Story Archer

I'm a huge Dark guy (Dark/Dark is my favorite controller), but the stacking +Recharge and +Endurance really are must-haves for me and Dark just doesn't do that, unfortunately.

I'm looking into Time as we speak - this is the other consideration (I edited the post while you were responding to it). Also, aren't we capped at 300% recharge? FWIW, I expect the majority of the time spent playing these characters will be pre-50, so I can't assume we're always going to have maxed out purple IO's on everything. That's one of the things I have to take into account and why Rad came to mind first - you get RI and AM pretty much right off the bat, instead of having to wait til late 20's/early 30's for the stuff that makes the build go.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond in so much detail, this is exactly what I was hoping for. The two people I'm playing with are very new and I just don't have any experience with the Time set, but you've got me looking pretty hard at Empathy now. I do have a couple of questions/concerns, mainly about being able to keep the buffs up. Fortitude isn't a problem, but looking at Mids, Recovery Aura, Regen Aura and AB all have a duration of 90s with base recharges of 500s, 500s and 300s respectively. How do I get them perma? FWIW, I expect the majority of the time spent playing these characters will be pre-50, so I can't assume we're always going to have maxed out purple IO's on everything. That's one of the things I have to take into account and why Rad came to mind first - you get RI and AM pretty much right off the bat, instead of having to wait til late 20's/early 30's for the stuff that makes the build go.

So I'm going to be playing with two other people and we're all going to use identical builds when we're playing together. What Archetype/Power Sets would you suggest? No Controllers or Masterminds, please. At the moment Fire/Rad Corruptor is leading the list.

I'm not going to lie - this Rad/MA is pretty strong. It's basically got soft-capped positional defenses to go with 90% Res vs. S/L/E/F/T with 80% NE and 55% C/P... all without Incarnates. Heck, it's not even counting the ToHit and Damage Debuffs from Beta Decay (or Darkest Night). The only thing keeping me from playing her is how awful the visuals of rad armor make my costumes look. When will we get minimal FX options for all toggles??

Well, you can get to the defensive soft-cap of 45% by 12th level using only SO's and a couple select IO's. That's pretty damn strong to start.

The Tanks that I've played extensively have been Will/SS, SR/DM and Rad/Stone, which is currently my favorite. Radiation Armor/Stone Melee: 90% Res to all but Cold & Psi (over 50% on those), Soft-capped defense vs. Melee and 27% vs. Ranged & AoE. Two different Heals (one for you AND one for your group) that double as proc'ed out mini-nukes, both up every 30 seconds or so. Between Hasten, Beta Decay, 3x FF procs and 3x LotG, the global recharge is nuts. Plenty of +regen and +recovery. Highest-damage Tanker I've ever played. Room for maxed out Tactics and Maneuvers to help the team. 85% Endurance Drain resistance and 95% Slow resistance are a bigger deal than many realize. Having said all that, I've got a Dark / Dark on paper that looks like it will be able to do things no other Tanker could imagine...

