City of Heroes Coldfront (CoH, CoV)

This is a guide to Fire Control with Bubbles or Rings (Forcefields or Sonic Resonance) secondary. This is a development of my original guide for Fire and Forcefields, which in my experience was one of the far less common fire controller builds, but one I have found tremendous fun. It has been expanded to cover Issue 5 (and more recent) changes and also to include details on the new Sonic Resonance secondary so I am now using the term 'Bubbles' to refer to Forcefields and 'Rings' to refer to Sonics as that seems the best way to describe their respective shields - they both feature very similar 'fire-and-forget' style buffing which is why I have chosen to deal with them together.

Resistance numbers are from my own testing so I am pretty confident of them. The defence numbers I have included are based on Statesman's published numbers for Defender Forcefields and an assumption of what the controller versions are compared to those - they should be right though (see the special note at the end of the FF section). If you spot any mistakes please let me know and I will try to correct them. Any constructive feedback welcomed.

What I'll be covering:

Fire & Forcefields - How compatible are they?
Fire & Sonic Resonance - How compatible are they?
Fire Control
Forcefields
Sonic Resonance
Standard Pool Powers
Ancillary Pool Powers
A useful bind for bubbling/ringing
Example Builds

Fire & Forcefields - How compatible are they?

I have found Fire & Forcefields to give a very nice balance between control, damage, and defence (although your team gets far more from your defence). If you have come to fire control looking to get the most out of the damage your imps can give then you are better off looking at Kinetics, Radiation, Storm, or Sonics as a secondary as none of forcefields' buffs will increase your imps' damage potential as those others will. That said, you will still pump out some very impressive damage, especially with the Issue 5 changes.

Forcefields is an extremely team-friendly secondary to take - especially for the earlier levels (when you will most be needing that teaming to level at a sane rate) and it will generally allow you to play very safely, or for your team to take on more difficult (i.e. rewarding) mobs. It only has a select number of 'must-haves' and plenty you can ignore which can allow you to concentrate primarily on controlling and give you some more power pool options if you want them. One important thing to note is that forcefields has no endurance recovery/mitigation and can be quite endurance intensive to run so be aware of that early on and plan for it.

Although you will be able to solo safely and easily once your pets are slotted up, forcefields as a secondary is very much geared towards team play - even once you do have pets. Issue 5 has brought a new feature to the Controller table which makes soloing before pets less painful and it is called Containment. This new inherent Controller power doubles up any damage you deal directly to mobs that are either held, disoriented, immobilised, or slept. It doesn't matter if you or another player have 'mezzed' the mob, any damage you deal with your primary, secondary, or pool attacks will be doubled, as long as the power isn't a summon (like imps or bonfire for example). It doubles the enhanced damage of your attacks and is also applied after the damage cap, so you can actually pump out twice the damage cap on your attacks. This isn't amazing for most of the fire control powers as they are quite low damage to begin with, but it is certainly noticeable, especially later on with the Ancillary Pools.

Fire and Bubbles is basically a good balanced build for almost any situation.

Fire & Sonic Resonance - How compatible are they?

The Sonic Resonance section is based on my experience of playing an Ice/Sonic controller, which I have now played beyond level 38, thus seeing all the Sonic powers. From a playstyle point of view, Sonic Resonance plays very similarly to forcefields so I thought I would add it to this guide rather than make a separate Ice/Sonic guide, as there are far better Ice guides (like Frost's) - much of this section can be applied to any Control Primary though.

Fire and Rings will provide a nice mix of extra Control, considerable Damage Resistance, and also enhancing the whole team's damage by debuffing enemy damage resistance. Like Forcefields, there is no endurance recovery power in this secondary which makes stamina pretty much a must have.

Sonic Resonance is similar to Forcefields in that it has individual 'bubbles' for allies, and a large bubble for you as well as your allies. The main difference is that these bubbles grant Resistance buffs rather than Defence buffs and they look more like oscillating rings than bubbles. The set also has a couple of powerful resistance debuffs which make you, your imps, and your team-mates hit a lot harder (a bit like Radiation's Enervating Field, Storm's Freezing Rain, and Dark Miasma's Tar Patch), along with a couple of other handy powers.

Several of the Sonic powers are toggles and one of them in particular (Disruption Field) needs to be anchored on an ally or pet which is close to the mobs, since it debuffs the mobs in an area immediately around the target. It so happens that this is exactly where imps are all the time, thus making them a great anchor for the power.

Anyway, onto the sets in more detail...

Fire Control

First off, Fire Control is a very capable control set; Imps are by no means the be all and end all of the Primary - especially since the Issue 5 pet changes. Other Control sets may offer more in terms of raw control but you will find relatively few situations as a fire controller that you cannot handle once your toolkit is complete. Issue 5 has curtailed our ability for total lockdown so you may find you are waiting for powers to recharge a bit, or that mobs end up breaking free of controls before they are defeated, and in large teams the 16 target maximum for our AoE controls may come into play a bit, but generally we are ok. You will have impressive damage capability to clear up mobs pretty quickly and safely once you have your pets on board and the possibility of even more still with the ancillary pools. So what are the powers?

Ring of Fire (single target immobilize)
Available at level 1

On the face of it, Ring of Fire isn't that great - this is basically because it doesn't prevent enemies from attacking you or your teammates, and that is primarily what you want to be doing as a controller. It merely stops a foe from moving which can be handy for escaping but generally nowhere near as useful as a hold or disorient. Char is vastly superior from an everyday control point of view so take that instead initially. That said, ring of fire does have some benefits - it does better damage over time than Char since it recharges much faster, and it still triggers Containment (double damage for controllers against mezzed enemies). It is also has a high magnitude and will immobilize bosses (and most Arch Villains) with one hit. Consider taking it for its damage and/or for dealing with Arch Villains later in the game which are resistant to other types of control - this will be the best way to keep most AV's permanently contained for your double damage bonus. If you do take it you can get away with a single accuracy, possibly adding damage if you want to improve damage for soloability.

Char (single target hold)
Available: level 1

This is one of your bread and butter powers and you really should take this as your starting power. It renders your foe unable to move or attack and offers ok damage early on. You will be using it in every single fight throughout your career to help lock down bosses and other things your AoE's may have missed. I would recommend slotting this with accuracy (1-2), hold duration (2-3) and recharge reduction (1-2) and have it 6 slotted overall. How much you slot for recharge depends on how much your endurance can cope with it. It also triggers Containment of course.

