Struggle to Level

[Lusiphur Malache]

I created 2 toons pretty much back to back. A dark\martial blaster and an empathy\psi defender. Things are going well with both of them. 

 

When I realize leveling the blaster is easier. I'm mostly soloing with both, radios and papers at the same rate. But day after day,my blaster creeps further away from my defender. 

 

Am I going to have to group with the defender, up my difficulty, give up keeping them close, or will leveling get easier for the defender at some point?

[Hew]

Empathy isnt great for soloing. You picked a primary that is heavily based on targeting teammates.

 

If you want a solo-friendly defender, go elec/psi. Elec provides great self-buff/heal/end/dam/res/mezprotect/+recharge to _yourself_. It is the swiss army knife of dooooooom.

 

With elec/, I recommend slotting the hell out of it for global recharge, to perma souldrain and cut your +rech power down to the bone. I got it to 10 rech, 5 sec uptime on the +hugerechvalue. Solo plus stupid pet its like +80% global rech or something silly. I would have to dig out my elec to doublecheck.

 

[Lusiphur Malache]

I'm trying to prove a point to a sgmate that emps don't have to just heal and he always plays an emp no matter how many supports we have on a tf/sf. If there's another emp on the team he'll play dps which he is much better at.

[Linea]

Empaths can ...

Spoiler

 

But you really have to build for it, and built for it early, and you really only "get there" level 40+.  I start my IO builds at level 7 ... most people only IO /after/ they hit 50 and get some incarnates.

 

Alternately, you can do the same with a pair of empaths that buff each other ala "Green Machine" from very early levels.   As soon as you have Fortitude and can buff your partner, you swap buffs and become very strong (thanks to your partner).  Very much akin to a ranged equivalent of a "regen scrapper".

 

Vanilla Empath, solo, lower levels, on SOs only, you're going to need to be a very advanced player to get there.  It's been done, back on live years ago even, but it is very difficult.  I'd probably recommend Emp/Energy for that, as the KB used correctly is very powerful.

 

Solo Defender, there are many many other sets that are either easier to drive, or better end results.  Empaths can do it, but it's more difficult.

 

Teamed, there's absolutely no reason a defender (Including Empaths), level 40+, can't be contributing significant damage to the team, even blaster equivalent damage.

 

Edited October 29, 2020 by Linea

[Furiant]

Team up on your emp defender; that's where they shine. You'll level up and get to know the potential of your powerset far better on a team than solo.

Edited October 29, 2020 by Furiant

[Doomguide2005]

I'll join the chorus. Yes Empaths can most definitely solo, especially as you get into late game IO builds.  That said it's almost invariably going to be easier and faster on a blaster, they are the kings of damage.  

 

Funny he should elect to not play his Emp when another Emp joins.  Green Machine is an all Empath SG and watching the utter decimation they become when teamed up is just this side of unreal.  At low (pre 30) levels 2 teamed is solid, 3 starts to get scary as the buffs accumulate.  At level 40 plus perma RAs mean no end worries, capped regen, perma AB for each Emp, etc., etc..  That's on SOs.  

Edited October 29, 2020 by Doomguide2005

[Ankhammon]

Defenders have traditionally had a tougher time leveling up because they exist as a "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" kind of class.

Linea is absolutely right about the claim to add blaster level damage with defenders at 40+ to a team.  Just look at all the -res or +dam or other buffs/debuffs you add to everyone on the team and then realize their extra damage (or damage the AV isn't regening or other stuff) is what you are providing... Repeat Offenders existed for a reason.

 

What I mean is either solo or in groups it's the combination of powers that causes the greatness of the set.  This applies to everyone but particularly for Defenders.

Add to it that you can build for solo or for group and it affects power choices, levels at which you select those powers, enh choices and the whole lot.  Defender choices are "support" first which is not ideal for solo life.

 

Generally, Blasters live (or die) by the amount of damage they get primarily so they really only need to do the one thing well.  They also were "fixed" and allowed to have a high regen/absorb/other direct heal sources which allows them to survive in a lot of situations they would not have been able to before.

 

You've also selected two sets which show this large difference.

Emp/Psi will be good at surviving but not particularly great at damage which gives a feeling of it being more difficult to level due to lack of personal damage (unless you can proc the bleep outta your offense).  This is traditionally a team kind of combo and needs specific care before it becomes a bit of a monster.

Dark/Martial has a 2 heals, an absorb, a few kdowns, 2 holds, -tohit debuffs, immob and even some aoe and single target stuns thrown in which adds considerably to the survivability of the combo making it easier to level.  This combo is actually very skilled at solo life and fits together nicely.

