Powerset Shipping: Controller Edition

[oedipus_tex]

For the sake of argument, let's "ship" the powersets with their perfect mates. In the thread below, lets discuss which powersets belong together. There is no polyamory in Paragon City, so each powerset can only be paired off once.

 

 

Discussion Rules:

• You must list every primary powerset
• Each secondary powerset can only be partnered once.

 

(Obviously there are no truly correct answers here, I'm just curious what people would come up with if forced to pick. It gets hard as your start running out of partners to choose, so pair wisely.)

 

 

I took my stab at pairings and came up with the notes below. Would you do it differently?

 

 

 

 

TEAM OEDIPUS TEX:

 

Earth Control:

Partner: Storm Summoning

 

Let's just get this one out of the way. These two sets love each other too much to deny. Earth's low damage and high control is screaming for Tornado honeymoons and Lightning Storm babies.  Moving on.

 

 

 

 

Mind Control:

Partner: Time Manipulation

 

Time is everything Mind Control is looking for and more. While it is true that Mind/Time may not be the strongest possible pairing for Time, Mind Control itself demands a secondary that is strong to justify it, like a trophy wife. 

 

Close Matches: Radiation, Dark

 

 

 

Electric Control:

Partner: Radiation 

 

Electric creates a zone of safety that benefits Radiation's toggles beautifully. Combined with a PBAoE heal to make melee work possible and a PBAoE hold power in Choking Cloud, its clear these two will go far together.

 

Close matches: Storm, Dark, Kinetics, Time

 

 

 

Ice Control:

Partner: Dark Affinity

 

It's not that Ice Control/Dark Affinity is the most obvious pairing, because it isn't. It's that Ice Control needs a big strong secondary in a way that other primaries do not, because they have self esteem. Luckily, Dark Affinity brings much of what Ice is looking for. With Arctic Air being so high-risk and expensive to run, plus Ice offering such anemic damage, Dark Affinity puts the band aids just where they need to be. 

 

Close matches: Storm, Kinetics

 

 

 

Plant Control:

Partner: Kinetics

 

I'm sure Fire Control will be jealous, but when all is said and done Kinetic's true love is Plant Control. Kinetics just has what plants love. 

 

Close matches: Radiation, Dark, Storm

 

 

 

Fire Control:

Partner: Nature Affinity

 

This one surprised me, considering I recently argued that Nature wasn't a great match for Fire. But here are the facts:

 - Nature is a great set overall

 - Fire is a great set overall

 - Nature and Fire are great together. So while Fire may flirt with Kinetics, Radiation, Dark, and Time, other sets are much more hungry than Fire is

 

Fire has lots of extramartial affairs with other sets, of course.

 

 

Close Matches: Kinetics, Dark, Radiation, Storm, Time

 

 

 

Illusion Control:

Partner: Cold Domination

 

So, I actually didn't want this pairing to happen. It just seemed so cliche. I would much rather see Illusion paired with something else, like Traps. But when examining all of the couplings as a whole, Illusion/Cold & Gravity/Traps is better than the reverse world of Illusion/Traps & Gravity/Cold. So Gravity takes Traps, and Illusion is stuck in a loveless suburban marriage with Cold.

 

Close Matches: Traps, Radiation, Dark

 

 

 

Gravity Control:

Partner: Traps

 

This was hard to call due to the strong affinity between Gravity and Storm. However, other sets need Storm more than Gravity does. That leaves Traps, a set virtually no other primary is drawn to. Gravity/Traps is a unique beast.

 

Close matches: Storm

 

 

 

Dark Control:

Partner:  Thermal

 

Thermal, really? Well, it's not that this is an obvious and amazing pairing, it's that Dark Control is so sleekly designed that it doesn't strictly need much out of a secondary. Dark/Thermal would be a strong support character that is largely unkillable but that also does not excel at damage. 

