Doomguide2005

@RayOfHope You can pretty much use any Empathy build as a base to look at for giving you ideas on how to slot your build. The primary and how it's put together is fairly independent of the secondary blast set you are using on any given build. I am usually looking for recharge ... and then some more recharge. It's why Doctored Wounds is such a common thing to use as a set (for the 5 slot +5% recharge set bonus). However, the real goal in most cases is to get the recharge on your Auras (Recovery and Regen) down as much as possible (generally until perma-Hasten is reached, or nearly so). I usually skip 2 powers in Empathy: Resurrect and Absorb Pain. I dislike not taking Clear Mind or taking it post Posi 1 + 2 levels. But it does not need anything beyond the base slot. It doesn't really matter what get slotted in that base slot, but I often drop a range IO in there to get that one guy way over there. Absorb Pain I would probably include in your build as a very support-oriented build. Nothing will get the Tanker or other high health character out of the deep red as quickly as Absorb Pain. I tend to skip it because I tend to play very aggressive Empaths, and I also solo a lot compared to most other players I suspect (just added my 5th level 50 Empath out of about 40 level 50's total). Resurrect I don't generally take at all, ever. Power choices are too precious and there are about a gazillion alternatives to taking the power. Both Day Jobs and temporary powers include a Resurrect power. You can combine or provide an inspire to give them an Awaken type inspire, etc. That said if you take it there is very little point in taking anything beyond the base slot. I'd personally slot it with an Endred because Murphy being involved says you'll need it most when the battle is going sideways, Your Auras are down and the Tanker just went splat. Vigilance might make it cheap enough or maybe not. I do not currently have a Emp/Dark (even though it was my first on Live) but I'll see what I can post in a bit. EDIT: Hope this is still useful for you and not too late, but here it goes if for nothing else than readers down the line. First pass at an Empathy/Dark/Dark. RayOfHope EmpathyDarkDark (v1.00 i28.1) - build request.mbd There are some changes to the request. All IOs that are not PvP or Very Rare (Purple sets) should be considered Attuned versions. If you use Flip All to Alternates you can see a very basic IO version including only a handful of set IOs (Slots and Enhancements -> Slots -> Flip All to Alternates) I kept everything at lvl 30 in the basic IO version just to be consistent with the above postings. Like Psyonico I have a hard time not employing Leadership to a dedicated support defender (hell any support character) and Concealment/Stealth was by far the easiest to swap out. Put a Celerity Stealth IO in Sprint. I believe I got all the other requests in the build (pools, some individual pool powers missing). Would have liked Dark Pit earlier (before Oppressive Gloom) but wanted the other choices more. Having Dark Pit really pushed for Oppressive Gloom to stack stuns and make life easier in melee ranges for things like Blackstar nukes or even just using Healing Aura.

? My second (or third) doesn't have, typically, the same power selections so how does this help?

Anything in particular you do or do not want in the build? Travel power if any, etc. Below is my second pass at the build. First was one look and heading to the junk pile. Missing Hasten, for example, which is, for me, typically a no! on a general-purpose Controller and or Empathy build. Too much loss of recharge generally speaking. This build still has a lot of ways it could go differently. I'm fine with no Rez, generally I grab the day jobs accolade Rez (and or the temp power from Start). It lost Aborb Pain, but I went with Flashfire to pick up some more recharge and accuracy as well as a solid control choice. Incarnate I went with Spiritual Radial Paragon which almost all my Emps carry at minimum for the recharge and healing boost. At End game between Indomitable Will and Rune of Protection it's basically an unmezzable character. There's a just under 30 sec window not covered by Indomitable Will. Rune should generally be available to cover that gap if needed, but often, especially teamed, those seconds should go by without needing Rune. This frees up your Destiny choice without worrying about alternatives (needing Sheer Willpower, Amps, breakfree, etc.). Under level 45 minimal effort to keep Hasten Perma (base empowerment, Time Lord's Boon etc.). I've always got some pets handy as well. Those Imps are awfully squishy though the overall recharge on getting them back is solid enough. The Warwolf you get in Striga is a nasty fellow buffed up by your Empath powers, for instance. In short there are still an awful lot of ways this could come together. Connix FireEmpathyPsi (v2.10 i28.1) - Controller (Fire Control - Empathy).mbd Let me know if you have some preferences or questions.

