Extor_Prime

Pool Power Choices

1. Fitness

This one is a no-brainer. Ill/Rad is an extremely Endurance-heavy character, and you need every little bit of +Recovery you can get. Plus, Health is a great place to stick Numina and Miracle Unique IOs.

I recommend taking Swift and not Hurdle, but you may want to choose differently.

2. Speed

Another no-brainer. You need Hasten for +Recharge. Take it and put 3 Recharge IOs in it. Superspeed is a good choice of travel power; the other two powers are, as it is commonly known, a waste of power picks.

3. Flight

Unless you really cannot stand flying, Flight is probably the best travel pool for an Ill/Rad Controller. Early on, skip Hover and take Air Superiority to fill out your personal attack chain. After Epic Pools arrive, drop Air Superiority and grab Hover. If nothing else, it'll give you a place to put a LoTG +7.5% IO. But you may want to do yourself a favor and slot Hover with 2 Soaring, 1 Flight Speed and 1 LoTG: this gives you very reliable, precise "combat flight" option that also comes with a bit of +Def.

4. Concealment

You already have two of the best Invisibility powers in the game. Don't waste a pool pick, unless you're going for a heavily conceptual character, or need a place to put an LoTG +7.5%.

5. Fighting

Who exactly are you planning to fight hand to hand? Tough and Weave are certainly nice, but unless you're going PvP, they are also rather useless to you. If you are being attacked, you won't last long enough for these two to make a difference.

6. Leadership

Your PA cannot be buffed. Unless you want to be extremely team-friendly, taking anything from Leadership pool for the sake of buffing the Phantasm is a waste.

7. Presence

Are you nuts?

8. Medicine

You already have an AoE heal and one of the best Rez powers in the game. Why would you want powers that are clearly inferior?

9. Teleportation

A fine travel pool if teleportation is your thing. Largely useless otherwise. Teleporting the Phantasm is a waste of time as you might as well just re-summon the bugger.

10. Leaping

Having never used Super Jump for travel, I cannot comment on it. However, Combat Jumping is a cheap toggle that provides a slot to mule a LoTG +7.5% Enhancement, and Acrobatics is valued for KB protection. The latter is of questionable imporance in PvE, because you'll be rarely targeted.

Epic Pool Power Choices

My personal experience is with the Psionic and Fire Mastery pools, which I find to be great choices for an Ill/Rad, and also with Primal Forces Mastery. I will give my assessments of other pools, but they may be a bit subjective.

1. Psionic Mastery

This pool is a good choice because it gives you a ranged attack, an AoE attack, a personal Smash/Lethal/Psi resjstance toggle and a very potent defense/resistance against all things that mez. If you go Psi Mastery, take all four powers. This is a very popular pool, and rightly so - you will be suffering most from stray attacks and AoE mezzes, and Indomitable Will and Mind over Body help you avoid some of it.

The two primary drawbacks are Psi damage dealt by Mind Blast and Psionic Tornado, and Tornado's slow activation. Your main attacks already do Psi damage that doesn't do a lot against robotic opponents, and your this pool offers no way to diversify your damage types. Also, Tornado is a DoT attack, meaning that it takes longer to do its job.

2. Fire Mastery

This pool focuses more on damage than on defense. Fire Blast and Fireball add some serious non-Psi ranged punch to your arsenal. Fire Shield is a great defensive toggle comparable to Mind over Body, though it doesn't protect from Psi attacks. Consume is regarded as a "meh" power and I tend to agree; unless you don't have Geas of the Kind Ones accolade or are having severe Endurance problems, I recommend skipping it.

The main drawback of this pool is lack of Mez protection. You also lose a Defense power in comparison to Psionic Mastery, thus being deprived of a slot to put an LoTG +7.5% enhancement. My suggestion, if you choose Fire Mastery, is to take Combat Jumping from Leaping pool instead of Consume.

Fire does offer noticeably better offensive game than Psi because of faster animations and DoT effects on Fire Blast and Fireball. However, when faced with enemies armed with AoE mezzes, you may find yourself missing the safety of Indomitable Will.

