Local_Man

That's kind of, er, severe, don't you think? Now, I have kicked people for failinig to use capitals and apostrophes when typing, but that's just me . . .

The only thing SB does for Rocky is boost his run speed -- pets don't get the Recharge buff anymore. However, ID boosts some of his resistances including his resistance to Smashing Damage, which is his lowest resistance at 40%.

There are quite a few of us "older" players on this game who never grew up. There's a thread around here somewhere started by a 60 year old, where folks are posting their ages (or approximate ages).

As others have said, the Forums are the best place for current information. I have written a couple of guides on Controllers, which are linked in my sig. Lots of other folks have written great guides to all aspects of the game. Paragonwiki is usually the best place to go as a reference source.

Go ahead and start your Supergroup, and make sure that you go into Supergroup Mode as you play your low-level hero or villain. There is no penalty to be in SG Mode in low levels. Once you reach the upper 20's and mid 30's, you start to have a bit of a reduction in Influence you earn as a trade-off to continuing to earn Prestige for your SG. On your first high-level hero or villain, you may want to exit SG Mode at around 30, since you tend to be a little low on Influence on your first character. (However, if you learn to "play the markets" to earn lots of Influence, then there is no need to turn off SG Mode.)

SG Bases are very handy. They provide storage for Enhancements, Salvage and Inspirations. You can put a Vault and an Inventions Table in your base, so you don't have to keep running back to a University. And one of the best things . . . you can install teleporters to help you get around the City more easily. I have my own base on several servers with various levels of Prestige -- a couple of them were someone else's SG and Base, but almost everyone else in the SG left the game leaving me with the leadership of the SG and Base. A couple of them I started with my group of regular buddies.

Try a lot of different characters. I started out with a scrapper, then tried a Blaster, then a Tank, and then a Defender. I thought I had found my favorite in the Defender . . . until I tried a Controller. The Controller became my first level 50 character and is still my favorite overall character. One friend of mine loves scrappers, and another loves Tanks, while a third loves Blasters. So, try them all for a while to see which you like best.

Wrong forum for this kind of question. This is the place for people to post Guides, not ask for help. I suggest you try the Scrapper boards.

I agree that some people seem to hate Speed Boost, and many love it -- I'm definitely in the Love it category. (Granted, I tend to play Controllers more than anything else . . .) The OP talked about being on teams, so I would consider SB a manditory power for a team-oriented */Kinetics controller, even if not everyone wants it. The fact is that SB can and usually does significantly speed up the team's overall speed to complete missions. Those Controllers, Defenders and Blasters can usually benefit a bunch from SB. And sometimes, even the speed boost to travel powers really helps -- see how much faster a Shard TF will go if you have someone Speed Boosting everyone.

And I'm sure that there are some situations where even those uber-melee characters could use a Speed Boost . . . like if the endurance has been drained by a Sapper or Carnies.

Personally, I think a lot of the folks who dislike Speed Boost haven't had enough practice with fast running. I suspect (but don't know) that most of those people have either no or very few characters with Super Speed. I have few problems running around in caves with Speed Boost or Super Speed -- but I have a lot of characters with Super Speed. Very few people would complain about SB if it did not have the run speed boost.

World of Confusion -- underwhelming because the AoE is so small. It can be a mule for a cheap purple set, though. I'm tempted to try it with Ice's Arctic Air, but other than that, not much use.

Rise of the Phoenix: Only self-rez available to Controllers, and it does damage, too.

Frost Breath: OK cone, but it makes Ice APP the only set with two AoE damage powers.

Energy Torrent: OK cone, but it doesn't make up for Primal's lack of AoE.

Seismic Smash: The best of the new powers, it is a heavy hitting melee attack with a Mag 3 hold built in. Good for melee characters and characters lacking single-target damage. (Seismic Smash used to be a Mag 4 hold, but that was nerfed.)

The -Defense is only one aspect of the power. And the benefit for that is mostly for other members of the team, not me -- although it does help against foes with high defense or large amounts of -ToHit. See that Paragon Protector who just his near death buff? Quicksand makes him easier to hit. Less whiffing means we finish faster. See those CoT with -ToHit? Same thing.

I use Quicksand as a back-up control power, mostly where I don't want to use Stone Cages. I can lay it on the ground and let the Blaster/Defender pull . . . so that when the group hits the Quicksand patch, they are sitting ducks. Then I throw down Earthquake to get them bouncing once they bunch up. I lay Quicksand underneath Stalagmites+Stone Cages so that if a foe is missed by Stone Cages, he is not able to wander very fast.

If you are happy without Quicksand, that's fine. But I see some real benefits to having Quicksand, even for a high level Earth Controller.

For a team Kinetics controller, Speed Boost is one of the most important and best things you can do for your team. Dropping it is a big mistake.

