Hjarki

You normally wouldn't slot Overpowering Presence (or Will of the Controller) into the single target Hold because they contain recharge and reduce the proc chances of all the other procs you place in it. You place procs like that into long recharge powers like Poison Trap where they have essentially capped proc chances but you can still benefit from the recharge. In terms of single target damage, a Controller would have a setup (w/+100% damage) similar to: Char: 67 * 2 + 72 + 72 + 38 + 38 = 354 / 1.188 = 298 Cross Punch: 109 * 2 + 60 = 278 / 1.848 = 150 Seismic Smash: 160 * 2 + 107 + 72 = 499 / 1.716 = 291 +10% or so from Fury of the Gladiator procs Higher recharge due to Cross Punch and more accessible purple sets Minor additional dps from Bonfire/Hot Feet Potential for extremely high dpa from Fire Imps Damage for above is for minimal slotting (w/5-set purple bonuses); full proc slotting is much higher dpa The Defender Fire variant would have: Blaze: 99 * 2 + 88 + 46 = 332 / 1.188 = 279 Blazing Bolt (assuming full +hit): 112 * 2 + 67 + 67 = 358 / 1.33 = 270 Flares: 37 * 2 + 13 = 87 / 1.188 = 73 Intermittently higher +damage due to Aim. Normally have gaps in the rotation An Ice Blast variant: Bitter Ice Blast: 82 * 2 + 102 + 56 + 56 + 56 = 434 / 1.188 = 365 Freeze Ray: 72 * 2 + 102 + 47 + 47 + 47 = 387 / 1.32 = 293 Ice Bolt: 36 * 2 + 22 + 22 = 116 / 1.188 = 98

Pretty easily, I imagine. Remember, Controllers have almost double the Damage Scale of Defenders once you take into account Containment. Something like Fire/Poison/Earth would also be able to field Hecatomb, Will of the Controller, Overpowering Presence, Apocalypse and Unbreakable Constraint procs - which is a lot of extra damage.

I think you're missing what I'm trying to say. Being in melee is a cost applied to your build. It requires more comprehensive defenses than you'd otherwise need. But you only need to pay this cost once, no matter how many powers require it. What I'm trying to point out is that Irradiate isn't significantly better than Fireball... and that's the issue. If you're going to pay the cost of using Venomous Gas, you want abilities that reward you for paying that cost. Those abilities are rare for Defenders/Corruptors/Masterminds but they exist for Controllers.

Most Assault Rifle builds would probably be better off as Beam Rifle - it's a legitimately weak set. Traps has a lot of value, but it tends to be out-of-sync with the rest of the game. If you're solo and can proceed at your own pace, it's a nice set. But the moment you team up, it's tough to keep up and still get the full use out of your powers.

In most builds with 5 +10% recharge bonuses and Tactics, you'll hit 95% vs. +3 as a matter of course.

Most of the time, ranged attacks are lower damage. They're also more difficult to slot since Ranged sets tend to be inferior to Melee sets for most purposes. Also, diversifying your attacks gives you a significant advantage in slotting since your three single target attacks can all use different attack types - and thus each can exploit the best set of their category rather than only having one attack with a strong set and the others with weaker ones.

Ice is arguably the best set for AE on a Corruptor due to the interaction of Scourge and Rains. With a standard attack, the value of Scourge declines the bigger the attack gets because Scourge is calculated based on the health total prior to the attack. However, with a Rain, Scourge is re-calculating on every tick and Rains scourge all the way down. Ice Blast's current issue is the lack of a sniper attack. Sets without a sniper attack have significantly less single target damage than those with sniper attacks since the fast snipe changes. This is especially true when you're talking about a very busy secondary like Kinetics. In terms of Kinetics, the OP's perception of how much activity it requires is a well-known issue. This tends to mean you really want high impact attacks to fit in between all those activations. While Siphon Power is optional in a standard kill-the-large-crowd fight, it's essential for single target fights. A year ago, Kinetics probably would have been considered one of the most powerful support sets. Today? I'd probably consider it a mid-ranked (if that) power set. The sheer amount of activations it requires tends to limit how much damage the other set can deal. It doesn't really offer much in the way of slotting opportunities. The increasing dependence on procs means that it only buffs a portion of the damage. The relative closeness of the +damage cap to what players without Fulcrum Shift are running means it doesn't stack well. The ally buffs are great in mid-levels but often superfluous at 50.

