Team Controllers- What Builds are the most fun?

I have recently come back to CoX from a very very long break do to schooling and work. I have a 50 Fire/Kin that is very task oriented and 4serious in the language of the internet.

As far as what I mean by fun? I mean an effective character that meshes well in most if not all team compositions. I've read a lot on these forums the past few weeks and I would love to see what people have to say about this.

Please don't hesitate to post builds, as I am in love with Mids and use several builds I have found around the forums to play with and what not. Facts as well as opinions are welcome, though when asking such a question I do expect a bit more opinion than fact!

Frankly, there are very few Controllers that don't match those criteria if you play them well. But I understand your reference to Fire/Kin . . . it is a very busy build thanks to the Kinetics. I just got my Plant/Kin up to 50 on a TF recently . . . and I was downright tired at the end of the TF, just trying to keep up with the constant buffing and controlling. Throwing out SB to the team when they are running all over the place . . . keeping up with the Tank out front so that I can hit Fulcrum Shift before the team kills all the bad guys, and then fitting in Transfusion and Transference and Siphon Speed and Siphon Power before everything is dead . . . while throwing out Seeds and Roots and Creepers . . . <pant, pant>

If you want something fun and not so busy, there are a lot of options. Fire/Rad, with Choking Cloud and Hot Feet, is kind of a Lazy Man's Controller. Hit the group with Flashfire+Fire Cages, then run in (with the Imps following) and stand there, letting Choking Cloud hold them and Hot Feet and the Imps chip away at their hit points. You will take some damage here and there, but that's what you have a heal for. If you can team up with another Fire/Rad or two, it makes it all even easier.

I'm a strong advocate of Illusion/Radiation as the most flexible character in the game -- great solo, small team or large team. Ill/Rad is one of the most powerful characters, too. It is a moderately busy build . . . you throw out your Pets, cast your debuffs, and then pick foes to take down one by one. If you are interested in Illusion/Rad (or either Illusion or Radiation), take a look at my guide, linked in my sig. If you want builds, it has a leveling up build and then my current Perma-PA build along with many others posted in the thread. Illusion/Cold is almost as good in some ways and slightly better in others. Ill/Cold is more clicky with Shield buffs and single-target debuffs, though.

Illusion/Cold seems to be the most recent popular build because it is especially good against AVs -- however, it is kind of slow getting there since you have to wait so long for the two best powers at 35 and 38. I'm really enjoying mine now that he is 50, but fully IO'ing him out is going to be EXPENSIVE. He and my Ill/Rad are my main TF toons that I use with my regular buddies.

Just about every primary goes well with Rad. Rad is very flexible and far less clicky than Kinetics or just about every other secondary. It has two PB AoE buff powers, the heal and Accelerate Metabolism, and then great debuffs and utility powers. I have played Ill/Rad, Fire/Rad, Earth/Rad and Plant/Rad all to 50. Electric, and Ice also have great synergy with Rad.

If you are tired of being a buff-bot, then consider the Trick Arrow secondary -- no buffs at all. I have an Ill/TA at 50, who is still a lot of fun to play. I would consider Earth/TA to be the single character in the game with the MOST control -- you can easily be the only controller on a team of 8. Grav/TA should be a fun Combo . . . Grav is kind of lacking unless it has a secondary that fills in its lack of control, and TA can do that. Mind/TA and Elec/TA could be fun, too. (Some people would argue that Mind/TA has the most control, but I think prefer Earth.)

A really fun secondary is Storm. Flashy and showy. It can be chaotic, and requires some thought on how to use the powers to help and not hurt the team. I have Ill/Storm (The King of Chaos), Ice/Storm and Earth/Storm all at 50. Plant/Storm and Grav/Storm are great combos, too (working on them).

Kin, Cold, Therm, Sonic and FF all have important buffing powers . . . And Empathy is all healing and buffing.

To me, the most important thing is to come up with a name/Concept that I find to be fun or amusing. My latest two level 50 characters are an Earth/Storm ("Ella M. Ental," so she had to have the Fire APP to be Earth, Wind and Fire) and a Plant/Kin (Flora the Explorer). Both are a lot of fun and they are very different from each other.

