Argentae

100% yes. I have a large stable of controllers, and with the repeated changes to the AT it's absolutely my favorite AT to play. Pay attention to what powers can use dmg Procs, and absolutely use MidsReborn to workshop different builds. My favorite Primaries (no particular order): Plant/, Dark/, Pyro, Arsenal/, Illusion/(one of the best for AV fights because of Phant tanking them, but not as good at large spawns), Fire/ all have great soloing potential. All Primaries do actually, but those are particularly good at it. My favorite secondaries are /Dark (very tanky), /Storm (great for damage in the late game), Trick Arrow (very tactical), Marine (great especially for a melee focused playstyle). My current combo is Pyrotechnic/Dark and it's possible it's one of the best soloing Controller combo ever for +4/x8 not AV PVE, not sure yet as she's only 35, but the signs are there. 🙂

Totally agreed with most of what you suggested, good list! 🙂 I really like the idea of the Apoc +5 Dam IO in Sparkling Cage. I may well drop Sparkling chain altogether in the lvl 50 respec. It is somewhat useful though to be able to lock a whole spawn in place when I get them really tight together so I can get a good hit off Soul Drain. Your Dark Servant might do well with Clouded Senses (though I see why you're using it for a purple set) as a lot of his attacks have -ToHit ( so the clouded senses proc fires pretty well), and that -ToHit and AOE healing is a lot of what he brings to the table for me. Just a different focus in the build, I love how flexible Controllers are that way. This build is designed to put out a lot of -ToHit. I could easily crank it up to absurd levels of -ToHit (and may well do so) as I haven't slotted any -ToHit in Darkest Night, I'm slotting it for range to optimize the corner pull into Tar pit, which is fantastic for clumping a spawn up tight for the Soul brothers hit (Soul Absorption and Soul Drain). Glittering Column also puts out a massive amount of -ToHit when it's not taunting, and Incendiary Aura, plus the plethora of powers in the full build that chip in -7.5 ToHit etc. Keep in mind that this is a level 35 leveling version of the build, not the final build. So that means I use things like PosiBlast in both Glittering Column and Hyp Lights to get me some decent +acc and +rech globals (though both already have 2 dmg procs so they do decent damage already). I'm still playing around with options for the level 50 