Q_Arkhan

<BEGIN PART 1>

Tom’s Foolery:
A guide to solo Illusion/Radiation controlling
in the Post-Containment, Post-ED world.

Q_Arkhan
Ver 0.9 3/2/06

Warning: this guide is not concise. It doesn’t pretend to be concise. It pushed concise down in the dirt, stole concise’s lunch money and then kissed concise’s sister.

Purpose of the guide: I decided to construct this guide for several reasons:

First, I wanted to pass along my experiences and analysis of the Illusion/Radiation combo, specifically as a solo hero.

Second, I wanted to get all this stuff written down and collected into one document to avoid losing pieces of it to the vagaries of other people’s web forums.

Third, I see the same questions asked, over and over, and I figured an updated guide would be good. I learned a good deal from the older guides, and wanted an updated one.

This is guide is not intended to pass along PvP tips, builds or techniques. I never have PvP’d in City of Heroes, likely never will. I know what PvP does to many people’s attitudes and behaviors.

This guide is also not intended to pass along TEAM PvE tips, builds or techniques. However, I have done a good amount of teaming with this solo controller, so the builds are not completely unsuited towards that task. However, your teammates might wonder why you’re standing next to the scrapper fighting +3 Freakshow Tanks in melee combat

Focus of the solo Illusion/Radiation controller:

The current website blurb on controllers reads like this:

“The Controller is at the same time the weakest and yet the most powerful of the archetypes. The Controller has few offensive attacks and possesses the fewest hit points. But the Controller has access to a range of powers that no one else has: the Control power sets. Armed with these powers, a Controller can affect the behavior of villains - from freezing them in place to routing them away. Armed with such abilities, the Controller is the backbone of many groups involved in large-scale battles - but the Controller depends upon his teammates for protection.”

The original manual also commented about the difficulty controllers would have in solo play.

Those drawbacks and benefits were taken to heart by the controller community for the first year and change. There were a few exceptions to the rule, but generally, controller soloability was poor until Lvl32 and “decent” after Lvl32.

With I5 came the implementation of Containment damage bonus and a fundamental shift in the expected role of the controller. That shift was heavily debated by the controller community and to some degree, the role is still under debate.

The subset of controllers who specialized in solo play and overt damage capacity were given a serious boost, while those who specialized in team play and AoE HOLDs were negatively impacted.

Playing a Solo Controller requires two components for success.

First, you need to use a primary and secondary that lend themselves to dealing adequate damage and improving your solo survivability. Illusion and Radiation meet those roles very well.

Second, you need to stop thinking of Controllers as “team-oriented support and Mezz” toons and start thinking of yourself as a “Nigh-invincible Arresting Machine”

The Illusion/Radiation controller doesn’t broadcast “Controller LFT”. He requires no team in 99.9% of situations, rather, he *IS* the team.

Attitude is everything, folks. Illusion/Radiation is a scrapper in controller clothing. That is your mindset (and probably why my successful toons are either scrappers or Ill/Radiation)

This concept isn’t a new one. There have been “scrapping controllers” from the beginning. What has changed is the boost from ED making it even more feasible, not just for Illusion, but for other primaries as well.

How much control is enough control?

One important contrast with many other controllers is the concept of “sufficient control” For the “traditional” controllers, there is rarely such a thing as “too much control”. In large teams, the more control, the better. The Illusion/Radiation controller works on a different premise. That premise is largely dictated by the dearth of traditional control powers in the Illusion primary.

“Sufficient control” is the amount of control required to arrest the immediate opponent and survive to engage the next. If you can muster enough control to survive the encounter in reasonable fashion, you have enough control. That control can be in the form of debuffs, stealth/invis, pets, actual controls, FEAR, Knockdown/back, etc. Whatever it is, it allows you to defeat your target and survive to the next foe.

Illusion does not have the same degree of traditional control that other primaries do, and as such, it is generally considered to be the least “controller-ish” of the primaries. What Illusion does have is enough control to achieve its goal: Arrest the foe and survive until the next one.

