Mind Control: Which Powers to Take?

Heya Dom experts

With Dark Assault on the horizon I've decided to roll up a Mind/Dark but I've got no idea which powers to pick from Mind Control. So I'd really appreciate some advice on which ones are useful and which can be skipped safely. Thanks in advance

All of them. The set is that awesome and useful. However, if I had to skip, Telekinesis and the Confuse pair are about the only ones that I've ever said "meh" to. All the others are quite simply mandatory, IMO.

Oh, you can probably skip Mass Hypnosis, as it's a Sleep, and the Holds are a somewhat better thing to have. If you do that, then maybe Mass Confusion is the one to get in it's place, but the reason I don't generally is that it's an XP loss situation. A single Confuse can do wonders though, if you use it on a minion or LT when fightin' a boss or EB.

But yeah. Every one of them is good stuff and hecka useful, and none I'd say 'skip' outright. 'Cept maybe Teleknesis. Throwing an enemy away from the pack doesn't help controlling the pack, and Melee people will hate you for it.

I tend to skip Telekinesis and not think twice. On my last respec I omitted Levitate due to bigger build goals, but it is a nice power and uses smashing damage.

I want to offer a viewpoint that the two confuses are quite valuable. They're aggroless, take a cheap purple and the single target one is quick recharging to quickly stack on bosses and above.

Also, this statement about confuses is abjectly false "it's an XP loss situation". It's not, it's an xp gain/time situation, which is really what's relevant. I believe someone out there has a standard reply showing the math to disprove "confuse stealz mah expeeez", maybe they'll stop by.

Telekinesis is a power I always skip. It was reduced in effectiveness way way back and ever since then it's too situational and a huge end hog. Levitate is a nice soft control but you'll have plenty of good attacks in Dark Assault so unless you want the extra soft control you could skip it. If you're going for an all range build I'd probably take it though. Mass Hypnosis is really a matter of preference. It definitely has its uses but I think you can get by just fine without it also. It's good for MoLRSF runs though.

I would never skip either of the confuses. Those are a big part of what makes Mind/ what it is for me. I'm not a big fan of Mind/ generally but the confuses and the single-target sleep that can put a boss to sleep in one hit are a big part of what sets Mind/ apart from other control primaries for me.

Telekinesis is the only power I'd consider skippable on Mind Control.

(It and Levitation also bug me, conceptually. It always feels conceptually lazy to mix telepathy and telekinesis..)

Thanks for the responses. They really helped me with power selection. Now I need some help with the build itself

I'm definitely going for permadom (Can't stand mezzes on any of my toons ) Exactly how much Recharge do I need to achieve that? If I remember correctly it's something like 143% but it's been a long time since I looked into Doms so a concrete answer on this would be great. I'm a bargain builder by choice so I'd like to avoid purples if possible.

Also, I'd like to softcap my Smashing/Lethal Defense but I'm not sure about the most efficient way to go about it. In that same vein, how important is Resistance? I've put together a sample build (Posted below) that manages 52.5% Smashing/Lethal Resistance but I'm really not sure if it's worth the necessary sacrifices.

NOTE: The slot placement is simply for expediency. It doesn't reflect how they'll be distributed when I actually create the toon. Power placement, on the other hand, is exactly as I want it. I'm open to swapping out some of the pool choices but the primary powers are exactly as I want them to be.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.953
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 49 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Mind Control
Secondary Power Set: Earth Assault
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Mesmerize -- FtnHyp-Sleep(A), FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg(3), FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(3), FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg(5), FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx(5)
Level 1: Stone Spears -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Dominate -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(11), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13)
Level 4: [Empty]
Level 6: Confuse -- CoPers-Conf(A), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(7), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(7), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(9), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(9)
Level 8: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 10: [Empty]
Level 12: Teleport -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Hover -- Flight-I(A)
Level 16: [Empty]
Level 18: Total Domination -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(19), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(19), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(21)
Level 20: [Empty]
Level 22: Hasten -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Kick -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Terrify -- Abys-Acc/Rchg(A), Abys-EndRdx/Fear(27), Abys-Acc/EndRdx(27), Abys-Fear/Rng(29), Abys-Acc/Fear/Rchg(29)
Level 28: [Empty]
Level 30: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(31), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(31), RctvArm-EndRdx/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 32: Mass Confusion -- Mlais-Acc/Rchg(A), Mlais-EndRdx/Conf(33), Mlais-Acc/EndRdx(33), Mlais-Conf/Rng(33), Mlais-Acc/Conf/Rchg(34)
Level 35: Weave -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(36), DefBuff-I(36), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 38: Link Minds -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), DefBuff-I(39), DefBuff-I(39), DefBuff-I(39)
Level 41: Mind Over Body -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(42), RctvArm-EndRdx/Rchg(42), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 44: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 47: Recall Friend -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Long Range Teleport -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run

