Miladys_Knight

Energy manipulation needs no extra help and all ready has awesome tools that no other set has and they are clicks so the benefits aren't lost from mez. Boost Range, Power Boost, and Conserve Power are the reasons that Energy Manipulation out shines most of the other secondaries

As you have been discovering, blasters still have tools that aren't as useful as they should be.

Damage auras aren't useful enough because they are too easily detoggled. The answer isn't in the blaster power set it's in the insp tray.

Blaster Epic armor is also too easily negated (except for Body Armor which has too low a value to "compensate") since it is supressed when mezzed... Exactly the time when it is most needed. The answer isn't in the power set, it's in the inspiration tray.

Long animating powers are deadly for the blaster who depends on staying moving to stay alive. Being rooted there for 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 seconds from animation times or getting stuck by a mez when you are in melee range can be a death sentence. The answer once again isn't in the power set, it's in the inspiration tray, in set bonuses, or "exploiting" the game engine/AI by kiting.

These are some of the reasons that blasters are difficult to play, especially for the new player, who may have come from another MMO or never played an MMO before.

Survival techniques with other ATs are pretty straight forward. Blaster survival has a steep, and sometimes counter intuitive, learning curve.

Shiver + RoF is a sweet combo. It slows the mobs down enough that they are stuck in the RoF for the majority of the duration.

Since merits can be consumed at the rate of 200-250 for a single exact recipe instead of 20 per for a random the effect will probably be minimal.

Recipe production post merits is still lower on average than it was pre-merit and most of the recipes that are produced are at level 50 since merits can be hoarded and used at a level later than they were earned.

The extra merits in some cases, such as the avid badgers and casual players, may simply sit on the characters and not get spent since they aren't transferable.

There might be a slightly increased supply of recipes in the level 50 range for the duration of the event but I don't see it being a real market shaker.

I know you said you were happy with your epic attacks but I thought I'd mention this anyway.

If you take Force Mastery, Power Boost works on your defenses. You can use it to bubble Jack and make him almost indestructible and then you can PFF up and recover OR you can use it like the new MoG with the defense you all ready have and just jump in with Arctic Air running.

Adding mag 3 protection to status effects in damage toggles for blasters would do the trick. They would be worth taking for that alone and it would actually make the power useable in most mezzing environments since they would actually stay toggled on until you are hit with the second mez.

I dunno. My assault rifle toon is magic.... that's how I explain the endless supply of bullets and other projectiles. I'm using magic to create the ammo. The weapon is just a "magic bang stick".

People also forget the 40% resistance to toxic in Deflection Shield. It's also under appreciated but it can make a huge difference in an early sewers run and in any and every Posi TF you run or any thing else that features Vahz or Proteans.

Having read some of your other posts on the subject I can safely comment that you are using a brute force approach (ie: depending on mitigation through toggles) to a subject that requires finesse. This is a common problem with players that mainly play tanks, scrappers, and brutes.

Because of the way that the game is, and how blasters are set up, there is what I like to call a "performance dead spot" in the level 33-40 range for blasters. You aren't getting much, if any, new mitigation in this area and mobs are getting tougher. This trend reverses itself in the later levels when you get your epic powers.

What you have to do as a blaster is analyze your power set selection(s) strengths and weaknesses and then emphasize your strengths and de-emphasize your weaknesses. You can do all of this with inspirations, accolades, temp powers, and IO set bonuses.

The first step in learning to be a topline blaster is getting out of the toggle mitigation mind set. Remove tough, weave, and manuvers from your build. They are end heavy powers that don't give you enough mitigation for the endurance they use. (Once you've learned HOW to be a blaster you can put them back in if you really want to.)

For the rest, how about we take it one step at a time and analyze and emphasize the strengths, and then analyze and de-emphasize the weaknesses. Since Ultimo is your name sake I'll be making the assumption through out that eventually you'll put the influence into him to make him "Uber" and worthy of beng your name sake.

