Illusion/Pain domination Viability

[Sonoskay]

I chose this power combination because the theme of  Affecting people purely though their  minds was a fun concept. ANd maybe this is premature. But it seems to be struggling. My damage output is low and its healing ability inst terribly High. Finding a team and super group would help. but i figure i would get input about this before i sink any more time into it.   I got him to  level 8. 

  

I hear illusion is a decent power but i haven't heard much about pain domination.  And its entirely possible the two just dont mix well.

Anyone got feed back about this?

[Force Redux]

There are some Illusion gurus on this form who probably know better than I, but here are my thoughts:

 

1. Illusion wants recharge. To get Phantom Army up as often as possible. Time and Radiation both offer +recharge bonuses to help with that.

2. Pain, like all the other /secondaries does not offer a boost to recharge. That's okay, it just means it will be a bit more expensive with IO sets to get there.

3. The other consideration for secondaries, is that you can't buff Phantom Army, so you have to debuff enemies (Defense and Resistance is best).  Pain offers that, but it does come rather later on. Again, not a problem, since you won't be lower level forever, and leveling goes quickly on HC. But it isn't front-loaded like, say, Radiation.

 

Keeing those things in mind, you'll see most Illusion builds are /Time or /Radiation with some love for /Dark and /Traps, among others.

 

Personally, I don't think /Pain is a bad choice, so long as you know what you'll get out of it. It is team friendly, particuarly when you get your Global Recharge up and have your buffs/debuffs coming up more frequently. 

 

As an aside, my favorite Illusion Controller was my old Illusion/Trick Arrow back on Live before sunset - loads of control and debuffs. 

 

Illusion is a great set, focused around your Phantom Army and Spectral Terror/Confuse. It can pair with nearly anything and do well, its just a matter of whether your primary will make it a bit easier to get recharge and reduce time to kill with debuffs. 

 

Pain is probably middle of the pack and will be a helpful support toon. My number one rule is 'does it meet my concept' and 'am I having fun?' (which is a post-32nd level question for Controllers, after they get their pet). 

[oedipus_tex]

Illusion/Pain is in an interesting spot for a couple of reasons.

 

Illusion's big power is Phantom Army, which can't be buffed or healed. On the one hand, that's a lack of synergy. On the other hand, the entire point of healing is to keep stuff from dying and Phantom Army can't, so you're not any worse for wear than if you had a killable pet. The PA is extremely strong too, and definitely didn't trade away damage for survivability.

 

Overall this is a good combo for a team player. You're a character that can tank and can heal. That's a useful toolkit. You can also probably solo reasonably well, altho perhaps not as fast as some other secondaries.

[swordchucks]

I am running an ill/rad right now and /rad is mainly just used for AM and debuffing AVs.  Outside of AM, I dont find myself using the secondary for much on teams.

 

The truth is that controllers bloom really late. I didn't really start to enjoy mine until a bit into incarnates and IOs when it was really starting to sling out respectable damage. Up until then... it was alright, but nothing that impressive.  You absolutely can't tell at level 8.