Local_Man

Fire/Rad is an excellent build that is more flexible than Fire/Kin. A Fire/Kin is a great build for limited things, like killing large numbers of lower level foes who don't have mez powers. Fire/Rad won't kill as fast as Fire/Kin, but has the tools to be more effective against single tough targets as well as being able to do some AoE damage. It will also survive longer than a Fire/Kin, and focuses more on control and not as much on damage.

One other aspect of Fire/Rad is that multiple Fire/Rads can make an unstoppable team. Stacked Accelerate Metabolism, Hot Feet+Choking Cloud and multiple uses of the debuffs and controls make a team of Fire/Rads too powerful for anything in the game. On the other hand, Fire/Kin's main buff, Fulcrum Shift, will cap everyone's damage with two or maybe 3 -- after that, additional uses will have no effect. In general, two Fire/Kins are all you need, and more would be a waste.

I personally prefer my Fire/Rad over my Fire/Kin -- I find it more fun. And I have played on teams of multiple Fire/Rads . . . once you get three or more, everything dies very, very quickly. A team of eight is just sickeningly fast.

Fire/Rad is the single build that can make best use of Rad's Choking Cloud. My Ill/Rad guide discusses the mechanics of Choking Cloud and some suggested slotting -- but does not recommend CC for an Ill/Rad. Once you get both fully slotted, Hot Feet+Choking Cloud is the key power combo for a Fire/Rad. Simply Flashfire+Fire Cages from range, then run in with HF+CC running and stand there, occasionally using Char on anything that moves. They all die.

I always encourage making lots of alts, as different people have different preferences.

Gravity is a set that I tried many times, but I couldn't get into it until I fairly recently got my Grav/Storm up to higher levels. While it has several hard-hitting powers (Propel in particular), it really isn't that fast because the powers are slow to animate. More importantly, it lacks in AoE control to keep you safe while you pound away on single targets. This is why I feel it goes well with Storm, which has several AoE protective powers like Snow Storm and Hurricane.

Illusion is a great solo set because it has several ways to protect yourself while you are taking down foes. In low levels, Deceive is wonderful. You can Deceive two or more foes, and then take the third down with your attacks of Blind-Spectral Wounds. Also, Illusion does a lot more damage than it appears in Mids -- Spectral Wounds has a chunk of "spectral damage" which heals back after a few seconds. However, if you can defeat the foe before the "heal back," you get to keep that damage. Read my guide for the details. Once you get to level 18, Phantom Army makes a HUGE difference in the effectiveness of your character.

Plant starts to shine at level 8, when you get Seeds of Confusion. Seeds+Roots allow you to take down a large group with damage over time. Roots does twice the damage of other AoE immobilize powers. But single tougher foes are a problem.

Mind has Confuse (same thing as Deceive), a really nice early attack chain of Dominate-Mesmirize-Levitate, and some AoE control in Mass Hypnosis, a sleep. Sleeps work well solo, but are far less useful on teams. So, Mind is a great set solo in low levels.

Take a look at my Illusion/Radiation Guide, linked in my sig. Ill/Rad makes a great solo character which then teams easily. It is also a great "first controller" which is easy to understand the basics, but can be complex as you go up. Another great solo choice is Illusion/Storm, but Storm takes some practice to use well.

I would say the best solo controllers in low levels are Illusion, Plant, Grav and Mind. Fire is great solo in upper levels, but it is a bit of work getting there. Mind is a great solo build in lower levels, but the damage does not ratchet up in upper levels like other controllers. Grav has good single target damage, but lacks AoE control. Plant has good AoE control, but lacks single target damage. Illusion starts with good single target damage, and then gets more damage with its pets.

Earth and Ice are low damage sets, great for teaming but very slow to solo.

For secondaries, Radiation, Storm and Kinetics are best for a solo player. Rad is is my favorite as it is very flexible. Storm is visually fun, has great tools and adds damage in the later levels. Kinetics mostly forces you into melee, and doesn't develop until later levels -- but Transfusion (heal), Siphon Power and Siphon Speed really help in those low levels.

There are some nice things you can to with Power Customization. I have my Phantasm as a yellow glowing power -- would work for a "man made from light." And then the opposite -- Spectral Terror in dark purple looks cool and could be a creature that absorbs light, invoking fear. You won't be able to tell how cool it looks in the character creator, but trust me, a dark purple Spooky looks awesome in a light room.

