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Protective Field
joybuzzerx
Posts: 882 Arc User
Is this power bad, or does it just feel bad to me?
What's the general consensus on it? I'm just not sure it's feeling useful, but then maybe Im just to low level for it feel useful?
What's the general consensus on it? I'm just not sure it's feeling useful, but then maybe Im just to low level for it feel useful?
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My character in support mode can make Mindful Reinforcement shields with 6,369 HP. Protection Field would be a little bit higher than that. That amount of HP, even without any damage reduction present on it, is enough to help out considerably. It at least gives you some breathing room for healing.
When in damage mode, the shield is 1,479. Not much, but enough to stay alive and kill off enemies to buy time for some real health recovery.
I've heard of Bubble Tanks as well, who spam Protection Field and Mindful Reinforcement on themselves to great effect.
From my testing, sadly, the energy return on Protection Field as well as the energy return from Mindful Reinforcement's advantage are both broken, and don't actually return anything at all. So you're basically making the decision between longer duration and slightly more HP, or a beefy heal after 8 seconds if the shield isn't used up.
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It just felt with the 20second duration, it wasn't being worth it...maybe when higher level?
It comes down to this: you will want some form of defense, whether it be a bubble, an active defense, a heal. I usually take 2 of those, with one always being a heal. Lately, bubble has been odd man out except on my healers.
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I think if you take the Force Sheathe advantage in Force Shield, it reduces the damage your protection field takes, but I'm not 100% sure.
The problem with bubbles is that they aren't effected by resistance. Damage is subtracted from them before your resists are factored in, whereas healing is a universal donor. This is particularly bad now that it's possible for just about any build to get a decent amount of resistance, especially because the trees that help you hike your resistance up tend to also give better bonuses to most other things you'd want.
Paired with their high energy cost, the end result of this is that in order to get good mileage out of them, you usually need a build that stacks a large amount of PRE and other healing bonuses that effect shields, Support role and both of the bubble powers for it to really make a universal impact. You'll probably want to be running AoPM in addition to this, especially because none of the other aura options besides Arcane Clarity give energy, and Serephim doesn't effect bubbles.
Even then, when dealing with anyone who's building some defense on their character, you still are likely to be better off just throwing Bionic on them and calling it a day, since any build speced for +healing is going to be healing 1000 x 5 effective HP with a single application, if not quite a bit more. That only gets better with the target's resistance, use of a more healing focused spec such as PRE Superstat, Compassion, etc. The only downside is that it can't be spammed indefinitely with enough energy, and that is largely bypassed by picking up an additional healing power that can, which also will benefit from resistance.
TL;DR
From a time, effort and overall value perspective, healing based options are just flat out better most of the time. You can make them work, even to the point where you're virtually unkillable, but you'll work much harder and accomplish much less in the process.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
On my level 40 support hero, I have 4,474 HP max normally. But with Protection field, I can spend 41 energy to get a 3,492 or better (when Compassion starts building) damage shield that also gives me 10% energy every time I, or whoever I have the shield on, takes a hit. Mind you, that's with about 200 intelligence, recovery, and gear effects. So your mileage may vary. But for me, if it lasts 4 hits then I have the energy back for another one (as long as I haven't spent it on something else).
Important! Protection field scales to your bonus healiing. So if you're in a Damage or Tank role, Protection field isn't going to have the stat bonuses to push it beyond it's base. 15% for a 5 star bonus, and that's it unless you use healing gear or stat for presence. It works much better in hybrid (half stat bonus) or support role (full stat bonus).
Cons: For the HP you get, the energy cost is high relative to proper healing. The protection field itself does not benefit from the targets resistance.
Pros: Energy is refunded when the target takes hits. More importantly, there are no lockouts, cool downs, charge times, or maintain times. It only has a 0.83s cast time and the energy cost. So while energy lasts, it is possible to replace it faster than it can be shot down. Unless the opponent uses a very strong spike damage power, you can keep your target or yourself perfectly shielded.
The Bubble Tank is a concept born in PvP. It isn't really an actual tank role hero usually, but a support hero. With good energy management, Protection Field and the advantaged Mindful Reinforcement can return potentially more energy than they use. And since they are separate powers, their effects stack. They typical setup usually has Aura of Primal Majesty as a passive, and both bubble powers. That gives 8,000 to 10,000 in damage shielding to whoever the hero wants replaceable every 1.5 seconds as long as the energy is there. Defeating one of these heroes is near impossible.
Very good information, especially these parts:
Energy is the major concern for these, which is where END is actually a very useful stat on these "bubble builds". I'll let you think about why that might be...
Challenge Accepted. :biggrin:
(Tip: Use knocks, or stuns & paralyze holds to your advantage, it's tricky though because resistance stacks once they break out. And yes it can be broken with extreme spike damage, but at what cost to your build's flexibility?)
Consolidate the currencies! (Please!)
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Please fix the Overdrive energy unlock! (Should help promote thematic build diversity!)
That why you hit them below the Energy belt. Telekinetic Wave w/ Psychic Tides. Let see 'em keep those bubble up with an Energy Equilibrium of 1 all the time.
True but this all depends on duration and timing execution. Which is actually where the skill element comes into play. I mention knocks, stuns, and paralyzes because those are common on many builds already out there. Not everybody can just RetCon every time they want to fix a build up to counter another one, which is where the skill & experience part of the PvP gameplay comes in (there always somebody better at it than you too, reason for humility).
Consolidate the currencies! (Please!)
Does your Champion have a theme song? (share it!)
Got a funny in-game screenshot? (share it!)
Please fix the Overdrive energy unlock! (Should help promote thematic build diversity!)