Socks10

The alt-itis is this game is ridiculous. I'm currently looking into creating, what I think would be, the ultimate support character. A Defender is what I would think would be the best idea for this, but I could be wrong. This is a character to play with friends who most likely won't have the best gear on, or even the best power choices. What I am looking for in a character: 1. I want to be able to heal. 2. I want to be able to rez. 3. I want to be able to teleport my teammates. 4. I want to take the Leadership pool. 5. I would like to be able to stealth. My main problem, is trying to fit all of this in. There are not enough power pool choices. Hasten is necessary on pretty much all builds, that's the first pool. Teleport would be another pool. Teleport requires Hover really, that's the third pool. And the last would be Leadership. No room for stealth (although I do realize some stealth can come from some of the Defender primaries and using the Celerity IO with Speed). I thought about An Illusion Controller for this, because of the Invisibility in the primary powerset, but I still feel like a defender might be the best bet to hit all of my wants. Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks for the reply. The information on how to tell what a powers proc chance is will be very helpful. I usually just find a build on the forums I think looks good and follow it as I level up. This was my first attempt at trying to work something out using multiple sources of information. I'm still learning how to properly build a character and really have a long way to go still. For example, I'd love more recharge, but not sure what a number is I should be shooting for. I want def and res, but really, as a controller, I feel like these are less important. Maybe they won't be at the end game though. I took my Grav/Storm build above out for some solo and duo missions yesterday. It played really well as is. Here are some thoughts, first on my comments in my last post: 1. I'm not sure taking Teleport Ally will be as useful as I originally thought. I mostly used Wormhole to bring a whole spawn right on top of my Singularity. No need to send him anywhere. I am still interested in having Teleport powers though. Mainly to help my friends get around. Really not necessary, and not sure how I fit it in anyway. 2. I don't think I really understood how Enflame worked. I think it could be useful still, but not worth the investment. 3. I still think Dimension Shift is a useful power and I want to make it work in a build. I don't think it is going to be in my Grav/Storm build. Maybe Grav/Time if I can fit it in with all of the good power choices in those two sets. Thoughts on @VV's comments: 1. Great information on Crushing Field. I use it every fight and with the Energy font proc in there, I barely saw it. On my Grav/Time, I have that proc slotted in Wormhole, and I feel like I see it more there, but its been awhile. I'll definitely switch that slotting up to one of your recommendations. Just not sure which one yet. I have a feeling I could use more slots in other places though. 2. I went into my play sessions with my Grav/Storm yesterday with some thoughts on powers I could drop so I could try out some new ideas. One idea was to drop the AoE powers from Ice Mastery. This was a terrible idea. I will be keeping both of these powers and slotting them up as you suggest. Frost Breath is an absolute beast and I can't wait to try it with procs in it. 3. I love Freezing Rain and will be looking into implementing these proc ideas as well. 4. Same here. Thanks for the ideas on how to slot procs into Ice Storm as well. 5. I will have to add another slot to Hasten. As it stands now, things are coming back fairly quickly, but I could always use more. Maybe its all the +recharge I have slotted that is helping out. Another slot in Hasten would definitely be ideal though. My only other real question that comes to mind now on how much the Fighting pool is really needed for Controllers. I have seen some other posts on this topic and a lot of people seem to agree that Leadership would be more beneficial, as the powers also affect your pet. However, I read the forums a lot and pretty much every build you come across has the Fighting pool. My thought is to keep my build's power choices as is for now, follow the recommended slotting ideas provided by both commenters above, and then slowly keep messing around with this build in Mids looking for optimizations. Thanks again. Notes - Added possible rework of build. Couple of notes. I think it looks good. Not sure if another slot is needed in either Hover or Fly. Also not sure if I need Sudden Acceleration in Hurricane, so I might be able to remove a slot from there. I also think I could remove a slot from Frost Breath, as I grabbed all the slots I could and three set pieces on Positron's Blast is not really offering me much. Removing all the slots from Crushing Field really gave me some flexibility. I was able to find slots to put two in Health and one in Stamina as well.

