Enantiodromos

I'm not sure I understand the suggestion:

[ QUOTE ]
When you do the Task Forces don’t “stealth” the missions, so you can take advantage of all the XP available.

[/ QUOTE ]

XP from mobs on TFs isn't better than XP from mobs outside of TFs. Some, though I suspect not all, missions that can (could once be? I hear a rumor clicking from stealth is being nerfed) stealthed yeild more XP per time than killing mobs.

And how much XP is available has ZERO to do with quickly levelling. There is *always* a near-infinite amount of XP available-- counting every respawnable spawn on every street in Paragon.

A great way to PL, by the way, is the use of confusions.

Confusions improve XP/time, though it takes somebody with a good intuitive grasp of confusions and XP flow to pick the right difficulty mobs based on the team damage output, for optimum XP bonus. Find a Mind controller.

This technique can also be used by a higher level unteamed mind controller, but while to the best of my knowledge this is not an exploit, it's kinda sleazy.

Cuppa,

This:
Mind Control, Radiation, Empathy PvE

Replaces my previous Mind/Empathy blah blah blah Guide.

APPENDIX A: UNDERSTANDING STATUS EFFECTS

There are a number of distinct status effects in CoH, and Mind Controllers are masters of some of the strongest, whereas Radiation also runs its fair share. Also, Empathy->Clear Mind immunizes against them all. Understanding them as a Mind/Green controller is crucial.

STACKING
Status effects can only be stacked with other status effects of the SAME TYPE. You cannot stack confusion and sleep, fear and hold, etc. A boss with a single application of sleep, hold, and confuse each is a boss who's still fully active and hurting you.

<ul type="square">
[*]Hold: Affected target cannot use any power, and cannot move. The most common status effect controllers use.
[*]Disorient/Stun: Affected target cannot use any power. Also, movement rate drastically reduced.
[*]Sleep: Affected target cannot use any power, and cannot move. Effect automatically ends when target takes any damage from a hero.
[*]Immobilize: Affected target cannot move.
[*]Fear: Affected target cannot use any power, and cannot move. Effect momentarily stops (long enough for target to make one attack), every time he takes damage. Often includes an accuracy debuff.
[*]Phase: Affected target is intangible and cannot be affected or affect others.
[*]Knockdown/up: Affected target is knocked to the ground, or into the air, then has to get up, during which time, he cannot take any other action. Many controller forms of knockdown have repetitive, pulsing, AoE knockdown.
[*]Knockback: Like knockdown but displaces the target horizontally.
[*]Slow: Not really a status effect, rather, a movement debuff, and, usually, recharge debuff.
[*]Smoke, etc: Not really a status effect, rather, a debuff on aggro range, and an accuracy debuff.
[*]Confusion: Does quite a few related but distinct things. Affected targets:

1) stop attacking heroes completely,
2) stop buffing villains completely,
3) buff heroes as though they were villains.
4) attack and debuff villains as though they were heroes-- BUT! 75% the damage done by confused mobs is excluded from the calculation of credit for XP, whenever a mob is defeated. [/list]

Most ATs have at least a few powers in a couple power sets that at least occasionally do status effects. Disorients and stuns are frequently a possible side effect of melee attacks. Dark and Ice (non-controller) sets notoriously wield a variety of controls. Controller primaries are a collection of 3-9 (usually 8) powers whose primary purpose is a status effect.

MINIONS, BOSSES, AVs

Lieutenants and minions (also, underlings, and pets) are ordinarily affected by a control power, if it hits.

However, bosses and certain villain types with special resistances (see below) require two applications of a control power before they're affected (except that occasionally a control will get a 'critical' hit, and affect a boss in a single application). This is commonly referred to as "stacking." The status effect is only in place while the duration of the two applications overlap.

Archvillains are affected by status effects as though they were bosses (they require two applications), but also have an inherent power that allows them to automatically resist most of the total-controls-- hold, sleep, confuse, fear, etc, for about 65% of the duration of the fight (with the exceptions of the Archvillains Terra and Adamastor, who lack it). The power switches itself on and off automatically. There is a visual cue, consisting of purple triangles circling the head of the AV. If the triangles are pointing up, the resistance power is on. If they're pointing down, the resistance power is off, and the AV can be held, etc. It *IS* possible to overcome this Archvillain-level resistance, but it requires an enormous amount of controlling ability-- usually between two or three even level controllers dedicated to nothing but spamming the same kind of status effect (usually a hold) in order to stack it high enough.

Monsters and Giant Monsters have the equivalent of an AV's resistance, but with NO downtime.


Total Control

A term I like to use to distinguish between two classes of controls. Total Controls are controls that fully stop the attacks of an effected enemy that would otherwise be aggroing, for a significant duration. They include hold, sleep, fear, confuse, and phase. Disorient, stun, and even knockback *can* qualify, but ordinarily are not long enough in duration.

Soft Control

Another term I use to distinguish between kinds of controls. Soft controls are controls that you can't benefit from and attack the controlled mob at the same time. They include sleeps, fear, smoke, and phase. (The other controls could be called "hard" controls.)

Hard Total Controls: hold, confuse
Hard Limited Controls: Knockdown/up, Slow, Immob
Soft Total Controls: sleeps, fear, smoke, and phase



APPENDIX B: REGARDING CONFUSION, XP, TIME, NUMBERS

A confused mob will actively do damage to the other mobs you're fighting. Normally, anything except a teammate doing damage to mobs you're fighting claims a portion of the XP for themself.

However, MOST of a CONFUSED MOb's DAMAGE DOES NOT COUNT in this regard. 75% of the damage a confused mob does to your other enemies magically disappears from BOTH sides of the equation.

The equations for real XP yield over time are complex and the subject of a separate FAQ. You have to look at both the fight time, and some unknown standard downtime between fights, as well as the way confuse buffs XP, to get it right. Fortunately, there is one fairly simple rule to follow regarding keeping XP up. (S=3DF, where S is the amount of time between fights, D is the % damage you do, and F is the normal duration of a fight without confusions.)

If you're using confusion, it will not worsen XP per time unless you spend more than a certain amount of time between fights. That amount of time is: three times the amount of time the fight itself WOULD have normally taken, reduced by the same fraction as the damage you did.

As a practical matter, groups that are persuing XP in any remotely reasonable fashion will be well within this range, so that confusion NEVER, as a practical matter, hurt XP/time. Some people will never believe you re: this. If somebody disrupts team play telling you not to use confuses, I strongly recommend you cite their disruptive ignorance and leave the team.

APPENDIX C: CONFUSING SPECIFIC MOBS

There are a few noteworthy mobs in CoH to deal with, as a Mind Controller. As has been noted, confused enemies will buff and debuff to *your* advantage, and this is something you'll very much want to take advantage of. Any time a mob is primarily or note worthily a buffer, debuffer, or controller, you should consider it your solemn duty to confuse them.

An incomplete list of confuse-worthy targets:

<ul type="square">[*]Council vampires of all sorts (they use various sleeps and holds).
[*]Banished Pantheon Shamen EXCEPT Death Shamen (the others use myriad status effects and debuffs, including snow storm, earthquake, and hurricane).
[*]Some of the Circle of Thorns Mages-- especially madness mages (who virtually are Mind/Emp themselves), Life Mages (who heal now, some), Ice Thorn casters, and worst, those pesky Earth Thorn casters-- all of whom put their powers to work for YOU.
[*]CoT Portals, which summon Behemoths that yield no XP (yuk!), but are good XP themselves, can be kept from EVER summoning by confusing them before they aggro to anything (make SURE to keep the confusion up).
[*]Crey Medics and Radiologists (Medics heal and Radiologists do rad infection), as well as Geneticists, who MAY actually be able to resurrect fallen heroes while confused-- I've never seen it, but it may be possible.
[*]All devouring earth 'shrooms. They mez like crazy, and also summon mez-resistance emanators. (See below for more on Emanators).
[*]Lost Aberrants and Pariahs, especially the Eremites and Anchorites.
[*]Rikti Mentalists, Mesmerists, and Guardians. Also, Rikti portals, opened by communications officers, will port in *confused* conscripts if you confuse the portal!
[*]Sky raider Force field Generators (yes, they bubble *you*!).
[*]Tsoo Yellow Ink Men, who use sleeps and holds, and Sorcerers, whose heals are legendarily annoying, and who have a hold of their own. Also, Dragonfly, Herald, and Skyfall type bosses. Finally, anytime a Tsoo throws caltrops that are getting on your nerves, confuse him. As long as he's alive and confused, the caltrops will affect him, not you. (After he dies, the caltrops revert to hurting you.)
[*]Vazhilok Embalmed of all kinds, will blow up their own allies if you confuse them, rather than your team. Normally not a high priority for confusion, since holding them is just as good, but frankly, everyone loves you when you set off Zombie fireworks safely. SUPER funny.
[*]False Nemeses. These guys *can* be confused with the normal difficulty of a boss, and they often have dispersion bubble up.
[*]Malta. Sappers, which are, hands down, the best target for confusions in the entire game. They do negligible damage, but even stalwart tanks and epic scrappers fear their end drain. You needn't. Have them drain your enemies instead! Also, if you have a Malta Engineer on hand held, but he's already dropped an auto-turret that is annoying you, confuse him. So long as he's alive and confused, the turret will attack villains. It reverts when he dies though.
[*]Carnie Illusionists and Master Illusionists-- they'll summon hordes of pets-- other illusionists, Dark Servants, Phantasms... and they'll all fight each other, so long as you keep the original summoner alive and confused. Great fun.
[*]Knives of Artemis-- the Hands were a special pain in my rear, because they mez and somehow I rarely saw them beforehand. Also, all the Knives throw caltrops, it seems like, and a single mass confusion can turn an inferno of caltrop microdamage against the people who created it.
[*]ODDITY: Devouring Earth villains drop a wide variety of emanators that buff other DE ONLY. Confusing the person who summoned the emanator OR the emanator itself will make the emanator STOP buffing the DE, but it will NOT buff your team. (This is an unusual exception.)
[*]CAUTION: DE Fungoids (deathcaps, etc) require special attention, as well. If one that you confuse plants a fungus (which normally provide nearby DE with resistance to status effects), and then you proceed to put holds on other DE, and the fight gets going, and somehow your fungoid dies, suddenly you'll have a fungus that nobody was worrying about breaking all your holds. So watch funguses. Keep them separately confused if for whatever reason your team isn't killing them automatically.
[*]CAUTION: Nemesis are a pain in the rear. They all require two applications to confuse, (Not to mention that none of the robots can be slept.) You're basically going to have to rely on holds vs. Nemesis. Let's hope you're good with Dominate and Total dominate. Or you have EMP. EMP &amp; Levitate vs. Jaegers for teh WIN!
[*]CAUTION: Explosives, a relatively recent introduction into the game, blow up good guys and bad guys alike. Don't be tricked into thinking you can confuse them into not blowing you up. A confused explosive puts the smackdown intended for you, on the enemy, but also puts the smackdown intended for the enemy on YOU! [/list]
APPENDIX D: MISCELLANEOUS ADVICE
<ul type="square">[*]Always be courteous. Discourtesy is always a waste of time.
[*]Start teams yourself, rather than waiting to be chosen. Develop your leadership and communication skills. (The author is sorely lacking in this department.)
[*]There are three good ways to approach a fight. 1) You lead into each fight with area control from sufficient distance, or 2) a tank leads in and grabs aggro, or 3) a blaster or defender pulls ones and twos. TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY for making sure your team knows and agrees on one and only one of these, especially if you're leading.
[*]If your team is composed of 40%+ melee and the group isn't in way over its head, help blasters, defenders, and other controllers understand that pulling with blasts is NOT THE ONLY way to play.
If you're on a team with no tanks and few controllers, help any twitchy scrappers present understand that being debt magnets is NOT THE ONLY way to play.
[*]If you're on a team with a good tank who is herding, don't fire off control until he's in position. Ask him to fire off an F7 "Ready!" when you should mez. But also watch out for other teammates who get dangerous aggro away from him. Herding can be dangerous, and you're not vital to it, so use your alertness to the max.
[*]If you're on a team with a good blaster or defender who's pulling, if there are *any* melee people on the team, DO NOT mez anything until it's WELL OUTSIDE THE AGGRO RANGE of whatever group it's been pulled from. And for god's sake do NOT confuse it!
[*]If you are on a team with people who do AoE damage-- particularly claw/*, spine/*, and */dark scrappers and fire/* and */fire blasters, watch positioning CAREFULLY, because once you lock down a group, obviously they can't be worked into position for cones and AoEs. It's ok, especially with the scrappers, to wait a minute to lock mobs down, and not lockdown before they cluster up. You've got heals, so if need be, let the scrapper go into the red, then heal, mez, and heal again. It may also be useful in this regard to run ahead of the team a bit and immediately mez clusters of MObs as soon as they spawn and before they start to meander. This can also apply to area toggle debuffers.
[*]Some attacks will make mobs scatter-- it seems to me most notoriously, everything with the word "rain" in the power description. If you have a teammate running this kind of effect but not locking down mobs first, work something out with them.
[*]Accept that there are bad teams to be on, and that you can only do two things about them: talk, and leave. If the team can't be improved with talk, you must leave it.
[*]If you're LEADING a team, it means you accept responsibility for recruiting, communicating, and most of all, addressing misconduct if it's ruining play for the others. Addressing misconduct in a team is your job because you have the sole power to kick people. If you don't want to exercise it, hand off leadership to somebody who does, preferably BEFORE anything becomes an issue. And always say you've done so in the team channel.[/list]
APPENDIX E: FURTHER READING

Confusion and XP/time -- I got teh Maths, baybee!
Hedon's Guide to Mind Control--Scroll down to the Telekinesis section.
Frost's Guide to Ice/Empathy &amp; Kinetics-- Another */Empathy controller for comparison.
Foxmaiden's Fire Control Guide-- For Fire/Emp and Fire/Rad contrast.
C-force's Mind/Storm Control Guide-- For Mind/Storm contrast
Breville's Mind/Kinetics Guide -- For Mind/Kin contrast
Laughing Man's Empathy/Psi Guide -- For more Empathy goodness

Mind, Radiation, Empathy
or, Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously
PvE Team &amp; Solo Mind/Empathy and Mind/Radiation in I6.
By Enantiodromos
__________________________________________________ ____

1. Introduction
2. Mind Control
........a. Overview
........b. Mind Control Features in Depth
........c. Individual Powers
........d. Using Mind Control
3. Empathy
........a. Overview
........b. Individual Powers
........c. Using Empathy
........d. Mind/Empathy Synergy
4. Radiation
........a. Overview
........b. Individual powers
........c. Using Radiation
........d. Mind/Radiation Synergy
5. Pool Powers
........a. Recommended Pool Powers
........b. Other Pool Powers
........c. Pool Powers to Avoid
6. Per Origin (RP)
........a. Mind controllers and Origins
........b. Empathy and Origins
........c. Radiation and Origins
7. Builds
........a. Mind/Empathy Build Checklist
........b. Mind/Radiation Build Checklist
........c. Dr. Maningzhoue and Actaeon, two characters of mine.
8. Note on Ancillary (aka "Epic") Power Pools

APPENDIX A: Understanding Status Effects

APPENDIX B: Regarding Confusion, Experience, Time

APPENDIX C: Confusing Specific MObs

APPENDIX D: Miscellaneous Advice

APPENDIX E: Further reading
__________________________________________________ ____

INTRODUCTION

In this FAQ, I'll be talking about Mind control with Empathy and Radiation sets. I hope to provide fairly thorough insight into both sets. My 'main' is a Mind/Empathy L50 controller, and I run a Mind/Rad L29 controller, and a Rad/Psi L36 Defender, so I've played the great majority of these powers fairly heavily. I don't play player-versus-player at all, and I won't be discussing PvP.


MIND CONTROL

Mind Control is the premier set for hard &amp; total control, aggro-free control, confusions, and area control. It does fair damage that's typed Psi for good penetration, has enormous directed control potential, no pets, no immobilizations, and is the most distinctive controller primary there is.

(note, please see Appendix A: Understanding Status Effects, if any terminology here is unfamiliar).

<ul type="square">[*]Hard Controls:
Mind has five SOLID hard controls: a ranged single-target and *two* Ranged AoE holds-- Dominate, Telekinesis (AoE Toggle), and Total Domination (AoE). It also has two confusions, which are the hardest controls in the PvE game: Confuse (ranged single-target) and Mass Confusion (ranged AoE).
[*]Soft Controls:
Mind also has three soft controls-- Mesmerize (ranged single-target sleep) Mass Hypnosis (ranged AoE), and Terrify, (large cone fear).
[*]Aggro Free Controls:
Three of Mind's controls, Confuse, Mass Hypnosis, and Mass Confusion, never, ever cause aggro.
[*]Damage dealing:
Controllers now do meaningful damage (see containment), and most of Mind's damage is typed Psi, which is rarely resisted. Dominate and Mesmerize are standard damage-dealing controls, and a great damage/control one-two in a fight. Mind also has Levitate, a decent high damage power and Mind's only partial control. The bonus of Levitate is that it's smashing damage, if you're worried about fighting robots.
[*]Containment setup:
Containment is now the name of the game for damage with controllers-- any mob that is immobilized, held, disoriented, or slept takes double damage from any attack by a controller (except brawl). Mind has two single-target (Dominate, Mesmerize) and three ranged AoE controls (Total Dom, Mass Hypnosis, Telekinesis) that set up containment. This can mean decent damage output with unusual safety, in the hands of a well-built mind controller.
[*]Confusions:
Mind specializes in confusion, one of the most controversial kinds of powers in the game. Confusions are like a hold in that they completely stop a mob from taking any action against your team. However, they also cause the enemy to attack his own allies-- and most (75%) of the damage they do when confused, is not "counted" when mobs are defeated, so you wind up getting more experience that normal for the damage you do. Also, they work on certain mob types, like Circle of Thorns Demon Portals, Devouring Earth emanators, and so on, where other controls don't. Furthermore, if the enemy runs any sorts of buffs, heals, and so on, they use them to benefit *your* team while confused. Finally, confusion unlike a hold can cause mobs to either scatter or bunch up, depending on your skill and luck, since the mobs are left mobile.

