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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MwaO" data-source="post: 9373524" data-attributes="member: 12749">III. Understand your MarkThe key class feature of each defender is the marking ability. Each mark has one thing in common: Marked enemies take a -2 penalty to hit when they make an attack that does not include the defender. This does boost the defense of their allies, but alone it is not powerful enough to successfully discourage an enemy from attacking the defender's allies. That is why each class has additional abilities to add more punishment to their marks.Note that each enemy can only be subject to one mark at a time. If you have more than one defender in the party, they need to coordinate their marks carefully. Refer to chapter VII. for more on that topic.Paladin - Divine Challenge/Divine Sanction/Defender Aura+Righteous RadiancePaladins have an easy and straightforward mark for the most part — Divine Challenge or Divine Sanction an enemy and if they ignore you, they'll take some automatic damage.But while the Paladin has the best defenses from their class abilities, the punishment power of their marking ability is fairly weak in comparison. Where it really works well is that various powers can mark multiple targets at once with Divine Sanction — if you manage to mark 5 targets with Divine Sanction, are heroic and they all ignore you, that can be a very fast automatic 35 damage as an example. Also, the more you mark, the better the odds are that someone misses with an attack due to the -2 penalty.Fighter - Combat Challenge and Combat SuperiorityFighters use Combat Challenge and Combat Superiority to control the area around them. If they can't reach opponents, their ability to function in this role diminishes. They have a secondary role of striker because their powers and Combat Challenge tend to generate extra attacks.The Fighter has two different, but very powerful abilities that make them "sticky". This refers to their ability to punish monsters if they try to move away from them.Combat ChallengeThe first, Combat Challenge, is their marking ability. Unlike the other defenders, a Fighter marks an enemy whenever they attack, hit or miss. They can mark as many opponents as they can hit each round. For example, a Dragonborn Fighter will automatically mark every enemy in the attack area of their Dragon Breath attack. This gives a fighter effective crowd control through blast, burst and multiattack powers.The mark lasts until the end of your next turn, at which time you must attack the enemy again if you wish to keep them marked.In addition, if an adjacent enemy marked by you shifts or attacks someone other than the Fighter, you can make a Combat Challenge attack. This is a melee basic attack and it uses an immediate interrupt action, which means that you can only perform one such attack per round.Combat SuperiorityThe second class feature, Combat Superiority, is a boost to their opportunity attacks. First, they receive an attack bonus to opportunity attacks equal to their Wisdom modifier. Second, unlike normal opportunity attacks, a Fighter's opportunity attacks stop enemy movement and prevent the foe from leaving the adjacent square if the attack hits.Also note that as per standard opportunity action rules, the Fighter can use this power once per each enemy's turn.Despite their similar name, both powers above are completely separate. They trigger in different situations: Combat Challenge when a marked enemy shifts or attacks an ally, Combat Superiority when any enemy, marked or not, moves away.Because the attack granted by Combat Challenge is not an opportunity action, it does not gain the Wisdom bonus from Combat Superiority and it also does not stop a shift.Even though the fighter can punish normal move and shift, some monsters have movement modes that still allow them to get away from a fighter unharmed, such as teleporting.As the fighter's punishment capability relies on basic attacks and opportunity attacks, it is important to keep your attack and damage high, as well as having a decent Wis score for Combat Superiority.SwordmageSwordmage's Mark, "Aegis" gives some opportunities for tactical play — you can mark one target while engaging another target very easily. This allows you to control two areas of the battlefield at once.Swordmage - Aegis of ShieldingThe Shielding Swordmage has a straightforward mark like the Paladin. Once per round, it reduces the damage of one attack by the marked opponent against an ally. Unlike the Paladin, the swordmage can put their mark on the biggest brute and then walk off to fight other enemies. It does not offer much for battlefield tactics, but it is very effective at keeping your rogue / ranger / barbarian / warlord friend alive.At higher levels, you can boost your aegis with feats to mark several opponents and get better at crowd control, rather than just focusing on one opponent.Swordmage - Aegis of AssaultAssault Swordmage tactics are more tricky. Like the Shielding version, you mark the enemy and then you are free to walk away. If that enemy then attacks an ally, you can teleport back to your opponent and smack them with a basic attack. Since this is an immediate reaction, you can't prevent that your ally is hurt, you can only punish it. Like the fighter, you need high attack bonus and damage to make this effective.Unlike the fighter, you are "reverse-sticky". Your opponent is free to run away from you, but you'll always be back to pester him. There are two ways to use this power:Annoy the artillery: Go for mobile, ranged combatants like lurkers, artillery, controllers or skirmishers. These don't want you next to them, as they will draw opportunity attacks if they try to use a ranged power or try to run away. With your mark, you'll always catch up to them. This works best if there is another defender in your party.Always get the flank: Against a big bad guy, you won't want to run off, but rather stay close and help bringing them down. Big bad guys often don't move much except for shifts. But even if the big bad manages to shift out of a flank, if they starts whacking your ally you get a free teleport to pick a new spot next to them and regain the flank.Swordmage - Aegis of EnsnarementEnsnaring Swordmage do weird things, pulling enemies back adjacent to you when they violate your Aegis mark. This mark takes a bit more tactical play and reliance on party composition and power choice, but you want to have multiple members of the party have burst powers. You Aegis one enemy and then move up to another. That enemy fails to engage you? You teleport them into burst formation with the enemy you're adjacent to — the punishment is your party members and yourself doing burst attacks against multiple targets!Warden - Nature's WrathThe Warden's mark is about crowd control: Similar to the Fighter, they don't need to waste an action on it, and even better, they can mark each adjacent enemy once per turn, where the fighter needs a burst power. On the other hand, the Warden is not as good at disrupting movement as the fighter is.The Warden's tactic is "mark as many as you can get".No matter how many enemies you have marked, you only get one immediate action per round, so you can only use either Warden's Fury or Warden's Grasp once. Usually, you'll want to use the Fury because it does damage, and the rogue will love you for the combat advantage. The Grasp is handy to keep a skirmisher away from the wizard, though.</blockquote>

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