Was thinking of making a new controller...

Any advice on what primaries would be good for holds, and Aoe's and some damage. Also what secondary would be a good combo.
Looking for mainly veterans who play controller types only.

TY airone

Like Local_man said, every controller has a single-target and AoE hold power. It should be noted that the AoE hold powers are terrible unless/until they're 6-slotted.

So, putting that aside, i'll mention that most Controllers rely on Immobilization and secondary effects for control. Fire, Electric, Ice, Earth, Grav and Plant all have a ST immob and an AoE immob... and immob, IMO, is a crappy excuse for a mez power. It sets up containment, true, but all enemies have ranged attacks.

Fire gives you more damage. Electric has chaining effects. Earth debffs foes defenses. Ice has -speed and recharge. Plant and Grave don't offer much in the way of secondary effects. Each of these powersets also comes with a Pet or more.

If you want pure lock-down capability, I'm going to lean towards Mind Control. With no power-tiers wasted with Immobs, there's only two things "wrong" with Mind: the lack of a pet, and fewer Containment options. What you get instead of a pet is the ability to confuse 16 foes at once (which offers the same functionality as a pet: Agro mis-direction and damaging your opponents). Here's what else you get: A sleep that can put AVs to sleep(!), A pure damage power (which takes foes out of the fight for a few moments), your ST and AoE holds, A single-target confuse (so you can stack it on bosses) an AoE sleep, an AoE terrorize/damage power (use this after the sleep power), and TK, which holds/repels 5 foes at once.

The other weakness of Mind, as mentioned before, is lack of Containment (the double-damage you get when a foe is mezzed). Sleep breaks after one hit. Foes that are confused or terrorized aren't subject to containment. To rectify this you'll want a secondary that either adds more mezzes to your arsenal (Like TA, Storm or Rad) or simply increases your damage in some way by either buffing your or debuffing your foes (Sonic, Storm, Kin, and Rad again. Thermal and Cold also have a couple neat debuffs)

I'd recommend Mind/Rad. It's a good combo even when played poorly and killer when played well. The only thing Mind has trouble with is AV soloing, because you don't have a pet to buff up so it can distract the AV. (Ps, my favorite is actually mind/kin, but I give the edge to rad except in very specific scenarios)

LM pretty much nailed the need for more specifics.

Soloing vs. teaming can call for very different builds and some builds that excel in one role are mediocre in the other.

There's a pretty broad spectrum of capability in different ways represented by the Primary/Secondary combos available to controllers. When you say you're looking manly for vet opinions, does that mean you will have access to the various Vet Attacks? Some secondaries make those attacks a lot more useful than others, and thus help to fill the need for single target dmg.

Personally I like Mind/, Plant/ and Fire/ for soloing in different ways.

I like /Storm, /Rad and /Kin for secondaries but they play very differently and have distinct advantages in different situations. /Kinetics (esp with the new buffs to SB) is awesome for teaming, but is fragile compared to other secondaries like /Storm and /Rad when soloing and takes some skill to get the most out of when soloing.

Let us know more about what your intended playstyle:

Solo vs Teaming
Ranged vs Melee
Large spawn vs single hard targets/small spawns

And I'm sure you can get some informed opinions... Not like folks here on the Controller board are lacking in those!

Arg

I am not a vet just looking for veteran advice.I have no veteran powers.
I am more interested in Solo mainly, except for when i do AV's and teaming with friends. I was thinking mind control but i really like the pet option for a tier"9" pet. Mind control sounds really strong, but i like having a pet with me. I am more of a pet person in general... I know pets stay one lvl below the summoner... I also know that with either a good shield and a good buff the pet can be just as strong as you. I currently have a Ice/cold controller, but im not getting the fullest out of it that why im going with another control power, and secondary. I like cold domination a lot exspecially when buffing the league with sheilds and having frostwork down to 20 sec rech with hasten. I am looking more of a strong pet based power and one with holds. I realized that Mind could be strong when switching to villian patron powers later in game i could maybe get a pet. Was thinking if that would be best and which patron i should go with? I also wanted gravity due its only one power type through the whole game that only domns and trolelrs have. TY guys for advice.
I expect more comments and veterans to reply please or controller experts.Thank you again.

Alos one more thing i was looking for a controlelr that has more of a variety of buffs and debuffs.

