StratoNexus

I think adding a debuff to Repulsion Bomb is a fine idea. I love Force Field, but it certainly would not be out of line for RB to crack armors. I'd line it up at -20% res with a 35 second duration. You'd be able to stack it twice with some investment for -40% (the end burn would by pretty high, and the animation time cost is horrendous).

OK. Using my Kat/Invuln I rounded up a good group of Malta and got them to a point where with Dull Pain down they could steadily wear me down, but with DP up I was nigh-immortal. Waited for a cycle where DP was down and I was at about half health and summoned my tier 3 IDF Partial Core Improved Ally (dismissing the commander right away). I ran this test five times.

Invariably, the battle orb would heal me almost immediately and give the little shield buff. Two out of the 5 times it managed to squeeze in more than one heal, but even those times it was still quite content to just watch me for LONG periods of time where my health was below half and do nothing. The other 3 times it healed me that first go and never again.

It died all 5 times prematurely because, at some point, it would decide it needed to try to get into melee range with me (considering I was surrounded by Malta that was difficult and NPC flyers don't think 3 dimensionally). It would just bowl into one of the Malta, not get to me and then try another route (or sometimes the same route). Once it started to exhibit this behavior, its life expectancy was short.

There was one time where it literally just started wandering around the room, I was confused at first, but now I realize it likely got stunned. All 5 times it was good at keeping the shield buff active.

OK, the battle orb is a bad healer. Stimulant blows: short range, long cast, and can be interrupted. I didn't expect it to be as bad is it was, it was pretty lame (but hey, the shield buff is a decent size AoE).

Moving on. Fire/Fire blaster with tier 4 radial storm pets. Whittled down a spawn to the point where with my shields on I was nigh-immortal but once I shut them off they could kill me. Waited until I was at half health, summoned the storms, dismissed the attacker. Monsoon healed me constantly if I was below ~75% health, which was pretty constant for awhile, but its healing and my regen did eventually get me to the point where it would stop healing and wait until I got below 75%. Did this twice, both times same results. I still think it should use O2 Boost proactively since it is also a buff, but I am not going to complain too hard considering how ridiculous it is to have an unkillable full strength hurricane.

Same test, now equipped with tier 4 radial seers. Dismissed augur. Seeker healed me just as the Monsoon did and kept up the min-mini Fortitude. Since the Fortunata has a very similar heal to the Seeker, I would expect you to have results like this, instead of results like the battle orb. I will test in a less controlled scenario and will fight and move through the mission with the seers active.

Edit: The seer did great running through the mission. She healed me fairly constantly as I was trying not to use purple inspires which pretty much meant I was constantly below half. There were several times where incoming damage far outpaced her healing ability and I had to use a respite or two, but it was not from a lack of effort on her part.

I guess you just can't trust those Arachnos (and they don't build Battle Orbs very well).

I seem to remember being happy with the healing from my Lore pets, but I haven't checked them out solo in a while. I will try to scope it out this weekend.