Coyote

Yeah, this is pretty accurate. PD works, but not very well solo, and with a good build and play, anything can be made successful solo. I only like it on a MM or Controller, who can use the buffs on henchmen/pets. Bruiser with Painbringer really brings the pain, heh, and Animate Stone becomes even more tanky, and so on. But that's stacking the Resist buffs on top of base pet resists and pet resist IOs, where now the pets are 40% to everything and over 60% to some types of damage. More if you're a MM so you have one more resist IO available. Then add Regen on top of that, and PD becomes really useful. But soloing on an AT without much available in the way of base Resists and no use for Painbringer, it's kinda meh.

It's WAY better than on a Controller. Like, you know, OMG, totally. Even if it's clearly behind Dark Control.

I suppose it depends on the melee character... I think at those levels, a lot can take the alpha strike, but are going to be below half health, and if the spawn isn't debuffed or controlled by their next set of attacks, the tank could die. At high levels that's not going to be a risk, and in any case the damage is going to clear minions fast, but not at lower levels. So I think that it's more useful than not... but it does depend on how well the melee character takes the damage. If he can take it and not worry about the next ten seconds of follow-up attacks, then you're right... control isn't necessary. But there are enough teams whose lead tank can't handle that, since a lot of tanks only get their defenses solid in the late 20s and 30s as they get enough slots to balance attacks and defenses, and there are teams who use a Scrapper or something else that's only moderately tough as the lead since they don't have a true tank, to make control useful a lot of the time. Not all the time, as you say there will be teams who don't need control, but there will also be a lot of teams who either need it, or at least have a use for it. Leaving aside that as a tank against many opponents, I was way happy to see the Raider Engineer, or Tsoo Sorceror, or Spectral Demon Prince locked up before they could put out a nasty buff/debuff, and aggro control doesn't stop that.

Well, actually, I generally agree that Mind is clearly worse than Dark, during the leveling process. I just didn't like using Incarnate-level play as the reason why it's weak. I'm quite happy to see a Dominator at level 22 throw a non-Dominate Stun and Immobilize into the spawn. Sure, they become powerhouses later, but AoE controls are useful at lower levels even at Mag 3. And while some characters can manage AoE damage well reasonably early, there are very few characters who are leveling up before the 40s who are both high AoE and tough enough to just solo a spawn by booming it with damage. Control (and debuffs like Dark's) are quite welcome at those levels. Sure, you're not providing Statue Spawn including Bosses before you're a perma-Dom, but in a team, shutting down the minions and Lts for 15 seconds is quite a good contribution. And even Mag 3 can be welcome on a Boss for many other characters who can then add another Mag 2 or 3 just from random "chance to stun" attacks. In the leveling process, control is useful by shutting down a good portion of the incoming damage even if it's not strong enough to shut down all damage like at high levels. At high levels, control can shut down the entire spawn... but it doesn't need to, because at that point damage can just shut down the entire spawn by defeating it. For this reason, I see "partial control that is welcome" as more useful than "total control that is irrelevant", even though you're quite right in the details of Dominators putting out far more control at late levels than at early levels.

Nice. That's definitely a compelling argument. Coherent, too.

Does Triage Beacon stack? I know that Tree of Life does. For that reason, BTW, if it had its cooldown lowered it would also have its duration shortened so as not to be able to stack 3 or them. Either that, or it would be converted to be a one-at-a-time summons.

Hehe, it's already gone off the rails. Go ahead, how much more harm can you do? I think the insurance company has already agreed that it's an unrecoverable loss, and will be covering for the cost of a new one.

Thread is trash. Oh, that was cold. You really iced him. I hope he doesn't get frostbite while he's chilling and thinking about how to best serve a dish called revenge. Of course, it's possible that he's totally cool, and stays frosty. Thank you, I'm here all weekend (yes, that was a public service warning 😛 )

Ugh. Seriously, ugh. Not that there's anything directly wrong with the post... just that in the part of the game where THREE SECONDS is too long to wait for a power to activate, even one that actually groups mobs together for killing.... that part of the game doesn't care about control. Not even Fire's (3.3 second cast time) Bonfire, which elsewhere in the post is said to be good. Heh. But, seriously. There are teams who run with maxed out Incarnates, and against content that's not very challenging (though there are few missions where anything can be challenging to a full Incarnate team). And they run with an 8 man team instead of 3-4 to try to create a challenge. In these teams, Mind absolutely sucks. But then, so does every other Control primary. It's nice to shut down a spawn with Stalagmites... or you could wait the 2 seconds to cast it so that some melee character eats the alpha strike without blinking, and just go to using the AoEs from the secondary, like you would have after opening with Stalagmites. Yes, Mind doesn't even have that option (a good opener), but does it really matter? In City of AoEs, Dominator primaries don't matter. Nor do Controllers, for that matter. They only really matter when soloing, or when on 2-3 man teams, or at lower levels. So, arguing that Mind is weaker than Dark because it's MORE useless on Incarnate teams doesn't make sense to me. Now, arguing that Dark > Mind during the leveling up process, or on lower level teams, or on a 3-man team doing a Patron arc at level 42, that argument would matter. But in Incarnate World, Control primaries don't matter... so arguing that Mind is a bad Control primary by using the scenario where control is, in general, useless.... is to completely miss the point of comparing the defensive abilities of control primaries. Of course they don't matter at 50+4, so we really care about how they do at about 12-50.

Much better, now for individual powers: Block of Ice looks fine. I prefer to use IOs and especially sets, but this is a solid SO-based slotting. Chillblain: why the Range increase? It puts it way out of range of your other powers, so there doesn't seem to be much point to it. I could almost see range increase in an AoE Immob to keep an entire spawn further away while killing the guys who closed in, but in a single-target attack? Also, it's pretty expensive on the endurance... I would change those Range to 1 Acc, 2 End Red. Or just 1 End Red, and save the slot. Frostbite: This power recharges reasonably fast so I definitely wouldn't go with 2 Recharge Red in it, and it costs a LOT of Endurance. So if you're actually using that Recharge Reduction, in other words, spamming it, it will really crush your endurance bar. I would switch 1-2 of the Recharge Red to End Red. I don't think that Acid Arrow is auto-hit (I don't have one active to test), so I think you might want to test that, and if it misses, switch the Range enhancements to Accuracy. Overall it looks much better, and you'd have to see how it plays before you can answer questions like: how is the Endurance doing? Do you need to swap some Recharge Reduction in some powers to Endurance Reduction? Is EMP Arrow over-slotted for Accuracy so you can change an Accuracy to a Hold? Etc. One change I would make is to take slots from Poison Gas Arrow (you generally don't need to enhance Sleep durations) and put them in Ice Arrow, for Accuracy and Hold. If you're shotting it at a Boss to stack with Block of Ice for a quick lock-down, you want to make sure it's accurate.

If I were musically inclined, I think I'd consider writing the Dark Control Anthem: "My Haunt Don't Taunt". Followed up by the dark country epic hit, "Don't Taunt My Haunt". 😛

1: That's what I believe also. 2: To go back to the OP, Haunts do not Taunt. What the power does, is give a special Taunt aura to the target that you cast it upon, which only Taunts Haunts (heh). This forces the Haunts to attack the target that you cast them upon, until that target is dead. So you get a Haunt Taunt, instead of a couple of Taunt Haunts.

Well, looks a lot better. If you're willing to start using IOs and more sets, then a lot more can be done. For now, I would say: !!!: Get Mids Reborn to plan character builds. It's a lot easier to make changes there, and post them up and say "Is this a good change", than to go through that annoying respec process. The time savings in not having to do respecs to see builds is well worth the time required to figure it out. 1: Stamina should be 3 slotted. And since you don't have a self-heal, I'd put 2-3 slots in Health. 2: Disruption Arrow is used only for a -Res debuff, and usually slotted only with Recharge. I can see putting an End Red in it, but not more: 3 Recharge Red, 1 End Red. 3: Similarly, Glue Arrow doesn't need more than about 2-3 Rech Red and a Slow. 4: Flash Arrow is auto-hit in PvE as far as I know. I think the Accuracy is ONLY for PvP. You can save a couple of slots by removing the Accuracy. Also, what else is in there? Recharge? It recharges fast enough, just put 3 ToHitDebuff in it and save slots. 5: Jack Frost needs Accuracy and Damage, not much else. Maybe an End Red, so change one of the last two SOs to Damage 6: Use the slots to fill out Glacier, and move the Controller ATO to it, and then slot up Block of Ice for damage.

But, necro/what? Necro/Time?

