Batterys How To Play A Controller

Page 3 Index return to Main Index

Due to character post limits the hyperlink index is divided. Use the link above to return to the main index. Note that this list is only some of the topics in the guide, those from this point onward.

• Power transfers
  • When to Transfer
  • The point In The Battle
  • The level of your power regeneration combo
  • Who has the least
  • Watch the fan
  • Dilution
• Weapon Control Effects and Immunity
• Enemy Management
  • Primary Effects
    • Stuns
    • Roots
    • Knock Backs
    • Juggles
    • Encase
    • Helplessness
    • Panic
    • Damage
• Shielding
  • Strength
    • Hard Light Strength
    • Mental Shield Strength
    • Gadgets Shield Strength
• The Importance Of Control Effects
  • Mitigation Control
    • Damage Mitigation
    • Control Mitigation
      • Pacify
      • Shield
      • Position Control
      • Focus
      • Locate
  • Debuffing
    • Defence Debuff
    • Damage Debuff
    • Healing Debuff
• Being Effective
  • Common mistakes to avoid
    • Forgetting Pot
    • Debuffing Trash
    • Debuffing too soon
    • Pulling onto the healer
    • Pulling onto objectives
    • Interfering with tank
    • Learn the team
• Increasing your Effectiveness.
  • Vitalisation Trinket Rotations and should you share POT duty
  • Dangers of boosting vitalisations
  • Effectiveness Paths
    • Purchased Based Path
    • Action Based Path
    • Purchased and Action Based Interaction
    • Cascading Passive Crossovers
    • Controller Specific Crossovers and Cascades
    • Conclusion
• Approaches to Playing as a Controller

The topics below are hyper linked from the next section index. go to the next section index.

• Controlling styles
  • Batteries
  • Surgeons
  • Tacticians
  • Strategists
• Single POT Caster
  • Should a single caster handle POT if his vitalisation is higher?
• Bonus POT Tick or Zero Tick
• Combinations
• Dangers of Boosting Vitalisation
• POT and Power Between Controllers
  • Should controllers bounce power between each other?
• Pot Cancelling
• Power Maximising

• What can we conclude

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Power Transfers return to Main Index or return to this sections index


One aspect of controlling is using Power transfers to move your power to other members of the team. Power transfers are not power dumps. Strong controllers do not just dump power at the group without thought. Using a power transfer to give power must be done in a considered fashion. Deciding when to act and when to hold on is critical to maintaining your levels and ensuring the right person gets power at the right time.
Power transfers are cast by using one of 3 powers:

• Hard Light
  • Recharge
• Gadgets
  • Defibrillator
• Mental
  • Psychic Empowerment

When to Transfer

Only three people will get power when you use the transfer ability. These will be the three players who have the least power at the time.
The power transfer powers are:

• Gadgets : Defibrillator
• Hard Light : Recharge
• Mental : Psychic Empowerment

There are four key factors to consider:

1. The point of the battle.
2. The level of your power regeneration combo.
3. Who has the least.
4. Watch the fan.

N.b note that you get a precision and might bonus for 6 seconds after you cast a power transfer ability

The point In The Battle

At the beginning of a battle, if everyone has a full power bar there is no need to transfer power. Leave it until power levels start to fall. When they do ensure that the people with the least power have enough room in their power bar to accept the full amount you transfer.

At the end of a battle it is best to let the POT tick people up until the next fight. Transfer power if some are drained but if the next fight is 25 seconds away let a fresh POT series complete before transferring power. However if during this period your power is full, do transfer some power as this will be replenished by the POT
The level of your power regeneration combo

Power Regeneration

If you hit an enemy just once you get back 2 Supercharge per second for eight seconds and 10 Power per second (at base vit. It's around 14 power at 1000 vit)

All weapons give the user a power regeneration level (tier) when used to build combos. This power return is based on the length of the weapon combo you perform. At each Tier you will regenerate 9 ticks of power and 8 ticks of supercharge even if you cut your combo short before the next tier.

Most Weapons

Tier 1 range: 1-11 (White)

Tier 2 range: 12-26 (Blue)

Tier 3 range: 27-50 (Orange)

Tier 4 range: 51+ (Yellow)

This is important for controllers. You must keep your power regeneration high so you can help the team with transfers if needed. You can control on the POT only, but this is a harder play style and I will not be covering it here.

If you are shooting the enemy and have built a combo of 9 you will generate 10 power per tick (base value). If at this point someone is desperately low on power you could transfer power to help them. The best option here (exceptions exist. I'll mention those in a second) is to ignore the power and build your combo to the next tier. Of A combo 2 is the same power regeneration as a combo of 11. Unless you cross that threshold of 12 to the next tier you will only generate the same power as if you had only hit twice. So keep going until 12 then stop and transfer power

Exceptions exist. If things are dire; both healers (the only healer) is dry and if damage is expected, stop and drop immediately. If the healer is dry but incoming damage is low and the group could survive a few hits, keep going.

Another exception is if while you are building your combo your power bar fills up. Make space in your power bar for the power you are generating by passing some of it off to others.

