Probably need IO's, and lots of them.
Ill/rad is still incredibly powerful, but yes, they took away the ability to summon more that one phantasm. As far as recharges, I don't know, I don't remember when ED came along but that could be it, the only way to get perma decoys now is with IO slotting.
I did notice that the phantasm doesn't fade away after a time, so that's cool. But when did they change the pets? It's the phantasm I'm most concerned about, because that could alter a lot of my plans on other characters.
Does the change effect things like Voltaic Sentinel?
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
Pet stacking went away in issue 5, August 2005.
Well, they did also add in Recharge Intensive Pet sets with copious amounts of recharge, and usually with a Recharge bonus on top of that. It's still possible to perma Decoys, it just requires a bit more work.
Phantasm shouldn't need to be made especially permanent anymore, either. It should be permanent until it gets killed (Does it take damage still? I can never remember if it's Phantasm or the Decoys that are immune to damage), or you leave the zone. Or I've never had my Fire Imps ditch me unless they didn't have a choice in the matter (stupid Freak Tanks).
This also does, I do believe, effect Volt Sentinel and Gun Drone, as I'm pretty sure summoning a new one now causes the old one to despawn.
[ QUOTE ]
I did notice that the phantasm doesn't fade away after a time, so that's cool. But when did they change the pets? It's the phantasm I'm most concerned about, because that could alter a lot of my plans on other characters.
Does the change effect things like Voltaic Sentinel?
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, you can't have more than one pet in most cases. There are a few exceptions. Phantom Army gets 3 all the time (It used to be random 2-4). Fire imps get 3 only. Warshades can get multiple fluffies with enough recharge. But only one Phantasm, Jack Frost, Rocky, Singularity, Fly Trap, Dark Servant, Voltaic Sentinel.
You need to learn about Enhancement Diversification a/k/a ED (no, not that ED). In effect, you can slot 2 SO or better enhancements for full effect, and the third one gets a slight penalty. The fourth, fifth and sixth ones have very, very little effect. So, where you used to 6-slot Hasten, now you 3 slot it. There is one or two guides that explain ED fairly well in the guides section. I think one of them is linked in my Earth/Rad guide.
Some of the loss in power is being made up for by set bonuses in Invention Origin (IO) enhancments. We also get procs, and recipes and salvage and lots and lots of other changes. While your characters may be weaker in some ways, the game is much, much better now than it used to be. A lot of changes have been made for the sake of balance. A few of them angered some of the players, but the game is better for it.
I'm working on an Ill/Rad guide whenever I can find time. My Earth/Rad guide should answer most questions you have about the Rad secondary. In the mean time, if you have any questions about how to re-build your Ill/Rad, let me know and I'll try to help.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
It sounds like you might have been gone a bit longer than a year and a half...if you were used to multiple phantasms, you might also have left before Enhancement Diversification (ED)
If you have more than 3 of the same type of SO slotted in any power--like 6-slotted Hasten or Stamina--- you'll definitely want a respec, things have changed a lot.
Radiation Emission might not be as potent as you remember, either. Certain Rad debuffs used to be unresistable by enemies (making it pretty much better than all other debuff sets), which was also changed a while back.
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball
Yeah, if you had perma Hasten and AM, that's likely to be before ED. Although, maybe you still can perma Hasten, I'm not sure.
Anyway, you need to check your Enhancements, and if you have more than 3 SOs in any power, remove them. Look for IO's, Invention Enhancements, and try to find sets that will let you slot the equivalent of 3 SOs in more than one thing. For instance, Recharge and End reduction. You may want to transfer some of your slots out of some powers and put them in others.
Certain IO sets can also give you bonuses, which can, for instance, raise your Recharge globally for all powers. This is how you can get back to something like ED levels, although it'll never be how you remembers. You should still be owning with an Ill/Rad though. 
[ QUOTE ]
Although, maybe you still can perma Hasten, I'm not sure.
[/ QUOTE ]
You can, at least with certain builds, though it's an expensive endeavor if you don't want to have to make subpar slotting decisions and power picks to do it.
I also have been gone for about a year and a half. My troller used to be able to run amuck on almost every mish on invincible and I could turn down the difficulty for AV's and get them down. Now I run on Rugged and get by decently, but I can not even down an AV by myself anymore. Just something I am having to get used to.
