Local_Man

Spirit Tree is optional -- kind of like a stationary Regen Aura. I find its best use is during longer, tougher fights, or where your team plans to "make a stand" by bring foes to a particular location instead of running to each group. For example, in the ITF, you can use the Tree by the Bridge when a teammate goes to pull the generals, by the computer console and when beating on Rommie. It is a lower priority power, but nice especially for melee characters with Resistance to help them heal up the damage they take.

I love Hurricane on my Stormies. I consider it a "highly recommended" power rather than a "must have," and it takes some practice to learn how to use it well. It can be both an offensive and defensive tool. Turn on Hurricane and hide around a corner, and foes find it hard to get through the doorway to come after you -- and if they get past, their ToHit is severely debuffed, so they can't hit you. You can pick them off easily. You can push stragglers into AoE powers or towards the tank/melee fighters. You can lock foes into a cul de sac, debuffed and prime for the getting smacked around by Tornado, Lightning Storm and your pet. And it makes a good "panic button" power for when you and other squishies are getting overwhelmed in melee -- but you are correct that it doesn't help with ranged damage. (I will sometimes look for ranged defense on my stormies for this reason.)

Used well, Hurricane is very "situational." I leave it off most of the time, then only turn it on for short times in ideal situations. I have it bound to a button on my mouse, so I can pop it on with a flick of a finger. Using Hurricane at the wrong time can actually hurt a team, so it takes some practice and experience. "Highly Recommended" though.

I generally take the Ice APP on my Stormies. You have no self heal or endurance recovery, and Hibernate can cover both of those. Also, the two AoE damage powers require some positioning, and Storm is the best at positioning. Your Roots Immob will hold foes in place for the entire duration of Ice Storm. Seeds of Confusion is a cone, and so it Frost Breath -- You can have a regular attack chain of Seeds, Roots, Frost Breath, Roots. And the Armor is defense-based, and the single target blast is decent.

One of Plant's biggest weaknesses is a lack of single target damage, so the Earth set is worth considering. You get two single-target attacks, an short-range AoE, a heal and a defense-based shield (that is really ugly). I generally skip Hurl, but Seismic Smash is just too good.

Steamy's defense is minimal -- its main benefits are resistance to Energy, Fire and Cold, and stealth. Most of the damage in the ITF is lethal, so the resistance won't help much. But the Stealth does. I generally take Super Speed for travel with my Storm Controllers, as Steamy + SS = full invisibility. A stealth IO will do the same thing, but I like the battlefield maneuverability of Super Speed to get in postion for casting cone powers, moving around while running Hurricane or getting in position for Lightning Storm, or even in position for using Gale.

Stealth provides no benefit over Steamy Mist, and doesn't provide a benefit to teammates. Grant Invis provides some benefit, but not enough better than Steamy to me. Full Invis takes two powers to get, and is inferior to Steamy + Super Speed.

The mechanics of the game make this true, but that doesn't mean that it is right. Idiots who are leaders are still idiots.

The single target Terrorize includes a Mag 3 "Afraid" for 2.98 seconds. The mechanics of "Afraid" mean that it really depends on what the foe is doing at the time it hits to determine whether he runs, so he doesn't run all that often. The single target Terrorize has a range of 50 feet, while the Cloak of Fear is only 20 feet. Foes who come into the area after the Cloak of Fear hits and don't come within 20 feet are more likely to run away, but they only run for less than 3 seconds so they don't go far.

It is my belief that the main benefit of slotting Spooky for Fear Duration is that it extends the time that a foe who ran away cowers in fear before he is ready to run back into the fight.

Many issues ago, Spectral Terror used to cause a lot of foes to run for a lot longer than 3 seconds, and that was complained about so much that the general recommendation was to not take Spectral Terror. That was changed around Issue 4 or 5 or so.

If a particular concept is fun, then that consideration trumps all else!

You just opened up a can of controversy. I suggest you take look at my Ill/Rad guide. I have a long discussion about the benefits of both Deceive and Flash. You are badly mistaken if you think Deceive "deprives the reward given by the target" as long as you know how to use it. I don't need to repeat all the stuff I said in my Guide here, but I think you are wrong and most of the experienced Controllers will also disagree with you on Deceive.

Flash is less useful than Deceive, but definitely has its uses. It is an effective tool and sets up Containment for any AoE damage powers you may have (Fireball, Fissure, Frost Breath or Ice Storm, Psi Tornado or Energy Torrent). With decent slotting, it is an effective tool, but not essential. Would you skip Cinders on a Fire Controller, or Glacier on an Ice Controller? They are essentially the same power as Flash, but Flash has a slightly longer animation.

I fixed the listings on the Perma PA build and added another one using the Fire APP (which I actually prefer on an Ill/Rad). I'm working on fixing the other builds so that the Datalink works.

