roleki

I'm a big fan of FF in certain circumstances... not entirely sure that THIS is one of them. /FF will give you plenty of places to dump LotG and FF +Rech, so you'll have no trouble reaching Perma-PA (which is the foremost goal of an Ill controller!) but other than that, there's not a whole lot that FF does for Ill. So far, my favorite Ill/ pairing has been Ill/Dark, but Ill/Traps is growing on me.

Something something Blasters.

This. Wormhole a purple boss into Singularity, and not take a single tick of damage? Yes, please.

For a game that absolutely nobody wants to play, they sure seem to meet their donation goal in a hurry every month.

AE arc #9620 (Cave Jam) uses Atta's caves as well, and is geared for S/L. A 50+1 can take a doorsitter from 0 to 32 in about 30 minutes running at 2/8. The arc is geared to take a character from 0-50+ in five missions, though I usually do it in four. My process is to roll an alt, go through Cave 1, park it for a week at 32, go play other stuff, dust off the alt and take it to 42 in Cave 2, park it, repeat until 50. That generally gives me a new 50 in about 2 hours of farming. If I'm impatient, I can drag it to 50 in about 2:45ish real time; that's on a Rad/Fire Brute that I slapped together haphazardly... someone with a tuned build could probably breeze through it a lot faster. Bottom line, it doesn't take much of a machine to run two instances of CoH on the same box, and there are numerous arcs out there that you can run to bring a 0 up to a playable level. You don't even have to take the alt all the way to 50 - if you just want to skip the slog to 18 on an Ill, you can get there in about 15 minutes. If you're not interested in Grav/ without Wormhole, you're about 24 minutes out from having it fully slotted. I mean, if you enjoy DFB/DIB for the camaraderie, by all means, go that route; you're still accelerating past the real tedious parts of the game. But if you're in a real hurry, AE is where it's at.

Oh, You.

It's funny, because I am working on slotting an Ill/Traps right now and I'm kind of stuck on the whole Perma-PA thing myself. Then I see this thread, says it's posted by "You" and I'm like, man, I'm getting old, I do NOT remember posting a thread looking for help with this.

I think karma is a thing... I meant to increment a bid on a Kismet +6 Acc from 4,000,000 to 4,100,000 but instead bid 41,000,000. To wipe out this new 'deficit' I hopped into an AE cave, and by the time I had worked my way to the last cranny, I had racked up 3x purples and 3x PvP recipes. I'm used to getting them one or two here and there; three of each in ~25 minutes was pretty awesome.

Not kidding, I hopped on Indomitable my first night with HC and I haven't had any reason to look anywhere else. Never have trouble getting a team going, the 'regulars' are of a good sort, and the organized TFs, Hami raids and Mothership Raids are all top-notch. Plus, as a lower-pop server, if you wish to partake in say, dual-boxing, it is not a bad place to do so, usually.

Nah, that's what Siesmic Smash does 6-slotted with five procs and a Hecatomb A/D/R. Poison has all that -Res, might as well use it!

Got one of those, too 🙂 Mind/Poison/Stone, and it's another of my favorite builds. Nobody expects a controller to unload a 1600 pound single-target bomb every 8 seconds.

The nightly Indom MSRs *are* great, they're appointment gaming to me. The core group running the raids have it pretty much down to a science; about the only mystery is which grates to go to once the shields are down. I'm still trying to figure out the best combination for overall merit-siphoning; a lot of it is down to what your role is and your team composition, but it's not exclusively a "do damage, earn merits" equation. My EA/Dark Defender is a guaranteed 1600 per raid, whereas my Fire/Storm is usually at 1500, and that thing is nothing but AoE damage. (1500 being a magic number, because hitting that in two raids gets you 100 reward merits)

I think this would need an inherent power that brings your crit chances up to 95% but only if you use the exact, unpublished combination of 11 different enhancement sets across the power tree.

Thanks for including your build; I might try your approach (fewer attacks) later on/second build; now that I have it to 50 and fully-slotted & alpha is coming online, I can see where I could easily get by with just a handful of attacks and throw even more focus on survival... really, BF+Attack Vitals is all you need vs. ST, but I would miss Typhoon's Edge when I jump into a 4/8 spawn. For now, I'm running with everything from DB except Power Slice, Confront, and 1K Cuts. I've grown attached to having combos I can exemp down into, or bring up when the situation calls for it, even though I KNOW I could streamline the build some. And maybe I am mis-thinking Bio, but I rarely see a build that throws more than a couple slots into Inexhaustible or Parasitic Aura; meanwhile I six-slot both... maybe that's why I have a hard time fitting everything I want into a Bio build, because I'm trying to make a poor man's /Regen out of it?

That's a recipe for disaster 🙂 Always let the general public beta test MS updates for a few weeks before patching! ETA: In recent years, Microsoft seems to have gone to a "whenever the hell we feel like it" patching cycle, but could be that sysadmins are so used to monkeying with updates on a Tuesday that they stick with it for old times' sake.

Thanks; definitely will throw Superior Critical Strikes into Vengeful, and will find a home for Plain Old Superior Scrapper Strikes somewhere upwind. I appreciate the info everyone has provided so far, this has been one of the tougher builds to puzzle out that I have tried. If only Bio wasn't so damn slottable.

Follow-up question... if I'm building around the "Attack Vitals" combo, do I want the Scrapper ATOs in Ablating and Vengeful, then whatever set I pick for Sweeping Strike? Or should one of the ATOs go in Sweeping Strike?

