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The four reasons I wouldn't go with Earth are (a) it doesn't have a fast recharging single target blast to make an attack chain, (b) Since Ill/Rad has a heal, Earth's Embrace isn't needed that much, (c) the AoE damage attack has very short range, and (d) the Earth armor is really ugly. My stone tanks were designed with the armor in mind, but not my Ill/Rad.
Still, Seismic Smash makes the Earth APP very tempting.
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(a) With the amount of recharge I plan to pack into this build, my attack chain can be Blind, SW, Blind, SW... or hell, maybe even SW, SW, SW much like the neutrino bolt.
(b) I didn't plan on taking Earth's Embrace. I don't even use my heal, to be honest.
(c) The short range is annoying, but I'm willing to trade that for more control (good stun), which the other sets don't offer. Psy comes close with the knockup, but this has knockdown and stun.
(d) I don't plan on using the armor, only taking it for a place to slot LoTG. Although, I might just take acrobatics instead.
And yes, from my limited experience so far, seismic smash is incredible. I don't even have it slotted yet!
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I have about 230% global +recharge including AM and Hasten, plus an extra 55-60% from the powers themselves (I could have more but it would ony shave about a 10th of a second off the recharge times fo either one while costing me endurence reduction or some other valuable resource). Even wiht all that, I cant get a truly continuous attack chain from the two of them.
That said, I still dont bother with my patron attack on account of Blackwand does a lot more damage per activation time than any of them (a LOT more) and at 1.67 seconds ist just barely fast enough to fit nicely into the attack chain.
If you do not have Blackwand yet, then you should be aware that at 2.5 seconds of activation time, Hurl Boulder will NOT fit nicely into your attack chain. This, and being [censored]-ugly, is the only real drawback of Earth Mastery
Earth's Embrace is not as awesome as some people like to claim, but it is a good power. Still, I agree, its probably skipable if you relaly dont want it.
Fissure is a nice power, but do recall that its disorient is only magnitude 2. For some sets (IE sets that have a mag 3 AoE stun as their primary AoE control - Earth, Fire and Gravity) thats more than enough since you can stack the two to establish AoE lockdown on boss-class mobs. But you're an illusionist - you have no other stun to stack it with. That means ti will only lock down minions. I find the soft control of psionic tornado is a highly effective damage mitigator, myself, and th raw DAMAGE IN YOUR FACE orange numbers of fireball are not to be ignored.
Use your armour. Trust me.
Yes, Seismic Smash IS awesome.
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How many epic powers can you take?
I would go Primal forces -
Power boost is going to boost your self heal and holds/confuses
and temp invuln for resistance. If your looking for just recharge bonuses then yeah psi master for IW and PT.
If your building for recharge then I am guessing you have hasten and am - if you have am close to perma your getting mez shortening with AM (am lessens the duration of mezzes) plus if you carry break frees your probably better off than waiting for IW to come back up (but then again if your close to perma on hasten and am IW would be up fast 
).
What is your goal for the epic powers? To increase your global recharge?
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Power Boost seems to boost recharge too, and conserve power is lovely when you feel like going ape **** with your powers 
Freedom Bound!!!
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I wanted Fire because I also wanted Fireball with its fast AoE damage (not a cone) and for Consume for those occasional situations where I run low on endurance. Conserve Power will reduce your use of End, allowing you to slowly recover, but not get it all back in one shot.
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Get it all back in one shot so you can waste it again? All while you are dealing with the mobs being spread apart because your phantasm is knocking them over the place. You're not going to convince anyone that CP can't be more useful than consume is to an ill/rad.
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I tried Primal in the days before Torrent was added. I agree that it is more appealing now, even if Power Boost doesn't do much. Ice with Frostbreath is also more appealing. I wonder why Fire can't add Fire Breath to make it match.
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Haha, would be sweet but sweet dreams.
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Still, Seismic Smash makes the Earth APP very tempting.
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Especially on a super high recharge build like perma hasten/am ill/rad build. IIRC 5ish second recharge on it.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
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How many epic powers can you take?
I would go Primal forces -
Power boost is going to boost your self heal and holds/confuses
and temp invuln for resistance. If your looking for just recharge bonuses then yeah psi master for IW and PT.
If your building for recharge then I am guessing you have hasten and am - if you have am close to perma your getting mez shortening with AM (am lessens the duration of mezzes) plus if you carry break frees your probably better off than waiting for IW to come back up (but then again if your close to perma on hasten and am IW would be up fast ).
