Oedipus_Tex

Dimension Shift is terrible. Raze the cottage and save the village.

Either is good. Storm is higher damage/more endurance issues. Radiation is more team support.

If getting mezzed bothers you, you could also consider a Dominator. They have an inherent ability that lets them break out of mezzes. Or you could get the Indomitable Will power from the Controller Psi APP.

I also want a water set, although perhaps not as emphatically as the original poster.

For some reason when this topic comes up the conversation tends to head toward "it must look like a realistic sparkling ocean foregrounding a breathtaking Tahitian sunset." I think that's setting the bar impossibly high.

There are water fountains, water falls, and exploding fire hydrants already in the game. The water doesn't need to be any more persistent than other effects. Fire, after all is a lot more problematic than water is (shouldn't it cause... fires?), and logically Ice should melt and have the same problems with persistent water does. Further, if we can just 'recolor' existing effects to produce a water-y effect it means the argument that water effects can't be made.. uh.. doesn't hold water.

Fingers crossed that it is the next Control set. Which at the current rate of Control set creation will occur in approximately 2015.

From what you've described I agree with Local Man. Cold Domination is probably your best bet.

Hi folks,

I recently decided to reroll my Plant/Earth Dominator as a Plant/Psi. The character is named "Lawn of the Dead" and is themed, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, around the idea of a patch of lawnfeed that gained sentience. Plant/Earth was fun but I think Plant/Psi will do the concept more justice, what with the "feeding on the essence of enemies" in Drain Psyche.

I have a fair bit of experience with Controllers so I feel I have those powers down. The only extra power from that set that I might normally have skipped that I'm currently proposing to be take is Spirit Tree, to stack with the regen from Drain Psyche.

On the Psi Assault set I'm somewhat stuck though. I think Psychic Scream, Drain Psyche, and Psychic Shockwave are must haves, both thematically and from a power perspective. I'm planning to color them blackish-green with red highlights to make the "evil undead plant" look. But for the rest of the powers I'm not sure what is a must have. A few of the powers have the "grab your head and fire a pulsing bolt" animation which is less appropriate to my concept, though I'll use it if it's a must have. The melee attack looks conceptually right but I'm not sure whether I should take it. Can anyone give me an idea of which powers will provide the best bang for my buck both from a performance and concept perspective? Also, which of the PPPs would you recommend for this character?

Much better. Still extremely expensive, but the money is being put to much better use IMO. Particularly expensive sets, FYI are Armageddon and Ragnarok.

Here's a suggested build based on what you just posted. Damage and recharge are higher, and it has perma-Hasten. I had to sacrifice a little out of Adrenaline Boost to do it. and you may find I've wrecked that power too much.

I also took a few extra blasts and swapped Mesmerize back out for Levitate, to help you get extra damage and some different damage types for enemies that are resistant to Psi.

I dropped Recall Friend. It's actually a great power but with so many critical things to pick from IMO you are stronger without it.

[EDIT: Swapped a damage IO in Terrify for the knockdown proc, since you were already damage capped and knockdown works great in this power. Also swapped out a few other specific pieces in purple sets to add procs where ED was exceeded.]


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

mind emp: Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Mind Control
Secondary Power Set: Empathy
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Primal Forces Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Levitate -- Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(13), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Apoc-Dam%(21)
Level 1: Healing Aura -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(3), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(3), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(5)
Level 2: Dominate -- BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(7), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(7), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(9), HO:Nucle(9), Dmg-I(45)
Level 4: Heal Other -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(17), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(17), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(19), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(19)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 8: Mass Hypnosis -- FtnHyp-Plct%(A), FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg(11), FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(15), FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg(36), FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx(36)
Level 10: Confuse -- CoPers-Conf%(A), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(15), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(37), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(37), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(39)
Level 12: Resurrect -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 14: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(46)
Level 16: Clear Mind -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Total Domination -- UbrkCons-Dam%(A), UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg(23), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(25), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg(25), UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold(33)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), P'Shift-End%(21), P'Shift-EndMod(23)
Level 22: Fortitude -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(36), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(37)
Level 24: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Terrify -- Ragnrk-Knock%(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(27), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(31), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(33)
Level 28: Recovery Aura -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(29), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(29), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(31), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(39), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(46)
Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 32: Mass Confusion -- Mlais-Acc/Rchg(A), Mlais-EndRdx/Conf(33), Mlais-Acc/EndRdx(34), Mlais-Conf/Rng(34), Mlais-Acc/Conf/Rchg(34), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 35: Regeneration Aura -- Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(40), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Dct'dW-Rchg(43), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(43)
Level 38: Adrenalin Boost -- P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(39), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(40)
Level 41: Power Blast -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(42), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48)
Level 44: Energy Torrent -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dam%(45), Posi-Dmg/Rng(46), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), FrcFbk-Rechg%(50)
Level 47: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Temp Invulnerability -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 6: Ninja Run

