EmperorSteele

Haha, thanks guys ^_^

I don't know if this counts, but...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Hammadonna.jpg

Presenting: Hammadonna!

("Like a virgiiinn... Raidin' for the very first time!")

Yeah, did it on like 15 minutes... i'm just looking for humor value points, not expecting to beat anyone artistically =)

I know it was all CG, but the piece has a very... Alex Ross feel to it. I bet if you tweaked it in photoshop to divvy up the colors and add brush strokes, no one would be able to tell the difference!

Awesome piece, indeed!

Nice puzzle, kept me entertained and busy for quite a few minutes!

Good articles, too! Mucho props, gang!

Hmm..

I too, have been giving the PvP situation a lot of thought.

First off, GREAT post. You put a lot of thought into it. And while i wouldn't argue at ALL if these changes were made... well, i do have some... thematic reservations about the overall concept of what you propose.

Good guys and Bad guys FIGHT each other. It's how it is.

Though I think maybe your ideas, if heeded, need to be taken to a bit more of an extreme in regards to Shivans&Nukes, much like in your RV idea: Be in PvP mode or you CAN'T get them.

Also, let's not forget Stalkers, even though I'm sure we'd all like to (except, well, the dedicated Stalkers). There's NO POINT to playing one if you have to ask someone to accept your challenge. No one in their right mind, except maybe a built-up stalker-killer, would accept.

The whole point of Stalkers is to sneak up on someone, deliver a crushing blow, finish them off and slip away. Asking permission to do that isn't part of the job description.

I mean, think of it like this: Stalker asks you to duel. You say yes. You get TP Foe'd, AS'd, stunned, and killed. Okay, deflag.

Stalkers would run out of victims reeaal quick, and they would lose all purpose for existing in the game (because, apparently, the attitude towards stalkers in PvE is... well, "lawl stalkers". Not that they're not effective, but slow soloers (hide, kill, RUN... hide, kill.. RUN!), and no one wants to team with them.

Of course, maybe they deserve to get run out due to boredom.

That aside, i love your ides for expanding the story of the zones. Some other people have wanted PvP missions beyond just mayhems/safegaurds, perhaps such an idea can be integrated into the Zone arcs (voluntary, of course.. if one wanted to run the missions PvE, they could).

The PvP-spec idea is nice... however, they would need to add stores to the PvP zones or something, because my ideal PvP build would tend to take different powers and even POOLS than my PvE one... and I'd need new enhancements. Unless you mentioned this and i skipped over it. The only "problem" with this, again, is thematics. Why/how should/would/could my Mind/Kin/Fly/Fit/Psi
suddenly become Mind/Kin/Leadership/Fit/Primal because she stepped into a new zone?

I realize that's a rather... RP'ish concern, but i think it might bug some people UNLESS we had some kind of mission that explained away the "PvPspec"... like have the intro mission in each zone have you use a radioactive power amplifier, and it's explained that if/when you're within a couple miles of one of these devices, your powers change. Just something in-game besides just "oh, you cant teleport or box anymore and you lost half your secondary, but you can run real fast, have leadership and here, have a med kit to heal your teammates!"

=)

What I've been thinking is basically a scaling buff/debuff system based on wins and losses. Killing the same person more than 3 times nets you a debuff.. and another, and another. Losing nets you buffs. I'd call this "Getting cocky" and "Feeling vengeful". The problem is that it doesn't address PvPs other failings, and it rewards failure while punishing success. It might go a long way towards forcing players to seek new victims instead of picking on the same person over and over, but that's about it. I'd also like to see an auto-mod system that punishes people for using certain key words in chat (noob, pwnt, swear words) which would also accumulate several severe debuffs and eventually a kick from the zone.

Basically, I was thinking the game should force buffs and debuffs to even things out while encouraging fair sportsman-like play. But again, you'd hear no argument from me if your ideas were actually integrated.

Ironik: Well, that could be because you have less attacks, and less sets giving you global recharge, so you're not attacking as often. So while you may have a full chain of attacks, chances are that at those levels, you've skipped a few attacks for travel, health, and or some other power pool.

Plus, you only have lvl 30 IOs slotted as opposed to level 50. Defiance doesn't replace the need for enhancement, after all.

On my 39 fire blaster, there is a big contrast between old and new, though now that I've gotten used to D2, i find myself lacking the same "rush of the awesomesauce" i first felt when i plowed through an entire thorns missions after the changes went Live. In short, maybe you just... got used to it.

Wavicle: I noted that in the "Using Kin powers" section.. though there's a typo there were i say ID instead of IR.. and now I can't go back and fix it >_<

I may update this guide if anything in I12 affects it, because there's a few things that I never mentioned, like how TK will awaken sleeping foes, and i have a few bad typos that i somehow never caught =/

But thanks!

MagicJ: thanks for the props!

I think someone mentioned it, but...

Left foot boots are twisted. This is VERY apparent with the "Vanguard" boot set. Can't be arsed to do a screenshot right now...

Also, this may be an unrelated problem (probably a coding issue) but one of my characters (female) has "Young Face 11", and whenever I go to the tailor, it automatically resets to "Face 1" and charges me for it. If i set it back to "young face 11", the fee disappears, but "Reset" does not work in this regard, so i have to do it manually.

Oh, and Jay is sexy =)

C_M_A: oops, heh. Fixed that. Could have sworn Mids said 20 seconds, but i double-checked and... it said 60. I feel like a goober =(

And yeah, i know it's "relatively easy", but it still takes some effort... and like I sorta said, it's a lot better than most other sets can do in that situation.

Thanks for the feedback! and oh yeah, *edited*

No Pet? Suck it up! (A Mind/Kin guide) [i9-i11] has been finished (muchos gracias to everyone who helped!) and posted in the Guides section.

No Pet? Suck it up! (A Mind/Kin guide) has been finished (muchos gracias to everyone who helped!) and posted in the Guides section.

USAGE TACTICS and notes.

There are SO many different ways to use Mind and Kinetics’ various powers, either separately or in tandem with one another. Mind/Kin has been said to be very “clicky” and involved… you’re always doing something, as both your Primary and Secondary give you lots to do at any given time. MagicJ wrote a wonderful guide on various Mind/ForceField tactics… and a lot of it applies to Mind/Kin… but obviously, some of it doesn’t. I’ll try to avoid repetition, but will still go over the more important strategies.

Know your enemy. There are some enemies which take more damage to psi than other damage types. Many are heavily resistant. Some are resistant to certain mez effects. Here’s a basic breakdown:

Normal: the majority of normal-human enemies, like Skulls, Hellions, Council troops, Family, Tsoo, most Malta, most CoT.

Strong: Psychic clockwork, Most robots, such as Nemesiss Jeagers, fake Nems, Warhulks, etc. Some Council troops such as Parasites, mech-men, warwolves; machines like Turrets, most Arachnos, some Rularuu, Rikti bosses, Malta robots, Cot Arch-mages, Carnies, most non-boss Banished Pantheon zombies,…

Weak: Non-psychic Clockwork, spirits (CoT ghosts, BP Masks), some electrical equipment (???), most Cabal (Witches), Cimerorians.

As for mez, zombie-types (such as Vhazilok and Banished Pantheon) are hard to get to sleep. The new Cimerorian Traitors have enhanced mez resistance to Sleep and Hold if they’re agro’d and their shields are out (but if you can sneak up on them, they’re fair game). If a Nemesis Lt. dies, he gives all nearby enemies Vengeance, which makes them harder to confuse. Rularuu Brutes are also difficult to hold. Many Arachnos troops can’t be held or confused easily in one hit unless you get the Overpower bonus.

For more info, CULEX has a very in-depth spread-sheet of enemy defense, resistance, etc available here: http://www.culex.us/ig/coh/CHres.xls .

“Hold ‘em and fold ‘em”. Chances are, you’ll always be outnumbered. You’ll want to hold a mob, or most of it, before going in for the kill. That’s how almost all Controllers operate. Either with an AoE, or in early levels Tab-ing from target to target and hitting them with Mesmerize and Dominate. Don’t use Levitate on anyone until an entire group is mezzed, or if you don’t mind a bit of extra danger and you’re in a hurry. Also remember that Mesmerize lasts significantly longer than Dominate, AND Dominate keeps Containment without un-mezzing a foe. Keeping this in mind, you’ll want to: Mes foe #1, Dom foe #2, and Mes Foe #3. Then, go back to #2 and hit him with Levitate. Chain your attacks until he’s defeated. Then go back to #1 and hit him with a full chain of Dom, Lev, and Mes. Then #3.

Note that you’ll have to adjust this tactic for difficulty, like more foes in a group, or if they con higher than +1 to you (higher conning foes will break mez faster). You may find yourself constantly re-applying sleep to one foe while juggling another. Just note that sometimes when you hit an enemy with Sleep twice, they can wake up and attack for a split second., so consider yourself warned!

Using Confuse: In tandem with the above tactics, you can also confuse a foe to keep him off your back. He’ll help you defeat other enemies faster, and you don’t have to worry about keeping mez on too many opponents at once, given Confuses relatively longer duration. You get a SMALL XP loss per foe that the confused enemy hits, however, used intelligently, Confused foes will INCREASE your average XP per hour by helping you get through missions faster (mission completion bonus in less time=good), and decreasing your chances of getting killed (no debt also = good). There are some handy charts out there that show just how much XP/Inf you lose in relation to how much damage a confused foe does, but as a rule of thumb, try not to let them do more than half the damage.

Confuse is also a good way to sniff out hidden enemies. If you can barely see one foe around a corner, there’s probably more. Hit him with Confuse, and watch to see if he runs off, and listen to hear how far away he is before he starts attacking. Confused foes can also see and hit their stealthed counterparts, letting you know that such a threat is there.

Also note that any enemies with Defensive abilities (Like Force Field Generators, Rikti Guardians, and Tsoo Sorcerers) will buff YOU in addition to attacking other NPCs. If you’re in a group, you may want to announce your intentions to use an enemy in this manner so no one kills it too soon.

