roleki

I don't have numbers at hand, but I do and have run the Cave Jam map cycle at 2/8 hundreds and hundreds of times, and aside from the inf nerf, have not noticed any change in drop rate or quality. I run 2/8 specifically because that seems to amp up the drop rate, and to be honest, the way the market is set up, drops trump inf these days, or at least they do for MY purposes (i.e. kitting out the alts I've got sitting at the door).

I had noticed this before I had slotted Gale for KB:KD; held mobs would slowly move backwards in a kind of Repel-like fashion along the same vector as the cone from Gale. I mitigated this behavior by slotting KB:KD in Gale, then also in Wormhole, Tornado, and Lightning Storm; now everything pretty much stays were I put it. Well, not entirely - Propel will still send non-GD'ed mobs scattering, but honestly, by the time I am using Propel, I'm in mop-up mode anyway, so no big deal. I really wanted to try Elec/Storm, but I'm kind of soured by the unmitigated knockback in Gremlins... go through all this work to get things just where I want them, then this idiot decides to send a dude flying 10 feet out of my AoE. Tried an Overwhelming Force KB:KD and... it got worse. The KB only shows up on even/lower-con mobs, but I'm of the mind that I don't want KB that I cannot plan for.

The only reason I wouldn't suggest Grav/Storm is because there is a strong chance it will ruin all other controller combos for you. It can be a bit of a drag until you hit the mid-20s and start getting the Good Stuff, and then it'll suck having no endurance for a while, but, BUT, eventually it all comes together and it's awesome.

This is how I'm doing Grav/Storm; strategically-placed FF+Rech keep me at 278% Recharge in combat, and I can dump out three Lightning Storms at once. Endurance is not an issue if you're using Wormhole to throw mobs back where your 3x Lightning Storm are hanging out. I don't care how you slice it, Grav/Storm is one of the most fun builds in the game, period. 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! Rainiac: Level 50 Technology Controller Primary Power Set: Gravity Control Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Stone Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Lift -- Dcm-Acc/Dmg(A), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg(48), Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50), Dcm-Build%(50) Level 1: Gale -- FrcFdb-Acc/KB(A), FrcFdb-Rechg%(7), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(7) Level 2: Gravity Distortion -- GhsWdwEmb-Acc/Rchg(A), GhsWdwEmb-EndRdx/Hold(9), GhsWdwEmb-Acc/EndRdx(9), GhsWdwEmb-Acc/Hold/Rchg(11), Lck-%Hold(13) Level 4: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A) Level 6: Propel -- Dcm-Acc/Dmg(A), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg(31), Dcm-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(42) Level 8: Crushing Field -- PstBls-Acc/Dmg(A), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx(13), PstBls-Dmg/Rchg(15), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), PstBls-Dam%(17) Level 10: Steamy Mist -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(11), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(23), GldArm-3defTpProc(25) Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Ksm-ToHit+(40) Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(15) Level 16: Freezing Rain -- Ann-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Ann-ResDeb%(23) Level 18: Gravity Distortion Field -- UnbCns-Hold(A), UnbCns-Hold/Rchg(19), UnbCns-Acc/Hold/Rchg(19), UnbCns-Acc/Rchg(21), UnbCns-Dam%(21) Level 20: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 22: Tactics -- GssSynFr--ToHit(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(43), GssSynFr--Build%(43) Level 24: Snow Storm -- ImpSwf-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(A), ImpSwf-Dam%(25) Level 26: Wormhole -- AbsAmz-Stun(A), AbsAmz-Stun/Rchg(27), AbsAmz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(27), AbsAmz-Acc/Rchg(29), AbsAmz-EndRdx/Stun(29), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(31) Level 28: Thunder Clap -- SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), SprWiloft-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(43), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(46), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(48), SprWiloft-Rchg/Dmg%(50) Level 30: Hurricane -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 32: Singularity -- ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(A), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExpStr-Dam%(34), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(34) Level 35: Tornado -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(36), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(36), FrcFdb-Rechg%(37), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(37) Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Apc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Apc-Acc/Rchg(39), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Apc-Dam%(40), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(40) Level 41: Fissure -- FrcFdb-Acc/KB(A), FrcFdb-Rechg%(42), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(42) Level 44: Seismic Smash -- Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Hct-Dam%(45), TchofDth-Dam%(45), Mk'Bit-Dam%(45), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(46), NrnSht-Dam%(46) Level 47: Rock Armor -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 49: Vengeance -- 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 -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Pnc-Heal/+End(3), Prv-Absorb%(5) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- SynSck-EndMod(A), SynSck-EndMod/+RunSpeed(3), PrfShf-End%(5) ------------

