I just finished leveling my fire/rad today - always in melee range up in a fella's grill. It has truly been one of the most fun characters I have played (so far). I can't recommend it enough if you want to take your control up close and personal.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
...[I]t would be more proper to say this game is slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly dying.
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Kin is also a good secondary for melee fun. Three of your best powers work exclusively or best in melee.
As for primary, you want probably Fire, Ice, or Earth, as they each have, AFAIK, at least one PBAoE mez or effect.
When Time Manipulation comes out, that seems like it'll be a decent candidate for a secondary for this type of character as well.
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
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Earth's only PB AoE control is Salt Crystals, a sleep that almost everyone skips. Other than that, Earth's controls are all ranged.|
Originally Posted by EmperorSteele
Kin is also a good secondary for melee fun. Three of your best powers work exclusively or best in melee.
As for primary, you want probably Fire, Ice, or Earth, as they each have, AFAIK, at least one PBAoE mez or effect. When Time Manipulation comes out, that seems like it'll be a decent candidate for a secondary for this type of character as well. |
You may mean Electric, which has a PB AoE toggle endurance drain power, Conductive Aura.
To the OP: The three Control sets with PB AoE aura powers are Fire, Ice and Electric. Fire does the most damage, by far. Fire/Rad (with Choking Cloud) and Fire/Kins are both very, very popular for good reasons. Fire/Rads are particulary awesome when several are on one team . . . a full team of Fire/Rads is simply sick.
Rad works very well in melee when you can combine Choking Cloud with another control aura. Ice/Rad is great toggle AoE control with Choking Cloud+Arctic Air -- uses a lot of endurance, but great mitigation. Very little damage, though. Elec/Rad is also great mitigation with very little damage, combining Choking Cloud with Conductive Aura.
Kinetics is the other secondary that works very well in melee. However, if you play it well you will be very, very busy. My */Kin controllers spend more time buffing than controlling on large teams.
Other secondaries can certainly be played in melee, but Kin and Rad lend themselves to it. Time appears to also have a PB AoE toggle, so Time can be a melee set. Storm can certainly be used in melee as long as you manage the knockback. The other secondaries don't really add much to melee over ranged.
Similarly, all controller primaries can be played in melee, but Fire, Ice and Electric are designed for melee.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
Fire/Time
I made elec/rad. It's only lvl10 or so but I'm starting to think elec/time might be better. Everyone kills the anchors first. Every time.
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Take a look at my Ill/Rad guide, linked in my sig. It has a strategy section about Choosing Your Anchor.|
Originally Posted by Mr_Kingkillaha
I made elec/rad. It's only lvl10 or so but I'm starting to think elec/time might be better. Everyone kills the anchors first. Every time.
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Electric is a low damage controller, but it certainly lets you be in melee. However, you really don't feel the full benefit of Choking Cloud until fairly late in the build, so at level 10, you really don't know how good it can be. Electric/Time should be a good combo for Draining/Debuffing/Slowing/Sleeping/Confusing.
Ice/Time might also be a good combo with both toggles coming early, but again with low damage and tough on endurance.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
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I'm thinking once I get some intense recharge numbers going I won't be bothered by losing my anchors. Maybe. Having a tohit debuff toggle around myself is appealing though.|
Originally Posted by Local_Man
Take a look at my Ill/Rad guide, linked in my sig. It has a strategy section about Choosing Your Anchor.
Electric is a low damage controller, but it certainly lets you be in melee. However, you really don't feel the full benefit of Choking Cloud until fairly late in the build, so at level 10, you really don't know how good it can be. Electric/Time should be a good combo for Draining/Debuffing/Slowing/Sleeping/Confusing. Ice/Time might also be a good combo with both toggles coming early, but again with low damage and tough on endurance. |
I might make fire/time and see which one lasts longer.
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Good advice in there!|
Originally Posted by Local_Man
Take a look at my Ill/Rad guide, linked in my sig. It has a strategy section about Choosing Your Anchor.
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On my Ice/Rad I generally went with the 'use multiple anchors' approach which does seem to help; but mainly I learnt not to care too much (so long as everything was going well, obviously) and even took to using it as an unspoken 'kill this guy first' instruction....this is when you realise your 'team' are actually just extra pets.
