ISO - a Controller Sommelier

[Bellicose]

I am hoping some Controller gurus might point me in the direction of a solid Controller that I will enjoy. Wall of text incoming...

 

A few things to know in advance. I will PL myself up to a reasonable level (30s), so I will never have to suffer through the low level grind. Influence is not really a concern. I tend to do about 50/50 solo vs team play. When I do team, it is with PUGs. I frequently do Speedy TFs and I really enjoy that challenge.

 

I do have some goals.

 

I tend to go towards, at least, some Defense caps (S/L, or S/L/E or R). I know a lot of people say that 32.5% is enough with just one small purple, but my experience (or perhaps playstyle) just doesn't really support that notion.

 

I also always go for perma-Hasten.

 

Since I do a lot of Speed runs, I always like to have good Stealth on board. Often this is just SS + Celerity, but it doesn't have to be.

 

I would like to be able to take down a Pylon. I don't need to set a record here or anything. I think taking down a Pylon just represents being able to make a legitimate contribution to hard targets.

 

I would like to be able to run Trapdoor at +4/x8. Again, I don't need to set a record here. Just looking for sustainability and survivability. I think the Trap Door test is a good benchmark as it does a nice job of representing the dangers of a +4/x8 team; and, I'd like to make a contribution when I land on one of those teams.

 

Lastly, I'd like a Controller that could contribute on a 4* Aeon or ITF. Those get called out frequently enough, and I've done a few; but, I'd like this toon to be a real contributor. 

 

I realize  these goals may not even be achievable. Especially based on this next bit.

 

I have taken every Controller Primary and Secondary to 50 at this point. Some I loved, some I didn't. The ones I loved are much more in consideration than the ones I didn't. Although, I'd like to believe that I'm not so stubborn that my mind couldn't be changed.

 

Primaries -

 

Darkness Control: I've taken this to 50 four times now (/Cold, /Storm, /Earth Assault, and /Icy Assault). Love this set. Just don't know that it can do it all for me.

 

Earth Control: I've taken this to 50 three times now (/Icy Assault, /Radioactive Assault, and /Thorny Assault); and, I'm presently working on a fourth (/Sonic Assault). Love the animations, terrific pet, love this set. However, I fear it's damage may be too low.

 

Electric Control: I've taken this to 50 once (Electric Assault). Really did nothing for me. Don't like Sleeps or "chain" powers all that much. Maybe it's awesome and I just don't see it.

 

Fire Control: I've taken this to 50 three times (/Kinetics, /Energy Assault, and /Savage Assault). Hate the Imps, love everything else. Seems like it should be able to meet the Goals.

 

Gravity Control: I've taken this to 50 once (/Martial Assault). Eh. I'm not a fan of Knockback, and I consider having to put in a SA: Kb -> Kd Proc a tax. For the right power? Sure. Just didn't find the powers in Gravity worth it.

 

Ice Control: I've taken this to 50 twice (/Darkness Affinity, and /Dark Assault). This used to be my 'go to' Controller on Live; but, despite my fondness for it, it pains me to say that I doubt it could reach my new benchmarks.

 

Illusion Control: I've taken this to 50 once (/Radiation Emission). I wish I liked this set more. It seems do the things I'd want it to do; and, yet, I find it chaotic (which I don't enjoy).

 

Mind Control: I've taken this to 50 once (/Psi Assault). Blech.

 

Plant Control: I've taken this to 50 once (/Trick Arrow); and, I'm currently working on a second one (/Fiery Assault). Absolutely terrific set.

 

Symphony Control: I've taken this to 50 once (/Trick Arrow). This set just didn't do it for me. I could be convinced this is 'the one', but I'd have to see some real proof.

 

Secondaries - 

 

Cold Domination: I've taken this to 50 three times (Darkness Control/, /Dark Blast, and Beasts/). This is a good set. Defense, Stealth, a good -Res, team friendly.

 

Dark Miasma: I've taken this to 50 three times (Ice Control/, Ice Blast/, and Thugs/). Another terrific set. Again, Defense, Stealth, a good -Res, team friendly.

 

Electrical Affinity: I've take this to 50 once (Electric Blast/). I like the set for a Defender, maybe even a Mastermind; but, I suspect it will be a little too click-y for a Control primary.

 

Empathy: I've taken this to 50 once (/Dark Blast). Eh, I'd rather have played Thermal or Pain to be honest. And, since it doesn't offer damage or a damage accelerant to the caster, I can't imagine it would hit the benchmarks.

 

Force Field: I've taken this to 50 once (Ninjas/). I'd have rather played Cold on this one. At least it has blasts....which have knockback. 

 

Kinetics: I've taken this to 50 once (Fire Control/). I know this is heresy, I didn't enjoy my time playing a 'Kin. Maybe on a Defender, but as a Controller, I was so busy "kin-ing" I had no time to control.

 

Nature Affinity: I've taken this to 50 once (/Water Blast). I like what this set does well enough. Visually, not so much. I don't see it contributing to the benchmarks, but I could be convinced.

 

Pain Domination: I've taken this to 50 once (/Sonic Blast). I do like this set. Not sure it packs enough 'oomph' to meet the goals.

 

Poison: I've taken this to 50 once (/Radiation Blast). I really liked this set. I could see it going the distance.

 

Radiation Emission: I've taken this to 50 once (Illusion/). Another solid set. Missing some components, but workable.

 

Sonic Resonance: I've taken this to 50 once (Necromancy/). Nice set, very team friendly, not so much solo...unless you're MM. 

 

Storm Summoning: I've taken this to 50 once (Darkness Control/). Hated it. Tons of damage and waaay too much chaos and knockback. No, sir. Not for me.

 

Thermal Radiation: I've taken this to 50 once (Demons/). Offers a little more for the solo player than Sonic, but not much. Can't imagine it being the one hit the benchmarks.

 

Time Manipulation: I've taken this to 50 twice (/Dual Pistols, and Robotics/). I love this set. Defense, Recharge, a neat toolbox. Sadly, probably not enough damage acceleration; but, I could be convinced I'm wrong.

 

Traps: I've taken this to 50 once (Mercenaries/). Didn't like it at all. Possibly the wrong pairing, but I found myself really disliking it's package altogether.

 

Trick Arrow: I've taken this to 50 twice (Plant Control/, and Symphony Control). This is another set that is dear to me, but probably not capable of hitting my benchmarks.

 

I clearly have some leanings, but I'd appreciate a numbers or data driven perspective. 

[Without_Pause]

Fire/cold or Fire/dark since they are easier to do stealth with. I didn't have room for stealth on mine, but I have a Fire/time at 42. I peeled back the defense on it to get Chrono Shift perma and S/L/E Def are still in the 50s. I want to get some Incarnates done and kick the tires some more before I do a final build. 

[mistagoat]

I think you and I build very similarly! I always push for def softcap of some variety and high recharge to get hasten as close to perma as possible and I PL to 32 to skip the low level grind.

 

I think Fire/Dark might be good for your goals though I haven't done any 4* content so I can't speak to that. I'm not at home right now but if I remember correctly my fire/dark had most defenses softcapped and s/l resist hard capped and perma fade and hasten.  I believe the attached build is what I used but I'm not 100%, I can't use mids on this comp to check but regardless, it might offer some ideas.

 

 

Controller fire dark v3 Toot Sweet.mxd

Edited August 22, 2023 by mistagoat

[EnjoyTheJourney]

One strong pairing could be illusion / poison / psi, with the sorcery pool, and ultimately with agility core, melee core hybrid, and barrier core. Spectral terror slotted for -to hit and venomous gas help to make up for any shortfalls in defenses. Get perma-hasten for phants and indomitable will. 

 

That combo should be able to get around 400 DPS on pylons (or more) and has a mini-nuke in a proc'd up poison trap. Snag psy shockwave from the mastery for more AOE and a bit more mez (plus for the force feedback +recharge proc, very handy for this kind of build). Stealthing missions is easy with illusion.

 

You mentioned illusion as being "chaotic", which it can be. But, a simple way to reduce the chaos is to just not take phantasm. Your ability to do damage doesn't suffer much in his absence anyways, given all the tools available for this build. Without phantasm the build plays quite differently, with spectral terror, flash, and blind typically locking mobs down instead of causing them to scatter. 

