I. Introduction
II. Whats in a name?
III. Primary Powerset Powers and Slotting
IV. Secondary Powers
V. Power Pools
VI. Strategies
VII. Summary
I. Introduction
I have a great love of healing and have played many characters capable of healing in many different MMORPGs, starting with dispensing bandaids to people way back in Ultima Online. I have been a Cleric in the world of Norrath, a healer in the Empire of Istaria (of which I have diligently tried to repress most memories), a priest in Azeroth, a Doctor on Rubi-Ka, a Cleric fighting for my realm in the dark times in Camelot, and probably a few others that I have forgotten.
The empathy defender is unique among all these classes because healing is only a part of what you do and, as you level up, your buffs and the defenses of your allies make your healing less and less important. This is completely different from other games in which as you level up you get bigger and bigger heals and your comrades ultimately take proportionally consistent damage across the breadth of their careers. A well designed, well played empath is a joy to a group. However, a poorly designed and poorly played empathy is a terrible thing to behold. The goal of this guide is to use my own experience to share some ideas of what I think works and doesnt work. All of this can be filed under in my opinion---I am not the arbitrator of truth and my experience, like everyone elses, is subjective.
II. Whats in a name?
After choosing your origin, your powersets, and creating the look of your character, your next task is naming yourself. It is worthwhile to really think about this because the name you choose makes an impression on people---Make sure it is the impression you want to make. If you have a clever name, people are likely to think you are clever, if you have a funny name, people are likely to think you are funny, and if you have a stupid name Well, I am sure you get the idea. Remember that you cant change your name voluntarily, so the name you take is the one you are stuck with unless a GM forcibly changes it or you grow to hate it so much that you reroll.
What follows is a brief personal rant. If personal rants bother you, please skip the next section. /Rant: For goodness sake, please dont make a hootchie mama with breasts that are bigger than her head in a thong and bra and name her Whatever Stupid Descriptor Nurse. Nekkid Nurse. Hottie Nurse. Head Nurse. Other nursey names like RN Kiss a Boo are equally irritating. I am a nurse. I have spent my life working in hospices and mental hospitals, caring for the suffering, dying, and the mad. I have seen things that most of you will never see and most of you will probably be glad that you never see. Nursing is the largest, most trusted healthcare profession in the United States and to see this profession objectified into ridiculously clad (or unclad) huge boobed bimbos (that are then almost invariably poorly played) irritates the heck out of me. So, please, show a little respect for a profession that invariably, inevitably at some time in your life will care for you or someone you love. And trust me, when you need CPR the size of our breasts will be of significantly less concern to you than how competent we are. /rant off. There, I feel better.
III. Primary Powerset Powers and Slotting.
Here, I will use the basic rating system I have seen others use, provide a brief discussion on the power, and provide recommendations for slotting. A look at the powerset as a whole clearly defines the role of the empathy defender as buffing and healing. I list buffing first because if you actually look at all the powers to which you have access you have two single target heals, one area heal, and every other power in the set is a buff! Clearly, buffing is something we are meant to do, and do quite well.
* * Situational, might be useful, but not something youll use often or really miss not having.
* * * A decent power that is useful fairly often.
* * * * A solid power that youll use regularly and helps define your character.
* * * * * A must have. If you dont want this power, you have probably chosen the wrong power set.
Healing Aura: Available at level 1, this is a staple power. I advise taking it at level 1 because it will affect you as well as your group and will be essential whenever you try to solo.
Rating: * * * * *
Slotting: I recommend 6 slotting this power with 3 heals, 1 endurance reduction, and 2 recharges. You may prefer 2 endurance reductions and one recharge depending on your play style.
Heal Other: Also available at level 1, heal other is a single target ranged heal. This power will also be a staple power and one that your group will depend on. However, unless you are able to group right out of the box, I would recommend taking a second attack power at level 2 and picking this up at level 4 to make soloing your low level missions easier.
Rating: * * * * *
Slotting: 6 Slot this power with 3 heals and a mix of recharge reduction and endurance reduction as for healing aura.
Absorb Pain: Absorb Pain is available at level 2 and is a huge single target heal with a downside: It causes you some damage and makes you unhealable by any means other than natural regeneration for a brief time after use. I have seen Absorb Pain debated many times but, in my opinion, it is a great power. If you dont have aggro, or if you have a means of very rapid natural regeneration (such as regeneration aura), you have a second single target heal that costs 1 endurance, heals for a lot out of the box, and casts quite quickly. Absorb Pain, simply put, saves lives when used tactically. However, I gave absorb pain only three stars because the debuff it places on you does make it tricky to use and it is not something you will find yourself using every fight.
Rating: * * *
Slotting: Absorb Pain works just fine out of the box with a heal in the default slot. You can put a second heal in it, if you would like, but I would advise against any recharges in it. Absorb Pain is not something you want to spam.
Resurrection: Ahhh, resurrection, available to you and all your painful pick up groups beginning at level 6. Resurrection allows you to restore defeated person without a trip to the hospital, and brings them back at full health and endurance. This is a power that I personally consider debatable but if youre an empathy defender, your group is going to expect you to have it. The greatest thing about this power is that it resurrects someone at full health and endurance which means you can use it in mid-battle to bring someone back into the fight. It also saves allies some trips to the hospital which can decrease downtime in the event of a group members defeat. However, if all goes well this is a power that you will use rarely.
