Erydanus

I don't agree, I was exaggerating when I said we didn't have attack chains. I think mostly people skimped on secondaries and relied on veteran attack powers.

I think it'd be pretty overpowered. It flabbergasts me that people have any end problems at all in this game at early levels now. You get stamina for free at level 2. We used to have to take Hurdle or Swift early in our builds, Health at 14, and Stamina at 20. How did we even have an attack chain?? Now you have stamina at level TWO. For the first time ever I'm actually taking damage auras before level 22! If it's that much of a problem 6 slot stamina and shove 6 endmod DOs into it and then respec at 22 when you have SO/IO equivalents. If you're still sucking wind you need to slot better or maybe adjust your playstyle to work within your end budget. (This is doubly true if the problems are in the 20s when you'd have what are basically the 'real' effective enhancements.) If it's really that bad you can simply buy Miracle or Numina procs with merits (though long term it's more cost efficient to use your merits for special salvage, but if you don't want to mess with the auction house they are directly purchaseable for about 2 Penelope Yin TFs or doing half the Hollows story arcs).

Also there is in the controller epics a mez protection power in the Psi pool. It does have 1 serious weakness, unlike the similar powers in defense sets or even the Rune of Protection, it can't be activated after you're held, you have to trigger it before you're attacked. (I think that was a deliberate choice back when, I don't think it's a good choice now since Rune of Protection can be used while mezzed and it's a pool power...).

Uh it's a muscle memory thing. I know I've done it and recently because I edited a base down and changed plot size and went portrait to landscape ... probably right click? if that doesn't work I'll hop in the base editor and figure it out tonight.

I'm not sure this is the answer you're looking for but when you upgrade plot size, you can rotate the plot - and you can also just be on the same plot size and slide it around if there's room, and I think you can still rotate it there.

I've had what I'd consider good experiences with it in damage auras. My goal being some mitigation from knocking foes on their buts, coupled with keeping them in the aura for a few seconds more. The issue with putting procs in toggles like this is that they can only fire once every 10 seconds, but I don't consider that a problem. That's like, once per group I move into. Hot feet has a recharge of 20 seconds and the proc has a rate of 2.5 PPM. I've only recently put it in my Fire/Kin's build but I was already using it in my low level elec/elec brute's lightning field; that power has a 10 second recharge and mine is down to 8 from the enhancements in it, and it's still knocking down a couple guys in every spawn I move into quite reliably. Of course if it doesn't work as well for you, you can just unslot it and resell it.

Is there any interest in holding a non-instanced mothership raid on the test server, perhaps this weekend? I find in real ones my pets (Best/Nature) just run away from me and die so I basically end up randomly spamming nature buffs and resummoning my pets as if they were trip mines. The last one I did I resorted to alternating between heel and attack commands to make my pets re-converge on me (and my supremacy + various def/resist proc radius) from the 60' away they had gotten in just 10 seconds. I am not proposing a 100% mastermind mothership raid, other people would certainly be welcome and actually necessary to simulate the effect of the changes in a real play scenario. But say, if we got a 50% mastermind and 50% everybody else composition that should still be interesting. I would also propose people create level 50 characters who are not super duper double-decker tripped out. Like, say both ATOs and maybe 1 purple set to better simulate a real ordinary mix of casual and hard core players. Is there interest in doing this as a deliberate testing activity? We can create a new thread if there is and suss out a good time.

