Smoke doesn't stack (Smoke Stack!) from the same caster...
Didn't mean 'stacking' stack... Meant 'apply' stack. Sorry, wasn't clear.
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I've always wondered if a Fire/FF troller stacking Smoke on the enemies could even out to the same damage mitigation (less +defense given, but less +def needed to cap because of a lower enemy acc). Someone should run those numbers.
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They dont. Smoke gives a piddly -5% to Hit debuff, which unlike defence gets reduced by higher conning enemies.
However, the majority of enemies will be stunned or held, which kinda makes up for the loss of defence... 
Controller bubbles slotted are 1.55*(7.5+12.5)=31.1% Defence, +5 for smoke = 36.1% defence vs even cons. So its not as good as a Defender still.
I just rolled a Force Field Defender on Saturday. By Sunday Night he's just a hair away from 18 and in a great SG. I felt like it was double xp weekend for a while. My Buffs really helped my team roll through levels and up our difficulty.
I've wanted to take some time and try my hand at FF for a while. Mainly because as a tank, I love playing with a FFer. Some may think, 'well you must not be a very good tank.' Ha! I say to you. I don't need you're bubbles, but I love them when they're there. With a FF on the team, the pressure comes off quite a bit. I can turn off my secondary toggles, care less about the few minions that run toward the squishes and focus on having a ball. It also gives me the opportunity to run my favorite in game tactic, Run in like and idiot.
I was surprised when so many people were surprised at how useful I was. I received many comments at early levels about how they were worried at first because I wasn't a healer, or how they just didn't know how tough I could make them be. I couldn't believe everyone didn't clamor for a FF like I always did.
I'll take some time and look at the Knockback Guide. I completely avoided ForceBolt at first, but now I think I'll pick it up to machine gun. I would like to hear some talk about IOs and Epic Power Pools.
The Paragon Universe - Virtueverse
Seasons Greetings
I am glad you are enjoying your bubbling, welcome to the world of Defending WITHOUT having a million hit points! 
Tankers and Defenders are very much alike, both their jobs are ensuring team survival. They just do it in different ways. And keep in mind that you can be a "fake tank" and take the alpha for a group with Personal Force Field. 
The 'CDN_Guardian's Guide to FF/NRG Offenders v5' link doesn't seem to work...
I've been playing a FF/Mind character I named "General Control" on Guardian. He's roughly lvl 38 now.
I've only chosen the bubble buffs (personal, deflection, insulation, and dispersion) but have heavily stacked them.
I also have leadership pool (mostly tactics) heavily stacked too.
I also stacked the healing pool (heal other), so I can heal others if they need it. It is a REALLY team focused build.
My mind holds are fully stacked, so I can just run in, hold the enemies and let everyone else kill away in saftey. If I get into trouble with agro, then I just switch on personal FF and heal myself as needed.
I actually like to lack of effects. I love the character and feel as though I am making a huge benefit to the team, and its a very 'minimalist appearance'. It doesn't look like I am doing much, and it doesn't require too many quick reactions and constant button bashing.
For me it is quite different game play to a SS/INV tanker, but it is a lot of fun. Highly recommended!
Tim
My first hero (wow... about 3 and a half years ago!) was a FF/Psi defender named Bubble-O on Justice. I've pretty much retired the toon as of a year or so ago when I started frequenting other servers, but reading through this guide makes me want to roll another : )
Just wanted to add that the -Recharge from the Ice Blast Secondary is a fantastic addition to Shields.
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I've wanted to take some time and try my hand at FF for a while. Mainly because as a tank, I love playing with a FFer. Some may think, 'well you must not be a very good tank.' Ha! I say to you. I don't need you're bubbles, but I love them when they're there. With a FF on the team, the pressure comes off quite a bit. I can turn off my secondary toggles, care less about the few minions that run toward the squishes and focus on having a ball. It also gives me the opportunity to run my favorite in game tactic, Run in like an idiot .
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I LOLed when i read that.
Awesome Guide.
Please check out CDN_Guardian's FF/NRG Offender Guide for I6!
Well, this is a pretty awesome guide. Thanks for expanding my awareness beyond the "big three." In fact, I think I'll be taking all the FF powers on my FF/Eng.
Question though: is it possible to avoid taking Stamina on a FF/Eng? My biggest end use is when I bubble, but that's [edit: not] usually during combat. I'm also planning on outfitting with IOs (read: 30-50% End Reduc). I don't have any toggles beyond Dispersion Bubble.
Currently, he's lvl 16 with a team build focus. I want Medicine, Fly and either Leadership or Concealment/Grant Invis. That leaves one more for Fitness. But I'd also like Recall Friend (not a priority but nice to have and fits my concept).
If you had to pick, which pool/power would you choose: Maneuvers, Grant Invis or Recall Friend?
Thanks for any advice!
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Question though: is it possible to avoid taking Stamina on a FF/Eng? My biggest end use is when I bubble, but that's usually during combat. I'm also planning on outfitting with IOs (read: 30-50% End Reduc). I don't have any toggles beyond Dispersion Bubble.
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With those circumstances? Yes, especially if you're teaming a lot. Vigilance really DOES help, believe it or not. It's also been proven many times that Endurance reduction is actually BETTER than more recovery, most of the time. You get more bang for your buck.
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If you had to pick, which pool/power would you choose: Maneuvers, Grant Invis or Recall Friend?