Additionally, Confuse is a GREAT way to safely solo Elite Bosses, either by confusing the E.B. so he doesn’t attack you, and/or, by having a Lieutenant-class critter whittle down the E.B.’s health for you. If there’s not an Lt near enough, find one, confuse him, then use TK to push him into position. Note that confusing an EB to beat on them requires you to Spam your confusion powers to keep the Magnitude up. Even then, many E.B.s (and almost all A.V.s) have automatic Mez Resistance/breakfree as indicated by the purple triangles that swirl around their body. This protects them from everything you’ve got, so be weary! They appear and disappear every few minutes, so keep an eye out.

As for Mass Confusion, you want to be careful. Use it on a single target to increase the amount of Confuse Magnitude you’re dishing out, or on an ambushing mob if your other AoEs are still recharging. Using this on an unaware mob is just sort of silly... of course, there’s nothing wrong with being silly =) And for the love of all that’s sacred, do NOT put a damage proc in Mass Confusion. You’ll agro any enemies that the “confuse” effect misses. And that’s not pretty.

Using Terrify: This is a great damage and soft control tool. Even if no one was mezzed before the attack, it will decease the amount of hits you take… if only because Terrified foes can only attack once. Still, I recommend having a group mezzed first before using this power so you can benefit from the Containment bonus. And since this power comes after your two main AoE control tools, you have no reason to not set up Containment first. And once you get Fulcrum Shift, you can Mass-Mez, run in, buff up, then STEP BACK and attack. You have to step back because the “cone” won’t hit any foes that are next to or behind you. It’s not a nuke, but this power is not to be taken lightly.

Using TK: Telekinesis, like I mentioned above, takes finesse. You need a lot of endurance, and a corner…. Or a very high ledge >=)… or, maybe you just want to “encourage” a Confused foe into attacking someone else. Luckily, you can hold a target (or multiple foes, up to five) in a corner and just hit Transference when your End gets low. There’s almost nothing a TK’d foe can do to you, as they’re held, so don’t be afraid to get in close. Just keep in mind that your initial target is an “anchor”: if he dies, TK shuts off, and any other affected foes are freed! So if you’re in a group, make sure to communicate that you have an anchor and that you’re using him to hold like three or four other critters. If you’re solo, make sure to defeat other enemies first (your anchor will remain constant, even if you change your target) so they don’t have the chance to get free.

If you’re “pushing” a confused foe into an EB/AV, make SURE you release TK before the TK’d foe gets TOO close to the E.B., or else you’ll risk aggroing the big bad boss, and many not-nice things will happen.

Conversely, you can use TK on a confused BUFFING foe (again, like a FF generator, Guardian, etc) and bring him with you through the map. I wouldn’t suggest keeping the same guy the entire time, but if there’s a bunch of mobs in close proximity and you want to keep your buffs, TK lets you do just that!

There’s whole guides on good TK usage and various maneuvers you can use to “round up” multiple foes and circumvent TK’s odd repel cone (the thing that lets an anchor pick up other foes is the same thing that pushes them way from the anchor, making TK a bit counter-productive to itself unless you maneuver and play it smart). I suggest finding and reading them =)

Using Kin Powers: The powers in the Kinetics set require a bit of a gamble: you usually have to hit your foes in order to buff yourself, and they’re NOT going to take kindly to that. Plus, there’s the chance you can miss and fail to receive a much-needed buff or heal. Luckily, you can make things sleep/held/terrified/confused to prevent them from retaliating. So if you need to buff up, try Mezzing an opponent, especially an otherwise unsuspecting one, first. At the very least, get ready to either run or mez the group, as they’ll ALL take offense to you sapping their buddy’s End/Speed/Strength/etc (unless they’re already occupied). Popping a yellow inspiration first is recommended against anything higher than a +1, I don’t care what your slotting or global accuracy bonus is. True, you’ll always have a 5% chance to miss, but you want to make sure it’s only 5%.

For Defender Kins, Fulcrum Shift is a huge gamble: they have to run into the middle of a mob and set the power off for maximum effectiveness (each foe in melee range adds an additional buff, up to 10... the power CAN be used at range, but you don’t get the buff-for-each-foe), which may result in an entire mob ganging up on the poor fellow. Not so with Mind powers! Hit the mob with either Mass Hyp or Total Dom, then just waltz in and buff up. Maybe grab a Siphon Speed and a Siphon Power while you’re in there. Then, back up and hit the mob with Terrify (so that your “cone” hits all of them) and your Epic Power AoE. This may not finish the mob, but they’ll all be one or two additional hits away from defeat, and they’ll be helpless to stop you. Who needs Blasters and Defiance, you’ve got a 240% damage buff and double-damage from Containment!

Solo or in groups, remember that you can heal both HP AND Endurance, and note that the AoE heals not only extend past melee range of your target, but also just a little past the area of the graphic as well, so you don’t need to hug an enemy to get your boost. In addition, Transfusion debuffs an enemy’s Regeneration rate, so even if no one needs healing, spam this power to keep Arch Villains and Giant Monsters from recovering hit points. You can also use a selected foe as a “battery” and continuously spam your heals off him. Just make sure they’re not going anywhere and that you and your allies are close enough to receive the buff. And as always, tell your team of your intentions before they kill your “buffin buddy”.

For Transference, you can probably kill off a bad guy’s Endurance (Sapping) in one or two hits, depending on your slotting and how they con to you. Bosses might take three. Enemies recover endurance at a ridiculous rate (especially when they’re down to empty, a good chunk just hops right back), but spamming the Trans powers on them will keep them from acting, which, hey, is yet another way you can “control” the outcome of a battle. Also, even if an enemy has no endurance, you can still get endurance from them. Pretty nifty, no? Note though that Sapping is less useful against anything higher than an E.B., though a Kin and some Electric defenders/Blasters working in tandem might be able to hurt an A.V.s Endurance bar (though you want A.V.s to die as fast as possible, so focus on debuffs and damage).

ProTip: (heh) Hold down “Ctrl” and hit Transfusion/Transference: it’ll set the power to auto-fire (as indicated by a green circle) on your target. You can do this with any power, really, but for the “battery” and “constant buff/debuff” strategies, it’s easier than constantly clicking back and forth every 5 seconds.

In addition to the above, hit troublesome foes with Siphon Speed, Siphon Power, and Fulcrum Shift to debuff their speed and power.

Inertial Reduction is more of a fun-time power, but since it’s a PBAoE, you can help teammates with it, too. Such as, if you need to help a super-speeder get through Terra Volta so he can jump over all the high walls… and while it’s only around a few weeks of the year, ID is GREAT for helping you and others get the gold medals on the slopes of the Pocket-D Winter Event chalet by adding a bit of speed and a LOT of extra movement control. And as I mentioned, with this and Siphon Speed, you don’t even need to select a Travel Power.

When you’re on a team, make sure to constantly re-apply Speed Boost (unless they ask otherwise) to all, and Increase Density to melee characters, especially those who’re up against a mezzing foe. This will increase your group’s survivability and productivity. You can hit squishes (Defenders, Blasters, fellow ‘trollers) with ID, too, but the up-front fighters should receive some love, first. Keeping ID stacked is a pain, especially on a full group, as it only lasts a minute. Prioritize on characters who are getting mezzed or need extra protection.

What I like to do is set SB on auto and start clicking team members in the team window. After SB goes off, I hit ID, then the next name down the list. Gets the whole team buffed with minimal clicking in less than 10 seconds.

Stone Tanks LOVE Kins, because their armors (especially Granite, their tier-9 “better than anything else in the game” power) slows them down to a crawl, but Speed Boost negates the slow-down and then some

If an ally falls and uses an Awaken, hit them with ID and SB. This will clear their Disoriented status (from using the awaken) and get them back into action much sooner. If another character uses Resurrect, hit them with SB to help them get their Res back up and ready.

To give an example of how powerful */Kin truly is, I’ve kept Tanks alive after they’ve been hit with Ghost Widow’s Mag-100, Life-draining Hold-of-D00m by spamming I.D. and Transfusion (ID to break the hold and reduce damage, and Transfusion to heal the poor guy). This is usually sudden-death for most, but a decent and quick Kin can make that horrible “win/lose” button a non-issue. I’d like to see any Controller secondary/Defender Primary besides Empathy do that! (note that it takes about 8 applications of ID to keep a Tank from being mezzed by this power in the first place, and since the power only lasts about 60 seconds and takes a second to actually activate, well… your best bet is set it to auto). On other occasions, my Mind/Kin/Psi has taken alpha against psi-wielding opponents where an Invulnerable or Fire tank failed.

So overall, there is very little a Mind/Kin cannot do. Yeah, you might not be able to solo GMs, and yeah, you may not be able to defeat enemies as quickly as a Blaster or Scraper, but you can do it safely and with style! But on that note…

Weaknesses & Limitations: Firstly, Mind lacks any Immob powers. Now, it is this writer’s personal opinion that immob is a crappy excuse for a mez 95% of the time… however, that other 5% of the time, I find myself really, really wishing I had immob powers. I’m referring mostly to AV fights where foes won’t stay Held, Confused, Terrorized, or Slept for very long.

Most of Mind’s damage comes in Psionic flavor. While this doesn’t mean much early on, there are plenty of foes in the late game who resist psi damage to some degree. Along that vein, while you can increase your damage output with your secondary, it lowers your damage per minute and XP per hour when every battle begins with you using 4 powers before even laying out an attack (Mass Hypnosis, Siphon Speed, Siphon power, Fulcrum shift). Once in a while you can get lucky and slaughter psi-weak foes with 2 attacks (the wall in Cimerora is great for this), but otherwise, mind/kin isn’t all that great for farming.

And then there’s the issue of not having a pet. For all the other controller primaries, players get something that attacks and draws agro, allowing the player the freedom to use their secondary or maybe pick off stragglers. Now while that same functionality exists in Mass Confusion, you can’t buff enemy mobs to make them do more damage, or have them follow you around (at least, not without TK). Mind doesn’t need a pet, but with a buff-heavy set like Kinetics, well, it does seem like a bit of a waste at times when soloing.