build, for instance the proc heavy TG is an experiment I want to run so I have a way to completely neuter a dangerous target or two as needed, plus I want to see if Mids or City of Data is right about the stacking of certain debuffs. Here's the current first pass working draft of a level 50 Build: |MBD;23294;1539;2052;BASE64;| |G/1aACwKbBuZfSeOBuYtPTK/LkW69sycTHk0DoRJ8vm03Nrt+h0oQ7PodPV1xlbqZM/| |bgH0pm6L+VPmc1sras8zdT50RsV8uqBgswPnNSfWj/VLnInSE5Pkuzmf274bJQQF4Co| |CqMrKErnXAzl8dWjOr9o3qP1dZ2cqLunhXG43hLC/MlE6CHbQcTIemWMRKRZ/d+tlaL| |QwZ+Wvh9LAGlN/QwuudN/0KoIc02YJTck+Qw8QVOS3ysvVgBoe3IWLT8D5A7B5une4h| |L95MEQ2+TxFDQatsqoECmmuUxHe7CcIbpL7dw/WGl/TXSMw3PeLzwlOPJ6LKI75Q2fr| |cTbjHzuMW2h4JLtif11x4pe/rOrS7XmXIJLsuMam3uYMp10M5K1jkXToFM3OAl+f4C/| |B/brdRLukHvO4FXB4k30rdMu38tsHBWezXRIvtEN+1WOtyaJbeD46Aw/Y5wD8/ihYMW| |+ZDxdXp1VCr072lV3i39sm5lxqcS9Ef2YpHtxsBqy/1yj+JsbyR9kl2MriYZC8ZjPa8| |qbZ7872D5SG48nfLcOPWwVdh0DuDsRIqmONLMN3QoPstL/U9VPu89V7IB9ZAt87f3xf| |+B6qshXG/LADH/mNKrM5K3Itj9JPhn6ScZ3AHkXfnzOs4vkzr3iUYDn2XEkFcK0t5SO| |J5DkkffqCyBjeqkS3vrO/KCEE8Q7dlS5zoWX50ZZaeejHv3FwKt8MUxDPH/ojMraipg| |nPJt5X7xlXlQN8BqZ5ESDxOK5o5/7f8b9CUXjsplgkcmgqDDBTiCmcaTqhdpJ2+CSIJ| |aLFsW2w3CfU9SNU+8Ux/LO6OfDmuU2MUq1Tsm1pOCKGHSwCwQKciZ2HbGWRRCwqxwjW| |I7VqPqEl8AOKpJM1tWipVCHOz654Gt0HcG7vPk2NcQJFIJq5QsO/8BpMVL2X9OYjcEM| |/Pe3lKhVuSK2dRLq0xYAjiy7v3jpNY26m9y7zkx7hGgHUSd0G0oXnuvmRV2zDIkhtQh| |lKz8BVVESeaQq8AzPxEJd/qE9x93WyvdC4AJe3Ucl45WFmyvYVRV90pbjmlaIqDGt/L| |iUTAYc50lJb/Veg3x9I1yffVZT30EEbHprcDE8TculTmSuQpf5Gdb2bKtLQkiZWVnxg| |6WfXRL+6rkh+ylvTWR+MsmFAANqyyHJZhD3BUVWTIeU39XCKrboEbxM2944TM4Y8qnu| |eYBjVLUIHHxVmkqFMU8pLx1VPW91ZOFtODWAr62m4dNoTjJdvBcRx4Qbw7bf8tRUBSj| |o4s6SQnUQcCHMbYECLlSpm57E/16HsvjCMB8bYWMCcFxlTzT81p0BmRe83GUI7klU9p| |xKmF5aHep2DsXMGatD0uGTni03NhlPJmPnJV/Idh0Q7Bo/5q5IZTyy3RzvRYJW6rTJx| |9Ets/mu9SeUBdURaGLFon0LytdVgbgAESGBibiNXo7EbBdSN4uq6EpQQE7kITcb86/y| |0MgRUtiF0eF1YkBRMZ7jCORA4WBywjassfBOTbeARHD+cy6dCSkY202o/1Hc6TizhKC| |LwA2GlJOlVrb01CPGz/wJp6R6DDU81HMaRg3pYF9t9Q2NEnnCXNdNgE6G+fsX9r3pB3| |8GM9uFVYF1dEWRZxqK2hfbYhH5dD+nkmlX0SVw13vG0Vm4oKbMTqySdP6KqLCaiT7+K| |buoT37klAPJK3D296niqFMNFJgJLk/mvFRWVqVaHF38bhf0trZ6vImugwMQADZNWGpD| |RwFucjWp0W12mutNNUo5j8jTHcBMHZa7pGOmAC2a2RgCUUCCXuOd1IQBhgw2DXDPwiX| |qAkilsB/dztAoK+nupp7ddSX0kBPCAedoNeT5zJh7Pe+JFs2A8ivbT++XvTsrb5JjwF| |4n3HGf8M53ituS+pwyU814M/SlVxXDjN/OeQOIphNA+lFWLl7msXcgZMpEr4rxG0U2G| |MYVduR9/R80xtx1D85c9iL5Y4sC7XgoyNO5jYu9K9HxLcFVwz1uEHfGWt4inGRvZX3U| |UPMh+FskveDuC3Pq8rezxcvu6R67kv8P0nHyDOfnAH|

