OVWyx_EU

Not wrong, but you're pretty definitely not getting the most out of the characters if you're not using secondary attacks. Elec and Energy have stomping single target attacks apart from anything else, and on Fire/Fire FSC is a good part of the AOE attach chain, Consume is awesome for solving all end problems, and Fire Sword gives you a full single target attack chain when added to Blaze and Fire Blast - you've a definite gap without it.

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Also if you do mix how do you work out an effective attack pattern?

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Jump around. Seriously, it works.

Edit: That's put an absolutely terrible song in my head.

I disagree with quite a lot of that.

Def debuff in Irradiate is to taste. I personally go with two acc/def debuff HOs, 3 damage, 1 recharge, prior to that I had 1 acc, 3 damage, 1 def debuff, 1 recharge, as I'd generally use it with Aim running the loss of an accuracy wasn't a major issue.

Increase Density is an awesome buff and well worth slotting for damage resistance. Slotted you give around 39% resistance to smashing and energy damage. Not possible to keep it on the whole team the whole time, you can use it where it's most needed and get a hell of a lot back from it.

I see absolutely no point in taking out stamina so that you can reduce your accuracy and add endurance reduction enhancements into a build that was working fine without them. You can make staminaless Kin builds work far better now than you could prior to IOs, but in order to do that you would probably want to take health anyway for IO bonuses. Unless you can sort out a build that works without the need for endurance reducers, you're simply better off taking stamina.

Power Boost is bugged with transfusion but does work on lots of other cool stuff (e.g. the stun in total focus, which I'd definitely take rather than electron Haze, and all your defence debuffs).

If you're stacking up Siphon Speed you can keep aim and power buid up running with a really good recharge and have a good boost to accuracy and damage output.

The nuke doesn't need accuracy.

Yeah, but scattered all over the place is scattered all over the place. Electron Haze does it, and it doesn't work well with Kinetics.

Electron Haze is an AOE knockback, not the knockdown it advertises itself as. Doesn't work well with Kinetics.

Edit: The kinetics slotting is bang on barring Siphon Power, which I rate as worth keeping 4-5 slotted for AV fights, and transferrance, which on a PvE build is better slotted 2/2/2 once you have level 50 IOs in my opinion. For PvP, I'd keep it 2/3/1 for the big endurance hit all in one go when combined with PBU.

Again, purely for PvP, Siphon Speed can be six slotted to add some more slow, probably including a couple of pieces of the tempered readiness set, to give a little slow and range as well as the acc and recharge, but mostly you're better off sticking to just regular IOs with Kinetics.

Looks good, more recovery, quicker damage output. Might cost you a bit more than 10 mil with the Miracle sets, but shouldn't completely break the bank, and worth it for the recovery bonuses on Ice/Ice I think.

Regarding which one to remove, personally I’d go with losing the dam/end from all three ranged attacks, leave Ice Bolt 5 slotted (I just don't see a need for another slot in there with the set), and put a recharge into Ice Blast and Bitter Ice Blast. I want my three main blasts cycling as quickly as possible and I'll find the endurance elsewhere in the build.

I'd remove the dam/recharge from Ice/sword and put a recharge or an end reducer in there to taste, or if you don't use it that much, leave it 5 slotted.

The thing I like about IOs is that a lot of powers that previously I'd have had to six slot because they're "key" powers, I can get away with just 5, they're better than before, and still have more slots to play about with in other powers.

Couple of other fairly cheap ways to squeeze a bit more end out of the build:

Shiver slotting 1 or 2 acc, 1 slow, acc/slow and end/rech/slow from the Tempered Readiness set (another one that's dirt cheap) which gives you enough slow, a bit of an endurance discount and another recovery bonus.

Shuffle another slot into health and have two (cheaper, lower level) parts of the miracle set in there for 2.5% recovery. However given the salvage cost on that, even if you got the recipes cheap, that would pretty definitely put you over your 10 mil budget.

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Less damage, more def debuff in irradiate for example.

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Acc/Def Debuff/Tohit Bubuff HOs get round that choice quite nicely (and are pretty cheap on heroes).

I would take the recharges out of Bitter Freeze Ray - the animation is too long to spam the hold.

I'd add a recharge into Ice Blast and Bitter Ice Blast.

Another cheap way to gain from IOs:

Use a heal/rech and a heal/end/rech from two different (cheap) healing sets - set bonuses aside, it'll boost your recharge quite a bit, and give you a bit of an endurance discount.

If you're not going to slot it, I'd rate Stimulant as more useful than Aid Other.

I'd also take a recharge out of hibernate for a second slow in shiver for before Blizzard.

Just to add a couple of things to that having looked at the build in a bit more detail, I'd also change some other slotting on that:

Assuming you get rid of Chilling Embrace, and add in Thunderstrike, that will go a long way towards solving endurance problems.

