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Area and Zones: Controllers are all about affecting as much of the battlefield as they can, and a major way that they accomplish this is through Area Effects (bursts and blasts). These are usually not very damaging for each individual enemy hit, but your cumulative damage output can get significant if you catch a lot of enemies in your bursts and blasts (and if you're fighting minions, it doesn't matter that your damage/enemy is low since one hit takes them out). More useful to you is the fact that by attacking more enemies with one standard action, you have more chances to inflict nasty status conditions. Zones are basically upgraded areas in a sense, since you can sustain them and keep the effects going longer. With zones, however, comes a new level of strategy. A lot of them deal automatic damage if an enemy enters or starts their turn there, so it's prudent to keep enemies within them. This can be accomplished with forced movement (pushes and slides), or just moving the zone (if the power allows that). Also note that since zones deal automatic damage, they are an effective way to deal with enemies that have really high defenses.

Blinded: A good debuff against any role, but better against melee types because it prevents flanking. This is particularly good for Skirmishers and Lurkers that have bonus damage when they have combat advantage.

Block Line of Sight: An obvious tactic for foiling any ranged enemies.

Dazed: Its usefulness varies quite a bit. Against ranged enemies, don't bother dazing them unless one of your melee allies (or you) are adjacent to them, ready to slam them with an opportunity attack if they fire. It can be used to deny melee enemies an action, but it takes a lot of strategy. The enemy can use its one action to charge, so you have to make sure that you and your allies are out of range of a charge. One way to do this is to make sure that everyone within reach is exactly one square away from the dazed target (since you have to move at least two squares to charge). Druids excel at this, since wild shaping back to humanoid form grants them a minor action shift. This tactic is useless, however, if the enemy has reach. Another way to make dazing more effective is by combining it with other effects (notably prone). Now the enemy has to burn its one action to stand up from prone if nobody is within reach. Turn wasted.

Where daze really shines is against Solos, because it prevents them from using immediate actions and opportunity actions. Anyone who's been on the receiving end of a Dragon's tail strike will understand this. Because daze denies opportunity actions, it's also very useful for breaking through enemy front lines (the brutes and soldiers) to gain access to the squishies. Just send your striker through and let them go to town.

Deafened: Usually useless. The only benefit is that it grants a -10 to Perception checks, so if you or your allies are invisible the enemy will really hate trying to guess which square you're in (unless they have area attacks, in which case they stand a good chance of hitting you anyways). Could also be situationally useful if the Rogue is trying to sneak up on someone.

Difficult Terrain: If you're trying to keep melee enemies away, difficult terrain is an ok place to start. Combine it with slow, and now you're starting to make a difference. What you really want to use difficult terrain for is to prevent enemies from shifting. This works great against lurkers and skirmishers who like to shift out of harm's way after they've struck. If your party has a lot of elves in it, the difficult terrain won't even prevent them from shifting (and if they're 16+ level Twilight Guardians, it won't affect them at all!). Some zones will also create difficult terrain, which makes it harder for an enemy to escape them (through their slower movement and inability to shift: so tell the defenders to guard the edge of that zone!).

Dominated: You control the enemy's actions. Dominated creatures are automatically dazed, which actually ends up being more of a hassle than a benefit. If you want to use your new minion to attack its friends, they have to either be adjacent already or within range of a charge. Or just dominate a ranged enemy and forget all about it. Dominating enemy controllers sounds like it could be fun, but keep in mind that they usually have high Will (and dominating effects always target Will).

Forced Movement: Can be either push, pull, or slide. Slides are generally superior because they don't have the directional limitations of push and pull. Forced movement can be used both defensively and offensively. On the defensive front, you want to keep your enemies from flanking your allies as much as possible. Offensively, you want to get your allies into flanking positions as often as you can. Flanking is functionally a good debuff, especially against soldiers since they're so hard to hit. Using flanking (or other powers that grant Combat Advantage) in combination with buffs from a leader is a good strategy for dispatching your foes (especially soldiers) quickly. Against Elites, Solos, or Soldiers that are simply a much higher level than you, this may be the only way that you stand a reasonable chance at actually hitting them. Forced movement is also a great way to break through the enemy's front line (for another option, see Dazed) of soldiers and brutes so you can beat up on the squishies. This might be the only way that you can allow your allies to spread out if you start a battle bottlenecked in a hallway. You need a way to break through the “plug” and gain access to the enemy controllers and artillery. Finally, force movement is great for getting more mileage out of your sustainable zones.

