Oedipus_Tex

While it would probably never happen, some of the Control sets might not be a bad idea for Masterminds. They seem to handle the Buff/Debuff sets well enough.

Nice guide so far.

I wrote a long post about -Recharge some time ago but never made it a complete guide. You're welcome to source from it if you want or even just tack it on as an appendix.


http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=218111

I'd play it because it was a control set but conceptually I'd rather break new ground. It's sort of the same way I feel about us getting Electric Control. Yay, new power set. But I'd hyperventilate for something completely new, like Water, Insect, Chaos, Time, Moleculure, or Magnetic Control.

EDIT Just to gush: For example, I'd like to see what a set that was a half a step between Illusion and Ice Control would look like. Low to moderate damage, somewhat PBAoE based, with a combo of pets (but fewer than Illusion) and debuffs (but somewhat less than Ice). Water Control could actually be built somewhat to that route, and might even conceptually work with -Damage as the secondary effect.

Aid Self is indeed a very handy power for a Blaster, in large part due to redundant powers that can easily be dropped, but also because Blasters benefit so much from +Defense builds, which allow you to heal yourself with relative impunity. It's less so on a Controller, but again, you could do much worse. A 33% heal every 10 seconds is not what I'd call a bad power even if its not something you want to try tanking with.

Whether its worth taking depends on circumstances. Earth/Storm is a very "confrontational" combo. It tends to drag what I refer to as "mystery aggro" back to you. That's where the room is full of mezzed enemies and yet something is still shooting you from... somewhere. Also for all its control Earth/Storm in a hectic team environment is extremely vulnerable to death-cancels (that is, having the effects of your controls wiped because you got killed). Earthquake, Quicksand, Volcanic Gasses, Freezing Rain, Tornado Lightning Cloud and of course your tanker pet all cancel if you die, leaving your team protected only by whatever you might have stunned. In a lot of ways this points me back toward Hibernate as the top pick--especially given Storm's habit of chewing your endurance. However, Aid Self is far from a bad power. You could do much worse.

Rambly reply warning.

From a design standpoint IMO Ice Control is a major success. I don't think I've ever played a video game with something like it. I personally grade Ice Control a half a step below the leading Control primaries in terms of raw power, but in terms of the experience I think Ice Control is a winner.

I have a 45 Ice/Rad and 50 Ice/Therm (who was my first 50 actually). At the time I had created the Ice/Therm, I also had a 35-ish Earth/Therm, who was actually my first character to break the 20s. At the time I had no vet powers and we were using the old sidekick system, so it was rough. But in most games I end up playing support characters so I stuck with it.

Ice Control is very vulnerable to being "shut down." Enemies with PBAoES and mezzes can lock you out of using Arctic Air. Other Controllers and many of your own powers can lock out Ice Slick. You also have no good tools for taking a direct alpha (exception: Ice Slick around a corner, though most teams won't wait for you to set it up).

Since you bring no real damage if you PUG you are sort of vulnerable to becoming dead weight for the team unless you build for flexibility--and you are a toon that for sure needs a team at least until the 40s. Everyone looks at this a little differently, but my Ice Controllers are all built to take advantage of situations as they present themselves rather than to one specific scenario I seek to maximize. For me that means having Arctic Air for when I can get away with it (read as: the point you realize who is a good tank and who is not) but also Shiver for when I need to high tail it out of melee. It also means being ready to use Ice Slick but knowing the Fire Controller is going to cage everything and suicide leap into the pack so I need to jump in behind her.

One thing I recommend on an Ice Controller is slotting the AoE immob for immob duration so that you can get the longest possible Containment period possible without having to reset the -kb component. On same-level enemies you can easily get an extremely long Containment period that will allow you to crack them while they flop.

