Found ONE thread using Thermal. Is it that bad?

I have started a Fire/Thermal. Seems a natural combo huh? I have found one post on an Illusion/Thermal and nothing else that uses the secondary. I can reroll if Thermal is useless. I don't want the ZOMG fotm overpowered build favored by min/max'ers and munchkin copycats. I do want some decent performance. Good on teams and able to solo a little bit.

Theme-wise I want Fire related powers. Character name is Homura no Umaretsuki (Born of Flame/Fire). With the (really cool and new to me) ability to edit power colors I guess several secondaries could fit the 'look' of my idea if I end up changing.

I am a returning player. The last time I was around WW had just come in and I am P.O.O.R. (under 12 million across all characters and only because veteran players are very nice with contests and giveaways) No expensive builds for me!

I could use some advice.

Thermal is a fine set, with a combination of parts of Rad, Emp and Sonic. The Shields are Resistance Based, rather than Defense. A lot of the current focus is on Defense, so that makes it a little less popular. Unlike Sonic or Cold or FF, Thermal has heals, which is very good.

In general, the buffing sets are less popular (other them Emp). It seems that a lot of folks are more focused on being able to solo than team. Thermal is a more general-purpose set, with heals, buffs and debuffs. Nothing wrong with the set at all. It was one of the later added sets, which means that many of the older characters won't be Thermal.

Thermal is a jack-of-all-trades. Some buffs, some debuffs, some heals. None of it's powers are bad. Power of the Phoenix is the only one I'd think of skipping outright, in fact, and that's only due to the the ability to combine inspirations or pick up a rez from day jobs. Unfortunately, a lot of good powers makes it a tough set to pair with a control primary because you have to become very selective as to what to take.

As others build for personal defense, they will probably find your buffs more and more useful. Once a character has hit the soft-cap (45% defense, anymore is essentially ignored until you face +5 mobs) resistance buffs will do more for their surviability than defense buffs. You'll also be able to heal the damage when a lucky streak breaks through the defense.

One other thing to note is that Thermal gets a bad rap for its buffs being very intrusive on your costume. Forcefields, Sonic Shields, and even Ice can be played down to allow a character's costume to show through. I've seen many people ask to be skipped on thermal shield based on appearance alone.

Yes, it is very bad. It's bad that Thermal is such an underplayed set.

My boyfriend has a Fire/Therm controller and its very good, very team friendly.

Therm offers good buffs and heals for a group. 2 heals, 2 shields, a status protection and even a mini fortitude. Later on it also offers some good debuffs with heat exhaustion (great for AV's) and melt armour.

I think its a very powerful and well rounded set. I suspect the only complaint is its very geared towards teamplay, and doesn't really help you solo until your 30's where you can heal/buff pets and get the 2 debuffs.

Strong combo though, goes nicely with fire mastery aswell!

I played a Fire/Thermal/Fire controller to level 50, and she was a pretty good character. She could be a bit endurance-heavy at times, with all the crazy healing, buffing, controlling, Hot Feet, damage powers etc. The other issue will be slots ... so many of the powers crave slots that it may take longer than it does on some other controller combos to get all your powers slotted like you want. But still, its a decent combo for both performance and concept.

I found I prefer Earth/Thermal, but hey, Fire/Thermal is just fine.

Lewis

Thermal is actually one of the more powerful secondaries from a min/max perspective. It isn't popular for a bunch of reasons. The main one being is that similar to cold it is largely a buff bot until very late game.

Since the pet recharge nerf it can drop targets about as fast as fire/rad.

Have the people who are saying the rez is skippable really tried it out? It's not just a combat rez, it's also an AoE attack like Rad's Fallout that deals a lot of damage, knocks enemies back and disorients them. It has changed the tide of battle for me many times and it's even better if you use it as a controller, since you can immob the baddies before rezzing to make sure they don't get knocked back and receive all the damage.

Only skippable in a solo build, in my opinion.

There's certainly a case to be made for powers like PotP, Fallout, and Vengeance; the latter two are worthy of more consideration, in my opinion. However, there are two things to consider against them.

One is that you have a primary and secondary dedicated to protecting your allies. Death may happen, but a controller should greatly reduce the frequency of it and the need for such powers. The second is that /thermal leans towards a very tight build. The debuffs are a must and its buffs are all very appealing for any team. The powers I place on the bottom rung are the heals and its rez. Unfortunately, you're locked into taking one of heals. That leaves two powers for the cutting room floor.

I always skip Power of the Phoenix. It does do a Mag 4 stun and 300 points of damage, which would be useful, except that to leverage that you need to slot them. If you use this power unslotted on a +4 enemy group (the main situation where you have an excuse for someone having died), it does only about 150 damage and the stun lasts just 7 seconds. For this it costs 1/2 of your endurance bar--it is the single most endurance expensive power Controllers can take. It also simultaneously draws aggro to you while making the rezzee untouchable. Did you just rezz the tank? Well, now you get to have his aggro and he can't steal it back for 15 seconds.

Then there is the 300 second Recharge time. The rezz in Empathy, Pain, and Radiation recharges in 180 seconds; this takes 300.

The PBAoE power Rise of the Phoenix available in our epic power pool is a different story. IMO that power is almost better than having a resistance shield, because it avoids two of the big issues of Power of the Phoenix; when it draws aggro to you you're invulnerable and enemies immediately lose interest, and rather than cost half your endurance bar it gives it half back. That power gives you the freedom to play like a kamikaze and has been the foundation of some of my most daring and ridiculous victories.

An interesting thing for Thermal is that if you do a dual build for the rare occasion you are without a team, almost the entire set is skippable, and you have a ton of room to pick up any/all pool powers you might want. For a team build you will want to pick most if not all of the set, and while it's a bit of an oddball, it's very versatile and useful. +Res shields, Forge, heals and debuffs will make you a popular hero no matter what your team is lacking.

Nice build, but I have a nitpick. I know some people disagree but I'm always a proponent of taking Hot Feet on any Fire Control build. Damage is the main thing Fire Control's got over the other Control sets, but only if you take the powers that actually deliver it. I know some folks prefer to play from range, but, IMO, unless you're doing it for concept reasons, you're better off with a different set than skipping one of the best AoE damage powers in a set that's mainly devoted to damage.

IMO trying to play Fire Control in the style of other, control heavy sets is mistake. You do have one pretty good ranged control. But all it takes is one Dispersion Bubble and enemies are immune to all of your controls. Flexibility is not a strength of Fire Control; you want the ability to win by brute force.