Empathy/Sonic/Soul - The Endgame Friendly Empath

[Redheadrocket]

On 8/15/2019 at 3:05 AM, Auroxis said:

So you wanna be a healer an Empath. Many would tell you that Empathy isn't needed anymore, that heals are bad, debuffs are king, and that Empaths are squishy.

 

Well I'm here to set the record straight.

 

#1 - An Empath isn't a Healer

 

Empathy has some of the strongest buffs in the game:

 

  Fortitude

 

Fortitude can be active on up to 7 teammates at once, and when used with Power Boost (from Soul Mastery) can softcap up to 4 teammates by itself. 5 if you pick Clarion Radial. It also increases Damage and To-Hit. When you see Fortitude available, find someone that doesn't have it on and cast it. When you see it almost about to recharge, find someone that doesn't have it on and get ready to cast it. This is Empathy's most pivotal power and utilizing it well is the key to playing Empathy optimally.

 

 Recovery Aura

 

Our first RA power is an excellent tool for teammates who aren't fully optimized yet (most people aren't) and to make your build easily endurance stable. On a high recharge build this has a 3/4 uptime.

 

 Regeneration Aura 

 

This lets Regen do the work so we don't have to spend time healing those slight dips, thus giving us more time to Blast and debuff with Sonic. It's also very helpful in encounters where enemy AoE's bypass defenses. On a high recharge build this has a 3/4 uptime.

 

 Clear Mind 

 

While it's situational, CM can be very helpful in some scenarios (squishies getting aggro from CC'ers, the final fight in the ITF, and more). 

 

 Adrenalin Boost 

 

This multi-purpose buff can be used in the following ways: Letting your teammate nuke more often, keeping an ally endurance stable (if he was out of range of your RA), and keeping a tank alive in difficult encounters.

 

 

#2 - Heals and Rez are still useful

 

  

 

Sometimes squishies get themselves in over their heads, sometimes the tank is not well built, sometimes boss mechanics bypass defenses.

 

Heals are great for what I like to call Crisis Management. When defenses fail, when human error takes center stage, Empathy shines by having some of the strongest Crisis Management tools in its heals and a rez. Teammate ran off and is starting to die? Super Speed+Stealth to his location and Power Boost+Heal Other+Fortitude him, then super speed back to the main squad. Marauder getting ready to slam your team in Lambda? Prepare with Power Boost and immediately Healing Aura after the strike.

 

Someone went down? Power Boost, Vengeance, Resurrect, and Fortitude. Now everyone's safe and sound.

 

 

#3 - No debuffs? Sonic Attack to the rescue!

 

Sonic Attack is the perfect pairing with Empathy. The biggest hole in Empathy's arsenal is the inability to debuff hard targets like AV's. No -res or -regen. Sonic Attack has a ton of -res, so much that -regen becomes less of a necessity.

 

 Shriek

 

This is our "must-pick" tier 1 attack and is one we'll be using very often in our attack chain.

 

 Scream

 

One of the two optional blast picks for Sonic, the other being Shout. I like Scream over Shout because it doesn't root you into place as much (giving you more time to react) and applies its damage+debuff instantly instead of at the end of the animation.

 

 Screech

 

Screech is a long duration -res debuff power disguised as a CC. It can be used as a CC, in fact you do want to use it against problematic targets (surgeons and sappers) but to get the most use out of it you want it in your attack chain against hard targets.

 

 Howl

 

Spamming Howl is a nice way to spend your time when you're not buffing, if your team is a bit slow on the AoE front you can help them get there faster by debuffing the mobs. In most cases you'll want to only cast this once and then start focusing on the bosses.

 

 Dreadful Wail

 

Well now nukes are crashless. So that's nice. Dreadful Wail deals decent damage by itself, but its -res debuff lasts a very long time and the power can accept a -res proc as well (which, thanks to its cooldown will have a very high chance to proc). So you wanna use this whenever possible, whether it be on an AV as an opener or on a pack to help your teammates or Judgement melt it down. Oh it also stuns, so after you nuke, rest assured you won't start getting hit by everything.

 

Attack Chains

 

Hard Targets: Screech>Scream>Shriek>Scream

Soft targets: Scream>Shriek

 

 

#4 - Empaths aren't squishy

 

Regeneration Aura, a self heal, and a high uptime on Power Boost means we have pretty good survivability, and my build also has ranged defense softcapped most of the time. Combined with Hover (which gets higher speed with Power Boost) and hardcapped S/L resists we can tank most encounters. Add in Clarion to give you extra +Special and CC protection, and Support Hybrid for a bit of extra defense and to give more support to our lore pets in an AV's damage phase.

