Local_Man

Rank in terms of what?

Ranking Secondaries really depends on what you want. Some are certainly more popular than others, but it really depends on your primary and what you want out of your secondary. Are you planning to build for teams or solo? Are you building for Incarnate content or leveling up? How much influence do you plan on spending? Do you want or need damage from your secondary? Do you need more control? Do you need certain types of buffs or debuffs? Do you need certain types of powers? Ranged or melee? How busy is your primary, and how busy do you want your secondary to be?

Your primary has a huge impact on the effectiveness of your secondary. Certain combos have a lot of synergy, while others have little or even some negativey synergy. For example, Illusion is a great primary. Kinetics is a great secondary. But Kinetics lacks the debuffs that help make Phantom Army better, and Phantasm tend to knock foes out of melee when you need them in melee for some Kinetics buffs. And Illusion lacks the AoE damage that makes Kinetics so effective.

Dark Affinity is popular because (a) it is new; (b) many folks have been dreaming of it for a long time; (c) it is pretty darn good. Rad goes well with everything, but some secondary sets have better -Resistance, others have better healing, others have better -ToHit, or better buffs. Time, Cold and Storm are all very popular for good reason. With the new KB-2-KD proc, Storm's Tornado takes a big bump up as a source of control and damage, reducing the chaos from the set. There are still a good number of Kinetics around, but most are the usual Fire/Kin. Most of the newer controllers use */Dark or */Time because they are the newest secondaries.

Rarer secondaries are Sonic, Forcefield and Trick Arrow. Don't see many Therms although it is a nice team support set. I see older Emps, but not many new ones. A few people seem to like Poison, but it is fairly rare, too. Poison is pretty new, but the other versions were pretty unimpressive, so it isn't very popular. (I have a */Poison MM and I really don't care for the Mastermind version.)

With Fire, I would say that Kin and Rad are still tops, as both sets have major synergy with Fire Control. Some folks love Fire/Storm in spite of the endurance issues and some synergy issues. I have a Fire/Time that I started shortly after Time came out, but I have only gotten him up to 28. So far, I think I like Fire/Rad better.

With Illusion, I think there is an ongoing debate for Rad, Dark, Time and Cold. I have all but Dark at 50, and all of them are great. (I also have Ill/TA and Ill/Storm.) Ill/Cold is the best AV killer in my opinion, but not the best in all situtions. My Ill/Rad is still my favorite all around character, but Ill/Time is pretty awesome and has the +Recharge to make it easy to get to Perma-PA. My Ill/Time also has capped S/L defense and high other defenses. Ill/Storm is also very chaotic, but Storm adds powerful debuffs, controls and damaging pseudopets. Ill/TA also gets some good damage from the secondary and has added control and debuffs.

I still love the pairing of Gravity and Storm, but would roll up a Grav/Traps in a second if Traps were proliferated. Grav/Storm was a great solo character, but not great on teams due to the chaos. The recent improvement to Gravity has made it much better.

Ice, Earth and Electric are all low damage control sets, so it really depends on what you want to do with the controller as to which secondary you choose. I love both my Earth/Rad and my Earth/Storm. Earth/Dark would give you massive AoE Defense, Resistance and ToHit debuffs. Ice and Elec both have PB AoE toggle control powers, so you may want to look for a secondary that can add a PB AoE toggle to pair with it, like Rad (Choking Cloud) or Time (Time's Juncture) or maybe Poison (Venomous Gas) -- but not everyone likes that playstyle. Some would prefer to build for Defense, so a set that will add some defense for you, like Dark or Time (or FF) would work.

I haven't tried it or heard much discussion, but I bet that Mind/Dark would be pretty good if you want to do a Mind Controller. Dark and Time will work well with any primary.

There are a lot of opinions about the best secondary for Plant. Rad, Storm, Kin have all been favorites. I haven't seen much discussion about Plant/Time or Plant/Dark, but I bet they would be good, too.

I have a Dark/Dark -- it is a popular combo theme-wise and because both sets came out at the same time, so you could try both in one character. I also rolled up a Dark/Storm, which I expect to be very effective with stacking PB Aoe stuns. Dark is a pretty flexible primary, so it should work well with Time, Rad, Kin and just about everything else.

