Doomguide2005

I've never really paid much attention to my Font(s)?, but there's almost always at least one around doing whatever it is doing (a clear indication of 'not much') because my Earth/Storm lives in melee, stunning the hell out mobs. Free, if small extra damage i hope.

Wouldn't surprise me that while 'they' may not block movement that 1) lag and 2) additional spawning play a significant role in the cluster $%%$^ that occurs along with a lack of choice in direction of movement

Pets! Yes those can help immensely for an Empath. There are several sources of temporary pets. In theory you could make a Mastermind jealous ... until he mentions how your controls differ from his (hint you have minimal control on what they do but they are still probably more focused than your average Fire Imp). First there's the START Vendor: -> There's the Police Hardsuit. My only issue with him is he tends to get knocked around by some mobs. But hey if they are knocking him around they aren't knocking you around. But drop a Power Build Up Fortitude on him and he can mess some baddies up and get knocked back a whole lot less. -> Next are the quite costly Signature pets such as Statesman or Back Alley. Far tougher and more dangerous to your foes but oof they also cost a bunch. If you get one make it something you pull out and buff as a last resort Next are pets from other sources leading off with my favorite from Live (used to run laps around the Storm Palace with this one while on Reyna and Rianna) -> Shivan, an EB acquired in Bloody Bay -> Vanguard Heavy purchase the Core via the Vanguard Merit Vendor Station (Edit: Should mention this one while 'temporary' will last forever if it 1) isn't defeated and 2) you don't zone. Or other words I'd drop one while circling the Storm Palace and as long as neither of us didn't die ... -> Amy want to know what it's like to have another Empath buffing you with Adrenaline Boost etc? Well she's the answer. -> Warwolf, the Warwolf whistle is acquired in Striga, an end of arc reward iirc (someone remind my old brain!). He's as fast and hard to hold still as the real deal that probably ran over and swatted you across the room at some point while leveling. One of my favorite to buff after a Shivan -> then there's the little trio of Clorkwork gears you get in Faultine. Mostly a distraction and annoy your foe category. Can't recall if I've ever buffed one all up and seen what happens in recent memory anyway. Other than the gears (and I'm not sure about them) all (most?) can be replaced via running the appropriate content. Shivans in Bloody Bay, the Vanguard Heavy repurchase via vanguard merits from the vanguard vendor, The Warwolves via Ouro and the correct arc/missions. Not as sure if Amy can be earned again though. There's also a Long Bow pet you can earn in Recluse's Victory if I'm not mistaken And, of course, once unlocked as an Incarnate choice a Lore pet of which there's a long list of choices

Totally get that. And yes from the merit vendor for merits obviously. The can also be purchased off Wentworths aka the Auction House either as recipes or the IO itself. The only caution would be you want to buy attuned IO's unless they are Purple IOs or PvP IOs. Those IOs are inherently attuned and in the long run (very long run) you would use boosters to +5 them. There's more to it than that but I wouldn't worry over much about getting into the weeds on that score for now and the differences really fall into the mix max category of stuff. You've got time to learn and read up on the Incarnate system. It's rather complex looking on the surface and you can play most content just fine without touching the Incarnate abilities even at level 50, learning it at your own pace. Incarnate salvage (threads and shards plus) will accumulate and is bound to your specific character (not account) until you are ready to start using it. As for the accolade probably the best place to read up on them is through the wiki. The give you more end and health the amounts depending on the individual accolade. Atlas Medallion is +5 to max end and Task Force Commander (aka TFC) gives +max health and this is where being able to exemplar effectively will matter at least some.

The dreaded knockback can also not be discounted for solo work either. I have a character called Assaulting Nimbus a Storm/Sonic and between Gale, Shockwave and Siren's Call most of the foes spend their time getting up or falling asleep while my single target attacks pick them off.