I have too much of a problem with alts to fully put the time into testing this build yet, but, as the title says, I mainly play this character with a DP/Storm Defender friend. I have played this build with him and one thing I did notice is that I have too many AoEs. It's probably because he's there too, but I don't need to apply much more than Freezing Rain and my Crushing Field, followed by Tornado. And in the situations that I could use more AoEs, I need to pace myself because of endurance issues. I also have a Grav/Time Controller and have been thinking about reworking his build. But, some thoughts that I would like to work into this build would be: 1. Get Teleport Friend to be able to move my Singularity around the battlefield. 2. Get Enflame to be able to add more damage to my Singularity. 3. Get Dimension Shift to create a dome of storm chaos. Dimension shift I always want to try to work into my Gravity builds but I never end up using it. I swear I will someday though. It sounds like it would be cool here, but to be honest, the mobs will be flopping around enough that putting them in a dome for my protection probably won't be necessary. Unless it does allow for the dome to negate any alpha that might be sent my way. Hmm. As for how I'm going to get these powers into my build, I think I need to take the AoEs out of Ice Mastery and switch to Mystic Flight as my travel power. That might do it. Now, off to Mids to see what I can fit in here... Edit - I found where I'm going to get the slots. There are too many power pools in my idea. I need to drop either Fighting or Leadership. I think, as a Controller, I'm going to drop fighting. This will hurt my defences, but I should be controlling everything anyway, right?

I don't have a lot of experience with different tanking sets, but I do have so, so many alts....and the most fun I've had in this game is with an Ice/Ice Tanker. The only other Tanker I've leveled past level 20 is a 46 Fire/Claws. I'm sure this is the same with other Tankers, but I just love being able to hold aggro and let my team just fire away. I just used my Ice/Ice Tanker tonight with friends for the first time in a while and we just rolled through missions. I was able to go into rooms just packed with bad guys and bring them out to my Blaster and Sentinel friends. I could hold all the aggro and just let them blast away. I was a ton of fun. I promise, I am trying to give other Tankers a fair shake. I just made a Shield/War Mace earlier today. But I really can't see any AT being as fun as my Ice/Ice.

Hey, thanks a ton for the responses. This is my first time putting together any type of build for myself. I got some of the slotting ideas from some other builds on these forums that used these powersets, but it's good to get some alternate ideas of what could work better. I really ran out of slots. I couldn't figure out what I could move around to get more either. I'd like to put more in Health and Hasten as you mentioned....I'd also like to put another in Fly and Stamina. I haven't played with this build yet and just bought some set pieces today to get it ready. I have a feeling that I will have trouble with End though. I'll need to find those slots one way or another.

I have done some work in Mid's on a build I think might work. I wasn't able to fit in Dimension Shift or Thunderclap, but I was able to add Frost Breath. I basically took a lot of information from other builds and did what I thought looked good. I'm sure there are mistakes, so if anyone could point them out, that would be great. 🙂

I had been looking for a Tanker to fit a storm-themed group and got some good ideas there. However, the buddy I play with consistently still prefers our original Storm characters to play with. So, I’m looking for builds or even just tips for slotting. I have been away from my PC and had no access to the game or Mids, so I’ve been trying to look up builds and do some research while I’m away. There is…a lot of information. I have read through a lot of the Proc threads for both Controller and Defender and got a lot of good information. My character is Grav/Storm/Ice. Reading through these threads has giving me a lot of questions on power choices alone: 1. Get rid of fan favourite Propel for a more proccable Crush (don’t think I could drop it)? 2. Find a place for Thunderclap to give me a mag 2 stun that could be useful? 3. Proc up Dimension Shift to go with Crushing Field? 4. Take Frost Breath to have a powerful cone attack to use against immobilized groups? Im looking forward to getting back to my PC so I can play around with a build for both my friend and I. I am going to purchase both of us some set Enhancements for our characters to try to get the most out of our builds. I think I found a good build in the Defender Proc thread for my friend. I’m trying to piece together something for myself. I have a full set of Will of the Controller I’m going to take off of another character I don’t really use. I also can take some Basilisks Gaze off of that character as well. So, I guess I’m looking for some build ideas and slotting ideas. Any tips would be appreciated. I found a post in another thread that I lost. It was discussing when you would Proc a power over when you would just put a full set in it. What is the criteria for that?

