DangerKitty

My very first char on official was Mind Control, and I played it a LOT. The only problem was that it was very hard to do damage as a troller. /Storm helped, but... There's always dominators, which can do pretty decent dps in melee, and get some mez protection... But when I saw what could be done with a hybrid fortunata widow, I was blown away. It did take time to really absorb all of the possibilities though. The options are a little overwhelming. I think I have about 25 iterations saved in Mids, created over many years. Most builds only have 5-6 pool powers total, because there's too many great things to pick from in the primaries/secondaries. It's VERY easy to build for 5x LotG & 5x 10% rech from purple sets.. I ultimately settled on one build to rule them all (though I keep changing my mind on the details) Team buffs are defender-grade, melee dps like a claws stalker, ranged dps is near blaster-grade, good aoe/st mix, ST prolonged rotation is S-tier as long as you can get in melee range, CC on par with MCtroller, survivability is generally better than a super reflexes stalker/scrapper. I feel like it's always best to make your own build, cuz it's "yours" and there's more than one way to build it out. But some key things to consider --- Widow Training key features : FollowUp, Spin, and Lunge, I think Poison Dart is an interesting lvl 1 pick if you want a 3-shot rotation at range with gloom / alternatively swipe is solid (either way you likely want a slot mule for spider's bite on your weakest lvl 1 attack) Fortunata Training key features : Aim, Dominate (proc-monster slotting can put it on par with Blaze, I slot it that way on pretty much any character with access to it), Total Domination (gives a cooldown rotation with aura of confusion for aoe CC, it's the mindtroller way), Psychic Wail (dmg slotted, it also has cc but look at that dmg), Psionic Tornado (or an aoe from epic pool, or both) Teamwork key features : ALL of them. Even solo they're a bargain with the low end-cost. Fortunata Teamwork key features : Mind Link, Aura of Confusion (its a pbaoe mass confuse like strongest power in mind control), Mask Pressense (OR Infiltration from pools, if you're skipping a travel power) --- Other : - Hasten (always), and I like Maneuvers (pool) & Assault (pool) to really stack the team buffing but that is an endurance consideration, and Combat Jumping is just great for a stealth IO to stack your hidden (and push def even deeper above softcap). You probably don't want to Fly/Hover since your optimal AV-melting rotation will have melee in it. It's just criminal not to get lunge & followup into your ST rotation. - Some interesting epic pool options are Gloom as a single pick for a second strong ST Rdps rotation. Or zapp/ball lightning ~or~ electric fences/ball ligntning, for a 16-cap aoe, or 2 aoe's. I don't think leviathan or mace work very well for the fortunata though. And frankly, even taking an epic pool is pretty optional on a fortunata, you're in a candy store of great options. - In general Fortunatas flourish with any extra recharge, defense, and damage you can find. Recharge can be especially useful as it can tighten up rotations to skip lower dmg-per-activation-time powers and tighten up the total dom/aura confuse cycle, Endurance is very manageable as long as you pay 'some' attention to it in build. Forts love red inspirations. And out of all archetypes, forts probably benefit the most from excessively high-budget slotting. Even a x8+4 solo fire farm build can "get by" on cheaper slotting and the only difference is longer run times. Also, I do firmly think that Fortunata adds a lot more strong options than Night, to the point that 'playstyle preference' is a tough argument to make against Fort. --- I kinda prefer spin, psionic tornado, and psychic wail for dmg aoe's, and follow-up, lunge, and dominate for prolonged ST rotation. poison dart, dominate, & gloom is strong on BAF prisoner cleanup, or whenever you're forced away from an AV. If you go Gloom there's a (cheap) accurate to-hit debuff dmg proc hidden in the low level IO set, and you don't need 5% psi def from 6 Apocalypses. I like -resist procs in Spin and another aoe (generally psi tornado or ball lightning), and I like twin build-up procs in FollowUp & Dominate (but another dmg io & dmg proc are very good too). --- I think poison dart or swipe are better than mental or telekinetic blast for lvl 1. Subdue and Strike are kinda interesting, but would be far more interesting if they were level 1 