Helpless: An excellent debuff, as the target grants CA and can be the subject of a coup de grace. You're usually helpless because you're unconscious, but the 9th level Wizard Daily Face of Death (Arcane Power) is notable in that it imposes the helpless condition (save ends) upon a conscious target after the "immobilized" saving throw fails the first time. By RAW, this creates a unique condition whereby an enemy can pass its immobilized save the second time but fail the helpless save, allowing it to attack and move normally on its next round while still technically being helpless. While certainly strange, this situation still lends itself well to you and your allies mobbing said enemy with coup de graces until it falls.

Immobilized: Useless against ranged opponents unless you have a melee ally next to them. If they attack, they'll be punished for it. This is a great condition to put on melee opponents when you want to waste their turns. As long as you and your allies are not adjacent to them, they can't attack you. Can't charge you, can't chase after you if you decide to attack enemy squishies. Also great for flying enemies that lack "hover."

Prone: Similar to dazed, in that it can lock a melee enemy down if you and your allies are out of charging range. Combining prone with daze, slow, or difficult terrain makes it more effective. Can also knock flyers out of the air.

Restrained: An upgraded immobilized with some debuffs to boot. Forced movement won't budge them, they grant combat advantage, and they take a -2 penalty to attack rolls.

Slowed: Useful against range opponents if you're trying to keep them from running away. Useful against melee opponents if they're far enough away that you can waste their move. The Druid's Grasping Claws is of note in that you can slow with an OA. Combine with difficult terrain for maximum effectiveness. Really screws the more mobile lurkers and skirmishers over.

Stunned: always an excellent option, because it's a guaranteed way to eliminate an enemy's action. There isn't really anything that you need to do to set it up or make it more effective. It's straightforward and brutal.

Unconscious: It's a rare status effect in terms of the number of powers that confer it, but given that Wizards get Sleep at 1st level most Wizard players will get a chance to use it (or at least have it in their spellbook, though in that case I'd advise them to give Flaming Sphere a rest for at least one day and have some fun with Sleep). Renders the opponent's turn wasted just as effectively as Stunned, but with the additional advantage of allowing coup de graces. Also, when they wake up (if they're still alive), they're prone. We may have just found a winner :D

Walls: Specific tactics depend on the wall in question. Generally though, walls prevent movement. Some do this by imposing movement penalties (see Wall of Fire, Wall of Thorns; difficult terrain on steroids!), others just make moving through them an unattractive option because they're damaging. You can completely prevent minions from getting past them since they deal automatic damage (this also makes them very useful against enemies that have high defenses). They're also a good way to block line of sight for ranged opponents, allowing the party to focus on the melee enemies without worrying about getting pelted by controllers and artillery.

Weakened: A decent back up effect, but it's better to prevent an enemy from attacking at all, though a power that weakens (save ends) may be a good choice compared to, say, a daze until the end of your next turn (which may be able to prevent enemy attacks if it's set up right). Weakened is “fire and forget,” and can be useful for those times when it's simply not possible to eliminate an enemy's turn with a daze (better to save that daze for when battlefield positioning is more in your favor!).

Fairly useless against enemy controllers, since their damage usually isn't impressive but their status effects (which are not affected by being weakened) are very dangerous. If you can't eliminate their actions entirely, it's not even worth it.

There are many different ways to control the battlefield, and different techniques usually have different goals in mind. Controllers have the potential to use all of these methods, but different classes and builds have their own strengths and weaknesses. Specializing in one method will make you more effective overall (for example, if you take a feat that imposes save penalties or that increases the size of your AoE's, specializing in save ends powers or AoE's will mean that more of your powers benefit from these feats). However, you have to balance the fact that certain types of powers are more or less effective depending on the encounter and what types of foes you're up against. All controllers should therefore make sure that they have a number of tricks up their sleeve so that they can handle whatever comes their way.

