An Issue 12 Guide to a Plant/Thermal Controller by Coldmed based on my level 50 Plant/Thermal
Green Haven
Plant/Thermal controllers are a brand new combo as of Issue 12. After playing one on red side (plant that is) when they announced it on Issue 12 I knew I had to have it! Sooo many goodies to this set it wasnt funny. Plus being a newer set for trollers I knew it would be my next one.
I've been playing controllers since Issue 2 and havent stopped. I own an Ill/FF, an Ice/Emp, an Earth/Storm, a Fire/Kin, a Fire/Rad and now a Plant/Thermal all sitting at 50.
I found this to be one of the most fun of my 6 controllers. The combination together has heals, buffs, debuffs, holds, immob, and damage. I dont think theres a lot more you could ever ask from it. I literally cant stop playing it.
One thing youll see on my slotting is that I have it as what I would slot if was able. Clearly not everyone has the slots or money for the set I used in my build, so its only recommended slotting based on full maxing potential of that said power and not how mine is slotted. I used a ton of sets and Ill show you my build later on if you have the money to I.O. your toon. Under personal slotting you'll see my actually slotting I'm using right now. The only bad thing is it cost a boat load of money so thats why theres two ways of slotting in this guide.
One of my main issues with slotting any type of controller is for max holds and not damage. I always see people trying to make a blaster out of a controller and it will just never happen. All my powers here are to be maxed out as much as possible to take control over any situation, whether it is Bosses, E.B.'s, or A.V's. If I wanted to slot for damage I would make a blaster. So before you go through my guide just remember slot for holds first and foremost and never slot for damage (paring pets and epic choices of course: p) even though plant is a ground based smashing damage primary. You wont be seeing any ranged damage attacks in my build.
Lets start off with plant control as its quite the set in itself
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Primary / Plant Control [/color]
Entangle-
Ranged, Foe Immobilize
This is one of those "take it or leave it powers. I dont take the single immob's as a rule as the aoe immob can do more over all control. This is a builders choice power. Although its great for those av's we all know and love that take off all over the map, immob's can really stop that.
Slotting: 2 acc / 2 immob / 2 recharge
Personal slotting: did not take this power
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Strangler -
Ranged, Foe Hold
Your single target foe hold and quite nice it is. Take it slot it and use it!
Slotting: 2 acc / 2 hold / 2 recharge
Personal slotting: unbreakable constraint purple hold I.O. set
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Roots -
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Immobilize
An aoe immob power many take this but the issues with this power I really have is aggro on mobs. If you choose this you must be careful with it if a tank doesnt have agro yet one hit of roots can have the entire mob on you and trust me they will blast ya!
Slotting: 2 accuracy / 2 immob / 2 recharges
Personal slotting: gravitational anchor purple immob I.O. set
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Spore Burst-
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Sleep
An aoe sleep can be very useful to help with close mobs or just to sneak on past. Only a few I know ever take a sleep type power. This is one of those times where its more about your playing style then just picking the "popular powers"
Slotting: 2 Acc / 2 Sleep / 2 Recharge
Personal slotting: did not take this power
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Seeds of Confusion -
Ranged (Cone), Foe Confuse
Seeds is quite the wonderful power. I love it and use it all the time. The fact that you may lose xp from this power from mobs defeating each other can scare people not to take this. I feel this is one of the "must take" confuses in the game it really does help the set out and can be nice in a pinch as well.
Slotting: 2 Acc / 2 Recharge / 2 Confuse
Personal slotting: coercive duration purple confuse I.O. set
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Spirit Tree -
PBAoE Heal
A + Regen power (similar to triage beacon) that needs to be slotted fully in order to get the max regen from it. This power once spawned cannot be tp'd or moved. So make it count at all times or it will go to waste. I find this to be an "optional power in the set cause of thermal having two heals in its set. So this could be a hit or miss throughout most peoples sets and just a power to pick up later in lvls. I personally got it at 47
Slotting: 3 recharge / 3 heals
Personal slotting: 3 heals
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Vines -
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Hold
I tend to get the aoe hold of any troller as it's nice to stack up on boss or higher npcs. Vines will need acc since out of the box it seems to be a touch on the -acc dept.
