Haven't read the book yet myself. I was just trying to give the correct name of the book. Someone else mentioned the "rocking the aura" joke.
One of my two main characters on Virtue (and she has been for years) is an Empathy/Psi Defender. The secondary is somewhat misleading, as I only took Mental Blast.
I have since complemented it with Soul Storm and Sands of Mu, as well as a perma'd Fortunata Mistress who I believe compensates for my lack of damage more than my inattentiveness during a fight would (I have a very low attention span, and I've found that on experimental builds where I would blast, I oftentimes forgot to heal; call me stupid if you like, but I just couldn't focus).
That said, I've oftentimes been called one of the best Empaths my teams have ever seen due to my sheer attention to detail, and one of the things I can tell you is: Don't auto a power.
If you're going to auto a power, auto Hasten. Autoing something like Healing Aura should be reserved for the End Times (or the Lag Times) like the Valley of Lag in the Imperious Task Force, where you're literally not sure if you'll be capable of noticing when people are dying before they do, nor firing your powers as they recharge.
Autoing Healing Aura means that it can be down at a time when you could Sprint into a battle situation and rescue a team member from certain death, as those few seconds can greatly matter. By the same token, though the animation time of Clear Mind is little, so is its recharge - you auto that, you're missing out on valuable time where you could be popping off your blast(s) for a bit of extra output (I'm not going to ignore the fact that mine does -Recharge, after all!) or a quick heal on a dying teammate. Otherwise, you might find yourself furiously glaring at the screen as you click that man and---nope, you're clear-minding him. Well, at least that Hold on him wore off just before he got punched to death.
Attention to detail is really key, and autoing a power just doesn't manage the same dedication as a watchful eye...in my opinion anyway.
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I gave up halfway through the thread so I don't know if this was covered, but...|
Originally Posted by Arbegla
I've ran plenty of times with and without an emp, and just like when i run with a FF or cold, i expect buffs first, damage second. If i wanted a damage character, i'd invite a blaster or dominator to the team. When i invite an emp (or really any buffing powerset) i expect buffs first.
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You don't take defender blasts for the damage, you take them for the debuffs.
There are a few sets that are negligible for debuffing, but between those that have significant debuffs you are offered: -RES, -To-Hit, -DEF (lol), -RECH, -Speed, -END, and some sets offer options for control.
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Originally Posted by Madadh
The "Follow the Tank" mentality works like this.
It is presumed that: 1) The tank is trying to gather as many of each group to him. 2) The tank will stay in melee range of those he has gathered. 3) The other melee types will also be attempting to enter melee. 4) A percentage of the non-melee types will be very close to melee some percentage of the time, to use short ranged attacks, or PBAOEs. 5) The tank has an aura that has a taunt element, or a damage component, and that it is on. 6) The tank will be attacking and thus using gauntlet, and that those attacks are most likely melee, or PBAOEs. If most or all of those presumptions are correct, being close to the tank is ideal positioning. Most if not all of the melee types will be in PBAOE range (of Heal Aura, or Leadership toggles) as will a fair percentage of the close blasting types. Heal other, and similar powers of tat nature, have a good deal more range, so if a specific team outside that range gets in trouble there is a good chance that they are in range of that, if they haven't headed off on their own to tackle a totally different group. And, by being in such close proximity to the tank provides a great deal of protection in that aggro will most likely go to the tank first, then any of the other melee types about. Yes, there are times when this strategy is all bad. Against enemies with lots of AOE attacks, it's pretty much suicide if you're squishy. But I'm specifically responding to the "I'll never get the 'Follow the Tank.'" If by that you meant that you'll never get why someone would want to do that 100% of the time, I'd totally agree. If you don't get that mentality ever, I hope I've been able to explain it's advantages in a lot of situations. All that said, I wish to point out that I at no point condoned auto-follow, aura rocking, or failing to attack. Nor did I suggest to blindly follow and not consider what was going on. If a fair number of the assumptions above aren't true, one should us a different strategy. If the team is a tank, a def, and 6 blasters/trollers, etc, and all the rangey types seem to stay at max distance and rain death for example, the follow the tank should obviously not be used. |
It's the former, I'll never get the "follow/focus on the tank at all times" mentality and especially not the "always put buffs on Mr Tank first" mentality. If they're also the sort to bark out orders and expect us to follow them blindly I generally don't stick around for more than one mission.
Tanks rarely get buffs first from me, unless they're actually dramatically in trouble (because they're fighting something really tough, rather than because they're simply inept and expecting me to babysit them. Inept tanks are for Power Boosted Vengeance mostly).
And even then I'm always flying around a good distance from them, I've no real need to be too close and personal to them unless I'm dropping Recovery or Regen aura.
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You might, personally I take them for the damage, the debuffs are just a nice extra.
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Originally Posted by YoumuKonpaku
You don't take defender blasts for the damage, you take them for the debuffs.
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Last I checked Assault Rifle isn't big on debuffs. Ya take it for the damage.
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Originally Posted by YoumuKonpaku
You don't take defender blasts for the damage, you take them for the debuffs.
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Adeon: If you have a damage set with debuffs you are going to be debuffing while you are actively trying to deal damage, unless you take a set without any. The difference here is that when I build a defender I try to take a set that has debuffs, rather than a pure damage set like archery.
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Wow! What a shock, if only I had mentioned th--|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Last I checked Assault Rifle isn't big on debuffs. Ya take it for the damage.
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Originally Posted by YoumuKonpaku
There are a few sets that are negligible for debuffing,
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If I want to have a support character that deals gobs of damage I'll roll up an Ill/Cold (or Rad) or some sort of Corruptor. I take my attacks, I use them, I slot them as an attack, but I pick the sets for the debuffs over the damage output.
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Of course. My point is that the main purpose of defender attacks is to deal damage, the debuffs are a bonus to that, not the main point of the attacks.|
Originally Posted by YoumuKonpaku
Adeon: If you have a damage set with debuffs you are going to be debuffing while you are actively trying to deal damage, unless you take a set without any. The difference here is that when I build a defender I try to take a set that has debuffs, rather than a pure damage set like archery.
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The debuffs are nice but (with the possible exception of sonic) have less impact on the overall battle than the damage the blasts do. There's nothing wrong with selecting a set based on the debuffs (although if you're doing that then it's pretty much Sonic all the way) but once you have the set your attacks are attack powers not debuff powers.
As someone who has a lvl 50 empath and has to my shame "Rocked the Aura" hard until recently... I found that after slotting it, the power was going off to often to do anything else. I could not Heal Other or Adrenalin Boost when I needed to because the relatively weak Healing Aura was always popping off at the wrong time. Having said that, I disagree with the leech comparison because you are providing a benefit to the team, the frustration is that you could offer a lot more. I would ask you this: "If you have all but dismissed your secondary power set as being too weak, what sense does it make to blast away with your weakest healing power?" Nobody puts Brawl on auto... do they?
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Brutes do sometimes, it helps build Fury.
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Originally Posted by Geoffreyspike
Nobody puts Brawl on auto... do they?
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I've put Parry on auto, too, on occasion. If I'm in melee and there is any pause in my attack chain, I at least do some damage, and build Def. But, most fights I'm preempting in a lot even then.
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Originally Posted by StarGeek
Brutes do sometimes, it helps build Fury.
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I actually downloaded the podcast and listened to it. I might have missed it but I didn't hear anything resembling a "rocking the aura" joke.
Granted parts might have been cut.
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