magicj

As far as power selection goes, would recommend stamina before dispersion bubble and giving strong consideration to aid self and aid other. Would recommend primal epic pool for power boosted bubbles.

I'd mark all your powers from level 35 and up as optional and consider dropping two of them for the healing powers and then juggling powers to work the heals in early in the build. Ice/FF is the kind of toon that can carry an entire team on it's back if you play it right, and the heals play an important part in this.

For IO bonuses, I admit I haven't carefully looked at what you've gotten. But Ice/FF is an endurance-heavy build and would recommend eyeing +Recovery bonuses.

As others have said, get Mids and post a build.

But it's a safe bet that you'll at least want to consider getting +Recovery bonuses, what with running hot feet, spamming fire cages and running dispersion bubble. Luckily you can get that with only two IOs from Posi's blast and Thunderstrike.

Beyond that, your play style matters too. Do you tend to grab lots of aggro? If so, some +Range defense bonuses may be nice. Do you move quickly from spawn to spawn? If so some +Recharge may be nice and FF has several spots where you can easily drop in LotG +7.5% globals.

Before you dump tons of money into IOs, have a clear picture in your mind of exactly what aspect of your toon you'r trying to improve.

My apologies for taking so long with these tests. I've been very busy in my personal life lately a will probably remain so for the foreseeable future. Still, I wanted to get these results posted.

The videos of all the tests and a summary of results can be found here.

What the Tests Cover
These tests are for the effects of using single target Confuse powers on small groups encountered solo. The tests cover Illusion and Mind in these situations.

The tests attempt to capture the following information in these situations:

*) The effect of using a single target Confuse on effective DPS.
*) The effect of using a single target Confuse on effective IPS (Influence Per Second).
*) For Illusion (only), the tests can be considered a reasonable measure of the effectiveness of the set in these situations, keeping in mind these tests do not include IOs, secondaries or power pools other than Hasten. The tests measure the base effectiveness of the primary.

What the Tests Do Not Cover
The tests _do not_ attempt to capture the following information:

*) The effectiveness of AoE Confuse powers.
*) The effectiveness of single target Confuse powers used as a control rather than as a way to supplement DPS and IPS.
*) The effectiveness of the primaries vs larger groups.

Results
The results of these tests are:

*) Single Target Confuse powers have minimal effect on DPS and IPS. For Mind control after level 32, the single target Confuse actually _worsened_ DPS and IPS slightly.
*) There is very little difference, on average, between confusing a minion or a Lt.
*) Confusing a boss tends to lead to slower kill times and less IPS than Confusing a minion when fighting a boss/minion pair.
*) Hasten is far more effective than a single target Confuse at increasing DPS and IPS.

Other Notes
*) The tests were done over 108 encounters vs 382 baddies over nearly an hour an a half of playtime. As such, they are probably the largest tests of single target Confuse powers ever conducted.
*) The tests include tests without Confuse powers for comparison.
*) Builds used for these tests were identical to builds used in previous single target tests.
*) There are tests vs 3 minions. These tests are run without Confuse powers, with a single minion Confused, and with two minions Confused.
*) There are tests vs 1 Lt and 1 minion. These tests are run without Confuse powers, with the Lt Confused, and with the minion Confused.
*) There are tests vs 1 boss and 1 minion. These tests are run without Confuse powers, with the boss Confused, and with the minion Confused.
*) The tests are run on Invincible.
*) Tests are run once without Hasten and again with Hasten.
*) Illusion tests are run once without PA and again with PA.

[ QUOTE ]
EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot: you will *hate* the Vahzilok. Their corpses resist Roots and almost never get caught in it. I seem to be able to catch 'em at a decent rate with Entangle, though, and they can be Confused. Still easy, even knowing as I do, to be caught by surprise by the Cadavers & Abominations (especially Embalmed ...

[/ QUOTE ]
Hence the reason to go Plant/FF (well, one of the reasons anyway). Personal Force Field makes a great travel power, even inside missions.

