Coyote

Pet power list: in Mids, MMs (only) can now bring up the powers available to their henchmen: You can then check power by power to see what does knockback. But I believe that the only one with KB that matters is the Assault Bot, who has an AoE missile attack that knocks back some of the targets... he needs a KB to KD converter so he doesn't knock mobs out of patches. The others are fine without it, although I like the Overwhelming Force in the Drones in order to actually add Knockdown to more attacks.

Here is an older version I had planned on, using Black Scorpion as the EPP. You could swap it out for Fire.

Plant/Savage is great and a lot of fun. Not great against AVs. Mind/Nrg is also a lot of fun, less effective on teams but great against AVs. Dark/Nrg and Dark/Savage are also excellent options to either of the above.

I would certainly take Dehydrate on a Water/Storm, for the following reason: Most of your DPS in single-target is coming from Tornado/Lightning Storm. So having a slightly higher-DPS rotation on your blasts isn't as important as... 1) getting the +Endurance to sustain the burn from the Storm powers (unless using Ageless... but I like Clarion for squishies without mez resistance) 2) getting an Achilles Heel proc into the single-target rotation. The damage boost to Tornado and LS will more than make up for introducing a less-efficient blast into the rotation. You could slot AH into Aqua Bolt, but since it has about half the chance to proc as Dehydrate, you'd have to use it twice as often... which eats up as much activation time as Dehydrate. So, 2x Aqua Bolt or 1x Dehydrate... since I'm getting back HPs and Endurance from using Dehydrate and I'm not from Aqua Bolt, I'd rather slot and use Dehydrate.

No, not to me. You are deliberately constraining the discussion to situations where toughness matters. However, damage always matters. So, in a situation where one AT's advantage is irrelevant some portion of the time, then it makes sense for that advantage to be greater when it matters to make up for the fact that it's not relevant some portion of the time. The portion of the time that a Tanker's higher toughness is irrelevant... is unknown. It depends on the difficulty level, it depends on the level. It depends on teaming vs solo, and on team composition. But a Brute's lower damage advantage is always relevant, thus it shouldn't be as high. I'm not sure how it's possible to come up with a balance ratio between Damage Advantage vs Toughness Advantage given that we don't know at what percentage of the time the TA will be irrelevant (other than Trick Arrows always being irrelevant 😛 ). But I think it should be intuitively obvious that there SHOULD be a higher TA than DA because of this "occasionally irrelevant TA" situation. So, in short... I am completey okay with having AT balance predicated on the idea that damage is just more relevant than anything else in the game, and an AT that gains 10% damage should give up MORE than 10% effectiveness in other aspects of the game.

Go all the way. Make them level a tri-form Warshade.

The one suggestion that I really like, regardless of any real solutions, is that chaining lightning would be cool as heck. Accordingly, by the Rule of Cool, the main way to fix Electric Blast is to give all of its single-target attacks a chance to trigger a chain effect.

The Blaster icon is usually in the Hospital, and the Stalker is not placed on the board since you don't know where it is. You just roll for its attack and then remove an opposing piece.

Bonfire does KB normally so you want an IO to change that, but both Tremor and Fissure do 0.67 scale KB, so they don't have to be changed to KD with an IO, allowing you to put something else instead for more damage.

Is there? I didn't think so. I think that you can force them to emote with commands, or make a macro that both has them change stance and say or emote something as they do, but I didn't think there was a way to change their defaults. So I don't know if you can replace the defaults as much as add to them.

Is that like a Reverse Taunt effect?

AFAIK, your temporary buffs do pass down to summoned pseudo-pets for their duration, so using a couple of +Damage inspirations and summoning Lightning Storm would boost its damage for about 30 seconds. And Freezing Rain, though that damage is so low that it won't matter.

How about 0 Endurance = -20% Resist (everything)?

