Critique Arsenal/Cold

[dtaxtman86]

First time building a Controller. Looked like a fun set having various holds, KD's, slows etc...Looking for build rework or feedback. Again, first time building. Went for 12 KB Prot and put in some sets for toxic/psi res.  Thinking power boost would be nice to take, but open to other power sets. Wasn't sure about benumb, Looks nice, but perhaps swap with arcane bolt or another damaging attack?

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Controller (Arsenal Control - Cold Domination).mbd

Edited September 28 by dtaxtman86

[dtaxtman86]

Can anyone check this out still? Wondering about slotting, recharge, defenses, benumb, and ancillary pools and if power boost makes sense.

Edited September 28 by dtaxtman86

[Wimbochismo]

You've got all your uniques slotted and made some very clear design choices. It looks like you're focusing on getting perma Hasten and high ranged defense.

 

Couple things that stand out:

• Switch all those SO's to IO's and then +5 them by pressing + on numpad. When you do this you will find that you're 9s away from perma Hasten without Agility Core.
• Snow Storm can arguably be skipped. The -spd -rech isn't very valuable at an end game perspective. Sleep Grenade could be more worthwhile.
• Your end management is low without Heat Loss and it could use some slots to reduce its recharge. Remove Pacing of the Turtle set in Snow Storm for Preemptive Optimization set in Heat Loss. Higher ranged defense + recharge.
• Arctic Fog has good resistances, if possible I like to split its slotting with 3 LotG and 3 of a res set like Reactive Armor.
• Cloaking Device is overslotted for defense unless you reeeaally need that 8.75 recharge bonus.
• Tri Cannon slotting isn't doing anything for your build goals. Switch it to Expedient Reinforcement set.
• From what I remember of Power Boost, it does not affect or boost Cold's shields! I remember hearing it is because they contain a +res component. But it should be affecting some of your offensive debuffs etc.

[Uun]

Answering your last question first, Power Boost doesn't work on Cold's shields or Benumb. I would go with a different epic.

• Winter's Gift jump/end in Combat Jumping is a waste.
• Unless you only intend to solo, slot your shields. Glacial should be take much earlier.
• 6 slots in Snow Storm is a huge waste. It's a skippable power to begin with and doesn't require more than 1-2 slots.
• Instead of 6-slotting Arctic Fog with LOTG, convert 3 slots to a resist set. 
• In Tough, swap the res/rech for res/end.
• Expedient Reinforcement is a better choice in Tri-Cannon.
• 6 slots in Heat Loss. Slot an End Mod set.
• Conserve Power is unnecessary with Heat Loss.
• Other than increasing mezz duration, Power Boost does very little for you.
• Sleet is a debuff, not a damage power. It should be taken as soon as its available at lvl 28. Slot with 2 recharge IOs or a Defense Debuff set.

[dtaxtman86]

Is this any better? Care to take a stab at manipulating what I have? I did max heat loss, and put res into arctic fog as I was ranged def capped. Added fire blast as an extra ST ability with heal proc and took Rise in case I croak. Also took glacial earlier and slotted expedient into tri cannon. I am around 1 seconds from perma hasten with this and 3.4 from perma heat loss. Kind of like the KD proc in Sleet, but could put something else there. Have about 8 KB Protection, is that enough?

 

 

 

 

Controller (Arsenal Control - Cold Domination).mbd

Edited September 28 by dtaxtman86

[Wimbochismo]

7 hours ago, dtaxtman86 said:

Is this any better? Care to take a stab at manipulating what I have? I did max heat loss, and put res into arctic fog as I was ranged def capped. Added fire blast as an extra ST ability with heal proc and took Rise in case I croak. Also took glacial earlier and slotted expedient into tri cannon. I am around 1 seconds from perma hasten with this and 3.4 from perma heat loss. Kind of like the KD proc in Sleet, but could put something else there. Have about 8 KB Protection, is that enough?

 

 

 

 

Controller (Arsenal Control - Cold Domination).mbd 41.74 kB · 0 downloads

 

Yup, it's coming together! And 8 kb prot is more than enough.

 

That heal proc has a very low chance of going off in Fire Blast with an 8s recharge + being slotted for recharge. May as well switch Apocalypse over there. One way to increase survivability is the Prev Med absorb proc. It has an increased chance of proccing the lower your hp, it's a lifesaver. Could switch Snow Storm for Frostwork just as a free slot for it.

 

I forgot that with the way Stealth works on yourself now, I don't believe the def from Cloaking Device will stack with Arctic Fog's def. AF's defense is stronger so it will take precedent. Make sure you're subtracting CD's defense values.

 

I did a quick optimization pass and tightened things up. Modified when powers are taken to have more impact earlier.

Controller (Arsenal Control - Cold Domination) Edit.mbd

[dtaxtman86]

7 hours ago, Wimbochismo said:

 

Yup, it's coming together! And 8 kb prot is more than enough.

 

That heal proc has a very low chance of going off in Fire Blast with an 8s recharge + being slotted for recharge. May as well switch Apocalypse over there. One way to increase survivability is the Prev Med absorb proc. It has an increased chance of proccing the lower your hp, it's a lifesaver. Could switch Snow Storm for Frostwork just as a free slot for it.

 

I forgot that with the way Stealth works on yourself now, I don't believe the def from Cloaking Device will stack with Arctic Fog's def. AF's defense is stronger so it will take precedent. Make sure you're subtracting CD's defense values.

 

I did a quick optimization pass and tightened things up. Modified when powers are taken to have more impact earlier.

Controller (Arsenal Control - Cold Domination) Edit.mbd 41.69 kB · 0 downloads

Thanks for the pointers!! This looks like what I was wanting, just as you said, optimized 😃 So far just hitting 50 I am liking the amount of control and those team buffs to def/res. Seems pretty strong for a team.

Edited September 29 by dtaxtman86

[tidge]

Regarding KB, there is very little practical difference between 4 and 8 points. The reason IMO to get 11 or more is because with 10 more points from a SG buff (1 hour) you can exceed the 20 points of FREEM!

[Jacke]

5 hours ago, tidge said:

Regarding KB, there is very little practical difference between 4 and 8 points. The reason IMO to get 11 or more is because with 10 more points from a SG buff (1 hour) you can exceed the 20 points of FREEM!

 

I think all the Base Buffs now last 90 minutes.