Doomguide2005

The only definitive way is to ask him ... or maybe his Mom.

I do know the most potent team my group of friends and I put together on LIve, this one around i16 or so, was a dark themed team. Only 5 of us. One Dark Melee/WP scrapper and 4 Defenders (DM/Arch, DM/Dark Blast, Cold/Dark Blast and a Sonic/Dark Blast. In our low 20's we were chewing up +4/x8 Arachnos in Faultline with very little trouble. I think in fact it was a little too easy and we got bored and playing them sort of petered out. I think only my Sonic/Dark actually made it to 50 playing with PuGs post 30ish.

Ain't that the truth as well as part of the beauty of this game.

So Empathy/Dark Blast or Dark Miasma/something for you? And here I was getting all excited about 6 Empaths destroying everything from about level 15 onward.

On my phone but when I get a chance I'll definitely check it out. One of the things I felt leveling an Earth/Emp on Live is to avoid Controller pairings. For me my Controller is watching the battlefield nd the team window is secondar. For my Empaths it's the opposite and even more pronounced. If it's all going south I practically don't see anything other than the team to buff and heal. Now that said I've often thought Illusion might be a control set that would work paired with Emp. PA is indestructible and largely uncontrolled by the character. It's fire and forget, about the only thing is to worry about recasting.

Or all 3!! Yeah, I get it, definitely a playstyle issue influencing build. But 3 slots can do it.

I would note that Thunderclap by itself is near worthless, but if stacked with Cosmic Burst you can take out a Boss easily. The con is TC requires melee range usage (but does have a 25ft radius so there's that to consider), but with the stealth you can develop on Storm first strike is basically yours. It comes down to familiarity and playstyle. Get above boss(es) i.e. Hover, use TC, hit select boss with CB. Boss (and minions) no longer an issue. PS: If you can hit it with Irradiate from Hover, you'll hit it with TC.

I see this maybe not quite as often, but I'll see it often enough. The variant I'll see is they'll want a 50 when basically anyone higher will work when the recruiter is below 15.

The counterpoint is you aren't building for the 75% you are building for the 110+% required when it totally goes pear shaped. Agree you want Cosmic Burst, Proton Volley and Aim probably in about that order of 'want'. I used Air Superiority and Cosmic Burst to neuter and defeat boss pairs while soloing Cimeroran repeatable missions on the then max notoriety settings shortly after the zone went Live in i9 or so. I personally would be very reluctant to give up Leadership, specifically Tactics Clear Mind I like to slot with Range to get the one *cough* idiot who's always across the map it seems. And keep in mind when exemped low that some melee may not have access to their mez protection. I also will put an Endurance Reduction in the base slot of Resurrect. Recharge I find is a bit useless. Even in Nemu's build with 'ridonculous' recharge it's still just shy of 45 sec to recharge with the aid of Spiritual Core. I'd rather be sure I can cast it if an important ally is dropped mid-fight, when RA is on cooldown, vigilance is barely kicked in and I'm exemped below 45th. (Though 99.9% of the time it probably makes little difference what you slot in either Resurrect or Clear Mind, having them is the point.). Recovery Aura really doesn't need enhancing for Endmod. From midgame on up most characters tend to be able to manage their end consumption/recovery and the base +200% is generally more than enough to make every one okay at lower levels (and for those later build who still need the buff). I also tend to aim to have both Auras recharge in close to the same time (which all the builds above do) it keeps tracking when to use simpler. So you can if wanted save slots here by using 2 slots for recharge. In Fortitude I generally save slots here by using a pair of lvl 53 Membranes and a LotG 7.5% global rech. That said there are about a gazillion ways to effectively slot Fortitude. Note that Fortitude can take a Guassian's BU proc which when it fires will be on you though the chance is low do to the Membranes and Alpha choice (Mids pegs it at 17%). You can do similar with Regen Aura (2 slots recharge) but generally I'd be using a Heal set for the bonuses I like to have Hasten and Tactics by 20th. I want Hasten perma without Incarnates. Absorb Pain - for a long time I was in the camp of 'I don't take it' as may playstyle was generally a very aggressive 'offender'. But there's no doubt AP is useful for a huge burst of healing a character and the risk now that I have played around with it some, well it is overstated. Annoying but smallish risk compared to the benefit of rapidly getting a Tanker, in particular, back to near or at full health (which in turn stops even more incoming damage to the rest of the team as dead Tankers/ally's don't aggro anything). It's also a handy spot for another Heal set and the set bonuses that come with it. I prefer Air Superiority+Fly+Evasive Maneuvers rather than involving Hover. It is possible to slot all 3 of the resistance debuff procs in Radiation Blast. I'd definitely be looking to do so. Hope the input if late is helpful. Well dang didn't include my own Emp/Rad's (current'ish) build. Reyna Morningdew Empathy_Radiation (v1.00 i27.6) - Defender (Empathy - Radiation Blast).mbd

