Ninja_NA

Ok thought of some more...

- He who needs frequent bio breaks or sandwiches would be wise to take fly as a travel power
- DPS may be good, but shooting robots with xray beams from your eyes is better
- Pwnz me once, shame on you. Pwnz me twice, shame on me. Pwnz me three times, OMG ur overpowrd NERF DOOOM.
- PL a n00b and he's your friend for a day. Recall a n00b into a herd of malta and he's your friend for the rest of his life.
- Don't look a gift buff in the mouth.

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kind of a newbish question, whats the name colors asscociated with those numbers of even, +1, +2, etc ....

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Even level = white
+1 = yellow
+2 = orange
+3 = red
+4 or higher = purple

LT class enemies are one color higher than their level
Boss class enemies are two colors higher than their level

For example, a +1 LT is orange, a +2 boss is purple.

-Kheldians don't always know how to play yet.
-Getting to level 50 means you no longer have much incentive to play that character, so enjoy the ride while it lasts.
-Don't buy TOs. Don't even keep most of your TOs. Sell them all (except maybe accuracy.)
-You don't need a "healer."
-Corollary to the one above - learn to identify when a mission is simply too hard. Team composition is seldom as much to blame as team intelligence or level spread.

There are a lot of force field guides out there at this point, and I don't feel that I have anything to add to that general base of knowledge, but there were some initial complaints about my first ff/rad guide that discussed FF from a /rad secondary perspective, rather than going into detail on the rad power set. I've decided that, while another general FF guide is unnecessary at this point, a more specific FF/rad guide+build may still be of benefit to someone.

The last guide was a bit long and detailed, so I'm going to keep this straightforward. First I will describe the build and playstyle, secondly I will briefly discuss each power and why I did or didn't select it, and third I will post the build itself. At the very end, I will present a couple of specific tactics to use with this build.

FF/rad - hybrid defender
Force Field
Force field is a power set that has swung back and forth on the effectiveness scale, but the "feel" of the set has undergone relatively few changes over the past 2 years. The easiest and most commonly appreciated aspect is its defense bonus. Through two fast recharging long duration clicks and one wide radius toggle, we can single-handedly cause the majority of attacks against our team to miss, and also protect them against most status effects (which generally miss anyway). The degree to which we succeed at this roll has changed from time to time, but basically it is a fairly passive role. Keep the bubbles up, try to keep people without mez protection in your big bubble, and basically do what you want besides that.

The second aspect of FF is its soft control through knockback, positioning, and phase shift. We have a single target kb, a target aoe kb, a pbaoe pulsing kb. We also have a large aoe repel, and a single target (enemy) phase shift. This requires a more active role in combat, positioning, luck, and frequently an experienced team. These powers also tend to draw agro from a very large number of attackers, against whom we are ill suited to protect ourself without depriving our team of a portion of their defense and taking away our ability to do very much.

As a player, I - 1. Enjoy solo play, 2. Don't have a regular team, and 3. Frequently join PUGs with people who may or may not be ignorant of how to support a soft control FFer. Because of these things, I found that I was able to get the most mileage and enjoyment out of my character by largely disregarding the soft control element of the set. I chose to focus on the powers that were both constantly useful and did not interfere with me blowing stuff up. Niche powers generally got the axe, with a couple exceptions (force bolt and detention field.)

Radiation Blast
As far as rad blast is concerned, I focused primarily on single target powers. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the endurance efficiency on the aoe attacks is very poor, and when coupled with defender level damage is a very tiring way to tackle solo spawns. Secondly, the recharge is somewhat prohibitive, especially since hasten is mostly unnecessary as a FFer. Keep in mind that this approach may not be applicable to all play styles. A character who does not solo may find neutron bomb to do more total damage than x-ray beam, or may not frequently use proton volley, but as someone who likes to do a bit of everything, I found that the extra damage I brought to a team with neutron bomb or electron haze wasn't not significant enough to compensate for the inconvenience of using them to do solo missions.

Bringing It Together
This build will not be fantastic at anything. It is sort of a jack of all trades, master of none approach. Force field enables this build by allowing us to protect a team quite well with very minimal time and endurance cost, but on the other hand, it also doesn't contribute very much offensively. There is a certain balance to this, however, as other defender power sets are not nearly as forgiving. A rad emission who loses track of his toggles by spending too much time blasting becomes much less able to defend the team. Storm, kinetics, TA all rely very heavily on click powers, requiring constant attention, and frequently interrupting attack chains and draining endurance. These are broad generalizations, of course, but the point is that while FF doesn't provide any offensive bonus, it lets you protect the team with less time and endurance expenditure than any other defender set.

Because of this freedom to attack, I feel it is a waste to play a FF who neglects their offensive set. This build is heavy on attacks. It is designed to offer the team as much benefit as possible while still firing off a constant stream of damage and defense debuffs (enabling your teammates to hit more often as well.) Solo, it plays like slow blaster with good defense, mez protection, high accuracy, and a near guaranteed get out of jail free card. On a team, you give everyone defense and reduce enemy defense (and later through leadership give more defense and accuracy.) You may not be fully appreciated, as players will still miss, and enemies will still hit them from time to time, but you are a solid group facilitator, and do not require any particular group tactics or intelligence to apply the majority of your bonuses.

Lastly, as a force fielder, I have this vague notion that I should be able to have fun in PvP. Unfortuantely, the powers that are notorious in pvp (primarily the last 3 in the set) are really not very useful to my playstyle outside pvp, so my compromise was taking force bubble at 49, for when the level 50 pvp zone comes out. This build is not really prepared for level 38 pvp, though it does have tactics, force bolt, and a decently slotted personal force field. If you want to spend the majority of your time in pvp, however, I would reccomend a build more suited to the task.

Powers

Note: Due to the wide variety of character builders out there, and discrepancies between stated numbers for powers from different sources, I will not be including power numerical values. Check out some character builders and decide which one you prefer to use. Since I am providing a build, I will also not be "rating" the powers for this guide, or reccomending specific slottings for all powers.

