Cabal Core Defender

[Mina]

TheCore Defender was a very large CABAL bipedal walker deployed during the Firestorm Crisis. It was superior to both the Mammoth Mk. II and the Cyborg Commando. The only known example was destroyed defending the CABAL Core in Libya at the end of the Firestorm Crisis. The concept of the single very high value unit would return during the Third Tiberium War.

The towering humanoid walker's primary weapon was a laser producing a distinctive blue beam; the laser could fire twice in rapid succession before requiring a short recharge. The laser outperformed the advanced CABAL Obelisk and could even penetrate the Firestorm barrier.

The walker's design mirrors a gigantic Cyborg Commando due to various similarities in the architecture of the mech (such as the 'scorpion's tail' behind the head and design of the shoulders). The defenders gyro stabilizer system, coupled with layers of armor, powerful motorics, and stabilized fire control system enable the defender to shoot on the move (while taking damage).

Analyzing GDI's Titan flaws and advantages, CABAL designed the Defender with a personally programmed A. I. and made sure all parts of the defender were experimental to the core. Replacing the Titan's "chicken walker" style of legs with a "humanoid" style, CABAL enabled the Core defender to fire its exotic new weapon while on the move. Coupled with an advanced self repairing system and multi-layered armor, the Core Defender required a much more resource intensive effort to construct. As such, only a sole Core Defender was available when the allied GDI and Nod arrived on CABAL's doorstep. CABAL used Reaper's foot design to allow safe navigation through Tiberium Veinhole fields with ease. No other Core Defender prototypes existed at the time, meaning most of the advanced technology was destroyed along with the Defender. The blue cockpit suggests that this unit is actually a cyborg, utilizing a "human" brain and tissue in the cockpit.

The lone Core Defender was used as the last line of defense for the main CABAL Core in Libya at the end of the Firestorm Crisis. GDI and Nod discovered it and the Core's other advanced laser defenses only as their assault pressed home. It was only activated once the Core's Firestorm barrier was disabled. It was too little too late; the Core Defender merely delayed GDI's and Nod's victory. After the war Nod made the Avatar warmech which is based on the Core Defender.

The long range laser approaches the damage inflicted to a single target by the ion cannon with each two-shot burst, and it has an extremely short recharge time; this makes short work of even the Mammoth Mk. II. The Core Defenders vitality is more modest: merely 12.5 times the hit points of the Mammoth Mk. II.

The Core Defender has no air defenses. Nonetheless any conventional assault requires mass. The best way to defeat the Core Defender is to train Jump jet infantry, and since it has no air defense, it will stand in place twitching. A fleet of Bombers also works fairly well. If that is not an option then throw absolutely everything you have at it including titans, artillery, tick tanks and juggernauts.

Unconventional ways of destroying the walker include destroying a bridge from underneath it, or activating the Firestorm barrier as it walks over a Firestorm wall section (care must be taken that the defender will not attack the Firestorm wall before it passes through). You are also able to destroy it by placing 2 laser wall sections on each side of Core Defender just after it becomes active. Depending on the map, it may be possible to lure the Defender onto an island then destroy the bridge to trap it, at which point it can be finished off at your leisure with air units. Alternatively, simply avoid engaging the Defender: hide a strike force near CABAL's core with several Mobile Stealth Generators, then wait for the Defender to march off towards your base. While it is busy on its rampage of destruction, attack CABAL's core to destroy it and end the mission.

I'm considering a Poison/ defender (or perhaps a /Poison corruptor, or even a controller) for thematic reasons, but I ran into some difficulty. First, I'm having trouble finding a powerset to pair it with. Second, I'm looking at the powers and wondering if the strong focus on single-target debuffs would be frustrating to play.

Plenty of pixels have been lit to defend (or criticize) Trick Arrow, and other less-popular sets. But very little has been said about Poison, one way or the other. Is it so bad that it's not even worth discussing? Or is there a secret cabal of Poison Defenders out there, keeping their secrets to themselves?

Envenom and Weaken are technically AE, but they're melee-range AE. That being said, they're probably the best 1-2 punch for crippling an AV/GM out there. They're just less effective against large spawns.

