Controller Duo

[optimistic]

My brother and I are planning to play controllers as a duo.  We are going to play through the Praetoria content for the first time and aren't looking to level too quickly.  We'd like to eventually do all content as a duo though, so that means AVs.  Does anyone have recommendations for a strong duo?  Would a Dominator (or 2?) be better than 2 controllers?  We'd like powersets that fit thematically.  I'm considering any 2 from the following group (mainly based on powerset theme).  But, I'm completely open to other suggestions.

 

Illusion/Time

Gravity/Time

Mind/Time

Mind/Dark

Dark/Dark

Fire/Cold

Ice/Cold

Fire/Thermal

Ice/Thermal

Plant/Nature

Plant/Poison

Ice/Storm

 

Thanks!

 

[Redlynne]

Gravity/Time paired with Mind/Kinetics

 

You can thank me later after you both reach level 50 and are working on your incarnate slots.

[Peacemoon]

9 hours ago, optimistic said:

My brother and I are planning to play controllers as a duo.  We are going to play through the Praetoria content for the first time and aren't looking to level too quickly.  We'd like to eventually do all content as a duo though, so that means AVs.  Does anyone have recommendations for a strong duo?  Would a Dominator (or 2?) be better than 2 controllers?  We'd like powersets that fit thematically.  I'm considering any 2 from the following group (mainly based on powerset theme).  But, I'm completely open to other suggestions.

 

Illusion/Time

Gravity/Time

Mind/Time

Mind/Dark

Dark/Dark

Fire/Cold

Ice/Cold

Fire/Thermal

Ice/Thermal

Plant/Nature

Plant/Poison

Ice/Storm

 

Thanks!

 

It’s really the AV killing that you’ll need to consider the most as you’ll need to be able to debuff them to survive their damage and also overcome their resistance and health regen. So it depends how much you want to choose your characters based on that niche requirement (bearing in mind most AVs can be set to elite bosses, unless you are trying to duo TFs).
 

For that the focus is generally more on the secondary than the primary. At least one of you should be /rad /dark /cold. Personally I favour Dark as the -hit and -damage from Twilight Grasp, Darkest Night and the Dark Servent can lower their damage to survivable amounts. Plus the heal is pretty good and aoe. Dark is also pretty amazing outside of AVs and gives you stealth, rezz, a -res/slow patch, +def with fade and +regen/recovery. I find it really fun. 
 

For the primaries, again with the AV niche you want at least one of you to access some pets, so they can be killing while you’re controlling/debuffing. Illusion/ Dark/ and Fire/ are generally the best for pet damage.

 

As for combos it depends if you want to double down on stuff or have more variety! 
Mind/Dark and Dark/Dark would be fun. Or Mind/Time with Dark/Dark.
 

If you do go down the dark route (I am really biased here! Ha!) you could also try something like Dark/Dark controller with Necromancer/Dark MM. Me and my brother played this combo and it was fun. Both dark control and necromancy bring lots of pets, and also both /dark sets bring an extra pet on top of that as well!

 

Disregarding everything I’ve just written though, you can have a lot of fun with thematic duos. I wouldn’t get too caught up on AV killing potential personally unless you really think you will want to try duo everything in CoH. 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Peacemoon

[Peacemoon]

On Mind/ it is often quite misunderstood. Generally the Mind Controller, as an individual, can put out the most damage of all the sets. Levitate, Mesmerise and Dominate form a solid attack chain, with no DoTs and just pure damage, even better with procs. Terrify is a good aoe damage providing you use containment. (Mass hypnosis is a good primer for this if you’re solo).
 

But when pets come into the mix things get

more complicated. Pets do reasonable damage, but can be slow, unreliable, aggro stuff and target the wrong stuff, for which you have no control. Still they do give good raw numbers, but the most important factor is that pet controllers can focus on their other abilities without affecting their damage, as the pets continue to chip away undeterred.
 

