Empathy and Force Field - end game?

Hello -

New to the game so let me preface my question for those kind enough to supply feedback. I've been playing "support classes" in every game I get my hands on including this one (loving it so far!).

However, while playing my two characters (of which I've been having a blast!) one empathy the other force field I've come across something that concerns me.

While playing at the lower levels I see the "need" for what my characters bring to the team (buffs/blasts/general support)... however on more than one occasion I hear this from players:

"You're doing great! Too bad your AT's aren't needed end game..."

Whoa... is this true? Does empathy and force field become moot to teams @ 50?

P.S. notice not once (except for now) did I mention "heal/heals". My question does not revolve around "heals". When I say support, I mean true support by using FF and EMP to it's fullest buffing, supporting, and including secondary blasting potential.

I thank you in advance for any feedback you can provide.

You're going to hear a lot of people saying stupid things as you play. Especially from stupid players.

Don't sweat it, you're gunna be fine. The game changes as you level, and you'll naturally see how that happens and adjust as it does. Sometime around level 12, you don't need to heal any more, and sometime around 26, you'll wind up the guy in the front of the group yelling 'Come on people!' rather than hiding behind a tank.

The game changes, change with it... and ignore idiots.

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

Empathy > fortitude and adrenalin boost

Forcefields > defense and endurance drain protection

These things will never go out of style. When you are knee deep in Cimerorans, Rikti, or Council/Fifth in your favorite end game task forces. Support is needed more to keep teams running smoothly.

Get Power Build Up from the epic pool. That makes Fortitude and FF shields godlike against the ultimate threats in the STF, LRSF, COP, etc.

FF especially is very underrated. When fitness becomes inherent and FF defenders can layer Dispersion with Maneuvers, Tough, Weave, and IO bonuses such as red fortune, gaussians, the steadfast unique, and the Incarnate Slots, look out.

Great feedback. So glad to hear it!

So, if I understand you all correctly good support is still "necessary" at end game. *Whew* Thank goodness.

Looks like Disco Dave will continue to dispense shiny disco balls of love (FF) on Freedom.

I love taking my forcefielder on Malta missions. There's nothing better than see a PuG groan at the first sighting of a Malta Sapper, then watching all complaints about them vanish as soon as the first Sapper shot hits someone and drains about 1-2 End total. That and my bubbler can grant near-capped Defense to her teammates (44.5%) if they're in range of both Dispersion and Maneuvers. That little trick will never go out of style. Except with self-softcapped characters, but those are rare, and I can still provide near softcapping on the types they don't have.

Both sets are fine at high levels. The only thing really different about them compared to other games is the entire raid/encounter doesn't hinge on them like in some games. They are just a (very) useful part of a larger whole.

You said you enjoy support classes. One you might want to check out in addition to Defenders is Controllers. You'll also probably eventually find love for more aggressive, but still support-natured sets like Cold Domination, Dark, and Kinetics.

While I also hate to say this, you might also consider a change of venue. I have spent limited time on Freedom and it made me kind of crazy. I've found Virtue, which is the unofficial RP server, to be more open to support characters, in general.

I will echo what everyone else has said.

There is a chance that you will team with players that don't need any kind of help to survive, but I have yet to run with a team that had no use for my powers (buffs and heals). At the same time, I have never been on a team that had no use for bubbles of awesome-ness.

Anyone telling you that your powersets are not good on end-game teams does not really know what they are talking about.

on their own both sets perform fine at end game, compared to most other support sets though they underperform due to lack of variety. It's one of those situations where given the choice between a Cold or FF, they'll always take the Cold because it offers more. That doesn't mean that FF isn't good, it just doesn't bring as much to the table as Cold does at endgame.

There is lots of endgame content where both sets are very useful. Hami raids, Ships raids (I'll submit that FF is much better on a ship raid than Cold Dom is), lots of TFs.

Buffing classes are always useful. Most any buff can be helpful in any of the various missions that are available in the game. The most important thing is that the buffer be alert, attentive, and team focused.

The hero-side late game is littered with enemies that mez, do psi damage and drain endurance.
Both sets provide good protection against all these effects, always have done and still do.

There are more sets that don't have these holes these days (Dark Armor tanks & Electric Armor cover both, Willpower with Psi Resist and Defence) and also newer support sets that are less one-sided like Cold Domination. This has lead to these two sets being devalued a tiny little bit, more on paper than in game.

