Hedon

Thanks for posting this red, I had meant to add to the guide a little footnote describing the new endurance cost, and crediting you and several other controllers with the keen eyes to spot it.

I will try to update that part of my guide when I get time to update the guide in General, whenver that may be.

Thanks again.

Hedon

Well, The numbers I have posted currently in the Telekinesis section are wrong. Telekinesis doesn't cost 3 endurance per second, it looks like it costs 4.33 per second. In addition I really don't think they round Endurance cost, seeing as how the base cost isn't rounded in the first place. But thanks for posting, take a look at the new version of the guide.

Hedon's guide to mind control and Telekinesis v2.0

Hedon

Please replace Hedon's Guide to Mind control and Telekinesis

with

Hedon's Guide to Mind control and Telekinesis 2.0

Hedon

Acknowledgements, credits and bibliographies.

I could not have written this guide with out the help of a few people. They were always there with steady opinions and good ideas. A small list of them that I can remember right now follows.

Sinclair
Xevon
Cforce
Enantiodromos

and all the others who have posted ideas and contributed to the mind control discussion.


I would like to thank those who have plugged my guide like it was some new movie:
Seniara
Breville


And Finally I would like to thank some people for writing guides that I have found invaluable:

cforce's Guide to Confusion v.1.0

A powerleveler's guide to blasters (very long)

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Taking, Modifying and Posting Screenshots - by Moncro

The Incomplete and Unofficial Guide to /bind - by Curveball

These of course aren't the only methods open to a mind controller, and if you think that you have something to contribute, just speak up, the mind control community needs all the help it can get to overcome the problems the game has laid at our feet.

A SPECIAL GUIDE ON TELEKINESIS

I have heard of, but never seen another mind controller use Telekinesis well, and I have yet to see a guide that explicitly laid down the frame work for using telekinesis well. In that vein, I have written this special guide.

Telekinesis is the best skill mind controllers get, if you are not using it, you are wasting your character. It is very much a skill that reflects on the player's skill. It doesn't have much of a middle ground either, you either succeed wonderfully, or horribly fail. The way TK works is complex. It is a toggle and never misses. It places a repel effect on one target, this target projects a very small aura that spreads the repel and the aura to its neighbors. If at any time an enemy is repelled out of an adjacent aura, then he comes out of TK and acts freely. Here are a few screen shots of Telekinesis in action.

hitting the first target

picking up the second

and the third

See how the anchor can pick up more people and how these people in turn create auras to grab neighbors? This can be bad, as repel powers are notorious for spreading out enemies, and that is against our stated goal of grouping enemies. But if you use it in the right situation you can group the enemies using TK and, in turn keep them held forever.

The key to understanding TK is to understand the mechanics behind it. Each of the MOBS in the effect are repelled. How they are repelled and in what direction depends on their orientation to you. An Example:

Remember in Highschool when they taught you that all angled force could be broken down into two seperate perpendicular forces?

This can help you understand why the corners are the first thing to come out of TK, and how to solve this.

The trick to getting the enemies to clump is to use corners to funnel them. The corners can be big.

Like this one,

or small,

like this one.

In either case, you need to find a corner or small area to herd them into. Try to find corners everywhere, look over areas, corners are not always obvious. Here are a few examples.

A nook in a building

A bus stop

Using objects

Where two corners meet

An indentation for a doorway

Another Person

PRELIMINARY TK METHODS

Using Telekinesis properly requires quite a bit of practice. Getting to the level where you feel comfortable enough to use Telekinesis regularly in a group can seem quite daunting. The trick to getting to that point is to experiment and train on your own. First, I will set down a simple training regimen. Then I will go over simple strategies to apply once you are comfortable with TK.

1. Starting out. So you have a bright and shiny new power in Telekinesis, but you are wondering how to use it. First thing you are going to do is find some lonely enemies and play with them. Find a single spawn, (not a boss) and use TK on it, get used to the speed at which they get repelled, get used to the amount of Endurance drain and the amount of time you have to work with. Get used to steering the enemy around, start aiming for things and shooting the enemies off, treat it like a game, start out by correcting your shots as they fly, then try to aim well enough to not need to. This will help you get used to the period at the start of TK where you can't move.

Here you can see me taking a single enemy and aiming for a bus stop. I miss, so I have to adjust the flight path.

Getting used to TK

Adjusting the aim

Here you can see me aiming an enemy for the tree in the background.

Shooting for the tree

Hitting it

Checking my aim

Lastly get used to moving mobs just a small distance, so that you can move them around battle fields, this is one of the major uses for TK.


2. Working with multiple enemies. Next you are going to work with multiple enemies at once. Start yourself off by shooting one enemy into another.

Moving him in.

Hitting the second one.

Deflecting off each other

Next you are going to learn to deal with the infectious aura of Telekinesis. Try hitting one enemy with another, then keeping them together as long as possible.

Here I use the same enemies to practice, you want to get to the point where you can take a few enemies as far as you want.

Hitting the first

Picking up the second enemy

Taking the two across an open area

Keeping them together

Taking them along a wall

Finally into a corner


3. Working with larger groups. Next move to Perez park or the Hollows, they are full of groups of enemies just standing next to corners. First you want to take a group that is near a corner and easily move them in. If you get stragglers don't worry, that is why you are practicing.

First find a group and clump it up with Confuse, then hold it in place, this is about as easy as you can make a group.

clump it.

Then put it in the corner

Next find a group that is already sort of clumped, sleep it, then find the best point to put it into the corner.

Just like this.

Once you have the easy groups mastered, start taking harder groups on, always use sleep to let you line up the shot.

Moving up to harder groups

Putting it away

Next you want to move your way up to groups that require adjusting as part of their controlling, here we can see a group that needs to be put against a wall before it is put into the corner.

