Coyote

PB will boost -ToHit. And the Hold and the Heal from Dark Blast. It's one of the two secondaries that pair really well with Dark Blast (Mental being the other, to run three cones for AoE).

Your first choice for opener is always Phantom Army if it's recharged, since you can use it to help group up mobs that aren't all-ranged. Then, you can go with either Darkest Night or Spectral Terror, both put out -ToHit so will mitigate return fire. ST is probably better since it will also Fear to prevent return fire. Also, use these when PA is not ready to cast. After you have the defensive powers out, put down Tar Patch for damage and start attacking with Blind/SW. If your defenses feel too strong (not taking damage), then you can skip either Darkest Night or Spectral Terror and get to doing damage sooner.

I really like the set now. It has some unique or rare aspects: early pet, ally chaining mechanism, +Special, spammable absorb, unique mez protection. It also does some other things pretty solidly. It feels different and also like it should be effective. If it goes live like this I'll have no problems playing it. Barring minor fixes like power descriptions, off-center target on the sentinel, etc.

Oh, I see. With a Mind Dominator, I would stack the Confuses until it breaks magnitude (also causes the AV to clear out its area of other mobs), and then start alternating Holds with Confuses until the Hold is also stacked. It's safer than the Hold/Sleep cycle since a missed Sleep can have the AV attack you, while missing a Confuse once you started the Holds isn't a problem since you can easily over-stack the Confuses. Then you can switch to the Hold-attack cycle, and the AV never has a chance to attack you.

Well, it doesn't to -ToHit, so it's only -Def. You already get -Def from Earthquake. If you take Stone Cages, then every time you hit with that it's more -Def. I think Stalagmites also does -Def. The single-target Hold and Immob (if you take it) allow you to stack more -Def on a single target. And... you STILL have to slot for some Accuracy in your powers (partially because any set you take for the bonuses will include some Accuracy slotting), because sometimes you will want to attack someone who isn't in a patch location but you don't want to put down a patch just for a target or two. And the Hold does -Def and already has an increased base Accuracy. So, without Quicksand, you should have no problems hitting. Quicksand is a good solution to a problem that you won't have, which is having good chances to hit. You COULD take it, since it doesn't need many slots, and use it until the 30s when you start getting more slots and can afford to swap it out for a better power that needs more slots. So as a one-slot power used until the 30s, it's not a bad power to take. I certainly wouldn't plan on keeping it long-term, but if you pick it up early in order to save slots for attacks and controls, that could work.

I'm not sure I understand... what mez are you building up? If it's Holds, then they damage the AV so the Sleep is broken. If it's Confuse, then Dark has a Confuse also, and I think with a slightly faster animation, so it can stack Confuse better. And if you're stacking Confuse, which does no damage, you're better off with the pets adding no-animation-time damage. The Sleep IS useful, but not for stacking mez... it's for sleeping OTHER AVs in case you're fighting multiple AVs. Sleep them all, then wake one up and pull it, then sleep that one and stack Confuses on it. But for single AV situations, it's just as good to go straight to the non-aggroing Confuses. I like Traps, but it's a bit finicky so I don't usuall play it. However, it's hard to beat great personal defenses with mez protection, AND stackable -Res, AND the best -Regen in the game, for fighting AVs. Dark Miasma is definitely great, though, and it can stack enough -Damage to neuter AV damage. For Defenders, it would be my 2nd pick since they do have to worry about personal defense against AVs while Illusion Controllers can take Cold instead since they're protected by PA.

Well, your argument is basically that any set without a Recharge bonus is DOA. While there is truth to that for many builds, there are other builds that may prioritize defense, or can get enough global Recharge in other sets. It's not the best set that it could be, but right now there are no good sources of +Ranged Defense in TAoE sets (other than unique sets), and this fills that hole, while there are TAoE sets with Recharge bonus. This set individually would be stronger with a Recharge bonus. But the overall options in TAoE sets are improved by giving a Ranged Defense option.

Ill/Traps for Controller due to the -1000 Regen from Poison Trap. For the same reason, I would bet on some */Traps for Corruptor/Defender, also. Probably Dark for the increased defenses. Dominator: Dark/Psy over Mind/Psy, for extra damage from pets. Mastermind: Robot/Traps.