Fire Cages (ranged aoe immobilize)
Available: level 2

At first glance this may seem like an equally bad control as ring of fire is, since it doesn't prevent enemies from attacking (in fact it will actually direct a lot of aggro to you which is precisely what you want to be avoiding!). The reason no fire control build should be without it however, is that combined with Flashfire in a few levels time it will form a very effective combo ranged hold. It has a fast base recharge and decent duration so there is no need to slot it with recharge reduction or duration, but it does use a fair amount of endurance. I suggest 2 accuracies minimum (to overcome the inherent inaccuracy of AoE attacks) and then an endurance reduction if you are having problems. It also triggers Containment and will be up more often than the other area Containment triggers. It doesn't have as high a magnitude as Ring of Fire so won't get bosses in one hit.

Smoke (autohit ranged aoe accuracy and visibility debuff)
Available: level 6

Smoke's main use is for avoiding premature aggro - the visibility debuff allows you and your team to get into position (or slip past) unnoticed. The accuracy debuff is ok but if you really want to notice it you will have to six slot it (which you may not have the slots spare to do). I had it in a very old build and respecced out of it long ago, but given the force field secondary isn't so effective anymore it could be worth getting if you have the slots spare to invest in it. It also gives sonic resonators a bit of alternative damage mitigation.

Hot Feet (PBAoE damage, slow, and panic)
Available: level 8

Hot feet creates an aura around you that burns and slows mobs around you and causes them to attempt to flee. It got a damage boost in Issue 3 and now in Issue 5 also gets double damage from Containment, but it still costs a lot of endurance to run. Given that both bubbles and rings cost a fair bit of endurance as it is, and neither has an endurance recovery/mitigation power, if you do take it you will need to slot for endurance reduction. I would recommend 2 end redux and 4 damage if you can and I would leave it until after Stamina too. It will help you when soloing significantly, even after you get imps. Oh and it looks really cool too

Flashfire (ranged aoe disorient)
Available: level 12

Ah Flashfire, this is where your larger scale controlling career will begin. This power needs to be taken right now! You should use it to open with and follow it up immediately with fire cages. This will stop the mobs you just disoriented from wandering all over the place. Firecages has a slightly larger radius so be prepared to char mobs that are cuaght in cages but weren't disoriented by flashfire. The disorient will only affect minions and lieut's so bosses will need to be concentrated on with Char's after casting flashfire/cages. Flashfire has a much longer recharge than fire cages and lasts much less time so it is worth adding in disorient duration and recharge reduction on top of accuracy - it will still cycle slower than cages but it won't be so far out. Given the Issue 5 changes to AoE controls, you really need to 6 slot this power. It also triggers Containment but since you will usually be using it with fire cages that doesn't really matter. I would recommend 2 accuracy, 2 disorient duration, 2 recharge reduction.

Cinders (PBAoE multiple target hold)
Available: level 18

Cinders is another absolute must have. It is your area affect hold and although it must be cast in the middle of mobs for proper effect, it will lock down everything bar bosses and higher with one hit and allow a single further char to lock down the boss too (although it does have a chance to lock down bosses in one hit). Fire controllers generally fall into two camps as far as aoe holds are concerned - some prefer flashfire/cages for its ranged element as it allows you to stay safer, and use cinders as a backup for when it is isn't ready. Others will prefer to open a fight with cinders and lock down more effeciently but risk potential incoming fire doing so. As a bubbler secondary you can generally afford to be a bit more bold (although sonics don't get personal protection until much later) and so my preference is to open with cinders. If you have taken smoke you can use that to allow you to enter the group undetected before hitting Cinders which can make it much safer. Either way, you should have both sets of aoe control regardless to help contain any situation - especially given the Issue 5 changes, you will always want one of them ready to go or to be not far off being ready. I strongly recommend getting cinders 6 slotted with 2 accuracies, 2 duration, 2 recharge. If you manage to get hold of some of the special enhancements in the later game (like Hamidon enhancers) then the Acc/Mez ones are very useful - 2 Acc/Mez and 4 Recharge is very nice slotting for Cinders. This is the third area power that sets up Containment.

Bonfire (ranged aoe knockback)
Available: level 26

Bonfire throws a ball of fire to a targetted location on the ground which then spills out into a large fire patch that will knockback any foes that are on it or that approach it. Many regard it as a take it or leave it power, but personally I love it and strongly recommend it. Some just don't find it useful in enough situations to justify taking it and it *is* situational, there's no denying that, but in those situations it is useful for, you will wonder how you could have considered not taking it. It is excellent for creating chokepoints, breaching rooms by clearing mobs from a doorway (especially useful once you get imps which otherwise might prevent your team-mates getting into the room), pinning mobs into a corner, and most importantly - for mobs that are knockback resistant, bonfire will give you effectively an additional ranged aoe hold as it will keep those mobs in a perpetual knockdown patch (bit like a smaller radius ice slick or earthquake). You really haven't lived until you have seen dozens of praetorian clockwork continually bouncing away on a bonfire, completely unable to do anything - bonfire is worth taking just for that

Bonfire has a nice long duration and a low end cost. You will only need to slot it with a single Recharge Reducer and with Perma-Hasten you will be able to get a second patch out well before the first one finishes. Given the changes to other AoE controls in Issue 5, you may find there are more situations where you will be wanting this power to fall back on and it is a nice cheap power. Sonic's final power is a proper knockdown patch (and more) that makes bonfire somewhat obsolete (altho Sonic's Liquefy can't be perma) so if you are going for that secondary then it can make Bonfire more skipable.

Fire Imps (pet summon)
Available: level 32

Ok - so you are blatantly going to be taking this power. After the long journey to 32 you finally get the ability to do some really decent damage - and plenty of it. The little fire minkies do pure melee damage and so will swarm around enemies as they attack (this is what makes them ideal anchors for sonic's disruption field). This is a double-edged sword however, as they will also be subject to strong melee attacks from the enemies and they are quite fragile so it is important to try and keep things locked down to prevent too many attacks getting through to them. Issue 5 has brought changes to the minkies and now you will always summon 3 of them and they will last pretty much indefinitely until you zone or log out (or until they get killed). You also have the option to dismiss your pets at any time using the /release_pets command. Since there are only 3 it is worth keeping them bubbled (or ringed) all the time. As far as slotting is concerned, you should 6 slot immediately and just slot them either all damage or throw an accuracy in there and the rest damage. Taking Tactics from the leadership pool can take the place of a single accuracy if you want to run like that.

