Raiding, power regeneration, and you

[5yl]

Greetings all,

I wanted to take a moment to explain how us Controllers work, particularly in raid environments, because knowing is half the battle. Knowledge is power. And all that.

Controllers "heal" your power in two ways:
1) A power over time (PoT) buff
2) A direct heal (Defibrillator or Psychic Empowerment)

Now these two methods are fine and dandy in normal groups, however in raids and the current state of the role, whether intended or not, there are things everyone should be aware of.

Though you may have two Controllers during a raid, this does NOT mean you will get twice the power return, as there are problems with both the above noted methods of power regeneration.

1) The PoT buff does not stack. Only one Controller can have it up, and the most recent cast of the buff always takes precedent. Therefore the Controller with the bigger PoT buff should be casting it, and the other should avoid overwriting it. But the point is, in terms of this method of regeneration, you only get benefit from one Controller.

2) The direct heal is inversely proportional to the number of people in the group. The more people there are, the less it heals. Unfortunately, it still only applies to the three lowest people. Taking this into account, the direct heal actually returns very little energy.

In the end, what this means is that I can do nothing but keep the PoT up and spam my direct power heal (with enough weapon combos in between to keep my own power up) and it still can't keep up with everyone's power use.

So keep in mind that Controllers are not able to replace your power regeneration, especially in a raid situation given the above problems. Ultimately, everyone needs to maintain weapon combos for the power regeneration, which is then boosted by our PoT buff and supplemented by the direct power heal.

[kaiki]

Do you agree or disagree that the 2nd troll should be DPS during a raid?

[5yl]

Do you mean in Controller role but in DPS gear?

[kaiki]

In DPS role, perhaps with DPS gear. I read that the optimal group is 1 Tank, 2 Healers, 1 Controller, 4 DPS

[5yl]

I agree that a second Controller offers diminishing returns.

4 DPS is probably better but ONLY if people can manage their own energy. While two Controllers don't offer twice the power regen, it's still more than what one can offer.

With one controller I don't think you can rely on the defense debuff constantly being up. During yesterday's Outer run, I had it organized so that I focused on the PoT buff, while Kallark focused on the Def debuff for the boss. That debuff will be a pretty low priority with just one Controller.

That said, a good DPS probably more than makes up for everyone doing a bit more damage with the def debuff up. Long story short, I think it comes down to everyone's power management. If people can help carry their own weight, I can see 4 DPS being a better composition.

[Kallark & Stark Cold]

Thanks for the info 5YL, as you know it certainly helps me out a lot. I'm still on an pretty heafty learning curve but I'm picking a few things up. I think focusing on the boss debuff helped, well not maybe tons, but some? Hopefully, as I play more I'll pick more up and better understand the role I should be playing

[soar]

My question is this. Which would help the raid more...

1. A second controller in DpS mode doing the best he can.

2. A second controller in Controller mode upping everyone else's DpS/heals somewhat though not as much as the first controller.

My gut tells me that it probably depends on the playstyle of the controller and how well he understands both roles. Which means we should experiment and give it a try but be ready to move back if it causes a problem. Then again my gut also tells me that McDonalds is good so I have a problem trusting it completely.