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Level 6: Flash - Point-blank AoE Hold.
Generates a brilliant flash of light around you that blinds nearby foes. Flashed foes are rendered helpless and unable to defend themselves.
Accuracy: 0.8
Range: 80 ft.
Endurance: 15.6
Recharge: 240 sec.
Cast time: 3.0 Sec.
Radius: 30 ft.
Duration: 14.9 sec. Mag 3 Hold at level 50, 20% chance of an additional 1 Mag for 11.175 sec.
Rating: 3 (Recommended and useful but not essential.)
All controller sets have an Area of Effect hold. Fire, Ice and Illusion have PB AoE versions, while Mind, Grav, Electric, Plant and Earth all have ranged AoE holds. The PB AoE versions have a larger radius to make up for the fact that you have to go into melee to use them. Flash will hold a group of minions and lieutenants with a 20% chance of catching a boss (look for "Overpower" floating overhead). Most of the time, you will need to use Blind, EM Pulse or another hold on a boss to stack holds. Notice that Flash, like most AoE powers, has a 20% Accuracy penalty. Always slot 2 Accuracy in this power.
Many people make the mistake of taking Flash early. I recommend waiting on Flash until no sooner than level 28, and I suggest taking it at level 30 or 35. A lot of people suggest that Flash should be skipped entirely, but I feel it is useful on an Ill/Rad. Flash has one major problem, and another smaller one. The major problem is that Flash comes too early in the Illusion set - If you take it at level 6, you will think that Flash stinks. That is because (1) Controller AoE holds have poor accuracy, a short duration and a long recharge. At level 6, the duration is only 10.6 seconds, and you can't enhance that very well with only Training Origin enhancements. (2) The 20% accuracy penalty is easy to fix with two SO level Accuracy enhancements, but TOs are ¼ the strength of SOs, so it would take eight for the same level of enhancement - not only do you only have six slots to work with, but it would leave nothing for Hold or Recharge. And you would have to use way too many of your few slots in the power. (3) Other controller sets have some other kind of AoE control for when the AoE hold runs out - but not Illusion. All the other sets have an AoE Immobilize available fairly early, except Mind which has Mass Hypnosis, an AoE sleep. Illusion has no AoE control powers other than Flash until Spectral Terror at 26, so when that too-short hold runs out, you have nothing left with which to protect yourself. This means that at low levels when you use Flash, you will miss a lot of guys, the ones you hit will only be held for a short time, and all of them will be targeting YOU. And, you won't be able to use it again (as if you'd want to) for a long time. If you take it early, your experience will tell you that Flash absolutely stinks. However in later levels, slotted with SO-level enhancers or Frankenslotted for Accuracy, Hold and Recharge, Flash is a decent power for taking out minion and lieutenant foes reliably for a reasonable period of time and setting up AoE Containment.
The secondary problem is that Flash has a 3 second animation. It seems to take forever to go off, but the hold takes place at the beginning of the animation. The reason this is minor is that you can cast it while invisible. Any foes held will be held at the beginning of the animation. However, the bad part is that foes not held may aggro on you before you can complete the animation. Another good reason to use plenty of accuracy.
A lot of folks skip Flash, and I agree that it is probably the second most easily skipped power in the Illusion primary. However, I still think it is worth taking, especially for an Ill/Rad - it gives you a control power to use for those “panic button” moments or when Phantom Army is recharging. Some people say that since EM Pulse is a better PB AoE hold, that Flash should be skipped. I feel that having two such powers make BOTH of them more usable - when you use one, you still have the other available for “panic button” moments, and you can alternate them for much more frequent use if you want to. I find that I use Flash frequently, while I save EM Pulse for emergencies or those times when EM Pulse's unique properties will make it more effective. While EM Pulse is overall a better hold, I use Flash more often because Flash is usually adequate for what I need and there is no 15-second period where I stop generating endurance.
With Issue 19 and inherent Fitness, Flash is easier to fit into builds. If you are really short on slots, you can get by with just 2 Accuracy and it will still be functional. But I feel Flash is worth giving at least 5 slots.
Slotting: 2 Accuracy, 2 Hold, 2 Recharge. Because of the 20% accuracy penalty, the Accuracy should be slotted first. If you get Flash, plan on 5 or 6-slotting it.
IO Sets: Hold. The Lockdown, Ghost Widow or Essence of Curae sets work well, depending what set bonuses you want, but generally Lockdown has the best bonuses including Defense. While several procs can go into Flash, you won't cast Flash often enough for those procs to have much of an effect. This is another power where "frankenslotting" Acc/Hold/Recharge can be a good idea. At level 50 on my non-perma PA build, to save a couple of slots, I have been using 2 Acc/Mez HOs, 2 Recharge. That gives the functional equivalent of six slots in four.
Recharge: For IO sets, the Basilisk's Gaze set has 7.5% Recharge for 4 of them, but they are expensive. Also, you may want to add another slot or two to enhance Accuracy, Hold or Recharge, such as an Acc/Hold/Rech from any hold set or an Acc/Mez HO. The Purple Hold set, Unbreakable Constraint, is more expensive, but it has good bonuses - five of them will give you an all-important 10% Recharge bonus. I like the Unbreakable Constraint set in Flash more than Blind.
My personal slotting is 4 Baz Gaze, 1 Acc/Hold/Rech from another set. I may eventually replace this with the Unbreakable Constraint set.
Level 8: Superior Invisibility - Toggle Self Invisibility with Defense.
You can bend light around yourself to become completely Invisible. While this power is active, you are all but impossible to detect, and have an extremely high Defense bonus to all attacks. Superior Invisibility is the only toggle invisibility power that allows you to attack while it is active, although you will lose some of your defense bonus if you do so. Superior Invisibility cannot be used with any other self affecting Concealment type power. Recharge: Slow.
Duration: Toggle
Range: Self only
Endurance: 1.04 per second (.52 per .5 second tick)
Recharge: 15 sec.
Stealth: +1000 Stealth, Suppressed when Attacked, for 6 seconds, Suppressed when HitByFoe, for 6 seconds, Suppressed when MissionObjectClick, for 10 seconds
Additional Effects: 4.5% Defense to all, but suppressed to 2.25% for 6 seconds when attacked or hit by foe, or for 10 seconds when click on object.
Rating: 2 or 4 (Getting some kind of Invisibility is highly recommended, and I prefer the toggle of SI over the click of GI for convenience. However, even if you choose some other kind of Invisibility, SI can still be a nice set mule.)
Superior Invisibility (SI) is one of the two invisibility powers available in Illusion. The other comes next, Group Invisibility (GI). For a standard build, you should choose one or the other, but not both. It is a pretty simple power - click on the toggle, and you become invisible until (a) you turn the power off, (b) you run out of endurance, or (c) you get killed. There are a few foes who have special perception, and can see you through invisibility like Rikti Drones, any kind of Snipers, and the giant Eyeballs of the Rularuu (that one makes sense). But for any foes who do not have special perception, you can /e Dance in their faces and they will not see (or hear) you . . . until you do something that will draw their attention, like attack, apply a debuff or click on a glowie. However, summoning pets or casting Deceive will not make you visible. This makes Deceive even more valuable.
Superior Invisibility uses a bunch of endurance for a toggle. If you get it, you should plan to slot it with a minimum of 2 EndRdx. If possible, slot EndRdx to the Cap. I generally run SI most the time when in missions unless I get into a fight where Endurance may be an issue. Then I turn it off to save endurance. You will also have to turn it off if you want to lead a hostage out of a mission. Your pets, however, will follow you while you are invisible -- foes see the pets but not you.
In general, I prefer SI over GI because of the convenience of a toggle compared to a click power. Both types give you full invisibility in the PvE game - There is a “stealth cap” of 600 in the PvE game (it the game's real numbers, it is shown as a Stealth of 70 Feet), and both SI and GI exceed that level so you will be fully invisible to most foes unless you attack or click on a glowie. Stacking more stealth with other invisibilities, other stealth powers, super speed or a stealth IO won't do you any good most of the time. However, if a foe has a perception bonus, then foes can see you - With GI, that foe can see you a fair distance away, but with SI, you have to be fairly close to that foe for it to see you - which is why SI is “superior.” With GI, you have to keep casting it every so often whenever the Invisibility wears off, but SI is a toggle so it is always on. Granted, the endurance cost of SI is about 12 times that of GI, but it is easier to manage the endurance usage of SI than to have to keep re-casting GI every four minutes. SI is fully useful as soon as you get it at level 8, while GI needs 2-3 recharge SOs before the recharge is fast enough that you can re-cast it as soon as it expires (called becoming “perma”). If you plan mainly to solo or PvP, then SI is the clear choice. If you mainly plan to team, or especially plan to team with the same group, you may want to consider GI. For the most part, you can skip either SI or GI, but I recommend you take at least one. I feel that one of the two invisibility powers is the most “skippable” power in Illusion, but if you really want to fit in other options, then both invisibility powers can be skipped. However, some folks take both powers, most often as a “mule” for another Luck of the Gambler +7.5 Recharge IO. With Inherent Fitness from I-19, more people are taking both to use GI as a mule for a LotG Recharge.
Because Illusion has Invisibility as part of its power set, Illusionists don't need those Stealth IOs, the Stealth Power Pool or the stealth component of Super Speed. Both SI and GI are superior to anything in the Stealth pool. I have seen some people take the Stealth Pool for an Illusionist, I guess as a mule for a Luck of the Gambler Recharge. I would prefer to take a power that actually provides a benefit.
Slotting: 2-3 Endurance Reduction, and Defense if you have slots to spare. But remember that half of the Defense will suppress on attack or click glowie.
IO Sets: Defense. Several of the Defense sets give desirable bonuses. If you want Recovery, look at Gift of the Ancients. If you want Regen and Accuracy, look at 4 from Luck of the Gambler. Red Fortune has a bonus of Recharge for 5 and Ranged Defense for 6. SI can also hold a Karma 4 Mag Knockback Protection. Remember that SI is an endurance hog, so you want to slot as much EndRdx as you can. The Defense in SI can make a difference if you have other defense to stack with it, but most of the time, the effect is minimal -- and half of it supresses when you attack.
Recharge: SI can be used to hold one of the most desired and expensive IOs for your build: the Luck of the Gambler 7.5% Global Recharge. Five Red Fortunes will give an additional 5% Recharge. So, if you can spare the slots, you can get 12.5% recharge out of SI (and GI, which will take the same slotting). Another nice thing about the Red Fortune set is that you can maximize EndRdx in SI, making it better to use. If you don't use the Red Fortune set, make sure you get enough EndRdx in this power or it will be unusable.
I have the LotG 7.5% Recharge and 5 Red Fortunes, with capped Defense and EndRdx.
Level 12: Group Invisibility - Click PB AoE Invisibility for Team.
Makes you and all teammates around you Invisible. While Invisible, you and your teammates are almost impossible to detect. Even if discovered, Group Invisibility grants a bonus to your Defense to all attacks, although you will lose some of your defense bonus if you attack. Group Invisibility has no movement penalty.
Duration: 120 Sec.
Range: 25 ft.
Endurance: 10.4
Recharge: 240 sec.
Cast time: 2.03 Sec.
Stealth: +667 Stealth, Suppressed when Attacked, for 6 seconds, Suppressed when HitByFoe, for 6 seconds, Suppressed when MissionObjectClick, for 10 seconds.
Additional Effects: 1.875% Defense to all.
Rating: 2 to 4. (I prefer SI over GI, but GI is a viable option for Invisibility, especially if you have endurance issues. In high Recharge builds, it can also be used as a mule for a Luck of the Gambler Recharge, and is usable with just one slot.)
Group Invisibility (GI) is a good power choice instead of SI if you mainly expect to team. Its endurance cost, over time, is about 1/12 of Superior Invisibility. In the PvE game, both SI and GI put you over the “stealth cap” of 600, making you fully invisible to any foe unless that foe has some kind of perception power. Rikti Drones and Sharpshooter/Marksmen are the biggest problems in this area. As a click power, you cast it and then have to pay attention to when it is going to run out - which can be disastrous at the wrong time. This is the main reason that most Ill/Rads choose SI over GI - SI is easier to use, even with its higher endurance and the “selfish” nature. SI also has a higher stealth level, so even those +perception foes will not see you as soon - you have to get fairly close before they see you. That does not seem to help with Rikti Drones, however, as they just ignore stealth.
It takes some practice to get used to the timing for GI. When you re-cast, you become briefly visible, so you want to find a spot not too close to foes (or behind their backs). Keep an eye on that icon on the screen, so when it starts blinking, find a safe spot to re-cast. GI needs slotting with SO level enhancements before it can become permanent, so it may not be a bad idea to put off taking GI until the 20's. One benefit of GI is that since it is not a toggle, it is not subject to getting dropped. If you get hit by an AoE sleep or stun, you will still be invisible. It also does not run out if you run out of endurance. On the other hand, if you get defeated, then you won't be able to get your Invisibility back until it recharges (which is not a problem with SI).
