Teeth

Mids and ParagonWiki agree that Smoke Grenade can only take ToHit Debuff sets, even though it requires an Accuracy check against all targets. There is apparently no way to check the possible sets in a power in-game unless you have that power (am I wrong?), so I wanted to double-check here, as this seems stupid enough to be unlikely.

Also, if I put a Dark Watcher's proc in Smoke Grenade, will it cause it to attract aggro?

Inspirations also get you no healing badge credit, and require you to be carrying them, both of which are problems.

I just made a Plant/Cold/Stone Controller guide, which can be found here. I haven't made a guide (or a Controller) in a while, so if anyone has any questions or criticisms, I'm curious to hear them.

I just made a Plant/Cold/Stone Controller guide, which can be found here.

I just made a Plant/Cold/Stone Controller guide, which can be found here.

Tactics

I'm going to describe the build at its various stages of development, then give the promised description of the targetting abilities of Roots at the end.

At low levels, the best approach is to hold and confuse as necessary to keep your team alive until the enemies fall down. There's nothing unique here, other than the great control that Seeds provides.

Things don't change much until you have Creepers, but even then you're basically just firing out Roots and Seeds until everything is dead. Creepers speed this up, and they make it easy to fight any group you encounter when the power itself is recharged, but your basic strategy remains. Two levels after Creepers, you get Benumb, for which the strategy is "shoot this at things ranking higher than 'Boss.' "

Sleet changes play in that it (1) has some control elements and (2) lets your team kill groups very fast, which makes you all safer and makes Seeds less important. Sleet is up just about every spawn, sometimes twice at higher levels, and the knockdown makes it a good power to open each fight with. Note that Roots will prevent further knockdown, however. Also note that, with my suggested slotting, Creepers + Sleet will devastate an entire spawn.

Heat Loss lets you really open up. Until you get Heat Loss, you will have to hold back due to endurance problems; after you take and slot Heat Loss, you can run whatever toggles you want and never let up on your attack chain. You may not be using Seeds as much by this point, but you'll probably want to use them before running into melee for a full-strength Heat Loss, as running into melee unprotected can get you killed easily.

Fissure adds to your AoE damage, gives you a bit more mitigation, and works wonderfully with the Force Feedback proc. When you have it fully slotted, your attack chain at the start of each fight becomes: Creepers (if available), Sleet, Roots, Fault, Roots, Heat Loss (if available), Roots, single-target attacks. If you started with Creepers and you slotted like I did, any +1 or lower minions should be dead before Heat Loss fires; be careful to target a couple of healthy enemies with Heat Loss, because damage over time effects will be finishing off a lot of minions and some lt.'s at this time, and you don't want to fire Heat Loss into thin air. If Creepers didn't start recharged, Creepy will show up to help in the fight, but you may need an extra Fault+Roots. Bosses are scary at this point, and you may need Seeds from time to time against tough groups. Tough single targets will linger annoyingly long while you and Twoey blast away at them.

Seismic Smash removes the problem of tough single targets and makes bosses (especially multiple bosses!) much less problematic. Purples and other such advanced slotting developments make everything quicker and safer.

In all cases, fire Seeds before you die if it looks like you're going down. Seeds + Creepers will often wipe out a spawn 20 seconds or more after you die, allowing you to Awaken safely.

Finally, here's the deal with Roots: A flying target near the ground is fair game, but minor changes in height for ground-bound enemies are not. Enemies walking down stairs or along curved surfaces will often give you the "target in air" failure message, as will enemies taking little hops to get on top of obstacles (like railings). Enemies being knocked back, up, or even down will be very briefly protected, which is a problem because Creepers, Sleet, and Fault cause knockdown. The good news here is that they are only untargetable for a small fraction of a second, so Roots still averages out to doing a bit more damage than other AoE immobilizers; when it does hit, it also prevents any more knockaround-related problems.

Stone Mastery (this is what I use)

Hurl Boulder ++
This could be nice for set bonuses and it's a cute way to get some good single-target ranged damage, but there are probably better things to do with your time, slots, and power choices.

• 5 Decimation, perhaps? Maybe 4 Thunderstrike instead? I could even see 6 Kinetic Crash, for some wacky Knockback fun.
• The same
• The same, or Apocalypse.

