Intro:
This is PART 2 of the complete guide to all the Control Heroes in the game. As the “Control” category would suggest, these characters specialize in influencing the flow of combat through disruption and causing chaos. Each of them has a place in the game, so this guide will provide insight to each Control hero’s value.
Disclaimer: This Guide will always be under construction, either through updating information or adding more content as more new heroes are released in the game. I will be doing updates accordingly for as long as I continue to play the game.
Finnick
Overview
Strengths:
+Strong slow effects
+Backline peeler
+Very useful Friendship Disks
+Mixed attacker
Weaknesses:
-Low durability
-Susceptible to AOE damage
-Helpless against CC
Gameplay:
Finnick is one of the kings of slow effects. “Sticky Situation” is a powerful skill that causes all of Finnick’s attacks to slow enemies down. While the reduced attack speed is wonderful, it’s the reduced movement speed that’s the most important aspect pertaining to his game plan. Since Finnick can push enemies back with his White Skill, the reduced movement speed means they will have a much harder time trying to gain back any ground that they’ve lost. Hitting slowed targets with his Van also causes stuns, so he does have solid control over the battlefield. The stun actually works with slow effects from other characters too. Finnick can be good in Coliseum and Guild Wars, but not quite as consistent in Arena. He is one of the best heroes for team Yellow’s Invasion week, and works well with most Yellow heroes too.
Friendship Disks:
Finnick has Friendship Disks with Judy and Nick, both of which greatly improve on his offensive capabilities. Judy’s disk gives allies a damage boost when attacking slowed enemies, which Finnick can easily initiate. Not only that, Finnick’s regular attacks now deplete energy as well! Nick’s disk adds a lot of raw damage on Remote Controller, while also giving him more starting energy and conservation. Essentially, Finnick can call upon his Van a lot sooner and a lot more often. Both Disks are very good and easy to apply in practice, so you can’t really go wrong either way.
Team Options:
Finnick works very well with the rest of the Zootopia cast, and together they specialize in driving the enemy in to the corner. They are particularly great together for Invasion Breaker quests. In more competitive environments, Finnick fits well in a team that abuses slows. He and Mad Hatter are great partners that can perpetuate slow effects. Elsa is one of Finnick’s best Damage Hero partners, as she can do significantly more damage on slowed targets. Elsa also enjoys Finnick’s ability to peel off backline divers by using his trusty van.
Counters:
Finnick has a tendency to be very easily disrupted himself. His midline position means he can be hit by Elsa’s freeze. Similarly, Finnick struggles against Jack Skellington and Mike(Su) as both heroes can stay out of Finnick’s effective range and keep him stunned. Hercules(Ma) is very problematic for him as he can become unmovable once he gets his invincibility. He becomes even more overwhelming when he leads a multi-tank comp that can become invincible thanks to Maui’s disk. Similarly, Miss Piggy with the Queen of Hearts’ disk poses a massive threat. With that disk, Miss Piggy becomes immune to knock backs and even gains energy every time she blocks knock back moves. She can easily force her way through to him.
Flynn Rider
Overview
Strengths:
+High burst damage potential
+Excellent Energy management
+Good synergy
+High Evasion growth
+Useful Friendship Disks
Weaknesses:
-Mediocre defenses
-No spatial control
-Small effective range
Gameplay:
Flynn Rider entered the new year of 2020 signaling the new standard of power for future heroes to come. Eugene takes a page from some of the best sword fighters that preceded him. Jack Sparrow’s tricky movements, Aladdin’s Energy steal, and Hook’s Sap debuff all combined in one tall, smoldering package. Between countering with “Thief’s Opportunity” and striking a pose with the “Smolder”, Eugene is highly proficient at keeping his enemies Sapped with frightening consistency. Additionally, he may also steal Energy with Thief’s Opportunity and also “Roguish Strike” thanks to the effects of “Stolen Goods”. The bursts of Energy he gets from stealing is astonishing, especially when he is striking at multiple enemies at a time. Since he is crippling Energy gain, he tends to maintain a great advantage when facing against other melee heroes like Beast, Hook, and Bo Peep. The denial of Energy prevents them from using active skills that would otherwise beat Eugene! He is a powerful anti-meta hero in the competitive environment and can be considered as a dark horse in a way. However, he is too vulnerable to use against Mama Bots as he lacks a consistent defensive skill that helps with overcoming Bots.
Done Deal:
Eugene’s Red Skill further enhances his dictation over Energy flow. Unlocking this Skill grants him a small boost to his HP and the damage he does with Thief’s Opportunity and a moderate boost to his Basic Damage. Every time he steals Energy with Thief’s Opportunity and Roguish Strike, he distributes up to 40% of that Energy to his allies. Additionally, enemies that are hit by Thief’s Opportunity will have their Basic Damage lowered for the rest of the wave. Should this skill fail to maintain the maximum level, the Energy distribution will be lowered. Still, he will always be giving tiny bursts of Energy to his allies and that can go a long way.
