OneWhoBinds

Wait... I thought some of the Carnie Bosses and the AVs use some non-positional psychic attacks? You know, the kind of things that would rip through a SR or Shield scrapper?

Hmm... Electric Armor, or Dark Armor? Didn't care much for /Dark last time I tried, but that may have been due to the chosen primary... may need to head onto test to see how /Elec is for Scrappers...

True.

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Except for those odd times that the RNG hates you. Then you're SOL no matter what. (3 Purple Insp, and 2 +1 LTs still hit me fast enough that I was dead within 7 seconds.)

There's the key word.

This is why I said that Mind is only somewhat underperforming. It is very strong when solo! It becomes lackluster on when teaming. There, the Sleeps and Fear powers are nearly useless, and TK remains highly situational. With only a single built in way to achieve mass-containment, they can not leverage their powers higher damage abilities as well as others, and they have no pet to either help with damage output or tanking duties.

This isn't even considering those that will tell the Mind Controller not to use Mass Confusion - which would only serve to reduce their effectiveness even more.

Even with all that, Mind Control isn't bad on teams. It's just, the other control sets are better.

Well, except Gravity - which is the set that the Devs should look at first, in regards to controls...

...are you, by any chance, /Traps?

You can walk through your Bots, but you can't waly through any /Traps pets you may summong... like the Force Field Generator or the Acid Mortar...

Snipes are a matter of personal preference on ALL ATs that get them. They really aren't an attack that you can use in your attack chain... their only real purpose is to pull. And even then, most the time, you don't need that kind of range to do the pulling.

It's a playstyle choice.

He may be using an older build, or just older information. SL used to be a minor damage attack with a small heal. These days? It's a powerful attack, with a minor heal.

Frankly, it's a power that just begs to have 6 slots and to be Frankenslotted. It isn't difficult to cobble together a group of IOs to enhance Accuracy, Damage, AND Healing - with some Recharge and End Reduction in there, too.

Yes, set bonuses only apply to the Mastermind.

Not necessarily, but don't be afraid to. It can depend a lot on how you play - are you very active with your secondary? May need some extra Recharge and Recovery then. Do you Tankermind? Def bonuses and Regen boosts can help a lot with that.... get the idea?

Honestly? Go with Traps. Force Field Generator is quite the boon to the survivability of both you and your Thugs; Acid Mortar does -Def and -Res; Poison Gas Trap's -Regen really helps a lot vs. the EBs and AVs you will encounter 30+. You can use Web Grenade to immobilize even EBs with some slotting, Caltrops are a good way to deter enemies from getting to close to your squishier pets, and Seeker Drones are an excellent tool to soak Alpha Strikes.

That's my personal feelings, but... Dark Miasma and Storm Summoning would be good choices, too. Maybe Pain Domination... haven't played one of those long enough to really know. Trick Arrow works well on paper, but I've heard that it has some problems meshing with Thugs in practice. Poison is not something I would recommend without a lot of experience, and Force Fields make your pets safe, but don't help with their damage.

Thermal... need to actually play the set for a while, so I'll throw that in with Pain for the moment.

Slotting depends on the secondary, so... won't go into that here.

I would debate the necessity of the Leadership toggles - You already have Supremacy, and Mastermind bonuses with Leadership aren't all that good. That said... if you take them, you will want to devote some slots to Maneuvers and Tactics. The +Dam in Assault can't be boosted, so all it needs is End Reduction - one or two, to your taste. Vengeance can't be used on your pets, and - if taken at all - should probably just be left with its initial slot.

Really depends on other factor and how you play. I will say that if you are going to pick up Leadership, you probably will want Stamina. And with i16, Team Travel powers may be making a comeback for the Mastermind. Presence is good for Tankerminds, so you see that a lot, too.

Early on, you probably want to take one attack - With even one attack, you will dramatically increase your damage output in the early levels, and still make a significant contribution up until the 20s. By the time you pick up the Tier 3 pet, though, your personal damage has become trivial to your overall damage output. Either don't slot out your attacks much, or plan to Respec out of them.

That said, they can be useful to pull with. And, if you plan to Tankermind, your AoE can draw a lot of Aggro. Still, you probably never need more than one personal attack. And with Veteran attacks, you may not even need that...

Other control sets.

I will admit, my observations have been from a single server, and not a high-population one at that, but... after 32, I have only ever seen one Mind Control/ controller. Fire Control remains predominant, but Ice and Earth become more welcome. Illusions and Plant always seem popular, and...

Well, Gravity's got other issues, and seems to be rare at any level.

Also, I would point out that it is only somewhat underperforming. Any Mind Control player can easily provide the mass shutdown that they would be desired for. But the lack of a pet, little reliable mass-containment, and no additional debuff effect... means that teams aren't looking to Mind Control when they want a 'troller.

