SOLO Empathy Quest

Well Finally started Missions with Malta in them, They are mean
But I am very close to level 42 now. Should make it by the end of the weekend.

No Deaths yet, but I am back to Inspy managing like I did in my teens. No Break Frees and I feel rather unprotected.

I also finally put together my Team Build that is hopefully Posi Friendly, But I went down a different path.
Decided to look at Dark Mastery powers and took Opressive Gloom at 41 on my team build, Thunderstrike on my Solo Build.

Has anyone else noticed that Oppressive Gloom does not toggle suppress like all other powers ? Every time I am stunned, slept or held, OG turns off and I have to actually re-toggle it. Is this a Bug?

Hello Defenders, I thought I would post again in this thread to announce the end of my Solo Quest.
At least as far as what I set out to prove, I am not restricting myself to solo work.
Oct 15th is Biospark's 2 month anniversary and he made level 44 on Friday the 9th with a combined 144 hours
of solo play and 19 deaths. I spent the majority of this time at a difficulty setting of (X1, +1level, no bosses)
This was the level that was most comfortable after SOs and the times I bumped it up higher, were a little more
hecktic and likely to get me killed. I am striving to get to a higher level of solo play by 50, but I need a few
more sets and powers first. I am confident that I can add bosses to the settings and increase the number of mobs
as well. Do I think that I could get to (x8, +4level) ? I doubt it. And even if I could, it would take so long to
complete the mission that I would be better off with a different setting.


Conclusions:

1) Empathy is not the best solo oriented set, and it may well be one of the worst solo-oriented sets.
This was something I knew going into the quest, but the challenge was to solo all the way into the end game
with the powerset. And I have proven to myself that this powerset combo can do it. That leads to the
conclusion that any combo can do this, thanks to IOs and in-game difficulty settings.

2) Some things which I knew instinctively, but had affirmed very soundly with this quest are two things.
First, No character is one powerset alone, but the sum-total of all his/her powers.
This is not something new to me, but when I started this quest, I felt that Electric was perhaps the worst
blast set to pair with empathy. As it turns out, there is a very real Syngery to be found between endurance draining
paired with a powerset that offers little or no defense.
Kinda makes me drool thinking about what a Kinetics-Electric defender could achieve.
Secondly, what has been pointed out to me regarding Defenders being better on teams and as such suffer
in a solo environment is very true. I never doubted what a defender brought to a team, and I have played
many of them in that setting. But being able to contrast the solo experience so thoroughly next to team
experience has put this in greater focus.

3) Ok, I also had decided not to make any further judgements on the AT as a whole and empathy in particular.
I hope that any of my posts over the last 2 months have held true to this plan. But with 47 levels behind me
on the Empathy powerset, I really feel that empathy defenders at low levels, due to the low damage of their attacks
make it very hard to deal out the needed dmg to overcome a spawn, and the high endurance cost of their primary
powers makes this even more difficult. However, once you get to higher levels, empathy can be one powerset that
can break the bonds of stamina and be more carefree with the use of high cost powers.

4) SO.. How can empathy be improved ?
My first thought is regarding the two auras. If I remember correctly, they were able to be made perma
at launch. And with the increase in the timers and ED they are no longer able to be perma'd.
Perhaps this was done as just a global effort to prepare for ED and IOs, and these 2 powers just got hit
along with all the other "unstoppable" category of powers, but RA is a level 18 power, Regen Aura level 26.
They should be able to made perma. Especially when you consider how important they become to an empath's build.
This would free up so many options for an Empath when it comes to slotting. If you look at my builds you
will see a significant percentage of my IOs are recharge with the main IO focus as recharge. And realistically,
this is the ONLY way to play the powerset. Not as much flexibility there as there could be.
Everyone, if asked, will cite global recharge as the main IO set category for this powerset, and anyone
that plays the powerset will take "Hasten". Perhaps I am wrong, but dropping the recharge to somewhere closer
to 5 mins rather than 8 mins would be very good for the powerset and I doubt it would over-power it.
If it were too much, perhaps RAs from different defenders could be made unstackable.

Another factor of playing Empathy, which I am sure other Buffing sets suffer is the click-happy nature of Empathy
on a team. Between, Heals, Fort, CM, and Adrenaline. An empath really has a hard time finding space on a fast moving
team for any offense. This is sad for me. But it points out 2 things which I have stated in the past and
believe even more strongly now. A damage boost to defenders to 0.75 mod would greatly help a soloing Defender
but would make only a small impact on a team. Its a simple matter of time. Buffs and Heals can be a full-time
duty on a team. So you could have Blaster level damage and if you concentrated first on "defending" you would still
be doing less dmg than a pure "dps" character. I am not recommending that kind of damage, but I also dont feel that
a 20% dmg increase will do anything but help smooth over the play experience of a defender, especially solo.
A global dmg boost would be an easy fix, but one which would allow an Empath to actually blast more
would make more sense. For instance, making more of the buffs PBAoE like Accelerate Metabolism.
I know I have stated this before, but I am even more convinced that as an empath, I will be doing one of the following on a team;

A) Keeping as many people buffed and healed as possible and doing little to no blasting or...
B) Blasting and keeping a minimum number of heroes buffed and healed.

