A general guide to defender primaries.

[drbuzzard]

A Guide to Defender Primaries

 

Defenders are often underappreciated by those not familiar with the mechanics of COH, but for those who understand what makes the game tick, they are seen as invaluable (though admittedly many will say corrupters are a bit better). 

 

There are sixteen different primaries. They do a variety of buff, debuff, and healing abilities. The different sets are assorted grab bags of abilities. Defenders are often seen as a bit weak solo, but if you’ve got a primarily debuff focused set, you should be at least OK, though perhaps a corrupter might be a better choice. Defenders do get the best numbers for their primary sets, which are shared at 75% value  with corrupters, controllers, and masterminds (with some exceptions). 

 

My goal here is to give you a general guide based on my impressions garnered while playing all the sets to 50 (mostly on defenders, but sometimes corrupters or controllers) coupled with the raw data from City of Data. 

 

I’ll just go down set by set and give my take on each of the powers, and how worthwhile I consider them. Admittedly this is subject to my individual idiosyncrasies. I will make some slotting suggestions, but won’t be providing builds. In most cases it is beneficial to chase a lot of recharge on defenders, so I usually get to perma-hasten which is +100% recharge from IO bonuses. There will also be a general evaluation of the set. 

 

One thing which is important to note is how debuffs work. There’s a few different styles, and have have significant effects on play. Debuffs can be single target, fixed area, or toggle. The toggles can further be differentiated by either enemy or ally. A downside of enemy toggle debuffs used to be that the toggle would go down when the target died. That has been fixed by leaving the toggle on the body (that can be inconvenient also though). Toggle debuffs usually have the advantage of being up most of the time and not recharge dependent. However they are often a bit slow to set up, eat a good bit of endurance, and can be left on a body somewhere behind the team if it moves fast. Toggle debuffs which sit on allies are nice because they don’t need to be recast usually, but if you get too far from your anchor, you need to redo them. 

[drbuzzard]

Cold Domination

 

Ice Shield: This buffs lethal and smashing defense and gives resistance to cold and fire. When slotted up it gives close to 24% defense to lethal and smashing (or melee). I don’t know that people ever slot for resistance on these. This is worth taking since preventing damage is pretty important on a set which doesn’t heal. This is, of course a good place to throw in an obligatory luck of the gambler global recharge IO. 

 

Infrigidate: This debuffs recharge, movement, and defense. It also lowers fire damage, but that’s fairly uncommon. You can throw a resistance debuffing proc in since it has that defense debuff. Is this a great power? Nah. It is useful though, and stacking the slow on a target with other slows can have a telling effect.   I've been toldd it’s a mean proccing spot, but I’m no expert, so it might get you some mileage there. 

 

Snow Storm: This is an anchored AOE slow field which will slow things down a lot and ground fliers. The endurance cost is a bit steep (.52 end/sec). Couple it with infrigidate, and the target won’t move a huge amount. However I don’t consider it all that great. Anything in the field will try to run out of it, though in slow motion. At the edge of the area things will scatter. This can be skipped if you have a need for another power. 

 

Glacial Shield: This is the other half of the shield powers. This time you cover energy and negative energy, though this time with only cold resistance. Values for the defense are at close to 24% when slotted up (also for ranged and AOE). Again, it’s worth protecting your team with shields. Throw in a LotG global here as well. 

 

Frostwork: This gives your target (single ally) more maximum hit points. Who’s going to argue with that? However, it is not a heal and you have to cycle through the team. With recharge slotting and perma-hasten you can likely keep a team covered though it will be fairly hectic. You might just want to focus on someone who gets beaten up a lot. 

 

Arctic Fog: This acts as a stealth field for everyone in a 40’ radius of you. It also provides a bit of defense, fire, energyand cold resistance, and resistance to being slowed. The power is worth taking for the variety of effects, though it is another heavy endurance user (.52/sec). You can throw in a LotG global, and consider slotting for resistance, since the values are fairly high (almost 32% after slotting). Do keep in mind that the stealth field can be a PITA when dealing with NPCs, so be ready to turn it off from time to time. 

 

Benumb: This power is one of the poster children of the set pushing you to get perma-hasten. It debuffs damage, regeneration, defense and endurance. The values are pretty good. However it is on a 120 second timer for a 30 second debuff. Yeah, ouch. However with slotting for recharge and perma-hasten that comes down to a pretty good value (gets to 32 second recharge, so only 2 seconds of downtime). This is your way of making the AV fold like origami. Use it whenever it’s up. 