Controllers were hit very hard in i5 by the troller nerf. Global Defense Nerf, and Enhancement Diversification also hit every toon as well.
From what I recall, most likely this is incorrect or has errors or is incomplete on some level, the major troller nerfs since you've been gone consist of: <ul type="square">[*]All AoE mez effects were reduced in half for duration[*]All AoE mezzes were increased by twice for recharge duration[*]Affected AoEs were pretty much any AoE, and not just mez including APP Ice Storm, Freezing Rain, Flashfire and Bonfire, for example.[*]Major pets no longer stack, they are perma for the duration of the zone/mission. Casting a new pet will dismiss the old one. No more 3 Jack Frosts or 21 Fire Imps.[*]AVs no longer are affected fully by a majority of the debuff types. They highly resist most debuffs.[*]Purple triangles of doom still exist on AVs. No more standing beside Tyrant with hurricane and flooring his accuracy. Some debuff types work better than others, and buffs to players tend to fare better against AVs.[*]Pets no longer respond to +recharge buffs, eg. speed boost etc. Note that this is for the pet's firing rate and not the rate at which the pet can be recast. Note that for something like speed boost, the attack rate of the pet is unchanged but the movement rate and endurance modification is increased as it did before.[*]Fire imps are now cast at -1 to the caster.[*]Many powers across the sets are slowly being harmonized to common values. Eg. Mind confuse and Illusion deceive. Some have been changed but not fully standardized. Eg. Thunderclap in storm is no longer autohit but the mag is still low so it only affects minions.[*]Most controller powers have been reduced in effectiveness versus their defender counterparts, where they used to be close/identical in duration/power. Eg. Damage amounts in Storm/ are higher than their /Storm counterparts.[*]Fire imps still freak out on oil slick from TA set.[*]Hurricane no longer debuffs on a .1 second tick rate, it debuffs on a 1 second tick rate.[/list]'Buffs'<ul type="square">[*]Pets can move across elevators.[*]Pets that had random numbers (PA and imps) are now fixed in number.[*]Controllers get something called 'containment' which grants them a damage bonus when (most) mez types are active upon the target. This allows the controller to solo much more effectively. Only powers used by the player grant a containment bonus. Pets do not get the bonus, and most pseudo pets and rains do not either, although this is not consistent. Eg. Freezing Rain does not gain containment bonus but APP Ice Storm will.[*]Controllers have a chance to score a critical mez whenever they use their mez power. This is a +1 bonus that shows up as "overpower" so controllers have the innate ability to mez a boss level enemy in a single attack.[*]Pet AI is considered improved for Poo Man and Jack Frost.[*]Pets no longer are affected by -recharge debuffs, eg. siphon speed etc. Note that in the siphon speed example, the movement rate of the pet will still be affected, just not the pet's attack rate.[*]/TA has had a significant buff such that it is no longer gimpy feeling, and is quite powerful.[/list]
Various other notes<ul type="square">[*]AVs now can spawn as an 'Elite Boss' on heroic level to allow for solo players to complete missions.[*]One shot code allows for players to survive some extreme level damage that could previously defeat a player from full health. DoT or multicomponent damage can still 'one shot' players. NPCs are exempt from the one shot code, including your pets.[*]Many phase shift and hibernate powers are now on a 30 second timer maximum versus perma.[*]Perma hasten is no longer common but still can be achieved.[*]Powers received an over 18% reduction in endurance consumed because of ED. [*]There is a streak breaker code that allows players to eventually hit a high def target or be hit. This means that regardless of your defense or to-hit debuffs, you can eventually be hit if you allow your attacker enough swings.[*]Set bonuses from slotting specific Invention Origin Enhancements (ie. loot) is now the best way to outfit characters. Hamidon origin enhancements are used sparingly, for the most part, where IOs won't fit or may not give as much bonus[*]Hamis no longer give +50% bonuses (in general). They are functioning mostly like combination SOs now.