@Nemu
You bring up solid points, and honestly, I can’t argue with any of them. Everything you said about Empathy, positioning, and balancing buffs with damage makes a ton of sense.
1. Empathy being outdated – Yeah, power creep is real. Back in the day, Empaths were a big deal, but now that so many sets offer a mix of buffs and debuffs, pure healing just doesn’t cut it.
2. Healing isn’t the best way to keep people alive – True. Mitigation and prevention are way stronger than reactionary healing. If you’re just spamming heals, you’re already behind.
3. Most teams don’t need Empathy buffs – Makes sense. Well-built characters are self-sufficient, so a lot of buffs don’t even register as a game-changer.
4. Clear Mind is king – 100%. Mez protection is something you can’t just IO your way out of, and an Empath who actually uses it well is worth their weight in influence/infamy.
5. Positioning > stacking defenses – Absolutely. A lot of people build for tankiness but don’t actually know where to stand. A well-placed Empath dodging damage is way more effective than one stacking resists and hoping for the best.
6. A good Empath does more than heal – Exactly. If you’re just standing there watching green bars, you’re doing it wrong. You’ve got to be buffing, blasting, and keeping the flow of combat going.
7. Range defense being key – Never really thought about it like that, but yeah, if you can get to 32.5% and pop a Luck, you’re golden. That’s some real min-max wisdom.
8. Flight has value, but Combat Jumping has advantages – Flight gets a bad rep in PvP, but it’s still useful as a melee damage mitigation tool. Being airborne keeps you out of reach of ground-based melee attacks such as earthquake, and if used well, it can buy time to react. Combat Jumping, though, gives immobilization protection and better ground mobility, which makes it easier to avoid being caught off guard. It really depends on playstyle and what kind of threats you're up against.
9. Slow resist is underrated – Good call. Recharge debuffs can completely screw you over if you’re not ready for them.
10. Procs over debuffs for most content – Fair. Resistance debuffs can be nice, but in general play, extra damage just makes more of an impact.
Now, Here’s a Thought - Annihilation PvP Without Travel Powers
So let’s take all of this and throw it into an Annihilation match in the arena, where no travel powers are allowed. That means positioning, mitigation, and sustain are even more important.
How does an Empath actually hold up in PvP when movement is restricted?
Are they a sitting duck? Without a good escape tool, they might just get dogpiled by Stalkers and Scrappers.
Do they become a priority target? A smart enemy team is going to focus the Empath hard—how do they survive that?
Does an Empath + Tank combo hold up? If you put an Empath behind a durable, taunt-heavy Tanker or Brute, does that buy enough time to make the heals and buffs matter?
What kind of team comp actually makes them viable? You probably want Controllers with crowd control to lock enemies down, Stalkers or Scrappers to break up the enemy team, and maybe Blasters that can operate independently but still benefit from Clear Mind.
Would an Empath be a game-changer or a liability in a high-speed PvP fight? Is there a way to build around them so they actually enhance a team instead of just struggling to keep up?
I’d love to hear your take because if there’s a way to make an Empath work in that setting, that’s the kind of build challenge that gets interesting.