Rating: * *
Slotting: I just put a recharge in the default slot. You may prefer an endurance reduction to make it easier to use mid fight. Resurrection has a hefty recharge time, so if you find it too painful waiting for it to recharge when several teammates have taken a dirt nap, feel free to put more recharges in it.
Clear Mind: Clear Mind is a fantastic status effect protection and cleanser, available to you at level 8. It protects against sleeps, holds, stuns, and immobilizes, and will remove these effects from a target if used on someone already affected. It has a quick recharge and low endurance cost, making it quite possible (although tedious) to keep it on your entire group if needed. I give it four stars only because there are some fights and situations wherein status protection is not a concern.
Rating: * * * *
Slotting: I just put an endurance reduction in the default slot and only because I hate having empty slots.
Fortitude: Fortitude is a glorious single target accuracy, defense, and damage buff that becomes your toy at level 12. This buff is outstanding. Its only flaw is that it has a fairly long recharge, meaning you can only keep it on 2-3 group members at a time.
Rating: * * * * *
Slotting: I recommend six slotting this, with a combination of to hit buffs, defense buffs, and recharges. I personally use two of each.
Recovery Aura: Recovery Aura comes up at level 18 and your groups will be very happy if you get it. Recovery Aura is a group endurance recovery buff. Unfortunately, it has a hefty recharge time. I give it 3 stars only due to its recharge time----It is glorious when its up, but is down enough of the time that you have to design yourself to play without it. If you can manage your endurance without difficulty when its down, the actual value it provides when up is questionable as you have adopted a playstyle that does not depend on it. It does, however, help in very long battles or with endurance challenged teammates.
Rating: * * *
Slotting: I recommend three slotting this with recharge reducers. The potency of the endurance regeneration is huge so I personally feel slotting this with endurance modification is a waste.
Regeneration Aura: Regeneration Aura is a group health regeneration buff. Like Recovery Aura, it has a long recharge timer which mitigates its usefulness somewhat. However, it will regenerate you through the healing debuff time of absorb pain which means that if you save it for ugly fights, you can use the regeneration aura to help keep you team healthy and allow you to toss around absorb pain with impunity. I give this four stars due to the synergy with absorb pain and the fact that a health regeneration buff can be useful in any situation in which more than one teammate might need spot healing.
Rating: * * * *
Slotting: Personally, I six slot this with 3 recharges and 3 heals.
Adrenalin Boost: This fantastic buff becomes yours at the tender level of 32. Adrenalin Boost is a single target buff to health regeneration and endurance regeneration, and provides a hasten effect to its target. This power is another must have and one that will turn one of your allies into an arresting machine for a time.
Rating: * * * * *
Slotting: I recommend three recharges and three heals.
Youll notice that no power in the empathy set got less than 2 stars. Thats because I feel all of these powers are useful and most of them are useful the majority of the time. Others debate the value of both absorb pain and regeneration aura but I feel they are both excellent powers.
IV. Secondary Powers
As a defender, your choice of secondary powers are blast sets. I belong to the camp that feels the purpose of the secondary is to support the primary and think that any of the blast sets can be used to do this, depending on the play style you prefer. The two most important factors to consider regarding your blast set are its effectiveness as an attack set if/when you solo and its secondary effect, which will impact its usefulness in groups. In my opinion, while some blast sets might be a little better or a little worse as an attack set they all fall into a reasonable range of ok. Therefore, I will focus primarily on the secondary effect. Im not going to review each blast power in each secondary set but will provide a brief overview of the secondary set. The other factor to consider is animation times. Shorter animation times are always better because the healing part of your defending is reactive. If you are locked in an animation for too long, this can result in someone dying because you are unable to get a heal off.
Radiation: The radiation set debuffs the targets defense, making them easier to hit. It does have an AOE knockdown/back which can be useful in specific situations. Essentially, this set helps support your team by increasing the effective DPS against targets you have blasted. Neutrino bolt, the first and mandatory blast in the set, is an ideal low level attack---Its fast with a low endurance cost and a very quick animation, meaning that you can spam it and generally make it into an attack chain in and of itself.
Dark: The dark blast set debuffs opponents accuracy, meaning that opponents you target with it will be less likely to hit. This, of course, translates into less damage taken by your targets.
Sonic: The sonic attack set debuffs the resistance of your target, meaning that your teammates will effectively do more damage per hit. The sonic attack set also has some decent control powers, including a cone AOE sleep and a single target disorient.
Psy: The psychic blast set slows the attack speed of the target it hits, although in my opinion this effect is often barely noticeable. It also has quite a long range, making it easier to attack from the back of the fray, and includes several control type powers including a single target, high damage sleep, a single target disorient, and an area knock up. The biggest downside to the psychic blast set is that the first, mandatory power, mental blast, has a rather long animation time for rather minimal benefit.
Energy: The energy set is heavy on knockback powers, which are almost always a mixed bag. However, knockback and knockdown do serve to mitigate incoming damage by effectively slowing the attack rate of the opponent.
Pick one that fits your concept or play style. In short, radiation and sonic by virtue of their debuffs allow you to contribute more offensive power to a team while the other sets allow you to contribute more defensive power to a team. Pay attention to animations and sound effects as well Youre going to be watching those animation and hearing those sound effects for a very long time. If a certain sound effect feels like fingernails on a chalkboard to you, youre better off switching to another secondary power set.
V. Pool Powers
Rather than discussing every possible pool power, I will review those that have certain synergies with empathy and that I see frequently in empathy templates.