This groups is too odd to take directly to the corner

So we put it against the wall first

allowing us to swing and ready them for the corner

This practice will at first create lots of stragglers, use this time to learn a new strategy: use Confusion on the stragglers and they will put themselves into the TK field while trying to enter melee range

Here we see the mob confused

Here we see him approaching the group

and finally in the group


4. Mopping up stragglers and becoming advanced. Start trying to use your secondary powers to herd enemies into Telekinesis. We already saw how Confusion can be used to bring enemies in, now try out gale, Hurricane, forcebolt, repel, repulsion field, force bubble, and repulsion bomb. It is during this time that you want to get bolder and bolder, trying harder and harder groups. After you are completely satisfied with your comfort level here, you are ready for the big leagues: fast paced grouping.


ADVANCED TK METHODS

1. Clumping with TK in the open. To clump with Telekinesis in the field you are going to have to learn pin point timing with the skill, this takes practice. I prefer to do the clumping in 3 steps. First we prime the enemies with a Hold. Then we put the enemies in a line with a short burst of Telekinesis.

Step two

Then from the side, using another short burst, we clump them.

Step three


2. The zig zag, or sweeping the corridor. This method involves using your TK anchor as a sort of broom to sweep up enemies along a hallway and deposit them in the back corner. For this technique it is imperative that you can keep up TK forever, as you will be keeping a ton of enemies in it.

To begin with, we will look at the concept behind the technique and then I will show you it in practice.

First you begin with a fairly loose knit group and you TK them straight on.

How it looks at the beginning

This creates a flattening effect, just like the beginning of the open field clumping.

Putting them in line

Next, keeping TK on, you sweep to the side, beginning to corral them and push them toward the wall.

Now begin the sweep

Now, you pull closer to them and flatten them against the wall.

Readying them for the clumping

Lastly, you pull yourself against the wall, clumping up the once flattened group.

A nicely clumped group

In game, it looks something like this.

Starting them off with TK

Bringing them in line

Beginning the sweep

Using an extra sweep to grab stragglers

Sweeping up the consolidated group

Bringing them into the corner

Tightening up the group

Practice this a lot, it looks a lot easier than it is, and it is even harder when people's lives are on the line. But doing it right, and the reaction your group gives you, is more than worth it. Remember, you might have to sweep multiple times and move with deliberate speed. If you go too fast you will make the group come apart, too slow and it will slowly erode.



3. The repel wall and repel resistant mobs.

You can use TK for many purposes that are not in any way like the others. One way is to create a repel wall to seperate enemies.

Let's say that you come upon a group of Devouring Earth, and you use Total Domination on them.

Unfortunately they have dropped an Eminator and they are all brought out of hold.

Drop TK on the eminator. This creates a repel wall that half of the group can't pass. Now the group is split in two.

Now bring half the group around the corner to be finished off in piecemeal

In game it can look something like this:

Seperating the group

Then finishing in piecemeal

This tactic can work with any Repel Resistant MOBS, like DE Eminators or Carnie Strongmen.



4. Bringing the boss out. Or Reseting the TK.

This tactic works only if you have a boss as the anchor for TK. Bosses will only stay in TK as long as they have another hold on them. If you let the hold on them lapse then they will begin to slowly try to attack you, though they still will be slightly repelled. You can use this to your advantage, if you are daring or very good with TK. When the boss stops being held take a few steps back to allow the repel effect on him to fade, he will then walk out a bit. Use this opportunity to mop up any stragglers.

I think of this tactic as a last resort. I would much rather simply have another teammate herd the enemies in, (with a taunt or repel effect), or do it myself, with TP foe or a repel effect.



GENERAL RULES OF THUMB FOR TK
1) Don't TK out of your sight, if you can't see the enemies in TK you are just asking for them to move by and aggro all sorts of nasties.

2) Don't just TK one enemy, unless it's a boss. Your expectation should be to get at least 3 enemies in TK, less than that and you are probably wasting endurance.

3) Long TKs are harder to do, and much more dangerous. Start with easy TKs and work your way up,

here is an example of a good group to start with.

Remember no one is good with Telekinesis right away, you are going to miss a few mobs even when it seems like and easy TK. You will get better though. If you could have seen me Telekinesis at level 12 you would have thought it the worst power in the game.


Suppliments and General Knowledge to keep in Mind with TK

1. End Reduction enhancements. TK has a base cost of 3 endurance per second. End reduction enhancers can signifigantly reduce this cost, here is how much it will cost with end reducers:

Single Origin Enhancers:
1. 2.25 per second
2. 1.80 per second
3. 1.50 per second
4. 1.29 per second
5. 1.13 per second
6. 1.00 per second

Dual Origin Enhancers
1. 2.57 per second
2. 2.25 per second
3. 1.99 per second
4. 1.80 per second
5. 1.63 per second
6. 1.50 per second

As you can see, you get diminishing returns, in my opinion it is still worth it to bring it to 6 or atleast 5. most people prefer 3 though, and that is a very good choice.

2. Using /bind with TK. TK still has no animation to define its anchor. To combat this I suggest using the /bind command. To use the letter T on your keyboard as the button for Telekinesis then you would type in this /bind t powexec_name Telekinesis, To add something to tell your group which enemy is the anchor for TK, just type this in: /bind t powexec_name telekinesis$$ group $target is the anchor for TK, kill it last. What this will do is every time you cast Telekinesis you will say "blank" is the target for TK, kill it last, where "blank" is whatever creature you are targetting. So if I were to target a crey medic with TK, my group would hear in the group channel "medic is the anchor for TK, kill it last. You can make your character say whatever you want, but I would recommend saying something, it will keep your TKs from falling as much.

A NOTE ON DIFFICULTY LEVELS

I have found the difficulty levels to be a great boon to Grouping, and as such, a great boon to Mind controllers. I would suggest turning your's up, Unyielding if you like lots of enemies, and Invincible if you like them hard, or if you just like yelling "I am invincible!"

A MASS HYPNOSIS PRIMER

To go over Mass Hypnosis in depth would require incredible amounts of time, and more work than I am willing to do. However, I am willing to spend a little time talking about one of the more unappreciated tools in the mind controller's tool kit.