Well, killing would be a LOT faster if you took and used either of the single target damage powers, Propel or Lift. Propel is great single target damage, but slow to animate. That means that it works great solo, but has a tendency to not be very effective on teams -- the foe is often dead before you can hit him with that Stone Gargoyle. If I plan to team most of the time, I would take Lift instead -- kinda weaker than it should be on damage, but it still works and has a secondary control effect of knockup.

I have a Grav/Storm in the mid-40's who has solo'ed almost the entire way. Even without the damage from Tornado and Lightning Storm, he can solo at a reasonable speed . . . not exactly fast, but not painfully slow, either. Painfully slow would be an Ice/FF . . .

As for a primary for Thermal . . . Thermal is kind of a mix between Rad, Emp and Sonic. Pretty much any primary will work, depending on what you want for the character. Illusion works great for a character who wants to both solo and team. Plant, Grav and Mind can solo, with Plant being more of an AoE build, while Grav is more single target and Mind gets its AoE control late. Fire can solo later in the build, but will be kind of slow until Fire Imps. Ice and Earth are team-oriented with low damage but high AoE control -- Ice is more melee control with Arctic Air, while Earth is great ranged AoE control.

Lift has 24.47 Damage at level 50 (base damage unslotted) while Levitate has 40.37. So Levitate has a lot more damage. Propel does 59.95. Links are to City of Data.

My experience with the FF secondary is with a Mind/FF, which has some similarities with a Grav/FF -- I have solo'ed my Mind/FF most of the way.

On Lift: the damage on Lift (similar to Mind's Levitate, but less damage from some unknown reason) does not come until the end of the animation. However, even if the foe is held (Grav. Dist.), you will still get the damage at the same time as if the foe had been thrown into the air -- you get the damage but not the knockdown. If the foe is held or immobilized (or slept or stunned), then you get Containment doubling the damage. If the foe is held, you shouldn't care about the knockdown since it provides no benefit. One of Gravity's unique aspects is that the immobilize powers, Crush and Crushing Field, do not stop knockdown, so you can still get Lift's knock-up with immob on the foes.

However, if you don't have it, I suggest Propel over Lift for solo play. Get it at level 6 and love both the huge damage (doubled with Containment) and the fun animation. There is something satisfying about clobbering a foe with a forklift or a stone gargoyle. With Grav/FF and skipping the ally shields, you should be able to fit in both Propel and Lift, plus Crush and Grav. Dist. quite easily.

(By the way, the items you see being thrown at the foes from Propel are created by your computer, so others on your team will see different items. All the items do the exact same damage, which seems a bit odd. A roll of pink insulation does the same damage as a junked-out car.)

On my Grav/Storm, I skipped Lift -- my attack chain is GD-Crush-Propel. It would be nice to fit in Lift, but I have too many good powers from the Storm secondary.

Flashfire has a longer animation tha Stalagmites, and the stun comes at the end of the animation. Thus, if you are in perception range the foes might attack. However, that's not the same as the power notifying the foes. A little stealth or taking care to stay out of perception range takes care of the problem. This is another good reason to get a Stealth IO in your controllers.

But Stalagmites is overall a slightly better power. Faster animation, and the -20% Defense is better than the slightly more damage from Flashfire.

(By the way, the power name is "Flashfire" not "Flash Fires" or "Flashfires." No "s.")

Wormhole is a fun power, but I find it far more useful solo than on teams. Optimum use requires a few seconds set-up time. I like to target a foe, then find something to hide behind to prevent the attacks from the foes notified. Then I throw them into a wall or corner if one is handy. However, I wish Wormhole would add falling damage if you wormhole the foes straight up into the air -- it just makes sense.

I'm a bit partial to Illusion/Radiation, as you might be able to guess from the Ill/Rad guide, linked in my sig. The guide explains why I feel that Ill/Rad is one of the most flexible builds in the game, and why Radiation is the best secondary for Illusion. The short version: Rad is the only secondary that can BOTH provide a recharge boost to help Phantom Army recharge faster AND provide Resistance and Defense Debuffs to make Phantom Army hit harder and more often. Rad provides an all-purpose secondary that works great solo, small teams or large teams. You can do a little of everything from buffing teammates (and yourself) to debuffing and controlling foes.