Forcefields

Forcefields specialises in defence, which is reducing the chances of you and your team getting hit in the first place (as opposed to Sonic Resonance, which increases Resistance so you'll still get hit the same number of times as if you had no protection, but for less damage). The 3 main bubbles form the core of virtually any build using the set, however it does offer a few extra crowd control type powers in the form of repels and knockbacks as well, should you wish to take them. With the Fire Primary you aren't too short on control, but given control gaps are more likely to be appearing in Issue 5 in larger teams, you might want to pick one or two of the extra powers from the set for insurance. So - onto the powers.

Personal Force Field (self +def(all), +res(all))
Available: level 1

You don't get any choice with this power - you have to take it. However that doesn't really matter as it is a pretty useful power. It offers very high defence to all damage types, including psionic (although you will still get shots landing on you with this up from higher conning mobs), but in addition it is the only FF bubble to also give damage resistance, so if anything does land on you it will hurt you far less than if this wasn't up. You can only use powers that affect yourself (except rest) while this is up so it is unfortunately of limited use in combat situations other than an escape power. I use it mainly for travelling through hazardous zones or if things have gone completely pearshaped in a battle. It does have some utility against very strong villains like AV's for absorbing alpha strikes so you can run past to have your imps aggro on them. For most any other fight you will be wanting to get the first shot in yourself anyway. I wouldn't recommend slotting anything other than the default slot as it is fine out of the box (and the damage resistance can't be enhanced in this power).

Deflection Shield (ally +def(smash,lethal,melee), +res(toxic))
Available: level 2

The first of your main bubble powers - get it and slot it. It should be 6 slotted, although your primary powers should be a priority. Should be slotted with all defence buff, with possibly an endurance reduction if endurance management is proving a problem. The toxic resist is supposedly being turned into toxic +def rather than +res eventually, but for the moment toxic +def apparently doesn't exist as a mechanic in the game and you'll have to make do with the default +Res as it can't be enhanced. The power recently got given defence against generic melee attacks too, so that it stacks with other defence powers that are attack-type based rather than damage-type based (like Super Reflex powers). It has a very fast recharge time which is barely longer than the animation time. If you are casting both this and insulation shield then one will be ready to recast after the other one has been cast, which lends itself to a nice keybind which I will detail later. The base defence on this shield is 11.25%* for Controllers, which increases to 24.75% with 6 even SOs (more if you use higher level SOs). Much later on you have the option of taking Power Boost in the Primal Forces APP which will dramatically improve the effectiveness of your Defence shields.

Force Bolt (single target knockback, smashing damage)
Available: level 4

Force Bolt is not a major damage attack - in fact it is extremely minor. It is basically just useful for knocking back a single foe. I didn't find it suited my playstyle, although it can be useful for taking the heat off you or an ally as the knockback is pretty consistent. It recharges fast and so can be used to keep a mob off their feet while you wait the moment or two for Char to cycle. Only really worth slotting with an accuracy or two if you do take it. It can be used as a pseudo hold on one foe by keeping them continually knocked back, but why use a pseudo hold that requires continual re-application when you can use a full hold once and leave them held for a while?

Insulation Shield (ally +def(fire,cold,energy,neg energy,ranged))
Available: level 10

Second of the big 3 bubble powers. Exactly the same goes for this as for Deflection Shield other than you will probably want to slot up deflection shield first as smash/lethal is the most common type of damage - certainly early on. Certainly aim to still 4-6 slot this one as well though as there are plenty of pure energy, neg, fire or cold attacks in the game (attacks that use more than one type of damage will only be checked once, and against your highest applicable defence rating). Again, this power recently got given defence against generic ranged type attacks in order to better stack with other defence powers. Again, it is 11.25%* base, 24.75% with 6 even SOs, and this can be further enhanced with Power Boost later on.

Detention Field (single target intangibility)
Available: level 16

This puts a bubble around a foe that you target and prevents them from taking any action other than on themself - a bit like PFF. Great - another hold you might think? Unfortunately not really - the field also prevents you or your allies from attacking him too, it essentially removes that foe from the battle for about a minute. Unless your team-mates know what the power is they are likely to waste endurance fighting enemies they cannot affect. The problem is two-fold really - first your team-mates need to know that when something is in a Detention field there si absolutely nothing they can do to it and they should simply ignore it. The second is that it is quite difficult to recognise Detention Field because it looks just like all the other bubbles - most of the time they will only realise something is detained until they have seen a few 'Unaffected' messages float above the target. You can use a bind to indicate in chat which foe you have put in detention but IME quite often people just don't see these messages, or there is more than one foe visible with the same name anyway.

This power can be used as an emergency hold, but to be honest Char is a preferable power to use and has such a quick recharge that it makes this power pretty pointless for a controller. It's only saving grace is that it can isolate an AV in one hit if you slot it with intangibility enhancements (which uniquely for a status enhancement, increases the Mag of the power rather than its duration).

Dispersion Bubble (toggle PBAoE (large radius) self/ally +def(all), +res(disorient,hold,immob))
Available: level 20

Dispersion Bubble completes the big 3 Forcefield powers. It is the only one of them that benefits you as well as your team-mates so 6 slot it as soon as possible. It gives you protection from certain status effects (to cover the small window of opportunity mobs may have before you lock them down) and gives you a defence bonus too. It took a big hit in Issue 5 and gives far less than it used to, but it does now give Defence against Psionic attacks which is a welcome addition, and also defence against generic area affect type attacks for better stacking with other defence powers. Best to 6 slot it all defence or 1 end redux, 5 defence if endurance is a problem. Your only status effect weakness (in PvE at least) with this up will be sleep so be aware of that when fighting mobs with that effect and ensure you lock them down as a priority. I5 has introduced sleep resistance to the pool power Health (which can be one of the powers you get on the way to stamina), but this doesn't protect you from sleep, it only reduces the amount of time you are affected by it so unfortunately it doesn't stop your toggles dropping if you are slept. If you want a more complete mez protection you will have to take the Psi mastery APP for Indomitable Will. The base defence of dispersion bubble is a modest 7.5%* which becomes 16.5% if 6 slotted with even SOs (15% if 5 slotted for defence). Again, it can slightly be boosted by using higher level SOs. Allies protected by all three bubbles (6 slotted) will have 41.25% defence to most attack types (except psi, toxic and untyped) - it is actually possible to achieve over 100% Defence for your team-mates for short periods if you have both Power Boost and the Vanguard Accolade.

