Carnifax

Nothing wrong with a bit of skew to ones perspective. Proc-able I parse more as "not poop". Chance for -recharge is poop. Chance for -ToHit is poop (especially for a Dark Affinity. You've loads of -ToHit. Spend your slot on something else). Chance for Immob on a controller (even an Illusionist). Meh. I've better things for my slots. Forced Feedback? Achilles? Gaussians? Hook them to my veins! Pacing of the Turtle? Razzle Dazzle? Absolute Amazement? Poop. I love Howling (it has my favourite noise in the game) but remember the stun is minion-only and the Fear is crap-fear, not good-fear. (ie the run-away Fear rather than stand-there-trembling fear). Afraid rather than Terrified. Darkest Night isn't a control. It just isn't. If we're going to start counting those as Controls then the label becomes meaningless. Control as I used it was mezzes (useful mezzes at that. Blackholes only purpose is to let you take a Pool Power, which is sorely needed in Dark. Everything else is fab), which (compared to say Rad or Trick Arrow Dark has less of). Fluffy is amazing granted and brings extra mezzing. Problem is you're not really sure who he's going to aim at. Overall though I think we're arguing over very little. Dark is amazing. It's not the most amazing at everything but there's no set it doesn't go incredibly well with.

I'll second this. I was doing a different RWZ mission yesterday on a (newly formed fledgling team which I'd cobbled together) and the first spawn (or maybe two close together) we hit gave us a few Faceplants followed almost immediately by a Mission Failed. Was Rikti rather than Nemises so there's at least 2 RWZ missions with it there. I've also seen Lady "AggroBot" Grey get herself killed in that mission where you are supposed to rescue her then lead her to something, recently. So sadly there's still a few missions where it happens and it's really annoying.

I'll start with the only two 50s I've managed so far. Plant Control: Partner: Storm Originally on Live this was a Empathy but people kept wanting me to Heal and not do anything else. So when Homecoming kicked in I went totally the other way with a Stormie. Plant / Storm is just a damage and debuff monster. Confuse everything and then swamp them in patches and pseudopets of death. Alternatives : Traps would be interesting. Plant is reasonably "Seeds then do whatever" so you might have time to be a Trapper. Illusion Control: Partner: Dark So I made my Plant / Storm, then I came to remaking Carni (Illusion/Storm on Live) on Homecoming. Storm was gone and she's always been a "magical imp thing which causes chaos" so Dark was the obvious choice and it's a great combo. Phantom Army loves Resistance Debuffs and Tar Patch can stack. Loads of -ToHit between Spectral, Darkest Night and Dark Servant and the changes to Dark for Controllers make it really team friendly and End light. You end up as a weird mastermind who doesn't care about their pets at all. Alternatives : Illusion / Storm is a lot of fun. Time gives Illusion a lot of things it craves (Recharge for PAs, some -resist) Gravity Control: Partner: Trick Arrow Because again I had this on Live, mostly because it was a combo no-one else used. Trick Arrow needs a buff, there's no getting around that. However like Traps Grav gives you the trick of setting something horrible up, then wormholing a spawn into it. Trick Arrow lets you do that with a Disruption Field / Oil patch combo then lighting it up and watching them burn as you throw Acid Arrow and forklift trucks at them. Alternatives : Traps, obviously. I'm currently running a Grav / Time on Reunion and he's quite fun because it's thematic for a mad scientist and time is just good overall (other than weeeeOOOOOOHoooh) without being especially synergistic. Earth Control: Partner: Traps I've played Earth as a Domi but not a Controller. I've played Traps as a Mastermind but not a controller. So lets stick them together for the greater good. Earth has lots of AOE mez, so in theory you just lob one down and you've got some time for fiddly stuff. Like acid mortar and toe-bombing with Trip Mine. Alternatives : Storm is thematic (unlike Traps really) as is Nature. Fire Control: Partner: Nature Affinity Is one I want to try myself. Not many things Fire doesn't go with overall though. Hotfeet + a PBAOE Mez from the secondary is always fun. Lots of ways to make Fire Imps not dead. Alternatives : Rad is the one I had on live and it is great fun. Dark goes with everything and has buffs for defense & end recovery as well as the ability to stack stuns. Electric Control: Partner: Rad Combine PBAOEs basically. Drain things and hold things whilest also PROC Jolting them into oblivion. AOE Heal makes Gremlins happy and an additional AOE Control for when stuff goes weird. Sleep Patch and the anchor debuffs work well together. AM is always good regardless. Alternatives : The other PBAOE friendly sets : Nature, Time and Kinetics. Elec/Kin is your basic Sapper build and thematic. Dark Control: Partner: Cold Again I've mostly played Dark as a Domi. Dark / Cold is just a nice team controller to have along. Shields for your allies, lots of debuffs. Alternatives : Traps, because Dark is pretty safe overall and Seekers + Heart of Darkness is stacking stuns. Ice Control: Partner: Time Another "I had this as a Domi". Time has extra control, lots of -Slow to stack, a heal and a PBAOE to couple with Arctic. It's also got a Recharge for getting Ice Patch back quicker. Alternatives : Rad for a lot of the same reasons. Dark because it's so strong overall. Mind Control: Partner: Thermal Honestly I've never had an interest in Mind or played it. A team controller, it's rare a meleer won't relish more Resistances even at level 50 since Defense is most people IO goals. My Mace / Rad brute LOVES thermals on the team (my Warshade used to but now he has no need for them :p )