Movie Flashback: This reminds me of the scene in "Back to School" when Rodney Dangerfield's character turns in a paper on Kurt Vonnegut's works written by Kurt Vonnegut, and the teacher says it is all wrong. It was absurd in that film, and the argument that Heinlein did not know the world and system that he imagined is just as absurd.

I pulled out my Fire/Rad this afternoon and slotted the knockback-2-knockdown proc in Bonfire's only slot . . . and wow. It is sooooo nice. Now I have to figure out how I can squeeze some slots out of my build to add some damage to Bonfire. I only see one slot that I can free up . . .

As a lifelong Heinlein fan, I have to say that Arcanaville nailed it. Verhoven picked a few scenes from the book as an excuse to use the title for a giant bug movie with really, really stupid solders. The satire got mostly lost by the idiocracy.

I would love to see a movie that follows the book. The opening scene with the powered suits vs. the yellow "skinnies" should be awesome.

A couple of quick, small suggestions that might make a pretty big difference:

I believe that Fly does not benefit from Flightspeed, but even if it does, try slotting that Zephyr -Knockback in Fly. Then slot Super speed with a Celerity Stealth. That gives you full invisibility when you want/need it. I find full invisibility VERY valuable with my Grav/Storm . . . the ability to lead Singy into a group while they don't see you is wonderful. For your teams, you will be able to stealth missions when needed -- even if a glowie is surrounded by a few foes, you can pull out Singy to distract them while you hit the glowie.

Granted, you could get full invis several other ways, but putting a Celerity in Super Speed is the simplest.

Unless you spend a lot of time "hoverblasting," I would consider changing Hover for Combat Jumping. It gives you a small amount of defense without having to be in the air, and the immob protection can be lifesaving. I tend to battle with super speed on, letting me run around the battlefield quickly. CJ can be very helpful to prevent being Rooted.

As I finished each book, I tried to guess what would happen in the next book . . . and I was always waaaaay off. So far, George has done a great job at surprising me. I just hope it isn't too long before the next book.

I recall during the first book thinking that this was a series about Ned Stark and his family . . . yeah, right. Then I thought that all the Stark kids would be the focus of the books . . . . so much for Robb. Now I'm pretty sure that as soon as I decide who I think will live and die, it will guarantee that it will go the other way. I think the only one who is safe is probably Tyrion. He's just too much fun.

Hmm. It seems like it would turn Force Bolt into a single target Jolting Chain.

I found with my Grav/Storm that slotting Singy with both +10% Resist procs seemed to make him even tougher to kill. Stacking your defense bubbles with that high resistance might make Singy tough enough to survive a run in with an AV.

You could use 4 Expediant Reinforcement, the other +Resist proc and then maybe an Acc/Dam Hami-O to cap out damage with good accuracy. Granted, you would be giving up any kind of Defense bonus.

I actually liked "The Incredible Hulk" much better than Ang Lee's "Hulk," and was disappointed when I heard that Marvel was dumping Ed Norton for Mark Ruffalo. However, the version of Hulk in the Avengers was the best by far. I think the credit goes to the writers, director, SFX guys and Ruffalo, combined.

I'd love to see a new Hulk movie featuring Ruffalo . . . but I wonder if it might be better if it was some kind of team-up with another hero? Both of the Hulk movies were somewhat similar and the character lends itself always to a "Hulk Smash" conclusion. A partner might make it substantiall different. Hulk and Dr. Strange? Hulk and Black Panther?

Nobody else has tacked this one in the last few days, so I'm going to start. I'm not an expert on Dark/Dark, as I'm still working on mine. But I've been around Controllers for a while and I might be able to add a helpful hint or two. And, no offense, but I think this build needs some work.

You did not explain your playstyle. From the build, I would guess that this is a team-only support-focused build. You only have two powers slotted for damage (Haunt and Umbra Beast), which leads me to the conclusion that you don't intend to do any damage yourself. Some folks like to play that way, but I don't and most don't. Even if I'm mainly playing on teams, I can contribute to the damage and thus help missions get completed faster.