(Even if you have played a Grav/Rad, you will find that Illusion/Radiation plays differently. I have Ill/Rad, Fire/Rad, Earth/Rad and Plant/Rad all at 50, and each one plays differently. I also have Ill/Storm and Ill/TA at 50, and they are very different from Ill/Rad.)

I consider Illusion/Empathy to be a team-only build. Illusion/Empathy has nothing to benefit Phantom Army, the most important power in the Illusion set. None of your buffs will affect PA, and you don't have any debuffs. Sure, you can buff Phantasm, but that has limited benefit since he stays back and blasts while using his decoy to draw aggro -- the decoy gets no benefit from your buffs, either.

Basicly, Empathy provides very little benefit if you want to solo other than the aura heal, Regen and Recovery powers. Now, if you want to be a team-focused healer type, Ill/Emp is a great choice for its ally buffs -- Deceive and Phantom Army can pull foes off of teammates allowing you to run in and heal, and the Invisibility allows you to "lurk" in the battlefield healing and buffing teammates as needed.

Take a look at my Ill/Rad guide even if you decide to go with Ill/Emp. It has a lot of good information on the Illusion primary and many strategy tips.

I agree, that would be the best section.

A few strategies:

Pulling -- even if you are playing solo on a scrapper, you have a little bonus ranged power based upon your origin -- I forget what the science one is, since I usually play Tech, Mutant or Natural. You can target the nearest foe and throw your origin power at them, then run back around a corner. If you are lucky, only a few or even one of the foes will come after you, and you should be able to kill that one pretty easily. If they all come after you, run away to let them lose interest and go back to where they were, and then try it again. If you need to, you can run back to the door or to an elevator to escape the foes coming after you.

This is a common technique for groups too large to handle. Blasters and other ranged characters can pull more easily than Scrappers, but that little origin power lets you do it, too.Keep doing the "pulling" until the group is small enough for you to handle. Watch out for the Eidelons -- they can be tough. Also, be careful of the Embalmed Cadavers, as they are suicide bombers. Well, I suppose "suicide" is debatable since they are already dead . . .

Make lots of characters. Try out powersets that you think look like fun. Read the guides. (I have two linked in my sig. If you want to try out a Controller, I suggest you consider an Illusion/Radiation after reading my guide. Ill/Rad is a great first Controller, as it works well solo or on teams.) Some characters are lots of fun right away, while others get good later. Be patient, read the stories and most of all, have fun.

If you are going to make a new character, consider Tech for the origin. The Tech power is a little Taser with a short hold in it. And your initial missions are against Clockwork, which are more enjoyable than those darn Vahzilok. I hate getting barfed on.

I want to echo Mental Maden's suggestion . . . Slot for Accuracy, Recharge and Mez in that order. Don't worry about slotting for Defense Debuff . . . just cast Quicksand under every other AoE control you have, and that 25% Defense Debuff stacked with the Defense Debuff for everything else will be plenty.

As for Stealth . . . Stealth is always nice to have on a controller, and I like to get a Stealth IO if I can but hate to use a power choice on Stealth. Your main contribution will be staying at range, throwing out AoE controls. If you want to take Hasten/Super Speed and add a stealth IO to it for invisibility, that's fine. However, for the most part, your control powers will add more to the team than stealth. Of course, if nobody else has it, then invisibility/Recall Friend is nice to have for stealthing missions. You might be able to avoid taking Recall Friend by making sure you take pick up the Team TP temp power from the Bank mission in the low 20's.

I hope the Earth/Rad guide is useful. As far as I know, the information on the powers and strategies is still current -- I updated the information of Rocky when he was changed. Every now and then, I go back to add some stuff about IO sets which I didn't know much about when I first wrote the guide. I need to finish that some day . . .

I pulled out my Earth/Rad solo the other day, and he is still a lot of fun. Then I got to play my level 33 Earth/Storm some on a level 48 team that was struggling with +3 foes before I got there. We adjusted the strategy to use pulling foes onto Quicksand at a corner, then I unloaded my other controls and debuffs once they were bunched. The mission became much, much easier thanks to the awesomeness of Earth Control.

