Doomguide2005

It's an interesting thought but ... Taunt is merely part of the many variables making up threat (and therefore aggro). More than just Tankers inflict the status effect called Taunt as well. Simply removing Taunt tweaks this (and removes several powers, including a pool power open to all). Tanks and Brutes are still going to have a strong (strongest?) threat value typically. Brutes might even pull ahead. But does any of this create any less Trinity than already exist. I believe a Trinity doesn't exist unless you want it to exist, it's a possible playstyle not a required one. You can play at the highest level with no Tanker in sight and likely do so with no use of Taunt (the status effect) if desired as well.

Yes. I'm still unable to open or look at builds in Mids but Auroxis' build should be quite capable. High recharge, perma-Hasten, perma-Adrenaline Boost, minimal cooldown on Auras (in particular Regeneration Aura) is where you want to be.

Disclaimer while I joined RO relatively early i wasn't there at the very beginning. But I've always understood it coalesced in part out of those early Defender players reacting to the idea of being seen as "healers" as in that portion of the Trinity and constantly being told to conform to that role on PuG teams (and getting kicked when not conforming). So often getting told just to heal, ignorant of the capabilities of the power set overall "just "heal" even when the set had no heal, had other forms of mitigation or their healing had requirements like needing a foe around etc., etc..

Unless I'm remembering incorrectly or funds are tight your 2nd (and third) builds can have different pools and epics. Give one Dark the other Soul. Nothing like playing them to best learn which fits your playstyle best.

Had you interacted with any mobs in AP and had the mob scatter -> and maybe someone else came along and defeated your survivor "completing" the rescue and the victim then came to you for whatever AI reason.

Try the thread by Auroxis "The Endgame Friendly Empath" on about page 8 atm. His post is intended as a guide and includes a build -> Empathy/Sonic/Soul iirc.

No idea been too long since I've done a Hami raid and I don't know if any of my Emps have ever done one. Pretty sure unless it requires having Resurrect in the build my only level appropriate Empath on HC could do it whatever 'it' is.

Probably either my Earth/Storm controller, my Claws/SR scrapper, Empathy either Fire or Electric blast or Plant/Cold controller. Kind of depends on what I know about the team. Complete unknowns probably get one of the first couple.

On top of this there's a huge difference between useful, desirable, and a required need. And Nihilii's first post is more to the point of debuff not being required need I believe. And I think one of the last times my main Claws/SR died was vs Khan. And it was pretty much totally my fault i let him stun me and I got double tapped for over 1800 damage. It was a turning point for her build as I worked and reworked it in Mids until she could survive her player being an idiot.

Sheesh No disagreement there, merely mentioning the one Controller (yet unmentioned) who doesn't really have a 'traditional' pet and it can be the nasty boss or even EB in the mob you're fighting. And an EB is going to take a while with Plant as while Seeds is in almost every way superior to a basic single target Confuse its recharge is a whole lot longer.

Unfortunately the reason I'm on this phone is the computer died so until replaced I'm out of luck posting any specific builds. The Empathy powers I covered above but I'll add some more detail below. About mitigation (defense, resistance etc.). Back on Live and here on HC until the computer went belly up my builds for teaming had essentially no defense. They're all about the recharge. Mitigation comes from, in no particular order, teammates, inspires, epic shields if any, HA and keeping those Auras on as little cool down as possible (around 40 seconds iirc). My first GM, an Emp/Rad/Dark also included the Eye of Magus, Air Superiority plus Cosmic Burst+OG to keep things either wobbly or Knocked Up. Could pretty much keep a pair of +3/+4 bosses out of action while Regen Aura kept her healthy. Healing Aura and Heal Other -> I'd aim for 6 slots in one and 5 slots in the other as I'm looking for 2 things primarily beyond strong healing. First is the set bonus for recharge. In Doctored Wounds and Panacea that is the 5th slot in those sets. In Preventative Medicine it's the 6th slot. Second is Preventative Medicine's special global proc for +Absorb. The one you 5 slot gets either Doctored Wounds (less expensive) or Panacea (expensive). The power with 6 slots gets Preventative Medicine. Absorb Pain -> I've only picked it once a long time ago. I definitely skip it these days. Resurrect -> very optional. If taken I recommend just the base slot and place an endred enhancement. I would not use a recharge reduction as even with hard capped global recharge it's no where near fast enough for teams to want wait around while it recharges. Clear Mind -> nothing really to add. Base slot good to go. Pick early and keep in mind when various armor sets gain their mez protection. Fortitude -> take at 12th. Minimum 3 slots - LotG def/inc recharge + 2 Membrane HO; 4 slots - 4 LotG set; up to 6 slots 5 Red Fort + LotG def/inc rech and several other variants often by adding To Hit sets like Gaussian's to fill out to 6 slots from 3 or 4 slots. Without Tactics in the build I'd be more likely to fit in To Hit buffs. Recovery Aura -> I personally like to slot with very similar amounts of recharge to that of RegenAura so they have roughly the same run time and cool down. Basically always use together, one less thing to have to track. Regeneration Aura -> Doctored Wounds or Panacea whichever fits the budget. 5 slots. Adrenaline Boost -> same as RegenAura. Used to 6 slot with the 6th being an Endmod enhancement set IO (Endmod/recharge typically) which would put it over +1000% recovery but with crashless Nukes *shrug*. It's possible to trim quite a few slots if really needed out of the above usually at the cost of recharge set bonuses. That leaves you with pools for Fly, Speed, Teleport and Leadership? And Psy Mastery.

