balance of offense and defense).

 

 

 

[roleki]

10 hours ago, Zect said:

If you are going for the powerboost option, trollers have the usual problem that their power boost is only available through primal mastery, while corrs and fenders can get it through soul mastery, which comes with soul drain (= better balance of offense and defense).

 

I don't view that as a 'problem' for Controllers because their Power Boost is almost 25% more effective than what is available to Def/Corr and they can fire it off twice as often.  True, Controllers lose some other fancy toys by going with boring old PFM, but they benefit from +Special moreso than a given Def/Corr would and it comes in handy for more than just doubling bubbles.

[SeraphimKensai]

On 1/19/2023 at 8:16 PM, Astralock said:

More importantly, Force Field Corruptor has higher magnitude AoE mez protection, which is more rare than defense buffs.  You will also deal significantly more damage on teams.

Corruptor's getting 4.5 mag protection while defenders getting 3.75 seems like the definition of a bug to me. Same for their mez resistance values.

[Astralock]

2 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Corruptor's getting 4.5 mag protection while defenders getting 3.75 seems like the definition of a bug to me. Same for their mez resistance values.

 

Bug or not, it's been like that for nearly four years now and was raised during Page 5 beta and left unchanged.