I. WHAT/WHY
II. THE SIX SETS
III. BUILD SKELETONS
IV. SLOTTING
V. STRATEGY
APPENDIX A: OTHER NICE THINGS
CREDITS
WHAT/WHY IS A SPLATTROLLER?
A splattroller is a build preference and play style 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 insignificance 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-- a kind of play that (with some primary/secondary choices) is at least as effective as more traditional alternatives.
Yours truly has played a Fire/Storm to 50, a Plant/Storm to 49, a Plant/Rad to 47, as well
as several other endgame /Kinetics and /Radiation controllers.
THE SIX SPLATTROLLER SETS
The first choice you face once you decide to try a splattroller is: what build? The best splattroller primary is Plant Control. Fire Control is also very good, though not as good as Plant. The other primaries make poor splattrollers at best. The best splattroller secondary is Storm, followed by Radiation, followed by Trick Arrow, and finally Kinetics.
To fully understand a splattroller build, you have to understand what AoE effects like group buffs and attacks that affect many enemies, fundamentally do: for every foe present, they become more powerful! Attacks directly, and buffs indirectly because more teammates means more foes. For my purposes a splattroller powers will be: 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 following section covers only the powers specifically relevant to splattrolling-- some
of these sets do a lot of other nice things, but this is NOT A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE to Fire, Plant, Storm, Rad, Kin, or TA. (But also, see appendix A: Other Nice Things)
Plant Control
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 Control
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 Summoning
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, their attacks have very small radiuses and very low caps on # of MObs that can be hit. Functionally they're all but indistinguishable from single-target attacks. Honorable mention should probably also go to Thunderclap, which can help maintain survivability, especially with fire controllers, who will tend to be in melee range of the enemy much of the fight.
Radiation emission's key contribution to splattrolling is Enervating Field. The toggle's available nice and early. Accelerate Metabolism also 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. Honorable mention should probably also go to two other powers in Radiation Emission: Lingering Radiation, since it's an AoE with -regen, which after all, helps, and choking cloud, since in principle it can provide a lot of close-up mitigation, which is particularly great on fire/rads.
Trick Arrow
28 Disruption Arrow
35 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. Some will note that Acid Arrow seems like a likely splattrolling power-- but much like some of the powers in Storm Summoning, it's radius is really too small to make it an effective splattrolling power.
Kinetics
2 Siphon Power [1]
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. Some will note that Siphon Speed's indispensable and that transfusion is an awesome AoE heal-- and they're right, of course, but the former does nothing to scale to the number of foes/allies you have, and Transfusion is a heal.
Leadership
6 Assault [1]
Assault does, after all, boost up the damage of pets, your teammates and so on.
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. Getting endurance use under control is critical, hence the
inclusion of Stamina in the build skeletons above. But substantial end redux enhancement
will also be necessary.
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:
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:
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:
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 Defenses Rech
Touch of Lady Grey Rech/End
Accelerate Metabolism
You want Recharge in this to start. You can add end mod later. (You could look at the End/Recharge IOs for Efficacy Adapter 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.
Enervating 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
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
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.
Siphon Power
Accuracy and Recharge. Maybe some End Redux. Doesn't take IO sets, so however you see fit. Doesn't 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." There's also a hint of tanker in the build-- after all, if somebody on the team's going to die, you'll probably be first. It's normal, don't cry about it (although, you might be well served to find a good Radiation defender or controller who can Fallout, Vengeance, and Mutate 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 Unyielding, 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 head-start 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 head-start.
(Of course, if you're a Fire splattroller, before you do anything else, once you have a spawn 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 Arrow, siphon power, fulcrum shift, and possibly Freezing Rain and Oil Slick Arrow, if not already used), 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. Plant/TA will also need to light up oil slick if they have it.
From there on out, it's about outliving your opponents. 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.
And make sure to detoggle any end-heavy powers, e.g., Hotfeet, Steamy Mist, as soon as the fight's over.
Appendix A: Other Nice Things
Plant
The ST immob in Plant is also a great damage tool, especially for finishing off bosses &c, believe it or not. Needless to say the ST and AoE holds are fine powers to have, although frankly in the middle levels, they're not exactly crucial. Sporeburst may or may not be of much use to you, depending on whether you want to try and manage crowd control with your frantically-paced splattrolling. Finally-- Giant Fly Trap, aka Audrey, Bitey, secretly has a CONE ATTACK of his own. In a sense, this power practically qualifies as a splattroll power!
