Sell me on a primary to pair with /dark

[KelvinKole]

I've really never played a controller past level 18 or so and am having a tough time deciding on a primary. I know I want to play /dark and my playstyle usually puts me in the thick of things (melee range). I'm looking at electric, illusion, and maybe ice but open to anything.

 

 

[csr]

I've really never played a controller past level 18 or so and am having a tough time deciding on a primary. I know I want to play /dark and my playstyle usually puts me in the thick of things (melee range). I'm looking at electric, illusion, and maybe ice but open to anything.

 

Illusion will solo the best of those three mentioned due to Phantom Army and Spectral Wounds.  There is some minor duplication in the stealth powers.  And you'll want a KBtoD IO in Phantasm to keep him from blowing mobs out of your Tar Patch or sending your Darkest Night anchoring sailing.

 

Ice also has a bit of duplication in the patch area with Ice Slick and Tar Patch, but it's only in secondary elements.  Specifically the -Spd and ability to bunch up spawns.  Ice Slick's primary value is the KD.  Tar Patch is mostly for the -Res.  One other small drawback is the need to turn off Arctic Air if you want to get significant value out of the Stealth element of Shadow Fall.  Other than that it's a solid combo in the traditional control line.

 

Electric, like Illusion, is not a typical control set.  It has several ways to reduce foe damage: the classic AoE Hold, a ground-targeted Sleep AoE that reapplies periodically, a chain Confuse, a chain KD and simply draining the END of foes flat with Static Field, Conductive Aura and Jolting Chain.  The latter generally doesn't work well on fast moving teams.  Nor is the sleep all that helpful in such situations.  Which leaves Elect tending to under-perform most other sets in fast-moving team play in exchange for it's versatile and unusual set of control powers.  Personally, I think Elect works best with Kin for the added END drain and the highly sought-after team buffs to offset the fast-paced play short-comings.  I'd put this one behind the other two as a combo for /Dark.

 

Briefly on the other options:

 

Fire has a decent synergy with Tar Patch and Hot Feet.  Comparable to Ice but with damage in place of slow and Stun in place of Sleep and Confuse.  Earth duplicates the -Spd and bunching with all of Quicksand, Earthquake and Volcanic Gasses.  But, once again, it's in the secondary element of -Spd and clumping.  Dark has more -ToHit to stack on foes, but uses cones to do it (Fearsome Stare and Living Shadows) so is more of a range control set.

 

Mind and Grav have better single target damage due to Mesmerize/Levitate and Lift/Propel.  Mind has a tricky Hold toggle that repels things.  Sometimes useful, sometimes counter-productive.  Otherwise it relies on an AoE Confuse and the standard AoE Hold with Sleep and Fear to back those up.  Grav also has an AoE Hold, a teleport Stun that unfortunately also has a KB (which I believe you can downgrade to KD with the IO).  Like TK it can be tricky to use, but to a much lesser degree (especially if the IO works, which it should) and is a better overall power.  Grav's last AoE control is also tricky to use: Dimension Shift.  That is a targeted AoE toggle that essentially creates a pocket dimension where those in it cannot affect those outside and vice versa.  It's much a better power than /Dark's Black Hole.  Both of these sets will solo better than most due to the single target damage.  Grav's pet is also ranged and so better behaved than most.  And stacks Hold for added control.

 

That leaves Plant.  Like Dark more of a ranged control set due to it's bread-and-butter being a cone.  But it's a lead-off cone, so not a big deal if you want to be in melee range thereafter.  You have the AoE Hold and an AoE Sleep but otherwise it's atypical.  There's the aforementioned cone, Seeds of Confusion, which is as advertised a Confuse and highly effective (at the cost of a bit of XP/mob, though not XP/min).  And Carrion Creepers, which a location targeted oddball Slow/-Fly/-Jump power that does a bit of damage and KD which gets more common as you defeat foes and the creepers proliferate.  You've also got a location +Reg power in place of another control.  Though Spirit Tree can be used in inventive ways (it used to be able to block doors or take alpha strikes, but I haven't tried that out in Homecoming).  Fully slotted it give close to +300% Regen, which coupled with Soul Absorption can boost team Regen greatly or alternated make sure the team has a good +Regen boost most of the time.  Roots, the AoE Immob, does more damage than most as there is no secondary effect and is often slotted as an attack.  My last point on Plant/Dark is that your best Plant power is an AoE Confuse, which makes Darkest Night less valuable.

