Advice on APPs

Hey everyone,

I need some opinions on APPs for controllers. I have a level 45 Grav/Rad on whom I took the Psi APP (mainly for the mez resists) but I find myself kind of disgruntled. The resist armor doesn't help much on a controller (when mobs hit me for 300+ damage, 30% resist is gonna make me last all of three seconds longer) and the other powers don't really strike me as really useful.

I can't say that the numbers on Red Tomax make me sway any other way, so I was wondering what you had to say about APPs. Heck, if someone has strong pros about PPPs, I may even take him redside long enough to get one.

Thoughts?

I go through the APP sets in my Illusion/Rad guide. I find that I choose the Ice APP most often, but it varies depending upon the character. And your playstyle will have a lot to do with it. (I'll mention that I have not tried the Villain PPPs yet.) Just to add a little bit to the post above:

One important difference between the Hero APPs and the villain PPPs is the single target blast in all of the APPs other than Earth. The APP blasts recharge much faster, so if you want one of those blasts as part of your attack chain, take that into consideration.

Ice APP is the only one with two AoE options, Frost Breath (cone) and Ice Storm (Location Targetted AoE). Hibernate makes a great Panic Button power that I find that I use fairly often when I'm taking damage and getting near a faceplant. Hibernate allows you to recover both health and endurance, so you can use it if you are out of either. (Will work very well with Singy, since he will probably draw aggro away from you while you are in the ice block.) Plus you get a very good, fast single target blast and a Smash/Lethal Defense shield. (It is much easier to build more defense on Smash/Lethal Defense, and this gives you a great base.)

Fire is mostly about Damage, with Fireball and Fire Blast. The other thing with Fire is Rise of the Phoenix, the only self-rez available to Controllers. I have had Consume on several characters and respec'ed out . . . the recharge is too long. Fire Shield is resistance.

Earth is great if you are in melee a lot. Fissure is a short range AoE with a chace for stun and Seismic Smash is great melee single target damage AND a hold to stack with your single target hold to hold bosses. It has an ugly Smash/Lethal Defense-based shield, too, and a great heal/HP boost. I find Hurl Boulder to be skippable because it is so slow.

The main benefit to Psi is the mez protection, which is really important if you have offensive toggles (like Hot Feet and Choking Cloud on a Fire/Rad). Psi Tornado is a nice AoE attack with knockup. World of Confusion has a too-small radius to be very effective and is generally considered to be poor. The rest of the set is OK but not great. Another Resistance shield and an OK single target blast.

Primal has Power Boost . . . fantastic if you have a lot of powers that can benefit, like a Mind controller. Power Boosted Mass Confusion or Seeds of Confusion are great. Conserve Power can be quite useful. The rest of the set is OK but not great. Slightly higher Smash/Lethal Resistance, a single target blast and a cone as the only AoE.

If my secondary does not have a self-heal, then Ice and Earth can fill that gap. They are also the only ones with a Defense-based shield (or the Mace PPP). I'll go with Earth for a melee-oriented character and Ice for ranged. Fire for Damage and a self-rez. Psi for mez protection, Primal for Power Boost.

For a Grav/Rad, I'd probably lean towards the Ice APP, but I can see where the Mace PPP might be appealing, or maybe Leviathan.

Of all the Controller Primaries Gravity (along with Illusion and Mind) are probably the ones who are closest to having a decent single target attack chain even without the APP Blast.

IMO the only two really worthwhile APP blasts are Fire and Ices thanks to the quick animations (my Plant/Emp has Primal for Power Boost and the single and cone blast are ok, but nothing to write home about. They do FEEL strong though).

Thanks for the feedback - it took me so long to reply because I started a new fire/fire dom and fell in love with it, so I haven't been here in a bit.

I suppose I'll have to wait till I get the tornado before I give up on the Psi APP. I hadn't considered the fact that Grav's immob didn't prevent knock* effects, I may have to play with it. Otherwise ice does seem like a good contender, even though I loathe the visuals of the armor.

Thanks in any case for the feedback, it's just what I needed. I'll let you know how useful I find the tornado/CF combo.

I've a grav/kin/primal, Personally I like energy for the single target attack (for group play and propel for solo or harder targets), powerboost (to vastly improve controls), and conserve power for longer fights especially AV fights when I may not be able to move into range to make use of transference. The shield I find that I don't need all that often as your primary is designed to reduce/halt incoming damage and we cap farily low even at max resistances things hurt badly. The AOE attack isn't anything special. I'd only use a shield if my secondary was something like sonic or FF as it would be easier to get to the caps.

One thing to keep in mind that with a high recharge build powerboost will be up more often and will drastically effect your control as well as your healing. I know the group I was on yesterday were very surprised to get healed for 690 a pop by tranfusion and powerboosted transference is a thing of beauty I will say powerboosted speed boost is a definate downside (hi have max run speed). With a rad it won't just effect your controls but also your healing and end recovery as well as movement when you use AM. Another thing to keep in mind is that there are very few set bonus that improve control powers, none that improve recovery for your allies so its one of the only options that controller have to vastly improve their controls.