Seldom

By no means do I wish to horn in on Masque's thread, but I also have some costume codes that I have to spare, (In general I'm too much a costume nut to hide under an NPC skin. ) and this seemed a better place to post than starting a new thread with the identical subject.

I have:

• Rularu-Shin> traded.
• Olympian Guard> traded.

If there's any interest, send me a PM. My first preference would be to trade a code for some rarer recipes/enhancements, but I would also trade for influence if those aren't doable.

*Edit* codes both traded.

Then put my input in the 'derp' category, Amygdala.

I didn't notice how much the OP had changed. Sorry guys, carry on.

I know this isn't diffinitive, and there's no way to ensure success on the greenstuff badge aside from all players' cooperation, but here are a few things that a team did when I was with them and we got the badge successfully:

• No flying/jumping
• One player monitored health for timestop/ gave time warnings before the beam hit. When timestop was near, people were told to stop damage, be ready to move. When the beam was coming soon, they could only use fast animating powers. These warnings helped a lot.
• Characters were asked to stay spread. This meant there was less clumping, fewer people in an area to be hit, so it reduces the number/odds of being hit, and the spread meant the green was less masked by players' characters/fx.
• Players were asked to recolor rebirth powers to avoid visual confusion from those powers' large green rings.
• This one was controversial, but melee archetypes were asked to only use ranged powers, and NEVER go in those corners by the console machinery, as it was easy to get caught back there in the patches. I'm not certain how much good the 'no melee' rule did, but the "don't melee the back/corner computers" did save us.
• No lore pets until after all the consoles, so that the timestop could be more easily predicted, and so that mobility was easier.
• A personal note, the bubble for the patch extends a foot or two beyond the graphic's border, so getting 'barely clear' can still get you caught.

Sorry, not sure if that's helpful, but thought I might share if it could help.

Here are a few...

• Bathrobe version of trenchcoat
• Bunny slippers
• boxer shorts
• polkadot/heart patter for boxers, other details
• Blindfold
• Angel/demon shoulder details (For those who need to talk to their conscience)
• Parrot shoulder detail
• Clown nose face detail
• Clown faces
• Beagle animal head
• Pug head
• Persian cat head
• Fly head
• Mouse Head
• Fish head detail for inside the bubble helmet
• Fish weapon for war mace

I still say "congratulations," "way to go!," "well done!," and so forth...I'm probably over-thinking things, but I find the shorthand 'gratz!' or 'cg' come off a bit less meaningful. If I'm taking time to write it, might as well say it well.

...And the plus side is, a couple of times of "Well done, blasterboy!" and "Congratulations, Ms. Brute!" along with any pleasantries like appreciation for good holds, debuffs, assistance or the like, and I notice the rest of the team tends to become more polite too. Good manners are infectious! (At least around the folks I run with.) Is it silly game manners? Maybe, but recognizing somebody else for doing well is always a good plan, it makes them feel better, and if the players on a team feel better, it's easier to have fun alongside 'em.

I am confused by the poster that said the choices were team-oriented. Illusion/rad has all of two powers that need a team member, /storm knocks that down to one. Dominators are as solo-friendly as any scrapper or melee AT you may find, and will certainly solo with ease. Mind/energy is in the upper echelons of best control capabilities in the game.

To the OP: of the three, you have two qualifiers- budget, and awareness.

With the right budget, Ill/rad is the safest, and needs least awareness. But the biggest budget. Once you have a permanent phantom army, you can let them do the work. Just know that you will be better at boss killing than anything else. You can take down single hard targets fast, but the pace slows against large groups.

Dominators are the middle man here- they have the highest personal damage of the three, but /energy is again single-target focused. You can be safe as all get out, but with active mitigation, you have to lock things down or knock 'em out to stay in good shape. On the plus side, /energy has lots of mitigation, and paired with mind/, you will have MANY options for extending that safety. (That is, almost every power you have.) You will NOT need permanent domination for 99% of the game. Mind/ can one-shot sleep bosses with the ST sleep, and layer confuses before fights....0% danger. In fact, a third of mind/ draws no aggro, so you can lock down foes before they even know what's happening. Combine that with /energy's stuns, KB, and powerboost, you are in good shape. But while you can lock down every enemy in your path, you will take them out one at a time. It actually can go faster in most of the game than illusion, though, as the damage can be focused, rather than bouncing around via uncontrolled pet AI. Permanent domination will turn this combo into a walk in the park. It'll give you so much safety it ain't funny, and you won't have to worry about pre-mezzing control enemies anywhere as much. But that's where the budget comes in.

