Thoughts on what makes a good control Primary

[Argentae]

I'm pretty sure we all have our preferences, there's a good deal of difference between soloing and teaming, along with a lot of difference in playstyle.

 

I'd love to hear other's perspectives. I've learned a lot from the original Controller's forum, the old 'Control" channel and this forum, and I really appreciate it and the discussions here.

 

Playstyle/focus:

 

Personally, I enjoy playing with a good team a lot, but I also know that I spend a LOT of time doing things nobody else would find fun, as the complexity of controller play is a big part of what I love about the AT. I do a lot of testing things. I face plant a lot trying things that ultimately just don't work out in practice.

I like to solo content at +4/X8 with bosses as soon as possible in a build, with X8 being higher priority than +4.

My Tank had a lot of toggles, only a handful of powers in an attack chain, a lot of situational and self buff powers and was almost unkillable. Easy to play, and brokenly OP. 
Sometimes that's a lot of fun. 🙂

My Controllers generally have VERY long, complex AOE and (much shorter) ST chains with pet wrangling, complex situation mitigation tools, and a very low ability to survive a major mistake. 

Like driving a high performance sports car on a track, instead of, well, a tank. 😛

So, my personal main priorities in most of my Controller design.
 

1. Soloability. Anyone can solo. I largely soloed my original main Mind/Kin starting back at I-2 on live. Very slow. Almost no AOE, so small, higher conning spawns with no pets and relatively low damage. The game is built to favor AOE over single target, but single target damage is still critical for late game content. Pets help a lot with this.

2. Defense is my preferred focus instead of Resist, Controllers are just not built to take the best advantage of a resist build, except for Earth's embrace. Plus I have just always preferred no-be-there as a mitigation. Same thing with my Bladesinger/Paladin in DnD 5e.

3. -ToHit pairs so well with a higher def build it's pretty much a default for me as a focus.

 

4. Confuse is one of the best dmg buffs in the game as it turns the spawn on itself, mitigating incoming dmg WHILE damaging the spawn much faster. The massive discount you get on dmg done by other mobs for purposes of how much xp you get make it an amazing buff to xp over time. It also MELTS spawns, which is fun.

 

5. In wood working, paint can cover a lot of mistakes/weaknesses. In Controller design, Healing and pets are a bit like that paint; a powerful part of an optimized controller damage build that often lets you get away with some riskier (but often more fun) other choices.

 

6. Damage procs are a major way to bypass the low dmg multiple of Controllers, they also lead to some really interesting possibilities by changing what a power's secondary effects include. 

 

7. Stacking multiple types of mitigation and having lots of tools available to deal with the unexpected is fun. 

 

In looking at my favorite build to date, I see most of the above reflected. 

 

My top builds, though I'm always revising a very subjective ranking.

1:  Top is still probably Plant/Dark. Best AOE confuse power with amazing AOE damage, huge amounts of healing and regen, and a great combination of pets, team wide +Def and -ToHit. Just a powerhouse for soloing anything/everything.

2: Plant/Storm

 

2: Mind/Trick Arrow

 

2: Ars/Dark

 

:: lots of balancing gestures ::

 

Yup. It all falls apart at #2 and below as there are just sooooo many good/fun combinations! 🙂

 

What do you all like most about playing Controllers and what do you find yourself gravitating to more often than not?

[Onlyasandwich]

I love that Controllers give me so many different fun approaches to a battle.

 

Do I drop an aoe hold, engage with my soft control layered with other tools, summon in a pet, play with positioning, or maybe just open up the damage cannister if my defenses are up for it? All of the above!

 

My favorite controllers have a lot of really effective buttons to push, and therefore backup plans for interesting situations, whether it be a resistant group (can't slow those war wolves!) or overaggro chaos.

 

I really enjoy powers that let me layer in procs so damage is a powerful side-effect of doing all the fun stuff I already wanted to do, rather than focusing on blasts to melt things. Sneaking procs all throughout my build so everything just layers on the hurt is very satisfying.

 

I agree that defense is more effective as a strategy to keep yourself alive than resist, but typically it involves too much sacrifice in terms of recharge and proc opportunities. Resists can come incidentally alongside an epic resist shield, and I can instead focus on maximizing damage and leaning on raw control power to survive.

 

Some sets lend themselves to a defense strategy more easily. /Dark, /Time, and /FF, and /Traps are especially good on that front. Doubly so for /Dark and /Time, as they include endurance tools as well, which open up slotting. 

 

 

 

Edited May 13 by Onlyasandwich

[Uun]

I've played all the control primaries except Symphony and Arsenal. I prefer Plant, Mind and Ice on dominators. I don't care about soloing +4/x8 (and generally don't solo any AT above x4). I recently did Elec/Dark and found that to be a lot of fun (and very safe). My current favorites are Grav/Storm, Fire/Nature and Illusion/Poison. 

[KC4800]

I don't like to run controllers at +4/8 or even +3/8.  Sweet spot for me is +3/3 +/-1.  Bosses enabled.

 

I used to solo farm my tanks at +4/8 but really don't need to farm anymore. I never have to build a ton of alts. I play the ones I make, usually  solo to completion.

 

My favorite controllers are Arsenal/Traps and Illusion/TA. Earth/Nature an honorable mention.