Guides do seem to come out much less frequently nowadays. Even DB, which really cried out for it, saw much less guide-writing than I'd expected, and WP even less.
My own (highly speculative) pet theory is that two game changes have indirectly contributed to this decline: Real Numbers made guides less essential for explaining what the powers actually do, and IOs made it harder to give simple, concise slotting advice that would be useful for a wide audience. So it's harder to write a genuinely useful guide nowadays, and of course there are also fewer people to do it.
That said ... what glaring weakness? Plant, in particular, is an awesome set. True, about a third of the powers are meh, but I think of that as a blessing in disguise: the set is still fine without them, and meanwhile you can use those power choices to play with pools or your secondary.
Short Plant guide: Skip Entangle, Roots (at least until late), Spore Burst and Spirit Tree. Slot the hell out of Seeds of Confusion and use it to open every fight. Slot Vines to taste, I reserve it as a panic button so I only give it 2-4 until I have slots to burn. Carrion Creepers is awesome, mix sets like a mad scientist to max it for Acc/Rech/Dmg. Fly Trap is OK, and can use the def debuff procs (which are relatively cheap and apply to all its attacks).
How's that? 
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Guides do seem to come out much less frequently nowadays. Even DB, which really cried out for it, saw much less guide-writing than I'd expected, and WP even less.
My own (highly speculative) pet theory is that two game changes have indirectly contributed to this decline: Real Numbers made guides less essential for explaining what the powers actually do, and IOs made it harder to give simple, concise slotting advice that would be useful for a wide audience. So it's harder to write a genuinely useful guide nowadays, and of course there are also fewer people to do it.
That said ... what glaring weakness? Plant, in particular, is an awesome set. True, about a third of the powers are meh, but I think of that as a blessing in disguise: the set is still fine without them, and meanwhile you can use those power choices to play with pools or your secondary.
Short Plant guide: Skip Entangle, Roots (at least until late), Spore Burst and Spirit Tree. Slot the hell out of Seeds of Confusion and use it to open every fight. Slot Vines to taste, I reserve it as a panic button so I only give it 2-4 until I have slots to burn. Carrion Creepers is awesome, mix sets like a mad scientist to max it for Acc/Rech/Dmg. Fly Trap is OK, and can use the def debuff procs (which are relatively cheap and apply to all its attacks).
How's that?
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As you said, 1/3 of the powers ate "meh".
PLANT : Spirit Tree is a big letdown. Being unmovable, most fights are over before it is even felt. I wish they'd add some recovery buff to it and it would be lots better.
I love my Carion Crawler and my Fly Trap. I just wish the rest of the powers were 1/2 as good.
THERMAL : My biggest pronlem with Thermal, however, is that four of the powers are INDIVIDUAL BUFFS. Even with only 2 of the powers, it has me going crazy trying to run after everyone to Buff them. At least two of the powers should be some kind of AURA Buffs to cut down on the need to target everone individually.
I am so far unimpressed with Heat Exhaustion. It does not seem very effective. I hope the higher tier De Buff is better. My efforts to support my team goes largely unappreciated with thermal - I would at least hope for some visual clue that I was doing something to the enemy.
Agreed, Spirit Tree is fairly useless in practice. It can make a noticeable difference during AV fights and Rikti raids, but not enough to make the power really worth taking. At low levels, if I have a spare power choice I'm more likely to drop it into Spore Burst, since it's decent emergency crowd control (for second-group aggro and other "run away!" situations) and works fine 1-slotted. Later, I drop it when I'm ready to respec into some pool powers.
As for the single-target buffs ... yes, it's pretty maddening. Setting up binds for selecting and buffing teammates can help a lot, e.g.:
NUMPAD1 "team_select 1 $$ powexec_name Thaw"
SHIFT+NUMPAD1 "team_select 1 $$ powexec_name Forge"
Once you've used the above to select the teammate, you can then hit whatever other keys you use for the shields to buff them before moving on to the next one. That way you have fastest one-key access to the buffs you need in combat, and multi-key access to the shields.
(I myself use a variant of this, with the G15 keyboard's "G keys", using the default macro set for the in-combat buffs and the secondary macro set for shields, but the principle is the same.)
