Local_Man

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Just made a fire/rad troller, but have never used Hot Feet before. When it says that you cannot Fly, does this include hover as well? Go ahead and shoot me, but I've just never used this power. Thanks for any answers.

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It is not a stupid question, as it come up on a regular basis. Slot Hot Feet for EndRdx, Damage and a little accuracy. Adding some slow is nice, too, depending upon your secondary. For a Fire/Rad, the slow helps keep the foes in range of Choking Cloud longer.

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The only thing I'd agree with skipping is salt crystals. The rest are just far too useful.

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On a team-oriented Earth controller, Stone Prison is also skippable. It has its uses, but if you are AoE and team oriented, then the single target immobilize is the next most skippable power.

The real strength of Plant is AoE control and AoE damage over time. This is based upon using Seeds of Confusion to catch a group, then locking them down with Roots over and over again until the group is defeated. Once you hit 26, then Carrion Creepers contributes damage and lots of distraction. Plant is actually kind of weak on single targets and has limited ability to stack single target controls and damage. Storm can add great damage resistance debuff and defense debuff with Freezing Rain, and some damage in the upper levels.

Ill/Rad is much more focused on single targets, and somewhat weak on AoE. You can stack Deceive to take out bosses without drawing aggro -- and if you take Deceive at level 4, like I suggest, you have no problem with bosses solo. Ill/Rad has to rely upon Phantom Army for "AoE" until Spectral Terror (assuming you postpone Flash, which I recommend). But at almost any level, Ill/Rad has the tools to be able to solo easily with no much risk. It is the most flexible build in the game, and can play solo, join small teams or join large teams with the same build. Rad gives you Recharge, Defense Debuff and Resistance Debuff, all of which make Phantom Army better.

Another option that may be better for solo: Ill/Storm is actually a better build for solo than for large teams -- on large teams, you need to hold back on several powers to keep from causing too much chaos, while you don't have to worry about that solo. It is also a heck of a lot of fun. You get the Defense and Resistance debuffs in Freezing Rain to make Phantom Army better, but no self heal or recharge buff. But Storm adds control that Illusion lacks, plus good damage in the last two powers.

Overall, I have to say that my Ill/Rad is my favorite overall character, but Ill/Storm is a very close second. Plant/Storm isn't far behind, either.

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2 rech, 1 achilles heel def/rech, 1 achilles heel proc, one lady grey proc, one positron proc.

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I've never had high accuracy in FR, but is 0% accuracy viable? I mean, im sure you can get by with it, but am I the only one that puts a lil acc in FR?

I either do 5 posi (with proc) and a rech IO, or 2 lady grey (for easy HP) +plus what ever else to round out the recharge

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Freezing Rain is not like pulse powers that pulse every few seconds, or one-shot powers -- it has bunches of icy rain drops. At least some of those icy raindrops will hit with no accuracy slotted . . . and the debuffs then last for a while after the last raindrop hits. Once one raindrop hits, the defense debuff kicks in to make it easier for the others to hit. You can see this because even unslotted against high level foes, you still see some "-1" even if there aren't nearly as many. I believe Freezing Rain has an inherent accuracy of 2, also.

Slotting damage is mostly a waste. All those little "-1" you see are actually a third of 1 (at level 50, and less in lower levels), so doubling them does not increase the minimal damage hardly at all. If you want to check this, try running Herostats. It will track the damage done by Freezing Rain.

So, there is virtually no benefit to slotting Freezing Rain with either Accuracy or Damage enhancements.

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see and i was having issues if i wanted salt crystals since i have never seen the animations at all for it. I didnt take quicksand but i have a rad secondary and choking cloud,volcanic gasses and earthquake make for a killing field for my stoney

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As I said, take a look at my guide. Quicksand is a great power for an Earth/Rad -- Choking Cloud isn't. You don't need to be in melee with a PB AoE Hold that hits only part of the time. (I love Choking Cloud on my Fire/Rad, but only because he has Hot Feet -- Earth doen't have the other powers to make Choking Cloud all that effective, and you have other, better AoE control options.)

As an Earth/Rad, you can be a very effective AoE controller starting at level 6. My guide has a lot of strategy discussions describing how.

Take a look at my Earth/Rad guide for all the information you might need on the Earth set.

