Controller pet comparison - are some better than others?

[malleable1]

So I'm liking Illusion right now (17th - so no pet yet), but am open to other primaries.  How do the different pets compare in Primaries for Controllers?

Are any considered the best?

 

Thanks,

Mal

[micros]

Illusion has the two of the best pets in the game imo.

 

Phantom army is great opener as it sucks up the alpha strike and acts like your own pocket tank. These cannot be buffed which is why you will see /rad or /ta which debuffs the mobs.

 

Spooky (spectral terror) is also great because it's a aoe hold pet that also debuffs to-hit.  You can also do all sort of fun IO slotting.

 

Phantasm is pretty crappy, a bit better with the knock back to knock down IO and he will clone himself to create more decoys. Overall he is kinda meh.

 

I think that other final pets are better but illusion has more variety overall.  

[malleable1]

Thanks Micros,

Why are the other primaries have better pets- or at least a better 32 pet?  Better damage?  I'm running Radiation Emission btw, and will probably run it on every character regardless of primary.

 

Mal

[oedipus_tex]

I'd personally rank the Control set pets more or less into 7 ranks, like this:

1. Phantom Army (Illusion) and Carrion Creepers (Plant, if we can call this a pet)
2. Singularity (Gravity) and Umbra Beast (Dark)
3. Living Stone (Earth) 
4. Phantasm (Illusion), Fly Trap (Plant), and Jack Frost (Ice)
5. Haunts (Dark)
6. Fire Imps (Fire)
7. Gremlins (Elec)

 

Gremlins are the only Controller pet I sometimes consider skipping, though it depends on the build. Even the worst pet is probably still better than taking a blast power when you consider that even if the pet dies, you're probably getting better DPA than a blast attack. The only time pets coming up net-negative versus a blast is if they aggro groups before you're ready, which is why I have Fire Imps and Gremlins ranked lowest.

Edited May 21, 2021 by oedipus_tex

[ZorkNemesis]

I've never really looked at pet numbers, but I always take them because they do more damage than the Controller naturally does.  Here's my takes and other can feel free to correct me.

 

Fire - Imps: stronger than they look.  You basically have three Rikti Monkeys running around with Fire Punch.  While they don't do anything else if you keep them all alive they put out good damage.

 

Electric - Gremlins: not terrible.  Only two compared to the imps.  They do their Charged Brawl but they can also use the chain knockdown power that the Controller may also have so they can keep things floored.

 

Dark - Umbra Beast: pretty good.  Annoying sound effects but will keep foes immobilized and afraid.  Pairs well with the Haunts.  Also virtually immune to any form of control.

 

Dark - Haunts: The Haunts only last a minute or two.  You get two, they use Shadow Punch and an ST fear so they'll keep whatever they fight afraid.  They have a unique quirk where they will remain and keep fighting if you die and I believe if you can get enough recharge you can double up on them.  Their damage is weak, but they are primarily meant to fear foes and draw aggro.

 

Earth - Animated Stone: basically a literal pocket tank.  The damage it does is middling but it has taunt effects on its melee attacks and is extremely resistant to all damage (and outright immune to one type, I think Toxic)

 

Plant - Flytrap: Pretty good.  A balance of lethal and toxic damage between the spines and bite.  It can also immobilize.  Its damage may be tuned a little higher than others since Plant Control was first designed for Dominators before it was made available to Controllers a little more than a year later.  Hard to target for single-target buffs though without clicking the window; the Flytrap's model is very awkward to click on.

 

As for the others, Singularity, Jack Frost, and Phantasm, I have yet to level a Controller or Dominator to the point where I have them so I can't provide opinions.  I have heard the Singularity can be made amazing now however, especially if you pair it with Sorcery's Enflame given that the Singularity is now a gravity vortex.

[malleable1]

Thanks very much for the great, detailed analysis guys!

I'm really only interested in playing Masterminds and Controllers.  I dig control and pets, so the fact that controllers get a pet at some point is really important to me.

I'll keep playing Illusion for a while, but I can see myself trying out the other types  at some point.

 

Can you buy more character slots? 

 

Mal

[ZorkNemesis]

12 minutes ago, malleable1 said:

Can you buy more character slots? 

 

No need to do that anymore.  Back during the live days it was 2 per shard, plus any more slots you bought.  VIP subscribers could make 12 per server, plus any more slots purchased.  1000 slots out of the box is a lot more than we used to have.  Happy alting!

[Senbonbanana]

On 5/21/2021 at 12:42 PM, ZorkNemesis said:

As for the others, Singularity, Jack Frost, and Phantasm, I have yet to level a Controller or Dominator to the point where I have them so I can't provide opinions.  I have heard the Singularity can be made amazing now however, especially if you pair it with Sorcery's Enflame given that the Singularity is now a gravity vortex.