[*]Some power aspects are on a reduced bonus scheme, even with ED in consideration. Eg. range bonuses and accuracy debuff enhancements and limits are on a different category/schedule than accuracy and damage limits[*]Many Epics (now ancillary power pools) have power changes and addition of another power to choose from. Many have 5 powers to pick from instead of 4. Most 'epics' for controllers were reduced in damage from i4. Eg. Ice Epic Ice Storm no longer had blaster damage associated with it, even with containment bonus Controller APP Ice Storm no longer does as much damage as the Blaster version[*]There is a second build (available at the trainer) to allow you to rebuild your toon without unslotting or losing your current build. You can swap between builds A and B just by visiting the trainer. This allows you to have things like: you current build now and your new spec, or single target build and an AoE build, or PvE build and PvP. The builds are from the same power sets, eg. fire and kinetics can't be changed out, but everything else can be different between builds, including your pools, APP, powers, slotting and order, as well as the IOs and set bonuses that they contain.[*]Almost all powers have a maximum number of targets that they affect. Usually you can only draw the aggro of about 20ish attackers, so you can no longer herd zones or entire (large) maps at once.[*]Game now shows numbers. You can see detailed info when you manage your enhancement slotting. As well you can also see your own combat attributes in the powers UI in game.[*]Toggles. Defensive toggles no longer drop during mez. They are only suppressed. Offensive toggles are dropped during mez. This means that Armors and concealment buffs automatically bounce back after being held, slept, etc.[/list]
Oh yeah, and welcome back
Thanks everyone!
I realize what happened. I played CoH from I1 to I4. Then I took some time off.
I got back into it a little after CoV came out, played for 4 months, and didn't touch my controller.
A year later, I come back to CoX in all its glory (Yes, I still think it's an amazing game even after all the changes) and pick up my old troller. I thought it had only been a year, but it's been MUCH longer.
Again, thanks everyone, you've really helped. This is such a 'heroic' community.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
[ QUOTE ]
Controllers were hit very hard in i5 by the troller nerf. Global Defense Nerf, and Enhancement Diversification also hit every toon as well.
From what I recall, most likely this is incorrect or has errors or is incomplete on some level, the major troller nerfs since you've been gone consist of: <ul type="square">[*]All AoE mez effects were reduced in half for duration[*]All AoE mezzes were increased by twice for recharge duration[*]Affected AoEs were pretty much any AoE, and not just mez including APP Ice Storm, Freezing Rain, Flashfire and Bonfire, for example.[*]Major pets no longer stack, they are perma for the duration of the zone/mission. Casting a new pet will dismiss the old one. No more 3 Jack Frosts or 21 Fire Imps.[*]AVs no longer are affected fully by a majority of the debuff types. They highly resist most debuffs.[*]Purple triangles of doom still exist on AVs. No more standing beside Tyrant with hurricane and flooring his accuracy. Some debuff types work better than others, and buffs to players tend to fare better against AVs.[*]Pets no longer respond to +recharge buffs, eg. speed boost etc. Note that this is for the pet's firing rate and not the rate at which the pet can be recast. Note that for something like speed boost, the attack rate of the pet is unchanged but the movement rate and endurance modification is increased as it did before.[*]Fire imps are now cast at -1 to the caster.[*]Many powers across the sets are slowly being harmonized to common values. Eg. Mind confuse and Illusion deceive. Some have been changed but not fully standardized. Eg. Thunderclap in storm is no longer autohit but the mag is still low so it only affects minions.[*]Most controller powers have been reduced in effectiveness versus their defender counterparts, where they used to be close/identical in duration/power. Eg. Damage amounts in Storm/ are higher than their /Storm counterparts.[*]Fire imps still freak out on oil slick from TA set.[*]Hurricane no longer debuffs on a .1 second tick rate, it debuffs on a 1 second tick rate.[/list]'Buffs'<ul type="square">[*]Pets can move across elevators.[*]Pets that had random numbers (PA and imps) are now fixed in number.[*]Controllers get something called 'containment' which grants them a damage bonus when (most) mez types are active upon the target. This allows the controller to solo much more effectively. Only powers used by the player grant a containment bonus. Pets do not get the bonus, and most pseudo pets and rains do not either, although this is not consistent. Eg. Freezing Rain does not gain containment bonus but APP Ice Storm will.[*]Controllers have a chance to score a critical mez whenever they use their mez power. This is a +1 bonus that shows up as "overpower" so controllers have the innate ability to mez a boss level enemy in a single attack.[*]Pet AI is considered improved for Poo Man and Jack Frost.[*]Pets no longer are affected by -recharge debuffs, eg. siphon speed etc. Note that in the siphon speed example, the movement rate of the pet will still be affected, just not the pet's attack rate.[*]/TA has had a significant buff such that it is no longer gimpy feeling, and is quite powerful.[/list]
