Local_Man

Actually, for a mage character, why can't be he be an archer, too? Why not an Elvin Archer/Mage?

And Rad is too "busy" compared to Cold? 2 of Rad's 3 Debuffs are toggles, while Cold's Benumb, Infridgidate and Sleet and Heat Loss are all click powers, and two of them are single-target only. I find Cold to be a lot "busier" than Rad.

I agree that Cold has stronger debuffs on a single tough target (like an AV) while Rad is better for groups. Both sets are great. I think the big downsides for Cold are (a) it is a late blooming set, (b) no self-heal and (c) no self-Recharge buff. Rad also offers some AoE control (EM Pulse and Choking Cloud) and some quirky damage (Fallout) that is lacking in Cold.

I'm glad I don't have that kind of personal rule. I have 4 Illusion Controllers with different secondaries at 50 with a 5th getting there, and each one plays differently. I also have 4 */Rads and 4 */Storms. I have a Gravity/Storm that I finally got to 50 after trying Grav/Rad and Grav/Kin and Grav/Therm. Each combination of primary and secondary plays differently.

Nerve is appealing because it can enhance Accuracy, Hold, Defense and Confuse. Accuracy is badly needed by any Kinetics character, especially if you want to fight higher level foes. Hold is obvious. Defense: Even if you are softcapped to S/L, this helps with all your other kinds of Defense.
And, of course, the softcap is higher for the Incarnate Trials. Confuse is pretty obvious.

A Plant/Kin isn't as desparate for Recharge as other builds since it has Siphon Speed. You can also get Recharge from slotting bonuses.

I'm not positive about this, but I seem to recall that enhancing a Phase power with Intangibility enhancements increases the MAG. It does not increase the duration. So if you slot Dimension Shift with Intang, it might be able to do more.

Adding -Knockback to Crushing Field would mess up one of my favorite things about my Grav/Storm controller -- Freezing Rain+Crushing Field as a knockdown field.

While these changes are very welcome, I must admit that Wormhole would be far more useful if the Knockback were changed to Knockdown.

I'm another one who disagrees with this. My Ice/Ice Blaster was my second character I rolled up, so I've been playing him a long time. Bitter Ice Blast is effective as an opening attack on a boss, followed quickly by Freeze Ray. The Boss is the biggest danger, so once he is out of a fight, it all goes easier. I will also use it as an opener against other foes, since it does damage along with the hold. If you are tight on slots (and are willing to give up IO set bonuses or don't have access to IOs), you can use Hami-Os to slot BFR -- 1 Acc/Dam, 1 Acc/Mez, 2 Dam/Mez.

The long animation is not a problem if BFR is the first attack. I don't use it that often in the middle of the fight but the long range makes it a good opener. Solo, one trick I have used is to cast Ice Parch on a corner, then fire BFR from range to take one foe out of the fight, then duck around the corner. When the other foes come after me, they hit the Ice Patch. By the time the first guy gets out of the hold, his buddies are probably dead. (One thing I find sad about IO set bonuses . . . you can now build pretty good defense on a character who was never meant to have Defense, making tactics like this unnecesary most of the time.)

Another way to stack mag (admittedly unreliably) is to use the Devastation Chance for Hold procs in your blasts. You may have to give up some other nice IO set bonuses to use them, though. Most of the time, however, you can stack Freeze Ray's Hold if you have decent Recharge on the character and in the power. It only takes a few seconds for Freeze Ray to Recharge.

I did a Lambda last night with my Earth/Storm. Quicksand did not do enough to stop him from leaping . . . but it is a location based power and he moves around. I spent a fair amount of time dodging all of the other guys so that I wasn't sure that Marauder was in the Quicksand when he jumped.

Hmm, Earth Control's Quicksand has a whole bunch of -Jump. I have to try using it the next Lambda I do with one of my Earth Controllers.

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My slotting for Hot Feet at level 50 on several of my Fire controllers is: Dam/End and Acc/Dam/End from Scirocco, Dam/Slow and End/Slow/Rech from Tempered Readiness, Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common EndRdx. That slotting caps Damage and EndRdx, good Accuracy and good Slow. You also get a decent Regen and small Recovery bonus.

For my Fire/Rads, that slotting keeps the foes in the area of Hot Feet longer, which also keeps them in the effect of Choking Cloud longer. So, I find that Slow helps. Whether it will help with a Dominator? I haven't played a Fire Dom yet. (I have a Mind/Energy and an Elec/Stone in upper levels, with several low level ones.)

What I did on my Grav/Storm who mostly solo'ed: You need invisibility -- try super speed with a Stealth IO. Then lead Singy in to take the aggro. Give him a few seconds to draw the aggro, then do your buffing and single target attacks. I suggest you buff Singy with ID a lot, and slot both of the +Resistance for Pets procs.

The problem you will have with Grav/Kin is that Singy's repel aura will un-bunch your foes, but that's better than dying. Singy makes a great tank.

I have a lot of experience with Controllers -- 11 or 12 of my thirty-something level 50s are Controllers. I try to squeeze some damage out whenever possible without disrupting the core aim of being an effective controller. I generally don't build for Defense, but acknowledge that Defense can be good to have. I usually build for Recharge and Recovery. In looking at your build, here are a few thoughts I had.

