Onlyasandwich

If you'd like to take a look for any inspiration, @StriderIV, I just updated my own Fire/Storm build with a new topic:

Time for yet another build! I was inspired to pull my old Fire/storm out of the dustbin recently, and realized my old build is holding onto some outdated perspectives, and could use a bit of modernization. I wanted to both share the glory of Fire/storm with those who haven't tried it, and also invite any criticism or further optimization you might see here. Truly nothing shines brighter than these two sets together! I haven't experienced a character yet that quite matches the feeling of raw, majestic power. It is a very exciting playstyle as well - you have to stay focused to keep standing, but have very strong tools to endure in any situation. My goals with this build: Pile on that recharge! I picked Psi epic for Mind over Body so I can pull Ageless instead of Clarion later on, and recharge is needed to keep it perma. Even with the best end support, this combo is thirsty and will really appreciate Ageless when unleashing fully. All the longish cooldown powerful resources here also benefit from this of course. I know I could get a bit more recharge by swapping hot feet to 5 slot Armageddon, but the extra end discount and recharge resist is worth the trade for me. Sprinkle in extra damage any place I can find it. Even flashfire is doing decent damage here. Just generally pick up whatever resist bonuses I can across the board without any specific focus. Grab the juicy bonuses that don't require going out of my way, pretty much. Shore up recharge resist as much as possible as a secondary priority. Playstyle notes: This build is very intentionally not relying on softcap defenses. I do have some baseline defense from powers, and am not completely ignoring slotting for it where relevant, but the idea is to rely on the power of my controls and debuffs to survive, with a baseline of good resists to back me up. Hurricane is not an always on power here, but vital for solo work. Drop that immob and round 'em up. Stacked with the defense, Hurricane makes you pretty much untouchable. Things that I would love to improve: Any additional end support without making significant sacrifices in other areas would be great. If there is a slotting strategy I am missing that would get me closeish to ranged softcap while maintaining the spirit of things, that might be worth considering. Psi nado as my epic aoe is a necessary cost to taking Psi Mastery for Mind over Body. Nothing really to improve here, I just wanted to complain a little about Psi nado! I wish it cast like 30% faster. If you want to see proper recharge totals, don't forget to toggle off the ffback procced powers. The build:

Great little optimization, @Sovera! I'd love to see how this works in other types of powers, but still worth noting even for burn.

Perfect description! Everything you do is so flashy and impactful. Just storms and fire swirling everywhere, and enemies melting while flopping on the ground. If you aren't careful in keeping everything up and running you can get caught out and plant, but as long as you continue throwing out your powers, you feel like a conquering god.

Proccing out water jet is indeed a great idea. The insta charge still handles procs as if it were recharging normally. Edit: further perspective upon pulling up the build. Added a build below. There are many IOs that aren't doing much for your build either from the enhancement itself or set bonus perspective. Winter's Bite proc in aqua bolt, Undermined Def in Freezing Rain, Def/end in combat jumping, tohit/rech in tidal, 6th slot in your purple sets, 3rd and 4th lotg in steamy, 5th in charged armorPower transfer slotting generally all stand out. Useful targets for these many free slots include shoring up resists in steamy mist, gladiator def unique, proccing out dehydrate (this power begs for it), actually slotting Adept so it can do something, more damage/recharge in tornado, and of course heavy proccing of water jet as mentioned. The preventative medicine absorb proc is also very powerful, and even more worth including when you are already using the set. Speaking of the set, you cut off only 2 slots short of the best bonus. Honestly there is a lot I would change about this build overall. Skipping Whirlpool and steam spray is also a shame - both are outstanding aoes, which is where /water really shines. I would find a way to fit at least one of these in. As @Draggynn mentioned, it may be more productive to pick a more focused slotting strategy for defense. Currently you are just sort of grabbing a few positional bonuses of different types here and there, but reaching no softcaps . This isn't actually a bad idea in general on storm, as long as you actually use hurricane to make up the difference. However, you could squeeze loads more damage out of this build overall without sacrificing any support ability at all, and many of your best powers (freezing rain, tornado stand out) are underslotted for recharge. I would not recommend Agility for the Alpha here. I would focus on moving suboptimal slots to include better native enhancement for your good powers so you don't need Agility to make up the difference in recharge. It has only a marginal benefit to your defense, in any case. I would prefer musculature radial to beef damage with an end benefit. This also enhances your powerful -tohit and -defense! It is really ideal for Storm generally. If I get time to run through it, I'll assemble how I would approach this and share later. If you have any particular thematic requirements for your epic, I'd love to know! I did a quick adaptation of a storm/ice I put together recently for reference. There are probably further optimizations to make, but it presents the basic concept. General notes on this build: Softcap ranged defense. This gives you the flexibility to play more safely in situations where you don't want to run hurricane. All of your powers do way more damage. Moderate -recharge resistance. The two defender ATO procs are incorporated into your attack chain such that they will have maximal impact. These are very powerful, and can easily keep you topped up on Storm. To review recharge totals correctly, make sure to toggle off the ffback powers. I have placed these in two powers that will give you great uptime, and which you want to be using on cooldown in most circumstances anyhow. You still have power sink. It's on a similar cooldown, and will have similar end return with the new Alpha. It's not super fun having to lean on this, as it has a long animation time. You might consider trying Conserve Power instead, which is a bit more flexible, but won't be as much as a total end solution. I use it on my Storms as a sort of "unleash" button when I really want to spam aoes and so forth, and play a bit more reserved outside of it. Levels powers were taken are not necessarily reflective of how I would choose for exemplaring - this is an artifact of having adapted this from my /ice build. Keep in mind that most of your enemies will be heavily defense debuffed with your powers, so it's not necessary to pump full accuracy totals on every power.

