Looking for help getting started with controllers.

[duckman]

Never in almost 20 years now have I played a controller past 10th level.  (and admittedly, I have been a casual player with only one toon who ever hit 50.)

 

I'd like to start playing a more social role on Homecoming and group more and I thought I might as well do something that is really group focused at the same time.  I have no theme or idea in mind going into this but have not found any good summaries of tier rankings for controller powers.  Are there any clearly superior powersets or clearly deficient powersets that I should be aware of?  I'm not particularly concerned about ability to solo or do substantial damage...  I want to focus primarily on control and support/debuff for a group in this case.

[SeraphimKensai]

Well controllers can be one of the most powerful ATs in the game as they offer a team a huge amount of damage mitigation and buffs/debuffs. They are a true force multiplier.

 

Since you don't have a theme in mind I'll toss out a couple pairings that work well together in no particular order:

 

1. Electric Control/Dark Affinity Controller. The idea of to work in melee range sapping targets endurance while heavily debuffing their tohit and also regen. Offers a lot of protection, but does mediocre damage itself.
2. Illusion/Storm Summoning. Well built this can solo GMs. The idea is to build for high recharge for Perma PA and 3x Lightning Storms and multiple tornadoes. It can get a bit getting used to knowing when and when not to use Hurricane (but it's a great debuff in itself).
3. Plant Control/Trick Arrow. Quite possibly my favorite controller combo, but it could just be my build but with all the procs, OSA, Carrier Creepers this thing can clear a room faster than a pug blaster.

Realistically you can't really go wrong with a controller they all end up doing a great job when you build them. That said pro controller tip, don't open with an AoE immobilize first, let them them clump up before doing so to maximize your AoE damage and debuffs and help your team out. There's too many pug controllers that open with AoE immobilize and it can actually slow a team down by not being able to maximize AoE DPS.

 

God speed.

Edited March 19 by SeraphimKensai

[mistagoat]

59 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

 

Realistically you can't really go wrong with a controller they all end up doing a great job when you build them. That said pro controller tip, don't open with an AoE immobilize first, let them them clump up before doing so to maximize your AoE damage and debuffs and help your team out. There's too many pug controllers that open with AoE immobilize and it can actually slow a team down by not being able to maximize AoE DPS.

 

God speed.

I wish this tip was plastered on the screen whenever someone makes a troller! Great advise!

 

The most trollery trollers for me are Earth Control and Plant Control and I like to pair them with a nice debuff set like Rad or Dark. You'll have amazing control over the battlefield and all the baddies either can't hit you to save their life or you turn their armor into tissue paper. At higher levels you'll have the ability to fully shut down at least 3 groups at once. I'm also quite fond of Ice control, it offers as much control as the other 2 but has less damage so I think it's fallen out of favor for the most part.

[Uun]

I would recommend Earth/Nature. I've played just about all the control sets and for me Earth is the control king. Nature offers a mix of debuffs and ally buffs and is always welcomed on teams. 

[Braddack]

My Main back on Life was an Earth / Empathy Troller, very team focussed, Earth has awesome Holds and Empathy is great for Buffing your team and healing if shit hits.

 

Ofc i recreated him here Vet lvl 68 atm 😄

[UltraAlt]

22 hours ago, duckman said:

clearly deficient powersets that I should be aware of? 

 

I don't think I'm going out on the limb to say that Sleeps aren't very useful in most group situations, especially if you are power-leveling to 50.

 

as a controller, use range and walls to your advantage.

Most of the time as a controller,  you should be staying at max range.

Walls have 100% resistance to damage. Stick close to corners or objects you can dive behind if you get to much agro when you AoE a group. It usually only takes a second or 2 to lose most of the agro you dish out with an AoE when you are in a group.

Always slot-up your single target holds with 2 accs, 1 recharge, and a hold as able. Once you get to 27, look at the lockdown set the Proc for the +2 mag on holds is a must from my point of view. Then throw in a couple others from the set to replace the recharge and hold enhances to get some set benefits.