Level 35 build |MBD;17456;1242;1656;BASE64;| |Gy9EAJwFdqPzzRhrNLClkf3noHSLlB/NEbpbSlH680phtZnKR8clwuy9XKZQhqWtMm0| |Wna6+5lRyWovZs8zdn85CsS+NQJaMpHyah/459rujJiKRtI+3Pv134uBNzIdaskQkin| |aiSeuiNbKhb+ChEfkJafRIxMZo3sJ1YID4okv/w7CIGBXtufXAWi26jPxa2D2sgeR1W| |lzzzMhpYIeU3MIrLBDk66Q7El4kS3yQxvE1RJSNu0Hvdo5OOymIyymi4f8U4Y9vlcIP| |A7TUCaunLYPwBu6rH/MJL+mfkZg8dJzPG6ccJ0lliRcqWz+eRjyjbXsE6yvBicuHNTf| |mnxbAtll3rWbIJByHmNTTPEGK62acJS5gXToJl/YCr8DhNyBTdlmaL+mP7KDOmLo9QZ| |A82IBR8jNa2j7hfYvhpeNdyAOhA3zWZDP+fBQtHirGgMXV65W/xXWFzPB+MednF3Zwl| |KV32FqDshMBq5d65U9iLMfjtROb/MfNZOplCuIrH8r6bLx7MBaFuY+PDD9WDj4Kg74a| |DD++t4vcGG6+iiufZ+Yd2PaJ5Ea+G4t4GNfx7QH/ESprYTwvkYAJ/yhFbFty9/8Y/WT| |4neRzD+6goNs2MjuSXlJ5XiUZ2r67S8JA74CupjyEy2P2uT/8horBtpHMfO2UFGnbvk| |UofKspg3PxX+4+cZSiwnvIVCeRjLSLaJMZqKFx0DH/n6Ahva5cmigBJoD40IyXmk//t| |SGSDLlYYltG1a9BtuB3OPlPiLuO1zNsVHnzVOyXTPsloQdXACCFQ4WchV6ahiwy8ZdW| |cBOIkzZvUIX5ABwyFWG5sqlShXATXa/p4BYQ1//T9JQKtyRRziIkjtZJhiKw8DWoAop| |jhCOcyQKsD2o9ybZa7VnmJR9HW6qFSrgNgzZGPOw0OgGjsPCGY9DpFvHJ7awsRaXfUa| |leKW45fCiFg9qEy4OGAC830EtJDlToJ8eSthTntThOemWdrhnsgAXEqpwqcyWGvQQm7| |E8mZ6ovSRDfPzjxuXOMCaNXDAa3fTkCzkPyYEthhuXyQ668m3prnAUTCoATAFIOqxb3| |glTtZMisAnkyBatuARcQF+m0RWQOX1Hy3BUhExB7HyzwODiL7EfaXvKALsLlWshcxPS| |Y6UgLOm9Zhw3heAhXcBoH3EDctbZ/S5GBlbUjS2xBk1TzAXg50y4hco/YmUtK87tOTF| |gDyHuVnUGlyL+h2sox4uOvXkqtXcGatD1uqTnCU+fCyMnTbjkq/YOJ7FsrxbtOlxvnp| |V9K2NNjlbhNLZKWD52UTzpfQ1pGuU6EGKjTxBCvV4UYVq3sfwtDYEULYofHjRWqdngh| |urRDEbwQB0ysMFkgOP2NgPwa0acUotmQrmqVzdF9m+Z44xaFBgq4AaCLJ2raaE1NRLz| |ZpoBdIETs1m08AYHvOp9ukymaW3iCgbHyYCbBxhTAMejV0Ld5uyWRd5BerelKrF+vhb| |fZghSO4b/gD3ix19elqBKP5t7O8LewQZhUIllP0w8gwbfS2smNxoTY6xiB2Lq37Wzhf| |IlyoxdyBli4qwL/o+jSIcU6bAvZ+Z7+cWpXDMUkEIK1TrRe0/XlsHEHD2Ea4D2d+y7B| |XUEqIndevH+vWTzF2MkdktjpVYQUnLSSTbDa1vf9Po6mufh2| I called it a level 35 build, but I actually have a bunch of slots in Twilight Grasp that I just dropped in there to play with procs. TG can take 2 dmg procs, the +End Theft of Essence, and the -Recharge from Dark Watcher. So with those 4 procs and a pair of Acc/End/Heal it's kinda a single target debuffapalooza. Some disagreement between Mids and City of Data about the Dar watcher -Rech proc. CoD claims it stacks up to 5 times, Mids claims it doesn't stack. If it stacks, this slotting for TG is pretty much a way to keep me and all the pets healed, and it can be spammed for VERY little end cost, basically a way to heal and recover end while totally neutering single dangerous targets in soooo many ways. -Rech -Regen -ToHit -Dmg All while doing a bit of damage and healing everyone around me for substantial amounts. If I work it into my single target chain, I can just up the frequency any time things start getting dicey. My initial plan for Epic pool is Soul Mastery, still considering other options, but a good corner pull -> Soul Drain will make all the other AOE attacks hit like a Mack truck. Plus the -ToHit secondary effects stack very well with the rest of the build and thematically it's pretty perfect. Welcome any thoughts or feedback from others that have gone the Pyro/Dark route regarding ANY of the above! 🙂

