Thoughts on my tank build

Oh in that case Trick Archery is OP'd. Fight durations are expected to meet on average 20s. They don't always but sometimes they will. Passed a certain point I would of finished debuffing prior to the 20s. Groups/fight points can differ in difficulty within a mission. Team moving at speed I am there to act not spend time assessing.

Your running FFG. If the empath could boost defense of everyone or play other peoples characters to avoid those characters doing terminally stupid things...then they wouldn't see the point in playing a pacifist. However a pacifist (it's actually nigh on most people do) is attractive. Playing Traps is a damn sight easier than playing an empath. If you might make a pacifist "insert anyother defender here" then you'd deserve eggs thrown at you because that can be argued as choosing to be lazy much easier than it can with empaths. As an empath myself (I have all the powersets) I have come across the most diabolical teams, some people non the wiser level up with them and some of those people will love the lure of playing a nurse and there is nothing wrong with that.

I would seperate what joy I have from a archery blaster and a trick archer. They would have to differ in order to enjoy two different concepts and some others may do that. With TA I would vary, my powers become more and more convenient depending on what powersets are in team, what we are up against and what's available. TA pacifists don't exist as far as I know but they can through what powersets are in team, unpredictability of events slam every debuff they have before looking to attack. Even with every debuff down you can't necessarily foresee complete survivability otherwise TAs would be highly rated.

Not everybody thinks the same. People on my server used to get ranked. Who is the best. Opinions mattered if you wanted to get in a team. The way things go becomes the way of the world. One player infects another. It has died down much since debt was reduced but people can still love an empath on the ball. Some players will pride themselves on being on the ball as it is better to keep say a scrapper dealing damage than to have them die and need resurrecting in a compromiseable place. Then like I say some empaths may have a build that buffs and runs in PvP or a utility build for as many different teams as possible with one key thing in mind and that is they perform their main role well. I have assault on my empath. If I don't have time to deal damage, seven others combined are making up for it. Then in pvp I offer resist to taunt and placate. Forget other peoples builds, they're mostly derived from playing with people you haven't met or for serving some function. It's when you have a empath that doesn't pro buff, isn't watching healthbars, doesn't attack but manages to rock an aura even when no one needs healing that there is a problem. I don't have a problem with pacifist builds I have a problem with players who are simply asleep.


AoEs can involve a mezz. I am not for proactively cm'ing the entire team, just certain members of. But CM is not just for mezzes it's +per too, great versus arachnos.

Come again? I'm completely and utterly lost as to what point you're trying to make here.

I don't really think playing Traps is a lot easier than playing an Empath it just requires a different skill set and focus. With Empathy you're watching your teammates, where are they, what are they doing? With Traps you're mostly watching the enemies to decide if you need to be dropping additional Traps to assist against clusters. But you're also watching your teammates. Several powers can be used proactively to assist teammates, from using web grenade to keep someone out of melee range to shifting position to cover a threatened blaster or just dropping Triage Beacon near a struggling scrapper. I really don't think any Defender powerset has a monopoly on effort some required. Some are definitely easier but I really don't think Empathy can claim to be the most effort requiring. It's got 4 reactive powers, but not a lot of reactive options, it can heal someone or cast clear mind that's it. Other powersets have a lot more flexibility in reacting for example Storm can heal them, knock the enemy away (hopefully in a sensible direction), mez the enemy (if it's a minion at least), stand next to the ally with Hurricane running or unleash a Tornado to throw the whole room into chaos (yes, there are times when this is the best response, they aren't good times).

So yeas, Empaths do require some focus. So does every other buff/debuff set out there. Claiming that Empathy requires so much more concentration than every other one out there that Empaths don't have time to blast is ludicrous. Claiming that the power of the set justifies this approach is hubris.

Correct, TA is not, at the end of the day, a particularly good set. It's got some nice pwoers and can increase the capabilities of a team but it lacks sufficient reactive capabilities and damage mitigation to guarantee the survival of an 8-man team on it's own. It's basically the complement of Empathy actually, both sets are at the extreme end of the buff/debuff line (Emapthy is pure buff, TA pure debuff) and both provide very strong capabilities in one area but lack the well-rounded nature of other sets which regulates them to second tier.

This I do agree with, I don't care for pacifist empaths at the best of times but one who doesn't even bother to use buffs is far worse than one who simply doesn't attack.

Between Tactics and Force Field generator my Traps Defender provides everything Clear Mind does except for Sleep Protection plus it provides To Hit Debuff resistance against those Smoke grenades to boot. That being said, I agree there are times when using Clear Mind proactively is a good thing but at the end of the day I'm not going to rely on it. I build my characters to be self sufficient and plan ahead to have the inspirations I might need against the current enemy group. For example against Arachnos I'd plan on carrying some Break Frees and Insights unless the character had powers to replace them. For Carnival I'll carry some Catch a Breath. Against Cimerorians a few extra Lucks come in handy.

That's something that goes both ways. Some AV in the old days would wipe out a team and have complete damage mitigation. It was from the old days when people couldn't super spec their builds and people had no clue that empaths found themselves just permanently having to buff or heal everyone. People have a right to their opinions. I decided not to be bored with them now. I don't care what concepts people have, fussing over a little lack of damage is nerdlike, a life is needed by those that do care and are bothered.