Geez, playing EMP Defender is tiring.

First time rolling an Empathy Defender in the past 3-4 years and boy is it tiring. Honestly, it feels more straining than any other powersets ...especially during low levels.

Have to either CM everyone or pay attention to anyone who got mezzed.
Have to keep Fortitude going on several different players.
Have to keep healing most of the times.
Have to gather the team or wait for an opportunity where everyone is grouped up for both RA auras.

This is the most workout I've gotten in a long time. It's fun when I have the energy for it though :]

Compare to a bubbler..

Buff the team.
Blast away like crazy for 4 minutes.
Repeat.

Well it's a mostly reaction set so it does require more effort than more proactive sets.

CM is too short duration with too long of an animation to bother keeping it on everyone all the time. And you really don't need to give it to the melee characters, since they've got it covered. I'd recommend using it when you notice someone mezzed or when they say they are. (Also, when someone gets up from using an Awaken.)

Fortitude's not so bad. Just pick 2-4 characters (depending on your recharge) that you'll always give it to, and cycle through them. My order of preference for Fortitude targets is:
- Empathy Defenders
- Empathy Controllers
- Other Defenders
- Other Controllers
- Blasters
- Anyone else

(Those first two in my list are because of playing with Green Machine. Move the two Controller slots down below Blasters for my AB order.)


Fire RA in the thick of battle. If anyone is out of range, either they don't need it or they're not playing with the team.

And just heal when it's needed. Between Regen Aura, Fortitude, and you killing things with your secondary, you shouldn't need more than a Healing Aura every now and then to top people off. Also, dying teammates means cheap powers...

I started a mind/emp controller recently because Empathy is one of the controller secondaries I have yet to play. I've found it to be a fairly busy pairing. Mind alone can be a busy set if one is using the single target mezzes. Fortunately, it decreases the amount of time I have to spend healing. In fact, as of level 26, I'm quite surprised at how little healing I've had to do.

I generally try to keep people buffed with Fortitude as often as it's up, during battles I focus on mezzing, and between fight I do some pre-emptive CM'ing if facing off against mez heavy mobs. Since defenders and controllers tend to keep others alive and are generally shut down by mezzes I CM them before Blasters who can offer a little retaliation though a mez. Prioritizing Fortitude really depends on the teammake up. If we're doing okay defensively, then I'll toss it on Blaster and Scrappers for more offensive oomph. If we're struggling defensively it goes to other defenders and scrappers. Occasionally, I'll even Fort a tank who is struggling with alphas and maintaining aggro.

I've learned that Empathy does require a bit more decision making than I'd give it credit for previously. The experience has also highlighted the difference between a well-played empath and a poorly-played one much more.

I find that most Controllers who pair with /Emp doesn't heal very well. Of course, I'm not saying all Emp Controllers suck, cause I'm sure there are those who can actually manage all their powers. However, the majority of them have too much on their hands to actively use their heals.

Some grab aggro too much with their primary and has to worry about themselves most of the time. Yet, it works out because if they're doing a good job of controlling, they wont have to be healing the team as much.

All defender sets get tedious if try to do everything, all the time, to everybody.

Not everyone on every team needs every buff all the time. Most teams can get by with a couple of heals here and there, some teams need the auras and buffs on certain people, and some teams just need it all.

Know your team and put out effort relative to need.

I proactive buff in the hopes that I am in a good team and barely have to heal. Sometimes it's a team where everyone seems to be doing everything they can to get themselves and eachother killed. Then I am in danger of having to heal like crazy with less time to buff. With a minimum of 1 fort on one player that one player could handle all the threat whilst others are positionally unlikely to get any damage at all or damage that they can't often mitigate out for themselves. I normally fort one person less than I can and any team that's all over the map in desperate need of a personal healbot won't see me for very long. I put up with it leveling up thinking that it was all about the heals, with the game around as long as it has been I like to think that most of the team know it's not all about the heals. I am not ranting I am just filling time cos I am bored atm.

Just a quick couple questions:

Does Power Boost boost both auras?
If it does boost both auras, does the boost apply to the entire duration of the RA's or just until the duration of the boost itself wears off?

Said it before and I'll say it again. I won't play defenders on teams for this exact reason. You aren't playing City of Heroes, you are playing whackamole with the other players status.

I don't play Defenders, I play Offenders. Emp is great for that when paired with other emps (Green Machine, mentioned above, is a great example) but otherwise I end up feeling that I should be focusing on allies, not enemies, and that's just boring to me. Which is actually kinda funny, since my first "high level" character (33 at deletion) was emp/rad.

Truth be told, I'd rather just have a nice dark or rad def on the team. They can heal, too, and the debuffs they offer will most likely do more than any amount of healing can, outside of extreme situations.

I play my emp as a buffer who can heal (but probably has better things to do with her animation time). I mean, really, the auras, the fort, the AB, plenty of stuff there. I'd rather be blasting than acting like everyone's green bar is my responsibility. That said, my empath does have the Empath badge, so it's not like I ignore green bars.

I just assume that everyone on the team is a grownup who can take care of him or herself, including using insps and whatever. So you got hit a little, thanks for the endurance reduction, man, now eat a purple or something, I'm not gonna drop my bow and run across the room to bring you from 85% to 100% health. If you start getting hit a lot, cool, that means you are kicking *** and taking names, so I will start giving you Fort instead of the worthless regen scrapper who keeps on AFKing midfight, or maybe I will AB you. What I won't do is follow the tank around, give him all the buffs ever, and mindlessly stare at the team window hoping someone gets hurt so I can validate my AT choice by overhealing you so you never have to touch your precious green candies.

edit: Empathy played badly is my personal pet peeve, and teams that think they know better than me how to play my Empath are right up there too. Sorry 'bout the rant, I realize nobody was advocating bad empin' up in here.

If someone came from WoW and wanted to play a "healer" on CoX, I'd suggest Empathy. The powerset plays almost exactly in game as Priests do in WoW.

I can handle playing my Emp Defender sometimes, but not with strangers.