Guide to Mind/Empathy Controllers v2.0

Enantiodromos · 06-09-2005 05:38 PM

V2.0
A GUIDE TO MIND CONTROL, SECONDARY EMPATHY, SUPPORT ORIENTED

1. Mind control
...a. Characterization
...b. Contrast
...c. Individual Powers
...d. Using Mind Control (Combinations)
...e. Slotting Mind Control
2. Empathy
...a. Characterization
...b. Contrast
...c. Individual Powers
...d. Using Empathy
...e. Slotting Empathy
3. Mind Control & Empathy Synergy
4. Pool Powers
...a. Recommended Pool Powers
......i. Superspeed-- Hasten
......ii. Fitness-- Stamina &c.
......iii. Concealment-- Stealth
...b. Other Pool Powers
......i. Teleport
......ii. Leadership
......iii. Leaping, Flight
...c. Pool Powers to Avoid
......i. Fighting
......ii. Medicine, Presence
5. Per Origin
6. Dr. Maningzhoue's build
7. Recommended Mind/Empathy Build
8. Regarding EPPs
A. Appendix A: Status Effects <--- Read me!
B. Appendix B: Regarding Confusion, XP, Time, and Numbers
C. Appendix C: Regarding Specific Mobs
D. Appendix D: Where have all the Mind/Emp gone? (population stats)
E. Appendix E: Miscellaneous Advice
F. Appendix F: Supplemental Reading

MIND CONTROL

CHARACTERIZATION
Play Mind Control if you want to dedicate yourself to pure controlling, pure team, precision tactics, communicating with other players, and situations that truly require every ounce of total-control a character can provide.

CONTRAST
Mind is by FAR, the odd-man-out controller set. Looking for a different controller experience? Mind is what you're looking for. Here's why:

Petlessness
Though prior to L32, Mind and Illusion have 'the best' damage among controllers (this is not impressive), in the post-32 game, Mind/anything controllers have less damage potential than almost any other build in the game, because at L32, all controller primaries except Mind get a pet. All pets do some aggro management. Other than that, some pets are pure damage-- fire imps, specifically. Others have both damage and a control component built in. The best control-oriented pet is Gravity's singularities, which actually use a hold as part of their attack cycle. The result is, in the post-32 game, all other controller sets do better damage than Mind, and Gravity can stack (see Appendix A) holds better than Mind.

Wide Area Total Control
Mind lacks immobilizations that are common in other sets, and also lacks straight damage powers like Spectral Wounds and Propel, and utility powers like illusion's invisibilities and Ice's Arctic Air. What mind does instead, is broad-coverage hard total control (see Appendix A). And moreover, it has unrivalled ability to stack these-- which becomes necessary when dealing with ordinary spawns with bosses mixed in. That's what Mind is better at than anyone: stackable large-area total control.

Aggro-Free control
Mind has two area total controls that draw no aggro, and one single target total control that stacks with one of the area controls. This is a LOT of aggro-free control.

Eyestrain & Pickup teams
Mind effects are among the least visible, and trickiest to coordinate teams around.

Confusion confusion
Mind wields two confusion powers, which are controversial because

a) They were broken at one point, and robbed you of XP when you used them-- this is NO LONGER the case, although the new scheme is tricky to understand, especially for people who don't understand that XP per mob is not important in CoH.
b) The top power in the set is the one that takes the place of a pet-- a power to which it is not AT ALL comparable, but to which it is constantly and unreasonably compared.

INDIVIDUAL POWERS

<ul type="square">

NOTE: Read the appendix on status effects first, if any terms used here are not familiar.
[*]Mesmerize
Mesmerize is OK damage, and is good for putting fringe lieutenants and minions to sleep-- for quite a while, if you can get your teammates to be smarter than "attack anything that's been mezzed."
[*]Levitate
Levitate is the best low-level damage power in the set. I don't normally play with it, so my picture is likely incomplete. It does knockup, which at least momentarily interrupts your enemies, and it does smashing damage, which is nice to have against, say, robots, who're resistant to psi but vulnerable to smashing.
[*]Dominate
Dominate is a good fast single target hold, with decent damage (for a controller). The most desirable of the first three, and probably the single power you'll hit most over your entire career.
[*]Confuse
Confuse completely stops enemies from attacking you or your teammates, and additionally forces them attack and debuff other villains, and buff the goodguys! As if that weren't enough, it DRAWS NO AGGRO! You can spam confuses all day long, if you just want to clear out an area, especially if you're running stealth. It requires two applications to affect a boss-- much like holds, and has a longer recharge time, BUT, it also has a significantly longer duration.

Another way confuses differ from holds is that, confused mobs will still move around under their own power. Potentially, in very dispersed, adjacent groupings, they'll go where you don't want them to. On the other hand, confusion can also be used to get an outlying mob to cluster up with the rest of a group, since he'll move to attack them. If you're really clever, it's a herding tool. If you're really unlucky, it causes a bit of scatter. Fair tradeoff.

Moreover, since Confuse has your enemies attacking each other, it and its big brother mass confusion are great if you just want to clear an area out in complete safety, and in emergency situations where a fight has to end ASAP.

[*]Mass Hypnosis
Mass Hypnosis is your first, and one of *two*, AGGRO FREE AREA CONTROLS. It is a large Area of Effect sleep, that centers on an enemy you target while at range. It does no damage and generates no aggro. Also, it has a significant duration even unslotted. Very good for mitigating damage when you're facing overwhelmingly large spawns, as when two large spawns are back-to-back.
[*]Telekinesis
Telekinesis is a HIT CHECK FREE TOGGLE ranged area hold, meaning, you select a target, toggle on TK, and the target and everyone else around them has a hold applied. Additionally, affected targets slowly, steadily, move away from you, and to some extent, each other-- this is what makes Telekinesis tricky; you have to find physical obstacles to bunch your TK'd opponents up into, unless you just *want* them to drift off and eventually leave your target-select range, at which point the toggle drops and they're no longer held.

Telekinesis is also one of the biggest end hogs in the entire game. To use this power as a staple, you'll need to take it and slot it fairly heavily for end reduction, which given all other considerations, you'll have to do either ASAP, or very, very late.

I'd like to thank Redlynne, Styopa, Halloween_Jack, and vn_outtasync for their sage advice re: this section, since TK is not a power I ordinarily run with in my MC builds. Also, please review Hedon's guide to Telekinesis.
[*]Total Domination
Total domination is an Area of Effect Hold applied to everyone within a fairly large radius from an enemy you target at range. It does no damage, but does draw aggro. Like most area controls it has a fairly long recharge time. If you can set yourself up to reliably and frequently cast Total Domination, you've got about half your functionality down. Take it at 18 and slot it immediately.
[*]Terrify
As of Issue 3, Terrify is a fear effect with an accuracy debuff that does psi damage equal to dominate in a VERY large cone. Though it's a soft control, as damage mitigation goes it can still be useful when you team with single-target hitters. Good for doing damage to big clusters when you solo. Terrify also has a good recharge rate for such a big, broad damage/control attack. Endurance is what tends to keep Terrify in check. With Recovery Aura, you'll be able, eventually, to sidestep this limitation.
[*]Mass Confusion
Here's the pinnacle of Mind Control-- and though debate rages about Mass Confusion, there's no denying it's a little anticlimactic for most folks expecting to get something like fire imps.

Mass confusion is everything that the single target confuse is, except as a ranged target AoE. The entertainment value of this power is absolutely unrivaled. The power cycles very slowly. It's fantastic as a panic button crowd control power, assuming the mobs you're up against aren't confuse resistant. It's also aggro free like Confuse and Mass Hypnosis, so you can go in solo, stealthed, and clear out big areas, if need be.

Refer to the section on Confuse, and think AoE.[/list]

USING MIND CONTROL POWERS

Included below are some ways to use Mind control powers in combination. I have intentionally not included typical solo damage chains, because they're not hard to figure out (levitate, mez, and dominate, as well as pool attacks like air superiority, are the powers of choice. After level 26, though, soloing becomes even more pointless, and I recommend you not bother).

<ul type="square">[*]Mass Hypnosis, Dominate, Mesmerize (Very Safe)
This is a basic combo you can be doing by L8, and it can be impressive if you can keep it up. Lead with Mass Hypnosis, to get MObs stopped, then immediately Dominate the target your scrapper friend looks like he's headed for. Then Mesmerize the MOb *farthest away from* him. Cycle your Dominates so the folks your single-target fighters are going for are held, and your Mesmerizes so the rest of the guys stay asleep. There's no reason you can't team up with somebody three levels below you and go after groups of eight white cons, and take maybe one or two hits per fight, between you.

