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_Brev__NA

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  1. _Brev__NA
    Nice guide - just a couple of things I thought I should point out though...

    [ QUOTE ]
    Crush...ItÂ’s also helpful for chipping away at the boss mag to stick a hold...

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Think you have misunderstood a bit how status effects work in the game - Immobilizes (like Crush, Crushing Field) don't stack with holds (Gravity Distortion, GDF).

    Bosses need 2 stacked holds from a Dominator to affect them (unless they have Domination active, when all status attacks have double magnitude) - applying a crush before a Gravity Distortion will not hold the boss - you need two Gravity Distortions or a Gravity Distortion + GDF.

    What I think may have confused you is that Crush (the single target version) is a Mag 4 Immobilize and so can Immobilize bosses with one shot - and Grav's Immobilize graphic effect isn't a million miles away from the Hold one.

    [ QUOTE ]
    Wormhole (skipped) Similar to TP Foe, except whatever comes out of your end will be disoriented...

    [/ QUOTE ]
    It appears you might have missed one rather important aspect of this power... it's an AoE. Wormhole + Crushing Field = An effective second ranged area hold - and one where you can reposition the mobs almost anywhere you like, including bosses! It recharges much faster than GDF too. Even without crushing field, it can be a very useful tool for seperating groups of mobs that are close to each other, or for extracting a group of mobs from an otherwise nasty room and fighting them on your terms.

    It also doesn't require Line of Sight to either the mobs your are wormholing, or the end point you are porting them to - meaning you can use this power pretty safely a lot of the time.

    The main drawback of the power is that it also knocksback when it ports things - and it can be rather unpredictable. I try to Wormhole things into corners when I can in order to try and contain the knockback. If you have Crushing Field then applying that first can reduce the mob-wandering you get (although it won't eliminate the knockback). 2 Acc 2 Disorient 2 Recharge is good slotting for it - although with the faster recharge you could swap one of those for Range (it's like a reverse tp-foe in terms of the range requirements - you have to be much closer to the target, but can port them very far away - so range enhancement allows you to use it at safer distances from them, as well as allowing you to fire them even further away).

    [ QUOTE ]
    Subdue...and it also lowers boss mags for other holds to stick.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Same thing goes here as for Crush, however note that the immobilize in Subdue is only a chance to immobilize (you can't enhance that chance either), and it's only a regular Mag 3 too so won't immob bosses in one hit like Crush (unless domination is active of course).
  2. _Brev__NA

    Bodyguard

    POST-ACTION

    Yeah I have to say I can't understand why you wait to cycle the buffs on each pet in turn fully - no wonder it takes you so long to get started on a mission. The way I prepare my ninjas is like this:<ul type="square">[*] Summon Oni[*] Summon Jounin[*] Summon Genin[*] Kuji-in-Zen Oni[*] Train Oni[*] Train Genin #1[*] Train Genin #2[*] Train Genin #3[*] Train Jounin #1[*] Kuji-in-Zen Jounin #1[*] Train Jounin #2[*] Smoke Flash Jounin #1[*] Shadowfall[*] Assault[*] Tactics[*] Kuji-in-Zen Jounin #2[/list]The train ninja power recharges so much faster than Kuji-in-Zen that it is silly not to use the time in between Kuji recharging to get on with training the other ninjas. So by the time all that is done, all my ninjas have at least the first upgrade, and tiers 2 &amp; 3 have both upgrades. I can then just apply Kuji-in-Zen to my tier 1's while going through the mission - there is no need for me to delay getting started just because my tier 1's don't have the top upgrade yet (they've managed at least 31 levels without it anyway!). There is plenty of time while powers are activating / recharging to select the next henchman and queue the next upgrade - it doesn't take any extra time whatsoever. The only thing that can slow me down is if I run out of endurance, but if I have a full bar at the start and am not running any toggles then that doesn't happen - occasionally I will want to have Shadowfall up during the preparation phase (if there are nearby mobs), but that only really adds a few seconds while I wait for my endurance to come back up a bit towarsds the end.

    Using your method, in the time it took me to get mine ready, I would have 3 ninjas fully upgraded and 3 of them with no upgrades at all - and no toggles up either.

    How did we get onto this anyway?
  3. _Brev__NA
    Ah - forgot zombies had horde in the name - thought they were plain ole zombies
  4. _Brev__NA
    [ QUOTE ]
    Mercs:
    1+2: S,E
    2+3: C
    1+3: D

    Necro:
    1+2: R,E
    2+3: (none)
    1+3: I

    Ninja:
    1+2: C,A,L
    2+3: O
    1+3: (none)

    Robot:
    1+2: E,R
    2+3: BO,BOT,BOTS, OT, OTS, TS
    1+3: A,L

    Thugs:
    1+2: (none)
    2+3: E,R
    1+3: U,S


    [/ QUOTE ]
    Ah excellent Sandolphan - I was looking for this exact thing

    Just one thing though - could you not use 'H' to command Necro 2+3 (Grave Knights and Lich)?
  5. _Brev__NA
    [ QUOTE ]
    Containment: Note that only your base damage is doubled. If your attack normally does 100 damage and you hit a red inspire to bring that up to 133 damage then shoot a held enemy, you do 233 damage not 266.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Actually that isn't the case - Containment is applied *after* all buffs and anything else is taken into account, even the damage cap - which is why a fulcrum-shifted, contained fireball is so disgusting!

    Containment damage really does mean double damage (except for Illusion's Spectral Wounds which is a special case due to its 'healback' portion) - you basically get a second damage tick (or ticks for DoT powers) which is (are) just as much as the first one.

    Actually multiple-damage type attacks (typically the ancillary attacks) work slightly differently as well, in that the 'containment damage' all comes as just one type of damage, rather than doubling each damage type seperately. So for an attack like Energy Blast from Primal Forces, with a Brawl Index of 2.2222 smash + 3.3333 energy, the containment portion will come in as an additional 5.5555 energy (it seems to come as the 'dominant' damage type). So this may end up being slightly less (or perhaps more) than double damage, depending on if the target has resistance to one or other of the damage types. However I think that is probably far more detail than required
  6. _Brev__NA
    Introduction
    This is a guide to explain what the various different types of Salvage are, how they are refined, and how they are used to build items for bases.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Salvage (or "What is all this junk?")
    The Salvage you get from drops is the lowest tier in the construction of items for the SG base. You can see what Salvage you are currently carrying by opening the Salvage window (you can access it from the top of your power tray by clicking on the word 'Salvage' next to 'Enhancements' and 'Inspirations'). Salvage can be expressed as 4 basic categories: common, uncommon, rare, and special (note these terms aren't used in the actual game, they are just used to illustrate the relative frequency of the Salvage drops). You are awarded one piece of Special Salvage at the end of a Task Force, Strike Force, Trial, or PvP mission, adn also for defeating an AV or Hero - you won't get it anywhere else. All the rest is earned at random during normal play. You tend to find the less common Salvage at higher levels. Below is a (hopefully) comprehensive list of all the raw Salvage that exists in the game, which category it falls under and which Tree(s) it ends up being used in (I will explain the +/-/+ - classification later). I have then listed them all alphabetically along with the villain/hero groups that drop them:

    Common:
    <font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Amulet (+) ................ Arcane/Tech
    Arachnoid Blood (+) ....... Tech
    Arachnos Gun .............. Tech
    Arcane Powder (+) ......... Arcane
    Armor Shard (+) ........... Tech
    Bio Sample ................ Arcane/Tech
    Black Box ................. Tech
    Black Market Super Gear ... Tech
    Blood Sample (+) .......... Arcane/Tech
    Body Armor Fragment (+) ... Tech
    Bone Fragment (+) ......... Arcane
    Bracer (+) ................ Arcane
    Ceramic Compound (+) ...... Tech
    Charm ..................... Arcane
    Clockwork Fragment ........ Arcane/Tech
    Coins ..................... Arcane
    Coralax Hybrid Blood ...... Arcane
    Crystal Skull ............. Arcane
    Cybernetic Implant ........ Tech
    Devouring Culture (+) ..... Tech
    DNA Mutation .............. Tech
    Dread Tramalian (+) ....... Arcane
    Echip (+) ................. Tech
    Ectoplasmic Residue ....... Arcane/Tech
    Energy Source (+) ......... Tech
    Fir Bolg Straw (+) ........ Arcane
    Ghost Trinket (+) ......... Arcane
    Glittershrooms ............ Arcane
    Golden Skin ............... Tech
    Hex ....................... Arcane
    Lev Disk .................. Tech
    Luddite Pouch ............. Arcane
    Magma ..................... Arcane
    Nictus Memento (+) ........ Tech
    Orichalcum (+) ............ Arcane
    Paragon Police Files ...... Tech
    Pumice .................... Arcane
    Rikti Armor Fragment ...... Tech
    Saber ..................... Arcane
    Shivan Ectoplasm (+) ...... Arcane
    Sigil ..................... Arcane
    Sky Raider Device ......... Tech
    Snake Fang ................ Arcane
    Snake Venom ............... Arcane
    Spark ..................... Arcane
    Static Charge ............. Arcane
    Superadine Extract ........ Tech
    Tattoo .................... Arcane
    Treatise .................. Arcane
    Trick Arrows .............. Tech
    Vacuum Circuits ........... Tech
    Witchs Hat (+) ............ Arcane</pre><hr />
    Uncommon
    <font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Ancient Weapon .............. Arcane
    Broken Crey Pistol (-) ...... Tech
    Broken Crey Rifle ........... Tech
    Broken Rikti Weapon ......... Tech
    Carapace (+ -) .............. Tech
    Claw (-) .................... Arcane
    Clockwork Plate ............. Arcane
    Coral Shard ................. Arcane
    Cybernetic Charger (+ -) .... Tech
    Dangerous Chemicals (+) ..... Arcane/Tech
    Data Files (+) .............. Tech
    Demonlogica ................. Arcane
    Elemental Manual (-) ........ Arcane
    Etherium .................... Arcane
    Exotic Compound ............. Arcane/Tech
    Fetish ...................... Arcane
    Fir Bolg Hand (-) ........... Arcane
    Fish Scale .................. Arcane
    Graphite Composite (+) ...... Tech
    Hamidon Lichen (+ -) ........ Tech
    Headset ..................... Tech
    Hydra DNA Sample (+) ........ Tech
    Lens (+ -) .................. Tech
    Meat Cleaver ................ Tech
    Mercury Circuits (+ -) ...... Tech
    Mutated Sample (+) .......... Arcane/Tech
    Necklace of Teeth ........... Arcane
    Nictus Ammo (-) ............. Tech
    Phantom Tears ............... Arcane
    Pumpkin Bomb ................ Arcane
    Redcap Pouch ................ Arcane
    Scrolls (+) ................. Arcane
    Sky Raider Anti Grav Unit ... Tech
    Sky Raider Weapon ........... Tech
    Slag Culture (-) ............ Tech
    Spider Eye (+ -) ............ Tech
    Spielmans Signet ............ Arcane
    Steam Powered Engine (+) .... Tech
    Steam Tech Implant (+) ...... Tech
    Synthetic Drug .............. Tech
    Synthetic Organs ............ Tech
    Talisman .................... Arcane
    Titanium (-) ................ Arcane/Tech
    Tools of the Trade (-) ...... Arcane
    Tsoo Ink (+) ................ Arcane
    Tuatha Furs ................. Arcane
    Verminous Victuals .......... Arcane</pre><hr />
    Rare
    <font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Ancestral Weapon .................. Arcane
    Arachnoid Venom ................... Tech
    Blaster Tech ...................... Tech
    Broken Mask ....................... Arcane
    CIA Files ......................... Tech
    Communication Device (-) .......... Tech
    Cortex Device (-) ................. Tech
    Crey Tech (-) ..................... Tech
    Ectoplasm ......................... Arcane/Tech
    Exotic Alloy (-) .................. Arcane/Tech
    Falak Amulet ...................... Arcane
    Freakshow Cybernetics (-) ......... Tech
    Hamidon Spore ..................... Tech
    Innovative Code ................... Tech
    Military Intelligence (-) ......... Tech
    Nanites ........................... Tech
    Nemesis Weapon .................... Tech
    Neo Organics ...................... Tech
    Nictus Tech ....................... Tech
    Portal Tech ....................... Tech
    Potion (-) ........................ Arcane
    Powered Armor Circuitry ........... Tech
    Rikti Communications Device (-) ... Tech
    Rikti Control Unit ................ Tech
    Rikti Plasma Rifle ................ Tech
    Ring (-) .......................... Arcane
    Rylehs Rain (-) ................... Arcane
    Spirit Guide ...................... Arcane
    Stable Protonium (-) .............. Tech
    Thorn Fragment .................... Arcane
    Ur-Metal (-) ...................... Arcane</pre><hr />
    Special
    <font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Aberrant Tech ............. Tech
    Aeon Tech ................. Tech
    Alien Tech ................ Tech
    Astrology Book ............ Arcane
    Crystal Codex Fragments ... Arcane
    Demon Heart ............... Arcane
    Nano Fluid ................ Tech
    Rikti Data Pad ............ Tech
    Scent of Brimstone ........ Arcane
    Spells of Power ........... Arcane
    Unstable Rad Pistol ....... Tech
    Weapon of Mu .............. Arcane</pre><hr />
    Sources of Salvage
    <font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Abberant Tech
    - SPECIAL
    Aeon Tech
    - SPECIAL
    Alien Tech
    - SPECIAL
    Amulet
    - Carnival
    - Outcasts
    - Wailers
    - Circle of Thorns
    - Prisoners
    Ancestral Weapon
    - Tsoo
    Ancient Weapon
    - Warriors
    Arachnoid Blood
    - Arachnoids
    Arachnoid Venom
    - Arachnoids
    Arachnos Gun
    - Arachnoids
    - Arachnos
    - Rogue Arachnos
    Arcane Powder
    - Tsoo
    Armor Shard
    - Arachnos
    - Rogue Arachnos
    - Sky Raiders
    Astrology Book
    - SPECIAL
    Bio Sample
    - Coralax
    - Infected
    - Devouring Earth
    - Hydra
    - Trolls
    - Vahzilok
    Black Box
    - Good Turrets
    - Nictus
    - Rogue Robots
    - Turrets
    Black Market Super Gear
    - Mooks
    - Prisoners
    - The Family
    Blaster Tech
    - Arachnoids
    - Arachnos
    - Rogue Arachnos
    Blood Sample
    - Scrapyarders
    - Infected
    - Tuatha
    - Thugs
    Body Armor Fragment
    - 5th Column
    - Axis America
    - Crey
    - Rogue Island Police
    - Security Guards
    - Council Empire
    - Council
    - Freedom Corps
    - Knives of Artemis
    - Mooks
    - Paragon Protectors
    - Spetsnaz Commando
    - Thugs
    - Wyvern
    Bone Fragment
    - Shivans
    Bracer
    - Warriors
    Broken Crey Pistol
    - Crey
    Broken Crey Rifle
    - Crey
    Broken Mask
    - Banished Pantheon
    Broken Rikti Weapon
    - The Lost
    Carapace
    - Arachnoids
    Ceramic Compound
    - 5th Column
    - Axis America
    - Consortium Guards
    - Rogue Robots
    Charm
    - Circle of Thorns
    - Wailers
    CIA Files
    - Consortium Guards
    - Malta
    Claw
    - Wailers
    Clockwork Fragment
    - Psychic Clockwork
    Clockwork Plate
    - Psychic Clockwork
    Coins
    - Red Caps
    Communication Device
    - Crey
    Coral Shard
    - Coralax
    Coralax Hybrid Blood
    - Coralax
    Cortex Device
    - Rikti
    Crey Tech
    - Crey
    - Prisoners
    Crystal Codex Fragments
    - SPECIAL
    Crystal Skull
    - Skulls
    Cybernetic Charger
    - Freakshow
    - Prisoners
    - The Family
    Cybernetic Implant
    - Vahzilok
    Dangerous Chemicals
    - Shivans
    - 5th Column
    - Axis America
    - Council Empire
    - Council
    - Rogue Robots
    Data Files
    - The Family
    Demon Heart
    - SPECIAL
    Demonlogica
    - Circle of Thorns
    - Wailers
    Devouring Culture
    - Devouring Earth
    DNA Mutation
    - Rikti
    - The Lost
    Dread Tramalian
    - Legacy Chain
    Echip
    - Consortium Guards
    - Council Empire
    - Council
    - Freedom Corps
    - Knives of Artemis
    - Malta
    - Paragon Protectors
    - Rogue Island Police
    - Security Guards
    - Spetsnaz Commando
    Ectoplasm
    - Hydra
    - Psychic Clockwork
    Ectoplasmic Residue
    - Banished Pantheon
    - Croatoa Ghosts
    - Ghost
    - Hydra
    Elemental Manual
    - Legacy Chain
    Energy Source
    - Freakshow
    Etherium
    - Croatoa Ghosts
    - Ghost
    - Wailers
    Exotic Alloy
    - 5th Column
    - Axis America
    - Consortium Guards
    - Council Empire
    - Council
    - Good Turrets
    - Malta
    - Nemesis Automatons
    - Nemesis
    - Rogue Island Police
    - Rogue Robots
    - Security Guards
    - Sky Raiders
    - The Lost
    - Turrets
    - Psychic Clockwork
    Exotic Compound
    - Warriors
    - Devouring Earth
    - Slag Golems
    Falak Amulet
    - Legacy Chain
    Fetish
    - Banished Pantheon
    Fir Bolg Hand
    - Tuatha
    - Cabal
    - Fir Bolg
    Fir Bolg Straw
    - Fir Bolg
    Fish Scale
    - Coralax
    Freakshow Cybernetics
    - Freakshow
    Ghost Trinket
    - Croatoa Ghosts
    - Ghost
    - Spectral Pirates
    Glittershrooms
    - Red Caps
    - Tuatha
    Golden Skin
    - Gold Bricker
    Graphite Composite
    - Freedom Corps
    - Knives of Artemis
    - Arachnos
    - Consortium Guards
    - Good Turrets
    - Rogue Arachnos
    - Rogue Island Police
    - Security Guards
    - Turrets
    - Wyvern
    Hamidon Lichen
    - Devouring Earth
    Hamidon Spore
    - Devouring Earth
    Headset
    - Wyvern
    Hex
    - Hellions
    - Skulls
    Hydra DNA Sample
    - Hydra
    Innovative Code
    - The Family
    Lens
    - Nictus
    - 5th Column
    - Axis America
    Lev Disk
    - Gold Bricker
    Luddite Pouch
    - Luddites
    Magma
    - Igneous
    Meat Cleaver
    - Vahzilok
    Mercury Circuits
    - Council Empire
    - Council
    - Good Turrets
    - Malta
    - Rogue Robots
    - Turrets
    - Axis America
    - 5th Column
    Military Intelligence
    - Freedom Corps
    - Knives of Artemis
    - Consortium Guards
    - Malta
    Mutated Sample
    - Scrapyarders
    - Hydra
    - Paragon Protectors
    - Slag Golems
    - The Lost
    Nanites
    - Freedom Corps
    - Knives of Artemis
    Nano Fluid
    - SPECIAL
    Necklace of Teeth
    - Banished Pantheon
    Nemesis Weapon
    - Nemesis Automatons
    - Nemesis
    - Prisoners
    Neo Organics
    - Hydra
    - Devouring Earth
    Nictus Ammo
    - Nictus
    Nictus Memento
    - Nictus
    Nictus Tech
    - Nictus
    Orichalcum
    - Circle of Thorns
    Paragon Police Files
    - The Family
    Phantom Tears
    - Croatoa Ghosts
    - Ghost
    Portal Tech
    - Knives of Artemis
    - Sky Raiders
    - The Family
    Potion
    - Carnival
    - Tsoo
    - Outcasts
    - Warriors
    Powered Armor Circuitry
    - Arachnos
    - Freakshow
    - Paragon Protectors
    - Rogue Arachnos
    - Rogue Robots
    Pumice
    - Igneous
    Pumpkin Bomb
    - Fir Bolg
    Redcap Pouch
    - Fir Bolg
    - Red Caps
    Rikti Armor Fragment
    - Rikti
    Rikti Communications Device
    - Rikti
    Rikti Control Unit
    - Rikti
    Rikti Data Pad
    - SPECIAL
    Rikti Plasma Rifle
    - Rikti
    - The Lost
    Ring
    - Carnival
    - Circle of Thorns
    Rylehs Rain
    - Legacy Chain
    Saber
    - Spectral Pirates
    Scent of Brimstone
    - SPECIAL
    Scrolls
    - Tsoo
    Shivan Ectoplasm
    - Shivans
    Sigil
    - Banished Pantheon
    Sky Raider Anti Grav Unit
    - Sky Raiders
    Sky Raider Device
    - Sky Raiders
    Sky Raider Weapon
    - Prisoners
    - Sky Raiders
    Slag Culture
    - Slag Golems
    Snake Fang
    - Snakes
    Snake Venom
    - Snakes
    Spark
    - Cap au Diable Demons
    Spells of Power
    - SPECIAL
    Spider Eye
    - Arachnoids
    - Arachnos
    - Rogue Arachnos
    Spielmans Signet
    - Legacy Chain
    Spirit Guide
    - Banished Pantheon
    - Circle of Thorns
    - Tsoo
    Stable Protonium
    - Council Empire
    - Council
    - Crey
    - Freedom Corps
    - Good Turrets
    - Nictus
    - Paragon Protectors
    - Rogue Island Police
    - Security Guards
    - Turrets
    - 5th Column
    - Axis America
    Static Charge
    - Cap au Diable Demons
    Steam Powered Engine
    - Nemesis Automatons
    - Nemesis
    Steam Tech Implant
    - Nemesis
    - Nemesis Automatons
    Superadine Extract
    - Trolls
    Synthetic Drug
    - Paragon Protectors
    Synthetic Organs
    - Vahzilok
    Talisman
    - Circle of Thorns
    Tattoo
    - Hellions
    Thorn Fragment
    - Circle of Thorns
    Titanium
    - Psychic Clockwork
    - Good Turrets
    - Turrets
    - Freakshow
    - Malta
    - Nemesis Automatons
    - Nemesis
    - Slag Golems
    - The Lost
    Tools of the Trade
    - Scrapyarders
    Treatise
    - Luddites
    Trick Arrows
    - Wyvern
    Tsoo Ink
    - Tsoo
    Tuatha Furs
    - Cabal
    - Tuatha
    Unstable Rad Pistol
    - SPECIAL
    Ur-Metal
    - Psychic Clockwork
    - Scrapyarders
    - Legacy Chain
    - Shivans
    - Carnival
    Vacuum Circuits
    - Nemesis Automatons
    - Nemesis
    Verminous Victuals
    - Cabal
    - Red Caps
    Weapon of Mu
    - SPECIAL
    Witchs Hat
    - Cabal</pre><hr />
    [Thanks to MadScientist for the breakdown of salvage rarity, and GreenBlade's Salvage site for the drop-sources]

    You can carry up to 20 of each type of Salvage on any one character.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Components (or "What do you do with all the junk?")
    In order to be useful, all Salvage (except special Salvage drops - we'll come to those later) needs to be refined into the second tier of the crafting process: Components. Components are split into two trees of crafting - the Arcane tree and the Tech tree. Within each tree there are three levels of complexity of Component. Below are the various different Components that can be made, and which tree/level they fall under:

    Basic Tech
    Tech Material
    Tech Power

    Basic Arcane
    Mystic Element
    Mystic Foci

    Advanced Tech
    Tech Hardware
    Tech Prototype

    Advanced Arcane
    Arcane Essence
    Arcane Glyph

    Expert Tech
    Tech Software
    Experimental Tech

    Expert Arcane
    Magical Ward
    Magical Artifact

    As you have probably guessed, the various Components are refined at their respective crafting bench in the base - so Tech Power Components can only be made at a Basic Tech Worktable, while Arcane Glyph Components can only be made at an Advanced Arcane Forge.

    If you visit the crafting tables in the base, you will be able to see there are lots of different recipes for all these Components - that is to say there are many different ways you can combine raw Salvage to make each Component. It doesn't matter which recipe is used though, Components are the same no matter what Salvage was used to make them.

    If you look back at the raw Salvage list you will see that there were 3 main categories and a fourth 'Special' category. Basically "Common Salvage" is needed to make Basic Components, "Uncommon Salvage" is needed to make Advanced Components, and "Rare Salvage" is needed to make, yup, Expert Components. However... some of the Common Salvage also features in Advanced or Expert Recipes (these were marked with a '+' in the salvage lists, to indicate they can be used in 'higher' recipes), and some of the Uncommon Salvage can be in Basic (-), Expert (+), or both (+-) recipes, and some of the Rare Salvage is used in lower recipes too (-). This is where we encounter our first potential problem. If you just visit crafting tables regularly and refine whatever Salvage you have at the time, chances are you will often have the right ingredients to make Basic Components, but might be just short of an Advanced recipe, or possibly an Expert one - but if you make a Basic Component then you may be using up Salvage that could have been used to make an Advanced or Expert Component. For this reason it is usually wise to wait until you have lots of Salvage and then try the workbenches in order, starting with the highest level first. That way you reduce the chances of missing out on the more difficult to make Components due to using up Salvage on the easy to make ones.

    Once you have refined Salvage into a Component it cannot be broken back down. The Component takes the place of whatever bits of Salvage were used to make it and is listed in your Salvage window alongside your other unrefined raw Salvage - you can filter to see just your Components by clicking on the Components tab in the Salvage window.

    You can carry up to 99 of each type of Component on any one character.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Items (or "What are Components used for?")
    Once we are armed with all these Components we can then move onto the final phase - actually building Items for the base. Like Components, Items are part of either the Tech tree or the Arcane tree, and they are also built at either the Basic, Advanced or Expert crafting tables. Basic Item recipes only need Basic Components, but Advanced Items need both Basic and Advanced Components. Expert Items usually need all three types of Components - and some also require some of the Special Salvage that we mentioned earlier. Special Salvage is either Arcane or Tech.

    When you build an Item it is added to your 'Personal Items', ready to be installed into the base. You can see your Personal Items by going to the entrance room in the base and clicking 'Add Personal Item' - this will put you in a basic base editor mode which will only allow you to add Items you have made - once they are placed you no longer have any control over them. Most Items can only be placed in one particular type of room in the base (the Info box can tell you which) and placing an Item costs a certain amount of Prestige (indicated below the Item). Items also require both Control and Power to operate, and we have only a limited amount of each in the base. Personal Items which are sold are lost forever with no refund of Components used to make them. Once Items are made they cannot be broken back down into Components.

    There is no limit to the number of Personal Items you can have waiting to be installed, but if you leave an SG then any non-installed Personal Items are lost permanently, with no refund of the Components that were used to build them.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    I hope you've found this useful and not too heavy-going! If you have any suggestions for improvements then please let me know and I will try to incorporate them in the next revision.
  7. _Brev__NA
    Woo!
  8. _Brev__NA
    Great idea - as others have mentioned there are some fantastic synergies between Mind and Kin (although Mind can launch controls from range it by no means has to remain at range - in fact it is one of the safest primaries to be in melee with).

    Also, I'd point out some of the really nice synergy between Fire and Sonic - the debuff anchor on the melee pets, the +Res shields for the normally squishy pets, and the overall damage increase from the two debuffs. Plus an additional AoE location control (that you point out Fire is lacking) is sitting right there at Tier 9 in Liquefy.

    But yeah, excellent idea and nice work
  9. _Brev__NA
    Well honestly I've not played my Warshade properly for a long time now (got far too distracted with Villains and a couple of newer Hero chars), but as far as I know the only real changes to Warshades since I made this guide were the global reductions to the effectiveness of defence and resistance powers, and of course Enhancement Diversification. I don't believe the control durations of any of our powers were changed. Eclipse has actually been enhanced by being given Psi Resistance now - very nice!

    So in short, the individual power descriptions/advice should still be good (aside from any specific resistance numbers mentioned - they are a bit lower now), but bear in mind any slotting should probably be restricted to a maximum of 3 of the same type of SO per power (more than that and the effectiveness of further enhancement is massively reduced to the point of not really being worthwhile).

