Found ONE thread using Thermal. Is it that bad?
By
Ben_Arizona,
Posted on: 2010-06-06 09:04 in Controllers
A therm'd up Stony with both res procs is a beast with:
(capped at 90%)
83.8% smash
93.8% lethal
103.8% energy
103.8% neg energy
127.6% fire
91.9% cold
100% psi
80% toxic
And his attacks taunt, so he makes a pretty good pocket tank.
Other than that I have to agree with Tex, hotfeet or go home when playing fire. You can set the earth powers to look pretty thematically tight with thermal, so if you aren't going to use hotfeet you are better of with an achilies in earthquake to add damage (outside of specific build criteria like an fire/therm AV killer, or concept reasons). There is also the very nice benefit of earth ensuring those long recharge debuffs land when you need them too.
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I don't know that I've ever seen Power of the Phoenix slotted for damage or stun. I think that would be hard to do given how slot hungry Thermal is as a whole. Hard for me to picture. Maaaybe you could put some Hami-Os in there... but actually hitting the edge of ED for either damage or stun, let alone both, while retaining decent recharge (and having enough dead people around to use it) and keeping all your other powers well slotted sounds like a longshot.
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Originally Posted by Rigel_Kent
That makes it an autohit 300 damage and 14 seconds high mag stun against +4s when slotted. Even more damage if you've Melted Armor. I don't see a reason to skip it there.
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My only criticism of Thermal is that with so many useful powers, it is extremely busy to play effectively. There's no such thing as downtime. You're always buffing/shielding/healing teammates, in and out of combat, and sometimes that can make your primary feel a little neglected.
It's a very fast-paced, multitasking style of play, much more intensive than, say, the scrapper style of "Find biggest enemy, Kill, Repeat." You need to keep an eye on your teammates heath, their buffs, and of course, the actual action going on. Personally, I find it kind of exhausting, and not always that kind of demanding play experience I want from CoX. However, played well, a good Therm is an Empath and Sonic rolled into one, and can make just about any team nigh Godlike.
Plus the powers look pretty sweet. Except for Melt Armor. :-/
Solo, of course, is a much more casual beast.
Stay Gold, Paragon. Stay Gold.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
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Oh yes I know I do this with my earth/sonic |
Originally Posted by Frosticus
A therm'd up Stony with both res procs is a beast with:
(capped at 90%) 83.8% smash 93.8% lethal 103.8% energy 103.8% neg energy 127.6% fire 91.9% cold 100% psi 80% toxic And his attacks taunt, so he makes a pretty good pocket tank. Other than that I have to agree with Tex, hotfeet or go home when playing fire. You can set the earth powers to look pretty thematically tight with thermal, so if you aren't going to use hotfeet you are better of with an achilies in earthquake to add damage (outside of specific build criteria like an fire/therm AV killer, or concept reasons). There is also the very nice benefit of earth ensuring those long recharge debuffs land when you need them too. |
But thermal is so good to keep pets alive, its nice with imps who have relatively no resists to begin with. On the earth/sonic I don't even need heals for stoney. With imps it uses more of the set of thermal. And yes I know you would say that Frost hence why I originally stated that in the post with the build I posted :P. And um, you said if you aren't using hotfeet, to put an achilles heel in earthquake, erm... something's a miss in that sentence lol.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
I love my Fire/Thermal. Very, very complete combo. You can do pretty much anything: Buffs, debuffs, control, heals, damage; the works.
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Very true about the busy part. Between the Shields and Forge you're busy out of combat and Flashfire/Melt Armour/Fire Cages/Heals/APP Attacks keep you busy in combat. Very involved playstyle.
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My only criticism of Thermal is that with so many useful powers, it is extremely busy to play effectively. There's no such thing as downtime. You're always buffing/shielding/healing teammates, in and out of combat, and sometimes that can make your primary feel a little neglected. It's a very fast-paced, multitasking style of play, much more intensive than, say, the scrapper style of "Find biggest enemy, Kill, Repeat." You need to keep an eye on your teammates heath, their buffs, and of course, the actual action going on. Personally, I find it kind of exhausting, and not always that kind of demanding play experience I want from CoX. However, played well, a good Therm is an Empath and Sonic rolled into one, and can make just about any team nigh Godlike. Plus the powers look pretty sweet. Except for Melt Armor. :-/ |
If I remember correctly, and I'll have to look it up again, but Thermal seemed to service oriented to me. Selfless. I like to have buffs too. Or I think that's what I remember. All for others, none for self.
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Originally Posted by Postagulous
If I remember correctly, and I'll have to look it up again, but Thermal seemed to service oriented to me. Selfless. I like to have buffs too. Or I think that's what I remember. All for others, none for self.
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Some people like playing support and others don't. Personally I would have quit the game a long time ago if I'd stuck to scrappers and blasters. Don't get me wrong, they can be fun to play; but after an hour they bore me to tears with how 2 dimensional they are. Buffing/debuffing/healing adds a third dimension to the game for me--but to each their own.
OP: Fire/Thermal is a great combo, but enjoying it requires attention to detail. Keeping three pets buffed for your career is daunting. Doing it while buffing a team of 8 can be tedious for even the most support minded. I rerolled mine to an Earth/Therm and never looked back. Sure she solos slowly, but she also solos AV with only a smattering of IOs, and brings a lot to the table on teams.
I agree with the comments about Thermal being very busy. I loved it with Ice Control because Ice Arctic Air kept things pretty safe while I took my eyes away from the screen to buff or heal. With Earth on large teams it could sometimes get a bit frantic.
Thermal is also possibly the only secondary set where I had to consciously remind myself that I'm a Controller, not a Defender, and cut back on some slotting/power prioritization in order to stay good at my main.
As an aside Thermal should incidentally be *awesome* on a Defender. Just say yes to about +51% damage in Forge and -62.5% damage in Heat Exhaustion.
EDIT: I just realized that Thaw helps resist Run Speed and -Recharge debuffs by 80% each! Where have I been the past two years? That makes it the best of the mezz-protect powers I think, besides maybe 02 Burst.
I love Power Of The Phoenix. I'm more friendly to rez powers than most players on the boards seem to be (yeah, you want to avoid people dying, but eventually something will go wrong) and not only is PotP a pretty good rez, the PotP/RotP animation is pretty much my favorite in the game.
Single Target Hold - same as all Controllers
AoE Hold - same as all Controllers but requires melee-ish range
AoE Stun - shared with Earth Control
I guess we could throw Bonfire in there somewhere. I don't even know what to think of that powers. It's ok but IMO more "interesting" than "competitive" with controls from other primaries.
As a ranged Controller Fire is basically outclassed on all sides. It's just not a huge strength of the set, which is why I said unless you're doing it for concept you are, IMO, better off with a different primary if you plan to skip Hot Feet. Earth/Thermal for example has almost exactly as much damage (about .5 less damage in Cages), a much sturdier pet that won't die and drag aggro back to you, and better and further reaching control options than the Hot Feet-less Fire Controller.
Fire Control is just kind of a "psycho" set. It's inherently risky but the payoff is you get around the main Controller strangle hold, and get decent damage--IF you take the powers that provide that. It's definitely not a set I'd ever pick for its ability to be cautious; for that I'd say Mind or Illusion completely blows it away. Can't argue with concept of course, but I did want to put that out there for people new to the sets.
You mention "sturdier" via the earth/thermal for the pet, but that's the point of thermal, it makes the imps pretty darn tough too.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server