Area Man

I consider Gravity Control to be a RANGED control set as there are no melee powers. I like to stand back, often behind Singy so he takes any aggro, while I pick off individual foes with GD-Crush-Lift-Propel. /Rad's Choking Cloud usually isn't worth taking without another PBAoE power like Fire's Hot Feet or Ice's Arctic Air. Both powers combine for an effective PBAoE combo.

Exactly! I consider Hurricane is a very useful tool if used judiciously. I keep it on a quick toggle on my mouse, usually bound to button 5. I usually only run it for a few seconds before I toggle it off. If you Immobilize a group and then hit them with Hurricane's ToHit Debuff, it is almost like an AoE hold for lower level foes. It makes a nice defensive "Get-Away-from-Me!" power. I also use it to "Herdicane" - to push scattered foes into a tighter group. Hurricane is great for blocking doorways and especially for keeping foes away from the Reactor in the Respec mission.

TECHNICALLY Fallout is a damage power in /Rad, even through it is a pretty stupid situational power that almost everyone skips. Also, EM Pulse does damage to robots, and you could add some damage procs, too. But, yeah, /Storm is a great secondary for Gravity -- there is lots of synergy plus good damage from Tornado and Lightning Storm. Freezing Rain + Crushing Field is almost a fall-down field, giving Gravity some badly needed AoE control. Have you ever played "Minion Soccer" with Singy? Use Hurricane to blow minions back into Singy's Repel and kick them back and forth.

The most important change due to IOs is that you want to put a Knockback-to-Knockdown IO into Bonfire. That turns it into an effective knockdown field, similar to Earthquake. That IO turns a situational power into a badly needed effective control power. You also want to plan to put a Lockdown +2 Mag Hold proc in Choking Cloud. This gives you a greater chance to hold foes in the Cloud. Fly is fine, but I usually take Mystic Flight over Flight because you get Teleport for free. OR, if you want full invisibility, then you can take Super Speed and add a Stealth IO.

Earth Control is probably the third lowest damage Control set (after Ice and Electric). You can add damage by adding procs, but not a bunch. On the other hand, it is the best AoE control set. One of my first 50 characters was an Earth/Storm. However, Storm has two nice damage powers in Tornado and Lightning Storm. For his Epic set, he HAD to take Fire because of his name, "Earth, Wind n Fire." Solo, my strategy is to run around invisible to lead Rocky into groups to grab aggro, then control the group and pick them off one-by-one. It isn't fast, but it works. Rocky has both +10% Pet Resistance procs, which makes him pretty tough.

Back on the old live forums, Whisper Witch wrote several guides on Mind/FF, which she referred to as a "WarTroller." You can find her guide here: https://web.archive.org/web/20120906023128/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=261963 My opinion: Mind Control is the control set which least benefits from your secondary, as there is very little synergy. So, your secondary really doesn't affect your primary powerset. Mind Control starts out with decent damage and control in low levels, but as other control sets gain damage in higher levels, Mind Control gets left behind on damage. MC has the second best AoE control (after Earth), but all of its powers are "click powers" (except the often-skipped and situational Telekinesis). None of Mind's later powers do damage. Hasten and Recharge are essential. Back on live, I played several Mind Controllers (including a Mind/FF), but my favorite combo was Mind/Storm. Tornado and Lightning Storm somewhat made up for Mind's low damage in higher levels, and Hurricane was a useful defensive power while Mind Control lacked anything defensive. I haven't tried out the changes to FF, so I don't have an opinion on how that may have improved the combo.

My two favorite Earth builds are Earth/Rad and Earth/Storm. I even wrote an Earth/Rad guide on the old live forums: https://web.archive.org/web/20120904193426/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=121712 Once you get a certain amount of Resistance on Rocky, do you really need much more? Between a little healing and resummons, you may be able to find a secondary which provides more benefits. Radiation is a very flexible secondary - it has a little bit of everything. The heal, a multi-purpose buff which importantly includes RECHARGE and Endurance, three foe debuffs, one of which has -regen for AVs, one of the best AoE holds in the game (which also has -Regen). There is a great Rez (if you want it), and two unique skippable powers (Choking Cloud and Fallout) which give flexibility to your build. Plus, it is a less-clicky secondary to play, which is nice when you are learning to play a new Primary. Rad has great synergy with Earth - but it's great with all primaries. Storm is just a lot of fun to play. A small heal for Rocky, a skippable slow, a stealth cloud, a Debuff plus knockdown field, a great situational repel/debuff, a stun to stack with Stalagmites, and a couple of temporary damage pets. There's great synergy with Earth Control. Hurricane (and Gale) can be used to move foes onto, or keep them on your patches (Quicksand, Earthquake, Volcanic Gasses and Freezing Rain). Thunderclap stacks with Stalagmites so you can stun bosses. The added damage in late levels from Tornado and Lightning Storm helps both on teams and solo. A key to using Rocky is to be able to lead him into battle, so stacking stealth is VERY useful. I usually take Super Speed - with a stealth IO or stacked with Steamy Mist, you get full invisibility so Rocky can tank while you avoid aggro. With Storm, Super Speed is great for "Herdicaning" or battle positioning.

