Narninian5

anyways here is my adjusted build: Notable changes --- 1) dropped Darkest Night for Travel power --- I figure it competes with time you'd spend doing controls/tar patch, and the -to hit portion of this will often be redundant 2) Enhanced Twilight grasp for more uptime/-to hit and accuracy 3) Slightly more global recharge so hasten has more leeway to be made permanent. Anyway here is my adjusted build: Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Controller Primary Power Set: Darkness Control Secondary Power Set: Darkness Affinity Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Dark Grasp -- SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(A), SprWntBit-Dmg/Rchg(17), SprWntBit-Rchg/SlowProc(17), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), SprWntBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(43) Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- CldSns-%Dam(A), CldSns-Acc/Rchg(11), CldSns-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(13), CldSns-Acc/ToHitDeb(13) Level 2: Tar Patch -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48) Level 4: Living Shadows -- Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Rgn-Dmg(5), Rgn-Knock%(7), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(7), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15) Level 6: Possess -- CrcPrs-Conf%(A), CrcPrs-Acc/Rchg(43), CrcPrs-Conf/EndRdx(43), CrcPrs-Acc/Conf/Rchg(45), CrcPrs-Conf/Rchg(45) Level 8: Fearsome Stare -- SphIns-%ToHit(A), SphIns-Acc/Rchg(9), SphIns-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(9), SphIns-Acc/ToHitDeb(11), SphIns-ToHitDeb(40), SphIns-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(40) Level 10: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A) Level 12: Howling Twilight -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(15) Level 16: Shadow Fall -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(34), LucoftheG-Def(34), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36) Level 18: Haunt -- ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(19), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(25) Level 20: Fade -- Rct-Def/Rchg(A), Rct-ResDam%(21), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg(21), Rct-Def/EndRdx(23), Rct-Def(23), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(25) Level 22: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(27), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(27), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(29) Level 24: Kick -- Empty(A) Level 26: Shadow Field -- SprWiloft-Rchg/Dmg%(A), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(29), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(31), SprWiloft-EndRdx/Rchg(31), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(34) Level 28: Soul Absorption -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Heal(36), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(36), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(37), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(37), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(37) Level 30: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(31) Level 32: Umbra Beast -- SlbAll-Build%(A), SlbAll-Dmg(33), SlbAll-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), SlbAll-Dmg/EndRdx(33) Level 35: Weave -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(45), LucoftheG-Def(46) Level 38: Dark Servant -- BslGaz-Acc/Rchg(A), BslGaz-Acc/Hold(39), BslGaz-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(39), BslGaz-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(39) Level 41: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), Ksm-ToHit+(42), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(42) Level 44: Poisonous Ray -- Apc-Dam%(A), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(46), Apc-Dmg(48), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(48) Level 47: Scorpion Shield -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 49: Summon Tarantula -- CaltoArm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), CaltoArm-+Def(Pets)(50), CaltoArm-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(50), CaltoArm-Acc/Rchg(50) 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 -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(5) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(3), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(3) Level 50: Agility Core Paragon ------------

Hey first off all, thanks for taking a look and providing feedback! I'm gonna address a couple of some things because I'm not sure you get the right impression on my priorities and might have missed a couple things by not seeing the slotting. In crafting this response I actually made a small adjustment: I dropped 'Darkest Night' in favor of a travel power and using those slots on Twilight grasp as I realized I don't really have time to apply darkest night when controlling and their -to hit is already sufficiently tanked. This lets me get more recharge/accuracy on twilight grasp and still get a (better) recharge bonus/max endurance. I agree with this 100% --My goal is to have Fearsome Stare + Living shadows up for every pull. With the recharge I have, this is 11 seconds so every pull unless the group's damage is absurd. Combined with Dark Grasp there is a group penalty of -15% to hit, which combined with the 25% defense provided to the group acts as a secondary 'soft' control as they'll be only attacking when attacked back, and have a roughly 10% chance to hit to group members with zero defense beyond what I give them. Passively Haunt and Umbra beast will be fearing while Dark Servant Applies holds. For more intense pulls, the Single Target Hold, the Confuse, the AOE hold, and the Rez/disorient are available. I wouldn't call this the bare minimum.. The only reason the take the single target immobilize would be to save some stamina as the AOE immobilize I took as a 2 second cooldown which the recharge that I have. The only other controls that I didn't take are Black Hole (intangible is just annoying) and Heart of Darkness. The reason I skip heart of darkness is from actually play on my dark/cold I found the recharge too long, the accuracy too low, and the positioning difficult for it to be a reliable control. I agree initial build I wish I had more slots, so I made an adjustment and I now it the 4 slotted --- the important bits of the power,imo (-regen, -damage) can't be enhanced, so I went with cloud senses to give it accuracy/recharge so its up on demand. This also closes the -to hit gap, essentially softcapping defense for everyone vs the targets I use the heal on if they were also hit with my other controls. I 100% agree that tar patch is an important power and I prioritize it by getting the recharge down as low as possible (I think you may have missed that I put in 2 level 50 Recharge IOs in it - a 3rd one would provide a much lower return) -- again because the important bit (-res) can't be enhanced. The Perma-hasten you are against combines with this pretty well to get the cooldown down to 25 seconds. Technically this is 'perma' but its not like the mobs will follow us, so its gonna be up for every other pull or so. I thought about enhancing the slow but 90% is pretty good and the set bonuses were not great comparatively. I agree this looks great, I took the power, and put a recharge IO in. I have perma hasten so its up just under once a minute. What do you think it needs? More Recharge IOs?

Rather than recommend a specific set; I'll advise against one: Forcefields. It has +Defense which stacks well with the Manuevers that Enforcers provide meaning you can "Softcap" defense on your thugs pretty easily, HOWEVER that is pretty much all the set does and its extremely passive (meaning in combat you are not using your abilities from your secondary often). In combat as a Mastermind you are also not using skills from your PRIMARY often, leaving you not taking advantage of your endurance bar/casting time. You know who can also get high defense? Cold and Time. Cold does this pretty much the same way as Forcefields: By giving out shields early with buffs, which is fairly passive however, they ALSO get some pretty sweet debuffs. -RES is and incredibly helpful way to boost damage and -Regen helps with AVs. Time also gives good defense (and recharge, but thats mostly helpful for you rather than your pets) -- and debuffs but is more top heavy and the defense wont have 100% uptime until you start getting expensive iO sets, so Cold is more like (IMO) an upgraded version of Forcefields. Time has upside, its just a late bloomer.

fearsome stare is pretty clutch --- its (with just a little recharge) an AOE control that is available on pretty much every mob, and it is a cone like the aoe immobilize so usually the same positioning works (its not *exactly* the same but close). The to-hit penalty is double (-15% unenhanced) that of your stuff you have now and that combined with farsight/-to hit toggle means enemies will be pretty much hitting 5% of the time (and when you are soloing fightened is almost like a hold as all the ones you aren't actively attacking won't do anything,--- in a group the usually are attacking more frequently so its less of a hold)