Like some of the other posters have mentioned, Force Mastery is probably the best selection for your chosen blaster primary/secondary set, so we'll analyze that.

Energy/Energy/Force

Whoops, getting ahead of ourselves here. Let's start by analyzing the blaster AT a bit first. Simply put, you are an eggshell armed with a sledge hammer. Since we are looking at strengths first let's look at the sledge hammer.

Defiance - The blaster inherent. Every attack you make using your primary or secondary power set increases the damage you do with subsequent attacks. What do you need to fuel this part of your inherent? Recharge to make your best/hardest attacks useable more often and endurance to fuel them. With this in mind, to get the most out of defiance, you'll need Hasten, Stamina, (yes, yes, I know that there are people that will say that you don't NEED Stamina and Hasten, but taking them play to the blaster's strengths and going with out them simply emphasize the blaster's weaknesses, so for the time being we will ignore those folks and call the Staminaless and Hastenless blaster an outlier for advanced players only), +rech set bonuses and accolades, +recovery set bonuses and accolades, +max endurance accolades and set bonuses, and base empowerments. We aren't including inspirations in here for 2 reasons.

1) There are no +rech inspirations.
2) Running out of endurance eliminates the benefit you get from defiance.

Endurance recovery (and endurance reduction) should be built into your character and you should strive for sustainability. (You'll need to use your inspirations for other purposes.)

Things to avoid here are Pool and Epic attack powers since they don't help build defiance.

Energy/

Energy/ does 2 things, Damage (something the blaster is all ready good at) and Knockback. That's it. There are no other effects in Energy/. It doesn't have any stuns, holds, fears, defense/resistance debuffs, or sleeps like some of the other sets, only knockback. Since knockback is for mitigation we'll cover that below in the de-emphasizing weaknesses section. The thing to note here in Strengths is to slot up to (or a little over) the ED softcap for damage while including enough accuracy to hit reliably, and enough recharge and endurance reduction to get your sustainability. SOs can do this, Frankenslotting IO set pieces to emphasize each area is better, as it's a cheap and easy way to do this, and over the life of the character is better than using SOs since the IOs don't degrade (they are thus cheaper in the long run) and they exemplar well. Long term you'll want the very hefty benefits that you get from stacking multiple set bonuses.

/Energy

This secondary is an excellent grab bag of fast activating, hard hitting attacks, mitigation, and other useful secondary effects that include guaranteed knockback, guaranteed and % chances to stun, endurance conservation tools, globaly increased range, globaly increased boosts to secondary effects (except for knockback , [rant] Castle you rat , if you are reading this, when are you going to put KB back into Power Boost for PvE? You can do it now since effects for PvP and PvE can be made different, this would give back the only real synergy Energy/ ever had with /Energy [/rant]}.

As above, the majority of secondary effects are mainly for mitigation and we'll cover those below, but I want to emphasize 1 thing. Take, slot up, and use the attacks in your secondary. If you aren't, you're only 1/2 a blaster (it's ok to avoid them as a concept "Ranger" type character [especially with /Energy] but that too should be considered an outlier for advanced players only) also as above, the thing to note here in Strengths is to slot up to (or a little over) the ED softcap for damage while including enough accuracy to hit reliably, and enough recharge and endurance reduction to get your sustainability. SOs can do this, Frankenslotting IO set pieces to emphasize each area is better, as it's a cheap and easy way to do this, and over the life of the character is better than using SOs since the IOs don't degrade (they are thus cheaper in the long run) and they exemplar well. Long term you'll want the very hefty benefits that you get from stacking multiple set bonuses.

Conserve Power - This is a very good endurance management tool to assist with your sustainability. It has a 600 second recharge and a 90 second duration. With ED softcapped slotting for recharge and ~140% global rech from set bonuses and hasten it is up ~50% of the time. If you can maintain endurance sustainability with out it via IOs, accolades, and set bonuses you could respec out of it later.

