The Go Go Gadget Guide to Everything Gadgets

Blegh He'll be kicked with that kind of loadout.

So much damage loss from there it's not funny.

1. He's not using 3 PI which makes him lose a lot of DPS over 12 seconds of time, If he's just using 2 he'll miss on out huge EMP damage so he'll be relying on stealth and distract for big hits.
2. Why have P.dart vs EMP in stealth mode?

This is why I don't watch Youtube Videos and just make my own loadouts instead of following, so much can go wrong from a youtube vid.

Like If your gonna upload a video to youtube for guiding a powerset, at least know the powerset.

Alright so I have been messing a lot more with DPS over the past weeks or so and currently run this loadout:

BD-GG-Vortex-FearGas (JumpCanc)-Emp-Distract-Emp. I was running the EMP III loadout but found it a bit annoying losing my BD when picking up teammates from ko's if needed. I know I know just don't pick them up right? Not my style tho lol

Anyway I have been putting up great numbers and get out dps by players who are full modded or have been dpsing a lot longer than I have. I do notice sometimes where my EMP hit will randomly not crit and will hit about a 8-12k or so but usually up in the 50-60k (going off of PZR & PZE @ 158cr).

Does that usually happen with EMP where sometimes it won't crit high? Or am I messing up here? Anyway I absolutely love the power on the DPS side. I primarily troll with my toon but couldn't help but get caught up with that DPS bug.

It is tricky sometimes but you can just tell the Controller to do the pick up. Most don't do anything else.
When I do EMP III, I pick up if my cool down on Stealth is close to ending. If you pick up someone while your cool down is before the halfway mark, you're finished number chasing wise.

You're not always guaranteed a crit when using the AM, but if you crit that low that means you didn't register a tag properly to buff EMP. That mostly happens when you put a power in between Gauss and Fear Gas instead of doing GG then Fear Gas then Vortex Cannon.

He's clearly trolling and you guys are getting sucked into it heh....

As far as the cooldown, this is actually the reason I specced into one handed WM. In case I do lose BD and have to wait, I just do WM into rotation. Saves the troll some strain in power, but you have to pick up. No one should be asking the troll to pick up...period.

If he's trolling then I need some serious power back.
I can't sustain my heals with that low of a P.O.T number

Hi Guys,

I've read somewhere (also in the forums) that Gadgets can be do Battle Trolling. Is this possible for us and if so, may I ask for a working loadout?

Appreciate those who will reply and thanks in advance

I've been playing around with a few but mine are easier to pull off due to the Type D mod for Controlling and I have 2 OP pieces.

One loadout consists of Robot Sidekick, Defib, Battle Drone, Distract, PDart, and the last is either Gauss Grenade or Intimidation.

You can change abilities up. I'm still playing with them since i don't do it much. You could also swap out Robot Sidekick and put in Battle Display for the DoT on Intimidation after you hit PDart (this is currently broken). PDart can also be swapped out for EMP. You can get close on nearly every boss in the game at 155+ CR. Distract can be taken out for Intimidation's DoT (currently broken), even though you'll lose an AM shortcut, so that you can keep a Gauss for Defense debuffing if it's requested.

Distract isn't needed in a controller loadout to blue bar heal or control a target. It's just very useful to escape, mitigate damage or revive. But a PDF or Healer shield is good for mitigating enemy damage or picking someone up. Sometimes you don't even need a shield to pick up a player. I've gotten away without using it multiple times. Sometimes you can get away with reviving someone by standing outside a DoT AoE, near the edge of the revive AoE. It all depends on the challenge level on the content.

An offensive Controller approach will get in the way of blue bar healing at max capacity in extremely challenging content, or with power spammers who can't do math.


Ultimately, I spec more into precision, and dual mod with Vit & Precision, on my controller gear and spec, I drink flex soders, compound, use orbital, henchmen, and damage stat trinket. I use HB scissor kick combo spam with the powers above. You're not going to pull off most of your damage coming from your powers like 3PIs in Controller role.

Currently, there's no power regen from power use. You only get power regen from weapon use as a Controller. Scissor Kick has good speed, and you can go to pulse beam for fast power regen when you need to. I used to use 2Hand but its power regen timing is very slow compared to HB pulse beam. Shiny's thread also shows you the base damage average for weapons that favor's Scissor Kick.

You need a high CR and you need to make sure you're hitting atleast 2 targets and you get to them fast.

This isn't a damage explanation video. It's more of a loadout and rotation I played around with when Gadgets was on test server. I wanted to keep a video and info on the rotations. I figured I'd make it public just to show that due to EMP/PDart performing such a high amount of the AM total damage, it's possible to run various combos in the 3PI set up.

I just copied and paste the description I wrote.

"I made this video for self testing reasons. CR 160 vs CR 126 targets and blast adapter added. *not a tunso test* and shouldn't be used to compare damage with other powersets.

POWERS in FIRST LOADOUT left to right.
Gauss Grenade, Napalm Grenade, Vortex Cannon, Distract, EMP, Stealth. Inside Stealth it's fear gas, Sticky Bomb, thermite mine, Battle Display which you have to keep up to get power back mechanic, Bunker Buster then Back flip. Bunker Buster for damage supercharge and BackFlip if your group needs power.

Powers in Second LOADOUT left to right 2:44
Vortex Cannon, Gauss Grenade, Fear Gas, Distract, EMP, Stealth. Same powers in Stealth.



I wanted to try a full 3PI burst loadout while keeping the crit innates. It's practical for raids considering EMP is where 80% of your damage comes from in a 3PI then emp then Distract then EMP, and burst powers will register upfront damage on weaker NPCs.

Gauss is the only power not benefiting from a 50% Pi buff but it nets around 3 to 4% of your total damage even with a Pi. If you run with a player setting up frostbite, like an Ice dps using Wintry Tempest, or Ice tank using inescapable storm, or gadget controller setting it up for you, then you'll get the 50% Pi buff.

You can hit a power from within Stealth but ultimately, it's not netting much unless it's Bunker Buster. If someone is obsessing over using a power from within stealth, then something like Gauss wouldn't be used in the first place unless it was being properly buffed.


I didn't want to respec in the middle of the video so I just moved around powers already available. I played around with FG as a DoT before so I figure I mention it.

Fear Gas is actually decent on single target only due to explosive damage but only in a strict 3PI spam rotation with no Distract or Stealth. Which is unlikely. FG's Explosive damage is higher than CryoFoam and Cryo Field's explosive damage. FG's explosive burst is nearly the same damage as Stasis Field on Single Target according to my old notes.

Again, Stasis Field will still beat out FG only on single target everytime a player goes to do 3PI then emp then Distract then EMP, AND 3pi then EMP, Distract then EMP and Stealth then EMP. That's because the rest of the ticks continue for Stasis as you hit Distract and Stealth.

Just spamming 3Pi's does 5 ticks for something like Foam and Stasis. Fear Gas does 4.7 seconds of damage regardless. It doesn't get extended or cut short in the rotation because all 8 ticks of jump canceled FG plus its explosive damage fit in that time.

There's definitely a variation of powers you can use and they all depend on the type of fight and scenario. This is aside from number chasing which, regardless of having the perfect number based rotation and loadout, favors speed to reach targets, buffs, and practicality with powers."


Here's the 3PI burst combo in Prison Break Elite all 3 bosses in a PUG.





There's also other loadouts I'm not sure I made videos for or mentioned. One consisted of NG,CFoam and VC for complete 50% PI buffs but the the downside of that in raids was that none of those powers are usable while controlled like Gauss. So there is a higher possibility of losing Battle Display with EMP III if the player didn't break out right away or pop distract.

I also added the Debuff videos I was working on. Might come in handy for the Xbox players who don't like to read.