Ice/storm is the riskiest, and the most AoE focused. Combining your debuffs, knockaround, pseudo pets, and control will make you mostly safe, but you will still be vulnerable to mez. That said, ice storm, blizzard, and freezing rain with scourge will melt faces with their frigid goodness. It might not NEED a huge budget, but you will need to stay on your toes, as getting held/stunned/etc. can mean death.

I have an alternate hypothesis to the whole 'why not yet' question: it's been brought up that we (A) have powerset customization, (B) have doppelganger tech, and (C) the devs originally hoped for decoys to mimic their summoner. (You know, actually BE decoys.) If this is in any way possible, they might be holding off proliferating until they can get such a thing working.

Just a thought.

Minuses for dominators:

• Phantom army cannot be boosted by anything, doms tend to be light on debuffs to compliment them.
• Spectral terror cannot use domination
• Phantasm cannot be boosted, gives no control
• Group invisibility offers nothing more for dominators, superior invis. better for survival. (Superior carries a singular -threat, making the dom lower on the 'hit it' totem pole, and has unsuppressed stealth)
• Spectral wounds adds nothing new for dominators

Plusses:

• Phantom army distracts from dominator
• Phantom army 'illusionary damage' is far more permanent due to dominator high damage contribution
• Superior invisibility offers one of the best invis. powers available, reduces damage taken.
• Spectral wounds, if directly ported, using present values just with dominator mods would give BEASTLY damage.
• Phantasm distracts from dominator, brings secondary damage/distraction.

My guess? The devs want a secondary ST (soft?)control instead of spectral wounds, (I'm thinking fear/damage power) a soft control instead of group invis, (I'm thinking a sleep) and are trying to figure out the army. The high damage of illusion is 'justified' to its illusionary nature and lack of follow-up damage by controllers. Just as much as dominators' general lack of debuffs leave something to be desired in improving army performance, their access to damage blows the 'temporary' highs of illusion damage out of the water. Don't quote me on this, but I can foresee the army becoming more easily permanent, but with FAR faster healback to its damage. To get any of this right is hard- too much control/damage, you make a tank-mage. Too little control/damage you make a worthless survival primary.

It sounds finicky and finicky=time for a set that is for a percent of a percent of players, while larger work on the game needs to be done with the same hours. -And face it, new sets bring more play than a set that's been in the game from the start, so if the old set takes anywhere near the time of a new one, it will probably get put off.

Hehe.

When I play my Energy/Dark brute against x8 groups, my buddies tagging along, they ask "What sets are you using?" I chuckle...a few impervium armors for +recovery, I will admit to using a numina, miracle, and performance shifter, and a well-slotted dark regen/cloak of fear. (Tough too) But he has no massive defense, (in the single digits) no massive +recharge, nothing crazy. Just the ability the trample on into a mob and cause them to cower and totter as he heals himself from the best they can do. (Oh, and for the record: energy melee+ oppressive gloom= punching drunks)

Some joker rubbed his feet on the ground, and zapped Lord Recluse with a static shock. Recluse did the same.

...Showoff.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

1. Have fun playing with friends and on pick up groups.
2. Have every possible badge on my dominator (Not very close)
3. Play every archetype to 50 (Haven't gotten a warshade, peacebringer, widow, or scrapper that high)
4. Play every powerset in the game until accessing all powers. (Not close)
5. Play every mission in the game on my dominator. (Redside completed, blueside still needs work, goldside is tricky.)
6. Min/Max my favorite characters' builds to correctly reflect their concepts.
7. Unlock and slot all character-correct incarnate abilities on all 50's. (Not close)
8. Finish all AE arcs to satisfactorily tell the stories I have in mind, while being fun to play. (Only two finished, 6 still neglected.)
9. Find new, fun characters and powerset combos.
10. Have fun playing with friends and on pick up groups.

I have a 'purely ranged' blaster that I greatly enjoy: Archery/EM/Munitions. Here's a link to the build that I shared:

Click me!

It's tremendously fun, and gets even better with incarnate abilities. Clarion tier 4 offers a mez protection+boost range+power boost rolled into one. At its apex it gives +80% range... the cardiac alpha gives range as well, and If you use some HO's as I did in the above build, you can get +213% range to your attacks, which with archery's plethora of distance powers, is a blast.

