In the high game for an empath, my focus is on
#1) Buffs and
#2) the Damage you can bring
Healing barely enters into it, build a decent AOE attack set, which being elec alos means you bring some control into play through the end drain.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
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With my other, higher-level characters (4 50s and growing) I find that post-30 a dedicated Healer becomes less and less desirable as a teammate.
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Ayup.
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So my question is, what's the endgame for Empath Defenders?
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On the whole, buff/debuff sets are very good to have, but comparatively with other buff/debuff sets, Empathy is near the bottom. Still good to have; just not as good as, oh, say, OMGSTORMGASM. So an empathy defender's endgame depends a lot on the secondary set, which very well may be the stronger of her two sets.
... Oops, you took Electric.
OK. Well, you still have Adrenalin Boost to look forward to at 32. As with Clear Mind and Fortitude, you'll have to get a sense of who to buff with AB, but it'll greatly improve your team's effectiveness when properly used. Voltaic Sentinel at 35 is extra damage. Thunderous Blast at 38 does double duty as a panic button and minion remover. If you haven't taken and slotted up your RA's, do so, they're not the greatest team buff but they're fricken awesome for soloing and tanking. If you haven't concentrated on your recovery debuffs yet, take a look at Short Circuit and Tesla Cage, as both of these powers stop targets' recovery, which is excellent if their endurance is drained to zero.
Oh, yes, I did say tanking. That's another endgame option for you.
Today's object lesson on getting a team:
I sat on a Force Field defender in the mid-30s with "LFT" for something like 40 minutes once. Mostly I was checking to see how common the various types of Defenders were, but I was also checking this at the same time.
Then I sent about four tells to Blasters around my level saying, "Does your team have any need for a Force Field defender?" And I got a team in under 5 minutes.
People don't want to break the rhythm of the team to recruit. If you ask nicely, though, they may have room and desire for you.
The specifics of "how to be a good high level Empath"- I'm not a great Emp, but here are some things I've noticed.
"pure healing" stops being particularly useful around level 24 (my estimate.) At that point, scrappers and tanks are three to ten times tougher than blaster. So if the blaster is taking ANY damage, they're dying in ... like five seconds. Reflexes only go so far.
If you look at the powers in Empathy, the heals are all in the first 10-15 levels and everything after that is buffs. Which, applied to [e.g.] blasters, makes them tough enough that they live long enough to heal. Regen Aura is autohealing (about 30 sec to full health if I remember), Adrenaline Boost is ridiculous unkillability and recharge, and gives the ability to fire continuously even through nukes.
My /Elec experience is, again, with Force Fielders. . . Power Build Up at 41 made a huge difference. I could Short Circuit and drain a group, and it made the nuke [picked up at 38, slotted at 39] finally useful. Still often overlooked, but it could at least drop white-cons. Tesla Cage was a solid hold for the most annoying badguys- although, again, as a Force Fielder I had the spare time to fiddle around with stuff like that.
So basically you have to stop thinking of yourself as the star. If you're on an 8-person team and you deliver 25% of the functionality, you're still twice as good as average.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
I can see your point Fulmens...I just don't want to be 'that guy' who is always sending tels asking for a team spot. If our Team Finder would just post who has the star I could just ask the team leader but that gripe is on another thread.
And I wasn't thinking of MYSELF as the star but I also don't want to be running a toon that afterwards the players are thinking 'he's good at what he does but what we REALLY need is (fill in the blank).'
Defenders have so many options that I sometimes get the roles confused. Blasters do damage...got that. Tankers hold aggro and TAKE damage...got that too. But a typical Defender has so much in the toolbox that at times I wonder what to use.
Also, Empathy is one of the sets I have the least experience with so I wanted to avoid the most newbish mistakes. The advice about Elec is good though...if the team needs less healing after Level X then I can concentrate more on buffing and hitting the bad guys.
Thanks for the tips.
"Comics, you're not a Mastermind...you're an Overlord!"
I always find more groups on my 50 Empath than any of my other characters.
