Local_Man

As I said, take a look at the build in my guide, and it may give you some ideas on how to boost your Recharge without costing a few billion. I have 3 (well, now with my I-19 build, 4) LotG Recharge IOs, but only the one cheap purple set.

As for Aggro, I find it important to only use my AoE damage when it WON'T draw aggro. If you focus on single target damage while using your controls/distractions (Spectral Terror, Deceive and PA), then you should be able to avoid most aggro. Often, if a foe looks at me funny, I hit him with Deceive to keep him out of the way while I kill off his buddies. I very rarely take much aggro, and I use the Fire Shield (only 1 slot) to reduce that damage enough that my heal can normally handle it. I didn't slot for any Defense at all, and I'm able to solo AVs and provide huge contributions on teams.

As for the Fire APP, I must also admit that there is something really satisfying about Fireball . . . nothing like a big explosion of Fire to make you feel like you are really doing damage. Fire Blast actually does more damage to a single target, though. To me, the damage is the most important thing that I need from my APP.

On Hover: It is one of the places I put a LotG Recharge (along with Sup Invis and Combat Jumping). I spend a lot of time in the air, avoiding melee and letting me get a good view of the fight. I also use the Speed-on-Demand binds -- whenever I launch into flight, I start in Hover. If I press any directional key, the binds automatically put me into Fly until I let go of the key, when I go back into Hover. This lets me stay in Hover for battle and switch to Fly for all movement without having to toggle between the two powers. As a result, I spend a lot of time in Hover. The Speed-on-Demand (SoD) binds also work on Sprint, only turning it on when you move. The SoD binds are built into a program I use to set up the binds on all my characters called CityBinder. I love CityBinder because it lets me set up a standard set of binds, and then customize them, for every character. For example, anytime I have a character with a Heal power, it gets mapped to a certain button on my 9-button mouse. There is a link to it and an explanation in thread in my Guide.

If you decide to try CityBinder, just a little warning. Once in a while, usually when changing zones, the SoD binds get stuck, as though you had hit the key to keep flying. A quick Ctrl-r will reset the binds, so I find it a minor inconvenience. A couple of people I know have really disliked this little proble, so they won't use it. It is not very user friendly, so it takes some effort to learn how it works. I have thought about writing a guide to some of the stuff I do, but I'm not sure there's much demand for an old program like CityBinder.

I went ahead and took Spiritual on mine. More Recharge is always good, especially Recharge that goes over the ED cap. One of the Spiritual branches will also boost Healing, which is good.

I see a few little things I would do differently in your build, but that doesn't mean what you did is wrong. I don't have the purple damage recipes, which gives you some leeway in slotting. The only purples in my build are in Deceive and two in Phantom Army. If you don't have those purple recipes yet, they are going to be VERY expensive. There are ways to build a Perma-PA Ill/Rad without those expensive purple damage sets. If you take a look at my Ill/Rad guide, you can see a build to get Perma PA that will be a bit less expensive than what you have. Of course if you have them already, then they are great to use.

Personally, I prefer the Fire APP. Fire Blast and Fireball do a little more damage than Ice Blast and Frost Breath. Plus, Frost Breath is a cone, which is more limited than the Targetted AoE of Fireball. The downside is that you get a Resistance Shield instead of a Defense shield, but if I'm getting hit much, then I'm probably doing something wrong. It also opens an option for WHEN (not IF) I do things wrong -- Rise of the Phoenix is the only self-Rez available to Controllers, great in the battlefield. (However, I didn't actually take it.)

I considered Fallout and didn't take it. For a team-oriented power, I felt that Recall Friend would provide more benefit. Fallout is very situational. It is not bad (I have it on my Earth/Rad), but I find that I use it very rarely unless somebody decides to be "Fallout bait" -- most people rez to get back into the action before I remember to use the power.

In light of this, should the Flight enhancements be changed? The Flight Speed does nothing anymore, so only EndRdx is important. And Stealth.

And Zikar, if you put that Microfilliment HO in Swift, it will buff BOTH Flight Speed and Run Speed.

