The "healer" thing is silly, Empath's get 3 heals, 1 Res and 5 Buffs.
I took enough attacks on Lord Blue to solo at those times when I needed to, but most of my energy was concentrated on primaries, leadership, fitness etc.
When I was playing in a team I would concentrate on using my primaries. I was more concerned with watching the little icons near someones name and buffing and healing as needed, as well as reacting to cries for CM, fort or AB. If the team was working really well and no one was in need of my talents then I would help with the attacks, but to be honest they were hardly the most useful things in the world. When everyone else is doing damage in triple figures and I'm doing damage in low double then I'm not really performing my primary function, which is to keep the team alive and healthy.
And I think CM is a must have power. At later stages when you are fighting psi enemies it can be the difference between success or team wipe.
That's still more heals then any other powerset in the game gets though 
I agree calling an empath just a healer is shortsighted, but I do think a good empath has his healing slotted quite heavily, and also takes every opportunity available to heal a damaged teammate. Just like I expect an FF defender to pick up at least the insulation and deflection shield, and I could list similar powers for all sets. I think the reason people say they run into so many bad empaths is because it's much easier to recognise a bad empath then it is to recognise a bad buffer/debuffer, because healing affects the players much more directly.
I think thats true. You regularly get cries of good healing, but its not often I get told good tanking. It happens, but not often. I was in a team tonight top heavy with controllers who did a sterling job. I did comment on how good they were but I bet it's not something said too much.
Empaths are the showy ones that you notice most when you first start to play. When played well they shouldn't need to fight, thats what the rest of us are for. It's only as you get used to the game mechanics that you notice the silent buffs that are just as brilliant. If they can't hit you then you dont take the damage and don't need the empath. But when it all goes horribly wrong and the damage starts getting through it is the empath most of all who can help keep a team alive. If they are fighting and wasting their endurance instead of throwing the heals, buffs and rez then they aren't playing the best way.
The Empath hate/love seems to stem from the fact they are the celebrity powerset, everything they do is seen by the team. Their effects fighting the falling green bars are there to see, if your getting it their great, if it ain't coming their useless. The other sets tend to be more subtle and as a result people tend to be less critical as they don't see the effects and can only assume their doing their bit. The other end is those annoying few who can't see numbers flying off them or the enemy and assume your slacking. The "pure" defender build is a perfectly viable one in my opinion. I went with a pure FF user and you can really make a difference to a team as your concentrating purely on keeping them alive. People are entitled to kick a pure empath feeling their not contributing, but i think it's a mistake. No matter how awesome your team its always handy to have someone who's only concern is making sure you all stay healthy, even if they only save you from one team wipe in en entire session thats the xp equivalent of killing several maps worth of enemies by themselves for each teammate at high levels...
On the subject of the pure build, don't forget recall friend, no use having rez if your downed teammate has a purple boss standing on his corpse... 
The pellet with the poisons in the Vessel with the Pessel, the Chalice from the Palace has the brew that is true...
Not entirely true. There is two possible situations: either the team is largely dead, or there are only a few dead. If most of the team is dead, with enemies standing on top of them, it's hospital time anyways because your rez recharge will take longer then it takes them to travel back. If only one teammate is down in the middle of an enemy spawn, then your team can easily engage and you can rez the teammate the moment the fight begins. (full health+end anyways)
Ofcourse, if there is 5 blasters in a team and one tank, and the tank is the one that's died, this doesnt work so well. I certainly wont deny recall friend has it's uses for rezzing, and my empath does have it, but it certainly isn't required.
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The "healer" thing is silly, Empath's get 3 heals, 1 Res and 5 Buffs.
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Thank you
It amazes me how many people are fixed on empaths being healers, we have 5 buffs ok, even the 3 heals we have can be classed as health buffs.
Im soroley tempted to play to the image of the enxt person who calls my empath a healer and refuse to use anything other than my 3 heals.
Im also annoyed at how often people say good healing, whether its me or another empath its not like we really deserve it. my job is to keep the team going, i shouldnt be thanked for it considering im not thanking the tank everytime he draws aggro, the scrapper for each kill or the blaster each time he dies for the team.
I agree with your points entirely, but in all honesty I can't really be bothered to get excited about it. If they thank me for stuff, I wave it off saying it's my job. People can call me whatever they want, and they can thank me for anything I do, I'll happily keep buffing and healing. It's my job 
Just to throw my 2 infs worth in.
I leveled an empath/elec defender to 50. At first I built him as a "pure" defender. I had 2 attacks up to about level 35. Then the teams dried up. It was impossible to play him solo as he only had 2 very weak attacks. So I respeced into a more offender type build. I found that this is much more use in a team too. I use telsa cage, short curcuit and Power sink regularly. Nothing helps the team more than stopping almost every enemy attacking.
Defenders have secondaries for a reason. If they choose to only use the primaries then they will fullfil there role on a team but they will not be at maximum performance.
Nice to see this written by someone who has actually experienced the difference. It´s okay if an empath decides that he wants to concentrate heavily on his primary, but I am quite tired of people trying to tell me that it wasn´t possible to play an empath with some decently slotted attacks without sacrificing team safety.
Recently I even had a discussion with someone who argued that it wasn´t possible to be a blasting kinetic... Oh, these headaches...
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
Oh I agree, while an empath is never going to do great damage, the secondaries can be pretty useful.
