The Guide to Gravity Control [I6] [v1.20051101.0]

About this Guide

This guide is current as of Issue 6: Along Came a Spider, and deals with the Gravity Control set for Controllers. While this set is shared with Dominators in City of Villains, and may contain useful information for that Archetype, the specific information (duration, endurance costs, recharge etc) is written from the point of view of a level 50 Controller, and as such may be inaccurate when used as a reference for Dominators.

Future updates will be posted in separate threads, and labelled appropriately.

This guide does not deal with secondary or pool powers specifically, though they will be discussed briefly. Future versions of this guide will include sample builds, but due to a lack of information they couldn't be included in this version.

Slotting guidelines are provided only as a basic template.

The advice in this guide is just that, advice. Slotting guidelines and other information should be treated only as guidelines. Experiment with your enhancements and tactics to find the combination that best suits you. If you happen to come up with something not covered in this guide (particularly well-balanced builds for different secondary sets), please reply with details so I can add it to the next version!


Gravity Control - A brief overview

Gravity Control has gone through a lot of changes since it was first introduced, not just in the effects of many powers but in the presence of some powers entirely.
Overall, Gravity Control has changed for the better. With recent updates Gravity Control has lost utility, gained damage, gained control and utility, lost control again, gained even more damage, got a better pet, got an even better pet, and had that pet brought back to where it started again.
Gravity is average in the amount of control it can deliver, but unique in the way it delivers it. In the right hands, a Gravity Controller can do more on the battlefield with just three or four powers than a Mind Controller can do with all nine.

With the introductions over, let's get on to the good part; the powers.



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Gravity Control - The Powers


Containment
Level Available: 1 (Inherent)
Effects: Critical damage
Damage: +100%

Description:
This power is available to all Controllers, regardless of which other powers you take. As an automatic power, it costs no endurance to run, and is on all the time. Here's how it works...
When a target is Held, Immobilized or Disoriented (Stunned), any attacks you use against that target are given a 100% damage bonus. Essentially, your damage is doubled. If your attack deals 100 damage normally, a Contained target will take 100 damage, plus 100 extra damage from Containment. It doesn't matter if you cause the Containment, or a friend casts the power that sets it up. You get the damage either way.
Pets do not benefit from Containment, and neither do "rain" powers such as Ice Storm, as they are classed as a kind of summoned entity rather than damage coming directly from your actions.


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Critical Control
Level Available: 1 (Inherent)
Effects: +100% Magnitude

Description:
The inherent power nobody talks about. Like Scrappers, Controllers have a (very) small chance to land a Critical Control. This is decided purely by chance, and isn't indicated on-screen in any way. However, you'll notice it when you're able to hold, sleep, disorient or otherwise control a Boss in one hit. The Magnitude (strength) of your control powers doubles, allowing you to overcome the protection of some enemies.
Since the ability is unreliable, unpredictable and unseen, it's not really possible to design any tactics around it. It's just nice when it happens, giving you a few extra seconds to do other things.


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Crush
Level Available: 1
Effects: Single Target Immobilize, -Fly, -Spd
Damage (BI): 2.778 (0.556 x 5) (Smashing)
Duration: 30 (Mag 4)
Endurance Cost: 7.8
Recharge: 4.2

Description:
One of your two choices when you first create a Gravity Controller. Crush deals slightly more damage than Lift, and has the added bonus of setting up Containment. Very useful as a first power, and particularly nice in PvP thanks to the secondary effects of -Fly and -Spd. As a Magnitude 4 Control power (Mag 4), Crush will work on Bosses with the first hit. In fact, the only thing you won't be able to nab in the first hit is Giant Monster class enemies and PvPers.
Contrary to what you might hear, Crush isn't a Slow power. Slow powers increase the recharge of enemy powers, while Crush only reduces their run speed.
Recent updates have brought Crush's animation time down from 3-4 seconds to about 1 second. This makes it much more useful.

Tactics:
Relatively speaking, Crush is a very simple power. Use it to set up Containment, deal extra damage, or keep troublesome foes at range, where their melee powers can't hurt you. If you spot a flying enemy, just tap it with Crush and it'll fall to the ground like a lead balloon.
There aren't any special tricks with Crush, though in PvP you can make things remarkably easy for yourself. Lure a foe up to the flight ceiling and then hit them with Crush. The falling damage will take them to practically zero health, and the resulting Damage over Time will take them out, essentially one-shotting them. Teleporting is much harder without the two second hover time between jumps.

Reccommended Slotting:
Crush is fine for duration and recharge, so you're free to slot this as a damage power. If you don't intend to take Stamina, a single endurance reduction will help. For PvP, Range enhancements will give you a little extra edge in the air, where stopping that incoming Spines Scrapper can mean the difference between the bounty you need for an SO, and another trip to the hospital.
Crush is also pretty accurate, so you could try going for a slotting method that avoids accuracy SOs. However, like with all control powers, it's not something that you want to miss with. I advise using at least one Accuracy SO.
As a general rule, build your slotting around this model, adding, removing or changing enhancements to suit the way you want to play:

1x Accuracy, 3x Damage


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Lift
Level Available: 1
Effects: Single Target Knockup, -Fly
Damage (BI): 2.2222 (Smashing)
Endurance Cost: 6.8
Recharge: 6

Description:
The second power available to you when you create a Gravity Controller. Lift is a little less powerful, but has a slightly more effective means of reducing incoming damage, as well as dealing all damage in a single burst rather than through several smaller increments like Crush. Lift also drops flying enemies, just like Crush.
There isn't much to say about Lift, really.

