Which FF Powers are useful? Most seem lame to me..
By
Afro_,
Posted on: 2005-12-10 07:34 in Masterminds
Forfcefields is a potent secondary. The skills within it like all the secondaries require learning, timing and situation.
I'm sure there is a FF guy on here that can highlight some of the specific uses of the powers. But I will state right now that its not rubbish.
Force Bolt - Very useful for knockback, can nkeep one target down permanently
Deflection and Insulation shields - Nice slotted, and stack with other defences, very nice powers.
Detention field - Good for keeping boss/AC out of fight while dealing wioth minions
PFF - Take it, love it, nearly as good as phase shift
Dispersion Bubble - Do i neeed even say? Take it, put it on, and never shut it down.
Repulsion Field - Can be used to keep few enemies down if you get them positioned right, but i dont personally like it too much.
Repulsion Bomb - Nice stun, can be useful with certain team makeups
Force Bubble - Very nice power for both PvE and PvP, the repel effect is very good for keeping you safe.
Thanks for the feedback. A quick question - which should I get next (lvl 20): Detention Field or Dispersion Field? I am tempted to get Detention as bosses are causing a problem but I have noticed status effects are becoming more common...
Dispersion, definately.
The shields are great. My robots really feal the pain when they wear off. They stack wish dispersion bubble and the shield the protector bots cast.
I really should do something about this signature.
i havent bothered using single-bubbles for my bots for the last 7 lvls, unless I know I'm going up against a particular nasty foe. Team-members enjoy my bubbles whenever ready, but dispersion bubble is indispensable. I haven't gotten PFF, so I can't comment on that one - but since I'm rather active with my Force Bolt I can't use it anyhow. If baddies/goodies constant on back -> no return-fire 
I have died 2 times so far, am currently at lvl 27.3 so */FF is very viable in PvE atleast. Dunno about PvP, but what I've done PvP-wise in CoH reminds me that a bubbler was really annoying to meet
PFF is a life saver literally bind it to something and use it as a panic button when on low health so you can either run away or let your pets mop up.
The main reason I love FF is Force Bolt 
Without it I'm nothing 
Me and Force Bolt
belong together forever.
And for my crazy play style PFF is a must.
I really need a panic button...and sometimes
I need to tank for my pets PFF also makes it
a lot safer to travel in PVE and PVP zones.
All bubbles are good though
Force Bolt is awesome - you can lock down an elite boss with it if you've got them up against a wall. Also drops toggles in PvP, very nice
The little bubbles are kinda cool, but these days I don't bother with them on the bots.
Dispersion bubble - mezz protection for you and everything in it! Some nice defence too.
PFF - whoa, this is great! PvP, it's excellent, and ambushes in PvE where the whole ambush goes for you and can't be pulled off. Get it and love it.
Repulsion Field should be good for PvP, since it can drop toggles and keep melee away from you, but also force bubble can do that too, without the toggle drop.
All in all, I'd say it's a set with subtle strengths.
IN MEMORIUM OF GAYBABY
CRUELY TAKEN FROM THIS WORLD WHILE SO YOUNG
The single bubbles (Insulation and Deflection) do seem to be more bother than they are worth. Doesnt suit my play style. I am loving the PFF & Detention Field.
it looks like I must juggle in PFF and detention field in a respec, and loose the single target bubbles. Thanks all for a good thread
To put it bluntly, if the single bubbles aren't for you, you've got the wrong powerset. They provide the bulk of the assistance you can provide to your minions and teammates; and any MM secondary is primarily there to buff the minions.
Can you manage without them? Sure. But it might be best to pick something better suited to your playing style.
[ QUOTE ]
Repulsion Field should be good for PvP, since it can drop toggles and keep melee away from you, but also force bubble can do that too, without the toggle drop.
[/ QUOTE ]
repulsion field might be nice, but unless they fixed it, its still possible to land a few hits between the repulsion "ticks". Those few hits might just be enough to kill you, or if its a toggledrop, drop the field. Force bubble on the other hand has a perma repel around you in a MUCH bigger area. So MY personal suggestion would be to forget bout rep field and get force bubble instead. When i had rep field on my troller i rarely used it. However for those with good experiences with rep field, please continue to use it
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
[ QUOTE ]
To put it bluntly, if the single bubbles aren't for you, you've got the wrong powerset. They provide the bulk of the assistance you can provide to your minions and teammates; and any MM secondary is primarily there to buff the minions.
Can you manage without them? Sure. But it might be best to pick something better suited to your playing style.
[/ QUOTE ]
I disagree - I rarely used mine from 25 onwards, unless I'm going up against an AV. You can easily live without them, but it has to be said, what else are you going to get? A couple of times I just couldn't decide what power to pick, so just went for something silly. If I didn't get the little bubbles, that would be 2 more power choices that I have no idea what to do with.
