Local_Man

Overall it is very similar to the build I recommend in my Illusion/Radiation guide, but with a few small differences.

Radiation Infection should be slotted for ToHit Debuff over Defense Debuff. So use the Dark Watcher set rather than the ones you have. If you can afford (or get) them, even better is 3 Enzyme Hami-Os (ToHitDebuff/DefenseDebuff/EndRdx). Move a one slot here from Enervating Field. EF should only have 2 EndRdx, as the third EndRdx only saves you .07 End -- virtually none.

Lingering Rad is perma with a single Accuracy, so you can move those two slots. I suggest moving them to AM to finish out 6-slotting the Efficacy Adapter set.

SERIOUSLY consider changing Fallout to Fireball. Fallout is very, very situational -- it can only be used when a teammate dies in the middle of a crowd of foes -- and you live long enough to set it off. Fireball is something I use constantly. It is one of my main damage powers and recharges in only a few seconds. You will get far, far more use out of Fireball.

I have several */Stormies, and I have the Chance for Hold proc in Lightning Storm most of the time. It hits enough to be noticable, but I would not call it all that significant. However, it really fits to have the Lightning Storm result in a tesla cage, so I keep it in there.

My playstyle solo is variable, but is often substantially dictated by leading Singy to tank for me. I use invis to drag him into melee, then back off to shoot at foes while he draws the aggro. Thus, I tend to stay at range more. Hurricane is wonderful for that. Any foe who looks at me funny and runs towards me gets hit with the ToHit Debuff and repel. Then he gets an old rusted Chevy in the face. I also use Wormhole-CF-Freezing Rain while using Hurricane to shove foes into a corner or cul-de-sac. Lightning Storm and Tornado while I clobber one with GD-Crush-Propel.

Singy makes a great tank. However, if you are trying to be in melee, doesn't he knock foes away? Sometimes I will stand with Singy on my head, running Hurricane. The foes run to us, get knocked away and debuffed, and I can pick them off one-by-one.

The ToHit Debuff in Hurricane is signficant, but it is still highly resisted by AVs. Still, fully enhanced it makes a difference especially when I add Ice Armor.

No offense, but in my opinion, this build needs some work. I have 2 Fire/Rads at 50, so I have some experience with the build. A key to a good Fire/Rad is recharge -- you want Flashfire up as much as possible. You kind of half-heartedly slotted for Defense. Use enough control and you don't need defense. But if you are going for Defense, then really go for it. Go with the Earth APP and slot for S/L defense. I prefer the Psi APP for Indomidible Will (to stop your toggles from being turned off by mez).

As for Choking Cloud, the power is worthless unless fully slotted. If you aren't going to 5- or 6-slot it, then skip it. My Illusion/Radiation guide gives the details on the power and how it works. For an Ill/Rad, Choking Cloud is skippable. For a Fire/Rad, Choking Cloud + Hot Feet are the key powers around which the entire combo is based. CC pulses every 5 seconds, so the longer you give the power to hit, the better chance it will hit.

The key strategy with CC+HF is to turn them on and leave them on most of the time. From Range, hit a group with Flashfire+Fire Cages. Then run in with CC+HF and the imps trailing behind. As you stand in the middle of the group, they will be held and their health will be eaten away while the Imps chomp away. Use Char on any Bosses or foes who break out of the Choking Cloud hold.

Ring of Fire: OK power, but skippable even solo. (I skipped RoF on both of my level 50 Fire/Rads, and took Air Superiority instead . . . the knockdown works well with giving more time for Choking Cloud to hit. Take Char at level 1, Fire Cages at 2.

Radiant Aura: 5 slot with Doctored Wounds.

Char: The Lockdown set is OK, but you will get a lot more benefit from 4 Baz Gaze, then add some Acc/Dam and Damage (I use an Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common Damage). The 4 Baz Gaze has good recharge.

Radiation Infection: Defense Debuff has limited benefits due to the 95% ToHit cap. This power is better slotted with 4 Dark Watcher ToHit Debuff. Or even better . . . 3 Enzyme Hami-Os (ToHitDebuff/DefenseDebuff/EndRdx). If you have a spare slot, then the Achilles Heel Resistance proc is nice here.

Fly: Since I-18, Fly is capped for Flightspeed with no Flightspeed enhancements. Most of the time, I just slot an EndRdx in the default slot, but you can use that Zephyr -Knockback if you like. Putting Flightspeed in Fly is a complete waste of slots. (A lot of people don't know about this, but you can check it with your combat stats.)

