Local_Man

Earth's Animate Stone a/k/a Rocky a/k/a Stoney a/k/a Poo Man became superior to Ice's Jack Frost when Seismic Smash was added to replace the mallet attack. Seismic Smash has a mag 3 hold (the pet version). It used to be that Jack's hold was one thing that arguably made him better.

Rocky is a lot tougher than Jack. He can tank for you, and adding Sonic Shields to him pretty much makes him close to invulnerable. Jack brings a slow aura instead of that toughness. Both of them now cycle their attacks quite well, and are more effective than they once were.

Personally, I prefer the Earth set over Ice, and I've played them both to 50. I have started up several Earth controllers with different secondaries, but I don't have nearly as much interest in making another Ice Controller. Earth has awesome ranged AoE controls, plus the -Defense makes Blasters cry for joy and makes it easy for any team to handle higher level content. An Earth Controller + a Fire or Arrows Blaster + almost any other teammates is a formula for success. Take a look at my Earth/Rad guide for a lot of info on Earth, even if you ignore the Rad stuff. If you look in the guide section, there is a guide on Earth/Sonic . . . I haven't seen one on Ice/Sonic.

I prefer my Ice controller to be built for melee, using Arctic Air instead of Shiver. That is one unique thing about Ice Controllers -- you have a choice about their playstyle by your choice between two powers. AA mitigates about 70% of melee damage, so I play my Ice controller as a tank groupee ... following right behind the tank/scrappers, throwing out controls to make them better. You could choose to play your Ice controller from range, using Shiver to slow everything down . . . but I feel that Earth is a better ranged controller.

One thing I noticed in your list -- no Controllers.

I'm up to 12 50's on my main account, all heroes. 7 of them are Controllers, three of which are the Illusion primary and three of which are Radiation secondary. (Until recently, one of our regular guys didn't like the idea of Villains, so we never played Red-side. I finally have a Thugs/Dark MM up to 38 who has mostly soloed, and an Elec/Elec Brute in the late 20's.) My second account is formerly my wife's -- it has only 2 50s on it, both Defenders. So, yeah, I have 14.

7 Controllers, 3 Defenders, 2 Scrappers, 1 Tank, 1 Blaster. Another Tank and another Blaster are on their way to join the ranks.

You should try a controller. They have a widely varied playstyle depending upon the primary, secondary and how you choose to play. They seem weak but actually turn out to be amazingly strong. Take a look at my Ill/Rad and Earth/Rad guides, and also at Enant's new "choose your controller" guide. (I have a few minor disagreements with it, but it is overall pretty good.) If you have any questions about any Controller combo, let me know and I'll be happy to give you my opinions.

Hmmm, that's an interesting idea -- World of Confusion. I have the Ice APP on my Ice/Storm currently, mostly for Hibernate as a "panic button" power (since Stormies don't have a self-heal or Endurance Recovery) and for the AoE damage. I might actually have to try a second build to try that out.

On the Illusion powers, and on Superior Invis vs. Group Invis, take a look at my Ill/Rad guide. It has the numbers for defense and you can decide for yourself. I feel that the choice is really more of a playstyle choice.

Both forms of Invisibility are over the PvE stealth cap -- both let you dance in front of standard foes without being detected. SI is a high endurance toggle that has better invisibility -- but this only makes a difference around foes with +perception, like snipers and those darned Rikti Drones. With SI, you can get closer without being detected than with GI. On my main Ill/Rad, this matters because he has Teleport and tries to be the team spy. For example, in a Lady Grey TF (the one with all those Rikti), he can teleport between groups of Rikti, even if they have drones, and often not be detected (since he didn't have to travel past them). With SI, however, I have to turn it off in many big battles to keep from running out of endurance -- my Ill/Rad has Consume from the Fire APP for when he forgets.

GI uses a LOT less endurance, but has the disadvantage/advantage of being a click power. It also has the advantage of being a team buff. I used GI leveling up my Ill/Rad (before respecing into SI) and have it on another one of my Illusionists, so I am very familiar with it. I found it annoying to have to re-cast it every few minutes, and had a few times where it ran out at inconvenient times (kind of like getting caught with your pants down). Still, the team buff has some nice advantages, in that it allows teammates to get in JUST the right position for a team Alpha Strike. GI also allows the team to help (for a few minutes) with "hunt the glowie" missions or to get past an area without having to wipe it out.

Of course, the disadvantage of a click power is that it runs out and has to be constantly renewed. The advantage is that it uses its fairly small amount of endurance in one shot, and then doesn't further drain your endurance. Also, GI is just barely over the stealth cap, so it provides almost no protection against +perception foes.

I have seen folks say that SI is great and there is no reason to take GI, and vice versa. Both are quite handy to have but not essential. But there is very little benefit to taking both (except as a mule for a Luck of the Gambler +Recharge).

Flash is a decent power -- it is a pretty standard PB AoE with poor accuracy, a short duration and long recharge, so slotting it up is essential. Before slotting, it stinks. Standard SO slotting is 2 Acc, 2 Hold, 2 Recharge. It is essentially the same as Ice's Glacier and Fire's Cinders, but has a slightly longer animation. Before Spectral Terror, it is your only AoE control power. It can be handy, especially as a panic button or a control power to fill in while Phantom Army is recharging.

My limited experience with Phase Shift powers was not pleasent -- I took Black Hole on a Dark Miasma character and immediately hated the power. So, I have never, ever taken Detention Field on my FF characters. Force Bolt is actually quite useful as a "get out of my face" power -- a way to knock back a foe until Blind Recharges. Force Bubble is very situational, but kind of fun. Which you choose really depends on your playstyle.

I finally got home so I could look at my slotting for Arctic Air:

Coersive Persuasion: End/Confuse and Contageous Confusion proc
End/Conf from Malaise and Perplex and Cacaphony, and the Chance for Psi Damage from Malaise. That easily caps EndRdx and Confuse, with the two procs. I could have replaced the Cacaphony with a Chance for Energy Damage from the same set, but that would have reduced the EndRdx and Confuse to the low 80%, and I wanted max for those two attributes.

Arctic Air is NOT a stealth AoE. It is a significant control aura -- Slow, Confuse and "Afraid." It uses a LOT of endurance because it is very effective when slotted up. Max slot for EndRdx and Confuse, and it mitigates about 70% of the damage from foes in the area. They run slowly, try to run out of the area, then become briefly confused, turn around and maybe attack another foe, maybe just run around. It is as though they are really "confused." On my Ice/Storm, I love the combo of AA and Steamy Mist. Whether to take AA or Shiver depends on whether you want to be mostly in melee or in range. Most folks don't take both, but that's an option, too.

Chilblain is more of a single target damage power in low levels -- I slotted it like a damage power. Still, Ice is a very low damage set, and is painful to solo. Frostbite is crappy damage and it's not worth slotting for damage. I think Procs actually net more damage. Also, because the -knockback in Frostbite conflicts with Ice Slick, I didn't take it until late (level 30), because I needed the -knockback for Tornado. Flash Freeze is the most frequently skipped power in the Ice set, as on teams, sleeps are usually broken quickly.

I have not played the Cold set, but I understand that Fog is similar to Steamy Mist, and Sleet is similar to Freezing Rain. Think about slotting up Fog for Resists, and the damage in Freezing Rain/Sleet is so small that it is clearly not worth slotting for damage -- slot for Recharge and debuffs.

You have invested a lot in Leadership -- I would prefer going for the APP sets to get a little damage in the build. The Ice APP has two AoEs and a nice single target blast.

I would put Illusion's Phantom Army and Plant's Seeds of Confusion in with the same category as Stygian Circle. But I think the OP was asking for the highest damage powers.

Energy Transfer for the Energy Melee set is certainly up there.

One aspect if you always team with a tank partner . . . Tough/Weave will only affect you. Maneuvers/Tactics will affect your teammates. While the small amount of defense won't have that much of an affect on YOU, a small boost in defense to a character which already has high defense will make a big difference.

If the tank is doing his job and taking most of the aggro, it may be that boosting HIS defense will be the best defensive action.

OK, from my perspective, this build needs some work . . . but my playstyle may be substantially different from yours.

Mez: To me, this is mainly a damage power that happens to put foes to sleep. I slot it like an attack. My Mind controllers are very good solo in low levels, slotting Dom, Mez and Lev as damage powers -- they make a great attack chain by taking the foe out of the fight three ways (hold, sleep, knock-up) while doing damage.

Dom: Since I use Dominate as mainly a set up for containment as part of my attack chain, I don't slot much for hold duration. Acc, Dam and Rech mostly. Even if you want to slot it as a hold, it deserves 6 slots so you can spread it around or spam it.

AM: Efficiency Adaptor works great in AM. If you don't have enough Global Recharge, then use a common recharge in place of the Acc/EndMod, but if you have enough Global, you can get an extra 5% Recharge from using the entire set.

Confuse: You have a fair number of expensive IOs, but for some reason did not use the rest of the purple set in Confuse. Use 5, or if you want Ranged Defense, go for 6. Compared to other purple sets, it is fairly inexpensive and the bonuses are great. The proc (which you have in the build) turns the single-target confuse into a mini Mass Confusion 1/3 of the time.

Swift: I never understand why people take Swift/Hurdle so early when other, far more useful powers are available and won't affect when you get to Stamina.

Hover: Do you really need Hover in this build? If you are going for Invisibility with Super Speed + Stealth IO, then skip Hover. You can get vertical travel with (a) the Jump Jet from the Good vs. Evil set and (b) careful and stingy use of the Raptor Pack and Zero-G pack from scanner missions. Take Super Speed at 14 to reduce your use of the temp powers so you can save them for later. Try to fit in Levitate in place of Hover for that whole Attack Chain thing (and smashing damage against Psi-resistant foes like Robots).

Radiation Infection: This is one of those powers I like to take early. At level 50, you can save a bunch of slots by using 3 Enzyme Hami-Os (ToHitDebuff/DefenseDebuff/EndRdx), which are the perfect slotting for all three aspects of this power. You can make up for the bonuses elsewhere. Before level 50, slot for ToHit Debuff and some EndRdx, and don't worry about Defense Debuff as the default amount is enough.

LingRad: It can wait in the build, as EF provides more benefit. Note that this has a 30 sec duration and a 90 sec Recharge, so unless you have a bunch of Global Recharge, you will want to slot for Accuracy first, then Recharge.

Terrify: I use it more as my only AoE damage power, but for a team-oriented 'troller, Glympse is a good set.

Choking Cloud: I don't think it would be a good match for a Mind/Rad. Works great as seconary control for a Fire/Rad or maybe Ice/Rad, but Mind/Rad doesn't need to be in melee for a control that hits so unreliably. See my Ill/Rad guide for a detailed explanation on how CC works. If you take it, it needs to be fully sloted for EndRdx and Hold.

While I would do things differently, you made a nice build. One suggestion: Replace the Conf/End in Deceive with the Contagious Confusion proc. It turns Deceive into a kind of Mass Confusion 1/3 of the time. You give up a little (2 sec from 76 sec of Confuse duration, 2 points of Endurance) to get a lot.

To the OP -- If you want to play a fire/Storm without Freezing Rain, have fun . . . but make sure you tell any potential teams that you are playing a concept character without what is arguably the best power in the set. It's not fair to gimp yourself and not reveal it up front. (It's kind of like a Illusion Controller not taking Phantom Army.)

Personally, I wouldn't do it. Concept only goes so far. If the character isn't fun to play, then I will abandon it soon enough. Every one of my Stormies took Freezing Rain as soon as it became available. Instead, try a Fire/Rad -- it is an awesome combo.

I included a lengthy discussion about confuse powers in my Ill/Rad guild. The bottom line is that any loss in XP, if any, is easily offset by the great utility, fun and safety that Mass Confusion provides. I think it is probably variable on whether there is any XP loss or gain, but in either event, if you know to do damage to the targets of the confused foes, any alleged loss will be very small and it might be a net gain. Keep using it, and don't worry so much about small amounts of XP.

Illusion/Storm has lots of tools to make that team better.

Deceive will take any problem foes out of the fight even before it begins. Deceive will also let you get any foe who uses mez powers to use them on other foes, and not use buffs on the foes. For example, use Deceive on a Tsoo Sorcerer before the fight begins, and he will not heal other foes, and his Hurricane will debuff the accuracy of the foes instead of your team, letting your team kill stuff faster.

Freezing Rain is one of the best debuff powers in the game. Your teammates and Phantom Army will do 30% more damage and hit far more often. For example, your Electric Blaster's "Ball Lighting" will become far more effective, hitting more and doing more damage.

Snow Storm will allow you to keep foes from running away very fast, and knock down fliers. Croatoa will be available at 25, and knocking down those witches is a delight.

Hurricane will allow you to help the tank be a better tank. You can run around the outside of his group, pushing any runners or stragglers back into the group, while debuffing their ability to hit. It takes some practice to learn to do this right, but it is a great strategy. I like to use Super Speed for travel, as it makes doing this much easier. (Plus, super speed + steamy mist = full PvE invisibility -- no need to take Superior or Group Invis.)

Phantom Army adds three more damage dealers to your team. Your Blind+Spectral Wounds allows you to be a single target blaster, holding the foe from running. Pick targets outside of the tank's reach of his melee attacks. (Energy Melee has low AoE but high single target damage after the last two powers. You can help taking down those single targets, especially ones with only a little health left.) I suggest you focus on taking out the lower level foes, starting with minions, and let the tank and others focus on the tougher foes -- take a look at the Strategy section of my Ill/Rad guide to see why.

One small thing I saw -- change Call to Arms in Phantasm and Phantom Army to Expediant Reinforcement. In PA, use the Acc/Rech, Acc/Dam, and the two triples, but in Phantasm, replace the Acc/Rech with the Dam/End. Then use the two triples from Call to Arms to fill in the other two slots for Phantom Army. You get the same recharge bonuses, but slightly better numbers in the powers themselves, plus you keep the Recovery bonus for PA.

Personally, I would never take Spectral Wounds that late, but that's me. I'm also not a fan of using a sleep set in Blind, but I understand you did it for the bonuses. I prefer to slot up for Hold and Damage. Even a team character can contribute Damage.

On the SI vs. GI question -- it is really a matter of personal taste. When I have GI, I find that I forget to keep casting it over and over. The toggle is much easier even though it uses a LOT more endurance. I found that with GI, I got attacked periodically when invis ran out at an inopportune time. However, being able to give Invis to the team is a nice benefit, mostly to help them get in place for a maximum Alpha Strike.