Force Field Powers

Personal Force Field
Offers fantastic personal protection at the expense of being able to do anything else. Will not drop your toggles, but prevents you from using any powers on targets besides yourself, and prevents your toggles from affecting anyone but you. You can use aid self while in the bubble, but using the "rest" power will turn off pff. Useful for travelling safety, avoiding team wipes, absorbing an alpha strike, hiding out after you nuke, and generally staying alive when most defenders have to run. Activation time is a little slow, so it never hurts to fire it off a hair before you are actually in mortal danger. Doesn't ordinarily need more than 1 defense enhancement, unless you plan on using it in pvp.

Deflection Shield
A staple of team defense. Useless solo, but gives significant protection to the target against melee and smashing/lethal for 4 minutes. Recharges fast enough that you don't need any enhancements besides defense.

Force Bolt
Solid soloing power. Sufficient to knock over 1 enemy, including most bosses. I don't know if KB has a magnitude the same as other powers, but I find that there are some enemies that can be knocked over by other powers (like telekinetic blast) which seem to resist force bolt knockback. Aside from what appears to be a somewhat reduced "magnitude" of knockback, this thing is great. Needs at least 1 recharge to be able to keep a single enemy constantly on their butt. Accuracy is pretty good to start with, but this is a power you never want to miss, so another one never hurts, and if you use FB/snipe against bosses, the sheer quantity of FBs you use usually warrants an end rdx, in my experience. Can knock off toggles in pvp, which is nice.

Insulation Shield
Same as deflection shield, but for ranged and non smashing/lethal damage.

Detention Field
Not the most exciting power in the world, this puts one enemy into a detention field for about 30 seconds. Actual game effect: single target phase shift and immobilize. Immob resistant enemies will still be able to move, but not attack. The drawback here is that the target is immune to all other powers while phase shifted. Teams tend not to like this power a whole lot, but in groups of 1-3 players, it can be invaluable. Useful for tackling any spawn that has an undesirable enemy - sappers, nemesis LTs, an extra boss, a paragon protector who went MOG on you (jerks.) Solo, detention + force bolt can allow you to basically face only 1 enemy at a time out of a 3 mob spawn.

Dispersion Bubble
Area effect toggle centered on you with decent defense bonus and protection against hold, immobilize, and disorient. This is really a great power that you probably will run every minute you are in the game (save for when you've been put to sleep grrrr.) Probably you will want to slot it with 1 and maybe eventually 2 end rdx, and 3 defense.

Repulsion Field
Area knockback away from you. Not as expensive as it once was, but it still isn't very useful unless you're trying to pin enemies against a wall with it. Solo, it's not necessary if you have force bolt, and in a group it is difficult to get pick up groups to coordinate with this power. I tried it for awhile instead of force bolt, but when you're holding 1 enemy in the field constantly, you do lose endurance quickly. Decent in pvp as it can deter stalkers and drop toggles, but also will drain your end like no tomorrow if you're at melee with someone who's knockback resistant.

Repulsion Bomb
Area knockback targetted at an enemy. Despite targetting an enemy, the knockback is away from you, which means flying above enemies allows you to sort of knock enemies down, which is slightly less offensive to a team. This power has a small chance of a low magnitude disorient, which I used to reccomend you stack with cosmic burst to stun bosses. It's not really reliable for that purpose any more, thanks to the low chance, and the long recharge. I've also tried to use this power as a supplement to force bolt, or an area effect force bolt, but the long activation time and greatly increased recharge time basically means that this is an agro magnet. Great for dropping toggles in pvp, and occasionally useful for knocking down a few enemies every 30 or 40 seconds in a team, but I just can't reccomend it any more.

Force Bubble
Huge area repel away from you. Occasionally knocks down enemies in the radius of effect (like 5% chance, very small.) Similar to repulsion field in that it is unnecessary solo, and very difficult to effectively apply in a team setting. Occasionally you will be able to put it to use against large groups of enemies with poor ranged attacks, but generally you have better ways of defending a team. One option is to flick it on, then off, and go into personal force field, to take some heat off the rest of your team. You also can use it to zip around a room, agro everything, then hide behind a wall and go into pff. I mostly use this to pull a group together prior to nuking. Decent scrapper deterrant (anyone without repel deterrant really, in pvp.)

Radiation Blast Powers

Neutrino Bolt
Low damage, fast activation, fast recharge power. Decent dps alone, "ok" contribution to attack chain. Occasionally proclaimed to be good enough that you don't really need other attack powers to make a good attack chain, but some number crunching will show that that's not really the case. It is true that you can survive without other attack powers, but as a soloist, I like to have more than JUST this in my single target arsenal. Anyway, you have no choice to take it or not, so slot it up and it's not bad.

X-ray Beam
Not a bad power. Single target with slightly better damage and slightly longer recharge than neutrino bolt. Comparable to power bolt, charged bolts, and most other moderate damage low level blasts. Works well to fill the gap between neutrino bolt for a decent increase in damage output early on, plus it shoots green lasers out of your eyes, which is pretty cool.

Irradiate
Area effect damage over time attack centered on yourself. Total damage equals that of x-ray beam, approximately, and endurance cost is slightly less than 4x as much. That means this starts to be an efficient attack with 4 targets, and it also applies a very hefty defense debuff for about 30 seconds! Overall a good power, but it can be draining to use solo. Super fast activation time though, so a decent precursor to a nuke, and easily able to be used to zoom in, debuff a group of enemies your team is fighting, and zoom out.

Electron Haze
Highest damage power so far in the set, basically made a pain thanks to its narrow cone, inconsistent knockback, high cost, and lame activation time. In the right hands, this power can still do some good damage, and starts to be efficient around 2-3 targets, but as far as dps goes, it isn't really that great. Against a single target, you can fire off nb and xray for the same activation time of 1 EH, doing almost 20% more damage and spending half the endurance. If you are consistently fighting larger groups, it becomes worthwhile, but I always seemed to have better powers to use.

