Rigel_Kent

Yep, damage resistance doubles as damage debuff resistance. This is most apparent against the many critters in the game that have high damage resistance to their own damage type (a robot that deals lethal damage, for instance... or fricking Marauder).

Works with negative resistances, too. If a critter is vulnerable to the same type of damage it does (a robot that deals smashing and energy damage, for instance), your damage debuffs will be more effective against that target.

Also works with debuffed resistances. It's an old defender trick. Try it! On your Sonic/Ice blaster (I know you totally have one), tag a Chilling Embraced target with a Sonic Blast, and their damage will go down just a teensy bit more.

Whew, before this thread crashes and burns, remember that the devs don't clearly define what's a melee attack and what's a ranged attack. So we're left with several arbitrary and often conflicting definitions:

1) A melee attack is a damage power in a "Melee" set (scrapper primary, etc.)? Or
2) A melee attack is a damage power with a range of 7/10/15/20/25 feet or less? Or
3) A melee attack is a damage power that doesn't accept range enhancements? Or
4) A melee attack is a damage power that checks against melee defense? Or
5) A melee attack is a damage power that accepts melee damage or PBAoE invention sets?

Some definitions are more useful than others, but at least make recognize that there's big potential for miscommunication here.

Hurricane's drawbacks are mostly nullified if you turn it on for just a split second, then turn it off again. The tohit and range debuffs will "stick" to affected mobs for 10 seconds, but the knockback and repel will stop immediately.

I think you've discovered the downside of calling empaths healers. Empaths can heal, yes. But the further outside of that box you get, the more fun it is to play.

So you don't like playing healers? Fine. How does playing a bufftankdebuffblasthealer sound? Where you can walk into a room, most of your team has the equivalent of Instant Healing and Siphon Power and bubbles on, your self-heal recharges in 3 seconds flat, most of the enemies' recharge is floored, and you have the good version of Will Domination and a good cone blast and an O.K. targeted AoE? (Oh, and you can heal others a little, too?)

Good, you'll love Emp/Psi.

There's not particularly any synergy between the two sets, but the two sets are both very strong on their own. In a game full of 1 + 1 = 3 builds, you're a 2 + 2 = 4, and there's nothing wrong with that. So you can probably figure things out just by looking at separate guides for Radiation Emission and Dark Blast, and piecing things together.

Just a couple of notes: Dark Blast loves and rewards you for staying about 40 to 60 feet away from the spawn while you blast. So you might look into Dark Pit instead of Choking Cloud for partial hard control. Remember, all AoE hard mezzes have crummy accuracy and duration when you first get them, so Dark Pit's reputation as an especially bad AoE mez is undeserved. Slot it up and it works just fine.

On the other hand, being in melee will help keep enemies from scattering until you can lay down your slows and roots. What you might end up doing is activating your Radiation Infection and Lingering Radiation at point blank range, standing right in the center of the mob, then backing up, laying down Tenebrous Tentacles (range slotted please!), then finishing them off from medium range.

Empathy is not special.

If you've planned your build around the notion that Empathy is just this super special primary that's so super special that you can't possibly do anything else, well, the sooner you get out of that mindset, the better.

Roll a Dark Miasma defender, any secondary of your choice. Mess around Atlas Park or Galaxy City until you get Twilight Grasp, Tar Patch, and Darkest Night. Then crank your mission difficulty to +1, invite a medium sized PuG (preferably blasters), and get ready to godmode through low level Kings Row/Hollows missions like you've never seen before.

Will Darkest Night stop being adequate protection after a while? Well, perhaps. But by then, you have Fearsome Stare supplying your godmode, so it's a moot point.

Psy corruptor may be worth waiting for. Or, it may not be. With luck, whoever is doing power proliferation is lazy and copy/pastes the defender set exactly, adds Scourge, and calls it a day. The 100' range is nice to have, the high damage and not-so-large recharge on defender Will Domination is very nice to have, and the corruptor boards haven't been invaded by PvP nerf herders like the blaster boards did back in the day, so there's hope.

If, by some freak happenstance, the corruptor version of Psi blast resembles the blaster version, forget what you've heard about defender damage, and give /psi defenders a try. Paired with certain primaries like Storm, Kin, Traps, and Dark, the damage is definitely not low. Not AoE, doubly not ST. Especially if you're comparing to blaster psi blast, which is garbage in PvE.

If you're not that into buffing and debuffing, /psi doms and Fortunatas are both fantastic, even with the mildly nerfed ranges and rather sad version of TK Blast in the Fortunata primary.

Finally, if you feel your concept is more the blaster AT, and you just can't bring yourself to roll any primary other than psi, Psi/MM is still viable, entirely thanks to the strength of the secondary. You will find yourself favoring your secondary powers: taking more of them, taking them earlier, slotting them better. This is OK. Even garbage sets like blaster psi blast have a lower limit on performance, because there's always the option of spending all your resources on your other set or pool powers.

If you can't get PL'ed by a fire farmer, roll a dark defender, run PuG missions, and bump up the difficulty a notch. Should get to 20 by the end of the weekend.

Issue 21 blaster set stock ratings: Dark Blast SELL, Darkness Manipulation BUY, Beam Gun HOLD.

Traps

Bugs

• Poison Trap's initial hold rolls a to-hit check, but the power does not accept accuracy enhancements. The Pet Hit Rolls channel incorrectly reports the power as being autohit.

I'm gay for a straight port of Melt Armor (-30% resists for defenders).

I'm flaming for a straight port of Forge (+50% damage for defenders).

And the potential synergy between -30% resist Melt Armor and -62.5% damage Heat Exhaustion has me in serious need of a cold shower right now. That, right there, is why people will roll Thermal defenders. There's a new +2AV/GM soloist on the block, and his name is Thermal/Sonic....

This is exactly the kind of build snobbery the dev who wrote the startlingly heal-centric Keyes intended. So bad trial leaders take only half the blame here.

Lolkeyes.

EF is useful in all situations. The only time I don't use EF is when I'm dead.

RI is not always needed, but when you need it, you really need it. i.e. you're in a PuG and the tanker or brute (as usual) can't hold aggro for squat, and you're the de facto tanker. No problem! Turn on your RI, jump into the middle of a huddle of -tohit and -end screwed enemies, and show 'em how to take it like a man. Or, a more cautious approach, turn on your RI and hide behind a corner, then take it like a man.