Who has the least

Only the three players lowest on power get the power from your transfers. The healers and tank are priority for power. A tank cannot buff himself without any power and with the healers low the group will die. If the three lowest players are all DPS but the healer is low too but still higher than the DPS, wait for the healers' power to drop (or transfer twice)

Look who will get your power and if these are the best people. Waiting to ensure the most in need get it can be better than transferring power twice.

Watch the fan

..... and what is going to hit it. If it looks like the fight is about to ramp up, Adds arrive or the boss is close to enraging make sure everyone has plenty of power to deal with the upcoming onslaught.

Dilution

If there are two controllers in your group be aware not to just pass power between each other as this can leak power from the group. This is subject to some complex circumstances and math. The detail is given in the "POT and power between controllers" section.

As the base rule however do not drain your own power too low. Balance your power bar so that neither controller has too little or too much.

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Weapon Control Effects and Immunity return to Main Index or return to this sections index

***UNDER CONSTRUCTION 100% incomplete***

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Enemy Management return to Main Index or return to this sections index


Managing the enemy is the core task of the controller. When you use a power on yourself or on a target it will have one of several primary effects:

1. Stuns
2. Roots
3. Knock Backs
4. Juggles
5. Encase
6. Helplessness
7. Panic
8. Damage

And possibly a secondary effect:

1. Power Over Time
2. Healing Debuff
3. Defence Debuff
4. Damage Debuff
5. Damage Buff
6. Power Interaction

Picking the right control, or mix of controls for more advanced players for a given situation makes a noticeable difference to the progress and success of your team.

Primary Effects

The primary effects are useful in varying situations. They affect the enemies in different ways. If the target is effected depends upon its' willpower and upon its' immunity. If your Dominance is lower than their willpower you will be unable to affect them.

Dominance is a statistic that comes from your controller gear, sodas, skill points and trinkets. Be aware that targets will be immune to your effect if they have been hit with that effect more than twice in a row.
Depending on your class and the power used these effects may hit a single target or they may hit several. Refer to a class specific guide for details on these.

Stuns
Stuns cause the target to remain locked in place for a set duration or until breakout. Some stuns also place a small damage over time tick on the target. Stunned targets do not engage in combat.

Roots
Roots affect enemies in the same manner as Stuns; locking them in place. The difference is that rooted targets may become vulnerable to secondary effects from the controller or another player.

Knock Backs
A knock back pushes your target away from you. Knock backs will also disable your targets combat abilities for a short time.

Juggles
Juggles lift the enemy into the air and holds them there for a set period of time. While juggled, targets cannot engage in battle.

Encase
These effects place a field around the target. While inside encasement the target will take some damage (except for Hard Lights encasements) and be unable to engage in combat. Targets will be held for a set time, after this period the target will break out of the encasement. Encased enemies can be picked up and carried or thrown.

Helplessness
This is an affect that is applied by all control effects that land. It is a power interaction that you or others can interact with. Some damage powers are increased in effectiveness against helpless enemies and some control effects are also boosted in the same way.

Panic
Panicked enemies will run around for a short period of time before reengaging with the group. They do not engage in combat during the period of panic.

See the guides specifically covering your chosen power set for greater detail on which of your powers have these effects. I do cover in some detail later on how these control effects can be used but not mention which specific class powers cause these effects.

Knock Down
Knocks the target to the floor leaving them combat disable until they can return to their feet.

Damage

As a controller you do not suffer any penalty to your damage when in controller stance. You will not however get the buffs to your damage as detailed in the descriptions of your powers, so your damage will by well below that of a DPS. Much of the damage you do inflict in a raid will be from your weapon because of the time you will spend using your weapon to help with your power regeneration. Your powers do inflict damage with use, but the amount of damage they do will also be limited due to the lack of the damage bonus that they would receive if you were in DPS stance.

Controllers can still do a decent amount of damage during a fight and you should aim to be using your weapon to build your combo tier and damage the enemy. Balance the damage you do with your powers against the amount of power they use and the available power to the group at that time. Do not burn all your power trying to damage the enemy if the POT has dropped or the healers.

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Shielding return to Main Index or return to this sections index

At their most basic level shields protect you and/or your team mates. But they can do much more than that.

Available shields
There are two types of shields available.

1. Personal
2. Group

Personal shields protect only the caster while group shields protect the caster and the other members of the group.

Each controller class has a personal shield and two have a group shield.

• Hard Light
  • Personal : Light Barrier
  • Group : Group Shielding
• Gadgets
  • Personal : Energy Shield
  • Personal : Distract
• Mental
  • Personal : Telekinetic Shield
  • Group : Bastion

Gadgets personal shield has a secondary effect which restores health should your health drop below 35%. Note also that gadgets has no group shield.

Hard Lights personal shield will also reflect some damage toward the enemy that hits it.

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Strength return to Main Index or return to this sections index

Casting a shield will put the team or yourself into a protective bubble that will break once it has absorbed a set amount of damage. The damage shields absorb is based on dominance and restoration. Simply casting them uses your gear and skill point dominance and restoration tally to calculate shield strength. But you can make them stronger by using your tools, if they have a dominance or restoration boost, before casting.



