LadyMage

I'm probably reiterating what's already been said, but I enjoy throwing my hat in the ring, and I think if I'm restating, then it probably needs it. I will also open this, before someone brings up the PvP arguement, that I don't PvP, and never plan to. This is a purely PvE assessment.

I love defenders. I play them more often than any other AT. Thus I would have to agree with the general statement that defenders are pretty good. But that's not to say that there aren't issues. And being a frequent poster on the defender forums, I've seen these complaints.

The biggest complaints are player centric. I don't expect the devs to go beating on every player who sends "r u healer" tells, or drubbing into people's heads that defenders are not just magical green number producers. It's not your fault that people don't learn to play the game to its fullest, nor should we expect you to fix it.

People do complain that defenders lose their role somewhere around the late 30s when the controllers now have access to all the defender's powers via the secondary (darkies excepted of course). One could argue that something similar happens to blasters at the same time, but I don't think it's as pronounced, due to the large gap between blaster and defender base damage. The gap between defender and controller buff/debuff sets are too close, and often non existant. Add to that the people who finally figure out around that level that the defender AT's name is misleading and that controllers can actually defend their teams better than defenders can, and the defenders start feeling neglected.

The root cause of this? Defender's role is hybrid. We're not, contrary to the name, the last best defense of the team. That's a controller or a tank. We're not damage dealers. Some of us can come close with tailored builds and special circumstances, but all in all that's not our primary function. We're somewhere in the middle, not the best at any one thing that commends us to teams. Everyone knows what to expect when they get a tank, or a scrapper, or a blaster, and to an extent a controller. They're never sure what they're getting with a defender. A darkie brings a whole different dish to the party than an empath, an offender slanted kinetics build is a whole different bag from one slanted to teaming primarily. And this doesn't even go into playstyles. A defender isn't a defender isn't a defender, there are so many variations that it hurts the brain. I don't think there is a more versatile AT out there, save perhaps khelds.

That actually doesn't sound that bad, and it isn't. Versatility is one of the things that draws me to the defender AT. But people tend to think in absolutes. "Why would I want a defender? I need someone to protect me and someone to deal damage, so I'll take this earth/rad controller and this electric blaster." Meanwhile there's a Rad/elec soloing while LFT.

What would be a cure? Less overlap from the other ATs to start. As long as we're playing second fiddle to blasters for ranged damage, and Controllers are nipping at our heels in the buff/debuff arena and boasting better team defense to boot, there is always going to be this identity crisis among defenders. Widening the gap on the buff/debuff would help, but I'd like to see more sets of ours that they don't get, or the powers work differently for a controller than a defender. Mixing up some of the ranged sets with the odd melee attack since several of the primaries can survive fairly well in melee wouldn't hurt my feelings either.

Then there are the individual set problems. I've played all of of these sets, so I can comment on them with some authority.

Empathy: The gripes with empathy are mostly minor, a tweak here, a tweak there. Clear mind's animation is horrifically long, too long really for the set's largely reactive nature. Absorb pain is either in the same boat or the effects need to be reverse, heal first then harm. Resurrect needs to be looked at and brought back into balance with the recent changes to the other revive ally powers. The adren boost cast bug is still there. Other than a few odd pipe dreams like clear mind and fort made into auras (please, no...), most agree that empathy is pretty good.

Forcefield: It makes a great secondary, since you don't have to take many powers from it to fill the role, but as a primary it's lacking. Something, I'm not sure what, but when the general consensus is you can throw away about half of the set and most of the FF defenders/controllers wouldn't notice, that speaks of a problem. Force bolt and repulsion bomb are rather poor attempts to give some reactivity to a proactive set, repulsion field and force bubble are really variations on the same melody, and PFF is relegated to a simple "poor man's phase shift". On top of all that the primary role, the only thing that people are happy to have in their team, has two rather massive holes in it, sleep and psi. Of these two, I'd have to say that Psi is the bigger problem, as sleep can be easily mitigated, but in a fight against a psi using enemy, the FFer feels useless.

Possible solution: replace one of the lesser used powers (I would humbly suggest repulsion bomb) with a third targetted field specifically for Psi. Sure, it would be situational, and wouldn't protect the caster, but at least it would keep the FFer from feeling like they should throw in the towel when some baddie procs pink bubbles.