 

Sleet: Here’s your resistance debuff power finally. This is a site based debuff and drops a big resistance debuff and movement slows over a 20’ radius for 30 seconds. It’s easy to keep this one up all the time. 

 

Heat Loss: This is the final power and it’s a buff and debuff. He’s the biggest justification for chasing recharge. You get 90 seconds of buff and 30 of debuff on a 360 second timer. With perma-hasten it has a 97 second recharge. The buffs are huge endurance buffs (recovery and endurance). The debuffs are movement slow, recharge debuff, and resistance debuff in a 20’ radius. It is site based. Stacking this with sleet is devastating, and cold defenders (or corrupters) are in demand for hard content. Can't really say I like that debuff uptime, but it is a powerful thing to stack with sleet. 

 

 So to give a general impression- cold is a powerful set, but very much weighted towards high level. The low level powers are fairly meh, and even the high level ones require you to build for high global recharge to really take advantage of the set. Sure, dropping 60% resistance debuff on an area is quite good, but it is not cheap to make this practical, and you are basically high and dry for good powers until level 18. Of course that’s better than it used to be, but still makes a low level cold defender kind of ‘meh’. In the end set adds in a powerful mix of resistance, recharge, and defense debuff, plus major endurance buffs. If you want to optimize the build, it won’t be cheap, but you will get something great. If you don’t have plenty of resources, you might be better off picking something else. Oh, one thing I've had pointed out, power boost won't help with the shields, which is a bit of a loss (compared to force field or empathy). 

Edited November 9, 2023 by drbuzzard

[drbuzzard]

Dark Miasma

 

 Tar Patch: This is a great power. I think it’s the keystone of the set myself (others will differ of course). I like it so much because it is a massive offensive multiplier by sticking enemies in an area and applying a good resistance debuff. This is an area based debuff. Recharge is 90 seconds for 45 seconds of patch, but with perma-hasten you can pop it out every 23 seconds or so. That is fast enough to keep up with a steamrolling team, so it works quite well. Even before you get all that worked up, it can be slotted with 3 recharge and have 45 seconds recharge so it can be laid down all the time. 

 

 Twilight Grasp: This is the heal of the set. It’s a bit of an odd one though. You target an enemy, apply mild to hit, damage, and regen debuffs, and give everyone in 20 feet of you a strong heal. This of course has a few issues in practice. First of all, if you miss the target, there’s no effect. That can be pretty bad when the heal is needed. Second, if you want to heal those in melee range, you have to be there to grant this heal. As a squishy, that can be dangerous. On the plus side, recharge is quite low so it can be spammed quite fast. It’s a solid power, but the limitations need to be understood. 

 

Darkest Night: Here’s the main power which keeps you alive. This power strongly debuffs to hit and damage with an enemy anchored toggle. It will debuff to hit at around 29% which is pretty damned good. When stacked with the other set debuffs, you’ll likely floor their to hit (of course purple patch level debuffs makes this less likely). You will take this power. You will slot it up. You will use it. Skipping it would make using the set rather pointless. 

 

Howling Twilight: It’s kind of an odd thing rolling debuffs into a resurrection power, but that is Howling Twilight. It gives ten times the regeneration debuff of Twilight Grasp, but with a long (180 sec) recharge. Perma-hasten means you can keep up the debuff on a target all the time easily. It’s a good power, so take it. It will help melt AVs and GMs. 

 

Shadow Fall: Once again this is a stealth field, so you need to consider the downsides of it when using. Those aren’t bad, but again you need to watch around NPC interactions. The power also provides substantial resistance to energy, negative energy, and psionic damage. You also get a token bit of defense, which is a good reason to drop a LotG global. So for slotting, the LotG unique and resistance enhancements. 

 

Fearsome Stare: Dark Miasma was always known back in the old days of live and the ‘controllery’ defender set. Here’s the first of those type of powers. This applies a Mag 3 fear cone. This will lock down lieutenants and minions, plus apply a fairly solid to hit debuff. If you slot this for debuff and couple it with darkest night, you should be able to floor to hit. You can also slot for fear, but I’m not big into mez, so I’d go the debuff route myself. You don’t need any external recharge to make this one perma (100% recharge in this power will do it, 40 base recharge, 20 uptime). This is a worthwhile power. 

 

Petrifying Gaze: This is a single target ranged hold which will lock down a single lieutenant or minion. With minimal recharge slotting you can keep that target locked down. As mentioned above, I’m no big fan of mez, so I just skip this one. I suppose if you did a dark/ice defender you could be quite good at locking down things. This is a power dependent on your playstyle. I’m not a fan so I skip it. 

