Onlyasandwich

I've been slowly leveling this guy and he's up to 40. Does not disappoint! Honestly staff is the most fun I've had on a stalker. The AOE is really quite excellent, especially with ffback support. Single target it feels a little slow with serpent's reach, but good. Now I just have to remember I have geode. It is quite capable of saving me, but I need to click it!

All of my inf goes pretty quickly into the next build, which runs 1 to 4 billion depending on exotic HO needs. I have a very lazy market process that involves low effort crafting of purples and waiting for a tight weekend to cash out above market listings. Anything that's not in a build is sitting in the auction block as a future sale or restock bid. That leaves me liquid with anywhere from 700 mill to a billion or so most of the time. If I don't have a new build for a while, 500 mill emails will start stacking up for the next go.

Welcome back @StriderIV! Concept is king as always. Some support sets I would just prefer as a Defender instead. What I feel would be really nice on a corruptor: TA, Dark, Cold, Kin, Rad, Storm Thematically, Water/Storm is great of course. Storm appreciates the minor self-heal present in Water, as does cold and TA. That is the only notable synergy. Anything will work fine!

I may have missed this element if buried within the thread somewhere. I see in the intro that the normalization is meant to allow a baseline to build on for introducing new pools, and to create fewer obvious "best choices," but nothing about a two pronged pass on powers affected by this sweep. In some of the cases highlighted here, this normalization is having the opposite effect, instead removing the one advantage an otherwise inferior power (Explosive blast in my recent example) had over other options.

Is there a specific reason for adding recharge to the armor powers? Is this to make it more punishing to be detoggled when you run out of end? As it stands, it wouldn't even detoggle if mezzed due to toggle suspension. I suppose it would also apply when you die and rez mid battle. Is the intention to punish this particular scenario? If so, why? Otherwise I don't understand why we are introducing a pointless, even if relatively meaningless inconvenience. I would pose the same question even for offensive toggles like Oppressive Gloom and Darkest Night. I can see some balancing logic here at least for Darkest Night, as it meaningfully limits how often you can change anchors, and how quickly you can cycle it to a new spawn. However, does Darkest Night deserve this treatment? Is its current 10s recharge time a balance issue for the classes with epic access? This is an example of an already under-picked power in an under-picked pool being made less desirable. You would be very hard pressed to find many dominator builds out there that use Primal Forces Mastery to begin with. Of those that do, Explosive blast isn't exactly a prime pick even then. This is what I was referring to in my earlier post about the formula adjustments not always taking into account the power budget of the pool as a whole, and how effective a given power is even in a vacuum. For thematic reasons, I actually went with this pool on a recent build! It was by no means optimal, but it seemed fun. This is less fun. Could we at least get a damage adjustment so it is more impactful when used? This is a power that does a whopping 47.55 unenhanced damage at 50. This is essentially tied with Psi tornado for lowest damage epic aoe on doms, and Psi tornado is in a superior pool, has a superior damage type, and doesn't require knockdown conversion. I suppose it will be more proccable, so may actually pull ahead when slotted with this focus! I actually love procs, and will benefit from this when adapting my build. However, my feeling (correct me if I'm wrong) is that you are not changing the recharge here to buff it through superior proccability. At least in its current form it offers some type of variety in the form of more heavily cycled mitigation, and better contribution over time to an aoe rotation based on leaner power choices.

The build as is would be fine for X1 to maybe X4 solo content. If you hate soloing, I'm not sure of the point here! It sounds like you won't like this character. To solo X8 content, you'll want aoes other than your Nuke and Force Bomb or it will be painfully slow. Energy Torrent is actually pretty good, and Explosive Blast is still a valuable addition to your aoe rotation, even if it isn't putting out as much damage as other aoes. If you just want the theme of big bubbles + blasts, you have achieved it. To @Frozen Burn's point, you just aren't really taking advantage of what either set can do. It's worth noting that you aren't softcapped to anything unless Power Build up is active, and it will only be active for 12 seconds on a relatively long cooldown. The real reason to take PBU is to use it before casting ally shields, as they retain the buffed values even after PBU wears off.

