Some help with Earth/TA?

Hi all, I rolled up an Earth/TA, and am really enjoying it. I am having some trouble dispatching groups tho. I am only level 12 at present, and have taken the following powers:

Fossilize, Entangling Arrow, Flash Arrow, Glue Arrow, Quicksand, Hasten, Ice Arrow, and Stalagmites

I am not sure if I need both Glue Arrow and Quicksand, as they seem very similar, and they do not appear to slow the enemy much more when both are applied. I have heard there is a 'slow cap', and I was planning on slotting approximately 4 slots in Quicksand (and potentially 4 in Glue Arrow). Should I consider loosing Glue Arrow in favour of Stone Prison or Stone Cages? I stayed away from Stone Cages as I did not think it would be beneficial with Quicksand, Glue Arrow and/or Earthquake, but I am thinking I need another power that will do damage, as Brawl is not going to cut it in the long run.

I have also heard that Flash Arrow is questionable, and the -tohit buff is 'not that great'. I was hoping to 4 slot with Cloud Senses (no dmg proc).

Is this combination geared more towards teaming than solo? Any suggestions on slotting and using these powers which really seem to have synergy?

Earth/TA is horrible solo. You just don't do any damage til 32, and really, not til 36/37 when you have both your pet & OSA slotted. After that, you can roll along solo well, but until then, your damage output is very, very poor.

On teams though, you're absolutely a controlling & debuffing beast. Earth/TA is prolly the most controlling combo in the entire game. In addition to keeping your team safe, you'll help them hit more and to more damage. Seek teams out, even though they may not appreciate your contributions, esp if they don't see any big green numbers from you.

Glue is nice to have early in addition to QS--QS is wanted because for the -def debuff. You and your team will hit a lot more once QS is laid down. Glue has a -recharge component which QS does not. Combined, they should hit the -slow movement cap (90%) on most things you fight. Later on, you can choose to respec out of Glue at your discretion. My Earth/TA has neither Glue nor Flash (nor Poison Arrow) and don't really miss any of them. Those are the 3 TA powers that are prolly the most "skippable".

Of Earth, Salt Crystals is very skippable as is Stone Prison, though I take it as an IO mule. It can also help add some damage early on, but when I did it during my early levels, it ended up not doing a whole lot. Cages annoys a lot of ppl w/the graphics, but it's a pretty key power and once procced up, will do some okay damage. Plus it sets up containment. Other than those, take every other Earth power.

For early damage, Air Sup is a popular choice for soloing. I never go that route myself and just find teams, but if you must solo, it's a good option. Either way, stick with it--Earth/TA is really an amazing combo.

OK Earth/TA is really painful to solo early on even if you have Veteran attack powers available. Without them, I would look at picking up Flurry( since you already have the speed pool, and Air Superiority) and slot them both for damage(franken-slot 4 x Accuracy/Damage IOs). That would work, but you would end up being VERY scraptrollerish- which I like, but it's not for everyone. Also you can speed your damage output by putting procs into several powers. Quicksand will take one(impeded swiftness), Earthquake takes two(Lady Grey and Knockback set proc), Acid Arrow takes two( Lady Grey and Positron ), Volcanic Gasses takes up to three, but I tend to slot it with 4 x accuracy Hold Recharge + 2 hold set procs. Stone Cages can take two (Positrons and Trap of the Hunter). If you slot up some pool attacks, and slot up the other liste powers with procs, you can actually solo after lvl 28. By 33 you can solo easily. After 42 you solo well. The only problem you get with going this route is that it is slot hungry, so your control will suffer a bit till later when you can fill things in.

I soloed my Earth/TA quite a bit and even with two veteran attacks and all the procs, she was slow going till after Volcanic Gasses was fully slotted up. Earth takes a lot of effort to solo because it is a very low damage set. TA doesn't help with damage at all till Acid Arrow( lvl 20 ), and later Disruption Arrow. It can be done, but you will have to really work at it.

That said, Earth/TA is great on teams, and later on even fine for solo. I enjoy mine a lot.

Agree with a log of dave and sweet's comments so I won't repeat. Earth/TA is a beast on large teams with large spawns with lots and lots of aggro, cause it can handle it. Anything less really you are swatting flies with a sledgehammer from a control stand point. If you like big bad teams with big bad spawns, make an Earth/TA. If you want to solo, maybe think about another build. You can solo safe, just not terribly fast and there are other controller builds that do it better.

As the others have said, earth/ta is not a combination I would roll for solo play. I have an earth/kin with 2 vet powers and air superiority, I still save her for teams.