<END PART 1>

Actually, I was an undergrad in Computer Science.

I might have written a few lines of code, here and there.

The point is: The server knows which AVs you've done and haven't.

No reason why it can't tell your client, and display that info on the badge or souvenir tab.

No reason I shouldn't be able to email support and have that info kicked back by automated process.

[ QUOTE ]
Fine. I'll just spill the beans.

I don't want you to get DW. That's all there is to it.


Carry on.

[/ QUOTE ]

I appreciate your honesty on this. I'll go ahead and retire the toon to the frontporch now. He's hardly a match for my Ill/Rad anyway

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As for Anti-Matter not counting... I thought the second time you face him he didn't self-destruct. So he'd be a reliable kill, you just need the proper mission. Maybe I'm wrong about that and always got lucky. (I'll add this to the issue list next update. He should either count all the time, or should have the "turn tail and run" code instead of "Anti-Matter has defeated Anti-Matter" destruct.)

[/ QUOTE ]

In the old days, I think he just exploded and disappeared. Now he does the special teleport animation (looks like a rez).

Of course, it would be best of it showed a message in the server log that said "Anti-Matter teleported away before you could get the killing blow. Looks like you'll have to wait for next time."

[/ QUOTE ]
I thought it was a fake Anti-Matter at least one of the times you fought him?

And silly me for suggesting people attempt to get Dimensional Warder at the proper level range. The story arc souveniers are a foolproof means of making sure you've trashed all the Praetorians, is all I'm sayin'...

[/ QUOTE ]

Has nothing to do with "proper level range"

Its my LVL 50 who doesn't have the badge due to missing an AV.

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First Anti-matter from Tina doesn't count unless you can take him out before he defeats himself. I've not seen that happen before.

You only get one more shot at him in Tina's arc later on. He's usually the culprit for people that are sure they have everyone for Dim Warder.

[/ QUOTE ]

Anti-matter 3 or 4 times.

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Second guess: Bobcat's MoG might negate the damage you do to her, nullifying her as a successful tick towards the badge.

Only other guesses involve you being wrong and just flat out sucking, but I won't mention those........yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

There are a few on my list that I have only marked off "ONCE", and I've been putting my efforts towards them first.

Bobcat is marked off several times as well.

As for my general incompetence, well, I didn't realize that was up for negotiation

[ QUOTE ]
First Anti-matter from Tina doesn't count unless you can take him out before he defeats himself. I've not seen that happen before.

You only get one more shot at him in Tina's arc later on. He's usually the culprit for people that are sure they have everyone for Dim Warder.

[/ QUOTE ]

Anti-matter 3 or 4 times.

I have every Praetorian checked off the list (some multiple times) and guess what, NO BADGE


The pre-requisites are all accounted for, but no badge. So, which one of the praetorians that I think I have credit for do I actually NOT have credit for?

"Impossible" is a bunch of crap. The server knows which I have done, or it can't track the badge. So, why can't the server TELL ME which it thinks I've done?

"impossible is dev speak for "I don't feel like doing it""

So, based on not being listed on the "list of badge issues",

Having some form of progress list for the Dimensional Warder badge (Praetorian AVs) is not something the Devs are currently looking at implementing?

<must complain more loudly>

[ QUOTE ]
Castle challanged Chuck Norris to a duel - He WON!

[/ QUOTE ]

Castle dueled Chuck Norris and out of respect for Castle's hard work on our behalf, Chuck only broke HALF of Castle's bones instead of round-house kicking Castle's head off.

That's a ringing endorsement.

Then Chuck Norris snuffed out Statesman like a candle, using a fart.

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I'd like to quote Statesman's actual response to me as to why powers like this haven't been fixed after all this time:

"If a defender feels less effective than a scrapper, then scrappers must be nerfed."

See, that power is working perfectly, that's why they haven't changed it since beta. It's all the other powers in the game which must be nerfed until they are the same. THOSE powers are clearly TOO powerful. Black Hole is working as intended.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm fairly sure Statesman was being sarcastic.