Various other notes<ul type="square">[*]AVs now can spawn as an 'Elite Boss' on heroic level to allow for solo players to complete missions.[*]One shot code allows for players to survive some extreme level damage that could previously defeat a player from full health. DoT or multicomponent damage can still 'one shot' players. NPCs are exempt from the one shot code, including your pets.[*]Many phase shift and hibernate powers are now on a 30 second timer maximum versus perma.[*]Perma hasten is no longer common but still can be achieved.[*]Powers received an over 18% reduction in endurance consumed because of ED. [*]There is a streak breaker code that allows players to eventually hit a high def target or be hit. This means that regardless of your defense or to-hit debuffs, you can eventually be hit if you allow your attacker enough swings.[*]Set bonuses from slotting specific Invention Origin Enhancements (ie. loot) is now the best way to outfit characters. Hamidon origin enhancements are used sparingly, for the most part, where IOs won't fit or may not give as much bonus[*]Hamis no longer give +50% bonuses (in general). They are functioning mostly like combination SOs now.[*]Some power aspects are on a reduced bonus scheme, even with ED in consideration. Eg. range bonuses and accuracy debuff enhancements and limits are on a different category/schedule than accuracy and damage limits[*]Many Epics (now ancillary power pools) have power changes and addition of another power to choose from. Many have 5 powers to pick from instead of 4. Most 'epics' for controllers were reduced in damage from i4. Eg. Ice Epic Ice Storm no longer had blaster damage associated with it, even with containment bonus Controller APP Ice Storm no longer does as much damage as the Blaster version[*]There is a second build (available at the trainer) to allow you to rebuild your toon without unslotting or losing your current build. You can swap between builds A and B just by visiting the trainer. This allows you to have things like: you current build now and your new spec, or single target build and an AoE build, or PvE build and PvP. The builds are from the same power sets, eg. fire and kinetics can't be changed out, but everything else can be different between builds, including your pools, APP, powers, slotting and order, as well as the IOs and set bonuses that they contain.[*]Almost all powers have a maximum number of targets that they affect. Usually you can only draw the aggro of about 20ish attackers, so you can no longer herd zones or entire (large) maps at once.[*]Game now shows numbers. You can see detailed info when you manage your enhancement slotting. As well you can also see your own combat attributes in the powers UI in game.[*]Toggles. Defensive toggles no longer drop during mez. They are only suppressed. Offensive toggles are dropped during mez. This means that Armors and concealment buffs automatically bounce back after being held, slept, etc.[/list]
Oh yeah, and welcome back
[/ QUOTE ]
This is a pretty good list with a few minor inaccuracies. For example:
Not all AoEs were affected by the AoE Hold nerf -- AoE Immobilize and Sleeps were not changed. The Recharge increase was not quite twice its previous duration.
The no-multiple pets affected others, too. No more multiple Dark Servants, even though Fluffy still is on a timer. Same with Voltaic Sentinel a/k/a Sparky. However, Warshades can still have multiple fluffies.
Several pets have recently been buffed: Earth's Rocky is much better, dropping Stone Mallet for Seismic Smash and with much better AI. Jack is better, and Venus Fly Trap a/k/a Audrey II or "Twoey" is much better.
The Oil Slick Arrow bug was partially fixed, but not all the way. It used to be that all controller pets on the oil slick when it was lit would run far, far away and could not re-enter the area where the fire had been lit. Now, they still run, but they will stop outside of its range and use ranged attacks. Unfortunately, Fire Imps don't have a ranged attack. (I find it ironic that Phantom Army, invulnerable to everything other than Hamidon, run away in fear from a fire patch.)
Oh, and by the way, Hamidon is now the only thing that can actually kill Phantom Army. The Hami Raid was substantially changed, too. Many of us old timers quit doing Hami Raids as a result.
The "overpower" chance was always there. The only thing that changed was that now the game shows "overpower" when it hits.