With the exception of Increase Density, Kin doesn’t offer much in terms of preemptively protecting your allies. And if someone needs to be healed, they need to be in melee range of an enemy. You’ll probably want to make a bind or macro to tell teammates that you’re healing off of target X. Not to mention that you can’t heal if your power misses. You have no way of increasing anyone’s Defense, ToHit, Acc, or Resistance against anything but Smashing, Lethal, or Energy damage. Increasing ally damage involves making sure people are placed strategically. And you have no way to protect yourself.

On the flip side, you cannot debuff an enemy’s Defense, Resistance, ToHit, or Accuracy. And keeping their other stats floored takes spamming a crapload of powers, leaving you little time to actually attack. Kin has great tools for dealing with AVs/GMs, but just not solo (though this is remedied by temp powers and inspirations!)

There are some types of heroes you should be weary of teaming with; Energy Blasters/Defenders and Storm Defenders/Controllers… or anyone with Knockback abilities. Mind AoEs need your foes to be in a clump, and Kin powers need them to stay in range… people with Knockback will ruin your best laid plans. They mean well, but tossing someone into the far wall when you’re trying to heal yourself (or a teammate) gets very annoying very fast. Sometimes a simple message like “Can you not attack my target?” can help. Though with good players, this sort of thing will rarely be a problem.

PvP: So much has changed in PvP I decided to make some notes here. Many Controller types were weakened in PvP, because single-target mezzes only work for 4 seconds, and PvP has become all about damage. Mind however benefits greatly from the new PvP rules; it was already a very “blaster”-like set, with 3 single target attacks and an AoE attack, all of which do a LOT more damage now.

Additionally, as long as your attack hits, your mez will be applied, unlike before where you could hit someone with Dominate all day and they’d never be held. True, you may only have your foe mezzed for a few seconds, but that’s enough time to hit a second attack or use Siphon Speed.

You have to fight fast. Because your mezes will only last enough time to let you get off one attack or debuff, you have to know what you want to do in advance. Don’t worry too much about buffing yourself: Just hit your target hard and fast. Think like a Blaster. If your opponent is outdamaging you, THEN use Siphon Power and/or Fulcrum Shift to balance the damage output in your favor. If your foe refuses to be slept or held, try using Terrify or Confuse.

If you find yourself overwhelmed, try to use Levitate, Repel, and/or Telekinesis (which now automatically shuts down after a few seconds in PvP) to toss your foes away from you. Alternately, use an AoE mez and try to bail, or at least use your moment of reprieve to heal, buff, and push your attack. The new PvP discourages running, so abandon any hope of using hit-n-run tactics.

If you want to be sneaky, find a Dominator, Mastermind, or anyone else with a pet and confuse it. It doesn’t work perfect, but it can be fun. If the pet owner is sufficiently distracted, go in for the kill. If someone is low on endurance, hit them with Transference and take away everything they got. If you see an opponent trying to fly around with a jetpack, attack them with Levitate and watch them drop like a stone.

I’ve found that the easiest villains to defeat are solo Corruptors. Very little mez protection and few hit points makes them easy prey… however, a duo can be devastating if they pile on their debuffs. Dominators are scary when they have domination up, but otherwise it’s a game of first-mez wins. Stalkers, -if- you can see them, should be kept at a distance… the best way to defeat a Stalker, as always, is to never let them touch you by always moving. Brutes are tough nuts to crack; stay out of melee. If you insist on fighting one, hope that they don’t have good psi resistance or KB protection. Masterminds run the gamut of difficulty, but can be easily torn apart if you pile through their minions with Repel active and let another player take the MasterMind out. Soldiers of Arachnos tend to have high defense, so pop yellows before engaging them.

As for your heroic counterparts, be weary of Blasters, as they can fire attacks through mez; however, their damage has been severely reduced for PvP. Try confusing them first? Some Defenders go down too easy, but some well built ones will wreck you by debuffing you into next week. Scrappers are very straight forward: just keep your distance and attack. Spine and Claws have ranged attacks, so get ready to take hits even if you’re at range. Tanks are similar but harder to take down. Other Controllers can either be dangerous or easy pickings. A lot of Controller sets have few single target attacks, making them less apt at the more blaster-y style of PvP, but they still have Pets and Debuffs. Kheldians should be engaged in a manner consistent with their current form (Squiddy= blaster, Lobster = tank).


-PHEW-, that was long-winded! Hope you enjoyed/appreciate it… Time for the legal crap!

Special thanks: To the fellows over in the Controller Forums for their suggestions, and ESPECIALLY MagicJ for pointing out various technical tidbits that I either neglected or over-looked.


Mind/Kin: No Pet? Suck it up! (A guide) is the work of “Emperor”Steele O’Day. You may use it in any way you wish as long as proper credit is given, and the document remains unaltered.

EPIC/ANCILLARY POWER POOLS

Again, just some brief overviews. The Epic Power Pools open up at level 41, and are designed to fill in a given AT’s “weak spots”. In the case of Controllers, it’s self-defense and raw damage. Most people tend to pick an EPP conceptually, based on their primary (mind/*/psi, fire/*/fire, etc), though mixing and matching can make for an interesting gaming experience. As of I16, all the APPs have 5 powers, as opposed to just 4. So no matter how you look at it, you won’t be able to squeeze ALL the APPs into your build, so choose wisely

Fire Mastery: Some great direct damage in Blast and Fireball (great AoE with Damage over Time), an okay shield (protects against smashing, and gives resistance to fire, and some ice), and an PBAoE End-sapping/minor damage power, which is kinda sorta really redundant, yet handy.

Ice Mastery: Some decent attacks that slow down the bad guys, the ability to “hibernate” in a clutch (though if you’re using your primary powers right, you’ll never need this)... The armor has just a smidge less protection than some of the others, though I wonder how many foes in the late-game use Ice attacks that you need to be protected from? CoT Ice mages… Malta Gunslingers one attack… that’s about it. However, it still gives good Smashing/Lethal defense, and some resistance against fire, which is a bit more prominent late-game. There’s also Ice Storm, a very nice soft control.

Primal Forces Mastery: Only one attack, which is middle-of-the-pack as far as damage goes... but the ability to self-boost your hold effects and reduce endurance usage, along with one of the better “armors” for resisting smash/lethal damage, makes this set at least worth looking at. Was given a cone attack in I13, making up for this Epic’s only weak spot.

Stone Mastery: Hurl Boulder has the highest damage of any of the other epics, and Fissure is decent, though has less damage than the other AoEs. However, it does Knockback and has a chance to Stun, which is really nice for resetting Containment! The armor raises your defense (to smashing/lethal) instead of your resistance like the other epic armors do, and finally there’s a HP buff. Good from a gameplay standpoint, but conceptually, one may be hard-pressed to figure out why a Mind controller can suddenly summon rocks =)

Psionic Mastery: A direct attack, an AoE, a smash/lethal/psi armor, AND an ability to resist Mez effects. This set may not have the best of any one thing, but it’s extremely well-rounded. Many people skip Mental Blast if they already have a full tray of attacks... but if you skipped Levitate for “concept” reasons, MB is a great way to round out your attack chain. The only problem is that many enemies late in the game resist psionics (Carnival, Ritki, Nemesis Autos, Malta mechs, some Shadow Shard monsters). That aside, the ability to resist Mez and Psionics means you’ll not likely ever have to taste your own medicine (you know what’s fun? Successfully Tanking a Psionic Clockwork A.V. after your team’s Tanks faceplanted after five seconds against the guy… Now THAT’s power-gaming!). Psi Tornado fills in a gap in your attacks, mainly, a reliable AoE which is a great follow up to Mass Dom/Fulcrum Shift/Terrify. Just received World of Confusion as it’s 5th power in I16. Plus, it goes best conceptually with Mind/*. Obviously I recommend this set, but you choose what’s best for your play style =)

IO SETS

There are several IO sets out there, and a lot of them do a whole world of good for Mind/Kin. I’ll go over the more relevant ones, as well as a few odds and ends. This isn’t a COMPLETE guide to IOs, just the ones most relevant to Mind/Kin powers. However, there’s a LOT of them. It is up to you to decide what your slotting priorities are, and what kinds of bonuses you want. That said, I’ll be placing extra emphasis on sets which offer decent +Recharge and +Accuracy bonuses. Note also that all the IOs in the "Ultra Rare" sets are "Uniques", and can only be slotted once on a character, AND, they can only be slotted by level 50 characters! Special thanks to Mid’s Hero Builder, without which this section wouldn’t be possible =)

Sleep (Mesmerize, Mass Hypnosis)

Hibernation: Uncommon, Levels 10-30. This 5-piece set is hardly worth consideration. It’s buffs are minor, and if you’re going to 5 or 6-slot Mesmerize or Mass Hypnosis for control, there are far better sets, especially post 30. Now, if you’re making a PvP/Flashback build and you want a tricked-out Mass Hypnosis available at any level, then this is the way to go thanks to the global +Recharge bonus. Otherwise, heck no.

Induced Coma: Rare, 10-30. As far as bonuses go, this set is even worse than Hibernation. However, its “proc” is noteworthy: -recharge applied to the affected Foe(s). The proc can be slotted by itself though, so, just something to keep in mind.

Lethargic Repose: Uncommon, 20-53. This is an odd set. Its bonuses all buff your Defense or resistance to different kinds of attacks. It’s not much, but it could be useful… though I wouldn’t use it. The bonuses aren’t enough (unless of course you’re going after all the sets which grant such bonuses, in which case you’ll be extremely resilient).

Call of the Sandman: Rare, 20-53. Now THIS is a set! Gives you all the stats you need, and the Bonuses (+HP, + End, and +6.25% global recharge) are worth taking. The Proc, however, sucks. It’s a “chance to heal”... which means, every 5-10 times you use this, you may get…. 25 hp back. I’m not joking. Skip the proc, and either put this set 5-slotted into Mass Hypnosis, or 6-slot MH and throw in an extra Acc or Recharge.

Fortunata Hypnosis: Ultra-Rare, Level 50. Forget what I said above… THIS is a set! The bonuses are such: 15% global recharge time, and +10% global accuracy… and some other stuff. It’s “Ultra rare”, so it’ll be hard to get and even harder to craft (or you can plunk down massive money at Wentoworths), but if you can get this set, I recommend it. The proc is interesting: Chance to Placate. I mean, why would someone who’s asleep need to be placated? (unless they don’t sleep, like a robot).

