Veslin

Hmm, okay I think I see. You have to sacrifice damage, but with the correct slotting, it can sap. That's a somewhat unusual idea, but something to consider. Like I said, I'm trying to find something to go wtih Dark Miasma, and the ability to drain in addition to all the other things DM can do is an interesting thought.
Radiation blast reduces Def, not Dam, and I took it because -Def is the only stat that Dark Miasma cannot debuff, but using the blast set itself was not fun for me. I was often either too far away for Cosmic Burst or not quite right where I needed to be for my AOEs to hit most of the enemies.
I have often seen that End drain is not terribly effective, but I am looking at the potential of the powerset as a whole. The Hold plus the free-damage pet plus the sapping ability may be enough to make it worthwhile for me to play.
That being said, I wanted something that could solo well, dealing some solid damage, and it seems to get mixed reviews in that department.

Hmm okay. What's interesting is that, with the advent of I19, Whole new power combos are starting to be viable for my playstyle. I have a Dark/Radiation Defender and the reason I took Radiation is to debuff defense since Dark doesn't do that. I didn't really like Radiation Blast itself though, the ranges on powers and the low damage on the ST attacks I think were my biggest issue.
Now I have three extra slots and can take the Leadership pool, and add some To-Hit that way, somewhat negating the reason I took Radiation Blast.
That's why I'm looking into other powersets that I may have never tried before, like Psychic and Electric Blast. It's more important for me, on this character, to add some kind of utility rather than another type of debuff. Psychic looks good because of the controller-type procs that sometimes happen with the powers, but Electric also look solid if the end drain is significant enough to matter, as it adds a type of control. Also, Petrifying Gaze+Tesla Cage means a held boss, which is also incredibly tempting, and Sentinel dealing damage while I am otherwise occupied also looks good.
That being said, I can see how they don't combo well since Electric blast can't do it's secondary ability to any great effect by itself. On a primary with some sort of End drain to push it over the top, it might be good, but not so much by itself.
It looks like I can pretty much ignore the end drain, so It will come down to how much I want to be able to hold bosses and how much the sentinel will help add damage, and it sounds like sentinel isn't going to help much there.

How does the sentinel work? Does it blast anything within a certain distance, or does it attack what I attack? That might mess up my placement when I stealth up to the enemies to Fearsone Stare them if the little guy blasts em while I'm trying to sneak up on them.

So, I'm making a new Dark Defender and can't decide whether to take Psychic blast or Electricity Blast. I tried Radiation but didn't really like it, and Ice Blast isn't really my style. The only thing that makes me hesitant is that I'm not sure how effective the End drain is on Electric blast. It seems really low, and the secondary effect from psychic to floor my enemie's recharge times with only two powers alone is very tempting.
And the pet on Electric blast looks really, really fun to me.

So I have a level 32 Character, and I'm not sure where to go to find a team. Talos is till 30, but after that? Tried Brickstown, but could not find a team at all. I am a Vigilante, so I could head to villian side, but I don't know where to find a team there either, hehe.
Actually if someone could post the more popular zones for level ranges all the way to 50 that'd be awesome.

So, I recognize what most of the controller primaries do: Illusion is chaos and damage, Gravity is lite control but with damage, Earth is the most solid AOE control, etc, but I have yet to really understand Plant or Electricity Control.
I'm kinda looking for a set that will let me solo when I absoultely have to (hopefully very rarely), and have been leaning towards Gravity because of that (I don't like Illusion, too much chaos I guess), but I'm not so sure now.
Even after reading some posts and guides, I don't have a general feel of what these two powersets do. Only thing I have heard is that Plant has Confusion, which some teams hate, and that Electricty does End drain, but the level 32 pet doesn't suddenly let you solo like the other Pets do.
If I could just have a general understanding of these two sets, I would be grateful.

I have actually tried an Illusion/Radiation controller a while back and hated it. The primary issue I had, if I recall correctly, was the lack of an immobilize to lock down my anchor. It drove me crazy. I tried an Earth/Radiation controller after that and loved it, but had to get help with my cape mission, as soloing with him was painful and slow.
It's possible a primary like Gravity would be a fine choice, with the concealment pool. With I19 fitness changes, I am VERY excited about the possibilities with taking pool powers like medicine and concealment to get abilities I would otherwise not be able to fit on a build, like a self-heal or invisibility.
Ironically, if I could actually force myself to make the push to 50, an Earth/Radiation controller would probably be best, with the concealment pool and nukes on the epic power pools. Only problem is, of course, I would not be very happy with the character until level 41, and that's probably not the best idea for my first level 50.

And I have no idea why it double posted. Sorry. I was wondering why it seemed like it was taking so long to load the page...