Friendship Disks:
Both of Eugene’s disks greatly improves his main techniques as a close range fighter. Rapunzel’s disk increases his Skill Power and his Armor. With Rapunzel’s disk, Eugene can also charm sapped enemies for as long as they remain sapped. Of course, charmed enemies won’t attack Eugene or his allies so this greatly relieves pressure off of him. The charm only works on enemies that Eugene himself sapped. So sapping from allies like Captain Hook don’t count! Overall, Rapunzel’s disk greatly enhances Eugene’s disruptive nature, making him a more competent Control hero. On the other hand, Aladdin’s disk increases HP and Basic Damage. Aladdin’s disk further improves the quality of Thief’s Opportunity. This disk allows Eugene to extend the negative status effects already active on enemies even more. This is true for any negative status effects, not just debuffs. Additionally, this disk shortens the cooldown of Thief’s opportunity, allowing him to dodge, counter, and steal Energy much more frequently. Both disks are absolutely amazing when they are maxed, but these disk must be no less than maxed to make full use of them. They’re not as dependable otherwise.
Team Options:
It should come as no surprise that Rapunzel truly is one of his best partners. Rapunzel’s Red Skill allows her to share the Sun’s Gift with him, giving him a small boost of Energy and a stack of Hardy to give him a great head start. Even without her Red Skill, her healing is tremendously helpful and she can also group enemies together so that Eugene can more effectively fight at close range. Timon & Pumbaa also give a remarkable head start with the protection of Hakuna Matatta and they can also group enemies together as well. Aladdin and Jasmine make for great teammates who also help steal Energy. Aladdin and Rajah redirects aggro away from Eugene while Jasmine can knock enemies back with a strong kick. Meg is a great partner who can link up with Eugene to help him stay active and also cause disruptions with her charms. However, be aware that Eugene can’t have other frontine allies that Meg might link up with on Auto.
Counters:
Amazingly, prominent melee fighters like Beast, Hook, and Hercules actually have a poor match-up against Eugene because they are too dependent on their active skills. However, when these heroes are linked with Meg, they can and will eventually overpower Eugene. While it’s true that Eugene can dodge and counter, he otherwise lacks self-preservation techniques and is highly susceptible to characters that can shut him down without the need of their own active skills. Olaf, Elsa, Kristoff & Sven can very easily put a stop to his shenanigans. Eugene also lacks spatial control and performs very poorly when he is pushed back. Animal is probably one of his greatest enemies in this regard. Also do not underestimate Ursula. She might stand far away enough to avoid getting sapped and she can also knock him back when she whips her tentacle. More importantly, she can potentially deny him from using Roguish Strike. While not necessarily direct counters, Mickey and WALL-E are both capable of providing excellent bursts of Energy, making things harder for Eugene to take control. WALL-E is especially good because he can deny up to 5 attempts of Eugene trying to sap.
Frozone
Overview
Strengths:
+Decent CC with freezes
+Has Evasion
+Lots of crit tech
Weaknesses:
-Largely outclassed
-Low damage
-Low durability
-Low synergy
Gameplay:
Frozone was the original Control hero for your team, teaching players the importance of disrupting enemies to give your own team safer opportunities to cause damage. Obviously, Frozone’s main specialty is to freeze enemies, but it’s about as basic as that. He is unfortunately outclassed by most heroes in terms of functionality, especially since the introduction of Elsa and Olaf. He lacks any other kind of utility outside of his freezes, so it’s very difficult to justify his usage. He can somewhat fit in a freeze team, but he does have heavy competition for filling a team slot most of the time. Since he is outdone within his own niche, it’s really best to favor other heroes in his place.
Friendship Disks:
To somewhat compensate for his lack of utility, Frozone’s Friendship Disks are meant to turn him into something of an off-Support type of hero. Mr. Incredible’s disk provides more Armor for ally Tank heroes while also boosting the overall damage they can do. Eve’s disk on the other hand adds a healing effect to Frozone’s “Stay Frosty”. The healing amount is actually pretty decent all things considered. However, the healing only applies to allies that are below 50% health and he even freezes his own allies for 2 seconds just so he can heal them! Even if the freeze is only for 2 seconds, there’s never really a good reason to delay an ally’s action under any circumstances.
Team Options:
The only way to bring the best out of Frozone is to fit him in a team that abuses freeze effects. Elsa and Olaf are essential partners, but he heavily competes against WALL-E and Merida(El) to fill another spot. Most of the time, Elsa and Olaf are just enough to make a freeze-oriented team, making Frozone very hard to make use of. Aside from that, he does have naturally good partnerships with The Incredibles, especially Mr. Incredible who benefits from Frozone’s Tank bonuses.
