Soloing Controller input requested

[biostem]

So I mainly solo, and have been trying out many different ATs and builds.  I've never really played controllers extensively, but wanted to try one out.  I was thinking of something like Ill/Poi or Ill/FF, since both seem to have some good survivability tools.  For /FF, I was considering taking the fighting pool as well, but wasn't sure.  Any input from you more experienced folks would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[Coyote]

You don't need as much defensive ability from your secondary since your primary is a defensive set. For soloing, you will want the following:

Damage, both single-target and AoE

Endurance management

-Res

-Regen, if you care to solo AVs.

Defense/healing as a minor option.

 

Some good choices are:

-Fire/Dark (anything /Dark has enough defense, and it covers up Fire's lack of defense, while Fire is best overall in damage). Also Fire/Rad and Fire/Time (Time doesn't have much -Regen, so it's good overall but not so great against AVs).

-Dark/Cold, Dark/Storm. Dark primary is very strong for soloing due to good damage and strong defenses, allowing you to use a more offensive secondary.

-Mind/Traps. Strange combo thematically, but sleeping/confusing mobs and toe-bombing with Trip Mine does good AoE damage, and Mind is strong for single-target damage. Similarly, Grav/Traps (instead of sleeping and toe-bombing, you set the Mine and Wormhole spawns into it).

-Electric/Storm. Excellent AoE damage if you proc up Jolting Chain, and the Endurance recovery from Electric helps with Storm's heavy End drain. Single-target damage is ironically handled by Tornado and Lightning Storm while AoE is more from the Jolting Chain and Gremlins.

-Plant/Kin. Plant is great for AoE damage, not so great for single-target. Its early Confuse helps it solo defensive, while the +Damage and +Recharge from Kin help with offense. Single-target is weak within the set, but Kinetics can boost Arcane Bolt or the attacks from the Fighting Pool to be useful.

Ill/Rad, Ill/Time, Ill/Storm. Illusion is an excellent soloing set, and all of those work with it.

[biostem]

Thank you all for the great advice!

[Gregg247]

I agree with 5099y_74c05 above about best primaries.  Of those, Plant/ is probably the best pick for a first-timer.  Lots of control, and you get a good feel for the cadence of playing a Controller (Seeds of Confusion is such a nice power at level 8!).

 

I've played Plant/ with /TA, /Rad, /Sonic, and /Poison.  Of those, /Rad and /TA are pretty strong.  For me, I like coming up with more "theme" characters, which is 100% of the reason I'm working on /Poison right now (so far, the /Poison part isn't doing all that much for me).

 

P.S.- I had an Ill/FF on Live many years ago.  Its do-able, but it was SLOW!

[Coyote]

I always think that Poison is an offensive secondary for Controllers (especially with IO'd Poison Gas Trap), but it really needs a primary that can shut down spawns on its own, because Poison doesn't help it do that. So, I think it's fine for soloing, but only when paired with specific sets that are strong enough defensively to carry the load:

Dark, Electric, Plant, Earth. Maybe Mind or Illusion, if you want to use a lot of Sleep/Confuse.

 

I wouldn't run it with Ice, Gravity, or Fire.

[Zep]

I think it is more important to find a power set you like and enjoy playing.

 

Pre-32 Controllers are slow-ish  to slow.

 

You'll get though it if your enjoying yourself.