Unthing

I noticed everyone is on about SI ( Superior Invisibility ). Why would you have this on in combat? Surely it's suppressed as soon as you attack or use a debuff.

[ QUOTE ]

Thats absurd!


[/ QUOTE ]
Is it?

I suppose it is...

But how come this thread isn't shocking?

* Having all the enemies in a nice tight group is a good thing ( better aggro control, more efficient AoE powers ) for pretty much anyone.

* Wasting other people's time is a bad thing.

These 2 points need to be balanced.


Due to the aggro cap ( 17 IIRC ) and that Auras/PbAoEs have a 10 target minimum, generally herding more than 20 is a good way to get your team killed. This means 1 spawn max on 8 man teams. Also AoEs have a limit of 10-16, so again, why more than 20...

There are situations where it is good to move a spawn to a better place to fight ( to avoid over aggroing usually ), then I would generally corner pull with my taunt, rather than herd with my aura, taunt slotted for range is my friend.

For enemies like Nemesis I would tend to corner pull more. In teams high in ( active ) controllers I would probably abandon all attempts to do anything but take the alpha.

When soloing a tanker, I generally herd though. It takes too long otherwise.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Siren's Song and the DoT from the fire powers are going to be at odds though.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was thinking of using the 2 Sonic powers (Howl then Sirens) for -Res, then stroll in and use the 2 PBAoE powers from fire.


[/ QUOTE ]
Siren's Song doesn't have -res. It could be used to hold the enemies in place though for safety.

Even so that's 2 + 3 + 1.5 = 6.5 seconds animation time you have to fit into a 8 second debuff, which is doable, especially if you use follow.

If you have to repeat it, the Siren's Song wouldn't work because Combustion has a 7 second DoT. That's what I meant by being at odds with Siren's Song.

[ QUOTE ]
Also, Sonic/Fire = PBAoE pwnage :P

[/ QUOTE ]

Sonic/Fire might be quite solo unfriendly early on. However it makes up for that in high damage team friendliness, especially at low levels before there is much in the way of AoE.

Siren's Song and the DoT from the fire powers are going to be at odds though. So really the only synergy you have there is the -res from Howl and the AoE damage from the 2 PbAoEs.

With Hasten, Dull Pain downtime is between 18-30 seconds, depending on whether it gets Hasten during the downtime or not.
Without Hasten, Dull Pain is about 60 seconds
Reconstruction is available every 30 seconds without Hasten, every 22 with it.

Instant Healing has a downtime of about 3 minutes with Hasten, 4 minutes without.

This assumes all are slotted with 3 Recharge SOs ( or equivalent ).

Regens are slightly less good for large teams ( need to be more careful of AoEs ) but SR are slightly less self sufficient because of a lack of self heal ( mainly a problem in small teams with no support toons ). Solo neither have a problem, as SR can heal using inspiration drops and scrappers really only need their primary and mez protection to solo anyway.
The main advantage for Regen is the build is going to be far less tight ( not needing stamina ASAP and SR pretty much needs the whole secondary set ), although I think Regen may need more slots early on.

[ QUOTE ]
All of the others has suggested a late Decive, I think Decive early is the best way for a Illusion to solo missions. Especially the "Defeat <BLAH> and his minions" since you go to them ignoring everybody else and let them defeat themselfs. This doesn't give you the xp for the minions but it leads to a fast mission bonus. Secondary, Decieve is quite a nice hold where they move around. In teams this is usually how I use Decieve anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]
I use deceive as a 'hold/stun'. I find teammates/Decoys are far more effective at defeating villains than confused enemies, so I only really use them solo. As for XP, enemy damage is discounted by 75% so provided you do a small amount of damage to a confused enemies' target you will get most of the xp. ( See the [u] Guilde to Confusion [u] for details ). So if you have anyone on your team doing AoEs or a tank with a damage aura, you can be fairly certain it won't affect your xp much.
I haven't noticed anyone asking to not us confuse for a long time though.

I would strongly advise anyone starting a Ill or Mind controller to get Confuse/Deceive ASAP. It doubles your ability to protect the team at low levels.

