Do you use the presence power pool to get controls?

[DougGraves]

I always thought of Presence as being for getting a taunt, but looking at it for my blaster I discovered it has controls.  Not long duration controls, but controls.

 

Pacify is a ranged placate with an 8 second duration, single target

 

Intimidate is a ranged fear with an 8 second duration, single target

 

Invoke Panic is a pbaoe fear with an 8 second duration  (60 second recharge)

 

That gives me 2 single target controls and a panic button.

 

I haven't yet gotten Unrelenting which is not a control but looks like a fantastic panic button

 

 

So do you use these controls for your characters that lack control?

[Bopper]

I usually can't fit presence pool into my builds, but I always look at it wishing I could. That desire is mostly for Unrelenting but the control aspect works too, especially for squishies.

[Bill Z Bubba]

My dark/bio scrapper, Skinless Scarlet, took Presence for the group fear. She's also my only hover-scrapper. Cuz a chick floatin up at you with no skin and dripping blood everywhere would be pretty damn horrifying.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I've used it for thematic purposes. 

 

The two fear powers are nice, and have good proc rates.  The down side it that they only take Fear IOs which is one damage and one mag 2 8s Stun effect which doesn't really add much to the existing fear effects.  Unrelenting is also nice, but that's a lot of power investment (I'd take the Provoke power as the other prerequisite) for a panic button.

[Cutter]

I am 4/5 (no Pacify) into the pool on a Dark/Elec tank, who's built around stacking all the fear effects and stun procs.

[JasperStone]

Unrelenting is nice as it also serves a rez option

[Gulbasaur]

I've used it as my main taunt on a fortunata build. It's solid. Unrelenting is a bit blah and it has a few "you just have to take this" powers.

[Mezmera]

I've rarely taken the Presence Pool but when I do take it I'm taking it for Unrelenting.  The fear powers to me are meh particularly with no real good Fear IO sets.  Unrelenting on my Shield tank without a heal has been transformative and since I'm taking a taunt anyways I'm just sacrificing one power to get that awesome Unrelenting goodness.  

 

Good niche power pool if you're going to make use of the taunt/fear powers to get Unrelenting.  Most characters though it's not worth the 2 powers to sacrifice.  

[kelika2]

I am a solid 70 or 80 alts into HC and not one of them ever taken the presence pool.

But if you are mostly a soloist you can do whatever you want but between fighting, speed, travel, epic and planning out set bonuses ahead of time there is very little if any room for gimmicks

 

even then, when something is feared it can still attack back now and again

and placate goes away over the smallest of things like a damage aura or another dot out like caltrops

[Mezmera]

2 hours ago, kelika2 said:

I am a solid 70 or 80 alts into HC and not one of them ever taken the presence pool.

But if you are mostly a soloist you can do whatever you want but between fighting, speed, travel, epic and planning out set bonuses ahead of time there is very little if any room for gimmicks

 

even then, when something is feared it can still attack back now and again

and placate goes away over the smallest of things like a damage aura or another dot out like caltrops

 

It's a great power pool for melee armor characters that lack a heal but have their resists/defenses in order.  I'll usually go with fighting, speed, force of will, and epic powers and I leave that 4th pool option open.  I'd recommend Presence for something like SR or Shield that can use the taunt to take the heat off of the team and can make use of a great heal with good offensive stats.  

 

Though yeah I see it as a very niche pool for mostly the reasons you're listing.  If you have a Shield character I recommend having a look at it though.  

[UltraAlt]

19 hours ago, DougGraves said:

I always thought of Presence as being for getting a taunt, but looking at it for my blaster I discovered it has controls.  Not long duration controls, but controls.

 

Pacify is a ranged placate with an 8 second duration, single target

 

Intimidate is a ranged fear with an 8 second duration, single target

 

Invoke Panic is a pbaoe fear with an 8 second duration  (60 second recharge)

 

That gives me 2 single target controls and a panic button.

 

I haven't yet gotten Unrelenting which is not a control but looks like a fantastic panic button

 

 

So do you use these controls for your characters that lack control?

 

Being character conception player, I do have a few characters with the presence pool.

 

I tend to use the Pacify, intimidate, invoke panic, and unrelenting.

I tend to use the unrelenting more as a power up than a self-rez.

 

I usually don't double-up the fears but I think I have at least one Dark/dark tank with Presence powers as well to just really scare the heck out of enemies while I taunt them with Perfect Zinger Chance of Psi Damage.

 

You know Batman has Presence Pool.

[Rejolt]

19 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

My dark/bio scrapper, Skinless Scarlet, took Presence for the group fear. She's also my only hover-scrapper. Cuz a chick floatin up at you with no skin and dripping blood everywhere would be pretty damn horrifying.

Every time I have a toon with a fear I want to try Fold Space and the Melee AoE fear, but that's 6 powers for One Gimmick (even though Combat TP and FS are awesome). Did you find it worthwhile?

My dark/shield did it and it feels okish, not enough to respec but not so much my other toons think they're missing out.

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

4 hours ago, Rejolt said:

Did you find it worthwhile?

 

Sometimes, especially when you already have several characters fully tricked out for nothing but max damage, it's ok to just cruise around on concept.