As a team buff, GI is useful but not essential. There are three main benefits: (1) It lets the team get in position for the initial “alpha” strike on groups of baddies without fear of being seen and starting before everyone is ready; (2) The entire team can help with “glowie hunts” until GI runs out . . . at which time it might be dangerous; (3) squishier teammates can stay invisibile to let the tougher melee guys get the aggro. In general, I recommend SI over GI unless you are planning a mainly team build. But I have used both, and both are effective. In all but a few extreme cases, there is no reason to take both invisibility powers, so the most skippable power in the Illusion set is either SI or GI; generally take one or the other, but not both.
There is an odd quirk on how the game handles aggro - if you use both SI and GI together, you can attack a foe while invisible, and often not draw aggro from other foes around your target, as long as you only use single target attacks. Personally, I don't think that this quirk makes it worthwhile to take both invisibility powers, but some folks recommend it. I can see taking both if you are trying for a maximum recharge build and need another place to put a Luck of the Gambler +7.5% recharge, but I avoided having to take GI by taking Combat Jumping. With the I-19 change to make the Fitness Pool inherent, more folks may be taking GI as an IO mule, and I added it into my build. For long fights, I will sometimes hit GI, drop SI to save endurance.
Slotting: 2-3 Recharge, but I prefer 3. The defense is small, and I normally would not enhance it. However, it does grant that small amount of Defense to the team. I was on an Ill/Rad superteam for a while where we all took GI slotted for Defense, and 8 of them (plus 8x Maneuvers) added up to decent defense.
IO Sets: Defense. Several of the Defense sets give desirable bonuses. If you want Recovery, look at Gift of the Ancients. If you want Regen and Accuracy, look at 4 from Luck of the Gambler. It can also hold a Karma 4 Mag Knockback Protection. Remember that GI needs a lot of Recharge to be available as soon as it runs out.
Recharge: Like SI, GI can be used to hold one of the most desired and expensive IOs for your build: the Luck of the Gambler 7.5% Global Recharge. Five Red Fortunes will give 5% Recharge. With enough global recharge, you don't need to worry much about slotting this power for recharge. This power is sometimes taken as a "mule" just to hold another LotG Recharge IO.
I added GI to my build with an I-19 Respec, to put an extra LotG Recharge to boost the Recharge a little. The other advantage is that during long battles, I could hit GI to maintain invisibility and then turn off SI to reduce my consumption of Endurance. It also let me give Invis to the team. However, with the Spiritual Boost from the Alpha Slot, I may drop this again to add Rise of the Phoenix. -
The Illusion Control Powers
Level 1: Blind - Single Target Hold with Damage and Small AoE Sleep.
Painfully Blinds a single targeted foe so severely that he is rendered helpless. Blind is so bright that additional foes may also be blinded, though they will not take any damage, and attacking them will free them from the effects.
Accuracy: 1.1
Range: 80 ft.
Endurance: 8.3
Recharge: 9 sec.
Cast time: 1.67 Sec.
Damage Scale: 1.0 Psionic Damage (2.77778 BI)
Damage: 30.59 (at level 50), doubled with Containment
Duration: 18.625(at level 50) at Mag 3 Hold, 20% chance for an additional 1 Mag for 12.423 sec.
Additional Effects: Summons a pet creating a 14.9 second (at level 50) sleep within a 2 ft radius of foe blinded.
Rating: 5 (An essential power that should never be skipped)
Blind is an essential power, and I strongly recommend taking it at level 1 or no later than level 2. It is almost the same as other controller's single target holds, with a couple of small exceptions. Blind trades a slightly shorter duration for an odd and somewhat rare ability to sleep another foe standing very, very near your target. Both bad guys will look like they are held with Blind, but the second one will “wake up” with anything that would disturb a sleep power. The Sleep is not something you can count on, and happens only rarely. Don't bother enhancing for it and it is not worth taking extra steps to make use of the sleep. When it happens, just think of it as a nice, unexpected bonus. (From various discussions on the forums, my understanding is that Blind summons a momentary pseudo-pet that sleeps foes within a 2 foot radius of where it was summoned.)
Blind will normally hold minions and lieutenants with one shot (assuming it hits -- and you will get misses). It has a 20% chance of holding a boss-level foe with one shot, but that hold will be shorter than the normal duration hold. (If you ever see "Overpower" float over your target, that means that the extra mag of hold hit.) Most of the time, you will need to stack two applications of Blind on a boss before he is held.
Blind and Spectral Wounds are the two powers you will use the most from 1 to 50. Because Blind sets up containment, Blind is your lead-off single target attack as well as a control power. You should get used to using Blind-Spectral Wounds as your 1-2 attack. I like to put Blind in slot 3, for easy access, with Spectral Wounds in slot 2. Frankly, any controller who doesn't take Blind shouldn't be a controller.
Slotting: 2 Acc, 2 Hold, 2 Recharge is the “standard” slotting for control on a team-oriented build. 2/2/2 is the default slotting for all holds and most other mez powers. I suggest starting with 1 Acc in the default slot, then add 1 Hold, 1 Recharge within the first 5 levels, then try have Blind 5- or 6- slotted eventually. Slot Recharge and Accuracy in slots 4 and 5, with Hold in that last slot. Under ED, the default slotting gives you the most “bang” for your slots. Some folks like using 3 Hold, while others prefer 3 Recharge. That third Recharge only gets you about .5 seconds faster recharge, so I suggest that you try the default slotting above, and then you can adjust according to your preference. Even though Blind has a 10% bonus to accuracy, I suggest eventually using 2 Accuracy because you want it to hit higher level foes.
Another good option is to slot Blind with Damage. That is a reasonable choice, especially if you mainly expect to solo. With the smaller number of foes you see when solo, use Blind as an attack and to set up Containment for Spectral Wounds, as hold duration rarely does you that much good. Slotting Blind for damage will help you take down foes faster. However, because Illusion has so few control powers, I prefer to slot Blind for control when I mainly expect to team, allowing the team to do more damage. If you want to slot for Damage, I suggest 1 Acc, 2 Dam, 1 Hold, 2 Rech unless you are going up against higher level foes - then make it 2 Acc, 2 Dam, 2 Recharge. If you are using Blind mainly as a damage and containment power, then hold duration is less important.
IO Sets: Hold, Ranged Damage, Sleep. There are a lot of options for slotting IO sets in this power, and even more options if you consider HOs. Some people slot Blind as a Hold power, while others slot Blind as a damage power. Most of the time, I'm using Blind as a lead-off attack to set up Containment and control the foe while I beat on him, and I'll probably be firing off Blind again as soon as it comes up again on the attack chain. Some folks like to slot up the Ghost Widow set or at least the GW Proc for Psi Damage. I'm not a fan of putting damage procs in a power that does so many things, including damage. Using those slots for damage enhancements will get you more benefit than a proc that only hits one out of every five times. In other words, you will generally get more damage from a Damage enhancement than a proc that does damage.
The best options are, of course, very expensive. If you don't want to go for the mega-expensive route, then you generally want to slot for Accuracy, Recharge and Hold duration on a team-oriented build, and try to fit in some damage if you solo a lot. Of the Hold sets, the Lockdown set has good bonuses, including 3.75% Ranged Defense. While it is necessary for the full set, the Lockdown +2 Mag proc is slotted by many people because it can allow them to hold a boss in one shot if it hits. If you are not slotting the entire Lockdown set, the I don't agree that the proc is a good idea in Blind. Here's why: If it hits, Blind will hold Minions and Lieutenants in one shot. It has a 20% "Overpower" chance to hold a Boss in one shot. So, the Lockdown proc does nothing for Minions, Lieutanants and 20% of Bosses. It only has a chance to have an effect on 80% of the Bosses who weren't hit by the "Overpower." Bosses are less than 20% of the total number of foes, but let's use 20%. The Lockdown +2 Mag proc hits only 15% of the time. So 80% of Bosses x 20% of foes X 15% chance for the proc to hit = a 2.4% chance for that Lockdown proc to be effective. Is that worth a slot? It looks like it is doing a lot more than it is, because that Tesla Cage animation shows up whenever the proc hits, even if it hits on a foe already held by Blind alone. I would much rather slot Damage, which hits 100% of the time.
The other hold sets have mediocre bonuses. A good amount of recharge is the highest priority, followed by accuracy. If you solo a lot, Thunderstrike has 3.75% Ranged Defense total (1.25% for 3, 2.5% for 6), and also gives some Recovery and Accuracy. This power can benefit from "frankenslotting" Acc/Hold/Recharge from multiple sets if you are willing to give up set bonuses. To get a nice mix of capped Accuracy, Recharge, some Hold and good Damage, try Acc/Hold/Rech from Ghost Widow and Essence of Curae, Acc/Hold/End/Rech from Lockdown, Acc/Dam/Rech from Thunderstrike and Devastation and a common Damage IO.
Another good option at levels 47-50 is using Hamidon Origin enhancements. I like 1 Acc/Dam HO, 1 Acc/Mez HO, 2 Dam/Mez HOs and 2 Recharge Common IOs. I use this slotting on several controllers who are not slotting for lots of Recharge since it gives good accuracy, capped damage AND hold, and very good recharge but I give up IO bonuses. Personally, I think I get more out of the damage from my HO slotting that I would from most bonuses . . . unless I was trying to do a Perma PA build.
Slotting for sleep is a mistake since you are giving up the primary purposes of the power, Hold and Damage. The Sleep is a rare side effect. Some people like to slot the purple Sleep set in Blind, however, because the Sleep set is one of the cheapest purple sets.
Leveling up, I suggest you fit several Acc/Hold/Rech IOs from several sets (at least 3), then finish out Blind with Damage with a little bit of optional Acc or Rech if needed.
Recharge: Of the Hold IO sets, 4 of the Basilisk's Gaze is good because you get 7.5% Recharge out of 4 of them. Then, you might want to either supplement the Acc, Hold and Recharge from other sets, or maybe add some damage by using an Acc/Dam and Dam/Rech from a ranged damage set. The PvP set, Gladiator's Net, gives 7.5% Recharge for 5 of them, but are so expensive that only the richest can afford them. The purple hold set, Unbreakable Contstraint, gives 10% Recharge for 5 and is less expensive than most purple sets. (My suggestion is that if you have the Unbreakable Constraint set, put it in Flash, or maybe EM Pulse. If you keep the Baz Gaze set here, you have room to include Damage in Blind.) If you solo a lot, you may want to use a damage set. 5 from the Decimation set has 6.5% recharge. Then add a common Hold in the 6th slot.
My Perma-PA build has 4 Basilisk's Gaze, an Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common Damage. The Bas Gaze quad is often expensive, so you can get by with the triple with this slotting since the Hami-O adds more accuracy.
Level 1: Spectral Wounds - Single Target Ranged Damage with Heal-back.
Spectral Wounds convinces the target that he has taken severe damage. The illusion is so convincing that the victim can fall from the Spectral Wounds. However, the damage is not real, and if the victim survives long enough, the illusion will fade and some of the wounds will heal.
Accuracy: 1.1
Range: 80 ft.
Endurance: 6.86
Recharge: 6 sec.
Cast time: 1.07 Sec.
Damage Scale: 1.0 Psionic Damage (2.77778 BI), not including spectral damage
Damage: 50.16 initial damage, less heal-back of 19.57 after 10 seconds (30.59 net damage), plus 30.59 Psi Damage for Containment (at level 50).
Additional Effects: 0% Run Speed for 10 Seconds (This listed in City of Data, but I believe it relates only to the graphical appearance of the power. Spectral Wounds puts smokey ghost faces floating on the target until the healback.
Rating: 5 or 4 (I consider this an essential power. However, some players skip SW, which astounds me. I guess they want to be pet wranglers and not do any damage.)
Spectral Wounds (“SW”) is both simple and complicated. SW is a single target “blast” power. The initial damage from SW is pretty impressive for a level 1 power on a controller, and as long as you can finish off the foe in 10 seconds, you get to keep that damage. However, if the foe survives longer than 10 seconds, then some of the damage heals back. The underlying concept of the “heal-back” is that SW deals “spectral” or "illusory” damage - you have fooled the foe into thinking that he has been hurt, and after 10 seconds, he realizes it was not real and some of the damage heals back. Defeating foes before the Illusory Damage heals back will significantly increase your overall damage.
If you look for such things, you will notice that (1) Blind and Spectral Wounds have the same base damage after the heal-back, and (2) Containment with Spectral Wounds seems to be substantially less than it should be. Containment is supposed to be double damage. Containment with Spectral Wounds is based only on the base damage that does not heal back, or the non-illusory damage. This makes it seem that Spectral Wounds is getting short-changed, but the game only gives Containment on the “real” damage. However, the damage that comes from Damage enhancements is “real,” so it is important to slot up Spectral Wounds with Damage enhancements right away. (If you got Containment on the Illusory damage too, as nice as that would be, it might be overpowered.)
The illusory damage component gives Spectral Wounds a lot of burst damage, and due to the heal-back, you generally want to take down your enemies as fast as possible so that you get to keep that illusory damage. This is why I suggest slotting recharge in SW in later levels, and why having a good attack chain can make you more effective. The best way to have a decent attack chain in lower levels is to add Air Superiority, but that forces you to go into melee. If the foe is blinded, that generally is not much of a problem. Eventually, when you get to the APP levels (Level 41 and up) you can add one of the APP blasts in place of Air Sup, and then you can stay at range to blast. If you expect to solo much while leveling up, you may want to plan on using Air Superiority. There is more about using illusory damage in the Strategy section.