 

 

Close matches: Time, Radiation, Storm

 

 

 

Sets without a match:

  - Empathy

  - Poison

  - Pain

  - Trick Arrow

  - Sonic Resonance

  - Force Field

 

Also, notably, none of the sets I left without a match fall into any sets "close matches." Maybe I should open my mind more. Or maybe these sets just aren't that much of a catch.

 

 

What do your pairings look like?

 

Edited November 2, 2019 by oedipus_tex

[MunkiLord]

I don't have Controller experience, so I have no opinion to offer other than that I love the idea behind this thread and I will be watching it closely.

[Coyote]

Grav/Storm. Grav is great single-target damage. Storm is good single-target damage, and "mini-AoE". But the AoE radius is small. Enter Wormhole so that you pack all of the mobs into the small area of Tornado and Lighting Storm, and even with a 5 target max for them, you're still doing good AoE damage. Good AoE and single target from a Controller, what more do you want?

 

Ill/Traps. Illusion is great single-target damage, but lacks AoE and a source of Containment. Enter Poison Gas Trap for Containment and AoE damage, and add Trip Mine for more AoE. As above... great single-target, great AoE... and it's like a cheat code against AVs with the primary shutting down their offense and the secondary shutting down their regeneration.

 

Earth/Cold. Animate Stone will tank an AV just like PA... except that unlike PA, the AV will squish it. Add in the Defense buffs from Cold, and the combination of -Damage and strong -Resist that improves the -Damage, and the Medicine Pool... and you have a tank that can hold up against pretty much all AVs, and without having to build for a ridiculously high Recharge like a perma-PA build. With the strong -Resist and -Regen you have enough damage output. It's great on teams, and soloing it's still solid since you can use Infrigidate as an extra attack, and all of the -Def makes your veteran powers accurate enough to use. Just remember that you can solo at high level difficulty, but not at high body count.

 

Ice/Time. Ice is a solid set AFTER you survive the alpha. If you do. Combine it with Time to mitigate the alpha strike and heal back the damage, and it's very strong defensively. Offensively it's weak, but Distortion Field helps with that a bit.

 

Fire/Dark. Fire is the best all around offensive set, and Dark is probably the best defensive set. Combine the two, and with Soul Absorption to fuel Endurance for Hot Feet and spamming Fire Cages, and you can do basically everything.

 

Dark/Poison. Dark is so strong defensively that it can support any secondary on the defensive side. Poison is weak defensively, but pretty strong on offense and puts out AoE damage with Poison Trap... it's PBAoE so it combines well with slotting up Heart of Darkness as a PBAoE and opening up with TWO mini-nukes every single fight. Dark has good single-target damage, so now you have single-target and AoE damage.

 

Mind/Trick Arrow. Mind is kind of weak on a Controller, Trick Arrow is kind of weak. Both are playable, but don't seem to bring much strength. Mind is good single-target damage, and Trick Arrow brings some AoE to help. But the trick here is that you now have THREE AoE shutdown controls: Total Domination, Mass Confusion, and EMP Arrow. With just two, it's hard to rotate them to have one every spawn if you're moving fast. But with three, yay, it's "shut down every spawn" which is something pretty unusual. You could try this with /Rad also, and Accelerate Metabolism would help the timing even more... TA brings AoE damage and Rad doesn't, but I can see the argument for going Mind/Rad. But I like Rad with Electric (especially since Rad works well if you fight inside the toggle debuff area, where Electric wants to be, while Mind likes to be all ranged... just like TA).

 

Electric/Rad. Electric brings a suprising amount of damage both single-target and AoE if you proc up the attacks (especially Jolting Chain). It doesn't push it to the top performers, but it it's nowhere near as bad as most players think that it is. Rad is great, but can sometimes be a bit of an End hog... Electric helps with this. And all of Electric's powers are pretty good, while Rad has several throw-aways, so it's a good match that allows you to take some pool powers.

