Riverdusk

Yes, electric is actually decent damage now. Actually came out near the top in the recent testing @BRADICAL did and posted. It does rely on pets and procs though, and a good secondary. Relying on just HO's is going to limit things for sure. I do think the early game (especially pre-pet) is what can really be painful, for most controllers. Myself I do rely on temp/prestige powers a lot during those levels as @tjknightsuggested. Although they didn't list my absolutely favorite one, plasmatic taser. I can't imagine leveling a lower level controller without it now and the quick aoe damage it gives (it is basically an energy torrent clone). Most controllers have the advantage of being able to control the knockback it does, so you can even use it in groups.

I've seen more than one confused comment in the help channel over the new controller pet default. As in, "My pet stops attacking now, why is this happening, is it a new bug?"

I know I have more than once brought up the idea of dev time or difficulty in my OWN ideas. As in, I'd like to see "X" idea done, but only if it is reasonably easy to do. Basically something I think would be nice, but not something I think is worth it if it is going to take a ton of dev time to do. That okay to those saying technical difficulty should never be discussed? 😁

I remember finding it useful when someone told me you can drag a reward merit to your in game email and it'll autofill your global address. I do that every time now when I'm sending inf through email to make sure it actually goes to my global. If you really want to you then drag the merit back out and the address will stay (but I usually don't bother, it's just one merit). You can also of course do the old trick of keeping an email and reply to yourself, but I'd rather not clutter up my email with that myself.

Just hit level 31. Smooth sailing so far and I'm having fun with it. Can basically sit there and pick things off in pretty much complete safety. Haven't pushed it at higher difficulties yet though, I tend to wait on that until the build is at least mostly done. I also tend to solo more until I get higher level. Only teaming I've done so far is Posi, so the dark armor controls didn't really exist yet. Ice patch was helpful though for sure, especially dropped at spots like the City Hall door where the ambush comes out. Edit: Joined a full level 34 radio team doing +3. There was a pyro controller, a corruptor, and a couple of tanks/brutes on the team as well. A full team with the controller and other support and tanks and moving through things at a good clip. Not a surprise, in that situation I felt more like a 'normal' stalker in that my best contribution was quickly taking out the bosses or annoying type mobs. Smaller teams or solo or if for some reason the team is struggling, I think is where you'll feel the controls be more impactful. Have to say I am very much enjoying the new buffed dark armor though. Still getting used to endurance not really being an issue anymore with the set (thank you obscure sustenance).

Having only those few powers seems terrible to me: AoE? For a game with so many enemies just focusing on only single target seems strange. Spin is amazing. Personally I find shockwave amazing. What about when leveling up or exemping down? That seems like it'd be painful. Personally I never just look at what a character can do at level 50. I look at how it plays at a variety of different levels. Also separate question: Do those comparisons take into account procs? The longer base recharges on the tank/brute versions vs. scrapper should help proc rate which would help close the gap some potentially.

This is mostly a melee defense based armor set issue. Resistance armors tend to have endurance drain protection built in. If you are range you also avoid the issue. If you are defense based and melee the super stunner is auto hit and you tend to be in melee. That is just one of the 'holes' that particular powerset combo has to deal with, every powerset combo tends to have a few holes and it is actually good game design. Especially when there are ways to overcome those gaps, you just have to be strategic in doing so. Or team with a support set that helps plug them. Not sure what you are talking about with malta. You mean the sappers? Even easier as defense does prevent their drain attack (energy or ranged defense works). They are also minions so easy to mez. They were also already nerfed long ago in that no more than 1 can spawn per 'group'. A nerf to them that honestly I never liked to that extent (would like there to be at least a chance for two in larger groups).

Another thugs mastermind would also work well actually. Pretty sure thug leadership powers stack on other thugs, even from different owners, so when you get two on a team it should get pretty crazy. Pair it with something that gives some resistance like marine as suggested.

Obscure Sustenance is very good imo. A very good heal, very good regen, and even +recovery to help with DA's endurance issues. Combined with good resistances in the rest of the set and the nice buff to cloak of fear DA does very well now, even on a stalker. SR is certainly good and I enjoyed my dm/SR stalker, but so far actually liking my ice/dark armor better. DA just has a lot more tools and isn't as one dimensional.

Dom phantom army was also given other effects though. Dom's phantom army does controls and debuffs such as knockdowns, slows, stuns, etc depending on the attack type they use, Controller version just does damage, even if the phantom uses an ice blast it doesn't actually slow for example, whereas dom's version does. Honestly from playing both I rarely even noticed the lack of taunt on the Dom's phantom army. With the damage they do the phantom army tend to get aggro pretty well even without the taunt.

Think there is some confusion going on. A chatbox name color option already exists. I put in my post exactly where that setting is. Options-Windows-Chat-Individual name colors. Unless you enable that option nothing would change. That option wouldn't go away. You can simply keep it disabled as it is now. My suggestion is simply, for those that enable that option, to allow us to choose the color instead of it being assigned as it is now. Maybe a way to 'reroll' it somehow until we get one we like if opening up a whole color palette choice might be too big a technical issue. Anyway, the original poster's request, I believe anyway as it wasn't 100% clear to me either, was also allowing a color choice for your name that hovers over your character on screen. If that were implemented, no matter how, I'd also suggest it be an option in settings. That way, for those that want the colors to remain the default, nothing would change.

Would love to see this for name colors in chat as well. I'd even go for a truly random system where we could reroll to get a new one if we had to. Right now the ones we get are based on the characters in your name based on some sort of weird hex formula. So, for every name it gets stuck with one color and there is no way to change it. Every time I come up with a name for say an ice or dark character and I end up with a hot pink name it just kind of ruins it for me. For those that don't know what I'm talking about it is turned on under Options-Windows-Chat-Individual name colors

Just thinking of starting an ice/dark stalker myself with a similar thought. My own stalktroller. From some quick testing I did on test server it shut down groups extremely well. Make sure to throw some fear/mez slotting in cloak of fear and it'll now fear lieutenants and not just minions, along with lots of accuracy is still needed even with the accuracy buff it got.

Slotting Cloak of Fear for fear now enhances its magnitude instead of duration (another change that was made). From the testing I did, even one SO worth of fear slotting in it now affects Lt's (tried at level 30 vs +1 in level, higher may take more). If you can get over 100% fear enhancement in it (through overslotting fear enough to push it through ED penalties (tested and it worked vs +1 boss) or taking Vigor alpha (not tested but should work)), it affects bosses. Not sure going for bosses is worth it, but the possibility is there. Vigor isn't a bad choice for dark armor anyway (healing, fear, accuracy, endurance reduction all good stuff for dark armor). Anyway, I find it quite a worthwhile power now myself. Tested on beta server for an ice/dark stalker and I think it'll work very well for a kind of stalk-troller experiment I was planning. Will see how it goes for sure, nothing beats actually playing it for real for testing. A dark/dark melee I think is a definite option for a fear heavy character now. Also a great choice of course, good luck on it. /Thorn probably lend itself to more a horror theme than the other two, imo.

Didn't your testing show illusion has almost the worst for clear times? Poor gravity being the only one slower. From your data actually electric control seemed to be the neck and neck one with pyro for clear time and ST DPS, much more so than illusion. Appreciated your data and testing by the way.