Slotting:Spectral Wounds should be slotted with 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage immediately. The remaining slots are optional. The damage for enhancements is not subject to “heal-back,” so enhancing SW with 3 damage enhancements immediately provides a large benefit. The last two slots can either be 1 Acc, 1 Recharge or 2 Recharge. I like 2 Recharge, as it helps with a Blind-SW-other attack-SW attack chain. Since SW has a 10% Accuracy bonus, that second Accuracy isn't needed badly.
IO Sets: Ranged Damage. SW can be slotted with any ranged damage set, and several of them have good bonuses. The Thunderstrike set gives bonuses of Recovery, Accuracy and Ranged Defense. If you are willing to trade Ranged Defense for some Regen, you can replace two of the Thunderstrike set with two from Devastation, giving 12% Regen along with 2.5% Recovery and 9% accuracy from Thunderstrike. Another option is the "Chance for Hold" proc from Devastation, but since Blind usually leads off to get Containment, the benefits of that proc are minimal. It mostly shows a benefit if you were lucky enough for the proc to hit on a boss, as the proc would stack with Blind to hold the boss. Similar to the Lockdown +2 Mag proc in Blind, it has limited benefits.
Another option: you can get better accuracy and save one slot by using HOs but giving up set bonuses, by slotting 3 Acc/Dam, 2 Recharge.
Recharge: The Decimation set gives 6.5% Recharge for 5. This is a good power to put the "Chance for Build Up" proc into since you will probably use SW a lot. You may want to 6-slot this to cap out the damage because it is only at 89% on its own. Slot the entire the Decimation set except Acc/End/Rech and replace it with an Acc/Dam Hami-O -- this is my perma-PA slotting. Or you could use Acc/Dam/Rech from Ruin, Thunderstrike or Devastation to cap your damage. Entropic Chaos also has 6.25% recharge, plus 10% Regen and a Chance for Self Heal proc -- but it will also need an Acc/Dam to cap damage, and even with the 10% extra accuracy in SW, the accuracy is a little low (which is not a problem if you have some decent global accuracy bonuses).
For the rich folks, five of the purple Apocalypse set gives 10% Recharge and other nice bonuses. Using the purple set also frees up a slot (under the "Rule of 5") for a different power to use 6.25% Recharge.
My personal slotting is 5 Decimations (with the Chance for Build Up proc) and an Acc/Dam Hami-O in the last slot.
Level 2: Deceive - Single Target Confuse.
You can Deceive an enemy into believing his friends are not who they appear to be. If successful, the enemy will ignore you and attack his own allies. If you Deceive someone before they have noticed you, your presence will continue to be masked. You will not receive any Experience Points for foes defeated by a Deceived enemy.
Accuracy: 1.2
Range: 80 ft.
Endurance: 8.528
Recharge: 8 sec.
Cast time: 1.67 Sec. (It may be 2.0 now)
Duration: 37.25 at Mag 3 Confuse, 20% chance for additional 1 Mag for 27.936 sec.
Rating: 5 or 4 (I consider Deceive to be an essential power. Some people don't seem to like Confuse powers or feel that Deceive is too slow, or have some other reason for skipping it. I think they are crazy to skip it.)
Deceive is, in my opinion, one of the better powers in the illusion set. It is also subject to wide and varying opinions. Some folks just love it, while others just hate it. Deceive is functionally the same as Confuse for Mind Controllers.
Deceive is a single target control power that causes the Confused Foe to use his powers against other foes. You can tell the foe is confused by the purplish-pinkish spots that flicker around his head. While the foe is deceived/confused, he will attack any other foes in the area, often switching targets. You may see a deceived/confused foe run off to attack a nearby foe. (For the sake of convenience, let's refer to a Deceived/Confused Foe by “CF.” "CFT" stands for "Confused Foe's Target," or the foe who is being attacked by the CF.) If the CF has an AoE attack, he may use it on his buddies. If the CF has a hold, sleep, slow, other mez or debuff power, he may use those on his buddies, too. If CF has a buff power, he may use it on you or your teammates. If there are no other foes in the area, CF will just stand there, doing nothing even if you attack him. Deceive lasts longer than Blind, recharges slightly faster, and uses the same amount of endurance. Deceive has a 20% accuracy bonus, 10% higher than Blind, and has the same range as Blind. Just like Blind, you have a 20% chance to get an "Overpower" extra mag that will allow you to Confuse a boss in one shot, but it lasts a lot longer than Blind. Some players get confused (pun intended), and think that Deceive is better than Blind - while that is true to some degree, Blind is more essential than Deceive mainly because of its fast activation time and Containment.
Most importantly, Deceive does not draw aggro. If you attempt to Deceive a foe and miss, or cast it on a Boss-level foe (who usually needs to be hit twice to stack the mag), you will not cause the foe to attack you - as long as you stay out of his perception range or stay invisible, he won't even know you are there even if you miss. Because of this, you can cast Deceive over and over again without drawing attention to yourself. Given enough time, you can make all of the baddies in a group fight among themselves until only one badly wounded foe is left - all in complete safety. While you probably won't want to, as explained below, this is an option for wiping out a room full of foes who could otherwise wipe out your team - or a fun way to spend the time waiting while someone on the team runs to make it to the mission. On occasion, I have entered into bets with my teammates about which foe will survive the longest.
So why do some people dislike Deceive? (1) It does not set up Containment to substantially increase your damage. (2) The overall animation is pretty slow, and the “haters” feel that using Deceive slows down a fast team. (3) Most importantly, however, is the fact that if your CF defeats another foe, then you and your team do not get XP for the defeated foe. If your CF does some of the damage and you, your pets or your team does the rest to defeat the foe, then you don't get full XP for the defeated foe. There is a odd formula to determine the amount of XP that gets allocated to you, but it is not a straight pro-rata share. The “haters” view this as “lost XP.” Well, it is not actually “lost” since you never earned it. You actually lose the opportunity to earn some XP, so a more accurate term would be, “lost potential XP.” (Semantics, semantics . . .) The truth is that when a CF does some of the damage, you get XP credit for the damage done by you, your team and your pets PLUS some of the damage done by the CF, but not all of it. So you actually get some bonus XP that you did not earn.
To get full benefit from Deceive, it is very helpful if you know how the power works, and how to get most of the XP from Deceive. There are a few helpful people on the boards who have carefully calculated that using Deceive/Confuse actually helps you to get more XP over time, even though you may miss out on a small amount of potential XP from a few foes. In other words, you may get less XP per foe defeated, but you can defeat more foes in the same time using Deceive. See “Confused about Confuse and Deceived about Deceive?” in the Strategy section for a lengthy discussion about the use of Deceive, strategies and how to get more XP over time.
I strongly recommend using Deceive and getting it early - I prefer to take it at level 4. Deceive makes the early levels stupidly easy if you take your time. Think of it as a long-lasting, fast-recharging single-target control that draws no aggo. I find that Deceive has saved me and my team from debt many times. It will be more useful solo and on smaller teams than on large, fast moving teams, but Deceive is still a wonderful tool for your toolbox for taking out tough and annoying foes even on large teams. A lot of people wait on taking Deceive until level 35, and then say they don't use it a lot . . . . and I think it is because they are not used to using it. Deceive is one of those powers that you have to kind of "buy into," and look for the best ways to use it. However, if you do, it is awesome.
Slotting: Variable, depending on how you want to use it. Deceive is effective with only an Accuracy in the default slot, as it has an inherent 20% accuracy bonus, it lasts a long time and recharges pretty quickly. You can get by for a while with 1 Acc, 1 Rech, 1 Conf. More recharge makes it easier to stack or use on more foes. Heavy users may want the standard balanced mez slotting of 2 Accuracy, 2 Confuse Duration, 2 Recharge. Start with 1 of each, then add a second Recharge, a second Accuracy and a second Confuse Duration as slots become available.
IO Sets: Confuse. Five of the Malaise's Illusion set is great with 2.5% Recovery and 6.25% Recharge, but make sure to leave out the Damage Proc - that may mess up the aggro-free nature of the power which is one of Deceive's most valuable attributes. Unfortunately, it takes six of the set to get Ranged Defense. If you want Regeneration or Accuracy bonuses, look to the Perplex set. Fortunately, confuse sets are usually inexpensive. Leveling up, it is easy to Frankenslot this power with Acc/Conf/Recharge from several sets because the recipes are so cheap they are almost free.
The purple Coercive Persuasion is one of the most affordable purple sets, and I recommend slotting at least 5 of them once you hit level 50 -- you can leave out the one that is pure Confuse. The sixth from that set adds 5% ranged defense, which is a lot if you are going for a Ranged Defense build. I strongly recommend the Contagious Confusion proc from that set, even if you don't get any of the others, as it turns Deceive into an erratic Mass Confusion, allowing your single target confuse power to hit multiple targets one third of the time. Once I got that proc, I find I constantly use Deceive with hope that it will hit a bunch of foes. Putting that proc in Deceive is one of my favorite procs in the game.
Recharge: Five of the Purple set, Coercive Persuasion, includes a 10% recharge bonus -- I skipped the one that only enhances Confusion, but you would want to include that one only if you are building Ranged Defense. Malaise's Illusions also has 6.25% recharge for 5. However, watch out for the "Rule of 5," as there are quite a few sets with 6.25% Recharge. One big advantage to using the purple Coercive Persuasion set is that you free up one more 6.25% slot to use in another power. There are lots of sets available to an Ill/Rad that give that amount of recharge, and it is easy to hit the "Rule of 5" cap."
My personal slotting is 5 Coercive Persuasion. -
Some Basics About Controllers
All other archetypes have at least one power set that is designed for damage. Controllers may have individual powers that do damage, but they do not have a power set focused on damage. Controllers are designed to limit the enemy's actions, thereby making it easier to do damage to the enemy. Some Controllers do a lot of damage as well, while others don't do much damage but do a greater amount of damage prevention and enhancement. Ill/Rad is considered to be one of the higher damage controllers. In general, Controller powers fall into two categories: Control Powers (in your primary mostly) and Buff/Debuff Powers (mostly in your secondary). Some secondaries have control powers (like Choking Cloud or EM Pulse), and some primaries have Buff/Debuff powers (like Group Invisibility). All Primaries EXCEPT ILLUSION are shared with Corrupters. The secondary for controllers are (mostly) copied from Defender's primaries, but the strength of the powers is often different - control powers are usually stronger while buff powers are usually weaker.
(A) It is important to understand the various powers that provide control. A Power that reduces or eliminates the enemy's ability to attack is usually a control power. Control powers, which are often referred to as Mez powers, are Hold, Stun (also known as Disorient), Sleep, Confuse, Intangible (a/k/a Phase), Fear, Immobilize, Slow and Knocks (Knockdown, Knockup and Knockback). Each of the above powers has factor designating its strength, which are referred to as Mag, (for magnitude). "Mag" determines how effective the Mez power is against types of foes. The "mag" can often, but not always, be cumulated, or "stacked," from most powers so that a lower "mag" power can affect a higher level foe by adding several together. However, some powers cannot stack with a repeat casting of the same power. If you want to understand how the various forms of mez work in the game, and what Mag is, take a look at this old Guide on Magnitude. The general rule is that Minion level foes require the effect of the power to reach Mag 2 to take effect, Lieutenant level foes require Mag 3, and Boss level foes require Mag 4. AV's are a special case - but there are other guides that discuss the Purple Triangles of Doom (PToD) and how to deal with AV's. Many discussions on control powers make a distinction between "hard" and "soft" control powers, but there is no clear definition of those terms. The Ill/Rad combination does not have Immobilize, Stun, or Intangible, but it has all the other kinds of Control powers.- A Hold will keep the foe in one place, unable to attack or defend or do anything. This is the hardest kind of control. Holds in Ill/Rad are Blind, Flash, Choking Cloud and EM Pulse. Holds get Containment, which is why you generally want to attack with Blind before Spectral Wounds.
- A Stun or Disorient will also keep the foe from attacking or defending or do anything other than wander around, but some stunned foes can move pretty fast. A Stun added to an Immobilize has the same effect as a hold. Ill/Rad doesn't have a Stun/Disorient, but if it happens, you can still get Containment. Other controllers and a lot of other characters have powers that stun, and if a foe is stunned, you can take advantage of Containment for extra damage.
- Confuse is a unique power. When a foe is Confused, he stops attacking you and your team, and instead attacks other foes in his range. If there are no foes around, he just stands there and ignores you and your team, even if you attack him. Deceive is a Confuse Power. Confuse powers do NOT set up Containment. There are lots of special aspects to Confuse powers, discussed below.
- Fear or Terrorize powers allow a foe to do one thing before the foe begins to cower in fear. If anyone attacks that foe, the foe will again get to do one thing before going back into the cower animation. The "one thing" is often an attack, but may be something else. Sometimes foes who are terrorized will run away a short distance. Fear powers do NOT set up Containment. Spectral Terror is a fear power.
- A Sleep will act just like a hold, until the foe receives any attack. Then he will wake up with no other effect. Sleeps usually last longer than Holds or Stuns, but are not very helpful if your teammates have lots of AoE powers that will wake them. Blind has a somewhat rare secondary effect that is a Sleep. Sleep sets up Containment, but only for a single attack.
