Illusion question.

I was wondering is it true that illusion is a living corpse before lvl 18 and the pets or does it have some use pre lvl 18 too?

I soloed level 17 (Illusion/empath). It was rather slow but since containment I don't think there is any real problem with soloing after taking the 2 attack powers.

Superior invisibility might help if you want to solo, I was stuck with group invisibility and that doesn't help as much. I didn't try anything more than Heroic though. But that still gives fast enough Xp on that level.

Group-wise it has plenty of advantages as well. Blind/Deceive/Flash/Group Invisibility. Those can make you a wanted person in a team.

No it isn't true,no more so than any other controller.

You get your AOE hold before the other sets too, which was great for me as it was pre I5 when I was levelling

Pity AOE holds aren't the best nowadays.

The utility of the invis powers is handy at those low levels too. Especially for getting around the Hollows / Steel / Skyway.

Does Illusion do more single target damage with Spectral Wounds than the other sets since Illusion has no immobile powers?

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Does Illusion do more single target damage with Spectral Wounds than the other sets since Illusion has no immobile powers?

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Nope, mind and fire both do better damage at lower levels.

Pilcrow posted some figures on the US forums a while back.

I know I've mentioned this in another thread, but I found in the lower levels Air Superiority was a great filler attack which is even better with containment, it certainly speeded up my leveling.

How the fudge does Fire beat Illusion for damage in the lower levels? Correct me if I'm wrong but don't Fire only get a Hold and an immobilise for damage?

1 hold, 2 immobilises.

Plus Hot Feet

Yeah, but no one takes the single target immob.

the only thing i can think of is the spec wounds i don't think doubles with containment which the immobilise on fire would and also if you don't kill your target fast enough with spec woulds it kinda heals some of the damage back.

edit: hot feet does very good damage, if you can servive the agro it'll generate

i think the immobilise on fire does "moderate" dot but is quite a fast recharge.

not having played an ill controler at a low level for a while i could actually say which was better.

Spectral Wounds does work with Containment alright. When contained you do normal damage and then a lesser amount thru containment. I don't know if that lesser amount is because enhances don't add to containment damage or if it is due to the healback Spectral Wounds allows the mob.

Pilcrow's Original Post

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Illusions SW is not the monster it once was now that containment is here, because only a portion of the damage is contained. Mind and Fire are both better for early game damage.

Once decoys show up, Illusion really starts to come into its own, phastasms add to that. But all the other sets have containment to help them rival this damage output.

So, if your question is...


Should I roll illusion if I want to be a high damage controller?

My answer is: Yes, but consider Mind or Fire as well. All three have their own ways to deliver damage effectively. Fire is the steadiest set. Mind starts strong, but has no pet in the late game. Illusion starts slower, but is pretty great in the late game.

Also, you need to pick the right secondary to make any primary work in terms of damage delivery: RAD and KIN are good choices for making your primary's damage potential shine.

but if your question is...


How do I get good damage out of my illusion controller?


Slot Blind for Recharge, Accuracy & Hold in that priority order

Slot SW for Damage, Accuracy, and Recharge in that priority order

Get a pool melee power as early as possible, and slot it for damage

Get an invisibility power, so you can close to melee with more safety

Close to melee, Blind, SW, Punch, Repeat unto death, move to next foe

Slot Decoys for Damage, Recharge and Accuracy in that priority order, use them every other combat to muscle through that combat quickly

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Spectral wounds consists of an ilusionary part, whci heals back after a time, and a real part. Damage buffs from any source including containment only affect the real part, as do damage enhancements.

Phantom Army damage works the same way.

Don't forget to take your secondary power into acount when building for damage. Kinetic is probably the best buff, but the resistance debuff of Rad or Sonic will help your Decoys, whilst buffs won't. TA also has a little resistance debuff.

PA doesn't work with Containment afaik.

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PA doesn't work with Containment afaik.

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no, but the damage works in the same way as the SW damage, basically if the target doesn't die in x time after getting hit they start healing it back ...

edit: i think the Phantasm's decoy damage is the same although the Phant's damage is proper/real damage

Oh I knew that alright.

My point was that when contained SW generates 2 different damage figures, the usual and a lower one for the containment damage. I was wondering why it is lower, is it because Containment doesn't count enhances or is it something to do with the healback?

The Phants decoy has healback too and I think its a much higher %

Containment doesn't enhance the healback portion.

Statesman said:
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Spectral Wounds is working as designed. Part of the damage is "illusory" and doesn't count towards the double damage Controller ability.

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original post

that's about all i can find at the moment as to why SW doesn't do double damage with containment

Thats what I thought, they were lazy/cunning about it. Technically double damage should have done and then double healback should have occured but I guess it was overpowered that way.

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The Phants decoy has healback too and I think its a much higher %

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All the damage of SW, PA and the phants decoy heals back 100%, but on the power you can enhance for Damage the bonus from the enhancement doesn't heal back.
So SW and PA only have a small % of healback, while the phantasm decoys has a 100% healback because his damage can't be enhanced.

Actually, SW and PA don't healback 100%, I'm pretty sure that when you get SW and use it before having damage slots it doesn't heal back 100%.

A percentage of base damage is healed back, the rest can be enhanced by enhancements, same for Phantom Army. Phantasm decoy is just different.

If an unenhanced Spectral Wounds healed back 100% then there would be a lot of very annoyed illusion controllers brawling their way through outbreak

Yea there would

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Yea there would

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Insightful post there, thanks.

But anyway, how long does SW take to fully heal back what it can heal?

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Yea there would

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Insightful post there, thanks.

But anyway, how long does SW take to fully heal back what it can heal?

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I just timed it at roughly 11 seconds