Proton Volley
Our snipe. Not bad as far as snipes go. Doesn't usually hit the enemy until the animation is done, so you can usually duck out of sight by moving right before the firing animation begins and avoid getting more than 1 enemy. Looks kind of amusing. The defense debuff works well with a snipe, because it makes following up after the snipe pretty easy. It has a very long activation, but recharges faster than electron haze. I kind of think of it applying a little more than 2x electron haze damage for approximately 2x the activation time, but costing the same and recharging faster. So I picked proton volley over EH, since I prefer finishing off single targets quickly as opposed to having to face the full amount of enemy damage until eventually killing them all at once. Dispersion bubble, force bolt, and cosmic burst regularly allow me to use PV in normal combat settings without being interrupted.

Aim
Really a must have for an offensive defender. Useful in two ways. First, it's up pretty often, and is a solid improvement to overall damage and accuracy. Secondly, it gives us a "must hit" guarantee on certain powers. Don't bother slotting accuracies in your nuke, because aim will always come first. When you need to apply that defence debuff with irradiate on critical enemies, aim will be up. Needs a couple recharges usually, but hit buff is not necessary.

Cosmic Burst
Finally a real combat power. Better damage than anything so far, plus a nice mag3 disorient. Range is short, but that's not usually a problem. This is simultaneously the third prong of your defense, and the lynchpin of your attack chain. More details in the tactics section.

Neutron Bomb
Area effect damage targetted on the enemy. Kind of a disappointment. It's like m30 grenade, minus knockback, with higher end cost, 29 circle later than an AR blaster would get it (and I never found m30 to be that useful to begin with.) Pros: looks cool, can hit a group of enemies from far away, cheaper than irradiate. Cons: Sad damage (less than irradiate or x-ray), harder to position where you want than irradiate, slow activation. I would only reccomend this for a "group only" character.

Atomic Blast
Arguably one of the better nukes in the game, and the one to truly deserve the name "nuke" heh. Atomic blast is very solid damage with a nice mag 3 hold on top. It does no knockback, which means even if you don't kill everyone, you haven't moved anyone out of place for futher aoe follow up from your teammates, and the hold helps keep you from getting pilllaged by survivors.

Power Mastery Powers

I chose Power Mastery because it seems to best complement my playstyle, so I have included the powers from that ancillary set only.

Conserve Power
Reduces your endurance cost by half for a little while. Long recharge. Unless you go all out AoE, this is pretty unnecessary. FF drains very little end, and single target rad blast is pretty managable as well.

Power Build Up
Look Ma! I'm a real blaster! Gives you a boost similar to build up, and also double the duration of your secondary effects for about 10 seconds. Works well prior to aim (since it buffs aim) and then before either irradiate (for the defense debuff) or atomic blast (for damage and the hold duration). PBU + aim + atomic blast can drop yellows and oranges pretty frequently. Also works well before cosmic burst if you're fighting a boss. You can usually get off 2 bursts before PBU wears off, which should keep the boss disoriented for a nice duration.

Temporary Invulnerability
Reduces smashing and lethal while the toggle is up. Worthwhile, but not exceptional. Helps to take the edge off, but hardly a license to tank. I chose it so I can get total focus.

Total Focus
Well, you may only have 3 circles left to 50, but you finally got another good single target power. Works great with cosmic burst to disorient multiple opponents in a row. Long activation and recharge, but a solid choice all around.

The Build


Exported from version 1.5C of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Force Field
Secondary Powers - Support : Radiation Blast

01 : Neutrino Bolt acc(01) dam(5) dam(5) dam(11) recred(15) endred(34)
01 : Deflection Shield defbuf(01) defbuf(3) defbuf(3) endred(43)
02 : X-Ray Beam acc(02) dam(9) dam(9) dam(11) recred(21) endred(34)
04 : Personal Force Field defbuf(04) recred(40) defbuf(42)
06 : Insulation Shield defbuf(06) defbuf(7) defbuf(7) endred(46)
08 : Force Bolt recred(08) acc(34) recred(37) endred(42)
10 : Hover endred(10)
12 : Dispersion Bubble endred(12) defbuf(13) defbuf(13) defbuf(15) endred(33)
14 : Fly fltspd(14) fltspd(36) fltspd(37) endred(46)
16 : Proton Volley acc(16) dam(17) dam(17) dam(19) recred(19) endred(21)
18 : Swift runspd(18)
20 : Health hel(20) hel(46)
22 : Stamina endrec(22) endrec(23) endrec(23)
24 : Irradiate acc(24) dam(25) dam(25) dam(27) endred(27) recred(33)
26 : Aim recred(26) recred(40)
28 : Cosmic Burst acc(28) dam(29) dam(29) dam(31) recred(31) recred(31)
30 : Detention Field recred(30) acc(36) recred(37)
32 : Maneuvers defbuf(32) endred(33) defbuf(43) defbuf(43)
35 : Tactics thtbuf(35) endred(36)
38 : Atomic Blast dam(38) dam(39) dam(39) recred(39) recred(40)
41 : Power Buildup recred(41) recred(42)
44 : Temp Invulnerability damres(44) damres(45) damres(45) endred(45)
47 : Total Focus acc(47) dam(48) dam(48) dam(48) recred(50) recred(50)
49 : Force Bubble endred(49) endred(50)

-------------------------------------------

01 : Brawl Empty(01)
01 : Sprint Empty(01)
02 : Rest Empty(02)

Explanation of some slotting decisions:
Most attacks were slotted acc/3dam/end/rech. This can be adjusted as needed, depend on how you use your attack chains, and how much end you find that you use. Cosmic burst got 2rech and no end, since the damage output is so good, and stacking disorients is very useful. A daring player could drop accs from all powers, put more tohit into tactics, and rely on the def debuff from rad to improve their accuracy, but I slot 1 accuracy.

Force bolt, and both individual shields got an end rdx to compensate for running leadership toggles and TI all the time, but depending on what toggles you use, they may be unnecessary.

I didn't slot more tohit in tactics because radiation blast is usually not missing after my first hit anyway. I have aim for when I NEED to hit, and 1acc in all powers anyway, so I decided I didn't need more in tactics. YMMV

Detention field needs 2 recharges to have ready by the time it wears off, and forcebolt takes 2 to comfortably have ready whenever I want it. I put an accuracy in both because they both are powers that can cause a lot of pain if you need them and miss.

