What next?

[roleki]

So on live I mostly ran controllers, wound up with 50s in Grav/Kin, Fire/FF, Ice/TA, Ill/Sonic, and Mind/Storm, and found something to love about all of them. 

 

On HC, I've recreated the Grav/Kin, Fire/FF and Ice/TA, and currently have an Ill/Dark at 39.  I know that once I have that one fleshed out, I will get the itch to try something new... any suggestions for what to try next? 

 

I don't mind repeating a primary or secondary,  but would prefer to stay out of FF as I've already done invincible fire imps and wrung as much amusement out of that set as I think exists.

 

Anyone have a favorite I haven't mentioned?

Edited October 17, 2019 by roleki
Punctuation matters!

[Nemeroff]

I love playing Trollers.  In the back of my mind I'm playing with the concepts/possibilities of FIRE/TIME.

And maybe ILL/DARK.

[Carnifax]

Plant is ridiculous. Plant / Storm is a lot of fun but Plant / Time would work too if you can think of a concept. Dark/Time would be interesting as well.

 

On live I had a plant/emp but reinvented them as a plant/storm here. Plant/Nature is pretty thematic too

[roleki]

Plant/Storm sounds interesting; I was doing a plant/...something in live when my oldest was born and i didnt have time to play anymore.  I might have to try that out.

 

And @Nemeroff I only have mine up to 39 and it's done all wrong but I still strongly recommend Ill/Dark.  Stuff is happening EVERYWHERE on screen!

[Coyote]

Some of these include sets that you've already used, but I really like the synergies of a few combos:

Ill/Traps

Gravity/Storm

Fire/Dark

Earth/Cold

Ice/Rad

Plant/Kin

[oldskool]

Have you played with Time Manipulation yet?  I think everyone needs to experience the joy of that set be it on Mastermind, Corruptor, Defender, or Controller.  Its just so good. 

 

I'll vouch for Plant/Nature.  Its not only thematic but it is strong.  Nature is really solid support set and looks great.  Plant/Storm was an idea too as was Earth/Storm and Earth/Nature for my Druid theme.  I just went all in on plants and its not disappointing. 

 

Gravity/Time is just a nerdgasm and it is effective.  Gravity/Traps may hold some amusement of Wormhole -> Bomb.  Its not a combo that I love, but fun with Wormhole is a thing. 

 

Darkness Control.  You haven't played Dark yet!  I have a Dark/Dark and I love it.  You already have Dark Affinity so I'd consider throwing out Dark/Time since both would be new experiences.

[swordchucks]

I'd second Plant/Nature as a fun combo.  Plant has confusion on tap, which is interesting, along with lots of tentacles.  Nature has several really interesting team buffs and a nice confusion aura. 

 

/Storm is also a good set, but I personally prefer it on a Corrupter.

[Frostweaver]

I am really, really enjoying Electric/Traps. It's kinda brutal and LOTS of control, damage, debuffs, buffs, and the other goodies trollers love.

Just remember it's a defense set and not a heal set and you are golden.

[Frostweaver]

The only problem with time is that there is SO much going on that, to use it effectively, you kinda have to ignore your primary. It's a very...intense, set.

[SeraphimKensai]

So far on HC I have the following:

Ill/Dark - Incarnate/Io

Grav/Sonic - Incarnate/Io

Fire/Pain - Incarnate/Io

Earth/Thermal - lvl 38/Io

Ice/Poison - lvl 33

Dark/Rad - lvl 50

Elec/Cold - lvl 50

 

The Illusion/Dark troller has the most pets a controller can have, but also likely the least control a controller can have. It's fun constantly dropping PA/Fluffy etc on targets. Dark has great sustain/utility. Drawback is that SI and the stealth from Dark are mutually exclusive so it comes down to a help yourself or your team.

 

The grav/sonic is really good at positioning mobs into a corner where I have sing with disruption field and liquefy. Using the impact mechanic it does pretty good damage. Synergistic with a traps or devices player as well.

 

The fire/pain does pretty good damage as fire imps are damage buffed via pain, plus healed. Hot feet, fire cages, and bonefire (with a kb to kd proc) really make the combo shine.

 

Earth/thermal - really strong controls and defense debuffing along with a pbaoe self heal that also heals animate stone and any allies nearby. Heat exhaustion and Melt Armor are also stellar.

 

Ice/poison - strong debuffs between the ice controls and poison powers. 2 single target holds for stacking on bosses/AV's. Artic air/ice slick. Shiver has a wider cone than neurotoxic breath. Noxious gas is fun great. Poison Trap should be noted that it's different than the traps set in that this one is mainly a sleep rather than a huge Regen debuff.

