Auroxis

It is a very good combo, and there are a lot of ways to build it. This one for example focuses on support and confuse stacking while maintaining good AoE: You can change the epics, pools, and alpha slot around in a variety of ways. One thing to remember is that in the coming patch, Dreadful Discord will apply Containment and AoE holds are gonna be a lot better, so Chords of Despair will probably replace Aria of Stasis in my Symphony builds. Controller (Symphony Control - Nature Affinity)(Confuse Stack).mbd

Any proc you slot into Shifting Tides will have a minimum chance to activate on a target every 10 seconds. So damage procs which only apply to an enemy aren't great on it, but self buffing ones like the gaussian build up proc are, as while the chance remains low you're still routinely checking it on a lot of targets. The build up is great because it buffs the damage you deal with the shifting tide proc itself.

Some more info on Vines (the hold patch): 1. It only affects 5 targets per tick 2. It has been changed to use AT modifiers for damage instead of pet modifiers, so controllers do significantly less damage with it 3. Containment on it is at a 33% chance (was previously reserved for powers using pet modifiers, but now it's using AT modifiers) 4. Domination on it is at a 25% chance 5. Overpower on it is at a 5% chance So despite the recharge being brought down to 180s it's not a very reliable CC power, and the damage even over the full 60s duration is fairly negligible. I can certainly see some scenarios where you combine it with Nature or Rad's AoE hold toggles, but at its current state I'd skip it (and other hold patches like it) in the majority of builds.

The only real noticeable difference from a power becoming a real pseudopet is inheriting AT modifiers, which for damage on controllers is a bad thing as they have a really low AT modifier. Controllers can usually utilize Containment to be on par with other AT's on the limited set of powers they have available, but that's not truly the case with a lot of the new true pseudopets (Tesla Coil, Vines, Gravity Distortion Field) which only have a 33% containment proc chance. Another example of a damage nerfed power is Arsenal Control's Tear Gas (where most of the above powers were likely copied from), which has been dropped from pet modifiers to controller modifiers and from 100% containment to 33% containment.

Yeah the epic AoE's are unaffected, so it serves to cushion things a bit. Less relevant to the tanker vs. brute thing and more relevant to the "how slower is my clear speed" thing.

Worth noting is that these numbers don't tell the whole picture. Sometimes the extra radius will let you hit more targets than the brute, and epic pool AoE's from Mu Mastery for example still make up for a chunk of your overall damage.

Thanks @Maelwys ! I fixed the post to include the changes.

I messed up the final brute math and didn't include one proc for the brute total, edited the post. It's not as bad.

In order to help make things clearer, I did some basic math the best I could. Let me know if I messed anything up: Fix #1: A proc was missing at brute totals Fix #2: Tanker base damage was incorrect, radius is part of base damage formula Live Tanker at damage cap: Dragon's Tail 312.17 34.15 34.15 34.15 Targets Base Proc #1 Proc #2 Proc #3 Total 16 4994.73 546.33 546.33 546.33 6633.73 Beta Tanker at damage cap: Dragon's Tail 245.30 27.61 27.61 27.61 Targets Base Proc #1 Proc #2 Proc #3 Total 10 2453.00 276.09 276.09 276.09 11 2636.98 296.80 296.80 296.80 12 2774.96 312.33 312.33 312.33 13 2878.44 323.98 323.98 323.98 14 2956.06 332.71 332.71 332.71 15 3014.27 339.27 339.27 339.27 16 3057.93 344.18 344.18 344.18 4090.47 Brute at damage cap: Dragon's Tail 345.03 34.15 34.15 34.15 Targets Base Proc #1 Proc #2 Proc #3 Total 10 3450.31 341.46 341.46 341.46 4474.69 Live Tanker unbuffed: Dragon's Tail 124.87 34.15 34.15 34.15 Targets Base Proc #1 Proc #2 Proc #3 Total 16 1997.89 546.33 546.33 546.33 3636.89 Beta Tanker unbuffed: Dragon's Tail 98.12 27.61 27.61 27.61 Targets Base Proc #1 Proc #2 Proc #3 Total 10 981.20 276.09 276.09 276.09 11 1054.79 296.80 296.80 296.80 12 1109.98 312.33 312.33 312.33 13 1151.38 323.98 323.98 323.98 14 1182.42 332.71 332.71 332.71 15 1205.71 339.27 339.27 339.27 16 1223.17 344.18 344.18 344.18 2255.71 Brute unbuffed+75% Fury: Dragon's Tail 172.52 34.15 34.15 34.15 Targets Base Proc #1 Proc #2 Proc #3 Total 10 1725.16 341.46 341.46 341.46 2749.53

I do think the old power surge had a some niche usage with cycling its uptime with Rune of Protection or Melee Hybrid. And some players may be disappointed that it's no longer an option. Ideally you could have a branching choice between old power surge (maybe without the crash) and new power surge (maybe as a toggle so players can use it as a reliable sapping tool), but seeing as most players like the new power surge, this is what we'll have to settle with for now.

