Oneofthe1d4

Thanks again all, some majorly helpful advice there. Now to get the darn thing levelled up and start slotting them :) rather than succumb to playing around on something else.

More informative answers, thanks all. The Forcefield 3 and those from Seismic were pretty much what I was thinking as necessary inclusions. Repulsion Bomb I was not aware about its proc rate though I had slotted it with Annihilation for the Res Debuff and set stuff for now. While I've currently got Force Bolt (slotted to Knockdown to function as additional I get the feeling both the power pick and slots would be better spent on Seismic instead to mitigate by accelerating things dying. Personal Force Field feels like it could be used to take the alpha in a team with entirely vulnerable characters but I think a team would need to be very odd for that to be worthwhile, to the degree that taking the alpha would not be enough to help it muddle through. I've yet to use it whenever things have gone south for the team. Detention Field doesn't feel like strong enough control for most content. perhaps it'll have niche scenarios where it's needed? Force Bubble maybe could be useful. It's knockdown on a toggle, I'm not usually endurance starved so could fit it in. But I also believe it tends to be obstructive to the rest of the team more than conveniently obstructing to the foe. Mostly I'm trying to put together something that'll help the rest of the team as best possible in more or less any content. I'll probably end up doing less endgame stuff just because my eternal desire for alts means I get easily distracted so this concept is mostly likely to be doing that but I'm trying to be as efficient as possible to not drag down any teams I end up on. Being on Everlasting I naturally have an RP concept too but that fits well enough with most things :) Not up to Incarnate yet so can't check, when I do I'll confirm it (and edit it into this post too). As you say though those are some hefty numbers. Anyone have thoughts on if there much point in chasing Recharge in set bonuses? I know many builds make it the norm but it doesn't feel as important for Force Field as a primary. That said I appreciate that it's rarely bad to have powers off recharge sooner. Current slotting I've kitted out Dispersion Bubble with Reactive Defences fully and Maneuvers with 5 of the same set. Deflection Shield and Insulation Shield both have 4 of Red Fortune with Endurance and Endurance/Recharge omitted. I've scattered a few Achilles Heel Resistance debuffs across the Seismic powers but not certain if that's going to end up being excessive or the better sets to pursue for the powers there. Near as I can tell as well as the Ranged (or Ranged AOE) and Defender sets everything in Seismic also has the Defense Debuff and Accurate Defense Debuff sets so I'm not short on choices. Other pools are still something I'm bouncing back and forth on. Leadership and Fighting seem like givens, I've tried the Medicine pool but it feels as though more than healing I should be mitigating damage harder rather than trying to do something I'm not really as good at.

Thanks all. The screen shots as well as the comments on power buffing powers and their interaction with the force field effects are very handy. Are there particular powers people would say are must include/exclude from the available options?

I've been playing a Force Field/Seismic Blast defender for a bit now and enjoying it. Fully aware that the FF's usefulness tends to drop off in some of the later content but it's entertaining enough and something I can dust off readily for random taskforces that need someone to fill out the ranks. However I'm at the point where I am looking to properly apply IO sets with a respec as well as decide what powers should be necessities and which are just nice additions. A nice touch of the Seismic Blast powers is they all allow for the slotting of the Achilles Heel Res Debuff. So I can slot it into multiple powers to be hurling it around. However at the rate most mobs tend to go down the degree to which being able to hit multiple targets in the same pull with a Res Debuff is useful feels debatable. Endurance doesn't feel like a major concern but I also do not feel like I am dealing with limitless amounts. Not certain the degree I need to be compensating for it but of course the more recharge I build up the more Endurance I will need. I've played around a bit with the Medicine pool but rarely needed since almost every group seems to have someone with revival abilities and additional healing feels unneeded in most groups. Aid Self does not seem to provide much even with Field Medic strengthening it with an endurance boost. I'm currently messing around with Power Mastery as an pool, its Power Build up is a nice addition but seemingly too short a duration to be useful. Any advice about slotting or optimal power picks will be appreciated.

Hey Homecoming A while ago out of aesthetic curiosity and because I had a concept I started up a Dual Blades/Bio Armour tank. At the time I was unaware of the recent patch changes to Dual Blades, the most important being that you can combo without needing to hit anymore which for Tankers makes the Weaken combo decent on taskforces or anything else without enough targets where you're going to hit a fair few of them and add some minor debuffing to the damage you're doing. Between that and Bio Armour's different modes I'm finding it fun enough to play. Of course between Bio Armour and Dual Blades I'm in a bit of a state of picking everything from my power sets and not having a lot of room to pick others. I know Scrappers have a reasonable use of Dual Blades but Tankers not so much so there are not many threads about it. As such I'm posting in the hope there's people who can offer suggestions about which powers are or are not necessities as well as general slotting advice (or even "this powerset pairs better!" for later tanks). Power Slice feels like one to drop. Low level when power picks are tightest, only enables one combo and the other end of that combo does not show up till level 38 for the Tanker. So it's out for most stuff I might level down to do without providing any major benefit where it may be used. Movement powers I ended up going Super Speed because it makes my preferred merit farming mission (Vaz Pollutant Plot) that bit quicker with the stealth benefit. Theoretically I could end up losing it and using P2W movements instead which would free up a slot. Something that might be brought up is that based off some forum posts I've seen best route for damage was proven to be combo-less Dual Blades a while ago. I am not certain if that still holds true now that missing does not break the combo but am happy to be shown the path to true destruction. Slotting wise I have Achilles Heel Resistance debuff in Ablating Strike which is fairly fast recharge for something part of multiple combos and (I think Gaussian's targeting) Build Up chance in Blinding Feint and will likely keep the former at least unless there's some big advantage to dropping it. Other than that I am slowly building up the other assorted bits and pieces of various sets without having any certainty about what I need.

Thanks for the advice. I'd been farming Merits on the Stalker so I've got bits of the Controller set slotted while I build up the cash for the recommended IOs but I'd been using some endurance reduction too.

@Dread Shinobi Thanks for that. I've been through a few Death From Belows and Task Forces and already gotten into the habit of shifting around to launch more Envenoms whenever it is off cooldown. While I was attempting to keep the 30 second timer going by and large it seems more expedient to just make sure I fire it off anytime it is off cooldown anyway to hit those who were missed and have the full debuff active on another target. While Alkaloid and Elixer have not been vital they've been things I'm glad to have when I've used them. And as you warned it drinks Endurance, meaning I tend to have toggles off quite a bit when dealing with larger incoming mobs as part of grouping. Fun though, a bit more of a struggle solo but them's the breaks.

@TheDahle thanks for that suggestion, edited it into the opening.

@DreadShinobi Appreciate the detailed answers. I might pick up Secondary Mutation to try a version with Weaken simply because I do have a tendency to like trying powers from the main sets but I suspect even with Cloud Senses slotted it'll prove inferior based off your clear list of reasons I'll get myself hunting cash on the others to properly pick up some of the necessary gear.

@DreadShinobi Thanks for that, especially the confirmation of the truths of the other threads and a warning about the Endurance dangers. If you don't mind me asking why not Weaken? Is it a case of the power not being worth it compared to other choices or not having the slot space to give Weaken the fleshing out it needs to be worth it? EDIT - answer to that found in the general Poison guide edited into the OP I believe. Something you might also be able to shed light on for me. Should I be firing Envenom off every time it is on cooldown? I understand that the main target takes a stronger debuff compared to those afflicted for being nearby but what's the actual duration of the debuff, given it's not a toggle where there's a convenient way to tell when it's still going or not? If that's a "how do you not know that?" answer apologies for asking it but yes, I am that dim for these things. Maybe I should have my display adjusted to make it clearer but as default I am unsure when things are debuffed or not a lot of the time.

How do all Relative newcomer to COH, while I've played it on and off since Homecoming launched between severe alt addiction and not really being that great at picking up the MMO details to make for smoother play for any games I'm not especially savvy. But I'm getting back into it and trying to make a go of a decent controller. I've checked a few of the existing threads for the same power pairing (and added them at the bottom of this post in case anyone stumbles into this and wants to save themselves a bit of searching). As far as I can tell this seems to be overall good advice for power picking Powers to Skip; Plant Entangle - of the two available at startup it's not as good, though it might be a viable addition Spore Burst - between confusion, DoT and procs they'll not be asleep long Spirit Tree Poison Neurotoxic Breath - not a great area, other controlling effects are better Elixer of Life Antidote Weaken (see DreadShinobi's posts below) Other powers can be ignored too, these are almost definite skips though. Other Pools to possibly grab powers from some of which may be removed on a respec at 50; Speed - the ever popular Hasten Fighting - Weave and Tough + the pre-req Leadership - Assault and Tactics, maybe Maneuvers Concealment - get Stealth for solo levelling. Skippable per the post below "skip stealth and just grab Super Speed. Add the Celerity +Stealth IO and you can stealth most anything." I'm ticking along slowly, while I've still not gotten the hang of farming influence I've got a couple of dozen million across various characters so can do a small measure of kitting out and my Stalker is at the point where I can farm Vazilhok Pollutant Plot for slightly shy of a Merit a minute whenever I have a spare 40 minutes or so which means getting the ATOs or other Merit based rewards is something I'm probably able to do for this Controller as a casual sideline whenever I want to put something on the computer to watch while murdering plague zombies. I posted this thread because I wanted to check if there's any Plant/Poison or even just Controller specific advice I should be aware of especially for grouping so I do not drag others down. I'm already aware that in some cases I want powers that won't do damage to allow for Badge hunting which Poison supports quite nicely (as long as I do not go proc happy) and I am aware that when it comes to major bosses the actual status effects won't land with any real success. Thanks in advance for any comments. Poison specific guide

Thank you to you for the link (and any work on the archived guides) and to many others who put their own work in over the years