Area of Effects

Using bursts and blasts is a way of affecting multiple enemies with a single power. This tactic is very broad, as AoE powers may have very different effects. Some do damage, pure and simple. The more enemies you catch in the blast, the more your damage adds up. The argument is often made that it's best to focus fire on a single enemy since foes do not become less effective as they drop in HP, until they cross that 0 threshold. While this is true to an extent, hitting 3, 4, 5, and upwards enemies with a single power can inflict staggering amounts of damage on the enemy forces as a whole. Besides, the rest of the party can focus-fire on single targets; when they move onto subsequent targets they may already be bloodied. Watch out though, as a lot of AoE's do not discriminate friend from foe. AoE's usually do more than just raw damage, and this is where they become truly useful. Status effects can be used to eliminate an opponent's turn, and if you can engineer the situation so that you scrap the turn of multiple enemies with one power, that's all the better. Obviously AoE powers will have weaker effects than single target powers of equivalent levels, but you can still get creative and make the situation work for you. Slow is usually considered to be one of the weaker status effects, but if you can slow an entire front line of brutes and soldiers while convincing your own allies to keep a respectful distance (that fighter is just itching to charge in there...), you can have a huge impact on the battle. Just convince your melee friends to delay until after the enemy's turns (assuming you went before). The benefits of mass debuffs should be relatively obvious, and imposing forced movement on a clump of enemies is much more beneficial than moving each individually. Wizards in particular have many spells with very large AoE's (and the feat Enlarge Spell can make them even bigger if you're willing to accept a damage penalty).

Single Target Lockdown

A strategy made famous by the Orbizard build. The most powerful status effects are likely to be single target, and if they're save ends then you can dramatically increase their efficacy by seeking out ways to impose save penalties (this is why Orbizards excel at the task). The most dangerous foes (Solos) have save bonuses, so you should consider the pros and cons while choosing targets (a controller with no save penalties is unlikely to keep a Solo busy for very long). Obviously Stun is one of the most powerful effects at locking down any type of foe, but you won't have access to powers that stun for a while. In Heroic tier your ability to lock down single targets will be mostly limited to melee foes (daze, immobilize, prone, etc.), though you can ruin the day of ranged enemies if you employ these tactics while a melee ally is breathing down their neck. Druids can lock down ranged enemies right out of the box just by being in melee, assuming they can maneuver them into a corner or onto difficult terrain. The most important thing to remember is to choose your target carefully so you get the most mileage out of the effect.

Summoning

Different controllers go about summoning in different ways. Generally speaking, summoning is a way for you to put an extra ally on the battlefield. Most universally, all summons serve as a form of damage mitigation. Summoned creatures have HP equal to your bloodied value, but when they're killed you only lose 1 healing surge. Furthermore, if you time it right and the dice favor you, you may find yourself in a situation where your summoned ally is almost down. At this point you can dismiss the summon and all of the damage dealt to it will have been wasted! Finally, this form of damage mitigation is also a good way to draw fire away from your allies, particularly melee Strikers (which tend to have few surges and a knack for getting knocked around). Since summons count as allies, they can also be used to set up flanking (a pseudo-debuff) and they can benefit from a leader's buffs. They also simply take up physical space on the battlefield, which may or may not be useful in a given encounter. Many individual summons have specific control abilities, but I'm not going to attempt an exhaustive list. Rather, I will generalize how the summons of Druids, Invokers, and Wizards differ from each other and what makes them unique. Invoker summons have the ability to make opportunity attacks (OAs), potentially limiting the movement of enemies (or at least punishing them for moving). They sometimes get bonuses to their defenses, and the higher level summons can attack with the Invoker's minor action. Wizard summons are similar in that they can make OAs and they tend to get defense bonuses. They also usually get some minor controlling effects, but their attacks are standard actions instead of minor actions. Often the OAs of Wizard summons will even have an additional effect of some kind (often allowing the summoned creature to act as a secondary Defender). Druid summons are the most offensively oriented of the bunch. Most of them can't make OAs so their ability to affect enemy movement by simply being present is limited. They're also a bit squishier since they don't usually get a bonus to their defenses. The most important feature of Druid summons, however, is their ability to take Instinctive Actions. You can opt to control a summoned creature using your standard action much like a Wizard does, but if you don't command it then it will take its instinctive action at the end of your turn, assuming that it's able. Some instinctive actions are better than others, and some have control effects while others just do straight damage. Some incorporate movement into their instinctive action, making them viable even if your enemies are mobile. Essentially they can be no maintenance, granting you an extra action each round.  You have to pay attention though; there are some summons that instinctively attack creatures that meet certain criteria, and that includes you and your allies! 

Debuffs

A controller that focuses on debuffs is sort of an anti-leader. I differentiate debuffs from status effects by defining debuffs as numeric penalties and status effects as effects which limit enemy actions or options in some way. Sometimes the line is blurry (i.e. blinded). In a sense this form of control can be almost indistinguishable from what a Leader does; after all, mechanically there is no difference between giving an enemy a -1 penalty to AC and giving your ally a +1 bonus to attack (assuming they attack AC). Furthermore, sometimes Leaders debuff as well (i.e. the Bard's at-wills Vicious Mockery and Guiding Strike). In fact, Vicious Mockery is virtually identical to the Wizard spell Illusory Ambush (Vicious Mockery has the Charm keyword and Illusory Ambush has Illusion, but otherwise they're identical with the obvious exception of keying off of different attack stats). Both can be upgraded with Psychic Lock in Paragon. So do debuffs fall under the jurisdiction of Leaders or Controllers? It would seem, rather, that the two roles happen to share this ability (nothing wrong with that though).