Back when the Tanker changes were first introduced I warned against that exact scenario of Tankers competing against Brutes. The changes in this patch basically do away with the increased damage scalars on the AoE's, but keeping the AoE aggro machine alive and giving Tanker an identity that doesn't clash with anything other AT's have to offer. This is a step in the right direction, and is a step that can be built upon. Whether it be by expanding on this theme (giving tanker taunt a higher target cap? giving tanker more team supporty stuff?) or by beginning work on Brute identity (even better early game? the ability to choose what fury gives you?). I'd encourage continued work on this in a later page.

I think Power Surge would benefit greatly from the Icy Bastion treatment. Make it a toggle, so if someone wants to use it for the EMP burst they can.

@Kai Moon Thanks for testing! I think the OverCap damage reduction numbers are a tad too high, as essentially damage past the first target over the cap is fairly meaningless. I believe proc chance is also impacted.

@Anderoth I believe this fix is up on Brainstorm (open beta server) if you want to test it.

FYI on pylon this power won't deal damage, the damage is conditional on the target being held.

@WindDemon21 Regarding Tesla Coil, its damage is comparable to Blizzard so a high recharge is warranted. Maybe not 240s or 120s, but somewhere in between. Edit: This is no longer the case as the damage was halved and chains deal less damage. Also the target cap is 5

It feels like whatever damage Vines is supposed to do to counteract the creeper nerf just isn't it. If you compare new Vines to new Tesla Coil (renamed from Paralyzing Blast), both location AoE holds with very long recharge and damage conditional on hold, the difference is quite dramatic:

You're not factoring in these two use cases: 1. Alpha strike the pack with your main CC and AoE's just as you do now, and once the minions are dead you activate your new adaptive recharge AoE hold to keep things locked down 2. Quickly stack holds on a boss/EB

I really like the overall feel of the powerset, but it's missing some reliable AoE openers. Multipurpose Missiles being at a split target cap of 8 for its stun and fear component means you'll often find yourself with some mobs that aren't CC'd (since some mobs may get both the fear and stun, while others may get neither). I'd much prefer it if the target cap was a little bit higher at 10/10.

Power Sink -End lowered from -40 to -20. * This seems like a big missed opportunity to me. While maybe not as powerful as something like the modern Elec Blast, Elec Armor has always been the only armor set having multiple endurance draining capabilities, and now its signature endurance draining power in Power Sink has been reduced to being worse at draining endurance than the equivalent ones in Energy Aura's Energy Drain and Ice Armor's Energy Absorption. If Power Sink's drain isn't meaningful, then so is the case for endurance drain on the damage aura and T9. I'm a big proponent of keeping options available and balanced for players to keep building characters interesting, so it hurts to see a nerf to such a unique feature of the set. *EDIT: There appears to have been a patch note error, the original note said -40 to -20 and not -35. So it's not a big issue now!

The mission was tailored specifically to benchmark builds for +4x8 missions by Ston, a person known for buildmaking, testing and benchmarking, and has a variety of enemies including an elite boss, rikti, nemesis, and crey with variant mob spread. It's not a cakewalk by any means. The players, well this is gonna sound horribly condescending, but me and @BRADICAL are quite well respected in both the forums and discord community as buildmakers. We would have loved more people to participate in the controller part of benchmarking, but keep in mind that if it was that easy to beat those numbers then others would have joined in. Regarding the fact that there are only 5 controller builds, well there is a reason those builds were chosen. Illusion is the premier DPS primary for controllers due to Phantom Army, and Marine is the premier AoE secondary due to procced Whitecap and one of the best DPS primaries if you have a lot of pets/teammates to trigger Shifting Tides (and illusion has the highest number of active pets). With all that being said, there are definitely a lot of cool and strong builds not on this list! As an example, I've been enjoying Symphony/Sonic/Energy lately, because of the combo of procced Liquefy giving Containment and clear cone positioning to Confounding Chant, Energy Torrent and Dreadful Discord.

Ill/Marine/Earth has the highest controller performance benchmark for speedy +4x8 solo clearing.

I would double-check that FFB works in Remote Bomb. I remember testing it a couple months ago and it didn't proc for me once.

@Uun Regarding Brine spam, it's important to remember these things: 1. The HP debuff is less impactful the lower %HP your target has, meaning that a target with 50000/100000 HP will have their max HP reduced by 500 but their current HP reduced by 250. 2. The HP debuff, while not impacted by AV resists, is also not impacted by resistance debuffs on that AV or damage buffs on yourself, while your attacks are. So against something like Hami with massive resists it's valid to spam, but most AV's do not have that much resistance and fall to the negatives a lot more often. 3. Brine's -res lasts 60s, meaning you will likely not be needing to re-apply it against the vast majority of AV's.

Soothing Wave with a heal set is an option like i said, but i find that i never use it. As a sidenote i do 6-slot it on my defender builds as i feel more obligated to support there. Going with 2 or 3 slots on brine is solid (touch of the nictus), i probably should have mentioned that as an option. I just don't use it that often outside of as an opener against AV's or against Hami. +5 Heal IO does the trick for that. To elaborate on barrier reef, you can't get a recharge set bonus if you invest in both, and defense is more important to have at the start of the fight due to debuffs coming your way, while absorb works just as fine if it arrives a bit late to the party.