Any /pain love?

[Jawbreaker]

I know compared to /time or /rad that /pain isn't top tier for a corr secondary but I'm wondering if anyone plays it and what it's strengths and weaknesses are? It's definitely not looking like a great soloing set at first glance, but maybe a mid-level buff set? 

[Darkir]

Pain is excellent on a team where you can make one person godly with painbringer and increase everyone's resistances while decreasing the enemies. You also get a passive healing aura which is quite nice on quick moving teams. You can easily softcap your own s/l res, but it is quite difficult to softcap your defenses (you give up a lot of recharge). I think it is better on a defender. 

[Bastille Boy]

I have a Pain/Sonic defender I quite like. Darkir helped me with the build. It is great on fast-moving teams. Pain is less "clicky" than Empathy or Thermal, partly because of the passive healing aura. So it is very possible to focus on your blast set.

 

For solo play, Pain can give you a reasonably tanky character, thanks to the healing aura and the resistance buff. I can finish the challenging AE mission 801.2 at +0/8 on my Pain/Sonic. The big downside, as Darkir mentioned, is that it's challenging to softcap defense. Building for both melee and ranged isn't really an option. If you want two softcapped defenses (as I always do), you have to take Scorpion Shield and go for ranged and S/L. Builds are going to be tight, especially on a corruptor. The +res will benefit you more on a defender.

 

The skippable powers are Share Pain and Conduit of Pain. I still take Conduit of Pain because I need it in my build as a set mule for Preemptive Optimization.

[Jawbreaker]

6 hours ago, Bastille Boy said:

I have a Pain/Sonic defender I quite like. Darkir helped me with the build. It is great on fast-moving teams. Pain is less "clicky" than Empathy or Thermal, partly because of the passive healing aura. So it is very possible to focus on your blast set.

 

For solo play, Pain can give you a reasonably tanky character, thanks to the healing aura and the resistance buff. I can finish the challenging AE mission 801.2 at +0/8 on my Pain/Sonic. The big downside, as Darkir mentioned, is that it's challenging to softcap defense. Building for both melee and ranged isn't really an option. If you want two softcapped defenses (as I always do), you have to take Scorpion Shield and go for ranged and S/L. Builds are going to be tight, especially on a corruptor. The +res will benefit you more on a defender.

 

The skippable powers are Share Pain and Conduit of Pain. I still take Conduit of Pain because I need it in my build as a set mule for Preemptive Optimization.

I was thinking there weren't too many powers to take solely for mule purposes, Share Pain was the first that stood out though. 

[Two Dollar Bill]

I do have a Pain Domination Corruptor, but he doesn't get much play. I actually prefer my Illusion/Pain Controller. I also like Pain (or Thermal) as a Mastermind secondary because you can use the buffs and heals to solo, and if you're in a situation where pets just don't work, you can hang back and play healer.

 

I never skip Share Pain. When I take Pain Domination, even as a secondary, I'm playing a healer and I want to be good at it. Share Pain lets you heal two different teammates faster than Soothe can recharge, or you can pump one teammate with so much health that they can survive almost anything. Share Pain can get you killed, but it can be used from a safe distance in most cases, and if I'm spamming heals that fast, I'm probably making very few attacks and not creating much aggro. Share Pain also works just fine with minimal slotting. Actually, the amount of healing it can do with no extra slots is remarkable.

 

I normally skip the healing aura, Suppress Pain, because the heal is very weak.

 

[Jawbreaker]

2 hours ago, Two Dollar Bill said:

I do have a Pain Domination Corruptor, but he doesn't get much play. I actually prefer my Illusion/Pain Controller. I also like Pain (or Thermal) as a Mastermind secondary because you can use the buffs and heals to solo, and if you're in a situation where pets just don't work, you can hang back and play healer.

 

I never skip Share Pain. When I take Pain Domination, even as a secondary, I'm playing a healer and I want to be good at it. Share Pain lets you heal two different teammates faster than Soothe can recharge, or you can pump one teammate with so much health that they can survive almost anything. Share Pain can get you killed, but it can be used from a safe distance in most cases, and if I'm spamming heals that fast, I'm probably making very few attacks and not creating much aggro. Share Pain also works just fine with minimal slotting. Actually, the amount of healing it can do with no extra slots is remarkable.

 

I normally skip the healing aura, Suppress Pain, because the heal is very weak.

 

Oh that's good info, I'll have to start using it more