Hey there fellow Heroes, I could use some advice. On live, I never made it past ~30 or so and I never saw a lot of of the powersets including the Dark controller set and the cold domination set. I really like the set of powers from Dark Control, and especially like the pretty heft -to hit combined with the +def from cold. One thing I don't have a deep understanding of is what to prioritize with sets. I just picked stuff that generally looked good and tried to get good recharge and typed defense, hoping that the -res from cold debuffs combined with near perma-pets from haunt/taruntula/dog along with attack slotted hold and aoe root would help me be an overall strong character. I'd appreciate any feedback on major things Im missing or could change. Thanks! Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Controller Primary Power Set: Darkness Control Secondary Power Set: Cold Domination Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Flight Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Dark Grasp (A) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Recharge (3) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance (3) Apocalypse - Damage (5) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge (5) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (7) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative) Level 1: Infrigidate (A) Empty Level 2: Ice Shield (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (39) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 4: Living Shadows (A) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (7) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (9) Superior Frozen Blast - Damage/Endurance (9) Superior Frozen Blast - Recharge/Chance for Immobilize (11) Superior Frozen Blast - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (11) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage Level 6: Possess (A) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Confused/Recharge (19) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Recharge (19) Coercive Persuasion - Contagious Confusion (21) Coercive Persuasion - Confused (21) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Endurance (27) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Recharge Level 8: Fearsome Stare (A) Cloud Senses - ToHit Debuff (13) Cloud Senses - Chance for Negative Energy Damage (13) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Recharge (15) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/ToHitDebuff (15) Cloud Senses - ToHit Debuff/Endurance/Recharge (17) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge Level 10: Glacial Shield (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (25) Defense Buff IO (45) Defense Buff IO Level 12: Heart of Darkness (A) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge (23) Absolute Amazement - Endurance/Stun (23) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Recharge (46) Absolute Amazement - Stun/Recharge (46) Absolute Amazement - Stun Level 14: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (39) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (45) Defense Buff IO Level 16: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (17) Recharge Reduction IO Level 18: Haunt (A) Call to Arms - Defense Bonus Aura for Pets (40) Call to Arms - Endurance/Damage/Recharge (40) Call to Arms - Accuracy/Damage (43) Call to Arms - Damage/Endurance (45) Call to Arms - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (46) Call to Arms - Accuracy/Recharge Level 20: Arctic Fog (A) HamiO:Enzyme Exposure (25) Defense Buff IO (40) Defense Buff IO Level 22: Kick (A) Empty Level 24: Tough (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (43) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% Level 26: Shadow Field (A) Superior Will of the Controller - Recharge/Chance for Psionic Damage (29) Superior Will of the Controller - Endurance/Recharge (31) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized/Endurance (33) Superior Will of the Controller - Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized/Recharge (34) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized/Endurance/Recharge (34) Superior Will of the Controller - Accuracy/Confused/Hold/Immobilize/Sleep/Stun/Terrorized Level 28: Benumb (A) Accuracy IO (29) Recharge Reduction IO Level 30: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (31) Defense Buff IO (31) Defense Buff IO Level 32: Umbra Beast (A) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage (33) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Recharge (33) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (50) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up Level 35: Sleet (A) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (36) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Defense Debuff (36) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Recharge (36) Shield Breaker - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge (37) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage (37) Shield Breaker - Defense Debuff Level 38: Heat Loss (A) Performance Shifter - Accuracy/Recharge (39) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge Level 41: Scorpion Shield (A) Red Fortune - Defense (42) Red Fortune - Endurance (42) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge (42) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance (43) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge Level 44: Poisonous Ray (A) Accuracy IO Level 47: Summon Tarantula (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets (48) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge (48) Expedient Reinforcement - Damage/Endurance (48) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (50) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage (50) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge Level 49: Hover (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Containment Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Run Speed IO Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift (A) Flight Speed IO Level 2: Health (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery Level 2: Hurdle (A) Jumping IO Level 2: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End (34) Performance Shifter - EndMod (37) Endurance Modification IO Level 50: Agility Radial Paragon ------------

I've found it quite easy to get a huge amount of mobs in with the AOE Root. (especially in hallways). In my experiences I actually get more mobs in with Darks AOE than other powersets. It + fearsome stare is basically the bread+better combo for when I group. I combine it with /cold over /dark though so the -to hit on all the mobs is hugely valuable to combine with the +def provided for the team. In most situations I value posses about the same as the single target hold, both stop an enemy from attacking us(slightly better in solo since it can add damage, and teams tend to prioritize kills on controlled targets for some reason :p). I find the visual much more satisfying than other powersets confuse -- basically its easier to tell in the chaos that they are confused and I can look for other targets to control.

I don't understand why FF is always brought up but never cold. You should still be able to cap defenses for your pets despite the 3.75% difference in the toggle (the shields are the same values, apart from fire/cold) but you have powerful debuffs, instead of dubious value knockback abilities. I'm not saying its necessarily stronger than dark/time/ (and I don't know much about posion/traps) but if FF is on the table I would strongly consider Cold instead.