Local_Man

My solution to that: I stay at range, I stay invisible, and I Deceive any foe who looks at me funny, and throw out my debuffs and Spooky a lot. As a result, I don't have to worry about Defense. That way, I get to enjoy the higher damage of Fire Blast, and the much faster recharge on Fireball.

With 206.25% recharge, there is actually a small amount of overlap . . . very small.

I use Alt and Control, too . . .

I actually have a 9-button Logitech mouse, and the tilt-wheel on my mouse are re-programmed to "u" and "o." I can access other powers by using Shift-U, Ctrl-U and Alt-U, and Shift-O, Ctrl-O and Alt-O. Generally, U is for powers in the primary, and O is for powers in the secondary.

For example, on those characters with Build-up and Aim, I put them on Shift-U and Shift-O -- so to activate both, I hold down the Shift key and rock the wheel.

But thanks for testing it. I figured it would work.

I agree . . . but part of the problem is that the in-game description doesn't explain the benefits of the power. People see the "no Experience" and don't have a clue about how awesome confuse powers are.

This bind should work, but my problem is that I use Shift a lot with other binds. I use Shift+other mouse buttons and other keys to access various powers. With this bind, it would activate Hover every time I used the Shift key. I haven't tested the simple one I wrote above because I don't currently have any characters with both Hover and Teleport -- and I don't have access to the game right now.

Thank you, that is quite kind. I try to explain how I see things and my reasoning, so somebody with different objectives can make a good choice for them. I see pretty good options here for (a) RotPhoenix, (b) GI, (c) Fallout or (d) dropping CJ, picking up GI to replace the LotG, and then choosing Assault. I would be trading my Immob protection for extra damage and a higher endurance cost. Option A is where I'm leaning, B is more of a team-focused choice, C is for the giggles of the idea of body-bomb dropping, and D is pretty appealing for teams, too.

More Recharge results in diminishing returns. Once you get to perma-PA, additional amounts of Recharge start to have less and less effect, such that fairly small amounts of additional recharge only result in reducing the Recharge on powers by a fraction of a second. There are points where your limited resources can be better used than adding more recharge.

With the large amount of Recharge in a Perma-PA build, Radiant Aura is up very quickly (especially slotted with the Doctored Wounds set). Especially since healing becomes less important in the higher levels, an Ill/Rad will generally have something better to do than be the team healer. Fast-recharging Radiant Aura is plenty.

To me, Recall Friend is probably my first choice. My Ill/Rad had it (and Teleport for travel) leveling up. I could stealth missions and bring the team to me more than once ever 30 min (with the Vet team TP power). Since I was usually the last teammember surviving, I was often the one to Recall the dead bodies of teammates to bring them to a safe place to rez. I miss that power in my Perma-PA build and look forward to getting it back. Mutation is my second choice as something handy to have -- I have often regretted not having it.

My only question is the third power. (1) I dislike taking powers as pure "mules" for an IO -- I like the power to be useful, even situationally. If a power can hold a needed IO AND can be useful, then it is OK. For example, Combat Jumping provides Immob protection and jumping mobility at a very low endurance cost as well as holding a LotG Recharge. (2) With my build and the two choices above, I'm capped out on Power Pools. I could drop CJ (or Hover/Fly) and use Group Invis for the LotG Recharge if I really want to add a new power pool, but I'm pretty happy with my build now. (3) It needs to be a power that can be effective with no additional slots (or maybe one extra).

So that leaves:

(a) Something out of one of the power pools I already have. Fly is kind of slow, so Super Speed or Super Jump, or even Teleport might be a nice "quality of life" pick. Or a melee attack? Air Sup? Flurry? Jump Kick? I don't think so, since I generally stay out of melee and my attack chain does more damage than any of those while staying at range.

(b) From my Primary and secondary, only Group Invis, Fallout and Choking Cloud are left (since I want to take Mutation). Choking Cloud is a mostly-worthless endurance drain unless you can fully slot it up and have the secondary powers to make it effective (Hot Feet, Arctic Air, Conductive Aura), so that one is out. Fallout? Very situational, but kind of fun . . . I could Fly/Hover over a group of foes, then Recall Friend to drop a teammate's dead body into the group, and then use Fallout for some damage and a huge Debuff -- and then rez him with Mutation. Worth considering, but it will be used very, very rarely. Group Invis? Can use it for another LotG Recharge, and it uses far, far less endurance than SI -- might be useful in big battles and to invis teammates. Worth Considering, but won't be used all that often, as I tend to run SI almost all the time.

