Try this:
(1) put Kin or Rad troller on your Search window; then
(2) put Illusion troller.
Now see which gets you more invites. Partly it will be due to people not understanding how much Illusion can bring to a team, but partly, well, it's just not the best "support" troller. This said, my ill/rad is still my favourite troller, and was by far the easiest to solo (followed by my fire/kin after Fulcrum). As others have said, illusion is the most versatile because of all the tricks it brings (PA, invis, confusion, fear), but if you want support through (AoE) control, Earth, Mind and Ice are way ahead (Flash is easily the worst AoE hold of all).
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
Mind:
mesmerise (complete ST damage mitigation unless woken)
levitate (-fly)
dominate (complete ST damage mitigation)
confuse (complete ST damage mitigation)
Mass Hypnosis (complete aoe damage mitigation unless woken)
Telekinesis (complete cone damage mitigation of 5 foes)
Total domination (complete aoe damage mitigation)
Terrify (very almost complete wide cone damage mitigation)
Mass Confusion (complete aoe damage mitigation)
3 st, 2 (1 of really wide) cone, 3 aoe of proper damage mitigation
Earth
Stone prison (immob)
Fossilise (complete ST damage mitigation)
Stone cages (aoe immob)
Quicksand (-fly,-jump,-spd,-def)
Salt crystals (complete aoe damage mitigation unless woken)
Stalagmites (complete aoe damage mitigation)
Earthquake (kb of non fliers so same as terrify then really in almost complete damage mitigation unless used with quicksand or stone cages and so counts)
Volcanic Gasses (complete aoe damage mitigation)
Animate stone (aww cute lil tanky)
1 st and 4 aoe of proper damage mitigation.
Downfall of mind control is versus machines (due to res to psy) and nems (due to leaderships) its weak.
Downfall of earth id say is its recharge times aint as hot.
The winner?
The better player on a good assisting team as always
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
The reason I think Illusion is a poor Support Controller is simply that the Decoys give you back their aggro when they drop. I've been killed by it lots of times. Also the Phants, while not a massive aggro magnet directly, has a habit of dropping a decoy right where an unaggroed group can see it. When Mr Phant Decoy vanishes (which he does a once his target dies) you and your Phant again get aggro.
You really don't want a support character generating much aggro, an advantage Mind has over Earth as I mentioned above.
Spectral Terror is an inital AOE Fear followed by single target castings at random targets within range if I remember correctly. The secondary Fears look like cone FX but they're only Single Target. Still a great power though.
I rated Earth higher with a Kinetics secondary over Mind / Kin, for a support char (so avoiding AOE damage powers if possible for aggro reasons) for the defense debuffs Earth brings. And the SB / ID / Mr Poo synergy.
That's not taking anything away from Mind. Its a lot more attractive than Earths holds which can be awfully offputting, especially in tunnels against big targets.
Thanks All!
BF
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I didn't say that Illu had more stuff, what I think is that Illu has better stuff.
[/ QUOTE ]Flash vs. Total Dom, Total Dom wins (since it's ranged, otherwise the same).
Terrify vs. Spectral terror, Both have single AoE effect, spectral also does ST fears, while terrify is larger area, and does damage.
Holds, Pretty much the same.
Spectral wounds vs. levitate/mesmerize, Illu does more damage, mind has control effect.
Confuse vs. deceive, the same.
That leaves mass hypno, TK, mass confuse against PA, phantasm, group invis and sup invis.
Mass hypno: AoE control, good for keeping a group the team is not fighting busy, or setting up containment.
TK: AoE auto-hit hold, 5 targets maximum, very good for control and positioning once the player has trained to use it.
Mass confuse: Great control, great indirect damage, aggro-free... Very nice power.
PA: Can be good for taking aggro, but can also aggro additional groups, and when they vanish, the aggro is directed at the controller.
Phantasm: Your basic pet, can be good, can be bad, decent extra damage.
Group invis: Decent for ghosting, +stealth fades as soon as you attack, so not too hot for fights.
Sup invis: nice for PvP, decent in PvE.
Personally, mind wins in control.
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In fact, it really has only one non-control power - levitate.
[/ QUOTE ]Nice duration knockup, affects most bosses with one application, it's definitely control, just not conventional type.
I must admit, as much as I love my ill/rad, it is not the best at supporting the party throughout the course of a mission. Its just too chaotic to be 100% reliable.
The recharges means that you main group holds (flash,emp) are not up every mob or every other mob, which means usually having to go with soft control for a lot of the mobs.