Phantasm is NOT on a timer, only his Decoy and Phantom Army are. Yes, Phanty has a lot of knockback, but for Phanty, that acts as a defense/damage reduction. Personally, I would not use a KB-to-KD in Phanty. The way you "buff" Phantom Amy is by debuffing the foes. That's why Illusion/Radiation is so good. Ill/Rad and Ill/Time are the two combos where the secondary has a Recharge buff (helping PA Recharge faster) AND debuffs for foes reducing their Defense and Resistance (which effectively buffs PA). If you want to learn more about how effective Ill/Rad is, take a look at my old Ill/Rad guide on the old live forums: https://web.archive.org/web/20120905042613/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=141225 My view is that an effective pet needs to be able to survive for a while. If you are looking for a buffable pet, I'd seriously look at Earth's Animate Stone (a/k/a Rocky). If you slot BOTH Pet Resistance procs in Rocky, his Resistance is pretty high, making him an effective Tank. Rocky has both melee and ranged attacks. If you went with Earh/Kin, Rocky's Damage could be buffed pretty high. Gravity's Singularity ("Singy") is probably the best "tank" with buffed Resistance because it often Repels foes out of melee. However, Singy can't be healed and doesn't do as much damage as Rocky.

I fixed the link. Sorry.

If you REALLY want to learn about how to build and play an Illusion/Radiation Controller, take a look at my old Ill/Rad guide from the old forums. It is still valid, except there are new sets which did not exist when I wrote this guide. On the LIVE Forums, it was the single most popular powerset specific guide published. Hopefully the link works. https://web.archive.org/web/20120905042613/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=141225

I'm still around, but someone grabbed my "Local Man" name on Homecoming, so I had to go with "Area Man." I prefer the formatting of my guide on the old forums: https://web.archive.org/web/20120905042613/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=141225

Some background: Back on Live, I was Local Man - I was somewhat well known because I wrote several Controller Guides posted on the old forums, including my popular Illusion/Radiation Guide. (When I came to Homecoming, someone had already taken my "Local Man" name) I played a LOT of Illusion builds, including Ill/TA. My old Ill/Rad guide has a lot of discussion about Illusion strategy and effective builds. (Of course, the Sorcery Pool wasn't an option then.) I'll add a link to my guide at the end. I suggest using Spectral Wounds - with a fast recharging blast (like Fire or Ice from the APP pools), you can have a very effective attack chain of Blind-SW-Blast-SW. Spectral Wounds has Illusory Damage which heals back after a short time UNLESS you defeat the target before the heal-back. So, to make the most effective use of the Illusory Damage you want to use it on foes who can be quickly defeated, i.e. Minions and Lieutenants. If you are able to keep the Illusory Damage, your attack chain puts out decent damage with Containment. There's another huge advantage to defeating the low level foes first and fast -- Your pets go after whatever foes are around. If you get rid of the low level foes, then your pets will focus on the tougher foes, keeping those tougher foes off your back. Note that none of the PPP blasts recharge quickly enough to have a continuous Blind-SW-Blast-SW attack chain. That's why I specify Fire and Ice. The other advantage is that Fire will light your Oil Slick! Fireball on Oil Slick is great. Personally, I don't include the Fighting Pool in my Illusion builds. I use stealth, Deceive and hiding behind pets and teammates to avoid aggro. I would rather have more control and buff/debuff powers than give up three power slots for the Fighting Pool. The goal of any Illusion build should be to maximize Recharge to get Perma-PA, or as close to it as you can. PA should be grabbing the aggo of tough foes while you take out the easy ones and fire off your arrows. Here's the link to my old Ill/Rad guide. It is mostly still valid, but a lot of new IO sets have been added, and there were some small changes to the Rad anchors. https://web.archive.org/web/20120905042613/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=141225

Yeah, I am a bit frustrated that someone here "stole" my global name before I found Homecoming. Because I was very active on the Live Controller forums and wrote several popular guides, people kind of knew my name. I had to resort to a similar but different name.