I'm saying that there are two things you can say about Sentinel damage, and I feel one is right and one is wrong: 1: Sentinel damage is lower than Blaster damage. Absolutely correct. And fair, because clearly Sentinel defenses are better than Blaster defenses, and also their inherent can buff a team's damage while the Blaster's inherent is part of the reason why its personal damage is higher. 2: Sentinel damage is "lacking". I feel this is wrong, although if your definition of "lacking damage" is "lower than Blaster", then I suppose it would be a true statement. But in that case, what isn't lacking damage besides a Blaster? So, while "lacking damage" is more of an opinion, I've run damage chains and DPA calculations on Sentinel powers WITH PROCS versus other non-Blaster ATs, and Sentinels seem okay to me. Their damage looks comparable to Corruptors and Defenders and Dominators... they lose out on AoE compared to those due to damage caps, but they gain due to having a nuke up for every spawn in most situations, plus a second "half-nuke" in Engulfing Darkness with procs. I mean, my Dark/Nin will have an every-spawn opener of Blackstar plus ED for over 800 points of AoE damage. Yes, target caps are lower, but that's still higher than most Defenders and Corruptors have available as an every-spawn AoE combo. So, in the end, I'm saying this: Blaster Damage > Sentinel Damage > "lacking damage", for my definition of lacking damage. And be aware that I consider an AT that can't open with an every-spawn AoE salvo of at least 600 damage as "lacking damage". But other than maybe Khelds, I'm not sure there is such an AT. Individual powerset combinations within some ATs, yes. But I think that every AT in general has multiple options that can open up with 600+ AoE, and actually all Sentinel builds can do that.

5 damage procs on my Stalker show it as about 470 damage. With a 90 second base recharge, that's comparable to a Sentinel nuke... in terms of DPS, it's comparable to a 600 damage nuke with 120 recharge from a Blaster. I definitely see it as worthwhile, especially when paired with an attack set that is low on AoE like Katana. Heck, I have Rad Therapy fully procced also, and that's over 300 damage... so almost 800 damage as my opening AoEs for every fight, from an AT that usually struggles with AoE (Stalker). And Katana is low AoE for a Scrapper, so... I'd slot both up for damage and nuke spawns with my radioactive emissions before I started slicing into the bosses.

Exactly. Speed runs usually are done when the team can steamroll missions, and in steamrolling situations defensive powers like controls and defensive buffs are largely irrelevant, while damage (and especially burst damage) is the most important ability. So on speed runs, if you're not a burst damage AT, you won't be able to have as much impact as you would in situations where the fights are tougher and take longer, and defensive abilities, controls, and constant DoT (which the henchmen effectively are) are far more useful.

Time is very defense-oriented. It can help a bit with offense due to +Recharge and -Res (and damage procs in Temporal Distortion, Time Stop, and Slowed Response), but its main strength will always be on the defensive side. In combat, it tends to be a lot less busy and keeps you free to focus on your primary. It also tends to pull you into melee range since it has a strong defensive PBAoE aura. Storm is very offense-oriented. It can help a bit with defense with Steamy Mist (very little) and with controls (a good amount of Knockdown and Stun), but its main strength will always be on the offensive side. It is pretty busy in combat, and eats up a lot of Endurance without any way to regain it (although you wait longer for the powers, a Corruptor can slot a +Endurance IO in either Tornado or LS and mitigate the Endurance cost a bit). It has some reasons to be in short range (Thunderclap and Hurricane), but Hurricane pushes mobs out of melee range and Thunderclap can be a fire-and-retreat power so it doesn't pin you into staying in melee range. So it pairs better with sets that don't have a reason to be in PBAoE range, like for example Ice. My favorite pairing with Storm is Water Blast, and second is Dark Blast. Both bring a Heal power that can be slotted with Theft of Essence to help with the endurance burn. With Time being such a strong defensive set, I like offense-oriented sets that can do well at short range. Fire is always good when you're looking for offense, and so are DP and Rad. Ice is a more balanced set, and prefers to NOT be in melee range since it has no PBAoE powers, so it doesn't fit so well with Time. I actually don't think it fits great with Storm, either... Ice can burn through Endurance fast also, and it has Holds which don't stack with Storm's Stuns. The main benefit is that both work well as pure ranged Defenders and Ice's extra controls help with Storm's lack of defense.

