StrykerX

Considering how many Defenders would probably swap Vigilance for an inherent that did nothing but provide a 10% damage buff to Brawl... I'd say so.

The logic seems simple enough to me... since the complete collection has more goodies and a free month of game time for only $10 more (which makes it effectively $5 cheaper than the basic version), if it was available for preorder everyone would just get that version. By requiring you to buy the stripped down version if you want early access to Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning they can then sell you the extra goodies later for 10 bucks and you'll have paid the same amount for the whole package but you won't have a free month's game time. Bam... $15 profit they'd have lost out on if you'd bought the complete package.

In other words, early access to the new powersets effectively costs $15, or $5 if you don't want the emotes and costume pieces later.

I remember there have been previous dev posts saying that if they added new epics they would likely be unlocked through some other means than level... maybe we'll finally be getting those.

There are a couple schools of thought on this one. Hot Feet does take a lot of endurance, but if you fight a lot of weak enemies (like -1 / x4 / no bosses) you can just use Cages + Hot Feet to do damage and rely on heals to stay alive, skipping the single target controls entirely except on annoying Lts like Spectrals. Alternately, you can use Char and Ring of Fire as damage dealers and skip Hot Feet, fighting smaller groups but being able to handle tougher individual enemies. Honestly, both methods are slow and endurance heavy and I'm not sure which is better... just don't try to use both Hot Feet and Char / Ring of Fire until you get stamina and SOs.

Better yet, don't use SOs at all. Frankenslot as soon as you hit the low 20s. Controllers solo slowly enough that you can use all the help you can get.

Also, if you have Physical Perfection or some other power that allows both health and endurance sets, the recovery bonuses from a Numina's or Miracle are multiplied by any endmod slotting, so Miracle, Numina, and 3x endmod in PP is better than a Miracle and Numina in Health plus 3 endmod in PP.

For me, a lot of it depends on how well I plan to develop a given character. If I'm just playing around with a concept and using cheap SOs / frankenslotting I'll probably just play around with the powers and see what works best with the resources I have. If I'm serious about a character, I break out my spreadsheets and come up with the best chain I can based on the rough level of recharge I'm going to have, then use Mids and create a build based around that recharge plus whatever defense, regen, etc... I'm shooting for. Alternately, if I'm working on a particular budget I'll make the best build I can afford, then calculate the best attack chain that build can generate (and possible tweak the build a bit as needed).

I don't get near as in-depth as Umbral, though I probably would if I was anywhere near as good with spreadsheets as he is. (I don't have the slightest clue how to do a recursive function in OpenOffice, for instance.) I find "pretty close" plenty good enough though, it's not like a 0.1 second gap is really noticeable.

Speaking of gaps, if you're wondering why it might be better to have one, look at it this way... adding another attack that takes longer to animate than the existing gap adds damage, but also extends the length of the attack chain. For instance, if you had a high recharge Fire Blaster that used Blaze -> Flares -> Fire Blast with a slight gap, you could eliminate that gap by adding another Flares. However, that would also push the next Blaze back, and Blaze has such insane DPA that you're better off doing nothing for a short time and getting off the Blaze sooner than using a lower DPA filler (I'm too tired to calculate that exact time). The key is that you always add a filler if it's shorter than the gap (unless doing so causes endurance problems or requires running into melee or something) but if the filler is longer than the gap you have to compare total damage / time with and without the filler to see if it's worth it.

One thing to remember though.... be flexible when actually using attack chains. If your target is at 1% health and your next attack is Headsplitter, either switch targets or toss in something fast and weak. If you start robotically following a specific pattern you can end up wasting a lot of damage doing overkill.

Because I'm blind. I originally had a pair of Zephyrs in it and when I pulled the second slot I forgot to swap it to a runspeed.

Good call. I was planning to use it as an emergency power so I only slotted it fully for set bonuses.

I was planning it as a team build so I figured an AoE sleep would be a useful enough panic button for excess aggro to justify using it as a set mule. I have three veteran attacks and the 15% accuracy bonus in the purple Sleep set goes a long way toward making them useful against bosses... with 33% accuracy and 6% to-hit total I think I can hit +2s often enough to use them, and I won't be fighting +3s solo. Plus I believe stacked Tornadoes do pretty good damage to immobilized targets...

For the recovery and +HP set bonuses. This build is extremely endurance heavy so I was looking for places to snag a bit more recovery. I may not need the +HP bonus with Earth's Embrace and accolades though, so I'll look at moving that slot elsewhere.

Nice catch, thanks. I guess I'm just used to slapping 5 Doctored Wounds in every heal I get...

As far as endurance goes, I've tweaked the build a bit thanks to you guys' suggestions and now have a little more end reduction in things like Roots and Strangler, plus I picked up a bit more +recovery. I've pretty much get all the recovery I can get without sacrificing recharge so I figure if it's not enough I'll just have to carry blues. 3.48 endurance / second recovery is pretty good, and I won't be using Seeds as soon as it's up most of the time or using both Roots and Entangle. I figure I'll be losing about 1.25 - 1.5 endurance per second during heavy fighting but if I get low I can stop spamming Roots and I'll start regaining endurance even keeping the Tornadoes and Lightning Storms out. Should be managable, I just won't be able to go max DPS + max controls indefinitely. Then again, what Controller can?

Revised build:

Look at it this way... Containment is essentially the ability to place our attacks for maximum effect when a target is not able to dodge properly due to being held or immobilized or whatever. It's probably hard to do that against someone who is bouncing around on the floor...

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Expensive, but I do Hami raids regularly so I should be able to get the hami-os myself and I plan to pretty much live in task forces from 35-50 so merits for the LotGs and uniques shouldn't be a problem. I'm building the character primarily for teaming, but with enough damage to solo decently.

Any suggestions for improving the build? Oh, before you point it out, Spirit Tree is in there purely for concept. The character is a farmer (as in an actual person who owns a farm, not a Fire/Kin wannabe ) and I couldn't pass up a power that grows a tree. I don't have any slots to spare so even if I pulled it about all I could do is toss in Hover or Combat Jumping for one more LotG (which I don't really need) or take Super Jump (I just hit the 5 year vet reward). If someone can point out something that will really help a lot with only one slot that I'm overlooking I might drop Spirit Tree, but honestly I can't think of anything.

Thanks for any help... this is the first high end build I'm actually likely to make so I don't have much experience with optimizing them, and this is also my first Plant or Storm character to get out of the low 20s.