Shields do more than reduce damage however. They:

• Reduce damage which reduces the healing the team needs and thus healer power use.
• They reduce the likelihood of interrupts and thus recasts and again this saves power.
• Give people more chance to pick up a fallen team mate.
• Allow people to activate objectives uninterrupted.
• Stop stuns and thus breakouts which saves on power use.

Shields are very flexible tools. Think about their applications beyond just the damage reduction. They can be used in conjunction with the shields from other controllers, healers or tanks thus stacking the layers of protection around a player. Doing this provides a considerable amount of protection.


Hard Light Strength

• The damage prevention effect of Light Barrier scales and prevents damage equal to 50% of your Restoration and 100% Dominance score combined.
• The damage prevention effect of Group Shielding scales and prevents damage equal to 100% of your Restoration score and 100% of your Dominance combined.

Mental Shield Strength

• The damage prevention effect of Grandeur scales and prevents damage equal to 100% of your Restoration score and 100% of your Dominance combined.
• The damage prevention effect of Telekinetic Shield scales and prevents damage equal to 100% of your Restoration score and 100% of your Dominance combined.
• The damage prevention effect of Bastion scales and prevents additional damage equal to your Restoration and Dominance scores combined.
• The damage prevention effect of Reflect Pain Transfers 100% of incoming damage to your target for five seconds and is capped at 15% of your maximum health.

Gadgets Shield Strength

• The damage prevention effect of Distract scales and prevents damage equal to 100% of your Restoration score and 100% of your Dominance combined.
• The damage prevention effect of Neural Neutralizer scales and prevents damage equal to about 100% of your Restoration score and 100% of your Dominance combined. The shield now persists for five seconds.
• Energy Shield scales and prevents damage equal to 100% of your Restoration score and 100% of your Dominance combined.(this is subject to testing as details are not contained in GU17 patch notes)

It is your dominance and restoration score that determine the strength of your shield. Controller gear does not have a restoration statistic, but you can raise your restoration level with tools. Many restoration trinkets are locked to the healer role, but sodas and some pets are not.

Consider the type of tool you use based on the shield you are using. Dominance is doubled when you switch to controller mode. However the dominance gains from tools are not. They increase your dominance by a flat amount.

For a shield that uses 100% dominance and 100%Restoration choose which ever tool gives you the largest gain to one of those statistics. The tools available currently have larger restoration gains than those that exist with dominance gains. Some tools boost both dominance and vitalisation and if you are maintaining a higher POT then the vitalisation tool is more useful.

Mixing tools on your loadout can set you up for varying situations. Using a restoration soda and vitalisation, or vitalisation and dominance trinkets; can give you options for stronger shields and boosted power giving if and when situations arise that require them. This gives considerable flexibility to your controlling.

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The Importance Of Control Effects return to Main Index or return to this sections index



A groups' power usage depends on what is going on and where it is taking place. Control these and you control their power levels.

As a controller you bring a set of special skills to the battle. The main one that defines you is in your class name;control. There are two forms of control:

1. Mitigation control
2. Position control

Each of these in execution and application differs in effect, duration and timing depending on the Mobs and the players interacting with them. As an example : the effects on the battle flow of a stun on a group of 4 enemies before the tank tries to aggro them may be different than if stunned after the tank tries to aggro. Before can stop the aggro and hurt the groups efforts, after may reduce damage and thus help the group.

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Mitigation Control return to Main Index or return to this sections index

Each MoB you face will try to act against you or another member of your group. These actions take several forms :

1. Damage
2. Control

When applying a control effect to MoBs it is these actions you are trying to mitigate. Often the goal is not the obvious. In many circumstances the aim is power related.


Damage Mitigation

The aim of damage mitigation is not primarily to reduce the damage taken by a player but to mitigate it to achieve the desired secondary effect. Reducing the number of hits the tank takes reduces damage, but it is the secondary effect you are trying to maximise. Reducing the tanks damage reduces his power use and the healers power use in healing the damage the tank is taking.

This is passive power giving. The healer and the tank both use less power due to the action of controlling the MoBs around the tank. For the cost of a single stun you stop two players having to cast a power. This is why controlling is giving power. Power management and controlling are not separate
.
Damage is unavoidable and is not an issue for concern during a raid. It only becomes an issue if the damage being taken exceeds the ability to heal it. Damage control is handled by the tank who transfers it to himself from others, and by the controllers who control when and who takes it.

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Control Mitigation return to Main Index or return to this sections index

Control mitigation is to reduce frequency that control effects, such as stuns, juggles, knock backs and interrupts are applied to your team by the enemy. This is achieved via two approaches:

Pacify : This is when other players targets are unable to fight back effectively. This helps them build more power for themselves. Each group member regardless of their role will be attacking an enemy. Doing this helps them build their own weapon combos and thus generate larger amounts of power for themselves. Using control effects of any kind to ensure players are not interrupted leads to them building higher weapon combos. This leads to higher tier power generation. If they can get to tier 3 they generate 50% more power for themselves, at tier 4 its 100%. This equates to a lot of power over the duration of a raid.

