DasBert

When you hand out a bunch of handguns to kids and say, 'Here, kids, these are noisemakers - not intended to be used as weapons!', you don't then get to be shocked and appalled when someone gets shot.

Some people don't mind tapping the key. Some of us enjoy it as much as we enjoy tapping other keys to make other powers go off. Seriously, what the heck is it with these forums lately and declaring one type of fun less valid than another? If you don't have fun playing a power set...

DON'T PLAY THE POWERSET.

Do not come to the troller forums and scream for dumbing down of controllers - who are supposed to be an AT for OCD people who like paying attention to all the little details. If you can't handle hitting buffs (or just don't have fun doing it) don't play a buffer. Don't take Speed Boost. Whatever. Just don't scream for a nerf to a power that lots of people enjoy using just as much as they like tapping another key for attacks.

A well-played Empath (especially if you can get a Kin speed boosting you or a second empath which you trade adrenalin boosts with) does not need Heal Other. Absorb Pain is a complete no-no. An Empath should be buffing others, shooting their regen through the roof, not spamming their aura and Heal Other.

You should be slotting for massive recharge once you start doing sets. Making your RAs perma (with the help of an adrenalin boost or SB) is what will make you the most awesome team-support Defender ever. If you can trade adrenalin boosts with another Emp, you'll be able to tank, blast, and do team support without feeling overworked.

Are you trying to cap out -all- positional defense? A specific type of damage? I don't think Fire/Kin is really the one to cap out def all, but if you picked the right epic shield, you might be able to (for instance) soft cap smashing/lethal defense.

You can only have 5 set bonuses of the same name. So 5 tiny recharge, 5 moderate, 5 large, etc.. You can have five normal 7.5s and five LotG 7.5s, too. But only 5 of each specific set bonus - not only 5 global recharges.

I don't have it directly at hand, but it's sixteen different files - you have the first bind target team member #1 and point to the second bind, second bind Speed Boosts your target and points at the third bind, third bind targets team member #2...and so on.

I really don't think it's that hard to do SB every two minutes. You can set up a cycling bind that will let you hit one button over and over to SB your whole team. If you can't tap one key sixteen times (I tend to separate my targeting and casting binds) every two minutes, you should not be playing a buff set.

...I am so pwned. I clicked on a link in a post about rick rolling.

The freak chance of Confuse missing a bunch of people is why I'm taking Fissure: Roots + Fissure = Ohshit button.

I seriously hope that was a troll.

My immediate thought is: MOAR RECHARGE. I almost always 4-slot my holds with Basilisk's. On a controller, you usually get more mileage out of recharge than damage buffs. You've only got Hasten 2-slotted, but you've got 3 slots in Hover for defense? If you want raw damage, you probably want a Fire/Kin. With Plant/Storm you want to make sure your best damage-dealing powers are up all the frickin' time. Your trick is probably getting them all clumped together with a corner-pull, dropping Roots until everything is nice and anchored, drop Seeds, then do Freezing Rain, Tornado, and Lightning Storm that they can't get away from while Creepers and your Fly Trap wail on them. Make sure your Fly Trap gets into melee range if you can. You should be able to easily perma-confuse all of them, and global accuracy pretty much falls into your lap on accident if you go for more recharge. Plant/Storm feels like one of the most controllery controllers to me - out of a group of 12-16, you'll have maybe one or two who can even try to attack you and even if they're both bosses, you'll probably be able to get them perma-held really fast with Strangler.

Vines is pretty crap without lots of recharge, I just can't see it really doing much - if you really want to hold things AoE, I'd suggest stacking Roots + Fissure from the Stone Mastery Epic. But you don't really need a hold when you can Confuse things. Holds will make you do less damage.

Also, you three-slotted Hover. If you're really that crazy for defense, I'd suggest dropping Spirit Tree, Thunderclap, and Vines and going with Boxing/Tough/Weave. It will free up some slots, too, because I can never see the point in taking more than 3 slots total in Tough/Weave (I normally three-slot Steadfast in Tough and three-slot LotG in Weave, leave Boxing empty unless I've got lots of slots free to six-slot it for recharge - or unless I'm playing a Brute, in which I six-slot for recharge anyway but actually use it for building fury).

In Health, what I'd suggest rather than three-slotting Miracle is grabbing the Miracle unique, the Numina's Unique, and picking which one you want two-slot bonuses from to grab the Heal. That's just my personal way to do a three-slotted regen power like Health on something that might be end-hungry - but with Consume you might not need it, especially if you go for some more recharge.

Speaking of: LotG 7.5s in Maneuvers and Weave. Hell yeah.

I have a friend who absolutely loves building for defense - he'd tell me to sacrifice recharge for soft capping more stuff, but I'm pretty satisfied at how survivable these values are gonna be.

I'm sure if I'd built from the beginning with Defense in mind it would have been higher, but I just sort of realized how easy it would be to bump up a few values and focused on them a little after I got Hasten close to perma.

Heh, I'm glad my first build ever posted didn't get laughed at.

[ QUOTE ]

Don't expect to move your difficulty off of Heroic for quite a while. You probably won't have the tools needed to survive a group of more than 3 or 4 enemies until after level 20.


