A (Quick) Local Guide to Electric Control

A (Quick) Local Guide to Electric Control


Since there were no guides to Electric Control, I decided to write one. (This is a rough draft and may be supplemented.) I would not consider myself to be an "expert" on Electric Control, but I have leveled up an Electric/Rad to Incarnate levels and have a couple of Electric Dominators in the works. So, this is just intended to be a quick guide for folks unfamiliar with the powers in Electric Control.

Electric is all about endurance drain. I consider it to be the second lowest damage controller primary (after Ice), but it has a good mix of types of control. It has the ability to perma-control foes through Sleep and Endurance Drain, with a very good Confuse power and a unique chaining knockdown, plus the usual holds and immobilize powers. Electric Control makes the most effective use of Sleep in the game. You can drain a good amount of endurance fairly quickly with standard-type slotting. I haven't tried going nuts on the EndMod slotting, but you could probably drain foes dry very quickly if you slotted heavily for EndMod in all of the powers that do endurance drain -- but you might have to give up some control, damage or recharge to do it. It is interesting to note that although 5 of the 9 powers will take EndMod IO sets, all 9 powers will accept EndMod enhancements.

Electric Control is one of the three control sets with a PB AoE control power that encourages you to play in melee. The others are Fire (Hot Feet) and Ice (Arctic Air). Each of these sets have a up-every-group ranged control power that lets you control foes before running in with the PB AoE power -- but Electric actually has two in Static Field and Synaptic Overload.

Electric Control may be the best set in the game for providing continual control. The combination of Static Field, which recharges much faster than its duration one some Recharge is slotted, and Conductive Aura lets you combine the pulsing Sleep Patch with endurance drain to keep foes controlled continually. You can also handle groups with Synaptic Overload. Since Conductive Aura also provides Regen and Recovery and Static Field provides Recovery, you don't run out of endurance. But it will take a while to kill off those controlled foes because the damage is so low. Solo, I found that I relied heavily on the Gremlins for damage -- which isn't great because the Gremlins aren't all that great. But it works.

Electric control has some significant weaknesses. Low damage when solo. Slow animations. Two chaining powers that are wasted if they miss the first target. No -Knockback in the AoE Immob (which can be good and bad). The biggest problem I had on teams was when I had teammates with lots of AoE Damage over Time. AoE DoT powers disrupt the pulsing Sleep of Static Field, making it mostly useless. And then an AoE Immob with -Knockback makes Jolting Chain worthless. (I hated teaming with Fire Controllers or any other controllers who would spam their AoE Immob with DoT!)

My personal opinion is that Electric Control is great as the only controller on a smallish team, as long as you don't have someone with a lot of AoE DoT powers. It is wonderful on a team of 2 or 3, where the others are melee fighters. But when you get on large teams, the weaknesses of the set really manefest. On larger teams, I found myselt trying to run ahead of everyone else, just to have a chance to use Synaptic Overload before someone else came in to mess up the groups. Endurance drain takes a while, and usually large teams kill foes too quickly. And if anyone on the team has an AoE Immob with DoT (most of them) or a Rain-type damage power, it decreased the benefit of Static Field.

Electric Control works great on a Dominator playing solo or small team. Many of the Dominator secondaries have many single target attacks. Electric Control is great for keeping a group controlled while you focus on taking foes down one-by-one. However, this guide was really intended to be for Controllers, so I'm not going to go into the whole Domination thing.

Here's a quick run down of the Electric Control powers:

Electric Fence
Surrounds and Immobilizes a single target in an Electric Fence. Deals some damage over time and slowly drains some Endurance. Useful for keeping villains at bay and bringing down fliers.
Level: 1
Accuracy: 1.2
Range: 80
Cast Time: 1.67
Recharge: 4
Endurance Cost 7.8
Immobilize: 27.938 second Mag 4 Immobilize, with a 20% chance for a 18.625 second Mag 1 "overpower" Immob.
Damage: 5 * 6.12 Energy damage every 2 seconds over 9.2 seconds, doubled with Containment
Endurance Drain: 4 * -2.8% Endurance every 2 seconds over 6.2 seconds
Sets Containment?: Yes

Most Controller sets have a single target Immob, and this one is pretty similar to the others. Since it is Mag 4, it will immobilize bosses. In a low-damage set, Electric Fence is one of your few sources of damage. But there is one unusual consideration: Static Field is a pulsing Sleep power which will be disrupted by a Damage Over Time power. As long as you use your single target hold first, there's no problem. But if you use Electric Fence on a foe sleeping in Static Field, you will probably wake him up to allow him to attack. I wish this had been set up with up-front damage rather than Damage over Time.

