Local_Man

Defense is a fickle thing in this game. A little bit is mostly worthless. The more you get, the more valuable it becomes. There are several guides that discuss this -- I think Arcanaville has a very detailed one. The closer you get to the softcap, the more each point of defense adds. If you really want to build up defense, your best choice would be to start with the Ice or Earth APP shield, and then add powers that add general defense or IO sets that add Smash/Lethal Defense. Another way is to focus directly on Ranged Defense . . . but you need to go all out for it.

But you really shouldn't need Defense if you play cautiously. Phantom Army should be drawing the aggro. Even if you don't have perma-PA, you should be able to use Spectral Terror to control foes when PA disappear. If a foe aggroes on you, Deceive or Blind will stop him -- I like Deceive because usually the foe will go back to group up with his buddies. I have virtually no defense on my Ill/Rad or my Ill/TA, and I solo with them all the time -- they rarely faceplant due to my playstyle. My Ill/Storm and Ill/Cold do have the Ice Shield from the Ice APP set, but I haven't really added all that much additional Defense on top. (My Ill/Cold mainly has it so he can match the Ice Armor of everyone else on the team.) Illusion/Storm has so many good powers that I find it difficult to justify taking 3 powers for a small amount of Defense, especially when you don't have Defense stacked up very far.

It is really a matter of Cost/Benefit. Is that small amount of Defense worth 3 power picks and the slots? I don't think so.

The "Rule of 5" is a limit on how many sets you can have with the same bonus. The short version is that you can have up to 5 IO sets with the same bonus, but any more than 5 won't provide any benefit. Note however, that individual IOs with a bonus are counted separately. You can have up to 5 Luck of the Gambler + 7.5%Recharge IOs, and up to 5 sets with 7.5% Recharge.

Your current build has 8 sets with 6.25% Recharge. You only get the benefit of 5 of those and the other 3 are wasted. Decimation, Expediant Reinforcement, Malaise Illusions, Stupify all have the same bonus. This is why I suggested trying to get the purple Confuse set (with a 10% Recharge bonus) and changing to Flash for Thunderclap (Baz Gaze has a 7.5% Recharge bonus for 4). If you want to keep Thunderclap, the purple Absolute Amazement set also has 10% Recharge -- but skip the proc as it is currently bugged and does nothing.

Yes, the "proc" I referred to is the Contagious Confusion proc from the Coercive Persuasion set. It is wonderful in Deceive, as it turns the single-target confuse into an occasional multi-target confuse. I am really cheap with my builds, but the purple Confuse set is worth it.

By the way, Freezing Rain actually only lasts 15 seconds. The Debuff lasts 30 seconds (but there are some bugs that affect this).

As for Hurricane, I don't have it on very often -- only when needed to push foes "outta my face" or if I am "herdicaning." I have a multi-button mouse, and have Hurricane binded (or is that "bound"?) to a button on the mouse for easy turn-on, turn-off.

Yeah, the Baz Gaze sets are expensive, but you only need 4 rather than 5. Plus, you can get the most expensive IOs with Hero Merits.

I have a few habits after 6 years, too. Like others, I arrange my Insp tray, but with Left to Right columns with Red, Yellow, Green, Purple, and an Awaken with a Break free to the Right. I eat Oranges as soon as I get them.

I don't use respecs except for Freespecs. I earn the other Respecs and hoard them. I don't use my Vetspecs. My oldest characters have all three earned Respecs, all the Vetspecs and usually don't use the Freespec until a short time before a new one comes out. I think the only time I have ever used a Vetspec was on a character I was about to delete so that I could either pull out some enhancements I wanted to save or cash in the enhancements for Influence.

And when I do a Freespec, I usually plan out the character pretty carefully. That way, I don't have to use a Respec to fix it. The wonderful folks at CoHTitan came out with Titan Sentinel, making respecs easier.

I still get lost in cave maps.

I set up all my characters with a standard set of binds and a standard layout of my power icons, making it easier to change toons. Thank goodness for the old CityBinder program.

I take my hero characters who hit 50 to Atlas to do the final level up. (I still wish there was some kind of ceremony, as a cut scene or a special mission or something.)

Opinions on builds are pretty subjective. I have a few on this build, but some of it may be due to a different playstyle. In general, I tend to slot my Controllers to benefit the team, with some ability to solo when I can't find one. Also, I do not have access to Mids at the moment, so this is based just upon looking at the posted build.

