MoonSheep

i have 1 in my kin defender, think my poison def has 1 or 2 it can be nice but it’s not crucial. build for the set bonuses that are important to you, the icons you like the look of etc set bonuses contribute 20% to the ability and performance of an alt, the player behind the keyboard contributes the other 80%

this is something that bugs me a lot as it often doesn’t make much sense to build for defense. this’ll probably turn into an arguement, but here’s my observations which are purely team focused as i don’t solo: - building for defense reduces the overall potential of a lot of alts - you can often do more with your squishie if you don’t build for defense - the game has minimal penalties for dying, building for defense often tries to solve a problem that doesn’t exist - i often feel people who prioritise building every alt for maximum defense and resistance without thinking if it’s actually needed tend to be less experienced players, positioning and mob strategy is just as effective - a lot of people simply ask for a S/L cap build on the forums to copy and paste onto their squishie, then run off and play it as a scrapper like the rest of their alts. i often notice buffs received in this game are woefully underslotted, many people would be better suited playing sentinels rather than defenders and corrupters - an entire build specialised for softcap defense can be replicated by typing /ah before the mish and buying medium purple insps, therefore it’s an inefficient and poor strategy for most builds - people over estimate how much combat they’ll see whilst hiding at the back of the team during missions - overall the majority of people don’t need to build for defense

i love powerboost on my kin - there’s times where having a powerboosted Transfusion makes a massive difference to the team, or stopping AVs running off with a powerboosted siphon speed. it’s incredible for vengeance too, a lovely +63% def for the team also great for defenders with elec secondary for sweet end drains the soul mastery version of powerboost recharges in half the time of energy master

living that lunar life if you’re having endurance problems you could also buy the combat amplifier from the P2W vendor in atlas park which gives you an hour of extra regen, recovery etc each time you buy it up to a maximum of 8 hours at a time - let me know if you’d benefit from some influence to buy it you could also slot the miracle +recovery IO and numinas +recovery and regen IO in health. along with having the performance shifter chance for +endurance in stamina. i’m happy to send you these, just DM me your in game global name

put an endurance reduction SO in each of your attacks, it’ll make a big difference people generally 2 slot stamina with end mod

great perspective, this articulates the issue with empathy really succinctly - hadn’t thought about its pitfalls in this way before

you mean putting healing aura on auto, applying unslotted fort on 1 team member only and instead hovering at the back of the team firing off mostly ineffective blasts at completely random and un-strategic enemies in the mob isn’t the best way to play an empath?

empathy is slightly outdated however it has a few really good niche capabilities it unfortunately suffers commonly from two issues: 1. people don’t slot it properly or pickup powerboost 2. people play it in a very dull way a well built empath delivered in a ‘PvP’ style can be great on speedruns - following the lead damage dealing squishy and keeping them alive during the chaos though like others have said, there’s a lot of modern sets which now offer more than empathy does and better fit with modern builds

now that's a good looking support alt 😎 i'm invested in this build now regardless of whether OP plays it. i don't mind having less powers early on if i'm focusing on support, could consider switching buckshot for sniper rifle you're probably right regarding removing rez. as a kin i often feel a bit bad (only very slightly) during a death on the team; > someone dies > i announce the death, ask people to gather round me > tp the body infront of me > activate powerboost, cast veng > announce that we all now have glorious powerboosted veng > run off leaving the body on the ground looking forward to seeing what @COH Radgen thinks of this revised proposal

this is more my kind of build. there's a lot of core empathy powers to take, it makes fitting everything in tricky some bits i'd change, salting to taste mostly: - i'd prefer the numinas set over panacea. i know panacea gives nice +recharge, but i'm a bit of a moth to numina's +heal set bonuses. 5 sets gives a nice +30% heal bonus. 5 slotting would give +18.75% S/L res too. if we then picked spiritual core paragon as our incarnate alpha we'd have an extra +33% heal bonus for a total of +63%. now we're cooking with gas - i would choose soul mastery over energy as the powerboost recharges a lot quicker (240s vs 120s) - I'd put the blessing of the zephr KB protection in combat jumping instead and in temp invul, 4 slot for aegis + the steadfast def IO - If we chop off a slot from somewhere else like tactics or maneuvers we could put it on M30 grenade and 6 slot it with defender's bastion to get the +10 rech - i'd find a way to have spirit ward in the build under lvl 20 and 2 slot it for health, applying it on the lead alpha taker is nice for posi TFs and makes a difference. i would sacrifice clear mind and put hasten later in the build - it has no travel power currently, i'd sacrifice assault for super jump

