Silas
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Posts
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For 1-50 and solid endgame power, Fire/Rad Corruptor.
For fully IOd endgame performance, Ill/Cold Controller.
The Fire/Rad gets its main tools very early on and remains a great buffer/debuffer and damage dealer right the way to 50. Strong soloer, can solo AVs/GMs, great on teams and TFs.
The Ill/Cold is just...cheating. In so many ways. Breaks the game. So good.
Edit: or SS/FA, that's a good one too. -
Quote:Have you ever played Spines paired with a set without a taunt aura? Lots of DoT combined with debuffs drives mobs bonkers.Originally Posted by UberGuy
By the way, here's a non-Scrapper anecdote about how I think the critter running away AI has its priorities screwed up.
Right after Defenders got their solo damage bonus, I took my Dark/Psi Defender out and soloed Paladin. He ran around some, mostly because I fly and he kept trying to find ways to reach me. He would also run around whenever I hit him with Howling Twilight. That makes sense - HT (for some reason) has an Avoid affect.
Recently, I got that same Defender all tricked out with Incarnate toys and went looking for him again. Instantly, he was all over the place, running well away from where he spawned and climbing fire escapes to get away from me. (Which would be hilarious if it wasn't so annoying.) Same debuffs, and same attacks, except for one difference ... Reactive DoT. So this critter was willing to either try to find a way to reach me in melee, or at least stand still and shoot at me, standing in my debuff patches, letting a Dark Servant gnaw at his ankles, all while I plopped a debuff toggle on him ... but he bolts like a rabbit because I set him on fire? What the hell?
As another example, if TT didn't have an immob component mobs would go schiz with TT+NF spam. -
Blasting and supporting the team are not mutually exclusive.
The only way you'd realistically be non-stop buffing is if you're trying to keep several CMs stacked on everyone on the team in addition to the usual buffing.
Playing my Empath I'm able to keep people healed, throw out the auras when they're up, maintain AB permanently on one person, maintain Fortitude on 6 people and keep all the squishies CMed when needed.
And I blast. It's busy, but more than doable. The less damage your team is taking, the less you have to heal, in which case you're just maintaining Fort/AB and throwing out CM proactively/reactively depending. So you've got more time to blast.
Being an Empath who blasts doesn't mean you're automatically neglecting to support your team.
If you find you're not able to blast as well as fully support your team, that's not a failure of the set. -
Quote:This is a quality post.Originally Posted by seebs
Yeah, I think this is premature enpatchulation.
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Quote:lol, badgersOriginally Posted by Stray Kitten
Admittedly, if it wasn't for my scrapper needing the badges, I would probably have mine as well. Maybe next time through.
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Oh man, reading and posting on the boards from my phone is such a bad habit for me. Aside from how damn fiddly it is, the autocorrect wreaks mayhem on all the ingame terms.
I've had to edit many a post where Hami got autocorrected to Hamilton or some nonsense. -
Quote:Yeah...and unfortunately those Empaths far outnumber the Empaths who play well. IME if I'm teamed with an Empath, they're more likely than not bad at playing the set.Originally Posted by PBAtty
[...]However, for every person with a "healer" build for an emp that uses all of their buffs like that, I see 10 "healer" emps who never use Fort, AB or CM. If they do at all, it's when everyone is about to enter or just enters the mission and never again. They may fire off their RAs when everyone enters the mission and then you never see the RAs again. Instead, all they do is run around with HA on auto-fire and use HO. Those are the people who give emps a bad name.
And its not a hard set to play! Contrary to what some people on the other end of the spectrum would insist "oh golly I've got to maintain all the buffs and heal people in need and throw out CM and you just have no idea how difficult my job is not just anyone could do it". Playing Empathy well is not rocket surgery. -
Quote:Aye, Emp/Dark is a pretty good combo too. Pretty much any secondary works well with Empathy. The problem with Dark is that it's pretty low damage, so when you do attack, you're not doing a lot of damage. Of course, it does have the controllery aspects you mention and all the -tohit works well with the +def from Fortitude. The self heal is less important for Empathy than it is for other sets which lack one (like Cold) but I guess it's a nice extra.Originally Posted by Astrale_Champion
Emp/Dark anyone?
Tenebrous Tentacles and self heal attack thrown in for good measure. Immobilize your foes en masse while your fort/ab boosted buddies hack n slash to their delight. Semi-trollery while getting all 'fender benefits. Also, thoughts on leadership pool thrown into the mix.
I've heard several people with Emp/Dark really bemoan the lack of damage but I've not personally tried it. Not a great deal of synergy but it does have its positives as you've noted.
I'm not sure what you meant with the last sentence though, is that a statement or a question? I'm pretty sure I mentioned the Leadership pool in the guide, given the awesome Defender mods for it. Essentially animation free large area team buffing is good times. If I didn't or it wasn't clear please do let me know, I can go back over it. All feedback is welcome
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Another vote for Trip Mine = good, Time Bomb = bad.
On my Fire/Traps I'll often toebomb with Trip Mine. As Beltor said though, be wary of the KB. The mines have a very tiny delay before they go off (even toebombing) so you can use that pause to throw a TAoE to make sure TM finishes them off.
