Local_Man

Personal preference to some degree -- I like Super Speed for travel, and I have dropped Fly on many characters since the Raptor Pack is just barely slower than Fly. Super Speed gives me Travel AND Invisibility with great battlefield maneuverability that is much faster than Fly, and if I need to fly, I just use a Raptor Pack.

As for using Stealth to slot Defense IOs . . . I usually start with Combat Jumping, which gives Immob protection, in-the-air maneuverability and a place for a LotG Rech for almost no endurance. Then I may go with Hover because it has obvious benefits. I dislike "set mule" powers and avoid them if I can . . . so I like even minor powers that do multiple things.

Another quirk I have is that I use the Speed-On-Demand binds from CityBinder on all of my characters so I never have to turn Sprint on or off . . . but it also makes Sprint no good for slotting a Stealth IO because it is constantly turning on and off. (Back before the devs took away the "effect continues for 120 seconds" on the Stealth IOs, I would often slot a stealth IO in Sprint but that change messed up my previous practice.)

I love the Celerity Stealth procs. On any controller and most other non-melee characters, I find invisibility very handy to have. If the powerset doesn't already have some kind of stealth power (Storm's Steamy Mist, Cold's Arctic Mist, Dark Miasma's Shadowfall, etc.), then I often take Super Speed with a Celerity Stealth IO for full invisibility - and I never, ever have to take the Stealth Pool. Even without full invisibility, the stealth is nice to have to allow you to get in a good position before attacking.

I have gotten to the point that I have some kind of stealth on pretty much every non-melee character (and I have a lot).

All you have to do is look on the market for the price of these IOs and you can tell that the majority of players find them very useful.

On Freezing Rain, you really don't need to slot accuracy unless you are using a lot of procs, and even then it is questionable. Why? Even with no accuracy slotted, a bunch of those Raindrops are going to hit, and as soon as one hits, the Defense Debuff is applied so that most of the other Raindrops will hit and you will get the full effect of the power. Accuracy provides very little benefit. The only reason you "might" need accuracy for a proc'ed out Freezing Rain is that the procs hit once at the beginning, then again every 10 seconds. By adding some Accuracy, you increase the chance for that first proc round to hit . . . but if you have enough Global Accuracy bonuses, you don't need to slot Accuracy at all.

As for Twoey (The name comes from the Plant in "Little Shop of Horrors." Seymore named the plant, "Audrey II" but called it "Twoey."), the AI change a few issues ago made Twoey a much better plant. If you are focusing on control, then Twoey adds some decent damage. I keep it out pretty much all the time unless I am stealthing something. I would say that Twoey is much better than Jack Frost. (I recall someone describint Jack as having "the heart of a Lion, the brains of a duck.") Twoey has a cone damage attack that adds to all your Damage Over Time from Roots and Creepers. Twoey also throws out his own Immobs.

True, there are a lot of powers that can take procs . . . but you have to be careful not to go "proc crazy" to the point that you underslot key powers. For example, Roots is a key damage power but I have seen some people slot it up with procs instead of damage. I suggest 5 from the Posi Blast set, including the proc, plus the Chance for Hold from the purple Immob set. But that works only if you have a fair amount of Global Acc and a lot of Recovery.

Creepers is another tricky one to slot. It takes a lot of sets, but some sets will only work part time. The Immob sets seem to work only part-time. The Slow and Damage sets seem to work all the time. The most commonly recommended level 50 slotting for Creepers is 2 Recharge, 2 Acc/Dam Hami-Os, the Posi-Blast proc and the Impeded Swiftness proc.

I have seen a lot of folks put Damage into Freezing Rain, which is a mistake -- it looks like it does a lot of damage, but each of those "-1" you see is actually only 0.3 of damage. This is a power where you want Recharge first, then procs. I use 2 Recharge, Achilles Heel proc, Lady Grey Proc, Posi Blast proc, Impeded Swiftness proc.

Warshade's Extracted Essence is the main one where there are frequently several fluff-balls out.

Quite a while ago, there was a long thread discussing Gravity and several programming-savy folks tried to come up with ways to make a "Gravity sucks" power to work. One of the ideas discussed was yours, and there were a lot of reasons stated why either it would not work or that it would take a LOT of time to tweek to make work. I recall that several were concered with the mag of the knockback might knock some foes out of the circle, that the outside of the circle would act like a repel, that it would take too long to set up and use too many system resources, etc.

We know that the Devs understand that Gravity needs something. A while ago, Back Alley Brawler posted in one of the many "Gravity needs an overhaul" threads that they were looking at the animation time for Propel . . . so we know that at least he (before he left) was looking at the set. We can only hope that they will eventually do something about it.

