Coyote

lllusion doesn't set up Containment or have much of a way to take advantage of it, so embrace the chaos... get a secondary that does damage without needing Containment, and play as an offense-oriented summoner/blaster/debuffer. I like Storm, TA, Traps, and Poison in that role... Rad and Dark also play very well and strong defensively, but not nearly as oriented towards offense, and so much more oriented towards teaming. Cold is another option... it's a strong debuffing set, and it teams well with some nice team buffs, but it doesn't help with damage so it's another teaming option that's oriented more towards offense... it also solos well against AVs, but struggles to clear maps about as much as the other teaming secondaries. Storm is high damage, and its chaotic control meshes well with Illusion. Slotting Force Feedback procs into Tornado and LS helps get PA permanent. This is my main character. TA (once the version on Beta testing goes live) and Poison are going to be excellent debuffing sets. I like TA more for Illusion as Illusion can play all-ranged, and so can TA, but Poison wants to go into melee range. But Poison is still a pretty good choice, with Poison Trap set up with procs to be an AoE damage attack to help with Illusion's low AoE damage. TA does have the advantage of an Immobilize to keep AVs in place. Neither really help with Recharge. Traps is probably the best pairing with Illusion, with personal defense to help for the times that chaotic control slips and mobs actually take notice of you. It has excellent AoE damage to help Illusion's weakness, and an Immobilize against AVs. It helps a bit with Recharge if you slot Trip Mine with Force Feedback, but not much since it's not a power to spam, unlike Tornado/LS. With the Beta changes to TA, I think Traps is the best secondary for Illusion, with TA in second place. Storm is third but an excellent option if you really like more damage, and Poison is a close fourth. These top four are really well ahead of any other lllusion/x options, IMO. Oh, and that's for a solo-oriented character who may team. For a team-oriented character who may solo, TA > Traps, and Poison > Storm, but in both cases only by a bit. Pick any of the four that you think you'll like, and you'll be happy with the combo.

Okay, some changes while keeping things as close to what you ahve as possible: 1: Swap the sets in Spectral Wounds and Lightning Storm. Apocalypse has higher Recharge than Decimation, and Recharge is more useful for LS. Also, the Build-Up proc is more useful for you. 2: You have too many +10% Recharge sets (7). Change Blind to Basilisk's Gaze and add a pair of damage procs to the end of it. 2.1: Drop the slots from Kick... it's only a set mule, and it's not even giving the set's main bonus. 3: Freezing Rain isn't a damage power, and 5-slotting it for a Recharge bonus isn't worth the slots. Drop it to 2-3, with a mix of End/Recharge and Recharge. 4: Add a slot to Tornado and LS, each with a Force Feedback proc. 5: Spectral Terror is mostly a -ToHit power, not a Fear power. The Fear duration is long enough that it doesn't need enhancing, so I put in DW's Despair, and moved the set to Thunderclap. Some other minor changes.

1: you are going for set bonuses too much even where a power doesn't suit the set that much. Freezing Rain is an example. 2: I would certainly put more slots into Health/Stamina. 3: I can't tell for sure since the actual build isn't there, but it looks like you have more than 5 sets with a 10% Recharge bonus, and you get only get the same bonus up to 5 times. 4: One of the main benefits for Knockback powers, especially on an Illusion/Storm build, is to get Force Feedback IOs into them so that you run with more effective Recharge. I would put them into Tornado, Lightning Storm, and Force Feedback. BTW, I think that the APP version of Energy Torrent is all Knockdown, not Knockback, so you can just replace the Sudden Acceleration IO with it. Here is the build I'm running... theoretically it's not perma-PA, but with regular activations of Force Feedback, it plays as perma-PA once you're in a constant fight like an AV fight:

It's an interesting topic to consider: On the one hand, I buff for damage, get Momentum, and do more damage in the next 5 seconds than if I didn't have it. On the other hand, I buff for damage, get Momentum, and open the fight with an AoE knockdown attack that knocks most of the opponents down. If the attack did more damage, even with a slower swing, it would be better, because fewer of them would be getting up off the floor. In the long run, DPA matters more, and also sustained DPS with AoEs, where their faster recharge means that you don't actually lose long-term damage even if you lose damage per attack. However, there is an interesting spot of time, say 3-6 seconds into a fight, where the faster recharge doesn't matter because they're still not recharged, but if they had done more damage in the opening AoE salvo, you'd be seeing fewer mobs get up and get an attack off. I like the change overall because sustained DPA and DPE can be counted on. But it's true that in some situations, hitting faster but more lightly does have a period of time where you end up worse off. Well, besides the fun of hammering health bars with one big swing. I'm not sure that they can really avoid it, it's a case of "big hitters are better until powers start to cycle, at which point DPS balances out", but if they keep the damage high while lowering animation times, then we're left with an OP version of TW. So... lowering the damage is probably the best solution overall, but not necessarily in every case.

Yoink over your head, or Yoinked over each target's head?

Momentum attacks do less DAMAGE because of their lowered Recharge causing their damage formula to change. Momentum attacks also activate faster. The increase in speed is greater than the decrease in damage, thus... Momentum attacks do more DAMAGE PER SECOND. So, you end up hitting weaker per attack, but better in terms of DPA and DPE. This is a bonus, not a penalty.

Mud Pots. More damage is always good. More -Slow on a character with a ranged AoE Immobilize is... superfluous. I mean, it's auto hit and will affect Bosses immediately, but still, it's not worth it. So the -Def... okay, the -Def is good, but I'm not sure when it's useful. You will generally open with Earthquake for the knockdown and -ToHit to slow the return alpha, and that gives -Def. Then you follow with Stalagmites, which will give additional -Def, and Stone Cages to prevent dazed wandering. That also does -Def. So while Quicksand may be nice in a powerset that doesn't have other sources of -Def or in an APP, Earth Control does -Def with almost everything, so... it's superfluous in the set.

Minor changes for me, nothing I'm playing got touched heavily enough to redesign the character. It may get me interested in making some more characters, but that's a different story, heh.

The End Redux is not that important when you have Transference. The Healing is nice, but... I think Transfusion is kinda strong already. The Accuracy boost is by far the most important benefit. But then I look at Nerve for the same Accuracy boost, and also a Defense Boost and Hold Boost. I think it's overall the most useful combination since none of the benefits are duplicating something from Kinetics.

It's also not as bad as it appears if you're willing to make up the change via procs. Before, WH did enough damage that I was willing to max out the damage, and also get Recharge up so that I could use it more often. Now, with its damage lowered, I will make up some of the damage via procs, and then I get to have it insta-recharge and re-use the procs. So I lose out on base damage and have to activate it twice... but I get double proc usage out of that. Overall, I think it will actually do more damage in two activations than it did before in one with the damage boost, albeit with a requirement of activating it twice (and with twice the End cost, too). Still, a reasonable benefit that makes the damage nerf less painful. I think.

Single target is easy: Slash, Shred, Assassin's, Hemorrhage. Shred is a small cone so it's not DPA-efficient, but it's used to introduce Achilles Heel into the cycle to boost the damage from AS and Hemo. AoE is complicated because of the blood point system: to get a good Rending Flurry you need 5 blood points, so you have to set that up with single-target attacks also. I use Savage Leap at max range towards a Boss (3 points), and then AS the Boss (2 points). Now Rending Flurry is ready and I fire that, then use DNA Siphon for additional damage. After that it's just Shred and single-target attacks until 5 blood points again, then Rending Flurry. Note that Hemorrhage will consume BPs, so if you're down to Boss killing, Rending Flurry may not get a chance to reactivate at max radius again.