First off, I'm loving this build and the concept fits like *chef's kiss*. I'm L44 at the time of this posting and working on what I want my final build to look like. I'm pretty happy with it (see build at the bottom): 90% Res. to everything but Cold & Psi (50+%) 45% Def. to Melee, 35% Def. to S/L, 26+% Def. to everything else Two mini-nukes up every 30s or so that also heal either me or my teammates, plus a spammable PBAoE attack Pretty insane Global Recharge from Hasten, Beta Decay, 3x LotG & 3x FF proc keeps everything humming right along 85%+ resistance to Endurance Drain and 95% resistance to Slow effects is just icing on the cake Add in the heals, absorb shields, regen and recovery boosts, and it's as all-around a Tanker as I've ever played. I'd still appreciate any insights regarding the nuances of the build from anyone who has experience playing either power set. Please note that I haven't dipped my toe into Incarnates yet, so any recommendations along those lines which would apply to this specific build would also be much appreciated. The build is intended for all aspects of game play, from soloing to TF's, high-level content and farming. The first thing I'm really on the fence about is the best use for that final slot. At the moment I'm considering three possibilities: 1) Meltdown: In practice, the only thing I'm really getting out of this is a 30% buff in damage about a third of the time and a nice Resist Damage mule that I'm currently using to help bolster my Psi Resist via Impervium Armor. Seems like it might be a useful 'aw s#!t' power in some situations. 2) Taunt: It just seems wrong to play a Tanker and not have this power. I've never had any problems holding aggro, but if I'm going to farm with this or run some of the higher end content, it might be necessary. 3) Vengeance: If I'm doing my job it should rarely if ever be needed, and more global recharge would probably be redundant at this point, but it could serve as a mule for a fourth LotG proc or free up an additional slot to be used elsewhere. The second thing I'd like input on is whether I should stick with Tremor or go with Cross Punch instead. They'd both slot the same; I like Cross Punch's faster animation time and higher damage as well as it's ancillary benefits, but Tremor will hit more targets more consistently, allowing for more opportunities for the FF proc to pop off and won't leave me trying to position myself ideally while in a crowd. If I went with Cross Punch, I might want to consider Kick in that L49 slot as another option. Fault was also a consideration here, but it ultimately seems an inferior option in every regard. Rad Hammer (Radiation - Stone) 2.mbd

The servers are down right now and I was wondering what was going on, but I couldn't find 'the place' to see that information...

This is just a ridiculous take. Literally everything that's ever been done has taken time to do. Don't be argumentative just for argument's sake. If you want to say that they don't consider it a priority over every other thing that they have done, well, that too is blatantly obvious and doesn't provide any actual answers, but it does at least address the question. What I'm curious to know is why hasn't it been considered something that was worthwhile to do? I imagine it would take less effort than most other things they work on, and if the reason was that there wasn't enough of a demand for it, then I'm here to put in my two cents. 🙂

Yes. You - like everyone else - has limited time to do the things you would like to do and, thus, have to make choices regarding what you do and don't do with those limited resources. You probably make that decision based on some sort of expenditure of resources vs. degree of reward determination. I assume the devs do as well. Considering how popular this would be and the relative complexity of doing it (as opposed to, say, introducing an all new power set across multiple platforms or adding a 20+ item scavenger hunt across multiple, all for a single badge), I would think that this would be a no-brainer... which leaves me to wonder why it hasn't been one of the things they've chosen to do with their limited time and resources. Of course, I have to assume they have some reason, one I'm not privy to, so I'm left to ask 'any idea why it hasn't been done?'... A snarky 'because it takes time to do' adds nothing to the discussion.

Well, they've done plenty of things that take time to do...

I'll be honest, I pick my melee toon defensive power sets as much based on how unobtrusive the visuals are as anything else...

Yes, exactly that. I'm sure everyone has auras they like and auras they hate... it would be nice to be able to choose. Honestly, lots of different versions of the auras would be great, but I'm not asking for all that, just the option to turn off visuals that we don't like.

I know many people spend a lot of time on their look and take a degree of pride in it... but often times a particular aura either wrecks the look thematically or obscures the costume almost entirely. Moreover, so many powers have auras that you can have a literal lollapalooza going on and that's BEFORE allies start layering on all of their auras and shields... it seems like this would be an incredibly easy and popular fix, comparatively speaking - any idea why it hasn't been done?

Also if anyone has any advice or suggestions regarding my build as it stands, I'd be interested to hear them - this is as far as I can take it but I have no experience whatsoever with Incarnates or post-50 play.

I do the 4-piece Pet Recharge as well, but compliment it with the Edict of the Master Defensive IO and the Soulbound Allegiance chance for Build-Up proc. And I play with my sound off. 🙂