Fire
The ST Hold, and the AoE Hold, are noteworthy powers in fire too, needless to say. And smoke, an AoE -Perception power, is effectively a lot like Plant's Spore-burst. Potentially useful for careful aggro control, but that's just not the norm with a splattroller. Finally, no denying Fire Imps are an awesome bit of damage, even if it doesn't scale to the number of enemies present. Any fire splattroller with his pets will feel a lot more complete, since they'll help demolish all the lieutenants and bosses that are leftover from waves of AoE damage.
Storm
I think it would be a touch silly to skip powers like Steamy Mist, Hurricane, Tornado, and
Lightning Storm. They're great powers. On the other hand, the other powers aside from these and Freezing Rain, I think are take-or-leave powers. Be aware, too, that Hurricane is a repel, and will scoot immobilized mobs around. This can be advantageous if you have the focus, time, and endurance to "herdicane" (meaning, "herd" mobs into narrow groups with hurricane, to maximize AoE damage effectiveness). But for example you won't be able to hotfeet & hurricane mobs, except into corners, and even then, good luck keeping that under control. I should also note that thunderclap can be worthwhile on the occasions you need a little extra mitigation, and especially on a fire controller, since it stacks with Flashfire, to let you disorient bosses!
Radiation Emission
Radiation Infection is a great AoE debuff, and even is indirectly aggressive (by debuffing defense). Choking cloud can be worthwhile if you plan to be up-close and have lots of slots to spare, slotting it up-- it needs full hold and full endurance redux slotting. Still, on a Fire controller, that can be worthwhile. Lingering radiation is a nice AoE slow with -regen, and extremely worthwhile. Finally, EMP is a particularly awesome power for almost any controller, since it gives you a second AoE Hold to double up with your other long-recharge AoE hold. In fact, assuming you take Cinders or Vines, it plus EMP really constitutes a(nother) very available AOE mitigation.
Kinetics
Kinetics is probably the most powerful de/buff set in the game, which means it has a lot more to offer than just splattroll. Practically every power in the set is supremely awesome except Inertial Reduction (which is still worthwhile-- team jumping!) and Repel. It's just about impossible to go wrong with Kinetics. But it WILL make you want accuracy (transfusion, siphon power, siphon speed, transference, and fulcrum shift all take hit checks), so Tactics is highly recommended.
Speed
6 Hasten
14 Super Speed
A couple things are noteworthy re: Speed. The first is that hasten is a precursor
that makes everything come up faster. It's also particularly nice with powers from your secondary that buff your own recharge, like Siphon Speed and Accelerate Metabolism. Second, superspeed is a +stealth, and frankly a little stealth on a splattroller is awfully nice. Moreover, it stacks with Steamy Mist, and both Plant and Fire sets, and splattrolling in general, is usually best done along the ground, so who needs vertical move anyhow?
Unless you're playing to a theme, splattrollers fare best with hasten & superspeed.
Fitness
6 Hurdle
6 Swift
14 Health
20 Stamina
Needless to say, you NEED Stamina. Yes, some controller builds, including /rad and /kin, can do without. But not real splattrollers. Also, a couple things to note: hurdle is preferable to swift if you plan to take Superspeed as your move. Otherwise, I'd take swift (which BTW adds to fly as well as run). Then again, remember that travel powers aren't everything, and weird combos like, say, swift, hurdle, hover, and teleport can make you surprisingly agile and competitive in the transportation department.
Leadership
14 Tactics
20 Vengeance
Any controller is happy to have more to-hit, but especially a /kinetics controller. So why not bring enough for everybody? Since Assault is a splattroller power anyway, you'll have the pre-req. From there... Vengeance. Admittedly, you'll often be the first to die, but when you're not, Vengeance is a pretty astonishingly awesome buff.
CREDITS
Rush Bolt helped get me straight about TA (though I think we differ, in the end, about Acid Arrow). Many other folks in RO too, ran with the splattroller concept shortly after I first outlined it in a guide, including Abnormal Joe, Cyan Spike, and everybody else in the Pressure Cookers SG on Justice. And to all the people on the Controller and Guide forums who've kibitzed about the builds and written splattroller-minded material, many of the best of whom I can't remember their names ATM, but you know who you are.
And lastly, to all the folks who forebore to apply their assumptions to what controllers are "supposed" to do, even though they wanted to voice their ignorance, and to those who didn't forebear, and enjoyed the ensuing condescending lecture.
SPLATTROLLERS
I. WHAT/WHY
II. THE SIX SETS
III. BUILD SKELETONS
IV. SLOTTING
V. STRATEGY
APPENDIX A: OTHER NICE THINGS
CREDITS
WHAT/WHY IS A SPLATTROLLER?