Skippable powers: Salt Crystals looks cool, but you generally won't need a PB AoE sleep power in a set of ranged controls.

Stone Prison: If you expect to solo (which I don't recommend), Stone Prison can be used as a damage power. Late in the game, it can be used to immobilize bosses and even AVs . . . but it is the second most skippable power in the set.

Stalagmites and Stone Cages can be used the same way as Flashfire-Fire Cages. It is one of your three AoE control options. The other two are Earthquake and Volcanic Gasses. Quicksand should be used underneath all three -- it has a massive (25%) defense debuff and acts as a back-up control for any foes who might not be caught by the other AoE controls.

Depending on the foe you are up against, it may be that Stalagmites-Stone Cages is the best opening move, or it may be that you should open with Earthquake or (after level 26) Volcanic Gasses. Remember that EQ and VG both take a few seconds to take effect on all the foes, so you need to take into account that you may get some return fire -- prepare to hide around a corner or wait until a tank teammate has the aggro. Some of this varies with your secondary.

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Except when you're fighting AVs, especially ones that have Elude or MoG. Paragon Protectors too. Those are the times you'll wish you slotted the def debuff in FR.

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You still dont need the defense debuff portion slotted

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I don't have the numbers (and y'all haven't shown them), but I feel that slotting Defense Debuff makes a difference, especially against AVs and other hard-to-hit foes. It seems to counter the massive -ToHit from Circle of Thorns and other foes using negative energy types.

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When I use the 3 Lady Greys, I concentrate on Defense Debuff and Recharge, and with the various bonuses I get from other sets, FR always seemed to be up for each new group, or often enough in a long fight to make a difference.

As far as I could tell, my team was hitting well enough to where I thought FR was making a difference, since we typically worked the mobs over. So as a general rule, I do not think that my 3 damage procs were detracting from Recharge or Debuff.

My admittedly anecdotal experience comes from my leveling up, not how my lvl 50 seems to do with all set bonuses in place.

Still, I can see how, if you typically are on a team and you encounter a lot of baddies that debuff accuracy that you might want to max your own Debuff on FR. A good call, Local Man, and another demonstration as to why these boards are so useful.

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Well, it was kind of fresh in my mind, as I had recently been using a Grav/Storm in missions against CoT -- with those bloody Spectral Demon Lords that debuff your ToHit to the floor. Whiff, whiff, whiff. Add in Freezing Rain (but without Defense Debuffs in it yet) and we were able to hit some. But I recall using some of my higher level */Storm controllers and being able to hit those guys far more reliably. I think the difference was that I had Defense Debuff slotted up -- but without some testing, I can't be sure.

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Except when you're fighting AVs, especially ones that have Elude or MoG. Paragon Protectors too. Those are the times you'll wish you slotted the def debuff in FR.

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You still dont need the defense debuff portion slotted

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I don't have the numbers (and y'all haven't shown them), but I feel that slotting Defense Debuff makes a difference, especially against AVs and other hard-to-hit foes. It seems to counter the massive -ToHit from Circle of Thorns and other foes using negative energy types.

Simple rule of thumb: in most damage powers, compared to some powers that do trace amounts of damage, you will get more damage by max slotting for damage than slotting damage procs. Only add procs after you have maximized your damage slotting.

Exceptions are powers, often AoE control powers, that do small amounts of damage incidental to the main purpose of the power. Example: AoE Immobilize or stun powers like Fire Cages or Flashfire for Fire Controllers. In these powers, you get more benefit from a proc than a damage enhancement. Plant's Roots is an exception to the exception, where slotting damage is better.

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I went with Fire Mastery on my Fire/Rad, the shield and fireball is awesome. Plus consume is great since this set is extremely costly even with perma AM/Haste.

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Oh, hells yes. I'm smacking consume every time it's up, I almost have to.

I tend to subscribe to this theory that if your Fire/Rad still has some blue in his endurance bar then he's not doing his job.

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Hmmm, I don't have that many endurance problems with mine, even running Hot Feet and Choking Cloud continually. Granted, I have both max slotted for EndRdx, with some EndRdx in Fire Cages and other powers. Three Enzymes in RI substantially reduce its endurance cost. But with good slotting, some bonuses and a proc or two, I rarely have to buff my blue bar.

