Edenfire's Guide to Plant/Fire Domination

Edenfire's Guide to Plant/Fire Domination

Disclaimer: I don’t worry about numbers, the brawl index, the exact percentage of endurance.

Outline:
1. Purpose of a Plant/Fire Dominator & Introduction
2. Plant Control - Overview
3. Fiery Assault – Overview
4. Power Pools
5. Tactics and Strategy
6. PvE and PvP


1. Purpose of a Plant/Fire Dominator & Introduction

Welcome to the world of spectacular graphical holds. Weaker graphics cards will stutter in your presence. Enemies will feel your plants loving embrace. Then you will burn them all and with your fire, destroy any evidence of your plant control. When I made Edenfire, I was feeling creative and decided that plant control would offer a way to literally tie the enemies up and then I could inflict a fiery torture to them with fiery embrace. She is a magical experiment from the Envoy of Shadows and Hamidon shunned by both eventually and forced to walk her own path in the Rogue Isle.

It was soon after I started I realized that there were certain advantages to playing this particular dominator that made it useful to the team, able to solo and most importantly of all, FUN. Your dominator has a specific purpose and this holds true for most dominators. Your purpose is to protect your team. That is correct. I’ll repeat it, your purpose is to protect your team. You are no corruptor. Your damage is gimped to much for that and you really can’t heal the team or provide buffs or debuffs. You are no controller. Your holds are good, but lack the duration of a true controller. You certainly are not a brute, tank or scrapper. Melee for you! Hah! You are squishie. Pure and simple. As it turns out, you are all of these things rolled into one.

You do have holds. They are good. They are visible to the team. Everyone sees your strangler or vines. It is not like mild holds and char. You can inflict damage because of domination and fiery embrace. Combined, your attacks chains do significant damage. You can absorb alpha strikes for your teams. Don’t believe me, well watch as I send in Carrion Creepers before the rest of the team gets into melee. You are very diverse and through all your abilities, you will make teams feel safer, inflict damage and also have a lot of fun. You can solo fine as well.



2. Plant Control Overview

Plant Control is a great powerset that works very well. The dev’s can pat themselves on the back for this one. It is graphically well done. It has a host of different methods of control, excuse me, domination. I will now break down the methods of domination and then individually discuss each power set

Holds: Strangler, Vines

Immobilization: Entagle, Roots

Soft Controls(Domination): Spore Burst, Seeds of Confusion, Carrion Creepers

Heal: Spirit Tree

Pet: Fly Trap

As you can see, Plant Control is a swiss army knife of domination. Let us run down the powersets. I will give my opinion on these sets as we go down

1.Entangle – A single target immobilization that does moderate Damage Over Time (DOT) with a fast Recharge. I’ll get this over with now. If you are a controller or a dominator, do not take immobilization powers. They draw aggro. Your enemy can still attack you, and you are doing very little to him. I did not choose this power. If you have, there may still be time to re-roll another character. Available at level one(Rating 2/5 Stars)

2.Strangle – A single target hold that does moderate DOT with a Mod recharge. Endurace use is low. This is a great power. It is useful from lvl one to lvl 40 and beyond. It is easy for teammates to see whom is held. Try casting it on a behemoth overlord and see giant vines erupt from the ground. This power is required in my opinion. Take this and skip entangle. Slot with 3 Hold Durations, 1-2 Accuracy, 1 Recharge Reduction. Available at level one (Rating 4/5 Stars)

3.Roots – Group Immobilization that inflicts Moderate DOT with Fast Recharge. This power is an aggro magnet that does little damage except to you. I would skip this power. It causes more trouble that it is worth. Besides you get this power for free later on indirectly without the aggro problems. As you will see later, you Fly Trap and Carrion Creepers both create roots in effect as you fight later, but they take the aggro, not you. Bosses, even Heroes will be immobilized by them. If you throw your roots in too, it is simply overkill and draws the aggro from them to you. Available at Level 2(Rating 0/5 Stars)

4.Spore Burst – AOE Sleep with slow recharge. Nope, sounds good, but it is not. Solo, it may be OK, but why solo when you work better in teams. When attacked they wake up. COV is very damage and AOE based. You are fire, so you also have some AOE’s. Skip this power, it is not of use to you. Available at Level 6. (Ratings 0/5 Stars)

