issue 27 Focused Feedback: Symphony Control

[ScarySai]

Alt animations would be fine for some sets I imagine, I don't really understand why this one would need to be jettisoned.

 

Think HC finally has a grasp on how to craft new sets. The others felt like they were too afraid of it being strong, where this and Sonic Assault feel appropriately tuned for the modern game without being ridiculously OP, like some other servers tend to make things.

[Mezmera]

13 minutes ago, alabaster said:

the Symphony set feels rather similar to the Mind Control set to the point I'm wondering if these animations would be better served as an alternate animation set for Mind Control and jettison this music-based set entirely

 

There's a lot of the same powers but it's a completely different playstyle.  Mind Control's animations are fast and fluid.  Symphony's are clunky in comparison but you are netting much better damage output for a bit less optimal control.  Fair tradeoff.  

 

You can keep these animations away from my Mind dom tyvm.  I can play Symphony if I like.  

[Seed22]

37 minutes ago, alabaster said:

I think I'm coming at this from a reverse angle, the Symphony set feels rather similar to the Mind Control set to the point I'm wondering if these animations would be better served as an alternate animation set for Mind Control and jettison this music-based set entirely.  It feels too specific to be its own set and with all the confuses, sleeps, fears, and psionic damage its fairly close to Mind Control anyways.

Blasphemy!

 

Plus to be fair I mean Symph wouldn't be the first set in the game to kind of copy other sets almost entirely in damage type or what have you. I mean, look at Katana and Broadsword, as an immediate example.  There are a few others but im drawing a blank currently. The point is Symph can exist alongside mind; Mind has a bit harder immediate CC than Symph, at least from my playtesting. Plus! Symph is unique thematically from mind in obvious ways.

 

Plus mind is, well, trash. Someone needs to be good at...whatever the hell mind's trying to accomplish (outside of Doms who make it pretty decent), and symphony does that too!

 

EDIT: Mind isn't always trash, it's just USUALLY trash.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Seed22

[ExeErdna]

2 hours ago, ShinMagmus said:

The ST Confuse and the AoE Sleep both need to not do damage to work properly.  This is established knowledge that we all already have from playing the game.  People, don't test this set at lv12 on SO's, test it at lv50 with a finished build including your damaging Interface proc like Reactive.  Then use a damaging Sleep and tell me with a straight face that it works: it doesn't.  It's just a glorified attack with extra optional Sleep set self-heal procs and/or Placate procs.  I... don't get how the devs messed up on these things.  We already know that Flash Freeze is basically worthless because of this interaction while Mass Hypnosis is actually good and has been used by Dominators soloing content to great effect.  This is something we don't have to guess or theorize on, because we have years of experience with how these powers work.  Just remove the damage from the Confuse and the Sleep, and honestly make the Sleep a stronger power in general like Elec Control's pulsing sleep.

 

I get where you're coming from yet it's why I chose Paralytic over Reactive. I already have enough -res with Symph/Sonic. The sleep does work, personally the confuse should be stun. Yet making the sleep as oppressive as elec is too much.

[oedipus_tex]

3 hours ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

I still can't get Symphony to work on a dominator. I know it's something on my end--I'm not building it right or playing it right or something--but my doms keep crumpling and feel like they're doing less damage than my controller. Seemed like Symphony/Energy might have some synergy, and maybe it does when built right.

 

 

You might want to try Symphony/Fire on a Dominator. I think that's the current standout pairing, due to Fire Assault being able to get away with being played like a ranged hoverblaster. You can just hover up there and shoot things with your cones, including the Fire cone attack power. Might be able to get some of the other sets with decent cone and ranged attacks to work too, like Savage, Icy, etc. I would personally avoid this with a melee heavy set, altho someone will probably make it work.

I did do a recent run of 4-star ITF with a Symphony/Fire/Leviathan Dominator and it was pretty good. One thing to note is that the stun cone does HUGE damage. Like so much damage that you should slot it as a blast that happens to stun, and not a standard control power. The power does more damage than casting the Fear cone (identical to Mind Control's Terrify) about 5 times. On a Controller, you want to lead with a power that establishes Containment (the sleep works well for this since it's autohit). On a Dominator, you want to hit whatever you have that multiplies damage. The damage takes 20 seconds to fully apply, but it's a huge chunk. Basically, Hot Feet level damage you can cast from ranged and that keeps ticking regardless of where the enemy stands. Symphony is definitely in the top tier for AoE damage.

[TygerDarkstorm]

3 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

 

 

You might want to try Symphony/Fire on a Dominator. I think that's the current standout pairing, due to Fire Assault being able to get away with being played like a ranged hoverblaster. You can just hover up there and shoot things with your cones, including the Fire cone attack power. Might be able to get some of the other sets with decent cone and ranged attacks to work too, like Savage, Icy, etc. I would personally avoid this with a melee heavy set, altho someone will probably make it work.

I did do a recent run of 4-star ITF with a Symphony/Fire/Leviathan Dominator and it was pretty good. One thing to note is that the stun cone does HUGE damage. Like so much damage that you should slot it as a blast that happens to stun, and not a standard control power. The power does more damage than casting the Fear cone (identical to Mind Control's Terrify) about 5 times. On a Controller, you want to lead with a power that establishes Containment (the sleep works well for this since it's autohit). On a Dominator, you want to hit whatever you have that multiplies damage. The damage takes 20 seconds to fully apply, but it's a huge chunk. Basically, Hot Feet level damage you can cast from ranged and that keeps ticking regardless of where the enemy stands. Symphony is definitely in the top tier for AoE damage.

Thank you for your insights; I've certainly learned a lot from you regarding controllers and dominators. I will have to retry it and spend time slotting it the way I did my controller (and not using the auto-enhance feature). I had some teleport binds that were making /energy okay to use, but obviously I was doing something wrong since I struggled so heavily on my dom compared to pretty much breezing through everything on my controller.

 

I have trouble envisioning Symph/Fire thematically, but that does seem like the route to go. I'm not used to playing an all ranged dominator, lol. All the other ones I've tried either get into melee or joust in and out, so this will be interesting to try.

[Seed22]

1 minute ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

Thank you for your insights; I've certainly learned a lot from you regarding controllers and dominators. I will have to retry it and spend time slotting it the way I did my controller (and not using the auto-enhance feature). I had some teleport binds that were making /energy okay to use, but obviously I was doing something wrong since I struggled so heavily on my dom compared to pretty much breezing through everything on my controller.

 

I have trouble envisioning Symph/Fire thematically, but that does seem like the route to go. I'm not used to playing an all ranged dominator, lol. All the other ones I've tried either get into melee or joust in and out, so this will be interesting to try.

Maybe give dark a look or even Energy Assault, if you're ok with kinda lower damage (maybe less use of TF?). Dark has a decent ranged cone I think in nightfall

[ScarySai]

My vote would be on dark, probably. Though I don't see the cones being too much of an issue, just open with those before you dive in. Most of the trash should be dead before they wear off.

[Seed22]

6 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

My vote would be on dark, probably. Though I don't see the cones being too much of an issue, just open with those before you dive in. Most of the trash should be dead before they wear off.

Thats true. I mean the stun alone does buckets of damage. Or I guess thorny for an assault set, but why uh...why would anyone play that set?

 

(I say this as someone who had an Ice/Thorn pre shutdown >.>)

Edited July 16, 2022 by Seed22

[TygerDarkstorm]

14 minutes ago, Seed22 said:

Maybe give dark a look or even Energy Assault, if you're ok with kinda lower damage (maybe less use of TF?). Dark has a decent ranged cone I think in nightfall

Symphony/Energy is what I was trying out. I think I can make it work, especially with my combat tp bind if I actually sit down and redo her slotting. The auto enhance feature seems to be crap.

 

I did debate Symphony/Dark as well; seems like that combo might be good as well.

[Seed22]

1 minute ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

Symphony/Energy is what I was trying out. I think I can make it work, especially with my combat tp bind if I actually sit down and redo her slotting. The auto enhance feature seems to be crap.

 

I did debate Symphony/Dark as well; seems like that combo might be good as well.

Oh yeah auto enhance is shit, absolutely.

 

And awesome!  I hope you enjoy it!

[oedipus_tex]

Here's a screenshot of how I slotted Symphony/Fire for the ITF run if its helpful to figuring out how these powers function. Several slots unslotted or slotted weird because I was rushing to complete the build by hand whle the team was forming.

For the pet I was just fooling around to see how procs would work (modestly well). 

 

Everything seems to work basically as you would expect it to. There are no huge outliers in this set, other than the way the pet works, and the very large amount of damage the Stun (Confounding Chant) does.

 

 

In real life I'd want more Stun duration in Enfeebling Chant, to actually add a few of the missing damage procs, and correctly slot a few powers I screwed up here (LOL Dreadful Discord--that should be slotted similar to Terrify, basically like a Blast).