Hmmm interesting. I think it's obvious by what you are saying and looking over the powers that Dark Miasma has everything I want on it in a single set- team support, a stealth, and a heal. I have never played fire before because I much preferred to support a team than nuke and fire has no secondary effect. That being said, Dark Miasma by itself has enough team support that taking fire to get through those times when I am forced to solo is interesting.
If I reverse it and put it on a defender, what's a good secondary? I have heard Ice and Psychic are good choices because they do solid damage.

So I have tried several Masterminds but haven't quite found my niche yet.
I've decided to play Dark seconday because I know and like dark, but I'm not sure what a good primary would be for someone who is kinda new to masterminds. I know Ninjas and Necromancy is probably not good for a relatively new mastermind player since they require very careful management, and bots probably isn't best with the knockback.
I was thinking demons but they are really big and it's hard to see what's going on when I am on teams with Demon Masterminds.
Thugs maybe? They have the brute though, and I'm not sure how difficult it is to control that guy. And I hear mercs are no good.
I just downed every mastermind set, didn't I?
See? I just don't know what's a good set for a relatively new player.
Suggestions? thoughs? ideas? Number of a good therapist?

So I have tried several Masterminds but haven't quite found my niche yet.
I've decided to play Dark seconday because I know and like dark, but I'm not sure what a good primary would be for someone who is kinda new to masterminds. I know Ninjas and Necromancy is probably not good for a relatively new mastermind player since they require very careful management, and bots probably isn't best with the knockback.
I was thinking demons but they are really big and it's hard to see what's going on when I am on teams with Demon Masterminds.
Thugs maybe? They have the brute though, and I'm not sure how difficult it is to control that guy. And I hear mercs are no good.
I just downed every mastermind set, didn't I?
See? I just don't know what's a good set for a relatively new player.
Suggestions? thoughs? ideas? Number of a good therapist?

So, having read another thread about getting characters to level 50, I have been inspired to finally stop my altitis and force myself to take a character to level 50. Since I don't know everything about the powersets, but I do know what I am looking for in a character, I figure I'll post what I'm looking for here and ask for advice on what powersets and Archetypes would be best for it.
-Primarily a support character, I like teaming way more than soloing, however...
-Able to solo decently for getting through cape/costume/tips/etc when I have to
-Has some sort of stealth so I can explore those high level zones I have never quite made it to
-Can heal myself
-Does NOT include buffs that have to be continuously reapplied to team members one at a time (Force Field, Thermal, etc.)

I'm thinking I should probably go with Defender or Mastermind. Controllers are amazing support and are WAY fun, but I have yet to be able to solo one... like at all, and it drives me crazy when all I want is my cape. Maybe Dark or Storm for the stealth? I dunno. Any suggestions?

As far as the pets not responding to goto commands, I have noticed two things. 1) Pets seem to take a second to respond to your command, I have used Heel on my pets before when they started running after enemies, and it took them a few seconds to actually stop running at the retreating enemy, dispite the word bubble appearing letting me know they recieved the command.
2) Unless they are on passive, they are going right back into combat. On aggressive they just attack everything they see, but we know that. On defensive, I have seen some wierd stuff, sometimes they stood there and did nothing while enemies beat them to death, sometimes they would attack random mobs 100yd away that they apparently felt had looked at me funny.
But if my pets are on passive and I give them a goto command, they stay put. I actually feel that goto should be a mode and not an action, that way you could tell your pets to goto X location, and attack once they got there. That way you could position your bots/mercs/etc in a strategic location, and then have them attack from that position, and they would stay at that location since they were in the goto "mode."

So, on a recent post, people were saying I did not understand bodyguard mode, and that could be fair, cause maybe I don't.
As far as I knew, it required that pets be on Defensive/Follow. Now as soon as you take a hit, your pets attack the enemy that hit you/them, causing them to switch to Defensive/attack. Does that not break BG?

So, I hear most MMs complaining that they don't like how their ranged pets are now running into melee, and I have to say, it seems like the 'rangers' now just have to deal with the same problems Ninjas/ and Necromancy/ have always had.
People have always complained that the Ninjas and Zombies were squishy. It's probably the main reason they are the most rare types of masterminds (I still see more Mercs than these two). Well, now that the other pets are starting to run into melee as well, it's been discovered that all pets are squishy, but the ranged ones just stayed out of the thick of things.
In my opinion, this now levels the playing field for all masterminds. Melee pets already have a disadvantage- they are single target. Under the old AI, they also died faster. They did not have any extra protection to mitigate the fact that they were melee, they didn't do more damage than other sets, there was no trade off for this propensity to die more often because they were closer to the enemy. So it was a double penalty for them, Single target AND they died faster.
Now, all pets at least have similar survivability. Instead of only Zombie and Ninja users having to resummon all the time, now all masterminds have to do so.
On a closing note, pets that do not have melee attacks (IE Phantasm) running into melee, I agree is rediculous. But minions all having similar lifespans because they all die to AOE melee attacks, that just seems fair to me.