Positioning

Once again, this is something that Controllers and Leaders have in common. Generally, however, Leaders affect positioning by granting their allies extra movement and Controllers conversely impose forced movement upon their enemies. This actually results in some important distinctions that are appropriate for both roles; namely, Leaders can bail their friends out of zones, difficult terrain, etc. to reduce their negative effects, whereas Controllers can force enemies into zones, difficult terrain, etc., compounding their negative effects. You're concerned with offense, while the Leader plays a defensive game. You also get to have more fun with movement since you can knock enemies into pits, off cliffs, etc. (a Leader would be unlikely to do the same to your allies). Both of you can manipulate flanking, either creating flanking opportunities for your allies or eliminating them for your enemies. The Druid at-will Call of the Beast is a unique way of denying enemies CA (from flanking or otherwise) without affecting positioning at all.

Druid 

Overview: Primary stat: WIS; Secondary stats: DEX, CON

The Druid is unique, in that it is currently the only melee controller in the game. Its main strength is versatility, and being able to switch between melee and ranged with a minor action (free action in paragon, if you take the Quick Wild Shape feat). I would recommend balancing beast form and caster powers so you can take advantage of this versatility as opposed to making a "pure caster" or a "pure beast form" Druid, though those routes are certainly playable.

Predator Druids (DEX secondary) should emphasize mobility and speed in beast form. You get a free +1 speed bonus by going this route (so at level 1 an Elf has a base speed of 8!!!), so take advantage of it. It's easy to overly emphasize your Striker secondary role as a Predator, so dont' forget to focus on control effects!  Overall, they arguably have the best riders of the Druid builds.

Guardian Druids are a bit tougher (they use CON for AC, which also conveniently gives them more HP and surges), but not as fast or mobile. Their secondary role is leader, but don't expect to provide much healing support.  They're very good at forced movement.

Swarm Druids (CON secondary) are extremely durable, as they get a swarm-like damage reduction against melee and ranged attacks while in beast form, and they can take the feat Hide Armor Expertise to use their Con in place of Dex or Int for AC.  They have a lot of close burst/blast attacks, some of which are not party friendly, so feel free to wade into groups of enemies but be careful that you don't hit your friends!

Summoner Druids are not a distinct build.  Any Druid can specialize in summoning to whatever extent they please.  This could range from picking up a single Daily summoning power, to filling all Daily slots with summoning powers, picking up summoning feats, and choosing a summoning Paragon Path (Pack Lord or Primal Summoner). 

Pros:

• Versatile (can switch between range and melee)


• Can cover any secondary role 


• Excellent at-will powers, and access to 3 of them (or 4 if human)


• Leader HP/surges


• Great mobility (wild shaping grants shifting, predator druids get +1 to speed)


• Summons have instinctive actions, thus they are low maintenance

Cons:

• AoE's are generally smaller than a Wizards and less party friendly than an Invokers


• Being in melee makes you an attractive target


• In Heroic, sustain minors can be problematic if you want to wild shape, move, and attack

Secondary Roles:

Why would a controller want to be in melee?

Invoker

Overview: Primary Stat: WIS; Secondary Stats: CON, INT

 Apologies to all of the Invoker players. I have neither played an Invoker, nor seen one in action. This section will likely remain in an impoverished state for quite some time.

Pros:

• AoE's often target enemies only, so you're more party friendly


• Most summons can be commanded to attack with a minor action


• At-wills can be modified with Domain feats


• Access to heavy armor

Cons:

• Fairly squishy


• Lack of a unifying class feature to enhance versatility or control


• Only 4 summoning powers

Wizard

Overview: Primary stat: INT; Secondary Stats: WIS, CON, DEX, CHA

The Wizard is currently the most well-supported controller, and thus some may consider it the "best" controller class. Wizards are ranged controllers, and depending on the build they may or may not be squishy (compared to incarnations from previous editions). Their biggest strength is their extremely powerful Daily spells (it's generally agreed that Wizards have the best Dailies of any class). Wizards also specialize in large area spells (bursts and blasts), and these can be made even bigger by taking the Enlarge Spell feat. They can affect a lot of enemies, but need to be very conscious of where their allies are (because most of their spells do not discriminate).

