Nemu_

Controllers aren't as damage oriented in general as some other ATs. Although some of them can be very good damage dealers later on in the game.

Where they shine most is on teams. If you have friends team with them. It'll make their leveling experience easier with your controls/debuffs and you'll get some nice XP along the way to help yourself level as well. The sidekick system allows you to fight foes way above your level as long as you have a higher level buddy to mentor you.

Plant/Rad is an excellent combination for teaming. Seeds of confusion is a must and makes fights go a lot quicker, and radiation is one of the quintessential debuff secondaries that allows your teammates to kill quicker. If you absolutely need to solo then I would get entangle and slot it for damage and also get a pool attack to supplement your single target attacks. You can also slot roots for damage and spam it since it does damage to multiple foes but that'll really put a hurting on your endurance bar.

Read up on some guides on plant control and radiation emission and get a feel of what the two sets are like and then plan out a build for yourself.

I know for a fact that the blaster in that LGTF was not a fire/eng, but a fire/elec >.>

For mind-link, I went 5 red fortune + 1 rech from the adjusted targetting set. You can get +range def elsewhere.

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Our team leader, the mind/FF, wanted to try tanking Lord Recluse, as he had a very tanky build

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This totally didn't work, as Recluse was able to kill him through his force fields

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He's totally crazy

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This guy must be super embarrassed as he's reading this. Maybe next time he should use two medium purples when trying to tank Recluse, what a noob.

Airman has asked me to run a few katies with his setup. It works, but I find his instructions amusing. The set up works in a 90% fool proof way but any pro knows that the TF benefits a lot from having a few competent blasters to up the damage and to solo the second mission by stealthing up to the mob and bu+aim+ nuke the whole group.

Both times I ran the TF with AA we completed the TF within 40 minutes, not the best record but it's decent for a PuG.

Put that build in the blaster section for more feedback.

P.S. That build won't get you very far this game. You sort of have an idea what a blapper is, but your implementation needs work.

posi, impeded swiftness and trap

the second one is the hardest to get.

Usually I just joust the boss with TF and by the time the mobs react I'll already be out of harms way and the Boss stunned. Then I can proceed to dissect the spawn. The only cost to me is having to run back to the spawn but with combat jumping+hurdle+Super Speed it's not a big drawback.

If I don't have TF yet I have several options against bosses, stack holds on it while kiting it or start off with a power thrust and unload as much damage as I can while it's knocked down. Alternatively stacking a few ice blasts on the boss will slow it's movement and recharge down enough so you can continue kiting it without too much retaliation.

Ice/Storm strategies:

Fun with KB/repel:

Against scattered mobs on a map that provides a corner. Cast slick at the corner and use gale/hurricane to force mobs onto the slick. Particularly useful on office maps. Use hurricane to push mobs that wanders out of debuff patchs back into patch, or to push a new group onto the patch.

Jousting ice slick/freezing rain/glacier:

recommended travel - combat jump/hurdle and superspeed
SS up to mob or jump towards them and then start backpeddaling/jump back or sideways but at the same time cast glacier/ice slick (dropping slick/freezeing rain requires a bit more timing). Do it right and mobs will have minimal reaction against these two attacks.

Basic ice/storm combo-Frostbite + tornado + lightning storm:

Frostbite cancels out the knockback from tornado and lightning storm. Just make sure you reapply frostbite every 10 seconds. For additional damage slot 3 damage procs into frostbite and apply freezing rain liberally.

Group strategy:

Turn AA on (with 3 damage procs and the contagious confusion proc), Freezing rain spawn mid approach land in spawn with frostbite, follow up with fissure, summon tornado/lightning storm as needed, spam frostbite to trigger those damage procs..

This latest update needs more Action Panda. Panda Powah!

Having played 37 levels of elec/fire and having spent most of that time face to face with enemies in pbaoe range, I would have to gauge that the playstyles between elec/fire and fire/fire are pretty similar.

I strongly advocate, having taken the pbaoes from the /fire secondary, the jumping pool for CJ and Acro. There is nothing more annoying and dangerous than to get knocked out of the position that you want to launch your attacks from, especially after popping BU and AIM.

Supression sucks. There is no written rule that dictates that once you run into melee range, you have to stay there. IMO an immobile blaster is a dead blaster sooner or later. I find the combination of CJ and Hurdle to be very useful in getting in - getting out of combat. There is a lot to be said for unsuppressed movement, pvp or not.

Speaking of being mobile, you can joust with pbaoes. It requires timing and a delicate control of your movement but it can be done and you spend only the minimal amount of time in the "danger zone." Fighting Nemesis Jaegers is the perfect example of when one would wish to use this technique. As a bonus, since you have (better than average) unsuppressed movement, you don't have to wait that suck-tastic 4 seconds before regaining your movement abilities to position yourself for your next strike.

Another point on being an aoe blaster, well, really in general. Use your inspirations! Since you are killing enemies in droves you are sure to get a few drop from the defeated enemies. There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for you to horde your insps for that "oh crap" moment. Besides, every time you get into combat is essentially an oh crap moment, so put those pills to use.

Just some things off the top of my head that I would like to contribute to this thread. It's not often that someone discusses playstyles in guides, I hope we get to see more of this in the future.