 

Black Hole: Here’s the most infamous power of the set. It’s a caging power, so you effectively take the targets off the field of battle. This means they can’t affect you, and you (and your team) can’t hurt them either. It’s a very solid way to piss off your team, especially a steamrolling team. While there are occasional valid uses, I don’t think they justify even taking the power. Skip it. 

 

Dark Servant: As I mentioned before Dark was always seen as the Deftroller back in the day, and having a pet really sent it home. This debuffing/healing/crowd control pet is a pretty nice thing to grab. I’d suggest slotting it for to hit debuff. With it working alongside your debuffs, you will floor to it. It’s a worthy power.

 

Overall Dark Miasma is a solid debuffing set which has a strong heal. It also gets most of the good powers nice and early so either on the leveling up path, or when exemplared to lower level, it is still good to play. The fact that it relies on enemy anchored toggles can be annoying, and it does benefit a lot from perma-hasten. It’s not too expensive to set up a good build though.

Edited November 8, 2023 by drbuzzard

[drbuzzard]

Electrical Affinity

 

Rejuvenating Circuit: The set starts with a pretty powerful heal that is linked to a neat mechanic of chaining. Other sets usually have a radius heal or a single target heal or both. Radius heals are nice since they help the user, which single target heals can’t. As this is a chain heal, you can heal yourself with it. It recharges fast, and heals almost to the level of single target heals rather than radius heals. It would be foolish to skip this power. 

 

Shock: Here’s the only debuff power you get. It’s not a great debuff (modest regen debuff, damage debuff, and a bit of endurance removal without any recovery debuff), but since it is what you have, you take it. It recharges fast enough to be up all the time without even slotting things. 

 

Galvanic Sentinel: It’s rather interesting that they threw in a pet at this low level. Then again they didn’t make it terribly powerfu (modest damage and regeneration debuffs)l, so it’s no shock that it is available when it is. The pet is a click power which will need to be renewed regularly. Recharge is 60 seconds, and the pet lasts for 120 seconds, so you need to keep casting it. You don’t need to slot any for recharge. Given how weak the endurance debuff is, it’s not really worth slotting for anything other than IO set bonuses. Given how weak the regeneration debuff is from shock and this, you kind of need both, so you take this. You can simply not slot it at all. It also serves as a target for your team buffs when solo so they can chain to you. 

 

Energizing Circuit: This is the endurance recovery power, which again does the chain thing. It only gives endurance and no recovery buff. It also tosses in a massive recharge boost for 5 seconds which I consider inexplicable. You will want this power, and you’ll want it slotted for endurance recovery. 

 

Faraday Cage: Before I played Electrical Affinity for a good honest run to fifty, I’d see this power used by others and always rather wondered about the purpose. Sure, it grants some resistance to everything but toxic, but without more resistance powers to stack, it’s a bit weak. The core of the power, however, is that it grants tanker level status protection to every ally within it. It also does this as a click status protection power effectively working as a break free. Thus electrical affinity defenders have the best status protection in the AT. Skipping this power would be foolish. The recharge is mild and the field lasts 4 minutes. You might as well slot it for resistance, since with the PPP or EPP shields you can get to capped l/s and one other damage type pretty easily. 

 

Empowering Circuit: This power lets you hand out a chained to hit and damage buff. It’s pretty solid. Recharge is 15 for 60 seconds of use. However being that it’s only 60 seconds of use and the chain won’t necessarily get the whole team, you will be tossing this one out a whole lot. 

 

Defibrillate : This is your basic, no frills resurrection power. The upside is that it needs no slotting to work, but you get nothing more than the rez. It’s generally worth taking, though with Faraday cage, you could just hand them a wakie and be pretty close. 

 

Insulating Circuit: Here you can hand out a decent amount of absorption shield (like extra hit points) and chain it for your team. First target gets more as is normal for these chains. It’s a worthwhile power, and recharges fast. I have it slotted with a heal set (doctored wounds for the recharge). 

 

Amp Up: We have arrived at the power which screams ‘I need perma-hasten’. This is an odd one, especially for a capstone tier 9. On a 300 second recharge with 90 second uptime, you give a big boost to recharge and to hit, along with something a lot like the power boost power. Controllers or Dominators will love you for it, though nobody else will probably find that much use a use in it. Considering it can only really be kept up on one target, it seems like a lot of waiting for a kind of ‘meh’ power. You might as well take it, and it only needs recharge slotting, so not much in the way of wasted resources. 