3. Primal Forces Mastery

Power Blast is a standard single-target ranged attack. Temp Invulnerability is fairly average as far as defensive toggles go. Conserve Power is a good way to survive Endurance crashes due to EM Pulse, toggles, sapping or long fights. Power Boost stacks with Accelerate Metabolism for excellent speed boosting and improved holds. Energy Torrent is a standard cone attack with useful knockdown side effect.

This pool provides great utility in form of Power Boost and Conserve Power, but loses out due to mediocre offensive powers.

4. Earth Mastery

I've never seen an Ill/Rad pick this pool, and have no experience with it myself.

5. Ice Mastery

This pool gives you a rather standard single-target attack and defensive toggle. It also offers an extra panic button (Hibernate) and a ranged AoE attack with a Slow and -Rech component. I haven't tried this pool and haven't seen many Ill/Rad controllers who picked it.

The main drawback of this pool is lack of Mez protection. I would also argue that Ice doesn't quite fit into the Ill/Rad concept, but that is purely subjective.

Useful Accolades

1. Geas of the Kind Ones

This accolade gives you a solid boost to +Recharge and accuracy, and also increases your Endurance recovery. It is perfect for recovering from occassional Endurance crash, or as a "shot in the arm" during longer fights against AVs.

2. Vanguard Medal

It's Power Boost, with significantly longer recharge. As a controller, you should want any power that improves your control powers. Plus, it boosts Accelerate Metabolism, and gives you a nice speed burst.

3. Atlas Medallion

It's a pain in the butt to get, but it gives you a bit of extra Endurance. And every little bit helps.

4. Elusive Mind

Psionic resistance comes in handy every so often.

5. Portal Jockey

Another small bonus to Endurance. It all adds up.

Conclusion

With some heavy investment into enhancements, some luck, and a lot of grinding of teeth during low points of your career, you have the potential to grow a character that is truly SUPER. Ill/Rads are a blast to play, and if you have the patience to finish the "ultimate" build, there will be few, if any, archetypes that can match or beat your PvE performance. Good luck!

Illusion Control Powers

Blind
Level: 1
Recommended number of slots: 6
Recommended regular slotting: 1 Hold Duration, 2 Damage, 2 Accuracy, 1 Recharge
Recommended premium slotting: 1 Endoplasm Exposure HO, 2 Peroxisome Exposure HO, 1 Ghost Widow's A/R, 1 Thunderstrike D/R, 1 Essence of Curare A/R
Visual: Your character leans forward and light flashes from his eyes.

Your basic Single Target hold+damage attack, Magnitude 2 (it will hold LTs and Minions with one application). Since you get a choice of two powers at level 1, I highly recommend getting this and not Spectral Wounds first. Frankenslotting is the way to go with this power, in order to get maximum possible Hold Duration, Accuracy, Damage and Recharge, and in the end it's not even all that expensive (at least in comparison).

Additionally, Blind has a chance of AoE sleep occurring. The area is quite small though. Early on you'll notice it every so often, when your enemies are bunched close together. Later in the game, any Sleep that happens after Blind is usually immediately ruined by your Phantom Army's attacks. Slotting Blind for Sleep is therefore wasteful and useless.

Blind sets up Containment, benefits from Containment and should be the first strike in your single-target attack chain.

Spectral Wounds
Level: 1
Recommended number of slots: 5-6
Recommended regular slotting: 3 Damage, 1/2 Accuracy, 1 Recharge OR Thunderstrike IO set
Recommended premium slotting: 5-6 Apocalypse IO Set
Visual: Your character slashes his left arm through the air, as if giving the enemy a big backhand slap. The target is enveloped in a blue "forcefield" with red streaks/slashes inside.

The second single-target attack in your chain.It deals high damage, which partially heals back after a few seconds if the target is still alive. This attack benefits from Containment, though less than other attacks - it was judged to be too powerful otherwise. It is absolutely necessary to enhance damage on this attack, because only the portion of non-enhanced damage heals back - all the bonus damage from enhancements stays.

Deceive
Level: 2
Recommended number of slots: 5
Recommended regular slotting: 2 Accuracy, 2 Confuse Duration, 1 Recharge
Recommended premium slotting: 5 Coercive Persuasion
Visual: Your character extends both his arms forward and wiggles fingers in the air. His hands glow slightly and purple blobs appear around the target's head.

Deceive is very much misunderstood by some, but it's a great power nonetheless. It confuses a single enemy, forcing him to fight on your side for a while. Early on, Deceive provides you with a pseudo-pet (or pets - nobody says you cannot confuse multiple enemies). Later, you can use it to get rid of annoying enemies that buff or debuff. Malta Sappers draining your Endurance? Confuse 'em! Rikti Guardians or Immunes Surgeons buffing/healing enemies? Make them work for you instead! EXP loss from Deceive is pretty manageable as long as you do more damage than your Deceived "allies" inflict, and benefits last throughout your career. At 50, slotting five Coercive Persuasion IOs gives you a dirt-cheap (in comparison to other purple sets) 10% boost to global +Recharge bonus.

I highly recommend confusing your Radiation anchors, if possible - because they are debuffed, they'll whiff most of their attacks, thus causing little to no EXP loss at all; they'll follow their former friends instead of running at you (thus keeping their former friends in debuff auras) and won't pester you either.

One final note: Deceive does not cause aggro and doesn't suppress stealth. So, you can, in theory, sit in Invisibility forever confusing your enemies until they all kill each other and be perfectly safe. Of course, this will deprive you of EXP and Influence...

Flash
Level: 6
Recommended number of slots: 5
Recommended regular slotting: 2 Accuracy, 2 Hold, 1 Recharge
Recommended premium slotting: 5 Unbreakable Constraint
Visual: Your character concentrates for a moment and then raises his arms in the air. A bright flash of light appears around his body.

This is your PBAoE hold, Magnitude 2. I tried this power, and wasn't overly impressed. Long-ish animation, "meh" accuracy and equally "meh" hold duration mean that early on you'll miss with it quite frequently. Since Flash is PBAoE, you need to be in the middle of an enemy group for it to work - and if you miss, the non-held enemies will immediately attempt to kick your azz. In order to get the most out of Flash, you have to enhance it pretty heavily, and it becomes a decent AoE hold for Containment set-up.

I personally don't recommend it - EM Pulse from the Radiation Emission pool is much more attractive, despite the self-debuff - but some people prefer Flash. Your mileage may vary.

Superior Invisibility
Level: 8
Recommended number of slots: 3
Recommended regular slotting: 3 Endurance Reduction IO
Recommended premium slotting: 1 Luck of the Gambler +7.5 Recharge IO, 2 Endurance Reduction IO
Visual: Standard "power up" animation with head tilted back.

This is the first of two best Stealth powers in the game. It is a toggle, and a rather Endurance-hungry one - so Endurance Reduction IOs are a must. In extended (vs. GM or AV) end-game battles you may want to turn it off altogether once your enemy's attention is occupied elsewhere if you're running low on Endurance.

The good thing about this power is that it lets you control when you are invisible and when you aren't; it doesn't annoy teammates and it can take Luck of the Gambler enhancements. The bad things are the aforementioned Endurance drain, and the fact that it will de-toggle if you are mezzed, leaving you to stumble about completely visible while you're most vulnerable.

Group Invisibility
Level: 12
Recommended number of slots: 1
Recommended regular slotting: 1 Recharge IO
Recommended premium slotting: 1 Luck of the Gambler +7.5 Recharge IO
Visual: Your character does a half-step forward and extends his arms to the sides at shoulder level.

Group Invisibility is the second of two best Stealth powers in the game. It turns you and your team invisible, and will suppress in combat. With just one Recharge IO and some global +Recharge, it is perma or very close to perma with just one slot. Group Invisibility is useful to protect squishier teammates or facilitate team sneaking. Tanks generally don't appreciate it, because it reduces their threat level. Also, be careful with it during missions that require to lead someone out of an instance - the hostage may lose track of his rescuer if the rescuer becomes invisible.

Group Invisibility is a PBAoE Click power, so it will wear off (usually when it's least convenient) and will have to be recast. You briefly turn visible when you recast it, so don't do it when enemies are near. On the plus side, you remain invisible even if mezzed.

