Amber_V

Elude's not strictly necessary to have yourself under perma soft-cap defenses, but it's +Defense is a lot better than the SR's version, at +65%. I think it'd quite possibly have you evading the stuff which has high accuracy or massive +ToHit buffs, like Rularuu Sentries and DE near a Quartz emanator, for instance.

With Mental Training, Hasten and 4 Def/Rech IOs at around 35 in Mind Link, it'll be perma is my experience, though my widow does have +20% Rech from set bonuses from 3 Crushing Impact and 1 Adjusted Targeting set. With Foresight, Mind Link, TT:Maneuvers, CTefensive, Combat Jumping, Mask Presence and a Steadfast: Res/Def, I'm at 46% AoE/Ranged defense, 57% melee, 31% psionic while Mask Presence is suppressed. While psionic may be only "quite good" in terms of defense, psi resistance is at 65%, so...

And I think CJ's only got one defense IO slotted, and Mask Presence only has end redux.

I'm quite liking it. Tough, pretty good single-target damage, decent AoE options, and can bring more than just that to a team with, in essence, perma +23% defense buffs to all along with psi resist.

Ah, yes. And Smoke Grenade giving -5% ToHit, unresistable. Was happy to find it didn't cause redraw, either.

Hmm, could be up for this. It would also plug my complete lack of Controllers on Union, And Fire/ has a fast-animating single-target hold, which I like.

Will wait to see what people suggest as regards to playtimes.

Hmm, not regarding Ice, but Dark... has it been considered to make the mez-toggles like Oppressive Gloom generate Fury like an attack when they hit? Pseudo-thematically, it's not too out there. After all, for each you hit you are getting hurt slightly.

It's only logical it'd be Defender. Psy Blast for Blasters has, for instance, Psychic Scream omitted because it went into /Mental. As Corruptors don't have /Mental, they'd most likely have the version with Psychic Scream.

I'm just hoping it's like the Defender version in that TK Blast and Will Domination have shorter recharges, and WD is the more damaging power.

Well, uh, just hijacked my brother's account he started when he heard of it. Found it interesting. He'd stopped using it, as he'd returned to a different MMO he was taking a sojourn from. Planetside, I think. Still using that account.

So far, this is still the only MMO I've played.

The IOs in question that give the damage-type +Defense bonuses that're aids to survivability aren't too bad in cost though, really, for Invulnerability.

The main staple to bring defenses up are the Steadfast: Res/Def unique, around 15-20 million, Reactive Armour for it's several damage-type defense set bonuses and your choice of taunt sets. All of the taunt sets are dirt-cheap I believe, would lean towards going Mocking Beratement myself, and I'm pretty sure Reactive Armour is very cheap, too.

Invulnerability is a late bloomer, though. As a primary it is, as a secondary even more so. It does however have exceptional potential, even if it's hard to get into.

Ah, someone else who shares the same line of thought concerning revival powers. I do get it in the end, very late on though, just for that 1%. For the most part though I play an Empath to stop people from dying, not to play around with corpses. In any case, there's an inspiration that revives people, so it hardly provides a unique, unduplicatable or uncommon function.

Sounds about right. Stamina's certainly skippable, as if you both have Hasten and AB each other, you both have perma-Hasten and perma-AB.

I would say 5 sets of Doctored Wounds would do you good, a set in Heal Other, Healing Aura, Absorb Pain, Regeneration Aura and Adrenaline Boost. Maxes out on enhancing healing, and gives two SOs worth of end redux and three SOs worth of recharge reduction. Cheap, too. Set bonuses of +25% recharge and +20% healing will set you in good stead, also.

Hasten I would say is a must, to make it far easier to perma 4 or 5 Fortitudes, and have Regeneration Aura and Adrenaline Boost available as often as possible. Also gets Heal Other up much faster, which is good in tight spots.

I would recommend Concealment for Stealth, to lower your own threat level, and if you're taking Power Build Up from the Power Mastery epic pool, Grant Invisibility. With Fortitude and Grant Invisibility slotted for defense, if applied while Power Build Up's active, it's around a +44% defense boost to everything. That's pretty much the defense soft-cap. You can also fit 4 boosted Grant Invis under the duration of PBU, so can get 3 others with a good boost to defense on top of Fortitude.

Just one thing to keep in mind, is to pass over Tankers for Grant Invis, if you take it. Doesn't help much with attaining aggro. Grant Invis on everyone but the Tanker does go a long way to assisting them hold aggro, which is a bonus.

I would also advise staying a moderate distance away from the group at most times, so as to avoid the effects of AoE attacks, those with mez, in particular. The best way to use Healing Aura is to jump close to the teammates you want to use it on, fire it, jump immediately out.

In any case, even if defenses aren't soft-capped, I suspect SS/Shield would have superior defense via superior offense. It's capable of a huge amount of AoE spike damage, as well as having PBAoE knockdown powers.

To expand on additional ways to increase how much of a boon you are to your allies, I would highlight the usefulness of both Grant Invisibility and Power Build Up of the Power Mastery epic pool.

Power Build Up's primary use is to increase the +Defense and +ToHit that Fortitude provides, and also Grant Invisibility's +Defense. Secondarily, it also increases the power of your heals while it lasts. It recharges fast enough to be able to keep a PBU-boosted Fortitude perma, along with 4 PBU-boosted Grant Invisibilities. With both of these slotted for defense, you can soft-cap somebody's defense, meaning most things will have minimum chance to hit them. The 3 others with the PBU'd Grant Invis (and possibly standard Fortitudes) will also get a quite significant +7% boost to their defense on top of Fortitude's 23%.

Grant Invisibility's usefulness is twofold. Firstly, simply the additional +Defense on top of Fortitude, then the fact that whoever has it is less likely to retain aggro or aggro pre-emptively. This goes a long way to assisting Tankers in holding aggro, providing you don't use grant invis on the Tankers.

In doing this, you can essentially make something like a Blaster so resilient that they can afford to be extremely reckless and mete out destruction with minimal risk of taking damage. It gives you the option of very potent single-target buffing. A Blaster that an Empath's soft-capped defense for and given CM+AB, and is aware of how buffed-up they are, is a frightening adversary.

Though of course this is just one way of playing Empaths, and one that focuses on preventative rather than remedial measures. I play mine in a manner where I try and prevent the need for healing through buffs using methods like the above. It seems to work.

Yeah, dual-procced Poison Trap nuke was insane against large mobs. To top it off, the two slottable damage procs were psionic, too. The fix was quite predictable, and perfectly justified. Poison Trap was not meant to be a damage power.

Would be nice if they upped the hold chance and duration though after the change so it's a brief control power again, though... but really, Seeker Drones and Caltrops are still very good mitigation tools used right in /Traps, anyway.

Edit: Only thing I really miss is aesthetic though, the impenetrable green cloud upon detonation in a large mob... Ah well.

That /Psi has it bad. I would agree that Psi/ does, but /Psi ranks among highest single-target damage for Defender secondaries.

Actually, not true. Defender's Psy Blast is *very* different from Blaster's Psy Blast. For a start, Blaster Psy Blast has standard ranges, where-as Defender Psy Blast has 100ft as the standard rather than 80ft.

For Blasters, Telekinetic Blast and Will Domination take far longer to recharge than on Defenders. Will Domination is the weaker attack of the two on Blasters, but very strong on Defenders.

Then there's the fact /Psy Defenders have Psychic Scream. Psy/ Blasters don't, as Psychic Scream was placed in /Mental.

In essence, if Blasters had the Defender's Psy Blast powerset with Blaster modifiers, it would probably be far better than the existing Psy Blast? For this reason I've never touched it, as it seems somewhat average as it stands in single-target damage, and *severely* deficient in AoE damage.

And I really hope that when/if Psy Blast is proliferated to Corruptors, they get the Defender version.