I agree with everything Umbral has said. Basically, if you go into Dual Pistols looking for top of the line DPS you're going to be disappointed. It's a flexible debuff set. The damage is not spectacular but not terrible either. If the damage was as good as Fire or Archery we'd really be in trouble as neither set has a real secondary effect ("extra accuracy" for Archery is there but kind of lame). The ability to turn knockback on and off at will is a pretty fair advantage in itself.

Also, we need to be careful when talking about -Resistance and DPS. A lot of folks seem to be saying the set is poor because the -Resistance doesn't justify the added DPS. The problem is that -Resistance isn't the same as +Damage. It boosts your damage and the damage of everyone else who is attacking too. If you score -25% resistance, as a Defender will with the two AoEs combined, it is the same as boosting the damage of the entire team by that amount for those enemies. In other words, almost the same as casting Accelerate Metabolism (on a same level enemy) or using Radiation's -resist toggle. The reason the Swap Ammo power is useful is sometimes its better to boost the entire team's damage, and other times better to do direct damage from fire.

The only secondary effect I don't think is particularly useful is the cryo/-recharge one. There are a rare few sets with middling -Recharge that need the extra boost to floor enemies. But that's part of what is nice about Swap Ammo. You get to pick what works for you.

Overall the people who will benefit most from Dual Pistols are the ones who float between solo and teams, PUG a lot, and try lots of varied content. It's not a set for everyone, but then neither is any set.

Welcome to Controllers. I think you will find them to be very different than Scrappers but also rewarding.

There's a lot of good info in the post preceding this, so I will just stick a few extra notes in.

- The Confuse powers are critical. Take them as early as possible.
- In the Mind set, I recommend taking no less than 7 powers. The skippable (potentially) ones are Mesmerize and Telekinesis--but only skip Mesmerize if you never solo and/or simply can't find any way to fit it. Another option is to take it early and replace it later.
- I don't feel that you will need Conserve Power. You may have a different experience with the set, but I think you will do fine with Stamina by itself.
- IMO Leadership powers in general are much less useful on a Controller than a Defender. I would skip them in favor of picking up more from your primary.
- One Recharge in Resurrect is probably sufficient.
- Right now you have a mix of some VERY expensive pieces and some very cheap ones. This may be intentional, but you may want to look at other options for spreading out your costs. IMO you would be best off building for global recharge. To that end consider swapping out the Numina heals for Doctored Wounds. This will also let you drop from 6 slots to 5 for these powers to make room for slotting your controls.
- In Confuse: 5 slot the purple Coercive Persuasion set (total cost: ~50 mil)
- In Mass Hypnosis: 5 slot the purple sleep set (total cost: ~50 mil)
- In Mass Confusion: 5 slot Malaise's Illusions (avoid the damage proc)
- In Terrify: Slot for damage, most likely Positron's Blast
- In Dominate: I would probably slot for damage first, hold last because you can use Confuse as your primary mezz
- In Total Domination: IF you can afford to do it, 5 slot the purple hold set (about 150 mil). If not, at least maximize hold duration, accuracy, and recharge as much as possible
- You probably want both Energy Blast and Energy Torrent. Energy Torrent can be slotted with another set of Positron's Blast for an additional +6.25 recharge
- In Levitate, initially slot the Kinetic Crash set because it is dirt cheap (cheaper than SOs even). Replace it later with something else if you like.

Hope that helps. Post a new version of your build and we'll be happy to continue commenting.

Perhaps a very transparent Force Field, where the team bubbles are your "contagious good luck" and the knockback aura a result of enemies tripping over themselves. Force Field/Dual Pistols I could buy, for example.

As has been said, all of the control sets play very very differently from each other. There's a lot of useful information already posted in the thread. I'll try to contribute what I can.

I tend to divide the sets into 3 broad, relatively inexact categories: Elemental-Debuff, Elemental-Damage, and Psionic-Setup.

