Best Secondary for Earth?

I'm planning on making an earth troller soon to go along with my plant/therm, fire/kin and ill/kin and am wondering what other players find as the best secondary for it?
It's obvious that /kin is great for any troller/team, but since I have 4 characters with /kin between my trollers and corruptors, I was thinking of something else?... unless it's just unanimously voted that /kin wins hands down.

I like the idea of sonic for the shields and massive debuffs, but am open to any suggestions.

Thoughts? Builds?

Go /storm. Paired with earth, you'll be a force to be reckoned with.

Edit: Something I forgot to mention. Because you have the AoE immobilize, you can use tornado without worrying about the knockback that it usually causes. And if you check on Mids, the damage that tornado inflicts is just amazing. I could be wrong, but it's at least 400 unenhanced and could be brought up to 800 with enhancements (if I'm wrong, anyone feel free to correct me).

/TA especially with the Power Epic.

Less damaging than storm, slight less debuffing than storm, but more endurance friendly and much more control.

Unfortunately there are so many secondaries that mesh well with earth that its hard to pick the best It really depends on what you want to be able to do..Earth/TA gives you debuffs and more control, you can stack holds at with ice arrow and fossilize, stack slows with Quicksand and Glue arrow and all at only level 10 O_o

Earth/Rad gives you negative -defense in every earth power while rad gives you the holy trinity debuffs along with AM and EM pulse..You get Both holds that are used in the discussion of the best hold in the game.

And finally Earth/Storm gives you more control and debuffs with freezing rain, stacking stuns with thunderclap and damage with tornado and lightning storm..
Anyway you go you're bound to be happy with earth

Quick answer- ANY

Sonic is awesome with earth btw. Since all your powers do -def and you whole secondary is +/1 Res.

Stoney gives you a kick [censored] tough pet. Put those sonic shields and the -res aura on him and watch that bad boy goto town.

Plus have you ever seen a glowing cheetoh stone monster? Its great. You will be a rare breed. Your awesome on teams. Solo sonic siphon helps out a lot. Yeah other sets get better debuffs but they do not get buffs. Plus you get MEZ protection!!!

Some may say the shields are over kill on stoney. But I beg to differ on a large teams with lots of mobs they all help.

Plus Liquefy has some great properties that mesh well with storm.

That sonic siphon really helps low levels. Slot some Acc/Rech and goto town with your single target immob & hold for damage.

I say buck the system, be different, be unique!! You might just start a trend.

Earth/Rad is a terrific combo. Very flexible for a team oriented controller. My guide, linked in my sig, explains the benefits. Rad gives you Recharge and Endurance recovery early, great debuffs, an AoE heal and even a rez. You can even blow up your teammates if you want to. Even if you don't go with Rad, take a look at the guide as there is a lot of information on Earth.

After Rad, I would go Storm (I'm working on one now, presently at level 29.) You have to restrain yourself from some of the powers at times, but it is also a very good build. With the late damage powers, it becomes possible to solo. There are a few problems. Storm take some work and skill to play well. You have to learn when to use certain powers and when not to use them, especially on larger teams. The knockback powers can knock foes off of your Targetted AoE powers like Quicksand, Earthquake and Volcanic Gasses -- but on the other hand, you can use those knockback powers (Gale and Hurricane in particular) to push foes back INTO your AoEs too.

Storm lacks a self heal or any way to boost your endurance. Your only team buff is a single-target heal/partial mez protection in O2 Boost. On the other hand, Storm adds more damage (at level 35 and 38) than any other secondary. Earth has the -knockback in Stone Cages to turn Tornado into a high damage power.

Rad has a Team and self heal, a team and self buff, and those wonderful debuffs. You get one of the best Rez powers in the game. It adds a great "panic button" power in EM Pulse. The more you use your Rad powers, the better the team will be -- no need to limit yourself. And, of course, Rad is a huge help going up against AVs with the -Regen in Ling Rad and EM Pulse.

Another vote for Storm.

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Another vote for Storm.

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Same.
The combo meshes really well, and it makes up for Earth's lack of damage.
Plus I just love the concept of Earth/Storm. With Fire as an epic, you can make a master elemental-ist =D

I found an Earth/Rad is very powerful

While Earth/Sonic+Mind Power Pool(yes even status click on top of your sonic bubble) Means you can tank & solo entire mob spawn or 2, while rest of the team is goofing off on there own.


JJ

Anything.

/Storm is the classic combo for explosive power.

/TA makes you two Controllers in one, with a hefty dose of debuff.

/Sonic gives you mezz protection, a very strong pet, and added kill speed.

/Thermal makes your pet an unstoppable monster and makes you a healer/buffer to boot.

/Empathy makes you a better support partner than a lot of Empath Defenders because you can mitigate damage, too.

/Force Field makes your pet even tougher and lets you hide inside Personal Force Field while your pet demolishes enemies.

/Kinetics makes your party love you and works great with all the -Defense in Earth.

Best is really a toss up.

I'd personally suggest a few. Between kinetics, storm, and sonic.

The -defense and all around attack centric style of kinetics pairs very well together.