Fissure +++++
This does decent AoE damage with Containment, helps you a bit with mitigation, and is an excellent place to put the Force Feedback proc. You could live without this, but for my build it's game-changing. The proc fires quite often in large spawns, and the boost it gives is wonderful.

• 5 Positron's Blast (skip Dam/End), Force Feedback proc
• The same, for reasons similar to those about Roots
• The same

Seismic Smash +++++
This is another game-changing power. It does about the same damage per second of activation as the ultimate Katana attack--although only to one target in this case--and in my build I have the recharge down to roughly 8.5 seconds. It is a reliable Mag 4 hold of decent duration, which means it will instantly disable nearly any Boss creature, and Containment makes it work like a Scrapper attack that always scores a Critical Hit if you can manage to hold or immobilize the target first. Having this power feels like cheating, but if you're going for effectiveness, you want it.

• 5 Crushing Impact (skip Acc/Dam), 1 generic Hold; alternatively, slot it like Strangler, which costs you a bit of damage but gives you a slight improvement to duration, global Recharge, and Ranged Defense
• The same, though you could change a generic into an Unbreakable Constraint: Hold for a tiny boost; if you slotted it like Strangler, replace a generic Damage with a Hecatomb: Damage
• 5 Hecatomb (skip Dam) would be great, and if you're not using the Apocalypse version of Strangler you can throw in Unbreakable Constraint: Hold. If you are using the Apocalypse version of Strangler, this could take 5 Unbreakable Constraint (no Hold) and the Hecatomb: Damage.

Rock Armor ++++
I prefer to build for positional defenses on Cold Domination because Arctic Fog doesn't give typed defenses--yes, the Devs still have something against Ice Tanks--so I skipped Rock Armor. By itself, though, it's still a Tanker-level armor which can carry some nice IO sets, so I give it a high rating.

• 5 Red Fortune (skip Def/Rech), probably
• 5 Red Fortune (skip Def/Rech), 1 Luck of the Gambler: +Global Recharge
• 5 Red Fortune (skip Def/Rech), 1 Luck of the Gambler: +Global Recharge

Earth's Embrace +++
This is a self heal which leaves you with an increased hit point maximum (for two minutes). In a permaHasten build, 1 generic Recharge here will make this effect permanent. More Recharge would be nice to get the heal more often, and more Heal is nice when you do fire it. Just be warned that it animates very slowly and will likely not save you if you are close to dying. I took it at level 49, but it doesn't prevent many deaths.

• 1 Heal/Rech, 2 if you can spare the slot
• 1 Heal/Rech, Steadfast Protection Res/+Def
• 1 Heal/Rech, Steadfast Protection Res/+Def

Fire Mastery
This would help your damage--single-target as well as ranged--and a Resist armor would be better for my build than Rock Armor. I also like Rise of the Phoenix, since it removes "dying" from the list of things that can slow down farming. This is my second choice of Ancillary Pool, but Seismic Smash and the Force Feedback proc won me over. (Consume isn't useful when you have Heat Loss unless you die right after casting Heat Loss, and that's too rare to worry about much.)

Ice Mastery
Frost Breath isn't very impressive, but Ice Blast and Rain of Ice are. Frozen Armor has the same problem as Rock Armor here, and Hibernate can be useful if you expect to be able to take some hits safely when you wake up (such as if Creepy clears some space). This pool never interests me much, but it could be useful.

Primal Forces Mastery
Energy Blast is less useful than Ice or Fire and Conserve Power suffers from the same problems as Consume, but this version of Energy Torrent is very nice (it's Knockdown and can take Force Feedback). The armor gives Resistance and you get Power Boost on a Controller, which for some odd reason recharges much faster than the Defender version. I still prefer Stone Mastery.

Psionic Mastery
Mental Blast is OK. World of Confusion would be a great set mule if you didn't get Seeds, but Seeds is nice enough that you don't need World of Confusion at all. Indomitable Will and Mind Over Body are great, though, and Psi Tornado is ever better than Fissure if you don't care about Fissure's Disorient component.

Fighting
You could probably fit Boxing+Tough+Weave into a build, and Tough+Weave would make you significantly more resilient. I didn't care enough about survivability to take this pool.

Fitness
You use way too much endurance with Plant/Cold, especially if you followed my slotting suggestions. Stamina is completely mandatory, even when you get Heat Loss.