Fire Cages: This power does mininal damage. You will actually get more damage from procs than slotting the power for damage. If you can afford it, I strongly recommend the Gravitational Anchor Chance for Hold proc in this power. Even better, 5 slot the Grav Anchor set (Skip the Immob), and add the Posi Blast Chance for Energy Damage.

Hot Feet: Oblit is a nice set, but there is almost no EndRdx in it and Hot Feet uses a lot of endurance. Use the Multistrike set, or you can frankenslot. One option is Dam/End and Acc/Dam/End from Scirocco, Dam/Slow and End/Slow/Rech from Tempered Readiness, Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common EndRdx. That caps Damage and Endrdx, good accuracy and adds some Slow. The Slow keeps foes in the range of CC+HF longer. Capping EndRdx is key if you are going to run CC+HF all the time.

AM: I prefer the Efficacy Adapter set, which includes some Recharge.

Flashfire: I would take it at 12, but that's not that big a difference.

Cinders: 4 Baz Gaze and an extra Acc/Hold/Rech (Essence of Curae works.)

Enervating Field: 2 EndRdx.

Stealth: This is a wasted pick in my opinion. Put a Celerity Stealth in Super Speed if you want invisibility. You don't have enough defense to make this worthwhile.

Combat Jumping: 4 slotting it is a waste of slots. LotG Recharge is all you need.

Fire Imps: Consider 4 Expediant Reinforcement (skip Dam/End and the Resist proc) and add Dam/Rech and Chance for Build Up from Soulbound (the purple pet set, which is not all that expensive). When the imps die, you can re-cast them quickly.

Choking Cloud: If Frankenslotting, go for Hold/EndRdx, and add the Lockdown +2 Mag proc here, not in the other holds. Due to the unusual way that CC stacks mag, that proc has more benefit here than in the other holds. If you have the Infl, 4 Unbreakable Constraint (including the proc), the Lockdown Proc and a common EndRdx is great slotting, but you will need some extra Recovery.

EM Pulse: 4 Baz Gaze.

APP set: I prefer the Psi Set for Indomidible Will, Psi Tornado and Mind Over Body. Mental Blast is optional. (World of Confusion is not good.)

I took a quick look at your build and have a few things for you to think about. My Grav/Storm was mostly built to solo, but can play on teams well. Still, most of his power choices were made with solo in mind.

You have "Chance for Hold" in several powers. The question is how much benefit you are getting from those. Often it looks like you are getting more benefit than you actually are because the tesla cage showing that the proc hit will play even if the foe is already held. The actual benefit for the proc is pretty small. The chance for Hold proc in a single target hold only provides a benefit around 2.4% of the time. Are you playing mostly solo or on teams? If solo, you will get a lot more benefit from slotting damage. That may be true even with a team build.

Lift: Crush does more damage. With your slotting, Crush increases your damage from 49 to 59. Trade out the chance for Hold with a Dam/End, and your damage goes up to 63. Another advantage of Crush? It sets up Containment for Propel. On my Grav/Storm, I use the attack chain of GD-Crush-Propel. If GD misses, I still get Containment from Crush. And doubling the damage of Propel is pretty important.

Gale: How often do you use this? I rarely use it, but when I do, it is a "get out of my face" power. It has an accuracy penalty, so Accuracy is more important than that proc.

GD: My slotting is 4 Baz Gaze, an Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common Damage.

O2 Boost: I find it skippable on this build. You can't heal Singy, so it is worthless solo. It is a weak heal otherwise. I would rather have both Snow Storm AND Hurricane. I tend to use Snow Storm a reasonable amount for the -Recharge. Add that to the -ToHit in Hurricane and you don't get hit much. (I did not build my Grav/Storm for Defense.)

Crushing Field: Lethal damage is often resisted. Energy damage is less resisted, so you could replace the Trap proc with Posi Blast proc.

Steamy Mist: I would increase the Defense slotting over Resistance -- 4 slot LotG. Resist only applies to 3 damage types, and stacking for Defense has more benefit. (Plus, your Alpha slot is adding some Resistance.) You could 4 slot LotG, then add the two procs from Steadfast for a small Recovery bonus.

Fly: Since I-18, Fly is automatically at Flight speed cap. Slotting Flightspeed in Fly is a waste, and Flightspeed in Swift only affects Hover. I would put an EndRdx in Fly and a Run speed in Swift.