With storm, you're just a control MONSTER. As far as endurance goes there isn't a stormy i've had a problem with when i get anywhere near to IOs, and earth with so many location long laster controls is probably one of the best on end IMO outside of obviously stone cages.

And sonic, is a personal favorite. Lots of -defense and -resistances for teams. Good control, lots of + resistances and some status protection for your team.

It also lets you turn your stoney into an uber tank, and is a great candidate for sonic disruption.

Throwing in a third or fourth for /Rad.

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/Storm, /Sonic, or /Kin.

Earth/Storm/Stone = win. Earth/TA was very fun too. I don't think I would want to try and solo anything else till after mid 40s. Earth itself is pretty much jaw-dropping amazing so anything you decide to pair it with on teams will just make it better somehow or other.

I also have an Earth/FF at 39 and she's ok, but I definitely prefer both Storm and TA to FF.

One thing people rarely note about Force Field is it is by far the least slot-hungry set for Controllers if not in the entire game. You can easily survive with just 5 powers from this set:
- the single target shields (usually 2-3 slots each)
- Dispersion Bubble (2-3 slots)
- Personal Force Field (1 slot)
- Repulsion Bomb (4-6 slots)

You can elect to take the other Force Field powers if you want them--I personally am not a fan of the knockback powers but Force Bubble is ok in some situations (and usually only worth 1 slot). Add Manuevers from the Leadership pool if you want to improve your bubbles further.

Force Field is the set for players who want to increase team survivability, the survivability of the pet, and have lots of slots and power picks from their primary pool or from auxilaries.

Earth/storm/stone. It makes you truly feel like a GOD of natural disasters! Very damaging and powerful once you hit the 30s. Plus it has more than enough control for any team. I will say that mine has made soloing seem trivial unless I'm soloing a spawn set for at least 3-4 people. It may not be my most powerful character, but it feels more powerful than any other. very fun.

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Earth/storm/stone. It makes you truly feel like a GOD of natural disasters! Very damaging and powerful once you hit the 30s. Plus it has more than enough control for any team. I will say that mine has made soloing seem trivial unless I'm soloing a spawn set for at least 3-4 people. It may not be my most powerful character, but it feels more powerful than any other. very fun.

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make sure you get superspeed pool so you can nab whirlwind. I've not found it to be as windly functional/ useful, however... it SO fits!

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Earth is such a great set, it would be hard to go wrong with any secondary. I think the top 3 to consider would be /Storm, /Rad and /TA.

Earth/Storm is tremendous fun, and the AoE Immob makes Lightning Storm and especially Tornado vastly more effective. Between Freezing Rain and Quicksand and Earthquake, which can all be deployed while around a corner and under cover, baddies will be hugely debuffed. I took an Earth/Storm to 50 and then participated in an all-Earth Super Team with another up to 50 and loved every minute of both. /Storm brings some heavy damage starting in the mid-30s, and is the easiest to solo at that point.

Earth/Rad will be an even more killer debuffer, as well as picking up Acc Metabolism and other goodies, but Local Man does the best job singing those praises. Not as heavy damage-wise as the other two, though.

Earth/TA is also a huge debuffer, and adds the interesting effect that Volcanic Gases always seems to ignite the Oil Slick, which is the damage component of /TA. Rocky is not as wonky with the Slick as the Fire Imps are, but that has to be taken into account. Do take a Tech or Magic origin so that you will have the Temp Power to light the Oil Slick for when you use it without VG.

Earth is a wonderful set any way you go.

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Earth/storm/stone. It makes you truly feel like a GOD of natural disasters! Very damaging and powerful once you hit the 30s. Plus it has more than enough control for any team. I will say that mine has made soloing seem trivial unless I'm soloing a spawn set for at least 3-4 people. It may not be my most powerful character, but it feels more powerful than any other. very fun.

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make sure you get superspeed pool so you can nab whirlwind. I've not found it to be as windly functional/ useful, however... it SO fits!

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And you can make the ATM machines at the trains rain twentys!

I like Earth/Thermal myself. Everything else mentioned thus far is good as well though.

Earth/Thermal plays more team support and you will never, ever need any other support character to carry a team if you play it well. Tons of control, shields, heals, buffs, debuffs.

Earth/Rad, Earth/TA, Earth/Storm, and Earth/Sonic would all be top choices as well. I've seen a few Earth/Empathy, but if you want support I feel Earth/Thermal is about the best there is in this game.

I'll vote for Earth/Thermal. /Thermal does everything, turns Stoney into one mean, hard hitting son of gun, and even has a pbaoe 'self-heal' for soloing.

But what you really need is another Earth troller. The coolest thing I've seen in game is two Stoney's attacking in perfect sync, levelling Council soldiers left and right.

Other combos might do a particular thing better, but /Thermal is the jack of all trades, which appeals to me. It doesn't have a weakness.

Not much love for Kin with Earth, I see. Mine's currently at 32 and fun so far, but I do wish SB buffed my pet's recharge.

Earth/Rad- the ultimate toolbox
Earth/Storm- uber powerful
Earth/TA- uber control
(sidenote- I personally found the power mastery pool pretty "meh" on my Earth/TA)