Controllers in Late Game

[Snarky]

How do Controllers do in Incarnate Trials and *Starred content 1/2/4.... ?  Everyone knows the meta there is 7 Corruptors and 1 Tank.  But other ATs do pretty good.  Blasters, um... something else will come to mind.  I know it lol.  

 

i have not watched/definitely not experienced how the Controller AT does that deep into late game.  Any clues?  I have run a few Blasters through the mahor Task Forces to get a feel for powers.  Mostly Ice and Dark variations.  For this project was considering Dark Dark of course.  

 

Oh, and as a control I am posting this same thread in Sentinels.  If Sentinels are all like "we do great" and Controllers are all like "We do great"  I know everyone is full of....um, misinformation lol.  

 

Thanks in advance.  Your "friendly" neighborhood Snarky.

[Lunar Ronin]

Controllers are fine for the most part on Incarnate trials, although some leaders will tell Controllers and Dominators to put their pets away.

 

Controllers are largely not wanted on 3* and 4* advanced mode TFs/SFs because they're viewed as doing very poor damage and their CCs are nothing that a couple of Blasters can't do just as effectively.

 

 

[Riverdusk]

3 hours ago, Snarky said:

How do Controllers do in Incarnate Trials and *Starred content 1/2/4.... ?  Everyone knows the meta there is 7 Corruptors and 1 Tank.  But other ATs do pretty good.  Blasters, um... something else will come to mind.  I know it lol.  

 

i have not watched/definitely not experienced how the Controller AT does that deep into late game.  Any clues?  I have run a few Blasters through the mahor Task Forces to get a feel for powers.  Mostly Ice and Dark variations.  For this project was considering Dark Dark of course.  

 

Oh, and as a control I am posting this same thread in Sentinels.  If Sentinels are all like "we do great" and Controllers are all like "We do great"  I know everyone is full of....um, misinformation lol.  

 

Thanks in advance.  Your "friendly" neighborhood Snarky.

 

There's always BAF, even my Masterminds feel useful on that.  Controllers definitely as well.

 

Anyway, /Dark on a controller is definitely the best version of /dark support, much more powerful than the defender/corruptor/MM versions.   It can make your whole team incredibly tanky, still helps damage with tar patch, and has a great +recovery buff so also solves any endurance issues.  

 

If nothing else, I'd say a dark/dark controller should be able keep almost any PUG alive pretty much single handily in most "regular" TF's.  So the downside is you wouldn't be able to post  one of your infamous PUG  stories while playing it...maybe...

 

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Riverdusk said:

If nothing else, I'd say a dark/dark controller should be able keep almost any PUG alive pretty much single handily in most "regular" TF's.  So the downside is you wouldn't be able to post  one of your infamous PUG  stories while playing it...maybe...

 

Badge Challenge Accepted!

[Thraxen]

I had a dark dark. Took power pool for another fear. It’s kinda fun but fear isn’t the greatest control. 

[Snarky]

Fear is great on all Dark builds. It is a strange control in that it reduces the number of times the enemies attack. Usually it comes with a fat to hit debuff on Dark. I assume the above reference is the presence pool.  Which i would pass on. 

Edited April 26 by Snarky

[Uun]

Other than needing to dismiss your pets at certain points in order to get particular badges, controllers do fine on Incarnate Trials. Incarnate Trials aren't that hard if you know what you're doing and controls are effective during most of them (other than the AV fights).

 

I'm not a big player of hard-modes, so I have limited experience running controllers through that content. There's a lot more mezz resistance/protection, so controllers will be leaning more on their secondaries (unless they're Illusion). 

[SeraphimKensai]

Honestly @Snarky dark/dark controller might just be the best overall dark/dark toon you can make. Dark Affinity is really great and Dark Control is one of the best control sets.

[Snarky]

20 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Honestly @Snarky dark/dark controller might just be the best overall dark/dark toon you can make. Dark Affinity is really great and Dark Control is one of the best control sets.

at least none of the powers shoot rainbows.  seriously though, while obviously low dps i do see a lot of value in Controllers.  A specialist like Dark Dark brings a ton of value to a team when "working the crowd."  to put it in perspective i would rather see a well run controller on a team than a Brute.  and i love Brutes.  But a Controller can ...well....control.  while a Brute herds (if we are lucky) and does dps.

 

[Neiska]

Very strongly tempted to try an Illusion/Dark/Soul Controller myself, focusing on recharge, pets, and debuffs. Will be very nice to have immortal pets for a change.