There are 2 power sets in the Elemental-Debuff category: Ice and Earth. Each ones delivers low damage on its own and is extremely reliant on its pet. However, both sets get reliable Containment from elemental cages, and most of their powers carry with them a relatively enormous debuff (-Recharge for Ice and -Defense for Earth). Both also count among their powers a pulsing knockdown control. They also get the most "communicative" of the hold powers, as the graphic is very noticeable to you and teammates. Differences between the sets are:

- ICE's secondary effect has more direct effect on safety. However Ice has no good powers that are suitable for opening a fight, with the exception of Ice Slick (which I slot for Range). The only AoE status effects available also require wading within 25 feet of enemies (often described, rather inaccurately, as "melee range.") It is very good in a sustained fight but usually contributes less to quick battles. IMO Ice Control is the hardest set to IO at high levels by a huge margin. While effective, I consider this an "advanced" set for people who have some experience with the game. This is probably the best set for dealing with enemies with large amounts of mezz resistance or lots of "boss" (not elite boss or AV) enemies, but one of the worst to put on a team that is already very heavy on control. Key powers: Ice Slick, Arctic Air (for me), Jack Frost.

- EARTH's secondary effect is generally less useful at higher levels, outside of specific scenarios (though never useless). However it has one of the best AoE openers in any set (Stalagmites), and has a number of placeable powers that can be cast from behind walls. At least one Earth power restricts flight. The Earth pet is the best of the level 32 pets out there due to its huge resistance values, and is actually probably better than most Mastermind pets with the exception of the fact that you can't command it directly. Key powers: Stalagmites, Earthquake, Volcanic Gasses, Animate Stone.


The Elemental-Damage group has three sets: Fire, Plant, and (arguably--more on this below) Gravity. These sets have a damage edge over and above other sets. All three have reliable Containment, and damage that is at least good enough to solo on (compared to the Elemental-Debuff group).

- FIRE trades control abilities for direct damage. It gets fairly standard controls like holds and immobs, and a nice fast recharging ranged Stun in Flashfire. However, Fire Control's main game is really the damage, which comes from the powers Hot Feet and Fire Imps. It is also probably the least flexible of the control sets, offering only 3 status effects (immob, hold, stun) all of which can be cancelled by powers like Dispersion Bubble. The pets deliver a lot of damage, but are also aggro-monkeys notorious for pulling more than you intend. Overall a great set, but not without its tradeoffs. Key powers: Flashfire, Hot Feet, Fire Imps.

- PLANT is nearly smack in the middle in terms of the control sets. It does somewhat less direct damage than Fire but makes up for it with better controls overall. Its fast recharging Seeds of Confusion power is one of the best in the game. Plant even gets an invulnerable pet of sorts (Carrion Creepers) sealing it as the set that blends the most from other sets. However, it has no secondary effects at all, and only works on enemies that are grounded. Key powers: Roots (x2 normal damage of other AoE immobs), Seeds of Confusion, Carrion Creepers.

- GRAVITY, although I've put it in the category of "Elemental Damage" technically straddles the line into an "Elemental Debuff," both in the sense of offering debuffs and its lowered damage. It gets two direct damage attacks, but neither is particularly good. Its debuff (-Speed) is also not that useful because you can immobilize most enemies anyway. It has no good fast recharging AoE controls, no good AoE damage powers, and single target attacks that are either very slow or less damaging than similar powers in other sets. What it does have is a pretty good (but unhealable) pet and a teleport-foe power that is more "interesting" than "reliably useful." I rate this as the weakest control set by several leagues. It is in need of deep improvements before I'd recommend it, unless you simply like the challenge or the concept. Key powers: Wormhole, Singularity.


The Psionic-Setup group consists of the final two Control sets: Illusion and Mind. Both have access to an extremely powerful single target Confuse power that lets them set up the battlefield before alerting enemies. Other powers in these sets also stress setting up the field to your advantage before launching your alpha attack. However, neither set has AoE immobilizers for AoE Containment.

- ILLUSION carries the Controller AT heavily toward the flavor of Mastermind. It trades AoE control for extra pets and the ability to essentially serve as a tank. In this case the pets are solid (in fact, invulnerable) performers. Like a Mastermind, Illusion works great solo and some of the best combos can solo AVs. However, this independence does not necessarily translate into amazing performance on a team, where handling hordes of enemies is often required. In particular, it can struggle with large ambushes relative to other sets. A few powers in Illusion Control bypass ranged defense. Key powers: Phantom Army, Spectral Terror, Deceive, Phantasm.

