Author: Neuronia
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Neuronia’s Guide to Illusion/Storm Controllers
Greetings all!
To begin, I prefer playing Controllers or Defenders of all stripes almost exclusively. There is something about the Controller archetype that encourages careful play, analysis of a situation and the ability to survive longer term.
My first character, Neuronia, is a level 50 Mind Controller/Forcefield so the name of the game is patience here folks.
Why are you playing an Illusion/Storm Controller?
Simply, the Storm pool will be what will lock down your mobs for your group’s easy destruction. Even at low levels you have access to a decent hold called Snow Storm. If you slot this with a few Slow movements and a few Endurance Reduction enhancements, you can hold mobs captive a long time…and with Gale you can push mobs into the Snow Storm.
The Illusion pool gives you the most pets available with three from Phantom Army, one from Spectral Terror and one from Phantasm, without forgetting the one from the Storm Pool, Lightning Storm.
The Illusion/Storm Controller is unlikely to blow your socks off at the early levels. His early attacks include Spectral Wounds and Gale and Flash. The Illusory nature of the Spectral Wounds means the affected mobs will heal somewhat over the course of a battle, making the slotting of damage enhancers a necessity from the start.
There are many choices available to the Controller on the Illusion side, yet some of the more appealing ones (Superior Invisibility and Group Invisibility) were forfeited in order to access more of the Storm Summoning pool.
All this being said, here is an analysis of my build to level 30. Bear in mind though that these were my choices, and anyone toying with the idea of building an Ill/Storm is free to stack or allocate powers as he or she wishes. The play for you is the thing.
The Early Levels (1-8)
At level 1, your powers are Spectral Wounds and Gale. Put a Damage enhancement into Spectral Wounds and Knockback enhancement into Gale as soon as you can. Since the damage from Spectral Wounds does heal back, it’s imperative that you do as much as possible with each hit.
Gale must be carefully managed, as scrappers and tankers you are teaming with may get annoyed that you’ve just moved the mobs or targets they are working on to another part of the map. Generally, I use gale when things are getting dicey around me and I need to hit a few Respite inspirations. Gale does have knockback and this makes it an excellent way of giving your team a short time advantage.
My level 2 power was Blind, a decent hold that does some small damage. Mostly it serves as a counterpart to Spectral Wounds at the early levels so that I can get through mobs at bit more easily. I’ve put a Hold Duration in here along with an Accuracy enhancement.
Level 4 brought me an extremely useful tool in Snow Storm. I’ve got it slotted so far with 2 Endurance Reduction, 2 Slow Movement and 1 Accuracy. Pick the largest, biggest mob in the group, target it with Snow Storm and watch its movements slow to a crawl. An excellent power at low levels.
At level 6 we get Flash…with which I am not really impressed to be honest. Its recharge time is onerous and makes it unreliable in short missions. In longer missions, Snow Storm, Gale and your other attacks will prove more reliable and efficient. That said, it is a mass hold available at level 6…and not a bad way to hold a few stray mobs. I’ve got it slotted with 2 Recharge Reduction at the moment.
At level 8 I took O2 Boost for lack of anything better I wanted to take. I skipped over the Invisibility powers because I needed that extra punch early on. I plan on taking Group Invisibility at level 30 or higher, where I had some spare slots with most of my essential powers already taken.
O2 Boost is an excellent, short burst of healing with an added Clear Mind effect that can stack itself. It will never compete with Heal Other, obviously, but for short bursts of healing when things get tight, it’s an excellent choice.
Thus, here is what our hero looks like so far:
Powers:
Level 1: Spectral Wounds (Damage), Gale (Knockback)
Level 2: Blind (Hold Duration)
Level 3: 2 Slots in Spectral Wounds (Damage, Accuracy)
Level 4: Snow Storm (Slow Movement)
Level 5: 1 Slot in Gale (Damage), 1 Slot in Snow Storm (Slow Movement)
Level 6: Flash (Recharge Reduction)
Level 7: 2 Slots in Flash (1 Recharge Reduction, 1 Accuracy)
Level 8: O2 Boost (Healing)
At this point our hero can do moderate to good damage with Spectral Wounds and hold mobs for a good amount of time thanks to Flash and Snow Storm. He is still a little weak on the attacking side, but we’ll remedy this within the next few levels.
The Intermediate Levels (9-18)
This is where things start getting very interesting for the Illusion/Storm Controller. He obtains a travel power, Hasten and several excellent attacks as well. Once Level 18 is obtained, he has the power to solo missions effectively and contributes quite well as part of his team when needed. Through these levels, I slotted for my travel power of choice, in this case Flight simply for character flavor reasons…since I wanted to fly and drop Decoys and weather effects.
I only took two powers out of my primary pools through these levels since I wanted to grab Hasten to cycle my attacks and a travel power. I ended up taking Hasten, Air Superiority and Flight to complement my powers. Air Superiority may seem like an odd choice over hover, but the weakness in damage-dealing of my attacks made me lean toward it. With Containment as an innate ability which doubles damage to held foes, Air Superiority has worked out well, often finishing off foes with more damage than can be supplied by Spectral Wounds or Blind.
I took Steamy Mist at level 16, since it provides an excellent team buff toggle that incorporates Stealth, a good Defense bonus to all attacks and increases Resistance to Cold, Fire, Energy and Confuse attacks as well. Quite handy to have around, but difficult to manage as people tend to stray out of the mist to attack mobs and just wander around the caverns/buildings where you might be.
On my way to the higher levels, I pined for level 18 so I could finally obtain Phantom Army. I did the Atta mission in The Hollows several times until I reached that elusive level.