Flight
Hover can be a nice set mule, though you probably don't need it as such. You need to be on the ground to use Fissure, but Flight works fine as a travel pool otherwise, if you want it.

Concealment
You shouldn't need this, since you have Arctic Fog, unless you really like Grant Invis for some reason.

Leadership
The Leadership powers can help you and your team. I took Maneuvers, to stack it with Fog and my armors and slot some extra Red Fortune and Luck of the Gambler, but you could skip it. I don't advise you to take Tactics, since you debuff Defense so well with Cold.

Leaping
I took Combat Jumping as a set mule, minor defense buff, and Super Speed augmentation. Hover would probably work for that, if you like to fly, but the Immobilization protection comes in handy.

Presence
You don't want to Taunt and you don't need the extra control.

Medicine
This can be nice, but I find that it cuts into my attack chain too deeply. My teams and I do better when I focus on control and debuff.

Speed
Hasten is very important for both Plant and Cold, and Super Speed stacks with Arctic Fog to make you invisible. I strongly recommend Hasten and Super Speed.

Teleportation
Recall Friend is nice to have on an invisible character. I skipped it because I can do so much solo, but I am considering taking this instead of Frostwork. Self Teleportation with a (decently cheap) +Stealth IO would also work well as a travel power to replace Super Speed.

Cold Domination

Infrigidate +++
You can't skip this power as a Controller, but fortunately it's nice to have. I normally use it for the Defense debuff, especially prior to getting Sleet. You don't need to fire it very often.

• 1 generic Accuracy
• The same
• The same

Ice Shield ++++
This is a nice buff for your allies and Twoey. Since the shields are positional defense, they don't have a Psi hole. I tend to undervalue this in terms of slots because I focus on the offensive power of Cold, but I wouldn't skip it and I do try to keep shields on my allies.

• 2 generic Defense, or perhaps a Defense and a Def/End to help you on large teams
• 1 Luck of the Gambler: Defense, 1 Luck of the Gambler: +Global Recharge
• Still 1 Luck of the Gambler: Defense, 1 Luck of the Gambler: +Global Recharge

Snow Storm ++
This can help with damage mitigation and it (very rarely) might be nice to bring down a true flying enemy, but I don't feel as though it's usually worth the time and endurance it takes to activate it, much less the space it takes in your build. I advise you to skip this one.

• 1 or 2 generic Endurance, maybe some Slow.
• The same
• The same

Glacial Shield ++++
This is a nice buff for your allies and Twoey. Since the shields are positional defense, they don't have a Psi hole. I tend to undervalue this in terms of slots because I focus on the offensive power of Cold, but I wouldn't skip it and I do try to keep shields on my allies.

• 2 generic Defense, or perhaps a Defense and a Def/End to help you on large teams
• 1 Luck of the Gambler: Defense, 1 Luck of the Gambler: +Global Rech
• Still 1 Luck of the Gambler: Defense, 1 Luck of the Gambler: +Global Rech

Frostwork ++
The ability to buff the hit points of your allies would be great if it always worked, but many allies have such a low hit point cap that they will be hitting it on their own and this power will do nothing at all. Even if the target has no hit point buffs already, the power will cap most AT's with only one Heal enhancement. I took this power for use on Twoey, tanks, and characters with no HP self-increase, but you could definitely skip it, and slotting it is generally unwise. (I could imagine slotting it for Recharge and putting it on Fire Imps, though, if you are a Fire Controller instead of Plant.)

• 1 Heal, or maybe Heal/Rech, or maybe just Rech, depending on personal preference
• The same
• The same, or use the default slot for a Unique IO from a heal set

Arctic Fog ++++
This is Defense, Stealth, some Resistance, and Slow protection. It uses a lot of endurance, but I think it's well worth it. I took this at level 22, but I waited a while to slot it for continuous use.

• 5 Red Fortune (skip Def/Rech), or 6 Red Fortune
• 5 Red Fortune (skip Def/Rech), 1 Luck of the Gambler: +Global Rech
• Still 5 Red Fortune (skip Def/Rech), 1 Luck of the Gambler: +Global Rech

Benumb ++++
This is a very important power for fighting AV's and GM's, and unless you both (1) have a really tight build and (2) never plan to fight AV's and GM's, I would take this and slot it right away. It'll be a bit weak on Accuracy with my suggested slotting, but Infrigidate and Sleet mostly compensate for that.