Strangler: The single target hold is almost always the best power to take first . . . not that it really matters all that much. Often the single target Immob is skippable, depending upon the build and the goal of the build. My usual suggestion is 4 Baz Gaze, and at level 50, an Acc/Dam Hami-O and a common Damage IO. Strangler should be used as your first single target attack after your AoEs.

Roots: Most controllers with AoE Immobs slot them for Acc, EndRdx and then procs. However, Roots is twice the damage of other AoE Immobs, so it is definitely worth slotting for Damage. Roots is a key part of the Seeds+Roots combo that Plant relies upon heavily for its AoE control+damage. This power has a 20% Acc penalty, so it NEEDS good accuracy. The 5 from the Posi-Blast set works well, since you get a nice Recharge buff, the damage in the set is capped and you can still add the damage proc in 5 slots. What you put in the last slot depends on your build and playstyle -- you might need more Acc/EndRdx, or Rech, or you could add an extra damage proc.

Entangle: Roots handles the job of Immob almost all the time. To me, the purpose of the single target Immob is one of two options -- take it fairly early as a damage power so that you can solo or do some single target damage, or take it very late as a way to try to Immob AVs and bosses. Plant is somewhat lacking in single target damage, so it is a viable choice to take Entangle as a single target damage power . . . but it should be slotted as a damage power. The Decimation set gives a nice Recharge bonus. I really don't see much benefit slotting it for Immob since the Recharge on the power is much shorter than its duration. The only exception to that is if you are slotting for Defense -- Enfeebled Operation has good S/L defense, and Trap of the Hunter has good Ranged Defense . . . but then you are giving up the damage which is the main purpose of having this power.

Spore Burst: The sleep power is mostly worthless on teams. It can be rarely used to keep that group over there from joining into the fight while you (or you and your team) deal with this group here. It is far more useful solo, but still not a very useful power. It is also useful as a set mule, since the Fortunata Hypnosis is the cheapest of the purple sets. This is a skippable power on its own, but can be added in if you mostly solo or want it for a set mule. The problem with using Call of the Sandman here is that you already have too many places for a 6.25% Recharge bonus, so I don't feel it is worth using 4 extra slots for that bonus here. I would drop it unless you are getting the purple Fortunata set.

Seeds: The most important power in the Plant set. The main goals for slotting are Acc/Conf/Rech, but some Range is nice, too. It is easily worth 6 slots. The Malaise set is good, but the purple Coercive set is better, granting a 10% Recharge bonus. The Contagious Confusion proc is really nice here, as it extends the confuse area helping to hit foes outside of the cone, and can help stack mag. Another advantage of using the purple set is that it frees up another 6.25% Recharge slot for another power.

Steamy Mist: If you have a slot free, this is a good place for an early -knockback proc. I see you have a stealth proc in CJ, and that's fine. I personally like Super Speed, as I find it useful for battlefield mobility and Herdicaning. You took Super Speed late, I would take it pretty early and I would take CJ late.

Hasten is another power I would take much earlier.

Spirit Tree and O2 Boost: Both are skippable powers that are nice to have. I'm not sure I would take both of these over an APP power, though.

Freezing Rain: I like your slotting for FR. I generally use two Rech and forego the Accuracy, but some accuracy helps the procs hit with the first wave. If you have enough global Accuracy, you may not need the acc, but if you have enough Global Rech, you may not need the extra Recharge, either.

Vines: I don't feel the Lockdown proc is worth a slot. Vines on its own will hold Minions and Lieutenants, and has a 20% chance to hold bosses. That means that it will only have any possible effect on the 80% of bosses who weren't held, and only 15% of them. If you assume that bosses are only 20% of the total foes, then .2x.8x.15 = .024. So that proc will only have any effect on 2.4% of the foes. Not worth a slot to me. Add more Acc/Hold/Rech. The proc is nice to have but not worth a slot unless you are slotting the Unbreakable set, which is a good idea if you can.

Hurricane: Same slotting I use.

Snow Storm: Is it worth slotting the proc? Depends on how much you use the power. If you don't use it much, that slot can be put to better use.

Creepers: After many discussions on the forums, the most common suggested slotting for Creepers is 2 Acc/Dam Hami-Os, 2 Rech, 1 Posi Blast proc, 1 Impeded Swiftness proc. Those two procs carry over into all aspects of Creepers. Other procs don't. You want this power up as much as possible for all the things it does.

As for an APP set: Plant is somewhat weak on single target damage, so getting a single target blast can help. Ice works well, as the Blast is great, it has 2 AoE damage powers and you get Hibernate as a one-slot wonder. The Ice Shield is S/L defense and can take a LotG Rech.

If you were forced to see the commercials, you couldn't go to the bathroom during the breaks . . .

As the poster above said, you cannot use both powers at the same time. Turning on Arctic Fog while SI is running will turn off SI, and vice versa. AF+ either a stealth proc or Super Speed will hit the Stealth cap. SI alone is well over the stealth cap, so you can avoid being seen by foes with high perception for longer. But for most of the game, AF+Super Speed provides just as much invisibility as Superior Invis.

I dropped both SI and GI on my Ill/Cold by using Arctic Fog + Super Speed. Cold has enough places for a LotG Recharge that I felt that SI and GI can be skipped.