Phantom Army
Level: 18
Recommended number of slots: 6
Recommended regular slotting: 3 Recharge IO, 1 Accuracy IO, 2 Damage IO
Recommended premium slotting: 1 Recharge IO, 1 A/D HamiO, Soulbound Allegiance Chance for Build Up, Soulbound Allegiance A/D,Soulbound Allegiance D/R/A, Soulbound Allegiance: Damage, Soulbound Allegiance: D/R
Visual: Your character extends one arm forward and three random-looking Decoys appear out of nowhere.

One of the greatest "summon pet" powers in the game, Phantom Army (or PA) produces what can be described as a "pocket tank". They are invulnerable to anything except falling damage and Hamidon's attacks, and have a Taunt aura, meaning that anything close to them will immediately pounce on them and not on you. Though Phantom Army does not produce Containment, it is arguably one of the best ways to "control" high-end enemies that cannot be chain-mezzed. When the Decoys disappear, whatever aggro they had is transferred either to you or to your Phantasm.

Phantom Army's damage is entirely illusory, and all of it will heal back if you don't enhance it. Though they looks like fire, ice, electricity or blocks of concrete, the Decoys' attacks have none of the side-effects of "real" attacks: illusory fire doesn't produce DoT, Ice does not slow, and Electricity does not drain Endurance.

In late game, PA benefits greatly from Soulbound Allegiance: Chance for Build-Up. Since there are three Decoys and they attack very quickly, the resulting Build-Up lets them pump out some serious hurt, and it fires quite often. It doesn't turn them into godlike monsters, but it definitely helps front-load the damage.

Your ultimate goal is to get your Phantom Army's recharge time to 62 seconds or less, making it essentially perma. A common opinion exists that you must get the recharge under 60 seconds to be completely safe, but I found that recasting PA while another set of Decoys is out often causes your enemy to lose aggro on the Decoys and switch to a different target. In either case, you're likely to be on the receiving end of at least one attack, and shaving off the last 2-3 seconds may cost you millions of Influence and a potentially gimped build. I've soloed every Praetorian AV except Siege with PA recharge at 64 seconds, and took down "Nemesis?" and a Devouring Earth Quarry with PA Recharge at 61.1 seconds. In both cases, my opponents never fired off more than 1 attack during the PA recast, and in most cases the attack missed.

Spectral Terror
Level: 26
Recommended number of slots: 1 to start, 5 by level 50
Recommended regular slotting: 1 Fear Duration
Recommended premium slotting: 5 Glimpse of the Abyss, including the Chance for Psionic Damage
Visual: Your character motions with his arms as if lifting something heavy in front of himself, and a ghostly creature appears from nowhere.

The Spectral Terror is a pseudo-pet, because it is immobile and cannot be targeted for buffs or damage. When it is first summoned, it blasts the nearby area with a PBAoE Fear attack; afterwards, it fires a single-target Fear attack every so often. Targets affected by Fear will cower or run away; either way, their combat efficiency will be severly reduced. The Terror appears to hover, but it really isn't: if you summon it in mid-air, it will fall down, which makes it suitable for "fear-bombing" enemy spawns from relative safety. Note that Fear does not enable containment, though it will help somewhat to keep your targets in a group.

This power is good "out of the box", but should really be five-slotted with Glimpse of the Abyss at 50 for relatively cheap 10% bonus to global +Recharge. One thing to remember is that the Chance for Psionic Damage will only proc when the Spectral Terror is summoned on his initial PBAoE fear attack. It's not huge damage, but it does turn an otherwise non-damaging attack into an occassional AoE.

Phantasm
Level: 32
Recommended number of slots: 5 to start, but respec to 3 at level 50
Recommended regular slotting: 2 Accuracy, 3 Damage or frankenslot with Blood Mandate and Edicts of the Master
Recommended premium slotting: 3 Acc/Dam HamiOs
Visual: Your character stands tall and raises arms above the head in a "Y" pose, and his entire body glows. The Phantasm then appears in front of you.

This is your real, "permanent" pet. Phantasm can be buffed and healed, and likewise damaged, held, stunned, slept and eventually killed. It tends to stay at range, repeatedly firing Energy Bolts and Energy Torrent at the opposition. It will also summon a single decoy copy of itself that will attach to Phantasm's current target, and fire illusory attacks at it. The decoy is invulnerable (like the PA), and will disappear when the Phantasm's target dies. If Phantasm is killed, the decoy will briefly stick around, but it will fade in less than 30 seconds.