Teleport Pool
Teleport Friend: This is a power that seems to have become relatively expected of empathy defenders because it allows you to teleport a teammate to a safe location and resurrect them there. I am philosophically opposed to people expecting empathy defenders to take this power---Many other defender sets can resurrect but often skip the power altogether with a philosophy of I would rather have powers that prevent people from dying than a resurrection power. But with an empathy defender, people seem to expect that you dedicate not one but two powers to resurrecting people! However, it is useful to have when you do want to resurrect someone and can be helpful in resolving the chaos when Captain Runsoffbyhimselftogetkilled does his thing. It can also be taken as the prerequisite for teleport which is a decent travel power.
Flight Pool:
Hover: I love hover and, even now that it can only be three slotted, find it immensely useful as a way of staying above the battle but still in the thick of things where the most people can benefit from my aura powers. It also provides knockback protection---When hovering rather than being knocked back or knocked down, you flip over in place and are ready to keep defending (even if youre a little dizzy). Hover is also the prerequisite for fly, which although slower than other travel powers is the most precise travel power in the game.
Fitness Pool:
The fitness pool is, of course, really about stamina. If you dont have a vertical travel power, take hurdle. If you do, take swift. Dont take both. Take health (remember, your natural regeneration works during absorb pain) and then take stamina and three slot it.
I have seen many, many posts along the general lines of Do I NEED Stamina? The answer to most of these posts is probably no. You can slot endurance reductions heavily, you can try to make sure you keep plenty of endurance inspirations in your inventory, and you can use recovery aura and (if you take the right epic pool) conserve power whenever they are up. Particularly if you arent going to run many toggles, a stamina-less Empath is possible and spares you a power pool and three slots.
However, I personally hate to micro-manage my endurance. Micro-management of my endurance pool does not increase my fun factor. If I get down to half endurance I get anxious and have terrible visions of my party being slaughtered when I run out of endurance and can no longer defend them. So, from my point of view taking stamina makes the game more fun.
Speed Pool:
Hasten: Hasten is a useful power, when you need to be able to do things really, really fast such as blast at a boss when soloing or heal like mad when fighting an AV in a group. Pre-ED, I will admit to being a perma-hasten empath. Post ED, however, I dropped it, slotted more for recharge, and dont really miss it. You may have better results but I hate long recharge powers because I end up trying to save them for when I REALLY need it which translates into almost never using them. Hasten can be activated at the same time that you activate one or more of your long recharge buffs, such as recovery aura, regeneration aura, or adrenalin boost and will then shorten their recharges. Hasten is also the prerequisite for super speed. I detest super speed as a travel power as I am a terrible navigator and zones like Skyway City drive me to madness, but the stealth component and low endurance cost of super speed mean you can run it in missions and decrease your chance of getting unwanted aggro.
Other pool powers may or may not be useful for you depending on your likes and play styles. The medicine pool is fairly pointless for an empathy defender, and I dont think the presence pool contributes anything useful to an empath but its your toon so do what your heart desires.
VI. Strategies
These are some basic strategies for defending in a team environment. I dont PVP to speak of so am not competent to give you any PVP advice.
When you join a group, look to see what youve teamed up with and take a moment to discuss strategy. Who is going to tank? Who are high DPS classes that are likely to draw aggro? What kind of defenses do people have? Looking at these things upfront can help make critical decisions easier. A scrapper with super reflexes is not going to get hit very often but when they do get hit, they get hit hard. An invulnerability tanker is likely to get hit a lot, but for not nearly as much damage per hit. This translates into, generally speaking, you having a little more time to get a heal off on an invulnerable than on a super reflexes.
Buffing your team:
Fortitude: This is, in my opinion, your most important buff. I keep this buff on damage dealers---It increases accuracy, damage, and defense which translates into a greater increase in DPS (and therefore xp/s) for damage classes. It also provides some defense to squishy blasters who are often without any good form of defense. In particularly nasty battles, I will try to keep it on the tank as well. The extra defense on the tank gives me a little more leeway in trying to keep him or her healed. Keep fortitude on as many group members as you can. If fortitude isnt recharging, you should be casting it. You can keep this up on 2-3 group members at a time.
Adrenalin Boost: Adrenalin Boost you can only keep on one target, and not all the time. Your choices are to save it for a rainy day or use it whenever it is available. I use it whenever it is available (otherwise, as described above, I will almost never use it). Who you use it on is a matter of situation. On a tank, it gives them health regeneration and speeds up their attacks, which makes it easier for them to hold aggro. On a scrapper or blaster, it increased their damage and gives them limitless endurance, plus the health regeneration can help keep them standing if they do draw aggro. I have a preference for putting this on the tank, personally, but putting it on a damage dealer can also be useful.
Clear Mind: Once you are out of the lower levels this power is much more important for blasters, controllers, and fellow defenders than for your tanks and scrappers, who usually have status protection of their own. If anticipating a terrible status effect fight, I will take the time to put this on pivotal group members beforehand. If we are fighting multiple mezzers/stunners/holders in a mob I will make certain to keep this on the tank---All mezz protection has magnitude and toggles drop when mezzed/stunned/held. A slept tank has become pretty much as squishy as you are and this can make the fight turn ugly in seconds flat. If not anticipating a terrible status effect fight, I tell my teammates to type ZZZZ in party chat if mezzed, stunned, held, or immobilized so I know to clear mind them. The limitation on clear mind during battle, however, is the animation time. Clear Mind has a rather long animation, so you must use it carefully mid-battle to avoid being locked in the clear mind animation preventing you from providing a life saving heal. Its also important to remember that Clear Mind will remove the stun effect after someone uses a resurrection inspiration.