The largest power effect of pacifying is the reduction in interrupts. Every time a player gets interrupted during a cast they use the same amount of power as if the cast had completed. They will then have to recast which in effect makes the power cost twice as much. Watch for when a player tries to cast long animation powers. Pacify their target or any MoB that is targeting them to ensure the cast completes. This stops a recast and that halves power use.

Shield : Shielding your team will help them complete their objective without being interrupted or damaged and in many cases controlled by the enemy.

Position Control

This form of control involves using your abilities to control the location and grouping of the MoBs currently attacking the group. Position control effects have the same primary goal as damage mitigation, to reduce power use. This is another form of passive power giving and this form has a twofold approach:

Focus : Focusing is when the maximum benefit is gained from a power cast at a target. Using power on a MoB is essential for all players to do their role. Helping them focus these moments of power use makes them more efficient. Hard hitting DPS powers will often hit in a cone in front of the DPS. Using stuns to stop the DPSs targets from splitting up and moving out of the cone ensures that the DPSs cast hits all intended targets. The power saving effect from this action is that the DPS will not have to recast again to hit the targets that moved from the cone. He can move to the next damage objective.

If a group of adds/MoBs spawn in they will often be grouped closely. But once spawned they will pick targets and spread out. Using stuns to maintain their grouping will mean attacks on them are focused and at full strength, hitting all the targets without the need to sweep up stragglers.

Use your powers to ensure that your groups power based attacks are fully focused and their targets are hit with the full effect of the power cast on them. Help them build combos by stopping them from getting interrupted. Both these reduce power use, which is the same as giving power.

Locate : This is controlling where and when MoBs are on the battlefield, and is a great assist to focusing. Using your pulls you can move MoBs from one place to another. Like focusing and Pacifying using these powers you can assist others and help their actions become more efficient and focused. Use your pulls to :

• Move Mobs off downed players to stop the reviver being interrupted
• Stop MoBs getting to objectives that would hurt the team
• Assist tanks in gathering MoBs around themMove MoBs away from ranged players so their combos are not interrupted.
• Remove enemies from the battle entirely but dragging of pushing them off geometry (over cliffs or behind walls for example)

The above examples control the where but controlling the when can save as much power and assist focusing just as much. Using encases or stuns you can stop enemies from entering the battle until the team is ready for them. If the team has a group under control but more MoBs enter the arena they are at risk of interrupts and control effects on them. Use your skills to delay this new group until the team is ready to deal with them.

Keeping a MoB under control stops it from acting upon the team. Each second you delay it can mean a great deal when it comes to hitting higher weapon combo tiers, getting a cast off uninterrupted or picking up a fallen comrade. Each of those actions increases the teams power pool more than a few points on a POT.

Watching what other players are trying to achieve and using control effects to aid them stops vast amounts of breakouts, recasts and interrupts. Each of these actions uses power, and stopping them from ever happeningreduces

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Debuffing return to Main Index or return to this sections index


As a controller, it's also your responsibility to help even the odds in a fight by reducing the combat abilities of your enemies. That means the following:

• Defence Debuff:
  • To help your team's DPS be more effective against bosses and the stronger or more annoying enemies, you can reduce an enemy's defence stat by 7% when using Whip Thrash against them.
• Damage Debuff:
  • To help with hard-hitting enemies you can reduce the amount of damage they do by 7% when casting either Light Weight or grasping hand against them
• Healing Debuff:
  • To help with enemies that can heal others as well as anyone receiving heals, you can apply a ~60% healing reduction to the healer or a ~25% reduction in heals received for anyone being healed.

Your defence, healing and damage debuffs can only be applied to one target per cast. While entrap or light blast may hit several enemies, only the one you were targeting will be debuffed.

Each power set can cast a power that applies any of the available debuffs:

• Defence Debuff - Reduces Defence
  • Gadgets:
    • Gauss Grenade
    • Stasis Field
  • Light:
    • Whip Thrash
  • Mental:
    • Phantom Flames
    • Thought Bubble
• Damage Debuff - Reduces Damage Output and Removes any Damage buff
  • Gadgets:
    • Vortex Cannon
    • Sleep Dart
  • Light:
    • Grasping Hand
    • Light Weight
  • Mental:
    • Cryokinesis
    • Terrorize
• Healing Debuff - Reduces Healing Output and Stops Power Over Time effects
  • Gadgets:
    • Napalm Grenade
    • Cyro-Foam
  • Light:
    • Entrap
    • Light Blast
    • Snap Trap
  • Mental:
    • Horrific Visage
    • Pyrokinesis

7% defence debuff

A defence debuffed target has a red shield under their name :

This may seem like a small percentage but turn it round and consider it as a buff. In effect you are increasing the entire groups' damage by 7%. That's the same as suddenly upgrading every ones weapons from 125 dps to 133 dps or increasing the DPS running 500 precision to 535. A 35 point increase in precision is not small. This buff also crosses the whole team and in a raid of 8 people the sum total of the increase in might and precision is equivalent to there being another non DPS player in the raid hitting the boss.
It's expected that a controller will have the defence debuff on their loadout and will ensure that bosses and strong single target enemies are debuffed for the duration of a fight

7% Damage decrease Debuff

A damage debuffed target has a red target under their name:

While the defence debuff is good the damage one has limited advantages. I do not carry it in my loadout. Consider :

You get hit by a big hit of 2000 (about 2/3 of a T3.5/4 controllers gear health). The dubuff reduces this by 140 to 1860. 140 is below the amount most healers HOTs will tick for. It is unlikely this amount will be the difference between life and death.

