Argentae

Agreed. Plant/Storm is hell on wheels in the upper levels for taking out large spawns, while still being a lot of fun and having a lot of survivability and tricks up their sleeve.

Ill/TA should be a lot of fun, though it's going to lack AOE dmg till you get Oil slick and the APP/PPP powers in the endgame.

Enjoy!

Arg

LM pretty much nailed the need for more specifics.

Soloing vs. teaming can call for very different builds and some builds that excel in one role are mediocre in the other.

There's a pretty broad spectrum of capability in different ways represented by the Primary/Secondary combos available to controllers. When you say you're looking manly for vet opinions, does that mean you will have access to the various Vet Attacks? Some secondaries make those attacks a lot more useful than others, and thus help to fill the need for single target dmg.

Personally I like Mind/, Plant/ and Fire/ for soloing in different ways.

I like /Storm, /Rad and /Kin for secondaries but they play very differently and have distinct advantages in different situations. /Kinetics (esp with the new buffs to SB) is awesome for teaming, but is fragile compared to other secondaries like /Storm and /Rad when soloing and takes some skill to get the most out of when soloing.

Let us know more about what your intended playstyle:

Solo vs Teaming
Ranged vs Melee
Large spawn vs single hard targets/small spawns

And I'm sure you can get some informed opinions... Not like folks here on the Controller board are lacking in those!

Arg

Yesterday was far too busy a day (12th wedding Anniversary & trip to the VA Renn Faire with the kids) to post anything, but the day before Aggro got some playtime.

Fun.

Got him suited up with a full set of DO's (thanks to his "big sister" Viri), and started working through radio missions in Steel. Had a total blast soloing hellion and skull missions at 8X/+1. I had so much fun doing a "bank robbery" (not the safeguard mission, just a radio mish in a bank) with the skulls that I ran it several times. I happened to be in the lobby area when the two ambush spawns appeared... MAN it was a good thing I had a full kit of insps on hand! with 3 luck running I was able to corner pull the entire massive pile of them, lock then in place with Roots jump out and Confuse most of 'em and then pop Hasten, AM and 3 reds and start spamming roots on the lot. Repeat SOC as it was up etc...

VERY close, but I was still standing at the end. :-)

Anyway, Aggroactive is now up to 15.something with a build looking something like:

Strangler (1 acc)
Radiant Aura (1 heal)
Roots 6 slotted (3 acc/3 dmg)
Swift
Hurdle
Health
Stamina (3 endmod)
Rad Infection (1 -def)
Super Speed (1 endred)
Seeds of Confusion (2 acc/2 conf)
Accelerate Metabolism (3 rech)
Enervating Field (1 -end)
Hasten (3 rech)

I'd put it up in mids, but that would mean bringing up parallels, and I'm doing too many other things atm.

Anyway, Plant/Rad is a major success so far. Easiest character I've leveled up mostly solo in quite a while.

So... Round three of my Plant/ controller journals. Aggroactive goes, well... Active!

So last night I started playing my third Plant/ controller build, Plant/Rad.

VERY fast starting build. At level 5 I headed to Perez and started using the "medic" there to power up for a street sweeping blitzkrieg to 9th! Amazing what a level 5 Plant/Rad can do when he pops 1 Acc, 3 Def and 3 Dmg insps then lays into a spawn.

Anyway, the combo of RI, Roots and Seeds of Confusion is just sick. KNowing both sids of this build pretty well, I can project about what it's going to be like playing it in a few levels and it's going to be a BLAST. I'm already doing X6/+0 w/o boss missions (though I do die when things go pear shaped, that just makes it more fun) at lvl 10... Adding actual enhancements and a couple other key powers is just going to make it extra cripy tasty goodness.

About lvl 11 now, and loving the combo... Hate Lost and thier PITA sleep, but who doesn't?

:: nods ::

Doms are like a damage heavy Blastroller and IME are best played as such. Your control is purely an active defense, your real focus is taking the mobs OUT.

On the Controller side, I agree with LM's recommendations of Plant/Storm, Plant/Rad or Plant/Kin. I've now played all three combos, (though only Plant/Storm has gotten to the late game so far) and I'd say that /Storm was the most fun/flexible. /Rad is shaping up to be a pretty impressive build too, starts out VERY fast, and can be a highly effective street sweeper pretty much as soon as you get Roots/RI. Gets much better when you add SOC, and just improves from there. Both Plant/ and /Rad get some of their best powers quite early so putting them together makes for quite an early... Ahem... Bloomer.