Phantasm can fly (but its decoy cannot), and will generally be able to keep up with you, though it is a bit on the dumb side and might become stuck in something; in that case, you can easily enough re-summon it. Both the real Phantasm and its decoy produce a fair amount of knockback, which is as likely to save you from a charging enemy as to knock your anchor out of the crowd. Learn to deal with it; no pet is without its quirks.

Phantasm's attack chain is on the slow side, and slotting procs on him is wasteful - they don't fire often enough and don't produce enough effect to be noticeable. Instead, at level 50 put three slots into the power and stick in 3 Acc/Dam HamiOs, capping both accuracy and damage. You will miss out on some set bonuses, but frankly they aren't that great on pet sets, and those slots could be used elsewhere.

Radiation Emission Powers

Radiant Aura
Level: 1
Recommended number of slots: 5
Recommended regular slotting: 3 Heal, 2 Recharge
Recommended premium slotting: 5 Doctored Wounds
Visual: Your character does a half-step forward and extends his arms to the sides at shoulder level. Green light spreads out in circular waves.

This is your PBAoE Heal. It isn't fabulous even when fully enhanced, but it's better than nothing and might save your (and your teammates') bacon from an immenent faceplant. You aren't an Empath and shouldn't be concentrating on healing, but in a pinch you could off-heal if necessary.

Radiation Infection
Level: 2
Recommended number of slots: 3
Recommended regular slotting: 3 To-Hit Debuff
Recommended premium slotting: 3 Enzyme Exposure HamiO
Visual: Your character extends an arm towards the target, and a green cloud appears around your hand. The target starts emitting a sickly-looking green aura.

Your first anchored toggle debuff. It is autohit. Place it on either the most threatening enemy in the group, or on something you've Deceived. It can also be placed on objects, i.e. Shadow Cysts. The debuff aura will ruin the nearby opponents' ToHit and Defense (moreso when you get HamiOs). This power has a long activation time during which you're stuck to one spot, which makes it a lousy opener. Once Enervating Field becomes available, open with that and follow with Radiation Infection.

As always, be prepared to recast it when your anchor gets killed.

Accelerate Metabolism
Level: 4
Recommended number of slots: 6
Recommended regular slotting: 3 EndMod, 3 Recharge
Recommended premium slotting: 6 Efficacy Adaptor
Visual: Your character does a half-step forward and extends his arms to the sides at shoulder level. Green light spreads out in circular waves.

One of the best buffs in the game, the AM improves yours and nearby allies' Recovery and ToHit, Recharge, Speed, Damage and even gives some Mez resistance. You should aim to make AM perma, because it helps with reducing recharge of Phantom Army, and it's a great overall buff for both you and your team. Cast as soon as it's up, and recast ad nauseum.

Enervating Field
Level: 10
Recommended number of slots: 2
Recommended regular slotting: 2 Endurance Reduction IO
Recommended premium slotting: 2 Endurance Reduction IO (oddly enough)
Visual: Your character does a double-axe-handle overhead smash, similar to Air Superiority attack. This is a ranged attack, so don't expect it to do melee damage.

Your second anchored, toggled debuff. Like Radiation Infection, it will always hit. This one ruins your enemies' Damage Resistance and Damage output. You cannot enhance either of those, so just put a couple of EndRed IOs to lessen the Endurance drain, and be done with it.

Mutation
Level: 16
Recommended number of slots: 1
Recommended regular slotting: 1 Recharge Reduction IO
Recommended premium slotting: 1 Recharge Reduction IO
Visual: Your character motions with his arms as if lifting something heavy in front of himself, and green glow appears around his hands.

This is one of the best combat resurrection powers available. Not only your fallen allies is brought back to life with full HP and Endurance, they also receive a substantial buff to Recharge, Recovery, Damage and Accuracy; this buff wears off after a little while and is replaced by a brief debuff. If you are trying to be team-friendly, grab this power.

