The Cutting Edge Gadgets Guide

Hello everyone, I'm coming back to dcuo after a few years of taking a break and I wanted to know which are the 4 best trinkets that are currently being use for controlling and it is their any alternatives for different situations as a controller. Please and thank you to anyone that reads and respond to this message.

Are you trying to play a traditional battery/crowd control Controller or a battle Controller that focuses on damage output?

If you are playing a battle Controller, the Boo-tility Belt + 4 Boos is one way to go. The 4 Boos produce excellent damage output. Use the Dead King Scepter artifact if you want to reduce the cooldown time on them.

You have some options for the traditional Controller role:
1. Orbital Strike
2. Supply Drop
3. Henchmen - Only good in boss fights where the boss will target pets. These guys produce terrible damage output otherwise.
4. Heartbreak Pet Trinket - The debuffs inflicted by the Heartbreak stack with regular controller debuffs. The pet also does AoE damage.
5. Enforcer's Compartment Trinket - The melee tap special can be used to restore a little bit of power each minute.
6. Stat Boosting Trinket
7. Chanter's Sunken Rune Pet Trinket - The pet will heal you for a little bit of power when it is first summoned. The pet can be rather buggy in actual combat for damaging NPCs though.
8. LexCorp Automated Sidekick Pet Trinket - Does great damage in single-target situations. Doesn't do much for your Controller abilities.

Pick whatever seems appropriate for your build.

I'm sorry for the late response, and I wanted to thank you for taking your time and explaining everything in details. I was normally a traditional battery/crowd control, but if I would focus on battle controller, what loadout would you use and stats to focus on battle controlling?

A "Battle Controller" is a community coined term for a player that primarily focused on dealing damage while in Controller role. Battle Controllers don't necessarily focus on providing maximum power back. For Gadgets, most Battle Controllers I've seen focus on Precision and weapon attacks. You primarily spam Weapon Mastery attacks like Bow's Smoke Bomb or Dual Wield's attacks. In terms of a loadout, you will want to use Battle Display (Weapon Buff) and Defibrillator. Defibrillator provides a group power heal. It also provides precision/weapon output damage bonus to the caster and three group members with the highest percentage of Power. Normally weapon attacks are clipped with debuff abilities. Gauss Grenade is a good example of a debuff you might use on a Battle Controller loadout. Battle Display and Defibrillator can be used to clip any attack or ability.

Since you've been gone for a few years, I'd recommend getting re acclimated with "traditional controlling" first. It is easier to play well and is more in line with what people expect when they see a Controller in the group.

Does that answer your question?

Reduce, please, the cooldown from Battle Drone from 60s to 30s. Thanks!

Had a few questions for you guys. It's been a while since I played Gadgets as I moved my main to munitions (this is for my main alt) when the power set came out but my questions for you guys pertain mainly to the controller role and they are:

1. What should the breakdown on my augments be? Should I go with all vit or should I go with some dom?
2. What artifacts do you guys recommend for the controller role?
3. What is the preference among the DCUO community in regard to Hybrid/Pftt with gadgets controlling?

Any information from you guys would be awesome and would contribute greatly with me getting back into gadgets controlling

1. Vitality will be preferred for most situations if you are going for maximum power output. The Dom augments are useful if you are just below a dom threshold or want to enhance your shielding powers.
2. Scrap of the Soul is a must-have for Gadgets controlling due to the 60 second Battle Drone cooldown. Amulet of Rao is useful in the second slot. It allows you to inflict group debuffs. For the third slot, use Parasite's Power Harness for maximum power output, Dead King's Scepter to reduce trinket cooldowns, or Eye of Gemini if you are going for a Battle Controller build.
3. My preference is for Hybrid. I clip my Handblaster attacks with my powers. Handblasters are great for building up Supercharge.

Hey. I'm playing the game for a bit and coming back from a 4+ year break starting fresh. I quit sometime after AMs were introduced and the game was just a rinse cycle. I was wondering what the best artifacts would be to run with a hybrid playstyle. Currently I am working on upgrading manacles of force in order to see if it will affect cooldowns for neural neutralizer, stealth and holographic display. Beyond that I am thinking legionnaires sparring AI and if I get it the venom wrist dispenser.

I was debating on the eye of Gemini and scrap of the soul cloak but found out that the supercharge cost is just 500 or 1000 so I dont think the power generation would be sufficient for my playstyle. This is just day 2 of coming back so I got lots to catch up on. Do you know if there were any changes to the clipping hierarchy or no?