Recovery Aura: *Wipes tears away remembering the glorious days when this could be darn near permanent.* Now that recovery aura cant be darn near permanent, I just use it whenever it is up. I say Gather for RA in party chat, count to 10, and then cast it. When people arent grouped with a defender that can help their endurance regeneration, they manage to play so it is not the end of the world if someone misses this. I think it is unnecessary to harass other players until they join in the group hug---My recommendation is to do the above. Announce it once, count to 10, cast it, and get back to fighting evil.
Regeneration Aura: I cast this whenever it is up as well, using the same method described above. If I have used both recovery and regeneration aura and my team stumbles into a room filled with hideous mobs, bosses, archvillians, and beasts from the darkest pits of hell I ask my group to wait until they recharge before attacking, so we can have those additional tools at our disposal.
Healing
In order to heal in a group, put yourself on auto follow, put healing aura on auto cast, and say Im rockin the aura!
Just kidding. Healing, like anything else, is done better when done with careful thought and strategy. When you are healing one person, youre locked in an animation for a time and cant heal another. And when someone is not within your line of sight, you cant heal them at all.
Make sure to tell your teammates about the line of sight issue. Them trying to stay within your line of sight is every bit as important as you trying to keep them in your line of sight. If you try to heal someone and get the target not in line of sight message, tell them in party chat---Lil not in line of sight, cant heal. Develop a code if you want so you can say it more quickly. If I just say your name in party chat in all caps, it means Im trying to heal you but youre not in line of sight. LIL AXIOM etc.
Ideally, your tank will take the most damage and need the most healing. Because of this, I keep the tank targeted as my default. I can blast away, hitting whoever his target is, and can hit a heal as soon as I need to. If someone else needs a heal, I switch targets, heal them as needed, and then switch back to the tank once the situation settles down.
If someone drops suddenly into the red, I use absorb pain. Otherwise, I use heal other. I try to hover near the thick of the fight and use healing aura whenever I see two or more people getting a little hurt. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Using healing aura to patch everyones small wounds decreases the chance of needing to do several single target heals at once. It also helps keep me topped off if I have drawn random aggro.
If I use absorb pain, I let my team know. Ive absorbed pain and cant be healed so try to keep them off me! If my team keeps the enemies off me, I can use absorb pain with no real danger.
Remember to keep inspirations for yourself, as well. You can provide excellent status effect protection to your teammates, preventing them from getting stunned, slept, held, or immobilized, but you are as stunnable as the come. I think its critical to keep several break frees on you at all times. You WILL get stunned, slept, or held at least sometimes and the loss of your healing abilities due to being held can cause your group to wipe.
On the occasion that someone is defeated during a battle, you can use resurrection to get them up and fighting again. Be careful with mid battle resurrection because it has a high endurance cost, a not very short animation, and most importantly while it does restore a characters health and endurance completely, it doesnt turn their toggles back on! Resurrecting a toggle dependent character in the middle of an AOE zone or at the feet of a boss can result in them incurring double debt. Keep an eye on the fight around you and mid-battle resurrect when you can do so without A) causing more deaths because you are tied up with a resurrection and not healing and B) not cause the newly resurrected teammate to take a second dirt nap due to having no time to activate toggle defenses before they get beaten to a pulp.
Blasting
Surprise, surprise you have blasts! And you can shoot people with them! At the bare minimum if your party is fighting and you dont have anything else that needs doing, blast the tanks opponent by targeting through the tank as described above. Even if you dont do much damage, the debuffs inherent in your attacks help your party arrest them more quickly, or arrest them with less danger to your team. Watch your endurance---Dont blast to the point where you are unable to defend, but dont just stand there doing nothing. If no one needs you to do anything defendery, there is not reason you cant contribute by throwing a few blasts.
Additionally, learn to use your blasts tactically. When I am in a chaotic fight, I dont use my slow animation mental blast because I dont want to be locked in an animation for that long. If I see that someone is beating on that blaster I just healed, I use my telekinetic blast to knock the attacker back and give the blaster some breathing room followed by subdue to hopefully root them out of melee range of the blaster, or my will domination attack to sleep the opponent.
Tactical uses of blasts will vary according to both the powerset and the specific power, but learn how to use your blasts to help your team. At the very least, target through the tank and blast away when you have no healing to do.
Another advantage of targeting through the tank is that it lets you blast at the tanks target both with no real danger of getting aggro from the target (unless your subdue is a heck of a lot more impressive than mine, its not going to pull aggro off a tank) and it lets you blast away while still keeping an eye on everyones health.
Summary
Your buffs, your heals, and your blasts are all essential parts of your character. Learning to use all of them intelligently and effectively will make you a fantastic empath. Talk to your team and let them know your limitations, such as line of sight. Offer the recovery auras to people, but dont browbeat team members if they dont come in for the group hug. Ask your team to stop before charging into those mentalists so you have time to clear mind pivotal team members. In short, use all of your abilities and do so in a thinking manner, ideally with thinking teammates who will do the same. Now get out there and defend some fellow heroes!
