Coyote

But if you lowered the recharge to 120 seconds, a high recharge build will have it up in 30 seconds or so. So, a 20 second base duration, enhanced, will push that to over 30 seconds. So 120/20 would be easily permanent on +1, maybe +2s at the high end. 37 is easily boosted to over 60 seconds, which is just all kinds of overkill. I think we'd be better off if we're willing to trade off some duration, with regards to persuading Devs to lower the Recharge of MC. So there's my vote: trade down as much Duration as is necessary to get it to 120 seconds, and if they're willing to drop it down to 90 seconds (or, Gods of Balance forbid, 60 seconds), then keep trading. At that point, we'll be using it every spawn, which is beyond awesome even if it's only enhanced to 30 seconds or so. It would have to be a pretty low damage build to not kill off all the Minions by then even against +3s, and have the Bosses permanently Confused in any case. Still, to be honest, while it would be lovely to get a set-capper like a fast-recharge Mass Confusion out there... Dominators are fine. Fixes to MindMasters should probably look at Telekinesis, fast-recharge Mass Hypnosis, or other ways to set up Containment more regularly.

Wait, did they change Amp Up? On the test shard, it did NOT boost +Defense powers. It SAID that it did in the power description, but that seems to have been a copy-paste from other Power Boost - type powers. Unlike the majority of Power Boost powers, at least in testing, Amp Up was not actually boosting the effects of +Defense powers despite claiming that it did. I recall specifically thinking that it would be great with Thugs and Robots for boosting the AoE Defense powers, or with Demons or Ice Control to boost the Smash/Lethal Defense of the Demon Prince or Jack Frost... and had to shelve that idea.

Yes, and with a large AoE, the chance for a proc to activate is pretty small. Most procs are used in longer-recharge pwoers that recharge faster due to global recharge bonus, and pet powers can't take advantage of the global recharge bonus. Note, however, that in a way Freezing Rain can.... increasing Recharge (and global recharge) gets it out faster, so it gets more chances to proc, etc. However, the real problem with FR is that the rain patch only lasts 15 seconds, so you only get two rolls at a relatively low chance. If it were like other powers that have long debuffs because the patch itself remains for a long while, like Distortion Field, so it got more rolls with each proc, it would be a much more useful place to stick a proc. Now, all that being said... FR usually has slots to spare. And if you're using it a lot (and you pretty definitely are), and Tornado and Lightning Storm are usually wanting 8 slots or so, it might be better to stick a proc in FR to get it out there even at a lower chance, than to put it in another power that doesn't get used that much, or to make room for it in Tornado or LS.

You might try to change RAdioactive Cloud to have like 2 IOs for Accuracy/Hold/Recharge, and 4 damage procs. You can get it to around 300 damage that way, making it like a lower-damage version of your main nuke. And with the AoE damage of a Blaster, minions should be dead by the time the Hold wears off even if it's not fully enhanced, and if you're alternating Aim and BU you don't need to worry about Accuracy too much. This would probably make a better rolling style where you can nuke-hold every spawn rather than just doing the damage with your opening AoE Hold on every other spawn. I thought of making a Rad/Atomic, and that would be my plan if I do.

Hehe, and other Ninja jokes. "...and disappearing in a puff of smoke.... from a Fireball, not from their own smoke" "...and run to the nearest morgue" "...I wouldn't be watching them, since I'd be too busy re-summoning them" 😄 Heh, yeah, the Ninja comment was just because I was thinking about pairing high-offense/low-defense primary with a high-defense/low-offense secondary. I'm not sure if EA would work well at all with Ninjas, and probably the only way it would is to make a brawling Mastermind, using Defibrillate as a PBAoE drain to stack with Discharge, run in the middle of mobs and drain them, and add in Thunder Strike or KO Blow to make it worthwhile. Then they wouldn't run out quite so much because you'd be in the middle of the spawn with them, and they might survive if they just go to chase a single straggler. At least, until they chase that straggler into another spawn and die too fast to even register damage.

Just my 2 cents, is that Mass Confusion is actually crippled by its long duration. I mean, who cares if the duration were halved if that got us a 90 second recharge? Heck, even 120 second recharge, with half the duration, would turn it into an awesome power. Right now you can make it permanent, so if you halved both it would remain permanent, and what more do we really need? Personally, I'm willing to drop the duration as much as necessary in order to get the recharge down... heck, even if it means lowering the duration:recharge ratio. If it were like Seeds but at half the duration of Seeds because it's non-aggro... that would seem both fair and a great power. Well worth a Tier 9 set defining power. The amount of damage or control you could put out in half the duration of Seeds should be quite enough to solve any issues.