But a single well-played Empath or Force Fielder can still completely transform a team.

Those guys are correct in a way, but not in the way you're thinking....

Emps aren't so needed later on, cus there are other classes that have heals (dark/kin/therm/etc) but folks will still love you for your buffs. And of course, there are some taskforces that while don't need a emp... they certainly won't turn one away. Just be sure to get the leadership pool if possible, a emp fender with tactics is like icing on a cake.

FF... alot of folks are soft-capped at 50, but alot of folks aren't. For them, you be a god send that will make a hard mission become cake. And area mez protection is great too, so you always have a spot on any ship raid (I leveled my own bubbler the last four levels to 50 by just doing ship raids).


So while you don't need a Emp or a FF fender on most level 50 missions (and TF), its going to be a rare team what won't still appreciate you being there.

As to servers, try Justice... join the JU channel, folks are always on who are willing to team.

I think the only time I've said "we really need an emp for this" was a MoSTF run on Recluse, since even at high def and res values his damage can spike and having heavy ST heals and regen is nice insurance. I would probably take a Sonic before I would take an FF for that kind of run, mainly because +res/-res, clarity, and liquefy end up being better overall than +Def and knockback.

Even still, I've ran 2 all TA STFs before and we cleared fine with almost no deaths until we got to Recluse. Though admittedly Ghost Widow took forever to down because of our low base damage despite all the -res we were tossing out. Recluse doesn't work out too well with that team unless you can get everyone to agree to take and use flash arrow and maneuvers, which seems to be the most painful thing to get people take and why both attempts ended in failure. Point I'm trying to get across here is that situations where a set is almost useless is incredibly rare. In fact, FF is probably the only set that does so, and only on def capped teams.

BTW if you do move to Virtue, the way to join channels someone mentioned above is to do the following:

- Right click the text info box (the box where all your combat, xp, etc text goes)
- Select "Join Channel"
- Join the following channels:
- Virtue TFs 2010
- Virtue LFG Alpha


If you don't hear anything on these channels right away, it may mean you're not actually listening to them. To fix this:
- Right click on the text info box
- Select Edit Tab
- Find Virtue TFs 2010 and Virtue LFG Alpha in the Available Channels list (right side of screen)
- Click Add to Add each channel to the tab


Note that these steps will work on any server, but the names of the group search channels will be different (they are player created). I don't know the names of any channels other than the ones currently used on Virtue. Every now and then the channels will "fill up" and we all migrate to a new channel, so you may have to update the channel name from time to time.

Hope that's helpful and have a great time.

Yeah, as long as you're cognizant that Empathy isn't JUST about reactive healing, you'll be fine playing it at any level. Fortitude can be on 3 people at a stretch if you keep up on it, the Regen/Recovery auras will ensure that your team doesn't NEED healing or that they need to stop and rest, and Adrenaline Boost can turn any one character into a one-toon army. It's a GREAT set that's played badly more often than not, but when played well lives up to outside expectations of "we need heal0rz!" (even though you might not actually be healing anybody ;-) )

FF is just a great set all around, and while many people these days are obsessed with getting their character's personal defenses to the "Soft cap", you have a multitude of status protection and enemy control powers that do more to keep your team safe than a mere mathematically-imposed "only 5% chance to get hit".

So keep playing, keep having fun, and ignore the nay-sayers =)

I agree that force fields are more powerful than people give them credit. They are passive bonuses, so your teammates don't 'notice' the benefit unless they've played the exact same mission without you.
I disagree on the lack of offensive potential - sure you don't do much damage, but Force Bolt and Repulsion Bomb keep your opponent's bouncing off the deck so they can't attack (...so why are you bothering to buff your teammate's defense). And Force Bubble? Pin every target in the room into a corner so your team can toss a couple AoE strikes for a ten second mop job Force Bubble? That's not offensive potential? Sure sure, not so good outdoors where targets will scatter, but if you're doing that you deserve the tongue lashing your teammate's are gonna deliver.
And I have no issue with Cages. Use on an eminator to undercut foe's with buffs (DE fungi and cairns, etc.) or to isolate a one-trick pony (like Sappers). You obviously understand soft caps and the min/max bracket. Do you realize Cage is the one power in the game that can (not saying it always does) turn your opponent's offense off? Not 5% - zero percent.