As someone that is almost pathologically driven to try as many archetypes/powersets as possible, who plans out builds after making any character, this is a tricky question. Yet there's only so much you can see with planning...it's when you get them working in practice that you can be blown away.

My fire/fire dominator was a weak blaster early on- but I looked at powers, and kept playing it because I "knew" it would be fun when I crammed some recharge sets to bring my favorite powers and domination up faster, it would be better. I "knew" that using the fire ancillary pool, it would give me some more fun AoE's. But boy was it fun when I actually did it.

The other character is less about actualization and more about the game's progression. Back when CoV was just released I made a dominator. (Mind/Psy) I loved the character and theme, but it did get a bit rough. /Psy had only a few good attacks, and most of them came late. Being off/on domination for damage meant that especially at low level, with low damage and weaker attacks, some fights were painfully slow until the magic button came up again. I got some inventions to help things, progressed the character, things were a lot smoother. Enter the change to dominators- damage was normalized, and /psy was rebalanced.
I put in some better inventions. All of a sudden the character was not just fun late game, but even when exemplared. I didn't have to rely on 3 attacks for all of my damage, as most of my attacks are darned decent. Having domination makes things safer, but I don't have to time it the same way to take down a boss at any different pace. Now all of a sudden my strong character is one of my strongest...and then, then they gave it incarnate powers. Oh, those silly fools.

'Main' Favorite: Mid/Psy control freak permadom. Locks down anything but giant monsters, plays 'whack a statue.' Debuffs, damage, aforementioned mez, incarnate buffs, there's nothing she doesn't do.

Runners up:
Destruction incarnate: fire/fire/fire permadom. Decent control on top of the ability to enshroud all that moves in flame as the skies rain undying fire upon all too mortal foes that wither with the attention of the dominator whose attacks are under embrace of fire most of the time. Throw in mez protection, armor, pets, and incarnate healing for survival, and all is wel with the world. (Except for the parts left on fire, which is most of it.)

Archery/energy/munitions range freak blaster. Can kill 90% of a spawn from 400 feet away, then kill the rest before they close the distance by even a quarter.

Inv/SS tank: ignores damage

Bots/FF mastermind: ignores damage AND heals/shields/sends in squads of murderous metal.

EM/Dark brute: SMASHtroller. Stuns up to 4 bosses at a time, amidst a swarm of cowering minions. Debuffs as well.

Gavin:

Yes, it would be (in essence) illusionary damage- much as when an ally boosted by frostwork doesn't have their damage scale between boosted/unboosted, -max hp is basically just bringing the threshold to defeat closer without doing one point of damage. As mentioned, though, regeneration does scale to hp, so it is (indirectly) a -regen, and a form that bypasses the AV/GM ~87% regen debuff resistance as well. I agree the duration is key, and 20 seconds seems a reasonable duration. (As it would give enough time to recharge placate/assassin strike to refresh the power betwixt scrapping)

I understand the reluctance to center such a thing on one power, but I honestly think that stalkers 'normal' attacks are decent, to be honest. Assassin strike is odd in that its hidden 'requirement' and interruptability relegate it out of standard usage, and its 'slow attack with burst to kill' becomes far less potent in long, sustained engagements. As -max hp on a percentage base (especially a low percentage) would have little effect on standard targets that don't have huge hp to start with, I thought putting it into the 'once in a while' special attack made sense. Just to me, at least. It just seemed to solidify the assassin strike as the the 'big target take down' attack.

It's also probably also related to my reluctance to consider something that would become far more complex; adding -max hp to everything in any meaningful value would become a little much with the un-hidden critical hits there. It would make it interesting, though, in figuring out DPS. How would that work if every attack not only took away how much health a target had, but also reduced their hitpoint pool, doubly taking them closer to death with every attack.

Nihilii:

While I do like bruising as an effect, it has a major flaw, that being the lack of stackability, hence why I brought up a scaling value just by basing off of current HP. I'm reluctant to suggest a whole-hog full stacking, though, especially on something as finicky as base HP. The idea you bring up of -regen on high ranking foes is related, but not equal. -Regeneration doesn't bring a foe any closer to defeat, it just makes them NOT recover from damage. -HP Both reduces regeneration effectiveness AND brings a foe closer to death.