Repulsion Field (toggle PBAoE (melee radius) knockback)
Available: level 28

This basically performs a similar function as Bonfire, but where bonfire is a targeted location based knockback, this one is a toggle, centred on you. Its per foe endurance cost was recently reduced to make it more attractive, but for many situations where it might be useful, bonfire could probably replicate it and for less endurance overall. It isn't at all appropriate to use with Hot Feet from the primary as it will knock things out of your damage aura.

Repulsion Bomb (ally targetted AoE repel)
Available: level 35

Another odd one. If your buddy is in way over his head, send this in his direction and all the mobs giving him grief will be sent flying and possibly disoriented. Chances are (again if doing your controlling job properly) that this situation will rarely arise. It also has a reasonable casting time so may be too late by the time you see someone in trouble.

Pretty easily skippable I think - the only saving grace IMO is for PvP as it has a very high chance of knocking toggles off and can be targetted on an imp which is likely to be close to your opponent so it is useful for fighting toggle-based tanks and scrappers to drop their mez protection.

Force Bubble (toggle PBAoE (very large radius) foe repel, small chance to knockdown)
Available: level 38

Force Bubble recently got a bit of an overhaul - its endurance cost was massively reduced, and it was given a small chance to knock down foes that are able to penetrate the bubble (i.e. foes that are resistant to repel).

So what does it do? It basically creates a gigantic repulsion bubble, centred on you, that very few mobs can enter. Unfortunately it also attracts the aggro of everything it touches onto you, which can be a major problem if no-one else can actively taunt the mobs off you.

It has great uses if you want to keep foes away from specific areas (although again, bonfire can create a similar effect on a much smaller scale). Some examples of situations of particular utility are the Terra Volta reactor room and the Eden Trial Rock Wall (not so good for the Mold wall as the mushrooms will soon overwhelm the team with their ranged mez attacks). Blasters will in general love this power as it keeps most enemy melee's well out of harms way - it can also, with a bit of practise, be very effective at pushing mobs into corners and pinning them there for your team-mates and/or imps to deal with. Scrappers and tankers will often have a hard time with this power if it is keeping mobs at maximum distance as they will have to get to the edge of the force bubble in order to fight and since force bubble's radius is so much larger than dispersion's they will have also left the protection of that - of course the same is true of your imps. This isn't such a problem if you are pushing mobs against walls and corners as you can close in so that dispersion bubble covers the melee team-mates too.

It can have a number of imaginative uses, and now that its endurance cost is much more manageable, it can be kept up along with other toggles without too much difficulty - but always be aware of its enormous radius and having it up all the time greatly increases the chances of getting extra aggro off nearby mobs.

It is often worth treating it as a 'pseudo-click' power - only keep it on for a few seconds at a time in order to accomplish a particular manoeuvre and then shut it down - this will help avoid aggroing extra mobs inadvertently.

You probably only need 2-3 endurance reducers in this power now - maybe even 1 if you are taking primal forces and conserve power. It's not worth enhancing it for anything else.

*Special note on Defence numbers*
Controller secondaries vary in their effectiveness compared to their equivalent defender primary - most are either 75% or 80%. Since Defence is so difficult to test for, I have been unable to definitively establish how effective the controller FF secondary is, but the numbers given above assume the more pessimistic 75% effectiveness.

If they are actually 80% as effective then Deflection and Insulation Shields are 12% base (26.4% 6 slotted with even SOs) and Dispersion is 8% base (17.6% 6 slotted with evens). The difference is pretty marginal really of course but I thought I should point this out for completeness.

The defender numbers from which all these are derived are themselves derived from the numbers given by Statesman in this post: 6-slotted SOs (assumed with evens) is 55% from both shields, 22% for just dispersion (only that provides psi def), thus 33% for deflection/insulation. Calculating backwards gives 15% base for deflection/insulation and 10% for dispersion.

Sonic Resonance

Where Forcefields specialises in defence, Sonic Resonance specialises in Damage Resistance - both in the buffing of your team-mates' and the de-buffing of the enemies'. Damage Resistance is what determines how much damage you take from an attack. In many ways the set is similar to Forcefields in playstyle, but it also has other powers that are far more useful and less situational than the "non-big-3" in Forcefields. There are endless debates on whether Resistance is better than Defence or not, but basically both can be very useful, and having both on a team is ideal. Having more "must-have" powers from the secondary in this set of course leaves you less options elsewhere. The set doesn't do much for you personally until much later in the set, with most of the powers only useable on allies or pets.

Sonic Siphon (single target -res(all))
Available: level 1

No choice on this as it's the tier 1 secondary, but can be very handy for increasing damage against one or two enemies. It lowers the damage resistance of an even level target by 22.5% (which cannot be enhanced) but it can't be stacked with itself on one target (although it will stack with the debuff from disruption field). With hasten you'll be able to keep about 1.5 targets debuffed. I'd slot 1-2 accuracies and then extra recharges if you want to be able to debuff multiple targets. Higher conning mobs will be debuffed by less than 22.5%, while lower conning mobs will be debuffed more.

Sonic Barrier (ally +res(smash,lethal,toxic))
Available: level 2

Well first of the big 3 Sonic Rings and obviously one to take as soon as you're likely to be teaming. Once cast, it gives the target a 15% base damage resistance boost for about 5 minutes. Well worth fully enhancing with 6 slots of damage resistance which will take it to 33% resistance with even level Single Origins. Power Boost has no effect on Damage Resistance so the rings don't get the same benefits as the bubbles do from it.

Sonic Haven (ally +res(fire,cold,energy,neg energy))
Available: level 4

Second of the big 3 Sonic Rings and again worth taking fairly early on. Basically exactly the same as Barrier, but for the less common damage types. Still well worth taking and 6 slotting if you can. Resistance differs from Defence in the way it works against attacks with multiple damage types. With defence, multiple type damage attacks (like Fireball: smash + fire) are only checked once against the type you have the strongest defence against (often smash), but with resistance you have to resist each damage type independently.

