Are we talking about soloing well now or 20+ levels from now?
Anything +Illusion will solo decent pre Spectral army. After that it's full speed ahead. As for the other Primaries....well I have an Ice/Storm and a Earth/Rad in semi retirement at lvl16.
Yes...perhaps I should have said, I havent seen any controller solo well before level 32.
I have been using the Fire / Kin build and the Ice/Ice blaster build. These builds have been working great! I am just a part time player, and unable to build relations enough to get groups on regular basis. Solo is a much better option. Even when I get in a group, the solo builds have proven to be a bigger advantage! I can keep my own against orange & red while in group while working well on blue and white in solo. I have been in PP and Hallows almost not stop now. I am really happy with what I have here now! Thanks for the Great Idea! 
Demonfest - 50 - Demon / Thermal Mastermind
Covered Shadow - 50 - Dark Melee / Shield Scrapper
I must ask why you didn't include the DDD. I think that the Dark secondary for defenders has by far the best control factor, with TT and Dark Pit. Also, the dmg of the set is superior to Psychic Blast.
My 2 inf.
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At first thought, the obvious alternative is Dark/Dark. That secondary has 2 ROOTs and 1 KNOCK. Meanwhile MENTAL has 1 HOLD, 2 ROOTs and 2 KNOCKs.
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I just wanted to point out that 1 of Dark Blasts roots is an AOE cone and that Dark Blast also debuffs Acc and Dmg. If a mob is not rooted or held but can swing all day long and not hit you, is that not also a form of control?
**concerning the illu/rad build**
i hope nobody takes your illu/rad build to make a char.. i can't imagine playing him that way - sorry to say. mine is 39 and he is a real blast to play. i can easily pl other people, so u can see the credibility of him soloing.
imo u need am, hasten and ef *before* 10 in order to have em slotted up at 18, when u get pa. if u don't, soloing will be very very time intensive and get boring fast. u need fast recharge on ur holds, ur sw and for sure on ur pets. and ef is ur bread and butter, majorly more so than ri.
ri can definately wait till after stamina, making it mid-twenties. it is usefull for full grps, but phantom army or phantasm decoys don't take any damage anyway - so better to take a power that helps ur soloing. great debuff, just not quite as early on as in ur build. i had zilch problems with pets missing the mobs, so no reason for ri so early on.
and lr after ri. just to get priorities right. lr is a nice thing, specially while soloing av's - but not worth getting it early and ruining ur general soloing abilities by leaving out important powers.
i'd leave deceive out of the build too. it might be a nice thing to have, but all skills up to lvl 38 are much more important and u wont use much (if at all) post 20.
another small thing, switch health for hurdle. u wont miss health at all but u will *luv* hurdle, so much better jumping! i'd recommend that to any char, cause u rn't going to slot health anyways and its effect is so minor compared to the better movement abilities from hurdle.
grp invis is a great thing, but i'd take it after ri - pre stamina u just can't spare many powers if u want to min/max ur controller - but thats a personal thing i guess.
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FIRE/KINETICS CONTROLLER
lvl 1a) Ring of Fire CONTROL:ROOT (single,immob)
lvl 1b) Transfusion (de)BUFF:HEAL (ae,debuff)
lvl 2) Char CONTROL:MEZ (single,hold)
lvl 4) Fire Cages CONTROL:ROOT (ae,immob)
lvl 6) Smoke (de)BUFF
EBUFF (ae,acc)
lvl 8) Hot Feet CONTROL:ROOT (ae,immob)
lvl 10) [pool] Hasten (de)BUFF:BUFF (self,speed)
lvl 12) Flash Fire CONTROL:ROOT (ae,disorient)
lvl 14) [pool] Super Speed MOVE (self,run)
lvl 16) Siphon Power (de)BUFF:BUFF (ae,debuff)
lvl 18) Cinders CONTROL:MEZ (ae,hold)
lvl 20) Speed Boost (de)BUFF:BUFF (single,speed)
lvl 22) [pool] Hurdle MOVE (self,jump)
lvl 24) [pool] Health (de)BUFF:HEAL (self,hp)
lvl 26) Bonfire CONTROL:KNOCK (ae,damage)
lvl 28) Transferrence (de)BUFF:BUFF (single,debuff)
lvl 30) [pool] Stamina (de)BUFF:HEAL (self,end)
lvl 32) Fire Imps CONTROL:PET (ae,damage)
lvl 35) Increase Density DEF (single,mez)
lvl 38) Fulcrum Shift (de)BUFF:BUFF (ae,debuff)
Not Taken) Inertial Reduction (de)BUFF:BUFF (ae,jump)
Not Taken) Repel CONTROL:KNOCK (single,damage)
Not Taken) Siphon Speed (de)BUFFEBUFF (single,buff)
[/LIST]
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Some things I'd like to point out as a Fire/Kin player:
First, Transferrence isn't availible until level 35. You have it listed at 28th.
