yclept

Is this the same set of problems as described in this US thread?

BaB has a post there says he thinks he's got that fixed and the changes should be in 'the next full build'. Of course who knows what that means in terms of it hitting test or live.

As a Controller player by temperament Scrappers always feel very squishy to me

If you don't mind killing stuff a lot lot slower than a Scrapper then do give a Controller a try even solo, Ill/Rad is reckoned to be the AV killing combination and a good soloer (take Deceive). Anything */Storm is fun and should also be soloable (for patient controllery values of soloable) just like */Rad. Plant/Storm should be good, tho' I haven't played it myself yet. If you're playing a Controller solo do take your single target immobolise, if you have one, and slot it as a ranged attack. You might well also want Air Superiority if you don't have a veteran attack (if you do take Sands of Mu not the Ax).

If you want to stick with Scrappers I'd give Broadsword/* or Katana/* a go since they give you an attack which adds to your melee defense, or DM/* since it debuffs your enemies ToHit and has an attack that also heals. */Willpower is a more well-rounded secondary than Regen if that's not working for you, or you could go to the other extreme from Regen (all regen and heal) and take SR (all Defense).

Willpower/EM is a fun solo tank for the less than 20 levels I've played it.

For a solo defender, Rad/*, Storm/*, Dark/*, possibly TA/* and -- even tho' I personally don't get on with the set -- /Kin are your top picks for a primary. */Dark, */Ice, */Sonic, */Rad and possibly */Archery for the secondary. I believe Defenders are usually reckoned to be the toughest AT to solo with blueside.

I can't get blasters beyond level 6 just simply on the playstyle, so for them I have no idea frankly.

Current/Union:

Earth/Rad (my sole level 50)
Earth/Storm
Ill/Rad
Plant/Emp

Current/Defiant (all horribly neglected)

Fire/Kin
Ice/Kin
Fire/Storm

Deleted:

Grav/Storm (rerolled as a Warshade)
Ice/Storm (Pre-ED/GDN, 6 slotted Maneuvers ftw!)

[ QUOTE ]
1.) which patron....scirocco....for power sink? or scorpion for his mace skills (web envelope etc.)...or another idea?

[/ QUOTE ]

Can't say, my stormies have all been blueside. I would say that if you're having END problems and you're in the habit of keeping Tornado running all the time, try setting up a /bind for it toggling it on and off as need instead.

[ QUOTE ]
2.) thunderclap worth taking? ( i had bad memories when i thought of my SS tank with handclap...*shudders*)

[/ QUOTE ]

It one of the coolest looking and sounding powers in the game, alas it's also seemed fairly useless whenever I've had it. I think it only does minions, and the stun is quite short and the recharge comparitively long. If you have another disorient to stack it with you might make something out of it, otherwise I'd say skip unless you want it for concept/RP reasons.

[ QUOTE ]
3.) tornado...good power? or only for fun? or only good in combination with thunderclap-->stacking disorients

[/ QUOTE ]

It can be a highly damaging power if you slot it up, but it's quite tricky to use. Works very well against anything that's immobilized with -KB power or is knockback resistant, Heros/AVs are prime targets, as then it'll concentrate on the unknockable stuff rather than wandering off to aggro the next spawn. If you have the terrain to keep it in a small corner or restricted area it can also work well. However, in an open area it's pretty much for causing team wipes, a last ditch might-as-well-try-it-before-we-all-die panic button, and amusement only. However I haven't had a Stormie up high enough level for a while to take it recently, so it *might* be better behaved than I remember, tho' I doubt it

I wouldn't attempt to stack disorients with it.

I'd take it unless you have a really tight build and absolutely positively can't fit it in, but you'll need to practice with it a bunch to get the hang of when and when not to use it.

[ QUOTE ]
4.)o2 boost...the end costs are heavy and this only for a little heal and + perception?...so should i better get rid of it?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's really not my favorite power either, despite the endurance drain protection it gives. Compared to all the other Heals I've used it always feels really underwhelming. I think I'm in the 'Flip a coin' camp

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure about the patron pools though. I initially wanted Mu but the thematics just dont fit.