Yes but they (a p2w vendor) don't help with empowerment station buffs which is what I am talking about. I included a bit of an extra note about the p2w vendor because if you are in a TF (Posi 1, for example) you can't use the vendor outside the one in either Pocket D or Fort Trident.

The two sets are fairly independent of each other. You can probably grab most Fire/- builds and merge it with an Empathy build for the secondary. I'm on my phone (and at work) but I can help put something together later. Both love large amounts of recharge!

Along these lines base empowerment buff for recovery is easy on the budget. And stacks with all the above. Even if you don't have access to an sg base one is available in Fort Trident (even on a TF) as is the p2w/START vendor. Just need salvage (iirc 2 common and an uncommon) and lasts i believe 90 min at a go.

Sapping is a very binary effect. But the shocked mechanic helps with the whole damage is needed to defeat as similar to scourge this function kicks in as sapping occurs and the foes blue bar vanishes. And again sapping isn't a directly offensive operation. Its mitigation. Foes drained and trying to run out of Hot Feet or Burn are very little threat to anyone. Do they "cheat". Yes but not in the way folks frequently say. First they have a lot of extra blue making for more recovery returned with a tic, twice or more from a characters baseline (same reason the accolades for +end help players) and many of their powers are auto or clicks and not toggles, etc..

This. It has a large number of PBAoEs available ... Short Circuit, Hot Feet, Burn, Fire Sword Circle among them.

Things like always and inevitably are almost always not true sometimes.

One of the very first threads I saw on the Live forums about soloing AVs was a Storm/Sonic defender. No regen there though a good bit of -resist. I wouldn't complain, as Psyonico put it, but Storm is plenty capable of dishing it out.

My main above all my other frequently played is a Claws/SR so ...

Can almost guarantee this is how that works ... how else does the fireball, etc., chase your scrapper/blaster/defender around the corner and nail you while going thru the wall. Edit: To be clear I mean it almost certainly works as @aetherealdescribes

Been quite a long time since I leveled by Sonic/Dark defender (i16 or so on Live) and I leveled a Fire/Sonic on HC. The Fire/Sonic went for really maxing out Liquefy getting the recharge and debuff values (1 recharge, two lvl 53 enzymes, ToLG defdebuff/rech, DW To Hit debuff/rech) . Still working towards getting a lvl 50 respec build on her (tend to create another alt and not get around to a 'final' lvl 50 build, altitis ftw). While she definitely needs some work, she's also surprisingly hardy right in the middle of the melee. Various powers including Hot Feet, Cages, Imps and Bonfire all help keep foes trying to leave the hell zone she can create around herself. Heaven help them if the roughly every two to three mobs Liquefy comes into play on top of all that. Tine Sidhe FireSonicPower (v.LIVE i.28.10) 03_01_2025.mbd

Snarky Gif Master of the Day!

I find it not so much wet noodle as just plain and simple extremely single target in nature. The big AoEs are utility with some damage tacked on (Soul Drain, Dark Consumption) with the sole exception of Shadow Maul. The result is essentially your wet noodle as it will take forever to down a ×8 mob one target at a time. Combine that with a secondary that does zero damage on its own ->> wet noodle. Edit: This was a first pass at my own DMSR build. Going to work at getting the resistances up some if possible. Thought about putting the Taunt proc in Evasion. My Dark/Dark loves the way the kd proc works for their build in Touch of Fear so trying it out here DarkMeleeSR Brute (v1.00 i27.7) first pass - Brute (Dark Melee - Super Reflexes).mbd

