The Emp with a Boomstick - Solo MoITF 54/8, No Insp

[Lex Talion]

Concept: Vanguard Tactical Troop Support

Build: Full Support Emp with Debuffs

 

Loadout for this MoITF run:

Alpha: T4 Musculature Radial

Destiny: T4 Clarion Radial

Lore: T4 Vanguard Core

Hybrid: T4 Melee Core

Interface: T4 Reactive Radial

Judgement: T3 Pyronic Partial Radial

 

Judgement used in target rich environments, Lore used against AVs mostly.

Official time:  3:36h incl beverages, food, biology

Actual time:   3:28h

M1 ~17min (no Kheldian ambush. I already knew that the toon could beat it)

M2 ~41min (ranged Kheldian/Nictus bosses cleared at every Cyst. Every. Damn. Cyst.)

M3 ~88min (pushed through til Phalanx wave 3, then killed wave 3 and the remains of 1 and 2, also cleared the area around and the platform. Consequently Daedalus darted about twice my snipe range at some random target that I hadn't cleared as soon as I started shooting at Rommie... )

M4 ~62min (cleared everything near Rommie incl. walls. Captain Claphappy on drugs and my buffed up Vanguard pets made short work of Running Rommie, who managed to break LOS to his Nictus buddies with his last dying breath. Killing the Nictus went quick and unspectacular after that.)

 

Pros:

Considering that the toon is built as a support toon, (choice of secondary, high recharge, -Res procs, no Aim, etc) and all I did was swapping the Alpha and switching to Clarion Radial I‘m very satisfied with the result. The more so since I don‘t run MoITF attempts over and over until I finally make it. Using another Destiny would have made a great difference, but I wanted to see Lorepets in (relevant) action and would have considered swapping iPowers mid-TF cheating.

With standard loadout the toon can keep a complete team under Fortitude - in theory. In praxis there is always someone out of range, out of sight or not even on the map.

Standard/Team loadout is T4 Spiritual Core and T4 Barrier Core or whatever Destiny seems appropriate.

 

Cons:

How am I going to motivate myself to do it with any other toon after this?

 

 

A couple screenshots taken from video footage. Sorry for the GUI being visible - I simply derped, used the wrong hotkey combo and only noticed it after I uploaded everything to Imgur. Yay me.

 

 

"If we walk far enough," says Dorothy, "we shall sometime come to someplace."

 

 

 

 

M1: Me and the boys and a cow

 

 

 

 

M2: Starting trouble

 

 

 

 

M3: A heart-attack moment after I completely missed Requiem being in the mix

 

 

 

 

M3: Trying not to cross the streams

 

 

 

M4: Fluffball-bashing - an unspectacular finish

 

 

 

 

M4: Men at work

 

[Doomguide2005]

Well done!

[Linea]

No easy task, no matter how you go about it.  

18 hours ago, Lex Talion said:

Cons:

How am I going to motivate myself to do it with any other toon after this?

It's much easier on almost any other build.   ...   famous last words.

[Olly]

Well done!

 

How did you separate rommy from his nictus friends?

[Yokozuna]

As an emp whose faith is failing daily....do you mind posting a build?

[Linea]

I don't have his build, he went a different direction than I did. But see the following:

You can also search for "Burke" and "Strauss" as keywords.  Those were the code-names for emp builds I did for others.

You should probably make sure to look through the archives as well:

    MRB: https://tinyurl.com/y6akcwre MRBU: https://tinyurl.com/vnhnjlo Mids Archives: https://tinyurl.com/wsn5v4j

 

 

 

 

[Lex Talion]

On 8/12/2020 at 10:28 PM, Olly said:

Well done!

 

How did you separate rommy from his nictus friends?

I didn't plan to separate him, intending to test Core Lore pets that actually can hit him reliably, instead. Just before he died he jumped down from an edge (1st M4 pic, center of the right half of the pic), effectively breaking LOS to all Nictus.

[Lex Talion]

On 8/12/2020 at 11:41 PM, MRPINK said:

As an emp whose faith is failing daily....do you mind posting a build?

 

Your faith in what exactly?   The AT, power set, soloing ability, team recognition?

[Yokozuna]

8 hours ago, Lex Talion said:

 

Your faith in what exactly?   The AT, power set, soloing ability, team recognition?

Empathy as a power set. It was my first main/50 in the olden days (I really like cleric classes, generally), so I'll never truly be able to leave it behind, but it just feels like I'm a relic of a bygone era. Obviously other defender power sets are obviously going to be better for soloing than the flagship team oriented support set; notwithstanding that fact, in a world packed with fully funded characters, the game feels different. Instead of teams becoming a sum greater than the parts, it's more along the lines of having 8 great solo'ers with some incidental composition/interaction, if that makes any sense. Within that lens I felt lackluster, and my faith waned.  

[Lex Talion]

2 hours ago, MRPINK said:

Empathy as a power set. It was my first main/50 in the olden days (I really like cleric classes, generally), so I'll never truly be able to leave it behind, but it just feels like I'm a relic of a bygone era. Obviously other defender power sets are obviously going to be better for soloing than the flagship team oriented support set; notwithstanding that fact, in a world packed with fully funded characters, the game feels different. Instead of teams becoming a sum greater than the parts, it's more along the lines of having 8 great solo'ers with some incidental composition/interaction, if that makes any sense. Within that lens I felt lackluster, and my faith waned.  

 

You're saying 'Empathy as a power set', but then elaborate on a number related points instead. It doesn't sound like your problem is a build, or lack of one, but the fact that teamwork, support in general and Empaths in particular have lost importance. The game has reached a state where you can have a cat run over your keyboard with a laser pointer and still earn xp.

 

As a general answer: yes, Empathy is a lackluster set, especially solo, and yes, you are a relic of a bygone era. So am I, btw. I just learned to have fun dancing on the ruins. Which is why I do pointless things like soloing TFs with bottom-of-the barrel sets or builds.

 

If you want to be a happy Emp you need to realize AND accept one thing: The more team oriented your build as an Emp is, and the more competent and reliable you become in putting it to use, the less people will take notice, because everything runs smooth. Empathy is the invisible set.

 

Playing Support Emp can still be for you, just don't do it for recognition, do it because you like doing it. Also don't just focus on being an Emp. You have 2 power sets, make both count and don't be afraid to happily blast away when your Empathy isn't needed.

 

 

 

[Doomguide2005]

And if you're looking to catch a bit of that bygone era find other Emps, other defenders,with similar outlooks.  They are out there, Green Machine (of the Repeat Offenders Network) and Everlasting Defenders can both be found on the Everlasting server.  Similar groups and players can be found across all the servers I'm sure.

[Sovera]

I have but one like to give.

[Lex Talion]

25 minutes ago, Sovera said:

I have but one like to give.

You are a cryptic cat.

[Sovera]

Just now, Lex Talion said:

You are a cryptic cat.

I have been accused of many things in the past, but not cryptic-ism.