Confusions are widely misunderstood for three reasons:

1) They were at one point in the early game capable of making you lose experience, over time, if used.

2) People improperly compare confused villains to pets because the L32 Mind Controller power is Mass Confusion, not a pet.

3) People sometimes become interested in how much experience they're getting per defeated MOb. Confusion can cut down modestly on your experience gained per mob, but it always compensates-- or overcompensates-- by speeding up fights, which mean more experience per time.

Because of these things, there is a persistent belief that confusions can at present cause teams to 'lose XP.' This can be frustrating.
[*]Trickiness:
Mind Controls can be some of the hardest control effects for teammates to recognize. None of them have dramatic animations like, say, Earth or Ice, and teammates attacking/killing controlled mobs first can cut down on your effectiveness, if they can't/won't learn to work with you. Confusions, indeed, leave mobs actually moving and attacking, which can be even more confusing for teammates. Communication is a must.[/list]
INDIVIDUAL POWERS

NOTE: Read the appendix on status effects first, if any terms used here are not familiar.

NOTE: Regarding slotting, remember: never slot more than 3 of a given enhancement in a given power.

<ul type="square">[*]MESMERIZE
Available: L1
Slotting: 1 Accuracy. IF you want damage, you could add 1-3 damage. A second accuracy later, when you're sure you need it.
Importance: Consider

Mesmerize is OK damage, and is good for putting fringe lieutenants and minions to sleep-- for quite a while. If there are guys on the fringe on the opposite side from your team who aggro, put them to sleep, and deal with them later!
[*]LEVITATE
Available: L1
Slotting: 1 Accuracy, 0-3 Damage whenever you start to obsess over damage output.
Importance: Consider

Levitate is the best low-level damage power in the set. It does knock-up, which at least momentarily interrupts your enemies, and it does smashing damage, which is nice to have against, say, robots, who're resistant to psi but vulnerable to smashing.
[*]DOMINATE
Available: L2
Slotting: Six-slot immediately. 1 Accuracy. Any combination of 1-3 damage and 1-3 hold, the remainder recharge, or a second accuracy later if you decide you need it.
Importance: Mandatory

Dominate is a good fast single target hold, with decent damage. Dominate is a bread-and-butter power. You should ALWAYS take it at level 2.
[*]CONFUSE
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 accuracy. If you feel like you want to keep bosses confused, 1-3 recharges. Don't slot to more than 3 until you really have the slots to spare. Also consider 1-2 range, since this is aggro-free.
Importance: Important

Confuse completely stops an enemy from attacking you or your teammates, and additionally forces them attack and debuff other villains, and buff the good guys! As if that weren't enough, it DRAWS NO AGGRO! You can spam confuses all day long, if you just want to clear out an area. It requires two applications to affect a boss-- much like holds, and has a longer recharge time, BUT, it also has a significantly longer duration.

Another way confuses differ from holds is that, confused mobs will still move around under their own power. Potentially, in very dispersed, adjacent groupings, they'll go where you don't want them to go. On the other hand, confusion can also be used to get an outlying mob to cluster up with the rest of a group, since he'll move to attack them. If you're really clever, it's a herding tool. If you're really unlucky, it causes a bit of scatter. Fair tradeoff.

Confuse should be SERIOUSLY considered by L16 or so, if not straight away at L6. Using it on enemy defender types is fantastic.
[*]MASS HYPNOSIS
Available: L8
Slotting: 1 Accuracy. A second accuracy when you have slots to spare. Also consider 1-3 recharge, if you find you can make use of the power, and 0-2 range when you really have slots to spare.
Importance: Consider

Mass Hypnosis is your first, and one of *two*, AGGRO FREE AREA CONTROLS. It is a large Area of Effect sleep that centers on an enemy you target while at range. It does no damage. Very good for mitigating damage when you're facing overwhelmingly large spawns, as when two large spawns are back-to-back. It also initiates containment damage doubling.
[*]TELEKINESIS
Available: L12
Slotting: 1 End Redux. 2 more when you have slots to spare and/or are getting regular use of this power.
Importance: Consider

Telekinesis is an auto-hit TOGGLE ranged area hold, meaning, you select a target, toggle on TK, and the target and everyone else around them has a hold applied. Additionally, affected targets steadily move in a direct line away from you- this is what makes Telekinesis tricky; you have to find physical obstacles to bunch your TK'd opponents up into, unless you just *want* them to drift off and eventually leave your target-select range, at which point the toggle drops and they're no longer held. Beware, though-- as a wandering area control this can draw aggro to you from far away much the way a debuff toggle on a runner can!

Telekinesis is also one of the biggest end hogs in the entire game. To use this power as a staple, you'll need to take it and slot it fairly heavily for end reduction, which given all other considerations, you'll have to do either ASAP, or very, very late.
[*]TOTAL DOMINATION
Available: L18
Slotting: Six-slot immediately. 2 accuracy, 2 recharge, and 2 hold. Or possibly, drop an accuracy or a hold for a recharge esp. if you run Rad Infection or Tactics.
Importance: Crucial

Total domination is an Area of Effect Hold applied to everyone within a fairly large radius from an enemy you target at range. It does no damage, but does draw aggro. Like most area controls it has a fairly long recharge time. If you can set yourself up to reliably and frequently cast Total Domination, you've got about half your functionality down. Take it at 18 and slot it immediately.
[*]TERRIFY
Available: L26
Slotting: 1 Accuracy. Add 0-1 accuracy (especially if you don't run Rad Infection or Tactics) 1-2 end redux, when you reasonably can. If you decide you need damage, 3 damage.
Importance: Important

Terrify is a fear effect with an accuracy debuff that does psi damage equal to dominate in a VERY large cone. Though it's a soft control, as damage mitigation goes it can still be useful when you team with single-target hitters-- particularly if you have a self heal and can tolerate a few hits. Good for doing damage to big clusters when you solo. Terrify also has a good recharge rate for such a big, broad damage/control attack. Endurance is what tends to keep Terrify in check. With Stamina and Recovery Aura or AM, you'll be able, eventually, to sidestep this limitation.
[*]MASS CONFUSION
Available: L32
Slotting: 1 accuracy, then 1 confuse and recharge. One more of each when you've got slots to spare, or possibly 0-2 range.
Importance: Mandatory

Here's the pinnacle of Mind Control! Mass confusion is everything that the single target confuse is, except as an AoE. It's long-duration, slow recharge, draws no aggro, and is fantastic for clearing out an area (say, the bodyguards of an AV). It can be readily stacked with confuse, and is certainly the most powerful single control power in the PvE game. It's also hysterically entertaining.

Refer to the section on Confuse, and think AoE. [/list]

USING MIND CONTROL POWERS

Included below are some ways to use Mind control powers in combination. I have intentionally not included typical solo damage chains, because they're not hard to figure out (levitate, mez, and dominate, as well as pool attacks like air superiority, are the powers of choice. After level 26, though, soloing becomes even more pointless, and I recommend you not bother).

<ul type="square">[*]Mass Hypnosis, Dominate, Mesmerize (Very Safe)
This is a basic combo you can be doing by L8. Lead with Mass Hypnosis from a good distance, then immediately Dominate to get the most important target under control-- either the guy your buddies are gunning for, or the boss you dread most. Now mesmerize the mob furthest from the attack zone of your teammates. Cycle your Dominates through the battlefront, and your Mesmerizes through the rear of the enemy. You'll be doing noteworth damage with every hit, and mitigate nearly all of the enemy's damage.

This combo is particularly important, because there's a strong current of well-deserved disdain for lowbie controllers who're full of useless powers because they're building toward their ubar stamina/hasten/movement power/pet build in the 30s.

So if you really wanna be a hardcore *controller* early, here's your chance. Get this puppy up and running, trouble yourself to explain it to teammates, and avoid teaming with people who have large area damage before you turn 21, and can consistently sling total domination for them. Here's a sample build geared toward keeping the control flowing.

1 Mesmerize /Acc,End (1,3)
1 Healing Aura /End (1)
2 Dominate /Acc,End,Rchg,End,Hold,Hold (2,3,5,5,7,7)
4 Absorb Pain /Heal,Heal (4,9)
6 Confuse /Conf (6)
8 Mass Hypnosis /Acc,End (8,9)

Extensive control for single-target hitters, with heavy healing to back it up. And you can always spec slots out of Mesmerize and Mass Hypnosis when you turn 24.

Also, see the trickier "Mesmerize, Mass Hypnosis" below.
[*]Confuse, Mass Confusion (Aggro FREE!)
For going after large groups with very high safety, or for leading into groups that you want to subsequently Hold, but want to be quite sure never attack you or your team. Apply mass confusion, then, lay a single confusion on each boss. This ensures every mob is completely controlled WITHOUT ANY AGGRO, and doesn't even involve bosses reducing the XP value of individual mobs before you send your team in. This might be hard to pull off perfectly if there are many bosses or you don't run hasten yet. Also, if you have large groups you just want to clear off, especially if they lack bosses, you can just apply mass confusion and keep spamming confuse until you have one mob left. \
[*] Telekinesis, Confuse
Here's a great way to bring your stragglers back into the fold of TK. Suppose you have part of a spawn gathered in a corner, but one or two got away, and you just REALLY want them all in one place. Wait for the right moment, and confuse the straggler(s). They'll run right over to the badguys that are bobbing in the corner, and get stuck in the hold themselves.
[*]Confusion, confusion, patience! (Aggro FREE!)
For dealing with pesky spawns of bad guys surrounding an Arch Villain-- confuse the AV a few times, and wait. When his mez resistance drops, he will promptly decimate his own allies, leaving your team free to focus on him. This is particularly beneficial fighting certain AVs who spawn in the presence of large status-effect groups or other dangers, such as Infernal.
[*]Mass Hypnosis, Total Domination (Extremely Safe)
Total Domination does after all draw aggro. And sometimes you'll want to lead into fights, as a controller. Especially if you don't have a handy tank or are dealing with large groups of psi blasters (Gordon Trench and The Clockwork King's dimension come to mind). Especially if your accuracy with Total Domination isn't Iron Clad, the Mass Hypnosis is a nice cushion. The guys you miss with Total Domination will stay asleep, and you can target Dom them to your heart's content. If you're really hardcore and have an especially enormous cluster of MObs, you can always try doing partial overlap placement with the two-- get Mass Hypnosis further back, and Total Dom nearer; you'll still be buffering in the overlap, get more total coverage, and your team will presumably be dealing with anybody in the front row that Total Dom missed.
[*]Total Domination, Dominate (Low-risk)
This is elementary total lockdown, and should be in every Mind Controller's playbook. Apply Total Domination to a spawn, then keep your eyes open and spam dominate through the group on a cycling basis (usually, bosses first). Unless your Dominate is slow or you're fighting things 3+ over your head, you ought to be able to keep a spawn locked down at least until your endurance runs out. But if you're doing this, you're going to need to survive whatever ranged alpha strike any bosses present will use-- so don't do it against mezzers like Rikti Chief Mentalists. Obviously, in a scenario with bosses, pop Total Dom and then get Dominate on the boss as fast as possible.
[*]Mass Hypnosis, Mass Confusion and Terrify (Low-risk)
Here's the Promised Land of soloing. If you have both of the top powers in Mind Control as well as either Mass Hypnosis, and especially if you have Hasten and Stamina and/or Endurance Buff to support it, this trick becomes possible. Lead in with Mass Hypnosis. Follow up with Mass Confusion. They're still sleeping though, and ready to take 2x damage from your next attack! Now hit them with Terrify. They'll take damage, wake up, smack each other once, and cower. If you have teammates, they can finish them off. Or, you can keep terrifying them, with Mass Hypnosis beforehand when available to get 2x containment damage.
[*]Mesmerize, Mass Hypnosis (Moderate risk)
I'm mentioning this one because it's possible, which most people don't know, but risky. You can, in fact, approach a large spawn of MObs with a boss in it, and FIRST mesmerize the boss, THEN use Mass Hypnosis on the group. This *will* get the entire group including the boss sleeping, and I know of no other way a single character in the game can do such a thing. But then again, I'm not sure why you'd want to. At any rate, the real point is, doing it the other way around is NOT possible-- because the damage component of a Mesmerize, or ANY other damage-dealing sleep power, automatically negates any other sleep effects with which it might otherwise stack. [/list]

EMPATHY

Play Empathy if you want to be popular in the early game with people who don't understand defenders well.

Empathy, has lots of healing, yes. But it's is more about reducing downtime between fights, and later on, about buffing an ally or two, and less about team defense, than most people think. Personally I think it's fantastic as a team-oriented SECONDARY-- a controller can use it to the max for it's supporting role without extravagant expense in powers and slots.

The downside is of course you do need a team to make Empathy useful. Even that has a silver lining, though, because you really should team anyway, as a controller, and being a "Healer" has got to be one of the best (if not best-justified) selling points you can broadcast when you're looking for a team.

Though it's got a lot of heal, the high range of Empathy has some great buff powers OTHER than the heals. People will love you all over again for a dozen levels when you pick up Fortitude and Recovery Aura at levels 20 and 28. Under the right circumstances, you can also ingratiate yourself immensely in the 20s and up with clear mind. And Adrenaline Boost, the final power of the set, is a phenominal single-teammate booster.

Empathy is certainly the least directly offensive set, and along with FF one of the most team-oriented. It has more click and teammate-target effects than any other set. And half (44%) of the set is effects that are (or can be) last-ditch, emergency efforts to keep teammates from being dead in combat. It is, after all, a weird set.


INDIVIDUAL POWERS

<ul type="square">[*]HEALING AURA
Available: L1
Slotting: 1 Heal. +0-2 Heals and 1-2 End Redux when you have spare slots.
Importance: Mandatory
The only low level power you'll get out of Empathy that helps you, and you'll be forced to take it. It's a good self/PBAoE heal.
[*]HEAL OTHER and ABSORB PAIN
Available: L2, L4 respectively
Slotting: 2 Heal. +0-1 Heal, +0-2 Endurance, when you have spare slots.
Importance: Choose ONE.

My position is, these two are redundant on a controller. Absorb pain makes you wait another 2 levels to take it, heals MUCH more for MUCH less endurance, and is a little trickier to manage since it hurts you a little and makes you un-healable for a short period. From my PoV, Mind/Empathy is for players who maximize good judgment and skill-- which suggests Absorb Pain. The choice is yours.
[*]RESURRECT
Available: L10
Slotting: 1 Recharge
Importance: Consider

This power brings a teammate back to full health from defeat. The End cost is enormous, and the recharge is very slow. Primarily, this power is good for saving your teammates the trouble of walking back from the hospital.

But there are situations where an in-combat Resurrect can be fantastic. A group depending on a Tank can really benefit from that tank making a very fast full-recovery. A group in a tedious fight with a fast-regenerating boss or AV will likely be very happy with a spot-resurrect when it's key blaster falls.

But you have to get a sense for when to do this, and when to NOT do it. The power is situational.
[*]CLEAR MIND
Available: L16
Slotting: 1 Recharge or Range
Importance: Important

Resistance against, and popping out of, immob, sleep, hold, and disorient can be crucial against some kinds of foes, and this sometimes overlooked power makes you the anti-controller. It cycles fast, lasts a while, and is otherwise pretty much effortless-- EXCEPT-- that you have to train teammates to call out quickly when held or otherwise watch them on the screen like a hawk, if you're not spamming this power before every fight. Either way, this power is great if you're not *lazy*.
[*]FORTITUDE
Available: L16
Slotting: 1 AccBuff. +0-2 Acc Buff +0-2 Def Buff when you have spare slots, or +0-3 Recharge if you want to maximize # of teammates you can give it to.
Importance: Important

A tidy damage, resistance, defense, accuracy boost. A little more everything! (Including, BTW, resistance and defense against psi!) Fairly slow recycle, but if you work at it you can have 3 teammates forted almost all the time once you have hasten and couple recharges in it. Plus, if you're going to be worth nothing else in a fight, say against an AV, you can still fort teammates.
[*]RECOVERY AURA
Available: L28
Slotting: 3 Recharge immediately. +0-3 EndMod if you have spare slots.
Importance: Crucial

A PBAoE endurance recovery buff extraordinaire. It is, itself, an End Hog, so you're best to pop it at the start of a fight, unless you think you'll be mostly watching the scrappers wear themselves out beating bad guys silly. It does affect you too. And especially among folks who have not sorted out their own endurance needs yet, you'll be considered a God.
[*]REGENERATION AURA
Available: L35
Slotting: 1 Recharge. +0-2 Recharge, +0-3 Heal if you have spare slots.
Importance: Marginal

A power I don't have direct experience with. I've seen it used. It's a good health recovery buff. However. You're a controller, and of all the heal options, this one is the most like an active combat defense. Team defense should come from your controls-- heals should increase your *options*. So I recommend skipping Regeneration Aura.

[*]ADRENALINE BOOST
Available: L38
Slotting: 3 Recharge immediately. +0-3 EndMod if you a have nothing else to slot.
Importance: Important

A modest duration, long recharge buff to one teammate's recharge speed, endurance recovery, and regen. Even though available only late in the game, still a very impressive power. There is nothing else as good, at L38, to take. Take it! [/list]
EMPATHY USAGE

Like defenders, be ready to do some buffing at the start of combat, and pay attention to when the buffs are back up again. Giving somebody Fortitude + Adrenaline Boost is a very real and noticeable improvement, to any character I've ever seen. Even just spamming heals on a scrapper can easily make the difference between a defeated AV and a defeated scrapper. If you're pulling off a hazardous resurrect, be ready to hit your target with a heal if he starts to go down before he gets away or turns on toggle defenses. Rezzing somebody to die again just sucks.

