Alvan

Also should be noted that Grant Invis is usually taken as a route to Invisibility and/or Phase Shift if the person isn't keen on having both Stealth and Invisibility. Pretty much like if you're going for Invoke Panic from Presence, you'll need to go through Challenge or Provoke. Both which are powers that you will, as a Defender, use even more rarely than Grant Invisibility...

Thanks for all the feedback guys, gotten a few levels up, and some things have risen I'm probably going to change from the original idea - First is that I'm getting rid of Recall Friend/Teleport. I'm considering taking Aid Self instead them. AS, Well-slotted (2 Interrupt, 3 heal, 1 recharge) should make things easier when the need to get back up to full health after a bloody battle (for example if the next mob is already charging in) arises. It has way higher heal value than the healing aura and Heal Aura can recharge while the AS is being used. Will naturally take Stimulant as a path-power in case someone somewhere will start asking for Clear Mind .

Other option for TP's replacement is to take Leadership and get added survivability. Will have to see when the time comes (somewhere in the 30s I think). On a Defender, Leadership actually provides useful amount of buff to consider.

Stamina will be moved up a few levels, taking Acrobatics most likely before it. Will be 3-slotting Health to get a better regen rate even when Regen Aura is down. It's all about being on a non-stop offense it seems.

All these changes mean I'll be 4-slotting the regular attacks, 5-slotting TF and Blazing Arrow (since they have slightly worse accuracy). Conserve Power will be taken to alternate between it and Recovery Aura.

At the moment I'm running Hastened single target attack chain of the three first single target arrows with Fistful every now and then to provide some help against bigger mobs. The damage output, supported by a reliable hit rate, is great.

The only downside I can think of at the moment is that the feeling of speed Empathy Offender has is making my Storm/Psi way too passive to play after it.

Random thoughts. Most of it already said here I think.

Biggest problems with Archery:

a) Invulnerability tanks with capped S/L resistance before hitting their lv 32 power. Generally S/L is the most resisted damage type even in PvP.
b) Lack of any form of real control. It's a gank-or-be-ganked situation with only one attack causing knockback and another providing disorient 70% of the time (which you can back up only with Taser from your secondary, which frankly is poop.) Good thing about both these control attacks is that they're nice damage dealers, so you don't lose anything by using them in combat.

If you do want to play a "deal lot of damage and that's it" type of character, Archery is good. The single target attack chain you have is close to perfection.

Devices and Archery synchro provides you with great +ToHit and coupled with Aim, you actually should be able to hit almost all those pesky +def types with minimally (1 ACC) slotted attacks.

Speaking of Devices set - Targetting Drone + Tactics = Enough perception in almost all situations. Caltrops and Web Grenade, slotted with slows, are way too nasty a way to bring a well-oiled melee-machine to a grinding halt. Taser, as I already said, is pants. So is Smoke Grenade with all the +perception going on. Cloaking Device's uses in Base Raids is a bit limited, but going for a Stalker build, it could be made to work with Smoke Grenade, or maybe not.

Trip Mines and Auto Turret are instant base defenses on their own right. Never really managed to master Time Bomb, but it could be quite good if you know how to use it.

We need more /dev blasters for PvP

From Character Builder:

Radiant Aura
Acitvation Time: 2,03
Cost: 13
Recharge: 8,0 (Unslotted) / 4,06 (3-slotted)
Heal: 10% (Unslotted) / 19,72% (3-slotted)

Healing Aura:
Acitvation Time: 2,03
Cost: 13
Recharge: 8,0 (Unslotted) / 4,06 (3-slotted)
Heal: 13% (Unslotted) / 25,64% (3-slotted)

Not a big difference, as said.

Now if I could only get the sonic secondary with decent sound effects (not really my reason for not taking it, but could as well been)

Some of the ideas..

a) Empathy means you only need to pick three powers from your primary (even if you do need to 6-slot them all), meaning you can focus fully on the secondary.
b) Good heal, combined with high regen and recovery boosts mean non-stop action even if a single battle would drain you out.
c) Archery means even your Disorient power and Nuke Level power are viable attacks mid-combat. With other Secondaries, the Endurance drain of a Nuke will bring your fighting to a grinding halt every time you fire it, even if you're running recovery aura. (not counting inspiration use) And usually the mez powers in sets are low-damage ones.
d) No real toggles. I have a pet annoyance on my rad controller of the 1 microsecond sleeps/stuns from high level foes that drop everything I've been toggleing and make me put them up again, usually ruining the critical debuffs, making me very dead.

I am not saying Empathy would be any way better than the other Offenders. I know from experience how good the debuffs/buffs from the other sets make their users. What I'm trying here is to create a character with Empathy that is viable as an Offender, broadening the view on what can be done with the Empathy set.

