Griff Mender

My first thought was that CoX needed an iconic player like Mr. Jenkins here. Then I realized we had an entire AT that acts like him and I just kinda shrugged off the notion.

I love this thread!

The thing I'm starting to realize, Seebs, is the more I play, the less I care about what powersets my friends are bringing. I just want them there and having fun. Got an NRG/NRG blaster who just looooooves knockback? Ok. Grav/Storm who sticks mobs into the ceiling and random (and I do mean random) places? Fantastic. You a scrapper with a standing request not to help out if she goes all Leeroy Jenkins on us and solo's a completely different floor of the mission and let her die? Awesome (In fact, I married that scrapper.)
If elec/storm sounds fun? Go for it. I know lightning everywhere with enemies flying this way and that and craziness ensuing sounds good to me. And I wouldnt mind one bit having that on my team. *

*Now if you are a Mastermind with your ****** Giant robots and demons, you are excluded from the fluffy happy statement above. That's right. I'll get you all! MWHAHAHA! Crowd up MY missions with your clang clang clang will ya!

Can I get in on this competition? Let's try a +0/x8 mission with any enemy group you like and see who can do a defeat all without getting hit once.

I'll take my Ill/Rad.

So how we gonna do this? There a report program I can download and post screenies? Sounds like a fun challenge. Maybe we can start a Controller/Dom Challenge thread like the old scrapper RWZ challege thing ya know?

Then if that gets to easy we can bump up up the +level in difficulty? Maybe we could set up an AE arc or something for it so people dont have to unlock the mission used in the competetion via contacts?
that way we could scale it down to the same lvl for all participants? Oh, or maybe we can agree on like +0/x8 and pick an ouro arc we can all access?

Im pumped. What do ya say?

If the OP is still referring to soloing missions with an illusion controller, I really dont think he's going to need a lick of defense. I had mentioned before fire or ice trollers needing it. But the build he had posted was the Holy and Mighty Ill/Rad. So, assuming that is the powerset combo he is talking about soloing (im assuming missions) he won't need defense at all. (or resist for that matter)
Assuming he is soloing missions at x1 equivelent the spawns should be what? max 3 guys? 4 maybe? So even without PA to rely on, he can start out with Sup invis, deceive the whole darn lot of them very quickly (assuming he uses a build with high recharge of course) toss down enervating field and rad infection completely aggro free, then one at a time easily drop them with a quick blind>spec>fireblast>spec. He wont get hit. I cant even imagine a possibility of getting hit with that strategy. Thats not even taking into account Phantasm, PA, spec terror, flash, em pulse etc. Now say for example he is fighting at x4 or higher? Ok...sure. He does the same thing and it just takes a bit longer. Invis, deceive, rad debuff toggles, PA, Phanty, spec terror, blind>spec>blast.
Theres a reason you see more illusion posts than any other on the controller boards. We are awesome. If you need defense or resists on your ill/rad then possibly rethink your strategy. Try the above approach with an illusion toon. I promise you that you wont even consider defense or resists. And if you do somehow catch an AOE or something? your Aoe heal radiant aura recharges every 2 seconds. it's not a big deal.

Heh, thats classic. I've had several times where I wasnt out hunting for GMs and was just heading towards a mish or a badge where I'd be flying along spacing out and suddenly faceplant from a GM hit. Just like you I'd go hosp it. Head right back over there, get my PA out and proceed to dish out white hot payback. Like when I was doing my exploration badges in croatoa, just wanted the badge man, but noooooo, Jack had to take a swing at me. One dead GM later I got my badge anyway.

I posted the same question a little while back to my hero Local_Man, and he came back with a build that I really cant possibly think of improving on for Ill/Rad/Fire solo build. I'll just quote that cuz he is the man.

Ok, while im 99% sure this is a joke build of some kind, I'll take a second to suspend disbelief and pretend it's not. Just in case this is a player who has never played a kheldian in his 5 years playing or put together a build before. There are some out there, I suppose.

Ok, if you are going to just pick powers from the primary and secondary to have "something" there and then leave them completely unslotted, consider pool powers that carry over to the new forms. Take build up and slot it for 3 recharges. 3 slot conserve power because on SOs with your current set up you are going to need it. Take Hasten and 3 slot with recharges. nova doesnt need any slots at all, and while you mentioned you werent interested in IOs at least consider putting a single performance shifter chance for +end into nova, dwarf, and stamina so you have the triple chance for it to proc. white dwarf doesnt need the end mods its fine with 3 resists. since you have the spare slots slot up essence boost and reform essence so you can self heal between fights (or during, whatever). If you arent running any IO sets to manage endurance issues or have faster recharge, please consider tossing at least on end redux and recharge into your attack powers. Dwarf step needs no slots at all since if you really need to travel long distance you may as well use the free fly power you get. New buffs to flight speed means you dont need to 3 slot fly anymore, just put one fly speed into fly and you are fine.

I would also consider, based on the quality of the initial build submission, that you read Memphis Bill's "Raising a peacebringer" guide that can be found at
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...g+peacebringer

It may give you some good tips on planning out your PB better.

