Plant/Thermal Controller Guide [iss12]

An Issue 12 Guide to a Plant/Thermal Controller by Coldmed based on my level 50 Plant/Thermal Green Haven


Plant/Thermal controllers are a brand new combo as of Issue 12. After playing one on red side (plant that is) when they announced it on Issue 12 I knew I had to have it! Sooo many goodies to this set it wasn’t funny. Plus being a newer set for trollers I knew it would be my next one.

I've been playing controllers since Issue 2 and haven’t stopped. I own an Ill/FF, an Ice/Emp, an Earth/Storm, a Fire/Kin, a Fire/Rad and now a Plant/Thermal all sitting at 50.

I found this to be one of the most fun of my 6 controllers. The combination together has heals, buffs, debuffs, holds, immob, and damage. I don’t think there’s a lot more you could ever ask from it. I literally can’t stop playing it.

One thing you’ll see on my slotting is that I have it as what I would slot if was able. Clearly not everyone has the slots or money for the set I used in my build, so it’s only recommended slotting based on full maxing potential of that said power and not how mine is slotted. I used a ton of sets and I’ll show you my build later on if you have the money to I.O. your toon. Under personal slotting you'll see my actually slotting I'm using right now. The only bad thing is it cost a boat load of money so that’s why there’s two ways of slotting in this guide.

One of my main issues with slotting any type of controller is for max holds and not damage. I always see people trying to make a blaster out of a controller and it will just never happen. All my powers here are to be maxed out as much as possible to take control over any situation, whether it is Bosses, E.B.'s, or A.V's. If I wanted to slot for damage I would make a blaster. So before you go through my guide just remember slot for holds first and foremost and never slot for damage (paring pets and epic choices of course: p) even though plant is a ground based smashing damage primary. You won’t be seeing any ranged damage attacks in my build.

Let’s start off with plant control as it’s quite the set in itself

[color=”green] Primary / Plant Control [/color]
Entangle-
Ranged, Foe Immobilize

This is one of those "take it or leave it powers. I don’t take the single immob's as a rule as the aoe immob can do more over all control. This is a builder’s choice power. Although it’s great for those av's we all know and love that take off all over the map, immob's can really stop that.

Slotting: 2 acc / 2 immob / 2 recharge

Personal slotting: did not take this power
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Strangler -
Ranged, Foe Hold

Your single target foe hold and quite nice it is. Take it slot it and use it!

Slotting: 2 acc / 2 hold / 2 recharge

Personal slotting: unbreakable constraint purple hold I.O. set
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Roots -
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Immobilize

An aoe immob power many take this but the issues with this power I really have is aggro on mobs. If you choose this you must be careful with it if a tank doesn’t have agro yet one hit of roots can have the entire mob on you and trust me they will blast ya!

Slotting: 2 accuracy / 2 immob / 2 recharges

Personal slotting: gravitational anchor purple immob I.O. set
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Spore Burst-
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Sleep

An aoe sleep can be very useful to help with close mobs or just to sneak on past. Only a few I know ever take a sleep type power. This is one of those times where it’s more about your playing style then just picking the "popular powers"

Slotting: 2 Acc / 2 Sleep / 2 Recharge

Personal slotting: did not take this power
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Seeds of Confusion -
Ranged (Cone), Foe Confuse

Seeds is quite the wonderful power. I love it and use it all the time. The fact that you may lose xp from this power from mobs defeating each other can scare people not to take this. I feel this is one of the "must take" confuses in the game it really does help the set out and can be nice in a pinch as well.

Slotting: 2 Acc / 2 Recharge / 2 Confuse

Personal slotting: coercive duration purple confuse I.O. set
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Spirit Tree -
PBAoE Heal

A + Regen power (similar to triage beacon) that needs to be slotted fully in order to get the max regen from it. This power once spawned cannot be tp'd or moved. So make it count at all times or it will go to waste. I find this to be an "optional” power in the set cause of thermal having two heals in its set. So this could be a hit or miss throughout most people’s sets and just a power to pick up later in lvls. I personally got it at 47

Slotting: 3 recharge / 3 heals

Personal slotting: 3 heals
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Vines -
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Hold

I tend to get the aoe hold of any troller as it's nice to stack up on boss or higher npcs. Vines will need acc since out of the box it seems to be a touch on the -acc dept.

