Troller that doesn’t need high-end enhancements

[KMadeleine]

I see quite a few Level 50 builds but they are way out of my budget.  My husband and I just got a friend who has never played COH to make a scrapper.  I know I used to like controllers but it’s been a long while.  Assuming this character will generally be in (at least) a trio, so no need to solo, what would you recommend on a budget?

 

I have an Ill/Rad but she’s on another server and already 50.  I made her strong for soloing, this could be the opposite.  Thanks for any ideas / thoughts /recommendations!

[MonteCarla]

Hmm.

So avoid things like Illusion that thrive on high recharge.

Scrappers love Kinetics. Plus it gives you a bit of bonus recharge via Siphon Speed, which is what you'd be missing from a high end build. And it doesn't lend itself to IO slotting, so no big loss there.

Earth Control's good for making those Kinetics powers hit with the -Def, and gives a lot of security with multiple fast AoE controls. Its main problem is lack of direct damage, but that's helped a lot by picking up some START vendor powers these days (or Sorcery for Arcane Blast) and by having a Scrapper buddy.

 

Does Earth/Kinetics sound any good?

 

Actually, Arsenal Control might be good too for similar reasons, lots of different AoE controls if you're not running on high recharge? Arsenal/Kinetics would be an odd combo, and maybe quite effective 🙂

 

[ZorkNemesis]

I found that my Arsenal/Trick Arrow Controller recently didn't require too expensive of slotting.  Since Arsenal procs somewhat poorly I was able to take advantage of cheaper sets for bonuses like Ice Minstral's Torment in Sleep Grenade and Liquid Nitrogen or Dark Watcher's Depsair in Smoke Canister and Flash Arrow.  And Trick Arrow doesn't have many compatible sets to begin with, allowing some powers to be minimally slotted like Entangling Arrow, Poison Gas Arrow and Distruption Arrow.  I think the most expensive thing I did was 6-slot Maneuvers with Reactive Defenses.

 

If you're teaming, this combo is huge on debuffs.  Tons of Slow and ToHit debuffs, great spots for -Res procs (I have them in Acid Arrow and Flash Bang), large control patches, big damage with Oil Slick (Flash Bang can set it off), an off-tank pet with solid damage output and against big fights you can even deploy a Faraday Cage with EMP Arrow to boost your team's resists a bit.  You also get four Hold powers with Cryo Ray, Ice Arrow, Tear Gas and EMP Arrow so you can lock down pretty much any threat.

[Sovera]

5 hours ago, KMadeleine said:

I see quite a few Level 50 builds but they are way out of my budget.  My husband and I just got a friend who has never played COH to make a scrapper.  I know I used to like controllers but it’s been a long while.  Assuming this character will generally be in (at least) a trio, so no need to solo, what would you recommend on a budget?

 

I have an Ill/Rad but she’s on another server and already 50.  I made her strong for soloing, this could be the opposite.  Thanks for any ideas / thoughts /recommendations!

 

High end builds ask for a lot of money, but money's easy to accumulate once you're 50 or try to follow story lines to their end using contacts (or doing taskforces) as you level. It's not uncommon to reach 50 with a 100+ millions in my name by having done Taskforces only.

 

Most people who post builds will cobble a leveling build that is cheaper if you just ask. Controllers are not my thing for me to offer though.

 

I know it is not the advice you requested but Controllers are a bit passed by time. If you do enjoy them then do continue playing, but the pace of the game is very fast these days, I have a current Scrapper that explodes a pack of mobs under 10 seconds and leaves little to crowd control for example, and the bigger the team (even just three) the quicker this goes.

 

Do play Controllers if you enjoy them, but consider branching out to things like Defenders or Corruptors if you enjoy the help you can create by buffing and debuffing.

 

I'll repeat a third for good measure to continue playing Controllers if you enjoy how they play, there is no real wrong answer since we have a thousand slots and levelling is quick thanks to double XP, and thanks to the sidekick system a level 10 can play with a level 30.

[Ringo]

Cheap controllers are basically controllers that don't need to chase recharge.  Damage procs and defense can also be expensive but are mitigated by teammates who can dish out damage or take aggro, which you'll have.

 

Primaries that don't need necessarily recharge to get a groove going:

 

Earth

Gravity

Arsenal

Symphony

Electric

 

Secondaries are a bit different and split into 3 categories. Doesn't have to chase recharge, could chase recharge (the set has 1 or 2 powers that need it but performs well without), and should chase recharge (your set is defined by powers with long cooldowns).

 

Recharge Heavy secondaries (should):

Storm Summoning

Traps

Empathy

Pain

Darkness Affinity

 

Recharge recommended secondaries (could):

Time

Cold Domination

Trick Arrow

Thermal Radiation

Nature

Kinetics

 

Recharge optional/lite secondaries (no need):

Force Fields

Sonic Resonance

Electrical Affinity

Radiation Emission

Poison

 

 

 

 

[KMadeleine]

4 hours ago, Ringo said:

Cheap controllers are basically controllers that don't need to chase recharge.  Damage procs and defense can also be expensive but are mitigated by teammates who can dish out damage or take aggro, which you'll have.

That’s a great way to look at it!  And thank you so much for the “rankings” of which power sets need the most help.  Some of the ones I’m most interested in seem on the “cheap” side, which is fabulous!

[smnolimits42]

i have a question, do you like buffing ??

[Argentae]

Arsenal/Traps is very effective with no purple sets, my lvl 38 has two 4 packs of Baz Gaze for instance. Are sets like Posi Blast and Expedient Reinforcement in scope for you? Throw in a bunch of -res procs and a FF + Rech… ::chef’s kiss::

[Thraxen]

Ice/time. Get the purple confuse proc for arctic air. Just buff up the two teammates. Time is crazy good and cheap to build. Ice’s one power confuses most. Mine is dom with world of confusion too. Unsure if controllers get it too. I’m 

[Zect]

In general, expensive enhancements are expensive because they cram a lot of bonuses into few slots, and slots are one of the things that no toon can ever get more of.

 

Therefore, there are broadly 2 types of builds that are expensive. The first (and the majority) are builds that attempt to pursue multiple conflicting build goals. If you want permahasten, that can be had for cheap (without any purple sets and a minimum of lotg's). But if you want permahasten and softcapped defense, that's gonna cost.

 

The second are builds that attempt to push the limits of what is achievable with the IO system. Permahasten (175-180% global rech with default slotting, depending on how willing you are to have it a second or two off perma) is as stated easily achievable. But if you want 200+% global rech, necessary for some builds like perma-PA trollers, true perma double-rage SS, or the highest dps dual blades builds, then that is going to be significantly costlier. It's easy to go from 0% to 170%. Adding another 30-50% on top of that is exponentially more difficult without help from, say, the powerset itself, or incarnate resources e.g. ageless.

 

With this in mind my suggestion is actually kinetics. Kinetics is unique among the buffdebuff sets in that it requires almost no slotting itself and provides ample freedom to pursue any build goals you want. It doesn't need extreme rech itself since FS, the keystone power, has a relatively short base rech at 45s. You can pick any troller primary you like to do with it (even ill/ if you don't mind PA not being perma, which really is only going to matter for soloing tough critters).

[Ringo]

Phantom Army is so good you will eventually mind it not being Perma.  But!  That could just be motivation to make enough inf to get there

[Ringo]

On 4/1/2024 at 6:35 PM, KMadeleine said:

That’s a great way to look at it!  And thank you so much for the “rankings” of which power sets need the most help.  Some of the ones I’m most interested in seem on the “cheap” side, which is fabulous!

If you can share what you're leaning towards and why it appeals to you there's definitely more advice available on pairings/strengths/etc.  (If you want more advice)

[Crysis]

You can build a very potent Fire/Kin solo toon on nothing more than SO’s or, for very little extra, IO’s.  Yes, adding in the ATO’s and slotting in sets will make them far more capable, but when Homecoming launched, there were a TON of new Fire/Kin’s built purely because they can solo +4/x8 maps as budget farmers.  I used one with nothing but IO’s to build my first Spines/Fire fire farmer just running PI maps.   Made my first couple of billion along the way.

 

You don’t need a bunch of influence to build an effective controller or any other AT for that matter.  But by the time you build on to 50 and get all your T4’s, you’ll have far more money than you’ll need to build your next one and outfit it entirely with IO sets.  Rinse/Repeat.

[KMadeleine]

Thanks folks!  What I ended up doing was listening to @Sovera and making a corrupter instead!  Fire/Time, mostly cuz I haven’t messed with Time before.  She’s up to 15 now I think and quite fun.  Now I have to figure out what to make when I can play and my teammates can’t LOL.