I've been struggling to articulate my response to why most of the significant recharge nerfs seem unjustified. I can appreciate why having a formula for translating powers into epics is useful from a balancing perspective. However, it ignores the power budget available in the pool itself, as well as how these powers fit into the playstyle of the overall build. Attributing set values to how "powerful" something like hoarfrost is compared to a soul drain is pretty tough, but the distinction is there whether we assign it perfectly or not. One solution is to homogenize them to the point where primary differences are in theme only. This is boring. Another would be too embrace the subjectivity and grapple with questions like: Is this power fun and useful in its current form? Do people even bother with it much in its current, pre-nerf state? Does having access to this power imbalance the class in some way? How popular and useful are the other powers in this pool compared to other pools? I'm sure these questions are indeed a part of your balancing process in some way, but the impression I get is that the formula is the primary tool in this pass.

Trolling back over the years of posts, I see very little talk of Rad assault, and it was the only secondary to not even get a single nod in the poll @honoroitshared earlier. It fits thematically for the illusion dom I'm brewing up, and I'd love to hear more from folks who've put it through its paces. Off hand I see a lot of long animation times, but also some pretty strong dpa powers mixed in. High procability, a seemingly useful secondary mechanic to help aoe, and a better than average healing option for doms. Do you use rad? Do you think it's trash, underappreciated, mediocre?

Okay, I think I got it! I lost a bit of recharge here and managed to: Maximize proc damage even further in seeds. Keep my global acc. Squeeze in a hold proc to Arcane Bolt (fun!). Max out Fly Trap Procs. That leaves Entangle as a pretty decent 1 slot wonder with the purple hold proc. I can chain this on AVs to hold them still, and will then have three powers in my ST rotation capable of piling on holds when drilling down a hard target. Any such targets will be constantly debuffed by nado/spout/FR, so hitting shouldn't be an issue. I could instead choose to mule a purple set in Entangle, or choose another power entirely with a purple mule. I think the extra damage and hold procs here are worth it, however. The runner up power from a utility perspective would be Snow Storm, which I've found useful for pulls in the past. Does anyone have any strong opinions on Snow Storm vs Entangle here? As a result, I'm a little lower on global recharge than I'd absolutely prefer. I think with FFback rolling from consistent Tornado spam it should still be really solid. I have so many fun cooldowns that it's okay to have a little room to be busy with something else at times. The build, for anyone interested: Controller (Plant Control - Storm Summoning).mbd It just makes me really happy inside to see Seeds doing 225 aoe damage, and I can't wait to watch Audrey tear it up fully loaded out. She seemed to do pretty well with just a lady grey on other Plants I've run in the past, and here she's loaded to bear.

@Argentae, do you revisit Verdicane often these days? I know you like to pop on new projects pretty often, as do I. It's one of the few combos where I've felt epic pets make a really big contribution. Leviathan mastery has been good to me - the little Coralax buddy is really great! I'd love some thoughts from others on what to choose as my final power. Ultimately it needs to be something that can take a purple set with +acc in order to complete my build goals. Right now I'm between: Spore Burst. Seems like it might be useful in certain content, but I can't imagine it would have a chance to work most of the time, as my pets are always waking things up. Thunder Clap. I can't see this ever being worth the animation time. There's always going to be a better cooldown to hit. Air Superiority. Not hyper optimized, but sort of fun and in theme with this character. Actually sort of useful when something gets in my face, and pretty competitive DPA. Overall a bit redundant from a ST attack chain perspective, as I'll be able to chain my hold and Arcane bolt almost seemlessly. Something else? I'm not sure. I want to keep that acc bonus. The ST immob would work. I guess it would actually have some utility in AV scenarios for more end-efficient application of containment than spamming my aoe immob. Maybe actually the option that would have the best use cases? Controller (Plant Control - Storm Summoning).mbd

