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First, welcome back! Lots of stuff has changed recently, so we can understand the questions. I didn't know that I was a reference source . . . I just post my opinions too much while trying to be fair to other opinions and playstyles.|
Originally Posted by Tenlaar
I am returning from a very hefty break and going back to my one true love, an earth/storm controller. I have done the usual forum grind, read everything I can, searched Local Man posts, but so much has changed that I could really use some personalized advice. As this is my main on a new account, I want to build for as much variety to handle all the new stuff as I can while hopefully being able to do some farming in order to get him as tweaked out as possible. Spreading out as many procs as I possibly can is a route I have always wanted to try with this build as well. I don't expect to be the ultimate farm machine, but I am hoping for at least middle of the pack.
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I must admit that my Earth/Storm is the character I pull out if I want to provide a lot of control for a large team that doesn't need lots of damage. I certainly can solo with her, but I usually pull out other characters if I want to solo. I farm very rarely (I find it boring), but on those few times I want to, I usually pull out my Elec/Shield scrapper. My Ill/Rad is my favorite for farming Tip Missions to get Hero merits.
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| I am familiar enough with the earth/storm powers that I don't need a lot of advice on power selection, that only things that I am undecided on are stone prison and O2 boost. I would like to be as effective as I can against AVs and such, and a heal for pet or team mate never hurts, so I am leaning towards taking them, but I worry that there is something that would be more useful in the end. |
I consider Stone Prison to be skippable unless I plan to solo a lot in the low levels.
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I like teleport as my travel power, but I can't decide how much to take of it. I like teleporting into a group and dropping stalagmites/thunderclap as an opener. Recall friend, long range teleport, and team teleport are all appealing, but I don't have enough experience at high levels to know if using four powers is going to limit the power of the character. I would really like to have hover as well just to make teleporting around require a little less vigilance. |
I have plenty of experience with Teleport, as my main Ill/Rad leveled up with it, and I have it on both of my Stone Tanks. It would not be my choice for an Earth/storm, who should mostly stay at range until controls are activated. The Earth control powers draw a lot of aggro. Recall Friend is a nice team-friendly power, especially if you have full invis, but the other Teleport powers really aren't that great.
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There are so many options in the epic power pools that I am just stumped. I will break down the options that I am seeing in mids: -Soul Master. End drain and defensive toggle, though not an ideal one for farming as I understand it. AoE -ToHit seems like it would be handy, but at 7.5% base, would be it be worth it when things are choking, flopping, staggering? And then Soul Drain seems like it could be a nice add in for farming when I can have large groups around me. -Fire Mastery. Fire Ball, Fire Shield, Rise of the Phoenix, Consume. All four would obviously help bring the pain, and Fire Shield seems to be the best defensive toggle for farming, with S/L and fire resist. -Ice Mastery. Hibernate just seems like it would be a great ability to have. Being able to not even use it as a panic button, but just a free breather and a heal every now and then just seems...luxurious. Frozen Armor seems to be the second best farming suited toggle, and Ice Storm seems a great fit with everything an earth/storm already has going on. -Psionic Mastery. This is the one that I am actually hoping to make work the most. I would actually like to take all five powers in this pool if I could. The -recharge to stack with snow storm on harder single targets from Mental Blast. Indomitable Will and Mind Over Body, both seem to be great buffs to have. Psionic Tornado for more AoE damage, maybe more proc slots, AoE -recharge, again to stack with snow storm. World of Confusion I really like the idea of. It basically adds a whole unique approach I could take to fights, especially if I could use a stealth IO and get some agro-free confuse going on in groups before I start dropping the other controls. But is it too much? Is it too slow, too weak? On paper this seems like the best way to go to me, but I don't know how it actually plays at the top. If I take all of the Psi Mastery abilities, plus Stone Prison and O2 Boost, I can only take teleport and hover. The other options for Epic Powers allow more teleport powers. I could drop Mental Blast and pick one more up. Maybe Indomitable Will isn't really needed, I just don't know. And then, when the power selections are finally nailed down, I have no idea what the best way to slot all of these powers with the specific alterations that should be made for the build is. I would greatly appreciate any advice here, I am itching to do some leveling but want to make sure I am getting the most out of it. Obviously, I know nothing of end game at this point, and spitting out Enhancements at me is still all gibberish, so I am just going on limited experience and theorycrafting. |
I prefer the Ice APP. Hibernate is a great panic button power that has saved my tail a bunch of times. You not only recover Health, but Endurance, too, in your own personal "time out." (Storm is lacking both self-heal and any endurance recovery and Hibernate gives you both and only needs a single Recharge in the default slot.) Ice Blast is fast single target blast and a rarely resisted damage type. Frost Breath is a fairly quickly recharging cone with up-front damage, while Ice Storm is your location Targetted AoE Damage over Time -- you have the tools to keep foes in the area. Ice Armor is good S/L Defense and not nearly as ugly as Rock Armor.
