Ispahan

1. Corruptor. I was used to be able to both do damage and support my team with the same character, and since I prefer shooting from range this AT is the most suited for me. I also like seeing my character developing all his potential in a team, and buff/debuff powersets really shine in this context. Same thing for Defenders, even if sometimes I wish I could do more damage if the support I bring isn't really needed.

2. Dominator. Same reason than corruptor, but not #1 in my list because I have the feeling that the AT really starts to shine at a higher level, whereas I felt useful with my corruptors/defenders from lvl 1 to 50 (maybe my Ice/Psy dominator without Fitness before it became inherent wasn't the easier character to level - soooo squishy, always low on end...).

3. Warshade. I get bored sooo fast when I play a blaster or a scrapper, can't help thinking "omg I just click on enemies and hit them when I could do so many other things if I were one of my corruptors..." (I like the "living on the edge" feeling I have when I solo on a Blaster, though, but that hasn't been enough to not delete my blasters after lvl ~35). With my Warshade (perma-Eclipse and so on) I can go from pseudo-blaster to pseudo-scrapper without logging an alt. So many people think Warshade = Peacebringer = weak and useless: I like playing an AT that almost nobody plays and expects something of (and sometimes maybe surprising them and making them change their opinion ).

4. Controller. I don't play mines so often these times, because I feel like they're really useful with high difficulty settings or no tank at all. And what I can do most of the time is rather speed TFs at +0 when we all have incarnates powers and a level shift (fun times~). But I really like crowd control and the ability to manage x8 mobs without a massive investment in IO sets. Feeling at the same time super squishy and quite powerful.

5. Brute. Because aggro management is a form of control :P I don't really like melee ATs but this ability is quite nice, and interesting to play when you're used to be on the squishy side of things. For example: I hate it when tankers or brutes get scared of this MV or that villain group because they don't think themselves resistant enough, forgetting they're not alone in their team and they will have ally buffs, controls and additional damage to help defeating the mobs... but I have exactly the same fear when I log my brute xP
My first and only Tanker was a pain to solo and without wanting to leech, I faced enemies that were too dangerous for my real level almost every time I teamed: now I'm scared of playing tankers ^^'

I get bored when i play a Mastermind (didn't get far from lvl 20) and hate this feeling I would enjoy my character most if I were alone (because I don't like playing alone xP). My Widow is ok and is my pseudo-scrapper: not so fun but survivable enough to try lots of interesting AE arcs so he deserves a special mention.

And this is why I stack it with Oppressive Gloom But being used to powers like Siren's Song, Cosmic Burst or Freeze Ray to save my life solo, the first levels I was like "ok, low damage over time: check; unreliable mez: check; me jumping everywhere like a madman to kite everything I can: check... WTF ?!" With levels, SO and then IO I was finally able to make it all come together and love this character, but at the beginning I really wondered what took me when I created it.

Not trying to say corruptors' mezzes should be as powerful as controllers' or dominators' ones (that wouldn't be logical) or that Dark Pit completely sucks compared to other hard mezzes, just explaining what you can feel when you try to play a Dark/ corr with a secondary that doesn't help you that much solo.

I must admit I didn't think of it that way... But maybe that's because I initially hoped Dark Pit - which is available very early - would help to make up for Dark's low damage despite its mag 2, then I noticed the poor accuracy & duration and the long recharge. I was used to controllers/dominators' mezzes that had the same drawbacks but a mag 3 and appeared among other reliable mezzes (now that I look at it, Seeds of confusion as good accuracy/duration/recharge for an AoE mez... Beginning with a Plant/ 'troller spoiled me rotten, I knew it :P).

TA also has a bad rep as a Defender primary, but is really fine as a Controller secondary. I enjoy my Mind/TA because both sets compliment each other: Mind has no AoE immob but Glue Arrow can prevent foes from running everywhere, Mind gets a good and early ST attack chain (Dominate-Mesmerize-Levitate) but is low on AoE damage... which is not a problem if I can make the mobs BUUURN by lighting an Oil Slick (also useful around a corner to handle an inc, because Mind alone has nothing like Carrion Creepers or Ice Slick).

And if I had to make a Grav/ one, I would pair it with /TA to get added controls because seriously, when Grav's AoE hold is not available, I wonder what I can do to negate the alpha (with /TA I could alternate Gravity Distortion Field and Conserve Power + EMP Arrow; Wormhole is soooo slow it's not an option in a team).