But being a ill/rad you can go solo the team spawn without much difficulty, cant get better support than that. :P
I would go Mind/Kin or Earth/Kin
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I must admit, as much as I love my ill/rad, it is not the best at supporting the party throughout the course of a mission. Its just too chaotic to be 100% reliable.
The recharges means that you main group holds (flash,emp) are not up every mob or every other mob, which means usually having to go with soft control for a lot of the mobs.
But being a ill/rad you can go solo the team spawn without much difficulty, cant get better support than that. :P
I would go Mind/Kin or Earth/Kin
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Well I dont have problems to have PA, Flash or EM ready on any mob, not even teaming with kins, so I can always start the fight and keep the mob under control till the fight ends.
About PA driving aggro to caster when vanishing, well PA time enables me to kill by myself a 4-5 man team mob on invinc while it's on, so I hardly can imagine a team with the lack of dmg to finish any mob, any teams size.
If we add AoE holds, AoE fear and debuff, I really think it's the one that can do a better job, although other sets, such as mind, has more different stuff.
If PA aggroes another mob (wich really happens once a year, and in really big teams) they'll keep aggro on themselves, so you just have to sneak on the second mob (if they are shooting ranged and drop a EM pulse or a flash to have both controlled, then a well positioned ST and LR/EF/RI all over the place would ensure a minimum risk.
Other sets can have a perfect AoE control, true, but IMO Illu can do it easier and using a minor number of powers, but having the same effect
Also a lot of players can simply out-aggro the PAs, blasters particularly. So in terms of control they aren't perfect by any means, an AOE can grab aggro off them pretty quickly so they aren't doing their job in Controlling the group.
Fear is also a poorish team control when you've AOE happy teammates as it allows people to attack back when hit. Compared to Ice Slick, Flashfire or Wormhole its just not as effective in stopping incoming fire.
The only advantage I can think an Illusionist has as a Support Controller is the fire-and-forget nature of their pets which lets you get on with Supporting the team (I read the OPs question as healing & boosting the team rather than debuffing the enemies).
I love Illusion, its controlled chaos used right (especially coupled with Storm) and probably the best solo set. But I don't think Illusion is the strongest Control set or the best choice for someone building a controller devoted to working / focusing on their team primarily.
If you want the Controller style of Support I would say -
For your primary:
Earth, Mind or Ice, Fire
For your secondary:
TA, Rad or Storm.
If you want the Defender style of Support I would say -
For your primary:
Illusion, Gravity, Ice
For your secondary:
Empathy, Kinetics or Rad
not 100% certain, but its just how I feel at present
I have only seem my PA outaggroed by Ice/Fire rain. They do keep the aggro really well, can outaggro ice tanks with chilling on.
AoE Fear does its job combined with debuffs, but it's the 4th option, after PA, EM Pulse and Flash in that order.
Ice Slick decreases the number of times foes fire, but it doesnt alt them. Wormhole, well many gravs dont take it, as it's really chaotic, flashfire is really good, ranged AoE stun
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Wormhole, well bad gravs dont take it, as they can't control it
[/ QUOTE ]Fixed that for ya 
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In fact, it really has only one non-control power - levitate.
[/ QUOTE ]Nice duration knockup, affects most bosses with one application, it's definitely control, just not conventional type.
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Pedantic mode on: Its not control
Real World mode on: It is control
Cant say fairer than that! 
i think /ff is being overlooked, dispersion enables you to prevent all the squishies from being held/disoriented as well as all the def boosts. An earth bubble would be hell to solo but would be great team support
**Acceptable "support" responses**
Its your fault
Its your computers fault
Its your ISPs fault
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i think /ff is being overlooked, dispersion enables you to prevent all the squishies from being held/disoriented as well as all the def boosts. An earth bubble would be hell to solo but would be great team support
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Force field is a nice set. Problem with it is many people find applying the bubbles tedious and don't keep their team mates buffed. Some people drop the deflection and insulation field.
An example just today. I was in a mission with a SG colleague and a FF mastermind. He used the shields on his pets, never on his team mates, untill asked by my colleague to buff. He then used the shields once on my colleague. In the meantime I was keeping him and the rest of the team buffed with my shield. So even trying to set an example didn't help. We decided to go help some lower lvl heroes in the COH SG lvl.
Paragon Girl
I have read all the other posts at some point, but have had a couple of beers tonight so forgive my vagaries.
I champion mind/kin as an exceptional team build as I never find it to be without a solution. This probably holds moreso if one holds back, but I have always played aggressively as is the kins wont.
I am not the best at team buffage, but the oppurtunity is there. I use mass hypnosis on every mob I fight and it seems to work. The TP fulcrum shift is something you can be waiting for the tank to get there for.
When I am on the ball, kin is such a satisfying secondary to have - but it needs concentration. Mind is my favourite primary by a mile (that I have played) - but ice is close (I prefer ignoring ice slick and seeing what slows I can stack). This has probably come out as gobbledegook, I'll leave now,
and you don't get a pet, which is cool 
Im going to go straight ahead and fall into the Earth camp.
I respect the other sets but for pure versatiliy and pure control Earth picks it at the post.
Mainly because 4 (includin Animate) are LbAoE. Location based AoE's simply are better the normal AoE's. Any new mobs waltzin into the zone will be affected. Volcanic gasses alone could allow me to control a whole mob for a massive amount of time from one application.
Earthquake is a great tool for control. The biggest factor being that it doesnt require an Acc check. It'll also flip bosses. The added -def and -tohit is also a nice touch.
My favourite thing about LbAoE's is that you can do them from behind an obstacle, hence meaning you can take alpha's for a team very comfortably.
For secondaries i'll have to be biased and suggest (again) Trick Arrow.
AoE sleep, st hold, AoE hold, 2 LbAoE slows (glue is targetted, but stays in area after use). Also Flash Arrow for mini ghosting or for helpin to get to an obstacle (as mentioned earlier)
So together they've got
PbAoE sleep
AoE sleep
LbAoE KU
LbAoE hold
AoE hold
AoE disorient
2 ST holds
3 LbAoE slows
then also the ability to debuff dmgres to approx 65% with stacked disruption arrow and single Acid. Also debuffin dmg with Poison.
But as far as "support" goes......id listen to Okton, he's done like 47 controllers.
To be honest, I don't think there is a "best" for team support - so much depends on your playstyle/the team makeup.
I've played a few trollers - my main Illusion/Empathy, my second Mind/Storm, and an aborted Earth/Sonic.
Illupathing is perhaps the best way to play an empath - in my personal experience, the additional tools from illusion (superior invisibility, spectral terror, PA, Phantasm) as fire and forget tools allow you to focus on keeping the team CM/fort/RA/AB'd, and to heal without taking aggro. If the team is going smoothly, you can contribute to damage/control with spammed blind+spectral wounds, with the odd deceive thrown in as needed.
To me, this is much more helpful to a team than the limited damage from an empath defender. However, such versatility comes at a price - illupath is a very tight build, as so many powers are excellent, and could do with lots of slots.
It is also quite effective at soloing/duoing, and can be very good in PvP.
I enjoy mine, you may do the same if you were always tempted by an empath, but put off by the difficulty in soloing.
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i think /ff is being overlooked, dispersion enables you to prevent all the squishies from being held/disoriented as well as all the def boosts. An earth bubble would be hell to solo but would be great team support
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Force field is a nice set. Problem with it is many people find applying the bubbles tedious and don't keep their team mates buffed. Some people drop the deflection and insulation field.
An example just today. I was in a mission with a SG colleague and a FF mastermind. He used the shields on his pets, never on his team mates, untill asked by my colleague to buff. He then used the shields once on my colleague. In the meantime I was keeping him and the rest of the team buffed with my shield. So even trying to set an example didn't help. We decided to go help some lower lvl heroes in the COH SG lvl.
Paragon Girl
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Well said. What do you (not you, paragon, but everyone in the thread) mean about support? I know, you are speaking about support powers, but, support concept can't be associated at a single teammate. Support is a team-wide good way of play. My troller can support well with holds, heals, pa, etc... only if tankers support me taking aggro and blasters/scrappers kill fast, that is the best damage diminishing control power
IMO.
If you want to be a support player, be sure teaming with players that support you.
Said that, i agree that ill trollers are best in solo but i assure that they are good (ok, ok, not the best, but not poor as someone said) in control if u know how and when to use pa, st, phantasm, etc... You need to know how to move around to have the pets do their job without going crazy.
So, i don't completely agree with the concept of 'fire and forget', but this is a team-dependant choice.
Another thing is that everyone jumped speaking about control, not mentioning healing (it's not a support power?). I know there r defenders that heal better, but an ill/emp troller is a good combo (and a classic), because, depending of the team, you can decide to support with both primary and secondary or just primary having the secondary as an help to the emp def of the team, without forgetting the boosts.
A final note on ST. i found the power one of the best, imo. Is perma (unless u go debuffed). With only 1 acc, fear also even-level eb, and +2 bosses, imagine with more slots.
I have it as my 2nd power in my chain, not my 4th. PA then ST, and i fire ST always as soon as it wears off.