Without the KB:KD, Gale is nearly useless. Two-slotted with an Acc/KB and KB:KD, Gale is a decent soft control; if you have at least two other powers with an FF+Rech slotted, it's well worth putting a third slot in Gale for an FF+Rech of its own. Gale procs just often enough to keep you at +100 throughout combat, provided you've got a couple other sources to keep the stack refreshed. As for Dark/Storm, it plays a little funky but I dig it; your AoE Immob and Gale (if you incorporate it) want you to be at range, but nearly everything else wants you in melee. I find it to be great either solo or on teams, and for what it's worth, Dark/Storm is a top earner in MSRs and other events that reward you for how many things you hit.

This build comes the closest I have ever seen to having every eligible unique and proc. That is something else! That said, Poison is a LOT better if you take the debuffs and slot towards them; Weaken is one of the strongest debuffs in the game, and Envenom stacked with Venomous Gas makes Seismic Smash hit like a freight train and a half, instead of just a freight train.

I appreciate all the guidance on Heat Loss; I didn't realize it was ever considered to be THAT great of a power to begin with, but I think my further 'misundermation' of it was due to the fact that the first time I ever used it (well, every time I've used it) has been on an Elec/ controller with 5-wide Conductive Aura and Stamina/Health slotted for maximum +Recovery. That said, I went ahead and 5-slotted it on a respec because I'm a fan of endurance.

Actually, in an economy where less-desirable goods can be converted to more-desirable goods, it drives the price of less-desirable goods towards the price of the more-desirable good, and the more-desirable good has its price increased to subsidize the resources expended during the transformation process; this inflation is exarcebated when those that perform the transformation are also allowed to purchase the exact same goods as they've put on the market. Example: City of Heroes. But nah, clearly the prices in the market are driven upwards only by farmers who spend hours and hours and hours earning influence only to stagger out and spend it like drunken sailors. Clearly, has nothing to do with people who brag about amassing billions of inf by playing the market against itself.

I wouldn't say I 'regret' going deep into the Medicine Pool on the one character I did (Fire/Natural), but that was an experiment on my part to see what effect (if any) Field Medic had in regards to Bloom, +Regen, +Absorb and whatnot. That said, if I had a character who was always in need of healing, I would look first towards +Def or +Res or ways to keep green insps flowing before I would resort to Medicine. Is it the worst pool? Maybe second-worst? I still have not taken the Presence pool on anything, and I don't think I've ever run anyone into the wild who had. I might try that out and see what it actually does; the Invoke Panic power seems like it could be kind of interesting. But I do wholeheartedly agree on Leadership being the best pool. With three picks and one additional slot, I can get 15% recharge and 15% +ToHit? Yeah, I'm doing that on everyone.

It's not necessarily that it is a 'challnge' to use, it's just that Heal Self is literally designed to not be useful when you would need it the most. Who wastes a pool power on "Whew! That was close! Now I'm going to shave a couple seconds off my wait to go try it again!" Then again, if someone is looking at that proposition and going for it, I imagine the game must be a challenge to SOME people.