Better play balance would naturally be acchieved by taking a mix of the team-mate buffs and attacks, but as a concept build, I'm going for the extreme option - Anything that isn't directly affecting me isn't worth taking. After this build has been completed and tested otu, it's perhaps time to make compromises.

(Recall Friend is a party-helping power, I know. But the other option is TP Foe, and I'm not wanting any enemies near me if there is a way to avoid it)

The character is now at pre-10 levels, but even at this point I have that Regen Blaster vibe going with 3 good attacks (with good accuracy) and a solid no-miss-chance non-interruptible self heal. Just need to remember mobility, as the melee attacks of most enemies are pretty deadly to a lowbie defender.

PS. About the Range enhas, switching them for Recharges most likely or just move some slots around. As most action will be done at close quarters (but not melee), having non-snipe powers range-boosted by enhas might be a waste of time and slots. Will have to think about that when I hit SO levels.

Well, Sinergy X is a few levels ahead of me (and can give better insight on the combo), but even at level 16, the high burst damage combined with soft control from Slow make you a ranged powerhouse who has quite high survivability.

Later the combination should totally shine - Ignite + Ice Patch (AoE damage that causes foes to run, but can't because they're falling down) is the real power-duo in this, but the slows, combined with damage, should keep you alive before and after that.

Thanks to Spec Ops, Mercs are highly more Controller-y than Thugs, so like many things in CoX it boils down to your playstyle. Thank goodness there is an actual difference between trained specialists and street trash who know how to hit things...

/ Would take Mercs over Thugs any day.

Question about Black Scorpion in loose relation with this? Does the Mace have a draw time? And if it does, then with AR, doesn't this mean double the draw time, double the annoyance?

Blizzard also has the Knockdown and ToHit DeBuff going for it. So it's actually bloody unlikely to get killed after firing it, especially since you don't have to run in the middle of the mob to do it. (Ok, you do, if you're a Kinetic, but then again, who cares, since they're already dead by the time you've finished reading this sentence.)

Unslotted Hide has 37.5% AoE Defense.
3-Slotted Hide has 59% AoE Defense.

That can make a big difference when going against some builds.

And a screenshot of the victorious team:

Smile for the camera you big Defender, you

If you want them to fly with you, you need to get Group Fly no matter what Primary you have to get them flying along. And after testing Group Fly, you will find respeccing out of it easy.

Siren's is my favorite. Bloody Bay just lacks the punch and is way too spread out. Warburg has no sides, which makes it usually too chaotic to be fun. And RV is still lacking people who play there.

Siren's is clear-cut and has people fighting without their high-end powers.

This is something I've been joking about for a long time, but the more I do, the more intrigued I am about it. Basically an Empathy build without the "Team Comes First" attitude. All the other Defender Primaries are better in doing this, but the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced an Empathy could do it as well.

Did an Empathy Offender in the Test Event, and came convinced that Energy and Electricity aren't really the ways to do it. I know from experience Dark lacks the damage potential. Rad could work, but it's not for me as I already have one rad/rad corruptor. Psi is a bit mixed lot, but could work, Sonic and Archery are both choises that are viable.

The upside in Empathy really is that you can take each and every power from your Secondary, meaning that the Secondary needs to be such that every power there counts. Because the downside is - you need to do damage to compensate for the lack of debuffs. Psi has a couple of attacks that don't really cut it, damagewise. So does Sonic. So that leaves me with the Archery to choose from.

Choise of Epic is an easy one. To boost up damage, I'd need Power Build Up, so //Power for the win.

The Pros:
Good, solid damage
Good range (with the range enhas in place of the second accuracy)
Never the need to worry about Endurance.
Good Self Heal

Cons:
Smashing/Lethal Damage
Lack of DeBuffs, meaning the need to rely on burst damage to bring down foes becomes more essential.
Lack of Control

