dukedukes

High HP targets (AV's, GM's) have 60-87% regen res so -50 is pretty bad. Poison isn't known for its -regen, traps has -1000 regen and a bunch of the debuffers have -500. It matters most on GM's and that's a pretty specific activity so it doesn't hurt the set much IMO.

Mag 4 stun is peak entertainment, great choice. I run that on a warshade with gravitic emanation and inky aspect, I wish they were max 16 target powers but it's still pretty fun regardless.

The cards are on the table at this point, not much more to say. It's all good 🫂

It's not just poison... According to your logic nearly every -res debuff available in the game is not worth taking. Goofy thinking at best, the only valid criticism of VG is it notifies mobs. Enjoy your blaster.

I can do the math on how much better my Envenom is, is 60% not enough for you? How much better does VG need to be to break through the threshold for you.

With Darks 3 sec cast times I could understand not wanting to use it, though I'm not sure your attacks would be any more efficient. VG is a toggle so there's no effort involved. I just combat TP or spit jump (it's advanced poison stuff... don't ask) into fights and VG does its job without me accounting for it. I guess not... Well, it's good you picked up poison trap to help out teams like this, or are we team blaster now? The goalposts keep moving around... hard to keep track. I do still remember my Envenom is ~60% better than yours, so that's cool.

There's people who choose their epic based on a -18% res ST power, or pick up a -7.5-10% ST res pool power. I will gladly take a 18.75-25% 15 ft aoe that doesn't require me to do anything but exist for it to apply, you just have to pay the aggro tax (a big "just" really). All the other debuffs are useful too. If you ever want Envenom to do 65-85% -res instead of 40-60% -res (a 41.6% to 62.5% increase) look no further than VG.

VG helps my characters initiate pulls, it's equivalent to 12% defense (for troller) against +3 before potential to hit resists, you get some -damage sprinkled in to help. Since I always initiate pulls when I play poison the alpha always includes the VG debuff in its damage. Saying the -res doesn't matter ignores damage is a sum of its parts (-res is a multiplier... pretty good), and instant -res on an alpha is a big thing other debuffers will have a hard time accomplishing, VG has the fastest application at <.5 sec. You think because VG may not make the difference between wiping and clearing a pack or the mobs would die a few seconds later it's useless? You could describe any power with that assessment. If you successfully utilize VG you're using the poison set better than those who don't utilize it, unless you die (rarely happens for me these days). It would be very odd to argue against that. If you're fine with not being optimal it's no biggie to have your preferences. You can have fun being sub-optimal too. If I play with a poison character who doesn't use VG I'll be question marking internally though. Same for tankers who are oblivious to aggro, gravs who use sing as a ranged damage dealer, or other sub-optimal play styles. I don't mind playing with these folks but I do wonder about the justifications people have, if any (I generally assume ignorance), so this thread has been informative. I do understand having an aggro aura feels risky, for those people I'd recommend debuffers that don't put you in harms way. Play however you want of course.

The sound VG makes afflicting everything it touches makes it a worthy pickup for me. I enjoy challenge so posturing myself to survive the resulting attention from mobs is what I like to call fun.

Here's one from the HC discord, courtesy of @Auroxis Controller (Illusion Control - Force Field).mbd Illusion wants a lot of recharge. The changes to FF make Repulsion Bolt worth getting for the -res, Force Bomb gets -res too and is a pretty good aoe attack. Damping Bubble has team DDR you could opt in to but you'll be fine skipping it.

GC is a great opener to eat an alpha, I've seen it used well. The -tohit is quite nice though it's only a 10ft radius. Personally any troller worth their salt should be able to initiate pulls without tanks on the team and GC helps with that goal explicitly. Grav is pretty cool, it's the only troller primary I play consistently. I eat alphas with a sing TP plus some good ranged defense and other things depending on the secondary. It's less mez based but is pretty fun for the mob grouping it can do. There's a bug that affects troller pets (flying ones at least) where they get stuck trying to enter doors, like elevators. It doesn't happen all the time but it's somewhat frequent. Using TP target seems to be a workaround to bypass the bug, if you TP the pet at the door before entering it seems to get in the door every time.

Control Core is very good with those powers because of the flat proc rate, typically those powers suffer from bad proc rates. Fire Cages would get a big damage increase as the proc hits harder than the power. The toggle will have a good chance of proc'ing every 10 sec.

I'm not familiar with a general consensus on this topic but here's my 2 cents. Control Radial can dish out some serious additional mez, it's a good choice if you actually need the mez but you generally won't. Just keep it in mind if you frequently find yourself in scenarios where you wanted more mez. Control Core procs a good amount but it's not much damage. The +1 mag is less useful than it sounds, the additional mag does not last the same duration as the mez that triggered it. You also need to successfully mez the target before the procs and +1 mag can kick in. Assault Radial. The damage the double hit does isn't very intuitive but I would ballpark it dealing twice as much as Control Core, plus you get a little 10% damage boost. It's more than you would expect with trollers low damage attacks, for example my unenhanced ST hold does 33.65 damage but the double hit does 70.24 damage on its own, from my understanding part of the reason for this is the double hit ignores AT damage scaling (edit: don't take this as gospel, I don't know for sure, in some cases it doesn't seem to line up), and troller damage scaling is painfully low at .55. The choice may vary between sets, I'm only familiar with some. This is the default choice for a troller as far as I can tell.

HC is the enemy they've invented in their own mind. The real "enemy" for them is the general public at large, they're just too slow to adapt and understand their product is not as good as they think it is. As a member of the HC enemy faction I would have purchased SoH if the price was not so ridiculous. I would be willing to take the hit to explore what they've managed to accomplish in terms of game mechanics, but at this point it's looking to be not worth my time or money.

It's cool to see niche powers get some use, good find. Grav Distortion Field is nice these days if you can make use of the long duration. Repulsion Field is really the key to elevate mob herding potential, it's just very difficult to use well so take your time with it. The kb->kd isn't needed in Repulsion Field anyway as the kb only occurs in a small radius around you, and you may want the mob to move in the direction of the kb assuming you're attempting to herd the mobs together. Hurricane is a bit different because the kb can always occur, which is a big downside. On one of my gravs I have partial stealth that helps me get closer without being noticed by the mobs to then TP Sing on the pack, I do this in a team context as a pull initiator. For my Grav/FF when I'm initiating pulls I just tank some damage while I TP Sing on them as the troller is built to be pretty beefy but you would need your set bonuses. In a leveling context some partial stealth would help with gaining too much attention. When you're teaming I find it really important for gravs to get sing into the pack ASAP because once teammates start applying knockdown attacks sings pull gets disabled, so figuring out how to survive a pull initiation is important. I prefer to play aggressive with gravs and take a leading role to avoid teammates effectively disabling sings pull/trawl effect to get the most effective mob grouping possible. This is definitely worth pointing out, thanks. I would reserve the Overwhelming Force kb->kd conversion enhancement for any kb damage attacks you may have.