I saw that CoD listed its base accuracy as 1.0, but that data could be super outdated for all I know. What led me to post in the first place is, for a T9 with a 6-minute cooldown, I was expecting a little more pop than what I saw running around with it. I scoured the relevant dead threads before creating this one, and people were all over the map on it - some slotting it with a single Acc/EndMod, others going 6-wide, one fellow going 3x Recharge IOs... made me wonder what the people who went full-bore saw that I didn't. It's definitely no Lightning Storm 🙂 I dunno, this was my first /Cold and it was pretty sleepy until Benumb and Sleet showed up. Benumb is flat-out astounding, though I am a bit surprised its effects aren't distributed throughout the set (the way they are in /TA) instead of all being tucked into one gigantic bomb.

Hrm. It's possible I'm not 'noticing' Heat Loss since I didn't have endurance issues to begin with, on account of slotting the +Recovery uniques in Health and having a +End bump out of Electric? Maybe Heat Loss frees up those slots?

The description says it reduces the target's endurance, gives some of it back to my allies, gives some of it back to me, while slowing the target and reducing its damage resistance. Unfortunately, the CoD entry that covers the pseudopets is gone so I have no way of reading what the actual numbers are. What I can say is, firing it off in combat it has been quite underwhelming. I've tried it at range, I've tried it in melee, and frankly I cannot discern what it's doing to warrant it being a T9 with a 6-minute recharge timer. I slotted it with 4x pieces out of EndMod sets (accuracy/endmod/recharge in some combo out of two sets) and if I stand at the feet of whatever I'm pointing at, I get about half a bar of endurance out of it. If I'm across the street, I barely get a blip out of it, endurance-wise. If the -Res is significant, it's not showing up in combat logs via drastic increases in damage output, and it's not showing up in noticeably shorter engagements, so... What is the deal with this thing? Am I supposed to just slot it for a couple of recharges and call it a day? Drop it entirely as being a situational power that's up, at best, once every 5 mobs or so?

If you slot Lift for KB, it increases how high the mobs go in the air, but I've never noticed it increase damage. However, if your target is under the influence of Gravity Distortion, you will get an 'Impact!' bonus out of Lift (and Propel) as well as Containment. It's not a HUGE bonus, but, it is a bonus.

I've never had Font multi-proc on one cast, I've only ever had it proc on multiple casts during the duration the first and second pet are out. Also of note, I've had Fonts spit out more consistently from slotting it in a ST Hold than from AoE immobs, but I stopped slotting it in ST holds because I prefer adding Lockdown+2Mag and Devastation +2Mag in my ST holds Fun fact: if you are quick enough, you can rename the three instances of the Energy Font so you can keep track of them and amuse yourself. Mine are usually called Times New Roman, Baldoni, and Arial.

If you haven't already, put a FF+Rech in there while you're at it. The KB:KD and FF+Rech turn Gale from a power you might occasionally fire during cooldown and into a power that keeps the grinder churning.

I've had the same thing happen on a couple characters, and I think (think?) it's to do with the fact they unlocked Alpha in AE; same dudes had trouble getting a mission out of Levantera (gave them some message about "Failed to load blah blah blah. This is embarrassing, you shouldn't be seeing this message.") Logging off/on fixed the Levantera thing, but never did get Nolan. I'll have to try the Oro thing.