[/ QUOTE ]

For giggles, go Captain Mako and take Water Spout, first set them on fire and then 'helpfully' put them out

Oh and look, Stone Cages 'helpfully' has -KB so they won't get knocked around whilst you put out the fires

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Volcanic Gasses I haven't really seen myself, but I hear great things about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

If its a direct port of the Controllers version its great fun!

[/ QUOTE ]

The thing you have to remember with Volcanic Gasses is that the price you pay for it being a being pulsing hold -- long duration, self-stacking so it can keep bosses held outside of Domination, technically possible to hold more than 16 targets -- is that unlike most of the other Control Set AoE holds it's not a great choice if you're trying to suppress an alpha strike.

The pulsing nature means it takes some time to lock everything down, and it does it (I think) five guys at a time. So give your team (even when the team is just you and Stoney) some time to divide the aggro before firing it off, or use it as a followup move to get from some control to total lockdown.

Stalagmites is what you use when you need an alpha supressor.

...also Quicksand is large -DEF not small, that's why you can't enhance it. If you could it would quickly become overpowered, giving 50%+ -DEF or something equally silly

My Cold/Ice Defender at about level 2, so not much use to you

From my Ice/Dark Corruptor, I would say that from Ice you can skip one of Ice Bolt, or Ice Blast if you need to, with a defender it would have to be Ice Blast even tho' I prefer it to Ice Bolt on my Corruptor. You'll definitely want Frost Breath, Freeze Ray and Bitter Ice Blast. For a Cold/Ice defender you'll want Ice Storm and Blizard to stack with Cold's Sleet. Bitter Freeze Ray is thought the most skippable power in the set since it's considered END hungry for what it does, and you'll already have Freeze Ray ,

Aim you'll not really want to skip but you might find yourself doing so, or at least taking late.

Cold looks such a well constructed set that I can't see anything that immediately jumps out at me as something you could lose without pangs of regret. Possibly Snow Storm at the top of the list for the least pangs, followed by one of Glacial Shield or Arctic Fog (but the pangs *hurt* for those two).

Going on the assumption that Arctic Fog is essentially the same as Storm's Steamy Mist, you might want to delay it until after Stamina if you're taking Stamina.

It looks a fairly tight build especially for slotting, belike

Personally it sounds like you were both using less than great (and unfortunately incompatible) strategies.

AoE Sleep as a lead off is a reasonable tactic if you're on a team that's heavily single target and doesn't have a tank to grab aggro. On an AoE heavy team, ah no, not so much. Instead you use the sleep to shutdown that group that might add on the spawn you're currently dealing with, or attempt to carve out the chunk furthest away from the AoEs as damage mitigation.

On the other hand AoE immobilises are situational powers you use to back up other powers -- either your own or others on the team -- that might cause or are causing scatter (Stalagmites, Arctic Air, Rain of Fire, Ice Storm, Hot Feet, everything the stereotypical Energy blaster on the team named Fusionette does, Tornado, etc. etc.), not something you spam as a matter of course, or part of an attack chain, despite what their recharge times encourage you to think. In fact most spawns you probably don't want to be using the AoE immob at all it just draws unwanted aggro onto you and messes up anyone who *is* trying to deliberately gather them all together.

If you have a Tank who isn't in over their head -- note that at level 8, on an 8 man team, a single tank may well find it very tough to hold that much aggro and simultaneously survive so everybody is going to have to help them out with as much mitigation as you can muster -- then let them gather the group together, and then stick Quicksand underneath them, Stone Cages won't do any *harm* at that point -- unless someone's throwing out knockdown powers such as Freezing Rain, Ice Slick, or Earthquake which it'll surpress, in which case it *will* do harm and you *shouldn't* be using it -- but its pretty unecessary and you almost certainly have better powers you could be using, including your single target hold. If you don't have a Tank, try Quicksand ahead of the spawn, or in a suitable corner and get someone to pull them onto it with everyone opening up as they pile up in a group onto the slow patch.

Save Stone Cages for when you get Stalagmites at level 12, when you can start using it as a followup move to make an AoE hold equivalent, sticking Qucksand underneath for the -DEF...

