New to COH and in need of help

[poachedgoose]

Hello, I made my first hero, and decided to be a support hero. I went with an Empathy Defender with electrical blast as my secondary power. I am nearing 50 and would love some suggestions as to what kinds of builds I can do with this guy. Any advice is appreciated!

[biostem]

I can't speak to a specific build, but in general, you'll want to make sure recovery and regen aura are available as often as possible, so you'll want to make sure you have some recharge reduction enhancements slotted in them.  Similarly, fortitude is a very powerful buff, so you'll want to try and keep it on as many teammates as you can.  Further still, you'll want to look into getting 5 of the special "Luck of the Gambler +global recharge" invention-origin enhancements, (IOs), to increase how often those key powers are available - they can be slotted into any power that allows slotting a defense enhancement.  If you find that you are running out of endurance when trying to keep all the buffs and attacks going, look into the following special IOs:  Panacea: Chance for HP & end, Miracle: +recovery, Numina's Convalescence: +regen/+recovery, and Performance Shifter: Chance for +end.

 

Assuming you get any endurance issues under control, one nice thing about electrical blast is you can just keep the voltaic sentinel out, so it'll attack for you whilst you focus on buffing & healing.  With regard to the latter, you can click on the teammates name in the team window, so you can more easily select them. Depending upon how tight or free a build is, I'll usually just throw 3 heals in each heal ability and leave it at that.  I also tend to skip powers like absorb pain, since it locks me out of healing myself for a while.

Edited August 29, 2023 by biostem

[MoisesG]

i'm not a defender, but my advice is:

Search the Defender Forums for build advice on Empathy. there is alot of really good info and builds based on different playstyles/goals.

Download Mids and play with it. Use the Set Bonus Finder feature to quickly locate the IOs/bonuses that you are looking for.

 

If i was building an Empathy Defender i would prioritize Recharge, Healing, Range Defense and resistance in that order. Again that is just me.

 

@Biostem ha great advice, and to add to that i would suggest picking the pool powers that compliment your goals: Tough/Weave, Maneuvers, Rune of protection and an Epic pool shield and/or Power Boost.

And the same goes for Incarnate Powers. Select the ones the Shore up and compliment your build goals.

 

I hope that helps. I'm sure the uber defenders here can give you better advice, but we are here to help so if you need more help or have more questions please just ask.

[biostem]

8 hours ago, MoisesG said:

i would suggest picking the pool powers that compliment your goals

Defenders get the largest buffs from the leadership pool;  Maneuvers is good overall since it gives extra defense to you and your teammates, (and can be slotted with that LotG +rech I mentioned earlier), but where it really shines, IMHO, is tactics.  Tactics grants a buff to tohit for you and your allies, which is actually more powerful than regular accuracy - this means you may be able to go with only 1 acc slotted in your attacks, (I usually recommend 2), which in turn saves a few slots if they are needed elsewhere.  Another power from leadership to consider further on in your build is victory rush - it grants a temporary recovery buff when cast on the body of a defeated foe, (with tougher foes giving a greater buff).  You can't directly improve its recharge, but I believe it does benefit from global recharge bonuses.  It doesn't require any real investment in slotting, and can really save your butt if you alternate it and recovery aura.  With regard to other powers to consider - Mace mastery, which is one of the Patron Power Pools you can unlock at level 35, has a shield for yourself that provides defense against samshing, lethal, and energy damage, while again serving as a convenient place to slot one of those LotG +rech IOs.  There's also the Power Mastery Ancillary Power Pool that provides a special power called "power build up" that temporarily boosts your damage, tohit, and secondary effects, which can be very very useful when used in conjunction with recovery aura and the like.  The Soul Mastery Patron Power Pool has a similar power, "power boost" as well as a slightly different selection of powers.  If you find your build is getting tight, I would skip taking the fighting pool.

 

 

Here are some useful links:

Unofficial Homecoming Wiki

Mace Mastery

Power Mastery

Soul Mastery

List of enhancements with special effects

Edited August 30, 2023 by biostem

[Without_Pause]

I honestly don't change my slotting on attacks for Acc depending on if I Tactics or not. Granted, I have left basic slotting behind and use IO essentially exclusively. Also note Tactics offers Perception and resistance to Confuse and Fear. Those are incredibly useful for levels 40-50.

