Empathy isn't really a good choice for an offender. The only powers you can use on yourslef are the Auras, these add very little to your survivability.
I tried turning my Kinetic/elec into a more offendery build and it really didn't really work. You get mezzed and then end up dead, your strong heal won't help stop you getting hit. Offending with a buff heavy primary is a bad idea.
Archery has the advantage of being very fast recharge but has poor damage apart from the Blazing Arrow power. It has no secondary mez effects to save you.
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Clear Mind: becomes redundant in the latter levels due to number of ATs having status protection powers from lvl20.
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Please don't leave this out. It's such a useful power to use on fellow defenders/offenders.
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As for the Archery Set am thinking of selecting the following...
Snap Shot: have no option to leave out as it is already pre-selected.
Fistful of Arrows: although a little less damage then Aimed Shot, taken for multiple mob hits.
Aim: increased acc and dmg...nuff said. :P
Ranged Shot: despite the interruption, am wanting this for the extreme damage.
Rain of Arrows: extreme damage AoE/DoT...no endurance crash unlike other lvl38 2ndry def powers.
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You missed out the best power of the set, Blazing Arrow. It's the same damage as Ranged Arrow but non-interruptible and with a shorter animation time, I would replace Ranged arrow with it.
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As for the Power Pools & Ancillary, most like going for...
Fitness: going to take a maximum of 3 powers from here. Stamina is a certainty, however which powers would be ideal to get in this pool
- Swift or Hurdle: may get both so can maneuver around the map a lot easier
- Health: improved health recovery not as essential, however heard this gives better recovery to mez affects...ideal as I don't intend to take Acrobatics.
- Stamina: important with most if not all ATs
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Health is worth it for the sleep resistance. This means that sleep effects don't last as long. It doesn't effect other mez effects.
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Leadership: powers to suit my hero's bio. Most like take Maneveurs and Tactics. Possibly take Vengence if I don't take another ppower pool.
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Assault will be more useful if you intend to solo and in teams too. It will improve you sub-par damage.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Firstly, I have a fairly offenderish style of play, but I've never ignored my primary Empathy powers...
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Clear Mind: becomes redundant in the latter levels due to number of ATs having status protection powers from lvl20.
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as already said, don't ignore this power. Sure some ATs have status protection but in the later lvls where more endurance sapping nmes appear you will need this power to quickly get your tank out of danger and to keep any controllers/blasters/other defenders doing their job. Theirs no way you will be able to offend if half your team are stunned/held/sleeping. Personally I think this is a very important power for an offender. Once you've sorted the team out you can get down to shooting your arrows around and making as much mayhem as you like 
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Regeneration Power: not as essential as Recovery Aura expecially when both Aura and Other slotted with 3 RchgReducs & 3 Health enhancements power.
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Heal other doesn't heal you though and since this will increase your health regen it could be a good power to take
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Psychic Mastery: would like to take at least 3 if not all from this area, although which three is debateable.
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never really seen this as useful for offenders tbh, the group sleep will be pretty pointless if you are going to wake them all up with your rain of arrows/fistful of arrows
Dark mastery, with the disorient shield thingy and soul drain which increases damage and accuracy, I imagine might be better.
Or electric mastery with a blapperish power (thunderstrike), an endurance increasing power (power sink) and an immobilize would also better fit the offender
Just my 2 p's worth...
As said above I strongly recommend you change your primary. Empathy has no means of boosting your own paltry defender damage and is one of the reasons I rarely play my defender anymore. Rad, Dark and Kin are all good primaries if you want to make an offender and they all have powers which are team-orientated as well as helping yourself.
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As said above I strongly recommend you change your primary. Empathy has no means of boosting your own paltry defender damage and is one of the reasons I rarely play my defender anymore. Rad, Dark and Kin are all good primaries if you want to make an offender and they all have powers which are team-orientated as well as helping yourself.
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I wouldn't recommend Kin for an offender. Whilst it has powers to help boost your damage and does have single target debuff powers it isn't self sufficient enough IMO to make a good offender. It doesn't provide protection from enemies just a really strong heal ( the best AOE heal in the game IMO ).
Also I found that Kin does not give you much opportunity for attacking due to lots of click powers ( heals, siphons etc ), I would suggest a less busy primary such as Rad or Dark. Rad certainly provides great potential for an offender.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
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Psychic Mastery: would like to take at least 3 if not all from this area, although which three is debateable.
