I am returning from a very hefty break and going back to my one true love, an earth/storm controller. I have done the usual forum grind, read everything I can, searched Local Man posts, but so much has changed that I could really use some personalized advice. As this is my main on a new account, I want to build for as much variety to handle all the new stuff as I can while hopefully being able to do some farming in order to get him as tweaked out as possible. Spreading out as many procs as I possibly can is a route I have always wanted to try with this build as well. I don't expect to be the ultimate farm machine, but I am hoping for at least middle of the pack.
I am familiar enough with the earth/storm powers that I don't need a lot of advice on power selection, that only things that I am undecided on are stone prison and O2 boost. I would like to be as effective as I can against AVs and such, and a heal for pet or team mate never hurts, so I am leaning towards taking them, but I worry that there is something that would be more useful in the end.
I like teleport as my travel power, but I can't decide how much to take of it. I like teleporting into a group and dropping stalagmites/thunderclap as an opener. Recall friend, long range teleport, and team teleport are all appealing, but I don't have enough experience at high levels to know if using four powers is going to limit the power of the character. I would really like to have hover as well just to make teleporting around require a little less vigilance.
There are so many options in the epic power pools that I am just stumped. I will break down the options that I am seeing in mids:
-Soul Master. End drain and defensive toggle, though not an ideal one for farming as I understand it. AoE -ToHit seems like it would be handy, but at 7.5% base, would be it be worth it when things are choking, flopping, staggering? And then Soul Drain seems like it could be a nice add in for farming when I can have large groups around me.
-Fire Mastery. Fire Ball, Fire Shield, Rise of the Phoenix, Consume. All four would obviously help bring the pain, and Fire Shield seems to be the best defensive toggle for farming, with S/L and fire resist.
-Ice Mastery. Hibernate just seems like it would be a great ability to have. Being able to not even use it as a panic button, but just a free breather and a heal every now and then just seems...luxurious. Frozen Armor seems to be the second best farming suited toggle, and Ice Storm seems a great fit with everything an earth/storm already has going on.
-Psionic Mastery. This is the one that I am actually hoping to make work the most. I would actually like to take all five powers in this pool if I could. The -recharge to stack with snow storm on harder single targets from Mental Blast. Indomitable Will and Mind Over Body, both seem to be great buffs to have. Psionic Tornado for more AoE damage, maybe more proc slots, AoE -recharge, again to stack with snow storm. World of Confusion I really like the idea of. It basically adds a whole unique approach I could take to fights, especially if I could use a stealth IO and get some agro-free confuse going on in groups before I start dropping the other controls. But is it too much? Is it too slow, too weak? On paper this seems like the best way to go to me, but I don't know how it actually plays at the top.
If I take all of the Psi Mastery abilities, plus Stone Prison and O2 Boost, I can only take teleport and hover. The other options for Epic Powers allow more teleport powers. I could drop Mental Blast and pick one more up. Maybe Indomitable Will isn't really needed, I just don't know. And then, when the power selections are finally nailed down, I have no idea what the best way to slot all of these powers with the specific alterations that should be made for the build is.
I would greatly appreciate any advice here, I am itching to do some leveling but want to make sure I am getting the most out of it. Obviously, I know nothing of end game at this point, and spitting out Enhancements at me is still all gibberish, so I am just going on limited experience and theorycrafting.