You have a several powers and a lot of slotting devoted to Defense. I don't see the need for much defense on an Illusion/Storm controller. You have Phantom Army to draw the aggro. You have AoE control options of Spectral Terror's fear, stun in Thunderclap (minions only), Knockdown in Freezing Rain, Hold in Flash (if you take it), knockback and stun in Tornado, knockback in Gale and several other powers. Most important, you have the huge ToHit Debuff in Hurricane for any foes who come into melee. (I haven't slotted any of my 4 level 50 Illusion controllers for Defense.) Do you really need to devote three power choices to get Weave? A small amounto fo Defense provides very little benefit -- it only becomes significant if you are able t stack up a lot. Your highest Defense number is under 10%, which provides minimal benefit. Combat Jumping will hold a Luck of the Gambler Recharge, give you a small amount of Defense (mostly meaningless), provide Immob protection (important) and use a lot less endurance. It seems to me that you have two choices -- either go all out for Defense by going with a defense-based shield and then stacking up defense, or abandon Defense and rely upon your controls by mostly focusing on Recharge. I prefer the Recharge, as personal Defense does not help your team.

Blind: Lockdown has some nice Defense bonuses if you are stacking enough of the same kind of defense, but you are not. I suggest 4 Baz Gaze (for Recharge) and add some additional Acc and a lot of Damage. (At level 50, I go with an Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common Damage IO.)

Deceive: The first purples you should consider getting is the Confuse set with the proc. It is comparably cheap and the proc adds a huge benefit to Deceive. Plus, it saves a 6.25% Recharge slot (under the "Rule of 5") for another power.

Snow Storm: I slot it with 2 EndRdx and that's it.

Steamy Mist: I slot it for Resist rather than Defense, but that's a matter of taste. The resist values are higher because it only covers three types. Many melee-type characters have high Smash/Lethal Resists, but skimp on the types of Resistance offered by Steamy Mist, so it really helps them. One of the Resist sets has a nice Recovery bonus (Impervium Armor?).

You have Steamy Mist, Superior Invis and Group Invis. Why do you need a Stealth IO in Fly? Leveling up my Ill/Storm, I actually skipped both SI and GI and used Steamy Mist + Super Speed for full invisibility. But then, I like Super Speed with Storm for fast battlefield maneuvering and "herdicaning." I suppose you may be using the stealth in Fly with Steamy for your invis, and using SI and GI only as set mules. However, GI + Steamy will be far better. Just take GI earlier.

Freezing Rain: I don't bother slotting FR for Defense Debuff since the debuff in the Rain is already enough and the accuracy that most people have is already over the 95% cap. It needs Recharge, and maybe an Achilles Heal proc.

Phantom Army: At level 50, replace the Dam/End and the common Recharge with a Soulbound Dam/Rech and the Chance for Build Up.

Spectral Terror: As Numeros kind of suggested, you are over the "Rule of 5" on 6.25% Recharge -- you have 8 in the current build. You could change this to Unspeakable Terror for 5% Recharge.

Thunderclap: Its usefulness is limited because it only stuns minions. Flash is much slower to recharge, but it can hold Lieutenants. Plus it takes Baz Gaz for 7.5% Recharge, and not Stupify for another one of your too many 6.25% sets.

Aid Other/Aid Self: A reasonable choice for a Stormie, which has no self-heal. (I have O2-Boost, but I'm more team-focused.) However, you might be able to skip these two by taking Hibernate. Do you already have those two sets of Panacea? Those cost a heck of a lot. Not worth the price in my opinion. I don't recall the set bonus for Panacea, but you can get 5% Recharge from Doctored Wounds.

Phantasm: The Resist proc doesn't do much unless you have a bunch of Resistance to stack. I like that proc on my Earth and Grav controllers, but not for Phanty. It does nothing for PA. Not worth a slot. Use 4 Expediant Reinforcement, and then maybe an Acc/Dam Hami-O in the 5th slot.

You have passed up APP powers for a couple of mules. You can get more use out of the APP powers. Most importantly, you need a single target blast for your attack chain to get good damage. (Take a look at my Illusion/Rad guide for the explanation of why.) Ice Blast is a good one -- I have it on my Ill/Storm and Ill/Cold. If you want a place for a Luck of the Gambler, take Ice Armor (Or Earth, or Psi's Indomidible Will, but I prefer Ice APP.) Hibernate may eliminate your need for Aid Self, and it only needs a Recharge in the default slot, saving you two power picks and a lot of slots.

I used to have two monitors before my kid stole the second one. I kept CoH in the main monitor, and then had Herostats and sometimes the browser open on the other. It was nice during TFs to know what was coming up next.

