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I think the biggest offender is Group Fly because it's a group debuff, knocking 25% off everyone's tohit. I have no idea why this artefact of days gone by has hung on to Group Fly; even if we dropped the tohit debuff, it's so situational (virtually useless indoors) and has such a high endurance cost that I really can't imagine using it anywhere outside of a Hami raid.

Really, I'm surprised it has survived the way it is for so long.

All you need to know about the green tea ceremony.

Well, you can target PA and you can certainly cast a toggle on Untouchable target e.g. Master Illusionist. I'm going to guess that you probably could. That's not a guarantee though.

It's not a new power. Wait two weeks and you'll see.

I'm with Carnifax on Psychic Scream. I tend to hit it right after Seeds and I don't mind take a hop back to use it again. With enough recharge, I tend to use PS and PSW with an occasional Mind Probe in between. When it comes down to tough targets like AV's I'm generally hitting with Mind Probe and TK thrust with one of the AoE's filling the holes.

I did take quite a few powers primarily as IO set mules, but have found them hand in odd situations like sleep mobs I've over aggroed or sniping the console on an ugly ITF.

I'd say your build is looking better. There are still some tweaks to make and things that I would change for my own personal taste, but overall better than the first draft. So again, without any particular order, here are my bits of advice.

• In Stamina, I generally go with 1 generic end mod IO's , the End Mod from Performance Shifter, and the proc. You do get better recovery with your slotting, but I perform to keep it limited to 3 slots.
• Benumb could use accuracy enhancements. As your source of -regen, you'll want to use it on hard targets like AV's. Unfortunately, they'll resist the defense debuffs that make it easy to hit everywhere else.
• When dealing with purple sets avoid the single aspect enhancements. They generally put you well over diminishing returns. So I recommend the following:

  Replace the Immobilize with the Immobilize/End in Stone Cages.
  Replace the Stun with Stun/Endurance in Stalagmites.
  Replace the Hold with Hold/Endurance in Volcanic Gasses.

• You've got a lot of -kb. I find 4 points generally works well enough for PVE; 8 points will prevent most knockback outside of exploding Rikti bombs and Fake Nemesis' using its staff.
• Quick Sand can do with a single slot. With the amount of recharge in this build, I'd let that slot be end reduction. You could even use a Cytoskeleton Exposure to enhance the defense debuff and get an endurance discount.

I like Tactics and Vengeance both. However, like I said before the tohit isn't quite as useful when you've got so many defense debuffs though I do see your point about the +perception. You could take Assault and Maneuvers slotted with LotG: +recharge and five pieces of Red Fortune to maintain the same recharge bonuse, and you'll still be able to pick up Vengeance. The damage boost plays well with -resistance, better than tohit does with -defense.

Overall, I think you could still free up a few slots from Quick Sand, Stamina, and Infrigidate. Most important would be shifting a few slots to Benumb for accuracy.

The controller boards are generally a quieter place than most. It's not surprising for it to take a day or two to get some feedback. Please be a bit more patient before bumping your post.

As for your build, there are somethings that I would definitely try to avoid. So here are some suggestions in no particular order.

Kinetic Combat will ruin Earthquake. It increases the knockdown to the point of becoming knockback, which those enemies out of its own area of effect. I recommend using Dark Watcher's Despair to enhance the recharge, -tohit, and endurance reduction while picking up a 5% recharge bonus with four slots.

Sleet has a very high base accuracy (150%) and does not need additional accuracy enhancement. It does benefit greatly from recharge and endurance reduction. It also carries a very strong defense debuff that requires little to no enhancement; coupled with earth's debuffs you can go without slotting for defense debuffs.

Stamina is terribly slotted. Yes, you pick up a 5% recharge bonus but a great deal of the enhancement value is lost. Those slots can be used to enhance other powers that would also pick up the same recharge bonus, Aid Other for example.

Quicksand is a fine power, but Slow sets are notoriously bad. Sacrificing four slots for 3.5% recharge isn't a worthwhile trade in my opinion. Again, those slots could be used to enhance other powers and pick up bonuses there.

Tactics is a bit redundant with all the defense debuffs from earth and cold. It is a great power, but there are few situations where your team won't already be swinging with a 95% chance to hit.

I hope this little bit helps. I'd gladly look at your build again after you make revisions.

BBT's build is not a build I would recommend. Many things are underslotted while others have an extra slot wasting space. A quick example can be found in Dominate; you can remove the Hold enhancement and only lose 3 secs of duration and 5% toxic resist from the set bonuses. That slot could be much better used in Fortitude (don't forget that this provides defense equal to Forcefield's ally shields) or by placing in End Mod in Adrenalin Boost (so blasters can fire their nukes without a crash).

I also highly encourage anyone to take Total Domination. While Mass Confusion is a fantastic power it still suffers from a very long recharge. Mass Hypnosis + Total Domination is a very effective opener for those times when Mass Confusion isn't available.

I'm currently playing a Mind/Emp myself. The empathy set is a new experience, but mind is an old friend for me. Hopefully, my experience will give you a bit of guidance.

The first caveat is that this will be a very team oriented character even for a controller. People often point to the fact that little of the empathy side benefits the caster and without a pet Mind has nowhere to direct many of Empathy's buffs. However, control and buffing are both directed at team survival and together they do a very good job at that. It can be a bit hectic to split your attention between both, but some find that very challenge appealing.

The second caveat is this: know your allies, know your enemies, and know your powers.

