Coyote

Electric/Poison, to add in the -1000% Recovery debuff from Poison Gas Trap. Finally get some use out of that otherwise useless debuff :p

Dominators, especially Electric, don't need capped Melee or S/L defenses. Ranged is good enough, and AoE is a nice bonus. The reason is that mobs next to you should be mezzed or drained of Endurance, so you don't need to worry as much about melee attacks, or about melee S/L attacks. Ranged S/L is covered by Ranged defense, so with good enough Ranged D you're good to go.

Here is my build, without Incarnates/Accolades planned. I think that Illusion/Storm works great, because Illusion is the Control set that embraces "damage without Containment" since it lacks Immobilizes... and Storm adds in a lot of damage that also doesn't use Containment. It also works well with throwing powers around a corner: PA, Freezing Rain, Tornado, and Spectral Terror, then once the mobs are falling down and aggroed on PA you can come around and add in Lightning Storm. An AoE Immob would be great, but it works well without one. It also has a great build synergy, in that you're trying to build for max Recharge for PA, and this also helps put out Tornado, FR, and Lightning Storm more often. The build is almost perma-PA, but with the Force Feedback procs firing (at a 90% rate when Tornado and LS are put out, and you can put out about 5 casts in total during a minute), you should run with perma-PA in every fight. That's before using Gale on mobs that are on Freezing Rain's patch to knock down everyone... and get a practically guaranteed activation on FF if you're hitting enough of them. http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1502&c=697&a=1394&f=HEX&dc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

Dang. I was hoping this would be a suggestion post for a Vomit Blast powerset.

I always think that Poison is an offensive secondary for Controllers (especially with IO'd Poison Gas Trap), but it really needs a primary that can shut down spawns on its own, because Poison doesn't help it do that. So, I think it's fine for soloing, but only when paired with specific sets that are strong enough defensively to carry the load: Dark, Electric, Plant, Earth. Maybe Mind or Illusion, if you want to use a lot of Sleep/Confuse. I wouldn't run it with Ice, Gravity, or Fire.

Does anyone know any of the statistics of either the Orb or the summons power for it? 1) How long does the Orb last? 2) What is the radius of its aura? 3) What is the activation/tick period of its aura? 4) What is the Stun duration, and what is the chance for it to occur? 5) What is the damage? 6) Does it have any other attacks besides a damage/stun aura?

/Storm. Storm doesn't bring much personal defense for the Controller, but Electric is very strong in shutting mobs down (mostly due to End drain), and at later levels, Lightning Storm adds to that. But the main thing is that /Storm is endurance-hungry, and Electric is the only primary that will help its endurance management.

I've always argued that Ice can be a strong defensive set, more as a debuffing/confusing set, if paired with a -ToHit secondary like Rad, Dark, Time, maybe Nature. Making mobs attack less often, attack each other, and hit less often, while having a heal to fix the small damage that gets through, is as good for defending the team as mezzing everyone.. and a lot easier to manage. But it does lock Ice Controllers into a few secondaries. /Cold, /FF, and /Sonic can do similar things for the team with team buffs, but it leaves the Controller vulnerable and Arctic Air/Ice Slick will draw a lot of aggro.

Take Spinning Kick rather than Paralyzing Blast. Your best playstyle will be in melee range, not so much for the attacks but to stack Conductive Aura with Static Field for End draining. As long as you're in melee range anyhow, a melee cone will be a useful attack. Meanwhile, while an AoE Hold is nice, your main defensive plan will be to drain the mobs and to knock them down while draining them, so you don't care as much whether they're Held or not. You could also drop Chain Fences instead, but I find it a useful power on a lot of teams to prevent runners and to limit knockback, and it also drains more Endurance. Oh, and both Static Field and Conductive Aura return Endurance to you, so that's another reason why you will want to be in melee range.

