Best of the Best - Controllers.

[Iron Sky]

I haven't seen much for controllers, but here's what I have seen:

Wizard(Wand), levels 1-3. With a balanced group (Cleric, Pally, Rogue, Wizard), he was awesome. We purposely positioned ourselves and the enemies so he could get an AoE every round (he picked only AoE powers) and never had to target one of us in an attack. Flaming Sphere rocked in every fight he busted it out in.

Invoker(Wrath), levels 4-5. In a mixed group (Barbarian, Sorcerer, Swordmage, Invoker), he's been mostly useful for his consistent mid-to-high ranged damage. He sits back even further than the Sorcerer(who sometimes moves in to get blasts and the like) and deals out nice consistent damage. I don't know if it's just the powers he picked, but he actually seems to dish out less status-effects than the Wild Sorcerer.

Druid(Predator), levels 3-5. I think the Predator Druid is one of those that seems awesome in writing but in practice is a extreme-mobility, low-damage and survivability striker. He could land a few status effects while in melee, but his low HP and tendency to be the first one to reach the melee meant he was dropped frequently (and eventually died due to reaching a group of low level demons 1-2 rounds before the rest of the party due to his 12 speed).

I'd say Invoker > Wizard > Druid, at least with the three I've seen in play.

 

[Marshall]

What Dice said.

Controller is still ill-defined and the role most easily ignored in the party.

That being said...

Any Wiz except Summoner and any Invoker(except the sucktastic Malediction) fill the 'role' equally well.

Druid isnt a controller, its a hodge-podge.

Cant rate the Psion since we havent seen enough of it.

 

[babinro]

Controller Wizard deserves to win this poll. It is the most overpowered and encounter changing class there is. In the time that I've played with a Wizard in the group, spells like sleep, ice storm, icy rays, etc entirely dominated combat and could swing the battle into party favor very quickly.

Though, I haven't seen it played above level 13...it is possible that wizards get worse as they progress compared to other classes.

 

[Klaus]

Wizards suffer from too few "Target: enemies" powers (as opposed to "Target: creatures"). Invokers and Druids have more powers that they can lay down without worrying about friendly fire. Not so much with Wizards, unless they're Summoners.

And Summoner Wizards seem really good at controlling. Not only can they deal damage to foes over the course of several rounds with their conjurations/summonings, they also make squares impassable by enemies.

 

[Scott_S]

While I love the invoker, and it's possibly the easiest controller to use (lots of nifty effects, almost all powers target enemies only), I'd have to give the wizard the nod, with a caveat:

The core wizard isn't that impressive. Not that he can't do the job, but he can't match the invoker or even a well-played druid. Arcane Power, however, changes all that.

Now you can have a wizard who, even at level 1, has a choice of area attacks, can target any of the three NADs, and can choose from effects that occupy squares, create difficult terrain, knock prone, do all sorts of things. And of course Sleep.

Add to that the Orb of Imposition (insane at higher levels as written, powerful even when houseruled to affect only one roll, like most implement masteries do) and the Enlarge Spell feat (bigger bursts and blasts at the cost of -2 damage per die, on a character whose main role doesn't include damage)... yeah, wizard's got the battlefield covered.

 

[DracoSuave]

The core wizard isn't that impressive. Not that he can't do the job, but he can't match the invoker or even a well-played druid. Arcane Power, however, changes all that.

My simple rebuttal.

Thunderwave. Best controlling at-will in the game. (Altho the Druid's Grasping Tide is starting to win me over as potent as well)

 

[AngryMojo]

So I did not vote. I hope that WOTC will clarify this role better, but until they do, I will play other roles, all of which I like.

I still have to disagree with the statement about controllers being ill-defined. Control is a very important part of just about any game, and follows the same abstract, albeit difficult to verbalize, principle. If you ask a Magic player, a Warmachine player, and a D&D player, each specializing in control tactics, what control is, and they'll give you radically different sounding answers that all have the same idea at heart.

Control in tabletop games is an abstract concept that can only truly be expressed in abstract terms. If you don't have the mentality for it, and many don't, it's really difficult to understand. If you do have the mentality for it, and you're good at it, you generally excel more than any other type of player.

The ability to dictate the terms of a game is exceptionally powerful in anything more complex than tic-tac-toe or roshambo, and that's exactly what control, and thus controllers, is about. Take a look at some basic controller powers. Thunderwave was brought up earlier. It's an at-will that allows you to push a group of creatures three squares each. At first glance, it seems like this is a "Get out of melee, because I suck in melee!" power, but it's not the case at all. Imagine using it to take a fight where the swarming, shifty kobolds have gotten the drop on your group and quickly turned the fight into a mire of flanks and blocked movement. One well-placed thunderwave and you can knock that entire formation into a much more advantageous position, like pushing your fighter and the kobold leader into flanking position with the party rogue. No other role can do that sort of thing. Sure, just about anyone can push, pull or slide another character a square, maybe even two, but only controllers can completely rearrange things like that in one go.

 

[Mengu]

In more than one LFR game where we didn't have a controller, I wished we had one. I think controllers are a necessary part of the equation. I'm not saying a controller class is needed, but the role needs to somehow be covered. In a recent game, we were facing 4 swarms (as well as some other enemies) and in the whole group, the only AoE's we had were the dragonborn's breath (which he had used earlier before the swarms showed themselves and entered the fray), and my Macetail Rage. After that we just had to rely on our bard's slides and immediate reaction tricks to not start our turn next to the swarms, and all the healing the cleric and bard could muster. We survived, but it was a difficult encounter which could have turned into an easy one if only we had a controller (or sorcerer).

 

[Tony Vargas]

Personally, I think the name has caused problems. The description of the controller role comes right out and says that area offense is his thing. The delay/confuse/etc, stuff is a sideline, worth mentioning, but not the whole point of the role. The hew & cry over the wizard early on has certainly made it clear that the fans expect controllers to control enemies with status effects, not control the battlefield with area attacks.

If you look at just the PH classes & powers, the Wizard had the only at-will area attacks (three of them, if you count Cloud of Daggers), and area attacks at every level. Other classes had encounter and daily areas, but they were invariably smaller than the wizard's of around the same level. OTOH, all the PH classes have powers that pull/push/slide or bestow status effects. Warlocks, in particular, have tons of status effects. Rogues could slide enemies all over the place. Fighters could push with an at-will. It was clear the wizard/controller was the area guy. Aparently, it wasn't convincing enough.

 

[Kzach]

I must say these polls have surprised me. I never would've predicted such a strong inclination towards the Control Wizard.

I'm not a big fan of the wizard as written and have my own custom rules for them. Maybe I should take another look.