Holds (Dominate, Total Domination)

Paralytic: Uncommon, Levels 10-30. Not worth mentioning. 1% recovery, and 1% debt protection. You can’t even 5-slot Total Dom until level 22, and you want Dominate to actually do damage, so, I gotta vote no on this.

Neuronic Shutdown: Rare, 10-30. This set looks a lot nicer. An HP bonus, +7% Accuracy, and some defense buffs. Its Proc is “Chance for Psionic Damage”… which you don’t want. Dominate already DOES damage, and on Total Dom will only draw agro on any enemies that the hold misses… and the damage is pathetic, anyway. Good set otherwise, though.

Essence of Curare: Uncommon, 20-53. Another “blah” set. Gives you Mez resist… I currently use some of this set in Dominate to max out Acc, and put in some recharge, end reduction, and +hold while still having room for three Damage IOs. Though I wouldn’t 6-slot it.

Ghost Widow’s Embrace: Rare, 20-53. Mmm, flowing hair. Anyway, the set isn’t that great. Gives you some run speed, health, and Endurance, which is nice... some psi resistance if you slot the whole set… which I don’t recommend. The 6th one is another damage proc, and I already gave my opinion on that sorta thing. Still, 4-slotting this into Total Dom, along with some recharge reducers, really helps round out the power… though if you don’t care for the set bonuses, you may be better of going the Hami-O route.

Lockdown: Rare, 30-50. Nothing too special about this set. Decent bonuses… but a GREAT proc: 15% Chance for +2 Mag hold for 8 seconds. It’s nice to be able to 1-shot hold a boss, amirite? =)

Unbreakable Constraint: Ultra Rare, Level 50: Another great (Ultra Rare) set. Gives hefty +Recharge and +Acc, and even a small 4% +recovery bonus, which is decent. The Proc is for Smashing Damage… Mweh. I’d say slot all but the proc, then add in a +recharge into Total Dom. IF you can afford the set, that is.

Fear (Terrify)

Horror: Uncommon, Levels 10-30. A decent 5-part set with a HP and Recharge bonus. However, given that you only have one fear power, you may want to opt out of this for the best possible set.

Unspeakable Terror: Rare, 10-30. Another decent set with some +recharge and Psi resistance for slotting the whole set. The proc is interesting: 10% chance to stun for 8 seconds. That just might stop runners, AND, stun opens up/keeps Containment! So if you have some slept foes, and hit them with Terrify, you just might get containment back up. It’s definitely an option to consider. And again, the proc can be slotted by itself, so maybe just keep the proc in mind even if you’re over level 30.

Nightmare: Uncommon, 20-53. Yet ANOTHER decent set for Fear. Slotting four gives a 5% Accuracy boost, and the fifth gives you Hold Mag protection (1.65%). Definitely worth mulling over.

Glimpse of the Abyss: Rare, 20-53. Probably the best overall set for Fear in general, and Terrorize in particular. It’s a set of six, but the sixth is a Proc for… psionic damage. You can just ignore that and throw in a damage IO if you decide to dedicate six slots to Terrorize. Anyway, the other five combined give you a bonus to HP, Acc, and Recharge (as well as making fear last a bit longer). The ONLY reason you’d want to put in the “chance for damage” proc is because having all six grants you a yummy 3.13 psi resistance bonus… if that’s even worth caring about. The only reason to not slot this into Terrorize? If you can get Ragnarok into it (or at all, rather), which buffs everything BUT fear and gives superior global buffs.

Confuse (Confusion, Mass Confusion) Note: lots of confuse sets can be had on the cheap, because so few AT combinations have a confusion-based power. You should be able to slot your confusion powers with ease.

Befuddling Aura: Uncommon, Levels 10-30. This five-part set offers some miniscule bonuses, but a +2.5% recharge bonus for slotting all five.

Cacophony: Rare, 10-30. A 6-part set with a damage proc, and some decent +Def to AoE and ranged damage attacks.

Perplex: Uncommon, 20-53. This set will pop a confuse power’s acc, recharge, and confuse duration right out of the ED cap ballpark, making it damn good by itself. Tack onto that +6% regen and +5% accuracy, and you’ve got a winning set.

Malaise’s Illusions: Rare, 20-53. A pretty good set with what looks to be a decent proc: Chance for damage. However, I warn you: Putting this in a confuse power can result in the confuse NOT taking hold, AND the damage can miss… and you’ll end up drawing agro. Since Confuse/Mass Confuse are billed as potential stealthing powers, that’s a big no-no. That aside, the other five IOs add up to some decent bonuses: Recovery, Damage buff, and recharge time.

Coercive Persuasion: Ultra Rare, Level 50. A daaaamn good set, with a damn funny proc: It makes your single-target confuse an AoE confuse! The set also heavily buffs your Recovery, damage, recharge time, and ranged defense. A bit overpowered… I wonder how much it goes for at the Auction House…?

Ranged Damage (Mesmerize, Levitate, Dominate, Terrify, Epic offense powers)

Farstrike: Uncommon, Levels 10-25. Three-part set with a miniscule HP buff and Terrorize Resistance. (who the heck uses terror besides Hamidon and PvPers?!)

Salvo: Rare, 10-25. Another three-parter, this one with two tri-aspect IOs. The set bonuses offer Sleep protection and a small resistance to Hot and Cold attacks.

Volley Fire: Uncommon, 15-30. A three-part set that offers +4% regen and a small HP boost.

Tempest: Rare,15-30. This four-part set has a proc that offers a chance to Drain Endurance. The Set bonuses give Sleep resistance, defense against Energy/Negative attacks, and finally a tiny Damage bonus.

Maelstrom’s Fury: Uncommon, 20-35. This four-part set offers a bonus to run speed, cold defense and Stun resistance.

Entropic Chaos: Rare, 20-35. Sounds like my old High School debate team. Anyway, this 5-part set is pretty beefy. There’s a proc that offers the chance to self-heal, which you’ll need to slot if you want the 6.25% recharge bonus. It also offers 10% regen, Confusion Resistance, and an Endurance bonus. Pretty nifty little set.

Ruin: Uncommon, 25-40. Nothing special here, but the set does offer a lot of tri-aspect IOs, which may make it handy for, say, 6-slotting Mesmerize or Dominate, and slotting half with a Mez IO set and half a damage set like this one. Anyway, the bonuses are pretty weak: Fear resistance, a small HP buff, 1% debt protection, and a small defense bonus to all AoE attacks.

Decimation: Rare, 25-40. This 6-part set has a fun proc: Chance for Build-Up, which if you’ve never played a Blaster or Scrapper, is a power that boosts your Acc and Damage for a few seconds. Its bonuses are pretty neat: Immobilize resistance, an HP and End buff, +6.25% recharge, and some Toxic and Psi resistance. You may want to put the proc in Mesmerize or Dominate, whichever one you usually open up your attack chain with, so that your next several powers might get an additional damage boost. Otherwise, a nice set to have in Levitate.

Thunderstrike: Uncommon, 30-53. Another 6-part set which is kind of odd: just slotting 4 of the 6 puts you past the E.D. cap for damage, and the other two, if you choose to slot them, really have no effect on your damage output, assuming you’re slotting all level 50s. So, save yourself some money and get lower-level ones if you can. Anyway, the bonuses are a bit lame, except for the +7% Accuracy bonus.

Devastation: Rare, 30-53. Another rare set, another proc. The Proc in this set offers a chance to hold (8 seconds). I kind of want to put this set in Levitate and Mesmerize, just for the overkill factor. Of course, the 12% regen buff, extra HP, and Hold resistance don’t hurt much… but I’d rather have my +Acc. Then again, procs can be slotted independently, so it may be a worthwhile idea to slot the proc in EACH of your three main powers to really increase your Hold magnitude!

Apocalypse: Ultra Rare, Level 50. This “mega” set has one useless proc: Chance for Negative damage. Granted, Neg damage isn’t resisted by too many foes… but, adding damage on top of damage? Anyway, the Set bonuses are decent: Hp, Regen, damage, defense to Psi, and another 10% bonus to global recharge. A bonus to accuracy would have been drool-worthy, but possibly over-kill. Mweh.

Accurate Healing: (Transfusion)

Theft of Essence: Rare, Levels 10-30. Offers decent numbers and good bonuses, and has a nifty looking “Chance for +end” proc, which might help out in a “stamina-less” build.

Touch of the Nictus: Rare, levels 30-50. Gives some solid numbers, and some good bonuses (like + accuracy, +end, and +hp). Has a “chance for negative energy” proc. I definitely recommend this over a normal healing set mixed with a Endmod set.


Other Useful/Relevant IO Types

Heal: Whether it’s Miracle or Numina’s Convalescence, a chunk of a heal set works wonders in Transfusion… HOWEVER, make sure to save a slot or two for some accuracy! Doctored Wounds offers a 5% recharge bonus, as does Regenerative Tissue. And there are “Uniques” which give you a global +recovery/+regen.

KnockBack: Levitate and Repel both take Knockback sets. However, they only offer decent bonuses if you’re willing to spend five or six slots. There IS a bright side, though. Force Feedback: Chance for recharge. If you put this in a power, every time you use it, you (miiight) get a 100% recharge buff! Awesome, especially if you have a slot to spare! Also slots into Psi Tornado and Fissure from the Psi and Stone mastery EPP sets.

End Mod: The endmod sets look pretty sweet. There’s a proc that offers a chance to Stun, or, if you’re willing to spend 6-slots on Transference, you can get some more +recharge and damage with the Efficacy Adaptor set. In either case, three of the E.A. IOs will actually give you better Acc and Recharge on Transference than slotting single lvl 50 Acc and Recharge Redux IOs in exchange for a little less End Mod. Definitely a good way to save a slot… once these sets actually WORK.