A splattroller is a build preference and play style 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 insignificance 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-- a kind of play that (with some primary/secondary choices) is at least as effective as more traditional alternatives.
Yours truly has played a Fire/Storm to 50, a Plant/Storm to 49, a Plant/Rad to 47, as well
as several other endgame /Kinetics and /Radiation controllers.
THE SIX SPLATTROLLER SETS
The first choice you face once you decide to try a splattroller is: what build? The best splattroller primary is Plant Control. Fire Control is also very good, though not as good as Plant. The other primaries make poor splattrollers at best. The best splattroller secondary is Storm, followed by Radiation, followed by Trick Arrow, and finally Kinetics.
To fully understand a splattroller build, you have to understand what AoE effects like group buffs and attacks that affect many enemies, fundamentally do: for every foe present, they become more powerful! Attacks directly, and buffs indirectly because more teammates means more foes. For my purposes a splattroller powers will be: 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 following section covers only the powers specifically relevant to splattrolling-- some
of these sets do a lot of other nice things, but this is NOT A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE to Fire, Plant, Storm, Rad, Kin, or TA. (But also, see appendix A: Other Nice Things)
Plant Control
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 Control
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 Summoning
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, their attacks have very small radiuses and very low caps on # of MObs that can be hit. Functionally they're all but indistinguishable from single-target attacks. Honorable mention should probably also go to Thunderclap, which can help maintain survivability, especially with fire controllers, who will tend to be in melee range of the enemy much of the fight.
Radiation Emission
4 Accelerate Metabolism [1]
10 Enervating Field
35 Fallout
Radiation emission's key contribution to splattrolling is Enervating Field. The toggle's available nice and early. Accelerate Metabolism also 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. Honorable mention should probably also go to two other powers in Radiation Emission: Lingering Radiation, since it's an AoE with -regen, which after all, helps, and choking cloud, since in principle it can provide a lot of close-up mitigation, which is particularly great on fire/rads.
Trick Arrow
28 Disruption Arrow
35 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. Some will note that Acid Arrow seems like a likely splattrolling power-- but much like some of the powers in Storm Summoning, it's radius is really too small to make it an effective splattrolling power.
Kinetics
2 Siphon Power [1]
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. Some will note that Siphon Speed's indispensable and that transfusion is an awesome AoE heal-- and they're right, of course, but the former does nothing to scale to the number of foes/allies you have, and Transfusion is a heal.
Leadership
6 Assault [1]
Assault does, after all, boost up the damage of pets, your teammates and so on.
[1] 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 Accelerate Metabolism
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Seeds of Confusion
10 Enervating 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 Accelerate Metabolism
6 [Move Precursor]
8 Hotfeet
10 Enervating 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. Getting endurance use under control is critical, hence the
inclusion of Stamina in the build skeletons above. But substantial end redux enhancement
will also be necessary.
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 Dam/End
Cleaving Blow Dam/End
Multi-Strike Acc/Dam
Cleaving Blow Acc/Dam
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 Defenses Rech
Touch of Lady Grey Rech/End
Accelerate Metabolism
You want Recharge in this to start. You can add end mod later. (You could look at the End/Recharge IOs for Efficacy Adapter 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.
Enervating 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
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
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.
Siphon Power
Accuracy and Recharge. Maybe some End Redux. Doesn't take IO sets, so however you see fit. Doesn't 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." There's also a hint of tanker in the build-- after all, if somebody on the team's going to die, you'll probably be first. It's normal, don't cry about it (although, you might be well served to find a good Radiation defender or controller who can Fallout, Vengeance, and Mutate 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 Unyielding, 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 head-start 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 head-start.
(Of course, if you're a Fire splattroller, before you do anything else, once you have a spawn 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 Arrow, siphon power, fulcrum shift, and possibly Freezing Rain and Oil Slick Arrow, if not already used), 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. Plant/TA will also need to light up oil slick if they have it.
From there on out, it's about outliving your opponents. 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.
And make sure to detoggle any end-heavy powers, e.g., Hotfeet, Steamy Mist, as soon as the fight's over.
Appendix A: Other Nice Things
Plant
The ST immob in Plant is also a great damage tool, especially for finishing off bosses &c, believe it or not. Needless to say the ST and AoE holds are fine powers to have, although frankly in the middle levels, they're not exactly crucial. Sporeburst may or may not be of much use to you, depending on whether you want to try and manage crowd control with your frantically-paced splattrolling. Finally-- Giant Fly Trap, aka Audrey, Bitey, secretly has a CONE ATTACK of his own. In a sense, this power practically qualifies as a splattroll power!
