Radiation Blast / Force Field

[WuTang]

I was playing around with a themed idea yesterday and I think Corruptor would be a better fit for the Theme but.... After having played around in MIDs a bit just didn't like any of the outcomes. Does Force Field work better with a Defender?

[Projector]

What were the goals you had for the character and what were the outcomes you didn't like? 

The buff/debuff numbers will be better on a Defender than a Corruptor, but the damage output will be lower. On average, even when factoring in the increased buff/debuff strength that Defenders get, Corruptors will still out-damage them because of Scourge and higher base DPS numbers.

So, if your goal is to be a hybrid of good damage and protecting the team, Corruptor would be the way to go.

But I will also say that if I need to hard-carry a team from the support role, I'm bringing a Defender 100% of the time. If I get the sense that I won't be able to trust my team or that something is missing, I will whip out a Defender, especially if it's nature or Kin, because the heals are a lot stronger. 

My logic is: There's only so much I can do to kill tough enemies on my own, even if I'm playing a pure DPS role, but if I can keep my team alive for longer, they'll eventually find the right target, too, even if it's the last one remaining. I run into a lot of this in starred content, and I can tell you several runs where I've either played a Kin Defender or a Nature Defender because I knew the team was struggling, and there would have been no way we would have completed the runs successfully if I had brought my Corruptor versions of those characters.

So, if your goal is to play more of a support role, Defender would be the way to go, imo. Your shields will all be stronger, you'll just do less damage.

[Maelwys]

FF has substantially Stronger Buff and Debuff Values on a Defender.
A Corruptor will get a little higher base damage from Force Bomb.
So by that logic it's "stronger" on Defenders.

However by going Defender you'll inflict lower damage from your Blast set... and FF is a fairly passive support set so you'll likely be spending quite a lot of time blasting. Also; usually combining any AT's FF Bubbles with Power Boost (and/or Radial Clarion) will stick your allies firmly at the Softcap; so the higher base buffage on Defenders can be a moot point.

[WuTang]

I was looking at not only support by my own survivability as well. Couldn't get any defenses to soft cap. Got S/L res in the 70s, but my thoughts were along the same as y'alls it'd be easy to soft cap def, but I haven't managed it so far.

[Psyonico]

40 minutes ago, WuTang said:

I was looking at not only support by my own survivability as well. Couldn't get any defenses to soft cap. Got S/L res in the 70s, but my thoughts were along the same as y'alls it'd be easy to soft cap def, but I haven't managed it so far.

You should be able to come up with something that soft caps ranged and AoE defenses.  You'll have to sacrifice having multiple procs in powers, but it should be doable.

[Projector]

2 hours ago, WuTang said:

I was looking at not only support by my own survivability as well. Couldn't get any defenses to soft cap. Got S/L res in the 70s, but my thoughts were along the same as y'alls it'd be easy to soft cap def, but I haven't managed it so far.

You can softcap, but as Psyonico said, you will have to make a LOT of sacrifices, basically neutering your damage output, which is the whole point of going Corruptor over Defender.

Imo, it's best to aim for around 30% in either typed or positional defenses. At 30%, it just takes one small purple inspiration to softcap you for normal content, and 2 to softcap for incarnate content. 

This is the best compromise as it allows you to still include some meaningful damage, HP, recharge, and accuracy into your build while still remaining very survivable.

[Maelwys]

Technically you could also go for an Epic Pool with a Def-based shield (Mace or Ice) rather than either Energy or Soul for Power Boost/Power Build Up.

It's not optimal from a survivability point of view to do that since you'd be giving up a lot of +Resistance buffage; but it would at least let you hit the S/L (and/or Energy) Softcap without investing too much into set bonuses... which could free you up to procbomb more attacks.

On a Defender; ED-capped for +Defence% your Allied Bubbles will be giving ballpark 23.5%, plus another 15.6% for Dispersion Bubble; for 39.1% total. Maneuvers is another 5.5% ish. Radial Clarion can boost the Allied Bubbles from 23.5% to 35.5% once every 120 seconds. That's ~56.6% Def for allies without Power Boost/Power Build Up; and ~21.1% Def for you.

[Frozen Armor] from Ice Mastery can grant you another 23.5% to S/L plus a further 6% from the Steadfast and Gladiator Armor IOs; so you can sit at ~50.6% S/L Def before any other set bonuses. [Scorpion Shield] from Mace Mastery can grant 23.5% to S/L and 15.7% to Energy but won't take Resistance IO sets.

 

On a Corruptor; ED-capped for +Defence% your Allied Bubbles will be giving ballpark 17.6%, plus another 11.7% for Dispersion Bubble; for 29.3% total. Maneuvers is another 4.1% ish. Radial Clarion can boost the Allied Bubbles from 17.6% to 26.6% once every 120 seconds. That's ~42.4% Def for allies without Power Boost/Power Build Up; and ~15.8% Def for you.
[Frozen Armor] from Ice Mastery can grant you another 20% to S/L plus a further 6% from the Steadfast and Gladiator Armor IOs; so less than 4% S/L Def needed to softcap. [Scorpion Shield] from Mace Mastery can grant 20% to S/L and 13.3% to Energy but won't take Resistance IO sets.

Whilst Masterminds weren't mentioned in the OP, they don't really need to think about Epic/Patron selection as their Mace Mastery pool actually includes Power Boost. Their base numbers are identical to Corruptors; but Power Boost will bring their Allied Bubbles to 25% by itself and to 34% when stacked with with Radial Clarion. Meaning their teammates (and Henchmen!) can sit at 49.8% Def even before the Pet Aura IOs and stuff like Protector Bot Bubbles or Thug Maneuvers.

(And for the sake of completeness, the numbers for Controllers are functionally identical to Corruptors, aside from getting access to [Rock Armor] from the Earth Mastery pool... which can grant a smidge more S/L Def at ~22.5% but also won't take Resistance IO sets)
 

Edited November 19 by Maelwys

[WuTang]

Is Dampening Bubble skippable? Debuff resistance in a static bubble seem situational at best.

[WuTang]

13 hours ago, Projector said:

Imo, it's best to aim for around 30% in either typed or positional defenses. At 30%, it just takes one small purple inspiration to softcap you for normal content, and 2 to softcap for incarnate content. 

Welp that's basically where I'm at. Got ~30% def on just about everything.

[Maelwys]

18 minutes ago, WuTang said:

Is Dampening Bubble skippable? Debuff resistance in a static bubble seem situational at best.

It's mainly useful as a "turtle up" option for Countering large amounts of Enemy Debuffs.
If you're not facing lots of -Defense, -ToHit, -Recharge, -Regen, etc. (especially on hardmode) then you likely won't need it; but it's nice to have in a pinch if you can fit it.
 

Edited November 20 by Maelwys

[Psyonico]

4 hours ago, WuTang said:

Is Dampening Bubble skippable? Debuff resistance in a static bubble seem situational at best.

 

I personally wouldn't skip it.  Really, with 2-3 Def/Rech IOs it's good on slots (the DDR is enhanceable).  You've got lots of places in Force Field for the LOTG +recharge enhancement, so it'll be up every fight.

 

The other aspect of it that people tend to forget about is that it lowers the strength of various enemy buffs as well.  The -Defense Strength aspect, for example, is great for cutting through Cimeroran's Phalanx Fighting or Nemesis' Vengeance.