Illusion Secondary Help

[LordBob]

I'm looking to give illusion a shot i see most people advise cold as the secondary. im currently torn between cold, rad, and storm. Any advice would be helpful. i would like to be able to solo most content with some grouping mixed in. Thanks in advance.

[ScarySai]

Cold will kill things fastest, Dark will be the hardest to kill, Rad will be the easiest to build.

 

Storm will also kill things pretty fast, but if you have to ask, I'd avoid that secondary 'till ya know illusion better.

 

My personal recommendation would be to go cold, but give /dark a look too. I think they both do better than /rad in missions.

Edited February 21, 2020 by ScarySai

[Doc Ranger]

/Cold is honestly more of a single target killer. Probably the top combo for AV killing. But Illusion in general is fairly low in terms of actual crowd control.  

[Extor Prime]

Cold for killin', Dark for survivin', Rad for classic appeal.

[Coyote]

Storm for killing, Cold for killing AVs. Dark for ridiculous survivability, and Rad is easy to build and play and starts off very strong.

[Zepp]

My main from live and HC is Ill/Storm, and I love the combo. There are some people of lower intelligence that may not let you on their team with storm though.... --the KB averse--

[EmperorSteele]

Illu is a pretty unique set for controllers, capable of dealing a good amount of up-front damage and soft control/agro management. Basically, be invisible, summon Phantom Army, let them go to town while you toss out a few debuffs and attacks.

 

The rub is that Phantom Army cannot be buffed, Spectral Terror will make mobs run away, Flash only works if you're in the middle of a group, and Phantasm will knock foes away (and out of your kill zone). You'll want a secondary that either works well with these quirks, or can work around them.

 

For example, you can't increase PA's damage, but some secondaries CAN reduce your foes' Damage Resistance. Some secondaries have slows to prevent runners. Some have additional holds.

 

So while Rad, Dark and Cold are your best bets, you'll also find some synergy with Trick Arrow, Traps, and Time. Buff-oriented sets like Empathy, Pain -and to a lesser degree Kin- won't be as helpful (though since both Flash and Fulcrum Shift work best in melee, there IS some synergy there!), especially solo.

 

Basically, just avoid buff heavy sets and you'll be fine! Though if you want to make PA permanent, a set with +recharge boosts like Rad, Time or Kin become even more viable!

Edited February 23, 2020 by EmperorSteele

[oedipus_tex]

My issue with Cold is it takes 35 levels to get a power where you feel like you're doing much. Really hoping the developers revisit the buff/debuff and control sets one day. Waiting til level 35 for Sleet has made me put off playing Cold. It's a good set very late, and especially after IOs, but unbearable for me to play at lower levels, where all it has is its shields.

 

If you can look past this, Cold is a good option. I'm not sure I can tolerate playing it again.

[Frosticus]

ill/poison can kill things extremely fast. It wouldn't be my first choice but it is a pretty good pairing as Illusion helps cover poisons weaknesses pretty well and the debuffs of poison work pretty well with illusion.

[Call Me Awesome]

The classic pairing is, as mentioned above, Ill/Rad.  There's a reason for that, the two sets work remarkably well together and offer nice AOE debuffs from an early level.  I hear Cold may offer better single target debuffs but it takes longer to get there and isn't as good at AOE.  Also, one common goal for Illusion is to have Phantom Army perma and Accelerate Metabolism gives you a 30% recharge boost, greatly reducing the IO bonuses you'll need.  205% global recharge bonus is tough to reach without help from the secondary.  (That assumes 95% recharge in PA itself)

[SeraphimKensai]

Ill/Dark is extremely fun, the one caveat that I can say I wish was changed about it is changing superior invis and shadow fall to be able to stack. Why do I have to punish myself if I want to help the team?

[Carnifax]

9 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Ill/Dark is extremely fun, the one caveat that I can say I wish was changed about it is changing superior invis and shadow fall to be able to stack. Why do I have to punish myself if I want to help the team?

Group Invis / Shadow Fall is what I do. Perma invis, plus Clarion-power boosted FadeGroupInvis make all your squishie teammates very happy. 

 

(And kiss goodbye to their costumes because they're gonna be purple eyed ghosts while they hang around you)

[Without_Pause]

On 2/21/2020 at 2:51 PM, ScarySai said:

I think they both do better than /rad in missions.

Just note that Ill/rad is still a powerhouse of a build in said situation. Pre level 50 with common IOs and mine was soling +4 missions back on Live.

[ScarySai]

13 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

Just note that Ill/rad is still a powerhouse of a build in said situation. Pre level 50 with common IOs and mine was soling +4 missions back on Live.

For sure, I just like to look at things from a 'max potential' sort of viewpoint. Rad will absolutely not have problems with a good build.

[TivoManiac]

On 2/22/2020 at 9:11 AM, Zepp said:

My main from live and HC is Ill/Storm, and I love the combo. There are some people of lower intelligence that may not let you on their team with storm though.... --the KB averse--

I too have Ill/Storm (same as you back in the day and currently) you just need to help the newcomers to Storm to get them to know they don't need hurricane on all the time.  And now that you can slot a KB to KD in Gale it's suddenly a handy power. I used to not even have it in my tray until we had that to slot.

[Rapunzel]

Seconding Ill/dark being oodles of fun. It's very busy, Perma PA, soul abortion, power boosted Fade, get pets back out and on and on. You're active and monitoring what's up and what you need to re-up next.

 

It's control through chaos and I love it.

[Coyote]

If you like Chaos As Control (tm), you can't do better than Illusion/Storm. Nothing is locked down, everything is running around in fear of Spectral Terror or to fight the decoys... for 2 steps. Then they get knocked down by a random Tornado or Lightning Storm blast.

[MaHaBone]

Rad and Kin will help you get Phantom Army up faster, which is really the keystone power of the set.

Poison is great sometimes, not so great others- it is AMAZING on SBBs!

Storm is like strapping a saddle to a rabid panther.  Fun as hell if you like mayhem and chaos!

[Coyote]

Just to note, Storm secondary with FF procs in both Tornado and Lightning Storm should average over 30% Recharge bonus during a sustained fight, which is when having PA permanent is more relevant. If you're traveling between fights, you do lose some Recharge, though, unless you stop to throw LS/Tornado up just for the Recharge bonus whenever they're recharged. Like leaving a trail of angry electric fart clouds behind you 😛