(Given the number of posts and how long the OP has been on this forum I'm assuming this is a joke of some kind but this advice again is given with the hopes that maybe it's just someone who needs help instead)

Ive seen quite a few elec/kin controllers that work very well as sappers. Elec seems to do well as a stand alone primary (like Mind) and so you could use /Kin purely for the buffs and support. Sure you wont have crazy damage synergy like fire/kin or plant/kin, but it will sap exceedingly well, have great support to the team via FS, SB, transfusion and transference.
That's what I got for a purely skills kinda approach. I think they work well as far as getting the job done.

Now....Given that I've kinda burnt out a lil bit on uber build approach and min/max (ive spent way too much time thinking like that and it kinda makes the game less fun after a while)

Elec/Storm thematicly sounds like uber fun. With a good aura/costume theme you could be a crazy force of nature. Storm as a secondary isnt hard to learn to use responsibly and can contribute very well and as I said before, I think that elec is a good set that doesnt necessary rely on synergy with the secondary anyway.
So if I were just in it to have fun? elec/storm. totally. If i wanted my next IO'd out freak project? probly elec/kin.
Hope some of this helps in any way

But Scirion, this is how we get through our workday! You think we actually do our jobs at our desks? No, my friend, we keep an eye over our shoulder looking out for our bosses and sneak argumentative posts in on the forum and get paid to do so. Taking that away from us by getting back on topic in an intelligent and well spoken manner hurts my heart!

Thanks for sharing that, Blade. I've been tormenting myself over that decision for mace PPP for a long while now and the only reason I havent gone and tried it yet is cuz I still have a ton of hero merits I need to burn before I switch alignments and it wont let me spend them all at once haha. . So it has delayed my going villain for at least another week or so since I have quite a few saved up. (You do lose them if you go villain or even vigilante right? The hero merits?) Anyway. I really appreciate you posting your experience with the Mace PPP on an illusion controller. I have the same APP you had with the exact same power picks so it was a great piece of perspective for me.

Ok fellas. Let's not go around exposing fallacies around here. This is a family forum

One super tiny change (which i did the same thing in my own build just yesterday) is take the karma -kb from manuevers, move it to hover and then take the BotZ -kb from hover and move it to recall friend. You still maintain the same KB protection without having to buy a new IO, and you save a slot in manuevers that could be moved to another power.

And..ZOMG no Blind???
Dude i was writing the above part, which I'm not going to delete cuz i still think that it would be a good power but I was scrolling back to your build to look and see if there was anything else and I saw you didnt take blind.
So there's a personal shield power (which is not totally necessary on a ranged controller but thats a totally diff conversation and thread) but not your super duper handy containment setting up single target hold? And aside from PA and Phantasm which cannot be reliably directed you have one attack. Which doesnt benefit from containment cuz blind wasnt taken no blast attack from your APP which means you will only get spec wounds and not the standard blind>spec>blast>spec>blast>spec>blast>etc etc etc seamless chain that makes illusion controllers teh awesomes. So there you would be, Good recharge, sure, a VERY high budget due to the purples yer sporting there, no containment unless you count flash (lol flash) which would not be available often and is very unreliable, And no single target attack chain.
Ok, I dont have mids cuz im at my desk at work, but what I can see right off the bat then is take out tactics. Completely. replace Tactics with blind at the very beginning of your build. Like lvl 1. take the slots from tactics and slot up either ideally basilisk gaze x4 with a Hami O for damage and a Damage IO so you get your holds on but still do some hurting and get better recharge than the adjusted targetting anyway. Or if you are on a budget after those purps you could do decimation set instead of basilisk gaze (or lockdown mebbe). But plz. Im begging you. Get blind. It's so useful that I am wincing thinking of playing without it. It hurts my heart.
And seriously consider tossing in a single target blast. My recommendation would be fireblast from the fire APP as long as it doesnt break your concept. A personal shield is not actually that important for illusion IMO since its a long range controller type with (hopefully) good single target controls.

I can see the merits of a soft capped def controller with certain sets, like ice or fire. Given the close proximity to targets. A Fire/kin, for example, probably should look into personal defenses given his very close distance to the targets (hot feet and kin powers needing to be very close to be used effectively). However many controllers, especially Illusion, can be played with minimal personal risk. While throwing out team buffs/debuffs and your controls you can eliminate personal risk easily with single target holds/confuses. My personal Ill/Rad build doesnt have any personal defenses or shields at all. And while I may faceplant after the occasional boneheaded mistake, my very quick recharging self rez Rise of the Phoenix takes care of that quite well. Taking up 3 power picks for weave seems a bit much for a toon that won't be at risk nearly as much as the scrapper or tank. Thats just my take on it. I solo very well (tho mostly due to the fact that I've already deceived the entire spawn before the fight started) and team even better. There is so much tasty goodness in both your primary and secondary as a controller that taking 3 to 4 (4 being the APP shield) powers for personal risk mitigation seems a shame. Again, that's for controllers who can stay safely out of the hotbed that is the melee range, like illusion, mind, plant (to a certain extent), grav, etc. I have different feelings on defense for fire and ice.