Brev's I6 Guide to Mind Control with Kinetics
By
Aleshanee_NA,
Posted on: 2005-11-07 02:56 in Player Guides
Nice detailed guide!! Really helped answer a lot of my questions and I'm definitely making a mind controller as my next char now 
Ihave my Mind/Kin up to lvl 42 now, I went with Primal Forces and it does some nice damage with it's attack and I can't wait for the secondary effect boost. This answered a couple questions I had on my build but other than the primal forces I am built almost identical.
Any issue 10 update to this guide coming?
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
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Any issue 10 update to this guide coming?
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*raises hand* me too!
Just made a Mind/Kinetic for duoing with a dark/dark scrapper. Can't wait!
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Any issue 10 update to this guide coming?
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I just wrote one up without knowing that this guide was here... it pretty much says the exact same thing, with minimal notes about IOs and such. *shrugs*
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
This is my updated guide to the Mind and Kinetics Controller in Issue 6, with Enhancement Diversification. Mind has traditionally been one of the far less popular controllers (probably because it doesn't have a pet like the other sets), but it can be great fun to play and this guide will give you the ins and outs of the powers and how kinetics as a secondary can complement the powerset nicely - especially in Issue 6.
It has actually worked out pretty well as I have tools for every occasion and never have a gap in my 'attack' chain. With containment, it also capitalises on the damage capabilities of Issue 5 Mind Control.
. Terrify also debuffs mobs' accuracy, although not by much (and not really worth enhancing).
If you do take it, slot it with a couple of endurance reducers.
In maps like caves it can actually be a pain to be super speedy. Most people seem to be able to cope with that aspect though, given its other attributes. Doesn't need much slotting at all - the only thing you really need to throw in there is end modification (the new combo enhancement for recovery and drain), as it recharges almost instantaneously anyway. It's perfectly good with just the default slot, but if you have space in your build you can add a couple more slots to make your team-mates even more addicted to it. Before transference however, it might be an idea to add an endurance cost reduction if you are in large teams a lot of the time.
I also wanted to squeeze in Tactics and didn't want to drop any of the powers I really like from the primary and secondary so I opted out of Fire Shield and Consume.
Issue 5 saw several fundamental changes for controllers, and they have made Mind a lot more potent and therefore popular. Issue 6 has seen the introduction of Enhancement Diversification, which has hit the Mind Controller far less hard than some other builds (since controller primaries in general were already pretty divesely enhanced anyway, and the hit to hasten is less of a factor given we have so many controls available - and Siphon Speed in the kinetics secondary can offset that anyway).
If you spot any mistakes please let me know and I will try to correct them. Any constructive feedback welcomed.
What I'll be covering:
<ul type="square">[*] Mind Control & Kinetics - an introduction[*] Mind Control Powers[*] Kinetics Powers[*] Standard Pool Powers[*] Ancillary Pool Powers[*] My Build[*] Summary[/list]Mind Control & Kinetics - an introduction
Mind control saw a big increase in interest in Issue 5 for two reasons. First, it has always had a pretty good amount of non-pet damage and so it benefits a lot from the new inherent Containment power which can double up damage done by non-summon powers on any mobs that are held, stunned (aka disoriented), immobilised, or slept. Secondly, Mind was often described as having 'too much control', or rather having so much control that much of it was redundant. With the reduction to Controller lock-down potential in Issue 5 (through reduction of duration and increase in recharge times of most Area controls), Mind remains one of the few controller primaries that can still effectively lock-down larger and multiple groups of mobs thanks to its large selection of area controls, and it will usually always have an area control ready to deal with more mobs if needed.
Kinetics blooms into a very powerful secondary in the later game when you get access to the prime-time powers of transference (virtually unlimited endurance) and fulcrum shift (capped damage for everyone). Earlier on the powers are less flashy but still very useful, and with the bonus of not needing too much slotting, allowing you to flesh out your primaries and a couple of choice pools (no prizes for guessing which!). Kinetics also gives you the option of foregoing power pool travel powers and using Siphon Speed and/or Inertial Reduction to get you around town.
Your choice of secondary really comes down to your playstyle and what you want to be bringing to a team. I've seen Mind controllers with each of the secondary options and I don't think any of them are less suitable than others. I chose Kinetics as it is also quite a hands-on set to use and I wanted to have plenty to do
Enhancement Diversification (ED) is basically a system to encourage players to slot more than one aspect of a power, and to avoid one aspect of a power becoming too outrageously powerful (previously you could triple the effectiveness of most of the base effects in the game with 6 single origin enhancers). Although the mechanics of it are slightly more involved, the bottom line is that it is largely pointless to slot more than 3 of the same type of Single Origin enhancement in any one power. The Mind control primary never really had any need to slot more than 3 of one type of enhancement in any powers anyway (except maybe levitate or mesmerize if slotted for damage). There are 4 different 'schedules' that enhancements can fall into, but the vast majority are Schedule A, which is what I will use to explain ED in a bit more detail - feel free to skip to the powers section if this is of no interest!