Power Boost - This boosts the secondary effects of many powers (not KB though) with the above mentioned globals it would have an up time of 15 seconds and a recharge of ~17ish it would have the greatest effect on increasing your stun durations and it would have some effect on your defense when PFF is on as well as increasing the healing provided by aid self. All in all with proper slotting and set bonuses you probably won't need this power. You'll be destroying stuff fast enough that you won't need it for increased stun duration and the other effects it provides are either just not enough or massive over kill.

Boost Range - A single rech IO in the base slot (with the above mentioned globals) will keep this power on permanently (30 second duration with a 21 second recharge). Nice to have if you are mainly using powers that are long ranged anyway and avoiding using your blaps, but some of your best powers are short ranged (Energy Torrent and Power Burst) and you want to use the blaps. Skippable in this case. Or it can be a level 49 power that gets only the base slot.

Accolades that help with strengths:

Geas of the Kind Ones - A massive boost to recovery, recharge, and to hit for 60 seconds.
The Atlas Medallion - 5% increase to max endurance. This has dual effects. Not only does it give you more total endurance to draw on, but having a higher max end also increases your recovery rate.
Portal Jockey - as above a 5% increase to max endurance. It also has the effect of increasing your max hit points.

IOs that help with the strengths.

Miracle + for the +recovery
Numina's +/+ for the +recovery
Perforamce shifter chance for +end. If slotted as the 3rd endmod IO in stamina gives more recovery on average than a third ED capped endmod IO. Definately worth the cost in influence.

That's it. The strengths are pretty straight forward. You use them to blow stuff up. Using them creatively and using the secondary effects are where you get your survival from.

De-emphasizing Weaknesses and palatives

Unfortunately, for your concept, the blaster is rife with weaknesses. All most all of them are things that you can't do a thing about using your powers in a straight forward manner so you have to get creative using positional awareness and dip into pool powers and use some IOs.

Defiance is a palative of sorts for mezzes. It lets you fire your 3 weakest powers when under most status effects. It's helpful in some situations such as being mezzed near the end of a fight but not enough when mezzed at the beginning of a fight or mid to late game when enemy mez powers have ranges that are greater than the range of these powers.

Blaster mitigation is staying in motion and beating stuff up before it beats you up. That's your only option when you select the blaster AT. The weaknesses for the blaster are as follows in order from the most damaging to least damaging.

1) Status effects

Knockback - yep that's right. It's not being held, not being stunned, not being slept, not being slowed, not being feared. Being KB'd makes you unable to do ANYTHING and there's not a reactive thing that you can do about it. It will keep you from activating powers, even those that can be activated while under various other mez effects due to defiance, it will keep you from using inspirations that could save you, it's a common effect in the mobs, and it can be chained until you are D-E-A-D dead without having been able to do a thing about it except watch in frustration.

The cure is acrobatics if you are poor. Acro does a decent job of stopping KB and it gives a bit (mag 2) of hold protection. (Speaking in game terms it makes you a lieutenant instead of a minion where holds are concerned. It stacks with your inherent mag 1 protection to give you a mag 3). The problem with Acro is that it is expensive in terms of endurance and slots especially for how little it gives you for that cost. Like other toggle powers, if you are hit with another form of mez, this power is supressed and stops giving you it's benefits even though the toggle is still active and burning endurance.

-KB IOS (and the base empowerment for KB protection) are much more cost effective in terms of endurance, power selection, slots used and effects. They aren't turned off by being held, stunned, slept etc. and, unlike the base empowerment, cost nothing to use after being slotted and never have to be refreshed.

You should replace Acro as soon as possible with 1 of these IOs (or 3. Don't use 2. There are almost no KB effects in game that are stopped by 2 that aren't stopped by 1. There are some that are only stopped by 3). This is one of few status effects that you can virtually eliminate (and you should asap).