[Rand0lk]

13 hours ago, Bellicose said:

Mind Control: I've taken this to 50 once (/Psi Assault). Blech.

 

 

Blech? BLECH?!?

HA! There's nothing you can't do as a (fully optimized) mind/psi dom. NOTHING.

 

...well, maybe those pesky IDF robots could be annoying.

[Bellicose]

@mistagoat Perma-Fade! I don't know why that wasn't more on my mind. A strong point for Darkness.

 

@EnjoyTheJourney Is Phantasm the source of knockback? I thought all of Phantom Army did that. Also, which Sorcery powers. That's a pool I've never used. 

[Onlyasandwich]

If I were going for these same goals, my choice would be Symphony/Dark.

 

Reasons:

• Huge base +def in Fade, allowing you a much simpler softcap focus without detracting from other elements. Ranged softcap would be the simplest solution here, and the power combos not only allow easy slotting for this, but you also have the power to stay at range easily.
• Excellent resists, including an extra layer of exotic resists that are exceptionally useful during certain challenging parts of hard mode (NE is a big one).
• An effectively infinite end tool built-in with Soul Absorption, again allowing more flexible slotting for other goals.
• Symphony operates very comfortably at range, allowing you to position quite safely.
• Enormous aoe damage from the primary when procced out, allowing you to solo easily. Given your goal of perma-hasten, procs will be a bit of a balancing act against global recharge. However, the pay-off is huge. I wouldn't be surprised if Symphony out-damages Fire/ and even Plant/ in practice when properly slotted. Confounding Chat will be doing ~550 damage, discord ~330, lullaby ~200, all while applying your control effects. This also gives you more freedom in APP picks, as you don't need to rely on it for aoe.
• ST damage chain built into your control powers (your hold and Serenade are quite sufficient themselves, though you can supplement with an epic blast if needed). These powers can be hitting for ~370 and ~250 respectively, with a quick cooldown.
• Stealth built in with Shadow fall, allowing you to steer away from super speed for full invis if you like.
• Enormous -tohit alongside your strong defenses will actually make an impactful difference in hard mode, though at 4 star this will of course still rely on further contribution from the team. For solo work, this easily allows you to ignore soft-cap strategies if you are open to it, giving you even more freedom in slotting.

 

I wouldn't even bother with tough/weave on this combo, though you can if you feel you have room. Symphony really wants you to be casting as many primary powers as possible in order to feed Reverberant things to copy.

 

I would highly recommend picking up combat teleport so you can quickly pop in for Soul Absorption and pop back out for your cones. A target bind to go in and a back bind to go out makes this smooth.

 

You may have a tough time leveraging the true power of this combo while achieving full perma-hasten, given that the strength lies in many procs. However, you can easily get to the 5-10 second downtime range on hasten with little sacrifice there, which is effectively little difference in practice.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Onlyasandwich

[Bellicose]

@Onlyasandwich Thank you! I definitely have some work to put in on the test server.

[Onlyasandwich]

2 minutes ago, Bellicose said:

Thank you!

You're welcome!

 

Here is my own Symphony/Pain for reference, in the event you might find some of the primary slotting a helpful starting point. Controller (Symphony Control - Pain Domination).mbd

[Onlyasandwich]

I put together my own take on this combo were I chasing the same goals. You could dial back procs here and there to achieve closer to perma-hasten, but where I have slotted is I feel a good balance.

 

If it were my own character, I would dial back even further, dropping many of the +ranged defense bonuses, allowing -tohit to make up during solo play. This could round out slow resist (modest at 65% right now), or allow further enhancement of the aoe immob. I like to put the energy font and Overwhelming KD proc in it.

 

This definitely relies on hitting Soul Absorption reliably, as otherwise you are starved for end. Fortunately, it's basically perma, and very powerful indeed. I'm sure this could be optimized further of course, but this is the basic idea. 

 

Edit: Optimized further towards @Bellicose's stated goals.

 

I have this slotted with Musculature Radial, but Intuition radial is a good swap as well. The +range is indeed pretty nice with the cones, as @Bionic_Flea points out. I prefer musculature for the extra end support, and the -tohit, which is pretty significant in this combo.  If you are chaining back to back aoes, there is room in the rotation for an epic aoe. However, you can just as easily weave in your ST attacks during that downtime, leaving you with more power options. This reliance on the primary attacks for your damage also feeds Reverberant as mentioned above. The damage and control of Reverberant is very respectable if properly played!