The other side of this is the passive power effect. Healers do not have to heal that 140 damage. But if you take a hit this big the healer will use their big single heal regardless, which uses a set amount of power no matter the damage you took. So one hit one unit of power to heal. I would not recommend this on your loadout.

Healing Debuff

A healing debuffed target has a heart under their name:

Very useful in PvP, of benefit in PvE. There are some MoBs in the game that heal their target. The Zetta drone in BC2 and healer bots in PBG are just two examples. It is a advantage to your team to slow these enemies ability to heal the target. Hitting the target itself will also limit to a lesser extent the heals it receives.

It is not always required to have this debuff on your loadout. It is useful in some specific, but infrequent circumstances. The team should manage fine without you heal debuffing.

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Being Effective return to Main Index or return to this sections index


The previous sections covered the skills you can access, how they work and how you can think about applying control to an instance. To be an effective controller you will need to focus on all of these aspects.

As was covered in the "importance of control effects section" you need to use your abilities to help the team. An effective controller takes action with purpose. An active controller will be casting stuns, damaging enemies and giving power. But there is a difference between an active controller and an effective one. Throwing stuns onto a target just because it happens to be the closest one at that time is being active but not being effective.

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Common mistakes to avoid return to Main Index or return to this sections index


Forgetting Pot
Dropping the POT is dropping the ball. There are almost no ‘always' when playing a controller. A flexible approach has advantages over a rigid one. But the POT is an exception. The team will struggle for power if there is no POT. So always keep it up.

Debuffing Trash
Debuffing targets is useful for the team. It helps the threats die faster or deal less damage. But debuffing costs power to cast so should be used on targets that would benefit the team. Choose targets that are being focused by the DPS or that are attacking the tank. Avoid low health, high volume MoBs. Identify the single biggest threat in the room and debuff that.

Debuffing too soon
When you debuff a target consider its current aggro state first. If the biggest threat in the room has not yet focused on the tank, allow the tank a few seconds to gain aggro first. Aggro is caused by power use and using a debuff on the target before the tank has a chance may cause the target to focus on you.
Debuffs have an 8 second duration so will need to be reapplied. Ensure that you do not just debuff the same target without considering any changes or new threats in the battle. Check the tanks, check the DPS and check the room again. Then if it is still the biggest threat, reapply. Otherwise move to a new target.

Pulling onto the healer
Pulls are great for moving targets away from downed or very low health team mates or for clearing room around objectives. Whatever the reason for the pull take care to ensure that the targets position after the pull is not right next to a healer.

Pulling onto objectives
Like the issue caused if you pull onto a healer, avoid pulling targets into an objective. Some targets will path to a location. On arrival they may trigger more Adds or become more powerful. Make sure you are not giving them a free ride to their location.

Interfering with tank
Controller stuns are strong and will often out-do a tanks. If the tank is gathering MoBs let him collect them before controlling them. It is a waste of power if the tank has to try several times to pull a target to him. But a tanks can still aggro a controlled target. When your effect wears of the tank will still retain the aggro. Sometime the stun my move you up the hate table, but this occurs mainly when the tank does not maintain an aggro cycle.

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Learn the team return to Main Index or return to this sections index


Being a good controller is not just about excelling at your tasks. It is also about knowing your teams strengths and weaknesses and adjusting to fill and voids that there may be.

Controllers can do many things. We can do good damage, not as much as a DPS but a solid amount. We can shield to protect health like healers and we can stun and root and pull enemies like a tank.

If your tank is gathering MoBs but the attacks on him are very strong he may be forced to block before the gathering task is finished. Assist him if needed by helping move targets to him with pulls or by stunning the MoBs around him to reduce his damage in.

If the groups DPS is overwhelmed switch focus from lots of control effects to a slightly more damage focused attack to assist, or increase controls effect to help the DPS focus or concentrate on giving power via transfers and weapon regeneration to bolster the amount of damage the DPS can do via more casts. If the healers heals seem low, weak or poorly timed, use your shield in times of strain.

Each team is different. Watch what they are doing and work to assist them. Each class knows their role. The tank enters the room and picks the biggest threat to aggro, DPS target the enemies in the order that best suits their rotation and power set strengths; balanced against the size of the threat. Healers position themselves to AOE heal or shield hose who need it.

Then you cruise into the room, all strong shoulders and firm abs and you think:

"POTs out....Hmmm, the DPS have chosen those guys on the left there. I'll hold them still for him, let him get his fire burst off uninterrupted. Now usually when I do this that group of guys in the corner need stunning but today, since we have a HL DPS who's good on single target he's over the other side on that big guy we usually do last. I'll lunge on over and dubuff the big guy then pull the little ones over, save the DPS from walking over when he's done with the big guy. Looking at the health bars; all seems okay, I'll save the shield, but I see load of Adds spawning in near the tank. Looks like the tank is about to take a beating. I'll pop over and stun them all, give him time to get his buff up. A flash of colour and a new wave spawns in, but the DPS is busy. I'll chuck an encase on them, keep them out the fight for a bit till the DPS is free. Now my combo is at a good tier I'll drop a bit of power."
In other terms, you don't just head off and do what you think is best regardless. Look what the group is doing and help them do it better. Pay attention to them, not expect them to pay attention to you.