Hot feet is not an immobilization attack. It's a slowing attack, similar to caltrops from the devices set. Villans will try to get out of the hot feet's range, and this can spread them out to the point where the whole spawn can't be caught in a single AoE anymore.
Those were facts, the following are my opinions based on experiance:
You want some vertical mobility. Superspeed is nice, but it's limiting even with hurdle. As a kinetics, inertial reduction gives you superjump without forcing you to spend a power choice in a prereq, or taking up a valuable power pool. I strongly recommend taking it when (or soon after) it becomes available at 28th.
Ring of fire really isn't *too* useful once you have stamina. Early on, it's nice to root a single mob without having to pay the increased endurance cost for fire cages. Once endurance isn't a problem, you really don't mind the cost of fire cages. (The only thing you worry about is accidentally waking up another spawn w/ it's AoE) It's an okay damage-dealing attack if you're soloing, but is completely outclassed by fire imps when you get them. I'd actually suggest ignoring ring of fire completely, or taking it for the early levels and respecing it away post 34th when you ahve fire imps 6-slotted.
Look into the leadership pools now that your pets benefit from them when you're soloing. Defense and Tactics are nice. I really need to copy my character over to test and figure out if vengance works on the corpse of a dead fire imp.
Level 30 is far, far too long to wait for stamina, especially since Transferrence doesn't come until 35th. I'd get stamina at 20 or 22 and start slotting it so that it's 6-slotted before level 27 when you can place store-bought SOs in it.
What?
I like how you took transference at 28...
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First, Transferrence isn't availible until level 35. You have it listed at 28th.
Hot feet is not an immobilization attack. It's a slowing attack, similar to caltrops from the devices set. Villans will try to get out of the hot feet's range, and this can spread them out to the point where the whole spawn can't be caught in a single AoE anymore.
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OOPS. DOH! It's too late to edit. Reversed Transferrence and Density!
Anyhow, you and the others who've mentioned that there are better builds of any specific powersets are probably right. As I state in the Addendum, these are more to show the powersets you'd best play with and give you a *workable* build of each than they are meant to be the absoute best build of their particular type. In some cases I specifically took some oft taken powers (hasten, stamina) in different places in different builds just to show that you can.
If you do go to build from any of these templates, take some time to search the board for other builds for the same powersets. Then remember, Uber Controller, able to Solo. Dump a bit of damage for a bit more control. Then have some fun!
Thanks to everyone who added intelligent commentary to this thread. The more information here the better.
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At first thought, the obvious alternative is Dark/Dark. That secondary has 2 ROOTs and 1 KNOCK. Meanwhile MENTAL has 1 HOLD, 2 ROOTs and 2 KNOCKs.
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I just wanted to point out that 1 of Dark Blasts roots is an AOE cone and that Dark Blast also debuffs Acc and Dmg. If a mob is not rooted or held but can swing all day long and not hit you, is that not also a form of control?
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Not to beat on the DDD, which is a very good powerset combo, but debuffs aren't controls. This is a guide for people who love controlling, but want to solo. Not the best overall builds - the best controlling in each AT.
DDD is great for a person who likes control, it just didn't add up to as many controls. Dark owns the primaries for control (storm a close second) and Dark is a great control secondary, but psychic has a bit more control, even if it is a slightly less effective powerset.
People who like control will be quite happy with DDD.
Interesting thread. Can't wait to try out some of these builds. I love my controller but the ice blaster caught my eye
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ILLUSION/RADIATION CONTROLLER
CONTROLS: 8 of 9 possibles w/6 AEs
BUFFS/DeBUFFS: 7 of 9 possibles w/2 AEs
OFFENSE: 3 of 4 possibles w/2 AEs
OTHER: 2
NOTES: The "solo controller" according to the press. Why, because they get a few damage focused attacks and an extra pet. They trade a lot of control for those things though. Still they're easier to solo pre-32 and post-32 they're good.
