Doomguide2005

Wonder how many Fire/Sonic Controllers there are now. Only 12 back then. Only Ice and Darkness appeared further down the ***/Sonic pairing lists as a choice. Mine is currently 39th lvl on Excelsior.

Empathy Defenders do fine in endgame. The majority of characters are not t4'd to hell and back and PuGs aren't renowned for being tailor designed to function as a cohesive unit. Stuff happens from getting swarmed by foes on an ITF where one lucky hit by a +4 foe triggers cascade defense failure to the auto hit Nictus AV decides the Tanker needs spanking and we haven't even got to the new Hard Mode TF's. Now an Empath certainly isn't the only character capable of restoring that health but ... . So yes you'll spend a lot of time buffing and blasting rather than healing but the whole package is needed at times. But that Cold or FF is going to love your Power Boosted Fortitude as while they can cover the team with shields well they also can't cover themselves leaving them always a bit behind in the defense race. And when not if several teammates get simultaneously hammered by an AoE again only a few builds have the tools to repair all at once especially without needing a foe to target off of to do so. I personally would not choose a Controller to pair with Empathy (been there done that). And here's why. With my Controllers I'm focused heavily on the Foes and battlefield and less so my teammates. With my Defender when (not if) things start going south well my focus is heavily on my teammates. Who's getting hammered (and why). Who needs what heal or buff NAO! I've gone for minutes barely seeing the greater battlefield and foes trying to keep everyone upright. A Controller in the same situation my attention is exactly the opposite I'm far too busy trying to bring control to the situation. Laying patches and trying to mez the the ambush or adds or whatever is causing the issue. That extra second or so on my heal or buff/debuff on my old reflexes might be a second too late. The only Controller I might pair up with Empathy these days would be Illusion. PA and Phantasm's duplicate can't be buffed and are very fire and forget relatively. So when things go sideways I can swap to focus on the team window while they largely do their thing with minimal issues created. Bottom line a well played character trumps pretty much anything else regardless of AT (and regardless of level). Reyna Morningdew of Green Machine and the RO Network (and a whole bunch more)

One thing to note and I have no idea if it's still true but follow while Hovering tended to leave you just out of striking distance so my Claws/SR would end up 'R' (target nearest), 'F' (Follow) then have to tap my W to move forward just enough to activate her melee attack. Annoying but worked well for things like 5-layer cave rooms.

Time enough for torpor later

Hell I have a scrapper that can do that (well stand indefinitely amongst) for sure against Cimerorans at +4/×8 and probably several other foe groups as well. And no unless you were lvl 32 (or perhaps lower) you were not rounding up maps worth of foes that were 20 lvls over you as the game capped at Invincible notoriety which would yield +2 and +3 mobs. Mathematically the statement is obvious hyperbole as there have never been level 60 or 70+ foes for an endgame Tanker to take on. Only level 54s that appeared consistently that I know of were Rikti (and brought about what became known as the RWZ challenge). What ED and the global defense nerfs took away has long since been equalled and surpassed by IO sets, Incarnates and many quality of life changes occurring after i6 or so.

MoonSheep beat me to it. Be interesting to see how the market handles the spike in lvl 50s as the front edge of a whole lot of new accounts comes into existence. But as Moonshine has said what influence you do have will be earned as quick as before but last a whole lot longer buying IOs off said market.

Personally like both and ran mirrors of Ice and Dark Miasma but don't forget (folks in general) any theoretical edge Corruptors have solo has to account for the +30% damage bonus Defenders get while solo. And as I recall last I heard that basically wiped out any difference in damage output Corruptors may have had.

And hello! Welcome back to the City.

I think both Nemu and Zewks hit upon some important factors to consider. The only things I would add are even within the various Archtypes there can be quite a bit of variance. Running Willpower vs Dark Armor despite both being armor sets are very different experiences with very different levels of player experience 'required'. Required in quotes because while certainly specific ATs and sets require different levels of player skill it can easily come down to player preferences and tolerances making a large difference. Which foes do your contacts send you up against? How much dying or what pace of gaining experience and levels are tolerated? None of this game is so difficult that any of them can't succeed if the player is okay with a slower casual approach vs trying to push the envelope. I've solo'd nearly all levels of this game with a wide variety of characters and my number one recommendation is play a pairing you think you'll enjoy. Even with a character you find fun and easier you'll probably "mess up" something but do so knowing virtually anything can be corrected between respecs (or respecification) and using alternate builds. My own first was a Claws/SR scrapper and among the things which can make earlier levels painful for melee are Vahzilok who hit you with toxic damage DoT that reduce your movement and recharge speeds. Well one the things that makes Claws a good choice is Focus. It's a 40ft ranged attack that can help keep some distance between you and them. Claws can also put together a whole attack chain, the same one you would use at endgame, for single targets by the time you have Focus. It's a good example of why you can't really blanket say a whole set or AT is easy or hard. Combine Claws with SR and at 20th you can gain Quickness which makes you resistant to recharge and slow movement. Now those Vahz are even less of a danger as are things like Quicksand. And we haven't even brought teammates (or how many teammates) into the picture both of which make tougher larger numbers of foes even easier to handle generally and also ups your rate of experience gain. Look your choices over and rather than ask which is best ask what the strengths and weaknesses those pairings have and go from there. Sorry good lord I get wordy.

What the game has a few warts yet!!? Yes a warning to players (maybe with a 'okay I've read this message' opt out button) that the Epic ATs are more difficult. And yes rather clearly somethings off about his bumbling around as he talks about playing other games while at another moment I'm watching him back steadily away from his foes into an area of map he hasn't seen yet and I'm thinking 'you're about to aggro mobs behind you'. Hate to think how abominable that would make his FPS gaming experience 🙄 to have that kind of situational awareness.

