9 Empathy 50s and counting

This morning I was talking with my wife, who told me her latest empathy character (Disco Diva) is 6 bubbles away from 50. Out of curiosity I asked her how many 50 empathy type characters did she have...well she started counting and between defenders and controllers nine, with lots of others in their 20s and 30s etc. Now I have read a lot of negetivity about "healors", and how boring they are to play. So I asked Jen why Empathy? She said, I can always be of help no matter what the situation. Damage heal, standing around in a PvP zone clear mind the blasters, in Atlas Park chatting forting and ABing the lowbies, plus she is always on a team.
So I am curious does anyone else have this obsession not with an archtype, but with a power set, and why? I think the results might be intresting to read.

I LOVE Assault Rifle. Something about the huge AoE damage combined with minimal visual effects really appeals to me. I only have 2 AR characters but that's because I force myself not to make tons more because I want to give myself some variety.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamsRazor Now I have read a lot of negetivity about "healors", and how boring they are to play.

It's important to differentiate between "healers" and Empaths. While the two do sometimes get used interchangeably they are really very different:

"Healer": Someone who focuses on healing powers almost exclusively neglecting the rest of their powers in both power sets.

Empath: A character with the Empathy power set .

In most cases it's not that Empathy is boring, that's a personal opinion based on how much you enjoy reactive mitigation. The real issue people have is that with the multitude of buffs and debuffs in the game healing is one of the weaker forms of damage mitigation so focusing on it to the detriment of other powers is very suboptimal.

I have a hard time making blast characters that aren't Assault Rifle. I also have a hard time making melee characters that aren't Dark Melee.

I am working on pairing every brute primary with Willpower. I've gotten three to 50 so far.

yikes..sorry I when I said "healors" it is a joke I use with my wife because she does a heck of a lot more than just heal...and I have an empath named Healor the barbarian

Dark Miasma.

Because it's very versatile. And Fearsome Stare just makes me giggle every time I fire it.

Energy Blast/Energy Assault/Energy Melee:

I just love those sets. I've played 2 Energy/Energy Blasters to 50 (deleted them to open room, and I still wouldn't say no to leveling up a third one). I've played a Mind/Energy Dominator to mid-30s, and I've played an Energy/Energy Brute to 50. All that knockback, the visual effects, the Nova, the pom poms of doom. It just makes me smile!

Anything Psi-related:

I just love the concept. I've had two Mind Dominators (not 50, sadly), a Psychic/Energy Blaster, a DP/Mind Blaster, a Fortunata, and I still wouldn't say no to rolling more psychic-themed characters. Oh I would pay to see Corruptors get Psychic Blast...or better yet...a debuff set centered around Psionics: Psychic Domination.

Willpower. Not only is it incredibly solid, it causes no redraw outside the tier 9 and it's probably the most character concept friendly set in the game.

I have a hard time playing a powerset more than once, but if I ever did it would be with Invulnerability. That's one of my favorite sets I've played yet. Second place would probably be Super Strength.

Wild Streak - Lv. 50(+3) Beast Mastery/Sonic Resonance Mastermind, Amnesty - Lv. 50 Staff Fighting/Dark Armor Stalker

I kinda feel that way about Willpower as a set for melee type characters.

Every Melee character that I have played always seems (to me) that pairing it with Willpower would make it better to play. I LOVE the way Willpower is so "hands off" and you can focus on just beating stuff up. My two highest melee toons are both Willpower, and I could easily see myself making a WP/** or **/WP of every melee set at some point.

As a side note, when I first started playing this game back in 2004, I could have adopted this same feeling about regen, but quickly lost "faith" in regen due to all the changes forced onto it. Willpower IS what Regeneration SHOULD have been (and vice versa).

I have a dark melee character for every AT it's available for. I have a couple /Regens, one is my main and the other is a Fire/Regen at 45.

I now have a Dark Armor scrapper and a tank.

I don't really like repeating powersets on the same AT if I can help it at all. The only reason I have 2 /Regens is that the concept demanded it for the second one (his blood is flammable on contact with air, the regeneration is artificial so he doesn't bleed to death in a fight)

I like /Fire Manipulation.
I have 5 Fire/Fire blasters, one at 50 and two in their mid 40s, one in the 20s, and one infant. I have a Pistols/Fire and Psy/Fire at 50. Arch/Fire at 40 and Rifle/Fire in the low 30s. Elec/Fire in the low 20s. Ice/Fire, Sonic/Fire, and Nrg/Fire in the teens. I played a Rad/Fire up to 22 on test and loved it, but never made one on live (my wife has a Rad/Fire at 50, so I enjoyed it vicariously).

