I doubt I ever will or other people for that matter unless I PvP. Normally when things go bad its either the defender is not perceptive enough even when the dynamics are right or the dynamics are bad and the impossible is expected really.
Never have I seen much in the way of reasons to superslot except for finding ways to effectively have more slots.
Some defenders would waste a heap load of recharge bonuses because they let their powers sit in their tray, be it idly reactive rocking the aura or totally utterly lost in their attack chains that it is quicker to text them and ask them for help than wait. I occasionally let powers sit, either with 1 fort or RAs waiting for the moment its actually needed but that's normally on teams I can't quite determine how things are going to go. Like I say though a lot is determined on the team dynamics. I have been on a PuG STF and the Tank ran in and the AV ran out and smacked me straight after one shotting the controller. I wasn't going to give up all of my day on that. There was too many wrongs to put right. First flaw was not heeding my buff call and second was on the Tank who ran in, knowing the AV was present but not locking him down, when we would of got to 54s I dread to think.
In PvE if all is done right then straight forward SOs is fine. I spent most my empathy time with empathy and psionic mastery before trying the leaderships and power mastery, I found very little to no difference in finding myself enough to help a team. Although they're are nice to have and I believe in people being able to be pacifistic. So for me there is a difference between being able to and needing to max out so what I do is unsurprisingly pretty basic and it means I worry about other toons first.
Empathy/Dark had been pieced together as the better empathy combo right at the beginning but in meeting some of those that did, I wish they were a little more into how other peoples sets worked rather than just their own and got into game mechanics more as its more than just the build, having said that though at the time I couldn't talk but I knew that I should not hover above Jaegers spamming the aura.
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.
The thing is, whilst controllers primary would make them more effective in teams offensively, as a healer it isnt very good because it doesnt have defenders endurence AT ability.
If you play a controller its true your more offensive but a lot of the time to make up for that your running low on endurence and if your going offence then a lot of the time you wont have the slots needed for all the empathy set to be effective.
I have a dark/empath defender at level 50, whilst i admit the AOE's are handy, the -accuracy doesnt give much of a boost really, but yes that can be handy with fortitude in certain situations, but overall if you want to be an effective empath you cant get many attacks anyway.
Tenebrous Tentacles is a handy power if its slotted well, I use 2 accuracy, 2 immobilise and 2 recharge reduction IO's on mine and it works well.
Also in your build above, Maneuvers isnt worth taking, the defence boost is horrible and its just another draining toggle.
I have to comment though, no Blackstar? I think thats a big error there especially if you have taken power boost, a lot of the time you get blue inspirations because you dont use many, so can easily recover after a nuke, plus if you have a blaster with a fairly weaker nuke, for instance rain of arrows, use it directly after and you will still wipe out the entire mob. Seems a lot easier.
EDIT: As for Dark Pit, on paper it looks good but in actual use it gets resisted a lot more than its worth, plus the recharge time is still bad. Whilst usually its worth taking AoEs, this is the only one ive tried and respeced out of.
Its up to you but through personal experience I'd say your better off with another power.
It may not matter much but early levels i find its better to start with heal other rather the healing aura, just because healing aura does next to nothing but if your on a sewer run then heal other is really handy.
No travel power till level 24? Your going to be stuck if your jetpack runs out 
Other than that looks like a good build. Torrent is handy sometimes if someone gets in over there head (and fun if your bored to use on hellions in Atlas playing human golf )
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The thing is, whilst controllers primary would make them more effective in teams offensively, as a healer it isnt very good because it doesnt have defenders endurence AT ability.
[/ QUOTE ]
My main reason for choosing to take Empathy as a defender rather than a controller would be a defender's primary is generally stronger than a controller's secondary, meaning bigger heals.
I took energy blast on mine - back when all the cool kids were taking psi blast - chosen simply for the graphical effects. I found the (occasional) knock back a useful "argh gerroff me" power, but I probably wouldn't have picked it in preference if I'd known what I was doing back then! 
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I took energy blast on mine - back when all the cool kids were taking psi blast
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Back to your cupboard. Teacher's pet.
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
Empathy, while a great powerset to Defenders, it is also available to Controllers who also have a control primary. It makes the team a lot safer than a secondary blast set, thus stepping on Defenders' toes when it comes to protecting the team.
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Defenders' secondaries are not useless however, as many of them have built-in debuffs. There are great synergies when it comes to certain sets, (Kin/Elec, Storm/Dark, Rad/Sonic)
But what augments Empathy? As an Empath you don't have any direct way to boost your damage significantly (except other Debuffers/Buffers, which work great!) But to make your secondary matter, which ones are the most suitable for an Empath Defender?