For a more basic summation: what yourself and Ares were exhibiting boiled down to, essentially, 'AHAHA, WE ARE MIGHTY. FEAR US, LESSER MORTALS, WE EAT SOULS FOR THE LULZ!'. While Caps Lock wasn't used, the subtlety exhibited wasn't much more than that. Neither character appeared anything more than two-dimensional and shallow.

Hopefully, I shouldn't have to point out why you'd be intensely boring to RP around. Discussing "lol, powerlevels" in RP is not exactly interesting.

These characters (and perhaps some that play them?) exemplify the narcissist: they care only for themselves; screw taking an interest in other people's characters and interacting with them, it should be about me!

Jean Valdamjong. Fire/Mental Blaster.

At 28 years of age is the oldest Valdamjong there's been in 6 generations that hasn't regressed into the insanity inherent in the blood. Strongly suspects her clarity of mind doesn't have long remaining, so has left her research into their family's condition and it's limited results to her younger sister Amber, and seeks to die in battle before her sister's forced to kill her after she regresses, as is the duty of the eldest sane members of the family. Is extremely reckless in combat as a result. (RP-justified Blasterlock \o/)

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- Uneffected by -fly powers (most seem to forget that, its rather new)

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It's not that most people forget it. It's that it's not true.

Hover gives -Fly resistance. Not protection. -Fly affects you, it just wears off slightly faster. Just yesterday -Fly was affecting me through Hover, but this was PvE, perhaps it's different for PvP.

I would also add that it might be worthwhile to lower recharge and up duration on Serum. Probably both. I mean, seriously? God-mode recharge time on a 60 second Unstoppable that affects one henchman? In the situations in which it'd be necessary for their survival, then most likely either all your other henchmen are down and you're crippled in a dangerous position, or you'd activate Serum then you yourself die shortly after. Perhaps before.

Mercs however can compete with other henchmen primaries... but only by slotting all henchmen with Touch of Lady Grey: Chance for Negative. They're firing off -Defense with almost every attack, and the damage the proc inflicts is higher than the actual attacks most times and Negative rather than Lethal, to boot. I think when numbercrunched, the addition of these procs more than doubles average damage output.

However that such un-intuitive (and expensive?) a work-around is required just to get it competing means there's something definitely worth revising here.

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From the dictionary:

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Hover: to stay in one place in the air

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English isn't your first language Sorudo, don't try to tell those who do have English as thier first language what English words mean.

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^ Be Told.

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I don't think that's a particularly good attitude to have universally. I've known plenty of people who don't have English as their first language speak it, and know it, far better than a huge amount who do.

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Some do, and some just think they do.

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Honestly, I think you're reading a bit too much into it here. I don't think sorudo claims to be any kind of authority on the English language, and it's just a simple enough misconception about the meaning of a word. Everyone has misconceptions about the meaning of some words. I've had loads, and I still do. We don't know which ones because we probably think we know what they mean, and it hasn't occurred to us otherwise.

In short, a trend of text-based communication on the internet is that you will read things in a light that make the writer seem jerk-ish. It's not in any way a precise form of communication and it's very easy to not efficiently convey what you were trying to say, or more importantly the manner in which you were trying to say it. It's easy enough to type something jovially or jokingly, and it gets interpreted as if you're saying it in an angry or indignant manner. My reluctance to use smilies often makes that happen.

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From the dictionary:

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Hover: to stay in one place in the air

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English isn't your first language Sorudo, don't try to tell those who do have English as thier first language what English words mean.

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^ Be Told.

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I don't think that's a particularly good attitude to have universally. I've known plenty of people who don't have English as their first language speak it, and know it, far better than a huge amount who do.

Would agree with those saying Hover has a very definite use on account of keeping you indefinitely out of melee at a far lesser end-cost than Fly, which is the most end-heavy travel toggle.

Once slotted it is also more than adequately fast, and any further +Defense is good for anything defense-based.

And also, because I'm somewhat prone to pedantics, in regards to PRAF saying the defense bonus is relative to AT and Tankers/VEATs get it highest: Defenders also get the same amount from it, 2.5%.