This combo is particularly important, because there's a strong current of well-deserved disdain for lowbie controllers who're full of useless powers because they're building toward their ubar stamina/hasten/movement power/pet build in the 30s.

So if you really wanna be a hardcore *controller* early, here's your chance. Get this puppy up and running, trouble yourself to explain it to teammates, and avoid teaming with people who have large area damage before you turn 21, and can consistently sling total domination for them. Here's a sample build geared toward keeping the control flowing.

1 Mesmerize /Acc,End (1,3)
1 Healing Aura /End (1)
2 Dominate /Acc,End,Rchg,End,Hold,Hold (2,3,5,5,7,7)
4 Absorb Pain /Heal,Heal (4,9)
6 Confuse /Conf (6)
8 Mass Hypnosis /Acc,End (8,9)

Extensive control for single-target hitters, with heavy healing to back it up. And you can always spec slots out of Mesmerize and Mass Hypnosis when you turn 24.

Also, see the trickier "Mesmerize, Mass Hypnosis" below.
[*]Confuse, Mass Confusion (Aggro FREE!)
For going after large groups with very high safety, or for leading into groups that you want to subsequently Hold, but want to be quite sure never attack you or your team. Lay a *single* confuse on each boss, as quickly as you can, and then fire off Mass confusion. This ensures every mob is completely controlled WITHOUT ANY AGGRO, and doesn't even involve bosses reducing the XP value of individual mobs before you send your team in. This might be hard to pull off perfectly if there are many bosses or you don't run permahasten yet. Also, if you have large groups you just want to clear off, especially if they lack bosses, you can just apply mass confusion and keep spamming confuse until you have one mob left.
[*]Confusion, confusion, patience! (Aggro FREE!)
For dealing with pesky spawns of bad guys surrounding an Arch Villain-- confuse the AV a few times, and wait. When his mez resistance drops, he will promptly decimate his own allies, leaving your team free to focus on him. This is particularly beneficial fighting certain AVs who spawn in the presence of large status-effect groups or other dangers, such as Infernal.
[*]Mass Hypnosis, Total Domination (Extremely Safe)
Total Domination does after all draw aggro. And sometimes you'll want to lead into fights, as a controller. Especially if you don't have a handy tank or are dealing with large groups of psi blasters (Gordon Trench and The Clockwork King's dimension come to mind). Especially if your accuracy with Total Domination isn't Iron Clad, the Mass Hypnosis is a nice cushion. The guys you miss with Total Domination will stay asleep, and you can target Dom them to your heart's content.
[*]Total Domination, Dominate (Low-risk)
This is elementary total lockdown, and should be in every Mind Controller's playbook. Apply Total Domination to a spawn, then keep your eyes open and spam dominate through the group. Unless your Dominate is slow or you're fighting things 3+ over your head, you ought to be able to keep a mob locked down at least until your endurance runs out. But if you're doing this, you're going to need to survive whatever ranged alpha strike any bosses present will use-- so don't do it against Mezzers like Rikti Chief Mentalists. Obviously, in a scenario with bosses, pop Total Dom and then get Dominate on the boss as fast as possible.

[*]Mass Confusion, Terrify (Low-risk)
Here's the Promised Land of soloing. If you have both of the top powers in Mind Control, and especially if you have Hasten and Stamina and/or Endurance Buff to support it, this trick becomes possible. Lead in with Mass Confusion-- this will insure your bad guys start attacking each other. They'll bunch up a bit. Immediately hit them with Terrify. They'll each attack each other once every time your terrify hurts them, then stop and cower. Keep hitting them with Terrify. Every time you do, they'll try and hit each other, and you'll do a fair amount more damage to them. Eventually they'll all drop. This is virtually danger-free, involves no runners, and can be done with very large spawns. Of course, again, it's very endurance intensive. Ultimately, though it yields a modest and controlled amount of confused-mob-to-mob damage, buffing XP per time very nicely.
[*]Telekinesis, Dominate (Low/moderate risk)
As others noted, TK as an always-hit area hold onto which Dominate (and TD) will stack, can be very effective if you can keep the endurance flowing. In fact, if your recharge rate and endurance are iron-clad, you can be applying so much hold with decent duration that you're a long way toward the improbable feat of chain-holding AVs.
[*]Mesmerize, Mass Hypnosis (Moderate risk)
I'm mentioning this one because it's possible, which most people don't know, but risky. You can, in fact, approach a large spawn of MObs with a boss in it, and FIRST mesmerize the boss, THEN use Mass Hypnosis on the group. This *will* get the entire group including the boss sleeping, and I know of no other way a single character in the game can do such a thing. But then again, I'm not sure why you'd want to. At any rate, the real point is, doing it the other way around is NOT possible-- because the damage component of a Mesmerize, or ANY other damage-dealing sleep power, automatically negates any other sleep effects with which it might otherwise stack.[/list]
SLOTTING MC

As some general suggestions for the pure-control build that assumes perma-haste and stamina (without, consider slotting an end redux, perhaps even two end redux and 1 recharge).

Generally, as a Mind controller you'll want to reliably lay control on higher level badguys with a meaningful duration. You want it all.

Mesmerize: The initial slot with an accuracy. When you have slots to spare, another accuracy and maybe another sleep duration or two. But this isn't one to slot to the hilt.

Dominate: First slot accuracy, and then to 6 slots as quickly as possible. 0-1 more accuracies. Between 0-2 recharges. The rest, Hold.

Confuse: Also a good base accuracy, but this one doesn't draw aggro. One accuracy, confusion, and recharge apiece, to start. Late in the game, you can add one more of each. Don't slot the last three slots until you really have slots to spare.

Mass Hypnosis: First slot an accuracy, and when you reasonably can, slot a second. I don't recommend further slotting unless you're just at a loss for what to slot.

Total Domination: Two accuracy, two recharge, and two hold. Six-slot this as soon as possible. You really will want to hit everything with this, get it out often, and get meaningful hold time on higher level baddies. I endorse slotting a balance, then, obviously.

Telekinesis: You only need endurance reduction in this. 1-3 slots if you only want to make short-term usage of this (and probably, this alone) while rec aura is up. On the other hand, if you want it as a staple of your style to run Telekinesis while doing other things, you will probably want to have it five- or six-slotted for end reduction alongside stamina and RA. (Thanks again to Redlynne for correction on this.)

Terrify: With an initial accuracy, this makes a useful secondary sleep-like control, and does a bit of damage to every mob it hits, especially if you have people to intercept the aggro you'll get doing it. You may want to eventually slot it for damage-- maybe another accuracy, and four or five more slots with damage enhances-- when you're reasonably able to, in order to be able to add AoE damage when you team, or to get the job done when you solo. Yes, it will miss a few folks. No biggie, you'll almost certainly want to be keeping things under control with another power at the same time anyway. Bear in mind, using this to defeat mobs is super-endurance-intensive, but if you can find large clusters of minions and keep it up, you'll actually be doing decent DPS. Also good, if you're the suicidal type, for drawing huge aggro away from one of your fellow squishies. Finally, if you really want to use it intensively as a control, and have nothing else to put slots in, slot a second accuracy, one fear duration, and three accuracy debuffs. However, the accuracy debuff will never wow you.

Mass Confusion: Slot for balance like Total Domination-- start with one accuracy, then throw on a confuse and recharge. One more of each when you've got slots to spare.

EMPATHY

CHARACTERIZATION
Play Empathy if you want to be popular in the early game with people who don't understand defenders well.

Empathy, not the strongest powerset, as a primary, is more about reducing downtime between fights, and less about real defense, particularly at lower levels, than most people think. However as a secondary it's great, and a controller can use it to the max for it's supporting role without extravagant expense in powers and slots.

The downside is of course you do need a team to make Empathy useful. Even that has a silver lining, though, because you need to do this as a controller anyhow (particularly a Mind Controller), and being a "Healer" has got to be one of the best (if not best-justified) selling points you can broadcast when you're looking for a team.

