Can we talk about the controller role honestly?!

Lol Fair enough. Harsh, but true. Now we have a " we're more than buffers" section. I can definitely see your point on this. The more broad view is that the controller role itself isn't as dire as the other classes, regardless of what the point of the role actually is. When trolls just gave power, they were viewed in a much different light. If you're basically saying that the controllers did this to themselves, thats a really good point. Would be hard to disagree with that. Now they're just viewed as buffers, and like you said; it's negligible. Which technically makes the role in a worse spot than it was when power was needed from controllers.

Excellent points. I agree with you here. At a minimum, the troll had a defined role. The community looks at power trolls as irrelevant, the buffs are heh, art swapping is the new standard for controllers and CC is frowned upon. A controller is really just there to fill a spot, they're not viewed anywhere near in the same light as they once were.

Th met probably did do it to themselves. Good trolls bridge all those supposedly separate roles. Some of the meta builds are super power hungry and you can see what happens without a good troll quickly. Vast majority of trolls are just dealing with people pressing 1234 and have little demand. Buffs can be negligible or then can do a lot. A good controller is adding something like 30% total damage. I wouldn’t call that very little, it’s like another dps to dps and a half in a raid.

After doing some research and thinking about it, I think I've pretty much decided on Rao and BoP. What do you think about Tetra for the 3rd art? My toon is Mental, and I tend to play from the tray.

I personally run the tetra, mainly because I know if I don't, I will get numerous tells from DPS who depend on that 7% crutch giving me the riot act for not running it. So, to save my sanity...I run it.

As far as BOP..I can run a mixture of DPS gear, still put out good power and not have to worry with cc'ing ads saving the need to level up an artifact that I would use situationally as not all instances have tons of adds that need cc'd beyond what the tank can handle, and good DPS can't eliminate in short order. However, that is my preference.
With that said, it opens the door to run another artifact such as COG, or Brand of Hecate..etc.

Tetra does not buff Might by 7% - that would be Claw. Tetra's buff is based on troll's Health, same as Cog.

If a troll doesn't know how their artifacts work and is upset about being expected to use them to buff their teammates -is it so surprising that many groups would rather have another DPS instead? Troll's CC is largely redundant, or even detrimental, if there's a tank in the group, their damage output is rarely impressive, usually only the defense debuffs are actually useful, and most players can sustain their own power, but if you ask for a buff - they will roll their eyes at you, like you're a scrub and they're doing you a huge favor...

Why am I not surprised that yet another post from you is just as toxic as the rest...

Ok, 4% health at max level..regardless...it's still a crutch. Pardon me for being a human subject to mistakes.

I forgive your mistake. Being passive-aggressive (or just plain aggressive, as the case may be) about being expected to perform your role - that's a different story. If you don't want to troll - just don't troll.

LOL On any random Wednesday from that guy, huh? A tad acerbic maybe, but an original personality that's kinda refreshing to read imho. You weren't necessarily mistaken in cases where the maths add up (ie: 400k health tetra-wielder with 228k burners), but in any case, I'm just commenting to appreciate you helping someone sort out their troll kit. Choosing a single armory controller setup using only 3 arts and staying relevant in all situations and content in 2023 is just not possible, so I'm following along here to get insights from the answers to that scenario. One day I'll be able to run a bunch of toons again, and I have 2 troll powersets yet to build. Thank you, Dev72, LowFlyingMoon and everyone else.

Edit: THREE more *smh* Forgot about my one-trick pony dps for a sec. One day...

What artifacts you need as a troll is dependent on many factors, like the makeup of your group, the kind of content, your SP, playstyle, et cetera, so it's hard to recommend a one-size-fits-all setup.

BOP is only really necessary if you're planning to run a lot of Elite and Elite Plus raids. In regular content giving adds CC immunity is not usually an issue and even in Elite you can often get away without BOP, if you time your debuff powers correctly (after the tank has gathered the adds) and don't over-use them. As Mental you don't really need to worry about having enough tray slots for all your debuffs, because you have Invisibility loadout, where you can keep SC and other powers you don't use very often.

Tetra is a good art to run as a troll, because it doesn't have negative side-effects (like Claw, which limits the amount of power you can give) and you can even use it as a DPS, if you don't have better DPS artifacts and don't mind helping other DPS. Although in order to make the most of it you're going to need to spec a decent number of SP in health, since that's what the Might buff scales with. And of course - Prec DPS are going to hate you for making them lose on the score-card, unless you also have Cog.

Claw is a strong artifact, because it benefits all roles (it buffs Crits, Might, Resto, Dom and Vit), but if you don't have high Vit and don't swap it, some groups may be struggling for power.

Scrap is another option, because more SC is always good, especially if you're relying on SC, like Bastion, for power (for example - if you're running Claw). But it's still best to swap it in just when you're about to use SC. It can also be useful when running as DPS.

Generally, if you want to be an effective buff-, or battle-troll you're going to need a lot of SP. If you don't have that, some groups may be unhappy with your power, buffs, and/or damage. If you have low SP, focusing on giving power and debuffing may be the best option. In which case Parasite Harness can also be useful.

I've had to take a small break this year but upon coming back recently I still see the same thing in regards to Controllers.

The few pugs I've ran seemed to have decent enough players but certainly a need for power.

My stuns were effective - as well as my debuffs.

I'm very interested in the new Controller Artifact and hope to level it up soon.

I personally see no need to change or do away with the role.

Considering the level of passive POT, the capability of each player maintaining their own power, buff arts aside, which can be utilized in any role...I wouldn't be at all bothered if they combine the troll and tank roles removing the troll role in its entirety. Just add the debuff capability to the tank role, and add the passive pot with each power used. The cc capability is already there.

Sadly... there is a cleavage in the player base....
Some want Buff Trolls....
Some want Power Trolls...
.... depnds on who you play with.

Although... some don't want Trolls and will ask you to switch to DPS.... but that is another story.

In DCUO... you often need to adapt to what the group needs.... or wants.

If you don't adapt to the group..... you may have to leave.... or you may be forced to leave.

Ideally.... you may want to have a Buff Armory.... and a Power Armory.
That way.... if you see the group struggles with Power.... you can switch to your Power Armory.
If you see that the group has more then enough Power... you can switch to your Buff Armory.

Usually.... in Raids I will ask at the start.... Buff or Power??
But sometimes..... I will change during the mission based on how the group is doing.

If you run Buff Troll in a groups that struggles with Power....
.... some expect Trolls to give Power... so yes... they might call you out on that.

So having an Armory for Buff and an Armory for Power seems like a good idea to have.

Hope this helps.

Well, FWIW, I played as a Troll for the first time, today. I used a loadout similar to my DPS loadout, except I traded out Telekinesis and Telekinetic Shield, and replaced them with Mass Levitation and Bastion, and swapped out Whirlwind Attack for BoP. It went pretty well, I think. I ran Zoo regular, and it turned out there was another Mental troll in the group. During the Talia fight, I was able to use Bastion a lot, because BoP gave so much SC. I was basically just waiting for Bastion to cool down between uses.

Oh, and I decided to look at the scorecard afterward (though thinking about it now, I wonder what I thought I was going to see; there's no "Most Debuffs" on there AFAIK), and even though I was running mostly debuffs, I got "Most Power Given," so that was kind of nice.

i dont play a controller

but i have seen ppl get berated ingame chat for being in controller mode.

its sad

Groups in this game have always opted out of running controllers. It used to be way worse underneath the advanced mechanics era of DCUO.


I just think they need to push content to where it's either a life or death situation like they did with war of the light pt1.