 

Plant/Kinetics. Pretty obvious... Kinetics sucks defensively, and is only offensively strong late. It works best paired with a powerset that is strong early (unless you powerlevel to 40 or so), which IMO are Dark, Plant, and Electric. Well, Plant gets very strong defensively very early with Seeds of Confusion, so that covers up Kinetics' defensive weakness. While all Controllers benefit from +Recharge, Plant is especially helped since it really wants to run perma-Creepers and since it has only one good AoE control so it wants it up very quickly after opening with it, so it has a response to adds and ambushes. And the damage boost from Kinetics works well with a high-damage AoE Immobilize.

[oedipus_tex]

13 hours ago, Coyote said:

Dark/Poison. Dark is so strong defensively that it can support any secondary on the defensive side. Poison is weak defensively, but pretty strong on offense and puts out AoE damage with Poison Trap... it's PBAoE so it combines well with slotting up Heart of Darkness as a PBAoE and opening up with TWO mini-nukes every single fight. Dark has good single-target damage, so now you have single-target and AoE damage.

 

Mind/Trick Arrow. Mind is kind of weak on a Controller, Trick Arrow is kind of weak. Both are playable, but don't seem to bring much strength. Mind is good single-target damage, and Trick Arrow brings some AoE to help. But the trick here is that you now have THREE AoE shutdown controls: Total Domination, Mass Confusion, and EMP Arrow. With just two, it's hard to rotate them to have one every spawn if you're moving fast. But with three, yay, it's "shut down every spawn" which is something pretty unusual. You could try this with /Rad also, and Accelerate Metabolism would help the timing even more... TA brings AoE damage and Rad doesn't, but I can see the argument for going Mind/Rad. But I like Rad with Electric (especially since Rad works well if you fight inside the toggle debuff area, where Electric wants to be, while Mind likes to be all ranged... just like TA).

 

 

I admit I didn't predict either of these two. My dislike of Trick Arrow goes back years. But I can see how these two sets might combine into something interesting.

 

I'd never thought of Poison Trap as a useful power but I can see your point about it being an AoE.

[Erydanus]

Darkness Control

shipped with: Darkness Affinity.

 

Darkness Affinity is superior to Dark Miasma. Even the Defenders agree. With some of the signature powers of Dark Miasma strengthened to Controller level and shifted into the primary the replacements are … so good if this game were live it would probably need a nerfing. Throw in a couple extra blasts from your epic and you’ll feel like you’re a Dark Defender and a Dark Controller simultaneously.

 

 

Gravity Control

shipped with: Radiation Emission

 

Gravity has single target damage but little flexibility. Radiation has enough debuff for any two secondaries, buffs that the aggressive controller will enjoy and oh yeah 2 extra holds. People dance around this like it’s something they don’t want to admit but a Grav/Rad controller has FOUR holds and if Singularity is doing its job it’ll be spamming another one as well. It’s true choking cloud is more of an interrupt field but if you trick it out right it can contribute magnitude. And it’s unpleasant for controllers to say this but EM Pulse is actually the strongest AoE hold in the game, it also packs an extra 1000% regen debuff and deals damage to robots. It does zero out your own recovery so it comes at a price, but that price is using some inspirations, no big deal. With gravity’s ability to gather and reposition groups, lock them out with phase shift, root them in place with residual slows on top of all their immobilizes and holds, with radiations anchors positioned strategically, a Grav/Rad has the ability to absolutely dictate the battlefield like no other combination.

 

 

Fire Control

shipped with: Cold Domination. Second Choice: Nature Affinity.

 

What is Fire all about? It’s about siccing 3 little monkeys made of fire at your foes, while you stand around in a portable barbecue field attempting to roast your enemies alive.