I'd take all end reducers out of holds and slotting them soley for accuracy, recharge, and hold duration, to taste.

I'd take the recharge out of bitter freeze ray - the animation is so long it's not really a mid-fight power, it's an opener in my opinion, your other two holds are much quicker animating and better for mid-fight use.

Ice Storm is a highly accurate power, I'd go with 3 damage and add as many recharge reductions as you've space for in the build.

With hasten, 1 recharge in Ice Patch will be sufficient.

Shiver would be better off with a second slow in it, particularly for use before Ice Storm and Blizzard. Even though your slow in Snow Storm is very good, that's going to drop if you use Blizzard so you want to be able to keep them from running around with Shiver alone.

Snow Storm should be OK with 2 end reducers and 2 slows.

Hibernate is a little overslotted in my opinion.

Flash Freeze is an interesting choice. If you solo a lot, you may well get some mileage out of this if you slot it for sleep duration. If I were going to do that I'd take it at 47 and six slot it 2 acc 2 sleep 2 recharge. When I did a lot of soloing on my Ice/Ice I liked this power, it made for extremely safe soloing assuming you then just use single target attacks to pick stuff off. If you mostly team, I'd ditch it entirely, pick up Frost Breath a little earlier in the build, and 5-6 slot that - the cone isn't great, but the damage is pretty good, and if you've anyone grouping things, it's a lovely power.

I'd try and shuffle another slot or two into blizzard for more recharge.

Crushing Impact in Ice Sword (5 of the set) will give you a couple of nice bonuses (recharge and accuracy). Generally a little more expensive than Thunderstrike, but the salvage you need for it isn't pricey.

I'd be concerned about the lack of KB protection when fighting out of hover on that build (and you have to come out of hover at least to use Ice Slick). I'd look into some KB protection IOs, at least one - again they're not terribly cheap, but they're worth saving for in my opinion.

Without looking at the build in too much detail (bit pushed for time) but to answer your questions.

For accuracy problems, can I suggest you look at getting some of the Thunderstrike sets into your three main attacks. This is not an expensive set, either the recipes or the salvage, and 3 x 7% accuracy bonus, will give you a big boost across the build. It'll also give you a nice end reduction component in your attacks that really helps on Ice/Ice, plus 6% recovery, if you 5 slot them in all three main ranged attacks (I'd probably leave out the dam/end from the set, but slot the rest), you'll also get a 12% boost to your flight speed. You could then either slot a recharge in the sixth slot in Ice Blast and Bitter Ice Blast (not necessary on Ice Bolt) and it'll make a big improvement overall to your single target damage.

If you have a little cash to spend on a shiny, a Kismet +tohit in Hover will give you 6% tohit across the board as well - something to save for maybe?

Re: Swapping Chilling Embrace for hasten, yes, I would say that's a good swap.

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I've an Earth/Kin which works extremely well - Siphon Speed lets me cycle the controlly stuff in the primary very fast, you never want for an AOE control power. It knocks the socks off my Ice/Rad for team controlling in a lot of situations (basically because I've more viable alternatives to knock down powers if I end up teamed with someone who feels the urge to throw everything all over the place).

I teamed with an Earth/Storm a fair bit too, I have to say, I think I liked that better. Loads and loads of cool powers, lots of flashy stuff (noone is going to miss you that's for sure!) although very bloody noisy. Lightning Flash stacks nicely with Stompy Foot too (sorry, real power names escape me, I've been referring to them by stupid names for too long, the AOE stun from each set). Stone Cages with Freezing Rain or Quick Sand, Hurricane's just great.

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Staligmites & Thunderclap?

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Those are the ones she means

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Humph. You're the one who told me it was called Stompy Foot in the first place!

I've an Earth/Kin which works extremely well - Siphon Speed lets me cycle the controlly stuff in the primary very fast, you never want for an AOE control power. It knocks the socks off my Ice/Rad for team controlling in a lot of situations (basically because I've more viable alternatives to knock down powers if I end up teamed with someone who feels the urge to throw everything all over the place).

I teamed with an Earth/Storm a fair bit too, I have to say, I think I liked that better. Loads and loads of cool powers, lots of flashy stuff (noone is going to miss you that's for sure!) although very bloody noisy. Lightning Flash stacks nicely with Stompy Foot too (sorry, real power names escape me, I've been referring to them by stupid names for too long, the AOE stun from each set). Stone Cages with Freezing Rain or Quick Sand, Hurricane's just great.

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stalkers that keep a low profile striking at the heavy hitters don't annoy me. but i hate the ones that want to ghost the glowies and find the names boss while the rest of the team are fighting their way through the rest of the mission.