    I have been meaning to give my Warshade an ED respec in actual fact (shows how little I've been playing him ). I've come up with a build that is not too different from what I currently have but I need to try it out properly before I post it here really.
  10. _Brev__NA
    Name: ShadowCore

    Website: http://www.eurocore.eu.tt or http://www.meldersnet.nl/~excalibur/

    Recruiting Officers: See up to date list here

    Preferred method of contact: via Website (above). Click the Join Us link at the top of the page, or send a /tell to a Recruiting Officer in-game, or join the recruitment channel in-game using the command: /chanjoin "EuroCore Officer" and speak to an officer there.

    SG Description: ShadowCore is the Villain SG for EuroCore, a group consisting mostly of people living in Europe (GMT or GMT+1 timezones). Our aim has always been to maintain an active SG for players online during European peak hours, to make it easier for European players on Victory to engage with other players. We are very active with many of our players online nightly, with characters covering all level ranges. Most of our members are not RPers but anyone who does RP is more than welcome.

    Due to the size and popularity of the group we run 3 SGs side by side (1 SG for main chars and 2 for alts). Each SG has a base with at least basic facilities, and the main SG has a large Raid-capable base. Our in-game chat goes through a single Global Chat channel covering all 3 groups, and the 3 equivalent EuroCore hero groups too, meaning we usually have active teaming on both heroes and villains every night. We also have small groups of themed and RP characters who meet from time to time.

    The EuroCore community also covers other MMORPGs as well, with many of our players belonging to EuroCore guilds in more than 1 game.
  11. _Brev__NA
    [ QUOTE ]
    Tesla Cage is a hold and will stack with EMP to hold a boss.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    I've never had the power myself, but I was under the impression that EMP is a Mag 4 hold and will hold bosses in one hit anyway? Is that not the case?
  12. _Brev__NA
    Please add Brev's I6 Guide to Plant Domination &amp; Psi Assault to the next round of updates - Thanks.
  13. _Brev__NA
    Welcome to my guide to Plant Control with Psionic Assault. Plant is a very popular Dominator primary, partly because it's brand new, and also because it's both fun to play and a very effective control set - as long as you understand the value of confusion On the otherhand Psi Assault is relatively uncommon as a secondary, mainly because of the view that it is a relatively low damage powerset (I'll come onto that later). I decided they might make a fun combo and I started playing one in beta, loved it, and decided to roll it again once CoV went live. There are some very nice synergies between Plant and Psi and you can create a devastating toon - particularly for playing in teams.

    If you spot any mistakes then please let me know and I will try to correct them. Any constructive feedback welcomed.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    What I'll be covering:
    <ul type="square">[*] Plant Control &amp; Psionic Assault - an introduction[*] Domination and Magnitude Mechanics[*] Plant Control Powers[*] Psionic Assault Powers[*] Pool Powers[*] My Build[*] Summary[/list]Hope you're sitting comfortably!

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Plant Control &amp; Psionic Assault - an introduction

    Plant Control is a very visual set, which features a mixture of immobilises, holds, confusion, sleep and knockdown. It also has a rather odd power for a control set to fill things out. There are lots of Area effect powers in Plant control and you will normally always have something to deal with the enemy. One weakness of plant control is flying mobs - the hold powers won't apply their status effect on flying mobs unless they are close to the ground, so you will probably want to have a means of getting flyers from the sky (fortunately there are several means to do so).

    Psionic Assault is much like the other dominator secondaries - it is mainly a mixture of ranged and melee damage attacks, mostly single target, with a couple of big hitters and a utility power. It has a reputation for being the lowest damage secondary, which in some ways is a fair comment. Things do take a major turn when you get the final power though - and the damage isn't too bad on the way to it. Plant Control also gives the Psi Assault dominator a nice way to maximise the effectiveness of its very handy utility power (Drain Psyche).

    Before we look at the powersets in more detail, there are a few things I should explain about the inherent power "Domination" and the differences between Dominators and Controllers...

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Domination and Magnitude Mechanics

    Although dominators share most of the same primaries as controllers, they play rather differently from their hero cousins - both in terms of gameplay, and actual game mechanics. While controllers have a built in chance to 'critical hit' with their status attacks (allowing them to occasionally 'mez' bosses in one hit when normally it should take two), Dominators do not - in fact the base duration of their status attacks are shorter than those of controllers too, although the base magnitude of the two Archetypes' attacks are the same (critical mezzes aside). If you don't know about magnitude then read to the end of this section where I try to explain how this particular game mechanic works.

    There are also big differences between the two archetypes' inherent powers. While controllers will do double damage to opponents that are 'Contained' (held, slept, immobilised or disoriented), dominators instead have a power called 'Domination' which gradually builds up as they attack until it is ready to be activated. Once activated (via a normal tray button), domination basically super-charges a Dominator for 90 seconds. Their status attacks both last longer, and have doubled magnitude - making them far more effective at controlling than controllers while the power is active. Their damage is also dramatically increased while Domination is in effect and their endurance bar is also completely filled when the power is activated. The status of the Domination power is indicated by a bar below the player's hitpoint bar. It gradually fills with each attack that is made (whether it hits or not), but will also gradually fade if no attacks are made for a while. At the end of the 90 seconds after Domination is activated the bar is emptied and the dominator will need to refill it with more attacks.

    Psi Assault actually works very nicely for building domination as the attacks are all pretty low cost, and psi dart in particular is extremely fast recharging (alternating psi dart and brawl is probably the quickest and most efficient way to build domination if you can find a suitable target - Lt's are often a good option as they are low risk but have decent hitpoints). In normal gameplay you can expect to build domination once in a small mission and perhaps 2 or 3 times in a larger one, depending on how fast you are attacking.

    If you don't know about magnitude then I will try to explain it now (skip on if you know what I'm talking about).

    Status attacks (holds, disorients, immobilises, fears, confuses, etc.) work by applying a 'Magnitude' (or 'Mag') of that status to their target for a certain duration (the duration is dependent on the Resistance the mob has to status effects). Enemy mobs have varying Mag protection from status effects, but basically the Mag your status attack applies must exceed the protection a mob has in order for that mob to be overcome by that effect. If you apply another status attack to a target before the last one wears off then the Mags will stack while both attacks are still active, as long as the same status effect is being applied by each attack (i.e. holds only stack with holds, disorients only with disorients, not with each other). Most mobs have the same level of protection against all status effects, although there are a few exceptions (e.g. Arachnos Fortunatas have increased protection against holds, and all Nemesis have boss level protection from confuse and fear). Note: the stronger a mob is (both its rank and its level relative to you), the greater its resistance to status effects, so the faster any status attack will wear off them - so be careful when engaging +2s, +3s etc. as they may break free sooner than you are expecting.

    Generally speaking though, Minions have only Mag 1 protection against all statuses, so any status attack will affect them in one go (the weakest status effect powers are Mag 2, but the vast majority of Dominator and Controller status attacks are Mag 3). Lieutenants have Mag 2 protection, so the weakest status attacks will only reduce their protection to 0 - meaning a further attack of the same type is needed in order to affect them. Since virtually all Dominator and Controller status attacks are Mag 3 though, Lt's should always be affected too (bar exceptions like the Fortunata's mentioned above). Bosses have Mag 3 protection and so most dominator and controller attacks will only reduce their protection to zero and a second attack of the same type will be needed to affect a boss. However if a controller critical hits with an attack they get a bonus +1 Mag to their attack, which will be enough to affect the boss in one hit. Similarly, if a Dominator has the Domination power active then all their magnitudes are doubled so they will be easily overcoming the Mag 3 protection with a +6 Mag attack.

    Special type mobs are dealt with a bit differently. Elite Bosses are a bit like Bosses, but they have Mag 6 protection - so 3 normal holds need to be stacked to affect them, and even a Dominated hold will only reduce them to zero, requiring a second to actually affect them. AVs and Heros are even trickier - most of them alternate between two states of protection (indicated by small triangles around their chest). In the 'down arrow' state, they are the same as normal Bosses - meaning as long as the total Mag on them is 4 or more they will be affected by that status. In the 'up arrow' state however (which they will automatically switch to from time to time, even if they are currently held) they have extremely high protection to nearly all status effects - and even a Dominator with Domination active will find it very hard to overcome it. However you can still apply status attacks to an AV in the up arrow state and as soon as they drop into the down arrow state they will be instantly held again if enouh Mag is still applied on them. Immobilise is the [censored] in this special AV protection and is the one status effect that isn't highly protected against - meaning you should be able to keep most AVs or Heros permanently rooted (although a small number of AVs are naturally highly resistant to immobilise anyway). Occasionally you meet Heros or AVs that don't feature this special protection who have just Mag 3 protection, but it is quite rare. Giant Monsters always have extremely high status protection.

    Now that's all out of the way, let's move onto the powers...

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Plant Control

    Plant Control can be an extremely effective primary, and much of that is down to the mix of great AoE powers that work very nicely with each other and are effective from a very early level.

    Plant Control also has some fairly unique powers that you won't see in any other control primary - Spirit Tree and the terrific Carrion Creepers.

    So, onto the powers in more detail...

    Entangle (ranged, single target immobilise + small damage)
    Available at level 1

    Entangle should be a pretty easily skipable power since immobilises don't really do much for dominators, especially in their single target form. They simply prevent movement but don't stop the enemy from attacking you - not much use most of the time. For controllers they are more useful as they give them another means to get containment damage, but for dominators there isn't much point in taking it - at least not until a lot later. It does have the benefit of being a Mag 4 attack though, so it will immobilise bosses in one hit rather than the two hits (or domination) most other attacks will need. (Also remember that immobilises aren't subject to AV's toggle extreme status protection either so you will generally be able to perma-entangle an AV or Hero too which can be useful if they are prone to running when they get low on health). The damage is minimal so you are much better off getting another attack from your secondary if you are thinking of taking this for that aspect. One benefit this power does have for plant dominators is that it will bring down flying mobs so that your holds can take effect.

    If you do pick this up you will only need the default slot with an accuracy.

    Strangler (ranged, single target hold + small damage)
    Available: level 1

    Strangler is absolutely essential and you should pick this up at the very start. It is your primary means of holding enemies and due to its quick recharge you can use it many times in a fight. When you first get it you will have trouble holding bosses with it (you need to keep two holds overlapped to hold a boss) because the duration is a fair bit shorter than a controller single target hold. However if you slot it up properly you should have very few problems with bosses. When domination is active you should be able to hold any boss with one hit anyway. Later on you will be able to stack it with Vines if you want to lock down a boss very quickly. The only thing to watch out for is flying mobs - if they are too far from the ground then strangler won't have any effect other than its small damage. For this reason it is important to take a -fly power at some point to get around that problem. As mobs get close to the ground they will be 'sucked' down to earth and caught in the strangler.

    I recommend 5-6 slotting this power and slotting 2 Acc, 2-3 Hold, 1-2 Recharge. I don't agree with slotting holds for damage - that's what your secondary is for. With the reduced durations of Dominator holds you really can't afford not to slot this heavily for hold duration. Although single target holds have a small inherent accuracy bonus, slotting 2 accuracies is a good idea anyway to ensure you hit those mobs with high defence (like Rikti drones or Arachnos Night Widows).

    Roots (ranged, targetted AoE immobilise + small damage)
    Available: level 2

    Roots is basically the Area Effect version of entangle. The damage is less than entangle and it is only a Mag 3 attack so won't immobilise bosses in one hit. In my opinion it is quite a skippable power, or at least easily left until later on. Mass immobilises on their own are very dangerous to use - because they aggro everything they hit to you. However they can be useful when used in combination with other status effects which don't limit movement but which do mitigate damage (disorients, confuses, fears). Out of those we only have access to a confuse power (at least until much later), so Roots + Seeds of Confusion can be useful to stop the confused mobs running off - it also adds a small amount of damage to them to increase the XP share from confused mobs (although their are far better Area damage options in the secondary). If you take it you can get away with just 1-2 Accuracies or possibly an Immobilise duration - it recharges very fast anyway and is a decent base duration. Again, this power has a -fly component in area form which can make it attractive for getting a lot of fliers down to the ground so you can get your holds to take effect.

    Spore Burst (ranged, targetted AoE sleep)
    Available: level 6

    Spore Burst is another take it or leave it power. If you want to maximise your control options then it is worth taking, but mainly as an 'emergency button'. Sleeps in general aren't terrific means of control since they are broken if the sleeping mobs are attacked. This shortcoming is usually overcome with a nice long duration or, in the case of Mind Control's Mass Hypnosis, by being non-aggro generating too. Spore Burst however enjoys neither of these luxuries - it is quite a short duration *and* causes aggro, despite causing no damage to the mobs. I only ever use it if things are getting a bit hectic and I need to buy a few seconds before Seeds of Confusion is recharged, or if I am facing mobs that are resistant to confuse and I'm waitign for Vines to come up. If you solo a lot then you could slot up Spore Burst to give half-decent duration, but to be honest I'd just try to manage another couple of levels till you can get your hands on a far more effective control tool. It recharges pretty fast anyway which is handy, and it can cause bubblers and sonic resonators problems in PvP since their dispersion powers have no protection from sleep.

    Seeds of Confusion (cone confuse)
    Available: level 8

    This really is the gem of the set and is such a good control tool. It recharges fast, has good duration and has very few drawbacks - it's an excellent move to open a fight with as mobs generally won't get a chance to get a shot off at you before they are confused. Confused mobs will turn and fight each other instead of you and your team - meaning this is as good as a hold in many cases and often actually better (since your XP over time is increased with confused mobs helping to defeat each other). Although confused mobs can move normally, they actually tend to bunch up as they close in to fight each other, which ends up being very useful for us. They do sometimes tend to scatter a bit though as they run towards other groups, which although is no risk to you (attacks from confused mobs don't cause extra aggro), can be a bit annoying if you are trying to defeat them at the same time. For this reason Roots can be a useful follow-up to Seeds of Confusion as it both ensures the mobs stay fighting where they are, as well as applying a bit of extra area damage to ensure you get XP from all the mobs.