If you character conception gets you an extra hold in your secondary, that is great for a controller.

 

... and, of course, understanding containment is a must ...

"Controllers are the masters at locking down and controlling their opponents. Few can escape their will. Controllers do extra damage to any target that is already Held, Immobilized, Slept, or Disoriented." - https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Inherent_Powers#Containment

 

 

Edited March 18 by UltraAlt

[Death2Tyrants]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:27 AM, duckman said:

Never in almost 20 years now have I played a controller past 10th level.  (and admittedly, I have been a casual player with only one toon who ever hit 50.)

 

I'd like to start playing a more social role on Homecoming and group more and I thought I might as well do something that is really group focused at the same time.  I have no theme or idea in mind going into this but have not found any good summaries of tier rankings for controller powers.  Are there any clearly superior powersets or clearly deficient powersets that I should be aware of?  I'm not particularly concerned about ability to solo or do substantial damage...  I want to focus primarily on control and support/debuff for a group in this case.

 

I'll answer the superior vs deficient up front.

IMO Illusion is superior with regards to providing the team an unkillable distraction. No other set provides that but in return it isn't top tier control and requires a build with Perma PA. Works better in small teams and you can get overwhelmed if you pull multiple groups.

 

The other sets not mentioned specifically below will give you fairly close performance with Earth/, Dark/ and Sym/ holding the top tier spots on my personal lists. Specific synergies can move primaries around but just looking at primaries alone those are my stand out picks for raw control. Towards the bottom of my list is Elec/ and Mind/ but to be clear these aren't gimpy sets.

 

On paper Elec/ looks great but on teams the chaining effect of some of its confuse powers takes too long to propagate and is usually broken by teammate killing the next foe in the chain. It also uses an AoE pulsing Sleep patch which works well for leveling but not remarkable at higher levels of play. The -End effect seemed to be a big part of the set's design but only a  few secondaries let you exploit this effect and even when you do there is still some ramp up time to draining enemies.

 

Outside of specific combos I find Mind/ fairly weak especially with it's better cousins Dark/ and Sym/ to compare to. TK was overnerfed back on live and is now situational. Early AoE control leverages AoE Sleep which is easily broken with DoTs and AoE a plenty.

 

I'll answer the rest of your questions in a separate follow on post.

 

 

[kelika2]

I slotted my fire/radi for damage over control and now I just cant go back to anything else.  like 5 or 6 sources of minor damage adds up fast

[Death2Tyrants]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:27 AM, duckman said:

Never in almost 20 years now have I played a controller past 10th level.  (and admittedly, I have been a casual player with only one toon who ever hit 50.)

 

I'd like to start playing a more social role on Homecoming and group more and I thought I might as well do something that is really group focused at the same time.  I have no theme or idea in mind going into this but have not found any good summaries of tier rankings for controller powers.  Are there any clearly superior powersets or clearly deficient powersets that I should be aware of?  I'm not particularly concerned about ability to solo or do substantial damage...  I want to focus primarily on control and support/debuff for a group in this case.

You'll need to ask yourself how busy you want to be in support of your team. You will also want to know if you want to focus more on enemies or split your attention on enemies and teammates. I ask these questions since certain pairs can be very very busy while others are more "fire and forget"

 

Primaries like Earth/, with persistent control areas, let you focus more on secondaries since they are have some fire and forget area control powers. Primaries like Fire/ or Ice/ have auras that create an area of control around you; these are riskier to play since they expose you to melee but the impact is the same or close to deploying a fire and forget power just that the location is on you and follows you where ever you go. Elec/ is on the other end of the spectrum and can be busy by spamming your powers, especially if you keep Jolting Chain.

