Understanding grav/kin a bit more

[khy]

Most of the powers and whatnot are pretty self-explanatory, but there's a few things I'm unclear about.

 

1) Wormhole. What is the point of this power? I'm struggling to see the use for it.

2) Singularity - what's the best way to slot this power in particular?

3) Fulcrum Shift - Is this power auto-hit? Mid's doesn't show an accuracy but it shows you CAN slot accuracy enhancements, so I'm wondering if they're necessary or if that's a trap.

4) Since I have Transference for endurance, do I need to put a ton of Recovery IOs into Speed Boost or is that a waste?

[Uun]

1. Wormhole is one of the best powers in the game. It a) teleports up to 16 foes to a location you designate, b) stuns minions and lieutenants, c) knocks them down (you need to slot a kb>kd IO), d) doesn't require line of sight and e) doesn't aggro targets it misses.
2. 4-6 Expedient Reinforcement. Many also slot a kb>kd IO, but this depends on playstyle.
3. Fulcrum Shift requires accuracy. You generally want to use this in melee range so you receive both the target-centered buff and the caster-centered buff.
4. Speed Boost doesn't buff your recovery, just the allies you cast it on. I generally just slot an endmod IO in the base slot and call it a day. Transference provides endurance (not recovery) to you and your allies in a 20 ft radius around the target. It also requires accuracy. I generally slot 4-5 pieces of an endmod set.

[Hopeling]

Wormhole is the 90s AOE stun that many control sets have, except it's also an improved version of Fold Space that lets you choose both the targets and the destination. With Wormhole, plus the way Singularity pulls things in, both slotted for KB>KD, grav control has a level of control over mob positioning that Axe Cyclone or Fold Space can only steam of.

[dukedukes]

Grav is difficult to master for a few reasons, proper use of Wormhole is a big one. The general goal of Wormhole is to place a second pack of mobs on to the main pack of mobs your team is fighting. Why this is difficult:

 

Assuming you're 50 with level shift fighting +4 (therefore +3 mobs) you can't Wormhole bosses. This means any Wormhole you do cannot pull the entire pack where you want them, so you split the pack into 2 groups. Your team wipes out the original pack plus the ones you Wormhole'd over, then they have to perform janitor duty to clean up the mobs you failed to TP. From my observation people do not like dealing with this, often just choosing to ignore the mobs. This situation is frequent and it heavily limits how useful Wormhole can be. To add insult to injury mobs that resist the TP do not resist the knockdown effect, slowing the pull down even more. If you're fighting +2 mobs or less Wormhole gets a lot more opportunities to be used.

 

The goal I have with Wormhole is moving the entire pack of mobs. If I'm fighting +3 this means sometimes I simply won't use the power. My decision to use the power is mostly whether I believe I can successfully pull all the straggler mobs to the main pack before everything in the main pack dies. If your team has very high damage Wormhole is almost always bad to use. There's some exceptions, like if two packs are almost right next to each other and you don't expect a blaster to try to solo the 2nd pack then you can Wormhole them over. The bosses won't be terribly far behind.

 

The strats I use to pull the straggler mobs are a few things:

• Slot a proc in Wormhole so the mobs aggro on to you. If you miss a mob or they resist the TP they will aggro on to you and run over when they can.
• Sometimes the proc isn't enough because some mobs were too far away, in these cases I'll hit them with a power so they aggro to me, then run them over to the main pack
• This is more advanced but I'll sometimes use Provoke and position myself so the taunted straggler mobs run straight into the main pack. If you don't do this the stragglers may attack at range for longer than the main pack will be alive
• If the stragglers are not bosses you can do a late Fold Space (<16 mobs remaining) to pull them in but it's a bit of a waste
• Kill stragglers yourself if they're minions/LT's and few in number

 

I'll talk about Singularity now. This is your strongest power if used correctly, if you don't use it correctly you're like a bird without wings. The goal with Singularity is to tighten up a pack of mobs, sing has a 45ft trawl aura (most effective around <25ft, the pull gets stronger the closer the mob is), so the goal with proper use of sing is to place sing in the middle of a pack of mobs. You can do this with Teleport Target or the pet goto command. I can't stand the goto move AI so I almost always TP but kin could use goto commands reasonably well because speed boost makes sing really fast, so moving it around is less annoying than other secondaries. You also want to TP the pet ASAP because if other people start hitting the mobs they'll start flopping around from knock-up effects and the sing trawl aura does nothing if mobs are flopping. You want to jump into fights fast or even initiate pulls which means you need to be careful of your defenses. I know you didn't ask about this power but I know for a fact a majority of people do not understand how to use sing like this yet it's the strongest mechanic grav has, so I had to bring it up.

 

A good grav is basically a play-maker, similar to tanks. They control what your team is fighting. Since you're not actually a tank you need to get a really good read on how your teams tanks are engaging fights, and what your other teammates will likely do when situations present themselves. If you Wormhole a pack away from a blaster nuke that wouldn't be good for example. This is why grav is so difficult to master, you need a strong understanding of what your team is likely to do, and what you need to do changes depending on your teammates, like if the team has good damage or not or you have teammates that like to split. As a kin you make your team do a lot of damage so you lessen the potential for good Wormhole opportunities.

 

If you don't understand the nuance with playing a grav you can be more a hindrance than an asset to your team. You don't have to be the best, and people generally expect a bit of chaos with a grav on the team I think, it's fine to make mistakes so you learn from it and improve. I wrote a guide about grav/ff in this controller sub-forum if you want more grav information. It repeats a lot of what I just wrote but there's more I didn't mention.

 

Both Wormhole and Singularity need KB->KD conversion.