 

Remember that a certain amount of time even in extended aoe combat will be dedicated to recasting Fade, Tar Patch, Soul Absorption, and healing when needed.

 

Controller (Symphony Control - Darkness Affinity).mbd

 

Here's an alternate version with Psi APP for Indom Will if you want to tackle mez protection as well. I don't care to fiddle with Indom will myself, as you have to hit it proactively (doesn't act as a BF like Rune). You could do rotating bind shenanigans with Hasten to mitigate this. 

 

Controller (Symphony Control - Darkness Affinity) mk2.mbd

 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Onlyasandwich

[Bellicose]

@Onlyasandwich Wow! Thank you. I'll check that out as soon as I get home from work. 

[Bionic_Flea]

 

I made a symphonic/dark that I liked.  My concept was to build for +range to maximize all of Symph's cones and added some more cone power with Frost Breath.

 

Symphonic Flea - Symphonic-Dark Controller.mxd

 

Hero Plan Long (Symphonic Flea).pdf

Edited August 22, 2023 by Bionic_Flea

[Bionic_Flea]

33 minutes ago, Onlyasandwich said:

I have this slotted with Musculature Radial, but Intuition radial is a good swap as well. The +range is indeed pretty nice with the cones, as @Bionic_Flea points out.

 

Not only that, but Intuition adds +Hold, -tohit, and slow, which can benefit a lot of powers in that build.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

It looks like you're homing in on symphony / dark, which seems to be a strong pairing. Hopefully that goes well for you. 

To briefly answer your questions, there are four main powers from the sorcery pool that can be quite useful for a controller. They are rune of protection, mystic flight, arcane bolt, and spirit ward. They're all quite good at what they're intended to do when in the hands of a controller.  Rune can be particularly appealing because it gives you part-time access to mez protection that can serve as a break free inspiration replacement, as well as a resistance boost. It's available as early as level 20 and it's very nice to have on hand when exemp'd down for TFs and such. 

 

I don't like knockback, in general, so your reservations about phant knockback make particular sense to me. But, phant knockback becomes noticeably less noticeable as you move deeper into your controller's journey. First, when fighting higher level mobs knockback magnitude seems to be subject to purple patch reductions, or at least it seems that way. Second, as your build fills out (and especially with poison -res debuffs stacked up) phants defeat mobs at a healthy pace, so those things you occasionally notice falling over as they move back a small distance are quite often not getting up again. Third, poison is a busy secondary and you'll seldom lack for things to do. With bodies not flying hither and thither I find that I seldom notice phant knockdown / knockback once powers are slotted up. FWIW, and others may quite reasonably feel differently about phant knockback.
 

Edited August 22, 2023 by EnjoyTheJourney

[mistagoat]

3 hours ago, Bellicose said:

@mistagoat Perma-Fade! I don't know why that wasn't more on my mind. A strong point for Darkness.

 

@EnjoyTheJourney Is Phantasm the source of knockback? I thought all of Phantom Army did that. Also, which Sorcery powers. That's a pool I've never used. 

I got really into the Dark secondary for quite a while (can be seen in my sig) and took 6 of them to 50! It's a beast of a secondary and pairs well with everything!

[Argentae]

Strong vote for Plant/Dark. See my chronology thread currently a few down from this thread for a set of builds and some idea of what it plays like. 
Very strong, very durable. The combination of all the Def, Res, -ToHit, and Regen AND healing in /Dark combined with the Regen of Spirit tree makes the three Pets very tough and your teammates even tougher if you throw some Twilight Grasp in yourself.

 

Excellent on a Team, Excellent solo. 
I’ve played pretty close to all PRI and Secondaries on Controllers as well though there are obviously lots of combos I haven’t tried yet. 
Plant/Storm is the second strongest, Plant/Dark is the strongest. Also a lot of fun to play with a lot of flexibility once it’s fully mature.

 

Fighting pool is not needed.