Mind is eminently survivable when soloing, because it has non-aggroing controls (Confuse & Sleep), so you can always limit the active threats against you. Even without the Sleep, having a Confuse AND a Hold, rather than a knockup and a Hold, makes a huge difference if fighting spawns with like 5 mobs. And, of course, it makes 3-mob spawns trivial. Electric is also excellent, I think... it takes a different pace, but it should work well with Martial Assault. You Sleep the mobs (and their Endurance starts getting drained), then you run in the middle of them (draining more Endurance), and you Hold one and kick it and stick a shuriken between its teeth. By this time, the rest of the mobs are probably drained, and you can start with the AoEs... Dragon's Tail, Trick Shot, Jolting Chain, etc. BTW, Jolting Chain has low damage to start, but improves very nicely with damage procs since it's treated as a single-target attack with regards to proc %, while still hitting multiple targets. And if you think that Trick Shot is fun, going BOUNCE - BOUNCE - BOUNCE, add in Jolting Chain whose "bounce" visual is a mob going feet up as it gets knocked down. I'm having a lot of fun with Electric/Earth, but it was a close call between that and Electric/Martial regarding which would be more fun to play in melee range, bouncing mobs that have no Endurance. I went with Earth since it has Power Boost, but Martial would do more AoE damage.

LOL. The bounce from Trick Shot seems random to me, within the bounce range (I think about 15'). Envenomed Blades has a 40 second duration and 160 recharge, so with 400% Recharge, you still can't get it permanent since you have the animation time... but a perma-Dom build should have about 80% uptime on it, which is great. I don't have Explosive Shuriken yet, so I can't say... but how useful it is depends on the % of its damage that is AoE. As a single-target attack it's usable but poor... if it's usable as an AoE, then it's a solid power. As a Hover user, you shouldn't need Acrobatics: the midair flip from being knocked back while in Hover mode is not a big enough problem to make it worth going for Acrobatics. Grav is a poor choice for a Dominator, its main strength is single-target ranged damage, but that's much more useful for Controllers than for Dominators who already have good attacks in the secondary. And its main defensive power, Wormhole for the AoE stun, comes at Level 26. So you did pick a rather poor combination, I'm afraid. At least at higher levels you'll be able to Wormhole spawns into a wall in front of you, to bunch up everyone for the AoE kicks. There is a huge difference between running a perma-Dom build and one that isn't perma-Dom. Having constantly boosted controls is nice (less so for Grav, though, since it really only benefits Gravity Distortion and Wormhole). I would take Crushing Field since Gravity needs defensive help, but its main purpose will be to use the ATO proc in order to generate as many Fiery Orbs as you can. They add AoE Stun auras that will help keep mobs from fighting back. It is an End hog, so you will want Accuracy and Endurance in it. You can build for a good mix of Recharge and Defense in a Dominator... I have a couple of perma-Dom builds that also have 35%+ defenses to Melee and Ranged, and combined with mezzed mobs and mez protection, this works. But since you're depending on a lot of set bonuses to get this, plus Link Minds in an APP, it's a build that really matures in the 40s :(.

You can do a decent job of keeping targets in an area with either Ice/Storm or Water/Storm (though I would run it as a defender to get the Storm powers earlier), if you slot up Freezing Rain a bit for -Slow. There are nice IOs with End/Rech/Slow enhancements, so they'll help what you want to enhance on it in addition to the movement debuff. All of the Rain powers that you're looking at will slow movement, so combine all of those movement debuffs, and mobs will run out but quite slowly. Add in Gale with a KB -> KD IO in order to knock everyone down in the rains, and you'll be fine. Just remember to always use Freezing Rain before Gale, since it's inaccurate and you need FR's -Defense debuff to hit reliably. Also, add in the Force Feedback proc to Gale if you do this, and you can get a lot of +Recharge buffing when fighting larger spawns.

10 mil for a cornerstone IO seems reasonable to me. If you get an AT's ATO that you can't use, which is most likely, you put it up on the market and use the money to buy the ATO that you want. You lose 10% on the transaction fees, but in general the total loss is only in the neighborhood of 10-11 mil. For 12 of them, that's 120 mil, which is steep but still cheaper than purples, and the set bonuses are comparable to purple sets. Alternately, 100 merits = 300 Enhancement Converters = about 27 million after market fees. You can convert the merits to cash and buy two ATOs that you want for those 100 merits. Short version: the price seems reasonable to me.

Right. I think it's actually a deliberate design where in some of the street spawns, there is one "designated runner", a mob whose AI says "I'm not here to fight, so if some hero shows up, I'm outta here".

A Dom can perma-Hold AVs, so you CAN put out a DPS chain that can be done against AVs without worrying about dying, BUT... the Hold has to be slotted for Hold Duration rather than damage, and it has to be spammed. So you would have to plan the cycle with the heavy inclusion of a much lower-damage attack. I did spreadsheets to see which combinations could put out enough Mag to perma-hold AVs, what their DPS was, and what their EPS burn was. Fire/Fire (with Sleet) was by far the highest, but some others (especially /Psy with its -Regen) put out pretty good DPS also. They were significantly higher on the average than Blasters. DPS chains against AVs aren't necessarily a good measure, because spamming a Hold about every 3 attacks is a serious DPS hit, so they can do even better if they don't have to worry about spending so much animation time defending themselves. This is why my planned builds for this server include several with soft-capped defenses, so that I have a chance to put out more of the DPS powers than defensive mezzes.

Those are pretty good numbers, and consider that Fire/Fire is even higher damage. Dominators can be built for high DPS.

You don't need as much defensive ability from your secondary since your primary is a defensive set. For soloing, you will want the following: Damage, both single-target and AoE Endurance management -Res -Regen, if you care to solo AVs. Defense/healing as a minor option. Some good choices are: -Fire/Dark (anything /Dark has enough defense, and it covers up Fire's lack of defense, while Fire is best overall in damage). Also Fire/Rad and Fire/Time (Time doesn't have much -Regen, so it's good overall but not so great against AVs). -Dark/Cold, Dark/Storm. Dark primary is very strong for soloing due to good damage and strong defenses, allowing you to use a more offensive secondary. -Mind/Traps. Strange combo thematically, but sleeping/confusing mobs and toe-bombing with Trip Mine does good AoE damage, and Mind is strong for single-target damage. Similarly, Grav/Traps (instead of sleeping and toe-bombing, you set the Mine and Wormhole spawns into it). -Electric/Storm. Excellent AoE damage if you proc up Jolting Chain, and the Endurance recovery from Electric helps with Storm's heavy End drain. Single-target damage is ironically handled by Tornado and Lightning Storm while AoE is more from the Jolting Chain and Gremlins. -Plant/Kin. Plant is great for AoE damage, not so great for single-target. Its early Confuse helps it solo defensive, while the +Damage and +Recharge from Kin help with offense. Single-target is weak within the set, but Kinetics can boost Arcane Bolt or the attacks from the Fighting Pool to be useful. Ill/Rad, Ill/Time, Ill/Storm. Illusion is an excellent soloing set, and all of those work with it.

Sure, though I don't bother planning for Incarnates...there will be time to respec and redesign at that point. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Kitsune: Level 50 Magic Controller Primary Power Set: Illusion Control Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Primal Forces Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Blind -- SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(3), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(3), SprWiloft-EndRdx/Rchg(5), SprWiloft-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(5) Level 1: Gale -- Acc-I(A), KBDist-I(7), FrcFdb-Rechg%(7) Level 2: Deceive -- CrcPrs-Conf%(A), CrcPrs-Conf/EndRdx(9), CrcPrs-Acc/Rchg(9), CrcPrs-Acc/Conf/Rchg(11), CrcPrs-Conf/Rchg(11), CrcPrs-Conf(13) Level 4: Arcane Bolt -- Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Dcm-Acc/Dmg(19), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg(21), Dcm-Build%(21), FrcFdb-Rechg%(23) Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(23) Level 8: Mystic Flight -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A) Level 10: Steamy Mist -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(25), GldArm-3defTpProc(25), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(27) Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27), RechRdx-I(29) Level 14: Group Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 16: Freezing Rain -- TchofLadG-Rchg/EndRdx(A), UndDfn-Rchg/EndRdx(29), UndDfn-Rchg(31) Level 18: Phantom Army -- ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(31), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(33), SlbAll-Dmg/Rchg(33), SlbAll-Build%(33) Level 20: Hurricane -- DarWtcDsp-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(A), DarWtcDsp-ToHitDeb(34), DarWtcDsp-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(34), DarWtcDsp-Rchg/EndRdx(34) Level 22: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 24: Spectral Wounds -- EntChs-Heal%(A), EntChs-Acc/Dmg(36), EntChs-Dmg/EndRdx(36), EntChs-Dmg/Rchg(36), EntChs-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37) Level 26: Spectral Terror -- GlmoftheA-Dam%(A), SprWiloft-Rchg/Dmg%(37), SprOvrPrs-Rchg/Energy Font(37), DarWtcDsp-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(39) Level 28: Superior Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 30: Thunder Clap -- AbsAmz-EndRdx/Stun(A), AbsAmz-Stun(39), AbsAmz-Stun/Rchg(39), AbsAmz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(40), AbsAmz-Acc/Rchg(50) Level 32: Phantasm -- ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(A), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(40), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(40), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), ExpStr-Dam%(42) Level 35: Tornado -- OvrFrc-Dam/KB(A), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(42), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(43), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(43), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), FrcFdb-Rechg%(45) Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Apc-Dam%(A), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Apc-Dmg(45), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), Apc-Acc/Rchg(46), FrcFdb-Rechg%(46) Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50) Level 44: Energy Torrent -- Rgn-Knock%(A), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(48), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(50) Level 47: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 49: Rune of Protection -- TtnCtn-ResDam/Rchg(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Containment Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(13), Pnc-Heal/+End(15) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(15), EndMod-I(17), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(17) Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: The Atlas Medallion ------------