<ul type="square">
lvl 1a) Spectral Wounds OFFENSEAMAGE (single,)
lvl 1b) Radiation Emission (de)BUFF:HEAL (ae,hp)
lvl 2) Blind CONTROL:MEZ (single,hold)
lvl 4) Flash CONTROL:MEZ (ae,hold)
lvl 6) Deceive CONTROL:STATUS (single,confused)
lvl 8) Radiation Infection OFFENSEAMAGE (ae,debuff)
lvl 10) [pool] Hover (de)BUFF:BUFF (self,move)
lvl 12) Group Invisibility (de)BUFF:BUFF (ae,def(invis))
lvl 14) [pool] Fly MOVE (self,fly)
lvl 16) Enervating Field OFFENSEAMAGE (ae,debuff)
lvl 18) Phantom Army CONTROL:PET (ae,tank)
lvl 20) Lingering Radiation CONTROL:SLOW (ae,speed)
lvl 22) [pool] Swift MOVE (self,run)
lvl 24) [pool] Health (de)BUFF:HEAL (self,hp)
lvl 26) Acclerate Metabolism (de)BUFF:BUFF (single,speed)
lvl 28) Choking Cloud CONTROL:MEZ (ae,hold)
lvl 30) [pool] Stamina (de)BUFF:HEAL (self,end)
lvl 32) Phantasm CONTROL:PET (ae,damage)
lvl 35) [pool] Hasten (de)BUFF:BUFF (self,speed)
lvl 38) EM Pulse CONTROL:MEZ (ae,hold)
Not Taken) Superior Invisibility (de)BUFF:BUFF (self,def(invis))
Not Taken) Spectral Terror CONTROL:STATUS (ae,fear)
Not Taken) Mutation (de)BUFF:HEAL (single,rez)
Not Taken) Fallout OFFENSEAMAGE (ae,)[/list]
EDIT: After input found below trading ACCELERATE METABOLISM for SPECTRAL TERROR. WHY? Buff to Pets post-32 is strong, meanwhile TERROR is still set to scatter mobs instead of cower them. If the MC changes trickle down to the illusion set, prepare to make a hard choice!
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I personally would not use this build...I find my Illusion/Empath far more effective, with my recovery aura and regeneration aura.
But then again I also use superior Invisibility and Group Invisibility, becasue 2 minutes does not cut the mustard, and slotting group invisibilty is a waste of slots for the end game.
PrettySammy I have to agree with icaros here. Illusion/Rad over Empathy.
What do I know? - I have Empathy/Dark Defender and a Dark/Rad defender, among other characters and have just started an Illusion/Rad Controller.
Why? - In order to solo or kill a mob it is 75% about killing the mob 25% about recovery time. What do I mean by that? I mean that I need to be as efficent (the amount of time to kill a mob) as possible when killing a mob. Next I need to be able to attack the next mob without a lot of downtime. While Empathy when I finnaly get RA at level 28 will certainly help with downtime that is both too long to wait and really does not help me kill my mobs faster. With AM and EF being available to Radiation it clearly is the superior choice for a Solo or "mob killing" build. That is not to say it is a better choice for all builds like support roles or whatever, it is clearly not as efficent as Rad for soloing and certainly not early on.
My Illusion/Radiation Controller just made 32 and got the Phantasm. I have a few notes I would add:
First of all, I have had no problem soloing with this character from level 1 up. Sure it got easier at 18 when I got PA, and even easier when I got SOs at 22 and PA was fully slotted, but I was always able to solo more or less. Now, I have grouped a bit with my SG, but most of my 32 levels have been done primarily solo (this was an alt until recently, now I consider it my main, although I have a Claws/Invuln scrapper at 40 atm).
I went with Fly. The Phantasms can fly, although PA can't. PA fades after a minute though, so Fly seemed the safest route for movement powers.
I have Spectral Terror and it is periodically useful, but I agree in its current form its utility is somewhat weak for the most part. When I am grouping and we get charged by large numbers of mobs, I fall back and cast ST to provide a safe spot for the squishies. It doesn't chase everyone away, but I can usually flash and get those who come through it.
I have both GI and SI. GI is great but since its timed it has a tendancy to fade when I am busy in a fight. SI is useful when I want to sneak across a zone or through a mission to the end. In retrospect I would probably spec out of it if I had something else I thought was more important. It has been useful to me. Oh another trick I have tried is casting a few Phantasms, turning on SI and then running througha group of mobs to drag the Phants onto it. Then I can turn off SI and cast PA on the mobs from the other side to keep them sandwiched between my pets. Not sure if its a viable tactic yet or not as I am still working on figuring out how best to use the pets.
Get AM and Hasten as early as you can so they are both 6 slotted by the time you get PA. Then as you slot out PA go for 1 damage and 5 recharges. You can get more or less Permanent PAs that way with a 9s gap between recasts. I used flash to save myself from the aggro in that gap. Post 32 I am still using the same setup because the PA acts as a nice Tank to keep the aggro off me, and even with just one Damage SO the Phants do decent enough damage.