With ED, you have two thresholds for any given aspect of a power (for a power that uses Schedule A enhancements, the first threshold is at 70%, the second at 100%). If the total value of your slotted enhancements for one aspect of a power exceeds the first threshold, then the amount over that threshold is only 85% as effective as normal. So if you have 3 even schedule A SOs slotted for one thing, these add up to 3 x +33.33% = +100%. The +30% over 70% is discounted to 85% effectiveness (i.e. +25.5%) so the overall effectiveness of those 3 SOs is +95.5%, instead of +100% it would be without ED. If the total enhancement is higher than the second threshold, then anything over that second threshold is discounted to only 15% of normal (a far higher penalty). So in our example if we slot a 4th SO, the total enhancement value would normally be +133.33%, but only 70% of that is at full effectiveness, 30% is at 85% effectiveness, and the last 33.33% is at only 15% effectiveness (i.e. only +5%). The overall effectiveness of 4 SOs with ED is therefore +100.5% - only a 5% improvement over 3 SO's. The following table gives a quick summary of the total effectiveness of even-level Single Origin Enhancers, before ED and after:
Pre-ED / Post-ED
1 SO - +33.33% / +33.33%
2 SO - +66.67% / +66.67%
3 SO - +100.00% / +95.50%
4 SO - +133.33% / +100.50%
5 SO - +166.67% / +105.50%
6 SO - +200.00% / +110.50%
So although the 4th, 5th and 6th SOs do increase the effectiveness of an effect, it is only a very marginal increase, and you are far more likely to get better use out of slotting something else instead (either another aspect of that power or another power).
The other three schedules work in a very similar way, but the enhancements for those have different base values, and the thresholds are adjusted accordingly (so 3 SOs is still the maximum worth slotting before the extreme penalty is imposed).
Now that I've given some background to ED, let's look at the powersets...
Mind Control
Mind Control can be an extremely powerful control set and is capable of things that no other controller can do. With all of its powers available, it is capable of locking down in theory 5 separate groups of mobs. It is also the subject of a lot of misunderstanding on two main things: confusion and telekinesis.
Two of mind control's powers are confuses - a single target and a ranged, targeted AoE. Confuse sometimes raises eyebrows because of the 'xp issue'; when a confused mob 'A' deals damage to another mob 'B', it detracts from the xp you (and your team) will earn from mob 'B'. The amount of detraction will depend on how much damage you and your team do to mob B in comparison to the damage done by the confused mob A. Only 25% of the damage that confused mobs deal is actually counted as far as sharing out xp is concerned though, so you actually get proportionally more xp per amount of damage you are dealing when you are aided by confused mobs. If you do half the damage and Mob A does half, then you will get 80% of the xp, but if mob A does all the damage, you will get no xp at all. Of course this doesn't take into account that confused mobs are no threat to you and anything that prevents debt is a massive xp boost! There is an excellent guide by cforce that goes into more detail on confusion. The bottom line is that in most practical situations, confusion actually increases xp gain over time - which is far more relevent than xp per mob in any real sense.
Telekinesis is another power that divides the Mind Control community - although I think more and more people are coming around to it, thanks in no small part to Hedon's excellent guide. I suggest you read it before deciding whether or not to include TK in your build as it can be very useful. It can be the most powerful hold in the game, but many see it as being far too situational. The more you practise with it though, the less situational it becomes. Issue 5 has seen it limited to affecting 5 mobs at a time, but it is still a very potent power - especially in PvP.
So, onto the powers...
Mesmerize (ranged, single target sleep + small damage)
Available at level 1
Mesmerize is a useful power to take early on if you are wanting to solo at all as it is a half decent damage attack that also leaves things sleeping (which is a set-up for containment double damage). Although sleeps render mobs defenceless, immobile and unable to take action, they are fragile and if the sleeping target is attacked then the sleep effect is broken until you re-apply it.
Mesmerize either has a very high chance to critical, or is just Mag 4 in the first place (not absolutely sure on that) which means it will generally sleep a boss with one application. It can form a very effective attack chain with levitate and dominate and between this and dominate you can neutralise a large number of mobs through juggling attacks. For most Mind controllers, taking all three would be a no-brainer, but with a very click-happy secondary like kinetics you may find you fill up the attack chains with things from the secondary - especially things like Siphon Speed.
Mesmerize has a very long base duration (about a minute) so there is no need to slot it for that, instead put 1-2 accuracies in it and up to 3 damage, depending on how much soloing you expect to be doing.
Levitate (ranged, single target lift + moderate damage)
Available: level 1
Levitate will be your strongest single target attack until the ancillary pools become available and well worth getting as with containment it is a very efficient attack. The lift component is also quite useful as 'ghetto control' as it keeps a mob out of action for a valuable couple of seconds which should be enough to cover dominate or mesmerize's recharge - a nice tactic for bosses when total domination misses or isn't available (Dominate>Levitate>Dominate should be able to prevent counter-attacks from most bosses unless they are knockback resistant). Slot 1-2 Accuracy, and up to 3 damage. If you want to add more slots you can always enhance the knockback, which will send mobs higher into the air, therefore keeping them out of action for longer. If you are using this in an attack chain with Mesmerize then rememeber that the damage levitate does will wake a mob from sleep so it is better to use it before a sleep if possible (although if it is just finishing off a mob it makes no difference of course). The lift component won't work on knockback resistant mobs so be wary of that. Issue 6 sees the introduction of 'ragdoll physics', which is very useful for knockback as mobs now take longer to get back up from knockdowns and knockbacks - we essentially got a free buff. Later when you have fulcrum shift and are likely to be getting very high damage buffs from that anyway, you may consider switching some or all of the damage to knockback, or even respeccing the slots elsewhere altogether.