Adding Recharge and Recovery to teammates? How can that be bad? The Run Speed helps everyone get around faster, too, but that is the least important aspect of the power. 1-2 EndMod is my preferred slotting. Yeah, ID is nice to have -- not essential, but I find a way to fit it into my build on all of my Kin/* and */Kin characters.

I would drop a lot of other things, like Combat Jumping or Siphon Power, before dropping Speed Boost. I would take ID over those, as well. (Remember that a Steadfast Protection -Knockback IO can go in ID.)

As for the Resistance procs -- how often do the Imps stay close enough to get the 20% resistance benefit? And is 20% resistance going to make that big a difference? It does on Animate Stone or Singularity, who already have very high resistance numbers, but not so much on Imps. I prefer to slot the Imps for Recharge, so I can re-cast them whenever one or two die. Consider slotting the Expediant Reinforcement set, leaving out the Dam/End and the Resistance proc, and replacing those with the Soulbound Alleagence Dam/Rech and Chance for Build Up.

Enervating Field casts in 1.5 seconds, and provides a 22.5% Resistance Debuff, plus a 20% Damage debuff. In effect, for 1.5 seconds of time, you get to kill stuff over 20% faster, and you have effectively boosted your own damage resistance by 20%.

Necessary? Maybe not, but a good idea? Yeah. Even if you don't need to use Radiation Infection or Lingering Rad every group, there's no good reason not to use EF for anything more than a single target that you can take down in one or two hits (where that 22% won't make a difference). I set up a bind for EF on one of my mouse buttons to make it easy to apply for virutally any group.

I have a Hippy-ish concept for my Plant/Rad. He was cultivating his favorite "Herb" in the swamps behind his house, not knowing that Crey was dumping Radioactive Waste into the swamp. From making use of his personal crop, he found that he could control the plants as they grew. He's got long hair and a big Peace symbol on his chest. His name? "Pot Holder"

I love bad puns.

I agree with your advice about staying flexible. There are a few instances where the general opinion on a power is pretty negative, but I have tried it and liked it. For example, I have Repel on my Kin/Electric. I don't use it very often, but I find it fun to have, and useful as a rare "panic button" power. Yet this is generally viewed as the worst power in the Kinetics set.

I usually attempt to try out most powers at least once. I even tried out Black Hole out of the Dark Miasma set recently . . . and found out that I hated it even more that the "general view" would suggest. But at least I can say that I tried it. Some powers seem pretty underwhelming when you first take them or on certain builds, but then become great on a different build or with practice. Hurricane is one of these kinds of powers. Same with Snow Storm.

Snow Storm is an important power on my Ice/Storm. Arctic Air is his melee slow power, while Snow Storm is his ranged one. It is not as useful most of the time on a Plant/Storm because of Seeds . . . but when Seeds misses or you have just used it or you have a group of fliers to bring down, it can be a nice power to have.

I'm not positive it would even have a chance to proc when you cast Phantasm, since that is not a knockback power. The enhancements slotted in pet powers generally only benefit the pets, other than Recharge. So it may have no benefit at all.

TL;DR Answer -- No, not as far as anyone has reported. You could always test it, but don't expect any benefit.

I pretty strongly disagree with you. I find many strategic uses for Quicksand as a slow patch with a huge -Defense. It works as a debuff power, a barrier and a pulling tool. It works as a back-up control power for foes missed by your other powers. It helps keep foes in the area of Earthquake and Volcanic Gasses without -Knockback. I can't think of pool powers I would prefer over Quicksand. Tactics? Quicksand provides more benefit overall.

This is one of the powers that lets an Earth Controller help a team handle higher level foes and foes with large amounts of ToHit Debuff with relative ease. AoE Blasters (who understand what it does) love it.

Snow Storm has its uses. It is wonderful during the Katie Hannon TF to knockdown all the witches and slow them. It is wonderful on the ITF, where those guys resist other forms of control but are hit hard by slows -- just cast it on the EB or AV. And Anchor Toggle powers have their uses -- it can interrupt foes from doing some things. But overall, if you have to drop something from an Earth/Storm, it is one of the more skippable powers because of Quicksand.

I use Hurricane quite a bit. I hate it when people use it all the time, but it certainly can be effective at the right time. I agree that it is situational, but I look for situations where I can use it.

Anytime I see a Cul-de-sac, it is fun time. Turn on Hurricane to stand in the opening, then let loose with Lightning Storm and Tornado and any other AoE damage powers. Same thing works with a room with only one door.

Is the group too spread out? In the right situation, I can turn on Hurricane and run around the outside of the group to bunch them up. This works really well with an AoE Immob, since you can still push foes who are Immobed.

Did the fecal matter just hit the fan, so that your squishier teammates are being overrun with melee foes? Hurricane gives them a Sanctuary in a ring around you. It works as a nice "panic button" power to protect against melee attacks.

Hurricane works great for those "keep away" missions like the Respec trials, protecting desks, Escortable NPCs who can be killed, keeping Repairmen away from the Towers in the STF and a few in Croatoa.

