Forum

[Felon]

YMMV, but the defenders in my group tend to be good at self-preservation, but not so hot at keeping the head off the softer party members. We've only had fighters and paladins serving in that role, and their only real tactic for defending seems to be to run up to whatever seems nastiest and throw a mark on it. Now, a fighter can at least stop movement with an oppy, but divine challenge has a nasty habit of being ignorable. Perhaps more to the issue, they seem to become just as much locked-down as the foe they're engaged with, and that allows other monsters to do an end run around them (or shoot past them to the back ranks).

I haven't played a defender myself, only built them (other folks want to jump into that role because they like the archetype of big, strong, weapon guy). At a cursory level, swordmages seem good at defending over distance, although they are largely limited to marking a single target. Wardens seem like they're good at locking down multiple nearby (not necessarily adjacent) enemies.

Howzabout some voices of experience? What defender builds allow for the best defense of the entire party?