I'm fairly certain Group Invis does not work on Phantom Army. The PA cannot be touched by any buff, which is why debuffs on foes is so important with Illusion. As a toggle, you don't need to worry about Superior Invis expiring just when you are in the middle of a crowd. That's why it is Superior. The combo of S.I. and Deceive makes Illusion the best for stealthing missions. Since Deceive does not draw aggro, you can confuse all foes standing near the glowie, send out P.A. and then get the glowie with little danger of drawing aggro.

Back on Live, there were several Fire/Rad Superteams - I took part in a few of them. Basically, the team would consist of 7 Fire/Rads and 1 Fire/Kin. Everyone turned on Hot Feet and Choking Cloud. Throw out a total of 24 Fire Imps, all boosted by 7 x AM and one Kin. Everybody stays together. We would walk through missions, just re-casting AM and a rarely needed heal -- EVERYTHING MELTED, Foes were swarmed by 24 boosted Imps. Even without the Imps, we had 7 stacked Choking Clouds and 8 Fulcrum Shifted and 7xAM Hot Feet (Damage Cap). Even the toughest AVs dropped in seconds. The Superteams never lasted long, as it was too easy and the novelty wore off after a while. (For those who were active on the Live Forums for Controllers, I was Local Man.)

OK, I was incorrect. Good to know. I remember there being discussions when the Electric Control set first came out that only the first target would proc.

I believe that procs only apply to the first foe hit with Jolting Chain - they do not continue through the chain. So loading it with procs doesn't do much. Jolting Chain really isn't much of a damage power - it is more a short-term control power. It knocks down a bunch of foes, giving the controller time to cast a new control power like Static Field, or the Confuse, Synaptic Overload. It is also good to allow the Tank or other melee fighters to grab aggro. It works best if you target a low level foe to start the chain, as if it misses, it does nothing. Overall, Electric Control likely has the second lowest damage of all controller sets, after Ice. If you are interested, here is the Electric Control Guide I wrote for the Live forums. For the most part, the powerset has not changed. (I was "Local Man" on the old forums, but someone took my Global here.) https://web.archive.org/web/20120907044159/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=287903

Mind Control is the Control set that needs the least from its secondary. Most other crowd control sets have two or three secondaries which have a bunch of synergy. For example, Fire/Rad has Hot Feet + Choking Cloud, Fire Cages + two toggle AoE debuffs which make the AoE Immob more useful, AM which helps BOTH Recharge and End Recovery, both badly needed on a Fire Controller. Mind Control CAN operate entirely without using the Secondary. One thing that is nice to have on ALL controller builds - a self-heal, but that can be achieved in a bunch of ways. So, what secondaries would help a Mind Controller most? Well, Recharge would certainly help to get those controls back faster. With the only exception of Telekinesis, every power in Mind is a "click" power, which needs to recharge before you can use it again. Rad, Kin and Time all have Recharge self-buffs. Another thing Mind lacks is a "defensive" power - a PBAoE hold or other control, or PBAoE toggle which reduces attacks on you. Other sets have things like Ice's Arctic Air, Illusion's Flash, Earth's Salt Crystals, Fire's Cinders, Dark's Heart of Darkness. Only a few Secondaries have what might be considered a defensive power: Force Field has PFF and Force Bubble, Storm has Hurricane, Storm, Dark and Cold all have PBAoE stealth fields with a tiny Defense boost, Kinetics has Repel and Rad has Choking Cloud and EM Pulse. Another consideration: Mind has OK damage in low levels, but its lack of a pet in upper levels results in a drop off in damage. Storm has both Tornado and Lightning Storm to add damage in those upper levels. Trick Arrow has Oil Slick Arrow (as long as you can light it), and Devices has Trip Mine and Time Bomb for damage in upper levels. (Rad has Fallout, but that is highly situational.) Back on live, I played Mind/FF, Mind/Rad, Mind/Storm, all to 50. Mind/Storm was my favorite, but that may be because I really like Storm.

