Controller/Doms, Defenders/Corruptors

I returned to CoH after a 2 year absence. Holy cow has the game changed. In light of all the crazy IO combinations, patron damage powers, and how people play today (seems like just mow 'em down), what role do Controllers & Defenders play now?

When I left they were great for debuffs and controls, but now it seems like a Dom or Corr might be superior. The game feels much more focused on damage and the buffs feel secondary.

Do I have this wrong? Is there still a role for Controllers & Defenders in 8 man play?

Thanks for any advice

Sure they still have a role.

On Controllers versus Dominators the team role is vastly different. Controllers are a support AT that deals damage while Dominators are a damage AT that supports. That may not sound like much but it has a strong impact on team dynamics, both ATs are very strong and depending on the exact team composition one may be better than the other. Both can effectively use their primary to mitigate damage but the Controller will make the rest of the team stronger while the Dominator deals more damage himself.

Defenders and Corruptors have less to differentiate them especially in a team setting and my experience is that they are pretty much interchangeable in terms of team support. The Defender is a little bit stronger but not enough to make a major difference. For solo play the Corruptor does deal more damage but the Defender is tougher so it averages out.

I increasingly look at Dominators as Blaster analogs except instead of secondaries with self-support and melee they got secondaries with control in exchange for a bit less damage.

I know, its an odd way to look at things, but it increasingly seems true to me.

Defenders and Corrupters play pretty much the same - the two archetypes are merely a legacy of the old villain/hero divide. The balance between damage and support is slightly different, but both provide good support and decent area/single target damage on a team.

The gap between different sets is much bigger than the inter-archetype gap. For example, a Storm/ Defender is much more like a /Storm Corrupter than they are like a Empathy/ Defender in playstyel and role.

Like people have said above, Dominators are Blaster/Controller hybrids, and much less support oriented than Controllers.
A mature Dominator is often ideal for leading the charge in a team situation. eg on Carnie missions I'd always make sure I opened with an area boss-level mez rather than letting mele-ers in first, to take out the Master Illusionists before they spawned unmezzable pets. Mature Controllers would typically act in more of a support role.

The proliferation of powersets and archetypes has made nobody obsolete.

On the Controller/Dominator comparison, the difference is pretty significant. A mature Dominator blows a Controller out of the water for crowd control, once you hit perma-dom you're looking at very short recharge, very high magnitude, very long duration controls. Controllers do less damage, even with Containment, except in specific situations, while Dominators can do almost as much damage as Scrappers and Blasters. Controllers, however, are a powerful support AT and are highly desirable for small teams and trials alike. Dominators get lumped in with the DPS classes on these for the most part, as the AV's are all control immune and most enemies don't last long enough for controls to really be useful. But both are very good, very popular AT's, and neither is either OP or UP.

Defenders and Corruptors are two sides of the same coin. Both are taken for support, Corruptors do much better damage in groups (where Defenders don't have a damage bonus) but Defenders do more damage solo, again if and only if they have a secondary with buffs and debuffs to boost their damage. Same deal with Controller/Dominators, very viable, very popular, not really under or over powered.

Controllers and Dominators aren't exactly easy to compare.

Controllers are Support in every sense of the word, offering reliable Crowd Control and buffs and debuffs, second only to Defefenders.

Dominators are a Crowd Control AT, but they're also very much a damage AT. Their Ranged Damage modifier is third highest, behind Blasters and VEATs, and their Melee Damage modifier is second highest, only behind Scrappers. This is very different from Controllers who's Damage modifiers are tied with Masterminds.

As others have said, Defenders and Corruptors are almost like playing the same AT, but with power choices available at different times (and with some limited exclusivity that might change with the Pain Domination, Poison, Force Fields, and Empathy powersets).

Defenders offer teams stronger buffs and debuffs, typically 25% stronger, but not always, and even so it usually translates to a difference of less than 10% in actual buff/debuff value. While on a team, they get an endurance discount depending on the health of their allies, and while solo they get a 30% damage boost (which degrades by 10% at 50 for each teammate until it reaches 0%). Defenders tend to be hardier than Corruptors in most situations, though. This is something most people overlook, I think. Corruptors have slightly higher hitpoints at level 50, but in addition to Defender's naturally stronger debuffs on foes and buffs from their primaries that also affect themselves (Dispersion Bubble, Farsight, Accelerate Metabolism, etc), Defenders get higher +Resistance and +Defense values from their Epic shields and Pool Powers.

Corruptors offer Controller-level buffs and debuffs, so still very good, and moderately higher damage than a Defender (though both are still far outclassed by Blasters in straight damage). Of course, with Scourge, the less health a foe has passed 50% health, the higher a chance a Corruptor can do double damage to them. So most of the time, what they can offer a team sits fairly close to Defenders, but once Scourge kicks in their damage just goes far passed the Defender's.

Both have their place on a team looking for support, and both get the job done well. I guess it's just player preference. Less damage, but better buffs and debuffs and a little more resilient OR more damage, but weaker buffs and debuffs and a little less sturdy.

Trickshooter's Characters | @Trickshooter @Brightside

For the life of me I can't understand why Corruptors weren't made to be (De)Buff/Melee instead of being Bizzaro world Defenders...