/edit
on topic: my Ice/Rad was always in melee range and very happy there; he suffered from end problems as I liked to run both choking cloud & arctic air, but this was before IOs.
I have an Earth/Storm/Stone who is very melee oriented ... stacked stuns from Thunderclap, Stalagmites, and Fissure. Stalagmites while closing (or aimed at a foe in melee due to stealth abilities) followed by Thunderclap. Usually followed by Seismic Smash and Fossilize etc..
Many of her Targeted AoE's are used at very close range/at her feet ... just because they can be used at a distance doesn't mean they have to be.
The three melee control sets are ice, fire, and electric, they are all very melee focused and all good in different ways.
The three best melee secondaries are radiation, time, and kinetics; kinetics is damage oriented, both time and rad perform similar rolls making melee safer.
Combine one of the three primaries with one of the three secondaries, you got a good melee controller :P.
I think it's hard to decide between these 9.
It depends what you mean by "best". Best damage melee primary is Fire. Elec and Ice have better melee ranged controls via their auras. My Fire/Rad/Stone was a melee beast.
In my continued efforts to find a Time I enjoy I'm going to try out a Fire/Time/Stone later with the Leaping Pool attacks (since I suspect Spring attack uses the same pseudopet across the board to do the damage).
I would say:
Fire/Time
Electric/Time
Electric/TA
These all end up being played in Melee range 90% of the time. The small 10% amount you are out of melee is the initial setup.
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*/FF/Stone. My EM/Shields scrapper feels absolutely squishy in comparison. The controller has better HP and better defense vs _everything_ than the scrapper outside of "One With The Shield". And the controller has it 100% of the time with no crash.|
Originally Posted by Mr_Kingkillaha
Best being whatever your opinion of that is. I've had a difficult time making a controller that I like, but my new plant/psi dom is so awesome that I want to try controllers again. I do like playing support, but I'm really a scrapper at heart (I even play blasters in melee range). Based on this loose description what powers would you recommend? Will be teaming and solo.
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As to the primary, Fire makes a good melee toon. Illusion/FF/Stone is the granite tanker of controllers. Plant and Mind both give you an AoE confuse power to shorten the time it takes to kill stuff.
And with all due respect to those folks suggesting Kin or Rad, you will never fully understand the definition of "squishy" until you play one of those two sets or empath.
If you want controller melee, check out this video and see for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nml5LEtyjig
That combo is just seriously sick, and is a perversion of gameplay mechanics. - Excelsio
The Infernal Challenge
Building a WarTroller
Troller Damage
My Newest controller is all about Melee range. He is ICE/KIN
Was planning on an ICE/TIME but the endurance management of Time's Juncture and Artic Air meant that I would not be running them simultaneously until at least 22 (maybe even later). With Ice/Kin, you can get Artic Air and just have at it. Transfusion covers up most wounds and since ICE is one of the lower DPS control sets, Kinetics seems like a perfect fit to solve that problem.
FIRE/KIN would, of course, be even better if your looking for damage, but my characters are all concept toons and this one is about absorbing heat (named HEATSINK )
BIOSPARK :: DARKTHORN :: SKYGUARD :: WILDMAGE
HEATSINK :: FASTHAND :: POWERCELL :: RUNESTAFF
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Ice/time is incredibly enjoyable, but this must be stated: the end drain hurts me soooooo bad.
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Originally Posted by Local_Man
Ice/Time might also be a good combo with both toggles coming early, but again with low damage and tough on endurance.
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Talen_Lee: Taking absorb pain is like branding 'H' on your forehead. Which stands for 'Failure'
Scarf_Girl: ever since I six slotted my Rp with cyber/emo Hami-O enhancements they haven't been able to touch me
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Uhm how is /Rad squishy? /kin I can understand, but Rad... seriously?
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Originally Posted by magicj
*/And with all due respect to those folks suggesting Kin or Rad, you will never fully understand the definition of "squishy" until you play one of those two sets or empath.
If you want controller melee, check out this video and see for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nml5LEtyjig |
Originally Posted by Megajoule
We're being invaded. Again. This time, instead of aliens, zombies, or eyeballs with teeth, it's the marching band.
