Cybercel

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One of the best times I remember using it was to heal our tanker during an Arch Villain mission (I forget which one!) The beta-strike took out the whole team bar me and the tank (I picked up Temp invuln as my Epic which means I can take a good hit) but the aggro was going to take me down too. My last ditch gesture before death was to AP the Tanker who then proceeded to continue to tank the AV and the minions while I rezzed myself (the old F1 to F5 trick!) and got the team back in action.

AP and an Invuln/SS tanker saved the day.

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I had a similar experience in using AP to keep a tank going after a near team-wipe. Huge outdoor Portal mission, fighting Nemesis. Entire team wiped except me and the tank... if I remember correctly, someone on the team managed to aggro some nearby groups, resulting in a tank left standing in two or three BIG groups of them, all angry and buffed by Vengeance. I hovered up, stayed in Leadership range for him, and then healed over and over, alternating Heal Other and Absorb Pain, and keeping him ABed and Forted. As he gradually chopped through the enemies, I started to rush out and rez or hand awakens to people between heals. It never would have worked without AP... sadly, it probably wouldn't work since ED, either, but ah well. Happy memories.

Going back to the original topic... I've had AP a good while, and always liked it. I tend to use it only when I'm safe, or the situation is such that I'm about to die anyway - and despite the former only happening on good teams, good teams still can need a lot of healing, and emergency heals. (Especially since I5 and I6 made tanks a lot squishier than they used to be.) Aside from its use as an extra heal when Heal Other is down, or as a tank heal, it's also handy because it has a quick activation, and doesn't use much endurance. I've used it to save people at times when my endurance was almost gone, and they needed a heal right away, not after I'd eaten a blue insp. Frankly, I made my empath because I wanted to keep teams alive in tough situations, so I couldn't see dropping AP for anything, even when it is situational.

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Hey guys I posted on the union heros and villains forums for tonight round 10 I should get there by 11 so save me a space so I can order all you heroes round again lol
Atreides

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Ooh, good, I might get to fight you then.

I've been playing an Ice/Dark since shortly after CoV's release, currently at level 32... here are some random bits and pieces of advice.

There are a LOT of ways to go with an Ice/Dark, and I'd really suggest just taking powers that sound good, and playing around with them to get the feel of the build, and respec relatively late on. I honestly don't believe there's an outright bad power in either set, and which to take and not take will probably come down to what you find you enjoy after playing it for a while. Some powers are more useful in PvE, and some are more useful in PvP, and some just suit certain playstyles. It can be built more for solo play or for teamplay, and you can focus on making it more a control-build (holds, fear, slows, intangibility), a damage build (slot up Tar Patch, concentrate on attacks, make sure you have Aim early and slotted), a support build (buff, debuff, heal, resurrect, pet which heals and debuffs), or a mixture. When I first played solo after getting my single origin enhancements in, I felt like a one-man team with all the powers I had.

As has already been said, drop Stealth, and go for Shadow Fall instead. It's Stealth with added extras. If you then go for Super Speed as your travel power, you can use Super Speed + Shadow Fall to be invisible to most NPCs. Very handy if you want to stealth through a mission. Grab Hasten if you go for Super Speed - it really helps in rough moments, since ice attacks are fairly slow-loading, plus it means you can quickly fire heals off when your team needs it. I've not added any slots to Hasten, as I have too many other powers that need them, but it's still a very handy panic button when it's available.

One of the main problems I've found with Ice/Dark is that it eats through endurance like nothing I've ever seen. Go into the Fitness pool ASAP, and put three slots in Stamina. If you're planning to use the character for PvP and want two accuracies per attack, you may not have the room, but you might want to consider slotting your attacks something like 1 acc/3 dam/1 recharge/1 end reduction. Toggles like Shadow Fall and Darkest Night benefit from endurance reductions, too.

You can get three holds total in Ice/Dark - Freeze Ray, Bitter Freeze Ray, and Petrifying Gaze. You may find all three to be overkill, especially since Bitter Freeze Ray has a somewhat slow activation time. Taking two of them is a good idea though, as with some recharges and hold durations, you can hold bosses. If you team with another Ice Corruptor or a Dominator, you'll be able to help hold Heroes and Arch Villains.

