Local_Man

See the other Plant/Rad thread. I gave a rundown on the powers there. My suggestions are pretty consistant with Obsure
Blade, but I go into a little more detail. If you want to know a LOT of detail on the Rad secondary, take a look at my Illusion/Radiation guide. It has slotting and strategy tips.

OK, Here's my take on Plant/Rad. There are others with different opinions of course . . .

Entangle: Single Target Immob. The main reason to take this is as a single target damage power. In late levels it can be used to Immobilize bosses. This is one of the most skippable powers, but worth considering if you expect to mostly solo.

Strangler: Standard Single target hold. Essential. Looks cool.

Roots: Key power for Plant, because it does twice the damage of the Aoe Immobilize powers from other Controller sets. Slot this for Damage. Basic slotting is 2 Acc, 3 Damage, 1 EndRdx. Note that this will not hit foes if they are more than a few feet off the ground.

Sport Burst: targetted AoE Sleep. Easily skippable, but can be useful solo. It also can be useful to control a group that comes in after you have already used Seeds of Confusion.

Seeds of Confusion: Cone Confuse -- The most important power in the set. Slot it for 2 Acc, 2 Confuse, 2 Rech. Later with sets, you might be able to get some Range in it. You want this up as much as possible. Seeds+Roots is the key to Plant's AoE control+Damage.

Spirit Tree: Skippable, especially since you have a heal. Can be useful for big fights in one place (AVs) or repeated ambushes, but this sits on my bar unused most of the time.

Vines: Ranged AoE Hold. Pretty standard. Good to have but not essential. I recommend it for a power to use when Seeds is Recharging. Also stacks with EM Pulse.

Carrion Creepers: Another essential power, and kind of hard to describe. It creates an invisibile pet that then spawns a bunch of huge vines that attack foes. The vines also draw aggro, so this is a great opening power. The Invisible pet follows you for a little while and then may spawn vines for the next group or two. Slot for Recharge and damage. Slotting sets can have odd results.

Venus Fly Trap: Has several nicknames like Chompy, my favorite is from the movie/Play, "Little Shop of Horrors." The man-eating plant is named "Audrey II" after Seymore's co-worker, but he calls it "Twoey." Twoey is the coolest looking pet in the game. He is kind of squishy and dies fairly often, but can add some OK damage. Twoey is not the game-changer that pets in other sets can be, but still strongly recommended.


Radiant Aura: A heal you have to take, which is a good thing.

Radiation Infection: ToHit Debuff and Defense Debuff autohit toggle on a foe. Essential. Slot it mainly for ToHit Debuff and endRdx.

Accelerate Metabolism: Essential Team buff that does a bunch of stuff in small amounts, including Recharge, Recovery, Damage. Try to hit the entire team with this. Slot for Recharge first, then EndMod.

Enervating Field: Essential Damage and Resistance Debuff, also an autohit toggle on a foe. Activates much faster than RI, but uses a lot more endurance. Slot for 2 EndRdx.

Mutation: Ally Rez power that is skippable but nice to have.

Lingering Radiation: Foe AoE with Slow, -Recharge and -Regen, this is the third essential Rad debuff. This one need Accuracy and Recharge.

Choking Cloud: toggle PB AoE pulsing Hold. Use a ton of endurance and needs to be fully slotted for EndRdx and Hold. I don't like it for a Plant/Rad, but not everyone agrees. See my Ill/Rad guide for the details on this unique power.

Fallout: Situational power that lets you explode the dead body of a teammate. Kind of fun, but very, very skippable. Some people love it, but you have to have a teammate die in the middle of a group of foes, and then you have to be able to get close without dying. Invisibility is pretty essential.

EM Pulse: PB AoE Hold with fast activation and a HUGE area. Also has -Regen and does damage to Robots. Great power, but has a LONG recharge and a minor downside -- it stops you from recovering endurance for a few seconds. Works best as a Panic button power, but can be used with Vines to hold bosses.

That's a quick summary of the powers.