So I was super productive today when I played around with Share Factory. I ended up redoing the Debuff videos to throw in text for what I was explaining when it came to numbers, and to point to things I was referring too.

I also made a video on what will net you the most single target damage. I go in depth as to what I mean when I say single target damage. It has to do with comparing gadget abilities on 1 target as well as considering when everyone in the group is focusing on 1 target.

I promote variety in the powerset when it comes down to damage loadouts since all you have to do is get your major hitter, EMP, tagged. But there will always be interest in what minor tricks/abilities will "add up." The video below backs up everything with numbers, along with practical use. It also mentions the exaggeration of Fear Gas' speed.

Again, it's describing what will net you the most single target damage. On 2 or more targets, Stasis Field can be used, but it's not recommended. There are actually viable options on 2 or more targets depending on player cr vs NPC CR. In end, it's just the rotation you're using, but overall you have to know how to number chase, or "comp," on the scorecard to get any rotation to look good.

Someone on the YouTube asked about how to use EMP III in hallways which was a good question. So I made a video with tricks and tips. Some players are unaware that you can actually get away with it. Some places you can't, but that's only because of the distance from one set of adds to the next.

I've had this happen with mental and atomic--where the big hit attack does crap damage. Can you explain the concept of registering tags? I watched your hallways vid, and you touched on it in there. If I recall you said not to lunge more than once or jump much between the builder attacks. Is that the same thing when you mention tag properly--or just related?

It's just related.

There are different ways tagging in used in the game. Spord talks about it at SOE Live from like 3 years ago in a video if you can find it.

With Advanced Interaction (AI) Advanced Mechanics (AM), more specifically with Gadgets, there are a list of powers you can use to perform the AM. These powers inflict power interactions with the exception of Stealth & Distract which are your short cuts. Each time you use a power that inflicts a power interaction, like gauss, cryofoam, napalm, etc, each power tags you. It registers you as having met the requirement in order to proceed to deal your big AM burst hit with EMP.

Hit gauss, the game registers tag 1. Hit Fear Gas, the game registers tag 2. Hit Vortex Cannon, the game registers tag 3. You have now met the full requirements to deal full AM damage off of EMP/PDart. Same with Stealth and Distract. Hit them Distract, the game registers you as having met the requirement for AM damage and you can hit EMP.

An example is Gauss then Fear Gas will register 2 tags but Fear Gas must be used after a target is electrified in order to trigger Burning. Burning is a power interaction. Fear Gas by itself doesn't inflict a power interaction. Since the AM is Advanced Interactions, you need to follow steps to inflict an actual PI like Burning with FG. So you go Gauss, or Taser Pull, then Fear Gas. You tagged yourself properly for both, now just continue.

Sometimes there are issues if you put a power in between Gauss and Fear Gas. If you do something like Gauss, Vortex Cannon then Fear Gas, sometimes you don't register the power interaction of burning off of Fear Gas. This used to happen way more often after the first few weeks of Gadgets' recent update. It's possible it still occurs, but I always keep Gauss & FG together. If you put CryoFoam after Gauss then Fear Gas, Cryo Foam inflicts frostbite but also inflicts burning. So it can/will steal FG's burning PI off of Gauss. These things mess up the tagging which results in a dud EMP.

In regards to lunging and jumping, you have about 2 to 2.5 seconds to cast your next power on your first 2. So using Gauss, Fear Gas, Vortex Cannon and EMP, you'll do Gauss grenade and you have 2 to 2.5 seconds to hit Fear Gas. After Fear Gas, you have about 2 to 2.5 seconds to cast Vortex Cannon. After Vortex Cannon, you have 3 seconds to hit EMP and deal AM damage.

If at any point you slow down due to lunging animations, jumping too often, moving too slow, or being controlled, you'll have to restart your 3PIs. Your EMP will be a dud. There are times where you can actually get away with jumping more frequently than you'll do with lunging. It's possible just pressing lunge 2 or 3 times just registers a dud later on but it's hard to tell since the timer window is about the same as the animations.