Orb of Imposition (WIS) Wizards focus on single target save-ends effects because of the save penalty that their Implement Mastery gives them. Save penalties can also be stacked on from various other sources (feats and items). Seek out one of the Orbizard threads on the CharOp boards for details on how to make an extremely broken build. Also note that since WIS is your secondary, your Thunderwave will pack a huge punch.

Orb of Deception (CHA) Wizards will almost always be Illusionists (though not all Illusionists need choose this Implement Mastery). Arcane Power is your bible, so make sure you have it. Gnome Illusionists are another very powerful Wizard build, and AP offers a lot of illusion spells. Just watch out for monsters that are immune to illusions or psychic damage.

Staff Wizards (CON) are more defensive in nature, and can handle being up close and personal with the enemies (leather prof is recommended if you go this route). This form of Implement Mastery is compatible with almost any Wizard build, so it's here that I will discuss the PHB recommended builds, Control or War Wizard. It's simple, really: don't make a war Wizard. The type of character that you're looking to play would be much more effective if you choose the Sorcerer class. You may now open your PHB2 and turn to page 136. If you're really stubborn about being a blast Wizard, it's doable but you won't be doing your job (controller) very well. Choose a Genasi and drool over Elemental Empowerment (Heroic Tier feat in AP), or choose a Tiefling and focus on fire-based spells.

Tome of Binding (CON) Wizards focus on summoning spells. To be a summoner, you will sacrifice most of the other amazing Daily spells that Wizards have access to, but just don't think about it. Your job is now to summon stuff, so don't think you can just cherry pick the "cool" summons and take other Dailies as you please. If you want to do that, then choose a different form of Implement Mastery (Staff works particularly well). Summoning is a form of control, in that you create an ally (flanking buddy!) that can now make OAs. You've decided to focus on restricting enemy movement and manipulating positioning. Take encounter powers that give you some other options so you're not a one trick pony.

Tome of Readiness (NA) can be used with any Wizard build. It gives you some additional flexibility. It's not a terribly popular option, and there's a reason for that. If you want an implement that's compatible with any build (or just want to make a generalist Wizard build), see Staff of Defense.

Wand of Accuracy (DEX) Wizards get a bonus to a single attack once per encounter. Make sure you don't waste this on a sub-optimal target or with a sub-optimal spell. This Implement synergizes well with Elves, since they can re-roll at attack once per encounter, making you extremely accurate. It's another rather unpopular choice for a couple of reasons: 1) most wands aren't that great, and 2) your secondary stat (DEX) boosts the same defense as your Primary stat (INT), giving you lower overall defenses (redundant bonuses are wasted).

Pros:

• Great ability to cover large areas


• Orbs offer best solo lockdown of any controller


• Can master a second implement at paragon

Cons:

• Can deal a lot of friendly fire damage


• Squishy (Staff Wizards can greatly mitigate, but not eliminate, this)


• Relatively few choices for summoning (1/level)[/sblock]

Psion

Overview:  Primary stat:  INT;  Secondary stats:  CHA, WIS

Psions control the battlefield simply by thinking it.  Here's another class that I have limited experience with.

Telepathic Psions (CHA) control the battlefield by mentally assaulting their opponents, rendering them less effective (debuffs), dazed, or even dominated. 

Pros:

• Often targets Will


• Augmentable at-wills provide great flexibility in how you use your powers, and allow for specialization

Cons:

• No summons (currently)


• Augmentable at-wills instead of encounter powers results in "one trick pony" syndrome (you give up variety of effects for versatility in how you use a specialized effect)

Seeker

Overview:  Primary stat:  WIS; Secondary stats:  DEX, STR

Seekers are the first controller to use weapons instead of implements.  This gives them a range advantage (bows in particular have a much longer range than most implement powers) as well as an accuracy advantage (they gain their weapon's proficiency bonus, but still usually target NADS).  The price that they pay is that they're primarily single-target controllers, and the area attacks that they do have tend to originate from a target hit with an arrow (making placement less flexible).  Their Inevitable Shot class feature can turn a projectile into a heat seeking missile; once per encounter when they miss, they can make a RBA against a different target within 5 squares.  You're an archer whose arrows are enchanted with the magic of the Primal Spirits, placing you into a similar archetype that the caster Ranger filled in previous editions.