...but even then you'll *still* want to wait for anybody who has the powers that can group mobs (usually the Tank, but not limited to them) do their thing first, if you have such a person on your team.

Just my opinion of course

I certainly wouldn't bother slotting it for -DEF.

Quicksand's -DEF is enough bigger that even 3 slotting Earthquake for -DEF won't get you up to Quicksand's (unenhancable) level, and Quicksand recharges faster than its duration even unenhanced so you can keep it up all the time rather than invariably not having it up when you want it.

As for ToHit Debuffs:

Hmmm, well Radiation Infection is lots better, but yes on a fast moving team, the combination of your anchors getting killed, the slow animation time, and your control powers being slightly higher priority in a lot of situations, I guess it might be helpful to have another string to your bow depending on your playstyle.

However, personally if I had some extra slots above the 3xRecharge, I'd look at putting in some of the Proc IOs from the either the ToHit Debuff or Def Debuff sets. The Chance of Resistance Debuff one from 'Achilles Heel', would be my top candidate, despite my being pretty sure it falls into the 'not exactly cheap' price range

Or you could do three from 'Touch of Lady Grey' or 'Dark Watchers Despair' and get a Recovery bonus, in addition to the enhancement to either Defense Debuff or ToHit Debuff. I suspect that's probably getting into the 'really not cheap at all' ranges especially if you include the Procs from those sets (Chance of Negative Energy Damage for Lady Grey, or Chance of Recharge Slow for Dark Watcher).

..thinking about that, how about 6 slotting, and going:

Dark Watcher: ToHit Debuff/Recharge
Dark Watcher: ToHit Debuff/Recharge/End
Dark Watcher: Chance of Recharge Slow
Lady Grey: Def Debuff/Recharge
Lady Grey: Def Debuff/Recharge/End
Lady Grey: Chance of Negative Energy Damage

Two sets of Recovery bonuses, and I think the Recharge would be somewhere around about the same as with three standard Recharge SOs, but I haven't actually calculated it...

...nor have I looked at the prices

[ QUOTE ]
If you where going to replace containment (the controller inherent) what would you replace it with?

[/ QUOTE ]

Since the nerfherding has expanded to controllers as whole now *groan*...

...no I don't actually like containment conceptually in the current form, but it *did* solve the 'normal mortals can't solo and remain sane with a non-Illusion controller before level 32' problem, despite the massive nerfs to control powers that accompanied it.

So:

Containment v2: +Hold, +Stun, +Immob, +Confuse, +Sleep Duration Buff, and -Recharge Buff to your Hold, Stun, Immob, Confuse and Sleep powers based on the number of enemies you already have Held, Stunned, Immobolized, Confused or Slept.

And to keep controllers soloable by people who like to remain sane:

For non-Mind controllers move all the Tier 9 pets (level 32) to Tier 3 (level 2) with appropriate scaling on their powers below level 32. All the other powers at or above the current Tier 3 get bumped up one tier.

For Mind move Confuse from Tier 4 (level 6) to Tier 3 (level 2) and as necessary change it and the other confuse powers in Mind so that they give a defense and damage buff to the confused mobs in order to keep their damage using confused mobs comparable to the Controllers with a pet.

[ QUOTE ]
I wouldn't recommend soloing with it anytime soon (it is doable but it takes forever)

[/ QUOTE ]

Well that depends on your definition of 'forever' of course

Tips for not having soloing on an Ice or Earth controller drive you mad due to their lack of damage output:

<ul type="square">[*] Take your Single Target Immobilise and slot it as a Ranged Attack. Acc/Dam rather than with Acc/Immob.[*] Take a Pool attack (air superiority)[*] Wait until you have the 12 month veteran rewards before making your controller and claim Veteran Sands of Mu or Veteran Ghost Slaying Axe, don't let them not getting containment put you off.[/list]I find nowdays I need to do at least *One* of these to make soloing bearable. Tho' I did a lot of it with zero of them a long time ago pre-Containment, pre-GCN and and pre-ED. *Two* puts it in the comfortable range for me. All *Three* start making me grin like a loon.

That's just me however. What you yourself find tolerable will be a personal playstyle thing.

