It would be helpful to know what you want out of the build... /FF is pretty team-friendly, but Ill/ can be great for soloing OR teaming... so what are you looking to accomplish, exactly?
We get a lot of "make me a build" posts . . . it is usually far more effective to try to explain your playstyle and what you want out of the build, and then post your best attempt. It might be that you want to shoot for Recharge, or you might want to shoot for Defense. Or you may want a high damage solo build. You might want Regen.
If you want a starting point on the Illusion side, take a look at my Illusion/Rad guide, linked in my sig. Slotting FF isn't too difficult once you figure out the main focus.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
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I did read your guide Local Man, stared at it for several hours yesterday wishing I had picked a different secondary.|
Originally Posted by Local_Man
If you want a starting point on the Illusion side, take a look at my Illusion/Rad guide, linked in my sig. Slotting FF isn't too difficult once you figure out the main focus.
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As for playstyle, I like the idea of team control/buffer since defense is pretty much something just about everyone can use.
One of the specs I did like was as a tanker, since a tanker is basically a tough class there to control mobs somewhat. My idea was the other way around, a controller that could tank. I found that defense is not the best way to achieve this though, since many mobs can simply kill me with that one shot that gets through my defense, even with tough/weave/ancillary all dedicated to toughening up. I just don't have the HP of a true tank.
I've tried the blaster build but I found my damage between my few single target damage abilities was severely lacking. Even with pets spamming their abilities, the only time I really did any damage was with PA out.
One thing I found was very easy to do was to load up on knockback. My thought was 'hey what a great way to control mobs, they can't hit anything if they're on the ground. Only one problem, try getting a team to not kick you when you're throwing mobs all over the place.
I'm really open to anything at this point. I like teaming, so I suppose if there's any direction I'd like a strong team build.
im sure glad i looked at local ill guide it helped my alot with my ill/storm
I think it was Magicj who was the strong advocate of the Illusion/FF build, and acted as though it was the greatest build ever. You might want to search for some of his/her posts or builds, if they haven't been wiped from the Forums. I think you may be able to find some videos on YouTube where Magicj showed off handling tough content with an Ill/FF.
Illusion/FF is one of the three Illusion builds I really have no interest in making. (The others are Ill/Emp -- just don't especially like Emp -- and Ill/Sonic.) I have a Mind/FF sitting in the 40's so I have played the FF side for a bit. It's OK, but far from my favorite secondary. I love PFF and the mez protection from Dispersion Bubble. Force Bubble can be fun in the right situation, and Force Bolt has its uses. The ally bubbles make you welcome on any team, but I often forget to keep everyone bubbled. Repulsion Bomb is a dissapointment and the other powers are fully skippable.
Where would I go with an Ill/FF? Probably go with the strengths . . . Recharge to get PA up frequently -- LotG sets in the defensive powers give not only the Recharge proc but also lots of Regen to make up for the lack of self-heal. I'd probably go with either the Ice APP or the Mace PPP -- defense based shields. Ice gives you that good single target blast and two AoE damage powers, with Frost Breath having some Slow, too. Hibernate is probably skippable since you have PFF. The Mace set would not have the fast Single Target Blast -- Poisonous Ray has a longer Recharge, but the extra Pet might make the Mace PPP appealing.
As for playstyle, I would probaby stay at range, trying to cover my squishier teammates with Dispersion bubble and sometimes Force Bubble. I'd use Deceive a lot, cast out PA to draw aggro, use Spooky a lot for AoE control and take down single targets with your Blind-SW-Ice Blast-SW attack chain.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
Just to say I'm really enjoying my Ill/FF a lot at lvl 30 now. It's a lot of fun to play, quite tough to kill and can take most things down, albeit slowly.
I've not decided for sure what my Epic will be but I suspect something with some good damage and debuffs. I reckon with some shivans & nukes it'd be great for taking out AVs
Thelonious Monk
Just got my Ill/FF to 50 over this past Double XP weekend. I love playing her either solo or team; of course, I never really upped her difficulty, so I've got no info for that. However, on teams, I found that Spectral Terror and Flash were good controls to prevent a lot of damage, as well as the shields.
Repulsion Bomb, while a weak damage power, does have the added knockdown feature, which can be helpful in certain situations.
I went with the Primal Forces mastery, so I could get another good ranged attack in Power Blast, Conserve Power, and Power Boost. Power Boost + Confuse can confuse some Bosses. 
I almost went with the Stone Mastery for Fissure and Seismic Smash, but I didn't strictly for RP reasons. My troller is a Faerie who doesn't walk; she either flies or hovers at all times. Really didn't want to have to land just to Fissure, and then go back to flying. 
I find your lack of signature disturbing.
The 3rd character I ever created way back when was an Illusion/FF
I instantly fell in love with it. I was shocked when I actually got the name
IllusionForce, even if the upper case 'I' makes it look like lllusionForce in game.
I picked Teleport and would start off by porting into the middle of a group and hitting Flash. I'd then casually back out of the group and let the team go to work.
Then Issue 6 hit and with it a pretty severe nerf to the recharge rate on Flash. It went from being my go to power to only be recharged every 3rd group. Keep in mind this was long before the market or IO's. So I sadly shelved the toon and moved on to other alts.
He sits there to this day, taunting me. Forever trapped at level 22.
I saw that his last long in was 2049 days ago so I went ahead and popped on him for a bit, once the wave of Badge awarded text subsided I found that the 'resentment' I had long ago was just me getting caught up in the ED frenzy, that and a few well placed IO's and he was back in business!!
Maestro Mavius - Infinity
Capt. Biohazrd - PCSAR
Talsor Tech - Talsorian Guard
Keep Calm & Chive On!
Quote:
Just an aside before I make any recommendations, but alignments have really made acquiring the nicest trinkets much easier. I've pretty much given up radios as filler and replaced it with hero merits. After a while you'll accumulate enough merits for all the LotG's, Miracles, etc. and you can do it at your own pace.|
Originally Posted by Comfort
The short version: using basics, come up with a decent playable spec for illusion/forcefield. I don't plan on investing in a full IO build but if you must keep it cheap, like under 100mil cheap. Thanks for anything you want to throw out there in advance.
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When I play FF, I focus on either capping out my own defense or capping the teams. An Ill/FF can cap allies easily on just regular IO's with the right selection of powers. Power Boost is vital in this as it will let you provide 30% defense from your ally shields. Maneuvers, Group Invisibility, and Dispersion Bubble will provide another 17% defense for your team. Because FF needs so few powers to achieve this you can even pick up Aid Other and Aid Self for some spot healing for the damage that slips through. After that, I'd focus on recharge bonuses to improve PA's uptime.
After that, it's a matter of who you play with. Start a team, grab a bunch of squishies, and make them untouchable. If you wait for a team and end up with a bunch of softcapped tanks, brutes, scrappers or VEATs then you may not feel as worthwhile. It doesn't hurt to build a team to suit your play style.
I have respecced more times than I can remember. It may be possible that I'm never going to be happy with this controller. However now every time I respec I cancel out. The problem is this was my first 50 back when the game was new and many many nerfs (especially to illusion) have happened since I last had a playable spec.
The short version: using basics, come up with a decent playable spec for illusion/forcefield. I don't plan on investing in a full IO build but if you must keep it cheap, like under 100mil cheap. Thanks for anything you want to throw out there in advance.