Arg

Got Photo up to 11.5 or so He's doing 4X/+0 missions w/o bosses. Takes quite a while to get through the mission and he uses insps pretty heavily, but it works which isn't bad for running on stale TO's.

I'm starting to remember why I didn't like Plant/Storm so much during while playing it during one of the recents betas. It really is going to be quite fragile in the upper levels, given how much squishier he'll get as he levels up, and how /Kin plays in the late game.

Hrm.

I sense... ALT PROLIFERATION!

I think I might try Plant/Rad after all. The synergy between Plant/ and /Rad is nearly as good as that between Plant/ and /Storm.

Viri's up to 46 and as mentioned elsewhere she's getting a LOT more effective with the +76ish global rech.

I know it's not optimal slotting but I've got three Kin Crash sets (Gale, Thunderstorm and C. Crawlers), it's not a final build choice, but Kin Crash is sooooooo cheap, doesn't have any expensive salvage at all and all the recipes go for chump change. At mid 40's a full set gives you about 66% dmg with decent rech, endred etc. @ +7.5 rech each set + the -KB I've found it a very cost effective temp solution. BTW the +KB from Kin Crash does NOT cause a problem for Crawlers, they are actually applying NEGATIVE kb and that seems to be what is enhanced. Eventually I'll slot up Crawlers with procs, but that's for later once Viri has the cash.

Very happy with the # of slots freed up by going with a 4 pack of Basilisk for Vines, 4 pack of Expedient Reinforcement for both Tornado and Twitchy and a 4 pack of Dark Watcher for Hurricane.

Spirit Tree and O2 Boost both get a 5 pack of Dr. Wounds, SOC gets Malaise and a tri aspect to round it out. Don't have Mids available ATM but that's most of it.

Had a BLAST running around the first Portal mission from Tina Mcintyre (sp?) in PI, the clockwork king set for +2/+8 no bosses. Viri was tearing clockwork apart like fried chicken. Tasty. BTW stacked fully + Heal slotted Spirit Tree makes a BIG difference, though the fight almost never lasts long enough to get the second out.

I think I'm going to take a break from her for a bit and play her younger brother Photokinthesis. Have to get my Kinetics fix...

So... Viridicane (Plant/Storm) is 46'th and kicking butt with about a 76% global Rech (on a bootstrap budget, IOW only what she's made on the way up). Obviously it's time to start a new alt!

I remember playing Plant/Storm and Plant/Kin during the Beta testing for GR when you could start a char at like 40/41 and I found that Plant/Kin was hugely more fragile than Plant/Storm, which is why I went with Plant/Storm.

Recently I've been missing playing Kinetics though, so I figured I'd give Plant/Kin a real spin as well, now that I've got a LOT more experience with Plant/ and to enjoy the SB as an AOE buff change coming soon.

And so... Photokinthesis is born.

Last night I did his initial workup to 6 (to pick up SuperSpeed) and did some teaming. I was the only Troller or Def on the team, and it felt like Transfusion and Roots made a huge difference. The two times I died were shortly followed by team wipes which could have been either cause or effect, but it certainly felt like he was more than pulling his weight.

Then I jumped over to Perez to finish up 7th and pickup SOC. With my past experience as a guide, I have 6 slotted Roots and skimped on my ST hold and transfusion at the start. That lets me put enough Acc TO's into Roots to get the acc up to a very reliable lvl and even throw a bit of DMG in.

Result: AOE street sweeper at lvl 7/8. He's currently working through the perimeter of PP knocking over large spawns of Hellions quite effectively. The bosses are a major problem though, I focus on them pretty exclusively with Siphon Power and Strangler and take out the rest of the spawn just by leading off with SOC and spamming roots. So far it's iffy whether transfusion keeps me upright long enough, but I'd say I outlast the spawn 3 times out of 4, more if I've managed my insps well. Having the respawn point IN PP now makes a huge difference in the risks I willing to run. Overall: Having a blast as a street sweeper. /Kin starts faster than /Storm right out of the gate, almost exclusively due to Transfusion's fundamental awesomeness. Plant/Rad would be better obviously, but it's still fun.

I do miss the -def from Freezing Rain or Rad Infection though they make the Vet attacks sooo much more useful. I'll probably have to pick up Tactics on Photo for that reason alone.