Additional speed-ups on top of that if the above doesn't get you to where you want to be:

<ul type="square">[*] Proc IOs in anchored toggle powers. Whether enemy targetted (Snow Storm) or self-targetted (Arctic Air). Don't just look at the chance of damage ones, anything with chance of debuffing resistance is also good.[*] Take Rad as a secondary rather than Storm. It's not that Storm doesn't give you ways to boost your damage output, it actually has a bunch, it's just apart from Freezing Rain at level 16 they come right at the end of the set. Accelerate Metabolism you can get at level 4 (and you should), Enervating Field you can get at level 10.[*] Wait until your 33 month veteran reward before making your controller and take either the Blackwand or Nemesis Staff depending on your Origin [/list]Hope that helps.

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure if VG needed holds or not, seeing it ticks holds rather than 1 tick of hold (like most aoe holds) it keeps reapplying itself. I'd slot it for recharge over hold tbh.

[/ QUOTE ]

Definitely put recharge in as a priority, but it does also benefit from a few holds. Although they won't increase the hold duration of the power overall, they *will* increase the length of the hold of each tick making each tick stack with the previous ones better, especially when you're up against that +2 or +3 Boss or locking down the bigger spawns.

I'd go for 3xRecharge, 2xHold, give it the sixth slot and then experiment on whether you an Acc buys you anything (yes individual ticks can and do miss in my experience) or whether you're better off with the Ghost Widow Chance of Psi Damage Proc IO.

On the other powers:

Yes, always, always, get Freezing Rain on any character that has the Storm set as soon as it becomes available (16?).

Delaying Steamy Mist until after Stamina is something to think about if you're tight with powers early in the build or find yourself having END problems. I'd suggest considering Steamy Mist at 22 then Hurricane at 24 or vice versa.

I also agree with Carnifax that if 'soloing a bit' means anything other than not much more than once in a blue moon prior to level 32 and getting Mr. Stoney, then taking the single target immobilize and slotting it up a bit as a ranged damage attack helps a lot in preventing things from getting excruciatingly grindy. Single Target Immobilize + Veteran Sands of Mu REALLY helps. Freezing Rain + Single Target Immobolize + Veteran Sands of Mu + Temp Sands of Mu is where I'm betting it'll start getting *interesting*

Stalagmites+Stone Cages is a seriously great 1-2 opening punch, and you'll be missing out if don't get the combination at some point. Quicksand+Stalagmites is not as good, because the bad guys tend to ignore the Slow of the Quicksand and stagger about at their normal stagger speed rather than a slowed stagger speed.

If you're tight on powers to fit all that in then, Acrobatics, O2 Boost and Earthquake are the ones I'd suggest you juggle about with.

Earthquake is a great power, but Freezing Rain also does the AoE knockdown if you need it, whilst Stone Cages has -KB so I'm thinking you might find Earthquake ending up somewhat of the red-headed stepchild usage-wise it since that makes it a bit incompatible with the Stalagmites+Stone Cages 1-2, and you'll be throwing Freezing Rain around in preference whenever that's up.

If you're intending to use O2 Boost more as buff against Sleeps/Holds and Endurance Drain rather than a Heal then it might be worth delaying until later in the build when you'll be facing more of those sorts of enemies.

As Okton says, there is the option of slotting a -KB IO rather than Acrobatics if you're finding Knockback a problem.

If I were making an Earth/Storm I think I'd consider the other thematic matchup of /Ice as the APP. Volcanic Gasses + Freezing Rain + Ice Storm sounds interesting on paper, if not necessarily as good as Stone.

Important Disclaimer: My current main is an Earth/Rad, and I have a now retired pre-ED Ice/Storm, but I've never actually played the two sets in combination, and my Storm Defender is pretty low-level so YMMV.

[ QUOTE ]
The other 2-4 Tfs/Trails are for u guys to decide

[/ QUOTE ]

If you were thinking of doing either Sister Psyche or Moonfire, then I'd like to bring Mineralogist along.

She's currently Level 24, and is an Earth/Rad controller.

She's already done Synapse but if you find you need an extra body for it she'll be happy to help out. Any start time at or after 11 a.m, and prior to about 9 p.m. (GMT) is doable for me baring unforseen disasters.