Well, I'm at 45 right now with my Earth/rad troller, and you convinced me to spec out of CC for EMP. A change that I am not regretting, so thank you very much for the guide
Couple of notes on my own experiences. Before the respec, I typically used CC in conjunction with VG. It helped ground more bosses faster when I was on an 8 person team. This isn't always needed, but I liked the defensive nature of the power and not having to constantly watch my recharge rate. Earth has a lot of controls but the recharge times on many of them are tough to work with at times. Typically you just drop VG and try to fossilize the few bosses as quick as you can. Choking Cloud helped make this a bit more efficient, especially since it and VG can run simulaneously for the 45 second duration of VG. Now, if I have to, I can panic button with EMP. So not much of a loss not having CC anymore. Also, I fit Acrobatics into my build. This was done originally due to the melee aspect of CC, but the extra protection from holds stacks well with AM resistences. Mainly acrobatics helps with the hold resistance. I think its only against Mag 1s, but it helps to keep your toggles up in combat without always relying on Breakfrees or without having to take the Psi epic set.
Another note, is that using stalagmites and Fissure will often (Not always) disorient any bosses in the group. This means you can do a double aoe/pbaoe hold or a double aoe stun to groups. The disadvantage is Fissure has a really short range for an AoE attack. This range issue convinced me to keep Acro as well. Although I still get grief from some SG mates who think you can't do an earth troller without taking fire epic (extreme damage with containment) or Energy (Holds become godlike, rather than just nearly unstoppable).
Finally, I need some advice. Earth's Embrace for my lvl 49 power or Cages. I have up till now relied on EQ as my constant out of the box control so cages isn't one of my standards. The advantage is you can actually control more groups without having them fire on you at range like you do with cages. I still want cages though, and I'm trying to decide between Cages and Earth's Embrace. I had already planned to take my single target damage attack, hurl boulder. I hate having to rely on a temp power (blackstaff) to do enough single target damage to solo well. I can only choose two of these, but I might forgo the singe Ranged attack as well.
Would love some idea's on this....?
Thanks for the guide!
-Fissile (victory Server)
