Local_Man

You should have 4 damage powers from your primary plus damage from your APP powers. Mesmerize, Levitate and Dominate are all single target damage/control powers, and Terrorize is a AoE damage/control power. Then your APP set should have one (or two for Earth) single target damage power and one (or two for Ice) AoE damage power. With the FF secondary, it should be easy to fit in all of the Mind Primary.

Additionally, you are a Controller with, depending on your view, the second best or best AoE control set in the game. You have four solid AoE control powers and should be controlling groups to keep your team from taking much damage before you worry about doing damage.

(and by the way, I have a Mind/FF in the mid 40's. Never felt useless.)

I have an Illusion/Trick Arrow at 50. I specifically made it to experience the Trick Arrow set, and I think the two go together extremely well. Illusion is a ranged set, and TA works best from range. TA fills many of the control holes in Illusion. TA is all DEBUFFS, and Debuffs are needed to make Phantom Army better. TA adds the ranged AoE Hold that Illusion really should have. Illusion provides the distraction to keep foes busy while you fire off all your debuff arrows. While I prefer Rad and Storm, I have to admit that the Ill/TA is a really fun combo. Oil Slick Arrow really adds a lot to the set.

The only other sets I would consider using with TA are probably Earth and Gravity.

I'm working on an Illusion/Cold currently, who is level 46. Frankly, I'm not all that impressed with the Cold set. I love Storm, but Cold seems like an anemic version of Storm with the two Defense shields and two single target debuffs added (I skipped Frostworks). The only really interesting and unique power is Heat Loss.

I could see */Cold working with most primaries. It just is not as much fun as Storm.

Now that's what I consider to be a good build. I would make a couple of little tweeks here and there, but it really depends on what you want. For example, I would give up some Defense for more Recovery and a little more damage.

I would move a slot from Super Speed to Blind and put an Acc/Dam Hami-O (Nucleous) to improve the Accuracy and Damage. I would move another slot out of Super Speed to Health, to add a Miracle Heal (more Regen and a Recovery bonus). Then I would move a slot from Hover to Health for a Numina's Heal (a lot more Regen, but you give up a little defense). If you really want Ranged Defense, then you could put a 6th Coercive Persuasion into Deceive for a 5% Ranged Defense bonus --more than the total Defense in Hover. Or you could move that slot to Fire Shield for more Resistance. Or leave it in Hover.

But those are minor tweeks compared to the good changes you have already made. If you don't want to spend the huge amounts of Infl for the Apoc and Ragnorak sets, you could probably still have perma PA with Decimation in Spectral Wounds and Posi Blast in Fireball . . . but you would need to change Spectral Terror to the Unspeakable Terror set to avoid a "Rule of 5" problem. However, if you have the Infl for the expensive purple sets, those are certainly superior.

Spectral Wounds with a single Chance for Build Up? It should be your main source of damage -- far more important than many of the other powers. It should be taken at level 1 or 2, and used continually. Plus, you can get Recharge from 5 Decimations.

The strength of an Ill/Rad is distraction, debuffing and single target damage. You have left out one of the main strengths of the combo.

You have a number of other problems, too. Why take Grant Invis when you have Superior and Group Invis? If you just want it for a LotG Recharge mule, why not take Combat Jumping instead? It at least gives you Immob protection and maneuverability.

Indomidible Will is mainly a mez protection click power. You have it slotted as a Defense power -- it only gives defense to Psi. It should be slotted for Recharge far more than Defense . . if you take it at all. An Ill/Rad using Phantom Army, Spectral Terror and Deceive should not usually have a problem with getting mezzed. My guide explains why I recommend the Fire or Ice Pool over Psi.

Well, let's see: I have Ill/Rad, Ill/Storm, Ill/TA all at 50. Ill/Cold at 45. A second Ill/Rad at 42, and a third one in the 20's (different servers). Ill/Kin in the 30's, but on a server that I don't go onto very often.

Then I have the previously mentioned Ill/Rads, plus 2 Fire/Rads at 50, Earth/Rad and Plant/Rad at 50. Elec/Rad at 37. My Mind/Rad, Grav/Rad and Ice/Rad are in the 20's on less frequented servers.

So, yeah, I kinda lean towards Illusion/* and */Radiation controllers.

