Coyote

Uh, does that mean you're asking for Rage to be nerfed, or does that mean that your Rage is fueled by nerfs? 😛

Scrappers, for me. It feels like scrapperlocking is shutting off my brain, and if I'm going to do that I'm going to go all the way and just run a /FF MM and just point "kill that guy, over there. Then fetch me a beer." BTW, that works better with Mercs and other human henchmen (and Robots)... Demons deliberately shake the beer, and you don't want to know what the undead do.

Okay, this is what I have from my Combat logs, with some extraneous stuff removed: [21:10:47] You activated the Lightning Storm power. [21:10:48] Readying Tornado. [21:10:48] You call forth a Lightning Storm! [21:10:48] Your attack rate has been increased. [21:10:49] HIT Kitsu Miyuki! Your Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge power is autohit. [21:10:50] You activated the Tornado power. [21:10:50] You call forth a Tornado! [21:10:54] Your attack rate has been increased. [21:10:54] HIT Kitsu Miyuki! Your Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge power is autohit. [21:11:01] Your Combat Jumping has made you harder to hit. I activated Combat Jumping when the buff icon disappeared. From what I can tell, assuming that lag and personal delay didn't play a factor (and I doubt that lag or the icon display lag is even a second), this is what happened... 1) at 0:47, LS was activated and Tornado queued 2) at 0:48, FF from LS triggered and increased the attack rate 3) at 0:50, Tornado was activated... but, strangely... 4) at 0:54 (significantly AFTER Tornado was activated), the FF from Tornado triggered 5) at 1:01, the FF from Tornado ended So, to my eyes, it seems like the 2nd FF proc is kind of "queued" to start only after the duration of the existing one expires. I wonder what would happen if you trigger a 3rd one during the 1st one's duration (Say, an Earth/Storm who also had one in Earthquake)... would it be queued where the 1st one ends, which would have #2 and #3 trigger at the same time, or would it queue after #2 and end up with 15 seconds of Recharge bonus?

Earth Control is good control with low damage, which fits well for Dominators. Earth Assault is excellent melee-oriented damage, and with nice AoE damage at point blank range, which also suits Dominators. So separately they are good sets. They also work well together because Earth Control has a good AoE Stun and Earth Assault also has an AoE attack with a Chance to Stun (and you can slot the ATO that creates a stunning ball of fire), so you can put out a lot of Stun effects. And you add in Knockdown from both Earth and Earth, so they combine to have a lot of Stunning and knocking down around you. I would actually worry more about Ranged defense on Earth/Earth... the mobs near you are going to be facing a lot of Stuns and Knockdowns, plus a Seismic Smash to the face, and usually a Hold (since it's more convenient to just tab to nearby mobs and Hold them). They're going to be less of a problem than the Council Valkyrie launching missiles at you every few seconds from long range and never coming close enough to get smashed. That's where Ranged Defense is useful, in that it allows you to focus on controlling and smashing at short range while leaving the annoying ranged foes for later because you can survive the little damage that they put out. But if you don't have it, then you have to split your focus, but the melee damage is still high enough that you can't ignore melee opponents, so now you have to try to control both the melee and the ranged opponents.

Get off Luminara's lawn and get onto mine. It needs mowing. 🤣

I don't know... it has 3 AoE with 66-75% chance to knockdown. That's a LOT of mob dribbling, plus Force Feedback in 3 attacks. Then the 4th attack is also an AoE with +Defense... BESIDES the damage, I took TW with a /Regen Brute so that the knockdown and +Defense help give Regen a chance to activate heals and just to regenerate damage while mobs are getting up. And against Bosses, sets with a 100% Hold or Stun may bounce off the Mag 4 required (though Holds can slot a Chance to Hold proc), while TW has a 100% Knockdown which helps with damage reduction against a single target. TW seems to me to be not only an outlier in terms of damage, but also to be one of the better defensive/utility sets... not necessarily the best, but clearly good enough on that account to consider it a strength. It specializes in AoE KD, so if that's what you want, it definitely delivers.

I cannot find the post, but I thought that someone doing a lot of proc testing... either @Sir Myshkin or @Bopper said that FF proc durations ADD to any existing stack's duration, rather than refreshing it. That also seems to bear out some quick testing I did, where Tornado and Lighting Storm with FF loaded fired off one after the other... and the buff icon remained for longer than 5 seconds after the last.

The reasons for nerfing overpowered sets, perfectly stated. OP sets don't literally lower the number of available choices, but do heavily restrict the number of desirable choices.

So far, this thread is delivering on the entertainment value.

