Something to pair with Earth

If the original poster hasn't concluded this yet, the answer in the end is just about anything goes well with Earth Control. A few sets will change your focus but none of them stands out, to me at least, as recognizably better or so bad as to make your experience awful. About the only thing I can say is that some will make soloing easier or harder, and others will make you more valuable to a team.

Well I'm just using SOs at the moment... Or I was until I ran out of inf (laziness) and my enhancements turned red. I have plenty of stuff I can sell when I can be bothered though.

I very rarely solo anyway. I love the SG that I'm a member of.

Started reading the thread and figured why not add my 2 cents.

My first controller was an Earth/Kin. Named him Pillar of Peace. Instantly you recognize that he is a concept toon. I do no damage. Well, no real damage. I don't even use the Earth Epic. PoPpy is a team toon.

Now when it comes to "Kin is better for melee" conversations, I won't lie, it is. That is, if I was concerned about picking up damage buffs. The way I see it, those that wanna be up there in the action, ya better get in there, FS is firing off. Blasters, Offenders that prefer to stay back, get close. Siphon Power is gonna be firing off in just a sec.

Once I have all my team damage dealers happy, I can get back to the job I have already started, keeping our enemies nice and tightly packed.

PoPpy taught me how to use a controller. I'm still learning. I take things I read here and apply them in game through PoPpy. I could roll a fire/kin or some other soloing combo, but when I'm trolling, I like being the unsung hero. I love it when the scrapper goes on about "I hit X guys and man, I did Y damage and I am awesome!" All the while I know he wouldn't be bragging if I didn't FS his booty while dropping defense so he could actually hit the guys.

For the original poster, I say you need to think about what you want to do. There really are alot of options. My earth/kin is hella fun, but teaming constantly/standing back and letting the scrapper get all the glory may not be your thing. Or hell, you could be up there pounding out as much damage as you can, if you design your earth/kin like that. Think out what you want, then lay out your concept. And always run the respec trials, cause wouldn't you hate to run your concept, think it sucks, and abandon all that work you did?

I like my Earth/Therm. It has two resistance buffs, forge, and heals that will make your golem almost unstopable as it wades into the middle of large groups. Rocky pulls enemies in closer with its taunt, making your controls and /Therm debuffs work on a larger percentage of the mob. Rocky's taunt is also great for drawing aggro after you use an AoE attack like Fireball or Fissure.

It's a fun, solid solo controller that is pretty easy to use compared to an Earth/Storm, but it won't really be a character that will wow anyone in the damage department. Earth/Storm and Earth/Rad will both also do more for control and debuffing, as well earth/cold. Earth/Sonic or Earth/Empathy will have more support. The real draw is that it's a very well rounded toon with a combination of mezzes, holds, healing, support, and a little bit of debuffing.

I've played an Earth/Storm and an Earth/Therm, and I'd honestly flip a coin between them. It depends on what you like to play. Earth/Therm DOES look really cool with both the Crystal and Lava animations, though. The lava golem with both shields and Forge on looks awesome.

Another vote for Earth/Storm here. I have one at level 45 and he is the master of locking down. Some people say that it's too much control, and to those people I say thee nay. You are fools. There is no such thing as "Too Much Control". Gale even becomes super useful on this build because if someone steps off my Freezing Rain or Quicksand I just blow their ***** back on. Some people might even consider it a boring build, and that I'd almost agree with because it really is one of the easiest toons I've played yet.

Thanks for all the feedback guys . I decided to roll 2 trollers, an Earth/Storm and an Earth/TA. I'm currently playing them both and enjoying both. Only time will tell which one will become my favourite.

As for Plant trollers, yes, they're really good, but I'm waiting for Traps. I suspect that Tree of Life coupled with Triage Beacon will be all kinds of awesome.

I love my Earth/Storm/Ice Mastery troller. Probably one of, if not the most fun character I've played so far.

With those three, you get so many targeted AoE powers, you can wipe out entire spawns without being hit, or even seen. You can fire off quicksand, volcanic gasses, freezing rain and/or earthquake, and once they're under control, Ice Storm does some nice damage. All from around a corner. Drop a lightning storm over your head just in case some of them manage to escape and come after you (I'm looking at YOU, wolves...)

Stone Cages + Tornado is a lot of fun, too, though very endurance intensive to keep up.

All of the location AoE patches also make for some interesting slotting possibilities. Lady Grey and Explosive Strike damage procs can be had for relatively cheap. For a bit more, the Impeded Swiftness proc in Quicksand and even Snow Storm give a surprising amount of AoE damage capability. They only thing I really found lacking is single-target damage, but that's true of most controllers except maybe illusion. At high levels isn't not horrible with the pet and Ice Blast, but I definitely did Croatoa to get the rune of warding.

I leveled with a friend playing Plant/Rad and we hit 50 extremely fast, duoing plenty of task forces, AVs, and giant monsters along the way

I just have to ditto the suggestion for Storm. Out of my controller collection, my Earth/Storm is the best I have at pure control. I can see why Earth/TA would be comparable, but I don't have one of those.

Actually I still give the edge to Storm over TA just for the Stalagmites + Thunderclap combo gives you a quick 1-2 combo to shut down everybody.

I'm gonna assume you are teaming since controllers pre-32 are slow going, but earth/ta is amazing for controls and debuffs

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nights_Dawn Hazy is right

I'll throw in a vote for Earth/TA as well. I've got two now, and though neither are lvl 50 yet they are fun to run around on. I feel like the master of holds and it goes to my head when I'm in the middle of an invasion and locking everything into place for the melee toons around me.

When I rolled my first Earth/TA I thought that it would be slow going, but as soon as I hit the mid-20s I realized I was having a blast solo or on teams, and rolled another on a different server. The baby has been solo and leveling just as fast as any of my scrappers, so my initial fears have been proven wrong.

I've been told that Earth/TA can also be a pvp powerhouse, but I'm not a pvp'er so can't speak about my own experience in that. Maybe one day.

I personally have an Earth/Storm/Earth Controller and would not change a thing about it.... however I do hate using a set more than once but I could not resist and now I'm rolling an Earth/Sonic Controller... according to some friends and the way I have Mids slotted, Volcanic Gases + Liquefy should hold AVs.... then your throwing down quicksand and earthquake spamming stalagmites and fissure, overall a nasty build... However I dearly enjoy my Earth/Storm... just keep in mind both builds will be VERY End Heavy...

I just finished leveling an Earth/Empathy/Fire to 50 and absolutely loved it. Of course there were problems, soloing was practically impossible until I was 35 but Earth/Empathy actually has some very good synergy if you choose your powers carefully.

By concentrating on the big targeted AOE's like quicksand, volcanic gas, earthquake and stalagmites, you can throw off all your controls in the first few seconds of combat and then concentrate on keeping your team alive. The combination of AoE's will generally reduce the enemy to a quivering pile of worthless and that leaves you all the time in the world to make sure your teammates have all the right buffs.