Trip Mine -> Fireball -> Cackle -
Quote:No one is saying you're worthless to a team if you don't blast. Well, no one reasonable at least. It's just that if you're not blasting at all, you're not contributing as much as you could be.Originally Posted by Pinkpup
Then I must have killed my team when I did those two Keyes Saturday, because I don't think I used any of my attack powers with my emp. Especially when I was escorting the stone tank who was taunting Anti-Matter.
But 'yes', I am worthless to my team because I choice to get my Fortitude off every 15 seconds, Adrenalin Boost every 78 seconds and my auras every 133 seconds. Of course that is while flying, and casting Heal Other, Clean Mind, or using my Healing Aura when necessary. Not even counting Resurrect, cus most folks when straight too the hospital before I could even get in range.
If only I used any of my six attacks from Energy Blast.... we could completed the Keyes Trial just a bit earlier.
Woe to me....
It's more than possible to be on top of the buffs and heals as well as blasting. The trial teams are obviously not going to be gimped if they don't have your added damage. It's more the principle of the thing. If you can support a team/trial fully as well as contribute damage (which anyone can), why wouldn't you?
On big teams the blasting takes a backseat to the supporting, naturally. But there is no good reason why the blasting should be neglected entirely. -
[Team 1]
1. @Stray Kitten - Claws/SR Scrapper
2. @Force - Fire/Cold Corr Corruptor
3. @Rad Avenger - Fire/Cold Corruptor
4. @Placta - Elec/Elec Blaster
5. @Ulysses Dare - Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster
6. @Shadowklaw - Ninja Blade/Dark Armor Stalker
7. @Black Tabby - Claws/SR Scrapper
8.
[Team 2]
1. @Amygdala - Mind/Psi Dominator
2. @Silas - Like, whatever, man
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. -
Quote:He just wants to fit in with the PA, they all get to run in swingin'.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Since the Phantasm has no melee attacks, I've wondered about this myself. I have to conclude that Phantasms miss being recharge buffed so much they have become suicidal.
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Quote:Again, anything can farm. It's just a question of how effectively.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Do it with an Ice/Emp controller. >.>
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Fortunately I can enjoy farming on my SS/FA Brute. More easily if I'm PLing someone so I have someone to talk to, but when I've had to PL myself (damn Mayhem mules) it's not so bad because I enjoy the stompy stompy.
That said, what you can also do if you've got a laptop or second computer is set it up right next to the monitor you're playing CoH on. IME farming doesn't require a great deal of concentration, so I'll often watch tv or movies on my laptop while doing it. It's obviously a bit slower than going full bore and concentrating on it, but it's still plenty fast and a lot less boring. -
Quote:Old techniques probably being way back when using middles and stuff.Originally Posted by ultrawatt
Old techniques?
Also, impressive.
Chu used my mish XD -
Nope, my butt feels fine. You're just wrong, is all. No shame in that.
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Quote:Heh, alright. I'll add something in.Originally Posted by MechaCrash
I have seen Empaths with Aid Other, Stimulant, and Resuscitate. So yes, apparently people do need to be told not to waste three power picks on powers that are sucky versions of things you already have.
Honestly, I dunno. The appeal of having everything recharge RITE NAO is great, I just don't think it'll be all that amazing. Not that the crash is crippling, just that the primary benefits of it can be gained with IOs. In addition to that, most powers can't self-stack (outside of zoning) which limits a lot of the omghax potential. People are looking at stuff like instantly recharging their godmodes, when you can have effective godmode all the time with softcapping.Quote:Originally Posted by Arbegla
Hey Silas,
I was wondering what your thoughts on [burnout] are, and how useful it may be for support character? Like /traps and /time?
To answer your question more specifically, I don't think Traps would benefit a lot. You can already get double and triple stacked Traps with high recharge and the set doesn't really have anything on a super long timer that you want to get back ASAP. Useful, I guess, but nothing incredible.
As for Time, again I've not played enough with the set to say for sure. Chrono Shift can be made easily perma and gives you a boatload of recharge in and of itself. You could use Chrono Shift -> Burnout, zone, then use CS again and run around with +100% recharge, but its a gimmick really. Like doubleshielding people at the beginning of a mission. Pretty neat trick, but nothing incredible.
I guess time will tell. I think there's a lot of potential there, I'm just not experienced enough with the power to really say, sorry.
I was going to say "Really?" but now, duh, of course it's unique. Why wouldn't it be? I guess since my default was of thinking about it is a crappier and far more expensive P.Shifter proc, I've never bothered even checking to see if its unique or notQuote:Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
FWIW: The proc is Unique so you could only 6 slot it once anyways.
Very enjoyable guide. Also I enjoyed teaming with you on your empath today.
I'll amend the guide, thanks for pointing that out.
Yup, was fun teaming. -
I considered it, but hoped that anyone actually reading a guide about how to play Empathy wouldn't be that stupid.
R..right? -
Quote:An excellent point, I'll add that in. ThanksOriginally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
One slight nit: you mention that adrenalin boost can negate nuke/etc recovery crashes, but don't suggest any endmod slotting. Many such crashes are -1000% recovery, so at base AB's 800% recovery isn't going to do the job. I personally like to put one endmod/x IO in there, which gets the recovery bonus just over 1000%. As you mention, it's certainly a fringe use of the power, but if you're going to suggest it as a possiblity I'd think you'd want to mention the slotting required for it to work.
