Okay so.. I wanna make a controller
I'd give MIND a try as your primary set. It has a single target hold, sleep, and confuse early on with mob stopping AOE versions of the same later in the set. It also adds a Fear in to the mix about midway through. With the controller inherant ability, you can slowly suffocate just about anything in the game.
For team work combine this with /Empathy or perhaps /Time to make you almost an 'I win." button. For solo work, it pairs well with just about anything. Maybe look at / Rad to add some healthy debuffing to the mix.
Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.
Illusion/Cold Domination. Can't beat it.
Your character does not have capped defense. Depending on your AT the cap is between 175% - 225%. Your defense is not teal in the combat window, it can go higher. STOP SAYING IT IS CAPPED! The correct term is Soft Cap.
I enjoy playing in Mids. I specialize in Melee Characters, other AT's usually bore me.
If you want to be able to kill stronger foes solo like AV's, I would look into a perma phantom army Ill/Rad troller.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
Would that be feasable with just SO's though? I'm looking for something that will be good on SO's, not the best.. Just good enough to work.
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Solo, you can go invisible (100% stealth at that) and pick off enemies by confusing them, then locking down the rest and taking them out via containment, saving Phantom Army for Bosses. You've got the trifecta of debuffs that will drop an enemies Resistance, Defense, Regen and others. Phantasm is a solid tier 9 pet that deals energy damage (most of your damage is Psychic)
Teams, you have a whole tool box of things to play with. A very nice PBAoE heal, one of the single best PBAoE team buffs with Accelerated Metabolism, you've still got all the lovely debuffs for taking down AVs with the team, soft control with Spectral Terror (fear) and 3 separate PBAoE holds (one an aura).
It's very survivable and *very* much a tool box set.
Perma-PA isn't feasible with just SOs. But you don't *need* perma PA to be strong. You won't be solo'ing AVs/Gms, but you'll do very well anyway. Ill/rad is a very strong combination for both solo play and team play. And between Accelerated Metabolism and Hasten, you won't have to wait that long between PA's 'uptime' anyway.
Solo, you can go invisible (100% stealth at that) and pick off enemies by confusing them, then locking down the rest and taking them out via containment, saving Phantom Army for Bosses. You've got the trifecta of debuffs that will drop an enemies Resistance, Defense, Regen and others. Phantasm is a solid tier 9 pet that deals energy damage (most of your damage is Psychic) Teams, you have a whole tool box of things to play with. A very nice PBAoE heal, one of the single best PBAoE team buffs with Accelerated Metabolism, you've still got all the lovely debuffs for taking down AVs with the team, soft control with Spectral Terror (fear) and 3 separate PBAoE holds (one an aura). It's very survivable and *very* much a tool box set. |
I usually play Scrappers with the exeption of the tank and mastermind I'm leveling now. I've tried doms but I just can't seem to get interested in one, but controllers sound interesting.. Any power suggestions for a first time controller? I usually form teams, or solo so a bit of both if that helps. And I'll be using strictly SO's.
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I'll give the advice I generally give to folks wanting to make their first controller -- try Illusion/Radiation. Why? It is amazingly flexible, can solo very well and yet is great on teams, doesn't conflict with other controllers, dominators or anything else. Ill/Rad is pretty easy to play moderately well, but a challenge to play very well. It works great as a low level character, gets most of its best powers early, and yet some of the upper level powers can make large differences in the effectiveness of the caracter.
An Illusion/Rad can be a Tank, Blaster, Defender and Controller. In upper levels, you can handle almost anything in the game, and the build is famous for being an AV killer. Even without Perma-PA, it is very, very effective.
I suggest you take a look at my Illusion/Radiation Guide, link in my sig. It will give you a lot of basics about controllers, leveling up suggested builds (with the reasons for choosing the various powers), then suggested builds with SOs, moderate IOs and high level perma-PA builds. EVEN IF YOU CHOOSE AN ILLUION CONTROLLER without RAD, or a RAD controller without ILLUSION, there's probably some stuff in the guild that will help you.
Illusion/Cold is great . . . but two of its best powers come at 35 and 38. It is a late-developing build, and doesn't have any powers to boost your Recharge. Rad has a recharge boost available at level 4. Rad has a self-heal available at level 1, while Cold does not have a self-heal at all. As a first controller, I think Illusion/Rad is better. I'd probably pick Ill/Time over Ill/Cold AS A FIRST TIME CONTROLLER, but Ill/Rad is still better because of the earlier powers. (I have Ill/Rad, Ill/Cold, Ill/TA and Ill/Storm all at 50, and I'm working on my Ill/Time.)