Still, if you want to solo or contribute damage, this is a pretty important power. Just lead with Tesla Cage first. On a team-only I-don't-care-about-damage controller, however, it is skippable. It can also be skippable in upper levels when you have APP damage powers. I took it on my Elec/Rad because he soloed a lot.

Slotting: Immobilize, Endurance Modification and Ranged Damage sets.
SO slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Dam. Maybe EndMod.
Slot this for damage. Some folks might choose to slot the Enfeebled Operation set if you need S/L Defense, but you will be giving up the damage. You can use Decimation for Recharge, or Thunderstrike for Ranged Defense.
　

Tesla Cage
Tesla Cage confines the target in an electrical prison. The target is overwhelmed by the electrical charge and is left helpless and can be attacked. The target is drained of some Endurance and some of the Endurance is transferred back to you.
Level: 1
Accuracy: 1.2
Range: 80
Cast Time: 2.17
Recharge: 8
Endurance Cost: 8.528
Hold: 22.35 second Mag 3 hold, with a 20% chance for 16.763 second Mag 1 "overpower"
Damage: 30.59 Energy damage, doubled with Containment
Endurance Drain: 7%
Set Containment?: Yes

All Controller sets have a single target hold, and they are pretty much all the same . . . except Tesla Cage has the longest animation of any single target hold. It is an essential power for single target control. It can also contribute some much-needed damage -- almost as much as Electric Fence and it is not damage over time.

Slotting: Hold, Endurance Modification and Ranged Damage sets.
SO Slotting: 1 Acc, 1 Hold, 2 Dam, 2 Rech.
It depends on your build and your goals whether you slot for Hold, Damage or both. Many people slot the single target hold with 4 Baz Gaze alone, but they are missing out on slotting this for damage as well. I like the 4 Baz Gaze, an Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common Damage, but there are other options.
　

Chain Fences
You can immobilize multiple foes in a chain of electricity, dealing minor damage to all foes in range and draining some endurance. This power also reduces Flight capacity in targets.
Level: 2
Accuracy: 0.9
Range: 80
Cast Time: 1.17
Recharge: 8
Endurance Cost 15.6
Targetted AoE, 30 Ft Radius
Max Targets: 16
Immobilize: 27.938 seconds Mag 3, 50% chance for an extra 18.625 second Mag 1
Damage: 9.18 Energy damage, doubled with Containment
Endurance Drain: -10%
Sets Containment?: Yes

Chain Fences is a fairly standard AoE Immob power. However, there are three important aspects of Chain Fences: It does not have -knockback, it drains a base of 10% endurance, and the Damage is up front instead of over time. The lack of -Knockback lets it work well with Jolting Chain. The endurance drain can be enhanced for even faster EndDrain. The up front damage lets it work well with Static Field . . . since the damage is up front, it only wakes foes up once and then the pulsing sleep will put the foe back to sleep.

There are mixed opinions on whether to take Chain Fences. I like to take it for several reasons. It keeps foes in Static Field and in range of Conductive Aura. It provides a great contribution on endurance drain. It keeps foes who have been confused by Synaptic Overload from wandering around. Chain Fences can also be used for several damage procs.

Slotting: Immobilize, Endurance Modification and Targetted AoE Damage sets.
SO slotting: 2 Acc, 0-2 Rech, 1 EndRdx. Maybe 1-3 EndMod depending upon build.
There are lots of slotting options for Chain Fences. It has a 10% accuracy penalty, so it can use extra Accuracy. The damage is low, so you will get more damage from damage procs than slotting this power for damage. Slotting it with the Posi Blast, Trap of the Hunter, AT IO damage proc plus the Gravitational Anchor Chance for Hold proc is pretty nice. Slotting for some EndMod is pretty nice, too.
　