Better yet, will the great JRanger ever return to officially /JRanger this thread? JRanger was pretty rare once, but then he got duped by all the jerkhacking posters

Right about the Recharge with Storm. I don't think Plant/Storm should beat either Ill/Storm or Grav/Storm in theory, but in practice different players may be better or worse at DPS management, or one may have a better build, and Plant isn't so far behind Illusion or Storm (or Fire) that it can't put up DPS that's close enough to them. I would expect Ill, Grav, Fire, and maybe Dark to beat out Plant with the same player and level of build, but a good player and a good build can make a difference when it's not the same player using the same kind of build for both characters.

Rad Assault is very good, because Dominator defensive abilities are generally predicated upon hitting the targets. Getting a secondary with -Def is a nice improvement to the chances of your Controls to hit. It also has a self heal. So, defensively it's pretty good. Offensively it's also good, as -Def helps you hit more often, and it has a decent set of attacks. It looks as if you can also slot up Achilles Heel procs in multiple attacks, making it more likely that it will be active on the target if you're hitting a tough target. For primaries, avoid Ice. It mitigates incoming damage over an entire fight, rather than just at the beginning, and so I like it only with /Dark Assault. Pairing Ice and Dark gives you constant damage mitigation, but also means that damage is constantly coming in. Earth is a good primary set, but it also puts out -Def as its secondary effect, and between Earth and Rad you'll probably start wasting a lot of debuffing since you can't get a chance to hit over 95%. So... this leaves Fire as an excellent fit, and it also works nicely thematically.

I started an Ill/Storm as my main, for several reasons: 1: AoE (small area, though) damage 2: Recharge build for PA also helps with stacking Freezing Rain, Tornado, and Lightning Storm 3: Ability to fight by placing powers and staying out of the fight so you don't worry about eating AoEs. But, as a side note, on this server /Traps is available to Controllers, and that's a very high AoE secondary, with great radius on its AoEs (Caltrops and Trip Mine). And Trip Mine is available for every spawn for about 400 damage at 50. If AoE is your thing, Plant/Traps... thematically it doesn't fit that well, but I also like the idea of stacking or alternating the +Regen summons.

Yup, I'm not surprised... Storm > Cold when you're fighting AVs at +0 at least up to +2. Probably +3, maybe +4. Well, at least in DPS output. Pre-incarnate, with Storm not having a great +Recovery power like Cold, maintaining a constant attack cycle is hard due to End management when you have to constantly put up high-End powers like Tornado, LS, and Freezing Rain. In my charts, Controllers were by far the highest DPS against AVs. Wait, not by far... the highest, but MMs and Defenders weren't all that far behind. The "damage ATs", however, were far behind. The reason is that DoT and stackable -Res powers helps more in longer fights, while the up-front damage of Blasters helps more in a 10-second spawn beatdown. For sustained DPS, Controllers are great... for burst DPS, they're terrible. Blasters are great in burst DPS, but only average in sustained DPS. For sustained DPS by a damage character, I would expect Stalkers to be ahead of Blasters and Scrappers.

Perma-PA means that you can summon the next set before the first expires, which causes the first set to drop out of existence. It does not cause the first set to have their duration extended. You only have 3 decoys, and while each of them Taunts with its attacks, that Taunt lasts for a limited time.. if you have 6 mobs, then the decoys have to spread their attacks around efficiently to maintain aggro. If an enemy mob gets lucky and no decoy attacks it for some time, the Taunt effect from the last hit fades, and at this point it's likely that any AoE debuffs that you have put up will cause it to look at you for its next target. The more mobs there are, the more likely this is to happen. PA is a very useful alpha-strike absorbing power, and it can hold aggro on smaller mobs, but its control abilities do not scale well with spawn size.

That exists, but you also have the option to raise a single hand at the target and fire fire from a single palm.