Maybe have TK still have the hold effect on the primary target, but retain the reverse repel and immob on those who clump? If the immob were even just a little persistent after release (5-6 seconds?) and slottable for duration, that would allow you to use quick timing to combo it with other powers in an interesting way. It would also make the choice of when to release a bit more interesting instead of just "I ran out of end or they died." My use cases for the current TK include: Quick, guaranteed backup hold layer to get a boss out of commission when needed. Layering holds on AV's. "Get out of my face" button. Push mobs carefully back into a patch. Just being silly and doing fun things with mob positioning. It isn't an all-star, but it is a solid tool to have in my pocket, and usually pops out a couple times a mission solo. I need some more time with the new version to better understand my thoughts, but my initial impressions are: Get out of my face works okay. Hold layering obviously not happening. Patch positioning is superior. Faffing about with mobs has some new amusing scenarios, but it seems like the repel effect may be weaker. Am I imagining this bit? It still absolutely doesn't deserve to basically double my end/sec used while active. The recharge should be balanced against the idea that it is toggled for up to 30 seconds before it begins recharging. Other controls apply persistent effects and count down right away. I would at minimum knock 30 seconds off.

Nice! Sounds like a fun character. I've only gotten this guy to 28 (distracted by a new controller), but he's very solid. I haven't really pushed him through anything too challenging yet, though. Ran Peebles on +1X8 with bosses just fine, but that isn't exactly a high water mark. Still - not bad.

The build itself is moderately expensive, so your budget will be a factor. Being able to buy both ATO sets and the early Blistering cold will go a long way. You can catalyze them into superior at 50, and ride them all the way up. Other than that, there aren't any special considerations in terms of how I would expect it to drive as you level. On stalkers, I generally recommend focusing on slotting out your attacks first. Earth's embrace is a fairly low slotting priority, so can be filled out later in the build in favor of fleshing out end support and other parts of your secondary sooner. Especially in solo play, Ice Patch covers for poor defenses pretty well if you use it carefully, and only needs the base slot to get online. This can hold you over until you get the slots to boost up your secondary.

Regarding soul drain, I'm not sure I agree with why it would need to be standardized to the longer recharge if we kept the functionality as is. I always viewed Soul as the superior epic overall. The tradeoff with dark was that, by investing in at least one "tax" power in addition to the resist, I got a better version of soul drain. Soul on the other hand lets me cherry pick the res shield and pick up soul drain as a happy bonus if I have room. It also provides access to the sometimes build defining power boost. Even the summon in soul is one of the best available in APPs. It seems reasonable to consider the overall power budget in an entire pool rather than just balancing each power within only on its own merit.

I get the logic of this given similarities with Tornado, but it throws a solid wrench in many of my builds as a frequent enjoyer of Leviathan pool. The bonuses and procs available are significantly different. Is there any way we could consider preserving the Ranged aoe opportunity, and adding pet sets? The logic for set application on many powers is sometimes a bit squishy, and ranged aoe is by no means an unintuitive fit for the power.

It is certainly useful! On most of my builds these days, I find building towards defense softcap a bit too limiting. It is still a very good and valid build focus, however. If you get adds, there are other strategies, especially with storm: Reserve backup controls like thunder clap and flash to pop on incoming. Mega spam your storm powers (Tornado, LS, Freezing Rain) so you have constant elements disrupting mobs, regardless of what is currently active. Hurricane chaos. Pop Hurricane and start running in circles, tagging everything in sight. Let your summons/pseudopets handle the damage and cleanup. As long as you resummon, you'll find they chew things down over time when you are going wild with hurricane.