I'm a huge fan of controllers. I have 4 level 50 trollers and 2 50 dominators, all of which i play regularly. My main is also a controller (fire/kin). Originally I wanted him to farm but once I started playing him I realized how fun he is. He does really well on TFs and normal mishs since everyone likes kins, and the damage and even mezzes from fire is awesome. I know it's pretty much the farm cliche but that doesn't mean you should completely discard it as an option. Just giving you some ideas. /rad is another great way to go, and if you do you have to check out local man's ill/rad and earth/rad guides - they are a great help. Hope you find a combo that clicks and end up loving controllers as much as I and many others do.

Edit: I saw you wanted debuffs and buffs...kin has good buffs and even some good debuffs (-dmg, small -regen, etc.) but /rad and /cold are probably the best with debuffs, rad has AM which buffs you and your team and ice has the shields which just buff your teammates.

earth / thermal?

Earth/TA is one of the most controllery combinations as there are single target and AoE holds in both the Primary and Secondary and AoE Slows in both the Primary and Secondary. The Primary also has an AoE stun and if you select Earth as your APP you get a short range AoE damage power that has a chance to stun and a Melee ranged Attack that is also a hold.

You will do almost no damage on your own however and you'll have debuffs galore but no buffs.

I might go with either illusion rad or plant rad. any other suggestions guys that i could consider to bee worth while.

Im gonna roll through with the Illusion / TA... Since i already have a earth/ rad.

Fire cold also seems real nice.

I'll throw in another vote for either ill/rad or plant/storm, depeding and personnal taste and playstyle. I have both at 50, with a perma phantom army build for the ill/rad, and an almost perma hasten build for the plant/storm. Both have very different playstyle, as well as different strengths and weaknesses.

Ill/rad is great for single hard targets, and is able to solo AV's or GM's once properly built. It does lack a bit however for big group lockdown. In fact, ill/rad, once properly slotted (and after a good amount of inf spent) is almost TOO good. I'm bored with him now, and I find he ruined a lot of other combos (and even archtypes) for me, since ill/rad can really do anything, and a lot of my other toons just feel weak compared to him, even when I start factoring expensive builds. Ill/rad truly is one of the most amazing combos out there, all AT's mixed in.

The plant/storm is great at taking out big groups. Seeds of confusion is simply amazing. At 50, I just open up with seeds, freezing rain and roots as needed. That combined with the pet is enough to melt large groups in almost total safety. With hurricane, lightning storm and tornado, I can kill elite bosses no problem (haven't tried AV's, but I think I might faceplant on those). All in all, for my playstyle, I prefer the plant/storm. And the plant pet is actually pretty good.

I also had a lv 50 fire/kin, and a lv 32 ice/cold. I never really enjoyed the fire/kin that much (it felt bland to me), and the ice/cold was pure boredom (but mind you, I mainly played him solo, something I find that combo to not be well suited for). Also, I found jack frost lacking as the ice pet.

Anyway, more personnal opinion than empirical data, and as always, YMMV.

Agreed. Plant/Storm is hell on wheels in the upper levels for taking out large spawns, while still being a lot of fun and having a lot of survivability and tricks up their sleeve.

Ill/TA should be a lot of fun, though it's going to lack AOE dmg till you get Oil slick and the APP/PPP powers in the endgame.

Enjoy!

Arg

I reworked my plant/storm build to give the toon 40% ranged defense, along with 40% to smash and lethal, with about 35% defense to energy and negative, and 19% to the rest. I ran the last mission from the Tina arc where you have to save Statesman. I got to the last room, and Manticore got promptly killed. I was running at +0 x4 (my usual favorite diff. level, pretty laid back, but still fun) and things were starting to look bleak. I had badly "planned" the attack, and essentially aggroed a bunch of groups, through sheer carelessness. But boy, having that 40% ranged defense really made a huge difference. I still had to rely on a few inspirations, mostly due to endurance problems. But all this to say that this combo, while really good at large group killing, is actually pretty solid for just about any type of fights. The damage output from 2 lightning storms and a tornado, plus pet attacks, and the creepers is more than sufficient for elite boss killing. And boy do I love that hurricane! Just mentionning this because the fight itself was just so damn fun, it felt epic. I'll have to try an AV at some point, but the one thing plant/storm lacks is -regen, something that worries me a bit for AV's killing. Anyway, felt like sharing (and the typing makes it sound as if I'm working very hard in my cubicle). Very much enjoying my plant/storm, more so I think than any other of the 100+ toons I've made and played during my CoH years of play.