Slotting: 2 Acc / 2 hold / 2 recharge

Personal slotting: ghost widow hold I.O. sets
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Carrions Creepers -
Ranged(Location AoE), -speed, -fly, -jump

I can’t say enough of this power and yet be so confused by the power. I mean the way to slot it or use it can be done so many ways it’s not funny. Slot if for knockback? Maybe a slow? How bout damage? No! Ok how bout immobs? Ahh either way you want this power and you want to max out its recharge. It also needs acc as well but yes it rocks completely

Note: I won’t give out a "recommended slotting on this one besides 3 recharge. Frankly there are too many ways and too many views to how to slot it

Slotting: 3 recharge /2 acc /whatever

Personal slotting; 3 dam/acc h.o's / 3 recharge

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Fly trap -
Ranged Control Special

Fly trap is a different type of pet immobs to range to melee it can do quite a bit. The a.i. seems to lack a touch at times but all together a fun pet to have

With /thermal you can also buff up your pet and that’s always fun when solo

Note: people have a certain slotting for pets. Some use pet sets and there are a ton of great ones out there. to avoid using slots some use dam/acc h.o's. with resist or defense auras from I.O. sets they are nice as well to help survivability’s suggest you look into pet slotting to max out your best in playing.


Slotting: 2 acc / 3 damage / 1 recharge

Personal slotting: 3 dam/acc h.o's
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Onto thermal for your secondary, one thing always rings true about most sets and that is there is always one or two powers that are deemed "skipppable"

Not the case here. I literally could not find one power in the set that I didn’t want or need to make my toon better. It truly is a great all around 2ndary and I know a lot of people feel the same way

Secondary / Thermal Radiation

Warmth -
PBAOE + Heal

First one in the set the healing aura of the set, heals all of team within range of aura

Slotting: 3 heals / 3 recharge

Personal slotting: doctored wounds healing I.O. set
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Thermal Shield -
Ranged, Ally + Res (fire, lethal, smash, cold)

One of 2 resistance shields, a resistance buff to fire, s/m and cold. A must pick up and quick to come back up to buff up all your teammates

Slotting: 3 resist damage

Personal slotting; 3 resist damage
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Cauterize -
Ally Heal

A very nice targeted heal, heals one person at a time like heal other

Slotting: 3 heal / 3 recharge

Personal slotting: doctored wounds healing I.O. set
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Plasma Shield -
Ranged, Ally Resist (energy, negative, fire)

Very nice resist buff to go with thermal shield, as fast a recharge as thermal not in any need of recharge

Slotting: 3 resist damage

Personal slotting: 3 resist damage
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Power of the Phoenix -
Ally Resurrection

This power is like rise of the phoenix. Only instead of a self rez it’s an ally rez but with the same animation basically. Rezzing someone in range of naps can cause damage and disorient to them. Also leaves you debt protected for 90 seconds and even leaves you invulnerable as well for a few seconds.

Slotting: 3 recharge

Personal slotting; 3 recharge
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Thaw -
Ally + Resistance (disorient, hold, sleep, immob, confuse, fear, cold, slow)

A ton of stuff in a small package is what thaw is. Looking at what it combats is enough to want to take it. So many ways it helps and since it has an ok recharge you don’t have to worry about slotting it up that much

Slotting: one slot recharge

Personal slotting: 1 steadfast kb protection
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Forge -
Ally + Dmg + To-Hit

Ah, so close to what fortitude is but without the defense added in. this power buffs dam and to hit and works great. The slotting is up to you. I see a lot of people with these type of powers only slot 3 recharge, some go 3 to hit and others go 3 recharge and 3 to hit. All are fine really as you’ll have to figure it out based on available slots. I always just slot until I can put to hit/recharge hami's in it. Your mileage may vary

Slotting: 3 too hit

Personal slotting: 3 to hit/recharge H.O.’s
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heat Exhaustion -
Ranged foe - Dmg - End - Recovery -Regeneration

One of two debuffs in the set and both are nice to have. This will be a must for av's and bigger foes

Slotting: 3 recharge / 1-2 acc

Personal slotting: 3 recharge / 1 acc
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Melt Armor -
Ranged (targeted AOE), Foe -Resistance - Defense

Second debuff and a great one at that. Not only does it kill the resistance on a foe but anyone around that foe as well. Well worth having for sure

Slotting: 2 acc / 2 debuff / 2 recharge

Personal slotting: touch of lady grey debuff I.O. set
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Epic Powers

I picked up fireblast and fireball. These two together works VERY nicely with the thermal set for more then just because it’s a fire set.

Hit vines and creepers and hold on a boss. Throw in melt armor and heat exhaustion and go to town with fireball and blast. Nothing gets through that.

Fireball-
Ranged (targeted aoe)

This is a great aoe damage ranged attack. Explodes after it hits and dot's on surrounding npcs. A favorite among fire/kins

Slotting: 2 acc /3 dam / 1 recharge or end cost

Personal slotting: positron damage I.O. set
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Fire blast-
Ranged

A nice single target ranged attack, complements fireball nicely.

Slotting: 2 acc /3 dam / 1 recharge or end cost

Personal slotting: thunderstrike ranged damage I.O. set
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Fitness

Well of course you need fitness as I took swift, health and stamina.

Stamina being 3 slotted of course, health was only one slotted and so was swift

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Other powers to consider for the set as well.