Empathy is not your primary as a controller. I recommend against taking more than two healing powers with the set, and I recommend against trying to routinely use heals to defend your team. The exception is: when you're aiding a retreat or fighting an AV.

MIND CONTROL/EMPATHY SYNERGY

MC/Empath is really a build for multi-taksers and skill players-- people who think it's fun to try and keep their finger on the pulse of everything going on, especially in a pickup team, where it approaches impossible, even if folks stay together. MC/Emp is one of the least susceptible of all builds, to the "What is there to do but stand here and hit things" syndrome. You will have to become very accustomed to your preferred method of selecting both teammates and enemies. Tab (in the default keyboard configuration) cycles you through enemies. And you can select teammates with mouse clicks on the team list. I recommend mapping the "~" key to cycle through teammates. You can also select targets of either sort with a click directly on the target. Only you can come up with the target-selection scheme that works best for you, but choose wisely. Also, strongly recommended you turn the health and status display bar for other heroes to to "always on."

Mind control has a lot of aggro-free attacks, and Empathy has no aggroing debuffs. You could live your life virtually aggro-free under this build. You will be the last man standing, more than almost anybody. If you are prone to survival guilt, you may want to consider another build.

Neither Mind nor Empathy is a 'swiss-army-knife' set. Empathy heals and buffs. Mind hard controls, and that's a reasonably narrow area of expertise. Also, mind is pretty much a grouping-oriented set, and Empathy the most grouping-oriented of the controller secondaries. MC/Emp is therefore an extreme group build. That's how to think about playing Mind/Empathy IMO.

Mind control is not surprisingly an End Hog with its advanced stunts, nor are heals or resurrection light on the end. Fortunately, Empathy has one major power that works directly with you-- Recovery Aura. You can readily eat your entire native + stamina endurance recovery doing Mind Controller Tricks, so having Recovery Aura ready to go can be a real boon.

Mind/Empathy can be a real boon if you're working with a modest number of damage dealers who're squishy or would prefer not to rely only their own defenses. Duoing or trioing with blasters and/or Super Reflexes or Dark Armor scrappers, particularly, can be quite lucrative, especially if you're at a stage where you can boost their accuracy a little, you have missions set on invincible, and your allies are a couple levels below you. The ideal sidekick for a Mind/Empathy is a Blapper!

Finally, empathy has lots of buffs you can use on non-teammates when you stumble on someone in a pitched battle on the street, and Mind Control likewise has some *great* damage-free crowd control. Try this sometime, once you're L38-- find a scrapper in a pitched battle versus a big ambush, who's about to go down. Heal, Fort, Rec Aura, Adrenaline Boost, then Total Dom their opponents. A near disaster converted into an easy XP goldmine-- thanks to your friendly neighborhood MC/Emp!

RADIATION

Radiation is an effective and aggressive set. It's got three fantastic buffing/debuffing tools very early in the set, and two or three other powers that are worth a serious look. It adds a lot of offensive punch to teams or to its user solo, as well as substantial control at the higher levels, a PBAoE heal, and a resurrect. Powerful, agressive, versatile-- this is Radiation.

<ul type="square">[*]RADIANT AURA
Available: L1
Slotting: 1 Heal. If you really find yourself using it a lot, could be slotted +0-2 Heal and +0-2 Endurance reduction.
Importance: Forced

Radiant Aura is a tidy PBAoE heal. You'll be forced to take it. But hey-- you can heal yourself with it.
[*]RADIATION INFECTION (RI)
Available: L2
Slotting: 1 Endurance reduction. Then 1-3 Defense Debuffs. If you really feel the need to 6-slot this, consider 1-2 Accuracy Debuffs, but get your 3 Defense Debuffs in first.
Importance: Crucial

Radiation Infection is a toggle AoE debuff-- you pick an enemy, toggle the power on, and the enemy and any villain nearby has reduced accuracy and defense. You can slot this for offensive (DefDebuff) or defensive (AccDebuff) purposes. As a controller, of course, you'll probably want to focus on the offensive uses. Remember that Radiation Infection stays up until the bad guy dies, or is very far away, and that in the meantime, if he runs, anybody he's near is aggroed to you. Extremely effective, and a must-have sometime before your teens.
[*]ACCELERATE METABOLISM (AM)
Available: L4
Slotting:3 recharges immediately, and eventually, when you have slots to spare, add three End Mods.
Importance: Crucial

This PBAoE buff lets you endow your whole team with extra endurance recovery, recharge, damage, and resistance. Quite an impressive buff. AM should be taken and slotted as soon as possible.

[*]ENNERVATING FIELD (EF)
Available: L10
Slotting: 1 endurance reduction. Followed by 1-2 more once you start using it regularly.
Importance: Crucial

A toggle AoE debuff like Radiation infection, Enervating field reduces your opponent's resistance and damage. It's quite an endurance hog, so you can consider holding off on it until after L20, but you'd be crazy to not take it at all.
[*]MUTATION
Available: L16
Slotting: 1 recharge or endurance reduction. You could add more of either if you really wanted to, but not until you have nothing else to slot.
Importance: Consider

Returns a downed hero to full health and endurance and provides some miscellaneous buffs for a period of time.
[*]LINGERING RADIATION
Available: L20
Slotting: 1 accuracy. Add an endurance reduction when you start using it regularly, and possibly another accuracy. In theory, you could eventually slot it for 1-2 recharges and another end reduction, if you really had nothing else to put the slots in.
Importance: Consider

A ranged AoE slow and regeneration debuff. The first significant control power in the radiation set, and though Mind scarcely needs other controls, you may want to consider this one eventually.

[*]CHOKING CLOUD
Available: L28
Slotting: 3 Hold, 1-3 End Reduction.
Importance: Marginal

The second of three control-oriented powers in radiation. This one is a PBAoE toggle pulsing hold. That is, it applies a very short duration hold, with bad accuracy, to villains standing near you every second or two. Fully slotted, it's an interesting form of control, but as a controller, you'll probably find it redundant with your primary. If you insist on taking it, you really need to have 3 hold slots, and use it against AVs and on the front line of fights against huge spawns.
[*]FALLOUT
Available: L35
Slotting:
Importance: Avoid

A power one rarely sees, and situational to situations that are best avoided anyhow (does decent damage to people standing over a fallen teammate). I SO don't recommend this power that I'm not even discussing it. :P
[*]EM PULSE
Available: L38
Slotting:
Importance: Consider

EMP is an exceptionally large PBAoE attack, long-duration hold, that hurts robots a bit, makes it hard for you to recover endurance for a while, and has a long recharge time. As another control, this power isn't really a priority, but it's good enough out of the box, and cool enough, that you might want to take it anyhow.[/list]

RADIATION USAGE

Slinging radiation, as a controller, is a matter of getting the bad guys properly debuffed once you've controlled things to your satisfaction. Picking targets for your toggles and getting everybody clustered around them and held, to remain debuffed, is a priority. Of course if you're working with a good, aggro-managing tank, apply debuffs first while you wait for him to cluster things, then apply holds.

Because toggles go down when the target for the toggle, or "anchor," dies, you're going to find it annoying when people kill your anchors prematurely. You need to approach this problem from both angles: 1) Get used to it! 2) Educate your teammates.

When buffing with Accelerate Metabolism, don't be shy about calling for the team to gather to get the buff. Usually shouting "Gather!" or "AM!" in the team channel is sufficient. Don't be rude or obsessive, but try and make people understand that they really want the boost.

Radiation is great for helping out with killing bosses and AVs, especially with RI, EF, and Lingering Radiation in play together.


MIND/RADIATION SYNERGY

When it comes to the Mind/Radiation combo, there's so much good about each set that the main thing to talk about is pitfalls:

First off, Radiation, like Mind, has a lot of powers your teammates can work with, or screw up, depending on their actions. Hence, more that possibly any other set, Mind/Rad requires you to talk to your teammates and explain yourself if they don't already know Mind and Rad. It also be worth your while to develop some macros (there are FAQs on this), to announce who you're targeting with your mezzes, toggles, and mez toggles. Also, experience as a blaster helps a lot with this-- you'll notice quickly that the guy your tab select first hits is the SAME guy everybody else's tab select hits. I recommend you learn to tab 80% of the way through a spawn to select your target.

One of the trickier things about Mind/Radiation, as Foxmaiden has pointed out often, is that Mind and Radiation both have lots of great stuff in the early build. Which forces you to make tough choices about power selection until you're nearly in the endgame. You have a lot of viable alternatives in a Mind/Rad build, but you should *really* plan your entire build ahead.

Another awkward thing about Mind/Rad is that both sets are control heavy. For example, supposing you decided to stick to holds. A L38 Mind/Rad could run Dominate, Telekinesis, Total Domination, and Choking Cloud simultaneously. The holds would all stack. That's more hold power than $Deity. On the upside, Telekinesis and Choking cloud are both great ways to stack holds on AVs. It would be certainly worthy of testing, to see if choking cloud, telekinesis, and dominate can chain-mez an AV.

A third thing to notice about the combination is the endurance cost. With 3-slotted stamina, it's possible to run Telekinesis, Enervating Field, and Radiation Infection, each with 2 end reduction slots, indefinitely, if you're not running anything else. With AM up, things are a little better, though not lots. Both sets can, potentially, make enormous endurance demands on you. Bear that in mind when you look at slotting.

Finally, radiation debuffs with mass confusion can be completely fight altering. Particularly if you focus on defense debuffs but not accuracy debuffs in Radiation Infection, running it and EF on a mass-confused spawn ensures a sickeningly fast rate of spawn self-destruction. This is an arcane point about confusions, but getting the right ratio of confused mob-to-team damage is the key to getting the best XP/time buff out of confusion use, and radiation debuffs enhance your control over this.


POOL POWERS
Recommended Pool Powers
<ul type="square"> [*]Speed-- Hasten
Available: L6
Slotting: 3 Recharge
Importance: Crucial

Hasten is worth it on most Mind builds, especially Mind/Empathy. Three-slot it for recharge, and it's like having an extra couple recharge enhances, most of the time, in every power that recharges. Now, consider some of your best powers-- Total Dom, Terrify, Mass Confusion, Rec Aura, Adrenaline Boost, Accelerate Metabolism. These could *always* use more recharge speed. Get hasten and 3-slot it as soon as you have your endurance issues clear.

Can you survive without it? Yes, more so on a */rad build. But IMO you'll still be happier with it than with a variety of other powers you may eventually build into your Mind/Green troller. So take it, eventually. FWIW, I think a lot of people are giving up on the utility of Hasten because it's not what it was before enhancement diversification.

[*]Fitness-- Stamina
Available: L20, after 2 other fitnes powers
Slotting: 3 EndMod
Importance: Crucial

It is conceivable to avoid stamina on Mind/Empathy characters, if you're willing to wait around until you get Recovery Aura, and be forever pinned down between uses of it. Even with both, though, you can find ways to tax yourself end-wise as a Mind/Green, especially if you're running telekinesis. With Mind/Rad, AM doesn't fill this gap in quite as well, and Radiation itself can demand more endurance for things you might want to do routinely. In either build, I think Stamina is well worth the 3 powers and 2 slots.
[*]Concealment-- Stealth
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 Def or End
Importance: Consider

Stealth is a quality of life enhancer. It's nice to scout an area before you back off to start using aggroless controls, for example. Since Empathy has no aggroing debuffs, you can also perform them from stealth. Since as a Mind/Empath you have so much that generates active aggro, stealth sort of helps complete that picture. Also, stealth opens up a lot of opportunities soloing missions for objectives without making most arrests, if you want to see game content but can't find a teammate.[/list]
Other Pool Powers

<ul type="square">[*]Fitness-- Hurdle
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 Jump
Importance: Optional

Most people have noticed that if you're building Hasten + Stamina into your character, you have a handy opening on super speed as a movement power. If you're doing that make sure to pick up the sequence HURDLE, Health, Stamina. If you're not going to take a major movement power at all, hurdle is also nice for mobility.
[*]Basic-- Sprint
Available: L2
Slotting: 1 Run, +2 Run w/o Move power.
Importance: Optional

It's not the end of the world if you don't take a major movement power AT ALL. (Incidentally, people who make a big deal about 30 seconds more or less between missions are very likely to be impossible to control for anyhow.) If you're going with swift and hurdle for movement, remember to slot SPRINT, NOT SWIFT, for optimum speed. With swift and 3 runs in sprint, you're not much slower than the average flier.
[*]Teleport-- Recall Friend
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 End or Recharge
Importance: Consider

Most defenders who routinely resurrect/mutate people (which shouldn't be happening, but that's another story) like recall friend so they can pull out of harm's way then resurrect you safely. Plus, it's just nice to be able to offer teammates who're selling on the other side of the map a direct port to the door, gate, or train.
[*]Teleport-- Teleport Foe
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 End or Recharge
Importance: Optional

Teleport Foe is fun, and it can make soloing a little easier if you decide you just have to, for some reason. Also, however, confused mobs still have a fairly short aggro range, and if you're using confuse, you're going to sometimes end up with a solitary confused mob that by itself serves no purpose. Teleporting him into the next group of enemies is a nice touch for the anal-retentive mind controller. Even better, if you've got a particularly great buffer/debuffer/mezzer badguy confused-- sappers, carnies, tsoo sorcerers, rikti guardians, Sky Raider forcefield generators all come to mind-- you can tote them around! (I still don't recommend this, but if you consider that such a 'pet' is also effectively invincible to villains, it's worth considering.
[*]Teleport-- Teleportation
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 End. Maybe 1-3 Range and 1 End when you have slots to spare.
Importance: Consider

Teleport-- Teleport is potentially the fastest, but the hardest to control, of all the major movement powers. Best but hardest to control? Sounds like a Mind Controller to me.
[*] Leadership-- Assault
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 Endurance
Importance: Optional

A small damage buff for your whole team. Useful mainly as a precursor to Tactics.
[*] Leadership-- Maneuvers
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 Endurance
Importance: Optional

A tiny defense buff for your whole team. Useful mainly as a precursor to Tactics.

[*] Leadership-- Tactics
Available: L14, with Maneuvers or Assault
Slotting: 1 Endurance, 3 Accuracy Buff
Importance: Consider

Tactics can be a meaningful buff to accuracy on every power used by you or any teammate. This is worth seriously considering, though the total cost (2 powers and 3 extra slots) can be daunting. Gets even better for hitting very-hard-to-hit opponents. Also increases the range at which you can spot stealthy folks.
[*]Leaping-- Combat Jumping
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 End
Importance: Optional

Marginal defensive bonus plus minor resistance to immobilize. A precursor to Super Jump.
[*]Leaping-- Jump Kick
Available: L6
Importance: AVOID

An attack with a super-long animation time. It's vaguely entertaining, though.

[*]Leaping-- Super Jump
Available: L14, with jump-kick or combat jumping
Slotting: 1 Jump, +0-2 jump when you have spare slots.
Importance: Optional
[*]Flight-- Hover
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 End or 1 Def, possibly 3 fly.
Importance: Optional

A slooow form of flight with a tiny defense bonus. If you just want a relatively low-endurance way of staying out of melee range, it's OK, but leaves you fairly stationary. Movement becomes more tolerable with 3 fly enhances, if you have slots to burn.
[*]Flight-- Air Superiority
Available: L6
Slotting: 1 Acc
Importance: Optional

An attack with a great knockdown element. No flying scraptroller would be without it!
[*]Leaping-- Fly
Available: L14, with Air Superiority or Hover
Slotting: 1 Jump, +0-2 jump when you have spare slots.
Importance: Optional

The slowest of the major movement powers, but the best precision vertical movement.[/list]
Pool Powers to Avoid
<ul type="square">[*]Fighting
Importance: Avoid

At some point, it will become tempting to add boxing or kick to fill out an attack chain, and maybe try to add tough and weave to be able to hang in there with the tough guys, later on. Just don't. Besides which, if you really must take a pool attack, it should be Air superiority.
[*]Medicine
Importance: AVOID

Unless you were playing Mind/Rad and were desperate for a mez-breaking power, there's no reason in the world to take the Medicine pool.

[*]Presence
Importance: AVOID

If you were dead set on a concept character who ran multiple fear attacks, then MAYBE you should consider this. Otherwise, controllers have no business taunting.[/list]

PER ORIGIN

Mind Controllers Generally
<ul type="square">[*]Natural
Much of Mind Control could be explained as persuasion, charisma, intimidation, and the like. The two telekinetic elements in Mind Control are hard to explain for a natural, unless you think it's a completely ordinary human ability. Super speed and Teleport are also hard to explain as ordinary human abilities. Fly isn't much better.[*]Technology
Controlling minds with technology can be done wackily-- ala some sort of "cerebro" device that amplifies brainwaves, or perhaps more interestingly, as a side effect of using psychoactive chemical agents sprayed in the air. Sorta creepy, but it would work. Flight is the most plausible Technology major movement power.[*]Science &amp; Mutant
What one does with these origins is notoriously open. I mean, what *can't* the right sort of scientific experiment unlock? What *can't* be a mutant power? For the Science side, see the Anime classic Akira. For the Mutant side, what makes more sense that a mutant psychic? With the telekinetic component of Mind, Flight is probably the best, conceptually. [*]Magic
Holds and sleeps in Mind could easily be "soft" forms of magic, whereas confusions could be forms of posession or will domination, and telekinetic elements could be more physically-oriented "spells." Teleport is probably the best magical movement power, though flight fits well also.[/list]
Empathy
<ul type="square">[*]Natural
With a little suspension of disbelief, the low heals in Empathy could be emergency medical attention. Many of the higher-up buffs could be attributed to encouragement or tactical advice.[*]Technology
The various healing/buffing effects of Empathy could easily be super-advanced medical technology.[*]Science &amp; Mutant
It's plausible, if not typical, to imagine someone transformed by science or born with mutation to be able to heal others.[*]Magic
Magic healing and blessings easily cover the empathy set.[/list]
Radiation
<ul type="square">[*]Natural
It's difficult to interpret radiataion powers as natural, without going into comedy, or reinventing the meaning of the term [1].[*]Technology &amp; Science &amp; Mutant
Discovery of (technology), or bodily control over (science &amp; mutant) some sort of secret energy form or energy source could easily explain radiation powers.[*]Magic
Wispy green clouds of light are the most common way magical power is represented in the game. All the radiation powers could be forms of magical energy, curses, and blessings.[/list]
[1] I use the Natural origin in the sense that was intended before they broke the conceptual origins system completely by making aliens 'natural.' Natural human, of course, is what the origin means. The easiest way to tell that the new definition is nonsense, is that *any* power could be described as "natural." Robots naturally have laser eyes. Sorcerers and ghosts naturally have magic powers. Etc.



