PHlRE

hmmmm, well.....
from the beginning, many emps were played because about all players came from a game where you play a priest/healer which the devs setup/pidgeon-holed the class to be a healer-type. Following that though, many "support"-minded players played Emps, following that traditional thought. But low and behold, CoH had proven to be a very dynamic game, including all their ATs. And slowly the "support"-minded players got away from tradition and started to experiment more w/ Defense and using defensive AT's instead, and found out its a better damage management than healing.

The funny thing is there's still a good few "dedicated healers" out there, locked into traditional thinking, and not realizing that their "other" power (Fort) is actually more effective than their healing. These dedicated healers are starting to feel obsolete as players have gotten more self-sufficient by building up their "defense" individually thru IO'ing, and matching w/ "defensive" defenders.

Imo, mitigation through defense may get more prevalent and Emp users will continue to drop - the "traditionalists" will feel unneeded while the true Emps will continue to make the most of their "other" powers, and others will move on to AT's that provide needed debuffs vs Big Game.....

Fluffy offers strong flexibility in IO sets - Healing, Hold, Immobilize, ToHit Debuff, Accurate Healing, & Accurate ToHit Debuff.

For cranking up Recharge, Fluffy can take in the Hold or Immob Purp.
Otherwise, Dampened Spirits or Dark Watcher's Despair will be a step up from SO's, and will give you a Recharge hit....
He presents a very flexible option when making an IO build and avoiding over-stacking stats....

Scratch that TT remark, forgot your not Dark Blast :P
If you DO pick up VS, and working in Purple sets, you'll be able to pull off an easy one with it, using Soulbound Allegiance. Its not gonna get you a recharge bump, but some other stuff at least. Either a 6slotted Efficacy Adaptor or 4slotted Call To Arms(unique pet def also) / Expedient Reinforcement (unique pet resist also)

Fearsome Stare Stat crunching:
ACC Base: 75% / 2 ACC IOs: 137.5%
-ToHit Base: -18.8% / 2 -ACC IOs: -28.1%
Rech Base: 40secs / 2 Rech IOs: 21.8secs
45degree arc, 70' deep

here's some -

your choice of powersets are very flexible (i guess most are, but Dark is known as the "Jack of all Trades" powerset) and you can go any route you want to, to general team debuffer or AV/GM support specialist, to pet-user Soloist. Of course, you can also get a balance of all that in.... its really up to you in what direction your playstyle will take you....

A couple key things will be Twilight Grasp. If all else fails, your heal hopefully wont. Make sure you have the ACC up REAL high in order for that power not to fail, or in a tight situation, you or someone else may die. Have it on a fairly good recharge too....
Having it more available is more important than the amount it heals, cuz it already heals a significant amount....

Darkest Night is the best damage mitigation toggle a defender has imo. Yes, Rad Infect has higher -ACC but no -Damage(which EF has, but at a lower percentage). Early on, its hard to develop defense or -ACC enuf to make the mobs miss consistently. DN will shine for the amount of Damage it debuffs. This will be extremely apparent w/ AV's and GM's, when they do whack someone, which is usually often, considering that -ACC will affect AV + GM classes on a much lower scale.....

Howling Twilight is an interesting power. If coordinated right, it can make you into literally a team rezzer. You can dip into the Teleport and either TP friend to mob and rez, or TP Foe a mob to teammate/team to rez off of. Non-Dark defender players usually dont know about the -Regen it also performs. In order to be a legitimate -Regen'r for AV/GM teams, you want to get this power to 100% recharge to get the most out of it. Unslotted -regen usually wont be enough. It is also proven to be resistable by Dark Energy resisting AV's......

Your Fluffy (if you're gonna use one) is best used as a controlling pet. He reliably kicks off Tenebrous Tentacles and Petrifying Gaze and Twilight Grasp. Other powers, not too reliable. Someone had mentioned she tested the damage done, and equated to about 1/20th the damage you do - which looks right. So dont bother trying to squeeze damage out of him.... Otherwise his debuffing/healing powers should about match your ability - he becomes a phenomenal support pet vs AV/GM's and between you two, should keep everyone well-healed and Petrifying Gaze stacking (if you plan to get that power)....
Take a look for Fluffy Slotting Threads in getting the most out of him in the way you want

gah, forgot my fav power in Dark Miasma
Fearsome Stare..... this is a must-have, which you prob found out already. Post 30, teammates will be powerful enough to crush down mob groups pretty fast, and your DN may serve the team very little. Fearsome Stare will basically be your Bread'n'Butter lead in/Tank in power. The traditional slotting for this is 2 ACC SO's, 2 -ACC SO's, and 2 Recharge SO's. This allows you to control/debuff every mobgroup you encounter with a team. The damage mitigation is usually high (especially if you follow w/ a TT attack) that you wont even need to drop DN or heal the team during that attack....

BUMP
Updated 10/22

I'd get in touch w/ DRMIKE2000 who runs an offensive Emp duo for guidance in emp primary....

