Tactical Psychic (Mind/TA): A chronology

[Argentae]

I've been toying with running a /TA controller for a bit. I dipped my toes into the water with Blackfire Archer (Fire/TA), see appropriately named chronology.

 

Got to about 32 in Blackfire Archer and then I spent some time really looking at the build https://forums.homecomingservers.com/profile/9634-onlyasandwich/ posted in 

 

My original main on live was Mind/Kin, and I've really missed playing the set. The recreated Arg is still fantastic and incredible fast paced to play, but underwhelming in AOE damage even with Ice Storm added in.  I've always loved the incredible tactical capabilities though.

 

I have a running joke about the most powerful character in any novel would be a tactical psychiatrist. Seriously, most plots complications would just go *poof*.  So my just-in-time-for-Christmas new alt is:

Tactical Psychic

Complete with Christmas tweaked witch outfit  her backstory is:

 

 Sierra's fellow students at the Midnighter's Academy of the Arcane laughed at her when she took up archery. "You're a Mind Magic caster with a minor in potions!, Archery... What are you thinking?!" Well, none of them had her creativity and sheer vision. Sierra had stumbled upon a way to make vials of psionic magic potions reliably aerosolize to cover large areas when a vial was dropped and broken. All she needed was a delivery method. Hence: Archery. It was perfect. Once she worked out a cantrip to manifest and dismiss a psionic bow with just a thought, she was ready!

 

Battlecry:
Aerosolized psionic potions FTW!

 

First Powers:

Mesmerize 

Entangling Arrow

Dominate

Levitate

Confuse

Mass Hypnosis

 

How does it play?

 

NICE. The sets definitely play nicely together so far, and I expect the synergy to get better and better as TA provides a lot of the AOE dmg that Mind lacks. And EMP Arrow will sit perfectly in rotation with TD and Mass Confusion as damage elimination AOE controls.

Mind is always a machine gun at low levels, but Entangling arrow directly plugs a hole in Mind's single target attack chain, while providing a second durable containment setter and -damres debuff that has the same range and inherent high accuracy as Dom.  It fits in with Mind's single target chain perfectly.

 

I started with 2 dmg SO in each of Mes and Dom and an immob SO in Entangling Arrow,

Acc in Levitate then two dmg.

additional acc slot in Entangle and an acc in Mesmerize. 

Confuse doesn't need a slot in the beginning. Just an acc.

 

Just picked up Mass Hyp which is basically god mode soloing as you start combat with an easy pause button that keeps all the mobs snoozing while you set up your single target controls. Rotate through Mesmerize while you keep one mob beating on your target (confused), and you cycle your attack chain on the rest, repeat till all are rag dolled on the floor. Swap out the confused tool...err...pet half way through and bounce the new tool off the ceiling to wake them up so they can help you cardiac-arrest the previous pet.

 

Ice Arrow is going to fit in beautifully with the rest giving you 6 single target controls.

 

Then Mass Hyp for the first of your AOE. These two set mesh like finely tooled gears in a watch movement. 

It's going to be a fun ride... 🙂

BTW, use Entangling Arrow on a mob then levitate them. It looks like they get rubber banded back into the ground. Good visual fun! 

[Argentae]

Got my Tactical Witch up to 21 last night.

 

Raise a glass in toast! she's allowed to have champaign now! 

 

I had an absolute romp in Atlas on at about level 5-8 or so. I made 3 levels just working through a map full of +2 and +3 Hellions in Atlas. Did a bunch of street sweeping in Steel looking for bosses, with occasional Warriors missions at about the same settings.  Ending my time in Steel doing Graham Easton's Tsoo arc. I like the final mission as a bellwether and testing point. Having a ready supply of 4 bosses in a row makes it a great mission to test out different techniques. 

 

Don't quite have enough of the AoE stable that Mind/TA gets, but I'm about to get Terrify, and I have Glue Arrow and Acid Arrow, so I'm getting close. Might have to wait till 27 for the lvl 30+ sets to open up.

 

As expected, it's a hell-on-wheels combo for single target controls. 

 

On spawns that I have any doubt on, I drop a Glue A patch that covers the spawn with some leftover on my side to give me more time to react to a mob that breaks out of my single target control rotation. Flash A is the lead-in then Mass Hyp and Glue A and pre-aggro softening prep with Confuse and Mes. Acid A gets used once things are rolling if I'm not relying on Mes to lock down key mobs.   