I use the power a lot on a Bots/EA MM... it helps when a burst of damage comes in, to get the Heal and Absorb chains up faster. And it allows me to skip Hasten, which is more useful for a MM whose minions need help from Tactics more than a Defender... but a Defender would also like to be able to skip the Speed pool more easily. So it's useful. But I wouldn't base a build on spamming it, it eats up too much animation time. In addition, it's easier to target through the Assault Bot and use it as the starting point of chains if you're a MM... if you're a Defender, you want to have more control over where your attacks are going. Even as a MM, I swap targets to enemies in order to make sure I'm not wasting an AoE on a lone figure away from the others. As a Defender, you need more control over your targets, and then switching back every ten seconds, then again to the enemies, is going to be really difficult. It's certainly a great power, but build on using it as needed rather than spamming it.

Resurrect powers work only on dead Blasters (and occasionally other PCs that may die).

Willing to donate for better racks.

If it progresses to twerking, you may want to visit an urgent care center. Or a disco.

It's true if you feel that you must be capped, but between Darkest Night and Dark Servant, there is enough -ToHit out there that 30% or higher to everything is effectively capped except against ambushes. Not that I'd turn down higher defenses, but they're not nearly as important to a /Dark Controller as they would be to, say, a /Cold or a /Thermal. And against AVs you can nerf their damage and get mez protection from Clarion... and still give them about 10% -ToHit. So having 45% isn't necessary even against AVs, if you're a /Dark. Maybe against multiple AVs, where you can't stack as much -Damage, but in most cases against a single AV you nerf their damage, and against non-AVs you put out huge -ToHit debuffing, so... 45% is only needed against ambushes or adds where you may not yet have had the chance to debuff them. Now, on the other hand, building for damage via procs often eats into set bonuses. But for Controllers, building for proc damage is a good way to push their usual low damage limits... so it's a trade-off between uber defenses but limited damage, and solid defenses but also solid damage. The more powers that you're able to slot up with procs, the closer you get to a real damage class... but the harder it is to get both good Recharge and good Defense stats. So what I'm saying is that a /Dark Controller has a better opportunity than most to walk the Path of Practicing Proctology, while still having very solid defenses.

Sentinels, properly built, do a lot more damage than most players give them credit for. Their main weakness is a target cap of 10 targets on the AoE, because damage is there with IOs. Blasters properly built can get to defense caps for several types of attacks, but not to all, and don't have mez protection, and don't have defense debuff resistance, which puts them a lot further behind the Sentinels than Sents are behind Blasters in damage. The argument that you can build a Blaster to match Sentinel defenses is nonsensical. Sentinels start off with pretty comprehensive mez protection, Blasters can only get that with a tier-4 Incarnate. And at that point Sentinels can run Barrier for more defense/resist. The argument that Sentinel damage is lacking is more informed, but still wrong... it just takes a build well designed with damage procs to get the higher damage results. No matter what, they'll trail Blasters, though. So in the end, given that damage (especially on teams) is generally considered more important by most players than defensive ability, do you want a 100% improvement in survivability or a 50% improvement in damage (along with far better range, especially on the AoE and cones)? The survivability seems much higher, but how relevant is it, on teams?

That's why I use Cloud Senses, only 4 slots for a nice Recharge bonus, and it enhances the main ability that Dark Servant has (-ToHit), and adds the damage proc and some Accuracy. 6 slotting also gets you a Ranged Defense, though usually a /Dark Controller won't need to squeeze out set bonuses to have good defense.

Well, that's an average, so in any case it wouldn't proc exactly every 30 seconds. However, the Dominator and Controller font ATOs only work for the appropriate AT. So when a Creeper entity that has the ATO slotted into it uses a power, that ATO cannot proc because the entity using the power is not a Controller or Dominator. For pet summons like Creepers, Tornado, etc, they only work on the initial cast. If not putting into an AoE Immobilize to spam, it will work nicely in Tornado (but even moreso in Thunderclap).