Most of my character names are puns using pretty common English words. Some are words which, when pronounced together, sound like something else, but the pronunciation is pretty easy.

Names like "Sultan Battery" (an Egyptian-themed Kin/Elec, and yeah, I know that Egyptians weren't Sultans, but the game doesn't offer a turban) or "Kickyer S" (an MA/SR kickboxer) or "R. Tic" (Ice Tank) or "Ella M. Ental" (My Earth/Storm/Fire controller).

Oh, and one of my current favorites (pun intended), my Elec/Shield scrapper is dressed in an orange vest and khaki pants, named "Ohm Depot."

Tornado is kind of an interesting choice for an Ill/Storm. On the one hand, you can view it as an awesome autohit damage power. Against AVs who can't be knocked back, I view Tornado as */Storm's version of -Regen. The damage from Tornado pretty much takes care of the AV's Regen, plus a bit.

On the other hand, Tornado is an extreme chaos/control power. Let it loose in a room full of foes, and they will be flung every-which-way with a chance to be stunned. It is difficult, but not impossible, to use Tornado as a damage power against foes without knockback protection, since you don't have an Immob with -knockback. You have to pretty much trap them in a corner or a cul-de-sac.

Personally, I 6-slotted Tornado to cap damage and Recharge, with some EndRdx. Solo, I use it a lot for the chaos/control. Illusion's damage is single-target, so if a group get thrown around, it doesn't matter much. I don't use it much on teams, except when its nature will be well appreciated. It is really effective on the Control Box in the ITF, for instance -- when the robots activate, a little chaos is helpful.

I can see how some folks may not find Tornado to be all that useful on an Ill/Storm. I happen to really like the power and think it is fun. So I found the slots to slot it up.

You only have one slot for Tornado? It sounds as though the rest of your build could be re-worked to get more slots there. We would have to see your entire build.

As a general rule, slotting damage in a damage power is going to provide more damage than a proc . . . unless you are already slotted up for capped damage. The main exception is putting procs in low damage powers like AoE Immobs. Or the purple damage procs hit more often so that they might result in more damage. However, the chance for build up will build up the damage you have, and if you don't have much, then its benefit is limited. Granted, it will also do the "build up" for your other pets, but I would definitely go with the Damage slotting if I had that choice.

Personally, I put that "Chance for Build Up" proc in Phantom Army after they have capped Recharge and Damage.

As far as I'm concerned, Invisibility (to be able to lead Rocky around, or generally to avoid aggro) + Rocky taking aggro or teammates taking aggro + ranged AoE control is generally as good or better than most defense. I prefer to be sneaky rather than defensive.

OK I suppose as an exercise in playing with Mids, but it has some problems . . . like slotting Knockback in Earthquake will turn it from Knockdown into Knockback -- not exactly what you want. Choking Cloud has very little EndRdx, making it nearly useless -- I wouldn't take it on an Earth/Rad anyway, but regardless.

World of Confusion is only useful as a set mule, as the power mostly stinks.

Frankly, there is no way I would spend the time and huge amounts of influence on a build that fails to have the functions of the powers properly slotted. But that's just me. I have never really found a need for high defense on my Earth/Rad, since he is so good at locking down groups, I don't get hit much. I stay at range and let teammates and Rocky take the aggro, so I don't get mezzed much, either. If I really wanted defense, I would take the Earth or Ice APP armor and enhance for Smashing/Lethal Defense -- but I don't feel it is needed.

Besides, if you have softcapped defense, do you really

There are a few things I question about that build. You have slotted up several defensive powers at the expense of what I would consider to be more important powers. You have no EndRdx in Hot Feet. No EndRdx in Tactics. No wonder you are having endurance issues!

No Accuracy in several powers that need it like Siphon Power, Siphon Speed, Transference and Fulcrum Shift -- I understand that you may be relying on global accuracy and Tactics, but still . . .

Try posting this in the Technical Assistance forum. The folks who hang out there tend to really know their stuff.

Yes, you can download the game without the disks, but it takes a while (like overnight).