I believe Tar Patch stacks, so throw recharges in it if you can find the slots. You can also put slow enhancers in it, but looking at my build, I know I'm never going to have enough spare slots for that!

Darkest Night is an excellent debuff, and aside from endurance reductions, you may well want to put tohit debuffs in it. Slotted, in PvP, it enables me to fight scrappers toe-to-toe. In PvE, it's fantastic against Heroes and AVs. You might have a hard time running it before you have Stamina and/or endurance reductions in it, but it's really worth it.

Fearsome Stare is a life-saver (as well as really being quite a fun power), and deserves any slots you can afford to put in it.

Oh, and even if you don't keep it in the end, I'd really suggest at least trying out Blizzard. It's a fantastic thing to see with a Tar Patch down.

If you didn't manage to do this already, Syn and I are both looking to do the first respec - we only haven't because we don't want to out-level the story arcs. Aphotica and Antithetix are at 32 now, though, so if you find someone else around your level, we could both exemp down.

Not sure when you'll be around now, with Christmas, but we'll be around all of today, the 26th, and I think the 28th - not so sure after that point, but you can easily catch us in game. Just wanted to note it here in case we miss you.

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In a 1 on 1 situation, if you manage to throw the buffs/debuffs before the blaster does his job (so that his Build Up + Aim + whatever else he may have used doesn't kill you) then a corruptor has a chance, yes. In a team fight however, specialization will win: that is, heroes get classes that do a specific job, and they do that job far better than villains. A blaster teamed up with proper defensive classes is a VERY deadly enemy.

The one thing better about a corruptor, is that he has a much easier time soloing. And that's about it.

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Given a prefer team PvP by a long shot on my Corruptor, I'm not seeing this. My one-on-one experiences have generally been accidental ones where I got caught by myself, and forced into a fight. I've been on the winning side of a good number of villain vs. hero team battles as a villain, and had a blast.

The main problem I see generally isn't the heroes' extra levels and enhancments, or their specialisation. A lot of hero teams I see going in Siren's aren't even all level 50. When I fight on the hero side, I often bring in my level 32 Controller, and team with my boyfriend's level 32 Blapper (or level 50 Empath - squishiest thing ever and no attacks - so I know just how deadly a buffed Blaster can be). Far worse is the fact that the heroes tend to be far more willing to team up, and often already know each other and work well together. I rarely see this happening on the villain side, and it makes the fight rather disbalanced. A good, organised team of level 30 heroes is going to smash an equal number of unorganised villains over and over. Likewise, an organised team of villains can do much the same to heroes who haven't teamed up or aren't communicating well - I've seen it happen. Plus, in a team fight, the matter of specialisation shouldn't matter so much - if you have a villain team effectively working together to all debuff and buff as they can, and then focus on targets within the team together, they can cause just as much damage as a team with some damage dealers and some buffers/healers/holders.

I think the other major disbalancing thing is the number of heroes around with specific PvP builds. The one time I really felt like I had no chance at all in Siren's was against a team of level 50s who were very organised, knew each other well, and were all built for PvP. I couldn't hit them, and they were hitting me just about every time - even with Darkest Night on, because I've not had a chance to slot it and enhance it yet. I could take their blaster out if I got him by himself, and I could have a good go at some of the Defenders, but the rest would come running as soon as anyone on the villain side damaged any of them much. With less of us on the villain side, and most or none of us really built for PvP? I'm not surprised we had no chance. Thankfully, it's been a one-off occurance so far. Here's hoping I get another go at them after a few of my friends level up, and I respec into a more PvP-friendly build.


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Oh, and yeah, almost forgot. Met this blaster, who would throw a stun on me (ranged), and then blast me to bits in 3 hits. I can already see how shadow fall would save me (it has a relatively long activation animation).

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I'd include that on the reasons why Corruptors are better off in a team, actually. When you can shout for a /Sonic Corruptor to come and use Clarity on you, or get a Dominator to hold the Blaster, or someone to come kill him... you're in a much better position. Otherwise, once you're stunned by a Blaster? Yes, you're dead, unless you carry a stock of Break Frees.

