DougGraves

What we need is an IO set bonus with +Dev

Have you seen The Good Place? They have great signs for the fake stores on the tv show. It would be fun to have creative signs in CoX

I will play on any team large enough that they do enough damage to make up for my lack of it. But basically every team seems to fill to 8 once someone puts a team together. Although I've played on smaller teams at low levels in the Hollows and such.

count for what?

I'm electric/ so I do little damage. I assume I should add some attacks from pools to give me a better attack chain. What are the good pool attack powers to use?

Yes, but points can change.

I play to team. Unfortunately I have time to play in the mornings when teaming is hard and less time in the evenings when teaming is easy. I have tried soloing in the mornings but my heart is not in it. So mornings I play with the costume creator and craft enhancements. In the evenings I don't solo while waiting for a team, I just wait. I have recently tried the LFG flagging myself for several TFs and queuing. But I always find a team before LFG finds something for me - so I'm not even sure it will ever find something for me. So while waiting for a team in the evenings I watch Sci Show on youtube or play sudoku.

I am sure this is a lot of work. But an issue with EATs is how they look. They are specific aliens. They only fit the theme of being those aliens. But they shapeshift. It would be awesome if you could make one and choose what your dwarf and squid forms looked like. Transform into a bear and eagle, or robots, or dinosaurs, or robot dinosaurs. The number of choices do not have to be endless and they do not have to be customizable (you get bear, not a bear costume creator). But just having the ability to have different themes for your EATs would attract a lot more interest in playing them.

What you missed is that this is a Suggestions and Feedback forum. You did not give a suggestion or provide feedback. You asked a question of the players. So while it is fine for you to post the question, you are posting in the wrong forum.

To attract me to sonic resonance would require: Make Sonic Barrier and Sonic Haven buff you at half value, and all of your allies around you at full effect. So it has some value soloing. Turn Sonic Cage into a sleep that keeps reapplying itself. It would not be full control but could keep reapplying itself to a boss. So it would be good control on one target. Reduce END cost on Sonic Dispersion and add in a regen buff so you have some healing effect for yourself and your team. Turn Sonic Repulsion into a ground target so you can use it on an ally or solo.

Guide to Controller Darkness/Thermal while Leveling with Teams This guide covers the power for a darkness/thermal controller while leveling with teams. How to use them, how useful they are, and how to slot them. It completely ignores end game and IO sets. It also mostly ignores soloing as soloing a controller while leveling is just painful. Why play a darkness/thermal? Thermal is mostly long duration buffs, so you can do your pre-buffing and then focus on a few powers in battle. Darkness gives you a lot of different control types and options with some pets for damage. Ultimately you can do almost everything in terms of control, buffing, and debuffing. Why not play a darkness/thermal? Thermal’s best abilities are ally only, not you so it is not good for soloing. Darkness has a lot of different controls and damage but with long recharge times. Keeping the thermal buffs up takes little time but does take paying attention. And thermal gets its buffs early, but debuffs come late so facing EBs and AVs at lower levels it rougher. Standard Fight Pre-buff all of your allies with thermal and plasma shields. Pre-buff allies without mezz protection with thaw if facing foes that mezz a lot. Pre-buff your biggest damage dealers with forge. You can soften up your foes with one Possess on an lt if it matters, which usually it will not. You can also drop Shadow Field from around a corner to slightly reduce the alpha before someone else rushes in. Fearsome Stare should be available every fight so use that as your opening control. If your team needs protection use Dark Grasp and Possess on lts and heal with warmth and cauterize. If your team needs damage and not protection use Melt Armor on the foes right away. Darkness Control 1 Shadowy Binds - Your single target damage. It immobilizes which you don’t care about and reduces their chance to hit slightly. Take after Dark Grasp, but you need it for damage. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage. 1 Dark Grasp - Your basic single target hold plus damage. Take this first. Use this every time it is up. Usually you target lts first as you can hold them with one use, then target bosses that require two uses to hold. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage, 1 hold, 1 recharge. 2 Living Shadows - Cone immobilize, damage, and - to hit. Good for damage if soloing. Weak control, this is skippable if you team. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage. 6 Possess - Single target confuse, no damage. Causes the target to attack its allies instead of you. Great control for one target. Use this on an lt. Since it does not cause aggro, you can use it before your team attacks to soften up the foes slightly. Slot 1 accuracy, 1 recharge. 8 Fearsome Stare - Cone fear. Recharge is 40 seconds, duration is 28 seconds. So slot for recharge not duration. Can be up almost every fight, your primary AoE control. If you solo and use Dark Grasp and Possess you may skip this. If you team you want this. Slot 1 accuracy, 2 recharge (a third recharge will only save a few seconds on recharge). 12 Heart of Darkness - PBAoE Stun. 90 second recharge and 19 second duration. Slot for recharge over duration but this still will not be up every fight, so use as a panic button. Always remember that this is a pbaoe, so you have to be in the middle of your foes to use this. 1 accuracy, 3 recharge, 2 stun. 18 Summon Shades - Summons 2 pets that attack your target and taunt it. Recharge is 210 seconds. You need to slot for accuracy and damage, so recharge will be long. Great solo for extra damage against the occasional boss. Slot 1 accuracy, 2 damage, 3 recharge. 26 Shadow Field - Duration AoE that gives -to hit and chance to hold on enemies in it. The chance to hold is very low but triggers every few seconds so it will happen sometimes but not reliably. Long recharge of 240 seconds. Duration is 45 seconds, so useful for defending areas in missions. Make sure you drop it where you are fighting so foes stay in it as its effect is over time not at activation. Activation is 3 seconds, so a bit harder to use as a panic button. This is ranged which Heart of Darkness is not, so may be more survivable. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 recharge. 32 Umbra Beast - Summons a pet that attacks. Long recharge of 240 seconds. Provides damage against bosses. Slot 1 accuracy, 2 damage, 3 recharge. Thermal Radiation 1 Warmth - Heals you and allies near you. Slot 3 Healing. 2 Thermal Shield - Gives your allies (but not you) resistance to smashing, lethal, fire, and cold damage for 4 minutes. Buffs multiple allies at the same time if they are near each other. Does not stack with itself, but keep this up on your allies at all times. Slot 3 Resist Damage. 4 Cauterize - Heals one ally at range. Heals twice as much as warmth but only one ally and not you. Slot 3 Healing. 10 Plasma Shield - Gives your allies (but not you) resistance to fire (again), energy, and negative damage for 4 minutes. Buffs multiple allies at the same time if they are near each other. Does not stack with itself, but keep this up on your allies at all times. Slot 3 Resist Damage. 16 Power of the Phoenix - Rezzes one ally while damaging and disorienting nearby foes. Great to use when an ally is defeated. Not worth investing in unless you find your allies get defeated often. Slot 1 Recharge Reduction. 20 Thaw - Gives an ally (not you) resistance to most mezz effects for 90 seconds. Keep this up on allies that do not have their own mezz resistance when facing foes that mezz. It only buffs one ally at a time so it is a pain to keep up. Slot 1 Resist Damage. 28 Forge - Give an ally (not you) a boost to damage and to hit for 2 minutes. Recharge is 60 seconds so you can have this on multiple allies at the same time (it does not stack with itself). Keep this up on damage dealers at least, and everyone if you can. Slot 3 Recharge Reduction. 35 Heat Exhaustion - Gives one foe -Dmg, -End, -Rec, -Regen for 40 seconds, with a recharge of 120 seconds. It has a big effect but is only worth casting on bosses or higher. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Recharge Reduction. 38 Melt Armor - Gives a group of foes -Def and -Res for 40 seconds with a recharge of 150 seconds. Use this on enemy groups when it is up at the start of a fight. Do not waste it on stragglers at the end of a fight. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Recharge Reduction.

I am impressed with the work being done to make the whole experience better.

I am not used to that yet. But I have character names and costumes that I like. So I literally play Tomb Fisted Kid an undead cowboy dark/dark tanker to 30ish and then delete him and start over a new Tomb Fisted Kid with the same costume and powers. I just like the journey. If I saved him I would have to rename him and just have him sit unused.

I play electric as my main, but electric dark. I have not tried traps as a controller. I only really play up to level 32 - so is it good before then? I don't care about end game. I delete my characters in the 30's and start over.

I love alts. Because I love the CoX costume designer. If the game shut down and we just had the costume designer I could still live a full life. But when playing CoX, no matter how many other ATs I try, I end up playing 90% controllers and 10% tankers. And no matter how many of their powersets I try, I always end up with just a few. The reason why is because I want to see immediate and dramatic effects. I almost always team, I just enjoy that the most. And when playing a controller, no matter what is going on I can have an immediate impact (except damage). I can hold a foe or group of foes, heal someone, reduce the AV's regen, etc. But seeing it happen is a huge part of it for me. Force field is great. I love getting bubbles on me. But if I bubble a team I cannot see the impact that has. I might be incredibly powerful, but I don't feel it. So I basically avoid all of the powersets that do team buffs. Again, I know that they are great and possibly better than what I use - but if I cannot sense that in the game it just does not work for me as a player. My takeaway from this is that no matter what you do to the numbers on the other ATs and to the other powersets, they will never win me over. It is not about effectiveness, it is about perceived effectiveness. I know for many it is about crunching the build numbers in mids. I do not do that. So for me it is about how it feels and looks in game. Any analysis that is based on the numbers for the powers is going to end up missing the point, at least for me.

