UnicyclePeon

I would say Hasten if you dont have it, and combat jumping if you dont have that.

It it really comes down between the two, I'd say Blazing Bolt. I see a lot of hate here for it, and my Earth/Fire hasn't needed it, but my Grav/Fire uses it all the time. If you want a really good opening shot that can whack a minion outright (with the Fiery Embrace) that will be a super long range pull, its pretty good. It also just looks cool and my Grav/Fire uses it all the time even in normal fights once everything is immobile/helpless.

But yeah ... Hasten.

Lewis

Its hard to give advice in this situation. For one thing, experiences are subjective. I like Hasten and Super Speed, even on a Kin. I dont like combat jumping. So we already differ widely, and that isnt your primary or your secondary.

The only other advice I can think of is to tell you to try all your powers, even if it means you dont take Hurdle, Health and Stamina. Take every power, even Repel. Try them all for yourself. Play your character to at least level 25, preferably 32 to try the top power in your set, if you can stomach it.

By the time you reach 25 (or 32) you'll have a good idea whether you really like playing a build, especially if you've tried every power. Then you can do a respec trial and drop the powers you dont like OR abandon the character.

For me the fun aspects on my Fire/Kin as I played up were Char, Transfusion, Repel, Flashfire, Siphon Speed, Hover and Speed Boost. Later I dropped Repel but I had a lot of fun with it as I leveled up. As I got higher in levels, I found I really l iked Bonfire, Fire Imps, Transference and Fulcrum Shift. Cinders too, but that was back in issue zero or issue 1 time frame, so it lasted a lot longer. I never liked Hot Feet, but I use it.

Anyway, if you don't like the core functionality of Char, Transfusion, Siphon Speed, Flashfire and Speed Boost, you might not enjoy the combo. Those are the powers that you'll be doing ALWAYS (well, how often you do Speed Boost is up to you). If you dont like zipping around and siphoning / draining / healing off guys and stunning/holding guys, then you just aren't going to enjoy the combo.

The only exception would be if you really like big damage (albeit damage limited in its variability on how easy it is to bring to bear). And even then, you wont really experience that until level 38.

But if you already dont enjoy the siphon + char + transfusion + flashfire + speed boost thing, then I doubt you'll like it more later. Possible, but unlikely.

Lewis

I havent read any of the responses but I take the GSAxe on characters who should have an axe.

My Plant/Storm Controller is a Druid, so he has to be able to use an axe. My Electric/Fire Dominator is the queen of Hell, so she has to have an axe to behead those who are deemed unfit to live. Etc.

Lewis

I never think of identifying with my character or cheering the character on either. I dont really identify with perspective characters in movies or TV much either now that I think about it.

I'm literally treating COH as a video game, in that I'm enjoying using the powers and leveling up and trying out new powers. But the story doesn't particularly draw me in as a participant or a side-taker. I just dont react to fiction that way. In COH, I take the missions that the character (in my understanding of what the character is like) would take, and then I do the missions, but its about the actual gameplay itself, and its about watching the cool animations and seeing the cool costumes and about the rewards/loot/XP and etc for me.

Identification? Cheering? Not usually.

Lewis

Well, they do extra damage, even if it isn't huge. They add extra control. They have hit points and generate aggro to get attention. Plus *you* are the one doing most of the damage anyway.

So, I would think they'd be fine from that perspective.

Lewis

One good thing about Flash Freeze is that it is a nice alpha-mez, even though it is only a sleep. Even on a team, if you are taking the responsibility of opening on spawns (in part or in full) it can be nice just to safely sleep everything long enough for you to drop an Ice Slick under them. I find the mitigation of Ice Slick to be good, but not good for the opener due to the retaliation. At least its not enough for my tastes. I also dont enjoy casting Ice Slick around corners as a matter of course.

But I do intend, once the inherent Fitness goes live, to take Flash Freeze and scrounge up 1 slot so that I'll have 2 ACC IOs to use to open on groups when I need to. I'll probably also pick up Combat Jumping and Poison Gas Arrow in my build.

Ice/TA was one of my 2 main characters I was focusing on before GR came out (the other was Plant/TA) but once I got all my shiny new electric controllers he got put on hold for a bit. I think my Ice/TA is only level 20 or 22. But here is his build. I did go for the fire epic instead of the ice epic, for the ease of lighting the slick. Maybe the build will give you ideas, maybe not. Hope so. Here ya go.