Frankly, there are very few Controllers that don't match those criteria if you play them well. But I understand your reference to Fire/Kin . . . it is a very busy build thanks to the Kinetics. I just got my Plant/Kin up to 50 on a TF recently . . . and I was downright tired at the end of the TF, just trying to keep up with the constant buffing and controlling. Throwing out SB to the team when they are running all over the place . . . keeping up with the Tank out front so that I can hit Fulcrum Shift before the team kills all the bad guys, and then fitting in Transfusion and Transference and Siphon Speed and Siphon Power before everything is dead . . . while throwing out Seeds and Roots and Creepers . . . <pant, pant>

If you want something fun and not so busy, there are a lot of options. Fire/Rad, with Choking Cloud and Hot Feet, is kind of a Lazy Man's Controller. Hit the group with Flashfire+Fire Cages, then run in (with the Imps following) and stand there, letting Choking Cloud hold them and Hot Feet and the Imps chip away at their hit points. You will take some damage here and there, but that's what you have a heal for. If you can team up with another Fire/Rad or two, it makes it all even easier.

I'm a strong advocate of Illusion/Radiation as the most flexible character in the game -- great solo, small team or large team. Ill/Rad is one of the most powerful characters, too. It is a moderately busy build . . . you throw out your Pets, cast your debuffs, and then pick foes to take down one by one. If you are interested in Illusion/Rad (or either Illusion or Radiation), take a look at my guide, linked in my sig. If you want builds, it has a leveling up build and then my current Perma-PA build along with many others posted in the thread. Illusion/Cold is almost as good in some ways and slightly better in others. Ill/Cold is more clicky with Shield buffs and single-target debuffs, though.

Illusion/Cold seems to be the most recent popular build because it is especially good against AVs -- however, it is kind of slow getting there since you have to wait so long for the two best powers at 35 and 38. I'm really enjoying mine now that he is 50, but fully IO'ing him out is going to be EXPENSIVE. He and my Ill/Rad are my main TF toons that I use with my regular buddies.

Just about every primary goes well with Rad. Rad is very flexible and far less clicky than Kinetics or just about every other secondary. It has two PB AoE buff powers, the heal and Accelerate Metabolism, and then great debuffs and utility powers. I have played Ill/Rad, Fire/Rad, Earth/Rad and Plant/Rad all to 50. Electric, and Ice also have great synergy with Rad.

If you are tired of being a buff-bot, then consider the Trick Arrow secondary -- no buffs at all. I have an Ill/TA at 50, who is still a lot of fun to play. I would consider Earth/TA to be the single character in the game with the MOST control -- you can easily be the only controller on a team of 8. Grav/TA should be a fun Combo . . . Grav is kind of lacking unless it has a secondary that fills in its lack of control, and TA can do that. Mind/TA and Elec/TA could be fun, too. (Some people would argue that Mind/TA has the most control, but I think prefer Earth.)

A really fun secondary is Storm. Flashy and showy. It can be chaotic, and requires some thought on how to use the powers to help and not hurt the team. I have Ill/Storm (The King of Chaos), Ice/Storm and Earth/Storm all at 50. Plant/Storm and Grav/Storm are great combos, too (working on them).

Kin, Cold, Therm, Sonic and FF all have important buffing powers . . . And Empathy is all healing and buffing.

To me, the most important thing is to come up with a name/Concept that I find to be fun or amusing. My latest two level 50 characters are an Earth/Storm ("Ella M. Ental," so she had to have the Fire APP to be Earth, Wind and Fire) and a Plant/Kin (Flora the Explorer). Both are a lot of fun and they are very different from each other.

I'd suggest you maybe try an Earth/Storm or a Plant/Storm. Those might fit your desires.

My suggestion is that you move the Unbreakable Constraint set to Flash. Put the Baz Gaze set in Blind and add damage to complete the set. Damage in Blind really adds up since it is used as the lead-off for the attack chain.

You don't have all that much Defense, so I think that the extra slots in Recall Friend (Blessing of the Zephyr for a small Ranged Defense bonus), and Combat Jumping (extra LotG Defense) would probably be better moved to Stamina for more Recovery. The Glad Armor proc in Fire Shield isn't doing all that much, either (and it costs billions).