Know your allies: Your buffs will provide greater benefit on certain allies at certain times. For example, Fortitude is a damage, tohit, and defense buff. Some tend to immediately apply it to scrappers and blasters seeing only the damage and tohit, which is fine when the team is moving along safely. However, it also provides as much defense as both of Forcefields ally shields. As such it's very useful for squishy teammates. If a defender's debuffs are drawing a lot of aggro, use it on him so that he can stay alive and speeding up enemy defeats. If the a controller is mitigating the alpha, give it to her so that she takes less return fire. Fortitude and Adrenalin Boost are both versatile buffs that can be used on different allies in different situations.

Know your enemies: Your controls won't always work on every enemy. Know who has protection from what. For example, (most) robots aren't going to sleep. Nemesis has protection against confusion. Hit Cimerorans with confusion before they can use Shout of Command. Also, know what enemies can do for you. For example, you can turn a Sapper with Confusion and let him drain his allies' endurance. Confuse Rikti Guardian's and you might get hit with Accelerate Metabolism. Confuse a Master Illusionist and it will turn her pets against her. As opposed to scrappers "Flip out and kill everything" way of life, a mind controller is strategic.

Know your powers: Most advice I would give here has been alluded to in the previous two paragraphs. Your powers are versatile. There will be situations where one is obviously more helpful than another; there will also be situations where it's hard to make the call. Heal an ally and save his life for the moment, or toss out an AoE control to prevent more incoming damage and keep the aggro from falling on the team? The goal is always the same: keep your team safe. How you go about it is your call. For me, I emphasize controls and buffing. Others prefer reactionary healing.

With that general advice out of the way, here some specifics in regards to your build and power picks:

• Mass Confusion is the best power in Mind control. You can confuse an entire mob without drawing aggro. Skipping it is a tremendous error.
• Terrify is a respectable control and can be leveraged for some AoE damage. Again, I would highly recommend taking this power.
• Confuse like the AoE version is an aggro free power. You can stack it on bosses without drawing their attention. Absolutely unskippable.
• Mesmerize had a very good base duration. You could slot it entirely for damage.
• Health is overslotted. Regeneration does little with a controller's low hitpoint pool. I tend to only slot the +regen/recovery and +recovery uniques because controls are endurance heavy.
• Tactics is a great power, but Fortitude provides a 15% tohit bonus. With enough recharge you can keep it on most teammates.
• Invest in global recharge. It will benefit you in both the control and empathy aspects. Consider the following sets for bonuses: Doctored Wounds, Efficacy Adaptor, Basilisk's Gaze, Red Fortune, Fortunata Hypnosis, and Coercive Persuasion (both relatively cheap for purple sets).

Right now, your build is in bad shape though I'd be glad to critique again after some revisions.

A few general suggestions:

Get a few sets of Doctored Wounds. It's a fairly reasonably priced set the last time I had checked. Five pieces will yeild a nice 5% recharge bonus that you can pick up in Healing Aura, Heal Other, Regeneration Aura, and Adrenalin Boost.

Regeneration Aura, Recovery Aura, and Adrenalin Boost are the key parts of Empathy and deserve more slotting. Primarily, you want them up as often as possible. The Doctored Wounds set is nice for both Regeneration Aura and Adrenalin Boost and Efficiany Adaptor will work well in Recovery Aura. A special note on Adrenalin Boost: one generic end mod IO will let it overcome the -recovery from a blaster's nuke. Give this to a Blaster that's ready to nuke and the can keep on trucking without the crash.

Clear Mind doesn't need recharge. It generally recharges before the animation completes anyway. Resurrect could go without the recharge as well.

For your holds, I'd recommend 4 parts Gaze of the Basilisk and 1 triple from Essence of Curare. You'll get better enhancement values and free up slots at the cost of some rather lackluster set bonuses.

I haven't reached Liquefy yet, but I'm looking at the debuff much more than anything else. A base -25% to hit is pretty good. Toss it under Earthquake to net -35% to hit or Power Boost it alone for -55.7% to hit. The defense is a bit redundant with Earth and the -20% recharge is probably not very noticeable, but that -tohit seems very tempting to me.

Really, the problem with Sonic comes from the redundancy of Clarity and the limited usefulness of Sonic Repulsion. Those two powers seem like real duds to me.

As to your first question, I would probably skip Salt Crystals and possibly the single target immobilize in order to pick up Hasten and Superspeed. The added recharge from Hasten would far outway an extra 7.5% from a LotG. Also, a precaution against Hover: Stalagmites and Fissure both require you to be on the ground to use.

Number two: It will work fine. Though other APP's also have some appealing options. Fire, for one, gives you an exotic damage type that will pair well with -res and offers an endurance recovery tool. Primal would also be nice for its help with endurance and PB'ing the -def in earth's powers as well as some of the -tohit. Earth's lack of endurance management is probably the only weak point with it.

Number three: You could slot it for damage to help out a bit. Decimation would do nicely and give you an extra 6.25% recharge.

Clarity: Probably the most disappointing level 35 power, IMO. Basically, a Clear Mind copy that comes nearly 20 levels later. It's nice to pop on a FF or other /sonic, since Sleep will turn of their bubble. Occassionally, it's useful for perception bonus. Otherwise, Fear and Confusion are not common enough to justify using it.

Here's a build I've been working toward lately, just to give you some ideas of what others re doing with the set.

I'd give a nod to Mind Controllers. While you don't have an inherent source of steatlh, once you do (from IO's, SS, or stealth powers) you can move through missions coupling it with three aggro free powers: Confuse, Mass Hypnosis, and Mass Confusion. Often times you can lock down spawns with absolutely no retaliation.