That's probably completely separate... I think that the AVs in some of these Task Forces have some special aggro activation, where they'll activate and aggro on you even when you're completely Stealthed and not actually drawing aggro. At least, I've had the same issue with Battle Maiden when soloing that TF, and a couple of other AVs. So you're probably right about GW aggroing on you, but it's probably due to a mission trigger rather than normal aggro rules.

1: Why would this help Mesmerize set up Containment on a single target? As I understood, the target has to be actually mezzed, not just affected by a mag that is too low to mez it. Mag 1 mez effects on it are really only going to make it slightly easier to stack on a Boss. Granted, this might be an interesting use for it, but at that point getting a Hold on the Boss may be more relevant than getting Containment. 2: Dread Spike is replacing Levitate. Okay, I can see the point of a Snipe Fear attack, but Levitate is part of a single-target attack chain, and IIRC a good DPA attack in it. So you're trading one attack for another. Now, if you said that Dread Spike uses a special damage mechanism and gets maybe 1.75x normal damage but does NOT benefit from Containment, then I could totally see the point of replacing Levitate. But right now, Levitate is a good attack and can slot a Force Feedback proc, and will toss a Boss up so that you can Hold-Levitate-Hold and only give it one shot at you. 3: I did always think that one very simple way to solve Mind's Containment problem is to shorten the recharge (and duration and End cost) of Mass Hypnosis, so I think that's a solid suggestion.

Just to throw an off track with all the discussion above about defensive numbers: EA feels to me like a very tanky set. Damage-wise, however, it's not at all impressive. I'm really considering whether a build that is statistically inferior defensively but goes for more offense may not actually play a lot better, because giving up some personal defense while gaining offense may help more. This is especially true if you're not using Provoke, because you're not raising the pet survivability much by raising your personal defenses, but you are if you help kill/drain mobs faster. The primary may also matter for this... with Robots, I'm feeling really tanky. Probably would feel tough with Demons also, but if I were running Ninjas, I would probably be looking for a Tankermind build and using Provoke, in which case personal defense would matter a lot.

Now I want to develop Irony Control as a powerset 😄

Well, since Holds set up Containment, then surely Controllers use AoE Holds as their source of Containment, yes? Well, since obviously they don't, there must be some reason why Immobs are used instead, and that is that Immobs are generally given higher Magnitude, longer duration, or both. For obvious balance reasons. So, to me, it's obvious that if the Devs re-work Telekinesis and leave it as a Hold, it will have more limitations than if it's used as an Immobilize, so it will likely be able to set up Containment far better if it's reworked as an Immobilize. Not that I expect this to happen since it's a Hold power and it will (if anything) be reworked as a Hold, but ... if the Devs were balancing powers, clearly they would set up AoE Immobs to be far more easily accessible sources of Containment than AoE Holds. Thus, I keep thinking that an AoE Immobilize toggle WOULD be better for containment than an AoE Hold toggle.

Well, it helps Energizing Circuit get spammed more often. And it helps stack Shock on an AV (and if you're using Discharge to help drain spawns, it helps that come up faster). But for primaries that have good attacks (Necro, Demons), it helps you chain them better (and gets Energizing C up faster to handle the End drain). And for primaries with long-recharge useful powers (Demons, Thugs) it helps them get Gang War/Hell on Earth up faster. I do think that it's generally useful for MMs, especially for one power with 2-3 slots. The cost of taking it over another specific power pool may be an issue, but it still is one of the more useful pools for a MM. That said, frankly, Robots and their crappy personal attacks and useless Repair is probably the primary that can play best without Hasten.

Just be aware, with these Defense numbers, that the Protector Bots are showing a 10% base Defense in Mids, but they're actually only 7.5%.

Insulation (absorb) and Empower (+ToHit/+Dam) Circuits do not stack from the same source.

To amplify on this: Fireball is probably a better attack than Frost Breath, with base stats, and using a full set for set bonuses. It has much better animation time. However, Frost Breath has a 90% chance to proc a damage proc, while Fireball has about 71%. And FB has a 90% base accuracy, allowing you to get away with less Accuracy slotting. So if you were to 5-slot with Positron, I'm not sure which is better... but my slotting is 4 damage procs (and note that Fireball doesn't have access to Impeded Swiftness so it only takes 3 damage procs), and two Centrioles. If you have other sources of Accuracy you can get away with this slotting, and you end up around 400 damage with a 56' long cone. If you don't have accuracy, you could put in Positron's Acc/Dam and Dam/Range to get some small set bonuses while still slotting up Range. You can't get stats like these on Fireball, because 1: It procs at a 71% chance rather than 90% 2: It has a lower base Accuracy so you are less likely to get away without Accuracy enhancing. 3: It has access to one fewer proc. So, Fireball vs Frost Breath is a close call based on slotting with sets for set bonuses. If you go with a proc-oriented build, it's no contest... Frost Breath is the best AoE attack for Controllers damage-wise. The only reason to go with another is the Force Feedback proc, or else other non-damage powers in the set.

