The Best of the Best - Defenders.

[Kzach]

Barring a specific request not to do this, I'm going to post a series of polls over the next few weeks to determine the opinion of the ENW populace as to which constitutes the Best of the Best in each particular role, using current rules.

The aim of this series of polls is to ultimately create a set of iconic characters that form the 'perfect' party. Whether you want to use these or not isn't really the issue, it's simply a project I felt compelled to undertake due to sheer boredom.

So, the first of the series is the defender role. Using current rules, with no house-rules and only WotC products, and perfectly legal by way of the Character Builder, which of the following poll options do you consider to be the best defender?

 

[Mentat55]

In my experience, a sword-and-board fighter or a protecting paladin with the hospitaler PP make it very tough for monsters to go after the squishies.

I voted guardian fighter, ultimately, because the fighter seems to exert a bit more control over the frontline. Though with the new powers and divine sanction from Divine Power, the paladin might be comparable.

 

[Leatherhead]

I'm going with Great Weapon Fighter. Giving a polearm to a fighter allows them to do all kinds of good defender things. They also have a really good mix of offense, defense, and mobility. Their only real lack is in the ranged department, but most defenders suffer from that as well.

I was also considering the Earth Warden.

 

[renau1g]

I voted shielding swordmage, mark from range, leave and engage another foe, but still keep your ally protected? Also, his mark is the only one that prevents damage to his allys. Sure a fighter gets a chance to hit the bad guy if it ignores the mark (which is second best IMHO), but to me nothing better than mitigating a large portion of a monsters attack. I've only played a defender in low-mid heroic so I can't comment higher than that.

 

[Storminator]

Tough for me to vote, as I've only seen 3 of these in play, and 2 of those didn't last long. Of the three, the guardian fighter was the best, by far. The difference in survivability between the great weapon and guardian fighter was impressive.

The assault swordmage looked more fun than useful. And he's dead, so he's not defending anything is he?

PS

 

[Holy Bovine]

Earth Warden. THe sheer variety of special attacks and manuevers this class gets is staggering. The ability to make a save at the start of their turn alone is almost enough to push them to the top imo. Ive seen a EW single handedly turn the tide of battle back into the partys favour on more than one occasion. Not something I can say about any of the other defenders.

 

[Shroomy]

I only have experience with my party's dragonborn guardian fighter (a sheer beast), but based on that, its hard to believe there is a better defender out there.

 

[Kzach]

Ooh, I'm happy to see most people agree with me so far although I had suspected that more people would vote for the Battlerager. The recent nerf must've really turned opinion against it.

It will be interesting to see how the poll pans out with more votes and if the current stats remain the same.

 

[amysrevenge]

I hope that the issue doesn't resolve to "which defender can send out the most damage", because that isn't the issue.


I picked Earth-Warden. Mostly because of all the powers that truly lock down foes, and the "get over here" on a marked foe.

Close second to Shielding Swordmage. Third to guardian fighter.

I think that you could make a "perfect party" from a couple of different setups though, based on class power synergy. The bard's Misdirected Mark, for instance, is super useful for a warden or a fighter, but much less useful for a paladin or swordmage.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

I have an avenging paladin in my main game, his AC is awesome and the player is damn good at choosing the right foe and locking them down s the rest of the group hide behind him and make it hard to be picked as targets.