Controller ATOs

So what are the thoughts on the Controller ATOs?

I only really clocked that ATOs weren't level 50 purple recipes last week and looking over the set mix I thought they looked decent for purple-grade stuff, and the set bonuses are useful. It's really nice that the archetype sets are multiple mez enhancing and not just hold enhancing because there are a lot of other mezzes that controllers get and not all of them have purple type sets available for them.  I also like that they're attuned enhancements so I could have been selectively using these pieces as I leveled - perhaps even Frankenslotting with them.

• The first set, Will of the Controller, has a psi damage proc. The stats at 50 (not the enhanced set) are: Acc 66.25, End 66.25, Rech 88.07, Mez 89.93. The set bonuses for this are quite nice and have damage bonus, mez duration, accuracy, recharge reduction, and defense.
   
  
• The second set, Overpowering Presence, has "energy font" proc which summons a mini pet like a Night Ward energy ball and it attacks things for about 10 seconds. The stats at 50 are: 99.08% accuracy, 96.7% end, 103% recharge, 105% mez. The bonuses are good but maybe less great than the other set: mez duration, hit points, damage resistance, recovery, and a bit of defense.
  

Since the enhancements are attuned out of the box (and my controller is level 30) I bought the energy font one to see how it worked and well, I'm chalking it up to having tried this out as an experiment. The energy font thing barely procced. I stuck it into Possess which I use all the time if I can and it barely procced once every 2 minutes; I think if it was on auto it would have fired once a minute (which matches the description, I think). Probably the proc would fire more if I had it in my single target hold, but I would never use either set in my single target hold as I slot for damage as well. (My ideal slotting for my single target hold and immobilize are 3 Peroxisomes and then 3 mixed set pieces with Acc & Recharge so I end up with 78% Acc & Rech and 94.9% damage & mez.)

I think that the overloaded numbers in Overwhelming Presence means its a good candidate for one of the AoE mezzes since they mostly have lower than baseline accuracy and long recharges. It's a shame that the proc is only going to fire occasionally in a power with a long base recharge like them, but the overall stats and set bonus for 6 pieces  (3.75% defense to energy/negative and 1.8% defense to ranged) kind of makes up for the proc being a sorta-dud. I will say it's an interesting choice to have the bonus damage in the form of a temporary pet instead of a random damage packet. The pet spawns on the caster and moves to engage so if you're putting this in say a sleep set, it might go attack active targets instead of the adds you just slept -- at least in theory.

Now I understand that these sets are upgradeable, but I think the superior versions DO require level 50? Which is why I'm only talking about the basic versions because people might choose to invest into these as they're leveling and even once you're just at 50 it will take a bit before you can upgrade all 6 of them.

So, thoughts?

I think overpowering presences is kinda bad tbh, when you consider that the alternatives at the price point are purple sets or winter sets.

Recovery, max health, and mez duration are pretty meh.  The resists and defenses are okay, but you can get better defenses out of winter sets.  And accuracy/recharge from purple sets would be better if you don't need the defenses.

I tried the superior Overpowering Presence on Justin. It was... so very bad. The little energy ball did 20 damage on a grey mob, and as the mob ran from me it tried to follow, paused to attack, failed, kept running after the mob, and eventually despawned.

Ok so it's not my imagination they're kinda meh, comparatively. That is, I think the #s in Will aren't horrible but for what I'd want it in I really want accuracy, recharge, and mez at max like Overpowering is; but Overpowering has mediocre bonuses, and the energy font pet sucks.

I was looking at these after looking at the stalker sets. The raw #s in these are actually much higher than in the stalker sets, but the set bonuses are nicer and the two procs are AT enhancing. It'd be like having a 20% additional chance of Overpower with all our single target mezzes instead of the energy font pet.

The Energy Font doesn't "attack" per se; its main power is Shocking Aura, an auto-power that continually damages and Stuns all enemies within 15' of the Font, and that Stun aura is the real benefit of the ability.  It's only 2 magnitude, but it's pulsing, so it stacks with itself if it stays with 15' of an enemy long enough.

Like most (maybe all?) pets, it also inherits your Alpha and Interface abilities.

It's not reliable due to being a proc, but it's nice when it pops up.

(The Fiery Orb summoned by the Dominating Grasp set is basically the same thing, but with a different name, visual, and damage type - the Fiery Orb uses Blazing Aura, which does fire damage instead of energy damage.  It does more damage, too - they use the AT's own damage scales rather than the Pet damage scales, so the Dominator version hits a little harder - but the stun aura is still the main point)

The Energy Font doesn't "attack" per se; its main power is Shocking Aura, an auto-power that continually damages and Stuns all enemies within 15' of the Font, and that Stun aura is the real benefit of the ability.  It's only 2 magnitude, but it's pulsing, so it stacks with itself if it stays with 15' of an enemy long enough.

 

Like most (maybe all?) pets, it also inherits your Alpha and Interface abilities.

 

It's not reliable due to being a proc, but it's nice when it pops up.

 

(The Fiery Orb summoned by the Dominating Grasp set is basically the same thing, but with a different name, visual, and damage type - the Fiery Orb uses Blazing Aura, which does fire damage instead of energy damage.  It does more damage, too - they use the AT's own damage scales rather than the Pet damage scales, so the Dominator version hits harder - but the stun aura is still the main point)

This is what I thought! Thanks for the info

That's really good info about the Energy Font. Thanks so much!

This is why I'm thinking that the Energy Font proc IO belongs in an AoE power, rather than in a single target power.  Bring to bear the "chuck lots of dice!" means to get the procs rolling.

Well, with the clarification that Energy Font pulses a stun, and with the suggestion that we try to hit a lot of targets rather than spam single target, wouldn't that imply this set might work well in the AoE stun powers?  I mean I could

*has a thought, breaks off, checks to see if it can slot into Howling Twilight but finds it can not; too bad because that's a flat mag 2 and a temp pet that adds another mag would be great*

er anyway, I could see sticking the proc into an AoE stun power. Say if you use Absolute Amazement the #s you get are: 59% Acc, 33% End, 90% Rech, 102% Stun. But you could yank the Stun mono piece from the AA set out because it's far beyond ED levels and the final bonus from AA is some mez resist. Then if you put the font proc in you get 100% rech and 89% stun. The major set bonuses from Absolute Amazement of 4% recovery, 15% Accuracy and 10% recharge time are preserved.

The other thing I considered is a lot of the purples have overlapping set bonuses. Like at a glance it looks like the stun and hold sets are the same, the confuse set has 4% recovery and 10% recharge time ... with enough purple sets you might actually reach the point where you should shift to the ATOs just because you won't get those bonuses (though it would have to be a pretty rich build, I think.)

It's part of the reason why I wanted to put Energy Font into Wormhole on my Gravity Controller and into Terrify on my Mind Controller ... but was then later convinced to put the set into Crushing Field on my Gravity/Time build would be be a superior option ... because Immobilize field + Stun field = Hold (Minions) field.

Your mileage may vary, of course.