General comment regarding controller damage at low levels - actually a low level controller soloing has no need to slot their holds for hold, or even accuracy as they are baseline 90% accurate not 75% accurate. They should be adequate to keep your typical lieutenant and occasional boss locked down completely empty out of the box. A soloing controller should slot them (as well as the single target immobilizes and mind's single target sleep) as blasts, primarily with damage; with containment this returns 2:1 the benefit. Damage scaling keeps getting less favorable but even in the range of 15-20 stuffing 4 damage DOs into those tier 1-3 controller powers should be pretty reasonable. You don't even need to mess with procs, though of course that's an option for when you have $$ and are at higher levels where the return people tell me exceeds the value of a damage enhancement. So, I would expect a mind controller to simply be hitting Noble Savage with Dominate, Mesmerize, and Levitate over and over and waste him handily. However the claim is his regen is bordering on bugged, and that I can't speak to, especially since the OP stated they ate lots of inspirations and generally that is the right answer to a weirdly tough foe. Update so I hopped over onto test and took a level 20 controller equipped with DOs into Oro and did that arc. His regeneration IS very high, he has fast healing and integration. While I could do good damage to him, he did in fact heal back pretty much all the damage in my Dom-Mez-Lift chain continuously (24+24+32 and containment - sometimes; keeping him confused so he didn't fight back was easier than holding him.) I was stacking Time Crawl and Time Stop on him as much as I could and that helped but not enough; I was forced to hit him with an envenomed dagger at which point it became a non-issue and he dropped fast. As you can see from my power analyzer screen shot it doesn't look that high, though once he was injured integration flared up and started healing about 6.5 hp/second. That doesn't sound good but actually - that's almost enough to exceed uncontained controller damage at that level. The thing is, though, you see how fast his regeneration is in the encounter before this, and the envenomed dagger isn't a rare recipe you have to craft anymore, it's stock on the P2W vendor and I think it's there for exactly this type of situation.

That's actually not true. The starter powers like that were buffed to do significant damage and rapidly diminish with leveling up. At level 2 they're still very strong, maybe enough to 1 shot an even level minion. But they should do good enough damage to be worth using through your first DFB, for instance. And with only 1 maybe 2 actual AT attack powers, it's a nice fill.

Ok but the thing is, you CAN NOT balance a game around a top player's performance. You can not. If you do that, then average and even bad players will be performing poorly or outright non-functional. That's why anytime any comment along the lines of "X is not a problem for me because I'm able to do this complicated/expensive thing and work around it" is made, it needs to be ignored as the outlier it is. If changes made to MMs make them more playable by the masses but overpower a handful of top PVPers and Farmers, that's just the breaks. There's always going to be some top players of every type of character who has the best tuned super optimized solo AVs builds and then there's going to be good players with time and money, good players with only time or money, decent players with money, decent players with time but no money, average players with money, all the way down to people who can't understand the basic controls, etc. The main point should be most people are able to play the character type/powerset and have a good (fun) experience.

I found the no-redraw option on one set - I think it was katana? - to look ugly in action and break immersion, so I didn't take it. The logic of removing a trival buff just because a counterbalancing option exists falls flat for me.

That makes sense as far as how you're treating your AS but I personally just preferred integrating it in my chain and treating any procs of hide as a sheer bonus. Since we have the mechanic to have it auto crit from insight, avoiding all recharge in it to maximize a proc isn't ideal, I don't think. Well I suppose it's a case of balancing what you have in the power against your global recharge bonuses; on my Psi stalker I don't have that much global recharge and no perma hasten so actually I have found it not reset when insight pops up once in a while. Call of the Sandman: Chance for a tiny bandage - it's interesting it fired that many times for you in an aura but yeah, just not enough healing to be worth it. The proc is simply under powered. Neat idea, but just inadequate.

Ok I agree with what's been said here! This is why I was suggesting a Plant/Nature controller. What I'd do is take everything in Plant except Spirit Tree, it looks cool but it's quite pointless when you have Lifegiving Spores which heal more and are faster to take down move and set back up; and I'd take everything in Nature. (Entangling Aura could be skipped if she likes to stay at range, but the buffs are PBAOE while the heal is a cone, so it's probably best to take it.) For pool powers I'd go with super speed, hasten, and most importantly, burn out. For an epic, I'd go with Primal Forces Mastery for Conserve Power, Temp Invulnerability, and most importantly: Power Boost. Hasten can be used at lower levels to get the buffs like Wild Bastion and Wild Growth back up earlier and at higher levels she can do a combo like Power Boost, Overgrowth, Wild Bastion, and Wild Growth; then turn around and as soon as she wants those buffs up again, hit Burnout and do them again; Conserve Power will help offset the endurance penalty caused by Burnout. I don't think this build needs any particular slotting tricks, it's a straightforward combo of all purpose control and buffs. She's going to be able to walk around surrounded by carrion creepers and a giant flytrap and a ring of leaves, if that doesn't drive home "NATURE POWAR!!!" I don't know what does.