How I would tend to react in such a situation... if I see someone already about to fire a shot at me, I'll try to fire off my heal (Twilight Grasp) since it's also an accuracy and damage debuff - at least that way, if it hits, I get a heal, and they're slightly less likely to be able to kill me before I can get back on my feet from any secondary effect. Obviously, how best to react is going to depend on what tricks you have in your powersets, and as is the case on the hero side as well, some sets are just PvP-friendlier than others.

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a good blaster could 2 hit a corrupter tho, dont see how a corruptor could compete with that kind of dmg

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Because a Corruptor can debuff the Blaster, or buff themselves, or heal between hits, etc.

I've taken out Blasters in one-on-one fights with my Corruptor. I throw Darkest Night on them, and their accuracy and damage is debuffed. Now they need to hit me more times to kill me, and they're having a harder time doing it. If they got a hit on me before I debuffed them, I can heal myself (And debuff them further at the same time). Up against an Energy Blaster? I turn Shadow Fall on, and then they're going to have to hit me a lot more to kill me. Sure, it's not as easy as just throwing out a few attacks at someone, but it means we have a lot more tools at our disposal than a Blaster... and as a result, if our damage were equal to theirs, we'd be far too overpowered.

Yep - the dark and rad primaries both appear in the Corruptor sets, so you can have Radiation Blast/Dark Miasma (so you can get the Dark Miasma pet at level 38), or Dark Blast/Radiation Emission (if you want to use the radiation debuffs from the Defender primary, like radiation infection).

Going at this from another angle, have you bought City of Villains yet? Apologies if you have and really are just looking for a hero to play, but just in case... if you want a toon that can both solo and team well, and do a bit of everything, a Corruptor would probably suit you really well.

Their primaries are similar to Defender secondaries or Blaster primaries - they do more damage than Defenders, less than Blasters. Their secondaries are like Defender primaries, but somewhat less powerful. The end result is a character that can do plenty of damage, hold their own solo, but still be really useful to a team. One of the secondaries is Dark Miasma, so you can have a pet! I have an Ice/Dark, and it's so much fun to play; I really feel like a mini-team when I solo, since I can heal, buff, debuff, hold, and cause quite a bit of damage. Ice has a couple of holds and does slows as a secondary effect though - if you'd rather have outright damage, maybe you could try something like a Fire/Dark. If you don't have CoV yet, if you buy it and add it to your existing CoH account, you get a month's subscription with it (combined subscription for both games), so that makes it a pretty cheap buy.

If you want to stick to CoH, aside from the builds you've already mentioned, have you thought about maybe trying a different /rad Controller? Ill/Rad sacrifices attacks and control for more pets. Mind/Rad doesn't have a pet at all, so that might not be the best thing for you, but what about something like Grav/Rad? A really cool-looking pet at level 32, a couple of attacks (including Propel, which has one of the best animations in the game), and a lot more control than an Illusion Controller has. Anyway, for what it's worth, I think you're going the right route by just trying things out until you find one that really clicks.

The generally accepted thing since the last issue came out is that once you have SOs, have no more than three of one type in a power. Any more will give you a pretty negligible effect. So, for your forcefields, you should probably slot three defence buffs in each power.

In powers that have an accuracy check to hit (like attacks, and some other Defender primary powers - there are a good few in the Kinetics set for example), you should slot one accuracy. That changes if you're planning on using the character mainly in the PvP zones, as the base accuracy is lower there - a lot of people are putting two or even three accuracy enhancements in powers for those zones.

As posted by myself in another thread where this discussion started up:

As far as the whole healing aura thing, I'm horribly annoyed by it being on auto myself - and yes, it IS the noise and animation, which in an already busy battlefield just results in extra graphics which can make things a mess for those of us with not-so-great graphics cards. Worse by far are the new Thermal Corruptor graphics - I love them, but when someone has that on auto, combined with new maps like the Arachnos lab, and MM pets... doesn't seem to matter HOW low I turn my settings anymore. >_< But back on topic...