Jolting Chain
You can send a bolt of electricity through multiple opponents, causing a muscle spasm and dealing minor damage. Each foe is knocked down, and the electric charge can fork several times, jumping to several opponents rapidly.
Level: 6
Accuracy: 1
Range: 80
Cast Time: 2.07
Recharge: 8
Endurance Cost 10.4
Max Targets: 16
Damage: 9.18 Energy damage, doubled with Containment
Endurance Drain: 10%
Sets Containment?: No
Knockdown of 0.66 mag, then summons a Chain Jolt 1 after 0.25 sec delay, and another after 0.50 sec delay.
Chain Jolt 1 does 11.12 Energy Damage, doubled with Containment, 0.66 knockdown, and summons Chain Jolt 2 after 0.5 and 1.0 seconds
Chain Jolt 2 does 11.12 Energy Damage, doubled with Containment, 0.66 knockdown, and summons Chain Jolt 3 after 1.0 and 2.0 seconds
Chain Jolt 3 does 11.12 Energy Damage, doubled with Containment, 0.66 knockdown.

Jolting Chain is one of the really unique powers in Electric Control. It is a chaining knockdown power with a small amount of damage and some endurance drain (but the drain only affects the first foe hit). Jolting Chain can be effective for disrupting a group for a short time, stopping a group from running away, or short-term control. I will sometimes use it as an alpha attack when Static Field is close to recharging. Knockdown will sometimes work as a control power when other control powers don't work.

It is important to note that if the first attack misses, it never spawns the "chain jolts" -- so if it misses, the entire chain misses. However, if you hit the first foe, the chain jolts appears to be autohit (although they are listed as standard accuracy). Blue Fenix pointed out to me that this may be due to the effect of the "streakbreaker" system in the game and that under some situations, the chains will miss. In any event, you may want to aim for a lower level foe who is easier to hit. The foes also need to be fairly near to each other. Each chain can go about 15 feet, but because it jumps from foe to foe, the group does not need to be tightly bunched.

There are a few things that keep Jolting Chains from being a really effective control power. When you miss the target foe, you get nothing other than some aggro. The duration of the "control" aspect from knockdown is very short. The cast time is fairly long. It is frequently skipped in upper levels when folks feel that they have better control options. Personally, I like the power and think it is a lot of fun. I enjoy turning a group of foes into a pile of popcorn. I find that it will sometimes knock down high level foes who can't be controlled with other powers. But it is one of the more skippable powers in the Electric Control set.

Slotting: Ranged Damage, Endurance Modification and Knockback sets
SO Slotting: 1-2 Acc, 1-3 Rech. Maybe some damage, but the damage is pretty weak.
Your only real choice for IO sets is Ranged Damage. The endurance Drain only affects the first foe hit and does not travel along the chain. Slotting Knockback sets will increase the mag, turning the handy knockdown into KNOCKBACK, which sends foes all over the place.
Consider slotting Jolting Chain with the Devastation Chance for Hold proc, as the proc chance travels with the chains. Muon_Nutrino suggested that this is one of the few powers where the Tempest: Chance of Endurance Drain proc might be useful. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds good.

Conductive Aura
While this power is active, the air around you becomes charged with electricity, leaping out and shocking foes that get too close. Foes will lose some endurance, while you gain Recovery and Regeneration per target hit.
Level: 8
Accuracy: 1
Radius: 20 feet
Cast Time: 2.03
Recharge: 15
Endurance Cost -0-
Max Targets: 8
Attack type: AoE, Energy every 2 seconds
Endurance Drain: 10% every 2 seconds
Sets Containment?: No
Regeneration of +5% and Recovery of 3.125% per foe hit.

This is a PB Aoe Toggle endurance drain power that 'can' be a key power in the set if you focus on Endurance drain. It costs no endurance, drains 10% (or more if slotted) every 2 seconds and gives you some Regen and Recovery. Once foes are controlled or their aggro is focused on someone else, an Electric Controller can go into melee and slowly drain the endurance of a group. Once they are out of endurance, they can't do anything other than run away (which you can prevent with Electric Fences). Electric joins Ice and Fire as sets that provide PB AoE control that encourages you to be in melee.