Tactics:
Lift reduces incoming damage by throwing a target into the air. While in the air or on the ground, a target can take no action, so with appropriate slotting one can keep a single foe almost permanently "held" in this state. The downside, of course, is that you have to keep all your attention on that one target. This isn't particuarly good if you have a team to protect.
In PvP, knockback, knockup and knockdown effects are subject to Suppression. This means that, after the first successful knock<blank>, a player is immune to all similar effects for 15 seconds. This limits the powers usefulness in PvP.

Reccommended Slotting:
Like Crush, Lift is a very good opening damage power. Recharge and knockback enhancements will help you keep a target in a state of "chain" knockup if you want to take the power in that direction.

1x Accuracy, 3x Damage


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Gravity Distortion
Level Available: 2
Effects: Single Target Hold, -Knockback, -Spd
Damage (BI): 3.0555 (0.6111 x 5) (Smashing)
Duration: 25 (Mag 3)
Endurance Cost: 8.5
Recharge: 8

Description:
The single most important power in the Gravity Control set, Gravity Distortion is your first and most useful Hold. Capable of stopping all movement and incoming damage from a single target, and able to be slotted to affect up to five or six targets at once (or up to three Bosses), Gravity Distortion is your best defense.
Regardless of whatever powers you take, this is a must-have.
As a Mag 3 hold, Gravity Distortion will hold Minions and Lieutenants on the first hit, but Bosses will require two applications, barring a Critical Hold.

Tactics:
Gravity Distortion is simple to use. Just point and click. One thing to note is that it grants protection to Knockback effects, so using Gravity Distortion will mean that powers such as Lift, Propel, Force Bolt etc will not cause the target to be knocked in any direction. This can be useful when you want to avoid scattering, but with Bosses leaves you with one less option for stopping incoming damage before you fire your second hold. The Knockback protection lasts around 8 seconds, and can't be enhanced.

Reccommended Slotting:
This power is a Control power, and should be slotted for Control. Damage in this power may seem like a good idea, but reduces your defense significantly. Gravity Distortion gets an accuracy bonus, but again, you don't want a control power this important to ever miss. Six-slot as soon as possible.

1-2x Accuracy, 3x Hold Duration, 1-2x Recharge


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Propel
Level Available: 6
Effects: Single Target Knockback
Damage (BI): 5.5 (Smashing)
Endurance Cost: 9.36
Recharge: 8

Description:
The first "ooh, shiny" power in Gravity Control, and the best damage power available until the mid-40s. Propel is flashy, highly damaging, fun to watch, fun to use and good to have if you intend to solo. As always, though, there's a downside. In this case, in order to have an awesome-looking blast power, you need an awesome animation. An animation that takes nearly four seconds to complete. That's a long time in combat. So long, in fact, that in teams you may find that your target is dead before you even finish your animation. However, when soloing or dealing with an overwhelming amount of enemies (or highly resistant enemies), Propel is incredibly useful, particularly when Containment damage is applied.

Tactics:
Another simple power, Propel should be used against Contained targets to get the most out of the damage. Don't worry about using the knockback, as the animation time severely limits your options in that regard.

Reccommended Slotting:
As a damage power, slotting is fairly simple. However, there are several areas of this power that could be improved. The Range is limited, and the recharge is long. If you don't intend to take Stamina, the endurance cost can hurt as well. Feel free to devote extra slots to improving one or more of those areas.

1x Accuracy, 3x Damage


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Crushing Field
Level Available: 8
Effects: AoE Immobilize, -Fly, -Spd
Damage (BI): 0.84 (0.28 x 3) (Smashing)
Duration: 30 (Mag 3)
Endurance Cost: 15.6
Recharge: 8

Description:
Your first AoE power, and one of the most dangerous. AoE damage means AoE aggro, which can spell instant death for a Controller who uses it with reckless abandon. However, this power really shines when combined with others such as Wormhole, or Blizzard, or Freezing Rain. It's also useful for dropping groups of fliers, which can be quite common at low and high levels, and in PvP.

Tactics:
As a general rule, only use this power if you're certain you can handle the return fire. If you can't, try ducking behind a corner or large crate to get away from most of the resulting attacks. Use right before or after Wormhole to keep enemies unable to move or attack (effectively holding them). Use before a power that causes scattering to keep foes in the area. Use before an AoE attack (such as Fireball from the Fire Epic Pool) to get AoE Containment. Most importantly, be conservative in your use at low levels. Ranged damage might not be as deadly as melee damage, but when you're taking 16 kinds of ranged damage in a single volley, it still hurts.