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Quote:Eh? Archery is one of the better Defender seecondaries. RoA and Fistful are great AoE, Blazing Arrow is pretty good ST. I guess its not ideal for emping due to the redraw and long animation on RoA, but Archery is still a solid blast set.Originally Posted by SilentSpy
MMM, nice guide. I have an Emp/Arch Defender at 45.
Archery is so darn awful, though, that its difficult to motivate myself for the next five levels. On teams I feel unneeded often - at that level a lot of teams seem to be surviving fine without my heals or buffs (AB and Fort and CM are still useful, yes, but not as mandatory; the heals are rarely used) and my damage is too low to be noticed (I can't even solo a mob of only minions on default difficulty settings). So whenever I make my build for it I'm going to have to focus on recharge and damage, somehow.
How are your attacks slotted? You should be able to solo on default settings at least. You'll have access to Stunning Shot from 35, that can help to take a troublesome mob out of the fight. Emp isn't great for soloing since it only really gives you the self heal, +regen and +rec auras. That just means you've gotta be more reliant on your blast set.
Slotting your attacks up well makes a big difference. You only need a couple attacks and an AoE to solo decently. My Emp only ever uses Shriek, Scream and Howl. -
Cheers Ashcraft
For the link-clicking averse, the guide has been posted in its entirety here too. -
Incredible. The things people can do with the base editor never cease to amaze me.
And shame me, about my boring little den I use. -
Wow, very comprehensive and great guide. Good resource for any new players or old players looking to try a new AT. Well done
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Oh noooooooooooooo my Emp guide is done D:
Look what my careless hands have wrought!
X: Empathy
Oh god, an Empathy guide. Fortunately for the neckbearded among us, I refer to Empathy the support set, not the ability to understand the feelings of another. Empathy is a support set with totally bitchin’ buffs and some heals (and also a rez!), empathy is a cornerstone in any real human relationship.
No, your love pillow doesn’t count, no matter how well you think it understands you.
So, Empathy with a capital E! Not like the entertainment news channel, which is much like your fanfiction in that no one cares about it.
And thus:
Why Empathy is Awesome and you wanna play dat emp:
- Most importantly, the buffs. They’re stupidly good. Even with Controller mods. Or they would be with Corruptor mods. Sadly, it is not to be. We have to settle for Pain Dom. Which is also nice, but the younger sister of Empathy. Smaller boobs, less experience, you know how it is.
- Or maybe you don’t?
- Doesn’t matter.
- So back to those buffs. One is IMO the most powerful single target buff in the game by a significant margin. Another is probably the second most powerful single target buff in the game and can be maintained on several people.
- Big ol’ +regen and +recovery auras which both buff you, hooray.
- AoE/self heal for when you get punched in the head. Yes, when, not if. If you’re an Emp and you never get aggro, you’re a bad Emp. More on this later though.
- Speaking of heals, generic ally heal for playing health bar whackamole. Great at lower levels, still desirable later on but generally second fiddle to the buffing.
- Another single target ally heal which in the hands of a Defender can be the most powerful heal in the game. *cough* whiiiiiich doesn’t require enemies. Shut up Dark Regen, we know you’re buff as sin.
Quote:Healing Aura: PBAoE heal, nice and simple
Slotting Recommendation: What’s most important is that you max out the healing on it. Decent end redux is good too, recharge to taste. This and Heal Other recharge pretty quickly at base so you don’t need to worry about the recharge so much. I’d recommend Doctored Wounds or Panaceas. They both give recharge bonuses which are awesome for Empathy. Panaceas give better set bonuses overall, but DW gives a heal bonus earlier and is much cheaper.
How to Use: For healing yourself and/or several allies at once. Good for healing up people after a nasty AoE hit (y helo thar Keyes Trial). Don’t put it on auto. Not even on the Keyes Trial. The AoE on it is decently large but try and get a feel for it nevertheless so you can position yourself to hit as many people as needed with it.Quote:Heal Other: Ally heal oh goodness even simpler!
Slotting Recommendation: same as Healing Aura, really. Heal being most important, some end redux too.
How to Use: to heal allies, mostly. Heals for about twice as much as Healing Aura, has decent range, recharges and activates fast. I bind it to Q for fast access.Quote:Absorb Pain: strong ally heal, self moderate damage (special)
Slotting Recommendation: This is a monstrously powerful heal. You can slot it similarly to Healing Aura or Heal Other, but IMO it doesn’t need it. A slot or two of healing is more than enough to make it a big enough heal for even Tanker healthbars. The end cost is negligible, because the main cost of this power is…in blood! Dun dun duuuuuun. Or hitpoints and regen, like, whatever, man.
