Argentae

Ok. Three purple sets: Coercive Persuasion, WotC, and Ragnarök and I'm capable of taking out 8X +3. Slow, but it works. I think I need the +Res in Oil Slick. It will get faster from here. No incarnate and three purple sets, none new, just replacements for existing IO sets like Posi Blast and Malaise's Illusions. And I can deal with X8 +3. Once I unlock Alpha slot it will get better. Once I finish purple sets\ it will get better. Replacing SO's with A Purple set (Fortunata's Hyp) will have a bigger difference. Bit of a slog in the late 30's and 40s, but it has promise.

I just got Tactical Psychic (TS) to 50 last night. Unlocked PPP so I could try out Waterspout, Coralax, and Bile Spray. Not a bad combo, Bile Spray holds the 3 Ranged AOE dmg procs and the -Res. Range is decent, I think its 60' (same as Terrify which is convenient) but only 30 degrees so it procs pretty well comparatively. Coralax actually survives pretty well because EVERYTHING is trying to kill me. And largely missing, and not doing catastrophic damage when they hit. PG Arrow is like having 40% Resist to everything. You really have to use the full Flash Arrow - Glue Arrow - PG Arrow combo together, it's good layered mitigation. My standard opening is a corner pull into Glue / Disruption / Oil Slick, using PGA as the triggering attack. Once they are largly clumped up and bouncing, step out, light the slick and hit Mass Confusion - Confuse on one boss, Dom - Ice Arrow on another and rotate confuse with the third. I generally don't have to worry too much about the Lts and minions, I'm generally playing my old use one puppet to beat on the one you are holding tactics and just focusing on bosses. I need a bind to cycle through JUST bosses. I think I'm getting a keypad (like my old Nostromo) for Christmas. I'm totally remembering why Mind/Kin was the original driver for the keypad controller in the first place! I'm still running Posi Blast in Terrify, but have Acid Arrow procced as you had in your build. I'll probably switch to the procs when I get the +Acc from the purple sets in, but I donb't think the damage is a LOT more with the procs because the Terrify cone is HUGE which drops the proc rate I was running CoT office building missions at X8 +2 and it's doable before any purple sets or incarnate. I'm currently playing with a Ranged Def focus with Posi blast 5 packs in Terrify, Oil Slick, and Water Spout (also has the FF +Rech) I definitely liked the Spirit Ward/Mystic Flight/RoP combo on the way up, very useful and I really didn't realize how much I would miss having a +Res power in the Primary or Secondary. I guess I've been playing too much /Dark and /Storm recently, I got spoiled. 😛 Given the Rang def focus I've put the WotC proc with the other 5 WotC so I have the full 6 set in MC (+5 Ranged Def). I agree with your take on CP and contagious confusion proc in Confuse btw. I'm pulling sets together as soon as I finish this post so I'll see how it works out. I did play a bit with TK again on the way up, and totally remembered why I liked it. It's a great positioning power combined with a hold so it's perfect for pushing bosses away that are trying to get into your personal space (aka melee range). Normally I'd go Hover - Fly - Evasive Maneuvers to be able to use it in 3 dimensions. It's a lot of fun to pin mobs against a wall by pushing them diagonally from above. I dropped it in my late 30s respec when I swapped out Sorcery for the Fighting pool, but I'm pondering what I could drop to pick it back up. This build is about having soooo many types of control, NOT having a positioning control that I have access to... It just feels wrong. It would be perfect to shove those Death Mages back into the Oilslick/Glue patch. I could swap out Hibernate for TK, would lose Preventative Medicine via free slot. This is SUCH a tight build! I'm pretty sure I'm going to play with some different Epic/PPP options before settling on one. Tweaks from your build that I'm considering: Since I want the + Ranged Def from WotC in MC, I replaced the WotC proc in Ice Arrow with Sup Entomb + Rech and +Absorb. The + Rech is only 23% so I don't think it will kill the proc rates toooooo much, and the additional Absorb should help with the lack of self heal. Speaking of Heal, I have the Sandman and Entropic Heal in Mesmerize with the Glad Jav Dmg proc. Will see how it goes. Swapped out Sorcery Pool for Fighting pool as mentioned. Dark Watcher in Flash, still 4 pack, but for the +5 Rech. Actually, I'll just attach the current prospective Leviathan build: Tactical Psychic Prospective leviathan (Mind Control - Trick Arrow).mbd

Tactical Psychic at lvl 25 below. Note, this is NOT a recommended build. I'm making choices based on things I want to try out on the way up. For purposes of documenting the chronology this is her build at 25. For those new to TA on Controllers, pay particular note in the power details for Ice Arrow and Entangling Arrow of the durations of the (many) debuff effects. Spreading Ice Arrow around for the 1 minute duration debuff effects is worth being aware of. Also be aware that out of the box, neither of those arrows will wake a sleeper.

