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As soon as Plant was added for controllers, I made a Plant/Rad. It is a fun combo that works well. The combination of Seeds+Roots handles most groups, and if Seeds is recharging, then Roots + Radiation Infection + Enervating Field will prevent you from taking as much damage while doing more damage to the foes.

I found that Plant/Rad is a pretty loose build: Entangle, Spore Burst and Spirit Tree are all optional from Plant, while Mutation, Fallout and Mutation are optional from Rad. My solo build has Entangle and Spore Burst with Air Sup., while my team build has the Leadership Toggles and Spirit Tree.

The biggest weakness solo is a lack of single-target damage. Sometimes you don't want to use Seeds on two or three. Entangle helps, Air Sup helps, and then single target blasts or Seismic Smash from the APPs help, too. I also found that some kind of stealth really helps, too, to get in position for best use of seeds.

My concept for my Plant/Rad is making me consider him for shifting a little to the bad side . . . His parents were "Flower Children" in the 60's who never gave up their ways. He grew up cultivating a special "herb" in the swamp behind their home, not knowing that Crey were dumping Radioactive waste in the swamp. After years of smoking his "herb," he developed the ability to control the plants. That's how he got the name, "Pot Holder." He became a 60's themed environmental extremist. You can see how he could move to Vigilante in GR.

Ice Control is one of the lowest damage primaries, so adding damage is tough. Yes, you can solo an Ice controller, but it is slow. My Ice/Storm was intended to be able to solo . . . and I had the same problem as you do. There are some options, like taking more pool powers (Boxing, Jump Kick, Flurry), but that could mess up your build and not be all that effective.

You did the same things I did -- Air Superiority and Chilblain slotted for damage. I assume you have slotted Block of Ice for Damage, too. Other than the pool powers above, your only other choice is to try to slot as many damage procs from IO sets as you can. Freezing Rain will take the Lady Gray Chance for Neg Dam and the Achilles Heal Chance for Resistance Debuff. Arctic Air will take two Chance for Psi Damage procs, but to slot them at your level, you'll have to give up some Endurance Reduction or Confuse (which I would not do). Frostbite will take some procs, like the Trap of the Hunter or Posi Blast. (But I didn't take Frostbite until 30.)

Those procs can add up, but you may have to give up some other benefits to fit them in. What did I do? I mostly teamed -- solo'ed when I had to, but mostly teamed until the 30's.

Once you get into the 30's, you have Jack Frost, Tornado and Lightning Storm to look forward to. The the 40's will bring you some damage from the APP sets. At 50, my Ice/Storm solos quite well -- not real fast, but fairly well. You can add in a lot of procs eventually with IO sets, but I didn't do that until 50.

(By the way, plan to put a Contagious Confusion proc in Arctic Air -- it is wonderful in that power and substantially improves it. It increases the amount of Confusion you get by quite a bit. You won't be able to do it until level 50, however.)

Tal_N!! Welcome back, dude!!!


Nice to see you back.

OK, here is how I would suggest you slot the powers with common SOs or IOs, in the order they are listed. Please note that once you get into the 30's, you might as well plan to "frankenslot" the powers from the beginning to get the benefits of higher enhancement. But this shows the main things you should be trying to enhance in each of the powers.

