How do people slot levelling controllers?

I can look at guides, and plan builds for later, but I'm really curious, what do people do with their controls when they only have a few slots. I know that low level brutes and scrappers benefit more from end reduction than extra damage, I am wondering if low level controller slotting is somewhat wonky.

Because you can slot for all the usual stuff, damage, acc, endred. And the controller stuff, duration. Plus there are some benefits in recharge....It has me somewhat flustered.

I am playing elec control right now, which is a damage light set to begin with, but I'm still curious for the other powersets as well.

Thanks, it should help me a little bit with my secondary as well.

On the way to 22 you can get away with light accuracy slotting for most control powers ie on DO will do fine. Most ST holds and immobilises have 20% bonus accuracy, so a single DO puts them at around 1.2 * 1.16 = +40% accuracy. Plenty for fighting up to +2s.

I usually go 1 accuracy, maybe 1 end redux and as much damage as I can in the hold and immobilise while waiting for SOs. Before Stamina and SO's, damage per endurance is my main enemy, this seems like the best way to boost it.

Recharge slotting kicks in after I've got SO's and Stamina, and have the endurance to attack more quickly.

5 or 6 slot your ST Hold ASAP! Don't slot for damage, but slot for Rech / acc / Hold Duration

I disagree with not slotting damage in the ST hold. It is one of a Controller's most damaging attacks until they break 40. 1-40 is a very long time and honestly, one Hold duration enhancement is plenty unless you are crazy and run only in deep purple.

I used to slot the holds for hold duration and recharge, but these days I find the base Hold duration is plenty long enough for the start of the game.

Without any enhancements at lower levels, you're able to permanenty hold at least two enemies, and often have another control (eg Deceive, Lift) that can keep a third one busy while you focus on taking them down.
This is more than enough to juggle three minions solo.

On a team, enemies are hopefully falling quickly enough that the extra hold duration would be wasted.

Recharge is handy for holding bosses as quickly as possible, I can agree on that. If you expect to face bosses regulalry, thats probably a good idea.

Depends what you plan to do on the way to 20. My advice is tailored more for solo-ists I guess.

Typically when building a controller I make it a priority to slot up some single target attack chain I can rely on for 50 levels. Since most Controller primaries only come with two of these I'll generally augment them with the veteran staffs to help fill out their attack chain, and ride on that until I can get a more reliable ST attack with the Epic Power Pool. Then I keep using the staffs because they're so awesome.

After that, I try to isolate what my "routine" control abilities are, and what my "oh ****" control powers are, and put a focus on the routine abilities. "Oh ****" powers would be those on a really long recharge with a high magnitude and long duration. You want to have your "routine" controls ready first because those are what you are going to be using every spawn, and not having them is going to cut into your performance and survivability way more than your "Oh ****" powers which should reserved for moments when things don't go according to plan.

In the early levels I'll try to take an abundance of powers that don't need much slotting but are still necessary to take so that I can focus on making a few key powers useful rather than having a lot of little sub par ones. The Fitness pool is very useful in this regard as the perquisites for Stamina don't really need any attention at all. Combat Jumping and Hover are the same. Hasten is good if you don't slot it and use it as an "oh crap" power to try to give yourself an edge in trickier situations, so long as you remember to eventually give it the attention it deserves once you are using SO's. Most of the Travel powers only really need one slot as well now, thanks to the changes in the base flight speed.

Things get a bit trickier around level 20+ when you're trying to fit in Stamina and your more general use powers. I usually like to take a low slot power directly after stamina to help boost my lv18 power. Generally though, you'll want to try to take a power that needs minimal attention after a power that needs a lot of attention; It doesn't do you a lot of good to have two powers that are good after only after they've reached their potential just sitting in your pool being useless.

level 30+ becomes a lot easier as you are now getting 3 slots a level instead of just 2. Now is a good time to start rounding out your attack chain with things like rech or endredux, or buff up your "oh ****" powers which may have needed to be neglected thus far.

Try to make your level 49 power something that isn't going to need many slots, as often the case is that your lv47 power will want some of the lv50 slots, and you're only going to have a maximum of 4 slots (1 base, 3 from lv50) to work with your level 49 power. You definitely don't want to be taking something like "Fireball" as your last attack.


Due to the diminishing returns rule that Enhancement Diversification places, the third application of the same enhancement isn't nearly as powerful in its' modification as the first two. Unless the power has a truly long recharge time (something in the ballpark of 200 seconds) it's usually wise to only two slot for recharge when slots are sparse, and come back to it later.

For instance, powers with a base recharge of 90s get reduced down to 63s with 1 RechRedux, 49 with another, but only 45 with the third. A four second decrease probably isn't worth another slot when one of your other powers is suffering.

This works for nearly all enhancements as well. Often I will leave my "attack" powers at four slots (2acc, 2dam) until I can come back to them to maximize their performance.