instead of 2. Dart Burst isn't bad, but it's not ideal positionally (cone which needs long range to work well, on a stalker-ish dps?). Same for psychic scream (though you could ignore all that and build for Rdps, I think it's weaker though, and you're survivable enough to get in there). Scramble thoughts isn't bad but it can't proc-monster like dominate, and ST CC isn't exactly game changing. Also Scramble doesn't stack a CC magnitude with your main aoe CC's. Plus, really, a fortunata's best approach to mobs which don't CC at mag3 is just to apply Un-Life. Fate Sealed can boost CC times, but not by a ton. If you're strapped for slots and have a power open, it 'can' be ok-ish. Confuse is ok on a MCtroller, but here it's not impressive. Again, unlife is the main debuff for hard targets. Tactical vengeance is an ok slot mule, though you've got a TON of def slots to play with, and healing IO effects won't globally trigger from it unless you use it. I think you'll want either Muscleclature (core) or Agility (radial) that's really the hardest decision right there. Assault (radial) to melt face or Melee (core) to go extra tanky (I lean assault). I like Void (radial) cuz its dmg is still pretty decent, it's positionally friendly, you don't have to point it or target it, and the -50% dmg effect is actually very strong, but there are other good options. Degenerative Core Flawless or Reactive Total Radial are the two strongest interfaces I think. If you go fire dot, I'd stop at just the pure 75% chance for fire dot, since the 2-proc options check for one, then the other if that hits... so you get the most fire dots from the tier 3 version so that your fire dot isn't hidden behind a prerequisite-proc paywall. But I think degenerative, with the 75% chance for -hp (and a small chance for dmg) is strongest overall. Pets... lots of options, but the 5-minute untouchable pets are the focus over 'hittable' pets. And then Rebirth Radial (widows don't have a heal) or Ageless Core (never, ever, run out of endurance). I think Rebirth is stronger here, because you can cover endurance fairly well with the occasional inspiration, and an overkill amount of recovery isn't as beneficial as an overkill around of regen. Forts are ok-ish on endurance, if your build is at least minimally mindful of it. Rebirth Radial gives full time +200% regen btw, and much more than that part-time. You don't need barrier or clarion unless your build is borked elsewhere (though I could see a melee core/barrier combo possibly working off alternating CD for an extra-tanky fort, maybe), and incandescence is 'meh'. My playstyle with Fort: - It's right here - unlife it. - It's over there - unlife it from afar. - They're right here - unlife them. - They're over there - go over there, & unlife them. - There's a million of em - pop an aoe cc. - There's 2 million of em - pop an aoe cc here, and an aoe cc over there. - Your team split 3 ways - aoe cc here, ranged aoe cc there, jump to point 3 and apply unlife. - You're hit with CC - that tickles. - Someone used Vengeance - you ARE Vengeance. but it helps other people, especially if they're not close enough to you. - Your team is taking a beating - they're not close enough to you. - Your team can't hit their targets - they're not close enough to you. - The tank dropped on a +4 AV and you are gifted agro - Use that saved large orange inspiration, it'll be fine. - You saved purple inspirations instead of orange & red - why'd you do that? your blood is pure concentrated purple, there's no room for more. redo. - You have a whole bunch of red inspirations - "muahahaha, release control art restriction, and get the dmg bonus meter on-screen" - You missed a target - It's a paragon protector, it could happen to anybody. Can probably overcap it if you have a random yellow pill or aim is up. - It's a TPK and you're the last one - pop oranges, pop psychic wail, meter your green & red pill intake, pop mass confuse when they regroup from wail, pop total domination when they stop being helpful, by the time they find their asprin Wail will be back up, eye your rebirth CD and endurance like a hawk, stay on top of your mind link CD. With any luck your team will be back in time for the bulk of the xp. - you Leroy Jenkins a bunch of toxic dmg enemies - so THIS is what people meant by "hospital", weird! Oh there's a nurse with redpills and oranges for sale... - your prospective team leader thinks widows suck - don't argue. they're entitled to their opinion, and you're entitled to a better