Part of the reason I've never liked using heal aura on auto myself, aside from not wanting green glowyness around me every few seconds, is that the last thing I want to happen is need to fire off a life-or-death heal, only to find I'm mid-way through a heal aura, and can't do it. Also, I tend not to be close enough to most people on the team for it to make a difference. That might be more to do with who I team with, but it's very rare that I'm on a team with a number of squishies standing together. More often than not, I'd only be hitting myself with that aura... big waste, in my eyes, especially since I don't have Stamina, and I have nothing in my build I'd drop to get it. Also, I tend to use even my aura to spot-heal, by rushing into the fight, dropping it on whoever needs it, then getting away. (I use three-slotted hover, and often stay just above the fight for this purpose.) It works as a nice interim heal if I've had to use heal other and AP already, or the situation isn't safe enough to use AP. I'd much rather, since I use it in such a manner, choose when it goes off, rather than needing to rush down in time for it to auto-fire, or risk not having it ready at a crucial moment.

Sure, it's hectic doing all that and keeping everyone buffed, but I've never had an issue doing so. Probably helps that I don't attack at all.

Echoing the Corruptor suggestion, since they're Blasters/Defenders. If you like healing specifically, there's the Thermal Corruptor secondary which is the closest thing CoV has to Empathy - the heals are much weaker though, and the buffs are different.

If you don't like Controllers, I wouldn't go for a Dominator, as they have similar primaries - holds, etc. Their secondaries are damage-dealing rather than buff/debuff though.

MMs are really quite odd when compared to all the other ATs (summoning pets for a primary, and weak buff/debuff secondaries), and I'd suggest just trying one out to see if you like it at all. I don't think it'd take long to see if it suits you, since you get the pets right away, and you can quickly see if standing back and letting them do most of the work is fun for you.

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And empathy is, by far, the hardest set to use, to reach its maximum abiilty. It needs constant adaptation, constant rethinking. You can't say "OK first I lay snow storm + freezing rain on every group and then I see what happens".

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This is getting well off-topic, so I'll leave the issue at this post, but... as someone who plays both an Empath Defender and a Storm Defender, Storm is far, far more difficult to play well. Good Empathing does mean some quick thinking and judgement calls, and fast reactions, as well as a good attention span if you're going to keep everyone alive and buffed... but it's just nowhere near as difficult as playing a Stormy and trying to be really effective, whilst not annoying everyone else on the team with your powers. Empath powers really don't clash with anything, so it just doesn't involve the level of knowledge of other powersets, and amount of care and thinking, that playing a Stormy does. And as has been pointed out, just slapping down the same debuffs in each fight would be poor Defending, along the same lines of only using your heals, or just leaving heal aura on auto and then blasting for a while. Playing a Stormy well is nothing like that.

As far as the whole healing aura thing, I'm horribly annoyed by it being on auto myself - and yes, it IS the noise and animation, which in an already busy battlefield just results in extra graphics which can make things a mess for those of us with not-so-great graphics cards. Worse by far are the new Thermal Corruptor graphics - I love them, but when someone has that on auto, combined with new maps like the Arachnos lab, and MM pets... doesn't seem to matter HOW low I turn my settings anymore. >_< But back on topic...

Part of the reason I've never liked using heal aura on auto myself, aside from not wanting green glowyness around me every few seconds, is that the last thing I want to happen is need to fire off a life-or-death heal, only to find I'm mid-way through a heal aura, and can't do it. Also, I tend not to be close enough to most people on the team for it to make a difference. That might be more to do with who I team with, but it's very rare that I'm on a team with a number of squishies standing together. More often than not, I'd only be hitting myself with that aura... big waste, in my eyes, especially since I don't have Stamina, and I have nothing in my build I'd drop to get it. Also, I tend to use even my aura to spot-heal, by rushing into the fight, dropping it on whoever needs it, then getting away. (I use three-slotted hover, and often stay just above the fight for this purpose.) It works as a nice interim heal if I've had to use heal other and AP already, or the situation isn't safe enough to use AP. I'd much rather, since I use it in such a manner, choose when it goes off, rather than needing to rush down in time for it to auto-fire, or risk not having it ready at a crucial moment.

