Ultimate Support Character?

[Socks10]

I edited the post above a bit discussing the new character I made yesterday, a Cold/Dark Defender. But I wanted to add some additional thoughts. 

 

I hit level 31 with this character today. I grouped up yesterday, but today I have been just playing through some radio missions solo (as I should really be working, ssh). I already have a Therm/Sonic Defender in the high 30s, but there are reasons I like this guy better, aside for my preference for ice or cold based characters. Some information on this character first. I decided to spend a little money on him. My attacks are all slotted with regular IOs and my defenses are all slotted with ATOs. For defense abilities, aside from the two shields I can cast on others, he has Tough, Weave, Maneuvers, and Combat Jumping. He also has Super Speed and Tactics. Sprint has the Celerity Stealth IO in it. 

 

I love stealth on this guy. Arctic Fog is awesome, especially when paired with the Stealth IO and Super Speed. I can literally stumble into a group of mobs and still go unnoticed. It allows me to get off a full damage sniper shot with ease. I'm not blazing through solo missions or anything, but it's been fun so far. Tenebrous Tentacles and Sleet make it pretty safe. I cannot wait to get Heat Loss next level. 

 

I doubt this is the ultimate support character, but he's been fun so far. I've thought about still picking up the teleport other ability, but with the talk in this thread, it feels less important now. There are other ways to get a teleport others ability. Same goes for rez. I might miss healing when grouping with friends though, and have thought about trying to fit in Frostwork, but that might be for a second build for this character. The build I am using now seems really sturdy and fun. 

 

 

[smnolimits41]

how about a Rad defender.  It has a mini heal, a rez, and AM, and debuffs.

[Socks10]

On 1/26/2022 at 9:03 PM, MoonSheep said:

surprisingly i’ve found my kin/sonic defender to be my favourite support character over the last 2.5 years

 

- SB from lvl 12 is such a great buff and makes a huge difference at low levels. everyone loves SB!

- powerboosted transfusion is a mighty, mighty heal. it can change the outcome of a battle

- powerboosted veng if a team member falls gives around +60% defence

- fulcrum shift is always a game changer

- nice sonic debuffs to help out further

- fold space helps me bunch up the mobs nicely for fulcrum shift and to allow the AoE team members their chance to shine

 

I have a Kin/Sonic on level 34. I really love the Kin powerset. The buffs are awesome and I even love Repel. I have been hesitant to play him with my group of friends because he doesn't do much for the groups survivability. However, what helps a group survive more than mobs dying as quickly as possible? Your suggestion of using Fold Space is nice too, especially as I was already looking at trying to fit the TP pool into my support build. I also love the Gravity set and use Wormhole to move groups of mobs a lot.

 

I'll have a look and see what I can come up with in a build rework. Thanks. 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Socks10
Spelling

[Without_Pause]

On 1/28/2022 at 11:00 AM, Socks10 said:

My attacks are all slotted with regular IOs and my defenses are all slotted with ATOs.

 

 

Quite the feat to slot Defender ATOs into defensive powers. Also, Rebirth with likely kill any need to look elsewhere for healing. 

[Socks10]

10 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

Quite the feat to slot Defender ATOs into defensive powers. Also, Rebirth with likely kill any need to look elsewhere for healing. 

 

I thought I fixed that in my post. I meant to say that I had slotted all my defensives with Attuned set pieces. 

 

I'm not sure what you are referring to my your last comment though. Rebirth?

[Without_Pause]

Rebirth is an Incarnate option. 

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Destiny_Slot_Abilities#Rebirth

[oedipus_tex]

On 1/25/2022 at 7:36 AM, Socks10 said:

1. I want to be able to heal. 

2. I want to be able to rez.

3. I want to be able to teleport my teammates.

4. I want to take the Leadership pool. 

5. I would like to be able to stealth. 

 

 

Based on these requirements I would consider a Dark Control/Thermal Controller. The resist shields, plus your healing, plus the -ToHit debuffing you do is a formidable combo, and a perfect argument for taking Leadership to add additional team Defense to stack with it.

 

Alternatively if you don't mind the rezz requiring an enemy target, I would consider Dark/Dark.

 

Personally I think Controllers tend to fit the "ultimate support character" designation more than Defenders do, depending on how you define "support character." Defenders do have better base modifiers and some Defenders have debuff in their attacks. Controllers make up for that with the volume of options available them. IMO Controller is the strangest class in the game. There are huge differences in each powerset combo.

Edited February 2, 2022 by oedipus_tex

[Socks10]

I have played a Dark/Energy Dominator a bit (level 34?). I like Dark, but that howling wolf pet can be a bit much. Still, a Dark/Dark Controller could be something to look into. My, very demanding, friends seem to prefer when I play a Tanker and take all of the aggro away from them. We seem to have the most success when I play in that role. A Controller would be a possibility, as I could try to lock everything down for them to make it as safe as possible. 

 

I got my Cold/Dark Defender to level 49 and I really like the character. I think the main issue with him is the lack of AoE damage. Aside from Blackstar that is. That is amazing AoE damage and I have a blast running into the middle of a group and using it. Other than that though, it's mainly dropping Sleet, Tenebrous Tentacles, and spamming my ST attacks. Still, fun character. 

