lack of empathy for empaths?

[Nemu]

25 minutes ago, Furiant said:

The fact is, for all I hear about healing being irrelevant in the rarified end game speed run scenario, I have never once been in a group where somebody didn't need healing; and I can count on the fingers of one hand those runs in which nobody died.

 

Maybe I just don't have access to this mythical strata of end game (on any of my characters) but the world I live in definitely appreciates empaths and bubblers who can also contribute some dps or control or debuffs.

 

Play your toon who can heal, heal when needed, and find a way to contribute otherwise. If you can do that, I'm glad you're on the team.

Truth! This is a kneejerk carryover state of mind from the anti-healzors rants from 10 years ago. Any rational person will see that healing has a place. When my softcapped incarnate buffed xyz destiny uber defense uber resist blaster dips red in health I'm not going to turn down heals from an empath lol. Hating on the mechanic of healing and the viability of healing is silly.

 

For me the negative unconscious bias stem from the quality of players that play empathy. I've only met a handful of empaths that I consider good at playing the set, and magnitudes more that have (lots of) room for improvement. People remember the bad ones more than the good ones and get jaded when that constitutes their perspective. But even those bad emp players are welcome on certain content like hami raids or MoM, rock that aura, I don't really care, you are doing your job in that case and helping me get my hami-O/endgame loot.

 

If those healers want to learn something about the game and get good then great, if not it doesn't impact my softcapped god mode of whatever I'm playing one bit.

53 minutes ago, 5099y_74c05 said:

/Nature

The cone on the heal in nature makes it a hard sell for me. In really frantic situations I'd rather have a pbaoe heal centered around myself than a cone that requires that I find my target, then line up behind them and face a certain way. With certain mobile playstyles the cone is just a terrible fit especially when you try to que it up and your previous power has you facing a different direction than how you want to fire your cone.

 

I don't think Nature is any better or worse than Empathy. One has resists/hold/debuffs, the other has defense and anti-mez and I consider the anti-mez pretty important for traditional pre-incarnate teaming. I do know that the nature heal doesn't jive with my playstyle where I'm constantly hopping in and out of combat and repositioning myself.

[TygerDarkstorm]

3 hours ago, roleki said:

These may all be facts, but it's also a fact that only while soloing or as part of a duo would anyone even notice if a character was a "dedicated healer."  It's not a game that requires optimization from every (or any) character.  

I never said every character needs to be fully optimized. I'm not a min/max player. However, a dedicated healer is just not a needed thing and I think you're missing what we mean when we say "dedicated healer" as it applies to this game. A "dedicated healer" is someone like the OP--a person who usually picks empathy and picks pretty much only the powers from the empathy powerset, and often dips into the medicine pool for even more heals, and then contributes nothing else to a team because they're waiting for green bars to move.

 

Yes, even in a duo that's useless and wasting one half of the duo's time. Whereas if that same empath were to actually pick up some of their attacks and offensive powers, now they can fill time in between buffs/debuffs/healing with attacks. Sure, they may not do much damage, but the faster mobs are dying, the safer everyone is anyway. And yes, this applies to running in a duo as well; in fact, I would think it would be even more prevalent in a duo.

 

And for the other people trying to say that healing is necessary and yada yada--we know. We have never said that healing cannot be useful. I have a water/pain corr who once spent a good chunk of a TF healing instead of using her attacks because for whatever reason the team was quite squishy. Healing has its place, but it should never be the only thing you focus on. @Nemu summed things up quite nicely in their post and their description of how to play empathy is what I aspire to be on my pain defender; but that doesn't mean I don't also take my attacks and slot them.

[DSorrow]

1 hour ago, Furiant said:

The fact is, for all I hear about healing being irrelevant in the rarified end game speed run scenario, I have never once been in a group where somebody didn't need healing; and I can count on the fingers of one hand those runs in which nobody died.

I don't think anyone is saying healing is irrelevant, but rather that it's just the least effective main support for your teammates. Pushing +Res/+Def allows your allies to passively avoid a vast majority of incoming damage which is usually a lot better than relying on a teammate's reactive ability to keep you alive. For example, if your tank is at around 70% Res, adding any +Res buff will basically cut incoming damage to 1/3 of what he was taking previously, and this will pretty much always be more useful than healing if you have to choose between the two. 