 

Singularity:  It's also quite tanky.  It's the most controlling of all the pets and likes to both toss targets into the air and hold them.  I haven't tried anything fancy with my grav controller, so I can't comment on using Enflame on it.  I've also heard a KB-KD IO in him, plus a Wormhole on top, can turn him into a poor man's bonfire due to his innate knockback.  He'll slowly pull things toward him, and toss them aside if they get too close.

 

Phantasm:  I think he's broken.  He's supposed to be a ranged /nrg blaster that makes a decoy of himself, but he likes going into melee first.  This usually gets him killed quickly.  As of right now, he's pretty bad.  

 

Jack Frost:  I don't have any ice controller/dominators high enough to have Jack unlocked.  😞

[Carnifax]

4 hours ago, Senbonbanana said:

 

Phantasm:  I think he's broken.  He's supposed to be a ranged /nrg blaster that makes a decoy of himself, but he likes going into melee first.  This usually gets him killed quickly.  As of right now, he's pretty bad.  

Phantasm isn't as bad as he used to be, behaviour-wise (if you want Still-borked-AI look at Warshade pets). 

 

DPS-wise PAs do a lot of your damage. On a Pylon run (which is probably best-case for PA effectiveness) they do ~65% of my total damage. Phanty is less than one single PA. In "normal" combat it's a bit more balanced thanks to NRG Torrent. If PAs do 100 damage Phanty does 45 and his decoy 10 (issue with that 10 is of course you don't know exactly how much gets healed back). https://www.carnifax.org/?uuid=b4c00875-42ae-4ce1-a799-d7951ba0972e is a parse of RWZ missions on my Ill/Dark. 

 

Jack is pretty solid now overall and quite well behaved. Gremlins are dodgy, I think one of their issues is stacking Jolting Chains triggering sporadic occasional knockback coupled with their desire to be in melee range. That said they still do a large chunk of my Elec/Poisons overall damage. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Schiz0]

 

    Singularity is amazing! Best pet IMO

 

    I don't really count PA as a pet honestly, it is a summon power that is the backbone of illusion and it is amazing, but still not a pet IMO.

 

    Phantasm is great when it is alive, which isn't very long normally.  It barely makes clones and runs right into melee and dies in seconds....Very annoying! If they kept it from going into melee it would probably be one of the best pets because of the illusion clones.

 

    Fire imps are pure fun and chaos....great damage

    The earth pet is cool.  I have him on a dominator so I think I appreciate the tank more than maybe a controller does? Most doms can't debuff or heal with the secondary so maybe we get better use from a tankier pet with less damage.  He can really take a beating.

 

     I like the plant set, but I don't really like the pet that much, I don't know why honestly lol.  Maybe I don't realize what he is doing, or it isn't as visual? I just never liked him much.  I think maybe creepers are so cool they maybe take a lot of the spotlight off the pet to the point you don't even need him? I dunno....

[PainX]

think the worst pet is phatasm imo the random KB in the cone makes sure i never spawn him outside potentialy an AV/GM in which case he promptly runs in to die while i shake my head and think about why i just wasted a 2s animation

[Senbonbanana]

11 minutes ago, PainX said:

think the worst pet is phatasm imo the random KB in the cone makes sure i never spawn him outside potentialy an AV/GM in which case he promptly runs in to die while i shake my head and think about why i just wasted a 2s animation

Throw a KB--KD IO in him and him scattering mobs with that stupid KB cone is a worry of the past!  With this small change, he may survive long enough to not make his 2s summoning animation a waste. 

 

.....until he runs into melee and just stands there looking at the moon at the mobs like a lost and retarded puppy

 

EDIT:  Maybe a fix would be to give him some resistances/defense shields (or built in) and turn him into a Sentinel.  That way maybe he'd survive being in melee a bit longer, but still retain his ranged blasts.  Might be easier than tracking down the bug in his code making him suicidal.

Edited June 15, 2021 by Senbonbanana

[PainX]

Just now, Senbonbanana said:

Throw a KB--KD IO in him and him scattering mobs with that stupid KB cone is a worry of the past!  With this small change, he may survive long enough to not make his 2s summoning animation a waste. 

 

.....until he runs into melee and just stands there looking at the moon at the mobs like a lost and retarded puppy

well he has a set 6 slotted for ranged defense and i dont know how to 7 slot things

[Riverdusk]

I always put a kb to kd IO on phantasm, he's decent with that.  4 expedited reinforcement (yay recharge bonus), overwhelming force kb to kd, and explosive strike proc is my favored phantasm slotting.

 

Jack Frost I think is underrated.  He is decently tanky now and hits pretty hard (although still very single target oriented).  He has 25 base defense (throw in the two +5 def pet IO's and maneuvers and he's close to 40% defense, then barrier on top will pretty much soft cap him even without any secondary help so even doms I think can make use of him).

 

Flytrap I find fairly underwhelming (although throwing an Achilles heel -res proc in him I find nice on my plant/dark that doesn't have any real -def powers besides him).

[Doomguide2005]

And then there's Mind control the make your own pet(s) controller.

[PainX]

8 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

And then there's Mind control the make your own pet(s) controller.

so like plant except with out uhmmm the pet

[Doomguide2005]

17 minutes ago, PainX said:

so like plant except with out uhmmm the pet

Sort of ... the difference between select all and select this one.

[Senbonbanana]

22 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

And then there's Mind control the make your own pet(s) controller.

Which plant does on a MUCH shorter cooldown, the biggest difference being plant's is a cone and MC is targeted AoE.  MC is basically hot garbage compared to SoC.

 

A power obtained at level 8 shouldn't vastly outshine the level 32 power of another set.  Mass Confusion needs a major buff to bring it up to the power a level 32 primary power should be.

[Corythia]

I've played all sets enough to get the pet.  I'd rank them as follows:

Earth

Ice

Plant

Imps,Phantasm,Singularity

Umbral

Gremlins

 

Stoney hits like a truck and he can tank, he taunts, and he's tough.  Jack Hits like a truck and also taunts with his aura, he's a little harder to keep alive.  Plant's pet hit's pretty hard, and is tough, he is pretty easy to keep alive.  Imps... as an aggregate they hit hard, individually they aren't that impressive.  They have a huge agro radius, and will skip on to the next group even if you didn't think that was possible.  They bring back lots of friends, and are hard to keep track of and hard to keep alive.  That said, the three of them together do add up if you can get them focused.  Phantasm is a glass cannon with a ranged AOE, think of having a very weak blaster for a pet.  It dies constantly and doesn't really do all that much damage(maybe because he's dead so often).  Singularity ( I haven't played it since the recent changes) just doesn't seem to do much, and doesn't really hit very hard.  I am not impressed.   Umbral Wolf makes a LOT of noise, constantly.  If it were your own dog you'd have to put it down, or the neighbors would burn you out.  It's so annoying/distracting that it negates anything good you might have to say about it.  That said, it doesn't hit hard either.  I am NOT a fan.  Finally Gremlins.  Yikes.  They have the least DPS, combined with a hyperactivity that makes your imps seem tame.  They bring back friends from pretty much the entire mission map, and they can't kill anything.  They do get the chain knock down which they sometimes use, but it's really questionable whether it's worth it.

 

I haven't actually looked at DPS figures, so this is all just anecdotal based on how often I can look around for that last boss and realize my pet has already killed it.  If my pet is likely to solo a boss for me without me having to scramble to keep it up, it goes to the top of my list.  Other effects, like knockdowns, fears, immobilizes, etc are less important to me than whether I spend all my time trying to save the thing.  I can take care of the control, the pet needs to be able to have my back.

[Doomguide2005]

1 hour ago, Senbonbanana said:

Which plant does on a MUCH shorter cooldown, the biggest difference being plant's is a cone and MC is targeted AoE.  MC is basically hot garbage compared to SoC.

 

A power obtained at level 8 shouldn't vastly outshine the level 32 power of another set.  Mass Confusion needs a major buff to bring it up to the power a level 32 primary power should be.

Sheesh

No disagreement there, merely mentioning the one Controller (yet unmentioned) who doesn't really have a 'traditional' pet and it can be the nasty boss or even EB in the mob you're fighting.  And an EB is going to take a while with Plant as while Seeds is in almost every way superior to a basic single target Confuse its recharge is a whole lot longer.

Edited June 16, 2021 by Doomguide2005

[laudwic]

21 hours ago, Corythia said:

Singularity ( I haven't played it since the recent changes) just doesn't seem to do much, and doesn't really hit very hard.  I am not impressed.  

 

Huh?  While Singularity is not a great damage dealer, it is an insanely good controller.  I've soloed a Grav/Savage to 50 and currently have a 33 Grav/Storm and Sing has made my life much easier.  Especially since I don't need to be concerned about ambushes or things coming at me from behind.  I've seen Sing hold and control an Elite Boss I wasn't even aware of, and it would have defeated the boss on its own if I was willing to wait to let it whittle things down.

 

If you are looking for damage, Sing is not the best choice, if your soloing and want to control a spawn, it is your best friend.

[Spectre7878]

I have played lots of controllers. I wish pets were all treated equally. I am trying a fire/dark and imps just die all the time. It’s very defeating. I feel the pets are the trollers main damage source and their t9 power. They all should be meatier then that.