Honestly, I'm not looking to make Stalkers the king of AV/Gm killers either. I was more considering how stalkers' strength is often said to be their ability to do burst damage, and trying to give a meaningful but not overwhelmingly potent way to give them a 'burst' of damage versus enemies that are design against that strength. Hence why this idea seemed interesting to me- it makes burst damage more doable without actually meddling with the stalkers' abilities in ways that negatively impact engagements with lesser foes.

To put it shortly, it makes victory more reachable without giving the stalker any direct boost.

I was thinking something percentage based.

Back when Castle tried a percentage-based damage scale on Assassin Strike, It led to problems as it was incredible on 'HUGE HP" foes like AV's and GM's, but pretty bad against things like lieutenants and bosses, much less minions. This is taking that damage scale idea and tweaking it, by having the weakening effect not actually be damage at all, just 'total HP subtraction' alongside the usual damage.

It also bypasses one of the problems encountered by the aforementioned damage scaling AS, namely that stalkers could take out incredibly tough foes far faster than any dev wanted. A -Max HP ability is odd in that it isn't REAL damage, and is temporary; as such if you do not kill the target, that HP is restored, so the net effect on AV's/GM's is only lessened regeneration. (As that's the only value that scaled to their health.) Damage itself doesn't scale, as if you do 9000 damage to a target that has its health cut from 15000 hp to 13500 hp, it's still just 9000 points of damage down when it goes to full health again.

I can think of two ways to use this idea- have small amounts of -max hp in all attacks, or center it all in a set, unstackable (from the same stalker) value in assassin strike. I prefer the latter as spreading it around means the devs have to set it down for the 'best case' scenario, and having it as one set big value means it has more 'oomph,' and though it may be more binary, it works with the idea of an assassin strike being a sudden, deadly power.

Hmmm....the other problem with the earlier mentioned 'HP scale damage' on assasin strike was that if a strike did 10% of a target's health, 8 stalkers could take a GM down to 20% health in seconds. If the value were as high as, say -10% max total hp, but calculated not off of the base max HP, but the total current max HP, it gives a nice scalability to the value. The first assasin strike takes a 1000 hp target down to 900 hp, but a second takes it from 900 to 810, a third from 810 to 729, and so on. This way you don't have a full stalker team making that 1000 hp target to 200 hp- it gives it a diminishing returns value of sorts, though as it's done alongside normal damage, the diminishing values don't disrupt normal performance.

Anyone foresee any huge hangups with this?

For those who haven't seen yet, there's a new interface branch for incarnate powers:

I find it funny that the number of toggles keep being represented in an adversarial light to dark regeneration. Do they use the same resource? Yeah, definitely. But every single toggle has the promise of reducing the need for dark regeneration. I have a /dark brute that runs every single toggle possible, and once you can stack oppressive gloom with cloak of fear, You can all but ignore minions by the crowd. Even if you have death shroud giving fearful foes the chance to fire back, it has its base 5 second cower minimum, serving analogously to a HEAVY -recharge effect. The -tohit is just gravy on that.

Do I run low on endurance? Yes. But I should, I have resistance to every damage type in the game, have two toggles that are impermanent -all debuffs/damage/toggle to low ranking foes, and a 1 to 100% hp heal in there too. Doing that forever is just crazy. I know that if I turn of CoF, I'll get hit with more damage, thus having to use dark regeneration more often. Same goes for Oppressive gloom. It's all a balancing act. Turn off death shroud for longer fear effects, but less damage? Turn off cloak of darkness, but loose the ability to fight near unnoticing other enemies? Turn off the tiny ticks of damage from oppressive gloom to take full attack effects, thus taking bigger hits with the debuffs they cary?

The set rewards you for knowing how your character can use each of these powers. The cutting of both heal/endurance might be friendly early on, but once dark armor has all its tools, the huge heal/endurance plays VERY well with all the other death delaying powers in the set. Dark armor is odd in that its survival scales oddly based on enemy rank, but that's balance for you. Dark armor is a crowd fighter, and a powerful one at that. With all the powers working, heals aren't that needed. But you can take some damage spikes before a crowd gets fully stunned/feared- and low and behold, this powerset offers a spike of healing. Funny, that.

Interesting read. I agree with much of what was said. The changes to attacks, not so much. I might get back to those later.

My main point of agreement is on hide. Firstly, and most importantly, no matter if this is made inherent or not, WHY is non-stalker dark armor/illusion control/non-stalker energy aura better at stealth in combat than stalkers? For Pete's sake, please make hide suppress to stealth range, NOT to full visibility.