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if you are close or at max 2 meters from the ground, you should have a small speed bonus.

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Why? What possible mechanic would explain this?

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In regards to 'Why?', I think it was just born of the misconception sorudo possessed that the word 'Hover' merely means moving fast close to (but not on) the ground.

A perfectly understandable mistake, I think. A common usage of the word hover in modern media is in such things as hover-cars, or hover-craft, which DO move fast close to the ground. However they're only truly hovering, in the true sense of the word, when they're not in motion.

Heh, my first character, Blaster and 50 was Energy/Fire. Been such a long time since I've used it, mind, and I'm not sure if I wouldn't cringe at the build now.

From what I remember Energy/Fire's workable, not the best certainly, that in part being why I use my Fire/Mental more than Energy/Fire... it renders it obsolete in all fields. Quite horribly so, but that's saying more about the amazingness of Fire/Mental than anything bad about Energy/Fire.

Concerning Energy: Energy Torrent. Lovely power. Good damage, very fast to fire, EXTREMELY fast to recharge, long-range and wide cone. It will knock foes back, which while it might annoy teams if done uncontrolled, will when used well disable foes a few seconds, during which you could finish them with, say, Fire Sword Circle.

Alternative spin on that if you have Hover: get directly above mob, BU+Aim --> Energy Torrent to knock them down (rather than back), disable Hover and hit Fire Sword Circle as you hit the ground centre of them. Result, dead and maimed mobs.

As far as enhancements go, I would suggest for basic slotting of SOs, standard of 2 accuracy, 3 damage and 1 recharge for standard damage attacks. 3 recharge in Build Up and Aim. While in no way optimum, certainly more than adequate to be effective. A large part of playing an AT well is in what the player behind the character does just as much as what powers and enhancements they slot.

As far as must-have powers go, I'd say the following: Power Blast, Power Burst, Energy Torrent, Aim, Nova from Energy Blast. From /Fire: Build Up, Fire Sword Circle, Consume, possibly Fire Sword? I'd also recommend Hasten from the Speed pool for being a great power in general and getting your AoE big-hitters up and recharged faster, along with Build Up and Aim.

And regarding large changes: as well as the defiance changes listed in the post above mine, Blaster ranged damage across the board got boosted. 12.5% increase, I think.

In anycase, this might be somewhat a messy post. Rushed, and also, I really haven't used my Energy/Fire in a looong time, so my experience with both sets is distant.

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If you take CJ you can slot an anti-KB IO into it as well.

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...Which you could also do with Maneuvers.

In the end I would say it comes down to two differing factors between the powers: Maneuvers has quite high end-drain, CJ has almost none, and the second being that CJ provides immobilise protection.

Yeah, to the OP, it is worth keeping in mind that when it comes to coding/software/hardware, a 'simple' problem can quite feasibly only be fixed by a hideously complex, large and painstaking solution. One that may, very well, lead to the creation of more bugs or problems in itself.

Unfortunately there is no command window the team(s) responsible can pull up and then change "Mapserver = 1" to "Mapserver = 0", and the like.

And then not just solving the problem, but finding out where it even originates and why can also be painstaking.

There's a good reason why there's no-one in the world that actually likes coding.

I'm pretty sure that's without Tough, Weave or Steadfast: +Res/Def IO.

With Tough, Weave, Steadfast: Res/Def and Combat Jumping (3-slotted, defense), I believe figures would be as follows:

47.35% S/L resist, 23.55% (all else) / S/L 94.45%, 47.1% (all else) under One With the Shield.

43.45% M/R/AoE Defense, 57.58% with 3 allies within 8 feet.


Basis was PRAF's figures, with benefits of Tough, Weave, CJ and Steadfast: Res/Def added on.

I think that's potentially pretty decent, and when facing S/L dealing foes, under OWTS you're resisting 95% almost of what does hit, AND afflicting -Damage. Against Cimerorans it'd be great.