Quicksand - why bother?

[SmokinIndo]

I see so many Earth builds that pick Quicksand. Why> Between Stone Cages, Stalagmites, Earthquake, Volcanic Gasses, and any slow patches you get from your secondary, I don't understand how many players find a use for Quicksand. Unless I'm missing something extra that the power does, or a chance to proc, I think that the extra power could be used to shore up damage, resist, or defense.

[Onlyasandwich]

It's something you can definitely skip if there's a convincing tool, but there are some good uses.

 

• Auto-hit with a substantial defense debuff.
• Helpful for certain types of solo pulls. Drop it in front of the group and mobs will clump very tight as they approach. Also great to drop in a corner pull.
• Additional soft control when you are trying to save the team from a heavy over aggro situation.

[Frosticus]

Generally it is either or between Quicksand and stone Cages. They conflict with one another.

 

If sand had a faster cast time I'd pick it over Cages, but sand is a very good power while leveling. 

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Stalagmites, earthquake, and volcanic gasses are more than adequate for AOE control at lower levels. Also, mobs don't usually stack really high levels of defense in earlier levels. So, the autohit defense debuff in quicksand doesn't help that much in the sub-50 game. Thus, I only take quicksand in the late 40s. But, I always take it for an earth control character.   

 

At level 50 the game changes. Quicksand is particularly strong when used against level 50+ enemies that are most dangerous in melee, such as Cimerorans. I'll often drop quicksand before anything else for those kinds of mobs because it makes them pretty much unable to swarm any teammate unless they choose to stand still for quite a while. Quicksand is also great for making it noticeably harder for AVs to run all over, especially when paired with other movement-inhibiting powers; for example, quicksand + earthquake when fighting Rom in the last ITF mission is a very strong pairing of controls. Quicksand is also great when clearing towers after defeating Rom, with teammate defeats tending to go right down to zero after it's been laid down. How it helps for getting mobs to group up has been mentioned by others, as well, and that's another reason to drop it right at the beginning of at least some fights in late-game.

 

That quicksand provides a high level of utility without needing any added slots makes it a particularly efficient build choice. 

 

For a team oriented build quicksand has a useful role that it can play, at least in 50+ content. But, if somebody wants to solo AVs, then there's probably not as strong of a case for incorporating it into a build. 

[JJDrakken]

Quicksand can be taken only be 1 slotted Tempered Readiness Endurance/Recharge/Slow.

 

It's a -Def, Slow, -Jump, -Fly Patch.  Why wouldn't you take it.  Literally can be used a power that you don't need slots in and has a lot of function.

 

All my Earth Controls have it.  It's not a useless power.

[biostem]

6 minutes ago, JJDrakken said:

Quicksand can be taken only be 1 slotted Tempered Readiness Endurance/Recharge/Slow.

 

It's a -Def, Slow, -Jump, -Fly Patch.  Why wouldn't you take it.  Literally can be used a power that you don't need slots in and has a lot of function.

 

All my Earth Controls have it.  It's not a useless power.

I took it on my shark-themed tanker, in their APP, and colored it red for thematic reasons - no need to devote additional slots...

[Doomguide2005]

1) Can be used from total cover.  Zero risk of return fire.  Earliest such power in Earth Control

2) One slot wonder.  Base debuffs effective, can slot for range which i find often means can place from cover into a room down the hall

3) interrupts various foe powers such as embalmed vahz

[Uun]

There are quite a few factions that have protection to mezz but not to slow (Cimerorans, Arachnos Bane Spiders). As you approach the movement speed floor, slows really mess with NPC AI. They become more focused on getting somewhere instead of attacking you.

 

17 hours ago, JJDrakken said:

Quicksand can be taken only be 1 slotted Tempered Readiness Endurance/Recharge/Slow.

There's now D-Sync Deceleration (or Stereocilla HO), which is even better.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Forgot to mention another use-case for quicksand. 

 

With a reasonably attainable amount of global recharge quicksand can recharge in about 10 seconds. It's possible to double, triple, or even quadruple stack it in an area, with a 16 target maximum for each casting. That allows for 32-64 mobs to be affected by quicksand in a given area. When ambushes are flowing into an area and/or mobs are being herded or teleported into an area quicksand is one of the most endurance-friendly and effective ways to keep mobs grouped up for AOEs and limited in their ability to attack teammates. 

Only a handful of other skills offer the ability to scale the number of mobs affected as well as quicksand. 

 

A key limiting factor for using quicksand is the long casting time because you can use 1-3 other skills in the same amount of time it takes to cast quicksand once. The long casting time is arguably a good thing, as otherwise quicksand would be a prime candidate for a hefty nerf. 

Edited February 9 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Psiphon]

I take it because it's auto hit and always available with a small amount of recharge. Problem mobs like Nemesis are much easier to deal with. 

 

[Ukase]

On 2/7/2025 at 2:37 PM, SmokinIndo said:

I see so many Earth builds that pick Quicksand. Why> Between Stone Cages, Stalagmites, Earthquake, Volcanic Gasses, and any slow patches you get from your secondary, I don't understand how many players find a use for Quicksand. Unless I'm missing something extra that the power does, or a chance to proc, I think that the extra power could be used to shore up damage, resist, or defense.

For me, quicksand is a power to use sub-level 35. Once you get enough other powers, there's a case to be made for dropping it. Anecdotally, let's say I'm level 10, doing a kings row story arc - and stone cages misses on one, but I've already used fossilize on the boss. The quicksand slows them down just enough for the powers to recharge and re-apply. Mind you, there's always the option to just back up and buy time, but that's for scaredy-cats and weak blasters. A controller uses the various tools to control the chaos, or cause it. 

If I'm just going to pl to 50, I'll likely skip it, unless I want to use the set bonus from Ice Mistral's set. It's a nice set of bonuses. I don't know that's always nice enough for the slots in this specific power, but it depends on the secondary, and how slot heavy it is. 

Just like every other answer in this game - "it depends". 

[Psyonico]

It does provide a healthy amount of auto hit -defense to stack on top of Earthquake’s.

 

also, once upon a time, when Stone Cages gave knock back protection it kept enemies inside Earthquake.