So, I have decided to make another Mastermind since I love them so much. I wanna use Dark Miasma for the team support, with a little help from the Primary if possible, but I can't decide between Thugs or Ninjas. I know Necromancy is best because of the lich, but I already have one of those, and for concept reasons, both Thugs and Ninja's work best. Oni is supposed to be like a dominator, but really fing of fire and Char are all I see as far as support are concerned, but I hear bad things about the Knockback-charge of the Genin. Thugs don't seem to have a lot of support at all though, unless the Brute is really solid at grabbing aggro, or the knockdown happens on the Punks. I do like that -Def from the enforcer AOE attacks though, and it's the only stat I cant think of that Dark doesn't debuff, so that might be a better choice.
Thoughts?

Well, it seems he is going to be playing a brute. He has some vallian character he actually wants to play, but I really don't. Just looking for something to add some damage and maybe a little support to that so we can blast through levels as quickly as possible. I prefer ranged ATs and mastermind has always been fun to me.
I hadn't considered /Poison, but that's an interesting idea. Heal, and single target debuffs. We are going to team when we can though, so that might not be best idea.
Ironically, we are almost polar opposites in what we like to play. We both want try try the same villain archetype: Widow, but he wants to go Night and I want Fortunata. I don't think he will like it but we will see.

So, my friend and I are looking to get villains to level 20 ASAP for the villain epic archetype, since we discovered that Preatorians cannot unlock them, dispite what the instruction manual and in-game notices say (grumble.... angry...)
Anyway, I'm looking to make a mastermind that kills fast, as I like masterminds and want to reach 20 ASAP as mentioned.
I'm thinking based on what I have read on forums that Thugs is the way to go but arsonist doesn't come in till level 18 so, maybe Ninjas. Which is more damage?
Secondaries should probably be /Dark for Tar Patch, /Traps for Acid Mortar, or /Storm for Freezing Rain. Leaning toward traps since I could take FF gen as well during those last 4 levels to 20 for some defense.
Advice?

Oh my goodness, I so did not expect it to work like that. I am so happy, I may giggle uncontrollably now for a few minutes. Don't mind me.

So, I imagine this has been answered somewhere else, but I can't seem to find it. Shadow Fall says that it doesn't combo with other stealth powers, but what about the stealth IOs? They aren't considered powers, but they are stealth effects. Would having a Stealth IO in my fly make me invisible with Shadow Fall?

Hmm... interesting.
Let me ask a question: Do the Psychic secondary effects trigger often enough for them to be reliable?
/Psychic looks amazing... except for that fact that all the "control" powers only have a percentage chance of going off, and that doesn't sit well with me. I'd rather go for something slightly less powerful but that works all the time. Frankly, that's the only issue I really have with /Psychic or I would for sure take it. All those controls PLUS the mitigation of Dark/ sounds wonderful.
I tried /Radiation once and it was okay, but for some reason it annoyed me. I think it was the schitzophrenic nature of the powerset. It has one of each type of AOE and ST, and I think I just got annoyed with it.
/Ice sounds like a good middle of the road choice. I didn't know it did solid damage, and that IS a factor for me. It doesn't have the variety of control that some other sets, have, but two holds is solid.
In the end, I'm hoping that someone can answer that question about the reliability of Psychics control effects. That would the the final deciding factor for me.

So, I haven't played Defenders in a long time, and am looking to come back to one. I have always really liked Dark Miasma, so that'll be primary, but I'm having a hard time choosing a secondary. I want something that will let me solo when I need to (not often) and if possible, have some control and debuff something other than To-hit, since Dark/ by itself I feel is strong enough in that department.
I'm considering Psychic or maybe Ice. Both debuff recharge, I believe (not sure about ice), which is something dark doesn't do terribly well, and both have control-type effects. I'm just not sure which is better for what I'm looking for, or if there is perhaps a secondary I am missing that controls a bit and debuffs something other than To-Hit.

I see your point. I was all set to make another defender, probably a Dark defender, but then saw all the known issues with defender on the defender forums, and was very very saddened by it. I am having a hard time justifying to myself making a defender when corruptor would be a MUCH more logical choice. I understand now why, when I played a few new characters in Praetoria, I saw only 2 defenders my whole two weeks or so I was trying different characters and seeing the storyline there.
The thing that frustrates me most is that Defender was my favorite archetype, and unless I take Empathy (since it is defender only) there is really no reason to play one anymore, except my "Defender-pride."