How to Use: When you need to do a massive heal and you need to do it right now. Heal Other is enough to keep people on their feet 99% of the time. Sometimes you need two single target heals right after one another. Or you need to bring someone with a lot of HP back up from low health right now. These are the times you need Absorb Pain. The special noted above is that it ganks your health regen and means you cannot be healed for 20seconds after using it. 20 seconds is a long time if stuff is mad at you. Be smart about how you use AP. Because danger lurks around every cornerQuote:Resurrect: ally rez
Slotting Recommendation: A single end reduction IO. It costs a fair chunk of endurance (26 at base) so you want to bring that down. It doesn’t really need recharge IMO since even though its somewhat long (3 minutes), people shouldn’t be dying more than once every 3 minutes. I’ve found global recharge and Hasten to be more than enough to bring it back up fast enough even when the poop is hitting the fan. Splut splut, poop joke. God, you guys are immature.
How to Use: to rez people, funnily enough. They’ll be protected from XP debt for a minute and a half afterwards, not like XP debt matters though. Unlike Rise of the Phoenix from Thermal or a few of the self-rezzes from armor sets, it does not make the target untouchable. This means they can be beat right the **** down right after they rez. Hit ‘em with Fortitude right after to avoid this.Quote:Clear Mind: ally +res (Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Fear, Confuse) +perception
Slotting Recommendation: Doesn’t really matter. I’d go with an end rdx or a range enhancer. It doesn’t cost a lot of endurance but what the hell else are you gonna put in there? The range enhancer would be just if you want it to have similar range to Heal Other. Personal preference.
How to Use: Either proactively or reactively, depending on the situation. Ideally proactively. I wouldn’t recommend maintaining CM on the whole team all the time, because that’s totally stupid. First of all, most melee types won’t need it except for very rare occasions (more on that later). Secondly, not all mobs have mezzes. Most lategame mobs have a lot of mezzes, but its only a few who are nasty enough to require full time CM upkeep on the squishies. Mobs like Rikti, Malta, Arachnos and Rularuu. When fighting easier mobs like Council or Nemesis you can get away with using it reactively. Most of the mezzes won’t land anyway due to Fortitude, so when fighting mobs that don’t mez a lot I’d just hit people with it when you see a mez land on their buff bar or they call it.Quote:Fortitude: ally +def(all) +damage +tohit
Slotting Recommendation: Membrane Hos are perfect for this power, since they'll enhance every enhanceable aspect of it. They can be pricey though. Enhancing the tohit is a nice benefit, but what's really important is maxing out the recharge and defense on it. So if you don't want to go with Membranes or want to use some other set, just make sure you get burly defense and recharge numbers. Frankenslot if you gotta.
How to Use: This one depends. Fortitude can be used for two major purposes, to boost damage or survivability. The damage and tohit buffs are great to put on high damage characters, the defense can turn a squishy into a, uh, not squishy. Well still sorta squishy, but like SR squishy. Your first priority is trying to keep people alive though, so put Fort on the people who are taking a lot of damage first. If the healthbars are pretty stable, put Fort on the damage dealers. More on this later.Quote:Recovery Aura: PBAoE +recovery
Slotting Recommendation: Maxed out recharge, good recovery. If you have to cut slots, this is one place you can do it since it gives a boatload of recovery at base. Getting it to recharge as fast as possible is what's really important. It'll give everyone hit by it far more endurance than they'll know what to do with in any case.
How to Use: position yourself within range of as many teammates as possible, fire it off. Both this and Regen Aura have the same radius (25') as Healing Aura, so you can get to grips with how big it is by playing with HA.Quote:Regeneration Aura: PBAoE +regen
Slotting Recommendation: Again, maxed recharge. Unlike Recovery Aura, IMO its also very important to max out the healing enhancement on this one, because of how drastically the +regen can affect people with high hp. Combined with Fortitude, huge amounts of damage are negated.
How to Use: Exact same as Recovery Aura. gg lazinessHow to Not Be Awful, the Empathening:Quote:Adrenaline Boost: ally +regen +recharge +recovery +godmode awwww yissssss
Slotting Recommendation: First priority, max out the recharge. Second priority, max out the healing. Endmod if you want, I've never bothered.
How to Use: Put on whoever you want to turbocharge. The recharge boost on this is massive, twice as powerful as Speed Boost. It'll also give them the recovery to fuel it and huge regen to boot. Throwing it on whoever is leading the charges is generally a good idea, since the regen will help them absorb the alphas. If no one is taking any serious damage, throw it on a damage dealer (like with Fortitude). Use it! Seriously, Adrenaline Boost should never sit unused in your tray. It's a phenomenal buff, using it only for end bar crashes or whatever is nonsense.
- Playing support and attacking are not mutually exclusive. Empaths who never attack are bad Empaths. Support takes priority, sure, but learning when you can attack and doing so is important too. Especially given the mods on Defender Blasts (sup, Sonic Blast).
- Knowing who to put Fortitude on can be tricky. Make it easier for yourself by getting loads of recharge so you can put it on as many people as possible. You want to be using Fortitude as soon as it recharges. Don't let the poor dear languish neglected in your tray.
- First priority is using it on people taking a lot of damage so the defense will help them. If no one is taking a lot of damage, you want to throw it on the people with high damage first. Blasters, Scrappers, and Dominators are all good targets due to their high base damage.
- Know when to use Absorb Pain. If everything is going as it should, you should almost never have to use it. I know, it seems silly to take a power that is useful so rarely. The vast majority of the time, HO spam will do the job. But sometimes HO won't be fast enough, no matter your recharge. For Master of TFs it can come in very handy. AP+HO is a very quick and very powerful healing combo. I've got HO bound to Q and AP bound to lshift+Q, so I can hit them in quick succession.
