Returning player, help me choose Controller

I'm returning to the game after about 1.5 years of being gone. My main in the past was a Mind/Rad controller. I played her up to around 40. I've also played Ill/Rad up to about 25 or so.

I loved the utter complete lock-down I could achieve with Mind. I want to play something new though, so that I can play the new areas that Going Rogue brought. The one drawback of Mind/Rad was that it actually got boring with that much control. It was just lock em down, take em down one by one.

Can you guys suggest a set that will provide control close to what Mind provided, with a little more damage output? I would prefer that it isn't Ill/Rad also. And I will be soloing about 75% of the time. Although this is the Controller section of the forums, I haven't ruled out a Dominator either, so if you happen to have Dominator suggestions, that would be great as well! I appreciate the suggestions!

ill/cold is also really good for soloing at least once you get more powers and such

if you like the control of mind but want to have more dmg output, then i would try a dominator thats mind/*

the mind/fire dom i have is a beast at locking things down and aoe dmg especially with perma dom

The problem with a control heavy set is those are the ones that will more likely lack in damage. I think Plant is a nice balance of damage and control. I would also second the recommendation of a dom. A Mind dom might suffer the same issue you had with the controller though. If I didn't have a level 50 Plant/storm, I would have made my dom a Plant/fire/ice.

:: nods ::

Doms are like a damage heavy Blastroller and IME are best played as such. Your control is purely an active defense, your real focus is taking the mobs OUT.

On the Controller side, I agree with LM's recommendations of Plant/Storm, Plant/Rad or Plant/Kin. I've now played all three combos, (though only Plant/Storm has gotten to the late game so far) and I'd say that /Storm was the most fun/flexible. /Rad is shaping up to be a pretty impressive build too, starts out VERY fast, and can be a highly effective street sweeper pretty much as soon as you get Roots/RI. Gets much better when you add SOC, and just improves from there. Both Plant/ and /Rad get some of their best powers quite early so putting them together makes for quite an early... Ahem... Bloomer.

Arg

First off, THANKS FOR THE HELP!!

Great response over here! So, I'm basically looking at Plant/Storm Controller, or Earth/Fire Dom. I have to say, conceptually, I'm much more interested in the Earth/Fire Dom, but I couldn't get much help over on the Dom forum when asking for some leveling build help to get me rolling. So, I thought I would ask over here, and I hope no one minds....

So, for either Plant/Storm OR Earth/Fire Dom, could someone post for me a leveling build up to like 20ish, so I can play some this weekend without gimping myself? I wouldn't really need to know what IO's to slot, because I won't have any inf to start with. But, it would be nice to know where to slot and what to put in them considering I would only be using what drops, or what I can buy from a vendor. I would really appreciate it because it would give me a little time to get a feel for the set, and research more on how to take it from there. Seeing that I'm coming back to the game, I'm itching to bash skulls, not spend that time reading! I like to do the research part when I'm away from the game!

Thanks!

I don't have access to Mids at the moment . . . but it's not that tough.

For Plant, you want Strangler, Roots (AoE Immob, slotted for Accuracy and DAMAGE) and Seeds of Confusion as soon as they are available. Later on, Carrion Creepers and Fly Trap are also high priority powers. Since you expect to solo, you probably want to pick up Entangle (single target Immob, also slot for accuracy and damage). Other powers are optional and have differing opinions. Vines (AoE Hold) is a good idea. Spore Burst (targetted AoE Sleep, can be back-up control when solo) and Spirit Tree (Immobile Regeneration booster) can be useful, but many folks find them skippable.

On Storm, I would suggest Freezing Rain and Lightning Storm are essential. Steamy Mist, Hurricane and Tornado are highly recommended. Gale is forced on you, unfortunately. O2 Boost, Snow Storm and Thunderclap are all optional -- I skipped Thunderclap because it is a Mag 2 stun (minions only). If I had another stun to stack with it, then I would take it. Snow Storm is a toggle AoE Slow with -Recharge and -Fly, which I think is an underappreciated power. O2 Boost is a weakish ally only heal with -Stun and Endurance Drain protection. Nice to heal your pet, but not essential -- can easily be delayed or skipped.

I like Super Speed with */Storm because the stealth in Super Speed stacks with Steamy Mist for full invisibility. This helps you get in position for the best use of Seeds of Confusion, the most important power you have. You can accomplish the same thing with a Stealth IO, however, if you don't like Super Speed.

