Coyote

Energy Assault, because it's sparkly? Martial Assault, because you do spinny kicky things? Ice Control because you'd be so cool? Darkness might be colored bright and be like disco lights? Ice/Martial and Dark/Energy are both good combinations. Well, "good" is a relative term if you're talking Ice Control 😛

Every one of my suggestions will work at lower levels, though of course almost no one is doing +4 AVs before Incarnate powers. Not all of them necessarily start the AV soloing at Positron TF level, but all can do early. The Stalkers, like most melee characters, may take the longest to mature since they need solid slotting for attacks, solid slotting for defenses, AND set bonuses to add to defenses, and it's hard to get all that before you start getting extra slots in the 30s. But none of them depends on Incarnate powers or even on epic power pools. Edit: as will the Plant/Psy suggested... once you reach 20 you can solo AVs with /Psy Assault. Also, both Rad Emission and Sonic Blast get their important powers pretty early so that should also be solid in leveling.

It's my main, I've soloed lots of AVs at +4. In general it's just AVs who like to flee that are a problem, but even there I beat Romulus and Director 11, and they're both happy to run around all the time, and the pair of Durays (that was probably the hardest fight) even though one of them just teleports away every few seconds. So the chase-down is sometimes annoying, but it's almost never impossible. Madame of Mystery is probably impossible at +4 for several reasons, but every character will probably have some weakness. If you slot up Heart of Darkness as an attack (4 damage procs), you can throw Psy Scream, then run in for HoD and Psy Shockwave, and Scream/Shockwave will recharge pretty fast. This opens every spawn with about 600 AoE damage, plus two reasonably fast-recharging AoEs. You also have the option to add a pair of damage procs to Fearsome Stare and add another hundred or so damage to that. It's not farming level, but IMO it's quite solid for general play. And, while damage-wise it's just okay, not great, it does do this with the advantage of an AoE Immobilize so you don't have to chase-down stragglers. Add in the AoE damage from a Confused Boss before aggroing the spawn, and you should clear spawns actually faster than the Ill/Storm, who does more theoretical damage but will spread the spawn around 😞

I'm not even sure that would help, since proc damage will also be crushed by the level modifier, unless you meant to slot a lot of damage procs in a higher tier to turn it into a damaging tier (like adding Cloud Senses to Lich). I think Bots can only put 1 damage proc in their T2 to try to squeeze out more damage out of them, and not all of their attacks do knockback. I totally agree, Bots are NOT a high-damage set. Their only "high damage" is against AVs, due to the heavy -Regen out of the Assault Bot... against Bosses they're really slow to grind them down.

I also like slotting up the -ToHit in it. If you're making a Ranged Defense-oriented build, adding some effective defense is useful. However, one IO to always put into it is the Force Feedback: Recharge IO. It procs at 90% upon dropping EQ, and you will drop EQ every fight if it's recharged. Oh, and while 2 Accuracy in Heat Exhaustion may be reasonable for other primaries, Earth puts out so much -Def already by the time that you throw out Heat Exhaustion that you can easily get away with just 1 Accuracy.

Okay, I tested it, not with a high amount of data points since it should be easy to determine whether it's on a 90 second recharge calculation (procs at 90%), or not. I'm not sure what the radius is so I can't calculate the expected proc rate if it's NOT on a 90 second, but it should be around 30% or lower if it's treated like a pet spawn making the attack (10 second cycle time). So, in making attacks with a single damage proc in it, I saw between 20 and 30% proc rate (at fewer than 20 targets)... this seems about right for a pet summons attack, so it's what I expected: if you can max out damage/recharge with enough accuracy in 5 slots, and you're not chasing a set bonus that needs 6 slots, then putting a damage IO in there will net about 20 damage at max level. Given that you can use it 3x in a spawn that's not too bad for a single IO, but it's not especially impressive 😞

You will have several problems to overcome: First, the obvious: you need high damage single-target to beat the regen of AVs, and solid defenses to survive them, and solid AoE damage to go through /x8 spawns reasonably fast. Second, the not as obvious: if you're looking to do all types of story arcs, you need to have plans with dealing with mobs that have high +ToHit and so overcome Defense-based builds, and with mobs that resist different types of mezzing, and with mobs who drain Endurance or give large -Recovery. I would suggest some of the following: Demons/Traps or Thugs/Traps. Traps has enough -Regen to floor AVs, Demons and Thugs do good damage, and having henchmen disperses nasty debuffs away from you. You may have to get used to resummoning the lower tiers, though at +4/x8 Illusion/Traps. Same idea except that it has less overall damage but PA is indestructible. Electric/Electric or Electric/Energy Stalker. High damage both in AoE and single-target, and defense sets that can be made very sturdy and with resistances to a lot of nasty debuffs. I also like Ele/Shield, but it doesn't have as good debuff resistance. And Electric can be slotted with Chance to Heal to help regain health in AV fights. Dark/Psy Dominator. A varied set of controls with a lot of -ToHit gives you defenses against all mob types, and you can avoid AV issues by perma-Confusing them. Good pet damage and the -Regen from /Psy makes up for the DPS loss from spamming Possess. TW/Ele or TW/Ene Brute or Tanker. Like the Ele/x Stalker, but using TW which Stalkers don't have access to (and avoiding Electric Melee which is much better on a Stalker), and the Endurance management powers from Electric or Energy Armor to handle TW's endurance costs. Kind of like the Katana/Dark build from Werner, but with more DPS since you have -Res from the set directly rather than only from IOs. With a lot higher Endurance cost, which is why TW should be paired with a secondary that can really help with Endurance issues. Fire/Dark Controller. High damage from Fire, and Dark neuters any single target. You have a mez protection hole which can be filled with Clarion.