All of the attacks in Earth Assault are good, but you can't really take and slot all of them. Seismic Smash is the best single-target attack in the set, maybe in the entire AT so you'll take that. You'll take Stone Spears because you have to (but probably will only slot it early and pull out the slots in a respec later). Then you probably want only 2 more single-target attacks, while you have 3: 2 hammers and Hurl Boulder. I took Hurl Boulder so I'd have some range, and the heavier mallet. You probably want to take both Tremor and Fissure. They're okay, not great, but it's nice how they can both be used in PBAoE range and both can use the Force Feedback IO, allowing you to keep FF's effect active all the time when surrounded by mobs if you chain them. So I'd take both of them. Earth Control is also full of good powers, so again you have to decide what to skip. I would skip Quicksand and the single-target Immobilize for sure. Maybe the AoE Immob, but probably not... it's good for preventing Stunned mobs from wandering. Normally I don't much like AoE Holds, but Volcanic Gases is one of the better ones.

Not FF or Nature, they don't do enough to defeat the tougher AVs though they can keep the demons alive against other tough content. Time is also strong defensively, and also not a great help against AVs. My options would be Dark or Thermal, both help defensively (Dark more than Thermal) and both have -Res and -Regen to help against AVs. I'm not sure that MMs are really the "characters to solo everything", as there are some AVs that have some interesting battle abilities that may munch pets too fast. Some will summon auto-hit damage patches like Trip Mines or Battle Maiden's feared blue fire. Some will summon reinforcements and the Demons don't have much AoE so they'll have to turn and deal with them, allowing the AV to regenerate, etc. And if they were, I would be running Robots/Traps for that, personally. Maybe Thugs/Traps.

/Psi is a low damage secondary, with its claim to fame that it's probably the best defensive secondary. Drain Psyche is probably the best single power in Dominator secondaries, so that makes the set fine overall... but note that it's still a defensive power, with the only real offensive benefits being against AVs and helping you attack more without running out of Endurance. So if you want good damage, this really isn't it. It does, however, shore up defensive holes for sets that may have problems... for that reason, I run a Fire/Psy since Fire does good damage but needs help both in surviving and in Endurance management. Mind/Fire is an excellent combination. I run that also. It's all ranged/cones, as skipping the melee range attacks from Fire isn't a problem. It gets good benefits from Domination since all Mind powers except Telekinesis benefit from it, and it works well with Fire's single-target focus in that it's good at locking down a small numbers of mobs so they do nothing at all, and having Fire burn them down. It can solo well at high difficulties but not at high team numbers, and it doesn't farm well. Generally, Dark > Mind. Mind has an AoE Confuse as the advantage, but both have a similar single-target Confuse, and Dark has better controls otherwise (a Stun and Immob combo instead of Sleep and Telekinesis), and two pets to help with damage. I would say that Dark/Fire is a really good and powerful pairing. Still not a farmer, though, hehe. The only sets I would suggest for farming are Fire Control and Plant Control, and AoE secondaries are probably Earth, Thorns, and Savage. Maybe Martial. So... Plant/Thorns? Fire/Earth? Plant/Savage?

If you like Chaos As Control (tm), you can't do better than Illusion/Storm. Nothing is locked down, everything is running around in fear of Spectral Terror or to fight the decoys... for 2 steps. Then they get knocked down by a random Tornado or Lightning Storm blast.

Is there any proof to this or it's more of an opinion? Yes

Hold.. a 54 AV? Only Dominators can do that, and not all powersets, and it requires some build trade-offs (can't slot the Hold for mixed Hold/Damage, need to take an Alpha that increases the Hold enhancement, etc). A Controller can't Hold AVs when the purple triangles are up, but it may be possible with Electronic Domination to sap them. Well, with Electric primary, also.

To be honest, I find Engulfing Darkness to be the real Proc Monster in Sentinel epics. My build should have it around 430 before Musculature 😁, and a 15 second recharge. Start every fight with that and Blackstar (540 damage), and shrug about the usual "Sentinels do low damage on teams" opinions. Dark Obliteration is a cute afterthought, heh.