Ok, I made it! It’s still today! Work project done, and I think, crushed it! :: snoopy dance :: Uuuuunfortunately I realized I never actual did the whole build in Mids yet. I just have powers to 30 and a few sets from workshopping options of slots. I’ll try tomorrow. 🙂

Agree with Psyonico, though if you team a lot, Mass Hyp with the placate proc can be useful if you start to pull aggro from a less than stellar tanking teammate. Mass Hyp is super effective when soloing in any case. 🙂

I enjoyed playing Pyrotic Sea into late-mid incarnate. Will play her again as it’s an enjoyable play balance with end game content at the highest difficulty soloing. Well, haven’t really tried her against A/Vs, I’d have to shift focus for single hard target play. I still have to try the shifting of GC slotting to maximize Taunt and -ToHit. In the meantime I’ve been thinking about how her main problem is slight fragility If I’m not on my A game. Which got me thinking about what would provide a bit more mitigation than /Marine, and that led me to my favorite Seconday: /Dark, I mean of course that’s the answer, isn’t it? So Pyrotic Shadow was born. Yup. That’s what I thought. Peanut Butter and Chocolate. Sparkers against a dark night sky Synergy. I was a bit worried about losing the buff debuff from /Marine, but it’s not an issue. Just hit 31 so I had to leave my old buddies the Warriors behind for awhile. I’m enjoying the new version of the Warriors. I think the ones at the new 50 zone hit a lot harder. I checked their stats and they dont seeeeeem to have any -Def or anything… Anyway enjoying it enough that I think I’ll chronicle this one. Pyro/…/Soul bring plenty of AoE, Dark brings tankyness. The -ToHit synergy is off the bell curve. I’m running x8 +2/3 pretty handily and I just got Fluffy, he’s not even fully slotted yet. Not needing to slot out Darkest Night or Pyrotic Aura let me slot out the AoE attacks early. I also keep forgetting to prioritize 2 range IOs in Darkest Night. I really need that range to do an effective corner pull into Tar Pit with pets hovering about. Once I get the rust blown off I’m quite sure she’ll be in the top tier of AoE damage tankmage Controller builds. Special effects are wonderful against dark backgrounds, lovely. And I haven’t even customized the power effects. This one is probably well worth the time. I’ve been too busy with renewed focus at work to play much. Actually feels good. Had a nasty cold that’s just breaking, so my head is starting to work again. I think I’ll fully dmg proc the three early AoE controls, GC, HL, and BB. Not sure what Ill do with the tier 8 AoE hold, maybe proc, maybe UC purple. Purple the AoE attacks in /Dark and /Soul as feasible, probably Posiblast in attacks where the purple is used already. With both Soul Absorption and Dark Consumption as a finishing attack that fills my End with just a hit or three… I’ll post a build, hopefully tomorrow as that will mean I got my work project done. 🙂

Very much enjoying the set. Pyrotic Sea (Pyro/Marine) is a solid combination. Did /Psi on the way up forcthe status protection, but changed to /Soul for my first mid incarnate respec. I have found that having 2 -Tohit IOs makes a very large difference in my durability. I have Glittering Column slotted with 4 dmg procs, and 2 lvl 50 -ToHit IOs, and I went Muscular for the Alpha slot, so I’m getting almost 50 -Tohit from GC, and (4 pack of dark watcher) 21 from the aura/toggle. Having just 1 -ToHit IO was only about 6 less than-ToHit, but it makes a noticeable difference. Thinking about changing slotting to drop the procs and pick up max Recharge to maximize uptime for taunt and -ToHit. It’s a Lot faster clearing with /Soul and with everything proc’d out. Fun. Running +4 x8 is totally doable, though you have to get the sequence down.

It has changed dramatically. Using Procs for damage, and having TK to clump everything up and apply Containment damage on the whole hovering clump is a huge benefit if you follow something similar to the attack chain I described in the OP. Tornado and Lightning Storm do amazing damage when everything is clumped up tight (what the new TK does exceedingly well once you figure out how to use it effectively), and Freezing Rain stacked with as many -Res procs as you can manage makes Tornado and LS both do much more than normal.

