Auroxis

Force Fields' highlights to me are the defense+CC protection you get from Dispersion Bubble and the damage you get from a procced-out Force Bomb. Beam Rifle actually has decent synergy with FF here, as you can fix your lackluster AoE with Force Bomb. You can go further by adding Fold Space+procced Thunder Strike to it. This means having a Fold Space->Force Bomb->Thunder Strike opener that deals more damage than your nuke (which you can add for even more damage), huddles the pack, boosts your recharge, and applies three resistance debuffs (one from force bomb, two from procs). Here is an example of a Beam/FF build that focuses a lot around offensive output while still keeping the Medicine pool you wanted OP. Just keep in mind that slotting procs means you aren't slotting endurance reductions and accuracy, so while leveling up you do want some accuracy slotted and to just be aware that endurance is gonna be your growing pain (recovery boost temp power helps here). Corruptor (Beam Rifle - Force Field).mbd

A couple procced AoE's won't be sacrificing much of anything and will greatly boost your clearspeed. On the Bots/FF I've mentioned, I'm fully softcapped and hit 95% accuracy against +3's. And as for the henchmen attacks themselves, even their best AoE attacks will not deal nearly as much damage as a good proc bomb like the ones I mentioned. I guess that if you're just regularly fighting a few targets at once you won't notice a massive difference. But in +4x8 content it's a big deal, and the only reason I'm pressing on this instead of going with the "do your thing" approach, is because telling other MM players proc bombs are suboptimal is just straight-up false. Mastermind (Robotics - Force Field) v3.mbd

It's a great example because even if your pets have good AoE you still benefit greatly from thinning the herd for them.

The main advantage is in having your henchmen spend their time on hard targets (LT's and bosses) instead of soft targets (minions). It only takes a few well procced AoE attacks to take down minions in a +4x8 group, which lets your henchmen spread their damage optimally and leads to an overall faster clear speed. In addition to the AoE advantages, you can slot -res procs in your attacks to have your henchmen deal more damage. A good example is a Robots/FF MM. You can have your pets go in and let them figure it out, sure. Or you could instead go Robots/FF/Mu with TP, and Fold Space the pack to get them tightened up, follow it up with a procced Force Bomb, procced Thunder Strike, and Electrifying Fences. You then end up with a pack almost depleted of minions, immobilized, and debuffed by two -res procs. These are not just theories, but actual game-tested scenarios I benchmarked. For a simpler setup, I use Force Mastery on my Bots/Cold to have a Sleet + Procced Explosive Blast + Procced Energy Torrent opener.

@Maelwys I created both your "spanner in the works" build (procced AS) and the build I posted above on the public test server for some pylon tests. Both builds used the same incarnate slot powers: Musc Radial Alpha, Ageless Core Destiny, Assault Core Hybrid, Degen Core Interface I ran your rotation as I understood it: AS-Zapp-CI-JL-CB-AS-BL-CI-JL-CB And my rotation as I've discussed it: TS-CI-AS-Zapp-CB-CI-AS Pylon times for the JL build: 1:40 1:38 1:44 1:34 1:50 1:52 1:34 1:37 1:48 1:49 Fastest time: 1:34 Slowest time: 1:50 Average: 1:42 Pylon times for the TS build: 1:45 1:43 1:28 1:31 1:25 1:36 1:34 1:39 1:40 1:25 Fastest time: 1:25 Slowest time: 1:45 Average: 1:34 Of course, seeing as Stalker is naturally high-variance due to the many many procs going on this can only say so much. What I did notice is my build's variance is mostly due to not generating as many Focus stacks before AS, while your build's variance is the Hide proc going out of sync and being used on Ball Lightning instead of Zapp.

I suppose that in that case you're still weighing TS against JL, which is neither used as an opener nor is significantly faster than TS, with only a 0.4 seconds faster animation time before effect.

Good question @Warshades! I believe that its high damage out of hide actually contributes to its practical application in regular content. Since LR doesn't break hide, you can initiate battles with Lightning Rod (also Shield Charge in this case) and then Thunder Strike on the boss, following up with CI->AS->Snipe on whatever remains. In other words, the slow wind-up is made up by using it as an opener after your swift tele-nuke. This thread is already saturated with builds, but this is the one I had in mind for Elec/Shield since it requires hefty levels of recharge: Stalker (Electrical Melee - Shield Defense).mbd

I've had good results with TS over JL myself. Both are heavy animation time before effect powers, but new TS is far and away the best power you have available at getting damage out of the hide proc, giving you 150 base damage out of the crit. I've gone for the full proc setup on it, which lets me alternate between it and Zapp after AS to get maximum coverage out of the hide proc. Edit: Some explanation about how the new TS works. On the main target only, you get 150 base damage and 100% crit rate out of hide. Targets in the splash get hit by significantly less base damage (procs aside) with a 50% crit chance out of hide.