Sonic Cage (single target intangibility)
Available: level 10

This is basically a copy of Forcefield's Detention Field and again, fairly redundant given your primary - easily one to skip. It is a more obviously different effect from the other sonic shields however (unlike FF's Detention field), and so less likely to cause confusion for a team once they recognise the effect. Given our primary of control we don't really need this power though.

Disruption Field (ally targeted toggle AoE -res(all))
Available: level 16

This power is one of Sonic's really nice unique powers - it's a toggle that you cast on a friend and it debuffs the damage resistance of all the mobs around them, making any attacks that you and your team-mates do those targets hit considerably harder (and this can stack with sonic siphon to debuff particularly tough targets by an even larger amount). It debuffs even-level mobs by 22.5% (so with sonic siphon it provides 45%, almost doubling all damage done to targets under both effects). Like Sonic Siphon, higher conning mobs get debuffed by less and lower conning mobs by more.

One important thing to note is that this power directs aggro of things it debuffs towards you, unless your anchor (or someone else) is overriding it with it's own damage or taunts. On a tank with an aura-voke this won't be too much of a problem as long as he isn't running all over the place, and your imps are pretty good and soaking up aggro too. You may find you want to wait until your anchor has engaged a group fully before dropping this on them, as otherwise you can end up with some nasty hits before the anchor has gained all the aggro and leaving this on all the time can get you killed if you aren't careful.

It can be anchored on pretty much any hero, pet or object (including the Reactor core in the Respec Trial). Since it doesn't actually have any effect on the target itself, it can even be anchored on Illusion's Phantom Army too, who can also make good anchors if you are teamed with an illusionist.

It costs a fair amount of endurance and is only useful if you have a team-mate who stays in melee (your imps will be ideal anchors later). Might be worth leaving until after stamina unless you know you will be teaming with people who can use it. Worth slotting with 1-3 endurance reductions (the debuff can't be enhanced).

Clarity (ally +res(disorient,hold,sleep,confuse,fear,immob))
Available: level 20

Very similar to Empathy's Clear Mind - this can be rapidly recast to protect the whole team from pretty much every status effect. Don't need to enhance this one with extra slots at all, just pop an endurance or recharge reducer in there. As a controller you may be able to get away with skipping this (since you can hopefully lock down most mezzing type enemies). You do get less complete status protection with Sonic Dispersion as well, but you don't get that till level 35, so probably worth fitting Clarity in if you can as it provides much better protection and people don't need to stay within your dispersion rings to stay protected.

Sonic Repulsion (ally targeted toggle AoE repel)
Available: level 28

It's like Forcefield's Repulsion Field, but instead of being centred on you, it is centred on a friendly target. This is a pretty situational power, but it looks extremely cool and can be very good fun. It has a base endurance cost which isn't too bad, but it drains additional chunks of endurance each time an enemy is knocked back, so it can end up being very costly to run. Also, like Disruption Field, anything it hits will be aggro'd onto you (unless otherwise taunted) so use with caution, especially as you have no self-protection until Level 35.

It differs slightly from Disruption Field in that it can only be anchored on an actual team-mate or pet, it cannot be targetted on a hero not in your team (to prevent griefing I suspect) or objects in missions. This means it doesn't have quite the utility it might in some missions (like the Reactor trial).

It's certainly not really of use to your imps as it will knock things out of range of their melee attacks - and they will relentlessly chase down every mob in a pack which will quickly drain you of endurance (but this does have extreme comedy value in non-dangerous situations). It could be useful if you team with a blaster or other ranged character that wants to keep things away from them. If you do take it you'll be wanting to slot with Endurance Reducers.

Sonic Dispersion (toggle PBAoE (large radius) self/ally +res(all except psi), +res(disorient,hold,immob)
Available: level 35

The third of the big 3 Sonic Rings and it comes very late in the build at level 35. This is your only self protection so get it quick and start enjoying some of the damage resistance your team-mates have been enjoying all this time. The base amount is 11.25% so definitely slot it up to capitalise, either all damage resisance or 1 endurance reduction/5 damage resistance (6 even SO's will give you just under 25%). It also gives you the same status protections as Forcefield's Dispersion Bubble and so has the same weakness against sleep, which again can be partially offset by taking health from the fitness pool.

Liquefy (ranged aoe knockdown, foe -acc, -def, hold, minor damage)
Available: level 38

This is basically a sort of souped up version of Earth Control's Earthquake power and provides a very useful extra 'soft control' option for us, as well as providing some alternative debuffs to the enemy. You place this on the ground like bonfire and any mobs nearby or that approach will probably be knocked down and suffer a penalty to their accuracy and defence, allowing you and your team to hit them more easily, while reducing their chance to hit you if they manage to get any attacks off. When initially cast it also deals some minor damage and holds foes in the blast radius for a short while (seems to be standard AoE accuracy penalty and you can slot accuracy in the power which improves the chance to hold).

A really good power to take, and one you have several options as to how to slot. It can't be made perma unfortunately, so you can either slot it up with recharge to have it out as often as possible, or concentrate on the debuff aspect so that you can either get hit less often (tohit debuffs) or hit the enemy more often (def debuffs) when it is up, or you can slot it for the hold aspect - but as the base duration is so short (about 6 seconds) it is hardly worth slotting for both accuracy and hold to make it partially useful. Personally I'd recommend the recharge so it can always fill in when Cinders and Flashfire are both still recharging. It will work very well in combination with Hot Feet as the foes will be slowed to prevent them escaping the Liquefy effect.

Knockdown doesn't trigger Containment, but you may not want to cast Fire Cages on top of Liquefy as it will negate knockdown (but you would still have the debuffs).

Standard Pool Powers

You can choose from a maximum of four of them and I would suggest that two of them are a foregone conclusion (I'm sure you can guess which ones). I can recommend leadership for a third and maybe a different travel power for the fourth if you aren't taking superspeed or want an additional one.

Concealment - This power pool is one I haven't actually had much experience with but one I wouldn't particularly recommend for fire/bubbles as you can already emulate many of its powers through your primary and secondary. Smoke offers an effective stealth ability to allow you to get past dangerous mobs or into position for Cinders, and cycles fast enough to be used quickly again and forcefield's bubbles completely eclipse the defence that grant invisibility will ever manage. PFF is also a close second to phase shift for an emergency escape or safe travel power and costs a fraction of the endurance. Other pools are far more worthy of your attention. Sonic Resonators may like the pool more as it will allow them to grant both Defence and Resistance to their allies but there are still other more important pools. With Issue 5's changes to stealth powers this pool is even less attractive.