This build could use some work. Rather than go through it line by line, I strongly suggest you take a look at my Illusion/Radiation guide. The link to it is in my sig. I have tried to compile the collected wisdom of a lot of folks into one resource for Ill/Rads. In the guide, I have discussion about slotting the various powers and several builds, including a Perma PA build. I'm in the process of updating the guide for I-19, but other than inherent Stamina, it is up to date.

One small example: Your slotting in Phantom Army misses a Recharge bonus and some extra damage. Replace the Soulbound Acc/Rech with the Expediant Acc/Dam. Then replace the Soulbound Acc/Dam/Rech with the Soulbound Chance for Build Up.

Oops, I missed that you had said Hover. Sorry.

Actually, Mid's HAS been updated for I-19 with inherent Fitness, but has yet to incorporate the Incarnate Alpha Slot. Take a look at www.cohtitan.com to download the new version. If you run Vista still (like I do), you will want to download the program first, then run the load program in Administrator mode, then right-click on the desktop Icon, click Properties to tell it to run in Administrator mode.

I can point out a few things that I did in my build that I have found to be effective. I'm not saying that you should copy my build, but pretty much all of my suggestions are in the build posted as my current build in the Guide, except that I added Mutation, Recall Friend and GI with only the default slots.

If possible, the purple Confuse set, Coercive Persuasion, is a great addition to the build and it is one of the cheapest purple sets. That Contagious Confusion proc turns Deceive into an occasional AoE power. 5 of them (leave out the pure Confuse) gives a great 10% recharge. Plus, it frees up another place for a 6.25% Recharge bonus. Yes, it is expensive, but you can take your time bidding for it and the longer you wait, the better deal you will probably get.

Superior Invis: You have a -knockback in Recall Friend, so the one here will only help you when the knockback mag goes over 4 but is less than 8 . . . and you could put another Zephyr -Knockback in Fly if you really want more protection. This is a great place for a LotG Recharge and 5 Red Fortune (leave out the Def/Rech). That adds 12.5% Recharge! And caps EndRdx in the power.

I skipped Air Sup in my final build. Yes, it is a nice melee power with a knock-up, but since I stay out of melee, and use my attack chain, I don't use it. I can see it being useful if you exemp low enough that you don't have access to Fire Blast, but that's not that often for me. Instead, I have Combat Jumping -- Immob protection, more maneuverability and another place for a LotG Recharge -- all with just the default slot. That Immob protection has saved me a few times, letting me run away when needed. And it frees up 2 more slots.

Phantom Army: Your slotting is fine, but replace the Dam/End with the other one from the Expediant Reinforcement set (not the proc). You can get a little more damage from PA and Phanty by replacing the Call to Arms triples with Soulbound Dam/Rech and Chance for Build Up.

Flash: If possible, put one more slot here for an Acc/Hold/Rech. It will make the power more useful.

Hasten: If you have perma PA Recharge, you can drop one slot and it should still be perma.

Spectral Terror: Here is where those extra slots can go -- 5 slot with Glympse of the Abyss (unless you already have 5 other sets with 6.25% Recharge, in which case use 5 of the Unspeakable Terror set for 5% Recharge).

Hover: Can drop the second slot if you need it for Spooky.

Phantasm: Consider replacing the Dam/End with an Acc/Dam Hami-O to cap Accuracy and Damage.

Fire Blast: 5 Decimations with an extra Acc/Dam/Rech or Hami-O in the 6th slot.

Rather than take Consume, I have 4 slots in Health (Numina Heal and proc, Miracle Heal and proc), and 4 slots in Stamina (4 Peformance Shifter with the proc). My Recovery is quite high at 4.17 when running AM. I kept Fire Shield for a little Resistance, but only have the default slot in it. I figure it reduces the damage I take a little, making it easier to heal up. Consume requires you to go into melee to sap the foes.

You need to remember that most of the active people on the Forums tend to be Min/Max types. Dual Pistols is not an ideal Min/Max set, so there are a lot of complaints. It is not high damage. It doesn't have strong secondary effects. It lacks Aim to further boost its damage.

But . . . Dual Pistols is fun and flashy. The nuke doesn't drain your endurance, so you can keep on fighting. It fits certain concepts, but some people wanted a less "flashy" set, so those folks are on the negative bandwagon, too.

DP should pair nicely with the Energy secondary, as Boost Range should be wonderful with that set. (I have an Arch/Energy at 50.)

