Saltyhero13

Eye no!

Playing around with Mid's comparing DPA and DPS values of the various AoE powers available, I'm just not seeing it. In practically every scenario with all things equal, Roots is typically 50% to 75% the damage of other AoEs damage sources. Throw in global recharge, which favors longer recharging powers, and the gap grows bigger.

If Roots had the proc selection of Freezing Rain I would wholeheartedly agree with you, since procs favor quick charging powers. From my experience endurance and slots are best spent elsewhere if you are looking for damage out of Roots.

Here is some "anecdotal evidence" that may give you some insight on why I see it this way.

With Stone Mastery I found that I was spamming Fissure and Roots constantly for AoE damage. As a result my endurance was practically non existent for the majority of the fights. I couldn't recover endurance fast enough for the next fight.

Since I started playing around with Ice Mastery as my APP again, I am have discovered what I believe one of the strongest synergies Plant, Storm, and Ice Mastery have with one another: the three sets have the ability to lay down persistent damage. I use Creeper's, Tornado, Lightning Storm, and Ice Storm (Seeds of Confusion as well) as example of what I mean by persistent. All of these powers are great sources of damage that basically have a high upfront endurance cost and last for a fairly long duration.

What I am finding is that these longer effects allow you to recover endurance as they persist. I don't need to spam powers like Roots as soon as its up. With enough layered persistent AoE effects I can focus on controlling the situation and keeping the critters grouped so that Tornado and Lightning Storm are even more effective. With this shift of play style most fights now end with more endurance, usually half or better, and most fights are ending faster. I can even stay hovering, for defense and positioning, for the full duration and I am still netting more endurance in the end. Damage slotting remained exactly the same with the exception of the use of Ice Storm in lieu of Fissure.

In a nutshell I think other powers provide better output than what Roots has to offer. Now if you have the endurance to spare, spamming roots for damage wont hurt anything. So don't let me talk you out of your play style, especially if it works for you!

I believe you are correct with your assessment. I suspect that Posi's proc would only fire on the initial casting of Creeper's

My understanding of Power Boost and pets is that any "power boost"-able effects cast by the pet before Power Boost expires (15 Sec.??) is boosted. Any effects cast by the pet after Power Boost expires have their normal values.

So essentially the pet "inherits" Power Boost until the 15 seconds expires. Any effects cast by the pet prior to the expiration are boosted. Any effects cast by the pet after 15 seconds are not. Is this correct?

If this is true LS would only have two boosted strikes at best (I am taking into account cast time and LS attack rates.)

Any hold or immobilize (single target or area) that has a "anti" knock-back component (-KB) will prevent Tornado "willy-nilly"ness

Can you provide a link to the announcement please? Thanks!

I see your point Adeon and I agree that stacking resistance is another approach worthy of mention.

From my own experience soft-cap defense (in most cases) has a much greater effect on survivability vs. pursuing mediocre resist values. This is especially true when considering controllers low pool of HP and a /Storm controller's inability to heal itself (without Aid Self).

I have never looked at the numbers in a layered or "hybrid" approach; if one were to pursue both +Def and +Res. The few builds that do take this approach usually end up sacrificing utility, specifically poor power choices and poor slotting, in pursuit of survivability from what I have seen.

By no means am I saying that it is not viable to pursue +Res or a layered approach (+Def & +Res). I can't comment on these strategies.

Whew! I thought this was another thread about "Going Rouge"

Holy necro post Batman! Burn it with Fiyyaahh!

I too was crushed when I found out that claws/sd wasn't happening.

I think it would look so wicked paired up! <runs off to start a Claws/SD suggestion thread>

I doubt its an error. This was brought up when IOs were introduced. There was a very lengthy discussion on this (which I am still searching for in the archive).

There is nothing wrong with the duration of the power or the animation. Each member of the Phantom Army exists for only 60 seconds. So the duration is correct. However they are materialized into existence (or imagination ) at roughly one second staggered intervals. It takes them roughly one second to dematerialize as well.

What I observed while running Herostats is that the 60 second duration timer starts upon power activation. During the first 3.3 seconds the Phantom Army materializes one at a time (roughly one every second). At this point 56.6 seconds remain on the duration. At exactly 60 seconds the first summons begins to disappears with an additional member vanishing roughly every second after that.