Agreed. I only have one proc in it, but the slow patch is surprisingly useful. I was fighting Freakshow tonight at the limits of what I could handle with a single SO of accuracy. I think it was +3 and +4, so controls other than Mesmerize and Confuse didn’t last long at all. Glue gave me enough time to deal with the mobs trying to get to melee range. The time the mobs spend running to get to melee range almost becomes an additional control. It will make focusing on Range Def very effective. Only one cone, and it’s got such a huge arc lining it up isn’t really a thing, so I don’t have to be as mobile as I’m used to. I can spend more time controlling everything. One of the things I love about Mind/. The Perf Enh +end proc in disruption arrow is like a single Enh that pretty much cuts the end cost in half, when it procs, which seems often. Very much enjoying the single target juggling capability. Recalled an old tactic of confusing a mob, then sleeping it to get a zero aggro sleep. I’ve got a 5 pack of Malaise in Confuse and the other confuse Dmg proc. Mes has Sandman heal, and the one ranged Dmg proc (plus an Acc SO and Dmg SO). So even my setup steps does some damage. Still need to slot out Ice Arrow, I think is has two procs in it too. Sandman seems to be working well, I think I may try putting it in Mass Hyp and Poison Gas too, having three sleeps is wild. It’s like a hidden self heal capability. Mesmerize is acting weird, it shows in the combat log as autohit? I did confirm that proc dmg does come before the sleep hits. i have a dmg proc and the Force feedback +reach in Lev (plus a Acc SO and Dmg SO) Dom is my heavy hitter, six slotted with 4 dmg procs, Acc SO and a Hold SO I think. Might be a dmg SO instead of Hold. I’ll update and post a current build probably tomorrow, It’s a weird leveling build atm as I have been focused so heavily on the single target arsenal. 🙂

Got my Tactical Witch up to 21 last night. Raise a glass in toast! she's allowed to have champaign now! I had an absolute romp in Atlas on at about level 5-8 or so. I made 3 levels just working through a map full of +2 and +3 Hellions in Atlas. Did a bunch of street sweeping in Steel looking for bosses, with occasional Warriors missions at about the same settings. Ending my time in Steel doing Graham Easton's Tsoo arc. I like the final mission as a bellwether and testing point. Having a ready supply of 4 bosses in a row makes it a great mission to test out different techniques. Don't quite have enough of the AoE stable that Mind/TA gets, but I'm about to get Terrify, and I have Glue Arrow and Acid Arrow, so I'm getting close. Might have to wait till 27 for the lvl 30+ sets to open up. As expected, it's a hell-on-wheels combo for single target controls. On spawns that I have any doubt on, I drop a Glue A patch that covers the spawn with some leftover on my side to give me more time to react to a mob that breaks out of my single target control rotation. Flash A is the lead-in then Mass Hyp and Glue A and pre-aggro softening prep with Confuse and Mes. Acid A gets used once things are rolling if I'm not relying on Mes to lock down key mobs. Basic attack chain is the normal Mez-Dom-Lev with Ice A and Entangle A used on the problem mobs.

I started down the path with Tactical Psychic, so I’m sure my thoughts will evolve. I'm doing much better at balancing the sets on the way up on this one. Have pretty much all the Arrows up to Acid Arrow and everything except TK and TD on the mind side. I think I’m going to plan on a respec when I have enough of the AoE powers available to shift from +2/3 X 2/3 spawns to larger numbers. Now that I have Ice Arrow, Glue Arrow, and Acid Arrow I’ve been playing with integrating them. I’m about to pick up Terrify so I’ll have a working AOE chain as I have enough slots to go around. I’ll probably try out some different options, so may have different thoughts than the above. It’s absolutely a small spawn hard target monster. I love finding a pair of +1/+2 bosses out street sweeping. Or a Boss with a Lt. that’s the sweet spot. 🙂

I've been toying with running a /TA controller for a bit. I dipped my toes into the water with Blackfire Archer (Fire/TA), see appropriately named chronology. Got to about 32 in Blackfire Archer and then I spent some time really looking at the build https://forums.homecomingservers.com/profile/9634-onlyasandwich/ posted in My original main on live was Mind/Kin, and I've really missed playing the set. The recreated Arg is still fantastic and incredible fast paced to play, but underwhelming in AOE damage even with Ice Storm added in. I've always loved the incredible tactical capabilities though. I have a running joke about the most powerful character in any novel would be a tactical psychiatrist. Seriously, most plots complications would just go *poof*. So my just-in-time-for-Christmas new alt is: Tactical Psychic Complete with Christmas tweaked witch outfit her backstory is: Sierra's fellow students at the Midnighter's Academy of the Arcane laughed at her when she took up archery. "You're a Mind Magic caster with a minor in potions!, Archery... What are you thinking?!" Well, none of them had her creativity and sheer vision. Sierra had stumbled upon a way to make vials of psionic magic potions reliably aerosolize to cover large areas when a vial was dropped and broken. All she needed was a delivery method. Hence: Archery. It was perfect. Once she worked out a cantrip to manifest and dismiss a psionic bow with just a thought, she was ready! Battlecry: Aerosolized psionic potions FTW! First Powers: Mesmerize Entangling Arrow Dominate Levitate Confuse Mass Hypnosis How does it play? NICE. The sets definitely play nicely together so far, and I expect the synergy to get better and better as TA provides a lot of the AOE dmg that Mind lacks. And EMP Arrow will sit perfectly in rotation with TD and Mass Confusion as damage elimination AOE controls. Mind is always a machine gun at low levels, but Entangling arrow directly plugs a hole in Mind's single target attack chain, while providing a second durable containment setter and -damres debuff that has the same range and inherent high accuracy as Dom. It fits in with Mind's single target chain perfectly. I started with 2 dmg SO in each of Mes and Dom and an immob SO in Entangling Arrow, Acc in Levitate then two dmg. additional acc slot in Entangle and an acc in Mesmerize. Confuse doesn't need a slot in the beginning. Just an acc. Just picked up Mass Hyp which is basically god mode soloing as you start combat with an easy pause button that keeps all the mobs snoozing while you set up your single target controls. Rotate through Mesmerize while you keep one mob beating on your target (confused), and you cycle your attack chain on the rest, repeat till all are rag dolled on the floor. Swap out the confused tool...err...pet half way through and bounce the new tool off the ceiling to wake them up so they can help you cardiac-arrest the previous pet. Ice Arrow is going to fit in beautifully with the rest giving you 6 single target controls. Then Mass Hyp for the first of your AOE. These two set mesh like finely tooled gears in a watch movement. It's going to be a fun ride... 🙂 BTW, use Entangling Arrow on a mob then levitate them. It looks like they get rubber banded back into the ground. Good visual fun!

