Controller Builds - 5 years as an Altaholic

After playing every Archetype and about 200+ toons later,
some only to level 20, others past 40, I would like to share
some observations and perhaps save someone else the
time it took me to learn some of these interesting builds.

I'm not going into great detail. There is lots of information
on most of the archetypes in the forums. I'm just going
to mention a few types I found to work real well and why,
and a pointer or two in the build.

All primary and secondary powers in the hands of a good
player can work well, BUT there are some power combinations
that work better. It is usually because the primary and secondaries
work better together, they have a certain synergy. A good example
would be the power RAIN OF FIRE combined with TAR PATCH.
Tar patch not only slows down the enemies but also has a damage
resistance debuff, increasing the fires damage. This game has many
such synergies and I have spent years experimenting with them.
All Archetypes have them and they are there to discover.
Here are some of the best:


Earth/Storm Controller (Controller on steroids)
This is a controller on steroids. You get a lot of control here and
some even stack such as earthquake and freezing rain - you
can never have too much knock-up. If all you want to do on a team
is lock down the crap out of the enemy, these are the primary/secondary.
Also, an added bonus is that most earth powers have a defense debuff
making it easier for you and all your team to hit the enemy. Think Circle
of Thorns.

Fire/Rad or Fire/Kinetic (Damage)
Both are great for damage, solo or on a team.
Fire/Rad is more defensive so if played right, you won't die as often.
Fire/Kinetic won't outdo Fire/Rads damage until you get FULCRUM SHIFT
at level 38. FLASHFIRE would be a good first attack to mez the enemies.
If playing a Fire/Rad, your next power should be RADIATION INFECTION,
followed by ENERVATING FIELD. If Kinetic, use FULCRUM SHIFT.
Now let the killing begin. If enemy comes around, use CINDERS to
mezzo them some more, especially if you are kinetic. Not so necessary
if Rad if most enemies are in your debuff AoEs.

Illusion/Rad (Master Mind for Heroes)
I find Rad my favourite secondary for illusion especially if you like to solo.
Other powers work well too but Radiation has the balance I like.
It has debuff AoEs which increase the damage of your Phantom Army.
It also has a recharge increase built into Accelerate Metabolism which
increases the recharge of all your powers, and most importantly, the
Phantom Army power, so you can call them more often. Kinetics has this
ability too and Storm summoning and Trick Arrow has an AoE debuff but
non have both. So my decision for Radiation

Mind/Rad or Mind/Kinetics (multiple single target mezzos, stackable messes)
Both of these secondaries work well with Mind.
My personal preference is Radiation for similar reasons
as the Fire/Rad Controller choice. I've noticed a lot of players not
picking MESMERIZE (sleep) as one of their powers. In my opinion,
this is one of the most amazing Controller powers in the game.
When soloing, this power will mez an enemy for a long time right
out of the box. Slot it with 2 accuracy, 3 damage and 1 recharge
and you have a very nice mez/damage power - Mez or kill - your
choice. Very versatile. If you slot it for sleep, you can keep an
enemy out of a fight for more than a minute! For the most part,
the strength of this controller are the multiple single target mezzes,
damage, and each single mez will stack with an AoE mez of
the same power, making it possible to lock down a boss or bosses
with multiple power combinations. No other Controller has so
many stackable powers.

Plant/Storm (Control and Damage)
This is my all-time favourite Controller.
It is also the one toon in all my 5 years that I had the most fun playing.
I've slotted many of the powers for damage and even though they are
weak in comparison to a blaster's, they do amazing damage once
stacked on an enemy. Typical attack sequence: SEEDS OF CONFUSION,
ROOTS, FREEZING RAIN, CARRION CREEPERS, TORNADO,
then keep hitting ROOTS till all dead. Also use ENTANGLE to focus more damage
on bosses etc.
The damage debuff of FREEZING RAIN (30%) is great and will make all your
attacks work better including CARRION CREEPERS. The defense debuff is
a bonus and the bit of extra damage is even more of a bonus.
Also note that TORNADO will rarely blow the enemies away when held
by ROOTS so the power will do far more damage than initially expected.
Powers you don't need to take: SPORE BURST, VINES, SNOW STORM,
STEAMY MIST, HURRICANE, THUNDER CLAP. These can be fun but
for a solo damage build, you won't really need them.

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... did you type this in notepad with wordwrap on or something? It's disconcerting reading everything crammed off to the left!

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-STEELE =)


Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)

My appologies for this post.
I will post more tactfully and minimully in future.

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I can't take anything seriously that suggests skipping hurricane on a controller ~.~

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