"pure" healers + going rogue

Hey fellow defs (trapper / pistols here):

I can't wait to see what effect going rogue will have for a certain sub-sect of defenders, the healer-only builds. I can feel the hate and loathing now from the healer-only crowd, but I hope more and more defenders will use both their primary and secondary powers with corruptors and masterminds in the mix.

I realize even some corruptors advertise themselves as healer-only, but there's way more wannabe-empaths out there who skipped out on everything else but their heals, rez, and rec aura.

Heals? good.
Complete support? great.
Complete support with slotted attacks?
Complete support w/ an army of gigantic robots armed to the teeth at your beck and call? Holy.....

Hopefully seeing more complete support toons running around and "arresting" crims with style will passively spur the healer-only crowd to respec into full empath defenders.

When making teams redside, chances are I will still invite Corrs over Defenders...

If "pure" healers haven't adapted yet, they aren't going to.

Given the difficulty of Going Rogue's missions and its low level range, a "pure" healer would actually fair better in Praetoria than in COX in general. That's not to say they are necessary, but there is a lot more death thrown around than in the main game.

I've thought about it.

And I've realized something: Empathy's a hard set to play well.

It involves knowing who benefits from which buffs, and that entails 1.) knowing what the buffs do; 2.) knowing something about the powers people on the team have which requires 2.a) reading character descriptions; 3.) knowing when you're done with the primary so you can lay down the secondary. You will, however, rarely get thanked for anything 'cause there won't be a flood of green numbers.

Or you follow the Granite tanker, load him up with stacked CMs and Fort, put HA on auto and get congratulated for your 133+ h33lz.

Edit: and FF is, IME, dead easy to play in contrast. Keep Dispersion Bubble on at all times. Every 3.5 minutes, rebubble teammates. For the other 3 minutes, punch mobs in face.

I have thought about this, too. When my demons/thermal starts strolling through the streets of Founders Falls, it should really shake things up. For healing, not much touches the green number output from the thermal secondary and a pet that thinks he's a fire/thermal corruptor. The extra thermal shields and auras will rock the hero world.

Unfortunatey, given the likely influx of new players and of returning players who've been away for a very long time (making them also effectively new players), catering to the so-called "holy trinity" mentality is likely to be effective. Many of these players will have the expectation that they need a healer, so I wouldn't be surprised if this particular dead horse rears its ugly head in a big way in Praetoria.

Empathy should be a set which is easy to play well. I could go from one team with one dynamic that requires an empath to buff and pretty much heal one person; now and then. There is no time spent travelling from one person to another and so plenty of time to blast for something to do..to another team of people with a completely unrecognised sense of play due to the fact they might get healz.

Is that like a dead terrapin?

I personally don't care if someone wants to make a "pure healer" build or not. But if you decide to go that way, use fortitude on more than just one person. That's all I ask.

I'd agree that Empathy's pretty tricky to play well on a team above 3 people. It requires fairly constant monitoring of your own power bar (for powers recharging) as well as the team HUD (for heals and mezzes as required), the team chat channel (if you're using the 'zzz' method to apply Clear Mind) and the main battelfield for using your secondary.

Almost all other buff sets require you to drop into 'buff mode' every 2 to 4 minutes and apply buffs in a way that can almost be done blindfold with the right binds.

Empathy does benefit from a knowledge other AT's and sets as that lets you get the most benefit from Fort, CR, AB. For instance I was on a team recently taking out a GM, and we were struggling with dealing enough damage to beat its regen. So I stuck AB on the Kin Defender and then he alone was able the cripple the GM from super fast Transfusions.

It also benefits from a keen eye on the debuff window of your team which allows you to predict incoming attacks and heal it up fast. Sometimes that is the only way to save a squishy. E.g: At low level and you are fighting trolls, if the blaster has 3 "throw boulder" cons on his debuff bar then you know he is going to be taking some damage.

Ultimately though every set benefits from this kind of knowledge, but I do feel some sympathy for Empaths. There is a lot of stupid associated with the set and its a shame for people who are actually really good with it, but what can you do. :-)

Playing an Emp well requires that you a) know how to use your buffs well, b) maintain situational awareness and c)contribute damage via blasting

Playing most other sets well (basically any set more balanced with offensive/defensive powers requires a) knowing how to use your buffs well b) knowing how to use your offensive powers well, c) maintaining situational awareness and d) contributing damage via blasting.

Yes, Emp has more ally buffs than say Thermal or Cold but if you boil it down to its constituent parts, more balanced sets are more complex to play well.

Mind you, I'm not saying zomg emp is teh EZmode and all other support sets are 4 PROS ONLY. Just, you know, Emp is easier to play well.