GDF: Get rid of the Lockdown proc. 5-slot this with 4 Baz Gaze and and an Acc/Hold/Rech from any other set. That will free up a slot.

Freezing Rain: There are a lot of options with this power. Most of the time, I slot it for Recharge and procs, starting with Achilles Heel. If you want to raise your S/L Defense, you could put the 6th Shield Breaker in there.

I have the Ice APP on my Grav/Storm. Hibernate is great for recovery of both health and endurance. Ice Armor and two ranged AoE attacks.

So far, Electric Control is not all that great to me. It has too many weeknesses. I have an Elec/Rad at 47, and I'm working on an Elec/Earth dom. The big problem is that it is a low damage set so it needs to team to level up at a good rate. However, because it relies heavily on the AoE sleep, Static Field, and many types of teammates have AoE DoT powers that make disrupt the sleep. If there is another controller on the team with an AoE Immob that has -knockback, then Jolting Chain is worthless. The Chaining confuse power takes so long to take effect that teammates often enter combat before it has any significant effect. And the Gremlins are fairly fragile and do a disappointingly low amount of damage.

If you want to try Electric Control, try pairing it with Rad. Choking Cloud and the Rad debuffs add a lot. I'm not sure I would choose to pair it with Cold.

I have an Illusion/Cold at 50. He is wonderful on TFs as the single target debuffs help the team take down AVs embarassingly quickly. I think Illusion/Cold is a great pairing, since Illusion mainly focuses on single target damage so the single target debuffs work well. Cold's debuffs help Phantom Army do more damage. Cold's Snow Storm adds a lot to Illusion's AoE soft controls.

Plant focuses more on AoE control and damage. Certainly Plant/Cold will ge a good character, but I'm not sure that Plant is the best pairing with */Cold.

Mind/Cold should be a good character, as Mind has a lot of AoE control but single target damage. I think that Mind/Cold should be good. Grav/Cold should be good if you can like Gravity Control. (Just got my Grav/Storm up to 50 last week.) Gravity is a unique set that is pretty weak on AoE control but has good single target damage if you have enough patience. I like it better solo than on teams.

Interesting idea, but I'm not convinced that adding the Provoke set or Choking Cloud is really providing much of a benefit.

Choking Cloud: My Ill/Rad guide explains the mechanics of this power -- it really needs to be fully slotted for Hold, and then get as much EndRdx as you can. But it takes a while for Choking Cloud to take effect, and it is unreliable as a control. It works to, after a while, hold Minions and hold some Lieutenants, but not bosses. Works great on a Fire/Rad where you can start with Flashfire-Fire Cages, then run in with Choking Cloud and Hot Feet. Works with an Ice/Rad, where you can start with Ice Slick and then run in with Arctic Air and Choking Cloud. Works with an Elec/Rad, where you can start with Static Field (or Synaptic Overload), then run in with Conductive Field and Choking Cloud. Illusion really doesn't have a secondary power that works with Choking Cloud to make it effective. An Ill/Rad really has no reason to be in melee unless you are about to fire off Flash or EM Pulse, but Choking Cloud requires you to be in melee.

Spectral Terror alone is effective AoE control against foes who are not resistant to fear. But more important is the "control" provided by the distraction from Phantom Army. Rather than a single target fear, Deceive will handle foes who are not pulled in by Phantom Army. Stay Invisible and Deceive any foes who notice you or any problem foes -- since it doesn't draw aggro, you can easily stack it.

I went with Clarion for those situations where AoE Mez powers are flying around. Rebirth or Ageless also have some appeal.

Take a look at my Earth/Rad guide. It is a little old, but has a lot of great info in there to help you with this build. My view is that Earth/Rad is a ranged AoE controller who should generally be letting the tank or other melee teammates get the aggro before unleashing his AoE controls. As a result, there isn't that big of a need for all that Defense. Although you may faceplant once in a while, your main job is to provide lots of AoE control to help the team take less damage and kill stuff faster.

I'm not saying that Defense is necessarily bad, but it should be a much lower priority than making your controls effective and up frequently. The defense from your build is fairly minimal . . . 9% - 11% from Maneuvers and Weave -- not worth 4 power picks. If you really want to build for Defense, you have to go for it . . . take a Defense-based shield and slot for s/l Defense. My personal opinion is that aiming for high defense will make you a less effective controller.

The order of taking powers makes a difference if you ever exemp to do lower level TFs or missions. In my guide, I have a suggested leveling up build. The guide was written before inherent Fitness, so there is a lot more room to add a few other powers.

