Illusion/Cold/Psionic - is it good?

Hello!

I am a newbie started playing last month and I really enjoy using illusion control. I've read several guides of different illusion builds, including Local_Man's and Tal_N and others, and I love the combo of Ill/Cold (I've tried Ill/Rad, but I like /Cold more), but I'm wondering if the Psionic Mastery would be a viable APP? I haven't seen any builds/guides specifically for this kind of build set, but with Ill/Cold, what powers in Psionic Mastery would be good to have?

This character is mainly PvE with small teams, but I like to sometimes solo (possibly solo ATs in future) and maybe PvP, but I'm not gonna worry about PvP until I get the hang of playing more. Also, I like having an "Cool Enchanter" roleplay toon that can utilize powers of illusions/mind (hence the combo set), so I hope I can play with this kind of style?

ill/cold is amazing for soloability, however i would not go with psi mastery because its attacks have pitifully low dmg, and you dont really need the mez protect click

my ill/cold went with ice mastery for theme plus the fact i get a defense based shield for an LOTG slot as well as ice storm to go with sleet

I played Psi for awhile on my Illusion/Sonic troller. It's not terrible, but looking at cold it's not the choice I would go with. The ST Blast is a little slow and underwhelming and the same could be said of the Tornado. You're also already doing Psi damage from Illusion Control so switching to another damage type helps with Psi resistant enemies (like all robots which become more and more prevalent late game). If you take the shield, you'll get some resistance to S/L which I like on my Illusion Controller for the occasions when you pull some aggro off of PA by accident, but you'll likely only have that little bit, though late game Psi damage becomes really frequent so you'll get some res to that as well. I'm not a fan of WoC most especially if you're slotting the purple proc in Deceive. If you're going for perma PA (and let's be honest, of course you are) Indomitable Will is going to help you versus mez which is nice. Overall, Psi's not a bad APP but I'd go with some other damage type for when I run against Psi resistant enemies. I respeced into Fire and was much happier with Fire Blast in my single target chain and Fireball waste groups than I was with Psi. Local Man has a really great breakdown and explanation of all the APPs in regards to Illusion Control. Truthfully, Illusion is just so good that you could pick the herring power pool and do just fine. All you really need to worry about is a decent single target ranged attack to work into Blind > Spectral Wounds > Blast > Spectral Wounds chain for maximum containment damage, so just don't choose Stone and you're good to go.

Whoa, I didn't expect quick responses this early in the morning (It's past 8AM here)! Thank you guys for responding so quick!

I forgot that Spectral Wounds and Blind deal psi damage and I remember that robots will have high res to psi damage in late game. I remember reading up on the APP section from Local_Man's guide; I'll have to double check. Also, I didn't know you can respec into a different APP. I thought I had to make a build ahead of time cause you cannot respec once you create your character or once you pick one.

I try to stay away from fire since I'm no pyromancer and I'm not fond of playing with fire. I'm more into water (or in most other MMO cases - ice). I've seen a few Ill/Cold/Cold builds and heard it is a good build. However, before I go finalize into that, would Primal Forces Mastery do any good for Ill/Cold? I'm just curious since after reading up on the powers, it look interesting and since Energy Torrent deals knockdown instead of knockback. I know that Local_Man's guide said it has some overlap with Ill/Rad, but I wonder if Ill/Cold would make it a viable choice? (I'm fine with either single or AoE targeting)

I'd go for either Illu/Cold/Ice (as I did with mine), Illu/Cold/Mace or Illu/Cold/Stone. Being S/L soft capped on top of having pets and amazing debuffs is just great, you really have to experience it to know what I mean.

You don't need the endurance tools from any of the ancillaries (Heat Loss takes care of that) or mez protection (Defense and pets take care of most of that and you can get perma mez protection from incarnate powers). What you want are Defense, a good single target attack, more debuff or a useful AoE.

That's just my view on the subject, I know many people like Fire Mastery, and I'm not saying that doing it differently is doing it wrong.

I would probably go with Ice, Fire, or maybe Mace.

My Illusion/Cold has the Ice APP, with Ice Blast, Frost Breath, Hibernate and Ice Shield. Ice Blast is key because it makes the Blind-SW-Blast-SW attack chain. Hibernate is wonderful because Cold does not have a self-heal. Frost Breath is a decent AoE that recharges much more quickly than Ice Storm and is all up-front cold damage. And while I did not build for Defense, I have the Ice Shield mainly because I'm giving Ice Shields to all my teammates, so I should have one too -- and it is a good place for a LotG Rech.

Psi used to be the only way to get mez protection, but now you can get Clarion from your Destiny slot. Personally, I have found that I don't really need mez protection. The main weaknesses of the Psi Pool are that the blast is a bit slower than Ice and Fire, and the AoE attack is DoT when up-front damage is better . . . . and World of Confusion stinks.

Sorry that I haven't replied back. I had to leave for work and now I'm back.

Okay, I decided not to go with Psionic Mastery. Thank you all for your suggestions/advices. However, has anyone tried Primal Force Mastery with Ill/Cold?