The biggest drawback of mind control is the greater focus on the individual player to do all the damage. This really comes front and centre when fighting AVs, because you need to leverage so many debuffs that your character simply struggles to do everything required all at the same time. Anytime the Mind Controller is debuffing, they aren’t attacking. Pet controllers can let their pets do the damage while they debuff, and pets are also much more reliable against a single big target they can all focus on. 
 

However, Mind Control is often used by Dominators to solo AVs. I haven’t as much experience here but they generally focus on stacking the single target confuse (which has an enormous duration when slotted) to such high magnitudes that it overcomes the AVs defences so that they don’t fight back. Also you can apply confuse without aggroing. It’s sort

of like a psychic assassination...

But of course Dominators have access to massive damage attacks that the Controller does not. I don’t have as much expertise with Doms so I’ll leave it at that.

 

Certainly for a duo it light be fun to mix the Dom and Controller. Have both characters take the same primary so they are thematically linked.

[quixoteprog]

Illusion/Rad has always been the AV solo killer among controllers. If you plan on playing together, and want thematic pairings, then you could split them up. One Illusion/Time, the other Fire/Rad, or Mind/Rad. The primary benefit being the debuffs available to Rad, especially to regen rate, for killing the AVs.

[Coyote]

It's hard to do better than Illusion for fighting AVs, but it's good to have someone else who can throw Immobs to keep the AV from moving. If you're willing to consider Gravity as a Wind Control character, Gravity/Storm is a good pairing. If not, then both Plant/Nature and Dark/Dark will work fine. Probably so will Fire/Cold.

For Illusion, I would pair it with /Dark, but /Time also works since it helps it get perma-PA more easily.

 

[optimistic]

Thanks for all the input.  I should have added that I have another character at the influence cap, so we'll be able to slot these characters with strong IO sets.  I'd definitely prefer the duo be able to complete all content than to steamroll through most of it.  I don't mind normal mobs taking longer to defeat and requiring more strategy.  But, most importantly, we want it to be fun.  I appreciate all of the advice.  If anyone else wants to chime in, it would be much appreciated.  I'm especially interested in the controller vs dominator aspect if someone has more insight about that.

[Coyote]

1 hour ago, optimistic said:

I'm especially interested in the controller vs dominator aspect if someone has more insight about that.

 

To be honest, if you're going to duo AVs, then a pair of perma-Doms of any kind should be able to perma-Hold any AV. I can perma-Hold +1 AVs now and I'm only 40 with one of the good Holding sets (Fire), so looking at how the Hold durations will improve, I can certainly perma-Hold 53 AVs when I'm 50, and probably 54s. So adding a 2nd perma-Dom character in there would make it easy, regardless of what primaries you use. Earth Assault will help as Seismic Smash is both great damage and adds a decent amount of Hold magnitude.

 

Going with the Dom version, all I suggest is that one of the characters (or both if you feel like it) takes Psychic Assault in order to get a strong -Regen power. Otherwise, you're free to do anything, and personaly I like Plant and Dark primaries. For example, Plant/Savage does a lot of AoE damage and will help clear missions fast, while a Dark/Psy will do a lot of single-target damage and help finish off the Bosses and kill AVs faster, so that would be a good combination to pair with.

[optimistic]

Wow!  This is extremely helpful.  Thanks so much.  I believe we're going to choose from the sets with Good to Great degen then.  Thanks again!

[Coyote]

5 hours ago, 5099y_74c05 said:

Ice/Cold -       SURV: Good  DPS: Poor             DEGEN: Great

Fire/Thermal - SURV: Poor   DPS: Great            DEGEN: Good

 

Hm, why is Cold rated Great at Degen, but Thermal only rated Good? Don't they have the same -Regen values, and the same uptime/recharge ratio? I know that Heat Exhaustion has a longer recharge than Benumb, but it also has an equally longer duration. Cold wins out in the -Resist area, but I thought that they were equivalent in -Regen.