My advice is to play what you want to play rather than what you feel is going to be more in demand with other people. Empathy is an excellent buff powerset, don't get me wrong, but it really sounds like you might be taking it more so that you can get people to team with you, and you should be able to get teams regardless. As for the healing role being less useful as you go up levels, that is true, but a good empath brings far more to the table than just a healing role and the buffs from Empathy remain some of the best in the game at any level.
Which brings us to Storm. It really sounds to me like this is what you want to make, but you are concerned about the knockback and about other people not giving you a place on teams if you are Storm. While it is very easy to play a Storm badly (especially with respect to powers like Gale or Hurricane), most players appreciate someone who plays Storm intelligently. Combined with Ice, you will be relatively high-damage (for a Defender) and should be able to deal with playing solo all the way up to playing in large teams with little problem.
Storm does just fine in a large team environment if you just put a little thought into what you are doing (i.e. maybe Gale is not the best choice to attack all those mobs surrounding the Willpower tanker, but use Snow Storm and Freezing Rain and all is well). If you aren't used to using knockback and repel effects you might play around for a bit solo to get a sense for where things are going to go when you knock them around. Flying and using your KB more or less straight down is also popular, though keep in mind you will still spread them around somewhat unless you use a wall or other obstacle to halt their momentum. Corners are your friends.
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I second the "play what you feel like playing" mindset, considering that this is for concept. Empathy is much more focused on buffing the team, while Storm is more like creating chaos for your enemies. Honestly, I have little experience with Empathy/ on Defender, but my main is a Storm/Ice Def which is LOADS of fun to play.
It's a crazy fun combo to play, and Freezing Rain + Ice Storm is amazing in its own way. The damage is very good (especially considering Ice Storm and Blizzard do just as much damage as the Blaster version!) and the soft controls between Knockdown in FR combined with all the -recharge and - movement is fantastic! If your not careful, the KB can irritate other players, but that is rarely a problem, unless you deliberately splay mobs all over the room. And while Lightning Storm isn't as powerful as it used to be, nothing will make you smile more than watching bolts of electrifying energy strike fear into the hearts of your targets.
And the best part? When a teammate over-aggros or if a team-wipe is imminent, while the Scrappers are howling in delight and the Blasters are running around screaming, you come alive. All the stops are pulled, and full blown chaos erupts. Hurricane comes on, tornadoes are flying everywhere, the rumble of Lighting clouds fill your ears, ice and hail rain from the heavens, pelting and demolishing anything in it's path. All the while, the enemies are blowing around, half on their backs, half shrieking trying to escape with their lives, and you're in the eye of the storm, grinning in delight and laughing hysterically.
And yes, I am definitely quite biased when it comes to the beauty of Storm/Ice on a Defender. Nevertheless, try it!
Storm isn't that bad on teams. Know when to use Tornado and how to use Hurricane and you'll be fine. I remember rolling a Storm/dark and the team was in the Hollows and we decided to try and wing it even if the team didn't seemed built for the task. At one point the rest of the team was trash talking the mobs.
Unless you are seriously stretched for playing time ...
roll one of each, play them and sooner or later you'll likely fine one is your preference as it will be the one with increasingly more levels (and playtime) under its belt.
Sure we can't talk you into Cold/Ice?
Storm isn't quite a match for a winter concept. Hurricane season on the U.S. east and gulf coasts is June-November. (You may have heard of a little something called "Irene" recently.) Tornado season in the U.S. averages around April-July. Winter storms aren't about extreme wind speeds and huge amounts of atmospheric energy. They're about cold fronts moving in, squeezing the moisture out of the air and dropping it as ice and snow. And "steamy" mist? Fuhgeddaboudit.
Cold also has a few buffs. If you like Empathy, you'll also like cold buffs, or at least the +def part, and Heat Loss, or at least the +recovery part. If you like Storm, you retain Snow Storm, Sleet (an icier-looking version of Freezing Rain), and Arctic Fog (an icier-looking version of Steamy Mist with res cold instead of res confuse).