Slotting: 2 Acc / 2 hold / 2 recharge
Personal slotting: ghost widow hold I.O. sets
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Carrions Creepers -
Ranged(Location AoE), -speed, -fly, -jump
I cant say enough of this power and yet be so confused by the power. I mean the way to slot it or use it can be done so many ways its not funny. Slot if for knockback? Maybe a slow? How bout damage? No! Ok how bout immobs? Ahh either way you want this power and you want to max out its recharge. It also needs acc as well but yes it rocks completely
Note: I wont give out a "recommended slotting on this one besides 3 recharge. Frankly there are too many ways and too many views to how to slot it
Slotting: 3 recharge /2 acc /whatever
Personal slotting; 3 dam/acc h.o's / 3 recharge
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Fly trap -
Ranged Control Special
Fly trap is a different type of pet immobs to range to melee it can do quite a bit. The a.i. seems to lack a touch at times but all together a fun pet to have
With /thermal you can also buff up your pet and thats always fun when solo
Note: people have a certain slotting for pets. Some use pet sets and there are a ton of great ones out there. to avoid using slots some use dam/acc h.o's. with resist or defense auras from I.O. sets they are nice as well to help survivabilitys suggest you look into pet slotting to max out your best in playing.
Slotting: 2 acc / 3 damage / 1 recharge
Personal slotting: 3 dam/acc h.o's
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Onto thermal for your secondary, one thing always rings true about most sets and that is there is always one or two powers that are deemed "skipppable"
Not the case here. I literally could not find one power in the set that I didnt want or need to make my toon better. It truly is a great all around 2ndary and I know a lot of people feel the same way
Secondary / Thermal Radiation
Warmth -
PBAOE + Heal
First one in the set the healing aura of the set, heals all of team within range of aura
Slotting: 3 heals / 3 recharge
Personal slotting: doctored wounds healing I.O. set
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Thermal Shield -
Ranged, Ally + Res (fire, lethal, smash, cold)
One of 2 resistance shields, a resistance buff to fire, s/m and cold. A must pick up and quick to come back up to buff up all your teammates
Slotting: 3 resist damage
Personal slotting; 3 resist damage
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Cauterize -
Ally Heal
A very nice targeted heal, heals one person at a time like heal other
Slotting: 3 heal / 3 recharge
Personal slotting: doctored wounds healing I.O. set
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Plasma Shield -
Ranged, Ally Resist (energy, negative, fire)
Very nice resist buff to go with thermal shield, as fast a recharge as thermal not in any need of recharge
Slotting: 3 resist damage
Personal slotting: 3 resist damage
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Power of the Phoenix -
Ally Resurrection
This power is like rise of the phoenix. Only instead of a self rez its an ally rez but with the same animation basically. Rezzing someone in range of naps can cause damage and disorient to them. Also leaves you debt protected for 90 seconds and even leaves you invulnerable as well for a few seconds.
Slotting: 3 recharge
Personal slotting; 3 recharge
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Thaw -
Ally + Resistance (disorient, hold, sleep, immob, confuse, fear, cold, slow)
A ton of stuff in a small package is what thaw is. Looking at what it combats is enough to want to take it. So many ways it helps and since it has an ok recharge you dont have to worry about slotting it up that much
Slotting: one slot recharge
Personal slotting: 1 steadfast kb protection
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Forge -
Ally + Dmg + To-Hit
Ah, so close to what fortitude is but without the defense added in. this power buffs dam and to hit and works great. The slotting is up to you. I see a lot of people with these type of powers only slot 3 recharge, some go 3 to hit and others go 3 recharge and 3 to hit. All are fine really as youll have to figure it out based on available slots. I always just slot until I can put to hit/recharge hami's in it. Your mileage may vary
Slotting: 3 too hit
Personal slotting: 3 to hit/recharge H.O.s
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heat Exhaustion -
Ranged foe - Dmg - End - Recovery -Regeneration
One of two debuffs in the set and both are nice to have. This will be a must for av's and bigger foes
Slotting: 3 recharge / 1-2 acc
Personal slotting: 3 recharge / 1 acc
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Melt Armor -
Ranged (targeted AOE), Foe -Resistance - Defense
Second debuff and a great one at that. Not only does it kill the resistance on a foe but anyone around that foe as well. Well worth having for sure
Slotting: 2 acc / 2 debuff / 2 recharge
Personal slotting: touch of lady grey debuff I.O. set
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Epic Powers
I picked up fireblast and fireball. These two together works VERY nicely with the thermal set for more then just because its a fire set.