Reccommended Slotting:
Crushing Field is an AoE power, and as such has an AoE Accuracy Penalty. That means that you're going to miss more than usual until you get some Accuracy SOs into this power. The Endurance cost is also high, relatively speaking. While an extra Accuracy and Endurance Reduction enhancement are suggested, it is possible to use Crushing Field with the bare minimum shown below. As always, add or remove enhancements to suit your playstyle.

1x Accuracy, 1x Endurance Reduction


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Dimension Shift
Level Available: 12
Effects: AoE Intangible, Immobilize
Duration: 30 (Mag 3)
Endurance Cost: 13
Recharge: 90

Description:
A controversial power, and the first of the unique controls available to Gravity. Dimension Shift causes your foes to become intangible. This means that, while they can't attack you, you can't attack them either. You can use powers on them, but you'll just get an "Unaffected!" message when the power lands. As intangible enemies, you can walk straight through them, which is nice. Enemies are also Immobilized, which means they can't chase you around or flee.

Tactics:
The mark of a good Gravity Controller is how they choose to use Dimension Shift. Bad Controllers will use it at the drop of a hat, slowing down their team and annoying their teammates. Good Controllers will know that Dimension Shift is a panic button, and should only be used as a last resort to avoid team wipes.
Depending on your secondary, you can handle up to four groups of enemies at once if you push yourself. With just your primary powers, you can handle two large enemy spawns and lower the incoming damage of a third (at some risk). If you find yourself overwhelmed, with teammates taking damage that you or your Defenders can't handle, pick an uncontrolled or partially controlled group, and hit their center member with Dimension Shift. That buys you and your team 30 seconds to either run or clear one of the troublesome groups.
You may want to take some time once you join a team to explain that Dimension Shifted enemies can't be hurt. Additionally, a bind such as the one below may be useful:

/bind ctrl+j "powexec_name Dimension Shift$$say $target and his surrounding allies are now Dimension Shifted. They cannot attack us, but CANNOT BE ATTACKED either. They will return in 30 seconds!"

This way, you can just select a target, hold CTRL and press the J key, and you'll activate Dimension Shift. Your team will simultaneously be alerted on whatever channel you currently have selected, so that they know what's going on.
If you want to send the message to a specific channel, just replace "say" with "l" for local, "g" for team, "b" for broadcast, "req" for request, "sg" for Supergroup, "c" for Coalition etc.

Reccommended Slotting:
Dimension Shift has a peculiar enhancement method. While normal enhancements boost the duration of a control effect, Intangibility enhancements increase the magnitude of Dimension Shift. Without any enhancements, Dimension Shift will affect Lieutenants and Minions. With one Intangibility enhancement, it will affect Bosses.
Unlike most AoE powers, Dimension Shift doesn't appear to take an accuracy penalty.
This means that Dimension Shift has a very low minimum slotting requirement to be effective. Since it's a panic button, recharge shouldn't be necessary unless you plan to constantly be on entirely incompetent teams.

1x Accuracy, 1x Intangibility


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Gravity Distortion Field
Level Available: 18
Effects: AoE Hold, -Knockback, -Spd
Duration: 15 (Mag 3)
Endurance Cost: 15.6
Recharge: 240

Description:
If Gravity Distortion is the most powerful and most useful power in the Gravity set, Gravity Distortion Field is a close second. Your first team-friendly AoE control power, Gravity Distortion Field has exactly the same effects as Gravity Distortion. The duration is lower, the recharge longer, and the accuracy lower due to the AoE Control Accuracy Penalty, but that doesn't change the fact that this power will save you untold amounts of trouble. It is all but required if you intend to call yourself a Controller.
Six-slot this power as soon as possible. Everything else can wait.

Tactics:
Much like Gravity Distortion, Gravity Distortion Field is easy enough to use. As a general rule, this should be the first power you use when entering combat. Use Gravity Distortion afterwards to grab anything you missed and to lock down Bosses that are still active.
Once Gravity Distortion Field wears off, you should find that the enemy spawn is dead, or at least dead enough that Gravity Distortion alone will be enough to finish off the spawn.
Also note that Gravity Distortion Field provides the same duration of -Knockback as Gravity Distortion. If you have a team that uses a lot of knockback (Peacebringer or Energy Blaster blasts, for example), GDF will help increase their damage by reducing scatter.

Reccommended Slotting:
There are a few ways to slot this power, but the basic template is as follows:

2x Accuracy, 2x Hold Duration, 2x Recharge

You may wish to remove one enhancement to make room for another kind, but I highly reccommend heading to the Test Server to play around with different combinations before committing to a different setup in the real game.


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Wormhole
Level Available: 26
Effects: AoE Teleport, Disorient, Knockback
Duration: 20 (Mag 3)
Endurance Cost: 15.6
Recharge: 90

Description:
Wormhole is the power that turns Gravity Control from a merely average control set into an incredible control set. With this power, you gain a kind of control that no other set has; locational control. You don't just decide what gets to attack your teammates, you get to decide where they attack from. With a fast recharge, good duration and good accuracy, Wormhole is one of the most powerful AoE Disorients available to any Archetype in either City of X game.
The downside, just like with Propel, is the animation time and activation range. It can take around four seconds for the animation to complete, with a brief window during which enemies are aware of your presence and can get a free shot at you if you're not behind cover. While you're able to throw enemies very far, you need to be quite close in order to activate the power.