In terms of set pairing IMO any set will work well with Ice Control but I caution you away from Sonic Resonance. It's possible someone has made it work but if the experience is anything like my Fire/Sonic troller, the endurance cost is maddening. I did try the combo once a long time ago, got to level 12 or so and rerolled. The combined base toggle cost of Ice and Sonic's toggles clocks in at 2.90 end/second before even considering APP armors, and since the main synergy between Ice and Sonic is the big bubble providing mezz protection to run Arctic Air the results are disappointing.

As for my individual experiences comparing Thermal and Rad, they are about equal in power but play very differently. On the Rad the pet is almost not worth summoning sometimes because it dies constantly and drags aggro back. On the Therm the pet stands half a chance of living due to shields, and actually does pretty respectable damage solo. Thermal is normally a very hectic set, but Ice Control is almost what I'd call "soothing" in a way. The reduction in enemy speeds gives me time to take my eye away from the battle long enough to work the Thermal powers. On both characters I play as aggressively as the battle will allow. Arctic Air is a central part for both of them as they are currently built.

I have a 50 Force Field/Ice Defender. I would probably have made him a Ice/FF troller except that his name (Pinball Blizzard) implied knockback, which I don't favor for an Ice troller. I do believe that despite its low damage though that a Ice/FF troller is incredibly effective. If IO'd for defense it's a walking, undodgeable confusion cloud that's immune to standard mezzes. If you pick up Power Boost any bubbles you hand out are stellar, your confusion cloud lasts longer during the opening seconds of a fight and your personal defense actually increases for those 15 seconds, and if for some ungodly reason you still take damage you can PFF until things calm down. If I ever play another Ice troller it will likely be Force Field just based on my love of strong support characters--although I go into it realizing their low damage means they will have to be financially subsidized by other characters if I plan to IO.

I have two Sonic Res'ers. It's ok if you can handle the endurance cost. My Fire/Sonic couldn't and has essentially been mothballed at level 39. I also have a Sonic/Dark Blast Defender at around level 32. For a Defender he is neither not as good at keeping people alive or adding a to kill speed as I'd hoped for but he does look neat and comes with AoE mezz protection. IMO Mind/Thermal is a very similar combo and would be able to contribute more. If you're looking for something strange just for the sake of it, Mind/Trick Arrow is fairly rare but also fairly synergistic. Don't want to discourage you from Mind/Sonic if you're set on it, but IMO for the pain it will put you through the combo doesn't deliver a whole lot relative to its endurance cost and lopsided solo performance.

Arcana as always you have interesting thoughts. I agree in part with your conclusions, but I'm not completely convinced. Not that it matters. I think we just got through talking about why devs shouldnt always listen to player's opinions (meaning mine). As it happens for me, I am a small time game designer--just a hobbiest really outside of lame educational Flash games--but the lesson of Phantom Army has actually impacted me in some design decisions. It may or may not within this game. In the meantime I'm happy to use it.

Gravity is not held in particularly high regard. It's not terrible--nothing in this game really is--but its lacking in a lot of ways. We're keeping our fingers crossed for a buff. Meanwhile I would recommend Illusion.

Dominators have an inherent power called "Domination" that allows them to double the magnitude of their mezzes. It works kind of like our "Overpower" ability but is far stronger and they control when they turn it on. The power is on a long recharge and can't be slotted but with sufficient global Recharge they can achieve what is called "perma-dom" mode, which means all of their controls always hit at double the mezz magnitude and will last somewhat longer.

For example, where a Controller's Mass Domination hits for mag 3 with a 15% chance for mag 4, the Dominator consistently hits for Mag 6. This allows Dominators to easily snag bosses with their AoEs that Controllers have only a small chance of locking down in one shot. It also allows them to bust through anti-mezz powers like Clear Mind and Dispersion Bubble that a Controller wouldn't have much chance of getting through.

Some of the Dominators you were dealing with were also probably using the Power Boost power available to many of their secondaries. That power approximately doubles the duration (only) of any controls you use, rather than the mag. Power Boost is available to Controllers as part of the Primal APP, and will considerably boost the effectiveness of your controls by making them last longer.