The Will of the Controller proc is a usual fit in those 90s cooldown damage CC's, as while it has recharge it's not enough to lower the proc rates on those (while it will usually lower proc rates on your single target attacks)

There is no hit check involved for the proc from what i know (feel free to double check that), you just want dam/end and/or set bonuses. Defender and Corr can place their ATO buff/heal procs there however. Edit: Also you want the gauss proc there.

The foe just has to be in the AoE. A common solo strategy is placing the toggle on barrier reef which follows you closely.

The damage is dealt only if Shifting Tides was triggered by a Hit from you or any of your allies on the target. The chance to trigger Shifting Tides is increased by the number of Shifting Tide buff stacks by said ally or self, up to 50% at full stacks. This is capped at 0.1 activations per seconds, and comes from you, the caster. In other words, whenever you or an ally attacks and successfully hits a target affected by Shifting Tides, you have up to a 50% chance to trigger the Shifting Tides proc on it, but only one activation every 0.1s will deal damage. Pet classes are beneficial for this as they have more chances to proc Shifting Tides, but this is counterbalanced by them having lower damage scalars for it.

Looks like you're on the right path! Just keep in mind that while Proccing your attack chain is important, it's also important to get enough set bonuses in your build for near-perma hasten and 95% accuracy against +3 mobs and enough endurance sustain (one of the issues with FF). So you don't have to proc every attack, just the ones you intend to regularly use (t1 "must-picks" are usually a good place to use as a set mule). Radiation Blast's main issue is the lack of strong ST DPS options. What I suggest in that instance is getting help from your Epic pool and/or Ancillary power pool. Fire Mastery gets you two good proccable ST attacks in Char and Greater Fire Sword, while other pools offer a good ST hold to use with some other attractive options. Psy mastery has a short animation high accuracy hold, Soul Mastery has power boost for better force fields and spirit ward, though the hold has a long animation. As for power pools, defenders can go for procced Weaken Resolve, though that isn't a great option for Rad/ as that has enough access to Achilles' already.

Here are a few tips to get you started: 1. Recharge - Hasten is a must. Force Feedback procs have a short duration, cannot stack, and aren't guaranteed to go off. So at most you'll have +100% and out of combat they're inactive. 2. Procs - Damage procs in powers that summon a pseudopet like Bonfire have a low chance to activate every 10s of the pet's duration on each mob. Outside of pseudopets/toggles, Proc chance is dictated by the enhanced recharge of a power, so fast recharging powers have a low chance to activate procs, and an increasingly lower chance if you place recharge enhancements into them (like you did with Arcane Bolt). In addition to enhanced recharge, the power's area factor is taken into account, meaning the bigger the area your power's AoE the lesser chance there is for the proc to go off. However, self-casting procs like Force Feedback and Energy Font check on every target affected by AoE, so even if your proc chances are at the minimum, if you check the proc chance against 10 mobs there is still a decent chance for it to go off. 3. Hot Feet - Hot Feet may feel expensive early on, but it is one of your main sources of early AoE damage along with damage procced Flashfire and energy font procced Fire Cages, especially once you buff your damage up with Siphon Power and later on Fulcrum Shift. Besides its damage, it gives a fear effect to mobs while also slowing them, giving you good soft CC which combo well with other soft CC like Bonfire.

After making a few changes, I made a recording of the build against +4x8: Controller (Fire Control - Kinetics).mbd

I'd go for something like this, Fold Space is nice for keeping enemies in your Hot Feet + Bonfire and can often help teammates kill faster. Enflame is pretty poor damage on troller. Controller (Fire Control - Kinetics).mbd

@Buffer 1. Regarding the Sorcery Pool: Rune of Protection is indeed solid, but break frees suffice in the odd situation. There's also Clarion as an option for CC protection, you can go for the +Special Clarion for another way to buff Fortitude and still keep some break frees handy. Spirit Ward is superfluous for teammate mitigation when you have PB Fort+Heals in the vast majority of scenarios. Flying pool also nets you more recharge via LotG slots, and doesn't require getting another pool like Combat Jumping for flight control. 2. Achilles' Heel does not go into any of Ice Blast's attacks. You can pick up Force of Will for Weaken Resolve and slot it there, but the attack does little damage for its cast time even if procced. That being said, Weaken Resolve is a solid pick-up instead of Stealth but I wouldn't go beyond that. 3. Clarion is a Destiny incarnate power and is not a substitute to Nerve, which is an Alpha incarnate power. The reason you don't go for Agility or Spiritual is because they increase the enhanced recharge of your blasts, making your damage procs go off less often and lowering your DPS (one of the reasons you go for global recharge over enhanced recharge). Vigor is a good alternative to Nerve, if you prefer going all-out on healing instead of improving your defense buffs.