The Fire APP set is good if you are looking for damage, but Consume is disappointing -- too long a recharge.
Most folks who go with the Villain PPPs go for Mace Mastery for the S/L/E Defense shield, the Blast that does -Resistance and the extra pet.
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Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
I personally think all of the Controller APPs are very good. For the Psi APP, World of Confusion is extremely disappointing but everything else has its pluses.
Psionic Tornado has a longer cast animation than Fireball, but has a very large radius and blast size--100ft range and 20ft radius. Most radial AoE blasts average 80/15. A 5ft radial increase may sound small, but the actual area of the resulting sphere is more than twice the size (about 2.3 times) of Fireball or Ball Lightning. Of course, Ice Storm is even bigger (25 ft radius) but isn't spammable like Psi-nado is. Psinado also packs -Recharge, which, combined with Sleet, floors the recharge of any same level enemy. Surprisingly, Psi-nado has better -Recharge than Ice Storm (-37.5 vs -10).
The one power I can't stand for personal reasons is Hibernate. I've tried very hard to like it and just can't. I guess it could be useful for hiding out until your powers recharge. Often by the time I am desperate enough to trigger this power I am already dead. It can be useful as in-combat Rest sometimes.
IMO the best thing about the Fire APP is Rise of the Phoenix. I love love love that power. That may something about my play style. But IMO RotP is a total game changer. It's basically a get out jail free card allowing you to play recklessly until you bite off more than you can chew, then maybe you play more carefully for a while while it recharges, then back to psycho. It is also VERY useful on iTrials.
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Good advice has already been given, but I would point out, that I would not choose Psionic Mastery on the basis that it provides additional -recharge. You can floor the -recharge on greater than even con enemies just with Snow Storm and Freezing Rain, so although the -recharge can be nice (so you don't need to worry about Snow Storm, just Freezing Rain and Tornado and you're at the floor for even con enemies) it certainly isn't necessary and won't add much to your arsenal.|
Originally Posted by Tenlaar
-Psionic Mastery. This is the one that I am actually hoping to make work the most. I would actually like to take all five powers in this pool if I could. The -recharge to stack with snow storm on harder single targets from Mental Blast. Indomitable Will and Mind Over Body, both seem to be great buffs to have. Psionic Tornado for more AoE damage, maybe more proc slots, AoE -recharge, again to stack with snow storm.
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That said, there are still great reasons to pick Psionic Mastery that have been pointed out (large AoE, but mostly Indomitable Will). Although it's true that there's an incarnate power that can provide perma mez protection, that may still be a ways off for you depending on how often you're planning on running trials, and having mez protection in another form opens up more options for your destiny power.
Draggynn on Virtue: lvl 50 Storm/Psi, 1389 badges
Draggynn's Guide to Storm Summoning(Gale-Tornado, updated 6/25/2011)
Avatar by Wassy full reference here
With Inherent Fitness, a number of choices regarding powers became moot for me, and I respecced into some I had not had room for previously. I still may not use them a lot, but they are there now.
With the modifications to the Flight pool, a number of slots got freed up. The inherent slot maxxes Flight speed, so I save a couple of slots there. Indeed, with the advent of the Hover Board, Flight as a travel power is now optional for me. I use a Stealth IO in Hover, which is how 99% of my heroes fight, and with the matching Flight IO in the set, I get a bonus and Hover speed is maxxed, and I also get Stealth. I turn on Steamy Mist and I am fully invisible, woot. This is the best situation for me, because Super Speed and I do not get along very well.
Earth/Storm is still pretty much my favorite combination, but it actually has gotten better due to the above. Whaddya know.
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
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Look at the Clarion Destiny incarnate power before going with Indomitable Will. Clarion is in many ways superior to it. Fire damage is in general better than Psionic damage, especially at higher levels.
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Originally Posted by Tenlaar
-Psionic Mastery. This is the one that I am actually hoping to make work the most. I would actually like to take all five powers in this pool if I could. The -recharge to stack with snow storm on harder single targets from Mental Blast. Indomitable Will and Mind Over Body, both seem to be great buffs to have.
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Originally Posted by Rodion
Look at the Clarion Destiny incarnate power before going with Indomitable Will. Clarion is in many ways superior to it. Fire damage is in general better than Psionic damage, especially at higher levels.