 

This is the only buff/debuff set introduced in the homecoming era. It does some interesting things, and is fairly good for keeping a team on their feet and fighting. However the downside is how busy you are using it. The variable nature of the chain mechanic (you must build a static effect which determines how many get chained) tied to most of the buffs which have a short duration means you are throwing out buffs almost constantly as well as heals. I find that you feel like a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. Unlike some builds which are busy just to make the tricks you want function (dominators for example), this is busy as hell actually doing your job. You often don’t have time to add in your feeble attacks from the secondary (as if anyone would notice). In some ways the set feels like dollar store kinetics. Faraday Cage and insulating circuit do offset this some since they are really good, but it is not what I would consider a top set.

Edited November 12, 2023 by drbuzzard

[drbuzzard]

Empathy

 

Heal Other: You’re playing an emp, here’s a main heal. Take it. Slot it. I’d go with five or six from a set which offers a recharge bonus (panacea, preventative medicine, doctored wounds). 

 

‘Healing Aura: This is the AOE heal. Again, take it and slot it up with a set for recharge. Empathy demands recharge on later powers. 

 

Absorb Pain: A strong heal which prevents you from being healed. This is dangerous, and not really necessary since the previous two powers recharge fast and can heal adequately. 

 

Resurrection: I’ll let you guess what this does. Do you need it? Well, yes and no. As there’s a lot of alternatives and it recharges kinda slowly, so it’s not crucial. However you’re playing an empathy defender, the original healer of the game, and you’re rather expected to have it. It doesn’t require slots, so why not?

 

Clear Mind: Again we have a power which can be mostly replaced with an inspiration so it’s not mandatory. However it requires no slots, and is useful giving strong overall status protection and a perception boost. 

 

Fortitude: We’ve finally gotten to the buffing section of the powerset (OK Clear Mind is one as well, but not as good). This offers damage, to hit, and defense buff for 120 seconds on a reasonably short recharge (60 seconds). It doesn’t take much effort to be able to put this on a number of teammates. With perma hasten you have it up every 16 seconds, so spam it around the team. With power boost and slotting it can provide a lot of defense (but the recharge on power boost is longer so you can’t cover everyone equally). I suggest hitting the teammates with the highest damage scalar to get the most bang for your buck (blasters, scrappers, sentinels, stalkers, dominators). It should be clear by now that you will take this and slot it up.

 

Recovery Aura: Here we get to why empathy needs so damned much recharge. You have an AOE boost to endurance recovery, which thankfully hits the user as well. Back when speed boost was single target, this was a lot more impressive. Now with speed boost hitting everyone except the user, it’s more in the ‘OK’ range. On a 500 second timer for 90 seconds of uptime, you can’t even get this perma at the recharge cap. It is still a good power and you will want it. There is the annoyance of trying to herd the cats into a group (within 25 feet of you) to get all your teammates. Personally I just pop it when most are together and don’t bother to try and make people group up. These days there’s enough ways to have tons of endurance via IOs, incarnate and temp powers that it’s not that important. I slotted it with an IO endurance set which gives a global  recharge boost. 

 

Regeneration Aura: Again we’ve got the stupidly long recharge for moderate uptime (500 for 90) so you chase recharge as hard as you can. The regeneration amount is pretty nice (500% base), so while up it is a solid survival tool. Just pop it in conjunction with recovery aura when the cats haven’t strayed too far. You’ll want this and want it slotted up. Again I did an IO healing set with a recharge boost. 

 

Adrenaline Boost: This is a powerful single target buff to regeneration, endurance recovery and recharge. It has a 300 second recharge with 90 seconds of uptime. With perma hasten that gets you to 81 seconds of recharge so basically pick one teammate and keep it on them. I tend to put it on a tank or brute since they have piles of hit points and get beat on a lot so it leverages the regeneration. As with the other healing powers, I have an IO healing set which gives a global recharge boost in it. Anyone you hit with this power feels like a pre-nerf regeneration scrapper. You want this power, and you want it slotted up. 