I pulled out my Fire/Rad yesterday to run a couple of missions to see how well he could handle +8 spawns. I'm pretty sure that the foes did not get notified from Flashfire . . . they might run around while stunned, sometimes pretty fast, but they don't attack unless they are missed or the mag isn't high enough to mez them.

Quicksand provides a 25% Defense debuff, which stacks with the 20% from many of the other Earth powers to result in a huge amount of defense debuff. You can slot it for Slow and Recharge, but not more Defense Debuff. It seems to me that there are a lot of other powers in the game that have some amount of Defense Debuff but can't be slotted for it -- like many of the Rad Blast powers.

The decisions on types of enhancements for Quicksand were made long before IOs, so the types of sets it takes were not a consideration. I'm pretty happy with the huge amount of Defense Debuff in the power, and see no reason to change it. I have too many other places to spend my slots -- two recharge and maybe a slow are enough for Quicksand. I suspect that since quite a few foes use Quicksand, too (CoT and Tuatha), that it will not see any changes.

A waste of whose time? Not yours . . . it takes no time to "receive" Speed Boost or IR. Annoying? The only effect is a sound and your character jerks slightly. Pointless? Yeah, but so what? If someone wants to waste his or her time giving SB to folks standing around doing nothing, why should you care?

I can understand those few people getting a little frustrated who have old computers which can't handle the graphics caused by SB. A few other people just don't want to be "messed with." But those folks are few and far between. Personally, I love it when I get a "drive-by buffing." I think most people do, as well.

It should be fun. After taking my Illusion/TA to 50, if I ever did another TA character, it would be Grav/TA. TA should fill some of the holes for AoE control in the Grav set. To get through those low levels, I suggest you get GD, Crush and Propel slotted up for damage as quickly as you can. I can see Flash Arrow being useful for this build.

Much of that "aggro magnet" problem can be eliminated, even in the lowest levels, using the right strategy and the combo of Stone Cages and Radiation Infection. Let the tank or scrapper go in first to draw the aggro, then throw down Qucksand, Rad Inf and Stone Cages. (Quicksand before Cages for the -Defense.) Keep the Cages up and let your teammates clean up.

Hmmm. Well, after over 5 years in this game, I have Ill/Rad, Fire/Rad, Earth/Rad and Plant/Rad all at 50. I have played Grav/Rad and Mind/Rad a ways, too, and have a second Ill/Rad in the upper 40's. I've spent a pretty good amount of time writing two guides on */Rad builds. The only one that has Perma AM, Perma Hasten is the Ill/Rad with lots of recharge IO bonuses. It is not possible to get perma AM or Hasten with SOs alone. Now, you can get them to recharge pretty quickly with only a small amount of downtime, but they can't be perma.

And, I disagree with your assertion that Illusion/TA is a bad combo. In fact, I consider Illusion to be the best primary with Trick Arrow. Phantom Army distracts the foes making it easy to stand at range and fire off the debuff and control arrows. Phantasm and Phantom Army all can attack at range, so the Oil Slick pet bug has less effect (unlike Fire/TA, where the Imps only have melee attacks). (I have an Illusion/Trick Arrow at 50 on Pinnacle -- if you want, I can show you how effective it can be.)

Rad is the best all-purpose secondary. It works well with all primaries, and is the best secondary with most. Radiation can easily fit in with any technology-based character . . . heck, Positron is a Rad/Rad Defender on steroids. Now, Grav is one of the weaker controller primaries. It has good single target damage with both Propel and Lift, but is moderate on single target control and low on AoE control. However, it has a few really fun powers that make for its weaknesses. My Grav controller is a Grav/Storm, which would be my recommendation as the best combo. Of the listing you made, I would suggest the order of preferred combos would be, to me . . .

Grav/Rad
Grav/TA
Grav/FF.

. . . Glad to be of service!

In addition to my Ill/Rad and Ill/Storm, I also have an Ill/TA at 50. While I feel that Rad is the best secondary for Illusion, I also feel that Illusion is the best primary for Trick Arrow. The added controls from TA are a great complement to Illusion, and the Debuffs make Phantom Army better.

