Ok Hedon, you and I got off on the wrong foot in that other Mind Guide. I would like to start fresh.
First off, fantastic guide. I remember reading this when you first posted it, and decided to take TK on your recomendation. (before I was posting in these forums) I use it on a semi regular basis now, although I find myself mainly using it when I am fighting bosses, especially multiple bosses. Tk certainly is a skill unto itself, one that I have not quite yet mastered.
I have found a couple of other uses for Mass Hypnoisis though. It tends to parallel your use of it as a Total Domination primer. It is if you are teamed with another controller with an AoE hold, or a blaster with his/her BOOM power. I use it on the mob first, as it doesn't draw any agro. My teamate can then get into optimal position without having to dodge gunfire. Then if the other big AoE power misses, either with the hold or a boom, the ones that were missed don't shoot back. The ones that were hit are either held, or sucking pavement. Then you can stick a hold or two on the ones left standing/unheld and everyone is safe.
I didn't end up taking Leviate at all. I tended to use my Mez in it's place. First Levitate just didn't fit my character idea, and I ended up in smaller groups starting out, so my sleeps were broken much less often. I did almost my first 20 levels teamed up with a scrapper. As a duo, sleep works amazingly well. The scrappers gets to know to hit the guys that are holding thier heads, as opposed to the ones that are head down napping. I also use it in large groups to catch runners/stragglers. If there are a couple of baddies outside of the main mob, I use the Mez on them, refreshing/cycling as it comes up. Then when the group finishes pounding the main mob, they look around to find three guys having a nap on the perimeter. They are quickly dispatched. I don't think I could do the same with Leviate as it disrupts them for 5 seconds or so, where my sleep will last for 30.
Stamina and Hasten. This is a tough one. I really do believe that as a Mind Controller you can do without Stamina and Hasten. I think Mind is one of the very few builds that can say that. I made it to lvl 30 without either of these. I think the Hasten/Stamina tend to be a duo that has to be taken together. If you can fire off your powers faster, then you will need more endurance to keep you powers firing. I found that I could reapply my holds before they ran out without Hasten. Now, without a doubt with Hasten and Stamina you will work more quickly and will be able to handle larger groups with a shorter time between groups. Because of that, you're XP/Minute will certainly go up. If you are in a regular group that does a bit more chatting that "lvl 35s here" between groups then you might be ok. That being said, when I did my respec I decided to go with both the fitness pool and Hasten. I did it for two reasons. One was because I was starting to team with much larger groups on a regular basis. They were hunting and doing missions quickly and I found that without them I really couldn't keep up. That was the first and most important reason. The second was that I honestly ran out of powers to take. I don't have either of the Confuses or Levitate (more of a character idea than anything against them in game) and was starting to run out of powers that I wanted to take that were of use to me and that fit my characters background/story.
Now I have two questions, strictly out of curiousity. What was your secondary, and do/did you have trouble finding teams as a controller?