Stuns - also not much to be done here. There are no powers that you can take or IOs that you can slot that will give you protection against stuns. Aid self if used pro-actively will give you 48.4% resistance to stuns. What this does is decrease the time you are stunned by roughly 25%. This can be good in some situations (like rikti) and aid self is very good for the blaster after the fight as well. Stuns are one of the most common mez effects used by mobs. There are some status resistance IOs that you can slot but the amount of extra resistance provided isn't really worth the slots that the IOs take.

Holds - Not much to be done here except for the above mentioned Acro. The endurance costs are heavy and the protection gained is light. Holds are a less common status effect than stuns or sleeps.

Sleeps - The power health gives you 48.4% resistance to sleeps. This is the same as the resistance (it's not protection it only reduces the duration of the sleep) to stuns provided by Aid self but with the benefit of it being always on. You can also slot your tier 1 and 2 primary blasts with the Entropic Chaos set. The proc has a 10% chance to trigger a 5% self heal which will break a sleep. This only works for blasters due to being able to fire these powers while slept. It doesn't occur often but it does occur. It's not really worth slotting the proc by itself but can be handy if you are slotting the entire set in your tier 1 and 2. Sleeps are about as common as stuns. They aren't as bad though since if the mobs damage you it will break the sleep.

Immobilization - As I said above, blaster mitigation is staying alive by staying in motion. Getting immobilized means that mobs can close to melee range and use devastating attacks. There is an easy fix for this. Combat Jumping. It gives mag -8.3 protection to immobilization, gives you a form of unsupressed movement, gives a 1.75% defense increase to all positions, and costs a mere .07 end per second. One of the very best blaster mitigation powers in the game.

Fears - a "partial" mez. Tactics gives 42.385% resistance to fear. Not a common mez in PvE.

Confuse - This mez prevents you from doing damage to the mobs at the same time as causing you to do damage to your teammates (if you aren't cautious). Tactics gives 42.385% resistance to confuse. A very rare mez in PvE.

Break free inspirations are a kind of cure all to the above problems. A break free can be used pro-actively against KB (but not reactively) and can be used pro-actively or reactively against the other types of mez. You should carry a column of break frees in your inspiration tray at all times and combine other insps into these when you run short. Since the no toggle drop on mez addition and the defiance damage buff (not note, the "mez protection" part) my blasters are only killed now by a very rare streak of bad rolls or mez after running out of break frees. Since blaster mitigation is active, and mez by definition makes you mostly inactive and roots you into place (except for stuns and it's not much different there) mez is still an especially deadly "you lose button" that the mobs still have against blasters.

Endurance drains - Massive recovery (one of your strengths) should allow you to handle this at least temporarily. Geas of the Kind Ones accolade is a good counter to this.

-rech debuffs - Massive recharge (also one of your strengths) should allow you to function even in high -rech debuff situations. A winter's gift unique IO also gives resistance to this effect. Geas of the Kind Ones accolade is a good counter to this.

Movement slows - Super speed will allow you to get out of slow patches or to move at a reasonable speed even when debuffed in this way. A winter's gift unique IO also gives resistance to this effect.

Most of the rest of the status effects in game are either annoyances, or things that you can't do anything about, or challenges that other ATs face as well (defense and resistance debuffs, or being "caged" as examples).

Damage mitigation -

First off is postional awareness.

Using the terrain to block some or most of the mob from attacking when you make the initial attack. Popping up from behind boxes and dumpsters to use ranged attacks (Combat jumping plus Full Auto is an awesome combination for this.)

Using corners for location targetted AoE powers (Rain of Arrows is a good example here).

Surveying the field to see what you are up against. If there are 3 mezzers in the group you are going to attack the chances are very good that you will get mezzed before you get the group down. Popping a break free before you even begin the fight is a very good idea in these circumstances.