If you really want to add ranged Defense, the first thing to do is add the 6th slot to Deceive, as the 6th Coercive Persuasion adds 5% Ranged Defense. No one slot will give you more. However, if you are going for a Defense build, you should probably start with the Ice APP for the Smash/Lethal Defense in Ice Shield and build from there.

When I have some time, I'll come back to give you a rundown of my view of the powers and build. I don't have enough time right now.

A bit of a suggestion: Try playing the character first before trying to make an end-game build. You need to learn about the powers, what they do and your playstyle with the character before worrying about an expensive end game build.

Plant/Rad is a great combo. It is actually a fairly high AoE damage and high control character. You want to slot Roots especially for damage, not immobilize. Your main strategy in the early game is to run in to just the right position (stealth helps for this), hit the largest number of foes with Seeds of Confusion, and then keep throwing Roots until they drop. Strangler is great to lock down bosses and foes who are missed by Seeds.

For the Rad powerset, take a look at my Illusion/Rad guide on the Rad powers. That will help you slot up the Rad side.

Area Man would have to be Dennis Quaid as he looked (and sounded) in The Big Easy. With his Purple, Green and Yellow outfit, I've always thought of him as a New Orleans kind of guy.

Local Man would be Luke Wilson . . . average guy. Nobody plays "average guy" better.

I have a Mind/Storm at about 39 . . . Both Mind and Storm are good, but there isn't a whole bunch of synergy between the sets. The best part is, of course, the debuff in Freezing Rain, but it disrupts the fear from Terrify. Freezing Rain also causes the foes confused by Mass Confusion to scatter and wakes foes slept from Mass Hypnosis. Mind has a group of 1-shot AoE controls all on timers (compared to the continual control in most other sets). As a result, sometimes I draw some aggro and Hurricane is quite useful to control that aggro. Mind has a drop off in damage just when other control sets are getting more damage from their pets, and Storm adds two damage-dealing pets at 35 and 38. However, you don't have any -Knockback to prevent Tornado from throwing foes everywhere and to prevent Lightning Storm from knockback. It is a very chaotic set.

Mind/TA is the other one worth considering. You get several types of control to fill in where Mind is missing: Immobilize, Slow, Knockdown and a second AoE Hold. Plus, Oil Slick Arrow adds that extra AoE damage you could really use. If you go this way, make sure you take the Tech or Magic Origin for a power to light the Oil Slick, and you'll want to consider the Fire or Primal APP set. I don't have a Mind/TA, but I do have an Ill/TA so I'm just guessing how good a Mind/TA might be.

Well, your Global Recharge really should be over 203% for full Perma-PA. What you have may be close enough for you. Frankly, I don't discount the Slow buff in Spiritual. Ling Rad is a surprisingly effective power, and buffing its 75% Slow to 90% makes some difference. I have Ling Rad only slotted with a single Acc in the default slot, so the Slow enhancement from the Spiritual Alpha is nice. I also feel that the ToHitDebuff is a nice addition, too. Kind of like extra Defense.

My view is that all of the Alpha slots are good. Each one has something to recommend it. Your analysis is fine, but it really comes down to personal preference. I did a quick run down of them added into my Ill/Rad guide. I don't feel my build really NEEDS anything, so I went with Spiritual just to get that bit more recharge. I think my build is up to 217% Recharge, and that is with no purples other than the Confuse set (and two in PA).

All the other set bonuses from the pet sets work just like set bonuses from other sets -- a global bonus on you. For example, 4 Expediant Reinforcements have a 6.25% Recharge bonus. That works the exact same way as a 6.25% Recharge bonus from having 5 Decimations in a ranged damage power. 6 Blood Mandate will give a ranged defense bonus, just like 6 Mako's Bite in a melee power.

Congrats on doing so . . . but I bet you have an amazingly expensive build. Earth Control is a very low damage control set. Sure, with a lot of expensive IOs you may be able to get the build to do some things that the set is not "naturally inclined" to do.