Even when you're 50. Empaths are in high-demand. I always get tells asking for me to help a TF even when I'm listed as 'Not Looking For Group'.
As for playing an end-game Empath, think of yourself as the 'group's insurance'. The majority of the time, you won't be firing off heals every few seconds and keeping teammates in the green. You'll be proactively buffing and attacking to make sure they never need heals in the first place. Your Regeneration Auras (both heal and recovery, don't listen to people that say skip Heal) will be boons to the team that you need to slot with plenty of recharge, and your Fortitudes and Adrenalin Boosts will keep your teammates healthy and god-like. Throw CMs on the squishies and the Tank when he takes on AVs, and then mix in your own personal brand of careful attacks, and your team will be golden.
There is plenty, I repeat PLENTY, of room on end-game teams for a good Empath.
You might mention that you're Empathy in your comments (this might help) OR if you've always had this in your comments you might remove it :P
and on a side note..
--It'd be nice if we could /search for "Teams looking for more"..
if a leader's name is Red Fist..then your search could come up like "Team Red Fist looking for 3: any AT, lvl 15-20 pls"
of course Red Fist would have to change the team's "status" to "seeking more" and add a few note's i.e. lvl prefer'd, AT prefer'd, forming TF etc.
or maybe on the search list you could have a list of toons lft even with that particular toon offline! Any tells to that offline toon would go to the global of the person looking (the /tell sent to your global could mention that this tell is being forwarded from $name...)
--I've got 35 toons on Champion, at any given moment I would be interested in listing at least 5 of them "looking for any" and 5 looking for a specific TF, and 5 looking for specific badges..
perma jump is ---> /up 1
At 50 my emp pretty much cycles fort onto 3 people and attacks. AB and the auras get thrown in as needed, and as such there isn't a set "X gets AB," although its usually blasters after they have nuked. Of course for that to work, you do need to take enough attacks to get a resonable attack chain.
Specifically for emp/elec, I would say take and slot out tesla cage if you haven't already and use it to lock down potential problem enemies. There is no hard and fast rule for who gets fortitude, I tend to default to blasters but whoever needs the defense the most gets it. If no one needs the defense I give it to the most AoE happy damage dealer, which often overlaps with the blasters that need the defense. :P
I'd go with either power or elec for your ancillary for the same reason that elec blasters prefer energy or elec for their secondary. PBU and power sink can both combo with short circuit to flatline enemy blue bars. Power sink will let you do it more often (120 sec rech vs 240) but PBU will let you do it a bit faster, you can hit PBU while running in and only SC has to animate in the fight itself. I honestly like the elec pool more as a whole, but its hard to turn down the power of PBU + Fort so I'll just say pick the pool you want :P
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Defenders have so many options that I sometimes get the roles confused. Blasters do damage...got that. Tankers hold aggro and TAKE damage...got that too. But a typical Defender has so much in the toolbox that at times I wonder what to use.
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'struth! The role of a Defender can change not only from team to team, but form minute to minute. The endgame consists of filling your toolbox not only with powers, but also with tactics so that you can fill the optimal role for the team you are on.
A good high level Empath is like spackle. You fill in the cracks and smooth over the rough spots.
- Jock Tamson, Who would like to see what BadStorm can do with that analogy.
Gonna leave that challenge for BadStorm but thanks for the laugh JT!
"Comics, you're not a Mastermind...you're an Overlord!"
we have endgame?
Positron's i13 letter: We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP'ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we're putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn't working out, we'll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.
Well... there is probably a reason my very first toon ever... empath/energy defender is stuck at level 42... for over three years...
It is sad but true.. empath is just basically less needed in the high levels. Helpful yes. Needed no. Now you can say most any toon is not really needed, but on a team with good players who have fleshed out their toons.. they just don't need an empath.
My empath is stuck at 42 for 3 years.. but my dark defender dinged 50 and my trick arrow/archery defender dinged 50 and my rad/sonic is in high demand and climbing fast. I would rather play any of them before logging back in as an empath.