Mostly agree with Hopestar's assessment. Dark is very strong IF you manage location successfully. Works better with ranged pets so you can pull spawns into fights rather than following crazy Ninjas into fights with mobs who aren't debuffed. Time is almost as strong, but a lot easier to manage. Both suffer against some mob types that bring a lot of +Def, but Dark does have a lot of -Damage and a bit more control than Time, which is what you need against Rularuu eyeballs rather than just +Def or -ToHit. Kinetics so far is working reasonably well as long as I can use Tankermind to pull attacks through the MM's defense and resists and have Bodyguard mode spread the damage around so that Ninjas aren't getting one-shotted by focusing damage on a single one. The ones who die are always the ones who run off solo to kill a single mob away from me. But while it's solid if HEAVILY micromanaged to keep the fight near the MM and the aggro on you, if you're not going to use Tankerminding strategies with it, I would put it a lot lower... dead Fulcrum Shifted pets do no damage. Storm is similar to Kinetics: It depends on Tankerminding and Hurricane to minimize incoming damage to pets, and if you can have that working well you can leverage its high damage. If not, then you may lose more damage to pets dying than you gain from Storm's powers. Due to pulling far more aggro, Tankerminding is a lot easier than with Kinetics, but on the other hand it has a bit of Resist and Defense rather than a very strong heal, so the aggro part is easier but the surviving aggro part isn't as easy. And unlike Kinetics, you can't split damage to pets and then heal everyone with an AoE.

Alright, I think I've decided on a general build. I may adjust the slotting on the henchmen in order to squeeze out more damage or based on whether they're endurance draining themselves. Achilles Heel went into the Spec Ops rather than the Soldiers so that it activates at one level higher, but I may swap it with a defense IO from the Soldiers in order get AH up more often on the targets if the Spec Ops don't push it out enough. Burst and Slug are both over 100 DPA and I have not much to do besides add to the shooting, so that will help with the low Mercs damage. Repulsion Bomb and M30 add over 300 AoE damage for fight openers to help get rid of minions faster. Henchmen are softcapped with Power Boosted shields, and a bit better once the Alpha slot is active. It looks reasonable and should put out a steady stream of low and annoying DoT damage as well as a metric ton of shell casings littering the office building from the door to the last boss.

Tornado is one of the best powers for a Storm, and I think it should always be 6-slotted, for a few reasons: 1) great damage for a very fast animation time. Even if it loses some to moving around it's still worth the animation time. 2) great control on Bosses. Once the minions are out of the way it has fewer targets, and it will put a Mag 2 Stun on a Boss a decent amount of the time, which stacks with Thunderclap, and will juggles a Boss around pretty well. Excellent defensive use. 3) Force Feedback proc in it is too good to pass up. 4) Even if damage from it doesn't seem relevant, it takes -Res IOs, and since you can have 2 up at once, that makes up for the fact that the chance to proc every 10 seconds isn't great. You can get a decent -Res out of them (I think a single Tornado averages -6% debuff over its span, so two would probably average about 9-10%).

I think it's because the knockback version pulses too fast with too high a chance to knockback. As a knockback that knocks mobs out of its own area, it just makes it work very consistently (but self-defeatingly since unless you're in a small room the mobs will bounce out after a fall or two). But as a knockdown, if it were as consistent, basically it would knock every mob in the area down and just keep dribbling them like basketballs. I don't know if they'd get to act again. It would overtake Seeds of Confusion as the best AoE control in the game.

Hey, some people enjoy napping 😄

Heh. I'm doing Night Ward on a Blaster at +1/x6 (I think First Ward was the same). I'm waiting for the Defend the Mansion mission to teach me humility and to repeatedly rez-kill me like every other character of mine who soloed Night Ward. But the real test will be the last mission against the pair of AVs. I find Night Ward especially, but also First Ward, an excellent test of "is this really a powerful character, or do they just beat up Council and DE for a living?"

I believe so, but I don't have a link directly from a developer saying so. But I thought that they seemed to work the same, so it's probably the case.

It is certainly expensive as it is, but a version can also be done relatively on the cheap with other sets slotted instead of the purple sets. You end up with a larger downtime on PA and then it may be reasonable to overslot its Recharge. Apocalypse -> Decimation Ragnarok -> Positron Coercive Persuasion -> Malaise (5 slots so you don't lose the no-aggro effect, and a 6th for Acc/Confuse/Recharge) 2xSoulbound in PA -> 2x Call to Arms (A/D/R and E/D/R) Frozen Blast -> Annihilation -Res 2xSoulbound in Tornado -> E/D/R from Expedient Reinforcement and E/D/R from either Call to Arms (cheaper) or Overwhelming Force (more expensive) If the PvP damage procs in Blind are too expensive, go with the cheap damage procs from the Hold sets, then use the 4 slots for either 4x Basilisk or 3xThunderstrike (no Recharge for best effect from the procs) plus one D/E from any other set. Same with Arcane Bolt, change the PvP proc to a 3rd Thunderstrike, or go to 5x Entropic Chaos for some Recharge to make up what was lost from the other sets Controller ATO in Thunder Clap -> Stupefy Try all that and you still end up with a very effective build that uses nothing more expensive than LotGs other than one Panacea proc.

