Emgro

*wakes up and vaults the nearest object*

Virtue's up. Yep yep.

I usually take the leadership toggles on my MMs. They have the blue bar to spare, and I hate missing or having my pets miss. Accuracy is like defense, in a way; increasing your to-hit chance from 80% to 90% cuts your misses in half.

Plus, Rikti drones.

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Really, it COULD work, but only if you were damn good at what you do. Though, to be honest, I would prefer a pet MM to a petless MM any day.

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You can't be good at playing a petless MM. Pathetic damage, the weakest support numbers in the game, and nerfed powers. Take /Dark. Twilight Grasp has its area reduced and the heal is less effective due to your pathetic hitpoints. Dark Servant is on an 8-minute timer, not 4, meaning you'll have to slot it out the wazoo to get it perma'd.

Can you do it? Sure. We've had MAN builds since launch, nothing but brawl and maybe pool powers.

Is it a useful asset to a team? No. No matter how you cut it, a petless MM cannot be as useful as one with pets. The petless cannot tank directly or indirectly, contributes little damage, and gains no benefit from its innate ability.

*staggers into the Rookery, eyes half-open and hair straight up*

Humanity hath no vanity like int... hello, ladies!

*wakes up enough to examine the string of Rookerites critically, then dozes off standing up, a donut in either hand*

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What happened to Moderators 00-07?

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Obviously he decapitated them to gain their powers.

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There can only be one, apparently.

Impressive. Definitely worth the watch.

You don't really notice costume when you're targeting a Redeemer... just looking for moving objects, AKA meat. Tac Nukes are fun for the whole family!

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"I am Spartacus" and "Spartacus am I"?

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I'd go for "This is Madness" and "This is Sparta," but maybe that's just me.

*jumps the shark and lands on the ship*

Yar! Initiate piracy defense protocols mandated by the ICC and IMO, stat!

*starts handing out copies of the BMP (Best Management Practices) to everyone*

And now that we're properly defended...

*faceplants on the deck, unmoving*

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And characters don't need powers other than brawl. Powers are metered by Brawl Index -- stop the incessant power levelling, everyone has brawl, use that. This does away with 99% of enhancements too, and the salvage required for Brawl Sets cuts that down by 90%. Win-Win!

My "Brawl-Brawl" Brawler will be called 'Gimped', he'll be on Freedom server. I look forward to this change, and would like to sign up for your newsletter.

Angry of Mayfair.

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I resent your impinging the unique flavor of Randy McMAN.

*sneaks in at last minute* Best part of Monday... when it's almost over. Yeehaw.

Limiting names stimulates creativity. Blarg.

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Because that's what I fully expect you to do...

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I don't know you. You don't know me. I'm going to give you a huge benefit of the doubt that you have me confused with someone else and you're not just spewing a paranoid rant or trolling me outright.

Empathy is in fact a horrible set for newbies. It's a poor buff/debuff set, desirable over other buff/debuff sets only in particular situations such as Hamidon raids and empath duos. It puts the most situational powers at low levels, encouraging poor playstyles. It doesn't teach newbies anything about NPCs, except maybe which enemies are mezzers, big damage dealers, and end drainers if they're playing very close attention. Except that usually doesn't happen, because empathy encourages players to not pay attention to anyone but their teammates.

So I wouldn't say the fact that newbies like Empathy is a reason to give it any sort of positive recognition. Quite the opposite.

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I agree. In fact, Empathy "breeds" "newbies" because they thought all they need to do is to "heal". They thought they are so good because people ask for "healers" and that's where problems occur...

Empathy actually requires a lot of clicking to be effective. By clicking your teammates, you may lose track of which enemy to take down first. Sometimes it is safer for the team to take down something quicker and this is when Defender's Secondary comes in!

I think /Dark is a good set for newbie players. They'll learn their lessons leveling up. Starting with how anchor works, how to drop Tar Patch out of sight, how to utilize Fear's cone and how to join melee range to heal without fear of dying in melee range. And in the end, hopefully they'll learn that it is better to control/debuff/buff than trying to out-heal the damage taken.

Sitting on the back and setting Heal on auto doesn't teach much especially if the player rarely attacks.

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Being an empath as my first defender did teach me to be a better player. As a solo empath, you learn FAST how to get the most out of your secondary.

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...




...

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More reverential silence for my godlike hubris? Excellent.

Lethal Damage = fail at higher levels, especially redside. My claws stalker sort of tapered off into uselessness in the 20s against Longbow.

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You can try to out-heal the damage taken, but in this game, it may be better to control, buff or debuff first. I am not saying healing sucks but if you are going for a secondary like /dark, you have an awesome aoe heal and decent controls (fearsome stare) and debuffs like darkest night.

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You can try to out-heal damage, but you won't succeed all that well. I've tried with an Empathy Defender and double-Speed Boost; it just doesn't work. This game reverses heals and buffs from most MMOs. While in other games you invite a healer and get some nice buffs on the side, in CoX you invite a Corruptor expecting damage and buffs/debuffs, and may get a bit of healing on the side.