Can you sell her on a Plant/Nature Affinity instead? Plant has a nice mix of heals, heal over time, end recovery, damage resistance, regeneration buffs, and ultimately a damage buff. It adds a new buff or heal at almost every level you get a power and it looks hella cool too.

Hey I have just started an Ice Melee stalker, and I'm currently in the thick of things on a DB/Radiation Armor Scrapper and it has left me with a few thoughts. I have your first build open as I'm leaving these random thoughts. If you want to go AoE nuts with your stalker, my Psi/WP stalker says you should follow your instinct and do that. AoE is super important in end game play because it's a crazy battlefield and spamming AoEs is basically the thing to do. But if you're sure you want to Moonbeam things instead that's fine. As far as end well... So, uh, Gamma Boost is secretly a 2nd end recovery power, haha funny right? It's basically Quick Recovery if you're topped up with health, and turns into Fast Healing if you get chewed up; so you should have some end mod in here. I was running around on my scrapper the other day and looked at my recovery and it was way over 3 end/sec and I was like "WAIT WHAT THE WHAT" and there it was. Sheblam. It's actually stronger than Stamina. The tooltip in my copy of Pines just doesn't show that, it's completely wrong. So, uh, Radiation Therapy, funny thing it's also an end suck power. Like, 5 end per target hit. So yeah I'm using 3 slots of a targeted heal and 3 of an end mod set relying on the Acc/Rech/EndOrHeal piece of both to get my accuracy in, and then the full EndmodOrHeal piece, and the third is the EndmodOrHeal/Rech piece. When I get a little low say down to 1/3 of my scrapper hit points and maybe 50% of my end bar I let fly and heal myself up. Don't underrate this amazing self heal for increasing your sustainability. The way you split up the Assassin sets confused me. Like, a lot. A lot lot. You have the chance of hide proc in assassin's ice sword, great. Here's the thing, if you split the set (Superior form) into 2 groups of 3 you double down on 5% Smash/lethal def and 2.5 Melee defense. You have 2 ToD pieces in Assassin's Ice Sword for an energy resistance bonus, which is something your set excels at to begin with; if they were superior scrapper's strike pieces you'd have that tasty defense bonus. If you'd rather get the 5 piece recharge time bonus why not just full slot that set instead of putting it in frost? It looks like you're nearly capped S/L which is nice, but you might actually benefit more from shaving a few percent off there and getting it as defense instead and hey the 6 slot bonus is damage resistance anyway. Self win! Also, remember, each point of defense prevents about 2 points of resistance damage. If you can 3+3 that set, you can have +10% smashing/lethal defense (and 5% melee). That's the equivalent of 20 points of S/L resistance... With a set like /Rad that excels at energy & toxic resistance and is just a B for Smash/Lethal, stacking on Tough is directly helpful; but weave and those global defense procs are also really doing a lot. And the closer you are to capping generally the better return you are going to get by going to the other parameter with your effort. It's not just diminishing returns on the IO level but the tactical level. Call of the Sandman won't do shit for you. I had a brute (before /electric armor got a heal in it) who had one of those procs in every single one of his attacks that could take it. When they fire they heal about 60. For my character in that very rough situation (this was pre-inherent stamina and I was not going to give up powers for the medicine pool for aid self) it was the bare minimum to squeak by. It's not going to help you, not when you have an amazing self heal you've underslotted. So uh, you realize the hole in Radiation is, perhaps ironically, actually cold, right? Like do not even look at Lady Winter, you will die. I was only able to defeat her on my scrapper by eating so many purples I was at the defense cap and then I ate some oranges as well. Right now the Winter sets are more affordable than usual and they do offer some cold resistance and defense bonuses. Unfortunately the best are at both 5 & 6-slot but if you were to 6-slot Assassin's Ice Sword with Superior Stalker's Guile, you could slot Frost with Frozen Blast; if you can find 1 more slot (and I empathize because your build is entirely slot starved already) there would be a precious combined set bonus of 7.5% defense to AoE, Fire, and Cold. I hope this helps at least a little!

Mmmm high pressure lemonade damage... I like!

I took a peek at one of those builds and I see what you mean. They six-slotted Preventive Medicine into a heal that requires a tohit check, I'm guessing maybe for the recharge time bonus. To me this is a case of chasing a set bonus down a rabbit hole and crippling the power. This kind of thing is why I get very leery when people reflexively say they're going to cap smashing/lethal defense on say, a controller. It's possible, but at what cost to maladapted slotting? And is it really necessary? With a Fire/Kin I can absolutely see wanting a good chunk of defenses specifically because you are going to wade into melee and stand there a few seconds while using fulcrum shift and fire cages and hot feet; even so I'd never trade basic effectiveness to do that. There's other slotting weirdness in one of them I looked at - slotting fire cages for immobilize but slotting flashfire for damage with Positron's blast. O … kay. To the OP, and maybe anyone reading out of general curiosity who doesn't know what really goes on with Fire/Kins once you hit 38 and have Fulcrum Shift to become a living blaze of destruction, let me break it down for you: 1. You run into a group using some combination of smoke, superspeed or other stealth powers to not get instantly creamed, superspeed is really ideal because you leave the monkeys behind for a few seconds and don't aggro the group prematurely; stealth proc in sprint can also be handy 2. Establish containment and keep yourself alive, typically by using the PBAOE stun Flashfire 3. Use Fulcrum Shift point blank, the multiplicity of the way the power works will almost certainly put you to the damage cap immediately and typically your fire imps will have caught up to the spawn at this point so they should get buffed too 4. At this point you're now standing in a group of stunned mobs with your damage at cap and Hot Feet on. Hot Feet gets containment damage so you're going to be dishing out something like 35+35 damage with every tick. 5. You now double-down on the scenario by locking them in place with Fire Cages, or on Homecoming maybe a Bonfire with the knockback turned to knockdown (bonfire is actually pretty high damage). You may need to use Fire Cages to maintain containment or even use Cinders to hold tougher foes that aren't melted within the first 5-10 seconds--whatever works for you in the situation. Once you're a few seconds in the attacks may start coming as your foes are being cooked alive so there's where having some defense (as well as Transfusion) may come in handy. Keep up containment and rip them with some AoE epic attacks. Your damage capped pets should also ripping the foes into pieces but really the main damage of this setup is traditionally contained Hot Feet + Fire Cages. Note that this playstyle was fully capable of being obtained with nothing but SOs, using IOs will only increase the speed of the process and your ability to do this against higher difficulty foes. Anyway I hope this sheds some helpful light on the classic destructive methodology of the Fire/Kin and why Fire Cages, Smoke, Hot Feet, Flashfire, Bonfire, and Fire Imps all were traditionally in the build. I'd also like to point out this playstyle existed before inherent stamina, so in actuality whenever anyone says Hot Feet is too expensive to take at a low level, they're talking from obsolete memory. It IS an expensive power costing 1.04 end/second but precisely because of that, end reduction has a huge immediate impact. As long as you slot stamina and get some end reduction in it, it is viable to run it at much lower levels. Avalanche looks like a really good set to stick in it, the chance to knockdown should trigger quite well considering the 20 second base cooldown on the power.

Hello all, as the market is currently robust with people buying Lords of Winter super packs and buying and using the enhancements that come with them, I thought I would take a moment to go over the sets a bit. This came about because I was slotting a power with one of them for the bonuses and suddenly thought, "Wait, what are the values of this set? Are they good for this power?" and after opening up Pines and making some notes I thought it would be worthwhile to share them here. (I am using an older version of Pines so if my numbers are wrong, apologies; and please do correct me.) What I did was not look at how the individual pieces break down for Frankenslotting, but just looked at what the totals are at level 50 for both the regular and the superior versions. It turns out the four damage sets have extremely similar numbers, so I'll start talking about the least popular set, Entomb. Entomb (Hold) At level 50 with Enhancement Diversification (ED) already factored in, Entomb has these stats: Accuracy 66.25, Endurance Reduction 66.25, Hold: 92.75, Recharge: 97.09. These numbers are actually identical to a full set of Lockdown or Gladiator's Net. It's worth noting that Hold enhancements were not well received when the IO system was launched. The community sharply criticized quite a few launch sets, but the feedback on Holds was among the most critical; it basically resolved to "are you nuts? does no one on the dev team play a Controller?" Consequently a 2nd generation of hold enhancements was released and that's where Basilisk's Gaze, Lockdown, and the PVP set Gladiator's Net came from, which have wildly different parameter allocations compared to earlier sets like Essence of Curare. The numbers in these second gen sets are good for holds like a typical control set's AOE hold with very long recharge. Notice the recharge in this set is actually the highest parameter! As the Entombed set does not have higher numbers than a "regular" set the value might seem kind of low for the money with the proc and the set bonuses being the distinguishing factor, however the set can be upgraded to the superior version. The superior version has these stats: Accuracy 81.53 Endurance Reduction 81.53, Hold 97.39, Recharge 101.37. As far as comparing these sets to other high end ones, the numbers for the regular version are almost identical to Will of the Controller/Ascendency of the Dominator, but Will/Ascend are just a few percent higher on a few attributes; the numbers are on a slightly different pattern than purple set Unbreakable Constraint, but I would say overall Entomb has a better parameter spread with a bit more accuracy and a lot more end reduction. The set bonuses in Unbreakable are in a class to themselves, however. The superior version of Entomb actually is slightly better than Superior Will/Ascend. (The differences are quite tiny just 1-2% on a couple parameters.) However the kings of hold IOs remains Overpowering Presence/Dominating Grasp, the regular versions alone blow all the other sets away (A95, E88, H94, R100). However the ATOs can be used in any mez and that might be a better place for them, especially since people routinely skip the long cooldown AoE holds. Entomb remains a highly viable choice for any long-recharge hold without damage, however the issue is there are only a handful of such holds outside the Control set primaries; Petrifying Gaze in Dark Miasma is the only one that comes to mind. Additionally, these sets are a possibility for hold aura powers like Choking Cloud; certainly the accuracy and hold duration are great, and the end reduction is quite high. It would be lovely to trade 30% of the recharge for even more end reduction but it's just not an option in a full set slotting location. Recommendation: a good late tier set particularly in the superior form, but pretty comparable to the Tier 1 controller/dominator ATOs. Since many people skip those 300 second recharge AoE holds in control sets, the demand for this set isn't very high. It would also work well in hold auras, and for those who choose to slot damaging holds primarily for the hold and not the damage. For Controllers/Dominators who do take their AoE hold, Entomb is a good low budget alternative to the purple set, freeing up the ATOs to be used in more frequently used powers like the typical AoE stun and immobilizes. Frozen Blast (Targeted AoE) Avalanche (PBAoE) Blistering Cold (Melee) I'm listing these three sets together because they have exactly the same stats. At level 50 with ED factored in they are: Accuracy 85.71, Damage 97.09, Endurance Reduction 66.25, Recharge 58.3 In general, these are good numbers and compare well to sets like Annihilation, Mako's Bite, and Scirocco's Dervish, but typically have a bit more end reduction and accuracy. There's not much to complain about in terms of accuracy, damage, and endurance reduction. However, recharge might be an issue. These are not sets to put in any super long cooldown heavy hitters where you really want about 95% recharge. On the other hand since they all have procs you probably don't want to put them in any attacks that are already pretty fast because this much recharge is probably going to really reduce the chance of them firing. These sets are probably about right for mid-tier attacks with cooldowns around 14-16 seconds; for instance Frozen Blast in Fireball will drop the recharge from 16 to 10.11 seconds. This leaves the purple sets for high-tier powers and possibly epic powers. Notably, Obliteration for PBAOE seems to be a 2nd gen formula and it does have much higher recharge (but almost no end reduction) compared to Avalanche, which makes it look to me like it's pretty much designed for T9 nukes (since they used to drain end fully after use, so having end reduction in them was kind of a waste). On the other hand, Avalanche's numbers would work very well for typical mid-level melee cones and moves like Spin and Typhoon's Edge, as well as some damage auras. However some of these concerns are pushed aside when dealing with the Superior version numbers since the higher numbers just quash the regular IO competition: Accuracy 96.4, Damage 101.37, End Reduction 81.53, Recharge 72.59 In terms of the equivalent purple sets (whose stats are A59 D101 E33 R89), they have slightly more recharge but markedly less accuracy and endurance reduction. Thus the superior versions are in the ballpark with purple sets though with quite different set bonuses. ATOs are more of an issue as the ATOs cut across power type lines and typically rival these sets. However, quite a few of the ATOs have set bonuses that lead them to be split. Thus with a typical melee AT having the first gen ATO split into 2 groups of 3 for melee bonuses or whatever, and more specialized choices, purples, and 2nd gen ATOs taking up the higher tier and special powers, that does leave a pretty big area of T3-T7 powers where these sets can probably shine the most. Recommendation: while keeping an eye on the recharge rate and its impact on procs, these sets seem solid choices and probably work best with mid-tier powers to provide their unique bonuses and supplement purple and ATO use. Winter's Bite (Ranged Damage) For some reason Winter's Bite diverges from the other damaging IOS and swaps out some endurance reduction for more recharge. (This actually seems to parallel the design formula used in ranged damage ATOs). The numbers for the basic and then the superior version are: Accuracy 85.71, Damage 97.09, Endurance Reduction 39.75, Recharge 83.32 Accuracy 96.4, Damage 101.37, Endurance Reduction 49.69, Recharge 95.9 In comparison to the typical rare ranged blast set Devastation, the basic version of Winter's Bite follows the same pattern but basically just steps on it, trading about 5% less endurance for 20% more accuracy and recharge. Again, the numbers are pretty comparable to Blaster ATOs and Defender ATOs. The set seems solid. Recommendation: as above for the other damaging IOs.

Avalanche is love. Damage aura? Avalanche. PBAOE melee move? Avalanche.

Someone commented on the help channel I think that over 100 packs they were averaging 1.4 winter IOs. I didn't bother tracking my own openings but it kinda feels right. The thing about sitting on a winter IO with the intent of selling it later for a higher price is that you could be flipping that money and making more RIGHT NOW, so it's actually going to cost you (opportunity) money to save them. I'd sit on one that's not selling well just until the market thins a bit and list it, but that's it. Now, as the packs are about to go up in price, that would be the time to stock up and wait for later. However, I suspect that everyone's going to do that so the price jump may not happen for a while after the packs go offsale. As it is, since they're attuned, I've been yanking the occasional one out of circulation and actually slotting it so I have some fairly low level alts who have multiple complete sets of these things already.

Well I uh, wrote a really huge post and the website simply erased it when I went to post it. I mean 40 minuts PFFT. So please excuse that what I write now is just a super quick summary without as much detail as I would like. - the build overall looks pretty good to me but I can see you might just chew through your endurance fast because it looks like a really fast build; you definitely are not having toggle-related issues. - I am suspecting the culprit might be Moonbeam because it looks like you spam it at full cost trying to get the tohit proc in it to fire. It's 17 end and you didn't even slot it for damage, that will add up. - it does look like you're throwing everything and the kitchen sink into accuracy buffs in this build. Most of your attacks are well-slotted for accuracy but you have a 40% accuracy buff and multiple tohit procs. Maybe it would be better to even out the accuracy slotting in your powers and trade some accuracy buffs for global endurance reduction buffs, if that's possible. For that matter you're over the softcap on all 3 positional defenses (before using Shadow Meld...!) so some tuning could stand to happen. The attack with the lowest accuracy is Sting of the Wasp and I don't like the slotting in it TBH. I thought you were going for the 6 piece Touch of Death bonus, but with your defense bonuses you don't need to make this choice; maybe just do something else here. I wouldn't actually proc either this or Flashing Steel because your recharge is so low the procs probably never fire so potentially some slots could be freed up. If you do end up juggling your build around, consider adding Scrapper's Strike to your build and splitting it in two: the 3 piece bonus is melee, smashing, and lethal defense and if its the superior version that's 10% S/L and 5% melee total. Just mentioning this as possible wiggle room in your build, since you're over cap. (I'd replace Obliterate in Flashing Steel with the 3 pieces that match what's there and put the other 3 in Sting, and then fill with a couple crushing impact up to numbers you like, this should free up at least 1 slot for an end reducer on Moonbeam and swap out a proc unlikely to ever fire with a global 5% crit chance increase.) It does look like you are pushing hard for those global recharge bonuses, Scrapper's Strike gets a big one at 5 pieces (8.75% or 10% if Superior), so again, maybe this is something that can provide you some elastic in adjusting your build.