- MIND is both the sister set and the polar opposite of Illusion. It does great single target damage compared to other sets. However, it both lacks a pet and reliable Containment, meaning fighting elite bosses and AVs is extremely challenging. By trading out the pet it gets an extra AoE control, which is an asset on a team but possibly a pain solo. Mind boasts 4 good AoE mezzes, but two of them let enemies shoot back at you and the remaining two are on rather long (240 second) recharges. All powers in Mind Control bypass Ranged defense. Key powers: Confuse, Mass Confusion, Terrify, Mass Hypnosis.

Hmm.

"He's a sword-wielding drug-addicted librarian who dotes on his loving old ma. She's a green-fingered thirtysomething nun with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!"

Love it.

Despite what you are likely to hear Dual Pistols does not really underperform. It's advantage is the choice of secondary effect. The ability to turn knockback on and off, for example, actually puts it somewhat ahead of Energy Blast from a practical standpoint because it doesn't knock enemies out of its own blast area. IMO it is one of the better Defender secondaries because it actually does debuffing well, and the crashless-ness of the nuke means a lot to several of the Defender primaries.

Any of those should work well. The Ice/Therm is probably the most independent of them after getting the pet. Though that's not saying much.

I have never played an Ice Controller without a heal of some kind so I don't know how well Ice/Cold works in practice. My tactics (lots and lots of Arctic Air) sometimes cause me to take hits on Ice/Therm and Ice/Rad. Ice/FF meanwhile is very low damage but if you spend some money you can get excellent defense.

Ice/TA I have never seen in the field. I imagine it has some trouble keeping the pet alive but that's a guess based on what I've seen with other sets. Jack is unfortunately rather fragile. An advantage would be the option to switch off between melee and ranged though, depending on the situation.

The way I'd propose to fix Sonic is a little weird.

Basically what I'd like is for Sonic Siphon to work as it currently does, but the "siphoned" energy result in the creation of a "sonic anomaly" near the target. This would just be an unmoving pet with no attacks, possibly using the "mote" animation. The anomaly would provide a small endurance boost as long as it is in existence. Because it's a pet, you can also hang your toggles on it.

This would solve several of Sonic's issues at once:

- Lower the brutal endurance costs
- Provide better options to use the toggles, especially solo or with non-melee team mates. Need a knock aura? Siphon an enemy in the location you need it. Need to debuff an enemy while standing back? Create one siphon on one end of the field and a knockback on the other. And so on.

I would then simply lower the recharge of Liquefy to 240 or 180.

Clarity may simply be unfixable. One option would be to make it capable of dispelling illusions, but I don't have any sense of how this would work. Or it could add resistance and protection from Psi attacks like Indomitable Will offers.

I have a 50 Ice/Rad I play some time. The build (which you will notice I didn't actually finish) is posted below. It's pretty much an all-Recharge build. Note the 3 unused slots, which I'm wavering on how to spend.

Like someone said you don't necessarily need to be soft capped. Although I think having some Ranged Defense can be helpful. The power Indomitable Will from the Psi pool is probably the most critical I can recommend though.

The power that is probably the most controversial is the pool Invisibility power. It's the one that suppresses your attacks while its active. Normally I am not a fan of it and take Super Speed with a Stealth IO instead. On this build though, the attack suppression gives me the ability to walk into melee with Arctic Air and Choking Cloud running, detoggle, and immediately hit Glacier to tag enemies with all three powers at once. I still take some damage but it does work rather reliably on even-levels.

Note Ice Slick is slotted with Range to maximize the ability to cast around corners (I don't need Recharge because the amount of global being generated). Used this way it is a very reliable alpha breaker, which solo Ice otherwise lacks. Keep in mind though that this build only really solos at 50. I always teamed on my way up, even sometimes running sewer teams to keep the experience flowing.