- Don't stack CM on people with mez protection. Outside of like, two exceptions, its stupid and a waste of time. Those exceptions being fighting Ghost Widow and Romulus. Stacking it on whoever is tanking GW can help them survive her haxhold and throwing it on melee people when Rom dies can ensure they don't have to evade the rez stun. If you've got time to spam CM like a cretin, you should be blasting instead. Kisses, Silas.
- Or at lower levels, when people don't have their mez protection yet. Circle of Thorns can also be really nasty with mez at lower levels, y helo thar Ruin Mage!
- Keybindings can save you a lot of time and energy. I bind Heal Other to q and Absorb Pain to shitt+q. That way I've got fast access to them since they're right next to my movement keys. Binding Follow to a key can also be helpful, so you can target someone for healing, hit the bind and zoom off in their direction rather than wasting time panning the camera round to find them to get in range.
- Given the large recovery buff on Adrenaline Boost, you can hit someone with it right after they've nuked or had a godmode crash to help them out. It's very helpful, but not helpful enough that you should save AB for these times. AB is too powerful a buff to have sitting around waiting to be used.
- Stay mobile. Combat Jumping + Hurdle is fantastic. You'll often be the most vulnerable person on a team, since everyone else can get Fortitude, CM, heals, etc. Being quick on your feet and kiting a lot is important to keep yourself alive. Superspeed and a stealth IO also helps a lot. Allies can be much more easily healed than you, who has to rely on Healing/Regen Aura. Don't stand next to people with a lot of aggro so you stay clear of the Aoe effects.
- If you like to rock the aura, please follow these navigational instructions.
- Watch buff bars if you can. Not just to see when Fortitude/CM are expiring, but also to see incoming damage spikes. If you see the KO Blow icon appear on a squishies buff bar when you're fighting Statesman, you can target them and get ready to heal as soon as the damage hits.
- I've not really PvPed in a long time, but if you're into it, it can teach you a lot that can help you in PvE too. As an Empath a lot of people will want you dead, so you've gotta learn to evade well and support your team at the same time.
- You don't need IOs to be a good Emp. They can make you much more effective through higher recharge or more survivable through defense or +hp, but people were Emping well long before IOs. With just SOs you can still maintain Fortitude on 3 people reliably, 4 briefly.
- Powerboost is also really good for Empaths. Like, stupidly good. It turbocharges your heals and makes Fortitude monstrously powerful. With zero slotting in Fortitude and PB, you'll be giving people 29.8% defense and 37% tohit. For the record, that's equivalent to Scrapper SR (assuming all toggles+passives 2 slotted with level 50 Def Ios). With Fortitude 2 slotted for Defense, Pbed it gives 37% defense. Madness!
The Manner in Which Silas Conducts his Empathic Affairs:Quote:What Goes Well with Empathy:
Given that Empathy can often require split-second reactions to catch a falling healthbar, a blast (or control) set that has quick animations is very helpful. Keeping a full team buffed and in good health requires a fair amount of time investment, so ideally you want to pair Empathy with a set that doesn't require a lot of maintenance. For Controllers, Illusion is a great example.
I personally went with Sonic Blast due to omgdebuffvalues, I mean, -20% resistance a blast? What in the hell is going on with that? It's nuts. You can stack 60-100% -res on a target just spamming Shriek and Scream. If you bring Screech into the mix you're reliably at 80-120% -resistance.
For non totally broken sets, I'd recommend Ice or Fire. Okay, Fire is still a little broken, but not as broken as it is for Corruptors. Both have fast activating attacks that deal good damage, both have the advantage of the rain power which will do Blaster level damage. The problem is that you don't have any way to keep stuff in the rain. They're both end-heavy sets but that generally isn't a problem for Empathy due to Recovery Aura.
Feast your eyes, peasants!
My Build:Quote:Notes:
Something I didn't cover in the screenshot is the placing of Absorb Pain and the rez. Basically, the former is bound and the latter doesn't get used so much so I don't mind moseying the mouse over there to hit it.
Yes, I've got Vengeance. Ideally people won't die, but **** happens. When it does, Veng is an incredibly powerful buff that can keep the rest of the team/you alive to prevent things becoming a wipe.
As far as Incarnate stuff goes, I went with Spiritual for my Alpha. Extra recharge and extra healing power = do want. Went Reactive for more damage and -res, Clarion Destiny for mez protection.
Same as the rest of my builds, I've got the accolades. Demonic helps when thing are going down the toilet and the +hp/end accolades help shore up low Defender hp as well as increasing the benefit you get from Regen/Recovery Aura.
Even though Power Boost is stupidly powerful for Empaths, I decided I wanted s/l softcap instead. Personal preference, really. I like the added survivability it gives me, I find slotted Fort to be plenty to keep people alive.