[/ QUOTE ] never really seen this as useful for offenders tbh, the group sleep will be pretty pointless if you are going to wake them all up with your rain of arrows/fistful of arrows
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Thought Psy would be useful for an Offender? Sure the mass sleep is pretty useless for anything other than sneaking past mobs, but Dominate is a MaG 3 hold that does good dam for a defender in comparison to their secondry, MoB is nice toggle dam res and TK is hold/repel, handy for PvP or PvE for pushing grps into corners or as a panic button if things get a little too hecktic.
It's just based on my own experience of the epics and I don't personally think that it worked that well as an offender power - perhaps that's more concept based though.
The dark mastery powers - soul drain, dark consumption are based on the DM scrapper powers and have an offenderish feel to them - perhaps because they are AOE not sure. The shield power (OK, it's not really a shield it's the one that keeps mobs (minions) disorientated, and no I can't remember the name) again has an offenderish feel to it.
Electric Mastery has powers that to me feel useful as an offender - Thunder Strike does a lot of damage (for a defender) when slotted up and also can send a group of mobs flying and disorient them. Power Sink is, naturally, very handy for a defender that uses their secondary powers as well as their primary... need all the endurance you can get your hands on afterall
Psychic Mastery has some very nice powers. The sleep will be fairly pointless for an offender though. The hold is very useful, and yes deals a lot of damage. The shield is, like you say fairly useful (and protects from psi-damage). TK, while a nice power I don't think fits *that* well with an offender because in order to control the mob effectively you're really not going to be able to do much else due to the high endurance cost.
I'm not saying that Psychic Mastery is bad, far from it... I'm just suggesting that some of the other epics feel more offendery to me. Probably best for the OP to test and see what fits with his set when he gets there!
What about Power Mastery? It provides Power Build Up which will boost your acc and damage and also Total Focus which does huge damage.
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What about Power Mastery? It provides Power Build Up which will boost your acc and damage and also Total Focus which does huge damage.
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I only really commented on the ones I had mentioned in my previous post
Yes, Power Mastery would be useful too, for all the reasons you mention above - not to mention conserve power for maintaining endurance...
Power build up will also increase the effect of your other powers - so it increases the number of HPs you can heal, so all round pretty useful power...
Should have mentioned power mastery really
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I wouldn't recommend Kin for an offender. Whilst it has powers to help boost your damage and does have single target debuff powers it isn't self sufficient enough IMO to make a good offender. It doesn't provide protection from enemies just a really strong heal ( the best AOE heal in the game IMO ).
Also I found that Kin does not give you much opportunity for attacking due to lots of click powers ( heals, siphons etc ), I would suggest a less busy primary such as Rad or Dark. Rad certainly provides great potential for an offender.
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wow. kinetics is a monster, theres very few other builds that can nova and be at max endurance within 2 seconds of the nova, that alone makes kinetics an increadible offender.
protection in: FS debuffs 1 target, Transference removes another mob from the fight, use the blasts to debuff/knockback/immob the rest, rinse repeat. once you hit epic and put a hold in you can lock a whole mob down fairly swiftly.
@ExtraGonk
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What about Power Mastery? It provides Power Build Up which will boost your acc and damage and also Total Focus which does huge damage.
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long animation time single target hit compared to thunderstrikes same animation but multiple hitter and knock back.
plus i'd say being able to refill endurance would be more useful than higher damage as your damage is never gonna be that monster regardless what you do (even FS'd).
@ExtraGonk
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wow. kinetics is a monster, theres very few other builds that can nova and be at max endurance within 2 seconds of the nova, that alone makes kinetics an increadible offender.
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True, not hit my nova on my kin yet, however that only means kinetics is good in the late game when you have Fulcrum Shift and Nova. Other primaries can be offenderish from day one.
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protection in: FS debuffs 1 target, Transference removes another mob from the fight, use the blasts to debuff/knockback/immob the rest, rinse repeat. once you hit epic and put a hold in you can lock a whole mob down fairly swiftly.
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FS debuffs all mobs in the large AoE, but not enough to be safe. Transference prevents one enemy from using big attacks ( unless you are /elec in which case you can shut him down permanently ). Even with Tesla Cage, Fulcrum shift and all the other lovely tricks, you are still wide open to mez effects, unlike Rad and Dark who can floor an spawn's to hit before they realise it.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Cheers for the responses, some very helpful.
Most possibly better offender as kinetic defender. Not really going for an uber build, I'd like to keep him as elf like as possible.
Power mastery would be good in regards to making him offensice, however I felt Psychic Mastery was more forthcoming for an elf.
As it stands, I'll definately keep him as Emapthy/Archery with Psychic Mastery.
Primaries I'm still in two minds in taking Clear Mind and Regen Aura...if I do take them I would have to sacrifice a pool power for sure.