Lastly, these are endgame slottings. Your slotting with TOs or DOs should not be the same as this, and some powers may be slotted in a slightly different order than presented.

Tactics

I'll keep this brief.

Defense tactics:
Keep your team bubbled all the time. It's really the best you have to offer, and if you let it slip, you risk things falling apart with no way to "recover." Try to keep the dispersion bubble around controllers, defenders, and blasters, and generally run leadership toggles most of the time. In a team, reserve force bolt and detention field for emergencies, or enemies that are not part of the melee fray. Solo I like to use detention field on bosses while I clean up the minions around them, though generally I don't use it on EVERY group. Generally I use cosmic burst as my primary defense, force bolt as secondary, and detention field as last ditch. Dispersion bubble is my constant passive defense, of course.

Offense tactics:
Solo - I like to lead off with proton volley, hit them with xray as they close in, then pop them with cosmic burst when they get to melee. At this point they are disoriented and prime target for another proton volley. If either proton volley or cosmic burst are not up, I alternate neutrino bolt/ xray beam for solid sustained damage. Against multiple targets, I use force bolt and cosmic burst to keep myself free to use proton volley, and when fighting 2 or more enemies in range, I will fire off irradiate as a very fast attack when it's up to help whittle away at the other enemies.
Group - You have to stay in pretty close range to maximize dispersion bubble coverage and keep everyone under leadership effects, so cosmic burst and irradiate are usually solid attack choices. Proton volley usually is too slow, so if cosmic burst and irradiate aren't up, I'll use the nb/xray combo to pick off damaged targets. If the group we're fighting is very difficult, I will focus my attacks on enemies with high defense, or that other teammates are attacking, so I can give the def debuff where it's most useful.


Conclusion

With the wealth of good information out there already, there probably is some duplication in this guide of other posts, but I tried to make this a more specific post with more references to my personal preferences and experiences as a FF/rad defender. Please feel free to make constructive comments or suggestions.

I think that, while this may not be a bad idea, the format is a little vague. AT rating is pretty arbitrary. Certain ATs are better in some areas than others, and even that depends on which powers you take, how you slot them, and how you use them.

Your guide for energy energy blaster seems to have little information that specifically refers to blasters or to energy as a set. Also, there are many ways to play each set, and a general 2 sentence guide without explanation might do more harm than help to potential new players.

Basically, I'm not clear on what benefit this manner of guide would provide that players can not already find in some more detailed guides already out there. It does have brevity, but a little more explanation of choices probably would help.

Great guide, though I agree that adding non-alpha characters to names that are already taken generally isn't something I'd reccomend.

Kind of along the lines of "don't PL because you won't learn how to play", I also think people should spend time in a variety of different grouping situations when they're learning about a new power. I team frequently with someone who solos 90% of the time and duos with me maybe 8% of the rest, with only 2% time spent in PUGs or other groups, and her playstyle is very single minded.

I think everyone should spend a little time soloing with new powers to learn their limitations, and also should spend some time in large groups to get a feel for if the powers still work well against larger numbers or higher level enemies, or how well that power synergizes with teammates.

I know it's not really a concise, easy to put in a guide kind of sentiment, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

You know you're an old(er) gamer (still in the 20s here, so no chance at the gold club) when...

... you spell most of the words you use in regularly conversation in game with conventional (and mostly correct) spellings :P

... some of the names and costumes you see make you wonder if these people have ever even held a real comic book.

... instead of "mom's calling for dinner" you have "have to go MAKE dinner" and instead of "have to go to bed, school in the morning" you have "have to go to bed, work in the morning " Some things never change... except I find the older I get, the earlier my bedtime ends up being :P lame

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Take it. Slot it. Love it.

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Don't use this phrase.

Re: blind invites

I find the most effective way to avoid blind invites - I put "Forcefield Defender" in my search comment. Usually the blind inviters stay away.. usually all inviters stay away, for that matter :P Well, some at least.

I've seen both sides of the blind invite argument on the forums.

Against Blind Invites:
You have no idea what type of group you're going to end up in, and can't give an informed response about whether you want to do it until you're already on the team.
Sometimes it pops up while you're fighting and can cause irritation and/or harm.
It lets you know the inviter has at least enough courtesy to give you information immediately and not try and force or trick you into joining a team.

For Blind invites:
It is much faster to invite people without sending tells, and with CoV, sometimes it is harder to get a good team going in CoH.
You save the person you're inviting having to be rude and say no, or make up an excuse.
You force the person to respond yes or no, instead of just ignoring a tell. If they click no, they don't want to join, whereas if they ignore a tell, you don't know if they're afk, busy, slow typer, or what.


So anyway, there have been arguments on both sides. I think both sides make some good points, but I still come down firmly on the "send tell first" side. Really, the advantages - letting the person know you're courteous, giving them honest info about what they'll be getting into, and avoiding interrupting their combat - far outweighs the benefits of easily spamming invites to a large number of people and quick response time.

I kind of feel that sending tells first may be more work, but it makes life easier for the prospective teammate, whereas sending invites first makes life easier for you, but makes more work for the invitee. I would much rather join the team of someone who is willing to be helpful, rather than selfish.

Was Divine Avalanche hit by the defense nerf of 05? I still use it myself, and believe it is a good power, but I can't imagine it escaped with its 20% boost unscathed.

I wonder if I can make my TI-83 do this..

Hehe, thanks for clarifying. Nice post too. I do <3 math, even if I don't have any regular opportunities to practice it lately.

I spent a lot of time trying to do math and figure out useful stuff to make a contribution, but my algebra skills are rusty and failed me. There are two comments that I'd be interested in hearing your response on.

First comment - you handle reduction in combat time (F) very efficiently, but you don't mention anywhere the reduction in downtime that confuse would contribute (since it both reduces damage from enemies and endurance expenditure, by killing them faster, and also reduces damage from enemies by preventing the confused enemy from attacking you.) That speaks positively for confuse, since it can only improve the ratio, but it seems like it's something that would contribute to the equations. I tried to factor in a variable y that was the ratio by which downtime (S) was reduced. My goal was to calculate the point at which reduction in time exceeded reduction of exp, in terms of y and D.