Streak Breaker only applies to players attacking foes, not foes attacking players. However, there has always been a cap on ToHit and Defense of 95%, so there is always a minimum 5% chance that you will be hit, no matter how good your defense is or how low the level of the foe.
If I'm wrong on some of these, I'm sure others will come along and fix my mistakes.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
[ QUOTE ]
Several pets have recently been buffed: Earth's Rocky is much better, dropping Stone Mallet for Seismic Smash and with much better AI. Jack is better, and Venus Fly Trap a/k/a Audrey II or "Twoey" is much better.
[/ QUOTE ]
From the OP's perspective (and one of the followup's posts), Audrey I never existed, so the improvement doesn't technically count.
My "descent" from being able to solo AVs w/my various controllers, and then not being able to, came down to 2 main things, ED and no more multiple pets, esp Imps & Phants. Really cut down on the amount of damage you could output, not to mention easily achievable perma-PAs and whatnot. IOs set the balance straight again, esp recently w/the +def changes, and in fact, I can solo stuff now that I couldn't dream of earlier when I merely *thought* I was teh uber, but it'll cost you.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
[ QUOTE ]
This is a pretty good list with a few minor inaccuracies. For example:
Not all AoEs were affected by the AoE Hold nerf -- AoE Immobilize and Sleeps were not changed. The Recharge increase was not quite twice its previous duration.
The no-multiple pets affected others, too. No more multiple Dark Servants, even though Fluffy still is on a timer. Same with Voltaic Sentinel a/k/a Sparky. However, Warshades can still have multiple fluffies.
Several pets have recently been buffed: Earth's Rocky is much better, dropping Stone Mallet for Seismic Smash and with much better AI. Jack is better, and Venus Fly Trap a/k/a Audrey II or "Twoey" is much better.
The Oil Slick Arrow bug was partially fixed, but not all the way. It used to be that all controller pets on the oil slick when it was lit would run far, far away and could not re-enter the area where the fire had been lit. Now, they still run, but they will stop outside of its range and use ranged attacks. Unfortunately, Fire Imps don't have a ranged attack. (I find it ironic that Phantom Army, invulnerable to everything other than Hamidon, run away in fear from a fire patch.)
Oh, and by the way, Hamidon is now the only thing that can actually kill Phantom Army. The Hami Raid was substantially changed, too. Many of us old timers quit doing Hami Raids as a result.
The "overpower" chance was always there. The only thing that changed was that now the game shows "overpower" when it hits.
Streak Breaker only applys to players attacking foes, not foes attacking players. However, there has always been a cap on ToHit and Defense of 95%, so there is always a minimum 5% chance that you will be hit, no matter how good your defense is or how low the level of the foe.
If I'm wrong on some of these, I'm sure others will come along and fix my mistakes.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the bugfixes.
I'm pretty sure streakbreaker works against you as well as for you. Here's the paragonwiki web page.
[ QUOTE ]
The Streak Breaker
There is a special feature in the game called the streak breaker. Its purpose is to prevent long streaks of misses, and it works by sometimes forcing an attack to hit automatically. Whether the streak breaker comes into play depends on an attack's expected chance of hitting, how many consecutive misses have happened so far, and what their hit chances were.
This is a direct quote from Cryptic developer Weirdbeard explaining the details. (Just to be clear, when he says "to-hit" here, he means the final chance of hitting.)
Final to-hit : misses allowed
>.9 : 1
.8-.9 : 2
.6-.8 : 3
.4-.6 : 4
.3-.4 : 6
.2-.3 : 8
0 -.2 : 100
Auto-hit powers are not included in the system.
Critters get the benefits of the system as well.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hamidon can damage all 'phased' individuals and NPCs now, so you can't run by phase shifting nor will hibernate protect you from hami damage. Oh yah, phase shifty powers like that are on a 2 minute suppression for phased effects anyhow.
[ QUOTE ]
Oh, and by the way, Hamidon is now the only thing that can actually kill Phantom Army.
[/ QUOTE ]
I could be wrong, but I think it's theoretically possible for them to be killed by falling damage.