- Immobilize will keep the foe in one place, but he can still attack, defend or take any action that does not involve moving. Ill/Rad doesn't have any Immobilize powers, but they cause Containment.
- Slow powers will slow the movement rate of enemies. Some slow powers can also reduce the recharge rate, or speed at which the enemy can keep attacking you. Sometimes, enemies can run out of the effect of a slow. Slow enhancements only affect run speed, and not the other effects of the slow power. Also, slow powers do NOT set up Containment. At most, you can slow a foe to 10% of his standard movement speed - this is called the slow cap. Lingering Radiation is a Slow power.
- Knock powers include Knockback, Knockdown and Knock-up. Knockback powers usually send the bad guy flying back. Knockdown is where the foe falls down where he is, and Knock-up is where the bad guy flies up into the air, and then falls down. During the fairly short time that the bad guy is getting up, he cannot attack. Some powers, like Earthquake, Ice Slick, Freezing Rain and Oil Slick Arrow, keep knocking the foes down over and over again, preventing the foes from doing anything. Knock powers do NOT set up Containment. Phantasm does a lot of knock-back with his attacks. In general, if the magnitude of the knock power is less than 1, the foe will be knocked down. If the magnitude is greater than 1, the foe will be knocked BACK (which is often disliked by some people like melee fighters).
- Intangible or Phase powers make a foe or group of foes unable to attack or do much of anything, but you and your team are unable to attack them or affect them. Imagine putting the foe or foes in a 30 second "phantom zone" or making them into a ghost for 30 seconds, and you get the idea. This kind of power is often hated by many players because the players don't notice the change in the foe and just attack without doing anything -- wasting endurance. There are no phase powers in the Illusion or Radiation sets (fortunately).
(C) Controller Buff powers are the same sets as most of the Defender's primary power sets, but many of the powers have different values than when the powers are used by Defenders. Powers like Accelerate Metabolism will buff up you and your team, improving you and your team's attributes like accuracy or ToHit, damage, recharge, recovery of endurance, regeneration of health, etc. Radiation Aura is an AoE heal. Radiation has three core debuff powers that will decrease similar abilities of the enemy. In addition to what you will find below, there is a lot of information on these types of powers under the Defender Guides.
On slotting powers: I try to give the basic slotting first, so folks can see the most important aspects of a power to slot. I generally don't slot many TOs other than accuracy, will buy DOs at 12 and SOs at 22. Then I usually try to slot common IOs at level 27 (for level 30 IOs) or 32 (for level 35 IOs), but don't really look at adding IO sets until the late 30's or 40's with some exceptions. Some people are enamored with IO set bonuses, and are willing to sacrifice the effectiveness of the power for better set bonuses. Others prefer to slot the power for its most effective uses first, and then see if they can fit in a few set bonuses as, well, bonuses.
One of the nice advantages to IO sets is the ability to "Frankenslot," which means to mix Set IOs from different sets to try to get more enhancement from fewer slots. (For example, two Acc/Dam Set IOs from two different Ranged Damage sets of the same level will give you more accuracy and damage than a single Accuracy common IO and a single Damage common IO. One great example is to slot a bunch of Acc/Hold/Rech from different sets in Flash or EM Pulse.)
Another important part of slotting is understanding "Enhancement Diversification," generally called "ED." This puts a cap on the amount of enhancement a power will take before additional enhancement has a substantially deminished effect. Other guides will tell you the details, but all I'm going to say here is that you get full benefit from two SO-level enhancments. The third one has a slight loss. Slotting any more than the equivalent of three SO-level enhancements has very little effect, so it would most likely be better to use that enhancement slot for something else, or move it to a different power. To put it simply, any more than three SO-level enhancements won't provide much benefit. Two level 50 common IOs use up most of the ED cap, and the third one only gets the benefit of about half.
To most people, the most important bonus on an Ill/Rad is recharge because you want to shorten that recharge for Phantom Army. Some folks are willing to spend a lot of time farming to put full sets of Purple enhancements in their Ill/Rad. Purple means the unique level 50 Ultra-rare sets with purple titles that are extremely expensive but give the best bonuses and strongest enhancement. There are also PvP IO sets, some of which have very good bonuses but are extremely expensive and hard-to-get. I have a lot of Hami-O's from back when I used to participate in frequent Hami Raids, and my first Ill/Rad originally had Hami-O's in just about every spot that could effectively take one, so I will tend to mention Hami-O's more than others might. A lot of people forget about Hami-O's, but sometimes they can give you a very effective slotting option.
The "Perma PA" Build: Phantom Army is the key power for an Illusion Controller. While you can have a very effective character with normal and reasonably priced IOs, the goal of the "min-max" type player with an Ill/Rad is the "Perma PA" build. The goal of the "Perma PA" build is to make sure that you have enough recharge that PA is always available. With Perma PA, a single Illusion Controller can keep the attention of an AV or a group of foes on the Phantom Army, allowing the character (or a team) to attack the AV or group of foes with little fear of drawing the attention of the AV or foes. This is an "end game" type of build.
To have Perma PA, you have to get enough global recharge to reduce Phantom Army's recharge from 240 seconds to 60 seconds or less. Each of the three PA appear one second apart and disappear one second apart, so there is debate on whether you can go slightly longer than 60 seconds if you want. Some people feel 63 seconds is adequate. Max slotting PA with Recharge (around 95%) cuts that recharge time almost in half. With Hasten and Accelerate Metabolism, an Ill/Rad can achieve Perma PA more easily than any other Illusion build (other than Kinetics which has to rely upon siphoning speed off of a foe at least twice).
Hasten gives 70% recharge on its own and affects its own recharge. Accelerate Metabolism gives another 30% recharge. The total needed is just over 200%. (On my build in Mid's Hero Builder, it seems to require 203.8% to get PA to exactly 60 seconds total recharge. Discussions on the Forums often throw around numbers like 180% to 190%, but I'm going to use 203.8%.) So, to get "Perma PA," you need approximately another 103.8% recharge over and above Hasten and AM -- and that assumes that you will be able to cast Hasten and AM again before they run out. A Perma PA build also has Perma Hasten and Perma AM.
One important change in the game that can affect how you build your character is the various Incarnate Slots. One option for the Alpha Slot is "Spiritual," which will grant an extra 33% or 45% Recharge (and a few other things). Some of that Recharge goes past the ED cap. If you take the Spiritual Alpha Slot, you can reduce the amount of Recharge in the build to some degree.
One important question is, at what point is the recharge "good enough" even if it isn't permanent? Additional recharge actually has diminishing returns, so adding more at the end does less. To reduce the cost, it may be that Phantom Army total recharge of slightly more than 60 seconds, such as 62 seconds, may be enough for you. Because Phantasm uses its Decoy, you can often "get by" during the short gap that Phantom Army is recharging. You can cut out one or two of the expensive Luck of the Gambler 7.5% Recharge IOs or some purple sets to get "near Perma PA." If you choose the Spiritual Boost for the Incarnate Alpha slot, you get some additional Recharge over the ED cap. That is for you to decide. However, if you hope to be taking on AVs, a small gap will allow the AV to change its focus on you, smacking you down very quickly before you can get PA re-cast.
One important factor to remember when putting together a Max-type build -- the "Rule of 5." Only five of the same bonus will count. (The game determines this by the name of the bonus.) If you have more than five, that sixth bonus will do nothing. The "Rule of 5" applies differently to set bonuses vs. bonuses from IOs. In other words, you can have up to five Luck of the Gambler +7.5% recharge IOs, and up to five IO sets that give a 7.5% Recharge bonus. More on this later.
In the listings below, I will indicate IO sets that provide Recharge as a benefit. Because these enhancements are in high demand for all controllers, not just Ill/Rads, a Perma PA build is very expensive and takes a lot of work to make. There are some ways to keep the cost down such as using Tip Missions to get Alignment Merits. I also have provided a Perma PA build, but an Illusion/Radiation controller can be very effective without having Perma PA so if you don't want to put in the effort to get there, it will not make your character ineffective. There are plenty of other effective IO set bonuses other than Recharge that will make your character better. These include Recovery, Regeneration and Defense (especially Smashing/Lethal or Ranged Defense).
There are many ways to build an effective Ill/Rad controller. If you have a build you like, feel free to post it in this thread and explain why you like your build compared to others. My Perma-PA build included some choices that not everyone would make. My goal was to make a character who was effective both solo and on teams, and still have enough recharge for Perma-PA. I also tried to keep the cost mostly reasonable or at least achievable for most players.
OK, let's start with the powersets, and then get to my suggested builds. I will try to explain why I chose each power when I did, and you can decide if those factors matter to you. Each power will be described by its "in-game" description, and then its various attributes will be listed. All durations of Mez effects and damage amounts are for a level 50 character, as listed in City of Data. (In lower levels, those numbers will usually be much less, but I listed them all at level 50 for easy comparison.) After those come my suggestions, strategy and suggested slotting. -
A Local Guide to the Illusion Control/Radiation Emission Controller
{NOTE: This guide has been updated for Issue 21, with some information on Incarnate choices.}
When I first rolled up Area Man, an Illusion/Radiation controller, he was supposed to be a sidekick to my main-character-at-the-time, Local Man, a Dark Miasma/Electric Defender. But Area Man was so much fun to play that he became my main character and my first to hit level 50. Ill/Rad continues to be my overall favorite character in the game and I have even rolled up additional Ill/Rad controllers on other servers. I also have several other Illusion Controllers and Rad secondary controllers at 50. This is my second guide; my first was “A Local Guide to the Earth/Rad Controller.”
This guide has five sections (these are links):
- Introduction to the Ill/Rad Controller
- The Illusion Control Powers
- The Radiation Emission Powers
- Suggested Builds, incluing Leveling and IO Builds
- A Perma-PA Build
- Strategies and Discussions
Introduction to the Illusion/Radiation Controller
An Illusion/Radiation controller is the Jack-of-All-Trades in CoH. He can do a little of everything, and there are a few things he can do better than anyone. With Phantom Army, he can be a tank. With Spectral Wounds, and later with the Ancillary Powers, he can be a blaster. With control powers of Blind, Flash, Spectral Terror, Lingering Radiation, Choking Cloud and EM Pulse, he can be a controller. And with the various Radiation debuff and buff powers, and even Group Invisibility, he can buff and debuff as a Defender. Add in a melee pool power or two, and he can be a Scrapper, too. Some folks might say that Khedians are the Jack-of-All-Trades in CoH, but they lack in the buffing/debuffing area, and really are better blaster-tank-scrappers. An Ill/Rad can be a Blaster-Controller-Defender-Tank.
Ill/Rad's flexibility makes it a great all-around character, both for solo and for small and large teams. Ill/Rad has long been considered one of the best builds in the game. Folks have posted on the Boards many times how they were able to overcome Arch-Villians (AVs) or even Giant Monsters (GMs) with just their single Ill/Rad controller. Even if you don't seek those lofty goals, there is no question that Ill/Rad is one of the most effective builds against the higher level content in the game, including AVs. It is pretty darn effective in the low levels, too. However, Ill/Rad's strength is mainly geared to attacking single targets - it has no area damage powers, unless you count Phantom Army, until the Ancillary Power Pool (APP) power sets. If you are looking for a build to do “farming,” Illusion is probably not the best choice.
Illusion has fewer “control” powers than other controllers, but makes up for it in other unique ways. Illusion mainly controls by distraction and other forms of “soft” control. This allows Illusion controllers to team well with other Illusion controllers and all other types of controllers. Other controller sets may have powers that invalidate another's favorite power (for example, Earthquake or Ice Slick are made almost useless by applying Stone Cages, Frostbite or Fire Cages), but more Illusion controllers usually add to the team without having any conflicts. Also, other controllers often have so many control powers that another controller's powers become unnecessary or become interfering. (What happens if a Earth Controller uses Volcanic Gasses just when a Gravity Controller uses Wormhole? One or the other has probably wasted his effort.) The single most important power in Illusion is Phantom Army. PA is unique in that it is three unbuffable and invulnerable pets that last for 60 seconds.
Radiation fills some of the control holes in Illusion with additional controls, and with debuffs that make Illusion's controls more effective. As explained below, Phantom Army ("PA") cannot be buffed, which is why Rad goes so well with Illusion - the Rad Defense and Resistance debuffs make Phantom Army much better and the Recharge in Accelerate Metabolism helps PA come back faster. Radiation and Time Manipulation are the only secondaries that offers all three benefits. The Defense Debuff in Radiation Infection helps PA hit with higher accuracy, and the Resistance Debuff in Enervating Field lets PA do more damage. Of the Controller Secondary sets, Cold, Thermal, Trick Arrow and Storm have substantial debuffs to make Phantom Army better, but have no recharge buff. Also, Trick Arrow doesn't have the versatility of Rad, Therm's debuffs come very late in the set and Storm's Freezing Rain and Cold's Sleet (virtually the same power) are a targeted AoE click power. Sonic has Resistance debuffs only. Kinetics has Siphon Speed to help with PA's recharge, but no debuffs to make PA better - Fulcrum Shift doesn't affect PA. Force Field and Empathy have other good powers, but nothing to make PA better. The new Time Manipulation secondary is the only other secondary that has debuffs for PA AND a Recharge buff, but Time gets some of its best powers including its recharge buff very late (level 38), while Radiation gets Accelerate Metabolism at level 4. Time Manip is a good set with Illusion, but it has several single-target powers while Rad has more AoE powers.