I'd suggest you maybe try an Earth/Storm or a Plant/Storm. Those might fit your desires.

Thank you for the posts so far. Very helpful and fun to read. I've taken you on some of your advice local and reserved the name Abomb Shelly for a Fire/Rad should I so choose to create one. Thinking up more names and what not now.

The most giggle like a school girl fun I have had has been on Plant/storm, Earth/storm, and Ill/rad. Plant/storm is you go in and confuse the mob and then toss so much stuff at them they forget you exist. If you like a lot of little numbers all over the place this works. Earth/storm is just a stupid amount of control. I did the "30 Fir Blog" mission as the only controller and had the team chanting my character's name. My Ill/rad is level 37. I have it only partially IOed out and I think the total cost was under $100mil, so what's there is on the cheap outside of Devastation slotting for SW. Current solo setting is at +4. Seriously.

Mind/kin and Elec/kin are rather close as well. Both play incredibly fast, and my Mind/kin likely holds the record for "How the hell did I get out of that" situations. I so wished I demo recorded some of the stuff he's pulled off. I have a number of other ones, and I might be missing one of the more fun ones, but those are the ones that come to mind out currently.

Fun, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

What I find to be a) outstanding team utility and b) fun is Earth/Cold. It possesses an embarassment of riches for crowd control from both the primary and secondary. Crippling aoe debuffs (again, both from primary and secondary) and devastating single target debuffs. The cherry on top is nice team buffs as well.

People are quick to take exception whenever the term "the best" is used. Whatever. Among the characters I've played (and I've played a few), this is "the best" team support I've ever played. Can he farm +4/8? Nope. Can he solo AVs? Nope. Does he make pretty much any team better, regardless of team composition? Yep.

For my money, I think earth/anything is a huge boon to any team. Keep all the baddies held/slept/stunned/falling down/slowed and do -def as a happy side effect, also your pet can soak up an alpha when the need arises. I like it paired with rad, but I just love Rad so perhaps I'm a bit biased.

Earth/TA is an amazing combo as well, as Local_Man said, it probably has THE best control combo in the game period. I have mine slotted with an absurd amount of damage procs so I can still solo since its damage in on the low end.

Electric/cold is also very ice in terms of giving you several soft control options as well being capable of becoming a great sapper style toon with awesome team buffs and powerful debuffs.

Plant/Kin is fun and very effective however I get way burnt out playing kins and this one, despite being very team friendly, just seems to collect dust. Thats more a personal thing then any problem with the sets.

I'm a huge fan of /TA. I've got a couple of TA 50s and I've got some working their way up and all are a lot of fun - my 50s are a Fire/TA and a Plant/TA - and the Fire does more damage but has to close with the enemy a little to be effective, whereas the plant can do a lot of its damage from a distance.

I'd say an Illusion/FF is fun too, but some tanks dislike the repulsion on it so it depends if you're playing with a regular team or a PUG... but it does offer a huge amount of defence but limited control.

For teams, undoubtedly my best team controller is my Earth/Thermal; He's got solid control and some great buffs for team, debuffs for the enemy, a solid pet, and some good heals, and isn't massively endurance hungry. I've rarely seen a better support toon. His damage output is pretty low, but on a team that's not an issue and solo, just lock 'em down and watch their health melt slowly away.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

This is a really difficult question to answer for a few reasons. One of the biggest is that we're in a state of transition. With new end game content around the corner and new powers and abilities coming out seemingly every few months, builds that were previously unthinkable have been becoming more mainstream.

One thing you should know is that Controllers are a "corner turning" class. What you see at level 20 is often completely different from what you end up with at 50. Most other classes don't work like this. Controllers have many delayed abilities--mainly pets and attacks.

In the past I've summed up the Controller primaries into 3 rough groups: Elemental Damage, Elemental Debuff, and Psionic Ambush. These categories aren't hard and fast but they more or less explain what you can expect out of each set.