Fighting - Bubblers' personal protection got a hit in Issue 5 so this pool is actually half-tempting for Tough and/or Weave. I'm not sure how you could really fit it into a build though without losing out on more valuable primary, secondary and pool powers though. Might be one for Sonics to consider before they get their personal protection from Sonic Dispersion and respec out of it later. In theory a controller shouldn't really need much personal protection anyway as everything shoudl be locked down.

Fitness - Controllers, in general, are big endurance users, and while some secondaries have endurance recovery powers, forcefield and sonics don't - in fact they only add to your endurance problems! Stamina is going to make your life soooo much more bearable. Please take it and six slot it. It doesn't really matter which of Swift or Hurdle you take (I usually take Swift just to run a bit faster in missions), but I would recommend taking Health to give you some sleep resistance to partially offset the weakness of the two dispersion powers.

Flight - Flight is definitely a good contender for a travel power for the fire controller. Group fly can be used quite effectively with Imps and hover is nice as an additional defence buff on top of dispersion bubble. Air Superiority is also one of the best pool attack powers and gets double damage with Containment.

Leadership - This is a very nice pool to take, if you can spare the slots and endurance. 6-slotted tactics is like an extra accuracy SO (some suggest it's even as good as two) in all your powers and allows you to take out that acc in your imps and replace it with damage. It also benefits all of your powers and those of your team-mates meaning they will miss far less often. In order to get tactics however, you need to take assault or manoeuvres first. Assault cannot be enhanced from its base 20% damage buff, but if you don't have the slots to spare for Manoeuvres you may as well take assault - otherwise you might be better to go with Manouevres as it enhances the defence you offer your allies and is beneficial for those outside your dispersion bubble as the leadership buffs have a larger range. For Sonics it of course means you can offer your team Defence *and* Resistance. Vengeance is also a very nice buff but of course only useful if you haven't been doing your job properly

Leaping - This is a great travel power to take. Your imps also have a very high leaping ability so you will have trouble reaching places they can't (although they will be a fair bit slower) Combat Jumping offers you a small jump buff that can be useful early on and a small defence bonus. The immob protection is largely overshadowed by dispersion bubble but it's still useful. Jump kick can be a nice attack power for those solo-inclined. The hold protection from Acrobatics stacks with dispersion bubble, and the resistance to knockback can be very nice - especially if you have taken Hot Feet and want to be in melee.

Medicine - Well your secondary has no heals at all but that is mainly because prevention is better than cure. You'll hopefully not be needing this pool personally given the protection of your secondary and the fact your primary should be preventing attacks in the first place.

Presence - Not really worth considering unless you are going for some sort of bizzaro-PFF-tank-build (yes, I have heard of such things). I'd just let the melee chars worry about taking the aggro of anything (if anything) you haven't held yet.

Speed - I have already mentioned having perma-hasten in my build earlier on and I strongly recommend it. Without it you will huge control gaps as your big AoE powers have such long recharges (and they are even longer in Issue 5). If it goes against the concept of your character then I'd get a new concept

Since you have Hasten already (you do, don't you?), Superspeed can be a convenient travel power to take.

Teleportation - Recall friend is always a nice team-friendly power to have but it does eat up an entire pool. Teleport is however by far the fastest travel power if you can be bothered to slot it up, and team teleport can be used with imps, although there are few places they won't be able to follow you on their own anyway.

Ancillary Pools

You can choose any one of the ancillary pools, but only one (although you are free to choose a different one if you respec of course). The powers in the ancillary pools offer some very uesful opportunities for us fire/bubblers, for whom endurance has probably been a big issue for 40 levels. They all feature a strong single target attack which offers impressive damage with containment - some of them have Area damage powers as well (some of which also get containment). Each of the controller ancillary pools also offers a toggle personal shield of some sort which is either a +Def or +Res to Smash/Lethal and some have a bonus Resistance to other damage types. For us Bubblers/Ringers they are a nice buff to our personal protection up to the sort of level our team-mates have been enjoying from our individual bubbles or rings for 40 odd levels. With the sonic secondary, we already have some personal Resistance from Sonic Dispersion and so some of the +Res shields might not need to be fully slotted to reach the 75% Resistance cap (for smashing and lethal at least). Some of the pools also feature some sort of endurance mitigation power which can make up for the lack of one in our secondary.

The Ancillary Pools follow pretty much the same rules as the normal pools (only the various tiers open up at the next available power choice). You have access to the first two powers in your chosen pool initially (at level 41), then at level 44 you can choose the third power as long as you have one of the first two, and then at level 47 you can choose the fourth power as long as you have two of the first three. You choose your final power at level 49.

Stone Mastery - A very strong single target attack in hurl boulder (with an animation time to match) and the disorient from fissure stacks with flashfire to disorient bosses if they both hit. Both these powers get double damage from Constraint. Stone's rock armor offers defence against smash and lethal with no additional damage resistance bonus. Earth's embrace basically increases your maximum hit points and therefore also your hp regen (as it's based on % of total). Can be made perma with 4 Recharge SO's and Hasten.

Fire Mastery - Basically the one to take if you want to improve your damage output, thanks to Fire Ball and Fire Blast, both of which get double damage with Constraint. If you mez before Fire Ball it will take most minions down to minimal health for your imps to finish off (or you with hotfeet/fire blast etc.). Consume also makes a decent endurance recovery power, which makes this a very attractive set for the fire-bubbler/ringer. Fire shield offers 27.5% base resistance to smash/lethal, 20% to fire damage and 10% to cold which is handy too.

Ice Mastery - A decent single target attack that gets double damage and should one-shot a contained even-level minion when slotted up. Frozen Armor gives 30% base resistance to cold damage and 10% to fire, in addition to smash/lethal defence (slot the defence aspect though as it will be more useful to have S/L +Def than just cold and minimal fire +Res). Hibernate immobilises you and makes you impervious to attacks while you recover hitpoints and endurance very quickly - can be useful if things have gone very wrong but beware it shuts off after 30 seconds and you can't activate any new powers while hibernating - in many cases PFF and a retreat would do just as well if you are /FF secondary, but Hibernate can be very useful if you don't want to get too far from the battle. Ice Storm is quite a potent targeted AoE damage attack that does its damage over time. It doesn't get double damage from containment as it is classed as a summon, but even so it does pretty good damage and covers a very large area. Mobs will attempt to flee the area so it is worth immobilising/holding them and/or trapping them on a liquefy first.

