Symphony/TA?

[kyuwyn]

I just came back to homecoming and saw the TA changes, and as i've always wanted to make a TA character, seemed like the time -- I enjoy the idea of being a force multiplier nature of locking everything down then debuffing them into the ground with TA.

 

I've gotten a fire/kin dom, a mind/psi dom, and a plant/elec dom to 50, So i've got a decent grasp on the control sets and how to play them, but slotting/using TA is a mystery to me.

 

I went with symphony simply because it fit the concept  and well i've not played it, so it's all new to me, but that leaves a few problems -- mainly, I have no idea the best way to slot it.

 

From what i've gathered, it's basically Mind or Dark, but with extra damage (the disorient specially so) as the secondary instead of -recharge/-to hit, which seems to fit the historically low-damage-outside-containtment playstyle of controllers, with the primary downsides being i

t's crappy single target hold (Ice arrow I guess will patch that hole?)

and

it's pet being garbage as it only echoes your spell with random targets and doen't cast ion it's own  -- but I primarily team on controllers, so the pets not a super deal breaker for me, I got other teammates to kill things.

 

So I guess my primary questions are

 

1.) Does anyone have a build I can use to get some ideas? Still trynna parse how modern proc slotting works, I know acid arrow works best as a proc bomb, but i'm kinda foggy onthe rest

 

2.) Given the damage component, I should slot most controls as blasts? seems off as a controller, but it makes sense.

 

3.) Anything I should know about either set? I'm honestly kind of on the fence about switching symphony to earth or dark (only level 10 atm), but the only real info I could find was a post on the dom forums where the consensus is basically "The set is wonky, and the pet doesn't work for doms, but it's probably great on a controller" .. but not very much on how it actually works for a controller. 

 

to note, primary content I do is "normals" itfs, +4's, etc., I hopefully should have a good enough grasp on both sets by the time I get to endgame to guide myself XD

 

[Nyghtmaire]

I don’t use Mids anymore (paper + pen + City of Data). But I have both sets separately on different controllers. I would not merge those builds though (Symphony/rad and plant/ta) since that would result in a massive mess.
 

Symphony

Very easy to set up containment with Aria of Stasis. Hymn of Dissonance (hold) and Impassioned Serenade are, when procced, very good blasts for a controller. In fact, almost ALL of the primary is good for proccing. The pet, however, is a pain to slot. Getting to 47 and opening up HOs was a blessing. I went with 2 Endoplasms, a Peroxisome, and (at 50) the purple Contagious Confusion proc. Leveling, I slotted an A/D pet piece followed by a level 30 Accuracy IO (at level 27).

I solo about twice as much as I team on my symphony controller. Love the pet. It’s like the little dog talking smack while the big dog (my character) does the initial work. Blast/control with cones until the minions/lts are down, then juggle holds and confuses on remaining bosses. I’m finding +1/8 comfortable without incarnates for what it’s worth. Teaming is a chill breeze. 
 

Slotting the powers, I mainly frankenslot with various set pieces and procs except for Aria (6 Ice Mistral), Chords of Despair (4 Basilisk’s Gaze), and  Confounding Chant (5 positron and additional proc). 
 

Trick Arrow

Also very amenable for proccing. Entangling Arrow is likely the easiest to skip, followed by Glue Arrow and Poison Gas Arrow if you’re short on power selection slots. Good arguments can be made for keeping all of these powers (with the added benefit that they only *need* the base slot to work their secondary magic). Ice Arrow makes for an amazing damage power (1 Acc, 5 damage procs from hold and slow). If not proccing, also a good candidate to skip. Acid Arrow does well with procs, taking 2 -res and many damage. 

Build Factors

But here’s the problem: EVERYTHING procs well. You’ll have to decide how best to meet your other build goals while balancing those options.

 

These are the most likely culprits to consider: Global recharge is a must since recharge slotted in powers reduces the chance for procs to go off. And defense (mainly ranged followed by AOE) is desirable to avoid the worst of any debuffs. The combination likely works most efficiently as a hover blaster which has the added benefit of making your primary’s cones more effective by covering a larger area.

Problem is that accounts for 6 powers right there; 7 with a “real” travel power; 8 with tactics of you want to skimp on accuracy for the rest of your powers. But, that’s 16-18 power choices from primary/secondary. Melodic Binding is easily skippable. That leaves dropping 1-3 from TA. 

 

Flash Arrow (fully slotted for ToHit debuff) can get you the equivalent of ~23-24 defense on an even level mob, half of which is unresistable. This puts your breakpoint for defense at ~21 (2 small purple inspirations or all of Flash Arrow), 32.5 (one small purple), or 34 (to meet the unresistable portion of Flash Arrow). With Hover (or combat jumping), slotted Maneuvers, both +3 defense uniques, and slotted Weave, defense will be about 19 across the board. Only leaves one pool power (likely speed for Hasten due to recharge needs). However, you’ll only need 2 powers with both a defense and recharge bonus to get over the ~21 hurdle (ATO catalyzed gives you 10%/5 range, and IcE Mistral’s Torment 6.25/3.75% AOE). Very efficient. Aria of Stasis is a good candidate for the latter. Alternatively, you can slot a full Lockdown set in either EMP Arrow or Chords of Despair (3.75 range/2.5AoE) and call it done on the defense end. 
 

