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Fire has the best damage of any controller . . . but you need to be in melee most of the time to get that damage. The Flashfire+Fire Cages control combo can handle most groups, but generally having a secondary that will either boost your damage (Kinetics) or provide more control or debuffing (Radiation with Choking Cloud, Storm's Freezing Rain, etc) will help Fire be more effective.|
Originally Posted by Symar
I'm in the mood to make an Empathy character... but there's this odd thing that gets in my way of having more than one of the same archetype easily (I did just finally roll a second scrapper, and I don't have a tanker yet... but that's besides the point).
I do have a slight derision towards the concept of a class with no real damage. I've run into it in other games before and promptly played something else, but I've also run into the inverse where even healers have noticible damage output and loved it (a la this game). So, out of all the sets, Fire should do the most damage, right? How is it for a Controller? And would Fire/Empathy be a horrible combination? I have enough friends and enough other characters that I can pretty much avoid soloing it, which probably removes all issue anyway. |
Empathy has heals and great team buffs, but can't boost your own damage and has no debuffs or controls. Personally, if I wanted to do a */Empathy character who could do damage, too, I would go Illusion/Empathy first, then maybe Plant/Empathy. Ill/Emp is a good "battlefield healer" who can also do some good single target damage . . . but no AoE Damage. Plant/Emp can do AoE damage, but not much single target damage.
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Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
I donno, a fire/empathy could perma fort on their imps, making them even more damaging, and allowing them to take a few hits. I could see it working out pretty well actually.
Plant/Emp is a great combination for teaming. As Local says the single target damage isn't the best but the AOE damage is excellent thanks to Seeds, Carrion Creepers and the AOE Immob.
The Fly Trap isn't the greatest pet in the world but the current AI settings which encourage her into melee have actually improved her a bit since her bite attack is decent enough.
The fact that Plant works from range is very handy for an Empath as well. You can just stand back and fire off controls, attacks and buffs (and the occasional heal although).
Also consider Fire/Therm. Therm has heals almost as good as empathy, shields to make your imps and/or teammates more hearty, and some good buffs/debuffs. Plus, hey, its fire on fire.
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Fire will work ok. So would anything except Electric, Ice, or Earth, IMO, although Gravity is not a set I generally recommend unless you're sure of what you're getting into. That leaves Illusion, Mind, Plant, or Fire, each of which has its advantages and disadvantages.
If you can make it to the 40s, Earth Control may become a contender again due to the awesomeness of the pet. Earth/Thermal in particular pairs up well, and results in a pet with resistance capped at Tanker levels.
I'm curious about how much damage imps really do. I know I ought to just play a fire/ myself, but I haven't gotten around to it.
Anyway, just looking at the values on the Flytrap, it seems like it does about double the single target damage of a single imp while in melee range, assuming it's using everything on cooldown (so maybe 33-50% less single target damage overall?). I'm in sure in practice that's lower, but it also does some AoE damage.
Has anyone used both? I know I'm asking for subjective feedback, but how did you feel about Flytrap's damage vs. Imps? I have a 50 plant/fire dom and I've been pretty happy with the former, is that just because I haven't seen the latter in action?
I have a fire/rad, plant/storm and ill/rad at 50. I also have a ice/cold at 33. The imps work well, given that their simplicity works well with the borked pet AI. They do good damage, but can die quickly. The fly trap is actually pretty good, and seems to be cycling her attacks much, MUCH better that Jack Frost, for instance. Despite what some people say, it is not super squishy either. Of the 4 pets I have experience with, I think Fly Trap is my favorite. Phantasm is ok, but nothing special. His decoy helps out, but I find that he has a tendency to get stuck in places. Jack Frost I found disapointing. He's very bad at cycling his attacks. For instance, he'll decide to start using Greater Ice Sword, and then that's all he'll be using until his target is dead (meaning he'll just be staring blankly at his target while the darn sword recharges, while you just KNOW he's got 3 other attacks ready to go). Then he'll move on to the next, and get stuck on using just the regular ice sword... he's just odd. But I really like the Fly Trap, for what it's worth (also, really cool looking pet). I believe that the imps do more damage than FT however. You can't really go wrong with either. Question is, do you want to play with fire, or do you want to grow some plants?
I agree that Jack Frost is a comparitively disappointing pet, especially next to Earth Control. I almost feel like the two pets got accidentally swapped. Ice Control would benefit tremendously from a pet that could hold aggro and take a bit more punishment. The set already has so many built in tradeoffs that a straight up bump to Animate Stone levels would not be unbalanced at all. But that's how it goes. When they bumped Stoney up in power they didn't change Jack Frost. I don't know the history on that one but it is too bad.
I actually logged in yesterday on my ice/cold (which I've pretty much shelved at lv 32) to run a few missions just for fun, and also to see if my rant about Jack was justified (I know we're talking about Imps but humour me). And yes, is he ever useless. Jack sees a villain. Throws an ice bolt. Runs up to villain. Waits. Waits. Waits. Finally uses Ice Sword. Waits. Waits. Uses G.I.S. Again, just waits and stares, until GIS recycles and then he uses that again! bah! Also, he has the annoying habbit to go from one mob to another... Ice Bolt one guy, maybe freeze him, go to the next guy, etc. I can freeze stuff darnit! I need you to KILL THEM! Whatever. Imps on the other hand works fine and do nice damage.
I'm in the mood to make an Empathy character... but there's this odd thing that gets in my way of having more than one of the same archetype easily (I did just finally roll a second scrapper, and I don't have a tanker yet... but that's besides the point).
I do have a slight derision towards the concept of a class with no real damage. I've run into it in other games before and promptly played something else, but I've also run into the inverse where even healers have noticible damage output and loved it (a la this game).
So, out of all the sets, Fire should do the most damage, right? How is it for a Controller? And would Fire/Empathy be a horrible combination?
I have enough friends and enough other characters that I can pretty much avoid soloing it, which probably removes all issue anyway.