Rigel_Kent

The assumption that "healing is the best thing at low levels" is unfounded. The only thing that changes at level 12 is that Fortitude becomes available -- there's nothing special about level 12 that makes a big damage, tohit, and defense buff better in most cases than heals. That happens at level 1. Nobody needs heals against Contaminated.

An even more vivid illustration: a starter combination of Healing Aura+Fortitude blows Healing Aura+Heal Other away. It's synergy instead of redundancy. See also Thermal Radiation, which starts off with a Warmth+Thermal Shield combo.

[ QUOTE ]
Because that's what I fully expect you to do...

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know you. You don't know me. I'm going to give you a huge benefit of the doubt that you have me confused with someone else and you're not just spewing a paranoid rant or trolling me outright.

Empathy is in fact a horrible set for newbies. It's a poor buff/debuff set, desirable over other buff/debuff sets only in particular situations such as Hamidon raids and empath duos. It puts the most situational powers at low levels, encouraging poor playstyles. It doesn't teach newbies anything about NPCs, except maybe which enemies are mezzers, big damage dealers, and end drainers if they're playing very close attention. Except that usually doesn't happen, because empathy encourages players to not pay attention to anyone but their teammates.

So I wouldn't say the fact that newbies like Empathy is a reason to give it any sort of positive recognition. Quite the opposite.

[ QUOTE ]
Empaths are the toons that make the game fun for "n00bs"...

[/ QUOTE ]
Like Storm can't do that?

[ QUOTE ]
It appears that here maybe far more people running very short and short arcs as compared to longer arcs.

[/ QUOTE ]
This isn't a big mystery. People are writing arcs that are too long.

Every good-story arc I've played through can be told in half as many missions, gaining brevity at no cost to content. Tools such as sequential objectives, optional objectives, front-middle-back placement, dialog, and clues keep the story moving inside missions, so you don't need a new mission for every new development.

In other words, the story shouldn't be told entirely by walls-o-text between missions from an obnoxiously omniscient contact. (Unless you're shooting for Dev's Choice.)

Psy is indeed a bottom tier set. But if it suits your concept, it's workable. Just be prepared to be very selective with which primaries you take, and don't be afraid to focus on your secondary with both power choice and slotting allocation.

For example, my level 28 Psi/MM (an extreme case of weak primary and strong secondary) currently has only two primary powers, Psionic Dart and Psychic Focus, and seven secondary powers (all seven that are available at his level). He does okay, because with few exceptions (Scramble Thoughts vs Scare) MM secondaries duplicate much of what Psi primaries can do, but slightly better.

One workaround I've been using is substituting dominator secondaries for melee sets where appropriate. To be honest, I don't know at this point why someone would want to use Energy, Fiery, etc. Melee sets over the better-balanced Energy, Fiery, etc. Assault sets. Maybe if the mob really, really needs a fire sword.

If blaster secondaries could be used as primaries, that'd be a nice substitution too (unfortunately they're not... yet).

[ QUOTE ]
If healing wasn't important, there wouldn't be teams asking for healers to begin with.

[/ QUOTE ]
Assuming all teams recruit based on a solid knowledge of this game's mechanics. On the contrary, it's believed that many teams recruit based on other game's mechanics. It's also believed that some people never really learn how to play this game, continuing to play it like it's some other MMORPG. Short version: healing is important in other MMORPGs, but is it here? -- we can't tell just from the actions of newbies and perma-newbies.

[ QUOTE ]
For both players and NPCs, the game actually forces an attack to auto-hit occasionally. That means true 95% damage mitigation isn't really possible...

[/ QUOTE ]
You included defense buffs and resistance buffs, but you forgot to account for debuffs and controls. Recharge debuffs, tohit debuffs, and hard and soft mezzes can get complete mitigation (enough to turn base regen into immortality) with no buffs or tanks at all.

I'm looking forward more to Fire Blast than to Thermal Radiation, but yes, Thermal will be a nice set for defenders.

I get surprisingly good results just doing searches on the global names of forum posters and global chatters. Doesn't matter if I'm friends with them, just that they're making themselves visible. It may just be a fluke; it may be that there's a correlation between post/chat volume and writing quality; it may be that people who build farms don't post on this forum or chat in global channels.

Is this even controversial? Looks like everyone's in agreement.

If people weren't so deluded into thinking a healer is needed to survive in this game, then we wouldn't have this problem. A good stormy, with or without O2 Boost, far outperforms an average empath.

[ QUOTE ]
With my other, higher-level characters (4 50s and growing) I find that post-30 a dedicated Healer becomes less and less desirable as a teammate.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ayup.

[ QUOTE ]
So my question is, what's the endgame for Empath Defenders?

