Pain a good secondary for ILL?

[SuperPlyx]

So I have decided I need an Illusion controller in my stable. (also: why no dominator port? ) And trying to decide on a secondary,I know the obvious ones are /rad and /kin. But I have done  /rad and I have a /kin already. So looking for something different.

 

From just a quick overview,Pain Domination seems like it would be a good pairing. Maybe my search-fu is weak but there doesn't seem like I lot about this pairing on the forum here.

And having never played Pain before was just wanting some feedback on if this would be a good pairing? 

Should mention,this would be for team and Itrial friendly.

 

hmm,maybe poison....arghh,,I can't decide...

[Mr. Vee]

I can't speak to /pain but ill/cold is a very strong combo you might consider too.

[Coyote]

/Traps, /Storm, /Cold, and /Poison are all excellent debuff (or damage) oriented sets that work better with Illusion's focus on the enemies rather than on teammates.

 

That said, Illusion is a generally useful set and can work with lots of secondaries. Pain should work fine with it... you would be losing most of the benefits of the ally heal and Painbringer, and you don't get that much out of the +Regen toggle and World of Pain, because Phantom Army doesn't get damage and doesn't get buffed. Phantasm does, but Phantasm really has a pretty minor effect so it's not a major benefit. If you team, however, then everything becomes useful and you still have Illusion to fall back upon when soloing.

 

Pain is not a top set for anything at any level, so nobody would recommend it, but neither is it a bad set. It's solidly middle of the road overall, with a noted lack of -Regen which makes it less appealing against AVs... but note that on teams, damage and -Res are more important than -Regen, because the team will have more DPS and can beat the AV's regeneration without having to debuff it. And Pain does have a pretty standard -Resistance debuff, so on teams it will be fine against AVs.

[Psyonico]

The problem with Illusion/Pain is that you are mostly buffs/heals, Phantom Army can't be buffed/healed, meaning only Phantasm benefits from your secondary (solo).

 

If you plan on almost exclusively teaming, then yeah, Pain is a decent set.  As others have said, not top tier, but also not bottom of the barrel.  Might I recommend Illusion/Dark? It's a really fun combination.

[Seigmoraig]

I'm not a huge fan of Pain. It feels like other than bringing +regen and some heals it doesn't do much else. Sure it has a resist buff and a damage buff but they pale in comparison to what other sets can bring to the table in addition to those.

 

Time, Dark, Nature all do more interesting things addition to the buffing and healing aspects. As others mentioned in solo situations you will be better off debuffing targets than buffing allies. If you don't mind not having a heal for grouping purposes /Trick Arrow looks like it could be a good fit also with all the control and debuffs it brings to the table.

Electric Affinity is also a super fun set that gives you full status protection in addition to +dmg, heals, shields and other fun stuff

Edited June 2, 2020 by Seigmoraig

[SuperPlyx]

Thanks for all the great info guys (gals) I didn't realize Phantom Army could not be buffed. And have to agree for that and other reasons stated I will forgo Pain. 

Thinking either Poison or Rad...I like cold but again I have cold toons. And I am not a fan of Dark anything. I heard good things about Traps except on teams it is to slow. 

 

[Doomguide2005]

What everyone has been saying about Pain being a buff and more ally centric set is true.  This is a weakness when solo.  On the other hand it can be viewed as a strength when teamed.  Because you don't have to pay as much time and attention to your pets it gives you more time to spend buffing and aiding your team.  The fire (pets) and forget nature of Illusion makes it easier for busier sets (single target ally buffers) like Empathy or Pain to focus on their thing.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Doomguide2005

[Peacemoon]

Illusion/Pain is great for a concept, and as @Doomguide2005says, it is more of a team support set. You don’t pick /Pain or /Empathy to be top tier soloer, you pick it for the team benefits. 
 

I have recently made a villainous Illusion/Pain (Pleasure Puppet says hi!), and I think it will be pretty fun. All pleasure, no pain, in fact 😉

[Redlynne]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest Illusion/Electrical Affinity or even Illusion/Nature Affinity.

 

I've got a Mind/Nature Affinity build that I'm in the process of updating (Mind Over Vegetables) and I've found that even with only a few Nature Affinity powers in the mix the build has a resiliency that is rather peculiar to it.  I was playing on a Mortimer Kal SF with it (that had to be abandoned, but it was going good until we dropped from 5 to 4 teammates) and the buff potential of Nature Affinity to allies was making a rather noticeable contribution.

 

The key reason for perhaps wanting to play Nature Affinity is that you can leverage the Level 35 power which is the PBAoE Hold to blend with your Illusion Hold and the damage production of your Pets.

 

Of course, if you want pure chaos ... there's always Illusion/Storm ...

[SuperPlyx]

I am just gonna have to go to test and try a couple out and see what "clicks" with me. Thanks again for all the feedback .

 

But also I gotta say I love these names 😆

 

4 hours ago, Peacemoon said:

Pleasure Puppet

 

42 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

Mind Over Vegetables

 

[Force Redux]

I'd suggest Trick Arrow. Which is normally a very suboptimal choice... Except for Illusion 

 

I had an incarnated Ill/TA on Live. Worked very nicely.

 

PA is invulnerable so you don't have to worry about tools to keep them alive.

 

PA taunts and Superior Invisibility reduces your aggro, so you can keep out of the action and not worry too much about your own survival.

 

TA likes to play at range. Mostly so does Illusion. 

 

TA offers more control that Illusion lacks. Holds. Immobs. Slow. AoE damage. TA is proc friendly for even more damage. TA offers debuffs that help PA do better, too.

 

Illusion loves recharge. So does TA. Build priorities are the same.

 

IMO this is the only combo in the entire game where TA shines and shows none of it's glaring weaknesses. 

 

Give it a try! I think you'll love it. Teams will love you too, and it's a hot soloer, too.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by Force Redux