    Confuse powers sometimes raise eyebrows because of the 'XP issue'; when a confused mob 'A' deals damage to another mob 'B', it detracts from the XP you (and your team) will earn from mob 'B'. The amount of detraction will depend on how much damage you and your team do to mob B in comparison to the damage done by the confused mob A. However, the crucial point is that only 25% of the damage that confused mobs deal is actually counted as far as sharing out XP is concerned, so you actually get proportionally more XP per amount of damage you are dealing when you are aided by confused mobs. If you do half the damage and Mob A does half, then you will get 80% of the xp, however if you let mob A do all the damage then you will get no XP at all. Of course this doesn't take into account that confused mobs are no threat to you and anything that prevents debt is a massive XP boost too! There is an excellent guide by cforce that goes into more detail on confusion. The bottom line is that in most practical situations, confusion actually increases XP gain over time - which is far more relevent than XP per mob in any real sense (remember that XP per mob goes down when you are in a team as well, but you will still level much faster in a team due to the increased speed with which you can take out mobs - the same principal applies for confuse).

    Any Plant Dominator who doesn't take this power really is leaving themself *seriously* shortchanged in the control department. The only time you will have problems with this power are when you face mobs that are specifically resistant to confuse - that's basically Nemesis (who don't feature until much later in the game) and Longbow groups that have Longbow Officer bosses in them (they have an inherent leadership power which protects all their surrounding allies from confuse). In those cases you will need to rely on another form of control to lead off with. Dominated Seeds will overcome Nemesis, but they won't help against Longbow Officers - they will need to be defeated before you can confuse their minions.

    The only tricky thing about this power is that it can get a bit of getting used to trying to line up a group of mobs to hit them all with the seeds. The cone is pretty large, but in order to hit a large group you will need to get quite close to the front of the group and target a mob towards the rear, or at least one in the middle of the group. For that reason you might want to consider taking Stealth from the Invisibility Pool as it will allow you to get much closer undetected. Unlike the Mind Control confuse powers, seeds does cause aggro on the group you use it against - however as a Dominator you will probably be wanting to get in there with your attacks anyway.

    The power is pretty good straight away anyway, but I recommend 6 slotting it to make the absolute most of it. 2 Acc, 2 Confuse, 2 Recharge works very well for me - it is up for every fight and lasts pretty much the duration of the fight too. With Domination active you will be able to keep an entire group permanently confused (bosses may need holding just before you are ready to reapply confuse though just in case). It also works fine on flying mobs.

    Spirit Tree (immobile summon, AoE +regen field)
    Available: level 12

    This is the first of the fairly unique powers in Plant Control that you wont find in any other dominator primary. It is operationally identical to Traps' Triage Beacon if you are familiar with that power. It is basically classed as a pet, although it doesn't move and can't be teleported, which doesn't really fit very well with the fairly dynamic style of gameplay you will probably end up using. You place it at a targetted location and any ally that comes close to it will gain a significant buff to their hitpoint regeneration rate. It's not a crowd control power by any means and can be quite easily skipped as long as you are able to do your job of controlling well enough - although it does look very cool. As /Psi dominators, we can get Drain Psyche which is a personal +Regen (and +End Recovery) power, which can be much better for us, but of course no use to team-mates.

    If you do get this power it is best to slot it with Heals and/or Recharge, depending on how situational you are finding it.

    Vines (ranged, targetted AoE hold)
    Available: level 18

    AoE holds aren't the be all and end all they used to be since their massive reduction in effectiveness in Issue 5. For Dominators this is even moreso, since their hold durations are even shorter than Controllers'. Nevertheless, I still think a well slotted AoE hold is a very useful tool in a dominator's arsenal - even a plant dominator who can get away with Seeds of Confusion for most of the time. When you come up against mobs that are resistant to confuse you will be in serious trouble without a solid backup like Vines. I guess that's the key distinction to make here - Vines will likely be a backup for you rather than a primary control tool - its recharge is just so long and the duration pretty short that it isn't really viable for using in every fight on a fulltime basis. Fortunately the times you will need to fallback on it aren't all that common, but when you do you will want it to be well slotted up.

    It is still probably the safest means of opening a fight when Domination is active as it will lock down pretty much everything for a decent duration, and even without Domination it can be a good choice to lead off against a group with a boss or two as it makes it easier to lock the bosses down with Strangler as it puts a Mag 3 hold on everything straight away. I'd recommend 2 Acc, 2-3 Hold, 1-2 Rech. Vines has no effect on enemies that are flying so you will need to get them to the ground for the hold to take effect.

    Carrion Creepers (pet summon, AoE slow, knockdown, immobilise + small damage over time)
    Available: level 26

    Carrion Creepers is a wonderful power, and a truly unique beast in the CoH/V world - and rather difficult to describe. When you cast it (by choosing a location like any other pet power - although this can be cast very far away), a patch of dark brambles spread out in a large patch on the ground to indicate the radius of the power. These brambles are actually just graphical 'icing' to show where the power was initially cast - the actual power is an invisible untargetable pet which will actually follow you around when the mobs you cast it near are defeated (you can see it following you if you summon it and then walk through some water somewhere as you see a second set of ripples moving close behind you) - it will even follow you up elevators and it flies too so can keep up with you wherever you go. This invisible entity has a large slow aura around it which will slow the movement of any mobs near it and also has a -fly, -jump component. This makes it a particualrly vicious weapon in PvP as opponents won't even be able to see that you effectively have a huge slow, -fly, -jump aura following you around which will then stick to them like glue.

    The invisible pet summons 'subpets' of its own (the huge creeper vines which spring up out of the ground and last just a short while) which attack the mobs close by. It will try to summon a creeper vine for each nearby enemy, but it does an accuracy check to decide whether each summon is successful or not - so slotting accuracy in this power will mean you get more creeper vine spawns - very noticeable in large teams. These creeper vines use a damage over time attack and have a chance to knock down too. When an enemy is defeated within range of the pet, a small patch of immobilising roots sprouts up which will entangle any nearby mobs, together with another creeper vine which begins attacking any nearby enemies too.

    One of the key features of the power is the creeper vine 'subpets' - since they are actual physical entities which can be attacked by the mobs, the patch and its creepers actually absorb aggro which can make it an excellent move to open with (especially for absorbing large and dangerous 'alpha strikes'), allowing you to then move in with seeds of confusion. The aggro isn't always assured though so beware of some stray shots coming your way. It can be cast from around corners and behind obstacles though which can add even more safety. Beware of the range of the pet though - it can summon creepers quite a long way away which can be a risk when trying to avoid aggroing extra nearby groups of mobs.

    It does eventually expire and it also has a very long recharge, so you will want to slot it with 3 recharges at the very least. I would also recommend 1-2 accuracies and then perhaps damage if you have any slots left over. Immobilise and slows are only of limited use really since the creeper vines attract aggro anyway so mobs aren't likely to try and run away. If you PvP then slows are perhaps of more value.

    Fly Trap (pet summon)
    Available: level 32

    For many controllers and dominators the pet is the ultimate power they are after - however that isn't really the case for us plant dominators. Our best powers are probably Seeds of Confusion and Carrion Creepers, although Fly Trap is certainly a welcome addition to our arsenal - and certainly fits the theme very well, scuttering around everywhere with its freaky sounds! It is basically a mini-Plant/Thorns dominator, but it isn't amazingly damaging or particularly good at control - it's more a jack of all trades that supplements your own control and damage. From Plant Control it just immobilises, and from Thorny Assault it has a couple of ranged attacks that debuff defence and do moderate damage. It also has a biting melee attack which does good damage. It spends most of its time at range however, often using subtle attacks that can be difficult to see.

    If, like me, you have been used to stealthing around to set up your seeds of confusion attacks, you may be taken by surprise when Fly Trap starts attacking things before you are quite ready - it has considerable range so be careful when you are approaching a group and be ready to respond if it aggros a group. This can work in your favour though as it often opens with a cone thorn attack which debuffs defence, giving you a bonus to-hit with seeds of confusion (or whatever you are opening with), as well as distracting the mobs from you a short while.

    Slotting it is fairly straight forward - just 1 Acc and 3 Dam is all it really needs. You might want to add some Defence Debuffs beyond that if you are looking to put slots somewhere later in your build.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Psionic Assault

    Psionic Assault is generally speaking lower damage than the other Dominator secondaries, although mobs rarely have defence against Psi damage, and Psi resistance is also generally rarer than resistance to other damage types. However mobs that are resistant to Psi are often pretty heavily resistant to it. Psi Assault does have some very nice benefits though. Most of the attacks are very low cost, the ranged attacks are very long range, and many of the attacks have a -recharge component which can really add up. It also has a very nice utility power, Drain Psyche, which can work very well with the Plant primary.

    Psionic Dart (long ranged, single target minor psi damage, -recharge)
    Available: level 1

    You don't have a choice and have to get this power but that's not a problem as it's actually pretty useful. The damage is rather laughable, but it is an excellent way to help build domination as it is very fast and costs very little endurance - you can fit it in pretty much anywhere in an attack chain. Its long range also means it can be used as a pseudo-snipe in order to 'pull' if you are facing a large number of mobs and want to try and coax one of them away from the rest. No need to slot anything beyond the default slot though since it recharges so fast - just a single accuracy should do.

    Mind Probe (melee ranged, single target high psi damage, -recharge, toggle dropping)
    Available: level 2

    This is your strongest attack for the majority of the game and don't let the melee aspect of it put you off - as a Plant primary you will be getting close to melee anyway and with all your control it will generally be pretty safe. It is also one of your only two means of dropping toggles in PvP.

    Although it can be slotted with range, there is no point in doing so as it is so incredibly short ranged anyway. You are best off slotting 1-2 Acc, 3 Damage.

    Telekinetic Thrust (melee ranged, single target minor psi/smash damage, knockback, -fly)
    Available: level 4

    This is another very short range attack but one that offers only fairly minor damage. The main use for this power is in its knockback and it also offers a pseudo -fly which is useful for us plant dominators. When you can't hold a boss in one hit, a knockback can give you a precious couple of seconds while strangler recharges to get that second hit in. It can also be useful to use immediately after a mind probe to knock a mob back out of harms way. For flying mobs, TK thrust will knock the target back, and down to the ground - helpful for being able to hold a mob that would otherwise be inaccessible. Of course that assumes you have a means of getting close to the flying mob in the first place. Entangle and Roots in the primary have a more efficient -fly that works from range.

    With ragdoll physics knockback can be tremendous fun which is a tick in the box for this power - I personally rather like it, but it is fairly skipable given the other -fly options available to you. Also, the plant immobilises have an anti-knockback component that means this power is all but useless against mobs that are rooted - and when you get the Fly Trap it will tend to spam immobilises everywhere meaning this power loses a lot of utility later on in your career, so it might be one to respec out later on. Just the default slot is fine, into which you can just put an Accuracy.

    Mental Blast (ranged, single target moderate psi damage, -recharge)
    Available: level 10

    This is a power that is generally shunned, mainly because it offers relatively poor damage compared to the other single target attacks in the set, and has no significant benefits besides damage (the -recharge is replicated in several other powers in the set, and -recharge is of only limited use when most mobs will be held or confused anyway). Mind Probe is significantly better damage and already available, even though it is melee. Subdue is also much better damage and ranged, although it is quite a way off at 28. It could be worth picking this up as a second single target damage dealer and then respeccing out of it when Subdue comes along, but you can just as easily skip it altogether. If you do get it, slot a basic 1 Acc, 3 Damage.

    Psychic Scream (cone moderate psi damage)
    Available: level 16

    This is the first significant Area Damage power we have access to - and it's pretty decent. The damage isn't astounding, but against several foes it certainly adds up. Its cone nature makes it a handy follow-up to Seeds of Confusion, although the cone of Psychic Scream is a bit narrower than Seeds, so you may want to jump back a bit between using Seeds and Scream. The clustering effect that Seeds has actually works quite well in this respect as mobs tend to close in together making it easier to hit more fo them with Psychic Scream.

    I'd recommend slotting 1-2 Acc, 3 Dam and possibly a recharge or two.

    Drain Psyche (small PBAoE, Foe -Regen -End Recov, Self +Regen +End Recov)
    Available: level 20

    Drain Psyche is a small PBAoE attack which deals no damage, but instead transfers hitpoint regeneration and endurance recovery from the nearby mobs it hits to you - the more mobs it hits, the better the regen and recovery given to you. Hitting 3 mobs is like having Empathy's Recovery Aura on you, and hitting anymore than that gives you an incredible +Regen and +Recov. The effect lasts about 30 seconds and the base recharge is about 2 minutes. So with 3 Recharge SOs it won't be perma, but it doesn't really need to be.

    Drain Psyche should be a really good power for any Dominator primary (and for Plant dominators it still is), however it currently has a bit of a problem which makes it a little unfriendly for the user. The problem is that it doesn't accept accuracy enhancements and that it has a relatively poor base accuracy. Against even level mobs it is ok, but anything +2 or higher will see it missing a lot. For most dominators soloing or in small teams it will be difficult to get in range of more than 2 mobs when firing Drain Psyche off, which may often result in only 1 hit or even missing both altogether. This is where the plant primary comes in, and Seeds of Confusion in particular. Using seeds of confusion tends to cluster mobs together, and this makes it much easier to get more mobs in range when firing Drain Psyche off. Being near 3 or 4 mobs becomes much easier and so missing altogether is much rarer and you will generally be hitting at least 2 mobs which should give you a perfectly good recovery rate. That said you may still have problems against higher level mobs and so taking Tactics from the leadership pool is recommended (especially as it helps all your other attacks, pets and creepers as well). If you can hit enough mobs regularly enough you can afford to completely bypass the fitness pool. In large teams the accuracy of Drain Psyche becomes much less of a problem due to the size of the spawns of mobs - there will generally be so many around that you are bound to hit plenty to keep Drain Psyche topping you up.

    I recommend slotting 3 recharge and 3 endurance modifiers at the moment - this ensures that even hitting 1 or 2 mobs still gives a pretty good endurance recovery rate. I view the hitpoint regeneration as more of an added bonus. If the Devs fix the power to accept accuracy enhancers (which apparently they are looking into), then I would recommend 3 recharge, 1-2 accuracy, 1-2 end mod.