Team buffs / debuffs and maybe some 'other' mezzes (fears, confuses and sleeps). Possibly pets like the villain pools. To be honest though slot starvation is bad enough without adding epics into the mix.

Which procs? I've looked at the builds in Proc Monsters and there aren't that many. Howling is one that escaped my attention, looks like that would take 2 damage (Posi and the slow) and one resist (and some crappy Stun ones), and DS can take Cloud and 1-2 Hold ones, but the hold ones only kick in for the single target hold. I'm genuinely interested for my Ill/Dark. Soft controls you have howling and what else? I think I need to reslot my Howling now I investigate it futher....

The buff icon pops in just after the Mire one consistently (for what that is worth). I see the stacked Mire and a fraction of a sec later the proc buff icon.

That's okay. Quasar -> Grav Well is all I want it for.... Edit : So I did some Perez testing and it does work. I'm not sure exactly what rules it's using. Looks to be just based off a 1ppm trigger (# of enemies doesn't really seem to matter) but you do have to hit at least one person.

Hi folks As per the title. Does Gaussians chance for build-up work in Sunless Mire? Ive slotted it but checking builds here they dont have it. So now im wondering if its not compatible given how Mire works compared to build up / aim.

Did sticking Cloud senses in make a big difference? I have it on Dark Servant, since he has a lot of triggers but it didnt seem worthwhile to me in Darkest Night or on the heal.

On paper Dark doesnt look like it is particularly melee friendly, but your heal is pbaoe, youll want to cover your imps / melee teammates with Fade and youll want to be in close for Soul Drain / Absorb or whatever its called. Plus there's no reason NOT to be in close: no cones, tarpatch doesnt care where its plonked and its likely Dark Servant will be in there too so extra aoe heals (which your imps will like too). Only relative downside is that Dark isnt particularly proccable or come with additional controls. Its still amazing.

Nature is an interesting one too. AOE Resist shield, AOE absorb shield, single target -resist, an aura which on.paper looks similar to Rads (so goes well with Hotfeet), rad-like debuff toggle and the ult is a long lasting team build up. Thinking that might be my next Controller if I can think of a good concept.

Does Oil Slick still have the same "refuse to light at certain places on some map" issue. I remember the old devs saying it was a sync issue of some sort but I know, for example on the west side of the ruined city map (the one with the psychic clockwork) it just refused to light.

Not sure why you'd not have 2-3 more Def/Rech in Fade. Its s key power for getting Def soft cap easily.

