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I have a mind/rad/primal and I make frequent use of it. Now, things may be a bit different with Earth. After all, you'lll have tons of awesome control already, but when things start to get sour a power boosted EMP has turned things around for me.
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Originally Posted by Crim_the_Cold
I was working on mids today and nearly fell out my chair when I saw the hold duration I could achieve with a power boosted EMP. Is it actually gonna be useful as a power, for the massive hold, or is it gonna be the most awesome power I never use?
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i cant speak for power boost, im not sure how it works with a power that has a longer duration then itself, that being said i have a Earth/Rad/Stone that did have EM pulse and i never needed it.
it was great with AVs in combination with fossilize ,volcanic gasses and S-smash, i could on occasion hold an AV by myself.
but other than that i never "needed" it and the build was very very tight if i recall correctly, i specked out of it for fallout. --
but now i never need fallout, so i say go for it 
oh and just as a side i think earth/rad is the best combo in the game
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As long as you use it under the effect of Powerboost, EMP's duration is double. Even more fun if you use it with your Vanguard Medal. It's actually possible to stack it in that case.
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Originally Posted by Mercuryflux
i cant speak for power boost, im not sure how it works with a power that has a longer duration then itself, that being said i have a Earth/Rad/Stone that did have EM pulse and i never needed it.
it was great with AVs in combination with fossilize ,volcanic gasses and S-smash, i could on occasion hold an AV by myself. but other than that i never "needed" it and the build was very very tight if i recall correctly, i specked out of it for fallout. -- but now i never need fallout, so i say go for it oh and just as a side i think earth/rad is the best combo in the game |
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EM Pulse is useful for an Earth/Rad in my opinion, especially as a panic button power, but useful in other situations, too. I wouldn't say it is essential, but it is very nice to have as a back-up AoE hold. The three standard AoE controls for an Earth/Rad are Stalagmites+Stone Cages, Earthquake and Volcanic Gasses. The last two are point-n-click location-targetted AoEs, and the first is a foe-targetted AoE, all of which can be used at range. All three of them take an extra second or two to target.|
Originally Posted by Crim_the_Cold
I was working on mids today and nearly fell out my chair when I saw the hold duration I could achieve with a power boosted EMP. Is it actually gonna be useful as a power, for the massive hold, or is it gonna be the most awesome power I never use?
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EM Pulse is perfect for those moments when your team is being overrun and you have foes in your face. One keypress or click and boom -- you are surrounded by statues. EM Pulse also works especially well against Robots and situations where you need a big boost in -Regen. While I find I don't use EM Pulse very often, I'm glad I have it when the situation arises. However, I don't find that I really need the duration extended in most situations -- it lasts long enough that the team can usually kill off the foes before it wears off.
If you are interested, take a look at my Earth/Rad guide, linked in my sig.
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
I ran my Ill/Rad with Primal for a long time. Powerboosted EM Pulse is absolutely amazing. In addition to the very long duration, it has a 60 ft radius. 60. Feet. It holds stuff in a sphere 120 feet across.
In my opinion it squeaks past Volcanic Gasses for the title Best Hold in the Game. It's basically an I Win Button.
...in CoH racing to 50 is like trying to race to the end of your vacation. -Arcanaville
Debt barely slows down levelling these days. It's just a little bar that measures how much Awesome you've generated recently. (If you're not getting debt, you're just not trying to generate Awesome hard enough.) -Kelenar
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Yes, power boosted EM Pulse is a huge area hold that will last forever . . . but how often do you need that much holding power? Most teams will wipe out the foes in a few seconds, wasting that holding awesomeness. An Ill/Rad really needs that hard control more than and Earth/Rad due to the lack of hard controls, but Earth/Rad has other options that that don't have the "sledge hammer on a mosquito" effect. I consider Volcanic Gasses a better hold because it continues to catch foes entering the area after is is cast, making it more useful. It also recharges much faster.
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Originally Posted by Mr_Enigma
I ran my Ill/Rad with Primal for a long time. Powerboosted EM Pulse is absolutely amazing. In addition to the very long duration, it has a 60 ft radius. 60. Feet. It holds stuff in a sphere 120 feet across.
In my opinion it squeaks past Volcanic Gasses for the title Best Hold in the Game. It's basically an I Win Button. |
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
EMP is great, even without Powerboost. Slotted up well, you are looking at a 50+sec hold usable every 2-ish minutes. That is awesome. That is about a 40% share of hard lockdown. With VG, and Stalagmites, you have pretty much on-demand AoE hard control. Use it to control aggressively. Sure its a great panic button, but I think that sells it short.