Tactics:
Wormhole can be complicated to use, particularly since you have to select your target, activate the power, and then choose an exit point for the power. The following bind can help make this process easier:

/bind ctrl+lbutton "powexec_name Wormhole"

This way, you can just hold CTRL while targetting an enemy, then left-click on the spot you want them to appear.

Chiefly, Wormhole is an AoE Disorient. Use it in combination with Crushing Field to build a makeshift Hold on a group of enemies when Gravity Distortion Field is still recharging.
If you need to get rid of a group for a while, for example if a team is harassing your Tank in PvP, you can use Crushing Field to slow them, and Wormhole to throw them far, far away. This gives you plenty of time to heal up, recover endurance and prepare for their return, or escape.
If you want to pull a group out of a room, just get as close as you can behind cover (around a corner is good), then use Wormhole to take the entire group and have them arrive wherever your team wants to fight.
You can slam a group into a corner, bunching them all up into one tight formation so that your teammates AoEs do maximum damage, wiping out an entire spawn in seconds.
With Hover or Flight, you can control the knockback to some extent. Knockback is always away from you, and if you're directly above the exit point, then "away" means straight down, which (most of the time) means you get a nice cluster of enemies. If you're directly above your Fire Tank, and he still has Burn, you can hit Wormhole, then Crushing Field, and watch as Burn works just like it used to.

Reccommended Slotting:
Wormhole doesn't appear to have a heavy accuracy penalty like other AoE powers, but in general you don't want your best aggro control abilities to miss. Range is also an issue, and like all AoE controls the duration could use some help. Range enhancements are also useful. The minimum required slotting is shown below.

2x Accuracy, 3x Disorient Duration


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Singularity
Level Available: 32
Effects: Summon Pet (PBAoE Repel, Crush (Mag 4), Lift, Gravity Distortion (Mag 3))
Duration: Unlimited
Endurance Cost: 20.8
Recharge: 240

Description:
Singularity isn't as damaging as Phantasm, or Fire Imps, or Jack Frost. It's slower than most pets with the possible exception of Animate Stone, and it can't be healed. What Singularity excels at, however, is control. Singularity is the best Controller of all the pets, with the closest competition coming from Jack Frost, who dies considerably faster.
Singularity has Gravity Control powers, and one Kinetics power. These powers deal more damage than their player-based counterparts, and cost no endurance to use. The most impressive power is Gravity Distortion, which turns Singularity into a kind of personal bodyguard.
Singularity will follow you closely, and will attack anything which comes within its aggro radius. While I don't have exact numbers, this range is just a few feet wider than the radius of Steamy Mist. When multiple targets are present, Singularity will attack whichever enemy is closest. It will spam all three of its attack powers constantly until the foe is dead. If Singularity takes a large amount of damage from a single source, it may choose to attack that target instead. If you move far enough away, Singularity will break away from its current target to get closer to you. On rare occasions, Singularity will take on a Fear effect when exposed to location-based AoE damage such as gas clouds. It will run in a random direction for a random period of time, until it calms down. Sometimes, this can mean that it rams several enemies and scatters them.
Singularity's powers can extend beyond its normal aggro range if something gets knocked back, but if it flies far enough away Singularity will switch to the next nearest target.
Singularity also has inherent flight, meaning it can follow you into the sky.

Singularity cannot be healed. Heal Other, Healing Aura, Transfusion, O2 Boost, none of them will heal the Singularity. However, if the power has a secondary buff, such as O2 Boost's protection from Sleep and Disorient effects, Singularity will accept that part of the power. All other buffs work normally, though it can be hard to see the effects due to the rather unique appearance of the pet.
To make up for the inability to be healed, Singularity has massive resistances. Against Smashing, Lethal, Fire, Cold, Energy and Negative Energy, Singularity has 50% damage resistance. Against Psionic and Toxic damage, Singularity has a massive 90% resistance. That means that Singularity can go toe-to-toe with Psionic Archvillains and Giant Monsters, and barely get scratched.
Singularity also has high resistances to Hold, Immobilize, Knockback and Disorient effects. It is unknown if Singularity has resistance to Fear. Singularity does not have resistance to Confuse attacks, so watch out if you go into PvP. The tables turn very quickly when your personal bodyguard is convinced that you're a Hellion.

Singularity is described as being Intangible. Unlike other kinds of Intangible (Dimension Shift, Phase Shift, Black Hole etc), Singularity isn't actually immune to damage. What this kind of intangibility means is that you can walk right through it. Unlike Fire Imps or Jack Frost, Singularity won't block a narrow hallway or door.
Slotting intangibility enhancements in Singularity is a relic from the days when it used to cast Dimension Shift. The enhancements have no effect on today's Singularity.