This is a power that does little stuff that adds up, rather than one big thing. But once foes are drained of endurance, they are effectively controlled. If you slot up Conductive Aura and some other powers for Endurance Drain, you can drain foes dry pretty quickly. And equally important -- keep them drained. Static Field gives you the time to use Conductive Aura to drain foes continually so that the sleep+drained endurance provides continual control.

Slotting: Heal and Endurance Modification sets
SO Slotting: 1 acc, 2-3 EndMod.
Some folks slot the Efficacy Adapter or Performance Shifter sets.

　
Static Field
You can build up a Static Field at a nearby location. Any foes in the field may lose control of their muscles due to the static charge, and will shake violently. Foes may also be drained of some endurance, and some of that endurance may be transferred to nearby allies. Any attack will interrupt the effect temporarily and foes will re-gain control, although their movement and attack rates will be reduced. This effect can last for some time, and will continue to paralyze foes in the field.
Level: 12
Accuracy: 1
Range: 60
Cast Time: 2.03
Recharge: 40
Endurance Cost 15.6
Location Targetted AoE, 20 Ft Radius
Max Targets: 16
Duration: 25 Seconds
Sleep: 6.333 second Mag 3 Sleep every 4 seconds. 5% chance of an extra 4.843 second Mag 1 Sleep.
Slow: -40% Run, Fly Jump speed for 4.25 seconds
-40% Jump height for 4.25 seconds
-30% Recharge for 4.25 seconds
Endurance Drain: 50% chance for 3% drain every 4 seconds.
Sets Containment?: Yes
Static Field returns Endurance to any teammate in the patch, but the amount of recovery does not appear in City of Data. It appears to be some amount per foe in the patch.

Static Field is the most important power in the Electric Control set. Not too long ago, it would be hard to imagine saying that about a "sleep" power, but the pulsing Sleep is teriffic. What makes it so good? It is a location-targetted AoE "patch" power that usually puts everything less than a boss to sleep instantly. If you disturb them (such as by using Chain Fences or Jolting Chain), the next pulse will usually put the foes back to sleep. There's a chance to put bosses to sleep. It adds Slow and -Recharge and a good amount of endurance drain, and returns Endurance to the team as well.

The duration is 25 seconds, and the Recharge is 40 seconds, so it is really, really easy to make the Recharge fast enough so you can re-cast it before the last one runs out. This lets you provide continual control.
Static Field is a perfect "alpha" strike for groups of foes. Most of the time, the group will be put to sleep instantly. That lets you run in with Conductive Aura to drain the endurance of the group. You can use Chain Fences to make sure that any foes who are missed by the pulse stay in the patch to be hit by the next pulse (and drain more endurance). Chain Fences will wake up the foes, but they will go back to sleep when the next pulse hits.

Slotting: Sleep and Slow Movement sets
SO slotting: 2-3 Recharge, 1 acc.
The sleep sets are cheap. Once you have a little accuracy and enough Rech, then slot for set bonuses. I never found any need to slot for Slow since you can immobilize the foes. (Slow enhancements also only affect runspeed.)
　

Paralyzing Blast
Summoning a large amount of energy, you can completely paralyze a group of foes in cages of electricity for a short time. These foes may be drained of some endurance as well.
Level: 18
Accuracy: 0.8
Range: 80
Radius: 30
Cast Time: 1.67
Recharge: 240
Endurance Cost: 15.6
Max Targets: 16
Hold: 14.9 second Mag 3 hold, with a 20% chance for 11.175 second additional Mag 1
Endurance Drain: 7%
Set Containment?: Yes

Paralyzing Blast is a pretty standard Targetted AoE Hold, with the only unique aspect is the 7% endurance drain. Some folks skip it due to the long recharge and fairly short duration. I find it worthwhile to have an effective AoE hard control. It also takes several nice sets. Like other AoE Holds, it has a 20% accuracy penalty so it needs extra accuracy.

Slotting: Hold
SO Slotting: 2 Acc, 2 Rech, 2 Hold.
Often slotted with 4 Basilisk's Gaze and with an extra Acc/Hold/Rech, but can be slotted with the AT IO set or the purple Hold set.
　