 

Secondaries I generally categorize into 3 areas they lean into; Buffing, Control/Debuff, and Healing. Most sets don't fall cleanly into one category since they tend to be hybrid sets but this is usually a good indicator if the secondary set will be busy or not. Buffing sets can be busy but are usually not so, but Healing based sets can be busy; /Emp is both so expect it to get busy at times. Debuff/Control Sets can be busy but generally are slower paced; /Poison is an exception since it's debuffs and control effects are mostly ST. It also has a Heal so it can get busy. Buff and Heal sets will require focus to be on teammates as much as it is on enemies. Debuff/Control sets allow you to focus purely on enemies.

 

So using the info above Earth/Traps is very much fire and forget as it has many powers that are fire and forget. On the other end Mind/Emp will be fairly busy; I think Elec/Kin is the busiest pair I've come across with something like Mind/Emp or /Pain playing very actively.

 

You can also consider stacking secondary effects using specific primary and secondary pairs. These can play stronger than their individual sets play alone. Elec/Elec, Elec/Kin. and Elec/Poison are all capitalizing on -End and/or -Recovery. Ice/Cold and Ice/Time can stack slows to great effect; Ice/Storm to a lesser degree. Dark/Cold is another example where you can advantage you team by stacking -To Hit with +DEF. There are a few combos with this synergy so this isn't an exhaustive list. Another synergy is double stacking control auras. Here you would pair Elec/, Fire/, or Ice/ with /Nature, /Rad, or /Time. Some of these pairs are difficult to pull of from level 1 and without funds but playstyle can be very rewarding to play; Fire/Time is an example of this.

 

Sets I personally no longer play outside of concept toons are, /Emp, /Sonic, /Rad, /FF, /Pain and to a lesser degree /Thermal. These are serviceable and can support your team very well just not my cup of tea. 90% of the time there is a better secondary I find more enjoyable to play so I tend to not use these secondaries outside of special cases.

 

I didn't rank these as you asked but instead shared how I look at the sets. You can rank them around one variable but the ranking may change bases on other factors.

 

[dlx3200]

My main ones are Plant/Dark, Plant/Storm or ill/Cold.   

[twozerofoxtrot]

My favorite controller to date is Dark/Kin.

 

I don't think it's an inherently meta pairing, though there are slight synergies. But I've never seen anyone else run this and while mine is still in the mid-30's two years later, I think this sort of speaks to the viability of the pairing for a casual player. I've enjoyed slowly leveling this character in low and mid-level Redside groups when I see those pop up.

 

I could go on and on pointing out little synergies I've found, but I'll just leave an open invitation to DM me if you'd like a more thorough breakdown without clogging the thread with a swan song to this combo.

[Tacheyon]

Starting a Controller.  Welcome to being the most invisible (unless you pick Earth Control) but important role of any team.  Your powers will help keep MOBs in killing (err arresting) fields for AOE, debuff them or just salvage a bad pull and prevent a wipe.

 

My go to power set is Earth Control.  You have a great mix of soft control Quicksand (AOE Slow and -Def field), Earthquake (that one annoying power Ruin Mages use in Posi 1 to make you miss everything) and Stalgmites (AOE Stun).  To Hard Controls like Volcanic Gases (a pulsing AOE hold field), Stone Cages, and Fossilize. 

 

You also have one of the most tanky pet in game (outside Phantom Army) in Animate Stone (aka Mr. Poo aka Stoney).  Who can also do some nice damage especially depending on your secondary.

 

The trade off is that Earth Control is one of the lest damaging power sets in game.  So getting Arcane Bolt as early as you can helps a lot (especially when it crits and you use it on a CC'd mob for triple damage).  So pairing it up with a more damaging Secondary if you plan on soloing (like Storm, Traps).  Or if you plan on teaming mostly then you can use Dark, TA (that will give you obscene amounts of control), Rad, Poison, Nature.  Earth is so flexible you can pair it with almost anything.

 

For and Epic/Patron pool pick I'd go with either Stone (Seismic smash is your target power there, but all of them give you nice overlap with your primary) or Leviathan (Water Spout shreds everything and is on a decent timer).

 

Whatever you choose have fun with one of the most unique AT/classes in MMO's ever.