 

Even with this not really complete build tho I can deal reasonably well with Cimerorans. They are very control resistant but you can't argue with the huge damage from Confounding Chant.

[Voltak]

4 hours ago, Mezmera said:

 

The confuse is fine as it is.  This set is already quite powerful without that confuse and then you toss that in as an extra tool at your disposal you're quite well off with this control. 

 

How something should work does not need to be dependent on how Mind Control's powers work, or Dark Control or Plant, this is Symphony Control and should behave on its own separate terms.  

 

The sleep could use modified so that it feels like it would get more functional use but I don't think it's damage component is the problem.  And yet it's still a good power to have in its current form you'll just have to adapt to how it plays rather than how it should play.  

 

They've been tuning this set for quite a while, we've seen it a few days.  It feels quite good to me that I can really only pick out the sleep as less than ideal so I'm going to acquiesce to how they see that they want Symphony Control to play.  

The set is NOT fine as it is.  This is from players who have a long history of playing dominators and control sets.  
We request the damage be removed, it is not needed and traditionally it's never been in a single confuse power, no dmg has been included in those before. 
We want an ST confuse with no dmg in it so we have options on how to open groups without drawing aggro. 
Same thing with sleep, and would love the sleep to work like Electric or other Sleeps that do not draw aggro, like Mind. 

We do not have to adapt to it being this way as it is.  That's not true. 
It could be changed, it does not have to stay the way it is. 
So we don't have to adapt to anything yet since it's still in testing and this is exactly what this forum is for, for feedback, suggestions, ideas on what's being tested. 

It will feel better with no dmg in those powers. 

Why should we acquiesce to how THEY want Symphony control to play ??

We are the players.  We play the game.   Players of games do not play to acquiesce developers. 
What are you talking about?   Traditionally it is the devs who develop and make changes to acquiesce to the players, the customers, or the supporters. 

We are in this together.  We have the right to express what we want.  

I welcome the interaction here and I applaud the Devs for giving all of us a chance to express and share. 
This is done optimally without the burden to "acquiesce" being placed on the players.  It's the other way around. 

 

[Voltak]

3 hours ago, Mezmera said:

 

Mind Control's animations are fast and fluid.  Symphony's are clunky in comparison but you are netting much better damage output for a bit less optimal control.  Fair tradeoff.  

 

This here is also without making any sense given the facts.  Your statement has no basis on facts. 
I say this with all due respect. 
Here are the facts 

Dark Control has optimal control and optimal damage. 
Plant has optimal control and optimal damage.
A well built Fire Dominator also has solid control and very good damage ( again @EnjoyTheJourney's fire/psi dominator is a super example of this). 

Mind has good controls and good dmg. 

So no set, again, no set needs to give up good control to have good damage. 
I don't know where you draw that standard or that condition from, it simply does not exist as a rule. 

You can have good control and good damage in a control set and that is evident by the facts by how the game is now. 


 

[ExeErdna]

20 minutes ago, Voltak said:

The set is NOT fine as it is.  This is from players who have a long history of playing dominators and control sets.  
We request the damage be removed, it is not needed and traditionally it's never been in a single confuse power, no dmg has been included in those before. 
We want an ST confuse with no dmg in it so we have options on how to open groups without drawing aggro. 
Same thing with sleep, and would love the sleep to work like Electric or other Sleeps that do not draw aggro, like Mind. 

We do not have to adapt to it being this way as it is.  That's not true. 
It could be changed, it does not have to stay the way it is. 
So we don't have to adapt to anything yet since it's still in testing and this is exactly what this forum is for, for feedback, suggestions, ideas on what's being tested. 

It will feel better with no dmg in those powers. 

Why should we acquiesce to how THEY want Symphony control to play ??

We are the players.  We play the game.   Players of games do not play to acquiesce developers. 
What are you talking about?   Traditionally it is the devs who develop and make changes to acquiesce to the players, the customers, or the supporters. 

We are in this together.  We have the right to express what we want.  

I welcome the interaction here and I applaud the Devs for giving all of us a chance to express and share. 
This is done optimally without the burden to "acquiesce" being placed on the players.  It's the other way around. 

 

 

15 minutes ago, Voltak said:

This here is also without making any sense given the facts.  Your statement has no basis on facts. 
I say this with all due respect. 
Here are the facts 

Dark Control has optimal control and optimal damage. 
Plant has optimal control and optimal damage.
A well built Fire Dominator also has solid control and very good damage ( again @EnjoyTheJourney's fire/psi dominator is a super example of this). 