Counters:
Frozone is tragically frail, but he is especially vulnerable to Fantastic Damage. This means his biggest threats include Ducky & Bunny, Jafar(Sc), and Anger. Anger gets a special mention because he can completely ignore Frozone’s attempts to freeze him. Similarly, Mad Hatter is also impervious to being frozen and can freely wreak havoc without worry. Kevin is yet another counter who is also immune to being frozen and can even cleanse his allies from the freeze, undoing any impact Frozone tried to establish.
Gaston
Overview
Strengths:
+Very high damage potential
+Potent close range fighter
+High disruption potential
+Powerful comeback factor
+Good synergy
Weaknesses:
-Very slow early game
-Very small effective range
-Invincibility cannot resist disables
-Somewhat low defensive stats
Gameplay:
Gaston is primarily a backline hero, starting off each fight shooting arrows from a safe distance. At that point, Gaston is relatively weak, unable to affect anything with his disables since these skills can only affect targets within his melee range. However, when he finally activates “Wrestling Match”, Gaston jumps into the frontline to start doing his real work. Melee range is where Gaston really shines, starting off with a great advantage by stunning the enemy frontline! At this range, Gaston’s “Burly and Brawny” can successfully connect. With his frequent disruptions, Gaston often maintains an advantage at this range. Should he find himself outmatched at any point, Gaston has a revive that he can resort to just once per battle. It is arguably the absolute best revive in the game, giving him 8 seconds of invincibility to try and use more of his brute force. Gaston is amazing in most PvP formats, especially in Coliseum and Guild Wars. He is surprisingly not very optimal in Invasion because he has a losing match up against high-level Bots and would have to deal with anti-disable Wards in Breaker quests. He can hold his own on City Watch though.
Frienship Disks:
Gaston has a Friendship disk with Calhoun, and it is designed to further improve his already impressive damage potential. This disk increases his Basic Damage, which greatly buffs his regular attacks and the strength of his Wrestling Match. More importantly though, Gaston will do increased damage to stunned enemies. Gaston will get the most out of this disk when teamed with allies who can also cause stuns. Do note that this damage bonus only works on stuns and not on charms.
Team Options:
With Calhoun’s disk at hand, Gaston should have at least one more ally that also specializes in stuns. He has lots of great options, but the standout picks are Maleficent, Hercules, and Huey, Dewey, & Louie. Similarly, Jack Skellington and Mike(Su) are particularly good at keeping multiple enemies in a near-constant stun loop, which Gaston would absolutely love. However, be mindful that the Skellington/Wazowski partnership is a package deal that compromises 2 of your team slots, which somewhat limits your remaining options. Still, even without an extra Stun partner, most teams can still benefit from Gaston’s mighty strength and disruptions. Naturally, Gaston works well with fellow villains especially Ursula, the Queen of Hearts, and the aforementioned Maleficent.
Counters:
Gaston lacks any Tenacity growth, and despite having some Evasion, he himself is very vulnerable to CC. Even with his invincibility, Gaston fails to resist any negative status effects. By far his biggest counter is Merlin, who tends to prioritize targeting Gaston with his Teacher’s Pet because of his naturally high Basic Damage. Ursula is also a key threat because she can deny him from being able to reach his ideal range. Both heroes have to watch out being jumped by Gaston though, as they will be helpless at that point. Hercules is a big obstacle for Gaston. Unlike Gaston, Herc has true invincibility, and is one of the few heroes that can actually outmatch him at close range. Similarly, the Beast is a bad match up that is difficult to deal with.
Genie
Overview
Strengths:
+Strong healing
+Powerful utilities
+Great regular attacks
+Useful Friendship Disks
Weaknesses:
-Absolutely no sustain
-Poor CC potential
-Very vulnerable in general
Gameplay:
Genie is arguably the most unorthodox hero of the Control category. The most notable thing about him is that he is very, very inclined to providing support to his team rather than trying disrupt his enemies. Even his skillset reflects this ideal; he only has one legitimate CC skill, and the other 3 are specifically tied together to fully focus on his team healing and support. “Three Wishes”, as implied, is Genie’s active skill for healing the 3 weakest allies at the time over the course of 8 seconds. This powerful skill is supplemented by “Cosmic Power” to grant invincibility to one ally and also grant 650 Energy to another ally. “Energize” is a skill that grants a 50% speed boost to allies that experience healing over time from any source. This synergizes extremely well with heroes that can provide such healing. If it’s only Genie, then at least 3 of his allies can benefit from this generous speed boost. “Makeover” is Genie’s only true form of CC and it is a unique skill that effectively removes an enemy for 5 seconds then applying some decent Fantastic damage when they return. Even though the enemy Genie has transformed becomes untargetable, that is actually (usually) a good thing because it forces the rest of the team to redirect all their damage onto a potentially more important target. The bad thing about this skill is that Genie will target randomly, so the desired outcome may be inconsistent. The most glaringly awful aspect about Genie is that he has absolutely no means of protecting himself. Genie is so vulnerable and risks getting KO’d before he is able to use his healing, therefore wasting 3 whole skills in a single instance. That said, the utilities he provides are outstanding and his inherent weaknesses can be overcome with the right composition. He gets the absolute best value out of his skills in Invasion, although his phenomenal cosmic powers can also see some great use in competitive environments as long as he is well protected.