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name: Empathy Offender Prototype
Level: 50
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Empathy
Secondary: Archery
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Healing Aura==> Heal() Heal() Heal() Rechg() Rechg() Rechg()
01) --> Snap Shot==> Acc() Dmg() Dmg() Dmg() Range()
02) --> Aimed Shot==> Acc() Dmg() Dmg() Dmg() Range()
04) --> Fistful of Arrows==> Acc() Dmg() Dmg() Dmg()
06) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf()
08) --> Hurdle==> Jump() Jump() Jump()
10) --> Blazing Arrow==> Acc() Dmg() Dmg() Dmg() Range()
12) --> Hasten==> Rechg() Rechg() Rechg()
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump()
16) --> Aim==> Rechg() Rechg() Rechg() TH_Buf() TH_Buf()
18) --> Recovery Aura==> EndMod() EndMod() EndMod() Rechg() Rechg() Rechg()
20) --> Explosive Arrow==> Acc() Range() Dmg() Dmg() Dmg()
22) --> Health==> Heal()
24) --> Stamina==> EndMod() EndMod() EndMod()
26) --> Regeneration Aura==> Rechg() Rechg() Rechg() Heal() Heal() Heal()
28) --> Recall Friend==> Range()
30) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx() EndRdx()
32) --> Ranged Shot==> Dmg() Dmg() Dmg() IntRdx() IntRdx() Acc()
35) --> Stunning Shot==> Acc() Dmg() Dmg() Dmg()
38) --> Rain of Arrows==> Acc() Dmg() Dmg() Dmg() Rechg() Rechg()
41) --> Power Build Up==> Rechg() Rechg() Rechg()
44) --> Temp Invulnerability==> DmgRes() DmgRes() DmgRes() EndRdx()
47) --> Total Focus==> Acc() Acc() Dmg() Dmg() Dmg()
49) --> Teleport==> EndRdx()
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Vigilance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------

[ QUOTE ]
The problem with grant invis is its a one shot deal .. meaning once you apply it that person can only attack once then needs a reapply of grant invis to get the stealth bonus again.

[/ QUOTE ]

*nods*

That's not really a problem, is it?

The stealth supression doesn't bring grant invis back up after it has been knocked off. But take a situation with two stalkers, both having it. Each boosts the other, they attack, retreat to safety, re-apply, repeat. Have it on my Mastermind, use it to +stealth my team's stalkers as they exit the hospital while I'm re-summoning pets. It's really a nice power to have and helps other people a lot.

The problem with Villains is that they don't want to co-operate when doing PvP, going the Solo Stalker Way

Discussed your build with Tene, and can't see anything really bad with that original build you got there. Maybe some differences in slotting things but nothing really critical. About keeping the attack chain up, only one way to really find out - Copy to test server, respec, test.

About Divine Avalance - Get it, slot it. What most people don't realize is that Invulnerability is a mostly defense-based set with high resistance to smashing/lethal (and to just about everything when you're Unstoppable).

Your main protective power is Invincibility and it's +def, not +res. The problem with it is that it will mess up tankers' karmas when you're running it as you are constantly taunting enemies with it.

I would go for Hasten, even if it's not "your prefrence", since it becomes useful to have Divine Avalance and Dull Pain up a bit more often when things go pear-shaped.

LBE and Energy Torrent are easilly skippable. You have enough mobility in PvE situations to fight stuff up close and personal and your defenses are better the more people are in Melee Range.

Note - I'm not a scrapper specialist.

My two cents that aren't really for or against getting Stealth.

It (Stealth) is a great tool against the "one guy running tactics and making the whole 8-man group gank Stalkers" -situation or some person with a random +perception power running.

Sadly, the +perception is often stacked beyond that one power with two Tactics running in the group or an Empath spamming people with multiple Clear Minds.

So, in SC, the situation usually is that you either need just Hide, or are in problems with both Stealth and Hide, since there never seems to be a good balance between the sides.

I'd go with Grant Invis and Invis if I were ever to make a Stalker, to help my teammates and to get the high-end non-slowing +stealth power for the endgame. But I am not really a person who would make a Stalker.

Synaesthetix and Imaginary

Thanks for the build ideas. I'll meditate on them for a while before looking at what suits my own playstyle best.

re: The purpose - Dunno. Maybe a bit geared towards life at the Arena since the current PvP Blaster I use is too optimized towards stalker-hunting in PvP and Controlling in PvE to be that much fun at Arena matches..

And yeah, I think I know what you mean with "keeping ranged attacks in jumps" means, even if I've really started practicing that with Gamma only since the last respec. The tactic before that was pretty much "TP in, freeze ray, toggledrop, finish, TP out" -style gankage with little use of the rangeds beyond the added damage, so I'm still in the re-learning curve

Far_Seer

Going great, mate

Yeah, the builder's export feature is bugged in my version, I keep getting strange stuff in my first slots. Usually they're just marked Empty even if I slot them with something... Sometimes things take a strange turn...

I do try to proofread them, but....

In Warburg the system is WAI, since it's not minimal risk to attack someone and kill them to get the scientist. It's PvP in a PvP zone. In Warburg the "official" target is to get the codes for yourself while preventing the enemy from getting them.

Pretty much the same situation with people complaining about getting attacked at Siren's when heading to missions. If they succeed, I get debuffed. There is nothing wrong about taking them down.

Recluse's problem is that whoever happens to click the glowie first when the last turret is down gets the count towards the badge. This someone can be from the same side as you are, so there is nothing you can do about it.