While the above builds and recommendations are spot on they also likely to require a bit of time to acquire and put together. 100 merits isn't going to last long as 1 purple IO is 100 merits. If you meant 100 million influence that will last slightly long but again the Purples can run 10 million for a recipe and twice that for the IO itself unless you spend a lot of time waiting for a bid to go through on the Auction House. So I'd probably do two things. First I'd get the power choices lined up closer to what you see in the above builds and get them slotted with generic IOs and cheap sets. Doctored Wounds, for example, is vastly less pricey than Panacea's. You can likely buy a whole set of 5 DW for the cost of a single Panacea IO (haven't checked the prices lately but I'm fairly certain this is still true overall). Second everyone by your level has an alternate second build, Use the second build to slowly piece together what ever long term IO build (like the above builds) you're aiming for in the long term. This hopefully gives you a stronger IO build to play while you work on acquiring your final endgame build. You can't even slot Purple IOs until you hit lvl 50 but yes you can buy them and even have them crafted and ready to place when you train to 50. As for the whole ranged vs melee distance keep in mind Irradiate has a 20ft radius plenty enough to hit mobs while denying them melee attacks (which generally don't exceed 8 ft). Stealth will let you get above them and open with whatever attack you wish for most mobs. Learn which ones will spot you even when stealthed (Rikti Drones, Snipers, Rularuu Eyeballs among others). Use your Snipe and or move in quick and mez (Cosmic Burst)/defeat them first. Range attacks work fine at point blank distances. Melee at range not so much. Some of the IOs you use on the first build you can later pull out and move to the second final build. These are not entire sets but things like the Luck of Gambler defense/Increased recharge, the various health unique IOs and similar. You need unslotters to do this. If you were not aware if you get all 8 of the zone exploration badges this will earn you 5 merits. There are a lot of zones Blueside. It is possible if it doesn't go against your theme or playstyle to swap to Redside earn merits for explores and or work on the Sheer Willpower accolade, then swap back to blueside again later. Full confession I've yet to earn the accolade and not sure if it's truly worth the investment. I believe it is possible to get it blueside but more difficult to do so. It is status resistance which by itself doesn't prevent getting mezzed and it takes a ton to truly shorten the duration as noted by the above posters. But cutting a Malta Stun in half might seem worth after it's happened a few times because I don't know about you but I tend to get focused (ahem scrapperlocked) and can suddenly get mezzed and go oh crap forgot to convert to a breakfree and have none now. Patience letting those Auras get recharged and off cooldown ... also a good idea! Edit: Don't hesitate to ask questions while in game via the Help channel. While some snark might occur the vast majority of folks that reply are helpful. The wiki and CoD2 are also both excellent resources to consult as well. As with anything involving humans all 3 sources will from time to time be flawed. And if you haven't yet getting even a basic supergroup base started for yourself can give you a place to put your stuff while it waits for crafting or to be held until useable. Unlike Live there is no cost to an SG base, it's all free to build and run on Homecoming and a great boon for someone running mostly solo.

So what are you looking to keep? @MonteCarla's Guide is a very solid place to start, as you noted, a ton of good chat about Empathy and its powers in the current game environment. Are you open to using set IOs, do you plan or wish to be able to exemplar well and if so how low a level are you looking to be able to exemp? Or are you looking to just do endgame content/play at level 50 only? Several of the powers are giving you a false sense of what your defenses (and resists) will look like, notably Stealth and Evasive Maneuvers both of which lose most if not all their +def the moment you attack, click glowies etc. While not directly contributing to defense Power Build Up and even Hasten are giving you numbers that might mislead. PBU is only active for 12.5 seconds (and about100 seconds cooldown) and without it there goes about half your defensive numbers (more vanishing when you attack, click glowies etc.). You bottom out around 6 to 7% which obviously isn't going to do much to mitigate damage especially vs +4's. What's the budget? How many merits available (and or are you willing or able to work the markets etc.)? And looks like I should say "Welcome back to the City!" as your slotting hasn't been seen like that since before ED (Enhancement Diversification) as far as I know.

Away from my desk top, I'll have a look when I get home and not limited by phone reply

The Cupid's Crush set in PA is amusingly effective. Doubly so when combined with the purple set in Deceive and the Contagious Confusion.

Generally I skip Hover and grab Air Superiority then follow with Evasive Maneuvers. Fly+Evasive Maneuvers+Combat Jumping (i suspect it plays a role in the control) and I can zip around and stop on a dime. No need for Hover. But that's a me thing, nothing wrong with Hover

This totally, an old school scrapper. Tankers would be good except a whole lot of changes to put it mildly have occurred to the AT.

It's more than plausible. I regularly do it, though I am partial to grabbing Fly on a number of them.