Dominate (ranged, single target hold + small damage)
Available: level 2
Dominate is your absolute bread and butter as a controller and will be used in every single encounter. Get it and 6 slot it as soon as you can. I recommend 1-2 acc, 2-3 hold, 2 recharge. The damage isn't astounding but it's not too bad, especially with containment and the buffs from your secondary. Holds are far better than sleeps since they cannot be broken by attacking the target, so use this to help lockdown bosses properly. You will generally need to stack two of these on a boss to hold him, although the power does carry a small chance to land a critical and hold them in one hit. When using in an attack chain with levitate and/or mesmerize it is probably best to open with this, then use levitate which will benefit most from the double damage, and then mesmerize which will also get double damage and then leave the target slept as well as held. You can also tackle multiple targets by mezzing them alternately with dominate and mesmerize (and levitate for keeping them off balance if the other powers are recharging). You can slot it for damage if you wish (might be good for the more solo inclined), but personally I look on it as a control power foremost, and any damage you slot in there will compromise the amount of control you can deal out - and later with Fulcrum Shift I really wouldn't bother with slotting it for damage even if you do solo.
Confuse (ranged, single target confuse)
Available: level 6
I briefly mentioned the confuse xp earlier on and I suggest reading cforce's guide if you want to know more, but this is a very useful power for dealing with particularly tricky situations and helps soloing early on. It does lock you into a rather (painfully) long animation but it doesn't draw aggro so is generally safe to use from range for opening an encounter. Confuse has a pretty long base duration, so you should be easily able to stack it to confuse a boss, as long as it doesn't miss. It is also very useful for using against defender/controller type mobs like Banished Pantheon Shamen, Tsoo Sorcerors etc. as it converts them to fight on your side and buff you and your team, while debuffing their friends, and as they don't generally do appreciable damage there is no negative hit on your xp anyway. Confuse is also a handy way of getting straggler mobs to wander into your Telekinesis field (see later) as they have a tendency to wander over to mobs already trapped to attack them and get pulled in themselves. You can get away with a single accuracy but adding a confuse duration or two as well will help keep bosses confused. Building confuse onto a boss gets you no aggro and you can then stack holds on him without him retaliating - this allows you to completely lockdown a particularly nasty boss without him ever taking a shot at you.
It is also possible to confuse an Archvillain, but the confusion won't take effect until the Archvillain's cycling high mez protection drops (indicated by small purple arrows pointing downwards - they are up when the high protection is in effect). You can still build magnitude on an AV while they have their high protection up and they will be mezzed as soon as the protection drops (this goes for any status power, not just confuse - although immobilises will actually always work on AVs as they don't get enhanced protection from that, not that we have immobilises as a Mind Controller - just useful to know).
Be aware that the Tactics pool power provides some protection against confuse - this is usually more of a concern in PvP, but CoV introduces mobs that run leadership toggles that may make their way into CoH.
Mass Hypnosis (ranged, targetted AoE sleep)
Available: level 8
Mass Hypnosis can give mind controllers a bad name in the early levels as people equate mass hypnosis with other controllers' aoe disorients or holds, which isn't really what Mass Hypnosis is about at all; it's more of an equivalent to Fire control's smoke - although it also has great utility in terms of containment setup since Issue 5. Although sleeps are broken if mobs are attacked, applying mass hypnosis draws no aggro and so it is useful for laying the ground work before using stronger, aggro generating control powers, or for keeping mobs that are close by out of the action, and for dealing with additional mobs that may have ambushed your team. If you lay down Mass Hypnosis before Total Domination then there is less risk of retaliation from anything you miss with Total Dom, and if used before Telekinesis then the mobs won't get a chance to attack you before getting swept up. It is also a very handy way of setting up temporary containment against a group (temporary because the first attack following will of course wake them all up). Mass Hypnosis' recharge is about the same as Terrify's, so they form a very nice two-hit combo to get double-damage for terrify.
You can also use fulcrum shift on sleeping mobs without them waking up so this can be extremely useful later on, allowing you to get right into the middle of a group to achieve the maximum buff from fulcrum without them even being aware of you until you actually attack. Mass Hypnosis can't always be relied upon however, as there are certain villain types (e.g. various zombies and most types of robots) that have resistance to sleep and they won't be slept with Mass Hypnosis unless it scores a critical.
Thanks to sleep's long base duration, mass hypnosis doesn't require too much slotting - 2 accuracies should be enough to overcome the inherent -20% accuracy penalty and give a good hit rate (I have recently seen posts that suggest mass hypnosis doesn't have the standard AoE penalty, but I'm not convinced - you may get away with only 1 accuracy if that it true though). With hasten in effect, it won't quite recharge before it expires, so it is worth slotting 2-3 recharges, especially since you may be using it more often to set-up containment for Terrify, which has a similar recharge.
