Controller Help Darkness vs Illusion vs Mind

[MasterMeese]

Hi, 

I recently returned to playing city of heroes and am looking to build a controller but i am not overly familiar with the power sets. I plan to play pain domination as my but i am debating 3 options for primary.

Could the community provide me with pros/cons of darkness control, Illusion control, and mind control? Does one of these pair better with pain domination? I have found comparisons of illusion and mind control in other places but i never find darkness compared to them i am not sure if darkness is unpopular or just in a different category.

Thank you in advance for the help.

Edited February 21 by MasterMeese

[evetsleep]

If you are sticking with Pain Domination, then really (in my opinion) you want a pet to cast your buffs on (such as Painbringer).  Mind doesn't really get a pet so I'd put that aside, unless you are teaming a lot.  The buffs you get in Pain Domination that affect pets are World of Pain (+dmg, +tohit, +resistance) and Painbringer (+reg, +recovery, +dmg).  For illusion these can only be cast on your phantasm as your other temporary pets won't really benefit from them.  Dark on the otherhand will.

 

Illusion, as a set, won't benefit greatly from pain domination because of this since the main anchor of the set is phantom army, which cannot be buffed.  However you can debuff their targets which means Anguishing Cry is helpful.  I have played illusion\pain and it's alright, but a bit slow to start off until you get enough recharge to bring up phantom army when you want it (which is all the time).

 

Darkness control, of the 3, would in my view, pair nicely with pain.  Everything does -tohit, which makes you far less squishy and the pets will benefit from your pain buffs and it starts off a little stronger (imho).

 

I think you'd have a smoother ride with dark\pain.  Illusion\pain can work, but just remember to use Anguishing Cry you have to get in the middle of things...so it could be a little risky.  Mind\pain would good if you're teaming a lot since Mind doesn't have any pets which would benefit from your pain-based buffs.

 

My 2 inf.

[BZRKR]

@evetsleep Gives good advice, but don't forget: This is Homecoming, make all three!

 

That said, I have a Mind/Pain/Mace Controller and it's a hoot.  Playing around with the Telekinesis+lift combo is fun, and I have the Tarantula from the patron pool. I do mainly team with this character, and so the buffs and heals have targets, but I also went deep into the Teleportation pool to get fold space, so I can fold space into an Anguishing Cry and then Mezzes. lastly, the button colors for Mind Control and Pain Domination go together pretty well: