GuiltTrip

But again Dark Miasma is still perfectly playable and will keep your team mowing through groups... but Darkness Afinity goes to 11.

As mentioned in another thread Darkness Affinity (in my opinion) is just superior to the already pretty good Dark Miasma that other ATs get. You loose a single target hold and a cone fear (with a fantastic to hit debuff) for two fantastic team buffs. I will take that trade every time on a Controller and twice on my Dark Controller as I still have said fantastic fear/debuff cone.

I concur that Darkness Affinity indeed seems better than the already fabulous Dark Miasma, due to the two powers swapped in for two powers that controllers (and especially Dark Controllers) do not need. With Fade and Shadow Fall you are pretty sturdy, and once you get Soul Absorption slotted the heavy end use of the set is not an issue on a large team. Although I still went with Cardiac for the end reduction as it helps wit End usage when you are solo and there are less souls of foes to absorb.

I adore my Dark/Dark Controller, and thematically it works great together. It is a combo that feels pretty good early, and just gets better as you level. It solos well and teams spectacularly. I will warn you that if teaming with a Kin you want to be cautious in those big rooms with summoning spirits they get unruly with Speed Boost and make lots of friends for you. Although I think if I was going to make a Goblin Queen I would probably go Demon Master Mind. Maybe there are demon Lore pets to complete the look.

You can easily play other alts and still progress quite a bit on the 50 on Homecoming by just doing one mission a day in Dark Astoria. You can get 10 threads (which is basically 1/6 of a tier 1 Incarnate power) once a day by running repeatable missions there once a day. I usually do it twice a day for 10 threads and 2 Merits and those missions are quite simple (protect 5 items, save three captives, destroy an object and defeat 3 bosses as examples). I usually run them when eating cereal in the morning before work and then in the evening if I feel like playing, I run other alts while keeping an eye out for Trials or TFs I would like to run on my 50. I have been playing far more casually then I have ever played before but in the time since Torchbearer launched I have a 50 with higher Incarnate powers in all the time I played on live.

I highly recommend Hasten, a travel power of your choice (but Super Speed + Shadowfall is fantastic for stealthing some missions) and Assault and Tactics. You can have 4 pets out at a time with Dark/Dark so the leadership pool is not wasted (but you do have it if you do end up teaming). Maneuvers is pointless solo as nothing will attack you once you level up. If you teamed more often and take Super Speed, I would also recommend Recall Friend so you can teleport the team after you sneak around the map.

My first 40 (and first 50, and first Incarnate) was a Mind/FF Controller. With the advent of IO sets def is not nearly as useful as it could be back in the day but the combo still played great at the time of shutdown. And as FF is not slot heavy Mind gets to shine. Are you large teaming as much as possible, or are you mostly playing as a pair? If you are playing as a pair, I would six slot Levitate Mesmerize and Dominate. The first two for damage and the last for locking down foes. I don’t know what you are playing but if it is not a Brute and you are mostly single target attacker, you will safely mow through most missions at +2. Just have them open with Mass Sleep, and just tab and kill through the group. If fighting Robots Levitate will do most of the damage work for them, but Mesmerize is underrated with containment. If you do team, Mind has tons of AoE control and as mentioned with the slot light FF there are slots available to make sure you always have one to use every group. I can give tons of play style advice as I leveled GTG 1-40 three times and 1-50 once. I can’t remember the sets I went with off the top of my head but certainly can answer any questions about how to play it in any situation.

I still feel Haunt is a better option than a single target attack for soloing, but If something fits with a theme go with it, as there is plenty of awesome to go around in the sets, so no need to worry about min/maxing everything. To me Possess is a splash power. I only use it on those Enemies you really don’t want to miss out of the gate (ie Sappers). I find it a better option then the chaos of the tornado, but to each their own. Stalkers are amazing teammates as they also take advantage of bonus damage from Holds and sleeps. Obviously the Sleep thing is a bigger deal to a Mind Controller. Although this is my Controller thread, I can confirm Ice/Dark Corrupters are amazing to play if you want to get away from Controlling for a bit.

Well I hit 48 last night. The cones are wide enough, that I think if you are likely to be teaming I would certainly recommend both. I still think if I was thinking about soloing I would prefer the single Immob over the cone to be used for damage, but from a teaming perspective Fearsome Stare into Living Shadows will be used when ever you are waiting for Heart of Darkness and Shadow Field to recharge. I love the pets but they do seem prone to being overly aggressive, so on the maps where groups are close together and your team doesn’t fancy pulling I would recommend dismissing them. However, while solo they would provide most of your damage output and the Dark Servant will keep the others alive. All in all I think it is a really fun combo to play if you are teaming regularly. If you intend to solo often you might be better served with another secondary. I ended up going with Psi mastery for my Epic Pool and I think it pairs wonderfully with Shadow Fall and Fade to make the the Aggro you can get by being close for Heart of Darkness manageable. Mind is better Pure Control and Fire/Kin or Ill/Therm are better at soloing. But the Dark/Dark combo looks cool and plays well in most situations, and play differently then the other ones I have taken to 50.

I would skip fighting. If you are playing on the Homecoming servers pick up the old vet powers from the P2W vendor (they are free). They are the the left of the Atlas statue (the side nearest the pond). I do not know the Time Manipulation really at all as I just messed with it on Test back in the day. As in my Dark/Dark Controller thread, I think Living Shadows is skippable in most builds, but others say it is worth it. It sounds like you solo quite a bit so Possess will certainly help your soloing speed. All in all i am impressed with the Darkness Control set. It is well rounded for solo and team play.