Vengeful Seekers (DEX) use bows, whereas the STR based build is speculated to focus on heavy thrown weapons.  They're also extremely mobile, as the Bloodbond allows them to shift as a minor action (much like Druids, but without the wild shape requirement).  Their Encaging Spirits encounter power (granted by the Bloodbond) lets them push all enemies in a close burst 1 and then slow them.  Overall, the bloodbond makes Seekers extremely mobile.  Their secondary role is ranged striker.

Pros:

• Weapon using controllers gain proficiency bonus despite targeting NADs (accurate)


• Long range


• Leader HP/surges

Cons:

• Few AoE's, and those that exist usually center on a target that's been hit (inflexible placement)


• No summons (currently)

These suggestions/comments have been great! I've made some changes to the ratings based on the discussion. I think the next section that I'm going to work on is a discussion of the different conditions. This will be more generalized that giving a rating based on role, and it will also be easier to include things like walls and AoEs. After that, I will probably start a section on party composition (so keep those thoughts coming, as the sheer variety of different class/race combinations is daunting, as any one person has only limited experience in game). And of course no controller guide would be complete without a discussion of the strengths/weakness/differences of the Wizard, Druid, and Invoker (this will start out as very general, especially for Invokers since I haven't looked at the class much).

Blast Allies: The answer is always yes. A catchphrase from my last campaign where I played the wizard was "Do what the wizard tells you" because when it's the wizard's turn, bad things happen

I disagree with you on this one, but you do have a good point about other party members "doing what the wizard tells [them]." The wizard is in a difficult situation because he/she really has to consider what the best possible outcome will be. Will the damage done to the enemies outweigh the damage done to the party? And what about status conditions? What role are the enemies, and what are your allies defenses? If you're using a power that targets Fort, and the burst contains two enemy lurkers, your Fighter, and your Hellock, your attacks are less likely to affect your allies, but have a good chance of hitting the lurkers. Does it do ongoing poison damage? If one or both ally is a Dwarf they're going to have a pretty easy time shaking it off. The problem is that enemy hit points are NOT equal to ally hit points. Monsters generally have more hit points but their attacks deal less damage, compared to Player Characters which have devastating attacks but fewer hit points (in general). Also, consider the fact that PCs usually need to conserve resources for future encounters, so not damaging them should be a high priority. The likelihood of the enemy's attacks hitting also needs to be factored in. Do the enemy's have low to-hit, and are engaging the sword and board fighter because they can't escape his combat challenge? Doesn't matter if your burst is more likely to hit them and miss the fighter; the battle can be won more easily by attrition, without risking injury to your ally (so you also need to consider, is your attack more likely to hit than the enemy's?).

While this may sound overly complicated, keep in mind that a rough qualitative sense should be enough. You know if the enemies have been hitting frequently, and assuming your DM rolls in the open you should have a decent estimate of their attack bonus. You should also have a good idea of how the defenses of your allies differ from each other (besides, you could always ask other players what their defenses are if you're really worried about hitting them).

So now back to your point about the wizard telling the other PCs what to do. You'll make life easier for yourself and your allies if you're aware of positioning before your turn comes up. Tell the fighter to shift out of melee if the enemy will not be attacking between the figher's turn and yours (the fighter can delay and attack after the enemy to optimize your initiative order tactics). You'll be much more likely to minimize friendly fire if you plan your turn out before it's actually your turn. The wizard should constantly be assessing the pros and cons of their actions, and constantly scheming up ways to tip the balance in their favor.

Alien: Your section on prone is slightly incorrect, prone enemies only grant combat advantage to those who make melee attacks against them, so a crossbow rogue does NOT get CA

Thanks for catching that! It has been edited.

Under which category is unconscious?

That's a pretty nice effect.

Indeed it is. I forgot about it, as it doesn't come up all that often. I'm thinking 5's across the board :D

It's been added to the "controller abilities" section.

I've started the "Controller Classes" section. I got a good amount done on the Druid, since that's the controller that I have the most experience with. And admittedly, the pro/con lists are very rough, but I haven't put much thought into them yet (just wanted to get something up there).

I think where I'm going to run into trouble is with the Invoker. I haven't looked at the class much, and I haven't played it at all. It'll most likely be the last class that I cover, and if anyone offers any suggestions about it I'll most likely just take your word for it

I like the section on the Druid. A lot of good information there, but it looks like there's one mistake:



You can't charge, then shift and move away. Remember with charge:

No Further Actions: After you resolve a charge attack, you can’t take any further actions this turn, unless you spend an action point to take an extra action.

Ah, thanks for catching that. It's funny because I've made that mistake here before and been corrected. Guess I was more tired than I thought when I posted that :D

So the controller is making sure that the PCs plan goes into effect, rather than the enemy lurker/artillery going after the striker, and the enemy soldiers stopping the other characters going after the enemy lurker/artillery.