Elemental Damage (Fire, Plant, Gravity*) - Sets with above average damage, but no debuff to speak of. Typically lean very heavily on one very powerful AoE opening ability to mezz enemies at the start of the fight. Can be vulnerable when enemies are immune to mezzes of the specific type they deal. Among the most popular farming sets, especially when paired with a damage boosting secondary.

Elemental Debuff (Ice, Earth, Electric, Gravity*) - Sets with very low damage, but extreme debuffs. In the case of Ice and Electric, the debuff can be considered a second form of control, whereas for Gravity and Earth it is more superfluous. Very difficult/slow to solo prior to receiving a pet. Knockdown as a form of control is a common theme across these sets, useful because it ignores boss level protection. Despite being relatively low damage early on, all of these sets can solo at moderate speed during the late game, though probably not exceeding the damage sets at AoE or Illusion at single target.

(Note that Electric's Synaptic Overload ability causes it to straddle the line into Psi Ambush territory. Gravity is designed to trade control for some extra damage, but ends up not being very successful at it because of extremely long cast times on its signature attack, and its secondary effect (-Speed) is often cancelled by its own immobilization abilities.)

Psionic Ambush (Mind, Illusion, Electric*) - Two sets that are simultaneously very alike and yet almost completely different. What they share in common is the ability to set up a fight to their advantage before even initiating combat. Key features are aggro-less mezzes and/or pets that draw aggro away from you, allowing you to keep yourself out of danger. Both of these sets trade away immobilization for a very, VERY powerful single target Confusion ability. However, both sets sometimes have issues establishing Containment for the double damage.


Another way to look at each set is to examine what they typically lack.

Fire: confusion, flexibility
Plant: soft control, flexibility
Ice: damage, reliable hard control
Earth: damage, confusion
Electric: damage
Gravity: confusion, reliable hard control
Mind: pets, reliable AoE containment
Illusion: reliable AoE control, reliable AoE containment

Of final note, keep in mind that Ice, Fire, and Electric all feature very powerful aura abilities that rely on you being in close range and avoiding attacks and mezzes. The way these abilities play out differ for each set, but all 3 have a certain suicidal/crazy vibe to them that some people find thrilling and others find draining. I personally love these sets for their "kamikaze" feel but you may feel differently. The best way to find out is to try them all!

Fire/Cold

I am a soft-core min maxer. I like unusual combos of less popular sets that are still pretty good, but I can't deal with something that's very frustrating. I started off with a list of the combos I thought were potentially good or interesting and ended up listing everything. So I revised to combos that I would probably prefer not to work with.

Keep in mind that these are just my preferences. I'm not saying you couldn't roll up one of these combos and make a great character, just that they aren't something that appeals to me. Extracting from the list, the specific combos I tend to avoid are:

Mind/Sonic (no pet to hang debuff ring)
Fire/Sonic (endurance issues [note: can be settled at 50 with alpha slots])
Ice/Sonic (endurance issues [note: can be settled at 50 with alpha slots])
Electric/Storm (knockback breaks chain mechs and patches, rain breaks sleep)
Electric/Cold (passable, but rain breaks sleep, would prefer different primary)

Again, thank your for all who have posted. A little update is in order, as I have continued to read and research. This weekend I am planning on finally finishing out my first fully IO slotted build on my Fire/Kin, not anywhere near purps yet but fully slotted none the less.

That being said, I have started up a Fire/Rad which got to lvl 10 in short order, I am basing my build off of a slightly older post by Local_Man, the build had yet to be modified for the change to inherint fitness. I would also like to play around with a Crab Spider as well as an Ill/Rad as both have a lot of versatility and survivability to offer. Ice has always been one of my favorite sounding and visual powers, the crackle and crunch of ice as you bring foes to a frosty doom.

That all being said, my list kind of looks like this, but in no particular order:
Fire/Rad Troller
Ill/Rad Troller
Ice/Ice/Cold Blaster
Crab Spider (SoA)

Having a hard time deciding, but judging by the amount of infl I have to work with (very little) I most definitely am favoring the Trollers and Crab before the Blaster because I will have the compulsion to dump tons of money into him.