Knightly, have just got a second account or something, it seems you are making characters left right and centre...

Anyway...

I'm going to ignore the IO set slotting for the moment. I'm not sure whether you plan to PvP, I'm assuming you aren't. This looks a bit like a respec build rather than a levelling build to me.

As a devices blaster, 6 slot all your blast powers, your secondary has pretty much no way of filling in your attack chain so you will be blasting constantly. Luckily Sonic is pretty good for an attack chain.

Get Amplify ASAP, blasters thrive on Build Up and Aim. Unfortunately as Devices has no Build Up you need to rely on only Amplify for your damage boosting. I'd only slot Amplify with recharge too unless you PvP.

Web Grenade, I've found is generally not that useful and when it is the single slot is enough, unless you plan to use for some other reason. Maybe I'm overlooking something though like it's -recharge, or that you like a particular set bonus.

Caltrops, I'd say the same about, it's fine with just 1 slot ( recharge ) and is best used as a buffer between yourself and the melee people in the team. Solo, I put it at corners or directly onto the spawn to give you more time. IMO it is only useful as a damage power if combined with a hold. If you use a immob you get range attacked.

Smoke Grenade is a stealth power. The to hit debuff is pretty rubbish (-3.5%) and doesn't stack. This also gets reduced by the level modifiers so in reality it is less than that, much more so if you are fighting +3s.

Howl should be 6 slotted definitely, it is your most team friendly damage power, especially as it does -res for 8 seconds or so.

Consider getting Taser and Screech. The 2 of them will stun a boss. Also Screech has the longer -res debuff of all the powers ( apart from dreadful wail ) so is useful on Bosses/AVs.

You haven't got Foot Stomp yet? You'll kick yourself.

Focussed Accuracy is fairly unnecessary with Rage, especially if you slot Rage for to hit buffs. It probably needs more slotting to be worthwhile too.

[ QUOTE ]
I wouldnt call the Sonic knockback a good control power. First its quite long animation, second it has a rooting animation (its basicly gale). Energy torrent beats that power by far, only range is little less.

[/ QUOTE ]
I never said it was good, I said it was a control power. Siren's Song is the best control power in the set, which for a certain playstyle is very good.

[ QUOTE ]
But rating primairy on their control, cannot be done without checking secondairy. As a AR/ice has far more control then a sonic/fire for example. But yet AR is rated lower as control then sonic. The strength of a primairy is related to secondairy and visa versa.

[/ QUOTE ]
You are talking about the strength of a build, not the strength of a primary or the strength of a secondary.

I roughly ordered the primaries and secondaries for the blaster to show their strengths and weaknesses. You seem to be ignoring my rating of the secondaries on purpose.

AR/Ice is a strong secondary control, with a weak primary control.

Sonic/Fire is a strong primary control with a weak secondary control.

There is less difference in the primaries that the secondaries in all categories. So a strong secondary makes more difference. Also Sonic and Fire does seem like a bad combo if you want control, mainly because of the types of control it provides.

[ QUOTE ]
Flight has 6 slots. All full with the 30-35 single feather enhancement, but I feel I’m amongst the slowest of heroes to travel to new locations.

[/ QUOTE ]

If I remember correctly the single feather ones are training enhancements. These provide very little benefit. Fly is the slowest travel power anyway, but with 3 single origins or Invention origin enhancements in there it should be pretty decent.


Do you have single origin enhancements ( known as SOs )? If so and you know that more than 3 single origins provides no benefit then ignore the rest of my post.

if not look at http://paragonwiki.com/Enhancements for information about the different type of enhancements.

Single Origins generally have a single graphic around the whole enhancement. This looks like

Mutant, pink organic thingy.
Science, blue electricity in the top left and right
Tech, gray gear teeth around the whole thing.
Magic, brown thing.
Natural, Green panels in top left and right

For examples of these see here although the are names differently to normal SOs.

Double Origins have a border that is a combination of 2 of the borders from a single origin.

I'm going to stop now, just in case I'm on the wrong track.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Control
Ice,Sonic,
Energy,Elec
Archery,AR,
Fire

[/ QUOTE ]

This I do not get. Elec Blast has insane control, especially when paired with /nrg or /elec as well as elec mastery for its end drain.

