dave_p

Have SO prices budged since I last checked?

Rare salvage are just now hitting pricepoints prior to AE, like Pangean's going for 4M/each. Some have gone up a bit more than before, some less.

100K+ commons won't stay like this for long. We've had spikes before, and will again.

Some things have gone up in price. Some even lots. Big surprise, I know. Overall, no hyperinflation.

Can you do it as a Vig, or just Vil or Rogue?

Coincidentally, the toon I thought of when reading the subject line was my own Ice controller. Ice/Storm though, and for Cardiac, not Spiritual. And in fact, I wrote an ode to him on the controller boards.

To sum up: my Ice/Storm (already Ranged capped, 40's S/L, high 30's AoE & F/E/C/N) was pretty bad ***, but only for spurts. W/Cardiac, he's a non-stop mayhem machine. My Fire/Rad w/Spiritual can almost get to Perma-IW (3s down), but even if I had full perma (and yes, I know full well the ramifications of perma-IW), I don't think the difference would be as great as what Cardiac provided for my Ice/Storm.

Fire > SS > Ice > Mace was the AoE order tested by Starsman a long while ago. I don't think he ever restested w/ELM, but I'm thinking Fire > SS > ELM > Ice > Mace would be the new order. Of course there's a difference too bet. fighting 5 mobs at a time and 15, but for the most part, that order should stand.

ST damage wise, it'd still be Fire > SS, but then sets like Stone & EM (but they suck at AoE damage) would fall in, cuz Ice & Elec are abysmal (esp Ice) at ST damage. Overall, Fire & SS are by far the best offensive secondaries, though Fire offers no mitigation (Stone & Ice Melees are the best for that).

Re Stone primary, you don't have to be in Granite and suffer the penalties to be effective, and really damn near unkillable in Stone. My Stone is softcapped to S/L/E/N/Psi out of Granite and only hits Granite for LR & like Tin Mage and stuff (did Reich + the 4 AVs last night w/o Granite). The problem is Rooted--you need it for mez protection and it slows you down. So even if it doesn't ding your damage or recharge, your kill speed is going to go down.

If you want pure offense, a combination of Fire & SD primary w/Fire & SS secondary is going to be your best best at "mob killing". Pyre w/Fireball is also your best offensive APP, though I can't spead for PPPs since I have no experience with them.

StratoNexus, just working off of your lastest build and tweaking a few things...

How about 3-slotting Aegis in HPT for a bit more F/C def?

The 3 Gaussian's in Tactics for a few more HPs... worth it? I'd move 2 of them into Taunt (leave the To Hit/End, tho you can use a cheaper Adj Targeting) to 6-slot Mocking Beratement for more F/C def & the 7.5% rech bonus. You end up w/a 43.4 F/C def right now, before Nerve, which caps it.

I would also remove the slots from Stone Prison, just leaving in an Acc IO for when you want an Immob or -Fly, and use the 2 slots for CC (Oblit A/D/R) and... something else. Or, just 6-slot either Shatter or Whirling Mace w/Oblit, since you're far over the softcap for E/N anyway. W/that, you end up w/47.2% S/L/E/N (higher w/Nerve, obv) and better recharge & damage numbers, though you sacrifice a bit of HPs.

I know you want to go for high HPs, and you should, but I think the higher F/C def (near cap, capped w/Nerve) and higher recharge will serve you better. In fact, I wouldn't even go Nerve, but Spiritual for the higher regen #s, since you're already softcapped or nearly so to almost all types. Spiritual Core boosts your regen from 79.75/s to 90.39/s, even w/the lowered HP w/my tweaks, not to mention CC, Clobber & WM will all recharge faster.

7 Kahns so far. Longest was 45 min w/almost no debuffs in the group. Shortest was 25-ish, all the rest right around 30~35 min. Success stories all.

Yeah, I never had that happen to me on my controllers, and they all play knockaway/down (Hurricane, Bonfire, Phant, EQ, etc) w/the repairmen. The *only* time I've ever seen this happen--and that's once in god knows how many times--is when I was playing my Fire tank, and I honestly don't remember if anyone had KB powers active, but the stupid red tower came back *twice*!

In any case, Storm has enough random AoE powers that no repairmen are going to survive multiple LSs, FR & 'Nado that will be grinding away at the towers.

Edit: come to think of it, Force Bubble might've been the culprit on my run w/the Fire tank.