 

Empathy was the first healing set and is seen by many as the main one. If someone wants to be the healer, they take empathy. The question is, should they? If you want to heal up your team, it works pretty well. If you want to buff up your team and make them into an unstoppable juggernaut, it’s not really going to go the distance. You can spam fortitude on six teammates if you optimize for recharge. You can tag only one with adrenaline boost. The buff auras (recovery and regeneration) are not going to be up even close to all the time (around 2/3s or a bit better) and require herding of your team, or a lucky grouping to hand out to all. If you have a smaller team an emp could do a pretty solid job of buffing and healing, but for 8, some people will get left out. The most direct comparison of sets is Pain Domination which is fairly close to one for one. However in pain dom, you get a teamwide buf (to hit, damage, and resistance)f in World of Pain instead of single target fortitude. Soothing Aura which is arguably inferior to regeneration aura when the latter is up, and recovery aura is traded for a debuffing power which gets close to perma uptime (or even get there with spiritual alpha). Personally I prefer Pain, but as always YMMV.

Edited December 4, 2023 by drbuzzard

[Uun]

19 hours ago, drbuzzard said:

Ice Shield: This buffs lethal and smashing defense and gives resistance to cold and fire. When slotted up it gives close to 20% defense to lethal and smashing.

Glacial Shield: This is the other half of the shield powers. This time you cover energy and negative energy, though this time with only cold resistance. Values for the defense are a bit higher at close to 24% when slotted up. 

Very well done. Just wanted to point out two small nits:

• The defense values of Ice and Glacial are the same (15% unslotted). If you're getting higher values for Glacial, it's your slotting.
• Ice also provides melee defense and Glacial also provides ranged and AoE defense. Between the two you get defense to all positional vectors.

[drbuzzard]

You're right, I looked at the wrong line in city of data. I'll fix it. Thanks. 

[SeraphimKensai]

Also with Cold you can reference that power boost will not boost the shields as they have a resistance component. Power boost will absolutely boost the defense on FF shields though.

[drbuzzard]

54 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Also with Cold you can reference that power boost will not boost the shields as they have a resistance component. Power boost will absolutely boost the defense on FF shields though.

That's odd. Force field's first shield has a resistance component as well, but it still boosts. I don't play my cold much so I never noticed. 

[drbuzzard]

Force Field

 

Deflection Shield: Starting the theme of the powerset with a bubble seems appropriate since the players are usually known as bubblers. This shield provides lethal, smashing, and melee defense that hits all allies around you (except you) for 4 minutes (~24% slotted). It also gives good toxic resistance. Bubblers are there to bubble, so you will take this and slot it for defense. 

 

Personal Force Field: This power grants yourself defense (75%) well past the softcap and a fair bit of resistance to all damage (40%) on top of it (resistance can’t be enhanced). It’s basically an ‘OH CRAP!’ button to try to get you out of trouble. Since things can sometimes cut through defense, it is no guarantee. The downside is you can’t affect anything other than yourself while it is up. It can be useful for getting to a location in a mission, but personally I think it is a skippable power, or a decent option for a mule power to hold a defense IO (LotG global, Shield wall +resistance or something else). With a reasonably careful build you can softcap your bubbler without this, and still affect other things. I basically never use it. On the way up leveling you might find some value in it. 

 

Repulsion Bolt: This power has 2 effects, strong knockback, and 20% damage resistance debuff to a single target. There’s also a bit of damage, but it is negligible. As it is a major part of your debuffing ability, you want this. I’d suggest a knockback to knockdown IO so you don’t drive your allies nuts. This way you can keep a single target falling down all the time, but still in position to feel the AOE damage your team is laying out. You do need to slot for accuracy as well. 

 

Insulation Shield: Here’s your second individual ally bubbling power. This time it covers the rest of the defenses (ranged, AOE, fire, cold, energy, negative energy) with the exception of psionic and toxic (~24% slotted). It also gives out endurance drain resistance. This will be loved when fighting certain groups (Malta, Carnies, Freaks). Once again, you will take it, and you will use it. Else why play a bubbler?

 

Detention Bubble: This is another of the cage powers. You basically put one foe into ‘time out’. They can’t affect anyone, nor can anyone affect them. While this can be useful for troublemaking mobs (sappers, surgeons, etc.) I consider it a source of annoyance for teammates, and worth skipping. 

 

Dispersion Bubble: Does any power make the set? Perhaps this one does. It gives you a huge bubble that gives defense to all, and very solid hold, stun, and immobilize protection (though not as good as Faraday Cage). Finally this is a power which affects the bubbler themself. Slotted up you’ll get ~16% defense which is not bad at all. Mix this with maneuvers from leadership pool, and your individual ally bubbles, and you softcap your team. I don’t have to tell you to take this, as you clearly will. It is a self based toggle power. 