Sure, it's hectic doing all that and keeping everyone buffed, but I've never had an issue doing so. Probably helps that I don't attack at all.

I was once on an 8-person team with another empath and a /empathy Controller, fighting DE. Despite reepated teamwipes, and me calling repeatedly to be CMed (whilst trying my best to keep the entire team CMed, healed, and otherwise buffed), I didn't manage to get a CM until I sent a tell to the Controller. I think he wasn't watching team chat. The other empath, meanwhile, was clearly watching and participating in chat, but flat-out ignored my suggestions and requests to keep me CMed, and help keep the rest of the team CMed. And I checked, he did have it.

I'm still at a loss as to why someone would act in such a manner.

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Re: Cybercel

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I feel I have to point out... I've not changed a single one of my toons to combat stalkers, and I use a number of them in the PvP zones.

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Yet the only advise that can be given to combat stalkers is take power X, Y and Z, carry insp G and get temp power J.

That's more what I mean by everyone changing there builds. Where as there are lots of tactics you can use for most ATs, and at least some that you can use for others, Stalkers seam to be the only ones that rely on you doing set things. Mostly because they are stealthed. It does follow that the first charachters to get nerfed from PVP feedback are the stealthed ones. That happens in every game.

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The point I was trying to make is that while you CAN make all those changes (and they will make you more effective), I - and plenty of others - get by just fine without going to all those lengths... which makes me wonder where this massive problem is. And I say this as someone who isn't a dedicated PvPer, and someone who doesn't have half a clue what she's doing most of the time. I regularly wander into PvP zones on squishy characters with no perception, and I've never had an issue with being ganked every 30 seconds by Stalkers. Sure, they've managed to get me a good number of times (usually when I've stupidly stood myself somewhere in plain view), and when I'm on my Controller I tend to get singled out a bit since I'm both weak and a threat, but... I still fail to see where this huge problem is. I die, I go to hospital, I go back over and beat someone up! If I have a Stalker on the run and can't kill him since he's hard to see, that's fine - he can't kill anyone else if he's busy running.

If the issue is stealth, then you could say the same about any character with any number of stealth powers. I know a lot of people have trouble seeing my ill/rad with grant invis because they don't have high perception, and that probably makes me a lot more troublesome to those players. Agaim, they have the same choices: IR Goggles (if available), inspirations, respec in tactics/other powers with +perception, or team with someone who can give +perception. Interestingly, only ONE of those options involves actually changing one's character, which you did suggest was necessary. Sure, Stalkers get a natural advantage on the stealth front, getting Hide right away, but it doesn't change the fact that they're not the only ones with it, and you don't have to rebuild your character to deal with it in any case. And, as many people have said, they get that to make up for the fact that they really are one-trick ponies. Take their stealth, or the strength of their AS away, and what do they have left? They're like gimpy scrappers with a lot less HP, who I can often hold in one shot. They have to work hard and be careful to get their kills.

Also, I think one of the biggest ignored pieces of advice is TEAM. As I've said, a lot of my characters don't have perception. Hop onto a team, doesn't matter if they're people you know or not, and there's a decent chance one of them will have Tactics or CM, or be able to see and deal with hidden players themselves. Even if no one can see the Stalkers, someone on the team might well have powers that could interrupt an AS, or keep the Stalkers at bay. That's a simple step that anyone can take, regardless of experience, and without having to change a thing about their build.

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however what I've found out is that if you cant manage to kill those 24 vines in time (with an 8 man team) they will respawn for the 8 man team.

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The Vines respawn no matter what... but when you get them down to 0, they don't count anymore... they respawn, but you don't need to kill them to attack the tree

Try it with 97.... THAT is a pain in the,.. BUM!

And if 8 people can't kill 24 vines in time... they suck!

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yeah i know, but I did it once, using the trick to spawn 24.. rush in with 8 ppl only to find out all but 2 went afk or crashed while we were killing those 24, resulting in us 8 having to clear 97 because those 24 werent destroyed in time :P

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Don't see how that happened... if you got 24 vines to begin with, that doesn't change... even if people drop or go afk...