 

Basic attack chain is the normal Mez-Dom-Lev with Ice A and Entangle A used on the problem mobs. 

[Onlyasandwich]

4 hours ago, Argentae said:

Glue A

 

I've found Glue Arrow to be a bit of a sleeper all-star on this combo so far. Some solid proccy damage, and helps make up for the lack of an aoe immob. Stay in place, and stay on the ground! The -recharge doesn't hurt at all, of course. : )

 

I'm glad you're enjoying yours. Interested in hearing more as you go!

 

 

[Argentae]

Agreed. I only have one proc in it, but the slow patch is surprisingly useful. I was fighting Freakshow tonight at the limits of what I could handle with a single SO of accuracy. I think it was +3 and +4, so controls other than Mesmerize and Confuse didn’t last  long at all. 
 

Glue gave me enough time to deal with the mobs trying to get to melee range. The time the mobs spend running to get to melee range almost becomes an additional control.  It will make focusing on Range Def very effective.  Only one cone, and it’s got such a huge arc lining it up isn’t really a thing, so I don’t have to be as mobile as I’m used to. I can spend more time controlling everything. One of the things I love about Mind/.
 

The Perf Enh +end proc in disruption arrow is like a single Enh that pretty much cuts the end cost in half, when it procs, which seems often.

 

Very much enjoying the single target juggling capability. Recalled an old tactic of confusing a mob, then sleeping it to get a zero aggro sleep. I’ve got a 5 pack of Malaise in Confuse and the other confuse Dmg proc. Mes has Sandman heal, and the one ranged Dmg proc (plus an  Acc SO and Dmg SO). So even my setup steps does some damage. Still need to slot out Ice Arrow, I think is has two procs in it too.  
 

Sandman seems to be working well, I think I may try putting it in Mass Hyp and Poison Gas  too, having three sleeps is wild. It’s like a hidden self heal capability.

 

Mesmerize is acting weird, it shows in the combat log as autohit? I did confirm that proc dmg does come before the sleep hits. 
 

i have a dmg proc and the Force feedback +reach in Lev (plus a Acc SO and Dmg SO)

 

Dom is my heavy hitter, six slotted with 4 dmg procs, Acc SO and a Hold SO I think. Might be a dmg SO instead of Hold.

 

I’ll update and post a current build probably tomorrow, It’s a weird leveling build atm as I have been focused so heavily on the single target arsenal. 🙂

 

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Argentae

[Argentae]

Tactical Psychic at lvl 25 below.

 

Note, this is NOT a recommended build.  I'm making choices based on things I want to try out on the way up. 
For purposes of documenting the chronology this is her build at 25.

 

For those new to TA on Controllers, pay particular note in the power details for Ice Arrow and Entangling Arrow of the durations of the (many) debuff effects. Spreading Ice Arrow around for the 1 minute duration debuff effects is worth being aware of.  Also be aware that out of the box, neither of those arrows will wake a sleeper.

 

Spoiler

I tried to export the build here, the current version of Mids throws an error when I try to do a forum export so the data chunk is below instead. I'll update it when I get export working.

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[Onlyasandwich]

3 hours ago, Argentae said:

things I want to try out

 

This combo is certainly a grab bag of many fun things to try!

 

My TA Defender already had some challenges mapping all his powers to easy keys. Add in all the active abilities of Mind/ and it's a whole new world of Piano play - I love it.

 

I have to be mindful of reserving tools as needed, rather than just splorting out every arrow and control constantly. I have a constantly rotating, very powerful array of powers that can neuter an entire spawn and/or take care of "interesting" situations.

 

Definitely not an easy cruise to drive, but not because it's particularly hard to make work. To get optimal performance I have to be aware of what I have applied, and think a bit about the order of application. Typically if solo it's Flash > PGA > Mass Hyp > Disruption > Glue > whatever whole spawn mez is up (6 of them!!!) > acid > repeat. Bosses get a quick double hold, with TK in the wings to make up for any misses or if they're right in my face.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Onlyasandwich

[Argentae]

Ok. 
Three purple sets: Coercive Persuasion, WotC, and Ragnarök and I'm capable of taking out 8X +3. Slow, but it works. I think I need the +Res in Oil Slick.