 

Then there's also the question of what "needs healing" even means. Most of my characters dip into the yellow or even red quite regularly, and almost as regularly make it back to green without anyone's help so I wouldn't say they "need healing" even though it surely helps every now and then. As far as people dying goes, I think there are two things that matter: would they be dying significantly more often with buffs instead of heals and is avoiding the pittance of a defeat penalty worth the reduced speed for having a healer? Personally, for the former I'd guess buffs are more foolproof for pretty much the same result and for the latter I'd always pick speed.

 

However, as @rolekipointed out before, CoH is extremely lenient on team composition so when it really comes down to it, it doesn't really matter. The difference between having a team of 7+dedicated healer and 7+buffer is going to be unnoticeable for anyone besides a team of powergamers trying to achieve a specific goal. But such is human psychology that people will prefer any advantage they can get, even if they won't be able to notice it.

[CFIndustries]

21 hours ago, Panache said:

How many powers from Illusion did you take? There used to be a "trend" of players playing "dedicated support"; the most extreme version of this was Emp Defs with just their T1 attack full Leadership and, for reasons passing understanding, Medicine pools. While I personally find unsolicited negative criticism tedious and pointless, those builds did indeed deserve to die in a fire.

Well, at least once ED hit on Live. Before that, skilled "pure empathy" defenders were well regarded by a large population of average/typical players. I cut my CoH teeth on such an alt and the inspiration of PCSAR.

 

And not all of us had the Medicine pool, we took Leadership, Flight, and the Teleport pool. I recall having more than one attack (though poorly slotted, I was the popular Emp/Elec)

 

I burned my pure empathy defender once ED hit; that alt was basically invalidated and I didn't feel like respec'ing him since he was a 50 and it wouldn't be the same experience.

 

I haven't played empathy since, to be honest. The memories of what it once was just make me cranky.

[Carnifax]

2 hours ago, Furiant said:

The fact is, for all I hear about healing being irrelevant in the rarified end game speed run scenario, I have never once been in a group where somebody didn't need healing; and I can count on the fingers of one hand those runs in which nobody died.

To me it's the difference between someone with heals and a dedicated healer.

 

Both will heal you but one will also do a load of other stuff, some of which you'll probably need less heals in the long run (such as AOE mezzing a bunch). 

[TygerDarkstorm]

@DSorrow and @Carnifax summed up what I was trying to say quite nicely. This isn't World of Warcraft or other games based around the holy trinity where a healer is a thing. Yes, heals have a place in this game, but they shouldn't be your main focus. That's why we have support AT's, not healers.

[Greycat]

6 hours ago, Nemu said:

 Any rational person will see that healing has a place. When my softcapped incarnate buffed xyz destiny uber defense uber resist blaster dips red in health I'm not going to turn down heals from an empath lol. Hating on the mechanic of healing and the viability of healing is silly.

 

 

There's a *big* gap between "Don't play a dedicated healer" and "healing is useless/doesn't have a place." It does have a place.

 

The reason "dedicated healers" are put down is - well, it's the difference between a mechanic who uses a full toolkit and one that walks around with a screwdriver and a grin. One's going to use all the tools at their disposal to fix - and *prevent* - problems, the other just looks silly and isn't really going to help much with your flat tire.

[Nemu]

5 hours ago, 5099y_74c05 said:

I suspect the first key difference of my playstyle...

Yeah it took some getting used to. My comments about nature stem from the early levels when regrowth was the only spammable power in the toolkit. Of course at higher levels as your kit expands it may not be as big a deal depending on playstyle.

 

I'm just glad the "gather for RA" crowd haven't caught on to nature. Can you imagine? "Gather for LGS!", "Gather for WB!" "GATHER for WG!" "GATHER FOR OG!" 😆

I present Nature the gatherer's choice award.

[Coyote]

Just to add a different topic to this topic 🙂 ... if you want to play a Healer and concetrate on Healing as your main purpose, I strongly suggest running a MM. You can be free to heal while you're still contributing to the team's damage.

 

Also, if you're in a situation where the team doesn't need defensive buffs like Fortitude, the henchmen can always use them, so you don't end up with buffs that are useless because so many team members are softcapped in Defense or hardcapped in Resistance.