Yes, the power analyzer is clearly inaccurate. I can recall be fired on back on Live at quite a distance but seeing it fire on a stealthed (65.5Ft) character at over 180 ft seems beyond what I recall, but also 15+ years.

What is the aggro/perception radius on a pylon (specifically, though guessing it shouldn't/doesn't matter, pylons 16 and 17). I'm asking because pylon 17 is firing on my character around 180 to 185ft? Is that normal? PS: A power analyzer says their perception is 54ft iirc what it stated last night. Edit 2: fired on my scrapper at 185 ft, continued to fire on me out to 241 ft (all I had done is move slowly away, did not attack at all).

Other thoughts you might want to consider: You could swap out the Sudden Acceleration for a Force Feedback in M30 grenade. I'm experimenting with a full Cupids set in PA so far it seems to work fairly well and should be crazy once I hit 50 on the character and can slot in the Purple Confuse including the Contagious Confusion in Deceive. Be curious to hear how it works for you in Full Auto. I tend to like to put a 'range' in Clear Mind, to get that one guy who always seems to be way off across the map instead of close. But Endred for when you have to cover a lot of allies when RA is on cool down works too especially at lower levels when recharge is thrown off by exemplar status. If you can swap slots a bit to get one more in Fortitude, I'll just note if you put the Guassian's BU proc in there it will proc on you. Fort someone, see it proc, and open up with FA is also a fun option.

Purples and PvP IO's work as if attuned so generally you want to boost to +5 if you do anything to them. Which while I appreciate the Numina's for the large heal boost those set bonuses will disappear below 27th as Numina's is a 30 to 50 set. That's another reason I like the Panacea they are already "attuned" and operate all the way down to 7th (i.e. before Posi 1) and also provide a not insignificant +recovery if you have 4 or 5 sets @2.5% per set. In the ideal spending is money is no limit conceivably do both using the Panaceas for builds pre 27th and Numina's post 27th. That's why it's really a playstyle thing above all. Edit: read up on attuning in the wiki ... and I've managed to confuse myself. I'll have to check in game if attuning a Numina's will make it retain the set bonuses below 27th. Edit2: No, it's as my senior brain was thinking, becoming attuned is not going to yield set bonuses from Numina's below 27th level. Even in Ouro it's still showing as no heal bonus while exemped to 24th (so not even with the +5 effective level for powers does Numina's start providing a 6% heal bonus)

@MoonSheep Something more like this perhaps: Sorry jet packs for travel power ... and numerous START options for Teleport or swap out Rez for travel choice (of SJ, Mystic Flight, or SS) and grab the temp power to Rez (and or Day Job). Personally, I drop Resurrect for Clear Mind, and I do not like it that late in the Build much less missing. Bobby EmpAR sans Panacea (v3.00 i28.10) COH Radgen - Defender (Empathy - Assault Rifle).mbd

I think @MoonSheep has hit it on the head for why I'm having difficulty coming up with a build while staying with or close to your power choices. You've spent a lot of effort towards personal defense via two pool powers which require 6 power choices, 5 of which are taken by 24th (or 5 of 14 power choices at that point). And you have 5 slots devoted to Health and Stamina which ought to be total overkill with minimal cooldowns in the Auras. I've done a build which you can use for ideas or whatnot working on points MoonSheep and I have brought up. It is something along the lines of what I would do. More armor/defense would be something I'd tackle as a 2nd build as an option for situations and teams that might require it. Bobby EmpAR (v2.00 i28.10) COH Radgen - Defender (Empathy - Assault Rifle).mbd