Is There Any Point to Playing Level 50 Bubblers?

My main is a Grav/FF/Psi Controller.

I love her but I realize now that her uses are somewhat different then they were before. I think this is mainly do to the trials, although I think if you are an FF player, that the Barrior on another toon is actually smarter because it literally makes that toon more of a swiss army knife.

Although, I do not think the issue is with FF at all, but I believe it's with the assortment of the Trial powers to begin with. The incarnate abilities favor the melee set almost absolutely.

Tanks/Scrappers/Stalkers/Brutes gain powers that mimic alternate AT's while other AT's get nothing that mimic the powers of the melee set. Therefore the melee set gain more out of incarnate powers.

They gain

1) Pets
2) Heals, Defense, Forcefields
3) Debuffs on almost all attacks
4) Area Effect powers through judgement

This is added to their natural powers that they can select with the melee AT...Plus the great HP to boot.

All others gain similar powers, however lets face it, blasters alread have the AOE, as do Doms, Defenders and Corrs.

But nothing is really there that offers melee survivability other than epic power pools, or PPP's.

So in actuality FF, players will feel somewhat redundant, but the powers are still workable. However Im pretty sure there is a blaster somewhere with an itchy trigger finger who gets hopelessly ticked when they fire of a nuke and the tank or melee does more with judement. (Which recharges too damned fast)

Im just saying...anything other than melee gets less bang for their buck.

So stick with FF because it's a good set. Sure not as flashy as others or as much needed, but it's still beneficial, and if you like your toon, like I like mine, they can still be fun to play if you try different creative uses of your powers.

For some one like celestial whats ever his name is to talk down on his supposed loved char the whole time and basically not take any ones advice seriously means he was a self defeatist.

No one can pull him out of his sour mood but him. I made a bubbler my self and I cried for a bit when I wasn't needed but I played on and didnt let self doubt step in on why I play the char. This thread was more a pitty pary and a place to pout then where one goes to get the old fire back in your belly for playing your char.

Honestly reading this thread was a real drag and a waste of time since giving up is all that came of this.

There wasn't any point in playing FF from an efficiency standpoint even before all of these incarnate powers.

^^ Lighten up Francis. It was a joke.

And "teams" of support characters just about equal the effectiveness of a solo scrapper/brute. That part, you got right.

LOL, you are genuinely offended by that earlier comment aren't you?

Again...it was a joke. Lighten up a little, I'm happy to let you have your superiority fantasies if it keeps you in a support role. Works for me.

^^ At least one person in here can spot humor. Bravo. Have a cookie.

Voice stupid opinion -> get called on it -> lol jk you guys lol take a joke

Here's a good reason to play an FF defender in trials: Nerve Core Paragon, Clarion Radial, Epiphany, and Power Boost can push your ally shields to 51% def. Anyone that sits within your Dispersion Bubble will be softcapped to the new trial standard of 59% def.

Pffft. You people and your level 50+ play. . .

In the 1-50 (+0) game my experience has been that FF does nothing except make a team foolproof. If your team is already foolproof? Well, then... in my experience, you're in a distinct minority.

Honestly, why play a Force Fielder? ...Because Masterminds don't get Cold Dom. That's the best reason I can give you. My *main* is a Bot/Force and I would NEVER make a Force Field character that wasn't a Mastermind. It's an absolutely inferior choice for the other support archetypes, because they have the option of having their cake and eating it too with Cold.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

The only thing in Force Field I ever miss when playing Cold is Dispersion Bubble.
Personal Force Field is the only other power in the set (aside the shields, obviously) that I even use once per play session.
Force Bolt? Terrible.
Force Bubble? Extremely situational.
Repulsion Bomb? Even Masterminds get a better AoE in their primaries.
Repulsion Field? An even less useful Force Bubble.
Detention Field? The recharge is too long to make it useful for dangerous bosses, and dangerous minions and lieutenants... well, they're minions and lieutenants, you'd may as well just kill it.

Meanwhile, Cold has...
Infrigidate, an extremely potent slow with a huge -def debuff on it, great out of box.
Snow Storm, a huge AoE soft control.
Frostwork, one of the only +max hp targeted buffs in the game.
Arctic Fog, a team stealth, small def buff, with some resistances too.
Benumb, one of the most potent single target debuffs in the game.
Sleet, a crowd melter, AoE -Def -Res, plus soft CC and some minor damage
and Heat Loss, because your team can never have enough free full endurance bars, and the -res on it stacks with Sleet and is also pretty significant.

There really isn't much of a contest unfortunately.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

I was considering rebuilding my ill/ff controller, shelved long long ago.

Not after reading this. I think many people have made valid points here, that FF is too overspecialized in defense. It seems with each new powerset in any class, older sets are often made obsolete. That's not all bad, new things kind of have to be better sometimes to keep the old players around. To make you want to stop playing you force field character and roll frost, at least if you're interested in things by the numbers.

For those that continue to play bubblers, it's no awful thing. My regen scrapper loves ya, my FA melee types like the rounded out defense, and certainly my defenseless blaster. I might like having ice around a bit better, but I'll certainly take what I can get.

I however am willing to reroll my support toons to find a better set. If nothing else it gives me something to do. Maybe someday the devs will go back and fix some of these antiquated power sets, but I'm not counting on it. Maybe if that day ever comes, I'll unshelf my bubbler.

I have no intention of shelving my FF Defender, simple reason is that while you may have capped defences to this that and the other, it doesn't hurt to have a little more. Not only that, there are many Controllers, Dominators, Blasters and other squishy characters that can really benefit from the massive amount of defence a forcefielder can produce because not everything is soft capped to this that and the other.

While you have the incarnate skills for sure and set bonuses, and they make a huge difference I grant but, I fiercely disagree with the notion that this makes a Forcefielder obsolete. Somewhat less valued maybe, but not obsolete.