 

It will get faster from here. No incarnate and three purple sets, none new, just replacements for existing IO sets like Posi Blast and Malaise's Illusions. And I can deal with X8 +3.

Once I unlock Alpha slot it will get better.

Once I finish purple sets\ it will get better. 

Replacing SO's with A Purple set (Fortunata's Hyp) will have a bigger difference.

 

Bit of a slog in the late 30's and 40s, but it has promise.

 

 

[Argentae]

I typically corner pull, and the Glue + Oil Slick + Disruption patch combo of slow and KD does an excellent job of clumping up the spawn, making it likely they will miss or wasting time running through the Glue while they keep getting knocked off their feet. If they do hit, it's weakened by PGA, so more survivable. 

I went fighting pool in my respec to get the +Def from Weave while still getting a power as a Resist set uniques. I've been agonizing over slots. So many things.
As mentioned on the other thread, I put all 6 WotC in MC for the +5 Ranged Def. It's my goto AOE control to drop on the spawn once they are debuffed to bleep and flopping on the slick. MC while targetted on a Boss then Confuse the same boss to be sure. Contagious confusion in the single target Confusion makes a lot of sense, it spreads extra confusion throughout the fight. Also having Confuse zero aggro again is nice (6 pack of Malaise Illusions has a dmg proc in it which can aggro a boss).

 

So last night I raided other builds to give TA 3 purple sets (6 Coercive Persuasion, 6 WotC, and 5 Ragnarok in Oil Slick), and put bids in on a 5 pack of Fortunata Hypnosis for Mass Hyp. I'm going to try the Placate out, never really used it before, but I can definitely see how it would make a nice addition to the Pause Everything (except robots) button. I need like 2 Emp Merits to craft the Tier Three Intuition. 
I'm thinking with the amount of confusion this build can generate, I'm almost forced to go Cognitive Core for the additional confusion. 
TA to spawn" "You don't know I'm your enemy, probably can't hit me if you try, and won't do that much if you do. BTW, use up your attacks on each other so you have to wait for something to recharge before you can even try to hit me." 😛 There are so many different layers of mitigation here.

 

I want to pick up TK again though... Hate to lose Hibernate, but it's not as useful on such an active playstyle build as it is on a heavy pet & Pseudo pet focused build. Waterspout is great, I've taken to using it at the end to help chew through the last bit of Boss health once everything else has been mowed down. Coralax is surprisingly durable since the mobs are so rarely able to fight back effectively. I miss having Spirit Ward for him.

I need a few Breakfrees in my tray until I get Clarion Radial for the Status resistance and Secondary/Control effects boosting. 

Level of effort Leviathan build attached.
 

Tactical Psychic Prospective Leviathan (Mind Control - Trick Arrow).mbd

Edited December 20, 2023 by Argentae

[Argentae]

Got back to my Tactical witch a bit over the holiday. Did another respec to drop Fighting pool and pick back up TK,  Super Speed (for easy movement/stealth) combined with Hover.

 

Before dropping Fighting I did missions for awhile with Weave turned off, and there wasn’t a major impact. 
 

Still not completely settled on the final build. Leviathan is quite effective, but not totally sure I’ll stay there. When I dropped Fighting I needed to pick up Shark Skin to hold the +def uniques, dropped Hibernate so I lost Preventative Medicine. The +absorb Entomb in Ice Arrow compensates. 

I switched from Mesmerize to Levitate. At end game I find I need another strong attack more than another single target control, and Levitate can slot FF + Rech. So points to Onlyasandwich on that one.  I ended up putting the Sandman self heal unique in PG Arrow after all. 🙂 My old technique of Dom - Lev - Dom to hold bosses is even better as Lev - Dom - Ice Arrow.

 

Endurance is an issue, even with all the +recovery uniques in Health,  Perf + end and Endmod slotted in Stamina. Per my standard solution for end issues I slotted some endred in each of my single target attack chain, Ice Arrow uses the most, followed by Dom and finally Levitate (Lev got the Dam/End Apoc to pair with the Apoc Neg Dmg proc for the +regen. With those changes End issues were completely fixed. Could have gone with Ageless, but I prefer Clarion for the Status protection and control powers boost.

 

Running Intuition tier 3, Clarion tier 3, and Cognitive tier 3 (12% confuse and 25% psi proc). Works well so far. 
 