What is your goal for the epic powers? To increase your global recharge?
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Power Boost seems to boost recharge too, and conserve power is lovely when you feel like going ape **** with your powers
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Powerboost should NOT be affecting recharge. If you are finding it does, then you found a very nice BUG.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
Primal's is Power Boost -- however, Illusion doesn't have many powers that will benefit much from Power Boost.
lol wut?
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I wanted Fire because I also wanted Fireball with its fast AoE damage (not a cone) and for Consume for those occasional situations where I run low on endurance. Conserve Power will reduce your use of End, allowing you to slowly recover, but not get it all back in one shot.
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Get it all back in one shot so you can waste it again? All while you are dealing with the mobs being spread apart because your phantasm is knocking them over the place. You're not going to convince anyone that CP can't be more useful than consume is to an ill/rad.
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Well, I convinced me, by trying it out.
One Example of when I use Consume are shortly after using EM Pulse. Conserve Power just won't cut it then. Another is if I'm almost out of Blue and I want to fire off AM . . . Consume refills my blue bar and then AM increased the regen rate. In fact, I can think of several times that I have run into a group while I'm already somewhat low on End, fired off EM Pulse, popped a small blue, fired off Consume and then AM, and I'm ready to go.
I actually don't need it very often. Most of the time, my endurance is fine. CP works if you are expecting to do something that will use a lot of endurance, but Consume works in those moments when you suddenly realize that you are surrounded and out of of endurance.
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I tried Primal in the days before Torrent was added. I agree that it is more appealing now, even if Power Boost doesn't do much. Ice with Frostbreath is also more appealing. I wonder why Fire can't add Fire Breath to make it match.
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Haha, would be sweet but sweet dreams.
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Still, Seismic Smash makes the Earth APP very tempting.
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Especially on a super high recharge build like perma hasten/am ill/rad build. IIRC 5ish second recharge on it.
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Not all of us have spent the hours and hours and millions necessary to make a max recharge build. My Ill/Rad was 50 long before IOs, and I had a max Hami-O build. And I was (and still am) quite happy with him. I have slowly pulled some Hami-Os out and replaced them with some IOs, but it would take five or six respecs and a ton of influence to make him into a Max build . . . and I like playing alts too much to invest that much into one character.
So, I don't believe in giving advice to folks assuming that they have a MAX-MAX build. I assume that folks have a fairly normal build with commonly available IOs that are not extremely expensive.
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
Powerboost does not affect recharge. At least it did not when I experimented wiht the set a while ago. If have evidence that it does, please tell us. Either its a rather serious bug, or I am about to change epic pools and rework my sets!
Also, with permanant AM for +60% recovery (when slotted) and the right unique enhancements, I find tha endurence quickly becomes a non-issue for ill/rad controllers. With a bit of endurence reduction in your powers youll be laughing. I dont even carry blue pills any more - even after popping EMPulse, following it with high endurence powers (psionic tornado, spectral terror, and/or lingering radaition would be good examples) or a continuous attack chain, I find I never have occasion to use them. Literally endurence potiosn would sit in my inventory for months at a time doing nothing while I emptied row after row of greens and purples (though this latter phenomina may be partially related to my to engage the next spawn whenever I damn well feal like it whether the team has caught up with me or not... but I digress). I mention this because, it tends to obviate the need for conserve power, consume, and other temporary endurence-boosting powers. Of course, I suppose if I had one of those powers I could do wiht less -endcost enhancement in my big ticket powers, but I find they are all already optimized for the more important things (acuracy, recharge, and dureation/damage) and that theres really nothing more to be gained by switching around endurence for some other thing. Your mileage may vary.
Also, I agree, if you do want an end booster Conserve Power is much better than consume. MUCH better. But perhaps you want fire anyway (notably for fireball) so knowing that you're going that route anyway you decide to pick up consume. I certainly wouldn't recommend taking Primal Forces JUST for conserve power.
Also, its true that not everyone puts the time and effort to make an absolutely maxed out uber-build. Its simply that as a completly unashamed elitist. Personally I find that ill/rad is a build that really benifits a LOT from someone who's willing to invest serious money in it. For more bang for your buck at low levels of fake, virtual income, I would tend to recommend fire/rad instead.
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Primal's is Power Boost -- however, Illusion doesn't have many powers that will benefit much from Power Boost.
lol wut?