I owe Onlyasandwich a build for Arg, I was going to post one months ago, but work got hectic, and when I pulled up my last Arg build, it... Well... It was bad. 🙂 So recently, I've been working through my old favorite builds, dusting them off and working on getting them set up with decent IO sets again, as I have a habit of stealing purple sets from recent projects to outfit the latest project as soon as it hits 50. Plant/Dark (Dionysus) was the last one I dusted off, and I'm reminded just HOW durable that build is. It's a Tanktroller in many ways. The triple threat pet corp (Flytrap, Fluffy, and Fortunata) with Fade on and Spirit tree out becomes increasingly effective at surviving most anything esp with a decent Soul Absorption hit for Flytrap and Fluffy. The downside to Plant/Dark is that outside of when Carrion Creepers are summoned right after a decent Soul Drain, the Boss clear speed on +4X8 can be a bit slow. Plenty of AOE dmg, but taking down the bosses can take a bit. So after playing Dio for awhile I decided to pull up Arg and see how she plays with the new TK. It's a VERY different style, and I'm going back and trying some things I gave up on in the past, so doing a fair amount of experimenting. So I've been playing around with options and sets for a few days now and am currently playing a prospective Mind/Kin/Energy combo that may or may not be where I stop. One of the experimental things is seeing if Evasive Maneuvers (EM) can be used as part of an alpha strike mitigation strategy. Last time I tried this is wasn't worth it at all. All EM +def suppresses as soon as you attack or interact in any way. For Mind/Kin that's not that crippling as you can use Confuse, Mass Confuse, and Mass Hyp all without suppressing the +def, so it's potentially useful for setup. Last time I was working with just the +Def from EM itself with strong slotting which gets +20 to everything, which is nice but not really enough. This time I'm pairing it with Power Boost which brings the total +Def values up a LOT when you pop it before triggering the spawn. Jury is still out about how effective it is, but it's certainly nice walking in with pretty much all +def at the soft cap. Playing around with turning off stealth to trigger the alpha strike to get the spawn to clump up around me before I use MC or MD for AOE control while the +Def is stratospherically high, it shouldn't suppress if they attack me. I have no pets or pseudo pets to cause it to suppress either. Playing around with experimental sequences I ended up faceplanting a fair amount, until I decided to quite trying to play it like Mind/Storm/Ice where I put together a long AOE attack chain, prep bosses with Confuse then MC the whole spawn, hit TK on a boss and just hammer the whole spawn with that AOE attack chain. Mind/Kin is really ALL about just clump them up, Fulcrum Shift to hit +300 dmg cap and then watch the spawn just MELT. So far I only have a proced out Terrify and Dmg slotted (collecting the procs for it now) Energy Torrent for AOE, but honestly, at +300% dmg buff that's more than sufficient. I'm collecting the procs to turn TD into a procbomb as well, not sure why I can slot Ranged AOE Dmg procs in TD, but it allows them, so it should hit HARD. Not sure if I'm going to stay with /Energy but so far it's working well. Energy Torrent (ET) is awkward with TK as ET only has a 40' range cone and TK maintains the hover at 50' IIRC. If I hover in a bit before firing off ET I get enough of the spawn to be worthwhile. I may go back to /Ice as Frost Breath and Ice Storm both do excellent AOE dmg with TK. I have the +Immob unique in Terrify so that helps a bit to maintain the containment. Might build some immob in to the incarnate choices as well. A lot to play with, but using TK to clump a spawn up tight makes it trivial to get a really solid Fulcrum Shift hit. And really, as long as you don't die, a full +300% dmg buff really is all you need. 🙂 I find it interesting that I dropped Tactics going from Arg 1.0 -> Arg 2.0, but Arg 3.0 is using a lot more procs instead of purple sets, EVERYTHING Mind/Kin does has a to hit check, and it SUCKS so badly when you miss, that I've gone back to Tactics (Fully slotted with Gaussian for the + Ranged Def and occasional 10 sec Build Up). More to come, and I'll start posting builds...

Very. It's quite good at clumping them up, and if you run Hurricane at the same time you can sweep outliers towards the hovering ball-of-doom if needed. Most of the time you won't need to if you lean on Confuse + Mass Confuse. Confused mobs have a tendency to run over to hit their spawn mates, and as soon as they get anywhere near the anchor they get sucked right in. I can't stress enough that you need to use a boss (or whatever the most durable mob in the spawn is) as the anchor. If the anchor drops, you won't be able to finish the AOE attack chain off with Levitate, and that's very VERY sad when it happens. Levitate hits like a Mack Truck with a 5 pack of Apocalypse in it. 🙂

Playing around in Mids, I'm thinking of dropping Mass Hyp, Snow Storm, and Combat jumping to pick up the Fighting pool and get to Weave. That gives me another 4.5(ish ~7 for Weave - 2.5ish lost with CJ) def to all, which would put the critical Ranged Def at about 44.4 % (anyone closing to Melee is going to get whacked with a massive -50 tohit debuff from Hurricane with Intuition Radial Paragon and a 4 pack of Dark Watcher). I would lose some of the utility of having SS and Mass Hyp, but swapping Combat jumping for Weave should make more of a difference.

I’ve been going back and dusting off some of my favorite builds, and outfitting them with their own set of IO sets. I have a habit of being impatient and stealing a bunch of purple sets from my more recent builds as soon as I hit 50, and I have a chronic case of altitis. I started with Dionysus (Plant/Dark/Soul) my most powerful Controller in terms of durability. Had to pull up my own chronology on that one to remind myself of how it plays best. Still an amazing build. Dio is NOT the fastest clearing except when Creepers is up, and I can get a good hit off Soul Drain before I drop Creepers. Then they tear through everything for a bit. Other than that though single hard targets can take a bit. Psinado (Mind/Storm/Ice) is faster clearing in most cases, and has much better single target damage for taking down the 2-3 bosses that are all that’s left standing after the AOE fest opening attack chain. A lot more fragile than Dio though. A more tactical build, as there are no pets to screw things up, and with Steamy Mist and a stealth IO in Fly I can toggle on invisibility for a couple minutes to scope out the bosses and prep them each with Confuse before Mass Confusing the whole spawn. I pulled this writeup back up to remind myself of details. I haven’t been using Mass Hyp + SS , and it’s not needed most of the time, though it does help quite a bit in mitigation when things go sideways. Massive amount of fun to play. The new TK with the long chain of AOE + Tornado + Lightning Storm is so much fun. I think I may be playing Psinado for awhile while I ponder a final build. I realized I never really FINALIZED the incarnate build, I jumped into Arsenal and Marine Affinity builds instead. 😛

Plant/Storm is an awesome choice, one of my favorite builds and much fun to play. Arsenal/Storm is also a great choice. My current most-fun-to-play is Psinado, the Mind/Storm I built to try out the new Telekinesis mechanics. The changes in TK have fundamentally changed the set in ways that I think are best utilized by /Storm as Hjarki mentioned above. Both Tornado and Lightning Storm have small AOE attacks that benefit TREMENDOUSLY from having the whole spawn continuously clumped tightly together. It takes some care and practice to get the most benefit out of it, but it's totally worth it. 🙂 Mind/Storm was always decent, and the damage from /Storm helped Mind/ in the late game, while the single target control of Mind/ is second to none. Mind has a massive bag of tricks to pull from, and probably the best single target attack chain in the Controller Primaries. Also the king of zero aggo control, Mind is great fun to solo as long as you can add in good AOE damage. Gale with KB -> KD (Sudden Acceleration or Overwhelming Force) and Force Feedback + Rech is an decent soft control and pretty reliably gives you 5 seconds of +100% recharge if you use it on large spawn. In the Early to mid game I also slot 3 Dmg Procs which don't go off a lot on small spawns, but do quite a bit on large spawns given the tiny amount of end it costs, how fast it recharges and how effective it is at boosting your recharge. Happy to discuss more, but have to go do some things offline. I'm uploading my low cost build/leveling build for Psinado. Entirely capable of soloing +4/x8 spawns and leveled up largely on large spawns. Psinado 50 low cost Controller (Mind Control - Storm Summoning).mbd

On the way up, Gale with +Acc, KB -> KD, FF +rech, and 3 Dmg procs is surprisingly effective, esp till you get enough effective AOE attacks to fill a chain. In the final build I tend to remove the Dmg procs as I need the slots elsewhere, and I have more than sufficient global +Acc to render slotting for it redundant, so it's 2 slotted: KB -> KD + FF +Rech and spam it as roleki mentioned. Knocking the entire spawn on their butt is quite useful as a quick fire mitigation and triggering the +100 Recharge from FF makes quite a noticeable difference. In any case, it's far from the throwaway power than many assume it is. 🙂