I have Storm/Electrical, Empathy/Psy and Cold Domination/Ice defenders, and I've had the most fun with the Stormie, but I really liked the Cold/Ice too. I didn't play it as much because individually buffing large teams with the ice shields was a drag, but that was recently changed to be much more convenient (you can now buff the whole team at once).
Knockback isn't that big a deal with storm if you do it right. I didn't even take Gale, and I only use Hurricane under certain circumstances, and Tornado almost never. The big pluses for Storm/ are Steamy Mist, Freezing Rain and Lightning Storm. Snow Storm can be useful too. I find O2 Boost slotted with Doctored Wounds recharges fast enough to keep most teams healed, and it provides some protection against draining and some mezzes.
Cold/ shares many powers with Storm/, but it has Benumb, which helps big time against some AVs. It has shields and a hit point boost, but no direct heal. Cold/ makes a very good AV killer.
I've played all the defender primaries except Traps to at least 38, and I'd rank Storm and Dark at the top for me, with Kinetics, Trick Arrow, Cold, and Rad in the middle, and Sonic, Empathy, and Force Field at bottom. I don't like having to constantly buff someone over and over, but don't mind healing them as required -- remembers to do the repetitive shtick gets to be a drag.
It's fairly easy to soft-cap for ranged defense with Cold/, Storm/ and Dark/, if that makes a difference to you.
I prefer to be an active attacker/debuffer, rather than a babysitter/buffer/healer, but one reason I like Storm is that it has a heal in O2 Boost, one that I'll use whenever I see someone's hits going down. Storm can rain chaos down, but you can also save lives directly in a pinch.
Hey all,
Thanks for all the replies, based on them I've decided to go with storm/ice blast. It is possible that I have had a distorted view of storm due to experiences with players who use it's powers in bad ways. But I see myself as a good and intelligent player so I will give it a try!
About Cold/Ice, I totally get what you say Rigel_Kent and I have thought about it. This might seem silly, but I seriously cannot stand the look of Ice Shield, to the point where it ruins the entire set for me, I just don't want to spend my entire gametime teaming with ice cubes. I realise the set would be otherwise perfect, both gameplay wise and concept wise.. but that's how it is. Thank you for the tip though!
Quote:
Change ATs to Controller and have it both ways -- Ice/Storm. |
Originally Posted by Rigel_Kent
Sure we can't talk you into Cold/Ice?
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As far as playing Storm on teams, the main issues are with Hurricane and Tornado. I try to think of Hurricane as analogous to Personal Force Field or Granite Armor -- it will reduce your damage output (in Hurricane's case, by scattering groups) but may rescue the team from dying (by debuffing the crap out of enemy to-hit). So just break it out in a crisis. Tornado I use similarly; it's also sometimes worth the chaos to send Tornado at a new group attacking from the flank.
Note that it's also good against Paragon Protectors who have activated their Tier 9 defensive powers (it's auto-hit.)
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My wife has played a Storm/Ice to 50 and she is excellent on teams. With this build, it's not about Hurricane or Tornado so much as having THREE RAINS that all do DoT and Slow. When she drops all 3 she can defeat a big spawn in seconds.
Also, since all the rains are "ice" based, it fits a Winter Fairy concept pretty well.
Hi everybody.
I just re-joined the game and feel like making something new, and I've hyped myself up over a winter fairie type of character.
I've narrowed it down to a Empathy/Ice or Storm/Ice Defender and I'd like to hear the board's opinion on what to pick based on my playstyle.
I'm a very team-centric character and pretty much never solo, I usually lead, starting missions/arcs etc and pick up people to go with me.
My own thoughts;
Empathy: it fits my playstyle but I'm concerned that the healing role gets less and less useful the higher up in levels I get, the buffs are neat though.
Storm: Holy crap does it ever fit the character concept, storm + ice blast would make an awesome winter fairie, it's very tempting to take because of that BUT, I'm a team person and it's full of knockbacks and such ... how does it perform in a team heavy enviroment compared to empathy?
I would love to hear what you think about it.