AWOL_Wallus

Why settle for one mob'ss worth of buff off fulcrum and what you can get out of power siphon for your pets? Max dmg with melee pets and less defence with earth powers still works more synergistically. Not to mention the big perk everyone raves about with illusion is sprectral wounds with all the pet damage... if you aren't in range of all the mobs for fulcrum in order to give your phantasms the default one buff icon worth of fulcrum, you'll be doing considerably less damage with sprectral wounds. The tactics don't add up.

And I've seen PA's more than once use energy torrent.

I play a lvl 38 kinetics/electric defender, and I've had a lot of unpleasant groups with illusion/x controllers. Sure, illusion has the most potential for damage early on, but the thing you aren't considering is it doesn't work that synergistically with kinetics. Phantom Army & Phastasm (and it's pets) all have knock back attacks. Most people look at that as a defensive perk but when you consider how badly it effects the efficency of fulcrum by spreading the mobs out... The two power sets just don't go together. You can't buff phantom army, and when I've tried to buff phantasm decoy's they suddenly die. Unless you were to take group teleport, it would be very difficult to bring the phantasms themselves into range to be buffed by fulcrum shift.

... So, basically... "I'm not drinking the kool-aid."

Earth powers work more synergistically with kinetics, the -def from all the immobilization, disorient, sleep, and hold powers mesh for more offense while increasing the chances of your kinetics powers of landing. The pets are more apt to get in close for fulcrum & transfusion while they don't knock them all over the place... The quicksand power will even let you run like a little girl from the (now slowed) bosses that you don't immediately lock down...

/em goes off to making 'troller toon called "Rolling Stone"