Why 6-slot fulcrum shift?

I have a 48 kin defender, and a 50 Ill/kin controller. I didn't really like the def, because I was locked into groups, and it was a constant speedboost marathon. I went with controller so I could solo, and I can wipe out a boss, and ten mobs in about two minutes. I very rarely use a fulcrum shift in the process.

The reality is that fulcrum shift is very situational. Mostly I use it in task forces. And then, when I have a tank, and a scrapper or two, and they are surrounded by 20 mobs, one fulcrum shift, and everything is dead. I just cast my transference and transfusion in the meantime, and my meelee types are in god mode. Big heal, the only endurance heal in game. I just don't need to cast fulcrum shift more than once every 45 seconds. I've got it 3 slotted atm, 2 haste and an aim, my next respec, I'll probably drop down to a 2-slot, recharge/aim since I have all those recharge incarnate bonuses.

The point is, whenever I read these guides, everyone wants to 6-slot fulcrum shift, because it is so powerful. In my experience, thats just overkill, spend those slots somewhere else where you can get some bonuses.

Most people want it up as much as possible and they want it to hit as many foes as possible. I always 5 slot myself 2 acc and 3 recharge.

i would never 6 slot FS. on an SO build 2 acc/3 rech, maybe 2 acc/2 rech with lvl 50 IOs.

FS isn't much of a difference on a boss alone. but i run at x4 and FS will help by both debuffing incoming damage by -20% and adding +100% damage to you, and with siphon speed and hasten you can regular cap your own damage. i can regularly fight multiple bosses at once and defeat them as much with my own attacks (SW, blind and either power blast or fissure/seismic smash) as PA and phant.

I imagine those guides are based on SOs. 5 max for leveling up. A strong recharge oriented build can do with far less. My IO build has 2 slots and even the recharge in that isn't getting me much, if I took that 1 Rch IO out, FS would go from 18.2 seconds to 20.8.

The game has changed a lot since I first started, and I am happy with what they have done. To the extent that I am ready to stop game-hopping and focus in on my primary toon here. Since the introduction of sets, incarnate powers, and now the tips, I have plenty to do, and realistic daily goals. I try to run an architect mission for rare salvage components, before work, and then my tips missions in the morning after work.

At any rate, to me the game of char design is about how best to maximize my set bonuses. I have tons of recharge, acc, end mod, dmg, I'm working on status protection, however IW covers alot of that.

My complaint with fulcrum shift is that it does nothing in the way of global enhancements. On my next respec, (I blew my last one on my fire build, I think with incarnate IW is better) I'm planning on grabbing tactics and 6 slotting it for the passive bonuses. Thats +dmg, status resist, acc, and recharge. Thats way better imo than recharging fs 10 seconds faster. I want perma PA and IW, and being able to actually do some dmg on my own is kind of a goal as well.

my usual slotting for FS is 1 acc and 3 rech, all lvl 50 generic IOs

on the final build for my kin corr he will be able to almost perma stay at the dmg cap and on my corr build i picked up power mastery for the total focus, which at the dmg cap can hit for darn near 800 dmg once i finish the build

for a troller i would want FS up as much as possible as well as its more beneficial to the pets DPS, but i wouldnt recommend more than 3-4 slots as well

Actually, as a controller, esp ill, fulcrum shift is less important than it is for a corrupter. I don't really need to do damage, because, unless I'm blindsided by a boss, nothing ever hits me. Generally, when I'm out in the rikti war zone, I cast a fear, and my phantom armies, and then go to work on the boss. By the time I drop him, everything else is dead. Now if I get a good shot at a bunch of mobs at the start of a fight, I'll toss out a fulcrum shift, however my pets have so much kb, that is sort of rare, once every three fights maybe. It really doesn't have much impact though, unless you can stack on a silly amount of counters, like a tank can. Now if I can get a tank with 20 counters on them, thats one of the best aoe dmg powers in game. It just about stacks up with a blaster armegeddon style nuke, without all the negative side effects, and a lot faster.

Of course, as an illusion/kinetics, I go overkill on aim and recharge. All my powers are to hit, and on slow counters. I'm working with 7 minute timers, so a 60 second timer is about 15 seconds for me with two recharge slots and my alpha slot, and other bonuses. I think when I get my other two incarnate slots, I will be able to lose a recharge and keep fs at about 20 seconds.

2 acc/3 recharge....period.

With high global recharge and Siphon Speed, 2acc/2rech level 50 IOs, giving about 80%. I wouldn't go with just 1 acc though. SO slotting I'd say 2 acc 3 rech.

Let's look at some actual numbers.

Fighting +4s (the "worst case" for a lvl 50, at least today), base to-hit is .39.

Most Kinetics users take Tactics, I know I do for each and every one of mine. This is the Controller forum so let me use troller Tactics numbers - .10 unslotted, let's say .15 slotted.

.39 + .15 makes To-Hit = .54. To get to .95 final to-hit, accuracy needs to = (.95/.54 - 1) = .76. One lvl 50 Accuracy IO provides .424, leaving .76-.424 = .336. So if your global Accuracy is 34% (which is low, quite frankly for a decent set build), then 1 Accuracy is more than sufficient. "But what about -ToHit debuffs or +Def buffs?" I'm sure somewhere in that insp tray is a yellow. FWIW, taking the Kismet unique drops the extra Acc number to .16.

Now on to Recharge. One could say, "I want to eke out every microsecond I can for FS". In that case, sure, 3-slot recharge. Another could say "I want to find a reasonable amount of recharge to keep the buff up and have the power available for every new spawn on a fast-moving team". That's pretty much my M.O. Let's look at 3 scenarios - 1) no recharge bonuses 2) pretty good recharge bonuses (siphon speeds, hasten, global) let's go with 50% 3) ludicrous speed - 150% and 4 different slotting options for each scenario:

			Global Rch	
		------------------------------------------- 
# of IOs IO Enh	| 0		0.5		1.5
----------------------------------------------------------- 
0	0	| 60		40		24
1	0.424	| 42.13483146	31.18503119	20.51983584
2	0.8332	| 32.72965307	25.71575519	18.00072003
3	0.9908	| 30.13863773	24.08864622	17.18803713

150% isn't even that extreme for a Kin. My Kin runs at 153-193% recharge with Siphon Speeds going.

Hasten is 70%, 1-2 Siphon Speeds is another 20-40%, a moderate amount of global recharge (say 50%) and you're at 140-160% while Hasten is up.

I see a side to the game where additional range might help, atleast I'd be safer. Scirroco and his 80ft pbaoe. I could want to buff from outside of that range. Atleast I'd be alright.