Healers redundant? Incarnate heals!

From my perspective, surely not in the majority, but nevertheless, there is nothing I want on my leagues more than an empath when I'm on my tank.

A ranged heal that doesn't require an accuracy check! This is an invaluable tool.

Playing an emp defender is not very easy. Playing one well is darn tough.
The better defenders use primary and secondary powers. True, their damage isn't anything to get excited about, but there are a lot of scrappers and blasters who hit build up + Aim and the big ST damage attack and leave a sliver of health on the npc. That makes it a safe shot for the empath.

When I'm on my emp, I see more. I do more. It's exhausting.
Emping at low levels is even harder, because the teammates don't have much endurance or many defenses. They rely on me doing a better job. Pressures on. They go down in my line of sight, that makes me look bad. (obviously, some folks are just careless sometimes -doesn't make me or them bad players, things can happen)

When you're on a good league that doesn't need you to heal them, smile and enjoy it! The last thing you want is to have to heal everyone and not be able to.

How to be a not-bored empath on a Trial:

Step 1: Open the Trial window... wow 16 to 24+ green and blue bars!
Step 1.5: BLAST BLAST BLAST!!!
Step 2: Try to drop your RA's in a really big group to get as many people
as possible (duh, I know, but just on the off chance someone doesn't)
Step 2.5: BLAST BLAST BLAST!!!
Step 3: Try to keep the entire league's green bars full... that level 50+1 blaster that's hanging back GETS AMBUSHED! Heal Him! NOW BEFORE HE DI--- er... REZ HIM!
Step 3.5 BLAST BLAST BLAST
Step 4: OK, if any tanks are taking damage fort them.. next fort the damage dealers (preferably blasty types that'll benefit from the +defense AND the +damage)
Step 4.5 BLAST BLAST BLAST
Step 5: Is ANYBODY running out of blue? If the arey are then AB them!
Step 5.5 BLAST BLAST BLAST


ADVANCED TRICKS:
1.) Look at the powersets on the league and give AB to the toons that will benifit the most. For example: AB the other Empath before AB-ing the Katana/Willpower scrapper.
2.) Use your secondary wisely. Too much to go into here but Ice - Sleet Storm can be used to clear away a mob attacking a squishie.. Sonic has great debuffs on a defender.. target electrical blasts through a kinetic for extra -endurance

INSANE TRICKS:
1.) Is everyone on the league Clear Minded? Can you stack clear minds on that tank with 3 rings in the BAF?
2.) GET the LEADERSHIP POOL! The bonuses are insane for a defender and even adding a whopping +to hit can benefit the league peeps that are only +0 or +1. (Plus you can put the fire control proc in there for MOAR damage)

Final Thoughts:
Being a good empath is a song that is not often sung or appreciated. You don't have mega special effects and I suppose it is possible to be on a tricked out league where everyone is soft capped and has no endurance issues. But look at it this way, even if you just throw three Fortitudes and two ABs out at a time, your still increasing damage for the team by (arguably) MORE than adding an extra blaster to a team... and that's before taking into account your own blasts!

Final Final Thoughts:
There are some trials already (like keyes) where empaths can make a HUGE difference if they're played well (Heal the time stopped league mates... HEAL!). Who knows what the future will bring, but I'm sure your empath will always be welcome! I've seen leagues say "Can you switch to a not stalker?" or "OMG Not another mastermind" but I've NEVER seen a league say "Too many empaths, this won't work!"


Ok, I've loaded the update! time to play! If you've read this far I don't really care because I'm just killing time while the game loaded! : P

Freakin Verifying Files!

Now if you'd said "Bubblers" are redundant.... well that I can kind've see. 3 or 4 people on a league with the right incarnate power slotted can make a bubbler feel dang silly.

I'm with Laevateinn. I also do not experience the "faceless mass" feeling on iTrials. Or Hamidon raids, for that matter, which are much larger.

I've read this thread a few times and can see both sides.

I have a very love-hate relationship with my Emp/Psi, but then I've sunk billions into a +202% recharge build so that I can solo with some degree of effectiveness. Of the 9 primary powers, only 3 are self-affecting and 2 of them are on massive recharges which means the solo life is sad without a lot of cash ploughed in.

An Empath may not be a healer, but a third of their primary is healing in the traditional sense. The rez isn't so useful with vet-rezzes, wentworth-rezzes and store-rezzes as well as close hospitals in the iTrials. Most deadites tend to hit their rez, or hospital just after I've Venge'd them but before I can rez (so I respecced out of it). I have T4 destiny, so CM is also more limited in its usefulness.

Most toons like to cover their survivability without expecting reliance on outside buffs, so it's easy to see how Empathy looks redundant. However there are certain places where an Emp is welcomed.

The taunting tank in any iTrial can struggle if not +3/4, and on a Keyes run Empathy is also helpful. In fact, any mission/trial/TF where the team is not optimal, or there are a lack of level shifts, and Emp can help fill the gaps. And that's where the powerset really shines - filling gaps, or papering over cracks in sub-optimal builds. If you have a rocking team/league, all an Emp can bring to the table is AB and the Auras with a smattering of Fort, and even these don't carry as much weight as the debuffing primaries.