6 slotting Roots early is possibly a bit unconventional, but for Plant/ it makes a lot of sense. Very Early Plant/ is an AOE monster, initially just rooting the spawn from outside of the spawn's Ranged retaliation er.. range. Any mob that gets missed, you can use Strangler/Vet attacks on, just keep spamming roots on the main spawn. Once you have SOC you can get up into melee range (for /Kin).

Heya Brev, long time no see!

That's a good idea. I've got an Elec/Psi Dom (mid twenties IIRC) I've been playing too, fun, but the -end has been less effective/fun than I'd hoped. I can certainly see some good synergy with /Kin though... And I've been kinda hankering to play a /Kin again anyway, esp with the new uber QOL improvements for buffing coming down the pike.

Agreed. Plant/Storm may not be the absolute pinnacle of min/max optimum efficiency for farmin on a cherry picked map, but it's a lot more flexible and has much better survivability when things go wrong.

And

It's a lot more fun IMO/E .

Being able to jump into a mission at +2/+8 at level 40+ and know that that I CAN clear the map (some mobs much slower than others) is really a lot of fun. I also find that I both have and use more different combinations of powers on Plant/Storm than I do with other builds. It's much more fun to play as you don't always use the same exact sequence of button mashing again and again.

Viri has been built on a shoestring budget (just the inf she has earned, and without spending a ton of time playing the markets) and she's up to about 76.25 global +rech. Kin crash is dirt cheap to buy and craft, probably the best bang for buck set out there if you're building for +rech on a budget.

Eventually I may buy some purps etc for her, but I'm having too much fun just PLAYING her, and she's only 46th ATM so she's got a bit to go till Incarnate becomes an issue.

Have to say, Plant/Storm REALLY starts to bloom with higher +rech!

There's a ton of good information in the above posts, so I'll just focus on a few call-outs.

1. As mentioned, Mind/Kin is VERY clicky, and has the highest # of powers that make a to-hit check of almost anything in the game. As such, I've found that Tactics is worth it's weight in gold, especially on the way up.

2. Stealth: Get it. Superspeed + Stealth or with a +Celerity stealth IO is VASTLY useful as you will spend a lot of time scouting out spawns and maneuvering for best effect.

3. Repel gets a bad rap. As mentioned above it CAN be quite useful, and it will help protect you from melee attacks when things go south. It's also a GREAT place to slot a set of Kinetic Crash which has to be the BEST bang for your buck if doing a IO build on a budget. Mind/Kin is a hella tight build though, I'd keep repel in mind when you need to chop a power.

4. Epic set choice: I've tried just about everything, and found that the Status protection in /Psi was the hands down winner for me. With enough +rech you can make IW perma, and getting mezzed is the single fastest way to die as a Mind/Kin.

5. Hover. Get it. You'll be running like a rabid weasel on siphon speed, and Hover with SS boosting it is great for all the times that you need to get over something but need better positioning control than you get from Inertial Reduction. You will absolutely love having it in all the Oranbega and cave maps that have the layer cake with a central hole and lots of places to fall through to the next level down. Plus it gives you another place to slot a Luck of the Gambler +rech if you go that route.

6. Sleeps get a bad rap from many players too. Mez is a golden power, slot and use it like a ranged attack that happens to leave your target sleeping forever. On the way up use it to snipe the mobs on the edge of the spawn (esp lts and bosses) that the team doesn't see yet. It'll keep them out of your hair till the team gets to them (most of the time). Mass Hyp is GODLIKE when soloing and for setting up a spawn for you to get a good Fulcrum shift off. Slot it up with a 5 pack of Sandman and enjoy. Cheap and very effective. Also invaluable for a whole bunch of TF's. Mez + Mass Hyp = stacked sleep. :-)

Great GREAT build, incredibly versatile and always has something to do and a way to help the team. I teamed and soloed my Mind/Kin extensively, she was my main from I2 and first 50. Things have gotten MUCH better for a Mind/Kin since then so you should have a blast!

Indeed. I think I'll have to come up with a new /Kin combo to play now! Hrm...

Done Mind/Kin, Fire/Kin and I'm just finishing up a Plant/Storm so I'm not sure if I'm up for Plant/Kin.

Not a big fan of Gravity/ soooo...

Earth/Kin, Ice/Kin or Ill/Kin?

