Sir Hextor

I've got a 47 Dark/Stone Brute. Granite was a game changer. Before it, I was barely at soft cap with a bunh of buffs thrown around. With it, I'm softcapped to 4 positions, and nigh res capped on everything. I respecced and kept Rock Armor and Minerals basically for fighting Carnies and even then I spen more time in Granite than out of it. Getting to 40 (I really feel you need to 6 slot Granite to get the most out of it), I was the brute that couldn't stay up. After 40, I pretty much only faceplant when I quit paying attention and that's mostly due to me not being finished IOing his build. For concept, whatever goes but if you want to be a concept character and effective you have to find a way to make Granite work with your concept. It is a crucial part of how /Stone works and changes the set from meh on survivability to OMFG how did I play this set without it.

My Illusion/Sonic controller was my 2nd 50 and I absolutely love him, though to be honest that is mostly due to Illusion and less so Sonic. However, he is the one char I have pretty much fully IOed (Perma PA is awesome and I'm just a couple purples away from getting it) and /Sonic with IOs makes a big difference. The end usage is pretty hefty and IOs only pseudo helped, but having Mez resists is pretty much awesome. The recharge on liquefy is RETARDED long, so long that even with near Perma PA lvls of recharge, every 3rd mob might get it and it's so long that often I'm just not using it to save in case I need to drop something's to hit through the floor in an emrgency.

I also have a 40 Grav/FF troller which, while not the same, has some parallels. Again, personal Mez pro is awesome. I personally skipped the intangible cage on both and only use the intangible on grav because of the new tweaks.

Since you have some Mez pro, I'd strongly advise you look at a different APP than Psy since the primary reason to go PSy is for Mez pro. Without IOs, I'd be very tempted to make sure I have something to help with the end usage and prolly choose Fire (like I did on my Ill/Sonic) so that you can get a full end bar every so often. My Illusion/Sonic Build is on here and it's been slightly tweaked but pretty much the same. I know you're not looking for IOs, but it can give you some ideas on what to look at as potential sloting goals. Best generic slotting advice I can give is 2 res in the casting shields, a good mix of end and res for the AoE shield, 2 accuracy in Sonic Siphon (you want that to hit for sure and it makes a decent opener single target to make everything after that much stronger, but you'll only want to use it every 30 secs since it doesn't stack), 2 end reds in the -res toggle & as much recharge and To Hit debuff you can spare in liquefy (the hold duration is so short as to be almost ignorable).

Totally different than Mind/FF, but I use it on my Ill/Sonic and greatly enjoy it. Of course, containment is almost more of a bonus than necessity on Illusion, but it is still nice to pair with PA and the fact that everyone else is likely using Reactive or Degenerative, your proc is that much more likely to be doing it's job and not get lost to the stacking limit.

THB, while I respect your decision I do hope you'll reconsider. I disagree with your feelings about SBE but on the note of you sharing your builds, I'm sure I'm not alone as a newer player who has some understanding of the game that uses the various 'luminaries' builds with some diversification to base my own builds off of. While I don't directly copy, for example, yours, Dechs', or Stone's builds, I utilize similar slotting and bonuses for results that fit my playstyle more. By providing your builds, you help all of the community to gain a better understanding of the way things work in synergy. While I'm not likely to use SBEs because the price point is too high for my personal budget, I am very sympathetic to people who have limited time to play and find the inf gaining game a bore. If I had the funds, I'd likely take full advantage of the SBEs in my builds simply because I really do not find marketeering enjoyable or the RNG particularly kind to me and would much rather spend my time playing the game with IOed characters than SOed characters who can play the game but are not as successful as an IOed toon, and in many situations cannot accomplish what an IOed toon can.

On topic, at work, no mids

Hmm...looks like I was having a brainfart as I can't seem to find it now. Mea Culpa. I'll just go back to lurking now instead of dropping bad advice (except for WoC cause man that is not a good power ).

I was operating off of information from the boards. If that has been changed, I am not aware of it. I don't have the spare inf lying around to test on live nor do I use the test server. I'd like to have this information verified as well. If that's the case, I'd say it's one more nail in the coffin of WoC since it really is a terribad power without it.