 

My current build listed is .1 second off perma Hasten and has Perma Fade, Perma Soul Absorption, Soul Drain and Howling Twilight about every 60 sec so about 50% heavy self damage buff and  regen neutering on an A/V.  Howling Twilight hits like a Mack Truck with 5 damage procs in it. Autohit, Stun, -500 Regen, heavy -recharge with a 25’ radius targeted AOE that happens to be a full team Rez.

🙂

 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Argentae

[Bellicose]

54 minutes ago, Argentae said:

Strong vote for Plant/Dark. See my chronology thread currently a few down from this thread for a set of builds and some idea of what it plays like. 
Very strong, very durable. The combination of all the Def, Res, -ToHit, and Regen AND healing in /Dark combined with the Regen of Spirit tree makes the three Pets very tough and your teammates even tougher if you throw some Twilight Grasp in yourself.

 

Excellent on a Team, Excellent solo. 
I’ve played pretty close to all PRI and Secondaries on Controllers as well though there are obviously lots of combos I haven’t tried yet. 
Plant/Storm is the second strongest, Plant/Dark is the strongest. Also a lot of fun to play with a lot of flexibility once it’s fully mature.

 

Fighting pool is not needed.

 

My current build listed is .1 second off perma Hasten and has Perma Fade, Perma Soul Absorption, Soul Drain and Howling Twilight about every 60 sec so about 50% heavy self damage buff and  regen neutering on an A/V.  Howling Twilight hits like a Mack Truck with 5 damage procs in it. Autohit, Stun, -500 Regen, heavy -recharge with a 25’ radius targeted AOE that happens to be a full team Rez.

🙂

 

 

 

@Argentae I will add it to the list! 

So far, I've tested Symphony (based on Bionic Flea and Onlyasandwich's recommendation)  and Illusion (based on Enjoy the Journeys). I'm going to also check out Fire and, now, Plant.

[Panache]

Sounds like you and I are on the same page about build goals (although I do tend toward some kinda mez protection). Between Live and Homecoming, the 'on-paper' Mids build I liked best was Fire/Dark/Psi. I eventually got that to Incarnate levels and it did what I expected it would do, but the playstyle of it just wasn't for me. Also Procs changed all of my builds in ways I still don't quite understand, which put me back in the lab.

 

What became arguably my most effective Controller is an Ill/Traps/Psi (I mean, who coulda seen /Traps proliferation coming). It is a bit of a wet noodle against Hard Mode things if you catch some stray aggro, but it can solo just about anything, and puts Pylons down pretty quickly; I've hit 600 dps on Good Proc days.

 

I really really liked Plant/TA, but mostly as an AoE death machine; it struggles a lot with hard single targets like AVs and GMs.

 

I saw you mention a distaste for Storm, buuutttt....there's a path with Storm and Mu (and eventually Cardiac) which gets you to softcapped Ranged Def AND capped Resist to S/L/E, while also solving your Endurance issues. My experience with this is on the Defender side, but I do like the idea of a Grav/Storm/Mu.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Panache

[Onlyasandwich]

1 hour ago, Argentae said:

Plant/Dark

Also an outstanding choice! 

[Bellicose]

21 minutes ago, Panache said:

Sounds like you and I are on the same page about build goals (although I do tend toward some kinda mez protection). Between Live and Homecoming, the 'on-paper' Mids build I liked best was Fire/Dark/Psi. I eventually got that to Incarnate levels and it did what I expected it would do, but the playstyle of it just wasn't for me. Also Procs changed all of my builds in ways I still don't quite understand, which put me back in the lab.

 

What became arguably my most effective Controller is an Ill/Traps/Psi (I mean, who coulda seen /Traps proliferation coming). It is a bit of a wet noodle against Hard Mode things if you catch some stray aggro, but it can solo just about anything, and puts Pylons down pretty quickly; I've hit 600 dps on Good Proc days.

 

I really really liked Plant/TA, but mostly as an AoE death machine; it struggles a lot with hard single targets like AVs and GMs.

 

I saw you mention a distaste for Storm, buuutttt....there's a path with Storm and Mu (and eventually Cardiac) which gets you to softcapped Ranged Def AND capped Resist to S/L/E, while also solving your Endurance issues. My experience with this is on the Defender side, but I do like the idea of a Grav/Storm/Mu.