Dark Miasma: It's looking pretty sweet these days. I have to admit that of the 6 defender primaries, this is the one I have the least experience with, empathy being my forte, but if there's an issue with Darkies other than black hole, I'm not aware of it, and I'm not even clear on the whole black hole debate. Since controllers can't have dark miasma, it's sitting prettier probably than your other sets.

Kinetics: Contrary to popular sentiment, there is a fond place in my heart for kinetics. The issue that most people can't get past with kinetics that I've seen is that kinetics is not a defense primary. It's an offense primary. It greases the wheels of a team, bringing them to new speeds, and new heights better than any other primary. But that's not to say it doesn't have its issues.

The death bug for one. Nothing more annoying while playing then trying to heal an injured teammate, only to have him kill your heal target while panicking because his health is low, resulting in pretty green aura, but no heal for you. The same problem plagues Transferrence. We've learned to get around it, but it would make what defense kinetics have far less frustrating were it fixed.

Second would be the fact that, since kinetics is very melee oriented, controllers can take advantage of it with less fear than defenders because they will have controlled the mobs before attempting to wade into melee. Kinetics defenders, lacking self defense from their primary live in melee, and do so at very high risk. Adding some defense/resistance to inertial reduction, or making siphon power/fulcrum shift do an accuracy siphon similar to the damage one they already do are some ideas that I like.

The third problem is the damage cap. The current scheme of slotting as many damage as you can into your attacks makes it difficult to really let kinetics shine in teams. I've seen both tankers and blasters self cap even before hammi-os, and special enhancements exacerbate the problem. My suggestion is to make a second cap which only outside buffing can bring you to. Build-up, insps and reds will take you to the first cap, after that you need a teammates help. This means that the kinetic can only get him/herself to the first cap, which actually makes room for other defenders and their damage buffing powers.

Radiation:Rad is pretty solid. While Fallout isn't a universally loved power, it's pretty good at what it does, as is choking cloud. I think few would argue that rad doesn't need much in the way of love.

Storm:Storm is a really fun set to play. The problem is, it's really best to play solo, unless you're a controller. It gets rather frustrating to play in teams because control through chaos, that playstyle you love solo, isn't well liked in teams. Controllers don't get this because they can control in a more conventional manner, and then unleash havoc. If some of the defender versions caused less scatter, most of storm's woes would be a thing of the past.

Blast sets: The only one of the blast sets that has significant issues really is psi, and those issues can be summed up really by looking at the first two powers. Mental blast and subdue are the first look that people get of the set and both powers need work, expensive, slow, low damage and the immob on subdue is inconsistant. Scramble thoughts should probably do more damage or be AoE to bring it in line. Different people have different ideas as to other things that need doing to the set, but honestly those would cover it for me.

If these changes weren't implemented, and I going to curse the devs and take my money elsewhere? Heck, no, I love the defender AT and I love this game. But I'd like to think this is a pretty accurate portrayal of what woes defenders have. If you don't talk about a problem that doesn't make it go away. And what else are these forums for?

While the version 2.0 of my testing is still on-going it's taken a bit of a turn due to an unexpected internet outage at home that may go on for several weeks. I will continue it when my connection is reinstated.

If anyone would like to take up the torch, feel free, but if not I'll continue when I get home.

And to the above poster, no I have never manage to test the magnitude of Clear mind, but now with the arena there's a controlled way of doing it. If someone would like to do some testing, again, please feel free.

Happy 1 Year anniversary everyone.

*Raises her glass*

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I agree

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Where the heck did you dredge this post up from?

Someone's been practicing thread-cromancy.

As was said before, they're the 8 surviving members of Freedom Phalanx.

I think "Surviving 8" has to do with the freedom Phalanx. They are the 8 FP heroes who survived the Rikti war.

And it makes sense. States is the original hero, really, so his SG has a sense of noteriety. The fact that only 8 of them survived is pretty staggering, and would be noted.

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You can't heal yourself or get healed when using Absorb Pain.

These things don't work:

Healing Inspirations.
Healing Aura.
Other heroes healing you.

Regen Aura and Adrenaline Boost are 'technically' not heals.
They are Regen buffs. Because of that, they work.