team. - your team is doing really great - they ARE doing great. don't elaborate on why, you're probably not the only one with some carry-buffing. - The best thing about being a fortunata? - you're a goated chad or chadette, but don't talk about your buffs, twould be unseemly. - The worst thing about being a fortunata? - things might be a little TOO easy. Obviously you can eschew all of these "build leanings", and go in a completely different direction. Playstyle preferences are 100% valid! This is just an overview on cherry-picking 'all' of the top-tier powers for a jack of all trades (which feels almost like a cheat). But even if you focus more on specializing, you're going to have a lot of jack of all trades floating around in your build, so hopefully this offers some insight. It does feel a little hard to justify going night widow though. One thing though (in any build), buildup procs, aim, non-full-time powers like incarnate assault, etc. can make your dmg/accuracy in Mids look stronger than it is. Conversely, -resist procs (or the -hp in degenerative) make dps look weaker (in mids) than it actually is. Thus why a team which stacks -resist and kinetics is SSSSS-tier whether those characters do good dps themselves or not. But the same concept applies in microcosm within a build to some extent. The highest number isn't necessarily the highest number. And the positional aspects (and cast times) of your builds will make or break their 'fun' and effectiveness.

I didn't decide this quickly, nor easily. And I bent over backwards to study the mechanics, and look for ways to make it work well. And I don't dislike underdog or off-meta sets at all. Almost every set has ways to shine. And I like to find it. And I have like 10,000 hours in official/homecoming combined, know mids like the back of my hand, in many versions. Actually I have several versions of it installed because there's a few features which are nicer on some of the older iterations (for certain uses). And I love my character, conceptually and visually. But I'm parking my Storm Blast corruptor character and respec'ing the IO's & money out of it. Level 40, 250 million influence in IO's, all played in-game, no farming, trying hard to find it's hidden strengths ...they just aren't there. Use only as a handicap for more difficult gaming. And if you do use it, don't take Blackwand & Nemesis Staff off your bar after running DFB, you'll find those continue to be useful for way, way too long. Though I do want to express appreciation for those who worked on it. It is visually very pretty, and I can't overstate just how nice it was to try a powerset which I've never played before. edit: I realize I'm talking about a corruptor, in 'Blaster'. but it's the Blast-set which has fundamentally serious problems. and there are multiple AT's which have access to it.

Agreed. And you're not being hyperbolic. Storm Blast is just THAT bad. I have a Storm/Storm corruptor. Entirely played in missions/TF's, no farming. I wanted to learn the set and explore it. At first I thought maybe the storm-blast set just gets it's strength in late game. Then I thought, "maybe it just needs more slots" Then I thought, "maybe some expensive IO's can breath life into it" None of these things turned out to be the case. Doing a level 40 mission with about 250 million inf in IO's already in it... It was the ancillary arc, so I had it set to +0/x1, to unlock the pool quickly. I had been leaning very heavily on the /Storm secondary, and that was somewhat disguising just how bad Storm Blast was performing. So I decided to just stick with my primary for damage, to carefully observe how Storm Blast itself is performing. This was a low-difficulty Arc, just to quickly unlock the ancillary pool. Great time to do some testing on white-label Lt's. Storm Blast does not perform. - I was constantly endurance-crashing (and not from sapping attacks). Even though I have 3 slots in Stamina, and multiple endurance proc IO's. - The setup to try to output damage is very long. Not only are the animations long, but after a 2 second attack animation, there's a further 2+ seconds it takes to actually do the damage. I'm used to DoT damage, i often use it. Gloom for exampole is an excellent single target attack. Probably the best ST ranged attack in the game at level 1. - Your attacks don't start to do any significant damage unless you keep an invisible counter up, and even when you do, you're rewarded with relatively weak, slow, damage, and a completely empty endurance bar. - The