Erydanus

No, cityofplayers.com is unreachable at work on my academic backbone connection. On firefox it took about 30 seconds to conk out and I saw in the corner it was doing lookups the whole time and finally gave up and said it was unreachable. On chrome it gave up after 10 seconds and spat out: This site can’t be reached www.cityofplayers.com’s server IP address could not be found. DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

I'm in the camp of "use the ATO that gives you frequent random hides" as your primary source of bonus crits as well. I will not give up my placate, but I'm going to use it even more rarely now since I'm flicking into hide off and on in fights now. Next stalker I roll the first 200 merits are going to be for those 2 ATO procs, no question unless I need to fork over 20 first for a knockback protection.

Stalkers play with a lot more finesse. With a scrapper you just wade in and go bork bork bork on whatever you can and you know you're eventually going to crit for monster damage. You have a lot of hit points and some pretty solid defenses. You're not a tank but if the defender just wings you with a heal now and then you're probably good. In comparison stalkers have much lower hit points and while we do have comparable defenses we can't go front line as carefree as a scrapper. Instead of a small random crit chance on all attacks we have the mechanic of usually critting from hide, and then once we're out in the open we start building up charges of Assassin's Focus. When we get 3, an orange circle lights up on Assassin's Strike and it auto crits. (Assassin's strike used to be a slow melee snipe you only used from hide but now it's a good solid fast attack once you're revealed and in combat.) If you're not dealing with a big group you also have the option of placating a foe and using the traditional from-hide Assassin's strike, but we have an Archetype Origin enhancement that basically takes the burden of re-hiding off. Oh and before you make a stalker you should look over the primary/secondary in a planner. We get an Assassin's Strike and Hide in all our sets and that means something else has to go. For the attack primary it's usually the small area effect melee cone. For the secondary it can vary. In the case of Staff, it's the form toggle that goes - my friend loves his staff stalker but if you wanted to play with forms I think you have to go scrapper.

Yes the mastermind pet aura items will affect your singularity. I think defense is better for it as it has high resistances already to certain damage types. IIRC, even though you slot these globals in the pet power they work by giving you the player an aura of protection so the benefit is only there when it's near you acting as a sidekick or pocket tank. I will say these are not high priority items to get though. Singularity is a very tough ball of energy. It will not often die. If something is killing your singularity you should probably run for your life. On live I did use both Edict of the Master and Sovereign Right globals and did not feel that they made a big difference to Singy. I would focus on slotting singularity for damage first and then maybe some hold first with only a small amount of accuracy as it seems to have higher than normal base accuracy, by a LOT. (3 dam 2 hold 1 acc while leveling.) Ideally at 50 slam 3 Peroxisomes in it, then an acc, and then with the 2 spots you have open you could use maybe 1 or 2 of the pet special IOs. I would recommend you go for Soulbound Allegience Chance of Buildup. I wouldn't bother putting any recharge in Singularity. It only affects your recast time and it's persistent and durable.

Ok so it's not my imagination they're kinda meh, comparatively. That is, I think the #s in Will aren't horrible but for what I'd want it in I really want accuracy, recharge, and mez at max like Overpowering is; but Overpowering has mediocre bonuses, and the energy font pet sucks. I was looking at these after looking at the stalker sets. The raw #s in these are actually much higher than in the stalker sets, but the set bonuses are nicer and the two procs are AT enhancing. It'd be like having a 20% additional chance of Overpower with all our single target mezzes instead of the energy font pet.

It's weird, your new site is still not loading for me. I'm getting Server Not Found error on work's network. Let's just say it's a maaaaajor network but we're not locked down in any way that I know of. So it may be the domain registration has not gotten into our system yet. That seems very weird after this many days. Your site loads fine on my phone (TMobile network).

