Splattrolling and Difficulty

Two things.

One: I don't know what to think, but: suppose you could run door missions solo on a splattroller (aggressive AoE-oriented controller), and have spawns of the size a five-, six-, or eight-man team would generate.

Wouldn't you? I mean, am I crazy or wouldn't such a thing constitute a game-changing... change, at least for certain controller builds?

Second: I have a draft of a splattroller guide I've worked on, on-and-off, and may post, probably to replace my Plant/Rad and Fire/Storm build guides. Can I get some feedback? Note, the strategy section is incomplete.

SPLATTROLLERS, AN OVERVIEW

I. WHAT/WHY
II. BUILD
III. BUILD SKELETONS
IV. SLOTTING
V. STRATEGY


WHAT/WHY IS A SPLATTROLLER?

A splattroller is a build preference and playstyle for use with the controller AT, that focuses on AoE and especially AoE damage, especially in early/mid levels of the game (20-31).

"Splattroller" as a concept is noteworthy because it contrasts with more traditional approaches to controllers, which emphasize time-sensitive and surgical controlling, and cautious/defensive play generally. This traditional view was once simply the most effective way to play a controller, but a few key changes, including containment (2x damage vs held, slept, immob'd, stunned MObs), the marginalization of debt, and other minor changes like decreased recharge time on the rest power, effectively opened up an entirely different and probably unintended kind of play with controllers.

HOW TO BUILD A SPLATTROLLER

The first choice you face once you decide to try a splattroller is: what build? The best splattroller primary is Plant, followed by Fire. The other primaries make poor splatatrollers at best. The best splattroller secondary is Storm, followed by Radiation, followed by Trick Arrow, and finally Kinetics.

What you're looking for out of these sets is: area damage, good fast-recharge area controls, area -res, and/or attacks and +dmg bonuses that otherwise scale to the # of foes you face and/or # of teammates you have. The next section has a breakdown of the key powers in each set and a discussion of its overall splattrolling. Remember that these are only the powers specifically relevant to splattrolling-- some of these sets do a lot of other nice things-- but for that information, see a guide to that powerset.


Plant:
2 Roots
8 Seeds of Confusion
26 Carrion Creepers

Plant has overwhelming AoE damage potential. Among other things, its AoE immob does twice as much damage as other AoE immobs. Its fast-recharge AoE control, seeds of confusion, is hands-down the best control power, as such, in the game. Carrion Creepers comes in a little later, but it's a true splattroller power because the number of vines scale to the number of foes present-- once up, there're usually foes x 0.75 vines up at any given time. Strictly speaking, it's not an AoE damage power, but for these purposes it behaves like one.


Fire:
2 Fire Cages
8 Hotfeet
12 Flashfire

Fire brings in all three of its key powers nice and early. One thing to note is that hotfeet forces you into melee range, which makes fire splattrollers a little more exciting and risky than plant splattrollers. In some sense, bonfire could be looked at as a fourth splattroller power, but its damage-to-hassle ratio keeps it from being a mainstay like the others. Note that fire imps are not a splattroller power-- as with any other L32 pet, there're a fixed number of imps regardless of how many foes you face. They amount to a very nice ST damage power.

Storm:
16 Freezing Rain

Can a single power make Storm the best splattroller set? Yes. In addition to being much bigger and slightly more powerful -res than EF or Disruption Arrow, it's got all that lovely -recharge and -defense. Plus it can be fully slotted by the time a splattroller is ready to go into full swing. Some will argue that tornado and lightning storm merit mention, but while I love the powers, they're really small as AoE, and effectively behave much like any other pets-- as single target damage.


Radiation Emission:
4 Accellerate Metabolism*
10 Ennervating Field
35 Fallout

Radiation emission's key contribution to splattrolling is Ennervating Field. The toggle's available nice and early. Accellerate Metabolism aslo gives a damage boost to everyone on your team (used correctly), and for teaming purposes at least, counts as a splattroller power. Finally, fallout is an AoE attack with meaningful damage and great debuff, including a monster -res in a large area. So while it comes in late and is hard to find situations to trigger it, it's really awesome, and merits mention.

Trick Arrow:
28 Disruption Arrow
38 Oil Slick

Sadly, the key powers for TA come in late-- mostly past the level range in which splattrolling is its most beautiful (20-31). Still, disruption arrow and oil slick for late-game splattrolling are quite nice.

Kinetics:
2 Siphon Power *
38 Fulcrum Shift

Similar to Trick Arrow, Kinetics blooms late for splattrollers. Fulcrum shift is a phenomenal power and scales your damage up based on how many foes you're facing-- not to mention scaling up your allies' damage! Still, having to wait until 38 for it is tedious, and by then blasters AND defenders will be running their nukes, and a smart splattroller will be diversifying his control, as the good old days of splattroll wane. Siphon power is a nice steady team boost to damage, of course, and shouldn't be discounted.