Though it's got a lot of heal, the high range of Empathy has some great buff powers OTHER than the heals. People will love you all over again for a dozen levels when you pick up Fortitude and Recovery Aura at levels 20 and 28. Under the right circumstances, you can also ingratiate yourself immensely in the 20s and up with clear mind. And Adrenaline Boost, with no drawbacks as a +recharge +end recover is nothing to sneeze at, at any level, besides which, the recharge buff was *doubled* with I4, putting Adrenaline Boost in the realm of *phenomenal*, now.

CONTRAST

Empathy is certainly the least offensive set, and along with FF one of the most team-oriented. It has more click and teammate-target effects than any other set. And half (44%) of the set is effects that are (or can be) last-ditch, emergency efforts to keep teammates from being dead in combat. It is, after all, a weird set.

INDIVIDUAL POWERS
<ul type="square">[*]Healing Aura
The only low level power you'll get out of Empathy that helps you, and you'll be forced to take it. It's a good self/PBAoE heal.
[*]Heal Other & Absorb Pain
My position is, these two are redundant. Absorb pain makes you wait another 2 levels to take it, heals MUCH more for MUCH less endurance, and is a little trickier to manage since it hurts you a little and makes you unhealable for a short period. You'll have four options for replacing teammates' health. With all the aggro-free control you can sling, you yourself shouldn't be taking any damage at all if you're doing your job right, so I recommend Absorb Pain, and skip Heal Other, unless choices from Mind force you to do otherwise. You may even wish to consider not taking either power, or at least not slotting either, in order concentrate more on buffs.
[*]Resurrect
This power brings a teammate back to full health from defeat. The End cost is enormous, and the recharge is very slow. Primarily, this power is good for saving your teammates the trouble of walking back from the hospital.

But there are situations where an in-combat Resurrect can be fantastic. A group depending on a Tank can really benefit from that tank making a very fast full-recovery. A group in a tedious fight with a fast-regenerating boss or AV will likely be very happy with a spot-resurrect when it's key blaster falls.

But you have to get a sense for when to do this, and when to NOT do it. The power is situational.
[*]Clear Mind
Resistance against, and popping out of, immob, sleep, hold, and disorient can be crucial against some kinds of foes, and this sometimes overlooked power makes you the anti-controller. It cycles fast, lasts a while, and is otherwise pretty much effortless-- EXCEPT-- that you have to train teammates to call out quickly when held or otherwise watch them on the screen like a hawk, if you're not spamming this power before every fight. Either way, this power is great if you're not *lazy*.
[*]Fortitude
A tidy damage, resistance, defense, accuracy boost. A little more everything! (Including, BTW, resistance and defense against psi!) Fairly slow recycle, but if you work at it you can have 3 teammates forted almost all the time once you have hasten and 1 recharge in it. Plus, if you're going to be worth nothing else in a fight, you can always fort the scrapper!
[*]Recovery Aura
A PBAoE endurance recovery buff extraordinaire. It is, itself, an End Hog, so you're best to pop it at the start of a fight, unless you think you'll be mostly watching the scrappers wear themselves out beating bad guys silly. It does affect you too. And especially among folks who have not sorted out their own endurance needs yet, you'll be considered a God.
[*]Regeneration Aura
A power I don't have direct experience with. I've seen it used. It's a good health recovery buff.

However. You're a controller, and of all the heal options, this one is the most like an active combat defense. You should be controlling, not healing, except in emergencies. So I recommend skipping Regeneration Aura.
[*]Adrenaline Boost
A modest duration, long recharge buff to one teammate's recharge speed and endurance recovery. Even though available only late in the game, still a very impressive power. There is nothing else as good, at L38, to take. Take it![/list]
EMPATHY USAGE

Like defenders, be ready to do some buffing at the start of combat, and pay attention to when the buffs are back up again. Giving somebody Fortitude + Adrenaline Boost is a very real and noticeable improvement, to any character I've ever seen. Even just spamming heals on a scrapper can easily make the difference between a defeated AV and a defeated scrapper. If you're pulling off a hazardous resurrect, be ready to hit a heal or two just in case. Rezzing somebody so they can die again sucks.

Because of this, and because Empathy is not your primary as a controller, I recommend against taking more than two healing powers with the set. You're forced to take Healing Aura. I recommend Absorb pain, and skip Heal Other.

SLOTTING EMP

Empathy overall won't be a slot-hog for a controller. For healing powers, slot mainly health, though an endurance reduction on Healing Aura or Heal Other might be appropriate, especially before you have stamina. You could go ahead and slot these to 4-6 if you want, but you could also leave them at 3 slots and get almost all the use you should expect to, out of them.

As for resurrect, clear mind, fortitude, recovery aura, and adrenaline boost, you want recharges. One apiece, except for recovery aura and adrenaline boost; keep slotting these two with recharges once you have little else crucial to put your slots in. Nothing wrong with having both up as often as (meta-) humanly possible. But again-- you'll get all the use you should expect to, out of secondaries, out of these even before they're slotted heavily.

MIND CONTROL/EMPATHY SYNERGY

MC/Empath is really a build for multitaksers-- people who think it's fun to try and keep their finger on the pulse of everything going on, especially in a pickup team, where it approaches impossible, even if folks stay together. MC/Emp is one of the least susceptible of all builds, to the "What is there to do but stand here and hit things" syndrome. You will have to become very accustomed to your preferred method of selecting both targets and enemies. Tab (in the default keyboard configuration) cycles you through enemies. And you can select teammates with mouse clicks on the team list, or keystrokes. You can also select targets of either sort with a click directly on the target. Only you can come up with the target-selection scheme that works best for you, but choose wisely. Also, strongly recommended you turn the health and status display bar to "always on."

Mind control has a lot of aggro-free attacks, and Empathy has no aggroing debuffs. You could live your life virtually aggro-free under this build. You will be the last man standing, running from the grape-con horde, more than anybody. If you are prone to survival guilt, you may want to consider another build.

Mind and Empathy are both unusually focused sets-- mind in control-as-such, and empathy in healing. So versatility is not your forte. Also, mind is probably the furthest toward the 'grouping' end of the solo/group spectrum of any controller primary, and Empathy the most grouping-oriented of the controller secondaries. MC/Emp is therefore an extreme group build. Does everybody you try to group with know it? No. Does everybody snickering behind their hand watching you solo know it? Yes.

Mind control is not surprisingly an End Hog with it's advanced stunts, nor are Heals or resurrection light on the end. Fortunately, Empathy has one major power that works directly with you-- Recovery Aura. You can readily eat your entire native + stamina endurance recovery doing Mind Controller Tricks, so having Recovery Aura ready to go can be a real boon.

Mind/Empathy can be a real boon if you're working with a modest number of damage dealers who're squishy or would prefer not to rely only their own defenses. Duoing or trioing with blasters and/or Super Reflexes or Dark Armor scrappers, particularly, can be quite lucrative, especially if you're at a stage where you can boost their accuracy a little, you have missions set on invincible, and your allies are a couple levels below you. The ideal sidekick for a Mind/Empathy is a Blapper!

Finally, empathy has lots of buffs you can use on non-teammates when you stumble on someone in a pitched battle on the street, and Mind Control likewise has some *great* damage-free crowd control. Try this sometime, once you're L38-- find a scrapper in a pitched battle versus a big ambush, who's about to go down. Heal, Fort, Rec Aura, Adrenaline Boost, then Total Dom their opponents. A near disaster converted into an easy XP goldmine-- thanks to your friendly neighborhood MC/Emp!

POOL POWERS
Recommended Pool Powers
<ul type="square">[*]Speed-- Hasten
Hasten is essential to most MC/Emp builds I can think of. With perma-hasten (hasten six-slotted with SOs), it's like adding an extra couple recharge enhances at least to your four best powers-- Total Dom, Terrify, Rec Aura, and Adrenaline Boost-- all of which you'll *never* really be able to get out as fast as you want to. This is to say nothing of Confusion, Mass Hypnosis, Mass Confusion, Resurrection, and Recovery Aura, which are slow but darn good too, and also things you can never have too many recharges in. Nor does it even hurt to be able to cycle things like Mesmerize, Dominate, Healing Aura, etc, faster. Nothing about a MC/Emp is fast. Get hasten six-slotted ASAP.

Can you survive without it? Yes. Do you want to? Absolutely not, unless you just HAVE to have four other pools.
[*]Fitness-- Stamina, etc
It is conceivable to avoid stamina on MC/Emp characters, if you're willing to wait around until you get Recovery Aura, and be forever pinned down between uses of it. Even with both, though, you can find ways to tax yourself end-wise as a MC/Emp, especially if you're running telekinesis.

