? / Empathy (Powerset Suggestions)

[oedipus_tex]

In all these years, I've literally never played Empathy past level 5.

 

I'm very familiar with all of the primary sets, having leveled all of them to 50 at least 3 times, and some of them (Ice) more than 10 times.

 

So here is my question to you: what primary powerset mixed with Empathy do you think would offer a unique experience and why? 

[Nemu]

ill/emp so you can be the illest emp.

 

Illusion is fire and forget, and allows you to spend more time buffing. Illusion also has great LOTG mules so you can get your buffs up faster.

[Coyote]

Illusion, for the ability to summon pets and then play an aggro-free Healer.

 

Earth, for the ability to buff/heal the pet to tank AVs.

 

Otherwise... don't see anything special. Stacking Fortitude with Jack will soft-cap his defenses, but I wouldn't call that unique.

[Erydanus]

I have played two illusion empathy controllers. One I soloed to 50 and the other I played with a team. I will not play that combination again. I think that it is overhyped, and I think that it is a crutch people who want to focus on playing empathy take. It lets them turn themselves invisible and use group invisibility as an extra buff and just throw out some pets that they don't have to manage instead of dealing with an assortment of ranged attacks. To me it is basically not a controller combination it is a backdoor defender. 

 

At least when I played it, I actually had the goal of buffing my phantasm pet to insane levels and I was very aggressive with the controlling parts. Overall though I just kept wishing that I had a secondary like radiation that would have given me more control powers. 

 

If you want to play a "traditional" controller but benefit from having empathy then my thought is that you want a control set which has multiple pets. The more pets you have, the more you can  benefit from your own buffs. So I think my recommendation is dark. You can fortify the Umbral Beast to make it much more powerful and you can also buff the two haunts. In fact, if you get enough recharge or you use Burnout, you can field more than two haunts. 

[Carnifax]

On live my only Empath was a Plant/Emp.

 

Thematically it works and play-wise Plant isnt too busy (Seeds, Creepers when available then just hold whatever you like) so youve space to Empath. Audrey can receive your buffs.

 

That said on Live I got annoyed with the occasional "you're the healer, stop attacking stuff" so on homecoming I rerolled her to Plant/Storm. 

[tjknight]

16 minutes ago, Carnifax said:

On live my only Empath was a Plant/Emp.

 

Thematically it works and play-wise Plant isnt too busy (Seeds, Creepers when available then just hold whatever you like) so you've space to Empath. Audrey can receive your buffs.

 

That said on Live I got annoyed with the occasional "you're the healer, stop attacking stuff" so on homecoming I rerolled her to Plant/Storm. 

I agree Plant/Emp offers many of the same benefits of Illu/Emp. Plus many people forget bout the gloriousness that is Carrion Creepers, which is an invisible pet that spawns creeper vines and immobilizes. Oh and the vines can be buffed as well.  So, Carrion Creepers and Fly Trap can provide plenty of control on a fast moving team. Leaving you free to buff and heal as you like. 

Edited February 8, 2020 by tjknight

[Redlynne]

For the most part, Empathy doesn't "reward" or synergize enough with Controller to be a serious contender for ... well ... anything.

 

Back on Virtue, I played an Empathy/Archery Defender, so as to provide another Empath for Hamidon Raids on Virtue, but there was never anything particularly special about the combination.  Empathy is good at what it does, it's just that the game meta doesn't "reward" Empathy all that much anymore since there are so many other ways to not NEED an Empath to be present (except as a pocket h34l0r for other people).  You CAN make it work, if you dedicate yourself to the mindset you need in order to play it though ... it just isn't going to "blend" all that especially well with any particular Controller primaries, except as mentioned pet heavy primaries like Dark and Plant and Illusion and so on.

 

To be honest, I'd recommend that if you want to play an Empath, play a Defender instead of a Controller and pick a secondary you like playing.

[EmperorSteele]

I also am playing a Plant/Emp, and it's fun enough, though I keep kicking myself for not rolling Plant/Nature instead, because, Hello, thematics! (Only reason I went with Emp is because I was remaking my Emp/Rad from live, but didn't feel like rolling a Defender, and wanted to keep the theme of a magical helper spirit)

But over-all, I kinda agree with Red. Like, on a Defender, yeah, you're a "Healer", but your blasts are also bringing debuffs to the table. I mean, if I'm up against an AV, I'd rather have someone trying to debuff it's Res or ToHit rather than impotently trying to hold it. But, as you know, some Controller primaries also offer debuffs, like Earth or Dark. So I'd probably try one of those. Heck, Dark/Emp actually tickles me creatively, kinda like someone torn between light and shadows.

[Coyote]

True, if you're looking for debuffs, then Dark will Immobilize an AV or other targets while also debuffing and controlling. And doing pet damage so you're more free to heal. Damage will be a lot lower, so it depends on whether damage or control will be more interesting to you.