I'd consider living on the edge and ignoring defense. What are your controls for, after all? Illusion is especially well suited to this with permanent pa. You'll then be much more free to juice recharge and squeeze procs into every corner. You can still layer some solid resists with this shift in focus. Defense takes more dedicated slotting.

Yes. It's separated into the Creeper Carrion Vine and Patch. These are the two psuedo pets summoned by the creepers power. You'll see Carrion Creeper Patch Entangle (the brambly patch effect that appears) represents the damage this pet actually does by itself. The various procs have their own entries on this list. You can see that even one proc contributes a huge amount more damage than the patch itself. Carrion Creeper Vine Vine Smash represents the damage this aspect of the pets do (the Big smashy vine thing that smacks things). You'll see entries for procs here also show the procs do way more damage than the power itself. Immob procs don't trigger on this aspect - only targeted aoe. This is the big reason why targeted aoe procs are the first priority. You can look at it more simply this way: Carrion Creepers power (all the pseudo pets that make it up) by itself does ~1562 damage by itself. Really good! Even only one targeted aoe proc all by itself contributes almost twice that! Add all the procs, and procs (not the power itself) are doing ~5000 damage. Carrion Creepers + Carnifax's slotting = absolutely face-melting damage. The way these pets work, this increases quickly the denser your mobs are, as each element has a small aoe that can overlap, and the pets summoned are in proportion to mob density.

They tested the contribution of different procs slotted in creepers a while back. These are the two pseudo pets that creepers summons. The breakdown you see is the damage contribution of the power itself alongside the procs. Targeted aoe procs are transformative here. Immob procs put in good work as well, though not as much.

If you want easiest, hard to go wrong with sr. Simplest to build, functionally immortal in most content. Sr leaves you a ton of room to more flexibly slot your secondary. Ideal for proccy builds. Stone and invuln have more overall potential. You can softcap defenses, and have healthy resists to build off. I find non granite stone to be a better balance, as it handles psi well enough without io support, and it has a few offensive bonuses (brimstone proc, recharge bonus).

But the most fun part of the game is making builds! 😃 Oh, that's just me? Some people actually like playing their 50's instead of brewing a new alt?

Good call out! Traps always slips my mind. I need to brew up a satisfying concept to give it some love.

