Early on in the game, I noticed a strong aversion towards Defenders - especially among the powerlevelers and number crunchers. During the first two issues, watching from Gemini Park, I hardly noticed any high-level Defenders.
I saw one, I barely remember that it was a strong male character model, wearing mostly blue. I don't remember his name but I felt inspired when I saw him there. A level 50 defender. Someone who had stuck it out despite everyone saying that this was the worst AT in the game. Between that guy and Doctor Forkenshpoon, a high level Rad/Rad Defender and talented roleplayer - I was eventually inspired to reroll my AR/Dev Blaster main (Belle Bonne), into a TA / Sonic Defender (Belle Barium).
Trick Arrow Belle was very, very weak at first - barely able to take down LTs, and getting her head handed to her during the first Fight Night At the Golden Giza PVP event by some villain named 'King Chicken'. Flash Arrow wasn't cutting it.
Then invention sets came out and things got better.
Then I got Oil Slick Arrow, and things got MUCH better.
I started pouring influence into my first batch of high-cost invention sets, and the recharge and accuracy bonuses started becoming a boon to my little Defender's performance.
It got to the point where I was starting off every group with a mass hold, then creating a chain that had Oil Slick Arrow, Disruptor Arrow, and Acid Arrow, followed by either a lowly [Taser Dart] 'temp power' to ignite the slick, or a Teleport-then-Dreadful Wail* for a nice little double-nuke to thin the group out.
Once the herd was thinned down, a quick recharging combination of Glue / Ice / Oil Slick arrows could keep one or two bosses busy while I chipped away at them with low level sonic blast powers.
I spent most of the life of the game trying to 'max out' Belle.
I wanted to become an insanely useful debuff-heavy TA/Sonic Defender, and one of the strongest out there.
*
http://kyuuen.deviantart.com/art/Defender-s-Nuke-Art-by-DrunkFu-386373562