The last couple of days I have mainly been playing the new Ice/Energy Tanker, a Fire/Claws Tanker, and I've gone back to have a look at my old Ice/Ice Tanker. I like them all. Ice/Ice might still be my favourite and I'm going to sit down soon and try to work on a new build for him.

Thanks for the new ideas and the build. I love this stuff. I was thinking of dropping Jacobs Ladder on my Stone/Elec Tanker, but I think I'll keep it going for a bit to see if I can make it work.

Oh man, another good option. 🙂 Actually, the only Tanker I leveled to 50 is an Ice/Ice Tanker. I love him. So, this might be a really good choice. I'll be giving him a chance as soon as I have time at the character creator, for sure.

I think it's the sticking with the storm theme that is causing the most trouble. We got back into the game recently with a couple of storm summoning characters and it has been a lot of fun. For some reason though, we are making new storm characters and I'm trying to find a Tanker that fits that theme, as I like the AT. Electric Armour has been good, but Lightning Field is a little too much. The animation is throwing off too much lighting for a rare winter storm. 🙂 I'm over thinking this I realize, but that's part of the "fun". Electric Melee might be the better option, and I think I can work with that. I'll keep messing around with these builds, and maybe a couple new ones, until I find one that fits.

I have been enjoying the Stone/Elec Tanker, but also made an Elec/Ice Tanker. Both sticking with the storm theme. Not sure which I like better. I might actually be leaning towards Elec/Ice as there are more powers I like in there....maybe too many actually. It's difficult to find a good build as there are too many power choices. I'll keep playing both though, for a bit, to see which one becomes a clear favourite.

Ha, I'd say that is a pretty great reason to choose it. 🙂 This game has so many little quirks that make it fun. Glad my friends found it again last year and keep coming back to it.

Ha, I'd say that is a pretty great reason to choose it. 🙂 This game has so many little quirks that make it fun. Glad my friends found it again last year and keep coming back to it.

Thanks for taking the time to give me a build to look at. I really appreciate it. Also, that tip on how to use Jacobs Ladder is very interesting. I'm sure it applies to other cones and just not something I have ever thought about. Edit - Is there a reason for choosing Teleport? I have seen it in other tank builds and I typically go for super jump or flying. Is there a reason this is a good pick for a tank?

No rush. I will mostly be playing this character with some friends, so it won't be a fast levelling toon. 🙂 I've also been playing another Tanker recently, based off a post by @Sovera I believe. It is a Fire/Claws Tanker and I absolutely love it. And based off of their post above, I'm wondering if I can get it to work with this Storm theme as well. 🙂

You don't, by chance, have a build lying around for Stone/Electric, do you? I've gotten to 11 so far and grabbed Jacobs Ladder...and I'm not so sure it was worth it.

Thanks for the posts! This is excellent. I didn't think of Stone/Elec. I have created one, but still working through what power choices to make. Thanks for the advice guys!

I'm looking for some ideas. My friends and I have been going on a storm-based powers kick lately. This mostly consists of using ATs that have access to the Storm Summoning set, which has been a ton of fun. However, I feel like having a character that can taunt would be beneficial for us and I enjoy Tankers, so I have been trying to find a fit. There really isn't much though. Ice/Ice? Ice/Elec? These are about as close as it gets. I have already been looking through the forums and had a peak at @Infinitum's Tanker post (which is excellent). However, the best idea I got out of there was an Elec/Storm Controller (which is my other favourite AT, so I will be trying one of those). Any ideas for a storm-based Tanker?

Lots of good posts in this thread, but I'm going to focus here because it asks some questions. Also, shoutout to the all Emp Defender idea. I'm not sure the others would be interested, but this sounds fun. 🙂 Debuffing may or may not have been an issue. We were able to get through a couple other very long fights in the SF without much issue...it just took a long time. I don't think the /Poison Corrupter was staying close to Positron, so that could have been an issue there. But, our main issue was the imps. There is the one imp that we tried to focus on when it spawned, the one that would fully heal Positron. We were failing just getting this guy down fast enough. The other two imps that spawned were also an issue because they would blow up when get close. I, as the Tanker, was fine, but it did hurt the other players quite a bit. You were bang on with the Arachnos character. I don't know enough about this class, but he definitely had pets and definitely was AoE focused. The MM was probably not controlling his pets very well, but they died very quickly anyway. As for IOs, we definitely had no characters with Set IOs. I had regular IOs in all of my powers, not sure about everyone else. Although, the MM was getting enhancements that dropped off others just to get his recharge down on Fortitude, so there is that. 🙂 I like playing the Tanker class because I feel like I can really help out this specific group of players by holding all of the aggro. Perhaps it is time to try something different. Something with a bit more damage or a different playstyle altogether. How would you go about tanking with a Controller, Blaster, or other character?