[EDIT: Too slow, part of your the question was answered above. Also added some additional clarification.]

It's pretty much that way for all Controller versus Dominator comparisons really. There's no way to get Dominator levels of performance out of the primary, but you do have a secondary powerset that Doms drool over. Doms in general are better at locking stuff down but Controllers still bring a lot to the team.

A thousand times yes. Volcanic Gasses is possibly the best AoE hold in the game. With just SOs you'll have the power worked down to about 2 minute recharge. If you decide to slot heavily for IOs you can work it down to a little over 60 seconds--which is the actual duration of the power.

I usually just leave if someone says we'll be doing a 'Masters of' run. Squeamish, yes. But I don't think "if any one of your 8 members gets KO'd the whole team loses" is really a good test or particularly fun. I don't know what a better test would be. Maybe if it was "no temp power rezzes, no resurrection powers if you've been attacked within the past 30 seconds, you lose badge if anyone hospitals and returns into the mission."

I apologize for a rather long winded response.

I never really payed a lot of attention to the "story" in hero or villain arcs to be honest. To me they come across like this: [wall of text] .... fighting .... [wall of text]. There is an awful lot of telling and not a lot of showing, and--this may sound weird--something about the font in this game makes me not want to read. I've actually done all of the hero Task Forces at least once but could not tell you a single story element of any of them, except the new Positron. The newer arcs in the latest issue do a lot to fix some of that and have stuff actually happen during the mission instead of in intro text that is only shown to the team leader. But any time I've been on a TF or story arc, it's always been like "ok now we're fighting clockwork" "and now we're fighting vazhilock" "and now it's council" without any reason or explanation to string it all together. Prior to the new Posi the six patrons arcs to me made as much sense as a series of completely random radio missions.

On the red side, I have one level 50 villain. I do not really play him much. I sit and eagerly await the opportunity to escape the Rogue Isles, which, while they'd be fine enough as a zone I only had to visit a la Boomtown or Dark Astoria, I find draining to play. Except for Grandville, I still cannot tell any of the villain zones apart; the villain zones, IMO are the zone version of the hero TFs. But more of a concern to me is that I've just never gotten the villain stuff. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. You are a villain... who spends the majority of his time fighting other villains. And yet the game is model is such that you are encouraged to form friendly teams with other (player) villains who for whatever reason you have no conflict with. The NPC citizens meanwhile are terrified of a lvl 1 Hellion but a lvl 50 Mastermind and her army of undead does nothing to stoke their fear. Basically City of Villains feels like City of Heroes except everything is "srsly darque."

I don't mean any of this as an attack on devs because I think there is a lot about this game is great. The villain side though I don't think really lives up to what its trying to portray. Teaming up to defeat big threats makes a lot of sense for heroes. Teaming up to do villainous things could make sense for villains, but doesn't if the whole time you're mostly just fighting other NPC villains. Not to mention, how lame must our PC villains be in the context of the CoX world if we can't ever have the enormous criminal empires that Nemesis, Arachnos, and even the Skulls and Trolls have.

So, to actualy answer the question: I did do the patron arcs but only to unlock powers. I can't tell you that I know what really happened during the arc but I know I had to fight Ghost Widow at some point and someone on my team told me it was because we were betraying her. So I guess that's what happened. The missions themselves were ok in a flash-boom way but if there was a story I missed it.

Full disclosure: This image is slightly modified to restore the "Lost Connection to Map Server" text. This may disqualify the image, but I had to post it, because this was crazy. I map served the exact second that my Rise of the Phoenix went off and everyone on screen froze in this position:

WTH Just Happened?



No "I" in Team:
During a respec trial, something went wrong (maybe it always does?) and we ended up taking on a group of all-Tank bosses. No deaths.

I just posted another one on the Virtue boards. This guy was my first 50. I rarely play him these days, although I did spend a lot of time on him the first go round. Power sets are Ice/Therm/Fire.