The Template Thread

[Xilren's Twin]

Defenders get practically the same secondary lines as a Blaster primary. But defender primary seems to fit with the blaster role much better than blaster secondary.

Anyway - starting to consider a storm/elec defender....

I mainly played a storm/elec defender in beta (got him to a smidge from 12) and while i like his versitility (ranged dam, heal, buffs, debuffs, and knockarounds), he's a true endurance hog.  While once of my characters will be a storm defender, im not sold on the electrical blast 2ndary set.  I want something with a bit more punch so im debating going Energy blast instead.  I didn't have problems soloing or anything, but typically had to restrict myself to groups of 3 or 4 foes, and higher level lt and bosses I had real problems hitting consistently (this with slotted 2 acc in gale and 2 in l.bolt).  Hover is a requirement though.

I thinking of my 2nd character for mainly soloing during my odd play hours being a straight fire/fire blaster.

Xilren

[kaid]

Defenders in general are huge energy hogs. Most of their best powers are auras something that blasters have very few of. At low levels it can be nasty but most endurance issues lessen greatly at higher levels with better enhancers.

Defender secondaries run down

Energy: Nice powers early snipe mid to higher end damage mostly single target powers.  

Psychic Somewhat slower casting powers especially the first couple.  Higher damage,  rare damage type and a number of cc powers in the set from slows to disorients and sleeps. Mix of aoe and single target powers.

Lightning High damage energy based attack. All powers have end drain ability and there are specials that allow you to do sever end drain. Very good anti boss power set . Good mix of aoe and single target powers.

Radiation low damage FAST casting powers. The first couple powers don't do huge damage but they recycle amazingly fast. Not many single large damage hit powers but many fast casting multiple smaller hit attacks. Good power set if you have an end hungry main set.

Darkblast Mid damage powers with middle of the road recharge. It uses a rare resist type which is good and is probably the best of the group for cc powers. If you plan to play a more defensive defender darkblast is a great power set and is the only set outside controller primaries that gets aoe roots.


I am pretty sure thats all of them but I may have missed one. Defenders are solid damge dealers especially since all the sets except electrical get their sniper blast VERY early compared to blasters. As they progress though damage tends to be something you do as an aside to your main buffing/debuffing roles and is something you do when you have end to spare.

That being said my buffed character psystorm who has storm which is a massive end drain was always up near the top of the pack in damage dealers for groups I was in. If I had it to do over again though I probably would knowing what I now know would go darkblast for her secondary.

In my groups I was always finding myself protecting and assiting our controller and storm defenders excell in that role. The extra cc from darkblast would have make my character a real fiend for weak character protection.


Kaid

[Murgos]

I still can't quite decide what I want to do in live.  I know I'll be a blaster and I'm probably going to go en/en or en/devices blaster so I'll probably play en/devices to 10 as I have a really good idea what en/en is like.

Basically, I would be trading buildup for caltrops, non-powerpool stealth and the target drone (the gun turret and mines coming at post 30 is kinda ridiculous to base a toon around but the turret certainly seems like the coolest level 38 skill for blasters).

I wish I could not take web grenade and go straight for caltrops though as web grenade is mostly useless to an en blaster (particularly once you have hover).

To my mind devices just looks really versitile, they have two solid crowd control skills (caltrops and smoke grenade) plus web grenade for 'parking' singles.  Targeting drone which should take care of misses once adequately buffed with to-hit buff enhancements and maybe end reducers.   The cloaking device for sneaking around and +def and with trip mines and time bombs sneaking will be just that much more fun.

Comparativley en manip seems like a weak sister with no crowd control and no utilitiy abilities.  Sure there are probably some pretty powerfull self buffs but 5 of the 9 powers are melee attacks.  Hello?  Blaster?  Anyone?  Sure powerthrust was fun and usefull, when it landed you sent the baddie flying giving you plenty of tie to get off a more powerfull attack,  But then they duplicate this functionality (trading knockback for stun) in energypunch, bonesmasher, stun and total focus.   I played Electron Blue to 16 and was loathe to take any of the melee skills when I did I ended up just replacing the one I had with the new one with only slightly better functionality.

Anyway.  I'll let you know after I get to 10 or 12 with en/devices.

[WayAbvPar]

I still can't quite decide what I want to do in live.

Ditto. I reserved a name appropriate for a Mind Controller, which is also a pretty decent group character. Will probably divide between that, and blaster of some kind (energy/energy was fun), and perhaps a scrapper.

Who am I kidding? I will have multiples of all classes by the time I am done.

[Signe]

I still can't quite decide what I want to do in live.

Ditto. I reserved a name appropriate for a Mind Controller, which is also a pretty decent group character. Will probably divide between that, and blaster of some kind (energy/energy was fun), and perhaps a scrapper.

Who am I kidding? I will have multiples of all classes by the time I am done.

And all with nifty costumes!  I am hoping I got my character creation obsession out of my system in beta and will be actually in the game during 3 day head start.  Funny how I spent all those days playing with it and my character came out wearing black leather.  Oh well.  I'll probably do Gravity Controller/Empath like before.  Though Kinetics interest me, you people just die too much!  It makes me sad.