Why arn't Controllers Sexy

[Budalic]

The Invoker and Druid are far better controllers IMHO and I agree with Morrus - expectations of 4E wizards vs. the reailty is where the feeling of 'meh' occurs.

Isn't the wizard regarded as 2nd/3rd most powerful class in system?
I mean... Shield, Wizard's escape, Visions of Avarice/Ruin, Summon Succubus ..., ..., Steal time, Legion's hold, Visions of Wrath.

Wizard probably has the best utility, encounter and daily power at each level in the game. Only wizard's features suck

 

[Festivus]

I am convinced. Next game I am making a wizard. I had been avoiding them because in 3.5 days, the last 3 characters I had were wizard, necromancer, and cleric. Unfun on many different levels for me (flipping through pages of spells.... bleh... not for me)

 

[Aulirophile]

Isn't the wizard regarded as 2nd/3rd most powerful class in system?
I mean... Shield, Wizard's escape, Visions of Avarice/Ruin, Summon Succubus ..., ..., Steal time, Legion's hold, Visions of Wrath.

Wizard probably has the best utility, encounter and daily power at each level in the game. Only wizard's features suck

Well... not encounter powers, and for utility powers they tie, but dailies? Yeah. No one competes with Wizard dailies. A well-built Wizard is ridiculous. Roll twice on all attacks vs Will, which are usually psychic and good, and in addition to all the other effects the enemies take a -2 to their next attack roll. +2 to all defenses and invisible to everyone more then 5 squares away every encounter? Why, thank you! Invokers are good (Druids are imo average controllers, my Predator did great damage but his ability to alter the course of a fight was very finnicky) but Wizards are just unreal once you understand the class.

And you shouldn't underestimate cantrips OR free rituals every 5 levels.

 

[ExploderWizard]

CC is one of those situation things that doesn't come up all the time thus the role is not as "in demand" as the others.

 

[Budalic]

Well... not encounter powers,

Well, if they are tied for utilities, then they should be tied in this area, too.

Looking at character builder:
(Keep in mind that all area spells can be enlarged.)

L1:
Charm of displaced wrath (single target daze + attack another enemy)
Grasping shadows (area slow + damage and slow zone until the end of your next turn)
Orbmaster's inciendiary detonation (knock prone + enemies only damage zone)

L3:
Color spray (close blast 5 daze)
Fire shroud (close burst, save ends, ongoing damage)

L7:
Charm of the defender (imobilize enemy and make it defend you)
Twist of space (area burst teleport and slow)

...

L27:
Charm of a puppet strings (dominate, slide it's speed + charm of defender)
Steal time (stun, gain extra standard action)

 

[Fifth Element]

My wife likes to play controllers. That makes them very sexy, I'd say!

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

As to however said "killing minions doesn't matter", your DM must not be doing it right.

When our DM first was learning 4e, he loved putting out stacks of minions that volley-fired poison blowdarts. You know, like Act 3 of Diablo 2.

Given that we didn't have anyone who could do AoE, this was...painful.

Brad

 

[DracoSuave]

CC is one of those situation things that doesn't come up all the time thus the role is not as "in demand" as the others.

CC is one of those things you don't notice until you have it.

'We don't need a controller.'

is usually followed by

'Did he just thunderwave our problems over the cliff/onto the traps?'

Good times.

 

[Dice4Hire]

'Did he just thunderwave our problems over the cliff/onto the traps?'

Good times.

Yes, and a wizard without that ONE at-will is really poorer. Thunderwave would make any class good. Controller powers that do minimal damage are not very effective. Conditions and movement are where it is at.

 

[Chimera]

If the rest of the group is willing to do what the controller wants them to, and you have a tactically-minded "chessmaster" type of player running the controller, then they suddenly become stupidly awesome. When all of the rest of the team is just running around randomly on their own doing whatever they want, the controller seems a lot less cool.

This is a problem with a lot of Teamwork classes. I played a Shaman for a brief period, and everything was pretty much based on "really cool things happen if you're next to my Spirit Companion". Unfortunately, despite basically opening every session with a reminder of this, I couldn't get any of the other party members to actually make use of those benefits. Sadly, perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of my "and the guy next to the companion gets healed too" healing was wasted because people couldn't grasp the concept.