Primal Forces - An excellent candidate for a fire-bubbler/ringer due to two fantastic powers: Conserve Power and Power Boost. Conserve Power will pretty much eliminate any endurance concerns, while Power Boost will massively enhance (+200% of base) most of the secondary effects of all your powers for a few crucial seconds. This means that your status powers will last between twice and three times as long as usual (depending on how much you have already slotted them, as the enhanced amount isn't boosted) which almost negates the Issue 5 controller changes, and your bubbles will be approximately doubled in effectiveness (which helps alleviate some of the Issue 5 changes to defence). The great thing is that click powers that are activated while boost is up will remain boosted for their duration, not just while boost itself is active. Any deflection or insulation shields you cast while boosted will give your allies massively boosted defence for the duration of those bubbles. Unfortunately Power Boost won't affect Damage Resistance buffs/debuffs but it is still a very valuable power for a Fire/Ringer for the boost to mezzes. The Vanguard Accolade has a similar effect as Power Boost but instead adds +100% base, lasts longer (60 seconds) and has a much longer recharge. Importantly, the two powers can *stack* thus giving you the option of +300% base for your holds etc. in occasional circumstances. Power Blast is a good solid single target attack with knockback. It gets containment double damage and again, should one-shot a contained minion when slotted up. Temp Invulnerability gives 30% resistance to smash/lethal (but no further bonus resistances) and will only need 3-4 resistance enhancements to reach the resistance cap (75%) if you have 6 slotted your Sonic Dispersion with resistance enhancements already (depending on the level of your enhancements).

Psionic Mastery - In general, another great set for controllers to choose from, but for bubblers and ringers probably slightly less so. The two very tempting powers here are Indomitable Will which gives perma-able (just) click status protection (including sleep) and defence from psionic damage, and Mind Over Body which gives 27.5% Resistance to smash/lethal and 20% to psionic attacks. The single target mental blast, although quite strong, has quite a long animation time which can be a pain - it does get double damage though. Psionic tornado gives a respectable AoE damage over time attack with a chance to knockup. It also gets double damage from containment. Both of these attacks also slightly slow recharge as a secondary effect. No endurance mitigation power here, which is why it is less attractive for /FF and /Sonic, but the combined defence/resistance to psionics and the more complete status protection round out our personal protection nicely and can be very tempting.

A useful bind for bubbling/ringing

I like to be able to concentrate on controlling during any given fight and so the easier I can make dishing out bubbles or rings the better. I use the following bind to cast both deflection and insulation shield (or sonic barrier/haven) on an ally using a single key. It is slightly involved to set-up than simply entering a single /bind command at the interface but I have found it to be worth it and it means I can remove both the powers from my primary tray to free up some space as I know they will always be ready to go anyway if being alternately cast.

You basically need to create a couple of text files in a directory you can choose. For this example I will use C:\bind but it can be anywhere you like really and I am using the tilde key (left of '1') for it's easy access in the middle of the action.

In your chosen directory, create a file called bub1.txt and put the following line in it:

tilde "+down$$-down$$powexec_name Deflection Shield$$bind_load_file C:/bind/bub2.txt"

Save that and create a file called bub2.txt and put this line in it:

tilde "+down$$-down$$powexec_name Insulation Shield$$bind_load_file C:/bind/bub1.txt"

Save that and then enter the game and enter this at the console:

/bind_load_file C:/bind/bub1.txt

Now, whenever you have an ally targetted, pressing down on tilde will fire off one shield and releasing the key will fire off the other. This allows you to rapidly rebub your party without having to press multiple keys to do it. Saves me time anyway so feel free to use it. For a Sonic, obviously replace 'Deflection Shield' with 'Sonic Barrier' and 'Insulation Shield' with 'Sonic Haven' and perhaps use ring1.txt and ring2.txt as the file names (in case you have both a /FF and /Sonic character).

Example Builds

This section is purely to give you an idea of a couple of possible builds - there are still plenty of other ways to build successful Fire/FF and Fire/Sonic controllers. Hopefully the information I have given above about the powers will help you make your own decisions, but feel free to use these as a starting point.

This is pretty much my Fire/FF build as of Issue 5, and it suits the way I play very nicely - so far I have been extremely impressed with the results. I previously had Psi Mastery as an APP but with Issue 5 I decided to make a move to Fire or Primal Forces. Fire was very tempting but made me feel too much like a blaster and I felt Primal Forces would allow me to still do a proper job of controlling, even in extreme teaming situations where control gaps would appear if I didn't have power boost - it also lets me provide very effective bubbles to my team-mates. I also dropped the Leadership pool to free up some slots for hotfeet and with fewer imps it isn't quite as valuable as before, particualrly as they are slotted either all damage or just 1 acc/5 damage (or in my case with a Hami-O Acc/Dam and 5 Damage). The limit on AoE targets also means that extra accuracy for AoE powers isn't quite so useful either. Ring of Fire makes an appearance in the mid 30s in preparation for fighting AV's and Force Bubble is there for strictly occasional use - its hefty end cost is offset somewhat by conserve power, but it won't really be for continual use.

There are quite a few toggles to run which isn't a problem at all once Conserve Power is up, but you can be quite reliant on teams for endurance support or just have to run fewer toggles before that. This is how I have respecced at Level 50 so you may want to juggle when some of the slots have been taken if you want more offense (from e.g. Hotfeet) a bit earlier in the build. My actual build varies very slightly as I have 4 Hami-O's slotted (2 Acc/Mez in Cinders with the rest recharge, and one Acc/Dam in each of Imps and Power Blast to replace the Acc SO's in those powers below).