Synaptic Overload
This power can subtly scramble the synapses of any target affected, causing hallucinations and confusion amongst foes. The electric charge lasts for some time, and will jump slowly to other opponents causing wide spread confusion. Foes may not be aware that this has happened, and will not be alerted to your presence. You will also not receive experience for any damage dealt by confused opponents.
Level: 26
Accuracy: 1
Range: 80
Cast Time: 2.37
Recharge: 60
Endurance Cost: 8.528
Confuse: 27.938 second Mag 3 Confuse, with a 20% chance for 11.175 second additional Mag 1
Endurance Drain: 10%, -100% Recovery for 8 seconds
Set Containment?: No
Summons a Chain Confuse Jump 1 after 1 sec delay, and another after 2 sec delay.
Chain Confuse Jump 1 does 22.35 second Mag 3 Confuse with a 20% chance for 14.9 second Mag 1 Confuse, and summons Chain Confuse Jump 2 after 2 and 4 seconds
Chain Confuse Jump 2 does 22.35 second Mag 3 Confuse with a 20% chance for 14.9 second Mag 1 Confuse, and summons Chain Confuse Jump 3 after 4.1 and 8.1 seconds
Chain Confuse Jump 3 does 22.35 second Mag 3 Confuse with a 20% chance for 14.9 second Mag 1 Confuse.

Synaptic Overload is one on my favorite powers in the Electric Control set. It is a chaining confuse power that DOES NOT DRAW AGGRO. Much like Illusion's Deceive and Mind's Confuse and Mass Confusion, this power is a perfect alpha attack because you can take foes out of the fight before it begins. Unlike Confuse and Deceive, you can't stack it to control bosses.

Just like Plant's Seeds of Confusion, it recharges in 60 seconds, so it can be up almost every group. Unlike Plant's Seeds of Confusion, it does not draw aggro. Unlike Seeds of Confusion, as a Chaining power, if it misses the first target, it will fail. But that's not so bad because you have your other controls to make up for it. Plant relies heavily upon Seeds, while Electic has other options.

It is an AoE confuse that recharges much faster that Mind's Mass Confusion (60 seconds vs. 240 seconds). It is much less "reliable" due to the chaining, but the chaining also lets it go around a corner or stretch out over a long line of foes. Remember that you may want to target a lower level foe as your initial target so that it doesn't miss.

Slotting: Confuse sets
SO Slotting: 2 Acc, 2 Confuse, 2 Rech. It doesn't really NEED 2 Acc, but the consequences of a miss are frustrating.
This is a good power to slot the inexpensive Confuse sets. Because Synaptic Overload does not draw aggro, you do not want to slot a damage proc. If possible, go for the purple Confuse set. The Contagious Confusion proc is great in Synaptic Overload and gives it a much higher chance of stacking mag to confuse bosses over the 20% "Overpower" chance.
　

Gremlins
Mastery over electricity allows you to create almost sentient elementals of lightning. These elementals are mischievous in nature, and enjoy creating havoc and interfering with electronic equipment or magical cantrips. They also never work alone, where there is one Gremlin, there is often another nearby.
Level: 32
Accuracy: 2
Range: 60
Radius: 30
Cast Time: 2.03
Recharge: 240
Endurance Cost: 26
Duration: Until defeated or despawned.
Summons Two Level 49 Gremlins. Each Gremlin can do
Electric Brawl, 27.81 Smashing, 22.24 Electric Damage with a 7% Endurance Drain;
Jolting Chain for 0.66 knockdown, 13.35 Enegy damage and -10% Endurance Drain;
Shock, a PB AoE Energy damage aura that does 6.67 damage every 2 seconds to up to 3 foes within 7 feet of the Gremlin;
40% Resistance to Energy, 30% Resistance to Smash/Lethal and 60% runspeed buff.

The Gremlins are the best damage for an Electric Controller, but they are not all that impressive. The Gremlins do moderate damage, but more than any other attack you have. They look pretty cool. They tend to aggro a lot. And when up against low level foes (well below your level), that Jolting Chain attack will send foes in KNOCKBACK flying all over the place. (I found that to be a real pain when hunting low level foes to get Tip Mission drops.)

Overall, I wish that the Gremlins did more damage. Oh, well. When playing solo, the level of control in Electric is good enough that you can usually control foes continually, so if the Gremlins take longer to kill stuff, you can wait it out. On teams, the Gremlins contribute some damage but mostly they draw aggro.