[/ QUOTE ]
On the whole, buff/debuff sets are very good to have, but comparatively with other buff/debuff sets, Empathy is near the bottom. Still good to have; just not as good as, oh, say, OMGSTORMGASM. So an empathy defender's endgame depends a lot on the secondary set, which very well may be the stronger of her two sets.

... Oops, you took Electric.

OK. Well, you still have Adrenalin Boost to look forward to at 32. As with Clear Mind and Fortitude, you'll have to get a sense of who to buff with AB, but it'll greatly improve your team's effectiveness when properly used. Voltaic Sentinel at 35 is extra damage. Thunderous Blast at 38 does double duty as a panic button and minion remover. If you haven't taken and slotted up your RA's, do so, they're not the greatest team buff but they're fricken awesome for soloing and tanking. If you haven't concentrated on your recovery debuffs yet, take a look at Short Circuit and Tesla Cage, as both of these powers stop targets' recovery, which is excellent if their endurance is drained to zero.

Oh, yes, I did say tanking. That's another endgame option for you.

Probably the big benefit of these types of powers is prepaid casting time. You jump into the fight with it already going, and continuing to go as long as you have endurance and need for it.

So you save casting time, and you save a little bit of your attention span as well. Set and forget.

Probably the big drawback to these powers is that recharge enhancements/buffs/bonuses aren't really any help, and IO "procs" are of limited benefit.

You could call it a tick, a pulse, a cycle ... however long a toggle or auto power pauses between effects. For most damage auras, it's 2 seconds, except World of Confusion which is a gimpariffic 4 seconds.

Because you can benefit from the combination of Aim and Build Up in two ways (stacking their damage buffs at the same time, or switching between the two from spawn to spawn), it's become a blaster build law to take both. Violate that law only if you're sure you know what you're doing.

Have you thought about /Mental? Psychic Scream serves much of the same purpose as Shiver. That secondary is also more conducive to strict ranged styles.

I suspect a Dual Pistols or single Pistol set is going to look a little bit like Archery -- lethal damage, a non-crash tier 9, some additional AoE, focus more on damage than utility. So Pistol should pair with primaries much like Archery does -- very well with almost all of them! (With some redraw issues in the case of TA/Pistol.)

As I expect Pistol and Archery to be similar, the better question is: Will Pistols suck? If Pistol comes out a gimp version of Archery, a lot of this thread becomes moot.

107825 "Sunset Novel: Or, heaving bos-- can we even say that in the MA?"

Custom critters include romance novel cliches with scathing, sarcastic descriptions. Romance novel fans (especially fans of a certain teen vampire novel recently gone to the big screen) steer clear, but everyone else should get a smile out of it.

On the bright side, we can now give a custom critter a new uber-rangeified melee primary, set it to "ranged" AI, and basically make it a single-big-attack sniper style mob. Possibly with Build Up.

You know, just in case anyone wanted an uninterruptible sniper option. Now we've got it. In melee primaries.

[ QUOTE ]
The fact is we all know what "exploit" actually means, just like we all know what "torture" really means.

[/ QUOTE ]
The only practical definition of "exploit" I can think of: "Exploit" means whatever the devs want it to mean.

It's a more useful definition than "statistical advantage" at least.

[ QUOTE ]
There's a world of difference between supporting a civil rights movement and putting your profits on the line for a cause.

[/ QUOTE ]
And yet NCI has decided to take sides.

Good thing it's all about profits, especially since there's no risk whatsoever of NCI facing any sort of backlash from further questionable bannings.

Fairly unfounded rumor, but I have to admit the post title made me drool a little.

Guh, never got a chance to play it. Maybe crank up the sarcasm and republish.

After all, everybody knows if you want to turn people gay, you have to recruit them when they're in second grade.

Don't add annoyance to your arc to deter farming, especially badge farming. Nobody's going to farm your arc anyway.

The great majority of farmers use their own arcs for farming, and farm tickets/xp/inf, not badges. What few badge farmers there are, are even more likely to use their own custom-tailored arcs.

[ QUOTE ]
Exploits??? Getting XP is an Exploit? Completing a mission is “farming?” What exactly are these “Exploits?”

[/ QUOTE ]
I have yet to see a definition of "exploit" that isn't so vague as to include just about everything a player can possibly do in the game. "Statistical advantage?" Puh-lease. I know how to buff/debuff. You wouldn't believe the "statistical advantage" I enjoy over the non-forumgoing playerbase.

"Exploit" is a spin term, pure and simple, and just plain shouldn't be used. Comm officers are confusing and inconsistent, and that means poor design, pre-this patch and even moreso post-this patch. Maybe laying off the spin might help the devs refocus on improving rather than rationalizing design.

Call me old-fashioned, but with very few, very unusual exceptions, every other "Hall of Fame" I'm familiar with inducts members forever.