What is Cold all about? It’s about making your teammates be immune to damage by putting shields and frost work on them, while making your enemies flop helplessly in a pile on the floor. To that end you also get the ability to walk around in a concealing fog, to slow things, and to leech the end right out of your foes. Combined, this means your much more resilient monkeys will come bursting out of your movable fog bank like demons from Hell to set themselves on your foes who will be flopping on the floor in the freezing sleet while you glide in and teach them how much damage your portable thermocline deals. Sure, Fire/Kin is the go to combo for max Controller damage but this is a great combo too. The massive debuffs from Cold coupled with the very useful buffs from it applied to your trio of minions will make this devastating, solo or group. Nature Affinity is a second choice because of the massive support to the minions (and yourself) it can give.

 

 

Illusion Control

shipped with: Traps. Second choice: Sonic Resonance

 

Once upon a time I rolled an Illusion/Empathy controller to play with my friends who had already been playing this game. It was my very first character. My friends quit. I soloed that character to 50, mostly by casting fortitude on my Phantasm and standing around. Like a masochist, I did it again on another server albeit this time with a supergroup that stayed together. Having played two Illusion/Empathy controllers to 50 I feel confident in saying it’s the most boring combination ever and if I’m going to be playing a set that’s primarily about me standing around invisibly while my psychotic pets do whatever they want, I at least want to be able to do something fun while I’m invisible. And thus, TRAPS. If an invisible controller isn’t the perfect person to run around in combat laying trip mines and time bombs, who is? Alternately if you don’t want to be a battlefield saboteur, sonic would provide nice debuff and buff, and you can hang your disruption field (aka “the tutu”) on the Phantasm. Notice I’m not suggesting Trick Arrow here and that’s because I think the feel of dropping a mine and shooting a trap-like arrow are actually pretty different.

 

 

Mind Control

shipped with: Psionic Assau…. Oh you want a … controller secondary. Oh … dear. Oh well then I am going to go with Time Manipulation

 

Mind Control does have all the bare bones of a control set, it just has a propensity for sleep and confuse and can be tricky to use right. It’s soloable, but challenging to solo with; it’s teamable, but some of its powers really go to waste. So playing Mind control often feels like playing with one hand tied behind your back. On the other hand, Time is super popular right now and while I sadly have not had a chance to really play it, I can see it being a lot of fun on its own. On paper to me it looks like it would feel synergistic (whether it actually is, is another matter) because you’re going to be doing a lot of things with time that manipulate your foes ability to act that in the end you might think it’s all part of some telekinetic power you have. Also Time seems like a busy secondary so paired with a primary that is kind of fire and forget or only used for the big moves seems advantageous.

 

 

Earth Control

shipped with Kinetics. Second choice: Sonics

 

You know I once had an Earth Controller. Hell if I can remember that character’s name, theme, or secondary. I just remember the set being so damn control heavy and kind of sleep inducing. Therefore I want to add an element of Danger! Glamour! and Excitement! and what does that better than Kinetics? At the end of the day what set can more easily incapacitate a group so you can wade in and bathe in point blank Transfusion? Well maybe not you so much but your team. You, when you get an epic blast though, you’ll be enjoying it too.

 

 

Ice Control

shipped with Thermal Radiation

 

I almost missed this one and had to go back for filler and Thermal was the best of what was left. The 4 sets that have shield buffs  (cold, thermal, sonic, force field) all share a pattern. Sonic and Cold are a bit more offensive and debuff oriented, and I prefer them, at least for controllers. When it came to picking between Thermal Radiation and Force Field my choice was made pretty much because I think, off the top of my head, that Jack Frost is a defense-based pet so layering damage resistance on top of that will be more effective, and I'd prefer the ability to directly heal and buff him over the force field advantages.

 

 

Electric Control

shipped with Storm Summing

 

Well duh. This took me a minute to think of; I haven’t played Electric. But hey let’s just knock people down over and over while a storm cloud and gremlins dance on their heads. Seems like good times to me!

