What's my role on a team?

I recently encountered this "problem" on a Blockbuster Event run. I put problem in quotes because I think it was all tongue-in-cheek, but it did raise an interesting question that I wanted to know the answer too.

Background: My Fire/Rad Corruptor was my first Praetorian character. I basically soloed him through Praetoria, then soloed tips for most of the rest of the way to 50. Long story short: I'm not experienced with playing him on teams, other than iTrials where I feel that pretty much any AT is as good as any other AT so playstyle doesn't matter.

Now: I was running a Blockbuster Event and I was the only "support" toon on the team. My good friend was "tanking" with his Kin/EA Brute. I'm not sure which part of the gladiator fight we were on, but he was tanking away, I had both toggle debuffs down on the AV as well as LR, and I was blasting away with my fiery arsenal. His health bar started to drop and he died. He said something about me not healing.

I checked afterward and my heal does about 151 HP at level 29. That was about 10% of the Brutes health. I was already gasping for END as it is between my toggles and my attacks. Should I have been running in to heal him for such a small amount too or was I performing my role of "damaging support" adequetely?

As a side note, you may have been better off not using your Radiation Infection toggle during AV fights. AVs have a very high resistance to a lot of debuffs (74% at level 29) so if you were short in End turning that off to provide more End for blasting and healing may have been a better option.

I hate when people complain when they die, like it's not their fault at all. Yeah, you could've healed him a bit more (I would have personally), but if you're built more for debuffs, you're doing what you're supposed to be doing.

Not much of a friend is he.
OMG you failed..
YOU CAN NEVER, NEVER DO IT AGAIN...
IT WAS ONCE IN A LIFE TIME I TELL YOU !!!

Oh wait you can. Its a game.. Whew crisis averted.

You think the day the first BAF or LAM came out it was a success ? Look at the number of players that failed those the first day around. Look at Mag, how many are still failing that ( include myself in that group ).

End result the whole you should have healed more or had more inspirations or his built should have been better is irrelevant. The underlying issue is a "Friend" go a bit bent because him and his "Friend" failed at something.

I don't know how old you are and I know now a days people play a mmo with someone for a few weeks and they are friends or chats with them online line for a few months they are friends. But back in the olden days you actually had to meet someone and really see what the person is about to call someone a friend. I would consider someone online maybe an acquaintance, person I have something in common with, maybe a buddy. But "Friend" is a big word to use. My friends are guys I would help roll up a body in a rug if they called me. Guys I would wipe their backsides if they lost their hands. These are people I have been in tense situations and had my back good or bad. Those are "friends", not someone who pouts because some game didn't go their way.

The plain fact is the brute was running /EA. This is not a tanking friendly build until much later in life. I can easily imagine him using up the inspirations in his tray in the event and still coming up short on his life expectancy. Chrom is a level 50, but the brute could have been level 15 and that would leave the brute with very little in the way of defenses. This just sounds like a bad team makup to me. It happens particularly on that event.
The best thing that should have been done would have been for the other two to feed insp to the person tanking to make sure he stays upright.

Siolfir, I didn't know that about -Dam and lower level AVs. Still, I would probably have turned off the massive end using power first, waited a few seconds and then turned it back on. Using fire/s aoe offensive powers uses up end fast too, so going single target or waiting a sec or two between blasts can save a lot of endo too.

Your role is Support, and that is not perfectly analogous with "guarantee the survival of everyone regardless of playstyle, powersets or build".

You can help people only so much. The AVs hit hard and two lucky strikes against a defence based powerset and it's all over.

Thanks for the helpful replies, guys. I do want to emphasize that the situation I described was my friend busting my chops (I did say it was tongue-in-cheek in the original post). I don't want to cast my friend in a negative light; it was just that the situation I described raised the question in the post title and I should really know the answer to that question if I'm going to play a corruptor.

Based on the tips I got from you guys I've adjusted my playstyle a bit, but it's going to take some time to get used to. I'm used to using my heal on my Lore pets while I'm soloing GMs, but it's weird to be using it on other players.

Funny situation: I was on a Keyes yesterday in the Truck Depot part. Debuffs were down and I was merrily blasting away when I noticed someone nearby was disintegrating. I immediately dropped everything and ran to their aid with heals. I've run several Keyes with this toon and it's the first time I've ever even thought to do that.

Of my 20-some odd 50's I only have two Support toons. After 8 years of CoH maybe it's time I actually learned to play a supporting role.

I think a /Rad corruptor's strength is his versatility. You can adapt your playstyle to the situation. So if you find you are the only support on a team, by all means focus a bit more on your heals. But remember that Scourge increases in value later in the fight; once the GM/AV has less than 1/4 HP, your adjusted base damage is greater than a Blaster's. I'd say your role changes around then.

I would like to chime in. While i do not play a corrupter I do play /EA brutes. Despite some views / EA is or can be a beast it is by far my fave defensive set with both defense and resists available to it. It's weakness tends to be psionic and toxic which -I- go to great lengths to plug.