Most people have noticed that if you're building the ubiquitous Hasten + Stamina into your character, you have a handy opening on super speed as a movement power. If you're doing that make sure to pick up the sequence HURDLE, Health, Stamina. Even if you lag behind your friends levels 6-13.

And while we're on the subject-- it's not the end of the world if you don't take a major movement power AT ALL. (Incidentally, people who make a big deal about 30 seconds more or less between missions are very likely to be impossible to control for anyhow.) If you're going with swift and hurdle for movement, remember to slot SPRINT, NOT SWIFT, for optimum speed.
[*]Concealment-- Stealth
Both Mind and Empathy operate almost entirely at range-- excepting a couple buffs you'll likely use before a fight even starts. Moreover, Mind has a LOT of aggro-free control options, and Empathy has no aggroing debuffs. Finally, Mind requires at least it's fair share of tactical assessment. All these things make Stealth a SUPERB synergy with Mind/Empathy

As an MC/Empath, you'll likely live a largely aggro-free lifestyle. Also, you have an awful lot of tactical choices each time you start laying down crowd control, and it's much better to be able to do that when you're calm, collected, and close enough to see what you're really doing.

In addition to a tidy bit of defense, stealth helps keep you out of the fight completely even while you're with your aggro free stuff, AND it improves your 'strategic intelligence' factor, which is more important to your job than it is to most, since ALL of your controls are ranged.

You can even use it to get in range to resurrect somebody if you don't have recall friend.

Finally, stealth opens up a lot of opportunities soloing missions for objectives without making most arrests, if you want to see game content but can't find a teammate, especially if you bring confuse along.[/list]OTHER POOL POWERS
<ul type="square">[*]Teleport-- Recall Friend, Teleport Foe, Teleport

Most defenders who routinely resurrect people (which shouldn't be happening, but that's another story) like recall friend so they can pull out of harm's way then resurrect you safely. Plus, it's just nice to be able to offer teammates who're selling on the other side of the map a direct port to the door or train. If you're as attentive to your teammates as an MC/Emp should be, you'll ingratiate yourself that way.

Teleport Foe is fun, and it can make soloing a little easier if you decide you just have to, for some reason. Also, however, confused mobs still have a fairly short aggro range, and if you're using confuse, you're going to sometimes end up with a solitary confused mob that by itself serves no purpose. Teleporting him into a group of your enemies works *just* fine. I don't REALLY recommend teleport foe. But it's interesting.

Teleport-- Teleport is potentially the fastest, but the hardest to control, of all the major movement powers. Best but hardest to control? Sounds like a Mind Controller to me.
[*]Leadership-- Assault, Maneuvers, Tactics
Yeah, we're not quite as good as Defenders at this stuff, but. If you're going to run an MC/Empath with Stamina AND Rec Aura like I describe, you might as well run around in combat with a couple leadership toggles active. What's one more thing to manage, considering how many you're already worried about? Assault and Maneuvers each help you out a little. Tactics, when properly slotted, however, is equal to an accuracy enhancement in EVERY power. This alone makes Leadership seriously worth considering.
[*]Leaping & Flight

Your preference for travel may be one of these, which is fine. Flight gets you weird places easiest, and hover has some defense. Leaping also has some interesting resistances and defense, and Super jump is quite fast and probably the most fun of any travel power.

I personally don't condone taking any of the pool defenses or attacks, since you should be controlling for your defense, and getting teammates for damage.[/list]
POOL POWERS TO AVOID
<ul type="square">
[*]Fighting
At some point, it will become tempting to add boxing or kick to fill out an attack chain, and maybe try to add tough and weave to be able to hang in there with the tough guys, later on. Just don't. Besides which, if you really must take a pool attack, it should be Air superiority.
[*]Medicine, Presence

Don't see much point in these in this build.[/list]

PER ORIGIN

I play MC/Empath who's conceptually and origin-wise a Natural. Origins don't mean anything. Yah, I know.
<ul type="square">[*]Naturals
Empathy can largely be explained as medical expertise, for a natural though some of the mid-high ones like Fortitude and Clear Mind seem like they could go elsewhere. Much of Mind Control could be explained as persuasion, charisma, intimidation, and the like. Between the two, I am partial to explaining high-level empathy effects as partly psychological/advice-driven in nature. The two telekinetic elements in Mind Control are hard to explain for a natural, unless you think it's a completely ordinary human ability. Super speed and Teleport are also hard to explain as ordinary human abilities.
[*]Technology (least common Controller origin)
Empathy as very-high-tech medicine works too. Controlling minds with technology can be done wackily-- ala some sort of "cerebro" device that amplifies brainwaves, or perhaps more interestingly, as a side effect of using psychoactive chemical agents sprayed in the air. Sorta creepy, but it would work.
[*]Science & Mutant
What one does with these origins is notoriously open. I mean, what *can't* the right sort of scientific experiment unlock? What *can't* be a mutant power? For the Science side, see the Anime classic Akira. For the Mutant side, what makes more sense that a psychic healer? Flight might be conceptually better than super speed or teleport for either of these.
[*]Magic (Most Common Controller Origin)
Sorcerous powers should tidily be able to encompass all the MC/Emp effects, not to mention that MC/Emp, aside from some Defenders, can be one of the most conceptually diverse sets there is-- so unlike the magic fire/fire blaster, nobody will say to you, "What, you ignore *all* magical forms except fire?" Lots of the advanced Empathy stuff can be kinds of blessings. Confusions could be possession! The TK mind control looks like very familiar mystical forms too. Teleport's also a great magic power.[/list]

THE DR. MANINGZHOUE MIND/EMPATHY BUILD

Here's my wack-tastic Mind/Emp build lacking TK and Major movement powers. Needless to say there's a lot of stuff in the two sets to take, and I've bumbled through it with three respecs so far:

1 Healing Aura /heal,heal,heal (1,3,9)
1 Mesmerize /acc (1)
2 (Sprint) /run,run,run,run (2,11,13,15)
2 Dominate /acc, rchg,hold,hold,rchg,hold (2,3,5,7,9,11)
4 Heal Other /heal,heal,heal,heal,heal (4,5,7,39,40)
6 Confuse /Conf,Rchg,Acc,Conf,Conf,Conf (6,33,34,36,36,37)
8 Swift /Run (8)
10 Resurrect /Rchg (10)
12 Maneuvers /DefBuff,DefBuff,DefBuff,DefBuff (12,13,17,48)
14 Tactics /AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff,AccBuff (14,15,17,34,39,40)
16 Hurdle /jump (16)
18 Total Domination /Acc,Rchg,Hold,Hold,Rchg,Acc (18,19,19,21,23,25)
20 Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec (20,21,23,25,27,27)
22 Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (22,29,29,31,31,31)
24 Stealth /Def (24)
26 Terrify /Dmg, Acc,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg (26,42,42,42,43,45)
28 Recovery Aura /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg, (28,33,37,40,43,45)
30 Fortitude /Rchg, AccBuff (30,48)
32 Mass Confusion Acc,Rchg, Conf,Conf Rchg,Rchg (32,33,34,36,37,39)
35 Mass Hypnosis /Accuracy (35)
38 Adrenaline Boost /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (38,43,45,46,46,46)
41 Clear Mind /Rchg (41)
44 Indomitable /Rchg, (44)
47 Mind Over Body /Rchg, Rchg (47,48)
49 Health /Heal (49)

RECOMMENDED MIND/EMPATHY BUILD

Finally, here's a suggested Mind/Emp build for control/support, without some of my conceptual limitations. I want to stress-- there's lots of stuff in there, and somebody's always going to look at you askance for not taking clear mind, or telekinesis, or some other power, earlier. That being said...

1 Mesmerize /Acc,End (1,3)
1 Healing Aura /End,Heal,Heal,Heal (1,9,11,37)
2 Dominate /Acc,End,Rchg,End,Hold,Hold (2,3,5,5,7,7)
4 Absorb Pain /Heal,Heal,Heal (4,11,46)
6 Confuse /Acc,Conf,Rchg,Rchg,Acc,Conf (6,13,15,17,34,37)
8 Mass Hypnosis /Acc,End (8,9)
10 Hurdle /Run (10)
12 Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (12,13,15,17,25,34)
14 Superspeed /Run (14)
16 Health /Heal (16)
18 Total Domination /Acc,Acc,Rchg,Hold,Hold,Rchg (18,19,19,23,27,29)
20 Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec (20,21,21,23,25,27)
22 Resurrect /Rchg (22)

Now is a good time to change out the endurance reductions in Mesmerize, Dominate, and Mass Hypnosis, for accuracies (and a recharge for Dominate).