I'm glad you're giving it a shot! It's a super fun combo. This build has a lot of things that I would improve. Your end numbers are decent though, yes! That being said, even 2+ net end/sec will be eaten quickly, and you'll need to pace yourself. More importantly, you are neglecting the damage tools that these sets give you. Of note: No Damage enhancement for Lightning storm. Only token damage slotting for your ST hold. Foregoing proc opportunities in Seeds. Ignoring the epic aoe in bile spray. Carrier creepers benefits immensely from targeted aoe procs instead of straight damage slotting. No damage slotting in tornado. Your powers are all very underslotted for accuracy, and many will only have a 50-60% chance against +3's. Your mids totals are inflated by Combat teleport, Gaussian proc, soulbound proc, and the proc in weaken resolve. A lot of this may be personal preference/playstyle, which is okay of course! However, you can do so much more with these powers. I wouldn't want you to miss the euphoric potential of true storm godhood! It's an aggressive, sometimes messy combo, but few things compare in terms of absolute mayhem, damage, and control. Once you get the hang of it, you can keep it really clean too - no need to make a mess unless you really want one. 🙂 Some major elements that aren't doing much: Every slot in Freezing Rain. It doesn't benefit very much from procs, and you haven't given it any recharge love. ATO set in Seeds. The totals for this set, other than arguably S/L, aren't serving any useful build goals. Spirit tree is a pretty weak power to begin with. It looks pretty and can be fun, but I would skip entirely. The bonuses from the full purple set in fly trap aren't really doing anything for you. Weaken resolve isn't very useful, especially the slots within. You'd be much better off with an actual blast, or even using your T1 immob as a blast. There isn't much need to enhance heal or absorb on hibernate. I assembled my own take on the combo. I actually like your epic pool choice! Water Spout is great, and hibernate is really useful on this combo, despite Shark Skin overcapping Cold resist and wasting some potential there. Controller (Plant Control - Storm Summoning).mbd Text version: Some highlights: Good slow resist to keep you on the go. Good recharge totals, with FFback to supplement. Solid baseline resists across the board, with Rune to back you up when needed. Rune is also really useful to pop you out of a mez mess. Enough baseline defense to floor hit chance with hurricane running. Also I have hurricane. For one slot, it solves a lot of situations, and is oh so much easier to use on a controller with an aoe immob. It's super useful solo, and can be good on teams. Don't need to run it all the time, but it will save the day when necessary. Optimized Damage! You have: Single target handled readily with your hold > Arcane Bolt when drilling down a hard target. Life is obnoxious as solo controller without some ST focus when needed. Aoe from your Creepers, Bile, Water Spout, procced Seeds in your opener, fly trap, roots, and even Lightning Storm and Tornado can mix it up. These are all very powerful damage tools. The Energy font proc is especially nice in roots, as it will proc super often with the large aoe constant spam, which you want to be doing. I highly encourage you to try a flight power for this combo as here. Strategic Lightning storm positioning is one important element (up above the spawn causes LS to KD. I like to angle it up/behind a little bit to knock them a little towards me). Another is just being able to take a moment from above to look upon the wackiness below. 😄 With Mystic Flight, you can still teleport if you want. You might think my lightning storm slotting a bit odd, but it covers some bases- Suitably enhanced damage, endredux, recharge, along with some set bonuses that serve build goals. Procs that go off on the lightning bolts! That's right, the lightning bolts themselves can proc both ranged damage and smashing. It is actually a very respectable improvement. LS is a huge source of damage. I sometimes even put the purple proc here, but opted to keep it alive in the hold. Some powers here are mules or less often used, but still come into play on occasion. Snow storm is mostly a mule, but when you have the end at hand (teams, perhaps if you go ageless), it can help, as you won't floor recharge with FR alone. Gale is interchangeable with O2 boost. O2 can be nice for demezzing teammates, especially after they use a wakie. The end drain protection can be relevant. I actually like a non KD slotted Gale as a "Go over here now" button for an entire spawn when needed. This can be useful to blow a spawn into a wall > immob > go to town. Spore Burst can shut down an add, but is usually held in reserve. The heal proc can be nice to weave in when you're taking chip damage. Could easily swap it for a one slot wonder like O2 or maybe spirit tree if you want. The tornado has a tendency to wake your sleepy foes anyhow. All aoes of course enjoy a tight mob density. You have here some very particular powers that increase greatly in potential if you pack them in close together! Tornado is actually a small aoe. Lightning storm bolts can hit up to 5 targets. Carrion Creepers Spawn new psuedopets based on targets in their radius, and ramp up in damage very quickly in larger mobs. The big tool you have solo for this is aoe immobilize > hurricane fun. Once the immob is in place, you can tie them up with a bow, pack 'em in tight, and they'll stay put as long as you keep immobing. All the while, they can't hit you as they are debuffed to hell from hurricane, flopping like a fish due to FR, or just trying to shoot each other from Seeds. This isn't really worth doing on teams, but it really lets you more efficiently chew down large spawns solo, and accomplish feats you might think out of range for a squishy controller. Note that my build does have FFback procs toggled on, so detoggle them to review more realistic recharge totals.

Storm is always a good solo enabler, as it brings lots of damage and extra mitigation to the package. TA is strong for similar reasons.

I would vendor the commons and post the rest on ah for 5 inf quick sale. Most aren't worth a lot, and no need to fiddle with the details. The more valuable ones will still have "good enough" bids to catch and they'll give you inf immediately. As a bonus, posting less desired io recipes is healthy for the market, as it feeds those out there playing the converter game, which stabilizes price for other iOS.