A lot of folks have successfully taken Illusion/Rad controllers and Illusion/Cold controllers up against AVs and GMs. Very, very few have taken Earth/Rads up to the same tasks. It is to your credit that you were able to do so.

But when advising somebody new to the powersets, I'm not sure it is a good idea to recommend Earth/Rad as an AV killer when so few people have actually accomplished it.

I ran my Ice/Storm through a Kahn TF last night. He has the Cardiac (first level) Boost, which made a HUGE difference. However, there were still a couple of times when he started getting low on endurance, and I still have a way to go before he is fully slotted.

It really is a fun combo. The slip-n-fall of Ice Slick and Freezing Rain is just plain funny. The slow and confuse of Arctic Air, plus the additional slow and -Recharge from Shiver and Snow Storm means that I can slow the entire room to a crawl. Then throw in the chaos from Lightning Storm and Tornado.

Sadly, Jack is mostly worthless in a busy TF like that. The bugged pet AI has him run in to commit pet suicide constantly, and he doesn't last very long.

I haven't double checked it, but I think the powers themselves can be activated from the air. However, I know that Roots will miss if the TARGET is more than a foot or so off the ground.

EDIT: I looked at City of Data, and none of the powers indicate that you have to be on the ground to cast them. In comparison, Earth's Stalagmites specifically says that you must be on the ground to cast it.

I don't have an Earth/Sonic . . . just have never been able to stick with Sonic for very long. However, I have both Earth/Rad and Earth/Storm at 50, with a second Earth/Storm in the late 40's -- I have a fair amount of practice with Earth Control.

On Stone Cages: The main purpose for Stone Cages is AoE Immob + Containment. After hitting Stalagmites, foes wander around, some of the "wander" really fast. Stone Cages keeps them in place. This turns Stalagmites+Stone Cages into a hold. Plus, Stone Cages is your only AoE control power that doesn't have a long Recharge (especially if you are not taking Hasten). It is fast and the duration of the Immob lasts far longer than the recharge time out of the box. The -Knockback can be VERY handy when you have knockback-prone teammates -- Khelds, Energy Blasters, Storm controllers and defenders, etc. Plus, the Cages can have many strategic uses . . . fire off Cages and hide around a corner so they can't shoot at you while your teammates clean up. If you have multiple runners, Cages prevents them from running. You can even use Cages to find foes that may be hidden.

The problem I have with Air Superiority and the Earth APP set is that they require you to be in (or near) melee. I prefer my Earth Controllers to mostly stay out of melee, since all their controls (except Salt Crystals, which I don't take) are ranged. The Ice APP is really nice, with a good fast single target blast, two AoE damage powers, a Defense shield and Hibernate, a great "panic button" power for a character without a self-heal. (I know -- I used mine last night several times on my Ice/Storm during the Kahn.)

You recommend a Force Feedback +Recharge proc, indicating that it will allow your Assault Bot to fire its missles more often. You may want to check that, as several issues ago, Pets were made immune to Recharge buffs. I know it does NOT provide any recharge buff to Controller pets, but I haven't tried it on my Masterminds.

Hmm, when playing my Fire/Rad, I always use Bonfire on the Towers to knock away the Repairmen . . . and I have never had a problem of that Repairman going to repair one of the other towers. I've never seen it, either. The only time I saw Repairmen rebuild a tower was on a tank-less STF where LR had kicked our butts and by the time we got back from the hosp, the Repair guys had rebuilt the Blue Tower.

Hurricane has lots of good uses in the STF . . . a great way to handle ambushes.

Dave, you have reminded me to pull out my Ice/Storm tonight. On these TFs, my Ill/Rad always gets first play, and for old time's sake, I have pulled out the original Local Man, a Dark/Elec Defender. Then comes one of my tanks or my Fire/Rad. Then my old Ice/Ice Blaster.

But the Ice/Storm is a heck of a lot of fun to play. I really need to re-think his build to go for higher defense, but he is just a lot of fun. Ice/Storm is wonderful on the ITF due to the slows and it pretty good everywhere else, too.