Can we talk about the controller role honestly?!

Anyone else concerned about the direction the controller role is going? There seems to be a lot of: " We don't need a troll" in content these days, more so than ever before in the past that I can recall. ( Maybe before revamp, but support roles in general were all out of whack) and I don't even have to mention advanced mechanic days lol . I've had it happen to me on all 3 builds: battle, buff and power troll. This game is far too DPS focused imo and it seems to be getting progressively worse. New players build hybrid builds before they focus on one role, which is a testament to the direction the game is heading. Controllers are misunderstood as a whole, because the role is ever changing. Power trolls used to be the standard, now it's the buff build. At one point: you needed two controllers in raids, now some groups don't even want one. It's a far cry from the glory days of the troll was pivotal to complete difficult content. There's seem to be quite a bit of confusion as to what the troll is actually doing in content, so I've come up with some ideas that might help:


Fix the dominance to scale with cc effects. ( Prior to revamp this was an actual thing) Every 1k dom would add extra duration for cc effects or something along those lines.
The immunity resistance probably needs to be looked at as well, this is a major point of contention with some controllers and some tanks, especially in end game content. I also tank and it does not bother me personally if a troll is stunning or encasing adds, but many tanks do not like it.
Fix the power out to include pot passive from trolls ( This used to be included on the scoreboard back when pot wasn't passive and you had to cast power over time) it does not even show up at all on the scoreboard, but it shows in the combat log. So if you're actually giving the group power through your passive pot, the group might not even notice it.
Reduce the power given from purple healing ray so trolls are needed again ( I end game heal too and the power given back by this art at high levels makes the troll basically useless in terms of power in most content)
Reduce the passive power given by oracle and cyborg slightly.
Add enemies debuffed to the scoreboard or the amount debuffed. How much defense did you debuff? How much did you lower enemy and bosses attacks?
Add teammates buffed to the scoreboard ( This would make the most sense since trolls are now predominantly viewed as buffers for the other roles)

These changes would help the role as a whole and would also help the community understand exactly what the controller is doing in content. The troll is the most dynamic role in the game, so much so that people can't even accurately judge how good a controller is by looking at the scoreboard or how it " feels" having one around vs a DPS. If players take the attitude of we can just burn through content, the troll is seemingly becoming obsolete in quite a bit of content. I enjoy the variability that we get with controlling as a whole, I'd just like to it to truly reflect what the troll is actually doing in content. There's so many different ways for people to receive power through arts and allies, the power troll build is pretty much useless for most content ( there's outliers of course: like low sp groups, gadgets precision etc. ) generally speaking, that seems to be true. The controller role has to figure out what it wants to be.

Ps. I'm not advocating for any particular controller style, just trying to be as objective as possible.

Trolls, feel free to chime in your thoughts and ideas. Anyone else is welcome to share their ideas as well.

The CC/breakout/immunity mechanic could use some tweaking for better synergy between trolls and tanks. However most of those issues can be mitigated currently by trolls simply paying attention to how the tank is juggling/CCing and knowing how/when to use their CCing debuff powers to work with what the tank is doing.

Content doesn't need trolls. Players want buffs, debuffs, and power.
Neither of these require a controller.

Hard content NEEDS DPS.
Hard content NEEDS TANKs.
Hard content NEEDS HEALERs.

Until content is made to need a controller, a controller is the first to be either nixed or thinned down on.

Interactions with several devs over the years proved they think controllers trivialize content. It's why breakout profiles exist. It does baffle me that if they think that, why not build content like War of the Light 1, where you need a controller to be successful. If encounters needed a controller, the role would have saw a different change over the years. Now players have created this monster of being a buff troll always in their inventory swapping artifacts. If they don't have the artifacts, they are not needed and only the debuffs make an impression on players.

Controller is the only role that they sell all the mechanics that should be part of what makes the role back to them, where all the other roles have theirs built in and anything sold is just an increase of what they already can do. It's funny.

There is a reason why I level up my DPS Augs, gear..etc first. I loved the troll role. Nothing was more satisfying...especially if solo when I would get random tells about how I played the troll role. It was fun. Now, I just do it to fill a spot in a raid group.

Now its...
1) Buff me..
2) You ain't swapping?
3) You better have 16 level 200 artifacts to swap as a troll, or you're trash.
4) Why aren't you running *insert this artifact*?
5) Stop cc'ing.
6) We don't need you to troll...go DPS...etc...etc...etc.

Personally, I had a better time as a troll when we were just regulated to battery, and that's saying quite a bit.

Trolls are by far the most versatile role in the game. It’s not the games fault that the majority of the player base is clueless as to why the role is strong. Sure it can explain things better. But let’s be real. Most players just skip past all the important text.

A trolls debuffs are not dependent on stats. So I’m elite alerts a troll power dps can dps in troll role to give the group base PoT while also adding a def debuff to make the runs go faster (smoother).
A full troll can switch out troll gear for dps gear to lower their dom in order to stay under the dom value while stills having a troll spec to maintain power.
A troll can do a full troll build and put up some decent damage (when done correctly) without being a battle troll.
A buff troll can make a good dps burn a lot quicker to make runs go quicker
Trolls from a solo play style can use aggro dumps to solo content as easily as tank powers (except HL. Seriously HL needs a detaunt)

Just because some do not know how to use a troll power and troll role to its full potential does not mean the role is bad.

yeah, I got a troll build. never used it. not once. no one wants a battery troll. it's either battle troll or bugger off, it seems, & I ain't goin' all sweaty for no one. don't want a battery troll? it's cool. I'll just carry on hitting stuff, then.

