MoonSheep

i just use 2 purple insps and then dish out my procced attacks, strongly slotted debuffs and large selection of offensive powers it would be inefficient to waste slots and power choices on something which can be replicated for a few thousand inf after typing /ah before each mission people ignore the P2W buffs available, ease of access to the market and ability to email yourself cheap T3 insps and ultimates in modern CoH and still build alts like it’s 2009 when you couldn’t quickly get all the personal survival tools you need the game has moved on and so has the concept of min/max

i think on a KM ITF the impact on XP would be so minimal it’s not worth thinking about i run a nightly KM and have never observed much variation

i think you’re looking at things with a non-dominator mindset a mezzed foe deals no damage, your greatest defense is your ability to lock down the mobs and target enemies which are either damaging you the most or are casting the harshest debuffs permadom tends to be the foundation of most dominator builds as it guarantees you’ll always be able to lock down an enemy with one click and also gives you mez protection some ranged defense is nice to have for sure, but consider that you’re not a hapless punching bag - you have abilities which can stop the damage coming in

consider not doing that

well, i pronounced “croatoa” as “croatia” for about 10+ years

in the official CoV trailer at 0:45, Synapse says “got you man-tee-core, i’m all over it”

very true - things are disappointingly cheap thesedays i think all IOs being equal level across the market (or whatever the term is to explain that a lvl 25 IO is the same as a lvl 50 IO in terms of availability) is fine, but the ability to convert IOs should be disabled or limited i want to feel like a champ when a rare recipe drops!

any defender will be fine, choose the one you want to play the most the game isn’t that hard and very few challenges require a cherry picked team. look at the sets available and pick whichever looks the most fun to you and your friends i wouldn’t overthink it

i’d say a scrapper would be better for solo play, higher burst damage brutes don’t really seem to have a viable place in modern HC. less damage than a scrapper and often tank, less survivable than a tank, less initial damage than a scrapper they were great in 2008

i’d go with kin, a team of 6 would be pretty sturdy and won’t need what empathy offers speed boost will be really appreciated by the team from lvl 12 onwards

out of the attributes you’ve listed - healing, buffs, damage and personal defence, what’s the most important to you?

wow, i love that! inspires me to create that elec/earth i've always been messing around with @Onlyasandwich i'm a big fan of procs too, i have a lot on my mind/fire dom main, but consider that if you exemp down, you may find regular damage slotting is more useful

hey, thanks for sharing this i’ve played an elec/earth dom on test for a few years and have found it to be a good combination. the end drain of conductive aura from elec control pairs nicely with earth assault which puts you in melee range frequently. it also pairs quite nicely with earth assault’s power boost - the end drain is an effective damage mitigator after a few seconds. it’s worth considering in my opinion regardless, fire is a good set too. i’m on the train atm but a few observations as a fellow dom player: - if you can achieve permadom without hasten it really does make a positive difference to your quality of life. being able to idle for a few minutes without it dropping is great - i would pick up power boost as it gives you +68% dmg or something like that - i’d personally pick up the ST immob rather than the AoE one. an AoE immob is rarely appreciated in team play - i’d 5 slot seismic smash with hecatomb including the damage proc and also include the purple hold damage proc - i’d drop phase shift for smoke, it can be handy in some situations enjoy the procs

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