Secondly, I'm not really clear on how to interpret your final formula, with respect to determining personal effectiveness. It's easy to see how it equals out, but it is difficult to make a statement like "As long as my damage output times 3 = my downtime, I'm ok" or "decreasing my downtime would increase my xpps faster than decreasing my fighting time." Basically, the final equation is hard to put into practical use.

For example:

S = 3DF

If I do 50% of the damage in a fight, that lasts 120 seconds, I get S = 180. So that means if I have 3 minutes of downtime after a 2 minute fight, confuse exp will = normal exp? So if I have a 2 minute fight in which I do 50% of the damage, as long as I don't need more than 3 minutes down time, I'm coming out ahead.

Let's say I fight for 2 minutes and only have 10 second downtime. 10 = 3D(120). That means D = 0.0278. Does this mean that if fights are finishing in 2 minutes, with only 10 seconds of down time, that I only have to do 2.78% of the damage in order to get better xpps than if I were fighting normally? I'm assuming that the formula indicates "If you finish the fight in 2 minutes and only do 2.78% of the damage, that this fight would take 72 minutes normally."

So, it seems like in a 2 minute fight, as long as I do more than 2.78% damage, I'm coming out ahead, and if I do say, 70% of the damage, I'm coming out way ahead.

Let me know if this is an accurate interpretation. Nice work!

Nice guide, I like the straightforward and slightly villainous writing style.

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A few things I'd point out. The grav AoE and single imobs in the grav line do not negate knockback or the flop ability from ice as you said in your guide. I use imobs followed by propel and it sends them flying everytime.

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In response to this, it was my understanding that immobilize causes a limited duration knockback immunity (4 seconds, or something of that nature?) I'm sure the controller forum would be happy to expand on that, but it may be that the short resistance to knockback wears off by the time the long activation time of propel is completed

[ QUOTE ]
Mako: What are we going to do tonight boss?

LR: The same thing we do every night Mako. Try and take over the world!


[/ QUOTE ]

Classic!

And now for mine -

Lord Reclues: "Go go gadget legs!"

[ QUOTE ]
PK's post

[/ QUOTE ]

Hehe, of course, we're the first people to flock to any new FF guides. GO team FF!

Nice job Starshield You did a good job of keeping the information concise (which I always have a problem doing) and your use of psy mastery and aid other to turn into a mini-controller has me pondering some of my power selections. I'm almost considering trying a similar build, having struggled with how to make an offensively capable FF defender (though PBU + atomic blast is just too much fun sometimes!)

I have one question for you about your choice of energy blast. Do you find that it brings anything particularly useful to a defensive FF build over the other power choices? Most blast sets have a lot in common, and I was wondering if you found the damage or knockback in energy of particular use to the build.

Anyway, great job, 5 stars.

Looks like neurotoxic breath is pretty similar to shiver then?

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In the meantime, I'll still continue to enjoy the game and have fun playing my lvl 50 for a long time.

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Heh, or those people like me will continue to enjoy the game and have fun playing their 37 alts :P

Good to see this post up here again. Finally finished reading everything, and just have a couple points to add.

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There is nowhere to sell enhancments in Kings Row or Brickstown (unless your orgin-specific contact is there)

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Actually, you can sell enhancements to any origin specific contact. Now that they show up as targettable on the map as stores, they're even easier to find too. Just go do a couple missions for them, regardless of whether you're the right origin, and you can use their store =)

As a second point on this topic, don't buy stuff from founders falls contacts. Not the "store" contacts, but your normal mission contacts. For whatever reason, they're ridiculously expensive.

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Inspirations are good.

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They are good, and something that always amazes me is how infrequently people use them. All the time people die and you try to give them a rez and they're full. Sure, they might not have had any greens to use, but if greens are what keep you from dying, don't hang on to all those blues when you already have stamina. Don't keep a bunch of tiny reds and yellows when you could be using them up and making room for big reds and yellows (or better, purples and greens!) My rule of thumb is, if I have any "little" inspirations (the smallest power ones), and I don't plan on saving them for a boss or something, I will just use them at the beginning of each mob. That way you kill faster and get exp faster, and you get new inspirations so fast anyway, it hardly costs you anything. Then you can be sure to always have a couple greens in an emergency.


Lastly, I've seen some good bind suggestions, and here's one that I absolutely can't live without. Bind your travel power to something easy to reach! Especially if it is fly, it gives you incredible flexibility of movement. Just jump, tap your fly bind, fly over that obstacle, tap it again, set down and start fighting. Log in and realize you logged out 200m above the city street? No sweat, your fly bind is right next to your movement keys =) Teleport binds are great too.

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You seem to want to 'supercede' all of the other guides out there and create a comprehensive guide that should be the only guide that anyone should need to read.

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That wasn't really my intent. I suppose we both were going for the same thing, which is to supplement the body of FF info out there. You just did it more efficiently than me.

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Actually, I didn't rate your guide 1 star, I thought your guide had some quite useful information in it, even if it contained some redundant information as well.

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Bleh, sorry for the accusation then. SOMEONE did!

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I felt that all the powers had equal value. Your opinion may differ, and you are free to it. Why should I rate powers that I would give all the same rating anyways?

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I wasn't trying to say there was anything wrong with that, just that it was one of the reasons I decided to write my own guide. Though in retrospect, I rated them all mostly the same, so it ended up being a waste of time.

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I believe that reading many guides is far more preferrable than reading just one comprehensive one.

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I agree. I've played FF for so long that I really want my own guide though! ::whines::

Anyway, thanks for your feedback PhiloticKnight. Hope I didn't come off as too defensive in my response to your comment. I've been kinda irritable lately, but your guide does a great job too. Really, I'm in favor of anyone posting about FF as all, since I'm kind of a forcefield junkie (went and rolled up a mastermind in CoV since they were the class I could still take FF with.) I've always played FF for concept rather than effectiveness, and I keep hoping someone will figure out the secret to having fun with the set and still keeping your teammates happy So anyway, take it easy, and enjoy your new little FFer.