 

Repulsion Field: This is a knockback and repulsion field centered on yourself. While you can slot for knockback to knockdown, you’ll still toss enemies away with the repulsion, so it isn’t worth it. What good does this power do? I guess it’s a sort of ‘Oh Crap!’ power, but do you really need multiple ones? Take PFF instead. Also it eats endurance like a trailer park chomping the buffet at Golden Corral. I’d say skip this one.

 

Force Bomb: Here’s another important chunk of the debuffing powers in the set. You toss a bomb onto a target and it’s a 15’ radius of damage, knockback, and resistance debuff (15%). Toss in a knockback to knockdown and you’ve got a great power. As the damage isn’t negligible, you’ll want to slot it with a ranged AOE set (Posi perhaps) and the sudden acceleration KB>KD. You want this power. 

 

Damping Bubble: This is a kind of odd power for a capstone, but it works well enough. You set up a static location bubble which provides your team with some nice buffs and applies a variety of debuffs to the enemies within. Check the power listing for all of them since it’s a lot, but it is worth your while. It recharges in 90, and uptime is 45, so slotting for 100% recharge will get it up all the time. The key part is it offers regeneration debuff, so just that makes it worth your while. 

 

Force Field is an oddity among defender sets as it doesn’t gain a whole lot from perma-hasten. I didn’t bother to acquire it on my bubbler. As mentioned above, I added in leadership (the numbers are so good on defenders, why wouldn’t you?) and actually tanked up with the Leviathan armor and hibernate plus fighting pool. The bubbler ends up with softcap for all positions plus 75% resistance to lethal/smashing. Often a downside on bubblers is you can’t keep yourself alive. I’ve solved that. A common option people pursue on bubblers (especially those of other ATs) is to grab power boost. This will basically increase the defense value of a power by almost 100% base. So a deflection shield will now do 15+9+14 or 38% defense on a defender. The power boost doesn’t last that long itself, but the power modified by it stays at the boosted value which is 4 minutes for shields, and power boost can be up well before you need it to do shield again. Bubblers used to be very limited in scope, doing defense, and pushing enemies around. A recent improvement to the set added in all the debuffs which greatly improve it. A good bubbler can take a hopeless team and turn it into a steamroller. It is now one of the top sets IMO.

[drbuzzard]

Kinetics

 

Siphon Power: The set starts out a bit slow with a power that does a bit of damage debuff and buffs your team with a small damage boost (25%). Is it great? No. Is it worth picking up to use at low level? Yes. You can respec it out later if you want for no major loss. 

 

Transfusion: This is a great power which is both a powerful heal, and a modest regeneration and endurance debuff. The heal is really strong, however you do need to hit your target and the heal is within 20’ of that target. This is the first power which dictates the kinetics playstyle. You hug your enemies. It makes for a rather dangerous, but rewarding way. 

 

Repel: This creates a field around you which can knock enemies back. With a knockback to knockdown IO, it can be a sort of mobile ice slick. That sounds pretty good right? Well in practice, not so much. You do not hit everything that approaches you, and the endurance cost is brutal at base with even more for every target you repel. I have this power on my kin, but I find it to be of limited use. 

 

Siphon Speed: You sap speed from your enemies. That’s fairly simple.You debuff movement speed and recharge, and boost that of your own. Is it great? Nah, but it’s solidly good. It only needs accuracy slotting. 

 

Increase Density: You get to hand out status protection (hold, stun, immobilize, knockback) and some smashing resistance. It is an AOE effect which is nice (all allies but <sad trombone> you) as other similar powers in other sets are just one target, though duration is only a minute. It’s worth a power pick. 

 

Speed Boost: Do you want to be loved? Do you want to feel needed? Do you want people twitchy when you leave the team? Here’s the power for you. This power grants your allies a big boost to recharge time and endurance recovery (and some resistance to movement debuffs, but that’s like icing on the yacht). Slot this for endurance recovery and you will be the most popular person on any team. It used to be that you had to hand this out one ally at a time, but now it hits everyone (but again, not you). If you don’t take this power, you hate puppies, teammates, and all that is good. 

 

Inertial Reduction: Woo hoo, you can give everyone superjump! Woot! Yeehaw! Skip this. 

 

Transference: In a set with Speed Boost, a power which hands out endurance may seem a bit superfluous. However you can’t speed boost yourself, so this comes in handy since it does help you. It also sucks a lot of endurance out of the target, so it would be the core of a sapper type build. You might as well take this to keep yourself topped off in endurance. 