Hit vines and creepers and hold on a boss. Throw in melt armor and heat exhaustion and go to town with fireball and blast. Nothing gets through that.
Fireball-
Ranged (targeted aoe)
This is a great aoe damage ranged attack. Explodes after it hits and dot's on surrounding npcs. A favorite among fire/kins
Slotting: 2 acc /3 dam / 1 recharge or end cost
Personal slotting: positron damage I.O. set
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Fire blast-
Ranged
A nice single target ranged attack, complements fireball nicely.
Slotting: 2 acc /3 dam / 1 recharge or end cost
Personal slotting: thunderstrike ranged damage I.O. set
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Fitness
Well of course you need fitness as I took swift, health and stamina.
Stamina being 3 slotted of course, health was only one slotted and so was swift
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Other powers to consider for the set as well.
Teleport- reason I got tp at 49 was for fly trap. Sometimes he worries too much on immobs to do any real damage and if you want to solo more then not you may want to look into it. Playing with fly trap youll see what I mean
Knockback protection -plenty of places to stick a karma or steadfast kb I.O.. anywhere from hover or c.j. to thermal/plasma or even thaw. Plenty of places to get 8 mag and never worry about those pesky kb's
hasten- I never did get hasten because I'm built with recharge bonus's .something to consider as hasten is worth it but your going to find out that fitting more then one thing other then the 2 power sets ya got are tough
Level 41 epics pool power- I went with pyre mastery and picked up fireball and fireblast. Together with thermal and plant it works out nicely together to get out some real damage. My personal choice in this set. Funny though I dont have it on any other troller but my fire/kin .as they all have the ice and stone mastery's.
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Phew! So far so good.
Ok lets talk I.O. bonuses for just a sec
If you can see by my slotting I had a certain plan once I reached 50. Thats was use certain bonus's to help me out where I felt it could.
Those were recovery (always good to have as much as possible.)Recharge (since hasten wasnt able to be fit.) and acc (I just hate missing)
Purples are a great way but not the only way. Thunderstrike, doctored wounds, posis and other recipes work great to get these. Make sure you make a plan of what you want first to best suit your toon or powerset and go from there. Without it you'll end up losing money.
I hope this build helped. I'm not usually one to make a build but I figured I would give it a shot. Any info on it that you thought I might have missed please let me know and I can change or make notes to it.
To top this all off I wanted to place my build in here as a reference or easy way to see my slotting.
Although as I get through this I figured a screenshot would work as well since my personal slotting for each power is already listed.
I did frankenslot a few common I.O.'s in this build since I didnt go for procs. In fact I think I only got one total.
The build itself I have is quite nice I believe...i hope you enjoy yours!
I can always do the "basic" what level I picked what and how I slotted it. But not everyone wants the same build I have and at the same levels.
Best of luck!
Level 50 Natural Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Thermal radiation
Power Pool: leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler
Level 1: Warmth
Level 2: thermal shield
Level 4: cauterize
Level 6: Roots
Level 8: Seeds of Confusion
Level 10: plasmas shield
Level 12: combat jump
Level 14: super jump
Level 16: swift
Level 18: health
Level 20: stamina
Level 22: power of the phoenix
Level 24: forge
Level 26: carrion creepers
Level 28: vines
Level 30: thaw
Level 32: Fly Trap
Level 35: Heat exhaustion
Level 38: melt armor
Level 41: fire ball
Level 44: fire blast
Level 47: Spirit Tree
Level 49: Recall Friend
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty (A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty (A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty (A)
Level 1: Containment
Screenshot of my personal build