Leadership:
6 Assault *

Assault does, after all, boost up the damage of pets, your teammtes and so on.

* Only counts for team play.

BUILD SKELETONS

Plant/Storm:
2 Roots
4
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Seeds of Confusion
10 [Hurdle/Swift]
12
14 [Move]
16 Freezing Rain
18 Health
20 Stamina
26 Carrion Creepers

Plant/Radiation Emission:
2 Roots
4 Accellerate Metabolism
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Seeds of Confusion
10 Ennervating Field
12 [Hurdle/Swift]
14 [Move]
16 Health
18
20 Stamina
26 Carrion Creepers
35 Fallout

Fire/Storm:
2 Fire Cages
4
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Hotfeet
10 [Hurdle/Swift]
12 Flashfire
14 [Move]
16 Freezing Rain
18 Health
20 Stamina

Fire/Radiation Emission:
2 Fire Cages
4 Accellerate Metabolism
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Hotfeet
10 Ennervating Field
12 Flashfire
14 [Move]
16 [Hurdle/Swift]
18 Health
20 Stamina
35 Fallout

Plant/Trick Arrow:
2 Roots
4
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Seeds of Confusion
10 [Hurdle/Swift]
12
14 [Move]
16 Health
18
20 Stamina
26 Carrion Creepers
28 Disruption Arrow
38 Oil Slick Arrow

Plant/Kinetics:
2 Roots
4 Siphon Power
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Seeds of Confusion
10 [Hurdle/Swift]
12
14 [Move]
16 Health
18
20 Stamina
26 Carrion Creepers
38 Fulcrum Shift

Fire/Trick Arrow:
2 Fire Cages
4
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Hotfeet
10 [Hurdle/Swift]
12 Flashfire
14 [Move]
16 Health
18
20 Stamina
28 Disruption Arrow
38 Oil Slick Arrow

Fire/Kinetics:
2 Fire Cages
4 Siphon Power
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Hotfeet
10 [Hurdle/Swift]
12 Flashfire
14 [Move]
16 Health
18
20 Stamina
38 Fulcrum Shift


SLOTTING

Splattrollers are end hogs. Hence the inclusion of stamina in the build skeletons above. But you can mitigate a lot of your pain with a little end redux everywhere.

AoE Immobs:
This is especially true of your AoE immobs, which you'll want to be spamming. Frankenslotting (slotting with multi-aspect IOs from several different sets) is one of the keys to a good splattroller build, since it helps you stuff them as full of end redux, accuracy, and damage as you possibly can (in that order of importance). Damage will pay off in Roots, but less so in Fire Cages. If, somehow, you still have room, recharge doesn't hurt either-- but make SURE you have End Redux maxed before you start slotting recharge. Two IOs that won't break the bank and will get you a long way are:

Detonation Acc/Dam/End
Enfeebled Operation Acc/End

Seeds of Confusion and Flashfire:
These need recharge, more than anything else. Accuracy is a second priority, and after that, end redux and effect duration are nice to have. Consider:

Perplex Acc/Conf/Rech
Malaise's Illusions Acc/Conf/Rech

Rope-A-Dope Acc/Stun/Rech
Stagger Acc/Stun/Rech

Carrion Creepers:
Until recently, this just needed recharge-- three generic Recharge IOs were fine. More recently, the power was "fixed" so damage and accuracy enhancement would be passed on to the vine. What that means is, by all means, once you have full recharge in this thing, give it more damage and accuracy. It hardly hurts to squeeze end redux in there too, All the pet damage sets have an Acc/Dam/End IO, and both Recharge Intensive Pet sets have an acc/dam/rech and an end/damage/rech (though those are often prohibitively expensive).

HotFeet:
Needs End Redux, Damage, and Accuracy. The power takes PBAoE Damage and Slow sets. Consider:

Multi-Strike Acc/Dam/End
Multi-Strike Acc/Dam
Multi-Strike Dam/End
Cleaving Blow Acc/Dam
Cleaving Blow Dam/End
Curtail Speed Acc/End
Tempered Readiness Acc/End

Freezing Rain:
This just needs recharge and end redux. Forget about anything else, unless you just have slot space to waste. Look at:

Undermined Defenses Rech/End
Undermined Defensees Rech
Touch of Lady Grey Rech/End


Accellerate Metabolism:
You want Recharge in this to start. You can add end mod later. (You could look at the End/Recharge IOs for Efficacy Adaptor and Performance Shifter. By level 25, you can save yourself a slot if you have both. But the performance shifter will likely cost you 1-2 mil. Otherwise, just) 3x each generic IOs.

Ennervating Field:
This just needs a single generic End Redux IO. Yay, an easy one. You could be ubar-frugal and put a second end redux in later.