Falling damage should only be able to bring them down to 1 health and no further.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Several pets have recently been buffed: Earth's Rocky is much better, dropping Stone Mallet for Seismic Smash and with much better AI. Jack is better, and Venus Fly Trap a/k/a Audrey II or "Twoey" is much better.
[/ QUOTE ]
From the OP's perspective (and one of the followup's posts), Audrey I never existed, so the improvement doesn't technically count.
[/ QUOTE ]
I think the OP said that he played Villains when it came out, so he had access to Plant on that side.
I call the Fly Trap "Audrey II" or "Twoey" because that is the actual name Seymore gives to the Plant in "Little Shop of Horrors." Audrey I was the girl. (Just a pet peeve of mine -- I really like that movie and play. The Play ends differently, with the Plant winning.)
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
[ QUOTE ]
I think the OP said that he played Villains when it came out, so he had access to Plant on that side.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, and I did make a plant dominator as one of my first villains. I liked him a lot, but didn't get too far with it because I fell in love with masterminds. I made one of every flavor, but liked my Bot/FF the most. I felt invincible, especially once I got the panic button.
I started playing the troller a little heavier lately, and quickly realized all his SO's were yellow. I did a respec and pretty much sold them all off to have the cash to make IO's. I didn't realize how expensive IO's could be... I think I'm going to have to exemp for a loooong time.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
[ QUOTE ]
Controllers were hit very hard in i5 by the troller nerf. Global Defense Nerf, and Enhancement Diversification also hit every toon as well.
From what I recall, most likely this is incorrect or has errors or is incomplete on some level, the major troller nerfs since you've been gone consist of: <ul type="square">[*]All AoE mez effects were reduced in half for duration[*]All AoE mezzes were increased by twice for recharge duration[*]Affected AoEs were pretty much any AoE, and not just mez including APP Ice Storm, Freezing Rain, Flashfire and Bonfire, for example.[*]Major pets no longer stack, they are perma for the duration of the zone/mission. Casting a new pet will dismiss the old one. No more 3 Jack Frosts or 21 Fire Imps.[*]AVs no longer are affected fully by a majority of the debuff types. They highly resist most debuffs.[*]Purple triangles of doom still exist on AVs. No more standing beside Tyrant with hurricane and flooring his accuracy. Some debuff types work better than others, and buffs to players tend to fare better against AVs.[*]Pets no longer respond to +recharge buffs, eg. speed boost etc. Note that this is for the pet's firing rate and not the rate at which the pet can be recast. Note that for something like speed boost, the attack rate of the pet is unchanged but the movement rate and endurance modification is increased as it did before.[*]Fire imps are now cast at -1 to the caster.[*]Many powers across the sets are slowly being harmonized to common values. Eg. Mind confuse and Illusion deceive. Some have been changed but not fully standardized. Eg. Thunderclap in storm is no longer autohit but the mag is still low so it only affects minions.[*]Most controller powers have been reduced in effectiveness versus their defender counterparts, where they used to be close/identical in duration/power. Eg. Damage amounts in Storm/ are higher than their /Storm counterparts.[*]Fire imps still freak out on oil slick from TA set.[*]Hurricane no longer debuffs on a .1 second tick rate, it debuffs on a 1 second tick rate.[/list]'Buffs'<ul type="square">[*]Pets can move across elevators.[*]Pets that had random numbers (PA and imps) are now fixed in number.[*]Controllers get something called 'containment' which grants them a damage bonus when (most) mez types are active upon the target. This allows the controller to solo much more effectively. Only powers used by the player grant a containment bonus. Pets do not get the bonus, and most pseudo pets and rains do not either, although this is not consistent. Eg. Freezing Rain does not gain containment bonus but APP Ice Storm will.[*]Controllers have a chance to score a critical mez whenever they use their mez power. This is a +1 bonus that shows up as "overpower" so controllers have the innate ability to mez a boss level enemy in a single attack.[*]Pet AI is considered improved for Poo Man and Jack Frost.[*]Pets no longer are affected by -recharge debuffs, eg. siphon speed etc. Note that in the siphon speed example, the movement rate of the pet will still be affected, just not the pet's attack rate.[*]/TA has had a significant buff such that it is no longer gimpy feeling, and is quite powerful.[/list]