(c) Another power from my APP set: I use the Fire APP set, so Consume and Rise of the Phoenix are the choices. (Between Fire Blast and Fire Ball, I'm very happy with Fire, so I don't plan to change.) Consume is a decent but slow recharging Blue-bar filler in melee combat. With PA out and while Invis, it can be used before drawing aggro. I don't have many (hardly any) endurance issues, and this needs some slotting to be effective. So No to that one. Rise of the Phoenix? The only self-rez available to controllers that does damage to foes in the area? Another situational power, but definitely worth considering.

In the end, I'm kind of leaning now to Rise of the Phoenix, but that could change.

My perma-PA build has Recovery of 4.17 with usage of 0.84 even while SI, CJ and Fire Shield are on. I am able to handle all but the toughest battles while running all three toggles. I think he can handle Assault even with a single EndRdx in the default slot. It would provide a nice little boost to damage both solo and on teams . . . if endurance is an issue, SI could get turned off first, then Assault. Once I have aggroed, SI has minimal benefit.

Edit: Unfortunately, to fit in Assault, I would have to give up one of my other pools. My current build has Fly (Hover for a LotG and fighting from the air, Fly), Speed (Hasten) and Leaping (Combat Jumping for a LotG and Immob protection). I want to add Recall Friend, and than makes 4 Pools. To add Assault, I might have to drop CJ for GI. So I may go for GI anyway, or maybe Air Sup, or maybe even Fallout for the debuff.

A healer?? I don't think so. My role as a Ill/Rad controller on teams is as a source of distraction, control and single target damage. I have no interest in being a team healer -- especially with the Medicine Pool, which would need some slotting.

My guide shows how you can have perma PA with only three LotGs in SI, Hover and Combat Jumping. If I really needed a 4th, I would go with GI before the Concealment pool. And if I wanted a 5th, then I could go with a Defense-based shield like Ice Armor. I can possibly see the Concealment pool on some other controllers if you want mule powers that are otherwise useless, but not on an Ill/Rad with two powers in the primary that are better than anything in the Concealment pool.

If you look at the last build, there are no really worthless powers in there -- even Hover and Combat Jumping have some value and there are several situational powers that can be useful. Underslotted on an Ill/Rad, Choking Cloud is worthless. Choking Cloud needs another aura (Hot Feet, Arctic Air, Conductive Aura) to be effective, and then it needs to be fully slotted. And frankly, once you get perma PA, additional Recharge has a very minimal benefit -- you start to talk about shaving fractions of seconds off at best.

There might be some benefit to Group Invis, since it uses a small fraction of the endurance of SI -- when going into battles where you expect to use a lot of endurance, it might be worthwhile to use GI. Also, GI can be shared with the team, which can be handy. Replacing Rise of the Phoenix or CJ with GI might make sense then.

As for the extra slots for Recovery . . . I know with my Ill/Rad (who has a lot of Recovery and pretty good EndRdx in most powers), I can make a dent in my Blue Bar when in a big fight. Even with Perma AM, running EF, RI and SI while using every other power when available and firing off a fast-recharging attack chain of Blind-SW-Blast-SW, it can use a lot of endurance. I don't sit back and let my pets do most of the damage.

Corrected . . .

If "3 procs in health" you mean the Numina's, Miracle and Regen Tissue procs, replace the Regen Tissue proc with the Numina's Heal. Mid's will show that you actually get an increase in your Regen using the Numina Heal instead of the Regen Tissue proc. And it is cheaper.

The OP said he wanted the bonus from the Thunderstrikes, so I left them in there. I have the slotting above in the single target hold in some other controllers. My slotting in Blind personally is a Nucleolus and a common Damage in the last slot to get a little more damage at the expense of a small amount of hold time. Most of the time, I am running my Blind-SW-Blast-SW attack chain, so the hold time for Blind is irrelevant.

Don't mislead the poor person . . .

My Illusion/Radiation guide has a long section on Confusion and how it works and why it is awesome.

Containment applies only if a controller does damage directly to a foe who is Held, Stunned, Slept or Immobilized. The controller does not have to be the one who applied the mez effect. For example, if a Archery Blaster hits a foe with Stun Arrow, and then a Gravity Controller hits that foe with Propel, the Propel will do double damage. However, controller pets and pseudo-pets do not get Containment. So the attacks from the Electric Gremlins and */Storm's Lightning Storm do not get Containment even if the foe is held.

Confusion powers do not get Containment. However, if a Confused Foe does some damage to another foe, and then you and/or your team and/or your pets do some of the damage, then you and your team get some of the XP for the foe damage by the Confused Foe. For example, you see a Confused Foe attacking one of his buddies, and you attack, too. If you do half the damage and half was done by the Confused Foe when your target is defeated, then you get 80% of the XP even though you only did 50% of the damage.

The "extra" damage is damage does by Confused Foes. You get credit for some of that extra damage as long as you do some of the damage. If the Confused Foe fully defeats the targetted foe without any help from you, your pets or your team, then you and your team do not get any XP since you didn't earn any.