Argentae: Mind/Kin was my original main on Live. I also like proving that under appreciated powers can sometimes be dang impressive. The original Argentae (Arg) is a build I played for many years. Most complex click intensive build, almost everything is fast fast fast... But when you're in the zone it's a rush of speed and capability. Mind/Kin may be able to do some BLEEP with TK and FS. I'll have to respec Arg and play with it at some point. The dynamic is different than with /Storm, but I think the synergy may be there, and Repel might even be useful for bouncing mobs into the TK hover ball of doom. Mind/TA is a tactical powerhouse. Enough AOE proc damage to do well, and a bag of tricks like nobody's business. Nothing gets to do much of anything (if you know how to play Mind and TA and ARE playing well!) that you don't want. Can handle at least three spawns, two of them fighting and one sleeping, and have a spare AOE hold to pull out if things go sour. And ST control to beat anyone. And some of the best debuffs to soften the spawn first chosen for "arresting". Great ST damage too. But then TK (a power I spent a lot of time investigating with my wife during her long ago attempt to play MMO's 🙂 ) got changed. I withheld judgement on the new version on beta, I could see the potential. The end cost in the beta was still the absurdly high cost of the original power, which I'm hugely glad they did change. They did something remarkable in the new TK. I think they meaningfully DID address some of the problems that Mind legitimately had in terms of leveraging containment. They also gave Mind/ one of the best. Dang. Positional control tools in the game. It may not be apparent to a lot of players, but the new TK is surprisingly powerful, not just for what it does itself, but for what it does for other powers. The devs introduced something new. A power that easily, quickly concentrates mobs VERY tightly together (like having a tank for clumping up mobs to make AOE powers work better), and keeps doing it for long enough to run a LONG AOE attack chain, AND adds a kick ass AOE attack at the end of the chain combined with knocking all mobs standing on their ass. There are powers in the game that do excellent AOE dmg in small areas of effect. Two of the best are Tornado and Lightning Storm. Tornado also excels at KB-KD keeping mobs bouncing. As does Gale. The New TK was BORN to make Tornado's 7' and Lightning Storm's 5' hit 5 targets just about every time when in Freezing Rain. I've played with moving Tornado and LS around in the chain to see how much effect they are having over time and they make a MAJOR difference if you bring them in early. Terrify has a -Res proc in it, and it's fast, so I might move it up front. It also does a boatload of damage. I have a slot in terrify waiting for the Immob proc when I remember to go buy it, which would be best at the end right before Levitate ends the TK. I'm still playing around with it, but my current attack chain is: Toggles: Steamy Mist, Combat Jumping, Hover, Evasive Maneuvers, Hurricane, if facing S/L attacks I'll also run Ice Armor. If I'm not facing much that's immune to sleep then Mass Hyp -> Snow Storm (SS). Can use this to trigger a delayed corner pull if I need to split spawns apart. Choose your anchor carefully (keep closer to you than the effect of SS, the idea is to ONLY apply SS to mobs that are slept) and you will trigger a slow speed run to your corner that piles them and makes many fall. Lead off with a strong AOE control and you are fine. Gale works great to buy you a breathing space for control if needed. In late game levels I don't need to do a corner pull as frequently. So... I may throw SS in early on to deprive the bosses that might be standing at the end of their biggest attacks, and reduce spread after TK drops. Domination (Dom) is 6 slotted with 5 dmg procs (including Unbreakable Restraint) and a Hold/End Ghost widow IO. Confuse is 6 slotted with Coercive Persuasion If Mass Confuse (6-pack of WotC) is up, which it generally is, I first use single target Confuse on each boss in the spawn. Then target a mob near the geo center of the spawn and hit MC and watch the puppets JUMP into action when you hit most of them with a hefty psionic proc and they beat the ever living snot out of each other. And occasionally buff or heal you. Shift target to a Boss, and hit TK. Timer starts ticking... Use Hurricane to shove mobs NOT sucked into TK INTO TK while working through the main AOE attack chain. Freezing Rain (FR) a bit past the spawn. You are likely to move them back