Best solo combo with a self heal?

[Lazarus]

I see lots of people responding with DARK for some other sets that have A SINGLE heal, some require to hit checks.

 

BUT you asked about self healing,.. That only realy leaves 3

1) EMPATHY,.not my cup of tea but veary strong self heals

2) PAIN DOMINATION,. a very good self heal with a good aoe buff and debuff.

3) NATURE ,.surprisingly nature has 3 very good heals,.2 good self buffs,.and 2 good debuff

 

 Of the 3 I like nature the best,..but pain is a fast on the go set with ZERO set up time,..look at these 2

[oedipus_tex]

2 hours ago, Lazarus said:

I see lots of people responding with DARK for some other sets that have A SINGLE heal, some require to hit checks.

 

BUT you asked about self healing,.. That only realy leaves 3

1) EMPATHY,.not my cup of tea but veary strong self heals

2) PAIN DOMINATION,. a very good self heal with a good aoe buff and debuff.

3) NATURE ,.surprisingly nature has 3 very good heals,.2 good self buffs,.and 2 good debuff

 

 Of the 3 I like nature the best,..but pain is a fast on the go set with ZERO set up time,..look at these 2

 

Also Thermal, Time, Radiation.

 

 

[Redlynne]

Kind of surprised to see that no one has suggested Gravity/Kinetics yet.  Kinetics has a self-heal and Gravity is the "blaster with mez" powerset among Controllers.  Wormhole plus Fulcrum Shift ought to be quite devastating ... and that's not even including the Impact mechanics getting multiplied by Siphon Power/Fulcrum Shift even more.

 

Kinetics has Transfusion, which can be slotted up with 5 slots of either Accurate Defense set plus the proc of the other Accurate Defense set to make for a really MEAN Foe $Target AoE Heal power that heals, grants endurance(!) AND does proc damage all in one go.  Only problem is, you need to be relatively close to your $Target to use it.

 

Take ALL the Gravity powers, including Dimension Shift(!).

Take ALL the Kinetics powers.

You have 6 power picks left.

 

Take Mystic Flight ... so you can Fly AND "wormhole" Teleport YOURSELF up to 100 yards per Teleport ... and with Siphon Speed you can run at the speed cap, and with Inertial Reduction you can Superjump (with your team!).  So with only 3 power picks you can Run, Jump Fly AND Teleport!

Take Assault and Tactics from the Leadership pool.

You have 3 power picks left.

 

With 3 power picks you can add whatever pool, epic or patron powers you want (up to 3 of them) to your build.

From Sorcery, you can add Spirit Ward, Enflame and Rune of Protection ... so as to get partial mez protection/absorb and also the Wormhole, Fulcrum Shift, Crushing Field OR Dimension Shift. Enflame combination to melt your opposition.

 

From where I'm looking at things, Gravity/Kinetics looks really ... unfair ... to your $Targets ...

[Ultrazen]

21 hours ago, Redlynne said:

From where I'm looking at things, Gravity/Kinetics looks really ... unfair ... to your $Targets ...

I really like Gravity, and I've never gotten any of my /kins up very high so...off to roll this right now, thanks!

[Razia]

Single Target: Ill/Dark

Aoe: Plant/Dark

 

/Dark is probably one of the best secondaries for Controllers especially if you want a self heal, no end issues, a bit of def/res and a lot of -tohit, -resistance, -regen.

 

I have a Plant/Dark and Fire/Dark, but the plant handles +4/x8 Arachnos a lot better, even though the Fire one has softcapped melee.

Edited February 1, 2020 by Razia

[roleki]

On 1/26/2020 at 12:58 AM, Redlynne said:

Kind of surprised to see that no one has suggested Gravity/Kinetics yet.  Kinetics has a self-heal and Gravity is the "blaster with mez" powerset among Controllers.  Wormhole plus Fulcrum Shift ought to be quite devastating ... and that's not even including the Impact mechanics getting multiplied by Siphon Power/Fulcrum Shift even more.

 

Kinetics has Transfusion, which can be slotted up with 5 slots of either Accurate Defense set plus the proc of the other Accurate Defense set to make for a really MEAN Foe $Target AoE Heal power that heals, grants endurance(!) AND does proc damage all in one go.  Only problem is, you need to be relatively close to your $Target to use it.

 

Take ALL the Gravity powers, including Dimension Shift(!).

Take ALL the Kinetics powers.

You have 6 power picks left.

 

Take Mystic Flight ... so you can Fly AND "wormhole" Teleport YOURSELF up to 100 yards per Teleport ... and with Siphon Speed you can run at the speed cap, and with Inertial Reduction you can Superjump (with your team!).  So with only 3 power picks you can Run, Jump Fly AND Teleport!

Take Assault and Tactics from the Leadership pool.

You have 3 power picks left.

 

With 3 power picks you can add whatever pool, epic or patron powers you want (up to 3 of them) to your build.

