kikyoku

Ok my next attempt is working somewhat better, probably because I've adjusted my expectations. I made an Electric/Katana by smashing together some of Infinitum's builds. It's definitely not perfect, but it's durable enough (especially against Freaks/Clockwork) and katana is a super fun melee set. Here is the build in case anyone is curious. Infinitum had Tough/weave which I removed because I couldn't stand having tough on a set with capped resistances just for the defense (swapped in maneuvers instead, and snuck in Fold Space for fun with the extra powers). I also dumped hasten because I don't like having the extra clicky in the mix. So it's a little lacking in defense, which Divine Avalanche helps make up for. It's end heavy but Power Sink is up often enough to keep toggles from dropping. Resistance is all capped except Toxic and Negative. If anyone wants to improve it, almost any of the 5 slot sets could be finished for more toxic resist or defense, and hasten/weave would both be better stats-wise, I just went for fun over optimizing. It may also make sense to put a defense set on Divine Avalanche instead of Mako's Bite, but I haven't played with it too much. I'll probably play with SR or Shield next, since I already have an invuln Sentinel. Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm glad it wasn't just me, and that I did accidentally pick an S rank set combo. Tanker (Electric Armor - Katana).mbd

So I have been playing this game for many years and never played a tanker. The joke is on me though, as I finally made a Rad/SS and it's sooooo much fun. I love how it's just completely indestructible. Damage is ok, but it doesn't really matter since I can just sit in mobs like I'm having lunch. It even has a team heal. My issue is, the next tank I made sucked. It was Dark/Axe, and I don't know if I was doing something wrong but it died constantly, it was hard to even level it. So how do I follow up my original? Are there other sets that are that comically durable, or did I accidentally make a peak tanker on my first try? I've heard stone is popular?

Ok I can't leave a thread slandering my favorite controller build. I have an elec/dark troller, and it is an absolutely wild time. Yes, as everyone says the dps is bad. Like, awful. But if you are worried about dps why are you playing a controller? My average fight on a team goes like this: drop static field, which immediately sleeps and starts draining all the mobs, jump in with conductive aura active and finish draining. Drop Tar patch to make all mobs squishy, and by now you team/pets are moving in and attacking. Spam Chain fences/tesla cage as needed to keep things grouped/subdued. Variety of buffs/heals from dark affinity keep myself and the team virtually indestructible, and alpha is completely shut off by the sleep. Of course I slot the crap out of end mod. Late game has some other things to supplement damage, like fold space and judgment (of course I picked ion with the end drain). People have mentioned that end drain is limited effectiveness, but few things resist it, and even if it doesn't shut them down completely, it does functionality behave like a massive -rech by reducing the attack rate of everything you fight. It's also incredible against anything that habitually uses end drain (you've never felt satisfaction until a mob of 20 freaks is standing around with 0 end and unable to attack). To sum up, yeah it has low damage and doesn't do great solo (survivability is A+ though, never had a tanktroller before), but it is amazing as support/damage mitigation, and makes every team breeze through. Also end drain is hilarious when you do it well. Also I love my electro monkeys.

On the second one here, the object is correctly aligned with the roof, but the shadow is off. Idk if that's the same issue or not but I included it.

Ok apparently these are things to report, I had been seeing misaligned HVAC equipment since live, I didn't think anything of it. I swear there were more, but I combed Faultline, Perez, and KR and I could only find a few. So either you guys have been fixing them or it's a rendering error. For reference I am on Everlasting, Plain Ultra mode graphics, 4x AA, 2560x1440, NVidia 4070ti, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 64 GB. Idk if it matters but I need to brag sometimes.

Yeah I hadn't realized the opposition to prestige was so aggressive, I am at best vaguely in favor of enabling it so it seems like a one sided argument. I agree that new mechanics or changes to SG implementation would better serve the purposes of prestige, if people are so offended by its existence, that alone is reason enough to leave it gone. My only counter argument was that I think people are over reacting to the idea.

I completely agree with the currency issue, but I also wish we had something to make SGs valuable mechanically. Prestige may not be the best option for that, but it is a very low effort one. Having many currencies is frustrating, but I think we're also facing an issue of devaluing them, since even the rarest things are not hard to come by, making everything more a question of time investment than effort. Prestige at least has social value, which inf does not, for better or worse. Prestige is a public measure of group involvement, like vet levels are for single characters (displayed publicly on info screen). I literally have an SG just for my alts with a fully functional base. I know that's me being antisocial, but if you have a code you can visit anybody anyway, they're basically just elaborate transit hubs. I think there should be a mechanical reason to join a group because the game is more fun in a group, but right now they are little more than chat channels. Prestige would at least give the group something to strive towards together, even if it's just arbitrary. Maybe especially then, since it would be easy to ignore.