    Subdue (long ranged, single target high psi damage, chance to immobilise)
    Available: level 28

    Subdue is a very nice ranged attack which is almost as long range as Psionic Dart and almost as much damage as Mind Probe. It doesn't have a -recharge component but it does have a chance to apply a Mag 3 immobilise to the target (or Mag 6 if Domination is active of course). I definitely recommend this power as it can be very useful for occasions when getting close to the target is difficult and the added immobilise chance can be a useful extra too if something is trying to run away. I recommend 1 Acc, 3 Damage.

    Psionic Lance (snipe ranged, single target very high psi damage, -recharge)
    Available: level 35

    The snipe is, unsurprisingly, the strongest attack available in the Psi Assault secondary. However personally I'm not that keen on it. Aside from this power, the Plant/Psi combo plays pretty fast - tight attack chains, lots of mobility, rapid build-up of the domination bar. Psionic Lance, although a strong attack, takes a long time to fire, can be interrupted, and basically slows down your whole gameplay. There are also only few times when a snipe attack like this would be particularly useful anyway - it's not enough to one-shot things and most of the time a full on assault with your other powers is the best way forward. I thought it was just too slow for the rest of my gameplay so I just skipped it (although I tried it on test) - I just don't see it being a particularly useful power for a Dominator. If you do take it then 1 Acc, 3 Damage is probably best with maybe an interrupt time reducer or two so you can get away with using it in the middle of combat without being interrupted (it won't help with the animation time though so it will still eat up a lot of time in an attack chain).

    Psychic Shockwave (very large PBAoE, high psi damage, -recharge, chance to disorient, toggle dropping)
    Available: level 38

    This is the power that really turns things around for the Psi Secondary - it goes from being one of the weakest assault sets, to being right up there with the rest of them. The Area Effect of this power is really big - you will be constantly amazed at how many mobs you are hitting with it (about the same sort of area as Vines can cover). The damage this power deals is a bit more than Mind Probe which makes it a devestating AoE attack. The animation is extremely fast, the base recharge is 10 seconds, and the endurance cost is low too (it's not a blaster nuke with associated end recovery penalty). As if that wasn't enough, it also applies a -recharge to mobs and also has a chance to disorient them. In PvP it also has a chance to drop multiple toggles (this is one of only two /Psi attacks which can drop toggles).

    Get it, 6 slot it - I recommend 1-2 Acc, 3 Damage, 1-2 Recharge.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Standard Pool Powers

    You can choose from a maximum of four of them and actually Fitness and Speed aren't absolutely necessary for a Plant/Psi. Leadership can be very handy (tactics will help with all your tohit powers - including Drain Psyche), and you'll be wanting a travel power too. Concealment's Stealth is also useful for getting into position for seeds of confusion.

    Concealment - This is a handy power pool to take - Stealth is useful for getting a bit closer to mobs for Seeds of Confusion, but it does slow you down and isn't perfect Invisibility. You can combine it with SuperSpeed though to be able to get rigth up close to mobs. Grant Invisibility can be handy but personally I don't like buffing as a Dominator - my job is to cause mayhem Invisibility is a better version of stealth, but you can't attack with it up, so its main use is for adding safety to travel. Phase Shift is more of a panic button since it can only be up for a maximum of 30 seconds.

    Fighting - Since everything should really be under control anyway before we get close to melee, the fighting pool should really be totally unnecessary - we have much better single target attacks in our secondary anyway. We will probably get some sort of armor in an Ancillary Pool at some point anyway if need be.

    Fitness - This old chestnut. Traditionally fitness (stamina in particular) has been recommended for nearly all characters in CoH. Endurance is a commodity in short supply and as soon as you go all guns blazing that blue bar starts shrinking fast - even moreso if you are running toggles. In /Psi we have Drain Psyche however, which if it hits makes Stamina completely skippable. The trick of course being that it might not always hit - especially with it being unable to take accuracy. It's up to you of course but in the balance of things I've found myself being very effective without Stamina - I don't really miss it at all.

    Flight - Flight is a very nice travel power in City of Villains since so many of the zones are huge and being able to sit back and relax as you cross a zone is rather handy - fly is by far the safest travel power. You also get to admire all the nice artwork from the skies. The downside of course is that it is the slowest travel power, so crossing those zones takes much longer. Taking Fly also means you could take Air Superiority for the -fly which helps us hold fliers.

    Leadership - Ahhh - tactics, sweet tactics. This is a great pool for you to take. Tactics gives you a tohit bonus on all your powers, which is a very valuable boost to ensure you get those hits in on the nastier mobs (which of course is when it's likely to be most important). It is currently the only way you can enhance the tohit chance of Drain Psyche (besided yellow inspirations). ToHit buffs work slightly differently from Accuracy Enhancers and are particularly effective when used against mobs with high defence or if something is debuffing your own tohit. It also benefits all your team-mates and of course their pets, meaning they will miss far less often. It also provides protection from confuse (very useful against Circle of Thorn Succubus bosses) and also increases perception (allowing you to see stealthed/invised characters from further away and counteracting -perception attacks like Arachnos Night Widow smoke grenades). I recommend slotting 1 End Redux and 3 ToHit Buffs in Tactics. In order to get tactics however, you need to take at least one of assault or manoeuvres. Assault gives a moderate damage boost to all your powers (and those of your teammates) and also provides taunt resistance which can be useful for PvP. Manoeuvres provides a small defence bonus for everyone which could be tempting, but the base amount is so low since Issue 5 it is barely worth running. Vengeance is an extremely nice buff to everyone's accuracy, damage, defence and also gives status protection, but of course only useful if you haven't been doing your job properly and one of your team-mates has been defeated

    Leaping - Leaping can be a nice pool to take for the Plant/Psi since we are likely to be getting into melee a bit and we can get immobilise and knockback protection from this pool (Combat Jumping and Acrobatics respectively). Acrobatics also gives a small degree of protection from holds. Superjump is one of the faster means of travel but you need to keep your eye out when travelling through dangerous zones as it offers no stealth bonus so landing in a bunch of angry mobs is not advisable.

    Medicine - A possibility for a Plant/Psi who is looking to bring more to a team. The self heal isn't quite so useful since Drain Psyche can give you impressive regeneration if it hits enough people, but Stimulant is a nice status protection and Aid Other / Resuscitate can obviously be useful. If you are doing a good job with your primary though then none of this pool shuold be necessary of course!

    Presence - Very unlikely to be useful unless you are wanting to go for a particular concept build involving fear powers. We are too squishy for provoking things to be a good idea, and our primary controls are far better than the meagre fears this pool offers.

    Speed - Traditionally I have always taken Hasten on my characters as it is such an incredibly good buff (a massive reduction in recharge times on all powers) - especially on Controllers with all their long recharges. Since ED however, and Hasten no longer being perma, I've found the difference between a Hastened and non-Hastened build to be not as great. Thanks to the fast recharge time of Seeds of Confusion a Plant/Psi can actually get along just fine without Hasten. With it of course, you will be even more devestating. If taking it then just slot 3 Recharges - anything more is a waste. Superspeed has a stealth bonus in PvE which can stack with Stealth from the Concealment pool, allowing you to get much closer for Seeds of Confusion and to travel in almost total safety around zones.

    Teleportation - Teleportation can be the fastest method of travel when it is slotted up and so can be very handy for crossing large zones - your slower team-members will love you if you also have Recall Friend to bring them to a mission door on the other side of the map once you get there. Teleport Foe isn't really of much use for a Plant/Psi except in PvP - it's another power that tends to slow you down a fair bit.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    My Build

    I really only include this as an example of how a Plant/Psi can be built - it is by no means a min/maxed build, it is simply how mine suits my gameplay. I have a few extra control options which could probably be ditched for more pool powers if needed (Spore Burst and Roots for example). I also have TK thrust which could be easily skipped or respecced out in favour of something else at higher level (there's just not much else I'd prefer at the moment so I'm saving my repsecs!). I have found that I can run Assault, Tactics and Stealth just fine without stamina since the extra tohit from tactics helps me hit enough mobs with Drain Psyche most of the time. I occasionally miss altogether with it but it's fairly uncommon - and nothing that carrying a couple of blue end insps doesn't solve.

    This is pretty much my build as it is now at level 40 (there are a couple of slotting differences - hindsight is a wonderful thing - but they are so minor I can't be bothered to waste a respec to shuffle a couple of slots).

    Level 1 Strangler - Acc (L1) Acc (L3) Hold (L5) Hold (L7) Rech (L13) Rech (L36)
    Level 1 Psionic Dart - Acc (L1)
    Level 2 Mind Probe - Acc (L2) Dam (L3) Dam (L5) Dam (L7)
    Level 4 Telekinetic Thrust - Acc (L4)
    Level 6 Spore Burst - Acc (L6)
    Level 8 Seeds of Confusion - Acc (L8) Acc (L9) Conf (L9) Conf (L11) Rech (L11) Rech (L13)
    Level 10 Hover - DefBuf (L10)
    Level 12 Stealth - EndRdx (L12)
    Level 14 Fly - EndRdx (L14) Fly (L15) Fly (L15) Fly (L37)
    Level 16 Psychic Scream - Acc (L16) Acc (L17) Dam (L17) Dam (L19) Dam (L21)
    Level 18 Vines - Acc (L18) Acc (L19) Hold (L23) Hold (L23) Rech (L25) Rech (L27)
    Level 20 Drain Psyche - Rech (L20) Rech (L21) Rech (L25) EndMod (L31) EndMod (L36) EndMod (L36)
    Level 22 Assault - EndRdx (L22)
    Level 24 Tactics - EndRdx (L24) ToHit (L34) ToHit (L34) ToHit (L34)
    Level 26 Carrion Creepers - Acc (L26) Rech (L27) Rech (L31) Rech (L37) Acc (L37)
    Level 28 Subdue - Acc (L28) Dam (L29) Dam (L29) Dam (L31)
    Level 30 Roots - Acc (L30)
    Level 32 Fly Trap - Acc (L32) Dam (L33) Dam (L33) Dam (L33) DefDeb (L40)
    Level 35 Vengeance - Range (L35)
    Level 38 Psychic Shockwave - Acc (L38) Dam (L39) Dam (L39) Dam (L39) Rech (L40) Rech (L40)

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Summary

    Plant/Psi is great for the team player. Large teams are where you will really excel since you can offer lots of control and drain psyche works best when faced with lots of mobs to give you a huge +regen and +recov boost. The damage in Psi is reasonable for most of your career and then really hits the big time as you approach 40 and have Psi Shockwave nicely slotted up.

    Hope you find this guide useful and have fun with your Plant/Psi!
  14. _Brev__NA
    [ QUOTE ]
    [ QUOTE ]
    [ QUOTE ]
    We just received tech that will allow players to pass buffs onto certain powers (such as Blizzard).

    [/ QUOTE ] Um...what does this mean exactly?

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Blizzard apparently doesn't benefit from +dmg buffs applied to the user - so, Build Up, Aim, Fortitude, Fulcrum Shift, etc, don't do anything for it.

    I could be mistaken, though.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Please, please, please say that also means Controller APP Ice Storm will now get containment. Pretty please with icing on top... and a cherry... and a Pie.
  15. _Brev__NA

    Eye of Leviathan

    POST-ACTION

    One of the AVs in the Sharkhead Strike Force.
  16. _Brev__NA
    [ QUOTE ]
    I think you have to get a SG badge to unlock the SG Base Mission Computer. My villain group already has it, so it can't be too hard to get. I'll try to dig up what you need to do to earn it.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    It's the one for mentoring others. Doesn't take long to get it if your SG does a lot of sk-ing etc.

    Oh and yes, a group from my SG did the Virgil Tarikoss SF yesterday and didn't get the badger either - I think someone said it is in the patch notes/known issues as broken.
  17. _Brev__NA
    I have written an updated guide that supercedes my old (I4) Mind Control / Kinetics guide. Please include Brev's I6 Guide to Mind Control with Kinetics in the next update - Thanks.
  18. _Brev__NA
    This is my updated guide to the Mind and Kinetics Controller in Issue 6, with Enhancement Diversification. Mind has traditionally been one of the far less popular controllers (probably because it doesn't have a pet like the other sets), but it can be great fun to play and this guide will give you the ins and outs of the powers and how kinetics as a secondary can complement the powerset nicely - especially in Issue 6.

    Issue 5 saw several fundamental changes for controllers, and they have made Mind a lot more potent and therefore popular. Issue 6 has seen the introduction of Enhancement Diversification, which has hit the Mind Controller far less hard than some other builds (since controller primaries in general were already pretty divesely enhanced anyway, and the hit to hasten is less of a factor given we have so many controls available - and Siphon Speed in the kinetics secondary can offset that anyway).

    If you spot any mistakes please let me know and I will try to correct them. Any constructive feedback welcomed.

    What I'll be covering:
    <ul type="square">[*] Mind Control &amp; Kinetics - an introduction[*] Mind Control Powers[*] Kinetics Powers[*] Standard Pool Powers[*] Ancillary Pool Powers[*] My Build[*] Summary[/list]Mind Control &amp; Kinetics - an introduction

    Mind control saw a big increase in interest in Issue 5 for two reasons. First, it has always had a pretty good amount of non-pet damage and so it benefits a lot from the new inherent Containment power which can double up damage done by non-summon powers on any mobs that are held, stunned (aka disoriented), immobilised, or slept. Secondly, Mind was often described as having 'too much control', or rather having so much control that much of it was redundant. With the reduction to Controller lock-down potential in Issue 5 (through reduction of duration and increase in recharge times of most Area controls), Mind remains one of the few controller primaries that can still effectively lock-down larger and multiple groups of mobs thanks to its large selection of area controls, and it will usually always have an area control ready to deal with more mobs if needed.

    Kinetics blooms into a very powerful secondary in the later game when you get access to the prime-time powers of transference (virtually unlimited endurance) and fulcrum shift (capped damage for everyone). Earlier on the powers are less flashy but still very useful, and with the bonus of not needing too much slotting, allowing you to flesh out your primaries and a couple of choice pools (no prizes for guessing which!). Kinetics also gives you the option of foregoing power pool travel powers and using Siphon Speed and/or Inertial Reduction to get you around town.