24 Stealth /Def (24)
26 Terrify /Acc,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg (26,31,31,36,37,40)
28 Recovery Aura /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (28,29,31,40,42,43)
30 Fortitude /Rchg (30)
32 Mass Confusion /Acc,Acc,Conf,Rchg,Rchg,Conf (32,33,33,33,34,39)
35 Telekinesis /End,End,End,End,End (35,36,36,42,43)
38 Adrenaline Boost /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg (38,39,39,40,42,43)
41 Clear Mind /Rchg (41)
44 Indomitable Will /Rchg,Rch,Rch (44,45,45,45,46,46)
47 Mind Over Body /Res,Res,Res (47,48,48,48)
49 Psychic Tornado /[Ask a */psi defender] (49,50,50,50)

Having looked at it again, I think my build recommendation in previous versions of this FAQ had some flaws. Hopefully this one is better.

Here, as you can see:
<ul type="square">[*]You'll have superb healing out of the box.[*]By 8, you'll bring a wealth of control, including a full-fledged area control and two aggro-free controls. Your single-target damage friends will love you at this stage.[*]You'll promptly be *very* mobile at 14. Perching on top of buildings is for the birds.[*]At 25, you'll have your full dosage of stamina, permahasten, and total domination in place. You are very nearly as UBAR as control gets. [*]By the time you're 30, with the addition of fort, rec aura, resurrect, and stealth, every team will have four new reasons to love you.[*]By the time you're 40, you'll be completely over-the-top in terms of area control, and be throwing out Adrenaline Boost.[/list]
REGARDING EPIC POWER POOLS

I have very little experience with or knowledge of the Controller EPPs. I went with Psi Mastery late in Doc's build, and with my recommended build. I think there's a bit of consensus that the status protection of Indomitable Will, and the high base smashing & lethal resistance of Mind over Body make Psi Mastery one of the best possible picks.

The other EPP to look at is Power Mastery (? ... sometimes I forget the names of these). Power Boost enhances hold durations, and so is very worth looking at.

APPENDIX A: UNDERSTANDING STATUS EFFECTS

There are a number of distinct status effects in CoH, and Mind Controllers are masters of some of the strongest. Also, Empathy->Clear Mind immunizes against them all. Understanding them as a Mind/Empathy controller is crucial. There are several kinds, and...

Crucially-- status effects can only be stacked with other status effects of the SAME TYPE. You cannot stack confusion and sleep, fear and hold, etc. A boss with a single application of sleep, hold, and confuse each is a boss who's still fully active and hurting you.

<ul type="square">[*]Hold: Affected target cannot use any power, and cannot move. The most common status effect controllers use.
[*]Disorient/Stun: Affected target cannot use any power. Also, movement rate drastically reduced.
[*]Sleep: Affected target cannot use any power, and cannot move. Effect automatically ends when target takes any damage from a hero.
[*]Immobilize: Affected target cannot move.
[*]Fear: Affected target cannot use any power, and cannot move. Effect momentarily stops (long enough for target to make one attack), every time he takes damage. Often includes an accuracy debuff.
[*]Phase: Affected target is intangible and cannot be affected or affect others.
[*]Knockdown/up: Affected target is knocked to the ground, or into the air, then has to get up, during which time, he cannot take any other action. Many controller forms of knockdown have repetitive, pulsing, AoE knockdown.
[*]Knockback: Like knockdown but displaces the target horizontally.
[*]Slow: Not really a status effect, rather, a movement debuff, and, usually, recharge debuff.
[*]Smoke, etc: Not really a status effect, rather, a debuff on aggro range, and an accuracy debuff.
[*]Confuse: Does quite a few related but distinct things. Affected targets:

1) stop attacking heroes completely,
2) stop buffing villains completely,
3) buff heroes as though they were villains.
4) attack and debuff villains as though they were heroes-- BUT! 75% the damage done by confused mobs is excluded from the calculation of credit for XP, whenever a mob is defeated.[/list]
Most ATs have at least a few powers in a couple powersets that at least occasionally do status effects. Disorients and stuns are frequently a possible side effect of melee attacks. Dark and Ice (noncontroller) sets notoriously wield a variety of controls. Controller primaries are a collection of 3-9 (usually 8) powers whose primary purpose is a status effect.

Lieutenants and minions (also, underlings, and pets) are ordinarily affected by a control power, if it hits.

However, bosses and certain villain types with special resistances (see below) require two applications of a control power before they're affected. This is commonly referred to as "stacking." The status effect is only in place while the duration of the two applications overlap.

Archvillains are affected by status effects as though they were bosses (they require two applications), but also have an inherent power that allows them to automatically resist most of the total-controls-- hold, sleep, confuse, fear, etc, for about 65% (I dunno. It seems like more than half, that's for sure!) of the duration of the fight (with the exceptions of the Archvillains Terra and Adamastor, who lack it). The power switches itself on and off automatically. There is a visual cue, consisting of purple triangles circling the head of the AV. If the triangles are pointing up, the resistance power is on. If they're pointing down, the resistance power is off, and the AV can be held, etc. It *IS* possible to overcome this Archvillain-level resistance, but it requires an enormous amount of controlling ability-- usually between two or three even level controllers dedicated to nothing but spamming the same kind of status effect (usually a hold.)

Monsters and Giant Monsters are not ordinarily subject to any of the total-controls. They can, however, be affected if enough status effects are "stacked," about the same way as an AV's inherent resistance power can be overcome.

Total Control

A term I like to use to distinguish between two classes of controls. Total Controls are controls that fully stop the attacks of an effected enemy that would otherwise be aggroing, for a significant duration. They include hold, sleep, fear, confuse, and phase. Disorient, stun, and knockback *can* qualify, but ordinarily are not long enough in duration.

Soft Control

Another term I use to distinguish between kinds of controls. Soft controls are controls that you can't benefit from and attack the controlled mob at the same time. They include sleeps, fear, smoke, and phase. (The other controls could be called "hard" controls.)

Hard Total Controls: hold, confuse
Hard Limited Controls: Knockdown/up, Slow, Immob
Soft Total Controls: sleeps, fear, smoke, and phase

APPENDIX B: REGARDING CONFUSION, XP, TIME, NUMBERS

A confused mob will actively do damage to the other mobs you're fighting. Normally, anything except a teammate doing damage to mobs you're fighting claims a portion of the XP for themself.

However, MOST of a CONFUSED MOb's DAMAGE DOES NOT COUNT in this regard. 75% of the damage a confused mob does to your other enemies magically disappears from BOTH sides of the equation.

The equations for real XP yield over time are complex, and not the purview of this FAQ. You have to look at both the fight time, and some unknown standard downtime between fights, as well as the way confuse buffs XP, to get it right. Fortunately, it reduces to a fairly simple equation.

If you're using confusion, it will not worsen XP per time unless you spend more than a certain amount of time between fights. That amount of time is: three times the amount of time the fight itself WOULD have normally taken, reduced by the same fraction as the damage you did.

APPENDIX C: REGARDING SPECIFIC MOBS

There are a few noteworthy mobs in CoH to deal with, as a Mind Controller.

As has been noted, confused enemies will buff and debuff to *your* advantage, and this is something you'll very much want to take advantage of. Any time a mob is primarily or noteworthily a buffer, debuffer, or controller, you should consider it your solemn duty to confuse them.