slightly when you do a few things, so best to have more of FR behind the spawn so you shove them back into it. Tornado in center of spawn. Tornado will likely attack at least the boss you targeted. LS over your head. I love LS. One of the best combat pets in the game when you use it right. Great help in SS Corner pulls into FR patch with LS standing by to knock mobs down. Ice Storm (IS) (6 pack of Artillery for the Ranged Def and Acc boost, should probably change) on center of spawn, it will get almost all. Don't let FR lapse while Ice Storm is running if you can avoid it. Frost Breath. Does about 217 * 2 (containment) dmg * 1.5 (-Res debuff from FR with Achilles -Res ) with 5 pack of Ragnarok, plus the -Res Debuff of FR with the Achilles Heel added most of the time. Terrify does about 277 plus containment dmg (total something like 315) * 1.5 (FR -Res) with 4 dmg procs and one -Res slotted, I think I have an endred focused IO slotted that pairs with one of the dmg procs as a place holder for the Sup Froz Blast immob proc. Because Procs don't benefit from Containment Levitate. Watch it hit everything like a Mack truck for about 550 smashing dmg with a little Negative dmg from the Apoc proc (5 pack of Apoc + FF +rech) * 1.5 (FR) = ~837 in an AOE. It's glorious. Most everything is dead except the bosses. They may or may not be as depending on luck, type of Boss etc. They are probably still beating on each other. Keep one confused, and One held via Conf - Dom - Lev - Dom -Lev - Conf while throwing in another Tornado and LS as much as possible and keeping FR under their feet. If I've got enough storms going, and it's obvious the boss(s) are done for, I'll turtle up in Hibernate to refill everything. Hurricane will generally defend me for a sec when I burst out of the ice, and Gale will knockdown whatever's in front of me. IF MC isn't recharged: Total Domination (TD) (5 pack of Unbreakable Restraint, dmg proc is in Dom for ST use) I could Dom one boss (2 holds, so he's out) and work on Confusing the other while keeping everything bouncing. This works pretty well if I have a bind for Boss targeting, and spamming Gale helps me recover a bit and keep everything recharging at warp speed (about +270% global recharge as Gale with a large spawn almost ALWAYS hits the FF +rech proc and at those speeds Gale is up fast enough to chain kd most of the time). But I've also found that the above attack chain tends keep them off me till the end. LS tossing in KB causing 5' AOE lightning strikes every 5 sec or so helps keep things chaotic for the bosses. At the end of either chain, almost everything is dead except the Bosses, and... Well... Mind/Storm with all storms out and often stacked, and properly utilizing Conf - Dom -Lev with occasional AOEs can put out a LOT of dmg quick. The new TK: Huge win in my books. Especially when paired with /Storm which benefits so much from the ability to concentrate entire spawns into an ever tightening kill zone. Make sure to target a boss or durable anchor do NOT target a minion. Bosses by pref. Practice how long you can run the chain, optimize the chain to get the best advantage while giving yourself a smidge of cushion in case something goes weird. Hurricane and LS will help guard your back most of the time. Levitate as an AOE ROCKS. FF +rech seems to proc pretty well, but nothing else seems to proc enough to be worth it even with zero +rech slotted. Tried Build Up proc, doesn't proc nearly as well as FF =rech. I thought it would pop most of the time with a large spawn as I only need one hit like with FF +rech. Nope. Occasionally goes off, but not reliably enough to plan on. Slot it for set bonuses and raw dmg. Flying mobs with SS on them and a lot of KD are generally ok. War Wolves are a pain. Keep War Wolf Bosses confused as a high priority. Circle of Thorns are a sweetspot. I eat Thornhead maps on +4X8 as a snack. I need to try Carnies, Arachnos, and Rularuu for comparison with other builds. Overall impression: Prep with Confuse - MC and the plan is: Attack. in the top 1-3 Controller builds I've tried in terms of +4X8 spawn dropping speed. The definition of glass cannon with Active Defenses. Incarnate choices: Went with Intuition Radial Paragon, Reactive Total Radial Conversion (so far), and Clarion Radial Epiphany. Will probably go with Assault for Hybrid slot as more damage is never bad. Control might be helpful as it would immobilize well and then just stack stun and immob (everything is already afraid of Terrify and Tornado). Psinado Incarnate Controller (Mind Control - Storm Summoning).mbd