Coyote

Heh, I mentioned a few times that Electric Control actually has GOOD AoE damage, and a lot of people snickered. But Jolting Chain goes from about 40 damage slotted up as a damage power (which is basically useless for damage), to about 200 with IOs. The activation chance is 59%, for about 41 damage, per IO. Pretty much all AoE mez powers with a Recharge of 90+ seconds will have a 90% chance to activate a damage proc if Enhancement slotting is at 50% or lower (and it's going to be, if you're putting many damage procs in it). So you CAN get good damage out of any AoE Hold, and a bit of damage out of AoE Stuns. The Stuns are generally limited to 2 procs, so you're getting about 128 damage out of them... this may be worth it as extra damage, though it would stop you from getting the +Recharge bonus from 5 slots of some sets. You get more damage out of the Holds since you can squeeze in more Procs, but... it's still only a pretty weak nuke, and it's on a really long recharge. However, the interesting powers are Heart of Darkness and Fearsome Stare in Darkness Control. Heart of Darkness is a PBAoE so that opens up more damage procs, and with a 90 second recharge, it's worth slotting it up since you'll get to use it reasonably often. I have it set up like that in my Dark Controller. And Fearsome Stare isn't as good with the procs since its lower recharge drops their chance a bit, but it still gets 50+ damage from each IO and you're using it at the start of every fight in any case. So with 2 damage procs (Cloud Senses and the Fear IO) it does 100 damage, and gets the +Recharge bonus from Cloud Senses, and it can still fit in a +ToHit proc which helps you with your following attacks since it's probably your opening IO. Other powers: I'm not sure how Earthquake procs damage procs, but it should proc FF like Tornado, which is a 90% chance to activate on the drop only. Spectral Terror procs both the Fear and the Controller ATO IOs both on the drop and on its subsequent attacks. I proc Sproing Attack on my low-AoE characters, since it has the 90% chance to activate them and I think it pushes the power to around 400 damage at 50.

That's an exaggeration. On the average, Blasters were not good soloers, BUT there were builds that soloed well, usually based on having controls. An Ice/EM Blaster would solo better than a FF/Rad Defender, or Earth/Empathy Controller, for example. So, the words "a fraction of the speed ANYONE ELSE can" is clearly exaggerated. Hyperbole is not a good arguing methodology. Clearly, Blasters were soloing worse on the average than most or all of the other ATs, which is why the Live Devs were looking into ways to improve their soloing ability (enter Sustain)... but saying that they all had many times the risk and faceplant rate is just inaccurate.

Oh, god, yes. Not as a x4 difficulty at least until very late since like most Controllers AoE damage will be difficult to squeeze in, but single-target damage will be fine, and defensive ability is going to be ridiculously good.

The + makes it activate both on button press and on button release. So I think the reason it works is this: 1: You fire Oil Slick, and your target is the ground. 2: You press t, and it tries to throw the dart, but it can't... then the oil slick gets targeted 3: You release t, and you have Oil Slick targeted, and it tries to throw the dart... and does. So, I think it would still work more consistently (without having to worry if you are currently targeting another mob) if you both kept the + in there, AND reversed the order so that the power execution is written first, and the target command is written second.