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
My suggestion for an SO-only controller is anything you like the graphics of. Powerhouse sets have the potential to blow all other controller primaries out of the water when well-built and played, but SOs do not realize any of that potential. Illusion takes high global recharge to be strong, for example.
I'd pick whichever primary you enjoy, and one of the generalist buffdebuff sets (Rad and Storm are notable since they mature early, Time/Kin/Cold are good as well if you can stand waiting till the thirties to be awesome).
On SOs only I have a feeling Illusion will feel slow for someone coming off of scrappers. I'd suggest either mind, plant, or fire. All three will give you good damage early on (take the ST immob for damage and respec out later if you want). Mind and plant are safer with the confuse that they throw around, and solo their sleeps will help. But fire will deal more damage through cages and contained hot feet. As for secondary, rad works well with any of them, as does kin and time. If you plan on teaming a lot, cold is great, and will later on be great at debuffing. But as a first controller, I say make sure you have some kind of self heal. Rad and time are very easy to use, and time has a lot of supplementary control if you want it, along with some great buffs and debuffs.
I think my 3 pairings for the primaries I listed would be:
Fire/rad
Plant/time
Mind/kin
and they all would do great with time.
Wow thanks for all the replies/. I'll probably roll up a Ill/rad and a Fire/ something to see what I like better. Good thing I resubscribed and got plenty of slots.
The experience I have had with Ill/Rad vs Ill/Cold is the rad always seems to run low on endurance very quickly, not really helpful during teaming because by the time you have your two debuff toggles on the anchor is dead or the mob is, and when you do have your debuffs on you get stunned and have to retoggle them on :/
Cold has heat loss and no toggle debuffs. Also Sleet is a great soft control for you, since Illusion is all about soft control. The only thing Rad has that Cold doesn't is -To Hit which you can get -15% or more from Spectral Terror, and +def from Arctic Fog (and a whole bunch of Slow Res).
Your character does not have capped defense. Depending on your AT the cap is between 175% - 225%. Your defense is not teal in the combat window, it can go higher. STOP SAYING IT IS CAPPED! The correct term is Soft Cap.
I enjoy playing in Mids. I specialize in Melee Characters, other AT's usually bore me.
The experience I have had with Ill/Rad vs Ill/Cold is the rad always seems to run low on endurance very quickly, not really helpful during teaming because by the time you have your two debuff toggles on the anchor is dead or the mob is, and when you do have your debuffs on you get stunned and have to retoggle them on :/
Cold has heat loss and no toggle debuffs. Also Sleet is a great soft control for you, since Illusion is all about soft control. The only thing Rad has that Cold doesn't is -To Hit which you can get -15% or more from Spectral Terror, and +def from Arctic Fog (and a whole bunch of Slow Res). |
No question that Cold is a great secondary for Illusion, but powers like Sleet (which is almost the same thing as Freezing Rain, but you don't get it until level 35) and Heat Loss (Level 38) are "click-then-recharge" powers on fairly long timers. A team that kills quickly will move faster than these powers recharge. EF and RI are Foe-anchored AoE toggles, which are not only available much earlier but also are almost always available for use with every group of foes.
As for endurance problems, if you build for Recharge and Recovery, the endurance is quite managable. With the procs in Health and other Recovery bonuses, endurance isn't an issue. Of course, the main weaknesses for Cold are a lack of any self-Recharge bonuses and a lack of a self-heal.
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
That's fine and all, but looking at the pro's and con's Cold will come out on top.