Things that can heal you:

Regeneration Aura
Another Empath's Adrenaline Boost
Fitness/Health
Your 'natural' health regen

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Utility Bot's right. +Regen does work when in the buffer. +Heal does not.

Not that I'm complaining really, but why?

Debt is hardly even a penalty, and now it's being mitigated further? Perhaps I'm alone here, but I don't get it.

How do I do a task force/Where do I get the X task force

Please add

A beginner's guide to Task Forces, v1.0

There is some concern that the numbers I have here may no longer be correct. Specifically, the defense numbers for fortitude may be lower than my initial testing indicated. Once issue 4 comes out, I will be doing another battery of testing to see what, if anything, has changed, and when that happens I will post version 2 of the guide.

I remember staring at the tram screen wondering which king's row I should be going to.

I remember using Hover as a travel power.

I remember a friend wanting to see CoH, but he came to visit during the blackout between beta and preorder headstart.

I remember when pick up groups didn't suck. (Or at least any more than you did)

I remember the people running around and around in circles next to the KR tram.

I remember thinking that I would never play a MMO.

Thanks Knucklebones, and I enjoyed yours.

Creating backgrounds for my characters is most of the fun for me. And I've never been much good at doing it for male characters, so I'll stick to the female.

I'm always happy to see that characters in this game mean more to people than number crunching.

HeroName:Ashes of Rose
True Name: Rose Van Houghton
Sets: Fire/Fire
Origin: Mutant

Rose was a sweet girl, leading what was normally considered a charmed life. She was mildly athletic, enjoyed her place in the drama club, got good grades, and was headed to her junior year in high school with enthusiasm.

For her 16th birthday in early January, her parents took her and her siblings to a fancy restaurant in Talos Island. They ate, Rose got her gifts, and as they exited the building, Rose realised that she forgot her purse. She darted back into the building to get it, and came back out to see the parking lot suddenly filled with soldiers shooting at each other, some in red uniforms, some in silvery. So intent were they on their own fight, that Rose had to watch in horror as they caught her family in the middle.

The next thing she knew, she was on the ground, surrounded by heroes in blue and white. And a swath of charred inert bodies. Those heroes, though arriving too late to save her family, had seen the fireball she had become in her grief, laying waste to the 5th Column and Council soldiers that were fighting.

Rose was never able to reproduce that fireball. But from then on, fire obeyed her call, protecting her and charring her enemies. She registered the next day as Ashes of Rose, and was taken in by the Ion Force members who found her. Her life might now be in ashes, but she would try to keep others from being hurt as she was.

HeroName: Just A Girl
Power Sets: Invuln/Axe
Real Name: Melora Devon
Origin: Natural

History:

Born into a rather old fashioned military family, Melora Devon was a dissapointment merely because she was a daughter and not the son that her father wanted. Growing up blonde and beautiful, she grew easily frustrated by the stigma put on her by the fact that she was blond and beautiful. No amount of physical training, which she put her heart into, nor displays of intellegence seemed to get the opposite sex to value her opinion before her appearance. No matter her actual intellegence, she was dismissed as weak and an airhead, neither of which were true.

Visiting a friend in Paragon City, she heard a cry for help from outside the window. Without thinking, she picked up the first thing that came to hand (a friend's replica battle axe) and charged out to help the person. She beat off the thugs that were accosting the man and offered him a hand up.

"But, you're just a girl...." he stammered, as he took her hand.

"Yes, I guess I am," she commented with a twist of a smile.

And sky raider engineers from getting out FF generators.

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Good question.

No I dont believe it does.

Once the target its defeated, all toggles are removed. The explosion occurs after the target is defeated, so the EF would not apply.

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And people say the Devs don't read the defender boards. It would appear that they do.

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myopic is shortsightedness

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Actually Myopia is a medical term used to describe someone who is near sighted, where distant objects appear blurry. There is some connection in connotation between the medical condition and shortsightedness, but the two are not the same. A near sighted person is myopic. A shortsighted person is usually just stubborn.

I have 1000 HP even at 46, with no accolades to skew the total.

I'll retest, but I have 5 slots in AB and permahasten, and only now am I able to keep it perma. It has a 5 minute timer, I really don't think that you can perma it with less than 4 slots.

