So whats some other combos?

My Illusion/Radiation main just hit 50, but I've been rolling up a Mind/FF who is now in the mid-30's. This character has been insanely fun and ridiculously effective. For starters, mind control and force fields are a great RP friendly thematic pairing. Flight (perhaps teleportation) and the psionic epic power pool also fit perfectly for a telepathic/telekinetic character. The strength of mind/ff is grouping. Mind control is one of the best (if not THE best) control sets for locking down groups and has many tools to get the job done in different ways. That makes the mind control set effective but also fun to use. Force Fields is a very useful defensive set that I think matches well with mind control. Some of the newer defender sets such as cold, sonic, and thermal also have nice shields as well as nice buffs and debuffs, but I like that force fields are largely fire and forget. With force fields, you don't have to watch your team's health meters to toss out heals. You don't have to worry about debuffing mobs, which can be tricky with single target and anchor debuffs. You just rebubble the team every 4 minutes either between fights or when the fight well in hand. This lets you focus on locking down mobs with your impressive arsenal of controls, which by the way are all ranged. None of that pesky PBAOE!

One potential down side to mind/ff is that you don't offer much in terms of offense compared to sets that have defense debuffs, resistance debuffs, or damage buffs. This is technically true, however dead teammates don't do any damage. Team members scrambling to stay alive aren't going to be doing much damage. When I'm on my blaster and my health is dropping what do I do? I usually scale back my damage to drop agro, spend time combining and popping health/defensive inspirations, run to the healers or out of the fight, OR I go all out and risk death trying to defeat the group faster. So the adage that the best offense is a good defense can be very true in COH.

Some people are also put off by the lack of a pet. For a long time I didn't even consider mind control for that reason, but now things have changed. Personally, I've "been there, done that" with my Illusion controller. That won't apply to everyone, so if you want to play around with a pet and want solo'ing to be a focus, then there are other control sets. More importantly, grouping is so easy these days with group auto-sidekicking and the difficulty settings. Solo ability is not really a concern unless you want it to be.

Now lets get into some specifics about this pairing. With mind/ff you get access to the best collection of single target controls, bar none. You get a long duration 3.5 mag sleep that can take out bosses in one shot, a good ST hold, a confuse, and an awesome intangibility hold. I absolutely love detention field. It's like 6 or 7 magnitude, super high accuracy, and with 2 SO's you can get the recharge down pretty close to it's duration. You have to use it intelligently, but on the other hand I'm not going to fret if the group has to wait a little bit to finish off a DF'd mob. It's not the end of the world.

You also have the best collection of AOE controls. Sweet! First off you have mass hypnosis. It's the perfect skill for preventing double pulls, i.e. one of the quickest ways to a group wipe. It's also very useful for mezing a group when there are a bunch of mobs spread everywhere. The second AOE skill is telekinesis. It can take a little while to figure it out, but once you do it is very fun and useful. Telekinesis is a toggle that picks up a single target and slowly repels him. It will also pick up mobs that bump into or come close to the anchor mob. But the repel is radial, so if you don't push them into a corner they will spread out as they get pushed back and they can drop off. Mobs are held and cannot act while suspended. It works on bosses, but they can temporarily break out. So it works more like a fear on them. Speaking of fear, mind gets Terrify which is a cone fear with a HUGE range. Total Domination is your targeted AOE hold. And finally, Mass Confusion is an AOE confuse. Awesome power. Works great as a panic button or as a pseudo hold that speeds up killing at the cost of some net experience.


Obviously the strength of Mind/FF is grouping, but Local Man mentioned solo'ing as a mind/ff controller. 99% of the time I have been grouped, but I also had fun putting together a solo build with high personal defense (dispersion bubble, weave, toughness, tactics, etc) and lots of power pool attacks. With a solo mind/fff you have a lot of latitude for taking power pool skills. You only need a couple of mind skills to be able to lock down entire groups. Perma sleep the group with Mass Hypnosis. Dominate one mob while you beat it down with levitate and single target attacks form power pools. Confuse any that get free for extra dps. Force Field wise, you can skip Deflection Shield, Force Bolt, and Insulation Shield without missing a beat. But I haven't even bothered messing with all that because grouping is so fun.

Hey Nighthawk, suppress your enthusiasm about Mind, ok? I took it because it's NOT fotm. Just tell people 'it suks - no pet!' Then we can go back to quietly playing one of most versatile and fun control sets out there without a lot of competition.

I play exactly 2 controllers: an Earth/Thermal, and a Gravity/Sonic.

While I haven't seen another Earth/Thermal, I see enough of those two sets separately to know they're not rare.

The Gravity/Sonic is a little more unique though. I can't remember the last time I saw a non-50 Gravity controller. Sonic is in pretty much the same boat as Gravity, although I do see it from time to time. The combo isn't exactly going to blow your mind, or floor anyone's jaw, but it is a nice 'sit back and help out' kind of character. Subtle effects mixed with subtle graphics make it a combo that's definitely not suited for the attention ***** among us.

My vote: Mind/TA

I have played a Cold/Thermal (friend pact) to level 47 but didn't find the toon all that fun to play. Mind/ is my favorite controller set b/c its a good balance of control and ability to do some dmg. Mind/Kin is rare and fun (although you don't want to do the /Kin) b/c the Siphon Speed recharges the long recharge Mass Dom/Mass Confusion quicker (which is always nice). Its a good solo toon (since siphon power/FS really don't buff any pets).

The /TA holds really is a ice addition to Mind's ST hold/knock up and slower recharding AoE hold/confuse. Definitely perked my interest in the concept.

GO FOR IT!!!

i have a ice/emp troller that i dont see much of anymore...mind of though that i made him before the pet nerf so i did have 3 jacks running around

but hes still a buncha fun and one of my fav's ever!

actually i was just thinking how the only troller ive really made after the pet nerf was a easy mode fire/kin and my plant/thermal..hmmmm

I would roll a Grav/TA or Earth/TA for all the control you'll ever need, AND IF the Oil Slick actually lights, not a bad bit of damage output either.

I would go with Grav/TA myself, but I'm trying to ring in my altitus ATM and get my Fire/Kin's going.


Oh, and Plant/anything rules!

Ill/Rad is a great combo, but often used.

I don't see many Mind/xx trollers out there at all, I would go with that if your looking for something different.