Upon obtaining Phantom Army, your life changes for the better and easier. Tanks will ask you to send in the clones to soak aggro, you can solo quite well and you can then focus on slowing down and cleaning up mobs that your Decoys have left behind. A note on the Decoys; their combat AI isn’t the best of the world and they will sometimes stand in front of you not attacking. Attack a target or walk toward them to push them into combat. A risky proposition at times, but ultimately worth it.
Once you obtain Hasten, slot it with a few Recharge Reduction. Slot Flight with one Endurance Reduction and two Flight Speed. You will now move at a decent speed with little Endurance cost and your powers will recharge quickly as well.
At level 18, take Phantom Army. No ifs or buts about it, it’s your key to the higher levels and teaming.
Powers:
Level 9: 1 Slot in O2 Boost (Healing) 1 Slot in Snow Storm (Slow Movement)
Level 10: Air Superiority (Damage)
Level 11: 2 Slots in Snow Storm (1 Slow Movement, 1 Endurance Reduction)
Level 12: Hasten (Recharge Reduction)
Level 13: 1 Slot in Snow Storm (1 Slow Movement) 1 Slot in Hasten (Recharge)
Level 14: Flight (Flight Speed)
Level 15: 2 Slots in Flight (1 Flight Speed, 1 Endurance Cost)
Level 16: Steamy Mist (Defense Buff)
Level 17: 2 Slots in Steamy Mist (1 Defense Buff, 1 Endurance Reduction)
Level 18: Phantom Army (Damage)
The Heroic Levels (19-30)
Welcome to the Heroic Levels! The PvP zones are now open to you and you can feel free to indulge in these if they fit your playstyle. I chose to do so, thus my Controller is built with the dangers of stalkers and status effects in mind.
Therefore, I chose to plunge into the pleasures of non-interactivity and obtain the Hurricane toggle as my first power at level 20. Those that have had the dubious pleasure of adventuring around the Tsoo (and who hasn’t?) will recall this power from Sorcerers. It’s the one where they have a constant whirling of winds around them that pushes back all heroes.
I knew I had a good build when I was called “lame” and told to “turn off toggles and fight like a man” in Siren’s Call once I started flying around with Hurricane activated.
Welcome to total non-interactivity! My attack routine goes like this: Drop Phantom Army, Hasten, Snow Storm, Freezing Rain, finish up mobs. Use Spectral Wounds and Blind to rinse off the rest of the damage.
On a team with a Tank, send in the clones first to soak aggro. Then drop Snow Storm and Freezing Rain to make the mobs tumble and knockback Ideally you’re with an Ice/Fire Tank with Ice Patch and things get really, really silly. Additionally, old powers like Gale can push mobs back into your Freezing Rain and make your life much easier.
Freezing Rain is a large area debuff which reduces movement, accuracy, recharge times and resistance. Also included is some minor damage over time. It is similar in appearance to an Ice Tank or Ice Controller’s ice patch, except it lacks the icicles within and has a much larger area. Essentially, once you drop Freezing Rain onto a floor section, the mobs will be slowed and tumbling on the ice for a good minute or so (by my calculations, may be a bit longer) so you definitely want some Slow movements and Recharge Reductions so you can go ‘perma-rain’, so to speak.
At level 24 you start fitting in your Fitness pool powers, starting with Swift. No need to slot this as it’s just a ‘stepladdder’ power; the important powers in this pool come later.
Level 26 brings you one of your better immobilization tools in the Illusion power set, Spectral Terror. You should slot this with a Fear Duration off the top and then work toward a combination of Accuracy and Endurance Reduciton with one of the remaining slots toward Fear Duration. Spectral Terror creates a ‘totem’ of unspeakable fear that will paralyze a mob. It may also cause some of the enemies to flee, but I have not seen this often. The added bonus is that the Spectral Terror seems to ‘follow’ you as you rotate, not moving per see but turning to face you. It will also stay for its full duration even the mob dies. Thus, Spectral Terror and its low endurance cost and recharge time is an invaluable tool the Illusion/Storm controller has to hold mobs. It is also quite useful in PvP as it can hold a flying enemy and drop toggles as well. I have often been on the receiving end of a Spectral Terror while flying about and it can be a true nightmare.
From then on you slot your Spectral Terror to 4 (and eventually 6) and finish your Phantom Army to 6 while acquiring the rest of the Fitness Pool. Once you hit the early 30s, you can buff up your Flight if you wish and then concentrate on “back-slotting” your neglected powers like Hurricane and so on.
I recommend teaming around Independence Port and Striga Isle at these levels so you get a good feel for team play with your Controller. I did many of the missions from Stephanie Peebles and Long Jack in Striga Isle with 8-person teams and I was able to reach level 26 quite quickly. I also went to Siren’s Call fairly often as the mission bonuses for the timed Longbow missions are quite good and will fill up the lacking experience points.
Powers:
Level 19: 2 Slots in Phantom Army (2 Recharge Reduction)
Level 20: Hurricane (Knockback Distance)
Level 21: 1 Slot in Phantom Army (Recharge Reduction) 1 Slot in O2 Boost (Healing)
Level 22: Freezing Rain (Slow Movement)
Level 23: 1 Slot in Hasten (Recharge Reduction) 1 Slot in Freezing Rain (Defense Debuff)
Level 24: Swift (No slotting)
Level 25: 2 Slots in Phantom Army (1 Damage, 1 Accuracy)
Level 26: Spectral Terror (Fear Duration)
Level 27: 2 Slots in Spectral Terror (1 Accuracy, 1 Fear Duration)
Level 28: Health (Healing)
Level 29: 1 Slot in Health (Healing) 1 Slot in Spectral Terror (Endurance Reduction)
Level 30: Stamina (Endurance Modification)
And here is your hero prior to the Epic levels! I plan on updating this guide with levels 31-40 when I pass those levels.
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