Riverdusk

Almost guarantee they were speaking of this. As an example if a melee smashing attack is used, the higher of your melee or smashing defense is what is used to determine if you are hit. You don't get a roll against both.

Good timing to see this after listening to several people whining in help channel today about the recent changes. ::) Had to turn off the channel. Well said Philotic Knight!

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Procs_Per_Minute

Probably the only controller type that can kill stuff fast early is gravity. They have some killer single target attacks in lift and propel. Other sets tend to be later bloomers, so yes that's normal.

Ice armor seems very viable for the quick numbers I ran on it. Definite advantage to me over the tank or brute version is getting icy bastion instead of hibernate. If you really want you could still get hibernate on top of it as well, it is there in one of the epic pools. Ice melee isn't actually bad since they added damage to Frozen Aura. Freezing touch is a DPA monster. Frozen fists is the real stinker of the set, but I don't see how you make an attack chain without it unfortunately. Psi melee would be another interesting choice, you could really stack the -recharges with it. Dark melee is always a winner and the -tohit and having an extra heal of course helps your survival a lot.

Just wanted to say thanks here as well for adding this option in the latest patch for both controllers and masterminds!

Amazing patch, thank you! ;D

I've been told several times I'm "wasting my money", but what I typically do is actually start slotting cheap sets at 25, not just regular IO's. The key is cheap sets of course, which isn't always a possibility, but sometimes is. I don't care a bit about the set bonuses they offer at that level, it is about the fact that you can get ones that enhance in dual or triple areas. For melee, ones like bruising blow or bonesnap are good examples and there are many others. They sell for cheap and use nothing but common or uncommon salvage. With some frankenslotting you can get good accuracy, damage, recharge, and endurance, and often do it using only 4 or 5 slots, saving those precious early slots to use elsewhere (until later). All for not much different than the cost of making regular IO's. Of course if you are blowing through the levels it may not even be worth the extra bit of time it takes, but for those taking it slower it can definitely be worthwhile imo.

Would like to 2nd this request. Masterminds also don't get the minimal fx option on cold domination. Seems like it'd be an easy port? (I know programmers hate when people say this). Would also like to see a minimal fx option added to other sets that currently don't have it. Radiation armor being a prime example. I've heard people call it migraine inducing with all the flashing swirling graphics it has and I agree. Unplayable set for me until, and if, it ever gets a minimal fx option. Regardless though of course, just happy to be back and happy with what we get even now. Keep up the great work!

Once you get enough recharge to get at least close to perma army and can spam howling twilight (and of course twilight grasp) a ton, AV's are easy for illusion/dark. I even solo'd Kraken and Jurassik. Ran out of time with the game shutting down before I got to really try any other GM's.

Good summary Mikazuki. I think the main issue is I very much disagree with your assertion that "there is no contest" between the two. Personally I think it is a very close contest. We can agree to disagree there. And yes, whichever set, go forth and melt faces.

Not sure what you mean by this. One, dark doesn't have any -defense at all actually. So, not accurate, and that actually is a point in radiation's favor. Then again usually by end game, against most mobs, hitting isn't that much of an issue. Second, dark's -res debuffs pale in comparison to rads? Radiation's available -resistance is enervating field which gives -22.5%. Dark's is tar patch which gives -30%. Not only does dark's not "pale in comparison", dark's is actually superior. You could argue that tar patch isn't available as much, but +recharge is such a priority for most illusion controllers, it is up for use very quickly. Rad's toggles themselves can be a pain to use on illusion since it has no aoe immobilize so you can have issues with toggles running off or things not sticking together. Now, it may be argued that AM's +20% damage boost makes up for dark's better -res, but then again, that doesn't help phantom army which is a big part of your damage. Back to dark, dark servant, while it doesn't do a lot of damage, does some. It also throws immobilizes out there quite a lot, which helps set up containment and keeps things from running off, something illusion can have more difficulty with since illusion doesn't have immobilizes of its own. Now, while being leveled up, generally I'd say rad is probably just a bit faster and dark is safer and more controllery. But honestly the sets are very comparable in effectiveness in the end IMHO. The biggest advantage rad has is simply the +30 recharge you get from AM which makes perma phantom army easier/cheaper. But it is still possible to reach perma army eventually with dark as well.

darn... looked and your right. what i get for posting while waiting for server maintinece to end i guess. prestige sprint can slot seperately, so you could power-slide +stealth and regular sprint -end. which would be an inetresting option. You wouldn't want to put a stealth IO in an auto always on power anyway. Do that and you couldn't turn the stealth off. Good luck with those escort missions.

My first thought was DM/Shield. Soul drain can give you some incredible damage boosts, as can shield.