The zen of the controller would be to put each enemy on ice until they stagger out one at a time into the waiting arms of the defender, who holds them put while the striker kills them.

More practically, the controller's job includes (in a rough priority order):
a) stopping the enemy from doing an end-run around the defender.
b) stopping the enemy from ganging up on the defender all at once.
c) getting the striker's targets into a convenient position for the striker.

a) and c) are to some extent the responsibility of the striker and defender. b) is pretty purely the controller.

Obviously the best way to do the controllers' job is to do enough damage to kill all the enemy, but if it was always that simple everyone would be a striker.

These are very important components of a controller's job, but I would zoom out a little, and look at the role from a bigger picture pov. Combat in 4e is much more than just strikers (on both sides) try to kill, defenders (on both sides) protect strikers. What you really have to analyze is what does the party need most, and you should be prepared to be able to provide that. This is going to vary from encounter to encounter, and will largely depend on party composition, as well as the composition of the enemy forces.

I wouldn't prioritize your a-c list in a general sense. Stopping the enemy from getting around your defender shouldn't be your highest priority if your allies are not particularly squishy, or if you have two defenders. Just be cognizant of what your party needs, and more importantly, what would screw your enemies over the most. If anything should be a "top priority," I would say that it would be causing your enemies to lose turns. Immobilize melee enemies, block LoS for ranged enemies, etc.

Depending on the setup, isolating groups of enemies can be very effective. In confined spaces, a wall could easily cut off half the enemies from the battle. This works REALLY well for minions. Just trap them; they can't get through the wall without dying instantly. If it's a wall of thorns or fire, normal enemies are slowed down by it.

Going along with that, you didn't list "stopping enemies from ganging up on the Striker." Example from my party: Avenger is at the top of the initiative, and rushes forward to attack a skirmisher (Banshrae warrior). An Iron Gorgon goes next, charges the Avenger, pushes and knocks him prone. Then the Banshrae goes, and using a recharge power (Staggering Palm), scores a crit and stuns the Avenger. Druid was next (and the rest of the enemies were higher in the init. order than any other allies): pops up a Wall of Thorns on the Gorgon, and cuts off the rest of the enemies from finishing off the Avenger. The Ranger wades in and rescues the Avenger, and the two of them team up on the Banshrae. The rest of the party deals with the Gorgon and the other enemies (another Banshrae warrior and two Banshrae Dartswarmers). Had the Avenger been swarmed, the battle would have become much more difficult.

A small suggestion: the "Controller effectiveness vs. monster roles" may benefit from either a) being formatted into table form (everything won't be in seperate s-blocks, which makes it harder to compare among different roles), or b) being color coded a la the Handbook colors (e.g. red=bad, sky blue=great) since many of us are now used to things being evaluated this way.

Great suggestions! I've color coded the ratings, and it looks much better.

You should also note in the "weakened" section that, while it reduces the damage dealt, it does nothing to prevent the infliction of status effects. There are times when the status effects are far worse for you than the damage.

Added.

It should be noted that this limitation can be overcome with the very cheap (level 2) Boots of Adept Charging, which allows for a free shift after a charge.

This is one of my favorite items for Druids! I didn't include it in my description because I think that it goes a little too in-depth for a general controller guide, but I'm glad it was brought up in this thread.

Specifically, it's amazing in combination with Primal Wolf (level 9 Daily). Primal Wolf allows you to knock an enemy prone after they're hit w/ a beast form attack for the rest of the encounter. A good way to eliminate said foe's action is to use Savage Rend to slide them one square, and this way they can't charge you after getting up (beware: they may still be able to charge your allies!). If you either don't have Savage Rend or would rather use Pounce to debuff the enemy, you can still pull the same effective trick by shifting yourself instead of sliding the opponent.

It also increases your chances of setting opponents up into flanking positions, since you have a slide and a shift to work with, even after a charge.

Edited to add: you should also note that Walls (and to a lesser extent, Zones) don't require a to-hit role to be effective, which makes them especially attractive options for dealing with those enemies with really high defenses.

Added in the descriptions.

How can Blinded ever be considered less useful than Blocked Line of Sight?

When you are Blinded, you automatically lose line of sight to everything on the battlefield, in addition to the other associated penalties.

When something is merely in your way, you can often move to see around it.