It's looking like an Ele/Ele/Mu Controller should be able to sap AVs eventually. Not sure how fast it'll bottom them out, but -1000% Recovery will floor a +4(3) AV's Recovery. And you can probably get a consistent 200-300% from Gremlins/Mu Guardian, plus some from Jolting Chain, so... you should be able to stack up to -1000%. Not sure how much time you'll have to actually attack if you're spamming Shock/Jolting Chain, but it's a possibility. Especially with Musculature for increased End Mod slotting.

I believe AVs (all levels) have 800 Endurance.

Yes, but I consider Mind Control as "ranged" not because you can't use it in melee, but because if you have an all-ranged set that is an advantage, and you're giving it up when going into melee. I would recommend Energy Assault paired with a primary that has a reason to close to melee, and I would further recommend it with a primary that has a Stun power so that you can just start with a Stun and then keep everything Stunned. Fire and Dark would be good, though Electric and Ice can also work with their preference to be in melee. Mind... works, but I think it works better at range.

I think a 2% Special would be unique and would be a draw to the set. And while quite useful in many ways, the bonus is small enough to not overpower anything. If the set had an in-set Defense power it might be an issue, but you struggle to get much over 10% from pool powers, so adding 1% to defense or so at maximum stacking doesn't seem like it can cause any problems.

They don't "dictate", but there are sets that have better ranged attacks and worse melee, or the reverse. For example, Earth Assault has a PBAoE, a damage aura, and a short-range (20') AoE. And its heaviest hitting attacks are melee-range. So while its ranged attacks aren't bad, it's hard to play an Earth Assault Dominator and NOT be in melee range, where it does very good AoE damage. Conversely, Fire's 2-3 best attacks are ranged single-target. So it works better as a ranged single-target set. Sure, they can each function at all ranges, but some are better at range and some are better in melee. The biggest constraints are Energy, Earth, Thorns, and Martial, which instead of splitting AoE attacks with 1 cone (ranged) and 1 melee PBAoE have more melee-range AoE than ranged AoE attacks. So if you want these sets and use them for AoE, you're strongly influenced towards a melee-range playstyle.

Don't Dual Wield them. Set up a macro for activating a power at the target's location with Burst of Speed, and use that as the finisher. It's like Hidden Penny, Crouching Infernal, but running Hasten. And you can do it to 3 mobs in succession before Burst has to recharge. I actually named a character "Burst of Fist" after trying that combo... Fist Burst sounded more like a real hero monicker after reconsidering it, but the impulse remains. Because the character was made literally to deliver a fist to the distance. Heh, maybe I should have named it "Crouching Norris".

Each of the -Res procs is unique to itself but separate from the others. So a target can be affected by only one Achilles, one Fury, and one Annihilation, but it can be affected by all three at the same time.

Is this a mis-post? Doesn't it belong in an AT forum? Also... what changed? Dark Affinity never had Fearsome Stare. Has Dark Miasma lost it? But Dark Miasma isn't available on a Controller, so.... I'm very very 😵

Plant/Savage Dom. I didn't expect it to be so fun to play. And I expected high AoE damage for a Dom, but not enough single-target to beat a Kronos Titan. Surprisingly fun and effective.

That's my thinking also. Pets don't have the set bonuses and personal defenses that characters do, so they take more damage... even on a team where little damage is taken, the pets often would still need their absorb shield refreshed regularly, and getting splash absorb onto the rest of the teammates isn't a bad thing. You can change the pet's name and then make a macro or keybind to target it and throw out an absorb (and another for a heal) to have a self absorb shield and a self heal get cast pretty quickly, so they're not inconvenient to use. It's a real help soloing, especially as the pet pulls AoE aggro, and if it's pulling aggro then having a longer duration doesn't matter... the shield is going to get worn down a lot faster than its duration. And, of course, if it lasts longer than 20 seconds... then it's not a relevant power for the team whether it's 20 second or 60 second duration, since the incoming damage is being held to a minimum. Basically, in situations where you need it, you want it to be a short-recharge spammable power... and in situations where a longer recharge power with longer duration is useful, it's not that necessary. Having it recharge fast but with a shorter duration makes it more useful when a lot of damage is coming in. I'd prefer to have it be a useful power in tough fights than a more convenient power to make the health bars stay more immaculate during easier fights.