Local_Man

Finally got around to watching the vid . . . awesome, awesome, awesome. At first I thought the cuts in the beginning were too fast until I realized that it all worked more for the music and the "feel." The music fit the piece so well. The only very minor criticism . . . . a different font might add a little bit -- even the "CoH" font -- as plain block font isn't adding anything.

And I agree -- while the official trailer was good, I liked yours better.

I love spoofs, so "Most Interesting Man" is my vote.

Cold is a good secondary for an Illusion Controller. It has great single target debuffs which can help take down really tough targets, and a great AoE debuff in Sleet (mostly the same as Storm's Freezing Rain, but you don't get it until 35). It also has the defense-based shields for your teammates and Phanty. And the final power in the set, Heat Loss, is pretty sweet.

HOWEVER, Cold does not have a Recharge buff that will help Phantom Army recharge faster. If you want to eventually get "Perma-PA" on a Ill/Cold, it will be a lot more expensive than an Illusion/Rad because you have to find an extra 30% Recharge from sets. That usually means that you need some purple sets to get there. Also, those shields are useless on Phantom Army, and not all that useful solo. (The only powers in Rad that are useless solo are Mutation and Fallout, which even on a team build are very situational and I would recommend that you skip anyways.) Another issue is that Cold does not have a self-heal, while Rad does. Another point that matters to some people -- Cold has the same kind of shields you have in FF, Sonic and Therm -- you need to re-buff the team every 4 minutes. Some people hate doing that.

Illusion and Radition have wonderful synergy. Rad offers the Recharge buff, an Endurance Recovery buff, ranged foe-anchored AoE debuffs that will help Phantom Army hit more often and hit harder, and some additional controls to fill the control gap in Illusion (Ling Rad is a Slow, EM Pulse is a huge AoE Hold). There is a good reason why it is so popular.

Tony Curtis seemed to like wearing a dress a lot.

One of the great classic comedies of all time: Some Like It Hot
Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, directed by Billy Wilder! Tony and Jack play two out-of-work musicians who dress in drag to get a job with an all-girl band. This was one of Marilyn's best roles, and both Tony and Jack are wonderful.

The current situation is far better than it was previously, when the pets would run for the hill and NEVER go near the area where the Oil Slick had been burning. That situation was fixed, but the pets still run out of the Slick. At least they will go back into the area when the burn stops, and they are not nearly as desperate to leave the area when it is burning. I suspect that it is "Working As Intended" now, but it really doesn't make sense that invulnerable Phantom Army would need to run out of the burning Oil Slick.

Take a look at my Illusion/Radiation guide, linked in my sig. It has a full discussion about Flash and why people are critical of the power. (I recommend taking it, but later.) Although the guide is aimed towards Ill/Rad, there is a lot of info in there that can help you.

Take Spectral Wounds along with your Blind and Deceive. In low levels, you should be acting mostly as a single target controller/blaster. You don't really get good team-oriented powers from Illusion until level 18 with Phantom Army.

I know that Mental Maden's first Illusion controller was an Ill/Therm, so she may have some sage advice for you. Therm is kind of a combo of Rad and Emp with a touch of Sonic's Resistance shields thrown in. If I didn't already have too many alts, I'd consider rolling one up.

My usual suggestion to somebody new with controllers: Illusion/Radiation. My guide, linked in my sig, explains why. Ill/Rad is one of the most flexible and powerful characters in the game -- works great solo or on teams. Because many of the good Rad powers come early, it is not a "late bloomer" like many others. You should start out with a single-target trio of powers that can take you to level 50 and make you feel like a controller/Blaster -- Blind, Spectral Wounds, Deceive. Then be patient, because at level 18 you get Phantom Army, which completely changes the character. Illusion is fairly easy to play reasonably well, but challenging to play really well.

But which Controller you may like varies widely with your playstyle. For solo, Illusion, Mind and Gravity do well in lower levels with single-target damage. Plant has good AoE control and damage, but is weak on single target damage. Fire has great Aoe damage, but is a bit of a late bloomer. Ice, Earth and Electric are low damage primaries, not the best for solo play but can be great for team-oriented builds. If you want an early-blooming character other than Illusion, I would suggest Plant or Mind.

As for secondaries, Rad, Storm and Kin are the most popular with the solo crowd. Rad works great with any primary and gets many of its best powers early (so you don't give up on the character). Trick Arrow is also a fun debuff set with control and a late damage power. Trick Arrow and Storm are the only two secondaries with significant damage, but those powers come late in the sets. The other secondaries have key ally-only powers, but any combo can be soloed.

Fly is my "default" travel power, but I have a pretty good mix. Most of my characters who stay at range, use Hover/Fly. My characters who need an extra attack with knockdown get Air Sup/Fly. And most of my villains end up with Fly.