 

Whenever I make a character that has a lot of team buffs, I try to make them as MMs, so that if I'm soloing or on a team that doesn't need them, I still can get mileage out of them by throwing them on the henchmen.

[Bastille Boy]

On 11/15/2020 at 7:28 PM, Miltonaut said:

The character's backstory is built around an artifact passed down through generations of a family, absorbing power and sentience from its owners. Hence, empathy and phantoms. I might could get ill/pain to work but the toon is already lvl 50 with all incarnates unlocked. Not excited about having to do all that again... I really wish we could either switch powersets when respeccing or transfer xp to alts. *whines*

Pain and Empathy play very differently. I have a level 50 Pain/Sonic defender and a level 50 Empathy/Beam defender. Empathy has five buffs to keep up, if you are using Clear Mind preemptively. Pain has only three, including Enforced Morale (CM equivalent), and one of the major healing powers is a toggle aura. When I play my Pain character, I find that I can easily focus on my secondary--which happens to be what I want to do. I love healing sets for thematic/backstory reasons, but I don't play them as dedicated healers.

 

I have little experience playing controllers and no experience playing Illusion. But I'd hesitate to invest in Ill/Pain before you've fully explored the possibilities of the toon you already have. Maybe it's worth a respec to put more emphasis on your primary. Take more of the powers--maybe all of them? Maybe get some procs in the hold powers? See how you like playing the toon with more emphasis on buffing and on the weird but interesting mix of tools that Illusion gives you.

 

What server are you on? If you're open to trying out another server, it may be worth transferring this character to Indominable. Because the PVP community is on Indom, and emps are essential in PVP, Empathy toons may get a warmer welcome there, even in PVE. I didn't experience any anti-emp sentiment when I was leveling up my Emp/Beam. (I didn't play this toon as a dedicated healer, either. When I took him to a PVP kickball, and dedicated healing was expected, that was an adjustment!)

 

If you prefer to stay where you are, I think you'll get a better reaction from other players if you stop billing the character as a "dedicated healer." It suggests that you're deliberately not using the features of your powersets that are of most use to your team. "Dedicated support" or "team-oriented controller" would sound better to my ear.

 

[Doomguide2005]

Among my numerous Empaths I only had 1 Controller and pretty much decided the two didn't mix well (Empaths and Controllers).  Empathy is a busy set and I find most Controllers, at least the way I play them, to also be quite busy.  Further they both require considerable attention to what is going on.  That attention, however, I find rather divided.  As an Empath I find the majority of my focus is on the team and its status.  And I don't mean just the health bars though obviously they're included.  I'm watching buff and debuff icons, endurance bars as well as health.  And I'm watching them over time as 'stuff happens'.  Who just went from no debuffs to all sorts appearing, which buffs are flashing, what do those debuff and buffs represent, etc..  At times I've gone a whole fight when things go south barely seeing anything other than my team window.  

   

My Controllers on the other hand are focused strongly on the foes almost to the exclusion of what's going on with the team.    And I've found I don't feel like I'm doing an adequate job when I mix the two, one of, if not both, suffer from the divided attention.

 

All of which leads to this.  If I were to run another Controller/Empath Illusion would likely be on the short list if not at the top.  I've got PA, that's damage and control I can largely ignore if I need to focus on the team for a bit.  And while I have to monitor (Buff,Heal) Phantasm he spawns duplicates which again don't require attention to do their thing.  So my experience with Illusion tells me while it will still have my focus divided I can more readily focus my attention on the team should circumstances demand it compared to most other control sets.

[VV]

On 11/15/2020 at 7:57 PM, Miltonaut said:

Well, all the hate I was getting was from people who hadn't even seen my build--general/lfg/help chat. They were hating the mere concept of a dedicated healer.

1. Don't listen to those people.

2. Don't tell people your build.

3. Don't play dedicated healers because they are really unneeded.

[VV]

Honestly, I don't understand how you aren't bored as heck. I play a number of support, Grav/Storm is one of my mains, and I play a Plant/Dark a lot. The times that I really need to throw a heal are pretty few and far between. If I didn't have a bunch of other stuff to do in terms of attacks, I don't know what I'd be spending my time doing. I mean, if Empathy is good for your concept, great, go for it. But, focus on contributing proactively via buffs, damage, and control, and less on reactive heals. 