Hmm, I actually hadn't considered that. Is the general consensus that this is how blinded works? In the description on pg 277 of the PHB it simply says "You can't see any target (your targets have total concealment)." Is blocked line of sight implied by not being able to see your target, or is Line of Sight a specific battlefield condition contingent upon having an unbroken line from your space to the target's, which is assumed to exist unless a power states otherwise?

Losing LoS from being blinded makes sense, but I had (perhaps falsely) assumed that they were two distinct conditions. Although, after re-reading PHB pg. 273, I have a feeling that I was making LoS out to be much more like LoE than it actually is.

Blinded specifically states that the target has total concealment, and PHB 273 states that "if you can see a target but at least one line passes through an obstruction, the target has cover or concealment." Is it safe to imply, then, that if LoS is blocked any targets have total concealment? I guess the source of my confusion was the fact that the blinded condition doesn't simply state "you don't have LoS," yet it DOES specifically state that targets have total concealment.

Thanks for that insight Songteller!

I've updated the ratings for the different monster roles by decreasing LoS. I'd like to qualify the ratings by saying that I'm not equating LoS with walls; walls usually block LoS, but they also hinder movement, deal damage, etc. Blocking LoS alone seems like it's not that great of an effect, thus it is rated fairly low. However, in combination with the other effects of walls and/or zones that block LoS, these powers are quite effective.

Updated with a "Tips, Strategies, and Tactics" section. Feedback welcome!

I know it would be a major additional undertaking, but I would LOVE to see a list of spells that provide each condition.

As the discussion has pointed out, Blind/blinded is one of the best conditions to inflict on anything except for melee - but I've had a hard time finding (wizard) abilities that induce it.

I was actually messing around with Druid attack powers in a spreadsheet a few weekends ago. My intent was to eventually come up with some way of displaying controller powers/effects such that I could compare the different classes. Major undertaking indeed! What I ended up doing was making columns for all of the different conditions, and listing powers that granted those conditions (with green, red, or grey fill corresponding to at-will, encounter, and daily, respectively). Sunbeam (D9) and Blinding Blizzard (D29) were the only blinds from the Druid's list.

The spreadsheet is a bit cumbersome, and a lot of effects don't fit perfectly into categories. Furthermore, I found that it didn't provide much info for the amount of effort. I haven't actually moved forward with it since then, but I came up with an idea for a second tab where I list all of the levels that Druids gain encounter and/or daily attack powers. The rationale here was that comparison's between the different controllers may vary depending on what level you're looking at, and looking at a class as a whole isn't as practical (since you don't get to keep all of your powers). In each level's row, I was planning on listing every effect/condition that a Druid could inflict with a power that level. Unfortunately this format doesn't lend itself well to quick, visual analysis. I toyed with the idea of doing a matrix with an "x" wherever a condition appeared in a level's row, but I don't think that this will help much visually, either.

Unfortunately, controllers are just notoriously difficult to compare. Even a simple count of how many powers a Wizard has that inflict a given status effect vs. a Druid or Invoker is overly simplistic since many of these powers may have additional effects, may be AoE or single target, may be save ends or "until the end of your next turn," etc. And of course whether a power is an encounter or daily has an effect on tactics and resource management.

Because controllers are a complex role, I would be hesitant to try to present their powers in such a simplified way (especially given how unwieldy even the simplification is). Take, for example, the Bard Daily, Compulsion (I know Bards are only secondary controllers but it was the first spell to pop into my head). At its core it's a forced movement power (at least that's what category it would fit into). However, it also goes into effect on the opponent's turn and prevents them from taking a move action that round. Position them so they can't charge and it's an effective single target lockdown power, functionally more similar to prone or dazed than most forced movement powers (which are typically used to set up flanking, get more mileage out of zones, etc., which Compulsion can still do). I can lump Compulsion in the same category as the Druid's Battering Claws since they're both forced movement, but that doesn't really shed any light on the differences or practical functions of the two powers.

Sorry for all of that text, especially since what it boils down to is that I'm not sure how to best present the abilities of controllers in a user friendly manner.

I did not read thruogh the entire blog, but I think you missed one condition.

I came across this one in PHB 2, page 106.

Power: Face of death,
providing your party with the sweet condition:
"helpless" after the first failed save!:D

Free crits (Coup de grace) for everybody without any reply from the enemy.

Thanks for pointing that out; I'd initially thought that "helpless" was so self explanatory that it didn't merit inclusion, but after taking another look at that Wizard power I noticed that it can lead to a somewhat interesting scenario (it would seem that, by RAW, Helpless does not necessarily mean that the enemy can't retaliate!). So I've updated the list of status effects to include Helpless (and I discuss this power specifically).