Mind has good controls and good dmg. 

So no set, again, no set needs to give up good control to have good damage. 
I don't know where you draw that standard or that condition from, it simply does not exist as a rule. 

You can have good control and good damage in a control set and that is evident by the facts by how the game is now. 


 

 

 

This is why I say the ST confuse doesn't work on Symph. That confuse is cute can all until the Reverb wants to play and then it's dead weight. Now if it was a ST stun it's amazing and fits into the theme better. The sleep overall outside of 45+ content is perfectly fine doing damage since you since you don't have interface dots. The reason why the sleep is solid as is, all due to the -dmg so it having dmg itself makes it a useful tool once the fighting starts. It's a dam good cone, if a want a godlike sleep I got Mind and Elec. If I want a better confusion I got again Mind. Then Elec and Plant have the most aggressive confusions in the game. Symph should be in it's own niche instead of "why isn't it like this". Personally you gotta treat Symph like Grav it's way more aggressively played especially once the Reverb comes online. 

Edited July 16, 2022 by ExeErdna
wanted to add something I missed

[Voltak]

2 minutes ago, ExeErdna said:

 

 

 

This is why I say the ST confuse doesn't work on Symph. That confuse is cute can all until the Reverb wants to play and then it's dead weight. Now if it was a ST stun it's amazing and fits into the theme better. The sleep overall outside of 45+ content is perfectly fine doing damage since you since you don't have interface dots. The reason why the sleep is solid as is, all due to the -dmg so it having dmg itself makes it a useful tool once the fighting starts. It's a dam good cone, if a want a godlike sleep I got Mind and Elec. If I want a better confusion I got again Mind and Plant has one of the most aggressive confusions in the game. Symph should be in it's own niche instead of "why isn't it like this". Personally you gotta treat Symph like Grav it's way more aggressively played especially once the Reverb comes online. 

Here, another player who sees that the set is NOT fine as it is.  
Thanks for the observation. 
I would prefer the pet does not repeat the confuse especially if it has a dmg component to it. 
Something has to change. 
I want the confuse to remain. 

No, remove the dmg from sleep.  I don't want it to draw aggro at all.  Or, keep the dmg but remove the aggro.  But bottom line, remove the aggro from it. 
 

Edited July 16, 2022 by Voltak

[oedipus_tex]

18 minutes ago, Voltak said:

The set is NOT fine as it is.  This is from players who have a long history of playing dominators and control sets.  
We request the damage be removed, it is not needed and traditionally it's never been in a single confuse power, no dmg has been included in those before. 
We want an ST confuse with no dmg in it so we have options on how to open groups without drawing aggro. 
Same thing with sleep, and would love the sleep to work like Electric or other Sleeps that do not draw aggro, like Mind. 

 

 

I can see you have strong feelings about this, so hopefully I won't come across as unsympathetic to your POV. I do respectfully disagree about this particular power. It's true other sets don't have Damage in their Confuses, but also true that variation is the rule in Control sets. I like that this is a remixed edition of an old classic.

 

In Symphony's case, this is the first time a pet can echo what the caster is doing and help out by stacking the control power. I don't know what the recharge on the pet's Confuse is, but it's quick enough that it stacks noticeably. The pet isn't always the brightest about picking an ideal target, but if you can isolate an Elite Boss you can very quickly stack magnitude, and since the power deals damage too--from you and the pet--it's actually maintains a respectable damage chain.

You have to factor in that the pet is echoing what the player is doing and otherwise just standing around. The pet has much better controls than other pets, with the downside that it only uses them if you use them first. What that means is each cast of a single target Symphony power is actually worth twice what its stated values are. Of course there are elements of this that favor some builds over others, because you do actually need to keep the pet alive. Also, Dominators probably favor Assault powers over Controls for attacks. Controllers meanwhile can game this to stack Confusion or Hold on an Elite Boss quicker than other Trollers can, and do it while actually dealing some damage.

On the whole, I don't think it's totally fair to compare Symphony's Confusion to other set's Confuses. It's not the same power. The Confusion power is better compared to some of the one-off powers each set has that are custom designed for them. Jolting Chain, Spirit Tree, Haunt, Smoke, that kind of thing. Compared to those I think it's fine, especially since the rest of the set is so strong. This set is not Mind or Dark Control, those sets are their own thing.

[ExeErdna]

2 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

 

 

I can see you have strong feelings about this, so hopefully I won't come across as unsympathetic to your POV. I do respectfully disagree about this particular power. It's true other sets don't have Damage in their Confuses, but also true that variation is the rule in Control sets. I like that this is a remixed edition of an old classic.