We need more Grav/Rads around. Check the thread and join the fun.

Grav/Storm have great synchro together with Non-rooting immob and Freezing Rain.

Kinetics is never bad, neither is Empathy.

[ QUOTE ]
I know certain AVs seem to have ways of resisting or have higher resistance to taunt.

[/ QUOTE ]

Then there is Diabolique, who always seems to go phase-shifted the very moment you to hit Taunt...

Thanks for the good pointers, everyone. Seems like I need to be hopping around with Gamma in the future as well (was sort of hoping to get rid of SJ... pretty pointless I guess )

Ice Bolt is gone, so is Bitter Freeze Ray and Force Epic.

Stun is now in to get some more Disorient done. Bitter Freeze Ray was more a damage opener (Damage pretty much equals Ice Blast if I recall correctly) with added mez for fun, so I have to hope damage output will be ok with these changes.

Switched Medicine for Concealment, but took Stealth instead of Grant invis as I can't get full Invis in until 49. This should compensate somewhat the loss of the protection gained from Force.

Superspeed at 14 to have a movement power there in case I need to exemplar down to a lower level, or get -jumped at later ones.

Slotted Swift to counter for Stealth's Speed decrease.. in case I for some reason use only Stealth and not Superspeed... not that I can think of one. But at least I have some movement increase while superspeed is supressed.

Hurdle and Combat Jumping were both Slotted to have better vertical mobility if down to just Superspeed levels and while doing combat.

No idea what's the reasonable ratio of Endurance Modifiers and Disorient Durations in the Blaster EMP, especially with Power Boost going (1 EndMod enough to bring things to 0?), so some help from the experienced there would be nice.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name: General Gamma
Level: 50
Archetype: Blaster
Primary: Ice Blast
Secondary: Energy Manipulation
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Ice Blast==> Acc(1) Acc(34) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Rechg(43)
01) --> Power Thrust==> Acc(1) Acc(37) Acc(37)
02) --> Energy Punch==> Acc(2) Acc(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(5)
04) --> Build Up==> Rechg(4) Rechg(7) Rechg(7)
06) --> Aim==> Rechg(6) Rechg(9) Rechg(9)
08) --> Hasten==> Rechg(8) Rechg(11) Rechg(11)
10) --> Bone Smasher==> Acc(10) Acc(13) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Dmg(15) EndRdx(46)
12) --> Swift==> Run(12) Run(37) Run(40)
14) --> Super Speed==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Hurdle==> Jump(16) Jump(17) Jump(17)
18) --> Bitter Ice Blast==> Acc(18) Acc(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(23) Dmg(23)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --> Stun==> Acc(22) Acc(25) DisDur(25) DisDur(27) Rechg(27) Rechg(33)
24) --> Freeze Ray==> Acc(24) Acc(29) Hold(29) Hold(31) Rechg(31) Rechg(31)
26) --> Combat Jumping==> Jump(26) Jump(33) Jump(33)
28) --> Power Boost==> Rechg(28) Rechg(34) Rechg(34)
30) --> Super Jump==> EndRdx(30)
32) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(32)
35) --> Stealth==> Acc(35) EndRdx(50)
38) --> Total Focus==> Acc(38) Acc(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(40) Rechg(40)
41) --> Shocking Bolt==> Acc(41) Acc(42) Hold(42) Hold(42) Rechg(43) Rechg(43)
44) --> Charged Armor==> DmgRes(44) DmgRes(45) DmgRes(45) EndRdx(45) EndRdx(46) EndRdx(46)
47) --> EMP Pulse==> Acc(47) Acc(48) EndMod(48) EndMod(48) DisDur(50) DisDur(50)
49) --> Invisibility==> EndRdx(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> EndRdx(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Defiance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------

Nice catch. Switching Super Speed for Mutation might not be a bad idea, as in teams people get killed and having an extra resser handy never hurts.

Archy's build is very good and Okton's additions pretty much cover what I have going on with Jack's future build.

Some retentive fine-tuning that comes to mind:

Slotting Crush earlier and Radiant Aura later will let you put the damage in and make the soloing a bit faster.

Also, slotting Grav Distortion with 3 Recharges, 1 Accuracy and 2 Holds will be enough in almost all situations, as it has an inbuilt Accuracy bonus. You will be running defense debuffs anways, and the extra recharge ups your damage/second a bit again while increasing your control ability as well.

Not really feeling the need to slot Singularity with Immob. When my disco-ball (Has no Immob Enhas in) gets his hands on someone, the target is is held/immobed/tossed around so much it won't have time to move, and Immobed target can fight back, Held one won't. I'd go with 3 Holds or 3 Damages, depending on your prefrence.

These from the "I would like to solo as well sometimes" point of view.