Thank you for the perspective on end consumption! My own build is pursuing very heavy recharge for perma PA, so is able to maintain more or less perma heat loss. This gives me hope that it will be pretty manageable. Victory Rush is pretty strong as a one slot wonder, and can effectively bridge the gap for your heat loss downtime. However, it is fiddly to use, as you have to manually target a boss or LT corpse. If you target a minion, it hardly does anything. I'm sure you'll get a feel for whether you like this through use. Binds/macros currently only have an argument for targeting generic corpses without regard to rank, so won't really help. It's true that a Corruptor would have less motive to proc out Infrigidate for sure! If you find yourself using it often, however, it would be a big increase in overall damage, as you are adding pretty decent damage to an activity that previously did none. If you are just throwing it out on an AV or big boss every now and then for the debuff an achilles proc, you would have less reason of course. Of course, this is balanced against slots lost elsewhere as well. I think your build is strong overall, and will work especially well in team environments, where your lack of focus on softcaps/caps will allow you to soak up buffs more usefully. In solo work, the Dark debuffs help bridge the gap on defense pretty well too.

Thank you for pointing this out! In my own SJ build, I had somehow missed that Uppercut takes hold procs. Nice bump to replace one of my other procs with the purple hold.

The Traps support set. Not for stalkers, but caltrops is the same in any case.

Dark/Shield is indeed an outstanding combo, and the Dark buffs only made it better! A few broad notes: Shadow Maul is a bad place for the Crit strikes ATO proc, as it appears you suspect. You want this in either Siphon or Midnight Grasp. I would advise ignoring the rest of the set and parting out the proc, or at most bringing it to 4 slot if you really need the aoe def. Touch of Fear is now a staple power. I would at least test it to see what you think. Properly slotted, it does very solid aoe damage on a quick cooldown. The key here is proper proc slotting - you want to use melee aoe procs, and not fear ot -tohit, as those only hit single target. Shadow Maul benefits greatly from procs as well. This is a great place for Ragnarok purple proc, which is largely wasted in Dark Consumption. It will offer much better returns in Maul. You can swap a lotg to grant cover from combat jumping to free up a slot. Stamina is a bit overslotted. I would at most slot it with endmod, perf shift proc, power transfer proc. The other two slots would be better served in say slotting up touch of fear. Assault would be a prime candidate to drop in favor of touch of fear. The numina heal slotting in True grit is also a bit of a waste. The return on +HP value is pretty low and the set bonuses aren't very good- these would be more easy slots to siphon. Maneuvers is a bad defense return on slot investment. I would leave it at lotg and a plussed out def lotg myself at most, possibly even just base slot lotg. You can get better defense returns by reworking other powers with these slots. Blezzing of Zephr is a prime candidate here for shoring up any ranged or aoe you lose, as is explosive strike as a mule in kick. If you really like 4 slotting it, make 2 of them reactive to match the scaling IO for better set bonuses. Consider a more hybrid/proc based slotting approach for siphon life. It's base damage is not amazing - it only truly comes into its own with procs. I don't even worry about the heal enhancement, as I cycle it enough to provide meaningful healing just by using it baseline. Since you have a decent heal in your attacks, power transfer heal proc is a bit less attractive. These are other potentials that you could use for touch of fear or other fun. I don't have a build thrown together right now on this combo, but do have a recent /shield stalker I built. You might find the /shield choices helpful in approaching a softcap strategy:

Ffgen's huge baseline defense gives you a lot of freedom. 😃

Yeah - the reality is less exciting than it might seem for sure. I still fully proc out caltrops on my Traps/ Defender, but only because I have free slots and it is amusing, not because it is the best decision for the build. Sometimes it does something neat outside the basic utility of the power.