Lewis

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Winterjack: Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Ice Control
Secondary Power Set: Trick Arrow
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Block of Ice -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(7), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(7)
Level 1: Entangling Arrow -- Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(A)
Level 2: Frostbite -- GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(A), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(5), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(5), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(43), GravAnch-Hold%(43)
Level 4: Glue Arrow -- TmpRdns-Acc/Slow(A), TmpRdns-Acc/EndRdx(34), TmpRdns-Rng/Slow(34), TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(40), TmpRdns-Acc/Dmg/Slow(40)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19), RechRdx-I(19), RechRdx-I(50), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 8: Shiver -- TmpRdns-Acc/Slow(A), TmpRdns-Acc/EndRdx(9), TmpRdns-Rng/Slow(9), TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(17), TmpRdns-Acc/Dmg/Slow(17)
Level 10: Ice Arrow -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(11), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(11), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(15), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(15)
Level 12: Ice Slick -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13), RechRdx-I(13)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Acid Arrow -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(23), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), Posi-Dam%(40)
Level 24: Arctic Air -- CoPers-Conf(A), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(25), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(25), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(31), CoPers-Conf%(31), EndRdx-I(34)
Level 26: Glacier -- UbrkCons-Hold(A), UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg(27), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(27), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg(29), UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold(31)
Level 28: Disruption Arrow -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(29)
Level 30: Flash Arrow -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(46), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(48), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(50)
Level 32: Jack Frost -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(33), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg(46)
Level 35: Oil Slick Arrow -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(36), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), Posi-Dam%(37), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 38: EMP Arrow -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(39), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(39), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(39)
Level 41: Fire Ball -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(42), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dam%(43)
Level 44: Fire Blast -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(45), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 47: Fire Shield -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam(48), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(48)
Level 49: Recall Friend -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 6: Ninja Run

I want the following:

Blasters: Dark Blast and a mixed punch/kick martial arts secondary.
Controllers: Traps, Poison and Dark Miasma.
Defenders: Thermal and Fire Blast.
Dominator: Illusion Control.
Scrappers: War Mace, Battle Axe, Energy Melee, Ice Melee, Stone Melee, Energy Aura.
Tankers: Broad Sword.

Specifically, I am craving making:

Fire/Dark Controller
Gravity/Traps Controller
Earth/Poison Controller
Illusion/Earth Dominator
Ice Melee/Super Reflexes scrapper
Stone Melee/Super Reflexes scrapper
War Mace/Energy Aura scrapper

EDIT: added the line about Blasters because my friend wont shut up about wanting martial arts on his Dual Pistols blaster. And Dark Blast would be cool.

Lewis

I generally can't stand Blasters, but I have lots of character concepts that are best fit by blasters. I've played over 5 of them into the 30s, only to delete them all. I even played Ice/Ice to 50 but then transferred it to another server to make room for other ones on my main server.

So yeah, definitely blasters. Yuck.

I also love my WP/Energy tanker due to his name/costume/concept, but I more or less hate Energy Melee now (since the nerf) and I just cant enjoy him anymore.

I also have the same issue with several Super Strength characters. I love their concept, and in fact Super Strength is one of my favorite super powers conceptually. However, I LOATHE the Rage Crash. It sickens and angers me. I hate crash powers like the plague, and the only thing worse than a HP/END crash is a zero damage crash where you can still waste endurance if you dont realize you've crashed. And I never realize. HATE IT.

I hate super strength so bad, but I am so stubborn. I've deleted a level 40+ Ice/SS tanker TWICE (once at level 40, once at level 41 i think). I deleted a level 41 WP/SS tanker. I deleted a Fire/SS tanker (I forget what level). I kept my level 40 SS/Elec brute, but only barely cause I like the concept. And I liked all their concepts, loved them even, but I hate Rage and Super Strength and I needed slots so I eventually whacked all my SS characters on my main server.

I'm sure I could think of more but this will do.

Lewis

Any Dominator can be workable. Whether any particular combo works for you, well, you'll have to try it for yourself.

I played Ice/Fire to the mid 30s and eventually deleted it because I just didnt want to have to take the sleep to get an every-fight alpha-opener. Ice Slick just allows too much retaliation for my tastes even if you use shiver and AA and everything else to floor recharge. I just got SICK of playing that game just to open on a group. So I deleted it. I finally got stubborn and played Ice/Psi to 40 but even Drain Psyche and Psychic Shockwave weren't payoffs enough for me to keep it so I deleted it.

And yet plenty of people like their Ice Doms and Ice Controllers. I love Ice/Storm and Ice/FF on heroside myself. So it just depends.

