Show me your Controller tier list!

[Some Random User]

Show me your Controller tier list! What Powersets or combinations do you believe are unsurpassed, good but second tier, neutral, and unplayable?

[Coyote]

There are no unplayable powersets for Controllers, because even the weak ones have some synergy with some secondary powerset that make them usable.

 

As an example, Ice Control is pretty weak. Ice/Rad shuts down enemy mobs, not in the usual "I control them" style, but in an unusual "Yeah, they can attack... but who cares? 25% attack rate, 50% of the time attacking their own team, hitting at 50% of their usual chance, doing 80% of their normal damage, falling down, and I can heal the rare hit that goes through" style. But Ice doesn't work as well with many other sets.

 

Earth Control has low damage, so it doesn't solo well. But pair Earth with Cold and you have a solid attack cycle early, as well as great teaming ability. But if you pair Earth with Rad, then you don't really get any help offensively, and defensively you don't need it, so soloing remains painfully slow. Again, a powerset that can do something if paired in a particular way, but not in general.

 

Fire Control is great for damage. Well, damage is king, especially when you have a defensive secondary... so Fire Control does great. But considered on its own, its defensive abilities are not really strong, so it seems better-balanced than it really is once you add in IO sets and defensive abilities from the secondary.

[DSorrow]

Top tier:

• Illusion, not really in the traditional control sense maybe but it is extremely good for soloing TFs / AVs / GMs and provides pretty good damage
• Earth, for the traditional hard control
• Plant, a great mixture of soft / hard controls and damage

Good tier:

• Fire Control, your standard (above average with KB>KD Bonfire) control set spiced with good damage capability

Weak:

• Mind Control, difficult to set up containment, no pet and nothing that really makes up for it.
• Ice, lacks AoE controls and damage, doesn't really provide anything special.

No idea because I haven't played:

• Dark Control, seems good, though
• Gravity, in terms of available control it seems pretty standard
• Electric, no idea, End Drain isn't particularly powerful in PvE but the set has a bunch of interesting power

I wouldn't say any of the sets are unplayable, but Ice definitely needs something and Mind Control probably too. 

[Hjarki]

From the standpoint of teaming, the job of Controllers goes from 'lock down' to 'stay out of the way' as you level to 50. Once you're at 50, a lot of what Controllers bring to a group actively hinder the group - whether it be preventing the tank from collapsing the spawn (AE Immobilize/Disorient/Hold) or blocking doorways (pets).

 

So instead of picking a Control set, I'll list the abilities I see as being broadly useful across a wide variety of groups/situations:

• Phantom Army. Indiscriminately using this can be a hindrance to your group. But an invulnerable taunter is incredibly handy even when you're not trying to solo AV/GM.
• Confuse. In all its incarnations, Confuse is simply better than other controls. Not only does it prevent the mobs from attacking back, but it collapses them into a nice (easily AE'd) pile.
• Wormhole. It filters bosses away from minions/lieutenants, dumps the latter into field effects and doesn't even aggro.
• AE Knockdown nukes. Bonfire/Tremor are problematic because they disperse spawns. Jolting Chain and Propel bring the same virtues, often with more damage attached and don't interfere with teammates.
• Single target damage. While Controllers don't get much here, their basic nukes are still useful. However, every Controller gets (approximately) the same tools for single target damage. None of them get abilities like heavy damage nukes or sniper shots that really make a damage rotation, so it's all just basic nukes with controls attached.

Given the above, I'll probably break down the primaries like so:

• Top Tier (Illusion, Gravity, Electric). These all have flaws to them, but they have one or more strong abilities from the list above.
• Second Tier (Plant, Dark). These sets both have a Confuse, but are too disruptive when they try to do anything else. However, they also have a singular (relatively tough) high damage pet that can come in handy.
• Third Tier (Fire). While there are various Fire builds that work for solo-farming, Fire tends to be highly disruptive with incredibly fragile pets that limit its damage output capability.
• Fourth Tier (Earth, Ice, Mind). These are all low damage sets with few worthwhile abilities. 

If I had to pick combinations for 'best general purpose Controller', I'd probably go with Illusion/Time and Electric/Storm. They've got holes, but they can deal with most everything pretty well and certain things exceptionally well.

[Mercurias]

There really isn’t a “Best” controller primary, because they vary widely, and each one is better at different things.

 

Darkness Control: Solid All-rounder controller set with Negative energy damage. Its powers match the Dark secondary extremely well, making Dark/Dark controllers extremely safe and versatile. It has extra non-permanent pets which are largely for tanking and added fear to enemies. The set is low-damage, but might proc well. 