I just did the respec with my SG today, all went perfectly! One thing... I got a respec... !! And I have already gotte it from the first one...

SO...

If noone knew this, the Respec trials are on timers... you can do them as often as you like, and I think that every 7 days you can be awarded a respec....

No more whining over only being able to get 3 respecs

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Are you sure that's not just because you've hit the level range to get another respec? 34 sounds right, assuming it's the same in CoV as CoH.

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We do appear to have a situation where EVERYONE is having to change there builds to combat stalker tactics. This is an imbalance in the system and it is being looked at.

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I feel I have to point out... I've not changed a single one of my toons to combat stalkers, and I use a number of them in the PvP zones. I make use of whatever I already have (not much, in some cases), and just asking around and joining any existing team if I can (something that anyone can do - you don't need friends or PvP knowledge to shout over broadcast that you need a team). Generally, even if the Stalkers are out in force, it hardly causes me a lot of worry; I keep moving, and if I do get hit? Oh well, no debt, quick run back from the hospital. I doubt I'm the only person happily PvPing with non-Stalker builds, and even non-PvP builds in a number of cases.

I do think a warning on the PvP areas about how useful a team is, perhaps when you're first sent to the liasons for each zone, might be useful. It's been done plenty of times for missions that are significantly easier with help, so I don't see why not for the zones.

Sounds a bit like how I feel on my ice/dark. Heal, buff, debuff, three holds (well, two for now, one more when I level a bit), high damage, fear, and a pet come level 38. I've never had so much fun with any of my toons, and she's good in both PvE and PvP.

I live in continual fear of ice/dark turning into one of those damn FotM builds and a ton of them suddenly popping up, though.

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Problm with ice is that the alpha dmg isn't that high. i tested several builds for S4 and energy made best in those tests. Ice is good thats no question. But imo in pvp is alpha more important. in a 5star match or any other fight where you assist each other, alpha is the key for fast killing

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Since you mentioned S4, I assume you're talking about the Blaster ice set? While I've never used that, I've been told the Corruptor set was changed fairly significantly from it - really slow recharge times, but high-damage attacks.

I could be wrong though, as I am just going on what I've been told.

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Also a current villain tactic is get a MM or other squishy to stand in plain view, with the stalker (or 2) waiting right beside them, then AS when some dumb hero (I did it once or twice!) comes in for a 'free kill'.

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Hardly just a villain tactic - I've used my Controller as Stalker bait with teammates waiting nearby. Hey, if you can't chase them down, bring them to you.

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When they nerf stalkers to not be able to one shot (which I agree with) people will still complain. And if they then nerf them again, so that their damage is lower from AS, people will still moan. It is my guess that these same people will get AS striked no matter what. Which begs the question, what needs changing, AS or these people's tactics which mainly involves standing still with a 'Shutup I'm typing here' box above their head.

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It has to be said, most of the times I've been ASed (as you surely know yourself, given you've been on the giving end of some of them ) it's been because I've grounded myself somewhere unsafe for whatever reason. It's rare that I get ASed when I'm keeping myself moving and close to my team, and if an AS doesn't one-shot me, and I'm already on the move, I tend to get away. To me, that says ASes are mostly avoidable - and once that one-shot fix comes through, even the most squishy players will have the opportunity to get away fairly easily.

Frankly, as someone who doesn't play a Stalker, and mainly PvPs on the hero side of things, it'd be downright unfair to take anything more away from the AT.

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Thanks for the advice, I will stick with the character at least until I can get my hands on some DO's, and get TG 6 slotted. Then I will have to se how it plays.

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Good choice. I was feeling frustrated with it until I slotted SOs, personally - it just missed too much. With SOs in though, it's much more reliable, and it's such a nice, strong heal... and the added effect of a debuff does make it really quite powerful.

As others have said, just use it often. Don't wait until someone's nearly dead and then expect you can save them - only single-target auto-hit heals can really be expected to do that. I've been in plenty of teams where my Ice/Dark is the only person with a healing power, and it's often enough to do the job. And on teams with multiple /Darks we have no trouble at all.