That's a *really* good build. It's actually super useful for me personally, as I haven't built out an IO set build for /TA yet. One of the gems I saw in the set is the plethora of AOE powers, I hadn't really started looking at what could be done with proc slotting yet, and the result is quite impressive. 🙂 As mentioned elsewhere, the addition of EMP Arrow as a third long recharge AOE control with TD and MC is a lovely addition, and the AOE damage from all the procs in TA Arrows should go a long way towards addressing the lack of AOE (obviously leaving out Terrify) in Mind/. :: sigh :: 😛 Now I simply *have* to put Blackfire Archer on pause and work on a Mind/Trick Arrow. I've been missing playing Mind/... I recreated the original Argentae (Mind/Kin) on Torchbearer , but spent a lot of time on various Fire/ and Plant/ combos since. I think all my commentary is more along the lines of playstyle. TK: For context, I was a huge fan of TK back in the pre-ED times before it got shafted. It was one of the few powers that was limited by PLAYER skill as opposed to slotting. You could do some amazing things in terms of hall sweeping and clumping up spawns, but it took practice. When they dropped it to target cap of 5 WITHOUT changing the massive end consumption it really gutted the usefulness of the power. It's still handy for quickly stacking mag on something like a Paragon Protector to keep them from going MoG on you, or helping control two bosses more effectively, but it's such a pale echo of it's former self that I find it almost painful to use now. Really long lasting PTND (Post Traumatic Nerf Disorder) for me. That said, given the addition of Ice Arrow to your single target control stable (Mind's forte) I would personally prefer to have Mesmerize instead of TK. Single target sleep is amazingly useful for putting outlying problem mobs on hold, and given it's inherent accuracy and massive duration, with all the +Acc slotting I think you could probably use it as a Sandman heal proc mule with just the single slot you have now in TK. Obviously I'd play with it on the way up and see if your playstyle really benefits from TK enough to make it worthwhile, but even with Panacea, Miracle and two Perf Shifters (love the Perf Shift proc in disruption Arrow btw) I think Mesmerize will be a better power to have though still situational. On the positive side, TK used in bursts is somewhat useful as a positioning power, which certainly does have some use. You went Musculature, which makes a lot of sense. Did you specifically weigh Intuition Radial Paragon against it? It has the +Dmg, ToHit, and adds Hold, Range and Slow as well which are all useful for Mind/TA. You have so many hold powers and with Dom and Ice Arrow both fully slotted for procs (which I 100% agree with) that +Hold in Intuition Radial Paragon would be quite helpful. The +Range would have good benefits for TA in terms of your setup arrow(s) if nothing else. You would lose the +Endmod (limited effect given only Stamina would be affected), and Immob (only Entangling Arrow as the immob from the Terrify Proc wouldn't benefit). What are you thinking for Interface and Destiny? I'd be tempted to go with Diamagnetic or Cognitive for interface and probably Clarion for Destiny. <Edit to add> To clarify: You have a single Call of the Sandman slotted in PGA, but it's NOT the heal proc. Typo or choice? I might try and free up a slot to add to Mass Hyp and slot a Sandman heal proc in Mass Hyp, Poison Gas Arrow, AND Mesmerize. All three of them would have a decent chance to proc, and that could go some distance towards providing the self heal that Mind/TA is missing. </Edit to add>

I did some more specific testing this morning, and it appears that it works up to the purple patch kicking in, so probably not as useful in late game content when pretty much everything is purple.

