Oedipus_Tex

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised to see at least some of that in late game raids. I didn't see it specifically in the BAF.

This is a really difficult question to answer for a few reasons. One of the biggest is that we're in a state of transition. With new end game content around the corner and new powers and abilities coming out seemingly every few months, builds that were previously unthinkable have been becoming more mainstream.

One thing you should know is that Controllers are a "corner turning" class. What you see at level 20 is often completely different from what you end up with at 50. Most other classes don't work like this. Controllers have many delayed abilities--mainly pets and attacks.

In the past I've summed up the Controller primaries into 3 rough groups: Elemental Damage, Elemental Debuff, and Psionic Ambush. These categories aren't hard and fast but they more or less explain what you can expect out of each set.

Elemental Damage (Fire, Plant, Gravity*) - Sets with above average damage, but no debuff to speak of. Typically lean very heavily on one very powerful AoE opening ability to mezz enemies at the start of the fight. Can be vulnerable when enemies are immune to mezzes of the specific type they deal. Among the most popular farming sets, especially when paired with a damage boosting secondary.

Elemental Debuff (Ice, Earth, Electric, Gravity*) - Sets with very low damage, but extreme debuffs. In the case of Ice and Electric, the debuff can be considered a second form of control, whereas for Gravity and Earth it is more superfluous. Very difficult/slow to solo prior to receiving a pet. Knockdown as a form of control is a common theme across these sets, useful because it ignores boss level protection. Despite being relatively low damage early on, all of these sets can solo at moderate speed during the late game, though probably not exceeding the damage sets at AoE or Illusion at single target.

(Note that Electric's Synaptic Overload ability causes it to straddle the line into Psi Ambush territory. Gravity is designed to trade control for some extra damage, but ends up not being very successful at it because of extremely long cast times on its signature attack, and its secondary effect (-Speed) is often cancelled by its own immobilization abilities.)

Psionic Ambush (Mind, Illusion, Electric*) - Two sets that are simultaneously very alike and yet almost completely different. What they share in common is the ability to set up a fight to their advantage before even initiating combat. Key features are aggro-less mezzes and/or pets that draw aggro away from you, allowing you to keep yourself out of danger. Both of these sets trade away immobilization for a very, VERY powerful single target Confusion ability. However, both sets sometimes have issues establishing Containment for the double damage.


Another way to look at each set is to examine what they typically lack.

Fire: confusion, flexibility
Plant: soft control, flexibility
Ice: damage, reliable hard control
Earth: damage, confusion
Electric: damage
Gravity: confusion, reliable hard control
Mind: pets, reliable AoE containment
Illusion: reliable AoE control, reliable AoE containment

Of final note, keep in mind that Ice, Fire, and Electric all feature very powerful aura abilities that rely on you being in close range and avoiding attacks and mezzes. The way these abilities play out differ for each set, but all 3 have a certain suicidal/crazy vibe to them that some people find thrilling and others find draining. I personally love these sets for their "kamikaze" feel but you may feel differently. The best way to find out is to try them all!

I wonder if Time Bomb wouldn't be better received if it worked like Oil Slick Arrow and blew up on taking damage from the player. Then you could just shoot it to trigger it from wherever.

Alternative 2: It would also be hilarious to me if it just had a really strong taunt aura with a 40 ft radius and enemies would "hear" it after you've placed it nearby. They get draw to it, and on taking a swing... BAM. Might need to give it ranged and AoE defense to prevent them from just offing with ranged attacks.

I should say that, for Rikti raids, if I get out there and don't see at least 2 or 3 big bubbles of some kind, I start debating whether it's worth sticking around. Traps probably makes out the best there because it can't be slept-toggled (I don't think). But any of the 3 big bubble sets is critical to me here. Just about every epic wipe I've been witness to occurred in conjunction with inadequate mezz shields.

If the respec trial was hard, Force Field would be my number one there, just because they can soft cap the generator. ;D But wow is Force Bubble ever the power with the biggest gap between how awesomely overpowered its Tier 9 sounds versus what it turns out to do for you. It's not hard to imagine a game where Force Bubble would be incredible, but in the context of this one it fails to deliver.

During my first 6 months I used to skip Hasten on my trollers. More mortifyingly, I used to defend this strategy on the boards because Hasten was "situational."

It depends. I mostly play support sets so my opinion may be warped. Pretty much any time I'm on a team there's at least one buffer/debuffer (me).

Leveling up prior to 45, Force Field. Least favorite before 45 is Traps by a large margin.

After 50, Radiation. I wouldn't call it my "least favorite" but Force Field does falter in this range, at least as a teaming set (it's still ok as a personal source of Super Reflexes on ATs that don't get Traps).