Ooh! ooh! I'll take a shot! Is it... STATISTICS??!?!! 😄

😮 Controllers have been known as one of the main powerhouses for soloing AVs for a long time. Illusion/Rad primarily, but also Ill/Cold, Thermal, Storm, Time... as well as other builds. Illusion/Storm can put out enough damage to solo +4 AVs in general. Although I haven't cracked Siege yet... For your build, I have three things to suggest: 1: Tornado is a high-damage power. You're slotting it for Stun, that's a large part of the reason why you're not killing things especially fast. Put a Force Feedback: +Recharge IO in it, that will more than make up the loss of the Recharge set bonuses, and then slot it for Damage and Recharge primarily, maybe with some Endurance Reduction. Personally I suggest a KB to KD converter since it will cause it to just grind mobs down with constant damage instead of tossing them, chasing them, tossing them, etc. 2: Lightning Storm, like Tornado, can use a Force Feedback proc. Each proc here or in Tornado is effectively worth more than a LotG IO, so ... they're well worth the investment. 3: While getting 5% Recharge from Steamy Mist is nice... I would clear some slots and put the +Defense unique Resist IOs (Steadfast and Gladiator) into it. 6% Defense is a far bigger benefit than 5% Recharge. Edit: for comparison, my build. PA plays permanently due to running Ageless and the Force Feedback procs in Tornado/Lightning Storm, and on the offensive side it has enough damage to solo most +4 AVs (+3 with the level shift).

Most Controller Immobilizes (including Fire ones) have a 10 second period after application where they convert KnockBACK to KnockDOWN. So as long as you're going to spam them, you don't need a KB converter in Bonfire. That's why they bounce up and down for a while, then get knocked out. Bonfire with a KB converter changes its pulse period from better than one per second to once every two seconds. That's still enough to be great... a good chance to knockdown mobs every two seconds with no drawbacks is a great power. If you don't put a converter in it, then it will do it more often, which makes it better... but only as long as you keep spamming Immobs (and the AoE one is expensive, especially if you're also running Hot Feet). A knockback patch that knocks mobs out of its own area is not as good as a knockdown patch that operates at a lower frequency, which is why many posters will advise to slot a KB to KD converter into Bonfire. Personally, I love it with the KD converter... this allows it to be used in another area, or around a corner, without having to concentrate on that area with Fire Cages. So I can Flashfire/Fire Cages a spawn, and then if adds come in, Bonfire can be thrown at them without worrying about applying Fire Cages. Mobs generally run into it, and fall down regularly. When they get up, they take a ranged shot... and then fall down again. The only mobs who are resistant to it are mobs like Warwulves who don't have many ranged attacks so won't stay in it, and move fast enough to get up and run out before it knocks them down again.

That was my argument, buried back near the beginning of the thread... the set bonuses for Defense and Recharge are out of whack with regards to other set bonuses like Accuracy, Damage, Regeneration, etc. Some of it is because of high bonuses (Defense) compared to low bonuses (Damage), and some of it is because of the diminishing value of bonuses (enough +Recovery is enough, so building for more is wasting set bonuses that could go to something that is actually needed). Everyone in build-design threads suggests raising Defense and Recharge... unless a character is just cripplingly low in value, nobody suggest making major changes to get Recovery in, +Damage is almost never mentioned, etc. Resistance gets a nod as probably being in 3rd place, but well behind the two leaders. This is unbalanced, and should be addressed... which would open up more builds as competitive against the best other builds.

That's why I team at lower or mid levels, and generally solo at higher or Incarnate levels. Teaming at 50 is a blur of damage and dead bodies. Soloing, however, you can challenge yourself while you can read the story and see lots and lots of new enemy types. Plus old ones upgraded with new spiritual leaders.

Here is a version based off that build. It relies on Barrier to cap Ranged/AoE, but maintains S/L/E caps and almost F/C caps without Barrier. Domination recharge is down to 84 seconds (but that's with Hasten up all the time, which it won't be... it will be a tight click when Hasten is down).

You must require: no use of AoE Immobs to convert knockback to knockdown. Release the Knockback!!!

Mids shows accuracy increases for set bonuses, but they don't apply to pet powers. In this case you can't go by the Mids numbers, unfortunately.