Are Defenders Worth It?

[WuTang]

Ran a +4/8 ITF with 5 Defenders once, I was on my best geared Brute, and I felt utterly useless. It was the smoothest run I'd ever been on. It felt more like a carry for me though. If you are on a team and mashing buttons, then you are contributing, but if you are the 35 on the ITF, maybe not so much.

[tribunaltd]

In my team of 3 at level 30, if my Defender dies I can tell immediately. I run a Tanker and Blaster with it. I had a mission to kill a boss but it didn't tell me to clear the map first. I had easily 30 mobs or more rush me from white to orange. I was scrambling trying to get to a spot I liked and was maintaining...chaotically, but for a good time and my Tanker was absorbing major damage. Apparently an orange was hitting my Defender without me noticing and died after I had a handful down. My Blaster immediately started dipping in health and it took all my pops to survive. By the end, Blaster was dead too and my Tanker had nothing left.

 

I know that isn't the pro-level group you were with but my Force Defender keeps me alive in the "Oh shizz!" moments, and collateral damage to my non-meat shields is almost non-existent most of the time so far. I will say though that in normal missions while just grinding, the Defender is mainly there for extra damage/debuffs...which are starting to make a big impact. I'm assuming when I get to higher levels those debuffs are going to really play a role.

[Doomguide2005]

Beyond a shadow of a doubt the most potent teams I've been on have been predominantly Defenders 

[One IV All]

1 hour ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Beyond a shadow of a doubt the most potent teams I've been on have been predominantly Defenders 

I agree. What are some of your favorite Defender primaries to have on your team?

[tidge]

I get mixed results from my Defenders. The best ones are those that offer both solid team buffs and impressive enemy debuffs. FWIW: In this era of CoX don't find enemy -Defense to be the end-all-be-all that it was in the early days of Live. A well-built, well-played Defender can make a huge impact on team performance.

 

I have several Defenders I really like; my least favorite Defender uses the Poison primary. It is IMO too clumsy to use to assist teammates, and too single-target oriented to contribute much except against single hard-targets. It really feels like it is from a completely different era of the game. I like Poison just fine as a secondary, it is as a primary that I find it to be weak sauce.

[TheMoncrief]

On 4/25/2024 at 9:03 AM, Uun said:

I run Entangling Aura (Choking Cloud clone) on my Nature/Seismic defender and Fire/Nature controller. I tried the Lockdown proc and found it didn't fire that often and ended up dropping it. My slotting is 3x end/hold IOs, which will generally hold all minions and lieutenants after 2-3 pulses. On the defender I took Char to stack magnitude to hold bosses. 

 

Agreed. Lockdown is OK if you can spare the slot, but the important thing is hold duration. That allows Choking Cloud/Entangling Aura to stack magnitude and hold Lieutenants and the occasional boss if you're really lucky. And to keep minions locked down pretty much forever, instead of just whenever a hold tick happens to land. Being able to essentially erase Minions and Lieutenants from the spawns while you do what needs to be done to the harder targets makes things much easier. At least, it did for my Beasts/Nature Mastermind.

[Doomguide2005]

On 5/24/2024 at 10:30 PM, One IV All said:

I agree. What are some of your favorite Defender primaries to have on your team?

Really doesn't matter.  But since I'm often on one of my Empaths nothing makes me happier at that point than seeing at least one other Empath familiar with GM tactics

 

PS And whatever Defender and support is present hopefully is using their mez protection.  Nothing will slowdown this Empath like standing around snoozing, held, stunned or otherwise mezzed.  No AB, No Forts, no CM, Auras with bigger gaps.   Nevermind my offender pew pew boom tendencies not at work.

Edited May 26 by Doomguide2005

[WuTang]

OK I just mostly finished out my only Defender (Kin/Storm). He's fully slotted but only T3 on all but Lore. And my thoughts are....

 

Holy crap! First of all, Kin is pretty awesome, and I absolutely couldn't live without Cat 5, though there has been one complaint about the "fog" making it "hard to see." But who cares what that shmuck thinks...not this dude. I got bodies flopping around me, my team is rocking with my Fulcrum at perma, actually all my buffs are on perma, and I'm doing hella damage. And I've gotten tons of complements about the "support" pretty much any TF I've been on. I wasn't sure I'd dig him too much, but before I figured his build out, I ran with a Kin/Rad Defender and he/she helped me with my build. It's basically a Scrapper with no mez protection, only maybe better. I have to be in melee range so I can use End drain to my advantage, so my Melee, Range, and AOE Def are roughly soft capped and my S/L Res is 75% with my Energy Res at 65%. I wanted higher Energy Res cause I like running MSRs. I can keep my team buffed and healed all while dishing out damage in the middle of the pile. It feels awesome. I definitely feel like I'm contributing to the team's success. Also, rolling solo...not bad either.

 

Imma Cat 5 fanboy though. Even as a Brute I live for the runs where I have support with it going. I love the chaos it creates.

 

 

[Riverdusk]

On 4/24/2024 at 7:13 PM, Psylenz0511 said:

   3. DO apply the toggle debuffs in the order of enervating field FIRST and then radiation infection. The animation time on radiation infection leaves you in a precarious position. 

 

 

 

On 4/24/2024 at 11:09 PM, PhotriusPyrelus said:

3. What do you mean "The animation time on Radiation infection leaves [me] in a precarious position"?  I've been thinking about anchoring on Lt.s, but it seems more important that I be certain at least one of the bosses is covered in the aura, and since the debuffs don't deactivate upon death any more, but rather when the body disappears, this seemed like a better strategy to me.  I'm certainly not saying I know better, just my line of thinking so far.

 

 

Definitely use RI, I think the other poster is still going off of old information.  Radiation infection's animation time was shortened, quite a long time ago now.  It went from over 3 seconds down to 1.5 seconds, exactly the same as enervating field.  So if either leave you in a 'precarious position', then both do equally.  Personally I find RI makes things a lot safer than EV does, so I'd suggest the exact opposite, RI, then EV.  Only exception would be if the team is really just steamrolling, hitting easily, and not in any real danger, then the extra damage that EV provides through its -res may be all you need. 

 

I know this was an old thread, but I still see quite a few people stuck in the mindset of "RI is so slow and takes forever to animate".  I think the buff to RI flew under most people's radar.