Good Troller for team play - Elemental theme team

[CallMeMal]

So some mates and I have just started playing and we've decided to go with an elemental themed team that we are playing together with each of us choosing a different element to represent. We have:

 

Tanker - Ice

Dominator - Plant

Blaster - Lightning

Defender (my current) - Storm/Water

 

I'm thinking of moving to a Controller as I've been reading this week that Storm can be really frustrating for team play due to all the knockback. That had me thinking of either a Fire/Thermal or Earth/Thermal Controller. How do they go in team play and which would be the better option? I like mixing the earth and fire for a volcano themed character but there is plenty to make with pure fire as well. 

 

Thanks!

[krj12]

Nothing wrong with playing a Storm - just slot some knockback to knockdown procs where appropriate. 

[Corythia]

Or Fire/Storm is good, you can put kb to kd in the knock back powers, or just cages everything to prevent kb, either works.  My Fire/Storm put some extra slots in Gale, and was able to keep pretty much everything on it's back most of the time between freezing rain, Gale, and bonfire nothing but nemesis robots could keep their feet.

[Doomguide2005]

     As alluded to above Storm's knockback can be managed by kb to kd IOs.  The groups Dominator can use Roots to prevent kb as well.  And thoughtful use can also manage the kb in many cases, i.e. hard to be problematic when the kb sends them only a few feet before slamming into the terrain or get above them (Hover) and knock them into ground etc..  Experiment and learn ... a static team of friends might give you a 'bad' time but in general friends will be more forgiving as well when your learning attempts go a bit sideways.

[Without_Pause]

If you can deal with Storm on a defender, it will work even better on a controller since you can mitigate some of the KB by default. The #1 issue for me would have been how much that's going to suck your end bar. I ran a Plant/storm to 50, and that was one of the more painful rides to 50. Getting the alpha slot unlocked and invested in it really opened it up. Until then, I felt like I kept having to hold back. Note, I didn't use any of the IOs for procs in terms of Stamina/Health. That would have helped. Even on my Fire/time controller, I felt like going, "Someday, I will be able to go all out."

[Argentae]

An other voice for Fire/Storm especially if you have played Storm/
You probably know all the benefits of the Storm set already, but will likely very much enjoy how it plays on a Fire/Storm.
I highly recommend /Ice with Fire/Storm, hibernate is amazing when you do almost all your damage via pets and pseudo pets. Makes you into an invincible tank while you get to full heal/end, ultimate panic button power. Ice Storm is why you take the set, amazing AOE damage on a very  reasonable timer that fits perfectly in with all your other targeted AOE powers.

 
GET.
THE.
PROCS.
IN.
HEALTH.

 

Consider making plans to get Atlas Accolade (do council missions for wolves/vamps, do Fortune Teller mission etc.

 

End is your biggest issue, but slotting sets generally gets you decent -end, and if coupled with all the +rec procs available and slotted in health (Panacea, Numina, Miracle) and Perf shifter + endmod IOs to taste in Stamina effectively resolve it.

 

I focused almost exclusively on AOE in the overall build of my Fire/Storm and it works great, esp once you have Bonfire and Tornado. Absolutely slot both of them with KB->KD proc (Sudden Acceleration is probably easiest). Lightning Storm I have found I Like the KB because it does well at watching my back while I tend my massive environmental fury patch of Dooooooommm. 🙂

 

Lavan FireStorm solos extremely well on +4/x8. 

[Scarlet Shocker]

I'm putting a solid hand up for Earth/Thermal. Really strong controls, great team support and has everything you need on a team. It's not bad solo at high level either but the caveat there is that it doesn't kill too fast so many mobs can overwhelm.

 

The main benefits of Earth/Thermal are very solid controls. Lock a group of mobs down, and keep them locked down. But also give your team some great shields and buffs. Rocky is one of the more survivable pets and you can in emergency use him as a sacrificial alpha strike tank.

 

Debuffs are very solid, and both primary and secondary mesh well together giving you some surprisingly good -Def to mobs.

 

Most important of all, it's a ton of fun to play. (you can also get psychedelic with the shields too)

[Cenozoic]

OP,

 

Agreed with the previous posters.  Earth or Fire primary are fun, and Storm on a Controller is much easier to play with the -KB in either primary.

Also consider a Cryovolcano - Earth/Cold.  I have one and it is very team friendly.  The controls are sky high and the defense buffs keep the Blaster and Dominator humming along nicely.

[Col. Kernel]

On 9/9/2021 at 11:25 PM, CallMeMal said:

So some mates and I have just started playing and we've decided to go with an elemental themed team that we are playing together with each of us choosing a different element to represent. We have:

 

Tanker - Ice

Dominator - Plant

Blaster - Lightning

Defender (my current) - Storm/Water

 

I'm thinking of moving to a Controller as I've been reading this week that Storm can be really frustrating for team play due to all the knockback. That had me thinking of either a Fire/Thermal or Earth/Thermal Controller. How do they go in team play and which would be the better option? I like mixing the earth and fire for a volcano themed character but there is plenty to make with pure fire as well. 

 

Thanks!

 

KRJ12 is correct.

Do the following;

Put a KB>KD in Tornado

Put your LS up in the air about 10"

Be mindful of the Repel (not KB) in Hurricane.  Slot with 4 Dark Watcher's Despair and use it to lightly brush the foes so they get the accuracy debuff w/o getting shoved around.  When foes try to leave drop patches like Freezing Rain use Herdacane to shove them back onto it.

Use Gale (if you have it) to put foes back onto debuff patches (see above).

Talk to the tank, have him herd the mobs into a corner or up against a wall.  LS can be used at ground level to bounce foes back into the Tanker's scrum.

 

In closing, KB isn't your enemy, it's your friend.  It's one of the best controls in the game when used properly.  There are way too many fun things you can do with Hurricane in particular.