Damage dealer looking to try a controller

[Alamo Knight]

I just got back to the game, and I've been rebuilding some of my old favorites, as well as trying some new things that weren't around when I left. My main hero was a scrapper and my main villain was a brute, but I also had tons of alts of all ATs. While I did have some controllers, it was by far my least played AT, and the only one that I remember getting past the teens was a Gravity/Storm that was pretty fun to play.

 

The reason I'm posting is that I wanted to see what might be a fun combo for someone without a lot of experience controlling, especially if it has powersets that weren't in the game around 2009 (when I stopped playing), because it would be fun to do something new. I don't need the best powersets possible, or the consensus best build or anything, just something that will be fun and new to me.

 

Also, any general advice on how to build and play a controller would be helpful.

[swordchucks]

I'm no expert, by any means, but I can offer you some general insight.

 

You're not going to deal a lot of damage (especially at lower levels).  Your primary is control and your secondary is support.  Neither one of those is big on damage.  You will work really well on a team, but solo is likely to be slow early on.  Solo is relatively safe since you can lock down mobs pretty well, but you don't have the damage to capitalize on that.  Controller sets tend to bloom late.  I've done fire/kin and plant/nature, and both primaries really started to get good late in the 20s and into the 30s.  I'm trying to level an Illusion/Rad controller right now, but sub-20, they're kind of thin.

 

That said, controllers are wonderful on teams.  You're a support character and a potent one.  You don't deal a lot of damage yourself, but you can lock down entire spawns pretty regularly.  Your secondary lets you buff your allies or debuff your foes, too, which makes the whole process easier for your team as a whole.

 

I can recommend fire/kin for a more damaging/soloing character or plant/nature for a great buffing/support character.  The highlight of fire is bonfire now that you can turn its KB to KD.  The highlight of plant is the confusion spray (which will confuse a whole spawn for almost a minute once you've got your sets going) and the tentacles, too. 

 

I hear illusion/radiation is a great soloing set, but, as I said above, it takes a few levels for that to be true (probably up till you get Phantom Army). 

[Alamo Knight]

10 minutes ago, 5099y_74c05 said:

As far as Controller gameplay, the best approach is take a more tactical view of the battlefield; this means rotating buffs, debuffs and controls on key targets constantly. Depending on your secondary choice you'll want to keep your best buffs and debuffs up as often as possible at the same time locking down enemies as best as possible. By doing so you can significantly change the pace and outcome of the battle. Without knowing what primary and secondary you will select its difficult to advise on gameplay beyond this description.

 

 

Thanks for the replies so far. I think the completely new sets to me would be Dark and Elec for primary and Nature and Time for secondary. There are a bunch that were never allowed on Controller that I've still played on other ATs. Thematically, Dark/Nature or Elec/Time sound like concepts I could have fun with.

[oedipus_tex]

35 minutes ago, Alamo Knight said:

Thanks for the replies so far. I think the completely new sets to me would be Dark and Elec for primary and Nature and Time for secondary. There are a bunch that were never allowed on Controller that I've still played on other ATs. Thematically, Dark/Nature or Elec/Time sound like concepts I could have fun with.

 

I'd start with Dark over Electric. Electric is very low damage and has a bit of a learning curve. I tend to feel Electric is best played on Dominators or else with a damaging secondary like Storm to make up for the extremely poor damage contribution. Dark isn't likely to flatten spawns but does contribute enough damage to sustain.

[Alamo Knight]

I think I can come up with a concept for Dark/Time (especially with custom colors), so I might have to play around with the costume creator before I decide which I want to do. I do appreciate knowing which sets have good synergy though, because sometimes that just makes it more fun.

[Lusiphur Malache]

I'm coming from where you are. I started an elec/kin last week. I'm up to 15 now on 70\30 group\solo, you definitely want some buddies who hit hard unless you like 2 minute fights with a white minion. 

 

Your controls last longer than you think, but you have to stack them to take down anything no matter how you slot.

 

Learn how your powers work. I struggled with my heal being taoe and siphons being pbaoe.