Theres also a Sonic Attack Chain thread being contributed to, working on updating the OP...

here's some recent vids ive posted on my Cold/Ice/Darks...the IcePHIREs (aka Blastanks)
here's some proof about how defenders are NOT gimpy, btw
(for all these def n00b threads complaining about how lousy defenders are, or how low their pew pew is, when really its the player and build what's lousy)

Duoing an Eochai in 7min (someone had the gall to say it'd be impressive if i could solo a GM lol)
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...eoid=100020056

Duoing Kraken under 5min (during zombie attack lol)
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...eoid=100020420

Zombie Attack teamage! (uber damage multiplication!)
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...eoid=100021029

erm yeah..... i dont think anyone could solo down a GM by themself at this point in the game.... i think the devs made sure the powersets of an AT and game mechanics wouldnt let that happen.... it MIGHT be possible w/ a Solo spec'd "Cold or Rad/Sonic defender or a Ill/Rad - one of those types who sits back and casts out undefeatable pets... yeah.... but the mag of their debuffs/damage output may be too low for the GM's regen

DeliCate and DeliKate IcePHIRE~
the Ice/Cold/Dark's IO build is about 95% complete, missing 2 Armageddons each...
wasnt planning to try GMs yet cuz was waiting for the 2nd's 33month vet Blackwand available in December, considering they have only 2 legit single target powers, lol....

but was really bored last morning and ran across an Eochai in PP while hunting for the Kraken. Decided to give him a whack or 3.....

Eochai in 7min
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...eoid=100020056

Kraken under 5min (during Zombie Attack lol)
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...eoid=100020420

Zombie Attack early morning party (waiting for Banner run)
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...eoid=100021029

you should have sent this in a lengthy tell to the person, not in the forum where peeps play Empath's - we already know they do not suck....

traditionally.... peeps slot up heavy for Recharge.

but its REALLY wholly dependent on you as a player - what is your powersets, when and how you apply those powers, what is your playstyle.....

You may go for heavy Recharge, or maybe you go for a real tough, tankerish build, cuz you can do that w/ IO's and set bonuses.....

its really all YOU

"Deadly Apocalypse
As if our Heroes and Villains didn’t have enough foul-smelling fiends with rotting flesh to deal with during a zombie apocalypse, this year Heroes and Villains have to come up with new strategies to tackle a new terror. When Haunted Sigils appear, destroy them quickly and prepare for wave after wave of relentless foes. Only after all the foes have been defeated will you be rewarded with a ghoulish surprise. It’s a trick and treat!"
~ Dev's Blueboard post

Early morn for 6 hrs and have picked up 16 Event badges already lol.... Banners, GM killing, ToT'ing, couple Zombie attacks..... and led the first and successful Banner event this early morning. The first attempt failed cuz none of us knew what the hell we were doing and figured it out towards the end. The second attempt successful w/ about 10-12 peeps.

Starts with Zone event notice -
"Supernatural activity detected in (zone)"
Head to that zone and you have 5minutes to organize a team, and formulate a battle plan before the Banners become active.

You'll wanna have at least an 8man team to start with. Its possible to do it with a very powerful 4man team, but no sense in doing that for a zone-wide event. This event operates very similarly like RV's bases event, and also have a time limit, of 15minutes, which counts down.

On your compass, will be the 4 banner waypoints that you can click on and get an immediate heading, the Banner vulnerability bar(which starts out red), and the countdown of how much time you have left to defeat all 4 Banners. These are the Banners -

Banner of Fiends - Red waypoint
Council & Redcaps

Banner of Mayhem - Purple waypoint
Shivans

Banner of Terror - Green waypoint
Ghosts & Apparitions

Banner of Scorn - Blue waypoint
Praetorians & Witches

What is required is for the participants to attack all 4 waypoints jointly, in order to make an increase on the Banner Vulnerability bar. This will be visually shown by a blue bar overlapping the established red bar, from left to right, as you make progress. Attacking the waypoints is basically killing the continuously-spawned mobs, the more killed the faster the bar will move. So, for an 8man team, generally you'd split into pairs and each pair would take on a waypoint, and defeat there till the Banner Vulnerability bar is completely filled. You will be notified when that happens.

When the Banners become vulnerable, they will be targetable to be attacked. These Banners would be classified as GM class w/ their attributes. They do have massive regen and 40k+ HP. So you MUST have at least 1 -regen defender, or at least 2 -regen controllers. Remember, you're being timed and so this event WILL fail if the Banners are not dropped fast enough. Gather all the participants and Focus Fire on one Banner at a time, and they will drop fast if you got 2 -regen'rs.

After successfully defeating the Banners in time, you will search for the GM next. Locate the Giant Monster (think you got a 20min count to locate and defeat him) by looking at your compass. You will see a 3-4 digit number that will increase/decrease as you move. Use that number to locate the GM cuz its waypointed to him. Generally, there's gonna be enough players at this point to overwhelm him easily. He kind of reminds me of a Adamastor. Make sure those -regen'rs debuff him and you'll drop him quickly.
SUCCESS!

You get more badges and a choice between 4-5 1hr temp powers or a medium inspiration(lawlz). The Defense temp isnt a toggle and will become a temp inherent....

despite misgivings, i was aware that the 800M challenge AE mission was availabe in about 2 weeks prior or so. This was fairly posted up on the blueboards - claims that AOW would be so practiced vs other participating SG's are NOT very valid at all.

like before, i'd assume she would post up the new AE a couple weeks prior, if not more. She also gave a hint that the next Challenge would be like the previous one, and to use the 800M Challenge map for practice. This she broadcasted in AP after the event was done... saying this for those who weren't there in participation, and complaining about invalid/biased information...