IN MEMORIUM OF GAYBABY
CRUELY TAKEN FROM THIS WORLD WHILE SO YOUNG
Since lvl 22 I havent used the single-bubbles much. Just occasionally, and then only just before I _know_ I am going to aggro an entire room Dispersion bubble is up all the time, and the bubbles my prots are dishing out seems to provide the extra +res my army of walking tincans need. So I defo think I am playing the right powerset
This is a soloist's mindset tho. When in teams I throw out bubbles when neded to melee fighters and the occasional one to ranged fighters. But heavily used? Nope.
And mind you - I've planted twice in 28 lvls, once due to seriously miscalculating aggro-range of some demolisionists(frigging AoEs) and the second due to horrendous graphical-lag and 4 minutes later (with about 1 frame pr minute) I was sucking grit.
edit: sorry, 3 times. Got a few +4 (6 I think, with 2 bosses in there) after me when I was picking up heist-mish from broker in Nerva, and couldn't get away fast enough (well, was 400+ yards away when final damage hit me...)
As I say, sure, you can manage. But that's more a function of MM being both quite strong relative to enemy threat levels and inherently not prone to faceplanting because bad things happen to the minions first, especially soloing.
Look at it the other way; I always have the single bubbles up on my minions, usually on my teammates (if they don't go and hide behind things when it's their turn), and often on teammates' minions. That's a lot of defence I'm getting basically for free (given that, without it, I'd be wandering around with a full blue bar like most masterminds). Obviously that's an effective use of the powerset - so having the bubbles and not using them is...
Please don't try to get cheeky, it only manages to [censored] me off. By the time I've managed to bubble the entire team or even my own minions, the mish is over. That is why single target bubbles loose the appeal after a few levels, and just sit quietly in the corner - ready to spring into action when they're needed good and proper. Why waste end if you don't have to? And yeah, I am going for a non-health and non-stamina build too. I bet that ticks you off aswell.
So don't try telling me that the */ff powerset doesnt suit me. You can go around bubbling minons/prots/hostages/whatever whenever, but please don't tell me in any way that I don't have a clue about being an */ff'er and also tell me to go play another AT. Assault+tactics+dispersion bubble+prot-bubbles, combined with proper slotting in regards to ED makes my team of tincans whoosh through baddies like a hot knife through butter. And oh - I also got the medicine pool. No self-heal, only topping up on minions health if the prots are too busy kicking bee-hinds. And guess what - it works. Like a charm. Every mission. Regardless of opposition (so far, I know it gets hairier in the mid-30s - but then I have Upgrade and will kick some more bee-hind).
I wonder if I can possibly persuade you to reread what I wrote without first making the assumption that it must be a personal attack; frankly that comes as news to me, and I wrote it.
All I'm saying is you're not using a source of defense that is readily available to you and is completely free (ie, you've already taken the powers and spent whatever slots you're going to spend, and I've never met a mastermind who didn't have plenty of endurance going.)
The fact that you can get away without using it through a combination of sensible use of other powers and masterminds being just a little bit unbalanced is very nice for you, but certainly doesn't make it any less true that you're throwing away that free defence. Note specifically that I never disputed that you can clear missions like this, so you can spare me any more angry proclamations of that.
Hyperbole doesn't help either. Obviously as a mastermind you're already dropping one single-target power on each minion at the start of the mission and will be dropping two in the future.
The analogy to Stamina is also bogus, and I'm surprised you even bring it up - I certainly don't care if you take Stamina, but then I don't care if you use the single target bubbles, I'm just making an observation to the original questioner that if you can't bring yourself to use the powers that are the backbone of the powerset, it might be an idea to pick another powerset. But at that sort of level obviously Stamina is not free; it costs 3 power selections.
I'll bet there's someone out there with the blast powers from a mastermind set and nothing else, like a sort of demented corruptor. There's probably someone out there who's good enough at the game that they can clear missions like that without too much trouble. That doesn't mean that one might not ask why they are playing a mastermind in the first place.
[ QUOTE ]
PFF - Take it, love it, nearly as good as phase shift
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh how I miss this from my ice/ff troller, and oh how I wish my dominator could have it. Its the ace up your sleave alright.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Being a bit of a sheep, I rolled a Bots/FF MM and am currently level 18. But it does seem F is largely a joke with the shields providing minimal defense and the repulsion abilities having severe draw back themself. So other than disperson bubble and force bubble, I dont see the point of taking any other powers.
DM on the other hand seems to offer far more useful powers and I am beginning to think this would have suited by Robots better.