 

Fulcrum Shift: <cue Carmina Burana> You have now won the game. Ok, perhaps that’s a bit excessive, but this is arguably the best single power in the game. Once again, while standing in the crowd of enemies (you don’t have to, but it works better for you) you debuff the enemies within 20’ of the main target (small damage debuff), and for each one you and your allies get a 50% damage boost. This translates to a team at damage cap if you have a good kinetics player and enough targets. That results in a steamrolling team which kills faster than Godzilla vs. Bambi. If you skip this power, you must be on a ‘Man’ build or some other crazy nonsense. 

 

Kinetics is an interesting set. It is very powerful when complete, and any of those teams that set speed records on TFs most likely have one. There are a number of powers which are bleah to meh, however the top three powers (Fulcrum Shift, Speed Boost and Transfusion) are simply great. The playstyle is fairly risky however as diving into melee as a squishy is not for the faint of heart. You will want to build for defense (Scorpion shield from Black Scorpion PPP is likely in your future) and hope you don’t get mezzed (maybe keep yourself in defense buff from the P2W vendor). This is another set where perma-hasten isn’t necessary, but it is nice since you want Fulcrum Shift up as often as possible to keep near that damage cap.  Is it the best set? Very likely even though it is not my favorite set to play. 

[arcane]

Only egregious error so far is calling Infrigidate not a great power. It takes 4 damage procs and a -res proc and fires them all 90% of the time. It should be in every Cold’s attack chain.

 

Also I like to proc bomb Force Bomb but that’s a little more of a grey area.

Edited November 9, 2023 by arcane

[Uun]

56 minutes ago, drbuzzard said:

Increase Density: You get to hand out status protection (hold, stun, immobilize, knockback) and some smashing resistance. It is an AOE effect which is nice (all allies but <sad trombone> you) as other similar powers in other sets are just one target, though duration is only a minute. It’s worth a power pick. 

Note, the status protection is single target. Only the smashing and energy resistance is AoE.

[drbuzzard]

Just now, Uun said:

Note, the status protection is single target. Only the smashing and energy resistance is AoE.

Well that's annoying. Guess I'll have to fix that. 

[drbuzzard]

43 minutes ago, arcane said:

Only egregious error so far is calling Infrigidate not a great power. It takes 4 damage procs and a -res proc and fires them all 90% of the time. It should be in every Cold’s attack chain.

 

Also I like to proc bomb Force Bomb but that’s a little more of a grey area.

 

I'm not really a proccing expert, and I was clear about not offering builds. I don't consider myself wrong based on that. 

[Without_Pause]

Siphon Power is still good for AVs. I honestly forget Repel is a Kin power. That's one power I skip every time. If all you want out of a travel power is the travel power, IR works for that. Plus, it can also save you using one less power pool. I know you don't do slotting, but ID is a two slot wonder for the +3% Def IOs.

[Doomguide2005]

4 hours ago, drbuzzard said:

That's odd. Force field's first shield has a resistance component as well, but it still boosts. I don't play my cold much so I never noticed. 

If I'm not mistaken, my memory not being what it was, it's because you cannot enhance the resistance aspect unlike Cold where you can.

[SeraphimKensai]

29 minutes ago, Doomguide2005 said:

If I'm not mistaken, my memory not being what it was, it's because you cannot enhance the resistance aspect unlike Cold where you can.

That's my understanding as well.

[drbuzzard]

One thing to note, if people want to add their own guides in this thread, feel free. I just have time to burn and the appropriate alts, so I'm doing it. 

[Hedgefund]

I hate to be a jerk, or jerk adjacent, but in addition to the other Cold errors this was too egregious and I checked out of the thread afterward.

On 11/8/2023 at 12:07 PM, drbuzzard said:

Heat Loss: This is the final power and it’s a buff and debuff. He’s the biggest justification for chasing recharge. You get 60 seconds of buff and debuff on a 360 second timer.

 

The buff from Heat Loss lasts 90 seconds, see

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=pets.heatlossbuff_defender.heat_loss&at=minion_pets

 

The debuffs last 30 seconds, see

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=pets.heatlossdebuff_defender.heat_loss&at=minion_pets

[drbuzzard]

9 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:

I hate to be a jerk, or jerk adjacent, but in addition to the other Cold errors this was too egregious and I checked out of the thread afterward.

