Star_Seer

I find playing stalkers a lot more enjoyable since the recent buff, you can scrap your way though most ambushes now. I do reccomend getting placate as soon as it becomes avalible btw.
On mayhems I accept that there is a strong likleyhood of being defeated when the hero shows up. I take the hit, hopefully after doing a bit of damage to his pals, bust out of prison and come back to finish him off.

Are the zombies attacks uncannily accurate? The seem to hit my SR brute alot more often than I would have expected.

I guess thats ok as long as you can keep track of the mobs and they don't aggro onto some innocent lowbie.

wouldn't air superiority be the first power on the 'to get' list for a scrapping controller?

Another great thing about stalagmites is that stun sets are relativly cheap and some of them have great set bounses

Instead of raising the level cap I would like to see more high end task forces for both CoH and CoV. Some new instance map layouts would be a breath of freash air too.

I think some of the mid range heroes story arcs could use some pruning and I think villains should get access to all paragon hazard zones. The shadow shards really need some love and villains should be able to get there.

I also think the mission architect should hopefully bring a lot more things for you to do at lvl 50.

I really don't think we need to make characters any more powerfull. Most of the encounters are already a complete joke to a lvl 50 character. I hate to say this but learn to build you character better.

I guess the most you can do is put the griefers on ignore, then at least you won't have to team with them at any point.

Well I have a lvl 41 PB and a 30 WS, personally I don't have a problem with how they play now. I do love the changes for i13 though.
I do find that they tend to end up solo alot though because what do they actually bring to a team? Want a tank, get a tank, blaster, get one. I can't see many team leaders thinking how much they really need a Keld right now.
Where as if you pick up a VEAT you know you are going to get massive team buffs and heaps of damage without the hassle of team wiping kryptonite.

Hi Col B, I would suggest a Dark/Dark defender, you will always be busy doing stuff to the enemy but you won't have to buff your team mates all the time.
If you need to you can also solo very effectivly as you get fearsome stare and tenebrous tentacles for control and nightfall to take care of minions. You also get a perma pet and a single target hold not to mention all the awesome debuffing and fantastic heal.

I usually go Hollows to Frostie, Faultline, Striga, Croatoa, RWZ, Portal corp.

Well I guess the Malta group and the Super Aracnids will probably peel him like a grape :P

My suggestion is that keldians should bring somthing to a team instead of taking somthing from it.
Change inherent to: 2 Mez protection, +5% damage, +5% resistance & +2 to hit for each Keld on the team.

I also think the forms should be a toggle that locks out some powers and affects others you have taken. For example when you toggle on Nova form you gain the squid appearance and your blasts are buffed and you fly but you melee attacks and sheilds are greyed out. That way you would reduce the slotting problems somewhat and could benefit from pool powers when shifted.

I'm seeing quite a few high level players skipping Mez protection. This morning I was teamed with a lvl 35 brute who skipped Unyeilding for example. He would run in and get stunned when the opposition used handclap :P
I'm not really a build facist but I can't see a reason why you would want to spend most of a mission staggering around stunned, knocked on your [censored] or held.

Another habit I picked up is to put the shields on my pet first. That way when his start to blink I know its time for a round of buffing.
It's easier to spot buffs on the pet because he generally has less of them and is not running toggle powers.

Yay, positive feedback , i was beginning to wonder if it was a pile of rubbish. Took me ages to type up.

I agree about stone cages, mostly I use it when soloing as I have a few damage procs in it. It is very good for grounding those witches in the Katie Hannon TF though.

Hello my fellow Heroes.

I enjoyed playing the Earth Control / Thermal Radiation power set combination so much I thought I would have a go at making a guide.

It’s my first guide (go easy) and I am not going to go into numbers, mostly because they just confuse my simple brain. If you really want them you can find them in game, under detailed information on the powers screen.

So why make an Earth / Thermal controller?
Well I was mostly just curious to see what a flaming animated stone looked like I would like to thank the Devs for power proliferation, its got me to make so many new alts I love.

Mostly I will just give a brief outline of the powers I chose, those I left out and why. As well as a couple of tips I picked up from playing the character.

Firstly a bit about Earth control and Thermal radiation.
Earth control is very powerful in control but light on damage, most of the powers also have a handy defence debuff secondary effect, the pet is just about the most solid pet around, think pet in granite armour.
Thermal radiation provides excellent team support in the form of resistance based shields and healing, as well as buffs and some very tasty debuffs at the end.
From the following we can determine that an Earth / Thermal controller is going to provide excellent team support, a force multiplier that allows other players to lay the smackdown on baddies at maximum efficiency. It’s also a late blooming character with a lot of juicy powers to look forward to, something that I like as it keeps me interested in playing the character.
Without any further ramblings, here we go with the powers rundown.

Earth Control:

1. Stone Prison
Stone prison is a single target immobilize, it also has a handy defence debuff and drops flyers. It is a bit more endurance efficient than using a group immobilize when fighting a single target. Most bosses and AVs appear to be weaker in defence against immobilize than they are against holds, this is handy for stopping them running around like nutters, good if the tanker needs to taunt an AV from range for example. I did not have room in my build for this unfortunately.