Cold's Benefits:
-60% defense
-30% resistance with Sleet
-33% resistance with Heat Loss
Two Places to put the Achilles Heal Proc for another -20% resistance
+3.75% defense [Arctic Fog]
-50% damage Benumb
-500% regen Benumb
-93% mez strength AND buff strength
Team +defense shields
+15% res for Energy, Negative, Fire, Cold : Arctic Fog
+60% Slow res with Arctic Fog
+63.5% * 2 recovery with one target effected by Heat Loss
And lets not forget the cumulative total of all the -recharge = 490%
Rad Pro's:
11.58% heal (117 HP)
-25% defense (can slot 1 AH proc for a moderate chance of extra -20% res)
-25% to hit
-22.5% res
-20% dam
-500% Regen + -1000 Regen if we are willing to use EM Pulse
-75% rech
+20% dam buff (which doesn't effect PA)
30% recovery
+51% mez resistance
+30% recharge
A rez and a use on dead body power (Fall Out, which is pretty sweet)
A crappy AoE hold toggle power (its pretty bad)
These numbers are base. So most can be enhanced. The argument about AM vs Heat Loss in level range is kinda moot because you are only lower than level 38 for a short period. You are going to be over that for a whole lot longer, and when your not you will have a team to help. Heat Loss is 4 times more powerful than AM for recovery. Sleet should be perma, meaning it recharges in 30 seconds. If sleet isn't up at the start of a mob, it soon will be, so you can start summoning Spectral Terror to cut the Alpha strike that way.
I agree that AM is a pretty great power. The +res status effect is a great thing that nothing else really gives. However, because you have toggle debuffs (totaling 1.56 endurance per second usage base) you use up almost all of your +recov gained by AM for those two toggles alone :/ (They also have a fairly long recharge of 8 seconds :/ and a cast time together of 5.6 seconds. This means if some one does kill your anchor before the mob is dead, you have to wait 13 seconds before debuffs come again.)
Endurance might be manageable on a rad, but its forgettable on a cold. No worries what so ever. Also, with cold's Arctic Fog's defense, I am able to soft cap Smashing/Lethal defense with no IO bonuses, and Energy Defense is a small purple from soft cap. (This is with Mace Mastery, which also gives you two more places for AH procs and another pet that deals Toxic damage).
Your character does not have capped defense. Depending on your AT the cap is between 175% - 225%. Your defense is not teal in the combat window, it can go higher. STOP SAYING IT IS CAPPED! The correct term is Soft Cap.
I enjoy playing in Mids. I specialize in Melee Characters, other AT's usually bore me.
I wouldn't recommend Illusion or Gravity for a first controller.
Illusion because it is very different from the typical troller set (anyway you may like it, that may be only my personal preference because I like the usual control powerset setup), Gravity because it matures too late and many find it subpar, can be frustrating till level 32. A case could be made for Ice Control too, since it is a bit lacking in hard controls although I love the set.
I like Pyro_Master's suggestions for Mind, Fire and Plant. Rad is a good secondary, Kin and Time are VERY active, and if you couple with an extremely active primary, like Mind, you may find the toon a bit tiresome (My mind/emp is a multitasking nightmare but my first 50 and the toon I liked the most playing - of course not the best soloer). I find that for active toons like my Mind/Emp and my Fire/Kin I end up with a lot of keybinds, unlike my scrappers/brutes where I usually bind only the clickies (like self heals, BU-type powers, on a /kin you'll be clicking some powers way more often than the armor sets).
Mind and Plant mature kinda early, with Mind having a good ST attack chain and Plant getting a great immob and an early confuse power.
Also, Cold Domination, while awesome, takes forever for you to get debuffs and powers that help you.
Earth is also a great control set, arguably the king of hard controls, but it's low damaging compared to Plant and Fire (Mind has good ST damage but when you team you'll have difficulties to set up AoE containment since there's no immob, by the time you use mass hypnosis and terrify/epic AoE the rest of the team will have woken up the mobs and you lose the containment bonus.
The newish Elec control is very good too, also low damage till pets. For a solid toon since the early levels with decent AoE damage (for a controller) I think I'd pick Plant or Fire paired with Rad or maybe Kin if you like being extra active. Time is also good but I don't feel it's as good as these other two on SOs.
I'd give my nod to Plant. Seeds of Confusion comes in earlier than other every spawn AoE controls with a shorter base recharge (only 60 seconds vs. 90 seconds for most sets). It also has a satisfying amount of damage due to Creepers and the extra damage in Roots. It can easily be paired with most any secondary though I would favor something that can multiply damage via -defense and -resist.
I've enjoyed;
Earth/Storm - Very potent
Illusion/Time
Plant/Poison
Maestro Mavius - Infinity
Capt. Biohazrd - PCSAR
Talsor Tech - Talsorian Guard
Keep Calm & Chive On!
That's fine and all, but looking at the pro's and con's Cold will come out on top.