Hybrid slot I was torn between going with Support or Control, but with the end issues resolved, I’m leaning towards control for the Immob.

 

Biggest play style change has been a gradual shift to opening with (single application, second will come from MC shortly) Confuse a boss - Flash Arrow - Oil Slick - Mass Confuse  - Glue - Disruption - Poison Gas - Bile Spray - Terrify -  Acid arrow. By this point the slick is almost certainly burning from one if the fire Dmg procs, but if not I’ll light it with apprentice charm. Minions are generally gone and Lts mostly, so I’ll pop Waterspout and Coralax to help take down Bosses. Confuse one. Lev - Dom - Ice Arrow another. If I’m feeling energetic, I’ll swap them once one is getting low on health.

 

Overall impression at partial incarnate: strongest CONTROL character I have played. Refreshing the Flash - Glue - Disruption - Poison Gas is really important until you are completely sure you have everything locked down. Coralax and Waterspout are very effective at helping with single target damage output. Coralax will likely die fast on an AV fight. This is not an AV specialist build. I expect Carnies/Arachnis will be a PITA. Been mostly chewing up and spitting out CoT and Council.

 

Dionysius (Plant/Dark) is still my most powerful controller. Not NEARLY as much raw controlling  ability, but mows down mobs more quickly and safely. The Triple Threat Pet Corp is very tough when backed by /Dark’s buff/debuff and in particular the massive regen, def and heal abilities.

 

Mind/TA is a total blast to play though! One of my favorites… 🙂

 

 

 

[Onlyasandwich]

48 minutes ago, Argentae said:

switched from Mesmerize to Levitate

I go back and forth on this! Levitate is definitely a much stronger blast. I was also considering picking up the epic blast, but levitate is probably a better package.

 

48 minutes ago, Argentae said:

strongest CONTROL character

Isn't it though? What an amazing bag of tricks! As you noted, you do have to keep on top of your debuffs to edge against chaos. The amount and diversity of power you have over mobs is truly heroic.

 

50 minutes ago, Argentae said:

Dionysius (Plant/Dark) is still my most powerful controller.

 

That definitely makes sense. Plant may not have the control diversity, but it accomplishes all it needs for control in one power, and it has damage tools in spades.

 

I've been pleasantly surprised at the clear speed of Mind/TA though. It may not top the charts, but properly procced it gets along at a nice pace. I'm glad you're enjoying yours!

[Argentae]

A lot of it comes down to Oil Slick’s amazing damage -def and mitigation all rolled into one. That one power … amazing. Your proc slotting combined with the -res in Disruption Arrow and all the -res procs really adds a ton of AOE damage. Bile Spray may be a narrow cone, but it procs extremely well and holds 3 dmg procs plus another -res. Having the same range as Terrify is super convenient. I think I get most of my AOE damage from Oil Slick and Bile Spray. Terrify is such a huge cone though that it hits pretty much everything. Acid Arrow doesn’t proc as well, and it’s smaller area makes it less effective unless you have everything clumped up well, which is why I still like to use a corner pull into Disruption - Glue - Oil Slick where reasonable. Wish Heroststs still worked, parsing the combat log manually is slow and labor intensive. 

 

I used to use PG Arrow as the pull, but now that I use it to hold the Sandman heal, I like to pop PGA near the end of the opening chain to get the benefit of the heal. 
 

As you said. It’s a huge toybox of things you can do to the spawn, I simply couldn’t resist adding TK back in to have the ability to shove bosses back into the debuff patch. It’s such a fun power. I pinned a boss between the wall and Coralax the other day, watching him bob up and down while we both beat on him… good times. 🙂

I keep thinking about swapping out Super Speed and something else to pick up Fly and Evasive Maneuvers. Another LotG in EM and a stealth IO in Fly would work well. the positioning and maneuverability of Hover + EM is so handy with TK. I could drop Combat Jumping and SS. That would make it a wash for LotGs, but better maneuverability. Kind of leaning that way at the moment I think.

 

How did the immob proc work out?  I think you had one of the Purple procs in Terrify?

Edited December 28, 2023 by Argentae

[Onlyasandwich]

8 minutes ago, Argentae said:

immob proc

Really well! It sets up containment very nicely, which is otherwise sort of a challenge on Mind/.

 

Unlike other immob procs, it's actually Mag 3 too.