Either is good. Storm is higher damage/more endurance issues. Radiation is more team support.
If getting mezzed bothers you, you could also consider a Dominator. They have an inherent ability that lets them break out of mezzes. Or you could get the Indomitable Will power from the Controller Psi APP.
I took a Plant/Rad to 50. I have a low level Plant/Storm, and the only reason I haven't tried to level him up more is because I already have Ice/Storm, Ill/Storm at 50, and Grav/Storm and Earth/Storm in the 40's. I'm becoming my own La Nina.
Both are great combos. Plant/Rad is predictable and team friendly, but still able to be soloed. Rad works well with any and all primaries. Plant's major holes are lack of single target damage and lack of a back-up control when Seeds is recharging. Rad fills the second one with the Roots+RI combo, letting you immobilize a group, and then drop their ToHit.
Plant/Storm is flashy and chaotic, not as team friendly but probably better to solo. Storm's back-up control is less reliable and has a good chance to throw foes around. But Storm helps with Plant's other weakness, single target damage, with Lightning Storm and Tornado.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
My personal spin? Plant/Storm is (much) heavier damage, Plant/Rad is better support.
I have considerably more experience with Plant/Storm, so I'll run with that for the moment. First off, quite frankly, by the time that you're high enough level that mezzes are a serious problem, they really won't matter much, unless they hit at just the wrong time. They'll be taking damage from Roots, Tornado, Creepers, Lightning Storm, Freezing Rain, your Flytrap, and each other, courtesy of Seeds of Confusion. If they mez you once all that is going... it... uhm, yeah. If you have enough time to get your pets and pseudo-pets out, you can AFK solo an eight-man spawn. Alternatively, you could just go with the Psionic Mastery APP and pick up Indomitable Will (the route I took, although it's so rarely needed that it's more of an LotG: Recharge mule for me than any kind of necessity).
As far as the endurance goes... well, careful slotting will help you with a lot of that, and the rest of it is knowing when to relax, watch, point and laugh as your horde of pets eats spawns that kill tanks without you being so much as inconvenienced (which actually happened to me tonight 
). Get your damage dealers in play, and then let your Recovery kick in.
A minor point of order: if you play a Plant/Storm, you will not be an AV-killer. Odds are good that you can slaughter most everything that moves, but the harder the target, the rougher a time you're going to have with it, at least solo. It won't be impossible, but you'll have to play more cautiously than, say, an Ill/Rad.
If you do play a Plant/Stormie, though, get ready for one hell of a ride. Some of the most fun I've had in City of Heroes. It's like tossing the badguys into a blender and hitting 'puree'.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
Quote:
I guess that depends on your definition of support. Freezing Rain gives a decent debuff and can keep enemies on their back. Snow storm keeps the enemies going at a snails pace ( Note: I think slow powers are highly underrated by most players ) Combine this with the Ice Master epic power set and you can have most enemy spawns slowed to a virtual standstill.| My personal spin? Plant/Storm is (much) heavier damage, Plant/Rad is better support. |
My plant/storm is by far my favorite toon, and most teams I'm on rock.
Note to the OP: You will get more teams if you go rad or kin though - a lot of people have a disparaging attitude toward stormies.
131430 Starfare: First Contact
178774 Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name ( 2009 MA Best In-Canon Arc ) ( 2009 Player Awards - Best Serious Arc )
/Rad simply has more support-oriented powers; a heal, a rez, and buffs/debuffs (six as opposed to /Storm's three. Four if you count Steamy Mist >.>). All I really meant by that- I loves me some Plant/Storm, as you might have noticed.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
Quote:
Only if you're bad at it or not paying attention.|
Originally Posted by Local_Man
Plant/Storm is flashy and chaotic, not as team friendly but probably better to solo. Storm's back-up control is less reliable and has a good chance to throw foes around.
|
Entangle, Roots, and Carrion Creepers (not the vines, but the patch) have some hefty -Knockback attached to them. In addition, the Giant Fly Trap does Entangle, also with -Knockback.
This gives the Plant / Storm Controller more opportunities to mitigate or eliminate any unwanted Knockback from Tornado and Lightning Storm than virtually any other Controller. In other words, you can let Storm throw foes around if you want... or not.
Also, Storm also gives another "hard control" in the form of Thunder Clap.
40062: The World's Worst PUG
84008: Jenkins's Guide to Super-Villainy
230187: The Hero of Kings Row
No H8 - 08.04.10
@Circuit Boy - Moderator - Pride global chat channel
Thanks for the replies. I'll probably go with rad since I'll spend a lot of my time grouped with a few friends (elec/cold troller and not sure what else yet). From what I gather, /rad still kills plenty well, just not as fast as storm, which is fine with me.
What APP would you recommend? I was looking at ice and earth. Ice has powerful aoe options, whereas earth has a strong single target option, something I've seen mentioned plant lacks. Only real downside to earth is the armor is so obstructive. 
Quote:
Earth is an obvious choice. Seismic Smash adds that single target damage that Plant lacks, and the short-range AoE of Fissure is less of a problem when your Seed+Roots combo has them all held. But, yeah, the armor is butt-ugly. And you don't need the heal as much as other builds. But I would say that Earth is better for a more solo-oriented or melee-oriented build. (Good for a Plant/Kin, for example -- that's what I have on mine.)|
Originally Posted by Ocasta
Thanks for the replies. I'll probably go with rad since I'll spend a lot of my time grouped with a few friends (elec/cold troller and not sure what else yet). From what I gather, /rad still kills plenty well, just not as fast as storm, which is fine with me.
What APP would you recommend? I was looking at ice and earth. Ice has powerful aoe options, whereas earth has a strong single target option, something I've seen mentioned plant lacks. Only real downside to earth is the armor is so obstructive. |
Ice is a nice choice. You get a good single target blast, TWO AoE damage powers, a nice defense-based shield and a great panic button power in Hibernate, which lets you recover both health and endurance. On a team-based character, Ice might be a better choice since you will have teammates handling the single target damage. (This is what I have on my Plant/Rad.)
If you have having a lot of problems getting mezzed while leveling up, then I would go with Psi with Indomidible Will. Otherwise, it is probably not the best choice, but if you need that mez protection, it is definitely worth it.
The one thing that make primal attractive is Power Boost. Boosted Seeds of Confusion will last a long time. On a decent team, however, everything should be dead pretty quickly. Conserve Power is nice, but the only AoE damage is a cone.
Fire has more damage in its blast, and Fireball has good front-loaded AoE damage. It has the only self-rez available to Controllers, if that is something you want.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
I'm looking to start a plant controller soon and was considering going with either rad or storm. I see tons of mention of storm, so I'm guessing plant storm is a pretty good combo. On the other hand, rad has better endurance and less risk of getting hit by holds/stuns/etc (I hate having to carry around a ton of break frees to deal with the random disables). I'm open to other secondaries as well if there's another really good choice. Any thoughts?