Why the long speech about /EA brutes? because besides having a awesome defense I also make sure to carry with me greens and purples. Even IOed with all my Typed defenses at 55ish and ranged def at 45ish and resists in the 40's things can go bad!

While the presence of support characters on the team ALWAYS makes me smile I also do not rely on them. If i face plant it is a failing on my part( or just bad luck!) not theirs.. and I certainly never scold them for not healing me... That is so... so.. WoW to do that! (Your friend excluded )

One term i hear a lot and I still am not sure what it means but I like it, is "Force Multiplier" When i see a Corrupter, defender, controller on the team or even multiples i know with out a doubt that Mobs will be taken down faster and safer but i never think " oh i need a 'healer'".

It sounds to me you were doing the best you could! I will add that my Ill/Rad struggled in the summer event as well as did a lot of support for some reason it just plays hell on their endurance bars!

Most the OP's problem sounds like inadequate slotting on both the brute and corruptor's part into their defensive abilities and end management. Also since the brute is a damage resist brute, you should prioritized EF>LR>RA>RI and should conserve endurance by only using flares and fire blast until the boss is less then 30% when reliable scourge (50% chance) starts kicking in. At 20% prioritize everything into attacks as you will be getting crits on almost every attack.

I'd like to chime in with a general observation that has nothing specific to just Corruptors, controllers, or to EA Brutes, or anything in specific, but to teaming in general. The point of teaming is to be more potent and flexible that you could be solo. If you have a tool that the team needs, you should try to use it, within prioritization, of course. If you can keep someone else in the fight, though, that would otherwise not be, that's probably worth prioritizing in most situations. If you can squeeze off a heal or 2 to keep Lore pets in the action, as needed, the same can be done for team mates.


Now that said, if you didn't have the heal at all, well, use the tools you have. But a brute with taunt that doesn't try to grab aggro off a squishie on occasion, or a def with anti mez power that sits on it, or someone super tough type that also has barrier, but won't pop it until after everyone else is dead isn't probably making the team stronger. Of course, it IS very situational, but in truth, everyones' play style should adapt some while teaming, unless you NEVER solo to begin with.

To be honest, I've yet to see a role on the team that a /Rad corrupter can't fill, aside from "Tanker."

It's got scads of support powers, and a Fire/Rad in particular also has solid damage. Enervating Field, Lingering Radiation, Rain of Fire, and Fireball alone will help you clear out groups of enemies while debuffing an AV. You have one of the best buffs in the game, a decent heal, and a rez.

The way I play my /Rads depends on the team. Some steamroll so fast that you just play mop-up on minions for brutes while spamming AM and heals, because the debuffs take longer to set up than the team takes to knock mobs down. There are other times where my /Rads carry the whole team, and you have to put emphasis on your debuffs while throwing out that heal as often as possible.

Yes, Radiation Infection isn't the AV-whooping powerhouse it once was. I tend to leave it for especially annoying enemies in hopes of forcing them to miss their attacks, which is a surprisingly good tactic for Malta.

If I have a non-interruptible ally heal I'm not using on someone holding the aggro and as a result that person dies, I generally consider it a personal failure. I feel it's best to try to use powers optimally given the current situation rather than sticking to a particular role set in stone.

In general I agree with folks that a Fire/Rad ought to be focused on debuffing primarily. Radiant Aura isn't the most powerful heal in the game and you need to run in and out to use it effectively. That said, if you are the *only* support on the team, use what you have to support the team. Yes, ranged damage is your primary but if there are not other characters with support sets along for the ride my guess is you already have damage covered. If you don't manage to do this, have you failed? Heck no, RA is a small PBOAE heal, it can fill in some gaps but Rad's main focus is debuffs.

I agree with other folks about you not being "responsible" for keeping everyone's health bar full. When I play my rad/dark defender and am the *only* support character on a team, I remind others that I only have a pbaoe heal and suggest that they keep a free spot in their inspiration tray, combine inspirations, and have a few greens handy if they get in trouble. At the same time, I *do* try to save folks bacon. Why? Because I *can*.

You may want to check your slotting and look at your build from the standpoint of exemplaring. A lot of builds that are only focused on level 50 aren't that great when exemplared down. Some very useful IOs like the Performance Shifter proc, or the Miracle and Numina's uniques, aren't affected by level. Yes, they are expensive, but they really help and Hero Merits work well for them. You might be missing some useful accolades that give +endurance also.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Hero_Accolade_Powers

I used to have my Radiant Aura frankenslotted to get a ton of Heal, Recharge, *and* End Reduction in 5 slots. When exemplared below 32, your enhancement values are reduced on a sliding scale . . . but bonuses below 20% are not affected by this till you are below level 21. So I had a mess of level 43 or lower triples and level 25 duals, that way I enjoyed full enhancement value.

you could heal 151 hit points

making numbers up
assume he had 75% resist and 20% defense (including your toggles)

that means he gets hit 25% of the time and takes 25% of the damage. Basically 1/16 of the damage thrown at him gets through

that means your heal of 151 points is countering 151 x 16 damage = 2,416

healing squishies does not make that much difference, but healing tough characters provides a huge multiplier to effectiveness.