Sorry.. but that is how I see it.
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on a team with good players who have fleshed out their toons.. they just don't need an empath.
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... unless something goes wrong. I don't NEED a tank on my teams, but if I HAVE one it works better. Same with Empaths.
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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With my other, higher-level characters (4 50s and growing) I find that post-30 a dedicated Healer becomes less and less desirable as a teammate.
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Ayup.
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So my question is, what's the endgame for Empath Defenders?
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On the whole, buff/debuff sets are very good to have, but comparatively with other buff/debuff sets, Empathy is near the bottom. Still good to have; just not as good as, oh, say, OMGSTORMGASM. So an empathy defender's endgame depends a lot on the secondary set, which very well may be the stronger of her two sets.
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I find that a funny example. Storm may be great and highly desirable for knowledgable players, but for your average PuG, nothing is considered "less desirable" lvl 1-50 than a storm. I hear calls for empathy all the time, even for high level teams, never once heard a call for a storm. Even on something like the hero respec task force where a storm would rule, an average PuG will not think of it.
Empathy is one of what I consider the "big three" for defenders. Empathy, Kinetics, and Rad. I just don't see what the original poster sees, those three are by far the most desired even at level 50. Empathy desirability wanes a bit at higher levels maybe and they slide from most popular to third place, but they are definitely still top 3, hardly "the bottom".
But maybe that's just because I play on Freedom and love PuGs. 
Others have already answered what to do, concentrate on the buffs and your attacks when healing isn't needed. Actually, make that concentrate on your buffs even when healing is needed.
The crux of my problem might simply be the slow server Riverdusk. I'm not so enamored of the toon that I don't want to remake him on a busier server for better playability. Since I've only ever run the one Empath maybe rolling up another one on Virtue or Freedom will give me needed experience.
Thanks for all of the tips gang.
"Comics, you're not a Mastermind...you're an Overlord!"
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Well... there is probably a reason my very first toon ever... empath/energy defender is stuck at level 42... for over three years...
It is sad but true.. empath is just basically less needed in the high levels. Helpful yes. Needed no. Now you can say most any toon is not really needed, but on a team with good players who have fleshed out their toons.. they just don't need an empath.
My empath is stuck at 42 for 3 years.. but my dark defender dinged 50 and my trick arrow/archery defender dinged 50 and my rad/sonic is in high demand and climbing fast. I would rather play any of them before logging back in as an empath.
Sorry.. but that is how I see it.
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That's why I prefer empathy on a controller. They seem to fulfill the role better with the CC and the emp buffs.
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Well... there is probably a reason my very first toon ever... empath/energy defender is stuck at level 42... for over three years...
It is sad but true.. empath is just basically less needed in the high levels. Helpful yes. Needed no. Now you can say most any toon is not really needed, but on a team with good players who have fleshed out their toons.. they just don't need an empath.
My empath is stuck at 42 for 3 years.. but my dark defender dinged 50 and my trick arrow/archery defender dinged 50 and my rad/sonic is in high demand and climbing fast. I would rather play any of them before logging back in as an empath.
Sorry.. but that is how I see it.
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That's why I prefer empathy on a controller. They seem to fulfill the role better with the CC and the emp buffs.
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this is pretty much my take on it, but empathy is the only powerset i would rather have on a controller than a defender.
Positron's i13 letter: We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP'ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we're putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn't working out, we'll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.
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I hear calls for empathy all the time, even for high level teams, never once heard a call for a storm. Even on something like the hero respec task force where a storm would rule, an average PuG will not think of it.
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Maybe because the worst case scenario for an empath is "afk whole mission," while the worst case scenario for a stormy is... well, you know.
Which is unfair to stormies, since the average PuG empath isn't much better than the afk worst case scenario, while the average PuG stormy at least dumps Freezing Rain on every spawn. This is just my experience, but I do recruit empaths last of all buff/debuff sets for that precise reason -- too many of them just don't know how to play.
