Need Help Understanding Controllers

[WuTang]

I'm brand new to Controllers. I've rolled a Plant/Poison, as per usual I have a concept and am trying to make it functional. 

 

BUT...

 

My initial experience - currently level 12 - is a very boring one. I've never been bored by 12, 30s yes, but 12 is still in the honeymoon phase. I should be all googly-eyed right now, but instead I'm doing the coyote ugly thing.

 

Any tips??

[Six-Six]

Plant/Poison is one of my all-time favourite toons, and arguably my fave troller in terms of powers, concept, and performance.

Is it one of the better controllers? I doubt it. It's a fairly late bloomer until you get your pet and creepers. even then, it's rather mid-tier at best. poison is also not too popular with most players. 

Since you're new to trollers, I'd suggest you park your current toon and try Illusions or Gravity. Once you get the hang of it, you might be more receptive to plant's quirks.

Generally, as a troller, your powers of control and support are second to none. While your damage is dismal, it's still there. So on a team, you're golden. Solo, it's still enjoyable as long as you're aware of your limitations... and have a tonne of patience and cunning.

[Coyote]

1: /Poison is a hard set to like early, it's not very strong, and also it's very weak in terms of appearance and action. It doesn't strike you as doing much from the secondary.

2: Plant is good early, and stays good. It should be fine. If the animations aren't striking you as interesting, maybe you should switch the primary, but it shouldn't be for effect reasons.

 

Also, if you're coming from other ATs, maybe you're looking for a more direct-damage focused set... Pyro and Symphony both are more direct and proc up nicely once you get access to AoE proc IOs. Plant is a lot more "use powers, let other things damage the mobs", since it relies a lot on Confusion and the damage from Creepers rather than its direct attacks.
Pyro has very quick animations so it feels better attacking with it, and Sympony's attacks are front-loaded damage rather than DoT other than the Confuse, so they feel closer to a blast set early, while Plant is very much a "set your dots and controls into place and then chew some bubblegum" set.

[Schiz0]

 

  It depends on what you really want.  We can all give opinions, but you need to decide what you actually want from the class.  I never build my controllers to group.  I always build them for solo +4/8 and if it can't solo that then it isn't good enough for me.  That is just what I want though, and does not mean anything about the class.  It doesn't mean I am a good player either.  It is just what I like and It is just just another opinion.  The controller is one of, if not my favorite class overall though.  In saying that, I have played this game since it started on live and low level play has not been fun for me in years.  I like level 50+ play which is why I PL all my toons to 50 and then play them.

 

  I have played pretty much every combination and I personally can't stand poison.  It used to be worse and it is AoE now at least, but I still don't like it.  If you still want a thematic build then I might say try Radiation Emission.  That used to be my old go-to secondary, but it really needs a revamp imo and I really don't play it anymore.  I normally go /traps or /time.  If you think about it you can really make anything work and find a reason why it happened or whatever you want to be your reasons for why your toon has or got these powers.  A Venus fly trap is itself a giant trap.  So maybe a /trap build is just your souls natural or magical representation of what those powers look like so your mind and other people's minds can comprehend them.  Many plants are poisonous so /radiation is easy to make a story for.  My Illusion/Traps does that.  It is all illusion magic, even the /traps.  

 

  I would either try and join groups to level faster or PL if you have that option.  Just because you don't like low level controller play does not mean you don't like the class.  You might hate every combination at low levels and it could end up being your favorite class at 50.  I still would never personally recommend /poison to anyone.  That does not mean it is bad.  I just don't like it at all.  I would never say a set or combination is bad here.  Some are just bad for me.

 

  I didn't do the quote thing sorry, but someone above said "Generally, as a troller, your powers of control and support are second to none. While your damage is dismal, it's still there. So on a team, you're golden. Solo, it's still enjoyable as long as you're aware of your limitations... and have a tonne of patience and cunning." (I am not attacking you at all, but I do disagree with you greatly which just shows we all play and think differently and that is fine.)

 

  Well, our powers of control come second to a dominator which kicks the total crap out of us where control is concerned.  As far as support, defenders easily outdo us and then we are the same as corruptors, and better than masterminds.  Most people who randomly group as a controller come to the same conclusion.  We aren't "normally" even needed on "most" high level teams.  I am sure low level teams vary.  This is probably why I started only soloing on mine, but who knows.  I do know that even if our damage is not that of a blaster, brute or scrapper I can still easily solo AVs, GMs, missions from ANY group and some Task Forces I have tried.  This is even now after they buffed GM's.  So I am not really aware of these limitations being spoken of.  This class has less limitations of any other AT I have played.  The combinations will have different results.  If you primary ice for instance it might be tougher to do certain things compared to illusion, but overall many combinations will still work.  Ice for example is amazing on a dominator, but I don't like it at all on a controller.  Don't give up on the AT though and keep trying until you find a set you enjoy! If you never do then at least you know you tried.