I tend to classify support sets into: Universal. You can staple this onto almost anything and end up with a fairly strong build. I'd place Storm and Time into this category. Workable. You can make certain, specific strong builds with this set, but you can't just paste it willy-nilly everywhere. This is where I'd put Poison. Dysfunctional. These are the sets that really need a review. For whatever reason, they just don't mesh very well with anything and you'd almost always be better off just using another (similar but better) power set. From my perspective, the issue with Poison is that it's really a melee-range set. It's got 4 key powers: Envenom, Weaken, Poison Trap and Venomous Gas. Two of those are PBAoE powers and the other two are only AE if you've got a very compact spawn - they're not the sort of thing you fire from 80 yards away at an unengaged target unless it's a single target fight. Given that constraint, your choices for other sets are somewhat limited. While you could just pair it with a standard ranged set and just not fight at range, you really want to pair it with a set that also fights in close quarters to get best use out of it. Unfortunately, there just isn't much in the Defender/Corruptor/Mastermind arsenal that fits this profile. Controllers are a bit better, with viable melee attacks and damage auras.

Defender Freezing Rain is -35%; Corruptor is -30%. In terms of seeing Storm Summoning on Corruptors, it's less about it being good on a Corruptor than the sheer power of the set.

Some things I noticed: Twilight Grasp. 6-slot Nictus doesn't really get you anything useful. I'd go with something like 2-slot Nictus, 4-slot Cloud Senses. This gets you both procs, a bit of extra healing and some -hit debuffing - as well as the recharge bonus from Cloud Senses. Roots. There are times it makes sense to slot the AE Immobilize for control. This is not one of them. Roots is double the damage of other AE Immobilize and should be slotted as such - especially given that you have no other target AE powers. Spirit Tree/Vines. Neither of these are particularly worthwhile powers unless you desperately need them for slotting. Strangler. Slotting this for Basilisk's Gaze means you're not using it as a source of damage. Indeed, the entire build seems to fall apart if you plan on fighting an AV/GM since it has no effective single target damage beyond the probably-just-going-to-die Pet. Seeds of Confusion. Slotting anything except Coercive Persuasion here is questionable. Aside from the great set bonuses, Contagious Confusion in AE Confuse is nearly mandatory. Carrion Creepers. While the all-procs slotting is popular, I think it's far more worthwhile to push the recharge on this power. At the very least, tossing the Superior Overpowering Presence proc in here makes sense. Howling Twilight. This is a good place to slot Absolute Amazement since it gets you all the standard purple bonuses and you don't have many places to slot these sorts of sets. Dark Servant. While this can be muled, I've never found this power to be particularly useful as a power since it dies so easily. If you are going to depend on pets, you probably want to pick a Patron pool so you can mule all the resist/defense bonuses. Flying. If you're only taking this one power, you're better of taking the Sorcery pool. If you can free up two other powers, it will also permit Rune of Protection. Soul Absorption. This doesn't require anything to boost its effectiveness beyond enough recharge to use it regularly - it provides so much recovery/regen when used against a large spawn that it's not really necessary to boost it further. Soul Mastery. This would not be high on my list of choices. While it does have a pet (see above), Soul Drain doesn't really do much for you since virtually all of your damage is pet-based.

Electric and Plant are the ones with rapidly recharging AE Confuse. Plant's Seeds of Confusion will likely be better for your purposes since it activates quickly but causes aggro. Electric's Synaptic Overload activates more slowly. More importantly, it takes time to propagate across the spawn. However, it doesn't cause aggro so it's technically a stronger power if you've got the time to use it. Of the others: Mass Confusion (Mind Control). This has too long a recharge for this power to be useful in most situations. Possess/Deceive/Confuse/Boggle. Single target Confuses can be useful if you're solo'ing at lower levels, but these powers are normally little more than mules. Arctic Air/World of Confusion. The magnitude and chance to occur on these powers is too low to create any meaningful control.

This would be a bit like having an Armor/Armor archetype. Yes, I love my Super Reflexes/Willpower build, but it's awfully tough to win any fights with just Boxing and Flurry.

No - they're definitely useful for long fights against an AV/GM. However, they tend not to be particularly useful for fighting through large spawns.