Based on my own experience running a Dark/Storm, I would be surprised if you ran into a need for anything out of the Medicine Pool. It's just a very underwhelming group of powers, especially since you can beat its output with an inspiration macro. As mentioned earlier in this thread, you would be better served with Maneuvers and Tactics; Maneuvers is kind of not worth slotting beyond a LotG +Rech, but a couple of +ToHits dumped into Tactics goes a long way towards hitting things that are above your weight class. As far as Endurance goes... bear with me on this. To my mind, outside of +Rech, nothing is more important to a Controller than Endurance management; as such, my default config on a Controller is to 3-slot Health with the uniques out of Miracle, Numina's, and Panacea then 3-slot Stamina with 2x Synapse (EndMod/EndMod+Run) and PShift+End. First chance I get, I grab the Atlas Medallion (super easy) for a free +5 Max Endurance, which also makes the slotted +Recovery a little more effective. If I am still hurting for endurance, I'll go Cardiac Alpha, which is not a bad call on Dark because you get a 20% range bump on your cones which is huge. Anyway, I say all that to bring up that slotted like that, my Dark/Storm *still* chews through Endurance BUT recovers it super fast; hold off of one click and it's all back again. It's better on a /Storm because in theory, you may not be 'doing' anything, but your Lightning Storm/Tornado/Freezing Rain are still registering hits while you take a drink.

I didn't find out about HC until middle of July 2019, and when I did I literally quit my job the next morning; I was going to quit anyway, but finding out about HC was a big, blinking sign that the time was more than right to move on. I don't care much what a larger playerbase means to ME, but I think anyone who would deserves the chance to get goosebumps at the login screen and spend hours touring the old haunts; don't we ALL need to be vomited upon by an Abomination?

This is syntactically correct. If people had preferences in tissue paper, the conversation would be along the lines of "Can you hand me a Kleenex?/What kind?/Puffs."

I was speaking more in terms of -ToHit in general, but was not aware that FA's -ToHit bypasses resistance. It's even better than I thought.

I threw Medicine into an MSR-specific /Nature build just to see what kind of effect FM would have on the various heals and whatnot, and all I can say is, the pool certainly lived down to expectations. Even with the interrupt removed when you get FM, Aid Self is ridiculously slow and underwhelming... a power I have to burn TWO choices to get to, and THREE choices to actually have a shot at using it when it's actually needed, only to have it functionally out-performed by a damn inspiration macro I can plug in for free? Ugh, no. I would hate to be on a character what had NO other access to self-heal, thinking *this* would help. Field Medic delivers a nice little boost to existing healing powers, but I would love to see it amp up Absorb powers as well; if I'm being honest, I think it should either boost your heals a lot more than it does, or a lot longer than it does, or maybe a little of both because man. This pool sucks.

I get what you're saying, but what constitutes an "excessively high" VL to you and me might be minuscule to someone else, and just right to yet someone else. It would seem (to me) that, given there are numerous characters in excess of 200 or 300 or even 400 VLs (and I think there's a 2500+ somewhere?) that there are people who will plow forward whether they are getting shiny things or not. Seems to me there's nothing wrong with Veteran Level Rewards as they are doled out now, it's just that some people have misconstrued them as the gateway to Playing The Wrong Way.

Personally, I think the Vet Rewards are just fine as they are, but I am the type that has 35 mains and 3 alts. I can see where people who concentrate on one character would, I dunno, look around and be displeased that someone at VL9 has almost the same power level as their VL9000 or whatever character. I'm not one to tell people how to have fun, but I would hope their best suggestion isn't "make it less fun for other people." Unfortunately, and as you pointed out, everyone with eyeballs that can produce tears have already employed them to get AE nerfed, and sure as I am sitting here, it will be nerfed again and so will any other target of the chronic "I should be having more fun than them because *I* actually earned it" crowd. Sooo... How about this? Keep Vet Rewards as-is, where Threads and Merits are trotted out 1-99, but for 100 and every 3 levels after, give people some kind of veteran merit that they can cash in for, I don't know, permanent, stacakable buffs of some sort? Reduction in ED on that character by X%? I dunno, I have a hard time figuring out what people WANT other than to assure they are enjoying things more than me.

Now that you mention it, I had never slotted PA for range before, but went Cardiac with my Alpha and got a 20% boost in range across the board. Now there are times I fire off PA and after focusing on one enemy and killing it, they saunter back to where I am standing, bringing a whole pack of angry dudes behind them. I'm like WHAT ARE YOUUUU DOING HERE? (Californians)