Here's a very quick and dirty unslotted Earth/fire up to 22. You ultimately are looking for a four power attack chain. Fossilize, Fire Blast, Stone Prison, and Blaze should give you that. If you can get it down to three, then by all means try to have Prison not be apart of it. Add in the other controls as needed. Cages comes later since you are mostly using it to compliment Stalagmites.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

EarthFire: Level 23 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Earth Control
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Assault
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Fossilize -- Empty(A), Empty(3), Empty(5), Empty(7), Empty(9), Empty(17)
Level 1: Flares -- Empty(A), Empty(9)
Level 2: Stone Prison -- Empty(A), Empty(3)
Level 4: Fire Breath -- Empty(A), Empty(5), Empty(7), Empty(15)
Level 6: Quicksand -- Empty(A), Empty(19)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Fire Blast -- Empty(A), Empty(11), Empty(11)
Level 12: Stalagmites -- Empty(A), Empty(13), Empty(13), Empty(15), Empty(17)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Embrace of Fire -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Earthquake -- Empty(A), Empty(19)
Level 20: Hasten -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Stone Cages -- Empty(A)
Level 24: [Empty]
Level 26: [Empty]
Level 28: [Empty]
Level 30: [Empty]
Level 32: [Empty]
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A), Empty(21), Empty(21)
Level 4: Ninja Run

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Best of both. Make a Plant/Fire Dominator. Plant/Fire/Fire for offense or Plant/Fire/Ice for more survivability.

It's interesting that Salty mentions endurance issues on plant/storm, as I've just got my cardiac tier 1 alpha "installed" yesterday on my plant/storm. I took a little break from CoH shortly after i19, and just got back into it. Anyway, I ran a little test last night, running weave, tough, rock armor, steamy mist, combat jumping, sprint, super speed, and hurricane, all at the same time. Endurance comsumption was at about 1.8 per second. End recovery for that toon is at 3 per second. I ran from group to group in front of Portal Corp, and believe it or not, I didn't run out of end that quickly. My normal attack routine is seeds, rain, then spam roots, and against lv 50 minions and lt's, I must've ran like 10 groups back to back before having to take a breather. Recharge is about 140% with hasten up, with 15 seconds or so between hasten, so my abilities come back up fairly quick. Of course, these are short easy fights, and it's not like this was a rigorous sort of test, but still. On a normal setup of weave, mist, rock armor and combat jumping, I run missions and never have to stop. All this to say that while playstyle and toon builds will affect endurance issues, it's certainly not that bad once you have cardiac (at least it's fine for me). I suppose that if you have enough recharge to spam tornadoes, rain and lightning storms very quickly that would of course make endurance more of a problem,*but you normally don't need to go all out like that for every fight, since seeds, roots and rain, along with the pet tend to make short work of normal minion/lt's spawns. Anyway, just a little addendum on endurance for plant/storm. I do agree though that it definetly is an endurance hungry combo.

All of the above are great suggestions, I'll add electric/stone dom to the list of toons you might like to try. Electric uses more 'soft' control (sleeps, confuse, KD, end drain), stone assault adds melee attacks and more knockdown, as well as another hold in Seismic Smash. It plays a bit like a cross between a troller and a brute. Open with the appropriate controls, then BRUTE SMASH!! -er, I mean, Dom SMASH!! your way through the spawn. I really love the 'ka-BOOM' of earth assault, but it's a little light on AoE compared to some of the other sets.

I'll throw my vote in for Plant/Storm for strong solo and team play. Plant is really one of the "Wow" sets between Seeds of Confusion and Carrion Creepers, and Storm can get you a lot of mileage. Aside from FR + Storm (which, at least with Defender modifiers, brings mobs to the cap for recharge debuffs), Plant's immobs do -kb. That lets you leverage Tornado for damage, which is a variant of awesome typically reserved for AV combat.

If you end up dead set on a Dominator for more damage, I would run with Plant/Fire. If you're going Dominator for damage, you may as well pick up the secondary entirely dedicated to burning things.

Earth/Fire Dom? Seriously?
Quicksand doesnt DOM, Earthquake doesnt DOM, more important and if I m not wrong, Volcanic Gazes, THE signature superpowered ability for Earth control, is a pseudo pet and doesnt DOM. Mind/Fire is imo, if not much supperior, much more "Dominatorish". If you like the Earth and Fire concept the Fire/Earth Dom would do great damage with caped def.

(btw its quite an underdog compared to Plant/Rad, Ill/Rad or Fire/Kin but Mind/Kin/Fire troller solos impressively well.)