 

 

Plant Control

shipped with Nature Affinity OR Poison

 

Feels like cheating right? Well, yeah, kinda. The overwhelming pressure of two direct plant graphics sets combined is hard to buck. Plant is known for doing a smidgen more damage than most other control sets but it is just a smidgen, not enough that I’d give one of the major damage boosting secondaries to it in this circumstance. But Poison would be good with it, both thematically and functionally. So Nature if you want to go more like beneficial plants and you can buff your flytrap up, or Poison if you want to teach the unwary to fear nature.

 

 

The leftovers:

 

Empathy

Pain Domination

Force Field

 

Since you can heal your pets with Empathy and Pain Domination (which means a no to Mind which doesn’t get a pet and Gravity which has an unhealable pet) I think they have some value as controller secondaries, but overall I feel like they just not what I want to be doing as a controller. Rather, it’s the reverse: these are secondaries for Deftrollers. If you pick one of these sets and then decide to play a controller instead of a defender or corrupter because you want more support/crowd control instead of blasts, that would make more sense to me. In which case a set that either is loaded with pets to bodyguard you or confuses, or both. So the best choices are Illusion, Darkness, Mind, and Plant. In a similar note I don't feel like Force Field offers anything special to controllers aside from the Mez protection bubble and the ability to buff pets. The more pets your set has thus the more value I think these all have.

 

 

Trick Arrow

 

Just not my cup of tea.

[The_Cheeseman]

1 hour ago, Erydanus said:

Mind Control

shipped with: Psionic Assau…. Oh you want a … controller secondary. Oh … dear.

Heh, I'm with you there. My choice is /fiery assault, but same difference. Mind Control is simply wasted on a Controller.

Honestly, I feel a bit constrained by the rules, because I am uncomfortable commenting on sets and combinations I've never tried. I do find this an interesting topic, though, and will be watching!

[Coyote]

Just now, The_Cheeseman said:

Heh, I'm with you there. My choice is /fiery assault, but same difference. Mind Control is simply wasted on a Controller.
 

 

Heh, me three. If I were forced to play Mind Control as a Controller I'm pretty sure I'd try it with TA, but it's SO much better as a Dominator, and I also prefer it with Fire Assault.

[Demon Shell]

1 hour ago, The_Cheeseman said:

Heh, I'm with you there. My choice is /fiery assault, but same difference. Mind Control is simply wasted on a Controller.

59 minutes ago, Coyote said:

Heh, me three. If I were forced to play Mind Control as a Controller I'm pretty sure I'd try it with TA, but it's SO much better as a Dominator, and I also prefer it with Fire Assault.

Y'all are crazy. Mind/Sonic. There's a hundred different explanations for it, from my bass-booming robot to eldergod mind domination via eldritch-speech.

 

OTP.

[Doc Ranger]

Do you guys think Elec/Cold could work?

[SeraphimKensai]

1 hour ago, Ice_Warden said:

Do you guys think Elec/Cold could work?

I have a lvl 50 elec/cold. It works quite well in PvE sapping targets, and heavily debuffing them via Benumb/Infrigidate/Snowstorm.

It doesn't however do much damage at all.

 

It's a fun team based build, but I wouldn't try to solo much with it, as it would take forever to actually kill something.

[oedipus_tex]

I also find that Electric Control is smoothest to play on sets that offer a self heal of some kind. Hence why I shipped it with Radiation in my lineup.

[Crowcus Pocus]

Ugh, stop messing with my head. Why you do this, precious? Arrrr! Let's see...

 

Earth Control's sitting in a tree with Trick Arrow

We all know Earth is a control monster on its own. So... why not make it broken by adding even more control on top? You'll get: 2 ST holds, 2 AoE holds, 2 slows, 2 KDs, and a fun all round proc potential. Plus, it's a delight to use Volcanic Gasses to light up Oil Slick and watch things die helplessly in a big burning patch-o-doom. All of this at a distance, without ever needing to step into melee.

 

Fire Control's sitting in a tree with Kinetics

It has been one of the best farming combos for a long time and for a good reason. It simply works too well. Crazy damage output, +recharge brings Flashfire and Bonfire up quicker for control and mitigation, heals to keep imps (and self) alive and +end to fuel all that damage output non-stop.