Got her up to lvl 32 last night. For context, since the late teens I have been running at +1 X8, as I ALWAYS focus on AOE whenever a powerset supports it. The aggro gabbing tanklike behavior mentioned above isn't sustainable, it was really more an artifact of that particular level, and fighting mostly warriors, which I more than half suspected was the case. So now that I've played with more of the full TA powerset (everything but EMP at this point, which I will respec into when I do my normal early/mid 40's respec. I wait till the 40s as I really need more slots before I put that build together) I have a somewhat better appreciation of the set, though I still don't know it well enough to really make decisions. Part of that is because I focused on leveling up the character quickly, as it was obvious that you have to get to the higher levels to really get a feel for the set. So despite my initial intention of picking up all the TA arrows as they became available, I ended up taking every /Fire power as THEY became available, and working in the fighting pool to provide the +def to work with the -ToHit of Flash Arrow and Smoke. 1. TA as a set is definitely more complex than most of the secondaries. I definitely need to do some focused testing which I haven't spent the time on yet as I've been focused on just leveling it up. Most sets have a couple main things they focus on, and the synergies are generally pretty easy to see as what they do is fairly straightforward. TA is probably the most debuff focused set that I've played. /Dark is debuff heavy, but it also has a mixture of buffing and healing that complement the debuffs well. /Storm is also a good debuff set, but it's got several damage heavy powers and does have an (admittedly somewhat anemic) ally heal. TA really needs some time to grow, not just for the slotting and powers, but for players not used to it, it takes time and a bit of focus to work through the learning curve. I'm not done on that part yet. 2. Like /Dark TA can do a reasonable corner pull into a patch, but it's not as effective at it as Plant/Dark or Fire/Dark as the lack of Fluffy's healing reduces the durability of the Imps substantially. I have a feeling it will still work ok once the build is fully mature, but it's a bit more complex. I also always run HotFeet and Weave as toggles and start with Flash/Smoke and then a debuff arrow (which is a super vague term as they are ALL debuff arrows) to pull the spawn into a Bonfire. I had skipped Glue Arrow and was using Acid Arrow as the pulling power originally. I don't recommend that combo. Instead, I now use Glue Arrow, Disruption Arrow with Bonfire a bit ahead of the center of the Disruption/Glue combo. I use Poison Gas (with a +range slotted) arrow for the pull to provide the -dmg mitigation so that the hits that DO come through are a lot less impactful. Once the spawn has clumped up and is bouncing well, I'll step out and use Flashfire, Oil Slick and then Fire Cages and start locking down any bosses with Char and Ice Arrow. 3. For spawns that are tighter clustered together to start with, standard Fire/ opening seems to work better; Flash Arrow + Smoke -> Flashfire + Fire Cages -> run in and drop debuff patches in the middle of the spawn and start locking down bosses etc. 4. The lack of any healing +the fragility and crazy behavior of the imps are, as expected, one of the problems with this combo. I expect Plant/TA is much more effective for my general playstyle. 5. This combo absolutely cries out for global +recharge. Bonfire and Oil Slick Arrow are the limiting factors, if you had them up often enough this build would be enormously more effective. As I haven't started collecting sets yet, it's hard to judge, but I'd lay some heavy odds that that will be one of the watershed changes. Some Range/Melee +Def will also be game changing. I swing back and forth about how effective it will be when fully mature, but my gut reaction is it will not eclipse Plant/Dark and likely not Fire/Dark. It's obvious that it's a late blooming combo though, so I'm reserving judgement till I get it slotted out with IO sets. At this point's hard to see it blowing through +4 X8 the way Plant/Dark does. I am very much enjoying the TA bag of tricks though, and the fast animations and complete focus on debuffing should play very well on teams, though like most debuffing it's likely to not be recognized by players that don't play debuff sets. 😛

Sounds like a great project. My original main was Mind/Kin and I had a lowby Mind/TA that I never finished leveling on live. Was a control monster from the start. Needed more AOE damage, but I never got him to Oil Slick levels. didn’t get a chance to look at the builds yet as I’m on my phone, but will do so!

Note: Switched this over to a chronology thread, as it has the beginnings of Blackfire Arrow already. Soloed her up to 24 tonight. Definitely starting to work. I generally shift to larger spawns fairly early with Fire Controllers given their ability to put out at least some AOE early on with Hot Feet and Fire Cages. On this character I had switched down to 2-3 team equivalent as I crossed the old SO threshold and the mobs got harder. Tonight I got Bonfire back (currently 3 slotted with KB->KD, FF +Rech, and PosiBlast Dmg proc), and picked up Disruption Arrow and Acid Arrow. It’s getting good. At 24 I’m back to being able to handle a full X8 spawn at even con/+1 WITH Bosses included. it plays very different from Fire/Storm or Fire/Dark. Both of those lend themselves to a corner pull into a slow patch to clump up the spawn, but Fire/TA plays almost more like a somewhat fragile tank. I run HotFeet (6 slotted with 3 dmg and 3 endred) and Weave toggles. I may or may not pop a luck then Flash+Smoke on a centrally located mob. Then I run in grabbing aggro as I go so they run into the Bonfire I drop in the center. Once I get them clumped up pretty well, I pop Fire Cages, Acid Arrow, Flashfire, Disruption Arrow, and start holding the Bosses with Char & Ice Arrow as feasible focusing my single target dmg chain on one Boss till he drops. The combo of the heavy -ToHit and the Knockdown from Bonfire is really decently effective. The -ToHit from Flash and Smoke is better mitigation in most cases than the -ToHit from Darkest Night in /Dark. It’s durable and less likely to get screwed up if the anchor gets loose, or a boss runs out of the range of the anchor. Definitely renew both at least once when they recharge to get mobs that might have been out of the AOE at the start. I have to occasionally refresh Flash/Smoke and pop useful insps when I remember, generally don’t need them, though the lack of a self heal is troublesome. I have the panacea unique, which helps. I’ll definitely be adding the Numina and Miracle uniques. Still have to add Poison Gas Arrow, and I think I’ll try slotting the Sandman heal enh as recommended on one of the guides. Also need to pick up Entangle Arrow, less of a priority in the early levels, but the extra -Res will be helpful in taking down bosses. Oil Slick Arrow will fit into the existing chain perfectly, more knockdown and more damage? Yes please. Obviously lighting the slick will NOT be an issue. 🙂 I meant to check if Disruption Arrow stacks or not. I did dig through the combat log and didn’t see any evidence of the -ToHit being boosted by Acid Arrow on a Tsoo Boss I was fighting. I’ll take a look at both tomorrow, the Tsoo may have been an anomaly.

Yes, if you are using any form of stealth with either Flash Arrow or Smoke you get the equivalent of full invisibility. That makes complete sense. I’m not sold on the need for both, but Smoke with a single IO (or very green SO) ToHit debuff slotted gives about another -7 to every single mob you just effected by Flash Arrow (given how perfectly they mirror each other) which is not negligible. -23 + 11 Def (Weave + the two +3 Def in uniques) is not at all as effective at mitigating damage as -30 + 11 Def. Granted, once set bonuses come into play the calculus changes, but this is on the way up starting at lvl 18 when I picked up Weave. Acid Arrow also probably shifts it a lot, but as mentioned it triggers Aggro and IIRC it also lacks anything close to the huge radius of Flash Arrow/Smoke. Having both in effect also has the effect of team full invisibility tied to the mobs not the team/pets. Not sure it’s super useful. But it’s INTERESTING. :-)