This guide incorporates information from two wonderful sites, Red Tomax's, “City of Data,” and ParagonWiki, as well as information from other guides written before this one. Many, many thanks to the folks at the Titan Network for maintaining this wonderful resource for CoH players. I did not spend time testing and calculating, but just compiled the great work done by others. Two previous guides deserve special mention: Q_Arkhan did a solo-oriented Ill/Rad guide in I-6 that was very good, and Tal_N has an excellent Illusion/Storm Guide.
There are several general statements to start off:
(A) I like lists. I think lists make things easier to understand.
(B) This is guide will say very little about PvP - I don't particularly care for PvP and spend almost no time in those zones. What I know about PvP is from reading the boards, not from actual experience.
(C) This is a guide for an Ill/Rad who can both solo and team. Some power choices and slotting would be different for a solo-only controller. There is a pretty good guide out there, Tom Foolery's Solo Ill/Rad Guide, focusing on building a solo Ill/Rad, but it pre-dated inventions. This guide will mainly focus on a team build, but will include some discussion about solo as well.
(D) Various terms are used to describe the enemy - foes, enemies, bad guys, baddies. I don't use “mob” because it is confusing. Old MMO lingo uses “mob” to mean “Mobile Object,” representing one bad guy. To most people, a mob is a group of bad guys. It is confusing, so I don't use “mob.” I use “bunch,” “group,” “gang” or “a spawn” to describe a group of foes. The developers appear to use the term, “critters,” but that sounds like animals to me, so I don't use it. This guide was written before side switching, so your Illusionist might now be a bad guy fighting the good guys . . . I'm sure you can adjust.
(E) Maximizing Invention Origin (“IO”) sets is complex and subject to personal taste. Choosing your Incarnate powers also involves a lot of personal taste. There are a lot of options, and I will not cover them all. I will discuss some sets or special IOs, but I will also discuss slotting in the context of Single Origin or standard single aspect common IOs. When you are leveling up and building a character, you need the basic enhancement concepts. You can get fancy with IOs later -- Most folks start in the 30's or may wait until the 40's or at 50. IO sets give you a lot of options depending upon your play style and the particular attributes you want to enhance. As the new Incarnate abilities develop, there will be a wider range of options for slotting your character, too. While different people have different philosophies on how they like to use IO sets, the most common attribute that an Ill/Rad controller will want to enhance is Recharge, mostly to get Phantom Army and other powers to recharge faster. Some folks are enamored by the Procs (special enhancements that will occasionally add damage or some other attribute), while others find it a challenge to maximize this attribute or that attribute. There is no “ultimate IO build,” as there are many ways to build a Perma-PA Ill/Rad. If you have an IO build you particularly like, feel free to post it. A lot of folks want an IO build that will give Permanent PA - and I offer anyone to post those builds here to add to the discussion. I will discuss enhancements that improve recharge and the goal of an expensive "Perma PA" build.
(F) There are a lot of standard terms and abbreviations are in this guide because I'm lazy. Here are some of the terms used:
- “PB AoE” stands for “Point Blank Area of Effect,” meaning a power that has an affect in the area immediately around the caster. Flash, Group Invisibility, Radiant Aura, Accelerate Metabolism, EM Pulse and Choking Cloud are examples of PB AoE powers. Some affect teammates while others affect foes.
- A “Targeted AoE” power is where you choose a foe as a target and the power will affect an area around the target. One example is Fireball from the Fire APP set.
- A “Location-targeted AoE” or "LT AoE" is a power where you choose a spot on the ground, and the power will have an Area of Effect around that location. When you activate it, white rings appear wherever it is proper to place the power. You then pick a spot on the ground in range, and click that spot on the ground. Using that spot as the center, the effect appears in a circle (more or less) centered on the spot you clicked. For example, Ice Storm from the Ice APP set is an LT AoE power. If you are using a pet power, the pet is summoned to that spot. These pet summon powers include Phantom Army, Spectral Terror and Phantasm.
- "Toggle" powers are ones that you turn on, and they keep operating until you turn them off, or until some other event turns off the toggle. Your toggle can be turned off (a) if you are defeated, (b) if you run out of endurance, or (c) depending upon whether it is an offensive or defensive toggle, if you get mezzed (held, stunned or slept). Examples include Superior Invisibility, Rest, Sprint and most travel powers.
- An “anchor” is a target upon whom a power is cast. The power will have an effect in the area surrounding the “anchor.” Usually anchors are foes, but there are a few powers, like Fallout, that use teammates as anchors. “Anchor” powers are important to Rad's Radiation Infection, Enervating Field and Lingering Radiation powers.
- “Anchor Toggle” powers are ones that you cast on an anchor and they keep operating until you turn them off, or until some other event turns off the toggle. Your toggle can be turned off (a) if your anchor is defeated, (b) if you are defeated, (c) if you run out of endurance, (d) if your anchor goes out of range or (e) if you leave the zone. Examples include Radiation Infection and Enervating Field.
- “Click” powers are powers which activate when you click on them or push a button, but they finish their animation and then recharge until ready again. Most of the powers in the game are click powers.
- "AV” is Arch-Villain, and “EB” is Elite Boss, two high level enemies that usually require special tactics and powers. (In City of Villains, often called the "red side," "Heroes" are the equivalent of AVs.) You may be able to handle an EB solo, but it takes something special to handle an AV solo. However, Illusion/Radiation is one of the builds in the game that is best known for handling AVs solo. “GM” is Giant Monster, a huge beast who usually needs more than one team to fight. However, again, an Ill/Rad can hangle a GM if you prepare properly.
- “XP” is Experience Points, which is how the game keeps score of your progression. You get XP mostly for defeating foes, completing objectives and completing missions.
- “AI” is Artificial Intelligence, or the programming of how a pet or foe is supposed to act.
- Enhancements can be one of 6 types:
- “TO” is Training Origin, and these are the weakest type of enhancements, available to you at level 1. The amount of enhancement varied depending upon what is being enhanced, but the most common amount is 8%.
- “DO” is Dual Origin, and these are limited to one of two types of origin. If you are Magic origin, you can only use Magic/Mutant or Natural/Magic DOs. A “DO” is roughly twice the strength of a “TO,” around 16% for the most common type.
- “SO” is Single Origin, and these will only work for characters of the same origin as the type of enhancement. If you are Science origin, you can only use Science SOs. An “SO” is again twice the strength of a “DO” and four times the strength of a “TO.” The most common amount of enhancement is about 33%.
- “IO” stands for “Invention Origin,” and fit into two sub-categories, “common IOs” and “set IOs” Common IOs work for any origin, like TOs, except they start at level 10, they never expire and they increase in strength as the level goes up. Level 25-30 common IOs are functionally the same as SOs, in that they enhance for 32-33%. Common IOs level 35 and up are slightly stronger than SOs. At level 50, most common IOs are worth about 42%. (Some enhancements provide lower benefits, based on type. Defense enhancements are
- “Set IOs” usually, but not always, enhance more than one attribute, but the the ones that enhance two or three attributes add up to enhancement for a little more than common IOs. For example, Slotting two set IOs that enhance Accuracy/Damage will be a little better than a common Accuracy and a common Damage. When Set IOs of the same set are used to enhance the same power, the set IOs will give some additional attributes, called “set bonues.” These have become very important in the game. There are also enhancements that do something unique or special, called "procs." If you need more information on Set IOs, look in other guides or ParagonWiki.
- Finally, "Hami-O's" or "HOs." are a last, somewhat rare type that can only be earned by doing certain trials, like the Eden Trial, the Abandoned Sewers trial, the Hamidon raids and the Statesman's Task Force and Lord Recluse Task Force. These have a few different names. These are the equivalent of two or sometimes three SO enhancements. Although the Eden and Abandoned Sewers Trials give HO-like enhancements, those are lower level and expire three levels past their number. Most of the HOs available are either Hamidon or Synthetic Hamidon enhancements at level 50, so they can't be slotted until level 47 but they won't expire. HOs and Synthetic HOs are identical other than the name.
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Wow really too long and didn't read most of it.
- You have a whole section dedicated to controllers that could be a guide in itself.
- I like the introduction showing the strengths of the AT combo
- Powers descriptions are just overwhelming... way too much text if you ask me
- I like the different builds as you level
An excellent guide.
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Thanks: I agree that it is too long, but most of the stuff is stuff I have been either seeing or saying on the Boards for all these years. Part of the problem is that I tried to put in most of the alternative points of view, and that makes it long. I figure that most people will skip the stuff that doesn't interest them. Any experienced player can skip most of the Intro. -
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No Achilles Heel in RI? I have had it in mine since level 14 and I can tell you it fires pretty much every boss or EB/AV fight. having -22.5 from EF stacked with -20 res in Achilles Heel is very noticeable.
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I'll add that in. I have the Achilles Heal in my build in some other characters, and I really don't notice it making much of a difference. On my Ill/Rad build, I am so tight on slots that I have to scrounge to find one here or there for enhancements that I consider more vital. I have been planning to do a respec soon, just to move one slot.
But the Achilles Heal proc is a viable option and a lot of folks like it, so I'll mention it. Thanks for the reminder.
Edit: Went back and looked. I did mention the Achilles proc, but didn't say much about it. I have now added another sentence about it. -
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I thought that I read your guide completely but I cant find if you listed how much recharge is necessary to get PA perma?
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You are correct. I had been meaning to go back and add in a discussion on what was needed for perma PA, and forgot. I have now added that into my source. Thanks for catching that! -
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And one other thing. The slick has a bug with controller pets . . . when the slick lights, controller pets will run out of the area of fire. For pets that have ranged attacks, they can continue to attack foes inside the fire area from outside. Fire Imps, however, have no ranged attacks, so they will run out of the area and just wait unless there are other foes outside of the fire area to attack.
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Last Night my imps did not run out of the fire, and they did fight while oil slick was ignited.....maybe it was a bug....I don't have too many trick arrow players to test with.
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This bug was "fixed" a while back, but, like with many things associated with Oil Slick, it has a tendency to reappear from time to time.
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It was somewhat fixed, but not really. It used to be that the pets would run away and head for the hills, and even when they came back, they would never enter the area that had been the burn area. Now they will run away, stay out of the burn area, and then will re-enter the area after OSA expires. I find it kind of amusing that on my Ill/TA, Phantom Army, which are invulnerable to anything other than Hamidon, will run away from the burn patch.
Why that one set of imps didn't run I can't say, but I know that my pets on my ill/TA were still affected last time I played that character. -
I'm going to post it SOON, as soon as I can find the time to carefully edit it one more time, and try to cut out a lot of the excess verbage. I tend to be long-winded, and I have noticed I tend to use certain adverbs too much. I also want to see if I can format some things to make them easier to read and pull out the key points for folks who are looking for one little bit of information and not the "War and Peace" version.
Like most of us, I'm particularly fond of my own opinions and like to repeat them endlessly. Not everyone wants to read them endlessly, no matter how brilliant I may think I am. -
To clarify the answer to #1, when you shoot Oil Slick Arrow, you get a "foe" named "Oil Slick" that you have to hit with a fire/Energy power to light the slick. If you attack and miss, then you can take another shot at it. If you attack and hit but the slick doesn't ignite, then the "Oil Slick" goes away and you have lost your chance of igniting the slick.
And one other thing. The slick has a bug with controller pets . . . when the slick lights, controller pets will run out of the area of fire. For pets that have ranged attacks, they can continue to attack foes inside the fire area from outside. Fire Imps, however, have no ranged attacks, so they will run out of the area and just wait unless there are other foes outside of the fire area to attack. -
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Wonderfully thorough guide. Just pointing out a boo-boo...
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Therefore, you may want to plan to use Fossilize, Stone Prison or some other way to restrict the movement of your anchor(s).
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You're writing an Illusion guide, not an Earth one.
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You caught me! Parts were copied from my Earth/Rad guide, and that was one place were I missed making the changes. Thanks for catching it!
Edit: Actually, I did catch it. You read version 1 of the guide. In version 2, posted later in the thread and just above your post, I fixed this error.
Thanks so much for reading the whole thing that closely, though. -
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What about the Jack Frost?
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Jack is a fine pet. He generally throws a snowball from range, then runs into melee. He cycles his Freezing Touch pretty well . . . he also has Chilling Embrace, slowing the foes. He does die a lot faster than Rocky. -
I have all the pets except Singy, and I'm getting close there. I would say that Phantasm is the second highest damage. He is an energy blaster with a single target blast and Torrent, a cone. He also uses his decoy, which does Illusory damage that does not heal back if you defeat the target fast enough.
Animate Stone a/k/a Rocky is now the next highest, since he uses Seismic Smash and he is not subject to mez.
It is hard to say between Fly Trap a/k/a Audrey II or "Twoey" and Jack Frost which is the highest damage. Both are decent. -
All your questions can probably be answered in the Local Ill/Rad Guide, Draft Version. Version 2 is posted later in the thread, and it has recommentdations on recharge IO sets.
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I have a high level Plant/Rad, and it is a great combination. I also have a Plant/Storm, just about 20, that I will get back to one of these days.