5.Seeds of Confusion – AOE Confuse. OK, now you got one of the set defining powers and it is available at level 8. This AOE cone Confuse causes your enemies if hit to attack each other. You have to kill em quick, or your xp from each enemy decreases, but you chose fire with AOEs to help you. Some people use this to open up with, some use it as a panic button. I generally open with it. It protects the team by stopping incoming attacks. I follow a brute it with it early levels and cast it so they can absorb aggro first. After it wears off, they will aggro to you if not already dead or occupied with your teammates. Needs accuracy as AOEs have decreased accu. I slotted with 3 confuse durations and 3 accuracy (prob overkill). You can consider two accuracy and a recharge reduction. If you skip this power, re-roll or get ASAP. If someone says stop using it as it steals from xp, they are a noob. You will move through mishes at faster rate with SOC and complete more mishes quickly (bonus XP). This power is essential (Rating 5/5 stars)

6.Spirit Tree – Fixed object that increases Regeneration Rate if close by. This power is a good power, but not essential. With a three slotted health and three slotted spirit tree, your regeneration rate is significantly improved, but it is not a true heal. It does help however. Problems however are that it is fixes, so team must be close to it for regeneration benefit. Also, it obscures vision. I still find it useful. Two ways to use it. First, follow the meleer’s into battle and plant it in center of battle to benefit them. Second plant it in back for Corrupters and MM pets to keep their HP up some. It has saved my butt many times, so I think it is a good power, but can be picked up later on. Available at Level 12. Three Heath Slots , Consider Recharge Reductions if you have space(Ratings 3/5 Stars)

7.Vines – AOE Hold, no damage, Very Long Recharge. AOE holds are debated by some, but I think this power is awesome and another must. Why? 1. Easy to see hold. 2. Stacks with Strangler, so it is great to fire off this and Strangler on a boss and get em held right up front. With domination, the combination of this and Strangler hold some Heroes and Archvillians and certainly Elite Bosses. I soloed Ballista from the Longbow mishes with Vines and Strangles and never got hit once. 3 holds, 3 accuracy Level 18 (Ratings 4/5 Stars)

8.Carrion Creepers – I need a moment of silence hear. Tear to right eye. This power is the SET DEFINING POWER. To not take it at level 26 means that the dev’s need to cancel your account and ban you from playing because you are obviously a very stupid person. Sorry about that, This is the best power in the set and one of the best on the game. First, for fun aspect, it looks awesome. Big moving vines erupt from the ground, and they knock your enemies over. They immobilize some of them. They decrease attack rate and slow enemies. They follow you into next battle. They do some damage. They draw aggro. One of the most useful things these lil vines do it to take alpha strikes. I cast em into a large dangerous group and watch all the the enemies turn on em and start shooting, then they all start flopping around like they are on an ice slick. Little gray numbers go over there head indicating damage (grey number is a bug I think). The damage is minor, but adds up. This is one of the best dominator powers in the game. You must get this ASAP. Slotting is variable, highly variable. 3 Recharge Reductions is a must, the other 3 slots can be damage, slow, immob, etc… I chose 3 damage. As I said, the damage adds up over time actually. I have tested it on a group of two yellow the other day. Creepers will drop a minions life to half over a min, so in large long battles, it helps actually. Level 26 (Ratings 7/5 Stars – yes 7)

9.Fly Trap – Your pet. He’s pretty good. He casts immobilzations, throws some thorns and bites your enemies. He is not crazy like fire imps trying to draw aggro. He is able to keep up with you running. He is not bright though like all pets. His strength is his bite, but sometimes he wont run into battle. He is a hurt by fire more than others, and since Circle of Thorns seems to be problematic the entire game, you may have to heal him somehow as time goes on. Pets are always a must in my opinion. Give him 3 damage enh and 2 accuracy. Level 32 (Ratings 5/5 stars)




3. Fiery Assault Overview

Fire is a classic since COH and works well. Why Fire? I chose it for concept somewhat, but also fire has good AOE DOT attacks which you need to improve Seeds of confusion. Graphically it is great as well. Has fast animation times overall

1.Flares – a must have. Only because you have to have it. No choice here, sorry. Animation sucks cause it is slow. Skip if you could, but not possible, so learn to use it, You got no choice here. Slot with 1 Damage. (Ratings 0/5 stars)

2.Incinerate – This is a great melee power. Does High DOT with Slow Recharge. Useful to cast after you drop Strangler on someone, then focus attention on the other bad(or good) guy trying to kill you. It is melee, but have no fear, cast in on people that are held until you get used to it. Slot with 3 damage and one accuracy (Ratings 4/5 stars)