I wouldn't play Empathy on another toon. One is enough for me and if it wasn't my badger it would have been retired long ago. As for Psi blast... It doesn't bring anything noticeable to the table. I've never noticed any appreciable benefit in -Recharge and Defender damage is... well... pants.

I keep hoping for someone to look at Empathy and maybe "do something " with Clear Mind, Resurrection and one of the three heals. I doubt we'll ever see it to be honest.

And that's my tuppence ha'penny.

-H

It's not politically correct, but we have to remember empathy is a below average defender primary. (Unless you can name six defender primaries worse than empathy.)

So we have to be very careful about drawing conclusions about defender performance from empathy performance alone, or assuming that the problems empathy faces aren't unique to empathy. For example, Thermal Radiation and Time Manipulation -- two other sets frequently misplayed as "healer" sets -- aren't at all redundant with destiny buffs.

Makes me wonder how the new absorb mechanism is going to affect empathy.

Personally I do not think an emp is needed on any team..any defender imo is good mitigation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

Hello Strato,

Your post is well informed.

The defender primaries cannot be ranked well, which is why I tend to think of them as two sets of rankings; one list would be in team usefullness and the second would be in solo-ability.
I will not try and post how these should go because there are enough sets that I have not played past 30 that my view is skewed towards the early game, but here is the big problem with some sets (Empathy in particular). If a set scored high on team usefullness but low on solo-ability, it may be a very low priority to remedy, whereas the opposite ; low on team usefulness but higher on solo-ability, would command more attention from the devs. And in fact, what probably is the closest to the truth is that the devs would look for evidence that the set was under-performing in "both" categories before any chance of improvement were to occur.

So, rejoice all you TA, FF, and especially Sonic, because you have a much better chance of seeing improvements than Empathy. Although, not by much.

Hey,

Im late on the reply, but here I go. My main is an empathy defender, i´ve played on Union all the Incarnate Content, here are my thoughts...

Empathy is a pretty good buffing set, Fortitude and AB do help a LOT. I spend most of the time keeping up fortitude on my party, a few quick healing and pew-pew of course.

Dont hate Empathy, its the best buffing set imho.

PS: Excuse my English, its not my mother tongue

A.

I agree wholeheartedly.

People complaining that empathy defenders are only reactive are only using a part of the pool's arsenal. I like to compare that to people who think SBing and Fulcrum Shifting is everything needed to play a kin in a team, especially in the STF when Ghost Widow used to be difficult to bring down, half the team was suffering from no endurance and the kin couldn't be bothered to SB or transference people or reduce the regen of the AV with chain-transfusioning. This is probably due to simply farming up characters or only using them in farms. You don't learn all intricacies of characters that way.

OK I am rushed for time so excuse me if the organization is off. First off one single healing powerset sounds a lot like in EQ when Sony thought other healers needed to be less than half the clerics power to maintain balance. This led to clerics being in extreamly high demand, and as most clerics never learned the class outside that role, a beliefe that that was all they could do. There were a few really good clerics who soloed, and did very well but most believed that it wasn't possible. They then proceeded to balance EVERYTHING around clerics healing power, and this led to much of the content being undoable with out a cleric, or at least 2 other healers.(one could get through some, but would be out of mana in one fight) unless you had access to raid level gear. This led to few clerics with high demand on their time, and clerics pretty much being the bosses of everyone who wanted to do anything meaningful. I remember when most of us were lucky to do one alternate ability point an hour clerics were complaining about only getting 3 so they would wait for a better group.

Second saying thermal is not a healer is like saying shaman and druids in this era were not healers. It is, and they were, but not as much so as the more focused class/powerset. Thermal has 1/3 the healing tools of a pd, and 1/2 that of an emp. Thats 2 heal powers, and for a long time it was the only healer for a vil.

Thirdly IIRC stacking buffs, and debuffs early when this game was out did make therms capable of healing for a team, and on top of that 2 would have been sufficient with some co-ordination to make the team poissible. this was especially true if fighting against fire, or cold damage.

Fourthly when I played my elec/pd corr as a main (when PD first came out)
I used to keep my mez resists up on team mates, but was asked to stop by several teams who wanted it to be done when they were mezed, and so I did. when did this change?
Finally those saying "-def is not effective in trials, and buffs are stacked out the backside anyway" I am sick of spending 30 seconds stunned, then 1-2 unstunned, and then 30 more stunned on my kin. When I play my kin in trials I usually go like this FS>SS>Transfusion>SP>Transference>Fissure>Transfus ion>Transference>Fissure>repeat
I SB between fights, and every other rotation, and I ID between fights, and try to peg a blaster with it every other rotation. otherwise some random guy/girl. I get to do this about 1 in every 6 trials, but more often it boes FS>waitformeztowearoff>Transfusion>waitformeztowea roff>Transfusion>waitformeztowearoff
Find the guys that need CM a blaster, or a kin, and tag em pls. you may feel useless a bit, but you are healing indirectly through the kin heals, and giving end through transference. I never have these mez resists stacked on me. I even took acrobatics for this,and still have an issue with it.