Is there a Defender Water blast/force field build that can solo Av's and Eb's? And if So Does anyone have a Mids build?

[Zenith Mech Man]

I just started this Water/Force Field Defender and I'm trying to make it one of my strongest toons. I'm trying to avoid making the same mistakes with my first toon, A Corrupter, Pain dom/energy blast. Which was one of the worst play throughs I ever had, I was on a low populated server, and I was on red and my build wasn't good. And that Character barely had any cash at all to even make a good Build. I would always find myself struggling with Bosses, and I had to constantly beg help chat to help me with a EB or AV, which at most times they wouldn't even aid at all. And when I told people about my issues online, they always told me Use mids, or make a good build. But never give me the ideas on how to make any cash in game or anything, I was new at that time. Now I do have cash methods and I want to make a Good Defender Water blast/Force Field build. But I don't know any Mids builds or anything that help me. Anyone got anything I could take a look at? 

[Lyrium]

Here you have a thread about Water/FF

 

Good luck!

 

 

[Uun]

While just about any AT/primary/secondary can solo EBs, not everything can solo an AV. I'm sure somebody will pop up to say they've done it, but FF defender is generally not in the AV soloing department. FF lacks the -res and -regen debuffs and +dmg buffs generally required to solo AVs (you can purchase Envenomed Daggers from the START vendor for -regen). Cold, Dark, Poison, Radiation, Traps or Trick Arrow are better suited to the task.

[Linea]

This is the closest I'd have.  

• You'll have to adjust the build for recent changes.
• I expect this version could manage a solo +4x8 ITF.   However, it may need to use Daggers and/or inspirations and/or Lore Pets to kill the AVs.     
• On the other hand it should be nearly as durable as many tanks you'll come across in the wilds.

FF Water Dark - Soul Drain - Overwatch 1 - [i25].mxd

 

 

 

Context:  All of my builds solo a +4x8 ITF as proof of concept, but most of those only do so once and only once, and I'm not at all averse to using Inspirations and Lore Pets, nor any other resources as needed.  Even the "almost"-petless MM soloed a +4x8 ITF, but used Lore (Hence the "almost") and Inspirations as needed. 

Edited April 12 by Linea

[Frozen Burn]

This is my FF/Water/Energy Defender.  Very tanky.  Designed to give max def to others, hence taking grant invis.  But as states above, FF is not really for AV killing.  EBs, sure, no problem.  But not an AV killer without lots of helps from temps, lores, and other summoned pets.

 

Moscato Rose - Defender (Force Field).mbd

 

[One IV All]

1 hour ago, Linea said:

This is the closest I'd have.  

• You'll have to adjust the build for recent changes.
• I expect this version could manage a solo +4x8 ITF.   However, it may need to use Daggers and/or inspirations and/or Lore Pets to kill the AVs.     
• On the other hand it should be nearly as durable as many tanks you'll come across in the wilds.

FF Water Dark - Soul Drain - Overwatch 1 - [i25].mxd 7.99 kB · 0 downloads

 

 

 

Context:  All of my builds solo a +4x8 ITF as proof of concept, but most of those only do so once and only once, and I'm not at all averse to using Inspirations and Lore Pets, nor any other resources as needed.  Even the "almost"-petless MM soloed a +4x8 ITF, but used Lore (Hence the "almost") and Inspirations as needed. 

 

37 minutes ago, Frozen Burn said:

This is my FF/Water/Energy Defender.  Very tanky.  Designed to give max def to others, hence taking grant invis.  But as states above, FF is not really for AV killing.  EBs, sure, no problem.  But not an AV killer without lots of helps from temps, lores, and other summoned pets.

 

Moscato Rose - Defender (Force Field).mbd 53.83 kB · 0 downloads

 

I’ve always dug the idea of this combo. Water Blast is a little more “user intensive” due to the build/spend mechanic, and Force Field is (I believe) one of the more “hands off” support sets.

 

How do you feel it works on a Corruptor compared to a Defender? Shields will be less, but Scourge ticking on Whirlpool and what not might help with the OP’s desire to solo AV’s.