Guide to the Empathy Defender
I. Introduction
II. Whats in a name?
III. Primary Powerset Powers and Slotting
IV. Secondary Powers
V. Power Pools
VI. Strategies
VII. Summary
I. Introduction
I have a great love of healing and have played many characters capable of healing in many different MMORPGs, starting with dispensing bandaids to people way back in Ultima Online. I have been a Cleric in the world of Norrath, a healer in the Empire of Istaria (of which I have diligently tried to repress most memories), a priest in Azeroth, a Doctor on Rubi-Ka, a Cleric fighting for my realm in the dark times in Camelot, and probably a few others that I have forgotten.
The empathy defender is unique among all these classes because healing is only a part of what you do and, as you level up, your buffs and the defenses of your allies make your healing less and less important. This is completely different from other games in which as you level up you get bigger and bigger heals and your comrades ultimately take proportionally consistent damage across the breadth of their careers. A well designed, well played empath is a joy to a group. However, a poorly designed and poorly played empathy is a terrible thing to behold. The goal of this guide is to use my own experience to share some ideas of what I think works and doesnt work. All of this can be filed under in my opinion---I am not the arbitrator of truth and my experience, like everyone elses, is subjective.
II. Whats in a name?
After choosing your origin, your powersets, and creating the look of your character, your next task is naming yourself. It is worthwhile to really think about this because the name you choose makes an impression on people---Make sure it is the impression you want to make. If you have a clever name, people are likely to think you are clever, if you have a funny name, people are likely to think you are funny, and if you have a stupid name Well, I am sure you get the idea. Remember that you cant change your name voluntarily, so the name you take is the one you are stuck with unless a GM forcibly changes it or you grow to hate it so much that you reroll.
What follows is a brief personal rant. If personal rants bother you, please skip the next section. /Rant: For goodness sake, please dont make a hootchie mama with breasts that are bigger than her head in a thong and bra and name her Whatever Stupid Descriptor Nurse. Nekkid Nurse. Hottie Nurse. Head Nurse. Other nursey names like RN Kiss a Boo are equally irritating. I am a nurse. I have spent my life working in hospices and mental hospitals, caring for the suffering, dying, and the mad. I have seen things that most of you will never see and most of you will probably be glad that you never see. Nursing is the largest, most trusted healthcare profession in the United States and to see this profession objectified into ridiculously clad (or unclad) huge boobed bimbos (that are then almost invariably poorly played) irritates the heck out of me. So, please, show a little respect for a profession that invariably, inevitably at some time in your life will care for you or someone you love. And trust me, when you need CPR the size of our breasts will be of significantly less concern to you than how competent we are. /rant off. There, I feel better.
III. Primary Powerset Powers and Slotting.
Here, I will use the basic rating system I have seen others use, provide a brief discussion on the power, and provide recommendations for slotting. A look at the powerset as a whole clearly defines the role of the empathy defender as buffing and healing. I list buffing first because if you actually look at all the powers to which you have access you have two single target heals, one area heal, and every other power in the set is a buff! Clearly, buffing is something we are meant to do, and do quite well.
Rating system-
* Eminently skippable. Dont bother.
* * Situational, might be useful, but not something youll use often or really miss not having.
* * * A decent power that is useful fairly often.
* * * * A solid power that youll use regularly and helps define your character.
* * * * * A must have. If you dont want this power, you have probably chosen the wrong power set.
Healing Aura: Available at level 1, this is a staple power. I advise taking it at level 1 because it will affect you as well as your group and will be essential whenever you try to solo.
Rating: * * * * *
Slotting: I recommend 6 slotting this power with 3 heals, 1 endurance reduction, and 2 recharges. You may prefer 2 endurance reductions and one recharge depending on your play style.
Heal Other: Also available at level 1, heal other is a single target ranged heal. This power will also be a staple power and one that your group will depend on. However, unless you are able to group right out of the box, I would recommend taking a second attack power at level 2 and picking this up at level 4 to make soloing your low level missions easier.
Rating: * * * * *
Slotting: 6 Slot this power with 3 heals and a mix of recharge reduction and endurance reduction as for healing aura.
Absorb Pain: Absorb Pain is available at level 2 and is a huge single target heal with a downside: It causes you some damage and makes you unhealable by any means other than natural regeneration for a brief time after use. I have seen Absorb Pain debated many times but, in my opinion, it is a great power. If you dont have aggro, or if you have a means of very rapid natural regeneration (such as regeneration aura), you have a second single target heal that costs 1 endurance, heals for a lot out of the box, and casts quite quickly. Absorb Pain, simply put, saves lives when used tactically. However, I gave absorb pain only three stars because the debuff it places on you does make it tricky to use and it is not something you will find yourself using every fight.
Rating: * * *
Slotting: Absorb Pain works just fine out of the box with a heal in the default slot. You can put a second heal in it, if you would like, but I would advise against any recharges in it. Absorb Pain is not something you want to spam.
Resurrection: Ahhh, resurrection, available to you and all your painful pick up groups beginning at level 6. Resurrection allows you to restore defeated person without a trip to the hospital, and brings them back at full health and endurance. This is a power that I personally consider debatable but if youre an empathy defender, your group is going to expect you to have it. The greatest thing about this power is that it resurrects someone at full health and endurance which means you can use it in mid-battle to bring someone back into the fight. It also saves allies some trips to the hospital which can decrease downtime in the event of a group members defeat. However, if all goes well this is a power that you will use rarely.