Note that many people would do things differently than I have. I have two travel powers (which I almost never do -- but I like it on this character for some reason). You might want to drop Fly or Super Speed to take Mutation, or Smoke, or Ring of Fire if you want some extra damage for solo. I would take Mutation of those, but that's only for teaming.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Capt. Fantastic: Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Fire Control
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Char -- Acc-I(A), Hold-I(3), RechRdx-I(15), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(37), Dmg-I(37)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(15), RechRdx-I(43), Heal-I(43)
Level 2: Fire Cages -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(3), EndRdx-I(11), EndRdx-I(23), TotHntr-Dam%(34), Posi-Dam%(34)
Level 4: Accelerate Metabolism -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(5), RechRdx-I(5), EndMod-I(37), EndMod-I(40), EndMod-I(46)
Level 6: Radiation Infection -- ToHitDeb-I(A), ToHitDeb-I(7), EndRdx-I(7), ToHitDeb-I(39)
Level 8: Hot Feet -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(9), Dmg-I(9), EndRdx-I(27), Acc-I(27), Dmg-I(40)
Level 10: Air Superiority -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(11)
Level 12: Flashfire -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(13), RechRdx-I(13), Dsrnt-I(17), RechRdx-I(17), Dsrnt-I(19)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(42)
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(19), Heal-I(46)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(23)
Level 24: Cinders -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(25), Hold-I(25), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 26: Bonfire -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 28: Choking Cloud -- EndRdx-I(A), Hold-I(29), EndRdx-I(29), Hold-I(31), EndRdx-I(31), Hold-I(31)
Level 30: Lingering Radiation -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(46), TmpRdns-Acc/Slow(50), TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(50)
Level 32: Fire Imps -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33), Acc-I(34), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 35: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(36), RechRdx-I(36)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(39)
Level 41: Indomitable Will -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 44: Mind Over Body -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(45), EndRdx-I(45), S'fstPrt-ResKB(45)
Level 47: Psionic Tornado -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(48), Dmg-I(48), Dmg-I(48), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 49: Super Speed -- EndRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 0: Ninja Run

Most people run the Council or Battle Maiden missions for farming, which are all Smashing/Lethal damage. So getting more than 45% Defense to Smashing/Lethal is mostly wasted. Your build has about 54% to Smashing/Lethal.

My experience with Gravity is as a Grav/Storm. My experience with Trick Arrow is with an Illusion/TA, so I don't have direct experience with a Grav/TA. However, I think that the only secondaries I would consider pairing with Gravity are Storm, TA and, if it is ever offered, Traps. Grav starts out with pretty decent single target damage and weak AoE control. It finally gets some small amount of AoE control/distraction with Wormhole and Singularity. Singy has some damage, but it is pretty low compared to other controller pets . . . and this is where the right kind of secondary kicks in. Storm and TA have damage in the later levels in the secondary.

Mind is somewhat similar, but it is stronger on control. It has decent damage in the low levels with the Dominate-Mezmerize-Levitate attack chain. You get some weak AoE damage with Terrify, but Terrify provides good AoE control. However, Mass Confusion does not make up for the damage of a pet -- if you want to solo with a Mind Controller, you may want to consider a secondary (Storm or TA) with damage in the secondary in those upper levels. I have both a Mind/FF and a Mind/Storm, and the Storm is much better solo.

As I suggested above and as MileHigh77 so nicely confirmed, Illusion/Radiation is a very good build. Blind-Spectral Wounds gives you decent damage in the beginning. Phantom Army is a boost to your damage in the middle (18), and Phantasm is a boost to damage later (32).

Make sure that the little green button at Hasten is on to make sure that its effects are being included.

You may want to consider an Illusion/Radiation Controller, too. An Ill/Rad is the Jack-of-all-trades in CoH. You can Blast, Control, Defend and Tank. It works great solo, on small teams or on large teams. Overall, it can be one of the most powerful builds in the game for tough opponents, and is well-known as the AV Killer. If you want to find out a huge amount on that combo, take a look at my Ill/Rad guide.

If you solo, at all, I think it is good idea to have either Lift or Propel. I prefer Propel if you mostly solo, and Lift if you mostly team. Propel is a hard-hitter that does huge damage with Containment, but takes a long time to animate (Castle hinted that they are looking at animation times). Due to the long animation, it is not uncommon on teams to have Propel hit after a teammate has already killed a foe, so Lift may be better on a mostly-team character. Lift's damage is a little bit light, but it also provides the control of a knock-up power.

To me, Crush is a damage power. It has an accuracy bonus, so 1 Acc, 3 Dam is my minimum slotting.

GD can also be used for damage. I like 2 Acc, 1 Hold, 1 Rech, 2 Dam.

Siphon Power: Eventually, I usually slot 2 Acc, 1 Rech. Not a high priority, though. It helps a lot when solo and you have smaller groups, or when going up against AVs.