[Thrax]

My elec/rad scrapper can heal with rad armors aoe attack and rez with barrier. 
 

the answer is nature though. 

[Tahliah]

Ill/kin does all that, but it's a troll.  So just pick any defender options (it really doesn't matter given your parameters since they will all have some type of rez, though think about how you want to heal-kins and dark miss, emp/pain doesn't, etc.) and slot your sprint with Celerity stealth (you won't be invis, but you will be stealthy enough to get by most stuff).  Then pick up leadership, speed (for Hasten), and TP (or as someone mentioned, just buy the TP teammates power from the P2W vendor, this is not an ideal option since it has a cooldown time).  You can also get the day job rez, not great but decent in a pinch if your main rez is down.   You can also get a minimal targetted heal via Day Jobs (again, not ideal, but good in a pinch if your heal missed or you about to lose someone).

[Marshal_General]

Electrical Affinity can give heals, absorb, endurance, damage and resists to the team along with a rez.

[Meknomancer]

Its not much but it is possible to get minor heals for low level content on your fenders. If you throw in the superior defenders bastion chance for pbaoe heal and the superior vigilant assault pbaoe absorb in a fast recharging aoe that you use a lot they fire off pretty regularly, way more than standard proc pieces (at least from experience i don't know what the numbers are) its best in powers like fireball/ball lightning/irradiate as they hit stuff without any effort on your part but i have used them in dark cones as well, they usually end up in torrent as it has massive range and even if your in the mob and only hit a couple of targets it fires through to the mob in the distance and you'll heal team for a small amount as well as putting that tiny absorb shield on. Cold/dark means you won't need to heal much anyway but if you do just hop next to whoever needs it and fire off the attack with the defender procs in its pretty reliable (in aoe's at least providing you hit enough targets)

[Socks10]

4 hours ago, Meknomancer said:

Its not much but it is possible to get minor heals for low level content on your fenders. If you throw in the superior defenders bastion chance for pbaoe heal and the superior vigilant assault pbaoe absorb in a fast recharging aoe that you use a lot they fire off pretty regularly, way more than standard proc pieces (at least from experience i don't know what the numbers are) its best in powers like fireball/ball lightning/irradiate as they hit stuff without any effort on your part but i have used them in dark cones as well, they usually end up in torrent as it has massive range and even if your in the mob and only hit a couple of targets it fires through to the mob in the distance and you'll heal team for a small amount as well as putting that tiny absorb shield on. Cold/dark means you won't need to heal much anyway but if you do just hop next to whoever needs it and fire off the attack with the defender procs in its pretty reliable (in aoe's at least providing you hit enough targets)

 

This is awesome information. I had never considered these procs. Seems like they would be very useful. I have yet to put set pieces in my attacks for my Cold/Dark, but I will be slotting these for sure. 

 

Lately though, I have been back playing my Kin/Sonic and trying to get a better feel for them. I had originally been following an @Darkir build because, well, they are really sturdy builds. However, I recently found a build by @Moonsheep and this really seemed more along the lines of what I was trying to build. I ended up dropping the Fighting pool and creating a build that is a mix between the two builds I had been referencing. I'm curious to see how it's going to do. I feel like I'm going to die a lot more without the Fighting pool, but I'm really getting a bit tired of every build having three power choices taken up by that pool. 🙂

[Doomguide2005]

Sonic/Dark, Cold/Dark, Dark/Dark, Dark/Arch ... all Defenders plus a DM/WP Scrapper.  Probably the toughest group of 5 characters my friends and I ran together as an themed team (everyone had to have at least one "Dark" set).  We bored ourselves to death I think.  Crushing +4/×8 Arachnos arcs in Faultline by our low 20's on builds that were mostly SO's with a few IOs roughly in i16 as I recall.  That Scrapper was unkillable backed by those 4.  I think my Sonic/Dark was the only one that made 50.  Our play as a team mostly ended and we moved to other things shortly after finishing Faultline.  Always wanted to see what they could have done Incarnated and IO'd out.

[Onlyasandwich]

13 hours ago, Socks10 said:

tired of every build having three power choices taken up by that pool.

Yes! Free yourself of the fighting pool, and embrace the glory of a happy end bar and room to choose and slot out the deeper epics!

 

Seriously though, I still choose it a lot, but it feels great to have a compelling reason to avoid it.

[Socks10]

Well, I got my Cold/Dark to level 50. I really like the look of this guy, but not sure how needed my shields are at that level. I mostly find that I end up throwing down Sleet and tentacles and just being a week blaster. I still really like this guy though. He feels so sturdy. My Ice/Atomic Blaster feels sturdy too at that level and he might be of more use to a good team with the damage he can output. 

 

I also put some time in with my Kin/Sonic (lvl 38) without Tough and Weave and, well, I missed Tough and Weave. It could have just been the group or the content (waves of things attacking us in Night Ward), but I died a lot. I think I was the only healer and when those waves hit with anything AoE, I was done. It seemed like it anyway. I still had fun, but it made me wonder if those two skills would have helped quite a bit.