Cold's Benefits: -60% defense <25% is single target from Infridgidate on a moderate timer, 30% from Sleet on a moderate timer> -30% resistance with Sleet <On a moderate Recharge Timer> -33% resistance with Heat Loss <On a long recharge timer, and must siphon> Two Places to put the Achilles Heal Proc for another -20% resistance +3.75% defense [Arctic Fog] -50% damage Benumb <Single Target on a long Recharge> -500% regen Benumb <Single Target on a long Recharge> -93% mez strength AND buff strength Team +defense shields +15% res for Energy, Negative, Fire, Cold : Arctic Fog +60% Slow res with Arctic Fog +63.5% * 2 recovery with one target effected by Heat Loss <On a long timer and must siphon> And lets not forget the cumulative total of all the -recharge = 490% <But there is a cap of 75%> Rad Pro's: 11.58% heal (117 HP) -25% defense (can slot 1 AH proc for a moderate chance of extra -20% res) <Rad debuffs, except Slow, -Rech and -Regen, are on AoE toggles so almost always available> -25% to hit -22.5% res -20% dam -500% Regen + -1000 Regen if we are willing to use EM Pulse -75% rech +20% dam buff (which doesn't effect PA) <On a PB AoE click, so it does not require siphon off of foes> 30% recovery +51% mez resistance +30% recharge A rez and a use on dead body power (Fall Out, which is pretty sweet) A crappy AoE hold toggle power (its pretty bad) <Maybe for Illusion, but it is great for Fire, Elec or Ice> These numbers are base. So most can be enhanced. The argument about AM vs Heat Loss in level range is kinda moot because you are only lower than level 38 for a short period. You are going to be over that for a whole lot longer, and when your not you will have a team to help. Heat Loss is 4 times more powerful than AM for recovery. Sleet should be perma, meaning it recharges in 30 seconds. If sleet isn't up at the start of a mob, it soon will be, so you can start summoning Spectral Terror to cut the Alpha strike that way. I agree that AM is a pretty great power. The +res status effect is a great thing that nothing else really gives. However, because you have toggle debuffs (totaling 1.56 endurance per second usage base) you use up almost all of your +recov gained by AM for those two toggles alone :/ (They also have a fairly long recharge of 8 seconds :/ and a cast time together of 5.6 seconds. This means if some one does kill your anchor before the mob is dead, you have to wait 13 seconds before debuffs come again.) Endurance might be manageable on a rad, but its forgettable on a cold. No worries what so ever. Also, with cold's Arctic Fog's defense, I am able to soft cap Smashing/Lethal defense with no IO bonuses, and Energy Defense is a small purple from soft cap. (This is with Mace Mastery, which also gives you two more places for AH procs and another pet that deals Toxic damage). |
Rad's self-heal is pretty valuable to someone new to controllers. If you get hit, you can get back in the action faster, or you can heal teammates. The self-buffs from AM are pretty valuable, too. Cold doesn't get any powers that provide a self-buff until level 38, and then it is only Recovery, and only when you have foes to siphon off of.
If you want to make a perma-PA Illusion/Cold, you have to make up for the 30% Recharge in Rad's AM. This means that gettng an Ill/Cold to perma-PA will be far, far more expensive than a perma-PA Ill/Rad. That can be pretty tough for a newer player. My perma-PA build only has one purple set, the fairly inexpensive Confuse set. You will need a lot more purple sets for Ill/Cold.
Your numbers fail to take into account several things . . . such as the clicky nature of Cold vs. the toggle aspects of Rad. Cold's Infridgidate and Benumb are single target click powers, with Benumb on a long timer -- great on an AV, but pretty useless on large groups. Heat Loss is on a long timer and is a siphon-type power -- if you don't get a large group in your one shot, you will have to wait a while before you can try again. (I Know . . . it happened to me several times last night on the +4 ITF we ran.) Sleet may be able to recharge quickly enough that it can be "perma" on an AV, but on a fast moving team you will use Sleet on this group here and it may not have yet recharged by the time you reach that group there.
Rad's toggle debuffs last as long as the anchor survives. Counting the long cast time on the Rad toggles is not reasonable . . . since there is no need to use RI most of the time on teams. EF casts quickly, recharges quickly enough (especially with a high recharge build) to be applied to each and every group. Sleet and Heat Loss can't do that, so while EF's numbers are lower, it can be applied to many more foes.