Defense: While Mind/Kin doesn’t have any powers that offer any defense buffs or take +Def IOs, many of the Power Pools and APPs offer powers that DO. When you get one of these, save a slot for Luck of the Gambler: Recharge. It’s an IO that plain and simple gives you a global 7.5% recharge (good luck getting the IO, though!). The set also offers +9% accuracy if you slot four of ‘em. Not bad! The Red Fortune Set offers a small damage and recharge bonus if you need to go the slightly cheaper route (People are selling the LotG: Recharge for over 50 MILLION influence… though they also go for 250 merits, which is... a lot of task forces)

Slow: Siphon Speed takes the “slow” sets… however, in order to get any decent bonuses like +Acc or +Recharge, you have to have S.S. at least 4-slotted. If you’ve already dedicated numerous slots in your attacks and healing buffs, you’ll be very hard pressed to do this. However, if you really want, the “Chance to –recharge” in Pacing of the Turtle may very well be a decent investment to hinder your foes.

Jump/Run Speed: For use in Sprint (or whichever Prestige Sprint you use), you can tack in a +Stealth IO from either Unbound Leap or Celerity to give yourself some, well, stealth whenever the power is used. Any kind of stealth or +Defense on a squishy controller is nice, even if you shouldn’t really need it.

AoE Damage: Only good for Terrify or your Epic AoE, IF you even take it. No Procs worth mentioning, but Positron’s Blast and Ragnorok offer excellent +Acc and +Recharge bonuses if you can manage afford ‘em!

Universal Travel: These can be slotted into any travel power! Blessing of the Zephyr gives some good defense in its bonuses, and the quickly-becoming-rarer Winter’s Gift has a 20% Slow resist IO. Something to look at.

PvP IOs: These special IOs, which come in many types (Melee damage, Ranged damage, AoE damage, Defense, Resist, Hold, Immob etc) and have a special secondary effect: In addition to giving you bonuses in PvE, you get additional bonuses when in a PvP environment. However, you can only get these IOs from defeating foes in PvP, or for outrageous prices at the Auction House.

IO Sets summary: If you can finagle your slots and maybe get whole sets of Ultra-rares and a few Procs, you can quite possibly negate the need for Recharge enhancements in some powers (which saves you slots which you can re-assign!), while at the same time making sure you miss as rarely as possible... And beef up your defenses a bit. Of course, this all depends on whether or not you even care about going through the hassles it takes to get IO sets. It’d probably be easier to get some dual-aspect Hamidon Enhancements (or a bunch of individual dual/tri-aspect IOs) and just pimp your character out that way. After all, if you can get a bunch of Acc/Dam/recharge enhancements in all your powers, you really won’t need global bonuses. Also, there’s plenty of sets I didn’t mention (like melee damage, pet damage, teleport, taunt) which, depending on what pool powers you take, you may want to research for yourself.

KINETICS

Transfusion: Level 1/Auto. This is a Target-Based Area of Effect (TBAoE) Heal, which means that you have to use this on an enemy… Doing so drains them of some Endurance, but will momentarily create an aura of green energy around that target, healing any heroes nearby, yourself included. Of course, this power can miss, and you take risks being in melee range of enemies. On the plus side, Transfusion also affects the enemy’s Regeneration rate, and is a boon in Elite Boss/Arch-Villain fights.

Slotting: Make sure to get some Accuracy in here early on, and maybe a Recharge enhancer. Don’t worry about Heal enhancers until you’re dealing with D.O.s or early IOs and you have more than 3 slots in the power. If you want to try your luck as a “Sapper”, you can slot End Mod enhancements in here, but even 6-slotted with End Mods, you’ll be barely able to suck up most of an even-conning target’s End… and meanwhile, your Accuracy and Healing ability will suck. It’s fun for a while, but ultimately useless. Later on, you’ll want one of the “Accurate Healing” IO sets: these are made specifically for Target-based heals. They offer good bonuses and they enhance the power pretty damn well, too!

Siphon Power: Level 2. This power sucks up a foe’s ability to do damage, and gives it to you and any nearby allies, to the tune of 20%. It has a duration of 30 seconds, while its out-of-the-box recharge is 20 seconds, allowing you to stack it for a few seconds. However, don’t take this power too early. 20% of 25 points of damage is like… 5. Big whoop. And there’s nothing worth debuffing in the early levels. However, you may very well want this power for its buff/debuff when you can do significant damage (say after level 30), and by proxy, prevent significant damage from E.Bs/A.V.s.

Slotting: Accuracy, and if you can afford a slot, Recharge to assist in stacking the buff/debuff. No sets are available for this power.

Repel: Level 4. Repel creates a small barrier around you, which will use Repel and Knockback effects to toss away any foes who get too close, which costs a little bit of Endurance every time they’re knocked away. A good power overall, and probably a decent idea for PvP… but consider that, as a Mind Controller, you should be stopping most things in their tracks before they even know you’re there. Also, most Kinetics powers require you to be pretty close to your enemies, making Repel counter-productive. This power may be handy for a few levels, but when you start getting your AoEs, you may find yourself never using this power again.

Slotting: End Redux, KnockBack if you can afford it. Takes KB IO Sets, but, well, do you really want to 6-slot this power? The KB sets have a nice +Recharge Proc, though, and the chance to buff your recharge rate every time you knock away a baddie seems awfully tempting.

Siphon Speed: Level 10. If you only take one Kin Power (well, besides Transfusion), make this it. It sucks the speed away from an enemy and gives it to you, allowing you to run/fly/jump about 300% faster (or up to the cap, whatever’s less)! In addition, your recharge time is buffed by 20%, which greatly helps get your AoEs back up in a timely manner. Its recharge and duration are both 60 seconds, so if you put a recharge redux or two in here, you can double-stack your recharge bonus for a few seconds. Note that like most Kin powers, you need a foe to use this on, and that it CAN miss. I suggest slotting for accuracy, because there is nothing more annoying than needing a boost of speed… and not getting it. And then agroing a bad guy to literally add injury to insult.

Slotting: Like I said, an Accuracy and a Recharge so you can make this “perma” and stack the recharge bonus for a few seconds. Takes Slow IO Sets... if you can spare a slot, maybe put the “Pacing of the Turtle: Chance for –Recharge” to further slow down the affected foe.

Increase Density: Level 16. Use this power on an ally to increase their Resistance to enemy teleportation, Smashing & Energy damage, and free them from Hold, Disorient, and Immobilize effects. If you only plan on soloing, or teaming rarely, you can skip this power, as it does you no good. However, if you plan on teaming a lot, and/or you don’t have an Empath with Clear Mind on your team, this power is a pretty decent substitute. The anti-teleport part is good for PvP, and the +Res is good in late-game Task Forces.

Slotting: Just one recharge Reduction will do nicely. You CAN slot for Damage Resistance too, but that’s not necessary. If you’re desperate for a Resistance IO set, you can dump it in here… but that’s wasting a lot of slots that may be better off elsewhere. Of course, if you get enough global + recharge from your sets, you can skip the recharge enhancement and just throw in the damage resistance.

Speed Boost: Level 20. Use this to increase an ally’s Recharge rate (50%), Endurance recovery (50%) and movement speed. This power is almost essential if you plan on teaming a lot. This is one of the most sought-after powers when people are looking to team with /Kins, so it would be nice not to disappoint! For the soloist? I don’t see it doing you a lot of good. Note that some people do not like SB, because they cannot control their character going through small caves, or they already have movement buffs in place. However, they’re a dime-a-dozen amid cries for “SB plz”.

Slotting: Recharge speed to help apply it to your entire team in a timely manner (default recharge time is 2 seconds, which is okay for buffing an 8-member team when nothing’s going on, but if you’re in the middle of a big battle, every second counts), and, if you have a slot to spare, an Endurance Modifier to help people with Endurance recovery (which they’ll need, as they’ll be burning through Endurance faster with the enhanced recharge rate). Takes Run Speed and End Mod IO Sets. In fact, if you slot the End Mod/Recharge IOs from the two higher-level End Mod sets, you can get a better combined bonus in recharge Speed AND End Mod than just slotting in a recharge and End Mod separately. And as with ID, if you have enough global recharge, you won’t even need a recharge enhancement in here (Set Bonuses alone can bring the recharge down to a half a second).

Inertial Reduction: Level 28. Remember when you were in Atlas Park as a noob, and one day someone came up to you, and there was a flash of light, then suddenly you could jump around really high? Yeah, that was this. This power has little to no combat value, but it’s good if you don’t want to get a travel power, or if you’re hit with a –fly effect that doesn’t affect jumping. It’s also great for navigating the slopes at the Winter Event Chalet in Pocket D.

Slotting: Recharge Reduction and Jump… Maybe a Jump or Universal Travel IO set if you plan on using this as your travel power.

Transference: Level 35. This is the Endurance version of Transfusion. Get near a foe, hit this, and it recharges a good chunk of you and your allies’ endurance (if everyone’s close enough), while noticeably sapping away your target’s. Great for the team player or soloist, and a whole LOT of fun in conjunction with Telekinesis. Note that it does cost a little bit of End to cast, so if you have an empty bar and are hoping to juice up (damn Sappers), you’re SoL.

Slotting: Accuracy, Recharge, and End Mod. Maybe an End Mod IO set, which shouldn’t be too hard to get and craft.

Fulcrum Shift: Level 38. This is the “AoE/Nuke” version of Siphon Power. You not only drain the power of your target, but of ALL foes near the target, and you and your team get TWO power buffs: If you’re far away, you (and any allies near you) get a single 40% buff, plus an additional 20% after that. If you (or an ally) are near the target and the other affected foes, you get an additional 20% buff for EACH enemy hit. These buffs last for about 45 seconds. This power takes a touch of finesse if you’re on a team... make sure to tell Blasters to wait for you to use this before they set off their Nuke =). It is recommended that you sleep/hold the mob, go in, use this, and then attack. Oh, and the affected bad guys get a –20% damage debuff for about 30 seconds. Not bad!

Slotting: Recharge redux and Accuracy, as much as possible. 1 Acc and 2 recharge will do fine, but an extra +Acc helps. It’s nice to be able to spam this to keep enemies debuffed.