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Power-boosted, vanguard-medaled EM Pulse. Makes me long for the days before there were such things as target caps. Aside from EMPulse, Flash, and St holds, Spectral Terror is fun to powerboost. Not only will you make its cycling mezz effect much more potant, but you wioll also double the -tohit debuff it comes with from 15 to 30 percent. Powerboost obviously works wiht your heal as well, although its still a bit gimpomatic, and green inspirations are still a better bet for healing in the thick of combat. It does NOT work, as most know, with your toggle debuffs. Or rather, it does, but it will only enhance their effectiveness while its active - you cna't cast them during its duration and have the enhancement effect linger even after the boost ends as you could with a click-to-use debuff like, say, freezing rain.
All in all, I found powerboost an extremelly useful addition to my pwnzimicating capabilities It made a big, big difference in performance. I just found indomitable will better. As Local Man reminds us, however, getting indomitable will permanent is not a job for the faint of heart (or poor of free time), so if your build wont be that high end, then definately, definately look to primal forces as a strong second choice.
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Power-boosted, vanguard-medaled EM Pulse. Makes me long for the days before there were such things as target caps.
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I don't see the point. Anything tough enough to survive longer than even an unslotted EM Pulse duration against a halfway decent team probably has purple triangles anyway.
Mostly the extremelly long duration comes in handy in huge battles, such as those found on the Lady Gray or Imperious Task-Force, or against huge ambushes spawned during more important archvillain fights (which are fast becoming a staple of new high level content, including the ITF, LGTF, and Statesman's Task Force). You hold them and leave them tehre for a few minutes while you and the team focus on other parts of the battle, and/or killing the archvillain. Also useful, in much trhe same way, if you play with incompetant teams that sometimes accrue more agro than they can handle (also known as all pickup groups in this and every game ever). As a general matter though, you're right, the super-duper duration is superfluous, but when it does come in handy, its extremelly satisfying. As a general rule, I just used to popo power boost before each fight. Vanguard MEdal sat in my tray barring unusla circumstances. The PB would make sure the hold lasted more than long enough to finish the encounter. It could even make Flash seem impressivley long lasting.
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I wanted Fire because I also wanted Fireball with its fast AoE damage (not a cone) and for Consume for those occasional situations where I run low on endurance. Conserve Power will reduce your use of End, allowing you to slowly recover, but not get it all back in one shot.
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Get it all back in one shot so you can waste it again? All while you are dealing with the mobs being spread apart because your phantasm is knocking them over the place. You're not going to convince anyone that CP can't be more useful than consume is to an ill/rad.
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Well, I convinced me, by trying it out.
One Example of when I use Consume are shortly after using EM Pulse. Conserve Power just won't cut it then. Another is if I'm almost out of Blue and I want to fire off AM . . . Consume refills my blue bar and then AM increased the regen rate. In fact, I can think of several times that I have run into a group while I'm already somewhat low on End, fired off EM Pulse, popped a small blue, fired off Consume and then AM, and I'm ready to go.
I actually don't need it very often. Most of the time, my endurance is fine. CP works if you are expecting to do something that will use a lot of endurance, but Consume works in those moments when you suddenly realize that you are surrounded and out of of endurance.
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I tried Primal in the days before Torrent was added. I agree that it is more appealing now, even if Power Boost doesn't do much. Ice with Frostbreath is also more appealing. I wonder why Fire can't add Fire Breath to make it match.
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Haha, would be sweet but sweet dreams.
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Still, Seismic Smash makes the Earth APP very tempting.
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Especially on a super high recharge build like perma hasten/am ill/rad build. IIRC 5ish second recharge on it.
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Not all of us have spent the hours and hours and millions necessary to make a max recharge build. My Ill/Rad was 50 long before IOs, and I had a max Hami-O build. And I was (and still am) quite happy with him. I have slowly pulled some Hami-Os out and replaced them with some IOs, but it would take five or six respecs and a ton of influence to make him into a Max build . . . and I like playing alts too much to invest that much into one character.
So, I don't believe in giving advice to folks assuming that they have a MAX-MAX build. I assume that folks have a fairly normal build with commonly available IOs that are not extremely expensive.