Let's see... my first choice is always Madame of Mystery, who's in a story arc. I think it's called To Save a Soul. Siege is definitely a top choice, he's one of the Praetorians in the Portal Jockey series. Reichsman is the end AV in Dr Kahn's Task Force. He's up there with MoM, maybe even harder... not sure, I did MoM but not Reichsy.

Come on, you know that despite your poker face and evil glare, deep inside there is a shining unicorn kitten dancing with glee and joy at the suffering it's causing. The rainbow is just the kitten dancing on the keypads of your inner Dance Dance Domination 😉 And, yes, my inner kitty is dancing with joy at the glares I'm causing 😈

You mean, to Intuition? Both boost Damage and -ToHit, but Musculature adds +End while Intuition adds +Hold. So my choice is Musculature for +End, but if you're choosing +Hold, then you're saying that you're going with Intuition. At least, that's what my intuition ( 😄 ) is telling me.

It's just a sign showing how MUCH you're enjoying utterly destroying someone's body and mind.

Heh. Threads about builds do that to me, also. But personally I'd avoid matching /TA, which has a nice strength of being all ranged, with any set that wants me to close into short range. It's giving up a main strength of TA. I'd go Earth/TA, personally, and with Ice I'd match one of the sets that has -ToHit like Dark, Rad, or Time.

😱 1: Find out about using IOs rather than SOs. They give much better bonuses even if you're not going for sets. 2: Arctic Air is one of your main powers, it should be 6-slotted for Confuse Duration, End Reduction, and Accuracy. But the best slotting for it is 6xContagious Confusion (the purple Confuse set). 3: Block of Ice is your single-target Hold, it's far more useful than a single-target immobilize. Drop something else and take that. Slot it for Damage, a bit of Accuracy, and some Hold. And Chillblain is an attack power that happens to Immobilize, so it needs slotting as a damage power, not as an Immobilize. You could put the Controller set in Block of Ice if you really want to keep it. 4: Oil Slick Arrow is a damage power, and I think it does -Defense, so it doesn't need so much Accuracy slotting. It does need Damage and Recharge.

Either Sudden Acceleration or Overwhelming Force (my preference) in Tornado turn the knockback to knockdown, and make it a knocking-down chainsaw of not-very-mass destruction.

Mind still works well for soloing, as serxiom said, backed up with a good damage secondary (although I'd add Savage and Earth to those in a more AoE oriented difficulty setting). But on a team you don't need much lockdown, just a bit of controlling at the beginning of the fight, and then it's damage time. I agree that Plant is the best at this, not because it's control level is so much better, but because it spends little time controlling and so allows you to get to face-kicking (for Plant/MA), face-smashing (Plant/Earth), or face-ripping (Plant/Savage) sooner.

To add to that, there may not be sets specifically for Controllers, or Ice Controllers, but there are lots of other sets and separate IOs that are useful for everyone. Just as a thought, Ice Control usually has Endurance problems, so you might look to get the Performance Shifter IO with a chance for +Endurance (into Stamina) and the Panacea IO with a chance for +HP and +Endurance (into Health). Also, the Miracle unique into Health for more Endurance. You also have no self-heal, so while the Panacea IO will help, also get the Numina unique into Health, and the Power Transfer: chance to Heal, into Endurance.

Musculature Radial or Intuition Radial. The two things I want to improve would be -ToHit and Damage. Damage because it's damage, and -ToHit because it's the main debuff for the character. -Regen can't be improved, nor can -Res. -Defense isn't relevant since you put out -Defense when you sneeze with Earth/Rad. And as a bonus you also get +EndMod, which helps since you have both Stamina and Accelerate Metabolism, allowing AM to be underslotted for EndMod. Or you get +Hold. Getting +Hold wouldn't be bad, but it's a defensive boost... if your defenses aren't set up strongly with Earth/Rad, I'd look elsewhere to solve that. Your main weakness on that combination should be low damage, so I would go with Musculature over Intuition. You can generally Hold most targets, but what you can't Hold has to hit you through Radiation Infection and Earthquake's debuffs plus your base defenses. So I see more use for Endurance than for Hold duration

What really helped Mercs for me was Traps, especially Caltrops and FFG. Keeping the Mercs alive at range, and unmezzed, was huge in having them do damage that didn't feel terribly weak. Empathy might make them stronger defensively in stats, but I don't know if it's going to make up for exposing them to melee attacks. I hear that Storm also works well with them, largely for the same reason: melee denial.