As for how it could be improved, there are a couple ways, mostly full reworkings of the build. Since Empathy doesn't really have any melee powers, going for ranged defense is a very viable route. I went with s/l because it doesn't require a lot of investment slot/power wise, so I had a lot of room to get stupid levels of recharge.Quote:Here it is:
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I considered going with 6 slots of Panaceas in HA/HO for the heal bonus, but decided against it. Couldn't find somewhere else to take the slots from and the proc is prohibitively expensive. Speaking of Panaceas, I personally went with them in HA/HO because they don't need recharge. Putting Panaceas in AB/RA isn't a good idea IMO, since the extra global recharge from the set compared to DW doesn't make up for the weak enhancement values. Meaning you'd need to dedicate a 6th slot for recharge.
Soooo. There is is, hope its of use to some of you. All feedback welcome
- Most importantly, the buffs. They’re stupidly good. Even with Controller mods. Or they would be with Corruptor mods. Sadly, it is not to be. We have to settle for Pain Dom. Which is also nice, but the younger sister of Empathy. Smaller boobs, less experience, you know how it is.
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X: Empathy
Oh god, an Empathy guide. Fortunately for the neckbearded among us, I refer to Empathy the support set, not the ability to understand the feelings of another. Empathy is a support set with totally bitchin’ buffs and some heals (and also a rez!), empathy is a cornerstone in any real human relationship.
No, your love pillow doesn’t count, no matter how well you think it understands you.
So, Empathy with a capital E! Not like the entertainment news channel, which is much like your fanfiction in that no one cares about it.
And thus:
Why Empathy is Awesome and you wanna play dat emp:
- Most importantly, the buffs. They’re stupidly good. Even with Controller mods. Or they would be with Corruptor mods. Sadly, it is not to be. We have to settle for Pain Dom. Which is also nice, but the younger sister of Empathy. Smaller boobs, less experience, you know how it is.
- Or maybe you don’t?
- Doesn’t matter.
- So back to those buffs. One is IMO the most powerful single target buff in the game by a significant margin. Another is probably the second most powerful single target buff in the game and can be maintained on several people.
- Big ol’ +regen and +recovery auras which both buff you, hooray.
- AoE/self heal for when you get punched in the head. Yes, when, not if. If you’re an Emp and you never get aggro, you’re a bad Emp. More on this later though.
- Speaking of heals, generic ally heal for playing health bar whackamole. Great at lower levels, still desirable later on but generally second fiddle to the buffing.
- Another single target ally heal which in the hands of a Defender can be the most powerful heal in the game. *cough* whiiiiiich doesn’t require enemies. Shut up Dark Regen, we know you’re buff as sin.
Quote:Healing Aura: PBAoE heal, nice and simple
Slotting Recommendation: What’s most important is that you max out the healing on it. Decent end redux is good too, recharge to taste. This and Heal Other recharge pretty quickly at base so you don’t need to worry about the recharge so much. I’d recommend Doctored Wounds or Panaceas. They both give recharge bonuses which are awesome for Empathy. Panaceas give better set bonuses overall, but DW gives a heal bonus earlier and is much cheaper.
How to Use: For healing yourself and/or several allies at once. Good for healing up people after a nasty AoE hit (y helo thar Keyes Trial). Don’t put it on auto. Not even on the Keyes Trial. The AoE on it is decently large but try and get a feel for it nevertheless so you can position yourself to hit as many people as needed with it.Quote:Heal Other: Ally heal oh goodness even simpler!
Slotting Recommendation: same as Healing Aura, really. Heal being most important, some end redux too.
How to Use: to heal allies, mostly. Heals for about twice as much as Healing Aura, has decent range, recharges and activates fast. I bind it to Q for fast access.Quote:Absorb Pain: strong ally heal, self moderate damage (special)
Slotting Recommendation: This is a monstrously powerful heal. You can slot it similarly to Healing Aura or Heal Other, but IMO it doesn’t need it. A slot or two of healing is more than enough to make it a big enough heal for even Tanker healthbars. The end cost is negligible, because the main cost of this power is…in blood! Dun dun duuuuuun. Or hitpoints and regen, like, whatever, man.
How to Use: When you need to do a massive heal and you need to do it right now. Heal Other is enough to keep people on their feet 99% of the time. Sometimes you need two single target heals right after one another. Or you need to bring someone with a lot of HP back up from low health right now. These are the times you need Absorb Pain. The special noted above is that it ganks your health regen and means you cannot be healed for 20seconds after using it. 20 seconds is a long time if stuff is mad at you. Be smart about how you use AP. Because danger lurks around every cornerQuote:Resurrect: ally rez
Slotting Recommendation: A single end reduction IO. It costs a fair chunk of endurance (26 at base) so you want to bring that down. It doesn’t really need recharge IMO since even though its somewhat long (3 minutes), people shouldn’t be dying more than once every 3 minutes. I’ve found global recharge and Hasten to be more than enough to bring it back up fast enough even when the poop is hitting the fan. Splut splut, poop joke. God, you guys are immature.
How to Use: to rez people, funnily enough. They’ll be protected from XP debt for a minute and a half afterwards, not like XP debt matters though. Unlike Rise of the Phoenix from Thermal or a few of the self-rezzes from armor sets, it does not make the target untouchable. This means they can be beat right the **** down right after they rez. Hit ‘em with Fortitude right after to avoid this.Quote:Clear Mind: ally +res (Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Fear, Confuse) +perception
Slotting Recommendation: Doesn’t really matter. I’d go with an end rdx or a range enhancer. It doesn’t cost a lot of endurance but what the hell else are you gonna put in there? The range enhancer would be just if you want it to have similar range to Heal Other. Personal preference.