I would say Earth for single target, although it won't be on a fast recharge. Hurl Boulder isn't impressive but Seismic Smash is. Generally, the "basic" bolt attacks won't add that much to ST damage as they're comparable to Arcane Bolt, so it's a question of what extra heavy hitter is in the set. For AoE, it's Ice in general, although if you have a set that has other damage sources (such as Storm), then running Earth for Fissure, or Psy for Psynado, so that you can get Force Feedback and use that to fire off your other AoEs faster might end up doing more damage. But Frost Breath with good procs does 400 damage every fight, which is OMG for a Controller, and then Ice Storm adds about another 400 damage every other fight. If you run a /TA Controller, although you may have to play tricks to get Oil Slick to light, you could alternate Oil Slick Arrow and Ice Storm every fight for 400 damage plus Frost Breath, and do 800+ damage every spawn.

I wonder what a Thugs/EA build can do with Gang War active. Not that the Pistols attacks are all that great, though, but it could be funny to fire off Knockout Blow with triple-stacked Gaussian and watch a MM hit for max damage. Plus 6 damage procs, for about 900 base damage. 😄

Of course, otherwise you'd have Singularity summoning little singularities 😉

I think you will get more defensive effect by dropping a couple of slots from your defensive powers (Invisibility and Unleash Potential), and getting the 6th slot in the Controller ATO set and the Confuse set, because both have a nice 5% Ranged Defense bonus. Getting +10% Ranged Defense is worth dropping a bit from those powers, IMO.

Heh, it'll even trigger off the Pay2Win little buff pets 😉

Well... yes, probably. Just be warned that the robots do occasionally knockback a target into the next mob, and then advance to shoot at it, aggroing the next mob. This is mainly a problem with the Assault Bot, because it wants to close to short range to use its piss-poor cigarette lighter. I'm even considering putting a Damage/KB-to-KD IO in it for this reason.

1: it stacks. But due to recharge vs duration issues, I think that 3x is the maximum stack, and only for a short duration, and 1-2 stacks will be the normal if put in a single-target Hold. 2: used in an AoE power it can check multiple times to activate, but will only activate once per attack. Due to its high PPM it has a good chance to activate in a single-target attack so you'll get more total bonus out of it in a single-target attack. However, if you have a specific opening power that uses it like Flashfire and put it there, you can have an almost guaranteed activation at the beginning of your AoE blasting, which may be more helpful than getting more stacks but only once you're down to using your single-target attacks. 3: in theory it would work best in an AoE Immob, but that requires spamming an endurance-heavy power only to get the bonus, since with Domination you wouldn't need to use the AoE Immob at a rate faster than every 10 seconds. I personally would only consider putting it there in Electric Control or Ice Control, who might spam the AoE Immobs for the End Drain / -Recharge debuffing.

1: Pull some slots out of Web Grenade, it definitely doesn't need any IOs with Recharge in them since it has such a short recharge. Acc/End/Immob slotting is all it needs. 2: Put the 6th slot in Energy Torrent with a Force Feedback proc. 3: Some Accuracy slotting would help Acid Mortar. I would get some Acc/Recharge IOs in there.

1: You do need a bit of Accuracy in Galvanic Sentinel even if you're going mainly for AoE Stunballs. 2: Especially in teams, I like 6xCloud Senses in Fearsome Stare over your slotting... with multiple players on a team, the mobs will be taking a lot of damage so they will be freed from the Fear effect for one attack almost all the time until they die, which won't take too long. So slotting to enhance Fear duration doesn't seem relevant, while improving the value of an opener at mitigating the alpha strike does seem relevant on teams. 3: I would frankenslot Energizing Circuit, because the set bonuses aren't good enough to 6-slot a set that wastes some enhancing on useless Accuracy improvement. You can max out End Mod/End Red well enough in 4 slots, or sneak in a bit of Recharge, and not slot up any Accuracy, and end up saving slots. 4: You might do well with Gaussian's Build Up proc in Empowering Circuit. I hear it has good chances to proc if you hit a lot of targets with it, like when you're on a team.

Kinetics is far stronger offensively, but quite weak defensively. EA is far stronger defensively, but weak offensively. I think that's the way to distinguish between them, rather than which is stronger. If I ran one as a Controller, I would match EA with a higher-damage primary and lean on EA for survival. Fire Control would be the best option, probably. And if I ran Kinetics, I would match it with a primary that could defend strongly (especially early), and also hopefully had some damage to multiply... Plant and Dark seem like the options for it.