    Your choice of secondary really comes down to your playstyle and what you want to be bringing to a team. I've seen Mind controllers with each of the secondary options and I don't think any of them are less suitable than others. I chose Kinetics as it is also quite a hands-on set to use and I wanted to have plenty to do It has actually worked out pretty well as I have tools for every occasion and never have a gap in my 'attack' chain. With containment, it also capitalises on the damage capabilities of Issue 5 Mind Control.

    Enhancement Diversification (ED) is basically a system to encourage players to slot more than one aspect of a power, and to avoid one aspect of a power becoming too outrageously powerful (previously you could triple the effectiveness of most of the base effects in the game with 6 single origin enhancers). Although the mechanics of it are slightly more involved, the bottom line is that it is largely pointless to slot more than 3 of the same type of Single Origin enhancement in any one power. The Mind control primary never really had any need to slot more than 3 of one type of enhancement in any powers anyway (except maybe levitate or mesmerize if slotted for damage). There are 4 different 'schedules' that enhancements can fall into, but the vast majority are Schedule A, which is what I will use to explain ED in a bit more detail - feel free to skip to the powers section if this is of no interest!

    With ED, you have two thresholds for any given aspect of a power (for a power that uses Schedule A enhancements, the first threshold is at 70%, the second at 100%). If the total value of your slotted enhancements for one aspect of a power exceeds the first threshold, then the amount over that threshold is only 85% as effective as normal. So if you have 3 even schedule A SOs slotted for one thing, these add up to 3 x +33.33% = +100%. The +30% over 70% is discounted to 85% effectiveness (i.e. +25.5%) so the overall effectiveness of those 3 SOs is +95.5%, instead of +100% it would be without ED. If the total enhancement is higher than the second threshold, then anything over that second threshold is discounted to only 15% of normal (a far higher penalty). So in our example if we slot a 4th SO, the total enhancement value would normally be +133.33%, but only 70% of that is at full effectiveness, 30% is at 85% effectiveness, and the last 33.33% is at only 15% effectiveness (i.e. only +5%). The overall effectiveness of 4 SOs with ED is therefore +100.5% - only a 5% improvement over 3 SO's. The following table gives a quick summary of the total effectiveness of even-level Single Origin Enhancers, before ED and after:

    Pre-ED / Post-ED

    1 SO - +33.33% / +33.33%
    2 SO - +66.67% / +66.67%
    3 SO - +100.00% / +95.50%
    4 SO - +133.33% / +100.50%
    5 SO - +166.67% / +105.50%
    6 SO - +200.00% / +110.50%

    So although the 4th, 5th and 6th SOs do increase the effectiveness of an effect, it is only a very marginal increase, and you are far more likely to get better use out of slotting something else instead (either another aspect of that power or another power).

    The other three schedules work in a very similar way, but the enhancements for those have different base values, and the thresholds are adjusted accordingly (so 3 SOs is still the maximum worth slotting before the extreme penalty is imposed).

    Now that I've given some background to ED, let's look at the powersets...

    Mind Control

    Mind Control can be an extremely powerful control set and is capable of things that no other controller can do. With all of its powers available, it is capable of locking down in theory 5 separate groups of mobs. It is also the subject of a lot of misunderstanding on two main things: confusion and telekinesis.

    Two of mind control's powers are confuses - a single target and a ranged, targeted AoE. Confuse sometimes raises eyebrows because of the 'xp issue'; when a confused mob 'A' deals damage to another mob 'B', it detracts from the xp you (and your team) will earn from mob 'B'. The amount of detraction will depend on how much damage you and your team do to mob B in comparison to the damage done by the confused mob A. Only 25% of the damage that confused mobs deal is actually counted as far as sharing out xp is concerned though, so you actually get proportionally more xp per amount of damage you are dealing when you are aided by confused mobs. If you do half the damage and Mob A does half, then you will get 80% of the xp, but if mob A does all the damage, you will get no xp at all. Of course this doesn't take into account that confused mobs are no threat to you and anything that prevents debt is a massive xp boost! There is an excellent guide by cforce that goes into more detail on confusion. The bottom line is that in most practical situations, confusion actually increases xp gain over time - which is far more relevent than xp per mob in any real sense.

    Telekinesis is another power that divides the Mind Control community - although I think more and more people are coming around to it, thanks in no small part to Hedon's excellent guide. I suggest you read it before deciding whether or not to include TK in your build as it can be very useful. It can be the most powerful hold in the game, but many see it as being far too situational. The more you practise with it though, the less situational it becomes. Issue 5 has seen it limited to affecting 5 mobs at a time, but it is still a very potent power - especially in PvP.

    So, onto the powers...

    Mesmerize (ranged, single target sleep + small damage)
    Available at level 1

    Mesmerize is a useful power to take early on if you are wanting to solo at all as it is a half decent damage attack that also leaves things sleeping (which is a set-up for containment double damage). Although sleeps render mobs defenceless, immobile and unable to take action, they are fragile and if the sleeping target is attacked then the sleep effect is broken until you re-apply it.

    Mesmerize either has a very high chance to critical, or is just Mag 4 in the first place (not absolutely sure on that) which means it will generally sleep a boss with one application. It can form a very effective attack chain with levitate and dominate and between this and dominate you can neutralise a large number of mobs through juggling attacks. For most Mind controllers, taking all three would be a no-brainer, but with a very click-happy secondary like kinetics you may find you fill up the attack chains with things from the secondary - especially things like Siphon Speed.

    Mesmerize has a very long base duration (about a minute) so there is no need to slot it for that, instead put 1-2 accuracies in it and up to 3 damage, depending on how much soloing you expect to be doing.

    Levitate (ranged, single target lift + moderate damage)
    Available: level 1

    Levitate will be your strongest single target attack until the ancillary pools become available and well worth getting as with containment it is a very efficient attack. The lift component is also quite useful as 'ghetto control' as it keeps a mob out of action for a valuable couple of seconds which should be enough to cover dominate or mesmerize's recharge - a nice tactic for bosses when total domination misses or isn't available (Dominate&gt;Levitate&gt;Dominate should be able to prevent counter-attacks from most bosses unless they are knockback resistant). Slot 1-2 Accuracy, and up to 3 damage. If you want to add more slots you can always enhance the knockback, which will send mobs higher into the air, therefore keeping them out of action for longer. If you are using this in an attack chain with Mesmerize then rememeber that the damage levitate does will wake a mob from sleep so it is better to use it before a sleep if possible (although if it is just finishing off a mob it makes no difference of course). The lift component won't work on knockback resistant mobs so be wary of that. Issue 6 sees the introduction of 'ragdoll physics', which is very useful for knockback as mobs now take longer to get back up from knockdowns and knockbacks - we essentially got a free buff. Later when you have fulcrum shift and are likely to be getting very high damage buffs from that anyway, you may consider switching some or all of the damage to knockback, or even respeccing the slots elsewhere altogether.

    Dominate (ranged, single target hold + small damage)
    Available: level 2

    Dominate is your absolute bread and butter as a controller and will be used in every single encounter. Get it and 6 slot it as soon as you can. I recommend 1-2 acc, 2-3 hold, 2 recharge. The damage isn't astounding but it's not too bad, especially with containment and the buffs from your secondary. Holds are far better than sleeps since they cannot be broken by attacking the target, so use this to help lockdown bosses properly. You will generally need to stack two of these on a boss to hold him, although the power does carry a small chance to land a critical and hold them in one hit. When using in an attack chain with levitate and/or mesmerize it is probably best to open with this, then use levitate which will benefit most from the double damage, and then mesmerize which will also get double damage and then leave the target slept as well as held. You can also tackle multiple targets by mezzing them alternately with dominate and mesmerize (and levitate for keeping them off balance if the other powers are recharging). You can slot it for damage if you wish (might be good for the more solo inclined), but personally I look on it as a control power foremost, and any damage you slot in there will compromise the amount of control you can deal out - and later with Fulcrum Shift I really wouldn't bother with slotting it for damage even if you do solo.

    Confuse (ranged, single target confuse)
    Available: level 6

    I briefly mentioned the confuse xp earlier on and I suggest reading cforce's guide if you want to know more, but this is a very useful power for dealing with particularly tricky situations and helps soloing early on. It does lock you into a rather (painfully) long animation but it doesn't draw aggro so is generally safe to use from range for opening an encounter. Confuse has a pretty long base duration, so you should be easily able to stack it to confuse a boss, as long as it doesn't miss. It is also very useful for using against defender/controller type mobs like Banished Pantheon Shamen, Tsoo Sorcerors etc. as it converts them to fight on your side and buff you and your team, while debuffing their friends, and as they don't generally do appreciable damage there is no negative hit on your xp anyway. Confuse is also a handy way of getting straggler mobs to wander into your Telekinesis field (see later) as they have a tendency to wander over to mobs already trapped to attack them and get pulled in themselves. You can get away with a single accuracy but adding a confuse duration or two as well will help keep bosses confused. Building confuse onto a boss gets you no aggro and you can then stack holds on him without him retaliating - this allows you to completely lockdown a particularly nasty boss without him ever taking a shot at you.

    It is also possible to confuse an Archvillain, but the confusion won't take effect until the Archvillain's cycling high mez protection drops (indicated by small purple arrows pointing downwards - they are up when the high protection is in effect). You can still build magnitude on an AV while they have their high protection up and they will be mezzed as soon as the protection drops (this goes for any status power, not just confuse - although immobilises will actually always work on AVs as they don't get enhanced protection from that, not that we have immobilises as a Mind Controller - just useful to know).

    Be aware that the Tactics pool power provides some protection against confuse - this is usually more of a concern in PvP, but CoV introduces mobs that run leadership toggles that may make their way into CoH.

    Mass Hypnosis (ranged, targetted AoE sleep)
    Available: level 8

    Mass Hypnosis can give mind controllers a bad name in the early levels as people equate mass hypnosis with other controllers' aoe disorients or holds, which isn't really what Mass Hypnosis is about at all; it's more of an equivalent to Fire control's smoke - although it also has great utility in terms of containment setup since Issue 5. Although sleeps are broken if mobs are attacked, applying mass hypnosis draws no aggro and so it is useful for laying the ground work before using stronger, aggro generating control powers, or for keeping mobs that are close by out of the action, and for dealing with additional mobs that may have ambushed your team. If you lay down Mass Hypnosis before Total Domination then there is less risk of retaliation from anything you miss with Total Dom, and if used before Telekinesis then the mobs won't get a chance to attack you before getting swept up. It is also a very handy way of setting up temporary containment against a group (temporary because the first attack following will of course wake them all up). Mass Hypnosis' recharge is about the same as Terrify's, so they form a very nice two-hit combo to get double-damage for terrify.

    You can also use fulcrum shift on sleeping mobs without them waking up so this can be extremely useful later on, allowing you to get right into the middle of a group to achieve the maximum buff from fulcrum without them even being aware of you until you actually attack. Mass Hypnosis can't always be relied upon however, as there are certain villain types (e.g. various zombies and most types of robots) that have resistance to sleep and they won't be slept with Mass Hypnosis unless it scores a critical.

    Thanks to sleep's long base duration, mass hypnosis doesn't require too much slotting - 2 accuracies should be enough to overcome the inherent -20% accuracy penalty and give a good hit rate (I have recently seen posts that suggest mass hypnosis doesn't have the standard AoE penalty, but I'm not convinced - you may get away with only 1 accuracy if that it true though). With hasten in effect, it won't quite recharge before it expires, so it is worth slotting 2-3 recharges, especially since you may be using it more often to set-up containment for Terrify, which has a similar recharge.

    Telekinesis (ranged, targetted, autohit toggle hold + repel, anchor-centred cone)
    Available: level 12

    A real love it or hate it power. Some MC's swear by it, others just swear at it. It basically works by slowly repelling the target away from the caster, and catching anything in a small cone behind the target and repelling them away too, while also applying a standard strength hold to everything caught in the effect. Since the effect autohits, there is no chance of it missing which is what makes it so powerful - that, and the fact that the effect remains active until you deactivate the power, run out of end, or the anchor mob is defeated. The tricky part is that the mobs in the effect will also gradually fan out and fall out of the effect, so you need to manoeuvre and use the local geometry (e.g. walls) to keep them in the effect. With practise, you can carefully gather mobs into confined spaces (like corners), where they can either be held in TK indefinitely or pinned with a total domination, for example. It can also be used to just shunt periphery mobs into a clump (pushing extras into a burn patch for example) - it has a reasonably long recharge though, so if you want to do much shunting it might be worth adding a recharge reduction or two.

    It's a really tricky power to master, and when used properly it can completely neutralise a small group of mobs, when used badly it can completely screw things up and may even lead to debt (not good). For that reason if you are going to get it, it is worthwhile getting it pretty early and practising with it when the mobs aren't so scary.

    Previously, the only limit to the number of mobs you could get into the Telekinesis field was your skill with the power, but as of Issue 5 you can only capture a maximum of 5. Although this may seem very low, in practise there aren't that many situations where you'd have many more than that in the effect anyway - and it remains an extremely useful power for building up high hold magnitudes on tough single targets like Elite Bosses, Monsters, and AV's, and for use in PvP - particularly against dangerous melee opponents like scrappers and tanks (although some are able to resist the repel effect and most will have high resistance to the hold component too).

    I won't go into anymore details as Hedon's guide is far better than anything I could come up with. If you are going to get it I would recommend slotting 3 endurance reductions - slotting for recharge can also be beneficial in case you want to re-apply it during a fight.

    Total Domination (ranged, targetted AoE hold)
    Available: level 18

    Total Domination is another very important power of the set and should be 6-slotted immediately. Again, I recommend 2 acc, 2 hold, 2 rech. Although it has been severely reduced in effectiveness with Issue 5, it will still be able to keep a large group of mobs incapacitated long enough for you to lock down the most dangerous of them with single target mezzes and later on, it will allow you to get a fulcrum shift in and a couple of AoE attacks (if you have taken one from an APP). Mass Hypnosis can be used either as an opener before Total Domination to reduce the chance of aggro from missed mobs, or as a follow up just as the Hold is wearing off, to give you some extra time to lock down any particularly dangerous looking mobs. Bosses require two hold powers to hit before they are overcome and total domination + dominate is the usual method of accomplishing this. Technically, each of those powers has a chance to land a critical hold which will hold a boss in one hit, but that is pretty rare and certainly can't be relied upon. Telekinesis can also be used as the extra layer of hold.