Telekinesis (ranged, targetted, autohit toggle hold + repel, anchor-centred cone)
Available: level 12
A real love it or hate it power. Some MC's swear by it, others just swear at it. It basically works by slowly repelling the target away from the caster, and catching anything in a small cone behind the target and repelling them away too, while also applying a standard strength hold to everything caught in the effect. Since the effect autohits, there is no chance of it missing which is what makes it so powerful - that, and the fact that the effect remains active until you deactivate the power, run out of end, or the anchor mob is defeated. The tricky part is that the mobs in the effect will also gradually fan out and fall out of the effect, so you need to manoeuvre and use the local geometry (e.g. walls) to keep them in the effect. With practise, you can carefully gather mobs into confined spaces (like corners), where they can either be held in TK indefinitely or pinned with a total domination, for example. It can also be used to just shunt periphery mobs into a clump (pushing extras into a burn patch for example) - it has a reasonably long recharge though, so if you want to do much shunting it might be worth adding a recharge reduction or two.
It's a really tricky power to master, and when used properly it can completely neutralise a small group of mobs, when used badly it can completely screw things up and may even lead to debt (not good). For that reason if you are going to get it, it is worthwhile getting it pretty early and practising with it when the mobs aren't so scary.
Previously, the only limit to the number of mobs you could get into the Telekinesis field was your skill with the power, but as of Issue 5 you can only capture a maximum of 5. Although this may seem very low, in practise there aren't that many situations where you'd have many more than that in the effect anyway - and it remains an extremely useful power for building up high hold magnitudes on tough single targets like Elite Bosses, Monsters, and AV's, and for use in PvP - particularly against dangerous melee opponents like scrappers and tanks (although some are able to resist the repel effect and most will have high resistance to the hold component too).
I won't go into anymore details as Hedon's guide is far better than anything I could come up with. If you are going to get it I would recommend slotting 3 endurance reductions - slotting for recharge can also be beneficial in case you want to re-apply it during a fight.
Total Domination (ranged, targetted AoE hold)
Available: level 18
Total Domination is another very important power of the set and should be 6-slotted immediately. Again, I recommend 2 acc, 2 hold, 2 rech. Although it has been severely reduced in effectiveness with Issue 5, it will still be able to keep a large group of mobs incapacitated long enough for you to lock down the most dangerous of them with single target mezzes and later on, it will allow you to get a fulcrum shift in and a couple of AoE attacks (if you have taken one from an APP). Mass Hypnosis can be used either as an opener before Total Domination to reduce the chance of aggro from missed mobs, or as a follow up just as the Hold is wearing off, to give you some extra time to lock down any particularly dangerous looking mobs. Bosses require two hold powers to hit before they are overcome and total domination + dominate is the usual method of accomplishing this. Technically, each of those powers has a chance to land a critical hold which will hold a boss in one hit, but that is pretty rare and certainly can't be relied upon. Telekinesis can also be used as the extra layer of hold.
Terrify (ranged, cone fear, -tohit + small damage)
Available: level 26
Terrify is an excellent power and provides yet another aoe control method for the mind controller, as well as a very reasonable damage output - especially with containment. Although the base damage is only the same as mesmerize or dominate, it can hit up to 16 mobs at once in its huge cone, and so it quickly adds up. Although Fear won't set-up containment, if you use Terrify on mobs that are already slept, held or otherwise contained (perhaps by a team-mate), its already considerable damage is doubled up, giving you rather significant AoE damage. Mass Hypnosis has a very similar recharge to Terrify and so can be used very effectively just before Terrify to set-up containment, and although they will wake up if hit, they will be left feared by Terrify.
Terrify will give you a high degree of soloability as it can take care of the minions while you levitate/mesmerize/dominate the lt's and the odd boss. Feared mobs will cower where they are and attack only once when attacked (including the initial attack of terrify), and then go back to cowering - so it operates as a sort of ghetto area hold in most circumstances. Feared mobs may flee in terror a short distance when they get low on health but it is actually hilarious to watch a crey power tank running off, waving its arms in the air and screaming
It is worth slotting Terrify with 1-2 acc, 2-3 recharge (try to match it with Mass Hypnosis' recharge for maximum containment benefit) and then the rest damage. Once you have fulcrum shift you will be getting high damage buffs anyway and may well be hitting the damage cap in large teams with lots of mobs to buff off. Fear has a decent enough base duration so enhancing that aspect isn't really required, even after Issue 5. One major villain group to watch out for though is Nemesis: all of them have boss level resistance to fear and confuse and so you would need two stacked hits of Terrify to successfully fear them, which you won't generally be able to keep up.
Mass Confusion (ranged, targetted AoE confuse)
Available: level 32
The ultimate Mind Control power: Mass Confusion. This power is the subject of so many threads on mind control. It basically boils down to this: mass confuse isn't a pet or a pet subsitute, so don't try thinking of it like that. What it is, is another control power to add to a Mind Controller's arsenal, and another non-aggro drawing one at that. It is useful for covering the gap when total domination runs out and the mobs begin attacking again, it can also be used very effectively in conjunction with Terrify (when feared and confused, mobs cower until hit and then hit each other once and go back to cowering) and later on with fireball or psionic tornado. It is also another means of neutralising another group of mobs if need be and a useful panic button. It is basically confuse, but in a huge AoE effect (like other AoE's though, it is limited to affecting 16 mobs at a time) - it has a much shorter casting animation than standard confuse too.
In my experience of using the power I never really see my experience per minute reduce and in fact it usually goes up (from the herostats program). This is of course besides the fact that it also offers extra safety for my team and so reduces the chance of debt accumulation. I think it's a great power and certainly quite good fun to use. I have mine 6 slotted (2 acc, 1 confuse, 3 recharge). Again, Nemesis are a real pain as Mass Confuse will have no effect on them on its own (barring the occasional critical confuse) - I just tend to avoid them.