But, if you are designing this to duo with a Fire/Kin, that makes a difference. If you went with Plant/Kin, you would both be able to skip the Fitness Pool by speed boosting each other. You would be able to skip a travel power, too (might want to take one leveling up and then respec out later). That will give you plenty of room for both of you to take the leadership toggles, and stacked leadership is quite effective. 2xTactics will make a big difference.
Between Seeds of Confusion and Flashfire, you will both have AoE control in spades. The fire/kin will run in with Hot Feet to do AoE damage, while you stand back and throw Roots, which also does good AoE damage. You will be able to stack Char and Strangler on bosses.
Two Kinetics will have a multiplier effect. I have been on teams where we had two Kins, and the effect is awesome. In fact, one of the "superteams" I was on had two Kin/sonic Defenders plus three Rads, and we were all able to skip Fitness quite easily. -
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IMHO the hot new thing will be to have a bind activating the "alakazamreact" emote every time you use Propel.
Everything else will pale in comparison. :P
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Did they change Propel!? Now all my beautiful assortment of various objects disappear after hitting a mob instead of tumbling around and staying on the map! Please tell me this is a bug ...
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No, it hasn't changed. I tried out my Grav/Storm for a mission early this morning, and all the items from propel stayed around. Check your graphics settings, as some settings will make the items go away. -
So how do you suggest slotting it now?
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Grav has a good single-target attack chain in GD-Crush
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I use something like:
GD - Crush - secondary power - Crush - GD - Crush
I use a /kin and have plenty of great powers to fill in here. The secondary you pick might have a power that fits, or perhaps you could try lift.
IMO, Crush, GD, and Crushing Field are grav's bread and butter. I have stuck to the basics and had great success.
The singularity can really help with the holds, and is rather valuable if you are soloing. Check the range on Singularity, it is not that great. Good adivce I read on the boards was to use stealth of some sort to get close enough for the singularity to attack and take agro, you can then back off to get range and 'let 'er rip'
A variation is to summon the singularity close enough to a group to have it attack/repel and take the initial strike. I have used the singularity to delay an ambush, re-summoning him between the team and the enemies attacking from the flank.
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On my Grav/Stiorm, I specifically planned for that -- I took Super Speed for travel, which combines with Steamy Mist for full invisibility. Plus Super Speed gives great battlefield maneuverability.
I was just thinking about the differences between Storm and Kin as secondaries. Kinetics is all about offense, and making the kill faster. Storm is a more defensive set, using knockback and debuffs. I think my style fits the defensive better, but I can see where Kinetics could be effective. -
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Help me forumites.
I have every controller, sans grav, up in the 30s and I at least find some enjoyment in each of the sets. But Grav, I just don't understand it, what am I missing? I'm setting up a project gravity character, what pairs well? I need any advice I can get, I've looked at guides, so I have a -basic- idea.
Thanks
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Like you, I "got" all the other control sets except Gravity. I have Fire, Ice, Earth and Illusion all at 50, and Plant and Mind in the 40's. Until recently, my highest Grav controller was in the low teens. Then I decided to make a specific effort to focus on a Grav/Storm.
Since I already have several Stormies, I know how the Storm set works, and I saw some interesting synergy with Grav. One unique aspect of Gravity is the immobilize powers do not include -knockdown -- knockdown prevention is in the holds, instead. This means that when I use Freezing Rain, Crushing Field will keep the foes in the area, but not prevent them from falling down making it overall more effective. It also means that Crushing Field + Hurricane will let me push around the bad guys while debuffing their ToHit, making it into almost a permahold.
I have been playing this character, off and on, for the last several weeks. He is now up to 27, mostly solo, and has become quite fun. Grav has a good single-target attack chain in GD-Crush (slotted for damage)-Propel, but is really weak on AoE control -- Storm seems to fill that gap somewhat and will get better ih the upper levels. With the small groups I run into solo, I find that I can turn on Hurricane, pick one guy to hold and clobber, and Hurricane holds off the one or two others. It kind of reminds me of a single target blaster, but with a powerful melee defense.
I have generally been critical of the Gravity set because there are only three interesting powers -- Propel, Wormhole and Singularity. I had never reached two of them before. I'm finally getting to play with Wormhole, and I must admit that it is fun. I dislike the fact that the foes get to take a shot at you during the animation, but it really is a fun power. I'm looking forward to getting a Singy to see the strategy involved with him.
I feel that Storm is a really good secondary for Grav. It provides a lot of AoE control and benefits that fill some of the holes in the Grav set. -
On the Ice side: Ice control is unique in that you can choose whether you want to be melee-oriented or ranged-oriented. With Kinetics as a secondary, I would bet on Melee-oriented would be best.
Must-haves as soon as they are available are Block of Ice at 1, Arctic Air at 6(This is what makes you melee oriented -- it is a PB AoE toggle that combines Slow, Confuse and "afraid" (they try to run out of the area), Ice Slick at 12, Jack Frost at 32.
Chilblain, single target immobilize: If you plan to solo at all, take this and slot it up as a damage power. It will also immobilize Bosses and AVs. While I skip the single target immobilize on most other controllers, I took it on my Ice controller. My main damage powers are Block of Ice followed by Chilblain and Air Superiority and vet attacks.
Frostbite, the AoE Immobilize: Frostbite is more skippable on an Ice controller. It has its strategic uses, but using it over and over again is likely to get you killed. The LAST thing you want to do is use Frostbite on top of Ice Slick, as it make Ice Slick useless. On my Ice Controller, I didn't take Frostbite until level 30.
Shiver, a huge Cone Slow with -Recharge: This is the power you would take instead of Arctic Air if you were going with a Ranged build. With a melee build, it is skippable but very nice to have. Especially with Ice/Kin, see if you can fit it in.
Flash Freeze, a ranged Sleep: Easily the most skippable power in the set, it still has its uses, especially for a Kin where you an Siphon off of slept foes. Still, this is the first one to skip.
Glacier, a PB AoE Hold: Recommended as a "panic button" power, it is useful even with its fairly short duration and long recharge. Slot it with 2 Acc, 2 Hold, 2 Recharge.
Flashfreeze is the most skippable, followed by Frostbite and/or Chilblain.
Kinetics Must haves: Transfusion, Siphon Speed, Transference, Fulcrum Shift. I consider Speed Boost a Must Have, but a surprisingly large number of people skip it because they hate being a "buff-bot."
Repel is the only strong defensive power in the set, but it is the most often skipped.
On Siphon Speed: This is a key power. You sap speed and recharge from a foe to boost your runspeed and recharge. If you want to skip a travel power, this makes it possible until you can get Inertial Reduction. The most important part is the Recharge boost.
Siphon Power: Important in lower levels, this becomes less important in upper levels because of Fulcrum Shift. Still nice to have, though.
Increase Density, ally only mez and knockback buff. Very short duration (1 min) makes this really, really frustrating to try to keep on a team -- Most Kin players don't try and only use it as a buff situationally. It is useful to break allies out of mez, though. Not essential.
Inertial Reduction, temporary Super Jump to you and anyone in its range. This allows you to skip a travel power. Skippable if you take a travel power, but nice to have.
Repel is the most skippable, followed by IR and then ID. -
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running both at the same time is rarely useful (not never -- you can trap a foe in a corner and use both, but there's not much benefit to that).
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I haven't used AA much at all, but I am very familiar with Hurricane and that's why I was wondering whether people picked one over the other. I just couldn't see them being used at the same time
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But my favorite use is in the cul-de-sacs on many maps, where I can use Gale to throw the foes into the back, turn on Hurricane to keep them trapped and unable to hit me much, then unleash Tornado and Lighting Storm, Freezing Rain and my APP AoE damage powers. Then I can pick off foes one by one with BoI, Chilblain and my APP blast.
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I have run several characters with storm and this is my favorite use for hurricane and try to bunch things as constantly as possible. which would mean that AA would be off a substantial amount of the time and why I was wondering if it was worth taking both.
looks like it's definitely worth testing out. either on test server or with alternate build.
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Most of the time, I run Steamy Mist and Arctic Air together. My usual strategy on my Ice/Storm is to run right behind the tank and the melee fighters. When the tank goes in, I throw down Ice Slick (or Freezing Rain, or maybe both) and then follow in the tank. While Ice Slick keeps the foes busy, AA starts to hit. The overall effect of AA is three things -- Slow, Confuse and "Afraid" (They try to run away, but very slowly.) The confuse doesn't last very long (which is why you have to slot it to the ED cap), but it is just enough to cause the foes to run back into the middle of AA, or turn to attack another foe, or run back and forth doing nothing at all -- they really appear "confused." The net effect is that AA seems to mitigate about 70% of the damage done by the foes in its area. That is pretty significant, and it keeps the foes in the area making it easy for the Tank and Scrappers to wipe them out. I help out by using Block of Ice and Chilblain (slotted for damage) and Air Superiority to hold and do some damage.
You just made me remember a recent time when my usual buddies and I were all running a team of Shield Scrappers. We invited this one guy to participate, and he loved running hurricane most of the time . . . which really frustrated us. Shield gives you a nice damage bonus for the foes being around you, and our Defense was so high that nothing could hit us . . . but he was blowing them all over the place so we had to keep chasing down the bad guys. We had to ask him three times to turn off the perma-'cane. That incident made me much more careful about running Hurricane around melee fighters.
I use Hurricane probably less than 5-10% of the time, and AA is on all the rest. AA is a very effective power. I would skip Hurricane long before AA. -
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I may be missing something basic here, but I didn't take hot feet of chocking cloud on my Frad. I found them to be huge end drains, and begged for me to stay in melee range too long. With the slots that freed up I have cinders and em pluse cycling about every other mob. cinders this one, EP the next, repeat. I am only in melee for a second and then back at a safer distance firing off debuffs and spamming fire cages.
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My Fire/Rad is entirely built around using Choking Cloud+HotFeet. Both need to be slotted to ED cap for EndRdx. Choking Cloud needs to be slotted to the ED cap for Hold. Hot Feet needs a little accuracy and as much damage as you can fit in. Then the strategy is simple . . . from range, you hit Flashfire+Fire Cages, run in with the Imps trailing behind, and stand there, getting all the foes in range of CC+HF. Use Char on anything that moves. Everything dies in a short time, and then it is time to go on to the next group. -
Choosing your Anchor. Choosing an anchor and choosing when to cast RI, EF and LR is an important part of the strategy of Radiation. Know your team, and figure out which foes are likely to be the last to be defeated and where the debuff will do you and you team the most good.
<ul type="square">[*]Many people complain about Radiation's anchor-based debuffs because of the problem of teammates killing the anchor. The Rad debuffs add a green glow to the target that seems to subliminally say, Hey guys! Kill me first! You need to understand right up front - your team WILL kill off your anchor, and usually before you want them to. It may be frustrating - get over it, and just re-cast the debuffs on the next soon-to-be-corpse. Some people recommend setting up a bind to identify the anchor, hoping that the team will pay attention. I have done that in the past, and don't bother anymore. Just re-cast.[*]Scrappers will often go for the bosses first. Blasters with lots of AoE powers will often wipe out the minions quickly. Often the best choice for your anchor is a lieutenant-level foe, and one near the back of the group. Of course, remember that the debuffs will then aggro him and all the foes around him, causing him to run up to the front and bring friends. [*]Your anchor will be free to run around, debuffing other baddies while drawing aggro, unless you restrict his movement with some kind of mez or slow power. Therefore, you may want to plan to use Blind or some other way to restrict the movement of your anchor(s). If you don't, your anchor may run off. LR will slow him, but not stop him. This is BAD. Not only do you lose the debuff, but as he runs away past other groups, he will aggro them to you. If this happens, turn off RI and EF, and find another anchor. In rare situations, you may leave it on if you need to use the green glow to mark or track the baddie, mainly if this was the guy you needed to kill to free a hostage or some similar situation.[*]If the boss is a tough one, I usually cast the debuffs on the boss, and don't worry if he gets killed off. A dead boss is worth having to recast. If you are fighting an AV, EB or GM, the AV, EB or GM is almost always the best anchor. Although AVs have high resistance to debuffs, it will still affect all the foes in the area and have some effect on the AV.[*]One interesting choice to try is to cast the debuffs on a foe who has been Deceived or Confused. He will move around to attack his friends, carrying the debuffs with him. But if he runs off with your debuff, you may want to turn it off.[*]I suggest you NOT choose a teleporting foe, like a Tsoo Sorcerer or Sky Raider Porter, as an anchor, as that bad guy will teleport away. You will lose your debuffs on the baddies nearby, and he will aggro more baddies to attack you. [*]One option is to use different foes as your anchor for each of your three debuff powers. I mainly see this as aggroing more baddies. If any bad guys are aggroed, I would prefer that RI be in effect to keep them from hitting me. However, since LR has to be re-cast every 40 seconds or so, it is easy to change anchors for LR.[*]Sometimes, especially in lower levels, RI and/or LR can be used to pull part of a group, who will then come to attack you while being debuffed. This works best on foes who prefer melee attacks. This is a great way to do a corner pull, using a location-based control like Earth's Quicksand at the corner.[*]If there is a foe with annoying mez powers, he is often a good choice for RI, to reduce his chance of hitting his mez - but of course, he will probably be attacking YOU first with that mez.[/list]
Phantom Army Strategy.
