Empathy and Force Field - end game?

Didn't think that would spawn a short essay

I personally disagree soloing a cold is just as safe and I love my cold/ice defender to death Efficiency...eh, I'd give it to ya for Cold, though waiting for Sleet is such a pain...

Isn't this exactly the same argument Turbo is using against FF?

And it's the part I agree about. Teams can be built in such a way that adding a FF is just there to look at combat numbers and see just how high your def is. FF is a limited set that is awesome in certain situations. In fact, it's pretty much the best thing to have in those situations. However, you only need one FF and to be in that situation. If you aren't, give me another support set. Any will do, but I have a feeling the Emp will be bored so that doesn't rank that high either.

Wow... I can only assume you've teamed with some very poor empaths.

To begin with Fortitude provides the same defense you get from both of FF's ally shields in one power (plus psionic defense which FF only has in Dispersion Bubble). On top of that is a tohit bonus better than Tactics and a side of +damage. Now, on SO's alone that's only applies to 3-4 team mates at a time, but you can never go wrong with more defense, right? And, man, if you get powerboost or power build up.. well, those 3-4 will be sitting at better than 30% defense.

Adrenalin Boost is a versatile power that I don't think gets enough proper use. It's got enough +recovery to prevent the recovery crash from nukes, 100% recharge (definitely loved by doms), and a nifty regen bonus. There is always someone on the team that will benefit from one of those three things.

And if everything's going fine then that just means the emp can pew pew pew away or focus more on controls.

In testing I did a couple of days ago with Power Build Up and both click and toggle FF powers the bonus to Defense lasts only 12.5 seconds before dropping back down to the regular power level.

- B.

On Dispersion Bubble, the defense drops to normal when PBU ends.

On the clicks, your description has never been true and is still not true, I just tested it in case it had changed with I18.

When I used my click bubbles they granted 23.43% defense. When I clicked PBU and then my bubbles, they granted 38.18% defense and the higher values lasted the full four minutes.

When I used Fortitude it granted 23.34% defense. When I clicked PBU and then Fort, it granted 38.09% defense and the higher value lasted the full two minutes.

... the explanation I give on teams is "The little bubbles stop half the incoming damage. The big bubble stops the other half, approximately."

So yeah, Fortitude gets you halfway to the softcap. All Force Fields* does is drop the incoming damage by another factor of 5.

*with Maneuvers, which I consider an honorary part of the set

I tested my click bubbles with a SG member of mine. Using the Combat Attribute Monitor he reported an initially higher Defense number and then a drop in value to the regular level after 12.5 seconds of boost. We tested this twice, and got the same result each time. He was moving in and out of my Dispersion Bubble to check how that factored into the boost. It's possible there were inaccurate readings due to his confusing what was coming from DB vs the D/I Shields, but I'll have to retest it to confirm the findings.

I recommend just using the little bubbles while testing, in order to avoid confusion. Also remember to keep Maneuvers off, because it too gains benefit from PBU, but also only during PBUs duration.

One of the nice things I can use PBU for on my bubbler is for a mini-MOG. I built myself to be capped to AoE all the time, but the other defenses are lower. When I hit PBU I am nicely over the cap on everything. I also know it will boost my whole team nicely for that duration. Now if only it recharged a bit faster.

I have a similar approach on my FF character. He has 46.6% defense to Ranged, 46.9% to Energy and Negative, and 32.2% to everything else with his build. With PBU active those numbers jump to 64.8%, 65.1%, and 50.4% respectively.

I re-ran my test with PBU and the click shield powers. PBU combined with the shields does last all 4 minutes at the higher value. The test was run without any other of my powers active, and the target used the Combat Attribute Monitor to view the specific value provided by the D/I shields.

Given my slotting I applied D/I shields for a total of 23.63% defense without PBU. With PBU they went to 38.38% defense for the full 4 minutes.