I have read somewhere that Nemesis are resistant to fear. In my experience i don't think so, at least now it's not true. Maybe something is changed in the game but i assure u that Nemesis robots go feared.
Pick any sets you like....they're all good and can all be bad depending on the player behind the keyboard.
Some sets can be redundant in some teams and make absolute gods of others so no best or worst IMO.
SingStar:
"Extremists LOVE to fish to get us annoyed so we break the forum rules."
CRACK68:
"The origin of life wasn't planned either, should all life be declared a bug and wiped out?"
Lionsbane:
"You know me.Ever the realist"
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i think /ff is being overlooked, dispersion enables you to prevent all the squishies from being held/disoriented as well as all the def boosts. An earth bubble would be hell to solo but would be great team support
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Force field is a nice set. Problem with it is many people find applying the bubbles tedious and don't keep their team mates buffed. Some people drop the deflection and insulation field.
An example just today. I was in a mission with a SG colleague and a FF mastermind. He used the shields on his pets, never on his team mates, untill asked by my colleague to buff. He then used the shields once on my colleague. In the meantime I was keeping him and the rest of the team buffed with my shield. So even trying to set an example didn't help. We decided to go help some lower lvl heroes in the COH SG lvl.
Paragon Girl
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Well said. What do you (not you, paragon, but everyone in the thread) mean about support? I know, you are speaking about support powers, but, support concept can't be associated at a single teammate. Support is a team-wide good way of play. My troller can support well with holds, heals, pa, etc... only if tankers support me taking aggro and blasters/scrappers kill fast, that is the best damage diminishing control power
IMO.
If you want to be a support player, be sure teaming with players that support you.
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I wanted to say this but didn't get round to doing it.
Support = Lockdown/Knock up/Knock down/Knock back/Phase Shifting/Whatever else = Forms of Control
By doing the above, you are supporting your team. Each set has it's own way of supporting, some better than others - but they all "support" the team in some way. The question then probably changes to, "Which has the best/most means of control".
Obviously it's also the player who makes the character, so as long as you do things effectively, you should be able to support your team no matter what you do.
Saying that, Ice control's secondary effects are that it slows mobs, and Earth control reduces mob defence.
If you're thinking more helping team members on a more player-to-player basis, well, that's what our secondaries are there for.
@Under Control
Well, speaking of support (not control), Illusion/* can give a lot of support because in the primary there are these nice fire and forget powers so you only have like erhhhh 1 hold and a confuse and one mass hold which takes ages to recharge.
So you've got a lot of time to apply buffs debufs heals etc. from your secondary.
Ohw yeah one thing: be sure to have the pets window active so you can dismiss em fast if they wander too far away.
"/bind m release_pets" may also be handy.
I have one of every primary of control, ok it might be a dominater, most are too low level to even say "i know my controllers" so i wont. But I do see this as a could happen.
Play in one team wishing i had my mind controller with my earth controller and then play in another team wishing i had my earth controller playing my mind controller.
As far as team support is concerned how good you will be is gonna come down to how good the team will let you be.
As a dark defender i have logged and got my forcefield bubbler because the teams playstyle didnt change to suit the dark defender and no i dont speak french well enough to start enlightening. But its a sign of newbieness in my book. Whilst some people may rate a scrapper on how good they look whilst others plant around then im downrating the same scrapper for not changing his playstyle to assist the other sets to of prevented others from planting around them in the first place. Its a sad state when people have made toons and never actually get to effectively play them.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
I think Under Control has pretty much nailed this question with this observation.
"Obviously it's also the player who makes the character, so as long as you do things effectively, you should be able to support your team no matter what you do."
I totally agree. All of the Controller sets can be highly effective in supporting the team. It's up to the player using the powers.
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Hero 50's - 25
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Please - I'm not knocking Illusion at all.
Firstly, I stand corrected - Spectral Terror is AoE, mebad
Secondly, I have repeatedly made the distinction between Control and Support. I agree with you entirely. Whilst I still maintain that Illusion is bad at a purist view of "Control" it still has excellent support powers.
Nevertheless, Illusion has a (relatively) poor amount of AoE powers compared to the other control sets (Earth, Fire, and Ice have only two single target powers for instance).
What does the lack of AoE mean?
Solo / Duo- you will have the easiest time (and many would say from experience that Illusion is the easiest to solo)
Small groups you come out about even.
In large groups you come out badly.
Its not "gimped" or "Bad" at all. Im just making the point the relative lack of AoE makes it less desirable as a support toon than other control primaries IF you are in big teams. THe flip side is its more desirable solo / duo.