Fallout:
You want recharge and damage, nothing else really. Detonation and Air Burst have cheap Dam/Rech IOs you can use.

Disruption Arrow[1]:
You want Recharge and End Redux in DA. Only takes generic IOs, so start with 2 x Rech, 1x End Redux. Add another of each later as slotting permits.

Oil Slick Arrow[1]:
You want Recharge and Damage in OSA. Detonation and Air burst Dam/Rech for the win! End redux wouldn't hurt either, if you can.

[1] Thanks for filling me in, Rush Bolt!

Siphon Power:
Accuracy and Recharge. Maybe some End Redux. Doesn't take IO sets, so however you see fit. Doesnt hurt to add end redux to it either.

Fulcrum Shift:
Same as siphon power.

STRATEGY

Repeat after me: "My teammates are responsible for their own survival."

The essence of splattroller strategy is vaguely similar to blaster strategy, and can be summed up: "Kill them before they kill you."

As a splattroller, you don't expect and don't try to make sure spawns are 100% locked down while you're fighting them. You just need to make sure they're locked down enough that you can survive despite getting a lot of aggro from them.

Another important abstract point of splattroller strategy is to go up against, at bare minimum, three MObs at once. The more the better. The ways to do this include:

1) Play in teams of at least 3, and
2) Play on Tenacious or Unyeilding, OR, as a last resort
3) Street Sweep, especially hazard zones where two factions are commonly found facing off.


Specific Combat Openings:
As a rule, the first thing you'll do in a fight is throw out your fast-recharge area control-- Seeds of Confusion or Flashfire. This will ideally buy you enough of a headstart killing the enemy that you'll have them down before they have you down. You'll of course be nursing your green and purple inspirations in case you don't have enough of a headstart.

(Of course, if you're a Fire splattroller, before you do anything else, once you have a spwn in your sights, you'll turn on hotfeet-- but that's just toggle maintenance.)

One exception is that /storm splattrollers will sometimes wish to drop freezing rain first-- this is especially true if for some reason you're feeling especially leery of whether your stuff will hit, and are NOT facing any mezzing mobs or a group that can easily kill you twice over with it's alpha strike. Similarly, once a splattroller has Oil Slick, they might sometimes choose to drop it first under similar circumstances-- among other things a fire/TA can light it up with the first throw of fire cages, that way.)

Next, most splattrollers will immobilize the group, debuff (EF, Disruption Arrrow, siphon power & fulcrum shift, and possibly Freezing Rain and Oil Slick Arrow, if not already used) them, and start spamming their AoE Immob as endurance permits. Fire splattrollers will move into the center of the spawn during this phase (and may not spam their AoE immob quite as much). Also, once they have Carrion Creepers, Plant splattrollers will want to drop it at this stage if it's available.

From there on out, it's about outliving your oppoonents. Once there're two or fewer, you may want to drop using your AoE Immob, and Hotfeet, and finish the mobs present off, single-target.

Roots + Tornado = Awsomeness I would add it in as a requirement in your skeleton build

[ QUOTE ]
Some will argue that tornado and lightning storm merit mention, but while I love the powers, they're really small as AoE, and effectively behave much like any other pets-- as single target damage.

[/ QUOTE ]
I really have to take exception to this statement. While tornado will likely not hit an entire spawn, hurricane can effectively bunch up your targets so that it's far more than single target damage.

(QR)
Glad I could help out with some questions you had, Enan, but you've made a couple of little mistakes:

Oil Slick Arrow is the 35 power in /TA, not 38. 38 is EMP Arrow (the Ranged AoE Hold).

You'll also really want Acid Arrow (at 20) which is /TA's other AoE -RES power. Its AoE is much smaller than Disrupt, but it's just as strong.

Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize

<QR>

Which Epic Power Pool would you suggest for a Plant/Storm splattroller? Right now I am using Earth for thematic reasons but I hear Ice is the best because it has two AoEs.

I think Fire Imps would be more accuratly described as one to three single target damages, and not as a single target damage . . . much the same as Phantom Army. Also, does Twoey (Audrey II a/k/a Fly Trap) have a cone attack? or is the "throw spines" power just single target? I need to look that up.

You might want to consider a section on the strategic effect of travel power choices. On my Plant/Storm, I have Super Speed, which combined with Steamy Mist, gives full invisibility. This allows me to get in just the right position to maximize the range of Seeds + Roots. I find the ability to move around quickly and unseen in missions is a key part of my strategy. Plus, that gives me Hasten early in the build, which is, of course, very important to the build.

Another possible consideration is Combat Jumping for the Immobilization protection, or Hover/Fly allows for attacks from overhead.

