Doomguide2005

Curious any particular reason for not wanting to take HO? Earth/Empathy was about my 3rd or 4th character ever created on Live sometime early issue 4. During a time of no computer here on HC I created a on paper version of the pairing. Have to see if I can find those notes and receate the character in Mids. Cometfall was a flyer but swapping around travel powers shouldn't be much of an issue. Likewise I probably skipped Resurrection but it shouldn't be too difficult to fit it back into the build.

Earth/Cold would be my choice. Rocky is one of the few pets that taunts with his attacks and with Seismic Smash his damage is none to shabby either Proc your single target hold Fossilize and it'll ratchet up your single target damage quite nicely especially combined Arcane Bolt and epic attacks Rocky with shields plus Benumb, HL, Sleet makes solo or a duo more than capable of taking down AVs particularly if the partner also has strong regen or resistance debuffs and do so potentially well before end game Cold is well Cold. There's a reason you'll see so many doing endgame content. Benumb, Heatloss, Sleet and Shields and more oh my. As someone with thousands of hours between HC and Live running Empaths I can say this is largely true in a generic sense. On the otherhand we've got multiple Empaths who've solo'd the ITF at +4/×8. Give an Empath someone to buff such as Lore pets etc. and worst becomes rather relative. And heaven help the foes if the other half of the duo is also an Empath.

Another potential set of powers is to ignite OSA with Hot Feet by using Combat Teleport and then follow up with Fold Space. I'm finding Fold Space quite useful and I can see it working well on Fire/TA for pulling mobs onto debuff/OSA central you've created. I do this with a Fire/Sonic I created recently. This also so far seems to do well keeping the crazed Imps in tight as well as most if not all they might otherwise aggro is already in the scrum. Edit: Heck you could proactively create the zone of death in the middle between spawns with zero risk getting aggro and then Fold Space up to 16 targets into the fully prepped area (instead of spending time dropping patches etc. after they've been aggro'd).

To be clear the KB to KD is a proc in the Sudden Acceleration set. You only need the singular special IO to cause KB to turn into KD. Another potentially very useful proc is the one in Force Feedback which when triggered gives a massive boost to recharge. Both Sudden Acceleration and Force Feedback are Knockback IO sets and neither are uniques. Sorcery's Rune of Protection is a very solid power for any support character. In addition to providing options for placing special IOs notably one or both +3% defense procs it can be cast (activated) while mezzed essentially acting as a breakfree. The downside is it is unaffected by recharge. So the uptime and downtime are always the same regardless of, for example, no recharge to enough to yield perma IW in a build.

Yeah my now wife ran a Plant/Storm to 50 on Live and loved it enough she dumped a few billion into it. Pretty much the only character she came close to doing that for. And yeah it had tons of recharge enough to perma Indomitable Will. Getting mezzed was in general more of a threat than outright damage from spawns though as Scarlet points out AVs can be a serious threat from a damage standpoint. But for AVs you have a single target immobilize which will keep most AVs fixed in location while you drop LS, Tornado, Creepers, FR etc. on their head. With Rune from Sorcery that would lessen the pressure to perma IW as you can just let the cooldown occur and if needed pop Rune as needed if when you get mezzed. Lunch break over got to run.

I'm currently leveling one if I can stay focused on a single character but like a lot of us less time for gaming between work and family these days plus the new shiny (aka altitis) well this adulting stuff sucks at times.

Never tried it. The above is an Empathy/Elec. All that recharge on a Empath going into Short Circuit and the other blasts i can end up stacking SC on itself while under PBU/PB and probably Clarion (iirc). Biggest issue there is minimal defense which likely makes it probablematic to pull it off and surviving. Though RegenAura certainly helps. The original was on Live. Still working on the HC remake. PS: It wouldn't surprise me if it's more potent at sapping than at first glance TA might appear though

Altitis has struck too often but I was working on seeing if the Tempest -end proc would work a bit like damage procs where the damage isn't limited by the damage cap. Hoping the -end can bypass whatever limit is keeping their endurance at 15 no matter how a PBU Short Circuit saps end and puts a huge -recovery on the AV.

