Aid Self in Earth/Storm?

I would like a self heal on my Earth/Storm. Is this something people have been able to fit in without sacrificing must have powers?

You have plenty of mitigation with Earth/Storm, personally I don't think you need a "heal". But if you must, I'd suggest either taking ice mastery and hibernate for "oopies" or taking stone mastery for earth's embrace.

Yeah, I don't feel that I "need" a self heal, but was wanting to fit one in if it was worth it. There are just times when it would come in handy. I like to solo and duo with a blaster quite a bit. Thanks.

Useful? Most definetly.

You best choice? Well, that's debatable. Earth/Storm will have powerful mitigation such that you might be better off just popping a green inspiration in the event you actually get hit, rather than wasting a power pick for a 4 second animation self-heal. Still, Aid Self is extremely useful.

Sorry but I think "extremely useful" is a gross overstatement for aid self.

Whether its worth taking depends on circumstances. Earth/Storm is a very "confrontational" combo. It tends to drag what I refer to as "mystery aggro" back to you. That's where the room is full of mezzed enemies and yet something is still shooting you from... somewhere. Also for all its control Earth/Storm in a hectic team environment is extremely vulnerable to death-cancels (that is, having the effects of your controls wiped because you got killed). Earthquake, Quicksand, Volcanic Gasses, Freezing Rain, Tornado Lightning Cloud and of course your tanker pet all cancel if you die, leaving your team protected only by whatever you might have stunned. In a lot of ways this points me back toward Hibernate as the top pick--especially given Storm's habit of chewing your endurance. However, Aid Self is far from a bad power. You could do much worse.

There are too darn many good powers in Earth/Storm to give up two for Aid Other/Stimulant and then Aid Self. And keep in mind that Aid Self can be interrupted, so it often does not work in combat. As MM suggested, you can do fine with Hibernate from the Ice APP set or Earth's Embrace from the Stone APP set. Neither of them can be interrupted.

The nice thing about Hibernate is that it acts as an emergency Heal, an emergency Endurance Recovery, and as a general purpose "panic button." Since Storm has neither a self-heal or self-endurance recovery, it covers both. I get the Ice APP on most of my Storm controllers for this reason.

Earth's Embrace provides both a heal and a huge boost to hit points, but no endurance recovery power. If you go this way, you will probably want to build for a lot of Recovery and keep a bunch of blues on hand.

Aid Self is indeed a very handy power for a Blaster, in large part due to redundant powers that can easily be dropped, but also because Blasters benefit so much from +Defense builds, which allow you to heal yourself with relative impunity. It's less so on a Controller, but again, you could do much worse. A 33% heal every 10 seconds is not what I'd call a bad power even if its not something you want to try tanking with.

What Local said. I ended up not taking Earths Embrace even though I have the Stone APP, I just don't seem to need a heal that often. Three slotting Health and working IO sets for good ranged defense plus slotting Steaming Mists for defense keeps me pretty healthy. There are too many good powers in Earth/Storm to give up two spots for two VERY mediocre powers(compared to what you would give up, mediocre is definitely the word).

I slotted Gale with the Knockback set recharge proc, but I am usually so busy arresting bad guys I forget to use it. It's made it's way to the far end of my third bar, and gathers dust up there.

I took Aid Self along with Stimulant on my Earth/Storm/Fire. I've tried about dozen different builds on test server and on live and it's a power that I would miss if it was dropped. The only power that I really wanted but had to drop was quicksand (if only we could skip gale. It won't save you if you are taking many fast hits in succession but with an interrupt reduction IO, you should be able to heal in many combat situations if you're smart about it.

I like to play very aggressively and that means taking more hits. The power is situational but it's nice to not have to rely on others for heals or micro-manage your inspirations. I usually have 1 or 2 greens and blues and the rest filled with breakfrees. Not relying on inspirations will be a bigger factor when running higher difficulties or on long TF's.

With Stimulant and O2 boost, you can also be a ghetto emp. On a high recharge build, O2 boost is pretty spammable providing a semi-decent heal. Unmezzing other support characters can help prevent a team wipe in those tough missions. If I also see a random squishie get mezzed out in the zones, I'll give them Stimulant as a nice gesture.

I've built my character to be very versatile: a superior crowd controller, moderate damage dealer, and ghetto emp. Choosing Aid Self just boils down to your play style, what APP you choose, and deciding what powers you can do without.

The only reason I would want AS on an Earth/Storm was if I wanted to solo AVs w/no insps or temps. That's the *only* reason. If you need the occasional heal, that's what insps are for. Earth should have more than enough mitigation for most things that you & your blaster friend should be sitting pretty, and the few things that will overwhelm you, AS won't do that much for anyway. I do usually take AS on blasters, but blasters aren't Earth trollers in terms of mitigation.

Aid Self wouldn't be my first choice. The temporary power Med pack actually heals for 25%, more than AS's 19.6%, and has no interupt time. If you'er only using it for emergencies, then it's worth dropping a bit of influence on. Of course, when you need it most you may run out of charges.