1. Mass Hypnosis is not a primary combat tool like Total Domination. It is a mistake to think of it as such. It would closer to true if we called it a combat suppliment. It is like support for the support class. What you are going to use Mass Hypnosis for is secondary crowd control. The first and most obvious use for Mass Hypnosis, is to keep another group from aggroing while you are attacking one near it. An example:

You come upon two groups.

you Sleep the first with mass hypnosis

Then Hold the second and go to work.

I call this the stay safe

2. Use Mass Hypnosis to stop a group that has aggroed on the team. If the second group from the former example had aggroed during the middle of the fight you would throw MH on it to keep the battle less chaotic.

3. When the enemies have clearly split themselves into 2 groups, one doing ranged attacks, the other doing melee. Your group is more than likely to forget about the ranged attackers for a little while. Because of this, you can drop a Mass Hypnosis on them and get away with it. The trick here is being able to recognize when your group is not focusing on a group of enemies.

4. The fourth use for Mass Hypnosis is a little more Dangerous. Some people like to use Mass Hypnosis as a primer for Total Domination, this is a good idea, (though it does keep you from using Mass Hypnosis if another group aggros), but its main drawback is that your team must know that you are doing it, otherwise the team will just start blasting, figuring you have hit the enemies with a hold. this will be especially bad because it will give all the aggro to the blasters, the squishiest of the group. So, only use this idea if your team is ready for it.

That plan becomes much safer in the levels after 32 when you are teaming with blasters. A good blaster with a fully slotted level 32 blast can take out a group of +1s in one hit. If they hit the enemies they are dead. So why do we care if sleep is broken on the ones hit? This technique is useful because it keeps our main holds ready.

5. Use Mass hypnosis in preperation for Telekinesis. worried about closing to range? Just hit them with a MH, then take your time, make sure you use Telekinesis from the best angle. You can also use Mass Hypnosis as a place holder for Telekinesis. You don't like how many of the enemies you got in TK? just drop TK, then hit them with MH, (the timing is a little tricky), then mop up the rest of the enemies with TK. bringing them to the ones you have already slept.

6. Lastly, you can Use Mass Hypnosis in a long battle, especially one that has gotten chaotic. Throw down mass Hypnosis, and it will calm the battle down a little, enough to let your team take a breather or for them to reorganize.

This of course is just a primer, there is much more to know on Mass Hypnosis, I am just not the one to be writing about it.

TACTICS

The difference between a bad mind controller and a good one comes entirely from tactical knowledge.

To begin with you will want to understand that AoE damage is your friend. I have heard many, many mind controllers constantly complain about Blasters breaking their Sleeps with AoE damage. I have even seen them declare moratoriums on AoE powers. They are cheating themselves: AoE damage is the best thing going in this game, it is an exp machine. Everything you do should be structured around facilitating AoE damage. To do that you must understand a few things.

GROUPING ENEMIES
Enemies should be kept in tight groups, this means hitting them early with an AoE hold before they can spread out, or waiting for the tanker to get them to clump before using your holds. Do not hit them with hold until the tanker tells you to. Remember, the closer enemies are together, the easier it is to hit all of them with one AoE.

NO SLEEPS IN THE KILLING ZONE
This is hard for most Mind controllers to understand, but I am going to repeat it, don't use sleep in the killing zone unless you have to. It's going to get broken. Use it to keep adds out of the way, use it to keep the team from aggroing nearby groups, use it as a calming agent in a very hectic battle, but don't even think of using it anywhere near the Focus of the group.

KEEP THE BOSSES WITH THEIR GROUPS
When you approach a group, find the boss, center the AoE on him, and follow with a single target right away, this way the boss won't bolt from the group and create chaos, keep him in the group.

WATCH FOR STRAGGLERS
Start noticing who you missed with the initial AoE hold and try and hit them with single targets immediately. 2 or 3 stragglers nearly double the time it takes to finish off a group.


SINGLE TARGET WORK

Being able to switch between AoE holds and a few single target holds in quick succession will save you time and frustration. To do this you will have to understand a few basic concepts. The first among these is place holders.

Place holders will keep an enemy out of the fight until a real hold can come up. Examples of place holders are Mass Hypnosis, Mass Confusion, Confusion, Telekinesis and the king of place holders, Levitate.

Early on, levitate will do damage for you, but later on damage is the farthest thing from your mind. So what do you do with levitate? Well, you use it as a place holder. It is highly accurate, has a good recharge time, stops any enemy in the game in their tracks. It takes Enemies out of the combat for a few seconds, just long enough for Dominate to recharge. In addition, it can be used even when AoE damage is flying everywhere. Here is an example of Juggling using levitate as a place holder:

At the start we have 1 boss and one Minion.

First we use Dominate on the boss.

Then we Levitate him.

Finish up the controlling with another Dominate.

Dominate isn't recharged, so we levitate the minion

Then we dominate him too.

Finally we have 2 controlled mobs.

Remember you always go after the boss first, you cannot take a hit from one these days, and they are going to take 2 holds to go under.


To this end levitate remains one of your common powers throughout the whole game. With this method, a really sharp player can juggle 4 enemies until they are all in hold. Practice, because it pays.

Another quick placeholder is Telekinesis, hit a boss with a hold, then TK them for a couple of seconds, then follow with another hold. IF you are really sharp, you can use this while you are herding with TK.

Next, It is important to understand that you need to stack holds on bosses. Crowd control is rated by magnitude, and you need 4 levels of magnitude to hold a boss. Our holds are only levels 2 and 3 though, so we must stack them on bosses to achieve a level 4 magnitude. What this basically means, is that you are going to need to hit a boss with two holds.

Another lesson. One that is hard to learn, because it requires discipline in regards to your reflexes: Sometimes it is best not to hold a MOB. Sometimes you need to wait a few seconds until they have moved closer to the rest of the enemies, or further from unaggroed ones. A trick for moving mobs, if you move out of the enemies line of sight, they will move toward you in an effort to regain it.

Lastly, always remember to renew your holds, try to work through them in an intelligent manner, hitting those that have been held the longest first.