*changed dumb to dump*

When I finally start my ice/ice/cold she will be my baby, I will heap upon her much influence and she will be purpled and it will be good. But first I must make a destroyer of worlds(Fire/Kin) and a supporter of the masses (Fire/Rad or Ill/Rad or Crab Spider). I spurn melee like nobody's business, I have and will always be a caster class.

My Ice/ice blaster is the first one that I really fell in love with. Breaks from the game and too many alts has it sitting in at 32. Working on getting it slotted up and I'll be able to make a run at 50.

Around level 38 or so I began to hate playing my Fire/Rad on teams. It's particularly loathsome to be playing a character who relies heavily on offensive toggles without any mez protection at those levels, I've found.

Meanwhile, I'm rather enjoying my Elec/FF Controller thus far, who I ultimately plan on having softcapped defense versus S/L and Energy before even bothering with set bonuses. The toggle, the sleep patch, and the chain knockdown have been a blast to play with.

Earth/TA my friend. I have played them all and for me this is the most fun.

(Volcanic Gasses+Oil Slick=Very Large Fire Patch) All the -Def, -To hit, - fly, You control the tempo of the fight.

You have the ability to turn the tide when things go bad.

Hay Mr.Local_Man, I was wondering if you've had a chance to go through pre-i19 build and rework it for all the changes. If so I would love to see your reworked build, if not I've already got your old build saved and am toiling to rework it for post i19.

Thanks to everyone, again, for all the input. (My fire/rad is 28 as of now)

Electric/TA is a LOT of fun.

So very much control its crazy - unlimited endurance and oh so many options.

If you want something really fun, I suggest Ill/Rad. It fits well in any situation, is a lot of fun on teams as it always has something to contribute, and can solo extremely well. Nothing more fun than just hanging out with some buddies when all of a sudden you see the alert that a GM has spawned somewhere and you know, just know, that even if you have to go by yourself, you can take it. You could grab a buddy and have fun with it or solo it yourself for the challenge.

My favorite toon of all time is my fire/rad. I have horrible altitis so I still make tons of alts ... in my defense I do get them to 50 but normally never play them again after that. Anyway my fire/rad I still play and love. He is the only toon I have put billions in and kept in.

My very first level 50 hero was illusion/rad controller, but he just collects dust now. He was a lot of fun to play, but I love soloing and he was just so slow doing ?/+8
I believe I solo'd every AV with him though and it was pretty easy, especially when I could have out multiple Phantom armies at once. Man I miss those days!

I think my favorite Troller is my Plant/Rad. She can and does solo well and on a team the debuffs, holds and immobs make her a crowd pleaser. She was especially popular last week when the WST was Lady Grey.. its amazing how fast a Green Mitos dies when it's being strangled by vines and has three to Hit Debuffs on it

My Ill/Emp was very popular during the STF since she helped several tanks stay alive while facing Lord Recluse and she too can solo nicely. Malta gunslingers and sappers hate her .. she confuses them and they wind up helping her before her Phantom Army kills them. She was very helpfull this week on the Sister Psyche TF since she can stealth all those missions and save time!

Hey Just about any Troller can be a blast so pick what you like and enjoy!

Another update on what I've been doing and how the whole "team troller" thing is working out for me.

My Fire/Rad is 45 and chilling there for now, my Ill/rad is 50 and I'm almost done with her low end slotting. As I am at the university right now I cannot post my build but I went Ill/Rad/Cold(ice/whatever) going with Ice blast, hibernate, frostbreath, and ice storm. The build I have modeled it after is a variation of one of Helluva Goon's that he posted more recently than not...but of which I cannot find at the moment.

I can already feel my Ill/Rad is going to be a beast in teams, especially for TF's and what not. I am having a great time just mixing it up with my friend when I am playing around in farms...which my Ill/Rad isn't even designed for. I look forward to creating much joy among my team and much chaos amongst her enemies.

When I do decide to finish out my Fire/rad (after I do some quick and dirty leveling on my Ice/Ice/Cold blaster) I am going to do a group farming build that should be fun. Suffice to say I'll be playing with all the dmg AoE abilities Fire/Rad has to offer including Fallout and will most likely be going Fire/Rad/Fire as I lay waste at damage cap with my Fire/Kin friends.