Skipping the shields on FF

I was on a TF the other day... I think it was the LFSF... and was teamed up with a Robots/FF Mastermind who skipped both his shields. He had all personal attacks, and Repulsion Bomb too, but no shields other than Dispersion Bubble.

What the heck?! Do people actually do this? What the heck for? At 50?! I guess I'm just a bit flabbergasted, but I do want to hear from folks who skip their bubbles, and maybe why and what they feel are the trade-offs that they justify when they do so.

We finished the SF just fine, the rest of the team rocked, but darn it folks I don't understand this infatuation with skipping such important powers.

Probably because bubbling just straight out sucks. Now on my FF Mm's I pick them up and use them (and share with team), but I have to be honest, every time I've shelved one of my MM's that has shields (FF and Thermal), it's because bubbling every ~4 minutes a minimum of 6 pets and any team members is boring and quite annoying.

That would be my 2 cents..and truth is bots\ff could probably get away with it for the MM's own survivability. Not saying I agree, but I think I could understand the point of view. It's like a kin\* defender my brute was teamed with last night, he had every dual pistol power he could get, but the ONE power from kin he didn't take...speed boost and he was lvl 50. I didn't ask, but I imagine its for similar problems.

I don't have Insulation shield and rarely use Deflection shield unless it's gonna be a tough battle/av/etc.

The constant buffing drives me nuts, my playstyle is aggressive and me and the bots like to steam roll.I DO NOT go out of my way to buff people on teams, I'm a mm not a 'fender.
Besides to get every power that I have I have to make sacrifices, I have the full leadership pool,medicine pool,presence,flight and mace mastery.So yea buffing isn't too important to me when I taunt,immobolize,bots jump in, and I heal,attack,taunt,etc.

I leveled my mm without those two shields and only recently took them and then respec'd again to dump them and make a more aggressive build.So yea not too important and I do fine.

Larker: I seriously hope you get stuck on nothing but teams full of scrappers who don't take any of their armor powers because LOL MY JOB IS DAMAGE IM NOT A TANKER LOL.

If I found out I'd invited a MM with buffs who only used them on their pets, I'd boot them posthaste, just for being a selfish jerk. Just like, say, the Radiation Corruptor I found out was deliberately running away from the team before using Accelerate Metabolism because 'my character is selfish and greedy and shares nothing with anyone!'. Boot to the head (and off the team).

If it was a /FF MM who didn't take any of the team shields... enh. If they were a friend I might let it pass, and if I'd mistakenly hit them with an invite before realizing it, I might not kick em, but if I saw it first I wouldn't invite them to begin with.

Its actually very simple to play a mastermind with a buffing set. When solo buff your pets, when on TFs buff your team.

Your team has more powers then your pets, can take more hits and gerenally have better AIs.

When I am on a team with my buff /thermal mastermind, the Demon Summoning MM, I don't keep up the shields 24/7 -- on my PETS because the aggro is shared enough usually, it's not necessary. Of course, when we are coming to mission completion (the boss room) everything gets shielded. On my Necro/thermal, there is is nothing better I can do for my necros or my team than to keep the resistance shields up at all times possible. For one thing, my necro MM doesn't have whip attacks to share the debuffing fun.

Now on a FF character, it's a different story. FF doesn't have warmth or cauterize for the 5% chance someone takes a hard hit. The best way to keep teammates upright is to shield them up to as close to the defense cap as possible. In case folks weren't paying attention, the defense cap is effectively higher with the new level 50+ content (Apex and Tin Mage). And for my final point to this burgeoning rant: insulation means you have endurance drain protection from sappers, Mu Adepts and minions, carnies, and other nasties. It might not mean that much to a resistance based melee, but something with defensive toggles that drop due to end drain is a whole other story.

As MZ I have both Ally Shields, because I reckon if someone has a */FF anything on their team, they're expecting those to be in the mix when needed.

For me, when needed is the key - I won't bother buffing anyone on the team individually until I see their HP bar falling (i.e. they're being hit and more defence could help)

This stops me from constantly buffing players, and gives me more time to position/command my bots (who I routinely don't buff either, except in the same circumstances).

Tsk. I honestly don't like playing buff sets. I don;t like worrying and watching others buff bars to work out the timing for buffing. Guess what I do? I don't play /FF, /Thermal, Frost/, or any of the 'Active Support' Sets. The have /Traps for a reason.

I respeced my Robot FF for defense cap. Nutshell I think he sucks. My robot traps can run circles around my FF toon.

I do feel compelled when playing him that I pretty much MUST buff the team. I do so at the sake of my pets. Honestly in BSF last fight my pets cannot even survive a few moments with all those waves of mobs running around. I pretty much do what lurker mentioned, I bubble and hang around using Aid Other and when I have the endurance I spawn a pet if they last a few seconds great.

If bubbles had some sort of resistance bonus as well they might be a bit more interesting.

But ATM my robot ff only comes out to do the TF of the week to pick up the double merits.

P.S.

And yes, I have an FFer with no little bubbles. Plant/FF/Stone. The toon bleeping rocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlQOpUeLWoI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idw2ueoR8IE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPdI684K4Mg