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I wasn't saying that you NEEDED to have a super expensive build. But to the OP who WAS speaking of that, i was just exclaiming how nice it is at that time
And if you "need end now!" cp basically works that way. I can't think of a time where i'd pop CP and had any problems spamming whatever i wanted at that time lol. I didn't say consume didn't work, i just said i think CP is better on an ILL/rad
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
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Primal's is Power Boost -- however, Illusion doesn't have many powers that will benefit much from Power Boost.
lol wut?
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Power-boosted, vanguard-medaled EM Pulse. Makes me long for the days before there were such things as target caps. Aside from EMPulse, Flash, and St holds, Spectral Terror is fun to powerboost. Not only will you make its cycling mezz effect much more potant, but you wioll also double the -tohit debuff it comes with from 15 to 30 percent. Powerboost obviously works wiht your heal as well, although its still a bit gimpomatic, and green inspirations are still a better bet for healing in the thick of combat. It does NOT work, as most know, with your toggle debuffs. Or rather, it does, but it will only enhance their effectiveness while its active - you cna't cast them during its duration and have the enhancement effect linger even after the boost ends as you could with a click-to-use debuff like, say, freezing rain.
All in all, I found powerboost an extremelly useful addition to my pwnzimicating capabilities It made a big, big difference in performance. I just found indomitable will better. As Local Man reminds us, however, getting indomitable will permanent is not a job for the faint of heart (or poor of free time), so if your build wont be that high end, then definately, definately look to primal forces as a strong second choice.
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I just wanted to clarify, that power boost only affects spectral terror, for about 13ish seconds max while it is buffing you, as does any buff applied to a pseudo-pet power.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
Power Boost followed by Accelerate Metabolism should increase your Speed, Recharge, Recovery, Damage and Resistances while that particular buff lasts.
Resistances, and spead, yes. Dmage, Recharge, adn recovery buffs are not enhanced by Power Boost. Beleive me, this is one I tested at considerable length. I only wish it worked like that but there is no such luck.
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Primal's is Power Boost -- however, Illusion doesn't have many powers that will benefit much from Power Boost.
lol wut?
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Power-boosted, vanguard-medaled EM Pulse. Makes me long for the days before there were such things as target caps. Aside from EMPulse, Flash, and St holds, Spectral Terror is fun to powerboost. Not only will you make its cycling mezz effect much more potant, but you wioll also double the -tohit debuff it comes with from 15 to 30 percent. Powerboost obviously works wiht your heal as well, although its still a bit gimpomatic, and green inspirations are still a better bet for healing in the thick of combat. It does NOT work, as most know, with your toggle debuffs. Or rather, it does, but it will only enhance their effectiveness while its active - you cna't cast them during its duration and have the enhancement effect linger even after the boost ends as you could with a click-to-use debuff like, say, freezing rain.
All in all, I found powerboost an extremelly useful addition to my pwnzimicating capabilities It made a big, big difference in performance. I just found indomitable will better. As Local Man reminds us, however, getting indomitable will permanent is not a job for the faint of heart (or poor of free time), so if your build wont be that high end, then definately, definately look to primal forces as a strong second choice.
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I just wanted to clarify, that power boost only affects spectral terror, for about 13ish seconds max while it is buffing you, as does any buff applied to a pseudo-pet power.
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If you say so, I believe you - I never did any serious testing on the subject. I can only say that I felat as if I was being hit a great deal less than when doing the same thing with a normal ST.
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Power Boost followed by Accelerate Metabolism should increase your Speed, Recharge, Recovery, Damage and Resistances while that particular buff lasts.
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AW, first post and wrong information, oh to be new again :P. Again, PB does not boost recharge. It also does not boost the +damage portion of AM either, not the recovery (which recovery and regen are the BIGGEST things i wish powerboost DID affect).
Henceforth, the only thing powerboost affects on AM is the run speed.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
First post but who said I'm new, not my fault every time I stop playing to go do something else in my life they delete my old account.
Thanks for the oh so friendly return to the forums and try to help out dig tho, gee what a guy.
I would say psionic mastery, simply because I always find the thing that hurts me most on my ill/rad is getting mezzed, getting mezzed makes your debuffs drop. I have about 80 something percent in global recharge, so I pretty much have perma PA, Hasten, and AM. Indomitable Will is very nearly perma as well, think there is a few seconds down time, can't remember. But no more than like 5-8. So my toon has a lot of mez protection most the time.
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First post but who said I'm new, not my fault every time I stop playing to go do something else in my life they delete my old account.
Thanks for the oh so friendly return to the forums and try to help out dig tho, gee what a guy.