Stone Prison: Chosing this for damage is OK if you want to solo, but it is skippable on a team controller. You have slotted the Decimation set here, which is good. I notice that you have Fossilize slotted with the Decimation set too. (We'll talk about Fossilize in a minute.) Why the Chance for Build Up in Fossilize (with an 8 second recharge) rather than Stone Prison (with a 4 second recharge)?

Fossilize: If you are slotting for Recharge, try 4 Basilisk Gaze, and then finish out slots 5 and 6 with an Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common Damage IO.

Stone Cages: Replace that Immobilize with the Chance for Hold proc. That proc is wonderful in a fast-recharging AoE Immob.

AM: The Perf Shifter proc belongs in Stamina, not AM. I prefer to slot AM for 6 Efficacy Adapter for Recharge and other great bonuses. If you aren't near to perma AM and Hasten, you can use 5 Efficacy Adaptors and a common Recharge in the 6th slot.

I would move Quicksand much earlier and have Stalagmites at 12. I use Quicksand underneath all my other AoE controls for the wonderful slow+25% Defense Debuff. Quicksand is a great power than can be used strategically.

I'm not a fan of the Fighting Pool for an Earth/Rad controller. 3 power pics for a fairly small amount of defense. Not worth it unless you have a lot of other defense to stack.

Earthquake: No need to slot Earthquake for Defense Debuff . . . you have Quicksand and other Earth powers already doing huge amounts of Defense Debuff and more has almost no benefit because of the limits on ToHit/Accuracy. Earthquake should be slotted for Recharge. You could do damage procs, or you could slot it for ToHit Debuff. (The Dark Watcher set has another 5% recharge bonus for 4.)

Ling Rad: If you have enough Global Recharge, you only need to slot a single Accuracy in Ling Rad. (It requires a hit roll.) Add a Recharge if not perma. The main benefit of Ling Rad is the -Recharge and -Regen, neither of which can be enhanced. No need to slot it for Slow since Quicksand + Ling Rad is way, way over the slot cap of 90%.

Volcanic Gasses: It needs to be slotted for Hold duration and Recharge, due to the unique nature of the pseudopets it spawns. You want this up as much as possible. Add the Lockdown +2 Mag proc and/or other damage procs if you can.

Animate Stone: Rocky has high Resistance. Adding more Resistance will make him nearly unkillable. I like to use 4 Expediant Reinforcement (including the Resist proc), the other Resist proc from Sovereign Right, and then an Acc/Dam Hami-O to cap out his damage. That makes him nearly invulnerable and hit really hard.

Tactics is a wasted pick on an Earth/Rad. You have so much Defense Debuff from all your earth powers and RI, that you should always be at the 95% to hit cap.

Psi Pool? It's OK, but you really shouldn't need Indom Will if you are playing with the right strategy. Fire, Ice or maybe one of the PPP sets.

If you skip the Fighting Pool, you should be able to fit in some nice situational powers, like EM Pulse (one of the best AoE Holds in the game) and Mutation. You can take Fallout earlier and have another epic power pick.

I can't quite agree with your assessment of Storm's last two powers, especially from the point of view of a controller. Controllers often need more damage, and Storm is the only secondary that provides two powers that can produce significant damage.

Lightning Storm is pretty obvious . . . a cool-looking immobile pet that does decent damage, and you can get more than one out at a time. The Pet Recharge nerf hit LS hard, but it is still a great power.

Tornado is a pet that deals significant damage over time. It has knockback and stun. And very important -- it is AUTOHIT. So all those tough-to-hit targets like Fake Nemesis who hit their PFF or Paragon Protectors who hit MOG can be wiped out with Tornado. Tornado on an AV does a lot of damage . . . by doing damage over time to counter an AV's Regen, it is Storm's version of -Regen. With foes who can't be knocked back or with the use of -knockback powers, Tornado is a great damage tool. Without -knockback, Tornado becomes a source of Chaos, which can be a great panic button power for when too many foes get out of hand.

Not only that, but trapping foes in a closed room or cul-de-sac with Hurricane, then unleashing Tornado and Lightning Storm, becomes a great way to deal with foes when you have a low-damage primary.

This is a nice guide for one of the best (arguably the best) armor set. So far, I have a Broadsword/Shield and an Elec/Shield scrappers fully softcapped. I'm working on my Shield/Superstrength Tank. One small suggestion: Posting the builds rather than only the data chunks would make it easier to read for folks who don't have Mids available -- some people like to paruse the forums on a computer where they cannot download Mids. Also, Mids does not work on Macs.

