UrbanHound

Any particular reason you're moving away from the Arsenal/Sonic Dom? This was actually a combo I was thinking of running with, so curious if I should go with a different Dom secondary (was also thinking Martial) or switch entirely do Controller as well.

I can certainly understand this, or at least the primal need to eke out every opportunity to maximize damage with Arsenal. I've made a few attempts at a lower level Stank Arse (Arse/Poison) to see how it performed without the pet to assist with damage and things did not go favorably. I played at 22 on just paper mishes and I typically get a feel for a combo by starting out at a -1/x2-3 and then ramp it up from there based on how a set performs. But with this combo, and particularly without the Tri-Cannon, I did not feel comfortable raising that starting threshold at all. I tried to stick with basic IOs but started to include procs to help ease the pacing somewhat. I guess Electric Control hasn't made a total masochist of me yet. While I still enjoy the overall vibe of the set, and the control tools it has in its toolbox, I agree that damage is sorely needed. However I will leave it to those with a better mind to the overall game and its modes to find out 'where' you reasonably squeeze that in. I want to do more testing to see how to make better use of Smoke Canister and if it can be more helpful. And just another note that, at this low level and with this specific powerset combination, I didn't have a meaningful way to activate Wet if the use of Wet to setup area containment is the intended missing piece to the damage puzzle. I will definitely be encouraging the missus to roll a high damage Blaster or something similar to ultimately roll this on live. Thankfully she's used to that with my various Electric Controllers. 🙂

Played around a bit on a 40 Arse/Poison Controller. For context, I am far from the most optimal or efficient player. I mostly duo with the wife, so I'm not a big endgame TF player either. I rarely play meta builds, love underdogs, and my favorite control set (for better or worse) is Electric. In other words, casual AF. With that safely out of the way I feel most will go on to the next reply or bravely linger, but this is my take. It's ... fun? While things do tend to scatter and sometimes the Tri-Cannon does TOO good of a job and holds court with a portion of the mob while I'm huddled with another cluster... Being able to reliably (w/ basic IO slotting, core controls felt peppy and something in my toolbox was consistently available) layer multiple soft control effects with persistent patches made me felt safe to dive into reasonable groups with my stank noxious Arse and feel reasonably confident I'd come out OK. I'll have to play more with the 'Wet' interaction to see how it's functioning, I chose the Leviathan epic pool with Bile Spray and it didn't feel consistent. But I'm likely doing something wrong. And I really have to sing a praise for Tri-Cannon. Sure, it's pure, basic DAKKA, but it can take a ridiculous amount of punishment and the damage wasn't too bad. It's ability to taunt and peel aggro in addition to the set's innate controls really contributed to the perception of safety when leaping into combat. I honestly felt like I was just debuffing and laying down controls to soften targets for the Cannon to take out. Since I dove in at a higher level I think I would want to test more at lower brackets to see how the pace of combat and missions flows there as the Cannon felt so essential to my flow and damage. I would be loathe curious to find out how I'd fare without it. I love Electric Control, so it is probably no shocker that I dig this set. But perhaps it's my years of built up masochism for an extremely low damage control set that makes me open minded to what feels like an alternative interpretation? And a pet that absolutely curbstomps Gremlins? I'll take it. I would lastly like to echo the request, if possible, of a grenade alternate throwing animation. This could really broaden the natural hero/villain appeal.

This behavior was observed as a lvl 40 Arse/TA Controller. I was doing random policeband missions in Founders Falls and generally testing Arsenal Control and noticed quite frequently that the pet was not following me between floors within a mission. Returning to the floor with the stuck Cannon shows it sort of wigging out by the elevators but it never seems to resolve itself. Lastly, once caught in this behavior the Cannon stays fixed in this 'wigging out' loop in front of the elevators and won't follow me around on the floor we were previously on together. Resummoning the Cannon on the new floor restores normal behaviors - until you go to the next floor. After exiting the mission the Cannon is beside you and follows you in the zone as expected. Even in scenarios where the Cannon was previously 'stuck' at the elevators within the mission.

Not wholly relevant to the present conversation but one thing I enjoyed when the game was live was a duo my wife and I did with Empathy/Elec. We'd give each other all the big buffs and be almost like gods. In hindsight I would do a different blast set today but it's only in this duo that I really enjoyed Empathy. I believe that's why Pain shines a little brighter nowadays as you can at least selfishly benefit from some of its powers.

Elec Control's confuse also is aggro free without the reprehensible recharge of Mind's - it just may take awhile to spread and it can be wonky. But Plant is the undisputed leader of AoE confuse.

I thought I was pretty savvy on one of my favorite control sets - do endurance mods have zero impact on either the drain or the amount given to allies in Static Field? If not what do you think is optimal slotting then? I've been doing it all wrong!

Oh yikes, I just checked the power and you're right about Touch of the Beyond and its measly duration. To think that nearly everyone else (sans Elec Manipulation?) gets a fire and forget toggle of equivalent value whereas Dark has to constantly refresh their regen/recovery power with a short duration melee-based ability you would think they'd give Dark more oomph to make it worthwhile. I just recently started a young DP/Dark Blaster (barely out of DFB range) that I may have to reconsider.

I might dabble in a Sonic Manipulation or Ninja Training Blaster. But honestly the main thing I will do is respec into Teleportation and Fold Space on my Elec/Energy Sentinel. I am intrigued by Energy Melee though - but not sure if I'd go Stalker or Brute and I don't have the slightest clue on armor so that's a nascent idea at best.

Radiation Armor has a PBAE heal in Ground Zero. Not sure if that is the "support" you're looking for but it's an interesting quirk in a pretty powerful set.

Seems like a semi-appropriate topic for this but perhaps not... Is there any way to keep the Praetorian mission complete song? Once you leave you get 'demoted' to the Hero theme or Villain theme depending on your choice. Always was fond of the Praetorian ditty...

This is a bummer, I created a Grav/EA controller for that exact expected synergy. I also thought about doing a Necro/EA to use on the Lich in a similar fashion.

Hi There - Not sure if this is the best place to address this, but the Adrenal Booster capstone in Experimentation currently doesn't have it's +Recharge factored in as one of its effects. Thanks for all your hard work.

Great guide. I know you ultimately settled on Fire but I would appreciate a section with thoughts and insights on how other secondaries would perform with Poison. Thanks for sharing this!

Hey folks, not sure where else to ask this at present and while the thought occurred to me to try and test this weekend I didn't get the chance. How does Amp Up interact with characters that have Power Boost or its cousins like Gather Shadows or Power Build Up? Do they stack? It's likely this was answered/addressed in previous iterations of the beta Electrical Affinity threads.