FrauleinMental

Agreed. They've just shown that *significant* server upgrades are the most important quality-of-life issue. More important than new powersets, new shinies, or new enemies or arcs...especially if the intent is to bring us more events like this and/or if league play is a priority for high-level content.

Yes, thank you for posting the time. I keep forgetting that the times are posted in a different time zone than my own.

Thanks, TFury, for organizing and leading the controller team! I had a great time!

I'll help the controller team with my Mind/Kin.

Agreed, sound advice.

I also will add one thing that's probably been said elsewhere: strategic respec.

If you know you're going to respec, or if you have a spare respec hanging around, use it when you're ready to upgrade your enhancements (say, level 22, 27, etc., when you can just use the next enhancement level). Don't slot any enhancements during the respec--just sell them all. It's helpful if you have a tray full of stuff you wanted to sell as well. You'll come out of the respec and subsequent upgrade with a bunch more inf left over.

This is especially useful if you have an Issue freespec and the next Issue is about to hit--since you don't accumulate freespecs (except the VR ones).

Agreed--not everyone needs the Fitness pool. And taking a Fitness power at level 6 is something I would never do--there's always another power I need more critically, usually to either set up my attack chain or to get a useful defense, buff, or heal. That's not to say that'll always be the case, though, but most alts I've seen who take a pool early take a travel pool.

I've never taken it. With my mind/kin, I never needed it, especially once I got Transference. Granted, I'll actually use endurance, and I don't have a ton of toggles running, and I do pretty well. My only regular-use toggle is Mind Over Body, and I don't think I've used the Sprint toggle in the last ten levels.

I'll speculate that the more toggle-dependent characters probably gain the most use from Stamina. I think about it from time to time with my PB, but then I pop a blue inspiration, and it's all better.

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Greetings, all.

Well I'm on my third day in and enjoying things a bit more than I expected except for finding it very hard to solo.

I noticed on this thread there was no mention of my build. Am I doomed then as a Mind & Kinetic Controller?

Any tips welcome as I'd rather not start over. I just gained Fly and I've always liked characters with mental abilities.

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I think you've made an excellent choice. But then, I'm a little biased--my main (and only 50) is mind/kin.

I've done both solo and team play with my mind/kin, and I find both enjoyable. Like most solo play, you'll level slowly--especially in the 30s. I don't have the experience to compare the level vs time rate against other ATs. As a benchmark, though, with combined solo and team play, and this being my first character above level 10, my mind/kin dinged 50 in 436 hours of play.

In solo play, you'll have to be careful. The damage does plateau--I solo'ed Countess Crey as a +0 EB, but that's about the limit for me (though she's a tough one for a mind controller, since she is one too, plus having a bunch of status resists). You'll get a lot more mileage from the mezzes--almost every mind power inflicts a status of some form, whether sleep, hold, confuse, knockback/knockdown, or the wierd pseudo-hold of Telekinesis (which I stayed away from). The kinetics set complements it nicely with extra buff/debuff powers. If you intend a solo-only career, you can rule out some of the kinetics powers, like Speed Boost and Increase Density (which are others-only).

As a team player, you'll be an invaluable asset to the team. Your holds, buffs/debuffs, and heals will make you very popular, as long as you can stand the endless "SB plz" messages.

In my mind, mind/kin suffers two disadvantages (and they're workable):
1. Many of your buffs and heals have to hit an enemy to work. I get around this by making sure I double- or triple-slot for accuracy. I've triple-slotted Siphon Speed since I got it.
2. Sleep mezzes are easily broken by any attack on the sleeping target. I'm looking at you, Mr. "Let's pull with Fireball"! One thing I do to offset that and the accidental multi-spawn aggro is to save my AoE hold for just such an occasion.

One final thing you'll want to think about, and it's a very contentious issue around here: confuse powers. I have both the single-target and the AoE confuse powers for mind, but I rarely use them. Some teams don't like them because they take away from the XP for a given mob. Some like them because they have the potential to increase the XP per time. I ride the fence, kinda--I save them for when I'm about to get hosed. If it comes down to losing a little XP for the spawn confusion or losing a lot of XP for debt, I pop those powers out.

But that's just my play style.