Slotting: Pet and Recharge Intensive Pet sets
SO Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 Dam base slotting.
If you are slotting for Recharge, then the Expediant Reinforcement set is good. If you are slotting for Ranged Defense, then Blood Mandate or a full set of Expediant Reinforcement is good. Notice that the Gremlins have some Resistance -- adding the two +10% Resistance Pet Procs may help them survive S/L and Energy damage longer.
　


Overview and Strategy:
Electric Control is a high control, low damage set. It has a nice variety of hard and soft control, with Hold, Immobilize, Sleep, Confuse, Endurance Drain and Knockdown. There are no "worthless" powers, and everything in the set can be taken and used. Whether you actually want to take and use all of the powers depends upon your wants and needs.

I would consider Tesla Cage (ST Hold), Static Field (patch sleep), Synaptic Overload (chaining confuse) and Gremlins (Pets) to be essential, 5-star powers. Conductive Aura (Toggle PB AoE endurance drain) is key if you want to drain endurance, so it would be a 4 to 5-star power. Paralytic Blast (Ranged AoE Hold) us useful as an AoE Hold. Chain Fences (Ranged AoE Immobilize) is useful to keep foes, especially confused foes, from wandering around. I would consider Paralytic Blast and Chain Fences to be 3 to 4-star powers.

The two most skippable powers (2-star powers) are Electric Fence (ST Immob) and Jolting Chain (Chaining Knockdown). Electric Fence is useful if you want to do some damage, and is pretty much essential if you want to solo. Jolting Chain is an interesting power, fun to use and provides some short-term mitigation. Some folks feel that Jolting Chain is useful in lower levels, but skippable once you get into the upper levels. Personally, I like Jolting Chain to disrupt entire groups to allow teammates to draw aggro. The knockdown can disrupt attacks, reducing the damage taken by teammates.

Once you have Static Field, the core strategy is pretty simple. Throw Static Field under a group, and they all fall asleep. Run in with Conductive Aura running to drain endurance. You can hit them with Chain Fences to immobilize the group and drain a bit more endurance. You may want to hit the group with Jolting Chain, and then Chain Fences -- Jolting Chain will have a good chance to prevent foes from attacking when they wake up from an application of Chain Fences. Pick individual foes to hold (and damage) with Tesla Cage and Electric Fence. Let the Gremlins follow you in to kill things. If I'm feeling lazy, I'll just Static Field, run in with Conductive Aura and stand there to let the Gremlins kill stuff.

As for Secondaries, I played Electric/Rad because of the synergy with Conductive Aura with Choking Cloud. Draining Endurance while sleeping, immobilizing and holding worked very well. Also, Electric Control returns some endurance, making it easier to run Choking Cloud and the Rad debuffs. It was not fast to solo, but fairly safe as long as I paid attention.

As for other secondaries, I invite others to comment about their experiences. I can see some synergy problems with Storm and the knockback. I can see that Electric may work with Kinetics pretty well. I can see Electric/Time being pretty good with two PB AoE auras. Maybe Electric/Dark. I'm not convinced there is much benefit to other secondaries such as Sonic, Therm, Emp, FF, Poison.

I have found that Electric Control works very well for Dominators. Since there is such a variety of controls that recharge quickly, you can get the foes under control before beating on them. I have an Elec/Earth Dominator who has been fun to play.

I am not posting builds with this guide at this time, as it is intended to only cover the primary of Electric Control. I also have not discussed use of the AT IO sets or IO set builds or even goals. However, I invite folks who have Electric Controllers to post their builds and explain what they like (and don't like) about them.

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Well done.

I know a lot of people have been complaining about Electric on here and hopefully this will help them get there characters up and running.

Excellent guide as usual, Local Man! Your descriptions of powers and what they do/don't do is explained so well, that it's possible to know whether I'll want or use a power, even if it "disagrees" with your play-style preference. You just explain things THAT well!

In response to your invitation to share, I chose /Time to pair with EC when that set first came out, because I thought Conductive Aura might mitigate the endurance issues people mentioned with /Time. Which it did! I had no endurance problems at all, none, even pre-SO levels.

It's an incredibly safe combination to play, and just as incredibly painful to solo. OMG, it does almost NO damage! I don't expect most controllers to do much in the way of damage until the epics (at which point I fully expect them to be beasts, but maybe that's just me), but this was so bad it was depressing. I ended up shelving the thing 32 when Gremlins utterly failed to provide any kind of reasonable damage. So, it sat for months.