No real power changes, but big changes to the AI for ranged pets. They are far more tethered to a spot if you give them a GoTo command, and more closely tethered to the mastermind if they are on Follow... basically, the "chasedown" of mobs on their aggro list only has them going out to about the edge of Supremacy so you don't get nearly as much henchman scatter. Edit: oh, and part of that change is also that they will still use melee attacks, but not make a move in order to use them. So they will punch someone if the opponent comes into range, but you don't have the Medic running forward to smack a Warwulf in the fangs with their emergency aid kit and yell "Bad doggie! Bad doggie! Stop eating my leg! Bad Do-aaaaaah!!!!!"

Thugs or Demons primary. Dark, Time, or Thermal secondary (Thermal with Demons, not sure it's so good for Thugs). Also Demons/Storm, although Storm is such a different style that it's hard to compare directly with the others. But adding the -Res from Demon attacks to the direct damage from Storm's powers is nuts damage, enough to make up for the weaker defenses.

Does it proc? I thought Bopper tested it and found that it does NOT proc... if it does, that's a game changer, as it becomes brokenly powerful with multiple damage procs. I love it, though... it has a 1 second "cooldown" between uses, so I use it to close, then throw another AoE (starting with Dragon's Tail for a good Knockdown chance and Force Feedback), then BoS again, then another AoE (Bullet Rain for me), then BoS one last time. 5 AoEs, available by 20, and I've never seen a low-level Blaster clear spawns faster. Granted, it's a on pretty long timer, especially at low levels where you don't have great Recharge, but it's still very effective AND a lot of fun. Then you add in the Ki Push -> shoot, shoot, REPEAT fun with bosses, and it's a very fun set.

What Dauntless said, with a few additions: some sets have plenty of ranged attacks like Dark Assault, while Earth and Savage are both limited in ranged attacks... if you wish to play more at range you may be forced to use a weaker attack like the T1. They're usually not that far behind in DPA. Also, especially while leveling, it may be more useful to use more attacks even if they're weaker since it builds up Domination faster. Once you get to perma-Dom, that's less of an issue since you don't have to build the bar too often, but when you're on/off with Domination, getting the bar up faster can be worth a slight loss in DPS.

Dark/Savage. Uses Barrier to soft-cap Ranged D, but it would be easy to take a power that is frankenslotted with damage IOs and convert it to a set that will give Ranged D. Fire/Psy. Also uses Barrier, but manages to softcap both Ranged and AoE. You could change the winter set and Scirocco's to something with Ranged D and end up with capped Ranged D without Barrier, though you lose the AoE capping. Note that this relies on Link Minds so you're locked into the Psy epic. Mind/Energy. Ranged D is capped without Barrier.

Tactical Arrow looks really good. Plant is really good. Martial Combat is a bit iffy compared to those two, but is a lot more fun. On the blast side, I really like Water, it has a lot of tools. Also Ice. DP is solid and a lot of fun. And I'll add that DP/MC is double goodness doublefun 😉

I'm going to put out a theory from what I noticed on an AV... I had the AV drained, and he started running and didn't stop. That actually made it hard for me to drain him, so he regained Endurance, came back and attacked. I re-drained him, and he stood there for a minute getting bashed by all of my toys, although he could have run. So I'm wondering if, maybe, a mob with 0 Endurance doesn't make any more AI choices. Like, what's the point of spending processing time figuring out actions when you have no Endurance? May as well break off the decision-making (and AI decision making can be a VERY calculation-intensive process), and return FALSE, and go to the next cycle. So perhaps if you drain them when they are trying to run, they won't change that until they regain Endurance? Conversely, if you drain them when they are in attack option, they may not reconsider? I don't know if this explains why I've seen mobs at 0 Endurance stay there and get beat on, while others just take off for the hills. Warwolves do run like crazy. I wonder if it's because they're almost never Immobilized, so they're either in an attack animation or moving. So they're likely to get drained mid-move, at which point they just don't stop. I don't know. I agree, though, that's it's pretty annoying to combine the ISMs with endurance draining, without having an Immobilize to keep the mobs from running. I'm seriously considering getting the winter IO with chance to Immobilize and add that to the Stun chance to Immobilize IO and using them in Photon Grenade.

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". 😛