Heh. I couldn't resist the summons 😌 A power with Force Feedback proc that has a 90% chance to trigger, that is used at the rate of 1 per minute, will effectively have a 7.5% overall AVERAGE +Recharge bonus. Note that this approximation really works best for powers with a long enough recharge that you're looking at their long-term recharge rather than how they fit into an attack cycle. But it's generally understood that using FF procs for attack cycle improvement is very... choppy. So, with your build, your Hasten is permanent, so I can just look at the Recharge times of your powers with Hasten turned on. Let's consider Earthquake, which has a 90% chance to proc FF even if it has +100% Recharge enhancement in it. Your Recharge on it, plus the animation time, is practically 30 seconds exactly. So, if you spam Earthquake, you will average a 15% +Recharge bonus from it. Fissure is different, because it doesn't have a 90% chance to proc... with NO +Recharge, it has a 27% chance to proc on a single target. Now, because you have Recharge slotted into it, that will lower its chance to proc a bit. But as long as it procs once on a single mob it's good, so using it on large spawns will increase its chance to proc over 90%. The exact number depends on how many mobs you're hitting, and it's: 1-(1-0.27)^NumberMobs. With 5 mobs, it's about 80%, and with 10 it's about 95%. This is with NO Recharge slotting, your numbers with the Damage/Recharge IO in there will be slightly lower (I'm guessing about 75%/92%). BUT... Fissure cycles in just under 8 seconds, so spamming it at 5 mobs will average: 60/8 (number of uses per minute) * 75% chance to proc * 7.5% per-minute bonus = 42.2% average bonus. As with all averages, you have to understand the difference between theoretical and practical output: if you're at a time in the fight when BOTH Earthquake and Fissure are recharged, you can only activate one, delaying the other... so this "animation clash" will slow down the bonus from one of them. If you're fighting 10 mobs, as they fall down in number, the benefit will decrease. And so on. I'm sure you realize how theoretical percentages will differ from in-game numbers. The percentages are "best situation", assuming no delay in activating the power, no other powers being used that will cause animation clash, etc. But if you're just farming spawns so you're just using AoE powers, and you prioritize Fissure and Earthquake, which are pretty solid powers to prioritize when fighting large spawns, you'll be over 50% average Recharge boost.

Heh, heh. On Homecoming, they changed those Controller AoE Immobilizes that were blocking knockdowns... now they are GREAT, because not only do they allow KnockDOWN, but they convert KnockDOWN to KnockBACK. For the entire team, too, not just for you. You will want to be spamming that power, and that's why I like to slot the ATO IO that summons the Orb, since you're going to summon it a lot if you're spamming the AoE Immob. But, due to Endurance issues, that's why I like to slot it with Accuracy and Endurance Reduction, not damage. Basically, especially the Earth, Ice, and Dark versions, which all have useful debuffs, are great AoE Immob powers to spam now. The only reason against it is that they recharge fast, animate reasonably quick in most cases, but cost a lot of Endurance... so they do hurt with Endurance management. A lot.

I believe that we are certainly reasonable to make our value judgments, including whether a corporations deserves a lifetime ban from our wallets. Our... value... JUDGMENTS. But similarly, people are entitled to judge us. If it bothers you that someone judges you because you lifetime-banned God's Greatest Company (tm), and posted about it on a public message board... then don't post about it on a public message board. Everything that we post here opens us up to other people judging us. We judge others, we judge companies, we judge games, and we judge posts. It's normal, and it's reasonable to accept that whatever you write that is available to the public... may then be read by said public, and may then cause said public to judge you. The way to avoid it is to opt-out by not posting. But you can't force behavior upon other people, so once you put up that post, you have no control about others judging the post, and then because of it, you. That's the Law of the Jungle, my cubs... I mean, the Law of Internet Forums, which is basically the same thing 😛

Level 1: Fossilize -- Dcm-Acc/Dmg(A), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg(3), Dcm-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5) This is fine, but if you want to solo, I would put 2 IOs in here for Acc/Dam/End, and use the last 4 slots for damage Procs. Also, if you want to fight AVs (especially solo, and I can attest that this combination can solo AVs), you will want Stone Prison. Level 2: Stone Cages -- EnfOpr-Acc/EndRdx(A), EnfOpr-EndRdx/Immob(7), EnfOpr-Acc/Rchg(7), EnfOpr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(9), EnfOpr-Acc/Immob(13) Never slot the AoE Immobs for Immobilize unless you really have a specific purpose. They recharge fast enough that you can easily make them permanent on higher level Bosses. Instead, I like the Energy Font IO in here, two Acc/End IOs since the power is endurance-hungry, and then if I have available slots, some damage Procs (but they're not extremely important) Level 16: Freezing Rain -- AchHee-DefDeb(A), AchHee-DefDeb/Rchg(21), AchHee-ResDeb%(50), Ann-ResDeb%(50) I don't thnk that the set bonuses for Achilles Heel are worth 3-slotting it. The -Res IO is fine, but then I'd go with a pair of Recharge/Endurance from the Def Debuff sets. Also, I would never slot any DefDebuff enhancing into an Earth/Storm... Earth puts out a lot of -Def, and Storm puts out a lot of -Def, so that 80% of it is wasted anyhow. Increasing the debuff % won't really do anything when you've already debuffed everyone to -50%. Level 32: Animate Stone -- ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(33) Get the two +Resist IOs and put them into Animate Stone as the first two options. Stoney depends on high Resistance to tank things, and boosting it can get him to very high numbers. Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Dcm-Acc/Dmg(A), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg(39), Dcm-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(40) Your AoE Immob already converts KB to KD... I think that it's not as important to get an inherent KB to KD conversion into the power as getting more damage, and so I would either put something else in here with more Recharge/Endurance enhancing, or a damage Proc. Regarding Endurance issues: Storm is an Endurance-hungry set, largely because with good Recharge you can put out LS, Tornado, and FR pretty often, and they are all expensive click powers... you really need to put more EndRed in these 3 powers if you can help it. I see that Tornado has room for a Dam/End/Rech IO (or even just an End/Rech), and FR needs several IOs with End Red and Recharge in it. Lighting Storm is harder, since you want the 5-slot bonuses, and the last slot is probably better used for a special IO.