*edit
I just read through the whole thread and saw you already tested the manacles on stealth, distract and neural nutralizer. When you tested stealth did you have on the improved stealth tactical mode and did you do any testing on holographic decoy? Holographic decoy should still absorb damage unless they changed it.

Just getting reacquainted with the game. After trying out all the specs out I'm thinking ill stick to hybrid just for the sheer power differential. I'm assuming that the superpower focus is primarily for tanks and those who play at range. Weapons focus was pretty good and I'm thinking that for rage and light that would be the way to go.

I'm running skimming and hand blasters and my basic combo is
NN -> (hb)Power Discharge/Whrilwind attack/swoop attack combo -> (hbWM)haymaker/Guass Grende -> napalm -> stealth/battle display/hatdlight shield-> cuff em/jump/implosion -> thermite -> EMP -> cryofield -(hb)power discharge -> whrilwind attack/swoop attack/NN -> gause grenade -> napalm
Then I use: (hbWM)ground pound or (hbWm)Explosive **** -> GG -> NG until things are off cooldown

Currently trying to get my cryofield to synch up with stealth/battle display cooldown

Welcome back!

Scrap of the Soul Cloak provides bonuses to the Chest and Head mods. If you are running Eye of Gemini as the main point of your build, you will want to use the relevant chest/head mods along with Scrap of the Soul Cloak. You'll get a nice chunk of Supercharge back if you are stacking everything.

I tried Stealth + Improved Stealth when testing out Manacles. It didn't proc. A power must explicitly have the [Shield] tag to be compatible with Manacles.

Holographic Decoy can be useful if you are building around Manacles. Decoy can be used to absorb some of the redistributed damage inflicted by Manacles.

In Superpowered gameplay, you are focused mainly on using your tray abilities. That means you typically cast your powers in a set rotation. Depending on the powers you pick, your damage output can be noticeably better than Hybrid gameplay.

I assume you are using Improved Stealth and the Swooping Combos mod for this build.

Your rotation is very melee-centric. You'll have to watch out for the attack ranges on Whirlwind Attack, Neural Neutralizer, Cuff'em, Cryo-Field, and Thermite Mine. As you've probably noticed, Cryo-Field and Stealth don't play very well together.

For "stealth/battle display/hatdlight shield", you can use Battle Display to clip Hardlight Shield. So the sequence would be Stealth/Hardlight Shield clipped with Battle Display.

It is very rare to see the Flight Foot Combo Mod being used. As a bit of trivia, you should be able to cast Whirlwind from Stealth and combo into Swoop attack. That functionality was added around November.

I'd suggest doing some parser and practical tests. The artifacts you mentioned in your post lend themselves to a Weapons-Heavy Damage role approach. In that playstyle, powers are used as supplemental damage. However, you are splitting your focus about 50/50 on powers and weapon attacks in your rotation. That is typical for Hybrid gameplay, but doesn't always produce the best results if you are seeking to maximize damage output. Since leveling up Augments/Artifacts from scratch is an expensive process, testing is important to make sure you are building around a base you are going to enjoy playing and provides the results you want.

Thanks for the help.

Currently I'm just at level 26 or so with 48 sp so need to finish up this weekend. If they still had everything limited to the AM stuff I'd have just said forget it but I'm glad they came back to leaving us options. I know its melee centric rn just getting reacquainted with it. When I get to raiding and stuff I'll be hanging back.

I love the swooping mods and yes I knew it could be added to the stealth loadout, I'm the one who used to list off the stealth powers and their interactions in the darks thread xD I used t

*o love the pvp in this game and did use the power discharge/Whrilwind attack as an aoe block breaker, Fist slam as an aoe interrupt and stealth -> headlight shield/amazonian deflection to deal with all the love I got as a controller. Also used whirlwind attack -> Swoop attack/Swoop attack -> Swoop attack/Dustoff -> Swoopattack/Stealth->Cuffem/j/Surprise attack to make them think they had a bad connection from time to time. It's a fun thing and really cant see any other reason than that to use it but it's an old habit. Also liked using armory swaps and disguise trinkets from stealth after breaking away for a few seconds and getting out of combat

I've read through this entire guide and this guide is utterly amazing!

I've been playing this game for a little over 2 years. I've grinded and grinded to get where I am. I am currently at 260 CR with 335 SP. I have used Gadgets as my main for about a year and a half...with that said, I have gone through a lot of different load outs and I feel I have finally found one that seems to fit me well. I do run both roles, DPS and Controller. I do pretty good damage, I am either in first or second in damage and I am pretty decent as a Controller...I've never had anyone complain that they were short on power, so I must be doing something right.

