Will Controllers ever see...

While this seems to be a common thing as of late I'm curious about something. While powers left and right have been pass along to other ATs, is there ever the possibility of having Dark Miasma as a secondary for Controllers? I haven't been here long enough (both as a poster and player) to see any other topics on this subject.

I have a /dark MM and love it tremendously; the versatility of the powerset is just wonderful and I would love to have my resurrected hero-zombie running about with fiery imps!

Seriously though, why has this not happened? Is it a dev thing or are there other reasons? I hope it's a Soon(tm) rather than a never sort of thing!

I have been waiting for Dark for Controllers ever since they announced the very first proliferation.
I would make an Illusion/Dark in a heartbeat.

What has been commonly said to me when brought up is that Dark Miasma would make a better primary than a secondary. Many people believe that controllers will likely get Dark Control rather than Dark Miasma.

Personally, I would prefer it as a secondary. Its exactly what sets like Illusion and Gravity need to boost up their control abilities, and the only "unbalanced" aspect of the set for controllers would be the powerful "pet". Maybe the loss of "Dark Servant" has been the main hold-up. Only guessing really.

My guess is that it would be to much "control" on one toon, plus the addition of another pet. With a stun/fear/rez aoe, a cone fear, a st hold, and the addition of fluffy-- that's a lot of control. I think the devs have already demonstrated what they think about too much control.

Trick Arrow already gets a second hold to allow it to quickly stack a hold on Bosses, so Petrifying Gaze isn't really an issue.

Fire/Storm, for example, can Stun a group of Bosses in two moves, so any arguments about Mind/Dark fearing a group of Bosses is kind of moot.

So I don't think its setting any new precedents for too much control.

Wasn't there a dev comment a while back about the miasma possibility? If I remember right they said something to the effect that if it is ever ported over, there will be significant changes to the set, and they have been porting over the sets that require fewer changes first. I also think they gave some of the reasoning behind the changes and they weren't the "obvious" ones usually stated in the "will we get dark?" threads.


[My memory could be totally off, but I seem to remember something]

It was something Synapse (I think) said, about how all of the various dark-themed sets were interrelated and they needed to think carefully about how best to do it. I'll see if I can find the post.

Edit: Ah, it was actually Sunstorm. Post: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...63#post1311463

Basically, dark miasma being ported to controllers is problematic because dark miasma, dark control, dark assault, dark blast, and dark manipulation (all of which they apparently hope to do eventually) would all be mixing and matching from a similar pool of powers, and you need to avoid overlap. Dark blast would need to avoid overlap with dark manipulation, which would share a lot of powers with dark assault, which would need to mesh with dark control, which would need to avoid duplicating stuff from dark miasma, which is already set up to avoid duplications with dark blast. That sounds like a thorny task.

Would it, Dark Miasma, really create such unbalance? I really don't see how it could considering that there are a few sets that have similar powers, not exactly the same mind you, but similar. Using the /storm example before and the whole '/dark not given to controllers because of the pet,' /storm has two pseudo pets (right?). Judging by this information, having the pet from dark miasma ported over really shouldn't be such an issue. Sure, it's a rather strong pet but so can Lighting Storm and Tornado be with the right sets. There are perhaps other examples but this comes to mind first.


While the idea of Dark Manipulation sounds interesting, I would rather have it be put on hold and looked at for perhaps a later powerset addition in the future. Dark Miasma first in my opinion.

I think you missed the explanation, Neg.

It's not an overpower issue, its the fact when they look at how they are going to put together ALL the dark themed sets, there are issues of overlap that have to be resolved.

Example: When looking at adding dark to ATs that haven't gotten it yet they hope to put in a dark control set. Well dark miasma already has many powers that would be obvious choices for dark control, therefore more of an overhaul would be required for dark miasma (or whatever the dark buff/debuff set for controllers would be called if its radically changed) and the sets being proliferated now don't require that amount of overhaul.

In other words they aren't so concerned about overpoweredness they actually want to make MORE for us, but that takes time.

(I welcome any corrections if that is inaccurate)

I would think Earth/Dark would be pretty over powered. Quick Sand and a Tar Patch would not only floor the recharge of mobs, but practically neuter them with all that -def and -resist.

Judging from the responses, Dark Miasma as it stands would a much more difficult set to port over to Controllers than other possible ports (including Controllers and all other AT's). Thusly the devs prioritize by working on the easier sets to port over, because they can knock those out quickly. Essentially, because of all of the "control" overlap Dark Miasma would have (as a secondary), the devs would have to rework the set to replace around half of the powers, perhaps going as far as introducing powers that have yet to be included in the game, just so the set can be "balanced" with the other Controller secondaries.

IMO the only seriously overpowering element of /Dark for Controllers is the cone fear, mainly because of its stacking with Mind's fear cone and the longer mezz durations we usually get. The extra pet is really not that big a deal considering Dark Miasma is already available to Masterminds, of all overpowered things.

All other powers in Dark are a 1-for-1 match with something from another set, even if it's not immediately obvious. Even the stun stacking happens in other sets (Dark/Dark Defenders and Corruptors for example). Meanwhile, Dark lacks endurance recovery and recharge, two things that set Kinetics and Radiation apart.

I don't think it would be too hard to learn a few extra things.

And you assume that it will even be called Dark Miasma.....that could change as well.

I do see the issue with interconnection. As far as stacking controls goes, I don't think it's significantly worse than /cold or /storm can get. The biggest balance issue it has imo is that people would no longer be able to point to stacked holds as a reason to consider Trick Arrow acceptable in its current form.

Personally, I hope DM gets ported without a Dark Control set. Yes, Dark Control would be cool, but with power Customization, doesn't Black Illusion of MC do basically the same thing?