Erlynfire

First off, I know there are a ton of threads on this build. I have read probably 2-3 dozen, as well as guides on slotting etc. I'm starting this post more so I can get help practicing build creation than for the actual build itself. I am interested in a fire/kin- I love pets, damage, holds, buffs, and going quickly. I also like to heal some, but not be a primary team healer. Seemed the perfect fit. I'm still fairly new to the game and I know they are hard to play, but I've learned plenty of MMOs and pick things up pretty fast. I am currently level 20 on Justice with this build.

I am interested in teams, but would like the occasional ability to solo. I am open to advice on respeccing after this, but this is how I am planning to build my way to 50 (roughly). Since I am new, I don't have much money, nor enough experience to slot the uber-IOs, so for this round of help, I'm just going to work with SOs. Once I feel comfortable with the skills themselves and the basic ideas, I will add in IOs.

Now my major questions:
1. Which Epic pool would be the best choice? I have heard fire for soloing, but that earth is better for high-level TFs. I'm planning to spend more time on teams than solo, but the huge res from fire shield and huge dmg from fireball sure seemed nice. Why does no one discuss primal, psychic or ice? Ice's aoe dmg seemed phenominal, and right after the flashfire/cages combo it seems like ti would be an awesome fit. Primal's biggest plus seemed to be the time extension of mes effects, and form what I've read that isn't a problem at higher levels due to the recharge I will have by then. People have mentioned psionic, but never explained its perks.

2. Travel power or IR/ss? Right now I have stealth for the +def (as suggested by a forum-dweller), but I could drop that and IR for SJ and combat jumping and still retain some of the def and a toggle-able travel power.

3. Def or res focus? I've heard mixed opinions through the forums. Def folk say it forces you to heal less, res folk say it helps you life through alpha strikes better and makes dmg more predictable- plus you heal a lot anyway. I suppose the answer to this would help decide whether to do stone or fire as well.

4. Bonfire and Hotfeet- Heard really mixed reports on both. Bring or no? While on teams, it seems to make almost no sense to run with hot feet on since it does very little damage compared to my teammates but attracts aggro. For runners I can just ss. Was very useful while soloing, but I wonder if it will still be as useful at higher levels or if the damage doesn't scale very well. Bonfire seems very situational.

5. I'm not sold on perma hasten. It seems like it would be expensive to get all those purps and with ss and non-perma hasten I'll already be recharging pretty fast. Is it worth aiming for?

6. It seems like the slotting will be completely different when I decide to set up an actual IO build- still like assault and maneuvers will be able to hold sets that are a lot more useful than what they can do with SOs. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about sets to set up my slots to prepare for them. Better to ask for help and try to set up the correct numbers of slots, or just pick slots for SOs and respec at 50 for what I will want endgame?

There are a whole lot of skills that I didn't really know how to slot at all. Totally up for advice on those things.

Thanks for your help!

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Test Build: Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Fire Control
Secondary Power Set: Kinetics
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Char

• (A) Accuracy
• (25) Accuracy
• (25) Hold Duration
• (42) Hold Duration
• (42) Endurance Reduction

Level 1: Transfusion

• (A) Accuracy
• (3) Accuracy
• (3) Healing
• (19) Healing

Level 2: Fire Cages

• (A) Accuracy
• (5) Accuracy
• (5) Immobilisation Duration
• (7) Immobilisation Duration
• (7) Endurance Reduction

Level 4: Siphon Power

• (A) Accuracy
• (34) Recharge Reduction

Level 6: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction
• (9) Recharge Reduction
• (11) Recharge Reduction

Level 8: Hot Feet

• (A) Endurance Reduction
• (9) Damage Increase
• (11) Accuracy
• (13) Damage Increase

Level 10: Siphon Speed

• (A) Accuracy
• (13) Recharge Reduction
• (15) Recharge Reduction
• (36) Accuracy

Level 12: Flashfire

• (A) Accuracy
• (15) Accuracy
• (17) Recharge Reduction
• (17) Recharge Reduction
• (19) Disorient Duration
• (33) Disorient Duration

Level 14: Stealth

• (A) Defense Buff
• (34) Defense Buff
• (34) Defense Buff

Level 16: Swift

• (A) Run Speed

Level 18: Cinders

• (A) Accuracy
• (21) Accuracy
• (21) Hold Duration
• (23) Hold Duration
• (23) Recharge Reduction
• (33) Recharge Reduction

Level 20: Speed Boost

• (A) Endurance Modification
• (36) Endurance Modification
• (50) Endurance Modification

Level 22: Assault

• (A) Recharge Reduction
• (31) Endurance Reduction
• (31) Endurance Reduction

Level 24: Health

• (A) Healing

Level 26: Stamina

• (A) Endurance Modification
• (27) Endurance Modification
• (27) Endurance Modification

Level 28: Maneuvers

• (A) Defense Buff
• (29) Defense Buff
• (29) Defense Buff
• (31) Endurance Reduction

Level 30: Inertial Reduction

• (A) Jumping

Level 32: Fire Imps

• (A) Damage Increase
• (36) Accuracy
• (37) Recharge Reduction
• (37) Recharge Reduction
• (37) Accuracy
• (39) Damage Increase

Level 35: Transference

• (A) Accuracy
• (39) Accuracy
• (39) Endurance Modification
• (40) Endurance Modification
• (40) Recharge Reduction
• (40) Recharge Reduction

Level 38: Fulcrum Shift

• (A) Accuracy
• (42) Accuracy

Level 41: Fire Ball

• (A) Accuracy
• (43) Accuracy
• (43) Damage Increase
• (43) Damage Increase
• (45) Damage Increase
• (45) Recharge Reduction

Level 44: Fire Shield

• (A) Resist Damage
• (45) Resist Damage
• (46) Resist Damage
• (46) Endurance Reduction
• (46) Endurance Reduction

Level 47: Tactics

• (A) To Hit Buff
• (48) To Hit Buff
• (48) To Hit Buff
• (48) Endurance Reduction
• (50) Endurance Reduction
• (50) Endurance Reduction

Level 49: Vengeance

• (A) Defense Buff

------------
Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Empty

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Empty
• (33) Empty

Level 1: Containment
Level 6: Ninja Run

Excellent, that was fantastic information- exactly what I was looking for. It's also much better news than I had hoped! I hate farming, but since time and again when build searching "farming builds" came up as being critical, I had assumed it was true. I'm also very happy to hear that I don't need to worry about IOs yet. They were freakin' me out. Both expensive AND confusing! I found the mentor project thread in here and will search out a mentor for a lesson on SOs vs DOs vs IOs next time I'm in-game. Thanks!

Hey all, I've looked through a ton of forums posts on particular builds and none quite seemed to match what I was looking for, so I'm asking here.

I know that fire/kin controllers and fire/shield scrappers are considered to be very powerful when they have millions/billions of inf worth of IOs thrown onto their skills. However, I just joined CoH and have a grand total of 30k inf to my name. I am looking for a build that can efficiently farm inf without a ton of startup capital. I don't need to solo entire 8-man missions or take down AVs single-handedly with this fellow, I just want him to be able to work well without a huge upfront investment. Ideally, if he can be made extremely strong with the inf he is getting through farming that's great. If not that's fine too. Also, what level will I have to get this guy to before he will be able to farm decent inf?

Thanks!