BUILDS

First, I present two build checklists. My goal is not to build a specialized optimal Mind/* character, but to present a new or average player with a workable plan that doesn't necessarily miss any of the biggest deals.

MIND/EMPATHY BUILD CHECKLIST

The first thing to do is to make a series of initial choices. You have early build choices-- between Mesmerize and Levitate, between Heal Other and Absorb Pain, and between major movement powers.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
1 [Choose: Mesmerize or Levitate]
1 Healing Aura
2 Dominate /Acc,Rchg,Hold,Hold,Hold,Acc (2,3,5,7,9,11)
4 [Choose: Heal Other or Absorb Pain]
6
8
10
12
14 [Choose: Super Jump, Fly, Superspeed, Teleport]
16
18 Total Dom /Acc,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Acc,Hold (18,19,19,23,23,25)
20 Stamina /EndMod,EndMod,EndMod (20,21,21)
22
24 Fortitude
26 Terrify /Acc,End,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,End (26,27,27,31,31,31)
28 Rec Aura /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (28,29,29)
30
32 Mass Conf /Acc,Rchg,Conf,Acc,Rchg,Conf (32,33,33,33,34,34)
35
38 Adren Boost /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (38,40,40)
</pre><hr />

Next, we fill in the gaps for levels 6,8,10,12, and 16:
<ul type="square">[*]A movement precursor will be dicatated by the movement power you took:

Superspeed ---&gt; Hasten
Super Leap ---&gt; Combat Jumping
Fly ---&gt; Choose: Hover or Air Superiority
Teleport ---&gt; Choose: Recall Friend or Teleport Foe

(Just say no to flurry and jump kick!)[*]Also, you'll have to choose 2 of the fitness pool powers that will go in the 6-16 range:

Choose 2: Swift, Hurdle, Stamina

(If Movement power is Superspeed, choose Hurdle)[*]Finally comes the deepest part of your character customization. You'l get to choose four, or if you took superspeed, five, of the six powers on the following list, in more or less any order you want.

Pick two such powers to fit into the 6-16 range:

Choose 2:
Stealth
Confuse
Mass Hypnosis (Min L8)
Resurrect (Min L10)
Telekinesis (Min L12)
Clear Mind (Min L16)[/list]

Take Hasten at 22, unless you took it earlier because you run superspeed:

If not Superspeed, L22 = Hasten
If Superspeed, L22 =

Choose:
Stealth
Confuse
Mass Hypnosis
Telekinesis
Clear Mind
Resurrect


Pick two more from the optional powers list to go in L30 and L35 slots:

Choose 2:
Stealth
Confuse
Mass Hypnosis
Telekinesis
Clear Mind
Resurrect

Note: The order I'd consider the "optional six" powers are: Confuse, Clear Mind, Mass Hypnosis, Telekinesis, Resurrect, Stealth. For $Deity's sake, don't take everything EXCEPT confuse and clear mind. 9_6


Finally, you slot things. Remember: once you're using SOs, don't slot more than 3 of a given enhancement type.

Place Slots:
3,5,7,9,11,13,13,15,15,17,17,25,34,36,36,36,37,37, 37,39,40,40,40

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
24 Fortitude /Rchg,Rch,Rch,AccBuff,AccBuff (Typically: 24,36,37,37,39)
OR /AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff,DefBuff,DefBuff
28 RecoveryAura /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,EndMod,EndMod,EndMod (Typically 28,29,29,36,36,37)
X Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (Typically: 22,25,34 OR X,17,17)
X Stealth /DefBuff (X)
X Confuse /Acc,Conf,Range,Rchg (Typically: X, 13,13,15)
X Mass Hypnosis /Acc (X)
X Telekinesis /End,End,End (Typically: X,13,13 OR X,34,36)
X Clear Mind /Rchg (X)
X Resurrect /Rchg (X)
</pre><hr />


MIND/RADIATION BUILD CHECKLIST

Start with the following list, initially choosing between Mesmerize and Levitate at L1, and a major movement power at L14.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
1 Radiant Aura /Heal (1)
1 [Mesmerize or Levitate]
2 Dominate /Acc,Rchg,Hld,Hld,Hld,Rchg (2,3,3,9,11,13)
4 Accel Metabolism /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (4,5,5)
6 Rad Infect /End,DefDbf,DefDbf,DefDbf (6,7,7,9)
8
10
12
14 [Choose: Fly, Super Jump, Teleportation, Super Speed]
16
18 Total Domination /Acc,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Acc,Hold (18,19,19,23,25,29)
20 Stamina /EndMod,EndMod,EndMod (20,21,21)
22 Enervataing Field /End,End,End (22,23,25)
24
26 Terrify /Acc,End,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,End (26,27,27,29,31,31)
28
30
32 Mass Confusion /Acc,Rchg,Conf,Acc,Rchg,Conf (32,33,33,33,34,34)
35
38
</pre><hr />


Next, we fill in the gaps for levels 8,10,12, and 16:

<ul type="square">[*]A movement precursor will be dicatated by the movement power you took:

Superspeed ---&gt; Hasten
Super Leap ---&gt; Combat Jumping
Fly ---&gt; Choose: Hover or Air Superiority
Teleport ---&gt; Choose: Recall Friend or Teleport Foe

(Just say no to flurry and jump kick!)
[*]Choose 2 of the fitness pool powers that will go in the 6-16 range:

Choose 2: Swift, Hurdle, Stamina

(If Movement power is Superspeed, choose Hurdle)
[*]Pick one power to fit into the 8-16 range:

Choose:
Confuse
Mass Hypnosis
Telekinesis (Min L12)
Mutation (Min L16)[/list]Take Hasten at 24, unless you took it earlier because you run superspeed:

If not Superspeed, L24 = Hasten
If Superspeed, L24 =

Choose:
Stealth
Confuse
Mass Hypnosis
Mutation
Lingering Radiation

Pick four more powers to go in L28,L30,L35, and L38 slots:
Choose 2:
Stealth
Confuse
Mass Hypnosis
Telekinesis
Mutation
Lingering Radiation
Choking Cloud
EM Pulse (Min 38)

Note: The order I'd consider these optional powers, is: Confuse, Mass Hypnosis, Telekinesis, Lingering Radiation, Mutation, EM Pulse, Stealth, Choking Cloud. Don't stake your build on Choking cloud and stealth, for cryin' out loud!

Finally, you slot things. Remember: once you're using SOs, never use more than 3 of a given enhancement type.

Place Slots:
9,11,13,15,15,17,17,31,34,36,36,36,37,37,37,39,39, 39,40,40,40

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
X Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (Typically X,27,27)
4 Accel Metab /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,EndMod,EndMod,EndMod (Typically 4,5,5,31,31,33)
X Confuse /Acc,Conf,Range,Rchg (Typically X,15,15,17)
X Telekinesis /End,End,End (Typically X,15,15,17 or X,27,27,29)
X Lingering Rad /Acc,End,Acc (Typically X,31,31,31)
X Choking Cloud /Hold,Hold,End,Hold,End (Typically X,36,36,36 or X,40,40,40)
X EM Pulse /Acc,End,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (Typically X,39,39,39,40)
</pre><hr />




THE DR. MANINGZHOUE MIND/EMPATHY BUILD

Here's my wack-tastic Mind/Emp build lacking Telekinetic elements and Major movement powers. Needless to say there's a lot of stuff in the two sets to take, and I've bumbled through it with four respecs so far:

Dr. Maningzhoue, Mind/Empathy Controller, Natural, L50, Freedom
1 Healing aura /Heal,Heal,Heal,End,Rchg (1, 3, 13, 40, 45)
1 Mesmerize /Acc,Dmg,Dmg (1, 37, 43)
2 Dominate /Acc,Hold,Rchg,Hold,Rchg,Hold (2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11)
(2 Sprint) /(Run/Jump),Run,Run (2, 27, 36)
4 Heal Other /Heal,Heal,Heal,End,Rchg,Rchg (4, 5, 17, 37, 39, 40)
6 Confusion /Acc,Conf,Range,Rchg,Conf,Conf (6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15)
8 Swift /Run (8, 27, 36)
10 Resurrect /Rchg (10)
12 Assault /End (12)
14 Tactics /End,AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff (14, 15, 17, 46)
16 Hurdle /Jump (16)
18 Total Dom /3x(Acc+Mez),Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (18, 19, 19, 21, 23, 25)
20 Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndREc (20, 21, 23)
22 Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rcgh (22, 25, 27)
24 Fortitude /(AccB+DefB),AccB,AccB,DefB,DefB(24, 36, 37, 40, 43)
26 Terrify /Acc,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,End,Rchg (26, 29, 29, 31, 31, 33)
28 Recovery Aura /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (28, 31, 34)
30 Stealth /DefBuff,DefBuff (30, 50)
32 Mass Confusion /2x(Acc/Mez),Conf,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg(32, 33, 33, 34, 34, 36)
35 Clear Mind /Rchg,Rng (35, 45)
38 Adrenaline Boost /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg) (38, 39, 39)
41 Mass Hypnosis /Acc,Rng,Rng,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (41, 42, 42, 42, 43, 45)
44 Indomitable Will /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (44, 46, 46)
47 Mind O Body /End,Res,Res,Res (47, 48, 48, 48)
49 Health /Heal,Heal,Heal (49, 50, 50)

THE ACTAEON MIND/RADIATION BUILD (So Far)

Actaeon, Mind/Radiation/Teleport Controller, Magic, L29, Freedom
1 Mesmerize /Acc,Dmg (1,15)
1 Radiant Aura /Heal (1)
2 Dominate /Acc,Hold,Rchg,Hold,Rchg,Hold (2,3,3,7,11,13)
4 AM /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,EndRec (4,5,5,17)
6 Confuse /Acc,Conf,Rchg,Rchg,Rng (6,7,9,13,17)
8 Rad Infect /End,DefDbf,AccDbf,DefDbf (8,9,11,15)
10 swift /Run (10)
12 recall friend /Rchg (12)
14 teleport /Rng (14)
16 health /Heal (16)
18 Total Dom /Acc, Hold, Rchg,Rchg,Hold (18,19,19,23,25)
20 stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec (20,21,21)
22 EF /End,End (22,23)
24 Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (24,25,29)
26 Terrify /Acc,Dmg,End (26,27,27)
28 Telekinesis /End,End (28,29)

REGARDING EPIC POWER POOLS

I have very little experience with or knowledge of the Controller EPPs. I went with Psi Mastery late in Doc's build, and with my recommended build. I think there's a bit of consensus that the status protection of Indomitable Will, and the high base smashing &amp; lethal resistance of Mind over Body make Psi Mastery one of the best possible picks.

The other EPP to look at is Power Mastery (? ... sometimes I forget the names of these). Power Boost enhances hold durations, and so is very worth looking at.

Enantiodromos' Guide to Walking Around Paragon City

If you're going to get around the city without a major movement power-- and believe me, I know everything there is to know about this, I did 1400 hours of it on my main-- there are a few things you want to be aware of.


<ul type="square">[*]Sprint
If you've trained past level 1, always turn sprint on for travel. Turn it off for combat![*]Power Walking
If you want to move faster, consider taking a course in power walking: Fitness/Swift and a couple extra slots in sprint, slotted with run, will make things a lot more tolerable. DO NOT slot swift.[*]Uneven terrain
There's a lot of fence, rail, and impenetrable shrubbbery in Paragon City. Practice jumping. Buy a pair of Nike Airs. And take Fitness/Hurdle.[*]Perez Walls
You will never be able to get over Perez Park's walls from the outside in, with a flat jump. You can, however, easily vault the wall by jumping into a tree or onto a bus shelter.[*]No Climbing Fences!
For whatever reason, it's not possible to jump upward when you are close to a fence or similar obstacle. Make sure to jump slightly before reaching said obstacle.[*]No Pedestrians on the Roadway
Just because the villains obey this law outside of hazard zones (where they think they can run wild, the jerkhackers!), doesn't mean you have to. Safest bet for moving through the dangerous neighborhoods is to walk the yellow line down the middle of the road.[*]The Hive Marathon
Regular exercise in the Hive has been shown to provide the wherewithal to slot your sprint power with 3 HOs for movement. And notice that these HOs enhance both jump and run! Rock on![*]Learn to Navigate
Make yourself INTIMATELY FAMILIAR with the city layout-- where the trains run, and don't. THERE ARE MAPS IN EVERY TRAIN STATION! Any shortcut will help. In particular, pay attention to the proximity of the Steel Canyon yellow line to the Independence Port gate, and the Independence Port Greenline to the King's Row gate. If you have a mission at the far south end of IP, go through Brickstown. If you have a mission in the Rikti Crash Site and you're in Talos or the like, take the Boat to Peregrine Island for the portal down at Portal Corps. Research the shortcuts through the Dance Club, and consider the possibility of taking the ferry to Striga and back the other way, particularly if you want to go from IP to Peregrine, or something of that sort.[*]Stairs, walking backwards!
Learn to take flights of stairs with the forward, back, and strafe left/right buttons. Changing the way you're facing to climb stairs is a waste of time. And what's the worst that can happen? You're a superhero, a 6 story fall when you walk backward off the fire escape is at most an inconvenience.[*]Don't take missions in Gordon Trench.[*]Spend some time familiarizing yourself with how to get to the Terra Volta reactor BEFORE you join a respec team.[/list]

[ QUOTE ]
*that was my intention for this, not to be funny, but sick of people posting guides, without hard numbers or playing the character to 50.

[/ QUOTE ]

Howabout posting a guide when you have nothing to say?

Howabout the fact that "hard numbers" are a myth. A flat out myth. I canput numbers in a FAQ and call them "hard," and regardless of whom that turns on, it's virtually meaningless, in as much as until you test them well enough to have had a rough idea about them yourself, for all you know I could just be making it up.

Still. &gt;.&gt; This guide may have some merit.

10. Always kill first, the thing with effects you've never seen prior to running with this team. (e.g., purple bubbles 'round the head, green wispy clouds circling)

CONFUSION AND XP/Time

Here I discuss in greater detail some notes I made regarding the experience yeilds one expects when using confusion powers, that were first incorporated into C-force's guide. If you're math-phobic or are able to use a herostats type program for yourself, you may want to think twice about reading this.

Also, please note: this was meant to address only the binary: confusions/no confusions, and its effect on experience. That's based on the assumptions that either you don't have to play with confusion-spamming mind controllers at all, or if you do, the mind controllers can be well-built without doing much with confusions. (Either is true.) So this attempts only to show: does it get worse if somebody's using confusions instead of holds (also, I ignore badguy buffs to your team, and the minor scatter or cluster you get confusion, depending on your skill level and luck.)

Compared with a mind controller contributing with a Brawl/Levitate/AirSuperiority chain, confusions are WAAAAY better.

HOW EXPERIENCE WORKS GENERALLY

Where:
X = Experience value of (average) spawn
D = fraction of the spawn's damage done by you, where 1 = 100%.

Under normal circumstances, everybody who damages a mob "takes" a share of that mob's experience yeild (X), proportional to the damage they do (D). That means if you and an unteamed stranger each do half the damage to a mob, and it's defeated, you each get half the experience value. Earned experience (Xp) is equal to the mobs's experience value times the fraction of damage you do to it.

Xp = DX

Ordinarily, you do all the damage to a mob, so D=1, in which case:

Xp= X (Duh!)

HOW EXPERIENCE OVER TIME WORKS GENERALLY

Where:
F = ("Fight") time each spawn takes to fully defeat
S = ("Search") time it takes after each fight to find the next fight
T = ("Time") fight plus search time = F+S

Experience per time (Xppt) is equal to experience value of the spawn (X) dividied by total time (T). Total time is a function of how long it normally takes to defeat a spawn (F) plus time between fights (S):

[color]Xppt = X/T = X/(F+S)[/color]


HOW CONFUSION EXPERIENCE WORKS

Where:
Cmd = fraction of spawn's damage done by confused mobs (where 1=100%) = 1-D

The experience value of mobs damaged by other confused mobs (Cx) is equal to the mob's base experience value times the fraction of the mob's damage once you EXCLUDE three quarters of the damage confused mobs did (Cmd) from the mob's base damage.

Cx = DX / (D + (Cmd/4)) = 4DX / (3D + 1)


HOW CONFUSION FIGHT DURATION WORKS

Fight durations depend directly on how much damage has to be dealt to finish the enemy. When they've been damaged by other, confused mobs, the amount of time fights last (Cf) is the normal fight time (F) times the fraction of the damage you yourself have to do (D).

Cf = time a spawn takes to defeat, if it's been damaged by confused mobs = FD.

***Note: F here is the duration of a NORMAL fight, that is, without confusion in play.


HOW CONFUSION EXPERIENCE OVER TIME WORKS

Total time with confusions in play (Ct) is a function of how long it takes to defeat a spawn with confusions in play (Cf), plus downtime between fights (S).

Ct = confused fight plus search time Cf+S = FD+S

Experience per time with confused mobs doing some damage (Cxppt) is equal to experience value of the spawn damaged by confused mobs (Cx) dividied by total time with confusions in play (Ct).