Kinetics Summary: Kinetics takes a bit of getting used to… and in conjunction with Mind, you’ll notice that there’s a lot to keep you busy. Being able to heal HP, End, and buff your SPD, Recharge, and Damage is great… but you have to sap off a foe first, making any way to improve your accuracy (like with IO sets) a must. And in conjunction with Mind, you can mez a foe first so that they can’t retaliate, which greatly reduces the “gamble” of using the various powers. The team-buffing powers, and enemy debuffing abilities, make you a great asset to any mission.

POWER POOLS

The problem with Mind/Kin is that it doesn’t need much else, especially if you take all the powers in each set. You have offense, superior control, buffing, defense, possible travel, and a limitless ability to self-sustain yourself, negating the need for things like a travel power or stamina. That said, I do not recommend taking more than 1 or 2 pools unless you have some concept that allows you to skip several powers (for instance, if your concept character is only a mind-reader who wouldn’t have Levitate or TK, and/or you plan on soloing a lot which would mean not taking Speed Boost or Increase Density). This section will look at each of the pools briefly, and it will be a bit more opinionated, so I apologize in advance.

Concealment: With your ability to sleep/confuse foes and walk right past them, there’s little reason to take this set unless you want to be a bigger asset to your group with Grant Invisibility, or if you’re looking for a defense buff. Phase Shift will only make you more annoying in PvP… which alone makes this set tempting to take! Also, 3 of the 4 powers allows you to slot a Luck of the Gambler: +7.5% global recharge enhancer into each if you’re trying to get your recharge rate up!

Fighting: A bit of extra offense and defense isn’t a bad idea, but why not wait until you get your Epic powers? If you have a good reason why you need some extra defense NOW instead of later or if you want to stack your defense and resistance, then go for it, otherwise… skip this set.

Fitness: Everyone likes Stamina, and therefore, everyone loves Fitness! Do you NEED it? No. With proper slotting, IO enhancements/sets which grant +recovery, Accolades and Set Bonuses, and Transfusion/Transference, you can negate the need for these powers. Mind/Kin has very few toggles, so not having Stamina will only come back and bite you if you’re not careful (like if you plan on using TK or Repel a lot). I recommend it anyway, but I don’t wish to make people believe it’s essential. *NOTE* Apparently, the Devs disagree with that last statement, because as of Issue 19, ALL the Fitness abilities are INHERENT! If you already have the fitness pool, you'll have to respec out of it and choose new powers to replace the fitness abilities you took. Inherent Fitness abilities are still slottable and enhanceable as normal.

Leadership: A little bit of extra offensive and defensive buffing always helps, and Tactics is a great Stalker-Spoiler for PvP. Just note that running three toggles can be a drain on your Endurance, so you either need to slot carefully, or grab the Fitness pool to make sure you don’t bottom-out after 10 seconds of fighting.

Medicine: As far as defensive sets like Kinetics go, one of the few things you’re “missing” is the ability to Resurrect other players (shh, don’t tell Archery!). Also, Stimulant will fill in any mez-releasing gaps that ID has (or you can just not take it). Plus, the ability to heal yourself without having to get within melee range of an enemy is nice. That said, I don’t have this set on my Mind/Kin, and I don’t miss it. Definitely not a requirement, especially if you plan on soloing more often (3/4 powers can only be used on other players). Really a team-oriented and semi-redundant set for a */kin.

Presence: Agro-drawing powers? Are you nuts? And you already have a good AoE fear. This is possibly the most useless and harmful set for a Controller to take… it may have its uses, (such as more Fear powers to slot the ever-awesome fear IO sets into) but I’m not seeing them for a character whose function is “Make foes NOT attack”.

Power Pools Summary: When selecting pool powers, you want abilities that will compliment your character concept and playstyle. With the advent of IO Set bonuses and Procs, you may want to consider some of the more odd powers just to help beef up your stats. Just remember that taking more than 3 pool powers means you have to give up on one or more of your Primary/Secondary/Epic choices, or at least force you to take a power later than it’s available.

TRAVEL POWERS

I decided to make these separate from the other pool powers just because.

Flight: Hover is no longer cripplingly slow, thanks to Siphon Speed (The KB protection is nice). It also now offers Resistance to –Fly, allowing you to stay airborne when facing an opponent who’s trying to ground you. Air Superiority is kind of redundant thanks to Levitate... However, since you’re a */Kin, you’ll be in melee a lot, and A.S. is just a little quicker-acting than levitate if you need a panic button. Fly is a good travel power, but slow. It is, though, the “safest” and most “friendly” travel power: you don’t have to worry about high walls, obstacles, or running out of End and dropping into a large mob of foes. Group Fly is kind of useless unless you just want to have some fun with noobs in atlas, or lead anti-dropship attacks during Ritki invasions.

Leaping: Some good defense-based toggles in this set, like Combat Jumping and Acrobatics. However, if all you really want to do is jump around, why not save yourself a power selection and just take Inertial Reduction? Well, the defense toggles are nice…

Speed: Hasten is good in ANY build, and Mind/Kin is no exception, even with Siphon Speed. The attacks are skippable (The Sands of Mu vet power does more damage than Flurry, and the consensus on Whirlwind is that it’s near useless). Super Speed is of course a decent travel option, but the lack of vertical control can be a headache (but can be circumvented with Inertial Reduction, a Safeguard temp power, or the GvE jump Jet), and plus, you can always use Siphon Speed if you wanted to run around fast. This set is both redundant yet complimentary for */Kins.

Teleportation: You can probably have some fun teleporting confused enemies around, and everyone likes Recall Friend, but ultimately, choosing this pool for the travel power is only advisable if you have the slots to spare to beef up Teleport so that you can make it to your destination without running out of endurance (and you have to worry about Lag Spikes). Still, if you can manage that, and the other travel pool powers don’t appeal to you, there’s no real reason NOT to take TP.

Overall, it’s all about concept. Taking one travel power over another probably won’t affect your gameplay experience too much, especially with a pair of sets that control and buff as much as Mind/Kin does. The only real mitigating factor is what kinds of extra abilities, defenses or attacks you want available. More speed? The ability to fly out of melee range? Move confused foes around? That’s your call to make!

Ah, Mind Control/Kinetics. While there are better Controller combinations for different situations (and definitely better overall ATs for various roles), it is this writer’s opinion that Mind/Kin is among the most well-rounded combinations for soloing, group play, PvE and PvP, regardless of your build, simply due to the diversity of holds and buffs available to them.

In this guide, I will discuss each of the powers in the Primary and Secondary, listing both pros and cons, with special post I9 focus (like how IOs can help pimp out your character), along with updating the information with post I13 PvP changes, It is also my intention to allow the readers of this guide to pick and choose which powers they want in an educated manner, instead of TELLING them what to get. While there are definitely certain powers that most people would consider not even worth mentioning, it would be a disservice to dismiss such powers without even mentioning why. There will also be a section on slotting all those confusing IO sets, and finally battle tactics for all these strange and varied powers.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Terminology
Containment
Mind Control
Kinetics
Power Pools
Travel Powers
Epic/Ancillary Power Pools
IOs
Usage Tactics
Weaknesses & Limitations
PvP
Closing


TERMINOLOGY

Here is a simple reference list for various terms (and their related concepts) used throughout this guide which may not be immediately discernible to players inexperienced with any Controller, or those who have been away from the game for a long period of time and need a refresher course. Additionally, there is info concerning the basics of the Invention System for those who are either new, or have yet to get their feet wet.

Mez: Any kind of effect which keeps a Player-Character or NPC from acting freely. Mez can be becoming immobilized (though still able to attack), or Held and completely defenseless, or anywhere in between.

Magnitude/Mag: Basically, how “powerful” a mez effect is, and how strong a character’s resistance to the mez effect must be for them to ignore the effect. Note that Mag can be “stacked”, so if at first a Mez doesn’t seem to work, try again! Mag cannot be enhanced in any way. Also, as of I13, Mag is no longer a factor in PvP.

Mez Resistance: A character with Mez resistance can still be mezzed, but they will automatically break free before the full duration of the mez is up. So if a mez is 8 seconds, and a character has 100% resistance, they will be free in 4 seconds =) (the percentages are basically half of what they advertise, it's weird)

Sleep: A slept target cannot act, and will have Zzz’s floating over their head. However, the target will awaken if they take damage or are healed.

Immobilize: An Immobilized target cannot move, but may still attack and use other buffs and powers.

Disorient/Stun: Affected target cannot use any powers, and has their movement control and speed severely limited for a short time. Toggles are dropped.

Hold: A type of mez which makes the victim completely helpless and unable to act, and drops their offensive toggles while suppressing their defensive ones. Only by using a Break-Free or being assisted by a friendly with Mez-Breaking powers will undo a Hold. Holds typically do not last very long by themselves, though..

Terrorized: Affected target is overcome with fear, and their actions are severely limited. They can attack once for each hit they take, and sometimes can move for a few seconds, which NPCs will typically use to run away from the caster.

Confused: Denoted by little pinkish-purple circles floating around his head, target believes his friends to be enemies, and his enemies to be his allies, and will act accordingly. Non-confused foes will often refuse to retaliate against their misguided companion. Note that if you confuse an NPC before they see you, they will typically not know you were ever there. Good for stealthing

Overpower(ed): All Controller powers have a chance (20-50%) of having an additional point of Magnitude and an extra few seconds of duration tacked on to their mez effect when they hit an enemy or group of enemies. When this happens, “Overpowered!” will appear over the affected foes’ heads. The chance varies by individual, so if you’re using an AoE, you’ll likely overpower SOME of the foes, but rarely ALL of them. This functionality has always existed, but there was never any indication of it happening before I12. Does not affect PvP targets.

“Purple Triangles of Doom”/PToD: The name given by players to a high-scale Mez resistance (Mag 50) effect used by Elite Bosses and Arch villains, as indicated by a series of purple triangles that whirl around the EB/AV’s upper torso and head. Pointed up means their protection is in place… if the triangles are inverted, it means they’re about to lose their protection for a short time. Note that the PtoD does not protect against Sleep or immobilize, which gives Mind controllers a distinct advantage when it comes to disabling Avs.

PvE: Player versus Environment. What most of the game is: You versus computer controlled AI.

