Rerolling from Plant/Earth to Plant/Psi

Hi folks,

I recently decided to reroll my Plant/Earth Dominator as a Plant/Psi. The character is named "Lawn of the Dead" and is themed, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, around the idea of a patch of lawnfeed that gained sentience. Plant/Earth was fun but I think Plant/Psi will do the concept more justice, what with the "feeding on the essence of enemies" in Drain Psyche.

I have a fair bit of experience with Controllers so I feel I have those powers down. The only extra power from that set that I might normally have skipped that I'm currently proposing to be take is Spirit Tree, to stack with the regen from Drain Psyche.

On the Psi Assault set I'm somewhat stuck though. I think Psychic Scream, Drain Psyche, and Psychic Shockwave are must haves, both thematically and from a power perspective. I'm planning to color them blackish-green with red highlights to make the "evil undead plant" look. But for the rest of the powers I'm not sure what is a must have. A few of the powers have the "grab your head and fire a pulsing bolt" animation which is less appropriate to my concept, though I'll use it if it's a must have. The melee attack looks conceptually right but I'm not sure whether I should take it. Can anyone give me an idea of which powers will provide the best bang for my buck both from a performance and concept perspective? Also, which of the PPPs would you recommend for this character?

The only powers in Psi that I think are essential are Mind Probe, Mental Blast, Drain Psyche, Subdue and Psy Shockwave. Psy Scream doesn't mesh well with having to be in melee range of mobs and the cast time seals the deal as a not-worth-it power. There's also plenty of other powers to slot 6.25% recharge IOs in so there's no slot-mule reason to take it either. TK Thrust while nice for knocking things back ends up knocking things out of Mind Probe range when I'm in melee and forget to hit Roots before using it. It's actually pretty decent in PvP though.

People who want to try and softcap S/L usually pick up Mace Mastery, which is what I usually do.
People who want extra end and burst damage pick up Soul Mastery, the long cooldowns aren't too bad once you build for perma-dom.
Some people really like Hibernate, so they pick up Levi Mastery, which I think is a great oh-crud button.

Yeah I know what you mean. I don't know what's up with the Psy Scream design, but compared to something like Fling Thorns, it's lacking. And the wide cone on Fling Thorns is only a quick hurdle hop away from jumping into melee and pairs really well with the rest of Thorny, especially aoe roots + thorntrops; it's like watching popcorn go off in a microwave.

Psi Scream will mesh very well with Seeds though as a 1-2.

I'd certainly take it. Seeds > Psi Scream and then run in to Drain and melee.

You don't particularly need Spirit Tree, the amount of +Regen Drain Psyche gives you is insane anyway, Spirit Tree won't make much of a noticable difference to it. Of course if you want it for conceptual reasons then go for it, but Drain with 3 Heals in it gives massive Regen already (you can cap yourself with it if you hit enough enemies).

Telekinetic Thrust is a big hitter nowadays and worth taking if you want to be in melee. It will knock things away but it's not that big an issue IMO.

PPPs is up to you really. Domis get probably the best selection of PPPs going.

Mu has some nice powers, including a God Mode where you can actually ignore the End crash for the most part if Drain is active when it kicks in. Your toggles would drop but you'd override the No Recovery aspect of it so could quickly be back up and running. 2000% Regen + 75% resist to Smashing, Lethal and NRG (less to Fire, Cold and Neg and none to Toxic or Psi) occasionally is pretty good for a squishy. Mu also has an End Recovery power which makes Dark Consumption look like a bad joke, the best AOE attack and a Pet that can heal you.

But Soul Drain > Psi Shockwave > Dark Oblit is a lovely PBAOE combo too (ok Dark Oblit isn't PBAOE but you can use it point-blank in the middle of a spawn). You'd probably have no need of Dark Consumption though, it's a bit useless with a bad AOE and a terribly long recharge time.

Hibernate is good for any character who is capable of doing damage via pets whilest they are Hibernating up. Plant is very good at that with Seeds, Carrion Creepers and Fly Trap (and Water Spout). Bile Spray could fit well into a chain of Seeds > Psi Scream > Bile Spray, but the animation times might drive you nuts.

Mace could also be a good choice if you want to go for the S/L soft cap. PFF would also be excellent to give Drain Psyche a chance to heal you fully. Poisonous Ray is good at softening up tough targets but the low chance for knockback in Disrupter Blast could be annoying (if you took it).

I'm with Carnifax on Psychic Scream. I tend to hit it right after Seeds and I don't mind take a hop back to use it again. With enough recharge, I tend to use PS and PSW with an occasional Mind Probe in between. When it comes down to tough targets like AV's I'm generally hitting with Mind Probe and TK thrust with one of the AoE's filling the holes.

I did take quite a few powers primarily as IO set mules, but have found them hand in odd situations like sleep mobs I've over aggroed or sniping the console on an ugly ITF.