Venomous Gas would be a great effect... if it weren't a PBAoE toggle. These sort of effects just tend to get players killed. What inevitably happens is you stroll in melee range to apply your debuffs - and then you get stunned/held/slept, turning off the toggle and removing the effect that was keeping you from getting crushed.

Specifically, one of the most important jobs for a defender on a team is to quickly apply as much -Resist as possible to a group to magnify the efforts of the damage dealing teammates. I don't have the game open, so I'm going off city of data's corrupter info and scaling it by 1/0.75, but assuming that's correct the poison defender can apply a 25% debuff while taking no action other than walking near something and a 20% AOE resist debuff on a fast cast and short recharge. That matters a lot when steamrolling, as things are going to die fast with that kind of -Resist being thrown around, and is actually unusually high for a defender set. Most sets get one -30% AOE resist on a relatively high timer.

On the other primary job for a Defender, making sure the team doesn't die, it does not look as good. Weaken looks decent, but its a far cry from Rad's toggles and suffers the same issues all the debuff sets have in that it does nothing against spread out enemies or where you don't open with the debuff. One small single target heal is going to have issues keeping up if you're the sole support in any kind of really dangerous situation. If you don't push too hard or have other defenders to layer defenses, however, this isn't as big a deal.

I did /Poison onan MM back on live, and its...underwhelming? Regardless of numbers, it doesnt FEEL especially impactful. I will say the poison gas PBAOE is WAYY better on an MM where you can put it on one of your pets, ideally the one that runs into Melee alot. I did Thugs but beasts might be a good candidate. Other than that, yea, I cant speak for numbers because MMs tend to chew through normal content pretty easily unless you are at ridiculous difficulty, but at times it felt like, outside of AV fights, there really wants much of a point to bothering to use my secondary.

Ah, you're correct, it looks like I did get the poison trap details mixed up, mistook the -Recovery for -Regen and mentally mixed it with Traps' version. It looks like they get decent -Regen off of Envenom, but nothing overly strong, more in line with Kinetics than Cold or Rad.

There was an old posting (I think it was by Dechs Kaison) about a Poison/BR build that looked really promising if you can find it. Basically, embrace lots of defensive powers and the fact you will faceplant (I think he had soul transfer on it) but it had huge amounts of single target kill to it.

Alkaloid- So it's a single target heal that's going to give about 230 ish hp at 50 unenhanced, not bad but it's slow really slow... It also grants 20% res to toxic so you can buff that tank when fighting zombies in the low levels. skip it at the start, take it when you have nothing else to grab its only Okay

Envenom- Now this is the good stuff, -50% def all types -60% Res -50% Regen and it reduces heals on target as well, this thing is nasty. Small splash effect means the best use is going to be having a tank gather targets first or corner pull to maximize targets hit. Did I mention it recharges in 12s unenhanced and lasts 30s. You take this power as soon as you can first thing its the Best you get Period

Weaken- your other Good debuff -28% tohit debuff -37% dam and it guts the targets power effects by 74% so heals holds imobs, buffs debuffs, all of it gutted. Sam small splash as above, however, this power has a longer recharge of 16s

Neurotoxic Breath- so -81% recharge sounds really good, and it's stronger than frost breath and almost the same as infrigidate from cold domination, except this, is a cone. the issue is it does nothing for that alpha strike. this power gets a bad stigma due to -recharge being the kind of power that only shines in drawn-out combat. take it if you can its handy but not game changing like the last two debuffs

Elixir of Life- This is basically mutation, the "crash" is problematic on a target that already face planted a few mins ago and it could actually cause them to crash out again due to end loss at bad times but its not super hard hitting but a bit of a surprise. the 50% dmg buff is nice and the +Rech 100% is nothing anyone is going to complain about 90s later the throw-up and are sudo held.

Paralytic Poison- one of the worst ST holds iv ever used, 11s mag 3 hold 16s recharge so you cant stack it with itself unenhanced, it deals no damage (it really should or at the very least a slow effect as its supposed to paralyze the target) has no debuff associated with it no slow effect no - reach SKIP, unless you have another hold to combo with its not worth the slots or the power.

3a8082e126