An incomplete list of confuse-worthy targets:
<ul type="square">[*]Council vampires of all sorts (they use various sleeps and holds).
[*]Banished Pantheon Shamen EXCEPT Death Shamen (the others use myriad status effects and debuffs, including snow storm, earthquake, and hurricane).
[*]Some of the Circle of Thorns Mages-- especially madness mages (who virtually are Mind/Emp themselves), Life Mages (who heal now, some), and Ice Thorn casters. I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Also-- CoT Portals, which summon Behemoths that yield no XP (yuk!), but are good XP themselves, can be kept from EVER summoning by confusing them before they aggro to anything (make SURE to keep the confusion up). Also, if they aggro first then get confused, they'll summon confused behemoths thereafter.
[*]Crey Medics and Radiologists (Medics heal and Radiologists do rad infection), as well as Geneticists, who MAY actually be able to resurrect fallen heroes while confused-- I've never seen it, but it may be possible.
[*]All devouring earth 'shrooms. They mez like crazy, and also summon mez-resistance emanators. (See below for more on Emanators).
[*]Lost Aberrants and Pariahs, especially the Eremites and Anchorites.
[*]Rikti Mentalists, Mesmerists, and Guardians. Also, Rikti portals, opened by communications officers, will port in *confused* conscripts if you confuse the portal!
[*]Sky raider Forcefield Generators (yes, they bubble *you*!).
[*]Tsoo Yellow Ink Men, who use sleeps and holds, and Sorcerers, whose heals are legendarily annoying, and who have a hold of their own. Also, Dragonfly, Herald, and Skyfall type bosses. Finally, anytime a Tsoo throws caltrops that are getting on your nerves, confuse him. As long as he's alive and confused, the caltrops will affect him, not you. (After he dies, the caltrops revert to hurting you.)
[*]Vazhilok Embalmed of all kinds, will blow up their own allies if you confuse them, rather than your team. Normally not a high priority for confusion, since holding them is just as good, but frankly, everyone loves you when you set off Zombie fireworks safely.
[*]False Nemeses. These guys *can* be confused with the normal difficulty of a boss, and they usually have dispersion bubble up.
[*]Malta. Sappers, which are, hands down, the best target for confusions in the entire game. They do negligible damage, but even stalwart tanks and epic scrappers fear their end drain. You needn't. Have them drain your enemies instead! Also, if you have a Malta Engineer on hand held, but he's already dropped an auto-turret that is annoying you, confuse him. So long as he's alive and confused, the turret will attack villains. It reverts when he dies though.
[*]Carnie Illusionists and Master Illusionists-- they'll summon hordes of pets-- other illusionists, Dark Servants, Phantasms... and they'll all fight each other, so long as you keep the original summoner alive and confused. Great fun.
[*]Knives of Artemis-- the Hands were a special pain in my rear, because they mez and somehow I rarely saw them beforehand. Also, all the Knives throw caltrops, it seems like, and a single mass confusion can turn an inferno of caltrop microdamage against the people who created it.[/list]
Other Special Mob Considerations

A few other things come to mind regarding specific mobs.
<ul type="square">[*]Devouring Earth villains drop a wide variety of emanators that buff other DE ONLY. Confusing the person who summoned the emanator OR the emanator itself will make the emanator STOP buffing the DE, but it will NOT buff your team. (This is an unusual exception.)
[*]DE Fungoids (deathcaps, etc) require special attention, as well. If one that you confuse plants a fungus (which normally provide nearby DE with resistance to status effects), and then you proceed to put holds on other DE, and the fight gets going, and somehow your fungoid dies, suddenly you'll have a fungus that nobody was worrying about breaking all your holds. So watch funguses. Keep them separately confused if for whatever reason your team isn't killing them automatically.
[*]Nemesis are a pain in the rear. They all require two applications to confuse or fear, and additionally none of the robots cannot be slept AT ALL. You're basically going to have to rely on holds vs Nemesis. Let's hope you're good with Dominate and Total dominate. Or healing aura.
[*]Other robots, and certain zombies, can't be slept either. To tell you the absolute truth, I never made a list as I was playing, I just didn't bother sleeping them.
[*]Explosives, a relatively recent introduction into the game, blow up goodguys and badguys alike. Don't be tricked into thinking you can confuse them into not blowing you up. A confused explosive puts the smackdown intended for you, on the enemy, but also puts the smackdown intended for the enemy on YOU![/list]

APPENDIX D: WHERE HAVE ALL THE MIND/EMP GONE?

Some statistics about controllers and Mind/Empathy.

From a survey during busy hours on the Freedom server on 5-29-05:

In the low (1-25) game, scrappers (27%) dominate, followed by blasters (24%) and tanks (21%), trailed by defenders (15%) and controllers (13%).

In the high (26-50) game, tanks (27%) dominate, followed by blasters (23%) and scrappers (22%), trailed by defenders (14%) and controllers (14%).

Given the distribution of different origins in CoH overall, Controllers are disproportionately (x1.46) likely to be magic origin, and unlikely to be (x.53) Tech or (x.76) Natural.

From a census somtime in February '05, where respondents listed the primary and secondary of their highest level controller:

Illusion (24%) controllers dominate primaries, followed by Fire (19%) and Mind (17%), trailed by Gravity (15%) and Ice (14%), and finally, Earth (11%).

Radiation (26%) secondary controllers come out most numerous, followed by Kinetics (20%) and Empathy (19%), trailed by Storm (18%) and Forcefield (18%).

Secondary choices for Mind showed a surprising frequency of Empathy (x1.79) and Forcefield (x1.18), and a surprising rarity of Storm (x.39) and Radiation (x.67).

Primary choices for Empathy controllers showed a surprising frequency of Mind (x1.79) and Earth (x1.15), and surprising rarities of Fire (x.47), Gravity (x.8) and Ice (x.86).

So. For supplemental reading, maybe you'll want to look at an Earth/Emp or a Mind/FF guide.

APPENDIX E: MISCELLANEOUS ADVICE
<ul type="square">[*] Start teams yourself, rather than waiting to be chosen. Develop your leadership and communication skills. (The author is sorely lacking in this department.)[*] There are three good ways to approach a fight. 1) You lead into each fight with area control, or 2) a tank leads in and grabs aggro, or 3) a blaster or defender pulls ones and twos. TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY for making sure your team knows and agrees on one and only one of these.[*] If you are lead-in controlling from stealth, BEAT YOUR TEAMMATES OVER THE HEAD until they understand NOT to come up and stand next to you, ESPECIALLY when you're facing off with AoE mezzing opponents.[*] If your team is composed of 40%+ melee and the group isn't in way over its head, help blasters, defenders, and other controllers understand that pulling with blasts is NOT THE ONLY way to play.[*] If you're on a team with no tanks and few controllers, help any twitchy scrappers present understand that being debt magnets is NOT THE ONLY way to play.[*] If you're on a team with a good tank who is herding, don't fire off control until he's in position. Ask him to fire off an F7 "Ready!" when you should mez. But also watch out for other teammates who get dangerous aggro away from him. Herding can be dangerous, and you're not vital to it, so use your alertness to the max.[*] If you're on a team with a good blaster or defender who's pulling, if there are *any* melee people on the team, DO NOT mez anything until it's WELL OUTSIDE THE AGGRO RANGE of whatever group it's been pulled from. And for god's sake do NOT confuse it![*] If you are on a team with people who do AoE damage-- particularly claw/*, spine/*, and */dark scrappers and fire/* and */fire blasters, watch positioning CAREFULLY, because once you lock down a group, obviously they can't be worked into position for cones and AoEs. It's ok, especially with the scrappers, to wait a minute to lock mobs down, and not lockdown before they cluster up. You've got heals, so if need be, let the scrapper go into the red, then heal, mez, and heal again. It may also be useful in this regard to run ahead of the team a bit and immediately mez clusters of MObs as soon as they spawn and before they start to meander. This can also apply to area toggle debuffers.[*] Some attacks will make mobs scatter-- it seems to me most notoriously, everything with the word "rain" in the power description. If you have a teammate running this kind of effect but not locking down mobs first, work something out with them.[*] If you're on a team with tanks and other controllers, and to some extent, defenders and scrappers, and if the mission difficulty isn't set high, you might be more useful elsewhere. See the next point.[*] Accept that there are bad teams to be on, and that you can only do two things about them: talk, and leave. If the team can't be improved with talk, you must leave it.[/list]

APPENDIX F: SUPPLEMENTAL READING

Cforce's Guide to Confusion
Hedon's Guide to Telekinesis
Tenthletter1979's Empathy Guide
LadyMage's Empathy Guide
Auriel's Empathy Guide

BlackSly · 06-10-2005 09:53 AM

Very, very good guide. This and Hedon's guide to using TK will set up a newbie MC to play (not quite almost) like a master.