Singularity won't die after the power recharges like non-Controller pets. Tests have reported that it can last hours without expiring naturally. It will follow you through doors into stores, and through elevators to other floors. It will not follow you accross zone boundaries or into missions. You'll have to respawn every time you see the "Loading..." screen.
Every time you recast the power, your old Singularity will die (potentially shifting aggro over to you) and a new one will be created at full health at wherever you chose you spawn the pet.

Singularity's attacks deal more damage than yours do with the same enhancements, and it has a much higher accuracy bonus than you do. As such, it can hit and kill things that you might have trouble with. Just remember that it'll take a while, and is generally only good for one enemy at a time.

Tactics:
Unlike Masterminds, Controllers don't get pet controls. We have to do things the old-fashioned way. You can "control" Singularity in a few ways...

Spawning:
This one is easy. Get yourself some stealth if you have to, and spawn Singularity in a specific location. This is great for blocking a doorway, or for tanking.
To block a doorway, just have Singularity sit in the door. Anything that comes close will either get attacked, or run into the Repel field and get thrown away. Since Singularity is intangible, your melee teammates can run through it and get to the enemies on the other side, while your teammates of the squishier persuasion can blast safe in the knowledge that nothing will get through to them. If it does, you're standing by with holds of your own.
You can also use Recall Friend on Singualrity to reposition it without respawning. Since Singularity likes to sit still when it's attacking, it should stay in place provided you don't go too far.
Going up against the Psychic Clockwork King and his +1 Nuke of Tanker Killing? Spawn a Singularity nearby and watch as Singy absorbs Kingy's silly nearly-all-psionic-damage attacks. Sustained damage will kill Singularity, but by the time that happens you'll have avoided the worst of the damage and have your control powers set up.
If there's a specific target you want locked down, remember that Singularity will attack whatever's nearest to it. Spawn or place Singularity close to your chosen target (but not so close that Repel makes it not the closest enemy anymore) and it should latch on to that sucker and slowly beat it into submission. With a few enhancements, Singularity can hold its own against a Boss and barely get scratched.

Dragging:
Got a teammate being chased by vicious melee enemies like Rikti soldiers? Just have them run back towards Singularity. The badguys will either hit the Repel field and get thrown away (more than likely finding Singy to be a much more annoying, and more appealing target), or get hit with Crush, or Gravity Distortion, or Lift. Either way, Singy saves the day.
Alternatively, have your squishy friends stay inside Singularity to avoid having to run from the meleers in the first place. This works on you, too!
That Repel field also really annoys Devouring Earth Swarms. You can pick up some nice experience from those DE if you've got a glowing round friend who can attract all the attention of the bugs.

If you or a friend happen to have Regeneration Aura, you can cast it on Singularity to make up for the fact that it can't be healed. A single application can generally keep it alive when tanking unless you're going up against something insane.

Reccommended Slotting:
Singularity can do a lot of things, so there's a lot you might want to slot.
The two most important abilities are Damage and Hold Duration, since Immobilization and Knockback pale in comparison to a good Hold. You may also want some recharge so you can sacrifice a Singularity as a tank more often. With such a huge accuracy bonus, Accuracy enhancements aren't particularly necessary. However, you may want just one or two in there to garauntee a hit vs enemies with a high level advantage or defense to smashing damage.
There's no real "base" for this power to be slotted with, so here are a few extreme examples you can mix and match to your liking.

The Tank - 3x Recharge, 3x Range
The Controller - 2x Knockback, 3x Hold Duration, 1x Accuracy
The Blastroller - 3x Damage, 3x Hold Duration







Secondary Powersets

Secondary sets all interact differently with Gravity, and they all have some very nice synergies. Below is a brief summary of how each set interacts with Gravity Control, the benefits and drawbacks.


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Empathy
For the player that likes to team. No offensive potential, but with Fortitude, Regeneration Aura and Adrenaline Boost on Singularity, it's basically an unstoppable killing machine of infinite power. Recovery Aura is also nice for yourself.
Nothing particularly complicated.


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Force Fields
A personal shield for when you need to escape, self status protection, a quickfire knockback power for extra defense, a minor AoE disorient, and two shields that add Defense to your Singularity's Resistance. Very useful.
Remember that Gravity Distortion from yourself or Singularity, or Gravity Distortion Field, will interfere with the knockback from Force Bolt, Repulsion Field and Repulsion Bomb.

The endurance cost for casting shields on a full team can be taxing, so if you don't intend to take Stamina, be prepared to slot endurance reductions in more than a few powers.


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Kinetics
Extra damage, increased recharge for your slow AoE control powers, two kinds of makeshift travel power and an impressive Endurance Recovery power. Never unwanted on teams, particularly with Speed Boost.
Few powers that help Singularity, but a great number that help your team. Repel won't work on Gravity Distorted targets, and watch out that you don't wind up devoting so many slots to your secondary that your primary gets overlooked.


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Radiation Emission
Arguably the most powerful Controller Secondary available. Radiation Infection cripples enemy accuracy, so in conjunction with Crushing Field you've got yourself another makeshift hold. Accellerate Metabolism reduces the duration of control effects on you, as well as increasing your recharge nicely. Enervating Field increases your damage, Lingering Radition slows enemy recharge for even lower damage, Choking Cloud is a PBAoE hold for extra personal defense, and EM Pulse is supposedly the best Hold in the game.
No issues with Gravity Distortion, either.


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Sonic Resonance
More damage through lowering enemy resistances, and some nifty shields for extra damage resistance. Singularity could probably get pushed to the Resistance cap, and your teammates wouldn't be hurting either. Just like Forcefields, you get self mez protection, and a final power that doesn't seem to suck as a debuff.
No real issues.

The endurance cost for casting shields on a full team can be taxing, so if you don't intend to take Stamina, be prepared to slot endurance reductions in more than a few powers.


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Storm Summoning
Possibly the second most powerful Controller Secondary, several of the powers in the Storm Summoning set actually work better with a Controller than they do with a Defender!
You get a PBAoE stealth for better movement around the battlefield, a Slow to stack with Crushing Field to reduce incoming damage, a Knockdown to reduce it further that also debuffs with -Def and -Res for more damage more often, a PBAoE Repel with -Acc and Repel which not only provides amazing melee defense, but also increases the amount of Locational Control available, a PBAoE Disorient that stacks well with Wormhole, a "pet" that deals good damage provided you use Gravity Distortion to keep it from throwing everything around, and another "pet" that deals good damage and acts as yet another melee defense.
No real defense against ranged attacks, though, and nothing that really helps Singularity too much.

This powerset has a lot of toggles that drain a lot of endurance. If you're not planning on taking Stamina, be ready to slot many Endurance Reduction enhancements in the toggles.


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Trick Arrow
A wide variety of debuffs, including a rather unique power in Oil Slick arrow. No real issues, to be honest. A fine set on paper, but in-game reports are...mixed. Some people claim it's the best thing to happen to Controller Secondaries, others claim they get more utility out of Brawl.


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Pool Powers
Again, I won't go into detail with these, but will provide a brief overview of each choice. It should be noted that often your Secondary powerset will determine which pool powers you take. Radiation Emission might not require as much endurance as Storm Summoning, so the desire for Stamina from the Fitness line might not be as strong. Almost all Kinetics powers require a ToHit roll to see if they land, so Tactics might be more desirable for that secondary than if you were to pick Forcefields.



Concealment
Highly useful to almost everyone. Stealth lets you get up close for Singularity spawns, and lets you navigate the battlefield with a little less paranoia over aggro. Grant Invisibility is loved by everyone except Tanks, and will let you sneak a whole team past troublesome spawns. Invisibility will let you follow them. Phase Shift is just like Dimension Shift, but only for yourself. No accuracy worries, though.


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Fighting
If you want even more single target damage and survivability, this is a nice set to take. Between Propel, Crush, Lift and Singularity, you shouldn't have any need to take this.


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Fitness
If you don't take Stamina, be prepared to slot endurance reduction enhancements into most, if not all, of your powers. It's more than possible to manage your endurance with any combination of powers, but Stamina will make things easier if you can bear to part with the three power choices required to get it.
Being faster on the battlefield is nice, but there are better ways to get around.
Faster health regeneration might save your life once, but your control powers combined with inspirations should mean those situations never crop up.
Fitness can make your life easier, but there are always alternatives. Don't take it just because everyone says you have to.


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Flight
Ah, now here's a useful power for a Controller. Air Superiority can fill your need for more damage, Hover can take you up over the battlefield (as fast as base run speed) for a better view and better use of powers like Wormhole. Flight caps out at base Superspeed levels, contrary to the belief that it's "slow", and Group Fly...Eh. There are better ways to move your team.


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Leadership
Extra damage, extra accuracy, a small defense bonus that works out well when everyone in the team has it, and a handy combination of all three when a teammate (not a pet) dies. All good, though Maneuvers isn't as useful as Assault as an opening power.
Throw in some highly useful resistances and perception bonuses for PvP, and this pool can be your best friend.


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Leaping
Combat jumping can get you around the battlefield faster. Jump Kick is okay for damage if you can get past the animation time, Super Jump is a nice travel power (great when combined with Invisibility) and if you need mez protection, try combining Acrobatics with Combat Jumping. It should plug a few holes.


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Medicine
A good Controller shouldn't need to heal their teammates that often, but accidents do happen. Aid Other is a fine heal, Stimulant rocks if your secondary doesn't provide mez protection, Aid Self is on par with Reconstruction from the Regeneration set (and plugs another mez protection hole for yourself), and Recusitate can bring back a teammate before the enemy finishes wiping out the rest of the team.


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Presence
The Fear powers later in the set can be okay, but do you really want a power that draws aggro just sitting in your tray? Probably better for other ATs.


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Speed
Another attack power in Flurry to ease your damage cravings, Hasten for getting that Gravity Distortion Field back faster, and Superspeed (again, great with Stealth) for getting around fast. No vertical mobility, though.
Whirlwind equivalents are available in your secondaries, or in Singularity. PvPers swear by it, for some reason.