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Vitalisation Trinket Rotations and should you share POT duty
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Ill start with the answer on sharing PoT duty then detail 3 strong rotations.

Co-operating controllers should share POT duty to cover the 15% gap in Trinket boosted POT ticks if maximum POT is desired.

This is only for those seeking optimisation. This approach is not required to complete any content in the game. Any controller can use these rotations whether they are PoT shareing or not.
This is based on optimum trinket rotation. Ill use graphs later on to show these rotations but first there are a few very important caveats if overriding PoT ticks is a concern to you:

• Both controllers need to be co-operating and aware of the decision to share POT.
• One controller should lead while the other fill.
• Fill must not have on trinket ticks below leads base.

This means in pick up groups or queued content care needs to be taken. But it is a simple arrangement :

Basic Rule

If you have agreed to have a single PoT caster and you see base ticks as non PoT caster; then use you trinket if your trinket ticks are higher than the PoT casters base tick.

Fill controller PoTs when PoT ticks at the leads base.. Doing this will keep POT optimised at close to 100% boost for the entire content. It is very difficult to reach 100% because to maximise transfers both controllers need to be on the 80% or 85% maximum rotations; and doing this sometimes leave both controllers with no trinkets available to use.

The best mix for PoT sharing is a two 77% controllers sharing POT unless on controller has over 2000 more vitalisation then go with a 77% filler and an 85% lead.

Rotations

Using utility belts allows the controller to carry 3 trinkets. Currently The Summer Event/pumpkin trinkets, FOS2/Bat Cave and CC Trinkets do not share cool downs and allow a rotation of all three. There are three main rotations, one using two trinkets the others all three. The two trinket rotation gives 77% on trinket PoT and transfers, the three trinket rotations give 80% and 85%. 85% is the maximum reasonable on trinket rotation for a single controller.

Casting PoT on a trinket

Trinkets have an effect duration. They boost your vitalisation for a set number of seconds. Currently it is in stages of 20 seconds. This is key.

Casting Pot steps on a trinket :

1. Activate the trinket. This raises your vitalisation for 20 seconds.
2. Cast POT.
3. After 20 seconds your vitalisation drops so cast Pot again after the 3rd Tick so that your POT will keep ticking
4. at the raised level even though your trinket has expired and your vitalisation dropped. This means that get extended trinket ticks off trinket.
5. For the CC trinket Pot again after the 3rd Tick then reactivate the trinket and PoT again after another 3 ticks. This has a safety margin built in. You can push this further but the risk of cancelling a tick is not worth the potential gain.

77% Two Trinket Rotation

Trinkets
Summer Event/Pumpkin
Fors2/BC1

This rotation uses two trinkets and is best suited for a filler. It is also a strong rotation for those that carry restoration trinkets for shields or two consumables.

How to read the graphs
The blue spikes are PoT Casts.
The long red line is base pot
Green points are PoT ticks

The thick coloured lines are the length of time the trinket is active.
Green points above base are trinket ticks

In this graph you can see after the initial 84 seconds you drop off trinket for about 35 seconds. This cycles repeats. Fill controllers can PoT in the gaps to keep PoT higher than base.



80% Three Trinket Rotation

Trinkets
Summer Event/Pumpkin
Fos2/BC1
CC




85% Three Trinket Rotation

Trinkets
Summer Event/Pumpkin
Fors2/BC1
cc




Conclusion

Two controllers using trinkets to keep PoT above base is stringer than letting it drop to base. However there is no need to use this approach to complete content. It is purely optional. The rotations I graphed however can be use whatever your play style or group makeup.

If anyone has a higher then 85% rotation that is workable then let me know. I have found that even the 85% is very tricky to maintain and a two trinket 77% is more than enough and offers more flexibility and benefits to a team.

Using the zero tick can lessen power returns below a good rotation. However the match and timing is a nightmare. I am plotting it but so far zero tick falls below timed rotations BUT this may cange when data comppilation is complete.

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Dangers of Boosting Vitalisation return to Main Index or return to this sections index


There are many sodas in the game that give controllers a considerable boost to vitalisation. I would not recommend using these except in the rarest circumstances. I would extend this exclusion to the use of normal sodas to supplement your power generation. Use them if the other controller is dead, you have had to run as solo controller or if the group has a few weak links and you need a boost to get through. Otherwise, try to avoid it.

Why? Building the expectation amongst the other players that the standard level of power they can expect is the one from heavily boosted or soda supported controllers will encourage them to use more power than needed. They likely do not realise they are being supported by boosted controllers and when they later try this play style with a less boosted controller running normal gear and vitalisation levels they will use too much power. If you cannot support a team unboosted you are under geared for the content, are with a weak team or failing yourself to maintain good power regeneration and to regulate power use and POT.

