Is there a reliable way to set up containment on Illusion?

[HoundsTooth]

I remade my Ill/Rad, and I'm having a lot of fun with it.  I'm not sure how to up my late-game damage, aside from making Phantom Army perma. Other controllers can lock down mobs to get containment, then hit them with APP's. Is there any way to get equivalent damage with Illusion? Is spamming Flash the best/only way to set up containment, since Illusion doesn't get an AOE immobilize or stun?

[Erydanus]

It's pretty tough for Illusion to set up containment. At least you're rad. You have Choking Cloud and EM Pulse as additional holds, though they're no where as easy to use as a simple single target immobilize is -- if you didn't know, controller immobilizes are mag 4 specifically to give you a containment trigger for a typical boss. You could also stick a Devastation: chance of hold in your spectral wounds but, ugh, really this is grasping at straws.

[HoundsTooth]

Can Illusion/Rad pump out decent damage without containment? I'm thinking through APP's and none of the attacks seem worth taking without the extra damage from containment. Controller damage modifiers are so low.

[Gentoo]

Yes, Illusion/Rad can, because of Phantom Army and your ability to debuff the enemies.

[Frosticus]

Can Illusion/Rad pump out decent damage without containment? I'm thinking through APP's and none of the attacks seem worth taking without the extra damage from containment. Controller damage modifiers are so low.

 

Black Scorpion can help you out there. Poison ray helps your summons beat down stuff even faster. Enervating field, maybe some -res proc(s) and poison ray will have your pets taking down bosses and EB's fast enough that you won't miss containment damage.

 

ill/rad isn't really an aoe combination so I wouldn't worry about high damage fissure or fireball. Fissure isn't bad for the additional control though.

[Erydanus]

Controller epics actually got nerfed, you know. At one point the devs said, "oh shit these get containment, they've literally been doing double the damage we thought all along."

 

The entire controller community stood up and said, "WE TOLD YOU SO AND NOW WE ARE USED TO IT." But the nerfbat swung anyway and the epic damage ratings were halved. HALVED. This was like issue 18 or so because my main was already 50 and had been there for a while, and it was before Incarnate stuff.

 

So if you are thinking the damage seems low compared to an old character on live, this may be why. You used to get twice the epic damage even without containment so you ARE getting less now. That said you have a lot of tools to make up for this:

 

- accelerate metabolism is a damage buff

- enervating field is a -resistance power (-22.5%) so that ups your damage

- lingering radiation is a -defense power so that lets you hit more reliably and ups your damage

- anchor costs have been normalized; with inherent stamina using them both is no sweat even at low levels

- anchor change means they'll persist after the target dies for quite a while so you'll have their benefit the whole fight not just for 5 seconds

- EM pulse isn't as spammable as Flash but it will really mess up your targets. You know Lingering Radiation has -500% regen debuff? this power has -1000%. Bring blues because you won't have recovery after using this

- for you, choking cloud is probably worth it.  I'd do 4 pieces of Unbreakable Constraint including the chance of +2 mag proc, acc/hold, end/rech/hold, and acc/end/rech/hold; then I'd frankenslot with 2 pieces of Ghost Widow (acc/end, end/hold). You'd get 71% acc, 89% end redux, 89% hold, and 39% recharge time. The end cost is 0.44 with all that which is like both your toggles combined without any end reduction, so it should be manageable as long as you're not also running too many other toggles.

 

And to be honest, this combo should be focused on the debuffs over any buffs. I might run Assault selectively but that's about it.