Various other notes<ul type="square">[*]AVs now can spawn as an 'Elite Boss' on heroic level to allow for solo players to complete missions.[*]One shot code allows for players to survive some extreme level damage that could previously defeat a player from full health. DoT or multicomponent damage can still 'one shot' players. NPCs are exempt from the one shot code, including your pets.[*]Many phase shift and hibernate powers are now on a 30 second timer maximum versus perma.[*]Perma hasten is no longer common but still can be achieved.[*]Powers received an over 18% reduction in endurance consumed because of ED. [*]There is a streak breaker code that allows players to eventually hit a high def target or be hit. This means that regardless of your defense or to-hit debuffs, you can eventually be hit if you allow your attacker enough swings.[*]Set bonuses from slotting specific Invention Origin Enhancements (ie. loot) is now the best way to outfit characters. Hamidon origin enhancements are used sparingly, for the most part, where IOs won't fit or may not give as much bonus[*]Hamis no longer give +50% bonuses (in general). They are functioning mostly like combination SOs now.[*]Some power aspects are on a reduced bonus scheme, even with ED in consideration. Eg. range bonuses and accuracy debuff enhancements and limits are on a different category/schedule than accuracy and damage limits[*]Many Epics (now ancillary power pools) have power changes and addition of another power to choose from. Many have 5 powers to pick from instead of 4. Most 'epics' for controllers were reduced in damage from i4. Eg. Ice Epic Ice Storm no longer had blaster damage associated with it, even with containment bonus Controller APP Ice Storm no longer does as much damage as the Blaster version[*]There is a second build (available at the trainer) to allow you to rebuild your toon without unslotting or losing your current build. You can swap between builds A and B just by visiting the trainer. This allows you to have things like: you current build now and your new spec, or single target build and an AoE build, or PvE build and PvP. The builds are from the same power sets, eg. fire and kinetics can't be changed out, but everything else can be different between builds, including your pools, APP, powers, slotting and order, as well as the IOs and set bonuses that they contain.[*]Almost all powers have a maximum number of targets that they affect. Usually you can only draw the aggro of about 20ish attackers, so you can no longer herd zones or entire (large) maps at once.[*]Game now shows numbers. You can see detailed info when you manage your enhancement slotting. As well you can also see your own combat attributes in the powers UI in game.[*]Toggles. Defensive toggles no longer drop during mez. They are only suppressed. Offensive toggles are dropped during mez. This means that Armors and concealment buffs automatically bounce back after being held, slept, etc.[/list]
Oh yeah, and welcome back
[/ QUOTE ]
Great list, I like how you mention the positives as well as the negatives. In hindsight I'm sure people will agree that some of the nurfs (21 fire imps) were a step in the right direction, despite the 40+ page thread it generated at the time. ;-)
At the time, most controllers were considered to be a burden pre-32, especially fire controllers. However, after getting their pets, most controllers preferred soloing rather than teaming with the people that had formerly 'rejected' them. Trollers were considered late game necessities back then, especially before the PToDs came out on AVs.
Late game scenarios were where controllers really shone, since they had uber AoEs, awesome buffs and debuffs, and plenty of pets possible. So many, that other players literally felt pushed out of the way by multiple Jack Frosts or a huge horde of fire imps.
I had a fire/kin back then and an ice/storm, and both were severely hit by the troller nerf. In a way, it was absolutely necessary to get their performance in line with other ATs, especially when considering PvP balance as well.
If you suffered through the painful pre-i5 period of trying to solo a mission on heroic in your low 20s with a (fire) controller back then, it sure stung when they took away your late game performance in the i5 nerf.
[ QUOTE ]
Falling damage should only be able to bring them down to 1 health and no further.
[/ QUOTE ]
But if you fall onto a sloped surface and slide even a little, you can take that extra point of damage and die before you can do anything. It's happened to me many times - virtually every single time that falling damage has taken me to 1 hp, in fact. Presumably it would apply to PA as well. /e shrug
Ok, so I haven't played in about a year and a half, and last I recall, my illusion/radiation controller was a beast. He stomped things. Annihilated even. I remember having perma haste and accelerate metabolism, which lead to perma decoys and at least two phantasms, with the occasional third.
Now my haste and AM don't recharge fast enough, leaving me without my perma decoys, and I can only summon one phantasm no matter what!
What happened?
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.