Fire/Time. Softcapped defenses, Hotfeet + that Time aura synergy, good damage (for the love of all that is holy do not skip Ring of Fire, and slot it as an attack).
I also cast my lot for */FF/Stone. I have Ice/ and Earth/ versions of this that are super fun and super tanky, and the seismic smash snd fissure action are great fun. I also have an Elec/FF that should be amusing as well. I also have Fire/FF at 50 but he is currently Fire for his ancillary set. I am also working on Mind/FF/Stone, and I have been wanting to make Ill/FF forever. Need to get around to it.
I also have an Earth/Kin/Stone that is permahasten and also softcapped to Smashimg/Lethal. Not nearly as robust overall as the /FF options at my disposal. But still, she is very hardy and fun to play.
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
My Plant/Kin/Earth is up in melee all the time -- largely for Fulcrum Shifty, Seismic Smashy goodness
I know Trollers have a low damage cap but it makes hitting that 300% so much sweeter 
I cannot overstate how good perma Earth's Embrace is -- I have capped 1606hp. Tasty.
I have made so many Controllers. It is by far my favorite AT. The one I have had the most fun with is my Fire/Kin/Stone. Others have already posted that Fire and Kin have great melee range powers. I took Stone Mastery as my Epic power pool for a couple reasons; 1) it has a Def toggle which I throw a LotG +Recharge into, and 2) it has two really awesome melee attacks. One single target, and 1 PBAOE. I've taken Stone on several of my Controllers and I never regret it.
If you want I can post my build here. I'm always tweaking it I think it because I love it so much I can't ever just leave it alone.
La Petite Flamme
Virtue
Rumina - Lvl 50 Mind/Psi/Ice Dom - Virtue
La Petite Flamme - Lvl 50 Fire/Kin/Earth - Troller - Virtue
Digital Fallout - Lvl 40+ Ill/Rad - Troller - Virtue
Dementia Seraph - Lvl 50 - Dark/Regen - Scrapper - Champion
Side-FX - Lvl 40+ - Bots/FF - MM - Champion
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This
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Originally Posted by Nihilii_
Fire/Time. Softcapped defenses, Hotfeet + that Time aura synergy, good damage (for the love of all that is holy do not skip Ring of Fire, and slot it as an attack).
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Elec/Cold Troller AV/Pylon/GM/TF/SF Soloing Antics
everytime...he gets me everytime.... DAMN U BOOMIE
-- _Ilr_
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
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1. You should head over to the scrapper forums for some help rebuilding that EM/Shield. Mine is softcapped to all positions and has more HP (without OWtS) than my Ill/FF/Stone (with EE). Also OWtS doesn't give defense.|
Originally Posted by magicj
*/FF/Stone. My EM/Shields scrapper feels absolutely squishy in comparison. The controller has better HP and better defense vs _everything_ than the scrapper outside of "One With The Shield". And the controller has it 100% of the time with no crash.
As to the primary, Fire makes a good melee toon. Illusion/FF/Stone is the granite tanker of controllers. Plant and Mind both give you an AoE confuse power to shorten the time it takes to kill stuff. And with all due respect to those folks suggesting Kin or Rad, you will never fully understand the definition of "squishy" until you play one of those two sets or empath. If you want controller melee, check out this video and see for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nml5LEtyjig |
2. Why anyone would bother playing Ill/FF/Stone in melee continually is beyond me. You have, at most, two melee attacks (both from the Epic) and no defense debuff resistance. It's not like jousting is hard.
3. All controllers have access to Earth's Embrace and softcapping is absurdly easy these days. One controller set calling another squishy is silly.
Edit: To the OP's question - Fire, Ice, Elec, Plant / Kin, Rad, Time
Best being whatever your opinion of that is. I've had a difficult time making a controller that I like, but my new plant/psi dom is so awesome that I want to try controllers again. I do like playing support, but I'm really a scrapper at heart (I even play blasters in melee range). Based on this loose description what powers would you recommend? Will be teaming and solo.
I would prefer to avoid plant/ since I already have it on my dom.