Yes t This. I'll add that a lot of but they attack with 'no end' isn't what's really happening. There's a bunch of other things at work overall but part of it is as soon as a server tic of end comes in they'll often use it. Hence why both drain and recovery are really need to get floored. But they also changed a bunch of things the same time they introduced the shock mechanic. Try as I might I've yet to see AVs sapped below what looks to be 15 end (out of 800).

In a lot of ways I totally agree if you're talking about something like Green Machine. A full team it's more about nostalgia and history at this point for going defender. Green Machine was one of the very first in the RO Network. There were no Corruptors or redside at that point. That and you'll seldom see a large or full team of Empaths these days in which case it's like a lot of the arguments of mods vs other factors. RO did run a redside group called Greed Machine that were all corruptors before redside ATs could be started on any side. The worst thing we ever faced were missions that forced us against clones of ourselves. There's also basically no difference between a full team of defenders and corruptor empaths at the high end ... stuff just gets obliterated. Only AVs really slow them down much.

Yes I tend to lean heavily towards buffing another Empath if there's one in the team list and definitely will if they reciprocate. At that point I'm going to nuke every 40 seconds or less. And those Auras will be close to the recharge cap, downtime in the 10 to 20 range and while most endgame teams won't likely care much about the recovery (they build to be self sustained) the regeneration can make it very difficult for a couple closely spaced lucky hits (presuming defense caps) to take you out. If you want to ever see what your recharge looks like under AB look at them with Geas of the Kind Ones running as it's also +100% recharge. And I'll say a full Green Machine team is in fact a wrecking ball in motion on SOs alone. Adding incarnates, IOs and all the rest just means you get closer to achieving critical mass with fewer and fewer Empaths. Doesn't surprise me @MonteCarlathat your worst foe was getting too potent. That said I think unless you've (not you but folks in general) been a part of a full GM team (or some other 'super teams' like the FRADs) it's really hard to truly and fully understand what it's like running on a team of 8 Empaths unless you've been there done that. The one and only weakness I've ever noted in a GM team is in fact the total lack of access to any resist or regeneration debuffs in Empathy. Get a smaller team with no /Sonics, Envenomed Daggers (or pets without those debuffs) and a +4 AV becomes a looooong battle. Throw a /Sonic or two in there and/or Envenomed Daggers and/or pets like a Shivan or Lore and goodbye AV. In either case the AV has pretty much zero chance of winning. Reyna Morningdew Empathy/Radiation/Dark of Green Machine

Same i use Rebirth and probably use it as often while teamed to heal allies as I do on myself. Frequently it's right after a Shadow Cyst Crystal explodes during an ITF missing me but seriously hammering several teammates. I ran both a Fire/SR and DM/SR brutes to 50 on Live. I favored the DM/SR mostly because of Siphon Life. It hits hard and provides a strong heal as well which is particularly useful while leveling or exemplar work. Much the same for using SR paired with either Katana or Broadsword. More useful while leveling or exemplar work where defenses might not be capped yet.

Not terribly long once you get a feel for things. There's good info in the wiki about tactical approaches to doing it. I'm a little amused at the moment as my main Empathy defender doesn't have a Shard but she does have a small army of other pets. Particularly a PPD suit and a Vanguard HVAS stashed for rough times. Last pulled one out by accident when she and one teammate were suddenly the only ones standing during the Vahz ambush in Posi 1. The team got a good laugh on returning to see a HVAS stomping about.

The odd ball slotting I used recently was Preventative Medicine proc in Vengeance instead of the usual LotG. And I'm trying out Gaussian's BU proc in Fortitude though I need to spend the time to confirm what I've been told that it fires and buffs the Empath when used on an ally. Though clearly that's an active use.

Agreed it could use end support ... but it's the masochistic combo I've picked then added pain on top not just Fire. Hot Feet is 1.04 end/sec. Disruption Field and Dispersion Bubble each cost 0.52 end/sec. Then I've added both Maneuvers and Tactics to the mix so far. It's a lot of toggle endurance to sustain. Good thing is I can use the rest at my leisure and stuff just dies in the vicinity. Going to be lots of IO choices involving +recovery, +endurance and endurance discounts.