On my old Grav / TA on live I used Taser Dart. Short range was the only drawback, but it has that cool "flicking a lit match at the enemy for a vast conflagration" feel you see in movies. Or Magic Origin if that suits better. Enflame would work but I was thinking it would be "wasted" as the target would die so you'd miss out on the additional spawns it does (5 of them I believe). Arcane Bolt would work too I think. Epic wise Fire, as you said, Primal, Mu and Mace would all work too. And the Nemesis staff of course.

I dunno about "best" but my 40-something Mace/Rad has it slotted with 3 procs (achilles -res and two damage) and 3 cheap ios to frankenslot it up a bit. Not only does it take a lot but the long recharge means they fire off a lot (every time from what I can tell but beyond a few initial tests I havent verified). The nice thing about the -res is that it should affect all the ticks of toxic damage. And since procs dont care about Fury that makes it my favourite opener power (maybe after a crowd control 1st just to knock things over). Ive no idea if the -res applies to the other procs but id imagine not. Procced build up > Ground Zero > Whirling Mace > Crowd Control or Shatter makes me happy. This is a 40 something character so I haven't bothered with sets yet, just IOs, procs and cheap frankenslotting.

Well Illusion / Cold and Grav / TA or Traps so. Ive a soft spot for Grav/TA from live days, and if/when TA gets a buff im totally remaking it.

Illusion runs off crying... Although im not sure how much synergy illusion / pain would have.

The only downside to Black Scorpion (which I speed-reran yesterday very quickly) is the last few missions are Malta and Malta come with those wretched debuff and mezzes. So Ninja-running past the majority of missions could be tricky for some (I was a Mace/Rad Brute so I just ignored them) unless you have stealth (my Plant/Stormie had enough to fly past them previously). I did spend 3 minutes running around lost in a big confusing room and unable to Superjump because they kept pinning me to the floor with a jump debuff. I also accidentally did enter the damn Arachnids mission, then realized my mistake, followed swiftly by realizing there was no obvious way to exit the damn mission (I Ouroed out then autocompleted it). But as a speed run it took 30 mins or so, even with my mistakes.

Youll be more of a stalker for 24 levels. Fort and its controls are available following a respec at 24. Then you become a scraptroller with lots of ranged options, and a load of team friendly leadership-like toggles and buffs. Very easy to soft cap defense.

The problem you have here is that Grav/ Time both get a series of 5 excellent powers from 26 onwards (26, 28, 32, 35 and 38). Probably their 5 best powers stretch over that section. In addition Dimension Shift is such an oddball power: its not the typical aoe mezz other sets get around level 12 which you can drop whenever you feel like it (unlike say Seeds, Elecs sleep patch, Fearsome stare or the Aoe stuns)

Yep, definitely worth it. Dark Watchers Despair 4 part plus a Fear proc is how I usually slot it.

Plant is ridiculous. Plant / Storm is a lot of fun but Plant / Time would work too if you can think of a concept. Dark/Time would be interesting as well. On live I had a plant/emp but reinvented them as a plant/storm here. Plant/Nature is pretty thematic too

Weave to Maneuvers, letting you drop boxing maybe?

Nah, like Ice Slick it just doesnt take much other than recharge. -resist isnt slottable and -slow isnt important so 2-3 recharge IOs and you're good to go. Because its a hefty resist debuff itll help your entire team and all of your pets. Personally id dump one of the invises. Which is up to you. I love my PowerBoost > Fade > Group Invis combo as its pretty much 30% defense to everyone affected. I do normally skip invising whomever is tanking though (so they end up with 25%) as it affects threat level.

The nice thing about perma PA compared to something like perma-Dom is that it's not an all-or-nothing. Heading towards it is great too. My downtime is a few seconds on my ill/dark but since im not soloing AVs it doesnt hugely matter. Skipping Tar Patch is a massive no-no though. Giving the entire team essentially a big damage boost via debuffage, which is multiplied by damage buffs (and can be stacked in team AV fights) is huge. There's a few good Ill/Dark builds here (plus my own)