EmperorSteele

Right off the bat, I'm going to have to chide you for slotting for mez enhancement on your ST attacks. You DO realize that in a team or league setting, nothing is going to stay alive longer than 10 seconds anyway, right (anything that does is going to be impossible to lock down anyway)? If you go this route, you're only going to hurt yourself and your team with your complete inability to contribute damage. Slotting one or two mez enhances in your powers is okay, but having played a Mind/Tim with only half her enhancements for 25 levels, I can tell you that any soloing or small-team situations is going to suck HARD without damage enhancement.

Distortion field: BAD place to put hold duration sets. You're set-muling, and that's cool... however, you're not gonna get a whole lot of utility out of the set there: The hold only has a TWO PERCENT chance of going off; it's auto-hit if it does; and you've managed to make the hold 12 seconds long (up from 6 seconds).

In fact, that's my major problem with this entire build: you've got a lot of great sets, but you can't DO anything with all that recharge and accuracy because you have no attack strength. Even with containment damage, it's essentially like doing damage without containment, which puts you still at the bottom of the pack.

Now granted, you can make a compelling argument that a controller's damage in large-team situations is superfluous... maybe just as much so as your ability to lock down foes for more time than it takes for a few AoEs to go off. However, more often than not, you're going to find yourself in a situation where damage is king, and all the mez duration in the world isn't going to help. Here's an anecdote from just last night:

I was on an ITF. Last mission ended, so a scrapper and I start farming the rest of the baddies (all +2). Using the build I posted, I managed to slaughter the mobs, SOLO (the scrapper handled the other half of the map), though I had to take a little extra time on bosses and EBs. The build you posted would not be able to do that. No AoE damage, no direct damage, just mez vs highly mez-resistant enemies. You serve a team better by being well-rounded and being able to take care of yourself, not focusing solely on one thing.

Your self-utility and sustainability is also lacking. One enhancer in Stamina is -not- enough for Mind OR Time, let alone both of them (one major problem my build has is bad end management... that's WITH stamina AND the +end proc AND power-boosted Chrono Shift AND Conserve power!). Chrono Shift isn't slotted for ANY end mod (which is the more important thing to slot for; you already HAVE a heal, teammates will appreciate the +end and +Recovery more than a heal). And you have no end reduction in your armor toggle. Point being, if you keep having to stop to pop blues (or rest if you're out of insps), you won't be doing your team any good.

This build would be very nice in a medium sized PuG full of new players, where you have to keep foes locked down or everyone's gonna diiiieeee!!! (=P). But you won't be in that situation most times, so honestly, I don't see this toon being very fun to play.

There is one other factor: COST. You're looking at a build that's going to be over SIX BILLION INFLUENCE to fund. You can mitigate some of that by buying sets with real money/paragon points, but just to get about a third of what you need (not everything is available in the paragon market) is going to cost about ~5800 Paragon Points, and that's not including however many super packs you'll have to buy to get the ATIOs. You could go the merits/A-Merits/I-Merits route, but it's going to take a LOOOONG time to save up for everything.

Yeah, damage sets are just as expensive; I used a combination of inf (from my other characters), Paragon Points, Merits and A-Merits to get everything, so it's not impossible. However, for a build that's as... un-fun as this one looks like it might be, I don't think it'll be worth it =/

Yogi, if you want an attack chain on a controller, go with Mind or Grav. Pair Mind up with /Dark if you want a pet, or Kin if you want the extra damage =)

I don't recommend skipping Levitate... maybe respec out of it later on, but you'll need it to keep up an attack chain in early levels.

I just got a Mind/Time to 50 (Literally just. Like 2 days ago), and it was... interesting. It felt clunky and slow compared to my Incarnate and IO'd out Mind/Kin, however it's got some great tricks up its sleeve (also I may have neglected fully enhancing my character after level 25 >_>).

Here's my build I'm working on: the keystone is the damage procs in Distortion field. Total dom (or Mass confu), lay down the field, go pick on another group of baddies, and half of them are usually dead by the time i get back to mop up.

In fights vs hard single targets, you're gonna be spamming Time Crawl and Time stop (which in the build below i use for a set mule). not a lot of time for damage as both powers wear off pretty fast.

