Unemployment hits Coh/Cov

About 1 1/2 years ago I made my favorite toon. It was moonbeem my dark/empath defender.

I loved playing the team support in a group and found the need to be great.
The number of empaths online were few and when on team missions I always had lots to do.
It was the hardest toon I had to level as half of my powers don't really help me but support the team.
I still managed to slowly get to level 50 and enjoy all the wonderful team support powers.
I found no trouble getting into a team as they really needed a good healer.

Then a few months ago I noticed many team members were becoming so self sufficient with inspirations to heal,buff and rez.
They were also very skilled at slotting recipies and it made me seem less needed but I still found many opportunities to apply my empath powers.

Then the incarnate powers came and it took the coh/cov world little time to embrace all the power it offered.
It was then that I started to notice a terrible trend.
The empath wasnt really needed much anymore.
The new trial tf's tin man, apex, lambda, and baf all had hospitals with insperations to fill up on.
If the tf was hard and people did die (as in the battle maiden fight) it happened so fast the empath had a hard time keeping up the healing and the dead would just hosp it.
Or they wouldnt get hurt much at all so the empath would fall asleep from boredom.
Then the league was created but the empath could only focus his powers mostly on his team and not the other league teams.
Unfortunatly it seemed extremely difficult to keep track of where your team mates were when trying to heal or buff and be within range during big fights.
So if you did get lucky and find someone that needed your help (rez or healing) you had to get to them in under 1-2 seconds or they hosp it.

Then just the other day I heard the call to do a statemans tf.
I was so excited.
Finally I can play my empath and heal and buff a lot ; especially at the end with me and the tank against lord recluse.
Well the first 30 sec were a blast! The tank took lots of dmg and I would heal and buff.
Then it happend,the tank stopped getting hurt and what little he did get hit with he could deal with on his own.

I was so depresseed.
I actually had to ask the tank to get hurt so I had somthing to do.
So sad!!!
At that moment I recevied my pink slip.

I have no idea what the devs can do to fix this horrible trend as I fear
pandoras box has been opened and will be impossible to close again.

So there you have it the pratorian war has already had its first casualties!
The end of the empath!

Were your Buffs and Blasts broken for some reason?


Edit : Also, how come it's always the Empaths giving out about Incarnate powers rendering them obsolete? I never see Blasters posting about how the Empaths are running around with incarnate nukes on a 90 second timer or Scrapper moaning about all the Empath summoned Vickies running about making them obsolete in terms of single target damage...

A defender is NOT a "healer"!

I will repeat for emphasis.

A DEFENDER IS NOT A "HEALER"!

Got it?

You're a buffer/debuffer and blaster with some handy team heals that can be, on occasion, useful. If the heals aren't needed, you can buff/debuff to boost kill speeds. Also, since you don't need to constantly be buffing/debuffing, you can also blast away to boost kill speeds as well.

What you're asking to do is the equivalent of playing 18 holes of golf with nothing but a putter.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Time to respec or use one of your two other builds and make an Offender.

Or, wait til the Keyes Trial.... healing will be much, much, much sought after.

This thread would have fit in perfectly about, ohhhh, five years ago.

Nice try, though.

Listen to the zombie, Healing bubbles will be all the rage, and you can feel like the special little gem you want to be.

Just to clarify,

My post was to point out the lack of need of all the empathy powers in the teams and tf,s that I have currently been on.
Other may have been on teams which do need it and that is ok but I have not.

Endo needs. dont see em much anymore
defense needs. dont see em much anymore
healing or regeneration needs. dont see em much anymore
status protection needs ( aka-clear mind). dont see em much anymore.

The problem is the lack of need because most other toons have other ways of getting it on their own. which makes empathy dead weight and a defenders dmg (especaily dark like mine) is underwhelming in teams compared to most other archtypes. So I end up playing a different toon that has more effect on the team which brings me to my posting point.
unemployment for the empathy toon.

Your original post(pre-edit) had little to no mention of buffs, so I don't think you should expect people to understand that.

Anyway, nothing is needed anymore. DPS? Got dem lore pets. Debuffs? Got mah Reactive and -res procs. AoE damage? Got me dat Judgement nuke. A little bit of everything I just mentioned? I have my Blasts.

... not to mention the OP seems rather unaware of the secondary effects of his/her blasts. "My damage is underwhelming!" Maybe, but you're also hitting them with a -res/-tohit/-acc/-def/-whatever in larger amounts than another AT that may have the same sets... bringing a benefit to the entire league. You can even see it yourself, solo, in sonic with Scream (believe that's the DOT) which, on its own, will have more damage at the last DOT than it did with the first.

Short form, yes, "healers" are useless. Defenders aren't.

See my Guides and Tutorials

If you love to spam heals on people who need heals then I know of a server. They're about 5 years behind everyone else so you've got 5 years of pure joy. You'll have to email me for the server name.

Well, at least you could have been more screwed by rolling FF instead.

Team with blasters they are still gimped. (If you can find people playing them at 50+)

Defenders are not useless!
In fact its my favorite toon type.

I currently use my rad/rad defender more than my dark/emp now due to the issues i have mentioned in my earlier posting. It is much more effective with its debuffing, ab buff is awesome , and the one healing power it has is usually more than enough for most teams I am on.

I do admit that this entire issue does revolve around the endgame.
Under level 50 the emp finds its services much more needed and is a blast to play.

I didnt get to level 50 though only to lower myself all the time just to be useful on a team.

But if you have several toons to choose for a mission and you know that your emp is not really needed then you may be like me and just not play it for one that has more to offer a team and still be fun to play.

For me fun is the key word. I dont get on teams to sit idle i want to participate and feel like I am contributing. The lvl 50 empathy toon has just hit a brick wall and lost its luster for fun.

Its the same feeling ive seen when a lonely scrapper gets on a team of ranged squishies and they kill all the baddies before the scrapper can run up to them and slice em. After doing that through the whole mission the scrapper gets a bit demoralized as he realizes he wasnt needed at all.

And yes ive seen it happen a few times even b4 the incarnate stuff and yes the scrapper is quite verbal about it.

I dont blame him. They just made him obsolete for that mission. Fortunatly that doesnt happen often on the teams I tend to get on.

If you want to play a toon with empathy be my guest. I would rather switch to a more usefull toon like my rad/rad def.
More fun and still needed!