3.Fire Breath – Lvl 4, Cone shaped AOE DOT with slow recharge. After you throw your seeds on confusion, cast fire breath to recover your xp. This is a bread and butter power and you need it early on. Slot with 3 damage and 1 accuract (Ratings 4/5)

4.Fire Blast – Level 10. The Classic. It’s pretty self explanatory. Single target Moderate Damage with Fast Recharge. Get it and use it often. Slot with 3 damage and 1 accuracy (Ratings 4/5)

5.Fiery Embrace – Level 16. So you have felt rather wimpy because of your damage. You noticed you can’t one shot anyone even a blue minion. Nothing has changed, but Fiery Embrace helps you deal with it a little better. This significantly boosts all fire attacks for a short while and boosts no fire attacks as well to a lesser degree. Combines with domination, you will actually do some significant damage. Slot with three recharge reductions. Get this ASAP (Ratings 5/5)

6.Combustion – Level 20 AOE DOT with Slow recharge. Some swear by this, some don’t. It is a good power, but I did not have room for it in my build. I chose fire breath because it was earlier and the cone lets me get out of melee quickly. This power puts you in the middle (melee) of a group of enemies and potentially draws aggro. Also, you get rooted as with most AOE attacks, but the rooting seems a bit long to meThe damage is good. I may get this in the 40s, but I have to see the patron powers. If you swear by it, get it, but it is possible to skip. Slot with 3 Damage, 1 accuracy. (Ratings 2/5)

7.Consume – Level 28 – Good Power, but if you chose stamina, it is really not necessary. I had no room in my build for this and once again, will wait to see the patron powers before selecting this power. It does minor damage, but drains endurance from enemies. With stamina and the domination endurance refill, I don’t think this is necessary. Slot end recover and accuracy in what ever way you see fit (Ratings 2/5)

8.Blazing Bolt – Level 35 – Mixed feelings, but I like snipe powers. With domination and fiery embrace, your extreme damage will actually feel extreme. I chose this power for that reason. My old blaster glory needed to be re-lived a bit. I recommend it, but if you don’t like snipe attacks (they are high end and a require you to not be interrupted), then combustion or consume could be chosen here. Slot with 3 damage, 1 accu and if possible 2 decrease interrupt time. (Ratings 4/5)

9.Blaze – Level 38 – So you finally got your last power. It is not a nuke. It is probably the best single target attack you will have. High burst damage with decent recharge time. Get it, but you won’t be in awe of your level 38 power. Slot it with 3 damage and 1 accuracy.





4. Power Pools

I won’t tell you about every power pool. I will tell you what I chose and why

Fitness – Look, it’s just required. I hate having to use three power slots to get decent stamina, but you really have no choice. I chose swift, health and stamina. 3 slot the Health and 3 slot the Stamina. Nuff said

Leaping – Take your preference first of all. That being said, I took Super Jump. The combat jumping and swift synergize well and give you a touch of defense. Super jump is fast and gives you a vertical element to travel. Acrobatics is very useful too. It offers some hold protection which is all I cared about. When the dominator is held, then enemies may not be. This can be devastating to a team, especially if they are used to playing with you. You will still get held from time to time if your toggles are dropped, but I found it useful.

Other Travel Powers – Did not take. Teleport is fastest, but not for beginners. Flight has most control, but is slow. It make become more useful post 40 in the speculated Vertical Zone of Grandville, we will see. Superspeed is good, but if you get it, you should get stealth to take full advantage.

Medicine Pool – I took Aid Other to help out my Fly Trap from time to time. Depending on the Patron Power Pools, I may take Aid Self if I have room in my build.

Other power pools – I did not choose them, so I wont discuss them anymore. Many other guides go though these pretty well.


5. Tactics And Strategy

Pretty easy actually. Protect your team by making your enemies not attack your team. Here are a few scenarios.

Bosses and above – High damage from these guys can get the best of your corrupter. You MM falls and all his pets go with him. Sometimes, a brute takes more than he can handle. Simple fire a Strangler and a Vines right away and most if not all Bosses will be held. Spam your Strangler on the boss and attack in between. In doing this, the Bosses friends will all have been held by the Vines briefly. It is so pretty, oh so pretty. For AV’s, Heroes and some Elite Bosses, you will need Domination for this to work well, but it can work on most of em. Watch out for Back Alley Brawler and Longbow Tanks (commanders, etc..), they can be tougher to hold and you may draw a one shot wrath.