I did some testing using Flash Arrow and Smoke. Either makes it so you can get close, but if you walk up to an even con spawn they WILL see and attack you. If you stack both Flash and Smoke, then a +1 boss containing hazard spawn (Perez in this case) is completely unable to see you unless you actually attack them. At this point (soloed to 12) I have pretty much everything from the Fire/ side and just Flash Arrow and Ice Arrow from the /TA side. Entangling Arrow I definitely need to pick up, but not sure I will have a use for Glue Arrow. Been awhile since I played something without either Steamy Mist or Shadowfall, so I hadn't thought about not having a +Res power to slot the +Def unique enh into, so it feels like I'll have to go with the fighting pool for Tough. Weave is always good with a build that has high -ToHit. My math shows that if I slot Flash and Smoke for -ToHit I should be able to get them to about 30ish, and I saw a /TA guide that one of the Arrows has a debuff that decreases resistance to -ToHit which should get the total up to close to -40, which is pretty decent. Add the fish flopping of Bonfire (KB->KD slotted) and Oil Slick and it should be decent mitigation added to the standard FF + Fire Cages. Not sure it will be as tough/effective as Lord of the Ravens (LotR) is with Fire/Dark, and won't have the sheer environmental FX and barely controlled chaos of Lavan FireStorm, but It looks interesting enough as a pairing with TA so I can get a feel for how TA plays now. Ill/Dark I think I'll still want to try too, but Blackfire Archer has I think made the cut so far. I might start a Chronology for her...

I've been toying with running a /TA controller for a bit. A lot of good recommendations for Plant/TA in another thread, but I've played a LOT of Plant/ between Veridicane (Plant/Storm) and Dionysus (Plant/Dark). I'm also tempted by Ill/Dark because I think it'd be thematically very strong together, and it's been... a looooooooong time since I played an Illusion controller. So I'm kind of wobbling back and forth between a Fire/TA and an Ill/Dark. Fire/TA would get to stack Flash Arrow with Smoke (pretty much the same exact power, just Flash Arrow does a lot more -ToHit at -15 vs Smoke's -5), fully slotted that would be about -30 Tohit in zero aggro -percep targetted AOE with the same 80' range and 35' radius according to Mids. Not sure what the effect of having stacked -90% perception would be? Might be interesting to find out. Ill/Dark Would be a spooktacular build with a lot of visual interest and decent synergy. I'm trying the Fire/TA at the moment. And while it's not amazing out of the gate, I think it's getting better. Fire is strong by itself, and although I have no self heal ability, the -ToHit is quite strong, and I DID test the -perception... It's effectively total invisibility. Which is kind of cool. 🙂

Nightshade is a great name. 🙂 Combat Jumping is very often a part of my Defense / LotG solution, but I’ve found myself leaning more and more to Hover/Fly/Evasive Maneuvers. I tend to take Hover early for the same basic reasons https://forums.homecomingservers.com/profile/71263-bionic_flea/ mentioned. Hover + Evasive is two Def powers and gives amazing positioning control for lining up cones, and it’s a lot faster than might be expected. I think it’s like 43 mph at 50 with just the single slot in Swift slotted for fly. The defense in Evasive is not particularly, but the heavy immob protection and raw 3d movement capability is very useful. I absolutely love the negligible end cost of CJ though, and it is a GREAT early build mobility and Def power as mentioned.

On the inspirations, have you tried using the P2w vendor option to refuse some of the types ? I refuse Dam Res drops, Rez drops and sometimes others depending on the build I’m playing. Once I get to the point that I’m running against X8 spawns I generally refuse small drops too which cuts down the types of drops to the point that three of a kind is much more likely. If you keep a couple three packs around you can create anything needed and still have room for a large stack of Med Defense and Emerge insp. I go with Evasive maneuvers and high Ranged Def, if you get it into the high 30 low 40 range you get mezzed a LOT less often, to the point that Clarion is all I ever need. Before incarnate I carry some break free as mentioned. I often do the Sorcery pool and pick up Spirit Ward to use on Primaries that have a single strong pet instead of Imps or Gemlins. Also great at keeping Fluffy (Dark Servant) alive or a mission temp. Pet that likes to get killed. It’s surprisingly effective if you slot it with a single heal IO and go with Vigor in the Alpha. Arcane Bolt is actually pretty decent at taking procs including a force feedback + Rech and does good damage when you have the Arcane boost (forget the name atm) triggered so you get 3x the damage instead of the normal 2x from containment. Rune of Protection reduces your break free usage to almost nothing, and gives a nice Damage res boost too. Couldn’t quite work it into Dionysus’ build, but I tried. 🙂 just too tight with only one skipped power from Primary, one from secondary and 4 out of 5 of Soul Mastery.

Exactly. Absolute blast to play with KB -> KD in the right powers. IIRC I did some slotting specifically to keep the costs on Tornado and LS down to reasonable levels. My Plant/Storm chronology has some excellent Endurance management on the /Storm side so I might be conflating the two.