And of course, you can trap foes in corners and jags on walls while substantially debuffing their ToHit. This works well on some tough foes.

I find enough uses that I keep Hurricane handy at all times. I have a button on my mouse and a bind so that I can turn it on and off with the touch of a thumb. I find Hurricane useful as soon as I can fit it in my build.

So . . . the Church of the Blue Bar is actually a front for Evil? Whaaa? I bet you sacrifice non-combat pets for your horrible rituals!

Well, there are a lot of options depending upon how you like to play:

Start with Strangler, Roots and Gale (required). Roots needs extra accuracy as soon as possible as it has a -20% accuracy like most AoE control powers. Then slot Roots for capped damage and some EndRdx.

At level 4, you have a few choices. Entangle can be slotted as a damage power -- useful if you mostly solo. O2 Boost is an Ally heal -- it is a weak heal but also stops Stun and reduces End Drain. Nice to have but skippable, especially if you mostly solo. Finally there is Snow Storm, an AoE toggle slow anchored on a foe. It has good slow and -Recharge, and can knock fliers out of the air -- an useful feature. Roots + Snow Storm will reduce incoming damage. Since you expect to mostly solo, I would probably go with Entangle, but Snow Storm is tempting. Slot Entangle with damage and some accuracy, but it has an accuracy bonus.

At 6, you have the previous choices plus your travel pre-req. Another hard choice. Air Superiority will give you another nice single target attack to help with solo. However, Hasten is always nice on a controller to boost Recharge, and Super Speed + Steamy Mist gives full invisibility -- very nice to get in position for optimal use of Seed's cone. I'm gonna go with Hasten.

At 8, there's no question. Seeds of Confusion is the most important power in the set. You want to 6-slot that one as soon as you can.

10 - You could take Steamy Mist or Spore Burst, but Spore Burst is a sleep, so it is skippable. Might be useful solo, but it is skipped on most builds. Steamy is something I want to take soon, with AoE stealth, small amount of Defense and some decent resists to three damage types - Energy, Cold and Fire. But looking ahead, we want to make sure we can fit in Freezing Rain at 16 and still get Stamina at 20, so we take either Steamy or Hurdle here, and take the other at 12.

At 12, Spirit Tree, an immobile Regen boost, opens up . . . it is not a horrible power, but pretty skippable. So we go with Hurdle.

14 - Super Speed. One EndRdx is all it needs at this time.

16 - Freezing Rain is one of the best Storm powers. Slot it for Recharge, then some EndRdx and, only if you have spare slots, Defense Debuff. You are going to want to use FR a LOT. It has a 30% Resistance Debuff that will boost your damage.

18 - Health

20 - Stamina

22 - In addition to the other previously available powers, you now have Hurricane and Vines available. Depending on whether you will actually use Hurricane, you'll probably want both. Hurricane can be a nice defensive power at this level, so lets go with Hurricane. Slot it with EndRdx and ToHit Debuff.

24 - Vines probably, but you could consider Snow Storm, O2 Boost or even Spore Burst here. I don't use Vines much, but it is a nice panic button and more control is always good.

26 - Carrion Creepers. CC, Seeds and Roots are really the best powers in Plant, so take Creepers here, slot Recharge first and then damage and a little Accuracy.

28 - Thunderclap becomes available. It is a PB AoE stun that is only Mag 2, so it only affects Minions. It is nice on a build with another AoE Stun (Earth, Fire, Grav), but is kind of meh here -- it looks cool, though. It recharges much faster than Vines, however. There are other options here, too. You could go with the Leadership Pool, for Assault to boost damage. Fighting? I'm not a fan of Fighting on a Controller, but its an option. Medicine Pool is an option of you want to eventually get Aid Self. If you chose Air Sup/Fly, you could go with Hasten here. Another option might be Air Sup if you didn't take it earlier. I'm gonna go with Snow Storm here, but Thunderclap is an option. As long as I have enough recharge in Seeds, I don't need Thunderclap very often.

30 - Again, most of the same options are available. You are about to get your pet at 32, and it would be nice to be able to heal him. so I'm gonna take O2 Boost. (However, some people hate O2 Boost.) But if you went for one of the pool powers, the second in that pool could go here. Another option is Spirit Tree here.

32 - Venus Fly Trap a/k/a Bitey, Chompy, Audrey or, my preferred nickname, Twoey (In Little Shop of Horrors, the plant was named the Audrey II, but Seymore called it "Twoey"). One funny name? "Serena" because it is bigger and stronger than Venus (think Tennis). Mental Maden gets credit for that one.

35 - Tornado. It does pretty good damage over time, and since your Roots has 12 seconds of -Knockback, you can turn it into a lawnmower.

38 - Lightning Storm, a good damage power with knockback that looks cool. It always shows up right over your head, so you have to learn to get in the right position when you cast it.

Then come the APP sets and IO slotting and . . .