To the OP:

Nice guide. But could be made better by the inclusion of Controllers, Masterminds, and Corruptors.

Also, if you're comparing Defense/Resistance buffing abilities, there's no reason not to include Emps (Fort), Storms (Steamy Mists), Darks (Shadow Fall), and Kins (Increase Density).

Providing Mag numbers for the mez protectin would also be a nice touch.

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, I'll concede that but raise you that you're doing it to your melee teammates.

[/ QUOTE ]
Like PK said, you don't do it to melee toons. Melee types can usually handle themselves just fine.

In rare cases where they get in trouble, it's usually not hard to Knockback an NPC into a nearby wall rather than down the hallway. You lose some benefit of Knockback that way, the NPC using ranged attacks, the NPC spending time running back to you instead of attacking. But you still get the pause in the NPC attack while he's getting back up. And that's all a melee teammate usually needs.

[ QUOTE ]
Totals
+Def 7.8%
Tohit -68.35%

That's an effective Defense of 76.15%, not including the pet.

[/ QUOTE ]
It's an effective defense on everything that's debuffed. It's zero against everything else.

Whereas sets like FF and Sonic offer effective Defense/Resistance against everything. Even when new spawn come along. No anchors to get killed or move away from the main group. Even when the FFer/Sonic dies the team still gets some protection (of course, FFers never die, but we're speaking hypothetically here ).

Just finished prototype testing for including a single target confuse in the attack chain. The video can be found here: Single Target Confuse Damage Testing Prototype. This is a temporary video that will be removed once the final tests are done.

The results are summarized below:
NOTE THESE ARE PRELIMINARY RESULTS ONLY!!!

Fight____________________________Influence___Time_ ____Influence per second
1 minion 1 boss, no confuse__________17322_____60s______288.7
1 minion 1 boss, boss confuse________17322_____64s______270.65
1 minion 1 boss, minion confuse______16839______64s______263.10

1 minion 1 Lt, no confuse____________7424_______33s______224.96
1 minion 1 Lt, minion confuse_________7109_______33s______215.42
1 minion 1 Lt, Lt confuse_____________7424_______34s______218.35

3 minions, no confuse______________7425_______35s______212.14
3 minions, 2 confuse_______________6673_______35s______190.65
3 minions, 1 confuse_______________7236_______34s______212.82

The tests as done in the prototype do not properly split up Hasten and non-Hasten attack chains. Note that with only one exception the single target Confuse never decreased kill times and resulted in a loss of Inf/Time as high as 9%.

Any feedback on the testing methodology is welcome.

The Girls Of Boomtown

Video of Bots/FF Vs Thugs/Illusion AV battle in the Girls of Boomtown story for the Mission Architect. Created 3/20/2009.

Unsubstantiated claims, like the post above, aren't supported by testing and have no place in a testing document.

As was mentioned (several times) on the Controller board, tests involving multiple enemies, including minions and LTs, will be conducted in the future. Like this test, the future tests will use the Invincible difficulty setting.

Tests involving killing white to grey con minions for street hunting "Kill X of type Y baddies" missions will never be done, as it's a trivial activity.

Addendum 4. Adding Additional Attacks
Just as you can calculate the effect of secondaries, so too can you calculate the effects of adding attacks like Air Superiority.

With Illusion and other sets that have gaps in their attack chain this is particularly easy, just add the DPS of the new attack to the DPS that's already there.

With something that has a full attack chain, like Mind with Hasten, it'll be a bit more difficult. You'd need to A) ensure that the new attack has a DPS higher than the DPS of one of Mind's attacks, B) subtract the DPS of one of Mind's attacks that you will not be using when you use the new attack, and C) Add in the new attack's DPS.