Strong vote for Plant/Dark. See my chronology thread currently a few down from this thread for a set of builds and some idea of what it plays like. Very strong, very durable. The combination of all the Def, Res, -ToHit, and Regen AND healing in /Dark combined with the Regen of Spirit tree makes the three Pets very tough and your teammates even tougher if you throw some Twilight Grasp in yourself. Excellent on a Team, Excellent solo. I’ve played pretty close to all PRI and Secondaries on Controllers as well though there are obviously lots of combos I haven’t tried yet. Plant/Storm is the second strongest, Plant/Dark is the strongest. Also a lot of fun to play with a lot of flexibility once it’s fully mature. Fighting pool is not needed. My current build listed is .1 second off perma Hasten and has Perma Fade, Perma Soul Absorption, Soul Drain and Howling Twilight about every 60 sec so about 50% heavy self damage buff and regen neutering on an A/V. Howling Twilight hits like a Mack Truck with 5 damage procs in it. Autohit, Stun, -500 Regen, heavy -recharge with a 25’ radius targeted AOE that happens to be a full team Rez. 🙂

Dio dinged 50 last night and today I went through the initial end game respec and scavenging run through alts to pull together a full set of the sets needed. Currently running Vigor Total Radial Revamp in Alpha (Tier 3 Heal, Acc, Endred, Confuse) slot and Reactive Total Radial Conversion (75% Moderate Fire Proc) in Interface slot. Might change Interface to Cognitive to maximize the Confusion, but the extra damage is probably more useful. The build below is how he's currently configured on Excelsior, this may be almost the final build, though I might tweak things if I decide he needs more damage output. Specifically I may change Carrion Creepers from the Posi Blast set to proc heavy configuration like Veridicane runs (was recommended on the Veridicane Plant/Storm Chronology thread, and works very well). I have an overabundance of +Acc, but for now I like it, it gives me a cushion for high def to hit mobs, or if I get tagged with a -ToHit debuff. So how does it work? Spectacularly well. My strongest Controller to date, even better than Veridicane. He may not do as well with A/Vs though, as he lacks the extra single target damage that /Storm brings to the table. Spirit Tree is a huge part of what makes it work so well. a CONSTANT +330 Regen aura that overlaps for +660 is an amazing safety net when you have multiple pets. If things get dicey just keep summoning the 5 pets (including Spirit Tree and Carrion Creepers) when they are up, Darkest Night on a central mob and everyone confused. Throw some heals if you get nervous, so far I almost never need to. I'm running at +4 X8 with no strain, barely notice the difference between having bosses turned on or off. Takes a small amount more time, but the Tripple Threat Pet corps does a good job chopping remaining bosses down, and if I did a good job clumping the spawn up, they go down fast beat to death by a LOT more Vegetative tentacles. Except Carnie Master Illusionists. Their phasing is annoying. I shift to single target Strangler <-> Entangle when I see them. Recharge and key cooldown rates: Sitting at 191.3 global recharge which puts me at .1 second shy of perma Hasten, perma Soul Absorption, 2 seconds short of perma Fade, perma Carrion Creepers, and Soul Drain is up every 68.4 seconds, so it's generally available every spawn. Howling Twilight with 5 damage procs in it is also available in just over 60 seconds (61.8), so also part of the every spawn attack chain. Fortunata is unavailable for 10 seconds if I'm paying attention. Combat Plan Alpha: The Staged Ambush The Triple Threat Pet Corps really works well together, Fluffy does a great job of debuffing the spawn and healing Fly Trap and Fortunata. Spirit Tree fully slotted with a 6 pack of Preventative Medicine helps all three of them stay on their feet surprisingly well. Starting with a Fade buff for the whole crew I can generally corner pull the +4 X8 spawn into a Tar Patch using Darkest Night with Spirit Tree next to the Tar Patch center, and the pets will go around the corner and take the full alpha strike from the spawn with little trouble. I wait until the spawn is packed as tight as they are going to get, then zip around the corner (Hover + Evasive Maneuvers ROCKS) and hit them all in the teeth with the Wine of Madness (SoC) -> Roots -> zip into as close to the center of the melee as feasible (often popping up and then down to get into the center if there is a hole), -> If the spawn is not fully in the Tar Patch drop another Tar Patch at my feet (definitely sometime before Howling Twilight) -> Soul Drain -> CC if it's up -> Dark Obliteration -> Roots -> Howling Twilight -> Roots -> then start hitting bosses with Strangler and Entangle. I will probably add additional Combat Plans to this post over time, I think it's a nice way to illustrate just how the build plays. It's very rare that I use Twilight Grasp myself, but it's strong when I need it as it's at +118% Heal and it recharges in about 2.5 seconds. Odd things I do with slotting: 1. I 2 slotted DN with 2 Range IOs (100 ft), try it with these pets, you need the distance to do the attack sequence the way I describe. 2. I slot Tar Patch with 1 Slow IO to help with the clumping of the spawn, it recharges in about 27 seconds with my base recharge, and it's one of the first things in my prep for the pull, so it's generally back before I need it again without slotting it for recharge. I've tried slotting it for recharge, but while it does stack, the increased damage during the relatively short overlap is not as important as the stronger clumping effect and scatter containment of the Slow in my opinion. I only get to CAST Carrion Creepers every other spawn, but it's always there. When I'm on a tough spawn, I can wait till CC is available to cast so it gets the boost from SA to make it really chew up tightly packed spawns quickly. Ther synergy of these three pets + Spirit Tree together is amazing. Fortunata is like a psychic assault rifle especially when she gets in the melee and gets the End boost from SA. She burns through end like a poorly designed blaster and when I get them all in the melee ball for a good Soul Absorption hit they become nearly unkillable. It's pretty rare that I lose any of them, but if I do, it's usually Fluffy that goes down as he generally triggers first and hits the spawn with a heal and/or debuff. I suspect he's using Darkest Night as well which does a great job of holding aggro, it's hard to tell at times. Quick resummon and he's back in action though without the Fade +def and any Soul Absorption Regen to debuff the crap out of the spawn while I keep them confused and attacking their buddies while stuck in Tar covered in roots and constantly getting blasted by waves of dark forces and giant flailing vegetative tentacles. Seriously, keeping Spirit Tree up and overlapping when possible is incredibly impactful. Speaking of Regen, if I get at least 5 hits on Soul Absorption, that puts me at about +430% regen and more end than I can use, then add in the Spirit Tree's +330% Regen and my regen from sets and I've been in fights where I'm regenerating up to 70 health a second, PLUS Fluffy is popping Twilight Grasp, and Panacea unique is doing it's periodic heal in the background. What really makes Dio TOUGH is the combo of all that regen with the ~45 Ranged Def ~ 40 Smash/Lethal Resistance, 47 Negative Nrg, 26 Psionic 22-23 Nrg/Fire/Cold and 15 Toxic combined with the -30 Dmg Buff of Darkest Night + nearly the same from Fluffy and a stack of -ToHit from various sources. Chances are VERY good the mobs are hitting each other. Anyone NOT hitting their buddy, has a devil of a time hitting me, and even if they hit me they generally hit like a weak kitten, and I'm generally regenerating health at between 30 and 70 per second plus healing. Veridicane had trouble with the first mission in Glacia's TF/Signature Arc, she did it at +4 X8, but it was somewhat rough with beholder analogs etc. Dio? No real sweat. As long as I follow a normal attack pattern I walked through the mission at a nice steady pace, not much harder than a normal mission. Arachnos? Same. Getting blinded still happens a bit, but, as long as I get wine in their face before I lose sight of them I can make it through pretty well. Let the pets take the alpha strike as normal and all goes well. Carnies? Soul Absorption take most of the sting out of their end sapping death effect, just hang back a bit if end is getting low. Circle of Thorns? Don't make me laugh, I breeze through those mission. Council? Boss Warwolves are annoying, but still not a real threat unless I let a boss close to melee with me without seeing him, and even them my pets generally have my back and I recover quick. Otherwise Council is pretty easy peasy as usual. In his first outing in Incarnate content, I went in at +4 X8 with only the single incarnate level shift from the Tier 3 Alpha. It was more challenging than other content, but with good play and no TERRIBLE runs of bad luck it's totally playable. I have to be paying attention, but I can definitely play Ehpram Sha's missions (both Banished Pantheon and Knives of Vengence) at those settings, +4 X8 with bosses. With two more Incarnate level shifts to go, I'm quite sure it will become substantially easier. So yes, Dio is my most effective/powerful Controller yet. Don't have Judgement, Lore, or Destiny slotted yet and Hybrid is 51% unlocked, so he'll just get better. Next up is Clarion in Destiny so I can stop carrying a 4-5 pack of Emerge/Breakfree. So this is the current build. I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions, cost is no object as you can tell from the sets in use already. 🙂