 

In Symphony's case, this is the first time a pet can echo what the caster is doing and help out by stacking the control power. I don't know what the recharge on the pet's Confuse is, but it's quick enough that it stacks noticeably. The pet isn't always the brightest about picking an ideal target, but if you can isolate an Elite Boss you can very quickly stack magnitude, and since the power deals damage too--from you and the pet--it's actually maintains a respectable damage chain.

You have to factor in that the pet is echoing what the player is doing and otherwise just standing around. The pet has much better controls than other pets, with the downside that it only uses them if you use them first. What that means is each cast of a single target Symphony power is actually worth twice what its stated values are. Of course there are elements of this that favor some builds over others, because you do actually need to keep the pet alive. Also, Dominators probably favor Assault powers over Controls for attacks. Controllers meanwhile can game this to stack Confusion or Hold on an Elite Boss quicker than other Trollers can, and do it while actually dealing some damage.

On the whole, I don't think it's totally fair to compare Symphony's Confusion to other set's Confuses. It's not the same power. The Confusion power is better compared to some of the one-off powers each set has that are custom designed for them. Jolting Chain, Spirit Tree, Haunt, Smoke, that kind of thing. Compared to those I think it's fine, especially since the rest of the set is so strong. This set is not Mind or Dark Control, those sets are their own thing.

 

That's why I say change the confusion to be a stun (keep the animation tho, I love it) because that would make Synth really unique and play into it's "sonic" roots. We know Sonic Blast has ST stun and an AOE sleep that do dmg. There isn't a single Control setup that has a ST Stun they're all flavors of AOE. Even Symph's AOE stun has a unique interaction with the sleep. If the Reverb is gonna stack let me stack a stun not a confuse.

[Mezmera]

56 minutes ago, Voltak said:

This here is also without making any sense given the facts.  Your statement has no basis on facts. 
I say this with all due respect. 
Here are the facts 

Dark Control has optimal control and optimal damage. 
Plant has optimal control and optimal damage.
A well built Fire Dominator also has solid control and very good damage ( again @EnjoyTheJourney's fire/psi dominator is a super example of this). 

Mind has good controls and good dmg. 

So no set, again, no set needs to give up good control to have good damage. 
I don't know where you draw that standard or that condition from, it simply does not exist as a rule. 

You can have good control and good damage in a control set and that is evident by the facts by how the game is now. 

 

First off Plant is OP as all get out so lets not act like Seeds and Creepers aren't broken.  Seeds has a ridiculously fast recharge for such a supremely useful power ability.  Creepers does fabulous damage AND those vines each hold their own aggro which keeps baddies from attracting to you.  Plant is the all being control that should not be.  

 

Then the Fire Dominator takes advantage of yet another broken ability that has been allowed to linger far too long in Bonfire with that KB>KD proc.  Take that away like they would have quickly fixed if this was the live crew and you'd find a dom with average control and good damage output.  

 

Dark Control is decent control but lags behind in aoe hard control for better damage particularly ST damage.  

 

Mind Control has far more the superior aoe control over all else and has paltry damage output.  You're relying on Terrify and Mass Confused targets to do your damage.   The benefit of Mind Control is that on Dominators all that control is accentuated so then you can rely on your assaults just as well to get your damage.  

 

I think someone should refrain from giving abstracts about a powerset they don't play.  

 

The bar should not be Plant nor Bonfire or even Stealth Confuses which are being exampled as 'good' powers and sets which have broken good abilities that are bad habit forming and lead players to ask why can't new control sets be as easy peasy. 

 

The devs have done a good job here of crafting their own unique powerset independent enough to play how they want it to play.  

Edited July 16, 2022 by Mezmera

[Seed22]

33 minutes ago, Mezmera said:

 

First off Plant is OP as all get out so lets not act like Seeds and Creepers aren't broken.  Seeds has a ridiculously fast recharge for such a supremely useful power ability.  Creepers does fabulous damage AND those vines each hold their own aggro which keeps baddies from attracting to you.  Plant is the all being control that should not be.  

 

Then the Fire Dominator takes advantage of yet another broken ability that has been allowed to linger far too long in Bonfire with that KB>KD proc.  Take that away like they would have quickly fixed if this was the live crew and you'd find a dom with average control and good damage output.  

 

Dark Control is decent control but lags behind in aoe hard control for better damage particularly ST damage.  