That's why I'm happy with the Psi APP. My Fire/Rad does plenty of damage as long as everything is controlled. I can't control if I'm mezzed. Once I have everything controlled, all I have to do is stand there until it all dies.

Recharge is the most important thing, followed by Defense Debuff. I went with 5 Lady Grey (including the damage proc) and a Recharge. I get good bonuses, max Defense Debuff, max Recharge.

I tend to slot a power for its maximum or near maximum benefit -- especially a power like Freezing Rain that I use constantly. Personally, as a controller, I prefer to control even if it takes me a little longer to kill something off. Maximizing the Defense Debuff means that my other powers, and those of my teammates, will hit far more often. I think that provides more benefit than most procs.

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As an Ill/Sonic who solos a fair bit, I'd like to point out that Disruption Field can also be slapped on Phantom Army (have your pet window out for ease of targetting a Decoy), and this works a treat. Hit a hard target with a 45% resistance debuff and watch it melt to the wrath of PA.

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Really? That's great news. I didn't know the PA could be buffed at all. That hugely raises my opinion of Illusion/Sonic. I'm assuming any extra damage the PA does also doesn't heal back. Add Sonic Siphon on top of that and... wow. I bet its impressive.

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Well, it is not really a buff to Phantom Army . . . it is a debuff that is ANCHORED on a phantom. But the net result is that Phantom Army does more damage. Pretty much the same effect with Rad's Enervating Field, Freezing Rain and several other powers but Sonic's main thing is buffing and debuffing resistance.

A few quick comments on the Illusion side . . . as I have little experience with Sonic. Is this a concept build, or do you want to play Sonic especially? My personal choice for better secondaries is Rad, Storm or TA. But Sonic adds Resistance Debuffs to help Phantom Army do more damage, and you can anchor that one sonic ally debuff on them. For a team build, it certainly can work well.

First thing to slot in most powers that can take accuracy should be accuracy. Spectral Terror is one of the few exceptions to this rule. But we'll get to that later.

Spectral Wounds: Always max slot this power for damage. It has "spectral" or "illusory" damage that heals back after a few seconds, but any damage from enhancements does not heal back. 1 Acc, 3 Dam, then 2 Rech when you can. It is important to understand how this works. If you defeat a foe before the heal-back, you get to keep the spectral damage. This means that you want to defeat foes fast. Take this into account with your strategy. Contrary to most other builds, focus on the minions and easy to defeat foes FIRST. Take down each foe, one at a time rather than spreading your single target control and damage around. This will reduce the number of targets for Phantom Army, letting them focus their damage on the tougher foes. PA and Phantasm's decoy also do spectral damage, so if a foe has been knocked down to a sliver of health by pets, use Blind-SW to finish the job as fast as you can, before the heal-back.

Blind: Acc and Rech are most important, as it is used most often as a set up for containment. Blind-SW will be your attack chain from 2-50, with others added in when available. I slot 1 Acc, 1 Rech, 1 Hold, then 1 Rech, 1 Acc, and then maybe one more hold, in that order. If you expect to solo, changing both holds to damage is a good idea. Also, if you expect to solo, Air Supp is a nice addition.

Deceive: Standard control slotting -- start with 1 Acc, 1 Rech, 1 Confuse. You can get by on that alone, but if you want to stack it on bosses in upper levels, you should consider adding later, as you have slots available, another one of each. Range is not needed. At 50, be sure to slot that Contagious Confusion proc.

Sup Invis: Check in Mids on the benefit of that third EndRdx. It may be that you can get more benefit for that slot somewhere else. It actually is worth slotting SI for some Defense if you have spare slots, mainly to protect you from AoEs.

Phantom Army: Key power in the set. Replace the EndRdx with Damage. It is worth every point of end. Most of the time, you will summon these guys at the beginning of a fight, and then you can pause while they gather aggro.

Spectral Terror a/k/a "Spooky": Take it at 26, as it is the second best power in the set. Oddly enough, it really needs NO slots. I put a Recharge in the default slot. Later, I may replace that with an Acc/Rech and use a second slot for the Chance for Psi Damage proc. Some people slot this up to get set bonuses, but the slots don't really affect the power all that much. If you need slots elsewhere, take them from here.

Phantasm: Recharge is mostly wasted because once he is cast at the beginning of the mission, you almost never have to re-cast him. Phantasm is one of the most durable pets because he casts a decoy and then blasts from range with knockback. 1 Acc, 3 Dam. Actually, I always slot 1 Acc/Dam and Damage from Blood Mandate, 1 Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End from Brilliant Leadership when I first get Phanty.

Flash: You NEED 2 Acc as it has a 20% accuracy penalty, like most AoE control powers (but not Spooky). Use standard slotting of 2 Acc, 2 Hold, 2 Rech. Some people will tell you to skip Flash, but I like it with many Illusion builds. You took it at 35, which was a good choice -- no earlier than 28, after Spooky.

Consider taking a single target blast from the APP powers: Fire, Ice, Primal, and maybe Psi have them. Blind-SW-Blast-SW makes a good attack chain, especially if Blind and SW both have 2 Rech. I did not go with the Psi pool on any of my Illusionists, as I really wanted a different type of damage to deal with Psi resistant foes, like Robots -- and there are a lot of Robots in upper levels. I have tried Fire, Primal and Ice, and all three work well. Besides, my Illusionists don't get mezzed very often.

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The thing with Snow Storm is that you can't open with it. If you use it as an opener, then yes, they will all beat on you till you are dead. Give the fight a few seconds for others to generate some agro, and then it becomes a very good mitigation tool. It's probably not needed later on, so you can respec out of it, but I would take it initially and just be careful in learning when and how to use it.

The only thing I might add to Local's first build is I'd try to fit in Air Superiority. Without Veteran Reward attacks, it really helps to speed things along till you get your app powers in the 40s. I'd take it early at 6,hold off on hasten a bit, and move Hurricane back to 28 in place of Thunderclap. With PA, Freezing Rain, and Deceive, I find I don't need the Thunderclap at all ( Stupefy does have great bonuses though ).

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I continue to use Snow Storm at 50. For example, Snow Storm is wonderful on the ITF, where those dern Traitors are resistant to most control powers . . . but not slows. Anchor it on the biggest, toughest guy and then don't worry about it. It substantially reduces the attack rate of everyone around the anchor. While I may not need its protection while invisible, my teammates appreciate getting hit a lot less. Lots of other uses, too.

The choice of Hasten/Super Speed was made so that invisibility could be skipped. I agree Air Sup is a nice addition if you are willing to give up something to fit it in, and Thunderstrike could be dropped without too much loss . . . except that its your only power (unless you take Flash) to set up AoE containment.

I find that in upper levels, I just don't need Air Supp, because the single target blast gives me a great attack chain, all from range. However, if you expect to solo a lot in lower levels, you can use Air Supp until you don't need it any more.

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I've spent forever looking for how to do this.

For some reason turning the Option on doesn't give me the option of a pet bar in the Team menu (or I am just not seeing it).

I have seen the pet bar open before, but only in the AE when a MM pet is set to an ally. That showed me the MM pet (which I could dictate orders to just as if I was a MM, a bit weird) and my pet. When I left that mission, the pet bar went away and I've never been able to reopen it.

Thoughts?

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No reason why it shouldn't be there.

Menu>Options. Then go to the bottom of the second grouping and make sure that Pet Window is Enabled. Close that. Then open your Team tab, and "Pets" should be a the top left edge over the team listing if you are on a team, or the option to search if you are solo.

I don't understand why you have to enable the option for the Pet window, though. Why not just have it always on? Since I have the Veteran's buff pet, I have it on all my characters just to see when the baddies have killed off Kenny (my group's name for it). It dies so quickly that it is nice to have that little spot on my screen to let me know that I should re-cast Kenny.

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Thanks for all the input. I'm keeping it between Ice and Fire for themeatic purposes, although, I am not usually one to care. I love Earth on my Plant/Storm but I just don't see it fitting here.

Local_Man brought up something I hadn't considered, and that was having a different damage type. Since my damage is mostly fire, having some cold damage might be helpful.

I haven't had a lot of trouble with getting mezzed, but that could change in the coming levels as I get closer to hitting 41 in which case I may consider Psi.

Thanks again everyone.

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On my Illusion 'Trollers, having damage type other than Psi makes a big difference against things like Robots. And having Psi damage against Demons helps my Fire/Rad.

Remember that Fire and cold are both elemental damage . . . sometimes resistances go to two matched types like smashing/lethal, Fire/Cold and Energy/Negative. Psi is separate. If different damage types are a key factor, then you may want something other than Cold.

Not that I would try to discourage you from the Ice set . . . I really like it and have it on more characters than any other.

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I just was wondering if somene had a good pve build for earth/storm....only 16 now..but its gonna be fun.

Possibly pvp at some point...but wanna do everything i can to have fun to 50 then slotted then maybe pvp

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Here's a build with common IOs only. No sets yet. Can't say much about PvP since I don't go there. I would think that Snow Storm would have more use in PvP though.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Earth-Storm Team: Level 50 Technology Controller
Primary Power Set: Earth Control
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Ice Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fossilize -- Acc-I(A), Hold-I(3), RechRdx-I(5), RechRdx-I(15), Acc-I(34), Hold-I(34)
Level 1: Gale -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Stone Cages -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(3), EndRdx-I(5), RechRdx-I(11), EndRdx-I(42), Immob-I(43)
Level 4: O2 Boost -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(7), EndRdx-I(46)
Level 6: Quicksand -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(7), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(9), RechRdx-I(9)
Level 10: Steamy Mist -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(11), ResDam-I(43), ResDam-I(43)
Level 12: Stalagmites -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(13), RechRdx-I(13), Dsrnt-I(15), RechRdx-I(19), Dsrnt-I(19)
Level 14: Super Speed -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 16: Freezing Rain -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 18: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 20: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(21), Heal-I(21)
Level 22: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(23), EndMod-I(23)
Level 24: Earthquake -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(25)
Level 26: Volcanic Gasses -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27), Hold-I(27), Hold-I(29), Hold-I(29), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 28: Hurricane -- EndRdx-I(A), ToHitDeb-I(40), ToHitDeb-I(42), ToHitDeb-I(42)
Level 30: Thunder Clap -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(31), Dsrnt-I(31), Dsrnt-I(31), RechRdx-I(46), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 32: Animate Stone -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33)
Level 35: Tornado -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(36), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(36), RechRdx-I(37), Dmg-I(37)
Level 38: Lightning Storm -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(39), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(39), Acc-I(40), EndRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Hibernate -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Frost Breath -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(45), Dmg-I(45), Dmg-I(45)
Level 47: Ice Storm -- RechRdx-I(A), Dmg-I(48), Dmg-I(48), Dmg-I(48), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 49: Frozen Armor -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(50), DefBuff-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Containment

I tend to go for names that I find amusing somehow, usually because of a pun.

My Shield scrapper is "Bull Shield." I wish that one of the symbols I could put on the shield was a Longhorn, but I had to make do with a Bulls-Eye. His Tanker friend is "Shield Happens."

I have an Egyptian-themed Kin/Elec, who drains force from his foes, stores it and then expells it as electrical energy. He is "Sultan Battery" (say it out loud).

An entertainer for the French Foreign Legion uses both illusions and fancy archery to keep the troops amused. His name is "Beau Jester."

Lots more. The fun part to me is coming up with a name I find amusing. I would never buy one.

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Putting a single proc in hotfeet is OK, it will check every 10 seconds (pulse) and anything within that range will be rolled with a to-hit check.

Procs aren't affected by damage modifiers AFAIR, so for a fire/kin you want to max out the damage portion of the hotfeet power before slotting procs. You probably don't have a lot of room left after slotting for damage and end reduction since the power is so end heavy.

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Excellent answer. It really isn't worth it until you have Hot Feet fully slotted for Damage and EndRdx, plus some Accuracy. If you can, it's nice to add some slow, too, to keep the foes in the area longer. As a Fire/Kin with Fulcrum Shift, you do a lot of damage -- do you really need the comparably small amount of additional damage from a proc when that slot could be used for something better?

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My Fire/Rad Nuclear Flareup is fast approaching the 40s and I am starting to rethink his Ancillary Pool. I was orginally just going to go with Fire, but am starting to warm up to Ice, sort of a nuclear winter. I figured the slows in ice would compliment Hotfeet and Lingering Radiation.

I thought I'd take Frost Breath, Ice Storm and Hibernate and I can't decide whether to take the armor or not. If I didn't I'd probably grab Ice Blast for some ST damage. Would it be a mistake to leave the armor behind?

Or, as origanlly intended, should I just stick with Fire?

Any thoughts, feedback, opinions and the like welcomed. Thanks!

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I've tried them all, and like each for a different reason. What do you need most? I went with Psi on my Fire/Rad. Indomidible Will is the key -- getting mezzed was my biggest problem on my Fire/Rad, knocking off my toggles. Mind Over Body, the resistance shield, was a nice place to put a Steadfast -knockback IO, and Psi Tornado does nice damage over time (not a problem for a Fire/Rad) -- it actually does more damage than Fireball, I believe, when you consider the faster recharge.

Earth has some nice benefits, too. It now has Seismic Smash, a melee attack with a hold. Since you are in melee anyway, that goes well. The AoE is short range, but recharges quickly and adds a chance to stun (which will stack with your Flashfire to stun bosses). Earth's Embrace is a huge heal/HP buff and it has an ugly but effective defense-based shield.

Ice has Hibernate, a great panic-button power. I tend to take Ice on my */Storm controllers because Hibernate will let you recover both health and endurance. Good single target blast, a cone and a rain-type AoE (Fire Cages will keep foes in the area). Ice Storm does good damage but has a slow recharge. The Shield is defense-based.

Primal used to lack an AoE, but that was added in with Torrent, a cone. Good blast, good resistance-based shield, but the key power is Boost Power, which enhances your control and buff powers. I think it is better on a more control-based character, like a mind controller.

Fire is focused on damage, with Fireball for AoE and a good blast. Consume helps you recover endurance, but is on a long recharge. The shield is resistance based.

I prefer a different damage type, to help get around resistant foes. My Ill/Rad and Ill/TA have Fire. My Ice/Storm had Earth, but I have changed him to Ice for now. My Ill/Storm and Earth/Rad also have Ice. My Mind/FF went Primal. And my Fire/Rad went Psi.

If you don't have endurance issues, then I would suggest Psi for the mez protection or Earth for a nice boost to melee damage. Ice would be good, too, and of course, Fire for more ranged damage and endurance recovery.

I have used it for a couple of posts and it seems to work well. Ran into a problem on one post where I pasted in two builds from Mids, and then the message wouldn't display on the forums. Got really frustrated until I realized that I must have exceeded the character limit. So, I split the post into two, and it worked fine.

Where this is most useful is for drafting guides and long posts, especially with a wonky wireless connection. It would be very nice if it was WYSIWYG, but that would take a huge amount of time, and I am very thankful to have a nice little tool to make part of posting easier. Thanks very much.

I agree that Glue Arrow is very useful. I would take Glue Arrow over PGA any day.

I actually went with Super Speed on my Ill/TA for the very reason stated -- so I could fit PGA (in my case) into my build. The only Arrow I could not fit in was Flash Arrow.

Out of the APP powers, I find the single target blast to be more important than any other. With proper slotting, Blind-SW-Blast-SW becomes a very effective attack chain. In order to take advantage of the spectral damage in Spectral Wounds, you want to take down single foes as quickly as possible, and that attack chain will help you do just that.

Do you really need Conserve Power? My Ill/TA only has endurance issues if I try to fight with Superior Invis on, so I usually turn it off in battle. Other than that, TA has fairly low End costs. Oh, I suppose it could be useful after using Emp Arrow, so that might work. But I would suggest switching it with the Blast.

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Just curious, but why did you choose snow storm? I was told not to get that because it causes a lot of aggro and that I didn't need it in the end beecause I already had so much control. I personally love snow storm, but have just heard not to pick it up a lot. What is your take on it for PvE and PvP?

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I love Snow Storm on my Ill/Storm. In low levels, Ill/Storm lacks AoE control, and Snow Storm provides it with a "set it and forget it" toggle. It not only slows movement speed, but more importantly slows recharge -- so the foes can't fire at you nearly as often.

Snow Storm is also wonderful for making Fliers drop from the sky. Those witches in Croatoa are a lot less problem with Snow Storm.

