Gravity/Force Field Controller IO/Incarnate Questions

I rolled up a Grav/FF controller on...I believe it was Sunday. It's currently sitting at level 33, and even though I'm well aware that it's far from the most amazing build ever played, it's still a whole lot of fun. Singularity makes it even more so. I actually managed to stack my character's Lift power with that of my Singularity pet, causing the enemy to do what looks like a double-jump on an open map!

I plan on going for Primal mastery in order to get Conserve Power and Power Boost, while snagging Temp Invulnerability and Power Blast on the way just to increase damage and resistance.

However, when I stop and think about how I'm going to IO out this character, I blank. The same thing happens when I think about its incarnate powers, other than Diamagnetic to weaken enemy ToHit on top of the character's own buffs.

For a way to look at power selection, for you Mids Users (I'd be one if I wasn't on a mac), I'll just say that I got every power from Gravity Control aside from Dimension Shift, every power from Force Field but Repulsion Field and Detention Field, and then grabbed Hasten, Hover, Fly, Teleport Foe, Teleport Friend, and the above mentioned Primal Mastery APP.

Any help, suggestions, or builds would be appreciated.

I've never played Gravity/ so my advice might not apply, I'm just looking at the set and trying to judge what would be good. FF is my main though.

I'm not sure how viable Wormhole is as an AoE control since I've never even seen it used in game. If Gravity Distortion Field is your main AoE control power you will definitely want to slot for some recharge bonuses. FF is great for this because you can slot Luck of the Gambler +recharges in almost every power. You'll also want some recovery, but luckily most sets have recovery bonuses in them so you won't have slim pickings for that.

Ranged defense is important to me on support toons, especially on FF because having a good amount means you can use Force Bubble, get to the aggro cap, and not take any damage. I recommend finding a spot for Maneuvers in your powers for the added defense bonus.

I would recommend the Psy APP over Primal so that you have a different damage type, mes resist and World of Confusion as an extra AoE control.

As for incarnate abilities, I prefer Paralytic for FF. Attacks will make it through your bubbles sometimes, and I like knowing that I can reduce the damage. Rebirth will be good to heal the damage that makes it through. Nerve is great for an FF controller because it helps buff up your defenses and bring them closer to defender values (this will also help your survivability through buffing Maneuvers and Dispersion Bubble).

I won't make a whole build because of my lack of experience with Gravity. My advice is to just look at Mids and look through the sets - anything that gives +recharge or +ranged defense will help you a lot. I can show you my FF defender build if you want, though I didn't slot for recharge since I didn't need any.

Hmm...Well I've made a build with Suckerpunch, but it's outdated and doesn't give numbers, so I have no idea if I've actually hit the softcap. I HOPE I have. If someone could plug this into Mids (I'm on a mac, otherwise I'd do it myself) and churn it out so that I could see the bonuses, I'd be very thankful. My biggest concern is that the number of toggles that this build has wouldn't be sustainable in combat.

Doing it by hand, I added up 29.343% Ranged Defense in the IO bonuses, in which case I'd need to have somewhere around a combined 15.657% Ranged Defense from Dispersion Bubble, Maneuvers, and Weave.

Any questions, comments, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner v5.0
+ http://planner.cohtitan.com/planner
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Gravity Control
Secondary: Force Field
+----------------------------------------------------------------

01: Crush => Trap_of_the_Hunter(1), Trap_of_the_Hunter(43), Trap_of_the_Hunter(43), Trap_of_the_Hunter(45), Trap_of_the_Hunter(50), Trap_of_the_Hunter(46)
01: Personal Force Field => Red_Fortune(1), Red_Fortune(15), Red_Fortune(17), Red_Fortune(46), Red_Fortune(13)
02: Gravity Distortion => Lockdown(2), Lockdown(5), Lockdown(7), Lockdown(11), Lockdown(15), Lockdown(9)
04: Force Bolt => Accuracy(4)
06: Deflection Shield => Luck_of_the_Gambler(6), Luck_of_the_Gambler(7)
08: Hasten => Recharge(8), Recharge(9)
10: Insulation Shield => Luck_of_the_Gambler(10), Luck_of_the_Gambler(11)
12: Hover => Luck_of_the_Gambler(12), Karma(13)
14: Fly => Blessing_of_the_Zephyr(14)
16: Maneuvers => Luck_of_the_Gambler(16), Luck_of_the_Gambler(17)
18: Gravity Distortion Field => Lockdown(18), Lockdown(19), Lockdown(19), Lockdown(40), Lockdown(46)
20: Dispersion Bubble => Red_Fortune(20), Red_Fortune(21), Red_Fortune(23), Red_Fortune(23), Red_Fortune(39)
22: Boxing => Pounding_Slugfest(22)
24: Tough => Reactive_Armor(24), Reactive_Armor(25), Reactive_Armor(25)
26: Wormhole => Stupefy(26), Stupefy(27), Stupefy(27), Stupefy(37), Stupefy(37), Stupefy(33)
28: Weave => Red_Fortune(28), Red_Fortune(29), Red_Fortune(29), Red_Fortune(43), Red_Fortune(50), Red_Fortune(46)
30: Crushing Field => Trap_of_the_Hunter(30), Trap_of_the_Hunter(31), Trap_of_the_Hunter(31), Trap_of_the_Hunter(31), Trap_of_the_Hunter(33), Trap_of_the_Hunter(33)
32: Singularity => Expedient_Reinforcement(32), Expedient_Reinforcement(33), Expedient_Reinforcement(34), Expedient_Reinforcement(34), Expedient_Reinforcement(34), Expedient_Reinforcement(37)
35: Repulsion Bomb => Force_Feedback(35), Force_Feedback(36), Stupefy(36), Stupefy(36)
38: Force Bubble => EnduranceDiscount(38), EnduranceDiscount(39), Recharge(39)
41: Power Blast => Thunderstrike(41), Thunderstrike(42), Thunderstrike(42), Thunderstrike(42)
44: Conserve Power => Recharge(44)
47: Temp Invulnerability => Reactive_Armor(47), Reactive_Armor(48), Reactive_Armor(48), Steadfast_Protection(48)
49: Power Boost => Recharge(49), Recharge(50)
+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Inherent Powers
+----------------------------------------------------------------