AOE WORK

AoE is much simpler, and it only builds upon what you have already learned, a couple of things though. Don't be a hero, let the tanker go in first. Hit the group with an AoE first, then follow up with singles. The other way round lets you get a free sample of local dirt specimens. Be safe, don't make your defender cry, cause when they do, fairies die, or something like that.

A strategy that I have seen used effectively many times is called the corner pull. This strategy is dependant on a cooperative group and an effective puller. Basically, what you do is this:

First you stand around a corner from some mobs. Then you send out your puller, making sure that the entire team stays out of the MOBs line of sight.

Here we see the team hiding, and the puller, in place.

After the Puller has the enemies aggro he runs around the corner, making them lose line of sight to him.

This will make the enemies clump up at the corner.

This works because the enemies are all still trying to move along a straight path to the puller, thus making them clump against the wall. As soon as the mobs are clumped, the controller springs out and holds them. Then the team can go to work. This strategy really comes into its own when used by an Earth controller. Their quicksand creates even more clumping at the corner, then they don't even have to gain aggro as they use their volcanic gases to hold the enemies. The key here is to remember to keep the team hidden, one stray person moving out before the enemies are held will quickly undo all the work.

CONFUSION CLUMPING

In a group where you are going slow enough to keep Mass confusion in your pocket, a strategy presents itself. The strategy is simple, use Mass confusion to clump up the enemies. This works because the enemies will naturally want to close to melee range with each other. What this means, is that you can use Mass Confusion on more spread out groups, clumping them up to keep the same speed that your group is used to. If you are worried about the Exp loss, (which you shouldn't be) just drop Total domination on top of the group after it has clumped.

SKILLS


MESMERIZE
In other games, (DAoC, Everquest, etc, etc) Mesmerize and its ilk were the modus operandi of crowd control. In CoH things are different, battles are more hectic, AoE is thrown around a lot, and many enemies are being fought at the same time. No one has time to check and see if there are little Zs coming off the enemy's head. With this in mind, Sleeping an enemy in the vicinity of the killing is like holding him for about 3 seconds. I do not recommend taking mesmerize. Sleep has its uses, it is just better to use Mass Hypnosis to fulfill them.

LEVITATE
Mesmerize isn't that good and Levitate is useful early on for some damage. So take it. Later on, you can use it for a more complex task.

DOMINATE
The skill you will find yourself using most often. You will need to get it as soon as possible and 6 slot it.

CONFUSE
The single target Confuse is really a matter of taste. I dislike it, but others find it to be invaluable. Take it and try it out, if you don't like it, you can always respec it out.

MASS HYPNOSIS
Sleep sucks in the kill zone, but it is a great secondary tool, made worthy in this AoE version. It will be a viable combat tool before you get total domination. It has a good place in the tool kit of a smart mind controller, and I will cover its basics later. You should have 2-3 slots in this, it needs 2 accuracy, and it could use a recharge depending on taste.

TELEKINESIS
It's the best skill in mind control. Its power is completely based on your personal skill with it, so practice; I mean it. If you screw up with Telekinesis you can kill your party, and you don't want that hanging around your neck.

TOTAL DOMINATION
Your mainstay, use it. Use it a lot. six slot it.

TERRIFY
Issue 3 has made this a good back up hold. It is by no means as good as Total Domination, Mass confusion, or Telekinesis, but it does have its place. Its main advantage is its quick recast time. At 20 seconds you can throw out this power and feel no guilt at all. I usually throw it right after Total Domination just to pick up any I might have missed. I once 6 slotted this, but I have found that to be extravagent. Unless you are using terrify for damage, it really only needs 3 slots: 2 acc and 1 recharge.

What Terrify hasn't done is bring us into the soloing main. Its damage is just not enough to be much more than supplementary.

MASS CONFUSE
It is a bit bad for a level 32 power. I use it as a second hold in a somewhat regular rotation with Total domination. A good group will kill so fast that the experience penalty will be negligible. Six slot this power.

New changes to Confuse have made this power better, (The enemies now buff and heal you as they would their friends.) Still, Mass confusion is not comparable to other 9th powers, like Fire imps, EMP, Nova, or Phantasms.


OTHER SKILLS

Stamina: take it. Take it by level 20. Take it and slot it up. This means you are going to have to take some fitness powers early, so do so.

Hasten: You need it. Take Hasten, have it six slotted by level 22. A note about these two powers: I have heard many people say that you don't need them, but as I went higher in levels I found that less and less people were without haste and stamina. I also found that grouping became faster and easier, I would like to think that this is not a coincidence.

Take some defensive powers too, starting in your thirties it will seem like you are made of paper, you need to be able to survive. Combat jumping, maneuvers and stealth are all great choices for keeping your butt out of the fire.

A GUIDE TO MIND CONTROL

Mind control is the least common controller primary. There are many reasons for this, such as: 1) Limited soloability. 2) Lack of a pet spell. 3) A situational skill that is very risky, and 4) A play style that easily comes in conflict with the style of others. All of these things create a challenge to the brave player that picks up the mind control primary.

I am writing this guide because I love playing a mind controller, and because I think (under the right circumstances) they are the best group Controller. A couple of things about this guide though, I am writing a guide with the sole purpose of getting exp fast with the mind control type. I find that earning exp fast, but also in a challenging way, is the most rewarding experience in CoH. In all cases I will be making choices to maximize combat effectiveness. This means that I will be taking a hard line on certain skills, powers, and types of play, as I believe in being as efficient as possible with a character build. To Restate, this is not a Solo Guide, if you want a solo guide, ask some of the board members for advice, many of them have a great background with soloing a Mind controller.

PLAY STYLE

"This above all-to thine own self be true"
-Polonius, Hamlet

Shakespeare said it then, it's still true today; don't try to be what your not. As a mind controller you are good at crowd control. You are not damage, you are not healing. Do not, do not act like you are. Make your character about Crowd control, make it about being good for your group. If you want to be good outside a group, then may I recommend a good fire/rad build?