For recharge, biggest concerns will likely be ensuring Confounding Chant and Oil Slick Arrow are up as much as possible. 90/180 seconds respectively. Oil Slick doesn’t really proc well so it can take a lot of recharge slotting or a set with lots of recharge. Confounding can take a little - around 45 or so before it has a negative influence on proc chances (if I remember my calculations correctly - double check Bopper’s spreadsheet to be sure).

 

I think your combo is cool and has lots of goodies to get stuff done. If you’re mainly teaming, none of the above is critical. I tend to market and slot as I go, especially by level 27, so YMMV. Since I went with Rad as my secondary, I found the recharge a little easier to build for, aiming for 32.5 range defense and 21ish AOE. I hope this all helps and good luck/happy hunting!

[kyuwyn]

14 minutes ago, Nyghtmaire said:

I don’t use Mids anymore (paper + pen + City of Data). But I have both sets separately on different controllers. I would not merge those builds though (Symphony/rad and plant/ta) since that would result in a massive mess.....

 

Yeah, same, it's why I asked a bunch of questions rather than attach a build. I love to theorycraft, i usually end up piecing things together with notes from research and my internal game knowledge as I go along.

Secondly, thank you! that was.. honestly exactly what I was looking for.

 

My initial concept was building towards ranged/aoe and recharge (Since I have no melee and TA is a recharge intensive set, so recharge makes sense), so good to know I was on the right track there.

 

I actually planned to end up with hasten/hover/maneuvers/weave (It feels weird to build ANY character without hasten, I've just been doing it so long I feel like i'm leaving a gap, and well that's the standard defense trio on a controller), so that's not really an issue either, I can't think of any other pools that i'd rather take for concept so.. *shrug*

 

All of this info was super helpful tho, thank you.

[Nyghtmaire]

@kyuwyn I checked my character in-game and realized I misremembered my Reverberant slotting: no Contagious Confusion proc. Instead Overwhelming Force proc for KD chance since almost everything it copies has a damage component. For leveling (had I to do it over again), I would slot the OWF proc and an Accuracy IO. 

[Psyonico]

Love me some TA... haven't played it with Symphony yet, but I've got 10 different TA toons, most of which are 50.  So I can comment on slotting there (there's also a decent TA guide by @KaizenSoze

 

 

 

Anyway, here are my own thoughts on Trick Arrow.

 

First of all, I like to build for recharge on TA (and some defense to stack with Flash Arrow), so take note when I give certain set suggestions. 

 

Entangling Arrow - if you've got slots to spare, 5 slot it with the Immobilize purple set.  Put the Chance to Hold proc in there instead of the Immobilize/Recharge IO.  If you don't have the slots to spare, a single Accuracy will suffice.

 

Flash Arrow - I like 4 slots of Cloud Senses for the recharge bonus.  you'll want to ED out the to-hit debuff as half of it is unresistable, it works the same as armor basically.

 

Glue Arrow - meh... I like it, but usually only single slot it with a recharge or a Range/Slow IO if I have enough global recharge.

 

Ice Arrow - People will tell you to proc it out.  You can, if going for a strong damage build, I personally like to put 4 Basilisk's Gaze and 2 Lockdown (including the +2 mag hold proc) or 6 Lockdown for the armor.

 

Poison Gas Arrow - If you've got the slots to spare and haven't slotted the sleep purple set in your Symphony sleep, 5 slot it here, otherwise 1-2 recharge is good.

 

Acid Arrow - Ideal world you want at least 2 Accuracy IOs and both -res IOs (Achilles' Heel and Annihilation) Maybe even 2 Defense Debuffs as well to let you hit through tough targets.  But I usually end up with just 1 accuracy and the Achilles' Heel proc.

 

Disruption Arrow - a single end redux if building for recharge, a single recharge if not.

 

Oil Slick Arrow - I like 5 Ragnaroks (skipping the knockdown proc)

 

EMP Arrow - again, depending on how I'm building either 4 Basilisk's Gaze 2 lockdown or 6 lockdown.

 

The worst thing about TA is that every power is good enough that you don't want to skip anything.

[Psyonico]

Had some fun.  Take it or leave it, here's a build that's "effectively" capped Range and AoE Defense with 65% global recharge.

 

I say effectively because I rely on the 11.4ish% unresisted to-hit debuff from Flash Arrow to get you there.

 

As for Alpha slot, something I didn't mention.  Intuition Radial goes SO WELL with TA.

Controller (Symphony Control - Trick Arrow).mbd

[Psyonico]

Changed some of the slotting, as I wasn't thrilled with Confounding Chant's slots.  got the same(ish) defense and  10% more recharge out of the build.

Controller (Symphony Control - Trick Arrow).mbd