Mass Confusion wasn't changed in Issue 5 (aside from the # of mobs it can affect), as it already had twice the recharge of the AoE holds, so now it is on an even footing with them in terms of recharge, but actually has a longer duration. It now makes good sense to alternate use of Total Domination and Mass Confuse as they have the same base recharge. You might want to add in Mass Hypnosis when using Mass Confuse to get Containment benefits from Terrify or APP damage attacks.
Another benefit of Mass Confusion is that it tends to clump together an initially spread out group of mobs - they will tend to cluster as they attack each other, which can make it a nice opener to use before Fulcrum Shift, perhaps followed with a Mass Hypnosis to contain them before unleashing a Terrify or FireBall on them.
Kinetics
Kinetics is mainly about debuffing the mobs' damage, speed and recharge, while buffing that of you and your team-mates. It also has a couple of other useful and not so useful powers. Kinetics dramatically speeds up the arrest rate of any team and it will make you very popular with just about everybody - especially in Issue 6! What it does lack is any form of defense buffing for your team; as controllers this isn't of too much concern as we have other (better) ways of mitigating damage anyway - and the damage debuff helps in that regard anyway. Siphon Speed got a nice improvement in Issue 4 (attack rate was added to the movement speed debuff/buff) which really helps - especially for mitigating the increased recharges in Issue 5 and the hit to Hasten with ED in Issue 6. The kinetics line really shines with its last two powers which, as controllers, we get quite late on at levels 35 and 38 - but the wait is definitely worth it. The only downside about the powerset really is that many of the powers require a tohit roll on a mob in order to work, and they can have a nasty tendency to miss just when you need them the most! For that reason the Leadership pool for tactics can be a worthwhile investment if you can fit it in. Well, onto the powers...
Transfusion (ranged, single target minor end drain -Regen, AoE ally heal)
Available: level 1
You don't have a choice and have to get this power but that's not a problem as it's great; the biggest aoe heal in the game, it is really good right out of the box. Worth slotting up but you can leave doing so until later on - better to slot up your controls first as prevention is better than a cure. It drains minimal endurance from the target (not really worth slotting, even in Issue 6), but since Issue 4 it also debuffs their hitpoint regeneration rate which makes it very useful against AVs or in PvP - even if no-one needs a heal. I recommend 1-2 acc and then up to 3 heals when you have space to do so in your build, the base recharge duration is very short so no need to enhance that, and the endurance cost is quite low too.
Siphon Power (ranged, single target -dmg, PBAoE +dmg)
Available: level 2
I have found Siphon Power to be pretty useful throughout my career - it is a nice damage buff early on (+20% per hit) and even in the late game it is useful for its debuff aspect (-20% per hit) when tackling AVs - it stacks with itself, and with fulcrum shift, allowing you to reduce an AV's damage output to a fraction of its normal amount. It requires minimal additional slotting (if any) - I would recommend 1-2 accuracy and maybe a recharge if you aren't taking Siphon Speed so you can keep two buffs up as often as possible.
Repel (toggle PBAoE melee knockback field)
Available: level 4
This power is a bit of an odd one as it doesn't really work well with the rest of the set - it's certainly not what you want running if you want to run in to get a buff from transference or fulcrum shift as it will send all the mobs flying. The main problem is that it doesn't really do anything very useful - it's not much good for personal protection as it won't stop mobs getting off an attack on you before they get flung away, and it also costs a fair bit of endurance (it has a base per second cost as well as costing extra end whenever it hits a mob - although this per mob cost was recently reduced). It has limited utility as a mob repositioning power, but we have TK in the primary which does that much more elegantly (although Repel can be used to toss extra mobs into a TK field with practise). It does look very snazzy when it's running though
Siphon Speed (ranged, single target -speed -rech, self +speed +rech)
Available: level 10
Siphon Speed got a really nice improvement in Issue 4 and now debuffs/buffs attack rate (by 20% per hit for controllers) as well as movement speed - its base recharge also got lowered to allow you to stack it. It is very nice for slowing down mobs and particularly effective against AVs and in PvP. The attack rate bonus is of course very nice too (although should really be a complement to Hasten rather than a replacement - especially with I5's increased recharge times on our Primary AoE's). With Siphon Speed you will be able to keep Hasten up a lot more often (although still not quite perma since ED in Issue 6).
Siphon Speed can also be used as an alternative to getting a pool travel power as it effectively gives you Super Speed (it will cap with two applications), but it doesn't have the stealth component that Super Speed has. It also requires a tohit on a mob so will make travelling in areas high for your level rather more dangerous - you can use Mass Hypnosis to sleep mobs before attempting to Siphon them which can be safer (it doesn't wake sleeping mobs), although if they are high enough to be a problem for Siphon Speed, Mass Hypnosis is likely to miss too (but at least it won't draw aggro like Siphon Speed will). In my earlier levels I had Super Speed and not Siphon Speed, but later on (and after Issue 4) I respecced and dropped Super Speed for Siphon. If you can manage until Lvl 28 with the possibly riskier travel of Siphon Speed then you should be golden as Inertial Reduction doesn't have a tohit requirement and can be an effective travel power even if Siphon Speed has missed. I recommend 1-2 accuracy and 3 recharge.