IIRC procs in pets like that would effect the pet rather than the caster.

I'm kinda in the same boat. I've got Lavan (Fire/Storm) and Viridicane (Plant/Storm) both at close to the same levels, Lavan is 40 IIRC and Viri is 38. So, I could take either of them the rest of the way. I think I need to respec them both to inherent Fitness builds and play with them to see which I prefer.

IIRC though, Lavan probably has a substantial edge in raw takedown speed with mobs that are confuse resistent, but he lacks the survivability of Viri. Viri can mow them down even faster than Lavan when Confuse is viable, and she's got a few more tricks that improve her ability to survive sudden over aggro situations. I know most folks diss the Spirit Tree, but it's a drop and forget solution that can really help when you get into a situation where you need to fire up Hurricane + Snow Storm to provide some mitigation. And Creepers... Well, it's dang near a panacea. It tanks, it damages, it's an awesome alpha strike that clusters 'em up. Plus Stormy Mist +SS lets you stealth the spawn setup if you kill Twitchy, and Twitchy is certainly better behaved than the Imp/aggro magnets.

Based on my recollections, Fire/Storm was a more aggressive playstyle, but Plant/Storm was more flexible, and when you get right down to it, more fun to play for me.

'Course, it's been awhile, and some of the memories of playing Lavan (Fire/Storm) might well be heavily colored by his insatiable Blue Bar hunger as mentioned frequently above.

:: tosses two coins in hat ::

Whelp...

Been a long time I know. I've been very busy working on some things IRL, and haven't had a heck of a lot of game time. Finally dusted off my COH, and spent some time last night skipping around from alt to alt, and came back to Viri again. Need to get back in the groove, but of the dozen or so characters I played around with she was the most fun, and one of the best for survivability. Still need to respec her into the inherent fitness pool (yes, it's been THAT long), but even without that, and with a rusty player behind the mouse, she was kicking butt and taking names.

Anything major change while I've been gone that would affect a Plant/Storm on the way up? I'm waffling on whether I should check out the incarnate stuff with Arg (Mind/Kin 50), One of my 50 doms (Mind/Psi, Fire/Psi, Mind/Elec etc) or finish leveling up Viri... Decisions decisions...

Scrappers make the best/highest damage pet, though they can be quite the aggro magnet.

There, I've said it.

Oh... Forgot to mention that I found myself able to have two Spirit Trees out at once (occasionally depending on Hasten drop), and I have to say, 2X the Trees made quite a difference.

Spent awhile playing Viri again last night, and had the (highly estimable) joy of running into her first Nem missions while working through some Tips. As expected they were a total pain, I needed to drop from 8/+2 to 8/0. BUT I was able to complete the mission, though there were a couple face-plants as I figured out some of the quirks.

Having Seeds being largely useless makes such a huge difference (as I knew it would), so thank GOD for Snow Storm and Spirit Tree + Hurricane! Creepers remain the mainstay and I find myself doing most of the fighting from around a corner with Hurricane and Tornado helping to keep most of the spawn off of me. Still a highly effective and survivable build, even against the Confusion Resistent Nemesis.

Not sure about other Elec/ combos, but I see no need at all for Stamina on an Elec/Psi... Between the +Rec from the toggle and the huge boosts from Drain Psyche, not to mention domination itself. Lots of end management tools already, Stamina would just be a waste of the power slots on this particular build.

Especially since (as you mentioned) it's coming for free in I19

Should have started this a lot sooner, but I finally got my Elec/Psi Dom up to 22 and got her first full suite of SO's, which is really the beginning of the majority part of the game. So I thought starting now would make just as much sense as anything.

So Psilapse: Recently escaped Praetorian, now a Blueside Hero.

I went with /Psi as a pairing with Elec/ as I figured the -Rec from Drain Psyche would make a big difference when it came to the effectiveness of sapping. Psi also has some of the best AOE dmg, and the durability provided by Drain Psyche is unmatched, which also seems to have excellent synergy with Elec's focus on sapping.

How's it working so far? Pretty well. I still need quite a bit of slotting to get a real feel for it, but the difference DP makes on sapped mobs is quite dramatic. Without DP, mobs get bits of end back and can still get off attacks periodically, with the -Rec from DP in effect they are totally helpless.

Will post more later with my (somewhat screwy as I've been playing with things on the way up) build, and some more specific observations.