Defenders are my nostalgic favorite for Storm, having made so many of them in the past. The /Dark pairing is always a fun bit of synergy. After playing it on several controllers, however, I can't deny that it feels much better in that world. My personal favorite is a Fire/Storm controller. You double down on damage with the extra bits that Fire control adds (hot feet, extra dots, even Bonfire), and can rein in the chaos of /Storm as you see fit. Don't get me wrong, sometimes you want the chaos, and -KB enhancements on any AT help you let loose a bit more readily. However, the controller aoe immob provides a measure of precision control that is not present elsewhere, and is especially meaningful solo. You can just clump them and tie the bow with hurricane - easy peasy. Fire/Storm does pretty beastly damage, though nothing too bursty from any one source. You have imps, lightning storms, tornados, bonfire, hot feet, aoe immobs, epic aoes - all of this spewing at once. Mobs melt very quickly, but it is probably the most end hungry combo I have ever played. Very good times though. The real key here is that you can precast so much of this, and it stays on the battlefield grinding away, and a lot of it even follows you around.

Very clever use of TP binds! Combat Teleport does really improve quality of life for mixed ranged/melee sets. Looks like a fairly clean general "good stuff" build all around. One certainly doesn't have to chase softcaps to see success. I do question the usefulness of Power Boost here, as it doesn't actually affect /Cold shields, even though Mids says it does. This is true of most shields that have a +res component. Another useful opportunity is in Infrigidate. Proccing this out with damage procs and including an achilles as well makes it a strong part of your single target rotation, and gives you a further source of -res to really pile it on hard targets. Not the total game-changer on corruptors as it is on say a controller, but still very nice! I personally really like to go proc-heavy with Dark blast as well to maximize damage, but what you have done here is certainly not wrong - just in pursuit of other strengths. I am actually just starting an Ill/Cold controller recently, have have slotted a similarly small amount of extra end support into my build, with the same end consumption numbers. Do you feel comfortable with the blue burning on your setup? I haven't reached Heat Loss yet, so am not sure how much of a hassle it will be relying on it. Would love your perspective.

Looking decent enough! No big arguments with your power choices, and slotting is fair enough for the most part. It looks like you are going for S/L and Ranged defense. This a bit on the ambitious side, and you sacrifice a good amount of either potential resist or proc damage by doing so. /Traps offers a good opportunity to ignore Scorpion shield and instead pick up a resist shield, while still being within striking range of most softcaps. Personally, I would just go for softcap ranged and pick epic resist. End management is also an issue. You have a fair few toggles and very little extra end support slotted. Focused accuracy seems a bit redundant with tactics here - I would drop FA and get something fun. Maybe Veng as a lotg mule or some other one slot wonder. One neat little trick - the decimation build-up proc works in Seekers! It will go off on cast basically every time. This turns Seekers into not only a great alpha breaker/debuff, but a handy build up power. Your current Seeker slotting is a bit unfocused right now in general - I can't tell how this winter set really serves the build. Additionally, you haven't used the Apoc purple proc anywhere. This is a big missed opportunity for your single target damage. I find KB to KD is not really needed in sniper rifle - I'd drop it there. Broadly speaking, single target knockback is not a big deal on a ranged damage AT. There are plenty of other optimizations sitting around that I would approach differently if going from the ground up, but these are the more impactful points that stand out.

I definitely considered that! Power Sink is indeed a more powerful end management tool than consume, though both are far from perfect. But yeah - it's all about the fireball here. 😄

Great point on Mystic Flight! If I'm only grabbing TP, no big reason not to just grab MF instead. I don't really want to lose tactics though, and don't see enough power flexes to pick up Rune. I guess I could drop spectral for arcane, but not sure what I'd drop for Rune if I'm keeping tactics. I sort of like the idea of relying on my powers and tactics to keep me safe instead of defense, or even heavy resist layers. End consumption is a real issue on this build until Heat Loss for sure. However, I'm more focused on maximizing recharge and damage first, relying on Heat Loss, Consume, and maybe even Ageless at some point to make up the difference. If you see any slotting strategies that would free up space for 1-3 End support slots, I'd love to hear recommendations! I'm still thinking it may be a good idea to switch to Cardiac Core. Honestly no - consume is not that good. It is slow to animate and on a long recharge. Heat loss is the primary sustain. Consume is here to be a mule and occasionally fill me up, or help protect against -end. At the very least it has a wide range and you don't have to be too close in to use it.