Fire
The ST Hold, and the AoE Hold, are noteworthy powers in fire too, needless to say. And smoke, an AoE -Perception power, is effectively a lot like Plant's Spore-burst. Potentially useful for careful aggro control, but that's just not the norm with a splattroller. Finally, no denying Fire Imps are an awesome bit of damage, even if it doesn't scale to the number of enemies present. Any fire splattroller with his pets will feel a lot more complete, since they'll help demolish all the lieutenants and bosses that are leftover from waves of AoE damage.
Storm
I think it would be a touch silly to skip powers like Steamy Mist, Hurricane, Tornado, and
Lightning Storm. They're great powers. On the other hand, the other powers aside from these and Freezing Rain, I think are take-or-leave powers. Be aware, too, that Hurricane is a repel, and will scoot immobilized mobs around. This can be advantageous if you have the focus, time, and endurance to "herdicane" (meaning, "herd" mobs into narrow groups with hurricane, to maximize AoE damage effectiveness). But for example you won't be able to hotfeet & hurricane mobs, except into corners, and even then, good luck keeping that under control. I should also note that thunderclap can be worthwhile on the occasions you need a little extra mitigation, and especially on a fire controller, since it stacks with Flashfire, to let you disorient bosses!
Radiation Emission
Radiation Infection is a great AoE debuff, and even is indirectly aggressive (by debuffing defense). Choking cloud can be worthwhile if you plan to be up-close and have lots of slots to spare, slotting it up-- it needs full hold and full endurance redux slotting. Still, on a Fire controller, that can be worthwhile. Lingering radiation is a nice AoE slow with -regen, and extremely worthwhile. Finally, EMP is a particularly awesome power for almost any controller, since it gives you a second AoE Hold to double up with your other long-recharge AoE hold. In fact, assuming you take Cinders or Vines, it plus EMP really constitutes a(nother) very available AOE mitigation.
Kinetics
Kinetics is probably the most powerful de/buff set in the game, which means it has a lot more to offer than just splattroll. Practically every power in the set is supremely awesome except Inertial Reduction (which is still worthwhile-- team jumping!) and Repel. It's just about impossible to go wrong with Kinetics. But it WILL make you want accuracy (transfusion, siphon power, siphon speed, transference, and fulcrum shift all take hit checks), so Tactics is highly recommended.
Speed
6 Hasten
14 Super Speed
A couple things are noteworthy re: Speed. The first is that hasten is a precursor
that makes everything come up faster. It's also particularly nice with powers from your secondary that buff your own recharge, like Siphon Speed and Accelerate Metabolism. Second, superspeed is a +stealth, and frankly a little stealth on a splattroller is awfully nice. Moreover, it stacks with Steamy Mist, and both Plant and Fire sets, and splattrolling in general, is usually best done along the ground, so who needs vertical move anyhow?
Unless you're playing to a theme, splattrollers fare best with hasten & superspeed.
Fitness
6 Hurdle
6 Swift
14 Health
20 Stamina
Needless to say, you NEED Stamina. Yes, some controller builds, including /rad and /kin, can do without. But not real splattrollers. Also, a couple things to note: hurdle is preferable to swift if you plan to take Superspeed as your move. Otherwise, I'd take swift (which BTW adds to fly as well as run). Then again, remember that travel powers aren't everything, and weird combos like, say, swift, hurdle, hover, and teleport can make you surprisingly agile and competitive in the transportation department.
Leadership
14 Tactics
20 Vengeance
Any controller is happy to have more to-hit, but especially a /kinetics controller. So why not bring enough for everybody? Since Assault is a splattroller power anyway, you'll have the pre-req. From there... Vengeance. Admittedly, you'll often be the first to die, but when you're not, Vengeance is a pretty astonishingly awesome buff.
CREDITS
Rush Bolt helped get me straight about TA (though I think we differ, in the end, about Acid Arrow). Many other folks in RO too, ran with the splattroller concept shortly after I first outlined it in a guide, including Abnormal Joe, Cyan Spike, and everybody else in the Pressure Cookers SG on Justice. And to all the people on the Controller and Guide forums who've kibitzed about the builds and written splattroller-minded material, many of the best of whom I can't remember their names ATM, but you know who you are.
And lastly, to all the folks who forebore to apply their assumptions to what controllers are "supposed" to do, even though they wanted to voice their ignorance, and to those who didn't forebear, and enjoyed the ensuing condescending lecture.
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters