Illusion/Time the next Illusion/Rad

My favorite archetype has always been controller, and my favorite power set always Illusion Control, it's just pure amazing. I've played Illusion/Rad before, and enjoyed it, but I never quite liked the theaming behind /Rad.

Enter Time Manipulation.

Given I don't have the numbers, but I'm seeing amazing synergy between the sets. Chronoshift seems like AM on steroids(even though it's a level 38 ability), and slowed response seems to fill the important roll of making your Phantom Army do more damage. Add in all the extra control, and only one ability that requires you to melee with foes, and I think time may be just as strong a pair with Illusion and Rad, if not better.

What are others opinions on the pair?

ive been looking at the numbers on the set, i dont think it will replace an ill/rad because time manipulation does not have the -regen that /rad does

time manip has 1-2 powers which do some -regen (around -100%) and im not sure if its stackable


now this doesnt mean that it wont synergize well, but it wont be the same solo monster (soloing AV/GMs like ill/rads or ill/colds), in fact it looks like it will synergize very well because both sets are very dependent on recharge so it will be easy to slot for

Where can you find the numbers? City of Data didn't have them last I checked.

on beta server, those are the most up to date numbers we have if you just look at the detailed info on all of the powers during character creation

Ahh, thanks. I can't wait to play an Ill controller with a high magnitude hold in his arsenal.

the hold which i think is called time stop, is still normally a mag 3, if you use time crawl on a baddy to cause them to have the delayed effect, then your hold will be mag 4, which will be great to help control a boss or 2

personally i prefer time manip on a defender because all of the buff/debuff values are much higher than other ATs

I'm planning an Ill/Time for conceptual reasons (dimensional bending + mental powers fit the concept), and I'm glad the pairing looks to mesh up fairly well.

Probably the only disparity will be that PBAoE toggle (which would go better with more melee oriented sets). And I've seen comments about Illusion's pets leading to it favoring a ranged playstyle in that Ill/Rad thread.

But it looks like that toggle is primarily a defensive power and controllers are already strong on providing defense. It might be entirely possible to just run in to debuff the targets that can't be so easily controlled and just ignore the toggle the rest of the time. I'll have to play with it once it goes live and see. I've no plans of going on Beta because I'd rather spend my time on a character I could keep after Beta ends and there're already plenty of people providing useful feedback in there.

From what I have seen of it, I consider Time a very solid competitor for Radiation Emission. Time is not an AV killer (althought not necessarily bad at it) but is a very solid AoE control and buff set in the vein of Dark Miasma. IMO Time fills Illusion's AoE hole a bit more reliably than Radiation. Specifically, the radius of Time's powers is fairly consistently 25ft. Very few debuff sets can boast the same.

The power I think that will be a bit of an adjustment for players is Time's Juncture. I think a lot of people are looking at that right now and thinking that to use they'll need to stand on top of enemies all the time. My impression of it is that for Ranged characters it is an optional debuff in the vein of Hurricane, and will only really be critical for the sets that are already heavily PBAoE. For Illusion the synergy is interesting because Spectral Terror also has -ToHit.

FWIW Farsight is extremely powerful, especially right now when it can be boosted with Power Boost. Against +4 enemies where the team really needs defense, Farsight + Time's Juncture is better defense than Radiation Infection. Rad Infection also only has 15ft range and tends to drop frequently due to the anchor dying.

On an illusion controller, I imagine Time's Juncture will see limited use. I understand the move is actually really good, but under most circumstances Illusion controllers prefer to be at a range, it keeps their pets on a leash, and makes it easier to see the battlefield and leverage your controls properly.

In fact, all the powers are so good, I think Time's Juncture might be the only skippable power for an illusion controller. Not saying it won't be useful, but you only got 24 power choices, and I imagine you're going to take 8 from your primary, and taking all 9 from your secondary leaves you with only 7 left, which doesn't leave a lot of room for flexibility.

I thought Ill/Rad was the next Ill/rad?

Ill/time? I see it doing one or two things better, but having less -regen and -res doesn't allow it to trump Rad in teh av-soloing department.

PS, reserving "Time 2 get Ill" on all servers =P