+1 to the above Heat Loss delivers what you would expect from a t9. And it isn't just +endurance it's also a +recovery buff. Hit 4 foes and you've just buffed yourself (and teammates) the equivalent of an unhanced Recovery Aura for +recovery and will compete quite handily with being effected by Transference. Even the most end heavy build is going to have trouble exhausting its endurance bar in the 10 sec of downtime in @Voltak's build.

Yeah three things I'm noting so far as issues. This all while leveling and primarily on SOs only. First is the pairing makes end use (2.08 end/sec on 3 main toggles) on a Stormy look pretty modest by comparison. Will see how that improves with IO sets and specials. Second is it's a bit like any resist based mitigation everything hits and this is no Tanker with lots of health and end issues means running yet another relatively expensive (0.52 end/sec) toggle for mez protection (or get hit and mezzed, included above as one of the three toggles). So far this adds up to a very squishy support character. On the otherhand I do have solo 24-7 mez protection if desired. 3rd and last the Imps well they are no Rocky (or Jack or pretty much any other pet). Haven't reached them yet (next level I'm thinking) but solo not sure how well they'll stand up to punishment and therefore be able to support Disruption Field successfully. Hopefully between IOs and teaming rather than solo things will smooth out somewhat and end usage will get tolerable. I'm definitely in the don't like to rely on Ageless or Cardiac to solve endurance issues camp (I exemp far too much) but will see.

Had to chuckle when you said you LOATHE Sonic Resonance because as it happens I've started to level a Fire/Sonic. Granted it's part of a themed SG teaming project where you must have a damage aura and it was similarly a pairing I ran briefly on Live and was also part of a themed static group with friends where we were all Fire/Sonic. The idea of multiple Disruption Fields and Siphons debuffing the heck out of the foes while Hot Feet and a swarm of Imps burned everything was the general idea. And the Resistance shields seemed a little more useful when everyone is soft capped to defense. Thought about Grav/Traps. Wormhole into a field of traps. Add Fold Space for more to yoink into death. Probably works best solo though.

I think whether they expect it depends as much on the player as whatever ATs are involved. I wouldn't pretend to "tank" in terms of aggro control but I've got Empaths and other support who will happily take the alpha. More of a player play style and attitude than the AT involved.

I'll take a look tonight and tomorrow see what I come up with in Mids. My main on Live and here is Claws/SR since I started in issue 3. Any particular requirements or desires othe than budget constraints? Travel power or no for example.

A whole new level to Sun Burn. Never leave home coffin without your spf 10,000 and a suitably fashionable trench coat

And not just build but what you typically do while running that character

What happens to Snarky when he gets too much sun. An even more beautiful complexion.

Wonder if the same/similar codes as used by a Symphony controller for Reverberant might be useful here for answering at least some of @Rudraquestions?

Heck Everlasting may very well get more Redside folks just because it's the "roleplay" server. Folks are there because they want to roleplay being a little less noble than a hero but as mentioned above we and the server in general have many folks who do it casually if at all. Also see Null the Gull in Pocket D. If not familiar with Null he's a literally seagull bird npc sitting a top a truck (REDSIDE of the D) who can do all sorts of interesting things including altering your alignment basically at will. Become a Rogue and be able to move between Red and Blue with Red being the primary side while some restrictions occur if you are Blueside. Gives you options anyway. Consider joining the Repeat Offenders Network we are a relatively active SG and we run both blue and red side content. Currently in fact there's a group of us running an all VEATS team through the VEAT arcs on REDSIDE (Thursdays, currently in our upper teens for level). We would be happy to have another RO member to join the fray with us and most of us while predominantly Blueside do run on Redside with fair regularity and often you can find folks who will jump over to help or join you. @Doomguide in game, currently running a VEAT on the above mentioned grouping. You can catch one of us RO folks online daily at all sorts of hours. I'll drop back in and make sure I've exact channel name (custom channel) correct to reach someone that way after the servers comeback up. You should also be able to find a thread in the Supergroup forums to find us.