I recently duo-teamed with a friend playing a lower level, very, very squishy character who had trouble staying alive, even on teams. The friend not only stayed alive through all the missions we played, but actually raved (RAVED!) about what a great support set that combination was. I hadn't known it was that effective defensively, since it's hard to judge how much damage a team ISN'T taking. Just duo with a 22 fire blaster, and that perception changes.

Have not gotten up to the epics yet, but will keep you posted on whether "beastly" occurs or not. Thanks again for the wonderful guide!

On the topic of secondaries, one bit of synergy is the mez protection offered by sonic and FF. If you're trying to make heavy use of conductive aura for sapping, having a way to prevent it from getting turned off by mez is very nice. While hopefully you're mezzing things so that they can't mez you back, we all know that even the best laid plans frequently fail to survive contact with the enemy.

I personally grabbed sonic for my elec/ controller, as there's a nice bit of synergy going the other way there in that sonic really could use the extra endurance that elec/ gives you. I don't think that sonic is necessarily the most effective possible secondary for elec/, as it's just not nearly as strong overall compared to powerhouses like rad or time. However, elec/ might well be the best *primary* for sonic, just because of the end recovery tools, so if you've been wanting to play sonic elec/ might be a good choice.

Also, minor addendum to the 'tips' section. When running in to drain targets with conductive aura, as you note chain fences is nice to both drain some extra end and prevent running. Using it wakes up the enemies for a moment, though, and even though they'll get put back to sleep they might still get a chance to get some shots off. I find that tossing jolting chain right before chain fences can help mitigate this, as depending on the timing of the sleep pulses they'll sometimes be put back to sleep before they finish getting up.

edit: also also, jolting chain is probably the only power in the game where the tempest end drain proc might actually be useful, since it's a multi-target power that takes ST sets in a powerset which focuses on endurance drain. Jolting chain doesn't need very much slotting, so it's not too hard to fit in procs.

One thing that might be useful to mention with regards to Dominators is how the various AOEs work in Domination.

One of the reasons Paralytic is nice on a Domi is that it's your only proper Dominationable AOE Mez. Static Field and Jolting get nothing from it and Synaptic Overload only has Domination on the initial target, so unlike Controllers if you're in Domination then targetting the boss can be a good idea, but hit Aim / Build-Up / scoff some Yellows first.

Also all the AOE mezzes (and the drains) benefit from Power Boost, with the exception of Jolting again.

THANK YOU Local Man for yet another excellent piece of work. This is a great guide. I'd be honored to add some contribution to it, if I may.

First off, I'd like to make a small case for the Entropic Chaos' proc in Jolting Chain. Much like the Tempest one, it's an oft-overlooked proc that really shines in a chain power. And the set itself gives some nifty bonuses for fairly cheap at WW. My controller loves it to pieces, but then again she spams JC more often than TG.

Which brings me to my other point. I play an Elec/Dark controller, and even though she's only 28 so far, I'm LOVING the combo. There's some nifty synergies in there, although it's a bit late blooming :

- Twilight Grasp is a fantastic heal that benefits you and your team and debuffs tough targets; handy on a boss until your controls can stack to shut him down. The theft of essence Proc is just gravy.

- Static field and Tar patch make a great combo to melt down stuff. It helps compensate the low damage of Elec at early levels, caps the slow on uncontrolled foes, and makes going in melee doubly secure.

- Darkest night is a great way to make yourself safer when you use Conductive Aura. Since you'll go to the mobs in melee range, they'll bunch up on you and most if not all will be affected by DN, unlike when you stay at range and enemies can get spread out.

- Add to that the defense and resists of Shadow Fall and Fade and you'll be safer in melee than any other controller - and you'll make your melee teammates safer as well !

- Howling twilight is a sick sick sick power to use on tightly-bunched mobs. It's autohit, takes minions right out of the fight (setting up containment while at it) and debuffs everything, guaranteed. I use it everytime it's up.

- Soul Absorbtion is yet another reason to stay in melee range, it's like Drain Psyche on steroids and affects your teammates too !