Storm Cell doesn't stay where you put it, but at the same time, it follows you on such a weird path and delay that it cannot be reliably taken to a new combat area, or be positioned in any intelligible way. I believe it is using the "sometimes follows your character, sorta, flip a coin" coding from Carrion Creepers. But at least Carrion Creepers covers a huge AoE. Storm Cell covers a quite small area (same as Freezing Rain, which is small enough to need *precise* placement to be useful). - Chain lightning is "almost ok". But it takes it's dear sweet time animating it's arcing damage. In group play, 1/2 of your chain lightning attacks never materialize into any AoE effect. Which just kills the power. - Category 5 will only noticeably annoy mobs if you have used Intensify before it. And even then, it doesn't actually kill anything. It's damage output is about on par with an un-boosted Fireball. And similar in coverage (yes it covers a larger area, but it doesn't hit everything in that area). - No matter what slotting you do, and even if you have both of the +End acolades as well, You will have a huge struggle to use Storm Blast without Ageless. On some level, I knew that pinning my hopes for the set working ok on an Incarnate power to fix it, was not sound. But I was really trying to love the set. It's NEW, I haven't played a new set in years. I bent over backwards to give it every benefit of the doubt. But "your primary will have "manageable" endurance if you take a specific Incarnate power in level 50+... is not balanced. Eventually on a lark, I hit an enemy with Black wand. This was FAR more effective than Hailstones (even though hailstones was well slotted). So then I started single-pulling mobs to test. Black Wand beat Cloudburst too! Even Nemesis Staff beat Cloudburst. Those can't be slotted. No procs, no tricks. They're *noticeably* better than Cloudburst (Storm Blast's rough 'Blaze' equivalent), even though I had Cloudburst 5-slotted. At that point, I rearranged my bars, and just finished the last ancillary pool mission with Blackwand, Nemesis Staff, and Storm-secondary powers only. This worked considerably better than trying to utilize the Storm Blast power set (which had most of my slots & IO's in it). I had some really gorgeous costumes for this character. And conceptually it's great. Also the animations are very pretty. But Storm Blast has to be the weakest blast set I have ever used (and I've used them all). The numbers in Mid's are not even remotely similar to what I see in-game. Storm Blast is made of pure nerf. Normally, I'm very against any "drastic measures" when it comes to balancing. "tweak with a screwdriver, not a hammer", etc. And I'm not "buff-focused" either. I can think of multiple sets which would make the overall game more interesting if nerfed slightly. But Storm Blast is in a horrible state, and needs to be buffed (with a 10lb sledge hammer). For starters, Make Storm Cell cover 25 ft radius, maybe 30 ft (all of your ranged abilities rely on it). AND either A) stay where you put it, or B) follow you in a sensible manner. Then give Storm Cell 1/2 the cast time, and 1/2 the endurance cost. In it's current state, it is never where you actually need it to be, and it's 2 seconds + 15.6 endurance to have it be there. Not that the benefit is particularly good. Then go through the rest of the set, and give everything -25% endurance cost and +25% damage. And then Buff Category Five to 2 or 3 fold it's current effectiveness. Do ALL of that, and it would still not make it a top tier blast set. Fire Blast for example, would still beat it by a fair margin. But Storm Blast would become "ok-ish", only if buffed that heavily. If I thought every character had to be a min-maxing work of art, I wouldn't have like 50 characters. I'd have 3 or 4 which follow the meta. I even love to take underdog powersets, and see if I can find their hidden value with the right build. But there's a kind of minimal effectiveness needed to make a set "satisfying" to play. Maybe that's DPS, maybe it's debuffs, or buffs, heals, lots of ways for a set to shine. Something which makes you feel like you're doing "something". For my Storm/Storm corruptor, the only powers which give those feels are from the Storm secondary set. She'd literally be dramatically more effective just not taking any powers from her primary. I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to respec to pull the IO's and money out of this character. And park it, in the hopes that someday it becomes viable.