Friendship Disks:
Genie’s Friendship Disks will either enhance his support or his control. Mike’s disk gives him more Skill Power, directly improving the potency of his healing. It also adds a powerful shield that he can apply to one of his allies when he uses Three Wishes. In addition, allies being shielded from any source will be given bonus reality as long as the shields remain and while Genie is still active. Interestingly, this Reality bonus does not apply to Genie himself even when he is shielded by another ally. This disk is a little easier to use at low stars, generally speaking. Elsa’s disk makes a drastic change to Genie’s regular attacks, allowing him to hit two targets at a time. This is very, very useful because his regular attacks also has a chance to freeze targets for 6 seconds. Additionally, Genie gains a defensive response to hostile damage. With this disk, Genie will also have a chance to freeze enemies that deal damage to him at any range. This disk actively makes Genie a much more competent Control hero, but it is very hard to use this disk at low star levels. It won’t start to feel useful until it reaches at least 3 stars, when there’s around a 1 in 3 chance for a regular attack to actually cause a freeze and almost a 1 in 4 chance of freezing enemies that hit Genie. Either way, both disks are pretty interchangeable once they are both maxed.
Team Options:
Genie’s revitalized skillset opened up new possibilities that were previously not practical to apply. Keeping in mind the speed boosting properties of Energize, Genie should ideally be teamed with healers that can provide healing over time. Mickey Mouse, Kevin(Ba), and Rafiki(Ja) are excellent partners to have as they can also keep Genie topped up. Ovbiously, it’s their team-wide healing that bestows a speed boost for everyone. Timon & Pumbaa(St) can now also provide an instant speed boost thanks to Hakuna Matata, but they won’t be able to heal Genie once those effects expire. However, the immediate speed boost does provide a massive advantage right at the get-go. Miguel may also benefit from Energize, but he won’t be able to gain momentum as easily since he will start out healing only one ally at a time. Self-healers like Donald and Ralph can also take advantage of Energize, making their reversals even more reliable. With Elsa’s disk at hand, Genie can realistically fit in a freeze team as well. Although his utilities are excellent, he does have to compete in a team slot against WALL-E and Kristoff. That said, he partners up rather well with them. For team Blue’s Invasion week, Meg and Genie linked together is still one of the absolute best healing combinations. Together, they can sustain any combination of Blue heroes through tougher Breaker quests. For Beaker quests, you must always start the fight by manually linking Meg to Genie and just let Genie handle healing as needed. Surprisingly, they are still a great alternative together since they won’t struggle building Energy unlike team Blue’s other main healer, Kristoff. For fighting Bots, Meg can actually be replaced by Genie himself as the main support unit. As long as Bo Peep doesn’t go down, Genie doesn’t have to worry about getting shot down by Bots. Genie’s healing and the invincibility he provides can easily sustain Bo Peep and he can provide actually meaningful supplementary damage as well.
Counters:
No Tenacity or Evasion means he is completely helpless against strong CC. Maleficent(Ur), Ursula, Finnick(Ju), and Jafar are large threats who can steal energy to make it harder for Genie to heal reliably. Maelficent and other prominent curse users like Magica, Yzma, and Tia spell huge trouble as they significantly diminish the value of healing. Genie also needs to be careful around sap debuffs as this makes it much harder for him to provide healing in time. Captain Hook, Flynn Rider, and especially Eeyore can consistently give Genie a lot of trouble. Divers like Aladdin, Mr. Incredible, and Jessie are also major threats that each have their own unique take on bringing down Genie. Aladdin’s Red Skill will do tons of extra damage on Control heroes like Genie and he can also steal Energy. Jessie might steal any buffs provided by Genie and give it to herself. Mr. Incredible has remarkable brute force and flinches Genie with his relentless assault.
More in Part 3 (CLICK HERE)
I was rereading my post after I saw your post, and realized that Past Me messed up 
I’ll go fix it