Lingering Radiation
Level: 20
Recommended number of slots: 3-5
Recommended regular slotting: 3 Slow IOs
Recommended premium slotting: 3-5 Tempered Readiness
Visual: Your character does a double-axe-handle overhead smash, similar to Air Superiority attack. This is a ranged attack, so don't expect it to do melee damage.

This power is one of the reasons why you'll be wanted on Task Forces and teams involved in AV and GM takedowns. The most important component of it is -Regen, which suppresses the ungodly HP regeneration that the harder enemies have. -Recharge and Slow are just icing on the cake, though they are helpful in reducing the amount of incoming fire and keeping your enemies bunched up.

This power is NOT autohit, so some accuracy enhancement is in order. Always fire it last, after you've placed your debuff toggles.

You cannot enhance the -Regen component of the power. I found that the Tempered Readiness set gives you some half-decent set bonuses, and that's the most you can hope in this case.

Choking Cloud
Level: 28
Recommended number of slots: ???
Recommended regular slotting: ???
Recommended premium slotting: ???
Visual: ???

I have no experience with this power, and cannot recommend it. It is a pulsing PBAoE hold, meaning that you have to stand in the middle of enemies for it to work, and every so often some of them will break it and make a beeline straight for your hindquarters. It is also an Endurance hog. I never tried it in any one of my builds, so I cannot offer any advice regarding it; however, it has a lot of negative press on the forums without my input...

Fallout
Level: 26
Recommended number of slots: ???
Recommended regular slotting: ???
Recommended premium slotting: ???
Visual: ???

Another power I never picked, and cannot advise on. It's a "craftable nuke" - when a teammate dies, you blow up their corpse real good. Out of pure courtesy, if you take this, take Mutation as well - if you abuse someone's corpse, at least have the decency to rez them afterwards. Slot and enhance it like you would any nuke attack - that is, if you absolutely MUST take it.

EM Pulse
Level: 32
Recommended number of slots: 5
Recommended regular slotting: 3 Recharge, 2 Accuracy
Recommended premium slotting: 5 Unbreakable Constraint (including the Chance for Smashing Damage)
Visual: Your character stands tall and raises his arms, making a "Y" pose. A pulse of something that looks like greenish gas shoots out in every direction.

I can't say enough good things about this power. Despite the fact that it looks like a gigantic full-body fart and not an EM pulse, it is the single best PBAoE hold in the game. It activates very quickly, has a huge radius, high accuracy and long duration, drains some Endurance from targets and damages enemy robots to boot. The only drawbacks are a rather long recharge time and the -Recovery debuff that you receive for 10 seconds after activating this power. The debuff is easy enough to stomach if you slot Performance Shifter Chance for +Endurance IO, and have your Phantasm and Phantom Army properly outfitted for damage. Let your pets do the work while the debuff wears off, and then mop up whomever is still standing. Once slotted with Unbreakable Constraint, the power really shines - and gives you the coveted 10% bonus to global +Recharge.

What to expect

Here's a breakdown of what to expect at various stages of your character's life. Hopefully it'll lessen the surprize and prepare you for certain stretches.

Levels 1-17

Ohboy. Even if you know what you're getting into, sometimes it's hard not to ask yourself "why am I playing this piece of crap?", particularly in late teens. You begin with a couple of single-target attacks, one of which happens to be you staple HOLD, and has minimal AoE. You also get a moderately lousy heal in the form of Radiant Aura, and soon thereafter your first anchored debuff and the most eclectic buff in the game, Accelerate Metabolism. Solo, you will be relatively safe, but going it alone is torturously SLOW. Even with Containment, it can take a while to defeat enemies, and without Stamina you'll always be running low on Endurance. Get Deceive early and start using it: you trade a small amount of lost XP for a pseudo-pet in the form a confused enemy. And teaming makes a world of difference. Needless to say you should do Safeguard missions to get temporary travel powers ASAP. Your primary focus should be on getting ready to get Stamina at level 20.

Powers to DEFINITELY take: Blind, Spectral Wounds, Radiant Aura, Deceive, Radiation Infection, Accelerate Metabolism, Air Superiority (Flight)
Powers to DEFINITELY skip: Flash, Superior Invisibility, Group Invisibility, Mutation, Enervating Field, Lingering Raditaion.