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At least two of the powers should be some kind of AURA Buffs
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I have, several times, suggested that Defender powers need to be different than Controller. After all, a Defender can hit for 65% the power of a Blaster. Yeah, ok, Defenders can self buff a bit, but solo, a Defender cannot self buff to equal a Blaster. Only on teams with other Defenders can they equal a Blaster, and then the Blaster on the team is being boosted at the same time so equality is never met. HOWEVER, Controller buffs are almost the equal of a Defender. Their RA, for example, is not 35% less effective. So, Defenders get to be Junior Blasters with Buffs (and many they cannot self use), Controllers get pets, run farms, and have all the benefits - clearly making them the superior AT.
I have suggested over the years to change Defender buffs to Auras, and make Controller buffs individual. I have, again, turned in a suggestion to the Devs, maybe they will listen this time.
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My own (highly speculative) pet theory is that two game changes have indirectly contributed to this decline: Real Numbers made guides less essential for explaining what the powers actually do, and IOs made it harder to give simple, concise slotting advice that would be useful for a wide audience. So it's harder to write a genuinely useful guide nowadays, and of course there are also fewer people to do it.
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My own theory is that given the relatively large number of nerfs/buffs/game changes (and no end in sight) that have occurred since NCSoft bought out Cryptic's ownership of Co*, that people have decided to hold off on writing guides that will be rendered obsolete within months.
There's no point to going through the work of it until they've decided that they are done with this round of "balancing".
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At least two of the powers should be some kind of AURA Buffs
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I have, several times, suggested that Defender powers need to be different than Controller. After all, a Defender can hit for 65% the power of a Blaster. Yeah, ok, Defenders can self buff a bit, but solo, a Defender cannot self buff to equal a Blaster. Only on teams with other Defenders can they equal a Blaster, and then the Blaster on the team is being boosted at the same time so equality is never met. HOWEVER, Controller buffs are almost the equal of a Defender. Their RA, for example, is not 35% less effective. So, Defenders get to be Junior Blasters with Buffs (and many they cannot self use), Controllers get pets, run farms, and have all the benefits - clearly making them the superior AT.
I have suggested over the years to change Defender buffs to Auras, and make Controller buffs individual. I have, again, turned in a suggestion to the Devs, maybe they will listen this time.
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That would certainly make the Defender Class more useful to me. I can not handle the frantic pace I must have to try and keep everyone buffed with individual buffs.
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At least two of the powers should be some kind of AURA Buffs
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I have, several times, suggested that Defender powers need to be different than Controller. After all, a Defender can hit for 65% the power of a Blaster. Yeah, ok, Defenders can self buff a bit, but solo, a Defender cannot self buff to equal a Blaster. Only on teams with other Defenders can they equal a Blaster, and then the Blaster on the team is being boosted at the same time so equality is never met. HOWEVER, Controller buffs are almost the equal of a Defender. Their RA, for example, is not 35% less effective. So, Defenders get to be Junior Blasters with Buffs (and many they cannot self use), Controllers get pets, run farms, and have all the benefits - clearly making them the superior AT.
I have suggested over the years to change Defender buffs to Auras, and make Controller buffs individual. I have, again, turned in a suggestion to the Devs, maybe they will listen this time.
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That would certainly make the Defender Class more useful to me. I can not handle the frantic pace I must have to try and keep everyone buffed with individual buffs.
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Do you have keybinds for your buffs, I know kins have had these for years, but essentially you bind numpad 1-8 to target team mate 1-8 and then activate one buff. You bind to shift + numpad 1-8 for another buff and similarly for ctrl and ctrl + shift. It makes the buffing much faster.
Otherwise just set the numpad to target the relevant team mate and unload your buffs manually.
It's true. This game is NOT rocket surgery. - BillZBubba
I made myself a couple Thermal Trollers, one a Plant Thermal, when the new powersets came out. After all this time I came hee to see if the rest of the world saw the glaring weaknesses in both sets that I do. Imagine my syirprise when a search for Thermal or Therm yielded no results! Imagine my horror when Plant yielded only two results, neither having to do with Plant Controllers.
Whats up?? Am I looking in the wrong place?