Some additions:
Levitate does the most damage, but Mesmerize is comparable: it does 3/4 damage for 3/4 Endurance and has a better secondary effect in most situations. It is feasable to slot up both for damage for a decent 1-2 punch for a Controller so that you can solo early. In the 20s the damage seems to have less effect on mob's health bars, but OTOH you can spam the attacks more with Stamina slotted. If you slot both up for Damage, you can solo as a MC more quickly than you would have imagined. Soloing safely, of course, has always been known.

Mass Hypnosis, TK, and Terrify are all "perma" controls. That is, you can use any of them, with a bit of slotting and perma-Hasten, to keep a mob spawn without bosses under control indefinitely. Mass Confusion and Total Domination are not perma controls.

Confusion has a very long casting time and not a very long recharge time. Having it up often will eat into your power-use cycle tremendously. I suggest not slotting it up for recharge. Also, its duration is great, about double the duration of Dominate. It is a very good power even when lightly slotted, which helps with all the other stuff you wish to slot.

I'm surprised to see /Storm as the least popular secondary for MC. I took Storm for a simple design reason: MC has the least damage power in its primary, and Storm is the only secondary that directly provides bonus damage. So Storm seems to most directly plug up MC's biggest gap: soloing damage. But beware endurance problems... MC isn't cheap, and Storm is just an endurance sucking 12-cylinder gas guzzler.

Cycling Conserve Power and Recovery Aura is a high-level option that will greatly simplify all Endurance problems.

magicj · 06-10-2005 11:50 AM

A great guide Enantiodromos. It's an excellent and detailed overview of the powers. Very well done.

That combo is just seriously sick, and is a perversion of gameplay mechanics. - Excelsio

The Infernal Challenge
Building a WarTroller
Troller Damage

Angry_Citizen · 06-10-2005 12:17 PM

I very rarely comment on guides, but this is an extremely good one. You've thought of EVERYTHING in this guide. Very good

Oh, 5 stars for you!

Doom.

Yep.

This is really doom.

Redlynne · 06-10-2005 01:30 PM

[ QUOTE ]
<ul type="square">[*]Telekinesis, Dominate (Low/moderate risk)
As others noted, TK as an always-hit area hold onto which Dominate (and TD) will stack, can be very effective if you can keep the endurance flowing. In fact, if your recharge rate and endurance are iron-clad, you can be applying so much hold with decent duration that you're a long way toward the improbable feat of chain-holding AVs.[/list]
[/ QUOTE ]

I've managed to get Ms Givings up to 28.6 now and have been using Telekinesis for quite some time. There are some pretty significant DOs and DON'Ts for use of Telekinesis.

One of the DON'T/DO items is just Open with TK on a dynamically moving group of Mobs. Under most circumstances, a lot of the mobile Mobs will "drop out" of the TK Cluster simply by virtue of their being able to move around as they're being swept up by TK. This means that mobile Mobs can (in effect) "resist" the Foe Repel aspect of TK simply by moving towards you ... and thus away from the vector of Repulsion from you ... just long enough to "get away" from the TK Cluster, which has continued to pulse Repel away from you.

The SAFEST thing to do is to open with Mass Hypnosis (optionally followed by Total Domination) ... THEN hit the Telekinesis. The reason for this is that the Sleeping Mobs will not be able to Move under their own power (thereby "resisting" the Repel of TK) before the HOLD aspect of TK gets applied to them, which will of course prevent them from Moving as they get swept up by the TK Cluster. Granted, when the Mobs get "swept up" by TK that'll break the Sleep of Mass Hypnosis ... but by the time that happens, it'll be "too late" for them to do anything about that.

Do NOT expect a TK-ed anchor floating by a Mob running towards you to "gather up" the Mob charging towards you. If it happens ... Yay! Most of the time however, the charging Mob will Repel maybe once ... but will do so Out Of Sync with the anchor group, which will be Repelled out of range of maintaining TK contact with the charging Mob before the Repel pulse affects the charger ... with the result that the Mobile Mob "drops out" of the TK Cluster and resumes bearing down on you.

"Pushing" with TK to establish a Cluster Pile into a group of Mobile Mobs is thus remarkably INEFFECTIVE. I have found this out on multiple occasions. "Pushing" with TK to establish a Cluster Pile into a group of Immobile Mobs is EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE ... with the caveat that you need to shove them back into terrain that isn't "lumpy bumpy" that allows some of them to "slough off" the TK Cluster and thus become "unglued" from the rest and "drop out" of being affected by TK.

<ul type="square">[*]Confuse, Telekinesis (also known as The Poor MC's Teleport Foe)
Best used on a single "leftover" Mob you'd like to inflict on other Foes elsewhere.[/list]
I used this to "push/drag" a Minion (in this case, a Warrior Bruiser) from elsewhere on a mission map into proximity with an Elite Boss (Achillies) so as to be able to Solo the mission and get the Wedding Band Temp Power from Stephanie Peebles. The other Warrior types had too little Accuracy, cycled their attacks too slowly, and simply didn't do enough Damage to dent the Elite Boss faster than he could Heal. So I "imported" a Bruiser (who cycles faster, attacks more reliably and does "enough" damage to whittle down the Elite Boss) into close enough proximity to engage. Required hair-trigger timing in use of TK ... not to mention a good deal of Goldilocks Touch so as to get Close But Not Too Close ... so as to get my Confused Minion to attack without "waking" the Elite Boss to my presence. 10 minutes of Auto-Attack Confusing later ... Mission Complete ... Solo. I got no XP for the Elite Boss ... but then I didn't need XP from the Elite Boss who could slay me just by glancing in my direction.

Maintain Confuse and you can TK Mobs around all over ... so long as you're CAREFUL NOT to push them into a corner you can't get them out of. TK can be used for extremely short bursts of Repel Foe ... which is sometimes the difference between a Mob standing there Confused (doing nothing) and attacking their (former) comrades. Sometimes all it takes is a single pulse of Repel Foe to put a Confused Mob into Aggro Range of any other Mobs.

Finally, a word about the Foe Repel of Telekinesis.

Foes are Repelled From You The Mind Controller ... not from each other. We're talking multibody vectors here. It LOOKS like they Repel from each other because of the difference in vector angles from the Mind Controller to them ... not because they're "pushing off each other" as they float around. The only vectors that TK-ed Foes exert on each other is Spatial Denial ... also known as "stacking" ... in that (usually) two Mobs cannot occupy the exact same location simultaneously. Other than that fact, and the "can't move through obstacles" vectors applied to them, Mobs that are Held and Repelled by TK are only Repelled away from the Mind Controller. This is why corners are so important. If you've had high school physics, this makes a lot more sense ... because you can actually SEE the Vector Math happening right in front of your very eyes.

And Last But Not Least ...
Levitate doesn't "mix" all that well with Telekinesis. The "juggle toss" of Levitate has an annoying habit of throwing TK-ed Mobs over obstructions ... beyond which they continue to be Repelled away until they drop out of TK Cluster Range and become Unheld (not to mention Annoyed). The knockup of Levitate is yet another factor to "juggle" when trying to select appropriate terrain to TK into, and there are surprisingly large variety of situations where you simply DON'T want to use Levitate while holding with TK. Mesmerize may do less Damage per Hit, and it may be Psionic instead of Smashing Damage ... but the lack of Knockup on Mesmerize makes it far more Friendly to synergize with TK than Levitate. On TK-ed Mobs you'd be using Mesmerize and Levitate for Damage Output rather than Control anyway, so the loss of Sleep from Mesmerize (TK breaks Sleeps btw) is hardly important (although the lack of knockup is extremely important). Slotting Mesmerize for Damage and Dominate for Hold looks like a very attractive synergy with Telekinesis.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Gleep_Wurp · 06-13-2005 01:58 PM

Outstanding guide. Will certainly be forwarding this on to my fiancee, for her Mind/Emp Controller.

Entropion · 07-01-2005 09:36 AM

Excellent guide to a very interesting build - thanks for posting it.

miss_lilith · 08-02-2005 10:23 AM

outstanding guide. Answered a lot of my questions. I just lvled to 19, and this will make lots of slotting decisions easier.

Hobo_Healer · 08-02-2005 10:38 AM

That is one hell of a guide, but I do have some problems with the Empathy information, slotting etc.

I would advise HO over AP anyday especially since you are not taking regen aura which is the only thing that will heal you in the penalty period. CM at 41? CM also protects against fear and confuse and now grants +perception. And only 1 slot in Fortitude, one of the best buffs in the game seems way to slim. I am reminded though that it is your secondary and not a priority. Hard to choose when every empathy power is useful.