THB, I'd suggest a Rad/Dark Blaster. For comparison, try a ElM/(Nin or EA) stalker (since they just got a buff, but are often considered an 'inferior' melee AT). I'm bad at judging difficulty settings, as anyone who teams with me will be able to tell you.

I would strongly advise you not to take WoC (I had it for a bit on a toon and it made me hate the power, so maybe I'm biased, but it doesn't play the way I expected it to on paper) but if you do take it, the Contagious Confusion proc should go there since it helps that power be 'useful'. Also, the proc is not super great on Synaptic Overload since it only triggers off the first target not any of the chains. My Elec/Poison is going with Psi mastery for Ind Will and the nice exotic resist.

LOL @ a hipster Beast Master!!

While I like procing out as much as I can the AoE immob, the END cost of them usually has me slotting some END reduction. Depending on your global recharge (no mids at work) I'd consider 2xACC/END with the 4 procs.

Well my computer crapped out on me last week (just in time 2xp too) so I'm getting it looked at right now. I hope to have it back sometime this week, but the guy hasn't given me a firm date yet. If the prognosis is bad enough, I may just break down and credit purchase a new one this week, but I am thus far keeping my fingers crossed it won't come to that.

I suppose downgrading my slot to an alternate would be the best thing to do for the time being. I'm ok with giving my slot up to someone else who is already an alternate and is for sure going to be available come staurday.

Stacking stuns...does it get any better than Dark/KM?

EDIT: LOL, besides WM and EM...

But seriously, DA/KM is really fun.

I've got a ElM/Invuln brute that I love to play. He just melts through minions and hoards of Lts, but his Single Target damage is pretty anemic until I got Gloom. I imagine a tank will have a similiar feel and shouldn't have too much trouble getting aggro with all the AoE in ElM. You may consider WP as a primary since the big problem is the weak taunt aura that ElM will make up for with it's AoEs triggering more and more gauntlet. It's also pretty sweet to LR into a mob and watch either your regen (WP) or Def (Invuln) numbers jump. I do that with my WP/Mace tank and Spring Attack

My Fire Melee experience is on a Scrapper and he's still below 20 so I can't say I have good advice to give on that set.

He means that if you were to 6 slot CP you'd get that very juicy 5% ranged def that goes really nice with all the -to hit you're throwing at mobs.

And of course you buy stores out of them regularly just in case...

But then I actually use mine so maybe that's just me.

The +Dam aura in /SD is of more benefit to scrappers and shield charge and lightning rod are pseudo pet powers that interact oddly with fury (from how I understand it). It is a widely held belief that specifically those two sets are much better on a scrapper than brute. However, you are still a minion chewing machine on a brute with those sets (I have a ElM/Invuln brute at 50) so I'm not certain I'd scrap the time I already have on the character, but those sets are 'better' on scrappers. Basically brutes are good with those sets but scrapper get more benefit from them.

I love RotP on my Illusion/Sonic simply because incarnate trials have situations where you're likely to plant one way or another and getting right back in the fight is awesome. I'd stay fire if I were in your shoes too, though temptation for a second build with Mace for AV/GM soloing would be pretty strong.

You cannot choose Hero Merits without having confirmed your alignment first (through the first 10 tips and Morality Mish completion).

...or perhaps I should say you aren't supposed to be able to and they were supposed to have fixed the bug that allowed you to. I didn't bother to recheck after they said they fixed it.

Redraw!

Yeah, it and Sons of Anarchy are the two shows I stay current with as much as I can. If you haven't already, I highly reccomend Bruce Campbell's autobiography "If Chins Could Kill". I haven't read his other book, but the first one is very entertaining.

Sorry for the off topic. As always, great video and much appreciated.

I alternately swapped out powers from Fire Control and Mind Control to be able to place the sets where I wanted them. You have to drag some powers (like Terrify and Imps) to levels you can't TECHNICALLY place them, but it lets you look at the set bonuses. For the actual enhancements you just have to do the math with the aid of Redtomax since Darkness Control is there.

EDIT: It also won't give you access to all the sets available for each power but at least it's a start

While I'd like to see the animation times looked at, my one true wish for spines is proliferation >.>

I like Void on my 'shade. He's in melee for eclipse and mire anyways and the -Dam debuff makes my capped resists that much more capped. But really it doesn't make a huge difference either way.