"Best" is very subjective. It somewhat depends on your own preferred playstyle. Some things that are easy for certain characters, may be hard for others. My Illusion/Rad is my favorite at handling anything solo. (I'm working on IO'ing up an Ill/Cold, but so far I like the Ill/Rad slightly better for all purpose use.) Since the PA take the aggro, he is great at things that other ATs just can't do. However, he's not fast at "farming" as he is more of a single target damage specialist with some AoE (mostly from Fireball). But he has the flexibility to handle missions where distraction and deception will complete the mission much faster than the classic "bull in a china shop" approach.

On the other hand, my Elec/Shield scrapper is great at dealing AoE damage solo. He is my favorite at plowing through large groups of foes while only taking minor damage.

Warshades are awesome, but I like mine better on a team where there are lots of dead bodies to play with and some nice inherent buffs. Admittedly, I haven't IO'ed her up yet -- very expensive.

Bots/Traps? Until the bug that causes the Bots to run into melee is fixed, I find that I go through Bots too fast.

The general concensus on World of Confusion: It sucks. It is only good for being a set mule for the fairly cheap purple confuse set. The radius is too small to be effective, and the confuse pulses are so short that it is worthless.

On the other hand, An Ice/Rad/Psi is probably the only build that might possibly make good use of it. I suggest you plan on slotting up AA for max Confuse and EndRdx. Make sure that you put the purple Contagious Confusion proc in it as soon as you hit 50, because that proc seems to almost double the effectiveness of the power. Make sure Choking Cloud is well slotted for max Hold and max or nearly max EndRdx. (I have 4 Unbreakable Constraint, a common EndRdx and the Lockdown +2 Mag proc in mine.) Then you can slot up WoC for Damage procs. It will only work when you are standing immediately next to foes, but maybe it will work if you can layer enough control and procs.

I assume you mean Ice/Cold Controller.

Ice is the lowest damage primary. Cold adds some nice Resistance Debuffs, but no additional damage. So, yes, this controller will solo very slowly.

Yes, Arctic Air uses a lot of endurance, but with Heat Loss, you should be able to handle the endurance costs pretty well. Arctic Air should be slotted for Confuse and EndRdx (and not necessarily with a set). The Contagious Confusion proc from the purple Confuse set is wonderful in AA -- it seems to make the power nearly twice as effective.

It would help if you posted your build, and then explained your playstyle and your goals.

I'm not sure why you think that anybody on the controller boards would have an answer to it. You would probably do better putting this in the Suggestions forum. I doubt that the Devs are looking here . . . but I might be wrong.

Frankly, until there is a Slow set with a bunch of Recharge, I don't see slotting Ice Slick for Slow. The existing Slow sets havwe very little Recharge and don't have bonuses that are all that useful even if you could slot them.

As others have said, teams of 8 competant players will beat any forced structured team, any day. Many of the powerset combos actually become more powerful when stacked.

The single fastest and most powerful team I have ever been on was a team of 8 Fire/Rad controllers. With Hot Feet/Choking Cloud/Fire Imps/Fire Cages, we could basically run through missions as a group and everything died. 8 players using Accelerate Metabolism put us all at damage cap, massive Recharge and Recovery cap. 8 players with Choking Cloud meant that everything was held in a second or two, and 8 players with Hot Feet (at damage cap) meant that the foes dropped dead in seconds -- not to mention the 24 Fire Imps acting like locusts killing everything in sight. We pretty much could run through entire missions almost at full speed, and had to slow down just a little bit at the AVs -- but 8 Rad Debuffs took care of the AVs, too.

I wasn't on the team, but it is my understanding that a team of mostly Fire/Rads set the speed record for the Statesman's TF. Since several things have changed in the game, it would be interesting to get an all Fire/Rad team together to try some of the newer TFs now.

I try to keep a supply of some of the Day Job accolades and bonuses handy:

Wentworths, so I can have WW teleporters and crafting Discounts is my most common one to have. (The base teleporter is nice to have, too.) I log most of my characters off in WW after I have all or most of the Day Jobs.

Hospital to make sure that I have some Ally Rez charges, especially on characters without an ally rez power.

Oro for characters who need a little bit more Recharge.

The problem you will have is that any gap often results in the AV deciding that you look like a good target rather than PA. Even at 60 seconds Recharge, this happens. At 63 seconds Recharge, you will have a lot more gaps when the AV will turn his or her attention to you.

Sadly, to get Perma-PA on an Ill/Storm, you will need some purple sets.

The best place to answer this kind of question is the wonderful City of Data section of Red Tomax's Guide, maintained by the great CoHTitan folks.

Thunderclap is shown as only a Mag 2 stun, with no chance for an extra mag.

Compare this to Earth's Stalagmites, which is a Mag 3 stun with a 20% chance for an extra 1 Mag "overpower."