[Linea]

The Corruptor offensive advantage is strongest from level 20 to 41, or when teamed with significant +damage buffs.  Once you get to 50+3 with full Tier 4 Incarnates, assuming mirrored builds, the offensive difference falls into the +/- 5% range while solo.  That small damage gap does increase while teamed due to the -damage debuff* defenders suffer while on a team.  Meanwhile the Defender builds are much easier to build and much more flexible overall.  On the negative side, most people do not build the Defender the way they would build the Corruptor, which in turn creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of Defender inferiority.  Lastly, don't forget FF now has , at least some, debuffs.

 

* Losing a buff is the same as being debuffed.

Edited April 12 by Linea

[Linea]

I have Tier-4 FF/DP/Souldrain listed as 234 dps.   Water should be at least that good, and should be better.   Looking over the data I do have, I would expect it to fall into the 250 dps category.   250 is effectively the minimum required dps to take on most +4 AVs.  

If for some reason you fall short of that you should still pass the +3 AV test, although to spawn a +3 AV frequently requires setting the difficulty to +2.

[MonteCarla]

Repulsion Bolt and Force Bomb will keep a 35% resistance debuff on your AV target, so FF is nowhere near as bad as it used to be for this task.

Dispersion gives you status protection and a very good start to capping your Defences.

You have zero native regen or recovery tools.

Add in Envenomed Daggers from the START vendor and as much damage as you can slot and proc for?

 

[Nostromo21]

I'd like to know what ppl think the best pure solo Defender is? Yeah, yeah, I know, why would I play a Def if I'm not going to group? Because I can (hopefully)! 😉

Started FF/Water and find the attack powers a bit...lackluster, with slightly long inception times...maybe it's just me, eh.

[MoonSheep]

50 minutes ago, Nostromo21 said:

I'd like to know what ppl think the best pure solo Defender is? Yeah, yeah, I know, why would I play a Def if I'm not going to group? Because I can (hopefully)! 😉

Started FF/Water and find the attack powers a bit...lackluster, with slightly long inception times...maybe it's just me, eh.

 

poison/fire or poison/ice

[tidge]

5 hours ago, Nostromo21 said:

I'd like to know what ppl think the best pure solo Defender is? Yeah, yeah, I know, why would I play a Def if I'm not going to group? Because I can (hopefully)! 😉

Started FF/Water and find the attack powers a bit...lackluster, with slightly long inception times...maybe it's just me, eh.

 

I don't know if it is the best, but I have a FF/Beam Rifle that is pretty good solo, and is an awesome teammate. What I liked about this combo was that I could lean heavily into the Beam attacks (which include -Regen) to add %-Resistance in addition to the -Resistance of Repulsion Bolt. I still don't like Force Bomb, it feels clunky considering what the BR attacks can do, YMMV.

 

The offense and debuffing potential is on top of the Defensive potential from FF.

 

Edit: I want to share this specific opinion about Water Blast and Beam Rifle. I think Water Blast is best used by Blasters, whereas I think Beam Rifle is best used by any AT other than Blasters. I'm not saying those set are wrong for those AT, but playing those sets on different ATs has shaped my opinion.

 

Also, specific to Water Blast: I am not a fan of Water Jet. It used to have a problem (consuming Tidal on a miss) that made it easy to hate, but even after that was fixed I'm not at all impressed with it as an attack. I think the "sometimes you get a fast recharge!" is a lure to pick a somewhat inferior power (and an inferior use of Tidal)  I'd use the FF Force Bomb in a FF/Water Defender's attack chain before I picked Water Jet.

Edited June 17 by tidge

[Frosticus]

OP - if you are willing  to use insp/lore/start temps etc. the better question is what AVs you can't solo? Most regular lvl 54 AVs will go down easily with those tools in play. 

 

Best solo def? My Ta/fire/soul is pretty nuts, but I really enjoy my poison/fire/psi even though it isn't nearly as capable.

[Nostromo21]

Cool, I actually have a poison/energy Spider-woman homage in the teens. Well, almost identical look-a-like, but I'm reluctant to take her for a serious spin, for the obvious reasons, ahem.