Most of the information in my guide was gleaned from personal experience and the compiled experiences related by various FF users on the forums. Since our powers are fairly niche oriented, it's understandable that a lot of our information will be relatively similar. Your guide did in fact influence me to write this guide, though perhaps not in the way you would imagine.

I found that I disagreed with some of the uses you suggested for powers, and found that there was no real information in your guide to differentiate it from the pre-ED and pre-pvp forcefield guides that were already out there. I didn't really appreciate having to refer to a second guide for additional information, and I also found the way the information was presented made it difficult to find particular info quickly. It lacked any expression of comparative value of the various FF powers, I didn't agree with your assessment of the value of secondary powers, and lastly, it did a good job of emphasizing all the strong points of the powers and suggesting uses for them, but didn't really discuss some of their drawbacks as much as I thought was important for the target audience of a guide - someone who knew nothing about the set.

Rather than post this beneath your guide and giving you a 1 star rating (thanks for that), I thought that it would simply be more productive to compile my own experiences as a FF defender. So, in conclusion, yes our guides may contain similarities, just as both of them are not really vastly different from any of the other FF guides out there: "here's the powers, here's the generally accepted ways to use them" I don't claim that I have a lot of brand new methods to use FF powerset, but my goal was to create an amalgamation of various FF knowledge that was pertinent to I6, and also included some of my own experiences that may be useful to readers.

This is my first go at a guide, but I've been playing since CoH beta and noticed that there has been a bit of a dearth of ED compliant guides out there. While I was unable to find the guide I was looking for (TA this time), I thought I would do my part to contribute to the body of knowledge out there and share what info I have in case it might be useful for someone else.

Why do we need a new FF/rad guide?
Well, I will admit that ED has not vastly altered the general functionality of FF, but the game world in which we play has a difference face than it did a year ago. In order to maintain interest in my bubbler, I've tried various respec options, changed the way I use my abilities, and have experimented on various balances between primary and secondary powers. Therefore, I feel that while previous guides on the powerset still have good and applicable information, I6 and ED warrant a fresh look on the life of a bubbler.

Format and Content of this Guide
I'm going to stick to the power-by-power layout, as I have found that it is an efficient way to help people find the information they want. I won't be getting into the numerical details of powers, except in the cases where it may be pertinent to make a point, since they can be found more reliably in other places. While this is primarily a guide to the forcefield power set, I do plan on including information pertinent specifically for FF defenders using /rad secondary. This, of course, won't negate the value of this guide for other ff/* and */ff characters, but just be aware that my comparative value of certain powers may be contingent on the radiation blast secondary.

. . . and on to the guide!

Force Fields
As a brief overview before I discuss particular powers, I'd just like to explain my view of the force field primary defender set. This is what I would consider a buff/control set that focuses on mitigating damage to the team by both passively increasing their defense and actively preventing the enemies from attacking, predominantly through the use of the knockback status effect. Many players focus on the passive buff aspect of the powerset, because of it's low micromanagement and relatively sparse endurance use, but the more active form of defense has recently become more effective and more necessary. Defense changes and ED have prevented the passive powers from providing enough defense alone to justify choosing the powerset, however knockback graphics and ED freeing up slots to use in the active powers have made them marginally more appealing. With these things in mind, I will list all the powers in the set with a brief description, and a short commentary on usefulness in the context of FF/rad based entirely on my own opinion.

Personal Force Field (PFF)
Description: This toggle power increases the user's defense against all attacks, and reduces any damage they do take by around half. While it's up, no powers that target other players or enemies may be used, and the effect of any AE powers you use will only affect you.

Commentary: This is a power that does not actively help you arrest enemies or protect your team mates, but I've found that it offers solid benefits across the whole level range. As a young player, it allows you safety of travel that other pre-travel power heroes can only dream of.

In the mid game it gives you a way to bail out of troubling situations with relative safety, and also offers you a defense against the massive agro you tend to pull if you run around knocking bosses over. You can use it to pretend-tank by hitting a group with an AE attack (irradiate works well, because of its long defense debuff) and then turtling up while your teammates pick off the enemies in greater safety.

In the end game, you can use it to remove the drawbacks from some of the more dangerous powers, such as atomic bomb. Aim, irradiate, atomic bomb, then pop a blue inspiration and put up that PFF, protecting you from immediate retaliation.

Another use for PFF that is relatively new is PvP related. Very few powers can stop buildup + assassin strike, but PFF is one of them. Throw up a dispersion bubble to make yourself look like a good target, but keep PFF up and wait for someone to try and snipe you, thinking you'll be easy prey. I would advise against standing around flaunting your invincibility, however, as PFF can be dropped like any other toggle if someone gets a lucky hit in.

Recommended slotting:
PvE - 1 Def
PvP - 3 Def, 3 Rech (or less, as desired)

My Rating: 3/5

Deflection Shield
Description: This is a click power with a fast recharge and a few minutes duration that protects a single target against smashing and lethal damage, as well as melee damage. It increases their defense, not their resistance. You can't use it on yourself.

Commentary: Despite the defense nerf reducing this shield to 15% base, and despite ED cutting in half the amount we can enhance it, Deflection shield is still a fantastic buff. With 3 SO enhancements, you get a bit less than 24% out of it, which can still make a remarkable difference in your target's survivability. The use of this power hasn't really changed over time: just keep it on all your teammates as much as you can.

Recommended slotting:
3 Def (possibly 1 end rdx if needed)

My Rating: 5/5

Force Bolt
Description: This power targets a single enemy and attempts to knock it down. It has a decent range, fast activation, low end cost, and inherent accuracy bonus. In pvp, it has a moderate change to knock toggles off an enemy.

Commentary: Despite being essentially a long-range version of power thrust, force bolt manages to be considerably more useful. The accuracy bonus means it works well with little slotting, and with its fast activation, it doesn't really use up that much of your time to keep an enemy permanently on its butt. This is my boss soloing power, but it also works well to pick melee targets away from ranged allies and reposition single enemies into an area effect. Because of the ragdoll effect, enemies take slightly longer to recover from knockback than before, which means that knocking single targets away as the power becomes available will mitigate a little bit of damage in teams, though in solo fights I usually only use it at the beginning of a fight (bonus points if you knock them over a ledge and they take awhile to get back to you.)

Note that if you group frequently and focus on area effect damage, force bolt tends not to shine very much. It is much more useful against single targets or small groups, where the removal of one enemy represents a more significant reduction in damage.

Recommended slotting:
Since ED prevents you from doing much else with your slots, may as well make force bolt more effective!
2 Acc, 1 Rech rdx

My Rating: solo: 5/5 group: 3/5

Insulation Shield
Description: Basically a version of Deflection Shield that applies to Cold, Fire, Energy, and Negative Energy damage, as well as ranged damage.

Commentary: Basically the same as Deflection Shield. If you are short on powers or enhancement slots during the first 20 levels, this power is much less essential than Deflection Shield, as smashing and lethal damage comprise probably 90% or more of the damage your team will be taking.

Recommended slotting:
3 Def (1 end rdx if needed)

My Rating: 4/5

Detention Field
Description: Detention field is basically a combination of 2 effects. First and most important, it prevents the target from using any powers on anyone besides themself. Likewise, it prevents anyone else from using powers on that target. This is essentially the same as if the target phase shifted itself. Secondly, it inflicts an immobilize effect on the target, which seems to be magnitude 4ish. It will immobilize most bosses, but anyone with status protection or break free inspirations will still be able to move. The duration is around 30 seconds, and the power will be recharged by the time it wears off if you put 2 SO recharge rdx enhancements in it.

Commentary: A lot of people don't like this power, because it prevents them from attacking the target, but it can prove invaluable when battling groups of enemies with particularly irritating foes mixed in. Some examples of useful targets: healers, malta sappers, paragon protectors or any enemy that uses moment of glory or elude, carnie illusionists (heck, they're phase shifted half the time anyway, may as well keep them there until you're ready), sky raider force field generators, and so on.

Also remember that, while you can't use rest in PFF, you can use rest while that freakshow tank boss is sitting in his detention field Detention field doesn't have to hold an enemy while you kill his friends, it can also be a substitute for running away and healing up. If you really want to land the detention field, make sure to hit the target with a quick rad blast to lower his defense a tad, since wasting this power can be irritating, thanks to its long recharge.

This is kind of an interesting power in PvP, because although most people have some resistance to immobilize (and carry break frees), there is no way to directly resist the detention field itself (save having high enough Def to cause it to miss.) If a fight is going bad (heck, you're a FF/rad defender, many of them probably will) just slap that thing on them and let them stew a bit. Alternatively, in group PvP, isolating that controller or tanker who's giving your team a bunch of flak can definitely help turn the tide.

Lastly, I feel inclined to say that this power, despite it's multitude of uses, is really only is helpful when soloing, or when fighting with a group that is a bit over their head. If I have to use this power frequently in a group, then that means the rest of the team is having a hard enough time with the enemies that removing only 1 of those enemies still makes a big enough difference to help us out.

Recommended slotting:
1+ Acc, 2 Rech rdx

My Rating: 3/5

Dispersion Bubble
Description: Dispersion bubble is a point blank area effect toggle that gives everyone within its circumference a defense bonus against ANY attack, as well as protects them from Immobilize, Hold, and Disorient. Unslotted it gives a 10% defense bonus and uses slightly more than one third of your natural endurance recovery rate.

Commentary: Like the two single target shields, this power has always been amazing, and still is. Status protection and defense vs. every damage type, including psionic, for your whole team, all bundled up in one toggle. While the total bonus it adds has been reduced, the psionic defense addition is a nice perk, and it's still a great power either way. With 3 SOs you get a bit less than 16% defense out of it, and unlike the other shields, this one works on yourself as well. The only challenge with this one is keeping as many teammates as possible under it, to which end I usually find myself standing behind the tanks, but in front of the blasters.

Recommended slotting:
3 Def, 1 End rdx

My Rating 5/5

Repulsion Field
Description: Repulsion field is another point blank area effect toggle, though its range is extremely short compared to dispersion bubble. It pulses regularly, attempting to knock back any enemy that is in melee range with you, using additional endurance for each enemy it attempts to knockback. It also has a chance to remove toggles every time it pulses, regardless of whether it inflicts knockback successfully.

Commentary: This is the first FF power that has no real obvious niche, in my opinion. Recent changes have significantly reduced its endurance cost, which makes it much more viable if someone was inclined to use it, but you almost always have to go out of your way to find opportunities to use it. The biggest drawback is that it has a rather limited range, which means that any enemy attempting to strike you in melee with an attack already queued up will be able to run right up and hit you before getting knocked down. Here are the situations that it seems to be moderately effective:

1. Run it constantly, heavily slotted for end rdx, with the goal of knocking away melee attackers after their first strike. This is not a huge amount of damage mitigation, but over time it will reduce the damage you take by a small amount, if nothing else. The idea here is little cost for a bit of extra damage mitigation.
2. Use it to pin a couple specific enemies. The reduction in end cost has facilitated this use, but it still is a pretty costly procedure. The advantage over using forcebolt is that you don't have to make time in your attack cycle for forcebolt. The trade off is that you spend more endurance. Skilled users of this field can trap multiple enemies simultaneously, though the end cost increases of course.
3. Use it to knock all the enemies away from a friend in need. Alternatively, use it to knock ALL the enemies down, then throw up your PFF to absorb the retaliation. Use this with caution, as tankers and scrappers can get kind of frustrated if they're always chasing stuff around.
4. Protect yourself from stalkers. It's pretty challenging for a stalker to get off an AS without being interrupted by RF, even if they are resistant to knockback. Merely having RF up may help deter them. Watch out for the smart stalkers that will sneak up and total focus you from hiding instead of bothering with AS however!

Recommended slotting:
2 End rdx (depending on how much you want to use it)

My Rating 3/5 (I was going to give it less, but after typing out the ways to use it, I started thinking about giving it another try!)

Repulsion Bomb
Description: This power causes an area effect knockback centered on a teammate, as well as inflicts a low magnitude disorient. Be aware that the direction the enemies are knocked back is away from YOU, not the target. The closer you are to the target, the further the knockback distance. If you are able to position yourself directly above your target, for instance, you will mostly knock the enemies downward. It recharges fairly quickly on its own, and the disorient lasts about 10 seconds, but the activation time is rather long (around 3 seconds.)

Commentary: Another rather situational power, repulsion bomb can only be used with a teammate. Yes, I know if you're a controller or mastermind, you've got some solo options, but for us FF defenders, we need a second person. The two challenges with using this power are getting a pack of enemies into the sphere of influence and then keeping them from scattering so much that the power ends up doing more harm than good. I've found that two approaches to this work for me.

The first one involves a group with a tanker. Since they are naturally suited to convincing large amounts of enemies to cluster around them, and surviving the resulting punishment, they make the best target for repulsion bombs. Of course, the tanker would rather you lock down the mobs without moving them, or just heal him, instead of keeping the mobs disoriented, but as a FF defender, you do what you can. Anyway, if you can find someone to work in tandem with, you can have the tanker grab agro, blow the mobs over, and then have him throw taunts and punches around before they wake up to make sure they go for him again.

The second method can be done with anyone (though people with stealth are amusing.) Basically your decoy runs into a pack of enemies and you repulsion bomb them, then toss up your PFF and let your team go to work. With a few disorient durations in this power, they actually stay stunned a decent length of time, and an AE disorient is nothing to shake a stick at (if somewhat hard to actually target, comparatively.)

One last comment that I'd like to make about repulsion bomb is that it synergizes very well with cosmic burst. Neither one alone has enough magnitude to stun a boss, but together they can lock down a boss (if you have a teammate.) Both recharge quite quickly, so a couple recharges and disorient duration enhancements make it a pretty handy combination. Repulsion bomb is really fun on AV's or critters that resist knockback. You can just spam it on the tank and follow up with cosmic burst, and occasionally overwhelm even AV disorient resistance.

PvP note - repulsion bomb can drop toggles, but is not particularly easy to hit enemies with unless you've got a couple tanks going at each other or the like.

Recommended slotting:
2 Rech rdx, 3 disorient duration, 1 end rdx (if you have the slots, 1 rech, 2 dis dur would probably be fine)

My Rating 3/5 (ED, turning all our bad powers into "ok" powers!)

Force Bubble
Description: Force Bubble creates a very large area around you in which all enemies are pushed outward. This power costs a decent amount of endurance, though significantly less than it used to, and also has a small (tiny) chance to knock enemies down if they are within its effect. Enemies resistant to repel can walk through it with little difficulty, and very high-level enemies will be able to make slow progress through it.

Commentary: Force bubble is one of those powers that I love conceptually, but can never seem to find enough uses for to fit into my build. The biggest problem with force bubble is that it pretty much snarks everything off that it touches, so unless your teammates are actively engaging the enemies, they'll start firing on you. The second problem with force bubble is that it pushes the enemies outside your dispersion bubble, meaning tanks and scrappers lose that extra defense and status protection if they're attacking anything outside of the bubble.

Now, problems of the force bubble aside, it still can prove quite valuable. First of all, it gives you immunity to melee attacks at the expense of drawing all the agro. In a large group, all that agro will overwhelm the advantage of melee protection, but when you're solo it's a pretty good deal. It's especially useful if you're fighting bosses, which almost invariably have much more effective melee attacks than ranged (with some exceptions of course.. it would be unfortunate to use it on carnie mistresses or paragon protector energy blasters.) In some cases it makes you almost invincible, such as when you're fighting scrapper or tank bosses, or enemies with ranged attacks that have a short range. If only we could slot FB for range...

Another suggested use for FB is ducking behind a corner and using FB to prevent enemies from coming around that corner. This works to a certain extent, but be careful of doing it in larger hallways, as the enemies will usually make it far enough around the corner to shoot you! It works much better with doorways and small hallways.

One of the big reasons I've been considering force bubble again is PvP. While almost all mobs have ranged attacks AND melee attacks, a large portion of the player base relies on melee attacks only, and force bubble has a lot to offer there. Doesn't do any good against dominators or corruptors, but half the masterminds, and many brutes and stalkers aren't going to be able to do a lot through it.

Recommended slotting:
3 End rdx

My Rating eh... 3/5

Force Field conclusions
As you can see, I mostly rated things 3 or 5. The reason for this being, none of the powers are useless enough to warrant a 1 or 2 in my mind, but many of them are limited to certain circumstances. In a way, most of the powers I rated 3/5 are "1 most of the time, but 5 when you need them."

Force bubble vs. claw scrapper paragon protector = amazing
Repulsion bomb vs. arch villain if you have a tank on your team = wonderful
Detention field vs. tsoo sorcerers = beautiful
Force bolt vs. freak tank = pwnz.

Repulsion field vs. crey infiltrators = meh
Force bubble vs. more than 4 or 5 enemies = ouch
Repulsion bomb in any PUG = uh oh
Detention field in a team of scrappers = useless.

Force field has a lot of options, but previously none of them were every really necessary. Thanks to ED and the defense nerfs, it takes a better group to breeze through purple mobs, and pick up groups with odd combinations aren't always as viable. As such, we have a bit more incentive to figure out how to use the less common powers to prevent us from getting creamed. Unfortunately, most of those options require a cooperative teammate and a skilled FF player, and unlike many other defender sets, many of our powers can actually have a negative effect on the fight.

If empathy heals you when you don't need it, it doesn't actually hurt you, but if you repulsion field the wrong enemy, you slow the group down. If you repulsion bomb the tank, you may cause your blaster to miss their nova. If you run around in repulsion field, the tank may not be able to keep agro, and you can wipe the whole group.

I'm not going to argue that ED and I6 has made FF anything better than an average set, as far as defenders go, but I hope that this guide has helped reveal some of the potential that the set does have. It definitely could use some help, but the "big 3" are by no means the only tricks in our bag. Now that ED has pulled some slots out of our other powers, we may as well use them to enhance our "controller" side and hope that we can do it without pissing off too many scrappers and tankers out there. Be careful when and where you use your powers, and maybe we can start teaching teams how to work with us