[Clave Dark 5]

One of those colored names in my sig is a Darkness Control/Emp controller, and I never caught flack for running an Emp, and did have to use a lot of healing/rezzing that was needed.  Admittedly, his Darkness Control is procced out like mad, so he never worked as nor called himself "dedicated healer."  Just those words alone my be drawing the ire.  Heck, he still sometimes gets run ragged on MSRs trying to keep up with the rezzing needed (even if it's often just that same one scrapper over and over again ha ha).

 

Remember that although the hardcore/min-max players are probably thicker on the ground now than they were in Live, they're still not the end-all of the game nor is everyone who's playing in that group. 

 

Just to spite them all, I'ma go make a petless mastermind, so there!

[CaptainLupis]

A suggestion for you: There is the ability in game to have multiple builds for a character. Why not create a second build that focuses more on offence, and the empathy buffs, over the heals (I'm not saying don't take them, just don't prioritise them). That way you can choose whether you want to play dedicated healer, which may be a viable option if you are exemping a lot, or take another role on teams that don't really need that. Or perhaps even to solo.

 

Apologies if anyone has already suggested this, admittedly I skim read a fair chunk of the replies.

[ZacKing]

Empathy is more of a pre-30s set IMO.  Only time I remember them being worthwhile at 50 was for Hami raids.

[Doomguide2005]

5 hours ago, ZacKing said:

Empathy is more of a pre-30s set IMO.  Only time I remember them being worthwhile at 50 was for Hami raids.

40

[Hopestar]

I think the major issue being overlooked is not the "dedicated healer" aspect as much as the choice of Controller over the more potent Defender where your healing is stronger. People will expect you to bring the control aspect with the controller symbol on their team and of which even an illusion has several controls (fear, stun, taunt, group invis), if you bring none of that, why would they want you on the team? You're shooting both yourself and your team in the foot with this decision, so advertising as a ill/emp controller would be wrong as you're more of a petless MM with your gimped healing and no control.

[VV]

The thing is, I think a really great build come be made from an Ill/Emp combination. Slot the primary up for damage. Cast out your pets, drop some locks, and then you are free to move about the combat buffing everyone else, making them feel like GAWDS. You are still contributing damage and mitigation on your own through your pets, so you have that covered, too. I don't think the lack of empathy is for the empathy powerset directly, it is for the idea of a "dedicated healer."

[VV]

On 11/18/2020 at 12:03 PM, ZacKing said:

Empathy is more of a pre-30s set IMO.  Only time I remember them being worthwhile at 50 was for Hami raids.

Have you been on a Hami Raid recently?

[hejtmane]

On 11/15/2020 at 5:59 PM, Sir Myshkin said:

The opinion of debate: Empathy has not had value in this game since the advent of the Invention System, and is only in the game as a "token" set (there because every other game had one, so CoH had to, too).

Empathy has some value in the early game since players barely have any powers yet, let alone enhancements, so there's plenty for the "healing" side of things to keep active. As players flesh out their builds and get IO's and bonuses going, more and more of the need for "just heals" starts to go out the window since so many try and build Defense and Resistance to high levels. It's fairly simple for nearly any character in the game to get 45% S/L or Ranged Defense with a bit of build effort, and that single stat alone eliminates a huge amount of potential threat. This effect is even more compounded with the addition of Incarnates.

 

Your four key powers are Fortitude, Recovery and Regeneration Aura(s), and Adrenalin Boost. Ageless and Rebirth both invalidate three of those by giving that functionality to 40 people from any build that slots the power. Barrier invalidates Fortitude by an aggressive amount by giving that insane boost to, again, a huge chunk of people. You've now become a Resurrect Bot, and even in that you'll probably fail to be useful as someone will most likely have a Barrier that also includes the Resurrect utility. Or any number of temporary powers that do the same thing.

 

These are unfortunately the current dilemmas of an Empathy character.

 

If you say you're making a "Dedicated Healer", many are going to interpret that as "no attacks", and that translates as "I'm just sitting here waiting for you to get hit and not bringing any other value to the team besides waiting to fill your green bar back up that isn't moving because everyone's a walking tank." Empathy can have a useful place in the right team, but in the current state of the game it just can't be the only thing you bring to the table. Bring Holds, have perma Phantom Army, keep Spectral going, keep Phantasm alive, make sure you've got a contribution to the damage aspect too.