Level 1 Char - Acc (L1) Hold (L3) Hold (L5) Hold (L7) Rech (L9) Rech (L13)
Level 1 Personal Force Field - DefBuf (L1)
Level 2 Fire Cages - Acc (L2) Acc (L3)
Level 4 Deflection Shield - DefBuf (L4) DefBuf (L5) DefBuf (L11) DefBuf (L25) DefBuf (L37) DefBuf (L40)
Level 6 Hasten - Rech (L6) Rech (L7) Rech (L9) Rech (L11) Rech (L17) Rech (L17)
Level 8 Combat Jumping - DefBuf (L8)
Level 10 Insulation Shield - DefBuf (L10) DefBuf (L36) DefBuf (L36) DefBuf (L37) DefBuf (L39) DefBuf (L40)
Level 12 Flashfire - Acc (L12) Acc (L13) Disor (L15) Disor (L15) Rech (L23) Rech (L25)
Level 14 Super Jump - Jump (L14)
Level 16 Swift - Run (L16)
Level 18 Cinders - Acc (L18) Acc (L19) Hold (L19) Hold (L21) Rech (L21) Rech (L23)
Level 20 Dispersion Bubble - DefBuf (L20) DefBuf (L31) DefBuf (L34) DefBuf (L36) DefBuf (L37) DefBuf (L39)
Level 22 Hurdle - Jump (L22)
Level 24 Stamina - EndRec (L24) EndRec (L27) EndRec (L29) EndRec (L29) EndRec (L31) EndRec (L31)
Level 26 Hot Feet - EndRdx (L26) EndRdx (L27) Dam (L40) Dam (L43) Dam (L45) Dam (L45)
Level 28 Bonfire - Rech (L28)
Level 30 Acrobatics - EndRdx (L35)
Level 32 Fire Imps - Acc (L32) Dam (L33) Dam (L33) Dam (L33) Dam (L34) Dam (L34)
Level 35 Ring of Fire - Acc (L30)
Level 38 Force Bubble - EndRdx (L38) EndRdx (L39)
Level 41 Conserve Power - Rech (L41) Rech (L42) Rech (L42) Rech (L42) Rech (L43) Rech (L43)
Level 44 Power Blast - Acc (L44) Dam (L45) Dam (L46) Dam (L46) Dam (L46) Dam (L50)
Level 47 Power Boost - Rech (L47) Rech (L48) Rech (L48) Rech (L48) Rech (L50) Rech (L50)
Level 49 Temp Invul - EndRdx (L49)

Next is a proposal for a Fire/Sonics build, based on my experience with the Fire Primary and Sonic Resonance as an Ice/Sonic controller. Many of the principals are the same, but with more powers from the secondary the rest of the build needs a bit of a shuffle. In this build I have gone for the Fire Mastery Ancillary pool to capitilise on the damage resistance debuffs of the sonic secondary, and to get access to consume to help with endurance. I have dropped out Bonfire as Liquefy makes it somewhat redundant (although of course can't be perma like bonfire) and dropped smoke and ring of fire too as I'll be increasing damage against AV's with Sonic Siphon anyway and didn't have any need for another filler power. Ring of Fire is very useful for AV's though so you could swap out Clarity or Fire Shield for it if you wanted.

Level 1 Char - Acc (L1) Hold (L3) Hold (L5) Hold (L7) Rech (L9)
Level 1 Sonic Siphon - Acc (L1)
Level 2 Fire Cages - Acc (L2) Acc (L3)
Level 4 Sonic Barrier - DamRes (L4) DamRes (L5) DamRes (L7) DamRes (L31) DamRes (L34) DamRes (L39)
Level 6 Sonic Haven - DamRes (L6) DamRes (L11) DamRes (L27) DamRes (L31) DamRes (L37) DamRes (L39)
Level 8 Hasten - Rech (L8) Rech (L9) Rech (L11) Rech (L15) Rech (L17) Rech (L17)
Level 10 Combat Jumping - EndRdx (L10)
Level 12 Flashfire - Acc (L12) Acc (L13) Disor (L13) Disor (L15) Rech (L45) Rech (L46)
Level 14 Super Jump - Jum (L14)
Level 16 Swift - Run (L16)
Level 18 Cinders - Acc (L18) Acc (L19) Hold (L19) Hold (L21) Rech (L21) Rech (L23)
Level 20 Hurdle - Jum (L20)
Level 22 Stamina - EndRec (L22) EndRec (L23) EndRec (L25) EndRec (L29) EndRec (L29) EndRec (L31)
Level 24 Disruption Field - EndRdx (L24) EndRdx (L25)
Level 26 Hot Feet - EndRdx (L26) EndRdx (L27) Dam (L40) Dam (L40) Dam (L40) Dam (L43)
Level 28 Clarity - EndRdx (L28)
Level 30 Acrobatics - EndRdx (L30)
Level 32 Fire Imps - Acc (L32) Dam (L33) Dam (L33) Dam (L33) Dam (L34) Dam (L34)
Level 35 Sonic Dispersion - EndRdx (L35) DamRes (L36) DamRes (L36) DamRes (L36) DamRes (L37) DamRes (L37)
Level 38 Liquefy - Rech (L38) Rech (L39) Rech (L45) ToHitDeb (L50) ToHitDeb (L50) ToHitDeb (L50)
Level 41 Fire Ball - Acc (L41) Dam (L42) Dam (L42) Dam (L42) Dam (L43) Dam (L43)
Level 44 Fire Blast - Acc (L44) Dam (L45) Dam (L46) Dam (L46) Dam (L48) Dam (L48)
Level 47 Consume - Rech (L47) Rech (L48)
Level 49 Fire Shield - EndRdx (L49)

Summary

Fire/FF and Fire/Sonics are both great builds for the team player and you'll certainly be wanting those teams up until the mid 30s when you'll have your imps 6-slotted as before then you only have a limited ability to solo (even with Containment). Both bubble secondaries are fairly low maintenance, 'fire-and-forget' type sets which let you get on with the business of controlling. Sonics has a few extra powers which you can throw into the mix too from time to time.

With Fire/FF you can take 'just the essentials' from the secondary and flesh out your build with some nice utility pool powers, or you can add additional control in there from some of the less popular forcefield powers. The important thing of course is to have fun!

Fire/Sonics has more 'must haves' to take from the secondary and so leaves you with a bit less flexibility elsewhere in your build. You should still be able to get a very nicely rounded controller at the end of it though.

Both FF and Sonics are very useful to teams. Admittedly Sonics brings a few more universally useful tricks to the table, but there are plenty of builds (for example ones that already have heavy Resistance) that will benefit a lot more from +def bubbles than they will from +res rings.

Hope you've found this guide useful and good luck with your controller!

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