I can take as much time as I like on my Ele/Ele killing mobs because all they can do when they have no end (which is only two power uses away at any time) is follow you around, which I think is far greater control that ice's two holds (elec has a hold anyway), even when couple with ice's slows because they can still use all their powers when slowed, just not as much, and sonic's stun is ok, but as I said elec has a hold, and the cone sleep has poor recharge as well as the fact that you have to leave them completely alone if you want them mezzed, while you can do what you want to endless enemies.

[/rant]

Elec Blast for the win (in terms of control)

[/ QUOTE ]

From my experience Elec/'s end drain control is fairly soft. I have a Kin/elec defender who is pretty much set up for end drain. Short Circuit is not enough by itself to provide protection last time I used it ( slotted for 3 end mods on a defender set ). I've found it needs to be double stacked, before it helps, that means 10 seconds. You are talking about Elec/Elec which has another end drain PbAoE to stack with it. I was talking about the primary alone. I rated /Elec's control fairly high.
Sonic has a cone Knockback, a cone sleep and a stun. The recharge of Siren's Song is the same as Short Circuit according to City of Data. For a single target blaster, soloing, it means you can take out everything but bosses in one shot, until you are ready to deal with them.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Spines
Disadvantages
1. Slow to mature single target attack chain, the first attack ( Barb Swipe ) is pretty poor, but not as poor as it was.

[/ QUOTE ]It's never been boosted AFAIK, it wasn't affected by the same animation change the first claws power was.

[/ QUOTE ]
No it was changed before then, sometime between when I made Unthing ( I3 ) and when I made his evil equivalent Darkthing ( CoV release ). I think it was at the same time they got rid of the cool looking long spines so there was no redraw animation during the Spines attack chain.

No, only the best defence works, so in your case, the energy defence toggle does nothing.

Oh no! Aero's been [u]GIMPed[u]*

I stuck with the Black/Blue colour scheme. I felt like some fun colouring in to unwind.

Almost everyone else added backgrounds but I really like the rawness of the orginal, so all my colouring is underneath the lines drawn by Andrew Wildman.

*Done with Gimp version 2.2

I've done this, also insisting on flying... you won't have problems tanking, a well slotted Combustion is what makes the difference there, but you will be subpar damage for a Fire/Fire tank.

[ QUOTE ]
But, but... with Blizzard it's like Christmas every day!

[/ QUOTE ]
No. It rarely snows on Christmas here. If it made me feel ill from overeating it would make me feel like Christmas...

Vengeance probably would be good, it's a nice buff, but I prefer not to rely on people dying as it is situational, so unless you find it is the case I'd not dedicate 5 powers to that eventuality ( Leadership pool, Fallout and Mutation ). Just Fallout and Mutation is probably fine.

Assault and Tactics are good, but I would expect Fistful of Arrows and Hasten would add more to a team, especially as Hasten makes AM up more often and speeds up the recharge of dropped toggle debuffs.

On a build with less offensive debuffery or one that needs accuracy I would keep them, I have them on both my Kin and FF defenders.

Rough order of primaries in terms of what they are good at IMO.

Single targetness
Ice
Sonic,Archery,
Fire,Energy,AR
Elec

AoEness
Fire,
AR,
Elec,
Sonic,Ice,Archery
Energy

Control
Ice,Sonic,
Energy,Elec
Archery,AR,
Fire

Final Powers
AR, Archery,
Fire, Elec, Energy, Sonic,
Ice.



For secondaries

Single Targetness
Elec,Energy,
Ice,
Fire
Devices

AoEness
Fire,
Devices,
Elec, Ice, Energy

Control, debuff
Ice,
Devices,Elec,
Energy,
Fire.

Utility ( self buffs ).
Energy,
Devices,
Elec,
Fire,
Ice


I'm sure most people will disagree with something...

I'd personally drop the Leadership Pool. You already have some damage buffs / res debuffs and defence debuffs so your team should be doing enough damage and hitting enough. Rad already has enough toggles to be annoying when they drop.