Well I'd say an Empath. Has anything ever changed :P. But solo, yep report back next year and let us know if you have Stamina yet.

Oh my Snarky gone full Snarky! I'm prone to agree with our Master of Snark. Less damage from mezzing the surrounding 'trash' is less damage for resistance to deal with which in turn means less to heal or passively regen. That said the game is not difficult and therefore makes less than 'ideal' or even subpar solutions essentially equally viable in terms of survival.

Yes you only have to exceed the protection of the target to inflict the mez on that target. Resistance of the target reduces duration of the mez. That's the norm anyway.

No as far as I know it remains the same magnitude, extends stun duration.

This^ Starts at 801.0 runs up to 801.F (hexadecimal). Over about 801.7 and up it tends to demolish teams that aren't quite solid. Only a handful or two teams have ever successfully finished 801.F to my knowledge. The designer @Linea initially created the missions to test builds if I'm not mistaken.

The Fire/Rads used it to put stacked Choking Clouds, Hot Feet and a whole lot of Imps all on the now helpless (held) target(s) now! It's rapid and overwhelming enough to crisp a mob, even +4 AV's silly fast. In a matter of seconds the AV is looking at 32 mag upwards of enough to hold them with PToD running. And that's on SO's.

And speaking of AoE ... Dark Melee/Dark Armor can be rather nasty for AoE output with some procs and damage enhancement in several DM powers.

My personal vote would be Ice Control/Sonic Resonance. Though I've yet to play it since both received buffs, maybe now it could fight its way out of wet paper bag. Empaths, of which I have 5 at 50, would be a breeze by comparison. The secondary is a blast set if at defender values (with vigilance buff). Slow yes, worst not long shot.

Totally depends on what I'm playing. Back when multiple Sappers were a thing my Claws/SR had no clue what all the fuss was about. She just made it her mission to eliminate these mysteriously dangerous foes. Then I got my nearly impervious IH toggle running Broadsword/Regen scrapper. Next thing I know I leveled and learned about tp foe. I would stealth up to a spawn and target the sapper. Then moved back next to the exit or elevator and tp them. It either worked and used headsplitter or they would be pulled and come running. If they then drained my scrapper I'd hit the door or elevator and take my now held and drained scrapper away before they killed me. Talk about night and day different.

I'd do something similar to @Seed22but do it with Defenders. I like the larger buff/debuff values vs purple patch. Yes Corruptors get the higher damage cap but if you're looking at resistance debuffs and proc damage they don't care about the cap (so the exact sets used might matter). Truth is there's hardly any significant difference except maybe clear speeds, maybe. The issue here is my experience with static Corruptor teams is near zero it's all with PuGs where as I've seen all Defender teams on numerous occasions and clear speed is not a factor mentioned in the OP (though I assume a reasonable clear speed is an unstated goal). 8 Masterminds ... sounds very nasty. Defenders with 48 pets plus maybe gang war, plus Lores well yes please. Just hope the server doesn't roll over dead first. Or my own dream never quite realized on Live of 5 Fire/Sonic, 2 Fire/Colds and 1 Fire/Kin and 24 crazed and buffed Imps (plus Lore and all that).

How are you keeping them flowing? I can start off with a bunch but the availability steadily drops over time. That is not to say there aren't options to help. Amplifiers are a thing. Clarion is a thing. Learning how much you can just stand there and let them pound until the mez wears off is a thing. But many late game mobs can burn through inspires especially mez protection inspires rather rapidly compared to how fast they can be replenished. Inspires alone don't do it unless notoriety is low, spawn size is low and patience is a close friend.

Small furry rodent who has a reputation for liking cheese. Not sure if they care for pineapples as well on their pizza or just extra cheese

My own Claws/SR has 6, 5 of which see regular usage depending on what I'm trying to do. 3 of them get used on pretty much every AV or GM particularly when teamed as they hold the resist debuff procs (Slash, Spin, Shockwave). Follow Up gets used pretty much as often as possible. Strike is used as a filler, against nearly defeated or as a mule (chasing +max health). Not her current slotting but a fun alternative in long past builds was Shockwave which among other weirdness had 3 level 53 Dam/Range HO's. Had to be 'careful' not to knock mobs beyond my intended targets in the near spawn.