More recently, Conserve Power in Electric Armor was changed to Energize, a self heal.

While I agree that Gravity has its problems, lack of single target damage is NOT one of them. Propel does 59.95 damage, unenhanced at level 50. Double that with Containment and nearly double it again with enhancements. No other controller attack comes close to that.

Using an attack chain of GD-Crush-Propel is slow but hits HARD. Both GD and Crush are damage over time, but both set up Containment for Propel. And if you are on a team, there's a good chance that the target will be dead before you can finish. But solo? Gravity is actually quite effective at taking down single targets. I mostly solo'ed my Grav/Storm to 50.

I had trouble finding a Gravity controller I could stick with until I combined it with Storm. The set has really three interesting powers and one interesting quirk. The Quirk is that the AoE Immob does not have -Knockback, so I could use Freezing Rain as a knockdown power. The three interesting powers are Propel (it may be slow, but throwing all that stuff at the foes is funny), Wormhole (unique group foe teleport with stun -- it provides some interesting positioning strategy options) and Singularity (great tank, looks cool, the Repel also acts as a defensive power). Other than those three, the rest of Gravity is pretty blah. The animations are not interesting, the powers themselves are nothing special.

To me, Gravity really lacks in its ability to provide AoE control. When other sets are getting a key AoE control power, Gravity gets Dimension Shift, which is mostly hated and rarely useful. Even when it does finally get Wormhole, WH has limited usefulness mostly due to the knockback. As a result, I found the most useful all-the-time control in Gravity was using Singy as a tank to draw aggro. Move Wormhole to 12 and remove the knockback, and a huge part of the problem would be solved. Then shorten the animation on Propel. Lift does less damage than Mind's Levitate and even less damage overall than Crush -- it shouldn't. I found it fully skippable on my solo-oriented Grav/Storm.

While fixing Dimension Shift would be nice, having a crappy power that is easily skipped is not unusual, so it could stay. Some folks have suggested turning it into a black hole-type negative repel attraction power, but I think the Devs have already said that the current engine will not support it. Which means it might be possible but would be a LOT of work to implement. So I could live with moving it to 26 and leaving it.

One think I would like to see is Propel changed to a narrow cone. If there is a forklift flying through the air, wouldn't it hit other foes along the way?

Then you don't understand Arctic Air. AA is a damage mitigation power. Foes in AA are really "confused." Sometimes a confuse pulse may hit that foe, but most of the time, the purpose is not to cause that foe to attack other foes -- it is to cause that foe to run around within the aura while interrupting any attack that foe might have done. Then the pulse wears off and the fear hits, causing the foe to want to run away instead of attack, but he is slowed so he can't leave very fast . . . giving more time for another confuse pulse to hit so he turns around . . . and over and over.

All of the toggle control powers, Hot Feet, Conductive Aura, Choking Cloud, Arctic Air, and the new Time one are all supposed to be part-time control. Otherwise, a full-control toggle power would be overpowered. AA is really designed to limit about 60-75% of the damage in melee, which it does quite well when slotted correctly.

As for the rest of the set: AoE Sleep that causes damage? Same as Earth, only Earth's is PB AoE (which is worse).

AoE Knockdown with an AoE Immob that prevents knockdown? Same as Earth, only Ice Slick has a higher chance to knockdown.

Shiver only Slows? Actually, Shiver's most important component is the -Recharge. It allows you to control this group around you while you slow that group over there to a crawl and keep them from firing off most attacks more than once.

PB AoE Hold when everything else is ranged? Uh, Arctic Air isn't ranged! And besides, Illusion has a PB AoE hold with everything else ranged. The Devs put positional aspects to the control sets, and this is part of it. Compare to Earth, where the AoE Hold is ranged but the sleep is PB AoE.

If Ice did more damage or had a more durable, damaging pet, I seriously doubt you would have these complaints. Instead, Ice has an interesting playstyle that gives you the option of being in melee or ranged. Is it the most effective set? No, but I don't see that there is a problem such that the set needs to be re-worked.

Like Milady's Knight, I agree that Gravity could use a few tweaks to make it better. There have been a lot of ideas thrown around, and even BaB confirmed (before he left) that at least the animation time was being looked at.

