Agorazium

Ok, I could use some help with this one. This is a character I've had for years but have rerolled many times because I can never find a costume that really works for me. I tend to start with a basic/generic classic superhero costume and then build on that. I would love to make the Sybil robe or Circle of Thorns skirt work but it's hard for me to do that without the character feeling overdesigned. She is sort of inspired by both Sersi from the Eternals and one of my DND characters, a Circle of the Land Druid. I would like the costume to suggest "nature mage" in some way. The first costume is fine, but feels like something I've seen used a hundred times by other people and isn't really how I picture the character. The second one is what most of my designs have looked like, but it just looks a little too involved for my taste. Honestly I'm not sure if my vision for the character is even possible with this creator but I figured this thread might be worth a shot.

Honestly I would not recommend either Enflame or Invoke Panic, and believe me I’ve tried to make them both work. Enflame is less bad, but with Demons being a melee/range hybrid set you won’t get a ton out of it solo. Crack Whip on the other hand is excellent and combos really well with Sonic. I would also encourage you to take Disruption Field sooner…it’s probably the best power in the set and you’re losing out on a ton of damage by not taking it. I guess if you plan to never exemplar it’s not an issue, but if that’s not the case it should really be taken ASAP.

I was trying to combine the superhero aesthetic with the classic fantasy barbarian, which I don't think I quite pulled off, but still happy with how Northwinter (Beast/Cold) turned out.

I’m a huge advocate for Temporal Selection, I never skip it. In terms of action economy, the buff to your highest damage dealer is a better use of your time IMO than the small -regen from Time Crawl, which will be reduced even further on hard targets. I also think either Distortion Field or Juncture are skippable depending on whether you’re playing in melee or at range. On a Controller you could go without Time Stop but I like it as a proc bomb, for Hami runs, and to stack holds on bosses.

Oooh thank you! I had a Psi/Claws concept I was excited about but wasn't sure where to start with slotting Psi. I'll definitely be playing around with this tonight 🙂

IMO it really depends on the AT and sets. Others have already covered the big ones: Domination, Phantom Army, Farsight/Chrono Shift, Overgrow etc. really benefit from Hasten and once you can perma those it is a significant power boost. Outside of control and support sets, some Hasten allows some melee sets like Dual Blades and IIRC Claws and Kinetic Melee to use the most optimal rotations and skip extraneous powers. That said, in most cases I think it’s overrated. Using the optimal rotation is not going to make a huge difference in 90% of content. I only take it now on toons that really benefit from perma-ing a certain power, and on Controllers who have long recharges in general and few attacks.

This is very minor, but for consistency's sake: the descriptions for Column and and Incendiary Aura say "reduced ToHit" whereas Dark Control, Dark Blast and similar sets call it "chance to hit reduced" or something similar, which I think is a little more clear to new players who don't know what ToHit is.

Only tested with Pyro Control so far but this is a great change. Gone are the days where I save my AOE hold for an emergency that never happens, leaving it sitting on my bar untouched. Being able to stack holds on bosses also means I’m not wishing I rolled a Dominator instead. I would support a reduction in the max recharge though, I think 180s is fair.

The new FX on Hypnotizing Lights and Explosive Bouquet look great 🙂

I'm so jealous!!! I've been trying to get that name for soooo long for my main, who will be rerolled to Pyro Control. Great costume, makes me feel slightly less jealous 😉 Here is my current costume for Spectrum as tax.

I ran missions at 20 and 30 today. +1/x2, no amplifiers, standard SOs. The endurance use is still rough. Even with Accelerate Metabolism from /Rad I was running out of end frequently. In fact the only times I died were because I ran out of end and blue insps. I can’t figure out exactly what the problem is but it feels like a combination of low ST damage and short duration controls that need to be spammed/cycled more often than other sets. I’m going to try respeccing out of Sparkling Cage and replacing it with a pool attack and see if that helps. Got to play around with Missiles, Explosive Bouquet and Catherine Wheel. Bouquet is really satisfying to use, I like this one a lot. Missiles is fine, the implementation of a dual-AOE is interesting although I’m not sure this power was the place to do it. I might end up skipping this one instead of Hypnotizing Lights. Catherine Wheel does what it says on the box, although I second that its TAOE seems to actually be a PBAOE. Still begging pleading and crying for changes to Dazzle’s animation, even if it originated from the enemy rather than the character throwing it that would be better. Though it seems like I’m the only one with that opinion so I understand if it doesn’t get changed.

Column feels like it’s supposed to be your all-purpose, every-group control. I like that it can eat the alpha strike for me but I agree, the duration is way too short and barely gives me time to set up more controls. I think it’s going to feel especially bad paired with active secondaries like TA, Rad etc. that have their own setup to do.

Ran the David Wincott/Flux arc today. Level 10 to start, Pyro/Rad controller, +1/x2, standard SO enhancements, no P2W amplifiers, no temp powers other than Plasmatic Taser which I often take on Controllers for early game AOE. Dazzle - is fine. I still think it could use a different character animation. It just looks so feeble. Sparkling Cage - is also fine. The immob fx are a little hard to see when there are other ground effects (i.e. Radiation Infection). This applies to Sparkling Chain too. Also, I feel like the damage should just be upfront? A DOT doesn't make a lot of sense to me in a set that's essentially Explosion Control. Sparkling Chain - I really like this power. It sometimes does not do anything. It might just be missing, but there's no MISS text, and it seems like if it misses the initial target it doesn't hit anything else which is unfortunate. Glittering Column - I'm learning to love this as an opener/alpha absorber but I think it could stand to have a longer duration. 8 seconds lets me get 2, maaaaaybe 3 powers off before the column explodes. For toons that use secondary powers in their openers, this is going to be rough IMO. Hypnotizing Lights - this feels fine as an emergency power, I think it'll wind up being skippable. This is one where I think the VFX could be amped up. I haven't played around with Multipurpose Missiles enough yet but the lingering sound effect is sooo screechy, I foresee a lot of headaches and complaining. Miscellaneous observations - the endurance use relative to the damage and control durations feels off. Even when not using /Rad toggles and consciously not spamming Chain, I was out of end while minions still had 25%+ HP left. This is with L10 Endurance Reduction SOs in all powers. Overall the set is fun so far, but between the end use and short-duration controls, I feel like it's going to struggle the higher level I get. This was without any recharge enhancements so it is probably going to get worse. Next time I have playtime I plan to jump to level 20 and run an arc or two and see how it feels as it scales.

Maybe a compromise would be to make the AOE effects bigger rather than brighter? Compared to for example Dimension Shift, Heart of Darkness, Shadow Field, Paralyzing Blast, Flash, Gleam etc. some of the pyro AOEs just look so small and sad.

The power icon for Controller Tesla Coil is a different color than the rest of the set FYI! (at least in the character creator)