The recent addition of replay tokens and easy content that drops high level gear has made this problem worse. There are many players with high vitalization, powerful sodas and top level mods in the game. Many of these players have boosted to this level after joining the game only recently. These players are now looking for feats and styles and thus going back and doing lower level content. Here they meet new players learning their roles. There is a risk that these new players will expect T4,T4.2 POTs and power transfers as standard. When they team with their peers later, standard geared controllers may struggle.


If you are maintaining tier 3 regeneration levels and transferring power when you can, if the team drains itself of power just ensure there is a POT and use high tier combos. You are doing all it is possible to do. Help them learn proper power management rather than just feeding them on their schedule.

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• Increasing your Effectiveness return to Main Index or return to this sections index
  
  
  Effectiveness Paths
  
  There are two paths that can advance the effectiveness of a controller and that are utilised by the various categories of controlling:
  1. Purchased path
  2. Action path
  These two paths combined help build your core statistics, increase the effectiveness of your abilities in battle and your usefulness to the other members of your group. Specialising in only a single path limits your effectiveness as a controller.
  
  Purchased Based Path
  
  Purchased skills improve your combat effectiveness by increasing your class statistics. Your character has stronger statistical effectiveness based on what they have purchased rather than the manor in which their actions are applied. These skills scale Action based skills.
  These include:
  • Vitalisation
  • Power transfers
  • POT
  • Dominance
  • Precision
  • Might
  • Critical damage
  • Defence
  • Health
  Action Based Path
  
  Action based skills improve your combat effectiveness based on the action you take and are scaled by Purchased based skills.
  These include:
  • Weapon Teir Combo Level
  • Target Selection
  • Immunity awareness
  • Damage
  • Effect selection
  • Location awareness
  • Power output
  • Blocking
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Purchased and Action Based Interaction
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When the two skill paths interact with each other they produce a stronger effect than that which can be achieved by the application of only a single path.


For example:

The size of your POT and Power Transfers is changed by:

1. Each item of controller gear you wear as it has a vitalisation statistic.
2. Using skill points to purchase more vitalisation.
3. Using skill points to purchase critical cunning.
4. Drinking vitalisation boosting sodas.
5. Adding vitalisation based mods to your gear.
6. Trinkets that boost vitalisation

The size of the POT tick and the size of Power Transfers are governed by vitalisation and cunning. The amount of power a controller can generate (called power output) is made up of a combination of POT ticks, weapon tier generation and power transfers. But notice that Power Output is in the Action based path while vitalisation, cunning, POT and Power transfers are in the Purchased path.

What this means is that a controllers power output is increased by higher vitalisation and cunning but is not solely governed buy it. The action path is needed in unison with the purchased path to up scale your power out.
You do not have to take any action or apply any skill to make your vitalisation higher. Thus you can give higher POTs and larger power transfers just based on what you purchase from the games vendors or buy with your skill points.

Two characters in the same gear with the same skill points spent in the same way will provide just as muchPurchased based power out as each other when they cast POT or do a power transfer.

Now add the action Path

Given your two players with the same gear and skill points you have two players outputting the same POT with the same sized power transfers. If one of these controllers applies the action path he will up scale his power output by being able to give more power to the group without changing his vitalisation or cunning statistics. Taking an in game action improves his performance by combining the purchased path and the action path.
Consider:

Higher weapon tier combos increase the power you generate. But you cannot Purchase a high weapon tier combo. You have to perform an action in an instance to increase raise your tier. This action is based on the skill of the controller. By using the correct weapon combos, limiting interrupts and using correct placement a skilled controller can reach higher weapon tiers more easily. This action means he generates more power and can thus output more power.

So in the simple example above the Purchased path of gear, vitalisation and cunning only get you so far. Adding theaction path of weapon combos increases power out beyond that which only using the purchased path can get you.

A style of play that relies largely on one path will result in a weaker overall controller.

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Cascading Passive Crossovers return to Main Index or return to this sections index

One of the controllers' roles is to assist the team with their power requirements. In the above crossover example I used the positive power effects of POT and power transfers, these give the team power directly, from you to them via your power bar to theirs. But there are other ways to give power based on passive power giving. These passive power giving actions can also be looked at in terms of a crossover of paths, specifically cascading passive crossovers which is a way to scale your passive power giving.

Consider:
Defence is a purchased path skill. It reduces the damage you take when hit. If you are hit by a strong enemy attack you will take less damage with higher defence. But if you cross it with blocking from the action path you take even less damage.

This now adds another layer; passive power giving. Since you take less damage you require less or no healing. The healer does not have to cast a power to

restore your health and since casting a heal costs power the act of crossing defence and blocking has saved power use, which is just as good as giving power.

Instead of giving the healer 300 power you saved him using 300 power. The net gain is 300 power. He finishes with the same power he started with and you finish with 300 power that can be used for another task.

This effect can cascade in more power savings. Cascade power generation is when a passive power giving action, from a purchased andaction path crossover gives power, via saving unnecessary power transfer, to multiple group members. This multiples the effect of yourpassive power giving far beyond that of a single positive power move. This is cascade power giving.


