ketch

I'll just be calling it that "Damned Dog".

A little bird has told me that the first episode has leaked...

Best line: "I'm the Avatar! Deal with it!"

For single target holds, you'll find the hold offered in the primary offers a better duration than ones you'll find in your secondary. The difference is about 8 seconds on the base duration, about 13 seconds slotted with two level 50 IOs. Additionally, the holds found in your primary receive a bonus to accuracy (90% as opposed to 75% for holds found in secondaries). So yes, the holds in primaries are better than those found in secondaries.

As to single target holds across control sets, they all share the same duration, recharge, endurance cost and accuracy*. However, the do not share the same activation which can make a significant difference. The fastest activating holds are Char and Dominate, both at 1.32 seconds; the slowest is Tesla Cage at 2.376 seconds. That means Char and Dominate will begin recharging 1 second earlier than Tesla Cage. In most scenarios that's not a big deal, but it can make a significant difference if you're trying to hold an EB or stacking holds on AV.

*Blind is one notable exception because it does a small AoE Sleep as well.

Not much to add, but I found this to be a pretty good read. I'll be linking some of my friends to this thread.

I was not expecting this. Bueno.

Hmm, tough call... I'll probably focus on my new dark/dark controller. My recently rerolled dom is sitting in that slow part of the late 30's so I may level that too. Perhaps, a little play time for a fire/psi blaster too.

More importantly, anyone have some suggestions for some quick, healthy snacks for the weekend?

SBEs were already better than regular IOs even before considering proc rates. They scaled with the player so you could retain bonuses at a very low level without paying the opportunity costs in enhancement values. Without those advantages I really wouldn't bother with many of the sets.

Well, this will require a bit of slot shifting, but I think I'll put this in Blaze on my dom. Between this and the dom proc, she's should be seeing a nice boost in damage.

A quick question: do the bonuses still apply with a mix of SBE and pieces created through invention? I'd imagine so, but I'd like to know in advance.

I'm not crazy about the canine model either. I'm not crazy about dogs in general. I keep mine saturated in blacks so I don't have to see its stupid doggy face. It seems like a lot of coloring options really make it obvious that, yep, it's a dog.

TK would just act as a mag 6 hold on the AV (in domination). It doesn't stack magnitude beyond that (at least not for more than a brief tick). I imagine the prohibitive endurance cost would keep most builds from running it while maintaining an attack chain.

I certainly hope they pass out some respecs considering the state of Dark Affinity. Both Fade and Soul Absorption are slated to change. The 15 second duration Fade that's on live right now is one that I can easily see many skipping only to be frustrated when it receives its buff.

Read the last line.

Did I not say "you could do all that and contribute a little more damage"? Are you really so eager for an argument that you don't recognize when someone agrees with you?

In defense of Reppu's standpoint, the single target immobilize is a good damage power. In terms of damage per activation it's as good as some Blaster tier 1 attack after setting containment, and better in damage per endurance than some of the single target blasts in the APP/PPPs. Boomie has demonstrated with several builds in this forum what a controller with a focus on single target damage can do.

Of course, there is a huge logical leap from dealing damage with Shadowy Binds to being worthless without it. By the shear strength of Howling Twilight's -regen alone, you're already contributing a good deal. You could probably add another -100-150% by spamming Twilight Grasp. You've also got Tar Patch for -resist. That's far from worthless. Of course, you could do all that and contribute a little more damage.

I'd say a tight build with lots of desirable powers in both the primary and secondary warrants enough reason to skip the single target immobilize.

When it comes down to it, if you're weighing the value of the single target immobilize vs. the AoE immobilize, the AoE wins out. It's going to be more useful in more content; it sets containment when HoD isn't available, it's a stackable AoE debuff, and it's your primary source of AoE damage until APPs. There's a lot of proc potential in the AoE immobilize and any spamnable AoE becomes much better with the inclusion of Interface powers. The single target immobilizes are good for damage, better DPE than the single target blasts from APPs in some cases. However, AVs are minority of enemies that you will fight and, unless you specifically seek them out, are going to be faced with a team.

Shadow Field is good for an AoE hold due to its persistence and debuffs, but it gets hit with a 4 minute recharge. I personally don't skip the AoE holds often, but I think the case can be made especially in high recharge builds or in the presence of other control methods. I skipped Paralytic Blast on my elec/time, for instance, because of already having ample control with Static Field, Synaptic Overload, and endurance drain. I think Dark/dark may present a similar case. However, I'm staying any judgment until I've had the opportunity to experiment with it more. I am considering the proc potential that it shares with Distortion Field from Time. However, that long recharge prevents multiple patches like Distortion Fied.

Soul Absorption might be skippable. We'll have to wait until the changes come through to know for sure. If it's a worthwhile team buff I'll take it. If not the APPs/PPPs offer a variety of other endurance management powers.

One of the problems here is that Haunt grants the target +1000% taunt. The pets stick to the target even as it flees, which is likely due to Fear and debuffs. My suggestion in beta was that they should be given Shadowy Binds as well to help. Controllers are a little less likely to encounter that behavior if they're spamming the immobilize for damage so I can see it happening more often on doms.