Oedipus_Tex

Earth/Thermal is an outstanding combo.

Agreed. I was in a debate with someone a few months back in which he called Trick Arrow "nearly overpowered" on a Controller because of this power. It left me somewhat mystified. I once did take Ice Arrow with the idea of holding bosses, but quickly specced out of it after realizing how little value it added.

I second Dark Armor. It benefits tremendously from Kinetics.

But can it farm or solo an AV? Kidding, but it seems that's many people's standards.

Hmm. This build is kind of genius. When I see things like this it makes me realize just how difficult optimizing really is. The only unfortunate thing is that Blessing of the Zephyr just got nerfed. It now provides much less defense than before, so sadly this build won't deliver as much defense as it used to. Still a really good design for a pre Issue 17 character.

What would you consider better? Obviously I could improve it with more purple sets, but since that would nearly double the price of the overall build I'm not sure where else to get extra Recharge.

I think what people are trying to say is it really isn't a niche power. I actually did spend a lot of time without it, so I can see an argument for skipping it. But, it is one of those powers most people take.

It's funny how public opinion has shifted on it, though. It definitely seems like lots more people hated the power a year ago, and I've been explicitly told by some team members not to use it, because of the overwhelming sound + graphics. I've always been happy to oblige since, on a team, I'm more likely to use Earthquake.

No problem. I'm glad I got some feedback from someone else who plays the combo. I've never seen another Mind/Cold Controller, but someone recently /tell'ed me to ask how it worked because he wanted to start one.



I think you're looking at them without Hasten up. Try turning it on and comparing.


Ketch provided a pretty good example of how this works. As great as Mind/Cold is, it has some weakenesses. One of them is that if Mass Confusion and Total Dom are down and the team is racing in, I don't have a great opener except to use Terrify. The problem with that is Terrify doesn't prevent the alpha (whether it's aimed at me or whoever else--as a team Controller I'm looking out for 8 people). Enemies that fall are robbed of their chance to attack not only during the initial cast of Terrify, but from the Sleet and Energy Torrent that come next, and whatever the team is throwing at them as well. 1/5th of the mob rendered unable to attack is pretty sweet, especially since knockdown ignores boss rank. I also can't stress enough how awesome a good knockdown power is followed by a Slick power, because while the enemy is trying to stand it has to make several die rolls to see if it falls back on its butt. This can result in chain knockdown that keeps some foes completely out of the fight.

All of that said, I'm still experimenting with a Recharge/Accuracy ISO in place of the proc. Just wanted to explain the original reasoning. I think there's a good argument for either strategy.


I can see why you may not like it. Having played an Ice Controller to 50 I have a certain reverence for it. Once I realized I could floor large groups with a combo of Sleet and Snow Storm, I had to have it, even if I don't plan to use it all the time. I also realized the combination of all powers in Cold used on a lvl 50 AV floor its Recharge for 30 seconds every 90 seconds or so (based on when Heat Loss Recharges).


I wasn't deliberately building for HP or regen, some of it just kind of showed up. Same with Defense. You'll see some of that in the next version of the build. I do think Defense is lovely but my glass-mezzer has to make-do without.


Thanks again!

Adding another Recharge slot to Sleet drops its Recharge time by about 1 second. Adding two drops it by another .1 seconds. When Hastened the power is currently Recharging in 18 seconds. That's often faster than I'm even able to cycle back to it. The -Defense is there to make up for some of the accuracy in other powers. Can you explain why you want more Recharge here?


The knockdown prevents 1 in 5 enemies from shooting back. Terrify does NOT stop enemies from firing back when you cast it, so I'm confused by your statement. The proc is a trade-off and a way to keep enemies further disabled. I have to think this one over carefully before deciding to lose or keep it. Slotting with Recharge instead makes the power recharge about 2 seconds faster. Again this is bordering on powers recharging faster than I am actually able to set them up and use them. Tough decision. Am I Controller or a replacement Blaster? Need to think about it.


What is this precious endurance of which you speak? Maybe if this character didn't have a a Recovery Rate of +6.23/second with Heat Loss up I'd agree. Picked this power for situations where the enemy is immune to status effects. Stacked with Sleet it competes with Ice Control for -Recharge on up to a +3 enemy, so I am keeping it.


Good feedback on the blasts. Really not familiar with how to slot them for Recharge. As for the power selections, those are personal taste. What would you have picked instead?

Slotted that way so that it's guaranteed to throw the enemies long enough for Confuse to recharge. The pattern is Confuse - Levitate - Confuse or Dominate - Levitate - Dominate. Unusual slotting but the set was cheap to obtain and the results have been good. It will throw anything that has less than 12.5 knockback protection. Standard Tanker armors have 10 KB protection, so it's just enough to overcome that. With this slotting just about anything takes a ride, even those Malta tank things, and of course bosses have no natural immunity. I'm open to suggested changes here but what we're looking at here is the difference between the power doing a little more damage, or a little less + guaranteed mitigation + 3 extra knockback protection. Debatable but not "not effective" as you suggest.



Nice suggestion. I probably won't bother, because the character's main role on low level Task Forces is basically this:
- go invisible
- if there's a glowie, run to end, sleep group, and grab
- if there's a boss, run to end, confuse enemies, wait a minute, kill them off or summon teammates to deal with it
- if there's an AV, run to end, confuse AV into killing own minions, summon team, use buffs/debuff
- if it's a defeat all, run ahead from team, confuse enemies that have AoEs throughout the zone so that enemies have few or no HP when time arrives to clean up, occasionally throw an AoE into the pile


The +Recovery portion of Heat Loss is actually guaranteed to auto-hit the main target. Other portions of the power can be dodged, but the base recovery is guaranteed.

The current build has 83% base Recharge, which brings it to 7 seconds away from perma Hasten, and about 20-25 seconds from perma Heat Loss depending on when Hasten falls. Where it will really feel the heat is when exemp'ed below level 33, although the character doesn't do much actual fighting at that level, just stealthing and confusing.

What do you guys think about my slotting on Terrify and Dominate? Too out there? My base global accuracy is +48%, but again that be reduced when exemp'ed.

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

I still haven't figure out if it was a spoof or the real deal.

I'm wondering about your reasoning. Energy has some good blaps, but Radiation (to me) doesn't seem to benefit as much from Boost Range or Power Boost. Ice appears to add some considerable safety. I would say they are close. What am I missing that makes you say Energy is by far the better option?

To answer part 1), the proc fires once at the time the power is activated.

The mechanics of Hail of Bullets are easy to understand once you look past the slightly misleading animation. The graphics make it look like a PBAoE pulse power along the lines of Hot Feet. You might expect anything that walks into range while the power is activating to get hit, but this doesn't happen.

What the power really is is a pumped up version of Irradiate from the Radiation Blast set. You make a ToHit roll at the moment the power is fired. If you hit something, it then suffers 24 independent damage-over-time ticks. Each tick has only a 50% (soon to be 60%, from the sound of it) chance to apply damage. The DoT is located on the enemy, exactly like it would be with Irradiate, or with a Controller power like Stone or Fire Cages. Even if the enemy runs out of range or you die, it still continues taking damage if it got hit by the initial defense roll.


As for 2, I don't know that a consensus has been reached. HoB is pretty complicated and has way more slotting options than most nukes do.

Your passion for knocking Mids is most bizarre. I don't want to come across like I'm attacking you, but the reason you get the reception you do is you that you come to the boards swinging. Most people here are pretty reasonable. We are all nerds and we have our burning issues and tantrums. For the most part though we try to let stuff drop and be more or less respectful to each other. I've witnessed plenty of people more rational and patient than me explain to you that Mids is not purely for power levelers. I'm glad that it seems to be getting through, but please don't imagine that you've been a victim of a consortium of pro-Mids zealots who just haven't taken the time to explain it to you.