Table Of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Power Lists
3. Recommended Build
4. Notes
1. Introduction
What's the first thing you heard when you say you want to make a solo controller? Be patient and group until lvl 32, and so on? Ignore those views of the unenlightened, and follow this guide for what I consider the fastest and most flexible controller build. We'll have our damage dealing ability from lvl 1 to the end
Before we get into our build, let me tell you that unlike most, I didn't consider blind and flash important at all until much later, they're helpful, but nothing as important as many other powers I have to take at the very beginning.
The build you're reading about is very versatile (Most Ill/* ends up very versatile even if we're not the strongest in anything, we lose in damage to fire, we lose in control to earth/mind/ice/Gravity). I'd go as far as suggesting it as the most versatile and flexible build in the game even considering kheldians. You'll see why I think so after you read the rest of the guide
And don't worry, there'll be enough spare slots for powers and enhancements to customize your characters, as in the build section, I'll just tell you the important powers that you HAVE to take, for my build, with the blanks for personal preferences
Take my guide with a grain of salt, give constructive suggestions and opinions as they fit, I'm especially looking for opinions/suggestions from lvl 40+ Ill/* and */Rad Controllers
2. Power Descriptions/Lists
> Illusion Control:
. Spectral Wound
This is your 'only' direct damage power, very high damage and usefulness early on, and even later, as you get Phantom Army and Phantasms. Useful to kill that one runner, add damage, redirect your armies. Some respec out of it later on, but I consider it too much of an asset to respec out of.
Six slot it with 5 damage and one accuracy.
Rating: 5/5
. Blind
Your quick single target hold, your only one, barring deceive, 6 slot it with 1-2 accuracy, and mixes of Hold Duration and Recharges.
Rating 4/5
. Deceive
Ah, here we go, a power that only us and mind controller have, a power that have the potential to be the strongest of all, especially recently buffed on I3, but expect it to be nerfed again. however, it's crucial in this build, at least until much later, and I suggest against removing it. Slot it with a duration and an accuracy, and make it 2 duration, one accuracy, and maybe one recharge, as you get to the twentieth or thirtieth level. The exp loss is negligible when you've learned how to use it accurately. Very useful to whittle mobs that you're afraid to fight, or to hold bosses now and then ( It have better accuracy and duration than blind )
Rating: 5/5
. Flash
Your only AoE Hold until lvl 38 where you can get EMP on Radiation Secondary, slot and balance it with a few accuracy, hold duration, and maybe some recharges, I've not tried this much, but I suggest on six slotting it.
Rating: 5/5
. Superior Invisibility
Mostly Pointless, except you're one lazy gamer like me, I often solo, and like to be able to sit anywhere safe while i alt tab... and not having to keep track of how long until Group Invisibility Disappears... Also works decently as an [Oh ****] power.
Rating: 3/5, only take if you really want it, or have nothing else you'd prefer to take... It does make life quite a bit easier
. Group Invisibility
Take it, Love it, Slot it, Ghosting, Team Defense, Scouting, Positioning yourself before your flash ? It's useful all around. One Recharge is good enough to make it permanent, with permanent AM and Hasten, just fill up the rest of the slots with Defenses.
Rating: 5/5
. Phantom Army
Slot it to 6 asap, when you get it, you want to put a few damages on it, but as you get phantasms, you'll likely start using phantom army as permanent invincible tanks, instead of damage dealers and the phantasms as the damage dealers.
Rating: 5/5
. Spectral Terror
All bets are off, on this one... It's being reworked quite heavily, ignore this until it solidify more...
Rating: N/A
. Phantasm
Slot it to 6 asap when you get it, this will be your damage dealer, help on controlling via knockback. 2-3 Recharges are enough to make 3 Phantasm, and fill up the rest with mixes of Damages and Accuracy or just Damages.
Radiation Emission:
. Radiant Aura
We're Controllers, not healers... anyway, we're stuck with this, may as well make full use of it. We doesn't have much defenses, and limited controlling, we'll get hurt now and then, 2-3 slot this with heal, and maybe one endurance reduction.
Even with all my criticism, it's actually quite useful, especially as our only healing power that can heal our phantasm too.
