Flash

I've a couple of Illusion trollers now and I'm enjoying them a lot but Flash always seems to give me some issues in slotting. It seems reasonably ineffective as a hold, combined with being a PBAoE, so you have to be in amongst it to get the best out of it.

What's the optimum way to slot it?

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

My Illusion/Radiation Guide discusses it in detail. See the link in my sig.

Flash has a 20% Accuracy penalty like most other AoE control powers. Plus a somewhat short duration and a long Recharge. However, it can be quite useful as a fill-in control when PA is recharging or if you want AoE control or in a "panic button" moment (although EM Pulse is better for that).

With SOs and common IOs, I suggest 2 Accuracy, 2 Hold, 2 Recharge. With sets, you want to get a good amount of accuracy (at least 66%) with a good amount of Hold and Recharge. On a high Recharge build, I use 4 Bas Gaze and an extra Acc/Hold/Rech (Essence of Curae is cheap) to get Acc/Hold/Rech all to about 73%.

Having both Flash and EM Pulse is better than either one alone -- you can use one knowing that the other is there as a back-up, or you can use both to hold bosses. Since you can be invisible when casting Flash, the PB AoE aspect shouldn't be a problem. Many times I use Flash on teams simply as a way to mitigate damage -- once the Tank (or other melee guys) go in to take initial aggro, I may run in and hit Flash -- this stops most of the foes from being able to attack while teammates wipe the foes out.

In addition to what Local Man said, Flash is also the only AoE Containment some Illusion trollers have. Illusionists with the Primal APP can Power Boost Flash to quite decent hold durations. With lots of Recharge you can do that about once every 70 seconds.

In any case, a 360 degree radial power with 30ft range like Flash (or Cinders or Glacier) is actually kind of huge. It's 5ft bigger than a Force Fielder's Dispersion Bubble. You don't need to be in the smack middle of enemies for it to hit.

Brief video of how I do something kind of similar with a Mind troller, although his AoE hold is ranged: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ3s_wQz26Q

As for Containment . . . until the APP powers, Illusion has no AoE damage so AoE containment really isn't needed. Once you have an AoE damage power, then Containment will, of course, double your damage. But Flash isn't really up often enough to provide a significant increase in damage . . . you will probably spend more time setting up the "run in, Flash, then AoE" process than you would to just kill most of the foes with PA, Phanty and your attack chain.

As Oedipus Rex said, Power Boost will significantly lengthen the duration of Flash, as well as other controls. While Power Boost will certainly make Flash last a lot longer, the Primal APP only has a cone AoE damage power limited to hitting 10 foes. If it had a better AoE, it would be more tempting. I had Primal for a while on my Ill/Rad, but eventually went back to Fire.

However, I must admit that for sheer delight on my Ill/TA, I have on several occasions had to run in while invisible, fire off Flash, then back out, fire Oil Slick Arrow, and then hit the Oil Slick with Fireball . . . Whoosh, double damage from Containment plus Oil Slick bar-be-que sure takes down groups with style.

My Cheap and Cheerful slotting for any AOE Hold (which I usually do around level 27) is Paralytic Acc/Hold/Recharge (30), Essence of Curare: Accuracy/Hold/Recharge (30+), Neuronic Shutdown: Accuracy/Hold/Recharge (level 25, not level 30 as the Salvage switches at 26) and Ghost Widow's Embrace: Accuracy/Hold/Recharge (Level 25 if you can't afford a higher level, the salvage at 25 is significantly cheaper than the 26-40 version)

With that slotting you have 66% Acc, Hold and Recharge, about as good as the traditional SO 6 slotting, assuming you go 30, 30, 25, 25 with the levels of the IOs.

Thanks for the feedback guys

And yeah I've been thinking of an Ill/TA too.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Flash is a power that I rarely use solo on my Ill/Rad, but I use it at least once a mission on teams. I sort of use it like it's another debuff that reduces enemy damage rather than a hold, since it leaves tends to leave only the more dangerous enemies up and kicking while the minions have a short uninterrupted nap time.

either with decent recharge bonuses or a secondary that buffs flash, it can be useful as an every other spawn mitigation tool, although solo (at x0) there is little point to use it besides stacking with blind to quickly hold a boss.

however, with larger mob sizes, flash helps more as it will take longer to finish the spawns, and even with its short duration, it provides containment and allows for at least a few minions to be cleared with spectral wounds-blind-etc, on top of what your pets are doing, before you have to resort to ST or blind+deceive. power-boosted flash can last a long time and is great on teams fighting harder enemies.

on my ill/kin/stone build, flash is awesome as it provides containment for fissure. flash-FS-fissure-seismic smash-SW-blind-etc-fissure-kill makes him seem more like a dominator than a controller.

Hmm, I never really thought about whether controller secondary powers get Containment . . . mostly because just about all of the powers in secondaries that do damage are pseudopets, so they clearly don't get containment. FF and Storm/Gale may be the only exceptions.

Rad/Fallout, Storm/Tornado, Storm/Lightning Storm, TA/Oil Slick are all pseudopets. Kin, Therm, Cold, Emp and Sonic have no damage powers.

Hmm. I almost never use Gale, and when I do, I don't pay attention to the minimal damage. I've never noticed one way or the other whether it does Containment damage.

So, it is only the direct damage powers in */Force Field that don't do Containment damage? That seems a little odd to me -- no specific rule justification other than "we don't want FF Defenders to complain that Controllers do more damage?"