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

w : Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Ice Control
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Block of Ice -- BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(5), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(3), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(5), Dct'dW-Rchg(19), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(19)
Level 2: Radiation Infection -- Achilles-ResDeb%(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(15), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(15), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(17), DarkWD-ToHitDeb(17), LdyGrey-%Dam(34)
Level 4: Accelerate Metabolism -- Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(23), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(34)
Level 6: Arctic Air -- CoPers-Conf%(A), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(7), Mlais-Dam%(7), Mlais-EndRdx/Conf(9), C'phny-EndRdx/Conf(9), C'phny-Dam%(13)
Level 8: Frostbite -- TotHntr-Dam%(A), GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(31), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(36), GravAnch-Hold%(37), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(40), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(43)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(11)
Level 12: Ice Slick -- Range-I(A), Range-I(46)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(43)
Level 18: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(37)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Lingering Radiation -- RechRdx-I(A), Acc-I(23)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(25)
Level 26: Glacier -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(27), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(27), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(36), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(36)
Level 28: Choking Cloud -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(29), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(29), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(31), UbrkCons-Dam%(31), Lock-%Hold(34)
Level 30: Grant Invisibility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 32: Jack Frost -- ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33)
Level 35: Invisibility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold(A), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg(39), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(39), UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg(39), UbrkCons-Hold(40)
Level 41: Indomitable Will -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(42), LkGmblr-Rchg+(42)
Level 44: Mental Blast -- Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(45), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Decim-Acc/Dmg(46), Apoc-Dam%(46)
Level 47: Psionic Tornado -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(48), Posi-Dam%(48), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), FrcFbk-Rechg%(50)
Level 49: Mind Over Body -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 4: Ninja Run

I'm not a fan of Sonic Resonance in its current form.

We've mentioned the "cage" power. Also touched on the hefty endurance cost of Disruption Field (too high, IMO).

Let's look at some of its other issues:
- On a character without a pet, 2 powers that would otherwise debuff cannot be used
- One of these two (Sonic Repulsion) is jaw droppingly, call-your-ex-girlfriend-long-distance-from-Egypt terrible
- The extra resistance it provides over Thermal is matched if the Thermal casts the AoE heal one time
- Clarity. Because what every team secretely needs is a second anti-mezz? On a 90 second duration so that most of the time it does nothing because your teammates are inside your bubble?
- Liquefy. I'm always surprised by the praise this power receives. It's a hodge-podge of thrown together abilities on a very long recharge. It does poor damage and poor control. The only thing going for it is the -ToHit and maaaybe the -Defense. The knockdown rate is only about 3%, or roughly less than half as good as Earthquake. If it were on a 180 second recharge it would come in at about the strength of other sets.

Not having too many powers you want to pick from, by the way, is never an advantage.

I would give Ill/Rad, Ill/Kin, Ill/Storm, and Ill/Cold all high marks. There isn't a "best" one.

As far as any of them being the "most powerful," "most flexible," etc, I would just say not particularly. Illusion Control is basically a Mastermind set with a few controls thrown in. It's very good at the same things Masterminds tend to be good at and has one really good single target mezz (Deceive). Like a Mastermind it does well solo and against AVs. It's AoE control is uniformly third-rate compared even to Fire Control. You can take a secondary to sort-of fix this, but so could any other primary. IMO while Illusion is a great set, it's barely a control set at all.

The thing is, for playing 'pet master' Thermal walks all over Sonic. With Sonic you get the debuff ring with it's -22% resistance. But against a +4 enemy the ring degrades in quality down to just -11% resistance. Thermal's Forge power alone provides +40% damage to the stone pet. This degrades somewhat because we assume you're slotting the pet for damage, but it still ends up doing more than 11% damage. Then you get to throw Melt Armor on top of that, which while not up as often as the Sonic ring will provide the exact same AoE -resistance as Sonic's debuff ring would have.

In terms of resistance, one cast of Warmth alone provides almost as much mitigation as Sonic's big bubble. After 2 or 3 casts there is pretty much no competition. Both have the same radius. The only extra thing Sonic brings there is the AoE mezz protection.

Again I don't want to dictate to you what to play. You may find it to be your cup of tea, but IMO it has some heavy downsides.

Before you roll this combo I just want to throw in there that Earth/Thermal may be a better pick for you. You may discover you feel differently from me, but I've never found Sonic Resonance to deliver as a powerset. Too many of the powers simply fail to deliver and the endurance cost is high. Liquefy sounds great when you read about it but in practice it's a Tier 1 AoE blast mixed with a -ToHit effect. The -Defense is barely meaningful by the time you work your way up to this power and the knockdown rate (3% per pulse) is lower than any other knock-zone. Clarity is a seriously WTH power... no idea why it was put in this powerset.

On the other hand it may just be that I'm still bitter about my Fire/Sonic Controller and Sonic/Dark Defenders. They're just... not very effective compared to my other toons. And the Fire/Sonic consumes so much endurance he's nearly unplayable.