But Ice, other than being a very low damage set, is OK as it is. If you don't understand how great Arctic Air is, then you just don't understand the set. Ice is all about stacking different types of control effects: Slow, knockdown, -Recharge, Confuse, afraid and Holds. Arctic Air alone combines Slow, Confuse and Afraid in a toggle power. It does not provide complete control by itself, but is supposed to be stacked with other effects. The stacking slows are intended to provide for different play options: AA for melee, Shiver for ranged. There are lots of control sets with powers that shouldn't generally be used together or are somewhat wasteful if used together -- Illusion has both Superior Invis and Group Invis. Like Ice, Earth has an AoE Immob that conflicts with its AoE Knockdown. My Ice/Storm uses AA continually, but actually picked up Shiver during his Inherent Fitness Respec. I use it periodically and find it worthwhile even though I also have Snow Storm.

For my Plant/Kin, I find my main strategy is to control first before running in to use the melee buffs. Hit the group with Seeds+Roots and they won't be shooting at you. Seeds+Roots+Creepers will usually handle/distract groups with bosses. You can also use Twoey as a decoy if you have full invisibility, but that will often get the pet killed. By using that strategy and building for Recharge, you can get by without Defense. The other way to get by without Defense is to play on teams . . . let the tank draw the aggro and they won't shoot at you.

I can certainly understand the desire for high defense. What confused me about your build is that you had a defensive build but had skipped the one power that provided the most defense you could get, Rock Armor. S/L damage is the most common type in the game, so S/L defense will provide a good amount of protection. That's why I thought it was useful to re-do your build with Rock Armor included. I also replaced Stealth and Invis and added Maneuvers to cap the defense without using a power that suppresses.

There are a few other changes, including a little more accuracy in some of your powers.

You will still have problems of getting mezzed, so you may want to consider Clarion for the Destiny power.

I suggest you use the Short Form Export and click the box to include the Data Chunk . . . a quirk of the forums is that if you go back and edit a page with a data link on it, it breaks the link.

Looking at your build, I'm confused about something: You have focused on Defense, including two sets of Kinetic Combat specifically for S/L defense, and yet you did not take Rock Armor?

I'm not a fan of the Stealth pool. The defense suppresses, and frankly ever since Stealth IOs were introduced into the game, the Stealth Pool has become mostly unnecessary. You can get full invisibility AND a travel power in Super Speed with a Celerity Stealth IO. Since you were already taking Hasten, you don't have to dip into another pool.

I tried to rework your build with some changes that I would like to see. I changed it over to Super Speed (if you need vertical travel, just use a Raptor Pack!) with a Stealth IO for full invis. I added in Rock Armor and got you over 45% S/L Defense.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Red Vynes: Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Kinetics
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Stone Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(3), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5), HO:Nucle(5)
Level 1: Transfusion -- Nictus-Heal(A), Nictus-Heal/HP/Regen/Rchg(7), Nictus-Acc/Heal(7), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(9), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9)
Level 2: Roots -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(11), Posi-Dam%(13), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), GravAnch-Hold%(15)
Level 4: Siphon Power -- Acc-I(A)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(15), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 8: Seeds of Confusion -- Mlais-Acc/Rchg(A), Mlais-EndRdx/Conf(17), Mlais-Acc/EndRdx(19), Mlais-Conf/Rng(19), Mlais-Acc/Conf/Rchg(21)
Level 10: Siphon Speed -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(27), RechRdx-I(36)
Level 12: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 16: Boxing -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(37), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(37), KntkC'bat-Knock%(37)
Level 18: Vines -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), EoCur-Acc/Hold/Rchg(21), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(23), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(23), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(25)
Level 20: Speed Boost -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 22: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-EndRdx(25), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(27), RctvArm-ResDam(40)
Level 24: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), LkGmblr-Def(31), LkGmblr-Rchg+(34)
Level 26: Carrion Creepers -- Posi-Dam%(A), ImpSwft-Dam%(33), HO:Nucle(33), HO:Nucle(33), RechRdx-I(34), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 28: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), EndRdx-I(43)
Level 30: Increase Density -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(36)
Level 32: Fly Trap -- C'Arms-Acc/Rchg(A), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg(39), C'Arms-Dmg/EndRdx(39), HO:Nucle(39)
Level 35: Transference -- P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(40), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(40), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(42), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(46)
Level 38: Fulcrum Shift -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 41: Fissure -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(45), Posi-Dam%(46)
Level 44: Seismic Smash -- KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(46), HO:Nucle(48)
Level 47: Rock Armor -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(48), LkGmblr-Def(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50)
Level 49: Earth's Embrace -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(50), Numna-Heal(50)
Level 50: Nerve Radial Paragon
Level 50: Pyronic Partial Core Judgement
Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface
Level 50: Clarion Core Epiphany
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: Task Force Commander
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(31)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(29), EndMod-I(29)

Code:

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Too many people, especially people on these forums, focus on min/max builds and maximizing DPS, etc. That may be fun at times, but the game can also be fun in other ways. One of my favorite parts of this game is developing strategy to get past what some people consider to be a weakness in a build. Some people around here hate knockback with a passion. So one of the fun parts of learning how to play an Energy/Energy blaster is trying to make the knockback into an asset instead of a problem.