Just looking at the build real quick, and a couple things jump out: You only need 2x RechRdx in Hasten; boost one of them +5 and you're golden. I would try and squeeze Leadership in there somewhere, so as to get ahold of Tactics; it helps you help your pets help you and helps you too. As for the IO thing, this is just MY opinion, but I feel *most* sets aren't worth the sixth slot. It's not that the 6th bonuses are bad, but going 6 on one power robs you of a 4th or 5th slot on another power, which could bring enhanced values on THAT power to the ED cap or nab you a +Rech bonus or something important. This is my current Ill/Dark/Fire build. I prioritized +Rech over any other bonus, and that led to dipping into lower-capped sets in a few places. The end result is 140% global +Rech before Hasten kicks that up to 210%, which gives me perma-Hasten, perma-PA, and perma-Fade. All that extra +Rech is useless without addressing endurance, so I added a bit of Endurance Discount (6%) and +MaxEnd (9%). And while the resulting Def/Res is lower than most people would want, honestly, between all the -ToHit, -Dam, Heals, +Regen, and aggro-sapping PA, I find that surviving is no problem. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Dr. Unconventional: Level 50 Technology Controller Primary Power Set: Illusion Control Secondary Power Set: Darkness Affinity Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Spectral Wounds -- Apc-Dmg(A), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(3), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Apc-Dam%(23) Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(3), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(5), Prv-Heal/Rchg(13), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(23), Prv-Absorb%(27) Level 2: Blind -- Dcm-Acc/Dmg(A), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg(9), Dcm-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31) Level 4: Fly -- Flight-I(A) Level 6: Flash -- GldNet-Acc/Hold(A), GldNet-Acc/Rchg(7), GldNet-Rchg/Hold(9), GldNet-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(15), GldNet-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(31) Level 8: Darkest Night -- DarWtcDsp-ToHitDeb(A), DarWtcDsp-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(11), DarWtcDsp-Rchg/EndRdx(11), DarWtcDsp-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(25) Level 10: Howling Twilight -- AbsAmz-Stun(A), AbsAmz-Stun/Rchg(17), AbsAmz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(17), AbsAmz-Acc/Rchg(36), AbsAmz-EndRdx/Stun(46) Level 12: Group Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 14: Hover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Flight-I(48) Level 16: Shadow Fall -- Rct-Def/EndRdx(A) Level 18: Phantom Army -- ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(19), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(19), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(21), SlbAll-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), SlbAll-Dmg/Rchg(25) Level 20: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31) Level 22: Fade -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(42), LucoftheG-Def(42), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43) Level 24: Tar Patch -- TmpRdn-Rng/Slow(A), TmpRdn-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(37) Level 26: Spectral Terror -- SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), SprWiloft-EndRdx/Rchg(27), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(36), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(40), SprWiloft-Rchg/Dmg%(45) Level 28: Soul Absorption -- CldSns-Acc/ToHitDeb(A), CldSns-Acc/Rchg(29), CldSns-ToHitDeb(29), CldSns-%Dam(36) Level 30: Deceive -- CrcPrs-Conf(A), CrcPrs-Conf/Rchg(34), CrcPrs-Acc/Conf/Rchg(37), CrcPrs-Acc/Rchg(40), CrcPrs-Conf%(46) Level 32: Phantasm -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(33), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(34) Level 35: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 38: Dark Servant -- CldSns-ToHitDeb(A), CldSns-Acc/ToHitDeb(39), CldSns-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(39), CldSns-%Dam(39), UnbCns-Dam%(40) Level 41: Fire Ball -- Rgn-Dmg(A), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(42), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(43), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(48) Level 44: Fire Shield -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(45), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(45), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(50), GldArm-3defTpProc(50) Level 47: Tactics -- GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(A), GssSynFr--ToHit(50) Level 49: Afterburner -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Containment Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(48) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), PrfShf-EndMod(34), PrfShf-End%(37) Level 50: Clarion Partial Core Invocation Level 50: Support Partial Core Graft Level 50: Degenerative Partial Core Conversion Level 50: Ion Total Core Judgement Level 50: Seers Total Radial Improved Ally Level 50: Agility Radial Paragon ------------

Hop on Indom, I've got TWO of them 😉 Fire/FF is one of the most fun-to-drive builds I've run into, period. The world could use more of them.

From what I remember, it damages, notifies the hit mobs and the misses, puts them in an aggro stance, then puts the hit mobs to sleep and leaves the aggro'd mobs heading in your direction. My clearest recollection is it was a bad idea and I dumped it ASAP.

Whenever I can, I try to name every character as if I expect to meet Tick and Arthur on a rooftop somewhere. Sometimes, I draw a blank and just lean into words associated with the powersets or a specific power in one of the sets. Also a big fan of naming dudes like they are child sidekicks from comics of the 30s-50s. At the end of the day, I just want a name/character that amuses ME, whether it makes sense to anyone else is way down there on the list.

I wonder if they could make the blimp an NPC that you can target and follow with a hitbox slightly smaller than the model? Then you could kinda "surf" it by following it from just the right angle.

I wouldn't worry TOO much about DoTs out of the secondary waking things up; I've a Mind/Poison that has pretty much the same workflow - put everyone to sleep, creep up on them and start picking them off from melee. It can be a PITA to dance around sleeping mobs, but if Mass Confusion were available as often as Synaptic Overload (or half as effective), there would be no need to tiptoe around them at all. As for /TA not being melee-friendly, both my Ice/TA and Fire/TA start combat at range then close in; Elec/TA should work the same. Since almost everything in /TA is a targeted AoE with a set diameter, it really doesn't matter where you are when you fire off the attacks. It looks weird and is kind of funny if you think about what you're doing, but effect-wise, TAoE doesn't care how far away it started from.

Dumb question, but, are both characters on the same server?

/TA is a great set, on a Controller. Not as sexy as a lot of others, but they shine on a map where everything is chaos around you.