D3 Basics

Pros

Rescuing a friend in trouble.

Defenders in general are a very versatile type, but as a D3, your variety of gameplay is astounding. You can heal, you can debuff, you can control, you can tank, and you can blast. You have a power for every situation.

Note that you have one of the only powers in the game that gives Psionics resistance to you and the ONLY one that gives Psionics resistance to your whole team.

You will go through the game in relative safety due to your secondary effect of reducing target accuracy. There are times you can take a break in the middle of a battle and come back with enemies still whiffing trying to hit you. Darkness powers also work very well in character design because there are themes and story plots that just work with a dark bent.

Cons

You're weak. Face it. Granted you get some pretty good defense/resistance from some toggle powers and you're hard to hit as long as you debuff the enemies, but when you do get hit, it doesn't take much to take you out.

Speaking of debuffs, an enemy might not be able to hit you at all, but your attacks are so weak that it can take a really long time to take an enemy out. With certain very powerful enemies, you may end up in a stalemate only because you can't do damage fast enough to win. For this reason, you're strongest in a team with at least one heavy damage dealer.

The most serious drawback to a D3 that takes getting used to is that many of your powers require a "victim". For example, you have a pretty good group heal and the best Rez power in the game by far, but you have to have a targeted enemy to use them. However, this is really only a playstyle adjustment and once you get used to it, it's no big deal. Even better, learning this makes playing a Warshade a walk in the park since you will already be used to this drawback.