As I understand the suggestion, if you're a perma-Dom, your bar would empty as you activate it... but unless you don't fight for 90 seconds, you should have it filled easily by the time Domination is recharged, so you can continue Domination permanently. The point is that if it takes you 100 seconds to recharge Domination, then when it's recharged, you most likely have a full bar so that you can re-activate it immediately after a 10 second downtime, rather than being able to start refilling it only after it drops, which would cause it to have a lot longer downtime than 10 seconds.

You need to realize one thing: at the high levels, a lot of teams have strong enough defenses that controlling mobs is not important. At all. In fact, while sometimes it's useful (keeping mobs from running out of fields), more often it's worse than not controlling them, if there is a Tank on the team who is using Taunt to group the mobs around him to set up AoEs. So, at high levels, ALL that you will do is use your secondary for attacks, period. And maybe the /Ice APP for Sleet (in which case, an Immobilize may be useful). So, for this reason, you have two selections to make: First, you pick your primary for leveling up purposes, not for playing in the end game... and for soloing at high levels, if you do that. So your primary is almost meaningless for well-equipped high-level teams, so pick a primary that you want to play and level up, not one that you want to use at high levels. Second, you have to pick a secondary that helps on teams. This means damage oriented, and hopefully front-loaded AoE damage. For this reason, while I like Energy... its AoE damage happens with Total Focus -> Whirling Hands, which is a bit slow and all melee, so it takes a while to set it up. I prefer a secondary that can put out the damage earlier. My choices would be: Earth Assault: while you do have to get into melee, Fissure/Tremor are a good combination. It solos well. Martial Assault: again, a melee set, but you get two melee AoEs and a 5-target bounce attack. It solos well at the early levels, though its final attack is disappointing. My suggestion would be Savage Assault: It starts off with Unkindness which is a cone (you back up as you fire this). Unkindness can take two -Res IOs, helping the team do more damage. After this you're at max range and fire Feral Charge, which does very good damage though I think it's limited to 5 targets, but teleports you into melee range and sets you up with 5 Blood Frenzy so that you can use Rending Flurry at max damage and radius. So you end up firing 3 AoEs starting at range, this is the fastest opening AoE salvo for Dominators, which is what fast teams like. It also solos well due to damage, though it doesn't provide much mitigation so it should be paired with a strong defensive primary for leveling purposes (I like Plant and Dark with it).

I don't think it builds faster automatically, but perhaps Endurance management is easier here with cheaper IOs? That allows for faster attacking, and thus building it up faster in practice.

Sure. When leveling up, I have Hasten, Domination, and often a Power Boost - like effect, that allow me to alternate them to have some good buff up every fight. And I usually get a nice early AoE mez that can be leveraged with Domination to mez everyone in a spawn, or with Power Boost to mez everyone but the Bosses for a really long time and then the Bosses get controlled with single-target controls. I don't have to wait until 38+ to have meaningful controls, and I have layered controls... say a Stun, Knockdown, and long-recharge AoE Hold. A Blaster can take incoming shots a lot better, but can't stop incoming shots nearly as well. The playstyle is different but it is still quite effective before perma-Dom levels. Also, especially while leveling up, if a team is having problems with a tough mission, adding a Dominator often makes a big difference. Adding a Blaster often doesn't, because it's rare that a team is failing because it doesn't have enough damage... it may go a little more slowly, but rarely fail. However, there are many enemy groups that can mess up teams if allowed to do their thing, and shutting that down with controls has major effects. In the end game with so many characters with mez protection, Contempt of Court powers, and capped defenses... controls are less important. But there is still a lot of game before that, and in any case, at the end game when compared to such characters, Dominators will have permanent Domination in any case and be very powerful. And if we're looking at teams with everyone on SOs, then even in the end game defenses won't be so strong that control is irrelevant.

That's actually a good question. I don't know. There is a parallel case, but it has some differences: if you slot a Knockback damage proc into Creepers, it can only fire when the vines do a knockback attack, not when they fling thorns. Similarly, a Hold damage proc in Singularity will not fire on Lift and Crush, only when it uses Gravity Distortion. So... proc IOs are limited by the type of power that the pet uses. But I don't recall reading about a test done specifically to see if ENHANCEMENT slotting can benefit a power from an IO that normally couldn't be slotted in that power. You may be right and enhancement slotting for Accuracy may benefit all of a pet's powers regardless of the kind of IO set used. I assumed that they are limited the same way that damage procs are, but they do actually work in different ways, so... maybe they're good.