I like Katana.
I have 3 lvl 50 Kat/Invulns. A Kat/Regen and Kat/Fire at 50. A Kat/WP in their 30s. Kat/SR and Kat/DA in their 20s. I almost made a Kat/Elec but switched it to claws at the last moment, figuring I ought to play something other than Katana. I want a Kat/Shield brute, but, sadly, that is currently not possible.

If only I could play Katana/Fire Manipulation...

Well, let's see: I have Ill/Rad, Ill/Storm, Ill/TA all at 50. Ill/Cold at 45. A second Ill/Rad at 42, and a third one in the 20's (different servers). Ill/Kin in the 30's, but on a server that I don't go onto very often.

Then I have the previously mentioned Ill/Rads, plus 2 Fire/Rads at 50, Earth/Rad and Plant/Rad at 50. Elec/Rad at 37. My Mind/Rad, Grav/Rad and Ice/Rad are in the 20's on less frequented servers.

So, yeah, I kinda lean towards Illusion/* and */Radiation controllers.

Wow. Tough question. I have a very hard time playing the same power more than once BUT i love each of my 50's powers. lol.

On a brute- it'd have to be SS, since i can't have it as a scrapper.
Scrapper- Katana, for sure. Katana/Regen, Kat/Dark, Kat/Fire are all fun.

Plant pops in my mind. Plant/Storm(troller) and Plant/Fire(dom) are just plain beasts. AoE confuse, holds, immobs, lol. Can't beat that.

What if it's not an archetype, a powerset, or even a particular power, but a status effect?

I love knockback/knockdown/knockup (even moreso since they put ragdoll physics in the game). I have many characters with some kind of knock- effects, and I have several built specifically around exploiting knockdown/knockback: an Ice/Storm Controller, a Storm Defender, a Shield/Axe Tanker, a Forcefield/Energy Defender, an Electric/Shield Scrapper, and my new Energy/Energy Blaster. I even put a Ragnarok knockdown proc in my Spines Scrapper and another in my Fire/Fire/Pyre Tanker's Fireball, just because they were missing out on it.

I have used lots of control and debuff powers over the years, and I enjoy them; I like putting Rad debuff toggles on an enemy and greatly weakening him, or encasing a foe in solid stone to hold him. But even though those effects arguably work better than knock- powers, I don't find myself exulting like I do when I see enemies falling down or going flying.

Talking smack to my monitor works better with knockback too. "You've lost a significant percentage of your to-hit!" doesn't work nearly as well as "You're on your ***!" or "You're goin' DOWN!" or "See ya!" as a foe sails off a ledge.

Not to a great degree, but I am a big fan of fire blast and willpower.

I have 2 level 50 fire blasters, another in his 20s, and a fire/dark corruptor in her teens.

I've had a couple others that got deleted cause I didn't like the secondary.

I have a level 50 willpower scrapper and brute, with 2 more scrappers in their 30s. I've had a couple that got deleted because I didn't like their primaries.

I avoid duping powersets as much as possible, but I do have some obsessions.

At least half of my characters are Tech origin (with a good mix of all the others for the rest of my characters). I also tend to use the Flight pool a whole lot.

For me, it's anything to do with fire. Although, strangely enough, I have yet to stick with anything with Fire Armor. Scrappers, I've got a Fire/Shield, a Fire/Regen, and a Fire/WP at 50 and a Fire/SR at 40ish. And then a Fire/Kin and a Fire/Empathy controller at 50. And then Blasters, my first 50 was my fire/fire/fire, and I have a fire/EM at 29 and I've got a few lowbie fire/somethings straggled about all over the place. And then I've got a 50 Fire/Kin corruptor and a lowbie fire/dark corr on my second account. I am really looking forward to when they port Fire to defenders, I want to make a FF/Fire so bad.

As for why I'm so fond of fire... Well, I like to burn things lol.

I thought I didn't really have a favorite, but I do seem to have a disproportionate number of Kins and Colds.

Scrappers are far and away my favorite AT.

Dark Melee and Shield Defense have become my favorite powersets within the AT.

I have a Dark/Regen, Dark/SR, Dark/Shield, Shield/Fire Tank (the only one not 50 yet, 28) and Electric/Shield. The Darks have received all but Purple and PvP IO investment, the others get more uncommon-level gear. If Dark Melee had any more AoE, I may not have made the other Shield characters. Still Scrappers or Brutes, but not with Shields.