Rating: 4/5
. Radiation Infection
Very useful power, Defense/Accuracy Debuff, Especially useful for your hold, pets and team
6 slot it if you can spare it, with mixes of Defense/Accuracy Debuff.
Rating 3/5
. Accelerate Metabolism
Permanent Bonus on Recharges, Damage, Speed, Resistance of effects, Recovery, do i need to say more ?
get this and six slot it, after you have your Hasten 6 slotted
Rating: 5/5
. Enervating Field
We only get 30% average debuff for damage/resistance compared to defender's, but every power that can increase our damage/resistance is great, slot it with 2-3 endurance reductions to reduce the nasty drain on endurance
Rating: 4/5
. Mutation
A utility power that I personally have found very handy, many doesn't like resurrect power though, it's your decision. Either way, it's currently a better power than empath's resurrect, since it works the same, with much less endurance, and extra buff for the resurrected. No need to slot it, just put a recharge or reduce endurance on the default slot.
Rating: N/A
. Lingering Radiation
Non toggle, non auto-hit debuff, No comment about this, I personally am not taking it just yet, as a controller, some likes it, some doesn't care much about it
Rating: N/A
. Choking Cloud
I'll advise against this, some very rare rad defender picks this, and much rarer for a controller, we don't need more endurance drain for a doubtful power.
Rating: 1/5
. Fallout
Not much comment about this, supposedly not a great power, small aoe radius, and very situational, I'd recommend against it except if you just have to get it.
Rating: 1/5
. EM Pulse
Take this if you need another aoe hold other than flash, I've not tried it as my controller yet, but heard good thing about it, and I've seen some defenders putting it to good use. Slot it with some hold duration and accuracy.
Rating: 4/5
> Power Pool:
. Speed
Hasten
The cost of our versatility is speed and we only get 1-2 powers to control/damage/etc, get this and at least 5 slot it.
Rating: 5/5
Super Speed
Quick, No Vertical Movement, no additional prerequisite since we're getting hasten. Interestingly stack with our invisibility, to let us pass behemoth, that seems to be able to see through invisibility.
Rating: 4/5
. Teleport
Recall Friend
Being a versatile character, I'd suggest on getting this, Group Invisibility+Teleport lets you ghost missions, let's you regroup/resurrect dead players, and so on.
Rating: 3/5
Teleport Foe
Right now, this can be useful to teleport an enemy you have deceived around ( such as sky raider force field generator ), to give you buffs, but I don't know how long until they nerf Deceive again, if they will, I'd advise against taking this for a month or two until Issue 3 is more solid.
Rating: N/A
Teleport Self
Fastest travel power, Vertical Movement, Not easy to maneuver in smaller areas, no additional prerequisite if you get recall friend.
Rating: 3/5
. Jumping
Extra defense/quick versatile travel power that cost no endurance/defense against status effect, sounds good, take this pool if it suit your character
. Flight
Good defense bonus and versatility, will be very useful in shadow shard, take it if it really fit your character's background or you just want it.
. Fitness
Health/Stamina is very useful, we have so many powers that takes so much endurance, such as the summons, and EF, take this pool if you can, and slot up Stamina. (I don't have Stamina yet, at lvl 35, and feeling the effect bad enough... )
. Leadership
If you six slot it, Tactic will let you take off an accuracy enhancements from your pets/damage/hold, I personally like it, but may not be able to take it.
. Medicine
Useless as we have healing/rez in our build already
Stimulant might be a power that could be taken to give the status effect protection that we can't protect against, and to disable the pre-I3 disorient effect from mutation, but that's minor enough, if we control the battle well enough, we should be able to minimize this problem, and our job is to control, we are not a defender, only take it if you feel like you have to and doesn't mind sacrificing a power pool slot.
Stars: 0/5
3. Recommended Build
Level 1-18:
Description: At this level, we'll use our EF/AM/Spectral Wound/Deceive/Hasten combo to kill bosses. Hasten and AM recharges the same, but use AM before hasten for better timing. Group Invisibility+Recall Friend will let you ghost missions, especially in Positron's TF, and Hollow's Trial Mission. Hasten and AM will help a lot considering the slow recharge speed of our diverse powers such as SW/Deceive/AM/Group Invisibility. When you have both AM and Hasten with 4 DO Recharges, life will start to get much easier.