How to Use: Either proactively or reactively, depending on the situation. Ideally proactively. I wouldn’t recommend maintaining CM on the whole team all the time, because that’s totally stupid. First of all, most melee types won’t need it except for very rare occasions (more on that later). Secondly, not all mobs have mezzes. Most lategame mobs have a lot of mezzes, but its only a few who are nasty enough to require full time CM upkeep on the squishies. Mobs like Rikti, Malta, Arachnos and Rularuu. When fighting easier mobs like Council or Nemesis you can get away with using it reactively. Most of the mezzes won’t land anyway due to Fortitude, so when fighting mobs that don’t mez a lot I’d just hit people with it when you see a mez land on their buff bar or they call it.Quote:Fortitude: ally +def(all) +damage +tohit
Slotting Recommendation: Membrane Hos are perfect for this power, since they'll enhance every enhanceable aspect of it. They can be pricey though. Enhancing the tohit is a nice benefit, but what's really important is maxing out the recharge and defense on it. So if you don't want to go with Membranes or want to use some other set, just make sure you get burly defense and recharge numbers. Frankenslot if you gotta.
How to Use: This one depends. Fortitude can be used for two major purposes, to boost damage or survivability. The damage and tohit buffs are great to put on high damage characters, the defense can turn a squishy into a, uh, not squishy. Well still sorta squishy, but like SR squishy. Your first priority is trying to keep people alive though, so put Fort on the people who are taking a lot of damage first. If the healthbars are pretty stable, put Fort on the damage dealers. More on this later.Quote:Recovery Aura: PBAoE +recovery
Slotting Recommendation: Maxed out recharge, good recovery. If you have to cut slots, this is one place you can do it since it gives a boatload of recovery at base. Getting it to recharge as fast as possible is what's really important. It'll give everyone hit by it far more endurance than they'll know what to do with in any case.
How to Use: position yourself within range of as many teammates as possible, fire it off. Both this and Regen Aura have the same radius (25') as Healing Aura, so you can get to grips with how big it is by playing with HA.Quote:Regeneration Aura: PBAoE +regen
Slotting Recommendation: Again, maxed recharge. Unlike Recovery Aura, IMO its also very important to max out the healing enhancement on this one, because of how drastically the +regen can affect people with high hp. Combined with Fortitude, huge amounts of damage are negated.
How to Use: Exact same as Recovery Aura. gg lazinessHow to Not Be Awful, the Empathening:Quote:Adrenaline Boost: ally +regen +recharge +recovery +godmode awwww yissssss
Slotting Recommendation: First priority, max out the recharge. Second priority, max out the healing. Endmod if you want, I've never bothered.
How to Use: Put on whoever you want to turbocharge. The recharge boost on this is massive, twice as powerful as Speed Boost. It'll also give them the recovery to fuel it and huge regen to boot. Throwing it on whoever is leading the charges is generally a good idea, since the regen will help them absorb the alphas. If no one is taking any serious damage, throw it on a damage dealer (like with Fortitude). Use it! Seriously, Adrenaline Boost should never sit unused in your tray. It's a phenomenal buff, using it only for end bar crashes or whatever is nonsense.
- Playing support and attacking are not mutually exclusive. Empaths who never attack are bad Empaths. Support takes priority, sure, but learning when you can attack and doing so is important too. Especially given the mods on Defender Blasts (sup, Sonic Blast).
- Knowing who to put Fortitude on can be tricky. Make it easier for yourself by getting loads of recharge so you can put it on as many people as possible. You want to be using Fortitude as soon as it recharges. Don't let the poor dear languish neglected in your tray.
- First priority is using it on people taking a lot of damage so the defense will help them. If no one is taking a lot of damage, you want to throw it on the people with high damage first. Blasters, Scrappers, and Dominators are all good targets due to their high base damage.
- Know when to use Absorb Pain. If everything is going as it should, you should almost never have to use it. I know, it seems silly to take a power that is useful so rarely. The vast majority of the time, HO spam will do the job. But sometimes HO won't be fast enough, no matter your recharge. For Master of TFs it can come in very handy. AP+HO is a very quick and very powerful healing combo. I've got HO bound to Q and AP bound to lshift+Q, so I can hit them in quick succession.
- Don't stack CM on people with mez protection. Outside of like, two exceptions, its stupid and a waste of time. Those exceptions being fighting Ghost Widow and Romulus. Stacking it on whoever is tanking GW can help them survive her haxhold and throwing it on melee people when Rom dies can ensure they don't have to evade the rez stun. If you've got time to spam CM like a cretin, you should be blasting instead. Kisses, Silas.
- Or at lower levels, when people don't have their mez protection yet. Circle of Thorns can also be really nasty with mez at lower levels, y helo thar Ruin Mage!
- Keybindings can save you a lot of time and energy. I bind Heal Other to q and Absorb Pain to shitt+q. That way I've got fast access to them since they're right next to my movement keys. Binding Follow to a key can also be helpful, so you can target someone for healing, hit the bind and zoom off in their direction rather than wasting time panning the camera round to find them to get in range.