• 1 generic Accuracy, 3 generic Recharge
• You should have enough +Rech to get away with only 2 generic Recharge
• You should have enough +Rech to get away with only 2 generic Recharge

Sleet +++++
This is a game-changing power that drastically debuffs Resistance and Defense (as well as the Defender version!). It slows your enemies and knocks some down, so it's also good for damage mitigation. The suggested slotting is expensive, but it gives incredible results. This is probably the single most important power in your build, so take it at 35 and have it six-slotted by 37.

• 1 generic Recharge, and the following 5 procs: Achilles' Heel, Impeded Swiftness, Positron's Blast, Touch of Lady Gray, Pacing of the Turtle
• Swap Pacing of the Turtle out for Shield Breaker. The difference is large, so consider doing this even in a cheaper build.
• Swap Pacing of the Turtle out for Shield Breaker. The difference is large, so consider doing this even in a cheaper build.

Heat Loss +++++
This incredible power is extremely important to you. It is a targeted AoE which casts a little burst around anything it hits, plus the user. Allies, including the user, will get a chunk of endurance plus a 1.5-minute recovery bonus for each burst that hits them. Being hit by two or three little bursts is enough to completely fill an empty endurance bar and keep it full for the duration of the power. Also, each enemy hit by the power will suffer a Defender-strength Slow, -Res, -End, -Recovery. This is another game-changing power. It will probably be nerfed soon (I don't see any reason why this should be as powerful as the Defender version), but even then it will still be incredible. A permaHasten build can have this running almost permanently. Take this at 38 and put three slots in it at 39, though you can wait a few levels to bring it up to six slots if need be.

• 6 Efficacy Adapter
• The same
• The same

Plant Control

Entangle ++
This may help you a bit with single-target damage and there will be times you wish you could get really serious about immobilizing some certain thing, but for the most part it serves no purpose other than watering down your (already busy) attack chain. It might be nice as a Purple set bonus mule if you're filthy rich. Note that it lacks -Fly and won't hit targets far from the ground.

• If you're taking this, you probably have something in mind

Strangler +++++
This is your primary single-target control and most of your single-target damage, and it's one of the only things you have that works properly against flying targets. Take it at level 1 and six-slot it by level 20.

• 4 Basilisk's Gaze (skip Acc/End/Rech/Hold and the proc), 2 generic Damage
• The same, though you could change a generic into an Apocalypse: Damage for a tiny boost
• 5 Unbreakable Constraint (skip Hold), Apocalypse: Damage; Alternatively, 5 Apocalypse (skip Damage) and Unbreakable Constraint: Hold

Roots ++++
This is a large fraction of your AoE damage, and it keeps things from running away from your zone attacks. It does twice as much damage as any other Controller's AoE Immobilize, but it won't hit targets "far from the ground." The meaning of that statement will be discussed in my section on tactics, but for now note that the actual details are not totally intuitive. You will be firing this power very, very often, and the only reason I rated it 4 instead of 5 is that I can conceive of someone making a Plant Control build that either (1) likes knockback, which Roots blocks, or (2) doesn't prioritize damaging things, which seems unlikely but possible.

• 5 Positron's Blast (skip Dam/Range) and a Trap of the Hunter proc
• The same
• The same--Grav Anchor will cut your AoE damage too much, Ragnarok is nearly as bad because it lacks a damage proc (and those procs do a ton of damage in this power)

Spore Burst +++
It can be nice to have a sleep power. I took this at level 47, purely as a mule for Fortunata Hypnosis.

• 5 Fortunata Hypnosis (skip Sleep). Don't let the color purple fool you, this will be cheaper to slot than Roots was.
• The same
• The same

Seeds of Confusion +++++
This is basically a buffed version of Mind Control's ultimate power, and you get it at level 8. It does cut into your rewards per kill a little bit, but it grants so much speed and safety to both teaming and soloing that your rewards over time are maintained (for easy content) or even improved (for hard content). It can fire once or twice per spawn, and you can stack it. It's cheap to slot, too. Six-slot this by level 20.