If you compare the quickly recastable shields from sets like cold and thermal to the team-wide buffs that Nature and Empathy get, there's a big difference. The team wide buffs are on a long timer, everyone has to hug the caster, but the caster benefits too. With the direct shields that used to be single target you can spam them any time, even on someone who was away from the group or is revived. Making them AoE at all was just a convenience QOL for the teams - it happened along with masterminds being able to upgrade their minions in AoE. They even extended it to speed boost and the damage portion (but not the mez resist part) of Increase Density. Fortitude and other single target direct buff powers didn't become team-wide either. Just the basic protections. Since you cannot target yourself, none of these powers given an AoE after the fact affects the caster, and in return the OGDevs didn't mess with them much at all (I think the end cost of mastermind equips was upped). If not including the caster in the buffs allows the AoE without the power being rebalanced, I'm fine with that. I wouldn't want every shielding power to work like Wild Growth (90 sec effect, 225 second recharge).

It was stated when Super Packs were implemented shortly after launch that the Winter Packs would drop to 10 mil in price for the winter event.

It's been a day and no responses so I'm just going to say it. It's a weird (random) combo. It's not bad it's just …. what are you going to do with it? The build would completely depend on what you want to do. It's a very random pairing that doesn't really synergize or complement. You have a pretty good set in your left hand and a really good set in your right hand, are you right handed or left? Are you going to play it like a Nature Affinity defender except with an innate invisibility power and the ability to selectively hold and confuse more difficult targets while focusing on support, basically trading off the blast secondary for a small handful of controls? Did you see yourself primarily soloing buffing your pets? The secondary isn't going to be very helpful I that case. The phantom army is invulnerable. You can buff your phantasm but just aoe buffs that affect you as well, it's not like an Illusion/Empathy controller spamming Fortitude on their minion. Nature is very team oriented though it does affect the caster as well. It does give you the personal hold aura power which I can see being helpful to an illusion controller, but I can also see it going to waste. My actual advice, but not the advice you asked for, would be to play a different type of controller altogether for your first controller. Illusion is one of the 2 more unique control sets, it just plays really differently than most of them.

This. It is SO EASY to get money. This discussion is reminding me of Rift, a game where typically you just used money for resurrection costs and training fees when you leveled; most armor was provided by zone events and dungeons; you needed a little more money to buy a mount at a few levels, but the cost of the mount at 50 seemed really high to people who were used to doing nothing but living off the cash that dropped from defeating monsters and selling the trash drops. It was about 50 gold and the typical person who made 0% effort to make money would arrive at level 50 with about 10 gold and be shell shocked. But that was their own fault. If you put 0% of your play effort into making money you're going to get no money. If you put maybe 5% of your play time into making money, you'd make a LOT! And I'm not being theoretical here. You could learn mining for free at a trainer right after you left the tutorial, and if you just collected the copper ore along the road to the capitol in the middle of the first zone, you would have 1.5 gold worth of copper by the time you got there for literally just taking the time to click some glowies along the road over a 10 minute period. If you actually farmed a little bit on the way it was closer to 5 gold. People at 50 shocked they needed to come up with 40 gold could have just spent 5-10 minutes every couple days in the newbie zone picking up rocks off the ground and selling them on the auction house to have all the money they needed for that mount. It's really like that in City as well. You can make money selling orange and yellow salvage. You can make money by not using a double xp booster that removes influence gain. You can make money by using merits to buy salvage and components and selling them on the AH (guides are posted for this). If you want to play this game making 0 effort to make money you can still do it, you can eschew the invention system and you can kit yourself out with SOs all the way to 50. You won't be able to solo +4/x8 content but you can play this game in super casual mode and see everything. If you want the "goodies" you have to make the effort and that means figuring out a way to make money that works for you. Farming is one option but it is not the only one. Nothing 1-off is going to be an income stream. People talking about how great the Winter packs are bought more than 1, on the average got enough enhancements to resell to make a profit. It's that simple. You just have to make a choice. It's not my responsibility to do the emotional labor of forcing people to stop being willfully ignorant about their options.