If you have the toggle active on a living enemy, it will remain active on their corpse after they die. However, the activation time of the toggles is such that they're rarely very useful in fast-moving teams - it's not unheard of for you to activate the power and the enemy dies before it lands.

For Electric Control chain effects, they are a series of pseudo-pet summons at delays. Whenever the power takes effect on the target, it locks out the bounces for 5 secs. However, the powers themselves take a lot longer than 5 sec to resolve. So while your two enemy example won't work, a 10-enemy spawn will almost certainly have targets that are double-stacked (unfortunately, you can't control which targets other than the first).

Single target Confuses have a ~80% proc rate. Synaptic Overload doesn't make particularly good use of Contagious Confusion due to the peculiarities of its mechanics. However, it is inherently 'contagious' in that it can bounce back to previously Confused targets and self-stack. Seeds of Confusion and Mass Confusion has capped proc rates. You'd need +66% internal recharge on Seeds of Confusion before it was no longer capped. However, Seeds of Confusion can perma-Confuse spawns while Seeds of Confusion cannot. I think this might be an issue of how you play the game. On teams, 'non-aggro' is normally useless because while you're carefully avoiding aggro, the rest of your team is diving in and gleefully killing the spawn. Trying to Confuse things to death is incredibly slow compared to just killing them and while the protective virtues of Mass Confusion might appeal to a solo Dominator, most others are just going to shrug and let attacks bounce off their defenses. So I'd argue that the value you're seeing is largely confined to Heros/Villains who: Have weak defenses Have limited offense And who are solo Even then, I'm having trouble seeing why you'd choose Mind over Plant or Electric.

In my suggestions above, I pointed out a way to make an "Attract" version of Repel without any changes to the underlying engine - just make it a Location AE so you can place it such that you can control the vector yourself. However, I find it unlikely that any sort of significant changes to Mind Control will occur, so many of these discussions are a bit pointless.

I'm not sure Containment (which Illusion doesn't have either) or pets (which are frequently skipped as the difficulty rises above +0 anyway) are the issue. What I'd suggest: Mesmerize. Add a Mag 1 Hold, Mag 1 Fear, Mag 1 Confuse to the power. Dominate (unchanged) Mass Hypnosis. Reduce endurance, recharge and duration to 1/3rd current values. Dread Spike. Single target sniper attack that has approach range/recharge/activation/etc. Causes Mag 3 Fear. Confuse (unchanged) Aversion. Target Location AE, 15 sec recharge, 30 sec duration, 25 yard radius. Enemies take 1.5 dps Psionic damage and suffer Repel (from the center of the location). Terrify (unchanged) Total Domination (unchanged) Mass Confusion (unchanged) You'd have a mass Sleep on a much shorter recharge that would let you set AE containment (albeit not as efficiently). Likewise, Mesmerize would be much more effective at setting Containment on a single target. Dread Spike would simply ramp up Mind's single target damage to compensate for the lack of a pet. Aversion would be the Telekinesis replacement. You could use it like a standard Repel field (around yourself). You could use it to stack enemies in a corner. You could even set up multiple overlapping fields to create a 'trap' they can't escape.

Freezing Rain has an unusually low proc rate, so it normally isn't worthwhile to slot any procs. Lightning Storm has a 1 mag KB, so it doesn't knock back anything that's +1 or higher. Psionic Tornado has knockup, not knockback.

Stacking eleven billion Confuse mags on an AV isn't actually all that useful in most cases because you're just using Confuse as a budget Hold in that scenario - and any level of Confuse you could hit is also a level of Hold any Controller could hit. Static Field self-stacks within the same field (and, of course, you can layer multiple fields on top of one another if you so desire) so it'll sleep anything Mass Hypnosis could sleep - and it will do so without even needing perma-Dom. I think a better solution is to reverse the Repel - make it an 'Attract' instead. If I want to send mobs away, there are dozens of far easier ways to do it. But if I want to pack mobs tightly against me, there really aren't all that many options for Controllers/Dominators.