 

  

 

  

[Riverdusk]

On 12/11/2025 at 6:02 AM, WuTang said:

I'm brand new to Controllers. I've rolled a Plant/Poison, as per usual I have a concept and am trying to make it functional. 

 

BUT...

 

My initial experience - currently level 12 - is a very boring one. I've never been bored by 12, 30s yes, but 12 is still in the honeymoon phase. I should be all googly-eyed right now, but instead I'm doing the coyote ugly thing.

 

Any tips??

 

Plant to me definitely gets fun once you get creepers.  I just find it one of the most fun and visually interesting powers in the game.  So, I'd stick with it until then, although you could also try changing secondaries unless you are really stuck with your concept.  Like some others have said, I find poison kinda terrible.  It definitely has its fans, which tend to be quite rabid, but I've never understood it and it always seemed very underwhelming to me.

 

One other strong suggestion I always have if you are actually trying to solo a low level controller, temp attack powers.  I pretty much live on plasmatic taser charges from the START vendor early on with a controller.  Fairly cheap and effective AoE damage (basically an energy torrent clone despite its name that would suggest otherwise).  Bonus that most controllers get an aoe immobilize so you can negate its knockback if you want.  For single target nemesis staff and blackwand for sure.  Arcane bolt sorcery pool attack is also very good as with containment and when it procs it does triple damage. 

 

Controllers I also find more varied in playstyle within different primary powers than a lot of other AT's, so you might try some other primaries if you can come up with some other concepts.

 

If none of that works, controllers just might not be an AT that fits for you, nothing wrong with that.  You might try switching it up with a dominator too.  I love controllers, but my plant dom is probably my favorite character right now.

Edited Saturday at 04:58 PM by Riverdusk

[tidge]

Low-level Controllers are IMO easier to tolerate when I pick up the S.T.A.R.T. prestige attack powers and some temporary attacks as well.

[WuTang]

15 minutes ago, Riverdusk said:

Like some others have said, I find poison kinda terrible.  It definitely has its fans, which tend to be quite rabid,

 

Yeah I might swap out with Nature Aff... And you are right Poison has its fans and they have very strong opinions on how everyone else should play it. I just thought since Poison has the two early powers that debuff the bad guys that I'd be satisfied....but seems not.

[kittowam]

I don't know much about Poison, but I do know that any time I've seen it on a team, everything just melts, including the AVs. But, I still have no desire to play it myself. Plant is great fun though. It works well with Nature, especially thematically. Marine is also a fun pairing, if you want to try something new. Otherwise, a way to get many of the same benefits as Poison is with Trick Arrow. Plant / Trick Arrow is one of my favorite pairings.

[tidge]

Re: Poison. I find Poison to be a good set for (targeted) offense. The Ally effects aren't really needed, given that Inspirations exist. You can use them as mules of course.

1. Alkaloid: Skippable, although I usually add it back in very late as a mule for the %Absorb piece
2. Envenom: useful, and can also take %damage procs for some early offense
3. Weaken: I tend to skip this. It comes early when my Controllers want to take a pool power to be able to take a third pool (attack) power asap.
4. Neurotoxic Breath: Not bad, but I tend to skip. I either need a second pool power or I want to focus on the primary.
5. Elixir of Life: Delay/de-prioritize since it can mule Resistance pieces
6. Antidote: Skipable/Delay/de-prioritize
7. Paralytic Poison: Important for single-target hold, and %damage from procs.
8. Poison Trap: Important for Hold, not important for %damage.
9. Venomous Gas; Skip.

My T9 recommendation gets a negative reactions, but I am not alone. This was discussed to death in the Defender subforum. The short version: A character doesn't need this to solo or for team play, and it requires slots and other build considerations to make it work (for both solo and team play). It's one of those powers that looks good on paper but doesn't really speed up clear times except in very limited circumstances... and the fraction of those circumstance that involve single, hard targets... the single target powers (including Weaken Resolve) eliminate the need for something like Venomous Gas.

 

[dukedukes]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

Poison Trap: Important for Hold, not important for %damage.

 

Poison Trap procs extremely well and can take the FotG -res proc for more -res stacking. Slot for hold if you want though.

[tidge]

30 minutes ago, dukedukes said:

 

Poison Trap procs extremely well and can take the FotG -res proc for more -res stacking. Slot for hold if you want though.

 

On Controller/Defender types: I'd much rather slot Poison Trap for set bonuses, recharge and hold. The only %proc I'd add is the Superior Entomb %Absorb.  I can put %damage in other AoEs, like Wall of Force.