 

Ice Control's sitting in a tree with Time Manipulation

Although it has become better with the changes made to AoE immobilizes (no longer neglecting KD, making Ice Slick a viable power), Ice is still not the most potent control set out there. However, when paired with Time it becomes a fun melee controller. Thanks to Farsight and Chronoshift, Ice/Time will have the endurance and defenses to simply drop Ice Slick, run into melee range with Arctic Air (and should you choose to pick it, Time's Juncture) and then click whatever buttons are up until things are dead. Jack will also appreciate the +dmg and +rech from Temporal Selection on top of everything else Time has to offer.

 

Illusion Control's sitting in a tree with Radiation Emission

These two were meant to go together: AM makes it easier to make PA permanent, while Rad's debuff help PA and Phantasm hit more and do more damage. Lingering Radiation will make sure mobs don't regen too fast, especially considering the percentage of health mobs get back from illusion's damage. And the heal is good enough to keep you alive in case PA doesn't hold the aggro or Spectral Terror fails to terrorize some mob.

 

Plant Control's sitting in a tree with Nature Affinity

I've never played either set, but I've teamed with players who seemed to have quite an impact on a team with this combo. And it makes sense thematically.

 

Electric Control's sitting in a tree with Dark Affinity

When I think of Electric Control I think of good ol' melee sapping. But in order to do that you need something to keep you alive. And what's safest than DA? Nothing. You will have the protection that you and your pets need in order to keep rolling indefinitely (because you will never run out of endurance as EC). Plus, Tar Patch will boost EC's damage (which is not impressive on its own) and you'll have Fluffy as your trustworthy sidekick.

 

Gravity Control's sitting in a tree with Storm Summoning

Does it need explaining? Then you need to give it a go. Not only the new Dimension Shift is fantastic for those panic moments, but you can use it to absorb the alpha strike while you set up the ultimate stormy death sentence. But that's not where the key synergy lies. Being able to wormhole mobs to where I want them to be as a Stormy is the true godsend. You can corner them and use hurricane and/or singularity to keep them nicely packed, you can bring more mobs on top of your 2-3 lightning storms, you can gather two packs together so your DPS buddies will deploy their nasty AoEs. Lastly, Storm brings to the table what Gravity lacks: AoE damage potential.

Mind Control's sitting on a tree with Thermal Radiation

As others have mentioned, Mind is much more effective in the hands of a Dominator. However, I think it's a great option for those wanting to play support and prioritize their secondary abilities while still having powerful controls to throw in when needed. It could've been Empathy aswell, but in the long run I think Thermal wins because of how versatile it can be. In a nutshell, Mind/Thermal can be quite potent: confuses, sleeps, holds, terrorizes, shields, heals, buffs and debuffs... all in one toon? I'd take it.

 

Dark Control's sitting in a tree with Cold Domination

Shivering darkness, aye? I look at this as a very solid combo. Dark offers great control, Cold makes everything better with its buffs and debuffs.

 

The leftovers:

Empathy, Force Field, Traps, Sonic, Pain

Edited November 4, 2019 by Falsey

[Erydanus]

14 hours ago, Demon Shell said:

Y'all are crazy. Mind/Sonic. There's a hundred different explanations for it, from my bass-booming robot to eldergod mind domination via eldritch-speech.

 

OTP.

Start writing.

[Demon Shell]

21 minutes ago, Erydanus said:

Start writing.

I will never write a Sonic fanfic ever again.

[Carnifax]

I'll start with the only two 50s I've managed so far. 

 

Plant Control:

Partner: Storm

 

Originally on Live this was a Empathy but people kept wanting me to Heal and not do anything else. So when Homecoming kicked in I went totally the other way with a Stormie. Plant / Storm is just a damage and debuff monster. Confuse everything and then swamp them in patches and pseudopets of death. 