[UltraAlt]

The term is "end-game" not "late game".

 

The "game" is the leveling content.

If there was a "late game" in City of Heroes, it would be like level 45-49.

Once you hit 50, you are in the "end-game".

 

The "end-game" is content that is pasted on the end of the actual "game" to give people that have completed the "game" something to do.

Generally, this is done in games to keep players paying for content.

Before the big F2P boom, it was to keep subscribers subscribing.

With the F2P boom, it is P2W, exclusives, etc  ... including - most likely - whatever players are saying that they are willing to pay for on their respective game forums.

 

I'm assuming this post will give the "end-gamers" something to do even if just for a brief moment.

[UnboundKitsune]

I'm rebuilding my dark/time/fire troller from live, between the two patch holds and the two ST Holds, stuff gets locked down, also a fun proc spam builds from the two patches, it did great in standard Incarnate tier stuff back then but haven't gotten it high enough here with the tweaks done to the game to know how well it holds up here.

[Snarky]

7 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

The term is "end-game" not "late game".

 

The "game" is the leveling content.

If there was a "late game" in City of Heroes, it would be like level 45-49.

Once you hit 50, you are in the "end-game".

 

The "end-game" is content that is pasted on the end of the actual "game" to give people that have completed the "game" something to do.

Generally, this is done in games to keep players paying for content.

Before the big F2P boom, it was to keep subscribers subscribing.

With the F2P boom, it is P2W, exclusives, etc  ... including - most likely - whatever players are saying that they are willing to pay for on their respective game forums.

 

I'm assuming this post will give the "end-gamers" something to do even if just for a brief moment.

you hyphenated "end-game" but not "late game"   is there a reason?  since we are being precise....

[mistagoat]

I haven't messed with any * content but trollers are fine on high lvl TFs and Incarnate trials. The utility you bring is top notch and while you'll never be a blaster you can put out decent damage with the right build.

 

Dark Affinity has become my favorite troller secondary! I have a Dark/Dark and its great (Shadow Field is awesome!) but the Fire/Dark is my favorite combo. Fire control is a solid control set on it's own and it can pack a decent punch (as far as Trollers go). You can really live in melee thanks to Fade + Soul Absorption + all the -to hit you're throwing around so you get the most out of Hot Feet and spamming Cages.

 

It feels like an unbeatable Tank Mage! Of course the ITF still neuters all your hard controls and that stinks but you can still fall back on your formidable buffs/debuffs.

[Doomguide2005]

Fade is also one of the few ways to gain DDR something all defense builds trying to reach 95% DDR crave

[rksr9997]

On 5/14/2024 at 12:47 PM, mistagoat said:

I haven't messed with any * content but trollers are fine on high lvl TFs and Incarnate trials. The utility you bring is top notch and while you'll never be a blaster you can put out decent damage with the right build.

 

Dark Affinity has become my favorite troller secondary! I have a Dark/Dark and its great (Shadow Field is awesome!) but the Fire/Dark is my favorite combo. Fire control is a solid control set on it's own and it can pack a decent punch (as far as Trollers go). You can really live in melee thanks to Fade + Soul Absorption + all the -to hit you're throwing around so you get the most out of Hot Feet and spamming Cages.

 

It feels like an unbeatable Tank Mage! Of course the ITF still neuters all your hard controls and that stinks but you can still fall back on your formidable buffs/debuffs.

 

The ITF enemies are weak to slow. I learned this fighting them with an Ice/Thorny Assault Dominator. Stand on the other side of your Ice Slick & Thorntrops and they almost never get to you. Most things are resistant to slow in the end-game content, but I guess they wanted the Cimerorans to have one CC weakness. (-Recharge can be really strong against some enemies as well.)

 

I think you kind of have to learn these things to be effective an controller in the end game content. Some enemies might only be affected by one kind of CC, and you might need to save that power for when you encounter those enemies. Like the way Carnie Strongmen or War Wolf Bosses run right through slow and immobilize but can be held or affected by fear/terrorize.  

 

AVs can be the same way, some you can hold if you do it enough, others can only be immobilized. Some you can drain down to nothing with -END and then people like Bobcat and Valkyrie are just 100% immune to it.

 

I sometimes wonder if leaning ALL THE WAY into knockback wouldn't be an effective CC for the 54+ enemies in the game, but who would put up with me if I were to do so?