PvP: Player versus Player combat. As of I13, most powers function radically differently when you’re fighting other players. For Controllers, this means almost ALL of your mezzes will be about 4 seconds long, however, they’ll do a lot more damage where applicable. Controllers (along with most other ATs) also get a significant boost to their resistance to all damage types while in a PvP environment.

Diminishing Returns: In PvP only. Diminishing returns negatively affects your ability to debuff your foes, and buff your allies over time. For instance, the first time you heal yourself, you heal for the full amount. The -second- time you heal within a short span, the healed amount is lessened. And it gets less and less. If you and 2 other kins all use Siphon Speed on someone, they won’t get 3 siphon speeds worth of minus speed applied... It’ll be more like 1 and 3/4ths. DR also affects your stats. In PvE, you can make your character have over 200% recharge… stepping into a PvP zone will nullify some of that bonus, as well as make it harder for you to buff that particular stat.

Combat Travel Suppression: In PvE, if you attack a foe while your main travel power is activated, you’ll be significantly slowed down. In PvP, you will be slowed down when you attack, buff, get attacked, or are even simply -targeted-.

IO: “Invention Origin”, the new type of Enhancement introduced in Issue 9. This can refer to either “normal” Enhancements (like Accuracy, Recharge Reduction, Damage, etc) which mostly yield higher numbers than their like-level counterparts of Training, Dual, and Single-Origin Enhancements but must be “crafted” by the Player, or “Set” enhancements, such as “Ghost Widow’s Embrace: Hold/Recharge” or “Malaise’s Illusions: Chance for Psi damage”. IOs do not “expire” when you out-level them, giving them more longevity than other enhancements.

Set: Many IOs are grouped into “Sets”. A Set IO can often enhance more than one aspect of a power, such as Damage/Accuracy, or Hold/Recharge. If multiple IOs within a Set are placed into the same power, you start to gain small, pre-determined “global” bonuses to your character and all your abilities.

Set Bonuses: The bonuses gained from placing multiple Set IOs in the same power. Examples include +Recharge speed, +Ranged Damage Resistance, +Max Endurance, etc. By themselves, most Set bonuses are insignificant. However, similar set bonuses stack, allowing for larger total bonuses.

Franken-Slotting: A player-made term to describe the practice of using different Set IOs in order to achieve the greatest amount of enhancing for the various aspect of a power with the fewest slots. For instance, putting three different Dam/Acc/Rech from three different sets in order to max out those attributes on that power. This has the advantage of maxing out a character’s abilities with less slots, but does not offer any Set Bonuses. Using different sets is necessary because you cannot put more than one of the same set IO into a single power.

Proc: Short for “Procedure”, many IO Sets have a special IO that does not actually enhance the power normally. Instead, it gives the power a small chance to randomly have a pre-determined alternate effect, such as Self-healing, Mezzing an opponent, or adding Damage (to powers that otherwise do not deal damage), to name a few.

Unique: Some Set IOs are so powerful that they can only be slotted once on an entire character. These usually give large bonuses by themselves while helping to unlock more set bonuses.

Salvage: Items dropped by enemies upon defeat that can be used to craft IOs and other Inventions.

Recipe: A special drop that allows you to craft an IO or other Invention (such as temp powers and costume parts), as long as you have the required Salvage, Influence, and access to an Invention Worktable. You can get recipes by beating enemies, Trials, and Task Forces, or buying them at the auction house. Additionally, “worktables” allow you to craft basic IOs without a recipe, but for a larger cost.

Common/Uncommon/Rare/Ultra Rare: Terms denoting the likelihood of receiving a certain kind of Salvage or Recipe as a drop. The alert telling you that you received such drops, as well as the name of the drop in your Inventory, has different colors to inform you of the rarity, or rather, the likelihood of receiving a particular drop. Common = White, Uncommon = Yellow, Rare= Orange, and Ultra-Rare (which can only be dropped by Lvl 50+ Minions) = Purple.

Worktables: Available in Universities (found in Steel Canyon, Croatoa and Founder’s Falls) and as a supergroup base item, these allow you to craft Inventions, as long as you have all the required components (recipe, salvage, and influence). As mentioned above, Worktables allow you to craft basic IO enhancements without needing a recipe, however, it costs far more to do it this way.

The Auction House/AH/Wentworth’s Consignment House/WW: A silent-auction style market where players can sell and bid on/purchase Inspirations, Salvage, Recipes, Enhancements, and more. They are available Hero-side in Atlas Park, King’s Row, Steel Canyon, and Talos Island.

Merits/ Merit Vendors: NEW in I13! Merits are a “special” salvage awarded by defeating Giant Monsters, completing story arcs, and winning TFs/Trials/Hamdon raids. You take merits to a Merit Vendor (dressed in maroon and yellow, and their agents are all around the city, at least 2 per zone) who will redeem your merits for enhancements, recipes, inspirations, and salvage.

Hami-O’s: Short for (Synthetic) Hamidon-Origin Enhancements, these can be gotten either by participating in a Hamidon raid (A Giant Monster that takes 40-50 characters to defeat), or completing the Statesman Task Force, or paying millions at the Auction House. They often enhance two or three aspect of a power (Like Damage/Accuracy, or Damage/Accuracy/Recharge Rate), and better than a Set IO does, but do not offer Set Bonuses.

CONTAINMENT

The Controller “inherent” is called “Containment”, which allows you to do double damage to any target that is Held, Slept, Disoriented, or Immobilized (in PvP, you only do 1.5x damage instead of double). Keep this in mind as you select your powers. Note that while neither Mind nor Kin have any Immobilization or Disorient powers, 5 of Mind’s 9 powers invoke a Sleep or Held status. Also, there are IO “Procs” which add the chance of disorient/stun effects to various powers, which allows you to increase your Mezzing arsenal by using other powers.

MIND CONTROL

Mesmerize: Level 1. Does “moderate” psionic-based damage, and puts the target to sleep. Has a moderate recharge (6 seconds), and is a decent first attack. Now, there’s two things to note: If a “slept” target is attacked, it will wake up and you’ll draw agro! However, if you (or another Controller) hit it while slept, you will still get your Containment bonus before the target awakens. Also, you may very well end up putting the target back to sleep. However, in that split-second time between the target waking up an falling back asleep, they can usually get an attack off. The “Magnitude” of this power is impressive (3.5): You can one-shot even an Arch-Villain with this power and put them to sleep. Also, this power won’t alert a baddie’s friends to your presence: you can literally “sleep” a bad guy to death and no one will notice until he keels over. It also has a slightly longer range than most powers (100), allowing you to stay safely out of most enemies perception range while you apply the mental NyQuil. Also note that robots and undead have high resistance against sleep, so this isn’t that great of a power to use against them.

Slotting: Takes Damage (ranged), Sleep Duration, as well as the usual Accuracy, Endurance reduction, and Recharge reduction Enhancements. Early on, slot this as an attack with Acc and Damage. Later, when you have more powers that you can use to cycle damage, you can re-slot this power for Sleep Duration to ensure your foes stay asleep while you tackle other foes. Or keep it as a damage power, whatever your play style demands of you.

Levitate: Level 1. Mind’s only non-psionics-based damage attack, some people skip this for conceptual reasons (“My toon is a mind-reader, not a telekinetic! There’s a difference!”). However, its Smashing damage is higher than Mesmerize or Dominate, and a lot of bad guys later in the game resist psionic damage, so it’s nice to have another damage type up your sleeve. This power does Knock-up, which is a very soft control. An enemy cannot act while flying in the air or getting back up after crashing to earth (they can, however, continue an attack they already started). However, you have to be careful: if you “levitate” an enemy who is still recovering from your last levitate attack, they’ll fly in the air and land in whatever position they were in, negating the “soft control” aspect of the power. And while Levitate takes advantage of Containment, it does not set Containment up. In addition, Levitate has a –Fly component, allowing you to possibly ground flying foes. As a note of caution, using Levitate on a enemy WILL agro the entire mob like a normal attack, even if they’re mezzed (So that when they wake up, they’ll be gunning for you).

Slotting: This power takes ranged Damage and Knockback enhancements/sets, along with the usual Acc, End Redux, etc. By level 39, you should have this 6-slotted with a ranged-damage IO set, or if you need the slots elsewhere, you can get away with 4-slotting it with either (most of) a Set or just some Dam and Acc IOs. Early on, just slot it normally for Acc and Damage.

Dominate: Level 2. This power tears at a foe’s mind, making them unable to act. It causes psionic damage and sets up Containment. Unlike with Mesmerize, attacking a Held opponent will not awake them. Dominate lasts significantly shorter than Mesmerize (22.4 seconds opposed to 55.9 seconds!), and it has slightly less of a magnitude (3), which means you’ll need to stack it against tougher foes to affect them. Like Mesmerize, Holding a foe in this manner will not agro nearby foes, but the affected target himself will come after you as soon as he’s free. The numbers make this power look not so great, but that’s balance for ya. Depending on your play style, the duration may not even mean anything: I tend to use my powers to kill foes, not control them. However, if you need to indefinitely keep an enemy at bay while finishing off another, you should probably use Mesmerize, not Dominate.

Slotting: In addition to the staples of Damage, Acc, etc, this power also takes Hold Duration Enhancements and Sets. Again, slot as a normal attack as first, but as you get into later levels, you can throw some Hold enhancers or a Set in here for better Control utility, or to stack Set bonuses from other Ranged Damage Sets. Or maybe save a couple slots and just keep it as a normal attack.

Confuse: Level 6. This power deals no damage to your target, but rather turns a foe against other NPCs, believing you and your teammates to be his allies. In PvP, it “greys” you out, and makes your opponent’s damage AoEs affect his own team. “Mind” doesn’t have a pet, but with this power, it doesn’t need one. There IS a side-effect: if a Confused enemy kills another enemy, you do not get credit or as much XP for the kill. The awarded amount scales proportional to how much damage you do to the defeated foe. But fear not: While confuse does not offer a –ToHit or -Acc, Confused enemies(particularly Minions) seem to have a really hard time hitting one another. Additionally, a confused enemy will not notice you, making Confusion an efficient stealthing tool. If he DOES see you, he’ll help you (enemies that offer buffs will heal and protect you).