I typically play with a group of four. We don't always play the same characters, as we all love our alts, but we usually fall into the same roles for the most part. I will typically be a tank, another guy will have some sort of healing (usually as an MM secondary), and the other two could be anything (hopefully with damage). What's bringing this question on is that lately we've been trying to work through some task/strike forces. They can be challenging, but are fun to do. Mortimer Kal broke us though. We had to give up. We made it all the way to the Positron fight and just couldn't do it. We may have eventually, but we couldn't keep at it. For whatever reason, we could not take out the healing imp in time consistently. This made the fight very frustrating. Our group makeup was an Inv/Elec Tanker, Arachnos Soldier, Water/Poison Corrupter, and Demon/Emp MM. Probably not near to ideal, but we worked our way through the entire strike force to make it to the end (and Mortimer Kal has some difficult fights). We just didn't have the damage to take the healing imp down fast enough. So, back to the question, what is needed to make a good four man team that can take most content on? To me, in the above situation, we lacked damage and debuffs. A Tanker seems necessary, but probably not this one. Could have used more damage there. The only support was coming from Emp in the MM. Could probably have used some debuffs there. And I'm not familiar with the other two enough. The Corrupter had damage and debuffs though, so should be good. Are there typically thing you want in a four man group (-recharge, -res) or any group for that matter?

I’d like to try my Ice/Cold Controller in an AV situation. I used him in pub groups last night and had fun. I felt like I was contributing. I also feel like I might enjoy Jack Frost more than Singularity. I know Singularity is the popular better pet, but I feel like he can be a hinderance on teams, throwing mobs out of melee range. Jack just runs around doing damage. I do have a level 19 Ill/Rad Controller. I like using him, but at the time I was really into my Grav/Time Controller. I might take him out for another spin.

We didn’t have my Ice/Cold Controller for the strike force. I was playing a Dark/Energy Dominator instead. This was fine for most of the strike force, but not for the AV at the end. I could have maybe used my Controller instead. I feel like we had enough with our group, but we failed horribly. You’re 100% correct, part of the fun of playing any character is finding out where and when they shine. This is why I love playing so many alts. Too many alts most would say. 🙂

I actually had an Ice blaster already, he’s level 39 currently. I really like him. He does excellent damage and feels like he’s contributing a lot in teams. I still made this Ice/Cold Controller though and actually hit level 41 last night. He feels much more useful on teams now and has a bit of damage. I ran a strike force with a few friends the other night. It had a boss at the end names Infernal I think. We had to give up. We had no issues with this strike force until then. Now, we didn’t have an optimal group I’m sure. There were only 4 of us, me a 34 Dark/Energy Dom, a 37 MA Scrapper, a Water/ Poison Corr(?), and a Fire/Fire Blaster. Now, I feel like this is where my Ice//Cold Controller would really shine. I want to think he could have dropped the bosses Regen so low we would have tore him up easily...or maybe I should just have brought the Ice Blaster in to drop the damage. 🙂

My friend has the same problem as I do, we both pretty much play a different character ever night. Damn you altitis! I actually realized yesterday that while I love my Grav/Time Controller, I really don't have any experience with other powersets in this AT. So, I decided to make an Ice/Ice Controller. I ended up getting help leveling to about 26 before I used him with some friends last night. Thankfully, because I tried to solo right away and in the late teens and it was painful. I still didn't feel overly helpful with my friends last night either. Ice Slick and Arctic Air are awesome. The holds are great too. The shields? Eh. I can't imagine anyone I group with wanting to look like a block of ice. I even tried Minimal FX and they're still pretty obnoxious. I still plan on using him a bit more before making a final decision, but I also imagine I'll spend some time in the character creator to fine another Controller to check out. 🙂