Wait Im not saying Earth is a bad control pool, earth is great, its amazing, its godly, its supercool and looks like poo (poo is cool).

I just say it is not scalling great with Domination and dominators. Dominators are damage dealers, Earth is low damage. The fact you affect waaaay more targets than other control types due to the use of pseudo pets doesnt make you better soloer since your AoE damage will no affect more targets anyways. I find Earth Control way better on a team oriented controller.

Reading that:

<sniff> <sniff>

Smells like troll 'round these here parts.

I'm currently pretty much soloing a new Dawn sister, Rose Dawn. She got thrown in Praetoria, and is back in Paragon, but is a Vigilante.

Anyway, I rolled her as a Mind/Kin 'Troller. This is FUN. And fairly soloable so far (she just dinged 35.) The Kinetics work very well, and you add the Leadership trio (not Vengance, doesn't do anything) and she has more 'firepower' on top of the Kins. And you get a nice little heal with it too.

I've taken down 3 +1 bosses in a group in Creys, and even 2 +2 bosses (that was a little tough) and fairly rapidly. Even a +1 EB or two hasn't been an issue, so far... come to think of it, I can't figure out what enemy I can't take down in a hurry with her power set...

She's not as fast as my solo artist Claws/WP scrapper Homeslicer... That dude leveled *fast*... but she's mowin' them down, nonetheless, and I wipe maps all the time solo, and it seems maybe 10% slower than he was possibly?

But that's just me. I'm sure others will go "no, that sucks, here's why", but I don't care. Rose is FUN. I love lockin' 'em up and mowin' 'em down. So that's my vote for a soloable 'troller.

---

Rose, I think, is successful (to me) in soloing due to a few tricks that must be dealt with. Endurance, of course, is a problem so Stamina as well as End Mods are a must. But before even that, accuracy must be added to every power, as well as Tactics.

Defense (Acrobatics, Combat jumping, etc.) are important to deflect the Alpha strikes, because you have no one else to take them (although if you have a Vet Buff Pet, you could throw that in there, but the time it takes to do that... meh.)

Haste, Speed Boost and Recharge. If you're standing about waiting for Levitate or something... you're not dealing damage. I have it so I can 'round robin' Mesmerize, Levitate, and Dominate being thrown one after the other and keep repeating, even without Haste and SB, although I might get a little bit of 'recharging' here and there. With Haste and SB? Oh, they're SO done... The trick is to recognize who needs Mes and who needs Dom, and make sure they *stay* that way until you mow them all down.

Well. Anyway. I'm having fun with that one. Rose'll get Transferrence next (didn't get it yet, she's waiting my return and will immediately get it then), then Fulcrum Shift at 38. Can't wait to get the Earth pool at 41, where I can start making even more damage. There's three damage dealers in that pool. If I can get it. I get confused about those pools, but I think it's available for her...

So, my guide (sig) is not that out of date. It just doesn't have anything on Electric Control.

If I was you (the OP), and you enjoyed mind and rad (I did!), I might look into plant/rad splattroller. (Also in sig).

For a solo troller, I don't think you can go wrong with Plants as the primary. It has fantastic early powers, solid damage (for a controller), and it doesn't cost a huge amount of powers/slots to be very effective, allowing you to free up space in your build for your secondary.

As for an Earth/Fire Dom, it's also a very solid choice. Quicksand helps you ensure that your attacks will hit, and the control is able to hold things down well as you obliterate enemies. There are a whole lot of powers that you'll want to take, but the ones that I suggest you skip are:
-Blazing Bolt, because the animation time on a snipe will only slow down your fiery rampage.
-Stone cages, because the -Knockback component will render Earthquake useless, and the point of a dominator is that enemies shouldn't be able to hit you, not to keep them from moving but leave them able to fire shot after shot into your squishy dominator body. If you want a way to keep enemies from wandering around while they're stunned with Stalagmites, why not just use Quicksand and get it's wonderful -defense debuff on your unsuspecting victims at the same time?
-Salt Crystals, because no matter how nice a sleep power is, one AoE attack will wake every single opponent up, and the odds are that you're going to team with people who shoot first and ask questions later, if at all.

Basically, you use your myriad controls to keep enemies locked down while you pump fire down their throats. Using your rocky pet as a tank isn't hard to do at all. Picking the Fire Mastery APP will give you access to Rain of Fire and Fireball, which gain the 80% damage bonus from Fiery Embrace, meaning that you'll be dealing blaster-level damage on a regular basis while hordes of opponents are languishing in your various mezzes.

Welcome back Enantiodromos.