I created an Empathy/Dark Defender, with the idea of being an inverse /Empath Controller: I do buffing, debuffing and control, while having a decent self-defense through IO sets.
So here are more thoughts on Emp/Dark:
- ToHit debuffs on dark blasts augment Fortitude's +Def, creating a soft cap in between buffed & debuffed targets. Helps out other defense reliant players and you really can't overdo it.
- Tenebrous Tentacles is IMO a wonderful tool, making things hit less (see above) and immobile certainly makes your secondary stand out more. Dark Pit, while not as powerful as Controllers' AoE controls, it has a fairly short recharge, activation time and does its' job: take minions out of the fight. It's a good trade off IMHO.
- You can get good Ranged Defense bonuses off /Dark. Trap of the Hunter, Stupefy and Thunderstrike all have juicy +ranged def bonuses, making the Empath himself quite survivable in between throwing Tentacles or stunning the minions.
So umm, yeah. A build I made:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1,4006
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Level 50 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Empathy
Secondary Power Set: Dark Blast
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Power Mastery
Hero Profile:
------------
Level 1: Healing Aura Numna-Heal/EndRdx:50(A), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg:50(7), Numna-Heal/Rchg:50(37), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), Numna-Heal:50(40), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(43)
Level 1: Dark Blast Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(11), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(36), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(37), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(37)
Level 2: Gloom Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(3), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(15)
Level 4: Heal Other Dct'dW-Rchg:50(A), Dct'dW-Heal:50(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:50(5), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(7), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(9)
Level 6: Hurdle Jump-I:50(A), Jump-I:50(25)
Level 8: Clear Mind RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 10: Combat Jumping Krma-ResKB:30(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(46)
Level 12: Fortitude HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(13), HO:Membr(13), LkGmblr-Rchg+:30(15)
Level 14: Health Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(A)
Level 16: Tenebrous Tentacles TotHntr-Acc/Rchg:50(A), TotHntr-EndRdx/Immob:50(17), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx:50(17), TotHntr-Immob/Rng:50(19), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg:50(36), TotHntr-Dam%:50(46)
Level 18: Recovery Aura P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod:50(19), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(25), RechRdx-I:50(46)
Level 20: Stamina P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(43)
Level 22: Dark Pit Amaze-ToHitDeb%:50(A), Amaze-Stun/Rchg:50(23), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(23), Amaze-Acc/Rchg:50(31), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun:50(36)
Level 24: Super Jump Jump-I:50(A)
Level 26: Regeneration Aura Dct'dW-Rchg:50(A), Dct'dW-Heal:50(27), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:50(27), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(31), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(31)
Level 28: Hasten RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(29), RechRdx-I:50(29)
Level 30: Resurrect RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 32: Adrenalin Boost Dct'dW-Rchg:50(A), Dct'dW-Heal:50(33), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:50(33), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(33), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34), EndMod-I:50(34)
Level 35: Assault EndRdx-I:50(A), EndRdx-I:50(48)
Level 38: Tactics GSFC-ToHit:50(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg:50(39), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx:50(39), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx:50(39), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx:50(40), GSFC-Build%:50(50)
Level 41: Power Build Up AdjTgt-Rchg:50(A), AdjTgt-ToHit:50(42), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg:50(42), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg:50(43)
Level 44: Temp Invulnerability TtmC'tng-ResDam:50(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:50(45), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(45), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(45)
Level 47: Vengeance LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg:50(48), LkGmblr-Def:50(48)
Level 49: Maneuvers HO:Cyto(A), HO:Cyto(50), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
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Set Bonus Totals:
4,5% DamageBuff
8% Defense(Energy)
5,5% Defense(Melee)
17,4% Defense(Ranged)
5,5% Defense(AoE)
52,5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
47% Enhancement(Accuracy)
18% Enhancement(Heal)
23% FlySpeed
122,1 HP (12%) HitPoints
23% JumpHeight
23% JumpSpeed
Knockback (Mag -4)
Knockup (Mag -4)
13% (0,22 End/sec) Recovery
22% (0,93 HP/sec) Regeneration
6,3% Resistance(Fire)
6,3% Resistance(Cold)
1,26% Resistance(Energy)
1,26% Resistance(Negative)
23% RunSpeed
| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
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Despite I said about 6-slotting Stupefy for the 3.13% ranged def bonus, the random mag6 KB might do more harm than good (you have to slot the proc if you want the final bonus) 25% ranged defense with CJ & Maneuvers is good enough anyway!
So what are your ways to get the most out of Empathy?