How should Animated Stone be used?

Hello!
I just was thinking over my heroes and then their powers (I -am- sort of bored ) and was wondering about my earth controller then (Thalia..) and the one power that made me wonder whether to think of removing in her build later on was none other than
Animated Stone
..reason being I never see the poor golem being that useful
So i ask this question out of hope there is some light for poor Wheety . How should Animated Stone be best used?
Thank you for your help then
Chiefette

Hello Chiefette

My main character is a lvl34 earth controller so I've not had my pet for too long. I'm by no means a CoH veteran and I'm still learning every day. I doubt I will give any new perspectives to a multi-lvl50 hero such as yourself, but I do love earth control and will share some of my thoughts.

I guess, ultimately, how the power is best used will depend on your play style.

My character is built purely for teamplay which means I have absolutley no damage enhancements slotted anywhere in controls. This makes soloing very very difficult for me. I can easily subdue large and even multiple mobs, but I can't hurt them. Doing mishes or even hunting solo was a nightmare for me and took AGES. This changed drastically when I gained Animated Stone. He may be slow and he may be stupid and he may look like poo, but he does whack a great big PUNCH. He has been invaluable to me when playing alone, even though I mostly team.

I notice your secondary is Storm. I've not tried that myself, but I understand it is capable of some serious damage, particularly with containment set up, right? My secondary is Empathy, so my argument above is valid for my own case but may not be true for yours.

When I team with large groups, I use the pet differently. He still does contribute to damage dealing, but the scrappers and blasters are much faster and more intelligent at dishing it out than he is. When teaming I use him as a dumbed down tank. I throw him into large mobs, either by summoning him there directly, or by TP'ing him into their midst. He takes on lots of aggro and usually absorbs their attention until the team can take them apart. This is usually quite effective as he can take quite a beating, even vs the larger foes, and has some decent resistance. He is, however, rather stupid and will sometimes just stand there next to me, instead of remaining in battle.

I mostly team with my girl, Pinkette, who is a MA scrapper. When we duo, the pet becomes more useful as a tanker and damage dealer. I suppose his overall usefulness diminishes as the team becomes larger and his role is replaced by more intelligent heros.

Sometimes, I forget to summon him when teaming, so perhaps that says something about his usefulness in that scenario.

I summon it to take the alpha strike when I can't hide behind something. When you use volcanic gaz or earthquake, it'll often take a few seconds before the effect works, and in 6-8 ppl groups it can be too much damage.

It's good to hold the aggro on a boss/EB/AV, assuming you can buff/heal him or debuff the AV (unless there's a filthy tanker stealing poo-man's aggro!!). Poo-man is godly against psionic AVs, it has around 80-90% psy res.

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When you use volcanic gaz or earthquake, it'll often take a few seconds before the effect works, and in 6-8 ppl groups it can be too much damage.


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and thats why you shouldnt open with gas or earthquake, but with stalagmites

but indeed, I use my rocky as semi-tank to keep me alive as he can take a beating.

Personally on my earth/storm I use the animated stone to take the alpha strike if needed (especially in open spaces, outdoor missions, etc.).

I also got it out to do at least a little bit of damage. That's more important in smaller teams, for the bigger ones it often causes more problems than it is worth.

Stalagmites isn't up every group, unless your group isn't too fast, which is why I like animated stone as a alpha absorber.

Stalag>FS>Fireball>nextgroup,
Pooman>Stonecages>FB>nextgroup,
Earthquake>Transfusion>Stonecages>FB>n extgroup,
Stalag>FS>FB>nextgroup,
VG>Transfusion>FB>nextgroup,
Earthquake>Transfusion>Stonecages>FB>n extgroup,

And at this point you can repeat from step one, over and over. Lack of Poo-man would slow me down, it's always good having more options.

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He may be slow and he may be stupid and he may look like poo, but he does whack a great big PUNCH.

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best line ever!!

yeah pooboy is good for absorbing the alpha, do that as well, was just general comment on the opening move

personally on my earth/storm I got stalagmites up every other mob usually