Forgive my noobness, but what is it about scrapper that makes this combo perform better? Brutes are meant to do low to medium damage and be more tanky than a scrapper, think of them like a halfway point between a scrapper and a tanker. They were the villians version of a tank back when they could only be a villian. Scrappers on the other hand are high damage out the gate as a DPS"class" and they get to do critical hits for extra damage. But they are not as tough, on paper at any rate. I have seen some brutes do insane damage and some scrappers be harder to kill than a tanker. Funny side note, I'd swear I remember a dev saying they thought masterminds would act as the tank of the villain side. Players never saw it that way though.

Personally I also like the tier 9 ice armor power on scrapper (icy bastion), over hibernate that brutes get. Scrappers can actually get both as they can get hibernate in their ancillary pool if you want it. I'd go ice/ice scrapper myself.

It's a 110% global recharge(I think) and hasten three slotted for recharge. Note that the 110% is in addition to the bonus from Hasten itself. To confirm Permahasten - Hasten needs a total of +275% Recharge 205% after Hasten's own +70%, 110% after 3 recharge SOs for ~95% Per the wiki anyway https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Perma

deal exactly about the same baseline damage as every other controller primary's single target hold and immobilize (except fire's which actually do deal a smidgen more) once you factor in the healback; though they are psionic so there's a chance they may not be resisted. (Since Clockwork are vulnerable to psi you can pretty much 1-shot under level 5 Clockwork.) More specifically, Spectral Wounds is front loaded and then heals back dropping its damage to match other powers - but if you kill something fast enough you get that extra bit of damage. So in a sense it is still superior to something like Stone Prison which is a DoT. Also to note though, I believe when you enhance the power, the healback portion doesn't increase. So, as the power's damage is increased through enhancements, the healback becomes less and less of an issue even if it does trigger as it is a smaller and smaller % of the damage you are doing.

Since no one else has suggested it I'm going to say plant. No one can lock down a spawn as early, often, and effectively as plant. Seeds of confusion is available at level 8 with a huge cone and a 1 minute recharge that effectively neuters a mob. Then later you get a usual AoE hold and then carrion creepers that allow you to lock down twice more. All three can safely take an alpha strike for a team (although some minor stealth would be suggested). Carrion creepers are also where you get some nice damage (and AoE damage even). Also of note, Plant for whatever reason has its AoE immobilize power deal twice as much damage as most other control sets. Last, the pet is decent. Other sets can start to catch up to plant's control later, but early on it saves those lowbie teams from themselves. Honestly any secondary can work. I tend to go rad for the extra damage/recharge/-regen/-defense/-tohit/+recovery/status resistance. You know, all the awesome things rad offers. The funny thing is I got both a plant/rad controller and a plant/ice dom to 50 during live and ended up not even noticing much killing speed difference between them. Plant does so well on its own. Edit: Forgot, if you go rad you also get EM Pulse which is yet another AoE hold you can use to shut down the mobs.

Alas, Dom's can't get illusion control. Or did you mean mind?

Agreed there and probably the biggest part of why I remember giving up my kat/dark scrapper and moving to willpower. Without the taunt aura that WP has things running away all the time I found so annoying. One of the things you don't hear talked about much. Why I like sets like WP, shield, and invuln on scrappers where they get the taunt aura just like brutes do. Ice armor would probably be okay as well since it has a slow aura at least. Not sure on some of the newer sets.

I remembered domination in the past having a damage buff, and looking back on the wiki, I remembered correctly. "The Dominator was revised in Issue 15. The inherent power Domination lost its damage buff and the buff was moved directly into the archetype's Damage Scale instead. All Dominator secondary Power Sets were adjusted according at the same time to be more equalized." However, hard to argue it was a nerf as it sounds like they adjusted their base damage scale to make up for it. Some secondary sets it sounds like may have been "nerfed" though depending on what the wiki means by "equalized".

Phantom army doesn't do knockback and I'd think you could slot a knockback to knockdown IO in phantasm? Sounds like another good one to me.

I've noticed a lot of missing info on the in-game power info for a lot of different sets, not just on scrappers. So, I don't worry about it too much. If someone wants to run some long term tests though, feel free. :)

I know I just find crits more fun than fury, no matter what the numbers say as to which is better for each powerset (up that even more with the +crit Scrapper AT IO). Definitely more fun to me than constantly chasing fury. Considering the extra hps and therefore regen brutes get, brute probably would have been the better choice for my kat/wp, but that doesn't matter enough to me. Not to mention that with the lower resistance cap of scrappers, Strength of Will becomes pretty skippable considering I'll already be close to the smash/lethal resistance cap after tough and IO's. I prefer to look at that as being able to take a different power somewhere else instead. Have to admit it is also fun to tank as a scrapper when it is needed and surprise people instead of being a brute where it is just expected.