I also haven't taken a look at how it is for Dominators - with no Containment issues and a damage-devoted secondary, I can imagine that Mind Control is better for the Dominator than the Controller.

In a word, YES!!

Regardless of your primary, by now you should have encountered /Regeneration's biggest weakness: Burst Damage. Generally this comes in the form of the Alpha Strike - when the enemies pull out a powerful attack as their first move. Get a group of those, and - without other means of mitigation, you can end up dead before you really get going.

Of course, if you survive that, /Regen is generally able to take care of itself. There is a reason for the old saw about Regeneration: If your not dead in the first 10 seconds, you are unkillable.

Well, take another look at Moment of Glory. For 15 seconds, you have 71% defense to all types (save Psionic) and 71% Resistance to all types (again, except Psionics). If you haven't been paying attention, that's well over the Defense Soft Cap, and almost at the Resistance cap.

In other words... yes, the perfect tool to plug /Regenerations Burst Damage weakness. It's the thing you use when you see a group of problem enemies - like, it includes more than one boss? Two Malta Sappers? How about an AV? Rikti, Nemesis, and Carnies can even be enough of a pain alone to warrant the power.

So yes, take it. You'll be hitting it, then Build up, then dive into enemies and see them fall.

While Mind Control starts strong, it stagnates at the higher levels. I doubt adding a -20% to hit to Terrify would overpower the set that is somewhat underperforming now.

Of course, with how well controllers are doing in general, I don't know when the Devs are going to bother looking at Mind Control... or Gravity, for that matter, which is probably in worse shape.

Ah... a misunderstanding. It's not the sets I would be concerned with. It's the amount of slots and power selections that ties up, especially if I'm throwing Hasten into the mix as well.

Your suggestion included Weave (tying up 3 powers to get) CJ or Hover (One more power), and Maneuvers (One power). That's three power pools and 5 powers. I would need to sacrifice the Fitness pool, or not put in Hasten.

And it gets better - I find hover very hard to use. I have problems with it on Blasters and Defenders - I'm certainly not going to use it on a Scrapper. So there goes that. Either I don't take Flight - which I want for concept - or I'm sacrificing BOTH Fitness and Speed for Jumping.

Not to mention that I would be giving up AS, which will leave a hole in my current attack chain, AND remove a source of mitigation.

Then there's the issue of slots. I'd need to find enough slots to put in the sets mentioned - in the powers they can go. That means I'me going to have to underslot other things just to make the space...

This is running up against a wall here. To get what you were suggesting, I'd have to sacrifice things I put in for concept... but if I do that, I'm not playing the character I wanted to play any more.

I also would like to apologize if I came across as rude or offensive. It just raises my hackles when it seems (to me) that I'm being told that "There is only one way to play this! You must take these powers, put in these sets, and make these choices this way, or your character will not be a success!"

That's what I was seeing, and I overreacted.

O_o

Okay... any way to do that without gimping myself in some other way?

...

And Hover? On a Scrapper? Isn't that a little... cross purpose?

...

Actually, let me clarify something - I haven't really seen a point to playing a level 50 toon. Maybe, if GR is everything it is promising, there will be a point to wake up a 50, but generally, once I hit that point, the toon gets shelved. So if your plans are based around being awesome at 50... I need a second opinion. That's also why I don't bother considering HOs and Purples.

Similarly, my time to actually play the game is limited to about 90-120 minutes a day, with maybe up to 5 hours one day on the weekend, unless I plan ahead specifically to spend longer. So... solo play is big, Teams are few (in participants) and far between (in occurrence), and TFs are almost right out of consideration. And, as I find Farming the second most boring experience of the game, a rapid rise through the ranks is NOT in the future of any of my toons. (Darn, I guess I'll just have to experience the content and game play on my way up.)

Yeah... no. Not unless I get one through a random roll. Otherwise.. it's not worth the effort.

I looked at your build... and I'm glad it works for you. I cringed (So expensive! And why bother putting Heals into Instant Healing?).

While the build I gave had all the sets I would be looking for... I have never been good at making Inf. I will most likely end up in a common IO build.

And Hasten? Um... why? I've taken Hasten on several toons... and I either don't need to use it, or it ends up being detrimental (What good is having my powers recharged if I'm out of Endurance?) I'm nearing the 18 month mark with this game, and have yet to see why some people swear that Hasten is the Be all/End all power.

Besides, I'm sticking with Flight for thematic purposes.

I'll take a look into building in more +Regen and more +HP, and who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky, and find a way to work in one of the uniques.

Thanks for the help... I'll post an updated build when I finish it.