What makes electric control bad?

[Damoklese]

I really like the aesthetic of the set.  I like jolting chain and synaptic overload and static field.  But everyone says the set is bad..with no damage or proc potential and the pets suck.

 

I guess I'm just wondering if that is true, why it is true, and if anyone has figured out how to make the set good?

[EmperorSteele]

Well, that's the thing. For general content, it's fine. Get on a team, summon your pets, use your holds, leverage your secondary, and you'll do well.

 

When people say it's not good, it's because no, you won't be able to solo a +4/x8 map in record time (or maybe at all) or solo a Pylon, or defeat Tyrant with only 3 other players, or achieve any other ridiculous stunts that honestly NO ONE should be able to do...But it'll get you through the rest of the game the way its meant to be played.

[UltraAlt]

31 minutes ago, Damoklese said:

But everyone says the set is bad

 

I didn't.

You are the first person that I have run into on the forums that says it is "bad". That being said, there is a lot of negativity on the forums about some power sets by people playing cookie-cutter/mini-maxed characters built with Mids.

 

Part of the issues that some players have with electric powers is that they forgo some damage for the end-drain effect.

 

Also, it is best to clearly state if you are talking about characters level 50+ (the end-game) or if you are talking about characters playing the game (the leveling content) -and- if you are talking about playing on teams (the game is designed for team play) or solo (the game has had some changes to make it more solo-friendly)

 

Personally, I have no problems with any of my electric characters (across the various archetypes).

I think that I only have one electric controller. They are electric/electric. I only play them when teaming. They are level 28 this point.

I'm a character conception player so I'm playing to the character conception while trying to leverage the powers of the set to do what they do best. That is through power usage, rotation, and tactics.

The character doesn't have end issues. You can slot Performance Shifter: Chance for +end in almost every power (only slot a couple of course, but...)

You can also slot Power Transfer: Chance for heal in any of the powers that take end mods. However, most of the self heals the character receives comes from bouncing the electric heal off nearby characters - it chains and if you are nearby it will hit you pretty much every time. 

 

The set seems to work fine to me, but I'm not number crunching.

For reference, I have 150 characters on Homecoming and have been playing since about a week before Issue 2 dropped (I was there for the Rularuu Invasion Event 2004).

 

You can make all the characters you want.

Making characters by character conception (and playing them that way) and playing different archetypes and power sets allows you to explore world in City of Heroes in different ways. No two characters really play the same unless you intentionally use the same builds - I don't really see a point in doing that myself unless it is to make the same character over again on another server instead of moving a character from one server to another one.

Playing the game differently, adds variety and increase game replay value.

 

I suggest that you don't let people persuade you not to try something. Try it and find out for yourself. 

That being said, play the game the way you enjoy it.

 

 

 

[Carnifax]

Electric is fine. It has a layered approach to mezzes / end drain which is quite interesting. Damage is meh. But if you're just on a team running content it's perfectly fine, I enjoyed my Elec/Poison all the way to 50 but don't play them much any more. 

 

The gremlins are utter cretins though

[Psyonico]

My experience with Electric Control is that it is low damage and soft control... Does that make it "bad"?  IMO it needs some help.  At the bare minimum I'd like to see synaptic overload's chain move much faster and jolting chain's damage to be increased a bit

 

My experience with it is mostly on an Elec/TA controller.  I made it to 50 and haven't played the toon since.

[warlyx]

the problem isnt that elec is bad , is that others are "better"

 

it has a unique sleep field , but then others sets have a better version of it (bonfire , earthquake, ice slick) , both interrupt but 1 make the mobs stay on the patch the sleep doesnt.

 

(the sleep has less CD tho , but at 50 with enough recharge all are perma)

 

then u look at synaptic overload , then to seeds and notice the huge difference of how both powers work.

 

Gremlins pets aren that good either.

 

The dmg of the set is "meh" thanks to the "end drain tax" i guess

 

 

 

 

[Braddack]

i Have an ele Control, Rad Attack, Dominator, and hell i love him to dead.

[Scarlet Shocker]

I hate the noise it makes. Does that count?

[Death2Tyrants]

From my observations in playing the set it suffers from low DPS, chain mechanic misses/interruptions issues and weak secondary effects.

 

For starters it is a low DPS set if not the lowest compared to other sets; PROCs and Pool Powers are really the only way to bolster DPS. PROCs ties up set slotting opportunities; pools tie up utility pool picks.