Blasters blast, Scrappers scrap, Tanks tank... Defenders are a little more active, usually focusing on whatever their primary does and then pew-pewing in between. Controllers though, with them it's a whole different ball game. With both a primary and a secondary that can be equally effective, each doing wildly different things and both of which need to be actively managed, there's a real learning curve when it comes to determining which of the many options available to you would be the best to use RIGHT NOW... all the moreso with larger, fast-moving groups. So how do you play your Controller? What abilities or actions do you prioritize? Obviously a lot of that is situational, but surely you have a 'go to' pattern or three that you tend to fall into. For instance, I run two controllers - a Plant/Kinetics and a Dark/Dark. The first I've managed to get into a pretty easy flow - open with Seeds, then Fulcrum Shift, then Carrion Creepers when it's up. Alternate between Strangler and Transfusion during the rest of the fight, tossing in a Siphon Speed or a Transference as needed, and recharging Speed Boost and Increase Density for the group in between fights. 90+% of the time that is all I need to do to contribute and be (very) effective. For Dark/Dark it's a little trickier. I'm sharing this in the hopes of getting insight from other experienced controllers and maybe offering a bit of it to newer players or those considering the power set. See below for the actual build I'm using - even maxxed out it's fairly inexpensive compared to most others. My favorite thing about this pairing is that, even if I'm the only Buffer / DeBuffer / Healer / Control on the team, I'm up to the task of filling all those roles at once. It's the only character I've ever felt that way about. Mistress of Chains (stunner).mbd A couple of slotting choices: I've procced out Heart of Darkness to hit like a truck, and it's really my only direct attack. Heart of Darkness makes for an excellent mini-nuke when you proc it out but whenever I play with groups, they're often fast-moving and they are pretty much never looking to me for damage, so eventually I figured I'd get more use out of the Absolute Amazement set and its bonuses. Slotting the way I have put me at the defensive soft cap for all positional defenses when I've got Fade up (which is perma with Hasten, also perma) and even without Fade I'm over the hard cap for Smashing/Lethal and Energy damage. I prefer to not be reliant on others for my well-being, regardless of AT I play. So, playstyle... normally I open each mob with Fearsome Stare and then run in to drop Heart of Darkness. That usually serves to lock down anything that isn't Boss level or higher and slaps everybody with a -22.5% ToHit DeBuff as well. Once that's done, I target any lt's or bosses by alternating Dark Grasp and Possess, tossing in Twilight Grasp as needed should the group's health start to dip. Side Note: I find that Possess is an often over-looked or under-valued option, especially at higher level play. It's generally better than a hold and, properly slotted, you can spam it so often and it's duration lasts so long, you can literally Confuse anything that isn't completely immune to it. Most of the time there really isn't time or need for Darkest Night or Tar Patch, though if I've got someone on the team throwing around area DoT effects, I'll usually try to compliment it with a Tar Patch for larger mobs. Darkest Night usually gets saved exclusively for EB's, AV's and GM's, who also tend to draw Howling Twilight, a Tar Patch and a steady diet of Twilight Grasp. DN, TP and HT can all provide tremendous value in those situations and only need a single enhancement to do so. I've seen builds where both HoD and HT are both proc'ed out as powerful mini-nukes and I think that can be a very effective option for solo play and smaller groups, but as I said before it's rare that groups are looking to their controller for damage and I prefer the benefits of the Absolute Amazement set, with other enhancement slots that would be needed for Howling Twilight better used elsewhere. As for the buffs, I generally try to drop Soul Absorption right before the end of a fight and Fade right before one begins. Key binds telling people to gather can be effective, but since their duration's are relatively short and their recharge is so frequent it can get tedious - I've found that often it's just easier to try and catch as many people as you can each time you use them and not to worry too much about those you don't. Fade in particular has a nice 40' radius, so it's usually not a problem. Umbra Beast and Dark Servant are resummoned between fights as needed, but once they're summoned I rarely pay them any mind, just letting them add to the battle as they will. Collectively I find them way too effective not to use, but much too random to try to anticipate or work around. Perma-Hasten is on auto-fire and everything else runs on toggles, including Hover and Evasive Maneuvers, which, since I've discovered, my feet never touch the ground. If you've read this much already, thanks for your patience. I'm interested in any alternate perspectives other Dark 'trollers might have and welcome any questions from those considering the set.

So it's not that the Stealth IO didn't stack with the various powers, it's that the various powers don't stack with each OTHER?

I've seen it said that it definitively didn't, but that was a really old post and I'm not sure if Homecoming or updates have changed that.