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Teleportation
The fastest travel power available, with utility powers taking the place of damage. Teleport is heavy on endurance to balance the lack of suppression, and requires additional slotting in order to outpace Superspeeders.
Recall Friend can let you reposition Singularity or sneak your team past certain enemies, Teleport Foe is the reverse of Wormhole (take a single far enemy and bring them close, with no status effects), and Team Teleport can let you hop past areas you don't want Singularity to aggro on, such as tough enemy groups you want to bypass without invisibility.
The downside is the endurance cost, the lack of damage powers, and the interruptability of the opening powers.
Teleport is easier to use with the following bind:

/bind shift+lbutton "powexec_name Teleport"

This way, you can hold down shift and just click where you want to teleport.


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I hope this has been helpful to you. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to PM them to me or post them as replies here, so I can answer them and add them to the next version.

Great guide. Thanks a lot, this'll really help me bring my baby Grav troller up.

wow what a GREAT guide! Extra kudos for the addition of Tactics suggestions for each power, something I'd like to see every guide do. One of the best I have seen lately, many thanks!

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In the right hands, a Gravity Controller can do more on the battlefield with just three or four powers than a Mind Controller can do with all nine.

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Hehe, in the right hands, a Mind Controller can do more with three or four powers than a Grav Controller can do with all nine.

Containment: Note that only your base damage is doubled. If your attack normally does 100 damage and you hit a red inspire to bring that up to 133 damage then shoot a held enemy, you do 233 damage not 266. Also, it sounds likely that the rain powers will start getting the extra damage starting with issue 7.


Critical Control happens about half the time. Like containment, it's only a Controller thing, not a Dominator thing.


Dominate: This is what dominators get instead. As the Dominator hits enemies, a bar slowly fills. (Unlike Brutes, Dominators do not get credit for being hit.) When the bar gets near the top, the Dominate power button lights up. When you click it there's a bright flash and you get to go wild! Your damage is increased (doubled?) and the magnitude of your holds is also doubled. That's DOUBLED, not just +1 like controllers get! I think hold duration is increased, too. The effect lasts, oh, a couple of minutes I think. Once complete the bar resets to 0 and you start all over again. The bar depletes over time but pretty slowly - it's quite possible to get to another mission with most of your bar still full. Note that Dominate does not increase your accuracy or give you any mez resistance or defense. You can go wild with Dominate but pop some inspires if you plan to go crazy hog wild.


I'm pretty sure Lift does not cut off fly powers. Note that knocking down an enemy in any way on a steep ramp will make them slide down the ramp, taking away even more time. One lift on those sloped sewer pipes can keep an enemy busy for over five seconds! Lift is also a nice power to use when you want to pull single enemies.


Propel: This power is a pretty silly one to get for a Dominator with a secondary powerset full of better attacks. Copy to test, get the power, play with the fun animation for a few minutes, then go back and pick something else - probably the first pool power for your travel power.


Crushing Field: Yep, this is where we start to distinguis those 'hands' from my first paragraph. People who think they can just spam powers are going to get dead very fast. Even if the tank (or whatever) manages the agro for them, this power can burn some real endurance. The recharge is pretty fast (especially with haste) so people just mashing buttons will find themselves out of endurance in no time. This is a good power but use it only when you need it. (By the way, using this in the deeper parts of the Shadow Shard to drop several enemies into Oblivion is great fun. No xp but still fun. Some super-reflex scrappers may even pay you just so they can watch groups of eyes fall. )


Dim Shift is particularly handy at low levels when you don't have a lot of other control options. Once you get your GDF and Wormhole up and slotted it starts to get a bit pointless, though - still handy for the occasional panic button but not nearly as handy as it was earlier. I haven't gotten to test it much but I think this power should be pretty handy in PvP - all those anti-mez powers the melee folks have don't work at all against phasing. More to the point, though, a lot of players won't have a clue what has happened to them. Phasing out empaths can be particularly satisfying.


Wormhole: My controller only just recently put disorient enhancements into the Wormhole power (because of the Enhancement Diversification thing). She just went for range and accuracy, treating the disorientation as a bonus. This power is the best pulling power ever! You don't pull one enemy at a time, you pull entire groups (including the bosses)! You don't have them run to you, you put them exactly where you want them! From here on out you fight battles where YOU want to fight them.

This power can also be handy for sending away those little emminator pets the Devoured Earth like to drop. Not as handy as it was when it was a single-target power but still definitely handy.


Another Singularity tactic - stand inside it. Kinda annoying graphics but any melee attackers that try to get to you get shoved back. Kinda like a poor man's hurricane power.


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If you don't take Stamina, be prepared to slot endurance reduction enhancements into most, if not all, of your powers. It's more than possible to manage your endurance with any combination of powers, but Stamina will make things easier if you can bear to part with the three power choices required to get it.

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My Grav/Storm controller recently respec'ed out Stamina and it's working quite nicely. If a group is moving very fast I have to turn off combat jump and acrobatics but, if it's moving that fast, I shouldn't need them anyway. I don't think I put many slots into endurance reduction at all - just a few of the toggles and I think O2 Boost in the Storm secondary. This stamina-less build really wouldn't have worked out before Issue 6 but the new reduced endurance costs have really helped.