2. Fossilize
Fossilize is the bread & butter single target hold, your target is completely encased in stone (only the head pokes out). This makes it very easy for team mates to see who is held, a nice benefit. The power also has a defence debuff secondary effect. I recommend you get this as your first Earth control power. One thing I found odd about this power is that apparently being encased in stone does not stop you from flying

3. Stone Cages
Stone cages is an AOE immobilize, it a wide area power that should be used with some caution. If you are on a team with a tank allow him to gather his foes around him before you apply this because it draws a lot of aggro and you may end up face planting from the mobs return fire if they are not in the tanks taunt aura. Some people don’t like this power because it has a very large graphical effect and can block the view of melee type characters.
It also conflicts slightly with Earthquake, due to its –knockback effect stopping foes from falling over.
I took this power because it is one of the few sources of AOE damage in the set, it’s part of the ghetto hold combo and it is very useful for dropping a large group of flyers (Katie Hannon TF for example). If you don’t take it then I would strongly suggest you take Stone Prison.

4. Quicksand
Quicksand is a place able area that slows and debuffs the defence (alot) of anyone in it, it also prevents jumping and flying. One of the great things about this power is that you can drop it on a group from out of sight around a corner. I highly recommend getting this power as soon as it becomes available.

5. Salt Crystals
Salt Crystals is a point blank AOE sleep (fired from around you squishy person). I did not get this because I never felt the need for it and group sleeps don’t seem to work very well in CoH because of the fast pace of play. In a game like WoW this power would probably make you seem like a god of control but in CoH there are other much better area control powers to choose from, especially in Earth control.
This was easily the best power to drop when building the character.

6. Stalagmites
Stalagmites is a wide area stun with a decent duration it also debuffs defence. This power forms the other part of the Stone Cages ghetto group hold. You pick a target, stomp the ground and he and nearby mates are stunned, apply Stone Cages to stop them wandering off.
Your team mates can then happily demolish a bunch of stunned and immobile foes.
I you highly recommend getting this as soon as you can.

7. Earthquake
Remember those Ruin Mages and Earth Shamans you love to hate because they made you fall over and killed you many times over as you bounced up and down helpless. Well this is the power that is responsible and now you can return the favour
One of the great things about this power is that it can also be dropped from out of sight.
Caution, if you use Stone Cages on a bouncing group they will stop flopping about due to the –knockback in Stone Cages. It also does a defence debuff.
I highly recommend getting this power.

8. Volcanic Gasses
Oh boy, this power is awesome! Volcanic gasses is an AOE group hold that can be dropped from out of sight. It is fantastic for holding a boss when combined with Fossilize. It also does a small amount of damage and it lasts for a really long time. Quite possibly one of the finest powers ever, five stars, must get!

9. Animate Stone
This is the chap we have been waiting for. Animated Stone is a really tough fellow that enjoys a good scrap. His attacks have a taunt effect which makes him a very good proxy tank when solo. He also cycles through Stone Fist, Seismic Smash (chance to hold) and Hurl Boulder (-flying). A nice thing about him is he is very resistant to status effects and is virtually Psi proof.


Thermal Radiation:

1. Warmth
Warmth is a point blank AOE heal. It’s very handy for keeping a group alive and is also the only power in the set that affects you. As a controller you get it automatically, though I would get it anyway as it is a fantastic power for the survival of you and your team.

2. Thermal Shield
Thermal Shield is a power that you apply to a teammate or pet (some npc’s too). It greatly increases their resistance to Smashing, Lethal, Cold and Fire damage. I really recommend getting this power as soon as you can. It vastly improves the survivability of the recipients and means you can spend less time doing general healing and more time on control. Tanks and Scrappers will worship you as a god for this buff.
Unfortunately you can’t put this on yourself but you can apply it to your pet to make him practically unkillable and look awesome at the same time.
3 Resistance slots is all it needs

3. Cauterize
Cauterize is a single target heal, it heals for more than Warmth and can be used from further away. It is also friendlier to your blue bar. Combined with Thermal Shield it turns your pet or tank into a rampant unstoppable killpig.

4. Plasma Shield
Plasma Shield is like Thermal Shield for Energy and Negative damage as well as more Fire resistance too. Perhaps not quite as generally useful as Thermal Shield, you will still be glad to have it against many groups of foes in the later game. It could be delayed to pick up in the 20s or 30s. 3 slots of resistance and it’s good to go.

5. Power of the Phoenix
This is a resurrection power you use on a fallen comrade. It also stuns those nearby the corpse and does a lot of fire damage and some knockback. The recipient is Invulnerable to damage for a short time, long enough to toggle up. I had to delay taking this power due to a very tight build, I left it till 49 you may want to pick it up earlier. Personally I think that the shields, healing and control is enough to keep people up and running for most of the content, I took this for high end TFs.

6. Thaw
Thaw protects a target from Immobilize, Hold, Fear, Sleep, Stun, Confuse, Slow and Cold. It has a short duration and is single target. Unlike Clear Mind it does not buff perception.
This power is best used proactively on Defenders and Controllers when you are about to take on a group that includes some foes with mezz powers. You can also use it to remove the effects from an ally who is controlled. Another handy use is to clear the stun from a team mate who has just used a wakie. A must have power if you plan to team ever IMO.

7. Forge
Forge buffs a team mates damage and to hit bonus, you can keep 3 or 4 team mates buffed with this at all times as it has a reasonably good duration. As a rule I tend to use it on blasters and scrappers first as they have high damage and damage caps and tend to be doing damage most of the time so that is where the bonus is most efficiently applied. It is also very good to use on sidekicks as it will bring them closer to being on par with a non sidekicked ally. This power is similar to an Empaths Fortitude power but unlike Fortitude it does not buff defence (you already have resistance shields) so it is not as important to use on tanks unless they are struggling to hit. It’s a very nice damage booster to use on your pet when solo.

8. Heat Exhaustion
This is the first of the two thermal debuffs, it’s a single target –damage, -endurance, -recovery & -regeneration power. Of those the –regen is probably is most useful feature. I got it for dealing with Elite Bosses and AVs. You might skip it if you are struggling for something to drop in your build though i would say it is worth picking up.

9. Melt Armour
The other debuff in Thermal this one is a beauty! This is and AOE defence and resistance debuff with a reasonably decent recharge. This power can greatly speed up a fight, think of debuffing resistance as kind of like buffing damage

After all that here are some tips on playing an Earth/Thermal Controller. As you can probably tell this combo is very survivable and brings a great deal of that to a team. If you plan to play one I highly recommend playing in teams at least until you get the pet.
If you can’t find a team then one way of killing time until you do is taking down the large spawns in hazard zones (prior to getting a pet).
With the stalagmites, stone cages and quicksand combo you can grind down large groups of blue or green conning melee types like warriors without too much trouble before a team invite comes along.
Once you get your Animated Stone pal you can happily solo on Unyeilding difficulty ( I recommend unyielding due to your AOEs and its probably the most XP efficient).

One of the great things about Earth Control is the advent of IO sets. Many of the sets have a damage proc option. You can use damage procs to turn a non damage power like Earthquake into a damage power by putting a chance to do damage proc IO in it. Obviously the more damage procs you add the more chance you have of doing some damage. I think that AOE's are the best place for these damage procs as they check against every available target. Fortunately for us Earth Control can take loads of Procs, in powers that have a good duration meaning they have more chances to fire I like to think of my Earth Controller as a total PROC MONSTER!

I chose the Earth ancillary set at 41 because I like the way it synergises with the primary and it fits with the theme. Earth ancillary is another good place for procs. I didn’t take rock armour because I don’t have any other defence to stack it with and Animated Stone does my tanking so I mostly don’t get hit anyway. Earth Embrace is a good hit point buff to use if you are about to take on a really tough spawn like an Elite Boss or AV.

I chose the speed pool for my travel power for two reasons, Hasten gets my longer recharge AOE controls like volcanic gasses up earlier and if the brown stuff hits the wirly thing it means I can spam my healing a lot quicker untill the pressure eases off. The other reason is that Superspeed has a very useful stealth secondary effect in PvE. I use the stealth benefit to run passed a spawn group, that way the first thing they see is my Animated Stone who comes plodding along behind me and engages them when he gets close. This means I can start unloading controls on a group that is already preoccupied.

I hope this guide has proved interesting and perhaps given you the bug to try an Earth/Thermal controller. Stick with it, it’s really worth is in the end, I soloed both Praetorian arcs on Unyeilding with no trouble

Right now I'm off to smash some baddies,
Vulcanicity

A fire/fire blaster is a killing machine when in a duo with an ice/ice tank.

I somtimes think CM should be an AOE buff like recovery aura. It would be less of a chore to apply most of the time.

I thought a toggle had to be active for you to get the IO benefit from it, at least thats my understanding of it from reading Bridgers post about IO's

could you not set up a death trap round a corner and then pull your foes onto it?

I prefer aid self to tough/weave, aid self mitigates all damage types

Spend rage crash in hibernate, cant touch you then.

I love photon seekers, I use them in close combat as that way they almost certainly hit.
They do a very handy burst of damage and can buy you a breathing space for a quick heal because of the knockback.
I dont have sheilds in human form, the dull pain and self heals combined with AOE disorient are generally enough to keep me safe solo.
If i find im taking to much damage i switch to dwarf form which i have reasonably well slotted.

make sure to accept all those arrest 30 council in Boomtown type missions.

My Dark/Dark could happily solo missions on unyeilding, could have done maximum difficulty too but would have taken too long.
Great team defender too.

You could wait until the brute get 'noticed' by the foes before launching a fire ball.