Kiting a tough foe. An example of this would be queing up Total Focus and then Super Speeding into and right back out of melee range with a boss mob. You are only in melee range for a split second and that very painful 3.3 seconds of activation is done outside of melee range after you have zipped past. Zipping back in and using stun will mez the boss. Tossing stun in every time it recharges will keep the boss stunned until you can dispatch him.

Multiple spawns at the spawns point. You'll need some extra mitigation in these circumstances. Force of Nature, Using PFF to splash the alpha, popping purple and/or orange inspirations, and using temp or accolade powers are good ideas here.

Stuns - you have 2 guaranteed stuns in your secondary. The technique against a boss is listed in kiting. Either form of mez will neutralize most lieutenants, giving you time to eliminate all the minions with your AoEs before returning your attention to the lieutenants.

Knockback - Your primary is rife with KB powers. Your secondary has one also and it can be used while mezzed. It's the only tier 1 secondary that can completely eliminate damage from a boss (and some EBs and the rare AV) in a single application.

Energy Blast's cone (Energy Torrent) and AoE (Explosive Blast) have a 50% chance to cause Knockback. Against 8 targets that means (.95*.95*.5*.5 = .2256 * 8 = 1.8) that 1 or 2 targets are all that is standing after your alpha. 95% of the time Power Push or Power Thrust makes that 1.

The KB from those 3 attack powers against 8 mobs (including misses) has provided mitigation that is equivalent to a defense toggle of 38.72% (it's also done a decent amount of damage). No single defensive toggle in the game even slotted up to the ED soft cap provides that much defense value.

There are relatively few mobs that are immune to KB effects and with a minimum of KB slotting those that are resistant to it or have some protection to it can still be knocked down/back.

While a mob is on it's butt it's damage output is 0. Lots of people get this. What most people fail to take into account is that mob ranged attacks do roughly 60% of the damage that mob melee attacks do. The farther the mobs fly the longer it takes them to get back into melee range especially since the AI will have them stopping to take ranged pot shots at you. When you have your KB distance slotted up enough that your AoE KB powers are recharged before the mobs can return to melee range you have increased your mitigation to what is roughly equivalent of 40% resistance to all damage types.

If you've been following all this 2, 50% chance to KB AoE attacks against 8 mobs gives you similar mitigation to unslotted granite armor. Against fewer targets it's even better. Against more targets it is admittedly worse (though not significantly worse.) That's all free and entirely due to situational awareness and good use of Knockback.

If the occasional use of Force of Nature and PFF aren't enough for you, here are some other things that you can do.

Get the following accolade powers

Freedom Phalanx Reserve - Auto: +10% Max HP
Portal Jockey - Auto: Self +5% Max HP +5 Max Endurance
Task Force Commander - Auto: Self +5% Max HP

These accolade powers permanently increase your maximum hit points (allowing you to survive through more damage) and increase the effectiveness of your regeneration and self heals.

Elusive Mind - Click: Self +Defense(Psionic), +Resistance(Psionic)

An excellent power to use when up against Rikti, Carnies, Psi clocks, etc.

Eye of the Magus - Click: Self +Resistance(All but Psionics) +Defense(All but Psionics) -Speed -Recharge -Accuracy

Another power very similar to Force of Nature but it features defense layered over the resistances. It's base recharge is 50% longer than Force of Nature but having 2 powers of this type to rely on should be more than enough.

Vanguard Medal - Click: Self +Special(doubles Disorient, Hold, Immobilize, Fear, Confuse and Sleep effects)

Use this accolade power when up against a tough opponent like an EB or stun resistant boss. Very handy.

The best part of accolade powers is that once you have earned them you always have them and it costs you no power picks/enhancement slots at all.

Get these renewable temp powers and keep them in your tray:

Cryonite Armor - Duration 1 hour of use
Effects - Self +Defense (Smashing, Lethal) +Resistance (Cold)

You can repeatedly earn this temp power by flashing back the "Stop the Sky Raiders before they can make off with Balsim's designs" story arc.

