Mind control vs illusion control

Let start off by saying that I love the Illusion set while I'm kind of meh on the Mind Control set. I have three Illusionists at 50, while my highest Mind is 36. I've played several other Mind controllers into the 20's though.

Mind starts off with three great single target powers that give it an effective attack chain. Dom, Mez, Lev. It solos well in lower levels because of this. It's AoE control is weak early, with only Mass Hypnosis to rely upon. Later, the set gets much better at AoE control, with Mass Hypnosis (a sleep that draws no aggro but sets containment), Total Domination (ranged AoE Hold), Terrify (Cone fear power that does damage -- Mind's main source of AoE damage) and Mass Confusion (an AoE Confuse power that draws no aggro -- this is the power that replaces a pet for Mind Controllers). Mind has no "bad" powers (such as sleeps in Plant, Earth and Ice, or Dimension Shilft in Grav), but the most skippable power is Telekinesis, a toggle hold cone-push away power -- it is situational and takes some thought to use well. Every thing else is good, and Mind builds are typicaly tight because there are so many good powers.

None of them are really "wow" powers, though. Visually, it is pretty unexciting, too (but that can be improved thanks to I-16). I have found that a Mind Controller's damage seems to drop off in higher levels just when other controllers are just coming into their best damage thanks to their level 32 pet. My buddy with a level 50 Mind/Kin acknowledges this was his impression, too. Personally, I like pets. I like a buddy who will watch my back. Mind control is lonely.

Take a look at my Ill/Rad guide to see my overview of Illusion. I much prefer Illusion.

Well, actually six. Spectral Terror a/k/a "Spooky" is a stationary pet. And technically, every cast of Blind spawns a short duration pet that generates the sleep aspect, but that one shouldn't really count.

I tried coloring Spooky dark purple -- he looks very spooky that way.

I made mine a dark purple too woot!

Gravity is a quirky set with some fun powers but in regards to control in my opinion it's the weakest.

When playing Gravity it can be very frustrating how little it has to offer in the way of damage mitigation. If you do go with Gravity I'd recommend Storm as a secondary it has some nice synergy and gives you extra control that Gravity lacks.

Mind's single target damage is very good in the early game, but drops off some compared to Illusion in the later game. Mind has a good attack chain very early with Dominate-Mezmirize-Levitate. As each of these powers animate, the next one in the chain is usually recharged. Illusion has Blind-Spectral Wounds, both of which animate quickly, and then a gap. That gap can be filled with Air Superiorty, but that requires going into melee. However, starting at level 41, with a little recharge in Blind and Spectral Wounds, and then a Blast power from the APP sets, you can get a great and fast attack chain of Blind-SW-Blast-SW.

On the other hand, since Mind's three single target attack powers already chain well, Mind won't gain much from adding in an APP blast. After level 41, I think Illusion has better single target damage.

Spectral Wounds (and Phantom Army and Phantasm's decoy) has "spectral damage" that heals back after a few seconds. But as long as you can defeat the foe before the heal-back, you keep the spectral damage. After the heal-back, the damage from Blind-SW is about the same as Dominate-Mezmerize. By defeating foes quickly, you get substantially more damage out of Illusion. Illusion actually does more single target damage killing lower level foes than higher level foes for this reason.

Illusion has no AoE damage . . . other than its pets. PA can attack up to three foes at once, and Phantasm has Torrent.

I would not say that the AoE Immobilize in other sets do "decent" damage, other than Plant's Roots. The damage is so low that slotting damage procs is probably better than slotting damage.

Mind is clearly better at standard forms of AoE control than Illusion -- Illusion only has a PB AoE Hold and its Fear Pet, while Mind has an AoE sleep, AoE ranged hold, AoE cone fear with damage and an AoE ranged confuse. But Phantom Army and Phantasm's decoy are very powerful distractions that also provide damage. In many cases, these are better than "control." PA can keep lower level foes as well as an AV, EB or Boss busy for 60 seconds, and the decoy for 30 seconds at a time. And this distraction works even if teammates are beating on the foes, so it does not have the limitations of a sleep power. I would say that Illusion is better than Mind in most late game situations. Illusion works well on all teams and and in most situations.

Most powersets have a throw-away power. Mind's telekinesis is not useless, but is very situational. Same with most other sets, like the sleeps in Ice, Earth and Plant, phase in Grav. Illusion has two invisibility powers, making one of them expendable. Other sets have powers that have benefits other than damage or direct control -- Plant's Spirit Tree and Fire's Smoke. This helps to make the sets different, but the powers contribute to the overall effectiveness of the powerset. Illusion's invisibility is far superior to the power pool, and it has a big effect on the set, since Deceive and PA can be cast without drawing aggro. It allows an Illusionist to go up close and confuse or distract the biggest problem in any group, no matter how big the group is.

Illusion's strength is to divert aggro, but that's while still allowing you and your team to attack -- which is a problem with Sleep powers.

Since Illusion doesn't have any AoE damage powers, other than pets, it has no use for AoE containment. It still has AoE containment in Flash, but by using Blind before SW, you get containment for single target attacks. Certainly using Mass Hypnosis before Terrify is a nice way to double the damage from Terrify -- for that one shot.

You said that Illusion's damage is "really really bad" without PA? I already mentioned how Illusion's single target damage picks up in later levels. So you think that Terrify does more damage than Phantasm in the long run? Or even Terrify + Mass Confusion? Care to bet on that?

Agreed. Secondaries with debuffs substantially improve Illusion because of Phantom Army. Secondaries with Recharge help PA get out faster.

Mind is certainly a powerful primary, but I feel that it probably gains less from its secondary than any of the other controller primaries. It doesn't need more control, and it doesn't really have a lot that will benefit from a lot of debuffs.