Increase Density (single ally +Res(smash/energy/hold/disorient/immob/knockback) -speed)
Available: level 16
Increase Density is a nice buff for clearing mez effects on an ally, but unfortunately has a rather short duration (1 minute) so is a pain to try and keep up on more than a couple of people. The only time I use it for preventative measures is before going up against mobs that would be known to be troublesome. I normally just use it to clear people from a mez effect. The +Res component isn't terribly useful either due to the 1 minute duration of the buff - it can be nice in PvP though for mitigation against powers like Total Focus for your team-mates.
If you have room then definitely take it, but don't feel you have to - with your primary you should be able to prevent people from being mezzed anyway (in PvE at least). It's not worth slotting anything extra anyway - either put an end reduction or a damage resistance in the default slot. If it had the same duration as Speed Boost then it would be worth taking without question (not really sure why it doesn't really). The slow aspect of the power isn't particularly bad and in fact is quite handy to offset Speed Boost's movement speed buff.
Speed Boost (ranged, single ally +speed +rech +endrec)
Available: level 20
Speed Boost is one of the nicest buffs in the game - it massively boosts endurance recovery, movement speed, and reduces recharge durations for all the receiving ally's powers - it's pure joy for your team-mates in Issue 6. In fact the only drawback of the Speed Boost is, ironically, the speed boost
Inertial Reduction (PBAoE +superjump)
Available: level 28
The true pool travel power alternative. Unlike Siphon Speed, IR doesn't require a tohit and is therefore much safer to use. Of course it works even better in combination with Siphon Speed to give you both vertical and horizontal speed. IR is a click power that will refresh before it expires even without Hasten, allowing you to put just a jump enhancer in the default slot. It also has the benefit of giving temporary superjump to everyone close to you when you fire it off too. The only pain is its fairly short duration, so you will generally have to refresh it at least once per zone - more if it's a particularly large zone.
Transference (ranged, single target end drain, AoE ally end recover)
Available: level 35
Transference will pretty much eliminate all your endurance woes. With a bit of slotting it will completely fill the endurance bars of everyone close to the mob you hit with it, at the same time that mob will be heavily drained. Mobs have varying degrees of resistance to end drain so some will be completely drained, while others will require additional hits. AV's can never be drained as they have huge end drain resistance. Endurance Recovery enhancers and Endurance Drain enhancers had the same effect when slotted in transference (anything which increased the drain on the mob's side, also buffed the recovery on your side, and vice versa) and now the two types have been combined into one type (Endurance Modification) anyway. I recommend 1-2 acc, 1-2 rech, 3 endurance modification.
Fulcrum Shift (ranged, targetted AoE -dmg, AoE ally +dmg, PBAoE +dmg)
Available: level 38
The ultimate kinetics power, and one that will make your team-mates salivate with... well just salivate really. Anyone within melee range of the mobs near your target will get a 20% damage buff for each mob that this power hits, and everyone near you will get a single 40% damage buff as well. At the same time, all the mobs it hits are damage debuffed by 20%. If everyone (including you) is in melee range when you fire it off then you will get people very close to (if not at) the damage cap. As of Issue 5, the number of mobs this power will hit in one go is limited to 10, but this still gets you all a buff of 240% if you are in range of all 10. That requires only minimal slotting for damage on powers to reach the cap for most AT's. With hasten you can stack it with itself anyway, but a couple of extra recharge in there won't go amiss - with Fulcrum stacked, you will generally have the whole team at their respective damage caps. I have 1 acc (with tactics), 3 rech which means it pops up very frequently. The endurance cost is pretty small so no need to slot for end rdx. It can be worth setting up a bind to warn people you are about to let loose with fulcrum as it allows squishies to dart in momentarily to grab the mob-buff too - which should be perfectly safe to do if you've got everything locked down. As mentioned earlier, Fulcrum Shift won't wake sleeping mobs and so Mass Hypnosis makes a handy opener to allow everyone to get in close to get the buff before you use a more potent mez on the mobs. Fulcrum Shift works particularly well with containment, since the double damage is applied *after* all other damage buffs, allowing you to unleash attacks at twice your normal damage cap if you have the mobs appropriately mezzed first. I recommend 1-2 accuracies, 2-3 recharge.
Standard Pool Powers
You can choose from a maximum of four of them and I would highly recommend Fitness and Speed are two of them. Others that could be very handy are leadership (tactics will help with all your tohit powers), and possibly a travel pool if you aren't wanting to use Siphon Speed/Inertial Reduction for getting around. Concealment might be useful if it fits your playstyle.
Concealment - This power pool is one I haven't actually had a great deal of experience with. I generally found that mass hypnosis is good for blinkie hunting (sleeping mobs close to a blinkie). Might be useful for the arena if you are that way inclined, or if you particularly like it for some reason. All of mind control's powers are ranged and many are non-aggro, so it isn't often you'll need to close to within normal aggro range of mobs anyway.
Fighting - Since everything should really be under control anyway before we get close to melee, the fighting pool should really be totally unnecessary - we also have perfectly good single target attacks that are ranged.
Fitness - Controllers, in general, are big endurance users, and Mind is no exception - especially if you are thinking of using TK at all. It's a long wait till Transference and Stamina is going to make your life soooo much more bearable. Please take it and slot it with 3 endurance modification (anymore than that is a waste in Issue 6). I would recommend taking swift as it makes manoeuvring around for TK easier and then either one of hurdle or health. Even after you get transference it is worth keeping stamina since you won't always want to be getting into melee range for the transference buff (you may be using it from range to buff allies) and of course it sometimes misses. For AV fights for example you probably just want to stand back and throw in buffs for melee team-mates from a safe distance.