What your hero does or doesn't do is completely up to you. Heroes get some pay, so subsisting on that is likely enough for day to day living.

LadyMage's alterego, Rachel Hollie is a full time member of the Paragon City Ballet.

Just A Girl, or Melora Devon, is a Personal trainer in her off time, occasionally teaching women's self defense courses.

Caffiene Queen and Canadian Witch (Karen Maitland and Breanna Beauchamps) are both students at Paragon University. Caffiene Queen is also the spokesperson (in her hero persona) for Champion Cola.

Blueberry Pie (aka Danielle Reaves) is the daughter of the Paragon Museum of History's Curator, Maxwell Reaves. She has the whole little spoiled little rich girl motif going.

ShadowSoldier (Coriana Xanith) doesn't have a job per se, instead she spends her time working on her suit, getting it repaired back to the form it used to be.

Ashes of Rose (Rose Van Houghton) is a 16 year old High school student.

Female player who *very* rarely played male characters in pen and paper RPGs, and has yet to make a male character in CoH. Is it because I don't like genderbending? Nope. It's because I'm far better at coming up with character ideas for a female character than a male one. If I come up with a male character idea for CoH, I'll roll one.

I get hit on, but it's very interesting. Only once did I get hit on by someone I didn't know, and he was preticularily disgusting. He hit my ignore list so fast I probably made his head spin. My SG mates hit on me, but strangely enough, they didn't do it until they A) knew I was IRL female, and B) knew I was engaged. It's like, ok, she's taken, so she's not going to take this seriously. Time to start joking around.

Only once have I been the least bit startled by genderbending. Met a female toon who was invited to my SG. The SG gets a teamspeak server, and I find out that the player is in fact a guy. I had no clue, honestly, I'd never thought about it. I just got used to thinking of the character as female that it was a bit of an adjustment to think of the person as male. His avatars are about a 50/50 split male and female, and I just get used to it. I still call his female characters she, and he doesn't care.

Personally I think people need to get over themselves. Unless they're being derogatory or insulting, who cares who they are IRL? I didn't come here to date. I didn't come here to cyber. Play the character as you like and react to the character as their avatar suggests.

This guide was inspired largely by Ladioss_Sopp's Kinetics Guide, and the template, with permission, was borrowed from it.

There are several guides for empaths out there, but I prefer a more objective approach, as there are at least a half dozen
ways to play any power set, and none of them are wrong.

Like the kinetics guide, these numbers are the BASE UNENHANCED numbers.

These numbers are based on the defender powers. Controllers versions will be at a percentage of their strength(commonly thought to be 80-85%).

Empathy - A Defender's Guide - Version 1.0
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Heal Aura (Level 1) - Heal Aura is a PbAoE heal power that radiates from the empath. The radius seems slightly larger than the animation shows. This is the only heal in the set that also heals the empath.

Stats:
Healing effect: The healing effect scales with level, from 13 at 1st level to 134 at 50th level. This translates to a 13%
ratio of healing to caster hit points.
Endurance Cost: 19
Activation: 2 sec
Recharge: 10 sec
Range: PBAoE
Duration: Instant
Enhancers Available: +heal, -REC, -END

Heal Other (Level 1) - Heal Other is a single target heal power that requires line of sight to use. With Heal aura, these
are your two staple heals as an empath.

Stats:
Healing Effect: The healing effect scales with level, from 27 at second level to 262 at 50th level. This translates to a
26% ratio of healing to caster's hit points.
Endurance Cost: 19
Activation: 2 sec
Recharge: 6 sec
Range: 80'
Duration: Instant
Enhancers Available: +heal, -REC, -END, +range

Absorb Pain (Level 2) - Absorb Pain is a single target heal power that requires line of sight to use. It is the single
largest heal in the game, but comes with a price. The heal causes damage to the empath, and places them in a short duration buffer where they cannot be healed.

Stats:
Healing Effect: The healing effect scales with level, from 69 at second level to 669 at 50th level. This translates to a
67% ratio of healing to the caster's hit points.
Damage(self): This also scales with level, from 30 at second, to 108 at 50th.
Buffer: There is a 20 second buffer in which the empath cannot be healed. Neither self heals, outside heals, nor green
inspirations will work to heal the empath. Natural regeneration will work as normal, as will buffs and autopowers that increase that regeneration. The duration of this buffer is marked by the Absorb Pain icon in your buff bar.
Endurance Cost: 1
Activation: 3 Sec
Recharge: 18 sec
Range: 80'
Duration: Heal - instant, non healing buffer - 20 sec
Enhancers Available: +heal, -REC, -END, +range

Resurrect (Level 6) - A power to bring a single hero back from defeat.