Addendum 3. Calculating Phantom Army DPS
Phantom Army cannot be buffed. This means there are times you'll want to know what their DPS contribution to your overall total is. To calculate PA DPS, subtract the No PA damage from the PA damage. That gives you the DPS done by PA alone. Example for Pre-32, No Hasten:

24.73 (Illusion w/PA DPS)
- 8.45 (Illusion w/out PA DPS)
----------------------------------
16.28 (PA only DPS)

You can then modify this number based on the time PA is available in your build to find the average contribution of PA to your DPS:

Time PA is Available_______________PA Average DPS, Pre-32, No Hasten
50%____________________________8.14 DPS
66%____________________________10.74 DPS
75%____________________________12.21 DPS

This technique provides the only way I know of to obtain PA's DPS numbers.

Addendum 2. Adding Secondary Effects
The DPS numbers can be modified for secondary effects. For example, Disruption Arrow from the Trick Arrow set provides a 15% debuff to a baddies damage resistance. Using Illusion again as an example, for the various PA/No PA combos, this gives us a debuff of:

Time PA is Available_______________Net DPS Adjustment, Pre-32, No Hasten
50%____________________________2.48 DPS
66%____________________________2.89 DPS
75%____________________________3.09 DPS

So with Disruption Arrow debuffing the baddie, I can expect the following damage from Illusion:

Time PA is Available_______________Average Net DPS, Pre-32, No Hasten
50%____________________________19.07 DPS
66%____________________________22.19 DPS
75%____________________________23.75 DPS

Now let's say Disruption Arrow is available only 75% of the time in my build. That means we have to adjust these values as follows:

Time PA is Available_______________Net DPS Adjustment, Pre-32, No Hasten
50%____________________________1.86 DPS
66%____________________________2.16 DPS
75%____________________________2.32 DPS

So I can expect the following average damage from Illusion if I have Disruption Arrow:

Time PA is Available_______________Average Net DPS, Pre-32, No Hasten
50%____________________________18.45 DPS
66%____________________________21.56 DPS
75%____________________________22.66 DPS

Addendum 1. Calculating Illusion's Average DPS
Having PA and no PA tests allows you to use the DPS numbers from each test to give you your overall DPS based on the percentage of time PA is available in your build.

Here are a few examples of how these numbers can be used:

Time PA is Available_______________Average Net DPS, Pre-32, No Hasten
50%____________________________16.59 DPS
66%____________________________19.30 DPS
75%____________________________20.66 DPS

Tested the WarTroller builds for damage vs a single target. The results can be found at: Controller Primary Kill Times and DPS Vs Single Target Summary

Videos of the tests being taken and the builds used can be found here:

Damage Pre-32 Fire, Illusion, Mind, Plant.
Damage Pre-32 Fire, Illusion, Mind, Plant, With Hasten
Damage Level 32 Fire, Illusion, Mind, Plant
Damage Level 32 Fire, Illusion, Mind, and Plant With Hasten
Damage Level 32 Plant w/Pet Recast
Testing Builds for Fire, Illusion, Mind, and Plant

The original prototypes for the tests are here:

WarTroller Single Target Damage Test Pre-Level 32
WarTroller Single Target Damage Test Level 32

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Would you post what the bands and songs are in each of the videos?

Thanks.

Crashy

[/ QUOTE ]
Sure.

WarTroller Single Target Damage Pre 32
Ally Walk With Me
The Ravenettes

WarTroller Single Target Damage 32
The Beat Dies
The Ravenettes

Damage Pre 32 Grav Earth Ice
Toxic
Britney Spears

Damage Pre 32 Grav Earth Ice Hasten
One More Time
Daft Punk

Damage Level 32 Grav, Earth, Ice
All Apologies
Nirvana

Damage 32 Grav Earth Ice Hasten
Goodie Two Shoes
Adam Ant

Damage Pre 32 Fire Ill Mind Plant
Breathe On Me
Britney Spears

Damage Pre 32 Fire Ill Mind Plant Hasten
A Day In The Life
Beatles

Damage 32 Fire Ill Mind Plant
Etude No. 7
Philip Glass

Damage 32 Fire Ill Mind Plant Hasten
1979
The Smashing Pumpkins

Controller Primaries Kill Times And DPS Vs Single Target Summary
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
The Beatles

WhisperWitch's Video Guide To Telekinesis

WhisperWitch's Video Guide To Telekinesis