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Meant no harm by it. And that really sucks they deleted your old account 
I thought they kept it forever?
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
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First post but who said I'm new, not my fault every time I stop playing to go do something else in my life they delete my old account.
Thanks for the oh so friendly return to the forums and try to help out dig tho, gee what a guy.
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Meant no harm by it. And that really sucks they deleted your old account I thought they kept it forever?
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Heh.. no! As an old UO veteran (I still play, actually) I used to assume that all gaming companies are as accomoidating as EA. But no such luck. My own account was once inactive for a time, and when I came back it was gone. Woe to we who let our account lapse for more than a month or two, for our veteran rewards are in serious jeaperdy!
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Power Boost followed by Accelerate Metabolism should increase your Speed, Recharge, Recovery, Damage and Resistances while that particular buff lasts.
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AW, first post and wrong information, oh to be new again :P. Again, PB does not boost recharge. It also does not boost the +damage portion of AM either, not the recovery (which recovery and regen are the BIGGEST things i wish powerboost DID affect).
Henceforth, the only thing powerboost affects on AM is the run speed.
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Hmm, I think you may be right - I dont think it will even boos thte mezz-resistances either. Of course, thats probably a good thing. If PB boosted +resistance, things could get out of hand in a hurry.
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First post but who said I'm new, not my fault every time I stop playing to go do something else in my life they delete my old account.
Thanks for the oh so friendly return to the forums and try to help out dig tho, gee what a guy.
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Welcome back.
Great advice in this thread.
I've been mulling over my Ill/Rad for quite some time putting together some build, tearing them apart and putting something else together. I've had a hard time deciding on an APP.
On most builds I have around 220%-2227% global recharge, making the good stuff perma. At this point the choice between APP powers, without hurting recharge, boils down to a few dicy decision.
Earth, albeit horrible looking was very tempting. Seismic smash has some amazing damage and recharging at around 5.5secs makes it uber sexy. But hurl's horrid cast time makes it a chain breaker for me. I chain SW>Blind>Blast>SW etc. Plus with earth I'd have to give up my (hover above and blast) attitude to get up close and personal. Earth's embrace looked very nice for the few moments you'd grab aggro, being at the HP cap softens the blows quite a bit, but I find that if you're getting hit enough to need EE as an ill/rad, you're doing something wrong out of the box.
Perma IW and mez prot sounded sexy until playing with another power to stare at and make sure fired of as it recharged (Hasten, AM, PA are on the perma watch list to fire off as soon as they recharge as is) felt so not sexy at all. I suck at micromanagement as is and adding a fourth ball to the juggle while blasting was too much for me.
Plus I found that I'm only getting hit when resummonning PA, which can= death if I'm soling a 4 man all bos mob, but mez prot is about the last thing I worry about during those seconds. Mez for me turns out to be something a purple cant take care of (being very occasional).
What is boiled down to for me was either Fire for more damage or ice for damage (blast+cone) and hibernate. Hibernate was an excellent aggro deflector for me. Recast PA > Hibernate. It recharges at 57 secs so is ready for every PA cast cycle, slows from ice mesh well with Lingering Rad's slow.
I tried to get more creative by giving up my travel power and spectral terror to add shields into the mix to see if I can sway the decision, but travel less hero toons are a pain in the butt pluss the -hit from ST is nice (stacks with RI if I'm not mistaken)
I ended up going with ice, but if I can find a way to not need hibernate and stay alive while dealing with 5-6 boss spawns, I'd go fire to put them down faster.
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First post but who said I'm new, not my fault every time I stop playing to go do something else in my life they delete my old account.
Thanks for the oh so friendly return to the forums and try to help out dig tho, gee what a guy.
[/ QUOTE ]
Meant no harm by it. And that really sucks they deleted your old account I thought they kept it forever?
[/ QUOTE ]
Heh.. no! As an old UO veteran (I still play, actually) I used to assume that all gaming companies are as accomoidating as EA. But no such luck. My own account was once inactive for a time, and when I came back it was gone. Woe to we who let our account lapse for more than a month or two, for our veteran rewards are in serious jeaperdy!
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I've only subscribed for 24 months since shortly after launch... still no account deletion. Did you do something weird with it?
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who pvp's anymore anyways :P
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Almost every day on Infinity dUmb is in RV and/or arena.
Infinity and Victory mostly
dUmb, etc.
lolz PvP anymore, Market PvP for fun and profit