[tidge]

My favorite Fortunata has 4 powers from the Presence pool (Provoke, both Fears, Unstoppable). Provoke and Intimidate are single-slotted, but Invoke Panic has 5-slots (Glimpse of the Abyss), and Unrelenting 6 (Preventive Medicine)... If I could slot an additional %damage in Invoke Panic I would probably do so. I also have the %Terrorize ATO in Psychic Scream, so with all these powers taken by level 18, she tosses them as controls in quite a lot of low-level content.

 

At higher levels, I'm convinced that Invoke Panic is helping solo a lot of x8 content by slowing down opponents' offense, I don't tend to use them very often in PUGs or more extreme group play, but I did find myself using the fears (and Fortunata confuses) to help slow down certain spawns when my teammates got in over their heads.

 

As others wrote: Unrelenting is the gem of the set. I think it is tailor made for Fortunata, but I can see it working for other ATs as well. I'll use it even if she isn't taking damage, just for the 30 seconds of BUFF.

 

I'd feel a lot better about Intimidate if there were a Purple or PVP set for Fear. Finally, a use for my Endoplasm Hami-Os! Provoke is a nice idea, but the ToHit requirement and the small target cap get in the way of it being that useful, even when a teammate is in over their head. This just gets slotted for Accuracy, because I can't think of anything I'd rather do with it except hit.

[KC4800]

My Thugs/Emp MM has and uses Presence pool a lot. Provoke, Pacify and Unrelenting. The only time I ever invested heavily in slots in Presence pool, and it works.

[Player2]

I love using Presence + Force of Will in my builds whenever I can.

 

Unrelenting has the self-rez, and a double panic button of Unrelenting + Unleash Potential is quite nice to lean on.  Sometimes I 6-slot both with 2 recharge, 2 Heal, and 2 End.Mod. and sometimes I slot 6-slot one with 3 Recharge and 3 Heals and the other with 3 Recharge and 3 Endurance Modification.  It depends on the rest of the build and what I feel is most needed.  Endurance heavy builds I've even 6-slotted both for 3 Endurance Mods so I can use them in succession for a longer duration of boosted Recovery.

[Rejolt]

On 5/27/2022 at 4:49 PM, tidge said:

My favorite Fortunata has 4 powers from the Presence pool (Provoke, both Fears, Unstoppable). Provoke and Intimidate are single-slotted, but Invoke Panic has 5-slots (Glimpse of the Abyss), and Unrelenting 6 (Preventive Medicine)... If I could slot an additional %damage in Invoke Panic I would probably do so. I also have the %Terrorize ATO in Psychic Scream, so with all these powers taken by level 18, she tosses them as controls in quite a lot of low-level content.

 

At higher levels, I'm convinced that Invoke Panic is helping solo a lot of x8 content by slowing down opponents' offense, I don't tend to use them very often in PUGs or more extreme group play, but I did find myself using the fears (and Fortunata confuses) to help slow down certain spawns when my teammates got in over their heads.

 

As others wrote: Unrelenting is the gem of the set. I think it is tailor made for Fortunata, but I can see it working for other ATs as well. I'll use it even if she isn't taking damage, just for the 30 seconds of BUFF.

 

I'd feel a lot better about Intimidate if there were a Purple or PVP set for Fear. Finally, a use for my Endoplasm Hami-Os! Provoke is a nice idea, but the ToHit requirement and the small target cap get in the way of it being that useful, even when a teammate is in over their head. This just gets slotted for Accuracy, because I can't think of anything I'd rather do with it except hit.

Ok, you are the first person I've read (not saying others haven't done this) to use and like Unrelenting. What exactly does it do - why do you like it?

[cranebump]

I've grown to like Invoke Panic, and use it consistently on the tanks/brutes that have it. Picked up the powerset for Unrelenting on a lark for what became my 50 AR/TA blaster. I sometimes use Invoke Panic was a bailout if I somehow get surrounded. 

[tidge]

3 hours ago, Rejolt said:

Ok, you are the first person I've read (not saying others haven't done this) to use and like Unrelenting. What exactly does it do - why do you like it?

 

From the PoV of a Fortunata, it does two things for that character:

 

1) It is an offensive stats boost (damages scales are 1.0/1.0 for melee/range)

 

2) Fortunata rely on Defense values (typically positional) backed up with a scaling damage resistance ( and %Absorb proc) based on Health... so Unrelenting can be used to boost Regeneration when the damage is starting to stick.

 

Depending on enemy types and spawn sizes depends how liberal I am with (1) as opposed to potentially holding it in reserve for (2). Even without Hasten, it can be available rather frequently.

 

There are some other conditional uses of Unrelenting, but those are generally my reasons for using it.

[Bio-Link]

I run with provoke, pacify and unrelenting on my MA/NIN stalker it is mostly for provoke, but unrelenting became my go to self-rez and slotted with numina's conv. +regen/+recov.

[Voltak]

On 5/26/2022 at 3:51 PM, Bill Z Bubba said:

My dark/bio scrapper, Skinless Scarlet, took Presence for the group fear. She's also my only hover-scrapper. Cuz a chick floatin up at you with no skin and dripping blood everywhere would be pretty damn horrifying.

AND YOU NEEDED the presence pool for fear>???

Just what you described to me is horrifying already.  

What you smoking ?