 

Mind Control has far more the superior aoe control over all else and has paltry damage output.  You're relying on Terrify and Mass Confused targets to do your damage.   The benefit of Mind Control is that on Dominators all that control is accentuated so then you can rely on your assaults just as well to get your damage.  

 

I think someone should refrain from giving abstracts about a powerset they don't play.  

 

The bar should not be Plant nor Bonfire or even Stealth Confuses which are being exampled as 'good' powers and sets which have broken good abilities that are bad habit forming and lead players to ask why can't new control sets be as easy peasy. 

 

The devs have done a good job here of crafting their own unique powerset independent enough to play how they want it to play.  

I think folks also are overlooking the monsterous potential that T9 has. It can literally raise the control of the whole set by 2 Mags!(of course ignoring AI hiccups :P)

[Shin Magmus]

1 hour ago, Voltak said:

The set is NOT fine as it is.  This is from players who have a long history of playing dominators and control sets.  
We request the damage be removed, it is not needed and traditionally it's never been in a single confuse power, no dmg has been included in those before. 
We want an ST confuse with no dmg in it so we have options on how to open groups without drawing aggro. 
Same thing with sleep, and would love the sleep to work like Electric or other Sleeps that do not draw aggro, like Mind. 

We do not have to adapt to it being this way as it is.  That's not true. 
It could be changed, it does not have to stay the way it is. 
So we don't have to adapt to anything yet since it's still in testing and this is exactly what this forum is for, for feedback, suggestions, ideas on what's being tested. 

It will feel better with no dmg in those powers. 

Why should we acquiesce to how THEY want Symphony control to play ??

We are the players.  We play the game.   Players of games do not play to acquiesce developers. 
What are you talking about?   Traditionally it is the devs who develop and make changes to acquiesce to the players, the customers, or the supporters. 

We are in this together.  We have the right to express what we want.  

I welcome the interaction here and I applaud the Devs for giving all of us a chance to express and share. 
This is done optimally without the burden to "acquiesce" being placed on the players.  It's the other way around. 

 

Here Here.

 

Is it so wrong that we want Control powers in Control sets to Control optimally?  The damage in both powers hurts your ability to Control how fights play out, and that's an objective fact.  Is dealing dmg for less Control a viable tradeoff?  For Controllers... debatably.  For Dominators... no.  Nope, Doms want a ST Confuse and AoE Sleep EXACTLY how Mind Control's already work: no damage.  This is how experienced Dominator players view Symph Controls' current weaknesses.

[ScarySai]

I think the damage overall is fine and should not disrupt your ability to control with proper play, but I agree that the confuse would be better off as a non-notify ability, unless it gets more to make it viable as a mid-combat focused power.

[oedipus_tex]

I would not say no to lowering the cast time of the Confuse to make it a somewhat better attack. Lowering it to around 1.67 seconds would be about right. Or even copy the very fast animation from Spectral Wounds (1.1 seconds) if this is supposed to be an alternative to a blast.

 

Right now on a Controller it's a must take for me, because it's a second blast. A rotation of Hold, Confuse, Arcane Bolt (or other tertiary blast) isn't huge damage, but it's a lot better than you're going to get out of a lot of other troller sets. The pet echoes the attacks and stacks Hold and Confuse pretty quickly.

I did find the pet folds pretty easily at higher difficulties. Even playing a Symphony/Pain with the goal of keeping him alive I found it difficult, despite him having 800 Regen or whatever. The pet does have 90% resist to Psi, so he'll survive that easily enough. Other stuff's not easy for him though. 

 

[gameboy1234]

I went to the Icon store in AP today and someone's Symphony Control pet was stuck outside of the doors, unable to enter.  Possible AI bug.  Also when I clicked on the pet it said "Earth Control" in the target window even though it was obviously a Symphony pet.

 

 

[Voltak]

14 hours ago, ScarySai said:

I think the damage overall is fine and should not disrupt your ability to control with proper play, but I agree that the confuse would be better off as a non-notify ability, unless it gets more to make it viable as a mid-combat focused power.

I agree with you there 100% --  Experience, lots of it, says it's better if you  remove the dmg or remove the notify, remove the aggro.  If you don't remove the dmg, then remove the aggro completely. 
The ability to control first in a safe manner should be priority and this becomes even more important when trying to do so without the set bonuses to get your defenses high. 

Everytime an opener draws aggro, our options on how to open a group safely are diminished.  We do not want those options to diminish.  The more options the better we can perform and adjust our tactics. 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Voltak