From Sorcery, you can add Spirit Ward, Enflame and Rune of Protection ... so as to get partial mez protection/absorb and also the Wormhole, Fulcrum Shift, Crushing Field OR Dimension Shift. Enflame combination to melt your opposition.

 

From where I'm looking at things, Gravity/Kinetics looks really ... unfair ... to your $Targets ...

I love Grav/Kin - it was the first controller I took to 50 on Live - but it plays a little scarier than it looks in Mids.  

 

First off, your three main attacks are ST, so, no matter how much +Damage you get off Fulcrum Shift, you're still going to be cycling through single targets until they are dead.  You can stuff some Procs in Crushing Field to speed things along, but for the most part you'll be firing Propel like a madman until you get your Incarnate Nuke.  While the variety of objects you Propel will keep you from being bored of the visual, you'll learn to hate the noise.

 

Secondly, your +Heal and +Recovery buffs require you to be either IN or NEAR melee if you want to actually benefit from them.  Once there, your only damage mitigation is to do something else to agitate the mob - either reduce the strength of their attacks, trap yourself in a bubble with them, or fire them across the map with Wormhole.

 

Which, by the way and thirdly, Grav/Kin literally lives and dies by ToHit.  If any of your /Kin powers miss, it's an agonizing wait until they are ready for the next try.  Nothing sucks more than Wormholing a mob into a stupor, eagerly firing off FShift or Transference and seeing a bunch of MISS! floating where your buffs should be.  Then you're stuck there at a +25% damage bonus and no endurance while you race to Lift and Propel them to death one at a time before the Stun wears off.  To mitigate, I highly recommend Tactics with a full set of Gaussian's. 

 

Overall, Grav/Kin is fun and I was sure to roll one on HC soon as I could, but having played them both deep into the 50s, I very much prefer Gravity/Time over Grav/Kin; the buffs and debuffs out of /Time aren't as spectacular as /Kin, but they are much more consistent and let you play from as safe a distance as you want.  Case in point, I rarely ever need the Heal out of /Time, because I usually have the mob well in hand before they can do anything to me.

[Talionis]

If you want noncontrollers that play like controllers, my Dark/Stone Tank was an absolute beast with a ridiculous heal.  It can stack disorient and nothing attacks.  It can control an area in amazing ways .

[Dr Causality]

I agree with all the people saying /Darkness Affinity.     

 

It starts out strong at early levels and just keeps getting better, keeping well ahead of enemy level advances.      Once you get Incarnates /Dark Affinity becomes a solo powerhouse because you can defense cap and heal a small army of pets.   The Damage tier of the Incarnate Lore pets, like Rularuu Core Superior do insane amounts of damage.  Most AT's solo struggle to keep the Lore pets alive versus strong EB, AV, GM type targets.  But for /Dark it's relatively easy and if you can keep them alive for the summon duration combined with the -Res from Tar patch and -Regen from Howling Twilight you can solo most AV's.    And when I say small pet army it's because you can get one or more summons from your Control Set, you Fluffy from /Darkness Affinity and you can take another pet from the Patron pools.   Taking the Patron pool pet gives you the slots to easily fit all the four unique pet IO's, while still slotting the pets well.  The broken mechanic being that those  unique create a buff radius centered on your character, so they buff all your pets, including Fluffy and the Incarnate Lore pets.  They also buff temp summon powers which can be handy while leveling since you can buy Radio Summons at the P2W vendor.   But the even stronger way to go with Epics is probably give up the extra pet and choose Primal Forces Mastery since Powerboost works on Fade for 122% buff to the Defense, which since Fade is click buff lasts past the 15s Powerboost duration.   That will easily make up for the two +5% Def pet uniques, so you just need to squeeze the two +10% Res procs into your  Fly Trap, so you Fluffy and the Lore pets get an extra 20% global Resistance...

 

But for solo play Plant/Dark > Fire/Dark

 

But for solo play I disagree with the people saying Fire/Dark.  I have both.  Fire is probably better on a team, especially a team with a Tank or Brute where Plants powers can make it more difficult to herd and tightly pack spawns.   But for Solo play Fire is just no contest against Plant.   Procced out Carrion Creepers and procced out Seeds combine for both more damage and more control than Fire gets.  And you can do that from a safe distance instead of needing to close into Hotfeets pbaoe range.    With high global Recharge Carrion Creepers can be made perma and follows you to next spawns for the 120s duration.   It's not just the massive proc damage that the Creepers do that's impressive, they also draw aggro, knock down and slow enemies.   You can get 3 x dmg procs into Seeds by the time your level 20 (the first two at lvl 10.)    As long as you keep enhancement recharge slotting below 60% they have 90% proc chances.   (Even the lackluster non-Superior Overpowering Presence Controller ATO has a surprising 28 to 32% chance to proc it's Energy Font Summons in Seeds...)    Plant also gives you a location based +Regen buff in Tree of Life, which with full slotting is up to +300% Regen. 

