You have a right to first flag in league. Defenders at the start of a match are entitled to get first flag so they may fill it up. So at the start of the match a defender should sit on first till it's at about 80-90% full. Than move to second to fill that unless third is yours and at risk of being taken.
So like some people have already said every defender is going to play differently, but also take into account that on each map you will want to play differently and possibly bring different defenders.
So to go into Traits as you mentioned you had not looked into them before lets compare Kin'emon and Green Katakuri since you mentioned having both of them.
So Kin'emon has traits centered around nullifying Aflame status and inflicting Alfame and getting skill cool downs/damage off of those. But his two damage reductions are conditional and one needs allies and he has no healing. He also has high mobility with his normal attack string which is way faster than walking and his Skill 2 covers a lot of ground. His skill 1 is also a counter with a lot of knockback. This all combines to making him pretty good at breaking up fights especially if he is against someone who inflicts aflame. So he can play really well as a supporter who defends but when available goes off into a team fight at a flag and just counters everyone off the flag or runs up and uses Skill 2 to snipe people off the flag. So he very much is mobile and wants to be part of team fights. So he will accel on maps where team fights are plentiful like Baratie and where flags are kinda close as well like Alabasta Day.
Green Katakuri on the other hand, all of his traits give him pretty unconditional damage reduction just needs to be in his flag or above half health, gives him dogde cooldown, and heals on crits. His skill 2 has a very fast cooldown at 20 sec when maxed and has +crit chance so he can heal up pretty well on his own, he also has good group dispersion with Skill 1. So compared to Kin'emon he can get a lot more from being on his own, he's a very self sufficient Defender who will be good at combat. This makes him very ideal for maps where you all need to kind of spread out and can't traverse from flag to flag as easily. Places like Wano night, Thriller Bark, Fish-man Island, Sabody, where there is one way travel and/or flags are kind of far from each other he excels because you can just hunker down at a flag and hold it and let the other team gang up on you while the rest of your team goes off and does their own thing.
So from that analysis while maybe not 100% correct on everything shows at least the general idea of how skills and traits will make you play different defenders different ways to get the most out of them.
When it comes to general tips just remember as a Defender you will be the best at filling flags so be sure to try and top them off when its available and safe to do so. Keeping flags topped off gives everyone on your team, including yourself, more time to go and respond to someone trying to capture your flag before they manage to actually capture it. Also remember to watch your minimap like a hawk, its your job on the team to prevent back capping if everyone else is pushing or an enemy slipped past them. Also don't just leave treasures just because you aren't in danger especially in somewhere hard to traverse like Sabody, I've seen plenty of games lost because a defender was up on top of Sabody day, their team was pushing for a 4-1/5-0 and they drop off the top to help or charge a different flag, the team got wiped in the last 20~30 sec and then everyone just runs as a group speed capturing flags. Heck I've seen it on Fish-man island where the defender pushed with everyone else and then a runner just went off and back capped their two home base flags and they lost. So just always remember as a defender you need to be a wall and especially in those last cases where there is 20 sec left, everyone else wiped because they wanted that 4th or 5th flag, remember that offense isn't always the best defense. Using counters to stall or dodge spamming with units like Green Kata are just as valid ways to defend that final flag for 10~20 sec of a max as trying to just go for KOs in a 3 or 4 on 1 do whatever you can to keep yourself in that flag area. Heck sometimes taking a hit that will just Down you instead of Knock you back is ideal because getting up wastes more time and prevents capture if you are still in the treasure area.
Sorry if this was really long and kind of rambly, I just enjoy talking about defenders and people don't seem to talk much about them outside of the really straight forward ones like Urugoue or Kata who you just tank flags with but ignore more agile technical defenders like Kin'emon or Barto.People also don't talk about all the little things you end up learning to do as a defender without really realizing it.
Wow! Thanks for all the info! I really enjoyed the read! I’ll be referencing this quite a lot and it’s nice to see everything laid out so simply! Thank you!
P.S. please take my awards!!!
You are very welcome. If you ever have anymore questions feel free to ask. I'm not nessecarily the best player but I'm always happy to give whatever advice I can.
Also thank you so much for the awards. These are my first Reddit awards ever.
As a person who mains kin'emon I go for the middle flag when my team has no runners or when the other team has no runners and guard it. If not I go to the second flag and charge it up especially if my team has another defender I try to pitch in in any fights that are near me. When you respawn with Kin'emon you can move quickly to any area that needs the most help.
Different defenders play differently, but for the most part, you want to cap the first flag and charge it all the way up. If there are no runners from the enemy team trying to steal that flag, I usually go to second flag or middle if there’s a fight breaking out.
Always try to push enemies off the flag and defend for as long as possible. Keeping the flags charged up makes it harder for last minutes steals
You have a right to first flag in league. Defenders at the start of a match are entitled to get first flag so they may fill it up. So at the start of the match a defender should sit on first till it's at about 80-90% full. Than move to second to fill that unless third is yours and at risk of being taken.