 

The pets are fairly fragile and don't contribute much aside from being short lived punching bags. Since they are melee pets they then to expose themselves to the harder hitting attacks but have no mitigation

 

From a control standpoint, the chaining mechanics can hurt the set if the control misses the first target or if someone kills a target in the chain. The later part is is especially true for the confuse since it propagates so slowly. Other AoEs are applied to the whole group vs one or two targets at a time. The KB chain gives decent control but you basically have to spam it to get Ice Slick/Bonfire equivalence.

 

The secondary effect only works well when you go "all in" since mobs can cast with 1 End. It works better when applying some -Recovery which elevates the set to a higher standing in terms of raw control. The other option is to spam -End attacks. Controller have a limited choice in secondaries that provide either effects, /Poison and /Kin being the standouts for -Recovery and -End(ST) respectively. Some targets are outright immune to the secondary effect as well so you have a situation where the secondary effect is outright ignored.

[Death2Tyrants]

On 1/26/2024 at 4:45 PM, EmperorSteele said:

you won't be able to solo a +4/x8 map in record time (or maybe at all) or solo a Pylon,

There is only one example of Pylon soloing I can think of with Elec/; very much the exception. Can't remember the players name (maybe Boomie?) but he used to post his Elec/Cold/Mace shenanigans before shutdown. He soloed a Pylon but almost entirely depended on the Tarantula summons and Mace attacks; he may as well been playing */Cold/Mace cause Elec/ had little to do with the victory from what I remember.

Edited February 2 by Death2Tyrants

[Death2Tyrants]

Surprisingly the videos are still up:

 

 

 

 

[Death2Tyrants]

Here is Boomie's archived build thread since there seemed to be interest:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120905001059/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=253197

[mistagoat]

Electric control is functional but unimpressive. I have an elec/cold troller that gets very little playtime.  It's niche (-end) is cool in theory but it doesn't seem super effective in practice.

 

I seem to have stumbled down a path of pairing every troller primary with the dark secondary, I'm only missing 4 primaries and electric is one of them, can't say I'm super excited to run that one up but maybe it'll surprise me. At least all the -to hit in Dark should help the gremlins stay alive a little longer. Maybe....I dunno...they're very fragile....

 

Way back on live... you could put the contagious confusion proc in the chain and it worked great to spread confusion but that was removed. I never understood why, it was never better than seeds or total domination and it really helped the set but you know how it goes...

[kikyoku]

Ok I can't leave a thread slandering my favorite controller build.

 

I have an elec/dark troller, and it is an absolutely wild time. Yes, as everyone says the dps is bad. Like, awful. But if you are worried about dps why are you playing a controller?

 

My average fight on a team goes like this: drop static field, which immediately sleeps and starts draining all the mobs, jump in with conductive aura active and finish draining. Drop Tar patch to make all mobs squishy, and by now you team/pets are moving in and attacking. Spam Chain fences/tesla cage as needed to keep things grouped/subdued. Variety of buffs/heals from dark affinity keep myself and the team virtually indestructible, and alpha is completely shut off by the sleep.

 

Of course I slot the crap out of end mod. Late game has some other things to supplement damage, like fold space and judgment (of course I picked ion with the end drain).

 

People have mentioned that end drain is limited effectiveness, but few things resist it, and even if it doesn't shut them down completely, it does functionality behave like a massive -rech by reducing the attack rate of everything you fight. It's also incredible against anything that habitually uses end drain (you've never felt satisfaction until a mob of 20 freaks is standing around with 0 end and unable to attack).

 

To sum up, yeah it has low damage and doesn't do great solo (survivability is A+ though, never had a tanktroller before), but it is amazing as support/damage mitigation, and makes every team breeze through. Also end drain is hilarious when you do it well. Also I love my electro monkeys.

[OdinAZ]

On 2/17/2024 at 12:56 AM, kikyoku said:

My average fight on a team goes like this: drop static field, which immediately sleeps and starts draining all the mobs, jump in with conductive aura active and finish draining. Drop Tar patch to make all mobs squishy, and by now you team/pets are moving in and attacking. Spam Chain fences/tesla cage as needed to keep things grouped/subdued. Variety of buffs/heals from dark affinity keep myself and the team virtually indestructible, and alpha is completely shut off by the sleep.

 

  This.  Especially Conductive Aura.  It will drain ALL of the endurance from surrounding mobs.  Do you know what mobs do when they don't have any endurance? 

 

  Nothing.  They are "effectively" held.  Boom....secret controller win.