    Terrify (ranged, cone fear, -tohit + small damage)
    Available: level 26

    Terrify is an excellent power and provides yet another aoe control method for the mind controller, as well as a very reasonable damage output - especially with containment. Although the base damage is only the same as mesmerize or dominate, it can hit up to 16 mobs at once in its huge cone, and so it quickly adds up. Although Fear won't set-up containment, if you use Terrify on mobs that are already slept, held or otherwise contained (perhaps by a team-mate), its already considerable damage is doubled up, giving you rather significant AoE damage. Mass Hypnosis has a very similar recharge to Terrify and so can be used very effectively just before Terrify to set-up containment, and although they will wake up if hit, they will be left feared by Terrify.

    Terrify will give you a high degree of soloability as it can take care of the minions while you levitate/mesmerize/dominate the lt's and the odd boss. Feared mobs will cower where they are and attack only once when attacked (including the initial attack of terrify), and then go back to cowering - so it operates as a sort of ghetto area hold in most circumstances. Feared mobs may flee in terror a short distance when they get low on health but it is actually hilarious to watch a crey power tank running off, waving its arms in the air and screaming . Terrify also debuffs mobs' accuracy, although not by much (and not really worth enhancing).

    It is worth slotting Terrify with 1-2 acc, 2-3 recharge (try to match it with Mass Hypnosis' recharge for maximum containment benefit) and then the rest damage. Once you have fulcrum shift you will be getting high damage buffs anyway and may well be hitting the damage cap in large teams with lots of mobs to buff off. Fear has a decent enough base duration so enhancing that aspect isn't really required, even after Issue 5. One major villain group to watch out for though is Nemesis: all of them have boss level resistance to fear and confuse and so you would need two stacked hits of Terrify to successfully fear them, which you won't generally be able to keep up.

    Mass Confusion (ranged, targetted AoE confuse)
    Available: level 32

    The ultimate Mind Control power: Mass Confusion. This power is the subject of so many threads on mind control. It basically boils down to this: mass confuse isn't a pet or a pet subsitute, so don't try thinking of it like that. What it is, is another control power to add to a Mind Controller's arsenal, and another non-aggro drawing one at that. It is useful for covering the gap when total domination runs out and the mobs begin attacking again, it can also be used very effectively in conjunction with Terrify (when feared and confused, mobs cower until hit and then hit each other once and go back to cowering) and later on with fireball or psionic tornado. It is also another means of neutralising another group of mobs if need be and a useful panic button. It is basically confuse, but in a huge AoE effect (like other AoE's though, it is limited to affecting 16 mobs at a time) - it has a much shorter casting animation than standard confuse too.

    In my experience of using the power I never really see my experience per minute reduce and in fact it usually goes up (from the herostats program). This is of course besides the fact that it also offers extra safety for my team and so reduces the chance of debt accumulation. I think it's a great power and certainly quite good fun to use. I have mine 6 slotted (2 acc, 1 confuse, 3 recharge). Again, Nemesis are a real pain as Mass Confuse will have no effect on them on its own (barring the occasional critical confuse) - I just tend to avoid them.

    Mass Confusion wasn't changed in Issue 5 (aside from the # of mobs it can affect), as it already had twice the recharge of the AoE holds, so now it is on an even footing with them in terms of recharge, but actually has a longer duration. It now makes good sense to alternate use of Total Domination and Mass Confuse as they have the same base recharge. You might want to add in Mass Hypnosis when using Mass Confuse to get Containment benefits from Terrify or APP damage attacks.

    Another benefit of Mass Confusion is that it tends to clump together an initially spread out group of mobs - they will tend to cluster as they attack each other, which can make it a nice opener to use before Fulcrum Shift, perhaps followed with a Mass Hypnosis to contain them before unleashing a Terrify or FireBall on them.

    Kinetics

    Kinetics is mainly about debuffing the mobs' damage, speed and recharge, while buffing that of you and your team-mates. It also has a couple of other useful and not so useful powers. Kinetics dramatically speeds up the arrest rate of any team and it will make you very popular with just about everybody - especially in Issue 6! What it does lack is any form of defense buffing for your team; as controllers this isn't of too much concern as we have other (better) ways of mitigating damage anyway - and the damage debuff helps in that regard anyway. Siphon Speed got a nice improvement in Issue 4 (attack rate was added to the movement speed debuff/buff) which really helps - especially for mitigating the increased recharges in Issue 5 and the hit to Hasten with ED in Issue 6. The kinetics line really shines with its last two powers which, as controllers, we get quite late on at levels 35 and 38 - but the wait is definitely worth it. The only downside about the powerset really is that many of the powers require a tohit roll on a mob in order to work, and they can have a nasty tendency to miss just when you need them the most! For that reason the Leadership pool for tactics can be a worthwhile investment if you can fit it in. Well, onto the powers...

    Transfusion (ranged, single target minor end drain -Regen, AoE ally heal)
    Available: level 1

    You don't have a choice and have to get this power but that's not a problem as it's great; the biggest aoe heal in the game, it is really good right out of the box. Worth slotting up but you can leave doing so until later on - better to slot up your controls first as prevention is better than a cure. It drains minimal endurance from the target (not really worth slotting, even in Issue 6), but since Issue 4 it also debuffs their hitpoint regeneration rate which makes it very useful against AVs or in PvP - even if no-one needs a heal. I recommend 1-2 acc and then up to 3 heals when you have space to do so in your build, the base recharge duration is very short so no need to enhance that, and the endurance cost is quite low too.

    Siphon Power (ranged, single target -dmg, PBAoE +dmg)
    Available: level 2

    I have found Siphon Power to be pretty useful throughout my career - it is a nice damage buff early on (+20% per hit) and even in the late game it is useful for its debuff aspect (-20% per hit) when tackling AVs - it stacks with itself, and with fulcrum shift, allowing you to reduce an AV's damage output to a fraction of its normal amount. It requires minimal additional slotting (if any) - I would recommend 1-2 accuracy and maybe a recharge if you aren't taking Siphon Speed so you can keep two buffs up as often as possible.

    Repel (toggle PBAoE melee knockback field)
    Available: level 4

    This power is a bit of an odd one as it doesn't really work well with the rest of the set - it's certainly not what you want running if you want to run in to get a buff from transference or fulcrum shift as it will send all the mobs flying. The main problem is that it doesn't really do anything very useful - it's not much good for personal protection as it won't stop mobs getting off an attack on you before they get flung away, and it also costs a fair bit of endurance (it has a base per second cost as well as costing extra end whenever it hits a mob - although this per mob cost was recently reduced). It has limited utility as a mob repositioning power, but we have TK in the primary which does that much more elegantly (although Repel can be used to toss extra mobs into a TK field with practise). It does look very snazzy when it's running though If you do take it, slot it with a couple of endurance reducers.

    Siphon Speed (ranged, single target -speed -rech, self +speed +rech)
    Available: level 10

    Siphon Speed got a really nice improvement in Issue 4 and now debuffs/buffs attack rate (by 20% per hit for controllers) as well as movement speed - its base recharge also got lowered to allow you to stack it. It is very nice for slowing down mobs and particularly effective against AVs and in PvP. The attack rate bonus is of course very nice too (although should really be a complement to Hasten rather than a replacement - especially with I5's increased recharge times on our Primary AoE's). With Siphon Speed you will be able to keep Hasten up a lot more often (although still not quite perma since ED in Issue 6).

    Siphon Speed can also be used as an alternative to getting a pool travel power as it effectively gives you Super Speed (it will cap with two applications), but it doesn't have the stealth component that Super Speed has. It also requires a tohit on a mob so will make travelling in areas high for your level rather more dangerous - you can use Mass Hypnosis to sleep mobs before attempting to Siphon them which can be safer (it doesn't wake sleeping mobs), although if they are high enough to be a problem for Siphon Speed, Mass Hypnosis is likely to miss too (but at least it won't draw aggro like Siphon Speed will). In my earlier levels I had Super Speed and not Siphon Speed, but later on (and after Issue 4) I respecced and dropped Super Speed for Siphon. If you can manage until Lvl 28 with the possibly riskier travel of Siphon Speed then you should be golden as Inertial Reduction doesn't have a tohit requirement and can be an effective travel power even if Siphon Speed has missed. I recommend 1-2 accuracy and 3 recharge.

    Increase Density (single ally +Res(smash/energy/hold/disorient/immob/knockback) -speed)
    Available: level 16

    Increase Density is a nice buff for clearing mez effects on an ally, but unfortunately has a rather short duration (1 minute) so is a pain to try and keep up on more than a couple of people. The only time I use it for preventative measures is before going up against mobs that would be known to be troublesome. I normally just use it to clear people from a mez effect. The +Res component isn't terribly useful either due to the 1 minute duration of the buff - it can be nice in PvP though for mitigation against powers like Total Focus for your team-mates.

    If you have room then definitely take it, but don't feel you have to - with your primary you should be able to prevent people from being mezzed anyway (in PvE at least). It's not worth slotting anything extra anyway - either put an end reduction or a damage resistance in the default slot. If it had the same duration as Speed Boost then it would be worth taking without question (not really sure why it doesn't really). The slow aspect of the power isn't particularly bad and in fact is quite handy to offset Speed Boost's movement speed buff.

    Speed Boost (ranged, single ally +speed +rech +endrec)
    Available: level 20

    Speed Boost is one of the nicest buffs in the game - it massively boosts endurance recovery, movement speed, and reduces recharge durations for all the receiving ally's powers - it's pure joy for your team-mates in Issue 6. In fact the only drawback of the Speed Boost is, ironically, the speed boost In maps like caves it can actually be a pain to be super speedy. Most people seem to be able to cope with that aspect though, given its other attributes. Doesn't need much slotting at all - the only thing you really need to throw in there is end modification (the new combo enhancement for recovery and drain), as it recharges almost instantaneously anyway. It's perfectly good with just the default slot, but if you have space in your build you can add a couple more slots to make your team-mates even more addicted to it. Before transference however, it might be an idea to add an endurance cost reduction if you are in large teams a lot of the time.

    Inertial Reduction (PBAoE +superjump)
    Available: level 28

    The true pool travel power alternative. Unlike Siphon Speed, IR doesn't require a tohit and is therefore much safer to use. Of course it works even better in combination with Siphon Speed to give you both vertical and horizontal speed. IR is a click power that will refresh before it expires even without Hasten, allowing you to put just a jump enhancer in the default slot. It also has the benefit of giving temporary superjump to everyone close to you when you fire it off too. The only pain is its fairly short duration, so you will generally have to refresh it at least once per zone - more if it's a particularly large zone.

    Transference (ranged, single target end drain, AoE ally end recover)
    Available: level 35

    Transference will pretty much eliminate all your endurance woes. With a bit of slotting it will completely fill the endurance bars of everyone close to the mob you hit with it, at the same time that mob will be heavily drained. Mobs have varying degrees of resistance to end drain so some will be completely drained, while others will require additional hits. AV's can never be drained as they have huge end drain resistance. Endurance Recovery enhancers and Endurance Drain enhancers had the same effect when slotted in transference (anything which increased the drain on the mob's side, also buffed the recovery on your side, and vice versa) and now the two types have been combined into one type (Endurance Modification) anyway. I recommend 1-2 acc, 1-2 rech, 3 endurance modification.

    Fulcrum Shift (ranged, targetted AoE -dmg, AoE ally +dmg, PBAoE +dmg)
    Available: level 38

    The ultimate kinetics power, and one that will make your team-mates salivate with... well just salivate really. Anyone within melee range of the mobs near your target will get a 20% damage buff for each mob that this power hits, and everyone near you will get a single 40% damage buff as well. At the same time, all the mobs it hits are damage debuffed by 20%. If everyone (including you) is in melee range when you fire it off then you will get people very close to (if not at) the damage cap. As of Issue 5, the number of mobs this power will hit in one go is limited to 10, but this still gets you all a buff of 240% if you are in range of all 10. That requires only minimal slotting for damage on powers to reach the cap for most AT's. With hasten you can stack it with itself anyway, but a couple of extra recharge in there won't go amiss - with Fulcrum stacked, you will generally have the whole team at their respective damage caps. I have 1 acc (with tactics), 3 rech which means it pops up very frequently. The endurance cost is pretty small so no need to slot for end rdx. It can be worth setting up a bind to warn people you are about to let loose with fulcrum as it allows squishies to dart in momentarily to grab the mob-buff too - which should be perfectly safe to do if you've got everything locked down. As mentioned earlier, Fulcrum Shift won't wake sleeping mobs and so Mass Hypnosis makes a handy opener to allow everyone to get in close to get the buff before you use a more potent mez on the mobs. Fulcrum Shift works particularly well with containment, since the double damage is applied *after* all other damage buffs, allowing you to unleash attacks at twice your normal damage cap if you have the mobs appropriately mezzed first. I recommend 1-2 accuracies, 2-3 recharge.

    Standard Pool Powers

    You can choose from a maximum of four of them and I would highly recommend Fitness and Speed are two of them. Others that could be very handy are leadership (tactics will help with all your tohit powers), and possibly a travel pool if you aren't wanting to use Siphon Speed/Inertial Reduction for getting around. Concealment might be useful if it fits your playstyle.

    Concealment - This power pool is one I haven't actually had a great deal of experience with. I generally found that mass hypnosis is good for blinkie hunting (sleeping mobs close to a blinkie). Might be useful for the arena if you are that way inclined, or if you particularly like it for some reason. All of mind control's powers are ranged and many are non-aggro, so it isn't often you'll need to close to within normal aggro range of mobs anyway.

    Fighting - Since everything should really be under control anyway before we get close to melee, the fighting pool should really be totally unnecessary - we also have perfectly good single target attacks that are ranged.