Oh, je suis déjà convaincu par les Rédempteurs ^^ (j'en ai un 50 perma-Eclipse tout ça et j'en suis très content). Je souhaitais monter un Pacificateur depuis longtemps par curiosité, mais sans grande motivation par contre... Même si d'autres modifications sont souhaitables, les nouvelles missions bas niveau et les ups déjà mis en place sur le serveur de test me remotivent bien par contre J'ai vu que pas mal de joueurs demandaient une transformation du KB en KD chez les Pacis, sur le Feu solaire notamment, j'espère que leurs demandes aboutiront.

Un peu déçu par les petites améliorations apportées à la ligne Poison. En entendant que certains débuffs passeraient de cible unique à zone, j'étais super partant pour me créer un perso avec cette ligne... Et en fait pour le moment on a une zone de 8 pieds, soit autant que la Flèche acide et donc vraiment pas beaucoup (c'est plutôt le débuff qu'on lance pour affecter une certaine cible et puis s'il y a des ennemis qui sont touchés avec, tant mieux, mais on ne comptait pas vraiment dessus à la base).

Les ups Paci m'intéressent carrément par contre

With an Emp defender the whole team will know they have a "healer" (which means sometimes "yay, we can do what we want and aggro everything, the *healer* is here for us!"), whereas with a Pain (or Thermal) Corr there will always be somebody to ask "excuse me but do we have a heal?"

(I'm kidding, even with perma-Fortitude on 4 members of the team, sometimes people don't notice that my Controller is an Empath - often the ones who have Fortitude on them actually)

On this controller I took Gravity Distortion, Crush, Propel and a ST blast from an APP. Certainly not the most optimized use of slots but it allowed me to keep Propel in case of low level exemplaring (even if I grew bored of "necro-blasting" as you say, I admit I primarily made a Gravity/ controller after having seen this power ^^). At higher levels, I had a fast animating attack chain made of GD + Crush + ST Blast.

On PuG I often team with various AT and it doesn't really matter which power sets I chose as long as I don't play them too bad. But in my SG I'm often the only one who's not playing a tanker or DPS so my controls or buffs must be effective. Maybe that's also why I was so frustrated by this character.

I've been greatly disappointed by my Gravity/Storm (and finally deleted it at lvl 44). In a team, I felt like my only contribution was Freezing Rain + Crushing Field, Snow Storm on a boss and sometimes O2 Boost on an ally.

I think I only have bad memories with this toon actually (even though other players certainly have had a lot of fun with a Grav/Storm). One of my friends was facing Siege with a few teammates in a Maria Jenkins mission, without getting to counter its regen. I thought I could help with all the debuff and damage from Storm and actually... not. And even if it had changed anything, I didn't have enough end to keep all these toggles running during all the fight + resummoning Freezing Rain, Tornado and Lightning Storm as soon as possible (I had 2 endRdx in each of them I think).

There was also this time when our tank dropped us at the beginning of the first mission (>.>) and where the brute wasn't able to stand anything for long. We were faceplanting so often. I kept on telling myself that with any of my other controllers I could have confused/held/stunned almost every mobs but with this one I couldn't.

I also tried to "herdicane" mobs sometimes (especially the ones behind who are not aggroed if the tank only hits those who are just in front of him). Once we were fighting Arachnos, with Mus and Tarantula mistresses quietly shooting at us from range. I went ahead to push them back in melee, and when they formed a little nice pack, something knocked them back in every direction =.= WHO DARED?! That was my Singularity, who tried to follow me, got in the middle of the group and repelled everything >.>

I really had fun in a team where there was no melee ATs, only blasters, a Storm/ defender and myself. Knockback everywhere and nobody to complain ^___^ It happened once.

I'm also not convinced by powers that let you place foes (Hurricane, Wormhole but also Telekinesis on a Mind troller), since a tank or anything with taunt abilities can do it better and safer, without having to say "wait, I'm going to use my 3 seconds activating TP+stun+knockback to neuter this spawn, I just have to find something to hide myself behind... ok there's nothing on this outside map, nevermind".

If I had to make another /Storm, I think I would go for Earth/Storm, something with a -kb immob to unleash elements on foes from range and with actual controls in the primary.

On my tri-form Warshade I (edit: also) slotted Gravity Well with 4 Basilisk's Gaze (for the 7.5% global recharge bonus) and 2 lvl 50 Damage IO because it hits hard and it's almost my only ST attack in human form. I like to use it as a hold on foes that would want to mez me before they even could, but it's mainly a way to finish off a minion (to cast Unchain Essence on his corpse after a (double) mire for instance). So I enhanced both aspects of this power, but not before lvl 50. I needed as much as recharge as I could to make Eclipse perma, but Basilisk' Gaze are so expensive... +_+ I think I mainly slotted it for damage before, trying to kill the target before the hold would wear off.

