Empathy/ice should work well. All of the powers in both are potentially useful, but some are definitely more desirable than others.
You asked about pros and cons of the sets. Empathy is a really useful set in a lot of situations, but if you're on a team that doesn't need much healing, your only contribution might be fortitude and adrenaline boost. However, ice blast can make up for this because it's one of the more damaging blast sets. Even if you're in a situation where your team's health bars aren't budging, you'll still be able to contribute a lot through buffing and blasting.
The power which you absolutely must get is fortitude, and the power that you most likely want to skip is blizzard. Everything else will depend a lot on who you ask. In my opinion, absorb pain should be skipped since if anything isn't healed to a satisfactory amount by heal other, you can just put another one on them with very little delay. Bitter freeze ray can be pretty safely skipped, though it's not useless. Freeze ray is pretty good for shutting down troublesome non-bosses, but it's not required.
You do want to be grabbing all three single target blasts as well as both frost breath and ice storm (unless you're really bad at using cone powers, in which case frost breath won't help you).
On mine the plan is:
All the Empathy except Absorb Pain and Resurrect.
All of Ice Blast except Frost Breath, Aim and Bitter Freeze Ray.
No Fitness. Leadership (All 4 taken), Hasten, Super Speed, Combat Jumping and Recall.
Blizzard is the nuke and does blaster level damage, but it will crash your end bar which is why it might get skipped. Mine is required as an SG choice (as are some of the other choices), but I would likely take and slot it anyway.
Power Mastery primarily for Power Build Up. Only skimmed what I could get now that Patron Pool Powers are possible. For solo work having a pet seems very intriguing especially at the level of recharge planned.
I'm likely to fiddle with the build as adding Aim for Aim+PBU+Ice Storm+Blizzard is drool inspiring at over 2100 damage on a defender.
Quote:
I don't have an Emp/Ice, but here are a couple of things that come to mind about Emp/Ice as a combination.|
Originally Posted by NuclearMedicine
Hi all,
I was wondering what you all thought of an Emp/IB fender. Seems like a pretty good combo, but would love to hear from all of you who play this AT. Any thing I should skip? Anything that's a must take? Pit falls? Or pros and Cons? Thanks in advance for your advice, Warboss a.k.a. NuclearMedicine |
Skipable powers : Absorb Pain and Blizzard both seem very skipable to me. I am not saying that they are not good, just that they are situational. In my book, that is the same thing as skipable. Bitter Freeze ray does not have that great of a reputation, but I cannot say from personal experience whether it is skippable.
From a solo perspective, I played my Emp/Elec nearly to 50, and Tesla Cage was a game-altering power for a solo defender. But it was not available till level 28, which made the first 27 levels very challenging. Ice Blast gets Freeze Ray at 16TH !!!
This power IMHO is not skippable. If you ever plan on soloing, this power will make life much easier. You can 1-shot Hold Lieutenants, or hit a Boss twice to hold them. It recharges fast and has a longer duration than Tesla Cage (I am sooo jealous).
Frost Breath is going to be your "ShortCircuit-type" power, so I expect that you will open with it in order to keep things away from you. It's very expensive, so you may not be able to start using it as soon as it is available (again just like Short Circuit), but would seem to form the core of your strategy on spawns. Slow them, keep them from moving far and blast them from range. If it were my character I would plan on as much ranged defense in the build as possible and play the "keep everything in front of me" strategy. Enhance the movement slow aspect of frost breath and consider this combination : Aim + Frostbreath + Ice Storm
Everything should be very slow and working to get out of the patch (slowly) and you will be shooting "ducks in a barrel" while they try.
Your first blast should be a Freeze Ray on the most annoying target.
One other interesting tidbit, now that GR is here is that Leviathan mastery has a cone Immob. Imagine that combination at level 50 : AIM + School of Sharks + Frost Breath + Ice Storm !! Who needs Blizzard.
One final thing to consider when playing Empathy, is to use the Dual-Builds. I cannot say enough good things about how this feature seems tailor made for Empaths. Make one build your solo build and take only the Healing Aura and the 2 RAs, then grab all the secondary powers you want as well as pools to boost your survival (my Empath took : Leaping, Fighting, Fitness, Speed). Then have your other build be a Team oriented build and take all your primary powers (with the exception of Absorb Pain ... perhaps) and then take "key" powers from your secondary which allow you to "focus" on "slows" with some damage mixed in.
BIOSPARK :: DARKTHORN :: SKYGUARD :: WILDMAGE
HEATSINK :: FASTHAND :: POWERCELL :: RUNESTAFF
Blizzard on a defender is most emphatically *NOT* skippable. I don't care if it crashes your end, it does *full blaster level damage*. The *only* higher damage nuke in the game is corruptor blizzard, and only because theirs scourges. The fact that both rain powers are on blaster scales is, in my opinion, the reason to take ice blast on a defender. Aim+ice storm+blizzard is absolutely sick AoE damage for a defender to be putting out.
@MuonNeutrino
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Blizzard is so much fun if you skip it your missing out way too much.
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Thanks for the feedback all, I went ahead and rolled one up. Now I just have to find the time to get him some levels. 
Tanker Tuesdays: Meet in King's Row by IP Gate 6pm PT9pm ET.
1st Tuesday on Champion, 2nd Tuesday on Justice
3rd Tuesdays (Odd months) Freedom, (Even months) Virtue, 4th Tuesday, Tour, Server TBA
Brutal Thrashing Thursdays: Justice (ask Papa Slade when),meet in RWZ 6pm PT9pm ET.
Hi all,
I was wondering what you all thought of an Emp/IB fender. Seems like a pretty good combo, but would love to hear from all of you who play this AT. Any thing I should skip? Anything that's a must take? Pit falls? Or pros and Cons?
Thanks in advance for your advice,
Warboss a.k.a. NuclearMedicine
Tanker Tuesdays: Meet in King's Row by IP Gate 6pm PT9pm ET.
1st Tuesday on Champion, 2nd Tuesday on Justice
3rd Tuesdays (Odd months) Freedom, (Even months) Virtue, 4th Tuesday, Tour, Server TBA
Brutal Thrashing Thursdays: Justice (ask Papa Slade when),meet in RWZ 6pm PT9pm ET.