Note to teleport - you can still teleport around just fine even when slowed or immobilized.


Nice guide there Arinara! I've slacked off pretty bad with my old grav/storm guide, glad to see you picking up the slack!

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Hehe, in the right hands, a Mind Controller can do more with three or four powers than a Grav Controller can do with all nine.

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Pfft, Gravity > All, and you know it! :P

Thanks for the notes on Containment, I'll add that to the next version.
Also, I put +100% instead of +1 in the Critical Control effects bit. Thanks for pointing that out. Again, will be fixed when the next version (with builds) is done.

Lift has -Fly, it's just not listed in the short help. The long help states that it does, and I confirmed the -Fly on Overseers and Natterlings in the Shadow Shard, since I wasn't sure either.

In PvP, Dimension Shift is...well, I can't think of a worse panic button in PvP. The duration is crippled, so much so that I've often had doubts as to whether or not it hit with enough magnitude.
Of course, I have no numbers to back that up, but in my experience it's just no good.

Thanks for the positive feedback, Zloth! I think it was even your Grav/Storm guide that helped me nail down my secondary, waaay back when I got bored of being a bubble-bot

fantastic guide. many thanks.

I'd like to add I took Stimulant at level 30 so my Singy can't get Confused/Feared in PvP

A darn good guide.

A special note should be added to crushing field. Since Crush and Crushing Field do not have -Knockdown components, they can be used to root mobs on certain effects without breaking persistent knockdown--freezing rain and ice slick are the principle examples. Gravity controllers who know their stuff NEVER break other forms of control when teamed. Toss fire cages on an ice slick and you will get aggro from your own teammates, toss crushing field and you'll get mobs unable to run away in addition to being knocked over constantly. Toss GDF on an ice slick and you just have a more solid hold than before. Wormhole mobs off an ice slick and you deserve the aggro you are going to get.

Of course, this creates a complexity with /storm, a la the tornado power. Crushing field does not root mobs against tornado, so if you're a grav/stormie you are not going to have the wonderful cuisinart of death AoE effect you can get with fire/storm (for example). However, you can wormhole into a corner and follow with tornado to minimize the spread of mobs. I think a lot of controllers skip tornado altogether, and it's almost expected that a grav/storm will skip it. I plan to make it work on Kilopascal, but I'm a masochist.

The problem is exactly reversed for gravity distortion (holds), but the -Knockback of GDF isn't very practical--it's going to lapse very quickly and not be that useful for sticking a mob solid. Of course, you do toss a lot of control out with both a singularity and a gravity controller. Oh, for the old days when you could have four of those pets out! I have gleeful memories of teleport foe and three hungry singularities. But the new rule is better.

Gravity is a complicated control set. If you know it well, it is awesome. If you're not honestly familiar with the little wrinkles of this nifty set, you can experience some problems. I consider it the hardest controller to play, because there is not a lot of "fire and forget" going on and geometry can play a big role.

Hi,

Excellent guide.

Somethings that I have found with my Grav/kintiec. Wormhole is perfect for sappers of the malta. Yep, you tp em out and hold them, and reverse the end drain they did to your team.

Grav is a nice set, once you learn to slot wormhold with 2 acc, 1 range, and two disorients You do have to be quick about throw a crushing field on them after the wormhole.

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Containment: Note that only your base damage is doubled. If your attack normally does 100 damage and you hit a red inspire to bring that up to 133 damage then shoot a held enemy, you do 233 damage not 266.

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Actually that isn't the case - Containment is applied *after* all buffs and anything else is taken into account, even the damage cap - which is why a fulcrum-shifted, contained fireball is so disgusting!

Containment damage really does mean double damage (except for Illusion's Spectral Wounds which is a special case due to its 'healback' portion) - you basically get a second damage tick (or ticks for DoT powers) which is (are) just as much as the first one.

Actually multiple-damage type attacks (typically the ancillary attacks) work slightly differently as well, in that the 'containment damage' all comes as just one type of damage, rather than doubling each damage type seperately. So for an attack like Energy Blast from Primal Forces, with a Brawl Index of 2.2222 smash + 3.3333 energy, the containment portion will come in as an additional 5.5555 energy (it seems to come as the 'dominant' damage type). So this may end up being slightly less (or perhaps more) than double damage, depending on if the target has resistance to one or other of the damage types. However I think that is probably far more detail than required

Nice guide. I just rolled a Grav and looking forward to getting my Sing. Good thing The double xp event is coming up !

Excellent guide!

The description on Wormhole is a bit vague about this one aspect, but you can activate the power while being outside of line of sight of your target. The best (and most satisfying) example of this for me was using Hover to position myself under the ledge that Seige and his guards stand on at the top of the tall tower map. My team's tanker and I timed our attack so that he would jump into the group as I activated Wormhole, moving Seige's guards out into open space and letting them fall to the ground far, far below. By the time they made it back to the top of the tower, our holds were well established on Seige, and I managed to Wormhole the bunch of guards back out into space and let them fall to their deaths.

I was literally giggling like crazy when that second Wormhole worked!

someone post a sample build

10/10 Very Nice guide