If you have IR, do you really need Teleport? Just use a Raptor/Jet pack for vertical travel. And Recall Friend is overslotted. The only zones where Recall's range is not long enough with no slotting are the length of Independence Port and parts of the Shadow Shard -- 3 slotting for Range simply is not needed. Use those slots other places.

Siphon Speed: I find 2 Acc is plenty . . . there is a 95% Acc cap, and any more than 2 is generally wasted.

Crushing Field doesn't do much damage -- you would probably get more damage from damage procs than slotting CF for damage.

Grav Dist Field: I prefer 2 Acc, 2 Rech, 2 Hold. The third Acc is probably wasted, and the third Recharge is doing little.

Singularity: Singy can, in the long run, do a decent amount of damage. Look at some of the pet IOs, as they are not very expensive. Acc/Dam and Damage from Blood Mandate, Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End from Brilliant Leadership will give you good accuracy and cap your damage in only 4 slots. Then you can add Hold.

Fulcrum Shift: 2 Accuracy is enough.

Indomidible Will: I'm not sure if the Defense in IW is worth 3 slots. I think it is not that high, and it is only to Psi.

Mind Over Body: 1-2 EndRdx is enough -- that third one is not doing much, as they have deminishing returns. I think 1 is enough.

World of Confusion has a tiny radius -- the general view is that it stinks other than as a mule for IO sets. And I have only seen two good uses for Team Teleport -- Masterminds moving their pets, and a full team of Fire/Rads running Hot Feet and Choking Cloud. In other words, get rid of WoC and Team Teleport -- they stink. Psi Tornado is pretty decent.

I agree with Dave. You have written up your build and how you like to play the set, but not given enough information to let people understand how the powers work, why you slotted things the way you did and why someone might want to do things differently.

Not every guide has to be as excessively long as the two guides I wrote, but I think what you have is a "here's my build" post rather than a guide to the powersets.

A movie I have recommended to many people is The Emperor's Club. Keven Klien is a teacher in a boy's boarding school in 1977. As part of a competition, certain moral choices are made. Twenty years later, the group of grown men get together, and you see the results of that moral choice. It may not sound exciting, but just about everyone I have recommended it to has gotten back to me thanking me for the recommendation. The DVD even has an "extra" of a college ethics class discussing aspects of the movie.

You have probably seen them, but Galaxy Quest and Idiocracy. Idiocracy has become one of my favorite "quotable" movies, since we see so many situations every day that are spoofed in it.

Assault over EF? EF gives 22.5% Resistance Debuff AND a 20% Damage debuff, while Assault gives a 15% damage buff to the team. Assault is on all the time, while EF can be cast quickly on an Anchor . . . and it provides a benefit to otherwise unbuffable pets. Personally, I'd go with EF.

I agree, it sounds like you want an Ice/Ice blaster. Plant has very good early AoE control, but the damage from Roots is definitely Damage over Time. Illusion has a hard hitting early attack in Spectral Wounds (with a heal back unless you kill the foe quickly), but lacks much AoE control until Phantom Army. Earth and Ice are low damage, and Fire is a late bloomer with DoT.

An Ice Blaster gets two single-target ranged holds, and a third melee hold. The AoE control comes from Shiver, with a little help from Ice Patch.

Illusion/TA is a fun build, and has a different playstyle than other illusion combinations. I did a few things differently than you. I took Glue Arrow early and skipped Flash Arrow. I figured, "Hey, I'm invisible with SI -- why do I need Flash Arrow?" Glue Arrow provides some AoE control that Illusion lacks, and helps foes stay in the AoE of the debuffs longer.

I skipped Flash, as I pretty much stay out of melee. However, I was able to fit in Poison Gas Arrow, and recently put the Fortunata purple set in it with the Chance to Placate proc . . . it seems to help reduce the number of foes who come after me, and the set has a nice 10% Recharge from the cheapest of the Purple sets. I was able to fit in PGA because I used Hasten/Super Speed for travel. With the 60 month vet reward, I have changed to Fly.