I would love to hear your input on what you think of my my load outs and maybe how I could improve them...also, I am in desperate need of a range load out. I will admit, I hate/suck at clipping, so that kind takes that out of the equation...

DSP Load out

(From left to right)
Cyro-field
Implosion Mine
Gauss Grenade
Thermite Mine
EMP Pulse
Asphyxiation Gas

I run the following artifacts;
Tetrahedron of Urgrund - rank 160
Solar Amplifier - rank 135
Scrap of the Soul Cloak - rank 122

Controller Load out

(Front left to right)
Stasis Field
Napalm Grenade
Paralyzing Dart
Defibrillator
Distrat
Battle Drone

I run the following artifacts;
Parasite's Power Harness - rank 58 (needs some work)
Amulet of Rao - rank 58 (needs some work)
Scrap of the Soul Cloak - rank 122

I'm looking forward to hearing any input you might have for me!

Talon
xxxTalonxxx1

Hey guys came back from a break recently and I recently switched to gadgets. I was curious on a few things. One here is my loadout for adds can you gadget vets give me some pointers
Adds
1. Sonic cry
2. Stealth
3. EMP
4. Implosion mine
5. Thermite mine
6. Speed drain
7. Sleep dart in stealth
* I’ve read that 25% supers are meta right now due to the eye of Gemini and I’ve heard that the Gemini doesn’t prof when you use super in stealth

My second question is, I use robot sidekick on my single target loadout but in elite content he dies consistently. What do y’all do to combat that? Does the turret have better survivability. Or should I find another power to use instead of robot sidekick

Controller Role:
Your Controller loadout looks fine. It looks like you are going for a "maximum power healing" build. What weapon are you using while playing Controller role?

Just remember to be flexible with your Controller loadout. There will be situations where you'll find Holographic Decoy or even Stealth to be more useful than Napalm Grenade. Also be mindful that rapid casting of Stasis Field, Napalm Grenade, and Paralyzing Dart is a sure-fire way to rapidly give crowd control immunity to a typical raid-level NPC.That is very easy to do on a build where you are emphasizing Parasite's Power Harness.

For Elite content, I find it is worthwhile to replace Distract with Neural Neutralizer. You can clip Neural Neutralizer with Defib.


Damage Role
I see you are leveling up Solar Amp, but you don't have Heat Vision listed on your loadout.

Can you provide any details on how you are playing your loadout? Is it a Supercharged build? Do you have a set rotation?

For your "ranged" build, are you going Powers only or do you want to incorporate a weapon?

You might want to consider having a separate single-target build too. Gadgets does fantastic single-target damage.

Eye of Gemini now works with Supercharges cast from Stealth. Batuba fixed that bug. Just be mindful you lose your 10% damage role bonus when you cast a power from Stealth form.

Are you clipping Sonic Cry with Stealth in that rotation? I just want to make sure I'm reading that right.

Suppressor Turret is a mortal pet. Robot Sidekick and Turret are about the same in terms of survivability. There are small things you can do to manipulate their engagement distance A.I. and the attacks that are used. I find it generally isn't worth it though and both will end up being destroyed a lot in Elite content.

Yes I clip sonic cry into stealth then hit sleep dart into emp. Regarding single target, should I replace robot sidekick with a shield then? And is speed drain my best option for dpsing?

I'd suggest trying out using some other powers from Stealth besides Paralyzing Dart. Cryo-Foam used from Stealth will trigger the single-target Stealth proc. Several Superspeed powers used from Stealth will trigger the additional damage proc. You might find something that works better for your build.

Suppressor Turret and Robot Sidekick should be viewed as supplemental damage. You typically use them when you don't have anything else better to slot for a specific situation or build. If you are playing content that requires an extra shield, slot Neural Neutralizer or Hard Light Shield instead of the pet powers.

I assume you are looking for a 2500 SC cost Damage Supercharge to use alongside Eye of Gemini. I talked to LT and Speed Drain seems like a good choice. Pheromone Bloom also works, but it has a lower base damage value than Speed Drain.

Hey again. I've been leveling up and getting my skill points up but I was curious about if the solar amplifier artifact gets an extra tick from stealth or not.

Amplified Heat Vision will apply the Stealth damage tick when cast from Stealth.

My apologies if this has been answered somewhere but I searched and couldn't find it. In DPS role, are the strength of the shields for Distract and Neural Neutralizer based off of Dominance?

The formula is the same for all roles:
Maximum Damage Absorption = Base Shield Modifier * ((112.5% * Restoration) + (150% * Dominance))