Wedding Band - Duration 2 hours of use
Effects - Toggle: Self +Resistance (All)

You can repeatedly earn this temp power by flashing back the "Ring of Peebles" story arc.

Defiance buff your nuke - Yeah, you can pop Aim + Build up and hit your nuke and maybe kill most every thing but with a couple little purples you can make use of the 8.83 seconds worth of Aim that remains. Total Focus takes 3.3 seconds (5.53 seconds left), Power Burst uses 2 seconds (3.53 seconds left) the nuke uses 3 seconds (leaving a comfortable .53 second margin) this should boost the damage of your nuke by another 35% and should wipe the spawn of everything but bosses. If your target for TF and Power Burst WAS the boss he should be gone too.

If there are untidy scraps a single Catch a Breath will power PFF for more than the 20 seconds required for your recovery to kick back in. Finishing off the scraps after that is a cake walk.

All in all the above tactics should provide you all the mitigation you should need through out the game. Only the occasional mez or string of bad rolls will kill you. It will take effort, influence, and practice to get there, but isn't your namesake worth it?

Khelds are in a similar boat don't forget.

Devices doesn't use much end at all..... if you skip the toggles and gun drone (you can replicate many of the effects from devices [notably; Targetting Drone, Cloaking Device, and Smoke] with set bonuses and IOs) this is mainly due to the long recharge and interrupt times on many of device's powers.

The psi/dev blaster won't be a damage monster, it will be a slow, safe, and steady soloer. Not everyone's cup of tea, but if you enjoy it that's all that matters. That's the nice thing about CoH. The power set diversity (and IO sets) support lots of play styles.

The lack of Psi guides should be your first clue. Psi is rather underpowered for PvE at least partly because of the fears of the PvP community at the time of release.

It is heavy in single target damage.

It has 2 single target controls. One is a fast activating sleep that doesn't do enough damage for a mid tier power especially in light of it's excessive recharge time. On teams the secondary effect is usually wasted. Soloing it can be useful.

The other single target control is a stun. It's excessive 3 second cast time makes it difficult to use as well.

There aren't many mobs in the game that resist psy damage but those that do have resistances to it (such as robots) have very high levels of resistance. This can make late game missions against some mob types quite painful.

Psi has a single AoE damage power that comes late in the power set.

Psi's secondary effect is -rech. You can easily keep one or 2 targets at the -rech cap and you can keep the spawn at -30% rech.

As a comparison -

Ice does virtually all the same things that Psi does and does it better.

Ice can keep an entire spawn at -30% rech and can keep 1 or 2 targets at the -rech cap but it can also keep the entire spawn at the -runspeed cap while doing so.

Ice has 2 hard controls (as opposed to 1 soft and 1 hard) both of which are holds so they can be stacked on a boss. The low tier one recharges fast and has a quick 1 second cast time. The high tier one has a 2.5 second cast time both controls activate faster than the equivalents from Psi.

The low tier hold in Ice recharges in half the time as the sleep in Psi, and has a lower duration, but is stackable. The high tier control in Ice and Psi have identical recharges but Ice's control has a longer base duration.

Ice is a superior set in most categories.

As far as a secondary to go with Psi?

/Energy is probably the best as it works with the strengths that Psi has though pairing it with Mental does make up for some of Psi's shortcomings. Most other pairings are IMO unsatisfactory.

All in all, for the concept you have for your toon and the uses that you wish to put it to, you would probably be better off with a Mind/Psi Dominator which is what I would reccomend for you.

Well I'm familiar with lots of them. I've played all the primaries and all the secondaries to at least level 39 but not all combinations of them and I've tried all the epics. It's still going to be different even with mixed AoE and single target but for the sake of arguement lets talk Arch/Dev/Munitions since I soloed one of those to 50.

I don't have stunning shot or trip mine available in either case since stunning shot comes at level 26 and trip mine at 28.