I have at 32, successfully taken on 2 purple 35 Bosses (Crey and 5Th Col^H^H^HCouncil) with some effort multiple times. I can easily take 4 or 5 red con mobs, and bunches of oranges or yellows are just a short fight. The chaos is immense when you have 2 Phants plus their decoys plus 2-4 PA present, I feel like a small army
Has anyone thought of Fire/FF controller, since fire imps are week u can FF them and make them live longer also in a tuff situation make your self live longer. The longer imps live the more damage they do.
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Has anyone thought of Fire/FF controller, since fire imps are week u can FF them and make them live longer also in a tuff situation make your self live longer. The longer imps live the more damage they do.
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Well, with FFs your imps will rarely die (I can count the times my shielded imps have died on 2 hands) but you will have no damage buffs avilable for them. The Shields do make life easier for you when seeking teams in that you can be a FF defender for a team before your controler abilties are slotted more. Also on the shielding of the imps, it takes a wile to shield the imps every time and leaves you with about 1/4th of your endruance when you summon/bubble and if you are on teams with other fire controlers it is best to just run dispersion and manuvers if you have it instead of going mad and shielding all the imps.
Greetings, all.
Well I'm on my third day in and enjoying things a bit more than I expected except for finding it very hard to solo.
I noticed on this thread there was no mention of my build. Am I doomed then as a Mind & Kinetic Controller?
Any tips welcome as I'd rather not start over. I just gained Fly and I've always liked characters with mental abilities.
I'd have to say that my build, while it may not be the best, if an awesome build for soloing.
Exported from version 1.4D of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh
Archetype: Controller
Primary Powers - Ranged : Illusion Control
Secondary Powers - Support : Force Field
01 : Personal Force Field defbuf(01)
01 : Spectral Wounds acc(01) dam(17) dam(34) acc(36) dam(36) dam(36)
02 : Deceive acc(02) cnfdur(3) cnfdur(3) acc(5) cnfdur(5) cnfdur(7)
04 : Deflection Shield endred(04) defbuf(43) defbuf(46)
06 : Flash acc(06) recred(7) hlddur(13) acc(15) endred(15) hlddur(17)
08 : Hasten recred(08) recred(9) recred(9) recred(11) recred(11) recred(13)
10 : Recall Friend endred(10)
12 : Insulation Shield endred(12) defbuf(45) defbuf(46)
14 : Teleport endred(14) rng(45) rng(50)
16 : Swift runspd(16)
18 : Phantom Army recred(18) recred(19) recred(19) recred(21) recred(21) recred(23)
20 : Health hel(20)
22 : Stamina endrec(22) endrec(23) endrec(25) endrec(25) endrec(27) endrec(27)
24 : Group Invisibility endred(24) recred(45) recred(46)
26 : Spectral Terror recred(26) ferdur(37) ferdur(37) ferdur(37)
28 : Dispersion Bubble endred(28) defbuf(29) endred(29) defbuf(31) endred(31) defbuf(31)
30 : Detention Field endred(30) endred(40) endred(50)
32 : Phantasm recred(32) recred(33) recred(33) recred(33) recred(34) recred(34)
35 : Maneuvers endred(35) endred(48)
38 : Force Bubble endred(38) endred(39) endred(39) endred(39) endred(40) endred(40)
41 : Conserve Power recred(41) recred(42) recred(42) recred(42) recred(43) recred(43)
44 : Assault endred(44) endred(48)
47 : Tactics endred(47) endred(48)
49 : Power Blast acc(49) dam(50)
-------------------------------------------
01 : Brawl acc(01)
01 : Sprint jmp(01)
02 : Rest recred(02)
I am a Controller to be reckoned with. I am currently at level 26 and rock! My tactics are simple...
1) I confuse the biggest-baddest [censored] in the group.
2) I drop my phantom morons right on top the the group while the big-bad is wailing on them
3) I drop off a Spectral Terror on them to root them and make them wet themselves.
4) While they are playing with my moron squad, I run in (with group invisibility of course) and flash them.
5) keep dropping phantom morons and hitting them with spectral wounds... if someone gets too close to me, or if they even think about attacking me, they get confused and become another pet of mine!
Except for TFs I've soloed all my missions up to this point and even defeated Dr. Vaz solo!
As for my secondary of Force Field. Well, PFF works as an "oh, shite" power and I have had no problem finding a group being a "bubbler."
