Emp Defenders. Please. Listen.

[Aruku]

Ive been playing City of Heroes since I got alpha. I have City of Heroes tattoos. I love this game. Please listen to me. I have played an Empathy Defender as long as I can remember. One thing has always been a constant. Clear Mind. Before IOs and everyone having a decent mez resist it was require for the harder content. That being said now obviously it falls at the way side. However I feel like I have a very good fix that ive thought over for a long time. Make it a toggle like Grant Cover from Shield Defense. I always have a hard time justifying even picking it up when I respec most of the time. Then I end up needing it! This would fix that problem. It would also give us one less button to push 😄 

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Aruku said:

I always have a hard time justifying even picking it up when I respec most of the time. Then I end up needing it!

Wouldn't the fact you end up needing it justify picking it up even when you respec'?

[DrRocket]

If I understand properly your suggestion, it would mean, you click the toggle, and an area about you provides to all friendly players get the status effect protection

 

If my understanding is correct, I can find myself supportive of the suggestion, but truly why bother?

 

In the case of my emp, since clear mind is really not needed in the game (in my opinion), as it used to be in live days; I dropped it in order to get Rune of Protection instead. Other support classes if built right, would also have Rune of Protection and Sheer Will for status effect protection making clear mind pointless.

 

Hope this helps you with your dilemma

 

[PoptartsNinja]

I honestly don't hate the idea of turning clear mind into an anti-mez bubble (like Dispersion Bubble) that the empath also benefits from. I'm not sure it's needed, but it wouldn't be terrible and it's not like self mez-protection is something buff classes never get. It'd be nice to reduce some of the busywork clickies to make them less irritating, and an emp that doesn't have to constantly re-apply clear mind can do other things--like blasting--while waiting for their longer duration buffs to cooldown.

I don't see that change being useful for farming either, since a "pocket healer" requires a farmer to not over-cap their aggro, most melees have toggle mez protection already, and it's pretty trivial for a tank to pick up enough regen to be able to survive most anything anyway.

[kellzilla]

I mained an emp def all thru retail. Even back then, I was only putting it on toons that needed it (blasters, trollers, etc), and only if we didn't have a bubble mez (sonic, FF). Empathy whackamole is already kinda tedious, I'd rather spend my time attacking thru my current target than buffing down the line a million times. 

 

That said, I wouldn't mind making CM a TAOE with a higher end cost + longer recharge. Taking the tedium out of Emp is tempting 🙂

Edited February 26 by kellzilla
Typo

[kelika2]

so dispersion bubble but just mez resist?  sure

[SeraphimKensai]

The biggest issue I see making a bubble CM won't allow you to stack it on people.

[battlewraith]

Why don't you just make it so that when you apply clear mind on a target, it applies to the emp as well. I think that would provide justification and utility for the emp to take it and not be gamebreaking with all of the other mez rez options available. As someone who plays a bubbler, there are downsides to having a toggle that provides mez res over an area. End drain, players that don't stay in proximity anyways, the fact that it quickly becomes redundant if you have a halfway decent party, etc.

[crimsonrage]

Being able to self Clear Mind has been a wish of mine since i started in issue 7. I don't see the power as obsolete. Especially at higher levels toons get mezzed. A bubble seems excessive, to me. How about making it like other such powers, and have it hit PCs near the target. That would reduce multiple clicking, and could allow stacking. FYI, The I-Trials determine your bonus by how many times you act. Clicking something as quick as Clear Mind works in an Empathy Defender's benefit, in such cases

[golstat2003]

I would be fine with anything that makes it easier to use as long as the Devs didn't bring any type of reduction with that. If they feel it needs to be made weaker in anyway, then no thanks to this suggestion.

 

The devs have said they see getting mezzed from time to time as part of the gameplay. So I'm not sure they would be willing to make preventing that easier.

[BasiliskXVIII]

On 2/13/2025 at 11:57 PM, Rudra said:

Wouldn't the fact you end up needing it justify picking it up even when you respec'?

 

Not necessarily, if the opportunity cost for taking it is too high. There's a lot of powers that live in that bubble of "This effect would be nice to have, but it's hard to justify picking up something that I will use one team out of twenty when there are three others to choose from that will be useful in every fight." CM and comparable powers like Thaw are particularly difficult to justify if you're doing a post-50 respec since their function is generally done better by the Clarion Judgement power.

[Rudra]

10 minutes ago, BasiliskXVIII said:

 

Not necessarily, if the opportunity cost for taking it is too high. There's a lot of powers that live in that bubble of "This effect would be nice to have, but it's hard to justify picking up something that I will use one team out of twenty when there are three others to choose from that will be useful in every fight." CM and comparable powers like Thaw are particularly difficult to justify if you're doing a post-50 respec since their function is generally done better by the Clarion Judgement power.

Then how is the author finding himself/herself/themselves needing it, as in the power, when the power is available outside of the set as an incarnate ability? If the author finds himself/herself/themselves needing a power, then would that not be justification for taking that power? And if that power can be skipped due to other available options, then would not the author not find himself/herself/themselves needing it since they can just plug in an incarnate ability instead?

[BasiliskXVIII]

1 minute ago, Rudra said:

Then how is the author finding himself/herself/themselves needing it, as in the power, when the power is available outside of the set as an incarnate ability? If the author finds himself/herself/themselves needing a power, then would that not be justification for taking that power? And if that power can be skipped due to other available options, then would not the author not find himself/herself/themselves needing it since they can just plug in an incarnate ability instead?

Sorry, I forgot to take my mind reading potion today. Maybe they haven’t unlocked Clarion yet, or maybe they’re expressing their own experience imperfectly — something fairly common among, you know, human beings. That doesn’t make them wrong, just not a perfectly efficient communicator.

 

All I can really speak to is my own play experience, where powers like Clear Mind increasingly feel like relics of a time before IOs and Incarnate powers and XP boosters to get to 50 in an afternoon made them substantially less valuable. In the rare cases they’re actually relevant, the problem’s usually solved by my own build or someone else’s. And in the places where it can really come in handy, like a low-pop MSR that's getting stun locked by Rikti, it's almost impossible to use. It’s not that the power is worthless — just that it doesn’t carry its weight in most modern builds. I don't know if I'd say that the OP's suggestion is necessarily the path forward, but I do feel like it could use something, whether that's an AoE toggle, or even just being able to AoE cast it to hit multiple targets like the FF, cold and thermal shields got.

[Starhammer]

I love the idea. It may not be commonly needed in all situations, but there's some times (like when Terrify attacks are getting thrown around) it would be awesome.