Good evening cultured controllerites! For all the Controllers and Defenders I've made over the years, I have touched neither Illusion nor Cold Domination at any point. Weird I know! In any case, I'm solving that with my next character. One thing that stands out to me about Illusion is the unique ability to step away from the softcap defense game, and instead rely on high recharge not only to keep those Phantoms out front tanking, but also to blast my foes senseless. I realize this means playing it with care when approaching melee so I don't die to overaggro or splash, but it sounds like a fun challenge to me! If I wanted to play it breezy, I'd roll another scrapper. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how I might improve the build toward these goals, or even your criticism of the basic concept. My goals here: Perma (or near enough) Phantom Army. Proctastic attacks. Forget set bonuses, I want to pile on that wonky controller damage! As always, near-immunity to slows - achieved! /Cold gets me there pretty easily. : ) Beyond this, just general good stuff - grab whatever resists or cobbled defense I can while hyperfocused on the goals above. Where I'm not quite happy with this build: Would be nice to shave the last 2 seconds off to have truly perma PA. Not a big deal. Endurance management! The gimmick here is that my super high recharge is allowing me near perma heat loss, and consume is a bridge when needed as well. Obviously this is not a low-maintenance solution, but I'm okay with it. It also won't exemplar super well. However, if there were a way to maintain my other priorities while siphoning slots for some end support, that would make life easier. I'm really not sweating defense, but if there were a magical slotting strategy to get ranged def into ~33 territory, that might be worth it. I could get there pretty directly by swapping to WoTC and Coercive 6 slots, but I'd lose some solid damage and have to steal a slot somewhere to get here. Individual power notes/questions: Spectral is mostly a mule, but will be a decent ST supplement to the proc bombs. Consume is mostly a mule as well, but I anticipate it will come in handy at times. Do you see a big benefit in switching to a different epic? I want an epic aoe, but really hate psi tornado. Perma indom would be be a gimme if I picked it up, of course, and that would be very powerful. I really much prefer fireball both for fun factor and theme here. Containment - it's not really a thing for Illusion I guess! If you have clever strats for containment on illusion, I'd love to hear them. As it stands, this is pretty much single target only, or the occasional bursty fun time when flash is up. Right now I have musculature radial for my Alpha. Though I don't consider other incarnate powers in my actual build plans, I do like to incorporate the Alpha. I could go to Cardiac core instead - this would have a little over twice the end benefit, along with a res bump of course. However - Damage! The build:

Sorry to hear it, JJ! Whether we agree on build priorities or not, it's always nice to see people willing to share with the community. If the game isn't bringing you joy, a break may indeed be just the thing. Take care and be well.

Tox/psi resist in IO sets generally comes with mez resist as well. The damage resistance is certainly a worthy bonus in many builds. I don't think anyone is shooting for the mez resist element - it's just a little bonus.

I think you guys probably understand the spirit of the thread, semantics aside. 😉 New title: "really excellent builds you are proud of in that they efficiently achieve interesting goals and for which you can't currently determine further optimization based on the state of the game as of today." So those! Show me those - I like them.

Hello once more fellow tankers! I have a new concept that just demands this powerset combo, and would love your beautiful eyes and input. Willpower is fairly straightforward, but I have never run Street Justice on any AT before. Here is what I am trying to optimize for: All typed softcap except Psi Pump a broad base of resists where I can find maximum return on slots invested. Squeeze in damage procs wherever possible. As much slow resist as possible while pursuing these goals. As a secondary priority, grabbing the low-hanging fruit for +recharge. Where I would love to improve: A hair more S/L def? Honestly 44.26 is close enough, but it would make my brain feel good to officially hit 45 without buffs. I don't want to sacrifice anything to grab that little smoodge though, so there you go. More +HP would be nice. I know I left out the opportunity of slotting Heal IOs in HPT, but my return on HP/second was better elsewhere. I am basing this on accolades assumed as well. Better proc optimization for Shin Breaker. I'd love to really make it hit harder, but right now the Winter set fits here best. Not sure how much of a problem the low toxic res will be. Might be nice to bump here. Questions about powers generally: Do I have too many ST powers, and did I pick any stinkers? The damage returns are pretty straightforward, but I don't have a feel for the combo system. How important is optimizing your rotation for combo points? Do you just throw out attacks on cooldown and let the points pile up and spend willy nilly? The build:

Cross punch is indeed amazing! Only problem with it in this context is that it won't take ATO sets. Jacob's Ladder is the only halfway decent spot for the crit strikes Proc. It would do okay in Havoc Punch as well, but current slotting there is needed for set bonuses you couldn't replace from melee aoe sets. You have plenty of grist to work with of course, and will ultimately get a better feel for what works best for you personally by slotting and trying things out. 😄 I'm sure you'll have great fun with this combo.

These are actually looking really nice! Edit: Re-optimized slotting for cleaner softcaps, better attunement. I took the same power choices and general philosophy, but modified it to fit how you might approach the same build, but more damage-oriented. Perhaps you might find bits or the whole useful! This build differs in a few ways: Slightly lower res totals, though it maintains softcaps (less pad on aoe). Rune still brings you basically to S/L res cap - no wasted res going overcap either. Much higher global recharge - very little hasten downtime even. A few key attacks are procced out - most importantly examine the slotting for Jacob's and Chain induction. With procs, chain induction is now a very worthy single target power, and Jacob's will reliably enable your follow-up powers with the ATO proc to increase crit chance. Several other attacks are also doing much greater damage. Higher recharge resist at 90%. -Recharge can really ruin your day on shield, as it can cause your clicky mez prot to cycle out, or of course just make your damage sad. Electric melee's biggest deficiency is single target damage. This build aims to bring it into the boss-smacking realm. Arcane Bolt is even pretty useful here from an optimal dps standpoint if you are using it on arcane power procs only, though certainly use it however much you enjoy. Always fun to have flavor work in your favor! The build:

A little pad is certainly not a bad thing! If there is low-hanging fruit to pad you out that extra 5%, it can be worth a grab. It is even possible to get close to incarnate softcap for all positions, but I don't personally feel the sacrifice is worth it on a non-tanker. I wouldn't sacrifice significant resist, or even damage opportunities to get there. This strategy also allows you to benefit more broadly from different buffs when teaming. Even if you have bopped the mobs down to minimum hit chance, that resist layer is still important. If you rework a bit for more resist, you may find yourself relying less on Rune. There's certainly nothing wrong with Rune, but I've found myself able to survive pretty well with just oots as a steroid when needed. I think a Brute build for /shield might benefit more from the strategy of rotating oots/Rune than a scrapper will, as they can make better use of some of the superfluous resist. You'll find your own effective balance here by playing of course.

I'll do my best to address these questions, as well as make a few general observations beyond. I wouldn't worry too much about the sleep component, but I believe that the jiggle is the sleep, yes. Jacobs ladder is an easy skip for me. Yes it will be more impactful with procs, but it feels bad to use, and I'd rather invest in other more useful powers. Using as a mule is fine as well. I wouldn't sweat going much beyond softcap for your positionals. Hit softcap, then work on damage and shoring up resists where possible. Any extra def you get beyond softcap is a bonus. There are many approaches to slotting True Grit. I like my Steadfast +def to live there, and slot it out with 3 reactive + 2 Preventative medicine myself (one is the PM proc). This maximizes local resists in the power, grabs extra S/L from two sets, and even an extra bit of HP. 100% I would choose Grant Cover over oots, but I almost always pick both. The DDR is too important to pass up, and the slow resist is also strong. Note that it also a lotg mule, which allows you to use one of your other lotg slots for something else. Oots is also a great place to mule gladiator defense unique, freeing up another slot. I don't miss having a Heal. Slotting power transfer proc in stamina is nice if you have room. but not necessary. One power I want to highlight here is Deflection. Remember that Deflection provides S/L resist in addition to your positional defense - it is just as strong as tough in this regard! I would approach this with hybrid slotting. Personally I have two reactives in there on top of my defense sets. Additionally, it's worth carefully considering where you place the crit strikes ATO proc - shield charge is not a great spot. You want this to be going off in your attack chain as often as possible, buffing as many attacks as you can in the 3 second window that follows. Havoc Punch would be an okay option here. To be fair, Electric does have fewer ideal spots for this. It's also good to have several quick attacks to follow up the proc. This would be another reason to swap jacob's for charged brawl.