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Out of those three, Maneuvers. But really, I'd take Assault instead. Getting close to the Defense "soft cap" is great, but adding 18.75% to the ENTIRE TEAM'S offense all the time is way better, IMHO.
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But really, I'd take Assault instead. Getting close to the Defense "soft cap" is great, but adding 18.75% to the ENTIRE TEAM'S offense all the time is way better, IMHO.
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Bear in mind, though, that that figure is an enhancement to *base* damage, not slotted damage. Since everyone on your team is likely to have their attacks fully slotted for damage by the time you have powers to spare for Assault, this means that you're actually adding less than 10% to your team's effective damage output.
i.e. the calculation (assuming 95% damage enhancement from SO/IOs) is:
Base damage x (1 + .95 + .1875)
rather than
Base damage x (1 + .95) x (1 + .1875)
You can test this for yourself by checking your damage (with a fully-slotted attack, not Brawl!) before and after you turn on Assault.
Still not bad for a power you don't have to slot, but less impressive than it looks ...
I never was good at numbers, thanks.
No worries! This is one of those little details that almost nobody seems to notice, even though it makes quite a difference in the real effectiveness of certain powers.
Incidentally, the same principle applies to other damage buffs like Fury and Build Up. That "+100% damage" that a blaster's Build Up advertises is really only adding about 50% to the normal output of a fully-slotted power; Aim is only yielding an extra 30%. Still very nice, of course, but a bit less essential than they seem, especially in PvE where it's not uncommon for IO sets to leave people at or near the to-hit cap most of the time.
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I never was good at numbers, thanks.
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When I finish my heretic's guide to Force Fields, can I quote you?
/em hassle
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
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I never was good at numbers, thanks.
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When I finish my heretic's guide to Force Fields, can I quote you?
/em hassle
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Go right on ahead! It's not like I haven't said it a million times already.
I was exploring all of the posts about Castle's Face and I saw "Force Fields Guru" above your avatar and the link in your sig and decided to check it out (being a FF Defender and all). I didn't read through it all because it's late and I just got off work. However, it does seem like a very good guide for those that need it. I didn't use a guide or anything while building my Defender. I learned what works best for me by playing it for myself.
I tried a defender because it had ranged attacks. I had been playing a blaster before and at about level 45 I just couldn't stand it anymore. It was just so BORING. As a defender I got to blast and support the team. I was actually doing something more than hanging out and launching fireballs. Anywho! I just thought I'd say something and I should stop because I tend to ramble on and on when I'm sleepy. I'll have to read the whole thing sometime.
Space-Girl
Level 50 Force Field/Energy Blast Defender
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I learned what works best for me by playing it for myself.
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That's really the best way to learn, no doubt.
This is here for two reasons:
<ul type="square">[*]To give people that want it a "jump start" into the set.[*]And to allow people that have been "stuck in their ways" an outside opinion of the powers so that they might rethink them.[/list]
I hope I succeeded in those goals.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, I didn't see it in your guide.
It's possible, given a bit of time, to give Power Build Up-Bubbles to an entire team. This is not so handy on short missions, but priceless on longer ones such as the Terra Volta Trials.
Have 3 people gather near you. If you're fast enough, you can cast your PBU'd bubbles on the first three people. Do not bubble the others yet, not until your PBU comes back up (about 1m20s for me). The next 3 are PBU bubbled, and refresh the bubbles on the first 3 you bubbled. When it's back again, refresh everyone's bubbles and then PBU'bubble the last person.
As long as you refresh the bubbles with your standard, un-PBU'd bubbles, they last in the PBU'd state. In this way it's possible to keep your whole team swimming in Defense Buffs.
Wait, wait. . . .as long as I rebubble before the original PBU Bubble fades, then my new bubbles will be buffed as well?
The Paragon Universe - Virtueverse
Seasons Greetings
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Important note: Every major set in the game was designed with one major weakness, that was a part of NCSoft's design philosophy. Force Fields' major weakness is Sleep. None of your powers provide you with ANY resistence to Sleep effects. However, remember that Sleep only affects you if it actually hits you, so your only defense against sleep aside from pool powers is, well, more Defense!
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Just FYI... The Controller's Ancillary pool Psionic Mastery includes Indomitable Will and that provides sleep protection. It can be made perma fairly easily.
205723: A Different DESTINY
When Soldiers of Arachnos got their names added to the Destiny List, Longbow managed to get a copy of the list and began rounding villains up. But one name on the list shocked them...
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Important note: Every major set in the game was designed with one major weakness, that was a part of NCSoft's design philosophy. Force Fields' major weakness is Sleep. None of your powers provide you with ANY resistence to Sleep effects. However, remember that Sleep only affects you if it actually hits you, so your only defense against sleep aside from pool powers is, well, more Defense!
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Just FYI... The Controller's Ancillary pool Psionic Mastery includes Indomitable Will and that provides sleep protection. It can be made perma fairly easily.
[/ QUOTE ]Fairly easily? Well, assuming that slotting it can get you +100% recharge rate, you'd need another +200% to get the recharge down to 90 seconds.
...
Actually, that would be nice to be able to do... how do you do it easily?
I've always wondered if a Fire/FF troller stacking Smoke on the enemies could even out to the same damage mitigation (less +defense given, but less +def needed to cap because of a lower enemy acc). Someone should run those numbers.