• At low levels, 5 Malaise's Illusions (skip the proc) and 1 generic Recharge. At level 50, buy all 6 Coercive Persuasion, which will cost about 60 million Inf to buy and craft if you can leave out bids for about a week; it should pay for itself in an hour or two of farming.
• The same
• The same

Spirit Tree ++
This power is useful for fights where everyone is standing in one spot and neither side is killing the other rapidly, which happens for a few AV's and GM's, if your team isn't good enough to survive on its own. It won't be very impressive unless you slot it well, and I don't think it's even worth taking (much less slotting!), but it's not totally worthless.

• A lot of Heal, maybe a bit of Recharge
• The same
• The same

Vines +++
I skipped this AoE hold, since it doesn't racharge very fast and I'd prefer to use Seeds of Confusion in most cases. This would be nice to have and it's great for set bonuses, but my build was too tight and I don't generally miss it.

• 4 Basilisk's Gaze (skip End/Rech/Hold and the proc)
• The same
• The same, or 5 Unbreakable Constraint (skip Hold) if you want to put Apocalypse in Strangler

Carrion Creepers +++++
This is an incredible power. It does two things: It lays out a "briar patch" at the target location and it summons a pet (which I call Creepy). The briar patch will slow and possibly knock down creatures within it. Creepy attacks living and "arrested" creatures near him, with different abilities, every 10 seconds. Dead bodies are used as the center for something resembling your Roots; live creatures, if "hit," are assigned those big, obvious vines you see. The vines are themselves targetable pets, and they will beat on nearby enemies until they vanish (which seems to take either 10 or 20 seconds, and I lean toward 20).

Creepy lives up to his name by following you, invisibly and uncontrollably, for two minutes. (You can get the power down to a 1.5-minute recharge, and you should, but you can only have one copy of Creepy at a time.) He doesn't appear in your Pet window, and the only visual indication of his presence (when he isn't attacking) is the tremors he makes if he moves through standing water. Since you don't know where he is, you need to be careful not to grab accidental aggro with him if you're standing around invisible next to some enemies, as he will spawn vines without warning and the enemies will notice you because of it.

I can't promise that you won't have nightmares about this power if you use it late at night, because there is another indication of his presence--a muted, monstrous, chewing noise that you can hear if he catches up to you while you're standing around quietly. It's also scary to see him attack if you had a lull between spawns and you forgot he was there, and I once had a bug where his timer got reset after I crashed to desktop, such that he attacked some creatures near me a minute or so after I reverified my files and logged back in, which literally caused me to jump in fright. And don't think he's especially loyal to you--unlike "real" pets, he sticks around after you die, which is nice when he solos the spawn that killed you but a bit scary when you consider the implications.

The Roots attack checks against your procs, the vines try to use your procs when they hit, and the briar patch checks to fire procs as you lay it and every ten seconds from then on until it goes away (which is 10-20 seconds, I think, I don't usually watch), so you want as many procs in this as you can manage. Creepy needs accuracy to summon his vines, and you need recharge to fire the power as often as you possibly can, since the initial summoning of Creepy will badly distract enemies and the briar patch is nice to have. The power costs a lot of endurance, so you want at least a little of that slotted for. For these reasons, I very strongly advise you to use the exact "suggested slotting" given here, and to have this power six-slotted by level 34.

• Enfeebled Operation: Acc/Rech, Trap of the Hunter: Acc/Rech and the proc, Kinetic Crash: Rech/End, Positron's Blast proc, Explosive Strike proc
• The same
• The same

Fly Trap ++++
Also called "Twoey," a reference to the creature in Little Shop of Horrors, this is your proper Controller pet. He's weak, but he sometimes helps you build Containment with his own Roots, and he does take some hits that would normally go after you. I would definitely take him at 32 and slot him at 33, but he is the weakest Controller pet, and he isn't nearly as important as Seeds or Creepers. Don't expect some sort of game-changing playstyle reevaluation at level 32. (Those come at 4, 8, 20, 26, 35, 38, 41, and 44. You're an early-bloomer, a mid-bloomer, and a late-bloomer!)