Melee characters who can use the little bit of extra defense from Combat Jumping usually end up with Superjump. Characters who want stealth/Invisibility or great battlefield maneuverability get Super Speed. And I even have three with Teleport.

and yes, there are builds posted using fly . . . look at my Illusion/Radiation guide. My final build for my perma-PA Ill/Rad has Hover/Fly (and Combat Jumping -- Hover and CJ were needed as LotG Recharge mules).

My Ice/Storm was built to be able to solo . . . it isn't fast, but it works. And other than three IOs from the purple Confuse set in Arctic Air, he has no Purples. He DOES have Chilblain slotted as a damage power, Block of Ice with Hami-Os to max both Damage and Hold, Air Superiority, Ice Blast, Frost Breath and Ice Storm. With those and a few damage procs here and there, he can solo at a rate that isn't entirely painful.

With the outrageous cost of the build you have posted, you should be able to get some damage out of it, but I'm not sure you have really built for damage.

First, while some of the guides are out of date, most are not. There are also a bunch of Fire/Kin threads discussing builds.

Second, if you are low on Influence, the best way to make lots is on the market, not farming. See the guides in the Market forum.

As for your build, I have a few things that you might want to think about:

Char: After 4 Baz Gaze, I think it is a good idea to slot some damage. Drop the EndRdx/Hold/Rech and the proc and add some damage. If you can get them, an Acc/Dam and Dam/Mez Hami-Os are nice, or on the cheap, just an Acc/Dam/Rech and a common Damage.

Fire Cages: The damage on FC is not real high. I believe you get more damage from procs. Slot it for Accuracy and EndRdx, then add procs. At level 50, I love having the purple set's Chance for Hold proc in Fire Cages. Some folks going for a high defense build use the Enfeebled Operation set.

Stamina & Speed Boost: Move one of the EndRdx out of Speed Boost and into Stamina. You know that Speed Boost no longer buffs the Recharge on your pets? It increases their Run Speed and Recovery, but not Recharge. Some selfish people skip Speed Boost, but it is still one of the best buffs in the game.

Hot Feet needs to be slotted for EndRdx, Damage and some Accuracy. A little bit of slow is nice if you can fit it in. The Obliteration set doesn't have nearly enough EndRdx. You can frankenslot this power, or use the Multistrike set. Some people add procs after they have enough Damage and EndRdx slotted, but go for the Damage before the procs.

Health: See that Regen Tissue proc? Pull out your Mids, and replace that with a Numinas's Heal IO. See your Regen go up?

Fire Imps: If you are going for a high defense build, the Blood Mandate has some nice bonuses. Personally, I like to slot a lot of recharge for when the Imps die. I use 4 Expediant Reinforcement (Recharge Intensive Pets set) leaving out the Dam/End and the +Resistance proc. Imps run around too much to get much benefit from that proc. Then add the two Call to Arms triples, or at level 50 you can go for Dam/Rech and Chance for Build Up from the purple Soulbound Alliegence set.

Most Fire/Kins today go for the Earth APP for Fissure, the Defense-based armor (to softcap Smashing/Lethal defense), Seismic Smash as a big-time melee attack and Earth's Embrace, the heal. Fissure recharges faster than Fireball and has a chance to add some stun -- over time, Fissure does more damage but it is short range.

Actually, I would say that Illusion/Storm wins the "most Chaotic" controller because it has no powers that prevent knockback AND Phanty does a lot of his own knockback -- While Wormhole has knockback, you can direct and control the knockback. You have very limited control over Phantasm. Singy's knockback is more mangagable, as he mostly uses Lift unless foes run into his Repel field.

I have a Grav/Storm in the mid '40s. The only reason I haven't finished him up to 50 is that he is located on a server where my buddies rarely go, so I have soloed him most of the way. I used to be pretty critical of Gravity as a control set, but this toon has changed my tune. Now, my Grav/Storm is one of my favorite controllers to solo with.

The combo of Storm with Gravity is great, with the only downside being the fact that Tornado cannot be a damage powerhouse. The benefit of having no -Knockback in Crushing Field is that you can use CF+Freezing Rain as a control/debuff combo with the knockdown providing some nice benefits. The combo of Wormhole-CF-FR-Thunderclap can keep a group stunned and debuffed, making it easy to use an AoE damage power from the APP sets or pick foes off one by one with GD-Crush-Propel. I use Hurricane more on this controller than any other */Storm controller I have . . . I can pick one foe to attack with my single-target attacks, while Hurricane keeps them away from me and debuffs their ToHit so they can rarely hit me.

But I found it late-blooming. It started being fun at 26 with Wormhole, and Singularity added a huge amount -- it is my tank and aggro magnet that lets me handle EBs. It has been a fun character, and I need to finish him up one of these days.

