(I dont have this game yet) But are there any support/healing classes?

[Kokelimonkelmedisin]

Im just wondering as I was reading on coh.com and from the description of the diffrent classes it seemed (to me at least) like all of them were pretty centured around solo combat.

Thats why Im wondering, are there any realy support classes and if so wich ones and whats their speciality?

Or can anyone link me to a more acurate class decription?

 

[Amadeus]

Yup, there most definetly are the more support oriented type of chars in the game, the main two being defenders and controllers. Defenders are the archetype that has the healing powers as a choice for their primary power, but a lot of defenders dont necessary take this. They also have the choice of force fields as primary power, but these chars are rare. Theyve also the option of some CC powers also.

Controllers are more or less the CC chars in the game, they also have the option of taking healing as their secondary power. There is also a lot of power lines available to both of these archetypes that are group friendly, e.g. my controller has a power that can reduce the damage of a target and transfer it to my team. Another power he has is that he can surround himself with a repelling field that when mobs come near him, they are sent flying back. this is very handy if mobs are bashing on the weaker team members. other 'support' powers available include group invisibility, group damage increase, defense increase, group fly, group teleport, group inertia reducion (makes your team jump higher) and many others.

it's possible to solo with any char makeup, but even the more soloable chars like blasters, all bring something to a group. its not a game where the best damage dealers will the day, everyone brings something to a group.

best advice would be to download the warcry hero builder and have a mess around with it. it has good info on all the powers available and will give you a good idea of how viable a support char is. the link in the sticky somewhere.

 

[Kokelimonkelmedisin]

ok so I guess IM going controller then... the defender just does not have the support class "feel to it"

and Iv fooled around with the char builder a bit, came up with 2 drafts of possible templates

"Archetype: Controller
Primary Powers - Control : Ice Control
Secondary Powers - Buff/Debuff : Empathy
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Block Of Ice /Empty
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Healing Aura /Empty
Slot[03] Level 2 : Heal Other /Empty
Slot[04] Level 4 : Frostbite /Empty
Slot[05] Level 6 : Arctic Air /Empty
Slot[06] Level 8 : Shiver /Empty
Slot[07] Level 10 : Resurrect /Empty
Slot[08] Level 12 : Flurry /Empty
Slot[09] Level 14 : Ice Slick /Empty
Slot[10] Level 16 : Hover /Empty
Slot[11] Level 18 : Air Superiority (<--- figgure it can be an advantage to be able to get youre oppenents to the ground) /Empty
Slot[12] Level 20 : Fly /Empty
Slot[13] Level 22 : Flash Freeze /Empty
Slot[14] Level 24 : Super Speed /Empty
Slot[15] Level 26 : Hasten /Empty
Slot[16] Level 28 : Whirlwind /Empty
Slot[17] Level 30 : Swift /Empty
Slot[18] Level 32 : Glacier /Empty
Slot[19] Level 35 : Jack Frost /Empty
Slot[20] Level 38 : Group Fly /Empty
Pools//8,2,3,10"


"Archetype: Controller
Primary Powers - Control : Ice Control
Secondary Powers - Buff/Debuff : Empathy
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Block Of Ice /Empty
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Healing Aura /Empty
Slot[03] Level 2 : Heal Other /Empty
Slot[04] Level 4 : Frostbite /Empty
Slot[05] Level 6 : Arctic Air /Empty
Slot[06] Level 8 : Shiver /Empty
Slot[07] Level 10 : Resurrect /Empty
Slot[08] Level 12 : Flurry /Empty
Slot[09] Level 14 : Ice Slick /Empty
Slot[10] Level 16 : Recall Friend /Empty
Slot[11] Level 18 : Teleport /Empty
Slot[12] Level 20 : Team Teleport /Empty
Slot[13] Level 22 : Flash Freeze /Empty
Slot[14] Level 24 : Super Speed /Empty
Slot[15] Level 26 : Hasten /Empty
Slot[16] Level 28 : Whirlwind /Empty
Slot[17] Level 30 : Swift /Empty
Slot[18] Level 32 : Glacier /Empty
Slot[19] Level 35 : Jack Frost /Empty
Slot[20] Level 38 : Stealth /Empty (<----- maybe hover here, dont know whats better for added defense)
Pools//8,2,9,0"