 

Basic slotting for attacks.

Single target: 1 Acc, 1 End, 3 Damage, 1 Recharge(Optional)

Multi-target: 2 Acc, 1 End, 3 Damage

[Doomguide2005]

     Some general comments starting with good advice up thread.  In a team oriented build especially one intended for larger teams (4+ allies) I'm going to be looking at recharge then even more recharge as the builds focus.  I will probably only skip Absorb Pain and Resurrect at least in the primary build but one or both may reappear when looking at something intended for smaller teams running Hardmode content.  I'll want my Auras cooldown both as short as possible and as close to the same as possible.  Similar cooldowns is useful mostly so it's one less power to track.  One's ready then I know the other is as well so position myself and fire them off.  

     I'll add more later after checking on my own Emp/Elec who hit 50 but is just starting Incarnate work and looking at respec into a more final build.

[Thraxen]

Don’t skip absorb pain or the rez.  People die and Rex zing is cool. Yes, there are a lot of people who always have the self rez and use it. But you’re a healer so healing is good. 
 

Welcome to the game.  

[Doomguide2005]

15 hours ago, Thraxen said:

Don’t skip absorb pain or the rez.  People die and Rex zing is cool. Yes, there are a lot of people who always have the self rez and use it. But you’re a healer so healing is good. 
 

Welcome to the game.  

     Absorb Pain - Absorb Pain's value comes primarily from the size of the heal in one go.  It's offset by a strong inability to heal yourself applying both regen and heal debuffs on the user.  That debuff lasts longer than the cool down by a safe margin and the debuff itself self stacks.  Combine that with the fact the Empath could in the same time use HA+HO+HA (about 520 vs 670 heal before enhancement) with no effect on their own ability to heal/regen.  These are why I don't typically take AP.  I play an aggressive Empath several of which want to get in the mobs face for things like Short Circuit (Irradiate, Nukes, etc.).  Inhibiting my own ability to heal I could readily be dead if things are going south for the team.  So playsyle should play a significant role in a decision to have/use AP.  The other major consideration is how often a team member would need the huge heal and outside of truly hard (including Hard Mode) content most of the time that ~520 (pre-enhancement) heal will keep them upright as well as the one huge burst from AP especially if the Empath is keeping up on their Fortitude and RegenAura.  Probably only +3 or +4 AV's (outside of Hardmode) are even capable of delivering blows large or often enough to truly need AP against an endgame build for at least build considerations.  

     Resurrect - Resurrect is ... handy at times.  In the early issues only 3 Defender sets had a rez (Empathy, Dark, Rad).  There were none of the QoL changes yet.  No combine 3 inspires to get a wakie, no p2w powers etc..  Empathy's simple thorough rez had a great deal more value to a team.  These days power creep and QoL have done nothing but erode the value of Resurrect.  It's a personal choice but I'd much rather follow up someone using a self-rez from whatever source with Fortitude + Clear Mind.  The power choice for taking Resurrect is too hefty a price within a build given all the other options available.  If or when I do take Resurrect it's only the default slot with a 50+5 Endred IO.  Last thing I want is to be low on endurance when a teammate goes down during a heated fight and I'm sitting at 26 or less endurance.  Recharge is way too long to make it worth enhancing.  Even with high global recharge you're looking at a minute long cool down.  Range ... similar issue.  Base range enhanced hardly matters (yay instead of 15ft it's now ~22 ft).  These days it's also a very plain vanilla rez.   Again a Hardmode build will see much more value in Resurrect as death is generally much more likely.

[Without_Pause]

On 9/1/2023 at 8:21 PM, Thraxen said:

But you’re a healer so healing is good. 

The idea that this game has 'healers' is a long dead horse issue. If I rolled an Emp and took the rez, I would do it at 49.

[00Troy00]

On 8/29/2023 at 12:28 PM, poachedgoose said:

Hello, I made my first hero, and decided to be a support hero. I went with an Empathy Defender with electrical blast as my secondary power. I am nearing 50 and would love some suggestions as to what kinds of builds I can do with this guy. Any advice is appreciated!

What's your global?