Should this have been a Defender?

[jprewitt73]

I recently began working on a Sonic/Poison Corruptor to tackle AV hunting and maybe some Giant Monster hunting after I've gotten the hang of it. I was talking to someone on a team earlier today and they mentioned that the Defender would have been the better choice for the higher debuff values and that the Sonic/Poison Corruptor I made won't be awful, but it won't be able to compete with the Defender version. 

 

I know that Defenders have higher buff and debuff modifiers, but is it really that noticeable? I thought a Corruptor with Scourge would do more damage overall, hence my pick. It was also picked for the fact that my character is more of a Vigilante anyway and I can't see Defenders as anything but good two shoes. 

 

Anyway, what are some of your thoughts? If I want to be able to solo AVs and GMs should I reroll now before tagging 50 and working on Incarnates?

 

[SeraphimKensai]

Take a look for yourself.

 

Here's Defenders

Poison: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=defender_buff.poison&at=defender

Sonic: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=defender_ranged.sonic_attack&at=defender

 

Corruptors

Poison: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=corruptor_buff.poison&at=corruptor

Sonic: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=corruptor_ranged.sonic_attack&at=corruptor

 

You can take a look at the individual power's values with those links.

[MonteCarla]

I think its pretty close, to the point of not worrying about it.

 

A Corrupter does 3/4 of the Res debuffing of a Defender.

 

Say you're blasting/debuffing away at an AV as a Defender, you have 12% + 4 times 8% from Sonic Blast, 40% from Envenom and 25% from Poisonous Gas = 110% -Res Debuff from your powers.

A corrupter only gets 86% -Res debuff.

 

A Defender gets +30% Damage from Vigilance.

 

Corrupter base damage is 1.15 times Defender base Damage.

 

Scourge  makes you do 1.25 times normal damage on a big target, as the bonus tapers from 0 to 100% over the second half of their health bar.

 

Corrupter 1.15 * 1.95 (Damage slotting) * 1.86 (Res debuff) * 1.25 (Scourge) =  5.21

Defender: 1.0  * 2.25 (Damage slotting + Vigilance) * 2.10 (Res Debuff) = 4.725

 

The Corrupter will do about (5.21/4.725) = 110% of the Defender's damage when soloing an AV. 

 

That's soloing an AV. The Defender will amplify a team's damage a bit better due to the superior -Res debuff, even though their own damage will fall a bit. So yeah, I wouldn't worry about it. Go melt those AVs!

Edited March 28 by MonteCarla

[Uun]

2 hours ago, MonteCarla said:

Say you're blasting/debuffing away at an AV as a Defender, you have 12% + 4 times 8% from Sonic Blast, 40% from Envenom and 25% from Poisonous Gas = 110% -Res Debuff from your powers.

A corrupter only gets 86% -Res debuff.

Your math is slightly off (defenders get 109% and corruptors get 81.75%) but I agree that it's not worth worrying about. 

 

I've got this combo on a defender, but I primarily use it for teaming. It really shreds hard targets. The one shortcoming Poison has vs. AVs is that its -regen is somewhat limited. Envenom is only 50% (stackable) compared to 500% in Benumb. 

 

[Zect]

Corrs and especially stacked teams of corrs are the undisputed kings of melting hard targets because of scourge. It's very obvious on those 4* hardmode teams where the AV hits 30-40% and suddenly starts to vaporize as the scourge snowball gathers speed.

 

Fenders are better on support-light teams because if you're the only support, those buff/debuff numbers had better be as high as they can get. A special case is the healer because in the minority of content where every AT is not a DPS and you actually want a healer, you want as few as possible i.e. 1 because dps is king in coh. So that 1 healer had better be able to do the job alone and fender numbers help with that.

 

In the end the discussion is very academic. They are both good, they will each excel in different situations which you will almost certainly encounter and the actual correct answer in a game where I can sneeze out half a dozen levels without trying is play one of each and swap if you think you need to. Even for hardmode people won't worry too much if you're a fender or a corr if you're actually worth playing with. Because we all know smart people on the "wrong" AT/powersets/builds >>>>>>>>>>> stupid people on the best AT/powerset/builds.

[Darkir]

Yes.

 

Longer answer: you'd get a lot more mileage out of your-res powers, it's easier to softcap, and you can use those extra slots for more procs and damage.

[kiramon]

Outside of hitting your own defense numbers, you'll be fine on a team not having Defender-level buffs and debuffs; it will hardly be noticeable. 

 

Just play which you like (unless easy soft capping is your goal, then go defender ;p)