Also Emp/Elec, I had a build with quite a few slotted attacks, and teaming was much more fun. These days though, I mostly use him in PvP, where no empath should be using attacks. Unless your team is doing so well that you can just mess around without fear of losing.
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The "healer" thing is silly, Empath's get 3 heals, 1 Res and 5 Buffs.
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The terminology has always sent me scratching my head. Where does it say that 'healers' only heal and are unable to do anything else? (I know where this term is from but still). For me it marks the ability to heal in a practical way, not whether they are healing at all in the team or only buffing or attacking..
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The "healer" thing is silly, Empath's get 3 heals, 1 Res and 5 Buffs.
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The terminology has always sent me scratching my head. Where does it say that 'healers' only heal and are unable to do anything else? (I know where this term is from but still). For me it marks the ability to heal in a practical way, not whether they are healing at all in the team or only buffing or attacking..
[/ QUOTE ]"Healer" Sounds like someone who's main purpose is to heal. When empaths get 5 buffs and 3 heals, and a lot of players prefer fort, RA's and AB over the heals, that's not really the case, IMO.
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I even had a discussion with someone who argued that it wasn´t possible to be a blasting kinetic
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They'd love Buffem.
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"Healer" Sounds like someone who's main purpose is to heal.
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To you maybe, to me it sounds like someone who 'can' heal.
There's two ways to deal with this problem, folks:
1. Not care.
2. Get all emo about it, crying 'whaaaaa! I'm not a just a healer, appreciate me for everything I do! whaaaaaa!'
IN MEMORIUM OF GAYBABY
CRUELY TAKEN FROM THIS WORLD WHILE SO YOUNG
Well, actually I choose one of two options if someone refers to my offenderish kinetic archer as "healer":
If he does this when talking about my ability to heal - like in "Don´t stray too far from the healer when you are running low on health." - it´s perfectly fine.
If he generally refers to most defenders as "healers" regardless of context I adjust my estimation of that player´s competence accordingly.
But what really goes on my nerves are defenders who say that no defender should (or could without being a worse defender) ever waste slots, time and endurance for blasting. Sure, I could spend my allocated blasting time by keeping every team member constantly buffed with density (although hardly anyone but the tank is ever attacked) and spamming heals (although it´s only for the tank who has just lost staggering 3% of his health bar), and I could sacrifice some attacks for the medicine pool so I can spam even more heals, but anyone who tells me that this would make me a better defender must be talking through his hat... or regions of his body I don´t bother to describe.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
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2. Get all emo about it, crying 'whaaaaa! I'm not a just a healer, appreciate me for everything I do! whaaaaaa!'
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I quite like the sound of that, actually 
But seriously, when you create an empath, you sort of know what your letting yourself in for.
I do love to blast things with pink, noisy stuffs, but I know my main purpose in busy teams is healing, however many buffs I throw at people, and people will usually notice your heals more than your buffs anyhoo.
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Sure, I could spend my allocated blasting time by keeping every team member constantly buffed with density (although hardly anyone but the tank is ever attacked) and spamming heals (although it´s only for the tank who has just lost staggering 3% of his health bar)
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This is exactly the dynamics i like to see, the defender (if a single target anything) doesnt have to lose time retargetting and can also target through the tank with their attacks without getting aggro but it takes the whole team to cooperate in getting the dynamic right.
Id never disagree with anyone for making a pacifistic concept of their choosing, the difference could go from being the type more suited for team against +5s than +1s (with +5 ya likely to have to knock ya self out on the primaries and get leaderships maybe) and with +1s its easier to find the time from not having to buff to blast.
Of course any of the less reactionary sets (like ff or sonic) id definately like to see blasting/epic controlling or something other than watching.
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.
I always thought some Empaths go a bit far on the "Let's massivly overheal my group" thing. we'd go quicker if they mixe in some attacks too. I mean sure there's not much hope we'll die, but that's not efficent, just safe!
Yeah, exactly. If a blaster uses his lvl32 boom versus a spawn of dead enemies with one minion left standing with a sliver of life (and quite dead afterwards) everybody would agree this was overkill and generally a waste of time and endurance. On the other hand an empath (or different kind of "healer") doing basically the same by constantly spamming heal auras and the likes claims that he was doing his oh-so-full-time job of keeping the team alive...
Can anybody tell me why I can´t take them too serious?
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
Then again, Blasters are ten-a-penny, how often can you get an Empath that likes to press the healy buttons?
I'd argue that most empaths be they offenders or defenders like to press the 'healy button'. Particularly that heal aura button that keeps them alive.
I'd also argue that Empaths are ten a penny as well!
Mysty is as pure as sweet cane sugar, baby!
Pure empaths heal or buff first then teleport the dead bodies away from the anihilation after the team wipe
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), and that doesn't help their reputation with experienced players either.
Here we go again
What is it with all this anti Empathy stuff??
Every couple of months this seems to happen.
Threads like this just make me wish I still had Kah-Ra Kaah....Still there is always the mini version of her I could dust off.
Empaths.. We are here to patch up others mistakes
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Of all the bad defenders I've teamed with, by far the majority have been Empaths. Most non-Empath defenders I've teamed with have been competent and useful. Although I've had the pleasure to know some excellent Empaths, and am not bashing them generally, I tend to be very wary about them for this reason.
It takes a certain maturity in a player to understand non-Empathy defenders (who are largely based on buffs and debuffs); for this reason many newer players look down on non-Empaths (or should I say "non-healers"