MaxLongstreet

Is the damage done by a proc increased by damage enhancements in the same power? I thought not, but MIDS seems to say they are.

The only thing I'd question in your build is your slotting for freezing rain. You're enhancing a lot of things that don't need enhancing - accuracy, defense debuff, slow. This power is also not the place to save on endurance, IMO, which is affected by three of your four enhancements. I'm a believer in putting as many damage procs as possible in freezing rain, particularly since P/S is all about pouring out the AoE damage. This power deserves six slots - 4 procs and two recharges make it pretty beastly - rather than slotting for the incidental stuff you're slotting for now.

And Arctic Fog.

Kudos to the original poster for a very interesting guide. I've been playing Mind/Cold, and I've gotten a lot of good ideas out of this, such as slotting for Sleet, order to use Confusion, etc.

Hey Nighthawk, suppress your enthusiasm about Mind, ok? I took it because it's NOT fotm. Just tell people 'it suks - no pet!' Then we can go back to quietly playing one of most versatile and fun control sets out there without a lot of competition.

I've been playing a Mind/Cold the last month, and I have to see it's probably been the most fun toon I've ever played. One thing that's nice about the combo is that with Mind, you want to take most every power as it comes up, and many of Cold's best powers come later on, so you can emphasize your mind powers early and take the great cold stuff (Sleet, Heat Loss) late in the build. If you want to get the ally shields early I can see the build being very tight, especially early.

I have a love/hate relationship with TA - I love the look of the powers, and I love them strategically, but for a Corruptor or Defender, the set is just inexcusably weak. I've never played it on a Controller, where it looks much more respectable, especially since it has some good controls that get Controller durations. I would go Mind/TA if you want to be the undisputed master of control. EMP is probably the best hard control in the entire game, with its range, huge duration, big AoE and no accuracy penalty - it's limited only by recharge. Oil Slick Arrow and containment looks like pure win, adding some big AoE damage that mind really wants. Ice arrow obviously gives you yet another hold. Just don't take TA and think you will be a master debuffer like a Rad or Dark, because TA's debuffs are frankly mediocre - not terrible, but not as good as debuffs in other sets.

I think both Cold and TA would be good for Mind - neither has healing, but that's really not a necessity unless your team needs a healer - if you personally are taking any significant damage with Mind, you're probably doing something very wrong.

I'd enjoy seeing what Fire Minded actually created and how he's doing...

You may want to reconsider your profession before you embark on the road to perdition. As Joseph Hamilton notes in his 1829 pamphlet 'Reflections Upon Dueling; Outline of a Court for the Adjustment of Disputes', dueling ultimately violates every principle of Christendom. Though a gentleman must deal with the lack of an adequate security against a challenge to one's honor, and though churlish behavior abounds in today's uncivilised society, and though even members of the clergy have historically partaken in the practice of dueling; nonetheless the practicing Christian must surely regard dueling not as a necessary evil but as an abomination whose time has thankfully passed. Drop the dueling pistols good sir, and find a more Christian method of adjudicating your disputes.

I think I'll vote for scare. A level 35 blaster taking a single-target, 8 second fear power seems to be pretty much the height of suk.

Like, I got my nuke at 32, but it's scare at 35 that I've been really waiting for.

Deus, thanks for the reply! Yeah, I can't see not having build up - if any combo was made for it, it seems like WM/SD is, given shield charge and WM's solid burst damage.

Lot of crickets on this one, so I'll give it a bump. I'd like some answers myself, since I too have recently rolled a Mace/Shield, and don't my butt from a hole in the ground here, and there seem to be a lot of tough choices in this build. I'm also probably bailing on Grant cover, since I tend to solo most of the time.

As someone who has returned to the game after a few years off, my experience has also been mostly positive. True, I like to gripe about some class balance issues (Trick Arrow), but in general I'm impressed at the effort they're putting in. From IOs and the Black Market/Wentworths, the addition of new power sets, missions, animations, you name it, this game has evolved and grown positively more than any other MMO out there.

And while the balance isn't perfect, I will say that this is a game that basically has about a thousand different classes, if you count each power choice combination separately (and you should, since they all play so differently). Balance in a thousand combinations is a practical impossibility, but CoX is close enough to have it be fun. And those thousand combinations keep the game endlessly enjoyable - no one has played them all.

I nominate a power choice instead of a specific power. I'm doing this because one can opt not to take the crappy powers nominated thus far. But when you have a choice of two powers at level one, and they're both bad, you've got a lousy power permanently, no matter what. Thus, my nomination is:

Entangling Arrow/Flash Arrow

In Trick Arrow, the suckitude isn't optional!

I'm going to come right back and argue for dumping PGA on any controller. PGA isn't yet another form of AoE control; its a low percentage damage mitigation power that doesn't really have high enough numbers to be worth it on any but a defender. Why take away a small percentage of the damage when you can prevent them from attacking entirely with one of your many AoE controls?

And if it's a choice between PGA and Glue Arrow, I've found Glue Arrow to be MUCH, MUCH better. The -recharge on Glue is as much as the -damage on PGA, and in practical terms I find the mitigation better on Glue since stuff tends to wander around trying to get out instead of attacking sometimes even when recharged. Add in the huge slow component which prevents spawns from using melee attacks on you, it seems to me that if you're taking a mitigation power which isn't a hard control, Glue Arrow works far better than PGA.

The only way I'd even consider taking PGA is I played on teams that are taking on 300 guys at once; then take I might take Glue Arrow and PGA both in addition to a million AoE controls.

I think with earth vs. mind aoe, a lot of it is which controls you feel most comfortable using - the two sets have such different kinds of aoe controls that it's a bit of an apples/oranges comparison, and I tend to be more comfortable with mind's one-shot, harder controls (I don't like funky controls too much - I don't use telekinesis). I certainly can see someone with a different temperament liking Earth much better.

A couple points:

- whoever said they don't have EMP, please don't follow their example. EMP is one of the two main reasons to take TA (along with oil slick) - it's the crown jewel of your AoE control. 6-slot it and love it.

- PGA is something you can skip. For non-controllers, it can be useful, but for you, you should be holding stuff, not putting a small nerf on its damage. Yes, there is some benefit for fighting the big stuff, but other sets do this kind of debuffing better (Benumb for instance).

- Flash Arrow? Maybe. Sure, you can use it on big spawns to help your team a bit, but some of what I said regarding PGA applies - as you come into your powers, you'll be controlling big spawns, not knocking a few percent off their to hit. If you've got extra power slots, fine, but if there's something you really want, don't pass it up for this.

Finally, Earth isn't the undisputed king of AoE control - Mind also fights hard for that title!

I think the Brute/Corruptor combo would be excellent for the damage output you're looking for. A Fire/Dark Corruptor and a DM/Fire Brute would be an interesting pairing.