Replacing hide SEEMS like a break of the cottage rule, but looking at the repel>disrupt alteration, it appears the devs are open to more drastic measures for stalkers.

Hide ideas:

Electric armor: The sleep patch seems a good idea. I'll add: this patch could have a smaller radius than control versions, 10 foot radius rather than 20 foot) with a bonus: the patch gives defense to allies in it (It energizes their reflexes to dodge) This allows the defensive slotting to remain.

Dark Armor: Cloud of darkness Darkness- placates foes in range, gives a 5 second burst of medium defense. This allows the defensive slotting to remain, and gives a non- foe based emergency power.

Ice Armor_ Ice patch is a great fit. Too bad about loosing a defense slot, but it has such possibilities elsewhere.

Regeneration: Auto power that fires an automatic ability: "Undying" This power WILL fire when the /regen drops below 1 hp, and will not allow them to be defeated. Instead, the stalker receives an unresistable +15% hp, resistance to all, and defense to all. This ability has its own unenhanceable recharge, so if the character dips below 1 hp again, they will die. The heal is unchangeable, but the defense/resistance can be slotted. This also allows the defensive slotting to remain.

Super Reflexes: Fast escape. Grants a small burst of defense, a large burst of speed, and placates nearby foes. This allows the defensive slotting to remain.

Willpower: Bust of agility. PBAoE knockdown, chance of placate, + self defense, invisibility. (NOT hide.) Stalker concentrates all their agility, does a maneuver that knock around surrounding foes, faster than the eye can follow, hoping to loose their attention.

Ninjitsu: smoke grenade. (see blaster: devices) targeted -perception/-tohit against foes, does not alert foes. This would play VERY well with an only partially suppressing hide.

Energy Aura: Energy surge: knocks nearby foes down as the stalker receives a short but sizable defense bonus.
How'z about that? Most of the above give the chance to retain present slotting, with only a few exceptions, and I think most work well in the 'burst of mitigation' category.

.................................................. .................................
Additional suggestion that has nothing to do with the above: please raise the stalker HP cap, it doesn't play well with the powers in ice, willpower, and regeneration.

My favorite blaster so far is my Archery/EM blaster. The theme is a long-distance archery who uses high-tech gadgets. While devices is the go-to gadget secondary, I find it's more thematic to the super spy/agent type theme. I think /energy works a bit better for the higher-tech, less sneaky route. (Melee attacks work with some tech gauntlets, and the many boosts can be treated as more natural. Also, the combo gives perhaps the best 'completely ranged' possibilities out there. It's a hoot.

Past the original posting from the above link, I've added the tier 4 clarion which gives a SECOND power boost/boost range in addition to complete mez protection. 2xpower boost+stun/medicine pool= almost unfair good. That and the cardiac core paragon mean that all attacks have +60% range, (Enhancement) +60% range, (Boost range) +13% range, (Cardiac) and +80-20% range. (Clarion, from peak to lowest value) At its height, that puts the snipe/LRM at 450ish feet.

A mistake I see even veteran empaths making: Fortitude is single target, but so is clear mind. Just as you keep clear mind on as many team members as need it, fortitude should be kept on as many applicable team members as possible. Without any recharge slotting, fortitude has a 120 second duration, 60 second recharge. That's two team members minimum; slotted with three recharge single origin enhancements, you can keep it on 4 team mebers at all times.

To be blunt, the best empaths are the aware ones, and fortitude use is one of the best litmus tests of a good empath. Its three values are defense, (less healing needed) damage, (foes die faster=less support needed, as threats are eliminated) and tohit. (Team having trouble hitting? Here's the solution!) If the defender is aware of their team, they can use these three values to greatly benefit their teams' performance.

Fortitude first priority: damage prevention. Healing may fix the trouble your enemies give your team, but you can't help them in between heal recharges. Enter fortitude. If one ally is receiving lots of damage, fortitude that sucker and give your healing some breathing room. Do not automatically fortitude the tank: automatically fortitude the person taking most damage. Fortitude's defense is awesome on players with some defense-based protection, but not a lot. This complements such defense, making them FAR less vulnerable.

Second priority: killing stuff. The damage boost is based on the targeted ally's base damage, so this is the very best on allies that kill things quickly. Blasters/dominators take priority, as they have less to no protection, and very high damage. Make them high damage and less squishy? Yes please. Dominators have controls that need to hit, so they then make the team safer for them too. Second place goes to scrappers, squids, stalkers, Arachnos and corruptors, IF everyone is fine. Again, fortitude the those TAKING lots of damage first, then those MAKING lots of damage.

