Hi everyone. I've been hanging around for some months now with my Cthulhu (and he's still not even lv30, talk about a sleeping god...) and I'd like to share some thoughts about how we should build a Great Old One, keeping in mind that we want to respect Lovecraft's work and still be able to be a strong force in PvE (Cthulhu doesn't fight in PvP, puny humans are not worthy). So here's what I came with :

Build by championBuilder 0.4.1

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: Level 40 Champion

Superstats:
Level 6: Super Intelligence
Level 13: Super Presence

Powers:
Level 1: Psi Lash
Level 1: Ego Blast -- Mind Opener, Rude Awakening, Rank 2
Level 6: Ego Sprites -- Slave Mentality, Rank 2
Level 6: Teleport
Level 8: Telepathic Reverberation
Level 11: Devour Essence -- Phlebotomist, Rank 2
Level 14: Ego Sleep -- Plagued By Nightmares
Level 17: Ego Storm -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 20: Collective Will -- Consume Will
Level 23: Seraphim -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 26: Shadow Embrace -- Rank 2, Rank 3, Fatal Allure
Level 29: Ebon Void
Level 32: Summon Nightmare -- Night Terror
Level 35: Ebon Rift -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 35: Scarab Tunneling
Level 38: Rebirth

Talents:
Level 1: Arcanus
Level 6: Brilliant
Level 9: Intimidating
Level 12: Diplomatic
Level 15: Shrug It Off
Level 18: Healthy Mind
Level 21: Enduring


Now let's talk about the powers.

Psi Lash : only as energy builder. After a few levels, you won't use it much. It looks a little like tentacle, so it fits the theme.

Ego Blast : very good combo attack after you put the mobs to sleep, with the advantages. This is like "Cthulhu says you sleep. Cthulhu says you wake up. Cthulhu says you're dead."

Ego Sprites : the interesting point here is that Sprites don't wake the targets if they're sleeping. And they're your fairies slaves who heal you and damage your foes. You REALLY don't want to sleep when Cthulhu is near... (Freddy Kruger is schooled).

Telepathic Reverberation : absolutely mandatory power as it grants you all the energy you need everytime. I'm not an expert when it comes to numbers, but I rarely see "not enough energy" when you use the Nightmare Sleep combo, moreover with INT as a SS.

Devour Essence : I used to go with Psionic Healing, but Devour Essence fits more with the theme. Cthulhu gets his powers from the others, so he kinda feeds on their souls to restore his own. And Devour Essence is a self-healing power, Cthulhu doesn't care if his allies are dying !

Ego Sleep : here it is, the opener. The Nightmare Sleep combo goes like this : Ego Sleep > Ego Sprites > Consume Will > finish them off with any damage power. Very useful in solo PvE. Useless in team because your teammates will rush to them and wake them up. If they benefit from Fear, tell them to wait because the advantage will Fear the enemies when they attack them. Don't forget, Cthulhu is the Lord of Dreams. Very bad dreams.

Ego Storm : "Of the six men who never reached the ship, he thinks two perished of pure fright in that accursed instant." (H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu). This is what Cthulhu is all about, his very presence kills people or makes them mad. I didn't go with Malevolent Manifestation, because I want to be able to stop it when I don't need it, but feel free to take it if you want to. Using this power when every enemy is around sleeping (or not) is a guaranteed massacre. With no blood.

Collective Will : of course, Cthulhu has his followers, his cultists, mad men in hoods and robes who drive people crazy. They have good damage on sleeping targets and they have the look. The debuff helps with Ego Storm and Ego Blast.

Seraphim : let's not forget the divine nature of Cthulhu. He's not a demon, he's an ancient god, nor good or bad. It adds some nice heal and damage, making him harder to take down. If you have allies, it helps them a little, too.

Shadow Embrace : tentacles. We're not talking about some weird hentai cartoon. Cthulhu defies laws of nature, he can change his form, making it longer, larger, etc. Of course, he's some like of cyclopean horrible octopus, so he needs the tentacles. They grow larger with ranks, and it's still a very nice AoE damage power.

Ebon Void : some lifedrain and protection. Cthulhu is linked to extra-dimensional place, so powers like this are nice to go with the theme (this is the reason behind Teleport as a first Travel Power). Nothing much to add.

Summon Nightmare : the build is all about nightmares. Creatures from the Myth are horrible and seem to disappear after they butchered some guy in the street.

Ebon Rift : nice AoE damage and a small crowd control. If you have ever played Arkham Horror, think about portals to the Great Old Ones dimension. The Roin'esh device gives something similar in look, if you can get some in Whiteout. Planar Fracture would have been nice but you can't have it here. Try more Darkness if you want to.

Rebirth : why ? Well, at this point, you should already have enough damage, healing and CC to not need any other power. Any power could be fine, as long as you stay in the theme (so f*ck Technology and Martial Arts). You can choose Enrage to get bigger, even if you're not going to stack Enrage. Rebirth is nice because it really makes Cthulhu a God, he's unkillable. Remeber the Call of Cthulhu when the ship goes through his body and he explodes like a bladder, just to recombine. This is Rebirth.

Super Stats : I followed Willblack's freeform guide and chose PRE and INT, to get a good healing rate. CON is the third stat to level up with talents, to add some survival. You can go with any other stat you want, like Ego or Recovery. You don't need Endurance because you always will have energy.

Travel Powers : as I said, Teleport is the best as far as the theme goes. I chose Scarab Tunneling to keep something creepy, but the other TP you can think of is (unfortunately) the Roin'esh one. It has the color, the sound, and is scary as hell. For those who can't afford to buy Gold TP, go with Flight.

Colors : Cthulhu being brownish green, I use pale green for most of his powers, and indigo for Teleport. The pets are too much shiny and I wish I could paint them dark green. For Silvers, don't worry, pink is still better than, well... yellow ?

Costumes : here's Cthulhu > CLICK HERE
You can change it to any form you want for secondary costumes, or other Lovecraft's creations like Dagon or Nyarlathotep (easy to create if you use his Black Pharaoh incarnation).

That's all folks. Time to spread the gospel, extend the cult and defeat these fake Bleak Ones in Lemuria.

it looks like you have a lot of attacks, maybe change one of them for an active defense/ idf?

and you should probably take lifedrain from the darkness tree over devour essence, its basically the same, but the damage is boosted by seraphim.

This build is slightly outdated now, considering the nerfs on Ego Storm and all. I've found myself struggling in solo mode and doing nothing in team with this build, after I tried to put specialization points. So I probably will have to retcon him again to fit the whole theme.

Telepathy was nice so far but it has become too weak. So here are the elements to choose new powers :
- Cthulhu has tentacles ==> Shadow Embrace
- he cannot be hurt and if he is, he regenerates instantly ==> Regeneration (+ Resurgence ?)
- if he dies, a new himself raises ==> Rebirth
- anyone seeing him is driven mad or dies in terror ==> Fear debuff
- he comes from outer space ==> Planar Fracture, Ebon Shield, Ebon Rift ?
- his armies are legions of undead and horrific creatures ==> Summon Shadows, Void Horror, Air Elemental, March of the Dead, Summon Nightmare
- he has a cult of mad people ==> Collective Will ?
- ... who sacrifice other people to him ==> Devour Essence ?
- he rules the domain of Dreams ==> Ego Sleep (with advantage)
- he has shapeshifting abilities and wings ==> Flight and Ooze Tunneling
- he's HUGE ==> growth build ?
- he can ignore any radiation/nuclear attack ==> Toxic resistance ?
- he's able to summon Azatoth ==> Ritual of Ebon Summoning ?

As far as role goes, he should probably be a support/tank, as he doesn't need a lot of DPS and uses a variety of Crowd Control and pets. About Superstats, I don't really know. PRE, INT, CON seem like a good choice but I need to test it.

So I'm open to suggestions.