Question over Mass Hypnosis

I recently made a Mind / Empathy Controller and have been wondering about the universal application of Mass Hypnosis. I took it originally and found that as soon as I would sleep a group some sign that is invisible to me pops up and says AoE here. I decided to take it much later as I can see its useful but at lower level I dont see as important.

About the only time I have found it very useful is when there is a triggered ambush while my group is fighting. I think it is because of the new surge in elect or earth control/dom appearing.

Does anyone else see this happening? I am just curious over others input. Thanks

I'm not sure I really understand what you're asking.

Thats what I get for typing out fast at work.

Do you see more subtle control powers like Mass Hypnosis being effectively nullified by people being AoE Blast happy?

Ahh, yeah aoe sleeps do have a draw back to aoe happy teammates. If you have a fast moving team with lots of aoe potential you pointed out one helpful use....ambushes or over aggro. Another use is a set up for containment for terrify or one of your future aoe damage powers. Sleep them then YOU hit them with an aoe damage power so you get containment damage. The beauty of terrify is even though they are woke up they are now in another form of control.

It is though, a more helpful power solo or on smaller teams. It's still nice to have in your arsenal though even if you roll with steamrollers.

That makes sense. I can see it that way. Thanks.

Yes, casting a Sleep on something or a group automatically forces your teammates to consider it/them their prime target, just as if you were a Radiation Emission user and had dropped a debuff on a foe.

Like Biospark, I use Mass Hypnosis far more often as a set-up Containment for Terrify power than as a general control power. But you have to be fast or the team will mess it up.

One way to do it is to communicate to the team what you are doing. An easy way to do that is set up a series of macros that explain your strategy . . . but remember, just because you want to play a particular way, that doesn't mean the rest of the team wants to play that way. Be polite and explain your strategy as a suggestion, not as a "Do it this way!"

The point of throwing Mass Hypnosis around on a team is less about keeping whole groups slept than it is about catching the few of them that end up out of the fight for a little while.

For example if you get tired of waiting for the tank, you can cast Mass Hyp + Total Domination. Anything Total Dom misses has a good chance of being slept. Because Mass Hyp doesn't cause aggro you can even cast it, look at the spawn to see if following on is a good idea, and stop yourself if it isn't.

My heavily IOed Mind/Cold Controller had Mass Hypnosis down to 13 second recharge or so. At that point it became practical to simply cast Mass Hyp every time it was up. I tended to aim it slightly outside the main group of enemies and catch a few guys at the sides. Unlike other powers you can be completely reckless about this because it won't aggro new groups and anyone who might have complained about you locking stuff down in a bad location can just wake the enemies up and do whatever.

Mass Hypnosis also seems to activate its mezz very early in the animation, at least compared to powers like Flashfire. I have always found it a great button to hit when damage shows up from a mysterious source I've yet to identify. I also use it on teams when an ambush is running by. And also when there is a crowd of enemies, one of them has a big bubble power, and I'm not sure which one it is. If Mass Confusion is down and I'm left with Total Domination and am desperate, I'll throw Total Dom first, then Mass Hypnosis in the hope it temporarily detoggles the bubble, which then causes the bubble to flash off, which then allows the AoE hold to apply. Funny stuff when it works.

Mass Hypnosis is a very powerful power. Especially at low level.

The no-aggro ability of it means ideally the next enemy group your team fights should be slept before the team reaches them.

In that scenario Mass Hypnosis makes the fight a LOT safer and is great for making enemy alpha strikes more tolerable. I was doing a lowbie TF the other day where I would sleep large groups and the scrappers would charge in and take our the ruin mages 1st before waking up the rest of the spawn.

My experience is that team mates don't usually launch AoE's into a group of slept enemies unless they can handle the retalliation that will come. Again this comes hand in hand with sleeping the group before your team mates arrive at them. If you are sleeping them just as your team arrive, like you would do with other sets sleeps which do cause aggro (i.e spore burst from Plant Control), then of course, you are not giving your team time take into consideration sleeping foes.

Sure, eventually everything will be woken up to be killed anyway, but that isn't a failure of Mass Hypnosis, it has already done its job by that point.

So yes, low level is where you will get the most use out of Mass Hypnosis, but it is useful throughout your career. It is a versatile tool and its role within teams changes depending on the capabilities of that team. Nullify the Alpha Strike, take a group out by systematically waking them up in a gradually, sleep a nearby second group while the first group is being taken out, put an ambush on "pause" until the team is ready to focus on them, sleep a patrol until the team is ready to focus on them, use it as a way to ensure nothing will retaliate from any misses in Total Dominaton..

There are a lot of uses for this power, just get creative with its use and slot it up as soon as you can.

Lol, well I wont deny it never happens, however if:

• The enemy are known to be typically difficult to manage, say a +2/x8 spawn on a lowish level team.
• The enemy is pre-emptively slept by the Mind Controller who is staying 1 step ahead of their team and using the no-aggro feature of the power to maximum effect.

One thing Mass Hypnosis is good for on big teams is to turn off offensive toggles placed on a team mate, without you having to hunt down the specific mob that has it running.

For example, if an Air Thorn puts Snowstorm on your tank it can be hard to find the culprit. Ditto for a Crey Radiologist who's got that nasty Rad toggle on someone, or a Sorcerer that has Hurricane or that to-hit debuff aura up, or Nerva daemons that have that same to-hit debuff aura.

If you sleep the whole lot of them the toggle will turn off instantly -- assuming you hit the one that's doing it.

A use I have found is around a will power tank or scrapper, sleep the mob surrounding them and it gives sometime for their regen. to catch up.