Controller Role...Unnecessary

I have been playing this game since quantum powers first came out. I have 2 toons and a controller is my main. After doing it for so long I have come to the conclusion that controllers are a novelty or something the devs thought would give the game a niche in the MMO market.

No other MMO I've played has a role that is a power battery. TANKS, HEALER & DPS is all that you need, the Trinity.
Lets take a look at what the controller Role offers: POT (power over time), Instant Power, Attack debuff, Defense debuff, Healing debuff & CC (crowd control)

POT:
The game was designed to give this role relevance because of the high power costs of using your super powers. Power should not be such a huge factor in a Super Hero game. The Trinity should of gotten power regen for example when there is no controller present in the group, have power back mechanics and consumables for an instant burst. There should have been a Power consumable and a Health consumable made separate and we choose which one is more relevant to our role. Or carry both in out utility belts.

Attack Debuff:
Why I love DCUO so doesn't the tank have this ability. Think about it.. If your job is to absorb damage to shield the group and increase your own survivability why cant you lower the enemy's ability to inflict damage? This should be a tank exclusive ability to a greater degree (AOE) and for healers to a lesser degree (Single target)

Defense Debuff:
DPS ability that should be in every rotation. I'm a damager, to increase my ability to do damage I should be able to lower my opponents defenses. End of story

Healing Debuff:
Healer ability. If my job is all about healing I should be able to reduce the enemy's ability to heal themselves or to receive healing from other ads.

Crowd Control:
Everyone should be able to use this and the tank should be more efficient with higher DOM. DPS should be able to stun/paralyze. Healers encase/sleep or something. Dom would be more useful to all roles this way instead of a stat you can choose to completely ignore.

Now do you think the Controller is necessary? I'm not saying to get rid of it and start a revolution. But if they did? It would make sense.

Look you got 5 dps in raids now do you really think adding another one is going to make the game better ?

Other games do have "support" classes though which typically do stuff like buf, debuff, crowd dontrol or minor healing. Obviously DCUO Controllers were originally meant to be 1) supporters with pot buff, 3 debuffs, cc, instant power healing and lots of PI setups to use by other team members and 2) secondary damage dealers with no damage penalty and all of their powers still doing damage on top of their effects (unlike Healers).

Now how did that turn out? Everything a Controller can do either doesn't matter or can be done by another role easily without needing a dedicated Controller to do it.

Controllers started out as DCUO's version of a supporter but they get screwed all the time, and have been for years, to the point that having a dedicated Controller in the group is mostly unnecessary except for providing infinite power to Healers and Tanks.

While i'm sad to admit it, Trollers are now nothing but a back-up battery.
A long time ago, Crowd Control was a heavy factor in some instances, but nowadays, especially with the scorechasing, you see many DPSs racing each other and using weak CC effects so by the time the trolls CC hits, every add already has immunity.

On better organized groups, trolls usually have the chance of doing a Crowd Stun which is a nice headstart for the burn, and yeah, a good troll may tip the balance when they know what they are doing, but this is usually unoticed and happens once every 20 runs, so IMO, the CC in this game, even for trolls, is too weak to make a consistent difference anymore.

Why do you suggest another DPS? Love & War, Happiness Home, Bombshell Paradox, NGN, Lockdown, Throne, HOH all have mechanics that require multiple tanks or healers. Its the players that deviate from the intended mechanics. Why do people always want to solve content difficulty by throwing more dps? Its stupid. Learn the bosses, learn the mechanics and apply the proper strategy. The game even gives you hints on how to do the content.

FEATS!!!! If you do what the feats (aside from the obvious challenges) tell you to do the content actually gets easier.

Exactly as Rival Ops says, and...

I think that should not detract the "TROLL's" are very important in major Stages by. Examples do not duos or alerts where they will only DPS's because neither tanke or healer is needed in many instances now where you really see who's who and how he handles his role is in the raids and especially in the most complex. I am DPS and TANK (I clarify this to avoid interpreting I defend my role, but I have been "TROLL" at the time.

Unfortunately for the "bad players" who think "good" thought to be a role or power is bad. You have to know the character pretty used to know how and when to do something specific (especially trolls), for example the most recent raid is the BS in the last boss to pass fast and uncomplicated the most important work it They carry TANK AND ESPECIALLY THE TROLL controlling adds, and nobody sees it, why is full of groups who have to try and retry and retry the last boss because they do not know what to do, and just do not know or realize the troll does not do its job.

You have to understand the game a bit more and know well that everyone should do, not only to know that the DPS does not hurt that the TROLL gives power and stun, the TANK pull the boss and adds that the only gives cures HEALER that's just the main function, but then everyone to do what to do at the right time is another thing ...

Or perhaps not these days are seeing more than before DPS's 136 do not hurt? Up fast and without SP! Or those who say that the main tank fire can not fight? Tankea not know how it then! ... The same goes for the healers pulling power by others thinking that they will heal and only waste their power and trolls that instead of doing their job trying to harm or unnecessary moments STUNN and run out of power before the DPS !!! Or quanta that make STUN and nailed down? ALL RIGHT !!! so that the tank can not be given PULL !!!