Slotting: Confuse Duration, Accuracy, and Recharge. Maybe drop in one of each at first, but as you get up in levels, definitely 5-or-6 slot a Confuse IO Set: It’ll improve all of this powers stats AND give you some nice bonuses!

Mass Hypnosis: Level 8. This power is an Area of Effect (AoE) Sleep. It has a decent recharge (45 seconds), and is practically an auto-hit. Sleeping your foes will not draw agro, though missing sometimes does. However, one needs to be careful with this power, especially in group play: As with all sleep effects, attacked targets will be awakened. This power is good for holding off an ambush, or a second mob that’s a touch too close to the first. By default, the sleep time is only 22 seconds, so you’ll have to decide what to do with the slept mob rather quickly. Also, Sleep Mag stacks, so hitting an AV with this after Mesmerize will almost certainly have them putting up ZZZs, if Mes didn’t do the trick to begin with. It’s also a good stealthing tool: a group of slept foes will never know you were there. Just be careful grouping this power with damage AoEs: you’ll lose Containment once the damage hits.

Slotting: Definitely throw in Sleep duration and Accuracy. Recharge is optional, but having this up every battle (or even multiple times per battle) makes for smooth sailing. This power can easily be made near-perma (another way of saying you can re-activate it before its duration runs out). By the time you’re in your 40s, this power should be 5 or 6-slotted with a Sleep IO set.

Telekinesis: Level 12. This power is a toggle that has a slight cone effect which combines Hold and Repel effects to shove a foe, and any other nearby enemies, away from you. This power must be used with finesse, though. Any foes that happen to be affected by this (besides your target) will float off to the sides, and eventually out of the cone-hold. Additionally, if an affected foe hits a wall, they’ll slide off to the side, making use of corners paramount to your success in using this ability. Also, the Hold lasts for as long as this power is active, and you still get your Containment bonus until then. TK also has a very prohibitive Endurance cost: 3.12 End per second. You will want to slot this power with Endurance reducers, and get Stamina, before you even think about using this power for more than a few seconds at a time. And again, some people skip this power for “conceptual” reasons. To be honest, skipping this power won’t gimp your build; however, it’s nice to have in a clutch (if you have a corner to shove enemies into). Additionally, it’s an extra 3 points of Hold Mag to use to help stack with your other attacks, which is nice against AVs. Note: as of I13, this power automatically de-activates after a few moments when in a PvP environment.(arena, zone, base raid, etc).

Slotting: Just go with End reducers. 2 would be best. It also takes Range and Recharge reducers, but there’s really no need for those. It does NOT take Hold Enhancers or Sets because it’s duration is potentially infinite.

Total Domination: Level 18. AoE Hold. Looking at the numbers, this power seems a bit… underwhelming. High End cost (15.6), looong recharge (about 4 minutes!), the hold only lasts 15 seconds… and that’s IF it hits (60% base accuracy). You really need to slot the heck out of this power to make it a viable tool, but once you do, you may find yourself wondering why you have Mass Hypnosis. In conjunction with several other powers in the Mind and Kin powersets, this power is great for setting up, and keeping, Containment on a large mob, allowing you to pick the individuals off at your leisure. Out-of-the-box, it’s not all that great a power, but if you’re willing to dedicate 6-slots to it and keep yourself speed-boosted, it’s a dream.

Slotting: Accuracy, Hold duration, and Recharge, in that order (a faster recharge does you no good if it can’t hit, or hold for more than 20 seconds). It’ll take a long time for this power to mature and be useful, but once you have 6-slots full of Hold/Acc/Recharge enhancements (whether they’re from sets, normal IOs or dual-aspect Hami-Os), it’s a great and reliable power.

Terrify: Level 26. This power does moderate psionic damage in a 90 degree “cone” in front of you, and also causes foes to become “Terrified” for a default 30 seconds. Being “Terrified” does not give Containment; however, foes are still largely unable to act. Most “Terrified” foes tend to attack once, and/or run away, but mostly stand around quaking in fear. Therefore, hiting foes with this power after Mass Hypnosis (as opposed to T.D.) won’t result in anything awful. You need to be a little careful with this power: sometimes you may hit, and agro, another mob that’s near your line-of-sight. Terrify also has a couple-second activation time, making it unsuitable for a panic button. It sucks a bit of Endurance (about 20 points), so you may want to rectify that with an End reducer Enhancement, and it has a recharge time of about 40 seconds. Depending on how fast you tear through mobs, you may want to slot for recharge redux, also. That way, you can keep foes permanently terrified, by making the recharge shorter than the fear duration.

Slotting: Lots of options here! Early on, you’ll want some Accuracy and Recharge on this power, and definitely Damage. Fear is also a good choice, which would really emphasize this power’s unique brand of moderate control. As for Sets, you’ve got Ranged AoE Sets, Fear Sets, and ToHit Debuff sets available (NOTE: The power does NOT actually affect a foes ToHit; however, the power takes ToHit debuff enhancements and sets). That’s a lot of options for one power! Overall, “Glimpse of the Abyss” offers the best overall Set bonuses with 5/6, leaving you room to throw in a damage IO (and it’s CHEAP!), unless you can get your hands on the Ultra-Rare “Ragnorok” AoE Damage Set. Pick your priority: Damage, Control, or Set Bonuses? Either way, you really can’t go wrong.

Mass Confusion: Level 32. Most Controller powersets get a pet. You get to turn an entire mob against each other, allowing you to sneak past or pick individuals off at your leisure. It’s got a long recharge and doesn’t always hit everyone in a mob, and again, confused foes will not give you Containment and may affect immediate XP gain, but it is still a viable tool, especially if you’re up against large groups (i.e. teaming) should you choose to use it. Great for soloing Elite Bosses or other players in PvP, whether it’s to turn their minions against them, or to stack Confusion magnitude and make sure THEY can’t attack YOU. If you solo a lot, this power is a tad redundant, as Confuse is quick enough to make small mobs wipe each other out, but I recommend picking this up just for the IO set bonuses from the Confuse sets.

Slotting: Go for Range, Duration, and Recharge reduction… or use a Confusion IO set. You may as well, the Confuse IO sets offer some nice bonuses. Malaise’s Illusions (except the proc) is the best choice, especially given that you can get the pre-made IOs cheap, but the Ultra-rare Coercive Persuasion has higher numbers on the same bonuses... if you can afford to craft them all.

Mind Control Summary: Mind does NOT play around. Most other controller sets prefer to immobilize and debuff foes, which still allows them to attack. With Mind, 7 of the 9 powers leave your foes completely unable to attack you, while the other two are still good control options capable of dishing out damage. And it only becomes more devastating once you can buff your attack speed and damage output, which brings us to…

she doesn't look very evil =P

But cool, anyway =)

Hahaha, good stuff.

When if got to the "Leg behind the head" thing, i wondered how you were gonna pull it off... and i lol'd when i saw everyone refusing to do it XD

...

Okay, I'm flattered, but, you put my drawing of Patty-Sue ivanova in when it had already been featured in a past Scoop.

Aaand that image of patty in her winter outfit leads to the larger image of Singularitee. *shrug*

But other than that, great issue... and like others said, big, too!

A "Seattle based" charity?

I think it bears mentioning that this is spear-headed by the guys who make the gaming webcomic Penny-arcade. Just to be all specific and stuff =)

Patty-Sue Ivanova. Really just more of a re-color of her normal outfit, with x-mass-y bits added/

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...le/PSIxmas.jpg

=)

...

I can see why he makes Sister Psyche quiver.

ba-da-PSH!

[ QUOTE ]
*looks at pics* Is Valkyrie not in the mission?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sadly no. But BaB, Mynx and Liberty bring enough scrappin' power to the table.

Luminary's also absent =/. So're Auroa Borialis, Mirror Spirit and Castle, buuut I don't think they count.

[ QUOTE ]
Um... Congratualations!

You did something I've been trying to do ever since it was on Beta.

It kind of stings me, though. I guess I'm doing something wrong... I've never been past 8 heroes. Then I go for the next AV and get wiped out. Maybe it's my build, or maybe playing a dark/dark scrapper is impossible to begin with.

I knew this would happen. Bah... I now know I'm never going to get the credit of being the first. But maybe I could try the next step. After all, I never heard of someone who's been successful WITHOUT using temporary powers.

Anyway, congratualations again. Maybe tomorrow I'll try.

For now, I need a rest... Being iced in without power for two days was driving me crazy.

[/ QUOTE ]

No power... yet, you're online... ?_?

Also, I think it was easier for me, cuz i was playing a mind/kin. Control, healing, buffing, debuffing... the only thing i don't have loads of is damage, but the heroes took care of that FOR me =)

Good luck when you try it (again). If i can offer a tip though: The O-Portal. Use it. The enemies seem to think it's a pet, and it draws agro pretty decently. Also, go after GW first: she WILL kill at least one hero if you bring them along, so you're best off soloing her. And seeing as how Posi is a flying "shivan-light", the rest should be smooth sailing... people getting stuck in the ground notwithstanding.

Oh, and thanks... and again, good luck to you =)

For Longbow: Use the Stealth chest detail and belt. They're exact replicas of what you see on some Longbow Soldiers. Any basic shoulder pad. The costume is hard because you can't have a spike or v-design AND stars.

Also, you can't have a shield insignia if you use the Stealth suit chest detail.

It all comes down to if you want a star pattern, or a V-Pattern. I did this for my main:

http://virtueverse.com/images/Patty-Longbow.jpg

It's pretty close... though i'm sure other people have come up with better ideas.

As for Ouroboros? I haven't toyed with that idea in-game, but i think a gladiator shoulder pad (gold), a brown hood, a tan toga or kilt... maybe use the new Belt... might give you something close.

We don't have any O-specific costume pieces, but given how nearly unlimited our current costume options are, I'm sure you can come up with something.

Oh lord, did they get stuck. I had to redo this mission probably a dozen or more times... ore than half of those were because people would just get stuck.

Soloing Ghost Widow? Easy. Trying to keep the Heroes away from areas I know they're gonna get stuck, and getting them UNstuck afterwards? OMPH.