• 4 Expedient Reinforcement (skip Acc/Rech and the Resist Aura), or all 6 if you have spare slots in your build
• The same
• The same (Soulbound Allegiance is a bad set)

The Plant/Cold/Stone Controller - Death From All Sides [i16]

This is a guide to Plant Control with Cold Domination, with some additional information about Stone Mastery. This guide is designed for the following audiences:

• Those building this specific combination
• Those shopping around for possible Controller builds
• Those looking at the details of the Plant set by itself
• Those looking at the details of the Cold set by itself
• Those looking at the details of the Stone Mastery set by itself

I note that I still sometimes encounter people who do not know what a "proc" is, so I'll define it here: Procs are those invention origin enhancements which have a chance of firing at certain times, usually when the power is activated. For example, "Posi Blast proc" would mean "Positron's Blast set, 20% Chance of Energy Damage when power hits."

I haven't written a guide in a while, so comments and criticisms are very welcome.

First, let's start with some general beneifts of this Controller:

• Excellent AoE damage and AoE control (so it's good for farming)
• Very good AoE debuffs and single-target debuffs
• Decent single-target buffs, AoE buffs, and personal buffs
• Very early bloomer (it's fun for all 50 levels), though farming is hard before level 39
• Can easily take the two cheapest Purple recipe sets (Confuse and Sleep)

What are the disadvantages?

• No healing, if that bothers you
• Weak single-target damage (though Stone Mastery mitigates this)
• A bad choice for soloing AV's or GM's, if that bothers you
• Depends somewhat heavily on procs and global recharge bonuses if farming
• Attention-intensive at times, if that bothers you

My own reason for choosing this build was that I wanted to do a bit of everything, and do it well. This build can buff allies, control multiple spawns at once, tear apart legions of enemies, brutally cripple AV's and GM's, and stealth through missions easily. It dominates task forces and coasts (solo) through most enemy groups at +0x8 or +1x8 difficulty settings. Just don't expect to have an easy time against Soldiers of Rularuu or with solo-spiking single targets (like Shadow Cyst Crystals, the Romulus Phalanx Computer, or Lord Recluse's buff towers).

I will discuss the details of the powers in my next three posts and my tactics in a fifth post.

Format for power descriptions:
Name Rating
Description

• Suggested Slotting for low- to mid-priced builds, aiming for permaHasten
• Slotting modifications for more expensive builds
• Slotting if you're filthy rich

Ratings are as follows:
+ is terrible, though perhaps useful for special purposes
++ is skippable, but you'll probably use it if you have it
+++ is skippable in a tight build, but generally worth having
++++ should not be skipped without some very specific reason
+++++ is critical to all builds

Suggested slotting will usually assume that you also pick up a lot of global recharge speed bonuses, as these sets benefit from such bonuses very strongly, even without reaching permaHasten levels (though I myself did go for permaHasten). The cheapest permaHasten build I've done without major sacrifices used 2 Luck of the Gambler +Recharge and six-slotted Hasten, but if you use 5 Luck of the Gambler +Recharge you only need 3 or 4 slots in Hasten.

Thank you Hornet! That was exactly what I wanted.

Yes, but you can't get Mayhems or Safeguards.

I like the hat called "Duster," but I can't find any evidence that any type of headgear has ever been called a "duster" in real life. What would that hat be called in real life?

(I browsed some "hat type" galleries, but the distinctions between various hats seem to be pretty subtle at times.)

I advise against holding your breath in anticipation of Soldiers with a Crab build being able to take off their extra legs in any circumstances.

Why go Melee Fort instead of NW? Just AIM, Wail, and the option of controls, or is there something else I'm missing?

I prefer Darkest Night.

Would Shatter Armor or Frost Breath be worth taking for a Widow? (If not, I'll likely go for Darkest Night, so you might factor that in.)

Frost Breath is decent (-15%) short-lived (10 seconds) AoE -Res, and Shatter Armor is better (-20%) and sustainable (20 seconds) single-target -Res. Stealth Slash + Follow Up + Shatter + Placate + Slash seems like it would be a good way to show an AV you mean business (I'm sure the rest of the team would appreciate the -Res), and Follow Up + Frost Breath + Dart Burst + Spin sounds nice for team steamrolling and any large spawns when solo.

Shatter Armor seems like it might be worth it, but this is still "on paper" at this point, and I can definitely see how such a long animation would make it less appealing--it takes about as long to animate as the whole rest of your attack chain combined, if you include the two redraw times it forces. If it's borderline, the added damage from your team might make up for it, but on the other hand Darkest Night could significantly help survival against those same large targets, as well as Defense debuffers.