01: Brawl => Empty(1)
01: Sprint => Empty(1)
02: Rest => Empty(2)
02: Health => Numina's Convalescence(2) Healing(5)
02: Stamina => Performance Shifter(2) Recovery(2) Recovery(2)

My experience is with a Grav/Storm and a Mind/FF . . . I haven't actually played a Grav/FF. I tried several Gravity builds, and the only one I was happy to stay with was Grav/Storm. Gravity is weak on AoE control, and its strength is single target damage. FF is all about Defense and Knockback.

Let me say a few things about your build. If you are going for a defense-oriented build, you mainly want to get Ranged defense and maybe some AoE defense. Once you get Singularity, it can be either your tank or your bodyguard, so you won't need melee defense. Of course, you could go for S/L defense by taking one of the APP defense shields.

Crush: To me, this is a damage power. It actually does more damage than Lift. When playing solo and small team, my single target damage chain is GD-Crush-Propel. If GD misses, then Crush still sets up Containment for Propel, which hits pretty hard. On large teams, Propel is so slow that it often will hit foes who have already been killed by teammates. (I call this "necroblasting.") If you only play on teams, you may want to consider replacing Propel with Lift, but Crush should still be slotted as a damage power. Consider using Thunderstrike in Crush and Propel (or Lift) for its ranged Defense.

I would recommend adding Propel (or Lift if you mostly team, but Propel hits a LOT harder and looks cool). Another Thunderstrike set.

PFF is past the Defense softcap on its own. A single Recharge is usually good enough. You could put a Karma -Knockback in there. And that frees up a lot of slots.

Crushing Field. You took it at 30, leaving you with no AoE control until level 18 (and GDF is on a long timer). AoE Immobs provide fast-recharging control if you know how to use them . . . like casting it and then hiding around a corner. Once you get high ranged defense, the AoE Immob will be like a fast-recharging AoE Hold . . . they can't move and they can't hit you. I would take this early. It is far more useful than Force Bolt.

GD: Lockdown is OK if you are building for Ranged Defense. Otherwise, I prefer a combo of Acc, Hold, Rech and Damage for my mostly solo build. I went with 4 Baz Gaze, an Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common Damage.

Fly: Consider Super Speed with a Stealth IO for full invisibility. Why? You can lead Singy into the fight to tank for you while you stay unseen. The Raptor pack is just barely slower than Fly, so it makes a fine substitute. If you keep Fly, slot it with just an EndRdx since the default speed is the Flyspeed cap. Or use a Zephyr -knockback. However, you should use either 1 -knockback or 3. Two provides little benefit.

GDF: If you are going with the Lockdown set, take all 6 for the Ranged Defense bonus.

Tough: I personally did not take the Fighting Pool as I use Hurricane's ToHit Debuff. but if you are going to take Tough, consider slotting the Aegis set for its AoE Defense. Same with your APP armor.

Repulsion Bomb: It kind of sucks. I have it, but I've never been impressed by it. It does knockdown, not knockback. However, if you slot it with knockback IOs, it will do knockback. I slotted it for damage.

Thanks for your input, Local Man! I'll revisit the build when I've got a little more time, but for now:
-I agree with you that the damage on this build is quite Low. I considered going for Mace Mastery in order to add debuffs and Disruptor Blast (And additional S/L defense), but finally gave up doing that in a build because suckerpunch doesn't have that as an option and the number of slots it requires would have been prohibitive.
-Thunderstrike in Crush is an awesome idea. Thank you!
-I DID have Lockdown 6-slotted in the build, but Suckerpunch somehow cut it out.
-I'll restructure power choices in order to bring Crushing Field into the build at a lower level.
-Repulsion Bomb, thought you can't see it on this build, was slotted for the Chance for -Recharge Proc, along with accuracy, endurance, and recharge. Its purpose, the way I have it slotted, is to knock down enemies. I was running low on slots, and had to remove more from it than I wished to.
-I'd slotted PFF that way for the IO bonus, but I'll look for an alternative.

OK, here is a quick build I put together. Ranged, Energy and Negative are capped. While S/L is a little bit low, that is made up with high S/L resistance. Decent Recharge. No purple sets.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Technology Controller
Primary Power Set: Gravity Control
Secondary Power Set: Force Field
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Primal Forces Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Crush

• (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
• (5) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
• (15) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (17) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (25) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge

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