Popping my Troller Cherry

This. I've run an illusion/storm for almost seven years now, and it's still fun and awesome. Chaos is the way to go.

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

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Illusion/Rad is my favorite character in the game for good reason -- he can Blast-Control-Defend-Tank. He is great solo, on small teams and on large teams. With Blind, Spectral Wounds and Deceive, you can solo from the beginning and never look back. Or you can team all the way with your early debuffs and team buffs. You don't have to wait until 32, 35 or 38 for the best powers -- the best power comes at 18 and you have the core build by level 26. He can handle anything that comes along. Illusion/Rad is also a great "first controller," as it is pretty easy to play moderately well, but challenging to play really well. See my Ill/Rad Guide, linked in my sig.

There are a few things Ill/Rad is not great at. Farming. Huge chunks of AoE damage. Fighting in melee.

Illusion works with any secondary -- I am fond of (and have level 50's of) Ill/Cold, Ill/TA, Ill/Storm. Ill/Kin is two great powersets with a few synergy issues. However, Cold and Kin get their best powers late, Ill/Storm is the king of chaos and has to be limited on teams, and Ill/TA is an all ranged, all debuff and Control build with the best secondary power coming at 35. Ill/Emp is a popular build for team healers. Ill/Therm, Ill/Sonic and Ill/FF all have their supporters.

As for secondaries, Rad is the works-with-them-all secondary. Storm and Kin are great with most primaries. TA adds some nice control and late damage but has no buffs. Emp, Therm and FF are really more team-oriented. I've never been able to play a Sonic very far . . . not my style.

If you can't break away from the melee/damage mindset, try a Fire/Rad or Fire/Kin. I actually prefer Fire/Rad for the Hot Feet+Choking Cloud combo, but Fire/Kin is known as a great farming build for good reason (but it is late blooming). If you like melee but are willing to play a support role with low damage, Ice and Elec are both effective at melee. Ice combines nicely with Rad, Storm and Kin. For Electric Control, I have only played Elec/Rad but it is a great combo. (Fire, Ice and Elec work well with Choking Cloud, but I would skip this power for all other controller primaries.)

If you want damage but don't mind a little bit of range, Plant is good. Plant is better than most controllers solo, but really shines at AoE damage rather than single target. Plant/Storm, Plant/Kin and Plant/Rad are all great, but Plant works with every secondary.

Earth is the best ranged AoE control set . . . but it is low damage. Earth/Rad and Earth/TA are the best all around ranged control sets. Some folks argue that Mind is up there with Earth . . . I prefer Earth. Mind does have some decent single target damage that makes playing solo easier especially in low levels, but seems to level out on damage in late levels just when other controllers are getting their pets. However, Mind has excellent AoE control that it uses in place of a pet.

Gravity is sort of the black sheep of controllers -- the single-target damage is good but slow, and it has several powers that, if misused, can really frustrate a team. My personal favorite is Grav/Storm, and mine is a mostly-solo character.

There are no BAD controllers. Some powersets have more synergy than others, but none of them are bad. It does, however, take more strategy and careful consideration to play a controller well -- some powers conflict with other powers -- often in the same powerset. (Earth's Stone Cages will stop the knockdown of Earthquake, and Ice's Frostbite will stop the knockdown of Ice Slick, for example.) Unlike most other ATs, you mostly do not just get in position and mash buttons -- although there is some of that. You have to think . . . "Do I use this now, or save it until later? How can I make this next group easier for my team to kill? How do I control or distract this group to keep myself from getting squashed while I take out foes one-by-one?