Supporting a PFF Tank

vonqball

So, some friends and I are making a themed team, and our tank is going with PFF.

Any advice on how to support a PFF user? Off the top of my head I came up with Bubbles, IDF, AoRP, and AoPM... but I have no experience with the passive, so I'm not too sure how these tools rank on the desirability scale. I also suspect there are other (sneakier) synergies I'm missing.

Any thoughts?

edit: some letters changed places while I wasn't looking.

flowcyto

-dmg debuffs and buffs (Redirect Force, Illumination, Ascension, etc) will also affect a PFF user, by proxy.

There's lotsa debuffs out there, so ya prob won't have enough power slots in a single build for everything.

AoRP, IDF, and bubbles would be the backbone if ya wanted to go all-out defense on helping a PFF tank. Still want a normal heal to help allies and PFF's bleed-through, rest can be debuffs and reses, and prob at least one spam-able attack.

pantagruel01

The basic way to support PFF is to make sure that the shield is only used to withstand spike attacks, so bubbles. It may be difficult to do this in TA as there's a fair amount of 'grind you down' attacks.

cyrone

flowcyto said:

-dmg debuffs and buffs (Redirect Force, Illumination, Ascension, etc) will also affect a PFF user, by proxy.

There's lotsa debuffs out there, so ya prob won't have enough power slots in a single build for everything.

AoRP, IDF, and bubbles would be the backbone if ya wanted to go all-out defense on helping a PFF tank. Still want a normal heal to help allies and PFF's bleed-through, rest can be debuffs and reses, and prob at least one spam-able attack.

This. All of this.

Also, AoPM isn't too beneficial with PFF since the shield regen hits a "soft cap" at around 8k shields (assuming boosts are just from stats and rank) and begins scaling very horribly. All AoPM would do in this case would give an okay boost to shield max and a negligible boost to shield regen. Whoever would be support would be better off running AoRP.

vonqball

Well, we were thinking of splitting the workload somewhat. One person running AoRP, another with AoPM.

We need some DPS at this point, so I'm contemplating making an off-support, running AoPM and spamming protection bubble between attacks.

Edited: Fed a (fat) cat in the middle of writing this... missing the two previous posts.

vonqball

Thanks for the insight folks. Might have to rethink the AoPM thing... was thinking it would give a decent boost to the shield strength... heh.

Anyone ever try an Unstoppable+IDF build?

sagewithbubbles

vonqball said:

Thanks for the insight folks. Might have to rethink the AoPM thing... was thinking it would give a decent boost to the shield strength... heh.

Anyone ever try an Unstoppable+IDF build?

Works against henchmen, isn't a fan of spikes (though a good block and investment in Defense would help). I take it that'd be for the off-support?

vonqball

^Yeah. One member is probably going to go the AoRP/ force route. Not sure If they are planning to go with compassion/manip or IDF tho. I'm currently the designated DPS... but I was trying to think of how I could tack on some support-y-ness to give others some more room to flex their builds.

flowcyto

One other thing to consider now is Med Nanites offering dmgRes as well. The heal aura won't be quite as useful generally, but it can help PFF's bleed-through dmg (though Sentinel Aura could as well).

vonqball

Well... we did some role shifting, and I ended up taking the primary support role. I've been wanting to make a melee, paladin style support for a while... so, this is mah chance. In this case, it is a tech-themed paladin...

PowerHouse   (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Strength (Primary)
Level 10: Presence (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Devastator
Level 6: Shrug It Off
Level 9: Physical Conditioning
Level 12: Impressive Physique
Level 15: Healthy Mind
Level 18: Diplomatic
Level 21: Intimidating

Powers:
Level 1: Wrist Bolter
Level 1: Laser Sword (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Lightspeed Dash (Nailed to the Ground)
Level 8: Particle Smash (Rank 2)
Level 11: Unbreakable
Level 14: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 17: Bionic Shielding (Rank 2)
Level 20: Protection Field (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Inertial Dampening Field (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Aura of Radiant Protection (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29:
Level 32:
Level 35:
Level 38:

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Energy Slide
Level 35:

Specializations:
Strength: Physical Peak (3/3)
Strength: Aggression (2/2)
Strength: Brutality (2/2)
Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)
Arbiter: Enforcer (3/3)
Arbiter: Ruthless (2/2)
Arbiter: Honor (2/2)
Arbiter: Preservation (2/2)
Arbiter: Enhanced Gear (1/3)
Warden: Fortified Gear (2/3)
Warden: Slaughter (3/3)
Warden: Tenacious (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Warden Mastery (1/1)

Probably not optimal, but it has been quite fun to play so far. Took some inspiration from Gradii's Cybersteel Invuln-IDF tank.
Was on the fence between Pre mastery and Strength mastery. I ended up with strength, mostly for the melee cost reduction.

flowcyto

Just curious, but how much are you end building with that setup?

I'd prob have at least one other heal (not PF) that ya can spam on allies, since BShielding has an effective cd per target. And ofc get an ally res, but I suppose ya were getting one latter.

jaazaniah1

Maybe take Compassion for those times when you don't need IDF.​​

vonqball

flowcyto said:

Just curious, but how much are you end building with that setup?

I'd prob have at least one other heal (not PF) that ya can spam on allies, since BShielding has an effective cd per target. And ofc get an ally res, but I suppose ya were getting one latter.

As of now, (running in support mode) I can laser sword away for quite a while... but if I do that while spamming heals and bubbles, my energy drops pretty fast. So, I find myself rotating between full offense, and full defense mode. E-building while I distribute bubbles and heals, then dashing in for 2-3 rotations of LS. But, I'm only halfway through the arbiter tree... and my current gear is absolute trash, so this should improve.

My main issue with the build, is that managing my team's health, while doing the melee dance, is quite challenging for me. As a melee, your visual window of the battle tends to be quite narrow... so, I'm watching health bars most of the time. This has led to several ignominious deaths from Hi-Pan's black spot of doom. I'm not a seasoned support player though, so maybe I just need to build up some new neural pathways.

Edit: de-Yoda-fied.

flowcyto

Healing as a melee build isn't as easy, partly for what you mentioned- more restrictive field of view that requires more zooming out to see all spread-out allies (which can be disorienting- at least in the short term I know that is for me). But also simply cause melee tends to have to watch out for fight mechanics more than Ranged- and that trend is def true in CO, imo.

vonqball

^Agreed. I was falling asleep on my last ranged DPS hero... But, my brain feels fried after doing my alert dailies on this melee-support. Even my giant growth hero didn't require quite as much frantic clicking.

It's kinda too bad, cuz the build seems somewhat promising. But, I'm considering switching to a long-stun, Sonic arrow based Support... with all the res. debuffs and whatnot. Maybe I'm just too lazy to be a paladin.

chuckwolf

There is only one way to support a PFF tank: Send Cyrone lots of money weekly... because he's the only one to successfully be a true PFF Tank.

cyrone

chuckwolf said:

There is only one way to support a PFF tank: Send Cyrone lots of money weekly... because he's the only one to successfully be a true PFF Tank.

This....has just become part of my signature.

chuckwolf

cyrone said:

chuckwolf said:

There is only one way to support a PFF tank: Send Cyrone lots of money weekly... because he's the only one to successfully be a true PFF Tank.

This....has just become part of my signature.

I'm Honored