Aim, Build-up, Zing!

Make a character who solos every TF. Then, at +4/x8. Then, at Master level. Then, with a level 50 but non-Incarnate character. Then do it with a melee character. If you want to look for challenges, there are some out there without having to gimp your build. There most certainly are carpet marks in the shape of characters in CoH maps, so clearly characters do die. But the game doesn't really punish you for dying other than a hospital trip, so the question is what do you consider a challenge... a story arc where you are likely to die? Many times, even? But in most missions, even if it takes multiple deaths, you can usually wear out the mobs on the map. The only "real" challenges where you might fail are: -AVs & GMs, because if you can't beat their regen or special tricks, then it doesn't matter if you keep running back from the hospital with multiple inspirations -timed missions. Especially timed missions with a "kill AV" in them. -escort missions where the NPC can be attacked. Or "protect an item" missions. Or the Croatoa "prevent Fir Bolg from escaping" mission. -PvP. Otherwise, all content is generally not "fail-able" except when real-life forces you to log off before finishing the mission, just because you can always come back again and again with a fresh set of inspirations and knock off some more mobs. I remember one mission in First Ward where I triggered about 5 ambushes, and due to my settings I had about 50 mobs waiting to kill me when I came back from the hospital... at the entrance. They fired before I could even target. Eventually I wore them all down by coming into the mission with 4 Lucks running, but had to do that 5 or 6 times. Does that count as success, or failure? If it's success, it's only because CoH allows you to fail over and over (die and teleport to hospital), and still eventually succeed at the task.

While Carrion Creepers presents like a long-recharge power, in effect it's a perma-able pet (the invisible patch) that summons its own sub-pets (the tentacles). So I like putting enough Recharge in mine to make the invisible patch permanent, and consider it more like a AoE damage aura that "follows" the character rather than being always centered on him.

If you're not using it elsewhere, I like 5xApocalypse in Lightning Storm. This gets you to ED in Damage and Resistance, and also adds a damage proc "for free" (since you're 5-slotting it for the Recharge bonus). This leaves 1 slot free for Force Feedback. I wouldn't go out of my way to put damage procs in Lightning Storm, but 5-slotting Apoc isn't going out of the way. My build doesn't have use elsewhere for Apocalypse (both Blind and Arcane Bolt are slotted with damage procs and FF so there's no room to 5-slot Apoc, and also you don't want to mix Apoc's high Recharge with procs unless you're remaining over the 90% chance like with Lightning Storm slotted with FF). So I'm not losing the chance to slot Apocalypse elsewhere by 5-slotting it in LS. YMMV on that decision, of course.