Also, if you want to build for anything, go for about 15-20% melee defense (I haven't done that here, because i'd rather have acc/recharge bonuses). That way you can wade into mobs with Time's Juncture on, pop Farsight (use Power-boost first!) and effectively be well above the defense soft-cap (Without any enhancements or boosts, an even con minion inside the Juncture field while you have Farsight on only has a 29% chance to hit you. Less if they're affected by Time Crawl, and much less if you're using enhancements) This will keep you and your team fully safe. Of course, your one damage AoE is a cone, so you may have to step back out of combat to use it on the most number of foes.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.957
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Patricia Ivanova: Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Mind Control
Secondary Power Set: Time Manipulation
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Primal Forces Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Mesmerize

• (A) Devastation - Chance of Hold
• (3) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
• (15) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (23) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
• (29) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 1: Time Crawl

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 2: Temporal Mending

• (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance
• (3) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge
• (5) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
• (7) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
• (7) Doctored Wounds - Heal

Level 4: Levitate

• (A) Apocalypse - Damage
• (5) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge
• (9) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (13) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Recharge
• (45) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance

Level 6: Dominate

• (A) Devastation - Chance of Hold
• (9) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
• (11) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (33) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
• (33) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 8: Time's Juncture

• (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance
• (11) Dark Watcher's Despair - Recharge/Endurance
• (15) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance

Level 10: Temporal Selection

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 12: Confuse

• (A) Malaise's Illusions - Accuracy/Recharge
• (13) Malaise's Illusions - Accuracy/Confused/Recharge
• (17) Malaise's Illusions - Confused/Range
• (46) Malaise's Illusions - Endurance/Confused
• (48) Malaise's Illusions - Accuracy/Endurance

Level 14: Mass Hypnosis

• (A) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep
• (39) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Recharge
• (39) Fortunata Hypnosis - Accuracy/Sleep/Recharge
• (39) Fortunata Hypnosis - Accuracy/Recharge
• (40) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Endurance

Level 16: Distortion Field

• (A) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing)
• (17) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage
• (19) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• (19) Lockdown - Chance for +2 Mag Hold
• (21) Neuronic Shutdown - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• (33) Superior Will of the Controller - Recharge/Chance for Psionic Damage

Level 18: Total Domination

• (A) Lockdown - Chance for +2 Mag Hold
• (25) Unbreakable Constraint - Hold
• (25) Unbreakable Constraint - Hold/Recharge
• (27) Unbreakable Constraint - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge
• (27) Unbreakable Constraint - Accuracy/Recharge
• (29) Unbreakable Constraint - Endurance/Hold

Level 20: Time Stop

• (A) Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized
• (21) Will of the Controller - Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized/Recharge
• (23) Will of the Controller - Endurance/Recharge
• (45) Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized/Endurance
• (46) Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized/Endurance/Recharge

Level 22: Hover

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (37) Karma - Knockback Protection

Level 24: Fly

• (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)

Level 26: Terrify

• (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (31) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (31) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (31) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
• (34) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

Level 28: Farsight

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
• (34) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
• (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (37) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance

Level 30: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (37) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 32: Mass Confusion

• (A) Coercive Persuasion - Confused
• (34) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Recharge
• (36) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Confused/Recharge
• (43) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Recharge
• (46) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Endurance
• (48) Coercive Persuasion - Contagious Confusion

Level 35: Slowed Response

• (A) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff
• (42) Defense Debuff IO
• (42) Accuracy IO
• (42) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 38: Chrono Shift

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (43) Recharge Reduction IO
• (43) Healing IO
• (45) Endurance Modification IO

Level 41: Conserve Power

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 44: Energy Torrent

• (A) Ragnarok - Damage
• (48) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
• (50) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (50) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge
• (50) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance

Level 47: Power Boost

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 49: Afterburner

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed

Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Containment
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush

• (A) Celerity - +Stealth

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Empty

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift

• (A) Flight Speed IO

Level 2: Health

• (A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
• (40) Numina's Convalescence - Heal

Level 2: Hurdle

• (A) Jumping IO

Level 2: Stamina

• (A) Endurance Modification IO
• (40) Endurance Modification IO

------------

I don't buy that logic on account of the fact that the Devs posted the letters nearly chronologically. NONE of the other letters suggest that you're working with DD yet. They also all tell us to look for him "in the pillar of ice and flame", which has absolutely NOTHING to do with how we find out who he is.

In other words, I don't think the devs knew who the letter writer was or how he was going to be re-introduced until just before I22 at the earliest. Kinda shoody >_>

Well here's the thing: in the "Ramiel" letter, the letter-writer says he "may have just seen you minutes ago". SEEN. As in, IN PERSON. As in, The Dream Doctor himself talked to you and you knew who he was (unlike the other letters which are written as if you have no clue who he is).

Otherwise, if it IS possible, the entire arc is superfluous as it's about you unlocking alpha. And is there any point at which DD says "so now that your an incarnate, go learn about being an incarnate and go unlock your Alpha slot"

"uhm but i already have t4 in Alpha through Hybri-"

"No buts, just go!"

I -JUST- did it and got the pop-up only when i completed Ramiel's arc.

And i KNEW i had that dream guy's name wrong. Was i confusing him with that dude in First Ward?