 

So far, I've switched all of these Controllers on the test server to Sorcery power pool and Psi epic pool. I can pretty much cycle between Indomitable Will and Rune of Protection and get the mez protection I need.

Plant/TA was one of my favorites on Live and I have recreated it here. Still strong.

Grav/Storm - woof, I don't think I could do it. I would spray all of the enemy mobs around the battlefield and become an obstacle to my team. I'm sure of it. I know there are players out there that are absolute surgeons with Knockback (very rarely are they the ones that think they are surgeons); but, I know I'm not that good.

[Panache]

52 minutes ago, Bellicose said:

 

So far, I've switched all of these Controllers on the test server to Sorcery power pool and Psi epic pool. I can pretty much cycle between Indomitable Will and Rune of Protection and get the mez protection I need.

Plant/TA was one of my favorites on Live and I have recreated it here. Still strong.

Grav/Storm - woof, I don't think I could do it. I would spray all of the enemy mobs around the battlefield and become an obstacle to my team. I'm sure of it. I know there are players out there that are absolute surgeons with Knockback (very rarely are they the ones that think they are surgeons); but, I know I'm not that good.

 

Haha, duly noted on the Grav/Storm! But this convo did compel me to try out a Grav/Storm/Stone, Space Folding StunLock thingy, so thanks for the inspo (and sorry if we team 😛 ) !

[Bellicose]

Well, I am somewhat surprised at the results I'm getting. 

I have locked in a few things. I'm confident with /Dark (everything but Black Hole) and /Psi (Indomitable Will and Mind Over Body) as my Secondary and Epic. Also, settled into Sorcery (Arcane Bolt, Mystic Flight and Rune), Speed (Hasten), Teleportation (Combat Teleport) and Leadership (Maneuvers, Tactics, and others based on space in build).

So, I've been playing with Fire/Dark, Illusion/Dark, and Symphony/Dark. I've been doing Trapdoors (some without Incarnates and Inspirations and some with Incarnates and Inspirations - although I've been clearing my Insp Tray and only using what drops). Also, been tackling Pylons (some without Incarnates and Inspirations and some with Incarnates and Inspirations - although I've been clearing my Insp Tray and only using what drops which means no Inspirations). I think the 'without' tests are useful, but not reflective of what it would be like to play 'in the wild' per se.

Right now, Fire/Dark is the most consistent. Versus large spawns it's been Bonfire > pop in for Flashfire or Howling Twilight > pop out and spam hate. I can pretty reliably clear the Trapdoor mission in sub-nine minutes and can clear a Pylon in sub-five. Could probably be faster with more Procs, but I chased some Defense and Recharge bonuses.

Illusion/Dark has much slower Trapdoor time for me around twelve minutes. I would have thought that it would feel less survivable on account of fewer controls, but PA really shores that up by drawing aggro. I'm a couple of seconds off of them being perma, so I probably should respec. However, it's Pylon times are consistently much faster than either of the others.

Symphony has been a real surprise. I slotted my Symphony/Trick Arrow for controls and I slotted this Symphony/Dark more like a Blaster and the difference is night and day. In the Trapdoor mission it is a sea of orange numbers. My takeaway is that I really need to respec my Symph/TA controller. That being said, it has had the slowest Trapdoor times. Closer to thirteen minutes on average. I attribute this (in the aggregate) to time lost lining up cones as well as healing. It feels a little more dangerous. Without PA drawing the heat or the mobs bouncing up and down on a Bonfire, it really relies on it's own controls. Sleep and Fear are really only good until you attack again. I frequently has Warwolves ignore the controls and run up on my melee Defense and get solid hits in. Additionally, Symphony struggles the most versus single hard targets. Boss fights would also slow me down. It was slower than Fire/Dark versus the Pylon, on average, by about a minute.

 

I think both Fire and Symphony would be faster if I wasn't chasing down Ranged Defense and +Recharge, but I am who I am.  

 

Next up, Plant/Dark. I have kind of high hopes for this combo.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Your results are interesting, particularly vis a vis symphony, which I know almost nothing about. 

When it comes to illusion, the use of spectral terror can make quite a difference to both safety and clear speed. If you six-slot it with the Cloud Senses set then it provides a noticeable amount of ranged defense and some recharge. Plus, it becomes another layer of minus to hit that complements the dark secondary. 