In Mids, take a look at your Recovery and your Endurance usage. Do you see how they are almost even? That means that if you use your powers during a battle, you will be sucking down your endurance very fast and go dry in a very short time. You didn't slot Stamina and didn't slot for any boost in Recovery. A character with no Endurance is pretty useless. You should put 3 slots in Stamina. 2 level 50 EndMod and the Performance Shifter proc is the usual slotting. You may want to add the Miracle proc and the Numina proc in Health. By putting a third slot in Health for a Miracle Heal, you get a Recovery buff bonus and an increase in Regen from the power itself.

Twilight Grasp is a heal that requires a ToHit on a foe. You have no accuracy slotted there, which means you'll miss a lot. I would suggest you 5-slot Touch of the Nictus there instead.

World of Confusion sucks. Pretty much every one agrees that the radius is too small, the duration of the confuse is too short. The Contagious Confusion proc helps some with the duration, but it can't help the too small radius. You took this and skipped Possess? Possess is a no aggro, single target confuse, similar to Illusion's Deceive and Mind's Confuse, but with a cooler animation effect. I strongly recommend taking Possess early in the build. If you can, 5 or 6 slot it with the purple Confuse set.

The purpose of Indomidible Will is to provide you with mez protection. It needs to be slotted with Recharge, not EndRdx.

Past those things, we are getting into "Personal opinion and choice" territory rather than "everybody knows" territory. You have slotted for Defense and Resistance at the expense of various powers. That's a choice, but I prefer to be an effective controller over an invulnerable lump. Dark/Dark has tons of ToHit Debuff, so you really don't need nearly that much Defense or Resistance if you play smart. Plus you have a very powerful heal and a Regen/Recovery buff. Plus, if you control foes before they hit you . . . they can't hit you. Plus, you can use Stealth from Shadowfall (with a Stealth IO or Super Speed for full invisibility) to avoid taking aggro. Plus, debt means almost nothing in this game (other than a few badges), so it's not so bad if you faceplant once in a while. But not everyone agrees with me on that -- lots of folks like to build for Defense, so it is a viable choice.

Since I don't focus so much on Defense, I'm not a fan of using the Fighting Pool on Controllers. I prefer to have more control or even situational powers.

I prefer to have some damage in Dark Grasp and Living Shadows, either using procs or some damage slotting. Fearsome Stare can be slotted for ToHitDebuff instead of Fear, which makes it a great alpha attack. By the time the Fear runs out, you will have been able to apply Darkest Night and Living Shadows, which means that the foes can't move and they will have a lot of trouble hitting you.

I feel having full invisibility is very useful, especially with a PB AoE control like Heart of Darkness. I usually take Super Speed for travel with my Dark Miasma (and Storm and Cold) characters, but you can use a Stealth IO instead. You can lead your pet into battle to draw the aggro, and then hit the group with Heart of Darkness. (Of course, you will also be able to stealth missions.)

You put the Will of the Controller set in HoD -- I put it in Shadow Field with the proc in Living Shadows, but some people would put it in Dark Grasp as the proc provides pretty good damage. Also, if you are building for Defense, the Lockdown set in Shadow Field (like you have it) is pretty nice. Several options there.

If you aren't going to slot Dark Grasp with the Will of the Controller set, you might want to add two more slots to your 4 Baz Gaze for an Acc/Dam and a common Damage IO. This can be a significant source of damage.

That Cloud Senses set? I'd move it to Fearsome Stare or Dark Servant. Fluffy's biggest benefit is his Aoe ToHit Debuff (but he does other nice things, too).

Soul Absorbtion: You have one of the better Heal powers in the game. I would suggest slotting for Recovery rather than Regen.

I could do a build for you, but there are too many personal choices. (and I have run out of time.) Hopefully you might get a few things out of my rambles.

With all these extra slots I'm suggesting, you will have some problems unless you steal some from somewhere else. I would drop the Resistance slotting in Shadowfall and Fade, and probably 4 slot them with Luck of the Gambler.

I would choose a different APP set. I picked Fire for mine because I wanted the damage, but I'm considering going for the Mace PPP.

Did anyone see THIS VIDEO? I thought it was right on point.


I am sadly way behind the rest of you. I don't have HBO, so I am just now catching the first season of GoT on DVD, two episodes at a time, from Netflix. Episodes 5 and 6 should arrive tomorrow.