Indomitable Will. There’s an empty slot here I presume you wanted to place LotG +recharge in. Spectral Wounds. Gladiator’s Javelin +toxic would be the obvious choice for the empty slot. Blind. The +lethal proc is significantly more expensive than +psionic from either of the Hold sets. However, YMMV. Steamy Mist. You’re using a level 30 LotG rather than a level 50 one. This happens when you overwrite an enhancement of lower level in Mid’s with a higher level one. You’re also under-slotted for Defense here - if you move some of the uniques elsewhere, you can fit ED-level Defense and Resist in the power. Freezing Rain. Because Freezing Rain can overlap itself, reducing recharge is critical. On the other hand, the proc chance for Achilles’ Heel is extremely low - it’s not really worth it. Phantom Army. The 5-set bonus for Phantom Army isn’t very worthwhile. While I know that I gave a broad recommendation of slotting Tornado with 2p Soulbound Allegiance, D/R + Build Up is better located here (PA is the harder-hitting power). Mind Over Body. 6-slotting this is a bit odd. 2p BotZ in Super Jump will net you +1.25% of the 2.5% defense you’re getting. You could also dump 2 more slots into Combat Jumping for another 2p BotZ (amongst many other options). This would drop you to a more conventional 3p for your resist toggle while giving you more kb resist and better overall movement. Another place to get Ranged Defense for cheap would be to mule 3p Explosive Strike into Gale (which you’re probably not going to use anyway, so you don’t need FF +recharge in it). Adding slots to either Superior Invisibility or Combat Jumping to boost their defense will also give you some low-hanging fruit. Medicine pool. It’s a lot easier to heal yourself via Health/Stamina procs (especially since there’s now an additional +heal proc for Stamina these days) than to use Medicine. The are a host of better options for those powers. For example, you could take Spring Attack as an Armageddon mule to replace Aid Self as a Panacea mule and have a power left over for Maneuvers. You could ditch Spectral Wounds in favor of Arcane Bolt (your personal damage isn’t all that important) and just go with Spirit Ward (Panacea) to nab Rune of Protection for status protection. You could grab Weaken Resolve (can hold Achilles Heel very effectively as well as being a tremendous power in its own right), Mighty Leap (replaces Super Jump) and Unleash Potential (which can 5-slot Panacea, 6-slot Preventive, fit LotG, etc.)

I'm aware of this. However, when you're tossing a Lightning Storm every 25 secs, this translates into spending three slots for +20% global damage, +20% global recharge and restoring 0.4 mana/sec. For Tornado, it's merely the equivalent of +33% recharge in a single slot.

Below is a fairly conventional all-ranged build. The high recharge means that Overcharge is normally sufficient for AE (coupled with Disintegrate spread), but it's primarily a single target build (as are all Beam Rifle builds).

Honestly, I think this is an issue with the Controller archetype as a whole - Mind is just the most clear example of it. The fundamental issue is that the notion of support is obsolete. Being able to cripple a spawn on a long recharge is of minimal use when everyone else is able to kill it more easily. But that sort of support is all Mind Control has to offer. Moreover, it's just not very good at that sort of support. Mass Confusion is inferior to Synaptic Overload and Seeds of Confusion - and those powers are mainly Coercive Persuasion mules in a team setting. Terrify is inferior to Spectral Terror - which is again a power you primarily take because it might be useful solo and you can dump a decent set into it. Sleeps are generally useless unless they're Static Field because they don't even get good sets. A second Confuse is useless since you can't slot CP more than once. The Mass Holds are routinely skipped because they're on the same sort of recharge as 'annihilate the whole spawn' - and everyone gets a Judgement. Telekinesis is the 'signature power' - and the fact that no one ever takes it from Epic/Patron pools should demonstrate how poor it is. I don't think there's any easy fix here. There just aren't any features with Mind that would justify taking it except from a purely RP standpoint - and this is true for Dominators as well. To make it a worthwhile set, you'd really have to invent new powers to replace the crud it has now.

While Plant/Poison is certainly more thematically appropriate, Carrion Creepers is a bit gimmicky in the spacing you need both between mobs in a spawn and the spawns - you can very easily run into situations where it's just not doing much for you. Likewise, the damage on all the AE Immobilizes is so weak that even having a double strength one isn't particularly worthwhile. In contrast, Hot Feet and Bonfire just work seamlessly and power the rest of the build - you can just go /afk like a Brute and things will die around you. Also, I should point out that these builds aren't unusual-for-the-sake-of-unusual, but actually more potent than many conventional builds due to the synergies they exploit.