 

Spectral terror is very helpful when dropped near groups of ranged attackers, which the controller dark secondary can sometimes struggle to manage. Ambush spawns, over-aggro, etc, can often be managed more or less entirely just by dropping spectral terror nearby. You'll notice it locks down bosses because it repeatedly casts fear and its fear magnitude stacks on mobs with each casting. Even if mobs are immune to fear the minus to hit is quite noticeable and will help to protect your controller and your party. With dark being a fairly busy secondary it's helpful that you can drop spectral terror and let it do its thing for usually the entirety of the rest of the fight without spending any more casting time on it. Finally, the damage from the cloud senses damage proc will finish off mobs with a sliver of life left while your phants and you are focused on other things. 

Here is a link to the COD entry for controller spectral terror, in case you'd like to learn more about it ... 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/entity.html?entity=pets_terror

 

Spectral terror and phants together improve safety for illusion controllers and their teammates by quite a lot. They complement dark very well for improving safety for your controller and your teammates. 

 

Regarding the "AOE vs single target" focus for any given set, on teams AOE is not that often an issue. Enemies will tend to melt whether you play illusion or fire when playing on a team. But, having phants available when the tank goes down against a tough AV and being able to more quickly defeat GMs / AVs (or to solo them if you'd like) makes a team noticeably stronger. 

Clearly, I'm biased. Those who really like other primaries will also have their own reasons for their preferences.

Edited August 24, 2023 by EnjoyTheJourney
Added COD entry for spectral terror

[Bellicose]

1 hour ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

Your results are interesting, particularly vis a vis symphony, which I know almost nothing about. 

When it comes to illusion, the use of spectral terror can make quite a difference to both safety and clear speed. If you six-slot it with the Cloud Senses set then it provides a noticeable amount of ranged defense and some recharge. Plus, it becomes another layer of minus to hit that complements the dark secondary. 

 

Spectral terror is very helpful when dropped near groups of ranged attackers, which the controller dark secondary can sometimes struggle to manage. Ambush spawns, over-aggro, etc, can often be managed more or less entirely just by dropping spectral terror nearby. You'll notice it locks down bosses because it repeatedly casts fear and its fear magnitude stacks on mobs with each casting. Even if mobs are immune to fear the minus to hit is quite noticeable and will help to protect your controller and your party. With dark being a fairly busy secondary it's helpful that you can drop spectral terror and let it do its thing for usually the entirety of the rest of the fight without spending any more casting time on it. Finally, the damage from the cloud senses damage proc will finish off mobs with a sliver of life left while your phants and you are focused on other things. 

Here is a link to the COD entry for controller spectral terror, in case you'd like to learn more about it ... 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/entity.html?entity=pets_terror

 

Spectral terror and phants together improve safety for illusion controllers and their teammates by quite a lot. They complement dark very well for improving safety for your controller and your teammates. 

 

Regarding the "AOE vs single target" focus for any given set, on teams AOE is not that often an issue. Enemies will tend to melt whether you play illusion or fire when playing on a team. But, having phants available when the tank goes down against a tough AV and being able to more quickly defeat GMs / AVs (or to solo them if you'd like) makes a team noticeably stronger. 

Clearly, I'm biased. Those who really like other primaries will also have their own reasons for their preferences.

@EnjoyTheJourney Funny story there. I have Spectral Terror fully slotted, and until I read your post, I had totally forgot about that power. It's not even in my tray for some reason. I will scrap and re-run all of my Ill/Dark tests now this time with more Spectral Terror.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

It might help to think of spectral terror as being much like bonfire or earthquake. It controls an area, reducing mob attacks and movement within it. It can also act like a kind of gate, minimizing mob movement into an area, as well as out of it. So, think about a part of the battlefield where you'd like mobs to not do very much, drop it there, and then you can focus your attention mostly elsewhere.  

 

With experience you tend to get better at using spectral terror proactively to slow down incoming ambushes, create chokepoints where mobs can be gathered up for AOEs, and so on. If your positioning is off or the battlefield changes, then you can reposition it with about 2 seconds of casting time.

 

Getting the most you can out of spectral terror can be a kind of mini-game carried out within the larger game of playing a controller. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by EnjoyTheJourney