To show how un-Min/Max I went with my DP Blaster, mine is DP/Devices, which is widely proclaimed to be a crappy pairing. No Build Up. I don't care. It is fun and flashy, and Devices lets me do things differently than other Blasters. I even use -- gasp -- TIME BOMB. Once I came up with a concept I found amusing, I started up this character and I have had fun with him. He looks like a skunk, kind of, and is named, "Pepe LePewPew." He is currently at level 43.

So, the bottom line is . . . don't worry about the stuff from the Min/Max people on the forums. Yes, they are right that Dual Pistols lags a bit behind other sets in some ways. But if you find it to be fun, then enjoy yourself.

My Broadsword/Shield scrapper is an excellent character. It was fairly easy and inexpensive to soft-cap because I didn't have to worry about melee Defense -- Perry takes care of that. Once I soft-capped AoE and Ranged damage, plus a few additions to general Defense like Weave and the Steadfast +3 Defense, and then it only takes one application of Perry to put me at softcap for Melee damage, too. And I have it slotted for Damage, not Defense.

Good single target and AoE damage -- pretty well balanced. My MA/SR is much more single targetted, while my Elec/Shield and Spines/Dark are both AoE focused . . . the BS/Shield is a nice middle of both AoE and single target. The AoE gets better if you learn to line up targets for the narrow cone of Headsplitter.

Granted, Lethal damage is often resisted. That's I problem I live with. Same problem on my Invul/Axe tank. So . . . it takes a few more hits to kill it, big deal. With Perry recharging so quickly, it is easy to put together an attack chain.

Besides, a character has to have a good name or concept for me to stick with it, and it is pretty easy to come up with a good one for a BS/Shield -- I went for a bit of a suggestive pun with the name "Bull Shield."

It appears to me that you need to decide on a focus for each of those builds. Whenever putting together a final build, you have to decide where you are going to go with it. If you want a Perma-PA build, everything has to be focused mainly on Recharge, and most of the other stuff is secondary. If you want a solo build that isn't necessarily Perma PA, you need to focus a bit more on Damage and Defense. And if you want a team-focused build, you focus on ways to help the team be better -- so you want more control and buffing/debuffing.

The Perma-PA build is very popular because it is so flexible and powerful at the same time. You can solo very well -- even handle AVs solo because their attention is on the PA. You can be a key player in a small team. And you can contribute to a big team (but not really be the "main" controller). It takes some planning and work, and a sacrifice or two, to get there. You can still have a great Ill/Rad without going there.

With the new systems in the game to get some of the more expensive IOs, it has become easier to make the focused build that you want. Alignment Merits, Reward Merits and Tickets all have a chance to roll the most expensive IOs, and you can actually buy what you want with Alignment and Reward Merits. Or you can buy the more expensive recipes and sell them to fund your character.

When I'm thinking about a build, I try first to look at the powers and make them effective. I don't like "mule" powers that are only there to hold IOs for set bonuses, but I might resort to one for the ultimate goal. (One of the reasons I dislike the Fighting Pool -- a wasted power pick in Boxing or Kick.) Sometimes, I have to take a power because I need a particular kind of set bonus, but I prefer for that power to have some benefit to the overall build.

Considerations for a Solo build are different than a team build. No ally-only powers (no Mutation or Fallout). No need for GI, but make sure you slot up SI for capped EndRdx. The key is control and damage, but the control only needs to last long enough for you to take down the foes. You really want to leverage the Illusory Damage to kill things faster. You can use PA and Spectral Terror a lot to provide AoE control, and then take them down one-by-one. AoE damage can be used when PA have the aggro. Use Deceive a lot for self-protection. Air Sup is nice to have. You need knockback protection. The Immob protection in Combat Jumping is nice, too. You want to be able to run away fast if needed.

{By the way, I-19 brought some changes to Fly -- it is now at max Flightspeed by default, so Flightspeed enhancements do nothing in Fly. Just slot it for EndRdx and put a Runspeed in Swift, and you'll still be at capped Fly speed. Even the Raptor Pack flies at capped Flightspeed, so I have actually dropped Fly on some characters.}

So, for your solo build, do you want to build for Damage and quicker recharge? Or do you want to build for Defense? I prefer Recharge, and Recharge IO sets are described in the Guide. To aim for more damage, you pick up as many damage useful powers as you can (Probably don't need to resort to Jump Kick). While I really like the Fire APP, I might go with Ice because it has a good single target blast, TWO AoE damage powers and a Defense-based shield (which is overall better than a Resistance-based shield). Another option might be to go with the Mace PPP set, with its additional pet that might add damage -- I haven't tried it, so I can't say. I would keep Air Superiority in the build.

