brophog02

Explosive Blast is every bit as controllable as Energy Torrent. They both knock back away from the caster (Repulsion Bomb isn't knockback at all against anything not heavily knockback prone).

The difference is in the casting time, the recharge time, the % knockback chance, and the number of targets you can hit.

The casting time for Energy Torrent makes it a bit better as a purely defensive power, because you can get it out very quickly and it has a slightly higher % knockback (60 vs 50). That said, a lot of people think with FF already having plenty of knockback powers that Energy Blast is a bit redundant for its knockback.

IMO, if you're going to take one AOE power from Energy Blast, you may as well take both for the extra damage because the knockback is likely covered better in forcefield (assuming you took those powers).

Either case works well. Dark by itself is arguably more 'controllerish' than some controller sets.

Ice gives a lot of damage and the holds are nice, but that would be a tight build with Dark and Ice. Blackhole is commonly skipped, and for some Petrifying Gaze is (but you may want it for hold stacking). Ice varies a bit. Blasters tend to keep frostbreath but skip Ice Storm, Defenders tend to keep Ice Storm and skip frostbreath. Both usually keep Blizzard, which like Ice Storm has the Blaster damage scale.

For control reasons, Dark/Dark/Dark is nice. The stun of Dark Pit and Oppressive Gloom stack for excellent control. /Dark isn't a high damage set, but with +recharge and damage procs in Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall is does well enough.

There are lots of options to do what you want with the Dark primary as it fascilates its role to a control oriented Defender very nicely. The goal may be for you to just match it with the secondary you like the best.

Skip Thunderstrike. Animation times affect damage done per time, and you have no control over animation times.

The other three powers do more damage in less activation time and with just a little recharge (hasten) they are a complete chain. Thunderstrike is superfluous to /Elec. If you want to take it for the graphics, do so, but it serves no other purpose than looking pretty. If you need the knockback mitigation, lightning clap is far superior there as well.

Frostbreath is your primary AOE power. Like firebreath, it is a narrow but extremely powerful cone attack. Ice Storm is commonly skipped, like most rain powers blueside, but does good damage when you can contain the foes in the storm.

There are two ways commonly taken with this pairing, as far as epics: Ice for the defense and electric for another hold. I like elec for the hold, surge of power, charged armor, and static discharge as much needed extra AOE. However, if you wanted more protection, S/L is pretty easy to softcap on Ice/Elec/Ice.

I agree.

But that still isnt enough to make it a high priority slotting option, for my build needs. Like I said, if fire and cold were more common, that would, but they are rather uncommon.

Energy is fairly common, but not nearly to the extent of smash/lethal and the increase over one slot isn't very much. The 1 slotted resistance IO in steamy mist (for controllers) is 18%, whereas 3 slotted is only 23%. That's not much gain for two slots when only energy is very common.

Depending on toon, I may do that (masterminds/defenders/maybe Corrupters), but I'm much more inclined to put those two slots in more high priority places (particularly on trollers).

It is a pointless system built into forum software, whether it be rep, stars, or any other icon.

It tells you nothing. In fact, you'll find some of the highest ranked posts on such boards come from the meanest, most vile posts.

This board at least lets us have an ignore feature. As I do with other boards using this software, I turned on the ignore feature immediately and haven't looked back. You can neg rep me until your mouse breaks, and I wouldn't care.

I tend to go the other way with Steamy Mist on my stormies. I only slot more than one if it is going to get me to a certain goal (i.e. capped resistance or defense). It is a good power to give you that little bit extra that is often needed for an endeavor (if fire and cold were more common damage types, I'd slot it more consistently over all characters).

On the flipside, I tend to 6 slot Tornado and LS instead, particularly with a lower damage set like earth. Where earth isn't a great damage set, it is a decent damage fascilitating set. Procs work well in the set, and it can keep things contained well for damaging powers like Tornado and LS to maximize their benefits.

Similarly, my trollers tend to get less Steamy Mist love because I slot the epics heavily for the same reason. On something like a Mastermind, it is the opposite. There I slot Steamy Mist heavily in large part because it stacks well with many of the pets existing defense/resistance.

Resistance slotting generally helps more than Defense slotting unless you're stacking defense, and in that case the last few % towards the softcap mean more. Slotted Steamy, Combat Jump, Maneuvers, and Rock Armor gives you 13.7 def to everything and 36.5 to smashing and lethal. That may be the difference in softcapping to S/L on some builds (2 slotting Steamy for defense plus the steadfast 3% defense puts you at 39.2 for S/L and 16.3 to everything). You could see such a scenario on a Storm defender who took the leadership pool.

It is a power that can vary a lot in slotting options depending on archetype, sets, and how your other powers are slotted. Until you figure all of that out, the best advice is some endredux love, because Storm is a hungry eater!

Have fun. Good combination.

You can't play a Corrupter like a backwards defender. A solo Corrupter works best when you can get larger spawns and let Scourge do part of the work for you.

If you're needing power sink up every 30 seconds, you don't have your other powers slotted well enough.

You shouldn't need power sink except on AVs, and even then end-redux will go a long ways to nullify that. Every 30 seconds for power sink is just unnecessary, no matter how you slice it. Blasters just aren't that end hungry, and I play as aggressive of a blaster as they come.

If you just gotta have power sink up that often, I suggest going with just the two endmod/recharge and save the other two slots. That brings your end bar to full with 3 mobs (instead of 2) and recharges in 33 seconds (instead of 27).

When it comes to endurance, an ounce of redux goes way further than recovery does (either through +recov or powers). My main went to 50 with 2 ACC/3 Dam SOs slotted for all attacks, and although I teamed mostly, I felt the burn when solo. It is just annoying, imo, to need powersink that often when just a little more end redux can keep my going nonstop without worry.

My main is an Energy/Elec/Elec, so it will play very similarly to yours, but swapping the extra damage for extra mitigation.

A few thoughts:

1) Surge over Emp. In my opinion, Surge of Power is an awesome power and Emp is not. If you can't survive it with Surge up, you probably can't survive it.
2) I nuke a LOT, and love Surge. Just carry a blue or two around with you and pop power sink. With power sink there is no downtime, whatsoever.
3) I see no need to even take Thunderstrike, unless this is purely as a set mule. The other three melee attacks do more damage in less activation time, and with hasten up it is basically a complete attack chain (very little survives all three, anyhow).
4) I am a little confused on your goals here. You moved flares back, so I presume any exemplaring for TFs or whatnot means you're going to be blapping. In the old days, we'd skip or move back tier 1 blasts but since the readjustment that isn't necessary. I think you'd be happier moving Flares back to an early position and moving a melee attack back. It is just too nice, especially when mezzed or when you've exemplared too far for set bonuses, to have two blasts. The only time I'd recommend skipping the tier one blast is for super high recharge builds that have basically boiled down to just an attack chain of Blaze.
5) Power sink doesn't need 4 slots. Either 1 slot it with an End Mod or slot it up with bonuses (Efficacy Adapter, if you have the slots, is nice). If you need extra recovery, Stamina 3 slotted with 2 End Mods, and a Chance for End is very nice.