To this end, you will want to focus on making the group work faster, smoother, and more efficiently. This means having holds ready, quickening the pace, not fretting about AoE casters, not making the group stop to recover end, and most importantly, locking down the enemies quickly. Use your control to Contain the MOBs, watch for stragglers, group the enemies to the best of your ability, work with the tank to create the easiest fights, and make sure that everything stays under control. Anything beyond that is a waste of your time, someone else in the group should be doing it; that's why it's called a group. I will cover Nuances of situations and skill based strategy in depth later. First let's talk about skills.

There are two ways to solve this problem, one of them is bold, the other requires a really keen eye.

The bold one requires you to start the TK on an enemy a little far from the action. He then becomes the catalyst for the group you want to control and herd, allowing you to control from the very beginning. But you very rarely have this luxury as a mind controller.

The second option is to account for the straight start you are going to have to deal with. I tend to only sweep in corridors, this helps deal with the limitation. Another way of dealing with it is to use secondary powers to help in the clumping, (such as Gale, repel, some forcefield powers, Hurricane, and others.)

I have been trying to deal with that problem myself. And now that I am off set for a few days, I might update the guide, complete with exercises for learning TK.

Hedon

I have read through your guide a few times Cforce, and I was just quietly admiring it when I remembered how much it meant to me when people came and said my guide was good. So, here I am, showing up to tell you that you have produced another towering work from the mind controller community, a work of steadiness and intellect, something we can all be proud of. Good work, you make me proud to be a mind controller.

Hedon

My take on Rad powers used in conjuction with mind is simple.

AM is great, it helps with Telekinesis, it buffs your allies, it is just nice, I made it perma as soon as Hasten was perma.

EF and RI are incredible, I try to drop them right after I am done with primary control, Depending on the speed of the group, I drop EF first (fast groups) or RI first (slower groups).

LR I just added to the build and I use it to help out in many situations: Multiple bosses, AVs, monsters, chaotic fights, I could go on and on. Mainly I use it whenever my holds aren't enough.

EMP, how many ways can I say "I love EMP" there is nothing quite like a huge hold you can keep tucked up your sleeve for the bad times.

RA, well I had to take it, but I use it to get team mates out of sleep.

Other notes, LR, RI and EF on a group is almost a hold, and RI+ Terrify is quite powerful.

TK can be used it bursts to herd held guys into your debuffs.

Rad really pays off in the AV fights. Just throw them on.

As far as slotting for the powers, I use this set up.

RA (1 heal) If I could skip it, I would.

AM (4 recharge,2 end rec) for perma, and you can always use more end.

RI (4 acc reduc) It could use 6 slotting, I need to free up some space for it.

EF (2 end reduc) it is a bit heavy on the endurance.

LR (1 acc, 2 slow) 2 slow hits the cap, and that is what we are looking for.

EMP (2 acc, 1 hold, 3 recharge) The recharge on this thing is huge, but so is the hold time.

I hope that helps.

Hedon

On to a couple of other areas. Many People say that Stamina and Hasten are not needed, and I agree. Stamina and Hasten are not needed in the same way that you can build a Mind controller who doesn't use Total Domination. I think it can be done, it is just a bad idea. Of course, if you are a mind/emp, then you can perma Recovery aura and take care of the stamina side of things.

The thing with Levitate versus Mesmerize is this: later in the game Levitate is a very viable tool for juggling, and Mesmerize just doesn't let you do that. With the ramp up of AoE damage in the late game, you are also looking at a smaller and smaller role for Mesmerize. Thus, as mesmerize's power shrinks, in a team setting, so does Levitate's power rise. This is probably the best reason to choose levitate over Mesmerize if you are team mind controller.

Btw. if you are not in a large SG, the way to get into a group is to be proactive about it, broadcast lft, and move around alot. Hit your friends list up, and build a good one.

Hedon

My secondary is Rad. I do have trouble finding a team sometimes. It is just the way of the game. If you have a large SG it is made easier though.

I agree with your extra uses for Mass Hypnosis, and when I update the guide, I will be adding to the section on sleep.

I think our differences in other powers just have to do with play style, I play in larger groups at a fast pace. I am late for a meeting, so I finish the rest of this later.

Hedon

A GUIDE TO MIND CONTROL

Among the various Controller types Mind control is the least common. There are many reasons for this, among them are such prevalent issues as: 1)Little to no solo ability that produces experience in any way comparable to many other classes. 2) The lack of a pet spell at level 32. 3) A situational skill that is very risky, and 4) a seeming disparity between the leaning of the class and the play style promoted by a great deal of the game. All of these things create a challenge to the brave player that picks up the mind control primary.

I am writing this guide because I love playing a mind controller, and I think (under the right circumstances) they can benefit a group better than any other Controller type. A couple of things about this guide though: I am writing a guide with the sole purpose of getting exp fast with the mind control type. I find that earning exp fast, but also in a challenging way is the most rewarding thing to do in CoH. In all cases, I will be making choices to maximize combat effectiveness. This means that I will be taking a hard line on certain skills, powers, and types of play, as I believe in being as efficient as possible with a character build. To Restate, this is not a Solo Guide, if you want a solo guide for Mind control visit angelic_kitten's guide, it is well done, and should cover the basics.


PLAY STYLE

"This above all-to thine own self be true"
-Polonius, Hamlet

Shakespeare said it then, it's still true today, don't try to be what your not. As a mind controller, you are good at crowd control; you are pure control. You are not damage, you are not healing. Do not, do not act like you are. Make your character about Crowd control, make it about being good for your group. If you want to be good outside a group, then may I recommend a good fire/rad build.

To this end, you will want to focus on making the group work faster, smoother, and more efficiently. This means having holds ready, quickening the pace, not fretting about AoE casters, not making the group stop to recover end, and most importantly: locking down the enemies quickly. Use your control to lock things down, watch for stragglers, group the enemies to the best of your ability, work with the tank to create the easiest fights, and make sure that everything stays locked down. Anything beyond that is a waste of your time, someone else in the group should be doing it, that is why it is called a group. I will cover Nuances of situations and Skill based strategy in depth later. First lets talk about skills.