- Given the large recovery buff on Adrenaline Boost, you can hit someone with it right after they've nuked or had a godmode crash to help them out. It's very helpful, but not helpful enough that you should save AB for these times. AB is too powerful a buff to have sitting around waiting to be used. A single endmod enhancement to this will ensure it overrides the recovery debuff from nukes and godmode crashes, if you can spare the slot.
- Stay mobile. Combat Jumping + Hurdle is fantastic. You'll often be the most vulnerable person on a team, since everyone else can get Fortitude, CM, heals, etc. Being quick on your feet and kiting a lot is important to keep yourself alive. Superspeed and a stealth IO also helps a lot. Allies can be much more easily healed than you, who has to rely on Healing/Regen Aura. Don't stand next to people with a lot of aggro so you stay clear of the Aoe effects.
- If you like to rock the aura, please follow these navigational instructions.
- Watch buff bars if you can. Not just to see when Fortitude/CM are expiring, but also to see incoming damage spikes. If you see the KO Blow icon appear on a squishies buff bar when you're fighting Statesman, you can target them and get ready to heal as soon as the damage hits.
- I've not really PvPed in a long time, but if you're into it, it can teach you a lot that can help you in PvE too. As an Empath a lot of people will want you dead, so you've gotta learn to evade well and support your team at the same time.
- You don't need IOs to be a good Emp. They can make you much more effective through higher recharge or more survivable through defense or +hp, but people were Emping well long before IOs. With just SOs you can still maintain Fortitude on 3 people reliably, 4 briefly.
- Powerboost is also really good for Empaths. Like, stupidly good. It turbocharges your heals and makes Fortitude monstrously powerful. With zero slotting in Fortitude and PB, you'll be giving people 29.8% defense and 37% tohit. For the record, that's equivalent to Scrapper SR (assuming all toggles+passives 2 slotted with level 50 Def Ios). With Fortitude 2 slotted for Defense, Pbed it gives 37% defense. Madness!
The Manner in Which Silas Conducts his Empathic Affairs:Quote:What Goes Well with Empathy:
Given that Empathy can often require split-second reactions to catch a falling healthbar, a blast (or control) set that has quick animations is very helpful. Keeping a full team buffed and in good health requires a fair amount of time investment, so ideally you want to pair Empathy with a set that doesn't require a lot of maintenance. For Controllers, Illusion is a great example.
I personally went with Sonic Blast due to omgdebuffvalues, I mean, -20% resistance a blast? What in the hell is going on with that? It's nuts. You can stack 60-100% -res on a target just spamming Shriek and Scream. If you bring Screech into the mix you're reliably at 80-120% -resistance.
For non totally broken sets, I'd recommend Ice or Fire. Okay, Fire is still a little broken, but not as broken as it is for Corruptors. Both have fast activating attacks that deal good damage, both have the advantage of the rain power which will do Blaster level damage. The problem is that you don't have any way to keep stuff in the rain. They're both end-heavy sets but that generally isn't a problem for Empathy due to Recovery Aura.
Feast your eyes, peasants!
My Build:Quote:Notes:
Something I didn't cover in the screenshot is the placing of Absorb Pain and the rez. Basically, the former is bound and the latter doesn't get used so much so I don't mind moseying the mouse over there to hit it.
Yes, I've got Vengeance. Ideally people won't die, but **** happens. When it does, Veng is an incredibly powerful buff that can keep the rest of the team/you alive to prevent things becoming a wipe.
As far as Incarnate stuff goes, I went with Spiritual for my Alpha. Extra recharge and extra healing power = do want. Went Reactive for more damage and -res, Clarion Destiny for mez protection.
Same as the rest of my builds, I've got the accolades. Demonic helps when thing are going down the toilet and the +hp/end accolades help shore up low Defender hp as well as increasing the benefit you get from Regen/Recovery Aura.
Even though Power Boost is stupidly powerful for Empaths, I decided I wanted s/l softcap instead. Personal preference, really. I like the added survivability it gives me, I find slotted Fort to be plenty to keep people alive.
As for how it could be improved, there are a couple ways, mostly full reworkings of the build. Since Empathy doesn't really have any melee powers, going for ranged defense is a very viable route. I went with s/l because it doesn't require a lot of investment slot/power wise, so I had a lot of room to get stupid levels of recharge.Quote:Here it is:
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I considered going with 6 slots of Panaceas in HA/HO for the heal bonus, but decided against it. Couldn't find somewhere else to take the slots from and the proc is prohibitively expensive. Speaking of Panaceas, I personally went with them in HA/HO because they don't need recharge. Putting Panaceas in AB/RA isn't a good idea IMO, since the extra global recharge from the set compared to DW doesn't make up for the weak enhancement values. Meaning you'd need to dedicate a 6th slot for recharge.
Soooo. There is is, hope its of use to some of you. All feedback welcome
Acknowledgements:
I forgot this at first because I'm a terrible friend. Many thanks to Amy and Stray for looking over the guide and providing lots of helpful feedback
- Most importantly, the buffs. They’re stupidly good. Even with Controller mods. Or they would be with Corruptor mods. Sadly, it is not to be. We have to settle for Pain Dom. Which is also nice, but the younger sister of Empathy. Smaller boobs, less experience, you know how it is.