Just like ...Xppt = X/T... similarly:

Cxppt = Cx/Ct = 4DX / ((FD+S)*(3D + 1))


DOING AT LEAST AS WELL

What we really want to do is compare normal experience per time (Xppt) to experience per time when confusions are in play (Cxppt). We can find a "break even" point by setting the two figures equal to each other. The break even point is should be a statement about when your experience over time WITH confusions (Cxppt) is the SAME as your experience per time WITHOUT them (Xppt).

Break-even point rule: Xppt = Cxppt


<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>

Xppt = Cxppt
X/(F + S) = 4DX / ((DF+S)*(3D + 1)) divide by X
1/(F + S) = 4D / ((DF+S)*(3D + 1)) invert
(F + S) = ((DF+S)*(3D + 1)) / 4D multiply out
(F + S) = (3DDF+3DS+DF+S) / 4D multiply both sides by 4D
4DF+4DS = 3DDF+3DS+DF+S subtract (DF +4DS +3DDF) both sides
3DF-3DDF = S-DS divide both sides by (1-D)
3DF = S

</pre><hr />



WHAT DOES S=3DF MEAN?

So, here's our statement about when your experience over time (Cxppt) WITH confusions is the SAME as your experience per time WITHOUT them (Xppt):

S = 3DF

In english:

Time it takes after each fight to find the next fight is equal to three times the fraction of the spawn's damage done by you, times the time each spawn takes to fully defeat (normally).

If you start the next fight faster than that, your XPS is better with confuse than without. If you find them slower, experience over time gets worse.


WHAT DOES THAT PROVE?

Nothing, directly, since we have to be able to judge for ourselves whether we can meet the rule above. But we CAN safely say that if our downtime between fights is short enough, confusion is really helping with XP, to say nothing of being a hold with lots of fringe benefits.

In my experience, groups with any real interest in decent XP over time will EASILY be doing better than the S=3DF rule above. If the group can't manage S=3DF on the average, it's probably because they're doing something IN PREFERENCE to decent XP/time.

And as anyone can see, such a group has no business complaining: "Confusion is hurting our XP!" Because of course, if the group wasn't doing other things that hurt XP/time more, the confusion itself would be *helping* XP/time. If you're not trying to get decent XP, you ought to have no complaints about not getting the best possible XP.

HOW MUCH BETTER?

Remember, none of this speaks to *how much* better the XP would be if you were getting in more than your 2.7%.

To generalize, Cxppt/Xppt -1 is the % bonus to XP you get (Cb).

Cb= Cxppt/CXppt = (4D(F+S) / ((FD+S)*(3D + 1)))-1

Let's take a couple cases.

Ocb (optimum Cb) = highest value for Cb obtainable with a D between 0 and 1.

Od (optimum D) = D between 0 and 1 that obtains highest value for Cb.

Where
F=120
S=10

Cb ~= (26D / (18DD +7.5D+1)) -1
Ocb= +62.5%
Od = .25

Where
F=30
S=30

Cb= 8D/(3DD+4D+1) -1
Ocb ~= +7.2%
Od ~=.58


THE HOLY GRAIL: FINDING Od

For a general rule re: (Od) based on F and S, what you do is find the derivative of (Cxppt/Xppt -1), then set it equal to zero.

(derivative with respect to D)(Cxxpt/Xppt -1) =

(4(F+S)(3FDD + 3SD - 5FD -F -3S -1))/((FFDD+SS+FSD)(9DD+6D+1) + FSD(9DD+6D))

At the present time, the author can find no way to simplify this rule when set to 0.

Note: When I use the notation, for example, DD, I mean D*D, or D^2. DDD then is D^3, etc. I tried to make each distinct variable start with a capital letter. e.g., Cxppt is not C*x*p*p*t. It's a single variable.

Now, for something wildly beyond even my attention span.

To find Od based on F and S, what you do is find the derivative of Cxppt/Xppt -1 , then set it equal to zero.

(derivative with respect to D)(Cxxpt/Xppt -1) =(4(F+S)(3FDD + 3SD - 5FD -F -3S -1))/((FFDD+SS+FSD)(9DD+6D+1) + FSD(9DD+6D))

I'm totally out of the habit of even simple calculus tricks like the quotient rule, so that was a lot of error prone work in the first place, and I might have made a mistake. Assuming I didn't, though, you set that baby equal to zero, and solve it for D, and you'll have the perfect rule for how much damage you want to do to optimize XP.

&gt;.&gt;

Dang. I still have to be on the clock another hour and a half.

1. Right you are-- this was meant to address only the "effect of confusions, or not, on combat." That's based on the assumtions that either you don't have to play with confusion-spamming mind controllers at all, or if you do, the mind controllers can be well-built without doing much with confusions. (Either is true.) So this attempts only to show: does it get worse if somebody's using confusions instead of holds (and, also, discounting badguy buffs to your team, and the minor scatter or cluster you get using it, depending on your skill level and luck.)

Compared with a mind controller contributing with a Brawl/Levitate/AirSuperiority chain, confusions are WAAAAY better.

2.
[ QUOTE ]
If I do 50% of the damage in a fight, that lasts 120 seconds, I get S = 180.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep. If the fight would last 2 min without confusion, and you do half damage, you've got 3 min to start the next fight. Faster, and your XP improves.

[ QUOTE ]
fight for 2 minutes and only have 10 second downtime. 10 = 3D(120)

I'm assuming that the formula indicates "If you finish the fight in 2 minutes and only do 2.78% of the damage, that this fight would take 72 minutes normally."

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, no, F was presented ambiguously, wasn't it? F is the time it would normally take to defeat the mob in a fight without confusion running.

If there were some fight that you could normally finish in 2 minutes, and you popped mass confusion and, say, Gale at Acc,Acc,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg, to get in your 2.7% damage on the group, and then could move on to the next group in 10 seconds and do the same thing with mass confusion, you'd be steadily making equivalent XP per time on what amounts to microdamage.

Mind you, I think we've crossed the bounds of realistic S over the course of normal, serial XP persuit, when we set it at 10 seconds. Also, you'd need to be weilding Mass Confusion to get scenarios like that, and I'm thinking it wouldn't always be back up in time.

[ QUOTE ]
if I do say, 70% of the damage, I'm coming out way ahead.

[/ QUOTE ]

Remember, none of this speaks to *how much* better the XP would be if you were getting in more than your 2.7%.

To generalize, Cxppt/Xppt -1 is the % bonus to XP you get (Cb).

Cb= Cxppt/CXppt = (4D(F+S) / ((FD+S)*(3D + 1)))-1

... anyhow. I can't see how to simplify that further ATM. Let's take a couple cases.

Ocb (optimum Cb) = highest value for Cb obtainable with a D between 0 and 1.

Od (optimum D) = D between 0 and 1 that obtains highest value for Cb.

Where
F=120
S=10

Cb ~= (26D / (18DD +7.5D+1)) -1
Ocb= +62.5%
Od = .25

Where
F=30
S=30

Cb= 8D/(3DD+4D+1) -1
Ocb ~= +7.2%
Od ~=.58

You're right. It's not easy to see the useful rule in this. Or at least, I'm not, yet.

[ QUOTE ]
Again, you have zero understanding on something yet present it as fact. Did this come from a comic book? It sure sounds like it. For what socialism really is in concise terms even a comic book reader could understand, go HERE.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's 16 long paragraphs of tripe including"[socialism] has far surpassed capitalism in ... moral cruelty." Socialism's the idea of collective popular ownership of the means of production, a definition well within the limits of my attention span, as a comic book reader.

Contrary to your strident remark above quoted, it was accurate to point out that: "I know, let's take freedoms away and be as inconsiderate as to stop billionaires from buying another yacht," neither is nor remotely characterizes socialism.

Compliments to the Rednosed, a very nice FAQ.

The only fault I find is the extraneous emphasis on whether fascism is especially or unusually repressive or racist, since they typically are, and that is, after all, the primary use they get put to in this kind of fiction.

Compliments also on mentioning Corporatism as synonymous or nearly so. Recommended further info on this topic: the movie "The Corporation," Zeitgeist films.

Oh goldangit. The crucial summation is hosed! ::cry:: it should read:

[ QUOTE ]

In english:

Time it takes after each fight to find the next fight is equal to three times the fraction of the spawn's damage done by you, times the time each spawn takes to fully defeat.

[/ QUOTE ]

CONFUSION AND XP/Time

I've returned from a hiatus, and was shocked to discover that everybody's STILL beating this dead horse. Now, C-force has a nice FAQ on the boards about this, a section of which goes over the below. I've decided to reproduce that section here, so that I can link people directly to my views, which is not to say that you shouldn't go read Cforce's FAQ. (Tried to post this a few minutes ago, and it didn't go. ::shrug:

HOW EXPERIENCE WORKS GENERALLY

Where:
X = Experience value of (average) spawn
D = fraction of the spawn's damage done by you, where 1 = 100%.

Under normal circumstances, everybody who damages a mob "takes" a share of that mob's experience yeild (X), proportional to the damage they do (D). That means if you and an unteamed stranger each do half the damage to a mob, and it's defeated, you each get half the experience value. Earned experience (Xp) is equal to the mobs's experience value times the fraction of damage you do to it.

Xp = DX

Ordinarily, you do all the damage to a mob, so D=1, in which case:

Xp= X (Duh!)

HOW EXPERIENCE OVER TIME WORKS GENERALLY

Where:
F = ("Fight") time each spawn takes to fully defeat
S = ("Search") time it takes after each fight to find the next fight
T = ("Time") fight plus search time = F+S

Experience per time (Xppt) is equal to experience value of the spawn (X) dividied by total time (T). Total time is a function of how long it takes to defeat a spawn (F) plus time between fights (S):

Xppt = X/T = X/(F+S)


HOW CONFUSION EXPERIENCE WORKS

Where:
Cmd = fraction of spawn's damage done by confused mobs (where 1=100%) = 1-D

When mobs are partly damaged by other confused mobs, thier experience value (Cx) is equal to the mob's base experience value times the fraction of the mob's damage once you EXCLUDE three quarters of the damage confused mobs did (Cmd) from the mob's base damage.

Cx = DX / (D + (Cmd/4)) = 4DX / (3D + 1)


HOW CONFUSION FIGHT DURATION WORKS

Fight durations depend directly on how much damage has to be dealt to finish the enemy. When they've been damaged by other, confused mobs, the amount of time fights last (Cf) is the normal fight time (F) times the fraction of the damage you yourself have to do (D).

Cf = time a spawn takes to defeat, if it's been damaged by confused mobs = FD.


HOW CONFUSION EXPERIENCE OVER TIME WORKS

Total time with confusions in play (Ct) is a function of how long it takes to defeat a spawn with confusions in play (Cf), plus downtime between fights (S).

Ct = confused fight plus search time Cf+S = FD+S

Experience per time with confused mobs doing some damage (Cxppt) is equal to experience value of the spawn damaged by confused mobs (Cx) dividied by total time with confusions in play (Ct).

Just like ...Xppt = X/T... similarly:

Cxppt = Cx/Ct = 4DX / ((FD+S)*(3D + 1))


DOING AT LEAST AS WELL

What we really want to do is compare normal experience per time (Xppt) to experience per time when confusions are in play (Cxppt). We can find a "break even" point by setting the two figures equal to each other. The break even point is should be a statement about when your experience over time WITH confusions (Cxppt) is the SAME as your experience per time WITHOUT them (Xppt).

Break-even point rule: Xppt = Cxppt


<font class="small">Code:<hr /><pre>
Xppt = Cxppt
X/(F + S) = 4DX / ((DF+S)*(3D + 1)) divide by X
1/(F + S) = 4D / ((DF+S)*(3D + 1)) invert
(F + S) = ((DF+S)*(3D + 1)) / 4D multiply out
(F + S) = (3DDF+3DS+DF+S) / 4D multiply both sides by 4D
4DF+4DS = 3DDF+3DS+DF+S subtract (DF +4DS +3DDF) both sides
3DF-3DDF = S-DS divide both sides by (1-D)
3DF = S
</pre><hr />[/color]


THE TRUTH

So, here's our statement about when your experience over time (Cxppt) WITH confusions is the SAME as your experience per time WITHOUT them (Xppt):

S = 3DF

In english:

Time each spawn takes to fully defeat is equal to three times the fraction of the spawn's damage done by you, times the time each spawn takes to fully defeat.

If you start the next fight faster than that, your XPS is better with confuse than without. If you find them slower, experience over time gets worse.


WHAT DOES THAT PROVE?

Nothing, directly, since we have to be able to judge for ourselves whether we can meet the rule above. But we CAN safely say that if our downtime between fights is short enough, confusion is really helping with XP, to say nothing of being a hold with lots of fringe benefits.

In my experience, groups with any real interest in decent XP over time will EASILY be doing better than the S=3DF rule above. If the group can't manage S=3DF on the average, it's probably because they're doing something IN PREFERENCE to decent XP/time.

And as anyone can see, such a group has no business complaining: "Confusion is hurting our XP!" Because of course, if the group wasn't doing other things that hurt XP/time more, the confusion itself would be *helping* XP/time. If you're not trying to get decent XP, you ought to have no complaints about not getting the best possible XP.

[ QUOTE ]
CM at 41? CM also protects against fear and confuse and now grants +perception. And only 1 slot in Fortitude, one of the best buffs in the game seems way to slim. I am reminded though that it is your secondary and not a priority.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, Clear Mind and Fortitude are nice powers, no question, and I unerplay them in my recommended build. Best way to eliminate mezzers, though, is to confuse 'em, and Mind/Emp requires a *lot* of attention span--- really more than I have a lot of the time. An Emp defender would be psycho to give these less than full attention, no question.


[ QUOTE ]
Levitation?

[/ QUOTE ]

Levitation is still somewhat more controlley than spectral wounds and it's ilk, but yeah, you can look at it that way.


[ QUOTE ]
Mind has TWO single-target controls that stack with area controls; Mesmerize stacks with Mass Hypnosis (both are Sleeps) and Dominate stacks with Total Domination (both are Holds).

[/ QUOTE ]

It has three, actually-- Dom and TD, Confuse and Mass Confusion, and in theory (even less relevant now that Mesmerize usually crits) Mes and Mass Hyp. (Only awkardly with the sleeps-- you have to hit with Mesmerize first then mass hypnosis to stack, because mesmerize second breaks any previous sleeps.)

But the section you're quoting from specifically addresses aggro-free controls, and the only ones Mind has are Confuse, Mass Hypnosis, and Mass Confusion.


Also, it was pointed out to me that describing sleeps, holds, confusions, etc, as "not stacking" might be misleading.

When I5's out and I'm ready to rewrite, I'll include terminology definitions:

Stacking-- Controls one after the other that may achieve some control effect where the individual application didn't.

Layering-- Controls one after the other that (may) achieve different effects, used because different simultaneous effects are desireable, e.g., terrify and confusion.

Buffering-- Controls one after the other that (may) achieve different effects, used because having the first control on mobs that the second one misses is desireable, e.g., Mass Hypnosis followed by Total Domination.



NEW: BREIF OVERVIEW of I5 and MIND EMP

IF you play to play a team-support controller in I5, you should be aware of some crucial changes that will be hitting you-- and some crucial changes that WON'T.

<ul type="square">[*]In I5, defenses across the board are being reduced. We can never truly know what the developers intend, but as the AT that does the most team-defensive stuff, and as the AT whose primary provides the most intensively defensive abilities in the game, this is a HUGE wakeup call for all controllers. IOW, first and foremost, focus your attention on the now significantly increased demand for team defense.[/list]
As the most team defensive build in the game, Mind/Empathy is almost certainly the single build most affected by I5 in this regard.

OK, now that you've basked in that good news for a moment, here's the bad news.
<ul type="square">[*]In general, controllers are getting area control powers nerfed (reduced) by 70% or more. 60% duration, 50% recharge speed (2x recharge time). Plus a cap of 10 mobs controlled in an application.[/list]
This nerf is enormous, and can't be explained by the need to reduce team defense across the game. Rather, much of it is 'balanced' by the third big change for controllers in I5:

<ul type="square">[*]Damage-dealing powers weilded by controllers (except pets, I think) will be doing doubled damage to any mob who is, when hit, slept, held, disoriented, or immobilized-- by anyone's mez, not just his own.[/list]
Mind, however, gets one big exception to the nerf. Mass Confusion's recharge and duration remain unaffected, leaving it with a duration 3x as long as any other area control in the game.

Also, incidentally, Telekinesis apparently is getting capped at (limited to affecting) 5 mobs at a time, but as a true toggle hold (unlike choking cloud's toggle pulsing-hold PBAoE), is immune to the duration nerf.

Mind previously simply had too many forms of area total control to make great use of them all.

Now, Mind is slated to, in the hands of people who want to do nonstop total control, be one of the few ways in the game to readily achieve it.

<ul type="square">
[*]Total Domination and Mass Hypnosis (and this is true of any build), drop in relevance, but are both still meanigful powers to have for specialized purposes. You should probably consider slotting more recharge and/or duration in them. Given the number of control options in Mind, probably more duration.
[*]Learning to be extra-capable with your single targets is also now in order. Mesmerize and Dominate are a fantastic one-two combo, each setting the other up for double damage, and providing total control, and doing damage. Both are more imporant than ever.
[*]Mass Confusion just became, as I've said already, a whole lot more interesting. It's easily the best area control in the game now, and chain lockdown with no drawbacks, is very nearly possible with just this one power. With this in mind, slotting more recharges than you used to is the order of the day, since it's recharge time is still long.
[*]Terrify, a huge cone with a quite decent control attached, just had it's damage doubled, assuming you can get a sleep, hold, disorient, or immob on opponents. Duoing with area immob controllers, or using Total Dom or Mass Hypnosis with Terrify as a one-two, lets you weild impressive area damage with reasonable safety.
[*]TK becomes a more surgical control technique, and requires at least as much skill as before. As far as I know, it's endurance cost remains the same, which at the moment means it's net desireability is probably slightly lower than in I4.
[*]Levitate, which does significant damage, will be most important to a new breed of controller-- the blastroller. Since defeats remains the best form of control, controllers everywhere, including Mind, will wish to do some soul-searching re: damage and Levitate.
[*]Confuse is about as useful as it always was.[/list]

[ QUOTE ]
No offense meant, but I think bureaucracy is more believeable and workable within an RP structure.

[/ QUOTE ]


But dude, it's not. People have bows and arrows all over the place right now. To say nothing of, you know. Double-edged broadswords.

It's of the essence in a fiction not to keep out fictional elements, but to hide what's wrong with them from immediate scrutiny. Hence the appeal of Godz (which admittedly, some of us suspect don't actually exist, though they're part of the CoH setting) being responsible, as opposed to the conversation:

"Man, sorry Eviscerator, I really would have liked to help fight off that Rularuu invasion, but city council still hasn't approved the use of archery to fight crime. I mean, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!"

[ QUOTE ]
Hero 2 was a Welsh hero, known for his ridiculously extravagant bow.

[/ QUOTE ]

Smart. Alec.

So, I realize it's best, in-character, to leave it at "Oh, there've always been archery heroes in Paragon. See the guy right over there? Manticore? Archery. Nuff said."

But if you weren't going to go for that explanation, what would yours be?

The two I can think of off the top of my heaed are some sort of recent change in laws... governing... posession and control of muscle powered projectile weapons? ... this seems unpersuasive.

The other theory I've got running is that some mythic archery-oriented people, Apollo and Artemis spring to mind.... have suddenly awakened from slumber/taken up residence in paragon/been slain and their essences bestowed upon a zillion other people. ... And either way, suddenly, all kinds of people have been inspired to take up bow and arrow and defend the Good.

I wanna develop RP events, possibly, from this. Anyone else thinking along the same lines?

Freedom has the recently founded FreedomRP channel. If you happen to be on freedom and want to RP, please do buzz us. We're doing Saturday afternoon RP events, and many of us are happy to do casual RP teams, anytime. Just recruit from the channel.

Recently founded, like I say. But it's not true that Freedom has no RPers.

Cuppa,

this,

Mind/Empathy Control (support) -by Enantiodromos

replaces my previous version of my guide. If there's some rule elsewhere that I'm just supposed to post to the last guide thread I created indefinitely, mea maxima culpa.

Cuppa,

this,

Mind/Empathy Control (support) -by Enantiodromos

replaces my previous version of my guide. If there's some rule elsewhere that I'm just supposed to post to the last guide thread I created indefinitely, mea maxima culpa.

V2.0
A GUIDE TO MIND CONTROL, SECONDARY EMPATHY, SUPPORT ORIENTED

1. Mind control
...a. Characterization
...b. Contrast
...c. Individual Powers
...d. Using Mind Control (Combinations)
...e. Slotting Mind Control
2. Empathy
...a. Characterization
...b. Contrast
...c. Individual Powers
...d. Using Empathy
...e. Slotting Empathy
3. Mind Control &amp; Empathy Synergy
4. Pool Powers
...a. Recommended Pool Powers
......i. Superspeed-- Hasten
......ii. Fitness-- Stamina &amp;c.
......iii. Concealment-- Stealth
...b. Other Pool Powers
......i. Teleport
......ii. Leadership
......iii. Leaping, Flight
...c. Pool Powers to Avoid
......i. Fighting
......ii. Medicine, Presence
5. Per Origin
6. Dr. Maningzhoue's build
7. Recommended Mind/Empathy Build
8. Regarding EPPs
A. Appendix A: Status Effects &lt;--- Read me!
B. Appendix B: Regarding Confusion, XP, Time, and Numbers
C. Appendix C: Regarding Specific Mobs
D. Appendix D: Where have all the Mind/Emp gone? (population stats)
E. Appendix E: Miscellaneous Advice
F. Appendix F: Supplemental Reading



MIND CONTROL

CHARACTERIZATION
Play Mind Control if you want to dedicate yourself to pure controlling, pure team, precision tactics, communicating with other players, and situations that truly require every ounce of total-control a character can provide.

CONTRAST
Mind is by FAR, the odd-man-out controller set. Looking for a different controller experience? Mind is what you're looking for. Here's why:

Petlessness
Though prior to L32, Mind and Illusion have 'the best' damage among controllers (this is not impressive), in the post-32 game, Mind/anything controllers have less damage potential than almost any other build in the game, because at L32, all controller primaries except Mind get a pet. All pets do some aggro management. Other than that, some pets are pure damage-- fire imps, specifically. Others have both damage and a control component built in. The best control-oriented pet is Gravity's singularities, which actually use a hold as part of their attack cycle. The result is, in the post-32 game, all other controller sets do better damage than Mind, and Gravity can stack (see Appendix A) holds better than Mind.

Wide Area Total Control
Mind lacks immobilizations that are common in other sets, and also lacks straight damage powers like Spectral Wounds and Propel, and utility powers like illusion's invisibilities and Ice's Arctic Air. What mind does instead, is broad-coverage hard total control (see Appendix A). And moreover, it has unrivalled ability to stack these-- which becomes necessary when dealing with ordinary spawns with bosses mixed in. That's what Mind is better at than anyone: stackable large-area total control.

Aggro-Free control
Mind has two area total controls that draw no aggro, and one single target total control that stacks with one of the area controls. This is a LOT of aggro-free control.

Eyestrain &amp; Pickup teams
Mind effects are among the least visible, and trickiest to coordinate teams around.

Confusion confusion
Mind wields two confusion powers, which are controversial because

a) They were broken at one point, and robbed you of XP when you used them-- this is NO LONGER the case, although the new scheme is tricky to understand, especially for people who don't understand that XP per mob is not important in CoH.
b) The top power in the set is the one that takes the place of a pet-- a power to which it is not AT ALL comparable, but to which it is constantly and unreasonably compared.

INDIVIDUAL POWERS

<ul type="square">

NOTE: Read the appendix on status effects first, if any terms used here are not familiar.
[*]Mesmerize
Mesmerize is OK damage, and is good for putting fringe lieutenants and minions to sleep-- for quite a while, if you can get your teammates to be smarter than "attack anything that's been mezzed."
[*]Levitate
Levitate is the best low-level damage power in the set. I don't normally play with it, so my picture is likely incomplete. It does knockup, which at least momentarily interrupts your enemies, and it does smashing damage, which is nice to have against, say, robots, who're resistant to psi but vulnerable to smashing.
[*]Dominate
Dominate is a good fast single target hold, with decent damage (for a controller). The most desirable of the first three, and probably the single power you'll hit most over your entire career.
[*]Confuse
Confuse completely stops enemies from attacking you or your teammates, and additionally forces them attack and debuff other villains, and buff the goodguys! As if that weren't enough, it DRAWS NO AGGRO! You can spam confuses all day long, if you just want to clear out an area, especially if you're running stealth. It requires two applications to affect a boss-- much like holds, and has a longer recharge time, BUT, it also has a significantly longer duration.

Another way confuses differ from holds is that, confused mobs will still move around under their own power. Potentially, in very dispersed, adjacent groupings, they'll go where you don't want them to. On the other hand, confusion can also be used to get an outlying mob to cluster up with the rest of a group, since he'll move to attack them. If you're really clever, it's a herding tool. If you're really unlucky, it causes a bit of scatter. Fair tradeoff.

Moreover, since Confuse has your enemies attacking each other, it and its big brother mass confusion are great if you just want to clear an area out in complete safety, and in emergency situations where a fight has to end ASAP.

[*]Mass Hypnosis
Mass Hypnosis is your first, and one of *two*, AGGRO FREE AREA CONTROLS. It is a large Area of Effect sleep, that centers on an enemy you target while at range. It does no damage and generates no aggro. Also, it has a significant duration even unslotted. Very good for mitigating damage when you're facing overwhelmingly large spawns, as when two large spawns are back-to-back.
[*]Telekinesis
Telekinesis is a HIT CHECK FREE TOGGLE ranged area hold, meaning, you select a target, toggle on TK, and the target and everyone else around them has a hold applied. Additionally, affected targets slowly, steadily, move away from you, and to some extent, each other-- this is what makes Telekinesis tricky; you have to find physical obstacles to bunch your TK'd opponents up into, unless you just *want* them to drift off and eventually leave your target-select range, at which point the toggle drops and they're no longer held.

Telekinesis is also one of the biggest end hogs in the entire game. To use this power as a staple, you'll need to take it and slot it fairly heavily for end reduction, which given all other considerations, you'll have to do either ASAP, or very, very late.

I'd like to thank Redlynne, Styopa, Halloween_Jack, and vn_outtasync for their sage advice re: this section, since TK is not a power I ordinarily run with in my MC builds. Also, please review Hedon's guide to Telekinesis.
[*]Total Domination
Total domination is an Area of Effect Hold applied to everyone within a fairly large radius from an enemy you target at range. It does no damage, but does draw aggro. Like most area controls it has a fairly long recharge time. If you can set yourself up to reliably and frequently cast Total Domination, you've got about half your functionality down. Take it at 18 and slot it immediately.
[*]Terrify
As of Issue 3, Terrify is a fear effect with an accuracy debuff that does psi damage equal to dominate in a VERY large cone. Though it's a soft control, as damage mitigation goes it can still be useful when you team with single-target hitters. Good for doing damage to big clusters when you solo. Terrify also has a good recharge rate for such a big, broad damage/control attack. Endurance is what tends to keep Terrify in check. With Recovery Aura, you'll be able, eventually, to sidestep this limitation.
[*]Mass Confusion
Here's the pinnacle of Mind Control-- and though debate rages about Mass Confusion, there's no denying it's a little anticlimactic for most folks expecting to get something like fire imps.

Mass confusion is everything that the single target confuse is, except as a ranged target AoE. The entertainment value of this power is absolutely unrivaled. The power cycles very slowly. It's fantastic as a panic button crowd control power, assuming the mobs you're up against aren't confuse resistant. It's also aggro free like Confuse and Mass Hypnosis, so you can go in solo, stealthed, and clear out big areas, if need be.

Refer to the section on Confuse, and think AoE.[/list]

USING MIND CONTROL POWERS

Included below are some ways to use Mind control powers in combination. I have intentionally not included typical solo damage chains, because they're not hard to figure out (levitate, mez, and dominate, as well as pool attacks like air superiority, are the powers of choice. After level 26, though, soloing becomes even more pointless, and I recommend you not bother).

<ul type="square">[*]Mass Hypnosis, Dominate, Mesmerize (Very Safe)
This is a basic combo you can be doing by L8, and it can be impressive if you can keep it up. Lead with Mass Hypnosis, to get MObs stopped, then immediately Dominate the target your scrapper friend looks like he's headed for. Then Mesmerize the MOb *farthest away from* him. Cycle your Dominates so the folks your single-target fighters are going for are held, and your Mesmerizes so the rest of the guys stay asleep. There's no reason you can't team up with somebody three levels below you and go after groups of eight white cons, and take maybe one or two hits per fight, between you.

This combo is particularly important, because there's a strong current of well-deserved disdain for lowbie controllers who're full of useless powers because they're building toward their ubar stamina/hasten/movement power/pet build in the 30s.

So if you really wanna be a hardcore *controller* early, here's your chance. Get this puppy up and running, trouble yourself to explain it to teammates, and avoid teaming with people who have large area damage before you turn 21, and can consistently sling total domination for them. Here's a sample build geared toward keeping the control flowing.

1 Mesmerize /Acc,End (1,3)
1 Healing Aura /End (1)
2 Dominate /Acc,End,Rchg,End,Hold,Hold (2,3,5,5,7,7)
4 Absorb Pain /Heal,Heal (4,9)
6 Confuse /Conf (6)
8 Mass Hypnosis /Acc,End (8,9)

Extensive control for single-target hitters, with heavy healing to back it up. And you can always spec slots out of Mesmerize and Mass Hypnosis when you turn 24.

Also, see the trickier "Mesmerize, Mass Hypnosis" below.
[*]Confuse, Mass Confusion (Aggro FREE!)
For going after large groups with very high safety, or for leading into groups that you want to subsequently Hold, but want to be quite sure never attack you or your team. Lay a *single* confuse on each boss, as quickly as you can, and then fire off Mass confusion. This ensures every mob is completely controlled WITHOUT ANY AGGRO, and doesn't even involve bosses reducing the XP value of individual mobs before you send your team in. This might be hard to pull off perfectly if there are many bosses or you don't run permahasten yet. Also, if you have large groups you just want to clear off, especially if they lack bosses, you can just apply mass confusion and keep spamming confuse until you have one mob left.
[*]Confusion, confusion, patience! (Aggro FREE!)
For dealing with pesky spawns of bad guys surrounding an Arch Villain-- confuse the AV a few times, and wait. When his mez resistance drops, he will promptly decimate his own allies, leaving your team free to focus on him. This is particularly beneficial fighting certain AVs who spawn in the presence of large status-effect groups or other dangers, such as Infernal.
[*]Mass Hypnosis, Total Domination (Extremely Safe)
Total Domination does after all draw aggro. And sometimes you'll want to lead into fights, as a controller. Especially if you don't have a handy tank or are dealing with large groups of psi blasters (Gordon Trench and The Clockwork King's dimension come to mind). Especially if your accuracy with Total Domination isn't Iron Clad, the Mass Hypnosis is a nice cushion. The guys you miss with Total Domination will stay asleep, and you can target Dom them to your heart's content.
[*]Total Domination, Dominate (Low-risk)
This is elementary total lockdown, and should be in every Mind Controller's playbook. Apply Total Domination to a spawn, then keep your eyes open and spam dominate through the group. Unless your Dominate is slow or you're fighting things 3+ over your head, you ought to be able to keep a mob locked down at least until your endurance runs out. But if you're doing this, you're going to need to survive whatever ranged alpha strike any bosses present will use-- so don't do it against Mezzers like Rikti Chief Mentalists. Obviously, in a scenario with bosses, pop Total Dom and then get Dominate on the boss as fast as possible.

[*]Mass Confusion, Terrify (Low-risk)
Here's the Promised Land of soloing. If you have both of the top powers in Mind Control, and especially if you have Hasten and Stamina and/or Endurance Buff to support it, this trick becomes possible. Lead in with Mass Confusion-- this will insure your bad guys start attacking each other. They'll bunch up a bit. Immediately hit them with Terrify. They'll each attack each other once every time your terrify hurts them, then stop and cower. Keep hitting them with Terrify. Every time you do, they'll try and hit each other, and you'll do a fair amount more damage to them. Eventually they'll all drop. This is virtually danger-free, involves no runners, and can be done with very large spawns. Of course, again, it's very endurance intensive. Ultimately, though it yields a modest and controlled amount of confused-mob-to-mob damage, buffing XP per time very nicely.
[*]Telekinesis, Dominate (Low/moderate risk)
As others noted, TK as an always-hit area hold onto which Dominate (and TD) will stack, can be very effective if you can keep the endurance flowing. In fact, if your recharge rate and endurance are iron-clad, you can be applying so much hold with decent duration that you're a long way toward the improbable feat of chain-holding AVs.
[*]Mesmerize, Mass Hypnosis (Moderate risk)
I'm mentioning this one because it's possible, which most people don't know, but risky. You can, in fact, approach a large spawn of MObs with a boss in it, and FIRST mesmerize the boss, THEN use Mass Hypnosis on the group. This *will* get the entire group including the boss sleeping, and I know of no other way a single character in the game can do such a thing. But then again, I'm not sure why you'd want to. At any rate, the real point is, doing it the other way around is NOT possible-- because the damage component of a Mesmerize, or ANY other damage-dealing sleep power, automatically negates any other sleep effects with which it might otherwise stack.[/list]
SLOTTING MC

As some general suggestions for the pure-control build that assumes perma-haste and stamina (without, consider slotting an end redux, perhaps even two end redux and 1 recharge).

Generally, as a Mind controller you'll want to reliably lay control on higher level badguys with a meaningful duration. You want it all.

Mesmerize: The initial slot with an accuracy. When you have slots to spare, another accuracy and maybe another sleep duration or two. But this isn't one to slot to the hilt.

Dominate: First slot accuracy, and then to 6 slots as quickly as possible. 0-1 more accuracies. Between 0-2 recharges. The rest, Hold.

Confuse: Also a good base accuracy, but this one doesn't draw aggro. One accuracy, confusion, and recharge apiece, to start. Late in the game, you can add one more of each. Don't slot the last three slots until you really have slots to spare.

Mass Hypnosis: First slot an accuracy, and when you reasonably can, slot a second. I don't recommend further slotting unless you're just at a loss for what to slot.

Total Domination: Two accuracy, two recharge, and two hold. Six-slot this as soon as possible. You really will want to hit everything with this, get it out often, and get meaningful hold time on higher level baddies. I endorse slotting a balance, then, obviously.

Telekinesis: You only need endurance reduction in this. 1-3 slots if you only want to make short-term usage of this (and probably, this alone) while rec aura is up. On the other hand, if you want it as a staple of your style to run Telekinesis while doing other things, you will probably want to have it five- or six-slotted for end reduction alongside stamina and RA. (Thanks again to Redlynne for correction on this.)

Terrify: With an initial accuracy, this makes a useful secondary sleep-like control, and does a bit of damage to every mob it hits, especially if you have people to intercept the aggro you'll get doing it. You may want to eventually slot it for damage-- maybe another accuracy, and four or five more slots with damage enhances-- when you're reasonably able to, in order to be able to add AoE damage when you team, or to get the job done when you solo. Yes, it will miss a few folks. No biggie, you'll almost certainly want to be keeping things under control with another power at the same time anyway. Bear in mind, using this to defeat mobs is super-endurance-intensive, but if you can find large clusters of minions and keep it up, you'll actually be doing decent DPS. Also good, if you're the suicidal type, for drawing huge aggro away from one of your fellow squishies. Finally, if you really want to use it intensively as a control, and have nothing else to put slots in, slot a second accuracy, one fear duration, and three accuracy debuffs. However, the accuracy debuff will never wow you.

Mass Confusion: Slot for balance like Total Domination-- start with one accuracy, then throw on a confuse and recharge. One more of each when you've got slots to spare.




EMPATHY

CHARACTERIZATION
Play Empathy if you want to be popular in the early game with people who don't understand defenders well.

Empathy, not the strongest powerset, as a primary, is more about reducing downtime between fights, and less about real defense, particularly at lower levels, than most people think. However as a secondary it's great, and a controller can use it to the max for it's supporting role without extravagant expense in powers and slots.

The downside is of course you do need a team to make Empathy useful. Even that has a silver lining, though, because you need to do this as a controller anyhow (particularly a Mind Controller), and being a "Healer" has got to be one of the best (if not best-justified) selling points you can broadcast when you're looking for a team.

Though it's got a lot of heal, the high range of Empathy has some great buff powers OTHER than the heals. People will love you all over again for a dozen levels when you pick up Fortitude and Recovery Aura at levels 20 and 28. Under the right circumstances, you can also ingratiate yourself immensely in the 20s and up with clear mind. And Adrenaline Boost, with no drawbacks as a +recharge +end recover is nothing to sneeze at, at any level, besides which, the recharge buff was *doubled* with I4, putting Adrenaline Boost in the realm of *phenomenal*, now.

CONTRAST

Empathy is certainly the least offensive set, and along with FF one of the most team-oriented. It has more click and teammate-target effects than any other set. And half (44%) of the set is effects that are (or can be) last-ditch, emergency efforts to keep teammates from being dead in combat. It is, after all, a weird set.


INDIVIDUAL POWERS
<ul type="square">[*]Healing Aura
The only low level power you'll get out of Empathy that helps you, and you'll be forced to take it. It's a good self/PBAoE heal.
[*]Heal Other &amp; Absorb Pain
My position is, these two are redundant. Absorb pain makes you wait another 2 levels to take it, heals MUCH more for MUCH less endurance, and is a little trickier to manage since it hurts you a little and makes you unhealable for a short period. You'll have four options for replacing teammates' health. With all the aggro-free control you can sling, you yourself shouldn't be taking any damage at all if you're doing your job right, so I recommend Absorb Pain, and skip Heal Other, unless choices from Mind force you to do otherwise. You may even wish to consider not taking either power, or at least not slotting either, in order concentrate more on buffs.
[*]Resurrect
This power brings a teammate back to full health from defeat. The End cost is enormous, and the recharge is very slow. Primarily, this power is good for saving your teammates the trouble of walking back from the hospital.

But there are situations where an in-combat Resurrect can be fantastic. A group depending on a Tank can really benefit from that tank making a very fast full-recovery. A group in a tedious fight with a fast-regenerating boss or AV will likely be very happy with a spot-resurrect when it's key blaster falls.

But you have to get a sense for when to do this, and when to NOT do it. The power is situational.
[*]Clear Mind
Resistance against, and popping out of, immob, sleep, hold, and disorient can be crucial against some kinds of foes, and this sometimes overlooked power makes you the anti-controller. It cycles fast, lasts a while, and is otherwise pretty much effortless-- EXCEPT-- that you have to train teammates to call out quickly when held or otherwise watch them on the screen like a hawk, if you're not spamming this power before every fight. Either way, this power is great if you're not *lazy*.
[*]Fortitude
A tidy damage, resistance, defense, accuracy boost. A little more everything! (Including, BTW, resistance and defense against psi!) Fairly slow recycle, but if you work at it you can have 3 teammates forted almost all the time once you have hasten and 1 recharge in it. Plus, if you're going to be worth nothing else in a fight, you can always fort the scrapper!
[*]Recovery Aura
A PBAoE endurance recovery buff extraordinaire. It is, itself, an End Hog, so you're best to pop it at the start of a fight, unless you think you'll be mostly watching the scrappers wear themselves out beating bad guys silly. It does affect you too. And especially among folks who have not sorted out their own endurance needs yet, you'll be considered a God.
[*]Regeneration Aura
A power I don't have direct experience with. I've seen it used. It's a good health recovery buff.

However. You're a controller, and of all the heal options, this one is the most like an active combat defense. You should be controlling, not healing, except in emergencies. So I recommend skipping Regeneration Aura.
[*]Adrenaline Boost
A modest duration, long recharge buff to one teammate's recharge speed and endurance recovery. Even though available only late in the game, still a very impressive power. There is nothing else as good, at L38, to take. Take it![/list]
EMPATHY USAGE

Like defenders, be ready to do some buffing at the start of combat, and pay attention to when the buffs are back up again. Giving somebody Fortitude + Adrenaline Boost is a very real and noticeable improvement, to any character I've ever seen. Even just spamming heals on a scrapper can easily make the difference between a defeated AV and a defeated scrapper. If you're pulling off a hazardous resurrect, be ready to hit a heal or two just in case. Rezzing somebody so they can die again sucks.

Because of this, and because Empathy is not your primary as a controller, I recommend against taking more than two healing powers with the set. You're forced to take Healing Aura. I recommend Absorb pain, and skip Heal Other.

SLOTTING EMP

Empathy overall won't be a slot-hog for a controller. For healing powers, slot mainly health, though an endurance reduction on Healing Aura or Heal Other might be appropriate, especially before you have stamina. You could go ahead and slot these to 4-6 if you want, but you could also leave them at 3 slots and get almost all the use you should expect to, out of them.

As for resurrect, clear mind, fortitude, recovery aura, and adrenaline boost, you want recharges. One apiece, except for recovery aura and adrenaline boost; keep slotting these two with recharges once you have little else crucial to put your slots in. Nothing wrong with having both up as often as (meta-) humanly possible. But again-- you'll get all the use you should expect to, out of secondaries, out of these even before they're slotted heavily.




MIND CONTROL/EMPATHY SYNERGY

MC/Empath is really a build for multitaksers-- people who think it's fun to try and keep their finger on the pulse of everything going on, especially in a pickup team, where it approaches impossible, even if folks stay together. MC/Emp is one of the least susceptible of all builds, to the "What is there to do but stand here and hit things" syndrome. You will have to become very accustomed to your preferred method of selecting both targets and enemies. Tab (in the default keyboard configuration) cycles you through enemies. And you can select teammates with mouse clicks on the team list, or keystrokes. You can also select targets of either sort with a click directly on the target. Only you can come up with the target-selection scheme that works best for you, but choose wisely. Also, strongly recommended you turn the health and status display bar to "always on."

Mind control has a lot of aggro-free attacks, and Empathy has no aggroing debuffs. You could live your life virtually aggro-free under this build. You will be the last man standing, running from the grape-con horde, more than anybody. If you are prone to survival guilt, you may want to consider another build.

Mind and Empathy are both unusually focused sets-- mind in control-as-such, and empathy in healing. So versatility is not your forte. Also, mind is probably the furthest toward the 'grouping' end of the solo/group spectrum of any controller primary, and Empathy the most grouping-oriented of the controller secondaries. MC/Emp is therefore an extreme group build. Does everybody you try to group with know it? No. Does everybody snickering behind their hand watching you solo know it? Yes.

Mind control is not surprisingly an End Hog with it's advanced stunts, nor are Heals or resurrection light on the end. Fortunately, Empathy has one major power that works directly with you-- Recovery Aura. You can readily eat your entire native + stamina endurance recovery doing Mind Controller Tricks, so having Recovery Aura ready to go can be a real boon.

Mind/Empathy can be a real boon if you're working with a modest number of damage dealers who're squishy or would prefer not to rely only their own defenses. Duoing or trioing with blasters and/or Super Reflexes or Dark Armor scrappers, particularly, can be quite lucrative, especially if you're at a stage where you can boost their accuracy a little, you have missions set on invincible, and your allies are a couple levels below you. The ideal sidekick for a Mind/Empathy is a Blapper!

Finally, empathy has lots of buffs you can use on non-teammates when you stumble on someone in a pitched battle on the street, and Mind Control likewise has some *great* damage-free crowd control. Try this sometime, once you're L38-- find a scrapper in a pitched battle versus a big ambush, who's about to go down. Heal, Fort, Rec Aura, Adrenaline Boost, then Total Dom their opponents. A near disaster converted into an easy XP goldmine-- thanks to your friendly neighborhood MC/Emp!



POOL POWERS
Recommended Pool Powers
<ul type="square">[*]Speed-- Hasten
Hasten is essential to most MC/Emp builds I can think of. With perma-hasten (hasten six-slotted with SOs), it's like adding an extra couple recharge enhances at least to your four best powers-- Total Dom, Terrify, Rec Aura, and Adrenaline Boost-- all of which you'll *never* really be able to get out as fast as you want to. This is to say nothing of Confusion, Mass Hypnosis, Mass Confusion, Resurrection, and Recovery Aura, which are slow but darn good too, and also things you can never have too many recharges in. Nor does it even hurt to be able to cycle things like Mesmerize, Dominate, Healing Aura, etc, faster. Nothing about a MC/Emp is fast. Get hasten six-slotted ASAP.

Can you survive without it? Yes. Do you want to? Absolutely not, unless you just HAVE to have four other pools.
[*]Fitness-- Stamina, etc
It is conceivable to avoid stamina on MC/Emp characters, if you're willing to wait around until you get Recovery Aura, and be forever pinned down between uses of it. Even with both, though, you can find ways to tax yourself end-wise as a MC/Emp, especially if you're running telekinesis.

Most people have noticed that if you're building the ubiquitous Hasten + Stamina into your character, you have a handy opening on super speed as a movement power. If you're doing that make sure to pick up the sequence HURDLE, Health, Stamina. Even if you lag behind your friends levels 6-13.

And while we're on the subject-- it's not the end of the world if you don't take a major movement power AT ALL. (Incidentally, people who make a big deal about 30 seconds more or less between missions are very likely to be impossible to control for anyhow.) If you're going with swift and hurdle for movement, remember to slot SPRINT, NOT SWIFT, for optimum speed.
[*]Concealment-- Stealth
Both Mind and Empathy operate almost entirely at range-- excepting a couple buffs you'll likely use before a fight even starts. Moreover, Mind has a LOT of aggro-free control options, and Empathy has no aggroing debuffs. Finally, Mind requires at least it's fair share of tactical assessment. All these things make Stealth a SUPERB synergy with Mind/Empathy

As an MC/Empath, you'll likely live a largely aggro-free lifestyle. Also, you have an awful lot of tactical choices each time you start laying down crowd control, and it's much better to be able to do that when you're calm, collected, and close enough to see what you're really doing.

In addition to a tidy bit of defense, stealth helps keep you out of the fight completely even while you're with your aggro free stuff, AND it improves your 'strategic intelligence' factor, which is more important to your job than it is to most, since ALL of your controls are ranged.

You can even use it to get in range to resurrect somebody if you don't have recall friend.

Finally, stealth opens up a lot of opportunities soloing missions for objectives without making most arrests, if you want to see game content but can't find a teammate, especially if you bring confuse along.[/list]OTHER POOL POWERS
<ul type="square">[*]Teleport-- Recall Friend, Teleport Foe, Teleport

Most defenders who routinely resurrect people (which shouldn't be happening, but that's another story) like recall friend so they can pull out of harm's way then resurrect you safely. Plus, it's just nice to be able to offer teammates who're selling on the other side of the map a direct port to the door or train. If you're as attentive to your teammates as an MC/Emp should be, you'll ingratiate yourself that way.

Teleport Foe is fun, and it can make soloing a little easier if you decide you just have to, for some reason. Also, however, confused mobs still have a fairly short aggro range, and if you're using confuse, you're going to sometimes end up with a solitary confused mob that by itself serves no purpose. Teleporting him into a group of your enemies works *just* fine. I don't REALLY recommend teleport foe. But it's interesting.

Teleport-- Teleport is potentially the fastest, but the hardest to control, of all the major movement powers. Best but hardest to control? Sounds like a Mind Controller to me.
[*]Leadership-- Assault, Maneuvers, Tactics
Yeah, we're not quite as good as Defenders at this stuff, but. If you're going to run an MC/Empath with Stamina AND Rec Aura like I describe, you might as well run around in combat with a couple leadership toggles active. What's one more thing to manage, considering how many you're already worried about? Assault and Maneuvers each help you out a little. Tactics, when properly slotted, however, is equal to an accuracy enhancement in EVERY power. This alone makes Leadership seriously worth considering.
[*]Leaping &amp; Flight

Your preference for travel may be one of these, which is fine. Flight gets you weird places easiest, and hover has some defense. Leaping also has some interesting resistances and defense, and Super jump is quite fast and probably the most fun of any travel power.

I personally don't condone taking any of the pool defenses or attacks, since you should be controlling for your defense, and getting teammates for damage.[/list]
POOL POWERS TO AVOID
<ul type="square">
[*]Fighting
At some point, it will become tempting to add boxing or kick to fill out an attack chain, and maybe try to add tough and weave to be able to hang in there with the tough guys, later on. Just don't. Besides which, if you really must take a pool attack, it should be Air superiority.
[*]Medicine, Presence

Don't see much point in these in this build.[/list]



PER ORIGIN

I play MC/Empath who's conceptually and origin-wise a Natural. Origins don't mean anything. Yah, I know.
<ul type="square">[*]Naturals
Empathy can largely be explained as medical expertise, for a natural though some of the mid-high ones like Fortitude and Clear Mind seem like they could go elsewhere. Much of Mind Control could be explained as persuasion, charisma, intimidation, and the like. Between the two, I am partial to explaining high-level empathy effects as partly psychological/advice-driven in nature. The two telekinetic elements in Mind Control are hard to explain for a natural, unless you think it's a completely ordinary human ability. Super speed and Teleport are also hard to explain as ordinary human abilities.
[*]Technology (least common Controller origin)
Empathy as very-high-tech medicine works too. Controlling minds with technology can be done wackily-- ala some sort of "cerebro" device that amplifies brainwaves, or perhaps more interestingly, as a side effect of using psychoactive chemical agents sprayed in the air. Sorta creepy, but it would work.
[*]Science &amp; Mutant
What one does with these origins is notoriously open. I mean, what *can't* the right sort of scientific experiment unlock? What *can't* be a mutant power? For the Science side, see the Anime classic Akira. For the Mutant side, what makes more sense that a psychic healer? Flight might be conceptually better than super speed or teleport for either of these.
[*]Magic (Most Common Controller Origin)
Sorcerous powers should tidily be able to encompass all the MC/Emp effects, not to mention that MC/Emp, aside from some Defenders, can be one of the most conceptually diverse sets there is-- so unlike the magic fire/fire blaster, nobody will say to you, "What, you ignore *all* magical forms except fire?" Lots of the advanced Empathy stuff can be kinds of blessings. Confusions could be possession! The TK mind control looks like very familiar mystical forms too. Teleport's also a great magic power.[/list]


THE DR. MANINGZHOUE MIND/EMPATHY BUILD

Here's my wack-tastic Mind/Emp build lacking TK and Major movement powers. Needless to say there's a lot of stuff in the two sets to take, and I've bumbled through it with three respecs so far:

1 Healing Aura /heal,heal,heal (1,3,9)
1 Mesmerize /acc (1)
2 (Sprint) /run,run,run,run (2,11,13,15)
2 Dominate /acc, rchg,hold,hold,rchg,hold (2,3,5,7,9,11)
4 Heal Other /heal,heal,heal,heal,heal (4,5,7,39,40)
6 Confuse /Conf,Rchg,Acc,Conf,Conf,Conf (6,33,34,36,36,37)
8 Swift /Run (8)
10 Resurrect /Rchg (10)
12 Maneuvers /DefBuff,DefBuff,DefBuff,DefBuff (12,13,17,48)
14 Tactics /AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff (14,15,17,34,39,40)
16 Hurdle /jump (16)
18 Total Domination /Acc,Rchg,Hold,Hold,Rchg,Acc (18,19,19,21,23,25)
20 Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec (20,21,23,25,27,27)
22 Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (22,29,29,31,31,31)
24 Stealth /Def (24)
26 Terrify /Dmg, Acc,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg (26,42,42,42,43,45)
28 Recovery Aura /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg, (28,33,37,40,43,45)
30 Fortitude /Rchg, AccBuff (30,48)
32 Mass Confusion Acc,Rchg, Conf,Conf Rchg,Rchg (32,33,34,36,37,39)
35 Mass Hypnosis /Accuracy (35)
38 Adrenaline Boost /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (38,43,45,46,46,46)
41 Clear Mind /Rchg (41)
44 Indomitable /Rchg, (44)
47 Mind Over Body /Rchg, Rchg (47,48)
49 Health /Heal (49)




RECOMMENDED MIND/EMPATHY BUILD

Finally, here's a suggested Mind/Emp build for control/support, without some of my conceptual limitations. I want to stress-- there's lots of stuff in there, and somebody's always going to look at you askance for not taking clear mind, or telekinesis, or some other power, earlier. That being said...


1 Mesmerize /Acc,End (1,3)
1 Healing Aura /End,Heal,Heal,Heal (1,9,11,37)
2 Dominate /Acc,End,Rchg,End,Hold,Hold (2,3,5,5,7,7)
4 Absorb Pain /Heal,Heal,Heal (4,11,46)
6 Confuse /Acc,Conf,Rchg,Rchg,Acc,Conf (6,13,15,17,34,37)
8 Mass Hypnosis /Acc,End (8,9)
10 Hurdle /Run (10)
12 Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (12,13,15,17,25,34)
14 Superspeed /Run (14)
16 Health /Heal (16)
18 Total Domination /Acc,Acc,Rchg,Hold,Hold,Rchg (18,19,19,23,27,29)
20 Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec (20,21,21,23,25,27)
22 Resurrect /Rchg (22)

Now is a good time to change out the endurance reductions in Mesmerize, Dominate, and Mass Hypnosis, for accuracies (and a recharge for Dominate).

24 Stealth /Def (24)
26 Terrify /Acc,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg (26,31,31,36,37,40)
28 Recovery Aura /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (28,29,31,40,42,43)
30 Fortitude /Rchg (30)
32 Mass Confusion /Acc,Acc,Conf,Rchg,Rchg,Conf (32,33,33,33,34,39)
35 Telekinesis /End,End,End,End,End (35,36,36,42,43)
38 Adrenaline Boost /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (38,39,39,40,42,43)
41 Clear Mind /Rchg (41)
44 Indomitable Will /Rchg,Rch,Rch (44,45,45,45,46,46)
47 Mind Over Body /Res,Res,Res (47,48,48,48)
49 Psychic Tornado /[Ask a */psi defender] (49,50,50,50)

Having looked at it again, I think my build recommendation in previous versions of this FAQ had some flaws. Hopefully this one is better.

Here, as you can see:
<ul type="square">[*]You'll have superb healing out of the box.[*]By 8, you'll bring a wealth of control, including a full-fledged area control and two aggro-free controls. Your single-target damage friends will love you at this stage.[*]You'll promptly be *very* mobile at 14. Perching on top of buildings is for the birds.[*]At 25, you'll have your full dosage of stamina, permahasten, and total domination in place. You are very nearly as UBAR as control gets. [*]By the time you're 30, with the addition of fort, rec aura, resurrect, and stealth, every team will have four new reasons to love you.[*]By the time you're 40, you'll be completely over-the-top in terms of area control, and be throwing out Adrenaline Boost.[/list]
REGARDING EPIC POWER POOLS


I have very little experience with or knowledge of the Controller EPPs. I went with Psi Mastery late in Doc's build, and with my recommended build. I think there's a bit of consensus that the status protection of Indomitable Will, and the high base smashing &amp; lethal resistance of Mind over Body make Psi Mastery one of the best possible picks.

The other EPP to look at is Power Mastery (? ... sometimes I forget the names of these). Power Boost enhances hold durations, and so is very worth looking at.



APPENDIX A: UNDERSTANDING STATUS EFFECTS

There are a number of distinct status effects in CoH, and Mind Controllers are masters of some of the strongest. Also, Empathy-&gt;Clear Mind immunizes against them all. Understanding them as a Mind/Empathy controller is crucial. There are several kinds, and...

Crucially-- status effects can only be stacked with other status effects of the SAME TYPE. You cannot stack confusion and sleep, fear and hold, etc. A boss with a single application of sleep, hold, and confuse each is a boss who's still fully active and hurting you.

<ul type="square">[*]Hold: Affected target cannot use any power, and cannot move. The most common status effect controllers use.
[*]Disorient/Stun: Affected target cannot use any power. Also, movement rate drastically reduced.
[*]Sleep: Affected target cannot use any power, and cannot move. Effect automatically ends when target takes any damage from a hero.
[*]Immobilize: Affected target cannot move.
[*]Fear: Affected target cannot use any power, and cannot move. Effect momentarily stops (long enough for target to make one attack), every time he takes damage. Often includes an accuracy debuff.
[*]Phase: Affected target is intangible and cannot be affected or affect others.
[*]Knockdown/up: Affected target is knocked to the ground, or into the air, then has to get up, during which time, he cannot take any other action. Many controller forms of knockdown have repetitive, pulsing, AoE knockdown.
[*]Knockback: Like knockdown but displaces the target horizontally.
[*]Slow: Not really a status effect, rather, a movement debuff, and, usually, recharge debuff.
[*]Smoke, etc: Not really a status effect, rather, a debuff on aggro range, and an accuracy debuff.
[*]Confuse: Does quite a few related but distinct things. Affected targets:

1) stop attacking heroes completely,
2) stop buffing villains completely,
3) buff heroes as though they were villains.
4) attack and debuff villains as though they were heroes-- BUT! 75% the damage done by confused mobs is excluded from the calculation of credit for XP, whenever a mob is defeated.[/list]
Most ATs have at least a few powers in a couple powersets that at least occasionally do status effects. Disorients and stuns are frequently a possible side effect of melee attacks. Dark and Ice (noncontroller) sets notoriously wield a variety of controls. Controller primaries are a collection of 3-9 (usually 8) powers whose primary purpose is a status effect.

Lieutenants and minions (also, underlings, and pets) are ordinarily affected by a control power, if it hits.

However, bosses and certain villain types with special resistances (see below) require two applications of a control power before they're affected. This is commonly referred to as "stacking." The status effect is only in place while the duration of the two applications overlap.

Archvillains are affected by status effects as though they were bosses (they require two applications), but also have an inherent power that allows them to automatically resist most of the total-controls-- hold, sleep, confuse, fear, etc, for about 65% (I dunno. It seems like more than half, that's for sure!) of the duration of the fight (with the exceptions of the Archvillains Terra and Adamastor, who lack it). The power switches itself on and off automatically. There is a visual cue, consisting of purple triangles circling the head of the AV. If the triangles are pointing up, the resistance power is on. If they're pointing down, the resistance power is off, and the AV can be held, etc. It *IS* possible to overcome this Archvillain-level resistance, but it requires an enormous amount of controlling ability-- usually between two or three even level controllers dedicated to nothing but spamming the same kind of status effect (usually a hold.)

Monsters and Giant Monsters are not ordinarily subject to any of the total-controls. They can, however, be affected if enough status effects are "stacked," about the same way as an AV's inherent resistance power can be overcome.


Total Control

A term I like to use to distinguish between two classes of controls. Total Controls are controls that fully stop the attacks of an effected enemy that would otherwise be aggroing, for a significant duration. They include hold, sleep, fear, confuse, and phase. Disorient, stun, and knockback *can* qualify, but ordinarily are not long enough in duration.

Soft Control

Another term I use to distinguish between kinds of controls. Soft controls are controls that you can't benefit from and attack the controlled mob at the same time. They include sleeps, fear, smoke, and phase. (The other controls could be called "hard" controls.)

Hard Total Controls: hold, confuse
Hard Limited Controls: Knockdown/up, Slow, Immob
Soft Total Controls: sleeps, fear, smoke, and phase



APPENDIX B: REGARDING CONFUSION, XP, TIME, NUMBERS

A confused mob will actively do damage to the other mobs you're fighting. Normally, anything except a teammate doing damage to mobs you're fighting claims a portion of the XP for themself.

However, MOST of a CONFUSED MOb's DAMAGE DOES NOT COUNT in this regard. 75% of the damage a confused mob does to your other enemies magically disappears from BOTH sides of the equation.

The equations for real XP yield over time are complex, and not the purview of this FAQ. You have to look at both the fight time, and some unknown standard downtime between fights, as well as the way confuse buffs XP, to get it right. Fortunately, it reduces to a fairly simple equation.

If you're using confusion, it will not worsen XP per time unless you spend more than a certain amount of time between fights. That amount of time is: three times the amount of time the fight itself WOULD have normally taken, reduced by the same fraction as the damage you did.


APPENDIX C: REGARDING SPECIFIC MOBS

There are a few noteworthy mobs in CoH to deal with, as a Mind Controller.

As has been noted, confused enemies will buff and debuff to *your* advantage, and this is something you'll very much want to take advantage of. Any time a mob is primarily or noteworthily a buffer, debuffer, or controller, you should consider it your solemn duty to confuse them.

An incomplete list of confuse-worthy targets:
<ul type="square">[*]Council vampires of all sorts (they use various sleeps and holds).
[*]Banished Pantheon Shamen EXCEPT Death Shamen (the others use myriad status effects and debuffs, including snow storm, earthquake, and hurricane).
[*]Some of the Circle of Thorns Mages-- especially madness mages (who virtually are Mind/Emp themselves), Life Mages (who heal now, some), and Ice Thorn casters. I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Also-- CoT Portals, which summon Behemoths that yield no XP (yuk!), but are good XP themselves, can be kept from EVER summoning by confusing them before they aggro to anything (make SURE to keep the confusion up). Also, if they aggro first then get confused, they'll summon confused behemoths thereafter.
[*]Crey Medics and Radiologists (Medics heal and Radiologists do rad infection), as well as Geneticists, who MAY actually be able to resurrect fallen heroes while confused-- I've never seen it, but it may be possible.
[*]All devouring earth 'shrooms. They mez like crazy, and also summon mez-resistance emanators. (See below for more on Emanators).
[*]Lost Aberrants and Pariahs, especially the Eremites and Anchorites.
[*]Rikti Mentalists, Mesmerists, and Guardians. Also, Rikti portals, opened by communications officers, will port in *confused* conscripts if you confuse the portal!
[*]Sky raider Forcefield Generators (yes, they bubble *you*!).
[*]Tsoo Yellow Ink Men, who use sleeps and holds, and Sorcerers, whose heals are legendarily annoying, and who have a hold of their own. Also, Dragonfly, Herald, and Skyfall type bosses. Finally, anytime a Tsoo throws caltrops that are getting on your nerves, confuse him. As long as he's alive and confused, the caltrops will affect him, not you. (After he dies, the caltrops revert to hurting you.)
[*]Vazhilok Embalmed of all kinds, will blow up their own allies if you confuse them, rather than your team. Normally not a high priority for confusion, since holding them is just as good, but frankly, everyone loves you when you set off Zombie fireworks safely.
[*]False Nemeses. These guys *can* be confused with the normal difficulty of a boss, and they usually have dispersion bubble up.
[*]Malta. Sappers, which are, hands down, the best target for confusions in the entire game. They do negligible damage, but even stalwart tanks and epic scrappers fear their end drain. You needn't. Have them drain your enemies instead! Also, if you have a Malta Engineer on hand held, but he's already dropped an auto-turret that is annoying you, confuse him. So long as he's alive and confused, the turret will attack villains. It reverts when he dies though.
[*]Carnie Illusionists and Master Illusionists-- they'll summon hordes of pets-- other illusionists, Dark Servants, Phantasms... and they'll all fight each other, so long as you keep the original summoner alive and confused. Great fun.
[*]Knives of Artemis-- the Hands were a special pain in my rear, because they mez and somehow I rarely saw them beforehand. Also, all the Knives throw caltrops, it seems like, and a single mass confusion can turn an inferno of caltrop microdamage against the people who created it.[/list]
Other Special Mob Considerations

A few other things come to mind regarding specific mobs.
<ul type="square">[*]Devouring Earth villains drop a wide variety of emanators that buff other DE ONLY. Confusing the person who summoned the emanator OR the emanator itself will make the emanator STOP buffing the DE, but it will NOT buff your team. (This is an unusual exception.)
[*]DE Fungoids (deathcaps, etc) require special attention, as well. If one that you confuse plants a fungus (which normally provide nearby DE with resistance to status effects), and then you proceed to put holds on other DE, and the fight gets going, and somehow your fungoid dies, suddenly you'll have a fungus that nobody was worrying about breaking all your holds. So watch funguses. Keep them separately confused if for whatever reason your team isn't killing them automatically.
[*]Nemesis are a pain in the rear. They all require two applications to confuse or fear, and additionally none of the robots cannot be slept AT ALL. You're basically going to have to rely on holds vs Nemesis. Let's hope you're good with Dominate and Total dominate. Or healing aura.
[*]Other robots, and certain zombies, can't be slept either. To tell you the absolute truth, I never made a list as I was playing, I just didn't bother sleeping them.
[*]Explosives, a relatively recent introduction into the game, blow up goodguys and badguys alike. Don't be tricked into thinking you can confuse them into not blowing you up. A confused explosive puts the smackdown intended for you, on the enemy, but also puts the smackdown intended for the enemy on YOU![/list]


APPENDIX D: WHERE HAVE ALL THE MIND/EMP GONE?

Some statistics about controllers and Mind/Empathy.

From a survey during busy hours on the Freedom server on 5-29-05:

In the low (1-25) game, scrappers (27%) dominate, followed by blasters (24%) and tanks (21%), trailed by defenders (15%) and controllers (13%).

In the high (26-50) game, tanks (27%) dominate, followed by blasters (23%) and scrappers (22%), trailed by defenders (14%) and controllers (14%).

Given the distribution of different origins in CoH overall, Controllers are disproportionately (x1.46) likely to be magic origin, and unlikely to be (x.53) Tech or (x.76) Natural.

From a census somtime in February '05, where respondents listed the primary and secondary of their highest level controller:

Illusion (24%) controllers dominate primaries, followed by Fire (19%) and Mind (17%), trailed by Gravity (15%) and Ice (14%), and finally, Earth (11%).

Radiation (26%) secondary controllers come out most numerous, followed by Kinetics (20%) and Empathy (19%), trailed by Storm (18%) and Forcefield (18%).

Secondary choices for Mind showed a surprising frequency of Empathy (x1.79) and Forcefield (x1.18), and a surprising rarity of Storm (x.39) and Radiation (x.67).

Primary choices for Empathy controllers showed a surprising frequency of Mind (x1.79) and Earth (x1.15), and surprising rarities of Fire (x.47), Gravity (x.8) and Ice (x.86).

So. For supplemental reading, maybe you'll want to look at an Earth/Emp or a Mind/FF guide.



APPENDIX E: MISCELLANEOUS ADVICE
<ul type="square">[*] Start teams yourself, rather than waiting to be chosen. Develop your leadership and communication skills. (The author is sorely lacking in this department.)[*] There are three good ways to approach a fight. 1) You lead into each fight with area control, or 2) a tank leads in and grabs aggro, or 3) a blaster or defender pulls ones and twos. TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY for making sure your team knows and agrees on one and only one of these.[*] If you are lead-in controlling from stealth, BEAT YOUR TEAMMATES OVER THE HEAD until they understand NOT to come up and stand next to you, ESPECIALLY when you're facing off with AoE mezzing opponents.[*] If your team is composed of 40%+ melee and the group isn't in way over its head, help blasters, defenders, and other controllers understand that pulling with blasts is NOT THE ONLY way to play.[*] If you're on a team with no tanks and few controllers, help any twitchy scrappers present understand that being debt magnets is NOT THE ONLY way to play.[*] If you're on a team with a good tank who is herding, don't fire off control until he's in position. Ask him to fire off an F7 "Ready!" when you should mez. But also watch out for other teammates who get dangerous aggro away from him. Herding can be dangerous, and you're not vital to it, so use your alertness to the max.[*] If you're on a team with a good blaster or defender who's pulling, if there are *any* melee people on the team, DO NOT mez anything until it's WELL OUTSIDE THE AGGRO RANGE of whatever group it's been pulled from. And for god's sake do NOT confuse it![*] If you are on a team with people who do AoE damage-- particularly claw/*, spine/*, and */dark scrappers and fire/* and */fire blasters, watch positioning CAREFULLY, because once you lock down a group, obviously they can't be worked into position for cones and AoEs. It's ok, especially with the scrappers, to wait a minute to lock mobs down, and not lockdown before they cluster up. You've got heals, so if need be, let the scrapper go into the red, then heal, mez, and heal again. It may also be useful in this regard to run ahead of the team a bit and immediately mez clusters of MObs as soon as they spawn and before they start to meander. This can also apply to area toggle debuffers.[*] Some attacks will make mobs scatter-- it seems to me most notoriously, everything with the word "rain" in the power description. If you have a teammate running this kind of effect but not locking down mobs first, work something out with them.[*] If you're on a team with tanks and other controllers, and to some extent, defenders and scrappers, and if the mission difficulty isn't set high, you might be more useful elsewhere. See the next point.[*] Accept that there are bad teams to be on, and that you can only do two things about them: talk, and leave. If the team can't be improved with talk, you must leave it.[/list]


APPENDIX F: SUPPLEMENTAL READING

Cforce's Guide to Confusion
Hedon's Guide to Telekinesis
Tenthletter1979's Empathy Guide
LadyMage's Empathy Guide
Auriel's Empathy Guide

So, we've all seen concept SGs.

What are the concept SGs you've seen that best lend themselves to RP?

There's a SG on virtue whose name I forget that has a lotta four-color, types, and if it's a concept SG, I'd vote for that one.

Then there's my own, that never got off the ground-- The Citizens' Defense League, which took true Natural (not natural-ala-kehldian 9_9), as well as relatively ordinary-human magic and tech characters. Ordinary citizens taking up the task of fighting crime, y'see.

[1) What is your name?]
The creature's barky brow furrowed. "I am, Oak Tree."

[2) What is your occupation]
"I photosynthesize."

"What? Oh. I see. I am a goodwill Emmisary from the Courts of Life. Sent here by the Mother. Stop the wound known as Hamidon, and refute his lies, for he is no friend of The Mother."

[3) what are your plans for the future]
"Battle corruption without cease." The tree's weird face betrayed no hesitation, doubts, nor any other sign of intelligence.

[4) describe your ideal date?]
"Ah...." now the tree looked perplexed. "Everything that flowers... appeals to me. Naturally I'm partial to the slender strands of green and yellow flowers my own kind show forth..."

[5) what is you look for in a woman/man]
"Vegetable composition? Or if not that, at least, someone who shares a strong love of the earth."

[6) What are some of the best qualities about yourself?]
"I am mobile. And extremely fluent in your 'speech.' I endure."

[7) what is it you can offer a woman/man?]
"Shade."

[8) What is something you would like to say to the person seeing this video?]
"Do not be afraid, rootless!"

I apologise in advance if I'm cluttering your beautifully done guide with my own misunderstaning, but having read your example, I think one of us misunderstands:

S = 3DF

The way I read that in english is, your *search* time can be *three times as long as* your fight time... reduced by a fraction equal to the damage you did.

E.G., if you're doing 33% of the damage, you can spend as long looking for a new fight as the (normal) fight itself would've taken you, and still break even.

If you're doing 1% of the damage, you hadn't better spend more than 3% of the duration of a normal fight looking for the next fight, if you want to break even.

It wouldn't at all surprise me if I was the one who ultimately didn't understand what he found, but check it over again.

I once convinced a Crey Power Tank to take on a horde of Rularuu "for the good of the city." (I love being a mind controller).

Recently, he's walking again. ^_^