One thing I have to say for Broadsword/Shield. Not only is it thematically great, but since Perry adds Melee defense, you don't have to worry about building for Melee Defense. This makes a Broadsword/Shield Scrapper very, very easy to softcap since you only need to focus on Ranged and AoE. A single Perry will put my Melee defense well past the softcap.

Furthermore, the Melee defense sets tend to be far more expensive than Ranged and AoE defense, so if you want a softcapped scrapper that does great damage on a budget, Broadsword/Shield is a great option. Shield Charge-Whirling Sword-Slice is pretty good AoE damage, with Headsplitter also being a narrow cone.

Cold is a late-blooming set, with its two best powers coming at 35 and 38. Illusion/Cold and Plant/Cold have good control and damage powers early, helping you through those low levels. Grav/Cold, too.

If you can wait long enough for two late blooming sets, Fire/Cold should be excellent.

I can help on the Illusion side. Please note that I view this as a controller, not a healer with control powers. As an Illusion controller first, you can do a lot to prevent damage before it needs healing.

No Spectral Wounds: You are giving up the ability to do decent damage and take down foes fairly quickly. To me, this is the same as those "pure empathy" defenders who don't take their attacks . . . a waste of a large part of the benefit you could be providing to the team. With SW, you can contribute to taking down foes and solo; without it, you have a gimped build. SW is going to need 5 slots usually, for the Decimation set to add more Recharge.

Blind: the Lockdown proc isn't a good use of a slot. It gives a 15% chance for an extra 2 mag, so it will only work on bosses. 20% of those bosses will be held by Blind anyway (that "overpower" you see). So that proc is only effective on 15%x80%x(percent of bosses). Assuming Bosses are about 20% of foes (which is probably high), it ends up that the proc only has an effect on 2.4% of all foes. Replace that proc with an Acc/Dam Hami-O (or an Acc/Dam from a set if you don't want to get the Hami-O) and you will hit more often and cause damage to 100% of the foes hit.

Flash has a 20% accuracy penalty. See if you can get a 5th slot for an Acc/Hold/Rech or just more accuracy.

Phantom Army: Drop the Dam/End for the Acc/Rech, then trade out the two Rech commons for the Soulbound Dam/Rech and Chance for Build Up. You get capped Damage and Recharge, a damage buff from the build up (which triggers often with three pets) and a 16% Regen bonus. The purple pet IOs are usually fairly inexpensive.

No Invisibility. I see you have Superspeed with a Stealth IO at level 49 . . . which is OK if you never exemp. One of the strengths of an Illusion controller comes from its invisibility -- you can lead your pets into battle without being seen. You can Deceive tough foes before the fight begins. I have always felt one of the main benefits of Ill/Emp is the ability to run around the battlefield invisible, pulling foes off teammates with Deceive and Phantom Army while healing/buffing teammates. Recall Friend lets you act as team spy, stealting missions. If you find a glowie, you can handle it by deceiving that foe or two near it, or even sending out PA to draw aggro away while you click the glowie in safety. It makes you much more useful to the team.


On the APP choice, I prefer Ice and Fire for the quick single target blast. Blind-SW-Blast-SW lets you take down minions and lieuts fast, before the Illusory damage fades back. This increases your damage substantially. Ice gives you a Defense armor if you want, and Hibernate, an awesome "panic button" power to save yourself so you can save your teammates.

I have a few quick points on how changes I would make to your build.

Fissure: Sometimes a little damage is a good thing. Change those two Lockdown for An Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common Damage.

Transfusion: That Regen/Recovery proc will only work when you actually use the power and for 120 seconds later. I would find a slot to move it to Health, where it will always be on.

Stone Cages: This power uses a lot of endurance. Swap out the Immob for Immob/End. If you can find another slot, a damage proc (Posi blast or Trap of the Hunter) is nice here if you use it a lot.

Maneuvers: With all the -Defense in Earth, you really don't need that Kismet. I would try to get some EndRdx in Maneuvers. Transference isn't available all the time.

Animate Stone: I would rather have more Damage in Rocky than that Defense bonus, because you can heal him if needed.

Seismic Smash: How about 4 Kinetic Combat for the Defense bonus, plus an Acc/Dam Hami-O to finish it out? The Hold is far less important than the Damage. You can use this + Fossilize to hold a boss, but then you can re-cast to stack Fossilize before the Hold runs out. That extra slot could go in Rock Armor for a Defense/End.