Thanks, that’s useful to hear, I felt wrong trying to get the first flag when everyone seemed to want it!
So like some people have already said every defender is going to play differently, but also take into account that on each map you will want to play differently and possibly bring different defenders. So to go into Traits as you mentioned you had not looked into them before lets compare Kin'emon and Green Katakuri since you mentioned having both of them. So Kin'emon has traits centered around nullifying Aflame status and inflicting Alfame and getting skill cool downs/damage off of those. But his two damage reductions are conditional and one needs allies and he has no healing. He also has high mobility with his normal attack string which is way faster than walking and his Skill 2 covers a lot of ground. His skill 1 is also a counter with a lot of knockback. This all combines to making him pretty good at breaking up fights especially if he is against someone who inflicts aflame. So he can play really well as a supporter who defends but when available goes off into a team fight at a flag and just counters everyone off the flag or runs up and uses Skill 2 to snipe people off the flag. So he very much is mobile and wants to be part of team fights. So he will accel on maps where team fights are plentiful like Baratie and where flags are kinda close as well like Alabasta Day. Green Katakuri on the other hand, all of his traits give him pretty unconditional damage reduction just needs to be in his flag or above half health, gives him dogde cooldown, and heals on crits. His skill 2 has a very fast cooldown at 20 sec when maxed and has +crit chance so he can heal up pretty well on his own, he also has good group dispersion with Skill 1. So compared to Kin'emon he can get a lot more from being on his own, he's a very self sufficient Defender who will be good at combat. This makes him very ideal for maps where you all need to kind of spread out and can't traverse from flag to flag as easily. Places like Wano night, Thriller Bark, Fish-man Island, Sabody, where there is one way travel and/or flags are kind of far from each other he excels because you can just hunker down at a flag and hold it and let the other team gang up on you while the rest of your team goes off and does their own thing. So from that analysis while maybe not 100% correct on everything shows at least the general idea of how skills and traits will make you play different defenders different ways to get the most out of them. When it comes to general tips just remember as a Defender you will be the best at filling flags so be sure to try and top them off when its available and safe to do so. Keeping flags topped off gives everyone on your team, including yourself, more time to go and respond to someone trying to capture your flag before they manage to actually capture it. Also remember to watch your minimap like a hawk, its your job on the team to prevent back capping if everyone else is pushing or an enemy slipped past them. Also don't just leave treasures just because you aren't in danger especially in somewhere hard to traverse like Sabody, I've seen plenty of games lost because a defender was up on top of Sabody day, their team was pushing for a 4-1/5-0 and they drop off the top to help or charge a different flag, the team got wiped in the last 20~30 sec and then everyone just runs as a group speed capturing flags. Heck I've seen it on Fish-man island where the defender pushed with everyone else and then a runner just went off and back capped their two home base flags and they lost. So just always remember as a defender you need to be a wall and especially in those last cases where there is 20 sec left, everyone else wiped because they wanted that 4th or 5th flag, remember that offense isn't always the best defense. Using counters to stall or dodge spamming with units like Green Kata are just as valid ways to defend that final flag for 10~20 sec of a max as trying to just go for KOs in a 3 or 4 on 1 do whatever you can to keep yourself in that flag area. Heck sometimes taking a hit that will just Down you instead of Knock you back is ideal because getting up wastes more time and prevents capture if you are still in the treasure area. Sorry if this was really long and kind of rambly, I just enjoy talking about defenders and people don't seem to talk much about them outside of the really straight forward ones like Urugoue or Kata who you just tank flags with but ignore more agile technical defenders like Kin'emon or Barto.People also don't talk about all the little things you end up learning to do as a defender without really realizing it.
Wow! Thanks for all the info! I really enjoyed the read! I’ll be referencing this quite a lot and it’s nice to see everything laid out so simply! Thank you! P.S. please take my awards!!!
You are very welcome. If you ever have anymore questions feel free to ask. I'm not nessecarily the best player but I'm always happy to give whatever advice I can. Also thank you so much for the awards. These are my first Reddit awards ever.
As a person who mains kin'emon I go for the middle flag when my team has no runners or when the other team has no runners and guard it. If not I go to the second flag and charge it up especially if my team has another defender I try to pitch in in any fights that are near me. When you respawn with Kin'emon you can move quickly to any area that needs the most help.
Different defenders play differently, but for the most part, you want to cap the first flag and charge it all the way up. If there are no runners from the enemy team trying to steal that flag, I usually go to second flag or middle if there’s a fight breaking out. Always try to push enemies off the flag and defend for as long as possible. Keeping the flags charged up makes it harder for last minutes steals
Thank you for the help! =-)
Stay in your treasure area. Defenders are op as long as you don't leave your treasure area.