Well, to me the main reason to take the Psi pool is IW. I assumed that you wanted it as close to perma as you could get. If you just need a place for a LotG Recharge, you can go with either Fire or Ice. Those have better overall AoE damage that is a different damage type than Psi. Both Fire Blast and Ice Blast make a great attack chain with Blind-SW-Blast-SW and do more damage than Psi Blast. Fire has the up-front damage of Fireball, and then you can go with either Consume or Rise of the Phoenix or Fire Shield depending upon your needs and use Combat Jumping in the last spot for your LotG Recharge. Ice has two AoE damage powers, and Ice Shield for the LotG.

Well, after trying all the others, here's why I took the Fire APP on my Ill/Rad:
(a) I wanted a single target blast that would make a nice attack chain with Blind and Spectral Wounds. It would be better if it was a different damage type than Psi. Since Fire Blast does more damage than the other blasts, it fits the requirement. The faster I can kill, the better chance I have of keeping the spectral damage in Spectral Wounds before the heal-back.
(b) I wanted some AoE damage, because Ill/Rad has none (I don't have Fallout). I play my Ill/Rad mostly at range. And again, I want burst damage. And Fireball was available at 41, too. Since Illusion has no AoE Immob or other "rooting" power that can be fired from range, the DoT powers are less appealing.
(c) My Ill/Rad doesn't get hit much, and has a self-heal, so the heal in Earth and the defense-based shields are less needed. However, he does, on occasion, have endurance problems during fast-moving teams and big fights, even using AM to boost Recovery. It doesn't happen all that often, but every now and then, I see his blue bar run dry. Consume provides a solution to that problem. I can even combine it with my few melee powers -- after PA draws aggro, I can run in, Flash and/or EM Pulse, then use Consume to refill my blue bar.

Illusion has very few control powers that would benefit from Power Boost. Conserve Power is great if you can anticipate your usage of a lot of endurance, but doesn't actually refill your blue bar -- I usually don't think that far ahead, so the "reactive" benefit of Consume fits me better than the "proactive" benefit of Conserve Power. And Torrent just doesn't have enough AoE damage -- and since it is a cone, you have to get in just the right position. I tried Primal for a while on my Ill/Rad and disliked it. I had it on my Plant/Rad, but changed over to the Earth set for the single target damage of Seismic Smash. On a Mind controller, however, the benefits of Power Boost are more significant, since it would make Mass Confusion, Total Domination, Terrify and Mass Hypnosis last much longer.

I like the Fire APP on my Ill/Rad and Ill/TA, but went with the Ice APP on my Ill/Storm. I use different APP sets, depending upon the primary and secondary. On a Mind/Kin, you may not be impressed with Fire since other sets (like Earth with its short range AoE and melee single target damage) might synergize better. But the Fire set, with its great ranged damage and Consume (and now Rise of the Phoenix) might fit with other controllers.

City of Data doesn't have the numbers up for the Cold set for Controllers, but if they are the same as Defenders, then the debuff lasts for 30 seconds.

Does Rise of the Phoenix work after Self Destruct? If it does, you could run in, self destruct, then RotP. That would be some substantial damage. and be pretty darn funny, too.

DOH! Very true. I'm not tuned in to the Cold set yet. I can always count on you to catch me when I mess up.

Of course, you are correct. It would have helped if the OP had posted some guidance. But nothing was provided, so I posted a build I like, according to my playstyle.

Yes, there are a few procs that can go in Earthquake . . . it takes ToHit Debuff, knockback and Defense Debuff sets, but there aren't many damage procs in those sets. There are several debuff/buff procs, though.

Lady Grey Chance for Neg Damage
Achilles Heal Chance for Resistance Debuff
Dark Watcher Chance for Recharge Slow
Deflated Ego Chance for Recovery Debuff
Force Feedback Chance for +Recharge
Explosive Strike Chance for (minor) Smashing Damage.

The proc will have a chance to go off once when Earthquake is cast and then every 10 sec.

One of my regular buddies tried that team teleport trick. Three or four of us had Fire/Rads, and he would Team-TP us into every group. I found that we took more damage than we would have if we had used Flashfire+Fire Cages and then had run it. We tried alternating Cinders, and that helped, but I liked the other way better. It was an interesting experiment, though.

I agree that both Choking Cloud and Hot Feet are slot-hungry. You might be able to get away with only 5 slots at level 50, but there are so many good things to put in an extra slot that it is worth while to use it. In Choking Cloud, I have a Lockdown +2 Mag proc, which I love.
because of the mechanics of CC, it will often lock down foes who would not otherwise be held.

In Hot Feet, I like to squeeze in a little Slow with the EndRdx, Damage and some accuracy. The slow keeps the foes in range longer, letting Choking Cloud have more pulses to hit its hold.