Also, Acid has a fast recharge so you can cover multiple "patches" with it during its duration. Yeah, the small area sucks, but it's one of the key powers of the set and is also generally one of the 1st debuffs I put down w/my TA.

I currently have an Earth/TA and it just hit lvl 31. Soloing was not as bad for me. Personally I am a big fan of Assault. It gives a 15% damage bonus, constantly. That is pretty dam good. I also took the single target immob and slotted if entirely for damage. The bonus from assault combined with the debuff from acid arrow makes a huge difference. Acid arrow also has a nice recharge which allows you to stack it on multiples.

Assault is also an oft skipped gem. However that 15% damage bonus also applies to your pet. I took assault on my mind/trick arrow troller and with a 15% global damage bonus that is a nice bit of speed IMO.

Assault also doesn't really require more then 1 extra slot and even that is debatable with enough +Recovery. So again it allows more slots to go into your critical powers.

I am also fond of Maneuvers as its a decent form of stacking +DEF and a great place for LOTG 7.5% and LOTG def/end for a nifty 10% Regen bonus.

I understand that I am probably a rare or dying breed that advocates the leadership pool but I find it to be very nice on lots of toons. I do tend to slot sets with a good mix of bonuses however and try to avoid relying on purples.

Procs are a mixed bag. You can do some amazing things with them in powers if you put enough procs in enough powers.

Slotting sets is and will be a personal taste matter. My slotting and say local man's will be drastically different depending on our particulars. Note I'm not saying either one is better or worse just different. I could take the same build with the same powers and both would play differently. The problem sometimes with giving set advice is someone will usually come down and trash how you slot your toon. Others like to keep "Trade Secrets" I remember for the longest time THUNDERSTRIKE was a gold mine set. It was cheap, readily available and gave some decent bonuses. Not OMG but pretty good. Then people discovered it and it shot through the roof.

Case in point (get ready to blast me!! muwhahah) I don't really go proc heavy on most of my builds. So my slotting reflects that. I also start slotting sets at 22, and keep most for their bonuses because I do lots of low level task forces and those bonuses make a difference I can feel. I like having 4 ranged powers 5 slotted with lvl 25s from the decimation set. That 25% global is very nice at that level.

With that in mind I shall give some ideas about how I slotted my Earth/Ta who hit 32 yesterday.

Stone Prison: Decimation 5x
Fossilize: Gaze of the Basilisk 4x, Devastation 2x
Earthquake: Achilles Heal Proc, Dampened Spirits 5x
Volcanic Gasses: Gaze of the Basilisk 4x, Lockdown 2x
Acid Arrow: Shield Breaker 2x, Analyze Weakness 4x
Flash Arrow: Clouded Senses 4x
Animate Stone: Call to Arms 4x, 2 undecided
OSA: Posi 2x, Detonation 2x, Undermined Defense 2x
Stalagmites: Stupefy 5x, 1 undecided

But I'm going for lots of Rech, most sets will be lvl 25 some will be 50 to bring up %.
Can almost achieve perma hasten with the Earth/TA/Earth build I have been tinkering with and have managed to get Earths Embrace almost perma without hasten. This is all with no purples.

I have questions about the procs, especially in AoE powers.

If I slot a damage proc in say Glue Arrow, an AoE power. I suspect that when I first cast Glue Arrow the proc would have a chance to activate. Now, will this proc 'roll' a chance to activate on each nasty in the AoE, or is it a chance upon casting, if it hits, the entire group will take the damage or effect?

I don't tend to go overboard on procs in most builds either, but Earth/TA hasn't got a lot of options for actually hurting things. Without procs, you could take pool attacks slotted for damage, and maybe get the same dps out of them, but you would lose power choices, which lowers your control, which ultimately makes you more squishy. So if you want damage as Earth/TA, slotting procs into powers you will be using every fight anyway is an elegant, efficient way to lay start hurting your foes without having to target them and click an attack. It really speeds up the pace at which you can solo.

As for slotting: Earthquake I think I used 3 undermined defense, 2 lady grey( including proc ) and the knockback set proc. That gives max recharge, good end reduction, and some def debuff, plus two procs, and Earthquake lasts quite a while so the procs fire several times... in addition to doing what it's supposed to.

Acid Arrow does have sort of a disappointing area of effect, but if you try killing a purple boss without it, you will still be whittling away at him when it comes time to log for the night. If you want to hurt something, you Acid Arrow it. It has a good enough recharge, that with proper enhancement, you can reapply it for each hard target you get. Also with a couple procs in it, it will often give a nice alpha damage spike on whatever it is you're trying to drop next. Think of it like a single target debuff with a little bonus instead of an AoE and you'll be much happier with it.