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I noticed on this thread there was no mention of my build. Am I doomed then as a Mind & Kinetic Controller?
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I've only played Mind/Kinetics to 28. The mind/ primary is considered weak because it does not have a pet, but is generally considered the strongest primary from 1 to 18, and one of the better primaries from 18 to 32.
Another issue is that, for soloing, the two most useful powers for you from Kinetics will probably be the ones that are available at 35 and 38.
For soloing, you would do well to pick up an efficient pool power attack such as flurry or kick in order to deal damage. In general, you will be better off on teams though.
Remember, that it's a game, and all about doing things you enjoy, rather than getting there the fastest, or doing the most damage (although people do enjoy doing that as well), or whatever.
Maybe I am missing something, but as a Ice/Ice blaster, I have never seen a pet involved.
Please clue me in. I would LOVE to know.
While I have not played with controllers too much, I thought I could contribute to this a bit. I noticed that no one has mentioned that Superior Inv now allows attacks to be made while active. I would still might go with Group Inv because, after all, you don't ALWAYS solo and its nice to have an extra boost to your team.
Also, Ice doesn't have a pet of any kind that I can see either. Though Elec primary does, and it also has Short Circuit(big end drain still) and Tesla cage, and its psuedo-pet Voltanic Sent. may be a better control primary to go along with Ice.
As far as Mind/* controllers go, by far the most damaging powers in the controller set. Probably the balance against having pets. I know damage isn't the focus we are talking about, but it helps in solo-ability a lot! I like Mind a lot, but do miss the pet potential, especially compared to Ill controllers, but I do like the real damage they do comparatively.
I am not sure about the solo-ability of these, but they certainly pour out the pets end(nothing compares to an ill of course, but...), how about a Storm/Elec defender:lots of control in storm, Gale, Hurricane, Rain and Storm powers, plus pets:Tornado,and Lightning Storm, plus Elec, Voltanic Sentinal, Tesla Vage, and Short Curcuit...
Cheers!
OK...here's my 2 influence worth....I have a lvl 50 FIRE/RADIATION Controller. You want to solo? You want to make your teammates wipe drool off their chins when they see how much damage a fire/rad can do? Oh yeah...it IS possible. 6 slotted Flashfire, 6 slotted Cinders, 6 slotted Fire Cages, 6 slotted EMP Pulse, 6 slotted FIRE IMPS, 6 slotted AM, 6 slotted Radiation Infection, 3 slotted Enervating Field,smoke, Leadership pool, 6 slotted Hasten....nuff said.
I have taken out lvl 54 Zeus Titans...yes,that's right,LEVEL 54. I can hold pretty much ANY villian, then debuff the !@#$ out of him,and sit back and read the paper as my imps clean up. Now,having said all that,,,what's the drawback you ask? Hey,glad that question was brought up!!! Well,for one thing, we pretty much SUCK until level 32 and we are END HOGS. For anyone wanting to build an AWESOME controller,go fire/rad. BE WARNED.....levels 1-31 will suck.It will suck bad.Real bad.Hang in there and TEAM with as many people as you can. Once you get the imps, go hunting in Brickstown.you can get a LOT of levels here. you can solo in Bricks, or you can have a few friends tag along as they watch you own the streets.
If you do not believe me, send me a tell( I am on Justice) and I will show you. I have a TON of people tell me that my build is probably one of the best fire controllers they have ever seen.
Later all and happy Hunting! 
A bunch of 50s and too many alts...
Neo's Guide To Thugs/Storm (need to update it)
www.facebook.com/bbirgephotos
Questions about Fire/Rad? Just ask!
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As far as Mind/* controllers go, by far the most damaging powers in the controller set. ....
...I am not sure about the solo-ability of these
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I just started a Mind Control/Empathy Controller, and she kicks booty. Mind control does good damage and is pretty much all mezzes (exept for levitate, but that is really usefull when you see a mob picking up a rock or something).
I haven't really developed the empathy part. But I find that Healing Aura and Rez are also a big draw for finding a team whenever I don't want to solo.
I'm wondering how many of you have even tried a solo controller. I see many posts about how a controller cant solo as well as any other AT but my ill/storm does alot better at soloing than my ma/sr scrapper does. And as everyone knows storm doesnt have that many great buffs... I keep two phantasms out all the time, have perma-hasten, stamina, and cycle through either flash-freezing rain combo or phantom army for every group of mobs. I also have assault and tactics running constantly. When I run to a group of +1 mobs I usually take out 3 or 4 instantly with my phantasms cone attack and clean up the rest after that. I can easily get 200k+ xp per hour with this build.