Should I ignore personal survival and go all-in on healing and team buffs? No. Empathy has very little in the way of self survivability, with Healing Aura and Regeneration Aura being fairly inefficient at keeping you alive against spikes of damage. So you do want defense, and you do want resists. However, you do not need to go for the Fighting pool, and can instead opt for Flying which limits mobs to ranged attacks, helping you cut down on a lot of incoming DPS. As for going "all-in" on healing and team buffs, Empathy already provides a very strong defensive kit and you don't need to delve into Sorcery for Spirit Ward or god forbid the Medicine pool (please don't do that). The Leadership power pool for more buffs is great however, as is Power Boost from Soul Mastery for better healing and buffs/debuffs. In sticky situations where a teammate falls in the middle of a pack and you want to go over and help him out, you have Power Boost + Vengeance + Resurrect + Fortitude for excellent stabilization. How important is my damage output? Should I focus on it, or leave it to the DPS? Yes, you should focus on getting your DPS output high. This is always important, even on Empathy. You could argue it's even more important on Empathy as the powerset has no -res and -regen to help teams against AV's and GM's. Ice Blast is solid on that front, but you need to proc out your heavy hitters for it to be effective. As far as AoE damage, since Empathy doesn't have a lot of ways to mitigate or heal through self damage, I would avoid going for AoE until your nuke unless you know you're teaming with people who can keep you safe. Would sacrificing personal defenses be a mistake, or should I trust my team to protect me? As mentioned above, you definitely need to pay a bit of extra attention to personal defenses on Empathy. After all if you get hit, and you're the only support on your team, all you're left with is Healing Aura and the hopes of Regeneration Aura being up at the time. No ways to buff yourself beyond that outside of PB+Vengeance as previously mentioned. How do you approach this kind of build? Empathy should focus on getting Recharge up as high as possible, as your buff uptime becomes increasingly more important in late-game faster gameplay where just healing isn't cutting it anymore. Recharge also lends itself to having your attacks damage procced, as it lets you have a strong attack chain despite not slotting recharge into your attacks. I would balance it out by grabbing Flying to keep me safe from melee attacks, and Stealth (since you don't have a way to stealth through task forces without it by going Fly over Super Speed). Picking up Leadership, Power Boost, and the Nerve alpha (we don't want recharge in our alpha like Spiritual because it lowers proc rates) lets us buff the defense of 4 teammates by up to +50% with PB+Fortitude+Maneuvers. This might seem overkill, but remember defense debuffs are prevalent late in the game so even if someone is softcapped it benefits them. Defender (Empathy - Ice Blast).mbd

There are indeed some underrated aspects in Sonic Resonance. Disruption Field having no setup involved, Liquefy's new recharge times and proccability (i like the -res and +hold procs in it), and just plain having CC protection. Sonic is a bit low on sustain. But grabbing cardiac for endurance, and rebirth along with a team friendly spirit ward for healing helps address those issues. Controller (Symphony Control - Sonic Resonance) v2.mbd