How necessary they are depends on your playstyle, but as a 'fire-and-forget' every couple of minutes you're definitely better off with the Beast and Servant than without. Also, they might seem kind of squishy on their own, but when you add perma-Fade, Shadowfall and Maneuvers, they get a lot less squishy in a hurry. Then add the pet Resist and Defense auras and the benefits of the occasional Darkest Night or Fearsome Stare and suddenly they become durable as hell. That's not counting any ancillary benefits they might get from your teammates as well. Here's my 'don't break the bank' L50 build. With more or less perma-Fade she is at the soft-cap for all positional defenses AND at the hard cap for Smashing, Lethal and Energy Resistance. She also features 164% Global Recharge. [Mistress of Chains].mbd

Not sure what you mean by 'no budget', but this would be one of the cheapest you could do, apart from just going straight generic IO's... I'm still selecting the 'must get' IO's, however and a few of the cheaper sets. I didn't do anything with the L50 slots because by then you will probably be looking for something a bit fancier. As it is, this build puts you at the defensive soft cap for Smashing, Lethal and Energy and gets the recharge down for everything you need it down for. Let me know if this works for you. K-D1VA (minimum).mbd Or did you mean a build where you have unlimited funds?

Except that's not exactly what Zep says... #1 Debuff radius around target. Each target gets a moderate debuff (I forget if there is a to-hit) and the total targets is counted. #2 BUFF in same area as #1 debuff a stacking buff based on the total number of targets debuffed. #3 BUFF in a radius around the caster. Otherwise same as #2. So it is NOT accurate to say that the buff received by those around the Kin and those around the Kin's targets are the same, correct? The way you're explaining it, it sounds like those around the Kin are receiving one static buff regardless of the number of foes hit with FS (50%?) while those around the target receive a variable buff based on ow many foes were hit (25% per foe?), all with the understanding that proximity can allow for both buffs to overlap... if those numbers are correct, that means a Kin standing right next to a single target would receive a 75% damage buff (50% + 25% x1), yes? I appreciate the response, I'm just trying to make it make sense. I find it interesting that those standing near the Kin are buffed for 45s while those standing near the target are buffed for 30s... I wonder why the discrepancy.

Sorry for the thread necro, but searches reveal so much conflicting information. Is what's listed above (still) accurate, and are the buffs the same per target whether you are near the kinetic using the ability or near the kinetic's target(s)? For instance, if the kinetic hits 5 grouped foes from a distance with FS, do the people near the target and the people near the kinetic get the same bonus to damage? Also, definitively, does FS need Accuracy? It takes Accuracy enhancements but Mid's doesn't list a base accuracy for the ability.

I've run a Kin/Sonic since back when the game went live. There are a number of ways to play it, but I definitely recommend you not skip your defenses - particularly your Area defense, since you'll often find yourself moving into the thick of it and even if a good tank is holding aggro all those AoE attacks flying around can ruin your day. I have a lot of different versions of the build - I can show you what it would look like at a particular level, with only generic IO's or maxed out with unlimited funds, just let me know what you need. Linked below is the base build with only two purple IO sets - the AT-specific ones for Defenders. You can easily replace these with their non-superior versions or a third set of Thunderstrike (for Screech) and a set of Eradicate (for Dreadful Wail) for much, much cheaper. This build basically has it's Smashing, Lethal & Energy defenses over the soft-cap and it's Ranged and AoE right at it (43.7% or 42.5% without purple sets). That should be more than enough for you to do your job without fear of becoming an accidental casualty - remember, Defender, your group is counting on you! Also of note - Accuracy is important, for you especially. Until you start getting together some of those set bonuses that will boost yours, you should slot Siphon Power, Siphon Speed and Transference with an Accuracy enhancement rather than what I've shown here. [K-D1VA].mbd The thing about this build is that it can be played in so many ways. You can hang back and focus on purely buffing and healing your party, you can focus on a single hard target, debuffing their speed, damage, etc. all while piling up -Res debuffs so that your allies hammer him harder, or you can be an effective crowd control/AoE threat by cycling Shockwave -> Howl -> Siren's Song (in that order) over and over to just melt mobs away and popping the occasional nuke with FS + Dreadful Wail if you're lacking a Blaster to do it for you.