Yes, it is possible to get more damage by using Fire Cages to lock down foes and then Bonfire as an AoE damage power, by continually spamming Fire Cages at least every 12 seconds. Fire Cages will often miss one or two (it has a 20% acc penalty), and that one or two will go flying off. I generally use Bonfire underneath foes with -knockback for the added damage, but I don't use it usually as a damage power as I feel that the endurance usage of spamming Fire Cages exceeds the benefit of the added damage. -- foes die fast enough from Hot Feet, occational Fire Cages and Fire Imps while held in Choking Cloud. And that combo uses a lot of endurance.

However, on AVs, I like using Bonfire. It knocks away the others while we work on the AV, and adds a little extra damage. Choking Cloud provides little benefit on AVs, so I often turn it off.

I have the Psi Resistance Shield, but did not slot for Defense or Resistance. That's what I have a heal for. And I try to get some Regen in, too. Recharge, Recovery and Regen are my focus on bonuses, in that order.

It really depends on your playstyle. I generally play my controllers at range, other than Fire (because of Hot Feet), Ice (Arctic Air) or */Kin. Therefore the short range of Fissure is a big problem for my ranged controllers. Plus, the big hitter on Single Target damage, Seismic Smash, is melee. The single target ranged attack is very slow for Earth. If I want a single target attack chain from Range, Fire Blast and Fireball are often the best choice.

Also, I tend to play a lot of Illusion -- I have 3 Ill Trollers at 50. So the fast, up front damage without a need to Immobilize is useful to me. Besides, hitting a group with Fireball just looks cool -- especially on my Ill/TA, where I hit a group with Oil Slick Arrow and then Fireball: Instant foe barbeque.



You missed the big one: Robots. Between Preatorians, Nemisis and Council/5th Column, you run into a lot of Robots in the late game. There are very few foes, however, that resist Fire, other than a few of the CoT.



One of those primaries is quite popular. Illusion is the primary that seems to benefit most from Fire. It is a different damgae type, with a nice Ranged AoE damage otherwise fully lacking in Illusion. And most of the damage is burst damage from a power that activates quickly -- helping to defeat foes quickly and keep that spectral damage before the heal-back. Although Mind can also benefit from the different damage type.

Cones require positioning to get best use out of them. Mind already has a cone damage power in Terrify. Adding another cone is easy since you are already in position to benefit from using a cone, so Frost Breath or Torrent work well with Mind.




A lot of people specifically build for Defense or Resistance, so the type of shield available is a factor to be considered. A character with a self-heal can make good use of a resistance-type shield to keep the damage down to a level where the heal can take care of it.



Only Kinetics and Radiation offer Endurance/Recovery self-buffs. And on my several Radiation controllers, even with AM, they can run out of end if using all of the debuffs and actively participating in the battle. Consume can make a huge difference. I have used it quite a bit on my Ill/Rad controller in the middle of a big fight -- it lets me maintain all those juicy Rad debuffs even when the End boost in AM drops.



There certainly are times that having a self-rez is handy. And if you are "almost unkillable," then maybe your difficulty should be higher. (Granted, my Ill/Rad almost never dies either, but that's because I play him like a weeney. Invisible, with the distraction from PA and Phantasm, with his knockback, as a bodyguard, most foes don't notice me or don't get too close -- and I run away if I can't Deceive, Flash or EM Pulse my way out of trouble.) The Earth set has a heal, and Ice has Hibernate. Putting a self-rez in Fire makes it different.

And don't forget the good single target blast. And now the self-rez.

Not exactly . . . he's a big guy in a purple military outfit who is very ingraciating to his superiors. His name is "Major Suckup." I have macros set up to complement everone on the team . . .

[end Threadjack]

You might want to consider an Ill/Rad -- closest thing Blue-side has to a MM. You get Phantom Army at 18. AND it would not be an Emp . . . Take a look at my guide in my sig.

Rad's Accelerate Metabolism adds another 30% Recharge. Kinetic's Siphon Speed adds 20% per hit, so with stacking you can get 40% or even 60%, but only if you have foes to siphon off of and are able to hit.

My Ill/Rad guide discusses the issue, lists the sets available for each power in Illusion and Radiation that offer recharge, and has a sample build.

That's what I get for not checking . . . my Mind/FF uses CJ/SJ for travel, and I guess I was thinking that I picked up CJ because I needed Immob protection. I usually use Fly or Super Speed with Controllers, so I don't remember why I went with jumping on that guy.

Of all the primaries combined with FF, I felt that Mind was the best. I wanted all the Mind powers, and Mind really doesn't need much (or any) support from the secondary. With FF, I only really NEEDED 4 powers from the secondary, and everything else was optional. The mez protection of Dispersion, and the self-protection of PFF seemed like a good fit. The two ally bubbles make me welcome on any team, even though this character solos a lot.

Visually, however, he was pretty boring. When I get around to taking him to Icon, I suspect he will be a lot more fun with brightly colored Mind Controls and Bubbles.