I guess I'm still a bit of a controller newbie as I spam Blind and Deceive. Flash I found is really nice, it gives me another panic button ( currently the way I use Phantom Army in teams ).

As for AM and Hasten, I didn't know AM was slightly better than stamina, but even so I like having both.

I have a Rad/Archery. I'd be tempted to slot the 4th and 5th slots of AM at 11 so you get closer to full recharge AM at low levels. A well slotted Radiation Infection only makes a big difference once you start using SOs IMO.

Also I completely got away with not slotting any of the Archery powers for ACC. You have a DO worth of accuracy for free, so against Radiation Infected foes, you don't really need any more, even without a defence debuff.

I know it's not on your list, but don't get Explosive Arrow, it's the ultimate useless knockback power ( 50% chance of knockback IIRC ), ideal for getting enemies out of your debuffs.

Fistful of Arrows is good though, despite being a bit cheesy.

Personally I'd get Hasten earlier, probably in the 20s.

Currently my build is generous in Recharge Reduction and skimpy on Endurance reduction. I'm sure I could skip it, but I can't think what I'd get instead, I'm not going for many pool powers. I suspect Choking Cloud would go off in AV fights anyway.

I'm not really a great one for IO builds yet, they seem sooo expensive.

Stamina for my Ill/Rad is essential ... and I haven't even got Choking Cloud yet

Dark has 3 main drawbacks
1. Lack of AoE damage, it's utility powers have AoE ( Soul Drain and Dark Consumption ) but neither are up often to count. That just leaves Shadow Maul, which is a very damaging melee cone.
2. Reliance on to hit. Soul Drain ( the build Up ) requires you to hit enemies, so does Dark Consumption.
3. Fairly average seeming final power.
Advantages
1. Good attacks are fairly early. Shadow Maul is at level 2 IIRC.
2. Touch of Fear is great for divide and conquer tactics, take an Lt oout of the fight or stack it on a boss. It is lovely.
3. Has a minor heal ( good for SR ).
4. -acc secondary effect is always helpful.
5. Does negative energy damage as well as smashing.
6. Soul Drain can ( in ideal circumstances ) give you a better damage boost than Build Up.

Of the others I've only played Spines and Claws.

Claws
Diadvantages
1. Lacks burst damage, doesn't have the upfront punch of other sets.
2. No build up, can be a problem if up against high defence enemies.
3. Eviscerate, the 26 power, seems a bit redundant, especially for a Hasted build.
Advantages
1. Low end cost.
2. Very good sustained DPS. I believe it is the best according to Castle. The attacks feel fast and brutal.
3. Good soft control knockdown.
4. Has a self damage and to hit buff in Follow Up, this can be double stacked

Spines
Disadvantages
1. Slow to mature single target attack chain, the first attack ( Barb Swipe ) is pretty poor, but not as poor as it was. Before Ripper at 26 you will be sub par.
2. Lots of damage of time, so get used to leaving enemies on slivers of health.
Advantages
1. Lots of AoEs means a good team player. Quills, Spine Burst and Throw Spines. So very team friendly.
2. Good secondary effects, slows, -recharges and Damage over time. Also Impale has immob and Ripper has knockdown
3. Hastable good target chain in lunge,impale,lunge, ripper.

Overall I'd say Dark Melee feels the least impressive, a good Shadow Maul hit is devastating though. Touch of Fear is really fun too and very stackable. It fits well with all the secondaries I think. It probably has least synergy with Regen but there is nothing especially bad about the combo. The synergy with SR is good, extra recharge for Soul Drain and Dark Consumption as well as a free heal, something SR lacks.

Spines out damages it on AoE, but it matures slower, it is also pretty showy with nice animations, some of which are slow. Probably best paired with Regen ( more end ), Invulnerability ( herding ) or Dark ( for Death Shroud ).

Claws to me seems brutal and efficient. It's equivalent moves to Spines are less damaging and less impressive but the overall package is pretty deadly. The low end cost means that with regen as you may be able to skip stamina. Dark also provides synergy, as constant self buffing from follow up will improve your chances to hit with the many PbAoES in Dark Armor.