SKILLS


MESMERIZE
Sleep just isn't that good, let's be frank. In other games, (DAoC, Everquest, etc, etc) Mesmerize and its ilk were the modus operandi of crowd control. In CoH things are different though, Battles are more hectic, AoE is thrown around a lot, and many, many, enemies are being fought at the same time. No one has time to check and see if there are little Zs coming off the enemy's head. With this in mind, you can think of sleeping an enemy as holding him for about 3 seconds, and not all that often at that. I do not recommend taking mesmerize.

LEVITATE
Mesmerize isn't that good and Levitate is useful early on for some damage. So take it. Later on, you can use it for a more complex task, that I will talk about later.

DOMINATE
The skill you will find yourself using most often. You will need to get it as soon as possible, and 6 slot it.

CONFUSE
Good early on, but it dwindles in power fast. There are better things to spend your hard earned skills on. If you plan on using a respec, then pick it up with the plan of dropping it.

MASS HYPNOSIS
OK, So sleep sucks, but you know, it can have its uses, and is made worth it in this AoE version, especially as a tool in combination with Total dominate. Heck, it's pretty good at earlier levels when grouping with scrappers. Still, I think that slots are better spent elsewhere. It has a good place in the tool kit of a smart mind controller, and I will cover its basics later.

TELEKINESIS
It's the best skill in mind control. It is just that simple. Its power is completely based on your personal skill with it, so practice. I mean it. If you screw up with Telekinesis you can kill your party, and you don't want that hanging around your neck.

MASS DOMINATE
Your mainstay, use it. Use it a lot. six slot it.

TERRIFY
Issue 3 has made this a good back up hold. It is by no means as good as Total Domination, Mass confusion, or Telekinesis, but it does have its place. Its main advantage is its quick recast time. At 20 seconds you can throw out this power and feel no guilt at all. I usually throw it right after Total Domination just to pick up any I might have missed. What I am not sure on yet is what to slot it with. It is not that accurate so, I put in two accuracies, and I like it fast so I put in 2 recharges, on top of that I put 2 cone ranges so that I can be sure I am hitting the whole group. But this is just a first plan, and I think I will find something more useful later on.

What Terrify hasn't done is bring us into the soloing main. Its damage is just not enough to be much more than supplementary.

MASS CONFUSE
As far as level 32 powers go, it is bad. I use it as a back up hold, for adds and such, a good group will kill so fast that the experience penalty will be negligible. Still, not all that great. I would get it, but I wouldn't think of slotting it first on my list. New changes to Confuse have made this power better, (The enemies now buff and heal you as they would their friends.) I still do not think this is enough to make this power the list topper it is.


OTHER SKILLS AND SLOTTING

A couple of quick things. Stamina: take it, for the love of god take it. Take it by level 20. Take it and slot it up. This means you are going to have to take some fitness powers early, so do so. Hasten: Take it: You need it. You need it like super models need heroine. Take Hasten, have it six slotted by level 22, A note about these two powers: I have heard many people say that you don't need them, but as I went higher in levels I found that less and less people were without haste and stamina. I also found that grouping became faster and easier, I would like to think that this is not a coincidence. Take some defensive powers too, starting in your thirties it will seem like you are made of paper, you need to be able to survive. Combat jumping, maneuvers and stealth are all great choices for keeping your butt out of the fire.

Slotting your powers is simple. Is it a hold? 6 slot it. This means that Dominate and Mass Dominate deserve 6 slots, and so does Telekinesis. In both of the dominates' cases you are just going to go with a time honored tradition: 2 accuracy, 2 recharge, and 2 hold duration; Either this, or (if your team moves exceptionally fast), you can consider swapping out one hold duration for another recharge. When it comes to Telekinesis though you are going to want to have the six slots to pay down the exorbitant endurance cost. All six slots should be Endurance cost reduction. Some people might say that since TK is such a situational skill, why should you six slot it, what they fail to recognize is this: when you use TK you are going to need to keep it up forever, that is the beauty of TK, it lets you lock down a segment of the enemies forever. In addition to this, you will increasingly find yourself, keeping a group in TK while being required to do the rest of your Controller functions too, this can be quite draining, and I find that the end reduction helps a lot at times like these.

I have also noticed that some mind controllers like to slot up early powers like Levitate, mesmerize, and mass hypnosis. Honestly, I don't know where they find the slots for it. At level 22 you have 20 slots to spend. 20 slots of which you are going to want to have spent: 4 on Total Domination (as many as you can by then), 5 on Hasten (6 slotting SOs allows it to be a perma-hasten), 5 on Dominate, and 5 on Telekinesis (The endurance cost is the worst at low levels so the slots matter the most early on.) That adds up to 19 slots there, leaving only one slot for even a single secondary power. Finding the time to 6 slot even 1 of the 3 powers some people talk about means that your are robbing from the 4 most powerful skills open to a mind controller. You don't get free slots to throw around until you are level 29, as you will be spending levels 23, 25, and 27 finishing off total domination and 6 slotting up stamina. (though I am a little willing to put stamina on hold for just a little while to power a really good secondary, (like RA, or AM). Later on, of course, slots become much more prevalent. It is at this time that your secondary catches up, but even now I cannot see six slotting levitate or Mesmerize, as the damage output of your mind controller has gone so far down compared to the life of the mobs. I just cannot see putting slots into those powers.


TACTICS

The difference between a bad mind controller and one who over comes the odds (and is good), comes entirely from tactical knowledge, and skill with powers.

To begin with you will want to understand that AoE damage is your friend. I have heard many, many mind controllers constantly complain about Blasters breaking their Sleeps with AoE damage. I have even seen them declare moratoriums on AoE powers. They are cheating themselves: AoE damage is the best thing going in this game, it is an exp machine. Everything you do should be structured around facilitating AoE damage. To do that you must understand a few things.