- Even though I don't have it yet I expect Dark Servant to help a lot on damage and melee range safety along with the gremlins. Can't wait for level 38 ! Plus as another recharge-intensive pet it lets you slot the other second unique to make your pets more survivable.

Of course, Darkness affinity is a luscious set all on its own, but I feel it really shines paired with Elec because of the dual patches and the many PBAoE.

My first love in this game has always been the control sets, and I really love electric control on paper, but in the field I'm finding it to be disappointing for reasons you mentioned. It's low on damage for controllers, lowers damage on dominators thanks to the long animation times, most of your control options don't work well large teams, and your main controls/mitigation don't benefit from domination (end drain, knockdown, and psudopets from static field and synaptic overload). In short, it's really not a very team friendly set.

Good points, for canceling out alphas I do find it to be about the best set I've played (the chain powers are great for getting groups that are oddly distributed).
Hmm... maybe I'll try rolling up as an electric/storm and see if I like it more that way. It has the same synergy as grav/storm (no -kb in the aoe immob is a plus for freezing rain and lightning storm), plus elec should help a little with storm's massive energy consumption. My biggest concern though is that freezing rain doesn't play nice with static field.

I'm thinking about it from the mindset that my main disappointments with the set come about when allies use -kb and rain powers; the rest of the time electric stands very well on its own. With /storm I could at least take advantage of the things that bug me to patch up some of the weaknesses of electric rather than focusing on its strengths.
I don't see hurricane+conductive as much of a problem if you don't run hurricane constantly. Sleep->immob->round them up with hurricane->turn off hurricane and finish draining them while the -to hit lingers for 10s to protect you if they wake up. Once your mobs are drained of endurance, you don't need the -to hit anymore. And if the fights don't last long enough to completely drain them then you might as well just leave hurricane on.
I never liked tornado against groups because it changes targets too frequently, so I tend to use it more against single targets (you have -kb in the st immob). If my teammates are spamming -kb and making jolting chains (and the kd in freezing rain) useless at least it gives me an excuse to spam tornado.
It's true that thunderclap doesn't stack with anything and it's not that great on its own, but it's also kind of unnecessary here. I'd just skip it.
Freezing rain+static field is the main conflict, but the main problem I'm having with the set is that teammates often make static field useless anyway. Still, it is my main reason to hesitate on making the character.

I'm curious though: what was your thinking behind mind/storm? It seems like such an odd combination.

I started one and have gotten it to 18 so far. I've only been using freezing rain+static field for 2 levels, but it's actually working fairly well. I throw down freezing rain and get my mobs to run into it, and then place static field either between myself and the freezing rain or behind it. If I place it between enemies tend to run into it themselves, although this can take a while because rain tends to scatter them. If I put the sleep behind the rain I can immobilize the mobs and push them (using gust+nemesis staff atm, but hurricane will make it easier) into the sleep patch. Since the debuffs from freezing rain linger for 30s I don't really lose anything by pushing them out of it. Once enemies are drained of endurance I find that there's no need to keep them asleep, so I can just stack everything in one place and use the patch just for the little bit of extra endurance drain/recovery.

Overall I'm liking the set a lot more as a controller than I did as a dominator, particularly since overpower still applies to static field (and synaptic overload) even though domination doesn't.

edit: hit 22, having a lot of fun.
Solo I've been immobilizing enemies and then pushing them into corners, using hurricane+FR to keep them debuffed while conductive aura works. Once they're drained of endurance I can switch off hurricane and finish them off safely. If there isn't a convenient corner I'll use static field+immob, drain them, then drop freezing rain and focus on damage.
In teams I've been using static field for alphas, to stop stragglers, or protect squishies while freezing rain+jolting chains has been my main control combo for the center of the fight. I spent a while teamed with an earth/thermal controller who didn't spam stone cages, which was about as synergistic a teammate as I could ever hope for. Then I teamed with a plant controller who spammed his/her immob right at the beginning of fights, so I concentrated on debuffing, herding, and controlling stragglers. Even though almost all of my area control powers were negated I still felt like I was being effective and helpful, which kept me happy.
Overall I think it's a decent combo, but it almost feels closer to playing a dominator-defender hybrid than a controller. I'd reccomend it to people looking for a fun change of pace instead of something more traditional.