The Slow sets need a Recharge Intensive Slow set. Both Tempered Readiness and Pacing of the Turtle have hardly any Recharge, but several click slow powers could use high Recharge.

Also, while a set may ED cap for one attribute (like Damage), it may not ED cap on other attributes (Accuracy, EndRdx, Recharge). The level 50 sets will thus give you a fair amount of extra enhancement of the non-capped attributes over level 30 sets.

My first Blaster and my first Blaster to 50 is my Ice/Ice. While Fire revels in AoE, Ice/Ice is virtually a Blaster/controller with three holds, an awesome cone Slow and Ice Patch. The holds allow you to limit the damage you take. Plus, because you can stack holds on a boss, you become the Boss-killer for any team.

Folks often say that it is weak on AoE . . . I feel Ice/Ice may not be an AoE buzzsaw, but it has sufficient Aoe with Frost Breath, Ice Storm and Blizzard -- Blizzard may be the nuke power with the highest overall damage. Also, Cold Damage is rarely resisted, so you get more bang for your powers than a set with tons of Smashing or Lethal damage.

My playstyle is as a ranged character, so I didn't take any of the melee attacks -- just the melee hold. I generally fight from Hover. I took everything in the primary, and Chilblain, Ice Patch, Shiver and Freezing Touch. Shiver is a key power -- it is your AoE that keeps foes from running away from Ice Storm and Blizzard. Some people say to skip Bitter Freeze Ray because of the long animation, but I loved having it . . . Use it first on a boss, followed by Freeze Ray to hold the boss while you pound away on him. If you use BFR as your opener, then the longish animation doesn't matter.

My Ice/Ice Blaster is one of my favorites on the ITF . . . the Romans can resist many controls, but not slows -- Shiver has a huge effect on them.

Yes, APP and Power Pool attacks get double damage with Containment. The only exception is if the power is a pet or Pseudo-pet power. (I need to double check, but I think the Ice APP's Ice Storm does not get containment, but I'm not positive.)

Earth APP's Fissure is very popular because it is a fast-recharging AoE damage power that gets containment -- and has a chance to stun. Fireball, Frost Breath, Torrent, Psi Tornado and the single-target blasts all get containment double damage.

I currently use the Ideazon Merc Stealth Keyboard. Overall, I'm fairly happy with it. The keys can be designated in any way you want. It has tons of templates for various games -- I downloaded the CoH one and modified it a little bit to my own preferences. I mostly use the mouse for stearing, and the keys foe forward/backward/jumping. I also have an 8-button mouse, and I re-set those buttons to be keys on the keyboard for binds.

The keyboard has a couple of USB ports and audio jacks for your headset. The main thing I like about it is the comfortable control set up for the left hand. It has several raised keys to make it easy to feel for important keys (like Tab). The only thing I dislike is that the Delete Key is on the numeric keypad. If you use Numlock (which I do, since I bind some commands to the keypad), then you have to un-Numlock to use the Delete Key. But that is a very minor issue.

I have thought about getting that Belkin Nostromo (CMA talks about it periodically), but with this keyboard, I don't have a strong need for it.

First and foremost, I would like to see GOOD WRITING. Make a story that mostly makes sense, without plot holes big enough to drive the Space Shuttle through.

Too many people talk about how wonderful the Richard Donner films were . . . but the WRITING WAS TERRIBLE. Sure, Christopher Reeve looked great and did a great job of separating Supes and Clark. The special effects for the time were excellent. But I remember walking out of the theater thinking, "What the hell was that? Supes was warned that he cannot change history . . . so he does and there were no consequences???" Combine that with a lame comedic Lois Lane, Lex Luthor and henchmen and a stupid main plot. And what was with that stupid 'If I Could Read His Mind' flying bit?" I wanted ACTION and I got eye candy at best.

Superman II was better in that we finally had real supervillains, but it had even stupider plot holes and things that came out of nowhere. (a) Finger spray telekinesis?? Huh? (b) "Throwing the S" (c) Telling Supes that if he gives up his powers, it will be forever . . . and then he gets them back. Another "meaningless warning" with no consequences. (d) And then he somehow re-wires the Fortress to de-power the bad guys outside the chamber? Huh? (e) the "amnesia kiss" power. (f) more "comedic" bad guys, and Lex's role was just bad.

None of it the actors fault -- all horrible writing. Don't need to go into Superman Returns, other than the fact that the writing was equally bad. Horrible story choice, horrible plot choices. Heavy handed directing -- did we really need a "crucified Superman" moment?

Brad Bird would be wonderful -- he has yet to make a movie less than great. But he might not be considered since he is linked to Pixar/Disney/Marvel. Tony Scott and Duncan Jones look like good options.

Clint Eastwood? In the '70s, they considered casting him as Superman. But now at 80, he's probably too old to take on a film of this magnitude.