Thanks, that's great to know when I have 4 FFs in my Illusion/Storm. That makes the Recharge bonus calculations a lot easier, I can just calculate each power's average bonus separately and them up. And boy, do they add up 😄

You're not going to get a perma-Dom without Haste, except maybe for a very expensive build at level 50 with Agility Alpha. Pre-50 without some other +Recharge power, it's too tricky to squeeze out the set bonuses and still have a solid balanced build. With Hasten, you build for perma-Hasten or close to it (as long as Hasten has less than 10 seconds of downtime you're usually good), and get perma-Dom, without having to sacrifice other build constraints. I've seen pre-50 perma-Dom builds that also manage to soft-cap some Defenses... but not if you skip Hasten.

Just to note, the last post from Oedipus_Tex missed Trick Arrows, which has no powers that benefit from being close to the enemies... it's all good up to max range.

What I used to do with Mercs is to give the Spec Ops guys a Move To command next to the Sapper, and then command them to attack it. If they're in melee, they open up with a rifle butt to the head, which Stuns the target and gives you time to kill it before it wakes up and does its nasty thing on your team.

Nothing that's really worthwhile. Liquefy and EM Pulse could be slotted with damage Procs to end up as mini-nukes, but with 300+ seconds of base recharge time, they won't be used enough to be worthwhile. Lingering Radiation can take one damage Proc, and since you'll probably be using it regularly it's probably worth putting it in, but it's a case of "why not" rather than something that changes the power.

1: If you want more people to help, use a more condensed view 4: Both Radiation Siphon and Contaminated STrike are good places to place an Achilles Heel -Res IO. Radiation Siphon also works GREAT with Theft of Essence, as it ends up getting back almost as much Endurance as it costs to fire, making it almost free damage. 5: Dominators are usually End-hogs, you will want 3-4 slots in Stamina, as well as probably Panacea/Numina/Miracle in Health 6: All of your Defense powers should start their slotting with one LotG: +Recharge. If you have too many powers, then there isn't a need for Grant Invisibility or Invisibility (and I wouldn't take both in any case, I'd take Stealth/Grant/Phase Shift, and use a +Stealth IO in Sprint to get full Invisibility, since this way I get a Phase power).

As long as the character stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night, it probably doesn't need to be a procticing proctologist.

1 Overwhelming Force, 1 Force Feedback, 1 Recharge

I would in general not suggest Mind/Earth, because one of Mind's advantages is that it is fully ranged with no PBAoEs. Earth Assault is a very melee-oriented set, and it wants to be in melee, so you're not taking advantage of one of Mind's advantages. Earth Control is also ranged in theory, but running into and fighting in your Earthquake is a solid plan, and then you're in melee range for Drain Psyche.

Doms start off slowly for a class that should have relatively high damage, because you have to put slots into both attacks for damage... and attacks for mezzing. So while other ATs need End/Res or End/Def plus attacks, Dominators need Acc/End/Rech/Mez slotting, which eats up more slots. So while their attacks are good statistically... slotting is a problem early on.

1: Possess the mobs that give -ToHit, then they'll hit the other guys for you. 2: With the -ToHit from Dark Control, pre-emptively using a Luck will stack with the Defense and probably do more than several Respites. 3: Yes, compared to Controllers, Dominators are faster... but also harder. They do mroe damage but have fewer defenses, so... when things go well they go faster, and when things don't, they go to the hospital faster 😛

Very unlikely, it needs a lot of animation work. I'd bet on some version of Gadget Control since there are animations easier to adapt than Wind Control.

If you like to turn up the difficulty, Dark/Rad will solo well because it handles problems well. Mobs don't hit much with all of the -ToHit, and you have Possess to handle rare difficult cases, and if you slot attacks properly for damage, you can do enough damage. The safety and consistency make up for the lower damage. If you plan on this, slot Dark Grasp with 3 or so damage Procs, and use the other 2-3 slots for Accuracy/Damage/Endurance. Possess will be a major power, so make sure you slot that, and Accelerate Metabolism and Radiation Infection from the /Rad side. For teaming, slot up both Fearsome Stare with -ToHit, and Radiation Infection, and all the mobs will be at the ToHit floor. This will also work when soloing, but when soloing you'll need some Endurance to spare for doing the damage, so you'll probably only use one of them at a time. Radiation Infection may be a better option, as it also lowers the Defense of mobs, which means that you can actually use the P2W prestige attacks and expect them to have a good chance to hit.