Does anyone play Thermal or Pain?

[BurtHutt]

I've been wanting to try these powers out - I haven't given them a go since Live. I don't see many toons sporting either power. Are they too supporty? Are they the suck? I'd love to hear all about what others are doing with them.

[Glacier Peak]

They're both fantastic solo and support sets. 

[Duckbutler]

I've seen a few thermals around and always appreciate them when I see them. I had a thermal corruptor back in the day and while she wasn't great solo, she was the lynchpin of many villain night teams. If I let her shields lapse people started dying very rapidly. Plus she had heals to back it up!

 

If I were to do it again, and I would but other character builds have my attention for now, I would put it on a mastermind to make the solo experience better. 

[BurtHutt]

Ok cool good stuff. The only soloing I do is street sweeping. I'd rather team. Would you fellas say a Thermal is better on a CORR or a DEF?

[MonteCarla]

Thermal's one of the worse solo sets. Only three powers benefit you solo - the standard healing aura you can get with Pain, Empathy, Rad or other sets, and then the two quite frankly wonky debuffs at the end of the set. None of that is going to keep you upright against a tough Elite boss compared to say, self-capping your defence with Force Fields or Time. 

I've played it once (Thermal/Fire Blast Defender) and haven't rushed back.

 

Pain's better. Soothing Aura is much better than it first sounds on paper when you think of it as an animation-free heal.

 

For supporting a team - both add resistance, which I believe is favoured late game.

While levelling, Defence-based support (eg Force Fields, Time, Empathy) are usually better because it's easier to get other players to the Defence cap, and that then deflects buffs and mezzes as well as damage. At a certain level of play though, many players are already soft-capped to Defence, so stacking extra Resistance brings layered protection and helps out more. So resistance/healing sets like these two become much more valuable.

 

I think that's where their strengths lie - late game/hard mode teams?

 

Thermal on a Corr/Def is just the usual toss-up between slightly better support or slightly better damage. A Defender will add more resistance to the shields, but these are best when you're layering with existing resistance, so a few points difference from your own contribution isn't super-critical.

 

Edited February 10 by MonteCarla

[Wimbochismo]

Some of this has been mentioned, but I'll try to break some aspects down further. A greater majority of builds don't bother softcapping resistances, but they usually have some kind of baseline. Even without building for it, people typically have at least 10-45% across the board. In mids I checked a Thermal shield with the same slotting for a build between Defender and Corruptor, it was a difference of 7.5% resistance. It's up to the player if that's a worthy consideration, though.

 

Going either AT will be fully functional. I'll chime in and say that of the two, I would go Thermal on Defender and Pain on Corruptor. I'll break down my reasoning for each.

 

Thermal for Defender:

• The shields are stronger.
• The slotting investment is slightly more intense - though both Pain and Thermal are comparable. You'll want ~3 slots per each shield. About ~3+ slots for heals. Melt Armor wants slots. This means that you may have less slots available for attacks.
• Outside of the debuffs and pbaoe heal, nothing really effects you or boosts you for dmg.

Pain for Corruptor:

• World of Pain trades some resistance for +dmg +tohit and takes a Gaussian proc. It also hits you.
• Share Pain locks you out of being healed for 15s but provides another dmg buff.
• Soothing Aura pulsing steadily helps you passively stay up. The pbaoe Soothe is a reliable self heal.
• Has a -res debuff as well to help dmg.

Edited February 10 by Wimbochismo