Flight - Flight can be quite a good travel power for the mind controller as it allows an extra dimension of movement to use with telekinesis. As a kineticist you can of course opt for that extra dimensional movement via Inertial Reduction but it will be less precise than hover/fly. Siphon Speed works very nicely with Hover as it increases your flight speed, while taking advantage of Hover's low endurance cost and more precise positioning.
Leadership - Ahhh - tactics, sweet tactics. This is a great pool for you to take. Slotted tactics (I recommend 1 endrdx, 3 tohit buff) is roughly equivalent to an extra accuracy DO (or low level SO) in all your powers, which is a very valuable boost to ensure you get those hits in on the nastier mobs (which of course is when it's likely to be most important). ToHit buffs work slightly differently from Accuracy Enhancers and are particularly effective when used against mobs with defence buffs or if something is debuffing your own tohit. It also benefits all your team-mates and of course their pets, meaning they will miss far less often. It also provides protection from confuse and also increases perception (allowing you to see stealthed/invised characters from further away). In order to get tactics however, you need to take at least one of assault or manoeuvres. Although fulcrum shift will often be capping your damage making Assault seem worthless, it can be a handy boost when in smaller teams or solo, as you probably won't have as many mobs around to buff from - it also provides taunt resistance which can be useful for PvP. Manoeuvres provides a small defence bonus for everyone which could be tempting, but the base amount is so low since Issue 5 it is barely worth running. Vengeance is a very nice buff but of course only useful if you haven't been doing your job properly and one of your team-mates has been defeated
Leaping - Since you can get perma Super Jump using Inertial Reduction, the only reason to take this pool is if you are desperate for immob/knockback protection from combat jumping/acrobatics. As a Mind/Kin, all of our powers are ranged so it doesn't really matter if we get knocked about occasionally so there is little point in taking this pool apart from PvP concerns.
Medicine - Pretty pointless for us as a /Kin - we already have an excellent heal and Increase Density will break an ally out of most mezzes. Only possible reason to get it really is for the rez - again something you shouldn't need if doing your primary job properly
Presence - Completely pointless for us so don't even bother. Let the melee'ers take the aggro of anything (if anything) you haven't held yet. The only reason it could be conceivably useful is for the 3rd and 4th powers for stacking with Terrify - but we have controls coming out of our ears as it is already.
Speed - I have already mentioned hasten earlier on, and although it can't be perma in Issue 6 with ED, I still strongly recommend it as it is very useful when it is up. The +Rech of Siphon Speed is nice bonus (20% recharge reduction on all powers for each hit) but still not a patch on Hasten (70% recharge reduction while active). Superspeed can be a convenient travel power to take if you've already taken Hasten and you don't want to rely on a tohit for Siphon Speed.
Teleportation - Well if you really want to port around then it's a very fast travel power, but as a travel power it isn't much use in combat. One power in the pool that can be very useful though is Teleport Foe, as it can be used to effortlessly drop extra mobs into a TK field.
Ancillary Pools
You can only choose from one of them but they offer some interesting opportunities for us Mind/Kins.
Stone Mastery - A very strong single target attack in hurl boulder (which becomes even nicer when fulcrum shifted and contained of course) Fissure is an aoe disorient which unfortunately we have nothing to stack with so it will only get Lt's and minions. Each of the controller ancillary pools offer a toggle personal shield of some sort which is either a +DEF or +RES to Smash/Lethal and some have a bonus Resistance to other damage types. They are handy for us /Kins as we can now afford to run into melee to grab some of those nice buffs even if everything isn't locked down yet. Stone's rock armor offers defense against smash and lethal with no additional damage resistance bonus. Earth's embrace should hopefully be pointless for us as we shouldn't have been getting hit that much anyway given our primary lockdown abilities, but it is a nice self buff, giving us extra hitpoints (and correspondingly higher hitpoint regeneration) for its duration.
Fire Mastery - Basically the one to take if you want to improve your damage output, thanks to fireball and fire blast. Fulcrum shifted FireBall and Fire Blast will give you a very good damage output which becomes extremely powerful when benefitting from Containment as well. Very few things will be left standing from a Fulcrum'd Contained FireBall followed by Terrify. It also gives you a nice spread of damage types as virtually nothing will be resistant to smash, fire and psionic. Consume is a nice end recovery power in its own right, but we already have transference which completely outshines it so it is basically redundant - the only benefit it has is that it works off multiple targets so if you miss one it doesn't really matter, whereas transference is an all or nothing. Fire shield offers base 27.5% resistance to smashing and lethal damage, 20% resistance to fire and a small 10% resistance to cold - well worth slotting (1 endrdx, 3 damage resist) if you take it, but you may choose not to if you are confident in your lockdown abilities.
Ice Mastery - A decent single target attack and a shield that gives 30% resistance to cold, 10% resistance to fire damage in addition to smash/lethal defense. Hibernate is very useful for recovery if you have no mobs to buff off, but with even a single minion around you can completely fill your blue and green bars with transference and transfusion. Ice storm is an ok area effect damage, but it is a summon and so doesn't benefit from either containment or fulcrum shift - it also does its damage over time and causes mobs to flee out of its effect, and the only area controls we have that will stop them doing so are Total Domination and Telekinesis, so it doesn't synergise very well with either our primary or secondary. Slot it for 3 damage, 3 recharge if you do get it.