that's helpful to know ty. i have a different perspective on how i would build and slot the alt if you're seeking to focus on support. the comments below are just a serving suggestion from someone who mains a defender in a support role as an observation i would say the build you've posted above achieves neither your ambitions of being a support AT or decent damage. the over-focus on personal defense is robbing you of your full potential as a support AT or a meaningful damage dealer and ends up leaving you sub-par on both fronts. the only benefit you're gaining from the hyper-focus on defense is being able to face tank a few mobs, which could instead be replicated by popping 2 medium insps properly slotting your buffs would give a far greater benefit for your objectives to be a support role, some key observations: [1] Slotting a corrupter with 5 sets of Numina's in the key empathy powers gives better support numbers than on your current defender build and you benefit from having double damage on your attacks through scourge and a higher damage cap. The current build has weaker buff numbers than a corrupter and significantly lower damage [2] Absorb pain is a key power for empathy. If things are getting hectic in content, being able to bring a tank on red hp to near full hp is hugely valuable [3] Not picking Powerboost puts you at a significant disadvantage, especially if you want to support during hami raids. A strong tank has over 3000hp, healing for 518hp, or 20% of their total health is barely noticeable [4] Vengeance is hugely valuable on a defender as its base values are strong. Slotted veng with Powerboost gives around +68% defense for the whole team and a bucket load of +To Hit. You will actively look forward to people dying [5] Not having recall friend reduces your ability to provide support. Bringing back fallen team members or moving them outside of combat to rez is valuable [6] Not slotting fortitude reduces its value to team members. It can give good defense numbers on a defender when slotted. The +To Hit aspect is often overlooked and important at lower levels, e.g. Posi 2 TFs where there's a lot of -accuracy powers. there's a hami-o which i feel must have been made by the devs specifically for fort. membrane exposure gives +def, +rech and +to hit. triple slotting it into fort is a perfect pairing [7] Without much effort you can easily get +60-65% S/L res and some +defense going, if you do get hit you can heal yourself quite quickly with healing aura. If you find you're getting a lot of aggro then it's likely a playstyle issue. I run my defender (a kin) with just Dark Embrace on speed runs, 4 star content, posi TFs and everything in between and it does fine here's a comparison table i made of some key powers and where improvements can be enjoyed on the key buffs: Power Current Build Corrupter slotted Defender slotted Defender Powerboost Healing Aura 264hp 267hp (+3hp) 304hp (+40hp) 436hp (+172hp) Heal Other 518hp 525hp (+6hp) 596hp (+78hp) 854hp (+336hp) Absorb Pain 0 1339hp (+1339hp) 1522hp (+1522hp) 2180hp (+2180hp) Spirit Ward 35hp per tick 43hp (+8hp) 59hp (+25hp) N/A Fortitude 17% Def, 18% To Hit 17% Def, 22% To Hit 23% Def, 28% To Hit 38% Def, 46% To Hit i do observe that the eternal 'Flavour of the Month' on homecoming is building for defense without reflecting on whether it's helping the AT or the player to achieve their key objectives. defenders are great archetypes as their support numbers are the most generous, building upon that really makes them shine at what they can do again, that's personal preference though - i really enjoy enhancing the base characteristics of the archetypes i play so that the build creates most potent 'version' of the primary set. i appreciate many people prefer combat classes and don't necessarily want to commit too heavily into the support role. which is what corrupters are for in my view

looking at the build, i would consider rolling it as a sentinel - it would give you the defensive and damage focus you're looking for, the defender AT will hold you back on this side of things. or as a halfway house, consider rolling it as a corrupter for a greater damage potential

apply SB twice per TF* you’ve had your allocation for the next 10 minutes, now watch these cool T1 and T2 elec blasts, bzzzzt!

what were the things that put you off elec/shield? i ran one to 50 and have found the combo of lightning strike + shield charge to be an unbeatable AoE damage combo

i agree with everything here and @COH Radgen’s post. it’s valuable to understand how an AT or powerset works before throwing yourself into high end content we see at times people asking to be handed a build for their new alt without a any thoughts on how to actually play the character. people are interested in learning how to drive a car and are worried about whether the power output of the ferrari 488 is enough or if they should get the 488 pista i would also like to specifically agree with Tidges point on needlessly (at times) building for defense. the seemingly everlasting FoTM is that every alt should be built defensively and played as a scrapper which is a shame as there’s a number of squishy ATs which are even better when played to the strengths of the AT

not surprising, hard to be disappointed with a fire blaster!

poor kinetic melee

kin / super strength defender, or any melee defender would be something i’d love to see on HC

sounds fun but i think it would quickly lead to people not finding the game rewarding like on Age of Empires II when you start mashing out the cheat codes for vast quantities of extra gold, stone and wood - not to mention the cobra car. after 10 minutes nothing is a challenge and the interest wears off

i have seen this first hand - a few years ago i made a (mostly jokey with upside down text) post about how the default state of the mouse was 'inverted', which bugged me on a very tiny level because if you asked for an item, say a cup, you wouldn't hand it to someone in its inverted state i noticed a few months ago the default state is 'normal'

you heard him fellas, straighten up or you’ll get whacked like the last wiseguy!* *please don’t smite me kind and benevolent GMs oh.. what’s this? i appear to have dropped a sizeable bag of influence outside the GM HQ, it’s too heavy for me to pick up so i am forced to leave it here…

my takeaway from this data is that the ultimate defensive alt is a regen stalker 😛

hmm, not having seeds of confusion would be quite a significant omission from a plant dom, its the primary reason to choose the set. having the AoE hold is also very useful to manage aggro out of interest, have you considered rolling a sentinel? a key attribute of a dominator are the mez powers, which seem to be getting in the way of what you’re looking for from what i can see - a sentinel would give you much greater defense and lots of blast powers

i’ll ask @Mezmera for this thoughts - our resident energy fanboy