So what are the thoughts on the Controller ATOs? I only really clocked that ATOs weren't level 50 purple recipes last week and looking over the set mix I thought they looked decent for purple-grade stuff, and the set bonuses are useful. It's really nice that the archetype sets are multiple mez enhancing and not just hold enhancing because there are a lot of other mezzes that controllers get and not all of them have purple type sets available for them. I also like that they're attuned enhancements so I could have been selectively using these pieces as I leveled - perhaps even Frankenslotting with them. The first set, Will of the Controller, has a psi damage proc. The stats at 50 (not the enhanced set) are: Acc 66.25, End 66.25, Rech 88.07, Mez 89.93. The set bonuses for this are quite nice and have damage bonus, mez duration, accuracy, recharge reduction, and defense. The second set, Overpowering Presence, has "energy font" proc which summons a mini pet like a Night Ward energy ball and it attacks things for about 10 seconds. The stats at 50 are: 99.08% accuracy, 96.7% end, 103% recharge, 105% mez. The bonuses are good but maybe less great than the other set: mez duration, hit points, damage resistance, recovery, and a bit of defense. Since the enhancements are attuned out of the box (and my controller is level 30) I bought the energy font one to see how it worked and well, I'm chalking it up to having tried this out as an experiment. The energy font thing barely procced. I stuck it into Possess which I use all the time if I can and it barely procced once every 2 minutes; I think if it was on auto it would have fired once a minute (which matches the description, I think). Probably the proc would fire more if I had it in my single target hold, but I would never use either set in my single target hold as I slot for damage as well. (My ideal slotting for my single target hold and immobilize are 3 Peroxisomes and then 3 mixed set pieces with Acc & Recharge so I end up with 78% Acc & Rech and 94.9% damage & mez.) I think that the overloaded numbers in Overwhelming Presence means its a good candidate for one of the AoE mezzes since they mostly have lower than baseline accuracy and long recharges. It's a shame that the proc is only going to fire occasionally in a power with a long base recharge like them, but the overall stats and set bonus for 6 pieces (3.75% defense to energy/negative and 1.8% defense to ranged) kind of makes up for the proc being a sorta-dud. I will say it's an interesting choice to have the bonus damage in the form of a temporary pet instead of a random damage packet. The pet spawns on the caster and moves to engage so if you're putting this in say a sleep set, it might go attack active targets instead of the adds you just slept -- at least in theory. Now I understand that these sets are upgradeable, but I think the superior versions DO require level 50? Which is why I'm only talking about the basic versions because people might choose to invest into these as they're leveling and even once you're just at 50 it will take a bit before you can upgrade all 6 of them. So, thoughts?

/Rad. I posted about this at length in one of the soloing controller threads. You get 2 more holds, so many debuffs, even a bit of self healing and buffing for a pinch. Gravity is so strong in single target damage for a controller to begin with it just makes sense to double down and go for it.

If you do a lot of task forces it's really nice to have recall friend so you can zip to the end of the mission and recall your team. (Sometimes just 1 person with Recall Team...!) You're right that you need to pick 2 pool powers if you take everything in both primary and secondary you end up with 2 empty levels. You probably need the entire secondary. In the primary you could skip mental thrust. It's ... not great. I'm playing a Psi/WP stalker and I'm seriously thinking of replacing Mental thrust with Air Superiority because I need some -fly action.( I took the martial ancillary pool and web grenade is not to my liking and I may respec into another pool later depending on how the shuriken powers are.) Some people skip Boggle, I personally like confusing mobs. It's great for taking some heat off me while soloing and confusing say a Rikti Guardian so I get bubbles or accelerate metabolism from them.

On Excelsior tonight someone said that they couldn't find Penny Yin to start her TF, just a Psionic Nexus. Well, that's her singularity-like pet and it was on top of her literally blocking anyone from clicking on her. I'm guessing some mob came by earlier and she activated and it just went to rest on her. The nexus is a level 50 pet with Freedom Phalanx affinity. As a workaround I used Darkest Night on a nearby mob and dragged it past Aurora Borealis, who promptly shot it. However, Penny's pet moved about 2' away from her to engage it, allowing clicking on her. Then it moved back on top of her. You can barely click on her ankles now, at least. I dragged another mob and got her pet further away but I think someone should despawn it or something. :)

This needs to be stickied. And have glitter put on it. I did not read Shinobu's addition and I should have because I've been ignorant of ATOs until last week.