I think this is the current build if it's any help, I've run it with a few different focuses. Haven't looked at it in a while, I should probably dust Lavan off and tweak it some more... 🙂

I love Fire/Storm. Pure elemental engine of destruction. Lavan FireStorm is one of my top tier controllers for raw damage and fun. Highly recommend the experience, and it plays a lot differently than most controllers. Chaos control. absolutely plan on all the end/recovery techniques and Health uniques plus Atlas accolade, you’ll need them as it’s a very end hungry build. Totally worth it though! 🙂

So, the promised build update: I will probably shift slots around in the final a bit, I think Onlyasandwich is right about dropping two off Fly Trap and losing the extra +Range Def set bonus. Having it there on the way up totally makes sense though, as getting to high Range Def ASAP makes a TON of difference in how a Controller build plays. I've added some empty slots in areas where they will go as things fill out for things like the 6 pack of WotC in Roots and the 5 pack of Unbreakable Constraint. Pretty sure I'll swap Dark Embrace back in for Dark Consumption as originally planned, now that I've played with SA with a 6 pack of Preemptive Optimization in it, there is just no point to another End recovery, it simply isn't needed. I used one of my bellwether test missions for Controller builds as they come of age: Carnies. Just ran a +3 X8 Carnie radio mission at lvl 44 in PI and it was a romp. I needed to use probably 3 break free insps, but that was it. Seemed to me like the Fortunata (don't have a name for her yet, Fly Trap is the obvious "Audrey 2", and Dark Servant in dark green is "Swamp Noun", still pondering for Fortunata. "Eraser Head" seems mean) was REALLY effective. Not sure if her AI is targeting Illusionists or what, but subjectively she was kicking some serious Carnie butt. I think part of what made it work so well was the massive Recovery boost of SA with Preemptive Optimization in it. Arachnos... Was still a PITA. Blinded is just so hard to deal with without lots of yellows. Veridicane ate Arachnos for a snack because she has sooo many pseudo pets out there that being blinded was just an inconvenience. Just keep throwing Pseudo pets and Ice storm out and wait till the spawn was dead. Preemptive Optimization in SA is a real find. When I say it's dirt cheap, I mean it's DIRT CHEAP. All recipes were going for peanuts and all six used exactly the same components none of which were rare. It pretty much maxes out the slotted rech (91.78 in Mids) gives you +3.75 Ranged Def and +3.75 global Rech. Might change it in the final build, but I get plenty of regen from SA + Spirit Tree as it is. Very rarely need to worry about touching TG, Fluffy does that for me. If I go Vigor as originally planned, ALL my healing will get better anyway. Anyway, I highly recommend it as slotting for SA on the way to incarnate. Just realized I'm lacking a 5th LotG mule... I could probably drop Entangle? Useful for locking down an A/V though as well as a good single target damage power with procs in it. Hmmm... Will ponder, but welcome any suggestions! 🙂 I was using Maneuvers originally, that's probably what I'd drop in. Darkest Night: I have used it with two range enh slotted before, and as mentioned above it really helps it's utility as a pulling tool once you have pets hanging around. On this build I think the -30% Dmg debuff is almost worth more than the -ToHit, just never really needed to slot it with my normal 4 pack of Dark Watcher. Don't see that changing from here as Incarnate is just around the corner. Twilight Grasp: I don't think I have ever one slotted a mainline heal like that before, might take a couple slots and add them to TG and put in a 3 pack of Touch of the Nictus.