I press jump alot to keep mobile and I lunge, so there are very few times I run into duds especially with alot going on. What I try to do is I keep spamming Gauss & jump forward til my cross hairs are red, hit FG (or whatever your 2nd power is) jump forward, Vortex Cannon then lunge since it's a guaranteed 3 second window after your 3rd power.

Mental should player similar to Gadgets in regards to tagging. Idk how Atomic works.

Thanks for the detailed reply! I was watching one of your EMP III vids, and I have a few questions:


Loadout in video description
DPS: Gauss Grenade, Napalm Grenade, Vortex Cannon, Distract, EMP, Stealth
Stealth: Fear gas, Sticky Bomb, Thermite Mine, Battle Display, Bunker Buster, Back Flip

I have questions about your Stealth Loadout. I undertand Battle Display (power return mechanic).

Bunker Buster -- DPS SC -- Does this stop your AM and power return? I'm guessing not.
Blackflip Attack (movement power SC) -- Why do you take this over Battle Drone? Is Battle Drone less effective in DPS role?
Thermite Mine -- Retains stealth -- Do you use this while stealthed for extra damage?
Fear Gas, Sticky Bomb in Steath -- ?

Additional questions...Why not Anesthetic -- Does this break stealth and stop AM and power return?
Why not Battle Decoy -- Does it explode when leave stealth?
Can you pick up people in stealth?
How is survivability in solos and duos? I ask because it appears you don't have access to self shield--while Munitions (Rocket in place of DPS SC), Hard Light (plenty of room for Light Barrier), Ice (Reflection) all do in their DPS mode. Decoy sounds like it would help, but there is no room for it with AM loadout.

It can stop your AM if you move to slow. Bunker Buster is not part of the AM, and it doesn't inflict a power interaction so it doesn't trigger power regen. In the videos I put up, you'll see me hit my next power immediately and sometimes you can hear me spam the button on my Controller when I transition from Bunker Buster to my next power. That's because if you wait to long, Battle Display will drop. That's why I keep my EMP in my normal dps tray on top of my Bunker Buster in my Stealth tray. So I can spam it and have both cast.

It's not a huge risk. Just make sure to hit it.

In Damage role, your vitalization is low in general. So both Battle Drone and Back Flip are affected. I don't use Battle Drone for 2 reasons in Damage role. One is that you can't use Battle Drone from Stealth. It isn't enabled since we have other unique abilities in it.

Second, even if it was, Battle Drone is a Power Over Time supercharge with an instant burst blue heal towards the end. If I was to use it, I could possibly be overwriting another Gadget Controller who uses it. Changes were made so that normal PoT is granted to the player with the higher Vitalization. But I don't remember if I tested whether it affected Battle Drone PoTs too. I'd have to look at it later.

Aside from that, Instant Power heal supercharges, like Back Flip, Speed Drain, Word of Power, deliver power immediately. As a DPS, my priority is damage. I only keep BackFlip there if an emergency happens where healers or tanks need power. Drone would fail at restoring power in the 2 to 4 seconds I need the healer or tank to spam (for heals/grabbing NPCs). Drone has weaknesses.

Third would be it costs a power point. Mine are already spent so a skill point cost for power supercharge is convenient.

I only use Thermite Mine if the group is waiting around for someone. Just put them in a location you know the boss, or his adds, are going to go. Thermite Mine's burst damage and burning DoT are way too low to make a significant impact compared to your EMP.

You can use Fear Gas or Sticky Bomb from within Stealth as you transition out to EMP from your normal DPS tray. The only time I use it is if I used my EMP, previous to going into Stealth, too late and I need something to bring me out of Stealth form.