Stuff that needs to hit: This is only somewhat a problem, but can be a bit difference in special circumstances. Controls/targeted buffs/debuffs make this important. Controllers, dominators, kineticists, dark miasmists, and many such will appreciate the better chance at hitting a target, and when they do, both they and you and the team are safer. Lowbies on the team will also like the boost to accuracy, if they can't slot for it well yet. Also important when facing a foe that has very high defense, like crey boss' defensive godmodes. In such circumstances, prioritize the ally that has defense debuffs that must hit, then damage dealers. They are more likely to get through the defense and kill those bosses.

Other important buffs: Adrenalin Boost is another triple value power. Huge regen, recovery, and recharge.

First priority is the regeneration: if somebody on your team has trouble staying alive, this will fill their health quickly, between healing.

If nobody his getting hit with a lot of damage, second priority is recharge. If someone on the team has strong abilities on a long recharges, hit them. They perform better, helping the whole team. Controllers/dominators lock down better, dominators get domination faster for boss lockdown. Other defenders, corruptors, controllers, and masterminds get faster buffs/debuffs for team survival. You may have no enemy debuffs, but if someone on the team does, this allows them to weaken a tough foe more quickly. Blasters, corruptors, and defenders get their big damage powers/AoE's faster.

Last is recovery. Use this on someone who is truly gasping, and extra endmod slotting makes it counter a nukes' crash. By higher levels this is less of a concern, and this only allows the ally to do more of what they do, not do it any better. Exception being when facing endurance draining foes, target the player that is most likely going to be hit with those draining attacks. (Fighting Arachnos mu, malta sappers, carnie ring mistresses, melee allies fighting carnies, etc. are all good times to negate the endurance drain.)

RA auras: it's tempting to use these as soon as they recharge. Don't! Use them when you need them, or just before. Regeneration Aura fills in the health lost before you heal it, or if damage taken isn't that high, negates the need for you to heal. Recovery Aura works with adrenalin boost to negate a nuke crash, or to fill up a friend who is getting sapped dry by a sapping enemy, or just to help a high endurance use ally. Get used to the range, or hit healing aura before firing them. This way you can fire them and hit the team without a huge "GATHER FOR RA"S!" shout. Why do they need to gather, if you can hit them more quickly in a fight or as you are going toward the next fight? The "GATHER!" tactic slows down the team, and focuses all the attention on you. (Granted, the latter might be part of why so many do it)

Pool powers that help empaths:

Leadership: Every power in this pool stacks with your powers. Assault is the clear winner: you have no way to make enemies weaker, thus die faster, but defenders have the strongest assault in the game, and this stacks well with the fortitude boost to make allies more dangerous to your foes. Manuevers is low on defense, buts its bit of extra defense goes with fortitude for less damage taken. The high tohit of tactics makes fortidue hit even more often. Vengeance heal more, boosts more damage, Gives a large defense boost (Less healing needed!) and resistance to mez. (less clear mind needed!) I you use your resurect at all, this is a great power to use just before it.

Speed: hasten. All your powers are based off of their recharge. Hasten is handy as it makes your powers come back faster if you need them to. Just be warned, without recovery aura, this may make your endurance usage go up. But since vigilance (your inherent power) works directly with empathy, if your team is taking lots of damage, you'll have endurance to spare. A warning: hasten is UGLY, and conflicts with many costumes.

Teleport: teleport ally. If you need to resurrect an ally that's died in a dangerous place, or have vengeance and want to buff the team on a dead team member before resurrecting them, this lets you teleport the ally to a better place before waking them.

*EDIT to add:*
Empathy benefits more than other buff/debuff sets from knowing how other powersets work. If you have to choose between healing a super reflexes ally and a regeneration ally, heal the super reflexes, especially if the regeneration hasn't used their heal yet. The SR ally can't heal themselves, the other can. Kinetics needs to connect, and can be squishy, especially if they jump into melee to benefit from their buffs. They need more clear mind and fortitude, and adrenalin boost makes their fulcrum shifts faster. Traps has lots of long recharge gadgets, so adrenalin boosting them gives way better debuffs in a stationary fight. And so on. Knowing what needs healing more, what needs more recharge, what needs more defense. All this plays a part in choosing what powers to use on who when.