In the case of the Tsoo I'll be throwing down caltrops first and then triggering aid self for the stun resistance. If the 3 mobs are grouped tightly I'll start by targetting the Sorc with explosive hoping to KB all 3 and following up immediately with Blazing. If they are loose I'll start with Blazing on the Sorc.

Sorc will TP out. I'll webnade the Green ink (whether I'm slept or not). If not slept I'll follow up with fistfull. If slept I'll switch to the yellow and use my tier 1 & 2 primary and webnade till he's down. Webnade the green again and about this time the sorc will port back in. (I save Aim in case the Sorc Tps on top of me with Hurricane or Darkest Night running) The sorc gets blazing again and the tier 1 & 2 until he's down or ports off.

Webnade the green again and go single target until he's down or the sorc ports back in. If the sorc ports back in I use the AoEs and that should drop him. Then I finish off the green.

If the sorc is still alive when I finish off the green I hunt him down.

The Vahz is a similar deal. Except that now I don't have Explosive.

Caltrops first. Fistfull followed by blazing on the Mort, Webnade the Murk. Single target the Mort til he's down, Fistfull when ever it's recharged, then single target the Murk. The embalmed I can save till last since if he tries to blow up while standing in the caltrops he'll keep getting interrupted.

Really it depends on what blaster I'm playing and what tools I have at my disposal and whether I'm single target or AoE focused.

Something appears to be missing......

Well let's see. I'd say that Fire/FF and Ice/FF might be the best/most powerful combinations.

For Fire - Smoke lets you hit the soft cap without too much difficulty. Dispersion means that you are very very unlikely to have your Damage Aura (Hot Feet) get detoggled as long as you mez the sleep using mezzers or use a proactive break free if there are more than 1 or 2. Bubbled Imps split the incoming damage 4 ways instead of 1 or 2.

Ice is also nice. Opening with Ice patch (which isn't too hard to perma) gets the entire spawn flopping. Shiver can crunch their recharge and slow their movement to assure that they never get out of ice patch. Dispersion keeps Artic Air from getting detoggled in much the same way that if does for fire's Hot Feet. After casting those 2 powers I can move in and just stand there (and I have infact) and let bubbled Jack kill stuff while I eat or chat.

I'd have to strongly disagree with your strong disagreement.

I'd also venture to say that is a play style problem, since I don't have this issue. Imps have controller levels of hit points. All you have to do is make sure that there aren't any spread out spawns in an area before aggroing and if there are gather them together before using Fire Cages. Provoke from the presence pool is an excellent way to do this.

I'm also wondering if you are running Tactics. The perception increase in tactics will make imps run around like dervishes if you haven't taken the time to gather up spread out spawns.

I occasionally have a single Imp run out of dispersion if I'm not paying attention but usually can reposition myself to cover all three.

I didn't say mind/FF sucks. I did demonstrate how the combination doesn't play to FF's strengths as well as some of the other combinations. It isn't really a stronger combination (as you set out to demonstrate) than any of the other primaries and provides about the same amount of mitigation.

Ok to give examples. My FF/Dark Defender has set bonuses that provide soft capped defenses to Ranged and AoE. Hover keeps me out of melee range and the debuffs in the blasts are gravy and are good to use in situations where debuffs are plentiful. I can open each spawn with Repulsion Bomb which eliminates or spreads out the Alpha into easier to mitigate chunks. Force bolt lets me keep 1 target completely out of the action. Dentention field does the same to another target.

I don't remember how long ago the last time my FF/Dark/Dark got killed was (several months at least and I play that toon at least once a week). I do remember what it took to do it. 3 simultaneous stalagmite attacks from 3 rikti magus on a ship raid. I don't need any mitigation from my secondary with that toon and neither does my team. My primary and set bonuses are all that are needed to do that.