Things like floating overhead so the knockback becomes knockdown (using Fly and Hover). Things like focusing on one foe at a time where the knockback isn't a problem since the foe is dead. Things like knocking foes into corners or against walls, or moving so the knockback sends foes back into the group.

All of that is fine for her, but being a new player, expect it to take some time. That's another reason why an Ill/Rad might be a great companion -- the ToHit Debuff, the distraction of Phantom Army or the use of Deceive will give her a chance to learn strategy.

A REAL politician would immediately spend everyone else's future points!

The AoE Immob for Earth, Fire, Plant and Ice all have 12 seconds of -knockback. After 12 seconds, the foes cannot move but they can be knocked back or knocked down. The single target Immob for Earth, Fire, Plant, Ice and Electric all have -Knockback for 15 seconds. Gravity's and Earth's Holds have -knockback.

One of the appealing aspects of Gravity and Electric are that the AoE Immobs do NOT do -knockback. My Gravity/Storm was able to use Freezing Rain+Crushing Field as an effective AoE control power with knockdown.

The duration of the -Knockback cannot be enhanced. To continue it, you must re-cast the power.

Personally, I think knockback is part of the appeal of an Energy Blaster. Knockback is fun and very super-heroy. It is also a kind of short-term control that can be very effective. My Energy/Energy Blaster relies upon Knockback as a form of protection, to keep foes at range. So I would not want a controller with -Knockback.

My first suggestion, as usual, is to try an Illusion/Radiation Controller. It is the most flexible, all purpose controller you can get. Your wife's character has a lot of knockback, and that knockback won't be much of a problem for an Ill/Rad. Your attacks are single-target focused. Your controls don't rely much upon tightly grouping as with other controllers. You get most of your really good powers early, with the late powers being nice but not essential additions. An Ill/Rad is easy to play fairly well, but challenging to play really well. You can easily take out problem foes before the fight begins. You can heal, buff and debuff. You can tank, control, defend and blast.

See my Ill/Rad guide for the details . . . and lots of strategy tips as well as lots of basic info on controllers.

CONTAINMENT is simple . . . any attack that a controller directly makes upon a foe who is held, slept, stunned or immobilized gets double damage. Damage caused by pets and pseudo-pets do not get the double damage from Containment. It does not matter who caused the hold, sleep, stun or immobilize -- whether it was you or anyone else. The other kinds of control -- fear, confusion, intangibility, slow and knocks -- do NOT set the double damage from Containment.

There are a few wrinkles here and there . . . mostly based upon a misunderstanding of how things work. For example, Spectral Wounds (from Illusion) gets containment on the base damage without the Illusory damage. It looks like it is getting short-changed, but the damage number is base on the "real" damage. Several other powers appear to be direct attacks but are actually pseudo-pets, like the damage in Earth's Volcanic Gasses or Radiation's Fallout.

I suppose it might be an issue of playstyle. Since my Earth/Rad is almost always on a team with a good tank, I almost always let the tank grab the initial aggro -- that's what he's there for. Then I throw out my controls to fully control the group and add EF for extra damage. While the team wipes out the group, the tank goes on to the next group with me right behind. Again, the tank grabs the initial aggro and I then control the next group. By the time the team has cleaned up the first group, the Tank and I have the next group controlled and waiting for a butt whipping.

I have found that if I try to handle the Alpha, enough foes are missed even with capped accuracy to send a fair amount of damage my way. By letting the Tank get that aggro (which he is built for), the foes are distracted long enough to allow the slower control powers (Earthquake and Volcanic Gasses) to take hold -- but they can control bosses. Stalagmiths+Stone Cages is fast, but does not control bosses and often misses a few.

Actually, Illusion has no AoE damage powers, so a persistant AoE Containment power would be wasted until APP levels. Illusion gets its limited AoE damage from having three PA and from Phantasm's cone attack. Illusion really is a single target attack specialist, so it really doesn't suffer from its lack of AoE Immob.

Illusion gets it Containment from Blind, and that's all it really needs (until APP levels, but Flash + a hold from the secondary can cover that).