Hero Controller Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.7.5 rev. 21 ────────────────────────────── Primary powerset: Symphony Control Secondary powerset: Sonic Resonance Pool powerset (#1): Speed Pool powerset (#2): Leaping Pool powerset (#3): Sorcery Pool powerset (#4): Leadership Epic powerset: Energy Mastery ────────────────────────────── Powers taken: Level 1: Melodic Binding A: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize/Endurance 39: Gravitational Anchor: Recharge/Accuracy 39: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize/Recharge/Accuracy 40: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize/Recharge 40: Gravitational Anchor: Immobilize Level 1: Sonic Barrier A: Unbreakable Guard: +Max HP 3: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance 3: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance Level 2: Hymn of Dissonance A: Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage 7: Neuronic Shutdown: Chance of Damage(Psionic) 17: Ghost Widow's Embrace: Chance of Damage(Psionic) 34: Gladiator's Net: Chance of Damage(Lethal) 34: Gladiator's Javelin: Chance of Damage(Toxic) 37: Apocalypse: Damage Level 4: Sonic Haven A: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All) 5: Gladiator's Armor: Resistance 5: Gladiator's Armor: End/Resist 7: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3% Level 6: Impassioned Serenade A: Cacophany: Chance of Damage(Energy) 13: Malaise's Illusions: Chance of Damage(Psionic) 34: Invention: Damage Increase 36: Apocalypse: Damage/Endurance 37: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative) 37: Gladiator's Javelin: Chance of Damage(Toxic) Level 8: Dreadful Discord A: Unspeakable Terror: Disorient Bonus 9: Glimpse of the Abyss: Chance of Damage(Psionic) 9: Positron's Blast: Chance of Damage(Energy) 11: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage 11: Javelin Volley: Chance of Damage(Lethal) 36: Annihilation: Chance for Res Debuff Level 10: Aria of Stasis A: Superior Will of the Controller: Accuracy/Control Duration 13: Superior Will of the Controller: Control Duration/Recharge 15: Superior Will of the Controller: Endurance/Recharge 15: Superior Will of the Controller: Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance 17: Superior Will of the Controller: Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance/Recharge Level 12: Sonic Siphon A: Invention: Accuracy Level 14: Super Speed A: Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance (20%) Level 16: Disruption Field A: Invention: Endurance Reduction Level 18: Confounding Chant A: Ragnarok: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy 19: Ragnarok: Damage 19: Superior Will of the Controller: Recharge/Chance for Psionic Damage 21: Positron's Blast: Chance of Damage(Energy) 21: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage 25: Javelin Volley: Chance of Damage(Lethal) Level 20: Sonic Dispersion A: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance 33: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance Level 22: Combat Jumping A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 23: Kismet: Accuracy +6% 23: Shield Wall: +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) 25: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage Level 24: Spirit Ward A: Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb 31: Preventive Medicine: Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance 31: Preventive Medicine: Heal/RechargeTime 31: Preventive Medicine: Endurance/RechargeTime 33: Preventive Medicine: Heal/Endurance 33: Preventive Medicine: Heal Level 26: Reverberant A: Expedient Reinforcement: Endurance/Damage/Recharge 27: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage 27: Expedient Reinforcement: Damage/Endurance 29: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge 29: Soulbound Allegiance: Chance for Build Up Level 28: Clarity A: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 30: Liquefy A: Dark Watcher's Despair: To Hit Debuff 36: Dark Watcher's Despair: To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance 43: Dark Watcher's Despair: To Hit Debuff/Recharge 43: Dark Watcher's Despair: Recharge/Endurance 43: Annihilation: Chance for Res Debuff 46: Lockdown: Chance for +2 Mag Hold Level 32: Hasten A: Invention: Recharge Reduction 42: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 35: Conserve Power A: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 38: Temp Invulnerability A: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance 39: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance Level 41: Energy Torrent A: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage 45: Positron's Blast: Chance of Damage(Energy) 45: Explosive Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage 45: Centriole Exposure 46: Centriole Exposure 46: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge Level 44: Assault A: Invention: Endurance Reduction Level 47: Tactics A: Adjusted Targeting: To Hit Buff A: Adjusted Targeting: To Hit Buff/Recharge A: Adjusted Targeting: To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge 48: Adjusted Targeting: Endurance/Recharge 48: Adjusted Targeting: To Hit Buff/Endurance Level 49: Power Boost A: Invention: Recharge Reduction A: Invention: Recharge Reduction ────────────────────────────── Inherents: Level 1: Containment Level 1: Brawl (Empty) Level 1: Sprint A: Unbounded Leap: +Stealth Level 2: Rest (Empty) Level 1: Swift A: Invention: Run Speed Level 1: Hurdle A: Invention: Jumping Level 1: Health A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance 42: Miracle: +Recovery 42: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery Level 1: Stamina A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End 40: Performance Shifter: EndMod 48: Performance Shifter: EndMod/Accuracy Level 14: Speed Phase Controller (Symphony Control - Sonic Resonance).mbd Controller (Symphony Control - Sonic Resonance) v2.mbd

Only for the MM, but Shifting Tides uses your damage modifer and your pets proc Shifting Tides.

Endurance is tight, but I went through enough iterations to get it stable with Musc and without Ageless. Requires steady casting of Toroidal Bubble but that's not too big of a deal.

I went Mace on mine for the Achilles' procced Poisonous Ray (to get more DPS out of shifting tides procs) and FFB procced Disruptor Beam, but looking back I'd go Earth instead. Fissure applies its damage faster, and provides a more steady source of FFB procs for a very strong AoE chain alongside Whitecap. And Seismic is a great boost for your personal DPS. The only downside is Rock Armor FX.

@aethereal I tested with damage procs:

So from my tests the Teleport+Attack "Redirect" powers proc in a quirky way. The PPM calculation seems to be using the origin power's recharge and area factor (which is none) rather than the executed power's recharge+area factor, making Spring Attack and a few other similar powers have a 90% proc rate. I'd love others to test it themselves to see if they get similar results.