The key word is "feeling"

The devs can't control how you Feel (weak or strong).

They can only control the powers themselves.

I'm pretty sure he was mocking you.

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I'm not sure how you can say with a straight face that this is not a strong statement. Fact: Defender secondaries are Blaster primaries. Fact: Defender secondaries function at 65% of Blaster primaries, across the board.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its not entirely accurate to say Defender secondaries function at 65% of Blaster primaries, across the board.

Defender secondaries do 65% of the DAMAGE of the equivalent blaster primary power.

They do not have 65% of the range or cost an extra 35%, or have an extra 35% recharge time.

The secondary effects are not necessarily at 65% Its not like PowerBurst has 35% less chance to Knock-back, or a weaker Knockback distance for defenders. Defenders do drain more END than blasters do, even though that is a Defender Secondary vs. a Blaster Primary.

When comparing the relationship and inequalities between Blaster/Defender and Defender/Controller sets, it is necessary to keep that in mind.

Glossing over those type of things can turn an otherwise objective post into a partisan rant.

Having played a Katana scrap to 50 and now, a MA scrap to 42, I will second Arcanaville's comment about S/L resists.

Smash is far less resisted, in my experience, than Lethal is.

Do I have hard #s? Nope. Just a few hundred hours and my own perceptions.

BLIND does PSI
SW does PSI

Flash does NO damage.

Per my herostats, NO energy damage ever done by my LVL 43 illusion controller.

Why can't we have a list of which Praetorian AVs we *have* defeated, so we know where we are on the badge for Portal Jockey.

I have all of them marked off my own list at home, yet the game disagrees with my tally and I have no choice but to repeat them, starting with any I have only done once.

In theory, I could do all of them again before getting the badge.

The SERVERS know which you have done / haven't done. Why can't we have a LIST?

EMP is stacking HOLD on Fake Nemesis/War Hulk bosses quite nicely.

The text is incorrect.

Nope, I felt that disturbance as well.

I analyzed his sentence in a raw text editor and this is what I found

[ QUOTE ]
Brutes are more than fine <dev speak> gonna get their 4ss beat with the nerf bat come I7</devspeak> as they are.

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I do think its a bit whacky that -REGEN effectively kills your entire regen.

Just doesn't make sense.

Is Quote Pyramid included in the Games section ?

I kid, I kid

How about Quantum teleportation weapons that only entangle, say, HALF of your atoms and move them somewhere else? Even if they move an INCH, you're in HEAP big trouble.

I'm usually more interested in whether we SHOULD do something, rather than "COULD" we do something.

And I don't think a player should be ONE-SHOTTED by anything, including baddies and other players, regardless.

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Quantum theory, more than anything, shows us that perception is a layer. But it also shows us a peep-hole to some extraordinary things. One of the most difficult for us to grasp is that time is no different than any of the other three dimensions.

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An even closer approximation of "reality" would actually be achieved through the consideration of relativistic quantum mechanics in which we no longer consider a dissociated array of spatial and temporal dimensions, but instead utilize space-time metrics.

Not only is time similar to the other three dimensions... all 4 are truly one and the same entity that must be considered as a whole without disregard for the other components in order to make sense of a particular problem.

As for quantum entanglement or as it has been called by einstein, "spooky action at a distance"... the ultimate source for this phenomenon still remains somewhat mysterious... we have a multitude of theories which draw upon inspiration from extra dimensional spaces, various string/membrane theories, and infinitesimal wormholes as you have suggested.

Ultimately we still have a great deal of research to do, but when we do have a better grasp as to what is going on "beneath the surface of reality"... then mankind will have really achieved something incredible.

[/ QUOTE ]

Like killing each other more efficiently?

Put me down in the "Mankind is a bunch of self-important children" camp.

NO!!!!!!!

I must have my Dark Armor noises!!!! I DEMAND they be left alone.

Oh, wait.... I've been asking for this for over a year. I guess my "anti-nerf" mode kicked in accidentally.

Too bad I waited more than a YEAR for it and rarely play my MAIN anymore.