Both are Ice/emp, but Id love some inpup on what works and what does'nt etc. I want to make the char groupfriendly and since I dont know the ins and outs of the game yet but would love some help with getting better "cookie cutter" template So Id be tankfull for any constructive comments and pointers

thanks

 

[pez]

since you like support i would take the second one but get recall friend at 6 and teleport at 14. groups will love you. recall friend cuts down on alot of running around

 

[tRoG]

tbh, I wouldn't really waste too many points getting things like group fly/teleport friend (Although tel. friend is great if you're aiming for teleport), as past lvl 14 just about everyone has a travel power... and the extra 30 seconds you'll save by using tp friend doesn't really mean that much if you could have a better heal/nuke, for instance.

Empathy Defender are the healers - although a group can get on fine wthout one, they are very much wanted.

I love my Storm Summoning Defender. He does CC/Debuffs/Knockback, and has a ghetto heal. Very versatile, and always useful.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

There are people who dno't plan on having any travel powers (me for example ) so tf will still be a vastly handy power to have

 

[Belsameth]

Air supperiority is a melee attack, and as a controller you don't want to melee. ever. so I would strongly recommend against it.
let the blasters shoot down flying targets

 

[Sarum]

TP Friend is very useful. Not just for warping your group across the zone, but because you can also TP dead people. If someone is dead in the middle or nasty purp agro, you can TP them out before you rez them. No silly sneaking up to see if your rez range is longer than their agro range.

Air Sup is only moderately useful I think. Most people have some ranged powers, and you can fly anyway. I've not encountered that many flying mobs yet either. (And most are stupid enough to hover in melee range half the time)

 

[Ethiraseth]

im an empathy defender and very happy with teleport friend. Like Sarum said its best use it to teleport dead people to you so you can rezz them. Its also usefull to teleport new group members to you. Its not a real necessity but its makes everything a bit faster and its nice to have.

Just got teleport self but not sure about it. Feels kinda useless at the moment, just walking is faster. Might have to put some range enhancement in it to improve it, but think i was better of taking something from the fitness power pool. But ah well, maybe it will come in handy some day.


oh and an empathy defender is definitly a support char. Can't solo for shit, but ah well, getting groups is easy so i dont mind.

 

[Kokelimonkelmedisin]

Air Sup is only moderately useful I think. Most people have some ranged powers, and you can fly anyway. I've not encountered that many flying mobs yet either. (And most are stupid enough to hover in melee range half the time)

I was thinking that some of my powers only work when the target is on the ground (correct me if I am wrong here)

So Id be nice to be able to knock em down.

 

[Kokelimonkelmedisin]

Just got teleport self but not sure about it. Feels kinda useless at the moment, just walking is faster. Might have to put some range enhancement in it to improve it, but think i was better of taking something from the fitness power pool. But ah well, maybe it will come in handy some day.
.

oh, I was thinking Id be usefull for getting around. If its not then Il just get teleport friend and use superjump to get around. Thought I read somewhere that teleport was the fastest way tog et around tho, but might have missread heh

 

[Sarum]

I know some earth ones need it, dunno about the ice ones. If you're a lot more effective with them on the ground, then maybe... but if you're a support char at heart and therefor most likely to be in a group most of the time, then you can always leave the flying ones to your friends and concentrate on the ones on the ground.

Depends what other powers you want really.. if there isn't anything else you really feel you need, then you might as well, but there are probably other things that will come in more useful, since you don't get that many flying mobs (tho occasionlly, you do get groups of nothing but flyers - especially the oscillatorss when fighting clockwork.)