Solo, if you run into Aggro, Health or Recovery issues, you always have the option to run away to give yourself a chance to recover. Mez protection and/or mobility are more important solo.

If going for Defense, then you need to consider the kind of Defense: Positional or Typed? A high Typed Defense build can spend more time in melee. A high positional Defense build will probably want to be more ranged, so Ranged Defense will be better. Frankly, building for Smash/Lethal Defense is easier because you can get big start with either the Earth or Ice APP shield, both of which are Smash/Lethal Defense. A majority, but certainly not all, attacks in the game have a component that is Smashing or Lethal, so the Smash/Lethal Defense will attempt to deflect them. So you will have to look at IO sets that can effectively enhance your powers but also provide Defense. You may have to sacrifice some powers to fit in powers that improve your defense like the Fighting Pool or Maneuvers, or Combat Jumping.

A little bit of Defense on its own is worth very little, but once you start building and stacking Defense, each little additional bit becomes more and more valuable. A build with 15% Defense shouldn't bother. A build with 30% Defense is pretty good. A build with 40% defense is very good, and a build with 45% defense is softcapped is fantastic and will be very tough to kill most of the time. But if you have high Smash/Lethal defense, you will still take damage from other types that don't have a Smash/Lethal component. And there is always a minimum 5% chance that you will get hit through your Defense.

So, if you want to go the Smash/Lethal route, you have to focus on getting powers that take IO sets which provide Smash/Lethal Defense bonuses, like Melee attacks for the Kinetic Combat IO set -- you may need to take Air Superiority from the Flight Pool and/or Seismic Smash from the Earth APP. (The Smashing Haymaker sets have Smash/Lethal, too, but in much lower amounts.)

On the other hand, there are some pretty easy to get and not-too-expensive sets with Range Defense, Like Thunderstrike and Lockdown. The Purple Confuse set, which is one of the cheaper purple sets, has good Ranged Defense for 6.

Now, I don't have one of these Defense builds, but others have posted builds with high defense. If you do some looking, you should be able to find them.

As for the Team build, you want to look for team-friendly powers with less focus on damage. Not to say that you don't want to do damage, but that that's not your first priority. Control comes first, the buffing the team and debuffing the foes. Situational team powers like Recall Friend, Mutation and maybe even Fallout take priority over additional attacks. Superior Invis still can be useful for stealthing missions without having to worry about re-casting GI in the middle of a group of foes.

You might want to make some of those decisions and then redo the builds. But a couple of points -- I'm not convinced that Devastation Chance for Hold in Blind is worth a slot. It provides a 15% chance to apply its hold. Blind will hold anything it hits less than a Boss, so the proc only helps at all if you are going after a Boss or higher . . . and you already have a 20% chance of getting an extra Mag of Hold. That means that the proc is worthless on minions and lieutenants, and when you use Blind on a Boss, you only have an 11% chance that the proc will do any good. Not worth a slot to me. I like that proc on my Blasters with 3-5 powers to slot it in, but not here. It is more effective in a power that does not already have a hold.

Phantom Army: You have the +Resist proc in a power where the pets are already invulnerable. Yes, it provides some benefit to Phanty, but Phanty is supposed to stay back and fire from range (He is currently bugged and runs into melee -- Castle has acknowledged the bug and it is on the list to be fixed). I suggest changing out the Dam/End and proc in Expediant Reinforcement for the two Triples from Call to Arms.

A couple of other quick points:

I believe that the proc in Absolute Amazement is bugged and currently does nothing. You will want to replace that.

How much do you use Hurricane? I think of Hurricane as one of my better Defensive powers -- not only a great positioning tool, but also a "Get out of my face and nyah, nyah, you can't hit me" power. But it needs to be slotted up with ToHit Debuffs. Ideally, if you can slot it with 4 Dark Watcher, you get 5% Recharge. I only run it when needed, but I have a bind to be able to turn it on with a quick press of one of the extra buttons on my Mouse.