[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong - but on my current controller (level 9) I set the difficulty to Tenacious for bigger spawn sizes as soon as I grabbed my AoE Immobilize. The ranged attacks on most low level NPCs are pitiful - I drop a few Range TOs into my AoE immob ASAP and sit back beyond the range of most attacks while they die. I'm Plant/Storm and it's working out pretty well. I drop Roots, then if it misses anything I hit it with Strangler and Gale it back into the aoe of Roots.

This is my quick and dirty plant/storm build, whipped up in just a few minutes, to show where I think I'll go. I'm at level 9 right now - I just got Seeds and it's helping a lot. I am running on Tenacious for the larger spawn sizes. I've soloed only so far, no teams, although I may jump into one or two to help get to 16 and freezing rain. Eventual build is slotting for recharge (almost perma hasten, 124 second recharge) and for ranged defense (soft-capped) but has damned good numbers against just about everything. I figure with my immobs, most of what I'll be taking will be Ranged, though - when I take damage, with that 17s recharge/71s duration Seeds of Confusion and the ability to toss an AoE hold once a minute or so as a panic button and do Roots/Fissure for a pseudo aoe hold while I wait for Confuse to stack on bosses. I'm thinking this is probably the most damage you can get with a solo controller outside of Fire/Kin, and -incredibly- safe to run solo.


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Stone Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler -- BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(13), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(15), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(42), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(43)
Level 1: Gale -- KBDist-I(A)
Level 2: Roots -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(3), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Posi-Dam%(5)
Level 4: Snow Storm -- P'ngTtl-Acc/Slow(A), P'ngTtl-Dmg/Slow(15), P'ngTtl-Acc/EndRdx(40), P'ngTtl-Rng/Slow(46), P'ngTtl-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(50), P'ngTtl--Rchg%(50)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(7), RechRdx-I(7)
Level 8: Seeds of Confusion -- CoPers-Conf(A), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(9), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(9), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(11), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(11), CoPers-Conf%(13)
Level 10: Steamy Mist -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(37), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(40)
Level 12: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 16: Freezing Rain -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(17), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(17), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Posi-Dam%(19), TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(23)
Level 18: Vines -- BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(23), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(25), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(25), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(48)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Super Speed -- Zephyr-ResKB(A), Zephyr-Travel(31), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(34)
Level 24: Hurricane -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(43), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(43), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(48)
Level 26: Carrion Creepers -- TotHntr-Acc/Rchg(A), TotHntr-EndRdx/Immob(27), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx(27), TotHntr-Immob/Acc(29), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(29), TotHntr-Dam%(31)
Level 28: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(31), ResDam-I(34)
Level 32: Fly Trap -- ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(A), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(34), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(42)
Level 35: Tornado -- BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg(A), BldM'dt-Dmg/EndRdx(36), BldM'dt-Acc/EndRdx(36), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), BldM'dt-Acc(37), BldM'dt-Dmg(37)
Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(39), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Decim-Acc/Dmg(40)
Level 41: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(42)
Level 44: Fissure -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(45), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(45), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(45), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(46), Stpfy-KB%(46)
Level 47: Rock Armor -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(48)
Level 49: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]7% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]7% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]7% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]7% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]7% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]7% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]7% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]7% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]3% Defense(Smashing)[*]3% Defense(Lethal)[*]8.31% Defense(Fire)[*]8.31% Defense(Cold)[*]20.2% Defense(Energy)[*]20.2% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]3% Defense(Melee)[*]29.9% Defense(Ranged)[*]10.8% Defense(AoE)[*]2.25% Max End[*]5% Enhancement(Immobilize)[*]36% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]91.3% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]2.5% Enhancement(RunSpeed)[*]2.5% Enhancement(FlySpeed)[*]2.5% Enhancement(JumpHeight)[*]2.5% Enhancement(JumpSpeed)[*]3% Enhancement(Stun)[*]4% Enhancement(Confused)[*]5% FlySpeed[*]76.3 HP (7.5%) HitPoints[*]5% JumpHeight[*]5% JumpSpeed[*]Knockback (Mag -4)[*]Knockup (Mag -4)[*]MezResist(Confused) 12.5%[*]MezResist(Held) 18%[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 15.3%[*]MezResist(Sleep) 15.3%[*]MezResist(Stun) 14.2%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 12.5%[*]21% (0.35 End/sec) Recovery[*]50% (2.12 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]10% Resistance(Smashing)[*]10% Resistance(Lethal)[*]13.2% Resistance(Fire)[*]13.2% Resistance(Cold)[*]10% Resistance(Energy)[*]10% Resistance(Negative)[*]10% Resistance(Toxic)[*]10% Resistance(Psionic)[*]5% RunSpeed[/list]

I'm just starting out a Plant/Storm, and in Mids it looks -hilariously- powerful. I went Stone Mastery and Fissure just looks like so much awesome it's undescribable. Roots + Fissure means a completely shut down spawn, with Strangler stacked up early on to keep the boss under control. And this is if I -don't- just confuse everything - with a 71 second duration and a 17 second recharge on Seeds of Confusion, that feels like an I-Win button all on its own, even without grouping them up, immobilizing them, and dropping Freezing Rain/Tornado/Lightning Storm.