Are you gimping yourself by not taking Plasma shield? No.
Are you going to be far less useful and probably thought of as a noob because you *don't* have plasma shield? More than likely yes. If you were on my team and didn't have plasma shield, I'd boot you.
Power of the phoenix is a nice power to have, but it's definitely skippable in /thermal. Everything else in /thermal SHOULD be taken.
The leadership toggles I've found aren't all that useful if you're just duoing with a stalker. I'd drop both of them and pick up Hasten so your debuffs come back up faster.
I'd not even bother with dreadful wail, if you intend to team with a large team, that power will hurt more than help. A thermal without any endurance/recovery is a thermal that isn't helping the team. You're there to support, not kill [censored], that's what brutes, dominators, stalkers, and MMs are for.
I personally don't like fly, but that's just a preference.
My revised build. Knockback can be quite a [censored] later on in the game.
1: shriek / warmth
2: scream
4: thermal shield
6: cauterize
8: shout
10: hover
12: swift
14: fly
16: health
18: siren's song
20: stamina
22: thaw
24: amplify
26: Hasten
28: forge
30: Combat jumping
32: Super jump
35: heat exhaustion
38: melt armor
41: Charged Armor
44: Conserve Power
47: Acrobatics
49: ???
Thanks for the feedback - though I find it odd that you say you'd kick me for not having plasma shield, and then posit a revised build that still doesn't have plasma shield.
I guess I just haven't run into anything wielding particularly dangerous levels of fire/energy/negative damage; but if they're out there, then I'd agree plasma shield is worth having.
If knockback is going to be an issue, would a -knockback IO be an acceptable option in place of Acrobatics? I'm not going to burn three power slots on that; if I really have to have acrobatics, I'll drop fly and hover.
Yes, a KB IO is an acceptable replacement. One is enough for non-melee ATs.
Relative newbie here, and there are lots of powers in both sets that look shiny, so I'm looking for some advice on what to take (and when). I intend to primarily duo with a stalker, though I don't want to leave myself gimped for either solo or large group play. If you want to recommend specific IO sets, that's fine - but keep in mind that I can't afford to spend more than about 20 million inf on this (preferably much less), and, left to my own devices, will happily start frankenslotting at around level 22 and not worry too hard about the details.
Specific questions:
Am I gimping myself by not getting Plasma Shield? What about Power of the Pheonix? What about AoE attacks?
Are the leadership toggles actually worth using in a team of two, or would I be better off picking up something else?
Is there any particular patron pool that I should be aiming for (or should be avoiding)? What should I put in those last two power slots? (Not that I expect to be that high level any time soon, but I'll get there eventually...)
My current planned build:
1: shriek / warmth
2: scream
4: thermal shield
6: cauterize
8: shout
10: hover
12: swift
14: fly
16: health
18: siren's song
20: stamina
22: thaw
24: amplify
26: assault
28: forge
30: tactics
32: dreadful wail
35: heat exhaustion
38: melt armor
41: patron pool shield
44: patron pool hold
47: ???
49: ???