Rating: * *
Slotting: I just put a recharge in the default slot. You may prefer an endurance reduction to make it easier to use mid fight. Resurrection has a hefty recharge time, so if you find it too painful waiting for it to recharge when several teammates have taken a dirt nap, feel free to put more recharges in it.
Clear Mind: Clear Mind is a fantastic status effect protection and cleanser, available to you at level 8. It protects against sleeps, holds, stuns, and immobilizes, and will remove these effects from a target if used on someone already affected. It has a quick recharge and low endurance cost, making it quite possible (although tedious) to keep it on your entire group if needed. I give it four stars only because there are some fights and situations wherein status protection is not a concern.
Rating: * * * *
Slotting: I just put an endurance reduction in the default slot and only because I hate having empty slots.
Fortitude: Fortitude is a glorious single target accuracy, defense, and damage buff that becomes your toy at level 12. This buff is outstanding. Its only flaw is that it has a fairly long recharge, meaning you can only keep it on 2-3 group members at a time.
Rating: * * * * *
Slotting: I recommend six slotting this, with a combination of to hit buffs, defense buffs, and recharges. I personally use two of each.
Recovery Aura: Recovery Aura comes up at level 18 and your groups will be very happy if you get it. Recovery Aura is a group endurance recovery buff. Unfortunately, it has a hefty recharge time. I give it 3 stars only due to its recharge time----It is glorious when its up, but is down enough of the time that you have to design yourself to play without it. If you can manage your endurance without difficulty when its down, the actual value it provides when up is questionable as you have adopted a playstyle that does not depend on it. It does, however, help in very long battles or with endurance challenged teammates.
Rating: * * *
Slotting: I recommend three slotting this with recharge reducers. The potency of the endurance regeneration is huge so I personally feel slotting this with endurance modification is a waste.
Regeneration Aura: Regeneration Aura is a group health regeneration buff. Like Recovery Aura, it has a long recharge timer which mitigates its usefulness somewhat. However, it will regenerate you through the healing debuff time of absorb pain which means that if you save it for ugly fights, you can use the regeneration aura to help keep you team healthy and allow you to toss around absorb pain with impunity. I give this four stars due to the synergy with absorb pain and the fact that a health regeneration buff can be useful in any situation in which more than one teammate might need spot healing.
Rating: * * * *
Slotting: Personally, I six slot this with 3 recharges and 3 heals.
Adrenalin Boost: This fantastic buff becomes yours at the tender level of 32. Adrenalin Boost is a single target buff to health regeneration and endurance regeneration, and provides a hasten effect to its target. This power is another must have and one that will turn one of your allies into an arresting machine for a time.
Rating: * * * * *
Slotting: I recommend three recharges and three heals.
Youll notice that no power in the empathy set got less than 2 stars. Thats because I feel all of these powers are useful and most of them are useful the majority of the time. Others debate the value of both absorb pain and regeneration aura but I feel they are both excellent powers.
IV. Secondary Powers
As a defender, your choice of secondary powers are blast sets. I belong to the camp that feels the purpose of the secondary is to support the primary and think that any of the blast sets can be used to do this, depending on the play style you prefer. The two most important factors to consider regarding your blast set are its effectiveness as an attack set if/when you solo and its secondary effect, which will impact its usefulness in groups. In my opinion, while some blast sets might be a little better or a little worse as an attack set they all fall into a reasonable range of ok. Therefore, I will focus primarily on the secondary effect. Im not going to review each blast power in each secondary set but will provide a brief overview of the secondary set. The other factor to consider is animation times. Shorter animation times are always better because the healing part of your defending is reactive. If you are locked in an animation for too long, this can result in someone dying because you are unable to get a heal off.
Radiation: The radiation set debuffs the targets defense, making them easier to hit. It does have an AOE knockdown/back which can be useful in specific situations. Essentially, this set helps support your team by increasing the effective DPS against targets you have blasted. Neutrino bolt, the first and mandatory blast in the set, is an ideal low level attack---Its fast with a low endurance cost and a very quick animation, meaning that you can spam it and generally make it into an attack chain in and of itself.
Dark: The dark blast set debuffs opponents accuracy, meaning that opponents you target with it will be less likely to hit. This, of course, translates into less damage taken by your targets.
Sonic: The sonic attack set debuffs the resistance of your target, meaning that your teammates will effectively do more damage per hit. The sonic attack set also has some decent control powers, including a cone AOE sleep and a single target disorient.
Psy: The psychic blast set slows the attack speed of the target it hits, although in my opinion this effect is often barely noticeable. It also has quite a long range, making it easier to attack from the back of the fray, and includes several control type powers including a single target, high damage sleep, a single target disorient, and an area knock up. The biggest downside to the psychic blast set is that the first, mandatory power, mental blast, has a rather long animation time for rather minimal benefit.
Energy: The energy set is heavy on knockback powers, which are almost always a mixed bag. However, knockback and knockdown do serve to mitigate incoming damage by effectively slowing the attack rate of the opponent.
Pick one that fits your concept or play style. In short, radiation and sonic by virtue of their debuffs allow you to contribute more offensive power to a team while the other sets allow you to contribute more defensive power to a team. Pay attention to animations and sound effects as well Youre going to be watching those animation and hearing those sound effects for a very long time. If a certain sound effect feels like fingernails on a chalkboard to you, youre better off switching to another secondary power set.