Sort of ... the difference between select all and select this one.

Mitii?

Thanks and interesting ... kind of wondered. I feel like a vaguely saw the set mentioned elsewhere. Can I have a bathtub filled with Bubbles as my 'travel power' for BW?

No idea, bit out of touch owing to life, dead computer and all ... but it's at the bottom of the Controller primaries on CoD v2.0 so figured I'd just missed something.

Hehe, Storm is like cheating ... Wind/Storm Storm/Electric Storm/Water Storm/Ice Storm/Fire Ice/Storm Fire/Storm Electric/Storm ... okay probably missing a couple yet Edit: Like maybe Storm/Energy 😉

And then there's Mind control the make your own pet(s) controller.

And honestly the game is very forgiving on builds being a long way off from ideal giving you time to learn and experiment with what is put into your powers. You don't need to use IOs or IO sets for 99% of the game. SOs will work just fine, particularly when teaming. Get familiar with what SOs work in the power to improve it the way you want it to. Do you like your Hold power to hold longer or do damage? Are you running out of endurance? Do you want it coming back faster? Obviously you want all of that but which do you want or need most? All builds basically come down to choice and compromise between all those things.

Wheeee indeed! That's a base to hit ... so soft cap of 80% defense. Next one is essentially close to impossible if not a Tanker, Brute, Kheld or VEAT. 15k to the chin. This is really, really painful. It will kill pretty much anything not at 85% damage resistance or better and not at their AT hit point cap (hoping the one shot rule applies). Will need lots of heal/regen to recover between blows that will land. Not sure how much damage debuffs can help owing to AV resistances, but you'd need a bunch (maybe 30% out of everyone on an 8-man team, *warning napkin math*) to keep the 75% resistance characters upright long enough to be healed. Ow, ow, owie!

How much To Hit? The To Hit is what your Defense is countering. Accuracy you can't directly effect. It just gives you an idea of how much incoming damage you'll need to otherwise mitigate ... resistance, regen and active healing. So it's really more like "bonus to hit% and 130% accuracy on top of that". Guessing you've got your level shift running otherwise 130% accuracy doesn't make sense (a +3 minion has a 1.3 modifier for level difference. Lts and up will have even more accuracy.)

Personally I'm not familiar enough with Dark but between Live and HC I've a lot of Empathy characters (8 or so at 50+, and near 1+ of every blast pairing). I also have many controllers. I have exactly one controller Empath (an Earth/Empathy at 50+). He will most likely be the one and only controller/empath. I totally agree 5099y_74c05 about Empathy being time and attention hungry, especially when things go sideways. As an Empath my attention is very strongly focused on the team and team window, especially so when bad stuff is going down. In a rough fight I barely see the foes (any blasting is probably firing through a teammate in trouble at what is their foe(s)). I'm watching the green and blue bars, what buffs and debuffs are happening. Who just went from 1 to a mass of debuffs. On my Controllers it's almost the exact opposite. I barely see my teammates my attention is on the battlefield, on foes, are there adds, what sort of npc chat is going on etc.. where and what controls and patches are ready and where do I need them. If I were to ever create another Controller/Empath it would almost certainly be an Illusion/Empathy. Not if but when I need to toggle on the 'save your bacon' switch I know of got some near indestructible, aggro drawing pets I can forget about for a space while I focus on the team/team window for a bit.

Oh good lord. Brain dead moment. I had a Cold/Ice defender at 50 on Live not yet recreated here but he was one of my go to characters for end game content on Pinnacle.

😄 yes, what I was really asking is what that translates into in hp/sec. I don't play many Tankers so I really have minimal idea beyond 'more than a Scrapper' how much health an IO'd Tankers have at 50+. I know that for my Scrapper that's just under twice what I see on most SR Scrapper and Brute builds.

*Stops* *Thinks* I don't think I've ever deliberately avoided it but thinking on it I can't recall between Live and HC a single character (nope recall one now a DM/DA scrapper) that was matched up like that. Unless a Plant/Thorns Dominator counts. None of my 50's were or are such pairings. On the other hand I love themed teams including teams of identical set pairs.

I believe that is also why the recommendations for pairing with Poison, namely Poison is a strong debuffer including even more damage debuff ability.