This is a crappy choice. And even though I dont feel put off by being a support character.
A long play session of managing buffs can be very straining on my senses.

So... Fortitude should be a 4 minute buff, with a longer recharge.
Clear Mind, even though many folks would disagree with me, should become a PBAoE like Accelerate Metabolism.
If Empathy had more defensive powers like other powersets, I would not suggest this type of change.
But Empathy offers 1 tier of survival (Healing and Regen) which when stacked against the other three tiers:
Avoidance, Mitigation and DPS/Speed is arguably the worst at actually keeping you alive.
So giving Empathy an AoE mezz protection would seriously help their solo experience without changing the
team strength overly. But would remove many, many, clicks from the teaming experience of an Empath.
Thus letting them blast more during that free time.


I want to offer many thanks to the community for the support and encouragment I have received.
It has meant a great deal to me as a person and has been very helpful to my in-game experience as well.
I apologize if I dont mention your name, just know that I am very greatful and am not leaving anyone out
on purpose. The list would be quite long and I dont want to sound like its the academy awards.


Good Luck friends

That's why I said ALMOST. If Fort was able to be perma on an entire team? I'd probably be the ONLY one left playing force fields.

I speak not for myself, but for the "mass public", most of whom are idiots, who would look at Empathy and Force Fields and say "why FF?" and roll the empath.

Thanks for your most recent post, Biospark.

With my first character being an empath/electric, I followed your quest with much interest. Just from your own experience, you make a lot of valid points that not everyone understands, particularly of the defender empath's role within a team as well in solo.

Based on your experience and mine, I think the empath defender is a prime candidate for a dual build, one solo and one in team, with the solo build being the most difficult to successfully achieve.

Before I responded to Biospark's suggestions, I wanted to digest them for a bit.

Recovery Aura - Perma Recovery Aura is a pretty big benefit. However, with powers like Transference, Power Sink, and AM existing in the game with much shorter recharges, I agree that Recovery Aura could do with a shorter recharge, which would help improve Empathy significantly, in a manner consistent with the goals of the set, and without negative side effects.

You might end up having to lower the +recovery, but RA is so overkill, I doubt it would be an issue. The big difference might be vs. massive recovery debuffs, which RA generally swamps. You could add resistance to Recovery debuffs in order to solve that problem. Make it a base +100% recovery buff, with AMs resistance to recovery debuffs (and maybe even drain), and go with a 360 second recharge.

Regeneration Aura - If this power could be made perma solo, it would be significantly overpowered. It could have its value lowered and be available all the time, but I prefer its use to overcome really bad situations (or to be able to create really bad situations because you know its active). I'd rather leave this as is, personally.

Fortitude - I'd rather not mess with Fort. Two minute buffs appeal to me and I find them very workable. While a longer recharge made to match the longer duration so that you end up being able to keep Fort up on the same number of people sounds appealing, I'd rather be able to make my choices with Fortitude every 20-40 seconds, as opposed to a longer recharging Fort limiting me when finding a new circumstance, but now Fort is still recharging (or having a prime target with Fort die, but with Fort's longer recharge not being able to re-apply it in a timely manner).

I could get behind changing Clear Mind's duration to 2 minutes (and ID, Clarity, Antidote, Thaw, O2 Boost, and any others I have missed).

Thanks for the response Strato !

As usual you have a pretty good perspective on the strength of the Powerset.

And thanks of course for all your in-game support as well.

Excellent conclusion there Biospark, and very evenly delivered.

My Empath was my first toon, and therefore has become my badger, and general "favourite toon to play". I play this character a lot and it has as much recharge as it's possible to cram into a build with +208% recharge excluding a visit to the SG buff table every time I log on.

I agree with Strato Nexus in terms of his comments. I have a downtime of 30 seconds on both auras, and there is no real worry when they're running. if I get into a real mess, I have the Geas accolade that will pull the recharge down to around 8 seconds. When I run on teams that stick together, there are very few occasions I need to heal. We do literally turn into an engine of destruction with almost perma auras. Of course, not many people would want to plough as much cash into a build as I have, but the perma-dom mentality is still out there. Perma-auras I think would break stuff.

You're right that you tend to either spend your entire time supporting with lots of clicks, or forget the clicks and blast at the expense of the team. I know I've kind of brought that on myself with stupid levels of recharge meaning Fort is back in 15 seconds. Having Clear Mind as a PBAoE click would be a massive boon. Increase the end cost, and maybe recharge so that at least Empaths have a choice to slot it with something other than 1 END mod.
Or even, just make it last a little bit longer...