 

Alternatives : Traps would be interesting. Plant is reasonably "Seeds then do whatever" so you might have time to be a Trapper. 

 

Illusion Control:

Partner: Dark

 

So I made my Plant / Storm, then I came to remaking Carni (Illusion/Storm on Live) on Homecoming. Storm was gone and she's always been a "magical imp thing which causes chaos" so Dark was the obvious choice and it's a great combo. Phantom Army loves Resistance Debuffs and Tar Patch can stack. Loads of -ToHit between Spectral, Darkest Night and Dark Servant and the changes to Dark for Controllers make it really team friendly and End light. You end up as a weird mastermind who  doesn't care about their pets at all. 

 

Alternatives : Illusion / Storm is a lot of fun. Time gives Illusion a lot of things it craves (Recharge for PAs, some -resist)

 

Gravity Control:

Partner: Trick Arrow

 

Because again I had this on Live, mostly because it was a combo no-one else used.

Trick Arrow needs a buff, there's no getting around that. However like Traps Grav gives you the trick of setting something horrible up, then wormholing a spawn into it. Trick Arrow lets you do that with a Disruption Field / Oil patch combo then lighting it up and watching them burn as you throw Acid Arrow and forklift trucks at them. 

 

Alternatives : Traps, obviously. I'm currently running a Grav / Time on Reunion and he's quite fun because it's thematic for a mad scientist and time is just good overall (other than weeeeOOOOOOHoooh) without being especially synergistic. 

 

Earth Control:

Partner: Traps

 

I've played Earth as a Domi but not a Controller. I've played Traps as a Mastermind but not a controller. So lets stick them together for the greater good. Earth has lots of AOE mez, so in theory you just lob one down and you've got some time for fiddly stuff. Like acid mortar and toe-bombing with Trip Mine. 

 

Alternatives : Storm is thematic (unlike Traps really) as is Nature.

 

Fire Control:

Partner: Nature Affinity

 

Is one I want to try myself. Not many things Fire doesn't go with overall though. Hotfeet + a PBAOE Mez from the secondary is always fun. Lots of ways to make Fire Imps not dead. 

 

Alternatives : Rad is the one I had on live and it is great fun. Dark goes with everything and has buffs for defense & end recovery as well as the ability to stack stuns. 

Electric Control:

Partner: Rad

 

Combine PBAOEs basically. Drain things and hold things whilest also PROC Jolting them into oblivion. AOE Heal makes Gremlins happy and an additional AOE Control for when stuff goes weird. Sleep Patch and the anchor debuffs work well together. AM is always good regardless. 

 

Alternatives : The other PBAOE friendly sets : Nature, Time and Kinetics. Elec/Kin is your basic Sapper build and thematic. 

 

Dark Control:

Partner:  Cold

 

Again I've mostly played Dark as a Domi. Dark / Cold is just a nice team controller to have along. Shields for your allies, lots of debuffs. 

 

Alternatives : Traps, because Dark is pretty safe overall and Seekers + Heart of Darkness is stacking stuns. 

 

 

Ice Control:

Partner: Time

 

Another "I had this as a Domi". Time has extra control, lots of -Slow to stack, a heal and a PBAOE to couple with Arctic. It's also got a Recharge for getting Ice Patch back quicker. 

 

Alternatives : Rad for a lot of the same reasons. Dark because it's so strong overall. 

 

 

Mind Control:

Partner: Thermal

 

Honestly I've never had an interest in Mind or played it. A team controller, it's rare a meleer won't relish more Resistances even at level 50 since Defense is most people IO goals. My Mace / Rad brute LOVES thermals on the team (my Warshade used to but now he has no need for them :p )

 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Carnifax

[Broken_Prey]

Okay here mine, some are cliché and some are for two powers combo. 

Dark Control
Shipped with Cold Domination
Dark is a strong on the defensive and so is cold. It might be overkill but sleet adds to the offence for your pets. I also just love the combo of dark/ice on all ATs.