Primal Forces - As a Kineticist, Transference already alleviates most, if not all of our endurance worries and so Conserve Power is a bit redundant. Power Boost will massively enhance the secondary effects of all your powers. This means that your mezzes will last an additional two-times base longer than usual, and your buffs will be doubled in effectiveness. With the number of controls available to Mind, this is perhaps not quite as valauable as it is to some other controller primaries, but if you do take it then you will be able to wreak utter domination with your various mezzes. Temp Invulnerability gives a good resistance (30%) to smash/lethal (but no further bonus resistances). Power blast is a decent attack with a good chance to knockback which can be used quite well in conjunction with TK to get more mobs into the field of effect.
Psionic Mastery - In general, another great set for controllers to choose from. The two very tempting powers here are Indomitable Will, which gives very good status protection and defense from psionic damage for its duration, and Mind Over Body which gives Resistance to smash/lethal (27.5%) and psionic (20%) attacks. The single target mental blast is a nice, although slow, single target attack (especially fulcrum shifted), and Psionic tornado gives a respectable AoE damage attack with a knockup which complements Terrify quite nicely for added damage output. Both psi attacks benefit from containment. Psi Mastery has been a favourite in PvP, but remember that IW can no longer be perma, which leaves quite a big gap in status protection - it also doesn't protect against immobilisation, which could make you vulnerable to other controllers and their containment (combat jumping can be used to cover the immob weakness though).
My Build
I really only include this as an example of how a Mind/Kin can be built - it is by no means a min/maxed build, it is simply how mine has evolved to suit my gameplay. I have plenty of spare control which could be substituted for whatever pool powers you might want, and it is much more geared for team play. I used to have the Psi Mastery pool, but found I didn't really need the protection from IW most of the time (and just carry a couple of break frees for the few occasions I get mezzed) and with containment, the draw of the fire mastery pool was too much
This is pretty much the same as my build as it stands at the moment at level 50, taking into account Enhancement Diversification (my build differs slightly as I respecced and pushed confuse to level 47 so I could fit tactics in earlier for exemping purposes). You could probably run this without any respecification right from level 1, but if you are wanting more solo-ability you would probably need to move some slotting around (Total Dom could be slotted later for example if you solo a lot), and it would probably be worth taking Mesmerize too.
Level 1 Levitate - Acc (L1) Dam (L17) Dam (L17) Dam (L37) Knock (L50) Knock (L50)
Level 1 Transfusion - Acc (L1) Heal (L7) Heal (L31) Heal (L34)
Level 2 Dominate - Acc (L2) Acc (L3) Hold (L3) Hold (L5) Rech (L5) Rech (L7)
Level 4 Siphon Power - Acc (L4) Acc (L50)
Level 6 Confuse - Acc (L6)
Level 8 Mass Hypnosis - Acc (L8) Acc (L9) Rech (L9) Rech (L11)
Level 10 Siphon Speed - Acc (L10) Rech (L11) Rech (L13) Rech (L15) Acc (L43)
Level 12 Hasten - Rech (L12) Rech (L13) Rech (L15)
Level 14 Swift - Run (L14)
Level 16 Hurdle - Leap (L16)
Level 18 Total Domination - Acc (L18) Acc (L19) Hold (L19) Hold (L21) Rech (L21) Rech (L23)
Level 20 Stamina - EndMod (L20) EndMod (L23) EndMod (L25)
Level 22 Speed Boost - EndMod (L22) EndMod (L40) EndMod (L40)
Level 24 Telekinesis - EndRdx (L24) EndRdx (L25) EndRdx (L31) Rech (L46) Rech (L46) Rech (L46)
Level 26 Terrify - Acc (L26) Acc (L27) Rech (L27) Rech (L29) Dam (L29) Dam (L31)
Level 28 Inertial Reduction - Jump (L28)
Level 30 Assault - EndRdx (L30)
Level 32 Mass Confusion - Acc (L32) Acc (L33) Conf (L33) Rech (L33) Rech (L34) Rech (L34)
Level 35 Transference - Acc (L35) Rech (L36) Rech (L36) EndMod (L36) EndMod (L37) EndMod (L37)
Level 38 Fulcrum Shift - Acc (L38) Acc (L39) Rech (L39) Rech (L39) Rech (L40)
Level 41 Fire Ball - Acc (L41) Acc (L42) Dam (L42) Dam (L42) Dam (L43) Rech (L43)
Level 44 Fire Blast - Acc (L44) Dam (L45) Dam (L45) Dam (L45)
Level 47 Tactics - EndRdx (L47) ToHit (L48) ToHit (L48) ToHit (L48)
Level 49 Increase Density - DamRes (L49)
Summary
Mind/Kinetics is great for the team player. Large teams are where you will really excel since you can offer so much control and fulcrum shift works best when faced with lots of mobs to cap everyone's damage. Teams will absolutely love you for speed boost and your other kinetics powers, on top of your primary control abilities. With containment, Mind Control can do rather well solo, but no-one will be there to appreciate your terrific skills
Hope you find this guide useful and have fun with your Mind/Kineticist!