V. Pool Powers
Rather than discussing every possible pool power, I will review those that have certain synergies with empathy and that I see frequently in empathy templates.
Teleport Pool
Teleport Friend: This is a power that seems to have become relatively expected of empathy defenders because it allows you to teleport a teammate to a safe location and resurrect them there. I am philosophically opposed to people expecting empathy defenders to take this power---Many other defender sets can resurrect but often skip the power altogether with a philosophy of I would rather have powers that prevent people from dying than a resurrection power. But with an empathy defender, people seem to expect that you dedicate not one but two powers to resurrecting people! However, it is useful to have when you do want to resurrect someone and can be helpful in resolving the chaos when Captain Runsoffbyhimselftogetkilled does his thing. It can also be taken as the prerequisite for teleport which is a decent travel power.
Flight Pool:
Hover: I love hover and, even now that it can only be three slotted, find it immensely useful as a way of staying above the battle but still in the thick of things where the most people can benefit from my aura powers. It also provides knockback protection---When hovering rather than being knocked back or knocked down, you flip over in place and are ready to keep defending (even if youre a little dizzy). Hover is also the prerequisite for fly, which although slower than other travel powers is the most precise travel power in the game.
Fitness Pool:
The fitness pool is, of course, really about stamina. If you dont have a vertical travel power, take hurdle. If you do, take swift. Dont take both. Take health (remember, your natural regeneration works during absorb pain) and then take stamina and three slot it.
I have seen many, many posts along the general lines of Do I NEED Stamina? The answer to most of these posts is probably no. You can slot endurance reductions heavily, you can try to make sure you keep plenty of endurance inspirations in your inventory, and you can use recovery aura and (if you take the right epic pool) conserve power whenever they are up. Particularly if you arent going to run many toggles, a stamina-less Empath is possible and spares you a power pool and three slots.
However, I personally hate to micro-manage my endurance. Micro-management of my endurance pool does not increase my fun factor. If I get down to half endurance I get anxious and have terrible visions of my party being slaughtered when I run out of endurance and can no longer defend them. So, from my point of view taking stamina makes the game more fun.
Speed Pool:
Hasten: Hasten is a useful power, when you need to be able to do things really, really fast such as blast at a boss when soloing or heal like mad when fighting an AV in a group. Pre-ED, I will admit to being a perma-hasten empath. Post ED, however, I dropped it, slotted more for recharge, and dont really miss it. You may have better results but I hate long recharge powers because I end up trying to save them for when I REALLY need it which translates into almost never using them. Hasten can be activated at the same time that you activate one or more of your long recharge buffs, such as recovery aura, regeneration aura, or adrenalin boost and will then shorten their recharges. Hasten is also the prerequisite for super speed. I detest super speed as a travel power as I am a terrible navigator and zones like Skyway City drive me to madness, but the stealth component and low endurance cost of super speed mean you can run it in missions and decrease your chance of getting unwanted aggro.
Other pool powers may or may not be useful for you depending on your likes and play styles. The medicine pool is fairly pointless for an empathy defender, and I dont think the presence pool contributes anything useful to an empath but its your toon so do what your heart desires.
VI. Strategies
These are some basic strategies for defending in a team environment. I dont PVP to speak of so am not competent to give you any PVP advice.
When you join a group, look to see what youve teamed up with and take a moment to discuss strategy. Who is going to tank? Who are high DPS classes that are likely to draw aggro? What kind of defenses do people have? Looking at these things upfront can help make critical decisions easier. A scrapper with super reflexes is not going to get hit very often but when they do get hit, they get hit hard. An invulnerability tanker is likely to get hit a lot, but for not nearly as much damage per hit. This translates into, generally speaking, you having a little more time to get a heal off on an invulnerable than on a super reflexes.
Buffing your team:
Fortitude: This is, in my opinion, your most important buff. I keep this buff on damage dealers---It increases accuracy, damage, and defense which translates into a greater increase in DPS (and therefore xp/s) for damage classes. It also provides some defense to squishy blasters who are often without any good form of defense. In particularly nasty battles, I will try to keep it on the tank as well. The extra defense on the tank gives me a little more leeway in trying to keep him or her healed. Keep fortitude on as many group members as you can. If fortitude isnt recharging, you should be casting it. You can keep this up on 2-3 group members at a time.
Adrenalin Boost: Adrenalin Boost you can only keep on one target, and not all the time. Your choices are to save it for a rainy day or use it whenever it is available. I use it whenever it is available (otherwise, as described above, I will almost never use it). Who you use it on is a matter of situation. On a tank, it gives them health regeneration and speeds up their attacks, which makes it easier for them to hold aggro. On a scrapper or blaster, it increased their damage and gives them limitless endurance, plus the health regeneration can help keep them standing if they do draw aggro. I have a preference for putting this on the tank, personally, but putting it on a damage dealer can also be useful.
Clear Mind: Once you are out of the lower levels this power is much more important for blasters, controllers, and fellow defenders than for your tanks and scrappers, who usually have status protection of their own. If anticipating a terrible status effect fight, I will take the time to put this on pivotal group members beforehand. If we are fighting multiple mezzers/stunners/holders in a mob I will make certain to keep this on the tank---All mezz protection has magnitude and toggles drop when mezzed/stunned/held. A slept tank has become pretty much as squishy as you are and this can make the fight turn ugly in seconds flat. If not anticipating a terrible status effect fight, I tell my teammates to type ZZZZ in party chat if mezzed, stunned, held, or immobilized so I know to clear mind them. The limitation on clear mind during battle, however, is the animation time. Clear Mind has a rather long animation, so you must use it carefully mid-battle to avoid being locked in the clear mind animation preventing you from providing a life saving heal. Its also important to remember that Clear Mind will remove the stun effect after someone uses a resurrection inspiration.