It is nice to see folks still looking at my guide. (I was Local Man on Live. By the time I joined Homecoming, somebody "stole" my Local Man Global. I would love to get it back.) Phantom Army is the key to any solo Illusion build. The only secondaries with + Recharge (to help get Perma-PA), -Defense and -Resistance are Radiation and Time. Radiation also has TWO -Regen powers - Ling Rad and EM Pulse. It used to be that it was very hard to get Perma-PA on anything other than Ill/Rad, Ill/Time and Ill/Kin, but new IO sets have changed this. Another benefit of Rad is that the two of the debuffs are targeted toggles, which means you can set them on the AV and then not worry about them. This means you can get some extra attacks in rather than having to click powers or shoot arrows. This makes Rad easier to play than many other secondaries. Lots of secondaries go well with Illusion. I've played a lot of them. I still think Rad is the overall best. Ill/Rad allows you to stay at range almost all the time (I skip Choking Cloud, so I only need to be close for Flash or EM Pulse.) The best powers from the secondary come early (Heal, AM and the three debuffs). Ill/Time is another great build, but the most beneficial powers come late in the Secondary. Ill/Storm is a LOT of fun - I just love the Storm secondary, and you get added damage late. Freezing Rain adds Debuffs and some AoE control badly lacking in Illusion. Also, since Illusion's damage is ranged and single target, Illusion isn't bothered much by knockback. While it has debuffs, it has no +Recharge powers so you need a LOT more +Recharge from sets to get perma-PA. Ill/Cold is my 4th favorite paring. Sleet has the same benefits as Freezing Rain, but comes later in the set. The Cold shields help teams, but do not benefit Phantom Army. But Cold has some powerful debuffs which will make PA hit harder. Ill/Dark - another great combo with lots of debuffs and soft controls which help Illusion, but it is missing the + Recharge for Perma PA. Ill/TA - Illusion may be the best primary for TA, even if TA is not the best Secondary for Illusion. Why? Send out Phantom Army to grab aggro, and then you are free to use your arrows without drawing aggro - all at range. Ill/Kin - while both are great sets, there isn't much synergy. AND, Kin is very clicky, which prevents you from being able to use an attack chain. While other illusion parings can be good, the buffing secondaries don't benefit Phantom Army.

Just to put my experience in perspective, I'm the person who wrote the Illusion/Radiation Guide on the old live forums, the Local Man guide. At the time of shutdown, it was the most viewed Controller Guide in the Forums. I have not played an Ill/Traps specifically, but I've played about 8 or 9 different Illusion controllers, and played a Grav/Traps. I agree with Doomguide2009 above that with the right playstyle, you don't need to worry about Defense on an Illusion Controller. Superior Invis, staying at range most of the time, moving around, casting PA and Phanty to grab aggro work pretty well most of the time. Personally, I prefer my Controllers to control and not be tanks. I don't take the fighting pool on any of them, as I don't want to have to give up control powers to get three power choices to get a little Defense. Yes, I occasionally faceplant, but that's what rez powers are for. I find active control powers to be more fun than defense toggles with only a small benefit. The top goal for any illusion controller should be Recharge, aiming to get Perma PA if you can. I would suggest that at level 22, those slots you put in Poison Gas Trap can be better used other places.

Back on Live, I started several Gravity Controllers and didn't like them - until I made a Grav/Storm. Gravity has good single target damage in low levels, with FOUR single target attacks, but has pitiful AoE control. There's an AoE immob which allows knockdown, and that's about it. Why it works so well with Storm is Freezing Rain, a level 16 AoE strong debuff with KNOCKDOWN and slow. So, a Grav/Storm can cast Freezing Rain and the Crushing Field Immob, causing foes to fall down while being unable to run away. Finally, some AoE control! To me, this made all the difference in making my Grav/Storm more fun to play. Then there are lots of other synergies to the combo. Gravity is a good ranged set, and Hurricane and Singularity are great for keeping foes at range. Wormhole + Hurricane is a fantastic positioning pair. Lightning Storm is a fixed damage pet, and Wormhole is great for bringing foes into its range. The stun in Wormhole can be boosted by the stun in Thunderclap. You can send in Singularity to draw aggro while Tornado and your single target attacks take down foes. You will never have great AoE control with a Gravity Controller, but the synergies with Storm make it a great combo. Time has a lot of great powers, but I don't think it has all of the synergy that you get with Storm.

As soon as Traps were made available as a secondary, I made a Grav/Traps. The entire purpose of this character, named Ron Popiel, was to set up a bunch of Trap Mines in corners, and then use Wormhole to teleport foes into the middle of a mine field. The mine field took forever to set up, but was sadistically fun to see the bunch of foes get blown to bits.