    Fitness - Controllers, in general, are big endurance users, and Mind is no exception - especially if you are thinking of using TK at all. It's a long wait till Transference and Stamina is going to make your life soooo much more bearable. Please take it and slot it with 3 endurance modification (anymore than that is a waste in Issue 6). I would recommend taking swift as it makes manoeuvring around for TK easier and then either one of hurdle or health. Even after you get transference it is worth keeping stamina since you won't always want to be getting into melee range for the transference buff (you may be using it from range to buff allies) and of course it sometimes misses. For AV fights for example you probably just want to stand back and throw in buffs for melee team-mates from a safe distance.

    Flight - Flight can be quite a good travel power for the mind controller as it allows an extra dimension of movement to use with telekinesis. As a kineticist you can of course opt for that extra dimensional movement via Inertial Reduction but it will be less precise than hover/fly. Siphon Speed works very nicely with Hover as it increases your flight speed, while taking advantage of Hover's low endurance cost and more precise positioning.

    Leadership - Ahhh - tactics, sweet tactics. This is a great pool for you to take. Slotted tactics (I recommend 1 endrdx, 3 tohit buff) is roughly equivalent to an extra accuracy DO (or low level SO) in all your powers, which is a very valuable boost to ensure you get those hits in on the nastier mobs (which of course is when it's likely to be most important). ToHit buffs work slightly differently from Accuracy Enhancers and are particularly effective when used against mobs with defence buffs or if something is debuffing your own tohit. It also benefits all your team-mates and of course their pets, meaning they will miss far less often. It also provides protection from confuse and also increases perception (allowing you to see stealthed/invised characters from further away). In order to get tactics however, you need to take at least one of assault or manoeuvres. Although fulcrum shift will often be capping your damage making Assault seem worthless, it can be a handy boost when in smaller teams or solo, as you probably won't have as many mobs around to buff from - it also provides taunt resistance which can be useful for PvP. Manoeuvres provides a small defence bonus for everyone which could be tempting, but the base amount is so low since Issue 5 it is barely worth running. Vengeance is a very nice buff but of course only useful if you haven't been doing your job properly and one of your team-mates has been defeated

    Leaping - Since you can get perma Super Jump using Inertial Reduction, the only reason to take this pool is if you are desperate for immob/knockback protection from combat jumping/acrobatics. As a Mind/Kin, all of our powers are ranged so it doesn't really matter if we get knocked about occasionally so there is little point in taking this pool apart from PvP concerns.

    Medicine - Pretty pointless for us as a /Kin - we already have an excellent heal and Increase Density will break an ally out of most mezzes. Only possible reason to get it really is for the rez - again something you shouldn't need if doing your primary job properly

    Presence - Completely pointless for us so don't even bother. Let the melee'ers take the aggro of anything (if anything) you haven't held yet. The only reason it could be conceivably useful is for the 3rd and 4th powers for stacking with Terrify - but we have controls coming out of our ears as it is already.

    Speed - I have already mentioned hasten earlier on, and although it can't be perma in Issue 6 with ED, I still strongly recommend it as it is very useful when it is up. The +Rech of Siphon Speed is nice bonus (20% recharge reduction on all powers for each hit) but still not a patch on Hasten (70% recharge reduction while active). Superspeed can be a convenient travel power to take if you've already taken Hasten and you don't want to rely on a tohit for Siphon Speed.

    Teleportation - Well if you really want to port around then it's a very fast travel power, but as a travel power it isn't much use in combat. One power in the pool that can be very useful though is Teleport Foe, as it can be used to effortlessly drop extra mobs into a TK field.

    Ancillary Pools

    You can only choose from one of them but they offer some interesting opportunities for us Mind/Kins.

    Stone Mastery - A very strong single target attack in hurl boulder (which becomes even nicer when fulcrum shifted and contained of course) Fissure is an aoe disorient which unfortunately we have nothing to stack with so it will only get Lt's and minions. Each of the controller ancillary pools offer a toggle personal shield of some sort which is either a +DEF or +RES to Smash/Lethal and some have a bonus Resistance to other damage types. They are handy for us /Kins as we can now afford to run into melee to grab some of those nice buffs even if everything isn't locked down yet. Stone's rock armor offers defense against smash and lethal with no additional damage resistance bonus. Earth's embrace should hopefully be pointless for us as we shouldn't have been getting hit that much anyway given our primary lockdown abilities, but it is a nice self buff, giving us extra hitpoints (and correspondingly higher hitpoint regeneration) for its duration.

    Fire Mastery - Basically the one to take if you want to improve your damage output, thanks to fireball and fire blast. Fulcrum shifted FireBall and Fire Blast will give you a very good damage output which becomes extremely powerful when benefitting from Containment as well. Very few things will be left standing from a Fulcrum'd Contained FireBall followed by Terrify. It also gives you a nice spread of damage types as virtually nothing will be resistant to smash, fire and psionic. Consume is a nice end recovery power in its own right, but we already have transference which completely outshines it so it is basically redundant - the only benefit it has is that it works off multiple targets so if you miss one it doesn't really matter, whereas transference is an all or nothing. Fire shield offers base 27.5% resistance to smashing and lethal damage, 20% resistance to fire and a small 10% resistance to cold - well worth slotting (1 endrdx, 3 damage resist) if you take it, but you may choose not to if you are confident in your lockdown abilities.

    Ice Mastery - A decent single target attack and a shield that gives 30% resistance to cold, 10% resistance to fire damage in addition to smash/lethal defense. Hibernate is very useful for recovery if you have no mobs to buff off, but with even a single minion around you can completely fill your blue and green bars with transference and transfusion. Ice storm is an ok area effect damage, but it is a summon and so doesn't benefit from either containment or fulcrum shift - it also does its damage over time and causes mobs to flee out of its effect, and the only area controls we have that will stop them doing so are Total Domination and Telekinesis, so it doesn't synergise very well with either our primary or secondary. Slot it for 3 damage, 3 recharge if you do get it.

    Primal Forces - As a Kineticist, Transference already alleviates most, if not all of our endurance worries and so Conserve Power is a bit redundant. Power Boost will massively enhance the secondary effects of all your powers. This means that your mezzes will last an additional two-times base longer than usual, and your buffs will be doubled in effectiveness. With the number of controls available to Mind, this is perhaps not quite as valauable as it is to some other controller primaries, but if you do take it then you will be able to wreak utter domination with your various mezzes. Temp Invulnerability gives a good resistance (30%) to smash/lethal (but no further bonus resistances). Power blast is a decent attack with a good chance to knockback which can be used quite well in conjunction with TK to get more mobs into the field of effect.

    Psionic Mastery - In general, another great set for controllers to choose from. The two very tempting powers here are Indomitable Will, which gives very good status protection and defense from psionic damage for its duration, and Mind Over Body which gives Resistance to smash/lethal (27.5%) and psionic (20%) attacks. The single target mental blast is a nice, although slow, single target attack (especially fulcrum shifted), and Psionic tornado gives a respectable AoE damage attack with a knockup which complements Terrify quite nicely for added damage output. Both psi attacks benefit from containment. Psi Mastery has been a favourite in PvP, but remember that IW can no longer be perma, which leaves quite a big gap in status protection - it also doesn't protect against immobilisation, which could make you vulnerable to other controllers and their containment (combat jumping can be used to cover the immob weakness though).

    My Build

    I really only include this as an example of how a Mind/Kin can be built - it is by no means a min/maxed build, it is simply how mine has evolved to suit my gameplay. I have plenty of spare control which could be substituted for whatever pool powers you might want, and it is much more geared for team play. I used to have the Psi Mastery pool, but found I didn't really need the protection from IW most of the time (and just carry a couple of break frees for the few occasions I get mezzed) and with containment, the draw of the fire mastery pool was too much I also wanted to squeeze in Tactics and didn't want to drop any of the powers I really like from the primary and secondary so I opted out of Fire Shield and Consume.

    This is pretty much the same as my build as it stands at the moment at level 50, taking into account Enhancement Diversification (my build differs slightly as I respecced and pushed confuse to level 47 so I could fit tactics in earlier for exemping purposes). You could probably run this without any respecification right from level 1, but if you are wanting more solo-ability you would probably need to move some slotting around (Total Dom could be slotted later for example if you solo a lot), and it would probably be worth taking Mesmerize too.

    Level 1 Levitate - Acc (L1) Dam (L17) Dam (L17) Dam (L37) Knock (L50) Knock (L50)
    Level 1 Transfusion - Acc (L1) Heal (L7) Heal (L31) Heal (L34)
    Level 2 Dominate - Acc (L2) Acc (L3) Hold (L3) Hold (L5) Rech (L5) Rech (L7)
    Level 4 Siphon Power - Acc (L4) Acc (L50)
    Level 6 Confuse - Acc (L6)
    Level 8 Mass Hypnosis - Acc (L8) Acc (L9) Rech (L9) Rech (L11)
    Level 10 Siphon Speed - Acc (L10) Rech (L11) Rech (L13) Rech (L15) Acc (L43)
    Level 12 Hasten - Rech (L12) Rech (L13) Rech (L15)
    Level 14 Swift - Run (L14)
    Level 16 Hurdle - Leap (L16)
    Level 18 Total Domination - Acc (L18) Acc (L19) Hold (L19) Hold (L21) Rech (L21) Rech (L23)
    Level 20 Stamina - EndMod (L20) EndMod (L23) EndMod (L25)
    Level 22 Speed Boost - EndMod (L22) EndMod (L40) EndMod (L40)
    Level 24 Telekinesis - EndRdx (L24) EndRdx (L25) EndRdx (L31) Rech (L46) Rech (L46) Rech (L46)
    Level 26 Terrify - Acc (L26) Acc (L27) Rech (L27) Rech (L29) Dam (L29) Dam (L31)
    Level 28 Inertial Reduction - Jump (L28)
    Level 30 Assault - EndRdx (L30)
    Level 32 Mass Confusion - Acc (L32) Acc (L33) Conf (L33) Rech (L33) Rech (L34) Rech (L34)
    Level 35 Transference - Acc (L35) Rech (L36) Rech (L36) EndMod (L36) EndMod (L37) EndMod (L37)
    Level 38 Fulcrum Shift - Acc (L38) Acc (L39) Rech (L39) Rech (L39) Rech (L40)
    Level 41 Fire Ball - Acc (L41) Acc (L42) Dam (L42) Dam (L42) Dam (L43) Rech (L43)
    Level 44 Fire Blast - Acc (L44) Dam (L45) Dam (L45) Dam (L45)
    Level 47 Tactics - EndRdx (L47) ToHit (L48) ToHit (L48) ToHit (L48)
    Level 49 Increase Density - DamRes (L49)

    Summary

    Mind/Kinetics is great for the team player. Large teams are where you will really excel since you can offer so much control and fulcrum shift works best when faced with lots of mobs to cap everyone's damage. Teams will absolutely love you for speed boost and your other kinetics powers, on top of your primary control abilities. With containment, Mind Control can do rather well solo, but no-one will be there to appreciate your terrific skills

    Hope you find this guide useful and have fun with your Mind/Kineticist!
  19. _Brev__NA
    I think Manticore always set the level to the highest member of the group (and possibly Numina too - but her's is only over 3 levels anyway), but all the lower level 'original' ones have always been set to the upper level limit of the task force regardless of the level of the team for as long as I've been doing Task Forces (since before Issue 1). Can't remember which type the Striga ones are.

    The only change to the levels of the task forces that I'm aware of is the reduction by 1 level of the upper limit for the first four TF's when auto-exemp was introduced.
  20. _Brev__NA
    Yes you are wrong

    2.7% is 0.027, but your calculations are as if you are using 0.027% - which is 0.00027!

    You calculate the percentage *either* by dividing by 2.7 and then multiplying the answer by 100, *or* you just divide by 0.027 in the first place.
  21. _Brev__NA
    [ QUOTE ]
    Q7: How does Rent work?
    A7: Rent is a regressive "tax" on the total value of assets belonging to your supergroup. Once bases are enabled, your group will face a regular (as of this writing, it's not clear wether it's biweekly or monthly) tax on your assets. This tax must be paid at the same contact you used to register your supergroup. The assets used for calculating this tax include not just what you own in your base, but also "banked" Prestige as well! The tax rate begins at 1%, and increases to a maximum of around 3.5% at a gross amount of Prestige (170million).

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Great FAQ - thanks.

    Just so I can get this straight in my head, is the cost of maintaining a base basically between 1% and 3.5% of the total amount your base is worth (plus any prestige), per two weeks (or whatever the period ends up being)?

    So a larger (and/or secure) plot will cost you more rent, on top of the initial cost of upgrading the plot?
  22. _Brev__NA
    Which of these is "The Temple of the Waters Strike Force", which is mentioned in the Test Server patch notes for 31Oct as being 'fixed to award the badge'? I know the patch has been subsequently removed but I was more interested in the SF it mentioned as I hadn't heard of it before - I guess it's one of the others under a different name, but I'm not sure. Could be Renault's if it concerns water?
  23. _Brev__NA
    If it gets lieuts too then it is Mag 3, not Mag 2. Mag 4 powers are what get bosses in one hit.

    Very nice guide though!
  24. _Brev__NA
    My old Fire/FF guide is now superceded by my new Issue 5 guide which now includes the Sonic Resonance secondary too: Brev's I5 Guide to Fire Control with FF or Sonics
  25. _Brev__NA

    Missed Patch Note

    POST-ACTION

    [ QUOTE ]
    As has been proven time and again, they can make PvP changes independent of PvE.
    Please stop this "Waah waah pee vee pee is ruining mai game!111!!!!!fordfocus" rhetoric.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Ermmm... I didn't say it was - in fact I mentioned earlier that I don't find the change that bad (not that I play rad much myself, I team with a lot of them though). I just wish the devs would be honest as to their reasoning behind the change, because the one they are claiming at the moment simply doesn't make sense - resist debuffs are in no way equivalent to defensive powers, in PvE at least.

    Why would they change the resist debuff of Enervating Field (which is in essence a damage buff) but not change Tar Patch, Freezing Rain, Fulcrum Shift or a multitude of other damage buffing powers?