Consider:
In the example above crossing defence with blocking saved the healer from using a burst heal move to restore your lost health, likely letting the HOT restore you to a safe level instead. But healers usually work in tandem. It is likely that both healers will have seen your health drop and both tried to heal you, even though only one needed to have done so. This would have cost them 300 power each. Blocking will save 600 power between both healers, a cascade effect. Your single action gives via passive power giving power to two group members.

In a raid we have two controllers. They both play differently.

Controller 1 : Purchased path - positive power, no cascade:

The controller starts with 1000 power. Each healer has 1000 power and the 2 DPS have 500 power.

• Controller fails to block and takes a large amount of damage
• Both Healers use 300 power (600 total) to remedy the damage in.
• Both healers have 700 power left
• Controller does a single transfer of 300 power that hits one healer and two dps as the dps had a very low power bar.
• Controller does a single transfer of 300 power to hit the other healer.
• Both Healers have 1000 power.
• Controller has 400 power.
• Power spent total: 1200

Controller 2 - Action path - passive power cascade:

The controller starts with 1000 power. Each healer has 1000 power and the 2 DPS have 500 power.

• Controller blocks and takes some damage
• Both Healers use zero power as there is nothing to heal that the HOT cannot handle.
• Both healers have 1000 power left
• Controller does not transfer power as healers are full
• Both healers have 1000 power.
• Controller has 1000 power.
• Power spent total: 0 (zero)

Scoreboard result:

Controller 1: 600 power out

Controller 2: 0 power out.

Who is the more skilled controller? And which do you think the team thinks is the better controller? Notice how one controller now only has 400 power left and the team used 1200 power compared to zero power in the second case. Both controllers' actions cascaded through the team effecting the teams' actions and power levels, but using an action turned the cascade into a benefit.

These are simplified examples. In real battles there are many more variables at play, but the concept remains. You can effectively give power a team without the actual transfer of power from the controller to another.

The core message here is to think about your every action, no matter how small and mundane, in terms of how it effects the teams power, because every action you take does. In the next section I will expand on this simple example and cover some more advanced approaches along the same line that are specific to controllers. These use your special abilities and strengths, such as group stuns, to truly benefit the team.

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Controller Specific Crossovers and Cascades
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Mixing several purchased skills or action makes your controlling stronger. There are particular was to cross the paths that benefit the team in a way that only a controller can provide. This has been covered in the "Importance of control effects" section. Think back to the points made there and how many of the things I describe are cascading crossovers.

For every action you take in a battle think about how that action can benefit yourself or another beyond the obvious. Consider how your path can cross to strengthen what ever task you are trying to achieve.

A more controller specific example:

Using group shields can be a effective way to help the team. Shield strength is from the purchased path skills of Dominance and Restoration. These can by obtained using skill points, sodas and Mods.

Consider how this could be used in a battle:

Casting your shield will put the team in protective bubbles that will break once they have absorbed a set amount of damage. The damage they absorb is based on dominance and restoration. Simply casting them uses your gear and skill point dominance and restoration tally to calculate shield strength. But you can make them stronger. Using your trinket (if it has a dominance or restoration boost) or a soda before casting the shield makes it much stronger. This is mixing purchased path skills for a stronger effect. Add a block (action path) while in the shield and the effect gets even stronger.

Shields do more than reduce damage however. They:

1. Reduce damage which reduces the healing the team needs and thus healer power use.
2. They reduce the likelihood of interrupts an thus recasts and again this saves power use.
3. Give people more chance to pick up a fallen team mate.
4. Allow people to activate objectives uninterrupted.
5. Stop stuns and thus breakouts which saves on power use.

The above lists cascade effects; and mixing several purchased path skills makes the shield effect stronger. Take it further and use stuns (action Path) while shielded to stop a number of enemies even hitting your shields making them last even longer.

Conclusion

A combination of actions, abilities and gear makes a strong controller. Controllers have a flexible skill set for a reason. Combining them makes you more effective, using just one leaves you with wasted potential.

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Approaches to Playing as a Controller return to Main Index or return to this sections index


Controlling styles

A controller can select from a variety of skills and apply them to the task at hand. There are several main skills that can be mixed together in a variety of ways. Mixing these skills with a particular focus creates a style of play. The main skills are:

1. Control effects
2. Power Interactions
3. Power giving
4. Damage
5. Debuffing
6. Protecting

No single style of controlling uses just one of these skills. But they tend to use a select few as the primary focus of their controlling style.

There are several main styles of controlling, these are made up from a combination of the main skills. These are not mutually exclusive and the strong controller should combine all and any style depending on the group or the mission. These styles have at their core some base concepts which I shall detail in this section.

Many players mix the skills into their own style. Use these descriptions to understand the basics of a styles technique. The exact application of the style depends on your power set, gear, tools, mods and skill points.
In no particular order these are:

1. Batteries.
2. Tacticians.
3. Strategists.
4. Surgeons.

There is one approach to controlling that is used across these styles. This is the ‘Single POT Caster'. This approach is discussed after the sections on each of the four primary styles.

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