 

To an extent, yes. You can definitely play the game however you want, and in fact there was one player who documented soloing with an Empathy Defender (a set that ends up only carrying three self-inflicting abilities) just to prove a point. So you do you, and own it.

 

If you're open to some thoughts on a different path within the wheelhouse you're looking at, I would suggest doing an Illusion/Pain Controller instead of Illusion/Empathy. You can color the powers however you see fit to keep a theme, and ignore the names of any of the powers to effect, but Pain Domination has (in my opinion) a much better aresenal of tools that support a team (and you) more dynamically in the current state of the game. It has enemy debuffs, player buffs, still keeps active healing, and will keep you engage in a positive way with any team irregardless of your primary. My opinion, between Empathy and Pain Domination, Pain is the set that the game ultimately deserved and is the superior version of the "Healer" support role.

 

To give you an idea what an active Ill/Pain would look like I actually have a build one of my own:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Natural Controller
Primary Power Set: Illusion Control
Secondary Power Set: Pain Domination
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Force of Will
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Blind -- UnbCns-Acc/Rchg(A), UnbCns-EndRdx/Hold(7), SprWiloft-Rchg/Dmg%(7), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(11), UnbCns-Dam%(13), GldNet-Dam%(13)
Level 1: Nullify Pain -- Pnc-Heal/EndRedux(A), Pnc-EndRdx/Rchg(15), Pnc-Heal/Rchg(21), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg(23), Pnc-Heal(50)
Level 2: Deceive -- SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), SprWiloft-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(23), SprWiloft-EndRdx/Rchg(37), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(40), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 4: Soothe -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(40)
Level 6: Share Pain -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg(42)
Level 8: Superior Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(9), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(9), Rct-ResDam%(11)
Level 10: Conduit of Pain -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(15), HO:Ribo(50)
Level 16: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def(17), Rct-Def/EndRdx(17)
Level 18: Phantom Army -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(19), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(21), OvrFrc-Dam/KB(43), SlbAll-Build%(48)
Level 20: Soothing Aura -- Prv-Heal/EndRdx(A), Prv-Heal(39)
Level 22: Mighty Leap -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A)
Level 24: Project Will -- Apc-Dmg(A), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25), Apc-Acc/Rchg(25), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(27), Apc-Dam%(27), FrcFdb-Rechg%(31)
Level 26: Spectral Terror -- SprOvrPrs-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), SprOvrPrs-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(31), SprOvrPrs-EndRdx/Rchg(34), SprOvrPrs-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(34), SprOvrPrs-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(34), SprOvrPrs-Rchg/Energy Font(36)
Level 28: World of Pain -- RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctArm-ResDam(29), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29), RctArm-ResDam/Rchg(31), HO:Membr(46)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(43), Rct-Def(43)
Level 32: Phantasm -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(33), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), SvrRgh-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), SvrRgh-PetResDam(36)
Level 35: Anguishing Cry -- AnlWkn-Acc/Rchg/EndRdx(A), AnlWkn-Acc/Rchg(37), AnlWkn-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 38: Painbringer -- Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg(39), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(39), Prv-Absorb%(40)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def(42), Rct-Def/EndRdx(42)
Level 44: Poisonous Ray -- SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(45), GldJvl-Dam%(45), TchofLadG-%Dam(45), AchHee-ResDeb%(46), ShlBrk-%Dam(46)
Level 47: Unleash Potential -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(3), Mrc-Rcvry+(3)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PwrTrns-EndMod(A), PwrTrns-+Heal(5), PrfShf-End%(5)
Level 50: Vigor Radial Paragon
------------

 

 

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Empathy was the red head step child all the way back when I started playing in I2 early. I would agree anout early  levels where it can shine before the powers selection start to whittle away at it's usefulness.  Yet the invention system still pales in comparsion to pre ed numbers and no pentalty.  6 slotted hasten yea perma hasten was a breeze, tanks and scrappers running perma unstopable, perma elude; regen scrappers tanking hami because IH was a toggle and the regen % where through the roof; no aoe caps when farming was dumpster diving, portal footstomp farming.  Empathy has been the red headed step child way before IO's.

Edited November 23, 2020 by hejtmane

[Corythia]

Personally, I like to see a well played Empath on a team, but that said, with a well played Illusion controller, you should rarely need your heals.  Between PA, Decieve, Holds, and the fear pet you are looking at a LOT of mitigation.  By using some of the excellent advice on where and when to place your buffs  in this thread, you could go whole fights or even missions without needing to use a heal.  I think where people may have issue with the dedicated healer mindset is that with all the tools at your disposal, if you are looking to do a lot of healing, you essentially have to sandbag on the mitigation front to get the opportunity.   People would rather you didn't go ahead and let them get beat all to hell just so you can heal them.  As for the second rez, if you let someone die with an Illusion/EMP, something has gone VERY wrong.  It happens sometimes - especially in caves or if the team splits, but again, if people are dieing on your team, you need to be looking at mitigating harder with your Illusion powers rather than healing harder and hoping to keep them alive.  People will really resent it if you're intentionally letting them get heavily wounded.

[Sporks]

For what it's worth, I mained an Ice/Empathy controller back in the day and was one of the most sought after teammates on my server. The catch is that while my heals and empathy buffs were nice, they were often unneeded. It was my crowd control with ice powers that made that character shine.

 

Specifically, by slotting a chance to confuse into arctic air, I could stand in the middle of a giant mob with AA on and the enemies would be super slowed while attacking each other. Add glacier, blizzard (ice storm? been a while) jack frost and the rest of the team nuking, and you basically make mobs a joke that you can more or less tank yourself with AA (I dunno if chance to confuse io's are a thing anymore but that specifically is what made my ice controller a god).

 

So, empathy was a nice bonus but hardly the selling point of that hero.

[Tahliah]

Well, everyone has kind of said it already in that dedicated healers are just not needed in the game anymore, particularly once you hit 50/incarnate.  That said, however, I have a plant/emp that I love to run, but my focus is not on healing, it's on controlling the mobs and providing my teammates with buffs (CM, AB, Fort, and the auras, particularly pre-50).  I ran a version of this plant/emp on live, and in that toon, I put a lot of slots in the heals and setted them up.  Now, though, the main thing to do is ensure that you can use your buffs as often as possible and hit as many teammates as possible with them, so recharge is more important than healing at bazillion points on a heal aura spam. 

 

Ditch the medicine pool, focus on your buffs and on your ill/ debuffs, get your recharge up for perma PA and keep your pets up and running at all times (don't need perma for that, most recharge quickly enough if you are paying attention to recharge in your build). 

 

I guess the key here is to think about not being a dedicated healer but of being an /emp who ensures your team needs as little healing as possible. 

 

That said, though, ignore the rude people offering UA about your build; I have never understood why anyone feels they have the right to criticize someone else's build without being first asked to critique it.  And frankly, if you want to run a dedicated healer that just spams heals all the time, go for it.  There are plenty of teams looking for "healers" in LFG, and they usually mean just that (and sometimes become very upset when you DON'T spam your healing aura at all times, even when just waiting outside the door--yes, I seriously had a team leader complain that I didn't have my healing aura on while outside the mish, I explained that my having Hasten locked was more important but . . . . . lol). 

Edited December 1, 2020 by Tahliah
clarity

[America's Angel]

@Miltonaut

 

Ill/Emp is a good combo: Fortitude, Adrenalin Boost, and Clear Mind? With heals on top, and phantom army/decoy to tank stuff? Very helpful stuff. Especially for squishy team mates. The medicine pool can be useful due to Field Medic boosting all your heals by 25% for 60s. (Plus the extra rez. Allowing you to have up to three ally-rez powers if you include the P2W one, or six if you've taken the barrier rez incarnate power. Useful if you're doing casual league content where people are dying all the time.)

 

Sure, you're not going to contribute that much to min/max teams. (To be honest, anything other than DPS, +damage, or -res isn't all that useful in min/max teams.) But on mixed ability teams (the majority of teams) you'll be good.

 

Also worth mentioning that, unlike PVE, dedicated healers ARE a thing in PVP. (And ill/emp is one of the best combos for them.) Here's a guide on it in case you're curious: https://docs.google.com/document/d/167DVoNfhI2XWLHfLa90wkmxY4tY_AWBd68HBdPpK4qM/edit

Edited December 1, 2020 by America's Angel