Best debuffing?

[Xandyr]

Hey all.

  I run with a couple of friends. They typically play a scrap and a tank. When they do, I play my Pain/Storm Def.

   However, we were talking about what would be the best debuffer. Obviously Defenders get the best bonuses. Maybe a Rad/Dark or Rad/Sonic def?I'm wondering if perhaps a MM would be able to hang as well? Necro bringing all it's-To Hit debuffs. Or Mercs with the defense debuffs(and the potential of -Resist as well).

 If you were going for max debuffage (with good survivability), what would you go with? There's just so many options! (Rad,Nature,Dark...)

[Warshades]

For end game, -res is probably the most useful debuff, sets like Poison, Sonic, and Cold are all excellent at this. Regen debuffs don't make as big of an impact except for GM fights where the enemy has massive HP values. Similarly for end game, things like -tohit don't have as much of an impact when everyone's builds are finished and incarnates are considered. You will get more value out of it at lower levels so it depends on if you exemplar often or not. Once again, with a few exceptions of where mobs have defense buffs, -def debuffs aren't very impactful since you should aim to have 95% acc on your powers to +3 enemies. How survivable those sets are is a different discussion. I'm not as big of a fan of radiation because of the time it takes to cast and reapply the toggled debuffs. Not an issue for longer fights like AVs and GMs, but not useful/fun if you're in a team that's steamrolling through mobs.

 

Darkness affinity on controllers is a good pick if you want to make a really survivable build with high resists and soft capped def. It's not as great at debuffing as the other options, but does offer good defense, resist, regen, and recovery support for allies. Can easily be built for soft cap positional defenses with fairly high resists accross the board.

 

For MMs, I would probably go with a demon/marine combo. They just pair extremely well together, demons can add more -res, and the set combos quite well and you can even solo at +4/8x with little difficulty for when you're not teaming. Again, marine wouldn't be the best debuffer, but the combo is near unkillable with a high recharge build.

 

If you're not specifically focused on debuffing and taking down single tough targets like AVs/GMs, there's a strong argument to be made that kinetics is the best debuffer through buffing. Fulcrum Shift is just OP in the +dmg that it provides. What's the point in trying to debuff enemies when you can buff yourself/allies and kill them quicker than debuffing them would allow? Speed boost is always appreciated by everyone.

 

Don't know much about some sets like Nature, Traps, and Trick Arrow, just never liked playing them personally so maybe others can chime in.

Edited March 23 by Warshades

[Xandyr]

Yeah, I've kinda been looking at Sonic. The -resistance along with the +Resists would be nice. Especially since everyone builds for soft capped defenses and not for resistance.

 Thanks for taking time to reply!

[MoonSheep]

poison defender takes the crown for all round debuffing in my opinion. it’s not overly strong on the -regen front, but its -res, -def, -tohit, -dmg and -special are pretty much unbeatable

 

i really enjoy my poison/fire defender, i’ve put a lot of damage procs into it, it devastates AVs nicely

 

here‘s a classic poison guide by @Frosticus worth reading

 

[BassAckwards]

Purely based on DeBuff values alone, I would say a Poison Defender is #1 and it’s not even close. However, the AoE of poison is very small and requires multiple recasts to ensure you have hit all of the major targets, and then hitting another target nearby to make sure you have stacked the small and large debuff. It also requires you to be in melee to be most effective. 
 

Been running a lot of KM ITF with the same group of people and our clear speeds are consistently faster with a poison. 

[JJDrakken]

Poison is the best debuffer period.

 

After that it comes down to what kind of debuffing your wanting to do. -Res, -Def, -To Hit, -Acc, -Dmg, etc..

 

Then I would say overall best combo is a Arsenal Control/Trick Arrow Controller.

[Championess]

Poison is the best debuffer but a bit more singular target focused.  Trick Arrow isn't far behind and it's superior in aoe debuffing.  Although TA can be a hard set to play with so many target location powers you need to fire out.  If you get good binds set up its a good set to get those long duration arrows out and forget about em for a while so you can get into damage rotations.  

 

Overall I like TA better for more versatility provided you have binds set up and get comfortable and skilled with it.

 

That is if we're talking pure debuff.  The dual aspect of Cold support and debuff is hard to replicate though.  Hence why you see so many desired for endgame content.

Edited Monday at 05:25 PM by Championess

[Naraka]

lol Poison Defender slapping their **** on the table.

 

I'd say, if you're in a group that's mostly self-sufficient like a Tanker + Scrapper, keeping your own self-sufficiency in mind would be smart. Dialing the debuffs back to Corruptor or Controller/Mastermind would make you able to hold your own.  But if you're going full support with any buffs to boost your team too...I guess it's up to you.

[Jiro Ito]

I think Trick Arrow is the strongest pure-debuff set in the game.  It is highly active, so be ready for that.  My fire/ta corr is awesome.

[Lusiphur Malache]

I got a baby defender time/rad. It's still early but I do alright debuffing with holds, slows, and -def