I can do the same thing with any /FF controller. Fire/FF can hit the soft cap for the team as I descibed above. Set bonuses and those powers can provide soft capped defenses for myself. The difference between the soft cap for Fire and soft cap for any other controller is only the value in smoke ie:7.92% defense. If you can't make up 7.92% defense with the controls in any primary (even Grav), and MUST HAVE the level of control provided by mind, then you're doing something horribly horriby wrong and should re-examine either your build or playstyle.

Forcefields is a strong ally buff set. Using it ONLY for the mez protection and personal defense provided by dispersion is very very wasteful. You'd be better off with a different secondary. When solo the best thing about a /FF controller is the ability to use those powerful ally buffs on your pets, something that my FF/Dark/Dark defender doesn't get to do and still survives better than many other toons.

Additionally slotting the Edict of the Master +defense Aura in your pet makes up all but 2.92% of the defense difference between Fire and any other controller set with a pet.

The idea that the extra level of control provided by mind is required to make up that small a short fall in mitigation from defender to controller values or from other primaries compared to mind is disingenuous at best and misleadingly false at worst.

The previously mentioned Fire/FF can provide 45.55% to the team and imps by using 3 level 50 defense IOs in Deflection, Manuvers, and Grant Invis, 3 level 50 Acc debuff in Smoke, and 3 Enzymes in Dispersion.

If the members of the team have as little as 3% defense from say a Steadfast res/def, a light fairy pet (who will also be soft capped), even slotted up combat jumping, or from set bonuses from some el cheapos, you would be able to dispense with Grant Invis. Not at all difficult to find even in some sparkly new players.

Repulsion bomb can completely mitigate the Alpha attack. Force bolt can effectively mitgate the damage from a single tough target as can Detention Field. That's without even applying a single control from the primary.

I'm well aware of the numbers simply from having several FF/ defenders and /FF controllers and using them for the purposes described.

I mention my FF/Dark/Dark because it's excellent in high defense debuff situations like ITFs and Ship raids and because it exemplars well. A level 17 FF/Dark can provide the equivalent of 45.78% defense to all positions for the team from simply slotting Dispersion, Deflection, and Insulation with 3 level 20 defense IOs and slotting T_T with 2 level 20 rech IOs so that it's cast +rech time are less than the duration on the unenhanced acc debuff.

Quite frankly, I do feel that having potent powers that I can't use solo because they are ally buffs or taking powers that I won't use simply for set mules is wasteful and I typically try to avoid it on all my builds save those that will only team 100% of the time.

You may wish to try Plant/FF then. You get your AoE confuse much much sooner, it can be perma'd easily, and even double stacked with some $$$ layout for IOs. You also still have the ability to use your team buffs while solo on Fly Trap.

Just as another note. If you NEED the control from Mind while playing /FF you're doing something very very wrong.

Edit - If your primary goal for this FF toon is for Ship Raids you may wish to go with an FF/Dark defender. Stacking AoE -acc on the mobs gives you the equivalent of softcapped defenses with out any IO sets and it gives your teammates a buffer when the Rikti Magus use Stalagmites (the Rikti Magus version is around a 20% defense debuff. Throughly nasty if you don't have any DDR or a large buffer). Softcapping your own Ranged and AoE Defense with IOs gives you the same level of defense as the rest of your team.

As long as the rest of the raiders stay in your Dispersion bubble you can literally protect the entire raid. That's how I use mine on Ship Raids. There have been times that I am the only bubbler on Ship Raids and as long as everyone stays near there are no deaths except when folks don't call out Bombs.

You'll be missing the best reason to combine FF with a troller. The ability to use your powerful single target buffs on your own pets. Mind has no pets.

Try a Fire/FF. You get 3 pets to buff, Dispersion Bubble + Smoke provides you with decent defenses so that you can stay in melee range, and Dispersion also bounces most mezzes so that Hot Feet stays toggled on.

Proc out Brawl, pick up the pool attack from your travel power, collect and keep refreshed the temp attacks from Croatoa and go to town.