Doomguide2005

Found a copy of my planned but not realized build (life and NCsoft) to update my Fire/Nrg for i23 or so. Need to take into account the new proc mechanics and quicksnipe. Thoughts? Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.6 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Soulfire Lily_FireBlastEnergyManipulation (v1.00.i23 Incarnate) - Blaster (Fire Blast).mxd

As far as controllers go mine was Earth/Storm (do I see a pattern here!), had one on two different servers sitting at 50 back before server switching was easy if even possible.

Wouldn't on two Emps! That would be by far the best way if one was to do it with Empathy. Two Emps would totally destroy everything short of AV's and a pair of Emp/Sonics I'd be happy to try the AV's. Nukes every 30 seconds or so, Screech stacking to high mag, high enough to potentially stun an AV through their PToD. Pairing any set of Defenders is a strong synergy, but with Empathy that is especially true. Grab an Immobilize to make them (the AV) to sit still regardless of your eventually pairing. AVs in general have no exceptional status (PToD) resistance to Immobilize or Sleep. Two Emps with IO builds is easily perma both RAs, perma AB, perma Fort etc. and we haven't even gotten to Incarnate power choices (I dare you to die 😀).

Well I'm a tad biased. I've seen what a mixed group of 7 random defenders and a single controller can do 4 of whom were Emp defenders. All 8 were from the RO network doing a Statesman's Master run and they utterly owned the Patrons, Recluse and everything else. And last but hardly least I've seen what Green Machine (RO's all Empathy SG) can do. I also had, on live, 6 Empathy characters sitting at 50 (Emp/Sonic x2, Emp/Dark, Emp/Rad, Emp/AR, and an Earth/Emp troller). So the answer to the OPs question from me is a big YES, Empathy is quite capable of performing at 50+ "Healers" not so much. But I'm a tad biased 😁

You really would have to very deliberately have to try to build those defenders and their secondaries etc. to not succeed and I'm not sure you would succeed even then especially with 8 of them teamed. Running out of patches isn't going to be a problem when that +4x8 mob is being vaporized before they manage to take a step or three. I watched 7 defenders plus 1 controller plow into all four Patrons pre Incarnate powers, 4 of them Emps, doing a Masters run. The Patrons went down quickly in succession. One player momentarily 'blinked' red before their health slammed right back to max. A few minutes later everyone who didn't have their Master badge had one. No crashless nukes, no incarnates and while most had an IO build I'm certain overall they were less than highly optimized. As a team they didn't need to be because of the insane amounts of stacked buffs and debuffs present. PS: Really late edit but the team mentioned above was (as near as I recall from 10+ years ago) was an Emp/Rad, Emp/Dark, a 2nd Emp/Dark, Emp/?, Sonic/Sonic, Cold/Arch, ?/?, and 1 controller a Fire/Kin. Pretty much capped for virtually everything.

Yes it is, but we have 3 builds and if you play with friends or a static team then it's a good power to at least remember you have the option to take in your build. Add Recall Friend and positioning is no longer a problem.

Or have a /RadEm or RadEm/ use Fallout then Mutate to rez. The debuffs from Fallout are quite nice to put it mildly.

Attuned? Sounds like something else I need to learn up on, *adds to his list to read up on*.

Notice the second shield (Plasma) and Thaw were both skipped. Would you recommend taking those and then respec into this build down the road (as in endgame) when things like Clarion and a large inspire tray are available? I'd also change up some things (level of the certain IO's) if I planned on much exemplar usage assuming nothing changed there while I wasn't looking. Otherwise a very impressive build capping both Melee and Ranged as well as Smashing and Lethal Resistance (back by healthy amount of +def on both S/L)

Read the bit about crashless nukes. First thought was wow!. Second thought was welcome to the world of Green Machine, essentially crashless nukes since 2006. AB = +recovery over 1000%. and that was before considering it was often while also under multiple RAs. You could tell when the team was on point when end bars hardly moved and toggles often didn't drop (when that was still a thing) even when engaging mobs at a 'ludicrous' speed while using Nukes.

Yeah I generally only used it at sub 30 levels or so on live and often just to force annoying flyers down with the -fly aspect. Ditto to the can't imagine getting -regen with it then stacking 2 or 3 Tornado's on a target sitting in Freezing Rain while Lightning Storm blasts them.

Dark has a -resist power in Tar Patch (and many other sets have their own -resist powers). The more -resist you can put on a target, AV or otherwise, the more damage that will be done by both of you. The more damage you do the less -regen you'll need to reach or exceed the point at which the target(s) health recovery is less than your damage output. That's what makes RadEm, Traps and Cold so often mentioned (along with Dark) when discussing tackling AVs and GMs. They provide both significant -regen as well as -resist within the set and why Sonic Blast is often paired with them.

Indeed, the effect on the builds above was crazy good for their net recovery .

Okay I must have missed it reading the thread about what powers and other things had been added since live. I'm pretty certain Energize was not in Energy Manipulation back on live prior to sunset correct? I'm getting old but I'd have noticed a self heal/end cost reduction power I'm hoping and don't recall it in my lvl 50 build, the first blaster I actually enjoyed.