I'm kinda thinking it's balanced. It's quite strong offensively, but far behind the top defensive armor sets on defense. So it racks up great stats against Pylons, but it's more vulnerable to more situations (-Rech, -Def as the obvious, but also Endurance drain and -Recovery) than many other sets. And on the offense side, I'm not sure that it's out of balance compared to Shield (which is far stronger defensively at the top end) or to Fire Armor (which, granted, does have its own issues) or to Rad Armor (though that needs procs to do it). So, overall, it looks to me like it's comparable to other defensive sets that are on the strong offensive side... good offense, with some holes to balance it out.

This is what I'm running now, updated to do more damage (because I found that it was strong in everything except AoE damage, and personal survival when you aggro a lot of mobs... and doing more AoE damage thins out the crowd of mobs). Stalagmites opens up with 300 AoE damage, then Stone Cages to stop wandering. EQ for the -ToHit debuff, and then alternate Wall of Force and Fissure to get Force Feedback procs and get the powers back up faster for the next fight. Switch to single target attacks when down to the Boss(es). Ice Mastery APP is also an option, it has better AoE due to Frost Breath being the best AoE in the APPs, and also having Ice Storm as backup AoE. I may respec into that and see how the extra AoE damage plays compared to the loss of constant Force Feedback procs... should be better AoE, but both Earth and Cold like to have more Recharge, so... for now it's Stone Mastery.

What animation time are you using for Power Burst? It got an animation upgrade last year, but I don't think it's updated in Mids. Also, it benefits from the Energy Store/Release mechanism to do WAY more damage when you set it up, which should be at least half the time it's used. I think with 50% Energy Release uptime it still ends up better than BIB, and improves as the uptime goes higher.

The melee AoEs and the ability to use ranged AoEs without being bothered if you're in melee range is the reason to play Martial. It has two AoEs for melee and access to its (relatively weak) ranged AoE while in melee, which plays very nicely. But if that's not a good enough draw, certainly the weak ranged AoE ability isn't going to be attractive enough.

Dark Control: everything is good, so if you must skip something, I'd skip the AoE Hold. Your main defense will be -ToHit debuffing, not controls, so slot up Fearsome Stare for that. With that, Living Shadows to keep mobs from moving and that also adds -To Hit and reasonable Range/Melee/AoE defense of about 30%, you'll effectively be soft-capped to everything. Back it up with the resist shield from Soul and perma-Dom for mez protection, and you're actually going to be pretty tanky. Especially with Gather Darkness increasing both your defense powers and your -ToHit debuffs at the start of most fights. Take Heart of Darkness and slot it with 3-4 damage procs. After you open up with the cones for debuffing, you'll run into the spawn for PBAoE mezzing and control, and this will combine the two. Haunt and Umbra Beast are good pet powers, though like all pets they suffer in high-difficulty scenarios. The -ToHit debuffing will help with this, though, and they add extra damage. Possess is great for soloing at low levels, turning nasty mobs like Sappers or Sorcerors to your side at all levels, and perma-Confusing AVs at the high end.

Are you allowed to slot attacks other than Brawl, or would that be unmanly? 😄

Correct. And Achilles is a pretty good choice, because while it has a pretty low activation chance... you may have 2-3 Tornadoes out, and only one of them needs to activate in each ten seconds in order to get the debuff if you're fighting a single target (tough Boss or AV).

I personally see the problems as being due to too much +Def from IO sets, and that's not a problem that really exists in the 20s or earlier, you don't have enough slots and many sets are only available 27+. I don't think there's a need to rebalance mobs to provide more of a challenge at low-mid levels, only around 35+... or more likely, 41+.