I didn't know this existed until last week. I stopped playing right after Incarnates went live (not by choice) and before ATOs went in. I saw the ATOs on the merit vendor day 1 of Homecoming but mistook them for level 50 purple sets as attuned sets were also new on me and I did not understand what they were. I have literally been setting on hundreds of merits. So at level 42 I bought a couple of pieces and slotted the 2 special ones yesterday. I'm kinda mad that nothing in the game gave me a tip that I could have done this earlier. I mean, I could have been using the 2 special pieces for so many levels already not to mention since the other pieces are scaling I could have been using them instead of some of the Frankenslotting I've been doing. And now I'm really perplexed that in so many builds I see on here (not just stalkers) I almost never see the ATO pieces. Even if someone wants a mostly-SO leveling build we still stick things like Karma Knockback protection in there - pieces like the ATO chance to build up recharge and hide should in the sample builds. Those pieces are available at level seven as level 10 enhancements for a reason. Some of the other ATs don't get such great ones - like one that controllers get is just a damage proc no big deal but the other one is a chance to spawn a damage-dealing temporary pet. ERH? Scrappers get one that raises their critical hit chance, defenders get an AoE heal, and blasters get one that gives mez protection. I think people may not know about this stuff, or think it's for level 50 only.

When did Archetype specific enhancements go in? I think it must be 19.5 or later as I was around through 19, but was unaware of ATOs when I started here. Also I did notice the other day that Boomtown doesn't have a hospital so that note about all zones having them is not correct. Several did get them then, but not all.

Hahahaha back on live someone was so confused about this and we were trying to get him to use the WS recall friend and he just didn't GET it. Finally I told him to target the person we wanted moved and to just paste this in his chat window: /powexecname Shadow Recall So he did, and the teleport went off and he was all "WHAT HAPPENED??"

Did you skip Katie Hannon, Hess, and Moonfire TFs?

You can make a SG and base as soon as you're out of the tutorial. Level 2 for sure.

Better to ask! There is another issue in that sometimes if you have the same quest but from different givers, it doesn't count the same for auto completion. For example, a safeguard/mayhem mission when you have different detectives/brokers.

So, you're OK with the powers still running on the old, defeated spawn such that you can't use it right away on the next alive and attacking you spawn? My anchor is dead but his friends aren't. I killed .... arrested ... him first so the anchor became a GTAOE. He can't run anymore and take my anchor with him!! When I've finished with his friends, if he hasn't despawned I will turn off my anchors so that they have charged up by the time I reach the next group. If this seems cumbersome or you have multiple anchors like Rad, perhaps a macro to toggle off your anchors would make it more convenient.

Can confirm my Fortunado is a daily serving for Wyvern agents. They just eat him for lunch, I'm going to have to turn the difficulty down to -1 to finish Marshall Brass's arc solo. There will be so much payback at a later date though...

No. Psi-Melee is a mix of psionic, smashing, and lethal damage.

There's no way Psi is that low, something is wrong there. Two good AoEs, and GSB with insight, not happening. One AoE, we lose Psi Blade Sweep for Assassin's Psi Blade. That said, Built-Up Mass Levitate from Hide? Oh and look Build up just reset, thank you ATO. Seriously I was farming Rikti Monkees yesterday and and they were boinging everywhere from me doing that.

You know, when the original devs put in the snipe change, they specifically said they were going to look at dual pistols as maybe getting a compensatory damage buff or something like that.

I wasn't able to import your build into my version of Mids so I started to make some random comments and then I realized that you have slotted a lot of powers in odd ways to get recharge bonuses. You've actually skipped some key powers like possess, and oddly slotted others, and basically ignored one of the best powers in the game (Howling Twilight) and then it dawned on me that your goal was to get perma hasten and you sacrificed basic functionality to do so. This build would be better if you removed hasten from it completely, ignored any worry about recharge time bonuses and actually just enhanced your keystone powers so they work well.