 

 

[KaizenSoze]

On 10/29/2020 at 2:57 PM, Darkesyde said:

I'm trying to prove a point to a sgmate that emps don't have to just heal and he always plays an emp no matter how many supports we have on a tf/sf. If there's another emp on the team he'll play dps which he is much better at.

Emps can solo just fine. As they say, you have to build for it.

 

 

[FundamentalyConfused]

You might want to drop the /psy, it is a damage set that’s rarely resisted but it doesn’t come with an Aim power for spike damage.
 

Don’t get me wrong Will Domination is a hard hitter but IMO it could use an Aim type power to make the set shine like the blaster version. I will say that it’s satisfying to see a Psy Tornado throwing mobs around and giving me the +rech from the KB proc in it. 

Edited November 2, 2020 by FundamentalyConfused

[Lusiphur Malache]

Yeah, picking pay wasn't my finest moment. I gone back and forth about deleting and just letting things go as they are with my tf/sf team.

 

Finally decided just to run this toon in groups as I can't take getting a fraction of the xp my other toons get for the same missions.

 

 

[Coyote]

If you feel that you have to show that a "healer" can level up solo, I have a couple of suggestions:

 

1: Play a different healing set. Rad, Dark, and Kin are all good soloing sets. Pain is not great soloing, but it's better than Empathy, and healing-wise it's very close to Empathy.

2: Play a more aggressive secondary. I like Psy for a Emp, since the fast attacks allow you to heal someone then throw a fast blast to help them damage their target, without getting in the way of keeping up with heals. But for soloing, I'd rather run Dark or Water (Water preferably) for the additional self-heal and control, or Energy for the +Recharge that helps you get the auras up faster, or Ice for the Holds.

 

Pain/Water or Pain/Ice should be a much better soloer, while still being a healer on teams.

[Lusiphur Malache]

Team has a variety of supports, trollers, mm, defenders,corruptors,but he seems overly committed to always playing an emp

 

I want to get an emp high enough to hang so he'll stop playing his and handicapping us. He is an exceptional dps

 

My problem is that my emp/psy is too difficult to level solo. Not impossible. Fights take longer and I get half the xp my blaster gets for the same mission.

[Doomguide2005]

Curious why you think the Empath gets less for the same mission.  Slower (as in I can see it taking twice as long), so less xp over time yes, but assuming everything else is the same (difficulty, mob size) the xp should be identical (and certainly no where near half as much) on a per mission basis.

[Lusiphur Malache]

Started street sweeping with my defender and my blaster with 2xp on both. At lvl 5 started twinshot arc. Blaster was lvl 10.5 at completion, defender barely over 8. 

 

Blaster went to the hollows and dinged 13 on frostfire. Even with 2 deaths. Skipping past Meg's missions

 

Defender did all of wincott's, flex,meg, and a couple julius missions. All solo,no defeats and leveled from 8 to 12.

 

Everything was equal between the two and yes it much longer with the defender. I can accept that, but at least give me the same xp.

[Doomguide2005]

19 hours ago, Darkesyde said:

Started street sweeping with my defender and my blaster with 2xp on both. At lvl 5 started twinshot arc. Blaster was lvl 10.5 at completion, defender barely over 8. 

 

Blaster went to the hollows and dinged 13 on frostfire. Even with 2 deaths. Skipping past Meg's missions

 

Defender did all of wincott's, flex,meg, and a couple julius missions. All solo,no defeats and leveled from 8 to 12.

 

Everything was equal between the two and yes it much longer with the defender. I can accept that, but at least give me the same xp.

🙁  Issues like this really make my inflicted hiatus from the game sting.  Computer died and neither CoH or Mids' run on a smart phone 😜.   I've run a bazillion Emps of all sorts to 50 never noted any difference in xp gain per mob while solo ... and would love to test it out and see what's going on but ...

[Darkir]

There is no difference in xp per mob or mission. I'm pretty sure he is referring to the speed you can kill mobs and complete missions. So xp is slower on a per hour basis.

[VV]

If you are determined to keep Emp/, I am going to join with the recommendations to dump /psy. Take one of the higher damage secondaries, like Fire. But, if you really want to ramp up your kill speed, I recommend changing the primary to Dark/ or Poison/.

[Doomguide2005]

11 hours ago, Darkir said:

There is no difference in xp per mob or mission. I'm pretty sure he is referring to the speed you can kill mobs and complete missions. So xp is slower on a per hour basis.

You may be right but that's not the impression I'm getting from his last  two posts.