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I'm going to have to argue here. Indom Will on a high recharge build is very competitive with Destiny Clarion. It takes a LoTG slot, is available as low as level 35, and grants enough Psi defense to take most characters to the cap, or very close to it. Moreover, Indom Will means you are free to take something other than just mezz protection for your Destiny power.
Clarion Destiny is not weak by any means, but to call it "superior" is IMO overstatement, especially since picking Clarion means ruling out Barrier, Ageless, or Rebirth, all of which are very very good.
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Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
I'm going to have to argue here. Indom Will on a high recharge build is very competitive with Destiny Clarion. It takes a LoTG slot, is available as low as level 35, and grants enough Psi defense to take most characters to the cap, or very close to it. Moreover, Indom Will means you are free to take something other than just mezz protection for your Destiny power.
Clarion Destiny is not weak by any means, but to call it "superior" is IMO overstatement, especially since picking Clarion means ruling out Barrier, Ageless, or Rebirth, all of which are very very good. |
And if one Exemplars with any regularity ... IW can be available as early as 30th (that covers a lot of TF territory, Citadel on onward). On an Earth/Time/Psi build I'm working on I will have perma IW at 33rd and up (needing Chronoshift's +50% recharge for the perma state which is available at 38th). And that's assuming no +recharge from teammates.
Add in the possibility of multiple builds no reason an Exemplar build can't be run for Psi Mastery with IW and for level 50 iTrials and content etc., run Fire Mastery and Clarion etc., etc..
I am returning from a very hefty break and going back to my one true love, an earth/storm controller. I have done the usual forum grind, read everything I can, searched Local Man posts, but so much has changed that I could really use some personalized advice. As this is my main on a new account, I want to build for as much variety to handle all the new stuff as I can while hopefully being able to do some farming in order to get him as tweaked out as possible. Spreading out as many procs as I possibly can is a route I have always wanted to try with this build as well. I don't expect to be the ultimate farm machine, but I am hoping for at least middle of the pack.
I am familiar enough with the earth/storm powers that I don't need a lot of advice on power selection, that only things that I am undecided on are stone prison and O2 boost. I would like to be as effective as I can against AVs and such, and a heal for pet or team mate never hurts, so I am leaning towards taking them, but I worry that there is something that would be more useful in the end.
I like teleport as my travel power, but I can't decide how much to take of it. I like teleporting into a group and dropping stalagmites/thunderclap as an opener. Recall friend, long range teleport, and team teleport are all appealing, but I don't have enough experience at high levels to know if using four powers is going to limit the power of the character. I would really like to have hover as well just to make teleporting around require a little less vigilance.
There are so many options in the epic power pools that I am just stumped. I will break down the options that I am seeing in mids:
-Soul Master. End drain and defensive toggle, though not an ideal one for farming as I understand it. AoE -ToHit seems like it would be handy, but at 7.5% base, would be it be worth it when things are choking, flopping, staggering? And then Soul Drain seems like it could be a nice add in for farming when I can have large groups around me.
-Fire Mastery. Fire Ball, Fire Shield, Rise of the Phoenix, Consume. All four would obviously help bring the pain, and Fire Shield seems to be the best defensive toggle for farming, with S/L and fire resist.
-Ice Mastery. Hibernate just seems like it would be a great ability to have. Being able to not even use it as a panic button, but just a free breather and a heal every now and then just seems...luxurious. Frozen Armor seems to be the second best farming suited toggle, and Ice Storm seems a great fit with everything an earth/storm already has going on.
-Psionic Mastery. This is the one that I am actually hoping to make work the most. I would actually like to take all five powers in this pool if I could. The -recharge to stack with snow storm on harder single targets from Mental Blast. Indomitable Will and Mind Over Body, both seem to be great buffs to have. Psionic Tornado for more AoE damage, maybe more proc slots, AoE -recharge, again to stack with snow storm. World of Confusion I really like the idea of. It basically adds a whole unique approach I could take to fights, especially if I could use a stealth IO and get some agro-free confuse going on in groups before I start dropping the other controls. But is it too much? Is it too slow, too weak? On paper this seems like the best way to go to me, but I don't know how it actually plays at the top.
If I take all of the Psi Mastery abilities, plus Stone Prison and O2 Boost, I can only take teleport and hover. The other options for Epic Powers allow more teleport powers. I could drop Mental Blast and pick one more up. Maybe Indomitable Will isn't really needed, I just don't know. And then, when the power selections are finally nailed down, I have no idea what the best way to slot all of these powers with the specific alterations that should be made for the build is.
I would greatly appreciate any advice here, I am itching to do some leveling but want to make sure I am getting the most out of it. Obviously, I know nothing of end game at this point, and spitting out Enhancements at me is still all gibberish, so I am just going on limited experience and theorycrafting.