Stats:
Revive Buff: This power revives a single hero back to full health and endurance
Endurance Cost: 74
Activation: 4s
Recharge: 3 min
Range: 15'
Duration: Instant
Enhancers Available: -END, +Range, -REC

Clear Mind (Level 8) - The most complete grantable status protection in the game. This power is a single target buff that requires line of sight to use, and is often called for in teams, especially in the higher levels.

Stats:
Effects Buff: Clear Mind provides a strong buff against Sleep, Disorient, Hold, and Immobilization effects. It also frees the target from these effects if they are active when hit with this power.
Endurance Cost: 7
Activation: 4 sec
Recharge: 8 sec
Range: 70'
Duration: 90 sec
Enhancers Available: -END, +Range, -REC

Fortitude (Level 12) - The second single target buff in the empathy line. This buff is single target, requires line of sight to use, and greatly buffs damage, accuracy and defense. This can be stacked with another Empath's fortitude, but not with your own.

Stats:
Damage buff: Fortitude increases the target's base damage by 30%.
Defense buff: The increase to the target's defense is 30%.
Accuracy buff: Fortitude increases the target's base accuracy by 30%.
Endurance Cost: 15
Activation: 2 Sec
Recharge: 60 sec
Range: 80'
Duration: 120 sec
Enhancers Available: -REC, -END, +Range, +def, +tohit

Recovery Aura (Level 18) - The jewel of the Empathy line and the first of the set's PBAoE buffs. It greatly increases the endurance recovery of anyone within it's area effect at time of casting. Recovery aura is among the most called for buffs in the empathy set.

Stats:
Recovery Buff: Recovery Aura increases the base endurance recovery of anyone within the area of effect by 100%. For reference, the base end recovery rate is 1.66 END/sec.
Endurance Cost: 38
Activation: 3 sec
Recharge: 8min 20sec
Range: PBAoE
Duration: 90 sec
Enhancers Available: -REC, -END, +Recovery

Regeneration Aura (Level 26) - The second PBAoE buff in the empathy set. It greatly increases the health regeneration of anyone within it's area effect at time of casting.

Stats:
Regeneration Buff: This power increases the base health regeneration of anyone within the area of effect by 500%
Endurance Cost: 38
Activation: 3 sec
Recharge: 8min 20sec
Range: PBAoE
Duration: 90sec
Enhancers Available: -REC, -END, +heal

Adrenalin Boost (Level 32) - The third single target buff in the set. This power requires line of sight to use, and has been on the receiving end of a lot of love since issue 2. It now greatly increases endurance recovery, health regeneration, and reduces the recharge rate of the target's powers. Further, it also stacks with the other buffs in the line. Paired with other buffs in the set, it can make the target into a singularily powerful force.

Stats:
Recovery Buff: This power increases the base endurance recovery of the target by 200%.
Regeneration Buff: This power gives the target an increase in health regeneration that equals regeneration aura, a 500% increase.
Recharge Buff: Adrenalin boost decreases the recharge rate of the target's powers by 50%.
Endurance Cost: 15
Activation: 2 sec
Recharge: 5min 20 sec
Range: 80'
Duration: 90 sec
Enhancers Available: -REC, -END, +heal, +Recovery, +range

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Please feel free to post comments and help me improve this guide.

Thanks to all those who posted on the Beta version, and special thanks to Relentless, who was kind enough to take the time to test the healing numbers at level 50. Also, thanks to Ladioss_Sopp, who not only let me use the template, but encouraged and inspired me to do this.

Issue 2 went live on a thursday.

Does anyone else find this fishy?

I mean, the 5th element? Springa Isle? And they report the date to be the 14th when certain changes that were announced this week to go with issue 3 havn't even landed on the test server yet?

I think this "Interview" requires a grain of salt.....or the entire shaker. I wouldn't trust it as far as I can throw it.