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Ditto, it's something of a pet hate of mine. Although that's hardly unique to stalkers. I don't understand the compulsion to run straight into a mission, not bother waiting for any buffs, and go fill in the map. Invis is nice for when the team wants to stealth, or wants to know which way the final boss is, but mostly it's unneccessary and unwanted. I find it more annoying on character types that are likely to be more key to a team functioning well than on stalkers, but it still irritates me.

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Would that still be the case for a numina IO (unique one). If I slotted a lv 50 into health would it be giving me that extra regen?

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Yes, assuming you have health at the level you exemp to, you will also have the bonus from that particular enhancement.

You might find this useful if you want a bit more info about what enhancements work like that.

Essentially, when it comes to "global" IOs, i.e. ones that will have an effect on all your powers not just the one they're slotted into, if it's not in the list that's towards the bottom of Bridger's initial post under the heading "Global Bonuses", then it will always work if the power is available. If it's a toggle power, you need to put the toggle on every 120 seconds at least to keep the bonus, if it's an auto power then it's just always there. The further exceptions to this are stealth IOs, they can simply no longer be slotted into "autos".

Wyx

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AFAIK you still have the stealth if the IO is slotted into a power which you have at the exemped level.

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This is correct.

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Not really sets I play at all, but just for the heals, I'd swap Miracle Heal, for Heal/End/Recharge, you're a little low on recharge in your heals there, and well over-slotted on heal.

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Thanks for hint, haven't noticed it.. I'll swap it ^^'
What do you mean by "set I play at all"?
Erm.. Some set may fit best into something..? <.<

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Just that I haven't had a high level emp/psi since IOs, so haven't really looked at what would work overall. I do have several defenders and a corruptor however, so the lack of recharge in the heals jumped out at me.

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Ok what would you rather have on your TF to speed things up... a Rad/? or a Kin/?

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Yes please.

Not really sets I play at all, but just for the heals, I'd swap Miracle Heal, for Heal/End/Recharge, you're a little low on recharge in your heals there, and well over-slotted on heal.

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Left out Blazing Aura and Hotfeet simply because i'm hoping that nothing stands up long enough to be effected by those....but not sure if thats shooting myself in the foot.

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No, they're not very good and will just be an end hog, fire blast is more about front loaded damage really.

Take a look at this thread for some suggestions on fire/fire builds (the initial poster's build, in my opinion, is quite weak, you may find some of the suggestions on there helpful). Although the builds I've posted on there have a lot of money spent on them in IOs/HOs, you could make them work with regular IOs (I'd generally go with 2 accuracy, 3 damage, 1 recharge on single target attacks, and 1 accuracy, 1 recharge, 1 endurance reducer, and three damage on AOEs, exceptions being the nuke and rain of fire - which I slot 3 dam/3 recharge as they don't really need accuracy that much).

Edited to be a bit more specific:

Overall, I think that's a reasonable build, you've just taken too many attacks, probably not slotted a couple of the best ones well enough. Also, Fire Breath is an excellent AOE, for all it's a cone and has a longish animation, the damage is excellent and the dark defender can group things easily enough to make it well worth taking - if used as the opener, the long animation is less of a problem.

Fire Ball, Fire Breath, Rain of Fire (definitely needs to be six slotted if teaming with a dark defender - tar patch and rain of fire is great!), and Fire Sword Circle, will give you a full AOE attack chain if you slot them sensibly (and six slot them all). Adding in extra powers like Burn and Combustion won't do you any favours. They simply aren't as good as the four AOEs I listed above, you'd be using them in place of something better which had already recharged, and taking slots from a better power to get them partially slotted.

From a single target point of view, personally, I'm not a big fan of the snipe, but for a flier it can be useful. Fire Blast, Blaze and Fire Sword (which I would definitely take over Combustion) give you a nice solid single target attack chain for boss killing. I think in a duo with a dark defender, you'd actually use the snip relatively little. Certainly I'd move it later on in the build and limit it to just three slots (damage - it doesn't need accuracy and as you wouldn't want it mid-fight, recharge isn't that great).

Slotting health: I don't think you get enough back from it to warrant it.

Basically making a few changes like this, cutting down your number of attacks (certainly AOEs), making sure that all your AOEs are six slotted, and your single target attacks are at least 5 slotted, will then let you take a couple of extra pool powers.

Fligth v Leaping

Leaping is better in my opinion, immobilise protection and some hold protection, but flight is alright, and can be made to work, particularly now you can put a KB IO in Hover so you don't have to be running it constantly in order to get some protection (I'd put another KB IO into the epic shield at higher level, as two seems to be noticably better than one against some of the higher level mobs).

I'm not convinced about stealth, I suspect that was just a filler as you had no slots for the power anyway?