Superior Invis is wonderful for leading one's pets into melee -- especially if you've got Perma-PA. It also lets you sneak up on foes to confuse them without agro. I see SI as a personal defense power. I can scout ahead without drawing agro, cast PA without drawing agro, cast Deceive without drawing agro. I can get in the middle of a crowd to fire off Flash without drawing agro. Because it is a toggle, I never have to worry about it running out at an inconvenient time. Have a glowie mission? SI lets my Illusion Controller run through crowds to the glowie, confuse foes near the glowie and/or use PA to distract them, and then get the glowie with no fear of being attacked.

Controllers are the most varied AT in the game, as neither primary nor secondary powersets are focused on damage. There is no "best" controller, but there are some "best" power combos depending what you want to do. My personal favorite controller is Illusion/Radiation. The +Recharge in Accelerate Metabolism makes perma-PA easier, and the debuffs help Phantom Army hit better and harder (PA can't be buffed, so the only way to make them better is debuffs). Ill/Rad is very flexible -- great solo, great on small and large teams, and does not conflict with other Controllers or Dominators. Ill/Time is the only other secondary choice with +Recharge and debuffs to help PA be better. However, Illusion pairs up with almost every other secondary that has either + Recharge or foe debuffs. Back on Live, I had 50s of Illusion with Rad, Time, Cold, TA, Storm and probably a few more. Fire/Kin is probably the best for AoE damage, but expect to be in melee and you'll likely faceplant a lot. A team of Fire/Rads can wipe out missions in record times - the synergy of Hot Feet and Choking Cloud is great. Earth Control is the best ranged AoE control set with THREE great ranged AoE control combos (Stalagmites + Stone Cages, Earthquake, Volcanic Gasses). Add Quicksand to each of these for a large Slow and large Defense Debuff. However, it is low on damage generally -- the pet helps a lot. Rad and Storm work well with it, but lots of other combos are great, too. Gravity Control is probably the best single target damage with four single target attacks. It also has the best Controller Pet. I really like Grav/Storm, as Crushing Field has no -knockdown, turning Freezing Rain into a knockdown field. Storm has some AoE control that Grav lacks. TA is a good secondary, too. Mind Control probably has the second best single target damage, and the second best ranged AoE control. No pet, but a strong ranged AoE confuse power instead. It pairs well with ANY secondary -- Mind starts off with pretty good damage, but drops off when other controllers get their pets to increase damage, so a secondary with damage is nice. Ice and Electric are probably the two lowest damage primaries for Controllers, Both sets have nice control powers good for certain teams. Depending on your power choices, Ice can be ranged or melee. A melee Ice/Rad controller can use Arctic Air and Choking Cloud to be very effective. I find Electric Control best for small team-ups, as its best control power is a Sleep Patch - large teams tend to make the power nearly useless. However, an Electric Controller with a single target scrapper as a duo? that can be a lot of fun.

Back on Live, I wrote a popular Earth/Rad Controller guide. Most of the info in there is still valid. My guide discusses each power in detail, strategies to use each power and synergies between Earth and Rad. https://web.archive.org/web/20120904193426/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=121712 In terms of a build, it depends. What's your playstyle? Do you want to solo? Do you prefer to stay out of melee and control from range on teams? (Which is my preference) Some people build up for Tank-like Defense. I prefer to maximize my control abilities and don't mind if I faceplant once in a while. Some general suggestions. The single target Immob is nice as a single target damage power, but is otherwise skippable. I prefer to skip Salt Crystals, Choking Cloud and Fallout. Choking Cloud can be useful on Fire, Ice and Electric controllers, but not on Earth, as I prefer to stay out of melee. Mutation (rez) is optional. Personally, I use Super Speed with a Stealth IO for invisibility. This lets me get in position to fire off controls. And I don't have to use the Stealth Pool. But with this combo, Combat Jumping's Immobilize protection is nice to have - and it takes a Luck of the Gambler Recharge IO. In general, I slot for a good amount of Recharge, as I want my AoE controls up as much as possible. Hasten is essential. If you can get them, 2 Enzyme Hami-Os is perfect slotting for Radiation Infection, as they enhance all three parts of this power (ToHit Debuff, Defense Debuff, Endurance Reduction) Strategy: Quicksand is an underrated power. It is not only a great Slow patch, but a huge Defense Debuff, helping all of your other controls hit. On good teams, I let the Tank (or Brute) run in to grab aggro, then use Quicksand to keep foes together before hitting one of my 3 AoE controls (Earthquake, Stalagmites + Stone Cages, or Volcanic Gasses). Quicksand helps other powers hit more reliably without slotting extra accuracy. Then pick a target for the RI + EF + LR Debuff combo. Ling Rad plus Quicksand slows foes to the Slow cap, so you really don't need to enhance for Slow.