I have a DPA spreadsheet of all blue-side ATs as of I16 or so (no Khelds), and a few red-side ATs as well, but haven't updated for some of the newer sets (pretty much after City of Data stopped updating). I still refer back to it from time to time (like when I wrote my guide in my sig), and think it's a very valuable resource, though keeping track of ST vs. AoEs, 2ndary effects, stacking bonuses or debuffs, etc, is almost impossible to do on one table. Scrappers are also a bit tough, because you have to either calculate the crit % as part of the DPA or just leave it out.

In any case, kudos for your efforts. I know how much of a pita it is to pull all the data.

I've level-shifted my Fire/Rad, Ill/Kin & Ice/Storm so far (Earth/TA coming soon), and of them all, I'm really enjoying playing my Ice/Storm the most, esp on all the high level TFs that I'm running non-stop.

For the longest time, I considered my Fire/Rad/Psi my favorite, and most powerful toon (and he still prolly is). He's the guy I soloed AVs, GMs, pylons, etc with. He was my go to guy for the toughest tasks in the game, from Hami to STFs. Completely self sufficient, but awesome on teams. Could kill almost as fast as a Fire/Kin, but much, much safer. Then my Ill/Kin is... well, perma-PA + SB/FS/Transference for the team makes you kinda popular. Earth/TA? Master of controls, bar none. Meanwhile, my Ice/Storm was, while very effective, only effective in short bursts cuz of constant end issues.

Since I got the Cardiac boost on my Ice/Storm/Ice though, he's just nasty. Non-stop AoE attacks scattering (or not, at my discretion) mobs all around me. Softcapped ranged def, almost softcapped S/L def and high 30s AoE and E/N/F/C typed def, all before any debuffs by Hurricane, makes him damn near untouchable, plus Hibernate for the few times I get in trouble. Speaking of Hibernate, he can just summon all sorts of pets & pseudopets (LS. 'nado, FR, Jack, Ice Storm), and then take a nap in his igloo while everything melts (freezes?) around me. All the Storm powers are damn near perfect for the final stages of, say the STF (repairmen? yeah, eat some Hurricane trying to reach the towers). MSRs? Those Rikti Magi flop very nicely. ITFs? Slows still work on the mez-resistant Romans.

Sure, my other controllers all have their tricks for those situations too, but damn, it just feels more fun summoning multiple clouds of Lighting Storm, Tornadoes, multiple rains, and either letting things fly around like no tomorrow as the ultimate master of chaos, or just locking things down first so your teammates don't get too ticked off. I actually imagine Fire/Storm would even be better, since most of my fun comes from the Storm side (but I wouldn't wanna play a Storm/* defender, since I'd sorely miss the AoE immob w/the -KB). AA is nice & all, and Ice Slick is a nice backup control to have (that's how I use IS now), but Bonfire & HF would add even more chaos, plus just straight up more damage.

Anyone else having fun on their Ice/Storm? Share the love.

I sometimes hate my self-imposed rule of not duplicating powersets within an AT. Because of it, I'm sorta *stuck* w/playing an Elec/Therm. Not a bad combo or anything, but no real synergy. If I had my druthers, I'd take Elec/Rad in a heartbeat, much for the same reasons Local describes above.

Elec/Cold... I don't use HL as a sapping tool much, esp since its recharge is so long. I do think HL is one of the best +recovery tools in the game (better than RA), but at least for personal use, Elec doesn't need much +recovery. Kin would work better, but then again, I think Elec/* by itself does a fine job on most mobs. Thematically, you can't beat Elec/Storm, though their powers clash something awful (no -KB in your AoE immob, lots of Storm powers breaking sleeps, etc).

About a month ago, I posted a similar question and did some analysis on Nerve vs. Spiritual for my Cold/Dark defender. Looking at the math, the +def at every level, from common to ultra rare, weren't as valuable as faster recharge for powers like Benumb, Heat Loss (which also obviates Cardiac), Sleet, etc, much the same w/your conclusions. I think a pure FF defender is about the only toon I'd consider Nerve on. Basically, every one of my alpha slotted toons have gone Spiritual or Cardiac, and as a min/max'er, I can't think of anyone I'd want Nerve (or Musculature) on.

Toe-to-toe, Elec should be very good too, though my own Elec/Elec is still in his 30s, but I've seen good success by other Elec tanks. Capped en resists, easy enough to cap S/L as well (IOs, oranges, Alpha slotting), can IO your way to a high def, and excellent end drain resists. Sub-par heal, but better than nothing.

Fully IO'ed up, I would think the best tanks in order would be Stone, Invul, then Elec. Granite is by far still the best for getting in his face--I used just a handful of insps, mostly as a precaution (1 purp, 1 orange while the red tower is up), on my last dance w/LR, and I actually only *needed* a couple of medium blues, cuz his end drain was still getting past Rooted for a decent dent.

Anyone can hover tank him w/relative ease. I suspect they're going to fix that soon though.

I love playing my Ice/Storm on the STF (c'mon, Infernus, 2 Stormies and you thought you didn't have enough damage? ). Love playing havoc on the towers w/Tornado, Lt Storm & FR buzzsawing through while Hurricane & Ice Slick keep the repairmen off. Had a great time w/him on it during the WST week. Can't remember the team makeup or final time, but it was right around the 60 min mark.

Hell, most of my STF runs this past week were under 90 min, the fastest being around 45 min. Only really had a few runs that were iffy and that one run I posted about in the horror thread. Kahn (and LG) should be just a cakewalk, esp w/all my level-shifted toons.

Ran the STF 9 times this past week--all pretty much PuGs. Most of them went very smoothly, but the worst was on my blaster. Team makeup:

*/Dark MM (nominal leader, more on this)
2 scrappers
1 stalker
FF defender
2 blasters (one of them, me)
Elec tank (actually good for STF w/capped En resists & end drain resists)

I'm the 7th invite. I look at the team makeup, note in chat we only have the */Dark for debuffs when the 8th fills (still no more debuffs). One of the scrappers volunteers to switch to a rad when the 1st mission starts. I start thinking the leader isn't interested in communication, and I'm right. Zero instructions, leadership, whatever from the MM. Also, most of the team seems very little experienced w/the STF. I'm communicating w/one of the scrappers who's pretty experienced and we try to provide some leadership. I'm having doubts about completing the TF at all.

Vines room is leading to mult deaths, team is scattered, again zero communication from the leader. Some are fighting CoT, some killing vines, a few (incl. the leader) are dead and not rezzing. His only communication: "kill them." :|

Next mish, I sorta take over, start issuing "suggestions", but really commands. Scrapper supports me. Thankfully, everyone listens, or at least doesn't overtly object. I ask ppl to go from Chief to Chief and to watch for aggro trails, but in a blazing stroke of luck, we get the key off of the 1st Chief. I tell ppl to get in the building. Half the team stays at outside for random fights, but eventually catch up. I decide to mop up mobs from each AV fight so as not to drag too much aggro, which I'm sure would cause too many deaths. Finish up Aeon w/a bit of trouble, but nothing too bad.

Last mish, I'm playing it safe and clear the whole path on the right. I give a long speech about tactics, and how pulls usually fail, so be prepared to deal w/all 4 AVs at once. Give detailed instructions on how to tank, keeping buffs on him, how to deal w/deaths, AV order, etc. We try pulling, but naturally, we get all 4. We get on Scirroco, then BS. A few deaths, but we get the 1st two. GW's next, and I tell ppl to stay at range if they can, only go into melee if your def is capped. No go, she's healing back too fast. I position the bubbler a bit better to cover the melee, get rid of all pets and we *eventually* get her down (toughest fight of the whole TF, by far). Mako's no prob after that.

Flier, clear the mobs, flier again, and the scrapper has instructed the tank how to evade & taunt LR. We get the towers down and finish LR w/little difficulty. 2:35-ish time, which was by far the longest I'd spent on the STF all week long. Personally, I didn't think we'd get past the patrons, and we were pretty close to giving up against GW, but we stuck to it and pulled it off. I actually hate leading groups, because I'm lazy, but I was pretty grateful ppl followed directions and there were no petty squabblings, esp by the nominal leader.

So far, the only STF I've only failed in my whole career was when we couldn't hit Mako through Elude and the team just gave up, but that was years ago. I (and other experienced players) usually have to give some encouragement to the team when we pull all 4 patrons, but really, as long as the tank (+ support) is on his game, that's not that big a problem. Hell, half the time, we just bum rush all 4 and get through no problems, as long as the team is well put together. I did also fail the LRSF last week before it became a WST, mostly because we didn't have a tank or a sturdy enough brute for the end fight, but that's another story.