GROUPING ENEMIES
Enemies should be kept in tight groups, this means hitting them early with AoE hold before they can spread out, or waiting for the tanker to get them to clump before hitting the enemies. Do not hit them with hold until the tanker tells you to. Remember, the closer enemies are together, the easier it is to hit all of them with one AoE.

NO SLEEPS IN THE KILLING ZONE
This is hard for most Mind controllers to understand, but I am going to repeat it, don't use sleep unless you have to. It's going to get broken. Use it to keep adds out of the way, use it to keep the team from aggroing nearby groups, use it as a calming agent in a very hectic battle, but don't even think of using it anywhere near the Focus of the group.

KEEP THE BOSSES WITH THEIR GROUPS
When you approach a group, find the boss, center the AoE on him, and follow with a single target right away, this way the boss won't bolt from the group and create chaos, keep him in the group.

WATCH FOR STRAGGLERS
Start noticing who you missed with the initial AoE hold, and try and hit them with single targets immediately. 2 or 3 stragglers nearly double the time it takes to finish off a group.

Next a little back to basics for first time controllers.

SINGLE TARGET WORK

Being able to switch between AoE hold and a few single target holds in quick succession will save you time and frustration. To do this you will have to understand a few basic concepts. The first among these is place holders. Place holders will keep an enemy out of the fight until a real hold can come up. Examples of place holders are Mass Hypnosis, Mass Confusion, Confusion, Telekinesis (Sometimes), and Levitate, yea levitate. Early on, levitate will do damage for you, but later on damage is the farthest thing from your mind, so what do you do with levitate? Well, you use it as a place holder. It is highly accurate, has a good recharge time, stops an enemy in their tracks, and it takes them out of the combat for a few seconds, just long enough for Dominate to recharge,in addition it can be done even when AoE damage is flying everywhere. An example: You come upon two enemies in a mission, you hold the first one, quickly levitate the second, and as he hits the ground, you hit him with a hold. Or you can use it on a boss: Hit him with hold, then levitate, then hold again. The boss never gets to move, and is now quite safely held, at least for the moment.
To this end levitate remains one of your common powers throughout the whole game. With this method, a really sharp player can juggle 4 enemies until they are all in hold. Practice, because it pays.
The next concept I am going to need new players to understand is this: Bosses need more holds. You have to stack holds on bosses, and they are quicker to come out of holds on top of that. 2 holds should do it, and about half the time you get lucky and the hold automatically upgrades itself to the point where it gets a boss on the first try.Similarly lieutenants are harder to lock down, because holds have a shorter duration on them. On a side note, a good thing about Telekinesis is that it continuously keeps a boss at one hold, allowing much easier holding.
Lastly, always remember to renew your holds, try to work through them in an intelligent manner, hitting those that have been held the longest first.

With The new Boss changes it becomes even more important to be able to juggle well. If the only arguement for Levitate over Mesmerize is that it can stop a boss in his tracks just long enough to allow for another dominate, then I would consider it good enough. The newly more powerful bosses can easily one shot you if you are not careful. Here is an example of Juggling:

At the start we have 1 boss and one Minion.

First we use Dominate on the boss.

Then we Levitate him.

Finish up the controlling with another Dominate.

Dominate isn't recharged, so we levitate the minion

Then we dominate him too.

Finally we have 2 controlled mobs.

Remember you always go after the boss first, you cannot take a hit from one these days, and they are going to take 2 holds to go under.

AOE WORK

AoE is much simpler, and it only builds upon what you have already learned, a couple of things though. Don't be a hero, let the tanker go in first. Hit the group with AoE First, then follow up with singles, the other way round lets you get a free sample of local dirt specimens. Be safe, don't make your defender cry, cause when they do, fairies die, or something like that.

A MASS HYPNOSIS PRIMER

To go over Mass Hypnosis in depth would require incredible amounts of time, and more work than I am willing to do. However, I am willing to spend a little time talking about one of the more unappreciated tools in the mind controller's tool kit.


First, Mass Hypnosis is not a primary combat tool like Total Domination. It is a mistake to think of it as such. It would closer to true if we called it a combat suppliment. It is like support for the support class. What you are going to use Mass Hypnosis for is secondary crowd control. The first and most obvious use for Mass Hypnosis, is to keep another group from aggroing while you are attacking one near it. An example:

You come upon two groups.

you Sleep the first with mass hypnosis

Then Hold the second and go to work.

I call this the stay safe

The second use for Mass Hypnosis is to stop a group that has aggroed on the team, if the second group from the former example had aggroed during the middle of the fight, you would throw MH on it, to keep the battle less chaotic.

The third use for Mass Hypnosis is a little more Dangerous. Some people like to use Mass Hypnosis as a primer for Total Domination, this is a good idea, (though it does keep you from using Mass Hypnosis if another group aggros), but its main drawback is that your team must know that you are doing it, otherwise the team will just start blasting, figuring you have hit the enemies with a hold. this will be especially bad because it will give all the aggro to the blasters, the squishiest of the group. So, only use this idea if your team is ready for it.

Lastly, you can Use Mass Hypnosis in a long battle, especially one that has gotten chaotic. Throw down mass Hypnosis, and it will calm the battle down a little, enough to let your team take a breather or for them to reorganize.

This of course is just a primer, there is much more to know on Mass Hypnosis, I am just not the one to be writing about it.



A SPECIAL GUIDE ON TELEKINESIS

I have heard of, but never seen another mind controller use Telekinesis well, and I have yet to see a guide that explicitly laid down the frame work for using telekinesis well. In that vein, I have written this special guide.

Telekinesis is the best skill mind controllers get, if you are not using it, you are wasting your character. It is very much a skill that reflects on the players skill. It doesn't have much of a middle ground either, you either succeed wonderfully, or horribly fail. The way TK works is complex. It is a toggle and never misses. It places an repel effect on one target, this target projects a very small aura that spreads the repel and the aura to its neighbors. If at any time an enemy is repelled out of an adjacent aura, then he comes out of TK, and acts freely. Here are a few screen shots of Telekinesis in action.

hitting the first target

picking up the second

and the third

See how the anchor can pick up more people and how these people in turn create auras to grab neighbors? This can be bad, as repel powers are notorious for spreading out enemies, and that is against our stated goal of grouping enemies. But if you use it in the right situation you can group the enemies using TK and, in turn keep them held forever.