I generally play a halfway house now buffing the blasters, defenders, khelds and controllers, then blasting away when that's done.

Thanks for taking the time to post, and keep us updated. I'm not a prolific poster, but I do read the posts.

Nice one! What's your next project?

-H

Congratulations on sticking to it. I have a few specific responses to your comments below--not to diminish your accomplishment, but to provide some perspective from someone who has walked this road before.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biospark 1) Empathy is not the best solo oriented set, and it may well be one of the worst solo-oriented sets. This was something I knew going into the quest, but the challenge was to solo all the way into the end game with the powerset. And I have proven to myself that this powerset combo can do it. That leads to the conclusion that any combo can do this, thanks to IOs and in-game difficulty settings.

IOs and difficulty settings make things quicker and easier, but are not strictly necessary. My emp/dark grew up before such things were added to the game. (Hami-Os were very nice once he could get them, though.) You, too, can solo +3 bosses. You might want to pack a lunch, though.

Quote:

4) SO.. How can empathy be improved ? My first thought is regarding the two auras. If I remember correctly, they were able to be made perma at launch. And with the increase in the timers and ED they are no longer able to be perma'd. Perhaps this was done as just a global effort to prepare for ED and IOs, and these 2 powers just got hit along with all the other "unstoppable" category of powers, but RA is a level 18 power, Regen Aura level 26. They should be able to made perma. Especially when you consider how important they become to an empath's build. This would free up so many options for an Empath when it comes to slotting. If you look at my builds you will see a significant percentage of my IOs are recharge with the main IO focus as recharge. And realistically, this is the ONLY way to play the powerset. Not as much flexibility there as there could be.

I would not object to a reduction in recharge time for the auras, but not at the cost of a significant reduction in their effectiveness--which would almost certainly be forthcoming if the recharge were reduced enough to make them perma with only enhancements. We would have to persuade the devs that the current recharge is actually broken, and that would be a major battle.

My emp/dark is actually fairly light on recharge bonuses, by the way, though he does have Hasten. As I've mentioned before, in high-level solo play, he very rarely needs the auras at normal difficulty levels. I usually use them for EBs and +2/+3 bosses, but not much else. They see more regular use on teams, if only because they make everyone feel warm and fuzzy, and I wouldn't mind having them more often for that.

Quote:

A global dmg boost would be an easy fix, but one which would allow an Empath to actually blast more would make more sense. For instance, making more of the buffs PBAoE like Accelerate Metabolism. I know I have stated this before, but I am even more convinced that as an empath, I will be doing one of the following on a team; A) Keeping as many people buffed and healed as possible and doing little to no blasting or... B) Blasting and keeping a minimum number of heroes buffed and healed. This is a crappy choice. And even though I dont feel put off by being a support character. A long play session of managing buffs can be very straining on my senses.

It's actually possible to buff, blast, and heal at the same time, but the multitasking is a serious strain, and even the best empath player will have trouble keeping it up for extended periods. Playing a TF like that on my main is exhausting.

A little more damage would be nice, but the devs would have to dance around it carefully, to avoid stepping on Corruptor toes, because then the Corruptors would undoubtedly lurch back and stomp Blasters' delicate little piggies, and pretty soon everyone would be mad at everyone else again.

Quote:

So... Fortitude should be a 4 minute buff, with a longer recharge. Clear Mind, even though many folks would disagree with me, should become a PBAoE like Accelerate Metabolism. If Empathy had more defensive powers like other powersets, I would not suggest this type of change. But Empathy offers 1 tier of survival (Healing and Regen) which when stacked against the other three tiers: Avoidance, Mitigation and DPS/Speed is arguably the worst at actually keeping you alive. So giving Empathy an AoE mezz protection would seriously help their solo experience without changing the team strength overly. But would remove many, many, clicks from the teaming experience of an Empath. Thus letting them blast more during that free time.

As long as the duration:recharge ratio on Fort was kept in line, so that I could maintain Fort on as many targets as I do now, I wouldn't object to increasing them. It would reduce the flexibility with Fort somewhat--I shift Fort around the team pretty often, depending on where I think it will do the most good. It would be worth losing a bit of that to reduce the clickfest, however.

Your proposed CM change is almost certainly not going to happen. We have begged Castle for changes to CM repeatedly, and he looked down and whispered, "No." Well, more specifically, he said that CM and similar powers are not intended for use as proactive buffs, but as release powers. I consider this pure, refined, high-grade yivshish for a number of reasons, but Castle has not been persuaded.

all i can say is gd luck m8y i know how hard its going to b coz i done it with my empath/archary about 1.5 years ago and took me ages but it was a giggle and a bet with a m8 (which i won £50)

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