However, you may find that the play style is about as far from your Ill/Kin as possible. Ill/Kin is mostly a melee oriented character. For the most part, my Ill/TA is ranged -- I send in Phantom Army, then stand back and fire off all my debuff arrows before using my single target attacks. Phantasm is a great addition, as he acts as a body guard . . . any foes who decide to come into melee are usually knocked back. I like to save Oil Slick Arrow for when Phantom Army are Recharging, since it adds some control as well as damage.

The only Trick Arrow power I skipped was Flash Arrow. With Superior Invis, I didn't see that much need for Flash Arrow, as the ToHit Debuff is pretty small. (I have Flash Arrow on a TA Defender, and find it more "Flash" than substance.) My goal with my Ill/TA was to try out the TA set, so I took all the other TA powers. On the Illusion side, I skipped Group Invis and Flash. In general, I take the AoE hold on my controllers, but my reasoning this time was that since Flash is a PB AoE power, and all my other powers were all ranged, I really didn't need Flash -- instead, I use EM Pulse Arrow when I need an AoE Hold. I took Hasten/Super Speed for Travel just so I could get Hasten and still have enough power choices for all the TA powers.

For my APP set, I picked Fire Blast and Fireball. Oil Slick Arrow + Fireball make a delightful bar-be-que. I decided to include, as my last two powers, Aid Other and Aid Self from the medicine pool. Not necessary, but I like those enough to keep them.

I went with Tech origin for lighting the Oil Slick. It works OK for the six levels until you get Fire Blast. I set up a macro for targetting the Oil Slick, making it easy to fire off Oil Slick Arrow, hit the macro to target the Oil Slick, and then fire off my taser, Fire Blast or Fire Ball to light the slick. Phantasm also has an energy component to his attack so he can light it if he happens to hit it.

When I was trying to come up with a name for my Ill/TA, I wanted something that would combine the bow and arrow aspect with an Illusionist/Entertainer -- and it had to have a pun. So, I came up with "Beau Jester," who was an entertainer for the French Foreign Legion. I was thrilled when the Devs later added in the Jester costume.

Can your concept encompass Grav/Storm? It works pretty well solo. In low levels, the AoE Immob + Snow Storm reduces damage due to -Recharge in Snow Storm. Once you hit 16, the Resistance debuff in Freezing Rain helps with the damage a lot. Also, the AoE Immob in Grav does not prevent knockdown, so Freezing Rain+Crushing Field is a somewhat effective AoE control until you get Hurricane at 20 or 22. Hurricane lets you use your single target attack chain on one foe while ignoring the others as long as you can get close enough to the others to use the ToHit Debuff in Hurricane on them. While you beat up on one, the others can't hit you.

Then at 26, you can get Wormhole. Combine it with Thunderclap at 28 to stack stuns and even stun bosses. Then at 35 and 38, you get damage powers that really help a lot.

The Gravity primary has pretty good single target damage fairly early, thanks to Propel. Overall, it really lacks AoE control, and doesn't really mature until it gets its pet, Singularity(Singy). There are really three interesting powers in the set -- Propel is a slow-activating, highly amusing damage power, Wormhole is a foe-teleport-with-stun-and-knockback that takes some practice to use well, and Singy is a very good pet that looks cool, too. For solo play, I suggest that you take Grav. Distortion-Crush-Propel as your attack chain. Slot Crush and Propel as damage powers, and add some damage into GD, too. On teams, Propel is often frustrating because its long animation results in foes often being dead before you hit them. Lift is better than Propel for teams -- it has far less damage but activates faster.

Forcefield is generally viewed as a weak secondary for solo. The best powers are Personal Force Field, one of the best "panic button" powers in the game, and Dispersion Bubble which gives you partial mez protection and some defense. You also get some knockback powers, but nothing to make your primary better. The two ally-only shields are great for teaming, however.

The combo of Grav/FF has two Phase powers -- but since I hate Phase powers, that doesn't exactly make it appealing to me. I have a Grav/Storm in the 40's that I like very much, but Grav/FF is not a combo I would play, and it's a pretty rare combo. It certainly can be played effectively if you really want to for concept reasons, but it will be slow.

Now my Grav/Storm is a great character who has been mostly solo'ed, but I have a lot of experience with Controllers and especially with Storm. I generally suggest an Illusion/Radiation Controller as a first controller, as it works great solo or teamed, is easy to play fairly well but is complex enough for advance strategies later on. See my guide, linked in my sig, if you want to try it.