Recovery Aura: *Wipes tears away remembering the glorious days when this could be darn near permanent.* Now that recovery aura cant be darn near permanent, I just use it whenever it is up. I say Gather for RA in party chat, count to 10, and then cast it. When people arent grouped with a defender that can help their endurance regeneration, they manage to play so it is not the end of the world if someone misses this. I think it is unnecessary to harass other players until they join in the group hug---My recommendation is to do the above. Announce it once, count to 10, cast it, and get back to fighting evil.
Regeneration Aura: I cast this whenever it is up as well, using the same method described above. If I have used both recovery and regeneration aura and my team stumbles into a room filled with hideous mobs, bosses, archvillians, and beasts from the darkest pits of hell I ask my group to wait until they recharge before attacking, so we can have those additional tools at our disposal.
Healing
In order to heal in a group, put yourself on auto follow, put healing aura on auto cast, and say Im rockin the aura!
Just kidding. Healing, like anything else, is done better when done with careful thought and strategy. When you are healing one person, youre locked in an animation for a time and cant heal another. And when someone is not within your line of sight, you cant heal them at all.
Make sure to tell your teammates about the line of sight issue. Them trying to stay within your line of sight is every bit as important as you trying to keep them in your line of sight. If you try to heal someone and get the target not in line of sight message, tell them in party chat---Lil not in line of sight, cant heal. Develop a code if you want so you can say it more quickly. If I just say your name in party chat in all caps, it means Im trying to heal you but youre not in line of sight. LIL AXIOM etc.
Ideally, your tank will take the most damage and need the most healing. Because of this, I keep the tank targeted as my default. I can blast away, hitting whoever his target is, and can hit a heal as soon as I need to. If someone else needs a heal, I switch targets, heal them as needed, and then switch back to the tank once the situation settles down.
If someone drops suddenly into the red, I use absorb pain. Otherwise, I use heal other. I try to hover near the thick of the fight and use healing aura whenever I see two or more people getting a little hurt. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Using healing aura to patch everyones small wounds decreases the chance of needing to do several single target heals at once. It also helps keep me topped off if I have drawn random aggro.
If I use absorb pain, I let my team know. Ive absorbed pain and cant be healed so try to keep them off me! If my team keeps the enemies off me, I can use absorb pain with no real danger.
Remember to keep inspirations for yourself, as well. You can provide excellent status effect protection to your teammates, preventing them from getting stunned, slept, held, or immobilized, but you are as stunnable as the come. I think its critical to keep several break frees on you at all times. You WILL get stunned, slept, or held at least sometimes and the loss of your healing abilities due to being held can cause your group to wipe.
On the occasion that someone is defeated during a battle, you can use resurrection to get them up and fighting again. Be careful with mid battle resurrection because it has a high endurance cost, a not very short animation, and most importantly while it does restore a characters health and endurance completely, it doesnt turn their toggles back on! Resurrecting a toggle dependent character in the middle of an AOE zone or at the feet of a boss can result in them incurring double debt. Keep an eye on the fight around you and mid-battle resurrect when you can do so without A) causing more deaths because you are tied up with a resurrection and not healing and B) not cause the newly resurrected teammate to take a second dirt nap due to having no time to activate toggle defenses before they get beaten to a pulp.
Blasting
Surprise, surprise you have blasts! And you can shoot people with them! At the bare minimum if your party is fighting and you dont have anything else that needs doing, blast the tanks opponent by targeting through the tank as described above. Even if you dont do much damage, the debuffs inherent in your attacks help your party arrest them more quickly, or arrest them with less danger to your team. Watch your endurance---Dont blast to the point where you are unable to defend, but dont just stand there doing nothing. If no one needs you to do anything defendery, there is not reason you cant contribute by throwing a few blasts.
Additionally, learn to use your blasts tactically. When I am in a chaotic fight, I dont use my slow animation mental blast because I dont want to be locked in an animation for that long. If I see that someone is beating on that blaster I just healed, I use my telekinetic blast to knock the attacker back and give the blaster some breathing room followed by subdue to hopefully root them out of melee range of the blaster, or my will domination attack to sleep the opponent.
Tactical uses of blasts will vary according to both the powerset and the specific power, but learn how to use your blasts to help your team. At the very least, target through the tank and blast away when you have no healing to do.
Another advantage of targeting through the tank is that it lets you blast at the tanks target both with no real danger of getting aggro from the target (unless your subdue is a heck of a lot more impressive than mine, its not going to pull aggro off a tank) and it lets you blast away while still keeping an eye on everyones health.
Summary
Your buffs, your heals, and your blasts are all essential parts of your character. Learning to use all of them intelligently and effectively will make you a fantastic empath. Talk to your team and let them know your limitations, such as line of sight. Offer the recovery auras to people, but dont browbeat team members if they dont come in for the group hug. Ask your team to stop before charging into those mentalists so you have time to clear mind pivotal team members. In short, use all of your abilities and do so in a thinking manner, ideally with thinking teammates who will do the same. Now get out there and defend some fellow heroes!
Comments welcome!
Cheers,
GrayCat