 

Earth Control: A low-damage set with several extremely large AoE control powers. This is a great team-oriented set for the sheet amount of control it can put out over large areas, but it solos poorly. It’s pet, often called Rocky or Poop Monster, is extremely tanky and benefits from buffs your secondary may give out. Watch your endurance bar, because this set uses a lot of juice. Pairs well, in my experience, with /Cold, /Thermal, and /Storm.

 

Electric Control: Perhaps the lowest-damage Primary, but also possibly the Primary with the best overall control. Possesses several hard lockdown and soft control effects designed in a unique way, and also makes heavy use of endurance drain to ensure that the attacks your powers don’t halt are extremely weak. The pets this set gives offer some additional control and mischief, but have low damage. I greatly enjoy my Elec/Kin controller, but Elec/Storm and Elec/Dark will have stronger Damage options. 

 

Fire Control: The AoE damage Controller primary. Offers solid control, three suicidal murder-imps, a KB patch that becomes amazing when slotted with a KB to KD IO, and a PBAoE Damage aura. It’s endurance consumption is enormous, but it’s powers do a higher amount of damage than other sets. Pairs very well with /Dark, /Kin, /Rad, and /Storm.

 

Gravity Control: Another “Damage” Primary, Gravity offers strong ST lockdown as well as two actual attacks, an AoE stun thst teleports enemies, Dimension Shift (Which phases enemies out of existence for a period of time while the Scrappers have seizures waiting for the effect to wear off), and one of the best pets in the game. I absolutely my love my Gravity/Time controller because both sets compliment one another extremely well.

 

Ice Control: The “Soft” Control set. Slows enemies, reduces their recharge, and even confuses them unreliably. Its damage is extremely low, but its pet is decent. This set is often paired with /Storm to help overcome its lack of damage, and Ice/Cold controllers are impressive at high levels.

 

Illusion Control: If a Stalker could be a Controller, you would get an Illusion controller. It lacks AoE control, but instead it gains ST damage, a Confuse, its own powerful Stealth, a trio of invincible pets, and another pet that summons its own pets. This I should a Stealth and offense-based controller which solos extremely well, but offers less to teams compared to other sets. It pairs extremely well with /Rad and /Dark thanks to their endurance maintenance powers.

 

 Mind Control: Another offensive control set, Mind has two attacks in its primary as well as confusion, fear, and the bizarre Telekinesis power. Instead of a pet, Mind Control has a massive AoE confusion skill. Pairs well with most sets, but /Empathy and /Pain are personal favorites of mine for theme and powerfully buffs.

 

Plant Control: Fire Control’s weird little brother. Plant offers quite good control as well as strong damage for a control set. It offers two extra pets via the power Carrion Creepers, as well as a fantastic Cone Confuse. This set does well with procs, and its level 32 pet is quite good. Pairs thematically with Nature, but /Dark, /Empathy, and /Radiation offer much-needed Recovery.

[swordchucks]

Based strictly on "I feel like I have controlled those enemies", my top picks are Earth and Plant.  Earth offers some great powers with hard control and a ton of -DEF.  Plant offers the best confusion ability I've used (admittedly, I haven't gotten Mass Confusion on my mind troller yet).

 

Ice would get in that list, but the cooldown on Ice Slick is just too long (though Arctic Air is really interesting once you get to a point where you can reliably use it and not run out of endurance). 

 

Fire can end up on that list, but only because of KB>KD in Bonfire (which ends up being a bit better than Ice Slick from a "feel" perspective).  Without Bonfire, Fire is one of the least controllery-control sets.

 

The two sets I don't feel in control with are Illusion and Gravity.  I know they're both good for damage (especially on single targets), but I just don't feel like I can get stuff locked down with them on a regular basis.  Mind may join that list, though I haven't gotten one to a high enough level to judge for sure.

 

My experience with Electric and Darkness is limited, so I'm not even going to put them on the list.

 

---

 

Speaking about specifics pairings:

 

My favorite pairing so far is Plant/Nature.  Nature is a great set, and Entangling Aura adds some interesting hard control.  Overgrowth is a great team buff that you can hit yourself with, too.  You can also heal and provide +absorb, which is very nice for teams.

 

Another I'm using is Ice/Storm, though I don't recommend it for the (somewhat silly) reason that Freezing Rain makes you hyper-aware of the flaws in Ice Slick.  Other than that, it's a decent enough combo, though a little slower than some due to cooldowns.

 

I'm also using the old standbys of Illusion/Radiation and Fire/Kinetics, and they both do exactly what you'd expect.  Great, but definitely not new ground.

[Coyote]

A few notes:

1: there are no more "low- damage" Controller sets for soloing, except if you also pair them with a low-damage secondary. With procs used to boost the damage of the single-target Hold and Arcane Bolt available, both of which end up as decent (though not really GOOD) single-target attacks, as long as you get a 3rd attack you can solo well enough. And you can get good damage for soloing out of Storm, Poison, Traps, Cold Domination, Time and Trick Arrow, at the least, if not others. You can use procs to get damage out of Infrigidate, Acid & Ice Arrow, Poison Gas Trap, Distortion Field, etc.

