How to Play an Empathy Defender in City of Heroes

An Empathy Defender is commonly known as a healer in City of Heroes, a very popular Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game where anyone can log in and become a super hero. In order to get the most fulfillment from a healer, there are some basic guidelines you can follow. Naturally everyone plays their character differently, but these steps can help you be the best hero you can be.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Active City of Heroes account

1. Decide whether you would like to be a team-oriented player, or a solo hero. If you would like to focus on playing in teams, you will want to choose powers based on defense and "buffs" for other players. However, if you want to be a solo player, you'll want to pick up plenty of good offense powers in your secondary set of powers.
2. Always keep your team window open, and your buff tabs showing. This will help you monitor your team members' health, endurance and current buffs. You will also be able to tell when a team member is being held or slept, or when a particular buff may be wearing off.
3. Buff your team at the beginning of every mission, and before any major battle. Ask your team to stand still for this procedure to ensure all team members get the buff.
4. Pass out fortitude, clear mind and adrenaline boost thoughtfully. Clear mind comes up quickly enough to keep on at all times, but only use this to buff when the villains you are fighting have the power to stun or sleep you, otherwise it's a waste of precious time and endurance. Fortitude should be given to sidekicks, tanks, controllers, Kheldians, blasters, scrappers and defenders, in that order of priority. Adrenaline boost is best reserved for times when a teammate chooses to "nuke," or has endurance trouble.
5. Pick up additional support powers if possible. Invisibility, tactics and teleport friend are always good choices if you are a team player.
6. Remember you're squishy! While on a team, avoid drawing attention from any target. If you are a solo player, avoid using Area of Effect (AoE) powers unless absolutely necessary.
7. When resurrecting teammates, be mindful of their location and their abilities. If you have multiple deaths, it's always best to resurrect any team member that may also have a resurrection power before any others so they can help you. Always try to resurrect away from a mob.
8. Consider binding your powers to alternate keys. One very good strategy is to bind your Heal Other power to the number keys on your number pad. Correspond the numbers to a team member ranking number, and you can simply hit the number in the team list to heal that teammate.
9. Take advantage of tight groupings during battle when your auras pop up.
10. Remind your teammates to stay together if they tend to separate on difficult missions.

Tips & Warnings

• Never put your Healing Aura on auto fire. This is annoying, very often unnecessary and almost always the mark of a lazy defender. The only possible exception to this is during a Hamidon or Mothership raid.
• Expect to be blamed for teammate's deaths on occasion. Some less mature players take the game far too seriously, so just take it with good humor and move on. As long as you did your best, there's nothing else you could do.
• Never teleport a dead mentor away from an alive sidekick.

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