He didn't ask "Is it ONE attack?"

He asked if it was a "ONE-SHOT"

It is 4 attacks, with 4 rolls, but it qualifies easily at a ONE-SHOT.

MY definition of a one-shot:

"Enough incoming damage to KILL YOU, compressed into a time period too brief to all you to do ANYTHING about it"

ONE-SHOTs can be the result of more than one attack and often is.

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I think the complaint with "one-shotting" isn't so much a single attack, but

incoming damage over a 1-2 second period, so fast that you can't hit an INSP or a healing power before being dead.

That is a "one-shot", just as much as a single 4000HP attack from an AV is a one-shot.

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QFT

One possible correction for this would be some way to automate inspiration chewing, BTW. A macro command like

/HP_trigger [point] [action]

EXAMPLE" /HP_Trigger 25% "{that command that eats a specific type of inspiration set to eat a respite}"

of, if you are a defender /HP_Trigger 25% "powexec name healing aura"

Also nice would be

/END_Trigger

and even

/Status_trigger

Such commands would allow people to automate something to keep them alive between the first shot and the already queued second shot so they might actually be able to do more than watch their guy faceplant.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT

This topic was raised on the scrapper/stalker forums a week or so ago, about being able to put automated TRIGGERS on various powers, including HEALS.

Set a threshold and let the SERVER activate the heal or INSP for you.

I didn't see a problem with it. It has downsides to balance the upsides.

I think the complaint with "one-shotting" isn't so much a single attack, but

incoming damage over a 1-2 second period, so fast that you can't hit an INSP or a healing power before being dead.

That is a "one-shot", just as much as a single 4000HP attack from an AV is a one-shot.

[ QUOTE ]

For example. Let's look at an Invulnerability Scrapper's S/L DMG RES:

PRE-ED 6 SLOTTED[*]Resist Physical Damage BASE = 5.625%, 6 Slotted = 12.375%[*]Temporary Inv BASE = 22.5%, 6 Slotted = 49.5%[*]Unyielding BASE = 3.75%, 6 Slotted = 8.25%
[*]Total 6 slotted = 70.125% S/L DMG RES

POST-ED 3 SLOTTED[*]Resist Physical Damage BASE = 5.625%, 3 ED Slotted = 8.83125%[*]Temporary Inv BASE = 22.5%, 3 ED Slotted = 35.325%[*]Unyielding BASE = 3.75%, 3 ED Slotted = 5.8875%
[*]Total 3 ED slotted = 50.04375% S/L DMG RES

So this Scrapper is 50/70 = only 71% as able to absorb S/L as they were before ED. There's that 30% we keep hearing.


[/ QUOTE ]

First, as usual, nice work.

I do have to point out an issue with the EFFECT of ED on powers like Defense and Resist, though.

Your example is numerically correct, but the "% less effective" is misleading.

Using your example

100 pt ATTACK

Pre-ED Scrapper takes 29 damage
Post-ED Scrapper takes 50 damage

In absolute terms, the Post-ED scrapper takes 21 pts more damage, but that represents an increase of 72% when compared to what he used to take.

He's not taking an extra 30% damage, he's taking a whopping extra 72% damage.

Similarly, Defense builds can suffer larger drops in effectiveness than "30% or so" would seem to indicate.

30% drop in your RESIST value or DEFENSE value does not necessarily translate into a 30% increase in damage or frequency of successful attack. In most cases, its significantly worse.

My own /Dark Armor scrapper RESISTS dropped from roughy 50% S/L to 35%, a reduction of %30

Thats an absolute drop of "15" but now, instead of taking 50, I take 65

That's a 30% increase in the damage I take, but only a "15" drop in my Resists.

Due to my previous Resist levels, my absolute reduction and increased damage taken % are about the same. My PSI resists dropped so that I now take 75% more damage than prior.

The higher your previous resists (and higher your previous DEF), the bigger the ED reduction hits you.

I know that you know this, but folks reading might see "30% or so" and go "that's not so bad", when for many folks, it is a significant reduction in defensive capabilities.