Between Smoke and Flash Arrow, if you decide to take only one of them, take Flash Arrow, because its to-hit debuff is unresistable, which makes it a lot more powerful against high-level AVs.
Controllers have always had a chance to get a critical +1 mez magnitude. "Overpower" is just a new graphic they added to tell you when it happens.
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Should I bother taking both smoke and flash arrow?
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Yes.
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Would the -to hits stack
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Yes.
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and if so would it actually be worth it?
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Slot them both up to ~7.5% -ToHit, there you go, you have the equivalent of 15% Defense versus everything.
Yes, it's worth it.
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In my opinion, I think I'll be killing a lotta stuff so fast it won't matter much.
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You won't be defeating anything fast until you get your pets and get them slotted up. My Fire/TA hit 28 last night and even with two veteran reward attacks, the only fast thing about that character is how quickly I can get around with Hurdle + CJ.
Here's my recommendation: take both Smoke and Flash Arrow. Use them for the first 33-34 levels. Make it a habit. See spawn, Smoke spawn, Flash Arrow spawn, then attack spawn. After you have your pets and they're slotted appropriately, run a simple series of tests. Fight a few spawns without Smoke and Flash Arrow, then fight a few with Smoke and Flash Arrow, and compare the survivability between those two types of fights.
I already know that your Imps are going to significantly benefit from that 15% -ToHit, but you should experience it for yourself to understand how much of a difference it makes.
I agree with Luminara on everything except the won't be killing things fast part.
Take ring of fire. Slot it for damage.
Slot Char for damage.
Take Hot feet and slot it for accuracy and endurance reduction first then add damage and some slow in when you can. (Frakenslotting from slow sets works quite well for this).
Slot Fire cages for accuracy, end reduction and recharge. Immob duration isn't needed.
Slot Flashfires for Accuracy, Stun duration and Recharge.
Take Bonfire and use it as an attack. Fire cages gives -KB to the mobs for 10 seconds. As long as you refresh it every 10 seconds Bonfire won't throw the mobs aross the map. If you refresh it every 5 seconds only the mobs that you miss twice in a row will go sailing out of Bonfire.
If you want an idea of how well and how fast fire can do this even prior to imps check the photos in This Post .
That's a fire/storm but /TA gets disruption arrow which means that you wind up doing all most as much damage all most as fast. You are much safer as the defense provided by stacking Smoke and Flash Arrow reduces incoming damage and helps to prevent mez (which detoggles Hot Feet) by making more of them miss.
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I agree with Luminara on everything except the won't be killing things fast part.
Take ring of fire. Slot it for damage.
Slot Char for damage.
Take Hot feet and slot it for accuracy and endurance reduction first then add damage and some slow in when you can. (Frakenslotting from slow sets works quite well for this).
Slot Fire cages for accuracy, end reduction and recharge. Immob duration isn't needed.
Slot Flashfires for Accuracy, Stun duration and Recharge.
Take Bonfire and use it as an attack. Fire cages gives -KB to the mobs for 10 seconds. As long as you refresh it every 10 seconds Bonfire won't throw the mobs aross the map. If you refresh it every 5 seconds only the mobs that you miss twice in a row will go sailing out of Bonfire.
If you want an idea of how well and how fast fire can do this even prior to imps check the photos in This Post .
That's a fire/storm but /TA gets disruption arrow which means that you wind up doing all most as much damage all most as fast. You are much safer as the defense provided by stacking Smoke and Flash Arrow reduces incoming damage and helps to prevent mez (which detoggles Hot Feet) by making more of them miss.
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Thanks for the responses guys. Yea I knew about the -knockback (I had an ice/storm and used tornado as an attack because of the -knockback and loved it).
Looks like I'll take both flash arrow and smoke and I can't wait to destroy mobs.
Later on you can also get powerboost for the smoke/flash arrow combo bringing the combined tohit debuff to about 28%. Worth 3 powers? Not really imo, when rads can do it so much better with just 1 power, but it gets the job done.
May I suggest you reroll?
This is a bit stronger stance than I've taken in the past, but I really hate the way a lit OSA makes my pet run away. Now, I'm Earth/TA so my pet can stay at range and throw rocks, but your imps will really freak out, and they can only attack at melee. OSA is far too good a power not to use whenever it's up, which means your imps will be freaking out a LOT.
If you're set on Fire/TA for concept reasons or whatever, then you'll have to just deal with that and hope that the devs finally get around to fixing this ridiculous bug. If you're just trying to settle upon a good combo, I think there are much better ones for both Fire & TA than w/each other.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
I have a 50 Fire/TA and don't worry too much about your imps freaking out with a lit Oil Slick Arrow. They freak out initially, but will wade back in to attack mobs.
Or you can set up for your imps to take out one group while you work on another with OSA.
Anyway, Fire/TA is a great combo; I did skip Hotfeet on mine because I went Staminaless. But I prefer to fight outside melee, so Hotfeet would be largely wasted on my build. It is worth it to have both Flash Arrow and Smoke; using them on different mobs near each other means you can stealth by quickly where need be, or use them together to well-debuff one group. Web Arrow means you can set up for containment on a mob without 'wasting' a damage power. Overall, TA just comes with a great assortment of powers to help you debuff and destroy groups. And since they speed up the assorted TA animations I haven't had a problem of 'dying while animating.' (Which was my complaint about the set some time back.)
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And since they speed up the assorted TA animations I haven't had a problem of 'dying while animating.' (Which was my complaint about the set some time back.)
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Ah they sped up the animations then? That makes since cause I thought web arrow felt quicker. I was around when TA first came out and the main reason I never used it was just that it felt so darn slow.
Hey all, I'm starting up a fire/TA troller. I wanted something that would be very usefull to teams and still able to hold it's own soloing which I think this will do. I have one main question:
Should I bother taking both smoke and flash arrow? Would the -to hits stack and if so would it actually be worth it? In my opinion, I think I'll be killing a lotta stuff so fast it won't matter much. Maybe on teams?
Also, what's this new overpower thing? I took a break for about a year or two and last I knew there was containment. Is overpower a crit for the hold/immob or is it simply in place of saying containment?
Any other suggestions people might have about this particular match up would be nice. This is my first time using both fire and TA so feel free to comment on anything you want.
Thanks All!