The other members of your team make a big difference on how and when you use Phantom Army. In general, PA is best used to take the "alpha strike" and draw aggro away from the rest of the team, so whenever possible, PA should be sent in before any other attack that draws aggro. (This means that you can Deceive one or two foes who have mez powers, especially AoE mez powers, first.) But sometimes, that is not the best strategy.
(1) Most of the time, you want PA to be the aggro sponge, soaking up all the attacks so you can freely cast your debuffs and the team can make their attacks. In this case, you will often cast PA right in the middle of the group you want to attack, especially if casting them outside the group might aggro another group. Remember you have very little control over the PA once they are cast, other than your invisible and stretchy leash -- if you get too far from the PA, they will run to you, often bringing unwanted friends with them.
(2) However, if you don't have another group nearby, try to cast the PA on the far side of the bad guys, and get the Army guys to run toward you. They will probably start attacking from range, rather than closing to melee. PA do a little more damage at range than in melee. Even though the ranged attacks do less damage, they recharge 1/3 faster. Also, if the foes have cone attacks, try casting PA on the far side of the group, so the cones go away from you and your team. This is especially true for some AVs.
(3) You may have a tank on the team, and he may want to herd. Hold off on PA until he herds up the group. Then you need to decide if it is worth using PA at that point, or if the team can handle the group easily enough without PA. If you need PA, or just want to use 'em, cast your three buddies beyond the group or off to the side, so that they have to fight at range. In this situation, you are using PA more as a damage power than as an aggro sponge, so you want that greater damage from range.
Some good tanks play an aggressive style, where they are running from group to group -- it is often hard to keep up with such tanks, and PA are usually relegated to a role as a damage power. Some good tanks are more strategic, pausing before each group to let everyone prepare their best power for the situation at hand. For this kind of Tank, you will want to save PA to take the Alpha whenever you are up against a tough foe, and this kind of tank will usually bring foes towards the PA while they are out. Some tankers sometimes get frustrated with Phantom Army, but really good tanks know how to use them to tank more effectively.
(4) You may have another controller who has a good opening attack. Try to encourage the other controller to let you use PA first when needed, to avoid letting aggro through. This is especially a good idea when there are a lot of bosses, since most AoE controls only affect minions and lieutenants.
(5) Generally, PA is only going to be available every other group for a normal speed team. So, if the next group looks like it will be easy to handle without PA, you may want to save them for the next group. Do your best to look ahead.
(6) It is not uncommon for PA to easily outlast one spawn. Your invisibility is quite handy for leading them into the next spawn. However, be careful . . . when PA despawn, the aggro goes to you. That may be a good time to use Spectral Terror (if you have it by then).
OK, That's the end of this very long Guide, I hope some parts have been helpful. Feel free to post general questions, suggestions, builds or comments . . . it is nice to see when people find something worthwhile. -
Strategies:
General Strategy. First, use Deceive to take out any problem foes before the fight begins. Then throw out Phantom Army and cast your Rad debuffs. The order for the debuffs can vary depending upon the situation, but a good order is EF, RI, LR -- cast RI before LR if possible so LR gets to take advantage of the -Defense in RI. In some cases, like when a Tank is able to gather the aggro, you can choose to fire off RI before casting the other debuffs to reduce defense and improve your ToHit odds. On some fast moving teams, the bad guys will not last long enough for you to even bother casting your debuffs. If you are on that kind of team, use EF first and then LR, and then only use RI when up against something that will last long enough to merit the effort. Decide whether Spectral Terror or any other AoE control powers are needed. Pick a foe, and take him down with Blind-SW-Air Supp, or later Blind-SW-APP Blast. If PA are about to expire, then cast Spectral Terror to hold the foes in place.
If you move on to the next group while PA are still out, you may want to run into (or past) the group of foes to lead PA into battle. This is where invisibility comes in quite handy. If PA are recharging, you can use that same invisibility to run into the middle of the group of foes and fire off Flash or EM Pulse. In general, Spectral Terror is not the best Lead-Off power -- fear powers allow the foes to take an action before going into the "cower" animation, and often that action is to shoot at you.
Maximizing your Damage
One unique aspect of Illusion is "spectral" or "illusory" damage -- damage that heals back after a few seconds. If you can defeat a foe before that spectral damage heals back, you get to keep that damage. Therefore, the faster you can kill foes, the better chance you have to keep that damage. You can get more bang from your spectral damage by keeping a few strategies in mind:
<ul type="square">[*]Defeat Minions first. It usually takes only one or two attack chains to defeat a minion, so you have a better chance of keeping that spectral damage.[*]Watch foes being attacked by Phantasm, Phantom Army and Confused foes, so that you can use Blind-SW to finish off that last little sliver of health. Phantom Army and Phantasm's Decoy also do spectral damage, so you want to make sure that the foes being attacked by them go down as fast as possible. For Confused Foes, you want to make sure that you get some XP, so making the killing blow is a good way to make sure of that.[*]Reduce the number of foes as quickly as possible to allow Phantom Army and Phantasm to concentrate on the big targets. Common strategy for other builds is to concentrate on the tough guys first, as they are the biggest danger. But for Illusion, Phantom Army should be drawing the aggro so you can take down the weaker foes first. This will allow PA and Phantasm all to focus on the tougher foes, keeping them off your back.[/list]
As a result and contrary to many other builds, an Illusion controller will be more effective by taking out the weakest foes first, then working your way up to the tougher guys. By following that order, you have a better chance of increasing your damage with spectral damage and concentrating the attacks of your pets on the most important targets.
Confused about Confuse and Deceived about Deceive
I am a big fan and strong advocate of Deceive. There have been heated debates about Deceive on the Boards, and I have often participated. If you compare the numbers between Blind and Deceive, Deceive actually looks better. However, an Illusion controller without Blind is gimped, but you can certainly make an effective Illusion Controller without Deceive. (Deceive is the same power as Confuse from the Mind Control set.)
How does the power work? As stated in the description of the power, when you cast Deceive on a foe, the Deceived foe stops attacking you and your team, and will attack the other foes. Apparently, he is confused into thinking that his friends are now his enemies. If there are no other enemies around, then he will just stand there, doing nothing even if you attack him. Deceive takes one foe completely out of the battle for a long time. Deceive does not draw aggro, so it can be cast over and over again from a distance without the foes even knowing you are there. For the sake of discussion, let's call the enemy who is confused a "CF," for "Confused Foe." Any of his buddies he beats on can be called a CFT, for "Confused Foe's Target." All other enemies will be referred to as "foes." The description for the power explains that if a CF defeats a CFT, that the team will not get XP for the CFT.
The debate over Deceive and Confuse has been going on as long as I have been reading these forums: Someone complains that he or she was kicked off a team or was criticized because a Mind controller used Confuse or an Illusion Controller used Deceive. (Recently, the same debate has come up for Plant Controllers and Seeds of Confusion.) Someone gives a sample build that excludes Deceive because the person doesn't like the XP loss. Someone else then responds, saying that Deceive actually increases XP rather than decreasing it, so the person critical of Deceive is clearly an ignorant buffoon who does not understand the real facts.
What are the benefits of Deceive?
1) Deceive is a long lasting single target control power that lasts longer than Blind.
2) Deceive has an 80 ft. range and does not draw agro, so you can take foes out of the fight before the fight begins. Since you can stack it without drawing aggro, it is perfect for removing the most troublesome foe. Deceive easily lasts long enough to allow you to cast it on several foes to take several out of the battle before the fighting begins.
3) Deceive activates quickly, at the beginning of the animation, and recharges quickly.
4) Deceive has a 20% accuracy bonus, even more than Blind's 10%, so you can hit higher level foes more easily.
5) Deceive is Mag 3, so it will hit minions and lieutenants with one cast if it hits. It has a 20% chance of being Mag 4, which will confuse a boss in the first shot. But if you don't get that extra mag with the first cast, you can easily cast it again in a few seconds to stack it.
So, if it is such a good power, then what is the downside?
1) The underlying basis for the main complaint against Deceive is that if a CF defeats a CFT all by itself, then you and your team do not get any XP for the defeat of the CFT. However, if a CF does some of the damage, and some of the damage is done by you, your team or by pets, then you get some of the XP, but not all of it. See cforce's Guide to Confusion for the detailed math. Also see Enant's> Guide to Confusion and XP/Time.
2) Deceive has a long animation, even though the effect takes place early in the animation. Therefore, on a fast moving team, it is not worth spending that much time controlling one foe when you could be doing something more effective.
3) Deceive does not set up Containment. If your focus is on damage, then Blind will set up containment for you.
I find that most people who complain about Deceive, don't fully understand how it works -- They see the description and have heard that confuse powers cause you to "lose XP," so they react to that. My opinion is that everyone should stop worrying about XP and simply look at the benefits of the power and how it fits into the player's playstyle. Is it fun? Does it provide a benefit that makes it worthwhile to take as a power? Personally, I find Deceive to be one of the most fun powers in the game.
The use of Deceive and its effect on XP is a grey area, and depends on many factors other than simple calculations. The overall effect is that in some situations, you may get more XP over time, while in others, you may get a little less. The more you know about how to use the power, the better chance you have of the getting more XP over getting less XP. There are some facts that are not disputable about Deceive. (We are talking about the single target version, Deceive for an Ill/Rad, and not Mind's Mass Confusion or Plant's Seeds of Confusion.)
The Truth:
1) Deceive is slow to activate. -- The animation is so long that it may not be effective during some kinds of battles. Some people complain that Deceive is useless for fast moving large teams. However, this depends greatly upon the team, the kind of opponent, and the team's strategy and style. The change in I-7 to eliminate the length of the post-deceive inactivity has made Deceive more viable as a tool in battle. On large, fast moving teams, I find that I have little time to use Deceive unless there are "special" targets. However, solo, on small teams, or even on larger, slower moving teams, Deceive is almost always a great power to use. I have to admit that there have been a few times that I have used Deceive or Confuse in the middle of battle, and been caught in a mez, knocked down or otherwise clobbered because of the long animation. However, at level 50, when I put a Contagious Confusion proc into Deceive turning it into a Mass Confusion power one third of the time, then Deceive becomes very much worthwhile to use in all battle situations because of being able to mez several foes in one shot.
2) Deceive is a long lasting single target power that takes any mob it hits and stops that mob from hitting you and your team. In this manner, it acts as a hold. It also lasts substantially longer than its recharge time even at the lowest levels, so it can be stacked easily, even without recharge enhancements, but recharge lets you stack it or spread it around faster.
3) Deceive does not draw aggro. No aggro is one of the most important aspects of this power. This allows the caster to stack it on bosses or any other foe without fear of "retribution." You can cast Deceive while invisible without drawing attention to yourself. This also means that regardless of the long animation, Deceive can be effective before the fight begins either to remove foes from the battle, or to benefit the caster and his team by getting the CF to use his controls and debuffs on other foes. For example, I was recently on a small level 20-21 team made up of a tank, a warshade and one of my lower level Illusion controllers. We were fighting Orange, Red and Purple Lost in Faultline. While PA was recharging, I was able to use Deceive to take the mezzing lieutenants and bosses out of the fight before the fight began, which substantially increased our survival. Those Anathenas and Pariahs not only throw arround mez powers, but they also hit very hard. Deceive worked where other powers would not have.
4) A CF (Confused Foe) will usually attack other foes if any foes are in aggro range. However, the caster has no control over the CF. Sometimes, the CF may run off for no apparent reason. If there are no other foes in aggro range, the CF will usually just stand there and let himself be smacked for as long as the confusion lasts. With enough applications, the caster can sometimes Deceive an Arch-Villain for a short time, causing the bad guy to blast away at the minions surrounding him, and then stand there while you and your team attack. But beware - it doesn't last long.
5) A CF with buff/debuff or mez powers will sometimes use their debuff or mez powers against their own kind, or may use the buff powers to buff the caster's team. This is one of the best and most effective uses of Deceive. There are many discussions of the best foes to Deceive, but they include Vahz Embalmed Cadavers, Tsoo Sorcerers, Sky Raider Engineers, Banished Pantheon Shamen, Malta Sappers and Ricti Guardians.
6) When a CF attacks a CFT, and the CF does damage to the CFT, the caster and the caster's team do not get some of the XP for the CFT when the CFT is defeated. If the CF completely defeats the CFT with no damage done by the team, then no XP is awarded. However, the complex formula for calculating the XP means that if the caster or the caster's team do some damage to the CFT, the team will get a larger share of the XP than they would if, say, another player not on the team were to do the same amount of damage to the CFT as the CF did. The net result of this means that the team clearly gets a larger amount of XP per point of damage imposed by the team on the CFT. For example, if you and the team do 50% of the damage on a CFT, and the CF does the other 50%, then you and the team get 80% of the XP rather than the 50% you "earned." If the CF does 75% of the damage, and you and your team only do 25%, you get about 50% of the XP.
The False:
I) If you use deceive, you will lose XP.
You cannot "lose" XP that you have not yet earned. You and your team will not earn XP for a CFT killed entirely by a CF, but you will not "lose" XP. Actually you will reduce the amount of XP you could have earned if you and your team had killed all the foes yourselves and not used Deceive. Your only "loss" will be that the maximum amount of XP available in the mission will be less. Since you never earned that XP, you haven't lost it. In other words, you actually get an XP bonus for using Deceive, rather than "losing XP." This is really more a semantics and point-of-view statement. Most supporters of confuse powers say that any loss of available XP is easily offset by the ability to earn XP faster, allowing you to do more missions in less time.