Overall though a really well done guide.

Cheers!

MrMarvel · 08-02-2005 10:55 AM

A few corrections;

[ QUOTE ]
lacks straight damage powers like Spectral Wounds and Propel

[/ QUOTE ]

Levitation?

[ QUOTE ]
one single target total control that stacks with one of the area controls.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mind has TWO single-target controls that stack with area controls; Mesmerize stacks with Mass Hypnosis (both are Sleeps) and Dominate stacks with Total Domination (both are Holds).

magicj · 08-02-2005 11:18 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
one single target total control that stacks with one of the area controls.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mind has TWO single-target controls that stack with area controls; Mesmerize stacks with Mass Hypnosis (both are Sleeps) and Dominate stacks with Total Domination (both are Holds).

[/ QUOTE ]
And Confuse stacks with Mass Confusion.

That combo is just seriously sick, and is a perversion of gameplay mechanics. - Excelsio

The Infernal Challenge
Building a WarTroller
Troller Damage

Enantiodromos · 08-16-2005 03:50 PM

[ QUOTE ]
CM at 41? CM also protects against fear and confuse and now grants +perception. And only 1 slot in Fortitude, one of the best buffs in the game seems way to slim. I am reminded though that it is your secondary and not a priority.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, Clear Mind and Fortitude are nice powers, no question, and I unerplay them in my recommended build. Best way to eliminate mezzers, though, is to confuse 'em, and Mind/Emp requires a *lot* of attention span--- really more than I have a lot of the time. An Emp defender would be psycho to give these less than full attention, no question.

[ QUOTE ]
Levitation?

[/ QUOTE ]

Levitation is still somewhat more controlley than spectral wounds and it's ilk, but yeah, you can look at it that way.

[ QUOTE ]
Mind has TWO single-target controls that stack with area controls; Mesmerize stacks with Mass Hypnosis (both are Sleeps) and Dominate stacks with Total Domination (both are Holds).

[/ QUOTE ]

It has three, actually-- Dom and TD, Confuse and Mass Confusion, and in theory (even less relevant now that Mesmerize usually crits) Mes and Mass Hyp. (Only awkardly with the sleeps-- you have to hit with Mesmerize first then mass hypnosis to stack, because mesmerize second breaks any previous sleeps.)

But the section you're quoting from specifically addresses aggro-free controls, and the only ones Mind has are Confuse, Mass Hypnosis, and Mass Confusion.

Also, it was pointed out to me that describing sleeps, holds, confusions, etc, as "not stacking" might be misleading.

When I5's out and I'm ready to rewrite, I'll include terminology definitions:

Stacking-- Controls one after the other that may achieve some control effect where the individual application didn't.

Layering-- Controls one after the other that (may) achieve different effects, used because different simultaneous effects are desireable, e.g., terrify and confusion.

Buffering-- Controls one after the other that (may) achieve different effects, used because having the first control on mobs that the second one misses is desireable, e.g., Mass Hypnosis followed by Total Domination.

NEW: BREIF OVERVIEW of I5 and MIND EMP

IF you play to play a team-support controller in I5, you should be aware of some crucial changes that will be hitting you-- and some crucial changes that WON'T.

<ul type="square">[*]In I5, defenses across the board are being reduced. We can never truly know what the developers intend, but as the AT that does the most team-defensive stuff, and as the AT whose primary provides the most intensively defensive abilities in the game, this is a HUGE wakeup call for all controllers. IOW, first and foremost, focus your attention on the now significantly increased demand for team defense.[/list]
As the most team defensive build in the game, Mind/Empathy is almost certainly the single build most affected by I5 in this regard.

OK, now that you've basked in that good news for a moment, here's the bad news.
<ul type="square">[*]In general, controllers are getting area control powers nerfed (reduced) by 70% or more. 60% duration, 50% recharge speed (2x recharge time). Plus a cap of 10 mobs controlled in an application.[/list]
This nerf is enormous, and can't be explained by the need to reduce team defense across the game. Rather, much of it is 'balanced' by the third big change for controllers in I5:

<ul type="square">[*]Damage-dealing powers weilded by controllers (except pets, I think) will be doing doubled damage to any mob who is, when hit, slept, held, disoriented, or immobilized-- by anyone's mez, not just his own.[/list]
Mind, however, gets one big exception to the nerf. Mass Confusion's recharge and duration remain unaffected, leaving it with a duration 3x as long as any other area control in the game.

Also, incidentally, Telekinesis apparently is getting capped at (limited to affecting) 5 mobs at a time, but as a true toggle hold (unlike choking cloud's toggle pulsing-hold PBAoE), is immune to the duration nerf.

Mind previously simply had too many forms of area total control to make great use of them all.

Now, Mind is slated to, in the hands of people who want to do nonstop total control, be one of the few ways in the game to readily achieve it.

<ul type="square">
[*]Total Domination and Mass Hypnosis (and this is true of any build), drop in relevance, but are both still meanigful powers to have for specialized purposes. You should probably consider slotting more recharge and/or duration in them. Given the number of control options in Mind, probably more duration.
[*]Learning to be extra-capable with your single targets is also now in order. Mesmerize and Dominate are a fantastic one-two combo, each setting the other up for double damage, and providing total control, and doing damage. Both are more imporant than ever.
[*]Mass Confusion just became, as I've said already, a whole lot more interesting. It's easily the best area control in the game now, and chain lockdown with no drawbacks, is very nearly possible with just this one power. With this in mind, slotting more recharges than you used to is the order of the day, since it's recharge time is still long.
[*]Terrify, a huge cone with a quite decent control attached, just had it's damage doubled, assuming you can get a sleep, hold, disorient, or immob on opponents. Duoing with area immob controllers, or using Total Dom or Mass Hypnosis with Terrify as a one-two, lets you weild impressive area damage with reasonable safety.
[*]TK becomes a more surgical control technique, and requires at least as much skill as before. As far as I know, it's endurance cost remains the same, which at the moment means it's net desireability is probably slightly lower than in I4.
[*]Levitate, which does significant damage, will be most important to a new breed of controller-- the blastroller. Since defeats remains the best form of control, controllers everywhere, including Mind, will wish to do some soul-searching re: damage and Levitate.
[*]Confuse is about as useful as it always was.[/list]

Inquisition · 08-25-2005 09:13 PM

you cerntinly do you homework. i cant wait till i see your update. my MIND / EMP is following your recomanded build till 8th, but you already know that. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Talbein_Vikshus · 09-02-2005 05:03 PM

Went searching for a Mind guide and this one was extremely helpful. Not just a cookie cutter, throw your build into the post and have a go, but a well thought out comprehensive guide. Kudos!

The Mentor Project - Because we were all new to the game at one time...
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=212083

Possibility · 01-25-2006 04:55 PM

I was a big fan of your previous version's guide, and this new version is just as magnificent. Thank you!

One piece of advice that I didn't see in the new version (might be I was reading too fast) was regarding MC/Emps that are healing more than they are controlling, that this was to be Frowned Upon, and I still think it's good advice for all sorts of reasons.

I find Empathy to be the worse end hog of the two. In fact, when I'm doing pure control with a group that's either got an Emp defender or we're simply not taking much damage, endurance has never been a problem. But if I have to whip out a few heals, see the blue bar plummet. That said, I have taken neither Hasten nor Stamina, so perhaps that's the edge that reduces this difficulty. I did take Recovery Aura as soon as possible, however, and am in the process of slotting that for recharge because it allows more heals -- more everything, really -- on the fly.

But the more significant reason is that Empathy is, well, secondary. It's a fantastic buffer to Emp defenders (and other Healing-enabled defenders) who are stretched thin; Healing Other on an Empathy defender who's been Absorbing Pain left and right (when they can take the heals again, of course) can keep that Healer in business longer, and it's nice to return the favor. Plus, in protracted fights, when the Empathy defender's Recovery Aura wears off, if you've got yours ready to go, your whole group is back in business again. And Clear Minds can be running perma if you work together.

But your business should be more about locking down the mobs and keeping them from damaging your group in the first place. Mobs that are sleeping or dominated or confused are doing zero damage to your group, after all.

Anyway, once again, thanks for the fantastic guide. I re-read it often. I can't tell you how much this (along with Hedon's TK guide) has helped my MC/Emp toon (my first ever toon, actually, in CoH, and still a fave).