One way is to move slots from Spectral Terror--Lose 5% Recharge, get it back in Hurricane. And it takes one less slot so you can leave 2 in Spooky. Or you could move the Def/End out of Hover and the Red Fortune Def/End/Rech out of Steamy, and maybe one out of Stamina (Make it 1 common EndMod, Perf Shift EndMod and Proc). Might want to replace the other Def/End/Rech in Steamy with a Common EndRdx. You give up some Regen, but gain a lot of ToHitDebuff in Hurricane.

We have had a plethora of "Money is no object. Make me a build" posts lately. I suggest you (a) look back on the boards, as there have been a few Ill/Cold threads recently, and (b) try to make a build yourself, post it and then folks will more likely comment.

And how come nobody seems to want to level characters up anymore? . . . All we seem to get are "I want an uber build with unlimited money" requests.

Overall a good build for your purpose, but some tweaking might help.

Blind: If possible, add a common Damage in a 6th slot. You should be using Blind a lot to set up Containment and that damage adds up. I would pull the Flight Speed out of Hover.

Personally, I would prefer Deceive much, much earlier in the build if you ever exemp down. I always take it at 4 on all my Illusion controllers (I have 3 at 50, 3 more in the 40's). I tend to use Superior Invis and take it earlier, too. However, leveling up my Ill/Storm, I just used Steamy Mist + Super Speed for my invis.

I would move Flash back farther in the build.

It appears that you took the Fighting Pool just to be set mules for Absolute Amazement and a LotG Recharge. You don't plan on running Tough or Weave with Tough unslotted, so Tough was a wasted power pick. You could put that Absolute Amazement set in Thunderclap, and put that LotG Recharge in Ice Armor from the Ice APP set. Or Combat Jumping to get immob protection. Or Group Invis.

I didn't see any knockback protection in the build -- may as well throw a Steadfast -Knockback in Tough if you keep it. You could put either a Karma or Steadfast in Steamy Mist, if you want. You seem to have several powers slotted up for Defense, even though you said you aren't seeking Defense -- I guess for the Regen bonus? If you are looking for more Recovery, you could put some Impervium Armor in Steamy.

Phantom Army: I would keep the 4 Expediant Reinforcement, but put the Dam/Rech and Chance for Build Up from Soulbound here. With 3 PA guys, you have more of a chance for that Build Up to happen. In Phantasm, I would put 4 Expediant and a Hami-O Acc/Dam. That saves a slot.

Freezing Rain: I always take it at level 16. Consider replacing the Lady Grey proc with an Achilles Heal Chance for Resistance Debuff. I think it results in more overall damage in most cases.

Superior Invis: With no EndRdx, you won't be able to run this when you are doing anything else. That's OK if it is only for Stealthing, but I like to slot it with capped EndRdx -- I use the LotG Recharge and 5 Red Fortunes (for an extra 5% Recharge). You would have to find those slots from somewhere. (I don't have the Medicine pool in my Ill/Storm. I use Hibernate if I need to heal.)

To replace Tough, I strongly suggest that you add Ice Blast from the Ice APP set to the build and slot it up. This will substantially increase your single target damage with an attack chain of Blind-SW-Ice Blast-SW. Where to find the slots? Give up Aid Self, put a Decimation set in Ice Blast and replace the Glympse set in Spectral Terror with Unspeakable Terror to avoid the "Rule of 5."

I also like having Frost Breath, which can take a nice purple set if you have the big Infl to afford it.

I have played an Ice/Ice/Ice Blaster and an Ice/Storm controller to 50. (And an Ice/Energy Tank to the mid 40's -- Tanks can be Ice/Ice, too.) By the way, Controllers also have an Ice APP set, so you could do an Ice/Cold/Ice Controller.

The Ice/Ice/Ice Blaster is my favorite blaster. It has so many control powers that it is virtually a Dominator with more damage. Personally, I skipped all the melee attacks and stay at range, mostly floating out of melee. Shiver is a huge part of the control of this set -- Add in Snow Storm from the APP and you can slow everything to a crawl -- which is amazingly useful on the ITF since those guys often ignore other types of Control.

My Ice/Storm/Ice was made long before Cold became available for Controllers, but an Ice/Cold/Ice will have a couple of the same powers (Snow Storm, Sleet=Freezing Rain). He is also an amazing Slow Machine on the ITF, but the damage is is low. It will be worse for an Ice/Cold, since Storm has Tornado and Lightning Storm to add some damage in the later levels. I just did an ITF with him the other day to get his Incarnate Shards. Tons of fun, but better plan to team rather than solo.