Speaking of purples, I strongly recommend planning on putting 5 of the Contagious Confusion set in Deceive, including the proc. That proc turns your single target Deceive into an occasional Mass Confusion. It also gives you 10% Recharge and frees up another 6.25% Recharge that you can put in another power.

I suggest that you plan to slot Oil Slick Arrow with Damage (like the Posi Blast set) rather than slow. OSA with Disruption and Acid can do a lot of AoE damage, especially when Fireball is the lead-off. I mostly use OSA for when PA is recharging, but often use them together.

The choice of Kinetic Crash for Phantasm is . . . interesting. Doesn't he knock your foes out of your debuff zones? I also find your slotting of Entangle arrow interesting. I just have a single Acc in it, as I rarely use it.

There have been quite a few Fire/Rad threads lately. I think that all the information you need is there. Yes, the builds are usually expensive end-game builds, but they should give you an idea of what is important to slot. Here's a quick run down, not including travel and the Fitness Pool:

Char: Acc, Rech, and then your choice of Hold or Dam
Rad. Aura: 2-3 Heal and 1-2 Rech, maybe some EndRdx
Fire Cages: 2 Acc and 1-2 EndRdx.
AM: 3 Rech, then EndMod
RI: EndRdx and ToHit Debuff
Hot Feet: 2-3 EndRdx, 1 Acc, 2-3 Dam. You can get more benefit from Frankenslotting, and it is not that expensive.
Flashfire: 2 Acc, 2 Rech, 2 Stun
EF: 2 EndRdx
Cinders: 2 Acc, 2 Hold, 2 Rech
Hasten: 3 Rech
LR: 1-2 Acc and 2-3 Rech, maybe a Slow
Choking Cloud: 3 EndRdx, 3 Hold
Fire Imps: 2 Acc, 3 Dam, maybe a Rech
EM Pulse: Acc, Rech, Hold

Optional powers: Smoke, Bonfire, Mutation, Fallout -- I prefer Bonfire of those.

Fire/Rad is the one build that can really maximize Choking Cloud. You can use Flashfire+Fire Cages from range, then run in with both Hot Feet and Choking Cloud running, and your Imps trailing behind. Then you stand there while CC holds the foes and Hot Feet and the Imps kill everything. Use Char on anything that moves.

One problem you will have is that Choking Cloud really needs 6 slots, and you can't put that many slots into it at level 49. I would suggest you plan on picking it up in a Respec.

Personally, I like Bonfire and have it on all my Fire Controllers. It works great as a barrier and can add some extra damage on AVs and other targets immune to knockback.

Take a look for other recent threads on Fire/Rads -- there are a lot of them as Fire/Rads have suddenly become very popular. You should try to learn how the Inventions system works, as the IOs have added a LOT to the game, especially for higher level characters. Many of us enjoy continuing to work on our level 50's trying to get all the bits needed to get a really great build.

Oh, and welcome back.

My favorite scrapper is my Broadsword/Shield scrapper named "Bull Shield." Perry makes it easy to softcap for fairly low cost because you can focus on sets that give Ranged and AoE Defense, since you can easily softcap melee with one shot of Perry.

Nothing wrong with Broadsword at all. It is just that Elec/Shield scrappers are all the rage now for farming.

You made a few choices that I wouldn't make, like two travel powers and Acrobatics. Ever since we got -knockback IOs, I never take Acrobatics anymore.

The biggest problem I see is the lack of Endurance Reduction in both Hot Feet and Choking Cloud. Both of them need max or near max EndRdx or you won't be able to run both and do anything else. On my Fire/Rads, I run both almost all the time. If you look in the other Fire/Rad thread that you posted in, you can see a few examples of slotting HF and CC which include more EndRdx.

If you want to keep the same level of Recharge, there are a few things you could move around. Change the slotting in Char to 4 Bas Gaze plus some damage for a little more Recharge out of that power. Replace Acro or Super Jump with Fire Blast. Move the slots out of Ling Rad and into Fire Blast and put your Decimations there. I'm not sure why you went with 2 purples in Cinders, when 5 would give you better recharge (unless you already have those and don't want to spend the infl for the other three).