Kinetics and Dark are good all along. Cold can be very good at high levels when lots of AVs are around but suuuucks prior to getting Sleet... and now that Dominators can get Sleet and everyone can get Cardiacs I find I'm less impressed by my Cold Controller, at least.

Sonic and Trick Arrow I'm not a big fan of mechanically. But players with these sets are rarely power gamers, usually somewhat more experienced, and often pretty patient. So I kind of like having them around for their attitudes. The polar opposite of Kinetics and Traps, unfortunately.

Storm Summoning is a gamble. It's either okay or makes me want to throw things. Storm MasterMinds being the worst for me, since chaos on top of hindered visibility make my interest in the game plummet.

Someone else will have to provide the details on whether it hits the caster only or everyone in the area, and whether it rolls per target or once for everyone, but toggles tick once every 10 seconds.

Agree with /ice or /sonic depending.

Ice has the especially broken property of gifting you a Blaster level nuke that on dual Emps is crashless, damage boosted, and recharges much faster.

For teams, generally I find the best break point for XP to happen at about +2. Solo, it depends on the character. Most of my Controllers are forced to solo at -1, especially before level 45 or so, because they don't have enough damage.

The x number is even harder to guess at. It really depends on the character and your powers. My Ice/Rad troller can handle large groups, but they are impractical. My Mind/Cold troller, though, is much better off versus large groups because it makes more sense to use long recharge powers like Mass Confusion on a bunch of enemies at once. And my Elec/Force Field troller does best against about 8 to 10 enemies at a time, because that many enemies fuel his endurance recovery. You will have to experiment to see what works. IMO the major factor is finding a threshold where you can safely handle two groups of the size you select, because you will occasionally aggro multiples at once. Especially on a character with pets.

I posted this recently in another forum, but of the Control sets I think Ice Control has benefited the most from alpha slotting. I've always had a soft spot for it despite it getting screwed from every which direction; there is something perverse about a set that needs to melee a lot to mezz things but has no hard controls and expends too much endurance to actually take the armors that make survival possible. The set could still probably use a look--it feels far too dependent on the Psi APP to prevent mezz detoggling. But it has gotten a lot better.

So for a good while I've had an Ice/Radiation Controller (code name: "Radio Iceotope"). I have a strange affection for Ice Control because, while not all that powerful, it is so unlike any power set/spell caster class I've seen in a game. My Ice/Rad has plodded through most of his life as an "average-at-best" Controller, unable to solo in any capacity until after level 45, and for all that damage he gave up, hardly the best of Controllers either.

Ice Control, I think most of us know, is a melee heavy set that requires taking a lot of chances to survive. Paradoxically, it also has a relatively fragile pet and uses too much endurance to really slot armors. Or so it used to be before Cardiacs...

With the magic of incarnate sauce, I have stumbled across a build that gives me capped Ranged defense and enough recharge to gain perma mezz protection. This build would have been unthinkable six months ago. But this is the dawn of a new age!

I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail about what happens when a character has perma mezz protection, capped ranged defense, 2 PBAoE holds, Arctic Air, Choking Cloud, Ice Slick, a self heal, enough -Recharge to floor a group of +4 enemies, and the indecency to wear underroos into mortal combat. While I still can't kill anything quickly... this is a totally different character. My other characters have changed somewhat, but this one completely transformed.

EDIT: Best part. The build ISN'T DONE. I'm riding at 35% defense until I bother to work up the cash for the final sets.

I haven't tried Elec/Cold but I did try Elec/Storm when Elec Control was being tested. I only spent about an hour on that character but it was my least favorite pairing. The scatter mixed with the incredibly over-eager imps resulted in me having an aggro radius that rivals Force Bubble. It could have been better on teams but I didn't try it.

One thing about Static Field is that it is really, really, insanely good... as long as you don't put a patch on it. Local Man mentioned this already, but I wanted to add the "really, really, insanely" part.

For me personally, I paired Electric with Force Field. While Force Field probably isn't the best secondary for Electric, Elec is one of the better ones for Force Field. In part because neither set requires tons of recharge, but can still easily grab a bunch to make the set 'comfortable.' Good base defenses and mezz protection aren't so bad to have on a melee presence character either.

Just an idea.

[EDIT: Yes, I missed the Suggestions forum. Oops. ;/]

Stone Cages can be used for setting up Containment. I agree they are overused though. However, even on my Ice characters I use the AoE immobs sometimes. The -knockback wears off after 12 seconds, so enemies can be both rooted and flopping. The cages can also be a decent power to spam if you have them procced out. Especially Electric and Gravity, which can make use of both the Chance for Knockdown and Chance for Hold procs to turn the power into a lockdown cluster.

I'm positive its possible but Reichsman takes forever to kill. Now with incarnates running around though its somewhat more doable. Still seems like it would be incredibly tedious.