The reason I don't prioritize suing FG or SB, or any power that isn't Bunker Buster, is it doesn't net alot of damage overall. The other reason is the same as why I don't ever use EMP from within the Stealth tray... you are not granted a damage modifier. Use Sticky Bomb or Fear Gas from within Stealth and your damage dealt from each of them is reduced. The crits and normal damage included. You don't hit what you would hit for if you used them from your normal tray.

While in Stealth form, you'll increase your crit power attack chance by 60%, but again, no damage modifier to FG or SB. So it doesn't really matter whether you use them or not. I just let EMP from my 3PI into EMP or Distract into EMP, bring me out of Stealth.

Anesthetic doesn't break you out of Stealth. It's also not included in the AM list, and it doesn't inflict a power interaction like the others (except for Distract,EMP,PDart, Stealth-stealth doesn't cost any power though). So Anesthetic can stop the AM and power Return if you let too much time pass. Also, I don't use this because it has no use to me as a damager. Unless I'm soloing something really hard.

Also, Anesthetic would cost me a power point. I would have to sacrifice an offensive power or innate.

You can't use Decoy from inside a Stealth Tray, and Decoy only serves as a survivability tool. It's best used if I was solo'ing something hard as a DPS, or if I did something unorthodox.

You can. But if I remember right, you'll lose Stealth form, and you'll have to deal with the cool down.

Distract is your self shield. Its total strength is determined by 100% of your restoration + 100% of your dominance + 10 for 5 seconds.

It releases you from control effects and grants immunity to CC. It also detaunts NPCs that are already locked onto you. If there is another target, like a player, pet, or ally NPC, your enemies will attack them. It will not detaunt enemies that have started attacking you after you've used it.

Other options would be a Personal Dampening Field consumable, sidekick, or Neural Neutralizer. NN isn't apart of the AM though. It's just if you were struggling too much. Anesthetic would be useful there too but overall Gadgets if pretty good in solos and duos. The powerset as a whole is good to solo some content with. You just have to sacrifice some AM capabilities for really hard stuff by yourself.

Thanks for posting this Dark. That was me Trey. Really helps to see in action what you posted in text.

have a question Im currectly running with this as a loadout but need a loadout for bigger HP bosses, mainly the 3 build up powers before EMP.

My current LO:

battle display
napalm
Gauss
vortex
emp
distract


now should I switch out gauss and vortex for something like sticky and fear gas? to add in some DoTs before the big hit?

also why doesn't my stealth loadout save to my armory?

Although your 3PI powers deal sufficient damage, you're probably looking for minimal increases?

If so, make sure the powers you're using are getting buffed properly for the 50% PI boost Gauss isn't getting it in that loadout unless there's a player inflicting frostbite.

If you wanted a DoT, Cryo Foam is good and it'll boost Gauss. You can also use Fear Gas. Explosive Damage from Gauss to Fear Gas allows it to be a good choice. Sticky Bomb is the weakest of these 3 choices for single target damage even with it's concentrated damage on your primary target.

You could just swap out Napalm for FG or CryoFoam. If a boss has alot of health, FG & CFoam would be good with Gauss.

Also, EMP III will deal more damage than what you're using on bosses.

I'm not sure. I'm not experiencing the same issue with Stealth and my armory.

ok so would the rotation be something like this then?

BS > cfoam > gauss > Fgas > EMP > distract > EMP > repeat


yea like I have a armory for stealth and a armory for this LO. If I go to this LO and then to the stealth armory it has a full LO in stealth not just the 3 powers I picked to be there.

Yea. Or go CFoam clip once with Battle Display then continue the rotation. You can even do GG then FG and put CFoam last. You always want to start out with Distract then EMP then the 3PIs for the quick damage registration on the card. You can also prebuff yourself by doing 3Pis not hitting anything before the boss is hit by the tank. Then lunge in when the tank starts and hit EMP then Distract>EMP>3PIs>EMP.

I don't understand your last part. What's in your Stealth loadout armory? Are you saying in stealth you go to the armory to save your stealth loadout so when you switch armories your stealth tray will pop up?