The Half-truths:
I) If you use Deceive, you will earn less XP.
II) If you use Deceive, you will get more XP/hour and more XP overall.
Both statements have some truth and some un-truth, depending upon the situation. Enantiodromos and others presented some wonderful calculations to prove #2. And in an ideal situation, it probably would be true. Yes, if you were operating with robot-like efficiency and there were an unlimited number of foes, then the numbers clearly show that you will get more XP/hour, since Deceive lets the team receive part of the XP for the damage done by the CF. Plus, by completing missions faster, you get mission bonuses faster. If you are earning more XP/hour, then you will earn more XP overall for the time you play, right? Why is it a half-truth? Since most of us are people seeking entertainment and not robots seeking to churn out XP/min, most of us do not play this game trying to maximize every second. Most of us play missions. In most missions, there is a limited number of foes, and therefore a limited amount of XP (even if there are an unlimited number of missions and the foes on the streets keep re-spawning). This means that if you use Deceive, some of the XP will be taken by the CFs. You may be able to do the mission a little faster, but you will still earn less XP per mission than if you did not use Deceive. Shaving a few minutes off the time needed to complete a mission will not necessarily mean that you do more missions. For example, if you just finished a 45 minute mission and you are 10 minutes past when you should have headed off to bed, the fact that you reduced the time of the mission by 5 minutes will not mean that you are going to do another mission. You earned a little less XP but got to bed 5 minutes earlier.
There are a lot of other factors as well.
A) Deceive is fun. There have been a few times where my team has sat back and watched while I deceived a foe and we watched what happened. This can happen on everything from Embalmed Cadavers to AV's. There is a certain delight to making a foe use his own debuff powers on himself and his buddies. I remember the first time I Deceived an Avalanche Shaman -- I laughed out loud when he put down an Earthquake that then knocked himself down. One of my favorite pastimes while waiting for a teammate to return to a mission is to Deceive two baddies, and then take bets on which one will last the longest. It is kind of like the so-called sport that Michael Vick got in trouble for hosting, but nobody gets hurt. It is fun to try to Deceive a Rikti Guardian into "tricking" him into giving AM to you and your team.
B) Deceive, if used well, may be able to reduce debt for you and your team. This can be especially true when you use Truth #3 above. Taking out Sappers or Shamen can certainly have a major impact on a battle, depending upon your team. I have used Deceive many times to prevent a team wipe, by stacking Deceive on the big bad guy from a distance while not drawing aggro. Less debt will certainly increase your overall leveling from earning XP, far, far more than any XP lost to Deceive.
There are a few times when you should NOT use Deceive.
i) If a teammate is targeting a particular foe to pull, then casting Deceive on that foe is a bad idea. The pulled foe will, when the confuse hits, turn around and attack his buddies. Yeah, he's out of the fight for a while, but eventually that confuse wears off and then he can attack you again. If he was successfully pulled and was then eliminated, then he can't come back (unless he is a Freakshow . . . ).
ii)If you are in a battle surrounded by the enemy who are attacking you in melee, then using Deceive to take one baddie out may not be a good idea, because while you are caught in the somewhat long animation, the others can pound on you. Deceive is best used before the fight begins, or while the foes are distracted from you. It can also be used effectively to stop one foe from attacking, but you need to know whether being caught in the long animation may result in other bad things happening, like getting mezzed or killed.
iii) Be careful about using Deceive on an anchor of a debuff, like Radiation Infection or Enervating Field. A deceived anchor will usually run around to find playmates, thereby aggroing any foes in range of the debuff. Sometimes this is a good strategy, but sometimes it may result in getting too much aggro while your debuff runs off leaving the foes mad at you AND at full strength.
Strategy for using Deceive: My general strategy for using Deceive on teams is the take out the foe who will be the most trouble, usually before the fighting begins. Because Deceive lasts longer than a regular hold and has higher accuracy without drawing aggro, it is one of your best defensive powers. When playing solo, I will often use Deceive even against a single foe that I expect to hold with Blind, just because Blind can miss, which would then free the baddie to begin attacking me if he wasn't already Deceived. As early as level 4, Deceive can be key to making it easy to take down foes while taking no damage at all when playing solo. For the usual spawn of three foes, you can Deceive two from outside of aggro range before the battle begins. Remember that Deceive does not draw aggro! Then use Blind-Spectral Wounds on the third, and refresh Deceive on the first of the two DFs, Blind-SW on the third, refresh Deceive on the second DF, Blind-SW until defeat. If you want to reduce missing out on XP, you can Blind the DFs, every other round, while Blind's hold stays on that third un-Deceived foe, using only SW while you still have containment. Basically, spread around Deceive and Blind while focusing SW on one foe at a time to try to take out that foe as quickly as you can before SW's spectral damage heals back. You can take all three down without being hit a single time . . . but it is not real fast.
During the battle, I will often use Deceive to refresh the confusion on some foe who was confused before the fight began, and also:
(1) To encourage a straggler to return to the rest of the group. When he is Deceived, he will usually (but not always) turn around and go back to the group of foes to attack one of his former buddies.
(2) To protect myself or a teammate from being attacked. When the team attacks a large group, single foes may run past the tanks and other front line fighters, and directly target the squishier folks in the back, like blasters, defenders and controllers. Deceive can be used to turn that foe around and have him attack his friends instead of you and your teammates.
(3) To take out a troublesome foe shooting off ranged attacks from the back. We might as well turn him to helping us out while the rest of the team work their way back to him.
(4) To handle a foe who runs into the fight after it has begun.
When you start running into difficult foes with special abilities, you can Deceive those particular foes before the battle begins to turn those special abilities against the bad guys. This is one of the most powerful aspects of confuse powers. Here are some of the foes that are effective as targets of Deceive:
Vahzilok: When Deceived, Embalmed Cadavers will shamble up to other Vahz and explode, doing substantial damage and often killing off several other Vahz. Remember that you will not get XP for those foes killed, but it's so much fun, it is worth passing up the XP. However, a debuff like Radiation Infection will disrupt the ability of Embalmed Cadavers to explode.
Mortificators, if Deceived, will still raise the dead Cadavers and Embalmed Cadavers, but then will try to kill them, then rez them, then kill them, etc. as long as the Deceive lasts. Morts will NOT rez your dead teammates.
Eidolons are bosses, so they will usually take at least two casting of Deceive to confuse them. They will use the Rad blasts (with some -Defense), Dark Blast (with some -Acc) and the Tenebrous Tentacles against the other Vahz.
Lost: Aberrants and Parishes have sleep and hold powers, so using Deceive to take them out of the fight before it begins is a good idea, especially in low levels where few players have mez protection - even Tanks and Scrappers, who will get mez protection eventually, may not have it at the time you have to deal with the Lost.
Circle of Thorns: You can stack Deceive on Mages to take them out of the fight before it starts. Deceive Earth and Air Thorn Casters to make them use their powers against the other CoT. Deceive the Spectral Demon Lords to turn their -ToHit Debuff against the enemy. CoT have lots of troublesome foes, so there are lots of opportunities to use Deceive. You can stack it on the various Mages.
Tsoo: Tsoo Sorcerers are troublesome since they can teleport in and heal up the foe you have almost defeated, and then turn on their Hurricane to make sure you can't hit anything. Deceived, the Sorcerers will sometimes heal your team members and often use Hurricane to debuff the accuracy of the bad guys. However, because the Sorcerers will teleport away even if Deceived, I suggest that you do NOT use a Sorcerer for a Radiation anchor. Other Tsoo have various mez powers too, and those annoying Caltrops. If you deceive the Caltrops guy before he throws the caltrops, they will affect the other Tsoo and not you and your team.
Freaks: Freaks have Stunners, who can put you or teammates to sleep in a Tesla Cage. These are a good target for Deceive. Freaks are generally easy to Deceive.
Council: The vampiri have mez powers, so they are good targets for Deceive. Wolves move fast and can do a lot of damage, so they are good targets, too. Wolves are resistant to immobilize and slow, so they often frustrate other controllers, but they are easy for an Illusionist.
Banished Pantheon: I love to Deceive Storm, Avalanche and Death Shamen, so that they turn their control powers against the other BP. Watching an Avalanche Shaman cast Earthquake, which then makes he himself fall down, is highly amusing.
Devouring Earth: Lots of options here. The buffs/debuffs cast as stationary pets by DE (Cairns planted by Granites or Sentries, Fungi planted by Fungoids or Herders, Tree of Life planted by Herders, and Quartz planted by Guardians) can be devastating to some teams, and using Deceive will neutralize the buffs/debuffs - unfortunately, they will not turn them to your benefit.
Carnival of Shadows: Several options here. It is fun to Deceive the Illusionists before they use Flash, as then Flash will hold all the other Carnies. The Ring Mistresses have holds and sleeps that can be turned on other Carnies.
Crey: Deceiving a Paragon Protector will not only make it fight for you, but also keep it from going into its protective mode of MOG or Elude.
Nemesis: An often asked question is whether deceiving Lieutenants will allow your team to get the benefits of the Vengeance that these guys cast when they die. Unfortunately, No. The confusion effect stops when the foe dies, so the Vengeance still will go to the other Nemesis. Deceiving a Fake Nemesis will prevent it from going into its Personal Force Field. (I don't recall if they will actually share bubbles with your team, however.)
Malta: One of the most hated foes for melee fighters is the Malta Sapper. Deceive turns that Sapper into a sapper of the bad guys. I believe this is one of the best ways to deal with Sappers. Also, if you Deceive an Engineer before he builds a turret, then the turret will shoot at the Malta until the Engineer dies. -
The Perma Phantom Army Build
The best power in Illusion is Phantom Army -- for most folks, the "max" build for an Illusion/Radiation involves "Perma PA," or getting the recharge on Phantom Army so high that you will be able to cast a new set when the previous set is just expiring. This is ideal fro fighting AVs, because the Perma PA will draw the aggro of the AV, allowing the controller and his Phantasm to blast away in relative safety. Generally, any build with enough recharge to get Perma PA will also have some other attributes enhanced significantly.
To get enough recharge, you need to look for every power that can possibly fit in an IO set that includes some recharge. The recharge on Hasten and AM will be high enough that both of those powers will recharge before they run out. Because this is a very desirable build, it is very, very expensive. The IO sets needed are some of the more expensive ones in the game. To get a Perma PA build, you had better be prepared to spend a lot of time playing the market, farming or doing whatever else you can to generate hundreds of millions of influence. It depends on several "Luck of the Gambler +7.5 Recharge" enhancements in any power that can take Defense enhancements, "Basilisk's Gaze" sets in the Hold powers, and a couple of the purple sets.
There are lots of ways to make a Perma PA build. I have come up with one build for discussion. I have not made this build . . . yet. My problem is that I'm too much of an Altaholic to spend that much time and Influence on one build. I'm offering this build as a way to get Perma PA without giving up much to get there. Some previous builds would take useless powers just as a "mule" for IO sets. However, I've been able to get, in Mid's builder, Perma PA without having to take any powers that I consider useless -- except for taking Combat Jumping at 49 for an extra LotG Recharge. Even that is not entirely useless, as the added mobility and protection from immobilization is quite nice. I also changed Swift to Hurdle to make bunny hopping an easy way to get around. Here's the build:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Perma PA build: Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Illusion Control
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Ice Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Blind -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(3), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(11), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(17), G'Wdw-Acc/Hold/Rchg(31)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(9), Dct'dW-Heal(34), Dct'dW-Rchg(34), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 2: Spectral Wounds -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(5), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(43)
Level 4: Deceive -- CoPers-Conf/Rchg(A), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(7), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(7), CoPers-Conf(31), CoPers-Conf%(37)
Level 6: Accelerate Metabolism -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(11), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(15), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(34), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(40), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(46)
Level 8: Superior Invisibility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(9), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 10: Radiation Infection -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(13), HO:Enzym(15)
Level 12: Air Superiority -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(13), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(17), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43)
Level 14: Fly -- Frbd-Fly(A), Frbd-EndRdx(27), Flight-I(40)
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 18: Phantom Army -- S'bndAl-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(19), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(19), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(21), S'bndAl-Dmg/Rchg(23)
Level 20: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(29)
Level 22: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(23), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(25), P'Shift-End%(50)
Level 24: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(27)
Level 26: Spectral Terror -- Abys-Acc/Rchg(A), Abys-Fear/Rng(48), Abys-Dam%(48), Abys-Acc/Fear/Rchg(48), Abys-Acc/EndRdx(50)
Level 28: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(29)
Level 30: Lingering Radiation -- Acc-I(A)
Level 32: Phantasm -- ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(A), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(33)
Level 35: Flash -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(36), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(36), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(36), HO:Endo(37)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(39), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(39), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(39)
Level 41: Ice Blast -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(42), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43)
Level 44: Frost Breath -- Ragnrk-Knock%(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(45), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Ragnrk-Dmg(46), RechRdx(46)
Level 47: Frozen Armor -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Containment
I invite others to post their Perma PA builds or otherwise discuss their opinions on the Ill/Rad build in further comments to this guide.