Just as an aside: You do NOT need someone to open an Ouro portal for you. You can Enter City Hall and proceed to RV Enter RV. You do not need to go anywhere (like into the zone beyond the base and risk PvP) Congratulations you have interacted with the time stream, flow what when ever and have the necessary access to Ouroborous. An O-portal will have appeared in your powers. Enjoy. It's been quite few new characters since I learned this and only one has used someone else's O-portal as it got all but dropped on my new lvl 2's head.

I can imagine. Probably much the same as when I stun them all ... and of course watching for problematic mobs like War Wolves or Cimerorans post Shout of Command who are protected from some portion of CC tools. That's when you'll change to Holds and/or Hurricane. I can recall standing in the intersection while Cimeroran bosses were busy getting shoved about with Hurricane while I'd move a little this way and a little that way letting FR, Tornado, LS and Rocky work on them while hopefully avoid getting cleaved in half by a pissed off boss.

Mine don't typically employ Immobilize plus Hurricane then bunch. My usual usage for Immobilize is to lock down the wobbling and spread created by my stacking stuns on a mob. Stalagmites + Thunderclap + Fissure plus these days I may toss in a p2w Stun Grenade. I'll be right up in there finishing bosses with Rocky side by side crushing them with Seismic Smash and proc'd out Fossilize. Don't get me wrong I have and use Hurricane but it's a fairly rare and short. Mixed between stuns will be the other usual Storm powers to help shred foes

I'll second @Area Man's call out ro Earth/Storm. Very potent combo of Earth's many hard controls and Storm's damage potential. There's a reason the one on HC is my fourth joining 3 from Live at 50. Don't recall any others that I repeated on Live.

Sleep is probably the key word here. Neither Sleep or Immobilize are effected by PToD as mentioned to by @Uun. Not familiar enough with those AVs (any more) to know if maybe something detoggles or is otherwise suppressed by being slept even momentarily.

I've done multiple Earth/Storm (as well as other /Storm). A very potent combo of hard controls from Earth and the raw damage power of Storm. Great control from start thru endgame. Edit: Not a bad Defender either 🤪 ooopsy. What happens when you go from the Controller forums to Defender forums on a sleep deprived brain Edit 2: And I don't care what anyone says Storm/Storm is a great deal of fun even solo especially once Storm Summoning comes into its own and even if not the mostist meta pairing Edit 3: And as @Psyonicosays TA is a very nasty debuffer ... TA/Storm Blast is also a good deal of fun.

A couple of somewhat random thoughts: 1) I'm finding Stun Grenade from p2w npc very useful especially stacked on top of (or vice versa) your own Stun power. Tends to leave mobs wobbling about. 2) proc the daylights out of your single target Hold. Typically several procs will fire each time you use the Hold. 3) I really love the combo of Ill/TA (illusion/trick arrow). High stealth from Superior Invisibility plus Flash Arrow means you're always attack when/if you want. All those debuffs from TA mean your unbuffable Phantom Army attack a lot of very squishy debuffed foes. 4) Take your time. Enjoy the ride. 50+ is the destination but not the journey. You've got 1000 character slots on 5 servers. Make a bunch of potentially very different Controllers. Soon enough there will be one (or two 😉) which you'll find yourself returning to as you log in. Then you've found your Controller(s) PS: Controllers as a whole are my favorite AT.

Corruptors as a whole are solid solo AT. Neither the strongest nor weakest as an overall AT and I'd put Dark/** or **/ Dark in the upper third. That said there's a ton of variance depending on level, foes, notoriety settings, preferences or tolerance for defeat/time taken to level and a whole lot of other things.

Easy, play along answer. My Claws/SR scrapper GRETA-001. The real answer. Anger, decreasing playtime until weeks stretched between log in on a character that between here and Live versions probably has around 4000 hours. One of the reasons, if not the reason, I play this game is the immense variety of characters one can play while doing a crazy amounts of different things in different ways with an equally varied and vast pool of fellow gamers.

As @Etchedsaid. Also many of the SGs from Live have posted on one of the Server forums and you might find folks that way as well while learning which server they (the SG as a whole) initially landed on.

Possibly. Might also be a bit fussy with finding the hit box. But unless it got changed at some point the invasion drop ships could definitely be brought down. It typically looked a lot like the one they bring down when doing an MSR. Relative horde of characters swarming the things before they could exit the zone. If you can get a target box it should be doable

Well what AT and power sets are you? Hard to give specific advice or suggestions beyond the generic advice you've listed in the opening post. The varied nature of their primaries and secondaries leads to potentially many ways to go that'll work for one Dom or Troller but not the next.

Yep I'm finding/have found Fold Space much as you describe. A tight map indoors truly hamper things effectiveness. Open areas are much more conducive to using FS (like the ITF towers). Many of those warehouse or cave map branches end in larger open areas or have 3-way intersections along the way. Mobs are around a corner, pull it into to the hall leading to the intersection then use teleport/speed to beat them to the 'yoink point'. FS like many powers it pays to be mobile. Or have multiple builds at play. One for tight indoor maps (hi purple caves) the other for maps like the ITF. And in a build at endgame or otherwise well IO'd FS is all but if not a one slot wonder to be effective with large amounts of global recharge and accuracy.

*Glances at his AR/Dev* Like Braddock said. Plus while one can debate the poor horse clean into the after life a well played character is never the wrong choice.

Well I'd say this thread fits the word IRONY just a tad presently.