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In the high game for an empath, my focus is on
#1) Buffs and
#2) the Damage you can bring
Healing barely enters into it, build a decent AOE attack set, which being elec alos means you bring some control into play through the end drain.
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/signed
Most definately signed!!! You hit the upper levels and almost everyone, Squishy Blasters included {I can say that since I have more than one lol}, have enough defense or DPS that healing becomes almost non-existant unless your taking on an AV at level 50 on level 5 difficulty. Slot Fortitude so it not only provides a good buff but comes back fast enough to use on numerous team mates. By all means enhance your attacks and for goodness sake TAKE them. I always looked at my secondary (my attacks) as preventative medicine. Okay I am never going to do as much damage as a blaster but any damage is good damage and the faster the villains go down the less need there is for those heals you used constantly in the lower levels [if they is all dead they aren't hurtin anyone anymore]. 
As for a server switch I play on Virtue and rarely have a problem finding a team and I know Infinity is pretty much he same. Freedom is THE most active server but I have never played there and other posts I have seen here lead me to believe the #2 and #3 choices MAY be better anyway LOL
Good luck and don't give up I have several EMP defenders at level 50 .. IT CAN be done!
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
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this is pretty much my take on it, but empathy is the only powerset i would rather have on a controller than a defender.
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Its heresy in these parts, but I prefer /storm as a controller set myself.
I have also been much more enjoying a /FF troller than any of my FF defenders I tried.
Whith that lst in mind its funny that I prefer son/ to /son on a troller.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
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The OP mentions trouble soloing.
Might I take this opportunity to remind you... you have (and can name) dual builds now. And Empathy in a *solo* build leaves a lot of room for taking other stuff. So if you're stuck soloing, or just feel like soloing... switch on over. Just take your healing aura (for you,) the two RAs, fill your secondary and take whatever you feel you need - Leadership, perhaps, or Hasten, a different APP, and go to town. Look more to offense and your own survivability in that build.
No, you won't be cruising through on Scrapper-on-crack speeds, but you'll have more slots to dedicate to your attacks, and more options you may not otherwise have taken. (This isn't as true on some other primaries - Dark, for instance, or Rad - but it works well for Empathy and Thermal.)
like the new avatar Bill
Positron's i13 letter: We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP'ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we're putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn't working out, we'll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.
My first lvl 50 is an emp def, and truthfully I have never had a problem finding teams. Even at high levels, a good healer is a boon to the team. Once I send a broadcast out that I'm lft, I start getting hits almost right away. Could those teams survive without me? I'm sure they could, but a tank who knows he has a good healer backing him up is an awesome thing to witness.
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Might I take this opportunity to remind you... you have (and can name) dual builds now.
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Good point. I always forget that dual builds are a big bonus to Cold, Emp, FF, and Sonic.
And solo builds for the above work double duty as tanking builds to boot. I might nudge those four sets a notch higher in my rankings--so long as people are actually using the dual builds.
hahaha you said healer.. TWICE! I have no problems getting teams on my Emp/ and /Emp 50's then again... I'm not a healer... I bring SIGNIFICANTLY more to a team than any frickin healor!!!!!
I have an Empath/Electric Defender who's a lot of fun to RP, great costume, the works. Right now he's stuck at lvl 31 because I can't solo with him at any reasonable speed and I'm having trouble finding teams.
With my other, higher-level characters (4 50s and growing) I find that post-30 a dedicated Healer becomes less and less desirable as a teammate. Maybe I haven't seen the full force of the set being run by a solid Empath player yet but it appears that after somewhere around 30 or so everyone seems to want more damage, a Tank and more Controllers.
So my question is, what's the endgame for Empath Defenders? With all of the other sets going on out there that mitigate damage (too many to list) where should an EMpath focus their attention so they bring something to the team's table?
I really want to salvage the character, to the point that I'm willing to move to a busier server (he's on Pinni right now) or remake him. But I don't want to fly through levels (he was VERY popular early on) and then coast to a halt in the 30s again.
Thanks in advance for the advice.
"Comics, you're not a Mastermind...you're an Overlord!"