Interesting. I will admit I am used to the version of Fearsome Stare in Dark Miasma and from years ago. From my memory, it was a wide but shallow cone back then and that is how I have been using it. And the graphics seem to indicate that still. I may need to experiment a bit with this version. In the teams I have been on it is hard to tell what is terrified and what is not as the numbers are flying about. But I know Living Shadows is a narrower cone then i would like as after 28 levels I have seen it’s hits often enough. If Fearsome Stare is narrower than it, I will drop that as well. Another fun fact in I25 it seems you can’t sell SOs with a respect they are just deleted. I aborted my respect when it said they would just be deleted so luckily I can respect both powers out if they are both that narrow. Thanks for the heads up.

Oh I love both the toggles, and probably should have started you are crazy not to take them. But if I am soloing and going group to group I never bother with them as I can easily lock down any 3 targets I bump into and I need all the End I can get if I am doing all the work. You are of course correct that when sollowin big bass with triangles Darkest Night is a must have. I certainly didn’t know about the toggle debuff lingering after defeat though. That is amazing. You are also right about the cone helping keep foes in the tar patch and near your debuff target. But again solo they are not going to be moving at all if using the single target immob and hold, and in higher level teams I think the AoE Hold, Stun and Fearsome Stare does the job better. In the kind of fight where Howling Twilights debuff and stun are needed offensive tools, I think I would be more tempted to keep it up for the odd death that might happen. But like I said usually I find Rezs a waste but that one is a keeper for sure. Thanks for the reply, I think we agree for the most part which makes me think my initial gut reactions are correct, and you clarified to others the awesomeness of some powers I may have downplayed a bit to much as they certainly are favorites of mine.

I certainly remember you and your wife as @Forcefire if my memory serves. I like her had to keep shipping 50s off of Infinity so I could make a new one. I keep meaning to log into Facebook for the first time in forever just to see if they know. I blame @LockJaw as is tradition for them all not being back.

Welcome back to all those that I have not chatted with in Discord! I still fondly remember Mayhemette Tuesdays. In fact there I am as Mindy Mayhem in the back right. Still hoping to see RedTomax, Catareactor and HMan in this rebirth, I think that was Catareactor’s idea but we really did a lot of silly themed team ideas back in the day. Be sure to join the chat channel Infinity in game, although I most likely will not be online until Friday night. Also howdy Tiny bolt! I totally forgot about the cat girl global channel. I am still on the look out for Pep! <_< >_> I really could use some peppermints again.

I have played many many controllers back in the day. Naturally I ended up making one as soon as I got onto Torchbringer. I ended up going with Dark/Dark as it was something I never played before as I think it was behind a payed wall just before the game was announced it would be shut down and I didn’t want to give NC Soft another penny. So far it seems like a pretty decent combination. The cone immobilize seems to narrow to be of use though as I was hoping it would pair well with the PBAoE stun. Here are my initial takes on the powers so far (keep in mind I am only level 23 or so so far). Shadowy Binds - Single Target Immob - might be useful for soloing if used for damage, but in a team situation there are better options. Dark Grasp - Single Target Hold that obviously is a mainstay for all situations Living Shadows - Narrow Cone Immob that doesn’t seem worth it due to it not hitting large numbers of targets easily and providing negligible damage Posses - Single Target confuse which barring a really annoying mob like a Sapper would not see much use unless in PvP, but I think other sets are better suited for PvP in general. I guess it could increase the speed of clearing missions solo at lower levels. Fearsome Stare - Great opener with its wide cone debuff and stopping aggro in its tracks if you or your team single target attack annoying foes Heart of Darkness - pretty nice soft control which again can be a good opener as a Dark/Dark Controller with super speed. Haunt - A great power to have solo, but on a team they seem to go pretty crazy and can cause groups to be added to the fight. Also they are targeted so can eat the initial attacks if you like, but I always think control is a better opener. Shadow Field - Your AoE Hold - another staple but as a targeted power you will want a bind and be selective on the placement - not as good as most Contollers main holds as it can be harder to fire off and then into a dark grasp for a boss hold opener. Umbra Beast - I will have to wait and see but it certainly looks cool. Secondary Twilight Grasp - Targeted debuff and PBAoE - Just a wonderful power, I think people over look the debuff aspect and are put off that you need to hit to heal. But putting this on Auto on a AV fight does wonders. Tar Patch - Another fantastic debuff. You probably will not open with it as it is another targeted AoE which can mess with targeting, but it will make fights much faster solo or in a group. Darkest Night - A targeted toggle debuff that is great on a team that knows to leave the anchor alone and great against any AVs any type of group encounters. Howling Twilight - I am usually not a fan of Rez powers as the goal is not to die in the first place, But this one is a pretty cool one as it can Rez all your allies as long as a foe is near by. Again with super speed and shadow fall you can get in close to the foes and bring back the team while stunning your foes. Shadow Fall - Good toggle buff for a team, only needed solo when you want to use it with super speed for invisibility Fade - I was saddened to see the hold gone but I understand why that is the case. This is a pretty good team buff for tough fights but most likely not that useful solo. Soul Absorption- Please oh please let this be as awesome as I hope it will be on a good team Black Hole - Skippable to the extreme Dark Servant - A delightful Pet that adds healing and debuff a and almost always behaves Am I missing something or from my past experiences with the AT and similar powers accurate?