This post is more of a shot at players not understanding trolls usefulness or how to actually troll. Like DietySupreme said they are the most versatile role in the game. Top leagues want great trolls because they make everything easier. They make runs faster, you deal with less mechs, everyone is sturdier. Can you complete content without a troll? Sure, but it is a ton easier to complete elite raids and above with one. Good trolls are far more rare than good tanks, the players just don’t notice because trolls aren’t responsible for just one thing.

Not all hard content needs a healer. I see a *lot* of groups running elite content with just a tank, because everything is a one-shot anyway. The last 2 elite alerts are extreme examples of this, but not the only ones.

But getting back to your main point (which I agree with completely btw)...

PFTT / pure might eliminated the need for power. The buff that hybrid styles gives to resto/dom/vit is not large enough to demand that players go that route to play their role. Many if not most healers and tanks choose superpowered and so have no need of a troll for power. Many if not most trolls do likewise so they don't have to be concerned with regenerating their own power. I feel like that's the root cause of the problems with controllers.

Art Swapping: because trolls don't have to manage their own power anymore they might as well spend their spare time in their inventory finding more buffs they can add to the group.

I run the standard, RAO, CoG, Tetra setup with the occasional swap to DKS if dropping an orbital, or the occasional claw swap. The rest can get bent. I don't have the patience if I am required to live in my inventory swapping rings...etc. If the group wants that....they can simply find a different troll or do all that living in their inventory themselves, which is probably macro related anyway.

Power Healing was a tiny part of what a controller does. Just like now it's buff and debuf. Which again, is "optional" and can be eliminated without impacting the run even back in the day when power trolls were loved (loose term) by the community.

Content needs mechanics designed for a controller to put them into a necessary spot. We've only seen it happen a handful of times and even then, they mostly could be forced through by more burn.

BTW, I am always talking raids here. Alerts always had a role or three not needed.

As long as the raid instance doesn't require a specific artifact to complete the mechanic, or make it easier for that matter..I'm all in on adding mechanics that are troll specific. I would also be in for similar type mechanics in alerts as well.

I love my trolly polly I can give power or even buff the group. My polly can also battle troll and that is very amusing and fun hehe hehe. In my experience player's who know what they are doing can manage their power just fine and even so having a buff troll buff the group makes everything go faster. The stronger the dps in the group the better.

The current DLCs raid at the second boss could have been a controller fight but the Lasso artifact being usable by anyone kind of negates that. It's the type of in boss fight event that should allow trolls to shine and I would like to see a bit more of this type of thing. To be clear, I have no issue with the use of Lasso to wrangle the door adds. But pulling in raids really should be restricted to the roles that satisfy the dominance requirements.

But other than that, I really don't see the troll roll as being in that bad a state. It being excluded has to do more with player ignorance than a fault in the role. Even during event difficulty content, as funny as it sounds, you can feel the difference a troll makes. A troll debuffing and providing power adds more to a group than many are willing to admit. Is a troll that can do that and buff the group better? Sure. Is a troll that can do that and swap to 357813 artifacts even better still? Yes. But the benefits that a troll provides the group, even at a base level, is highly beneficial.

Disclaimer: I don't troll. Don't even have a troller powerset that I play outside of a throw away character that I keep around so I can remind myself how unfun I find light.

Trolls are useless when it comes to their actual job: crowd control. This happened when stats revamp came out. Since cc is now useless, that left us as batteries. Then arts came out and now ppl have stuff to manage power (if you can manage your power…cough cough) and devs gave us buff arts. Now trolls are buff trolls and that’s that. Debuffs are still there but those haven’t changed a bit (amulet is a joke with that fake 50% when it just 7% x 1.5 and not 7% -> 50%).

Don’t complain if out of power. Trolls have good chance of running claw and that’s all the power you be getting. Spec better!

Meh, I've trolled since launch, and I'll Troll until they shut down the servers. I'm having fun, and it's my game too.

Since day one controllers are only ever needed in raids not duo's or alerts but today we have buff trolls and damage trolls and og troll. Main problems i see is when someone ask about trolling i have heard league leaders tell them to set up a buff troller but these trolls have no sp to put into anything. Then you have damage trolls that are still bottom of board under tank and heals. This is why we say we don't need trolls because most don't do the job and they are only a body. Then you have buff trolls that won't switch to power troll when a healer has to spam heals. When I asking as the troll buff or power troll I am not asking a dps opinion i am asking first the healer and tank. If I do have to power i just swap claw for strategists card if I have no other troll arts

Trolling is a bit of a thankless job these past few years. I'll take the old school way of throwing PoT over the every power starts PoT mechanic. It hasn't felt good in the hands since then and it seems like the masses got their wishes granted. I hate this subject. GOML.

Really good insight here. The value of a particular support role is often judged by a player or group of players' closest reference. In this case, if we know useless hybrid or battery trolls, we're more likely to see controller or variations of controller as useless. The opposite is also true; I play with trolls I'd gladly run a duo beside, but I only know one who likes to duo in support role.

One of the cases made by the op directly addresses the way the way a (good) troll affects teammates and npcs. If the all-knowing scorecard shared the composite of a troll's dealt-damage plus the loss of health of enemies attacked due to a constant shield symbol below their healthbar, the basic narrative may change somewhat. But still, a so-called battle troll doing less than standard tanks and healers? yikes.

Might need to respec the healer loadout if running out of power. Purple, superpowered, omega, cyborg, oracle, power gen mods, some good things to have to not run out of power.

I run basically everything as a battle buff troll in dps gear. No issues for me. But I laugh at those who can’t manage their own power. I get that claw takes away the power dump, but damn, the game has many items to help restore power and I would suggest using some of them. There is a big difference between running something buffed and not buffed, ngl.