 

 Power Boost is incredible as it gives us better heals, better defenses, better CC, better Fortitude, and better Hover Speed.

 

 

With that out of the way, let's showcase our build:

 

 

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Auroxis: Level 50 Science Defender
Primary Power Set: Empathy
Secondary Power Set: Sonic Attack
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Healing Aura -- Prv-Absorb%(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(3), Prv-Heal/Rchg(3), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(5), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(5), Prv-Heal(7)
Level 1: Shriek -- SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg(A), SprDfnBst-Dmg/Rchg(7), SprDfnBst-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), SprDfnBst-Rchg/Heal%(19)
Level 2: Heal Other -- Pnc-Heal(A), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg(19), Pnc-Heal/Rchg(21), Pnc-EndRdx/Rchg(21), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux(23)
Level 4: Scream -- Apc-Dam%(A), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Apc-Acc/Rchg(17), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(29), GldJvl-Dam%(29)
Level 6: Resurrect -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 8: Clear Mind -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Fortitude -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(13), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(13), RedFrt-EndRdx/Rchg(15), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(15), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(17)
Level 14: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A)
Level 16: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(25), RedFrt-EndRdx/Rchg(25), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(33), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36), RedFrt-EndRdx(37)
Level 18: Recovery Aura -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23)
Level 20: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Vengeance -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 24: Howl -- SprVglAss-Rchg/+Absorb(A), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), VglAss-Acc/Dmg(34), VglAss-Dmg/Rchg(34), VglAss-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 26: Regeneration Aura -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Heal(27), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(31), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(37), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(43), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 28: Hover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(31), BlsoftheZ-Travel(31), Rct-ResDam%(48)
Level 30: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Adrenalin Boost -- Pnc-Heal(A), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg(33), Pnc-Heal/Rchg(40), Pnc-EndRdx/Rchg(42), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux(42)
Level 35: Screech -- AbsAmz-ToHitDeb%(A), AbsAmz-EndRdx/Stun(36), AbsAmz-Acc/Rchg(36), AbsAmz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(37), AbsAmz-Stun/Rchg(40), GldJvl-Dam%(46)
Level 38: Dreadful Wail -- Arm-Dam%(A), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Arm-Acc/Rchg(39), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(40), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(45)
Level 41: Dark Embrace -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), GldArm-ResDam(42), GldArm-RechRes(43), GldArm-RechEnd(46), GldArm-End/Res(46), GldArm-Res/Rech/End(48)
Level 44: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 47: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), UnbGrd-Max HP%(48)
Level 49: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(50), ShlWal-Def(50), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(50)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Clr-Stlth(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 1: Vigilance 
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run 
Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 0: Task Force Commander 
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion 
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve 
Level 0: Portal Jockey 
Level 50: Void Radial Final Judgement 
Level 50: Support Core Embodiment 
Level 50: Spiritual Core Paragon 
Level 50: Clarion Radial Epiphany 
Level 50: Degenerative Radial Flawless Interface 
Level 50: Banished Pantheon Core Superior Ally 
------------

Can you post the data chunk please and thank you

 

[drgantz]

One problem is that many of the buffs have only 1 1/2 - 2 minute duration.  Fortitude has 45s CD.  This can be difficult to maintain

[Doomguide2005]

12 hours ago, drgantz said:

One problem is that many of the buffs have only 1 1/2 - 2 minute duration.  Fortitude has 45s CD.  This can be difficult to maintain

      The main issue as i see it isn't the duration per se it's the fact they are single target.  Both Fortitude and Adrenaline Boost, two of Empathy's best buffs, are single target.  Compare with Pain whose buffs often effect the team/allies (as well as the caster themselves).  

     Fortitude vs World of Pain

     Adrenaline Boost vs Painbringer

All 4 can be fired off again before their duration is up.  In particular this hurts Empaths where Fortitude is concerned.  Fortitude is a very strong buff but it's single target.  World of Pain is one click and done until recharge.  Getting similar team coverage with Fortitude can be done but it requires two things from the Empath that put it at a comparative disadvantage.  It demands a great deal of focus on global recharge in the build to be able to cast it to cover 6+ teammates.  And the time spent casting Fortitude is also time not spent on other buffs or blasting.