And discounting the early nature of Rad's powers vs. the late nature of Cold's powers can be an important issue. If someone doesn't enjoy playing a character in lower levels, how likely is that person going to stay with the character until the character gets the "good stuff?" Maybe an experienced player or someone who likes to PL characters will stay with it, but not someone new to controllers.
I've played both builds quite alot. I think that Ill/Rad is a little more flexible while Ill/Cold is better for taking down AVs provided you have enough Recharge in the build.
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
If we're talking SO's and scrapper mentality/playstyle then I'd say the following:
Fire, Ice or Plant both allow you to get in close and scrappy. (Illusion honorable mention)
For a scrappy secondary: Rad/Storm/Cold/Time/Kin
I'd remove Ice (high safety but low damage especially SOs)
I'd remove /Storm because its high end usage kind of begs for IO bonuses (recovery and +end)
I think given your scrapper background the easiest scraptroller with SOs only would be Fire/Rad (you'll need to slot heavily in end reducers or take an epic that deals with end reduction or +end/recovery like primal forces mastery or fire's consume (long recharge though)) Fire's hot feet along with choking cloud begs for aggressive play with added safety.
Plant/Rad is also a proven winner, but could also be played at range given a lack of damage aura.
I think a Fire/Time/Primal Forces would be an incredible SO only build. Damage aura/-to hit and slow aura combined with power boosted defenses would be safe and aggressive. I also have tons of /Time love at the moment given I just got my Ill/Time/Primal to 50. And love love love it. I'd recommend it wholeheartedly except it really benefits from an expensive IO build.
Illusion gets honorable mention as they were strong pre-invention system and can be very powerful SO characters but have really come into their own in the age of IO bonuses. I'd even give a vote for Ill/Time but can't imagine it without my IO'd out recharge and endurance bonuses.
@Mental Maden @Maden Mental
"....you are now tackle free for life."-ShoNuff
Illusion/Poison is amazing if you have deep enough pockets.
Keep in mind it's nowhere near as safe as Cold or Rad but it can get up to -110 Resistance on each mob.
For a first troller, and SO only troller would be
1. Earth Troller: Great visible hard controls, some to-hit and defense debuffs mixed in. (Though not the most damaging of trollers) A nice pet tank to help keep aggro of you.
2. Plant Troller: A variety of controls including a Confuse power. More damage than the earth troller. A slightly weaker pet in the Fly Trap.
For Secondary:
I would like to make a plug for Trick Arrow: It is dirt cheap for end purposes. Has good -res, -def, capabilities. It has a 2 extra holds. And a superb AOE damage power (Oil Slick). Make sure to start off with either Magic or Tech origin as the Origin Specific Power will be able to light the oil slick.
**** It always takes longer to lvl up a troller a little patience is necessary****
My Trollers at 50
Ill/Storm (My first and main toon, you can try it but i wouldnt recommend it)
Plant/TA
Mind/Poison
My Doms at 50
Mind/Fire
Grav/Energy
Many more in the lower lvl categories
Illusion/Poison is amazing if you have deep enough pockets.
Keep in mind it's nowhere near as safe as Cold or Rad but it can get up to -110 Resistance on each mob. |
Envenom -30% *unstackable +15% single Target
Venomous Gas -18.75% *unstackable
AH proc for another -20%
Equals: -83.75% res
*And to Local Man*
I think we need to agree to disagree. Neither of us are going to back down and agree
Your character does not have capped defense. Depending on your AT the cap is between 175% - 225%. Your defense is not teal in the combat window, it can go higher. STOP SAYING IT IS CAPPED! The correct term is Soft Cap.
I enjoy playing in Mids. I specialize in Melee Characters, other AT's usually bore me.
Didn't notice that you can (don't know why you would) slot for damage. If only poison had better -Regen
Your character does not have capped defense. Depending on your AT the cap is between 175% - 225%. Your defense is not teal in the combat window, it can go higher. STOP SAYING IT IS CAPPED! The correct term is Soft Cap.
I enjoy playing in Mids. I specialize in Melee Characters, other AT's usually bore me.
Didn't notice that you can (don't know why you would) slot for damage. If only poison had better -Regen
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So yeah don't slot for dmg, slot for dmg procs.
I usually play Scrappers with the exeption of the tank and mastermind I'm leveling now. I've tried doms but I just can't seem to get interested in one, but controllers sound interesting.. Any power suggestions for a first time controller? I usually form teams, or solo so a bit of both if that helps. And I'll be using strictly SO's.