[Infinitum]

On 2/17/2024 at 12:56 AM, kikyoku said:

Ok I can't leave a thread slandering my favorite controller build.

 

I have an elec/dark troller, and it is an absolutely wild time. Yes, as everyone says the dps is bad. Like, awful. But if you are worried about dps why are you playing a controller?

 

My average fight on a team goes like this: drop static field, which immediately sleeps and starts draining all the mobs, jump in with conductive aura active and finish draining. Drop Tar patch to make all mobs squishy, and by now you team/pets are moving in and attacking. Spam Chain fences/tesla cage as needed to keep things grouped/subdued. Variety of buffs/heals from dark affinity keep myself and the team virtually indestructible, and alpha is completely shut off by the sleep.

 

Of course I slot the crap out of end mod. Late game has some other things to supplement damage, like fold space and judgment (of course I picked ion with the end drain).

 

People have mentioned that end drain is limited effectiveness, but few things resist it, and even if it doesn't shut them down completely, it does functionality behave like a massive -rech by reducing the attack rate of everything you fight. It's also incredible against anything that habitually uses end drain (you've never felt satisfaction until a mob of 20 freaks is standing around with 0 end and unable to attack).

 

To sum up, yeah it has low damage and doesn't do great solo (survivability is A+ though, never had a tanktroller before), but it is amazing as support/damage mitigation, and makes every team breeze through. Also end drain is hilarious when you do it well. Also I love my electro monkeys.

My experience as well.   When I learned Elec Control was regarded as pretty bad in some circles - I was left scratching my head.  Because it is literally my best, safest, and most fun - especially paired with Storm. 

[azanimefan]

it's comes down to what you expect from a troller.  

 

Generally trollers do 2 things.

1) field control

2) buff/debuff

 

as a side effect trollers also do damage, now there are exceptions, illusion has no/little field control in exchange it has high damage, but if thats the trade off for illusion the question becomes what is electric control?

 

soft/highly chance dependent control (lots of sleeps), so the control factor is a bit... meh

end based debuff... now in theory this is fine, in the <50 content only a few AVs ignore END debuffing; however in incarnate, almost everything ignores end debuffing.  it's really disappointing really, so it's a type of debuff with almost no real use later in the game.

 

so you have a controller set that is way too dependent on sleeps and knock back/knock downs for its hard control, which does meh/low damage to trade off for END debuff/drain which doesn't really work in endgame since the AI simply ignores end anyway.  

 

it's just not a great set.

[Heatstroke]

On 2/18/2024 at 3:31 AM, OdinAZ said:

 

  This.  Especially Conductive Aura.  It will drain ALL of the endurance from surrounding mobs.  Do you know what mobs do when they don't have any endurance? 

 

  Nothing.  They are "effectively" held.  Boom....secret controller win.

 

well, not nothing. They will still attack.. but they will tend to use the weakest lowest end cost attack which wont kill anyone. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

On 1/26/2024 at 5:09 PM, UltraAlt said:

Part of the issues that some players have with electric powers is that they forgo some damage for the end-drain effect.

Exactly this.  It’s why some players have issues with kinetic melee  or dark melee because they forgo some damage for increased safety.  Or why some players have issues with mind controllers because they forgo pets for other benefits.  This game, like most of reality, is designed around trade offs and some players don’t want trade offs.  Too bad for them, I say.

[Infinitum]

4 hours ago, azanimefan said:

END debuff/drain which doesn't really work in endgame since the AI simply ignores end anyway.  

I'm not sure what you have seen-this is not my experience at all. 

 

I can easily make like bob barker and spay or neuter the mob population solo on a +4/8.  Takes forever to kill them but they can't move and they can't fight in literally a few seconds of me taking over. 

[SeraphimKensai]

I'm a big fan of electric control, it works well. On HC alone I have taken it to 50 on an elec/cold troller, elec/psi domi, elec/dark troller, and elec/poison troller.

 

Maybe I need another elec domi.

[Infinitum]

32 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

I'm a big fan of electric control, it works well. On HC alone I have taken it to 50 on an elec/cold troller, elec/psi domi, elec/dark troller, and elec/poison troller.

 

Maybe I need another elec domi.

Try elec/storm troller - end drains plus slows

[Death2Tyrants]

12 minutes ago, Infinitum said:

Try elec/storm troller - end drains plus slows

and Elec/Kin (not necessarily for slows in this case). Depending on the build the high power uptime makes it demanding to play.

 

Still working on making it into a melee speedster.

Edited February 21 by Death2Tyrants