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Come on Empaths. You were hardly scratched by the i5-i6 nerfs. Fortitude, RA, CM, AB didnt get touched. And healing? Just use absorb pain, you still have killer singletarget heals (no pun intended). The AoE heal works just as good 3 heals-2 recharge-1 end.

As I see it, you were actually buffed by ED. You're worth to a team went up, cause everyone else went further down.

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I found the I6 changes to be MORE noticeable on my Empath than any of my other characters. Now, in part that could be because she's higher-levelled, but it's not just that... it related in large part to how empath powers work.

I've always been a very dedicated buffer. I knew my recharge times... how many people I could keep buffed, when I could expect something to drop, etc. Now all of my recharges have been changed - and worse, because I sometimes have Hasten on and sometimes don't, they're not easy to get used to anymore. I can't Fort as many people as I used to. I can't rely on RA to keep me (or the rest of the team) up and running. I can't perma-AB someone; I generally find now that I keep AB in case RA drops and someone really needs endurance. I used to use it a lot more, since I didn't worry about that so much, since RA and AB recharges that much more quickly. Saying those powers weren't touched is a tad silly.

As others have pointed out, Absorb Pain CANNOT be relied on as a replacement heal. It CAN kill you. I've always had AP, and love it... as an emergency heal. If you use it every time it comes up (which can now be necessary, in a bad situation) you end up in a state where you cannot heal yourself for the entire fight, with your health dropping each time you use it. If you start to get hit, you're dead. It's rather unpleasant in PvP, as a result - and I have often hit the point where I've needed to use it, since heal other just doesn't cut it when healing a Tank or Scrapper, or someone who's mid PvP-battle. As for heal aura, there is a difference between a strong heal with a longer recharge, and lots of small heals - if you only get a small heal on yourself, the next hit might take you out before you can heal yourself again. It was easier for me to keep myself alive with the old heal aura.

For those empaths who actually use their secondary, the damage reduction was another painful kick in the gut as well - Defenders were already weak attackers, and Empaths are pretty much the weakest of the weak, lacking any self-buffs or debuffs to help their damage output.



Now, don't take any of this as whining, because I actually don't mind all that much. The thing I miss most on my empath (by far) is 6-slotted Hover. Still, the changes certainly effected Empaths - actually, the comment I made to my boyfriend after playing my empath for the first time after I6 was "Ahah! HERE are the nerfs we escaped in I5!" Like everyone else, we took a beating with ED, and I've found it harder readjusting to some of the changes on my Empath than on other characters. I still play her, but I have to say... I don't play her nearly as much as I used to. Are Empaths still powerful? Of course, they're great, and I doubt the changes will cause a problem for anyone new coming in. That doesn't mean they're not a pain in the behind for existing Empaths, though.

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I love my Ice/Dark, too.

The Ice holds don't last long, especially the first one. Stacked, however, they can take out a boss for a short while...

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Got Ice/Dark as well... i cna almost chainhold lvl42 Bosses... 3x acc 3x hold, am remember, always bitter freeze ray first, then freeze ray, blast your ice bolts, one heal, next freeze ray etc...
single bosses usually dont hit me at all lol.

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Pretty much the attack chain I go with, but until I can really afford a full set of enhancements, it's just not going to happen.

I love my Ice/Dark, too.

The Ice holds don't last long, especially the first one. Stacked, however, they can take out a boss for a short while... and they've saved me from debt a good number of times when I just needed to stop one mob from attacking while I took out another. Plus, they're great when you're on a team with a Dominator - I can help lock down AVs/Heroes. In fact, I held a Hero with the help of another Ice Corruptor. Didn't last long, but we managed it. I've even managed to hold Scrappers in PvP, and I don't have the Dark hold yet. Again, it just doesn't last as long as you'd expect from a Dominator.

It's a great build though. It doesn't surprise me that more and more people seem to be posting about it - I did it just because I wanted to try out Dark Miasma and liked the sound of Ice. It's been a nice surprise, finding out how powerful and fun it is to play.