 

I skip SporeBurst and the 240s Rech Vines pbaoe hold, freeing up power slots for Pools and Epics.  For leveling I recommend the new Force of Will set.   You'll be short on slots while leveling.   Force of Will lets you get Weaken, so you have a free place to put an Achilles -Res proc for hard targets.  Mighty leap is a slot mule a Knockback protection proc.    Having two powers gives you access to Wall of Force at lvl 14.  Wall of Force does almost no damage on it's own, but against big spawns Wall of Force has great proc chances for ForceFeedback +chance for 100% Recharge and decent dmg proc chances.   The 5s 100% Rech buffs you can get  from FF proc will help get your Carrion Creepers, Seeds and Hasten up more often when at low levels you won't have much access to +Rech bonuses.   For Pools take:  Hasten, Maneuvers and Tactics.    You won't have the endurance to run all  with /Dark powers and using attacks.  So early on I don't run Maneuvers, instead I use it as a slot mule for Kismet +Acc proc, and then later a LOTG 7.5% Rech proc.    The thing /Dark is missing is -Def which can help with Tohit during leveling when your accuracy slotting is lacking.    To fill that gap I recommend a Kismet proc and picking up Tactics so you have better Tohit chances despite slotting mostly procs in Seeds and Carrion Keepers.    (The Kismet doesn't get passed on to summons like the Creepers, but they do benefit from your Tactics aura...)

Edited February 10, 2020 by Dr Causality

[SeraphimKensai]

I've been playing an ice/plant blaster as a non pet controller/Domi that has much more burst.

 

Now before people say, but it's a controller. I have a single target immobile, 2 mag three single target holds (I could of had 3), and a mag 3 AoE hold that recharges in 26 seconds. Yes that's right I have a 26 second recharging mag three AoE hold, that holds my mobs down for blizzard.

 

I have a toggle sustain that keeps me alive as well.

Edited February 10, 2020 by SeraphimKensai

[r0y]

I do like Darkness Affinity.  So many survival utilities (defense, recovery, regen).

 

However, take a look at Nature.  Wild Growth in a Weave/Maneuvers/ScorpionShield build will give strong (softcap S/L/E) defense and strong resists from Wild Growth.  Power Boost it for even more fun, if you don't go scorpion shield.  Strong regen/recovery in a single drop (Lifegiving Spores) and an excellent heal/HoT in Regrowth.

 

Top that all off with Overgrowth:  +dam, +tohit, -endcost  (getting this perma is the goal).

 

I like layered defenses:  Defense, Resist, Regen/Heal.  Nature gives great resists, regen/heal, and absorb for alpha strikes.  Not too shabby.  Not sure if it will topple Darkness Affinity, but it's one of the most survivable sets I've played as both Defender (Nature/Dark is amazing) and Controller (Plant/Nature is OP).

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by r0y

[Corythia]

From my experience, both Fire/Dark and Plant/Nature are both very resilient and can solo easily.  Plant/Nature takes a little longer to get rolling.  If you want something powerful with a self heal either or both are very good and very fun.

[Mercurias]

I enjoy Fire/Dark, but I honestly feel like Ill/Dark may outclass it.

 

Illusion is a strong solo contender because it's simply built extremely well for soloing content. It has baked-in stealth and damage, as well as a Confusion mez. It's also got invincible pets which can be up permanently so long as you have sufficiently high recharge. It's kind of hard to beat.

[rmancu]

Pretty much any /Darkness Affinity controller shouldn't have any problem soloing and also be a great asset to a team. I have both a fire/dark and plant/dark and they are both def capped to everything and resist capped to S/L/E. I have no issues soloing with either and they are great with groups.

[Golden Azrael]

On 1/23/2020 at 4:22 PM, Ultrazen said:

Hi all!  

 

I've been really enjoying being back in CoH, even though I have forgotten most of what I ever knew....  I've rolled a ton of controllers, and tried out quite a few combos.  I have a pretty serious alt-itis problem, so I'm trying to narrow down what people think great combos for solo play are.  I play at odd times, and often have to AFK, so having a few characters that can solo effectively is pretty handy.

 

I played a lot of EQ, where I mained a chanter, so the idea of having a control character that can also heal itself well is very appealing to me.

 

Out of all the combos I've played, I think I really like Ill/ the best, but there are still some that I haven't put much/any time into.  Interested to hear your thoughts!

Cheers!

 

Illusion/Rad.  (And I have Stone Epic for extra fun.)

 

Azrael.

[Tsuko]

Dark control with anything Rad / Kin / dark or Time 🙂

[VV]

On 1/24/2020 at 9:58 PM, Ultrazen said:

Thanks so much for all the awesome replies, I've already started 3 new alts lol.

I can understand that. I think the lesson here is that there are lots of good solo choices for controllers! Dang, I had sworn off making new alts for a while, but this thread makes me want to try some more controllers!