Take Sorcery. Arcane Bolt is a good filler attack, I'm using it all the time on my Dark/Dark controller. To achieve knockback protection I purchased a Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback protection with merits and put it in Mystic Flight. I intend to eventually get Rune of Protection to be a click mez protection but carrying some break frees has been adequate so far closing in on 30. The knockback protection is your priority as so many foes have knockdown powers that can interrupt you - shotguns seem to all have it! Presence pool is not needed for fear stacking. Fearsome Stare is a S-Rank as a fear/accuracy debuff power and you'll also have fear coming off the shades summoned by Haunt. (They taunt and fear...!) As already noted Leadership is your friend, especially once you have multiple pets. For controllers the preference is usually Assault and Tactics; since you have shadow fall (3.75% defense to all, base) and thus bring some defense to the table already you might be tempted to also grab maneuvers (for another 2.6% defense, base). I wouldn't though, unless you really want to go heavy on support. You get Fade which is a nice defense buff which drops a whopping 9.4% defense to all , base. As a controller I think you should focus first on the control aspect; since you get great defenses in your secondary already that will apply to you and your pets I would certainly use them and slot them but I would hold off going further until you know you have room for it. If Sorcery just doesn't work out I will say that taking Combat Jumping and Acrobatics is a very good alternative. CJ gives you immobilize protection and you can slot a karma knockback protection into it as low as level 7. KB protection IOs have 4 points of protection and knockdown is just knockback rated less than 1 so all knockdown will be cancelled. Acrobatics used to be level 20 minimum, and it has knockback protection too and also 2 points of hold magnitude resistance. It's now level 14 so you could in theory take combat jumping, super jump, and then it at 14 but wow that would squeeze out a lot of your other options. Hold protection to me is something you want when you start dealing with large numbers of mobs who can zap you that way like Tsoo Sorcerers and certain Circle of Thorns mages. You start really encountering them in the teens but not in such great numbers a few break frees won't cut it. And if you do get held you won't get killed real fast from it at those levels. So I like to have that kind of option more up around the 30s. Hope you have fun with this set. Look forward to Possess ... it's the absolute best.

Basically there's only 2 pool attacks (tier 1 that you can just buy) that are really good for a controller filler attack: arcane bolt from sorcery, and air superiority from flight. Arcane bolt is the only ranged pool attack, the cast time (and animation) are relatively slow but for a controller starved for another attack it can be a very good thing indeed. And it has a chance of knockdown so that can be control. It does a little more damage than a single target hold or immobilize would but is behind something like Gravity's Propel. Air superiority is a punch, so not every controller is going to be in a position to use it. But, it's a very fast clean animation and the power is 100% knockdown (and -fly) so it can be leveraged as a control. It does as much damage as a single target hold does. Flurry in Speed isn't bad, it does a little more damage than Air Superiority but it's the same attack animation as the Sands of Mu temp power (but smashing not dark, and not a small cone). For what it does, how long it roots you in a punching animation is awkward for controllers. If you were desperate for an attack without using another pool up (because there is a limit to how many pools you can tap) it would be a viable option. The two attacks in the fighting pool do a lot less damage than a single target hold but if you're doing Tough/Weave anyway you might be tempted to use one of them. They are really not what I would call pleasant even as fillers. I tried them out on a lowbie controller for comparison and did not like them at all. Jump Kick in jumping is the most awkward attack animation in the entire game I think. You basically do a handstand and kick the target in the face then flip back. It's AWFUL. It could be the highest dps power in the game and I wouldn't use it. There is an AoE attack in Fighting (Cross Punch, a cone) and Jumping (Spring Attack, a knockoff of Elec Melee's lightning rod) but as they're not tier 1 choices and I have heard a few people say they used them but they're too specialized for everyday controllery.