I 98% play this game as a superhero combat simulator. If I could just log in with a team and be in a series of endless fights I would never do anything else in game. It's like eating at an indian restaurant. I used to eat curry and other things. But since I discovered chicken tika masala, I just like it more than everything else and will always pick that. It is not that the other things are not good, it is that chicken tika masala is better.

I am going to tell them what I want. I think it is disrespectful not to tell someone working on something for you what you want. They can choose to do what they want. But I subscribe to the agile philosophy that it is far better to say what you want before they start working then to say what you do not like when they are done working.

I wish that the ATs had descriptions of "Play this if you want to..." And those descriptions would be the vision for that AT and powerset. Tanker - "Play this if you want to focus foes on attacking you instead of your allies and being able to survive large numbers of foes."

that's dinner time for me west coast, but I'll check it out

Thank you, I edited my post to include that. I did not know that.

Because the devs only have so much time. So saying "Yes" to all is saying you don't care if you get any of them. If the devs spend the next year working only on pvp content for teams of 3 stalkers are you going to be happy? You said "Yes" to it.

Controllers and tankers are painful to play solo. It looks like they are changing tankers in test to let them solo. With 4 melee AT's it was Stalkers solo, Tankers team, Brutes and Scrappers team or solo - and brutes and scrappers are fairly redundant already. If they can all team and solo well will it end up with one best melee AT and 3 also rans? Some powersets like gravity for controllers are meant for soloing while others are meant for teaming. Given the popularity of teaming, that means those sets are used less. If powersets were just generic descriptions "solo only control" "solo and small team control" "pvp control" it would not be a problem. But powersets have a style and some players want that style for their character either thematically or just because. So if you want to make a gravity controlling astronaut but team, you either accept a set that is bad at teaming or play something else. So should CoX go with the original idea that ATs and powersets are good at different styles of play. Choose one that matches your style. Or should it be that ATs and Devs are thematic and they should all cater to everyone's playstyle?

This question is not simply what do players like to do in CoX. It is what should the devs devote time to and what should the devs adjust the game for everyone to achieve. Playstyles I can think of (whether or not the dev should support them): solo, small teams, large teams, raids, playing stories, creating stories, roleplaying, getting badges/achievements, exploring, powerleveling, making the most powerful character you can, farming, challenging regular characters, challenging ultra powerful characters, making influence, unlocking macguffins that show you achieved something, playing a variety of events (seasonal or otherwise), pvp duels, open world pvp, street sweeping, missions, task forces. I am sure there are many I have missed. And I am not sure that players want the devs to support all of things I have listed. So what playstyles do you like that you want to have supported?

Guide to Controller Electric/Kinetic while Leveling with Teams This guide covers the power for an electric/kinetic controller while leveling with teams. How to use them, how useful they are, and how to slot them. It completely ignores end game and IO sets. It also mostly ignores soloing as soloing a controller while leveling is just painful. Why Electric/Kinetic? Electric while leveling relies primarily on Static Field for control with occasional Tesla Cage and Jolting Chain. This leaves time to use the kinetic powers which are fairly active. Team mates appreciate your controls and will love speed boost and damage boosts. Why not take Electric/Kinetic? Electric is low damage. Kinetics provides little protection to you or your allies and the heal cannot be targeted at allies who are away from foes. It relies entirely upon hitting, if your foes are too high or have high defenses and you cannot hit you cannot debuff them, control them, or heal. It is also a fairly active combination that may be too clicky for some. Recharge Note: This is a guide for the combination of powersets. Kinetics provides a recharge reduction in siphon speed. Because of this I do not recommend slotting recharge into some powers like Tesla Cage that I would normally put a recharge into. If you add hasten to the character you may want to reduce your recharge slots even further. Accuracy Note: This recommends slotting one for accuracy. If you want to take on higher level foes than you, you will probably want to slot a second accuracy in your powers. This generally will not be a problem while leveling unless you sidekick up to level 50 teams. Electric Control Electric Fence is a single target immobilize and DoT. It and Tesla Cage are your highest damage powers, doing 3x the single target damage of chain fence or jolting chains and only Gremlins also does damage at all. So you need this for damage, but I rarely use this on a team unless it is full of controllers and lacks damage. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage. Tesla Cage is a single target hold and damage. As one of your two high damage powers you should slot this for damage, accuracy, and a bit of hold. You do not need recharge as speed boost will give you the little bit you might want. I use this every time it is up, targeting a lieutenant if possible to hold the highest value target I can. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage, 2 hold. Chain Fences is a AoE immobilize with minor damage. Against a group of foes it will do more damage than Electric Fence and will set up containment if you get an AoE damage power from somewhere. I skip this power, if I were soloing I would take it. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage. Jolting Chain is foe knockdown and minor damage that jumps from foe to foe. With an 8 second recharge you can use this quite often. Since knockdown works on bosses, this is a very powerful control and I use it every time it is up. It is also great fun to watch. Although 1/3 the damage of Electric Fence it can hit multiple foes and do more damage overall although the activation is longer. It has to hit its first target to jump to others, so try to target a minion with it. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage. Conductive Aura is a toggle that drains End from nearby foes and gives you +Rec and +Regen based on the number of nearby foes. It costs no Endurance to run so you should have it always on if you take it. The End drain stacks with your other electric powers and will drain your foes at lower levels where fights take longer. The +Rec is helpful if you stand by a bunch of foes. I never notice the +Regen. Slot with 1 End Modification, if you are around a bunch of foes you do not need more and if you are not by foes more will not help. Static Field creates an AoE field that lasts 25 seconds and puts foes to sleep every few seconds. So while they will be woken up by damage they will go back to sleep again. With a base recharge of 40 seconds it is easy to have this available every fight. It can be place out of LoS, so this is a great alpha breaker. Hide behind cover and place this before your team attacks a spawn. Also, because it reapplies, even if it misses a foe initially it will eventually hit them. Just make sure to use this where you are fighting, if you place it and the foes run out of the area they will not keep getting reslept. Slot 1 accuracy, 2 recharge (a third recharge will only cut a few seconds off of recharge and is not worth it). Paralyzing Blast is an AoE hold. It is great, but it has a base recharge of 4 minutes so it is not available very often. If you cannot hide around a corner and drop Static Field, you can open with this as the hold will prevent them from firing back. Otherwise save this for a panic button or to deal with adds. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 recharge, 2 hold. Synaptic Overload is a confusion that jumps to other foes. It can affect an entire spawn but it takes time to spread (1 second delay between jumps) so it is not very good control in a fight. But it does not cause aggro. So use this on a spawn you have to tackle head on to soften them up, or on a nearby spawn you are worried might get aggro'd. Slot 1 accuracy. If you solo a lot put in 3 recharge. Gremlins are pets that do some damage and can knock does down. Use these when available for extra damage and mayhem. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 damage, 2 recharge. Kinetics Transfusion gives a foe -End and -Regen and heals allies (including you) around the target. Use the healing for your team, but remember to stand close to heal yourself and advise your team as well. Also use the -Regen on AVs and GMs. Although they will only suffer a fraction of the effect, it helps a lot on DfB hydras, DiB shivan obliterator and others you will encounter. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 healing. Siphon Power gives a foe -DMG and you and allies near you +DMG (note this is the reverse of Transfusion which heals near the target, this buffs around you). The effect stacks, so use it whenever it is up. The bonus to your team damage is usually more important than reducing damage on one foe so target a minion so you hit more reliably. Slot 1 accuracy, 1 recharge reduction. Repel is a toggle that knocks back foes and costs Endurance when it does so. You do not need the control and do not want to pay the Endurance. I skip this. Siphon Speed gives a foe -SPD (not -Recharge) and you (not your allies) +SPD and +Recharge. The effect stacks so use it whenever it is up. And target a minion so you hit more reliably. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 recharge reduction. Increase Density is a team buff that targets one ally and buffs all the others in an area, except you. It provides them with resistance to disorient, immobilize, and hold and 18% resistance to smashing and energy damage for 60 seconds. Increase Density gives the +Resistance to everyone it hits, but only the person you target gets the mezz resistance part of the effect. It says it slows their movement but it no longer actually does so. Keep this up buff on your allies. Slot for 1 damage resistance as End cost is trivial every 60s and recharge is trivial at 3 seconds. Speed Boost is a team buff that targets one ally and buffs all the others in an area, except you. They will move faster but the important buffs are +Recharge and +Recovery. It lasts two minutes. It does not stack with itself from the same source. Reapply it before it ends. Slot 1 Endurance Modification as nothing else matters with the power. Inertial Reduction is a buff to yourself and the team that gives you all temporary superleap. Skip this power. Transference is a single target drain of a foe's endurance that gives End to you and allies around you. It is generally useful to give people End, although if they have Speed Boost they may not need it. It is especially useful with Electric to drain the End from one tough foe and then you can keep them at zero End. This is your control for EBs and AVs. Slot 1 Accuracy and maybe End Modification if you find you want more End drain. Fulcrum Shift is the team buff that makes everyone want a kinetic in the team. It gives -Dmg to foes in the target area and gives +Dmg to you and your nearby allies for each foe you hit. So use this at the start of fights on the biggest collection of foes. Do not use this at the end of fights if it comes back up as using it on a few foes then instead of a lot at the start of the next fight is a waste. Slot 1 accuracy, 3 recharge reduction.

Kinetics is the most popular Controller support set with double the usage of the next set. Kinetics is the most popular corruptor support set with 50% more than the next sest. Kinetics is the second most popular defender support set - a distant second to empathy. So at least controller and corruptor players seem to think it is the best set.