SPOILERS!

No, seriously, for those of you who haven't done the DA arcs yet... SPOILERS!

...


So, in Ramiel's arc (which needs a second-pass in the writing department since the Death of Statesplates, because certain characters keep referring to him as though he were alive), the final clue is a letter from "the letter writer", who intones that you may already be working with him.

Well, we find out in the DA arcs that the letter writer is the Midnight Doctor... but you can't access the DA arcs until you've unlocked the incarnate system, right? So how is this possible? Or is it theoretically possible to do the DA arcs and THEN do Ramiel's mission?

Either way, the arc needs a second pass for these things =)

So I was putting some thought into how much more power can be packed into the Incarnate system without turning us into outright gods, and... I wasn't able to come up with much. However, I did manage to think of this:

A tree that takes a single-target effect and gives it a chance at becoming an AoE effect! The core tree would have a chance to make the effect a flat-out AoE with a higher chance of proccing and increasing the number of targets and radius the higher up the tree you go.... The radial tree would turn the effect into a cone. To compensate for cones' general lack of utility, the cone effect would affect more targets than the circular AoE.

The categories would be ranged damage, melee damage, control, buff, and debuff. (I'm separating ranged and melee damage because I feel it'd be better for balance). So that single-target attack causes splash damage. That single-target heal can heal more allies. A single-target hold can mez most of a group.

I'm thinking the first one would be something like 20% chance for a splash effect to hit up to 3 more targets within 20 feet of the main target. The numbers of course go up from there. I don't know if Very Rare should be 100% chance... probably no more than 75%

Note that this would apply to ST powers only; no fair double-dipping with your AoEs!

That's all I got...

... Am I allowed to hate you?

Because I do.

Well, not really, but I'd -like- to hate you. Can we call it mild annoyance mixed with seething jealousy and call it even?

But no, seriously, grats!

The triangles are pieces of the triforce. You must get 8 of them to defeat Gannon!

...Okay, I actually have no idea. Sorry =(

Droid: Are you referring to incarnate trials where temp powers are grey'd out? Because that's intentional....

It sounds like we need a trial version of "Crisis on Infinite Earths", where the Good guys went to confront the Anti-Monitor, while the Bad Guys went back in time to try and prevent that dude on OA from seeing the Beginning of Time, because at that point, it didn't matter if the Villains killed half of OA: If they or the good guys failed, there'd be no future to mess up anyway.

But they still lost because of ego and incompetence. I would trollolol if the "villain" portion of a co-op trial became free-for-all PvP because each villain wants to be THE ONE to click the glowie/get the final shot/do whatever...

And just how many people would whine and cry and scream over THAT?

Oh, it gets better: The one villain left standing has to fight all the Heroes, because they wouldn't take too kindly to a single villain killing half the team...

I think that's part of the trouble with writing villain-themed co-op content: Just TEAMING with other villains normally is a sketchy enough proposition. Add heroes to the mix, and it gets messy.

It's funny, I mentioned in another thread that Mind Control could use a revamp, and people actually came to its defense, noting how powerful it is and how it trivializes most content... though this seemed to be coming from people who played Perma-dom Mind Dominators.

My question would be, how to make Mind a better set for Controllers without making it even more OP for Doms?

In the post I linked, I suggested either replacing TK with an AoE version of Levitate, or turning the "confuse" mechanic (JUST for MC, mind you) into a "Turn foes into pets" power and allow you to control them mastermind style via the pet window...

... the hassle of having a 16-large pet window would still be worth it =P

Personally, I'm happy having "fast snipe" as a sometimes power. I don't think it SHOULD be a "always on" deal. Any attempt to bring down the ToHit % to let Corrs and Defs build for "Always on" Fast-Snipe might as well be answered with just gutting the entire idea and removing Interrupt time from all snipes and allow them to function as "fast" 100% of the time.

That's essentially what people are asking for, it seems. They don't wanna wait for team buffs, or BU + Aim to recharge, or have to use -gasp- inspirations. If they can't use FastSnipe whenever they want, it's essentially useless. That's what I'm getting from people who are deriding these proposed changes.

Here's something useful for ya: A Mind/Kin guide i made a while ago. Still mostly relevant (though it was made before Speed Boost and Increase Density were made AoE). It might help you make up your mind, if you're not intimidated by a tl;dr-fest.

Basically, a Mind/Kin controller plays like this:

Mez foes, buff, attack attack attack!

A Mind/* Dom plays like this:

Mez foes, attack attack attack!

I'll note that before IOs and bonuses, Mind control feels sluggish and ineffective, particularly on a Controller. After I get my Mind/Time to 50, I'll never roll Mind/* again -leveling is that painful-. However, with enough recharge bonuses to get your AoE controls up every spawn, and a second AoE from your APP, Mind Control becomes dangerous.