 

The buff from Heat Loss lasts 90 seconds, see

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=pets.heatlossbuff_defender.heat_loss&at=minion_pets

 

The debuffs last 30 seconds, see

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=pets.heatlossdebuff_defender.heat_loss&at=minion_pets

 

Hmm, not sure where I got 60. Will fix. 

[drbuzzard]

Nature Affinity 

 

Corrosive Enzymes: Here’s your basic tier 1 debuff. It does -25% damage resistance and -25% damage. It’s nothing special, but certainly worth taking.

 

Regrowth: This is a novel healing power. It’s not single target or radius like most of the rest. It’s a cone power, with a good reach (45’) and a 90 degree arc. It also acts like a radius in that it heals the caster, which is rather nice. There’s a radius class initial heal then four more pulses which take it up closer to the single target heal value. No reason to skip this one, it’s rather good. 

 

Wild Growth: This is a simple area buff of +regeneration and +resist damage (all ~24%). With even a little bit of global recharge you can have it up all the time since it’s 225 recharge on a 90 second buff. Is it a great power? Nah. I suspect people skip it a lot. However if you’re going to use a resistance shield it’s a good idea so you can cap l/s resistance. If you’re going defense, you might as well pass. 

 

Spore Cloud: Do you like mushrooms? Well you better like mushrooms since one of your core debuffs as a nature affinity defender is going to go wild with mushrooms. This power is an enemy based toggle which debuffs damage, to hit, and regeneration. It is well worth your time, and a definitive power of the set. 

 

Lifegiving spores: OK, now for another odd power- here’s a location based toggle. You lay down a patch of pulsed healing and endurance gain in an area. It’s pretty damned good for keeping people functional, so it’s also a worthwhile power pick. The graphics are a touch showy, but that’s rather endemic to the set. 

 

Wild Bastion: This provides a large absorption shield and more healing over time. It’s a solid power. Do you need it with so many other healing abilities? Not necessarily, though absorption shields are pretty nice. It’s worth a pick, but not mandatory. 

 

Rebirth: This is a dual use power, either being a strong rez (lots of health and endurance) with some DoT healing, or a strong single target DoT heal. It’s always nice to have a rez available, and the fact that this can do something when people aren’t dying is pretty nice. I took it, and I liked it. You will too. 

 

Entangling Aura: This is a toggle you switch on which has a chance of holding things within 15’. It has a high endurance cost and is no guarantee of safety as it won’t stop bosses. For a controller, it might be worth it, but it is skip bait on a defender IMO. 

 

Overgrowth: Finally we get to a strong team buff. You hand out a big damage boost (82.5%) a good to hit boost, and an endurance discount. This is pretty good as powers go. Recharge is 255 seconds for 60 duration, so even with perma-hasten you can’t have it up all the time, but you’ll be close at 68 seconds of recharge. This is a very solid power, and a worthy tier 9. 

 

Nature Affinity is a rather showy set with lots of screen filling visuals for the powers. Personally I find that a bit annoying, but some quite like that. YMMV. It is a very powerful healing set, with good resistance and regeneration debuffs which are key for dropping AVs. The buffs are mostly tied into the T9, but are quite good, so no complaints there. A nice aspect is that most of the powers affect the caster as well, so it is a strong solo set. It’s definitely one of the better sets. 
 

[Uun]

43 minutes ago, drbuzzard said:

Lifegiving spores: OK, now for another odd power- here’s a location based toggle. You lay down a patch of pulsed healing and endurance gain in an area. It’s pretty damned good for keeping people functional, so it’s also a worthwhile power pick. The graphics are a touch showy, but that’s rather endemic to the set. 

How do you slot this? I slotted for endmod on my Fire/Nature controller and wasn't impressed. I skipped this entirely on my Nature/Seismic defender. 

[drbuzzard]

3 minutes ago, Uun said:

How do you slot this? I slotted for endmod on my Fire/Nature controller and wasn't impressed. I skipped this entirely on my Nature/Seismic defender. 

On my nature I used some Frankenslotting  with 3 from doctored wounds and 3 from efficiency adapter. To be honest you can probably just use 2 50+3 heal IOs and 2 50+3 endurance IOs and save a couple slots. As long as you're in the patch, it more than covers your endurance usage. 

 

As I don't play the defender much, I haven't done a pass to tighten up the build since reaching 50. The set is too flashy for my taste, and I actually greatly dislike the particular costume. It's easy enough to fix the costume, but with the set being annoying visually to me, I have no motivation to fix anything. 

[MoonSheep]

i came back to this thread to make sure you didn’t smack talk my boy Kinetics.. all looks good