A couple of quick notes as I hit 44 this evening. I’ll post an updated build probably tomorrow. If you use a DN pull into Tar Patch, which I recommend, it’s a huge benefit to slot two + range in DN. That puts the range out to about 100’ which often lets you trigger the pull on a mob on the far side of the spawn without Audrey and Fluffy aggroing prematurely. I tried out using /Earth for a few levels, but the melee focus of Seismic Smash and need to be on the ground to use Fissure it just didn’t work well with my play style which focuses on Hover + Evasive Maneuvers for high mobility. Respec into Soul Mastery as originally planned. Dark Obliteration 4 slotted with 1 Acc, 1 Dmg, and 2 Dmg procs. Working very well as a follow up to Soul Drain. I might slot Dark Consumption as a proc based attack. Soul Drain is also a decent AOE attack so it makes for a pretty good chain. SoC->Roots->(Tar patch if not a pull into TP already) -> fly into center of spawn and Soul Drain-> Dark Oblit->Howling twilight -> Carrion Creepers if it’s up->Soul Absorption then back up and renew SoC. If pulling into TP, place Tree close to the area of TP so when you and pets are in the scrum you have the additional regen. As expected Audrey, Fluffy, and Fortunata are a very good combo. Pop Fade before starting your attack on the spawn and they will probably all live through the full spawn. Audrey and Fluffy will generally join you in the melee scrum so they will get the benefit of Soul Absorption and Spirit Tree +regen, and fluffy hits Twilight Grasp frequently. Fortunata hangs back and picks off trouble mobs, watching your back. Still a bit of growth and tweaking to do, but overall an EXCELLENT combo. I changed Soul Absorption from the Healing set to an Endmod set (Preemptive Optimization I think?) that was dead cheap, and provided both Range Def and some + global Rech. It’s a good set for SA as it has a lot of +Rech to bring SA back up quickly, and it completely eliminates any end cost worries till I get to incarnate solutions. I have been quite impressed at how durable Audrey and Fluffy are as a pair. Esp if you do a DN to TP pull so your DN and Fluffy’s DN stack. Charging into the middle of the melee is counter intuitive to my general play style, but it’s surprisingly not too bad.

<Edited to add> Not sure why the spoiler tag is interacting weirdly with the build export from Mids. I reran the whole export and wrapped it the spoiler tags twice. I'm going to leave it for now as it's readable, just annoying. I've been typing too long as it is. 😛 </Edited to add> Up to 27th soloing last night. Build is working well. I'll include the lvl 27 version at the bottom for reference. I'm not sure on the final build as some of the suggestions Onlyasandwich mentioned are even more impactful during leveling. I anticipate changing the initial rough draft above. I did drop a slot in both Health and Stamina to add the Numina unique (Panacea was there from lvl 10), and Perf Shifter +end and a SO +EndMod. I'll probably pick up the Perf Shifter +EndMod to get the +7.5 movement, because why not. I should be clear that this lvl 27 leveling build isn't cheap if you're starting from nothing. I'm pulling catalyzed IOs from another build, so it really just costs a few unslotters and some email juggling. You would need to adapt if using just SOs, in particular Howling Twilight doesn't make a ton of sense this early in the build and 6 slotted if not using the procs. I still haven't picked up Entangle for my second single target attack, and Strangler is still under slotted as I've built this SPECIFICALLY for AOE so I can solo +2 X8 effectively. Tactics: In general, I'm alternating using Creepers and Howling Twilight on full +2 X8 spawns, though no bosses at this point. Basic attack pattern: I'm always running Hover and Shadow Fall, sometimes use Fly for stealth 1. Drop Tar pit so that the effect area of the patch is entirely around the corner, but just barely, when possible. 2. I pop Fade and possibly 1 Purple insp, though the insp is not really necessary. 3. Fly out with Darkest Night targeted on a mob near the back of the spawn, Lt by pref. As soon as I get close enough DN triggers 4. Fly back around corner ASAP and peek around corner so I can watch the spawn run forward and clump up in Tar Pit without exposing myself to fire. 5. Just before the first mobs clear Tar Patch, I slide sideways to line up a good cone and hit them with the Wine of Madness (SoC it to them!). 6. Roots. 7. Either Creepers or Howling Twilight near center of spawn. Both if I just want to watch the whole spawn dissolve. Which is, admittedly, fun. 🙂 8. Refresh Tar Patch, Twilight Grasp as needed for myself and/or Audrey 2 9. Spam Roots as available and start using Strangler on the least damaged Lt or any mobs that slipped through. 10. Fling some more Wine of Madness. 11. Run in for a hefty Soul Absorption hit before the first bodies begin to disappear. If Audrey is looking ragged I'll pop SA sooner. Note: If Creepers is still around it tends to pop up and short stop the pull so the spawn will clump up prematurely. This is sub-optimal as I have to wait for Tar Patch to recharge which reduces the damage everything does, but I just run in and pop SoC where the spawn is, it's fine. Same thing can happen with Audrey, luckily she's pretty tough and generally survives until I get things under control and can use TG and SA as needed. (A) Empty (A) Empty (A) Empty (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance (23) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery (A) Empty (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End (23) Endurance Modification ------------