It's a shame because quantum is such a versatile power but so misused that neither the players themselves who use it know they should use different loadouts depending on the instance ... well is something cathartic lol

I understand perfectly the background of the proposed idea, and for that, as mentioned above would have to redistribute all the qualities of troll in other roles ... but from there to troll not needed is another matter. If I understood wrong please correct me some idea.

You can blame DpsUO for making trollers less viable.

Dps burn was poor so they needed to spam powers putting massive strain on 2 or sometimes 3 trollers.

Dps burn was still poor, so they dropped the trollers to one competent one and stacked dps.

Dps burn was still poor because 5 power spamming dps taxed on that one troller.

People cried about bad trollers and called for dps power back. Dps gets power back. Can now spam powers to their heart's content.

And guess what? In most cases Dps burn is still poor.

If any role should go, it's Dps. And let the 'support' roles do more damage.

Be real. Controllers are shafted majorly.

I started playing this game before Friday night legends was even thought of. Ive been here a longggggg time and have taken many breaks in between. Controller role is necessary. BTW congrats this is my first post in like a year and it's towards you

Makes sense on your end, but the purist who played the game from day one or beta remember when controller where highly efficient at crowd control. When the traditional set up was a 2-2-2-2 format, tactians of the controller class would have a high DOM controller for crowd control with debuffs and a high vitalization controller for power working TOGETHER.

Baffles me a healer or a DPS can do any crowd controll at all, defeats the purpose of them putting Dominance requirements to run a raid. Definitely was not that way in the begining doing the Batcaves and Kahndaq days. Do your history.

Other MMO's do have a crowd control class that are suppose to works with tanks or you get overwhelmed, DCUO added the flavor of a power battery for originality. NOW, who knows what they are doing at Daybreak. The team accomplishment aspect is gone , now its just whose numbers are bigger.

You would be surprise how many healers cant heal without a troll. You would think hey they should probably use brawling for the quick wm but no they dont. You would think nature healers would use their advance mechanics to heal wihout a troll but no they wont.

Ugh. Trolls exist and will keep showing up on your screen like that 112 gear everyone loves so much. Come to think of it, Trolls share a common path with the supposed "trash" gear. Useful to get through content initially, then rendered useless once Our CR is high enough.

You would think that the devs would give tutorials and a way for the players to learn their powers, but no they don't. lol

I've always wished that they would keep the Controller role, but remove the giving power aspect of it. Instead, Controllers would be the main class for buffs/debuffs and Crowd Control. Make it so a Controller could use a (non-Supercharge) power to give everyone a shield or increase their Precision, or be able to Ground/Root/Encase an enemy with that enemy only becoming immune to the one debuff he was hit with, meaning an enemy who was Grounded could then be Encased afterwards.

To me, a Controller should be the one determining the flow of battle, not just being another Healer, but for another type of bar.

Every MMO also has a support type DPS. One who supports the group and does damage( AKA Bard). However since all support roles are only 1/10 damage capable of what a dps can. The community and the content feels like more burn is necessary, thus removing extra support for dps.

The role says that you are controlling the battlefield. When really the only thing you are controlling is POT and pickups.

If anything, the devs are closer to removing tanks from the game, rather than trolls. And that's by community request. How many times have people whined about boring tank and spanks? Well, there you go, no more of that. When Cathedral dropped and Jared was ignoring the tank, it was supposedly a glitch. I never noticed since that's pretty much par for the course with new content these days.

Let's Frame This!

This is exactly how I feel about this.. Dcuo is all about the DPS they have made trolls pretty much useless.. No matter what we say about it for months they still focus on DPS powers So Sad

wm gives pwrback but never enough to be self sustain, nature got an am that gives a powerback, and imo its a crutch, because when i want to heal innormal form i get a pm, yoo you spam why not go nature

Trolls brought this on them self because a few years ago there were many many threaths of trolls they that were just a pwerbattery.
Now we got am and there life is easy its still not good.
new players on the otherhand, dont even sometime dont know how to pot, but thats an other story.

so for this one blame the community and not the devs imo, and i can be very critical about the devs.
You want trolls be important again, remove all am . simple as that

#goaheadgrammarpolice

What you are saying about nature supports my idea of trolls being pointless. You say switch to a power that gives power back when my original post said the Trinity (TANK, DPS & HEALER) should be self sustaining by way of power regen, lower power cost etc.

Then you turn around and say don't blame the devs just get rid of AMs to make trolls important....WHAT!??

First off AMs were introduced to give another DPS option along with WM. WM also gives 50% of your power cost back in support role....Saying get rid of DPS options is stupid and would set the game back years.

The devs are to blame because they made the game!!! The players are only doing what humans do and think outside the box to solve the problem. That being said we are limited to problem solving within the realm of what is allowed. The devs allow you to stack whatever roles you want, they allow other power's control effects to override and make enemies immune in one or 2 rotations which cripples the utility of a controller. Players don't set the boundaries the devs do.