 

2: for the same reason, a lot of "low-damage" sets are higher than you would expect with regards to AoE. Dark Control has an AoE Immob that has a smaller area than most, which means that it takes procs better. It also has Heart of Darkness, which can be slotted as a mini-nuke for about 300 damage with Stun effects. Electric's Jolting Chain can be slotted for about 100 damage (which is fine for an 8 second AoE with excellent control effects), and it has the End recovery to also spam the AoE Immob to summon Energy Orbs for more AoE damage. So, if you get sneaky and know the proc calculations, you can turn several sets from low-AoE to medium-AoE.

 

3: as Hjarki has said, there is a huge difference between "rating while levelling" and "rating at level 50". General controls and debuffs are far more useful as the danger level increases, and there is a lot less danger on teams that are steamrolling mobs. So a set's rating on control and debuff matters a lot more at level 30 than at level 50. You have to be more specific when you're rating sets if you're mean from 1-50, or at 50+.

[subbacultchas]

2 hours ago, swordchucks said:

Based strictly on "I feel like I have controlled those enemies", my top picks are Earth and Plant.

Me too man, me too. These are my all time favorite control primaries, and plant offers some pretty brutal damage when proc'd out well.

I think secondaries for me would be Dark, Cold, Kin and not necessarily in that order.

[Frosticus]

 team: plant. especially at 50 with the contagious proc in seeds. makes you feel like a dominator except with all the goodness of a buff/debuff secondary.

 

solo: plant for x8, illusion for big game hunting.

 

fun: gravity. wormhole, lift and propel are all very fun. 

 

other control sets I generally lean toward rolling as a dominator 

[oedipus_tex]

I don't think I can produce a ranked list. Basically I'd categorize things like this:

 

Sets that perform well in their designated role:

• Gravity (surprisingly--big change from prior to i24)
• Fire (possibly overperforming on the control front)
• Illusion
• Plant
• Dark

 

Sets that could use minor tweaks

• Electric - Performs suitably on Dominators, but the control powers themselves are low damage. Probably should never be a major high damage set, but a bit more soloability would be nice. 
• Earth - Same as above

(To be honest, the above two sets would probably be 'fixed' if the only change that happened is their pets unlocked earlier. In terms of actual control, they are solid.... its mainly a question of how much or little control means at high levels.)

 

Sets that are not performing well

• Ice - I hate to say this, because despite being overall weak, it was one of my favorite sets for a long time. However it's taken so many blows from so many sources that I just can't recommend it anymore. It seems like almost every time a new tweak happens to the game, Ice Control ends up on the bad side of it, most recently with Arctic Air (a toggle) no longer being a premier slot for Contagious Confusion, and Ice Slick not being able to take Force Feedback. Requires massive IOing to make its core skills workable, and once they are,they are still iffy. Also has an incomprehensibly weak pet that loves to run into melee range. On top of all this, it has incredibly low damage. 
• Mind - Ultra long cooldowns on Mass Confusion, no pet, and difficulty setting up Containment. Especially egregious because this set was designed as the 'blast' set. Slightly better on Dominators (but only slightly).

Edited August 21, 2019 by oedipus_tex

[Uun]

If you want to add some soft control to Gravity, pair it with Storm. You can use Crushing Field on top of Freezing Rain without negating the KD and the baddies can't run out of the AoE. Snow Storm also pairs well with Crushing Field to negate mobs ability to do much of anything (62.5% -recharge). With those plus Wormhole, I definitely feel like "I have controlled those enemies". Obviously, this strategy would also work with Cold.

[Without_Pause]

On 8/21/2019 at 10:47 AM, Mercurias said:

Electric Control: Perhaps the lowest-damage Primary, but also possibly the Primary with the best overall control. Possesses several hard lockdown and soft control effects

 

I disagree with it being in the running for best overall control. Several hard lockdown options? Um, where? Like, where compared to other sets? A chain KD and chain confuse. An AoE sleep aren't exactly hard lockdown. End drain is..(rolls dice). Kin/elec was my main on live and I did Elec/kin for HC and up to a point it was one of my favorite builds, but I'm finding it more lacking than what I would want. Initial end game playing hasn't been fun. I'll take Earth for days over Elec.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Without_Pause

[Greenbone]

I've tried 'em all, being my favorite AT, and unequivocally, Plant/Storm was my favorite to play to 50 both solo and on teams. A real mixed bag for most situations, great pets, great damage, and big on giggle factor with Audrey 2 running around the battlefield. I tend to rate playstyle and fun over min/max numbers, so if you haven't tried this combination, I highly recommend it.

[Uun]

Holy necro-post Batman!