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Also, I don't RP. I just get twitchy if I don't have organic characters.

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Those enjoying robotic or augmented lifestyles are very deeply hurt by your non-inclusive language.

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-What are you, the president of his fan club?
-No. That would be your mother.

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wow mom jokes from sidney
what did u do to sidney


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It's from the video. While mom jokes might be below sidney, quoting odd bits of things that may or may not be humorous out of context is perfectly in line with sidney's MO.

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...Except possibly cutting myself.

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That would turn today into not just any Sunday, but a Bloody Sunday

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Bad post! Bad post! *smacks at it ineffectually*

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...

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Highly productive post there. I shall interpret this as a reverential silence befitting my godlike hubris.

Don't skip things until you know what you're skipping. The game does take a fair bit of learning, simply due to the complexity involved.

Do you know what Fulcrum Shift is? Sure, most of us do. Do you know its recharge? AoE radius? Is it auto-hit? What's the boost per enemy? What's the +DAM cap for your AT? How many little FS dots cap you? How meaningful is that for your character? How much is FS worth for you at the beginning of a fight? At the end?

There's a huge gap between knowing what a power does and how to use it best. One can be learned for all powers inside an hour with the character creator. The other takes lots of playtime and experimentation.

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I am frustrated that you know nothing of the plight of those that went before you, and could care less about others . To be blunt, you ask for my opinion, but you do not want it - you want others to agree with you. My opinion could not be printed without censorship.

You can call me elitist, but it does not really take that much effort to join this 'club'. Nor am I necessarily 'proud' of the fact that I can in fact, form coherent sentences. I believe you have shot yourself in the foot and are now whining that your foot hurts.

If you care about your own work, you should take pride in it.

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Shouldn't that be "couldn't care less" or, at least, "could not care less"?

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He might mean it exactly the way he sounds. It's not an incorrect statement, merely an imprecise one that probably doesn't mean what it says. So you can safely say it "could" be that, or he might have meant that, but can you really say it "should" be that?

Why are you crying?

I'm a bit biased, having played empathy quite a bit on both Defenders and Controllers, but healing is definitely the weakest thing a support character brings to a team in CoX.

Why?

Lots of reasons people already discussed, but the biggest one is that it doesn't stack.

+DEF? Goes up to the cap, at which point you don't really need more anyway. Same for +RES. Ditto for debuffs; once enemies can't hit, can't damage, and attack at half their normal speed, you don't really need much more.

Overhealing is a complete waste, and when bosses are hitting squishies for more than half their health in a single hit, you can't keep up. Reactive defenses are far weaker than active ones; so-called "healers" can't actually keep someone up, due to lag, recharge issues, and so forth.

So in summary, a "pure healer" (not necessarily an empath, mind you)"
1) Cannot reliably keep a single target alive under high stress without other buffs/debuffs
2) Is significantly more vulnerable to -recharge than buff/debuffers
3) Is not a force multiplier, like other defenders, as overhealing serves no purpose
4) Fails to offer any protection against non-damage effects: debuffs, mezzing, and End Drain

I've played a lot of defenders/corrs/controllers/MMs. I know the support sets, and trust me when I say, an Empath with all three heals is wasting a power, probably wasting two. Rez powers are usually a waste as well. It's all about the buffs. Fortitude, Clear Mind, RA, AB. That's what Empathy is all about.

The devs know it, obviously. You get your weaker powers earlier on, and they decided all those heals were weaker powers.

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Four hundred years ago there were "grammar elitists".

They were the few that could read Latin. With that ability they ruled the western world. It was through the efforts of many notable people that texts began to be translated so people could understand, and the treasures of western literature were brought to the average person. Out of these efforts came the Renaissance, and with that, modern science.

For a millennium, those elitists had kept themselves in power by ensuring that the common person could not write. We call that period the "Dark Ages". That is the fundamental reason why little progress was made during that time. Therefore, I have great difficulty considering anyone you would claim to be an "Elitist".

If you want to know how I feel, I wince every time I see a spelling mistake. I am disappointed that you do not care about your own work (I fixed your title in this reply). I am frustrated that you know nothing of the plight of those that went before you, and could care less about others. To be blunt, you ask for my opinion, but you do not want it - you want others to agree with you. My opinion could not be printed without censorship.

You can call me elitist, but it does not really take that much effort to join this 'club'. Nor am I necessarily 'proud' of the fact that I can in fact, form coherent sentences. I believe you have shot yourself in the foot and are now whining that your foot hurts.

If you care about your own work, you should take pride in it.

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I generally agree with this post.

I'm not a "Grammar Elitist," but if you're so lazy you don't mind dropping your level of communication below mine, don't be surprised when you feel like I'm looking down on you when I offer suggestions on actually putting all the letters in your words, all the words in your sentences, and all the punctuation at either end or in the middle.

Now that is a sentence.