I forgot to add Blazing Arrow to my list of 2ndry selections, but as it stand wll most likely go for those 6 powers. (SnapShot/ FistfulofArrows/ Aim/ BlazingArrow/ Ranged Shot/ Rain of Arrows).
Will definately take on Fitness & Leadership. Think I'll take Unthing's suggestion of having Assault instead of Maneuvers to help boost my damage.
Travel power, most likely teleportation.
Would like to take Concealment, but may be sacrificed to compensate for CMind and RegenAura.
Seriously, if you want an offender you would be better taking any of the other primaries - empathy is not a good primary for an offender.
I think you got the message already from everyone above, but empathy is not a good offensive primary. Infact any of the other primary sets is better.
My first toon to 50 was an empath/energy. Now i enjoyed playing it, but im really only in existance of a buff/heal bot. No matter how hard I try to kill things, im just not good at it. Sure, its possible to make a good healer with a good number of slots on 3 or 4 attacks, but you'll still be doing poor damage.
Unfortunately, the solution is to roll a new toon.
.... if only Fort was castable on yourself.
Most important thing is if you like teaming, people like having you onboard as an empath/archery defender dont expect too much damage output soloing coming from a trick archery/archery defender (which rocks!) and an empath/psionic/psi defender (which rocks too). Hell if i wanted an elven character it would be trick archery/archery
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
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Most important thing is if you like teaming, people like having you onboard as an empath/archery defender dont expect too much damage output soloing coming from a trick archery/archery defender (which rocks!) and an empath/psionic/psi defender (which rocks too).
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i guess you're right in regards to damage. cheers for all the comments, its been very helpful . although he's failed to be offensive as i originally intended him to be, he's a enjoyable dude to play and will continue with empathy/archery ^^
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Hell if i wanted an elven character it would be trick archery/archery
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i always felt elves we're magical beings. with trick arrow and archery it would strongly emphasize the generic elven bow user...but i don't see an emp arrow being magical, feels a bit more advanced and techie to me.
I'm wanting to make Garadhir into an Empath/Archery offensive defender.
I would like him to be capable of good damage, however be able to competantly defend as well. Also he'll most definately be a PvE'ing hero.
I'd like to take as many 2ndry and pool powers as possible, this would mean sacrificing a number of powers from the Empathy pool.
Here's my thoughtsa on which Primaries to leave out...
Absorb Pain: bit of a situational power, only used in a last ditch effort to save a team mate.
Clear Mind: becomes redundant in the latter levels due to number of ATs having status protection powers from lvl20.
Regeneration Power: not as essential as Recovery Aura expecially when both Aura and Other slotted with 3 RchgReducs & 3 Health enhancements power.
As for the Archery Set am thinking of selecting the following...
Snap Shot: have no option to leave out as it is already pre-selected.
Fistful of Arrows: although a little less damage then Aimed Shot, taken for multiple mob hits.
Aim: increased acc and dmg...nuff said. :P
Ranged Shot: despite the interruption, am wanting this for the extreme damage.
Rain of Arrows: extreme damage AoE/DoT...no endurance crash unlike other lvl38 2ndry def powers.
As for the Power Pools & Ancillary, most like going for...
Fitness: going to take a maximum of 3 powers from here. Stamina is a certainty, however which powers would be ideal to get in this pool
- Swift or Hurdle: may get both so can maneuver around the map a lot easier
- Health: improved health recovery not as essential, however heard this gives better recovery to mez affects...ideal as I don't intend to take Acrobatics.
- Stamina: important with most if not all ATs
Teleportation: most likely take recall friend (I find very handy in PvE) and teleport (travel power)
Leadership: powers to suit my hero's bio. Most like take Maneveurs and Tactics. Possibly take Vengence if I don't take another ppower pool.
Invisibility: although not a definate pool to take, would probably take grant invisibility and invisibility for PvE missions.
Psychic Mastery: would like to take at least 3 if not all from this area, although which three is debateable.
That's about it so far...some advice would be greatly appreciated.
Build so far...
Exported from version 1.5C of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh
Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Empathy
Secondary Powers - Support : Archery
01 : Snap Shot dam(01) dam(7)
01 : Healing Aura hel(01) hel(3) hel(5) recred(9) recred(11)
02 : Heal Other hel(02) hel(3) hel(5) recred(9) recred(11)
04 : Fistful of Arrows dam(04) dam(7)
06 : Resurrect recred(06)
08 : Swift runspd(08)
10 : Recall Friend inttim(10)
12 : Fortitude recred(12) thtbuf(13) thtbuf(13)
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01 : Brawl enhancement(01)
01 : Sprint enhancement(01)
02 : Rest enhancement(02)