Interesting! Well, we can all but rule out cascade failure. Though if it were to happen it would almost have to be a Tanker with massive hit point totals. Anything else is going to be dead long before anything truly resembling cascade failure happens as almost nothing reduces the DDR as far as I know. To generate a defense debuff of 15% the target would have to be hit with a 300% totally debuff. For an aggro cap's worth of foes (17 foes) that's over a 17% debuff by every single attack on the tanker and within the duration of those debuffs. I have serious doubts about the ability of even +4 CoT to actually hit (or auto hit) our Tanker with that much resistable debuff. It's never happened to my SR scrapper in some 400+ vet levels of running all sorts of missions including vs CoT but maybe. Now we also have to keep in mind our Tanker needs to be affected by that much debuff if solo and maybe a whole lot more if the team as stated was adding to his defense. It takes another 100% debuff to reduce our Tanker another 5% assuming DDR applies and isn't somehow being affected. Next, we have them getting To Hit buffs. Again, maybe but I've never seen that happen to my scrapper while solo or teamed which is unlikely unless I go all manic scrapperlocked ahead of the team, and that's never happened *cough*. And while that would make it easier to hit the Tanker past his defenses with debuffs it would not alter his defense values in the slightest. So that's not the change alone anyway. Confusion. Okay for the Tanker himself that's unlikely. Focused Senses provides protection against Confusion effects. I'm assuming his, as a Tanker, is stronger than my scrappers which is to say more than the -6 mag on my scrapper before any Tactics are factored in as Tactics also provides Confusion protection. Or any other protection provided by the team in that environment. Or how about the momentary suppression of his toggles by overwhelming mez which maybe turns off his DDR from toggles for even a brief instant while he's standing in an absolute puddle of defense debuffs. Even if his toggles almost instantly return for just that instant his DDR would drop by a very large amount (my scrappers, for instance, would drop to about 32% from 95%) and I'm guessing then gets hit by the debuffs he is standing in. Of course, just turning off the toggles for an instant is also going to "debuff" his defenses. I'm just surprised this has never happened to my scrapper. It is far more likely to turn into a whiffing contest as they debuff the living crap out of my To Hit. But who knows at this point.

That's not really the point of sapping (defeating them) any more than running all my scrappers SR powers, they don't directly defeat anything either. It's to do it more safely, in a different manner than the normal def/resist/other mitigation. And it works even solo. With the changes of 'Shock' and new IO sets I'm pretty sure the general mob population is going to die quite rapidly in a team setting even at +4. And in other news Dr. Vahz in Posi 2 had 800 endurance ... he also got drained to 10 end shortly before being defeated. So either there's more to it than a simple floor we can't drop them below (scaling by level maybe) or the Tempest proc my Elec/Fire Blaster was running had an impact.

I'd be loving the idea but my play times and availability can be erratic. Edit: one thing I'd be curious about is if the Tempest (-end) proc would be able to bypass the minimum of 15 end they seem to have. On a Defender it's a decent chunk of -13 end as i recall.

Can't be putting that many citizens, sorry hostages in one spot. And remove the shelters, nah that costs and maybe the heroes will eventually clean things up. It could happen

Yes it can be done and yes @PsyonicoMerryl recreated the Shock Troopers SG on Everlasting. Short Circuit is more than capable of draining effectively and doing ED capped damage especially with the newer Endmod sets which include a damage component. Shock Troopers certainly destroyed mobs on Live. How the changes to how sapping works on HC would effect things for a full team of Troopers is tricky to say. Damage likely better with Shocked mechanic but apparent inability to actually zero out a +4 AV (or a +0) is a bummer. Part of what makes mobs 'cheaty' is their endurance pools not the ability to fire stronger powers cheaper. An AV has an End pool of 800 endurance so if your character gains x end/sec ... well they are gaining 8 times that on a server tic. So one tic of recovery effectively gives them more to use a power. That's why bottoming out their recovery is important. 8 times 0 is still 0 end gained back. All this assumes things haven't changed since Live beyond the changes on our end of things. While I've paid attention to the bottom end of the bar I haven't really looked at the high end. It does seem to be impossible to get AV and GMs below 15 end near as I can tell.

I just know I'm enjoying the hell out of my Brute. I'm also still learning about what works and what doesn't. I do like the Avalanche set in Touch of Fear including the proc. The KD is nice for the mitigation.

Guessing while not a unicorn it's not a common pairing either. Did you have a specific question or concern?

This is an excellent high-end build, but I would add one cautionary statement. It relies a smidgen on the FF procs in Power Blast and Energy Torrent to achieve full on perma Hasten and perma PA. Not really an issue as long as one, or definitely both, are available for use. Not a big issue I suspect but if you exemplar below 30th level and intend to solo AV's etc. then it might become an issue. Honestly not sure if they would even be perma just because of exemplar effects at that point.

Pretty much any/any should work, it's your presence answering questions and provide direction as needed that is most important. Had one friend when we were all new who ended up getting the contaminated badge because he spent an hour or so just whacking foes because he had no idea till he used his phone a friend how to leave the tutorial. Those wondrous sometimes silly and awesome moments will not happen again.

My skill set is not in IT, AI or anything related but sometimes we need to be reminded this game was created to be able to run and when much of the internet ran on dial up.