The Fulmens Mini-Guides

Originally Posted by Fulmens

DISCLAIMER 2: I'm not using Mids' because I want to comment on each power. I've probably made some mistakes.

Originally Posted by Fulmens

OK, if you're interested in Force Fielding, you've probably found The Force Fielder's Bible.

I've been arguing with Philotic Knight for five years... and here's my side of the story. Call it the Satanic Bible of Force Fielding.

1. Don't Do It.
You don't want to play Force Fields. That's right, you don't. I didn't play 133 levels of FF defender because I know some grand secret, I just have a high tolerance for boredom and an appreciation of efficiency. You don't get dramatic last-minute saves. You don't get people thanking you, humbly, when you screw up and let them die and rez them. If you're doing your job right, people take you for granted. All Force Fields does is keep the team from losing, ever. Make a Rad/Sonic. It's better.

2. You ARE a buffbot.
You can provide most of the benefit of being a Force Fielder with four powers, in 25% of your time. Those four powers are: Dispersion Bubble, Deflection Field, Insulation Field, and Maneuvers (from the Leadership Pool.) If the whole team is bubbled, within the radius of the two toggles, and you are not stunned, dead, or in Personal Force Field, you have raised all of them to the Defense softcap from about level 17 on. Blasters are ten times tougher, Scrappers and Tanks are between two and ten times tougher [depending] and anyone up close has mez protection and you don't have to lift a finger beyond that. The only one on the team who is NOT a tank is you. Let me reiterate: If you do NOTHING besides keep the team bubbled and stay close to the guy on point, you are a good Force Field Defender. If you do everything else in your power and do not bubble the team, you are a bad Force Fielder.

3. Most of the rest of the set isn't much to write home about. You have a lot of knockback/repel, one enemy phase/team griefing power, one "Oh s***" and one actual damaging attack.

So why, you may ask, do I do it?
4. YOUR TEAM IS IDIOTPROOF AND INDESTRUCTIBLE. While Rad is a very good set offensively and defensively, and Dark is a very good set offensively and defensively, Force Fields has nothing to go wrong. If you put bubbles on someone, they're at least twice as hard to kill for the next 4 minutes, no matter WHAT. This includes stray Archvillain aggro, Blaster falls down a hole, you fall down a hole, unlucky mez, monster knockback, hitting the "R" key at the wrong time... everything. And if you haven't done ALL of those things, you haven't been playing very long.

5. So what do you do?
5a. Regular buffing. Playing FF isn't tricky but it's hard. If you miss a buffing cycle, people may start faceplanting very fast with no warning. So you just have to be OCD-level consistent in rebubbling. I use a digital kitchen timer and every 3 minutes, I reset it and start rebubbling. Some people use Herostats. Leave "gather" for the Empaths and drama queens. Rebubbling is your JOB and you can do it so smoothly that people don't stop shooting for a second. I use keyboard shortcuts- shift-1 gives you the top person on the team, shift-2 the second and so forth. I have 6 and 7 set to insulation and deflection shields. So my "reshield cycle" goes shift-1, 6,7,shift-2,6,7 and so forth. You get good at it fast.
5b. Relax. This is the thing that makes Force Fields different from any other Defender primary: once you've rebubbled- an eight person only takes 45 seconds- you have literally done everything you can to keep the team safe. If they STILL manage to get horribly maimed that isn't your responsibility. And trust me, even through the considerable protection you provide, someone will still manage.
5c. Don't tell people what to do; tell them why. This one was hard for me. If someone runs off away from the group, and you can't FIND them to rebubble them, don't. Just send a tell saying something like "/t $target, your shields are going down soon." If they want new shields, they can come get 'em. If they die, that was their choice and their responsibliity. I also tend to give a message when I join that says something like "For best results, keep arms, legs and tentacles inside the big bubble. Oh, by the way- it gives mez protection." Last, I tend to be the [passive-aggressive] leader of the split party. I will click on the person I believe should be leader, and say something like "Following $target". People can either come find us and live, or wander off and take their chances.

Again: You give the OPPORTUNITY for people to live forever. You're not their mother. You're not their boss. They have to keep themselves alive.

6. Quick rundown on primary powers:
Deflection, Insulation, Dispersion : Take them, slot them, use them. If you don't like these powers you will be happier playing "not force fields". You may want to 4-slot all 3 by level 17, so you can load them up with level 20 Defense IOs [put in your bid early, get 'em cheap] and defense-cap the entire team five levels early.

Force Bolt: Recommended. Force Bolt is a great power because it is accurate, reliable, single-target knockback. Knockback makes people mad and you are the only person on the team who is NOT a tank. So pick and chose your aggro. It does about zero damage, so don't slot for damage. Slot once for accuracy.

Personal Force Field: The "I escape" button. It is nearly impossible to get killed with PFF up, but you don't affect the rest of the party in any way. If you are dead, you also don't affect the rest of the party in any way. Use PFF to avoid being dead. It requires no slotting of any sort, really. Maybe recharge.

Repulsion Bomb: Recommended. Force Fielders don't do much damage, but this helps. It's a "scale 1" aoe attack that does knockdown- about the same damage as Explosive Blast or Ball Lightning or any other AOE attack. Defenders don't throw up big damage numbers anyway, but this will help a little.

Repulsion Field: Not recommended. This does AOE knockback, but no damage. All this does in my experience is focus the enemy damage tightly on the only delicate member of the team:You.

Force Bubble: Much like Repulsion Field, except it is Repel and Repulsion Field is Knockback. (Don't ask why.) Which means that nearly nobody resists it; but they keep their feet and shoot you while sliding backwards.

HONORARY MENTION: Maneuvers. This only provides around 5% Defense, but the difference between 40% and 45% Defense is, literally, 45% Defense means half the damage. I recommend it.

7. What about Force Field Controllers?

I don't play controllers, so I'm not really expert here. They get about 30% from the bubbles instead of 40%, so they're letting 2 or 3 times the damage through. On the other hand, they have things to do in combat and force fields to recast outside combat, so it might be a good combo.

8. What about soloing?
You don't want to solo. I counted, once, 54 damaging attacks to drop a Boss. That doesn't count Force bolts. It probably died of old age. It's about twice as slow to solo a FF as anything else.

9. What about teaming?
Teams good. Blasters love Force Fields like they love breathing, and for the same reason: they stay alive. So if you're OCD, and the Blasters learn to love the Force Fields, you will never want for a team. If you're building your OWN team, try to get about four blasters and one to three "anything else". Once the blasters pick up on the fact that they can drop as much damage as they like and not die? The team will have a wall of bodies about eighty feet in front and will only slow down for elevators. You can even invite yourSELF to a team, if you do it carefully. Find a blaster in the level range, and ask "Does your team have any use for a Force Fielder?" Be ready to apologize for bothering them, and by all means take no for an answer. If you don't get a "yes" in three invites, go play something else. Adam Smith says: [ QUOTE ]
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest.

[/ QUOTE ] Don't ask for a handout, offer a service. Eventually you may be on the "Friends" list of every high level blaster on the server and never have to ask strangers for a team again. It happened to me; it can happen to you.

10. Any last words?
FF isn't for everyone. In fact, it's for just about no one. If you're not having fun, play something you like better. Have fun.

11. What about Detention Field?
I can't believe you even brought that up. Detention field sucks.

(edited: point 11.)