 

Earth Control
Shipped with Darkness Affinity
Quicksand and tar patch seems like it would be gold, I have this combo but haven’t played it yet but can’t wait to see it in action. 

Electric Control
Shipped with Sonic Resonance
I haven’t play Electric but from what I see it is one of the more offensive sets so Sonic seems like a good fit. Buff your team with sonic and even help do more damage with disruption field.  

 

Fire Control
Shipped with Kinetics
Don’t think I need to say anymore. 

 

Gravity Control
Shipped with Traps
These two are great together because you can set up your traps and then wormhole the group into it. 

Ice Control 
Shipped with Time Manipulation
Arctic Air plus Time’s Juncture seems like it would be fun.

 

Illusion Control
Shipped with Radiation Emission
Can solo AV’s with ease and GM’s. Classic but great combo. 

Mind Control
Shipped with Storm Summoning
Mind doesn’t have a great match imo, but storm can help for the lack of a pet with Tornado and Lightning storm. Freezing rain and Mass confusion is a good mix. 

 

Plant Control
Shipped with Nature Affinity
Both are great sets so they should be great together. 
 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Broken_Prey

[bartwart]

Agree on mind/time.  Time is great on with any set.  The thing that really annoys me is how resistant bosses and higher are to control effects.  But Time Slow + Time Stop will instantly hold a boss, which is welcome by any primary.  You'd still have issues with EBs and AVs.

[oedipus_tex]

I love hearing these perspectives.

 

I also notice Force Field, Empathy, and Pain haven't been shipped by anyone., which is interesting. Must be lonely on love island.

[Carnifax]

2 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

I love hearing these perspectives.

 

I also notice Force Field, Empathy, and Pain haven't been shipped by anyone., which is interesting. Must be lonely on love island.

I had a Plant/Emp on Live. The PuG team I ended up dinging 50 on her I was shouted at for not "just healing, that's why you're here", even though no-one had died. Of course next spawn I did that and the shouting Tank leader died (because he was taking all that additional non-confused damage all of a sudden). So that was the most underwhelming Ding to 50 ever.

 

I've never forgiven Empathy for it.

[bartwart]

On 11/9/2019 at 5:45 PM, Carnifax said:

I had a Plant/Emp on Live. The PuG team I ended up dinging 50 on her I was shouted at for not "just healing, that's why you're here", even though no-one had died. Of course next spawn I did that and the shouting Tank leader died (because he was taking all that additional non-confused damage all of a sudden). So that was the most underwhelming Ding to 50 ever.

 

I've never forgiven Empathy for it.

And that's why you keep whirlwind around.  When the tank starts getting all prima dona, let loose with whirlwind right in the middle of his mobs

[CabooseCC]

On 11/3/2019 at 4:09 PM, Erydanus said:

Gravity Control

shipped with: Radiation Emission

 

Gravity has single target damage but little flexibility. Radiation has enough debuff for any two secondaries, buffs that the aggressive controller will enjoy and oh yeah 2 extra holds. People dance around this like it’s something they don’t want to admit but a Grav/Rad controller has FOUR holds and if Singularity is doing its job it’ll be spamming another one as well. It’s true choking cloud is more of an interrupt field but if you trick it out right it can contribute magnitude. And it’s unpleasant for controllers to say this but EM Pulse is actually the strongest AoE hold in the game, it also packs an extra 1000% regen debuff and deals damage to robots. It does zero out your own recovery so it comes at a price, but that price is using some inspirations, no big deal. With gravity’s ability to gather and reposition groups, lock them out with phase shift, root them in place with residual slows on top of all their immobilizes and holds, with radiations anchors positioned strategically, a Grav/Rad has the ability to absolutely dictate the battlefield like no other combination.

I have a grav/rad controller and I second this.  I don't exactly do a ton of damage, but I literally dictate the battle as long as an AV isn't around.