It depends what you're playing, really.

Grav and Mind are very attack-focused. The first 3 or 4 powers help you simply kill things and should be slotted for damage.

But then you got Earth and Fire and Ice which all have an ST immob, an ST hold, and a AoE immob with weak damage (fire dishes out slightly more damage). If you want to keep containment up on the now immobilized and cheesed off mobs, you'll want extra immob time there, and possibly more time on the hold power to prevent them from attacking. Plant has a similar theme, but its AoE immob does almost twice as much damage, so you should definitely take advantage of its higher base numbers and slot for damage.

Illu has straight up damage, a hold, and Deceive as its first three powers, and since deceive doesn't do damage and you have no mez in your first power, definitely slot for damage. This is especially pertinent as illusion's damage is "fake" and some of it automatically heals back after a few moments.

Thanks for the responses, I was throwing damage into my ST hold and immob since nothing else does much damage for elec control, and I was just making sure that it wasn't a huge mistake. I'm only around 11 now, but the 2 duration/2 recharge/2 acc tip for my aoe powers is a good one, when I get those slots anyways.

How do you slot immobs then? other than 2 acc/2 recharge?

I echo the above, slot for damage if you want to solo. Damage is even useful on small teams.

If you are Mind, Grav or Illusion you should get a decent attack chain out of the box. The other sets must work harder to achieve solo capability, and must really take their single target immobalize or rely on Temp/Vet/Power Pool powers. Air Superiority is a good choice for a leveling Controller who lacks attacks, you can always respec it for Hover later.

I'm afraid things get harder before they get easier for the low damage control sets. If you are lucky your secondary will help you out a bit.

Peacemoon reminded me of something else I forgot to mention but is probably useful to be aware of.

Controller powers are much less consistent on their accuracy multipliers than most AT's. Make sure you aren't putting a lot of acc into a power which is already fairly accurate, and aren't neglecting powers that are inaccurate. Dominate, for example, is extremely accurate and can easily get away with just one Accuracy Enhancement, while something like Total Domination will probably feel gimped without at least two.

Frankly, "general" advice doesn't really work for controllers. Unlike other ATs, controller powersets vary more widely, and the player's playstyle can substantially affect how powers are slotted. Not only that, but there is more variety in builds. How you build a solo controller can be substantially different than how you build a team-only or a mixed use controller.

For example, of the eight control, sets two of them do not have any immobilize powers. Of the six remaining sets, I generally do not take the single target immobilize on five of them . . . unless I mostly expect to solo, in which case I would probably take it on three or four of them -- and that might vary depending upon my secondary. On Gravity, I would take Crush regardless. Personally, I took the single target Immob on my Ice/Storm and my Grav/Storm, but none of my other controllers.

Some controller sets have powers whose primary purpose is damage, while others don't. In some cases, you can slot a control power as though it is a damage power, and that may or may not be the best choice, depending upon the power and your playstyle. On some controllers who are more team-focused, I don't slot damage in my single target hold, but I slot for some amount of damage on most of them -- but it may not be until later in the build. It depends on the controller and how I play him/her.

So, I suggest that there really is no "one answer" to the OP's question. Certain powers can have consistant slotting: For AoE Immobilize, 2 Acc, 1-2 EndRdx is a good idea, with anything else being optional . . . except for Plant -- Roots is a damage power. AoE Holds generally can get 2 Acc, 2 Hold, 2 Recharge . . . unless you don't use it enough to merit 6 slots. Pets generally get a minimum of 1 Acc, 3 damage, but then it depends on the pet on how you finish slotting it.

Here's how I usually roll:

ST Hold
First Slot - Acc
Second Slot - Recharge (helps for locking down bosses)
Third Slot - Hold
Fourth Slot - Recharge
Fifth Slot - Hold
Sixth Slot - Acc (by now you're probably taking on higher level enemies, so the extra acc helps)

Group Hold
First Slot - Acc
Second Slot - Recharge
Third Slot - Recharge
Fourth Slot - Recharge
Fifth Slot - Hold
Sixth Slot - Acc

I never take the single target Immob, and I almost never slot for Damage (Hot Feet would be an obvious exception.)

Soloing a troller feels ever so dull and painfully slow. I only ever do it to pass the time while waiting for a team, or to get through key missions. Its not unusual for me to get a troller to 50 with the cape mission languishing in my mission tray. Soloing a troller is like driving on a spare tire. Fine when you have to, but I wouldnt not recommend it all the time.

There's a reason controllers are referred to as "support." Blasters and scrappers are my pets. They get knee-deep in the muck, I stay big picture.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I most definitely needed the damage in my ST immob and hold, because I know that a lot of the elec powers lack in damage, until at least gremlins. I think I'm doing alright with my current setup, I've been solo'ing elite bosses quite well, though devore gave me a few problems.

Yep, in this game you definitly get what you slot for, at least most of the time ;-)