Personally, if a SG advertised some kind of quota for prestige I would just not join. I've played lots of STO and that sort of thing is rampant there and I hate it, but that's because the game is built around encouraging that behavior, in a way that CoX doesn't anymore, though was headed towards on live. My suggestion above wasn't that it could be a new activity that didn't exist, but that it's a new tool for doing something already done. I think just turning it on without any function would be a neutral action, without any real consequences. People who want to could collect and compete, people who don't won't. It is fundamentally a tool that can be used for good or ill, but I think the potential to help foster community is worth it, since without real money in the mix, there is very little risk associated.

You could use prestige as an SG fund? Like half your inf goes to the group, and leaders can hand out rewards from it. No more money is being added to the game, but rich players can donate to support new players without effort. Either way, no reason to not turn it on. Weren't there badges for that anyway? I know some people would murder for more badge opportunities.

OK but, how about a new category of IOs that can only be used on support abilities? Like specifically tag powers that don't buff the user. That would basically lock out tanks/dps builds from using them. I too have had issues on supports of difficult survivability, which is an inherent function of the class, I get it, but supports are already being marginalized in incarnate content, making them more mez resistant or damage resistant would help them get by. Forcing them to take pool powers and specific sets to survive splash damage dilutes their strengths considerably. They definitely don't need sets that just hands out free defense, but some anti - mez procs or bonuses to support functions instead of regen/recovery (which support ATs tend to have less issues with) would be nice.

Real. The fact that it's only that popular on defenders means people pick it to be a 'healer', not because it's the most fun or interesting. I would love to see data on how many created vs level 50 there are, and total play time. Anecdotally, I definitely see emps around, but they are far from the overwhelming majority implied by that chart.

I was thinking about this yesterday. Empathy has a much lower skill floor than other sets (in general). Healing is effectively a safety net, you can undo damage dealt when other defensive mechanisms fail. But that means that there is no backup after it if you don't handle it correctly. If you look at, say, thermal, you have +resist on top to reduce damage taken, then defensive debuffs and offensive buffs to speed the encounter up, and then if all else fails, you can heal to make up for weaknesses or mistakes. Empathy has no real backup plan, and requires the user to utilize the set consistently in order to really work. There's value to a set like that, because it provides a challenge to the player. I don't have the numbers for this, but there are two potential flaws of that plan. The player may give up before improving enough to feel competent, feeling like empathy is weak compared to other sets that they are competent with at the start. The skill ceiling may be low (again, I have no idea how to measure this), causing experienced players to be frustrated that they aren't reaping the benefits of their practice. I suspect both of these factors are in play in this discussion, which is why some people are saying it's more powerful than you think, and others saying it is weak in general.

I agree with your sentiment here Leo. My issue with Fort/CM/AB is that only some players will benefit from them at a time. This is annoying in any support set, but empathy has three of them. The absorb idea is good because it allows you to protect someone when not actively healing them, though fortitude more or less accomplishes the same goal. Rather than bumping up the numbers in general, I think slowing down the effects is the better goal. Absorb Shields or repeating heals allow you to preempt damage instead of just reacting to it. If your team is working perfectly, only 1-2 people should be taking damage, and during that time empathy is kind of just sitting around. But if you know your blaster is about to get slapped, or an ambush is coming and your tank needs help with the alpha, absorb gives you the ability to heal them before they get hit, which not only improves their chances of surviving on its own, but gives you and the rest of the team time to react before people start dying. So replacing, say, absorb pain with something that grants a crispy single target absorb shield for an equivalent amount of hp doesn't actually change your potential healing output, but does help you keep things under control. I also think the same thing about healing aura, splitting it into two heal bursts for the same total hp prevents heal overflow and gives you a healing presence between casts, which also reduces the need for recharge.

This is kind of an issue with homecoming and the p2w stuff encouraging end-game play. Most of the sets aren't balanced around this but don't come up in debate like empathy, which is evidence enough for me that it needs revision. In a healthy growing community there should be a constant stream of leveling characters. New players don't have the resources or experience to PL to 50 and do Incarnates. I kind of disagree, I don't want to change empathy's theme, just give it a face-lift. A lot of the functions of emp are redundant with each other, just bumping up recharge will make the set balance better in high level play, but doesn't really do anything to diversify playstyle. Once you have both RAs, you are just going to fire them both off, and then wait until they recharge, so why have them be separate? CM is easy to much of a hassle to manage. It has some value in early game that I don't want to understate, but it's pretty easy to drop later. I think absorb pain is terrible and basically a free slot to pick something else. Emp does have some really good things in it when you look at individual powers, but as a set it is very lackluster. It can do many things, but they don't really support each other.

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but discussing empathy's ability to solo is kind of missing the point of the set. I get that that's a thing and survivability is important for support, but I wouldn't base decisions on a solo player. There are other ways to protect yourself, healing aura and RA are fine in that regard. Now if improvements to powers are designed to diversify the play style, like letting an emp hang out in melee next to the tank, that's another story.