There are a few specific situations that I would need that level control, romulus phalanx, bad pug, etc... and I'm the type of person who carries backup weapons for my backup weapons in pen and paper rpgs because if I didn't have it I'd need it. To put it in nerd speak I'm the guy who goes on a quest in the forrest and carries a +3 longsword, a +1 silver good aligned shortsword, a +1 cold iron shortsword, a masterwork mace and a masterwork bow with several variants of magic arrows. That not including things in magical storage.
Work in progress no more. I have decided that I'm going to put my worst spelling errors here. Triage Bacon, Had this baster idea, TL
R"I'm going to beat the Jesus out of Satan!" My Wife while playing Dante's Inferno
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I agree that EM Pulse is worth having, and I have it on my Earth/Rad. But I'm not sure Power Boost is the best choice in an APP set. I think you can get more utility out of another set. The Primal set is lacking in damage, with only a single target blast and a fairly narrow cone. Ice, Earth and Fire all provide more damage, which Earth/Rad is generally lacking.
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Originally Posted by Crim_the_Cold
There are a few specific situations that I would need that level control, romulus phalanx, bad pug, etc... and I'm the type of person who carries backup weapons for my backup weapons in pen and paper rpgs because if I didn't have it I'd need it. To put it in nerd speak I'm the guy who goes on a quest in the forrest and carries a +3 longsword, a +1 silver good aligned shortsword, a +1 cold iron shortsword, a masterwork mace and a masterwork bow with several variants of magic arrows. That not including things in magical storage.
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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
Not always necessary, but I find if a team ever runs into two spawns side by side, the only thing that works perfectly is PB+EMP, because of the radius it can encompass the entirety of both spawns so that they never even begin to think about causing trouble and dropping someone.
"Fascinating. I'm not bored at all, I swear." -Kikuchiyo
Good grief I'm only level 20 and when hasten is up I can alternate between earthquake and stalagmites for controlling most groups. You may be right Local Man, power boost may not be needed but it would be a ton of fun. Of course dropping a few fireballs into a spawn thats helpless for the next minute could be fun too. I'm just gonna have to play it and see.This may be one of those cases that the numbers on the powers won't add up to the total sum of the experience.
So far this toon rocks.
Work in progress no more. I have decided that I'm going to put my worst spelling errors here. Triage Bacon, Had this baster idea, TL
R"I'm going to beat the Jesus out of Satan!" My Wife while playing Dante's Inferno
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Earth/Rad was my best AoE control character. Hugely fun to play, but I leveled him up entirely on teams. In fact, we had a "designed" team with a great tank, several blasters and defenders and one scrapper. With AM and Hasten, you almost always have an AoE control option available. At least one of Stalagmites+Stone Cages, Earthquake or Volcanic Gasses were just about always available. And in those few situations where one wasn't, I always had Stone Cages + Radiation Infection to fall back on. |
Originally Posted by Crim_the_Cold
Good grief I'm only level 20 and when hasten is up I can alternate between earthquake and stalagmites for controlling most groups. You may be right Local Man, power boost may not be needed but it would be a ton of fun. Of course dropping a few fireballs into a spawn thats helpless for the next minute could be fun too. I'm just gonna have to play it and see.This may be one of those cases that the numbers on the powers won't add up to the total sum of the experience.
So far this toon rocks. |
What made it even more fun was that I had to take a few days off, and the rest of the team got a few levels ahead of me. But with all the -Defense and autohit options, I was still able to provide huge amounts of control even though the foes were always orange, red and purple.
Volcanic Gasses will be another great step, and then Rocky becomes another big step. Try to fit some kind of stealth into your build, so you can lead Rocky into battle, then back off and let him draw the aggro. Once he has the aggro, then you can use your AoE controls with little concern about retaliation. Of course, if you have a good tank now, that's not much of a concern.
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
I was working on mids today and nearly fell out my chair when I saw the hold duration I could achieve with a power boosted EMP. Is it actually gonna be useful as a power, for the massive hold, or is it gonna be the most awesome power I never use?
Work in progress no more. I have decided that I'm going to put my worst spelling errors here. Triage Bacon, Had this baster idea, TL
"I'm going to beat the Jesus out of Satan!" My Wife while playing Dante's Inferno