 

Dark/rad - really strong soft controls. Floors enemy chance to hit between dark control and rad infection. Serious debuffs. AM.

 

Elec/cold - only multi hitting sleep, strong at sapping, good end management. Infrigidate is a proc monster, heatloss synergizes well with the end sapping nature of the build. Defense shields for the Gremlins.

 

All the combos are fun and have reasonable synergy between them creating some potentially powerful controllers.

Edited October 18, 2019 by SeraphimKensai

[Frostweaver]

well... if you want to get really texhnical, ill/traps is the most pets a controller can have... hehehehehe

 

[Sir Myshkin]

I’d say do an Earth/(doesn’t matter)/Stone Proctroller. If you like Dark Affinity, I’d say do that secondary. Combo is a beast.

[oedipus_tex]

The only time I have seen a Dark/Cold is ages ago when I rolled one on Virtue and as I recall he was pretty strong. 

 

I don't think I have ever seen a Plant/Cold but that should theoretically be Plant/Storm's more support-y cousin.

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by oedipus_tex

[Mercurias]

Have you considered Elec/Time? I just started one today. It's a pretty fun combo, and it's kind of a visual treat with all the lighting and light swirls. Mine is only lv 14, but he's already rocking some major debuffs and controls. Time's Juncture, Conductive Aura, Distortion Field, and Static Field all together are like your own little glowing fortress of frozen bad guys. I need to find out if there's a way to make a macro to add dancing after I use powers to make it look like an actual rave...

Edited October 20, 2019 by Mercurias

[DougGraves]

I am going to post about this later, but I came up with this set of 7 controllers without overlapping primaries or secondaries. 

 

Primary	Secondary
Darkness	Thermal
Earth	Darkness
Electric	Kinetics
Fire	Radiation
Ice	Time
Mind	Empathy
Plant	Nature

[VV]

I'm going to throw out Dark/Time, as well. Two sets you haven't tried, both different and interesting.

[roleki]

Thank you all for your suggestions; unfortunately everything sounds interesting.  Think I am going to have to spend a couple hours on the test server and see what jumps out.  

 

All in all, a good problem to have 🙂

[VV]

Definitely let us know what you choose!

[roleki]

@VV Will do; I'm still getting my Ill/Dark tuned just so (finally was able to get Perma PA and Clarion, which was my goal) but with just Hybrid and Judgment left to round out, I'll be poking new builds soon.

[Mercurias]

22 minutes ago, roleki said:

@VV Will do; I'm still getting my Ill/Dark tuned just so (finally was able to get Perma PA and Clarion, which was my goal) but with just Hybrid and Judgment left to round out, I'll be poking new builds soon.

Hey that’s awesome! I hear so many things about Ill/Dark. 

[roleki]

@Mercurias It wasn't as easy or as cheap as I would have liked, and I probably sacrificed some useful bonuses, but I think I had it slotted to a base 111.25, then with perma-hasten and Spiritual Total Radial Revamp (T3) i have a flat 191.25 recharge rate at all times, which is just enough to have PA recharged about 1.5s before they fade out.

 

But so far, Ill/Dark has been awesome!  Highly recommend it!

Edited October 22, 2019 by roleki

[Gulbasaur]

I'm going to invite you over to the dark side and suggest you roll a fortunata widow - it's a combination of mind control, psi assault and claws scrapper with strong team buffs and absurdly good survivability for its damage capabilities. 

 

It's 70% controller, 30% stalker, which makes for a very varied playstyle. 

[roleki]

@Gulbasaur That sounds intriguing; i hadn't even considered redside ATs.

[VV]

8 hours ago, Gulbasaur said:

I'm going to invite you over to the dark side and suggest you roll a fortunata widow - it's a combination of mind control, psi assault and claws scrapper with strong team buffs and absurdly good survivability for its damage capabilities. 

 

It's 70% controller, 30% stalker, which makes for a very varied playstyle. 

I was just thinking the other day I'd like to do a Scraptroller. I have a level 1 Fortunata already rolled up, so I will have to break her out.

[Carnifax]

5 hours ago, VV said:

I was just thinking the other day I'd like to do a Scraptroller. I have a level 1 Fortunata already rolled up, so I will have to break her out.

Youll be more of a stalker for 24 levels. Fort and its controls are available following a respec at 24.

 

Then you become a scraptroller with lots of ranged options, and a load of team friendly leadership-like toggles and buffs. 

 

Very easy to soft cap defense.