The key to understanding TK is to understand the mechanics behind it. Each of the MOBS in the effect are each repelled. How they are repelled and it what direction depends on their orientation to you. An Example:

Remember in Highschool where they taught you that all angled force could be broken down into two seperate perpendicular forces?

This can help you understand why the corners are the first thing to come out of TK, and how to solve this.

The trick to getting the enemies to clump is to use corners to funnel them. The corners can be big.

Like this one.

Or small,

Like this one.

In either case, you need to find a corner, or small area to herd them into. Try to find corners everywhere, look over areas, corners are not always obvious, here are a few examples.

A nook in a building

A bus stop

Using objects

Where two corners meet

An indentation for a doorway

Another Person


ADVANCED TK METHODS

1. Clumping with TK in the open. To clump with Telekinesis in the field you are going to have to learn pin point timing with the skill, this takes practice. I prefer to do the clumping in 2 steps. First get the enemies in a line.

Step one

Then, from the side, clump them.

Step two


2. The zig zag, or sweeping the corridor. This method involves using your TK anchor as a sort of broom to sweep up enemies along a hallway and deposit them in the back corner. For this technique it is imperative that you can keep up TK forever, as you will be keeping a ton of enemies in it.

To begin with, we will look at the concept behind the technique and then I will show you it in practice.

First you begin with a fairly loose knit group and you TK them straight on.

How it looks at the beginning

This creates a flattening effect, just like the beginning of the open field clumping.

Putting them in line

Next, keeping TK on, you sweep to the side, beginning to corral them an push them toward the wall.

Now begin the sweep

Now, you pull closer to them and flatten them against the wall.

Readying them for the clumping

Lastly, you pull yourself against the wall, clumping up the once flattened group.

A nicely clumped group

In game, it looks something like this.

Starting them off with TK

Bringing them in line

Beginning the sweep

Using an extra sweep to grab stragglers

Sweeping up the consolidated group

Bringing them into the corner

Tightening up the group

Practice this a lot, it looks a lot easier than it is, and it is even harder when people's lives are on the line. But doing it right, and the reaction your group gives you is more than worth it. Remember that you might have to sweep multiple times, and to move with deliberate speed, if you go too fast you will make the group come apart, too slow and it will slowly erode.



3. The repel wall and repel resistant mobs.

You can use TK for many purposes that are not in any way like the others. One way is to create a repel wall to seperate enemies.

Lets say that you come upon a group of Devouring Earth, and you use Total Domination on them.

Unfortunately they have dropped an Eminator and they are all brought out of hold.

Drop TK on the eminator, this creates a repel wall that half of the group can't pass. Now the group is split in two.

Then bring half the group around the corner to be finished off in piecemeal

In game it can look something like this:

Seperating the group

Then finishing in piecemeal

This tactic can work with any Repel Resistant MOBS, like DE Eminators or Carnie Strongmen.



4. Bringing the boss out. Or Reseting the TK.

This tactic works only if you have a boss as the anchor for TK. Bosses will only stay in TK as long as they have another hold on them. If you let the hold on them lapse then they will begin to slowly try to attack you, though they still will be slightly repelled. You can use this to your advantage, if you are daring or very good with TK. When the boss stops being held take a few steps back to allow the repel effect on him to fade, he will then walk out a bit. Use this opportunity to mop up any stragglers.

I think of this tactic as a last resort. I would much rather simply have another teammate herd the enemies in, (with a taunt or repel effect), or do it myself, with TP foe or a repel effect.



GENERAL RULES OF THUMB FOR TK
1) Don't TK out of your sight, if you can't see the enemies in TK you are just asking for them to move by and aggro all sorts of nasties.

2) Don't just TK one enemy, unless it is a boss. your Expectation should be to get at least 3 enemies in TK, less than that and you are probably wasting endurance.

3) Long TKs are harder to do, and much more dangerous. Start with easy TKs and work your way up,

here is an example of a good group to start with.


Suppliments and General Knowledge to keep in Mind with TK

1. End Reduction enhancements. TK has a base cost of 3 endurance per second. End reduction enhancers can signifigantly reduce this cost, here is how much it will cost with end reducers:

Single Origin Enhancers:
1. 2.25 per second
2. 1.80 per second
3. 1.50 per second
4. 1.29 per second
5. 1.13 per second
6. 1.00 per second

Dual Origin Enhancers
1. 2.57 per second
2. 2.25 per second
3. 1.99 per second
4. 1.80 per second
5. 1.63 per second
6. 1.50 per second

As you can see, you get diminishing returns, but in my opinion it is still worth it to bring it to 6 or atleast 5.

2. Using /bind with TK. TK still has no animation to define its anchor. To combat this I suggest using the /bind command. To use the letter T on your keyboard as the button for Telekinesis then you would type in this /bind t powexec_name Telekinesis, To add something to tell your group which enemy is the anchor for TK, just type this in: /bind t powexec_name telekinesis$$ group $target is the anchor for TK, kill it last. What this will do is every time you cast Telekinesis you will say "blank" is the target for TK, kill it last, where "blank" is whatever creature you are targetting. So if I were to target a crey medic with TK, my group would hear in the group channel "medic is the anchor for TK, kill it last. You can make your character say whatever you want, but I would recommend saying something, it will keep your TKs from falling as much.

A NOTE ON DIFFICULTY LEVELS

I have found the difficulty levels to be a great boon to Grouping, and as such, a great boon to Mind controllers. I would suggest turning your's up, Unyielding if you like lots of enemies, and Invincible if you like them hard, or if you just like yelling "I am invincible!"



These of course aren't the only methods open to a mind controller, and if you think that you have something to contribute, just speak up, the mind control community needs all the help it can get to overcome the problems the game has laid at our feet.