Large +3 groups – Maybe your brute is not the tank he believes he is. It is cool, sometimes, on relentless, you get in over your head. Send in the Creepers first. Alpha Strikes to a pet that spawns after your enemies fall is a pretty safe way to go. Hide around a corner, cast the creepers, send in your team. You got em.

No Healer on team – Well, if you a like me, you took spirit tree and aid other. Not exactly the empathy everyone wishes they had, but it will have to do. So follow the brute and stalkers in after they get aggro. Drop the spirit tree and run back a little bit. Hold who you can and use aid other as permits.

Two close mobs get pulled – Easy for you , a combination of creepers and Seeds of confusion to the groups will create a beautiful chaos. Fire off your fire breath to the group you confused to ensure some xp from em.

Oh, I forgot the Fly Trap – That’s right. If you fire off Carrion Creepers and get your Fly Trap to run it, you will have every one immobilized keeping everyone not conditioned for melee safe.

Combined Tactics. All of these tactics can be combined. There are many other tactics I have not discussed for the sake of time, and you will find your own.

Domination And Fiery Embrace – The boss holder/killer? Yes, when you get to the end of a mission with a big bad boss with a name, click that domination button you have saved up and click that fiery embrace button. Strangle + Vines = Boss held. Now, Blazing Bolt, run in and Incinerate + Fire Breath + Blaze. Repeat as needed. Like I said no one shotting for you, but once and awhile, it is good to feel that you can inflict a little damage as well.

6. PvE and PvP

Well, you will do very well in PvE. Dominators tend to, but you are not the king of PvP. You are not even Jester of PvP. I have gone into PvP, but rarely alone unless trying to rush to mish to get badge. Well, don’t fear PvP. If a hero kills you, big deal, no debt for it. Don’t worry about your rep either, you are a dominator, no one has any expectations of you. That is your strength. You are a squishie target to everyone that sees you, and one thing I have learned in COH/COV, many gamers like to win even if there is no challenge. OK, so paint the target on your chest, get a team and do what you do best. Become bait. That right, you are a little worm on a big hook. Get a stalker or two to watch your back. Now what can you do. Spam holds. In PvP, it probably won’t work well, but you may be surpised. If you hold someone, it increases the stalkers chance of criticals. Also, Seeds of Confusion can be quite fun in PvP. You may make a defenfer heal you up before they realize what has just happened. The best move I ever did was getting an Illusion Controller to Flash his entire team and hold them all. That being said, the experienced professional PvP’ers will eat you for breakfast, so I would plan to go in as support for them mostly.



7. Conclusion

Plant/Fire Domination is a great and powerful combo. I rarely see anyone with this build, but it has provided a lot of fun for me to play. To those, that suggest dominators aren’t much fun to play, this combo will hopefully change their mind some. I consider it the best build to play with a neat tie Mind/Psi. The only reason I like Plant/Fire more so is the holds are so much more obvious to the team, I get Confuse powers early on as well, and I get a Pet. Also The Creepers. The Fire’s AOE attacks synergize well with Seeds of Confusion. Fiery Embrace is great. Fire animation time is overall quick. Fire is also endurance friendly.

That’s it. Hope you found it helpful. Special thanks to the villain group the Trust who has provided a great group of teammates over the time. The Trust is on Virtue and I am giving em a plug as they are one of the coolest VG groups on the server

Edenfire

That was an interesting overview. Speaking as someone who hasn't tried Plant, how long do the carrion creepers last? I wasn't aware they could follow you.

They dont last long. As a rule of thumb, they follow you for one battle basically, but don't appear until you start attack on the second battle. If you sit around for a long time, they won't follow.

Ah - the PvP / PvE point certainly needs revision.

You build up Domination WAY faster.

Holds are better than they used to be (as toggle drops, etc have reduced efficiency), and with Dom up, they're scary tough to face.

I have *not* faced a Plant/Fire in PvP, but doesn't mean it won't work. I'm stilll too low level to tell. But I hate seeing ANY dom pop the Domination in Siren's Call...

beautiful. have a plant/plant and had a ball. until like lvl 12 solo thn neglect set in will absolutely try plant/fire team and solo. thanx been looking for a good villian to play. concept in mind and ready for the dark side thanx

Good guide apart from I'd disagree with your opinion of Spore Burst, especially if you're thinking of the Plant/Fire Dominator as team-friendly. Spore Burst is situational, but very useful (especially with Domination up) to sleep adds, because it has a huge range.

My lvl 43 Plant/Fire Thanks you!