In grouping, you 'might' find that you'll be limited in controlling compared to a few other classes such as mind, make full use of your buff/debuff, deceive and SW. Deceive dangerous villains, especially useful on villains that affect status. Most of the rest is just experience, about which one and when to debuff/deceive/SW, just try and you'll get used to it.
Level 1: Spectral Wound [1], Radiant Aura [1]
Level 2: Deceive [1] ( Our only hold for a while, we'll get exp from doing missions, this build isn't recommended for hunting or power leveling, but to enjoy as many missions as you can as fast as possible )
Level 3: Slot up Spectral Wound [3]
Level 4: Accelerate Metabolism [1]
Level 5: Slot up Spectral Wound [5]
Level 6: Hasten [1]
Level 7: Slot up Spectral Wound [6] and Deceive [2] ( spectral wound will have 5 damage one accuracy, and deceive one duration and one accuracy at this point)
Level 8: Recall Friend [1]
Level 9: Slot up Hasten [2 Recharges] and Accelerate Metabolism [2 Recharges]
Level 10: Enervating Field [1 Endurance Reduction]
Level 11: Slot up Hasten [3 Recharges] and Accelerate Metabolism [3 Recharges]
Level 12: Group Invisibility [1 Defense Buff]
Level 13: Slot up Hasten [4 Recharges] and Accelerate Metabolism [4 Recharges] ( at this point, you'll start doing AM -> Hasten -> GI, every one minute or so after they disappear, not bad )
Level 14: Super Speed/Teleport is a good choice here, but feel free to pick other powers.
Level 15: Slot up Accelerate Metabolism [4 Recharge 2 Endurance Recovery]
Level 16: Mutation (choice) [1 Recharge/Endurance Reduction]
Level 17: Slot up Radiant Aura [2 Heal] and Enervating Field [2 Endurance Reduction]
Level 18-31:
Description: Get Phantom Army and 6 slot it asap, put 2-3 Recharges on it, and fill up the rest with Damages, and maybe one accuracy. Get Radiation Infection as well. You want added damage now, until you get phantasms, so no need to make phantom army permanent yet, except if you group often. the added damage from phantom army will be very helpful now, since you probably noticed how others seemingly have been increasing in their damage potential, while yours stays a straight line with SW. Possibly get Blind/Flash/Stamina around these lvls. May want to add more slots to Radiant Aura, EF, and a few others, that's your judgement. You'll likely from now on do a lot of the following sequences AM/Hasten/Group Invisibility -> Phantom Army ( gather them, and take their agro ) -> Flash -> Blind bosses -> Debuffs/Heals.
Level 32 and up:
Description: Get Phantasms and 6 slot it asap, make phantom army permanent, or almost permanent, to be your permanent tanker. Phantasms will be your permanent damage dealer from now on, put 3 Recharges on it, and damage/accuracy mixes for the last 3 slots. That's as far as i can give you for now.
4. Notes
- Learn pet positioning well
- Learn to identify immediate threat
- You can often deceive things such as DE eminators, Force Field Generator, Portals to stop them from doing their function, or to make them buff you.
- Use Deceive well, don't take too much risk, learn how to appraise your team's power and the enemy, and use deceive to balance that.
- Use Invisibility well, for scouting/ghosting/etc.
- Phantom Army can be used for great tanking, controlling, and sometimes damage, make sure you learn how to do it properly, there are some well done guide out there that describe some PA positioning.
- Phantasms also works great as a control pet, 3 of them can knock back a boss repeatedly, disabling him most of the time, try to knock the enemies into a corner, and not all over the place.
- Try to lead, or at least give input on what your plan is. Your ability to control a fight depends on how your/the team plan mesh together.
- You're not a defender, you're not a tanker, you're not a scrapper, you're not a blaster, you're an Ill/Rad controller, remember that.
- Be Patient.
- Learn to balance your endurance well.
- This is a first quick written guide attempt by a decent beta player with altitis, but not a number cruncher, nor am I perfect, and I've yet to see much past lvl 40s, take this guide with a grain of salt
Finally, good luck, have fun and give me some civil constructive feedbacks, good or bad
I'm Desyncher in Virtue, if you see me around, feel free to say hi ^^