Levels 18-21

Huzzah! Your first pet has arrived. Phantom Army is pretty good out of the box, but needs to be slotted for recharge ASAP. Grab Stamina at 20 and rejoyce in the difference that it makes. You HAVE been taking Fitness powers before 20, right? On the downside however, you're still stuck using DO enhancements, which makes your accuracy and damage output subpar. Teaming is not a "hard" requirement at this stage, but it does help things along.

Powers to DEFINITELY take: Phantom Army (PA), Stamina
Powers to DEFINITELY skip: Anything that prevents you from getting the above two at 18 and 20, respectively

Levels 22-31

Things are looking up! With SO enhancements, you are finally starting to come into your own. Don't get too cocky though - without Phantom Army, you instantly become a weak single-target blaster with a heal, a buff and a couple debuffs... Concentrate on improving PA and Stamina, and grab Hasten when you get a chance. Save as much influence as possible for level 27 - you'll need about 1-2 mil to fully outfit yourself in Level 30 IOs that will serve you faithfully until you get to 47. Spectral Terror coming in at 26 gives you much-needed AoE control, though without Containment. Around 29 you may find yourself hitting a wall - your damage output becomes insufficient once again, it takes forever to defeat mobs and you'll be constantly low on endurance. Teaming is the answer at this stage, unless you want to heroically (and protractedly) suffer through it. Run a respec trial if at all possible!

Powers to DEFINITELY take: Hasten (Speed), Enervating Field, Lingering Radiation, Superior/Group Invisibility (only take 1), Spectral Terror
Powers to DEFINITELY skip: One of the two Invisibility powers

Levels 32-50

Huzzah once again! The Phantasm has arrived. This guy will faithfully follow you around, acting like a sidekicked Level 10 Blaster with his two ranged attacks. His damage is all real, and won't heal back. He also has his own decoy, which will keep his squishy azz from being pounded on too much, though it will never take the place of Phantom Army.

If you haven't already, start dabbling in the market. As mentioned above, this guide is geared towards building the top-tier PvE character, which happens to be hellaciously expensive. Plan on respec'ing once you hit 40 and Epic Pools become available to you.

Powers to DEFINITELY take: Epic Pool powers, EM Pulse, the other Invisibility power that you didn't take before.
Powers to DEFINITELY skip: Fallout, Choking Cloud, Mutation

Before you begin

There are a few things you need to understand and come to grips with before making an Ill/Rad controller. While it may sound pompous, this is a game and you (hopefully) play it to enjoy it, and why play a character that makes you miserable? That said:

- I don't give a toss about PvP. In fact, I downright hate it. Therefore, this guide is for PvE ONLY, and may not at all be helpful if you are into PvP.

- Ill/Rad Controller is a powerful character, but it does have a few quirks that may be off-putting for a newcomer. If this is your first character, you may want to try a different AT, because the experience may be more than a bit frustrating early on.

- Illusionary Damage dealt by Spectral Wounds, Phantom Army and Decoy Phantasm partially heals back after a few seconds if the target is still alive. Not only this forces you to focus on front-loading burst damage, but it can also be quite UNNERVING to suddenly see a stream of green numbers appear above your target's head. Doubly so when the target is almost dead, and suddenly their sliver of health doubles or triples in size just before your finishing attack goes off. If you cannot deal with the healback, don't make an Ill/ controller.

- Before you reach the coveted Level 32 (and with that, the Phantasm), your character will experience several pronounced "low points" in their career. The general opinion of Ill/Rads is that they are strong soloists, but during the "low points" you may very well have to choose teaming just to get through the growing pains quicker. So don't purge your Friend List quite yet.

- You will have some "misunderstood" powers. Some tanks will grumble about Phantom Army; teammates might accuse you of robbing the team of XP as you use Deceive; and your Phantasm can sometimes be the epitome of "bad Energy/ blaster" because of knockback. Be prepared to deal with it.