/sonic works well in a team but not that much with a blaster only, because of Disruption Field. It's the line's AoE res debuff, and it must be anchored on an ally (preferably a melee guy who will gather many enemies around him, typically a tank, a brute, a scrapper... but not a blaster). However, if you have a pet that goes into melee (like Animate Stone from Earth Control), you can put it on him.

On my Dark/Pain corruptor I took Dark Blast and Gloom as ST attacks but skipped Life Drain because it hits like Dark Blast and if I really want to heal myself, I rather count on Nullify Pain (and Soothing Aura when I solo: it looks pretty and, with all the tohit debuffs I'm throwing at foes, I generally don't have to worry about my green bar).

Tenebrous Tentacles and Night Fall are my AoE, along with Soul Drain from the Dark Mastery APP. Solo, I use Dark Pit to neuter minions before using my cones, and (stacked with it) Oppressive Gloom disorients the lts who would like to melee me. When I'm in a team, even when I don't have to worry that much about aggro, I like to use Dark Pit before entering melee to give an Anguishing Cry (immediately followed by Soul Drain, they're both PBAoE on the same timer if you choose the Dark Mastery one, and sometimes it's nice to see a few big numbers instead of clouds of tiny ones, especially when Soul Drain scourges *.*). Even if it's not as effective as a controller/dominator's stun, it's still nice to immediately neuter annoying minions like Sappers, and help to your team's survivability.

Sometimes, when I get a saturated Soul Drain I would like to nuke soooo much, but after a few seconds I realize that getting short on end when people are counting on me to keep them alive isn't that smart. Blackstar's damage isn't really impressive anyway, so I skipped it (and since I20 we can get a sort of nuke with Judgement).

I also thought that Torrent would help me to stay alive when I solo but its loooong range was often counterproductive.

I primarily took Dark Mastery for the self rez (because it's frustrating to be able to rez others and not oneself) but I was pleased to see that Oppressive Gloom and Soul Drain synergize nicely with some of my previous powers

Sometimes I miss a ST hold to mez some foes before they mez me, but I assume you can't have it all. Moonbeam still helps me to kill them faster.

I tried to build for defence but: if I get punched (and would need protection), it's often when I enter melee for Anguishing Cry/Soul Drain, the rest of the time I stay away from it to use my cones. I thought that S/L defense wouldn't help that much, and ranged defense bonuses often come with the 6th slot, which would have made me underslot several critical powers. So I use my tohit debuffs, my controls (immobs and stuns), my resists (Dark Embrace + World of Pain) and my heals to stay alive, along with careful aggro management, stealth, flight, and damage obviously ^^

Ca se fait vraiment, le farm de missions AE Dev's choice pour des fragments ? Les factions personnalisées sont pourtant loin d'être simples la plupart du temps, sans compter la présence de chefs d'élite/SV pas toujours évidents à passer...

Also, don't forget to check the end cost of your powers Putting an end reduction in a power that costs something like 15, 20, 25 or more end can really help. But in Absorb Pain and it's 0.52 end cost... ^^ (same logic for Aim).

Crafting simple lvl 50 IO can get quite expensive if you're on a tight budget. The salvage needed are generally cheap, but for instance a lvl 50 Heal IO costs almost 500 000 inf to craft. And obviously you will need more than one... I suggest you should keep your SO and then swap them for set IO, little by little (a lot of them are not that expensive).

Yes they do

I have a lvl 4X Dark/Pain corruptor. I knew that Dark Blast wasn't the best choice for a primary but I wanted it for concept reasons (seriously I feel like playing a weak defender... wait, no, my defenders feel stronger).

Compared to Empathy and Thermal (which have a lot of similarities), Pain is way less busier because you neither have to keep an eye on Fortitude or Forge, nor to refresh 2 resist shields on all your teammates every 4 minutes. Everything comes in a handy PBAoE buff. At low level you can't make it perma like you could with Thermal shields, but it gives you plenty of time to use your primary. The damage buffs attached to Share pain and Conduit of pain should motivate you even more. It's the main reason why I would not recommend Dark as a primary for Pain: even with those damage buffs, I only see a cloud of ridiculously low numbers (ok, figures) when I use my blasts

For the moment I prefer my Empath troller (for its AoE Recovery buff and Fortitude which are always useful) and my Thermal corruptor (for his versatility) over my Pain corruptor, but maybe it would not be the case if I had chosen a more damaging primary.