And teleport is fast. It's faster than fly, which is faster than sprint. I've never tried it, but I imagine it takes a little more skill to use effectively than fly/jump/super speed do. You've got to TP yourself above the buildings, and then keep TP'ing yourself towards where ever you're going before you start falling out of the sky. With fly you just turn it on, and point yourself in the direction you want to go.

 

[Kokelimonkelmedisin]

ok so I guess I just have 4 questions remaining for my controller, then I wont bother you guys anymore:

1) What defensive power pool powers should I pick(what gives more bang for my buck in terms of a defense boost?):
combat jumping, stealth, hover or all 3? (or somethign else?)

2) Is mind controll "the ulatimate" primary grouping power or should I pick ice? (why/why not?)

3) Is team teleport worth it? or is recall friend sufficient for the same uses (anyone have any experience with team teleport?)

 

[Belsameth]

team teleport seems a waste. ice is the best at CCing, while I heard bad things about Mind and as a controller you're better off with Hover then with jump, since hover can keep you out of melee range most of the time, while jump can't

 

[Ethiraseth]

You've got to TP yourself above the buildings, and then keep TP'ing yourself towards where ever you're going before you start falling out of the sky.

i knew i did something wrong!

 

[Danya]

A lot of TPers take hover so they can hover and just TP through the air.
Recall friend is l33t btw.

 

[Ethiraseth]

ah, i found out how teleport works and yes, its usefull, run out of end too fast at the moment but that can be fixed with some enhancements.

 

[pez]

mind controllers have more cc than other controllers in the form of mez. but this isn't daoc. mez borders very close to the utterly useless category, especially in large blaster groups. So i think Bels is right, go for ice

 

[Jonlan]

I've played a little bit controller with mez/empathy for support char, and I think he can be a blast. Only to level 8 though Yes many times groups don't know to not wake up the sleeping princesses and or they don't care, but in such occations what I do is I always cast stuns on the mobs closest to the group/under attack and mez (sleep) to most furthest mobs. Toss in a confusion here and there. But I've also grouped with people who know what to attack and not. It's a blast anyways. I'm sure that in higher levels and while using AE sleep it's more vital to control what you hit and what not...

Most fun I had solo was when I met a Lieutenant on the streets with his 5 minions. I confused the Lieutenant to attack his own minions, all of which I kept mezzed/stunned. Before the end it was just me and the Lieutenant and his dead minions. In the end it was just me, running off giggling and snorting. Go mind benders go!!!

Well thank god many combinations and classes work just fine, not like some hardcore games where you need this and that untill you can do things.

 

[pez]

watch out for confuse, i never took it myself but any mob you confuse you get 0 xp for and possibly any mob that gets hit by a confused mob you get 0 xp for

 

[Ethiraseth]

isnt that supposed to be fixed soon? Can remember reading something that you will get exp as long as you deal some damage to a mob thats being attacked by a confused mob.

 

[Jonlan]

ouch gotta check that, I tought it was only if confused mob kills something while beeing confused...

 

[pez]

i'm fairly sure that in its current state if you aoe confuse a group of mobs you have just reduced your groups potential xp/inspirtaions/enhances to 0 but i wouldn't be suprised if it gets fixed since its a negative ability except in a few select cases

 

[Jonlan]

According to my test, I still get exp from a.) mob I have confused previously b.) mob damage by the confused mob (also damaged by me ofcourse as mez/stun do damage too). I don't know if it lowered it by some percentage, but it didn't lower to zero. I didn't have time to test more throughly, cause I had to create couple of new chars and help a friend and so forth

I don't have AE confusion, that's level 40 stuff. If it drops reward to zero, yes I agree it's useless. Single target confusion however for me is still worth taking, as when in need, with a single cast of it, one can get 2 mobs off your back. The confused one and with luck the other one, who's beeing attacked by the confused one. That's one power taking 2 mobs out for awhile (which seems to last longer than mez/stun). If exp loss is high, makes the skill very situational ofcourse. But anyways just my view