- In battle, you'll be focusing not on striaghtforward crowd control with AoE holds, Immobilizations and Sleeps but rather on dealing damage, distracting enemies and debuffing. You have an AoE heal, but it is fairly lousy; you can also choose to take a combat resurrection power, but really, that power pick is better suited elsewhere. It doesn't mean that you're downright team-unfriendly, it just puts you into a different role compared to other controllers.

- Get comfortable with the market and the merit system. You could build your character one of two ways: a cheap-ish build that will always be somewhat mediocre, or a stuff-of-legends powerhouse that costs over half a billion Inf to outfit. It's probably impossible to amass that much money with just farming. If you get a handle on the market though, you might be able to pull together enough scratch to buy all those Purples and LOTGs faster than you thought possible. I did it in under three months without doing anything obsessive or pulling eight-hour gaming sessions.

- Dual builds are your friend. Whereas before I13 you had make some fairly hard decisions, Dual Builds let you make an "everyday" build and a "specialist" build, which will help you get even more mileage out of your character. Of course, two builds mean twice as many Enhancements, and twice as much Influence needed to fully deck yourself out.

Good read there I laughed.

Oh gods, let's not do this. What is this, WoW official boards?

Thank you guys, I knew I came to the right place.

I'll try a few tricks. You're great.

I realize that this is a "Question" rather than an "Art piece", but I don't think I'll be able to find better help anywhere else.

Esteemed Sultans of Screenshot, Samurai of Sketch and Apostles of Art! Though I am utterly unable to draw anything of my own, I know which end is up on Photoshop, and cut and paste good. I've been wanting to slap together a few edited screenies, if not for anything else then for ParagonWiki articles, but one issue has stumped me over and over again.

I cannot seem to find a good perspective angle on my characters, particularly the ones that aren't very tall. I know that the camera is a bit more forgiving when you're flying, but what about standing on the ground? I've seen a few very zoomed-in shots of characters, with camera looking up from below the waist (for the "towering" perspective), but can't suss out just how to achieve that angle.

Would you mind cluing me in?

Thanks in advance.

@Kitsune: thanks for reshooting the parts, looks much better now. And the "full cyborg suit" is a whole helluva lot more impressive, good work all around.

I'm actually kind of disappointed that they didn't give us "terminator endoskeleton" option for one or both legs, and perhaps something similar for the hands. Yes, I'm aware of the Robotic Claw gloves but they are only available with certain chest options. I really wanted a trenchcoat or labcoat with skeletal metal arms sticking out from the sleeves.

Oh well. The pack still looks great. I'm buying as soon as I get home.

Kick azz guide KitsuneAscendant, many thanks.

Though the colors make me scream "My eyes, my freakin' eyes! Ze googgles, zey do nossing!"

It still isn't in the store... I hope it shows up soon. It arrived just as Doctor Pripyat is nearing his first additional costume slot!

Obviously for different characters it's different.

Since my main is an energy being, my Inspirations are high-tech batteries (literally) which he can instantly drain to boost one or another aspect of himself.

What about you?

I've read the first few posts and cringed, because they vividly reminded me of the bad old times.

Uuugh. I left shortly before ED, it was already bad then and it only got worse. I remember being level 25, with tons of debt, and being outclassed by everyone and everything.

Can't say it's bad now though. En/En might be one of the "dog" sets, but it fits the character concept too well to ditch it. I've died a few times, but mostly due to team wipes and blatant stupidity on my part. I haven't yet had to log off with debt.

All in all I think it's much better now, hope it stays that way.

This argument is pointless. Board rules prohibit obscenity. Nudity of any kind is obscene, and hippies hiding behind "artistic nudity" excuse are simply infuriating. Context does not matter. If you are unable to understand the basic concepts of morality and decency as well as the importance of following rules, you should perhaps put the game aside and do some growing up.

I have to agree with Greyed. The contrast between CoX and WoW in terms of modding is disturbingly stark. To a degree, by encouraging modding, Blizzard actually set very efficient boundaries for what is allowed and what isn't. In most cases, once modding is open to the public and supported by the company, most modders will pursue legal ways of modifying the client.

As long as modding is off-limits, it will encourage people to attempt hacking. Forbidden fruit and all that. And when people start pursuing the forbidden fruit, often times they manage to stumble upon some very dangerous opportunities, which Cryptic will have a far harder time controlling.