Midnight_Tempest

My memory may be a bit fuzzy, but I recall Tornado seeming to prefer to disorient a mob and then come back to defend me if something else came up and tried to rip my face off. I'll try to test it again this weekend, since it's something I see a lot if I'm soloing.

We're really not going to let him get away misinformed, are we? And here I tried to be clever.

It made me feel dirty inside.

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...FDF41FE6E4D5F6

Playing around at +0x8 on a new SS/Fire was highly amusing. 1-19 in no time.

Well, at least on the enhancement front, you don't have to worry too much about leveling smoothly based on whether you're using IOs or not. We did manage to gain experience before IOs existed, after all. Of course, feel free to burn the inf on one of those wonderful -KB IOs. Those things make the world go round.

As for blast sets, I'm only really familiar with /Dark, and I don't think you would like it in a duo. It's not that /Dark is weak: you'll get a lot of effect out of Gloom, Tentacles, and Night Fall (if you want to grab and slot all the AoE), but that the set is awkward as a blast secondary. On paper, it looks like a lot of damage. With IOs for procs, it looks like a lot of damage. In practice, getting small to moderate groups positioned to be hit by Night Fall can take longer than just using single-target attacks.

I'll throw my vote in for Plant/Storm for strong solo and team play. Plant is really one of the "Wow" sets between Seeds of Confusion and Carrion Creepers, and Storm can get you a lot of mileage. Aside from FR + Storm (which, at least with Defender modifiers, brings mobs to the cap for recharge debuffs), Plant's immobs do -kb. That lets you leverage Tornado for damage, which is a variant of awesome typically reserved for AV combat.

If you end up dead set on a Dominator for more damage, I would run with Plant/Fire. If you're going Dominator for damage, you may as well pick up the secondary entirely dedicated to burning things.

It's clearly counter-intuitive, so it's likely a bug. I recently teamed with an Earth Controller and didn't notice the graphics problem, but I'll try to replicate it. I would bug report it anyway, and mention that Ice's animations move properly.

(QR)

If you're not too attached to the Lockdown set in Freeze Ray, you can use the same 4 slots for Basilisk's Gaze IOs and get another 7.5% recharge boost.

If the Performance Shifter Chance for +End IO works properly in Stamina, you could sub it in for either the Acc/Endmod or Endmod/Rech IO - gaining a +End proc while keeping your set bonus. Take this with a grain of salt, as I don't know the math off the top of my head as to whether the +End proc works out to be a bigger end gain than one of the hybrid IOs (Ok, I know how to do the math, but not the numbers I need in order to do the math).

That's all I can really think of after taking a look in Mids. I'm sure another Stormie will catch something I missed.

(QR)

I'm not a huge fan of slotting Steamy Mist for Defense, but it works if you're trying to softcap (or get close). The only thing that immediately jumps out at me is that you're missing a -KB IO. There aren't many things more annoying than sitting on your butt when you'd rather be dropping storms on things.

I think you could probably use a Pacing of the Turtle End/Recharge/Slow in Snow Storm (instead of just an End IO).

Taking a quick look at Freezing Rain in Mids, switching from the Lady Grey's Defense Debuff IO to the Recharge/End IO will keep your set bonus while only losing 4.1% of the defense debuff (down to -44.1%). In exchange, you get roughly six more seconds off of the recharge time, which is pretty nice (waiting on FR sucks).

I stick with my Defender because I have no use for a damaging primary. I have Dark Blast, Gloom, and Life Drain to help with soloing, and Tentacles for when I want to force something to stand in FR while I do something else. I have Lightning Storms and Tornadoes and Snow Storms and Hurricanes and Freezing Rain to be making. I have no time for this blasting nonsense.

I make judicious use of Dark Blast, Gloom, Moonbeam, Tentacles, and Life Drain. You're welcome to do the same, Dark Blast is a very fun secondary.

Heck, Empathy can actually afford to pick up Nightfall for a second AoE. I wish I could afford/fit it on my Stormie.

Overall a very good read. I make liberal use of Taunt, so I've never noticed that it loses priority as it goes to full duration.

While I completely agree with the use of KB (and other mass control abilities) for handling over-aggro, I'm somewhat apprehensive about its mention. I've seen many Tanks who use their KB poorly, which (as a Stormie) makes me die a little bit inside. It deserves mention, though, for the Tanks who will use such abilities properly and for the overall benefit of the group.

I should have mentioned that my Stormie is /Dark, if that makes a huge difference. I realize this gives me the option of Thunderclap -> Dark Pit -> Oppressive Gloom, for mez stacking, but I prefer to just use Hurricane if I'm planning to get into melee range to do mitigation. I still have problems with LTs that like to mez (Carnies and the like), as my only solution to those (at least solo) is currently to open with Tornado - hence why I like the idea of getting a Hold.

I should have clarified with regard to World of Confusion that it's not something I feel I remotely need for mitigation. I just like the idea of having a Confuse.

I'll look over Soul and Mu.

After taking a few years away, I'm back and currently working on my old Stormie. He's currently closing in on 41, and I'm having trouble deciding on an APP (or Patron Power).

I've narrowed down my choices to Soul Mastery (for Power Boost and a Hold), Power Mastery (for Conserve Power and PBU), and Psychic Mastery (mostly for Dominate, but World of Confusion looks interesting).

If anyone has experience with some of these combinations, I would love some input.

(QR)

You should be able to fit a third slot into Siphon Speed for another Recharge Reduction. Just cut a slot out of Super Jump, or move some stuff around and cut Super Jump entirely since /Kin gives you access to Inertial Reduction anyway.

Acrobatics may also be overkill. If you can actually afford your build, you already have 20% resistance to all controls except Immobilize (which is just south of 30%). The mobs also aren't going to be shooting back anyway, what with Flashfire and Fissure dropping disorients all over the place and your defense being as high as it is.

It also feels like you have far too many -KB IOs. My Controller is closing in on 36 and with just one -KB IO, I can count on one hand the number of times she's been knocked on her butt (and I think that was against mobs of +5 bosses spamming M30 Grenades or something).

Strongly consider a fourth slot in Fulcrum Shift (for Acc/Acc/Rech/Rech as an end result), it's not a power you want to miss.

What you have planned now should work fine anyway, but it feels like you're too worried about the specifics. It's simple: Get defense, make sure Flashfire and Fulcrum Shift don't miss, have a -KB IO somewhere.

I use a simple system of priorities when buffing:

1.) If it helps the person die less (Sonic, FF, Fortitude is a unique snowflake), I default to the aggro sponge on the team.

2.) If it increases killing speed (Fortitude, things that look, smell, and taste like Fortitude, but do not necessarily quack), it goes on the big damage dealer.

3.) If it clears Mez (Clear Mind, O2 Boost when everything is dead and you've run out of all the better things to do), it goes on the quirky Blaster who thought that an Acrobat was some sort of winged rodent.