Medicine works very well on a fire blaster, mostly for aid self, which slotted 3 heal, 1 recharge, 2 interrupt duration, will be useful - the blaster is going to pull all the aggro and sometimes the dark debuffs and heal won't be enough on their own. In addition to which taking stimulant as a first power from the set will help the dark defender. It's got a rubbish duration, it's interruptable, it's a pain in the bum in most situation, but sticking it on the dark at the start of the fight will make sure the toggles don't drop while you get your debuffs set up and things grouped - so not a wasted power, and it doesn't need slotting. I wouldn't take aid other as it needs slotting, and you're a little tight on slots for your attacks.

I would definitely try to find six slots for Char if possible, certainly 5.

Fire Blast + Dark Defence = lots and lots of fun. Enjoy.

A fridge/freezer.

I'm having problems with warm beer and melted ice cream in this nice weather.

I'd slot 3 recharge/3 end mods. Radiation is an end heavy set, even if your team doesn't need the boost (and generally there's at lease some people who'll benefit from it), you probably will do if you intend to use your secondary as well as your primary (and I see no reason not to on rad).

I'd slot the recharge first though.

Cold Mastery I'd go with:

Frozen Armour - it's not amazing in my opinion, but better than nothing. Probably worth the endurance it costs, just.

Snow Storm - great power, not only a slow but also -fly, which makes certain AVs a bit easier - but this is going to give you endurance problems (and unless you've spent an awful lot on IOs I'd imagine that's something you already have).

Hibernate - which I would use both as a panic button, and also probably for endurance regain on occasion.

I definitely wouldn't take an AOE sleep on a fire blaster.

From Flame Master I'd take:

Char - really good hold, can be combined with Freezing Touch to hold bosses. Just a good pick for a fire blaster with no other ranged control available.

Fire Shield - reasonably good resistance to smashing, lethal and fire - it'll take the edge off incoming damage.

Rise of the Pheonix if room in the build (although I wouldn't slot it). People do die from time to time, it's a good res, and it's very pretty.

I would not take Bonfire - scattering stuff everywhere doesn't really do much for your AOEs in your primary.

I'd take Flame Mastery on that out of those two, mostly because of the hold and the endurance issues Snow Storm is going to add to.

Edited to add:
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would like to know your impressions about Bonfire.
Is its knockback good as a protection? Not often
Does it affect most enemies? Yes
Is it very annoying for teammates? Incredibly
I think I havenever seen this power in action... I think there may be a reason for this...
The recharge does not look very long and the redius is pretty big... True
I already have a knockdown power with this character, Ice Patch from secondary, which is a power I love and enjoy very much... ... and bonfire will throw things off it. :P

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There aren't very many situations where it's useful, particularly not on a PvE build.

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Given how hectic battle usually is I don't mind the anchor falling, I find its my responsibilty to pick a decent choice as anchor and thus get around the issues with people tabbing & clobbering the first target.

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Me neither, I just recast if I think it's worth it. Luitenants towards the back of the group generally work well, if I'm teaming with a decent fire blaster I tend to use bosses instead.

Personally I have no issue with buffing mid/between groups in most situations, I much prefer people to do that where possible. I also think in a lot of situations just charging from group to group is quicker than herding - sometimes it's nice, but it irritates me when people herd for the sake of herding and slow things down. I prefer to run missions fast, and I'd take speed over the occasional death.

I like teams that work well together and communicate, I rarely find myself in a situation where one AT in a team is "key".

I do not expect that everyone I invite to a team will have played the game as long as I have, read the forums, checked builds, know my sets (or even their sets) as well as I probably do in most cases. I find that genuine new players who maybe don't have multiple characters or multiple high level characters, are more amenable to suggestions, and actually much easier to slot into a team, even if their builds are sometimes not the best.

I find if I want teams to work in a certain way it's generally better to run my own teams.

I wouldn't class swapping Devastation for Thunderstrike as a step down to be honest, I actually think Thunderstrike is the better of the two sets for a lot of characters - certainly it's no worse and it's a hell of a lot cheaper. The only really good bonus from Devastation in my opinion is the extra hit points. Regeneration is neither hear nor there on a Blaster anyway - you'll never get enough that you won't need to heal yourself anyway - and the extra damage is not that great - the other set bonuses again are negligable. Thunderstrike gives two very useful set bonuses (recovery and accuracy - both in noticable amounts), and the movement speed is nice. It is also, as you say, a lot cheaper.

On AOEs I think it's worth shelling out for Positron's Blast. Very very nice set of bonuses. Accuracy, recovery and recharge. Scirroco's Dervish, again, I think is worth paying for over any other sets. You can get the enhancements at a slightly lower price if you buy them at level 45-49 and you don't actually lose that much for doing that.