Playing controllers can be much more complex than the damage-oriented ATs. Each player can develop his or her own playstyle, and that playstyle may be just as effective as another. I mostly like to play my controllers at range . . . unless the powerset has a good reason for me to play in melee, such as Fire, Ice and Electric. Gravity works very well from range, but you also have your PB AoE -ToHit aura from your secondary which would put you in melee if you want to use it a lot. I have an Ill/Time who has that aura, but doesn't use it all that often as I prefer to stay at range most of the time.

The most important thing for a new controller to try things out. See what works for you. Read the guides and the power descriptions and look at City of Data to find out what the powers do, and then experiment to see what playstyle works best.

This is especially true when you get Wormhole. Wormhole is a unique power that can be used well or misused. I have been on teams where I was playing a melee character and some Grav controller kept using Wormhole to take away the foe I was beating on . . . Argh! On the other hand, you can use Wormhole to set up a "death zone" and bring foes into the zone. (This is one of my favorite things to do with my Grav/Storm -- set up Lightning Storm, Singy and Tornado in a corner, then Wormhole in a group and hit them with Freezing Rain and Crushing Field. While the stunned foes flop in place, my pets and I smash them to bits.) Sometimes you need to communicate with teammates to let them know what you are doing. Either type fast or learn to use macros.

General controller tips . . . that's a big topic because each controller plays differently. You have to adjust your playstyle to (a) your powersets - yes, both of them; (b) your team and your team's playstyle, and to a lesser degree (c) your foes. Some controllers provide great AoE control and low damage, like Earth and Electric. Some controllers provide pretty good AoE control and decent AoE damage like Plant and Fire. Gravity has decent single target damage, mostly weak AoE control and almost no AoE damage. It has a great pet and some unique powers that take some work to learn how to use effectively.

When you are playing a scrapper or a brute, you pretty much run in and start beating on things. If you do that with a controller, you will probably be tasting the carpet/dirt quite often. Instead, you need to learn what each of your powers will do, what those powers are best at, and how to use them without getting yourself clobbered. Some controllers have a great "alpha mitigation" power, while others don't. Examples of great "alpha mitigators" are Fire's Flashfire, Earth's Stalagmites, Plant's Seeds of Confusion, Electric's Static Field. Unfortunately Gravity really doesn't have one other than the somewhat situational Wormhole.

Gravity has some good single target damage, but is weak on AoE control. You don't get any "good" AoE control until later in the build -- Wormhole doesn't come until level 26. Using Crushing Field (the AoE Immob) as an initial attack will usually turn all of the aggro against you and the foes will use their ranged attacks on you. Instead of a great "alpha strike," Gravity can rely upon its pet, Singularity (a/k/a "Singy") to draw aggro. Unfortunately, you don't get Singy until level 32. Also, Singy's Repel field tends to be a bit chaotic and throw foes all over the place. In lower levels, it is nice if you can get a teammate to draw the aggro for you, letting you then use your single target attack chain to take down foes.

Time Manipulation is an interesting mix. It has an AoE heal, an AoE slow patch with a chance to hold, a PB AoE toHit debuff toggle, a single target odd foe power, a single target foe hold, a single target ally buff and then an AoE foe debuff, a nice AoE Defense buff and a nice AoE Regen and Recovery buff. I don't know that it has much synergy with Gravity other than thematically.

I would suggest that you consider taking Super Speed and getting a Celerity Stealth IO in it to provide full invisibility. That will allow you to lead your Singy around without being seen. It will also let you scout out the situation to figure out the best place to use Wormhole.

Your key attack chain will be Gravity Distortion ("GD")-Lift-Propel. You may or may not want to add Crush -- Crush used to be more important before the recent changes to Gravity that substantially improved it.

Do you understand "Containment?" Any foe who is Held, Stunned, Slept or Immobilized will take double damage from your attacks. All other forms of control do NOT set Containment. As a result, you always want to start with a Hold, Stun, Sleep or Immob . . . but any foe Slept will wake up as soon as you do an attack, and any foe Immobilized will be able to shoot back. GD is your single target Hold, so you generally want to start your single target attack chain with GD as it sets Containment.

An AoE Immob can both be a help and a problem. Used right, and you keep foes from running away. Used wrong, and you draw aggro from a large group of foes who will use their ranged attacks to kill you. AoE Immob + toHit Debuff means that foes can't run away and can't hit you, so that is a pretty good combo if you can make it work.

There's a start. There's lots more.