[ QUOTE ]
Freezing Rain:
This just needs recharge and end redux. Forget about anything else, unless you just have slot space to waste. Look at:

Undermined Defenses Rech/End
Undermined Defensees Rech
Touch of Lady Grey Rech/End

[/ QUOTE ]

It's probably worth it to stick in an Achilles Heel proc for additional chance for -resistance.

Speaking of procs: you can get one or more into Gale (I don't recall the details). Gale is a fast-recharging cone and won't scatter once you have immobilized (unless you're Grav). Might be useful for a splattroller build.

using seeds will effectivly bunch up mobs prior to using roots, allowing tornado to act as a small PBAoE. And it's not too difficult to get 2 of them out either.

I tend to play all of my controllers this way, which is probably why I don't do well with Mind control.

Some things I would add.

1. One or two procs in the aoe immobilize go a long way to dropping large groups more quickly.
2. For Fire/Rad I would make honorable mention of Radiation Infection, as the mobs will often wake from your Flash Fires before they are dead, and RI is what will keep you breathing to finish them off.
3. In TA Acid Arrow should be in the outline. It doesn't have a large radius, but it will usually hit several mobs, and you can proc it, upping your aoe damage there.
4. I also add 2 to 3 procs into Freezing Rain.

The thing is, if you only add one proc to one power, you probably won't notice the damage much, but with 2 procs in the AoE immobilize, 2 or 3 in Freezing Rain, and 2 or 3 in Acid arrow, you really notice an increase in kill speed as the number of mobs in the group you attack increases.

Your guide is a very good start though, my comments are really just personal refinements to your basic build.

Thanks for the feedback, all!

Re: Tornado

I'll definitely have to say more emphatically why Tornado isn't a splattroller power. One, it's a 7' radius, max 5 mobs hit power, which is a severe handicap. Two, MOb clustering, whichever approaches you use, is usually so time-intensive that, while it's great for showing off, it's not very effective XP-wise.

Believe me, I love the power. I mean. There's zillions of powers in the six sets I mention, that I love, but aren't listed here.

Maybe I can include a section overviewing inevitably awesome and unskippable non-splattroller powers.


Re: Trick Arrow
Ack! I'm sure I knew OSA was 35. Sorry Rush. OTOH, re: acid arrow-- much the same argument as with tornado: great though it may be, the radius is so small (8') that I think it's hard to count it. I see it does have a cap of 16 targets hit though-- news to me, I figured it would be 5-max-target power.

Re: Epics
I'll have to look at that more. Truth be told, Psi or Fire are the only two I have experience with. I like Fire pretty well.

Re: Fire Imps
[ QUOTE ]
I think Fire Imps would be more accuratly described as one to three single target damages, and not as a single target damage

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, which is why I said they "amount to" a very nice ST damage power. Probably it would be a good idea to expand somewhere, maybe the intro, on what's actually significant about AoE powers-- people often seem to miss that their defining feature for game play is that they scale in power to the number of affectable mobs present.

Anyway, Fire Imps are nothing like an AoE power.

Re: Giant Fly Trap

Right you are! Bitey is a weird case. That cone damage (30' 45 deg cone every 12 seconds) is nothing to sneeze at. My hesitation now is only having to field a zillion comments re: why Fire Imps aren't splattrollerey and Fly Trap is.

Re: Movement Powers

Good call. Thanks. SS is, at least in my experience, great for just the reasons you mention.

Re: Procs

I'd have to know enough about proc timing & so on to run numbers and decide whether they'd accomplish much in most of these cases. My prejudice is that they generally don't (unless purple procs do things I just don't know about, and I've tried to shy away from offering advice on end builds and super-expensive IOs), but it's hard to know for sure.

The achilles heel proc certainly merits mention though.

Appreciate this overview, and if you have answered the question elsewhere, point me to it: Bonfire as a splattroller power? It seems like it would be in conjunction with Fire Cages, but my Fire 'troller is not high enough in level yet to try it. Just wondering.

I made good use of your Plant/Rad Splattroller guide, and my Plant/Rad is one of the most fun characters I play. I'm going to rethink skipping Fallout based on your comments above.

Thanks!

Shouldn't Siphon Speed be included in any Kinetics build - it can be triple stacked for an additional 60% recharge, this would allow you to spam cages or roots more often?

Dark Spade:
Actually, Bonfire is the most splattrollery power I made a conscious decision to exclude from the list of splattrollery powers. I have bonfire on my 50 plant/storm. And even as somebody who nonstop spams cages, bonfire just seems like a lot of trouble for what it's worth as AoE damage.

Psion_EU:
Siphon Speed's an awesome power, but you note it only affects one foe and one ally (well, yourself). I can scarcely imagine any /kin build going without it. I definitely plan to include a "powers that aren't splattrolling but you really won't want to do without," companion section.

EDIT: Er, I meant I have bonfire on my fire/storm. It woulda been a trick getting it on the plant/storm!

Nice concise read.