There have been some discussions recently on other parts of the board where Mind's effectiveness has been brought up; basically, Mind comes in lowest of the pack of Controller primaries in terms of dealing damage and effectiveness, but any buffs would make it insanely overpowered. So take that how you will...

Darn. That's what I figured. Ah well! Thanks Zombie Man!

Question: Can I slot a set of "Will of the Controller" into one power and a set of the Superior version into another power, or do both versions count as the same thing as far as each enhancement being "unique" is concerned?

I agree with Eldagore. to paraphrase a quote i saw in the official thread:

Before: Aim + Build-Up are awesome, yay!

Now: Build up and aim suck because I have to use them to use a power i never use >=O

And here's my thing: Why would you NOT use Aim+BU before sniping ANYway? I always always ALWAYS use Aim+BU before sniping. Now it just won't take 3 seconds for the snipe to go off.

Maybe you people would be happier if the devs lowered the snipes' damage, lowered the range, removed the interrupt time and just made it another normal blast? One where you'd probably be using aim and build up before using it anyway? Sounds pretty boring to me...

Hey OP, I've got a question:

Since you seem to have a vested interest in bases, would that mean you build yours on a "Nemesis Plot"?

...can't believe I was the first one to think of that >_>

Here's one: Is the Sustain mechanic even across the board, or is it higher/lower for some powers based on their endurance use? Like if a power costs 15 end to use, is the amount of recovery any higher than a power that costs 10 end to use? What about toggles, like where Cloaking Device is 0.28 End per Second while Blazing Aura is 0.78... does Blazing Aura give more EpS by default? Because otherwise it's giving far LESS... now granted maybe the extra damage helps the fight end sooner, but if I'm using the power ONLY for the end recovery, I'm gonna feel shafted compared the the Devices user.

I think the main difference is that in older missions, all the story telling takes place in contact dialogue. The contact tells you something, you go and beat up some guys, go back to contact, then go beat up some guys, then go to contact, go beat up some guys... So basically, if you ignore or forget what your contact said, you're just beating dudes up for no reason. Not to MENTION cross-zone FedEx missions, a practice the Developers have wisely dropped (Ie, go to the zone that's gonna be a train-ride and a ferry trip away to click that guy, then come back to me). Along that note is having missions spread all across the city. Part of the reason old missions are derided is simply because you spend half your time traveling instead of getting stuff done. And then there's the fact that a lot of older arcs are filled with thin excuses to have you beat up 3 warehouses full of guys when just 1 would get the point across.

The newer missions have things happen WITHIN missions that forward the story. There's interactive dialogue, captions, choices, cutscenes, some fun game mechanics; and even the contact dialogue has been improved to give you choices, ask questions, all with pertinent information highlighted. Not to mention that the writing is better, and that any assets added to the game in the last few years just look better than the old stuff. Also, the Devs have begun embracing the practice of being able to access your mission by just clicking the contact instead of going 3 zones away in some cases.

I think Mind Control could use a buff. It's not a bad set, but ask someone to list the best 5 control sets, and Mind will NEVER make the list.

The most radical change I could conceive of is to swap out the confuse powers for a "tun foe(s) into pet(s)" like deal and have the player control them as such and gain full XP, thus giving it a significant edge over the various other confuse powers in other sets.

Maybe let TK do damage, too. An initial bit of smashing damage when the foe(s) hit a wall, maybe. Just for pizazz, I wish the repel worked faster, too. Like an actual force-shove. My ultimate wish would be a "gravity gun" like effect. Pick things up, whip them around, knock enemies around using other enemies. Or kill the power all together and give us an AoE version of Levitate. It'd make sense, given that the set has AoE versions of all its other ST powers with Terrify being an outlier. The extra AoE damage would also make up for Mind's sad lack of reliable, steady AoE Containment.

*looks up* I don't think i'd wanna see BOTH those changes, that would be way too OP XD But either-or would be a great improvement to the set, IMO!

Just be careful: the arcs that have reward tables at the end WON'T let you choose the same rewards. For instance, if you do the first arc and choose "Astral or Empyrian merit", you won't get to choose "Astral/Emp merit" after the second mission (at least, not for 20 hours). This is offset by Archangel gabriel who'll reward you with I-Merits for completing all the arcs.

As for this being "shady and cheap", Dream Doctor basically SAYS "I don't know how you're gonna do this, but I'm sure you'll figure something out!"

And we do.

I mean yeah, it'd be nice if we got the quills in, say, the BAF and it took up space in our inventory for 2 years with no real use until we meet Tyrant, but there's too much room for error there (like people deleting the power because it doesn't do anything), so this has to do.