[Dixa]

why not dark primary? it works mostly in melee range as it's immob is a cone and it has a pbaoe stun. it also has a single target confuse which is pretty handy.

[csr]

why not dark primary? it works mostly in melee range as it's immob is a cone and it has a pbaoe stun. it also has a single target confuse which is pretty handy.

 

Cones aren't good melee range powers.  Dark has two, one good and one average, in Fearsome Stare and Living Shadows.

 

I went Dark/Dark myself, but I don't intend to move into melee range except to heal.  What I like about the combo is the stacking AoE -ToHit.  Heck, even Soul Absorption has -ToHit.  So even if foes aren't controlled, they can't hit much.

[Rocketmandb]

I'm running a Fire/Dark that I have up to 30. Even without Imps, it's a beast. All the +def and -tohit of /Dark give you survivability, and Tar Patch + containment + Hot Feet just dishes out the damage. Now, Hot Feet saps endurance, but then at 28 you get Soul Absorbtion, which gives it to you for a chunk of a battle.

 

I'm currently running at even level/6 heroes when I solo - again, without Imps yet. My attack sequence is to first Fade (~+15% def), then Smoke (~--7% tohit), then Darkest Night on one of the rear mobs (~-22% tohit and -30% damage), run around a corner, when first mob arrives, drop Tar Patch (-30% resist), Fire Cages (set up containment and keep them in range of Hot Feet), Soul Absorbtion (-10% tohit and big regen and recovery buffs), hit toughest mobs with hold, or if things are going poorly, throw in a Flashfire to disorient.

 

That yields a total of roughly 17% def and -39% tohit while you have the entire group immobilized and take contained, tar-patched, Hot Feet damage. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

 

I just figured out how to get a build with Boxing and Cross Punch worked in. Cross punch is a very nice add, giving a pretty good damage melee cone. I had to give up the ST immob and AoE hold to get it, but I don't miss either and like the damage.

 

This build is a beast - solo or in groups

[flair]

My primary is Fire/Dark (tinted both to black+purple so they look cohesive). I love the combo. I played Fire/Rad during regular play - hated dealing with all of the toggles and convincing people to leave the boss until last (granted, not as much a problem now). I've also played Earth, Ice, and Illusion controllers to higher levels - preferred the tool set for Fire.

 

One of my favorite things is tar patch + bonfire to keep melee creatures at bay. Throw down tar patch - drop bonfire - pull onto tar patch and when they are closing on you - they bounce back to the tar patch. I love the utility of smoke and shadowfall together to limit pulls and to reduce aggro radius so you can pick apart larger rooms without getting swamped. I also prefer the ranged disorient you get with Fire - I tend to lead with that after the tank has absorbed alpha, then throw tar patch under them and let the imps up my damage contribution while I lock down specific baddies and spam heals as necessary.

 

 

[Nic Mercy]

I've really never played a controller past level 18 or so and am having a tough time deciding on a primary. I know I want to play /dark and my playstyle usually puts me in the thick of things (melee range). I'm looking at electric, illusion, and maybe ice but open to anything.

 

Mind/Dark is worth a try simply because you can have a CC/Healing pet (that provides an immobilize, which Mind doesnt have, that triggers containment) in Dark Servant and if you take a Patron pool you can also have a DPS pet as well. Mind, not natively having summonable pets, sees a great deal of interesting variance on its usual playstyle options and the ability to buff them.

[KelvinKole]

Thanks all. I think I'm between fire and elec at this point. I ran some DFB's with Illusion up to level 24 and then tried it out in the restof the game and I just don't get it; I wasn't a fan at all.

 

Fire seems like a good set with some damage potential and hard control. Electric seems underrated to me; the combination of static field and conductive aura should sap endurance pretty quickly and it offeres some hard control in addition to that making it attractive for team and solo play. I think I'll try both up to level 20 or so and then decide.