• Entangle is helpful to level but not so useful once you get other powers: to attack a single foe, Strangler + a blast from an epic pool do the job.
• 5 Doctored Wounds are a good choice for Heal other, why not slotting Healing Aura the same way? She would get a global recharge bonus that should be helpful for both power sets (her controls would be available more often and her buffs too).
• I find Spore Burst nearly useless, especially when you have the mighty Seeds of confusion.
• Roots does twice the damages of other AoE immobs: it might be a good idea to keep the Hunter's proc and replace the others with 5 Positron's blast (including the proc).
• Hasten comes way too late: I would replace Spore Burst with it, or take it sooner anyway. Most controllers really really benefit from recharge and if you get exemplared down you would miss it.
• Conserve Power is overkill: Empathy already has Recovery Aura to refill its blue bar. Why not taking an APP instead of the last powers who seem to be there just for the sake of taking powers? Soloing becomes much easier with an APP. I opted for Psionic Mastery on my Plant/Empath: Mental Blast is a decent ST attack (Plant does a lot of AoE damage with Roots, Seeds, Creepers... but is a bit lacking when it comes to ST damage); Indomitable Will gives you a mez protection, which is golden since you can protect all your teammates from mez but not yourself without this power; Psionic Tornado is a nice AoE attack too. Mobs just melt with all this AoE damage and solo you don't suffer from the absence of debuff in Empathy.

There are other adjustments you could do as far as slotting goes, but that was my two cents on power choices.

Torrent's long range is quite annoying, you don't expect a cone being so spread out. I took it with my Dark/Pain corruptor to help me solo a bit (and it does it's job), but in team when there's an enemy just in front of me that I want to send flying, I can ruin the tanker's little heap of mobs whereas they're far ahead of me

I usually run my Sonic/Sonic defender at +0/x1 but I know I can manage a higher diff. Since I put the mobs to sleep (with a stun and a hold to neuter the ones I may have missed, haven't seen or the one I am currently attacking), I just have to take them down one by one. But even with the -res debuffs of Sonic, Vigilance and Assault running, it... just... feels... so... sloooow. And even if I would have went for ranged defense that would make the Sirens' song less necessary, Sonic Attacks don't have that much AoE.

I only change the default diff. to tell myself "OK, I can do it"

My Mind/TA has been frustrating a lot of times but now she's one of my favorite characters. The very first levels are easy: Dominate/Mesmerize/Levitate + Confuse let you manage small group of foes very easily (and quickly compared to primaries whose attacks are DOT). Then you team and realize that, for the moment, your only AoE mez is a sleep. Useful in some situations but not a lot. And the TA powers you got are not that impressive, especially compared to Oil Slick Arrow and all its goodness (but you have to wait until lvl 35 for it and that can seem very long sometimes).

The last levels are great again because you have all your AoE mez, with IO-boosted recharge the most difficult becomes to choose between them ("OK so there's a group of mobs in front of me, what should I do? Use my AoE confuse? My first AoE hold? My second AoE hold?).

Primal is an appropriate APP because Power Boost enhances the duration of Total Domination, EMP Arrow (more hold = more containement = more damage) and Mass Confusion; Conserve Power makes you wonder if there really is a -Recovery in EMP because you can keep spamming Mesmerize/Dominate/Levitate without hurting your blue bar; finally Energy Torrent is a nice attack that can lighten your Oil Slick, as mentioned before.

In steamrolling teams you have so many tools at your disposal and so little time to use them before the mobs vanish that it can be tricky to know which ones to cast before it's too late (on paper TA has many debuffs but do you really think you can use all of them? not that they're all needed most of the time but it's not easy to pick the right ones). However, against mobs with high res. you'll be glad to have so many controls: Nemesis laugh at your Mass Confusion? Cycle between your two AoE holds. Carnies deflect your psy-typed controls? You still have the TA ones.

While soloing some AE missions with custom mobs and unexpected res. I was also glad to count on my slows and other effects I don't use most of the time.

I tried this combo because I was looking for a Mind/ controller and somebody called his Mind/TA "a swiss army knife", and that's actually a pretty good description.

I put 3 Endoplasms in my Sonic Cage and never managed to cage the healing Essence, even in +0 (which makes me sad because it was the main reason I took this power). In a RSF I could cage a +0 Statesman, the team would certainly have steamrolled without that but now I know I can use it during another RSF. A lvl 54 Bobcat resisted my caging in the Tin Mage TF (I thought I could use it to take down Neuron without harming her and get the Kitty's Got Claws badge more easily, but it was not possible... we got the badge nevertheless). I think caging one of the Goliath War Walkers while the team was killing the other helped a little.

Great suggestions by the way I never thought of caging annoying pets.

I recently respecced my Mind/TA to take Stealth (+ a stealth IO in Sprint) and... it helps a lot more than I had expected. Actually I don't feel like playing the same toon than before: now I can calmy choose the best angle to cast Total Domination / Mass Confusion / EMP Arrow or Confuse distant ennemies to make a tight pack. Practice since my last post helped too, but Stealth really was the missing piece ^^