Like most Storm powers, it takes some strategy to use effectively. There are times you don't want to use it to avoid unwanted aggro. But when Phantom Army has the aggro, I love to use Snow Storm to keep the foes from running away. In general, with Ill/Storm it is better to take down the minions first, then Lts and then bosses -- taking down lower level foes faster allow you to take advantage of your "spectral damage" before it heals back. Therefore, slowing down the attacks of tougher foes is important. I often use it to slow down the boss until I can take him down.

I can't help you with PvP -- I dislike it. But my understanding is that Slow powers are popular for PvP.

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I am new to the game,

level 43 Controller ice/kin/earth

My Goal is to be able to solo well crowded maps. Do some nice damage while being hard to kill.

I don't even know what are IOs.

Currently I just update my Single origins enhancement from my architect tickets and that's all.

Please can someone take me under his wings to show me how to become a real hero ?

Thanks for your time !

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Bottom Line: Ice Control is one of the two lowest damage powersets. It is really designed for slowing down foes so that they do less damage to you and your teammates, while your teammates dispatch them. Kinetics is an awesome set for buffing your team, but it won't do all that much for you unless you can do a fair amount of damage . . . which you don't do as an Ice controller. So, Ice/Kin is great for playing on teams, but not so great for doing damage.

If you want to "do nice damage while being hard to kill," as others have said, you should first try a scrapper. Then try a tank. Then a Blaster and Defender -- see what you like best. Don't be afraid to try lots of alts. I tried every AT before Controllers, then found that Controllers were my favorite by far. I have friends, however, who prefer, scrappers, tanks and Blasters over controllers.

On IOs: Have you done the tutorial at the University in Steel Canyon? Read everything there. Then take a look at some of the guides on these boards about IOs, sets and the market. Common IOs are the same as Single Origin enhancements, except that they never expire . . . as they go up in level, they get a little more powerful. I generally don't start slotting IOs until level 30 or 35. At Level 35, common IOs start getting better than SOs and they never expire, so you save Influence in the long run.

Get the Mid's Builder and play around with it. It will tell you a lot about what different IOs will do.

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Also, I like a APP set with a different type of damage, for when you go up against Psi-resistant foes like Robots.

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For choosing a different patrol pool besides psionic, could you recommend a pool and slotting please? I have my mostly solo Ill/Rad tricked out til lvl 38 but at a loss for the 40's. I have the build as above but with Fly for my travel power and Air superiority power.

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Frankly, it depends on what you want out of you APP set. I have Fire on my Ill/Rad and Ill/TA, but Ice on my Ill/Storm. I picked Fire because (a) a good single-target blast makes Blind-Spectral Wounds-Blast-SW into a really good single-target attack chain. That cuts out Earth, since Hurl Boulder doesn't work for that purpose. (b) Illusion lacks AoE damage, and you want it to be Front loaded for illusion. Why? Spectral Wounds and Phantom Army both have "spectral damage" that heals back after a few seconds -- unless you can defeat the target before the heal-back. Fireball works great (and looks impressive, too). (c) On occasion, I have endurance issues (like after using EM Pulse). It is not often, but every now and then. Consume works for that.

I tried Primal. The single target blast is good, and has a little knockback. The recently-added Torrent was badly needed. Conserve Power can handle some of the issues for which I use Consume. The crown jewel of Primal, Boost Power, doesn't do much for Illusion because you do so much through pets.

Ice has a nice single target blast, and added Frost Breath, which is OK as a cone. Hibernate is great as an emergency health and endurance recovery tool, but with a heal in Ill/Rad, I don't need the health part too much. Ice Storm is a great AoE if you can keep the foes in the area, but Illusion doesn't have the AoE controls to take advantage of it.

Psi is great if you mainly want mez protection. I love it on my Fire/Rad. But it won't help you with Psi-resistant foes.

Earth now has a great single melee attack, but its AoE is very, very short range. Its main power is Earth's Embrace, a heal/HP boost. That's not the main thing my Ill/Rad needs.

So, I went with Fire Blast (5 Thunderstrikes, or what I really have is 2 Acc/Dam and 1 Dam/Range Hami-Os, 2 Rech.), then Fireball (5 Posi Blast or 3 Acc/Dam Hami-Os, 2 Rech), then Consume (4 Efficiency Adaptor, 1 Recharge). I took something else other than the shield at 49, but that's up to you.