The bare minimum for perma-dom is 123%. Be aware that you can't include a flat 70% from Hasten into that unless you've also reached perma-Hasten as well. I'd have to find Arcana's post on calculating recharge to give you a better numberi ncluding downtime on Hasten. As a general idea I shoot for 140%-150% recharge with 3 slotted Hasten as a comfortable minimum that allows you to miss activating either immediately.

If you're going to skip Mass Hypnosis, bypass Mind Control completely and go with Dark Control, unless you are just doing this for concept. Mind has two main desirable things Dark doesn't: Mass Hypnosis and Mass Confusion. You're skipping Telekinesis anyway and Mind's attacks are worth much less than a pet.

If you want to play with aggro-free AoE powers Mind is pretty much the only ticket (well not really, there is also Electric or even Gravity now but those sit pretty far apart from Mind otherwise). Just make sure you actually take the powers that grant that, unless, again, this is a concept build.

Thanks for the numbers. They'll help me get the build together.

As for Mass Hypnosis, I was under the impression that AoE Sleeps were usually skipped since team mates are likely to just wake mobs up with their own AoEs. I can see the usefulness solo though. That being said, it does provide a place to pick up another cheap Recharge bonus so I'll go ahead and take it.

Still not sure whether going after Smashing/Lethal Resistance is worth it or if I should forgo that route to focus on Defense. Any insight on that would be great.

In all honesty, I would bypass defense on a dominator, especially if you can't grab anything substantial. I've my dominators purely on +recharge, and never felt week for it. Your safety comes from your powers, the faster they are up, the safer you are.

I'm a bit late to this shindig, but some points on Mind/...

A third of your powers are non-aggro- both confuses, and your sleep. As they do not notify, they also do not suppress stealth. So you have three ways of turning the tide of a fight before anything is onto you or, if you are invisible, they can even see you. Mind/ perma-doms are odd in that they can be the most powerful invisibility characters in the game. Something to bear in mind.

TK is a 'fluff' power, but has its uses. It can be used to position against a wall, stack pulsing hold mag against an AV or other hold-resistant foes for lockdown, and completely turn around the fourth phase of the MoM trial. It's not needed, but it also need no slots.

For the sleep/confuse sets: slot the purples in mass hypnosis/ mass confusion, but the contagious proc in your ST confuse. Yes it uses an extra slot, but it's worth it. This gives maximum recharge/duration/accuracy to your AoE mez, where the sets do the most good. Mesmerize needs very little help, and I find myself only using it as an off switch most of the time; even in the heat of battle, its boss-level native magnitude will detoggle toggle powers even on an AV.

Total aside: as dominators live and die on powers and their recharge, a winter's gift slow/-recharge resist IO is quite handy. It can be slotted in teleport powers and the like too.

If you are solo-ing, and a pesky Elite Boss defeats you, you can use the single target Confuse to rebuild Domination before alerting them.

Never skip this power anyway, but this is just one more reason not to skip it.

I'd skip Telekinesis and Mass Hypnosis if anything. On a Dominator with a different secondary from Psi, Levitate is less useful.

I skipped mesmerize & telekinesis on my last build with my mind/thorn and waiting to see how I find it. As said above, it is useful as an off switch. I skipped levitate instead of mesmerize the build before. Mesmerize would prob serve me better if I was seeking solo AV fights, but I missed the sure fling up in the air from levitate - even minimally slotted its effective (and fun).

My build has 103% + hasten for permadom, and softcap'd S/L def which I find so very handy. Softcapping s/l with permadom will prob require either Ice or Scorpion epics, I heart Ice with its sleet and shield.

I slot the contiguous confusion in mass confusion. I find I seldom use the single target confusion at 50 and i-pimped. More targets in mass confusion gives it more chance to trigger, and I'm often fighting at x6 to x8 so am over the normal mass confuse cap.

My typical approach is more or less use the T3 Judgement to melt the first mob save a few bosses, mass confuse implodes the next mobs's alpha combined with a barrage of AoE, Mass dominate + sleet + ice storm destroys next then its back to Judgement.
You have to be pretty slack at killing for mass confuse not to increase to XP/time.

Mind can take a lot of the cheaper purple sets for easy recharge.