This And I am so going to quote this

Sorry about the delay getting back to the thread. I think when neither of us mentioned Deceive it got misinterpreted as not being worth taking. As mentioned it can be quite useful. As for Choking Hold I don't have a strong objection to it if it works for you then I don't see a good reason not to take it. But yes it has a few points to consider, endurance usage is one . The other is the way it applies its mez. It does not hit its targets with a mag 3 but a combo of mag 2 and mag 1 holds neither of which has a 100% chance to happen when foes are first effected. The net effect is you need to extend the duration of the holds to allow it the time to stack enough, particularly on higher rank foes, for a hold to occur. Since it's a PBAoE this might allow the occasional foe to get off a melee attack or two prior to becoming held. Frankly I don't recall how frequently the hold(s) check ("tic") as foes are standing in the AoE. Maybe another poster can fill in those details. Fallout- Figured I'd mention this rather unusual power. Despite being the tier 8 power this is your Nuke (either that or your tier 9 is a really odd damage free nuke). Yes it is extremely situational and if solo or on your average PuG it is essentially unuseable in practice. But get on a static team where it can get used Fallout is an extremely potent damage and debuffing attack. Good power to keep in the back of ones mind for an alt build if you start running regular with a group. Ideally you'd need Recall Friend as well to move the defeated ally into position to use Fallout (another of its highly situational issues). But the Faithful Fans of Fallout is one of the oldest SGs in the Repeat Offenders Network and blowing up the corpses is part of how they steamroll everything in their path

I think the ultimate irony is if you really, really want to churn out the heals in an IO end game build ... you'll need to take and slot the blasts to crank up your global recharge. By far it was my Offender Empaths who could cycle through their HA, HO, etc., the fastest if they wanted to do so.

Got a brief look at the build in Mids' last night, but can't open it now on my phone. Agree with Extor Prime. I'd add slots to AM get its recharge and endmod ED capped. It should help with any end issues you might be having. I noticed your net end recovery was low but can't look at the build currently to see what was toggled on and if something end heavy was on that didn't need to be. I'd probably cut back on the slots used in both Superior Invisibility and Weave in addition to what was mentioned by Extor. I'll be able to get a longer look tonight and tomorrow, post some further thoughts.

Never had Follow Up on auto. At various points I had Hasten and Practiced Brawler on auto. My last build on live I didn't have Hasten, I was focused on building for survival not recharge. Initially I had PB on auto but it had a unfortunate habit of firing off at inconvenient times and eventually I no longer ran PB or anything else on auto which made for the occasional silly moment when a combo of a lucky hit landing and me forgetting to fire off PB resulting in scrapper embarrassment. I have yet to be able to download and install the game (I live in internet hell ... probably going to need to wait until our high speed usage becomes available next month). Then hopefully I can see some in game numbers for the recovery and such on several of Rad powers. Right now its a bit tough to tell just how much net recovery your build actually has. I like to shoot for at least a net of 2,5 end/sec with everything I normally run active. And the new proc mechanics are an unknown thing for me as well.

Well its been a while since I've worked with incarnate powers so things may have changed but essentially that's saying Farsight is awesome (which it is as I recall) because Clarion+Power Boost etc. is something the Empath could also do. In any case my 'rant' doesn't necessarily disagree with saying a pure buff set is less needed by leagues particularly when comprised by very high end builds. It's more about the point that arguing which jet fighter is the most dominant when the other side is flying biplanes is not terrible useful.

You may wish to post your build for suggestions in the Controller forums (if you haven't already). An Ill/Rad should be able to solo AVs and certainly shouldn't have issues solo'ing "anything" PS: In particular check out a build by Hyperstrike.

Rad Blast is indeed -def on the blasts and Neutrino Bolt can be turned into a proc onslaught. The AV killing power comes from the regen debuff in Radiation Emission's Lingering Radiation (coupled with EF's -resist). Now tack on Radiation Infection for -def and -to hit (both enhanceable) plus Enervating Field -dam and -resist (doubling all this up if its a defender pair) . Sonic Blast would be my first choice on secondary for killing AVs and GMs with the caveat I don't know much about how Beam and Water would help out. The -resist in Sonic would help up the damage further.

*looks at tier 3 rating for empathy* *shrug* I think sometimes these tier ratings are a little like arguing about how high the rubble will bounce when whatever AT is being discussed. Useful perhaps for highlighting differences between sets but less useful when discussing how capable the set is over all within the game itself.

Are you open to purple sets? I ask as the set bonuses are always available when you exemplar, which isn't the case for IO sets in general. Most IO's must be in an power that's available at your current level (generally, certain IO's are exceptions). Obviously purple sets are a serious expense, but if you exemplar a lot they are an even better deal for this reason. My main on live was claws, but I have zero experience with /rad just fyi.

Working on a build with these power sets for when I can finally get in game. I'll see what I come up with and compare