Teleport- reason I got tp at 49 was for fly trap. Sometimes he worries too much on immobs to do any real damage and if you want to solo more then not you may want to look into it. Playing with fly trap you’ll see what I mean

Knockback protection -plenty of places to stick a karma or steadfast kb I.O.. anywhere from hover or c.j. to thermal/plasma or even thaw. Plenty of places to get 8 mag and never worry about those pesky kb's

hasten- I never did get hasten because I'm built with recharge bonus's .something to consider as hasten is worth it but your going to find out that fitting more then one thing other then the 2 power sets ya got are tough

Level 41 epics pool power- I went with pyre mastery and picked up fireball and fireblast. Together with thermal and plant it works out nicely together to get out some real damage. My personal choice in this set. Funny though I don’t have it on any other troller but my fire/kin .as they all have the ice and stone mastery's.
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Phew! So far so good.

Ok let’s talk I.O. bonuses for just a sec

If you can see by my slotting I had a certain plan once I reached 50. That’s was use certain bonus's to help me out where I felt it could.

Those were recovery (always good to have as much as possible.)Recharge (since hasten wasn’t able to be fit.) and acc (I just hate missing)

Purples are a great way but not the only way. Thunderstrike, doctored wounds, posi’s and other recipes work great to get these. Make sure you make a plan of what you want first to best suit your toon or powerset and go from there. Without it you'll end up losing money.


I hope this build helped. I'm not usually one to make a build but I figured I would give it a shot. Any info on it that you thought I might have missed please let me know and I can change or make notes to it.

To top this all off I wanted to place my build in here as a reference or easy way to see my slotting.

Although as I get through this I figured a screenshot would work as well since my personal slotting for each power is already listed.

I did frankenslot a few common I.O.'s in this build since I didn’t go for procs. In fact I think I only got one total.

The build itself I have is quite nice I believe...i hope you enjoy yours!

I can always do the "basic" what level I picked what and how I slotted it. But not everyone wants the same build I have and at the same levels.

Best of luck!


Level 50 Natural Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Thermal radiation
Power Pool: leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler
Level 1: Warmth
Level 2: thermal shield
Level 4: cauterize
Level 6: Roots
Level 8: Seeds of Confusion
Level 10: plasmas shield
Level 12: combat jump
Level 14: super jump
Level 16: swift
Level 18: health
Level 20: stamina
Level 22: power of the phoenix
Level 24: forge
Level 26: carrion creepers
Level 28: vines
Level 30: thaw
Level 32: Fly Trap
Level 35: Heat exhaustion
Level 38: melt armor
Level 41: fire ball
Level 44: fire blast
Level 47: Spirit Tree
Level 49: Recall Friend
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty (A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty (A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty (A)
Level 1: Containment



Screenshot of my personal build

Easier on the eyes than your previous one - good guide =)

Very nice. Much much better.

Very nice. The secondary poweset information is not as detailed as the primary and I'd be interested in seeing a discussion of other Ancillary sets; however, you did a good job of encapsulating the basic concepts of the build.

Just curious as to how much you use Spirit tree. It's been stated that it is an optional power in the guide, and there is no room for hasten. Would it hurt much to drop Spirit Tree for hasten? In other words, can the heals in the build manage without it?

yeah i tossed it around for spirit tree or hasten for a while but due to so many purples in my build i really wasnt worrried about it

if i wasnt a /thermal i would make room for spirit tree. but since your thermal you can toss it out easily for hasten . warmth and cauterize can more then do the job.

Pretty good guide, I just created a plant/thermal. I must say its an awesome support combo, really fun to play. You're certainly right that this is no damage controller. I didn't plan on soloing too much anyway.

It looks like you went with a similar build. I skipped plasma shield, as I didn't wanna spend too much time buffing an 8 man team and i don't think negative energy is usually that big of a deal. I did take hasten also..otherwise its pretty much the same.

I find the aoe immob, and confuse is a nice combination. Keeps everyone in place, and not aiming at yourself, or anyone else. Warmth and caut are enough as far as heals, the only reason I would get spirit tree is for a long fight with an AV, otherwise I don't find it necessary.

just started a plant/therm. Thanks for the guide...one with more detailed stats/#s would be nice though...(like whats the resist on the shields, with slots...helps)

Some things I'm not clear about:

- is Plasma Shield that vital to take?
- what about Heat Exhaustion?
- Carrion Creepers sounds like a MTG card, so +10 for that, but isn't it just a crappier version of Quick Sand?

Heat Exhaustion isn't omg vital, but it's VERY nice for pvp and bosses. And Plasma shield ... it's nice, as I duo'd with a warshade. It really is about how much you team.

Some vital Carrion Creeper info can be found here.

Basically, don't slot CC for anything other than recharge.

would i really be messing up the build if i took powers out of the flying power pool instead of what you have selected for your power pool?