Full Support/Healer Build

It's been stated already but for what your describing I would do a Controller instead, specifically a Thermal one. You get basically the same Heals that Empathy does and buffs (Forge and the two resistance shields) and a Clear Mind (Thaw) power, a good Rez (better then Emp does) plus you get some debuffs that Empathy does not have.

For the Control set, I would go Plant, it's a good first Controller set, yes the pet is not considered top tier (like Fire or Stone) but the level 8 power Seeds of Confusion is IMHO the best power in the game, you cast this power and the mob's turn on each other, freeing you to attack and buff more since you'll have to heal less.

For a "more fun" Controller set, I would go Gravity, I just loss tossing the foes around and the last two powers (Wormhole and the Pet Singularity) are also top notch. Mind you, your tank isn't gonna like it as much since they generally prefer to Heard around them and you'll be tossing foes left and right (Tanks.. Bah... Glory seeking attention hogs!).


You'll get all the Heals/Support you want and still be quite useful at higher levels since you'll offer more then just "green numbers"

-Rb

To echo some of the suggestions already made;

An Illusion/Thermal Controller or Illusion/Empathy Controller would be an excellent choice - pets, buffs/debuffs, heals, good times!

A Dark/Elec Defender would also be a decent choice - 2 pets, endurance (mana) drain, debuffs, heals, fun times!

Also - Robert_B is correct - Gravity Control is *so* much fun

A full support build is actually very viable, full healing build not so much.

I'd vote for Illusion/Empathy controller as full support. You make a few summons here and there, confuse or hold a foe then spend the rest of your time healing and buffing teammates.

You'll manage to help with aggro, crowd control, deal with pesky/dangerous foes, keep your teammates green and blue bars full save them from mez effects and pass out fort left and right like its going out of style. (Early on give it to tanks and melee folks, later on squishys who do a lot of damage) Just use it every time its up on someone different.

Trying to get into full support on the defender side of things is mostly a waste because teams won't need as many heals the more you progress. Controller has slightly lower mods but more than makes up for it with the utility provided.

at this rate - i strongly suggest trying out all the power sets found in the controller & defender :P

they all do well in their own way in mitigating damage - eventually you'll find one that feels serviceable and also enjoyable

There have been a few comments to the effect of

I know people want to discourage the whole Defender = Healzor thing (with good reason!), but my support-concentrated Empathy Defender is still one of my favorite characters. Are they needed? Hell no. But they can make sub-par teams good, and good teams awesome. I am thoroughly glad that most defenders take a good balance of primaries and secondaries, but the occasional all-support-for-story-reasons kind of character isn't an abomination to be stamped out forever.

My Empathy/Electric Defender is squarely focused on buffing and healing. He only has five of his attacks, and of those only three have any reasonable slotting for damage. However, I always make sure to use Short Circuit, especially with Power Build Up. Making the entire mob unable to attack is a great thing. After that, I've got some Leadership and Concealment powers as well, plus recall friend, just to help my teammates. It's worth noting that I spent most of my time while leveling this character in a duo with a Scrapper. Before they changed AVs, we duoed just about every one in the game.

Also, even with a number of toggles, I find that I don't need Stamina on this character. Recovery Aura and Conserve Power from my ancillary just about always take care of me. I19 will just make things easier. Also, I made a second build just for the times when I needed to bring more damage. Highly recommended.

In any case, if you do try to make a all-support character, go ahead. But also make sure to try a more balanced character, and hell, all sorts of characters! Variety is the spice of life, and the vast number of different kinds of characters is probably the number one reason that I still play this game almost six years after I started.

Pure healer builds do work and are very popular in this game. Choose all your primary powers and stealth+superspeed so you can fade into the background. Also get recall friend so if things go very bad you can run away and revive everyone.
In the 40s you will find you are not needed for that anymore and you can respec for more attacks and choose an aggressive ppp set.

Note you can have 2 builds and it is worth it for a defender as the pure healer build does not need to be expensive.

I feel it should also be mentioned that the Holy Trinity of MMOs, Tank/Healer/DPS, isn't necessarily in 95% of this game's content. Does it work? Yes, perfectly. But a team of well-played anythings works just as well. So don't worry if you wind up on a team with six Blasters and a Scrapper. As long as they know what they're doing, they should do fine.

I'll also go and throw in that you can make a pure-support toon without heals. An Earth/FF Controller will probably keep the team alive just fine, for example, and has no heals in the primary and secondary. Debuffing enemies into mush also works very well in this game. Though, except Cold and Trick Arrow, most sets with a debuff emphasis do have a heal (granted, most buff sets do too). But a Radiation Emission character, for example, can severely reduce the foe's ability to fight and take hits, making fights both quicker and safer at the same time.

I'd definitely take the pure support for a spin to give it a try. In fact, give it several tries with different AT/set combos if you wish. But, I recommend giving more "aggressive support" set-ups a look at some point too.

"healer" works pretty well, in the first 10 levels of the game. It is desired for considerably longer than that, by people who learned to like it in the first 10 levels...

What's that? Experienced players get past the first 10 levels of the game in an hour and a half?

Well... I didn't start out experienced, did you?