Now when PA is overlapped with enough recharge (sub 60 seconds) all members of the first army despawn at once. It takes about a second for the first phantom of the new summons to appear.

Regardless, the bottom line is that you only need PA at 63 seconds recharge to effectively make it perma. Even with overlapping recharge you will still have the same gap as if you were at 63 seconds (if the power is toggled and placed before its charged). Arcana time (server ticks) will increase the gap if the power is not activated before its charged.

Local_man (I think it was you) dropped a great tip on how to deal with the gap. Re-summon Phantasm. With the right timing he will respawn his decoy. This is one of the best way besides phasing to deal with the gap. Just be careful, the decoys taunt/threat isn't as strong as PA's from my observations.

Sure if you are looking at CoF for crowd control. The -To Hit is a pretty good bonus for defensive based builds. It also comes in handy for stun resistant mobs.

For a standard build, I agree with you, OG>CoF mainly due to CoF's low accuracy IMO.

Great tip! I was wondering about how to proc out Creepers. Thanks

IOs and/or Physical Perfection can mitigate any high endurance consumption. They are both good powers to have especially if you are trying to layer good defense ontop of DA's good resists.

The Razzle Dazzle proc helps a little with that. Ive notice it more since I took it out.

Desmodos covered it in great detail. I took both CoD and CoF as soon as they were available. I even took OG and dont regret it.

Sorry but you are mistaken Frosticus. Local is right. The Phantom Army do not begin despawning until the 60 seconds timer expires.

I just ran a few test on live using Herostats to make sure there haven't been any stealth changes. So essentially PA lasts ~63 seconds even though the 60 duration timer starts as soon as the power is activated. Even with sub 60 recharge a recast of PA causes the old spawn to disappear leaving a perceived gap as the new army zones in an grabs aggro.

There was a very long thread about this some time back that proved you can have perma PA by breaking 63 second recharge.

That would rock!

To add to this it is also very endurance efficient as well.

To answer the OP, based on your criteria I would recommend /Ela, /Wp, /Fire, and /Regen in that order. IMO however Spines/DA works great if you are willing to invest in IOs for it.

Physical Perfection will definitely help a lot as will IOs. That build shouldn't have any problems IMO. I used to run 10 toggles at one point and never really had any issues once I picked up a few key IOs (the two +recovery procs in health, Theft of Essence in Dark Regen, and the two procs in Stamina and Physical Perfection).

The only advice I could give you is to consider taking Oppressive Gloom. It doesn't cost any end to run and takes most of the minions out of the fight.
I don't remember what percentage of critters in a mob are minions, but its usually over half. Cloak of Fear needs more accuracy to be effective, but it is also a viable choice.

I ended up respecing into both Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom and have never looked back since. I use Cloak of Fear more as a -To Hit Debuff than a fear power. Be warned that if you use it that way the effectiveness of the debuff goes down the higher the level of the critters is.

I'm a Supergirl fan, what can I say!

I never have any issues if you are directing your question towards me. I run all 9 toggles all the time without ever having an issue. If I start getting low I either pop a blue or hit Conserve Power. Most of the time I recover my end going from spawn to spawn. Once I hit that peak momentum I don't stop.

I have two Performance Shifter procs. One in Stamina, the other in Physical Perfection. These are constantly firing off giving me 10 end every few seconds. I also have the two +recovery procs in health.

I think the money maker is the Theft of Essence in Dark Regen. This can turn Dark Regen into an endurance making power vice an endurance draining power. At the minimum the proc in DR ends up paying the endurance cost off, essentially allowing me to use it at no cost. Slotting for some endurance reduction in DR helps too. With no reduction it costs 33 endurance if I am not mistaken.

For toggles I run the three basic shields, weave, the stealth shield, the two damage auras, and the two crowd control auras. To be fair we'll say 8 toggles cause the stun aura doesn't cost anything to run.

I typically run +2 or +3 with no hitches. +1 or below melt like butter...Mmmmm...mmmm...mmm....I can taste the influence now.