I'm still planning to give an Ice Dom a shot. I just started Ice/Energy just because I've decided the AOE Sleep is going to be my main opener every time, and I'll use Single Target attacks mostly, and/or use the other controls as a follow-up to the sleep. So we'll see how I do with Ice/Energy.

But that's ME. YOU on the other hand may love it, and you won't know until you give it a fair shake.

Lewis

I enjoy having multiple travel pools. All my controllers used to take Hasten, Super Speed, Hover and Recall Friend whenever possible (in addition to the Fitness line). However, over time, I became min-maxy and usually dropped Recall Friend and Hover.

So on all the ones possible, I'll probably work Recall Friend back in for sure. On 2 of my 3 accounts I have City Traveller, so I will be able to take Fly without Hover since it wont change my slotting. Most of my builds are too optimized on slotting to take Hover and get slots in it.

All of my Force Field controllers, and one or two other special cases, already have 4 pools and so they will be the ones on whom I'll really enjoy picking up extras.

Also, on all my characters who have one-shot wonder powers that I usually skip, I'll pick up those. That would include the rez powers on /Emp, /Therm, and /Rad for example. It would also include Dimension Shift, etc.

So, basically, I'll pick up little stuff for QoL. I probably won't change my primary slotting at all.

Lewis

I dont think it would take any major revisions other than giving it Mastermind numbers.

However, I think I recall a dev mentioning that they hadn't done it in part because they had at some point considered making a Darkness Control primary, and might make a Dark Assault to match, and so they werent sure how any overlap between a Dark primary and secondary might work.

But I might be wrong about remembering that.

Personally, I dont think Dark Control or Dark Assault are needed, and I WAY more want to play Fire/Dark and Illusion/Dark than I would want to play Dark/X.

Lewis

Ah, I came here to praise Illusion/FF but it was more about a teaming situation.

Just keep playing and contributing and having fun. You'll always wander into the occasional jerk. Be polite until end of mission and move on. if kicked, remember who they were and avoid them.

As for Illusion/FF? GOOD! GOOD KITTY!

Lewis

I am excited about the fitness inherent IF it is unchanged (in terms of numbers) and if we can still slot it and put sets there. Lots of my characters depend on Health and Stamina for set bonuses.

I am not excited about "more Arachnos in Paragon." Gross. They made a promise in the past that while they may increase difficulty of new content going forward that they would always leave the old enemies at the same power level and in place for the whole experience from 1-50 at normal experience, for those who didnt like the harder content. I hope they remain true to that.

I am definitely excited by the prospect of dropping war walls and customizing pool powers, if that happens. Same for anything for Dark Astoria ... I'd love to do more there.

Lewis

I went for Fire/Earth/Mu for my guy. He is level 50. I used a respec on him last night and how he is Fire/Earth/Fire. I never worried about IOs or anything on him before the respec because I only used Hot Feet and I had Power Sink. My new build (still using SOs only) has both auras and no power sink and lots more end costs in the extra epic AOE goodies.

Endurance Useage: Brutal.
Damage Potential: Brutal.

Good times!

Lewis

Why is the recharge too much for Energy Transfer? It is single target and comes up as fast (according to Mids') as the Brute and Tanker versions.

Now, if the damage values are correct, its a bit much. The unmodified damage in Mids' is 266.3 for Dominators, vs 190.2 for Brutes and 202.9 for Tankers. If those numbers are true, that is a bit much. It is better than any single target punch Dominators get otherwise in their main powers (as far as I can tell) and better than most Blaster punches. So I could totally see dropping the damage to 190 or 200 base or whatever.

Or do you guys know in your hearts they will nerf it, so you are trying to plant the subtle seeds of a recharge nerf instead of a damage nerf, so that you can still get your one-shot-SCHWHOO-BAM?

Lewis

If you are going for global recharge and if you have the slots, you could 6-slot it and put in the full Efficacy set for the 5% global recharge bonus.

A good second option is to only have 3 slots in it. Run with 1 acc and 2 endmod (generic IOs) and then eventually by level 47+ you can put in an Efficacy Acc/EndMod, a Performance Shifter Acc/EndMod, and any other EndMod of your choice. That gives good accuracy and 92% or so endmod (for drain and recovery).

Lewis

Neat. I like the idea.

"I will make your mind BURN! What? This here? This isn't the Stone Hammer you were looking for. Its a fluffy bunny." WHAM! "Good bunny!"

Lewis

Plant Ice does not seem odd at all. It is a very good theme match (all natural elements) and the seeds of confusion makes the use of Frost Breath and Ice Sword Circle pretty much trivial.

But what about Ice/Energy? Has anyone played it? I have too many darned characters already, but you know, why not?

Lewis